When your boss makes you an offer you can't refuse, you don't. It wasn't that bad a deal. I was going to get eight hours overtime on a Saturday for doing nothing more than being at work, twiddling my thumbs. Easy money, really.
The situation was that the company had been doing major renovations in the computer room. Over the past two weekends they'd completely redone it, upgrading the mainframe to a new super-duper whiz bang brainac, or some such thing. Both those weekends Suzy and Jack had babysat the office, the boss not liking the idea of people running around without an official representative available.
A new problem developed as soon as the new baby was switched on. It threw out a lot more heat than the previous mainframe and the air conditioners were working overtime to keep the place cooled down. The company now found themselves in the position of having to get a better air conditioner installed, and they rushed the order through. It was going in this weekend.
Jack wasn't available this Saturday, so my boss suggested that I might like to join with Suzy and get a little overtime and his gratitude. Well, like I said, it would be easy money and it wasn't as though I had a real choice.
I fronted up nice and early, unlocking the office so that the workmen could start. Suzy showed up a short while later, just as the air conditioner people were arriving.
I didn't know Suzy all that well. We worked in different sections. I had heard that she could be a bit snide, having a really cutting tongue, but I hadn't personally experienced it.
A bit snide was the least of, it turned out. She was downright rude and insulting in my books. Not to me - to the workmen. She didn't say anything to them directly, but made a number of disparaging remarks about them, purportedly talking to me but speaking loudly enough that her chosen victim could hear her comment.
As the day progressed Suzy managed to make remarks about the workmen's looks, their odour, their cleanliness, their manners, their intelligence, their efficiency. . .
You name it and she managed to make a rude comment about it sometime during the day. At first I'd been a bit embarrassed and tried to shush her down. She laughed at me and kept right on with her nasty little game. I couldn't even apologise to the workmen, because in theory she wasn't talking to them, but to me, and you can't really apologise to a third party for what is said in a private conversation.
By the time the workmen got around to packing up their tools I was feeling totally mortified. If I ever had to do overtime like this again I was going to refuse if Suzy was included in the deal, and the hell with what the boss thought.
Two of the workmen waltzed off with all their tools and things while the third, the foreman of their little group, I think, stayed to do a final check. He seemed satisfied but, instead of leaving, he put his hands in his pocket and leaned against the wall, whistling softly.
Suzy made a comment about people who don't know when it's time to go, suggesting that he was lingering so he could bill extra hours.
"We're paid a flat rate for this job, love," the man said cheerfully. "I'm just waiting for the boys to get back so we can finish of properly."
Suzy stalked past him and into the computer room, with me trailing nervously along behind her.
"It looks finished to me," she said. "You might as well go and we can get a breath of fresh air."
She actually wrinkled her nose when she said that, as though something in the room was smelly. The workman just continued leaning on the wall, smiling.
A few moments later the two workmen returned. They nodded to their foreman and then turned to address Suzy.
"You know, you've got a big mouth," said one of them. "Before you go flapping it around you really ought to look around and check what's what."
"Oh, really?" said Suzy in a scoffing voice. "And which what's what should I be checking."
"Ooh, there's a couple of them actually," said the spokesman. "A couple of little things like, there's three of us and only you two women. Also we're all alone up here. No-one else is working. We've got the place to ourselves."