Just last week, I said I hadn’t fallen out with any of my colleagues. And I haven’t yet in the true sense of the word, though there’re some people who are really starting to get on my nerves and I’m just not sure how long the tranquillity will last. First is the guy I sit next to.

For the most part, he’s okay and friendly but he has these annoying small habits that get under my skin. He laughs almost every time he says anything and I find it so hard to see the humour.

Apart from that, he also asks these dumb questions, like when he finds me taking tea and says, ‘So Sophie, you’re taking tea?” or "Did you sleep in office?”, when I arrive early at the office.

 At first, I was polite and would answer but these days, I’m more sarcastic in the hope that he will stop asking. So when he asks if I’m taking tea, I say I’m drinking beer and as for sleeping in the office, I say I did. He’s still asking the dumb questions so I guess he doesn’t get the irony. Then there are the noisy show offs – a group of four guys who have forced me to buy headphones so I don’t listen to their idle chatter. They argue about everything from sports to money to girls. Now I love a good debate and I’m all for arguments if there’s an intelligent twist to them.

Every time these guys start to argue, I’m reminded of that old saying, "Better to be thought a fool than speaking out and removing all doubt.” They even bet on who has more money between Ghaddafi and Mubarak or who’s had more flings among the famous footballers. Once when they tried to lure me into the debate, I suggested they make names for themselves first and soon, other people will be holding similar debates about them. But the one who takes the cake is the cleaner. I’ve tried to be nice to the girl, and for a long time, greeted her every time our paths crossed, something not many other staff do. I try to keep my desk organised so she doesn’t have more work to do. I’ve offered her some of my snacks on many occasions and though we don’t talk much because of the language challenge, I counted her among my friends.

Gradually however, I noticed that she seems to have a problem with me. It started with small things and steadily moved to open hostility, mostly on her side. I first noticed that she never greets me unless I greet her first. Add to that the times, she doesn’t respond which I think is rude. Eventually, I decided to stop greeting her altogether. We have a tearoom at office which she has turned into her office. She’s the only one with the key and she likes to lock herself in, which means we can’t access the water dispenser or anything else we may need to have some tea or coffee.

You can knock and beg her to open until your knuckles swell but if she doesn’t want to open for you, she just won’t. There’re also times I feel like she’s patronising me. I can be washing my cup at the sink and Miss cleaner walks in and just turns the spout to the other side. One time, she even told me I was using a lot of soap! Like I said, these are all small things but done repeatedly, they can rattle the calmest among us. I know I’m not fussing too much because I’ve heard other voices of dissent. Still haven’t decided whether I should confront her about her attitude or just ignore her.  

To be continued...