Pattern: I settle into a somewhat peaceful coexistence with our YP (yes, he's still here); he says something dumb; I call him on it; he walks around throwing a passive-aggressive temper tantrum for three days. Not that I care whether or not he talks to me - truthfully, sometimes I measure how well my day goes by how few times I have to have contact with him, lol!!!
With the latest incident, my SP was in the room, and DH and I pulled him aside afterwards and apologized if we seemed frustrated, but this is the umpteen-millionth time he's pulled this whole "agree with me on something until we get in front of the SP, then make me look like a moron" thing, and I told him so (very politely, but I still firmly got my point across!).
SP told DH and me that he has our back, and that "I know that YP can be shifty, and truthfully, I'm not sure how long I'm going to put up with it."
So I'm okay as far as my SP goes. And I know that the most important thing is my relationship with him and his wife - but aren't good relations between staff members important, too?
The thing is, I've busted my rear end for two and a half years trying to maintain the above-mentioned peaceful co-existence - not for my own sake or for his, because (and I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but it's the truth!) I really don't care one way or the other if we're friends.
But I am trying to peacefully co-exist for the sake of not giving my SP unnecessary headaches. For the sake of growing our church and not letting the church people see division among the staff. For however long he's here, I need to maintain some sort of working relationship with him.
I have found that downloading lots of songs onto my mp3 player, stuffing the ear buds in my ears, and closing my office door during the day seems to help. Other than that, I am fresh out of ideas!
