Normality Check

A normal day at the office

2008-01-17T07:10:00.000+01:00

I needed some information about weather or not we were supplying a certain object for our customers.

I emailed both A and a man called G, who is in charge of the production side.
Dear A and G, I wrote in my email, A few of our clients have asked about this specific object. Would you be able to tell me if we supply this or not, please?

G answered first. His email wrote:
The answer is in our last meeting’s protocol.

I emailed back:
I’m sure it does. But since I wasn’t invited to the meeting, and haven’t had the protocol forwarded to me, I’m still none the wiser.

He never replied.

A, on the other hand, emailed me after a while saying: as decided.

I emailed A explaining I knew they’d decided something, but that I hadn’t been informed, so could he please answer my question?

He didn’t, of course.

I put my coat on, walked all the way up to our co-workers who’s office is allocated on the other side of town, asked to have a copy of the last meetings protocol, walked back, read it and contacted our now rather frustrated clients.

Just as I put the phone down after speaking to the last client in question, A popped his head in my office with the opening line My god, Miss Marple, you are a bit bloody persistent with your emails, aren’t you?

I lost it. What is wrong with you? I said. I have had to walk up to the other office, get a copy of the protocol and then walk all the way back to get the god damn question answered!

But of course we supply the object in question, he said a bit nonchalant.

See? I said. That’s the answer I was looking for. Wasn’t too hard to spit out, was it?!

Oh, he said. Was THAT what you were wondering. I must’ve misunderstood you. Then again I never read your emails properly. I know they always contain work for me.

truth hurts

2008-01-07T20:47:00.000+01:00

I have had some time off over Christmas and New Year. I went into work feeling rested and in good spirits.

My spirits rose even higher when I found out H is on holiday and out of the office for two full weeks. Nothing could go wrong a beautiful day like today!

I joined the compulsory 08.45 morning coffee and enlightened all present about my stomach bug that hit me over New Year. Pooh is one of those subjects not talked about at my office, but I managed to be politically correct and even get some sympathy from some of my fellow co-workers. Success!

At lunch I was joined by N - one of the girls from reception. I like N a lot. She is given a lot of grief from my colleagues due to being drop dead gorgeous and the fat old ladies are clearly jealous of this. Despite this bullying she never complains, looks stressed or slag people off. I find her an inspiration.

So N and I sat down and had a chat. There's a new position at work which we both have applied for. We started to joke, saying really we should start our own company, where customer service should be the key word. Then she said, all matter of factly
I’ll never get the position. They believe I’m too thick to do anything but talk on the phone.

I got angry: But that’s bullshit N! You could be really good at the position!

I know, she sighed. But I won’t get the job because I’m a bimbo and you won’t get the job because you are too different.

I laughed. Yes, that’s true. Can you imagine what they say behind our backs about us when they are so mean to our faces?!

She went all serious, looked at me and said carefully they really don’t like you, you know. As in REALLY don’t like you…

And I know. But still it hurts to hear someone spell it out to you.

my ruined morning

2007-12-09T13:31:00.000+01:00

I've been working flat out the last couple of weeks. Going in at 7.30 am and coming home around 8.30 pm. To say I'm tired would be the understatement of the year. Nor does it help that I've been very poorly too.

Yesterday (Friday) I met up with my brother after work. We went for at coffee and he gave me a dvd and some food before we said goodbye, bless him. I went straight home, put my dvd on and enjoyed the luxury of not having to cook tea. Then I woke up, four hours later, turned the telly off swapped my settee for my bed. I hadn't even finished the food that my brother had given me, just passed out there in my settee - exhausted.

Early the following morning I got woken by the phone ringing. Still asleep I answered, whereas a woman said
Hello miss Marple, it's mrs. Fisher

I knew I should know a lady named mrs. Fisher, so I tried to sound polite and happy when I said hello back. However, then she started talking about coming to see me at work and could she perhaps come a bit earlier than the time I'd given her on Monday?

I said of course she could, whereas she said
Ok, thank you, now you can go back to sleep.

Then I woke up. Understood the whole conversation.

You see, I'm in the midst of a lot of customer meetings at work. This woman was a client of mine. And she had phoned me at home! On a Saturday morning on my private landline to my private address. On my phone number which is withheld and not listed in the phonebook!

The cheek!!! I was fuming. What an old cow. Oh, and did I mention her name is mrs. Fisher? (In case she reads this or any of you know her. Tell her she violated every bloody sense of privacy there is). It's like me phoning my doctor at his home on a Saturday morning to ask if I could change my appointment. It's just so outrageously thick!

I'm seriously thinking of phoning her at 3 am one morning next week, wake her up and say
Hello mrs. Fisher, it's miss Marple. I just wanted to know if you enjoyed our meeting. Now you can go back to sleep.

I should, shouldn't I?

clothes time - again

2007-12-06T18:05:00.000+01:00

I have been poorly lately. It’s been quite serious, but as it’s nothing that shows on the outside (i.e. a broken arm or an amputated leg) it’s been hard explaining to my colleagues why I’m struggling a bit at the moment.

One of the side effects of my medication is that I keep having severe hot and cold spells, which are slightly embarrassing and very tiresome.

One morning recently I got collared to join the dreaded compulsory 08.45 am coffee break. All of a sudden I had a hot flush. I took of my cardigan and sat in a white, all buttoned up shirt neatly tucked into my suit trousers. It's a pretty shirt if you ask me...

No wonder you’re feeling hot when you’re wearing tight fitted clothes like that, H said.

I felt it was no point of going into discussion with her. A couple of others joined in:

I guess it’s fashion theses days, but Jesus, miss Marple, you should dress sensible like us!

If I hadn’t gotten so angry I would’ve seen the funny side to that comment. I sincerely hope I never start dressing the way they do. (And if I do, please shoot me someone!)

H saw that I got annoyed. She seems to like that, she does, and I could see her evil side taking over as she continued:

Let’s face it, miss Marple, you’re not a slim young thing anymore. You’re way past having a body that fits into clothes like that. There's bulges everywhere!

I couldn’t sit quiet anymore. Simply said it would be nice to be able to spend one single day in the office without someone commenting on the way I look.

I’ve never said anything before, H protested loudly and continued and by the way – you ought to be able to take criticism, don’t you think?!

But the thing is: I think I’ve taken enough criticism at this place to last me a life time. Don’t you think?

an invaluable pasty?

2007-11-08T12:15:00.000+01:00

C has settled in quite nicely at work. She goes out for cigarette breaks every half an hour and potters around leaving coffee cups everywhere in my office. She makes me feel like a hundred year old moaning granny:

Is this your cup? Do you mind not leaving it on my reports? It’s stained the originals that I worked on for a week. Do you mind putting things back where you took them? I can’t seem to find my stapler.

And so it goes. She just shrugs it off with a smile and pats me on the head. Oh darling, she says, it’s an age thing. I can’t remember everything, can I?

Strangely enough she seems to really like me. She suggests going out for walks together during the lunch break. Or window shopping. Or having lunch together. I’ve managed to avoid her suggestions with the excuse that I have things to do and always bring a lunch box with me. When I run out of my office pretending I’m in a hurry, she reminds me to put a hat on if it’s cold outside, and makes sure my scarf is wrapped tightly around my neck.

Of course (I should’ve seen it coming) she’s now figured out how to be my shadow even at lunch break: lunch box. As soon as I walk in to the staff room she’s there putting her lunch box into the micro wave next to the one I’m using.

You’re eating now too? She asks happily, stating the obvious.

Yesterday I’d brought a pasty with me.

Oh, what is THAT? She shrieked with excitement.

A pasty, I said, thinking surely she’d seen one of those before.

Oh, love, have you MADE that yourself? She asked, as if I’d made an invaluable masterpiece. All by yourself? God, aren’t you a clever girl?! She added as I nodded a yes for an answer.

No offence, I said as calmly as I could, but it’s just a pasty. You’re acting like I was a three year old who’d just made her first poo poo in the potty.

Oh bless you, she laughed and stroked my cheek. Aren’t you a funny sweet girl.

Is it me? Is this normal? Or have I got the right to wanting to punch her lights out?

the indecent proposal

2007-11-07T13:08:00.000+01:00

One of my secret passions is acting. I cannot describe how I love standing in front of a camera and give myself over to the role character I’m asked to play.

My colleagues’ hobbies are their grandchildren, watching football on telly and a bit of gardening. The bosses love talking about their yachts of course, but mainly the conversations over the compulsory 8.45 am coffee break are something to do with the first subjects mentioned above.

I recently landed a role in a movie. Not a big one, of course, but I actually got a few speaking lines and was over the moon. I had once, before knowing any better, told my colleagues that I was due on telly one evening when I first started at the company. They looked at me like I was an alien. So this time I knew better. Just took a week off work and never mentioned the reason.

Of course taking time off in late October was strange enough in the eyes of my beloved co-workers:

Why? In October? You don’t have a chalet or a boat that needs attention before winter, do you? So why are you taking time off?

I did the filming for a week and then returned to work, high in spirits on the following Monday. I was asked to attend an ongoing board meeting, so off I went. The room was full of middle aged men, all in cheap suits and badly polished shoes drinking coffee and giggling like school children.

Miss Marple, you’re a bit of a movie star, aren’t you? One of the men said as I entered the room, whilst the others started laughing uncontrollably.

Well, that would be a bit of an exaggeration, I said rather startled. Why? Have you seen me in a film? I asked, thinking someone must’ve figured out why I’d had the week off.

The men cried with laughter. I stood there, seriously confused.

Yeah, "Miss Marple – the strap on slut" I think it was called, one of the obviously sexually frustrated men shouted and looked well excited whilst the other men howled like a pack of wolves.

I was gob smacked. Completely lost for words. Just walked out of the room without knowing why I was meant to attend their stupid meeting in the first place. I still don’t know. All I know is that I’m surrounded by a bunch of perverts.

A and the lost information

2007-10-29T19:56:00.000+01:00

I had a phone call from a less-than-happy customer.

I’ve been waiting for over a month for this particular information, he said.

Unfortunately I couldn’t agree more with him. I apologized – it’s something I’m getting very good at since starting to work here – and explained that I still had no answers to his question.

This is ridiculous, he barked.

I couldn’t agree with you more, sir, I said truthfully, but it’s all out of my hands. However, perhaps you’ll have more luck getting your questions answered if you ask the man who has the answers yourself.

I gave him A’s number. The man asked if I was sure he would get answers from A.

I can’t promise he will answer your questions. But what I can promise you is that he has the answers though I replied.

The man softened. Will I get you into trouble by phoning him? He asked.

No, no, I ensured him. Please give him my love when you speak to him, I added light heartedly.

The following day I was in a meeting with two clients and H in H’s office when A burst into the door and shouted What have you gone and done now?!

The clients looked chocked. I exchanged a look with H who gave me a “go ahead, miss Marple”-look.

What do you mean, A? I said civilly.

Well, I had a crazy man phoning me and asking me questions I have no idea about – he said you’d told him to phone me! It’s you who has the information! He looked like he was about to blow his top.

I haven’t, I said. I’ve asked you for a few months, you told me you had the information, but never let me have it. You promised to email it to me a few times, but you haven’t.

Well, I’ve thrown the information away he said. What the fuck am I going to do now?

I don’t know A, I said, I’m in the middle of a meeting.

Oh, he said and noticed the poor clients next to me, Oh, perhaps I intruded?

You did, I said and carried on talking to our clients and H. I never saw him leave, but we all felt the frustration that lingered in the room for quite some time.

the Magnificent Monday

2007-10-22T20:46:00.000+02:00

I had a feeling today would be a nice day. I joined the compulsory 08.45 am coffee break and survived without any major injuries. No one mentioned my outfit (even though I'd pushed it a little too much today with a black dress with red circles on it together with black H.D. biker's boots!)

I had a meeting with a big client of ours who shook my hand and said
I've heard so much about you. Everybody at our office has told me how lovely and service minded you are. It's a pleasure finally getting to meet you.

I phoned one of our entrepreneurs. We usually fall out and call eachother useless, unorganized and other pleasantries. I spoke to E. I asked him to help me out in a matter. He said of course. He was just about to phone me and ask me a favour too. We helped each other out. Even had a laugh before hanging up.

This Monday was wonderful!

I was on the phone to a customer - an old lady whom I've had a lot of contact with and who phoned me to say thank you. I thanked HER for being so lovely, and so it went on and on for a while. As I was in the middle of telling her that I'd love her to stop by my office for a coffee if she was ever in the neighbourhood, A stormed into my office.

He threw some papers on my desk and said here's what you wanted, right?

I finished my phone call. A had already turned around and gone out the door, so I had to run after him.

What is this? I said with the papers in the hand.

It's what you asked me to order, he said as he pointed to the first piece of paper.

Did I? I said and was wondering if I was starting to go senile. I don't recognize this?

My head was racing, and then I realized: I asked you to order the opposite! I said in a panic.

Oh, perhaps you were.. I keep forgetting your nagging. So we're having that one instead. He looked rather pleased with himself.

The Magnificent Monday had suddenly turned into an ordinary shitty one.

I couldn't be bothered to argue. There was no point. The order had been sent and A got the final word.

... Or so he thinks. I wrote a letter to our clients apologizing for the faulty order, and informed them that if they had any inquiries they could always contact A.

filing and C

2007-10-20T11:46:00.000+02:00

C… As lovely as she is, she is driving me crazy.

I walked into my office on Friday around 9 am. This was for two reasons:
1) I like to make Fridays a little shorter, and hence allow myself a lie in. It gives me a nice pre-paste of the weekend.
2) I don’t have to join the otherwise unavoidable 08.45 am morning coffee break.

C greeted me with a beaming smile in a very cold office indeed.

My god, what’s wrong with the AC, it's like a freezer in here? I asked.

Oh, your office was so hot I went and turned the heating down for you, she said, rather pleased with her “assistance”.

I couldn’t even be bothered to answer and went and turned it back on again. After all, she is supposed to sit in H’s office down the corridor, and not even be in mine. I could feel my Friday serenity after my nice lie-in rather rapidly turn into annoyance.

It's only the AC, I told myself. She was only trying to be nice. (That particular mantra is becoming as regular in my head as the "it's not their fault they're institutionalized" one...)

I could tell C was dying to tell me something. She looked like a child on Christmas morning, excited to the verge on bursting:

You are a messy little miss, you, she nudged me and stroked my cheek. Your files were in no order when I checked them this morning!

My stomach turned. I actually find myself ridiculously organized - on the verge of autistically so. My files are methodically structured, labelled and well thought-out.

Don’t worry, she said when she saw my alarmed face. I won’t tell. I’ve sorted all your files out in alphabetical order.

I couldn’t even bare to look at her. My files! In alphabetical order?!

C, I said, looking into the floor in fear of punching her if our eyes locked, my files are in WORKING order. Under the first register flap I have work in progress – sorted into times and dates. Under the second one there’s work in need of more custom contact before I can proceed. Under flap three there’s finished work sorted by dates they were finished.

Oh, she said with true disappointment in her voice. Then I noticed a twang of anger in her voice: Well, how was I to know?!

It’s all written down on the index at the front of every file, I sighed.

the extra person and the extra keys

2007-10-18T18:56:00.000+02:00

I have severe deadlines to keep at the moment, thanks to A not keeping his…

Due to this, I managed to convince K to employ an extra person for a month to help me out. This might seem very nice, and indeed in one way it is. But considering I do two peoples job, really there should be two of us all the time.

K hired a friend of a friend’s wife who’s unemployed. She is lovely, C. Adorable and scatty and COMPLETELY ineffective.

Last week I asked her to update a list by checking one against another. She did. For two whole days. When I checked the list for something I noticed there were old facts on the list. Asked her if she hadn’t updated it? She said she had. I got out the old list. Nothing had changed to the “new” one.

Oh, she said, I must’ve forgotten to have pressed save.

Unfortunately this couldn’t possible be true as our computers save everything automatically every minute.

Today C did a few things, and then took a long lunch. She has no office of her own, so I’d pointed her in direction of H’s office, who was out today. After lunch I asked her to help me write out some of the 2000 labels I had to write this afternoon.

C went into H’s office at 1.30 pm. An hour and a half later I went in to see how things were going.

I can’t log on to the computer, she said and banged her hands on the key pad.

Well, I said, trying to keep calm, perhaps you need to phone the IT department or tell someone then?

Oh, she said.

I went in again half an hour later. She was still trying to print out label number one:

I can’t seem to get these keys to work properly, she said and banged on the numbers on the right hand side of the key board.

Use the ones at the top of the key board then? I suggested.

Oh, look, there’s some numbers there too, she smiled.

Different planets. Different galaxies. Or is it me?

the seminar

2007-10-17T18:47:00.001+02:00

We were called to a meeting by A yesterday. A had invited some guys to come and hold a seminar with our project group, which he said to be held at one of our local branches’ office.

I arrived early to the local office where we were told to meet at 1.30 pm. The seminar guys were already there, so I offered them a cup of coffee before I showed them the meeting room. In the meeting room, 15 heads turned and looked at us as we walked in.

So sorry, I said, rather surprised, but we’re due to have a seminar here in 10 minutes?

I don’t think so, one of the men in the room said (unimpressed), we’ve booked this meeting room until 5 pm.

I apologized profusely both to the men in the room and the men who were with me. I phoned A. He didn’t answer. I phoned a receptionist and asked her if there were any other meeting rooms available anywhere. There wasn’t.

I greeted everybody who arrived one by one for our seminar, told them we had nowhere to sit and asked them to help themselves to a cup of coffee in the staff room whilst we waited for A. A arrived a little while later.

Why are you all in here? He asked when he found us all in the staff room.

I explained, and asked him if he’d not booked a room for the meeting?

Well, it’s not my fucking job to book a meeting room! He said angrily to me.

It’s your meeting. I pointed out. Who’s job is it to book the room then?

It bloody well isn’t mine! He repeated again.

I hear you, I said. But I asked you WHO’S job you presume it is if it isn’t yours?!

A didn’t answer, but made a sly remark to the others in the room that I wasn’t doing my job properly.

In the seminar (held in the staff room amongst staff having their tea breaks!), A got a few things muddled up when he was explaining the project to the group. Someone questioned him about it, and asked me:

Surely, ms Marple, this isn’t true?!

I knew I was treading on egg shells. A was not going to like being hung out in front of the whole group so I said something along the lines of

Well, perhaps not completely true…

The group started to aske me questions. I answered.

A picked up a pen, threw it at me and screamed, Bloody hell, ms Marple! You’re always a fucking step ahead of me, aren’t you?!

I smiled sweetly, shook my head and said

Perhaps it’s just the other way around, A? Perhaps you’re the one who’s always a step behind?

me and my clothes

2007-10-16T12:45:00.000+02:00

Ok. Picture this:

I walk into work one morning. The sun is shining and I'm excited and in good spirits. I am about to hold my first presentation at my job where I worked for just over a month. A lot of the project managers will attend my presentation, and of course I'm a bit nervous and have made an effort to look presentable.

I'm dressed in a pair of black, loose fitted linen trousers and a green shirt with a black jacket. On my finger I'm wearing a ring with green stones and for once I've blow dried my hair. I feel confident and full of beans.

At the coffee machine, queueing up with my fellow colleagues for the compulsory 08.45 am coffee break, H eyes me up and down.

Have you lost weight? She says.

H is a woman in her early sixties. She has worked for the company for 20 years, just like most of her (and my) fellow colleagues. They have never been promoted, changed departments nor do they believe in life after work. H used to say things like "here's the office's tiny tot" to clients when I first started, pointing at me, always making sure I knew I was thirty years her junior and, in her eyes, still a child.

This "tiny tot"-shit finally came to an end after I repeatedly told the clients Yes, thank god there's new blood coming into this office to dilute this old biddy-syndrome here with a pleaseant and innocent smile.

So anyway, let's move back to this particular day where my weight was mentioned about an hour before my first presentation at the company:

No, I answer and brace myself for what's coming.

Oh, she says pitifully, perhaps it's just that your bum actually FITS into those trousers your wearing today. Usually your trousers are so tight around your bottom they look like they're about to split.

I say nothing. Nor does anyone else in the coffee machine queue. I feel surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves. She eyes me up and down again:

Do you change your outfit EVERY day?!

Actually I do, I say, adding jokingly it's mostly for their benefit as I have bad B.O. and would smell otherwise. Then I laugh a little applogetic and what I hope to be - disarming.

Well, she says - obviously disguisted with my large wardrobe - I tend to spend my money on more IMPORTANT things in life but clothes.

I sit down at the coffee table. Not really in the mood to carry on the conversation about my clothes. Nor does it feel nice to sit around the table for 15 minutes with these women.

And your hair, she says, surely it's not natural?!

I look at her and think to myself that my hair and I are probably the only god damn natural things in the room.

Need I say that the presentation went perfect, but that I for some reason was a bit gloomy for the rest of the day anyway...

It's all my fault. As usual.

2007-10-15T19:01:00.001+02:00

Let me introduce you to a couple of my colleagues:

The project manager's name is A. (Well it isn't, of course, but let's just call him A for the sake of it.) A has been working at the company for about three months now, but has been in the buissness for about 20 years.

I will call the general manager K. K has been working at the company for a good 10 years, and is my boss, but not A's, as A works for a different department.

I'm a project coordinator, which means I work directly side by side with A, but get orders from K. However, A is the one who decides about the current project. Generally K feels I work on my own and don't need any help or assistance, nor does A. The problem here is that A expects me to do half his work load, and K tells me not to do it. A tends to get frustrated, and so does K.

Confused? Not as much as I am.

About a month ago we had a meeting.

I asked A to get me some information for the project. I pointed out I needed this information asap to continue my work. K immediately butted in and told A to sort it out before the week ended (for which I was grateful).

About a week later I reminded A. Where was the information I needed, I asked nicely.
Oh, you and your demands, he laughed and walked off.

Last week I emailed A. Told him I needed the information desperately as I was now running two weeks behind as I hadn't recieved the necessary information to continue my job. There was no response.

I went into his office and asked if he hadn't read my email.
Your emails?! he said. I never open your emails as I know they always contain work and complaints.

Today I requested a meeting with A. Sat down and told him what I needed, WHY I needed it about 3 weeks ago and how him not doing his job makes me not being able to do mine.

we decided not to go along with this line on a meeting that you didn't attend, he told me.

I responded that I'd read the protocol from the meeting, and that nothing was mentioned about a new direction, and asked him to phone the others who were at the meeting. Using the speaker phone. He did reluctantly. They said that no other decision had been discussed, and that I was in the right. (Needless to say A wasn't - ISN'T - happy at all with me!)

Later this afternoon I bumped into K. He asked me why I was delayed with my work. I told him the whole episode.

Oh well, said K, misunderstandings happens so easily. Perhaps A didn't understand what he was supposed to do. You should've explained to A what he was meant to do.

Misunderstanding, my arse.

I just wonder if this is normal for a work place?

that lesbian club, you know

2007-10-14T21:44:00.000+02:00

Where I work, there are a handful of subjects that are tabu to talk about. These subjects include a variety of things that are alien to my colleagues.

Seeing I'm the type of person who finds it very difficult to be quiet at the best of times, I haven't really managed to obey these unwritten rules; especially since these subjects aren't alien at all to me.

So when I started and found out one of the ladies in my department lived with another woman, I simply asked if they were a couple. In my world it is not an unusual thing to live with the same sex. Nor is it bad to talk about it. But in the world of my department, this was a subject to be avoided, and so I got the answer that noone had ever asked, nor should I.

I pointed out that if they were, in fact, a couple living togheter, surely they weren't trying to keep their relationship a secret?

Sadly, about about a month after I started at my office, this woman passed away. I never attended the funeral, but of course my colleagues who'd worked alongside the lady for more than 20 years did.

The morning after the funeral, everybody seemed aggitated. During our 08.45 am coffee break one of the women said

Surely she must've been in one of those clubs?

I asked what kind of clubs.

You know - one of THOSE clubs...

I said I really didn't have a clue what kind of club she was talking about. Another woman butted in:

Oh yes. The church was full of them. You could tell - they all had the same hairstyle as each other!
Now they all joined in, excited and eager to tell how to spot "one of those":

It's the mullet haircut - it's such a giveaway!

They never wear skirts, do they? I should've known she was one of those... She always wanted to sit next to me! They always hold hands and do stuff in front of your face. It's disguisting!

By this point I just had to step in. Asked if they seriously thought that all lesbians belonged to a club? Did they really think they could TELL who's a lesbian or not?

The ladies around me went quiet. And stared.

You see, I'm the only one in my department who's single. And I also refuse to discuss my private life with these old, nosy biddies.

I could see the fear of the unknown in their eyes: Was ms. Marple one of those lesbians? Was that the reason for her not airing her private life every Monday morning at the 08.45 am coffee break despite their best tries of an interogation?

I excused myself and went back into my office. Quietly pleased with leaving them wondering, but at the same time repeating my mantra over and over to myself:

"It's not a normal environment they're living in, it's not their fault for being prejudice."