I was in the zone. I had been given a task with a deadline, that in all honesty was unrealistic. But, my ego had taken over and I would succeed. Except for two washroom breaks, I had not moved from my desk. The salad I had brought from home had been chomped down with record speed between typing notes and making calls.

And then a fellow co-worker walked by and I broke my focus. I had a question for her concerning another work related matter outside of the project with the deadline.

I paused. I turned my head to ask the question. My co-worker pulled up a chair to sit down beside me.

And then, something happened.

An eruption of great and over the top magnitude took place. The kind of loose cannon, knee jerk behaviour where you shudder and proclaim, “The lunatics have been given the keys to the asylum!”

My supervisor had looked up from her desk and witnessed I was not working.

She stood up and started yelling and with the yelling, she began to flail her arms wildly like a goose getting ready for take off, but first, needs to run a few feet to gain momentum. The supervisor was doing this. Running from her office, yelling, arms flapping — gaining momentum.

“NO, NO, NO, YOU CAN’T TALK TO HER. SHE’S WORKING!!”

Everyone in the office stopped and stared. No one moved. Shock of the spectacle occurring had frozen everyone in their place with mouths gapping open in disbelief. Disbelief and utter horror that their work environment had descended into the abyss of ridiculous abuse.

I broke “the ice” (yes, pun intended), “I need this information to complete another task, it’s important.”

The Supervisor, lowered her arms with a “Huff!” tuned on her classic spectator pumps and stomped back to her office.

The whole office was full of stretched facial expressions of “Oh My God.” (Yes, I’m old school, I still tend to spell all my words, because I know how — no OMG for me) and adding to it all, eyes were rolling, some to the right, some to the left.

I was part of the mood and when the one in charge left for home, we all had a good laugh and a “Can you believe her?”

The next day, I continued to push myself, the deadline was nearing and I was determined I would succeed and do it brilliantly. But hey, there comes these moments where you just have to break away and remember you are somewhat human. I rose from my desk and announced to a member of my department that I was going to the washroom.

While I was gone – it happened again. The crazed Supervisor flew flapping from her office.

“Where is she? Did she say where she was going? Did she ask if this was an appropriate time? I’m sending an email. She can’t just leave!”

Once again each staff member bulged their eyes, but this time, kept their mouths closed. Another, “Oh My God!” moment.

I returned to my desk and when the spectator pump Supervisor left for the day, everyone spun around in their chairs with, “Sharon you did it again! You left your work! Now she’s sending an email!”

After that, word spread of the demented dictator who had overtaken the office and I went through my day with everyone mimicking the boss. “Sharon, did you ask to speak today – did you get permission to go pee?”

At first I felt I was serving a purpose. Lord knows with this type of insanity my fellow co-workers needed some good comic relief.

But I knew there was more to the “Wow, what the …moment.” Oprah has her Aha’s, I just have the everyday plain old, “What the …!”

I went home that night and sat with my evening wine thinking over the day’s events. As much as I wanted to continue in synch with my co-workers, I did feel a responsibility to take a closer look, it was my reality. I had attracted this treatment. After all, this woman was on my stage — she was my creation.

I was the one who had chosen not to take an official break. I was the one who had only allowed myself the two trips to the washroom and the inhaling of my salad lunch. I had decided to disrespect myself and not allow myself to pause and walk away from my computer screen. It’s only a Google away to the knowledge that it’s unhealthy to do this.

I knew I could be hard on myself. I knew at the end of the day, I often felt I could have done better, I should have done more. So when I took a pause, no wonder I attracted this tyrannical treatment. The frayed and frenzied woman was merely reflecting my own disrespect for myself.

The next day I, made a commitment to change from working hard to working well. Twice I got up from my desk and went for a walk and few times, I turned my chair, putting my back to my screen and chatted with my colleagues. It was a beginning.

No one yelled, no accusations, there were no flailing arms.

I had decided to take better care of myself, to respect myself and even compliment myself for what I had accomplished. At the end of the day, I felt pleased with myself.

As a result, the crazed supervisor was a little quieter. A month later, the crazed Supervisor was no longer. She had chosen to move on.

By owning the abuse I had attracted, I made some changes and received some good results. As for this other being — I would send some hope her way.