ARG, LLC

Let me first start off by saying I love my job. The people I work with are great and the job itself is fun. The main thing that causes me the most grief at work is the studio situation. To do my job, I need access to a studio so I can edit media, record audio, produce live events, etc. The studio I use is shared with a few companies and therein lies the problem.

We're supposed to officially reserve the studio whenever we need it before we use it. Today I was recording and my coworker had set everything up--as part of her job, she always reserves it for me whenever I will be using it, but even so, people have barged in during my time in there. They knock loudly on the door during live events, come in without knocking, barge in when the DO NOT DISTURB sign is up, etc. Then when I'm not in there, they also use my equipment which clearly has a "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH" sign on it, move my stuff around so I have to hunt for it, and other stuff like that. My coworker and I tried so hard to get someone to send out an email about this because it had gotten to the point where it needed to be addressed because it was affecting my job. Unfortunately the main office staff weren't very responsive and when they finally sent out an email, they mentioned my department specifically in an email that was meant to be hypothetical in nature and not pointing any fingers.

It's important to note the history of trouble my team has been having with this studio. Basically, I feel like people have not been taking my job responsibilities seriously by their lack of respect for the rules associated with the studio. (And I will also say that there have been times when I haven't returned the key on time, but I don't barge in on people and reserve the studio even if I only need it for a brief time.)

So I was in the studio today working on a conference call when I heard someone unlocking the door. Thinking the studio is reserved ahead of time for me and having a history of being barged in on, I immediately got irritated. Then the guy who was opening the door pushes it open hard enough that it smacks into the wall, where he proceeds to hold it open while all the nearby office conversations come flooding into the room.

I was doing a live recording and he was making tons of noise (and/or letting a bunch of noise in), so naturally I turned and told him I needed it quiet. He just stood there and looked at me and I might've asked him to leave at that point, but he just stood there not responding. He told me he needed to get his stuff out, but I had no idea how long that was going to take so I told him no. Plus, I was mid-recording so I couldn't just stop and talk to him, I WAS BUSY AND HE WAS DISTRACTING ME. Anyway, I ended up telling him that he could move his stuff out but ended with a "But can you hurry up because I am on a call?" and pointed to the phone on my ear.

Instead of getting his equipment, he slowly backed out of the room and closed the door behind him. Then he went up and told on me to the lady in the office, who then came down to tell me I had NOT reserved the studio and that he needed to get his stuff out. I ended up being able to stay while he got his stuff out of the room (which was loud and distracting, just like I imagined it would be). I apologized to him at least twice for what I thought was a mix-up in reservations. He wouldn't even look me in the eye when he accepted the apologies.

After he left I logged into my email, ready to tell my co-worker what had happened and to verify that she had in fact reserved it for me, and sitting in my inbox was an email from the office lady asking if I was in the studio because my name wasn't there and someone had tried to get in and how they were senior level and I was "quite rude" to them and that they were "not happy." Evidently she'd emailed me before coming down.

I was so upset when I read that email. I never meant to be rude to the man who disrupted my session--I just wanted to work in peace so I could get my stuff done on time and go home. I was trying to be assertive and direct. The wording of her email made me feel like she thought I'd acted like a monster. And it was completely inappropriate to bring in his "level" with his company. Level should have nothing to do with cases of being "rude" to someone. She made it sound like it's more of an offense to be rude to higher level people than it is to lower level workers. Did she think I was going to stop and ask what his title was before I asked him to leave because he was disrupting my work?!

Later, I thought about it and realized she'd only taken HIS side. She was going off telling me what I did and she wasn't even there to witness it! Of course he wasn't going to say that he came in loudly and roughed up the door. If he hadn't been so loud, I wouldn't have been so distracted by it and wanting him to get out so badly.

Anyway, it turns out my coworker HAD reserved the space, and not only reserved it, but talked to the guy (different from the guy who barged in) who needed to use it most of the day to make sure that he knew we would be using it at that time. Unfortunately she didn't have an email confirmation for the reservation.

ARG.

Later on in the day I talked to my HR person because I felt so bad I was nearly in tears. I kept thinking I had genuinely hurt this man's feelings, and wanted to apologize again in email but every time I tried to type something out, it came out sounding like I felt it wasn't my fault. I wanted my HR person to help draft an email, but she recommended I apologize in person so my words can't be misconstrued. She also said she'd talk to the office lady to see what was going on. I now realize that his feelings weren't hurt, he was just pissed at me for trying to get him out of the room. Now that I've removed myself from the situation, I don't believe everything is my fault. I think he was being rude by coming in the way he did. I think the office lady was being rude and handled things improperly by sending me that email. Next time I'll try to be friendly when I'm getting barged in on.

Jeez. Even now I sound passive aggressive about it. "Dear Man, I'm sorry I was irritated when you disrupted my recording session."

It's like you have to be some entirely different fake person, who is bothered by nothing at work. I really just need to learn what to do in those situations to get what I need for my job and to appease the other person. I guess there's a fine line between trying to stick up for yourself and having someone thinking you're a bitch.