Whose Chair is it Anyway?...

The woman whose job of mine it was to sit in for while she was out recovering from a stroke, returned Monday. Her return has thrown everyone for a loop, as she has returned far sooner than expected and without much notice. I can imagine that in many circumstances this would be welcome. You can dismiss your temp (and the exorbitant temp service fees) as well as have your REAL employee back, who actually knows how to do the job correctly and has access to resources your temp didn't (databases, networks, files, etc.). Not only would everything be more or less back to normal, you might even expect to see a phantom boost in production (phantom - because it's not a REAL boost - just a return to "normal" production as opposed to what you lost with the training and learning curve of a new but temporary employee).
Well, not here.
Almost no one is pleased about the return of this woman, whom they seemingly lost so much to when she left. The few who are pleased (or at least not threatened) by her return are only notable for the lilliputian nature of their numbers.
Now, this should likely come as no true surprise to me, as I was well-informed of the "nature of the beast" when I began the replacement assignment. Not only did my co-worker and immediate superior inform me, but people would often come by to talk to one of them, or to inquire when I started this new assignment (because I previously worked in other departments in the same building, where said people frequently saw me) and would drop horrific forewarnings whenever I reached for anything or so much as squirmed in my chair, like "If Stella were here, she would have a fit", or "I know Stella can't wait to have her desk back", and my personal favorite "Don't let Stella know you did that". Oftentimes (in fact EVERY time) the most I was doing was typing or reaching for a sheet of paper, or using the stapler - things normally expected of a person working in an office - but not those sitting in for "Stella". Apparently, the very idea of even having someone sit in to complete some of the work she left behind was blasphemous.
However, it all became clear to me just how heavy-handed she was and how she was able to wield so much fear-assisted power when she actually called in (while she was supposed to be recovering). She simply called to flat-out tell me (a stranger to her) "Don't touch anything on my desk. Leave it just the way you found it." All of her important things in the office (like important files that I needed access to, in order to do some of my job) were already locked away (by her) anyway, so I told her this was fine by me, but with no actual intention of following through (with those few things that were accessible to me), as I wasn't being paid to sit still with my hands folded for eight (eventually ten) hours a day.

I should also note that I began the assignment in November and she left on sick leave in September - there were two months between her vacation of the position and the start of my assignment. (This comes to play later in this posting... )

All the while I worked in her place, I put everything back where I found it, every night, for the duration of my time at her desk. In addition, I went out of my way to not physically move anything that I could not easily put back, even if it was VERY MUCH in my way. I worked this way to the point that MY WORK on the desk was completely disorganized, because when I took her space, I tried to fit every piece of paperwork or utensil that I needed into the small amount of empty spaces that were available. When I needed a file that I had created or brought with me, or some office supplies that I ordered, etc., I had to dig through massive stacks I had built just to not touch any of her things. My co-worker and superior had gotten to the point where they were nearly ordering me to get rid of "Stella's" stuff (box it neatly and put it away) and make the desk mine so I could have more workspace and have a neater space to work in.
I informed them that I didn't want to do that, knowing the type of person she was, and that I would rather continue trying to work around her lästiggeist (to coin a term) than to create potential for future friction. As well, I told them that if I moved anything, it would be just my luck that she would return the next week and "have a fit", as it were.
Well, this went on through November and December 2008 and partially into January of 2009 (at which point she had already been gone almost five months). Finally, with a mountain of paperwork on my desk, I agreed that it was unreasonable and ridiculous to work this way, and finally decided to go ahead and (very neatly and very carefully) box her things up in an organized way and put them away. At this point, it was being made fairly clear that they didn't really didn't expect her back at all.
Finally some space to work. I decided to leave her pictures and religious implements where they were - just in case. That way, I'd only have to put files back and not pictures (and have to try to figure out how they were arranged). This was mid-January. On February 16th, "Stella" stopped in to announce that she would be returning on February 23rd.
Everyone was surprised of course - except me.
I was hurried to a new office for the "Return of Stella" and when she arrived on that Monday, she promptly began complaining about how her desk (which I had completely cleaned off and restored) was a complete mess, how I "filled up" the one drawer she had left unlocked with "shit" (I put ONE labelmaker in there - which she personally kept upon her return, by the way, though I had ordered it for the whole office) and complained that she had to reorganize everything (though it was the same as when she left it). She also complained that one or more of her pictures were missing (which they weren't) and that "someone" (me) had stolen "her" chair, which "they" (I) hadn't, and had replaced it with a broken one (again - didn't happen).
All of that nonsense and bullshit brings me to this: Why are our lives as people so mundane and uneventful, why are we so disillusioned and bitter, that we "fight" over chairs in an office where none of the chairs belong to us anyway? Because that is what it has come down to. Having had our youthful dreams of being singers, dancers, musicians, magicians, astronauts, presidents, firemen, millionaires dashed against the rocks of reality in this turbulent ocean of life, we've instead been reduced to pen-hogging, chair-claiming, title-mongering, adult children.
We covet the next employees' cubicle and guard our post-it notes with a ferocity normally reserved for light infantry. We hide paperclips and staples and we consider this important work while we're filling the coffers of some overpaid executive. The collapse of the American Dream is not just about greedy corporate executives, it's about the people who buy into the system that creates them. The executives get to be millionaires and musicians and presidents because they throw a roll of tape and some white-out at ten people, and while we fight over it, they get rich. And it's OUR fault as much as theirs, because we allow it - and the ones in control know it.
I feel anger toward this woman individually, but I also feel pity - for all of us. She thinks some of her family pictures are missing and that it's my fault. I never touched those pictures, but even if I had, what would I have done with the family pictures of a complete stranger? This is what she wakes up for? To come into a job she probably didn't aspire to, to complain about trivialities and fight over which chair she gets?
Her life (like all of ours) is likely already marred by disappointment after disappointment, and finally, she has to claim some minor (even trivial) victories to maintain sanity. This clawing-at-sanity of course forces her into insanity. This is what we've ALL been reduced to. And we continue to do this while asking for change at the top.
We're doing the same thing, but now we want different results.