Workplace princesses, victims speak out

Turns out workplace princesses really do exist.

And based on my recent e-mail, at least one of them is proud to admit it.

As you may recall, I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a silly survey of 500 U.S. workers in which 48 percent said they had a "workplace princess" in their company. Sixteen percent said the princess in their office was a man.

The study defined a workplace princess as a coworker who had a special sense of entitlement or privilege.

In response, Wendi sent me an e-mail saying, "I can wholeheartedly proclaim myself as the workplace princess in my company. Will I change my ways and become less of a workplace sociopath? Not bloody likely."

Wendi wrote that she worked at the head office for a chain home entertainment store in Canada. She had more responsibilities and tasks than her coworkers, she wrote, and less time to do them. She wrote that she also had a horrible manager, was forced to work 12- to 14-hour days, often had to fix other people's problems and took the blame for other workers' mistakes.

Up to this point, I thought she sounded less like a princess and more like the victim of an office full of workplace princesses — a kind of pantheon of idiots. But she went on to write that her time with this company caused her to develop a hair-trigger temper that she used "with proficiency."

"I get sent home at least once a month due to the rather volatile nature of some of the arguments I have with my bosses," Wendi wrote. "One boss has commented to me on numerous occasions that he is scared of approaching me, not knowing if what he has to say will set me off. He has also noted most companies would have fired me a long time ago for my behavior, to which I always take the Dirty Harry stance, 'Go ahead, make my day!' And yet, I still remain employed.

"Now, I am not all that bad. I will actually take the time to listen to everyone's problems. ... When I need something, however, not only do my sentences start with, 'I need this.' It also entails me barging into people's offices, forcing them to stop what they are doing to pay attention to me."

Wendi, perhaps not surprisingly, wrote that she felt justified in her behavior.

Ironically, the day after Wendi sent me her first e-mail, she sent a follow-up to say she finally had received a pink slip.

"Woo-Hoo! I feel incredibly liberated right now," she wrote.