Stress from little old ladies! (Or "They're not as sweet as they look!")

Well, I'm not sure if I've told you that DH's place where he is the maintenance guy is a senior apartment building...anyhow, it is. And all along he's been telling me how much he likes all the old people who live there, they're so nice!!!

But today, I guess, one of the little old ladies decided to clean out the trash can outside the front door: "This is your job, you know. You're supposed to clean these out every day." DH explained to her that he was only allowed to do work if a work order was filled out and he did not have anything that said that he was supposed to clean the garbage cans. The next thing he knows, his "boss" is calling him down, not to yell at him, but to tell him that a) he does not have to clean the garbage cans unless it is on a work order and b) there was also a complaint that he didn't vaccuum the hallways, and he didn't have to do that either. So, DH went on his merry way.

He then received another summons from his boss: "We got a complaint that you haven't finished rebuilding the air exchanger yet." DH: "Well, no, I thought it would be better if I fixed this leaky faucet and the latch on that window first, since the air exchanger will take a long time." DH's boss: "I know, I just figured I'd better tell you."

Then he was reinforcing a railing outside the building when that same little old lady and a friend walked up to him and said, "When it's winter, are you going to sweep the snow off our windshields? Because the other guy always did." DH went to his boss and found out that the other guy did NOT sweep the snow from windshields, and, in fact, was informed that it was not part of his job.

Then, as DH was finishing up on the railing, his boss walked by and whispered "makes you want to loosen a couple bolts on those, doesn't it?"

No kidding.

You would think that being a maintenance man for a senior apartment building would be void of stressors like this, anyhow....yikes!!!! No wonder he comes home all worn out!!!

On a slightly similar but different note, DH and I had a long talk last night about the fact that it seems like all of this working is not helping his mental health. He agreed with me, and said that he's been more depressed since he's started working. I dared to think out loud about the possibility that full-time work might be too much right now. He didn't answer me. I told him that I'd rather have my DH back and healthy than have my DH working but "out-of-whack". I also told him that if he kept working and getting more depressed that he might end up back in the hospital. He told me, "I can't quit, you're counting on this money." I told him that we've lived without it for quite a while, we would be ok without it. He didn't agree. I also told him that this job brings with it a lot of other types of stress--i.e., he has to carry his own liability insurance, etc., and he agreed. I told him that this job wasn't what I had expected, and he said it wasn't what he expected to be doing either....but after all that, nothing was really resolved except I was able to voice some of my thoughts....and "That Guy" didn't show up....