I'm not too excited about moving out to the trailer park, but then again, after I get used to the peace and quiet, I think I will be glad it happened. At least the kitchen will be clean, and when I go to bed, I won't be listening with half an ear for whatever antics my roommate is getting up to next...A couple of nights ago he decided, at around midnight, to fix the deadbolt on the front door. His weapons of choice included a mallet and wedge.

Last night at 2200 my soon to be ex-roommate arrived in from work with three of his friends. They set up camp just outside my window, and got roaring drunk.

I knew something was up when I got in from work-the kitchen was somewhat clean. This only happens when he is going to have a visit from his mother or his friends.

At least out there in Deliveranceville things will be simple-annoy me and I will shoot you, or at least offer to.

And no-one will think anything of it. The manager told me so.

I think back to the apartment I looked at back in April, at a most reasonable price, in a clean and fairly safe complex less than ten miles from my job, the one I still loved at the time, and had hopes of staying at for a few years.

Roommie was fired from his new job the same day I was going to sign the lease and I stayed here, although I should have moved out then.

Hindsight.

My eyes are so scratchy from fitful sleep that it hurt at first to try to open them this morning; I am reeling somewhat, too, and I am recognizing the fact that I've not got enough sleep on a day when I have to go into my once loved job and face a hostile workplace populated by angry young black kids who see me and the only other white woman on the double digit team as the enemy.

I've knocked myself out to hang in there with and for these kids, hoping I could open their eyes, but they are flatly determined to hate.

I do my job, quite well, thank-you; I especially follow all of the rules that are surely going to get tougher as the new, hands-on parent company continues to exert authority in the takeover. This work ethic of mine and my fellow hag have not endeared us to these little pukes, who are openly proud of the willingess to play the race card should management lose their patience and terminate the little buggers.

This smug surety has been encouraged by the fact that they screw up all of the time and are not fired; they refuse to secure client material as requested before leaving their desks and are not fired; they play sexist, racist, obscenely defiant against authority Internet radio-permitting the volume to creep up so that by the end of the day the hate is ricocheting of the common walls and can be heard in the corridor; they surf the Internet ALL day long downloading racist material and are not fired; they are only less slovenly than my soon-to-be-ex-roommate and are not fired; they waste company resources deliberately, and again, are not fired.

These angry children will have to start following the rules they scorn, or they will lose their jobs-the company we now work for is all for diversity but not defiance. Their awareness of the coming ax is shown in myriad ways, the most telling is the pressure they are exerting in hopes that the white hags will quit and the company left stuck with them.

It doesn't work that way in our industry, and they only have to look at the third floor population to understand that. We work for a colour-blind company in a colour-blind industry; work hard and you will be rewarded by promotions until you reach the level of your incompetence.

It's about the bottom line, stupid.

Our new bosses are rather clear-"We will provide you with all of the resources to succeed beyond your wildest dreams-BUT YOU MUST AVAIL YOURSELVES OF THE OPPORTUNITY OR WE WILL OFFER IT ELSEWHERE.

The old paradigm doesn't work here.

Unfortunately, they will not heed their own observations or even good advice-my fellow white hag and I both have tried to encourage these brats to take advantage of the fantastic opportunity they've been presented; what an exercise in futility that has been.

For the last six months I've watched my co-workers, many with tremendous potential, cut their own throats with their gleeful displays of their version of corporate politics; for the last six months the new bosses have been taking notes.

The phrase that springs frequently to mind is "...enough rope to hang themselves." I confess to hoping the knot tightens today. I sit there sometimes trying to work amid the kindergarten antics mentally screaming-"DAMMIT, is anyone watching this??"

(At least I think they have been taking notes. Lately I'm wondering-why are some of these wretches still here?? I'm also wondering if I should bother trying to hang on to a job in a company where such blatant rule flouting goes unanswered with a hearty Heave-Ho!)

My childish co-workers have managed to make our workplace a very unpleasant place to be Monday through Friday nine to five-thirty and I cannot escape the certainty that they have deliberately done so.

People make all sorts of excuses for why they do things, myself included. The steer droppings I've endured since October at the hands of these pinheads (if I hear one more diatribe against 'Europeans' I'm going to be overly tempted to demonstrate why 'Europeans' were rightly termed ruthless-damn DAMMIT-I am losing my patience!!) have pushed me to a new level of unwillingness to tolerate stupidity.

One last thing-this is NOT a racist rant. This is an AGEIST rant-I cannot stand toddlers with driving licenses!