I know now that I will never gain my boss' favor. I work with one other guy under my boss, and we're friends (not super close, but we talk and relate on a lot of things), and my boss is an old civilian woman.
Now, I don't feel it's fair to stereotype old ladies as all the same, but damn it if she doesn't live up to every single one. She's got a foo-foo dog that she never stops talking about, she has a creepy hobby (she makes dolls) she thinks is interesting to everyone she ever meets, she gossips about every single person she doesn't like and half of those she does, and she's completely stubborn and quick to judge people based on the smallest of circumstances. Naturally, I really don't like her much, but I can get past that and do what I'm told regardless.
The problem comes in when I realize that in my work space, I've become the red-headed step-child. My coworker (who is again my friend) is clearly favored by her because a) he's married, b) he has his own foo-foo dog now that he lets her "babysit" almost every weekend (she loves the little thing too), and c) he's much better at faking interest in her inane conversations than I am. Add that to the fact that I hit a slump a couple months ago where my performance at work suffered (but that I've long since gotten out of, not that she's noticed), and I'm held as the lesser of the two employees despite me and my coworker doing the exact same job.
It's pretty unfair, because her perception of me seems to be almost entirely based on personality differences. I'm just glad she has no control over my evals, though when she saw the positive remarks I had gotten on my most recent one, she laughed. THAT certainly struck a nerve for me.
But despite this, I can deal with it. It's just a bit of a bummer knowing that unless I go out and by my own little foo-foo dog, I'll never be as good as my coworker in her eyes. Thankfully it's only a one year assignment.
