The Calm at Work

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Hello lovely people. After responding to another discussion about a child with ADHD and autism, I was reminded of a colleague of mine. I actually like my job, and I get on with everyone in the office. There is one, however, whose company very few, if anyone, enjoys. This person can be abrupt, lazy, rude, hypocritical, and generally a massive whiner. Anyway, we generally ignore her but, no matter the mood of everyone else, there is always less tension when this person is not there. We've all been quite excited for Christmas (most of us are in work for only one day during Christmas week) so that's been good. I had one bad day due to a couple of sad things in the family but I told one person. That was the person I support (I am basically the eyes for a blind co-worker). I told him both because I consider him a friend, and because I knew he'd worry if I wasn't myself. Now, if that had been little miss whine bag, she'd either not have come to work or (more likely) come in anyway and spend all day going on about it while getting no work done. Now, we had, of course, been talking about Christmas things, and we'd had some Christmas related events. Little miss whiner (let's shorten that to LMW) has a young son. She's been trying to get her son diagnosed with something (ADHD or whatever). She'll go on about what a pain he is and how she expects him to get worse as he gets older. But she doesn't seem willing to do anything about the problems now. It's clear that she wants an excuse for his behaviour. She'll say how naughty he's been yet will take him treats. She'll spoil him at Christmas (which is fine, of course) but he won't appreciate it, and she'll say she has to give him everything. She will say she 'has to' give him an ipad to take everywhere with him so he'll behave. Even her dad has had words with her about giving in all the time. LMW isn't the brightest of people anyway but it doesn't seem to occur that at least part (if not all) of her son's behaviour issues are her own doing. I'm not saying he doesn't have any actual disorder but I am saying it would be a whole lot better if he had consequences and if his mother didn't reward him for being a brat. Furthermore, LMW is very vocal when she has a problem, even if it's insignificant (which it usually is). She acts like a martyr at times. If she has a headache, everyone will know about it because she'll be giving everyone else a headache and asking people for pain killers. She does less work than everyone else but will be the first one to say she's busy or to make comment if someone takes their break 20 seconds early (if she was busy, she wouldn't notice when other people are taking their breaks). So, anyway, there has been an official complaint made about her because of her attitude (not by me but by another member of the team). LMW is now off for the Christmas period because she can't get childcare so she has an arrangement for taking off most school holidays (because, obviously, she's special and the rest of us just have to get on with it). She'll also say she can't afford such things as coming out for drinks yet she goes abroad for 2 weeks at a time and buys herself stuff she doesn't need on a regular basis. Whenever she's in work, there is always an air of stress. When she's not there, it's so much nicer! The past two days have been a little loud (with Christmas and with someone else in the office leaving) but everyone has been generally happier. In relation to workload, nobody would notice if LMW wasn't there because she hardly does anything anyway. But in relation to the general office atmosphere, team spirit, etc. there's a huge difference. On 4th January, I'll have been at my current place of work for.a whole year. Considering that most of my jobs have been temporary/short term, that's quite good for me! So, is there one person at your office (or other place of work/group/neighbourhood) whose departure would instantly improve morale? Or someone (like another colleague of mine) whose 'bad' mood is happier than most people's happy?