My (31F) coworker (3?F) at my new workplace is giving me unsolicited advice on “how things work around here” and not sure how to handle it

Edit: thank you for all of your feedback! They were all very helpful. More than one of you said that maybe her intentions are good, to assume as such, and just let whatever she says glide off while keeping mental note of things just in case. This is probably the best approach. I do not and will not trust her though with any of my personal thoughts, nor will I engage in the gossip.

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I recently got a new job, but my coworker who is training me, who I’m going to replace in a few months keeps giving me unsolicited advice on “how things work around here” and it’s really starting to annoy me.

For example, on my very first day at the office, she told me “for my benefit” that my direct boss knows nothing, is bad at her job, and drove someone out of the department last year because she got promoted instead of them even though she’s “bad at her job.” Also that she’s emotional and has some prejudice against Americans (boss is from a EU country) so to be prepared when she makes the odd remark.

I found this to be extremely inappropriate things to say to someone on the first day of the job, and to be honest it demoralized me A LOT. It makes me question her intent and whether that’s exactly the effect she wanted. It fucks me up to see her acting buddy-buddy with my boss after having said this.

My boss, by the way, was lovely at the interview and still lovely, though she does seem to be a bit of a hardass. This doesn’t bother me at all, as she is still very professional.

A few days later in another 1-on-1 training session, she tells me that my boss’s boss discourages people from filling out their time sheets accurately to cover up the amount of overtime going on. This is a Fortune 500 known for a good working environment. Again though, can’t help but be a bit demoralized.

She also has other little rules “don’t piss this person off about this,” “never say XYZ,” And then she looks at me expectantly like I’m supposed to be taking notes. Frankly I don’t give a shit. How she handles office politics is different from how I will and I don’t want her stupid advice to keep coloring my view of people I hardly know.

Also, I don’t care if the things she says are true or not, what bothers me is the intent. She has to leave because her contract is running out and they hired me as full time to replace her. Is it maybe a jealousy thing? What is the desired effect and outcome here? Why would she say things which, if I were to tell my boss about them, she’d definitely be in trouble over?

I’m really not sure how to handle it. She’s leaving in 2 months so at first I thought I’d just ignore it but it’s been bothering me more and more, and she keeps doing it. At this point I feel very uncomfortable around her, but I feel that if I tell her to stop I’ll cause drama and if I tell my boss it’ll feel like drama AND snitching.

She is very popular in the office, seems to know shit about everyone, and must have absolute confidence that I won’t bring it up as an issue. But...why?

Please help me navigate this.

TLDR New coworker talking shit about people and workplace to me, I’m annoyed and uncomfortable

Submitted January 26, 2019 at 07:45AM by unicornpoofertilizer http://bit.ly/2G3Zhuv