Here are mine in no particular order:
- Microwaving fish
- Reheating hard boiled eggs
- Eating raw unprepared canned tuna fish
- People that work out in the middle of day on their lunch break, come back to the office and jack up the AC because they are now running hot
FULL OFF-SEASON BABY
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Having personal phone conversations at their desk while working in an open office. I don't need to know who is picking up your kids from soccer practice!
Worse when they FaceTime or use speakerphone
At one of my jobs we were sharing space with one of the companies we worked with while our new office space was being built. I was I a cube with 3 other people. All of them were fine, but the next cube over there was a guy from another company that I kind of felt sorry for even though I heard all of his conversations. He had a wife, an ex-wife, and a daughter, he was spineless, they took advantage of him. I have never cringed so much in my life.
I have a co-worker who, almost daily, FaceTimes her daughter and grandson. She'll make popping noises or choochoo train sounds to try to get the baby's attention.
And yet here you are complaining quietly on the internet when you should be practicing your loudest fart noises...
People that participate in a 35 response email thread, copying in others to the thread, when they work two cubes apart.
Microwaving fish or any stinky food is a good one.
I got this older guy across the hall from me now, and he's almost deaf from years and years of hearing damage. His computer volume is maxed out. He listens to his voicemails at that volume, and the Windows sounds go off full blast. He also talks on the phone, on speaker, like he has hearing loss. Luckily, he's in the field a lot.
One that I do that I know might bother people is trim my nails at my desk. I've only shared an office with one other guy at my last job, so I haven't had to worry about it much, but I know it might be annoying or gross in some working situations. But I do it over/in the trash can because I can't stand a dirty desk either. His outlook was that he had worked with way more people with way stranger/grosser habits, so trim away.
I'm not grossed out about it but why I am intrigued as to why you feel your desk is the appropriate place to trim your nails. Is there a reason why you're compelled to do it there and not at home or in the office bathroom?
I am not OP, but also have a history of clipping nails at my desk. More often than not, the moment I become acutely aware that my nails were in need of clipping happened at work, not at home, and leaning over the trash can at my desk was much more comfortable than leaning over the trash can (or the toilet, as I understand there are a number of people that clip their nails into the toilet) in the public bathroom.
I also generally waited until there was a conversation in a nearby cube to help drown out the snapping sounds of the clippers.
I've always had my own office except at one job, and the one guy I shared it with, we became very, very good friends. We've both moved on to other jobs and we still email or text about GIS, sports, politics, family, etc. almost every day. But to answer your question, ashamedly the answer is laziness, at least at work. At home, with a wife, I do trim them in the bathroom. But at work, I'm by myself and the bathroom is at the other end of the building.
But I'm going to take a second to gripe. I have to practically hide the fact that I trim my fingernails like it's something to be ashamed of, but my wife trims them wherever she pleases, because she's also painting her nails. And she isn't going to paint her nails in the bathroom because what would she do while she waits for coats to dry? Double standard!
I hope your wife isn't painting her nails at work.
Where you do it at home is your business.
Nah, she teaches middle school. She's full throttle busy all day.
I'll do it occasionally. Usually when something odd happens to the nail. Like if after handing something in the factory it gets delaminated or a partial trim occurs to one nail. I've ignored those for too long and ended up with it tearing from something else, and I don't like bleeding from my nails.
Someone that has a habitual cough every 75-90 seconds, but completely looses it when you cough once in 6 months.
This one guy takes his shoes off and walks around the office and the water cooler in his socks.
I totally do this, didn't realize it was annoying! I love being sock-footed in the office.
Didn't realize we worked together! Sorry Jim! /s
Yeeaaah, it's annoying boss.
we had a guy that did this...the assistant director of the agency in DC
As long as it isn't smelly, I have no objection to that.
Didn't realize this annoyed people. I do this too, but with pants.
I'll expand to airports and grocery stores (but similar to the post above): I hate when anyone has a loud conversation on their cellphone as if there is nobody in the space around them.
Honestly we don't care what you're up to, and the louder you are, the less important you probably are.
In this case, people FaceTiming in public.
How the hell else do I know if I'm buying the right grocery item!!
Bring a list.
That fits on your cell phone, too.
But I'm not so bothered by people working out which groceries to buy. It's more the ones talking about their private family problems that are highly irritating. I don't want to be thinking about some stranger's problems or business issues.
Yeah, pay attention to what is being used in the house, take a picture of the current item, or just "forget" the item.
The list says "yellow bag of flour" store only has white and blue what do you do? I just call my wife since she does 75% of the cooking.
I have no problem with that, at all.
It's the correct use of tools.
It becomes objectionable when it's the public airing of grievances, or when it's just chit chat to pass the time in public, while the person doesn't pay any attention to the environment they're in.
You're good to go in my book. I just hate people that loudly air some grievance or family issue on speakerphone.
Perfume/cologne I can smell 20 feet away and/or 20 minutes after they've left the room
That one guy who eats an entire bag of microwaved cauliflower with hot sauce for his lunch. Every. Day.
People who want to chat when you clearly want to get some work done or clearly aren't in the mood for chatting
People with work laptops who still come in when they're sick???? (We're allowed to work from home)
If so many companies would stop touting this as a perk then crucifying people who work from home, it wouldn't be so hard to work from home when you're sick. Same goes for "Unlimited" PTO
unlimited PTO is usually a scam
Yeah got an interview tomorrow. It's not a benefit they advertise but I read it on some reviews....not sure how I feel about it. I'd rather have in writing that I can take off 3-4 weeks a year.
From my experience, it's 100% dependent on your managerial chain. It puts a lot more effort on management to have it work correctly. Everyone has to understand that it's work isnt a pure numbers game. Your manage has to have a clear understanding of what productivity looks like and that some times an employee spends 40 hours a week doing nothing and it's no different than you sitting at home for a week.
I dont know if I've ever worked with a manage that would thrive in an unlimited PTO environment.
Studies have shown that people with unlimited PTO actually use less. And there is a limit, you just don't know what it is.
When I know I get 3 weeks and the end of the year is rolling around I tend to burn it up. If there was no number I would probably take less because I wouldn't have the sense that I would be losing out on a perk by not taking what I was allotted. Also when there is not a set number I think I would be wondering if the perception is that I take too much or abuse the privilege. I am sure there will be a study in a year or so when the unlimited PTO perk become more of the norm and we will see if it means workers take more or less PTO.
The unlimited PTO is a scam. They do this so they don't have to book the paid vacation as an expense on the financials. At least that seemed to be the main reason they did it for SVP and above at a company I used to work for. They even brought up the savings in senior manager meetings.
And don't have to pay out when people move on either.
In a lot of states (Virginia included) if you don't have to pay it out if it's not unlimited. In VA you have to give the years PTO up front and then you dont have to pay it out. If you accrue it then you have to pay it out.
California has to pay.
There have been several studies on this already - people take less when it's unlimited.
I think there's exactly this. When you have a set number you earn, you tend to have a max number you can earn. If you go over, you lose any beyond that number. Most people will see that number and say they need to use the time off to get the money for it, because they won't see the money if they let it reach that max number.
If there is no max number you can accrue, there's no sense of needing to 'use it or lose it'.
As stated below, companies like it because it means people use less PTO, but also means they don't have to constantly payout PTO.
Yes, you have to be psychologically disciplined to take your time off.
The "unknown" actual number goes back to the managerial issues, there shouldn't be an unknown number, either you are getting your work done or not, but like I said I've never worked for a manager good enough that know how to handle that so they create numbers artificially to make it easier for management.
The "unknown" actual number comes up if someone abuses the system, and isn't at work for extended periods. They're usually also not very effective if this is happening.
If there's a legit reason, management will try and make arrangements. Becomes an insurance thing.
I think most people who get an unlimited PTO are like myself in a commission only position. It's much harder to step away from work when you feel like every second away you are falling behind because you aren't working. I have unlimited PTO but still feel guilty about taking time off.
I have a lot of friends with unlimited PTO, and I've seen it in action for a few years now. When I graduate from grad school, I intend to (try to) make it part of my compensation package. Here's my thoughts on it:
100% agree. I think the unlimited PTO only works in companies where you're expected to work off hours. If you have a culture where productivity is measured by the work done between 9am and 5pm, unlimited PTO won't work. I worked in an office where I frequently had calls with the India office at 11pm. I don't mind doing that, and I don't mind working whatever hours it takes to get work done, but in return, I want to work flexible hours.
Why don't you agree 800%
It depends. I have "unlimited PTO" now but we used to have an accrual policy so that previous policy kind of sets the expectation. Very much depends on the culture/management though.
I was the boss the last 25 years of my career. if you came in sick and got anyone else sick, especially me, it was your butt
of course karma is a bitch. i came in sick one time and my admin assistant (imagine a more refined version of Leslie Jones on SNL) walked in my office and said "you know the rules, get your sorry ass out of here!"...so i went home
-misrepresent his/her abilities in the interview process and have the references and work experience to shore up claims
-actually be at the skill level of an intern despite being paid to be a designer with 20 years experience
-be a member of multiple minority demographics so I have to spend 3 months documenting the hell out of his/her ineptitude to cover my ass rather than just kick the sorry excuse for a designer to the curb with no questions asked
why yes, this is based on an ongoing issue in real life, why do you ask?
My bosses had to document the commission of multiple felony-level acts of bad faith by one of my coworkers to be able to fire him as he was the son of a corporate VP.
If the state government had glanced at any of the documents he falsified, our entire business may have lost its licensing.
-Small talk. A polite greeting is fine, but after that just tell me what the fuck you want.
-Asking about my kids when we both know you just want to talk about yours.
Exists.
Be a UVA fan
There's more than one???
You didn't hear about the second one jumping on the bandwagon after basketball season ended?
I live 35 min from cville and can assure you there are more than 1 bandwagon fan lol
I can attest to this.
Ask me why their timesheet login isn't working when I'm just a developer and everyone knows the accounting department's email.
-People who take their food out of the microwave with :05 seconds left and never clear it out.
-People who continue to CC another party on an email chain after you've taken over the issue and the other party ceases to be involved.
-When a particular workflow involves someone doing their part before you can finish and they leave it open for weeks at a time. Then you follow up to see if there was something wrong as to why it has yet to be completed and they act like you're the asshole for asking them to simply do their job.
Edit: Forgot to add IT micromanaging the most minute, insignificant things. For instance, I had to get an admin logon to change the time format. Perhaps the most ridiculous one was this morning I was cleaning up my desktop and pinned a shortcut to a program to my taskbar. Then when I tried to delete the redundant shortcut from my desktop it yelled at me for an admin logon. I'm all for robust cybersecurity, but damn.
This right here has been the most annoying thing I've had in any job, and there are so many people who do this. Also, people who you leave messages for, email them, and they almost never get back to you. When they finally do, they're like "I've been busy." No kidding, but my job relies on you getting back to me, and it only takes 2 minutes to write an email. Don't act like you didn't see it, or didn't get my messages.
Feature of windows and the group policies that are used to secure the PC. IT Admins use what they are given by MS. And from a fellow Network Admin,
So we have this computerat work that can either connect to a video conference or a projector, which means we have to switch the display port cable Well IT cracked down on some stuff and now every time we un plug the displayport we trip bitlocker so the next morning everyone is locked out of the conference room PC. So now they are really pissed we ask them to unlocked it every morning.
Therein lies the biggest rub. You can't lock everything down and then get frustrated that you're getting calls every 5 mins from everyone in the network to do simple tasks.
We had a PC in a conference room that was similar to this situation. You were supposed to start a presentation and share through the app because people were constantly plugging stuff back in wrong. We did the same solution mentioned above at first; a big ass sign that says "DON'T DISCONNECT"and lock them out once a connection was lost. That was also annoying.
The computer is now locked in a big ass case.
No one is plugging in anything wrong, we have to switch the video if we need to push our screen for the video conference. But do to security we cant have the computer on the network so we have to unplug the network when on the conference. But we also need the computer on the projector for internal meetings.
That's an interesting set up...also kinda not a good sign that they're worried about having an internal PC on the network....
Only when connected to the external video conference system.
I know that's true to an extent, but some of the things we need admin rights to do are things which never needed it very recently, i.e. deleting a frippin' shortcut from my desktop.
That hard drive location C:\users\"username"\desktop or other subfolders, are targeted by Malware and virus to use for installs. If every user had admin rights over that location, it makes it much harder to protect the pcs and network.
I understand that. I guess my real beef is that my particular shop doesn't have more admin rights than average users. In many places, my shop is in the IT dept anyway.
When I first started working here, they gave me the same admin rights at the IT guys. My position was in the IT dept before they hired me, but during the transition they decided to move it to Engineering. Fine by me. My boss rules.
But then staff changed in IT and now I only have local admin rights on PCs that are placed in a policy group called GIS Workstations. Maybe that would work for you? I don't have the ability to put PCs in that group, only IT can do that, but once they're in there, I can install or delete anything.
Too far down on the totem pole to make any of that happen. So, I'm just going to keep bitching to you guys. It's an inconvenience more than anything, but it does get pretty damned ridiculous at times.
The worst offense I've experienced - one coworker used to clear her throat (for lack of a better term) at the highest volume possible. It wasn't just a loud 'ah-hem' throat clear; no, this was a deep, guttural, phlegm clearing that could easily be heard anywhere within a 10 cubical radius. It was like she was about hock a loogie and she NEEDED the entire department to know about it. It was disgusting.
Not showering/body odor is another one that is pretty bad and all too common. Working in IT, I had a lot of coworkers who weren't American, and I think they just weren't aware of certain cultural norms/hygiene habits.
Finally, I had one coworker who would take her conference calls on speaker phone. She sat in my row. Unfortunately, she was a senior manager when I was an associate, so I didn't really feel comfortable saying something to her.
Working in management in IT, I've had to have conversations of this nature a couple of times with people. Very difficult for me. I've had to let people go before and having a conversation about hygiene was worse than that.
I remember my old manager talking to me about a conversation he had to have. There were reports of a coworker essentially bathing in the bathroom sink, as what seemed to be his only form of hygiene, not a conversation I'd like to have.
Between that and substituting immense amounts of cologne for a shower I got a little more picky about who I sat near.
Pushing political/religious stances into general conversation. I cannot believe how widespread this issue is where I work now. I've even seen unit meetings devolve into uncomfortable at best because of this.
Commenting aloud to Breitbart editorials
I would include "anti-religious" as a religious stance, as well.
I feel like my statement covers all bases without singling out a particular worldview. I don't really even care if I agree with the particular stance, I just don't like the tension those topics create and don't believe they belong in the workplace.
It's so weird that there's a stigma about discussing salaries and financials, but people feel it's okay to make remarks about the (what I feel are) touchier subjects.
I agree. Just pointing out that no particular view is immune from the rule.
Probably doesn't surprise anyone, but I love those conversations, because to me, a persons "worldview" directly impacts the way a person engages the world around them, in all the important area, and I think that those conversations are expressions of the most important thoughts and beliefs that define us as persons. Now I understand the importance of keeping the majority of relationships in the work place superficial, and there are a lot of personal-ish conversations with a person before crossing that barrier. However, I do enjoy when I can take a break from my engineering tasks that are sometimes monotonous, and find a friend that is willing to discuss metaphysics, and ideas/thoughts of the world around us, even in the work place.
You should meet the chem trails guy at my office. He was also going on about a sun-simulator that the government installed and that its not the actual sun. Probably a 911 truther too, but I tend to avoid him at all cost.
Yeah people believe in this shit.
I see the dude outside on clear days staring up at the chem trails.
Chem trails people are the worst.
Anti-vaxx people are worse. Their actions are literally killing people, whereas chem trail people are just dumbasses.
Oh, I'm sure there is a decent overlap of those groups.
There are more chemtrailers that are anti-vaxxers, but not all anti-vaxxers are chemtrailers, namely because there are more anti-vaxxers than chemtrailers
Sauce: Wife has degree in (pro)vaccine policy and is an avid fan of conspiracy theory videos (for the lulz)
That's pretty much what I'd expect. Though, I'm unsure whether to be terrified or comforted by that distribution.
I would say terrified is more apropos. The Tin Foil Hat Brigade isn't much a threat to anyone besides themselves. As stated above, anti-vaxxers are literally killing people because of faked data in a bitch study that a floozy parroted enough to convince them was more valid than what their doctors were providing.
I agree.
The only reason I mentioned being comforted by the distribution was that I guess it's a little better that the complete idiot pool is smaller. When I say better, obviously, I do not mean better in terms of impact. I mean better in the fact that the larger, anti-vaxxer group has had their fears amplified by a misinformation campaign. I suppose that means there may be some semblance of hope for them if... IF.... they can unlearn their nonsense. Whereas there's likely no coming back for chem-trail folk.
I'm curious, since we're talking distributions, would you say there are more anti-vaxxers who believe the government puts stuff in the vaccines to track and control people, those who believe vaccines cause autism, or those who believe they cause more harm than good because it takes away the body's natural defense mechanisms?
Meh, they're all a bunch of idiots who are unnecessarily putting innocent children at risk of serious health complications up to and including death because Jenny McCarthy told them vaccines were bad 15 years ago. The sooner we mandate vaccines for all citizens, the better, because its downright frightening to see diseases such as the measles make a comeback because herd immunity has evaporated in certain communities because conspiracy theorists have been allowed to spout off blatant lies to create a panic causing vaccine rates to drop to near 80% in those areas.
Vast majority are autism related
I think the largest amount are religious because there is fetal tissue in some vaccines.
My brother's sister-in-law is a crazy religious anti-vaxer and also believes Netflix is from the devil, and Game of Thrones is the most anti-religious show of all time.
Vaccine Ingredients – Fetal Tissues
I guess because of my job that I'm against flat earthers. Do they think satellites teleport?
Look at this guy who believes satellites are real. LOL, everyone knows there are transmitters on the ice wall that are simulating satellite signals. Wake up sheeple.
So some slide on top of the ice wall while others are embedded in the wall? And they slide at different speeds? I cant imagine what thay looks like.
Well it's obviously reptillian engineering. Would you expect shoddy work from the people who installed the hologram that we call "space"?
Like this?
Sun simulator? That's a new one to me.
Dude check out the youtube videos
I did. And I'll never get that time back. I hate people.
I say Metaphysics, you think chem trails, really?
Image of NASA taking the sun down for repair.
Did I really come across as "that guy"?
I sure hope they get it fixed before morning. I hate going to work in the dark. I fear I'll miss my exit and drive off the edge of the earth.
When the religious/political conversations come up, channel your inner Linus Van Pelt and very seriously tell them:
"There are 3 things that I have learned to never discuss with people:
1. Religion
2. Politics
3. And the Great Pumpkin"
and then go about your business.
Nail clipping at the desk. Happens way more often than I ever thought...
Sorry. Some people probably feel the same way about nail clipping as I do sock feet. Blech!
The guy that couldn't hack it in engineering and then got a certificate "degree" in business from Wharton, which is displayed in his cube so he can show everyone he "went to" Wharton. And now he thinks he is a big shot because he understands business lingo (like what VT engineers learn in engineering econ) so he talks loudly on a headset so he can walk around while he talks in a cube farm where the cubes are 1' above the desk and glass so ever sound reflects everywhere and the conversations are so inane. But thankfully he moves into the Business Strategy team so he is no longer in the office because all that team did was regurgitate Gartner articles all day long.
My fucking labrador just threw up on my foot.
My "co-worker" begs to go outside all the time. Here is a gif of him when I don't let him out:
I also have a Vizsla and a Cozy Cave. Am I you?
Cozy cave...my dogs might like those!
Yes
The smell of burnt microwave popcorn!
Doing stupid shit, such as poor strategy and even worse execution, that gets no results. And then responding with "because that's the way we've always done it" when asked why.
Ah yes, TWWADI (pronounced "tuh-wha-dee")
I was waiting on this post, to see what I'm doing.
Looks like that's all above my pay grade.
No, most of the rank and file folks do very little to annoy me. It's "leadership" that grinds my gears. I think it's always been that way, for me. You can clip nails, go with sock feet, talk about religion/politics...hell you can even have the occasional body odor...and I'll probably overlook it. But as soon as you find yourself in a "leadership" position and can't even figure out how to consistently break even much less be profitable, then I'm going to lose respect for you very quickly.
Sit on the training potty not do anything and then ten minutes later have a full fucking diaper!!
I see you have also worked with a VCU engineering grad
Yeah man, that 18 month- 2 year stretch when they aren't quite potty trained is the worst #HumbleBrag
There are these guys, always the same ones, that keep telling me what to do, what projects to work on, when to do them, etc. And they never ask me what I want to do or let alone what they could do for me. Also I'm pretty sure they make more money than me. Low key kind of annoying.
When asked for assistance with something, responding "I'm too busy" while either standing in the break room, chatting with a coworker or messing with a phone.
People who walk in my office without knocking then proceed to ask if I'm busy, followed by small talk I have no time for...
The "I know you're busy, but" convo starters.
Admin having ideas!!! Just don't!!!
Hold me accountable
When the boss is all like "Do your job". The worst.
Reheating 3-4 day old curry, asparagus or cheddar broccoli.
Worst thing in my office is just a coworker who always says "knock knock" instead of just knocking on my office door.
Guess I should appreciate my coworkers more. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We have doorbell on our front door. A coworker of mine lost his key card, and refuses to ring the doorbell, and when he knocks on the door, which is pretty far away, no one is positive if its him on the door or just a noise coming from somewhere else.
We have told him this and he refuses to use the doorbell.
Same guy has a nasally voice and when he is on the phone its the absolute worse!
Who...who reheats a hard-boiled egg?
Exactly! It was absurd just in premise and then it started to stink. I yelled at him right away and that was the last time he did it.
Not necessarily co-workers but more higher ups
Not communicating
Not offering teachers and other staff the support they need but expecting them to deal with behavior issues, do 5 million things in addition to their actual jobs...
EDIT: (Still management): Not planning and making arrangements when you know that lots of people will be out at one time then scrambling to find coverage.---Your lack of planning does not constitute my emergency.
Not showing up when you are expected to.
Stretching the staff until they are threadbare-- asking people to do way too much, not giving them help, and still expecting them to do their actual jobs in addition to everything else.
All you really need to do is mention that you teach and people will know, or, at least, they should. There are too many administrative issues to list in that profession. Which is why Mrs. APFOW no longer does it.
This explains a lot of the problems with teaching, but doesn't come close to encapsulating all of them.
Oh yeah and putting extra random kids in my class. Yeah, that's great...
You mean when you already have 10 more kids than the other teachers, right?
Well that.... ( that happened a few years ago-every time a new kid came, they ended up in my classroom. I ended up having 28 first graders that year. I finally told my principal that if he he put any more kids in my room that I would have to start hanging desks from the ceiling because I was out of room)
But also more recently, putting random kids in my room that should be in other rooms or telling a parent that just moved to the area that we could provide care because the school told the parent that it was not much point in registering her child in school because there were approximately 3 weeks left in the school year and then sticking the kid in my room.
EDIT---This happened again today! I got to work this morning and was told that I had another kid to be in my room until school gets out. The last day of school is TOMORROW! Boss should have told the parents that we would not be able to provide care for kids not in school until WEDNESDAY.
I would have liked to done something fun/special for my kids, but that is not happening because my class has become a dumping ground for random kids.
Are you my wife? Because she and I just had this discussion yesterday evening...
I'm legging you for this comment alone. This right here covers 3/4 of all my frustrations with every job I've had in the past.
The issue I had is the person thay always said this in my company was the one with the emergency do to lack of planning.
The company I worked for was completely full of shit and it annoyed the hell out of me. The management and many coworkers continually bragged about the "company culture" being best in the country and how they had a slide in the office and ping pong tables and your day would be spent hanging out once you got your work done. Of course, we were told if we weren't making sales calls, we would be punished. They served beer in kegs and once even tequila shots and then during employee reviews told me I had a reputation for drinking too much beer, despite never having any of the office beer and never once calling out with a hangover. Other people got drunk at work and many folks called out "sick" with hangovers.
Then they said that I'd never be laid off because I was one of the hardest working people in the 300 person division... then they laid me off, along with 285 of the others over a 4-5 month time frame. Ironically the company specializes in hiring people.
Getting canned was actually one of the best things that happened to me. I got drunk in the company parking lot that afternoon after the firing, handing out Coronas to anyone who left work that day and then I went to Key West for three weeks and decided I'd never have a real job again. Nearly eight years later, I still don't!
My boss complains that I am on TKP when I should be working.
That happened to me too. Now I'm my own boss.
I live (and thus work) in Japan, and it's considered dirty and rude to blow your nose in public. Sniffing every 10 seconds is much more socially accepted and it drives me nuts.
I don't do your job, I do mine. Why do you keep coming to me so I can reverse engineer your process and tell you how to do it?
Background: I used to drive nonemergency medical transportation for a nursing home.
Team Meeting: We need to work on lowering our response times on pickups, so our scheduled runs can go out on time.
Performance Evaluation 6 weeks later: We noticed you're either not taking your full 30 minute lunch, or at all.
Funny, we just had an A/C war at my office yesterday
It's extremely annoying when employees of my subs think my mini-fridge and microwave exist for their convenience. Also, when a sub Foreman/Super wants to hang out in my job trailer and BS all day instead of supervising his work and letting me focus on mine.
That being said, Man! you guys make me glad I'm a Project Superintendent and have my office in the field. It's only ever a job trailer (and sometimes the front truck seat) but it's MY office and MY rules so i can kick those guys out when they get to be too much lol.
And I also control the thermostat!
Jmarshall, if you have any referrals for me, I have PM position open in the Richmond area.
Shoot, I can't be giving those away. We have more work than we have PMs and Supers as it is.
Can you get me in touch with anyone, so that I can help you find more PMs and Supers. I'm already working on finding a PM /Super in the area right now.
When I use earbuds or headphones it is not an invitation to come chat.
No earbuds, no one talks to me for a week. Ear buds go in for two seconds, "Let me tell you about my kids"
We have some higher-ups around that have opinions for projects that "should be a slam dunk" but push back against the technical folks who can find 30 reasons a specific research hypothesis/project won't work. I've learned it's better to agree to kill a few days doing feasibility experiments that I know won't work rather than seemingly position myself as difficult by laying out why that idea won't work and refusing to do it -- even though I have a PhD and should be qualified to make that technical input.
We also have corporate engineering/EHS that wants to standardize safety protocols company-wide, but refuse to acknowledge that R&D facilities have inherently different risks than a full-scale production plant.
Some a little more specific to my work environment include: using someone else's benchtop/hood and not tidying up, killing the gloves/rags/pipets/vials (general lab consumables) and not replacing (this is the lab equivalent of leaving an empty roll of toilet paper for the next person), trying to have a conversation or asking a menial question when I'm in my full PPE and obviously in the middle of handling a chemical that's more dangerous than normal.
Even better than not replacing? People who come in and steal boxes of gloves. (Hello supply cabinet 10 feet down the hall) Or! or! Taking the rack of pipets I've washed to do trace-level work.
Thankfully my lab is a little out-of-the-way compared to others in the building, so outright theft isn't really a big deal. My two immediate labmates are decent too. It's the people who come in to use the solvent-rated ovens and use up my pipets and gloves that bug me.
I work in an open office environment, so annoying things are elevated. These have been covered but to reiterate:
- Loud phone talkers on personal conversations. Go to a phone room.
- Listening to music too loud on headphones. Turn it down
- Eating stinky lunch foods at desk. Go to the break room
- People who show up to work sick. Just stay the fuck home and log on.
EDIT: Old video, but everyone can relate:
Love this one as well...
Ah man, that's a classic - forgot all about that one until you posted it.
Lmao. This was great.
Where the hell do I even start
ok, first of all, I work in IT and I have a coworker who has been employed here longer than my near 10 years now who for the life of him can't figure out how to work in and format an Excel spreadsheet without putting everything highlighted in the default destroy your retinas yellow. Anything more complicated than simple data entry is a nightmare for him, and he routinely replies to emails 4 or 5 hours with a "give me a few, I'm busy, I'll have to get back to that" long after the issues have already been resolved in the same email thread. There are few things that annoy me more than making me and my team look wholly incompetent, and he pretty much ticks all the boxes. Always resistant to change, more apt to stress following arbitrary policies over helping out business partners, etc. Just a wholly miserable person.
Now, a couple years ago we went to an open floor concept with no assigned seating. Oh yeah, its a game of fucking Russian Roulette every day when you show up to the office not knowing if you'll have to head back home because there isn't a desk available for you. Apparently, signing a deal with the state of NC for massive tax breaks with the incentive to add a few thousand jobs to the area while at the same time closing satellite buildings, consolidating the work force into one campus, having no plans to expand said campus, and then realizing you've put yourselves significantly over capacity is a problem. Who would have known. Oh, of course the open floor plan also came with pod walls (yes, where we used to have cubicles, now we have 6 desk 'pods') that are about a foot and a half taller than the tops of the desks, so now I get to graciously listen to groups on the other side of the building talk about pretty much every aspect of their boring as shit lives all day every day. At least I don't get too much crap for wearing headphones. And, oh yeah does the smell travel. Its swell.
But probably my biggest complaint right now. Oh this one is just great. For the last few years, my team has known that there were a lot of things we do on a daily basis that could be automated, so last year we brought in a developer to start putting something together to help us out. It was great, we were showing good progress, and then all of the sudden the plug got pulled from it all. Some new offshore manager, I'll call him dickhead from now on, decided he wanted to take it over and put a full stop onto everything, said he was in control, and that we needed to work with him on it. Well, because my upper management didn't give a shit, and even though dickhead didn't report in our structure at all, we were told to oblige. Well, fine, at least dickhead said he would be willing to work with us. Until he didn't. He never attended a single meeting with us for the next 3 months, while every single thing we're suggesting falls on deaf ears and is blatantly ignored. Suddenly January comes around, and we're in a huge fire drill. Apparently dickhead overpromised his developing capabilities to our CIO and now he's 2 months past his deadline with literally nothing to show for it. So suddenly we're having weekly meetings to get this thing going in a basic form, with a new hard deadline of the end of January. Well, March hits and we still don't have anything. Our suggestions are still being ignored, and dickhead is still avoiding our meetings like the plague. Then, we get the call. Dickhead has sold this thing all the way up the chain as an outright replacement of my job role, and with the understanding that everything is going well, our executive management has made the call to eliminate our roles and I only have a couple months or so to find something new. Mind you, nothing is delivered yet. So over the last couple weeks, I actually secure myself a new job which I will be starting up by mid-June, and only now, with the impending level of doom hovering over dickhead's head, now he's trying to set up daily 7am meetings to get us to work closely with his team to get everything buttoned up so they're not screwed after I leave. Nah, I'm good, bro.
Very relatable
Mind you, the same dickhead escalated me to senior management every time we've talked and I didn't bend over backwards to kiss his ass appropriately enough for his liking. This same dickhead escalated me for suggesting a slow rollout of this automation to scale up from low effort high volume items at first, and scaling out to more complex one off situations later in lieu of trying to conquer the world at once. Escalated because I wasn't being helpful to the topic at hand and was being too difficult in our collaborative sessions. 5 months later, after spending 4 months trying to unsuccessfully button up one off issues, I'll let you guess which venture we are taking after I steered dickhead into his own 'eureka' moment.
If i had a nickel for every time this happened.
Honestly Alum, I'm happy for you. You've been unhappy with your job for awhile now given what I've read on TKP. And it sounds like you're getting the hell out of dodge at the perfect moment for it to all blow up in dickheads face. I will toast a beer for you tonight
Its been a fucking nightmare for the past 8 months. What started out as something to help us do our job became something that outright replaced us, and all the discussions to make that happened occurred in secret behind closed doors. Dickhead was more worried about selling what this thing could do than actually making it do something, so now all the execs think its perfect and ready to go when in reality, its going to be a colossal disaster. Even better, it doesn't actually fully replace everything I do, and the ones who are going to have to take on that additional work haven't even been told yet, and this is all set to happen over the next couple weeks. The one thing I'm going to tell my new manager is under no circumstance do I want to be pulled back in to help out. They dug their grave, now they can sleep in it.
That's OK. The project lead will blame it on you anyway.
But you won't so much care, as you won't be there, and it will still make him look bad.
Yeah as you said, I won't care. At that point, new management with new person controlling bonus and raises. I think I'll have 2 levels above me in the new spot before I get to someone in my current chain, so it won't much matter.
Plus, dickhead has already burned a bunch of bridges by being *counts on fingers*... 8 months past his expected delivery date for something he sold up the chain to be easy, so good luck trying to pin that blame on someone who doesn't even report to him.
ah, so you're in the same company? Not as clean as an escape as I would have liked. good luck!
The company itself is good. My specific area has been a complete mess for a while
Gotta admit, I was imagining Alum's exit interview until I found out that he was staying within the same company.
via GIFER
so it was more like this?
So essentially the proverbial "bowl full of dicks"???
One of my friends told me the company he works for instituted this as well. It sounds like a nightmare!
Fart then try to cover it up by spraying cologne everywhere.
That person who you can always count on to add a tangential point to the meeting or conference call, which is not relevant to the objective, but they will not drop the subject and continue to argue it and try to build a consensus by talking to the one other person who agrees with them while everyone else in the meeting/on the call is stuck waiting. I get extra annoyed when a suggestion that the two stay after/on to cover this on their own is taken for an offer to participate in an argument over relevance.
I am regularly in long meetings with customers where I am sharing my screen, so I cannot respond to emails and chats during that time, so I love when the support team does this to me:
- assigns work ticket, triggering an email alert
- sends email notifying me that they assigned me this work
- sends skype chat message following up on the email
- comes by office to check to see if I had a chance to review
They can see my calendar and status, I have been in the same meeting all morning.
1) Unions. They had a place about a 100 years ago but I am officially anti union after taking my new job.
2) One of my coworkers schedules like 2-3 meetings every day. Dude no. I have shit I need to do.
3) Same coworker likes to posture and announce things to the floor, but when things go poorly he comes to me to fix it
Going to try and thread the needle here
I'm not sure why anyone says unions aren't needed. So you think management really has the best interest of workers in mind when it comes to pay or safety? I'll take the fire service for example municipalities have been trying to for less staff to do more every day since the beginning of the fire service. You know what keeps minimum staffing and proper equipment on the trucks? The union.
Unions are a classic example of some that is wonderful in theory but can fail in practice. Often times, unions function as a means to protect lazy workers rather than just provide a check on management.
Doesn't mean that all unions are bad, or that unions are unnecessary, but I understand why people get frustrated with them (
if you've ever tried to fill your gas tank in New Jersey, you know EXACTLY what im talking about).Edit: I was always told that due to union laws, individuals were not allowed to pump their own gas in New Jersey. After further research, I have no idea where I learned this false factoid.
....gas station workers in NJ are not unionized
Working at a unionized Kroger pretty much cemented my opinion on unions for unskilled labor for this very reason.
No, but labor laws have evolved greatly in the past 100 years. The major issues for unions 100 years ago are nowhere near the issues that unions are handling today. Most of the things they were fighting against are now illegal (underage labor, low wages, hazardous working conditions, and excessively long workday lengths). Nowadays, there are legal protections for those sort of things.
I have a close family member that works for a major utility, and the (extensive) safety practices are actually pushed from management side. Safety record is reflected in the bonus structure, so they are incentivized from a safety perspective. From anecdotal data, the things unions are working on as issues seem to be pretty far down the ladder from there.
What bar1990 said.
You know most labor laws came about because of Unions right?
I recruit for construction and yes the majority of the companies you want to work for put safety first, but I also worked for a temp agency prior to my current position. Safety for the electricians I employed down in Atlanta, was a very loose term. I had an employee call me and tell me about live lines that were providing temporary power going through pools of water in an ground-up project. They could careless.
Or a company that employed electricians of mine in a factory in the middle of winter where they were running generators inside the facility they were working on and people were passing out from C02 poisoning on a daily basis, and OSHA needed to come in and get the situation under control.
I worked with a modular company (not by choice) that would hire anyone for 12 bucks an hour to do electrical work in their factory outside of Georgia were literally their foreman were doing drugs in the bathroom stalls and passing out during night shifts.
I also know of a mob run company (not a client of mine nor will they be) that had someone get seriously injured on the job-site because something fell on his head. The guy was an illegal laborer. They didn't call the cops and the superintendent had to drive the guy and drop him off in front of the emergency room.
I will say there are better run companies that do take safety seriously, but their are definitely companies out there that look for anyway to save a buck and these kind of stories are the result of it.
To add to this, I have done electrical work for a non-union company and a union company. I was expected to and did things with the non-union company that would have never flown in the union company. The union company was miles above the other in terms of safety.
What I have found moving back up to the Northeast, that there are way less companies up here that operate in that unsafe manner, probably because there are stricter laws in place for employee safety.
Some of the companies I worked with throughout the south though could not give a damn about safety or anything else.
I had some guys down working on a Amazon distribution center in Atlanta during the middle of the summer. They were working in 110 degree weather with no AC or anything. OSHA standards say that the company that is doing construction needs to provide water to its employees, but they didn't have anything. I had about 6 guys on-site, so I took a couple hours out of one my days packed Styrofoam cooler up with ice, water, and Gatorade and drove it down to the job-site. The guys were super appreciative. I doubt it would have been fixed by the company they were representing if I hadn't just did it myself, and it cost me like $30 bucks to do. Simple things shouldn't be so hard for bigger companies to get.
Completely spitballing here, but isn't there a larger union presence in the NE anyway? I'm wondering if the non-union companies are run stricter because they have to compete with more union companies?
Yes definitely. Though some union cities are stronger then others. Right now I am in Philly where the union presence is huge, when I was in New York, the union presence is so-so, but the laws are extremely strict there. For instance every construction worker has to have an OSHA 10 card which is lifetime certification. In New York, you have to get a new OSHA 10 card every 5 years to keep updated on any new OSHA policies. It's little things like that.
1) You don't need a union in order to provide beverages for your employees. 2) What kind of employees do you have who can't figure out the concept of bringing a cooler to work?
I live in Florida, and the mostly non-union workforce here always seem to bring a cooler and beverages to job sites.
Though I do appreciate management who cares enough to notice such things.
They were temporary labor that I recruited to work for a national outfit. When you work with temp guys when it comes to construction it's a mixed bag of what you are going to get. I can't remember the quality of the guys I had there because at the time I had about 70 people that I was managing in the field, and it was around 5 years ago. Some employees can barely make it work because of what they are getting paid. I have driven people to work on numerous occasions in my temp labor days. I get what you are saying as I always packed a thermal water cooler when I went to work when I did construction throughout high school and college summers, but sometimes getting people to work on-time was an achievement. Not saying this was the case here, but just saying that somethings that I took for granted when I did the same work were not afforded to most of the people I got work.
I completely agree that you don't need a union to provide water for your employees. OSHA mandates that the manager of your employees provide water to its employees on high temperature days. They wouldn't have gotten any if I didn't go out of my way to do so, which I was happy to do at the time. The company that I got them employment through didn't care though, they were viewed as temp labor and more times then not, temp labor gets treated like crap because they are temp.
I see what you're saying, but the solution there is good management, not more government oversight.
In that situation, we need things less expensive, not more. Unions tend to suck even more money out of those workers, for political/self serving causes.
I'd bet that giving those employees something cold to drink raised productivity enough to justify it as a corporate expense, though it sounds like you just did it out of your own pocket.
Without some incentive for management to improve (such as collective bargaining, government oversight, direct profit motivation) there will be no improvement. And since direct profit motivation usually works against better working conditions unless the region has better employment options available (giving the employees the leverage of leaving), that leaves the other two.
Yes, ideally companies would work to ensure that their workers were skilled, safe and well compensated. That almost never happens without some outside motivator however. Maybe in some companies where the employees are seen as human beings to be interacted with, but in many, they are just seen as resources to be used up and any concession to them is seen as a budget item to be avoided.
For my last company I worked in CA, GA, & NY. I have provided labor in those 3 states, NJ, and throughout the Carolinas and parts of Florida as well.
Biggest difference between the North East/California and the southern states were government regulations. What do I mean by that? CA you needed to have an electrical license to operate and perform electrical work. New York, had all sorts of laws in place from a safety stand point.
So when I put a CA electrician out to work I knew they would absolutely know what they are doing because they had the appropriate license. In New York the safety standards were extreme for good reason, and I honestly can say I never had nearly as many injury concerns in the north east because there was an emphasis on safety laws and regulations.
The south was absolutely insane. The process was so loose as to what qualifies an "Electrician". There were certain things that you can do to try to test them as best you can (I'm not an electrician or have ever been one), but when you sent one to work you had absolutely no idea if the guy was going to work out, they were all wild cards. We also had companies that would work our guys overtime and then pay them their OT in cash on the side, and cut us out of our portion and have our guys write down that they only had 40 hrs. a week. Then eventually not pay us. Shit like that was rampant in Southern States.
We also had the most amount of injuries out of the Southern states. They costed at minimum $45k a pop. So it might be "cheaper" in theory to have looser regulations, but the company is still going to be paying for poor safety measures and quality of work one way or the other.
Unions are the reasons we have safety / OSHA, as well as the "compromise" of 8 hour work days as opposed to 16+.
My overall point is Unions have your (the worker) best interest at heart. Companies and corporations are now in the business of finding more ways to exploit you.
Yes, I realize this. They have made some fantastic (and necessary) changes in the workplace over the past 100 years, which would most likely not have been made in the absence of unions.
That said, IM(ns)HO, the big rocks have been taken care of and are now established in labor law. The question about unions nowadays are whether or not the little rocks that are their current issues are worth the hassles that unions present, specifically in the inefficiencies that they protect (e.g. tenure for incompetent members).
Thing is, Unions could do a lot of good right now, but too often the leadership is too busy padding their own wallets and keeping the lowest performing employees secured with their cushy jobs than to push for real tangible change.
Minimum Mandatory Leave per country is absurd when you look at the US. Most countries have laws guaranteeing their citizens at least 20 days of paid vacation per year, and the US has none. Most countries have at least 10 paid national holidays per year. The US has none.
Paid Parental Leave is even worse. The United Nations mandates 16 weeks for maternity leave and 4 weeks for paternity leave, all paid. The US ignores this mandate and does not have any minimums. You can take up to 12 weeks, but it would all have to be unpaid. Some companies offer paid maternity and paternity leave, but not all, and the government doesn't allow it at all. I know this because my wife had to save up and use all her vacation to take maternity leave last year after our first daughter was born, while I got 6 weeks of paid leave. And even then, the last month or so she had to take unpaid leave before she could return. Compare that with my offshore co-workers in India where their government mandates 6 months of paid maternity leave which our company allows, but still only 16 weeks in the US.
That is just 2 ways right now that Unions are failing the common person in the US. There are many more.
Some of the things you mention actually help close wage gap between women and men, and also help boost the economy since you spend more money on vacation. My wife doesn't take anytime off. She feels extreme guilt when she takes a day.
You make it seem like Unions are the bottle-neck in having this for blue and white collar workers. They aren't the reason why we don't have these. Corporations are the ones that want every single dollar they can squeeze out of you for their shareholders (and by proxy - themsevles via bonus pay with stock).
You want mandatory minimum leave? Great - so do workers and unions. Same with paid parental leave. I fail to see how you think Unions are the people who are blocking them for the common worker. What job are you in that says "yeah we'd love to give you more paid leave to rest and take care of yourself and your family, but dang, that union of yours just won't let us :/".
And by far, the biggest negotiating power the average employee can have is to be a member of a union which can counterbalance the 'squeeze all life out of the employee' needs of shareholders who only care about the bottom line.
Unfortunately not everyone can unionize - "right to work" states and all that crap. And there you have it - corporations lobbying and making it into LAW that you can't unionize so that they can squeeze out every last dollar out of you.
Heck, even the NFL has a union for players lol. Athletes that get paid MILLIONS of dollars recognize the need for unions, but your average Joe can't in certain places.
Anyhoo - this rant not specifically targeted at you. Just folks that think Unions are for lazy folks don't truly understand the freedoms the enjoy
Oh no, not at all no worries. I completely agree that unions are important and they do far more good than bad in the long run. Might not be the best for businesses, but for the actual people, you need a union in order to not be taken advantage of by your company.
The problem is that nowadays, most unions are corrupted themselves to the point where even where they exist, they aren't doing the job they should be.
Let's just say that unions in government are COMPLETELY unnecessary, and enable some very lazy people who don't do very much other than to make everyone around them miserable. But because of government multiplied by union, they are impossible to fire.
Our operators decided to fight for cell phones on the operating floor (super dangerous and also is time theft when they're supposed to be on the clock) and fought to take away overtime from temps instead of the things you mentioned
In my company the Union workers get 12 weeks maternity, 8 weeks paternity. The office workers get 4 for maternity, none for paternity, unless your spouse is hospitalized and then you get 1. Office gets 40 hours paid sick leave, Union gets 80. They can fire me tomorrow for no reason and it's my job to prove fault, they have to prove something for the union guys. You know why that is? Unions.
Some unions go off the rails. Most are decent to really good. It's when they run out of things to fight for they get a little crazy. One factory my dad did some contracting work the union was wanting to threaten strike over building a covered parking lot.
Gotta justify all that money the people are paying them.
I used to have to deal with union wage rates on construction projects. It always made my labor costs go up at least 1.5x. Sometimes 2x. The first estimate I did came in laughably low when things went to the contractors for bid. It wasn't a good look for me, but I wasn't aware at the time.
I spent 3 years at a non-union paper plant and have spent a month now at a union plant in richmond (don't want to disclose details).
The paper plant paid more, had a better relationship between management (our plant manager doubled as director of paper manufacturing for our company) and he would walk the floor every single day and had personal relationships with the operators and their families. The union facility has tremendous animosity where some operators still won't even speak to me.
Safety at my paper plant was audited internally a few times per year and externally once every 2 years. My current plant imo doesn't have adequate lockout/tag out or confined space programs.
The union is just a dividing wedge and doesn't do anything to make it better. It just protects the bad workers which is a shame because some of them are great. I'm confident that we could make money and also treat the workers (ones that deserve to work there) better than they are treated now
Ridiculous and Incessant Culture and Diversity Training: I don't care who you are, where you are from, what your sexual preference is, how you vote, who you love, what language you speak, what color your skin is......I want the most qualified person to have the job based on merit not on a need to be PC or look "caring" on a business ranking list.
People who continually dump their food in a sink that has no disposal where a sign is posted not to do so and then look surprised when the sink is clogged and the maintenance person has to come with a plunger........happens every single day
Thinking we are "agile" and being so very "waterfall"
People constantly use "net-net" or "synergies"
Oh, man, my organization is dealing with this right now. There's a huge shift to agile (scrum) for our major software project (some smaller projects have made the switch with a small subset of personnel), but we haven't developed the agile culture yet. But management is plowing forward with the large-scale development using SAFE. This thing is going to be a major shit-show.
Just wait til the chaos ensues after they reorg into the Spotify model where everyone has like 2 or 3 managers who think they are your boss but only one controls your review cycles.
Oh man I am there right now. I have my task lead. I have my career manager. I have my job leader who is pretty close to my task lead, but isn't my task lead. And on top of that we are encouraged to get multiple mentors on top of that!!
Eh, the next op model will get pushed just as soon as folks are getting the gist of the last one. That's been my experience.
Too many of the gripes from your post above sound familiar. I think I work there too :).
Congrats on the new gig.
You mean like how we currently have 2 chat systems, at least 2 conference call systems, having recently begun migrations over to new ones, and we're just now being told that a brand new migration to move everyone from what was new about a month ago to something even more new is going to be starting up later this summer?
Add to the list:
Individuals who ping you on both chat systems throughtout the day, or if you don't respond immeditately to one, they try the other.
How about the opposite: my hr lady was ragging on an employee (after he left) because of his religious choices. Totally inappropriate. I want to badmouth him because he's complete crap at his job but noooooo
When leadership allows persons who are know to be just taking up space to have any authorization responsibilities. In new job, and on my 6th week waiting for permissions to receive the equipment I need to do my job. Typically it is just a push of a button, why it takes so long, is beyond me.
This kills me. I'm in week 5 and still waiting for access to certain programs and folders
Ooooh, another one:
The person who always asks questions at the end of the meeting, but not good questions. You know the person: They're asking questions that have been answered during the meeting.
We have a guy who will very loudly interrupt people and say things like, "I'm sorry, but is this on the agenda" or "While that is interesting, I believe it is time for lunch".
He does this with managers, VPs, etc and somehow pulls it off without offending/annoying anyone. It is amazing to watch.
In a few of my meetings we have this one guy who always has to get a critical comment in. Very rarely is it something that's constructive. It's usually something asinine like that shade of green should be darker for the shading of that cell. Or when they say one thing one review, and then go back on it the next with font bolding chart axis titles. "Oh we (read: only me) can't really read that, it should be bolded." then next time "That is not appropriate to bold." Or why is the picture on that side and the text on the other?
Just fuck off if you don't have anything to say about the content every time and you just try to sound smart by always having something to say something about.
talk about how great clemson football is. even worse now...they used to be delusional, but now they are accurate.
At least you are around fans that have a good team. Try being around Terp fans all the time..............ugh.
Similar to what others said above - I hate the booming / loud-ass co-workers that talk as if our walls aren't known to be paper-thin. It could be to a co-worker on the phone (speaker or not), or someone in their office. I still close my door regardless.
Next on the list...Cubicles....They have no doors
When someone comes into my office and complains that it's just too cold in there, even though I have a separate thermostat that only controls the unit for my particular office.
When the owner of the company won't admit he's wrong and had a bad idea.
When the owner won't let a new strategy play out for more than 2 months and scraps the whole thing just as it's really getting implemented.
When management wants the monthly financial reports a week earlier than normal.
This topic speaks to me and gives me life.
How about when the gossipy coworker that is Better Than Everyone Else At Their Job that you keep on a strict info diet asks you if everything is okay because "you've seemed distant lately". 🙄 Yeah, it's because I'm trying to make some career moves that you aren't privy to because you are not my manager, even though you think you are, and as a result I've been driving all over the state on the company dime instead of being in the office and when I AM in the office, I'm playing catch up.
I also get annoyed when coworkers with less experience decide to question my decisions in a condescending way, and then get mad when I shut that down because fuck no. Related: when coworkers with considerably less responsibilities than me question what I do all day without even trying to understand all of the compliance bullshit that I have to go through every time I open an investment account or schedule an estate planning appointment. It's time consuming, and with damn good reason 😑
Sorry for the rant, it's been a rough day at work today 😒
Not washing hands after using the restroom. I'm not sure why this is difficult for some people.
Some people even walk straight out of the restroom after taking a dump in the next stall.
I've called people out for it before because it bugs me so much. One guy didn't get it. "I didn't pee on my hands," he said. So I asked him if it was cool if I rubbed my penis all over his keyboard and mouse. When he said that was gross, I had to actually point out the fact that the break room, door knobs, and everything else he touches in the office are now the peripherals in that illustration.
I'll do you one better.
Cupping their hands under the faucet and taking a drink right after taking a shit before they wash their hands. I see it happen almost daily.
here's the kicker.
Literally right outside the bathroom door are 2 water fountains. And just around the corner is a water/ice machine in case you want to fill up a cup. And in the break rooms is another water/ice machine alongside a filtered hot/cold/ambient regular or sparkling machine. All free.
This girl I knew in high school went to Friday's with me and a couple of my friends once. She asked for fajitas with no spice at all (Who the hell does that!?!). Anyway she gets her food takes a bite and starts fanning her mouth, and runs to the bathroom. I tried the food and it wasn't spicy at all.
She returns to the table. Her friend that went with her to the bathroom proceeds to tell us that she filled the TGI Friday's sink up with water and slurped the water from the PUBLIC sink into her mouth.
Everyone at the table was disgusted beyond belief.
I wouldn't do that in my own sink, let alone a sink in the Friday's restroom.
Also, I can't trust anyone who drinks like a horse.
Except HOAT...
I could be lead to the sink but you cannot make me drink out of it.
Though if I chose to drink out of it on my equine recognizance that would be my disgusting, disgusting choice
MISTAKE
...I work there, too.
Unrealistic expectations
https://youtu.be/BKorP55Aqvg
Bad: person that uses reply all on an email clearly sent out to a huge distribution list.
Worst: people begin to follow suit because the first person did it.
Then the people replying all to tell people not to reply all.
And then the people replying all to point out the person who replied all to tell people not to reply all, was in fact guilty of replying all as well...
Then there are those people that reply to the reply all with "I don't understand why I am getting this - please remove me from the list" when the original email went to the All Corporate DL.
True but the senders really need to learn to use blind carbon copy too.
Best part is, by the time the 5th person sends a "reply all" reminding everyone not to reply to the email, the email server has crashed and no other messages will get through for the next couple hours.
We treat that as an intelligence test, and the mid-level managers will beat up other managers that have employees that continue respond to the reply all. Thank God my team is intelligent enough not to respond.
Last month at my work, everyone received an email from the Help Desk about an outage on a certain system, saying they were working on it, etc. Several idiots replied all listing their ID and password asking for help.
Lack of accountability which at my company, usually means:
1. Not doing your job
2. Leaning on me to tell you how do to your job
3. Not doing your job after I've shown you what to do (even drawing diagrams)
4. Not responding to the customer even when I've sent you an internal only email explaining what's going on and having an in person chat to discuss
General BS, which to me is:
1. Saying that you're overworked, yet you are able to show up late, take extremely long lunches, socialize for hours, and leave early when you see other people working their asses off (directed at those who only "work" while physically in the office)
2. Not getting to the freaking point. There are many times I'm looking for a straight answer instead of a 10 minute spiel that means very little.
3. Taking advantage of other's kindness/willingness to go the extra mile.
Maybe I just have extremely high expectations or care more about doing a good job than I should, but I've always had the #whateverittakes mindset. Not sure if there are many companies where most are a pleasure to work with, but I'm thankful for the few awesome people I do work with.
How about when you're a subcontractor doing the same work as the rest of the engineering team. But, they don't give you access to the shared drive. Fine, but what documents do I need? Why won't they tell me until it's too late? And when they're updated, why don't they send them to me - even after I ask for them? How am I supposed to do my job? They are paying hourly for me to work. If you don't keep me in the loop you're just wasting your money.
My motto when I was a contractor: "give em what they want til they stop wanting it". It was frustrating but as long as I communicated clearly and in writing what I needed to do my job, I let them decide how efficiently I could do it. Seems like a shitty approach but every single company I contracted for tried to hire me in full time so I must have been doing something right (and they wanted me to keep doing it for less)
That has been my approach as well. It's just stupid and frustrating that I can't do my job very efficiently. It took me over 6 months to get a license for a modelling software that they told me I had to use.
I also work for a different company that is the sub on a large scale contract. But, I'm the only one working as a sub in this group.
This will be a fun experiment. How do y'all feel about SharePoint? Whenever I see shared drives mentioned I cringe and think SharePoint should be used. However I know there is a general disdain for the program. (Its really not so bad once you've got around the mile wide learning curve I swear!!! /s, kinda)
I haven't been given access to their company SharePoint either. I'd be fine with that, but anytime I ask for access to anything for their company they get all freaked out about security. They are really paranoid because I work for a competing company even though my company is the sub on the contract.
Hearing they're freaked out about any access just shows a general misunderstanding about permissions/knowledge management. Create your spaces, designate your permissions, assign an admin, calm tf down. I feel your pain.
When they select the cuttlefish & asparagus after specifically instructing that they choose the vanilla pesto.
1. People attempting to lump themselves into a group when credit is being given for work they had nothing to do with.
1a. Those same people offering opinions or asking idiotic questions about the work that "we" are doing.
1b. Having the nerve to "counsel" me for being curt when answering dumb questions while I'm in the middle of working, rather than taking the time to fully explain things to them, as if I am required to do so.
1c. Jumping into conversations that don't concern them and immediately undermining people's efforts to shut down the good idea fairy.,
2. Pointless, nonsensical optimism which flies in the face of available facts and trends.
3. Making shitty coffee. You're not supposed to use equal parts grounds and water and then burn the hell out of it.
4. People being selectively offended and weaponizing Equal Opportunity policies to the point that no one wants to risk their career to fix shitty behavior.
4a. Snowflake culture making its way into the military. There are legitimate grievances, and then there's whining because the world doesn't revolve around your individual whims. I'm not conflating the two. We kill people for a living, and there's no place for that bullshit. If you don't like or agree with how we do business, don't fucking sign up.
I couldn't tell you why, but the phrase "pointless, nonsensical optimism" has me rolling. Leg
Read receipts on every email a person sends.
Excessive use of exclamation points in emails.
Too much spray in the bathroom. You know what smells worse than that giant shit you just took? A floral scented version of the shit you just took.
Separating the plies of the John Wayne toilet paper, so that the perforations don't align.
Leaving food in the fridge forever.
Putting an entire pack of sodas in an already crowded fridge. Just keep the pack at your desk and put them in the fridge as needed.
Singing one or two lines of a song as you walk through the office. It's always the same two lines. Every day.
Vegan/vegetarian/organic food pushing in the office is obnoxious.
The people who always have a virus, but can't figure out why it's always them. But also will click anything they see shared on Facebook.
Creating new office policies that no one will ever follow, just for the sake of creating new policies. Oh and to make it look like you're in charge.
I decided years ago that my own personal policy was to never send the read receipt, unless it was an email from my umbrella within the chain of command. Never had a problem with it at either of the two companies I worked for where I encountered serial read-receipt requestors.
As for the sodas thing, I had my soda thrown out multiple times because I always put it in the same exact spot in the fridge and would put a new one into the spot vacated by the one I was taking out. First couple times I thought someone was drinking it, so I picked a new spot towards the back, hidden by other stuff, but finally caught someone in the act of a weekly fridge purge and tried to explain that (A) sodas don't go bad after only a couple weeks ("doesn't matter, company policy says anything in the fridge longer than a week has to get thrown out"), and (B) just because two cans look the same doesn't mean they're the same can ("how am I supposed to tell if that can has been there for one day or one month"). Asshole wanted me to label each can, but I just made a new sticky note every Wednesday and left it in the fridge.
People who steal other people's food from the refrigerator.
I was gonna say "exist," but I see that was already covered. So I'll just settle for not doing their job and forcing me to carry them.
When someone comes into the bathroom while you are evacuating that breakfast sandwich and you give the gentleman's throat clear so they know you are in there. They take that as a the green light to take the stall next to you start a conversation with you about how their day is going.
-Offering to learn someone else's responsibilities in an attempt to cross-train in case of emergency, then getting stuck with it because I'm quicker at it
-Drinking soda all day then complaining that they're burnt out or tired (we work outside a bit)
-Having zero grasp on the field in which they work but rambling off some snippet of conversation they heard in the past
-Playing nose goes on answering the phone every time it rings
-Shit talking certain customers to other customers, shit talking other employees, or shit talking to me in general
-General incompetency from upper management (I know they're not direct coworkers)
People that show up for the celebration lunch even though they had nothing to do with the project.
Yeah don't care if this makes you hate me if there's free food involved and I can wiggle my way into there I'm taking the opportunity. I'll by no means take any credit for anything and stay out of the way but getting that food.
Actually this just reminded me of last week. The interns had just started and were doing their orientation that ended in lunch. I keep a pretty low profile in the office so when I heard they were having a catered lunch in the meeting room I scooted on in looking young enough to be an intern, got in line, went back to my desk and ate.
And since this just happened today - people who schedule unnecessary meetings late on Friday afternoon!
My two biggest pet peeves:
Bragging about how innovative we are when we are at least a decade behind technologically, then shouting down anyone who raises the point that we are behind.
A coworker who rarely contributes to group projects and miraculously always has personal emails that she has to get to despite having a super small population she works with.
The straw that broke the camel's back for me with working for somebody else was my last boss causing project's to go tits up, pissing off clients and wreaking havoc on my P&Ls and then saying it's ultimately my responsibility to make sure every project is successful. I raised it with the regional manager and corporate and told them if I am 100% responsible then I'm not working under him or anyone else. I decide what happens and all the "help" can fuck off.
We couldn't come to terms so I walked with 80% of the clients and half the team.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Goes both ways.
Constant, continuous cropdusting.
Over promise and under deliver - just because you said that we'd deliver this assessment to the client tomorrow morning and you have no clue how to complete it, doesn't mean I should have to stay until midnight to review, re-do and finalize your material.
Followed closely by folks that can't estimate effort for shit and expect thing to just happen. I've worked on this project with this client for 5 years - I might have some insight as to how long this would take but when you tell everyone that we can get things done in 1-2 days and you mean that your 1st draft might be done in that time and no one else on the project will have seen the analysis - yeah - I'm gonna have a problem, especially when you shouldn't be promising anything to the client since I'm your frickin team lead.
Reading all of the accounts of nutty, inconsiderate co-workers makes me very thankful that I'm an only-employee.
It's been a while since I was at a company with sales guys but people talking on their cellphones while in the bathroom. It was always the sales guys. I was always trying to be loud, flush in the middle of their conversations, etc. You know you're really boned as a client when the sales guys isn't worried about losing you because they are taking a hit with you on the phone.
Damn, I've been using the work bathroom wrong this whole time!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned the One Upper yet. You know the one.... are you a lil foggy because you didnt sleep well last night because your allergies are acting up after you mowed the lawn? Well this guy hasnt slept more than two consecutive hours since he contracted west nile while installing his self-designed automated garden irrigation system back in '97
Fucking toppers...
Oh good lord yes. The ones who make any and everything a contest
Oh please, let me tell you about the story topper in my life...
Oh god, I have one of the worst one-uppers I've ever met on my team.
This particular clown attempted to 1-up the conversation when someone asked and I confirmed that I was at VT during the shooting. Everyone just looked at him like "are you fucking serious right now?" I'm really, really curious to see his attempt if I ever tell him that a couple months before I took this job I lived in an apt where, across the hall my neighbor killed and dismembered his ex girlfriend, drove to Texas, and dumped her body in a creek. (I'll never forget the smell... ever...)
He's also a notorious bullshitter. You can't trust a thing he says because its always bullshit. Nowadays he spends all day whining and complaining that he isn't moving up the corporate ladder fast enough, and I'm sitting here going "nobody trusts you at all, and you're surprised by this?"
People lie to me every damn second of the day.
On Monday, I was told a client wanted to make a candidate an offer. I called him asked him what range of pay he would like. He told me $90 to $100k. I knew the client wanted to make a $95k offer. I ask if I get you $95k + truck and xyz benefits, would you accept the position, and he said yes I would. I also asked if he had any other interview activity going on and he said no. He has some minor questions that he wants answered. This is all at 4 PM on Monday.
I go tell my manager, and the questions he needs answered, and the client doesn't get back to us until around 11 AM on Tuesday. I present the offer to him with the questions he had answered satisfactory (which at this point my manager accepted, I wouldn't have wanted him too, but he did so after reading the note that said he would accept the $95k from my convo the day before), and he says he can't accept because he has 2 more interviews scheduled and one is because a friend forced the issue.
I tell him he has until tomorrow morning (now) to accept this offer, as an offer is like proposing to a girlfriend. The longer its out there, and the longer you wait, the more awkward the guy proposing feels. He tells me he is going to cancel the second interview as it was like a backup backup plan., but he is still going to the interview his friend set him up at 4 PM because he didn't want to cancel the interview on such short notice. I asked if he felt like they would be giving him an offer after 1 interview, and he said no. I said, "Then why waste their time?" He says good point, but he is still going at 4PM. At this point, I tell him, I'm going to call you after this 4PM interview and see how that went and I need an answer by tomorrow morning as the client has other candidates that are interested in the position and they have to move on if your not interested.
Fast forward to last night, I called him around 6 as sometimes the type of interview he went on take up to 2 hrs., and he doesn't answer. I knew at that point this was probably going south. I called him first thing this morning, and he doesn't answer again. Before this he was very responsive, and would answer my calls right away. I don't need to even talk to him at this point as I know this deal is dead.
Yeah man, head hunters are the worst. :-P
I had one who asked me what I wanted to make and kept pressuring to see what my minimum was. I gave ground and said "if it comes down to it I guess I could take as low as..."
The company offers my minimum and the recruiter pressured me to accept so I did. Fast forward six months and I'm talking to my boss and he mentions that there was no negotiation. The recruiter told them "what I wanted" and they were more than happy to pay it. Next day I ask for, and get, a $10K raise.
Now that I'm the boss whenever that recruiter calls, I tell them to fuck off.
In all seriousness, there are shitheads on both sides of recruiting, for sure.
If he said he needed $100k, I would have gone and told the client this isn't going to happen if you offer him $100k. That's why I have that conversation in the first place. Too make the process as smooth as possible, so that when I present something to someone they are going to want to accept it. I have no problem doing that because there is no point of jumping through the hoops if you are going to deflate the candidate with an offer in an uber competitive market.
On a side note, don't be an asshole to any headhunter that calls you. Look, if I get an uninterested person on the phone I understand. I won't waste anymore time. I do my job and that is unfortunately to cold call at some points, and plenty of people don't want to talk to me, but are pretty nice and polite about it. We get it if we are on the other side of the phone. No reason to get nasty with us.
I'm polite to people cold calling me for job opportunities. I get that they have to do that. I even took the time to educate a recruiter who was trying to get me to switch to another company in town. This company is notorious for burning through engineers to the point where I constantly get resumes from their employees and almost all their new employees are from out of town. I told the recruiter this and he said "oh I'm sorry. I had no idea. I'm based out of Illinois..."
Anyway, to my original point, if I'm looking to hire someone, I refuse to do business with people that I know for a fact have a history of not being honest to either party (job seeker or employer).
Yeah there are definitely shitty recruiters out there. I always tell the people that I am working with that I require complete and full transparency, as I give that to everyone I work with. Otherwise you risk your reputation. The more honesty the better. They are some idiots out there that just find resumes and send them without asking candidates permission and that's just not good business at all.
HokieEnginerd had dealt with a recriter who is borderline stalker level. Dude called the house number and I randomly answered the phone (I don't usually answer if I don't recognize the name or number). I told him that HE wasn't home and offered to take a message. He then called HE on his cell. When he didn't answer, he sent this crazy email. I halfway expected the guy to show up outside with a boombox a la Say Anything.
About a decade ago, I got a call from a headhunter with an open position in my industry. It was serendipitous as the contract I was on was ending in a couple of weeks and I didn't have anything else lined up. So I tell her I'm interested and she says if I get you x, would that work. I told her I felt it was low, but I'd consider it as I needed to find something. She sets up the interview and I do well and expected to get an offer.
In the meantime, 2 things happened - first a close friend that worked for the company I interviewed with texted and said he heard I had interviewed. I replied that I had and asked if he minded telling me what they were paying him as the number I heard was low. His offer the previous year was nearly 35k more than the amount the recruiter said she could get for me. I had more experience and frankly, had more ability than my friend.
Next, I reminded the company I was under contract with that my contract was expiring and I needed to wrap things up. They went into panic mode and came back the next day with an extension, raise and bonus.
The next morning the recruiter called and said the company I interviewed with wanted me and could I start in 2 weeks. I told her no, explained I discovered I was being low-balled and she flipped out on me. In the years since, and now that I'm in management, I refuse to deal with that agency when looking for talent. The owner of the recruiting agency called me once asking to meet up to discuss my refusal to deal with them. So I did and told him exactly why.
You weren't being low balled and I'll explain why. Whatever company you interviewed with had some sort of a set budget for the position they were hiring. Let's say 135k.
Headhunters work for free, and don't get paid until you are on the job for a set amount of time. They make a percentage off of the base salary you get offered. Depending on the job you are trying to fill, sometimes it takes months to find the right skill set. Unless you have them on some kind of retainer.
So let's say my fee is 35% (this is extremely high, but just easy to use for example case), some companies are just going to tell the headhunter that the highest they will go is $100k, so that they don't go over said budget.
Now if the company had found you themselves, they would have been able to offer you more than $100k because they did it themselves.
The recruiter is just working within the pay parameters that have been presented to them and the company is relaying what they said they wanted to offer. Now if you told me that story about your friend and what they said, I would have tried to go back and make them up the offer and just see what happens.
Yeah I was going to say, as far as my experience with recruiters it benefits them to get a person in at the highest possible salary because their compensation from filling that position is generally based on the salary. There's no real reason for a recruiter to low ball anyone.
I didn't even think about what you just said, but this is dead on. It's in my best interest to get my candidate the best salary I can actually get.
I wasn't saying the recruiter was low-balling me, the hiring company certainly was. I told her that I knew what the company was paying others and that I was worth the same, if not more. Either way, there was no need for that level of anger and shouting simply because I declined a position.
Yeah this happens too often right now. Some companies just don't get it. Some companies get that it's a cost of inflation right now, if you are going to make an offer it better be a good one. There is absolutely nothing worse then getting a candidate an offer and knowing that it just isn't going to excite them. It's a sure turn-down from the start. So much effort goes into getting anyone an offer. It's just not worth it to fumble it on the goal line.
As a recruiter myself, I can tell you that it's on of the most emotionally draining jobs. So much time and effort goes into what I do. So much rejection on a daily basis. So much gratitude and excitement when you get someone their dream jobs, and so much disappointment when an offer is turned down.
I have seen people lose it on candidates, and it's just not a good look. The thing that kills me all the time is people lie to me instead of just being truthful. I'm truthful the entire time because it does me no good not to be. The clearer more accurate picture I portray the better the process will run. So when someone is clearly lying to me, and ghost me it really gets under my skin. Instead of just telling me whats going on they are being cowards and hiding behind blatantly obvious lies. It's really infuriating because your bending over backwards to try this help this person and sometimes its just not reciprocated.
Clearly you get it. I took all her calls, never ghosted, told her exactly why I was declining it and never blamed her. I simply explained that I knew the pay scale for others in the same job and that I believed I was being low balled. She didn't offer to go back and try to see if more was available, she just went from 0 to 100 in a flash and started screaming at me for wasting her time, etc.
When I met with the agency owner, I explained all of this and said I would never work with his agency. Maybe it's short-sighted, and maybe (probably) I'm holding a grudge, but I'm not going to reward a company who thinks yelling at candidates is ok.
That's still low-balling.... just because the company can't afford to pay someone what they're worth doesn't mean that company's offer is exempt from being considered a low-ball offer.
Agree that it was the company doing the low balling and Moogy gets that. It wasn't the recruiter doing the low-balling that's all I'm saying, and Moogy gets that as well.
The recruiter shouldn't have flipped out and that's the bottom line. You never know when that candidate is going to be in a hiring seat or come back looking for help for a new job. If you do what this guy did in this situation, you'll never hear from the candidate again. The emotional ups and downs of the job make this really hard, but you have to keep composure.
Standing to work at their desk with 4 monitors to look at excel sheets... as if that is burning more calories or some nonsense.
Burning calories? No.
Helping with circulation? Abso-fucking-lutely.
Standing desks prevent back injuries and shoulder, neck injuries. They also help with circulation of blood. Your heart works overtime when you sit.
what a joke
I'd kill for a standing desk right now. I threw my back out over a year ago, I have not been the same since. My company won't pony up to help me and I have given them a doctors note that states that I need one to help with the recovery.
I was looking into buying a VeriDesk (*spelling?) myself when my office actually sprung for knockoffs from Staples. VeriDesks are pretty damned expensive. The knockoffs are much less so. I would look into it if they won't cover it. They are a gamechanger.
I got my standing desk for about 160 off Amazon because I didn't want to pay for the VariDesk. Its been good so far. I rotate between standing and sitting. Also get an anti fatigue mat to stand on
This is the problem. They cost so much, and by law my company should provide one, but they won't I just don't have any extra coin to go and purchase something for 160 bucks plus another item.
Your other option is to get a small table to put your monitors up on. One of my coworkers did that and he stands full time. He seems to like it
Hey, multiple monitors are the bomb.
blaming software for user error. We use a CAD program here that is less common in the US (our German branch started using it and we adopted it when we upgraded from stone age CAD). It's designed like older CAD programs in that all the features are there for your to choose from, but they don't streamline at all (put the most common features up front and make you dig for uncommon ones). Customer support boils down to, "well when you become an expert, the software can be very efficient" instead of "you're right, we should make that easier to find/use."
Anyway, I complain about the software a lot, but at the end of the day, I have to do my job and the software lets me do that. Certain other individuals hear my complaining and take that as license to blame the software for their screw ups. Yes, the software crashed erasing 2 days worth of work, but that's because a) you haven't saved in 2 days and b) you ignored every best practice in the book in your modelling and your assigning of constraints where even a super computer would have struggled to keep up. This is not a software problem, this is a you problem.
Another one I hear is "I had to fight the software all day to get this done." It's a 20 minute task with good software. It's a 25-30 minute job with our software. If 30 minutes balloons into a day, then you're doing something wrong. Multiple times, I've had tasks that absolutely had to be out by a certain time and I've given people about 5 times what I think it should take. 45 minutes before its due, I'm informed that they don't think they'll make the cutoff. I'm sure it's bad management, but I usually just take over the task, crank it out and meet the deadline.
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