I have another really petty rant, but it’s driving me batshit crazy.
Family, we own a finite number of towels, and when I have to wash a load of towels every fucking day before I can shower, y’all are using far too many towels. You don’t need a 72” towel to dry your hair, ok? And stop leaving a pile of damp towels in the corner of your bedroom, because I shouldn’t have to search the entire house to find all the luxurious bath towels I just bought, so that I can wash and dry them so I can finally take a shower!
In a way, I shouldn’t bitch, because someone actually did wash two towels. White ones, with a load of dark clothes. Now they’re the grey towels.
All I ask is that they toss the towels in the laundry, and I’ll wash, dry, fold, and put away. How difficult is that? I swear, other people argue about money, or infidelity, or somewhat significant issues, and we’re here having issues about towels and laundry?
Yes, I am a receptionist. Yes, before this, I was a waitress. But I do not, and did not, do these jobs because I’m too stupid to do anything else. When I call you to ask for clarification on your cheque requisite, it isn’t because I’m too stupid to figure it out myself. It’s because you were too stupid to make it clear, and I’m trying to save your ass from possible error.
So please, PLEASE don’t speak to me in a condescending voice. Please do not get snippy with me and tell me you don’t have the time for this. Fact: I am an honours graduate from one of the top universities in this country. I am only doing this job because it is a hassle-free stepping stone while I pursue what I REALLY want to do. I am, by all indications, way, WAY smarter than you. So when you act like an ass-face, I immediately start thinking of ways I can make your life a living hell without you ever being able to blame me for it. And if you continue to act like you are better than me because you aren’t a receptionist, I will be forced to find a way to spit in your coffee cup every single morning, and replace your sugar with salt.
To a local rock radio station (which, for the purposes of this post, I will call CRUD 89.9):
Please stop working the word “rock” into absolutely everything your announcers say. We all know you are a rock station; you state it during every station ID: “You’re listening to CRUD 89.9, Calgary’s best rock.” That’s fine. But IMHO, there is no need for your announcers to follow that with things like the following:
“Just a reminder to our CRUD Rock Patrol members that they can earn a bonus of 250 Rock Reward points by going online and filling out our Rock Listener survey. Coming up, we’ll play some Rock Talk with the ninth caller; and then get into a thirty-minute, commercial-free Rock Ride. The classic rock you want; the new rock you need; this is CRUD 89.9, Calgary’s best rock.”
We listen to this station at work, and after about two hours, the repetition of “rock” in every possible way becomes really tiresome. Good thing we’re working and not playing a drinking game based on taking a drink every time “rock” is said–nobody would last past a half-hour, tops.
Actually, I could accept this; because, presumably, you’d be doing it with good faith intentions and not necessarily capatalizing on someone else’s ideals or success.
If I ever get tempted to meet another guy advertising for dating on Craigslist, may a bolt of lightning come up through my keyboard and fry my fingers!
Why do you care about my pants? If one more person informs me that I should be wearing shorts, I swear I’m going to scream. I know it’s hot. I put on jeans on purpose. My legs have no bug bites, no scratches, and no sunburn. I’m happy in long pants, and I don’t like wearing shorts. Leave me alone!
And you! On the motorcycles! I know it’s beautiful country for sightseeing out here, but if you’re going 45 in a 70 zone, then either clump up enough that I can pass all of you at once, or spread out enough that I can pass you one or two at a time. Don’t space yourselves just right so I have to follow you through 10 miles of mountain roads at 2/3 of the speed limit and end up late for work!
Since the rule in this country is “drive/walk/bike/ride/whatever to the right,” perhaps you should have invested just a hair more time in your dog’s training and taught it to stay on whichever side you tell it to. My dogs grokked this concept very quickly. If I put you on the left, stay on the left. If I put you on the right, stay on the right.
“Throw away”? You can’t possibly be referring to the old wives’ tale that a purebred bred with a mutt is no longer a purebred? You’re not throwing the purebred away. Just breed it with a more appropriate dog next time.
Once again, I need to pit Calgary’s employers. We are undergoing a massive employee shortage here - judging from the classifieds I’m looking at, there are literally hundreds of companies trying to fill crucial administrative positions. Offering the same salaries that you have been offering for the last 15 years IS NOT CUTTING IT ANY MORE. Wake up, give your heads a shake, and start trying to understand that it is not an employer’s market here any more. I think when I start looking for a new job and doing salary negotiations, you might be surprised at what I’m gonna ask for.
Si-i-igh. There’s 5 people rostered onto our queue today. It’s a Sunday. Not terribly busy. But one guy had to turn up at 07:30 because of the shift swap he did, and so he’s gone about an hour ago now. One guy didn’t turn up because he had a car accident. The third guy didn’t turn up for god only knows what reason (even though he swapped a shift to get onto today’s roster). So there’s 2 of us holding down the queue. There’s only 7 people waiting but it’s a 29 minute wait. Earlier it was up to 55 minutes. Each twenty minute call is being compounded by the fact that everyone wants to complain about how long it took for them to get through, which then means the next guy in line has to wait even longer!
Blah on the people who write the rosters and don’t actually work on the phones or on weekends or any time outside 9-5 mon-fri. Assholes.
I don’t want to hijack the thread, and obviously this has nothing to do with you, but from a starving-student perspective, what’s the minimum wage up there? 5.15 USD/hr is the federal one here, but some states where the cost of living (and the Democrat percentage of the populace) is higher, like the great state of California, have higher minimums. Is this how it works in Canada–there’s an absolute minimum across the nation, and provinces can mandate more within their borders? Do the province/national minimum wage numbers get updated with any regularity? It’s been 5.15 here for quite a while, and that’s a pretty damn unrealistic number IMO.
Why do you need an infection in July? Mr.stretch is 46 years old, and thinks he should be past these surprise infections–he hasn’t even got to go swimming yet. And to rupture in the middle of the night! And now, 6 days later, still draining and making the man miserable. You are not a very nice ear and after all of this trauma you not going to work right. Poor mr.stretch–he enjoyed hearing things. If you weren’t attached to him, I’d say you deserve what you are getting.
Stupid ear!
and to piggyback on Carlyjay’s post…
To Whom It May Concern (and you know who you are):
Don’t treat your support staff like shit. There are many small yet meaningful ways to retaliate, and you haven’t begun to see them all. Bwahahahahaha!
This is something I’ve never been able to fathom. It’s a very simple concept, really: if you’re nice to your employees, they will work harder and work with a smile. It doesn’t take all that much effort to be nice.
I was hired the when they opened a brand-new Bib Box Store. They hired 500 employees when they opened the store. When I finally could take the abuse no longer and quit less than eight months later, there were less than two dozen of their original hires left.
I overheard the managers talking about it once in tones of confusion: why was their turnover so high? If I’d been a bit braver, I might have gone over and said, “Perhaps it’s because you treat your employees like they’re scum. Ever consider that?” I mean, for chrissakes, we actually had to threaten to sue to be allowed to go to the bathroom!
Here in Canada, the provinces set their own minimum wages–the federal government has nothing to do with it. Minimum wages can and do vary between provinces.
Currently in Alberta, the minimum wage is $7.00 an hour, which is also a pretty unrealistic number. (See a list of all provincial minimums here.) But in Alberta, we’re experiencing a huge employment boom–it’s the oil and gas industry that is attracting a lot of people. Why work at, say, McDonald’s, for minimum wage when you can work in the oilfields for $30 or $40 an hour? So places like McDonald’s (and other places that traditionally pay minimum wage) are losing people to the oilpatch. They end up advertising like mad for people, partly by offering above-the-minimum wages. It is not unusual here in Calgary, for example, to see a roadside sign outside a factory or warehouse saying something like “General Help Needed: $14/hour to start, $1000 bonus after 1000 hours,” or similar.
This is, I think, what featherlou is referring to–that fact that some places are desperate for people, and are willing to pay for them, while others are paying what they always have, and wondering why they are not attracting more people.
I once worked for a smallish big-box type of place. They brought in a new manager who instituted a bunch of inane new policies, one of which was that we had to ask for permission to leave the sales floor to go to the bathroom.
I had no problem with letting a supervisor know where I was going, i.e., “Hey, I’m gonna run to to the bathroom, I’ll be right back” but there was no way in hell I was going to ask for permission to pee. :rolleyes:
