Buying fucking pizza does not make up for the fact that we are working through lunch

The BBQ Pit
41

I may be new to this forum but I have been online for over twelve years. I don’t see how recently someone has been on this particular forum makes their opinion less valid than someone else as techie said about one of the other posters. I also don’t see what was wrong with techies response to me. I thought it was very lame but hardly inappropriate. Clearly there is a lot of history between some of you of which I am ignorant. I don’t take this stuff that seriously. It’s supposed to be fun. Isn’t that what Cecil would want.

Back to my original post: Here is where I disagree with you, techie. I do not think that it is fair to give me pizza as tradeoff for an hour of my free time. That being the case, it shouldn’t be stated that it is a fair tradeoff. Because it’s not. That’s what happened yesterday and it annoyed me. I posted about it because I thought that it would be funny and I wanted to blow off a little steam. It’s an inequality albeit a very, very minor one. There are worse inequalities in life. Hell, there are worse inequalities in my life. You think I don’t know how good I have it? I’ve been all over the world and I know how some people have to live. If you think that I’m at all feeling sorry for myself over this you are not even fucking close to the truth.

We had a thread in here about sweat pants strings. It was hilarious. Why go in there and spoil it by saying, “yeah well some people don’t even have clothes?” What about the thread where there were complaints about having to stand on the bus while someone’s briefcase was on a seat? “Be glad that you have legs.” C’mon, it’s supposed to be fun. I was hoping that people would share some funny similar stories. That’s all. Do you really think that I haven’t figured out that I could ask the boss to supply sandwhiches instead? Sheesh.

Haj

42

Hey, Haj, you do realize that if your boss had the sushi you wanted, most of the other people at these meetings would be in the Pit (metaphorically, I don’t think everyone at your company posts here) bitching about how their boss think crappy sushi (and it would be… if he was going to spend real money it would be good pizza) is a legitimate trade for their time. More people like pizza than sushi. Having minority tastes sucks sometimes. (I garauntee there will be a bunch of people yelling at me that they prefer sushi to pizza. I’d give my left arm for people to understand statistics.)

magdalene, you fucked up that Shakespeare quote way back there. It’s
Do you bite your thumb at me?
I do bite my thumb, sir.

The whole freaking point of that scene is, he won’t say who he’s biting his thumb at. If he did, the other guy would have justification to cut him down where he stood.

–John

43

I am with you there 100%, Brother.

Haj

44

And I am with you 110%. :smiley:

God DAMN! I’ve been waiting for a setup like that all freaking month!

45

First of all, what Magdalene said ! :wink:

Second of all. A short day for me is in at 7am, out at 6pm. A long day? Try a 6am call with a first meal at 2pm, then work till 11pm. At which time, if we are VERY lucky, we will be told to stop work and sit down to a second hot meal. If not, pizza boxes galore. Usually cold and well picked-over by the lazy-assed office types sitting in the Winnebagos while we are out there doing the real work. Then, you keep working. Work till…let’s say it’s an EASY music video, so we finish at 3am. Gee, that’s 21 HOURS at work, with not really but almost 2 hours off for what may or may not be a hot meal.

I love my job, I live for it. It makes me feel alive and every day I get to do it, I am happy. Having said that? KWICHERBITCHIN’, Hajario. Nobody has a lot of sympathy for someone who A)Works inside B) works more or less normal hours. <Oh, gasp, you had to work from 9:15m AAALLLL the way to the wicked-assed hour of 6:45pm? Oh, widdy piddy pooby, let me buy you a motherfucking Lowenbrau and some mozarella sticks for your backbreaking fucking efforts>. C)Has the financial wherewithal to actually PLAN your own lunch. Here’s what I mean by that last one.

I get paid really really fucking outrageously well for what I do, when I’m lucky enough to get work. I mean WELL. Doesn’t mean much over the year, but as a day rate? Wahoo. So, I have the control over my life enough to decide, fuck you cupcake I don’t EAT Domino’s. Actually I do not eat pizza when at work. It makes me sick. Most days when they come in at midnight with a stack of boxes, I hightail it to my car for a nap. But, that’s besides the point. The point is that you are in a position to ORDER SOME FUCKING SUSHI at 11:00am, and have it delivered. Therefore avoiding the entire issue :smiley:

I can understand resenting long hours with no food compensation. I cannot tolerate that kind of whine when it’s almost entirely without merit. As said up there, you try working a 21 hour fucking day ( and yeah, I’ve got more 24-hour-days on the clock under my belt than you can imagine). If you did, as you say, work your way through college, then how can you possibly even think to whine now? Get a little perspective.

Skip lunch, and donate the $ 35.00 from the lost sushi to a homeless shelter. Do your belly and heart some good.

And, what Magdalene said !!!

Cartooniverse

46

I think we should order pizza in for this thread.

47

But he’s NOT in that position. The OP clearly said the meetings were called at the last minute. Why would he order sushi at 11 am and have it delivered, when he already has plans to pick up his dry-cleaning, stop by the drug store to refill his allergy medication, and grab a sandwich?

I support and appreciate the rant. It feels like the ol’ bait and switch. We all make career choices for a reason, in a perfect world they would all be based on aptitude and interest. In the real world, you get to factor in things like location, education, compensation, a good dental plan, the fact that you need to leave on Fridays at 5 pm sharp to pick up your kids.

You try working a 21 hour day, you said. Well, you chose a career where that is the norm. I hope there are things about it that are really satisfying to you. Maybe it’s creative work. Maybe it’s the paycheck. Maybe it’s that you don’t have to wear a suit and tie. All lines of work have pros and cons – you get to know what they are, and how they play out for you personally.

The creative aspect (or lack of, actually) of my job isn’t a big issue for me, but because of my own priorities, I really need that one hour per day in order to take care of the business of my life. Heck, maybe I don’t need it, maybe I just like it. I don’t have to justify it. But it’s one of the things that got factored into my selection of work. So if I have a job where I am given a lunch hour, but then I don’t actually get a lunch hour, I expect to be compensated for it in some way. That compensation doesn’t even have to be cold hard cash. It could simply be the courtesy to announce the meeting schedule at the beginning of the week, so I can make plans appropriately.

Can’t sympathize on the pizza though. This thread is making me want some pizza right now. I’ll just try to imagine how I would feel if I walked into my next lunch meeting and saw a big sushi buffet.

48

Insensitive baboon! You think you can soothe the hard feelings and harsh words of this thread with a lousy free pizza?

Well, heck, if yer buying. Pepperoni and mushroom, please.

49

Around here, if there is any food left over from a meeting (pizza, donuts, sandwiches, heck, even a vegetable plate), folks (me included) are on it like jackals on a wildebeest.

[Homer voice] WOOHOO! Free food!! [/Homer voice]

Still, I think scheduling work during MY lunch break is shitty. It’s an imposition on me that I consider outside my agreed work responsibilities.

[sub]Techchick: Nice drama queen action. Adjust yer medication, you’re gonna bust a blood vessel there.

50

Techchick wrote:

“Look, this is the the Pit. It may not be the same Pit I knew from a year ago but what bothers me is that I am looking like the bad person for saying my opinion here based on his/her opinion in the OP and subsequent people that don’t like it if I speak up to begin with. I didn’t flame, I didn’t berate, I stated my opinion. I don’t get it”

Y’know, opinions are like assholes. Just 'cause you have one doesn’t mean you have to go around showing it to everybody.

See, you only get half of it right. Yeah, you got a right to your opinion. But if your opinion is offensive, or rude, or simply stupid, everyone else has the right to tell you so. Bottom line, if you act like a jerk, don’t pretend to be surprised when people act like jerks right back at you.

51

Being salaried I don’t get a “lunch time”. I can take my lunch whenever I want and for as long as I want. Hell, I don’t even have to come in and nobody would notice as long as I meet deadlines.

That said I NEVER get a lunch break. Maybe once a week I’ll go eat out with a co-worker but it is to discuss lunch.

So, I try to schedule lunch meetings as often as possible. The joyous part is that since I called the meeting I get to buy the food (on company money) and am guaranteed to have something I want to eat.

Taco bar, Specialty’s sandwiches, sushi, pasta bar, but never pizza. Combine this with the free snack food in the kitchen and I’ve gone weeks without having to buy my own food.

My suggestion is tell your boss that you don’t want lunch meetings, and that if they are absolutely necessary you want really good pizza.

Now let’s see if my mere presence in this thread sets TC off.

52

You are a wise and brilliant creature who deserves special recognition. I annoint you to be evilbeth’s liaison.

Let the whacking begin!

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=68015

53

Here Goes:

One large pizza… half sushi, half pepperoni… served with a nice frosty mug of SHUT THE HELL UP.

You all need restaurant work. Just once. You work through lunch. You work through dinner. And when you’re done feeding the world when THEY’RE hungry, you drink.

Leave the third world countries out of any rant with the word pizza in it, for starters. If you wanted off the topic, let’s talk about how overpaid Eminem is or something…

54

First of all I want to say that I too have done the obscene hours of work thing. I have pulled the 9am to 5pm tech rehearsal call at one theatre, driven 90 miles and then pulled a dusk til dawn tech rehearsal call at another, then driven back for the 9am call the next morning. I knew what I was getting into and got paid very well for my pains.

However,

Cartoon dude,
If you are in the business that I think you are, you are getting very well paid for your pains. So well paid, that you don’t have to work as many days a year as the rest of the world to make the same money. It is a choice you made for your profession. You signed up for the gig and knew ahead of time what was going to happen. I know that I did with my work. If I wanted regular hours I would have become a banker. I signed a contract that spelled out the time requirements and rewards. The OP implies that his contract is for a 40 hour week. His boss is stealing his services for the extra time he spends during his “free” time. If he was “on the clock” you bet his boss wouldn’t meet during lunch, because he would have to pay extra for the time. If you take your car into a mechanic and ask for a tune up, then ask him to change the oil and wash the car, you would have to pay for the extra service. If you work in as many union theatres as I have, you learn that time is money. And that people value their time. A manager should learn to value their time also.

Techchick,
The OP was ranting about not being properly reconized for the time he has donated to his company. I agree with him that a few lousy pieces of pizza is not a reasonable acknowledgement of his contribution. Just because there are asshole bosses in the world that treat their employees worse, does not justify being treated poorly. It is bosses like you describe that cause labor unions to exist. Being from a right to work state, I’ve noticed that the businesses that treat their employees reasonably and with respect don’t have unions. Only the businesses that try to take advantage of their workers have unions.

55

nice touch, Revedge…

The other thing I was gonna say was the word ‘salary’. Be it $22,7… be it $56,9… be it a straight $80k… pizza shmizza. Suck it up. And if you’re hovering around the $11.75/hr range, then perhaps you deserve TWO ice cold mugs of shut the hell up, or you can find another job (for $10.70) and see if they offer you pizza for doing absolutely anything.

I read the whole rant and I thought it was quite amusing until I actually started doing the math… Although we’re all in this pit together we should be focusing on something else to piss about. Can’t we all just get a pizza, er, I mean… along?

56

Something I seem to see a lot in discussions on working conditions is the sentiment “if you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have chosen that career”.

Well that is the issue here - some people chose their career based in part on the fact that they get a lunch hour to themselves in that career. They are therefore being betrayed if they don’t get that lunch hour.

Those who are winging about how they work 92-hour days with no breaks so others should consider themselves lucky - I put it to you that you probably knew that was they deal before you took that career choice. So it’s a totally different situation.

But actually the OT wasn’t about that at all. It was about the fact that the manager considers it fair to drop a last minute meeting on his or her staff because they have been given a few slices of pizza. It is about the attitude that pizza makes it all okay. The lack of empathy that people may have had other plans and are having to shelve them - pizza will cure all!

And it’s a gripe I personally can sympathise with.

pan

pan

57

Dude, you go to the meeting, you eat the pizza, then you take an hour off later in the day. Or come in late the next day or take an extra long lunch.

58

Exactly! Thank you.

Haj

59

I sympathize completely with hajario. While on the one hand I can understand techchick’s point that lots of other people do have it worse, that doesn’t change the fact that employers expecting their employees to give up their free time at the last minute is inconsiderate, annoying, and one means of abusing the staff; and a company-bought lunch of any type doesn’t usually make up for it.

Now, if this had been his rant . . .

Well, for the second time in the past 18 months, my boss has called a last-minute meeting during the lunch hour! I am so mad! Yeah, so they do pay us double overtime and also have a five-course meal catered in from Restaurant 5-Star Chi-Chi, but they actually have the nerve to expect us to listen to a presentation while we’re trying to eat! And then - get this! They always ask us to fold our napkins at the end so that the housekeeping staff can collect them more easily! WTF??? I didn’t get my JD/MA/Ph.D/D.Div at Oxford so that I could do waiter work!!!"

. . . I would be the first person to say, “Grow up, suck it up, and shut up!”

Yes, someone, somewhere, in the world has it worse than EVERY topic ever posted in the Pit, but that doesn’t mean that people can’t rant about their own personal situations - that’s what the Pit is for, isn’t it?

60

I apologize for joining this thread so late. Obviously there was a lot of confusion over hajario’s original post, leading to a great deal of conflict and hard feelings. Allow me to clear up an inaccuracy in the OP:

Dominos isn’t pizza. I mean, it just isn’t.

I’m surprised that this small miscommunication caused so great a ripple effect that the point of the OP regarding hajario’s arrogant and inconsiderate manager was completely missed by many readers. And, since this is the Pit, I really must take those readers to task for not realizing that hajario was referring to Dominos food-like product as pizza; I found it to be rather obvious by context. In fact, hajario once even uses the phrase “shitty pizza from fucking Dominos”.

It’s funny how one small mistake can throw off the tone of the entire message. I believe this is why the OP was misinterpreted as a declaration that the poster must surely have the worst manager in the world, and how anyone who would disagree is a fool. hajario, believe me, I knew exactly what you were saying and you have my genuine sympathy. Just try to avoid blunders like referring to Dominos as pizza in the future. And welcome to the board!