Let’s see, one thing - I actually like my current job pretty well, but there is one thing, and it’s a kinda big thing, which might make it my most recent ex-job - they have really high expectations and really low pay. I can live with one or the other, but not both. When I work part-time at a low rate for my skill level, I’m doing it for a reason - I don’t want any responsibilities. I want to just put in a few hours, make a few bucks, and go home and live my real life. When I work full-time with lots of responsibilities, I expect pay and benefits commensurate with my skill level and competence, and that is about three times what I’m making now. So, they’re getting a fantastic deal, and I’m feeling taken advantage of. And if it continues, I can only blame myself for not finding another job. Sigh. They’re really nice people, too.
Finals suck.
Fortunately I only have one left for the forseeable future. I walk in a week!
We had a problem with a method. We had 3 failures in as many weeks, and it costs us money to have these failures. I fixed it. It went from a whole-day project to one that could be done in about 3 hours (not including analysis, which is the same anyways). Thing is, it would have required a week, two at most, of work to validate the change (despite that it wasn’t a huge one, but it still had to be proven that the method was sound). Not a big deal, right? Spend a bit of time now, and never have this reoccuring problem ever again. Looks good for the company, to the client, looks good to the FDA, whatever. Save a whackload of money in the long run.
fucking manager didn’t want to tell the client that the original method (provided by the client) was inconsistent. She didn’t want to have to admit that the method wasn’t very good, and so insisted on “fixing” it another way, without the revalidation. It’s now a 3-day endeavour, and it’s still inconsistent. Technically, it passes, which management thinks is “good enough”. I think it’s crap. It’s bad chemistry, it’s bad business, and it will come back and bite them in the ass a million times in the future.
This is just one example, but it’s the entire mind frame of the company I work for (at least until Friday…I have resigned!) We only do what’s good enough to pass, good enough to charge the client for, and we never want to admit that maybe we did something wrong. New policies and procedures are adopted without trying them out (including formal GMP documentation practises), which leads to MONTHS of adjustment and revisions and bullshit, all while those of us that actually USE these system could have told them the first time through exactly what we’d need, saving us all time, money, and a whackload of frustration.We have a system in place where employees can give suggestions, but not one in 4 years have ever been adopted, and some mysteriously disappear a couple days after being posted.
Never mind that if you didn’t graduate from the same university as the director (or was his neighbour/roommate/car salesman at some point in the past) you have no hope in hell of ever getting a promotion. My “promotion” this year was an extra 200$ on my salary, under pretense that it was a “right of passage” promotion. It was bullshit.
Our company picnic is a ticket for a free hamburger (or veggie or chicken burger) from the cafeteria, on our own lunch time. Total company cost: about 2.50$ per person (if that!)
Just one? I could go on forever… I;m glad I’m quitting to move to Montreal!
My job every once in a while requires me to work late. That’s not usually an issue if I can get my classes covered. When I can’t, though, I have to leave in order to teach and they raise hell about it.
No, Loach, I don’t get them until they are really most sincerely dead. A colleague of mine was once called by a frantic nurse late at night about a body that was wending its way towards us for forensic autopsy. “Nobody pronounced the patient dead! Can you pronounce him?” “No,” replied my thoughtful colleague, “I can’t.” “Why not?” the nurse lost it. “Are you a doctor or aren’t you?” "I am, but unfortunately [mentally answers with the next eight words] until they’re dead, they ain’t my fricking problem!
… That is, I’m sorry to say, I don’t have jurisdiction. As a forensic pathologist employed only by the State, I can only accept bodies which are already dead."
She got someone else to pronounce it.
You get them when they’re freshly dead? I like it when they arrive in that state. I also get them when they’re very very decomposed dead.
Which would probably be one of the things I don’t like about my job.
Couldn’t go so far as ‘really, really hate’ though.
I meant you get them pre-deaded for your convienence. Nice and neat on a slab or body bag (or several body bags). I get them freshly dead, face down in their lunch, naked and wedged between the tub and toilet or laying in a puddle of puke. I get all the family members yelling at me and complaining that enough isn’t being done. Sorry Grandpa isn’t stiff because it’s cold out. At least you don’t have the family milling around when you cut them up.
That I don’t have one 
Main issue I had with my last job–lack of a fixed schedule. I didn’t have a regular shift*, and basically got asked to work wherever they needed someone. It was rather difficult not being able to have a totally fixed sleep schedule, as some days I’d be working 8pm-8am, others midnight to 6am, or noon to midnight…gah. There were days I would turn my phone off to avoid getting called in, or refuse shifts even when they needed someone badly–I hated to do it, but I just needed my sleep, and I knew that the only person who could keep my schedule half-way sane was me.
It’s too bad–I didn’t mind the job itself that much, but the scheduling (or lack thereof) burnt me out.
*I don’t think they had one to give me–I was offered one when i started, but I asked for more hours. I then took another, which I enjoyed but only lasted two weeks. I wasn’t offered another until less than a month before I decided to quit.
I hate that people (specifically older males) seem to assume that because I’m young or female - or both - that I cannot possibly help them with what they consider to be their INCREDIBLY complicated book needs. They’ll come in and ask if I can run get my daddy for them. WTF? The also don’t believe me when I say that I’m the manager - they give me this smile like ‘Oh, of course you are little girl - but I need the big boss, ok? (Isn’t it cute Bill, she thinks she’s the manager…)’
No, you don’t. You don’t need the big boss. You should barely even need staff. You want to know if we have any of Dan Brown’s books. Somehow unable to grasp the idea of looking in Fiction under B - both clearly signposted and marked - you have come scrambling for a staff member to walk you through that complex and involved procedure. Fine. But - what the hell makes you think I can’t do it? I’m 22 and I realize I look younger. But christ - I don’t look ANY younger that 16-17 at the very youngest. What IS it you think I can’t do and why can’t you give me a chance?
One day this and many other things are going to convince me to finally post the pit thread I always type up - and promptly delete.
The fact that “keeping your head while all around you are losing theirs” is not a viable client retention strategy (despite Kipling’s promise that "yours is the world and everything that’s in it). Examples follow.
Editing / design: Phoney deadlines made by people who hate making deadlines.
Scenario I: “When do you need this?” “As soon as possible, given that it’s May and the project’s not going out till September.”
Scenario II: “When do you need this?” “Oh, 2-3 weeks, a month, no big deal.” Frantic call one (count it, ONE) week later: “I’m really concerned I haven’t heard from you.”
Music for corporate events: Type AA++ party planners who are concerned much less with the tone and atmosphere of an event than with seeing people jump when they snap their fingers. Be prepared to tear down and reset your band (and its quarter ton of gear) on a moment’s notice if someone has decided the dinner ought to begin at 8:15 instead of 8:30, or if you’re somehow interfering with the view of a $250 flower arrangement.
Moral: When your client stresses, you stress. Doesn’t matter how small or pointless the problem. It’s one of the things they’re paying you for. :dubious:
It’s not the best workplace atmosphere, but a lot of full time day gigs have that, and at least you don’t have to see the same people every day for 8+ hours.
The fact that it’s either feast or famine. It’s always feast when I have something else I want to be doing or there’s a holiday – lawyers are famous for doing every depo they can right before the holidays and then expecting the transcript back as soon as they get back to work after the holidays, apparently overlooking the fact that that means we don’t get to take a holiday. And when I need $$ the most, it’s famine.
I always have either too much work or not enough, never just the right amount. I feel like Goldilocks.
Impromptu meetings.
Every once in a while, my boss gets a bug up his ass about something, and it must be discussed immediately. In three separate meetings. For a total of 3 1/2 hours. In the same day. On five minutes notice each. While I’m trying to work. I don’t mind meetings (too much) if they’re scheduled, and I can plan for them, but sheesh!, when they come out of nowhere, they irritate the hell out of me.
Fortunately for me, we’ve reached an accomodation: he ignores my bad attitude, and I bring some work in and ignore his meeting.
Mine isn’t a thing, it’s a person. An eavesdropping, word-search doing, stupidass, lazy as hell, sloppy, ignorant as fuck person. Just a sliding door away.
She reboots her computer by turning off the monitor. She litens in oneveryone’s conversations and calls, and then tattles on them to the boss. She is pure evil in slappy shoes.
Currently, my new co-worker.
The last one was a nice lady who has worked there for years as full-time staff. (I’m an undergrad and thats how i differentiate the students from the “adults”)
The new girl is my same age, but not a student and works there full time, where I’m only there for about a few days a week, and make up the difference between the end of the day shifts and the last few hours before everything but the emergency shift shuts down.
This girl does nothing the entire time I am there but do a verbal countdown until she can leave. I’m sorry that you are bored, I am too, and I understand that you have been here all day, but I don’t care how much time is left since I just got here. The other student who alternates days with me said that the other girl does this EVERY SINGLE DAY.
And must you go over your boyfriends cell phone bill at work, all while highlighting numbers you don’t recognize? If you think he’s cheating, dump him. If you are just paranoid, do it on your own time.
The Union.
A lot of the work in the Potomac region recently went to union workers in NJ (telco switches can be managed from just about anywhere). I think they must have full time union stewards who do nothing but examine work processes and check every databse and control system to see who is accessing them because they grieve fucking everything.
That the bathroom is on the second floor and I’m on the first. I can’t keep my toothbrush in there, or some hand lotion, maybe a hairbrush. I work in a financial building downtown, so the bathroom is also kept locked in case homeless people find it and start telling their friends.
The fact that the CEO of the non-profit that I work for has pushed his own annual insane paycheck past the million dollar mark in the last two years. Meanwhile not only have many employees not gotten any raises at all, but wages have actually fallen on several projects. He’s not even doing a good job as CEO because the company has lost several important contracts during his tenure.
In short he’s a pig. One day soon I hope karma will chow down on his bacony ass.
The fact that the CEO of the non-profit that I work for has pushed his own annual insane paycheck past the million dollar mark in the last two years. Meanwhile not only have many employees not gotten any raises at all, but wages have actually fallen on several projects. He’s not even doing a good job as CEO because the company has lost several important contracts during his tenure.
In short he’s a pig. One day soon I hope karma will chow down on his bacony ass.
Oh, the irony of it all. And you worker bees probably get told that there isn’t any money available for things you need to do your jobs. Well, they’re not actually lying; there isn’t any money available, because the CEO has it all. :rolleyes:
(Is it United Way? I hear they’re as crooked as a dog’s leg.)
It’s not UW. But it’s a important national company and it irritates me how stupid they are. The idiot CEO not only raised his own pverly generous wages, he also distributed several large bonuses to top management. He then gave an interview to the NY Times (which was how I found out about his large salary) and justified the wage hikes on the grounds that he had to attract good people.
Apparently that policy only applies to top brass. One particular project is a good illustration of their greed and stupidity. The project requires a B.A., specialized post graduate experience and lots of serious hard work. They lowered wages on that project to barely above Wal-Mart wages last year so I dropped it. I know the person who manages it. He seems somewhat bewildered that he can’t get many qualified people to touch it.
I admit to laughing every time I hear via the corporate grapevine about just how desperate they are. Non-profit is not supposed to mean everyone sacrifices but the CEO.
This is going to sound so corny and Office Space but here it is:
I hate our new printer/copier. I hate it with the fire of a thousand supernovas. It is the worst-designed, least-user-friendly, biggest piece of shit ever created on the face of this earth. Every day I ask myself, why in the hell did we actually pay someone for this thing? I’d gladly pay someone to take it away. If there were a way of sabotaging it so that it never worked again and we had to replace it, I would do it. I’ve considered pouring a soda into it. I’ve considered running some kind of horrible cellophane through that would melt and utterly destroy the innards of the damn thing. I’ve considered trying to somehow fuse the electrical parts. I would do anything, provided the evidence wouldn’t lead to me (or if I could make it look like an accident.)
Our previous printer/copier was so great. It did everything I wanted and needed it to. It had defaults that were convenient and made sense. It was fast. It had a huge amount of memory. But then they decided to give it to the guys at the other end of the building and get us a new printer/copier. ONE THAT SUCKS DIRTY DISEASED GANGRENOUS ASS. Its defaults were clearly decided on by someone who is insane. No offset, no collate, and every time you choose hole punch, you have to choose the number of holes and the orientation on the page. If you send a print job from your desk, Og forbid, you have to make ALL the correct settings at your computer, because if you print to your mailbox and want it on a certain kind of paper, there’s no way to change it. If you try to print 10 copies of something from your mailbox, it pauses about 5 seconds between each copy. WTF is that about? Is it resting? Is it thinking? Did it suddenly forget what it was doing? I hate it, I HATE IT!!!
If any of you guys have any hints or suggestions on how I can win my campaign to get the old printer back, PLEASE let me know. And by the way, no matter what you do, DO NOT BUY AN IMAGISTICS 6020!!!