# New and Unimproved Workplace Rants **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 14, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638 "2015-10-14T15:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 143
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2842 "2021-07-14T17:18:31Z")
I actually didn’t really bother with notice. Just hit the “last straw” point, gathered personal items, left at lunch, and emailed my resignation. This is a place where it’s not unusual for someone to give proper notice and be informed that’s their last day right there. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2843 "2021-07-14T17:28:14Z")
That’s GREAT! Congratulations! Future plans? Got another job? (Need one, or were you able to retire?) ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2844 "2021-07-14T17:34:15Z")
Only 51, so retirement is not on the horizon any year soon. 🙂 This week is basically a vacation, next week I hit the job hunting. I do need a shorter commute (2hr each way on a full-time schedule does not leave enough time for trivia like enough sleep) or at-home, I’ve ruled out fast food (unless I get really desperate) on personal safety grounds after seeing so many news stories about fast food workers getting physically attacked over trivia, and I think I’m a bit burned out on call centers just now. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2845 "2021-07-15T00:30:37Z")
Anyone else have a supervisor who looks at documents in progress that are saved to the server, then provides feedback long before you’re ready for anyone else to read the document? 😑 ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2846 "2021-07-15T18:06:29Z")
I’m in the middle of my third training this week. Our trainer keeps saying “Your guys’s…” It’s making me very sad. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2847 "2021-07-16T16:55:59Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Anyone else have a supervisor who looks at documents in progress that are saved to the server, then provides feedback long before you’re ready for anyone else to read the document? Yep, I’ve had bosses like that. The last boss I had required documents to be 100% perfect in all ways (content accuracy, fonts and font sizes for all text and headings, all page numbers, indexes, graphics on the heading page, every fecking detail) before I turned it over to him for approval. It was particularly annoying when I’d send an approved, perfect document to the client and they’d mark it up and mess up many subtle things like fonts and graphics (usually slightly skewed), so I’d have to fix it all in addition to making the changes they requested before sending to the micromanager boss for a second approval. I appreciate accuracy and professional appearance, but I’m also easy going and if the client doesn’t care that a graphic is skewed by 1%, then I don’t either. He drove me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2848 "2021-07-18T23:06:46Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > I appreciate accuracy and professional appearance, but I’m also easy going and if the client doesn’t care that a graphic is skewed by 1%, then I don’t either. He drove me nuts. A now-retired manager at my company was known for rejecting entire reports because the line spacing was off by one or two points on a single paragraph. I once had him stand over my shoulder and direct my formatting on one of these reports. It should be noted that these reports never leave the company; the only time an outside party might see one is during a customer visit or an audit. To my knowledge, the auditors don’t care so much about line spacing as they do about content. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2849 "2021-07-19T19:00:23Z")
My boss got fired and could have walked out the door immediately, but decided to handover stuff before he leaves. So now I have more work to do before he leaves, to support him, more work after he leaves, to get the work done, plus every interaction with other employees starts off with “what happened?” I’m ready to get back to the regularly scheduled programming. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2850 "2021-07-19T19:28:45Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > plus every interaction with other employees starts off with “what happened?” Well, what _did_ happen? General layoff, malfeasance, incompetence, stepped on someone’s toes? Nosy people want to know. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2851 "2021-07-20T00:45:33Z")
Workplace gossip, mystery and drama are the only reason I miss working. Fortunately I have friends who still work in that office to keep me up to date so its all good. ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2852 "2021-07-20T18:03:57Z")
I don’t know the right people, so I never get good office gossip. ☹ I’m in a teams meeting, and my coworker is telling us all about his gut detox. 🥴 ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2853 "2021-07-20T20:16:20Z")
I’ve been using a new test kit for my job. I’d been working with the company testing their product and consequently got in early. It’s really easy and cheap to use. Gets results much quicker than our old test method. Today I wanted to order more cartridges and found out that they have added a middleman and now the price is up 50%. ☹ And instead of getting it in a week it now takes 6-8 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2854 "2021-07-22T18:12:23Z")
> [@MagicEyes](#): > > I don’t know the right people, so I never get good office gossip. ☹ That has persisted for me into retirement. I’ll get together with friends who’ve been retired longer than I have, and they’re buzzing with who insulted the new guy in the staff meeting and who kicked the one nice woman off that committee… Oh, wait a minute. I made a point of avoiding the toxic people while I worked there. THAT’S why I was clueless about the gossip. So I should be glad I never hear it… ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2855 "2021-07-28T06:39:14Z")
I hate how the only thing people seem to want to talk about at work is workplace gossip, their medical problems, and local sports (but not international sports since nobody is talking about the Olympics) ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2856 "2021-07-28T09:33:08Z")
In what feels like the ancient days when I would go to the office, I would often have lunch on Friday with one of my office colleagues and I had a strict, let’s not talk about work policy. We could talk about other things, but not about work we were doing or colleagues in a work related capacity. My whole point in taking that lunch was to get away from work, not relive it. If you could not follow that policy, then well, I didn’t invite you to lunch again. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2857 "2021-08-02T19:36:17Z")
I’ve started to post about one of my coworkers here, but never went through with it. A lot of people don’t like her, so it feels like punching down, which is not fun to me. She’s in another department, so I don’t work with her very often, but when I do, she always wants something more. It’s like living in “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” But with less cookies. I’d be happy if more cookies were involved. It’s a small, petty thing, but I’m a little annoyed that almost every time I do something for her, there’s always another email. I just want to be left alone. 😟 ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2858 "2021-08-02T23:34:39Z")
I think I work with your coworker’s twin brother! I answered a quick question for him once regarding the details of a part a customer was trying to order, and now I’m getting barraged with an endless stream of requests to research some obscure part, or write a purchase specification so we can get a quote for some part, or prepare a document explaining to the customer why exact replacements for their '70s-era equipment are no longer available but these other parts are just as good. The thing that makes this so irritating? He didn’t realize that my quick response to his initial question was because I’m capable of looking in the system and reading the existing documentation…and now he doesn’t understand why I can’t fulfill all those other requests in a day or so. 😬 ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2859 "2021-08-03T17:10:46Z")
The problem with these people is, they never stop. They will keep emailing you until the end of time, even if you never answer any of their questions. A little more about the annoying cookie-mouse I work with—she’s upset because we edited something she sent us to include in an email that’s sent to thousands of people. She is an egregiously bad writer. I mean, I don’t really understand how all the words can be English, but it makes as much sense as reading something in a different language. What she wrote was so bad that I’ve read it several times and still have no idea what she meant. So one of our people (not me) edited that one sentence so it makes sense, and now she’s upset because she thinks it implies something that it really doesn’t and people are going to be upset (although it turns out that only one person might be upset by this, and we work with them, so we don’t care about that, because we have much bigger things to worry about). This is why I dread getting emails from her. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2860 "2021-08-03T19:41:36Z")
My Cookie Mouse can write effectively, but I constantly deal with non-conformance reports from other parts of the company that are so poorly written that I have to go talk to the writer to find out what happened with the part in question. Fortunately, by taking the time to go talk to people in Production and Quality, it looks like I’m just very interested in learning more about our process. Oh, and I found out today that one of the things my Cookie Mouse has been pestering me about was previously sent to him by my supervisor…in October. 😑 ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/2861 "2021-08-03T22:29:10Z")
There seems to be a Cookie Mouse in every office. I learned that an effective way to keep them at bay is to offer to trade work. i.e. Gosh, Cookie Mouse, I’d love to help you with task X, but I am busy with task A,B and C. You know how to do task C, right? Lets trade, you do task C and I will do task X for you. Usually Cookie Mouse will agree, but task C won’t get done until I do it without telling them. After that, every time Cookie Mouse asks for help, I ask them how task C is getting along. They get tired of it after a while and find someone else to do their work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638.md?page=142) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638.md?page=144)