# 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:** 19
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/361 "2016-01-29T19:41:53Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > And my new immediate boss has not even officially started but has already decided the way we do things is all totally and completely wrong. I’ve been without a proper manager for about 4 months now. They keep saying they’re posting for the replacement, but it hasn’t happened. This is our worst fear. That we’ll get some jackass from outside the company who doesn’t know the culture or the processes and will demand we change things to suit him/her. Most likely I’ll be the lucky one to forcefully explain “No, this is the way they’re done because of our standards, processes and negotiated agreements with different areas. You want to change X? Here are the various groups you need to discuss that with. WE will keep doing it the same way until we have an agreement to change it.” ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/362 "2016-01-29T22:28:55Z")
So, why don’t you ask for the job? ---
**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:** [January 30, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/363 "2016-01-30T01:21:15Z")
> [@Boggette](#): > > I can’t believe there are still people out there who think simply having a winkie makes you somehow more intelligent/capable. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > They don’t think that, actually. They’re terrified that that’s all they have to offer. That’s an interesting thought. While I’ve encountered a mouthy engineer or two while at this company, I’ve had next to no real problems with the engineering department. Most are managers from departments who are used to pushing around the ladies in customer service, or guys from the production area. Then there’s that one guy who can’t stand _any_ of the engineers… The guy who paid me a visit has always gone out of his way to ‘prove’ that he’s the very best inspector the company has ever had. An example: some bolts that were purchased for a project were found to have bad threads. Further investigation found that the bolts had been pulled from a lot of 400 or so in inventory. I put in an order for replacement bolts, with instructions to scrap the entire lot of bolts from inventory. This guy took it upon himself to inspect all 400 bolts in inventory…he found about 20 that were usable. He then proceeded to blow up at me for wasting money, then went to my supervisor and blew up at him for allowing me to waste money. > [@Catamount](#): > > I admire your restraint in not slapping him until your hand went numb. Thank you! 😃 I was restrained by my need for the paycheck – my beloved near-‘vintage’ Jeep is demanding parts. ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/364 "2016-01-30T02:01:23Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > That’s an interesting thought. While I’ve encountered a mouthy engineer or two while at this company, I’ve had next to no real problems with the engineering department. Most are managers from departments who are used to pushing around the ladies in customer service, or guys from the production area. Then there’s that one guy who can’t stand _any_ of the engineers… > > The guy who paid me a visit has always gone out of his way to ‘prove’ that he’s the very best inspector the company has ever had. An example: some bolts that were purchased for a project were found to have bad threads. Further investigation found that the bolts had been pulled from a lot of 400 or so in inventory. I put in an order for replacement bolts, with instructions to scrap the entire lot of bolts from inventory. This guy took it upon himself to inspect all 400 bolts in inventory…he found about 20 that were usable. He then proceeded to blow up at me for wasting money, then went to my supervisor and blew up at him for allowing me to waste money. > Thank you! 😃 I was restrained by my need for the paycheck – my beloved near-‘vintage’ Jeep is demanding parts. No one was able to get across to this clown that the time he spent going through all of those bolts probably cost more than the bolts ever could? The only way it would make sense to do that is if the lack of bolts was holding up production, causing things to go late and costing even more money. Even in that case it wouldn’t make sense to yell at you about it. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/365 "2016-01-30T02:06:27Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > … This guy took it upon himself to inspect all 400 bolts in inventory…he found about 20 that were usable. He then proceeded to blow up at me for wasting money, then went to my supervisor and blew up at him for allowing me to waste money. > [@eulalia](#): > > No one was able to get across to this clown that the time he spent going through all of those bolts probably cost more than the bolts ever could? The only way it would make sense to do that is if the lack of bolts was holding up production, causing things to go late and costing even more money. Even in that case it wouldn’t make sense to yell at you about it. And if inspection is only ~ 80% effective, it’s possible that as few as 16 were actually usable. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/366 "2016-01-30T03:37:45Z")
And depending on the specifications of said bolts, it’s possible that he was paid more to inspect the bolts than the bolts actually cost. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/367 "2016-01-30T06:39:06Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > That’s an interesting thought. While I’ve encountered a mouthy engineer or two while at this company, I’ve had next to no real problems with the engineering department. Most are managers from departments who are used to pushing around the ladies in customer service, or guys from the production area. Then there’s that one guy who can’t stand _any_ of the engineers… > > The guy who paid me a visit has always gone out of his way to ‘prove’ that he’s the very best inspector the company has ever had. An example: some bolts that were purchased for a project were found to have bad threads. Further investigation found that the bolts had been pulled from a lot of 400 or so in inventory. I put in an order for replacement bolts, with instructions to scrap the entire lot of bolts from inventory. This guy took it upon himself to inspect all 400 bolts in inventory…he found about 20 that were usable. He then proceeded to blow up at me for wasting money, then went to my supervisor and blew up at him for allowing me to waste money. I dearly hope someone asked him if that project (that saved the company 20 bolts) had been the best use of his time (for which I suspect he is paid handsomely). ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/368 "2016-01-30T11:23:13Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Thank you! 😃 I was restrained by my need for the paycheck – my beloved near-‘vintage’ Jeep is demanding parts. You didn’t park it in a [Mark Trail](http://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Mark_Trail/2016-01-30/)strip, I hope. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/369 "2016-01-30T22:08:20Z")
Dear coworkers, I have been working 12±hour days, including weekends, very nearly for 3 weeks straight, all to accommodate your never-ending string of feature requests and performance enhancements to the test that I have written. We were supposed to be done running the test yesterday, but we haven’t even started yet. I’m at the end of my rope here. Shut the fuck up and let me run the goddamn tests already before I get into even more trouble than I’m already in. ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/370 "2016-01-30T22:11:45Z")
Dear Cow-orker, How can you talk so fucking much, and say so fucking little? Get to the point already. Sincerely, Me ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/371 "2016-01-31T00:01:46Z")
I made the tremendous error of venting about the new manager who is coming in to the guy who is headed out the door. I had 4 people come up to me today “So i hear you really don’t like the new manager…” Jesus Christ, Old Manager, thanks for trying your damnedest to make this atmosphere just a little more poisonous than it already is. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/372 "2016-01-31T01:03:51Z")
Dear Co-worker: You’ve met Madame Bulldozer. What on earth makes you think she felt the need to provide any justification for what she wanted to have happen? (Madame Bulldozer showed up with limited warning on Thursday, and kept several of us busy for several hours “helping” Co-worker(who had the day off) We were all relieved when she wandered off after lunch. She’s a couple of rungs up the ladder from any of us). ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/373 "2016-01-31T18:19:19Z")
Dear New Boss, You seem to be OK so far. When you’ve wanted to change something you’ve been willing to listen to our side of the story as to why things are done that way and not insisted on things being your way. And the pizza was appreciated the other day when three people called in sick. But for the love of all that’s good and holy can we please stop with all the meetings already?? Last week I spent the equivalent of two full days in meetings. Most of it was training over stuff I knew better than the trainer did and recaps of how far behind we are. Maybe we wouldn’t be so far behind if it wasn’t for all the meetings, hmmm? We’re already short staffed, please just let us do our jobs and not interrupt us several times a day for meetings. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/374 "2016-02-01T00:56:07Z")
Maybe you could give New Boss your side of the story about why excessive meetings hurt productivity. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/375 "2016-02-01T20:34:17Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > It isn’t always true, but I have found it extremely common that micromanagers do their bullshit micromanagement so they can say they’re too busy to do the parts of their jobs they don’t actually want to do. Tell me about it. He has a half dozen systems analysts, a handful of architects, and a dozen developers all working for him who hate his guts because he spends more time solutioning (ugh I hate that word) than managing. Direct quote from me to him today, after he bloviated for 45 minutes on a topic that had already been under discussion for weeks (and that he knew nothing about, despite being in charge of the team that is managing it): “I invited you to this meeting so that you’re aware of what we need, not so that you can tell us what to do.” This was in front of his staff, by the way. I probably just burned (or nuked) a bridge there, but fuck him. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2016, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/376 "2016-02-01T23:19:00Z")
Oh, you simply MUST share the fallout from that exchange with us! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/377 "2016-02-02T00:48:00Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Maybe you could give New Boss your side of the story about why excessive meetings hurt productivity. Well, I could, but that would require a meeting to talk about how many meetings we have, and then I’d get pulled aside for another meeting about why I’m unhappy with all the meetings, and then another meeting about why we need all the meetings… She has been really good about listening to us, except when it comes to the meetings. Meetings breed meetings… they’re like goddamnned rabbits. I had two meetings today, one tomorrow, three Wednesday, two Thursday and two Friday. So far… it’s only Monday. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/378 "2016-02-02T01:45:10Z")
I’ll go ahead and add you to the preliminary pre-meeting to plan the meeting where we will determine the seating arrangement for the meetings to decide on the table arrangement. [Dilbert](http://neosmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/pic_dilbert.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/379 "2016-02-02T03:07:56Z")
I worked on a project for a coworker from another department. I have specialized skills, so I get loaned out to other departments occasionally. This was a last-minute rush project, and I dropped other things to get it done. I just found out that they did not use any of the work I did. :mad: They used their original version, which of course is vastly inferior to the one I did. These are the same people that, on another project, (1) wanted me to fill up all the empty spaces with tacky clipart, and (2) publicly thanked coworkers from another department for helping with another part of the project, but didn’t mention me (and I probably put in more time working on the project than they did). I’m seriously thinking about whether I want to do any more work for them, but I don’t know if I would be allowed to refuse if I wanted to. I would like my job more if I didn’t have to deal with people like this. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2016, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638/380 "2016-02-02T06:54:45Z")
> [@eulalia](#): > > No one was able to get across to this clown that the time he spent going through all of those bolts probably cost more than the bolts ever could? The only way it would make sense to do that is if the lack of bolts was holding up production, causing things to go late and costing even more money. Even in that case it wouldn’t make sense to yell at you about it. I’m not sure what the fallout was for him. There was no holdup due to the loss of bolts – despite the fact that the company had to purchase them from a certain vendor (contract-related stuff), the bolts were an easily-obtainable standard size, and we were able to get replacements quickly. > [@j666](#): > > And if inspection is only ~ 80% effective, it’s possible that as few as 16 were actually usable. Oh, but this guy is _careful_! He takes his time! Being slow and meticulous is the way to get through your work in a timely manner! (Or so he tells me…) > [@Projammer](#): > > And depending on the specifications of said bolts, it’s possible that he was paid more to inspect the bolts than the bolts actually cost. I’m confident of that…they’re quite cheap from a supplier like Fastenal. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I dearly hope someone asked him if that project (that saved the company 20 bolts) had been the best use of his time (for which I suspect he is paid handsomely). He hasn’t pulled the same stunt again, so maybe someone said something. And he says he gets paid to not stress out…on the day he came to tell me how challenging beauty school had been for him, I was in the middle of a large report revision (seriously, it was removed from its binder and spread out all over my desk) that was needed by the end of the day, and thought it was silly that I was a bit flustered by the interruption. > [@Catamount](#): > > You didn’t park it in a [Mark Trail](http://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Mark_Trail/2016-01-30/)strip, I hope. Whoa, it’s been a while since I picked up a comics page with Mark Trail! Things have gotten a bit serious! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-and-unimproved-workplace-rants/734638.md?page=20)