Dear Coworkers: How batteries work.
Place them in the direction indicated inside the battery compartment. Use batteries that match. Stop putting crap on my desk with “broken” on it without telling me what the problem is, and then with batteries incorrectly installed.
Here you go. “Fixed” in 30 seconds.
Blah.
If they could knock out tech support, too, people might be able get some real work done.
IT acted on my most recent ticket today, and installed the wrong version of the software. This was the 3rd time I tried to get the software reloaded. I’m pretty much giving up on the part of my job that needs the right version of the software.
Had another interaction with the people who cannot implement what I believe to be the most fundamental underlying system (the ones who are being given the new system to screw up):
I provide A and B, as required by the instructions. Five hours later, they (FUS) ask me for B, C, and D. I repeat B and ask for instructions for providing C and D. An hour later FUS tell me why they need C and D. I ask where the definitions and instructions for C and D are.
Crickets.
Another person on this little part of the project comes up with a couple of good guesses on what MIGHT be C and D, and I forward that along. Given that we have clearly documented that we do not know what C and D are, I expect FUS to accept the information and move forward.
My boss is getting really annoyed that I cc her on every. single. email I send and that I won’t do ANYTHING without an email trail.
I just don’t understand why no-one is doing anything - ANYTHING - about this morass of idiocy and incompetence.
coworkers who want to be goofy early in the morning
Coworkers who latch on to me in the breakroom and yammer/rant at me nonstop about their woes until I flee to find some peace and quiet. How do I turn off that sign I’m apparently wearing that reads “I’m in the breakroom to be wailed at, not to grab a few minutes of relaxation”?
Try giving good advice; no-one who wants to vents a bit wants good advice.
Headphones
Tried both. Advice got ignored or blown off with a litany of “reasons” it just couldn’t work for the pathos case in question, headphones just seem to prompt hands waving in my face or higher volume.
I try to be a nice, kind, caring person, but I’m really starting to feel taken advantage of by some of these attention slut types.
You think that’s bad? I had a co-worker literally FOLLOW ME INTO THE BATHROOM as I was leaving work to tell me a long tale to get the answer to a question that could have waited until the next day because it was trivial.
At that point, I began practicing what I called “constructive rudeness”. I told her I was on my way out and we’d talk tomorrow. After that, if she came to my cube to ask a question and started with a lot of unneeded background detail, I’d tell her I was busy and just ask the question without all the background. Once I answered the question, I’d turn around back to my monitor. I was never actually uncivil, mind you, but if I was busy I’d interrupt her immediately and say so instead of waiting for her to stop talking.
In your case, I’d cut the idiots off and say, “I’m taking a break right now. Talk to me when I get back to my desk in x minutes.” And then (this is key) IGNORE them.
A while back they installed Keurig machines in the break rooms. You have to supply your own K-cups but hey, its still better than “coffee” from a vending machine. Anyway, about half the time I go to make myself a cup of coffee, I find someone else’s used K-cup in the machine. Jeez, how hard is it to clean up after yourself when you’re done using it?
(On the other hand, this is a workplace where people continue to dump food in the sink even though there is no garbage disposal - and a big sign over the sink stating such. And where we have signs on the paper towel dispensers in the restrooms reminding people NOT to flush paper towels. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.)
I’ve been ‘temping’ at a joyless,souless lawfirm for over a year now. (is that a ‘temp’?)
One of the bad things about being a temp is holidays. You see, I don’t get paid anything for taking the day of, so “Enjoy your holiday weekend Zebra!” actually means “Enjoy your 20% paycut for next week!”
then the other day it hit me
ES: I suppose you want the whole day tomorrow?
BC: Well it is Christmas day sir.
ES: A fine excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th of December. If I were to stop half a
crown for it you’d think yourself ill used.
BC: Ummm errr…
ES: Be in all the earlier the next day.
So ES or Ebeneezer Scrooge give Bob Cratchit a day off WITH PAY for Christmas. Ebeneezer Scrooge was nicer to Bob Cratchit than my boss is to me.
Merry Christmas!
So to update the Trainee saga…in some ways Christmas week is busier than Thanksgiving week, and because of that, I’ve always been in charge of certain major things which need to happen ASAP. I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for over 25 years now and have it down to such a science that most managers leave me be. Trainee has been with me for a little over a month. Keep that in the back of your mind.
Trainee: So, why aren’t I doing what you’re doing? Isn’t that what I was hired for?
Me: You’re helping me during a holiday week so I can show you the ropes.
Trainee: Oh, I thought I’d be actually doing everything.
Me: Nobody told you that. I certainly didn’t.
or
Trainee: What else can I learn? I already know [lists off a few things I’ve taught].
Me: It’s a holiday week. I can’t show you anything new right now. Probably not until after New Year’s, but remember I’m also training somebody else then.
Trainee: I’m bored. What you have me doing right now is boring.
Me: Didn’t they tell you during your interview that there’s a certain amount of tedium involved here? We’re a production department and everybody has to do their share of tedious stuff.
I won’t bore you with the other instances, but this is what I’ve been hearing all week. As I’ve said before, my manager is doing “hands off” meaning that Trainee is MY responsibility. And yeah, she picks up things very quickly. That’s good…and bad.
It’s not outright nastiness but there’s an attitude there I don’t particularly appreciate. I’ve told TPTB and my manager to keep their eyes on Trainee…I find it interesting that Trainee has had many many many jobs and nothing has panned out thus far. Trainee isn’t a kid either. Interesting.
Seniority.
See, it was only after he’d worked there for two years that he got a bathroom break. The five year anniversary let him leave two hours early. Ten years got the whole afternoon off.
After 19 more years at this job, you, too, might get an entire day off with pay.
Merry Christmas! 
I had a woman who would call her (cow-orker) aunt when she missed work, instead of me, her supervisor. I told her call me or show up.
This morning she had left me a voicemail a good hour before we open, saying she would not be in. Had I been there, I would have offered to make it permanent.
They wanted me to go spread sand in the parking lot because of the ice storm. Only they didnt tell us they had changed out the sand truck from having a sand spreader that worked from a console hardwired inside the cab to one that operates from a remote (like a tv remote). And low and behold - nobody can find the remote!
You would THINK the remote would be left with the keys to the truck or at least signed out thru control.
Management always amazes me.
WHY would anyone design a truck sand spreader with a remote anyhow? So you can operate the sand spreader from a distance?
Beats me.
But then they stick remotes on all kinds of things nowadays like lights and ceiling fans. Works great until you lose the remote.
Yup. The heating in my charity shop relies on a remote control thermostat unit. We don’t know if it was sold or lost, but it got very cold in there for a few days in December…
So you don’t have to install anything in the cab.
And the benefit of that is …?
They’re a good idea for ceiling fans if you have high ceilings or an old home that was never re-habbed (instead of hacking up the plaster to run a wire from an old pull chain set up just install a fixture with a remote and superglue it to the wall. But designing something so that a major piece of capital equipment is useless without an easily lost two ounce piece of fragile plastic and electronics just doesn’t make sense.
So due to exciting happenings (not really. Well, it depends on your perspective) in my workplace, VIPs were expected today.
Which meant that when I showed up at 4 a.m., I heard a highly obnoxious noise-- a floor buffer.
The only good thing was knowing that the floor buffer would be turned off no later than 6 am.
(Store opens at 6-- and the floor buffer is way too obnoxious to be used with customers in the building).
But having that floor buffer noise in the air seriously messed with my routine. I have a pattern, and I couldn’t follow it, because I needed to stay away from the noisemaker. I didn’t succeed at hiding very well.
The VIP visit was basically a non-event by contrast to the buffer.