New and Unimproved Workplace Rants

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When I started my new job a few years back I started noticing an unusual number of pens materializing on my desk. I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from until I walked away from a coworker’s desk and realized I had one of her pens in my hands. I was probably the one who walked away with your pen. It was Odesio all along.

At my first office job, I had just finished the probation period, and was taking a long weekend with my girlfriend, the future Mrs Magill. When I got back the following Tuesday, I discovered my desk had been ransacked by several people whom the rumor mill told that I had quit.

I spent half the day tracking down all my shit.

I just got out of an in-person meeting with 10 people, and I was the only one not wearing at least two shirts. This is an academic environment, so dress ranged from jeans and a button down shirt to workout clothes.

I guess that’s not a rant, more of a WTF. I’m sure my colleagues are all on their favorite forums ranting about “this guy at work that only wears ONE SHIRT AT A TIME!”

When I graduated and started my first professional job, I found two items of equipment in my desk - a worn-out stapler and a pair of scissors with one point broken off.

It turned out that all new employees were given a standard set of new office supplies - but my coworkers had ransacked my desk while I was doing my entry interview with HR .

Of course, my new boss never asked about my supplies, so I didn’t realize what happened until years later.

Like, at the same time … ?

Am I missing something? Who wears two shirts simultaneously?

(Well, I mean, I guess echoreply does.)

Thank you for bringing that up. I was relaxing in a little French bistro, nibbling on coquilles-st-jacques and sipping kir royale, when the mood was shattered by my brain rewinding to this thread: "Wait, who wears two shirts?"

I mean, I’ve seen ice fishermen wearing insulated henleys under dirty flannel, or fraternity guys with their polo-shirt-with-a-popped-collar-under-a-buttondown look (and an expensive golf hat on backwards, brrrro…). But this was a corporate office, so… two dress shirts?

(So, @echoreply, does ‘Dress For Success’ recommend a lighter color button-down under a darker English Spread Collar?)

I wasn’t wearing two shirts, I was the only person wearing one shirt.

An undershirt beneath a white button down shirt is normal (1 person), but there were also undershirts beneath Polo shirts and a t-shirt (yes, double t-shirts). The women were also doubled up, with tank tops beneath low cut shirts, or under sweats.

Taken alone, none was really strange (except maybe double t-shirts, but I’ve seen that in other places, too), it was just surprising that everybody that wasn’t me was doubled up, or even triple shirted depending how you count jackets or sports bras.

w e i r r r r d . . .

Are you sure your workplace wasn’t actually the set of a Wes Anderson/Terry Gilliam/Taika Waititi film?

You may be right, we were on camera! So cool that my workplace hybrid zoom meetings are being directed by a master of cinema weird. I thought the room camera just moved to follow motion and sound, but it makes so much more sense that there is a whole production team in charge. Next week I’ll have to look for the wardrobe trailer to get my extra shirt.

Unfortunately the next Wes Anderson movie is going to be a 1.5 hour discussion of which grants are better as an R03, R21, or R01. Skip it because the quirky girl in the poster is just a bored associate professor, and the biggest mystery is why we’re still on zoom if the last remote participant left 10 minutes ago.

Well played.

GOLF (shirt x2) CLAP

I LOL’d.

Maybe your co-workers are saving on heating costs at home?

Let us know if they start showing up wrapped in a Snuggie, with three Huskies tucked in for extra warmth.

The G.M. fired one girl today (reasons vary depending on whom I ask) and another manager had a fucking heart attack a couple of days ago, so needless to say, we’re scrambling for coverage.

I was supposed to have tomorrow off + one day off later this week. I now have … ah, yes, NO days off this week.

Cuz I’m a sucker. And a “team player” who tries hard not to leave her peeps in the lurch. (I like my crew and try hard to do my best by them.) But mostly cuz imma need the money so yeah, I’ll cover the hours.

I heard today that Heart Attack Dude claimed he’d quit drinking recently. Yeah, right. He showed up :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: a coupla times recently (not conjecture - he literally listed off what he drank the night/early morning prior) not that I give a flying fuck. Even sauced he still works as hard as three people most days … which miiiiiight also figure into why his heart is pooping out on him.

Dammit.

Oh, YEAH and I need to haul my tax stuff to one of them smart people with a calculator, and now I have absolutely no idea when that might happen. Yay, me!

We have a really chill big boss and had a really chill manager who decided to leave for greener pastures.

New manager comes in and immediately starts throwing his weight around.

Some of the teachers have been working with the big boss for 20 years. Others, for more than 10.

This new guy, one week. But he’s got ideas, so there you have it.

My son is in his first management job and he is in a shitstorm that he is expected to fix while under the supervision of one of the major fuck-ups that absentee management seems to loves. To listen to him, it’s your typical “responsible for everything with no power to change anything” scenarios.

That was one of the major reasons that the last manager left. Being a middle manager sucks. I’ve done that before.

But the guy isn’t facing a lot of pressure from the big boss, who is really relaxed about things. I think it’s just that the new guy has an idea of what a boss is and that’s not really compatible with the school culture.

We’ll see if he can learn to relax more because there are a lot of teachers who aren’t going to bend easily.

Took this up the chain and got nothing. Which I decided was a win. If I had gotten a big raise I would have had to step up and work extra hours and be stressed. Instead I went to my immediate boss and said “I can’t do the amount of work that is on my plate. Do you want me to choose what I’m not going to do, or do you want to decide what I’m not going to do?” We worked together to see what was going to be delayed and what was going to other people. Less work and less stress! Yay!

Only one week later and he’s already soooo much quieter. Rumor has it that the teachers in the other school really have been unhappy.

Glad to hear it. One would think he’d be doing whatever he could to keep the teachers happy, given what the last 2 years have been like for them.

Unfortunately, there is still the attitude that teachers are disposable.

I’d like to break the kneecaps of whoever came up with the “Those that can’t, teach,” saying.