That’s how Johnny Cash got a brand new Cadillac.
During a particularly nasty flu season in pre-COVID times, management thought it would be a good idea to place big containers of sanitizing wipes in each department, to encourage employees to wipe down high contact surfaces (keyboards, door handles, etc.) every day. One of the guys in S&R didn’t read the label and started using them to clean his hands multiple times per day. His hands were raw before he thought to take a look at the packaging.
The organization I work for gets a lot of money from federal grants. Every year we have $1-$2 million in federal grants. I recently got a $400,000 grant. Except that during the EEO review they decided that our grievance procedure was deficient. The same procedure that was fine for a $1.2 million grant 6 months ago. Now we have 10 days to decide if we will enter into an agreement to correct our grievance procedure (the deficiency has not been specified), or argue with them and potentially delay the funding.
Sometimes I wonder if the money is worth the aggravation.
There’s a workman who comes to our office/lab semi-regularly - every 2 or 3 months, sometimes more often. He comes first thing in the morning. He has an hour’s drive or longer to get here. And every time, he heads straight for the bathroom. He is a VERY big tall guy. He seems to believe that toilets should only be flushed once, half-heartedly, no matter what. Judging from the aftermath, he should be flushing at least 3 times. It is truly disgusting. (I should point out that no one else here has ever had a problem with the toilet not flushing adequately, or at least knows how to push the handle a second time if needed.
I’m bracing myself to caution him next time that the toilet is flushing poorly so please be aware of it. He’s a very nice fellow (albeit a right-wing nutjob) and I don’t want to shame him, but you’d think someone would have taught him this by now.
A recent tweek to the anti-phishing software on Outlook has meant every email we get from external partners is labelled as potential phishing, including the people we deal with every day. As a result, we just ignore it.
I don’t know why, but when my documents shift from one program to another, I’ll get warnings that this document is from an unknown source, do I really want to trust it. It’s my document. Yes, I trust it.
Ugh. What an awful problem to deal with. Maybe put up a sign inside the stall?
I’m considering it. (It’s a single-person bathroom.) I’d put the sign up only on the day I know he’s coming. Not quite sure how to word it.
I like your idea of blaming the toilet: “This toilet requires multiple flushes”
That’s a really good way to word it. I’ll make up a sign on Monday. Thanks!
The sign could include a graphic of a certain former POTUS complaining about low-flow toilets that need ten flushes in order to satisfactorily complete their mission.
You know, ‘cos of him being a RWNJ.
That’s brilliant! My office is going to get a good laugh on Monday when I share this!
I just found out today that our upper management developed a policy and is rushing to get it approved by our commission this week. Except that the new policy clearly doesn’t meet the requirements because no one has bothered to actually talk to the people who are reviewing the policy 
I pointed this out and now they’re rushing around trying to make sure it meets the requirements WITHOUT ACTUALLY TALKING TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE REVIEWING THE FUCKING POLICY! 
Jesus wept
A certain large private-sector employer recently changed their retirement plan funding. For the past 15ish years, it has been 401(k) only. x percent free for nothing, and the rest was a 1 for 1 match for your own contributions. You could get a total of up to 8% if you were hired before a certain date and contributed enough of your own money; 6% otherwise. It was a good incentive to save money.
Prior to that, you got 5% free for nothing, that went into an interest-bearing fund, that could be turned into an annuity, or rolled into an IRA, or taken as a lump sum, whenever you retired. And 401(k) matching that could get you another 3%.
Starting this year, however, they’ve gone back to the 5% free-for-nothing, credited with interest every year. All the news reports are saying ZOMG This Is Great - EVERYONE builds up savings. THE PENSION IS COMING BACK.
Except… no, it isn’t. It’s a defined-contribution annuity. It’s exactly the same as it was before the 401(k)-only scheme. Except without the 401(k) matching.
Dealing with a headdesking health coverage issue right now, at the end of my rope.
To start with, I have a pretty good health plan through work. It pays for 80% of most anything I need: all I use it for is physio, chiro and prescriptions. At the point of sale or service, I’m out of pocket 20% of the total charge.
I also have a Healthcare Spending Account for various other things, of I think $500 per year. I can put that towards various other things like glasses and whatnot, but I can also submit my co-pay reciepts, which means that I get my 20% back after a few weeks. I’m lucky I have this much coverage.
Until I get to dental work. See, when I go online to the insurer’s website to submit my receipts, those categories like pharma, chiro and physio all feature a box to fill in for the amount of my co-pay. The dental page doesn’t: I need to break down everything in the bill my procedure code, and there’s pointedly no slot for how much I was out of pocket on the day. They’ve screwed this up before, so the last time I submitted my statement for redemption of my co-pay, I waited on hold for an hour so someone could walk me through the submission form. As we were completing it I asked the guy “Okay, so there’s no box for my co-pay, but once this is all filled out, and you have the .pdf of my receipt, your team will parse it out?” Sure thing, nothing to worry about.
So needless to say, I got a direct deposit of the full amount of the service that day, not the 20% co-pay. They over-redeemed me for $250 or so. I immediately wrote them and advised them, and asked how we can resolve it right away, because I didn’t want to get an email in a couple of months demanding money back. They told me they can just deduct any further submissions to the HSA from that debit until it evens out. Then come the emails. “Hey, your account has this weird amount on it, you need to pay this off.” Then I submit more receipts and they direct deposit me instead of deducting. Then they send an email saying “Whoops, gave you the wrong info before, we need you to cut us a check.” Meanwhile I can’t get through to anyone there because the hold queue is up to 90-120 minutes and I need to, you know, work. I wrote them back to say, fine, happy to send you the money and get this shit over with, but as I live in 2024, I don’t use checks and I need you to tell me how I can transfer you the money. I don’t expect to get an answer for a couple of weeks, becuase that’s the standard wait time for any inquiry.
I explained all this to HR yesterday and asked if they could put me in touch with an actual human at our provider. In an email longer than the TL;dr you’re reading now, I spelled out the dull yet frustrating saga in detail, backing it up with the emails from three different case workers. I can’t be the only person this is happening to; until three years ago I routinely submitted my dental co-pays without issue, but now they bung them up as a matter of routine.
I need to get new glasses next month. Can’t wait to see how they mess up that one.
So someone has a grievance against your grievance policy, and the fallout is causing … grief.
2 weeks ago we were supposed to have a virtual meeting which our Director of Technical Programs set up. He sent out the invitation and it wasn’t until the day of the meeting that someone realized he sent a microsoft teams link. We don’t use teams we use Go-To (that’s a whole 'nuther rant). No one knows where he got the link but suspect it was copied from some other meeting he attended.
So less than an hour before the meeting he had to send a new link out, but he didn’t realize that there are calendars for the virtual meeting rooms and the one he picked was already in use. At meeting time he couldn’t start the meeting. After much cussing and ranting he sent a new link, which also didn’t work. Then he canceled the meeting.
Today is the re-scheduled meeting. He’s logging in and starting the meeting 2 hours ahead of time! 
Heh - Our new SVP of Technology set up a department wide meeting on our Zoom equivalent. He forgot to allow the meeting to have more than 50 attendees.
This… bodes well.
Well the meeting went off with a hitch. He signed on 2 hours early but never bothered to test the audio. Guess what didn’t work? So he went to another manager’s office to run it from there. Of course he has a cold and coughed all over the other manager’s office. That manager just went home and said he’ll hit it with lysol tomorrow.
I wish I was making this shit up!
Welp, another 4% cut coming up in the next budget cycle. This is on top of last year’s 4% cut.
Last year was 4% across the board from every department. This year, we’ve been told to prepare 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% contingency plans. The VP’s will then decide who gets what cuts. In my area, 94% of the budget is in salaries after last year’s cuts.
We are preparing for a Hunger Games between department heads/Directors. It’s not going to be pretty. Morale is… low. Rumours are rampant.
I’m retiring soon, so I am out of fucks to give. I have taken to saying to any director I meet “May the odds be ever in your favor” I’m thinking of handing out toy crossbows.