I had a department head give me all sorts of shit because according to her people I refused to communicate with them over an issue. I forward her the thread we had been going back in for a couple of months and asked if she had any questions.
The matter was immediately dropped.
TGIF
Took a couple weeks off and this first week back has put me through the wringer! Customer demands more intense than average (more time on-site), miscommunication on other projects for me to chase and correct, a ton of time in intense technical discussion (which I love, but is draining) and just…stuff that really seemed to be more complicated than usual (and, as always, more complicated than it should be).
On the positive side though, I had a conversation with a former coworker who completely validated some career decisions and I’m very happy about that. He participated in the talks with the regulatory agency and called me after to tell me he was impressed. So that’s awesome and I’m going to try to hold onto that… maybe after a short nap…
I’d just like to thank everyone in this thread for validating my rather spontaneous decision to retire early.
I loved the work, it was all the other crap… and the bosses’ inability to see that that crap was crippling productivity (and sapping our will to live).
Aside: Nothing is more schadenfreudey than hearing from your old coworkers that the Big Boss couldn’t find anyone to replace you, the ones they tried quit after seeing the workload and the motivate-by-anger culture; and finally, after almost a year, they had to hire two people to do your old job.
Just got a call from our building’s concierge. It came as I was explaining something for the third time to one of our security managers, so the vein in my forehead was already going. “Hi! Two of the revolving doors in the lobby just jammed up, they were working a minute ago so this must have just happened within the last minute can you send someone to take care of it?” (his normal speaking voice has the enthusiasm and timbre of a children’s show host). This seems suspicious, two revolvers jamming at once. So instead of creating a work order, I go up myself.
Three revolving doors into the lobby. I enter the first one, it spins 360 degrees, into the second, same. Into the third, flawless. The concierge is walking over to me with a big smile. I gesture and ask “What am I missing?”
“Oh, sometimes it just needs a second, they might have tried going through the wrong way!” (the issue of what citizen thinks revolving doors spin the opposite way is for another day) “So it usually just needs a second.”
“Okay, if it resolves itself right away you don’t need to…”
“Well, I just have to do my due dilligence!”
I swear, someday I’m going to find the giant neon “Call Frank for anything at all!!!” sign that they’ve got hidden in the office and smash it with a hammer.
So now you can create the work order and charge a few hours against it. Keeps the bean counters happy.
My horrible boss has decided to start using a service that we used a few years ago and didn’t like. We used it for a year and it really sucked, so we stopped using it. Well, it’s back, and now she’s expecting more people to use it. The company is notorious for buying up smaller companies with different services and not integrating things well (or at all, really). We were using another product that provides the same service from the same company which was more functional, but now they’re abandoning the old version for the new one (which, surprise, costs more, mainly because of a feature that’s useless for us).
The good news for me is, I’m not involved in this and I probably won’t be at this job much longer. I’m not the person who has to do trainings for other staff on how to use this mess, so I’m happy about that.
I don’t know how I’m supposed work with people who don’t respect me.
I don’t want to fully detail what’s prompting this, but some jackhole manager at work whom I’ve never met and have never spoken to decided go out of his way to “escalate” a frivolous complaint to my boss (over an engineering decision disagreeing with his team that my boss agrees with me on, and which was actually his suggestion) and doubled down by basically insinuating that I was unprofessional and lacking integrity because I “could, one day, tell another client design details about his products” (paraphrased).
This asshole has worked with my boss for years, yet somehow never once raised the concern about him, or any of our colleagues. My boss has all the knowledge I also have; we see the pertinent data abd our company has always had multiple clients and customers. He’s never objected to my boss’ or colleague’s position on similar issues but somehow when it comes to me…
I’m livid and insulted and I don’t know what to do about it.
Maybe… nothing?
I outlasted so many yahoos and bullies at my work, just by ignoring them and doing good work.
Yeah, it was tough psychologically, and so hard not to try to counter-attack, or at least tattle to the Big Boss.
But I can think of three different assholes who ended up eventually shooting themselves in the foot, and getting fired.
One time, at the end of a project update with the Big Boss, I said “I’m sure you’re aware of all the gossip and drama downstairs. Hope you don’t mind if I just ignore it all, so I can get my work done.”
He laughed and said “Finally! Someone gets it!”
Probably best. Part of “not knowing what to do” was just emotionally; how to process these feelings. Because he told me about it, I did tell my boss that I was hurt and insulted but I’m pretty sure I won’t follow up with more or ask for any actions to be taken. Not unless this becomes a pattern from this guy (who, according to my boss, has a reputation for being a jerk, which I didn’t know because I’ve never directly worked with him or met him).
I know I do good work, and I’ll keep doing that. It was just a hell of a slap in the face at the end of the week.
So I’m back at work after vacation, and the front desk receptionist offered me an old spider plant that had been in the front lobby. (Apparently I’m known as the ‘plant lady’ around here for my ability to keep potted plants alive? Jeez, just put them in a lit office and don’t overwater them.) My plant shelf is full, but I saw a nice spot on top of a file cabinet in the common area, so I moved a nearly empty Lysol bottle, a suspicious bottle of screen cleaner, and two boxes of glasses wipes that no one uses*, and put the little plant in its new home.
It was noticed about two minutes ago, and I think the reaction would have been more positive if I had decorated the space with organ meats.
“Where are the wipes??? Who moved the wipes?”
“Who put that plant there??”
“Where’s the Lysol??”
“That’s artificial light, the plant won’t live!”
“Where’d that plant come from?? I thought [receptionist] said WolfpackJeep was gonna take care of it!”
*Both are incompatible with the brand of safety glasses in use here; they eat away at the material. I have no idea why they were ordered or why we’re keeping them.
My company is trying to extend a contract. It’s small and straightforward. For whatever reason, the Finance and Contracts departments have gotten into a swirl about the profit percent we should ask above our costs. Because it’s a small contract, it turns out the difference in profit is less than the hours they’ve spent discussing it. So we’ve already lost the possible gain before the contract is even signed by the customer. And the board wonders why the company’s profitability is down.
To extend their boneheadness, the departments are threatening to take their dispute to the Veep level. I’m sure they’ll be pleased to have to deal with it. 
Oh, and the real kisser–that swirl of hours they burned was all that was left on the old contract. They burned a two weeks worth of technical labor in two days. 
My workplace has a web-browser standard policy for all internal sites and applications. So I try to click the sign on link to our CorpWidget site on our standard browser and get a “not compliant with browser A…please use browser B…”. Not the first time I’ve seen this nonsense, but oh well. So I right-click-copy the link and paste it into browser B. Cannot find “javascript:checkVersion()”. So not only do the site owners not know how to write to browser A standards, they can’t even be arsed to provide a direct link. weeps. Next let me describe how my company implements “smart” .pdf field formats on our internal forms…
You get to charge time discussing the new contract to the old contract? As in the client has to pay for it? I know in some fields “that’s just the way it’s done” covers lots of seemingly unfair stuff.
Mine for the day:
8:30 am on a Monday, receive an email from someone asking if there is a problem with email because they haven’t received any new emails since early Sunday. Uhh, great? I’m generally pleased if I don’t have waiting emails in the morning.
Yep. The customer pays for all the overhead needed for us to manage the contract. For a big contract, it works out well, since the management portion will be relatively small. But for small contracts, the overhead can be overwhelming. It’s the curse of a big company and why little companies with minimal overhead can stay in business.
See, I’ve spent too much time with snarky friends (including here). I would’ve zinged off a reply: “Wait, you’re saying you WANT to spend your Sunday dealing with emails?”
I would have said
Wait! You didn’t get THAT email at 7:16pm Sunday night?! You’re in for a surprise Tuesday morning.
So, you’re the only one that didn’t get THE email? It was the one that started ‘Answer these two questions by 8pm Sunday, or don’t bother coming in on Monday!’
.
Hmmm, maybe better would be ‘…or watch for your Reassignment Memo on Monday.’
A while ago, management signed a contract with a new company to install and maintain the bins for sanitary napkin disposal in the ladies’ washrooms up in the tower. And the weekend before last, the contractor came in and installed them on many floors.
That Monday morning by 8:30, I was already getting work orders from tenants saying “there’s a bin lying on the ground in the washroom.” As the trades couldn’t use screws, they attached the disposal bins to the partitions using some kind of adhesive. And from how effective it was, they seem to have used chewing gum, wishful thinking, or rubbing the bins on their heads and trying to stick them using static electricity. The contractor has been called in multiple times over the past week to try and rectify things, to no avail.
Low bidding (I assume). Gotta love it.
Not exactly a rant, but it make ma laugh. We get those test phishing emails. The one for today was supposedly from Dunkin’ Donuts. The phishing link went to the URL: “https:/ /superrealcarvingcontest.event-planner.net/notsuspiciousatall”.
If you can’t trust something that says it’s super real and not suspicious at all, what can you trust?
Me: this is urgent, do I use the existing open project number?
Boss: yes, do that.
Later
Boss: we shouldn’t have used the existing Project number. Please reissue all documents referring to a new one.
WTF.
I’m so fed up with shitty bureaucracy and poor procedures. Actually doing any of the work at this company just kills me. The subject matter is great, the procedures and bullshit make me want to stab someone.