Speaking of stupid coworkers, my office’s admin asst is so fucking stupid I can hardly believe it. And somehow she has been placed in some type of supervisory role for the rest of the office. It’s quite unbelievable that someone this stupid is not on disability. Some of the things that come out of her mouth are so moronic, and I have to explain things to her two or three times in different ways before she can understand them. Her latest gem was “Did you know men are now getting HPV?” Well, duh- did you think women were giving this STD to each other all this time? Everyone else in the office loves her because she’s such a fucking simpleton that they perceive her as “nice”, and I think I’m the only one that hates her so I act like I like her but actually I can not stand her. GOD, she’s dumb.
Good for your boss! It’s nice to hear when a boss sticks up for employees like that.
I thank my lucky stars I work from home. How can you possibly be productive with that kind of bizarre distraction? In the past 15 years, I’ve worked in an office precisely 8 months. It was enough to remind me why working with a bunch of peevish, hateful women wasn’t A Good Thing[sup]TM[/sup].
Working in the trades, you can meet a lot of ignorant people. Years ago I worked with a particularly ‘idiosyncratic’, Bob Ewell-like character (RIP Dave) who had, let’s say, a ‘diplomacy problem’. You know, like when the school principal would call to complain about his kids’ attendance, and he’d end up cursing at her until she’d simply hang up. I’ll bet she came away with a lot more insight into his children’s behavioral issues.
He proudly claimed that the first words he ever spoke to the woman he married were “I’m a man of few words. Let’s fuck.” He told me this in front of her, and she didn’t deny it, so I guess she got exactly what she paid for.
Driving around town, charming as ever, he’d spy some young hottie on foot, and shout such irresistible come-ons as “Hey, whore! I’d sure like to get in your drawers - I just shit in mine!” At such moments, sitting in the passenger seat, I tried to make myself as short as possible, while my hat drifted ever lower. When I’d try to talk sense into him, he’d threaten to have me fired.
Once, when he needed a part for his car, a Ford Ranchero, he called the dealership and asked for an ignition module for an “El Rancho”. When the parts guy - unwilling to indulge him, for some inexplicable reason - told him that there was no car called an “El Rancho” he said, “I’ll be Goddamned there ain’t! You work at the dealer, and don’t know what cars you sell?” And then proceeded to curse out the guy’s boss.
And that was his good side.
I will agree with you there, though the men in an office environment aren’t much better.
I took a job in an office because it sounded better than the normal production work I did… Well, the job was nice enough, but the people… Wow.
I got out of there as fast as possible, and went back to my job in production, for less pay, and far less annoying coworkers who don’t give a damn how offensive the jokes are so long as you don’t slack too much.
(I’d work at home, but I have the worst self motivation ever. :smack: )
@Skald - Theres a diabetic on my shift… He checks his blood right in the breakroom when we’re eating. The rest of us, of course, give him crap for his heroin addiction, and suggest places he could stick his needle that would hide the tracks better. 
Your boss is a gentleman and a diplomat, and you should show your appreciation somehow.
A: Yes, it is. It comes, it goes. I think it’s a side effect of some medication she’s on. It’s happened three times in two years.
B: She used to be the big boss’ executive secretary. She’s a very ill person. She needs the health insurance.
Is she apologetic when it ends? No. Am I doing all of her work when she’s not there? Yes. Such is life.
Can I add my own minor annoyance in the form of an open letter?
Dear Admin Assistant,
If you wanted those sheets to be slipped into the plastic insert on the binder cover and not in the binder itself, perhaps you should not have 3-hole punched them. Also, perhaps you should not sigh and roll your eyes at me, because that’s just not nice. Also, they’re going to look awful when you put them on the covers because, again, they are 3-hole punched.
It’s not a ongoing annoyance with this coworker, but her attitude towards my hard work is a little lacking.
One of my coworkers is extremely strange. Very annoying.
I’ve spoken of her deliberate eavesdropping before - she freezes in place so that she can catch every single word. She has no problem commenting on what she’s heard. Much of her conversation begins, “I overheard you say…”.
She asks me if she should order supplies that SHE needs.
She’ll interrupt a conversation (like a 3 year old) and have nothing really to say.
Every time she goes home “sick” she comes back with a haircut.
She sucks the joy out of a room (another coworker’s line).
I have a needle phobia. Mr Neville has medicine he has to inject, and I insist he do it when I can’t see, and not leave needles around where I can see them. I get nauseous if I see someone getting a shot in a movie or on TV. I would be able to deal with what you’re doing.
This woman is being unreasonable.
Is she a lawyer or something?
Or a canine…
Or a werewolf. Have you noticed any changes in her appearance that seem to correlate with the phases of the moon? Or does she always call in sick when the moon is full?
I was hoping Maureeen might chime in with tales of her bottom-notch cow-orker from a few years back.
Well, there are many illnesses that make one’s hair fall out!
. . . from the bottom . . .
I hae a co-worker who insists that the Mercury Topaz his mother used to drive, thie identical twin to a Ford Tempo, was compltely different and had a fiberglass body.
I had a Mercury Topaz. I totalled that thing good. If there was fiberglass on it, it all fell off, grew wings, and flew away during the accident.
No amount of discussion will convince him of this, however. No cites, nothing.
He also insists that cars from Japan (sold in the US) get to calculate their fuel economy differently than American cars, and that’s why they look like better vehicles on paper. No amount of proof that the tests are the same for all vehicles and that the standards are set by the EPA will convince him. Oh, and of course he refuses to provide cites for anything. He’s like a living troll.
Here’s one just for fun.
My little brother is a very bright guy who had a job where he and his boss used to play trivia games. One day, a girl who worked with them who wasn’t exactly in their league, asked if she could play too. Well, they had their doubts, but she really wanted to play, so they tossed her an easy question.
“What’s the tallest mountain in the world?” one of them asked her.
“Switzerland,” she replied.
Dumb enough for you? 
I think I used to date her.
I used to have a co-worker who was smart, educated with a master’s degree, and believed in malicious witchcraft. Now, please let me know if this belief is widespread, because to me it is completely, off-the-charts, CRAZY.
I don’t know how we got on this topic one day (I must have made some joking comment about witches or curses) and she responded seriously that she knew several people who had been cursed and gotten sick because of it. Okay, I conceded, there may people some psychosomatic link between an illness and a person believing they have been cursed. But no, no, she had documented proof that this person did not know they had been cursed, and yet had become ill from a curse.
At this point I was spluttering futilely and saying something along the lines of, “Are you fucking kidding me?” when another co-worker commented vapidly, “Oh yeah, you don’t wanna mess with that spiritual stuff.” :smack:
That reminds me of a woman I worked with who had a PhD in Chemistry, who worked in a scientific field, and who was also a creationist. Where I come from, that’s a little…unusual to encounter. I couldn’t bring myself to engage her in serious conversation about the subject (she got a funny look in her eyes when I accidentally stumbled into the subject one day) but she was harmless enough, thankfully.
She can smell your blood? WTF, is she a vampire??