I think the difference in our interpretation lies in whether one is getting off Wednesday of that week instead of Friday (my intepretation, same number of days off) or in addition to Friday (my guess at your interpretation, more days off). This assumes that Friday is not already a holiday – if it is, then there is no difference in total days off, just a longer weekend.
On preview, I think **Excalibre **covered this already.
KoS, terrific post.
Delores, glad you came around in your thinking and that everything worked out for your schedule and with you and C apologizing to each other. On the optimistic side, in my experience relationships after resolving a dispute/problem like that can often become better than before the problem arose. In fact, I’ve made some good friends after an initial dispute shakes things out.
In the woulda coulda shoulda file, for a scheduling problem, a person should first approach the person who has the power to change the schedule.
Just go to him with what you want – in this case you wanted to have the paycheck Friday schedule – it shouldn’t matter to you how your boss arranged it, unless part of your motive was to hurt C. If your boss was resistant to your request, you might have mentioned that C was getting what you thought was a better schedule with less seniority. Makes it the bosses problem to get you what you want. He then could have done what he ended up doing – giving you what you wanted without taking away from C – without C even knowing messing around with his schedule was considered.
Now in some places, where the schedule changes every week, e.g., restaurants, there’s an established practice of employees negotiating trades with other employees directly, the possibly getting management sign off after the trade is agreed. But this wasn’t that type of situation.
Of course not. However, it’s not even remotely comparable to this situation, so it’s bizarre that you would offer such a ridiculous hypothetical.
The inconvenience of having to take one set of 26 Fridays off over another is so minor that it’s like getting upset because some guy got to the boss’s candy dish first and got the sour ball you wanted. What Delores got that was “rightfully misfit-dude’s” is an absolutely miniscule prize. Comparing it to a situation in which someone’s actual vacation plans are affected is such a false analogy that it boggles my mind. (The non-refundable plane tickets are nice - they’re like the chopped nuts and maraschino cherry (and, incidentally, does anyone actually like those horrid little things?) on the ice cream sundae of bizarre hypotheticals.)
Trying to turn this into an issue of someone being deprived of something that was rightfully theirs is simply a false comparison. Getting incredibly upset on behalf of misfit-dude over such a non-issue seems to me like clear evidence that people are projecting their own feelings about past snubs onto this situation.
I asked him to switch as a favor, not because of seniority. And if he had said ok(because after all it is a minor perk) I would have been able to just tell the boss that WE wanted to switch.
I only brought seniority up to the boss, so I could get my way. 
And that’s what the boss told C. C even said in his apology that he needs to learn to consider seniority in future situations, and not feel so “put upon.”
Y’all were right to call me out on my actions, but I still feel like I deserve to have the (slightly) better schedule.
No, I’m actually very popular and well liked. Really. But I think that’s because, although I’m about 5 times as blunt in real life than I am here on the board, I try to be fair, I don’t talk about people behind their backs and I don’t try to isolate those who are socially awkward.
And what I saw in the OP was a person who was trying to be friendly and all he got in return was to be marked as “weird” and got his day taken away from him. I say C had a right to his anger.
I’m glad he apologized. Maybe there is hope for him yet.
The difference, unless Delores can explain otherwise, is one in which List B gets some extra-long holiday weekends with corresponding two day weekends afterwards, rather than normal holiday weekends followed by three day weekends. It’s quite obvious that the Fridays off are being accounted for carefully - each person is working 80 hours out of a pay period. It’s not a matter of extra days off; if one list was getting six free days off per year, the real target for pitting would be the bosses who managed to screw up a fairly simple thing so badly.
But since it doesn’t make sense to start with that assumption, I suggest we not throw fits based on it yet. Occam’s Razor, people. Does it make sense that the boss would be expecting half of the staff to randomly work six extra days per year?
It’s obvious that no one’s being drastically hurt in the situation. In fact, it’s not clear to me that one schedule is necessarily better. I’d probably rather have the schedule with more sorta long weekends than the one with a bunch of normal weekends and a bunch of really long weekends.
See, then, your error was in asking the boss to switch you with a particular person who had said no already. The smooth way to handle it would be to say, “Hey, boss, I been here ten years and remember all the times I picked up your dry cleaning? So, I was thinking I’d really rather get on schedule B. Could that be arranged somehow?”
It’s still a very, very minor issue.
Could you clear it up, though, once and for all? Folks on list B don’t actually get additional days off, right? They’re just getting their days off scheduled in a way that you (and apparently C) prefer. Is that correct? A lot of people seem to be assuming here that half the staff is getting more days off than the other half; if that’s the case, then the problem is a verkackte schedule, not an argument over seniority.
Delores, good on you for getting the situation resolved. I’m glad it worked out for everybody.
I was neither self-righteous nor throwing a tantrum in this thread. And I never once posted in the “creepy people” thread.
I’m not sure what bug crawled up your ass, but you’ve been insulting me for at least a year now. You come into random threads and make unfounded and false assertions against me. I’m not really sure why, but let’s put a stop to that right now. I’ve never held anything against you so far, but now I’m beginning to think you’re a real asshole. Stop it.
Oh, and you never answered the question.
Shit, if you didn’t, then I apologize. I really thought I remembered you there, but apparently I’m quite mistaken.
You were eight kinds of self-righteous in this thread, though.
At this point I have to say that I have zero idea what you’re talking about. If you can find some evidence of me coming into threads and making “false assertions”, please let me know. I certainly did so in this thread, and I apologize for it. Obviously I was quite mistaken. But if you think I’ve been following you around or something, you’re quite wrong.
What question?
Good point regarding the schedule. I am willing to admit it’s my bad if I do misinterpet it wrongly. I see it from how it works for my case here and assume it may be the same there.
Maybe it’s a company perk for those who have to work on holidays and what shall be off-days?
The switch of schedule is one thing, but even if the ‘switch’ is a fair trade, the pulling rank may not be a right thing to do (that seems to be a point for debate, actually). But, everything seemed to have concluded, and it seems to be a rather happy ending, so…I just wish all of you a happy holiday!
Apology accepted.
No, I was pointing out what I thought the real situation was. And I was no more self-righteous than anyone else. If fact I was quite consciously trying to be level-headed and reasonable. I’m sorry if you tried to read more into it than there was.
Well, I’m glad it wasn’t conscious. But the fact that you falsely remembered me posting in another thread where I never did suggests that possibly subconsciously you have something against me. And looking over some older threads, I see a pattern forming. Once again, I have no idea what I ever did to you, but it’s clear that you treat me dfferently than others here. And quite frankly I’m tired of it.
If you were unaware of doing so in the past, then OK. But please try to be aware of when you do it in the future.
Fuck it. Let it drop.
Just to make myself clear, the guy shouldn’t have sworn. Rude, and stupid in front of (or at) the boss.
But more importantly, although senior people should probably have more rights to the better days off and other perks, that’s talking about a situation in which the perks haven’t already been given out. Say you go to the boss before the scheduling, say “I’d like my scheduling done in this particular way, please, and since I’m the senior person, I think I deserve first choice.” That’s perfectly ok.
Not ok is trying to take away something that someone else already has, no matter how much you think you deserved it. That is what you tried to do, Dolores, and you attempted to do it in an underhand manner.
I purposely hyperbolized so that light strand would get the point I was trying to make. And yes, it’s the same thing, differing only by a matter of degree. Yes, the real situation is not nearly as dire. I still don’t think it’s acceptable, however.
The comparison involving non-refundable plane tickets was ridiculous; I’m sorry, but to compare such a minor issue here as to who gets which Fridays off to one in which someone is forced to cancel vacation plans makes no sense, like I said when I replied to it.
I dug up the thread; it was threemae who I was thinking of; I can only apologize and say there’s a lot of Dopers who are only faintly familiar to me, and both your names start with lowercase-“t”. Clearly I completely misremembered the thread, and I shouldn’t have brought it up without knowing for certain who posted what.
But I simply do not believe I have any history of targeting you or insulting you in particular; if you feel that I’ve done so, I would like you to find some examples because I think you’re making af false accusation here.
I can’t remember all of those threads, and I’m certainly not going to go searching for them. I just remember often reading some of your comments to me and thinking “Jesus Christ, what the fuck have I ever done to you?” If you’re really curious, you can search for the trainwreck of a cat thread, though I’m sure we’d both like to not dig that up again. And you can go back about a year for a titty thread. I think the title was something like “Get Your Big Breasts (rant) Here.” But that’s a pretty minor example. It didn’t really piss me off, but it did make me wonder why you were being a little jerkish.
tdn & Excalibre: Did you want to go back into the alley and settle this? 
This thread obviously touched the nerves on a lot of us. How about a group apology?
I’ll apolgize to **light strand **, my observation served no useful purpose.
Jim
Naw. I considered starting another Pit thread about it and figured it wasn’t worth it. Nor is it worth it to further hijack this one. If he says he was unaware of picking on me, I’ll take him at his word. And I trust he’ll be more conscious of such things in the future.
Love this post. So many people’s lives could be different if they chose your team’s approach - from T to F to all the rest of you. Bravo!
Ok, everybody get out your calandars for 2006. We get paid 26 times a year, every two weeks. The first payday of 2006 is Jan 6. Nobody works holidays. (Well we do, but those are exceptions.) We are an engineering firm.
If a Friday off occurs on a holiday, you get to move your Friday off to the day preceding the holiday. So Nov 24th is a holiday, and a payday. My “Friday off” would be taken on Wednesday (because Thursday the 23rd is also a holiday.) I would get 5 days off in a row, whereas “A” team would have 4 days off, followed by a 3 day weekend on Dec 2nd and 3rd.
Now look at February 17th. That is a payday and a Friday off. President’s day is a holiday, so I would get a 4 day weekend, followed by a 2 day weekend on the 25th-26th. “A” team would have 2 3-day weekends in a row. I personally think it’s better to have more days off in a row.
Any questions?
What is the meaning of Life? 