Work Rants (add yours)

The BBQ Pit
61

Ooh, can we have a bad temp agency contest? My worst experience with them was when I took one of the lamest accounting jobs ever - I did approximately nothing at the assignment in spite of the company being unbelievably busy, because everyone was too busy to train me or give me stuff to do (I’m sure most temps have run across this phenomenon). While I was languishing at this hurry up and wait assignment, I got a call to go to what was to be a permanent seasonal position that I had found on my own, making three times what I was making at the temp assignment.

I called the temp agency and told them I had a permanent job, and I would finish up the week at their assignment and then I would be done with it. They threatened to sue me for breach of contract. For those of you who might not know it, all temp work is extremely at will - I can be told to go home and not come back for any or no reason at all, and the street runs both ways - temps can quit assignments by just not coming back after lunch (and they do - I’ve seen it). I extended them heaps of professional courtesy by offerering to work out the week.

I was freaked out, because I had never been threatened by a temp agency like that before (the threatening was usually much milder). I called everyone I knew and researched, and found out that they had absolutely no legal leg to stand on, and were just trying to intimidate me. If a temp agency tried that again now, I would laugh at them and leave the assignment after I put the phone down. Assholes.

62

(Missed the edit window) This is bringing back memories. They also grilled me about who the new position was with, the name of my new supervisor, how much money I’d be making, and when it was going to start. My answer to all these questions was none of your damned business. They didn’t like that much, either. I feel badly for newbies dealing with temp agencies, who still think that they have to play ball with the agency when they’re way over the line and trying to get away with shit.

Dung Beetle, what you’ve described is exactly why I don’t take jobs with any phone work. I’ll do data entry, filing, photocopying and collating till the cows come home, but I won’t answer phones.

63

I know I posted this before, but here it is again.

A temp agency advertized that if you worked 1500 hours in a calendar year, you’d get 2 weeks vacation pay. I took that to mean that loyalty was rewarded. Instead, what it meant was that they’d screw you with a carrot and stick. I worked something like 1460 hours, and suddenly the work dried up. At a year and a day, there was more work to be had. But no vacation pay.

It took me threatening the VP of the agency to get that money.

64

Honestly. How do some people work out the logistics behind getting out of bed in the morning?

I just got a call from an end user – because our number is in many manuals for a certain brand of lawnmower (which we no longer deal with) and in many engine manuals for a few brands. We can provide technical support to armchair mechanics who want to fix it themselves, but we don’t sell parts to them. They have to go to our clients, the dealers, to get parts.

So, the end user calls me up.

“Hello, um. We bought a lawnmower from That Company about two years ago,” she started. That’s a direct quote, by the way; she really said “That Company.” Flying out of the gate, she is. “…and I think we need to get it fixed, because it’s not working.” I say, Holmes, brilliant deduction!
“And you’re looking for a service center?” I ask.
“Well, yes, I guess so.”
“Alright, for what manufacturer?” Because the tarot cards failed to reveal the true name of That Company.
“What do you mean?” she asks. I always ask the hard questions.
“I mean, who made the lawnmower?”
“Oh. Um … Briggs & Stratton.”
This tells me it is probably a Murray lawn tractor. They usually used Briggs engines, and we used to supply parts for the tractor itself, but Briggs bought the entire company in late '05, thus their distributor, and our competition, now handles them. Just to be sure though, I asked.
“That would be the engine, so the lawnmower is a Murray product?”
“It is a Briggs and Stratton.”
“No, that wold be the engine. The lawnmower would be made by another company, probably Murray, and we no longer handle Murray products because they are now owned by Briggs and Stratton. I am assuming you got our phone number from the manual, correct?”
“Um, yes.”
“Okay, so if it has a Briggs engine and our number appears in the lawnmower manual, then it is probably a Murray product, correct?”
“Um, I don’t know.”
“Okay, the manual that you got our number out of…”
“Yes.”
“What company does it say on the front?”
“Murray.”
“Right, so it is a Murray product. I will give you their phone number.”
“But it says to call you for parts.”
“Yes, we used to handle their parts, but they were bought out by Briggs and Stratton some time ago, so now Briggs handles all of their parts.”
“Oh. I see. So where do I have to go to get parts?”
“You will have to call Briggs and Stratton. I will give you their number…”

Honestly. I think the sound waves coming from the telephone receiver dislodge some people’s brains when they call.

These are not that common though so I can’t really count them as a recurring rant. The ones I can call recurring are some of the idiot dealers who, much like Gleena’s clientèle, thoroughly fail to prepare when making a call.

Them: “Yeah, I’d like to place an order.” (This is the entirety of their introduction)
Me: “Okay, what is your account number?”
Them: “Oh. I dunno.”
Me: :smack:
So I end up having to search by company name. I make a point of giving them their account number – apparently so they can fail to write it down for next time.
Of course, then it comes time to order the parts, and then they have once again filed to do any work on their own, like look up the parts they actually need on the breakdowns they all have, which means I have to do their work for them. And then, often as not with these types, they give me the name of something they’re looking for that is not actually called that by anyone in the industry, which leaves me to try and figure out what the hell they’re talking about by getting them to describe it and where it’s located on the engine. Then I’m like, “Oh, you mean the valve keeper?” And they say, “Yeah, what I said.”

No, you said “the thing on the end of the valve.” Spring thing, keeper thing, or retainer thing?

And then they get the part the next day and call up to complain that I gave them the wrong part.

Dumbasses.

65

Oooo! Just reminded me of another one!

When I quote you a rate of $X, that means $X. Your company policy is to provide vacation and holidays to contractors. Cool. But that does not mean $X/hour minus the hours you won’t be able to bill for. It means I want $X per hour. And if you agree to $X, don’t send me the contract for anything less than $X/hour and tell me you modified it for the difference!

66

I love my boss. I really do.

But I WISH SHE HAD A BETTER MEMORY!! :mad:

I’m rather tired of her getting mad at me when I do something SHE has requested, and then says “Oh, no, I didn’t tell you to do that!”.

Grrrr…

Luckily, she doesn’t hold a grudge.

And could people not sound like I just peed on their fucking head and ruined their whole day when I answer the phone, please? I swear to God, some of them talk to me like I just killed their puppies.

67

You can watch, if you want. :wink:

68

This story has made my day. :smiley:

69

OMO!, you work for sears? Whether you do or not, this sounds just like the four years I spent at a parts and repair center.

Now I get crazy Harley warranty questions (H-D is pretty good about covering many things no sane company would cover). I had a service advisor come to me yesterday with a question that was really more of a joke, and she knew it, but she shared it anyway so she could tell the customer she had asked. The customer had a product campaign on his bike for the fuel injectors, he still had the 8deg ones, instead of the revised 25deg. So of course his bike liked to “sneeze”, some sort of lean condition with bubbles of richness in the mixture I guess, causes weird symptoms like a sneeze. Really more of an anoyance than anything. So this customer tells the service advisor that he dropped the bike on the freeway because of the “sneeze” and damaged his engine guard “so will H-D cover the engine guard because the injectors caused that?”. no. Maybe if it was a recall instead of a campaign, but it wasnt.

Well, back to hoping the 3in stack of paperwork will magically vaporise in the next 10 minutes.
Fry

70

Not Sears, no. But in these situations I don’t think it matters where you work, because the people you deal with all seem to study the same bathroom reader. My consolation is that we rarely deal with anyone in person. Being a distributor means there’s a dealer between us and the customer (most of the time) who head off the real stupidity. Many still manage to pay it forward in the form of their own dumbassery though, and there are still some customers who contact us for technical assistance or who are unaware of our actual role in the scheme of things, so we aren’t completely shielded. Still, it has allowed me to heal some from my previous job at Black & Decker, right on the front lines, which was the epitome of “soul crushing.”

71

Wow. I could almost swear that you’re posting in English, but I can’t make any sense of your post at all (somebody had a funny problem with a motorcycle is all I’m getting from it). And please, I beg you, don’t explain it to me. :smiley:

72

Is the CFO Mrs. Major Major Major?

73

Hmm, guess it really is all giberish.

Let me translate, Customers can be idiots.
Fry

74

I work in a factory, formerly as an apprenticing electrician but due to recent reductions and layoffs I’m working the production line. It’s just as horrifically hot and as mind-numbingly boring as you’d expect.

My new job assignment includes reaching into certain models to attach a part in an area that’s just dripping with goopy slimy sealer adhesive. (Sealer gets sandwiched in between pieces of metal to help prevent leaks/squeaks, there are different types for different areas on the vehicle.) I have an allergic reaction to this particular type of sealer, discovered this years ago and have since been able to avoid any assignments that would put me into contact with it.

By the third day of the new assignment, one arm and part of my torso looked like raw hamburger. Seriously itchy raw hamburger. We have health and safety representatives, although neither the company rep nor the union rep return my phone calls, so I go to the in-house medical department for assistance. This begins a round of “You’re not really allergic, perhaps you used a new fabric softener or something, but have some steroids to clear it up.” and “Oh, it didn’t clear up, try wearing extra barriers to keep it off you, that’ll do it.” and “Huh, well let’s try a job restriction saying you can’t be in contact with it and more steroids to clear it up.” and then the very best answer ever: “Well, the doctor you saw before isn’t here, I’m here, and I think you’re just scamming to try and get a different assignment, I don’t see a rash at all and even if one ever existed, there’s no real proof it’s from the sealer.”

Could it be that you don’t see a rash because getting away from the irritant and taking the 'roids cleared it up? This little appointment, in fact, was supposed to be a recheck to see if it had indeed healed, as the original doc was expecting. I don’t want a lot, really, just a job to come to every day that doesn’t make my skin blister. There are, in fact, literally hundreds of operations I can be reassigned to without any sealer involved! But that would mean admitting it’s causing the problem and we can’t do that, of course.

Calling me a liar was just icing, when I asked him to review my file and count how many restrictions or reassignments I’ve had in my thirteen-year tenure with the company (one in 1995, thanks) he dismissed that evidence of my non-skeeviness as unimportant. Employees lie and scam and cheat and I’m an employee, QED. Took every bit of restraint I possessed not to go all Springer on his ass.

So then I wind up with Doc Pinhead ordering me to wear coveralls to protect me. (Read the file in front of you, we tried that, it’s liquid stuff and soaks thru.)
He orders me to wear extra protective sleeves and an apron. (Read you dumbass! Already tried that too, and could you maybe quit trying to pile more layers on me, it is nearing a hundred degrees on the shop floor and it’s only May!)
He then tries to amend the order to rubber/plastic protective clothing. (It’s a body shop, we take sharp raw-edged metal and make stuff out of it using fire, rubber and or plastic would either immediately get shredded or melted to me.)

So his next logical step is ordering protective plastic coveralls to be worn under heavy-duty denim coveralls. The plastic ones are made of Tyvek and only utilized by maintenence folks in the paint department when they have to enter the spray booths to repair something, since they get slimed by paint overspray.

Tyvek? Y’know, the stuff we insulate houses with, that Tyvek? Wrap myself in plastic, then another layer of denim, then work ten hours in one hundred degree heat? Are you fucking kidding me?!

Sadly, this is what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks, since no one in Health & Safety could find a rule saying I didn’t have to.

The good news is, no more sealer rash on my arm/torso. So it worked!

The bad news is I’m heat rashed all over my body. We’re talking literally soaking wet with sweat by 7:00 am and continuing to sweat all day long. Wanna guess how many places I’m chafed?

A sympathetic nurse activated the secret call out system, alerting a union person that today was the non-Pinhead doctor’s last day and that she’d reserved an appointment for me. Union guy then got over to my department and told my boss I had an appt in medical, where of course the original doc looked aghast at what I was wearing and immediately changed the orders to something more sensical. (Getting the maintence department to adjust the robot applying the sealer to a less excessively goopy level and finding a plastic-lined denim sleeve I can use.)

So it appears to be solved as of this afternoon and I’m hoping to heal up over the weekend, yay me.

I hate Dr.Pinhead.

75

I work as a student employee in a college bookstore. I truly love my job, as it’s flexible to my class times, my co-workers and management completely fail to suck, and it’s summer so all the cute girls on campus are wearing next to nothing. 99% of the customers at worst are apathetic towards my existence, or actively friendly.

But that 1%… That fucking 1%…

  1. No, I CAN’T do anything about the prices of textbooks. I’m a student too, I have to pay $99.95 for Begining Alchemy too. Yes, it sucks. Yelling at me won’t do anything.

  2. See there on the bottom of the recipt? Where it says “Last day for returns XX/YY/ZZ”? That means that you can’t return textbooks after that date. Period. No exceptions. Yes, it sucks. Yelling at me won’t do anything. (Actually there are rare exceptions but only in extremely extenuating circumstances, like you were dead that day or something).

  3. Yes, I can see that your mom has given you her credit card so you can buy your books. That’s very nice of your mom. A handwritten note from her is NOT enough for us to take it. We need a faxed document from her authorizing he purchase. No, we can’t talk to her on your cell phone except to tell her to fax us the document. No, no, no.

  4. Scantrons? Yes, we have them. Right there in the middle of the store under the gigantic yellow sign that says “SCANTRONS”. Try looking up, fuckhat.

5a) Or reading signs in general. You’ve just walked into a building clearly labeled “BOOKSTORE”. Asking me if we are the bookstore, and/or if we have books makes me wonder what if anything you’ve been studying.
5b) You also walked past three signs that specifically state that textbooks are upstairs (more space up there). Why do you persist on asking me where the damn books are?
5c) Upstairs, please stop asking me if you can pay for the books upstairs directly below the sign that says in big bright clear letters “ALL CASHIERS ARE ON THE FIRST FLOOR”.

  1. If you’d come in before he first day of classes to buy your books, you wouldn’t HAVE to stand in that long line. Bitching about me about the line is like complaining to your doctor about the length of your toenails. NOT MY GODDAMN PLANET, MONKEY-BOY!
    Sheesh. Minor, minor rants but… How did these people get into college, let alone out of high school?
76

Look, we have a STAFF bathroom for a reason. Please, please, please, PLEASE do not let the kids use the STAFF bathroom. You know the signs we have everywhere around the kids’ bathrooms? The ones that say “for the love of all that’s good and holy, don’t piss and/or shit and/or bleed all over the floor/walls/ceiling/sink/shower; if you do, clean it up”? We put those up for a reason, the same reason we don’t ever want kids using the staff bathroom. I don’t care if you’re trying to make the process of getting all the kids in and out of the bathroom faster; I do NOT want to have to deal with what they leave behind. Especially when we have ONE cleaning woman for the entire campus, and she’s not here on weekend.

Never mind the fact that it’s a violation of policy, as the staff bathroom is where we keep all the dangerous cleaning supplies. :smack:

77

DIRECT DEPOSIT.

Join the modern world and stop making me schlep to the bank twice a month, you dimwitted technophobes.

If you can’t be a grown up company with nice normal grown up pay procedures then please stop encasing the goddamned checks in three layers of perforated paper that I have to spend fifteen minutes pulling apart.

The paycuts were bad enough. The paper cuts are inexcusable.

78

That’s really a lovely line, Lavender.

(Ever get a file folder cut? You wouldn’t think you could get a paper cut from paper that thick, but if you get it lined up just…right…)

79

Oh god, I have. It was huge and hurt like hell. Not to mention it was hard to explain.

80

Yes! those things hurt.

I distrust all new file folders, and prefer to re-use them whereever possible. I just tell the co-workers I don’t like to waste office supplies. :slight_smile: