sniperfang, let me be the first to welcome you to the SDMB. It would be great if all new posters followed your example and lurked for a while before posting. We look forward to hearing more from you.
For me, it’s listening to parents of so-called adults calling with lame-ass excuses about why their kids are screwing up in college when it is WAY TOO LATE to address the issue as a Special Need and even if it wasn’t, it’s obviously not a good excuse for the issue at hand. Meanwhile, it’s not even my job to listen to the sob story; it’s my job to pass you on to the sob story listener.
Advertising “Salesdrone” checking in here :dubious:
I was gong to say that the worst part of my job is entering garage sale classified ads.
However in light of your post I feel I need to change it to dealing with people who think that sales people are Chimps.
It is my job to make cold calls. I know you may not of heard about our magazine, but it may be a good way for you to hit the people your service/goods are inteneded for. If you stop getting pissy at me for doing my job maybe you will find a good advertising match for your company.
I hate making cold calls, I know it isn’t always appreciated by companies. However if I sat back and waited for advertisers to come to me I wouldn’t be doing my job.
I do my level best to make sure I know about the company and who to contact about advertising however knowing that Bob in accounting handles all advertising is difficult without someone letting me know. If you don’t handle it GREAT! Tell me who does and I won’t waste your time.
Your right, that does feel better!
Barrels
Wow run on sentences and bad spelling! I’m batting 1000 today!
I hate:
Writing grants that don’t/shouldn’t say what I want them to.
Marketing our programs. (Jeez, marketing appeared nowhere in the job description!)
Producing our newsletter. (PageMaker was devised in Hell by the combined infernalness of a thousand demons)
Only one week left! 
Yup, I hear you there! And how about when you get the thing working and have to move it into, say, an Oracle FinApps system, and the report magically gets RESIZED?
Don’t ya just love it?
I just discovered a new one today. My old ones don’t apply as they are job specific and I don’t do that job any more.
My new one needs a bit of explaining. I’m currently being trained to be a flooring specialist at Home Depot. I’m excited about this. I love flooring and it’s the job I wanted when I applied. My fellow trainee and I were shadowing an experienced specialist while he closed out a sale. This was our first day on the floor. We don’t know a damn thing about the job, contract laws, the products, etc. I found out today that she actually didn’t want to be a specialist. She wanted to be a regular sales associate ( no clue why - specialists make more money).
My coworker wouldn’t shut the hell up. She just had to talk about all the home improvement jobs she’s done and how her friend got out of paying 6 months worth of rent because her landlord initialed part of the lease contract instead of actually signing it. She felt it was necessary to give her input on stuff she knew nothing about. HELLO!!! We are trainees. We don’t know anything. Shut the hell up and let me listen. The customer doesn’t want to hear about how you’re doing repairs for your landlord. Our trainer has a sales goal to meet and he will not meet it if you make his job take longer because you wont shut the hell up. I want to learn. I want to be the best damn specialist ever because it’s the only way I’ll get a transfer to the new store which is opening in the spring. I don’t need the constant interruptions.
Arrghhh! I’m going to have to work right alongside this woman. I can tell she’s the type to always do this. I am not. It bugs the crap out of me. I’ve been in this store for 3 days and I already can’t wait for the new store to open so I can try to get a transfer.
Also, I want to get licensed for the big stuff - forklifts and such. I was going to some classes for it tomorrow. As soon as I said I wanted to do it, she said she did too. Now, I’ve decided that I’m going to put that training off so I can get some one on one training on the floor while she learns about electric ladders and fork lifts. Hopefully, by the time she’s done, I’ll be able to work on my own and we wont have to interact as much.
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Lab Director who doesn’t know the process, hasn’t read the protocol, may have lied about having a pH.D, can’t run the equipment, can’t perform the assays, keeps contaminating my hood, asks for opinions and then pouts when I don’t agree with his, and has bad breath.
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Medical Director who doesn’t know the process, hasn’t read the protocol, continually deviates from said protocol, thinks I am a drone who should be on-call 24-7 without pay, and won’t follow SOPs or “do” paperwork
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Student who doesn’t know the process, hasn’t read the protocol, is generally a black hole of equipment and supplies, but doesn’t tell me when he used the last of them, sits in my seat, used my lab computer, and answers my phone but doesn’t give me messages, and hassles people on the phone, and is generally a pain in the ass.
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Scientist who in fact *does * know the process, has read the protocol, but is a mopey, pouty baby in the 250lb body of 28 year old man.
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Lab tours. No you *can not *take Bill the rich guy through the clean lab!
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The building manger who told the biohazard people to stop picking mine up, but didn’t bother telling me.
And I didn’t even mention the parking.
I’m a secretary. I hate Friday’s because that’s the day I have to do a weeks worth of filing which is generated by 14 therapists who see approximately 160 children 1 to 2 times per week. Each piece of paper must be placed in a precise place in a subdivided file with eight secured segments, so it’s not like yanking open a folder and shoving the paper in.
I hate it, but I do it, and I’ve learned to do it quickly and efficiently so I can get the HELL OUT OF THE FILE ROOM ASAP.
Otherwise, I love my job.
Two that came to mind today:
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One of the scientists is an irritating petty dictator who periodically needs to be reminded that I don’t report to her, so she needs to leave me the hell alone and let me do my work.
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A 40-year-old co-worker who refuses to learn to use computers properly because she’s “too old” and her generation didn’t grow up with them. :rolleyes:
Ever consider getting a second putty knife so you can keep tension on both sides?
Answering the phone because none of the customer service people could be bothered picking it up or because everyone is on lunch at the same time. I don’t have the necessary programs to answer customer questions because I work in a totally different area, so it’s a waste of my time and the customers time if I’m the person who has to pick up the phone.
My big gripe at the moment isn’t task related but it affects our workplace. We are a music distributor located in an industrial estate and we are open 5 days a week. Opposite us are a Trailervan centre (who also leases the other part of our warehouse) an electrical company whose employees all drive utes, and a courier company. We have between 8 and 11 employees every day, with only 7 carparks between us and what you would call a nature strip about 2 metres wide between the road and the fence(probably a good 30 metres in length).
There are constantly work vehicles and caravans and trailers parked all along the nature strip surrounding our business so that our staff overflow and customers have nowhere to park. I wish people would think of others instead of putting themselves first. Honestly, why can’t the staff of other companies park in front of their own damn business places ?
To top it off, for some unknown reason, we have people come in everyday to ask if we’re the trailervan centre. Right. You walk in the front door and see a display of 100 cd’s but we sell trailervans too. So then they leave their cars in our carpark and walk across the road to the trailervan centre. What the ?! I want to get a big sign the says xxxx Music Customer Parking Only. But I don’t think it would make a difference.
Thanks, Guy. Ive gotta say, I love this board, I think its one of the best damn thing on the net, and thats not just idle hyperbole.
Ive been lurking since June or July, and have had a squillion instances where Ive either cracked up reading a hilarious thread, or wanted to post.
My one-month trial period just started yesterday, but methinks I’ll whip out the visa and sign up this week.
Oh man, I’d love to do that. I love filing. I love anything involving anal-retentive ordering and tidying!
Which is why I work in a museum. No complaints here!
Mother. Fucking. Low volume tests. GAAAHH!! The bane of my existence. I’d rather do twenty BCR-abls or T cell clonalities than one damn SYT-SSX or GIST or fucking AML-ETO.
I hate that damn AML-ETO test. We’re using a kit that was discontinued by Roche months ago, so we’ve been conserving the last few dregs to test the few that come in until we can get a replacement homebrew test online. Translation: we can’t afford the reagents to train anyone else on the damn thing, so it’s all me, baby! I get to do every single one that comes in, even on my week off! Guess where I was this afternoon when I should have been at home relaxing?
It doesn’t help that for some reason our low volume test volume is going through the roof. Within the last week, we had a Ewing’s sarcoma, a synovial sarcoma, an inversion 16, a #%@! AML-ETO, NPM-ALK quants, a GIST, a couple of Her2-neus, and some TEL-AML1s. Freaking NUTS! That’s like two months’ worth of low volume tests normally. And, of course, since each one is only one billed test, it doesn’t look on paper like we’re all that busy. The fact that any one of these tests is the same amount of work as a couple dozen of our higher volume tests just doesn’t register with the higher-ups. So there’s no chance of us hiring any more people to help out with the increased work load.
Yes, I know no one understood any of that. I feel much better anyway.
Hey Barrels - Don’t get me wrong here - I was a sales chimp myself for 5/6 years so I’m not talking from a postion of ignorance. I’ve made hundreds, if not thousands of cold calls myself, so I’ve walked in your shoes, and know exactly how hard a job it is, and how much it blows to make a cold-call to a grumpy buyer. Please try to see it from the other side tho’ eh? I just don’t like dealing with INCOMPETENT sales reps. I am more than happy to deal with reps who (like you seem to be), are professional. When I was selling, (before I went over to the ‘other side’) I thought very much as you do - then I changed sides to buying and it was a real eye-opener. I now completely understand why some buyers can come across as impolite or rude (I’m not/don’t BTW).
Please bear in mind I get about 40-50 incoming phonecalls PER DAY from reps pitching me, and have to handle all of them as well as my other responsibilities. Yes - some of their magazines may well be ideal for my clients - but if they don’t even ask if I’ve even seen a copy of it, before launching into reading/parrotting a sales script - well just how good a title is it going to be, if they won’t invest in hiring people to sell the product who are good at selling?
I’m not having a go because I really do empathise with you - I just want to give you a buyers perspective. I deal with some outstanding salespeople who really know what they’re doing - I don’t think I’m unjustified in having a wee rant against those who don’t.
Bugger - lunch over - got to get back to the grindstone - would you believe the phones ringing?! 
Major annoyance: Because I am neither an engineer or male, some assume that I must not understand a question.
Yesterday, I got a call from a horribly belligerent man. After giving me very little information about his complaint, demanding the Governor’s phone number, and calling me a “pissy, little girl” ( :mad: ), I transferred him to my best guess of the male engineer who could help him. Soon there after, the male engineer emailed that Mr Belligerent’s complaint wasn’t his specialty and I should do my job better. ( :mad: :mad: ) I replied to the male engineer, and copied my supervisor, the following:
Later, my boss walks in and asks if I specifically meant all engineers lacked testicles or just this specific guy.
bingo, exactly the point i failed to make…
salesdrone; one who mindlessly follows a “scripted” response to the exclusion of everything else, will not deviate from the standard corporate line, no creativity, no sentience, no intelligence, a mindless drone
salesperson; someone who professionally interacts with a customer, tailoring the sales pitch to the customer, able to empathize, and more importantly, take “no” for an answer, and not go back to the corporate spew ad infinitum
there are also techdrones;
techdrone; a tech (usually phone support) who simply reads the troubleshooting/tech manual at you, will not deviate from the corporate pitch, will not try “unusual” fixes because they’re not “in the book”
technician; uses a combonation of tech manual, experience, hunches and thinking outside-the-box to try to fix the problem, if it’s not “in the book” no problem, lets try this anyway, it might just work…
Can you tell I had spent the day pitching our companys new magazine? Would you like to be in it? It’s a family publication…
I understand your frustration as well. I was on your side before I switched to this side
Barrels
I think I found my Doper Twin. I served a 5 year electrical apprenticeship and currently work in a similar environment, 'cept I get to order all the parts I need from outside vendors.
I also have to deal with some of the political company issues that pop up from time to time. The good thing about that is it usually takes time for the project to ramp up and by then everyone has a better idea of what they want and where they want it. If the project takes off too fast I usually have to go back and re-do a lot of the work I started. Things change in the early stages (since this is a research and development facility) so much and if the project is actually held up for some amount of time for some reason it seems to be better organised.
Still, my gripe is guys will want me to provide the electrical supply for the thing they want power to (before the thing is even on site or built yet) and by the time the thing gets here the power is either;
A) The wrong voltage and or amperage.
B) Three feet from the actual location it’s needed.
C) Not needed anymore.
Very frustrating because some of the power sources can be several hundred feet from where they need it. One of the engineers here is so terrible with laying out the needs for his equipment that it is probably better to bring the power to any place but where his prints show it. That way you have a better shot of getting lucky and the power drop actually might be in the correct spot, since his plans are always wrong. He is one of the guys I have convinced to wait untill his equipment is set up and in place before we even think about getting power to it.