# Workplace griping, anyone? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 12, 2010, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401 "2010-11-12T06:39:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 123
**Author:** ![The\_Lurker\_Above](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Lurker\_Above](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lurker_Above)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2442 "2011-11-03T02:44:44Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > It’s fun to watch the auditors’ heads go all explodey when they find out that I have a teller drawer. If I was the dishonest type having access to a cash drawer and the vault would make it too easy for me to engage in some creative bookkeeping if you know what I mean. We get doinked by the auditors for it every year but the boss refuses to take me off the teller line. That would require either _gasp_ hiring someone else or making sure the people we do have show up. Heh. Every time I read about your job I’m sure we’re twins separated at birth. It took 2 years from when I moved from front-of-house to accounting before they took my till away and stopped using me to cover when short staffed. In fact there were several months where accounting-me was solely responsible for auditing front-desk-me’s work. And yes, it’s scary how easily one can rip off the place when that happens (not that I would of course). After a few audits my boss finally convinced the GM and other managers not to use me for anything involving cash/postings. But then the GM gave me one shift a week where I have completely unfettered and unsupervised access to all stock. :smack: I’m glad to do it for the résumé boost, but I can’t wait to see the auditors’ reactions this year. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2443 "2011-11-03T03:37:57Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > **Cat Whisperer** , I’m in Indiana. But your story makes me wonder if your bank converted to the same shitty system we did.\ That would explain it - it is just never-ending problems with my bank’s new system. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2444 "2011-11-03T15:32:17Z")
Someone talk me out of quitting my job, please? I’m getting raked over the coals because an automatically generated report isn’t what the auditors want to see. I have nothing to do with the creation of this report nor any of the data in this report. I couldn’t create or manipulate this in any way even if I wanted to! But because I’m the one who printed it and gave it to the auditors when they asked me for it, it’s all my fault. And boss, if you want to know why the auditors wanted it, maybe you should’ve been here yesterday instead of taking the afternoon off. Did you think they weren’t going to want anything else just because you weren’t here? Auditors aren’t here today or tomorrow, they’ll be back Monday. My opinion of my boss has slipped considerably since this conversion. I used to think she was a pretty decent boss until I started to realize just how little research into this new system was done before we jumped in with both feet. Christ Almighty, the temptation to drop my keys on her desk, gather up my plant and coffee mug, and say “see ya, it’s your problem now” is enormous. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2445 "2011-11-03T15:48:08Z")
Isn’t this where the heartless crowd gathers underneath the ledge and hollers “Jump! Jump!”? Seriously, just like suicide, quitting may be a permanent solution to a temporary problem, with the added bonus that your problems are not over, you just get new ones. Chances are against any other place you find to work being any better, anyway. Barring a sudden access to wealth, you’re going to have to find work, and (as this thread reminds us daily) working sucks a lot. Here are a couple of other clichés to tide you over: This too shall pass. No-one is indispensable, even you. The trick is making sure your boss never finds out. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. All better? Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2446 "2011-11-03T15:59:07Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. You have no idea how many times I tell myself that. Anyways, I’ve talked myself out of quitting, at least for today. Chocolate cupcakes will help with that. And if I quit they won’t pay me my banked sick time. So you guys will just have to listen to me whine some more! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AlienVessels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba8739/32.png) [@AlienVessels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlienVessels)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2447 "2011-11-03T15:59:45Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > No-one is indispensable, even you. I hear this quite often. I’ve never been persuaded of it. There are many, many business that an intelligent and knowledgeable person could enter and select key individuals that if you replaced them with the typical applicant, would bring down the company. I’ve seen it happen many times. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2448 "2011-11-03T17:30:12Z")
> [@AlienVessels](#): > > I hear this quite often. I’ve never been persuaded of it. > > There are many, many business that an intelligent and knowledgeable person could enter and select key individuals that if you replaced them with the typical applicant, would bring down the company. > > I’ve seen it happen many times. Sure, a few key individuals, in a small company. There are maybe four of us in my company the disappearance of whom all at the same time would be cause for great wailing and gnashing of teeth, followed by difficulties bordering on chaos. But this would pass and the remaining people would pick up the pieces and move on. No one person would have even that effect. Maybe in a much smaller company, but I believe **Dr. Girlfriend** works in a bank? I don’t see a bank having a lot of problems if one person left. p.s. “I’ve seen it happen many times.” Really? I’m afraid this has knocked over my BS meter. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2449 "2011-11-03T19:23:13Z")
Does “total beffudlement” go here? I just got fired from the new job I started one month ago, with no explanation. I’ve got no problem with the “fired after a short time” part, I just have no idea what bee got up whose ass. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2450 "2011-11-03T20:01:53Z")
\*\*Nava,\*\*I don’t know what Spanish laws are, but around these parts, if you get fired for cause, they have to tell you the cause. I think. I’ve never been fired. Yet … NiceSweetCoworker, I know you live in a world of sunshine and rainbows and lots of church and don’t have experience [del]being raised by[/del] dealing with crazy psycho bitches like our Grandboss. But please _please_ stop tap-dancing around trying to anticipate what will or won’t set her off. You’re just wasting your time and energy, and mine, and everyone else’s. After a few co-workers left some lunches to rot and fuzz up in the breakroom fridge a few months ago, Grandboss decided that All Food Items Shall Be Labelled. Fine - reasonable, actually. She hung up a not-too-terribly passive-aggressive note on the fridge with a big, fat black Sharpie. Yesterday evening, NiceSweetCoworker noticed that the Sharpie was _gasp_ gone. GONE! Oh noes!! She sent an email asking if anyone had seen it. She went from desk to desk of the people who’d already left. She started panicking. I sighed, and told her there were more in the supply drawer. “But what if she notices it’s different?!?” Oh, my sweet Jesus on a cracker, woman. If nothing else, markers run out of ink eventually. Getting all bent out of shape because Psycho Grandboss \*might \*notice that a different marker is hanging diligently on the fridge, and \*might \*then freak out over that? Bitch, please - if she does lose her shit over something like that then maybe she’d finally go over the line and get her ass fired. The relief on NiceSweetCoworker’s face when the big fat Sharpie Of The Angels showed up was … almost sickening. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2451 "2011-11-03T21:26:38Z")
Popped back in to say that I never anticipated saying the following in a corporate setting: “Why am I the expert around here in all things whore?” That was after I had to explain the concept of a whore’s bath to a couple of the girls I work with. They thought it meant taking a shower without washing your hair. (!) Much back-and-forth discussion ensued, until they came to me - the expert, apparently - to intercede and provide confirmation. (Which one of them _still_ didn’t believe until she looked it up on Urban Dictionary. Man, IT must get a huge kick out of seeing our Internet trails…) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2452 "2011-11-04T00:28:54Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Popped back in to say that I never anticipated saying the following in a corporate setting: > > “Why am I the expert around here in all things whore?” > > That was after I had to explain the concept of a whore’s bath to a couple of the girls I work with. They thought it meant taking a shower without washing your hair. (!) Much back-and-forth discussion ensued, until they came to me - the expert, apparently - to intercede and provide confirmation. (Which one of them _still_ didn’t believe until she looked it up on Urban Dictionary. Man, IT must get a huge kick out of seeing our Internet trails…) This made me laugh, thank you for that! 🆒 **Nava** , that royally sucks, I don’t know what else to say! **Roderick Femm** , teeny-tiny nitpick, I work for a credit union not a bank. We’re so short staffed right now that believe me, they’d notice if I wasn’t there. Although maybe the branch manager would get up off of his ass and do something. But I wouldn’t be there to see it. I think the audit is winding down… and my vacation starts 11/23 at 5pm, and I’ll have a week and a half off. Counting the days. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2453 "2011-11-04T02:35:29Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > The report you were waiting on wasn’t sent because they didn’t think your email worked. > > I’m going to be off for a month starting on Tuesday. This has been known for 6 months. This is not a surprise to anyone. I’ll be in contact by phone and email. Nobody will die if boxes don’t get put on shelves. All of a sudden, its OMG, Flatlined are you going to have time to do this, what do we do if that happens. :smack: Yes, I understand you’re going to be having an operation. Do us a favor, and break Shredder Guy’s leg before you leave. He can have the next bed in your hospital room, and we won’t have to go a whole month with no SG stories! Also: Good luck with the procedure. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2454 "2011-11-04T02:38:41Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Sure, a few key individuals, in a small company. There are maybe four of us in my company the disappearance of whom all at the same time would be cause for great wailing and gnashing of teeth, followed by difficulties bordering on chaos. But this would pass and the remaining people would pick up the pieces and move on. > > No one person would have even that effect. Maybe in a much smaller company, but I believe **Dr. Girlfriend** works in a bank? I don’t see a bank having a lot of problems if one person left. > > p.s. “I’ve seen it happen many times.” Really? I’m afraid this has knocked over my BS meter. > Roddy You’ve never had to deal with corporate stupidity? Getting rid of the expensive employees, who are the ones the do the work of two and know more than four and replacing them with newbies working for minimum wage? Lucky you. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2455 "2011-11-04T02:43:02Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Yes, I understand you’re going to be having an operation. Do us a favor, and break Shredder Guy’s leg before you leave. He can have the next bed in your hospital room, and we won’t have to go a whole month with no SG stories! > > Also: Good luck with the procedure. 🙂 You are an evil, evil man. I like that. **flatlined** , good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2456 "2011-11-04T05:45:44Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > \*\*Nava,\*\*I don’t know what Spanish laws are, but around these parts, if you get fired for cause, they have to tell you the cause. > > I think. > > I’ve never been fired. > > Yet … Well, first, “fired” isn’t quite the term since I’m self-employed, and second it would be a bit complicated since it happens to be two instances of intra-EU commerce: I sell my services to an agency in the UK, which in turn sells them to a company in Spain. The official wording has been “her performance has not been what we expected”, but nothing that would actually give me information on what to improve. I’m tossing it into the big file labeled “bad fits”, but I still would like to know what exactly did they not like, or whether it was a matter of: - we need two people, - and may need an additional person to cover for someone who may or may not be leaving depending on whether she’s accepted into art school, - and we have someone who may be interested in coming in but it’s not sure, - so instead of two people, let’s ask the agencies for three and, depending on how things end up working out, pick one or two to drop. In the end, the art school person is in art school and the replacement who was waffling on it until last week did join in… so the above is not just something taken out of my left elbow. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2457 "2011-11-04T09:59:26Z")
Update: on top of the painting, sounproofing installation, spray-adhesive application of baseboards, etc., on Wednesday night the Powers that Be decided to clean the carpets throughout the office with some kind of noxious, nasty-smelling stuff. To which I am apparently also allergic. This is work we had previously been informed was to be performed Friday after everyone left, to allow the fumes to dissipate over the weekend. I tried my best to spend yesterday in my office with the door shut to avoid the fumes, but I do need to do things like get files, meet with other people (not practical even with colleagues, let alone clients, in my shared, maybe 6 \* 6 office with tons of files and no spare chair), photocopy, and maybe even use the bathroom once in a while. By the end of the day, I was in full-on bronchiospasm. I should have just said “fuck it” and left, but there were some urgent things I was trying to get out the door. I felt much better as soon as I left, but I just woke up coughing at 3 a.m., and I swear if today goes like yesterday did, I will just get up and leave. I mean I’d like to think of myself as a conscientious employee, but hell if I’m going to end up in the ER with an asthma attack because management thought it was more important to save a few bucks on carpet cleaning. ---
**Author:** ![AlienVessels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba8739/32.png) [@AlienVessels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlienVessels)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2458 "2011-11-04T10:52:06Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Sure, a few key individuals, in a small company. There are maybe four of us in my company the disappearance of whom all at the same time would be cause for great wailing and gnashing of teeth, followed by difficulties bordering on chaos. But this would pass and the remaining people would pick up the pieces and move on. > > No one person would have even that effect. Maybe in a much smaller company, but I believe **Dr. Girlfriend** works in a bank? I don’t see a bank having a lot of problems if one person left. > > p.s. “I’ve seen it happen many times.” Really? I’m afraid this has knocked over my BS meter. It helps when you go on repos and ride alongs on bankruptcies of companies you’ve worked with fairly deeply over a period of years. It also helps when that industry works on perilously low profit margins. And to cap it off, it helps when the output of said companies is bottlenecked by technology. Perhaps you need a new meter that is calibrated for experiences you may not have? There are lots of companies that are wrapped around one person’s vision and know how. I include in my definition of “bring down” packaging the company for sale to another. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2459 "2011-11-04T11:17:29Z")
**Eva Luna** , some of those cleaning products are irritants which can cause coughing fits and irritation of nose, eyes, mouth, skin and lungs without being allergic to them. There’s a reason they have all those warnings about “use in a well-ventilated space”, and it’s not to avoid drowning dust mites. I realize yours is probably the kind of business which doesn’t have weeks where the place is simply shut down, and there’s probably people in at the weirdest hours, but one of the many reasons why lots of maintenance work is done off-hours or during vacation periods is safety issues. Having less people around means less danger to people who are unprotected and/or untrained. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2460 "2011-11-04T14:03:07Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > **Eva Luna** , some of those cleaning products are irritants which can cause coughing fits and irritation of nose, eyes, mouth, skin and lungs without being allergic to them. There’s a reason they have all those warnings about “use in a well-ventilated space”, and it’s not to avoid drowning dust mites. > > I realize yours is probably the kind of business which doesn’t have weeks where the place is simply shut down, and there’s probably people in at the weirdest hours, but one of the many reasons why lots of maintenance work is done off-hours or during vacation periods is safety issues. Having less people around means less danger to people who are unprotected and/or untrained. ::: heavy sigh :: Oh, I know. Sadly, I am not in a position to do much of anything about any of it, except leave. It doesn’t make much practical difference in the end whether my reaction to the fumes is a true allergy or not - the end result is still breathing problems, which disappear as soon as I leave. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/2461 "2011-11-04T15:03:25Z")
_Eva Luna_ I can sympathize. After being diagnosed with asthma I notice my breathing a lot more (before I only noticed when it was really bad ykwim?) and the cleaning chemicals are nasty. I tend to have trouble after they deep clean the floor and carpets, heck even when the guy comes and replaces the mats those alone have such a stench to them but there’s not a lot to be done. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=122) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=124)