# 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:** 153
**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:** [January 30, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3042 "2012-01-30T21:38:02Z")
Yeah, if you grab it out of your home freezer that morning and keep it with an ice pack in an insulated small space, it won’t even thaw through, let alone go bad, assuming you eat it for lunch that day. They start out frozen solid - it takes a lot of time and heat energy for something that dense to warm up. You’ll be fine - and the food bandit will go hungry. 🙂 Or move on to a new victim. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3043 "2012-01-30T21:40:46Z")
> [@rockle](#): > > The Lunch Bandit is up to his old tricks again. In the past 10 days, I have had my lunch taken out of the freezer twice (including today), plus they took a whole container of cream cheese and two bottles of flavored creamer. 1. Get new bottle of creamer. 2. Pour creamer into another bottle and keep at home. 3. Refill empty bottle with spoiled milk. 4. Take that bottle to work and leave it in the fridge. 5. Problem solved! ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3044 "2012-01-30T22:00:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I’m not missing the point at all. I’m saying that it’s BULLSHIT that Amazon is allowed to insert themselves into that portion of the transaction. It appears that Amazon is charging a percentage of the gross payment amount, regardless of whether the payment includes shipping, taxes, etc. on top of the item cost. The effect is to reduce the portion retained as revenue by the seller by 2.9% of the tax collected, as the full tax amount must be remitted to the government. This can significantly eat into the seller’s profit margins. ---
**Author:** ![Mom-of-Andrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@Mom-of-Andrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mom-of-Andrew)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3045 "2012-01-30T22:51:30Z")
Sore throat. Ugh. I do not have time to be sick. I mean, I never have time to be sick. But this is particularly bad. We’re less than two weeks away from a major event my church is hosting. Bringing in national speakers, groups attending from up to a couple hundred miles away, major. The woman in charge is so over her head she’s passed through two thermocline layers. I’m supposed to be in charge of set-up & take down, but I’ve kind of attached myself to the facilities team as well. I’m the only one that I know of in this whole mess with any meeting planning experience. We’ve got a couple of party planners on the decorating teams, but their biggest shindig was 100 or so people. We’ve got nearly 1,500 folks over a two day event. (Granted, my biggest meeting was only 450. But it was for an entire week at a venue two states away, with attendees from half the country. I know how some of this works) Woman In Charge (WIC) keeps sending out emails about how to market the event and solicit donations and is very light on logistics. One team leader didn’t know the area she was assigned had to hold four different teams – she thought she had all of the space to herself. I had to give her a map to show her where she would be. A couple of things I’ve asked about WIC says, “We’ll decide that when the national director arrives.” Umm, no we can’t. She gets here two days before the event. We need at least a week’s notice if we need to rent equipment or linens or things. So the facilities director and I are working things out and we’ll just present them during the walk-through. If they want them changed, WIC can figure out how to do it. I’ll implement it, but if she’s going to change the plan then she’s going to work out the details. This is the first thing the church is having in a newly renovated education building. They’re hoping to offer it as conference space when the church isn’t using it. It would bring in some welcome revenue and allow us to make greater contacts in the area. If this conference goes well, the church staff will be a lot better disposed toward the whole business side of it. There’s even talk of a part time (paid) co-ordinator. I would be so perfect for that gig! But if this goes badly, then it could set everything back. By a lot. And no part-time, set-your-own-hours, bring-your-kid-if-you-need-to, cushy gig for Mom-of-Andrew. (Why yes, it is all about me. Why do you ask?) So stupid sore throat. I’m drinking tea and going to bed early tonight. So there! ---
**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:** [January 31, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3046 "2012-01-31T00:27:22Z")
Don’t forget: gargle with salt water. Often staves off a throat bug for me … ---
**Author:** ![Mom-of-Andrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@Mom-of-Andrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mom-of-Andrew)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3047 "2012-01-31T00:34:33Z")
Thanks! I had forgotten… ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3048 "2012-01-31T00:47:26Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > It appears that Amazon is charging a percentage of the gross payment amount, regardless of whether the payment includes shipping, taxes, etc. on top of the item cost. The effect is to reduce the portion retained as revenue by the seller by 2.9% of the tax collected, as the full tax amount must be remitted to the government. This can significantly eat into the seller’s profit margins. Yes, I’m aware of all of those fees. 😉 This is a new surcharge starting on Feb 1 that affects only the sales tax amounts we’ve been able to collect just the last couple of months. They had been grouped in with our shipping charges, which don’t get charged the Amazon commission. My gripe is: 1.) We had not been able to collect sales tax from customers using our Amazon store until a couple of months ago; we would have to remit them anyway out of our net sales. ☹ 2.) Amazon recently incorporated a way for us to collect those taxes from the customer. 🙂 3.) Starting Feb 1, they’re adding a surcharge for this “service”. :mad: Granted, it isn’t a lot of money for us. It just seems petty and manipulative. ---
**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:** [January 31, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3049 "2012-01-31T00:48:18Z")
> [@Mom-of-Andrew](#): > > \ > > So stupid sore throat. I’m drinking tea and going to bed early tonight. So there! Make it honey tea, too - I saw an article on the news recently that honey actually does help with colds and flus and stuff. It can’t hurt, right? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3050 "2012-01-31T17:37:27Z")
Office buddy: it truly does not matter that the name of the procedure is printed in section C instead of section B, because **they are in the same goddamn report**. (Also, please note that section C is reserved entirely for listing procedure names.) ---
**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:** [January 31, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3051 "2012-01-31T17:39:27Z")
Why’s your office buddy getting a C-section done? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3052 "2012-01-31T22:22:54Z")
UPS - why is your pickup guy not here yet? I have expensive experimental medication in a few large boxes that needs to be shipped back to the manufacturer. The study monitor told you to pick it up by 3:30. You called her back and said no, 4:00. We said fine. It’s after 4. I have been at work since 6 am. I want to go home. It’s not like I don’t have work to do; I have plenty, I could stay at work for days and not be caught up as I’ve been trying to do the work for two people for the last three months. But I’m tired and didn’t have time for lunch or anything more than a granola bar for breakfast, and I want to go **home** , dammit. Meanwhile, expensive medication sits in boxes in my office and must go out today. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3053 "2012-02-01T00:17:47Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Why’s your office buddy getting a C-section done? 😃 At the rate he’s going, I don’t think he’s getting any section done. 😃 There was free cake in the break room today, but I didn’t go get a slice…the last work cake I had was so nasty that I’m afraid it completely turned me off of free cake. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3054 "2012-02-01T11:16:50Z")
Job interview. At least this one was over the phone and not after making me travel to wherever. First question: “do you speak English?” No, dude, those postgrad degrees from a university in the USA and one in the UK? Lessons were in Bable. 7 years total living in those two countries, plus several other projects which say “working language English”? I just pointed at the screen a lot. I so fuckin’ hate it when they haven’t even looked at the bloody resume. ---
**Author:** ![Qwakkeddup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Qwakkeddup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwakkeddup)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3055 "2012-02-01T13:51:02Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Job interview. At least this one was over the phone and not after making me travel to wherever. > > First question: “do you speak English?” > I so fuckin’ hate it when they haven’t even looked at the bloody resume. But, but, it’s on the script! Can’t expect to be interviewed without **The Script**! Interviews will be outsourced to India someday, then you will have to deal with the accent too! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3056 "2012-02-01T15:49:24Z")
UPS apparently got another employee in my department to open my office, so the packages are on their way. So, a petty backup rant: My office is across the hall from the women’s bathroom, and it echoes tremendously in there. I used to think the worst sound from there was screaming children. I was wrong. It’s the sound of a woman who works in my department violently, coughingly, heaving her guts out every single day for a few weeks now. At least once a day. I just thought it was random ill women since hey, I do work in a clinic building. But due to chance meetings I’m 99% sure it’s all her. For the love of God, someone fix the acoustics in this place. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3057 "2012-02-01T16:19:31Z")
I’m…not sure I want to know about the screaming children in your workplace bathroom. 🙂 ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3058 "2012-02-01T16:23:28Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > At the rate he’s going, I don’t think he’s getting any section done. 😃 > > There was free cake in the break room today, but I didn’t go get a slice…the last work cake I had was so nasty that I’m afraid it completely turned me off of free cake. ☹ Maybe the cake was a lie… No, I don’t really understand it either; I just assume it’s one of those “I burning your dog,” or “Lets go down to the quarry” things like we get here sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3059 "2012-02-01T16:37:10Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I’m…not sure I want to know about the screaming children in your workplace bathroom. 🙂 Well, I work in a clinic. So either they’re bored out of their minds or otherwise unhappy, or **they** just went to the doctor and got an exam/shots/yucky medicine and are generally sick and unhappy. Then it’s time for the bathroom break before the car ride home. Therefore I hear a lot of little kids screeching in the bathroom. (Once I did go in there because the screaming was just going on and on, and I had to figure out if Something Bad was happening and/or a baby had been abandoned. Nope. Just a baby testing his lungs’ limits and a mom quietly working away at dealing with the diaper issue.) ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3060 "2012-02-01T17:46:06Z")
> [@Qwakkeddup](#): > > But, but, it’s on the script! Can’t expect to be interviewed without **The Script**! > > Interviews will be outsourced to India someday, then you will have to deal with the accent too! :smack: “Do you speak English?” “Yes. Do you?” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3061 "2012-02-01T18:02:27Z")
Hey, at least this interview was taking place in Spanish. I once had the following dialogue: Interviewer: “do you speak English?” Me: “I’d say so, what do you think we’ve been speaking this past hour?” Interviewer: “yes, but do you speak English?” Me: _stare at phone_ _it’s still my phone, not some sort of extradimensional gadget_ _put phone back to ear_ “Yes, I speak English.” And another time (in Spanish): Intervewer: “do you have the [First](http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/fce/index.html)?” Me: “I’ve got the [Proficiency](http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/cpe/index.html)” Interviewer: “oh, but they want people who have the First!” Me: “… the Proficiency is higher, actually” Interviewer: “oh, oh, that’s neat! But… they want people who have the First” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=152) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=154)