# 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:** 216
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4302 "2012-10-16T10:09:29Z")
My team has gotten a new Expert who’s thankfully only going to be here for a week. Expert: “hey Nava, give me a production order” Me: “any?” Expert: “well yeah” Me: number Expert: “no, but I need one for this month and it needs to have receptions and emissions” (who the fuck calls them that? They’re goods movements, stock movements, issues and receipts, GIs and GRs…) Me: “closed?” Expert: “I don’t care about the status, it needs to have receptions and emissions” Me: “having receptions and emissions is a status too. Intermediate or final product, and made to stock or made to order?” Expert: “😕 Final, of course, why would I want to see intermediates?” gee I have no idea, since I don’t know what are you looking at"and one of each" I hope he’s more clear in other situations… ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4303 "2012-10-16T14:22:28Z")
The powers that be have installed something called ‘Software Center’ on our? (at least my machine, nobody else seems to have heard of it) and it constantly pops up telling me I need to install software that has already been installed. And I installed it all by my lonesome without the aid of frickin’ ‘Software Center’. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4304 "2012-10-17T03:38:13Z")
I just had my first official “talk” with HR and got wrote up. What was my sin, you ask? Its because I gamble with my coworkers and the facilities folks. We are not allowed to do that. I started my second “when is it going to snow this year” bet, and wrote everyone’s guesses on the whiteboard. There are more people involved this year, there were EIGHT names on the board. If I was right, I would have won a whole 35 cents. If I lost, I was going to pay with wooden nickles that cost much more than that. According to HR, its not the amount of money we would win or lose, its the fact that we are gambling. After I got my write up, I wrote the guesses down in my notebook and erased the whiteboard. I’m the instigator, so hopefully nobody else will get the talk. Whatever. I have 6 weeks left. I really don’t care about my file. I do care about the other people in the pool, but HR seems to think that I used my “position of power” to force them to do something they knew was forbidden. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4305 "2012-10-17T04:05:55Z")
So, where do they stand on the company pools for buying lottery tickets? I personally hate those - you have to participate, because if you don’t put money in and they win, you’re the sucker who still has to show up for work. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4306 "2012-10-17T08:07:34Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > The powers that be have installed something called ‘Software Center’ on our? (at least my machine, nobody else seems to have heard of it) and it constantly pops up telling me I need to install software that has already been installed. And I installed it all by my lonesome without the aid of frickin’ ‘Software Center’. Ah, you’re too smart for your computer! See, SC is a system to distribute software throughout the company, but it can’t detect already-existing installations of its programs until it tries to install something and fails. I don’t know how will your version behave, but try telling it to install those programs: the versions I’ve encountered were happy trying, seeing the program was already installed and adding it to its log of installed programs. A lot of your coworkers who don’t know what are you talking about are the kind of people who say “yes” to every popup. SC has been in front of their eyes but all they saw was the “go on” button. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4307 "2012-10-17T19:23:33Z")
That’s kind of what’s got me pissed off about it, it’s been trying (and failing) to install the same piece of software since July and still hasn’t gotten a clue that it’s already on my machine. It seems to handle updates well though as it hasn’t bugged me about those even though they were already installed. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4308 "2012-10-18T04:56:20Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > So, where do they stand on the company pools for buying lottery tickets? I personally hate those - you have to participate, because if you don’t put money in and they win, you’re the sucker who still has to show up for work. 🙂 I have the perfect response to the workplace lottery ticket collection: The best possible thing I can do for you is to not participate. My father is a preacher, and he actively prays that none of his children will ever win anything by gambling. So far it’s worked. I’ve won door prizes, business card drawings, and all manner of things like that. But I’ve never won a single raffle item my whole life. And I understand enough about statistics to know it would be better to burn my money than to buy a lottery ticket. (At least then I’d get the ‘Ooooooo-- Pretty fire!’ experience) ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4309 "2012-10-18T05:14:15Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > So, where do they stand on the company pools for buying lottery tickets? I personally hate those - you have to participate, because if you don’t put money in and they win, you’re the sucker who still has to show up for work. 🙂 Totally not allowed. I think they do happen, I just got busted because we put our bets on the whiteboard, which would allow us to point and talk trash. Our bet is still on, it was warm today and John made a point of wondering how he was going to spend his winnings. If I worked in a place where we did do lottery tickets, I would hate it. I’d have to toss my 5 bucks in just from fear that I’d show up alone. > [@Mom-of-Andrew](#): > > I have the perfect response to the workplace lottery ticket collection: > The best possible thing I can do for you is to not participate. My father is a preacher, and he actively prays that none of his children will ever win anything by gambling. > > So far it’s worked. I’ve won door prizes, business card drawings, and all manner of things like that. But I’ve never won a single raffle item my whole life. And I understand enough about statistics to know it would be better to burn my money than to buy a lottery ticket. (At least then I’d get the ‘Ooooooo-- Pretty fire!’ experience) I love your response. I win a lot of raffle items, but when I buy them, its a limited pool. Lottery tickets? Betting that I’ll win the prize when 40 gazillion people are also buying tickets? This is why SG was living in a camp trailor. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4310 "2012-10-18T05:21:42Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > That’s kind of what’s got me pissed off about it, it’s been trying (and failing) to install the same piece of software since July and still hasn’t gotten a clue that it’s already on my machine. It seems to handle updates well though as it hasn’t bugged me about those even though they were already installed. Ah, you’re too smart for your IT guys! We’re wrapping up (sort of) a rollout of The Big Blue Database. The parent company decreed years ago that everybody will access BBD via webpage, usage of BBD’s GUI is Forbidden and All Copies Found Must Be Destroyed. Protocol calls for user IDs to be requested 15 days before expected go-live date. We sent the list 15 days before expected go-live date. Users were ready just in time for go-live date (dis is berry mucho Espáin, where thee shalt not do things today if thee can procrastinate until Monday - there is another place where things actually get done in time but you need to search for it carefully, as they occupy the same physical space at the same time and the first one is dominant). But. Turns out that getting web-access is a second protocol, which cannot be started until users have been created, and it will take at least two more weeks. It ain’t our fault we’re not starting on the expected date. Jerks. ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4311 "2012-10-18T14:42:03Z")
One of the guys on the floor died last night. He’d had a heart attack earlier in the week, and we just heard that he passed away in hospital last night. I haven’t worked with him directly for years (since my daughter was born) but we’re still on the same floor and visited all the time. I wish management would keep that it mind when they are telling people - it would have been nice to get the official note. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4312 "2012-10-19T15:02:09Z")
Backstory: Our company was bought out a month ago. We are a wholly owned subsidiary which means my employment contract has not changes. They used a different account (with the same company) for their payroll. Our first paycheque using the system was last week. Details about oddity in Ontario payroll deductions: we have two deductions that are taken off that are taken as a % of our income but for which there is a maximum. That means that anyone with a salary higher than 43k or so will have paycheques that do not have these withdrawn. I had reached this point earlier this year since my salary is significantly more than that. It is about 200 dollars a paycheque. Nice little bonus at the end of the year. The actual annoyance: I get my first paycheque from the new company with these deductions taken off. Well, crap. I usually use the excess to pay for Christmas and annual fees for my timeshare. I email the HR person who says there is nothing she can do about it. Really? It’s not like I am a new employee or anything. I have worked here for 11 years. Just carry over the deductions to your new account. (I sent a snarky email to that effect.) Luckily, my boss was equally pissed and he talked to his equally pissed boss and it went up the chain and, by some miracle, it got fixed. But that’s not my rant. My rant is the emaiil from the HR person when they said it was fixed. > [@HR Girl](#): > > Hello, > > The actions we took regarding the CPP and EI were correct and put in place with prior business practice. > > That said, since so many of you were affected by the CPP and EI deductions, \ has taken this into consideration. The year-to-date amounts for the two deductions have been entered into payroll and will appear on the (next) pay. Yeah, it totally wasn’t your fault and your doing us a favour by not fucking with our pay. Gah! I really hope the non-HR people at the company have a better attitude. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4313 "2012-10-19T19:15:14Z")
??? The deduction reduction was based on how much CPP and EI have been paid to date - as far as I know, the same rule applies in Alberta - when you top out, they stop deducting it. Yeah, they aren’t doing you any favours by not over-deducting your CPP and EI - I’m not sure what they were doing by continuing to deduct it. It sounds like they just re-set your payroll to the day they took over the company and disregarded that you’d been paying all that money for 10 months already this year. Jerks. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4314 "2012-10-19T19:30:22Z")
I walked about 6 blocks down to a fast food place for lunch today. Place is kinda busy, so I sit at a small table a couple of feet from two women at the next table. Young woman complaining bitterly to her mother. Says all she wants is a name on the birth certificate, because her son would regret it all his life if he never knew who his father was. But “they” keep asking all these questions that she _refuses_ to answer. What kind of car did he drive? What was his name? Did she see his drivers license? Did he wear glasses? What day was the child concieved? :eek: Was unclear whether this was a one-night stand or a rape. The DL question and some of the others made it sound like she knew him, but the other general description ones made it sound like a rape. Now, I have every sympathy if she was raped, and it’s good she’s intent on raising the child, but seriously… WHAT. THE. FUCK. How are you so frothing angry at “them” for asking these questions and for them not being able to tell you this guy’s name when you refuse to give them the most basic of information? How the bloody fucking hell are they supposed to know who this guy was? Magic? Psychics? Asking God? Her mother sat there looking down, slowly eating and not saying a word. Don’t blame her. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4315 "2012-10-19T19:36:19Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > ??? The deduction reduction was based on how much CPP and EI have been paid to date - as far as I know, the same rule applies in Alberta - when you top out, they stop deducting it. Yeah, they aren’t doing you any favours by not over-deducting your CPP and EI - I’m not sure what they were doing by continuing to deduct it. It sounds like they just re-set your payroll to the day they took over the company and disregarded that you’d been paying all that money for 10 months already this year. Jerks. I suspect that’s exactly what happened. In fairness, their payroll system may not have been set up to handle that by default. What is supposed to happen if you change jobs halfway through the year - and neither job by itself hits the cap but together they do? Do you pay the full amount for each, or is the second job supposed to recognize what you’ve paid to date? Same thing could happen here in the US with Social Security - that’s supposed to stop when you earn a certain amount (which is quite high - very few people ever have that problem!). But if, say, you change jobs, the second employer doesn’t know about the first one; as far as their payroll system goes, you’ve earned far less than the cap so they’ll keep taking it out of your pay. In the US, with Social Security, I think you have to somehow document to the second employer that they’ve overwithheld, you can’t get the money back directly from the government on your annual tax return. Since the employer has also overpaid in this situation (they have to match that money to the government), they have a strong incentive to work with you!! Oh - and the snarky email? Yeah - jerks. How dare you all insist that money not be taken from you for no reason??? ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4316 "2012-10-19T20:07:20Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I suspect that’s exactly what happened. In fairness, their payroll system may not have been set up to handle that by default. What is supposed to happen if you change jobs halfway through the year - and neither job by itself hits the cap but together they do? Do you pay the full amount for each, or is the second job supposed to recognize what you’ve paid to date? > > Same thing could happen here in the US with Social Security - that’s supposed to stop when you earn a certain amount (which is quite high - very few people ever have that problem!). > > But if, say, you change jobs, the second employer doesn’t know about the first one; as far as their payroll system goes, you’ve earned far less than the cap so they’ll keep taking it out of your pay. > > In the US, with Social Security, I think you have to somehow document to the second employer that they’ve overwithheld, you can’t get the money back directly from the government on your annual tax return. Since the employer has also overpaid in this situation (they have to match that money to the government), they have a strong incentive to work with you!! > > Oh - and the snarky email? Yeah - jerks. How dare you all insist that money not be taken from you for no reason??? This is exactly it. We were being treated as if we were just hired. Which we weren’t. We weren’t fired and rehired with the new company our employment contracts with our initial company remained intact. And they were doing us this HUGE favour. (I know, I am completely irrational about it.) ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4317 "2012-10-19T20:46:42Z")
It actually starts over when you change companies. I had years where I paid three times. The nice folks at Revenue Canada don’t take that into consideration. Presumably this makes THEIR accounting easier. And my yesterday just got better. They announced the next level of our re-org. My new boss is my worst case scenario. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4318 "2012-10-19T20:48:58Z")
> [@the\_Lady](#): > > It actually starts over when you change companies. I had years where I paid three times. > The nice folks at Revenue Canada don’t take that into consideration. > Presumably this makes THEIR accounting easier. > > And my yesterday just got better. They announced the next level of our re-org. My new boss is my worst case scenario. Sigh. See maybe you are missing this but I didn’t change companies. I am still employed with the same company they just happen to be owned by a different company. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4319 "2012-10-19T23:11:54Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > In the US, with Social Security, I think you have to somehow document to the second employer that they’ve overwithheld, you can’t get the money back directly from the government on your annual tax return. Since the employer has also overpaid in this situation (they have to match that money to the government), they have a strong incentive to work with you!! Actually, when it happened to me, I got all my money back from the fed on that year’s tax return. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4320 "2012-10-20T00:45:57Z")
> [@perfectparanoia](#): > > Yeah, it totally wasn’t your fault and your doing us a favour by not fucking with our pay. Gah! I really hope the non-HR people at the company have a better attitude. You shouldn’t let them get away with this. In a similar situation, I sent a response making clear that it was their fault, and that all of us who brought it to their attention were doing the company a favor, in keeping it out of legal trouble for payroll violations. And asking what procedures have been put in place to prevent a re-occurrence of this error? Has remedial training been given to the employees in their department who made this error? Will the department manager personally review such changes in the future? Since our company is considering additional acquisitions this year, we could have serious legal risks if your department doesn’t learn how to handle this properly. Then I ‘accidentally’ hit reply-all when sending this. So everybody who got the original email also got this response. And some people in other departments, who had also been affected by this, chimed in with their own emails. P.S. That department did complain to my boss’s boss about my email. And my boss called me in, and told me to be more careful about sending reply vs. reply-all. But since both he & his boss had also been affected by this problem, they were not very upset. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4321 "2012-10-20T05:16:29Z")
And now I can’t have cats in the warehouse. Everyone loves going to the back of the warehouse and looking at the kittens. Back when I worked for elections, I was able to stash kittens in the supervisor’s office, no worries about the public. Now that Jane is trying to get my job, she (well, I don’t know for sure that it was her) is complaining to HR about stuff that I’ve been doing for almost 7 years. Today, I dropped a litter of kittens off at the vet, then picked them up and brought them to work. I put them in the back of the warehouse and covered the carrier with a blanket. An hour later, I got a call from HR telling me that I couldn’t do that because taxpayers come in to look at the old books and some of them might be allergic. The books are half a block away from where I put the cats. Taxpayers aren’t allowed where the boxes are due to legal stuff. I covered the carrier because I didn’t want the kittens to breath the dust and fiberglass, a few cat hairs would never be noticed. No matter, no more cats in the warehouse. That’s just fine with me. I shredded the physical copy of my step by step procedure manuals, not that Jane ever bothered to look at them. I considered deleting the word documents, but I’m not _that_ petty. Someone from IT will delete them when they delete my account. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=215) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=217)