# 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:** 243
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4842 "2013-01-10T22:04:02Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > I’m pretty sure she was referring to businesses in our company in our region. But, it was a long meeting- about 40 minutes- and those 5 of us present are still trying to sort out what we heard today. Sound like the meetings we have had since our company was purchased. They bring us all together in a room to give us new information on something but they don’t have any details and can’t answer any questions specifically about our group/office/jobs. They spout of generalizations and we all get annoyed at the waste of our time. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4843 "2013-01-10T22:05:26Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Our corner of the floor smells like mold. BAD. Making everyone sick. > > Everyone agrees that it’s coming through the heating vents, because it gets worse when the heat kicks in. Since it’s just this one corner, it’s probably just inside these vents or in the ceiling around them. > > Well, everyone except Clueless George, who insists that it is physically impossible for mold to live in heating vents because “they’re dryer than any desert” and it has to be coming from two potted plants at the end of the row. And of course, in classic CG style, pushing this argument well past the “yeah, sure, ok, whatever, you can stop now” point. Because he has to be right and everyone has to tell him he’s right. > > Jackass. We have projector that gives off a BO smell. Whenever we have a meeting in the room where it is, we have to explain that it is the projector. I am thinking of taking up a collection for a new one. Blech! ---
**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 10, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4844 "2013-01-10T23:07:04Z")
Two smacks-to-the-face: One to the person who marks every single email she sends with the “urgent” flag AND puts \*\* RUSH \*\* in the subject line, every single goddamn time (no, it’s never anything urgent, not in the least) ~ and ~ To the person who responded to my email asking for X detail and Y answer with “Thank you!” - \*smack \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4845 "2013-01-10T23:25:15Z")
I spoke to someone else in my corner who has been having medical issues and ‘strange reactions to something’ since moving into my corner of the building. Apparently she spoke to the same Administrative Assistant (asshole jerk moron) I complained to yesterday. So this afternoon AAAJM comes over with the building guy in tow and starts talking to him about my complaint. I go over to talk to him and she tries to brush me off and not let me speak to him (I’m a contractor, and thus not a real human in her eyes - she’s made that abundantly clear to me and other contractors). I ignored her and spoke to him anyway. He wanted to remove two plants, blaming them. I stuck my nose right in the dirt in the pots and took a long smell. “Not coming from either of these plants”. They’re going to move them to another part of the floor while their owner is on vacation and see what happens. Then upon looking around and speaking to that other (real) person, they decided they’d get someone up to look into the air vents. AAAJM decided to tell us that we’re not allowed to have food at our desks or throw any food or drink related garbage in our garbage cans anymore, because it could be moldy food. The garbage cans which are lined with plastic bags and emptied every night. NO, IT ISN’T THE GARBAGE. After she walked away everyone was saying they were not complying with that. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4846 "2013-01-11T00:19:36Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Two smacks-to-the-face: > > One to the person who marks every single email she sends with the “urgent” flag AND puts \*\* RUSH \*\* in the subject line, every single goddamn time (no, it’s never anything urgent, not in the least) > > ~ and ~ > > To the person who responded to my email asking for X detail and Y answer with “Thank you!” > > - \*smack \*\* You forgot a smack! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4847 "2013-01-11T03:43:33Z")
Or the woman that flags (well a lot of the mails I send, enough to make me uncomfortable, actually) with urgent because I work on deadlines, a term my bosses have never heard, and my emails requesting input so I can actually meet media deadlines, seem to go into a vast black hole, to the point that I resend with headers like “ARE YOU GUYS READING MY EMAILS?” Flagged urgent, naturally, and ignored. One day I asked one of the bosses why I hadn’t heard, and had to pay a $600 penalty (her money, not mine) and her answer was, unbelievably, “I just had too many emails that day so I ignored them all.” ---
**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:** [January 11, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4848 "2013-01-11T04:01:16Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > One day I asked one of the bosses why I hadn’t heard, and had to pay a $600 penalty (her money, not mine) and her answer was, unbelievably, “I just had too many emails that day so I ignored them all.” Usually, these are the same bosses that demand they be cc’d on every single email sent by any of their staff. Is it any wonder they have too many emails? Too bad email systems don’t have color-coding on messages, to indicate whether you were the original recipient, or a cc’d recipient. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4849 "2013-01-11T08:15:05Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > I’m pretty sure she was referring to businesses in our company in our region. But, it was a long meeting- about 40 minutes- and those 5 of us present are still trying to sort out what we heard today. Next time, someone needs to be tasked with note-taking. ---
**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 11, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4850 "2013-01-11T15:32:39Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I spoke to someone else in my corner who has been having medical issues and ‘strange reactions to something’ since moving into my corner of the building. Apparently she spoke to the same Administrative Assistant (asshole jerk moron) I complained to yesterday. > > So this afternoon AAAJM comes over with the building guy in tow and starts talking to him about my complaint. I go over to talk to him and she tries to brush me off and not let me speak to him (I’m a contractor, and thus not a real human in her eyes - she’s made that abundantly clear to me and other contractors). I ignored her and spoke to him anyway. > > He wanted to remove two plants, blaming them. I stuck my nose right in the dirt in the pots and took a long smell. “Not coming from either of these plants”. They’re going to move them to another part of the floor while their owner is on vacation and see what happens. > > Then upon looking around and speaking to that other (real) person, they decided they’d get someone up to look into the air vents. > > AAAJM decided to tell us that we’re not allowed to have food at our desks or throw any food or drink related garbage in our garbage cans anymore, because it could be moldy food. The garbage cans which are lined with plastic bags and emptied every night. NO, IT ISN’T THE GARBAGE. After she walked away everyone was saying they were not complying with that. Hunh. Our IT dept. is roughly the same way about system outages. “Well, maybe the file size was too large?” “I’ve been telling you, I get the error before I can even select a file.” “Well, what color sweater are you wearing today?” (OK, not that last part, but the two before are real-life examples.) Stop fishing for nonsensical solutions and address what we all know is the problem! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4851 "2013-01-11T15:51:39Z")
Well, AAAJM was going to simply destroy the plant and was told not to, but she moved it away and then when I ran into her, she was still talking about throwing it away. Issue with that is that the plant is owned by someone on vacation, who inherited it from a beloved co-worker who died very quickly of terminal cancer a few years back. If she comes back and finds the plant was destroyed, things are going to get unpleasant. Edit: Just got an email saying they destroyed the plants because they had “a strong odor”. Fun times ahead. ---
**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 11, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4852 "2013-01-11T21:22:26Z")
Sequential e-mails at work this afternoon: - Info to employees about two incidents in November involving the loss of a USB key and of an external hard drive, both with protected client information on them. Very serious breach of Privacy Act, RCMP involved, all staff reminded of requirements for protection of information, etc. - Notice of amended security policy banning use of external hard drives other than for approved use in secure locations and directing that all departmental USB keys be turned in to IT for replacement by secure encrypted keys. - “Red USB key found on second floor near XXXX. See XXXX if it belongs to you.” :rolleyes: ---
**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 11, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4853 "2013-01-11T23:21:41Z")
That’s harsh, **Chimera.** I’d be super-pissed if I was that employee. "Welcome back! How was your vacation? Oh, remember So-and-so who gave you her beloved plants before dying horribly? Yeaaaaaahhhh, about that … " ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4854 "2013-01-11T23:32:40Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > That’s harsh, **Chimera.** I’d be super-pissed if I was that employee. "Welcome back! How was your vacation? Oh, remember So-and-so who gave you her beloved plants before dying horribly? Yeaaaaaahhhh, about that … " I already feel really bad because I’m the one who complained and started this clusterfuck. The woman who owned the plant is a very nice person. I’m willing to admit that I may have been wrong about the plant being the source of the mold. I suppose it’s possible. I’m willing to admit when I’m wrong. It doesn’t cost anything other than “pride”, and that’s all ego and not a real big bother for me. My real issue with CG was the once-again insistently pressing an argument well past the point when any non-clueless person would realize they’ve made their point, they’re just pissing the other person off and they should let it go already. (Moving through the stages of “Yes, ok, fine, I get it, alright, shut up, why the fuck are you still talking?”) If I’d have known AAAMJ would simply destroy it, I would have (as I did after the fact, unfortunately too late) suggested that it simply be moved over into a south side window to get some very direct sunlight for a week or two to see if that cleared it up. My co-worker even suggested that he could have brought in a different pot and some soil (or even taken it home over the weekend) and repotted it. But no, she just went ahead and destroyed it. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4855 "2013-01-12T01:10:14Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > Sequential e-mails at work this afternoon: > > - Info to employees about two incidents in November involving the loss of a USB key and of an external hard drive, both with protected client information on them. Very serious breach of Privacy Act, RCMP involved, all staff reminded of requirements for protection of information, etc. > - Notice of amended security policy banning use of external hard drives other than for approved use in secure locations and directing that all departmental USB keys be turned in to IT for replacement by secure encrypted keys. > - “Red USB key found on second floor near XXXX. See XXXX if it belongs to you.” > :rolleyes: Umm… Do you work for HRDC? (No need to answer positively OR negatively if you don’t want to :D). That sounds like what hit the news today (other than the third point) about student loan info. ---
**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 12, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4856 "2013-01-12T04:30:53Z")
My new temp agency agent is, I suspect, kind of stupid. She expected me to be at the assignment at 8 am without actually telling me that I got the assignment. She might be new to being an agent; maybe she doesn’t realize that I don’t have an assignment until _the client_ says I have the assignment, and not before. I can’t just show up at the job without getting the confirmation from the client, which I was still waiting for this morning when I got the call from the agent asking me why I wasn’t at the job. Sheesh. ---
**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 13, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4857 "2013-01-13T20:30:37Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > Umm… Do you work for HRDC? (No need to answer positively OR negatively if you don’t want to :D). That sounds like what hit the news today (other than the third point) about student loan info. I refuse to answer on the grounds that I may incriminate myself. 😃 It was the total cluelessness of the third email after having seen and (presumably) read the first two involving major security info about USB keys that struck me. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4858 "2013-01-13T20:35:04Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > I refuse to answer on the grounds that I may incriminate myself. 😃 > > It was the total cluelessness of the third email after having seen and (presumably) read the first two involving major security info about USB keys that struck me. Oh I don’t know that the third email was clueless - was the name of the person they were supposed to see a security or HR person? 😃 ---
**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 13, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4859 "2013-01-13T22:58:57Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > Oh I don’t know that the third email was clueless - was the name of the person they were supposed to see a security or HR person? 😃 Nope, just the person who found the thing. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4860 "2013-01-14T01:13:24Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I like being part of a huge community of “Gripers”, because it’s like floating down the Mississippi on a raft (which I did one summer, but since this isn’t MPSIS, forget I said that), and as we raise our “Hate work? Join us!” flag, dozens of smaller rafts/kayaks/doors with Leo DiCaprio hanging on float alongside, throw us a rope and we welcome them with umbrella drinks and musical instruments and pretty soon we’ve got _the biggest party in the Pit_, cruising downstream, playing music and listening to the latest barely-believable tale of bureaucratic incompetence. [/run-on sentence] > > And I say “biggest party in the Pit” because even though the Paterno thread is over 6000 now, it’s whatever the opposite of a party is. This plus 100. I’m not sure if this is a gripe or a steath brag. You pick. When I got to my job on Monday, I was shown 3 big rooms full of boxes and maps. Some of them were labeled, some weren’t. Everything was stacked on the floor. Their filing system was to have the person who filled the box go and dig around for the needed document/map. Just a total mess. This is just the sort of thing that makes me roll my sleeves up and start happily sorting and cataloging and labeling. I’ve got shelves and racks and standard sized boxes ordered. No rats, either. My ex-minion (who was stolen by the Board of Supervisors, so is a good source of gossip) reports that facilities is supposed to move the furniture out of the Ratking’s lair, but they seem to always have something more important to do. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4861 "2013-01-14T04:10:57Z")
**"_flatlined_: Rat Free in Two Oh One Three!"** And yet the RatKing still reigns, and holds court in one of her old boxes… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=242) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=244)