# 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:** 244
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4862 "2013-01-14T09:24:14Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > 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. I’d love a job like this. I’ll take any reasonable job that comes my way at this point, but I’d LOVE this. So your stealth brag is my workplace envy gripe. 😉 ---
**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 14, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4863 "2013-01-14T14:41:26Z")
> [@Dunkelheit](#): > > I’d love a job like this. I’ll take any reasonable job that comes my way at this point, but I’d LOVE this. So your stealth brag is my workplace envy gripe. 😉 Seconded. I’m bright green with envy. I’d love to have a job like that. I used to have a job like that and I want another one. ---
**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 14, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4864 "2013-01-14T15:17:39Z")
I went to enquire about the company holiday/payday calendar, and instead got treated to commentary about “Obummer’s tax increases”. Still can’t find the damn calendar. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4865 "2013-01-14T15:32:19Z")
So my boss–who regularly complains that she is soooo busy and sooooo overworked that she doesn’t even have time to read her emails, let alone reply to them–has devised a new time-sucking strategy to keep on top of what her subordinates (all 13 of us) are doing. Every week during my one-on-one with her, I am to sit in her office and describe, in exhaustive detail, all the work that I’ve done, am doing, and am planning to do this year, and then watch as she inputs all of this gibbergabber in this convoluted table that she probably spent ungodly amounts of taxpayer-funded time constructing. Our weekly meeting only lasts 30 minutes, so there is never enough time to complete this bone-headed table; new work pops up all the time and every week, we’re playing catch up trying to chronicle stuff from a month ago. During this time, I’m also supposed to give her updates on work currently being done, but there’s never enough time to get to that because she insists on wasting our lives on this godforsaken table. \*So she ends up knowing less about current issues than she otherwise would have. \* (I have to italicize this, because the irony is too rich not to emphasize.) It doesn’t help that for every item listed in the table, she requires me to tell her which specific agency strategic goal is addressed by that work. Isn’t that her job to figure out? Why is she making me wrack my brain over bureaucratic nonsense like this? And why is she so invested in knowing all the nits of my work, when basically everything I do is self-initiated and self-directed? Yes, she has a need to hold me accountable, but she’s shown herself to be a nonfactor in what I do. My work would get done even if she ignored me for the rest of the year, because that is just how I roll. So you might be wondering why haven’t I simply taken this table and populated it myself with my assignments, on my own time, instead of using our meeting time for this agonizing activity. Because she insists on doing this herself, in “real time”, so we can talk it over as we do it. But we’re really not talking about anything. It’s just me dictating stuff to her and her pecking away at the keyboard. The really messed up thing about this? It’s a textbook case of duplicating effort. We already maintain a bi-monthly spreadsheet for listing and updating all of our projects and workgroup activities. She knows this, too. But she insists on reproducing the same info on this other thing. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4866 "2013-01-14T19:44:41Z")
> [@Dunkelheit](#): > > I’d love a job like this. I’ll take any reasonable job that comes my way at this point, but I’d LOVE this. So your stealth brag is my workplace envy gripe. 😉 > [@SpazCat](#): > > Seconded. I’m bright green with envy. I’d love to have a job like that. I used to have a job like that and I want another one. You won’t be interested in a trip to northern Spain, uh? Do you like scanning and organizing photographs too? I’ve got boxes, I’ve got books, and I’ve got Mom’s albums! ---
**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 15, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4867 "2013-01-15T01:17:39Z")
Your boss would drive me out of my tree, **You With The Face**. I _hate_ inefficiency and duplicating efforts at work. My peeve du jour - I’m printing a 480 page manual in sections of 50 pages (so I don’t tie up the printer all morning) - get your grubby paws off of my print job! There are no page numbers on this stupid manual, and if you get it all out of order, I will NOT be a happy camper! ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4868 "2013-01-15T04:18:24Z")
**Dunkelheit** and **SpazCat** , I’m sorry for the stealth brag. Most people would fling their arms up in despair and walk away, which is why those rooms are such a mess. I should have expected that I’d find kindred souls here. ---
**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 15, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4869 "2013-01-15T05:30:38Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > My peeve du jour - I’m printing a 480 page manual in sections of 50 pages (so I don’t tie up the printer all morning) - get your grubby paws off of my print job! There are no page numbers on this stupid manual, and if you get it all out of order, I will NOT be a happy camper! My ex-office partner was horrible about this…if someone printed an ‘unusual’ document – something that was not a standard report from Word, or a set of catalog pages, for example – he would pick up the document and examine it. ---
**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 15, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4870 "2013-01-15T13:38:08Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > My ex-office partner was horrible about this…if someone printed an ‘unusual’ document – something that was not a standard report from Word, or a set of catalog pages, for example – he would pick up the document and examine it. {Shudders} My favourite are the people who grab a print job (or middle of a print job), and then put it back out of order. Thanks - I’ll just spend the next half hour trying to figure out which page goes where in the 100 pages I just printed. My second favourite - the people who take your print job (or part of it) with them to their office, then maybe they bring it back, maybe they don’t. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/das_glasperlenspiel/32/2944_2.png) [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Das_Glasperlenspiel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4871 "2013-01-15T15:19:27Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > {Shudders} My favourite are the people who grab a print job (or middle of a print job), and then put it back out of order. Thanks - I’ll just spend the next half hour trying to figure out which page goes where in the 100 pages I just printed. > > My second favourite - the people who take your print job (or part of it) with them to their office, then maybe they bring it back, maybe they don’t. :rolleyes: Don’t forget the person who prints out reams of crap (all of it in colour) and then leaves it in the print tray. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4872 "2013-01-15T18:58:20Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > My second favourite - the people who take your print job (or part of it) with them to their office, then maybe they bring it back, maybe they don’t. :rolleyes: I had a former boss who did that. (Not the bosshole, this was my boss at the credit union.) She would grab everything that was on the printer and take it with her. I’d go to printer, not see my print job, ask boss if she had it, she’d glance at desk and say “I don’t see it.” Her desk was usually a mountain of papers. So I’d reprint, and then she’d find my original printing several hours later. :rolleyes: Update for those wondering about my employment status: I got in with a temp agency and I’m waiting for my first assignment. Manager at agency said I have the “perfect background” for what they look for! She called me yesterday and said they were presenting me as a candidate for something that could start tomorrow. I’m guessing since I haven’t heard anything by now I didn’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4873 "2013-01-16T00:22:43Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > You won’t be interested in a trip to northern Spain, uh? Do you like scanning and organizing photographs too? I’ve got boxes, I’ve got books, and I’ve got Mom’s albums! Aw, man, I’d love that. I don’t think I’d be eligible to work in Spain, though. 😉 ---
**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 16, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4874 "2013-01-16T01:05:32Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > My second favourite - the people who take your print job (or part of it) with them to their office, then maybe they bring it back, maybe they don’t. :rolleyes: Our newest hire is one of those…he took about thirty pages of a project engineer’s report back to his desk this morning. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4875 "2013-01-16T02:28:20Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > {Shudders} My favourite are the people who grab a print job (or middle of a print job), and then put it back out of order. Thanks - I’ll just spend the next half hour trying to figure out which page goes where in the 100 pages I just printed. > > My second favourite - the people who take your print job (or part of it) with them to their office, then maybe they bring it back, maybe they don’t. :rolleyes: This is why, if you have any sort of half-decent multifunction device, “Hold Print” is a fucking lifesaver. ---
**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 16, 2013, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4876 "2013-01-16T04:39:55Z")
> [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](#): > > Don’t forget the person who prints out reams of crap (all of it in colour) and then leaves it in the print tray. Or leaves the coloured paper in the paper trays. Or leaves the letterhead in the regular paper tray. > [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > \ > Update for those wondering about my employment status: I got in with a temp agency and I’m waiting for my first assignment. Manager at agency said I have the “perfect background” for what they look for! She called me yesterday and said they were presenting me as a candidate for something that could start tomorrow. I’m guessing since I haven’t heard anything by now I didn’t get it. Not necessarily; temp agents (see my post a couple of days ago) can be quite…well, let’s be charitable and call them “ditzy.” 🙂 On the other hand, temp agents seem to call in the first week or so after you register with them, and if they don’t call, I’d suggest registering with another one. I’m working on manuals now, and I’m doing a lot of editing and collating and stuff. I work with reveal codes on so I can see all the spaces and tabs and hard returns and stuff, and it blows my mind - why do people put spaces and hard returns and extra tabs everywhere? When people are creating a document, why don’t they use a proper tab setting instead of spaces and multiple tabs? Why all the extra spaces at the ends of lines? Do their fingers just stutter or something? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4877 "2013-01-16T05:34:20Z")
> [@Dunkelheit](#): > > Aw, man, I’d love that. I don’t think I’d be eligible to work in Spain, though. 😉 It doesn’t need to be reported if it’s under 20h/week… :halo: ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4878 "2013-01-16T12:13:32Z")
Hell of a commute, though. 😉 ---
**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:** [January 16, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4879 "2013-01-16T18:25:10Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Not necessarily; temp agents (see my post a couple of days ago) can be quite…well, let’s be charitable and call them “ditzy.” 🙂 > > On the other hand, temp agents seem to call in the first week or so after you register with them, and if they don’t call, I’d suggest registering with another one. I registered on Friday and they called me about this position on Monday, and I know of a handful of people who have gotten jobs through this place, so I’m pretty sure they’re good. I hope. I really hate the job-hunting process. I applied for something that looked interesting the other day, and I just got a phone call from the place. Turns out they’re in a different city several hours away. That and I never know if something I’m looking into is legit or not. Part of my problem is that in a previous job I had extensive fraud training, so my natural assumption is that everything is a scam. ---
**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 16, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4880 "2013-01-16T19:38:57Z")
Unfortunately too many of the “jobs” out there actually _are_ scams! Because that’s who you need to be preying on - unemployed people. :rolleyes: My rant du jour - random punctuation. When making lists like the three million that are in the manual I’m still working on, I would have thought that every point should have a period at the end of it, or every point should _not_ have a period at the end of it, but it should be consistent. I know better now. ☹ And the people who do an entire chapter in Heading style so I have to re-format the entire thing - you can go to hell. You can go to hell and die. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/4881 "2013-01-16T21:35:53Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > You can go to hell and die. :mad: Isn’t it customary to do those in the opposite order? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=243) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=245)