# 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:** 273
**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:** [April 22, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5442 "2013-04-22T18:44:18Z")
> [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](#): > > Good news, bad news. > > Good news: our office is moving from a poorly (1960s-era) heated and cooled building on the edge of nowhere to a shiny-new(ish) technologically up-to-date building in the heart of downtown Ottawa. > Bad news: i go from my own office with a window and a door I can (and do) close to a “shared workspace” with 3 other people. Cubicle farm hell with “cooperative work areas”. :smack: > > Pray for me. The other bit of good news is that we will at least be close to a decent pub. I will need it. Yeah, I went through that a couple of years ago, although it was not moving to a nice new building, it was moving to another area in the same building, to save money. I now share a large room with 3 other people. Fortunately, they are mostly good people (since She Who Laughs has gone on to greener pastures). But even with good people, when I need to focus it can be very hard if three other conversations are going on in the same room (plus my boss, who likes to leave her door open so that we can enjoy her conversations, business and otherwise). Roddy ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5443 "2013-04-23T01:27:55Z")
We’re moving offices, too. And just got a “Highest Priority” email from HR: > [@](#): > > Congratulations on your new offices. > You cannot move into your new offices until 5/25. > You must vacate your present offices no later than 5/25. Of course, we have at least a week’s worth of Moving Craploads of Crap (While Still Getting Our Work Crap Done). ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5444 "2013-04-23T01:57:12Z")
> [@digs](#): > > We’re moving offices, too. And just got a “Highest Priority” email from HR: > > Of course, we have at least a week’s worth of Moving Craploads of Crap (While Still Getting Our Work Crap Done). This. Do you want me to take notes on the conference call that could have waited until next week? Do you want me to transcribe the proceedings from the recorded meeting I wasn’t even at? Or do you want me to sort, box and label all the crap from the common areas that no one else has bothered with? All of which has to be ready for this Friday. Make up your mind! Oh - and I won’t get comp time if I stay late to get this done? Uh-huh. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5445 "2013-04-23T01:59:55Z")
> [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](#): > > This. Do you want me to take notes on the conference call that could have waited until next week? Do you want me to transcribe the proceedings from the recorded meeting I wasn’t even at? Or do you want me to sort, box and label all the crap from the common areas that no one else has bothered with? All of which has to be ready for this Friday. Make up your mind! > > Oh - and I won’t get comp time if I stay late to get this done? Uh-huh. ISTM that if you’re not the one who gets to set those priorities, comp time shouldn’t be an issue – overtime should. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5446 "2013-04-23T04:15:50Z")
I work two days a week on a special project. My regular office moved about 6 weeks ago (just two aisles over as part of space consolidation), and I went from a nice, well laid out window cubicle to a poorly arranged inside cubicle. The special project office is moving at the end of this week, from across the river to the other side of the floor that my regular office is on. I went over Friday to look at my assigned space in the new special project area, and I am going from a poorly arranged inside cubicle to a nice, well laid out window cubicle. I guess it all evens out in the end. I hate that our phones are no longer relocated for a move, though, as I lost the number I had used for over 20 years. Now I will have two new numbers, and sometime in the next couple of months, they will be changed again as we move to a brand new telephone system. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5447 "2013-04-23T06:32:44Z")
My coworkers are great, the boss is great, the other boss who wasn’t very convinced about hiring me is great, the client is great, but. Both the novel I bought last Saturday and half of my coworkers’ project documents suffer from what I shall, for lack of a pre-existing expression, call “Olot grammer”. To read documents of project is bad enough without to have to reorganize the grammar of every sentence because is of another language 😛 (and yes, that was an example of what this novel and these documents are like). ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5448 "2013-04-23T12:15:08Z")
I work retail. Inventory prep sucks. That is all. (Today is the big inventory day, which I have off–because most of the counting is done by people other than us. And actually, yesterday wasn’t bad, mostly, but I’ll be glad when inventory is over). ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5449 "2013-04-23T14:26:27Z")
We just moved into a new building. Or rather, an old building, but new to us. They’re still doing cube construction in the area next to us. At the very moment our team meeting began, they decided they just had to come over and start peeling old carpet and disassembling the floor immediately adjacent to our cubes. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5450 "2013-04-23T15:24:55Z")
More wailing, rending of garments and gnashing of teeth: What do you mean pitch the unopened boxes of legal-sized paper? What do you mean pitch all the unopened boxes of file folders? What do you mean pitch the two dozen boxes of pocket folders specially printed for my department? WTF? The PTBs did not factor supply and stationery storage into the square footage required to accommodate our new office space? :smack: The house legal counsel gets his own “law library” but we have to put our historical research library that hundreds of students have used into storage because there’s no room? :smack: Paintings by Alex Janvier, Norval Morrisseau and Benjamin Chee-chee have to go into storage because there is no wall space to display them (all glass). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5451 "2013-04-23T15:35:09Z")
I agree that whomever picked your new place store their heads in the wrong place - but I’m glad you _named_ those three painters (I’d never heard of them), some of the pics Google brought up are gorgeous! ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5452 "2013-04-23T15:42:15Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > I work retail. > > Inventory prep sucks. > > That is all. > > (Today is the big inventory day, which I have off–because most of the counting is done by people other than us. And actually, yesterday wasn’t bad, mostly, but I’ll be glad when inventory is over). Argh, inventory prep! I feel ya - mine’s in June. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5453 "2013-04-23T15:48:30Z")
I have to get this off my chest. My blood pressure is too high under the best of circumstances. There is an “employee” at the New York branch of the Federal agency for whom I work. I say “employee” because he’s been there over 20 years and has done virtually no work in all that time. I left there over a decade ago, but co-workers tell me nothing has changed. He’s burnt out on pot, and always dresses like a high school kid. His hair is like a slightly shorter version of Phil Spector’s wig. I once asked him why he kept it that way, and he said that 1) he idolized Peter Frampton from the 1970s and 2) he didn’t know how to brush his hair. Mind you, he is not mentally disabled - just addicted to pot. Anyway, a few months ago he was caught using his work computer to look at porn. Originally the office was going to suspend him, but the case went to the Inspector General of the agency, who referred the case to the Bureau of Public Debt. Agents of the Bureau interviewed “Glenn” (name changed for no real reason) and presented Glenn with 38 pages of evidence of times he had also looked at porn on the work computer (at least 100 incidents!). Glenn’s “defense” was priceless: He said “If looking at this is so bad, why didn’t the agency block it?” He also lied at the meeting - saying he had not viewed porn recently - and denied it when confronted with proof it wasn’t true. According to my sources, the Bureau of Public recommended termination (duh). So I was appalled when I recently heard that Glenn will only be suspended! :eek: What a fucking waste of taxpayer money. I’m so mad I could spit. I’m not sure where I could complain - does anyone know a good whistleblower site? ---
**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:** [April 23, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5454 "2013-04-23T20:30:04Z")
> [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](#): > > :smack: The house legal counsel gets his own “law library” but we have to put our historical research library that hundreds of students have used into storage because there’s no room? :smack: WTF? Grab your puzzle cube, it’s time to raise some hell. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5455 "2013-04-24T01:25:36Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > WTF? Grab your puzzle cube, it’s time to raise some hell. Pulls out my puzzle cube and sits on the floor. Fingers moving and cats running away. Seriously **Das Glasperlenspiel** Your story needs demons and feral rats and pigs in the executive parking lot. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5456 "2013-04-24T02:02:25Z")
> [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](#): > > He has pissed off his director, the admins AND the mailroom (all the postage has to be recalculated). For the next year, any plane travel for him is going to be back of the plane, middle seat. Hotel rooms will be carefully selected to be next to the elevator and the ice machine. On the party floor. Expense claim cheques will be “delayed”. And LOTS of changing planes…and LOTS of long waits for connecting flights (or connecting flights that are so closely timed that missing them is almost a sure thing.) No more NON-STOPS for YOU !!! ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5457 "2013-04-24T05:20:50Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > I have to get this off my chest. My blood pressure is too high under the best of circumstances. > > There is an “employee” at the New York branch of the Federal agency for whom I work. I say “employee” because he’s been there over 20 years and has done virtually no work in all that time. I left there over a decade ago, but co-workers tell me nothing has changed. He’s burnt out on pot, and always dresses like a high school kid. His hair is like a slightly shorter version of Phil Spector’s wig. I once asked him why he kept it that way, and he said that 1) he idolized Peter Frampton from the 1970s and 2) he didn’t know how to brush his hair. Mind you, he is not mentally disabled - just addicted to pot. > > Anyway, a few months ago he was caught using his work computer to look at porn. Originally the office was going to suspend him, but the case went to the Inspector General of the agency, who referred the case to the Bureau of Public Debt. Agents of the Bureau interviewed “Glenn” (name changed for no real reason) and presented Glenn with 38 pages of evidence of times he had also looked at porn on the work computer (at least 100 incidents!). Glenn’s “defense” was priceless: He said “If looking at this is so bad, why didn’t the agency block it?” He also lied at the meeting - saying he had not viewed porn recently - and denied it when confronted with proof it wasn’t true. > > According to my sources, the Bureau of Public recommended termination (duh). So I was appalled when I recently heard that Glenn will only be suspended! :eek: > > What a fucking waste of taxpayer money. I’m so mad I could spit. I’m not sure where I could complain - does anyone know a good whistleblower site? Stories like this make me wonder if he’s related to someone, has dirt on someone, or if he’s possibly in the Witness Protection program. Because surely the management can’t be that incompetent, right? Right? I keep telling myself this, but since my husband has worked for the Feds for about 30 years now, I find that management incompetence is all too believable. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5458 "2013-04-24T05:24:45Z")
May I suggest overnight connections, with the hotel at the _other_ airport? Or downtown, downtown when the airport is 1h away with no traffic is good too. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5459 "2013-04-24T06:12:00Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Stories like this make me wonder if he’s related to someone, has dirt on someone, or if he’s possibly in the Witness Protection program. Because surely the management can’t be that incompetent, right? Right? > > I keep telling myself this, but since my husband has worked for the Feds for about 30 years now, I find that management incompetence is all too believable. The only possibility is that he got the job by being connected somehow. Also, I think management is scared of being sued, even if the employee hasn’t a leg to stand on. I know another guy who won 600k suing the same office. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5460 "2013-04-24T14:18:27Z")
My rant today is… Last year I worked with a certain subsidiary of our company to help them develop requirements that **had** to be implemented by law. We worked with their IT because they have a separate platform, worked with our IT so our platforms would talk and made something that was tested to the nth degree. Cool. Come to find out that they implemented said requirements, but **never fucking use them**. When I asked why, they said, “Oh, well, we didn’t know we had to. This is news to us.” Are you fucking kidding me? You were _there_ when the requirements were developed. You approved the goddamned test cases. There is no way in hell you could NOT know that they were 1) required and 2) being implemented and 3) included on your platform. Then to _fix_ the issue, you think that our _clients_ should have to go in and adjust our system? Really?? You don’t see anything wrong with that at all? You don’t think that perhaps we don’t want clients fucking around in our system and that maybe, just maybe, if you are responsible for not using the requirements, you should be held responsible for starting to use them? Are you on fucking crack? Fix it. Fix it now. I will help you. I will escalate to God if I have to in order to get it done for you and will perform the fucking outreach myself. But come up with a solution, do it now, and make sure that it doesn’t force a client to fix your mistake, you dumbasses. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5461 "2013-04-24T15:36:17Z")
On an average day, my team handles 30 to 35 client calls. Not a horrible amount, although I have never had a call that was under 5 minutes - the average is about 10 to 15 minutes. This means we end up with more than a few voicemails that come in while we’re talking to other people. Now, one would _THINK_ that if you have no voicemails, there just might be something wrong with the phone system. One would _THINK_ it would be a responsible thing to contact the phone people to check for issues. Or, you can go about your day, happy that you’ve had only a few calls all day long, and think nothing of this weirdness. Guess what my lovely velcro shoe wearing coworker opted to do? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=272) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=274)