# 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:** 286
**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:** [June 18, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5702 "2013-06-18T18:34:48Z")
They just hired a new girl in my department. She used to work for the company about five years ago at the property Big Boss managed before this one. All the rest of us in this department are about ready to strangle her where she stands because she won’t ever shut up. She thinks she knows it all because she used to work “here,” but her “here” was a different brand in the same company with different standards which have changed over the last five years. She’s also working the overnight shift, which she has never done before, but that’s okay because she knows everything about it except the basic details. I know Night Audit Lady (who’s been here four years) has shown her how to do everything, but she doesn’t remember it because she won’t shut up. I worked with her this morning for the second time. I know I told her how to do everything on my shift, but she wouldn’t shut up so she doesn’t do anything. She keeps coming over to use my computer when she has one of her own. I had to tell her a couple of times to get out of my personal space bubble. She kept on interrupting me when I was talking to guests–even to the point of arguing with me on directions to the Major Tourist Attraction in front of one. I finally convinced her on the wisdom of my directions, but it took a good ten minutes. (You do not send tourists on the local roads around here–very twisty-turny and a lot of the roads change names three times). I’m trying to be understanding because she’s bipolar and OCD and changing medications, but I’m still going to strangle her if she doesn’t. shut. up. and stop darting about from here to there like a damn ferret. In fact, that’s what I’ve started calling her, The Ferret. Perhaps if she did shut up for five minutes, she could actually devote some of her time to getting her work done instead of whining about how bored she is and how she didn’t get her homework done last night. I did all of the work this morning. She did all of the whining. And next week I get to do it all over again. :rolleyes: Yaaaaaaay. ---
**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:** [June 18, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5703 "2013-06-18T22:46:37Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I was a Creative Director at an ad agency, and the owner was so convinced that her “minions” were trying to get away with slacking that she’d post someone at the door to take down names of anyone who came in after 8 am sharp. Even if you’d been up late at a midnight press check or a late photoshoot until the wee hours, you got called into her office if you didn’t have a perfect excuse for 8:05. Ugh, that reminds me so much of the Bosshole that it made me cringe. Although his was the opposite, he’d say he was going to be out of town for the day and then come into the office at 4:58pm to see if anyone snuck out early. God forbid you left early that day and didn’t have a good reason. I went home sick one day that Bosshole was “out of town” and came back the next day to an inbox full of nasty emails. And in the “It’s been six months and I really should let this go but Karma’s a Bitch” category, I found out that Bosshole has lost yet another big contract. How did I find this out? The company I currently work for is looking to relocate downtown, and the vacant lot they purchased to build on used to be a parking lot that Bosshole used to lease to a big company downtown. Which means if the big company is no longer using the lot to park in, Bosshole is out a whole lot of money. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5704 "2013-06-19T02:02:02Z")
**Dr. Girlfriend** , may I steal your term "Bosshole’?😃 ---
**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:** [June 19, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5705 "2013-06-19T02:29:32Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think that’s going to be my new saying; “Have you ahd too much to droink?” 😃 And that’s the sort of thing that tickles me when other people do it.\* I didn’t mean to be amusing, honest! \*e.g.: We had an application come in that responded to the question “What sort of things would you communicate to the CEO?” with “ **AL PORBLEMS!** ” So we now treat ‘AL’ like a reclusive supervisor: “I’m going straight to _ **Mr. Porblems** _ with this one. If he’s not busy practicing his Hai Jalai serve in his office…” Oh, by the way, the Bosshole_™_ who would have the receptionist rat out the 8:02 arrivals? She’d show up 9:30-ish in her tennis whites, eating an ice cream cone… _…and then complain about morale._ ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5706 "2013-06-19T03:31:06Z")
We get a lot of emails, about 700 a day. We tell prospective new hires this at the interview. We also discourage them from setting up Outlook filters right away. It is vital to get familiar with the emails and learn the language of the work we do before you start automatically redirecting emails out of your inbox. Try automatic color-coding instead, I’ve suggested many times. What happens? People join the team and are shocked – SHOCKED! at the number of emails. They freak out and make filters that move shit all over the place. And when they can’t find an email and you ask them what filters they set up, _they can’t fucking tell you because they don’t fucking remember._ They can’t even find the filter settings again. And since they didn’t listen to you and never bothered to learn the job-speak, their filter rules are shit and it takes an computer forensics team to find where emails were squirreled away. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5707 "2013-06-19T06:53:10Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > Snippage happened. > > And in the “It’s been six months and I really should let this go but Karma’s a Bitch” category, I found out that Bosshole has lost yet another big contract. How did I find this out? The company I currently work for is looking to relocate downtown, and the vacant lot they purchased to build on used to be a parking lot that Bosshole used to lease to a big company downtown. Which means if the big company is no longer using the lot to park in, Bosshole is out a whole lot of money. 😃 Holy cow, I am so happy for you!!! Did you do a happy dance when it heard about it, cause I did when I read your post. Lucky wasn’t entertained, but he got over it. As to the SS with surgery, when I had mine, I had to have documentation. My doctor had to fill out forms and then fax them in, and when I got better, I had to take the original ones in because those were the ones with the “real” signature. Nobody was supposed to talk about my health issues, so perhaps SS really is having health problems? I’m not defending her, she sounds like a very bad coworker. I do wonder what sort of black male material she has to get that much time off so quickly after getting a new job. She can’t be getting paid for that, can she? My rant: No wasps for days, then today, we walked in to find wasps covering the floor. OK, hyperbole, but there are 19 new ones in the jar. WTF are they coming from??? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5708 "2013-06-19T08:03:07Z")
> [@digs](#): > > And that’s the sort of thing that tickles me when other people do it.\* I didn’t mean to be amusing, honest! > > \*e.g.: We had an application come in that responded to the question “What sort of things would you communicate to the CEO?” with “ **AL PORBLEMS!** ” > So we now treat ‘AL’ like a reclusive supervisor: “I’m going straight to _ **Mr. Porblems** _ with this one. If he’s not busy practicing his Hai Jalai serve in his office…” I swear Jai Alai doesn’t have any consonants or aspirations right before that second a… ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5709 "2013-06-19T19:18:01Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > My rant: No wasps for days, then today, we walked in to find wasps covering the floor. OK, hyperbole, but there are 19 new ones in the jar. WTF are they coming from??? Don’t worry about where they’re coming from. Just invest in a dozen or so of [these](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYXPqrXZ1eU). Then when the wasps are gone you can take em home and mount em around the porch and patio. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5710 "2013-06-19T19:50:09Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Don’t worry about where they’re coming from. Just invest in a dozen or so of [these](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYXPqrXZ1eU). > > Then when the wasps are gone you can take em home and mount em around the porch and patio. I am SO up for that! 😃 ---
**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:** [June 19, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5711 "2013-06-19T23:44:19Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > **Dr. Girlfriend** , may I steal your term "Bosshole’?😃 Steal away! I didn’t come up with it, someone else in this thread did, can’t remember who. **digs**? **flatlined**? Bueller? 😃 **flatlined** , when I heard the news we were in a company wide meeting. I was sitting next to my boss, and I kind of snerked a bit and my boss heard me. He looks at me funny and I whispered, “I’ll tell you in a bit.” He knows about the Bosshole, not the whole story but enough to wonder why I stayed there so long. I filled him in on the history of our future office site, and he got a good laugh out of it too. As far as SS goes, no one knows what’s going on for sure. I’m not even sure my boss knows the whole story. Maybe HR knows what’s up, but that’s about it. No one has heard from her, no texts or emails or phone calls. The other day the boss admitted that he isn’t sure she’s coming back this time. We’re not exactly missing her. I guess the last time she vanished over the summer she popped back up in the office in September like nothing ever happened. We’ll see I guess. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5712 "2013-06-20T00:50:02Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > \ I do wonder what sort of black male material she has\ You guys are killing me here! 😃 ---
**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:** [June 20, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5713 "2013-06-20T02:58:04Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > And that’s the sort of thing that tickles me when other people do it.\* I didn’t mean to be amusing, honest! > > > > \*e.g.: We had an application come in that responded to the question “What sort of things would you communicate to the CEO?” with “AL PORBLEMS!” > > So we now treat ‘AL’ like a reclusive supervisor: “I’m going straight to Mr. Porblems with this one. If he’s not busy practicing his Hai Jalai serve in his office…” > > I swear Jai Alai doesn’t have any consonants or aspirations right before that second a… I give and give, unselfishly sharing anecdotes that you’d have to pay hundreds for on the open market (well, _mayBE_, if they were hand-calligraphed in a vintage leather journal), and what do I get? Nit-picking. Sorry. For the typo, for not having time yesterday to look up a word, and for not caring enough to pick a different sport to change the word to (I could’ve pretended we’d say ‘caber tossing’, which would be equally absurd to practice in your office… _that_ I know how to spell). ---
**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:** [June 20, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5714 "2013-06-20T04:06:22Z")
I’m in a snit over a coworker. She is at the “use it or lose it” time off accrual point. I would commend her for that, except she will frequently come into the office when she’s a flaming ball of contagion and doesn’t understand why others may take issue with it. Anyways. She has been taking every Monday and Friday off to kill off some hours. Our team agreement is that if someone takes a planned day off, the team will cover his/her caseload. Now, MOST people are considerate. If they know they’re going to be off, they will clean up scheduled plans, do all their filing, etc. IOW, try and make it so coverage has little to do. Not her, though. And working her cases is impossible. She makes no sense. We have no idea what she wants to do with a case, but if we just leave it we will be nagged by the powers that be. A coworker tried to discuss the matter with her, but she was just got grasping the issue. She thinks we’re annoyed about her taking time off. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5715 "2013-06-20T06:52:20Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I give and give, unselfishly sharing anecdotes that you’d have to pay hundreds for on the open market (well, _mayBE_, if they were hand-calligraphed in a vintage leather journal), and what do I get? Nit-picking. > > Sorry. For the typo, for not having time yesterday to look up a word, and for not caring enough to pick a different sport to change the word to (I could’ve pretended we’d say ‘caber tossing’, which would be equally absurd to practice in your office… _that_ I know how to spell). It’s the Dope! Picking nits is as much of a sport here as in Euskal Herria, where it’s so widely practiced a federation would need to include anybody with a pulse… and, occasionally, someone without. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5716 "2013-06-20T18:56:31Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > My rant: No wasps for days, then today, we walked in to find wasps covering the floor. OK, hyperbole, but there are 19 new ones in the jar. WTF are they coming from??? Same here. The Engineer sprayed all the nests, but there are still wasps flying around the backyard. And one of my dogs likes to chase bugs. Sigh. I wonder if he got stung, he’d quit barking at bugs? ---
**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:** [June 20, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5717 "2013-06-20T19:47:30Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > It’s the Dope! Picking nits is as much of a sport here as in Euskal Herria, where it’s so widely practiced a federation would need to include anybody with a pulse… and, occasionally, someone without. Hope I didn’t sound crotchety (although I was running on Very Little Sleep, so no surprise if so). And another amusing thing is that I often use the phrase “Basque Separatist” as a vocation on boring forms\*, or as a throwaway line: “Well, my dad’s Swiss, but since my sister’s a Basque Separatist we ended up in Milwaukee, where everyone eats Kringel and brats and goes curling in the winter.” \*Maybe I should also list “Euskal Herria” as my emergency contact on those forms… right now it’s “Etaoin Shrdlu”. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5718 "2013-06-20T19:49:28Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > My rant: No wasps for days, then today, we walked in to find wasps covering the floor. OK, hyperbole, but there are 19 new ones in the jar. WTF are they coming from??? Well, when a mommy wasp and a daddy wasp love each other very much…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5719 "2013-06-20T21:47:48Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > Steal away! I didn’t come up with it, someone else in this thread did, can’t remember who. **digs**? **flatlined**? Bueller? 😃 I do believe that was mine, somewhere way back there 🆒 It’s free for use to all who need it! Yep… [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15787746#post15787746](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15787746#post15787746) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5720 "2013-06-20T22:45:10Z")
I love my job. I really do. I like almost everything about it… I just wish my boss would stop forcing me to smell things! ---
**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:** [June 20, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/5721 "2013-06-20T23:13:18Z")
Is smelling stuff part of your job or is it just random smell checks? My husband has a very weak stomach with bad odors, so I have to do all of the smell checks, like to see if the milk is still OK to drink. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=285) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=287)