# 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:** 333
**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:** [December 9, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6642 "2013-12-09T01:14:27Z")
Tell the HR guy about it (maybe with backup from the others in the interview) … … on your way out the door. It’ll have to be a short chat with HR. Because you CANNOT stay there a minute more than you have to. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2013, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6643 "2013-12-09T01:19:43Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > You can talk to the HR director, but the porkbarrelling for hiring this new guy is only the last in the series of massive problems with this company. If you don’t leave now, I think for your own mental health you still need to keep looking for something else. Yes, this. **Cognoscant** , I’m speaking as someone who walked away from a mental breakdown-inducing job myself about a year ago. You deserve better. Another new work week, another new set of procedures to try to remember. That’s grandboss’s solution to why my department is so overworked, give us new rules to follow every week. And don’t you dare mess up and accidently use last week’s rules, or there will be “consequences”. These new rules are supposed to make us more efficient, but it takes so long to remember which set of rules we’re supposed to be following this week that we get even further behind. ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6644 "2013-12-09T02:31:19Z")
Thanks for all the good suggestions! This is at the top of the list– > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > A box of cheap-ass chocolates from Walmart? Or maybe a selection of the nastiest-looking candy I can find from the dollar store. I also thought about a big bag of sugar. My friend suggested hitting her in the face with a pie, which would be awesome, but would also be a waste of good pie. I would have absolutely loved those rock candy trees when I was a teen! I had the worst sweet tooth. I would eat lumps of brown sugar right out of the canister. I’ve toned it down a little bit, but I do like a piece of cake once in a while. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6645 "2013-12-09T02:50:39Z")
> [@MagicEyes](#): > > Or maybe a selection of the nastiest-looking candy I can find from the dollar store. Necco wafers. Your shopping is now done. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6646 "2013-12-09T04:56:12Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > Yes, this. **Cognoscant** , I’m speaking as someone who walked away from a mental breakdown-inducing job myself about a year ago. You deserve better. > > Another new work week, another new set of procedures to try to remember. That’s grandboss’s solution to why my department is so overworked, give us new rules to follow every week. And don’t you dare mess up and accidently use last week’s rules, or there will be “consequences”. These new rules are supposed to make us more efficient, but it takes so long to remember which set of rules we’re supposed to be following this week that we get even further behind. Yes, but did you get the new TPS report cover sheets? I’ll send you that email again - don’t worry about it! ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6647 "2013-12-09T16:55:44Z")
> [@Cognoscant](#): > > It’s hard to look at it objectively of course but he gave the worst interview I’ve ever been in on. The first sentence out of his mouth was an obvious lie (I even saw the person next to me write “lie” on her notepad) and it went downhill from there. He couldn’t answer the first question asked to him and rambled without giving an answer on the second. I had question number three, so I started off easy, asking him why he’d lied about his title on on his resume. After denying it I asked him why his company’s website listed a different title for him and why his listed duties matched that title instead of the one on his resume…and, oh, why didn’t he have any experience in half of the duties required for this job he’s interviewing? He claimed that “he had so many titles and responsibilities he couldn’t remember his exact title at any one time.” Oh, so that’s why you called yourself (the equivalent of) Director of Sales when your real title was Office Manager, Sales Department. Gotcha. > > Oh, it got better. The next question I asked him was “well six people have left your department within the last year including (guy that many of us in the room knew), what would those people say about you if we asked them?” He claimed that he didn’t supervise or know most of those people (LIE: he directly supervised two of them, indirectly supervised another two, and his boss was a fifth) and he wasn’t sure what they’d say. Well, what about the Services team you supervise now? I asked. “Er…” Yes, I knew he’d been demoted from supervising them. “I think they’d say I was a fair manager, uh…” he trailed off. > > I saved the best for last. He’d earlier claimed he’d been the “right-hand man” of the previous AVP at his job, who he lied about “leaving for other opportunities”. I said, now, the previous AVP was let go by your company two months ago (at this point he was so rattled he didn’t even bother to “correct” me). But despite you serving as the AVP’s right-hand man, you weren’t even considered for the job and they had to ask someone who was planning to retire to stay on to serve as permanent AVP! What do you think you could bring to our company as AVP that your previous company didn’t see in you? You could see he wasn’t expecting that one to put it mildly…his first response was “well I didn’t really want to be AVP at that company.” The person next to me actually started laughing at that answer. I don’t remember what else he said, but at that point it really didn’t matter. You said that you would report to this position, isn’t that right? There is no way this guy did not catch on to your hostility during this interview. And you think that the fix is in, so he’ll get the job. I’m sorry, but you really _don’t_ have a choice left to make. You already made it by trying to torpedo him in the interview. He WILL let his buddy know about it, and even in the (apparently unlikely) event he doesn’t get hired, you’ll still have the fallout to deal with. Seriously, this has been going on for pages and pages and pages of this thread: _Listen to what everyone is saying; it’s time for you to find a new job._ ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6648 "2013-12-09T20:45:56Z")
This is a dumb complaint and a total first-world problem type of situation, but I wish that SOMEONE would make a decision on whether they’re going to let me take a leave of absence to do my student teaching starting next month, or if they’re going to lay me off, or make me resign, or whatever. HR claims the (vague) leave of absence policy was “never intended for educational or sabbatical purposes,” only disability/FMLA-type stuff, so they punted it back to my Manager, who is so clueless that she couldn’t find her own ass with both hands, a flashlight, and a map. Again, it’s a stupid complaint, but I’ve been going to grad school for TWO FULL YEARS, so they’ve known this was coming, and I can’t believe that NOBODY knows what to do. Can I come back to work until I find a teaching job, or what? I understand everybody’s concerns; I just want to know what they want me to do. Because if they’re going to make me quit, then I’m taking an extra week off, since it’s unpaid anyway. (I’ve offered to go part-time while I’m student teaching, but I can only commit to 10 hours a week. Manager seemed very put out by that number – she seemed surprised when I said that I wouldn’t be able to manage all my other personal responsibilities [kid, husband, sleeping, eating, hygiene] if I came into work for 4-5 hours a night after I had been in a classroom all day, with a minimum commute of 1 hour each way to my assigned schools. It’s like they expect me to be Hermione Granger with a time turner or something.) ---
**Author:** ![Cognoscant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Cognoscant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cognoscant)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6649 "2013-12-10T01:16:50Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > Seriously, this has been going on for pages and pages and pages of this thread: _Listen to what everyone is saying; it’s time for you to find a new job._ Oh, it’s over. I’ve already started doing what I can: I’ve cleaned up my LinkedIn (apparently you can be a “Top Star” now or whatever on it), updated my resume, called the first of my contacts, and tracked down 20 possible jobs. And people have given up trying to convince me to stay, even my employee who told me she’d retire rather than get another boss has told me she’ll defend my departure. Don’t know how long it’s going to take to find another job. It’s coming up to the holidays, and HR departments get slow then. I’m hoping there’ll be a good crop of job openings right after the new year, but I’m not going to wait that long to start applying. I suppose the one thing that is going to hurt is that all of the jobs I’ve found are too far away from my family to stay here with them. At best I’ve found a couple of jobs that will let me see them on the weekends; if those fall through, I’m looking at maybe once a month; at worst, I’m looking at every three months or so. The jobs I’m finding around here are in a different field which require qualifications I just don’t have or skillsets, mostly programming languages, I don’t know yet or have enough experience in. I could learn them yeah, but we’re talking several months of training or finding some way to make my company let me get experience in a language we don’t use or need. My contact, who I trust very much and has been a mentor for years, felt that if time was of the essence it was better to look for a job I already had experience in, and I’d have to agree. Even though I’m not paid particularly well here I’m hoping I can at least make something within shouting distance of my current salary. But I’m doubting, looking at the job market, I’ll make enough to cover the extra living costs even though I’ll live grad-student cheap again. So I guess it came to this: nearing 40, bipolar, separated from my family, losing money, no social life. But it’s the least-worst option, and I’m going to have to pursue it. I suppose I’ll miss my mental health safety net too, and that I’ll have to rebuild. So, I think that will end my rant in this thread. I’m sorry I spoke so long. But I feel my life has been pretty much wrecked, and there’s really not anything more to say. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6650 "2013-12-10T04:22:53Z")
> [@Cognoscant](#): > > Don’t know how long it’s going to take to find another job. It’s coming up to the holidays, and HR departments get slow then. Yes and no, evidently that changes by sector and location, but right now my own corner of the market is boiling with openings to start in January. Companies which are awake already have those new jobs out. May you get a job that gives you no reasons to post in this thread! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6651 "2013-12-10T05:06:49Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Necco wafers. Your shopping is now done. I like Necco wafers. They taste MUCH better than they look. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6652 "2013-12-10T05:08:56Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > I’m speaking as someone who walked away from a mental breakdown-inducing job myself about a year ago. I did something similar almost 2 years ago, although in this case, the breakdown would not have been mental (no way; I worked for a great company with fantastic people) but physical. No job is worth destroying your health! ---
**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:** [December 10, 2013, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6653 "2013-12-10T06:02:03Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I like Necco wafers. They taste MUCH better than they look. > > 🙂 I’m convinced that people who hate Necco wafers have never had _fresh_ Necco wafers. They’re supposed to _snap_, and the flavors should be strong (but not overwhelming). Someone has decided that we should wear ugly Christmas sweaters to the annual Ladies’ Christmas Lunch. :rolleyes: Absolutely no way will I do something like that in public with this crowd. (Besides, I don’t own any ugly sweaters – Christmas or otherwise.) Wish they had told me about the sweater thing before I picked out a name for the gift exchange…it makes it that much harder to bow out of this thing gracefully. Best of luck with your search, **Cognoscant**. You’re getting out of a terrible situation – that’s a good thing for you _and_ your family. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6654 "2013-12-10T07:33:32Z")
I was lectured for an hour and twenty of the longest fucking minutes of my life by some old coot about identity theft and how he’d been shopping at Sears since Eisenhower was president, and then he bored my poor supervisor, who had to listen to the blathering for twenty minutes herself. Blah blah, yadda, blither how come I don’t have his charge card informations saved and his amazing credit record because Ike and Jesus gave this man plastic. If I start giving some poorr defenceless salesclerk shit like this in thirty years, i hope someone slaps some SENSE into _ **my delirious ass.** _ ---
**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:** [December 10, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6655 "2013-12-10T15:22:31Z")
You were letting a lonely old man have a couple of hours of interaction with the outside world. Bless you and your supervisor! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6656 "2013-12-10T16:15:39Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I did something similar almost 2 years ago, although in this case, the breakdown would not have been mental (no way; I worked for a great company with fantastic people) but physical. No job is worth destroying your health! Did it back in 2001, after it nearly did destroy my health. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6657 "2013-12-10T16:16:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > You were letting a lonely old man have a couple of hours of interaction with the outside world. > > Bless you and your supervisor! Think about how long he’d been saving up and stewing over that internal conversation and he finally got to let it out! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6658 "2013-12-10T17:01:09Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Did it back in 2001, after it nearly did destroy my health. In my case, I wound up in the ER with a panic attack, and lost between 10 and 15 pounds in the next 3 weeks (do you know how hard it is for a middle-aged woman to do that?) I realized that if I worked there one more day, I would be a patient IN the hospital where I worked - it was that bad. ☹ It was not a decision made lightly, because I had only worked there 6 months and had relocated for this job to an area where I knew absolutely nobody, and was starting to make friends there. But I now live in the city I consider my real hometown, and am quite happy. This thread was what brought me to Straight Dope. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=656351&highlight=quitting+notice](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=656351&highlight=quitting+notice) ---
**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:** [December 10, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6659 "2013-12-10T17:37:58Z")
> [@anya\_marie](#): > > I was lectured for an hour and twenty of the longest fucking minutes of my life by some old coot about identity theft and how he’d been shopping at Sears since Eisenhower was president, and then he bored my poor supervisor, who had to listen to the blathering for twenty minutes herself. Blah blah, yadda, blither how come I don’t have his charge card informations saved and his amazing credit record because Ike and Jesus gave this man plastic. > > If I start giving some poorr defenceless salesclerk shit like this in thirty years, i hope someone slaps some SENSE into _ **my delirious ass.** _ I’ve told this story before here, but it’s still awesome. I was waiting in a long line at Sears one Christmas, and an old man with a pack of underwear in his hand marched right up to the cashier, expecting to jump the line. The cashier told him the back of the line was \ The old guy said he didn’t want to wait in line, and the cashier said too bad! All of us in line just about started clapping and cheering for her. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6660 "2013-12-10T18:04:30Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > This thread was what brought me to Straight Dope. > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=656351&highlight=quitting+notice](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=656351&highlight=quitting+notice) As you can see, I’m post #13 in that thread, saying it is a good idea in a bad environment. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/6661 "2013-12-10T18:18:39Z")
We get little pop-up notices to review certain issues on cases. TO REVIEW. Not just to kick out paperwork for the poor mail person (read: me, today) to fold, envelope, and mail for you. After reviewing the pop-up notices, I sent 4 on my caseload. Coworker had 35. It was pretty clear that no review was done. I, stupidly, asked her if she looked them over. “Oh, we’re supposed to do that?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=332) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=334)