# 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:** 367
**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:** [February 20, 2014, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7322 "2014-02-20T06:14:17Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > \ > > And hell no Dr Dummköpfe, I will not come to your house and work on your personal computer equipment “for free”. I’m not sure what country you’re from, but I get the impression that wherever it is, technical support is synonymous with indentured servant. Suck it up buttercup, not happening here. I think you missed an opportunity here - “My rate for working on your personal computer is $200 per hour, payable before I leave.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7323 "2014-02-20T06:28:45Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Heh - my husband worked with a construction management company for nine and a half years, and I think he’d consider a busload of dead architects a good start. They design things that are 10 times harder to build because, well, no one is sure why, they don’t respond to requests to clarify things when they’ve included conflicts and problems in their designs (which puts the construction management firm at risk for very large penalties for going over the time allotted), they extra-bill for their own mistakes, they design buildings with impractical materials just because - from what I’ve heard, they seem to have no clue about the actual building of the things they design. Sounds like they’re the RnD guys of construction. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7324 "2014-02-20T11:28:06Z")
How hard is it to work the hours you are scheduled? Apparently too hard. I’ve got one co-worker who is about to be in a “You can’t fire me, I quit” situation, andd another who “everyone knows” is next. And then there’s the ones who are successful at getting their schedules tweaked. I get that some schedules are capricious and evil, and that sometimes there is stuff more important than work (and I’ve got nothing but sympathy for the guy dealing with a wife who is recovering from surgery and is sick from her pain meds). But for most of this scheduling crap? Nothing but irritation with the people who won’t work their schedules, and the people who delay making out the schedule till the last minute. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7325 "2014-02-20T14:27:28Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think you missed an opportunity here - “My rate for working on your personal computer is $200 per hour, payable before I leave.” Change those last three words to “in advance” and you’re golden. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7326 "2014-02-20T15:07:07Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > Change those last three words to “in advance” and you’re golden. You forgot “two hour minimum.” ---
**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:** [February 20, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7327 "2014-02-20T15:21:52Z")
And “Cash only, no checks”. 😉 ---
**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:** [February 20, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7328 "2014-02-20T17:47:58Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Heh - my husband worked with a construction management company for nine and a half years, and I think he’d consider a busload of dead architects a good start. They design things that are 10 times harder to build because, well, no one is sure why, they don’t respond to requests to clarify things when they’ve included conflicts and problems in their designs (which puts the construction management firm at risk for very large penalties for going over the time allotted), they extra-bill for their own mistakes, they design buildings with impractical materials just because - from what I’ve heard, they seem to have no clue about the actual building of the things they design. Landscape architects are just as bad. Oh, you don’t see a problem with planting a large-growing tree in the middle of a flowerbed that’s going to have to be dug up and replanted every year, which is raised up off the ground with a loose ‘rock wall’ border sloping up around it? Really? And you think a dozen or so of these are a good idea? Of course you do, because you’re not one of the gardeners that’s going to have to tend them for the forseeable future, or at least until the roots completely destroy the border and they have to be dismantled completely, after which the tree will fall over in the first high wind, because it’s not properly rooted in the actual ground. Dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7329 "2014-02-20T18:07:16Z")
but it’s so pretty! ---
**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:** [February 20, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7330 "2014-02-20T19:14:07Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think you missed an opportunity here - “My rate for working on your personal computer is $200 per hour, payable before I leave.” > [@Moonlitherial](#): > > Change those last three words to “in advance” and you’re golden. > [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > You forgot “two hour minimum.” > [@Cheez\_Whia](#): > > And “Cash only, no checks”. 😉 All excellent suggestions but I like my blood presure right where it is. And since after work is when I’m getting my Zen on I just had to politely decline and make a note to share the chutzpa here. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7331 "2014-02-20T19:41:46Z")
> [@Dunkelheit](#): > > Landscape architects are just as bad. Oh, you don’t see a problem with planting a large-growing tree in the middle of a flowerbed that’s going to have to be dug up and replanted every year, which is raised up off the ground with a loose ‘rock wall’ border sloping up around it? Really? And you think a dozen or so of these are a good idea? Of course you do, because you’re not one of the gardeners that’s going to have to tend them for the forseeable future, or at least until the roots completely destroy the border and they have to be dismantled completely, after which the tree will fall over in the first high wind, because it’s not properly rooted in the actual ground. Dumbass. Gah. That’s irritating me just reading about it. > [@Projammer](#): > > All excellent suggestions but I like my blood presure right where it is. > > And since after work is when I’m getting my Zen on I just had to politely decline and make a note to share the chutzpa here. Well, that’s another way to go. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7332 "2014-02-20T19:58:22Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > How hard is it to work the hours you are scheduled? Apparently quite difficult. In both Security and at the Call Center, being habitually late was, by a wide margin, the #1 reason how people left the job. I’m not talking just ‘how they got fired’, I’m including all reasons including getting other jobs. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7333 "2014-02-20T21:51:52Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Gah. That’s irritating me just reading about it. Yeah, I just checked it out on street view to see how the trees have grown since they were planted ten years ago, and yup, the flowerbeds look like shit because the trees suck up all the water and shade the beds, and preparing the soil and planting the flowers must be frustrating as hell because of all the tree roots, but what do the architects care, they don’t have to deal with this stuff once it’s actually implemented. I bet it looked LOVELY on paper. :rolleyes: And of course it would make ENTIRELY TOO MUCH SENSE to just plant the beds with shade-loving perennials and quit disturbing the soil around the tree roots and have something that looks decent instead of seedy-looking annual flowers that can’t do half of what they’re meant to under those conditions and oh my blood pressure… ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7334 "2014-02-20T22:27:12Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Apparently quite difficult. > > In both Security and at the Call Center, being habitually late was, by a wide margin, the #1 reason how people left the job. I’m not talking just ‘how they got fired’, I’m including all reasons including getting other jobs. This does not surprise me. Depress me, maybe. Surprise, no. The other sad thing-- really, the people I’m annoyed with for working other than what they’ve been scheduled? Their presence/absence really has no effect on me or what I have to do during the day. But it still makes me bonkers that they keep pulling this crap. Although, really, I guess there is a certain amount of validity to the feeling that I’m just getting to know this group of people, and I don’t want them to leave and be replaced by other people that I may like less. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7335 "2014-02-21T01:14:24Z")
> [@Dunkelheit](#): > > Yeah, I just checked it out on street view to see how the trees have grown since they were planted ten years ago, and yup, the flowerbeds look like shit because the trees suck up all the water and shade the beds, and preparing the soil and planting the flowers must be frustrating as hell because of all the tree roots, but what do the architects care, they don’t have to deal with this stuff once it’s actually implemented. I bet it looked LOVELY on paper. :rolleyes: > > And of course it would make ENTIRELY TOO MUCH SENSE to just plant the beds with shade-loving perennials and quit disturbing the soil around the tree roots and have something that looks decent instead of seedy-looking annual flowers that can’t do half of what they’re meant to under those conditions and oh my blood pressure… I see all kinds of private homes with all kinds of “bad idea plantings” (full-sized blue spruce two feet from the house, etc.), but a professional really should know (and do) better. ---
**Author:** ![Tess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7336 "2014-02-21T01:31:58Z")
Email from New Boss: Tess, Please open the attached Word document\* and insert the revised paragraph I’ve included below. Then send the revised document back to me for final approval. I need this done this afternoon. New Boss \*Which I had no part in creating up until this point. So, rather than taking 10 seconds to replace two words in the actual document, he decided it would make more sense to copy the paragraph into the body of an email, make the changes there, attach the unrevised document, and send it to me to copy and paste the revisions and send back to him? Head, Desk, please get acquainted while I brush up my resume. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7337 "2014-02-21T02:57:51Z")
We have an implementation of some server changes going on this weekend. Thousands upon thousands of emails were sent out. I know that I personally got at least a dozen emails warning me about it over the last two months. One week ago we sent out an email that said “In one week…” Queue a ton of angry calls and emails from FUCKING MORONS assuming that we were somehow going to have the entire system down for a week. :rolleyes: Difficult to contain the snark, but I was able to get away with responding to one angry email demanding an instant halt to this project and a full blown meeting to discuss it and reschedule it; by replying “As the first sentence of the email states” and then quoting it verbatim. Lots of metaphorical shuffling of feet and wandering away ensued. Monday I’m expecting we’ll get angry calls and emails from people who tried to use those servers while they were down and will claim that no one told them. :smack: How do people get into positions of authority without the ability to read and comprehend emails? It is probably THE major means of communications in Corporate America. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7338 "2014-02-21T03:26:25Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I see all kinds of private homes with all kinds of “bad idea plantings” (full-sized blue spruce two feet from the house, etc.), but a professional really should know (and do) better. I used to have a friend who was a good landscape architect. He used to weep real tears when his clients changed plants on his designs. He had carefully picked out features that would compliment the area and would thrive in time. The clients wanted instant results. > [@Tess](#): > > Email from New Boss: > > Tess, > > Please open the attached Word document\* and insert the revised paragraph I’ve included below. Then send the revised document back to me for final approval. I need this done this afternoon. > > New Boss > > \*Which I had no part in creating up until this point. > > So, rather than taking 10 seconds to replace two words in the actual document, he decided it would make more sense to copy the paragraph into the body of an email, make the changes there, attach the unrevised document, and send it to me to copy and paste the revisions and send back to him? > > Head, Desk, please get acquainted while I brush up my resume. I’m having terrible flashbacks of working with a control freak like your new boss. I think you are doing the right thing, run away as fast as you can. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7339 "2014-02-21T04:41:10Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > How do people get into positions of authority without the ability to read and comprehend emails? It is probably THE major means of communications in Corporate America. Well, it’s not just email skills; it’s Noticing What The F\*ck’s Going On Skills-- they wouldn’t pay any more attention if you’d told them in person or sent a certified letter to their home. > [@Tess](#): > > Email from New Boss… I too had a Mega-Micro-Manager Boss. But I hung in there for 7 years. It did take a few emails saying things like “Would we be saving time and money if you made those changes yourself in the future?” ---
**Author:** ![Luk3112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a9adbd/32.png) [@Luk3112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luk3112)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7340 "2014-02-21T15:09:19Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Anyone want to bitch? Big, small, in-between irritations? > > I’ll go first; there is an issue at my temp placement with breaks (as in, no one takes any). Let me re-phrase that; no one but _the smokers_ take any. :mad: (I don’t smoke.) Just general bitching about each other in the office. Two-faced ness between EVERYBODY apart from one or two who are particularly close. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/7341 "2014-02-21T15:15:26Z")
Man, if you’re planning on responding to EVERY post in the thread, you better get a move on; you’re WAY behind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=366) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=368)