# 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:** 39
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/761 "2011-03-03T18:52:17Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > What’s even more awesome is that just by doing my job I can needle them, so I’m still being (technically) professional, just taking unholy delight in the fact that it bothers them. This is the best revenge of all! ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/762 "2011-03-03T21:01:54Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > I realize that I won’t change your mind, but yeah, my experience may be more valid than yours. As a lifelong pet owner and a long-time hotel employee, I’ve seen both sides of the equation: Sure, my pet or service animal may be the nicest/tidiest/best thing since Mary Poppins, but s/he’s still an animal, and still prone to create allergy issues for a significant portion of the population. Thus, hotel management find it necessary to charge for the cost of removing those allergens, to the best of their ability. (And yes, the umpteen hotel management groups I’ve worked for have also tried to limit guest exposure to allergens like mold or mildew. Pollen? You’re on your own - take a Claritin, because we can’t really do much about environmental stuff. Sue God if you don’t like ragweed or dogwood pollen…) Ah. So not only don’t you care about the fact I have pets that make far less mess than the average person, you also don’t care about allergic folks other than those who are only allergic to pets? Gotcha. > [@](#): > > If you don’t care for my hotel’s policies, please don’t stay here: there are plenty of other properties nearby. (Of course, of the 34 other hotels within 2 interstate exits of the one where I work, 24 don’t accept pets at all. Of the 10 that accept pets, 6 don’t allow cats. And local law says that you are not allowed to leave pets in a vehicle on property, except for livestock-type pets: horses, goats, etc.) If animal guests were so terribly innocuous, perhaps hoteliers wouldn’t ban them? They ban them because they can get away with it. Many of the motel managers I’ve spoken to would like to also be able to ban small children but of course that’s illegal. As for staying at your place, since I have no idea where you are I won’t know if I’ve been there or not. That law about animals in vehicles makes it sound like nanny state California tho.. As I’ve said, a pet ban is not an issue for me, I just don’t appreciate be expected to be _happy_ to pay extra because my choices are different from yours. I’m quite sure if you would just think about it without bias, you would realize that you wouldn’t want to pay extra for some arbitrary reason like the management thinks your type of hair is more likely to clog the drains or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/763 "2011-03-03T21:04:32Z")
Oh, **curlcoat** , you’re such a beautiful and unique snowflake. Just like all those other people who insist that they’re somehow magically exempt from the rules. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/764 "2011-03-03T21:18:14Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Oh, **curlcoat** , you’re such a beautiful and unique snowflake. Just like all those other people who insist that they’re somehow magically exempt from the rules. As far as that goes, you tend to be the speshul snowflake here. You write like a grade schooler, you cannot seem to keep your thoughts to yourself no matter what the subject is, you cannot seem to grasp simple ideas, and you appear to purposely misinterpret what you read, such as no where did I say I am exempt from any rules. Why so many on this board like your posts, I really have no idea. Perhaps because so many like children. However, I do not like children, including reading what they write and interacting with them. So I’ll go back to ignoring you until the time comes again that I am so bored that even reading one of your posts seems interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/765 "2011-03-03T21:27:13Z")
Uh huh, \*sure \*you ignore me, \*\*curly \*\*honey. Which is why you’re constantly feeling the need to reply to me. There, there. Work rant! Hey, client, I appreciate that you pay us a lot of money. But when you call me to complain that you haven’t gotten a response to your questions, so that I then reach out to several people on the team that works with you to politely poke them into doing their jobs, maybe you should **OPEN THE EMAILS YOU HAVE FROM PEOPLE ON THAT TEAM BEFORE YOU CALL**. Because your questions were already answered **THREE FUCKING HOURS AGO**. I guess that’ll teach me to assume that you’re not a fucking moron. Next time I’ll look to see if anyone else has already replied to your email.\* \*I didn’t initially see it because it wasn’t in my email–it was someone I support who’s out of the office. I’d sorted by name so I was only looking for emails specifically from the client. I didn’t sort again to see what came in after, or keep it by name and look for replies from the other people who were included on the email. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/766 "2011-03-03T22:08:49Z")
Few grade-schoolers curse _that_ much, **curly.** Also, this week is NOT the time for the system to start hiccupping and burping and outright shutting down. My team is swamped as it is, ferchrissakes. How come the system never gets the gremlins when things have gotten slow? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/767 "2011-03-03T22:16:32Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Hey, client, I appreciate that you pay us a lot of money. But when you call me to complain that you haven’t gotten a response to your questions, so that I then reach out to several people on the team that works with you to politely poke them into doing their jobs, maybe you should **OPEN THE EMAILS YOU HAVE FROM PEOPLE ON THAT TEAM BEFORE YOU CALL**. Because your questions were already answered **THREE FUCKING HOURS AGO**. Hahahahaha. Customer wrote in last Tuesday asking for edits to some files. I got them done and emailed them back to him promptly. No response. A week later he sent the exact same email, asking for the exact same edits. I replied asked him if he hadn’t received my previous email. No response. The next day he called me before I could call him to ask me where the edits were. He went digging through Outlook while we were on the phone and finally found the first email I sent, but said some files were missing. Called me back a second time to tell me _which_ files were missing (they weren’t). Just before I got ready to send out an email with the not-missing files, he called back a third time to say he finally spotted them in that original email. :smack: No, sir, you weren’t any trouble at all sir, have a great day sir. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/768 "2011-03-03T22:19:03Z")
My office is adjacent to a drawbridge. It drew up to let a boat go by and now it is stuck. The annoying part is that there is a BELL. And it WON’T STOP RINGING. AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/769 "2011-03-03T22:36:41Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > Personally, I have the best dog ever - **he’s actually a sheriff’s deputy** , and falls under the service dog category. Wait, what? > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I made the mistake of telling my coworker yesterday that I had “Like a G6” stuck in my head. She sang it at me when she came by my desk later in the day when I’d finally gotten it out. ☹ Last weekend one of my co-workers and I were talking about hometowns and when I mentioned mine he got “China Grove” stuck in his head. I then one-upped him by reminding him of Will Smith’s “Miami.” He then spent the rest of the day singing “Welcome to Miami…Bienvenidos a Miami” at me. He won. Well played, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/770 "2011-03-03T22:55:20Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > I then one-upped him by reminding him of Will Smith’s “Miami.” Oh **GOD DAMMIT**. YOU GO TO HELL. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/771 "2011-03-03T23:01:07Z")
Seriously, accounting dipshit, you really need to figure out some kind of way to record checks you receive. :rolleyes: GM comes to me because they haven’t received a payment from a vendor. Vendor gives us the number/amount/date of the check. So, I go tothe accounting person. (Let’s just add right here that this person is beyond unprofessional, doesn’t give a shit, will never give a shit and will lie and obfuscate without care or concern.) Do you have record of receiving this check? Nope. We never got that check. Riiiiiiight. How much you wanna bet when I got back to the vendor and ask if they can confirm it’s been cashed… oh, why, yes! Here’s a .pdf of the check, and look! There’s our for deposit only stamp with our name in bold! Shocker. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/772 "2011-03-03T23:07:27Z")
3:45 p.m.: I receive an email from my coworker telling me that someone from another office will be sending me a deck in about half an hour that needs to be edited for style/brand and then produced. 4:40 p.m.: About half an hour past when I was supposed to have received the deck, I instant message the person responsible for it. 5:55 p.m.: I try two different numbers to reach the person who was supposed to send the deck; both go to voicemail. 5:00 p.m.: I send an urgent email to the person who was supposed to send the deck, letting them know that I’ll wait a little bit longer, then head out and come in early tomorrow to work on it. 5:06 p.m.: Hallelujah, as I was typing all this up, she \*finally \*responds to my instant message to tell me that she “had to take a call.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/773 "2011-03-03T23:13:31Z")
Sounds like my afternoon, too. :smack: Only I don’t get to come in and do it in the morning, I get to wait after hours. Damn deadlines. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/774 "2011-03-03T23:15:42Z")
This meeting happens to be at 10 a.m., so I have a little bit of flexibility. Update! 5:06 p.m.: I ask her whether it’s worth waiting around or if I should just come in tomorrow. 5:15 p.m.: _crickets_ _crickets_ _crickets_ ETA: Whatever, I don’t even fucking care. If she wants to hand me flex time or overtime to sit here on my ass while she gets this shit done, who the hell am I to complain. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/775 "2011-03-03T23:15:53Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Wait, what? > > Last weekend one of my co-workers and I were talking about hometowns and when I mentioned mine he got “China Grove” stuck in his head. I then one-upped him by reminding him of Will Smith’s “Miami.” He then spent the rest of the day singing “Welcome to Miami…Bienvenidos a Miami” at me. He won. Well played, sir. Corporal Mojo, K9 extraordinaire! Sweetest German shepherd evah! Oh, and? “It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears. It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears. There’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware It’s a small world after all.” 😃 ---
**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:** [March 4, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/776 "2011-03-04T00:06:11Z")
> [@Double\_Foolscap](#): > > Dear co-worker, > > If a song is stuck in your head, kindly keep it there. I don’t need to hear _Buffalo Soldier_ or the fucking _Spider-Pig_ song from the Simpsons movie all day long - _especially_ if all you’re singing is the first line over and over at seven minute intervals. Sorry about that - it tends to come out like that when you have a song stuck in your head - in fact, it’s usually not a song for me - it’s a line or two from a song. Over and over and over and over and over and over… > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Nothin’ helps \*me \*sleep like a good old-fashioned cooter pokin’. Is _that_ what the kids are calling it these days. 😃 Well, five weeks into the three or four weeks of extra coverage, I finally got my computer sign-in so I can do the extra work they’d like done. If that doesn’t add up or make sense to you either, welcome to my world! 🙂 ---
**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:** [March 4, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/777 "2011-03-04T00:38:20Z")
We were informed at the safety meeting today that the level of radiation produced by a new piece of equipment in the lab is significant enough that “young women of child-bearing age” are no longer allowed in the lab when the equipment is running. I’m pretty much the only female who visits the lab on a regular basis, so this affects me…and it also pisses me off a bit. [ol] [li]Why is it OK for the guys to use this piece of equipment all day? To my knowledge, they don’t wear any special protective equipment other than some sort of ring related to a dosimeter.[/li][li]If the equipment is that poorly shielded, shouldn’t this piece of equipment be more isolated? This lab is adjacent to a heavily traveled walkway.[/li][li]What happens if the company decides they need another test tech, and the person who applies for the job is a woman?[/li][li]Why do other facilities and universities allow women to use similar pieces of equipment?[/li][li]The piece of equipment in question is new. Why was radiation exposure not a problem with the old equipment?[/li][li]Little signs have been placed on the lab doors notifying people of the radiation hazard “when equipment is in use”. So how are people outside the lab supposed to know when the equipment is in use without entering the lab and asking someone?[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/778 "2011-03-04T00:56:40Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > We were informed at the safety meeting today that the level of radiation produced by a new piece of equipment in the lab is significant enough that “young women of child-bearing age” are no longer allowed in the lab when the equipment is running. I’m pretty much the only female who visits the lab on a regular basis, so this affects me…and it also pisses me off a bit. > [ol] > [li]Why is it OK for the guys to use this piece of equipment all day? To my knowledge, they don’t wear any special protective equipment other than some sort of ring related to a dosimeter.[/li][li]If the equipment is that poorly shielded, shouldn’t this piece of equipment be more isolated? This lab is adjacent to a heavily traveled walkway.[/li][li]What happens if the company decides they need another test tech, and the person who applies for the job is a woman?[/li][li]Why do other facilities and universities allow women to use similar pieces of equipment?[/li][li]The piece of equipment in question is new. Why was radiation exposure not a problem with the old equipment?[/li][li]Little signs have been placed on the lab doors notifying people of the radiation hazard “when equipment is in use”. So how are people outside the lab supposed to know when the equipment is in use without entering the lab and asking someone?[/li][/ol] You may want to ask if they’ve run this policy by their lawyers, and also drop off a copy of [Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls](http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?q=Automobile+Workers+v.+Johnson+Controls&hl=en&as_sdt=2,48&case=16132234154136361578&scilh=0) with your management. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/779 "2011-03-04T01:22:19Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Few grade-schoolers curse _that_ much, **curly.** Oh! Tweens then? ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/780 "2011-03-04T02:00:22Z")
I swear to God, if I hear “pick you brain” phrase again… 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=38) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=40)