# 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:** 446
**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:** [April 10, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8902 "2015-04-10T07:13:05Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > I used to work in academia - couple of things! > > 1. We didn’t have a minimum age limit for admission - if you were a Sheldon Cooper type who’d passed your Highers (or A levels, or International Baccalaureate, or local equivalent) at 12, you were qualified to enter. I can’t recall it happening when I was in Admissions, but do remember a mum asking about a 16/17 year old. > > 2. Even students 18 and above can still class as Protected Vulnerable Adults - we had several students who were severely physically disabled with cerebral palsy, motor neurone disease, etc, quite a few blind students (not just legally blind, real 100% vision loss cases) and a whole other subset of disabilities beyond “just” dyslexia that meant our alternative exam arrangement invigilators had to pass Disclosure Scotland Background checks. > > Otherwise, yes, its a ridiculous practice, rant on 😉 Fair enough, and sure, if I’d been asked to get one, I would have, or offered proof if I already had one. But of all the personal identifying information they asked for, that was about the only thing they didn’t. 😉 I have a PVG cert now, for this job, and I can’t remember if they asked for proof up front if I’d had one at the time, because I didn’t. Some places insist in the job offer that you have one BEFORE they will consider you, which is rubbish. If you need one for their job and don’t have one, they should bloody well provide it. They’ll need to update it if they need one anyway. But, it’s a buyer’s market in the employment game these days, so they can demand all sorts of things, like offering near minimum wage for highly skilled positions requiring degrees and shit. All of which makes me desperate to cling on to this job so I don’t have to face the damn job market again. I can just about manage to do this job satisfactorily (some say brilliantly, but what do they know 😉 ), but it’s getting increasingly hard to keep it up with my fibro going out of control. I’m losing the use of my arms and brain to an alarming degree in addition to the increasing leg, back, shoulder and overall body pain and other issues that I’ve been experiencing, and it frightens me to think that I might never be able to find another job that 1) I can do properly and 2) someone will hire me for and 3) will pay at least a living wage. For two, at the moment, at least until Him Indoors finds a job as well. So, I’m desperately seeking funding to keep the project going, which is ALMOST as bad as filling out hundreds of job applications but not quite. One of them requires submissions to gather lots of votes, and the most voted-on move to the next stage, so expect to see a big Facebook plea when we get to that point. 😉 Extremities crossed for the duration that I can keep all this up indefinitely without collapsing, which feels terrifyingly likely. ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8903 "2015-04-10T13:18:57Z")
Our Director of Human Resources is an older white guy. Has been getting a lot of information requests from a new hire. His response was to say in a very poor imitation of a stereotypical poor southern black person circa 1850 (ie slave) “Yessa Masta”. I’m still stunned. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8904 "2015-04-10T14:02:46Z")
Dear Coworker, It’s been _three years_. How have you not figured out yet that I’m not going to indulge a play by play of your every minute since I last saw you at 5pm yesterday? Especially not when I (and everyone else in the office) have had my ‘settling in’ period at least _thirty minutes_ before you come bopping into the office. In summation, sit down and shut up. Nobody cares. Nobody caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaares. Love, Moonmoon ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8905 "2015-04-10T15:29:30Z")
> [@Kelevra](#): > > Our Director of Human Resources is an older white guy. Has been getting a lot of information requests from a new hire. His response was to say in a very poor imitation of a stereotypical poor southern black person circa 1850 (ie slave) “Yessa Masta”. > > I’m still stunned. Wow. Is he like 60, or 160? Nothing like HR setting a precedent. :eek: We used to take “wellness walks” at lunch time organized by our HR director, who would tell us all about each employee- why they were on medical leave, what’s wrong with their idiot kids, who had a criminal record, and any other gossip he heard. Real winner, this guy. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8906 "2015-04-10T21:22:26Z")
You know, I’m in a fuckload of pain. Even my prescription pain meds aren’t doing a lot. This tends to make me a bit crabby and short tempered. I needed to be here today for a variety of reasons. So when you fucking carpet bomb me with emails that basically say “I’m a fucking baby who can’t do anything for himself but cry over emails”, while I’m in the middle of doing two Very Important Things, don’t expect me to drop everything to do shit for you that you obviously refuse to do for yourself. The worst possible answer to “Talk to the person who is working on that issue for you” is “I don’t know who that is”. THE FUCK YOU DON’T. Their names are all over the emails you’ve gotten on the issue. I know someone is working on it too, because the issue isn’t sitting in our open issues folder. I’m just too damned busy to search everyone else’s email folders after they’ve gone home to find out who it is. So fucking crawl our of your damned baby crib, read your motherfucking emails, and contact that person. Oh, and completely fuck off and either quit or get fired, because you’re being intentionally incompetent and I won’t help you any further. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8907 "2015-04-10T22:10:54Z")
Don’t you just love days where everyone seems to be using your last nerve as a trampoline? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8908 "2015-04-13T19:51:23Z")
Not a gripe so much as a \ Hah-hah! \ To corporate overlords everywhere: If you’re going to be a cheapskate, it’s going to come back and bite you on the ass, eventually. This is in regard to the dishwashing machine at my current job. The brand name on the machine is one that I have seen only once before in my 32 years in the foodservice business. Gee, there must be a reason for that. Could it be that the brand is a cheap piece of shit? Our dish machine started exhibiting problems many months ago. I should mention that this machine is only ~10 years old. I mention that because I have worked in kitchens where the dish machine was 40-50 years old and still plugging along and performing properly. Most commercial kitchen equipment is built to last for decades. Anyway, the dish machine started having problems several months ago, and we couldn’t find a repairman. Why? Because nobody wants to work on this brand of machine because of the “cheap junk” factor. So corporate authorized our in-house maintenance guy to purchase and replace the suspected bad parts. The new parts failed to fix the problem, and, in fact, things got worse. The machine started overfilling with water, because the water-level sensor was faulty. The excess water led to another problem: the sensor that detected the concentration of detergent in the water became convinced that there wasn’t enough detergent (the excess water was diluting the solution), and was continually telling the detergent dispenser to pump in more detergent. The detergent comes in cartridges that, under normal circumstances, would be sufficient to last 3-5 days. Thanks to the dilution from the overfilling, we started going through 2-3 detergent cartridges _per day_. That meant that we had to purchase detergent in massive quantities. Expensive! The dish machine continued to fail in new ways, until, finally, it stopped even performing a wash cycle. Instead, it just performed a very long rinse cycle. Because of that, we had to start hand-washing every single dish, every single coffee cup and glass, every single pot and pan, every single piece of silverware. Hand wash everything, dip each item into a sanitizing solution, and then run it through the machine to rinse it off. Which meant extra labor/wage expenses because washing the dishes took way longer than necessary and people had to work longer to get shit washed. Mind you, this is in a retirement home, where it is vitally important that everything be sanitary, because the elderly are more susceptible to things like food poisoning than most normal, healthy adults. All of this crap because corporate cheaped out when they purchased equipment for this building, and then tried to apply Band-Aid fixes when the cheap equipment started breaking down. This is where I also rail against the trend towards computerizing everything. As I said, I’ve worked in kitchens with 40- to 50-year-old equipment that still functioned properly. But in my current kitchen, where everything is only 10 years old, everything has a computer in it. Even our fucking _steam table_ has a computer. _Why?!_ The computer malfunctions, and then the entire piece of equipment malfunctions. ---
**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 13, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8909 "2015-04-13T23:24:37Z")
Hasn’t your facility changed corporate hands some time in the past few years? I thought I had remembered you mentioning something along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8910 "2015-04-13T23:48:43Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Hasn’t your facility changed corporate hands some time in the past few years? I thought I had remembered you mentioning something along those lines. Nope, not to my knowledge. Must have been somebody else. ---
**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:** [April 16, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8911 "2015-04-16T17:43:39Z")
So, when my manager said “We need the whole team to push on XYZ backlog, so I’ll be ordering lunch for Thursday,” what she MEANT to say was, “We need the whole team to push on XYZ backlog.” Period. Full stop. Which is fine, I guess, but I’d taken my leftovers back home to eat for dinner - no point having them in the communal fridge where they’ll just get stolen - and I was kinda planning on that food. ☹ > [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > … This is where I also rail against the trend towards computerizing everything. As I said, I’ve worked in kitchens with 40- to 50-year-old equipment that still functioned properly. But in my current kitchen, where everything is only 10 years old, everything has a computer in it. Even our fucking _steam table_ has a computer. _Why?!_ The computer malfunctions, and then the entire piece of equipment malfunctions. Works out nicely, for the manufacturers, doncha think? 😉 Which, I believe, answers your “WHY?” for you. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8912 "2015-04-16T21:31:24Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Hasn’t your facility changed corporate hands some time in the past few years? I thought I had remembered you mentioning something along those lines. > [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Nope, not to my knowledge. Must have been somebody else. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I did say that. And yes, I guess it did happen, though several years before I came to work here. So it would be the original company’s fault for buying cheap equipment. Still, it doesn’t excuse the _current_ company taking so damned long to fix or replace the malfunctioning machine. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8913 "2015-04-17T21:27:35Z")
**Mister Rik,** Until very recently, someone very close to me, who shall not be named to protect the innocent, worked at a very company, if not the one you refer to. It’s all about getting the customer to buy the latest and greatest. They will take any opportunity available to them to “upgrade” their product and make the old version obsolete. They spend so much time developing the improvements in the detergents and cleansers that the quality of the machines takes a backseat. And why not? if you have to buy a new machine, then you’ll need to invest in the latest and greatest line of detergents to support it. 😃 [SIZE=“1”]and who cares what the employees who actually wash the dishes think? They aren’t the ones making decisions and spending money…:rolleyes:[/SIZE] ---
**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:** [April 18, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8914 "2015-04-18T00:08:17Z")
I was reviewing some parts paperwork today that included material composition results. These parts had some very specific requirements; in particular, the composition had to include 2.5 - 3.5% of a certain element. The test results indicated that these parts only contained 2.0% of this element. Hmm. In continuing to go through the package, I found some additional paperwork for some of these parts that had shipped recently…_with the same questionable material results_. :smack: A quality inspector had approved the paperwork, with no indication that he had even noticed the discrepancy. I get to find out how big of a problem this is on Monday. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8915 "2015-04-18T03:46:28Z")
> [@tenacious\_j](#): > > **Mister Rik,** Until very recently, someone very close to me, who shall not be named to protect the innocent, worked at a very company, if not the one you refer to. > It’s all about getting the customer to buy the latest and greatest. They will take any opportunity available to them to “upgrade” their product and make the old version obsolete. They spend so much time developing the improvements in the detergents and cleansers that the quality of the machines takes a backseat. > And why not? if you have to buy a new machine, then you’ll need to invest in the latest and greatest line of detergents to support it. 😃 > > [SIZE=“1”]and who cares what the employees who actually wash the dishes think? They aren’t the ones making decisions and spending money…:rolleyes:[/SIZE] Amen. And it’s been so nice this week actually getting off work on time because I didn’t have to stay late to get access to the dish machine. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8916 "2015-04-18T21:24:40Z")
Dear co-workers: If you aren’t going to do actual work, at least try a little harder to look like you are working. (It’s retail-- standing around on the sales floor or better yet, walking around on the sales floor, tends to pass for work. Sitting down in the back room, not so much.) Rant part 2: If you want people to do minor crap so you can do major crap, do a better job of making it clear what the minor crap that needs doing most is! (Different co-workers, who actually were working, and complaining about the co-workers from the first part. They weren’t neccessarily wrong, it’s just that it’s hard to get excited about prepping stuff when you can’t tell which is the most important stuff to prep). ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8917 "2015-04-20T21:48:13Z")
I work in a cafe located in our public library. Our dishwasher called in today, saying first he was in the ER with his brother, who had injured his knee. Dude, that was last week. When he talked to our manager he changed his story, saying he had to drive said brother to a doctor’s appointment. Our manager was not happy, as she didn’t believe him, and knew that he had today off from his other job(this one here is part time). She remonstrated with him, saying he needed to get someone else to “drive brother” because we’d be really short handed without him. About half an hour after he should have been there, the so-called injured brother shows up in the cafe, asking if our dishwasher has come to work yet. _ **BUSTED!!!** _ He can’t lie very well, can he? Should have got his story straight with the brother first. Now the manager is really pissed, and texted him to take tomorrow off as well, then call in to see if we needed him at all this week. Dumbass just moved into his own apartment and is paying on a car, and he’s probably lost this job. If he does come back he will probably be wondering why we are all so cold to him. That’s the way it goes when you screw over your co-workers. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8918 "2015-04-21T14:31:16Z")
How badly do y’all need a dishwasher, that he hasn’t simply been fired yet? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8919 "2015-04-21T23:08:48Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > How badly do y’all need a dishwasher, that he hasn’t simply been fired yet? Pretty bad. It’s part time, in the middle of the day, and it’s really hard to find someone to fill the slot. But our manager said if he screws up again, even once, he’s outta here. ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8920 "2015-04-23T01:23:02Z")
I’m taking a day off on Friday, and my supervisor told me today that there’s a special rush project that I have to get done before I leave. She did not give me any of the information I need to actually do this project today. I’m betting that’s not going to happen until about 30 minutes before I’m scheduled to leave tomorrow. :rolleyes:[URL=“[http://boards.straightdope.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://boards.straightdope.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/8921 "2015-05-02T04:07:50Z")
Follow up to the last post: I actually did get the information for the rush project in the morning. Yay! However, my supervisor made some changes to it after I left. For some reason she can’t use her own computer (even though she has the same software, she can’t figure out how to open the files, so I have to leave it open on my computer). She didn’t log out and left the monitor turned on for several days, so now my screen has green lines burned into it. :mad: [URL=“[http://boards.straightdope.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://boards.straightdope.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=445) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=447)