Workplace griping, anyone?

The BBQ Pit
2302

That’s something else I hate about Mrs. Boss: she waits till all of the housekeepers show up, and then decides she doesn’t need them. Most of these ladies make minimum wage or just above, so that gallon of gas they just wasted represents a half-hour of work. I’ve worked at plenty of places that had a rotating “on call” list for housekeeping, wherein the employees only needed to call ahead to find out whether they had the day off, or other places where “spare” housekeepers were assigned the extra cleaning - wiping down hall and stairwell walls, steam cleaning carpets, etc. It shouldn’t cost these ladies so much time and money just because Mrs. Boss is so thoughtless.

And yeah, SpazCat, I loooove dealing with the idiots who don’t comprehend “sold out.”

“Sir, if the Pope were to show up, he’d have to bunk in the Popemobile.”

“I understand that you need 20 double rooms for your sports team would next week. Unfortunately, I don’t have even one… Because all of the other coaches booked and sent payment for their rooms two months ago.”

"Ma’am, it’s not price gouging, it’s a simple matter of supply and demand. When 20,000 football fans want to book rooms, and the entire town has only 1100 rooms, prices for rooms will be higher.

2303

Have I bitched about our God-awful phone system here yet? No? Good…

We replaced the phone system at work about a year ago with a VOIP system because it would supposedly solve our problem of the lines breaking up whenever we tried to use the computers, scanners, and phones at the same time. We were always losing calls.

So they install this VOIP system, and it hasn’t worked right from day 1. The new phones they installed are chintzy pieces of crap, the sound quality is terrible, and we’re still losing calls. New system is twice as expensive too.

Now the phone system has started randomly rebooting. You can be in the middle of a phone conference or some other very important call when you hear a “click”, and all the phones shut off. All the display screens go blank, and they’re completely dead until they come back online. It can take up to ten minutes or so before they’re usable again. Can’t dial in or out.

Each phone in the office has its’ own little quirks. Mine will sometimes disconnect whoever is calling in when I try to answer it. Really pisses the customers off, let me tell you. The guy in the next office will have his speakerphone come on for no apparent reason. Sometimes no one is even in the office and you’ll hear his speaker come on.

Tech support is supposed to come out tomorrow morning to install a patch that they swear will fix this once and for all, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

2304

Lacunae Matata, Congrats on leaving that toxic place. A hidden bonus is that when our strangers plan comes together, you will have no further connection with that woman, and you will have made things so much better for the coworkers you care about. I don’t think things come with more win than that :cool:

The rat infested warehouse has become such a problem that I won’t be at all surprised to drive out there and see nothing but a smoldering pile of ash. Which will be in no way connected with me. But, if it does happen, I’ll be a willing alibi.

Nobody is trained to deal with this problem. Nobody except one person is willing to go in now. “Willing” is probably the wrong word, he only goes in there because he can’t order anyone else to do it.

We had to go out there for a file today. You know how rats like to run around the walls, right? The evidence I found at first was around the back walls. Today there was a 3 inch trail in front of the door. I didn’t get close enough to shine my flash light at the walls, I just used it to point at the pallet.

The box reeked and I refused to touch it. “ICKICKICK, I’m a girly girl!!! And not only that, the legal secretaries are even more girly girl than me!!!” K gave the building such a hatefulled glare that I almost expected it to go up in flames right then.

Just so people know, I’m sure that K would never do anything illegal and starting a fire in Arizona is almost a shooting offense.

It is very possible that now that its getting cold, a homeless person might notice that some of the units don’t have doors, go in there to build a fire and get warm. You never know.

2305

Ya know, I may be out that way next month and am in no way a girly girl…

2306

Is it unethical to set up a death pool for an inanimate object? Like, say, a vermin-infested storage facility?

2307

If you can’t be bothered to read the instructions posted right on the coffeemaker and decide to fill the basket with about three times the amount necessary, to the point where coffee is spilling down the sides into the water chamber, don’t come to me and whine that the coffee ‘tastes like shit’. 'Twas you that made it so.

2308

Um, flatlined, did you know that rat urine glows under UV light? Do you think you could get them to buy you a UV flashlight?

2309

Dear QA Manager and Particularly Vocal Operator,

I am an engineer, not a miracle worker. By the rules of the union, I, myself, cannot do work on the equipment. I cannot get in the equipment and clean it myself. I honestly would if I could. I also cannot hire or bring people back from lay offs faster. So why are you telling me I have to clean these tanks? All I can do is ask for them to be cleaned. And I have. I’ve been told it isn’t going to happen. I’m ok with that. Why aren’t you?

Sincerely,

I’m-not-even-a-manager

2310

Milquetoast the Executive Housekeeper, it is annoying enough that we’re hiring. You don’t need to take that as a challenge to make it even *more *annoying. To wit: you have a voicemail. You can use the voicemail. When you call people to set up interviews (on a day I’m off THANK ALL THE GODS), do not tell them to tell me to page you so you can set up a time. Use your voicemail. That is what it’s for. Otherwise, the following conversation can, and did occur:

“Um, I just got a call from this number.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that.” (Can you tell my patience with this opening has frayed a bit?)
“I think it was about an application I turned in?”
“Then there would be a voice mail.” (Not phrased exactly like that, but the sentiment was the same.)
Two minutes later…
“I just got a call from Milquetoast.”
“Okay, let me transfer you back to her office.”
Thirty seconds later…
“Um, she left me a message to page her.”
By this point I’ve realized that Milquetoast is in the back office behind me. I get a name, go around the corner, slay Milquetoast with a glance, give her the name, go back up front, and transfer the call.

Meanwhile we just got new computers last night which meant I and the GM spent half the day getting everything on the computers put back the way it was on top of the usual chaos which was quickly changing from controlled to uncontrolled on top of housekeeping being whiny little brats that Milquetoast was too busy doing whatever the fuck she was doing to keep her people in line, trusting the new guy to keep an eye on them on top of doing his job, which, by the way, he’s only been doing a week so he’s still learning. Seriously. I have enough to do putting out the fires that the second and third shift in my own fucking department set when I’m not there to babysit another fucking department.

2311

I wish the boss would start checking her calendar before blindly approving vacation requests. I think more than half the staff is off today, unfortunately I am not part of that half. Lots of running around like decapitated poultry. And hey, guess what? The new printers aren’t working. Again. At least I have a muffin. Pumpkin spice… mmm.

2312

Hey, Dr. G. can I have off next Wednesday? kthxbye

2313

Gah.

Dumbass application owner realizes he has filled a “borrowed-for-testing” storage device with too much data and that he can’t copy it all off to other storage in the time left before the owner of the storage comes to take their loaner back.

Application owner of course starts whining about it’s really the fault of the network being “too slow”, rather than his poor planning.

Well, we clear decks, break rules left and right and manage to get a dual-10-Gig uplink to the location in record time. And - application owner doesn’t use it.

He didn’t want a solution. He wanted an excuse.

2314

Oooh, that sounds good. Have you tried the Pumpkin Pie blizzard at Dairy Queen? I’m trying not to have one every damned day in October.

2315

The IT department is largely competent, except grave shift (my shift) which seems to be run entirely by a tech I’ll refer to as Fuckup.
A typical call goes:
Anyone: The computer froze while I was running a transaction.
Fuckup: Oh. Uhhh. I’ll be right over to fix it.
Forty-five minutes pass with no sign of Fuckup.
Anyone: I thought you were coming to fix this?
Fuckup: No. I told you to bring it down here.
Anyone: You told me to unplug a running computer mid-transaction, get clearance from three different departments, remove a computer with sensitive data from a secure location and carry it through the building to you? And I agreed to this?
Fuckup: So if you could just bring that over…

Last week Fuckup managed to lock himself out of the entire administrator system. He couldn’t call any of the competent techs to unlock it for him. I’m not sure if he didn’t want to admit what he’d done or if they’ve all learned to dodge his calls. Apparently this happens so often the department head won’t even give him an individual log-in.

I needed an address to access emails remotely while on PTO. Fuckup rattled off an address without hesitating. Imagine my lack of surprise when it didn’t work. After all, making shit up is easier than actually looking it up. Fortunately I later caught a days tech who knew what she was doing.

A new part-timer started on graves August 30. Four emailed requests and several irate calls later Fuckup still claims there aren’t any work orders to get her time clock, computer or machine log-ins (I honestly think he doesn’t know the “Sent” folder has a copy of all this). The only reason she’s in payroll is one of us mentioned in passing to a days admin the new girl needed a locker.

How in the hell did this guy get and keep a job?

2316

I’ve learned that my pain memory is only good for 4 days.

I recently had to pick up 379 boxes from a health department that was closing. How it works is that the department emails the paperwork to me, I do the computer stuff and match the box labels to the boxes with the paperwork. The transfer sheets specifically ask for the department to number the boxes. Some departments use their own numbers for the boxes, some just start at 1 with every pickup.

What matters here is that I don’t have to read the description/dates on the front of the box and match it up to the paperwork. Using this method, it usually takes me about 20 minutes to label 40 boxes and get them on the shelves.

None of the emergancy boxes were numbered. I have to look at the contents, alpha range and date range to find the right label. Its frustrating and time consuming and I can’t ask any of the people who filled the boxes anything because they are all gone.

I understand that the people who used to work there weren’t that motivated. They were losing their jobs through no fault of their own.

Nobody is ever going to look in those boxes. They are going to sit on pallets in a secure off-site location for 6 years and will then be shredded. Labeling and the computer work is very low priority.

Nobody is pushing me to get it done. Nobody but me, that is. I go out and spend 2 hours on a single pallet and can’t find the last box, get frustrated because there is no logical connection to the paperwork and what a different person has written on the boxes and give up.

I’ve done this 3 times so far. Today, I was standing there muttering to myself, wondering why I was there when I realized that it was even the same time as usual.

I guess I’m pitting myself here. Nobody really cares if those boxes ever get labeled. Having unlabeled boxes offends my sense of order. All boxes will be properly labeled and their locations will be in the computer, goshdarnit!

I’m the one who keeps picking up the paperwork and going out to do battle against the forces of chaos.

At least it keeps me from going out to the rathouse. My latest suggestion of renting a couple of freezer trucks to store the boxes was taken as seriously as all of my suggestions from the start of that epic.

2317

So label it, already. Here’s how the label should read:

And when you catalog it in the computer, call it CLIENT XYZ’S BOX OF FIRST RESORT…

2318

I can’t do that! These are my precious boxes now. I have to properly catalog and file them. Its in my blood. Slidles next to boxes and checks to be sure that they are stacked properly.

OCD much? Not me!

2319

I want to work for you, to haul boxes and entertain kittens. Boxes will be placed properly and kitteh will be entertained.

2320

Ooo - kaaayyy. I’m just gonna go stand here in the next room for a while.

Why am I walking backwards? No reason.

2321

I would love to work with you. I could never leave those boxes there unlabeled.

We could solve the mystery together! (Plus, I was told there were kitties?)