Workplace griping, anyone?

The BBQ Pit
2782

Guess I’ll have to take back a lot of my prior rant. This morning I was (finally) invited to my first scrum meeting (about 3 minutes prior, but hey, it was an invite!). There was only me and the PM on the call, and what I learned was that the meeting invites are sent out periodically on the distribution lists, so the reason I hadn’t been getting an invite was because that periodic invite hadn’t been sent out. Seems silly to me not to do a special invite when a new team member is added; however, given that there seemed to be some confusion about my even being a team member, I suppose I can give them a pass on it.

At any rate, by the time I get back I’ll likely have a ton of emails, including invites to the other teams’ meetings. Besides, I not only sent a reminder about the meetings, but the PM I did talk to this morning said (I think, having a little trouble with the accent) that he would also mention it to the PM who is at his same location. So that’s sorted

Meantime, I have *got *to learn not to beat myself up for not being an expert in all this inside of two weeks. It’s an unreasonable expectation. I also have to learn to not beat myself up for making mistakes. The world won’t end, the app isn’t going to blow up, and mistakes are to be expected early on. They’re fixable.

Oh, crap. I forgot to set away messages. Oh, well, too late now.

2783

Be good to yourself, flatlined. And welcome home! :slight_smile:

2784

Mine is still “lack of a workplace” griping. I interviewed for a year-long training position in my field, which would be a really big help in locating more work in my field. First interview I’ve had in a year and a half of applying for jobs that was actually in my field. I can still count the total number of interviews on one hand, though. I can’t get the few jobs that are in my field, and don’t have enough “on paper” experience to do the other jobs most relevant to my skill set.

2785

Way cool. Relax and enjoy. I don’t think you ever said anything bad about your replacement, but we will look forward to her updates before the place goes up in smoke and flames!

I honestly never thought about tights. That is such a good idea, but I won’t get caught. Its a big warehouse and my boss mostly lets me do my thing. My job is to make my boss look good and as long as that function is filled, she doesn’t risk ruining her good clothes while managing me.

After you asked, I did some research. I learned that there are only 5 protected rattlesnakes here. I thought there were like 10 or so.

While I don’t like to handle snakes, I do think they are valuable. There used to be a snake who would sun himself on the road in front of my house. Everytime I saw it there, I would go out and stomp my feet to make it get off the road. Finally, one day, I got tired of it, so I put a box on the other side of the snake and stomped my feet to make the snake get into the box and took it out into the desert. From what I learned after this is that I was messing with a viper, and that I probably gave it a death sentence because it didn’t know how to live in the wild.

Thank you. So much. I want my boss back. Today, I was able to move 4 cats to another foster home just by saying her name. I want my second job back, but Lolli is gone and running a rescue is a full time job. I’ll probably get another second job after I stop crying.

2786

Take care of yourself, flatlined. : offers chocolate and a hug:

2787

<Hoping that Flatlined has had a safe and pleasant return to work. Here, have a pleasant cup of tea.>

(What follows is long. I won’t be offended if you skip)

This isn’t so much of a pitting, more a pittying.

I work near a drug addict. Outwardly a respectable, well turned out lady, but she has an addiction to over the counter painkillers. I know she is being treated for depression, and I’m certainly not mocking that. That’s serious stuff, so we’ll ignore the pills she takes for that.

But the other day I was talking to her, and while we talked, I saw her open a few packets of pills. There was a packet of Ibuprofen, another mentioned codiene, and at least one more packet of something that looked like a retail, rather than prescription packet of a random drug. She broke out all the pills from the packet and decanted the individual pills into a little black bag, like a compact camera case. To give you an idea of how many there were, make a circle with your two thumbs and two first fingers, as if you are about to strangle someone. Now fill that with pills. She says she needs them for headaches.

So over the course of the course of the day, she can go from complaining about a headache to being all bright and giggly, and it all starts with a vist to the little black bag.

She told me about her visit to a discount store where she was pleased to find they had mild painkillers on sale at an exceptionally low price.

I get on well with her, so one day when it was just the two of us in the office, and shortly after she complained about a headache, I said that, between me and her, I was worried about her headaches, and the amount of pills she was taking. I suggested she should have a word with her doctor to find the cause rather than treat the symptoms. Although I’m sure any GP worth his salt would have a fit if he saw the contents of the bag. And I’d be worried about when the police would say if she was ever caught in posession of such a wide array of pills. She gave me an “OK, thanks” and we went on with our work and we’ve not spoken about it since, although we’re still friends.

What I’m worried about is that she’s retiring in 3 months time. Work gives her a bit of structure to her day, and I’m worried that the transition to retiral may mean her depression gets worse. She’s got a whole load of other stuff in her life, money worries, elderly parents to name a couple. I’m worried that she will take more solace in the little black bag.

And I know she won’t be able to get help until she admits there’s a problem.

So I offer my colleague pity. But I pit myself in a mild and lame sort of way for not being able to help.

2788

I’m sorry to hear that, spotthegerbil, and I think you’re right - I think she probably is addicted, too. Two things come to mind - she’s killing her liver with all those painkillers, and if she’s buying really cheap ones, they might be stolen with no guarantee of how they have been stored or if they have been tampered with. Good for you for caring about her problem, but you’re right that there isn’t much you can do for her.

2789

Tell her at the very least to avoid anything that has Tylenol, Acetaminophen, or Paracetamol (I don’t know where you’re from) anywhere on the label. Maybe you can get her to slow down how long it takes her to rot her liver so that maybe (probably a forlorn hope) she’ll end up getting help in time.

Not saying Tylenol and friends are bad when used properly, just that they are notorious for rotting your liver when used to excess

2790

Thank you all for the kind thoughts. They do help, but it still sucks. While I was gone, Tony filled my house with kittens. 17 wonderful, sweet adorable kittens. I spent my day making people cry…of course I cried too. My second boss was a well known pillar of the community, and so well loved. I do plan to get another second job, but not this week.

At my first job, I saw a note taped on my monitor from SG. It said “Welcome back tell me all about Texas, I’ll see you tomorrow morning”

First fail is assuming that I’d pick him up. I did call SG and say that because of the construction caused problems that I would not be picking him up. Lots of whining ensued, he spent all of his money on presents for his grandkids and its gotten cold so it costs more to heat his travel trailor and lets not forget that his truck gets bad mileage and is bad for the envirnment (plus his tires are bald and he might cause an accident and hurt innocent women and children). I still said No.

Second fail was that SG taped a piece of paper onto my monitor before using a sharpie to write his note. The ink bled through the paper onto the screen. :smack:

The third fail was that while SG was chatting up the people in HR, he complained that there was an ashtray close to one of the unused doors and caused a big stink because it was so close. (out here, they have to be 20 feet or something away from doors). Bosslady is infurated that SG has gotten so petty.

2791

spotthegerbil

Doing what your friend did is how my ex husband nearly killed himself. Liver, kidneys - they’re going to die from overuse of OTC painkillers. Over time. But ibuprofen WILL erode her gut tissue. If she’s lucky she may end up with some cramps and ulcers. If she’s unlucky it will ulcerate through a blood vessel in her gut and she will bleed to death. And it will happen suddenly, with little to no warning.

My ex required five units of blood, a PICC line and a week long stay in ICU. In the four years since then, he’s been in and out of hospital, had renal issues, gut motility issues, clinical anorexia, double pulmonary edema, unspecified anemia, ideopathic abdominal pain and gut surgery to try and find the ongoing problems he’s been having. He’s on warfarin and methadone to try and control the pain and ensure he doesn’t have blood clots again. He’s unable to work and is on disability pension because he’s still in agonising pain four out of seven days a week.

The reason she’s headachy and crap feeling until she visits her little black bag is that she’s an opiate addict. Her body aches, her skin itches and she feels sad and worthless until she takes the codeine and her body feels normal again. And you’re right, she won’t stop unless she’s ready to stop. But if she’s taking codeine she will develop a tolerance, and she will require more just to not feel shit. And if she’s doing that with codeine that’s bound with other painkillers, she will kill herself just trying to stay at “normal”, not even get high.

2792

I got the job I wanted, I got the job I wanted!
In a dream :frowning: FUCK!

ETA: re. painkillers, my mother’s include several which are OTC in every location I’m familiar with and which hit the pancreas. I think I haven’t seen any OTC ones that go to the kidneys… yet.

2793

If you have an alcohol wipe, it will take the Sharpie off the monitor.

Really boss, you’ve had those documents since the first of the month and you never looked at them even just a little bit to see if (for example) the cover page was correct? WTF? We’ve had exactly this problem with that contractor before!

2794

Do you need to email him the new cover page for those reports?

Well, it’s 4:00 pm on the day before training is supposed to start for the job my temp agency called me about two weeks ago - I guess I’m not getting that assignment. Thanks for the call letting me know, guys! No point really getting into it with any other agencies, four days before the Christmas season when everything basically shuts down till after New Years.

2795

Not yet brave enough to multi quote, so this goes out in particular to Cat Whisperer, Canadjun and Sierra Indigo

We may have had a development with my colleague. (She is actually colleague B that I had the racist run in with a couple of weeks ago.) I had a word with another colleague who is a trusted friend, and also a former nurse. It’s an open plan office, so we’ll spend a few days keeping an eye on pill intake. Using the former nurse approach may convince B that she needs to take a bit of corrective action before she hurts herself. We have access to a counselling service that we could use as a neutral helper, as I know B has used them in the past and trusts them. I’ve used them before for a wholly unrelated matter, and they seem to know what they are doing.

Regarding the provenance of the pills, I’m confident that none of the pills are stolen or fake, mainly because UK drugs are so cheap. (this is just for info, I’m not trying to launch a healthcare debate) A packet of generic aspirin or paracetomol can be bought in the supermarket for 16p for 16 tablets, with a maximum purchase of two packets for low strength varieties. A visitor from the US commented that this was exceptionally cheap by US standards, and that she would shop around for aspirin.

Stronger painkillers can be purchased from a pharmacist, but they should try to prevent you buying them in bulk. Prescription only drugs can only be prescribed by a doctor, but there is no charge in Scotland or Wales to collect them from the pharmacy.

2796

If she’s like my ex, what you’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg. He was taking up to 48 Nurofen Plus a day at some points - 9600mg of ibuprofen. That was just to get enough codeine to make him feel “normal”, not even to get high.

I was “keeping an eye on” his usage and saw him take half a dozen to a dozen a day. What I wasn’t seeing was when he’d go to the toilet and neck half a dozen more. When he’d wake up during the night and take another eight or nine. When he’d stop on the way home from work and take another handful. The point I’m trying to make is that from casual observation at work, you may be getting a grossly understated idea of how much she’s actually taking. That’s just how much she’s comfortable with you seeing her take.

The other problem is too that her usage is only going to escalate unless the underlying problem is addressed. My ex didn’t start on 48 Nurofen a day. He started on 6-12, at a doctor’s suggestion.

I’m hoping I’m wrong, and that she’s not following the same path as my ex did, but everything you’ve described matches his behavior patterns to a T.

2797

Yeah, well, its more fun to call IT and have the sharpie on the monitor documented. Its not like SG doesn’t know how sharpies work. I think that SG is figuring out that he might be fed to the RatKing soon, so is working the system to get out before it happens.

I hope you didn’t feel that my reply was blowing your suggestion off…I didn’t know how about that. I’ve never needed to deal with perm ink on monitors before.

2798

Fun fact, if you get sharpie or stamp ink all over your hands, those alcohol-based “waterless” hand gels will clean it off as well.

2799

I didn’t know that either. I only use pencil at work. I do know that if one is bleaching out her work sippy cup, its best to have some white vinigar around lest the morning coffee tastes like bleach.

I did get an update on the RatKing. Kevin doesn’t have the contacts to be able to nuke the place from orbit. He’s very sad about this.

Once they get the money, they are going to tent the entire U-Store place and pump in gas that will kill the rodents but leave the snakes alive. The problem is that by the time there is money to do it, it will be spring or summer and the snakes will be happily eating the rats and mating. Nothing can be done that until it gets cold enough to make the multitude of snakes go dorment…but by that time, the money will have been spent for other problems.

The RatKing will reign forever!!!

2800

Well, we’ve got the tagline for the Feature Film Version of this tale … who do you think should play SG?

2801

I have some friends who can do the original music for Lair of The RatKing; I’ll want an assistant producer’s credit, of course. We need to get rolling on the tie-in toys for next summer to drum up the toy market for next Christmas.

flatlined, how is Tony?