A long, long time ago I took an Intro to Programming course. The teacher talked about the “little dwarves” in the machine. He explained that programming consists of explaining to the little dwarves what they have to do in terms that make Sesame Street “biiiiiig… smaaaaall” explanations sound higbrow; some little dwarves (low-priority processes) are polite and let other little dwarves cut in line all the time; etc.
I think that right now the little dwarves inside the Big Blue Database are all in the nearest movie theater watching Mirror, Mirror. There’s a piece of data I updated today and which at first only showed up if I opened it directly… now it’s showing up in the list of choices available for that kind of data, but when I select it, the BBD says “code not found”. I picked it from your own list! Which dwarf are you, Slow-pokey?
I know. The same thing happens every year, and the stress is really not worth the extra half an hour of pay for working through my break. My coworkers pretty much just laughed at the email asking if anyone would give up their break. At least I partially learned the lesson and did not agree to work extra overtime today and yesterday.
Knock it off, Tracyfish. For reals. You’re not doing yourself, or your clients, any favors. I surmise this is a once-a-year thing, but that doesn’t really mitigate the issue.
Eh, it’s pretty much once or twice a year. The questions aren’t too bad. Most customers are either trying to correct problems with rejected returns or need help with filing extensions. It sure was easy to say no to working this coming Saturday, though. The scheduling manager is the one who asked and I don’t feel inclined to do him any favors at the moment. Plus I already have plans.
Wow, you must be an old fart, expecting people to show up to work on time and not just make personal phone calls all day. How are they supposed to keep in touch with their peeps, huh?
I’ve been without a coworker on this job for nearly 6 months. We’re finally getting someone in after a major clusterfuck of attempts to deal with bureaucracy, letting HR try to do the hiring, and finally my department administrator taking the duty back from them after stringing us along for weeks about whether they could come to an agreement with our first choice candidate. Thank god the second choice was both great and still looking for a position. Now it’ll “only” be another month before the new hire is on the job.
Part of the problem was people, in this economy, not wanting to work for the salary being offered. I know the offered salary was less than my current salary, but fuck. I am not getting paid enough to deal with this.
I *am *an old fart–my gripe isn’t so much with the personal phone calls (more than 4 hours worth today), but having to listen to his side of the conversations day after day.
I’m not sure if you know I was teasing you or not (I was ).
I’ve worked with some young folk who seem to think nothing of spending all day, every day texting and talking on their cellphones, and getting bent out of shape if someone calls them on it.
I have a question for you folks - I’m sitting right across from a lady at my temp job who puzzles me. She is very outgoing and gregarious, and chats all day long with everyone else in the office, but she doesn’t say a single word to me after “Good morning.” I was trying to talk to her at first, but I have stopped since she doesn’t seem to want to talk to me. What do you think is going on here? I don’t have a lot invested in this since I’ll be gone in a week or two, but it is weird - most people will talk at least a little when someone is sitting six feet away from them all day.
Cat Whisperer, I wouldn’t take it personally (not that you are) - as a temp who has BEEN a temp for a long time (since 2007), it could be a lot of things. I can be very outgoing and gregarious with coworkers who I’ve worked with for awhile, but when someone new comes in, I’m not - I’m polite, but I don’t know them - and I’m not the world’s most social animal when I don’t know someone, or haven’t interacted with them for awhile. It’s hard to explain - I am very close right now with several coworkers I’ve been with for six months - however, the newest temp I’m cordial with, but don’t really “hang” with. I don’t know her - and I’m kind of socially phobic I guess you could call it in new situations and with new people until their a known quantity.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, but in the immortal words of some guy, “it isn’t you, it’s her”. That’d be my guess, anyway.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned him in this thread, but I had a coworker (thank Ogette he did not work “for” me but for Andy) we tentatively diagnosed as being both seriously ADHD and more self-centered than a dick in mid-wank. Anyway, one day Andy was trying to explain something for the Nth+1 time and ADHD-boy was texting on his phone, messaging on skype and IM, and claiming he didn’t need to take notes on Andy’s explanation; Andy’s color was already between this and this :mad: (the color, not the feeling) when one of our bosses grabbed ADHD-boy’s phone, shut down his laptop and ordered him to take. Fucking. Notes. Damnit.
The day after ADHD-boy left, Andy celebrated by having straight whisky with his lunch.
I’d like to pit the asshole who thought that “Material can only be posted to Quality by Quality” (the error on screen) equals “Please check Quality Master Data, there’s a mismatch” (the actual motherfucking problem). May he get a hemorroid of the approximate size of a 9-months-pregnant woman’s uterus.
I’ve worked in a lot of places with a lot of people, and one thing that is fairly consistent is that the people who complain the most about how busy they are and how much work they have to do spend huge chunks of every day complaining about how busy they are and how much work they have to do. This must be a corollary of that law.
One of the perks of being a temp - I rarely have to go to meetings.
Clients who shred all their mail without opening it. :rolleyes: Newsflash there’s alot of important information that your bank or credit card company may send you in writing. This also the how we send your card out to you. :smack: Yes, the plastics themselves come in plain white envelopes that look like junk mail. Not everything does, yet you freely admit on the phone that even shred mail with our logo on it. Yes, that’s why you never heard about your card number being compromised 2 months, never got new card (complete with letter explaining exactly what happened), and the campground you’re staying at on vacations keeps insisting your card is stolen. Also you since insisted on yelling at me and using profanity I’m not going to waive the fee to get a new card overnighted.
Had a meeting with an employee to create a performance plan last week, giving two weeks to improve with the possibility of termination if he doesn’t. He’s been calling in sick since then, and now an email with doctor’s note attached saying the meeting was so traumatic that he’s applying for disability. Can’t work because we freaked him out, and now it looks like we may have to hold his dang job for him even though he sucks at it.
I wish that companies were prohibited from including all sorts of promotions and ads in their mail, so that I could tell just what is a bill and what is a bundle of ads. Instead, I have to carefully go through every damn sheet of paper and check to see that they aren’t raising my interest rate or something that I NEED to know and sneaking it in among a fat wad of ads.
).
and this :mad: (the color, not the feeling) when one of our bosses grabbed ADHD-boy’s phone, shut down his laptop and ordered him to take. Fucking. Notes. Damnit.
