It’s nice that people dress up somewhat when they come to see us. Every client I’ve met with so far today has worn fresh, clean, well fitting clothing (which is not common, btw). However, it would be even nicer if they took a gawddamned shower first.
urp
Dammit, this isn’t looking good. The place I interviewed with last week said they’d let me know one way or the other “the first part of the week”. I don’t know what they consider the first part of the week but so far I haven’t heard a thing. 
Dear Boss and higher Management People:
I wish you’d stop calling all of us out over petty crap that only some people are doing, and call out the specific people who are actually doing the petty crap. A million and one warnings make this seem like nagging, not threats that will be followed through on.
And Boss–yes, your daughter was being a smartypants when she asked why when you have company come you just need to vacuum and make beds, and when we have company come to the store we have panic attacks. But frankly, I’m not convinced that the panic attacks were caused by anything us peons did or didn’t do-- I think they were caused by mid and low level managers who don’t have enough meaningful work so they have too much warning and plenty of time to come freak out in our general neighborhoods.
I fucking HATE Collective Punishment. And the stupid useless ‘kill everyone’s morale’ threats that come along with it.
I don’t fucking know who did X, and even if I did, I have no power to make Joe stop being a douchebag. That’s YOUR job as a manager. So fucking ‘play your position’ and deal directly with Joe instead of killing the entire group’s morale and their respect for you by being a raging dick to everyone about whateverthefuck you’re going on about.
And higher ups? Seriously, which is the bigger problem for a company as a whole? Joe repeatedly not putting paper in the copy machine (for one trivial example), or Mary being a screaming bitch to the entire staff about it because she won’t deal with Joe directly?
My day started with another 30-minute call to the Helpless Desk because the server update didn’t sync with the workstations so I couldn’t log in to the Essential Program We Use To Do Everything. I had to make the same call for the same issue last Friday.
If I have to call them again about it, there will be Language and escalation.
Oh, and that pretty much set the tone for the whole day.
Grrrr… stupid damn web training program, I just spent an hour watching inane drivel and now the program won’t let me take the test so I can get credit for the training.
Does yours feature a condescending narrator that slowly reads each word on the slide to you before you can click the “next” button? Does it also feature a very harsh alarm if you happen to answer one of the multiple choice questions incorrectly? :mad: Those things are so damn annoying…and, of course, each department’s completion rate is put up on the wall for everyone to see at each company meeting.
I’m equally annoyed by the fact that most of the graphics in our training programs have precisely jack shit to do with the material being presented…it’s just pictures of people sitting in offices, or people in suits and hardhats pointing at things.
I may have mentioned this already, but…if I hear one more corporate asshat say, “Yes, but what’s the ask??” I’m going to stab them. Or slap them. I’m sure it’s far cooler to ask what the ask is, but still, “the ask?” Assholes. (Or Askholes)
WTF does that even mean? I work for Mega Corporation so I’m used to crap like “calibration” and “laser focus” but not “the ask”… 
“What’s the ask?” I can’t even wrap my brain far enough around a telephone pole to take a guess at what that’s supposed to mean.
Oh god, I hate this. And in our company, which is small-ish (about 135 people), you can trust me on this, WE ALL KNOW WHO’S DONE WHATEVER IT IS.
And then when the offender doesn’t clean up his/her act, and someone in a place of power really wants to keep that person, well, they adjust the punishment/restrictions to lessen the effect on all of us, which doesn’t matter, because again, we all know who it is and why you did it.
Disclaimer: We are a small company. There are 4 of us in Support. I do not set company policy.
Dear Annoying Customer:
Yes, I realize that you are on Pacific time, and the fact that our business hours for Support are on Eastern time. Most of our other West Coast clients have simply adjusted what time they call our office, not told us to hire more people to suit your time zone. And I am almost certain you were given our support hours during both your implementation and during your hand-off to support.
Yes, we have a Support cell for emergency issues after hours. Yes, we get to define what is considered an emergency, not you. If it is not negatively affecting patient care (e.g. no access, no ePrescribing, etc.), it can wait until tomorrow’s business hours, trust me.
Yes, we do sometimes have to take all the information, give you a ticket number, and call you back later. Not every issue can be fixed immediately over your initial phone call. We have to be able to replicate the problem. Sometimes, it’s a training issue. Telling us that you “don’t want your ticket number” isn’t going to stop us from creating a ticket; we do that for every call.
No, you are not our only client. We have hundreds of clients, and receive an average of 50-80 issues per day. Yes, this is split between multiple employees, but some of us are specialists more than others, and handle more Tier 2 issues than simple issues. If an issue is not an emergency (which, again, WE define), we will get back to you in the order we received the issue. You are not a special snowflake who deserves to get bumped to the head of the line every time you call.
I’m very sorry to break all this to you, but you need to learn to get over yourself.
Sincerely,
Indyellen
Preach it, Indyellen. A few key details in your post lead me to believe that you’re not on my team, and yet …
- looks around office suspiciously *
Indyellen and purplehorseshoe, as a native Californian and FORMER resident (since 1991), I support your opinions. While many folks there are not full of themselves, there are certain area codes I did not like to see come up on my caller ID at work.
Queue the people on this board who believe that since you do CS, you are beneath them and should do as you’re told (by them).
Oh, dear Og, the gossip. And the drama. The ladies at our school’s daycare are driving me up a wall. We’re training an auxiliary management person, and all week I’ve overheard constant “who does she think she is, telling me what to do?” complaints from our resident pot stirrers. I have never been so thankful for my back classroom where the gossip never gets in, but I have to work with these women in before and aftercare, and they do nothing but complain.
Also, my boss’s son is in my class, and I’d be astonished if he has ever heard the word no in his life.
You wouldn’t believe some of the calls that get put in as high for my office. The customer can insist that their issue be given high prioroty even though we carefully explain that unless it directly affects patient care, its not a priority issue.
On Christmas day when the entire department is off. High ticket because user couldn’t play her Christmas CD on the computer.
Our new web filter software won’t let a Dr get to his fantasy football site. Mis-assigned to us, but still a high ticket that someone on the help desk should have shut down.
There’s more, but they are blissfully repressed right now.
Oh. Our emergency department has about twice as many computers as treatment rooms. High calls several times a year because one is down. Take three steps to the left or right and you will be in front of another workstation configured identical to the one that’s dead. So sorry that it won’t be the one you always use. Get over it.
ETA: Yeah. You probably do believe it.
I do. Been there, done that.
Back when I worked in the warehouse, one of the things we were trying to do was get rid of paper. We would scan files to OnBase and then shred the paper. Computers were upgraded so everyone could find the files online. The historic courthouse was upgraded to allow county people to access OnBase.
The people who work there don’t have AC and rely on steam radiators for heat in the winter. In a 4 story building. Their internet always worked.
The scanning project got stopped because the flipping attorneys. who were the whole reason for the intranet refit, kept making their secretaries print the whole flipping file and then would put their 3 pages of notes on the back and have it put in a different box.
Holy cow, I didn’t know how much rage I had over that until now. Grabs Baker and rubs his belly.
This is raising my blood pressure and making me mutter, “Oh, deal lord,” under my breath. What a bunch of tree-killing shitheads!
Is Baker your fiancé? 