So, it has been a crazy week and it is only Tuesday. One of my team member’s grandmother died, so he is unavailable until at least tomorrow, possibly not until Thursday. Another team member was friends outside work with the first team member, so today he is at grandma’s funeral. I had my annual exam this morning, early, so I would only miss about an hour (or less) of work.
This apparently results in the only other team member (who I have complained of before) texting me and the manager at 6:30 AM that something ‘important’ has come up and he won’t be in this morning; he’ll be in around 1:00 PM.
Well, it is now 1:30 PM. Guess who is not here? And guess who just texted me that they are not coming in? Grrr!
Thanks! My boss and I sat down and had a talk this morning, and both of us ended up crying because she was so upset to find out how miserable I was. The solution really seems to be that I need to slow the fuck down and not try to do everything, but the rest of the department is now aware that I’m drowning, so everybody’s going to step up a little and I don’t have to feel like I’m doing everything.
They never stop talking, never ever. I’ve tried shuffling papers, I’ve tried a very polite gosh, I really need to get back to this project, I’ve tried ignoring them, nothing works. It’s just insane that people can spend an entire work day yammering about absolutely nothing important or interesting. Shut up shut up shut UP!
I think they like the noise. Maybe it makes them feel like they work in a really happy office, but you’d think the sight of half their coworkers in headphones would clue them in.
They sound like the kind of person whose keyboard eeps, beeps and meeps.
Emma Bull, “Bone Dance”, page 232. Ace Edition, May 1991. ISBN 0-441-57457-2 and I should’a bought a dozen copies just so I could have this bit anywhere. It’s what I call up when I find myself doing things because “otherwise they won’t get done”. Underline mine: “There’s a difference,” she said with exaggerated patience, “between getting money for what you do, and doing it for money. If you don’t do it for love, or because you think it needs doing, get out and let somebody else do it. If nobody else does it, maybe that means it shouldn’t be done.”
I can’t call someone a sexist piece of shit to their face at work, can I?
I’m sick of saying something and having SPS dismiss it entirely and watching my male colleague say the same thing using almost the same words and absolutely using the exact same reasoning and all of the sudden SPS sees the light.
Why do I even bother?
I wouldn’t suggest using those words in the workplace setting. You could very sweetly ask him to point out to you the subtle difference between what you said and what your colleague said. The tone needs to communicate that you’re trying to enhance your professional skills, and it should be done in font of everyone.
BTW, have you observed the SPS treating any other colleagues of your gender in such a manner?
Usually, the only other woman in the room is his subordinate and she rarely (if ever) speaks. So, it could be just that he doesn’t like me for reasons that have nothing to do with my gender. And I could be attributing to sexism what’s actually just malice.
Ok, just to lay the ground as to where we are, today is our last day as contractors and tomorrow we (CG and I) start as employees.
Yesterday our manager asked our team to perform a task. A half hour later, my team lead comes over and starts going over it with me, asking me to do it. CG waits until our discussion is completed and then complains that he already started working on it the minute we got the email.* So it’s assigned to him since he’s already doing it. :rolleyes:
Well, today he ran into some issues since there isn’t an easy way to do some of it and it will require a lot of manual effort. He then complains to our team lead that it is a complete waste of his time and we shouldn’t do it. Our team lead tells him to stop complaining because “at least you have a job” At this point, I’m sitting one cube over doing this: :eek: CG fails to get the social clue (no, really?) and keeps pushing on with the bitching and moaning. Team Lead tells him that we sometimes have to do unpleasant tasks and that’s why they call it WORK. If he doesn’t want the job, he should speak up now. That this has to be done and since he decided he was going to be the one to do it, he’s going to have to do it. (I mean, holy shit! TL goes to CG for so much stuff I had no idea there was this undercurrent.)
After a half hour of silently fuming and not doing any actual work, CG stopped by my desk to complain about it. Like I told him, I don’t know what you’re complaining to me about, I’ve spent 3 days auditing a bunch of really boring stuff that I’ll probably wrap up late tomorrow.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!
In case you don’t remember, I’ve documented issues with this man glomming on to everything that comes by our team, snatching work out of my hands and even in the past trying to work in parallel on things assigned to me [del]hoping to finish before I do[/del] er, “trying to help” - until I raise hell about it.
Velcro Shoes is back in the news.
Yesterday, I sent her a reminder that she should review a different program for information, as I ended up in one of her cases and found an address and an employer for someone. She spent time sending out stupid letters for something that could have been resolved in 5 minutes.
She also sent me a request to call back one of her clients, with a note that she is handling the file in a specific manner. Too bad she couldn’t clearly state what that specific manner is. I had to email her back, asking WTF? “Oh, you know” No, I don’t, which is why I’m asking for clarification.
Then, a coworker and I had to deal with a pair of her clients. Clueless doesn’t begin to describe them. Both had mushmouth, so they were difficult to understand. I had to play phone tag with one of the parties, and was very clear that he needed to call the office number back, NOT my personal line. He called 10x in 5 minutes, direct to my personal line. My coworker had the same issue with the other party. Then, coworker spoke with the guy. He said I was “in charge” of his file. No. No way. Between coworker and I, we received and made a total of 14 calls dealing with them.
Finally, I emailed Velcro Shoes, requesting SHE contact them, preferrably in writing, to help them understand what’s going on. Response? “Since you’ve done so much work already, why don’t you write to them? I can transfer you the file?”
No. Just No. They’re yours. Coworker and I handled them as COVERAGE. There is a point where coverage ends, your work begins. Don’t pawn them off because you don’t want to deal with them.
I leave for vacation in 8 days, 20 hours, and 28 minutes. Not that I have been keeping track for, oh, six months or anything. I put in the vacation request when they opened up our time-off system for the year back in January. The request was approved the same day.
Back at the beginning of June, I started scheduling my projects and assignments very carefully so that everything would be done by this Friday (8/2). On more than one occasion, I sent emails to people confirming that any testing / development / documentation would be completed by this Friday because I would definitely be out of the office the week of August 12-16. If it would not be done, I either rescheduled or found someone else to do the testing / take the call / attend the meeting.
While I’m out of the office, I will not have internet access (as far as they know). I don’t have my cell phone connected to my “corporate” profile so I should not be getting any calls, not even if the building burns down. Quite frankly, while I’m away I plan to start drinking by 6am every day because, damn it all, I am a fucking grownup and I am allowed to do such things.
So, yes, Manager’s Boss, I am positive that I will be unable to attend product testing during the week I am scheduled to be on vacation. Yes, Manager’s Boss, I am absolutely sure of this. No, Manager’s Boss, I wasn’t aware that you approved the Manager’s request to have off the week I am scheduled off PLUS the week after, since I am not in charge of anything, let alone approving my Manager’s vacation requests. No, I don’t know why she didn’t tell you that I would be out of the office too. No, I don’t give a shit that I am allegedly the only person here who can handle hitting <F5> and <Enter> for about an hour a day for a week. Yes, I am certain that I don’t give a shit.
"Why do all these people have access to this sensitive data! I never approved ANY of them! If you people can’t do your jobs right, I will just blanket deny anything that comes from you!"
Ok sir, here are all of the emails where YOU APPROVED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. It’s too bad your boss, who I had a great relationship with, left for another job last month, or well, let’s just say the two of you would have an interesting conversation about this.
I’ve got vacation coming up in 2 days. I was told today that I needed to go to a satellite office on the Monday I return from vacation. This is when the person scheduling the meeting knows I don’t have childcare. I managed to get someone to watch my kids (my husband also works and had already agreed to do a big client demo that day), but I wish I didn’t have to admit it.
What’s funny is that when I said I couldn’t find childcare, one of the geniuses in the satellite offices told me to bring my kids. Seriously? You want me to bring a 7 year old and a 3 year old to our offices to do…what? Annoy the shit out of everyone? I love 'em, but I know not everyone does. Hell, my son’s likely to blow something up.
Seriously, my presence there isn’t that important. The people I’m meeting with are a) internal, b) not on my team and c) fixing one of their own problems. They need to talk to each other, not to me.
CG fails to get the social clue (no, really?) and keeps pushing on with the bitching and moaning. Team Lead tells him that we sometimes have to do unpleasant tasks and that’s why they call it WORK. If he doesn’t want the job, he should speak up now. That this has to be done and since he decided he was going to be the one to do it, he’s going to have to do it. (I mean, holy shit! TL goes to CG for so much stuff I had no idea there was this undercurrent.)
