“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
WAIT A MINUTE. Do you work here? Because I think I totally work with that guy. Older guy, terrible handwriting, taken to wandering aimlessly around the department because he forgets where he’s going once he gets out of his chair?
Heh, reminds me of a story (yeah, us old people are like that. Lots of Life Experience. 
)
I worked for a major grain company (well, I was an IT contractor for them) back in the mid 80’s when this creepy guy got moved into the mail room which was just across the hall. He was in his mid to late 50’s, maybe 60.
The story was that he had worked there his entire adult life, and eventually worked his way up to being a fairly big manager or director or something. But after a long career, his mental state and his attitude started deteriorating, and because he’d been there all this time and had once been a bigshot, they didn’t want to fire him. So they demoted him. And he sucked at that job, and behaved badly. So they demoted him again. Repeat cycle to the point where when I was there, he was demoted to working in the mail room. Not managing it, just being one of the workers.
Then one day he grabbed the ass of one of the young women he worked with (during the time I was there), in front of witnesses.
THEN he got fired.
I don’t think this guy (who, by the way, is the same person as Old Guy to whom I referred upthread a bit) would ever do that, but … well, to be honest, I’m pretty sure this guy has had a stroke or some other sort of brain-affecting event, because he’s Not Right. Not, like, dangerously creepy Not Right, but just … normal Not Right. He forgets how to do things he does EVERY DAY. When he’s given gentle reminders, he practically goes into full-on panic mode and needs to be hand-held. His emails read like a dial-up modem sounds, only slightly less comprehensible. I’m actually worried about him, a little, and I’m absolutely OVER having to spend 2/3 of my work day fixing his cock-ups.
… I’m so tired.
My computer just gave me an error message. What did I do wrong?
Maybe I’ve been reading this thread for too long, but I was so sure this storey was going to end with an intern being eaten by the Rat King.
The department I’m currently working in treats all information as thought it were super-secret government, “need to know”, eyes-only plans for world domination. It’s like being in a really bad spy movie, or growing up in a household run by alcoholics. Trying to find out one single item about the last release has taken two days, and more emails than I want to count. I weep for my future.
I am an IT person.
Just click on that popup that says “serious virus going on, but we can fix it for you cheap” and follow the instructions. 
It happened AGAIN. Same team, same channel. A team of engineers I write for did not bother to tell me a project had been cancelled. Last time this happened, I wasted more than a month working on stuff that was dead. This time, 3 weeks, but still! And this time I’d also brought in help (2 other people), put in OT, and postponed other work to complete it all.
The boss says it’s time for him to take this team in hand. I say, “About *#&(#*& time.”
And here I’d been happy they told me about the project more than a week before it’s due. Stupid me.
This isn’t work-related, but I’m on the phone right now with a relative attempting to troubleshoot her computer. We’re in hour number two now. Windows Vista is involved. She can’t seem to locate the Control Panel. I did finally figure out that her printer and cable modem are plugged into the same power strip…she cuts the printer off by switching the power strip off.
She is currently reading what she believes to be pertinent information from Vista For Dummies.
>.<
What, no 9mm key?
Sort of work-related, since I work there as well…
I just noticed that those idiot motherfuckers in mammography at the hospital where I work are sending out mammogram reminders that have the patient’s medical record number in full view through the little plastic envelope window.
Listen, you fuckheads, that is Protected Health Information. I can’t throw away (versus putting in the shredder bin) at work a goddamned bit of paper with someone’s initials or date of birth (unconnected to any other information) because that’s PHI. And you braintrusts are mailing around information with my full goddamned name, address, and medical record number in plain view, plus your name and address on the envelope. Someone with a little time and deviousness could mock up a request for release of medical records using that info. But that doesn’t even matter; you should not be fucking putting a medical record number out in public regardless of whether anyone ever does anything untoward with it.
I miss the Tales of the Rat King. If I didn’t like flatlined so much, I’d have sent an anonymous shipment of two dozen rats to Houston. Not the cute pet rats, the big hairy scary rats.
Pulls up a lawn chair and drops a cooler of home brewed beer to watch the meltdown at Chimera’s place.
[quote=“Jeep_s_Phoenix, post:6227, topic:560401”]
I needed to find some absolutely ancient (early '70s) documents this afternoon, so I went to speak with document control. “Oh, that’s probably in The Container.” /QUOTE]
That story made me cringe and cry!!! But a lazy, useless intern being eaten by the RatKing would have made the ending much better.
Strangely enough, I didn’t see any evidence of rodents in The Container. Maybe it hasn’t been out there long enough…or maybe the main building is far more attractive (we regularly find live mice scurrying around).
Despite company policy regarding the possession of firearms on company property, I’m sure I could have found someone to help me out. Many of our file cabinets do have missing locks, or locks that have been drilled out.
You have a lot in common with our document control lady! She can rage for hours about the condition of files that were put in place before she moved to this department. That’s part of the reason I’m having so much trouble tracking down this particular file…even though it was a fairly big job, there wasn’t much concern about filing the papers in any kind of order. There was a big effort to digitize the older files many years ago; boxes and boxes of files were scanned as-is to PDFs that have no indexing. On top of that, the scanning company did not have professionals working their scanners; everything was scanned in black and white (no grayscale!) at a very low resolution. A typical file contains a mix of purchase orders, engineering notes, “while you were out” notes, and the occasional piece of customer correspondence. Sometimes the person doing the scanning didn’t bother to make sure the page had actually scanned correctly; I’ve seen many pages from these files that are folded or severely tilted, resulting in most of the information being cropped.
You think you’re being funny, but I actually DID get one of those today. The email included a screenshot of numerous popup screens of what appear to be Russian mail-order bride advertisements. (I mean, I’m assuming they’re Russian, because that sure looked like Cyrillic.) I told him to speak to Manager about it, because (1) if there is something janky going on, I want no part of it, and (2) the last time that happened to someone, they had some kind of hantaworm thingy that ended up infecting most of the first floor, but mostly (3) I’M NOT IT, I don’t really want to help, and I don’t actually give a shit.
It’s possible I’m developing an attitude problem.
You’re making me twitch, just reading that. If you’re not going to do it right, why even bother doing it at all?
No, your attitude sounds just about right. 
Gawdawful co-worker is out for a week due to a death in the family. My work group isn’t celebrating the death but we’re enjoying the hell out of six whole days with no drama and backstabbing.
Co-workers outside our group have decided they’re outraged we haven’t gotten a sympathy card for everyone to sign. The only explanation they can come up with is we’re RACISTS!!!
Uhm, no. Two other members of the work group are minorities and they aren’t rushing out to get a card because the absent co-worker regularly walks off mid-project and leaves them to do her job. I’m not getting her a card because she regularly tells the supervisors blatant lies that could get me fired if believed. (Fortunately none of the supervisors are stupid enough to believe her).
The co-workers screaming racism haven’t found it necessary to go get her a card, either. Too busy being outraged, I assume.
Dear Management:
Post the Schedule before NOON on FRIDAY, PLEASE!
Not knowing when I work on Sunday by Friday evening is getting really OLD-- and now I think I start at Midnight Sunday, but since the schedule isn’t posted yet, I don’t know for sure.
Also, if you are going to depend on my department to cover deficiencies in another department, make sure we get enough hours and coverage so that we can do so-- remember, I work retail. As I left today, I said “Have Fun” to the guy who was being left alone for the next hour and a half, and was stuck up front helping bag.
And customers . . .
Sigh. Actually, the one I hated the most, today, wasn’t unreasonable, just annoying. I hate it when people don’t respond like they believe that I know what I’m talking about. I can’t blame the guy for requesting that we “think about” carrying the product he wanted, but honestly-- that choice is way, way above my pay grade.
There was a funny one a couple of weeks ago-- he wanted to buy a table and chair set at closing time, and we accommodated that, but told him he’d need to come back the next day with a larger vehicle.
He returned the next day, with his small car. We declined to move the box, but brought him in to see the size of the box. “Oh, no, that won’t work. I’ll get something else”. He also fussed about the condition of the box, and wondered why it said “OLD” on it.
It actually said “SOLD”, but his receipt was clipped in front of the S.
Everyone my warehouse works a regular 40-hr. schedule, but we all have different days off and work at least Saturday or Sunday, usually both. Our manager changed the days off for a coworker with no notice on his “Monday,” meaning he’ll have to work eight days in a row with no OT because it spans two pay periods. This is the second time my manager has changed this coworker’s days off. I’m lucky that I’ve had the same days off since I started here. My manager had better not try changing my scheduke with no notice. I actually make plans and try to have a social life.
I’ve heard the opinion expressed that we should be grateful we have anything available at all. :rolleyes: I really should start recording the number of hours I spend searching through old files…sometimes it does pay off, but most of this material should be much more readily available. And while I really don’t understand why someone felt it was necessary to save every little scrap of interoffice communication (but not the performance data sheets???), some of the notes are rather entertaining. For instance, the company purchased a very large set of data from another manufacturer. I’m not sure who was responsible for scanning, but they actually did a very thorough job in this case – they scanned the back of every piece of paper, so we have a sizable amount of commentary to accompany the original data.
We specialize in the replacement of obsolete components for our customers; on occasion, the original manufacturer is still around in some form or another. I’m currently dealing with one manufacturer that was bought out a couple of times, yet still managed to retain documentation on an assembly that they built for us in the '70s…some of it was stuff that we should have received with the original job, yet no one saw fit to file it (or didn’t file it in the appropriate location).