Word.
Make sure it’s the artificial butter flavor.
On the topic of weird voices, there’s a lady in my office who has a perfectly normal speaking voice, but an absolutely bizarre high-pitched laugh. Things that would cause most people to just chuckle cause her to erupt with an ear-splitting “OOOOOOOO-HOOOOOO-HOOOOOO-HOO!” And Og help your ears if she finds something really, really funny.
Attention Member of Management:
Calling me twenty minutes before I’m scheduled to clock in does not get me to work sooner.
Call me at least an hour before I’m scheduled if you want me to get to work sooner.
(It’s about a half hour drive, depending on traffic. Plus there’s the time needed to dress in layers . . . )
Yesterday was more than a little exhausting, mostly due to the Super Bowl plus a Snow Scare. But someone calling in sick, and someone being late didn’t help at all.
And I’m a little afraid I ordered stuff weird . . . so I may end up with either a ton of stuff, or not enough. But at least I get my next try Tuesday.
So a couple weeks ago, another program asked if I’d be willing to take a 120-day detail with them. This program deals with emergency disaster response, while my present program deals with foodborne outbreak response. So our missions are quite similar, and it seems a no-brainer to me I could learn a lot from this experience. That aside, the fact that they approached me with this offer suggests they see in me skills that they find attractive. Yay.
So I ran it my by immediate supervisor and she gave me the greenlight to accept it.
But, uh oh, she forgot to run this by her bosses first. They weren’t too thrilled when they found out about the detail from the grapevine, and they instantly decided to put a halt to it until my supervisor convinces them she can manage without me being there. Or so they say, according to my supervisor.
Because I was worried they have some other reason for delaying the detail and I wanted to clear up any confusion my actions my have caused, I set up a meeting to talk to my supervisor’s bosses (didn’t invite my supervisor but told her about it in advance). In the meeting, I explained to them how the offer was made and why I accepted it. This isn’t me trying to run away from the program, I assured them. This is me trying to take advantage of a opportunity to learn something new.
To which my step-level boss said, “We just want to make sure that this detail will help your career development. So maybe you could explain how you think this experience will help you grow professionally.”
Isn’t this a patronizing question to ask a senior-level scientist who has been managing their career for at least 20 years and had done a pretty good job of it, all things considered? Mind you, I answered it as though I didn’t perceive any insult; just rolled with the punches. But making an employee explain the obvious, as though management can’t assume staff knows what’s in their own professional interest…am I wrong to see this as one of several signs that I actually do need to leave this program?
The rest of the meeting was pretty blah. I don’t think there were any breakthroughs had. They said they support the detail, but they want to delay it a little longer until whatever. Okay, fine. I didn’t even try to corner them into giving a firm timeline. But I still think they aren’t really being straight with me, and my sense of loyalty is quickly diminishing.
I work as a researcher at a small UK University. It is not a pleasant place to work, there is a lot of backstabbing and no sense of teamwork.
Basically I am only here as a temporary replacement for a woman who has left to have a baby. It was a 12 month contract, I managed 6.
My gripes are as follows:
-
They gave me the wrong job description, so the job I am actually doings bears no resemblance to what I expected to do or what I have been trained to do previously. Obviously I only found this out after I joined.
-
Because I made an issue of this I am, apparently, inflexible because I have no interest in SQL or database management (I was expecting to be fabricating and characterising PV devices). The fact that they fucked up in the first place doesn’t enter into their arrogant academic heads.
Luckily I have got my old job back. So fuck 'em, two weeks to go and I’m out of this dump.
If I had to list two things I have learned in this job they would be 1. Don’t believe the job description and 2. don’t turn your back on an academic unless you’re wearing anti-stab clothing.
How could they possibly hire someone who works with photovoltaics and expect them to know anything about SQL?
Yes, Co-Worker, I get that you’re having surgery tomorrow and will be out the rest of the week. But our supervisor is out today and it’s the first day of the month, which means I have a huge pile of stuff to do that needs to get done today. I also have all the orders we held over from last month, but I’ve already done about twenty of those in the ninety minutes since the system came up from closing. So when I ask for your help doing the stuff that’s due today, please don’t give me a blank look and tell me you’re still working on an order from Friday. Yes, it’s a complicated order, but it shouldn’t take all fucking morning, and I have shit that needs to get done.
I hope your surgery goes well, but I need your goddamned head in the game today, please.
I’ve run into this the odd time as a temp - because they’re paying your hourly rate, they think they can get you to do anything they need doing. Uh, no - I’m here on a contract that was negotiated and agreed-upon by all three sides. I’m not being difficult if I expect to do the job I was contracted for (and neither were you).
Look lady, I know you think it’s my responsibility to do your job. However, it isn’t. I don’t have time to do your job for you. Our teammates don’t have time to do your job for you. Neither do anyone else’s teammates. I didn’t escalate your refusal to assist with an issue because I’m a “Lazy B,” as you indicated on IM when you were screen sharing (that was fun to address in the middle of a conference call of 50 people); I escalated your refusal to assist with the issue because a) issue management is part of your job - it’s even right there, in your job description and b) your attitude is, let’s say, sadly lacking.
So pardon me if I don’t shit all over myself to do your work. I have a team of five to manage and subject matter areas I own, all of which have active projects in flight; as your boss reluctantly acknowledged before I was forced to escalate this to your boss’s boss, you currently manage a letter and “should have plenty of time to complete those tasks independently.”
God help both you and me if I have to manage you after this reorganization. I’m not going to be unnecessarily mean to you, but I sure the hell won’t tolerate this bullshit. I wish I could let you know just how many teams have explicitly stated that they want to make sure that you’re not on their team after the big shakeup we’re expecting.
Wishing I could tell you to go fuck yourself (but too professional to do so),
overly
Apparently it’s all part of an academic position. I should have been able to learn anything they wanted me to do in order to do the job.
Unfortunately I have no interest in SQL.
Luckily I’ve got a job in industry to go to.
I’m waiting for my offer letter from the new company. The hiring manager told me last week that it would be here “Tuesday or Wednesday.”
So far the last seven days have seen:
–Getting hit from behind by a truck while driving to work last Tuesday, sending me to the hospital with head and neck injuries and totaling my car;
–On calling my dad to tell him about the accident, being told that his wife who was suffering from stomach cancer was being sent home because there was nothing left for the hospital to do;
–Filling out loads of insurance paperwork as a result of someone else’s carelessness, and being forced in sub-zero weather to try to get all of my personal belongings out of my trashed car;
–Trying to get hold of my sister to tell her about the accident and our dad’s wife’s status, but being unable to because she was out of the country;
–Getting a call on Friday morning at work from my dad that his wife did not make it through the night, then having him tell me that he did not want me to attend the funeral because “he was not ready to see anyone” (he told the same to his sister and my sister);
–Walking to work yesterday, falling on an untreated icy sidewalk, injuring my back, head, and arm and being taken to hospital yet again;
–Then lastly, spending an hour driving back to the car-rental shop last night only to find that they’d closed early and as a result I had to take the car back early this morning, drive my wife to work, and now will miss some of work this afternoon so I can get her again.
Meanwhile everyone is so afraid of my bad luck that I’m essentially hiding in my office. I am just really overdue for getting out of here and I can’t wait for the offer letter to get here. I know it’s got to come in soon, but I’m just about falling apart waiting.
(Sorry you’re having such a tough time. 
)
(sits watching team inbox fill with work that is all awaiting various manager approvals)
(turns head, looks at list of current work that is all sitting in my box waiting various manager approvals)
Yeah, this should be fun.
Meeting today:
Management wants to know if a certain program is working for us. No, it’s not. Coworkers suck (even you, who claims you don’t fuck with the program, but we all know you do). Here are some other issues we’re having and here are some sugested solutions.
Oh, we’re not talking about solutions, we just want to know what issues there are.
sigh
Management wants us to focus on collecting more. We’re doing what we can; however, if other areas would LISTEN to us and not issue crap orders based on unrealistic figures or stop preemptively punishing people or (list of things) our numbers would increase.
We can’t do that. What else can YOU do?
You ever hear the phrase “squeeze blood from a turnip”? I have a lot of turnips who never should have been ordered to pay support, but here we are.
In other words, a waste of a meeting.
I got bitched at today for doing something my supervisor asked me to do. :rolleyes: A few days ago, she asked me to send someone some information today. I sent this person the information, and then when I talked to my supervisor a bit later, she snapped at me for not sending her the information first. She did email me and ask me to send her the information, but I didn’t get that email until after I sent the information to the other person, just like she asked me to. This happens a lot–we’ll talk about something, and she’ll ask me to do something, then later on she’ll change her mind and apparently I’m supposed to read her mind and know that she wants me to do something different, because she doesn’t actually tell me that. It doesn’t help that she’s very forgetful. I think she might have a problem with her brain.
I have tons more stories I would love to tell, but I’m afraid I’ll get busted and get fired. Which wouldn’t be a totally bad thing, except for not having any money.
Okay, just one more. When I talk to my supervisor, I think all she hears is that “wah-wah” noise like when the adults are talking in Charlie Brown. Several times lately, I’ve told her I was going to do something and asked her a question about it, and two sentences later in that very same conversation, she’ll suddenly have the brilliant idea that I should do exactly what I just told her I was going to do. This is getting really old, and it’s really keep a straight face when she does this. I’m so very, very tired of dealing with her crap.
So put the ideas in an email, either right after you tell her, or in lieu of. Same with other CYA stuff:
“Just fyi, here’s what I’m doing today: Sending the TPS Report to Fritz, ordering Hot Pockets for the board meeting…”
And I don’t think you have to worry about posting your work problems here. If bosses were savvy enough to hang out in The Pit, we’d all have been fired by now.
That would be an awesome idea, if she ever read emails from me. I send her emails and they just go straight into a black hole. She probably has the “wah-wah” noise going through her head when she sees my emails, just like she does when I’m talking. So either way the outcome would be the same. I just have to accept that I’m going to get bitched at on a regular basis no matter what I do. I can’t wait for my next performance review. It’s going to be sooooo much fun!
{Pats MagicEyes on the back} There, there. Someday your supervisor will be dead. Even sooner if you kill her. 
(Don’t kill her. I’m not advocating that.)
Grr. Looking at burning my third vacation day this year because stupid town where I live can’t manage to plow the damn streets when it snows. Ordinarily it wouldn’t annoy me as much, but when both state Depts of Transportation (MoDOT & IDOT) declaire a “do not drive” day, I kinda think we shouldn’t be dinged – particularly with our new work policy of “Actively Caring” (about employees. supposedly.)
Even worse, I’m sitting here checking up on work status and answering work emails… just like I have to every day I’m not in the office.
Forewarn her boss. Discuss that you are being regularly yelled at for doing exactly what she tells you to do and she seems to be ignoring the questions you ask to try to prevent this. Be as calm, concise and emotionless as you can in doing this. I would even go so far as to say you’re not asking for immediate intervention, but that you’re going to start BCC’ing those emails to him/her and you would appreciate if they would just monitor the situation and provide guidance.