You must have worked where I do, then. Apparently the only reason we don’t have an org chart is because someone might get offended.
The purpose behind my recommendations (other than because they were marching orders from the CEO’s right-hand woman - otherwise known as my boss’s boss) was because our sales are down over 50% from last year. So I did some research and found several areas where we missed the boat. I wasn’t snotty about it - tried to be all casual-like. Apparently any mention of potentially changing up our process was a huge mistake. As noted above, busybody went directly to our boss claiming that I wanted to restructure the department.
Now, I have a history of detesting my boss. I never, ever thought he would support me at all. But much to my amazement, he did. Apparently this dynamic duo was so annoying (to me, to him and to other departments) that our marketing department has gone to my boss as well, requesting that busybody and minion stop contacting them. Apparently marketing has relayed that they would prefer one contact only from our department and requested that the one contact should be me.
As I write this, busybody and minion have stopped speaking with me. As in, I walk up and say, “Hey, do you have a minute?” And they pointedly ignore me and turn away. Maybe I won’t have to ignore them after all - they can do it for me.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that. Hence the equivocation. I had a feeling there was some type of service dog that was supposed to bark, like seizure alert dogs.
The long and continuing saga of Dumbass the incompetent night shift lady may be coming to an end next week. Her little black cloud of doom has pissed off people who no one previously believed had the ability to be pissed off. So there might be an end to one workplace gripe.
One would hope that the reason the dog is barking all the time isn’t because it’s owner is having an hours long seizure… :eek: More likely it was simply poorly trained.
Huh. I was under the impression that a seizure dog was supposed to bark before the seizure, so the partner could seek assistance before anything dangerous happened…
Also, I’m of the opinion that service dog privilege is subject to abuse, and I would be more comfortable if all service dogs could be held to meaningful standards of training and performance.
Wow. I wish that all of our pet moms and dads were as reasonable as you. Some people’s pets are perfect angels, and would never piddle in a room or bark all night… Those are usually the people who are charged extra cleaning fees, or who are called thrice because of other guests’ (legitimate) noise complaints.
Personally, I have the best dog ever - he’s actually a sheriff’s deputy, and falls under the service dog category. I have no problem, however, paying extra for a room to accommodate him, because Good Heavens! he sheds like mad. He isn’t destructive, he doesn’t bark, he doesn’t inconvenience fellow guests. But it takes a bit extra to clean up after him, because of his fur. I also have an 11-month-old, who might spill juice on the carpet - I clean up her messes, because that’s just what you do. When I’m traveling, though, I can’t reasonably carry enough cleaning equipment to collect all of the dog hair. Thus, a pet fee (even though I’m not legally required to pay it) is reasonable. Even those hotels that don’t let me pay the fee, though, are perfectly within the bounds of normal behavior to put me and my dog into “pet-friendly” rooms.
And that’s as much debate as I’ll offer on this subject.
As I understand it, the alert dogs can’t really be trained as no one knows how they know that a seizure is coming. So the dog may communicate by barking, whining, jumping up or whatever. And yes, to be useful it’s supposed to be before the seizure happens, but I could see the dog continuing to bark during it if the dog and person were alone in a motel room.
Yup, it’s very subject to abuse. I personally don’t have a problem with it if the dog in question is well trained but unfortunately there are those that try to get away with it who have gawdawful dogs. The problem with trying to create standards is the wide range of jobs that service dogs are needed for - I suppose a requirement for basic obedience could be set up, but for those who are profoundly handicapped, who is going to keep up the training? I’m not really into the idea of even more laws, living in a nanny state already - besides, where are the laws that say that children need to be held to meaningful standards of training and performance before they can go out in public?
Oh, and Lacunae Matata? I love how the fact that your dog “sheds like mad” means that all dogs must do the same and therefore it’s reasonable to charge extra to vacuum up hair but not to de-sticky the juice a child spills on the carpet.
But of course you don’t want to “debate” it because your experience is all that matters…
Jesus Christ, you sure are surrounded by problems, aren’t you? Do these people follow you around or something?
Also:
Are you *really *so clueless that you don’t know that a hotel can charge you for damages to the room? If the kid really gets the room so dirty that it must undergo special cleaning, she *will *be charged extra for it. If it’s just a regular spill (hint: adults spill too, especially in a hotel where a lot of alcohol may be imbibed), the carpet will just be cleaned as per usual.
Am I the only one who thinks “I’ve never paid extra for a pet-friendly or smoking-friendly room” actually means “I’ve never known about paying extra because my sugar daddy put the whole thing on his blue credit card while I was playing with my dog”?
Which is exactly my point. The motel is perfectly willing to clean up spills on the carpet without extra charge, but they will up front charge extra for a pet even if it turns out to not cost them a thing. It’s difficult to believe that vacuuming a carpet, even for extra time, costs as much as cleaning the carpet, and many dogs do not shed all that much to require extra vacuuming - in my old age I shed more than the dogs.
I would hope that no one else here is dumb enough to make up something like that. And since I pay the bills here, I am certainly smart enough to notice if a rate is more than what was advertised.
I realize that I won’t change your mind, but yeah, my experience may be more valid than yours. As a lifelong pet owner and a long-time hotel employee, I’ve seen both sides of the equation: Sure, my pet or service animal may be the nicest/tidiest/best thing since Mary Poppins, but s/he’s still an animal, and still prone to create allergy issues for a significant portion of the population. Thus, hotel management find it necessary to charge for the cost of removing those allergens, to the best of their ability. (And yes, the umpteen hotel management groups I’ve worked for have also tried to limit guest exposure to allergens like mold or mildew. Pollen? You’re on your own - take a Claritin, because we can’t really do much about environmental stuff. Sue God if you don’t like ragweed or dogwood pollen…) If you don’t care for my hotel’s policies, please don’t stay here: there are plenty of other properties nearby. (Of course, of the 34 other hotels within 2 interstate exits of the one where I work, 24 don’t accept pets at all. Of the 10 that accept pets, 6 don’t allow cats. And local law says that you are not allowed to leave pets in a vehicle on property, except for livestock-type pets: horses, goats, etc.) If animal guests were so terribly innocuous, perhaps hoteliers wouldn’t ban them?
What the fuck! I thought my department was petty and bitchy and toxic. I don’t even know what I’d do if this was my work. My god, Overly, how on earth are you coping? And how have you attained the level of self control that means you didn’t throw a holepunch at their heads the first time they did this? Or cry. I think I’d be so surprised I’d cry. Jesus!
Oh, no, that’s when it gets fun - that’s when you can really start bothering them. Once I knew they weren’t talking to me, I’d make it my life’s mission to include them in every conversation - “Isn’t that right, Busybody?” “Hey, Minion, what do you think of the situation in Libya?” Fun times.
This is where having a good boss can come in handy. If I asked them a work question and they ignored me, my boss would get a quick email explaining that I was having a tough time doing this or that since Busybody and Minion aren’t willing to speak with me and ask how he would like to proceed.
I suspect he would proceed by giving them each a written warning due to the immaturity of the act.
If a song is stuck in your head, kindly keep it there. I don’t need to hear Buffalo Soldier or the fucking Spider-Pig song from the Simpsons movie all day long - especially if all you’re singing is the first line over and over at seven minute intervals.
I made the mistake of telling my coworker yesterday that I had “Like a G6” stuck in my head. She sang it at me when she came by my desk later in the day when I’d finally gotten it out.
Oh, God, this day is so horrible. I woke up at 4:00AM. Soooo tired. Then I took a Sudafed for my sinus headache. Sudafed makes me tired. Soooo stupid! What was I thinking? Then, there’s no one here today except me and I have not one damn thing to do. Soooo boring!! Tired, drugged, bored.
Thank God I have my annual scheduled for this afternoon. I’m gonna lie back, put my feet in the stirrups, and take a nap.
manx, I probably would be hurt in any other work environment. Luckily for me, I dislike them enough it doesn’t offend me. So I can keep it professional, but insults tend to roll off my back pretty easily, even though it does exasperate me.
But it comes with benefits: if they’re not talking to me, they’re no longer as much of a bottleneck. I send them the information; if they don’t respond, I proceed. Also, like Cat Whisperer mentioned, it’s fun to needle them. What’s even more awesome is that just by doing my job I can needle them, so I’m still being (technically) professional, just taking unholy delight in the fact that it bothers them.
