Workplace griping, anyone?

The BBQ Pit
7822

That’s crazy. I worked at one place that didn’t really supply office supplies, either - I bought the stuff I needed for myself, labelled it all with my name, and took it with me when I quit. Ridiculous.

Hoo boy - that’s not good. That’s, like, heading into full-blown mental breakdown not good.

“I don’t want to bother you when you’re eating your lunch - would you like me to call you back in half an hour when you’re done?” I hate people smacking in my ear on the phone - I’d probably say something about it.

7823

sigh

My co-worker and I work alternating schedules. One month I have to be there at 7am, the next month I have to be there until 5pm. We also have to work exactly 40 hours. No overtime (as we are hourly.) Our previous managers gave us great latitude in working out our hours within those constraints. Oh, and sometimes you end up staying past 5pm because you’re working to resolve someone’s issue.

What this means is that sometimes due to events or circumstances, you find yourself ‘over’ hours, so you need to make up for it somewhere else. When you start at 7, that means you have to leave early some day. When you have to be there until 5pm, that means you come in later one day. Oh, and I’ll also mention that we were originally scheduled 7:30-4 and 8:30-5 with only a half hour lunch, and we requested and were given the option to take an hour if we wanted it. We managed our own time for over two years and did it quite well.

Wednesday my co-worker was already over by nearly an hour because of circumstances, so he came in a half hour late. Our team lead comes over, mentions how he’s ‘late’ (despite me telling everyone why before the guy got there) and hints at disciplinary action. So I explained why, then wrote an email to him and our manager explaining how our schedules work and what options we have to keep ourselves within 40 hours.

Manager flips out. Sends back an email saying that we don’t have the right to make those kinds of decisions and we need to get his approval to come in early or late or leave early, even if it is only 10 minutes.

I flip out, and basically say WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? I point out we’ve been handling our own schedules for over two years and it has been fine up to that moment. I also point out that I am an extremely experienced adult with 20 years of IT experience and 12 years of other experience, and I very much resent being treated like a child who can’t be trusted to tie his own shoes.

Manager tries to claim he wasn’t saying we can’t continue to manage our schedules, he was only trying to say that I had no right to offer my opinion to my co-worker about how he should manage his time. I’m not buying that for a second. He tries to make it a legal argument :rolleyes: about how he is legally responsible for our time management and we can’t give advice to fellow co-workers about how they handle their time. Still not buying it. He eventually groks that I’m not bending on this foolishness. He claims there’s no way anyone could have read his email to say we can’t manage our own time. I say we all did. He apparently thought I was lying.

Later in the day he speaks to the other two people who got the email. They both tell him they read it that way and don’t know how they could have read it otherwise.

7824

That’s just plain nuts. Did your coworkers try to steal it from you even with your name on it?

We are allowed to order our own supplies, which is nice. I can order what I need, as long as it’s reasonable. So one time I ordered a package of pens that I liked a lot. My supervisor and my department head both walked off with one of those pens. Not accidentally, if you get my drift. :rolleyes:

I would say something about it, but she doesn’t take any kind of criticism well at all. It would not end well for me. And you would NOT believe how loud she smacks her gum. I think she takes a gum-smacking practice class at the Y where they do exercises to strengthen their jaws and work on increasing volume and disgusting noises. I have an L-shaped desk that sits against the wall, so there’s a small nook for my chair. Sometimes she’ll squeeze herself in right beside me so she can look at something on my computer and she’ll smack her gum right in my ear. :mad: And I can’t say a word. I just realized yesterday that I’m a lot grumpier and bitchier now than I was before I started this job. I can’t imagine why.

The gum-smacking volume increases when people are stressed. It’s not a good sign. Yesterday was apparently a very stressful day for everyone. I’m so glad our staff meeting was cancelled, because I probably would not have survived.

7825

I labelled everything with my name because I wanted to make it extremely clear that I had bought my own damned stapler with my own damned money, and it was damned well coming with me when I left. It may have been slightly passive aggressive. :slight_smile:

Well, that sucks. Can you send me her email address so I can discuss it with her? :cool:

7826

Was it a red Swingline? :smiley:

7827

Why the fuck is it that every time, every. single. time. I am employed by a company that is acquired, the benefits invariably get worse?

It’s bad enough that I seem to have a real talent for picking companies that are about to go under (a savings & loan back in the early 1990s), are ripe takeover targets (a supplemental technical staffing company, years ago, and now the company I work for), or are downsizing for whatever reason (several companies in between). But every. single. time, the health benefits cost more and cover less, the vacation time gets bolluxed, the sick leave is screwed …

I’ve been in the workplace almost 20 years, and thanks to all those layoffs and things, I’ve *never *had more than 2 weeks paid vacation. Current company, pre-takeover, gave me 3 weeks when I came on board! But now we’ve been acquired, and the new company (you guessed it) has a lower vacation accrual rate. Plus sick time is now recorded and limited, instead of letting you stay home if you’re sick without penalizing you.

I hope they don’t take away the capability to work from home, since that way you can still work while sick without infecting others and having to take sick time. I’m feeling terribly cranky about all this.

7828

Don’t touch Donna’s labelmaker.

7829

As if things aren’t bad enough at work, I had a customer yell at me today because he could hear me typing. He wanted to speak to the prior person (since he’d already called once about the issue) and I was typing a message to that person when he yelled at me to stop typing and just see if that person was available. His attitude did not improve when I explained that I was trying to type a message to that person to find out if they were available. They were on the phone, so I was trying to type to see if they had any other information that might help, and the customer yelled at me again to stop typing. There are no words to express just how fucking angry that fuckhole made me in general for that call. What the fuck did he want me to do, use telepathy to see if the other person could talk to him? I know that I shouldn’t let people like that get to me, but he really upset me.

7830

You say “I’ll gp see if she’s avqailable–hold on for a bit” then set the phone down and go for your 15-minute coffee break. On the way back, see if she is available.

7831

And today we all get an email that, to everyone on our team, basically read “You can manage your own time. No you can’t.” :smack:

7832

Update on my scheduling woes:

This week anyway, the schedule was made up in a timely manner, and posted in a timely manner. My boss sort of apologized for scheduling me several evenings, but I assured him that that was no big deal (and I wimped out and didn’t say “so long as I got Saturday off”). But I did get Saturday off.

and in other not especially griping:

I got several indirect votes of confidence from assorted members of management this week. This is good, because recently I’ve been feeling a little like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

7833

At a temp/contract law office job, years ago, I got yelled at because I had been reading a magazine (Analog or Asimov’s) on my lunch break, and when I came back to me desk I dropped the magazine face down on my desk and got to work. Office manager, for some reason, freaked out about it - “What is this?” she kept saying. I kept explaining it was a magazine, it was mine, I just hadn’t put it away because I took a phone call right after I came back from lunch. She just couldn’t fathom it! It was pretty bizarre. Bottom line, she then declared that I was to have nothing on my desk at any time but the file I was working on. No pens, no Kleenex, no files set aside to make phone calls on later. I left that crazypants place not long after that. When I gave my resignation, I cited her craziness as a main reason I was leaving.

7834

Anti-gripe

I start work again this morning. I willingly took redundancy last year, only really started looking for work in January. Stopped looking in mid Feb when I had a job offer. Started looking again on April 1 when the offered job turned into a fiasco.

So it’s a couple of months agency work where I will be managing staff rosters.

Interesting unverifiable factoid. My new stationery cupboard may or may not have been where bodies were transported between the gallows and the anatomy labs.

7835

You certainly are correct on that score.

So, do tell how you handled that. Did you quit quietly or did you make a big fuss and quit in a very public manner?

Or did you do like that lady did who was working in that restaurant on a TV show who threw some bananas on the floor and then stomped on them while she announced she was quitting? It was quite a scene. But one that no one ever would forget.

Do tell. How did you handle it?

7836

A couple of years ago I quit a job with a crazy boss. She kept demanding to know why I was quitting, saying things like people keep quitting on me - uh, because you’re a complete loon.

I told my supervisor that I didn’t accept being treated like that, and I was fired within the week. Assholes.

7837

People get all wound up over the stupidest things! I was just thinking today about how much time I spend on these petty little things I have to do to pacify my supervisor instead of actually doing my work. It would be so nice to just work without having to worry that someone’s going to get bent out of shape by what’s on my desk or on my bookshelves. I hope they never look at what’s on my computer, because my files are kind of a mess.

That would be delightful! Although from my experience with her, it will go in one ear and out the other (or not even in one ear to begin with). She has a really bad habit of sitting in meetings with me (just the two of us–it’s a nightmare :frowning: ) and repeating back something I just said about two sentences ago like she just thought of it herself. She completely tunes out when I’m talking. I can hear the calliope music playing in her head. It’s a bit hard on the ego.

Another little story from the past: I was typing something one day in my office–not something long, maybe two paragraphs. She yells from her office next door, “I’m hearing a lot of typing in there! You shouldn’t be doing so much typing.”

:rolleyes:

I have so many more stories. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

7838

Sometimes I miss the Good Old Days when ordering stuff was all someone else’s problem.

The big problem I’ve got right now is that for at least some of the things I’m supposed to be ordering, the order I place one day doesn’t neccessarily arrive before I need to decide whether to include the item on the next order.

And yesterday’s truck was late.

I think it will all work out in the end-- it’s just hard to be sure, and since I didn’t order stuff yesterday, it’ll be a week before I can order more.

I think I ordered another category of stuff on time so that it should arrive today-- and I’ve moved into second guessing myself as to whether I should order more just in case.

Unrelated, except for by the fact that it all has to do with my employment:

I took a quick survey yesterday-- it’s hard to judge whether change is happening in my department, when a few months ago I didn’t know what was supposed to go on in my department. Now I know lots of things-- including what happens when the power goes out for three hours! (Sunday, the power went out for three hours just because. )

7839

And today, in a storm, the power went out for an hour.

Much faster responses all over the place.

7840

Ah, the boss outdid himself today. He set a record that might never be broken for Worst Meeting Performance Ever. If it were an Olympic event, they would have given him two gold medals. Even better, he managed to do this in front of his own boss.

The meeting started out by the Big Boss introducing a presentation on sales figures. My boss, wanting to look all hip and technical, had the presentation on his iPhone and connected it to the projector. Only problem was, he forgot to change the settings so it didn’t turn off and lock up after 15 seconds of nonactivity. This was amusing the first time it happened, not so much after the eighth time he had to unlock his phone. Oh, and somebody called him mid-presentation. Big Boss’s mood went from bemused to Not Happy to Really Fucking Pissed Off in a hurry. Mid-presentation he barked at my boss to “bring a damn laptop next time” and he brought that part of the meeting to a premature close.

After some other business from other attendees, my boss gave a brief presentation about his area. Then, for reasons only known to himself, he started going into intricate detail about the new carpeting in the office–which isn’t going to be installed for another four months. Now, to set this piece up, a couple weeks ago he told our area that when we got the new carpets we weren’t going to be allowed to have any food at our desks because the Big Boss wanted to make sure the carpets stayed clean. So in talking about the carpets, he casually claimed, “Of course, we’re going to be banning food at desks once the carpet is in…” Big Boss jumped in: “Oh, did you make that decision yourself?” It was obvious to tell who was at the meeting two weeks ago because we were all trying hard to not fall over laughing.

But the boss wasn’t through yet and went for the triple dog down. Instead of saying, OK, we’re going to have to think the policy through, he decided the policy wasn’t going far enough. He stated that because the new carpets were going to look so nice, they were also going to have to have an office-wide ban of…and I’m almost laughing typing this…

COFFEE.

In Miami. Next to Seattle, the most coffee-obsessed city in America. No coffee at desks, no coffee in the reception area, no coffee anywhere in the office.

He probably could have said “From now on, salaries are going to be cut in half” and there would have been a more positive reaction. One of our saleswomen started literally screaming at him. I thought she was going to go over and strangle him. Big Boss, who drinks gallon-size jugs of coffee daily, looked at him like you’d look at a toddler stuck in a mud puddle. “Is this a blanket ban?” My boss couldn’t even answer, as it seemed that the consequences of his decision were starting to arrive at his station. “Some of us like coffee, and we offer our clients coffee when they come to our office.” “Uh, we’re going to be thinking about this.” I was thinking, who’s this “we”?

So to recap, the boss fucked up a presentation so badly he was told to sit down by the Big Boss, got caught lying about something he claimed the Big Boss said, and became forever known as The Man Who Stole Everyone’s Coffee. All in one meeting! I’m almost going to be sad if he gets let go, he is starting to become comedy gold.

7841

Some people exist only to be entertainment for others.

In my gripin’ news, I was chatting with Afternoon Blonde yesterday about how fed up we are with the current level of bs and managerial indifference. She must have had her mindreading turned on because she said she was having the same problem I am with getting out of there: “I just don’t know where to look.”