I work in maintenance and have no access to a personal computer, only a group one. It amazes me that other workers will send me emails and they cannot get used to the idea that me and the others I work with dont look at email.
No, they have to actually come talk to us.
I’m not an IT guy, or, I’m sure I’d realize how ignorant this question is, but isn’t it possible to modify permissions on his email such that he loses the ability to add filters?
I don’t know if it’s possible at the network admin level, but it’s definitely not something I or my boss can do. To my utmost regret.
I have not-jokingly said several times that work email features should be unlocked based on demonstrated intelligent usage. Many people would just have New Message, Reply, Forward, and the address book.
Today, also DS. I should note we do translation work.
Me: I want you to get experience dealing with client rejections. Did you see Client’s email from 10:49am?
DS: No… (scroll scroll scroll search search)
Me: Let me know if you need me to forward it.
(scroll scroll)
Five minutes later:
Me: Did you find it? (I can see him staring at it.)
DS: Yes.
Me: Okay. Have you seen the rejections that I or [coworker] have sent in the past? Those are good examples of how to send them out.
DS: Um, no.
Me: Okay. Take a look in the project folder and look for the one I sent yesterday.
FIVE MORE MINUTES OF SEARCHING EVEN THOUGH I TOLD HIM EXACTLY WHERE TO LOOK:
DS: I can’t find it.
Me: It’s right there.
DS: Oh.
Later:
Me: Okay, now that you’ve heard back from Production, you need to reply to Client. Now, one thing you should know is that when we reply to clients, we change the language of Production’s response. Do you see where it says–
DS: WE CHANGE THE LANGUAGE??
Me: We change how we word the response.
Dude, you are missing out on SO much fun.
“Yes, for this client, you’ll need to use Welsh. Google Translate should help. Run it by me before you send it.”
There has got to be a better way to handle informing me of your decision to make me “step down” from my position and return to my old department then seriously cutting my hours for next week.
Especially since the hours I got scheduled are seriously stupid and annoying.
Note: when I say that, I don’t mean I got scheduled when I’d rather be doing other stuff. I mean that none of us were scheduled according to what I perceive as the needs of the business.
I got a few of my missing hours back, which will help me help the next person to have my job get his bearings before he begins the process of being chewed up and spat out.
Let’s just say that today gave me new appreciation for why companies often choose not to have people work out their notice.
This has worked splendidly. Also, cheese sauce and ranch dressing. I have also found that she will eat anything she gets to sample at Wegman’s – at least for a day or two – so we’ve been hanging out there.
First ERP project I was involved in took place in the factory where I worked; about 50 people total including a few “permanent subcontractors” (as the manager put it when a visitor wondered why did we include subs in company lunches, “they’ve been working here longer than half the internals!”).
One of the interesting things half the employees found out was that they had email; previously most of the people in maintenance, production and the warehouse had never used it. “I never knew! Gooosh, I feel… cooooorporate 
Can I use it to email the wife?” (Yes, occasionally - that means not every day and definitely not every hour)
I can’t sleep. Why is that a work-related gripe? Because it’s got to do with my work-related-rental apartment, that’s why 
It’s hotel-managed, so of course there are a ton of pillows but they are all fluffy, large, square ones. Must go get a solid, long one on Monday, before the crick in my neck becomes a permanent fixture… and since us side-sleepers are only 30-40% of the population depending on which poll you read, ok, we’re a minority, but why do so many hotels have only flat-sleeper pillows available? We’re not that small a minority!
Fire extinguishers
Every workplace has them but few ever get used. Ours do. Now there are 2 types - the ABC ones which are most common which put out a type of foam, and the C02 ones which just blast out C02 which also smothers the fire. Now while the ABC ones work perfectly fine they also create a white mess and when we do things like welding it isnt uncommon for their to be small fires from the sparks. Our managers had me get rid of the C02 ones so all we have now are ABC’s and the guys are reluctant to use them because they create such a mess. It used to be with the C02’s you would just snuff out any small fires, so no problem. That was what the guy on firewatch’s job duty was. But they are reluctant to do that with the ABC.
Now I’m trying to get them to let me bring back C02’s.
Let me guess, the ABC ones are “cheaper” (at least, until the place burns down because people are reluctant to deploy them)?
Actual, complete response to an email I sent to a vendor requesting a copy of the most recent revision of a drawing:
“What this drawing relates to?”
:smack:
I have come to a very depressing conclusion: I hate my job.
It is depressing because it is the ideal job. I have the perfect boss. He backs me up, is very understanding of mistakes, appreciates the job I do, and gives me a large amount of autonomy. I love most of my co-workers, and can work around the difficult ones so well they think I love them, too. I believe strongly in the purpose of the organization. I am paid well above average for this type of job in this area. I can flex my time to a fare-the-well. I can work from home as necessary for child care reasons. The duties are not difficult. I have access to as much training as I want.
Cite that this is the ideal job, you say? Read on: Part of my responsibilities include a step of payroll. I screwed up something, and one worker didn’t get a check. The office secretary texted me at home to see if the check was somewhere other than the box it should go in. I went in to look and discovered the check had never been cut because I had missed one field entering him in the payroll system. 100% totally my fault, which I told the shorted employee. I scrambled a bit and got the check out to him about six hours after he should have gotten it. HE apologized to ME at least four times that I had to come back to the office after I’d gone home “because of him.”
When I filled in the boss and apologized for the screw-up, all he said was, “I know you’ll make mistakes, everybody does. As long as you do your best to fix them, I’m good.”
It is such a **great **job. The only problem is that I hate the tasks I perform all day long.
Le sigh. 
I am getting so tired of coworkers “missing” things then telling me I can fix it. No. Nonononono. If you fuck up, you fix it.
Our manual is very clear - to send me a case, the previous worker needs to take certain steps. I email the previous worker “hey, you missed x, y and z” and receive a response usually in the vein of “sorry, I was busy, you can do it, right?” I can, yes, but it’s NOT my duty!
Today I received a case where the previous worker “forgot” to obtain an order stopping charging on another case. You cannot charge someone for the same child on multiple cases. Just tell the guy to file a motion. And continue to double charge him for the 4 months until he gets into court? No. Well, then, just stop charging. I cannot - I must have a court order. Moron.
I wouldn’t be so cranky about it if these were new workers who don’t grasp the intracacies of the law or our program rules, but these are experienced workers.
It really sucks when your boss is not only the kind of person who won’t take a bullet for his own team, but is the kind who will step in, help guide the bullet, then ask them if they want to shoot again or if they need help burying the bodies.
Honestly, if you don’t respect the team you manage (and it shows), you probably shouldn’t be managing that team.
I don’t have the mental energy required to write a proper rant today, but things are more messed up than I realized, with a bad case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, and a possible side of bullying by management.
I need a new job. Outside of this organization.
Things I can share:
I’m getting really, really, really tired of being the only responsible one in my department.
Yesterday, we had a major rainstorm-- it was LOUD due to the rain (warehouse style retail roof). But it was quiet where I spend most of my time-- I hadn’t thought about how much the insulation to keep the cold in keeps the loud out. The power kept threatening to go out, but never actually did.
I told more than one person that it could rain as much as it wanted, as long as it stopped at 9 pm. My going home time. Well, it had let up when I left the building, but then it started raining just enough to annoy me as I walked out to my car.
Still shaking my head over this one…
Part of my job is submitting applications for insurance agents to the insurance companies. We check over the paperwork and make sure that everything is in good order before it’s sent in. Sometimes the agents send the papers directly to the company without going through us first, and that’s when the fun starts.
I had a case review for an agent who had submitted her paperwork directly to the company, and surprise surprise it got rejected for some missing documents. Agent’s last name was hyphenated, UnusualLastName-CommonLastName. I call the agent, tell her what she needs to do to fix the paperwork. She’s fine, not angry at all, admits it was her mistake. A few minutes later I get a phone call from a Mr. UnusualLastName who just reads me the riot act about how embarrassing it was to have to get new paperwork… big important client… blah blah blah.
Mr. UnusualLastName demands to talk to my boss. I hand the phone over, my boss tells the guy the same thing that I did, the agent should’ve sent the paperwork to us, not the company. Mr. UnusualLastName hangs up on my boss.
Later on that day I get an email from the agent with the missing papers and an apology for her dad’s actions. She says he’s trying to help her get her business off the ground but sometimes tries too hard. I forward the message to my boss who busts out laughing. He has teenage daughters, and he said his daughters would die if he tried to fight their battles for them like that even at their age.
tl;dr… helicopter parenting at its’ finest at work. At least the helicopteree had the decency to be embarrassed about it.
So, my work schedule this past week has been stupid and illogical.
I have not been quiet about thinking this.
One of my frustrations has been too much time when I needed to think not just for me, but for someone else.
Well, one of those someone elses has just quit. Not even employed by the company for a whole week, and she had some sort of family crisis which meant she needed to quit.
I feel bad for her, and also exasperated, because while having her around meant some things got done that might not have otherwise, because four hands are better than two, if we hadn’t had her around, I might not have gotten so stressed and frustrated.
To my esteemed supervisor, H: I like and respect you, but I’m really at a loss as to why for the final hour the store was open today we had TWO cashiers plus T (lead). On Saturday night in a thrift store, we do really need more, I think.
On the plus side, I’m not sure how it happened that I barely even see F lately, but I’m grateful. My contentment on the job seems to be inversely related to how much I have to deal with him.
On the minus side, we have a breakroom refrigerator bandit. I lost a bottle of Mt. Dew today, others have reported losing various foodstuffs. We’re all adults here, how hard is “if you did not purchase it and bring it, LEAVE IT ALONE!!!”? :mad:
Dear team:
When I mention that our Unix team has no resources available due to a critical issue with DR for one of our other divisions and that for one week NO tasks will be completed for projects it really does mean all tasks.
Coming up with a new task does not mean that the situation has changed. Repeating how important the old task is to you does not mean that upper management (who you have already escalated to and been told to wait) is going to change their mind. Asking me to find a way around the decision that your management and mine have made is not likely to be popular.
Sit down, shut up, wait your damn turn.
My former colleague died, so frack my former employer.
It was the sort of organisation where people would work for 40 years. You would start in the mail room, and could end up running the place. The sort of place where the passing of former colleagues was noted and they were mourned.
The passing of colleagues was noted on the intranet. When a funeral took place, once upon a time they even laid on a bus so that colleagues could go. Then that stopped, although you were at least allowed to use your flexi-time to attend.
Today I was phoned by the daughter of a friend and former colleague where I was told about the funeral arrangements. I phoned a contact at my former office and I was told that policy is now to only put notices on the intranet if they are current employees or have retired in the past twelve months. The fact that my colleague took medical retirement when she was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago isn’t factored into their decision. A lot of staff are pissed off at HR’s decision, but they can’t say anything.
But I can. So fuck you my former office. Is it any wonder you keep getting your arse kicked in the national staff engagement survey? Taking redundancy was the best thing I ever did.