Workplace griping, anyone?

The BBQ Pit
8522

Yeah, I found that site right after I posted. My additional wrinkle on this being a “sucks to be me” (I’m the one in PA, of course) is that I rarely get out of work before 5:30, and it takes about an hour and a half to get home, and when I get home I still have to deal with hungry cats and a hungry me. (If you’re doing the math, that means I *might *be home by 7 p.m., assuming I get out at a reasonable time and there’s no issues with the trip, which is not a guarantee on the 2-lane roads I use.)

To put the cherry on top, I have no idea what I’m doing with this meeting, and it’s my meeting. My boss wants me to help figure out how to organize content as we migrate from SharePoint to Box (this is a corporate directive) in a way that lets things be found without having a gazillion folders sitting at the top level.

I’ve been with this company only a little over 2 years, but with this department for about 3 months. I’ve no idea what’s stored where on SharePoint, how big it is, whether it needs to be moved, whether it’s a duplicate that doesn’t need moving … I’m trying to gather information (as in a content inventory) but I haven’t been able to discover any automated way to do that and there’s a buttload of info out there in lots of different places, AND my boss (and his boss, and their boss) probably needs to know migration strategies, too, which will be affected by how much info needs to be moved and how big the files are and and and …

Damnit, I’m a technical writer. A kickass one, yes, and I can learn a lot of things pretty quickly, but this is so far out of my area of expertise it’s not even funny. I’m not even sure I’m asking the right questions, or even who else is working on this because you know, you know, that there are people already doing things on their own and it’s all very much wild west time here.

<breathes>

I’ll get through this. I’m pretty sure this is not my sole responsibility, that I’m just providing support as in research and suggestions, but I’m not positive about that either. <sigh>

8523

“Hi, I’m from the technology group and I’m trying to install this package completely ass backwards and it isn’t working. You guys are supposed to be the experts on this package, so can you sit in and help me do it this way?”

No. No I will not. You’re fucking doing it wrong, you’re a moron, your team has responsibility for this and we’ve bailed your asses out too many times. Go back and fucking DO IT RIGHT. If you can’t figure that out, talk to any one of the numerous people in your department that WE have fucking trained on how to do this, or look at the documentation that WE FUCKING WROTE FOR YOU and figure out how to do this properly. Good fucking grief, YOU are in the technology and software group, I’m not. Learn your fucking job or get help from your own fucking team on how you should do this.

Besides, almost half of my team is out of the office today and I’m a little too fucking busy.

8524

Oh, Chimera? Do you have time to run the unit of measure conversions in this data the Idiot Team sent for me to load and which had half the line items in the wrong unit?

Also, 80% of items were being pulled from the wrong warehouse, 10% from warehouses which did not exist, another 7% had a typo in the warehouse code. My team’s warehouses guy was heard quipping “ok, that does it: we’re getting one warehouse code!”

8525

Is griping about customers OK in this thread?

Got a doozy today. Keep in mind I work in a thrift store, in a not-wonderful area. Male customer walks past me, I do the usual “Can I help you find anything?”.

His response? “Are you for sale?”

REALLY??? I did manage to make a joke out of it by calling attention to rings on my left hand and commenting that my husband wouldn’t go for that. Customer’s response was he didn’t figure his wife would either, he wandered off grumbling. I did mention the matter to my lead. Not because I was all distraught or anything, but I’m older than a lot of my co-workers and a lot of them have lived rather sheltered lives, so I was concerned that younger co-workers would be a lot more upset if something like this happened to them. Management did agree my annoyance was justified and assured me if this guy pulls something like that again, he won’t enjoy their conversation with him about appropriate treatment of sales associates.

Throw in that I’m sick, have a load of homework, and damn near got broadsided on the freeway (I was changing lanes when some idiot decided he had to do so at the same time, coming into my destination lane from the other side), and my day has not been a thing of joy. A surprise schedule change that has me on opening shift tomorrow, after closing tonight, isn’t helping my case of the grumpies any.

8526

This morning, my Annoying Coworker yelled in the general direction of my office, “I’m printing labels!” I wasn’t really sure why she had to announce that, but whatever. I thought maybe she wanted me to help her print labels (because she’s helpless when it comes to things she doesn’t want to do), but she never did. A sunbeam came through my window, the angels sang, and I was happy for a little while.

At least 30 minutes later, I printed something. Annoying Coworker comes bopping down the hall and says “Did you print this? You’ll need to print it again. It printed on my labels.” I asked, “Didn’t you set the paper type on the printer?” “Oh, no (tee hee), it’s working fine this way!”

:rolleyes:

Well, no, it’s not working fine, for obvious reasons. (BTW, it’s really easy to set the paper type on the printer, so when someone else tries to print something it doesn’t use your special paper, but somehow it’s less trouble for her to run around and tell everyone she’s printing labels)

8527

Let me guess: she filled the default paper cassette with label sheets?

Oy. :smack:

8528

I received a response to one of my job applications today…the company is holding an interview session for recent applicants on Friday, complete with two meals and a plant tour.

So of course my throat is so sore right now that I can barely talk. :stuck_out_tongue:

8529

Yep. And she couldn’t be bothered to take 10 seconds to change the paper type for that tray to labels so nothing else would print from that tray. I just love working with her!

8530

I hope you feel better by Friday! One of my coworkers (not the annoying one) recommends gargling with salt water for colds and sore throats.

8531

How do I explain to an extraordinarily stubborn higher-up that just because he wants it, uncontrolled source files are not a happening thing? <sigh>

8532

One of the sysadmins who I manage was a no-show/no-call today. Not like him at all.

I got a funny feeling about it and checked the local Clerk of Courts site. He got popped for a DUI while CCW last night.

Really dude? Really?

Now I get to audit everything he has access to in case we have to fire him tomorrow. Super.

8533

I’m on three weeks of stress leave plus one week of scheduled annual leave, and I’m already stressing about having to go back on the 10th.

8534

Just tack on a wide variety of smilies and you’re fine.

8535

Sorry for your problem. Allow me to hijack your post for just a moment.

[Hijack]
Just a gentle reminder that this is an international general-interest board, and not everyone is going to know every acronym or abbreviation ever invented. Most of us probably get DUI, and can guess “popped” from the context. I had to look up CCW (Carrying a Concealed Weapon for the uninitiated like me).
[/Hijack]

And now back to being sorry for your problem.

8536

Guess who was supposed to go home and have a long weekend, but will not!

At least the “extra days” will be getting charged directly to the Idiot Team, who are the ones causing this. But the kind of errors they’re sending are stuff I would consider normal (not expect, but accept with just a shrug) from a junior in his first assignment - not from supposed experts. Pity it’s being charged to their project budget and not directly their pockets.

8537

We have a bunch of new workers. It’s been made clear that while we have people to train them, they don’t really teach them how to do the job. Half-assed government at its’ finest. It’s now being put on to us experienced employees to mentor the new workers. Fine. I don’t mind at all - IF some consideration will be given on our own caseloads. If I’m going to be spending a day with a new worker, my work will not be done. Since management is all about counting things, I will be dinged for not doing something timely. To me and my coworkers, consideration is logical.
Yeah… not to management.
According to them, despite just having received two dozen new cases (bringing my caseload up to over 270), covering empty caseloads on top of our increased caseloads, spending time out in the community offices - we should have no problem keeping up to date with our caseloads all while trying to teach critical thinking skills to newbies. Sure.

8538

Ask your management which of the two responsibilities (mentoring newbies or staying current with your caseload) they expect to take priority. And insist on a response, unambiguous, signed, and in writing.

8539

Won’t work. They will tell you the training is the priority, but then months later at your performance review, they will be looking at the numbers from your caseload, and downgrade you because of that now long-forgotten training time.

8540

Document everything!

8541

And that’s when you pull out the document where they told you to prioritize the training, and make them review the review.