I’m beginning to think you’re one of my co-workers. I sat through a very similar meeting today. Lots of blank stares when we asked questions.
When I first started at this place we were promised a new data processing program. Like yours, very slick and worked great, what little I got to see of it. Only a few people had access to it. We were all going to get training for a huge rollout and all of a sudden poof it was gone. Licensing issues. The person who was involved in bringing us this new program walked out the day after the rollout was supposed to happen and was never seen again. Every now and then I wonder if it’ll ever see the light of day.
Something like that, but with more notes and at a much shriller octave.
I like the guy, but I want to tell him to shut the fuck up. He also hums randomly too.
It’s very distracting and although I’m happy he’s having a nice wonderful carefree day (every fucking day), I never am and it’s really difficult to listen to.
I keep a binder on my desk full of reference materials and handy engineering info. I went to push it to the side this morning, and found that it was stuck to my desk. WTF. I pried it off the desk, and was immediately overwhelmed by the stench of ammonia. :mad: The part of the desk that had been covered by the binder was soaked with the stuff. Fortunately, the contents of the binder appear to be OK.
I’ve had a coupla paycheck foulups over the years, and they don’t make funny stories because I went and complained, and the response was “Howthehell’d THAT happen? Oh, well, we’ve got the paperwork covered, let’s fix that now, and I’ll clean up the mess later.”
In short, quick, easy, and no nonsense.
Although one incident back beyond the eons springs to mind: I put in for two weeks off, and took a vacation. I had vacation days. Paid vacation days. I’d filled out the proper paperwork. I’d jumped through all the hoops. It was a done deal.
So on pay day, two weeks later, I did not receive a check. I stopped in payroll to ask why, and the nice lady says, “Well, it says here you didn’t work.”
I replied that I had been off for two weeks, and that I had two weeks of paid vacation, and that I had been expecting to get paid, since that does seem to be the idea of “paid vacation.”
“Did you fill out the proper forms?”
“You might check and see.”
She looked irked with me, and checked … “Oh. So you did. All right, we’ll add it to your next paycheck.”
“No. You will cut me the paycheck that should have been waiting for me today.”
“We can’t do that.”
“I know for a fact that you can. And if you do not do so, I will go first to the head of payroll, then to the head of business affairs, and then I will toddle on down to the department of labor and make it clear that CAROL AIRHEAD (reading aloud off her deskplate) is in violation of the law. Do I need to do that?”
I was not as calm as I sounded in text; in truth, I’d begun to loom over her desk, and punctuate my sentences by smacking said desk. What kind of insane bureaucrat thinks she gets to dictate my payday? This was a hell of a coming home after a lovely vacation!
She did get permission, and cut me a check on the spot.
Later, my supervisor called me in for a friendly word to the wise, which boiled down to “I understand why you did what you did, but kindly refrain from terrorizing the office people; they called down here to complain, and I said I’d talk to you about it. I have hereby talked about it with you. That’s insane, telling you to wait for the next check, isn’t it? Yow! How about them Packers, huh?” My super was a nice, reasonable fellow. We could have used more like him.
Did I mention that the institution for which I worked at the time was a mental hospital?
Good god does this happen with distressing regularity.
We retired a system last fall. Many emails were sent to everyone affected, months in advance, telling them that they would stop updating the feeds in early October and soliciting comments.
And of course, they dutifully stopped updating the feeds in October. Then of course the cleanup got lost in the year-end shuffle and didn’t happen until this month.
And then also -of course-, idiots start crawling out of the woodwork asking what happened to the feed and claiming they need it for business critical tasks.
You got a ton of emails saying this would happen. Did you read any of them?
Obviously, it is NOT “business critical” when you didn’t even fucking notice that it hadn’t been updated in five months.
No, we will not be ‘putting everything back’ for you. Tough shit, you lose, learn to FUCKING PAY ATTENTION.
Oh, if you DO insist that need any part of that, your area is going to have to pay for the NEW project to build your personal little feed.
Several times, my supervisor has emailed my coworker with instructions for a task that I always do. Always. He might do it if I’m out of the office, but that’s very rare. Last time, it didn’t get done because I didn’t find out until I was finished (and we can’t go back and change it later on). This time, my coworker told me about it before it was too late. Why doesn’t she email me? Or CC me on the emails?
And she keeps forwarding emails without attachments. I’ve emailed her many times asking her to send missing attachments, so you’d think she’d be aware by now that however she’s forwarding emails, it’s not keeping the attachments. A normal person would check to make sure the attachment was on the forwarded email, right?
My entire section was was called into a meeting by our gran-boss’s boss. We spent all day ramping up to deal with some long standing issues, instead we were treated to 15 minutes of generic rah rah bullshit. :smack:
Couple weeks ago, the Adminisphere decreed that Management would hold a meeting on a given topic. The topic: the new all inclusive software package that we will all be using in the near future to communicate with each other, track our pay, keep tabs on coworkers, benefits, insurance…
And so we gathered, and were shown what appeared to be promotional videos from the software’s maker, telling us how awesome it was. Afterwards, hands went up.
EMPLOYEE WHO IS NOT ME: “So… I’m going to be able to look up how much Master Wang-Ka makes on this thing? And his phone number and home address?”
BOSS: “Um… no, I don’t think so. There’s security tiers.”
EMPLOYEE: “What tier will we be on?”
BOSS: “I have no idea.”
OTHER EMPLOYEE: “So, this communications thing, is it like email? How will it work?”
BOSS: “I dunno. There will be training classes.”
SECOND EMPLOYEE: “Have you actually used this thing?”
BOSS: “No. It won’t be online until late April or May.”
EMPLOYEE: “So… we aren’t going to use this thing now?”
BOSS: “No, not for a while yet.”
FOURTH EMPLOYEE: “So… this entire hour has just been to tell us we’re getting this new software that no one here knows how to use, that it will replace everything that we DO know how to use, and that at some point down the road we will be trained in its use… oh, yeah, and how awesome it is?”
BOSS: “Um… yeah, that about covers it.”
I will never understand the tendency of Peter Principle examples to suddenly think, “Duh, jeepers… I should use my magic administration powers to inspire da troops.”
How is it possible that my company could assign not one, but TWO people to the service desk who are unfamiliar with Windows Explorer?
Me: I am getting an error message when I try to open Windows Explorer.
IT Monkey 1: Internet Explorer?
Me: No, Windows Explorer.
ITM1: (slowly) Windows Explorer . . . . and what would you be using that for?
Me: :smack:
ITM1: I’ll get someone more tech-savvy to help you.
Me: I am getting an error message when I try to open Windows Explorer.
IT Monkey 2: Internet Explorer?
Me: No, Windows Explorer.
ITM2: They’re the same thing.
Me: :smack: :smack: :smack:
ITM2 failed to remote into my station and was unable to “help” as well. Thank goodness.
I got the intense pleasure of telling my boss today that the already behind project will now be further behind. I’m working on a building renovation project and the facilities supervisor for the building in the area was “helping” me out with it. Really, he wanted control over all the parts that would impact his job directly even though he had no time for it. That is understandable because I am doing things that will change how he currently runs the facilities over here. A while back, when the project was finally given the go ahead, I asked him to kick off the alarm company on the badge access and fire alarms. I found out last week that he did not do the fire alarms portion because they would need an architect drawing to get started on it. What he didn’t tell me was that it would take six weeks after being kicked off before the alarm company could even start their install. And that they didn’t actually need architect drawings, they were just a nice to have.
Did I tell you that this project is supposed to be done in 4 weeks?
I’m sort of ok with that, and sort of really pissed off about it.
Mostly I’m ok because the longer commute and more stressful responsibilities would have canceled out the small raise.
But I’m more than a little unhappy because I would have liked to be interviewed and found out the flaws directly rather than through the grapevine. (OK, so temp boss is the one who talked about it with me-- that’s line of command rather than grapevine. But I’m still annoyed. Not least because seniority is supposed to be the most important thing, and the person who got the position has only been with the company for six months vs. my six years).
There is a dirty bowl that has been sitting next to the sink in the office kitchen since Monday. Gross, leftover tuna salad. She didn’t even rinse it off.
I know exactly who it belongs to (I saw her carry it in there), and I’m just idly waiting to see how long she’ll let it sit before she realizes nobody else is going to clean it for her. I guess everyone else in the office (there’s about eight of us total) is doing the same, because I’ve never seen dirty dishes sit so long before.
She goes in there several times every day to fix lunch, get a drink, etc. so it’s not like she could have forgotten about it…it’s right there in front of her face multiple times per day.
And this is the woman who has bragged to me in the past about what a neat-freak she is. Humph.
I can’t…it doesn’t belong to her, it’s one of the communal dishes. It needs to be rinsed/cleaned out and run through the dishwasher.
I’m always happy to run and empty the dishwasher when I see it needs to be done, even though I rarely use the in-house dishes. And most people here are really good about rinsing the plates they use and sticking them in the dishwasher.
I suppose I probably will eventually take care of the bowl myself even though it’s in no way my job to do it. But part of me is just curious to see how long it could sit there if left alone.
It wasn’t long enough. I was hoping she wouldn’t come back, but you can’t always get what you want. [URL=“