“We rearranged our offices and moved our network printers to better locations and now we can’t log in and the ones that can log in can’t print. We plugged everything back into the walls.”
I think my eyes rolled hard enough to sprain something.
That would explain the headache, right?
Requested some information from a customer last month regarding a motor they want to replace. Dear customer finally replied today: “We went out to look at the motor, but someone had painted over the nameplate.”
:smack:
Today was a horrible, craptastic day at work. But I don’t feel comfortable talking about what happened.
Instead I will complain about something else that is happening with troubling frequency–power outages. Nothing like running a report that is going to take an hour or two only to have it cut out at 90% by a two-second power cut. Urgh!
A single PC UPS is cheap. Much cheaper than two hours’ time. I hope your boss recognizes that. But I ain’t holding my breath.
Going insane with requests from up the chain which means that regular work is falling by the wayside. Means my boss will give me some extra time off but it sucks for now.
That’s not so much my rant though, my rant is my former boss downstairs keeps poking at me to get details. This shit is confidential, I don’t even know the whole of it as I am supporting my boss with these requests, I just get the pieces I can handle and feed them back to her. If you needed to know you would be getting these requests, but you don’t and I don’t. I know it sucks your expense check is delayed, I am doing my best to juggle and keep something moving but you will have to deal without knowing details. Savvy?
The best response to this is to forward here requests for confidential details to your boss or the person in charge of confidential info, and ask them if you are authorized to tell her this confidential info, or if they will contact her to remind her of legal confidentiality requirements.
In other words, pass that up to someone in a higher pay grade.
He’s not outright asking for details, if he was it would be easier. It’s more the casual chat. How’s it going, oh you’re busy all these requests. When will things go back to normal (some stuff I do affects him so it’s an ok question). It just means I have to bite my tongue not to let something slip by accident you know? Not even something confidential just something like boss is in meetings with these people becomes something for the rumour mill and everyone acts like chickens with their heads cut off.
Mo-Ron, email to me and to the two superusers of the area he’s “helping” (helping to fall down, we say in Spanish):
Add screens GH67 and IJ78.
Me, reply all:
In general, please indicate to whom and in which client. In particular, it was decided that GH67 will not be used (we’re using GH77 for that functionality) and all our users already have IJ78.
Him, to me only:
But I like GH67.
Me, to him:
The users were given a choice and chose GH77. Please don’t try to change the processes at this stage.
Him to me:
Why can’t they try best way? I like GH67 best!
Me to him:
Which part of “testing is over” do you have problems understanding?
Him:
All
Me to him, superusers, my boss:
Then I believe we have a problem. Again, please do not try to change the processes that have already been approved and documented.
He was such a pain in the ass during the official testing phase that he got kicked out of it… you know dude, if you want people to do things your way (which appears to default to “the most complicated option, every time”), mebbe you should try not getting kicked out of testing?
Some sadist in the office began whistling “My Heart Will Go On” in the break room. Thanks a lot. That’s all I need to add to an already craptastic morning - Celine Dion warbling my brains out. :smack:
Trying to arrange already short-notice (event starts on 31 May) travel for 100 people, from across the continent, all of whom seem to think that I can pull airline tickets and hotel rooms out of my a** during convention season.
Sure I can do that.
There is not enough w(h)ine in the world right now.
You can say ‘ass’ you know. Most of us are mature enough to handle it.
Ass, ass, assity, ass, ass.
Ass. There, I said it. I can say “fuck” too.
It’s that kind of day - I didn’t notice I got all dainty and coy in my gripe.
I submit this as evidence that you’re really not. gdr
I cannot get my managers to understand the 50 year old water valves need replacing.
I had to go and fix a leaking toilet valve but to fix it, I need to shut off the water to that bathroom. But that valves flapper didnt work so I cannot fix the toilet and they just dont seem to see the reason to fix plumbing issues involving the main lines. I suppose its because they cannot see them. Oh, but they want these expensive new sinks.
Since my introduction of the term GrandBoss waaaaay back in this thread seemed to be a success, and since I’m going to be dealing with these walking headaches for the foreseeable future, I’m taking it upon myself to introduce the SDMB community to a new duet of characters. May they never rise to the level of GrandBoss (with whom I’m now FB friends? 
) or the beloved (to some!) Shredder Guy.
When I was OoO for a couple of scheduled days last week, the other main Level 2 agent (LazyBastard) on my team dumped work into my inbox to wait until my return instead of handling it himself. Upon my return, I asked him + our supervisor (SpinelessManager) to clarify our roles, acting backups, etc. SM told me I was supposed to go over still-pending items before I left with the LB, and I clarified that I had done so but that I was asking about new work generated during my absence. In response, I was treated to the dulcet tones of crickets chirping.
Well, while LB was in some meeting yesterday a semi-urgent ticket for him directly came in, and both he and SM pinged me directly, asking me to take care of it. Which I did. I’ve now asked SM for a meeting to discuss why I’m expected to back him up but he is not expected to back me up.
Complicating matters is that this company is powered by nepotism and favoritism almost as much as by dollars and electricity, and the two of them go to lunch together regularly. On the other hand, he’s been here around a year (to my 6+ years) and I’ve become the sole curator of a $1M+ revenue product that would fall the holy fuck apart if (when?) I leave, or am kicked out, while he falls firmly into the “jack of all trades, master of none” category, with heavy emphasis on the 2nd half of that phrase. On the other OTHER hand, SM and LB are very friendly with each other.
Yo momma!
FTR, I hate people with SafeCerts. I mean, I’m the OCD one, but my daughter (SafeCert) and wife (freelance paranoid about food safety) have been competing to see who can be more psycho. It’s as if they haven’t built up immunity to food-borne pathogens. Wimps. It’s your body, you tell it what it can digest. Harumph!
Please expand on how friendly the term “very friendly” implies. For instance, should we infer that that extra hand comes in, ummm, handy?
I have an inbred reticence toward receiving personal recognition at work. I do what I’m paid to do, and rather than an attaboy give me some money. (Which goes against all management books of the last thirty years, which claim that what employees really want is recognition and validation and dress-down Fridays. Bullshit!) Seeing my name on a bunch of TVs celebrating a week in which I did my job especially well leaves me embarrassed for the above reason and embarrassed for the people who didn’t do theirs–and don’t care.
There are three of us on my program, a guy who’s retiring soon, a guy who’s been about to move away for two years, and me. The other guys roll in at about ten and fiddle around for the rest of the day. I could be more prompt, too, but I usually have half of my sales tucked away before they get there because morning is a good time to call lawyers and accountants. This fact does not register with them, especially if there was a big game the night before. (If you are a fan of ALL Chicago sports there is ALWAYS a big game the night before.)
Our supervisor called me aside to ask why my numbers are twice as good as those of the retiree, and four times as good as the mover who never moves. DUH!!! I start earlier, don’t take smoke breaks and long lunches, stay until the end of the shift, and I’m always working! She wondered if there was something I could do to even out our numbers, because HQ was wondering about the wide range. I asked that, since I’m not their supervisor, I should work less? She had no real reply.
I like working hard, at least for half a day. I get antsy when I’m not. But I’m tired of carrying this fucking program. Last week I set up a meeting between our salesman and a very good and eager lead from a very large pharmaceutical company which, if all goes well, will pay for the program for a year, year after year. My commission was five bucks. I wanted to add a note demanding a cut, but I chickened out.
I am also tired of doing almost all of the lead sanitation (and the hits to my performance I take from all the turn downs) so when they get a lead I have already verified that it’s the person they need to talk to, making the sale theirs to lose. And my reward for all the digging I do? “Why do you have twenty times as many leads coded ‘He/She’s the one’ as the other two?” If she weren’t spending her day supervising programs that don’t go chooglin’ on without constant supervision she might know.
I like her. I almost like the guys, sorta. And I hate public recognition. But a little sumpin’-sumpin’ from the company and our client would be nice. And I’m not talking about Nerf footballs and tee-shirts that don’t fit.
That part I emphasized sounds a little nervous-making. It ALMOST looks like she’s about to suggest that you credit those guys with some of the sales you’ve been making.
After almost 32 years, I don’t need SafeCert (or whatever they call it in my state … “ServeSafe”, I think). I know how to prepare food safely, and there has never been a reported case of food poisoning anywhere I’ve worked.
The problem is that all of these rules are written by people who have little or no “hands-on” experience. Hence all of the rules about wearing fucking rubber/latex gloves. Reading the rules, they make perfect sense … in theory. In practice, a cook following the glove rules to the letter would get absolutely no work done, because he/she would be spending all of their time changing gloves.
FACT: If your hands are even slightly damp, you cannot get those gloves on.
What makes your hands damp? Oh … wearing gloves. Your hands sweat under that rubber/latex.
The rulemakers seem to come up with this stuff under the delusion that every kitchen has multiple cooks on duty at the same time, each one dedicated to a specific task (you even see that in the training videos they show). In reality, many kitchens have exactly one cook on duty, and that one guy has to do everything.
Sample order, a group of four, following the rules to the letter:
One cheeseburger with fries.
One chicken breast with baked potato and veggies.
One Chef Salad.
One ham sandwich with potato salad.
(Mind you, this is in the middle of cooking several other orders.)
Put on gloves, pick up raw chicken breast and put it on the grill.
Take off gloves, wash hands, spend a minute or so thoroughly drying hands (because, as mentioned, the next pair of gloves will not go on if hands are even slightly damp).
Put on new pair of gloves. Put hamburger patty on grill. (chicken has a higher safe cooking temperature than beef, so you change gloves after handling chicken and before handling beef), and you have to handle the chicken first because it takes longer to cook than the hamburger).
Remove gloves.
Wash and dry hands.
Put on new gloves.
Place hamburger bun on grill.
Assemble chef salad.
Assemble ham sandwich.
Arrange lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles for cheeseburger.
Remove gloves.
Wash and dry hands.
Put on new gloves.
Assemble cheeseburger.
Plate chicken breast and accoutrements.
Remove gloves.
Wash and dry hands.
Put on new gloves.
Start next ticket.
All for one fucking ticket. And you’re dreaming if you think we’re only working on one ticket at a time. I’ve got 14 tickets hanging in the window, and you bet your ass that I have as many of them as possible all going at the same time. If we cooks followed the glove rules to the letter, you would all be looking at hourlong wait times for your food.
In reality, with real-world experience:
Barehand the chicken breast onto the grill, and then wash my hands.
Barehand the hamburger patty onto the grill, and then wash my hands.
Make the salad, make the ham sandwich.
Plate everything and yell, “Order up!”
They make these glove rules because of idiots who won’t wash their hands. I’m OCD about washing my hands, to the point I actually had an employer yell at me one time about how many paper towels I was going through. I’M WASHING MY DAMNED HANDS, DAMMIT!
I’m up for a promotion to kitchen manager at my current job, and if I get the promotion, I am going to be riding herd on my people about washing their damned hands. Because I can see that some of them are not doing it. How do I see it? I leave work at 2:00PM, and I make sure the kitchen paper towel dispenser is filled up before I leave. I come in the next morning and find that the paper towel dispenser’s stock of paper towels has barely decreased.
Then there is the subject of “hand sanitizer” products. I, as a lifelong professional cook, and my sister, a registered nurse, are both firmly opposed to “hand sanitizers”. Because those products fool people into thinking that they don’t need to wash their damned hands.
Proper handwashing is the way to go. Fuck gloves.