Workplace griping, anyone?

The BBQ Pit
9082

We had to do that when I did the tech support thing. People would call us, ask us to look at notes from the last time, ask complicated questions, and we’d have to ‘do the best you can’ with no access to logs, solutions, documentation, nothing. We couldn’t log their call either. You’d have idiots asking that. “Well since you can’t see the notes from the last time I called, can you leave a note that I called this time?” :smack:

Sure. On a piece of paper… That no one else will see…

Today dealing with “Here’s a big list of databases. Remove access to them from everyone who isn’t part of this specific area”. Well what about telling people we’re doing it. “We don’t need to do that.”

OH YES WE DO. You don’t get the calls that people’s jobs failed, we do. So we’ll figure out who uses them and why, and work with them and you on it, ok?

9083

Where I work we have a process for publishing notifications to our industry. This process is as follows:

  1. Draft what we want it to say
  2. Run it by our dept director
  3. send it to the communications team who checks it for corporate tone and clarity
  4. Communications sends it to the executive team for a final approval
  5. Executive team has 4 hours to review/approve or reject it
  6. If approved, it’s published. If rejected, go back to some combination of 1 - 3

I have a notification that needs to go out asap because of project deadlines. Deadlines promised to the industry and therefore extremely visible if we blow it. This should be a really easy notification because it’s a revision of a previous notification we published last month. However, our director is on vacation this week, as is the other director so on Tuesday we sent it to the executive director for step 2. I told him why I was sending it to him instead of our director. He sat on it for 24 hours until I emailed him saying I know he was busy, did he want someone else to review. He said no, but didn’t have any criticism and just said to go ahead with the process. :dubious:

Yesterday (Thursday) we did step 3 and 4, whereupon this same executive rejected it in step 5. :smack:

We scrambled to get clarity about his issues with it, made revisions and did step 4 again today. Again he rejected it in step 5 because he AGAIN doesn’t like the way we revised it. He also told us to wait to do step 4 for the 3rd time until Monday and from now on we should NOT submit anything for the step 4 review after noon on Fridays. :mad:

I’m starting to think he doesn’t want us to publish this stinking thing. Or possibly it’s the simpler answer which is just that he’s a big douchebag.

I try to be very professional and emotionally mature because I’m old enough to know better and also I feel like they may be feeling me out for possible upward mobility at this company. But it’s things like this that really make me want to vent to my boss and/or coworkers. So I’m venting here instead.

9084

Just to close the circle on my little rant, my notification finally got published. After 4 full attempts at step 5, dickweed finally approved it for publication on the 5th attempt at approval. We had an entire team revising the wording on the last two tries to try to satisfy him.

Sheesh!

9085

'course not, we all know it was Sauron.

9086

They used to do that with us too. basically we got what I called the dog food. AND expecting us to be grateful.

9087

Urg.

Managing foodservice in a retirement home is nothing like managing a kitchen in a restaurant.

So. Much. Fucking. Paperwork.

In a restaurant, if I need to hire a cook or server, it just boils down to, “Are you experienced? Great! Can you start tomorrow?”

In a retirement home, it’s more like, “Are you experienced? Great! Now I need you to come with me and submit to a drug test. You passed the drug test? Great! Now just fill out this incredibly complex consent form so that we can perform a background check on you to make sure you’ve never done anything that would disqualify you from working with vulnerable seniors! And then wait for the results to come back. If you pass, I’ll give you a call and I can get you working!”

I hired one cook who passed his drug test, passed his background check, and, when we put him to work he turned out to be completely awesome. Then he quit after two days because the kitchen was too hot for his obese ass.

See, as “Dining Services Manager” in this corporate atmosphere, I don’t have to just do paperwork regarding the food ordering and hiring. Corporate gives me a shitload of paperwork to fill out regarding the overall quality of the service and the food and the cleanliness, to make sure things match up with their marketing … If I was the official, salaried manager, and I had a full crew complement, I would have a free day every week to get all this paperwork filled out. I would work two evening shifts on my evening cook’s days off, and I would work two morning shifts on my morning cook’s days off, and the fifth day would be paperwork day. But since they make it so damned hard to actually hire somebody, I’m working every damned day on the morning shift, showing up at 5:00AM to get breakfast and lunch ready, and then staying around until 4:00PM or later trying to get all this paperwork done …

And meanwhile, because I care about the residents of this retirement home, I have also been performing maintenance services because we are currently lacking a maintenance man*. A couple weeks ago, I went into one of the public restrooms near one of the dining rooms, and noticed that the toilet seat had a crack in it. I recognized that somebody was going to sit on that and get pinched. So I got the Home Depot credit card from the big boss, went to Home Depot and purchased a new toilet seat, and installed it myself. A week later, in another restroom, I noticed that the toilet seat was loose and could potentially cause a resident to fall. I got out my wrench and tightened those fucking bolts.

As mentioned elsewhere on the SDMB, I have worked under four previous managers. Now I am dealing with all the shit they didn’t take care of. I have gotten our walk-in cooler fixed. I have addressed the lack of proper tools in the kitchen. I’ve addressed the fact that the ice machine is not functioning properly. I am addressing the fact that we don’t have enough flatware to set the tables properly.

Did I mention that I’ve worked under four different managers since I’ve been here, and none of them took care of this shit, despite me repeatedly pointing out the problems? There is a fucking budget for buying this shit, and all they had to do was, once a month, buy some shit, to keep us supplied.

So now I am forced to go way over budget to buy this shit that should have been kept up all along. How can I yell at my servers for not setting the tables properly when they don’t have the shit to set?

Now, today, I had one of my 16-year-old servers talking to me privately. She showed up after a couple days off, and found that there were rumors of her stealing money from the residents. (I have a guess who’s starting these rumors*). She was worried that the “big boss” was going to hear this and fire her. I told her that what she should do is go to the “big boss” herself and report these rumors, before the “big boss” hears them second-hand. She told me she was intimidated by the “big boss”, so I promised her I would go with her. I don’t believe the rumors; the employee in question would have had no opportunity to steal money from residents. Given that the “big boss” is out of town for the next week or so, I recommended that she speak with the HR Director to report that another employee was spreading rumors about her. I told her, “that’s the HR person’s job to investigate these things.”

  • The same caregiver** who, a few weeks ago, I found in my kitchen, cussing out this particular server at the top of his lungs. I told his manager, the next day, that if he has a problem with one of my people, he needs to come talk to me, not stand in my kitchen cussing loud enough for everybody outside the kitchen to hear.

** My “big boss” asked me if I had a problem with this guy, and asked that, if I had a problem with him that I should take him aside privately and express my concerns, because, “he’s really good with the residents”. Oh no. Fuck that shit. If this guy wants to come into my domain and cuss out my people loud enough that the residents can hear him through the (fucking thick) kitchen doors, then I’m going to fucking call him out loud enough for everybody to hear.

*** YES, I have a problem with this douchebag. When we have our mandatory monthly staff meetings, this guy won’t shut the fuck up, feeling like he has to verbally comment on every fucking thing that anybody says (thinking he’s being funny), ultimately making the meeting drag on far longer than necessary.

9088

All this while being just the “acting” manager.

9089

But here is the real bullshit:

I am older than every other department head, and have more experience in my field than any of them have in theirs.

They all got promoted based upon seniority. Me? I have to prove myself.

Half of the other department managers are younger than my experience.

9090

Well, you are definitely being over worked and unappreciated but at least the residents are benefiting from you doing your job

9091

I can figure out why you stay there? You sound like a good candidate for to work up in one of the major hospitality chains like Hilton.

9092

Well, now I’m in trouble with my grandboss. She was playing something loud and annoying on her cell phone in my coworker’s office. I thought it was my coworker, and I asked her (politely, I thought), if she could turn it down if she played it again. According to my grandboss, I stormed into the office and was very disrespectful. :rolleyes: I really can’t think of a more polite and respectful way to ask someone to turn down the volume. I personally think it’s very disrespectful to play annoying things on your cell phone (especially on purpose) in the office.

This is the same coworker who freaked out because someone took something she printed and put it on top of the copier. I was there when she picked it up off the copier. She ranted at me for a while, and then I heard her ranting at someone else later (I think it was the next day, so she stewed about this for a couple of days at least). It’s okay for her to do that, but it would be a different story if I did the same thing. I’m not allowed to complain about anything or disagree with anyone. I am so very tired of the double standard in my office.

9093

Holy fucking hell, when you learn you uploaded an incorrect randomization list, how about you fucking stop randomizing subjects?

9094

Grandboss has gone on vacation without signing off on anybody’s hours (thus, on anybody’s pay) for last month. I’ve asked if anybody else can do it; in extremis, I’ll punt my own sheets to his boss.

Yes, I have a piggy. But it’s not supposed to be for “my boss is on vacation”!

9095

Update on the t-shirt with the giant logo on the back situation:

I still have not gotten motivated to try wearing something (anything) underneath.

It’s a good idea, I just haven’t tried it.

But the issue is about to be moot, because I’ve received my next set of stupid t-shirts.

9096

Good gravy. I had my first run in with a freeman of the land / sovereign citizen type client today.
I attempted to explain why I need to do my job.
I was informed if I do my job, I will personally be sued (well my corporate entity will be sued).
Lovely.

9097

I feel your pain. Chronic lateness to meetings annoys the shit out of me; I agree that it’s terribly disrespectful of everyone else who managed to get their asses to the meeting.

Related to this is the people who attend a meeting and wander around looking for someone to phone in to the conference call. “Oh, who’s going to call in?” The number goes out in the invite. WRITE IT DOWN AND CALL IN!

I schedule meetings to start at 10 minutes past the hour, so people have time to get out of their old meeting, get coffee/water/go pee, and get to my meeting.

I will wait a couple of minutes for key people, but otherwise, we’re starting on time. I’m not waiting for 20 minutes for anyone. If we need to do that, we ware going to reschedule. And I don’t go back and review what we’ve covered already for people who breeze in late. Talk to me after the meeting if you missed stuff.

I also insist on an agenda, notes, and follow-ups with dates assigned.

This is different that the existing norm, but my VP and SVP really, really support it, and I actually get things done in my meetings.

9098

I like your style. I hate when several people come in late, and the person running the meeting has to fill them in on what’s happened so far, and by then the meeting is half over and we don’t have much time to get anything else done. I would love it if more people would refuse to recap for the latecomers.

9099

It’s a pet peeve of mine. Why should everyone have to wait for you to catch up?

What drives me nuts is that my coworkers are really smart…they’re just clueless sometimes. :smack:

9100

Big Wolfish Smile: “Go For It! I’m still doing my job.”

9101

“So, by suing me you admit that you submit to the legal system of this land? The same legal system that compels me to do my job, and you to go along with it?”