Workplace griping, anyone?

The BBQ Pit
9282

I’ve been working nights ‘for the summer’. Originally the projected date when the store would stop being 24 hours was the start of September… Then the start of October… Then mid-October… Then the end of October…

So I had a review with the boss, just a check in how things are going, because I don’t see her often, working nights, and the only real thing that came up was the hours, and how nights weren’t really working with my living situation any more, and how I’m getting a bit concerned about the extensions and would really like some confirmation as to when I go back to days.

Fine, she understood, and apologised that it wasn’t quite as expected; the night shifts have been extended as the information she had been given was inaccurate, and the hours the store is contracted to be open are longer than she thought, but it’s only another month and a bit now, and it’s not going to be pushed back again: she has the current information now.

We had a nice open discussion on what the hours were going to be until and after the change over, with several reassurances that it should be possible to work out a schedule that didn’t involve too many antisocial shifts, especially as I was happy to do 10pm finishes which are a problem for several other staff, so I left feeling pretty positive about it all.

Then three sodding days later she casually asks if I’d be OK staying on night shifts permanently, because ‘it looks like that would be easier’. Then tries to guilt trip me by saying that we’ll have to do some 2am starts otherwise, and no-one wants to do that.

9283

I don’t know if this is weird, but I kind of want to hear the details.
Rant to my coworkers- stop talking to the patients like they’re babies. They’re sick, not stupid.
Not that babies are stupid. Or are they? Idk, whatever.

9284

Maybe it would have been better if it had happened during the presentation

9285

Not a gripe but a funny story that maybe you can try: a colleague’s former boss (an Army general) when periodically overwhelmed with unread emails would just delete all, blame the computer, and ask to be resent anything truly important.

9286

Long story short: this guy has decided that his beer gut is due to buildup of toxins and whatnot, which is why traditional weight loss diets haven’t worked for him. I’m not entirely sure what he’s eating/drinking now, but apparently it causes substantial movements that initially forced him to rush from the dinner table to the downstairs toilet (at his home) when he started the diet. The resulting stench was so powerful that it could be detected throughout most of the downstairs area long after the final flush. His wife has banned him from using the downstairs toilet at all – he has to do his business in the upstairs guest bathroom now.

9287

…those poor guests…

9288

They’ve probably been staying too long.

9289

:smiley:

He and his wife have a small screechy baby (she brings the baby into the office every now and then), so I doubt the guest room is seeing much use now.

9290

I’d give boss a pass on this one.

I take that as a give me a call when you can. It is less intrusive that calling you, and interrupting whatever you may be doing on your off day.

9291

I have a really trivial beef, not specific to my current workplace but it just seems to happen in workplaces in general. Priority numbers in issue tracking systems. Specifically when they allow you to choose a numeric priority for an issue without any clues as to which number gets the fastest response and which is slow-boat. I’ve worked in IT support, so I like to self-prioritize my stuff correctly, not always at OMGURGENTSKYISFALLING priority like most users. I will happily set my issues to slow-boat if it warrants. But I can’t when I don’t know how their numbering scheme works. To wit:

First learned this lesson in my first sysamin job with OS process priorities. We were running Vaxes at the time (I know, I’m OLD!), which has priorities that run from 1 (last place) to 16 (fuck everything else, do me first). Most user processes ran by default at around 7. I noticed one day that a coworker had set a user’s priority to 1 and asked her why. She said they were complaining about the computer being slow, so she was trying to help them out. After I told her what she’d done, she blushed, we laughed, and she set them back to 7.

One time when logging a problem with a third party vendor, I wanted to set my issue as high priority but not sky is falling. I guessed as to which number that was and got a call from them about an hour later. They asked me to change the priority down one notch. Apparently the number I’d chosen was one that triggered automated phone calls to all their department heads, executives and CEO. Oops.

It’s not hard, people. Just give a little clue next to each number, willya?

9292

I mentioned that I work with a brother and a sister. Sister is cool. Brother is that oaf with anger management issues. He, being an oaf, is not being as successful as his sister and I, so he asked me to type up the script I follow. This company loves everything to be scripted so the people we usually hire, who see this as a step up from flipping burgers or at least a job where they can sit down all day, can do well. Those people are why we have the complicated incentive structure I described above, where they have to perform overall as well as shoot for the best type of “sale.”

A woman from the client, and I suspect one of the other managers here, wrote the first version. It was endless, including a company history and other shit that the person on the other end does not care about and has no time to listen to. A full two thirds of it were stripped before I ever saw it, but it was still too long. The “product” I am “selling” is simply registering medical offices to get direct deposits of their payments from us rather than us sending them a stack of checks every month. Every health insurance company is doing this, so I’m not giving away any company secrets. And nearly everybody I call knows this, and are already doing it with some of their other payers. We save big on processing costs and they get their money faster and can plug the data right into their accounting systems. Wins all around, so I usually don’t need to fucking describe or defend it.

A paragraph or three gone and my “script” becomes, “We’re going to start sending your money directly into your bank account, and I’d like to register you. Do you have four minutes and access to the internet?” If they don’t have the time I send them a link so they can do it at their leisure. If they do I walk them through the process. There are lots of little sticking points that could be handled by explanations on the website, but nobody reads them and lots of people thank me for my help.

That’s it–two sentences. These people are busy and I’m interrupting their day; get in and get out. No mention of cost unless they ask and certainly not the “Registration is free of charge” in the script because it implies that there are costs after registration (“Cost? You are saving us money.”) and “free of charge” sounds too Popeil-ish. No “Weather Rapport” that some programs here require. Few of these people have time for inane small talk; we aren’t selling Robot Insurance to lonely seniors. Some do, so I’ll hit the Blarney Switch and go to vague flirtation and corny humor. All part of the studied nonchalance I mentioned before and anything to put them at ease because it is a “product” that sounds a bit scary for some, but which can take a load off their workload. “Can” being operable, since using it efficiently will force some of them to update their entire accounting systems. Which our good Uncle is already forcing with Medicare and Medicaid. Time to either enter the 21st century or go to cash-only.

Success on this program requires one to be personable, but Brother ain’t the sort of personable you use when talking with middle-aged*, female, office managers. Think of Ralph Kramden as a telemarketer: he’s rushed and pushy and easily frustrated. They are reminded of why they got divorced. He has to relax and treat the people he calls as friends. He also needs to shut up between calls. No more sports and Academy Awards trivia, no more obsessing about his financial situation. Get in tune with his inner Charming Irish Rogue. Spend the day on the phone instead of gabbing and he’ll make more sales. I could give him my script and even coach him, but he first needs to learn to take criticism without blowing up at the person trying to help. I don’t want him to get fired because his sister will follow right behind, and I want to keep her.

    • I am shocked by all the Rhondas I’ve been talking with, but it makes sense. Age fifty-ish? Mom and dad were Beach Boy fans? There will be Rhondas. And Sherrys in New Jersey. What dad could resist singing “Sherry, Sherry baby,” while tickling his infant daughter’s tummy?
9293

Too many lazy fucking morons. Feels like I’m always correcting something they did wrong or didn’t bother to do at all.

9294

Are their names:
Jeb
Oliver
Benjamin

Stuart
Elaine
Charles
Ursula
Roland
Isaac
Terence
Yvonne?

9295

Dear Agent:

I’m reasonably sure that my job description does not include “updating the contacts list of every agent or agent-wannabe in the world”. Once I’ve told you I’m already in a project, kindly Fuck Off so I can go back to doing what’s actually listed in said description. Geroff my phone!

Is age 46 too early to tell them that exactly as written?

9296

I paid out of pocket for a seminar for work with the understanding that the company would reimburse me. They reimbursed me on my paycheck which caused the amount of the seminar to be added to my income and taxes taken out. I complained and they then sent me a check for the missing tax money paid on the reimbursement and again took out taxes and it is again marked as income. I complained again and now they are going to cancel the second check, deduct half of the amount of the seminar from the next two checks (I don’t make enough in one week to take out the whole amount from one check) so that my income is where it should be. I will then have to submit an expense report for $1000.00 I paid for the seminar.

My question is are there tax implications on expense reports? does it show on the w-2 as a benefit or anything?

9297

No if they do it right, but that’s not a given, is it? Next time insist on an advance.

9298

Also, call the IRS tipline and report that this company is trying to hide misc business expenses as wages paid. The IRS will investigate this tax dodge, and keep your name completely confidential. But you will get a percentage of any fines they levy on the company.

9299

yep not going for this idea again.

9300

As noted above: there should be no implications if it’s done correctly - no taxes due at all. I’ve done a lot of business travel in the past and it is always handled via an expense report - then depending on how the expense was made (out of pocket, versus company credit card) either they paid the credit card directly, or they paid me and I paid the credit card.

As a business owner though, what ARE the tax implications of salary expenses versus other business expenses? If it’s treated as salary, they have to pay the employer’s share of social security (7.65% total). So if it’s 100 dollars, they’re paying the employee 100 dollars, and the IRS $7.65 for a net cost to them of 107.65; let’s say the employee pays 25 dollars of income tax + 7.65 dollars of social security - or 31.65.

I assume the employer considers the whole 107.65 as a business expense. How would the flat 100 dollars be handled, tax-wise, if they simply paid the reimbursement of 100 dollars?

9301

Memo to C:

You lose a LOT of cred when it comes to whining about YOUR precious break being late when you have a track record of taking at least 15 minutes for a 10-minute break and making the rest of us late. You also need to take into account customer service needs, such as waiting until the person before you returns before you bail off your register while we’re so slammed that leads are ringing people up too. Yes, I did chat with our supervisor about your antics when she’s not around, and was told she’ll be chatting with you about this nonsense.

You know very well we leads do TRY to keep breaks on schedule, around that lovely customer timing. Walking away from your register when we have lines to yell at me while I’m ringing up a customer myself is NOT cool. Claiming to the supervisor on duty that N had been gone for 20 minutes or more when I know very well she’d been gone less than 10, TOTALLY uncool.

When you leave our training-program nest and go out to the real world, you’re going to find out fast that bosses can get VERY nasty about you insisting that your breaks are more important than their customers, especially if you’re lying about other employees, going over someone’s head to get your precious way, and “adjusting” the schedule as pleases you without bothering with approval.