# You are on my shit list.

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 30, 2002, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979 "2002-03-30T23:02:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2002, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/1 "2002-03-30T23:02:27Z")

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The following people will be the first to die when I rule the world and can do such things with no fear of retribution.

1. Earthlink. Everyone who works for it now\*\*, especially the CEO and the person who decided that no matter what DSL customers are locked into a 12-month contract, unless they want to pay $150 to break contract. I had nothing but shit getting the line installed in the first place, and now that it’s been functioning for approximately a month I’ve had nothing but shit with it since. I’d really appreciate it if you could see your way clear to letting the line work for, oh, more than an hour before it dies a horrible death. I especially like the taunting effect after I reboot my computer and modem, see it working again, settle in comfortably for more Internet browsing, then get SPANKED when it dies again in fifteen minutes. And by the way, you have some of the most brain-rottingly moronic tech support people working for you that I’ve ever encountered. In short, eat shit and die, I hate you, and (since this is the Pit), felch a goat.

\*\*Unless you’re a Doper. In which case you’re clearly smart enough to be spared my wrath.

2 and 3) My neighbours. I live in a townhouse-style apartment. On one side of me, I have an apartment full of college students. On the other side, an apartment with small children, as well as adults who like to play very loud bass music. The college students have a predilection for thumping up and down the stairs at 3 in the morning; the kids on my other side, in the middle of the day, will randomly have a full-out wrestling match, and their parents will crank up their music while I’m trying to study. Between all of these folks, there is almost always something going on on one side or another that shakes _my_ walls and floors. Right now, _they’re both at it at once_. I am besieged on all sides.

To make this even better, you must understand that one day a few weeks ago, at around 4 PM, I decided to put on some music (which I rarely do). It was not nearly as loud as I like to have my music (say, when I’m in my car), because I try to be considerate of the people I live around; but as it was in the early evening I considered that I could play it at mid-volume without being too worried. It must have been too loud for the bass-loving assholes next door, because they started pounding on _my_ wall to make me turn it down. I swear to fucking God, the next time I can hear every word of whatever shit music they’re playing next door, I won’t just knock on their wall, I will find a battering ram and punch through the fucking thing.

1. My ex-boyfriend, who called me blubbering drunk and maudlin last night to ramble on about how much he missed me, flirted with me though I told him it made me feel really uncomfortable, and generally made me really sad. See, I didn’t even realise he was drunk at first, until his waxing poetic about how great our relationship had been (which at first touched me a lot and made me cry) made me remember that he never gets sentimental unless he has alcohol in his system. Here I was feeling all warm and fuzzy and getting a much-needed self-esteem boost, until I finally asked “Are you drunk?” Then he got mad at me for saying that none of what he’d said meant anything if he had to be drunk to say it. I am annoyed.

2. My technotarded boss who is, through some cruel intervention of Fate, the head of technology at Campus Recreation, for whom I serve as student tech specialist and web mistress. Here’s the best story about her to date:

There are two web designers in the Campus Rec department, myself (in charge of upkeeping the current page) and Katie (in charge of designing the new, (supposedly) more user-friendly site). Karen, my boss, came wandering back into the little area where Katie and I work one day, asking where my colleague was. For the purposes of the following dialogue, I will give you the additional information that Karen is also the director of Wellness and keeps up her department’s own pages on the Campus Rec site, which I have long loathed her for since for some ungodly reason she decided that her pages get to have their own colour scheme, which looks completely different from the rest of the site… I can stick a link to the website into the thread, if that will help. I don’t care if it identifies me.

Anyway. Scenes from my job, part I.

“I haven’t seen her all day, Karen.”  
“Shoot. I was hoping to see her. I want her to put the new page up.”  
:eek: 😕 :mad: “…what?”  
“I can’t get my Wellness pages to upload, so I want her to just go ahead and put up the redesigned site. It’s got all the new information on it.”  
“Karen… we can’t put up the new site yet. It’s not finished. The Wellness section is the most finished, but none of the other sections are done yet. I’m not going to let just the Wellness section of the site go up. What kind of error are you getting?”  
Karen is using Pagemill to design her pages, and using the FTP utility within that program. I know nothing about Pagemill (I code entirely by hand and hate WYSIWYG editors), but it’s easy enough to see that the FTP program isn’t putting the pages where they belong.  
“Karen, why don’t you just use the FTP program that the rest of the department does?”  
::blank stare::  
“You don’t know what I’m talking about?” This from the woman who has the gall to lecture other people in the department about upkeeping _their_ pages, when they all know how to use the program I’m talking about.  
“No. Why can’t we just put up the new site?”  
:mad: ☹ “Because it’s not ready to go up yet, Karen. Just e-mail me the pages from where they’re saved on your computer and I’ll put them up for you.”  
“How do I do that?”  
:mad: :mad: :mad: “Do you know where they’re saved?”

Of _course_ she doesn’t. Why the fuck would the fucking _head of the goddamn tech department know where the hell she saves her own fucking files_??? In the end, I found the goddamn things, e-mailed them to myself, and uploaded them with no trouble. I still can’t believe that she thought it’d be okay to just put up the brand-new site because _she_ was having trouble with her pages.

I think that’s it. I’m done being bitter. ::Sigh:: I’m going to go devour the rest of the gallon of Thin Mint ice cream in my freezer.

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### Author: ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2002, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/2 "2002-03-30T23:55:11Z")

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Uh-oh, you shouldn’t have let us (read: me) know that you have a Shit List. Now I’m going to spend the rest of my waking hours trying to get on top of it (I’m pretty sure I managed to score the #1 slot on ChiefScott’s shit list).

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### Author: ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/3 "2002-03-31T00:02:05Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RaCha’ar \*  
> **Anyway. Scenes from my job, part I.**

Part I was pretty fucking rich. I’m still wondering why people get promoted to those positions when they are so clueless about the issues those positions address.

Is there a Part II?

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### Author: ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/4 "2002-03-31T00:18:53Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Atreyu \*  
> \*\*
> 
> Part I was pretty fucking rich. I’m still wondering why people get promoted to those positions when they are so clueless about the issues those positions address.
> 
> Is there a Part II? \*\*

It’s the Peter Principle. Employees are promoted to the level of their incompetence. Once you’re in a position where you know nothing about what you’re doing, you can’t go any higher and just stay there, at that level, torturing your underlings for all eternity.

Scott Adams (Dilbert) also has a theory about the relationship between managerial level and good hair, but I can’t remember the details. 🙂

jayjay

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### Author: ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/5 "2002-03-31T01:15:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Atreyu \*  
> I’m still wondering why people get promoted to those positions when they are so clueless about the issues those positions address.

[list=1][li] **It’s not what you know, it’s whom you know**. I don’t think I have to explain this one.[/li][li] **In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king**. I don’t know if this applies to the OP’s boss or not, but a former supervisor of mine (boss[sup]1[/sup]) was hired into that position because _his_ boss (boss[sup]2[/sup]) has no expertise in the area that he supposedly has. Another way to put it: because boss[sup]1[/sup] has worked in certain areas, his resume shows that he has attained experience and expertise in those areas, though in reality he has gotten by from leaning on others and hasn’t learned anything from the time he’s spent on these jobs. The sad result of this blindness is that boss[sup]2[/sup] isn’t able to see that boss[sup]1[/sup] is basically a constant screw-up. [/li]I’d agree with the _Peter Principle_ argument, except boss[sup]1[/sup] hasn’t, as far as I can tell, been competent in anything that he’s done in the past (I knew him before he became my supervisor), yet he still gets promoted.[/list=1]Oh, I like the part about the blank stare. That’s pretty much the expression boss[sup]1[/sup] has whenever I either ask or explain anything technical with him. And he fails the good-hair test. But I’ve since quit and gotten another job, so screw’em.

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### Author: ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/6 "2002-03-31T02:45:03Z")

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Monty Corollary to Peter Principle:

Once you are promoted to your minimum level of incompetence, ensure you surround yourself with those who work for you who have not yet been promoted to their minimum level of incompetence AND further ensure you do everything in your power to prevent any future promotion for them.

Note that this is based on my observations of other people’s bad management practices, not my own (don’t even _think_ about saying “bad”) management practices!

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### Author: ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/7 "2002-03-31T03:55:35Z")

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Oh, you want more? Okay, Part II will be shorter but still very frustrating.

Each intramural sports event has its own little page, with lists of leagues, schedules, and point results. The daily schedules section of each page is set up as a calendar, which used to only have links up where there was actually a schedule for the day; on days where nothing was going on for that sport, there’d either be the date (“March 30”) written in the spot with no link to it, or just a blank space, both of which indicated that there was nothing going on for that sport that day. Makes sense, right?

Not to my boss!

“RaCha’ar, I want you to make every day on the daily schedules pages a link.”  
😕 “Why on earth would I do that?”  
“Because we want Shelby (the aforementioned guy she yells at for not updating his pages) to be able to just upload his schedules without having to send them to you to make the link.”  
:rolleyes: “Okay, but putting links to something that doesn’t exist is completely ridiculous and will confuse the people using the page.”  
“I want you to put a page in each empty day that says ‘Information will be updated when available.’”  
:eek: 😕 :mad: “Why? Leaving the days with _no_ link, or an empty spot on the calendar, does the same thing, and more clearly, too.”  
“So Shelby can put his own things up as they’re updated.”  
:rolleyes: :mad: “Karen. There isn’t a problem with that right now. It takes me all of ten seconds to put up a link for him if he needs it.”  
“I really don’t understand why you won’t do this, RaCha’ar.”  
:mad: :mad: :mad: “Because it’s incredibly crappy web design! Why would we put a link up just to tell people that there’s nothing there???”  
“Do it.”

So, I did it.

Since I don’t think I explained that very well, [here](http://www.richmond.edu/~recreat/intramurals/floorhockey/daily.html) is an example of what I’m talking about. Click around the calendar and see what I mean. I hate my boss.

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### Author: ![Hosayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@Hosayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hosayf)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/8 "2002-03-31T05:33:44Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RaCha’ar \*  
> \*\* And by the way, you have some of the most brain-rottingly moronic tech support people working for you that I’ve ever encountered. In short, eat shit and die, I hate you, and (since this is the Pit), felch a goat.
> 
> \*\*Unless you’re a Doper. In which case you’re clearly smart enough to be spared my wrath.
> 
> \*\*

Wow, You actually got to talk to the tech support people. I usually wait for a half an hour to an hour on hold and then it starts working again…

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### Author: ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/9 "2002-03-31T10:49:44Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > And by the way, you have some of the most brain-rottingly moronic tech support people working for you that I’ve ever encountered.
> 
> Wow, You actually got to talk to the tech support people. I usually wait for a half an hour to an hour on hold and then it starts working again… \*\*

I cannot image waiting on the phone to talk to them. I would break something after they gave me the most useless answer on the planet.

Apparently the way earthlink hires tech support people is to run out to the local junior high, find the children who flunked reading comprehension and sign them up.

I have _never_ got an answer to my question from earthlink tech support. I have, many times, got a list of local access numbers in response to questions that had nothing to do with local access numbers. Toward the end of last year, when I was trying to troubleshoot a problem, I would send at the top of my email the full and complete list (8-12) of the local access numbers that I had tried. 2 out of 3 times the response on how to fix the problem was “why don’t you try dialing in with this number” and they’d send me back a phone number that was in the list. I tried calling in once, and they said the wait was over 1/2 hour. I couldn’t imagine waiting that long for service that crappy and uselss.

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### Author: ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/10 "2002-03-31T19:03:51Z")

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Wow. It sounds to me like this thread needs to be split off into two new ones: One for “EARTHLINK CAN FUCKING BITE MY ASS AND LIKE IT” and one for “I HAVE A TECHNOTARDED BOSS.” Anyone?

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### Author: ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/11 "2002-04-01T17:28:23Z")

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Karen came back in here AGAIN today _insisting_ that Katie put up the new webpage, just for her skanky ass. “I need the new page for me.” She doesn’t seem to understand that _she_ is not the entire fucking Campus Recreation department. I’m going over to her computer to install the FTP program right now – I am going to laugh so hard when she realises that the new page won’t fix the problems she’s having with PageMill, even though she seems to think it will. Stupid bitch. Thank god I only have to deal with her for another couple of weeks.

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### Author: ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2002, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/12 "2002-04-01T17:36:03Z")

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Ever hear the **L7** song _Shitlist_? A perfect soundtrack for your post.

_When I get mad and I get pissed  
I grab my pen and I write out a list  
Of all the people who won’t be missed  
You’ve made my Shitlist!_

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### Author: ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2002, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/13 "2002-04-01T22:12:14Z")

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Lovely rant, and you’re entirely correct: Not only do your neighbors deserve to be bludgeoned with a very dense blunt object, but I think your boss will serve _nicely_ as that blunt object. She certainly sounds dense enough.

I clicked around on that calendar, and it looks unprofessional as hell to have all those dead pages out there. Of course, you already knew _that_…

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### Author: ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/14 "2002-04-02T19:14:52Z")

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_Because your shit,  
your shit is on my list  
Because your shit,  
your shit, it must desist  
Because your shit is on my list  
of the worst things in life…_

This musical meme-virus brought to you by That Lovin’ Feelin’.

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### Author: ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/15 "2002-04-02T20:03:59Z")

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!  
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the horror of having to read every thread in the Pit.

Congrats, **Sofa** , you’ve just made _my_ shitlist. I’m going to be stuck at work with Hall & Oates stuck in my head, and it’ll be two more hours before I can get out to my car and blow that meme away with some Green Day.

Bastard.

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### Author: ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/16 "2002-04-02T20:29:57Z")

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Heheheh.

It’s the price of being the Lord of Hades, my friend.

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### Author: ![RaCha\_ar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@RaCha\_ar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaCha_ar)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2002, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/17 "2002-04-02T23:44:36Z")

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I am so sorry for the part I played in bringing this horror onto the world. I beg forgiveness. Please, I don’t want to go to hell! ::sobs!::

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### Author: ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2002, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/18 "2002-04-03T01:42:48Z")

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[I’m sorry, too](http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/hotel/769/midi/h/Hall_and_Oates/Kiss_On_My_List.mid).

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### Author: ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2002, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-on-my-shit-list/100979/19 "2002-04-03T08:18:31Z")

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Talk about compounding the crime… 😛
