Let's bitch about our stupid, annoying co-workers

so we have a call center that takes Spanish calls in San Juan. SJ, Puerto Rico does not participate in Daylight savings time, so when the clocks rolled back in FL on 11/1, theirs did not, creating a one hour disparity, them now being an hour ahead on AST.

one of our Ops folks warned the schedulers at all locations in advance, saying the schedules would automatically be updated to reflect this in our scheduling system. In other words, the people in SJ would work the same shift, it would just look different in the scheduling tool to those of us on EST.

Somehow, the scheduling tool (or the person operating it) screwed up and pushed everybody's shift up an hour, meaning the SJ folk actually had their shifts changed this past Monday. Meaning the closers were scheduled to leave an hour BEFORE the service center closed. They got volunteers to work OT to cover the extra hour Monday and Tuesday, but nobody addressed the problem on the backend.

After a 25 email thread involving 8-10 people and lasting 3 hours, they thought they had it fixed, with the shift gap fixed starting tomorrow, and OT scheduled for tonight. Only the coach in that location wasn't on the same page, and nobody was set to work OT.

So nobody was logged in to take those calls the last hour, and one came in. Dude waited TWO HOURS in the phone queue before a manager realized what happened, and, not speaking Spanish, connected them to an interpreter.

I am actually LOLing over how something as simple as a time zone difference basically brought them to their knees. doesn't involve me at all, I'm kind of looking forward to the fingerpointing that everybody is going to launch into tomorrow.

In other words, the people in SJ would work the same shift, it would just look different in the scheduling tool to those of us on EST.

actually this is wrong. their shift would have to be one hour later to accommodate for the time zone disparity. but...this didn't happen!

what really amuses me is the late-hour meetings, handwringing, root cause analysis that will happen, the hours of work spent determining what went wrong, who to blame, the tectonic shifts in SOPs and governance that will come out of this....

all cos one person was made to wait two hours by accident.

Just think, that one complaint email you send to your Bank about the local branch closing early one night might be causing chaos behind the scenes. The power in the palm of your hands.

Least favorite coworker running 4 hr meeting that started at 9 am

when will death come?

see if you can make your stomach grumbles sound like In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

constant daily "state of the air-conditioning" comments still ongoing & driving me craaaaaazy

so yesterday they called an emergency 17 person training with like an hour's notice and asked us to drop everything and lead it. I was on a Megabus coming home (using a mobile hotspot to connect to network) so someone else was tapped to lead it.

he had a panic attack 10 minutes into the session, told the class "I just need a moment", then disappeared without a word never to return.

so there I was, briefly, for an hour, virtually training 17 learners while on a Megabus surrounded by confused, annoying looking passengers.

told the class "I just need a moment", then disappeared without a word never to return.

This is an excellent tactic, will be trying this myself

is dude going to disciplined over this? i am legitimately v curious.
he didn't handle it well, but whoever put him in that position should be ashamed of themselves.

lmao at "briefly, for an hour" and "Megabus" in the same sentence

Was at bereavement at work session

group exercise: asked how we would like our own bereavement treatment

Me: some kind of acknowledgement when you first see me, then back to normal please.

Next person: look whatva shit the boss is.

Everyone: *nods*

Next person: look whatva shit the boss is.

?

do you... are you in a gang?

xxp did you then offer your sincerest appy-polly loggies?

is dude going to disciplined over this? i am legitimately v curious.
he didn't handle it well, but whoever put him in that position should be ashamed of themselves.

― AKA Thermo Thinwall (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, November 19, 2015 2:57 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah he wasn't disciplined, and that's not even in consideration. He didn't handle well, no, but it wouldn't have happened in the first place if not for the shitty penny-pinching of our execs and a bunch of suits who think that training can literally be plucked from one's asshole at the 11th hour. the worst thing is they do this every year - and then do 'engagement' surveys, but when the results come in suggest it's our responsibility to stay engaged.

also tho Megabus is fuckin awesome. except the Wifi

Oh don't get me wrong, I love love love Megabus and use it several times a year, but an hour on any bus is never "brief". Also they started selling the "premium" seats for more money (and with a gross vinyl upholstering!) which kinda sucks, and the wi-fi and outlets are so hit or miss, but yeah go Megabus

oh true, I mean the only time I was comfy was in those "premium" seats but the AC was on full blast when it was in the 60s outside. we were all freezing.

naturally, the time I wound up training on the bus is when I had one of those seats with no legroom. i was wearing a headset covered in toothpaste cos my toothpaste tube came out the plastic

aren't the premium seats exactly the same as regular seats (same leg room, etc) except with a) vinyl upholstery instead of fabric so they can print numbers on the backs b) towards the front of the bus?

that sounds like a very megabus tactic

i've told you guys my friend was on the megabus that got pulled over by the cops because the driver was drunk, right

no!!! Tell us this story!!!!

not much to it, he was working in chicago but his wife was in iowa so he'd take megabus around every other weekend to commute. they were on the interstate and he figured it was kind of windy because the bus would kind of drift a little bit occasionally, no big deal

then
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/megabus-driver-charged-wi_n_1028320.html

Yeah, that sounds like the Megabus I know. Sounds from replies itt like they may have stepped up their game in recent years but they were a decidedly grade-q service by the time I ultimately washed my hands of them altogether.

I've taken that route a couple times and it was fine

I did almost run late because one of the bridges was up over the chicago river and I was trying to run with a suitcase and large bag and got clowned pretty hard by the driver when I was panting and sweating

aren't the premium seats exactly the same as regular seats (same leg room, etc) except with a) vinyl upholstery instead of fabric so they can print numbers on the backs b) towards the front of the bus?

― Ina-Garten-Da-Vida (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 20 November 2015 16:21 (2 hours ago) Permalink

the one sthat are $1 extra, yeah. but there are some for $5 extra that are at the top front of the bus, meaning there's nobody in front of you, and an assload of space/legroom. basically nothing between you and the windshield.

this is why I was able to sleep on a bus for the first time in my life pretty much

holy shit – the only time i ever sat at the front of a megabus, i would start nodding off and then take up terrified, white-knuckling the armrest because the first thing i would see upon slightly opening my eyes is wide open highway fling right at me!

^^

https://media.giphy.com/media/xTiTnjsfQsvr57nlCw/giphy.gif

Ever since I read about that chinatown bus that decapitated all those people Ive been too scared to ever get on a long-distance style tall bus. Irrational I know. but ugh.

Also, how the fuck do they not tip over more often?

...anyway, rather off topic.

low center of gravity

was that a double-decker bus? megabus is single

Even some of those kind seem high! Like, with the storage underneath. I havent been on a long distance bus in years tbh, just as cheap to fly these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2_T4WVnnFU

this woman actually says "easy peasy lemon squeezy" every 5 minutes

only 14 days left in hell

x-post lol oh no

- 3 hour mandatory training session on customer service today
- ive been doing this fucking job for 15 years and I barely do any "customer service" stuff anymore
- they booked everyone - all the helpdesk and accounts and L1 service people - into one session. Guys, who's going to man the actual phones while we are doing this?
- last min scramble ensues to shift half the people into another session
- which we got half an hours notice of just now.

WHEEEEEEEEEEE.

Got a new coworker (Coworker A) last year for a total of four in my team, including the manager. Mostly harmless. Cusses in her cubical a little much, but nothing major. However, whenever our other coworker (Coworker B) calls out from work on personal leave, Coworker A says "I'm calling shenanigans," implying that she doesn't believe that Coworker B (who has been with the company for nearly a decade) has a legitimate excuse to miss work.

In mid-November, co-worker A had to take a week of personal leave due to the flu. We all sent along messages of sympathy and compassion. "Hope you get well soon." Etc.

Two weeks later coworker B had to take personal leave for health reasons as well. She was hospitalized for several days and was out for over over a week. Coworker A's response? Almost every day: "I'M CALLING SHENANIGANS!"

Have u a shenanigans process once invoked? Simple enough to build in a catch for frivolous claims.

Is Shenanigan's the pub down the street? Maybe she wants to know what time Happy Hour is over.

wow rude

I think pplains nailed it, that must be it

Learners in training decide to make disparaging remarks to our San Juan learners who are attending on the phone. It's like grade school.

I opted not to attend my company's off-site holiday party, which is being held today from noon until ??? and which effectively shuts the office down because more people are attending than not. At quarter 'til 12, as everyone is filing out and I'm kinda wrapping up what I'm working on, I get an email "reminding" (AKA mentioning for the first time ever) those of us who chose not to attend that we're expected to work a full eight hours while everyone else is drinking it up elsewhere. I've been seriously considering leaving this job for a while but that might honestly be the end of it for me. No timely communication or consideration ever, on top of numerous other complaints. Fuuuuuuck this.

What the hell.

Though to be honest, if they gave me a choice of going to the retreat or working the full days I would be working, I'd take the latter.

I don't care so much that the expectation is that people have to work the full day if they aren't attending the party. I care that they voiced this expectation at literally the last possible minute, and as a "reminder". And, for the douche trifecta, my boss communicated this through a proxy so as to not look like the bad guy in this situation.

our christmas party instructions came with 6 points of order all of which boiled down to 'don't drink too much and make an idiot of yourselves / the company'. which is a change from, and probably a consequence of, last year when everybody got given 6 free drinks tokens.

xp can't you just blow it off at that point and be like "dude you told us this minutes before, how could we possibly be expected to do this?"

or just say yes to the party and not show up, that's what i'd gladly do

yeah depending on how big the group is, just claim you were there