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

yes please continue talking at me about this project that doesn't concern you, very helpful

oh i feel bad, i knew i shouldn't have posted here oh well

ahhh i just found out my last day is the 20th. Just in time for the $250 a week bill we get to pay the kids summer camp.

I had a moment where i was just going to walk out but I ended up applying for 4 jobs so who knows? or cares for that matter? I feel like I'm constantly unemployed with small bouts of sitting in a cubicle.

Every time I open this thread I fear I will find a coworker has tracked me down and read my posts

just tell them what you think then. the truth shall set you free!*

*free of employment

last week I had to give a memeber of staff some negative feedback and they reacted by whisting over the top of what I was saying then walking away from me. It is a miracle I am not in jail for common assault.

no court in the land would convict you

literally whistling over you might be a new low for this thread which already filled to bursting with new lows

ongoing manager decides to take a one week cruise during the third week live on a major project and did not adequately prep any of her backups to fill her absence.

everything goes to hell while she's out, nobody is handling the things she would normally do, so now they're trying to force my team to own one of their major tasks simply because she's not here, even though it's way out of our depth.

so lesson learned, showing up to work = naive and stupid, take vacay whenever I feel like from now on. on the plus side, I did discover resumerobin.com today.

last week I had to give a memeber of staff some negative feedback and they reacted by whisting over the top of what I was saying then walking away from me.

Uh, they should be pulled aside by HR and told to quit it or leave imo. What a dick!

I mean it'd only be douchier if they did the "shh" thing that Dr Evil does in Austin Powers. it's 11 year-old behavior.

I'm in the fortunate position where I get to manage these people* but I don't have the power to escalate disciplinary procedures directly, ie I have to pass this situation on to a more senior manager and stand back while they take action. Which, by the nature of the arrangement, of course it is nowhere near as fast or direct as I would want it done.

*I say these people because, although this example is the worst, it isn't an isolated incident of similar shameless disrespect from this team.

The people I manage are really nice and it is an incredible fucking relief. Managing assholes is like having a nosiy neighbour - it can seem like the only option is to get a new job / move house.

Currently hating: male co-worker who only uses the word "adorable" in conversations with women, keeps leaning in for a cheeky hug, all-purpose defensive mansplainer

please

stop

taaaalking

I don't think there's been more than a ten-minute gap in this series of monologues all day

even after sending an email warning of my PTO this week, and an Out of Office auto-reply that tells everyone I'm out and gives the names of contacts to reach out to, there are people apparently emailing me asking for things that require quick turnaround this week.

and leaving off the right people to send these to even after they get the OOO message.

giggling a little as I picture these doofuses wondering why they're getting no reply.

so i had a meeting yesterday morning with my team to pitch for work, essentially to justify our existence as a team of contractors on the job we're on. it was sort of a fait accompli even tho there were other groups tendering for the work, but nonetheless it was fairly serious, we all had notes etc, dressed semi-formally, treated it with some level of gravitas.

we're all sitting in the room, and i'm looking at my notes with about five minutes to go until the pitch starts, and "the colleague i mentioned upthread" (this is now his name itt) turns to me and says

"have you ever thought about investigating your family tree?"

"em, i dunno, perhaps one day."

"i've been doing it for some time, it's very interesting - i have a mixed heritage, south african, croatian, IRISH..." blah blah blah until the meeting starts, as every other member of the team just looks at him like the banal lunatic that he is.

bwahahaha

I feel like with those people they view your disinterest as an accelerant

oh, most definitely

I mostly let it slide these days when meetings with coworkers that are all friendly start with a few minutes of bullshitting about the upcoming weekend or whatever

but the impulse to _want_ to be able to do that with people who have no interest, at the wrong time, combined with the "gotta keep talking through this awkward silence, maybe if I say one more thing they'll be able to relate to this" motive is mortifying

meetings at my old job were mostly full of co-workers who could barely stay awake

classic

it wasn't just the disinterest, it was also just so comically mistimed and weird, that he'd be thinking about this as basically the entire room was gearing itself up. but yeah, also a seriously boring interlude.

but the impulse to _want_ to be able to do that with people who have no interest, at the wrong time, combined with the "gotta keep talking through this awkward silence, maybe if I say one more thing they'll be able to relate to this" motive is mortifying

otm. one of my dear friends has this habit of talking to me at length about several operas. Now, the guy has a brilliant knowledge of opera and classical works and I find it fascinating, but he'll go on about it long past expiry and assumes received knowledge that I don't have, so I feel like I can't add anything to the convo. I try to steer the convo back to shared interests and usually that works.

I also hate the people at work who seem to think what you did last weekend is a show-and-tell contest for determining who leads the most awesome life.

playing bottle-flip on a table shared with 9 other people trying to work, ffs.

next week, fidget spinners, i'm guessing.

Fidget spinners are pretty quiet.

Now, the staff of a half dozen writers behind me who have to begin every morning discussing the latest CRAZY thing the president has said or done, that's not very quiet at all.

But you know, CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY?

My stepkid has a fidget spinner with LIGHTS in it. That can get a bit annoying if he's in one's field of view.

i find that to be true about children in general.

Ha :)

This is how you bottle flip at work

Hard at work. #TheMick #Fox #Season2 pic.twitter.com/VJi0ZxF17G

— kaitlin olson (@KaitlinOlson) June 7, 2017

yeah girl!

Dear people who send lots of emails saying something is broken and must be fixed urgently URGENT NOW URGENT and then when you reply saying that you think it's fixed and please could they let you know whether it looks OK there are tumbleweeds and no reply hours later,

So annoying!

Love,

fixing monkey

dude keeps emailing me because the people I gave him to contact after I left a project aren't replying to his emails. I crankily asked him if he was aware of instant messaging and the ability to contact people directly.

customer: what's wrong with [genre category] on your website
me: what do you mean
customer: i tried to find [x title] and [y title] and they werent there

ok so we don't carry those two items because reasons... but the rest of the category is perfectly searchable jfc don't give me a heartattack

our company has a no paid overtime policy for management, so if I stay behind to get stuff done I can only claim it back as time owed. In the past two weeks I've racked up over a full day's worth because we have a major visit from the company CEO this week. So the only reason for me to do this is to give myself an easy life when the bigwigs turn up.

One of our summer temps came to me over the weekend and said that she overheard the other supervisor complaining to the team that I haven't done enough and that I must be struggling in the job (I've been here for three months, it wasn't a job I wanted but I was parachuted in because nobody else would take it). I've been quite honest about not being happy (ie dealing with the whistler upthread, which is major but not exceptional in this environment) but I've yet to see her do anything like stay behind or come in early. I'm so angry for so many obvious reasons and I really don't know how to proceed, because if I bring it up I'm basically revealing that this temp is a grass and I know that it will make her life difficult for the remainder of summer.

is this other supervisor someone you report to, or are they at the same level as you? trying to figure out if it's worth bringing up .......

it's the same level. We do the same job in two different departments and get paid the same and both answer to the same manager. She's been there fifteen years too so it's not like she doesn't have friends and influence in the situation, ie if she's telling everyone who works in both departments I'm useless and lazy then they'll be much more likely to buy into that, regardless of whatever I try to do to visibly show otherwise. It isn't like she's not good at her job in other ways but this is so unprofessional. I also think bringing it up is a waste of time: the damage is done because everyone who she's mouthed off in front of will have heard it and this stuff always ends up repeated as gossip.

I mean it's a moot point because I'm actively and desperately looking for something else, anything else at all. Hopefully not in retail though!

I work at a large-ish company (about 200 people) that is being restructured with little-to-no consultation.

Our CEO met with staff this morning. "We're not hiring any new people, but we're not getting rid of anyone either. However, if your job description is changed, your job *may* become available."

is it acceptable to throw things at the bloke sat opposite who keeps humming?

yes

the colleague i mentioned here a few times got fired this week. p weird actually. he had been wildly taking the piss with coming in late, arriving late for meetings, leaving early etc and he's a contractor, they just gave him the boot. feel a bit guilty in the sense that prob all of our team had complained about this repeatedly amongst ourselves, don't think anyone advocated his dismissal. on the other hand it is public money and i think he was prob invoicing for days when he worked a half day or less, and he put himself in this position. a lot of the time i've bemoaned the fact that government doesn't actually dismiss contractors regardless of any behaviour whatsoever, still weird now i'm in a team where it's happened.

what's bizarre is, after it coming up already, i think he was warned etc, and weeks of it recurring and getting worse, like late for every meeting, late in the morning then saying "btw i'll be leaving at 3pm today' - i was sat near my boss last week and the same co-worker, who was prob close to his last chance already, asked if he could work from home three days a week in august. the level of obliviousness is beyond me, that may be the request that got him canned.

I'm always of coming across like that guy - I get migraines and work from home a lot. Easy to get paranoid that everyone thinks you're slacking off.

I am working from home and posting on a messgae board but ykwim

always *afraid* of

thing is it's really, really tolerant. like wfh is generally fine a day or two a week, appointments etc mostly fine, but this was essentially every day. we basically are asked to just work 0930 to 1700, give or take. it's a very calm environment.

but even for say a normal meeting he'd be gone to get a coffee and back 10 mins late. once or twice nobody would care but it almost became comical it was so often. like almost every time. this coupled with always complaining about not having enough time and prob a few bad interpersonal issues, like defensive attitude or impersonating people's accent, again all more in the realm of foolish lack of self-awareness or pomposity rather than malice.

it's a strange issue as it feels harsh that someone so oblivious gets punished. he's not a malicious person, maybe a bit entitled and lacking in self-awareness, i personally find it hard to know how to feel about that kind of person. maybe it's just as bad as someone deliberately slacking off. i dunno. i think the fact he's prob on about 500 pounds a day makes people, esp his civil servant bosses, a bit more harsh, and justifiably so really.

Sounds justified to me. Maybe this will help him gain some self-awareness.

that's what i think ultimately. a bit of a kick up the ass. it's easy enough to get complacent as a contractor.

combed through this thread to see if anybody has ever successfully solved their office perfume problem. Nobody ever has. Been trying to get my office to make some kind of formal perfume policy for years but it's too awkward for anybody to step up and address.

Somebody brought it the biggest offending co-worker years ago and she didn't understand the criticism, because she was wearing "natural oils," not perfume.

Do you have a HR, Evan? Definitely the kind of thing that probably needs to be raised with some degree of anonymity but a totally reasonable concern.

We have an HR-ish person and I used to try to get them to bring it up. Sometimes they waffled because it was awkward (we're a small office), and sometimes I think they did talk to her but nothing really changed, at least not for more than a week or two. I've since moved so I'm out of the spray zone, but the few times a week I have to work near this person are always a challenge.

I find almost any fragrance objectionable, especially in abundance, but I don't know how she can be oblivious to how objectionable her particular smell is. It's strangely.. powdery? Kind of like B.O. and nursing home and baking soda? It's hard to explain. A co-worker theorized it was rosewater once but I can't imagine something called rosewater smelling that awful

I've a colleague that has a fragrance sensitivity. It just developed about four years ago, he gets terrible coughing fits, has difficulty breathing and gets teary eyes when confronted with perfume (not all perfumes, most most of them). That sealed the deal in our company: no more perfumes. I'm all for it.

You could say that apart from not liking the scent it does seem to affect you in your work, also. That should be ground for the others to leave the sprays at home imo.