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

I know it was a transition for me going from a private company to working in a higher education setting, things definitely work at their own pace as questions/requests work their way through administration and different levels. It can definitely seem slow to someone unused to dealing with it, I totally get it! But now I have a manager who is brand new to higher ed as well and he keeps getting aggravated with our team for not getting answers quickly enough for his tastes. He's very much a "I want an answer immediately" type and, well, that's great, but we can't control how long it takes other departments to respond to our inquiries. I know he'll eventually get it, but it's annoying to continually get comments insinuating that I'm not doing my job correctly because I can't force other people to get him info as rapidly as he'd like.

you should collaborate with a teammate that's good at make-up effects and give them faux-bruises and fake blood/injuries and then one day knock on manager's door, holding the colleague by the scruff of the neck, and say "he wouldn't give me the info I needed so I roughed him up good for ya, boss! we won't be waiting for data any longer!"

lol I like that plan!

another option is to rotely respond with the sports slogan associated with the University's main athletic program ... like where I live it's "Go Bears!"

for example:
Corporate style boss: Jon, I need those specs by 5!
Jon: Go Bears!

Roll Tide

v good!

I am not so upset at this person right now, they totally have my back. I have theirs. This has been a good opportunity to self-examine

Just found out my boss thinks that earthquake insurance doesn’t exist in California (it was … banned?…18mo ago according to her) and it’s because the insurance companies know that the govt is going to cause a man made earthquake soon.

Just texted her a govt link proving that you can indeed still get earthquake insurance.

There was a violent incident at my work last week - an attempted carjacking that wasn't recognized as such and the person ended up inside our building with my coworkers trying to help them. The person punched,knocked down, dragged, verbally abused 3 of my coworkers. 1 of the 3 managed to push the person out of the building. Truly awful. I found out yesterday that another coworker, who was not onsite during any of this, told the coworker who managed to get the person out of the building that they should have done more to subdue and detain the person. I am livid. My coworker didn't identify the person who said this to them but I have a strong suspicion (based on past behavior) that it is one of my team.

jesssssssssssssssssssus fuck. nobody takes a job thinking they're going to have to physically restrain a violent stranger (well unless their job is related to that), judging someone who had to do that while not even being there, what the actual fuck.

xxp It hasn't been banned, but many/most insurance companies are looking for ways to get out of California. Florida, too. I don't think it has anything to do with a government plot to cause an earthquake, though.

In Cali it’s about fire

Yes, I mean, earthquakes are not new and have been baked into the pricing for a long time, but the vastly increased fire risk has made the market nearly impossible.

The CA earthquake insurance thing was a thing … over a decade ago …

there is this one department who literally can't avoid providing contradictory deadlines, likely because they c&p things incorrectly.

I get a semi-annoyed message today on one ticket, harassing me for an update "cos it's due today". the body of the ticket with the instructions addresses me by name and says "Please review by 11/7", and this is what I saw and registered first. but the ticket due date was set to 11/2, which I didn't initially notice because I'd already read the body. and apparently *that* was the right one.

same department sends me another ticket, which says in the instructions that I have until 11/14 to complete the attached questionnaire and send it back. they send me an email as well with instructions for this ticket, which says I have until 11/7.

really gives me a lot of faith

so on the ticket that I was told was due today instead of 11/7, the instructions said they'd authored the pages, and that I just needed to review for accuracy and give any feedback if anything was wrong.

After going in and reviewing, they weren't even finished, like all of the pages were full of untailored content. so I reached out and asked about it and they acted dumbfounded as to why I was confused and after a conversation that made me feel like I was taking crazy pills, I finally sussed out that they meant they authored everything they were able to and didn't have enough information to finish the rest, so they were leaving that for me to do. which is very different from "hey this is done, please review it and leave feedback".

so I politely said I'm not finishing this today and they can have it 11/7

Given that I've been working since I was 14 years old, I've developed what I consider a pretty strong work ethic and willingness to do certain tasks that might not be my favorite. Couple that with having spent almost all of my professional career working in small companies/firms/teams, I've never really considered myself as being the type to consider themselves "above" certain types of work. Like, sure I'll take notes if needed, or schedule meetings, no problem.

That said, I'm feeling really taken advantage of right now and I'm really struggling to not blow up at my new manager. For the past three weeks he's decided that, for whatever inscrutable reason, he doesn't want his actual administrative assistant to schedule meetings, he wants me to set them up. At first it was just one meeting, then two, nothing big. Just casual, "hey, will you send out an invite for this meeting to the team". Since I'm attending 'em, it made some level of sense. Well. Now this has blossomed into me being responsible for scheduling vast series of meetings and workshops with multiple departments, outside consultants and various researchers. Week-long conferences that break down into individual one-hour sessions with different invite lists at each. I'm spending 5-6 hours a day coordinating calendars, emailing assistants, rescheduling meetings and cross-indexing calendar openings. It's insane. And driving me batshit. Not only is this an absolutely enormous headache, but it's meaning I have to wait until after hours most days to perform my actual job and duties.

Like, I don't want to be the "why the fuck am I doing this" type, but also, the longer this goes on and the more complex this gets, I want to be like, "dude, I didn't get a master's degree, a professional license and gain 23 years of experience to be your admin assistant, when you already have one".

(And in case it's not clear, no disrespect to administrative assistants, it's a hard job and I have mad respect for them, which this whole experience has only strengthened. It's just... that's not the job I was hired to do!)

You need to talk to the manager, jvc! It’s either that or go Bartleby with the repetition of the phrase “That’s beyond the scope of my role here.”

scope creep is a real menace when it has to do with your job roles

I was used to working at a pretty small museum where everybody kinda did everything to help each other out. And it worked because we were all close and the scale was so small.

When I started working at a really big museum, it took me a while to adjust. We had one upper level guy on our crew that really kept an eye out for people doing things that were outside of their scope and I got fussed at pretty regularly because someone in another department would ask me to do something and I would happily do it.

At first it grated on me, but eventually I realized that if I did this one little thing to be nice, the person who asked it of me would assume that this was a thing that people in my department did and they would then always request that of us. Over time, we would wind up with all of these bullshit tasks that somebody else should be doing which hurt our productivity and is possibly taking work (or a job) away from someone else.

There was a group that did X,Y and Z at my job. Some of it was extracurricular but they had a reason peer support network and some domain-specific knowledge. They all left for greener pastures. My group inherited this stuff because we were already planning the next phase of X and were somewhat versed in Y. Z could be largely peer-supported.

We get asked about Y and Z all the time. The group that left wasn't actually proficient at X and did many, many things badly. Ideally my job would be mostly working out the ideal way to do X. But here we are!

I recently found myself volunteering to help out another department (still under the marketing umbrella, but not strictly speaking "my team") just to have something to do all day. It's worked out well because now I have enough work that I can justify my existence to myself, and the organization sees me as more valuable and has extended my contract through the end of December 2024. I don't recommend this course of action to everyone, but it's worked for me in this one instance.

my fatal flaw is being a people pleaser who can't stand anybody being 'disappointed' in him so I wound up doing a lot of stuff I shouldn't and like Cow_Art says, then it became expected of me, and my boss kinda rightfully said "well you did it before, why wouldn't they expect you to do it again".

definitely fight scope creep because it might sound pedantic and territorial but it's really fuckin' important.

less than an hour after I type this, I'm in a class observing, and I tell the instructor I'm here as a fly on the wall, since I'll be backing up the supervisor tomorrow, and within ten minutes, he asks me to answer a complicated billing question for the class.

I said I'm observing, not teaching for you! I shut that down pretty quickly

Yeah, I just need to work out the right approach. I broached it once, last week, in a sort of lighter tone like, "I'm not sure this is something I should be taking on right now given X, Y and Z on my plate". He kind of laughed and said, "well someone's gotta do it". So yeah, I need to figure out a constructive way to address it more seriously.

Unfortunately I'm afraid I'm going to get the usual shitty middle manager, "wow you aren't being a team player" dismissive shit.

"no, it's just that I'm the catcher and you're asking me why I didn't haul in the fly ball in center field"

from today

https://www.askamanager.org/2023/11/how-to-say-no-to-things-at-work.html

other person: what's my class's assignment after this training?

me at closing time last night: I'll check on the assignment for your class

other person 10 minutes after I log on this morning: any updates?

you mean in the thirty minutes of work that elapsed since my last statement?

So the issue I mentioned above has really kind of come to a head and I've requested a 1:1 later today to address it more directly.

Short version, I again spent about 35% of my hours last week emailing admin assistants to coordinate and schedule meetings. But the last straw was yesterday, after two solid days of design workshop meetings, literally the only time my new boss addressed me directly was at the very end when a question came up about scheduling the next round and he looks at me, in front of a room full of senior leaders at our company and outside consultants, and says, "jon/via/chi, scheduling is your area, why don't you get started on coordinating our calendars". Which then led to me being cornered after the meeting with a long list of questions from these senior leaders asking me about calendar openings and scheduling meetings that have absolutely zero to do with me, my position, or even my department.

I'm a (very reluctant and disgruntled) EA and this whole thing is insane to me. While I'd love someone else to step in and do the thankless bullshit I have to do daily, I can't help but wonder what the heck is this guy's actual admin doing?! You were right to request a 1:1. Hope it goes well.

Thanks and, again, I really hope its clear that I'm not bashing anyone in that position! It's an often thankless task and I really go out of my way to do things on my own instead of furthering burdening their load.

The time it's eating out of my schedule to these tasks is one thing, and is annoying, but the larger concern is that I'm now being sold to some pretty senior people at our company as "the guy who schedules meetings" and not for any of the other valuable experience and knowledge I bring to the table.

So my meeting with my boss about the whole thing was... fine-ish? On the plus side, he did hear, validate and admit his part in how a false perception of my responsibilities/role might have been picked up by others and said he'd help to ensure others know my role is not limited to just scheduling things. The negative side was that he just fundamentally believes that our project managers should schedule all meetings, no matter how time-consuming and laborious, and that is not the duty of our admin team. Which... is fundamentally not how things have worked here and is a complete reversal of the understanding/process in place for the last five years I've been here. But he's the new boss so I guess that's just shrug.gif and his prerogative if he wants to bog down our time with those tasks.

Why do so many corporate meetings seem like skirmishes in a never-ending turf war?

Probably because so many middle managers are very precious about their "turf" and, ime, too many of them think they are playing mind games with everyone else but none of those perceived opponents actually give a shit, so it makes for weird vibes.

Once again, while I was on vacation, my boss added classes for me to teach that start tomorrow. This is a much more minor course than last time, just 4 hours each day, but a course I've never taught before and there are missing details I have to ask follow-up questions on. fortunately I had surprisingly few emails in my box so I noticed it a bit more quickly this time.

I'll be fine because I am at least vaguely familiar with the course and a quality bullshitter, but I've given up trying to give dude feedback on being more organized. He always acknowledges, commits, and then just does what he always does. Oh well. I get along with him, but he is very much missing the 'communication' skill.

(today is my first day back, a detail I left out)

lol, gets dumber. the course I'm teaching is for new hires only, as it's an introduction to our ticket management system. Only, these aren't new hires - they're existing employees who are struggling with the system.

Up until recently, once a new hire graduated our class, they were out of our hands. The managers on their permanent teams would handle any performance issues because they're the ones already evaluating these people regularly. But since these managers have collectively shit the bed, leadership is starting to have my team intervene in these cases, which doesn't make sense.

So the managers of this team approached my boss to ask if we can deliver a refresher training, help them understand the proper way to start tickets for their team. He said we can't - because we teach the basic functionality of the tool, but the permanent teams are the one who are supposed to teach their team's way of doing things within that system, which we are not privy to. so they're like "well ok just give them the intro training again I guess".

which is dumb because they already know these things and will be bored. Now, if I'd had a week and a half of notice, I would have taken the training and modified it in advance, after days of working with managers to understand the problem in question and the scope of what they're looking to achieve and we could have gotten it done in less than 4 hours.

since I only get a day to prepare, I'll still do my best to modify the curriculum, but they're probably going to ask a bunch of questions I can't answer and then complain to their managers after. (19 years of knowledge of how communication works in this firm - I know how this will go)

finally got the information I needed to have an informed opinion of what was expected this morning. nailed first half of training, bombed second half due to insufficient time to prepare. (seriously, after two weeks out, giving me a new course to teach the next day is never gonna go well).

what really threw me off, though, was my mother yelling GODDAMMIT from inches away from my door. Not only was I leading training, I was recording it, so now I have to inspect the recording and see if it was audible, and then report the incident to my boss.

I was really mad. she knew i was teaching a class and last thing i need now is to get suspended or fired over something I can't control (that isn't gonna happen in this case, but....I don't exactly want to lose goodwill)

I should mention, it isn't just that I haven't taught the course before, it's that I'm not even an expert on the subject and needed time to brush up and refamiliarize myself with the tool itself, which I haven't used in months, because a) I haven't needed to, but b) I was told I WASN'T TEACHING CLASSES ANYMORE.

The negative side was that he just fundamentally believes that our project managers should schedule all meetings, no matter how time-consuming and laborious, and that is not the duty of our admin team. Which... is fundamentally not how things have worked here and is a complete reversal of the understanding/process in place for the last five years I've been here. But he's the new boss so I guess that's just shrug.gif and his prerogative if he wants to bog down our time with those tasks.

wait so you have project managers for project managers? It's that involved? ... I guess, from my limited experience, project managers schedule and organize meetings and that's what they do? ... And some are much better than others (I am sure you are one of the great ones), and some are like this guy who organizes weekly meetings my coworkers go to (but I am not included) ... and this guy has been at weekly meetings about this project for, at this point, almost 6 months, but he seems to only vaguely understand what my coworker is talking about and what the key issues are ... like, how do you not absorb this stuff after doing it for this long?? He has probably listened to my coworker discuss this project and these issues more than I have, and I somehow have a rate of understanding inversely proportional to the amount this guy gets paid vs. how much I get paid?

(this post is mostly let's bitch about stupid, annoying consultants we get stuck working with.)

and this guy apparently is not bad "as far as project managers go" (in the words of my co-worker)

Yeah, I guess I didn't really clarify that part.. the scheduling in question isn't for one of the projects I'm managing. I'd absolutely expect to schedule all of those, this is for my supervisor's pet planning project.

I am consistently shocked by how much absolute fucking idiots get paid to do their jobs badly. But alas, I am apparently unemployable, so...

xp - I wish I could help run interference for you with these people tbh. Basically, what I would have said (and I have been in similar situations, though I realize that I can play the gender card and you can't) is: Hey Newboss, *Joan (the admin assistant, I am calling her Joan after Joan from Mad Men) normally did this for your predecessor. She should be the one to do this. She's got a whole system. I could do it if she's slammed, but you should ask her first.

love when the thing that determines whether a practice is allowed or not depends solely on the mood and faulty memory of the manager in charge that morning. cool, yes, I'll end that practice that has become commonplace for a year because you didn't have your Cookie Crisp this morning

Opened one of my work inboxes this morning to ~50 emails (I know, I got off easy) from people around the globe reply-alling to an obvious scam.

I wish the incompetent coworker who has been posting about the general strike in support of Palestine actually participated in said strike today as opposed to attempting to do work

I'd like to take a moment away from bitching to say that we had a fantastic time at our office holiday party this weekend. It was a black tie party at one of the nicer hotels in town, and it was a blast. I feel fortunate to work with this group of exceptional people.

OK, back on your heads.

second non-complaint post (I know, I know - we don't want it to catch on).

i hit my 19 year anniversary with this firm a few weeks ago.

mind boggling to me that I've spent almost half of my life here. had only just written my first ILX shitposts to troll Geir a few months before starting

getting us back on topic...

they updated the agent materials for qualified status changes for health for the second time. to make the updates, they sent authors questionnaires to fill out, and then the content team went and applied the changes.

I didn't catch it at the time because I was only answering the questions given, but nowhere in the questionnaire did it actually ask when the change should be effective, just the time that was allowable to report it. Companies vary on this - sometimes it will be effective the day of the event (retroactive), other times could be like first of following month. Only event that is required to be retro is birth.

the content team wrote the content assuming changes are always effective retro to date of event. so a team that had changes effective first of following month and answered the questionnaire would have had their materials updated with incorrect info all over the place.

I can't wait to send the email reporting this