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

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

any time I take a half day, someone will do something inexplicably bad that will require me drafting lengthy feedback for them, and the person who's supposed to fill in for me when I'm out will lose their internet for the day.

fuck you Murphy! lol

An old friend of the family got me this part-time job at the local library for special collections and exhibits. It isn't much but it's getting my foot back in the door. It's great.

I get invited to library fundraising and social events. Unfortunately this means I have to socialize with a board member who literally hit on me even though I was clearly with someone else.

Someone brought it up to him and now he's all "I'm cool with just friends", however I still have to see him.

It's not a huge deal to go to a two hour event but so thinks he was crushing pretty hard and as a muckety muck, it was maybe inappropriate. Also "I know you through xyz person" is borderline creepy.

I have stayed home from some gatherings because of it and I don't think I will stick with this job.

this would be something you would bring up with your supervisor! You shouldn't have to stay home! Ughhh ... I am so sorry you are dealing with that and that you feel like the burden of behavior modification is on you, rather than the board member.

"Neanderthal, can you create a pre-test? and find some test accounts to use in it?"

"ok"

"hmm good first try but I don't think I'd put the test account scenarios in this pre-test"

....

Not a co-worker, but I want to vent about companies that are really bad at the holidays. So we had a consultant drop by our office this morning and make a big production about hand delivering expensive bottles of wine to our department. Which would be nice and maybe thoughtful, except they were only given to five of our nine staff members. Do people not see how thoughtless and insulting this is to make a public production out of handing gifts out to just some of the staff right in front of everyone?

For fuck's sake, send a basket addressed to the entire department/team/group. It isn't hard.

if i was receiving I'd have to pop it open on the spot. there's no other way

xp Maybe the public display is the point?

I'm sure it was the point, to make a big deal of generosity. But it's really landed poorly. This is a consultant that every single one of us works with on a daily basis, so it's not like there was a rhyme or reason for who got the gift.

To be clear, I don't give a fuck. But I now have two co-workers who didn't get the gifts vocally and openly very pissed off and one, who did, very embarrassed for being put in the awkward position. My point is more that sending one large gift basket addressed to the whole group would have avoided all of this shit.

that's completely tone deaf and ridiculous. pretty much just asking to create fissures in the group by doing that.

boss, who is giving me feedback on an MS Forms questionnaire I created: I'm not sure what you mean by this question, can you explain?
Me: This is literally your question, I copied it from your source document verbatim.

lol, what was boss's response?

"oh my god I'm just doing too many things this holiday season"

No shit.

I had a boss once who would have taken the gifts and placed them in a box, first come, first serve.

Plus some people are tee totalers anyway, isn't wine kind of politically incorrect? I've seen clients just give a big box or basket and you can take wine or cheese, first come, first serve.

It's like candy - some people are diabetic. You ask if people want chocolate boxes - if not, have an alternative.

I don't want to bother my poor supervisor with this about randy board member - only if the topic comes up. I don't know her that well. Everyone is traumatized from local politics these days.

I grew up with the nabobs from the neighboring city and it's always been this pissing contest whose clout is bigger. I mean I could badmouth the guy to the school superintendent and he would be OVAH, that's kind of sad and scary to be so lethal.

Oh and someone wanted me to compile a list of Iranian films - which normally I'm happy to do, but it kind of stinks that they do this now because they "feel bad" that they had been previously ignorant about Iran.

"Neaner Neaner, can we add these two people returning from a leave of absence to your training class? they've been gone over a year and were relatively new at the time so they've forgotten everything"

"um...we're on Day 8 already. how are they going to make up 60 hours of material without feeling completely lost?"

*receive 6 Out of Office for the holiday messages, including one from the person who asked me, radio silence from the whopping 2 people who are actually here*

"we're not having class on 12/26, as the class is based in Canada, who observes Boxing Day"
"actually, only Ontario observes Boxing Day, and we have 6 people outside of Ontario who the system will not let bill this day as a company holiday"
"have them use a Floating Holiday"
"Canada's policy is people hired in December don't get them until January"
'have them use vacation'
"also does not accrue until January for December hires"
"uhh...."

my boss is the king of "making up rules on the spot". and not documenting things.

for people provided special coaching due to poor performance, there are differing policies for how to deliver and conduct these coaching sessions for agents based in San Juan, PR, and Canada. this has been true for years.

none of it is documented anywhere. he just expects people will know. he also created sample documents for the HR-required emails we have to send to offer this special coaching, where the business case is made for why it's needed, and his examples all showed simple one-sentence bullet points, and now he's giving feedback to my report that they should be writing several sentences for each observation...which is just something he arbitrarily decided right now.

benefits in Canada are different than health benefits in the US. we frequently hire people in Canada, often to staff US-based clients, but sometimes to staff Canada based clients. There is nothing in our client list to tell us which clients are Canadian vs US-based, and as a result, the default assumption usually is that they are going to US based clients.

so we hired a bunch of people in December that were going to Canadian clients, and nobody had the discussion about possibly matching the curriculum to that (since we have a Canadian benefits training curriculum too), so now for weeks our instructors have been teaching Canadian hires about US benefits that they are not going to be handling...when Canadian benefits take much less time to cover.

and I'm being told 'ehh this is normal who cares'.

ok!

1) Fuck you
2) Birthdays are for children
3) Are you trolling me by asking mind numbing obvious questions?

Stop. Messaging. Me.

otm