Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

1) i mean, the "thank you" was implied. to act otherwise is an exercise in trolling.

2) i don't know you, and you could be a creep, and you're offering me something i don't want, and assuming (i guess) that i *should* want it because i'm not driving through studio city in a cute mini cooper like you are, and then you have a problem with the way i respond to you when i'm being nothing other than pleasant.

i was only walking four blocks, which probably seems like 20 miles in her world.

NYC is full of presumptuous but wrongheaded indignance. The other day I was eating pizza and reading a book, then I got up to get another slice and left my book on the table. When I got back these two hipstery dudes were trying to sit there and I was like "I'm sitting there," and the one guy goes, "Oh, that's a good move" (implying the book). Fuck off, self-righteous twat. There were seats in the back anyway.

i left my book on a cafe table earlier today when i went to get milk for my iced coffee (on the other side of the restaurant; not very efficient but whatevs). i almost never leave anything at a table when i get up, cuz i'm paranoid about the stuff getting stolen or thrown out, or encounters like hurting's, where indignant hipstery dudes have something to say about it.

Oh my, I have an interrupting coworker. She will not only jump into any conversation you're having, but she does so authoritatively. Like she'll just start in with her opinion on whatever you're talking about, even if she wasn't there for the part when you gave all of the important background information. She also states her opinion VERY LOUDLY, and very frequently, and - this is the really weird part - she will kind of finish other people's sentences? Like, if I start to say, "Well, based on what you're telling me, it sounds like your guy did give proper notice," by the time I get to "did," she'll chime in on the "give proper notice part." Only louder than me. Also, if she says something that is just total nonsense and you disagree with her, she'll immediately change her opinion to authoritatively agree with you as though she felt that way all along.

It's seriously a bizarre interpersonal habit. And I actually quite like her. I just try not to talk to her in groups about anything where she might be tempted to try to sound like she knows what she's talking about.

Another Subway thing -- people who start pushing for the door, esp on a crowded subway, and ESP approaching a major station, before you stop moving

My IA: people who don't make a move to get off a train or bus until it's stopped moving. You're holding everyone up!

I don't move until the train it almost stopped, especially on crowded trains.

it depends on how far away from the door you are and how many people usually get off at that station. If you only manage to get to the door by the time people are already getting in you're just making everybody irrationally angry.

People who have had a seat while I've been standing, and then want to get up early and be first-ish off the train when the doors open. NO. YOU JUST SAT FOR 40 MINUTES, NOW YOU CAN WAIT. That's the DEAL.

Co-workers who respond to an email chain after several exchanges, and ask a question that was addressed in the previous emails, which are all right there, right below their question. JUST READ THE GODDAMNED THINGS THE ANSWER IS RIGHT THERE.

Happens at my office like 40x a day, Phil.

The most infuriating part is that top-placed important people don't have to read anything. They just write back asking all the same questions as discussed below, and then you have to craft a whole new email chain to them with bullet points and the essentials so as not to waste their precious time (no one cares about yours).

Yep, that's pretty much exactly what just happened here. Which happens all the time, as you note, but came from a person who should know better and in a way that I just do not need today.

The bigger the office, the less of the chain

ugh...the less of the chain is read. Email chain I mean.

oh ffs I fucked that all up

hand dryers

^^^ except those great Dyson monster ones.

The ones where you put your hands straight down and then pull up? I LOVE those!

Yes, those!

OMG hand dryers at the gym. Seriously. There's no paper towels. Like my hands aren't already "dry" enough. I HAVE to wash them, just touched y'alls ooky equipment. Not to mention the jet airplane sound effects messin up my personal locker room vibe. Ugh.

I'd rather have a drunk blow on my hands. I hate those fuckin' things.

The Dyson Airblades though, are complete magic. I wish I had $300 to drop on a Dyson fan for the summer :P

yeah, I think part of what makes me angry at the 95% of hand dryers which are shitty is that the good ones are actually fun to use

I'd rather have a drunk blow on my hands. I hate those fuckin' things.

Hahahaha

People who have a seat on a full bus with people standing, but rush to get their single ass on a double seat the millisecond it becomes free. Especially if they then sit on the aisle side.

(ok, if you find yourself next to some disgusting crepe I understand, but in general, maybe the people who are standing would like to sit down before you go "oh I don't like sitting next to people")

Sit down next to them. Smile. Jiggle around a little bit to get comfy. Smile some more.

ia: potential employers who don't seem to grasp that i *want* the job i'm interviewing for. the hypothetical "dream job" they ask me about does not fucking matter. where i "see" myself in five years may not have any relevance to reality -- it could be a linear move, an exponential one, a lateral one. the world as we knew it has gone tits up. i want *this* job. that's why i'm in your office. that's why i bought a new blouse that's more conservative than the one i wore to my last interview.

(this happened the other day; they were all "why do you want to work here? you're overqualified. we're afraid you'll find a job you love and you'll be outta here." sounds like something i'd hear from a codependent first date.)

My friend interviewed for a waitstaff job in a chain restaurant, he got the 'where does he see himself 5 years from now' question. Seems kinda ridic.

To go back to the re-explaining emails ppl dont read thing, I have this snarky, admittedly pass-agg way of addressing that by replying with "as I stated below in this email...", hoping that'll school whoever was dumb enough not to read.

I get told off a lot for my email tone at work heh.

pretty much everything about job interviews makes me irrationally angry

xpost Trayce, that's one of my favorite things is ppl asking me questions that I've already answered in other emails. "See attached." (aka GFY)

Offices, otoh, I just don't even waste time getting irrationally angry, at least so far. I just try to be zen about it. This past week I finished a first draft of an assignment that was due today on tuesday. Partner sat on it even though I kept checking in with her, finally read it last night, had more shit for me to research, then this morning was all rushing me about it. Kept my cool, in the end it was fine even though I got a mild chew-out.

My friend interviewed for a waitstaff job in a chain restaurant, he got the 'where does he see himself 5 years from now' question. Seems kinda ridic.

― Janet Snakehole (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, November 4, 2011 9:57 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

A friend of mine came up with the best response to "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"

"Celebrating the 5th anniversary of you asking me that question."

I don't think I'd ask the "5 years" question, but I'd also think twice before hiring anyone who gave me such a smartass answer to any questions I did ask.

"I'm afraid this is a zing-free office environment"

"We've already filled our smart-ass quota for this hiring period"

What is the "right" sort answer to that question?

Still with the company, in a position of more responsibility.

Yup.

So it's just a stupid question to filter out those who haven't the nous to look up stock answers to stupid questions?

I bet interviewers who ask that question think they are really asking something incisive and revealing. Like how the MPRE or Top Grading is supposed to mysteriously ferret out the truth about job applicants. It's all based in a human's need to make sense out of chaos and thus doomed to failure if you ask me. But I'm crazy cynical about all expects of management psychology.

It's all very well (possibly) to ask an internal candidate, but if you're not working there already, are you really meant to say "well I shall undoubtedly be working for your company, because you people I've only just met are totes gonna hire me and not the other 9 people you've asked this today, and we're going to get on just fine for five years, and wouldn't be cool if I had your job instead by then"?

Blah.

I think when I was asked this when younger I reassured them that I was interested in staying in my fumbling new career path, but a decade later that angle doesn't work so well. But since "more responsibility" seems to mean "doing less of what I actually do and more people-managing", I don't actually want that at all either.

I was reading this self-help/pop-psych book (urgh), and there was a chapter about how the author had designed a psychological evaluation quiz for some insurance sales company, where they asked candidates to agree/disagree with a statements along the lines of "I make awesome things happen because I am awesome" "if terrible things happen on my watch it was some other schmuck's fault" and only hired the people who were most "optimistic" i.e. basically unbearable.

I had some trouble after that liking the author, or agreeing that I had to change myself to be a top 10% insurance sales candidate instead of thinking that things might occasionally be either my fault or cosmically unavoidable

Haha I tried that tactic once on some pre-interview Likert scale (from 1-10) quiz, circling 10 on the ones that affirmed I was awesome and 1 on the ones that suggested I was flawed. At the interview, the guy commented, "You circled '10' for 'I would be excellent at this job.' What makes you think you're a 10?" I never thought I would be asked to explicate on my really arrogant strategy, so I was saying just really vague, "You know, I've had friends who did this job before, and it sounds like it has its ups and downs, but I really think I have what it takes." The job in question was working for a janitorial company that contracted janitors out to work at Albertson's, and I didn't get hired, as it was pretty obvious there was no way I was a 10/10 janitor.

had to ask two different youths today to stand on the other side of the escalator. it's that time of year again, nearly christmas, lots of outsiders who don't understand our ways.

I'd be tempted to answer the five year q'n with "that depends if you hire me, doesnt it?"

I've spoken to a few friends whove had to do interviews. Ppl often get shoved into it cos their boss is busy, they're not that skilled at it, and end up relying on these shitty cliched HR questions because its all they can find online. It means very little, really.

xp young outsiders who don't understand our old-man ways

have always thought the "Stand On The Right" signs were too terse and unobvious. especially given multiple possible meanings of 'stand' and 'right'.

was also a group of about 10 youths, all similarly dressed and haircutted (v short, with shaven curlicues), who didn't have one clue between them. were asking people if the (piccadilly line) train when to piccadilly circus whilst stood *opposite* the route map on the wall.

I've seen airport travelators that have 'stand' and 'walk' painted on the appropriate sides, on the floor itself. They should do this on escalator steps.