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

Boss:"Ronan could you comb your hair next time you come to work"

Me:"eh in fairness the contract doesn't say anything about me having to comb my hair"

Boss:"yeah but I mean you're a student now yeah? this job isn't so bad. they look after you well, it's a good wage, I'm happy with my lot"

Me:"I don't think there's any chance of me ever working here for a living, long term"

Boss:"Yeah and they pay your health insurance, it's not too difficult a job either"

Me:"Yeah no I'm never going to want to work here, to be honest I was planning on quitting as soon as I start college, or maybe even sooner, you needn't tell the main boss that"

Boss:"Oh don't worry, whatever is discussed here stays here. *long David Brent style lecture* I know what it's like to work WITH people and AROUND people, and I know that this station is not being run as effectively as possible, it's a clique, and I'm sure you can see that too Ronan. But quitting isn't going to change that. You quitting will not make this a smoother operation.

Me:"Eh I don't care about this job, I'm not sure what your point is"

Boss:"All I'm saying is, think about what I've said to you yeah? Just think about it"

Me:"............ok"

CEBCWTJCW: Morning Rachel!!! Oooh! What have you done to your NOSE??

Me: What? Oh yeah, it's a spot.

CEBCWTJCW: No! You've cut yourself or something! It's really RED.

Me: No, really, it's just a big, shiny, noticeable spot.

CEBCWTJCW: It looks really BAD!

At this point I gave up all hope of having a good day.

Woman At Next Desk: Oh, you used to live in London? So did I. I moved back after my daughter started school and, to be honest, I'm really glad I did. The education you get in London is terrible.

Madchen: I've heard inner city schools are, er, challenging.

WAND: Oh yes. I mean, she was one of only three white faces in the class.

Madchen: Oh. (Mutters something under her breath about 1 in 4 Scots).

Office twats who preface statements with 'I'm not being funny' should recognise that everything following the phrase comes with its own virtual kill file.

My other suggestion would be to canvass other coworkers for a pizza delivery one Friday and exclude her blatantly.

I work in a room with two people. Person 1 said to me all the stuff I wrote above. She thought nothing of saying it to a stranger (the assumption, I guess, being that I would think the same). Person 2 laughed along merrily. Also, I have come across numerous people in Glasgow who tell me they get scared in London because there are so many black people around. Again, the way they express themselves implies they feel no sense of shame whatsoever - they just don't see there's anything wrong in expressing obviously prejudiced opinions.

I'm not denying for a second that racism doesn't exist elsewhere (and I'm not forgetting that the survey found 3 in 4 Scots aren't racist) but this is the only place I've encountered bigots who have the expectation that my opinion must be the same as theirs.

reply from me: "actually, on Friday we both determined that we had the wrong CD and would have to special order a new copy. On Monday."

reply from my boss: "There must have been some miscommunication here."

yeah, between your ears and your brain. moron!

What the fuck?

Despite the fact that she's obviously still pregnant.

However, I AM authorized to purchase them, however I want, whenever I want.

What does that even mean?

SUBJECT LINE: I gotta get outta this place
...if it's the last thing I ever do (feel free to hum along.)

After a delightful morning spent discussing why someone:
1. Shouldn't open a printer paperfeed drawer, while the printer is printing;
2. Shouldn't send emails to everyone on their mailing lists about Church-related emails;
3. Should let others know when they need the printer instead of deleting documents in the queue;
4. Shouldn't tell someone "this is urgent" so they work really late to get it finished, when really, it isn't urgent at all and in fact, doesn't need to be done at all; and
5. Shouldn't take someone else's lunch from the refrigerator and leave it on the counter to make room for "extra drinks in case we have visitors,"
I have now experienced the conversation to top them all (and really, you have to laugh at this one. I did. Once I calmed down, imbibed chocolate and nicotine, and thought "well, at least it's not quantum physics?). So....here it is:

A Dialogue between "M" (yours truly) and "S" (Otherwise known as Scarett/Princess/Arch Nemesis/The Scarf Lady/etc.)
S: Hey "M"!
M: Yes?
S: You know how to work that digital camera yet?
M: Yeah, figured it out last week.
S: How long does it take to get those photos developed?
M: What?
S: I need some photos really fast, so I can photocopy them and make notes on the back. And get duplicates too, in case they get messed-up.
M: What? What pictures do you need taken?
S: I need to you take pictures of my computer.
M: Why?
S: I need to know what's on my computer.
M: (sigh) You are looking for a file?
S: No, I need to know what is on my screen thing.
M: (dawning awareness) You need screen captures?
S: No, I need pictures of my computer.
M: For....?
S: I need to know what's on my screen, 'cause these instructions don't make sense and I want to make notes.
M: Okay, then you need a picture of the information on your screen, that you can print and add notes to?
S: Yes.
M: Okay, we don't need the camera for that. We can just do screen captures. It's easy.
(M walks over to other office, taking deep and soothing breathes all the while, and explains how to "CTRL+ALT+PrtScn" - runs into trouble with explanation of holding down all keys at the same time. Eventually resolved and screen is captured.)
M: Now open Word and set the page to ?Landscape.?
S: My computer won't do that.
M: What? Yes it will.
(M goes through brief discussion of "portrait" vs "landscape" and how to perform operation in Word. Discovers part of problem is that S doesn?t know how to open Word because the icon isn?t on her desktop.)
M: Now just hit "Shift+Insert" and your screen shot will be inserted.
M: No, you need to hold down both keys at the same time.
M: I don't know, that's just the way the program is designed.
M: Yeah, it is find of frustrating.
M: Okay, now you have it. Just insert a new page for each of the next screen captures and then print the file.
(M returns to own desk and gets back into rhythm of formatting proposal.)
S: M! It isn't working. I want you to take the pictures for me.
M: I don't have time to take the pictures right now, I have to get this back to _____.
S: Well, I don't have the time to use the camera, so I guess this won't get done and _____ will be mad.
M: Yeah, I guess ___ will be mad, but I'll explain the problem to him.
S: Can't you do these thingys for me?
M: No, not right now. I have to get this done.
S: You know, it's your job to do this.
M: No, actually it isn't. I am sorry, but I really can't do it right now. If I have time later I'll come over and see what we can do. In the meantime, why don't you look under the "Help" menu to see if those instructions are better.
S: Oh, my computer doesn't have any "Help" on it. I keep telling ____ he needs to fix it, but he won't.

(M decides, for sake of sanity, to not try and figure out what that last comment means and returns to her editing, swearing all the while.)
End of original email.

And here are additional interesting tidbits about ?S?:
She claimed on her resume to be ?Microsoft Certified,? but was unable to explain what that meant;
She wrote all of her correspondence in Excel, because she didn?t know how to open Word (the icon wasn?t on her desktop);
When she came into work each morning, she made herself a pot of tea and sat in her cubicle reading household decorating magazines and drinking tea for the first two hours: and, best of all
She was once asked to provide a file that she had finished working on to another co-worker. The file was not on her hard drive for, as she explained, she ?didn?t want to fill it up with things? (and it was a 20 G HD!) File was eventually determined, by her, to be on a floppy. But floppy was blank when co-worker opened it. Eventually ?S? showed supervisor where she stored all of her floppys containing important info. She was attaching them to the metal parts of her cubicle with large magnets, so she ?could always find them.?

~ Laura (who is thankful that she can claim to be a happy rat, that abandoned the sinking ship in time to move to a much cushier and affluent ship, and is now ridiculously happy with things)

I've met a few people who have done basic "computer literacy" courses at colleges and Adult Ed. places who do this. What seems to happen is: the college says "don't store your files on the hard drive [of our lab computers], use a floppy" and the person absorbs this without understanding *why* they're being told it.

These sort of courses always seem to produce people who can't do anything except exactly what was on the course, and then only if their computer is set up exactly like the college ones were. Hence, not being able to start Word if it doesn't have a desktop icon.

(of course, the other stuff shows that this person seems to be a fuckwit regardless of that)

The ex-receptionist at my office once printed out an email so she could type it up in Word.

it's a sappy day.

1. "What does agriculture mean?"

2. "I was so annoyed. Someone threw themselves under my tube yesterday. People that do that must be mad."

3. Me: "Just tell them to put the web address in and it will take them straight into the site."

Her: "What address? Their address?"

Other things he did: worked at his cube standing up (making everyone around him very tense), unbuttoned his shirts halfway down his chest, commented on every phone conversation I had (work related or not), talked to himself, and played horrible CD-Rs of cabaret tunes he wrote and produced. I think the whole experience inoculated me against ever being annoyed by co-workers again.

Unfortunately something this stupid is uttered in my office at least once a day...

Came in today to teach a 13 person class..five showed up. Seems six of the eight no-shows were pulled from the class (with nobody telling us), two that were terminated (with nobody telling us).

The only reason we had two classes today was because mine was supposed to have 13. We could have just folded this into one class.

So the class is now down to two people because they found out four of the six had already taken the class (how nobody figured this out before now is beyond me). Two is below the minimum requirements for a class.

The only reason I'm salty about it is it's 8 hours of talking, but if they'd told us in advance, we could have had one class and two of us could have shared it, giving me a break now and then.

Also who schedules training around New Years ffs

moving to a new even-more-open office next week — like i think we’re just sitting next to each other at tables or something

fucking loud in here, and not because anyone in particular is being loud, but just that there are so many people and so little to absorb the sound

at least there's free selzer on tap i guess

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FUCK OFF EPIC GAMES.

...sorry this was better for the missent email thread I guess lol

sending out emails with a Keep Calm and Carry On theme, what year is this?

where does neighboring co-worker refusing to use a mousepad rank on the list of crimes?

CLACK.... CLACK... CLAAAAACK

I don't think I've seen a mousepad in about 15 years, do they even exist any more??

Deicide sells one

I'm using a mousepad right now - its filthy

Someone was trimming their nails in a bathroom stall this morning. Whether fingers or toes, I couldn't say, but at this point I just assume whatever makes the least goddamn sense.

so ppl just scrape the mouse on their desks all day? what a world.

I actually use a little blackboard for a mousepad, and have a little tiny nail affixed to the bottom of my mouse. Works beautifully!

i have a mousepad with a picture of a puppy on it and i have a cordless mouse. much better mouse situation than in any of my previous jobs

These are only 8 euros!
https://www.seventhrecords.com/en/various-collectibles-37/magma-mouse-pad-1285.html

https://www.seventhrecords.com/en/upload/magma-rouge-noir-print-f54zty.jpg

sorry bit big there

I use the trackpad cos i have a lapper

Jesus Christ thats huge!

Thanks I use Extenz

lol, stop

Tho at first for some reason I thought it was the mark of the Empire from STar War

(Note: the following phenomenon mostly applies to outside parties rather than coworkers per se but, because these things often slip past coworkers unnoticed before they're routed to me, I am okay with implicating them.)

I never, ever thought I'd see the day that I'd encounter professional adults who lack awareness of the necessary components of a US postal address (i.e. those who fill out the address fields on a form and omit a street address, city, state, zip, or some combination of the above). Now I see that day on most days. And this post was, btw, prompted by encountering two instances of such within the past hour. Do these people receive mail ever? And if so, how?

super bizarre lol

These things come from enough different sources all across the country that I'm mostly convinced at this point that I'm just bearing witness to the degradation of the American mind in real time.

Okay, sorry, I was too hasty. Make that three instances.

Y'know, it's Friday, maybe I can just go for a drink or four and forget to come back.

If the zip's there you probably can leave out the city and state.

this is probably young people who genuinely aren't familiar with sending mail

maybe they aren't american?

Nah, these things are filled out or at least ostensibly vetted by professionals licensed and working in the US. Traumatic brain injury/liquefication is really the only acceptable explanation.

Can't bitch about my annoying co-worker on Facebook rn because of lol work filters but I finally acquired one a few months ago and boy howdy is she a one. Over ten years older than me yet has the mentality of a boy-crazy 15-year-old, total head in the clouds, monopolizes every conversation she's in, has little of consequence to discuss, etc. I'm the type of person who feels like the vast majority of people are intelligent in some way and have things to teach me, but the only thing this woman is teaching me is to value the other people in my life who ARE "intelligent in some way and have things to teach me". Also, she's bizarrely against progress, e.g. when I raved about the Impossible Whopper to my co-workers she immediately jumped in with, "I've got to have meat so I'm not getting anywhere near that!" Like, I'm an omnivore who couldn't give up my beef, poultry, and seafood, but holy fuck you (ESPECIALLY you, annoying co-worker) can lay off on the meat every now and again. Whew, feel better now having typed all that out.

Me: Dear person z who is assigned to manage outside party x, please add contact y in the system so that, in future, we are able to recognize that contact y is affiliated with outside party x. Here is the specific information identifying party x.'

(no response)

(new correspondence received from contact y)

Me: Dear person z, second request, see previous email below containing all the information you need.'

Person z: I am not assigned to party x.

Me: Hmmmm, interesting, the system shows that you actually had an on-site visit with party x two weeks ago.

Person z: Who even is party x, I don't see any information indicating who party x is, where am I, how do I make food go in tummy, so hungy.

Me: (copies and pastes information from initial request, highlights, blows up to 720pt flashing type, hits send, shoots self)

This is one of those things where I don't know if it's symptomatic of my particular workplace or if I've just worked here so long that I don't realize it's creeped into the culture-at-large, this thing where people will very confidently declare something that's just flat-out and demonstrably wrong without even bothering to spend .025 seconds beforehand to confirm before they make themselves look like utter dipshits. Or am I the dipshit for failing to realize that this (e.g. deflecting responsibility in hopes that people are so exasperated/exhausted that they eventually stop following up or badgering you) is just the new professionalism? That trying is just dumb and lame?

So my stupid ass did a screen share today forgetting I had an ILX football thread up.

Congrats guys, you're famous.

Bright side: coulda been wallogina.

'what's that sir? you want me to share the front page of Le Monde? sure, i'll just..'

l e m o n ...

i accidentally screenshared the dinosaurs asteroid thread in a meeting today. they were into it.

it’s an objectively good thread

lets not bitch abt yr smart and pleasing co-workers

My company is, among other things, an HR outsourcing firm, so we build call centers for clients that don't want to handle their own benefits recordkeeping. This part of our business has been suffering for probably a decade. Because of the terrible cuts we made to training over the years, people got frustrated and began leaving in droves. So our representative base is rather green and has little veteran leadership to learn from and they're entrusted with processing things like 401k withdrawals and distributions, which of course, due to training cuts and having no veteran help, they routinely screw up, and it costs us buckets of money each time.

we also have service level fees for calls answered that we are struggling to meet, but the reason our clients are leaving is mostly because our quality sucks. we were once an industry leader, now....we're a joke.

Anyway, their solution to this problem was to cut our already too-short trainings from 4.5 days to 4 on these complex topics. and, the kicker, to start piling high volumes of warm bodies (50+) into a class, from a third-party partner location whose technology cannot handle our servers on a routine basis, and it's being done entirely virtually. And the person they gave to teach the class with me has never handled 401(k) before and does not know it, and is working entirely from his guide. He's a great trainer, but I don't care how great you are, if you teach a topic you don't know...

*time to update resume*.

what can I do that won't get me fired but might put me to the top of the 'layoff' list?

cos we get 2 weeks for every eyar of service, that'd be 30 weeks for me. but I'm afraid if I wait until the company finally folds, which seems inevitable, they'll go bankrupt and not be able to pay me any severance.

Ahh, those days of youthful innocence, when I didn't strongly suspect on a daily basis that the people in charge were involved in some elaborate Producers-esque scheme to ensure the failure of their chosen enterprise.

moved to a new office location last month; the new space has new chairs, which look nice but offer no back support at all -- like if you lean back, you just keep going until you hit about 45°, and there's no way to lock them

lots of people complained, myself among them

company's response is that it will order aeron chairs for people who want them -- but will only pay for them if you can provide a doctor's note saying that you *need* back support. otherwise you can pay $1000 out of pocket for one

no other outside chairs will be allowed, for the sake of 'conformity'

i can get a doctor's note, i'm sure, but the whole thing is fucking stupid

That is really fucking dumb.

I can't sit in one of those chairs without locking ability but fuck a doctor note

Get as many doctor notes as possible from across the business and submit/

my old building said that those yoga ball chairs weren't allowed, everyone just ignored it and did it anyway.

You should just jimmy-rig a standing desk and use the chair to put your knee on.

moved to a new office location last month; the new space has new chairs, which look nice but offer no back support at all -- like if you lean back, you just keep going until you hit about 45°, and there's no way to lock them

lots of people complained, myself among them

company's response is that it will order aeron chairs for people who want them -- but will only pay for them if you can provide a doctor's note saying that you *need* back support. otherwise you can pay $1000 out of pocket for one

no other outside chairs will be allowed, for the sake of 'conformity'

i can get a doctor's note, i'm sure, but the whole thing is fucking stupid

Holy fucking shit is that a dumb thing to do. Decent office chairs aren't even really that expensive if you're buying them in bulk but boy do they make a difference when it comes to productivity and overall worker satisfaction. Also, thank goodness my workplace allows you to purchase your own ~fancier~ office chair if you wish.

Just...I mean...why do I have to tell a professional adult, why do I actually need to spell out the fact, that a person's name written in a cursive font in an unlocked and editable Word document does not suffice when a signature is required? Just...fucking...why.

Because signing a Word document is stupid and makes no sense?

I got scheduled to do basically a month's worth of training for this special client. This morning, I was told I needed to submit to a background check with them to lead this training - separate from the background check I already did for my own company.

I know in some industries where there are client relationships, this isn't unusual, but for our company, it is. I have a clean report, but I object to having to subject to a second one.

then after hemming and hawing about this for hours, it turns out we were only told this because the manager who requested the training misunderstood that we were going to use his client's own unique systems, which we're not. which we never agreed to do.

dumb.