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

Remy that whole thing sounds really sadly familiar. Have boundaries here but also you know that there's no good answer to this kind of crazy -- no matter how gently you turn it aside, she'll blow up. Can you get out from underneath the chain of command with her in it?

Remy, that's some sick-ass, scary shit. Can't your supervisor do an end-run around the coworker and write you the recommendation?

it sounds like they both report to the same supervisor and the supervisor thinks she's crazy

djp is right. supervisor already thinks this coworker is crazy, but didn't really know the extent until i related the conversation.

this is a contract position will expire in a couple of months, thank goodness. i'll got great recs from all of my other coworkers. i think i already got screwed out of a long-term job here b/c of crazy coworker's snakey recommendation a few weeks ago, tbh. she's got a notoriously bad relationship w/ her closest team, and i don't really fancy being part of it for any length of time. i'm feeling amazingly level-headed, given that the person i have to work side-by-side with for 8 hours each day just outed themselves as totally cuckoo. moreover, a lot of the kind-of-offputting stuff i'd seen from her in the past month and rationalized as "a different way of doing things" i can now acknowledge as straight up malfeasance.

maybe you can get her fired as your final project

At what part of that conversation did you slide from prickly fear/confrontation/nervousness to just "ah yes, I see what this is now" relative calm?

seriously though, go to HR with a formal complaint (or, if more appropriate, express concern about the mental health of your coworker) and start documenting the shit out of everything she does and Bcc your supervisor on every email you send her

best case, she gets bounced for STD* leave and you get an extension filling in for her, giving you the opportunity to make her irrelevant by being better at her job than she is

worst case, no one does anything (you already have your recommendations and exit strategy)

"short-term disability, you pervs

ohh, i am doing all of that – basically w/ support from other coworkers.

and laurel, i slid into the blissful relief of "oh, this isn't real –– it's just bananas talk when she said "i'm disappointed in you. i'm feeling disappointment with you. in fact, i'm even – i don't know, just disappointed. i expected more from you. and you've provided me with a lot of disappointment. frankly, i feel like you haven't lived up to what i imagined your potential might be, and i'm not sure i can write a good recommendation for you any more. it would just say i'm disappointed, unless you can do things my way for the next few weeks, and really finish out the year strongly" (pause, while she studies my – kind of incredulous – face) "and i'm sure you're going to take that in your head, and you've already twisted it so it seems like blackmail or whatever but you know that's not what i mean"

Wow. Yeah. The digs to make you insecure, the naked desperation of running you down as much as possible to keep you on edge.... Shit is poisonous.

in the face of that, it would have taken every fiber of my being to keep from saying "Disappointed a few people? Isn't that what friends are for?"

well actually I wouldn't have said it but it would have run through my head, as is happening right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Bv887-JlM

Reading remy's coworker in voice of crazy computer from Portal, improved immensely

sorry remy, at least your supervisor seems to know the score, and hopefully even if she does write a bad reference it will be so obviously dripping with the crazy that nobody will take it seriously in among positive reviews

(I don't know about in the US but in the UK iirc it's actually pretty uncommon to get an outright bad reference because the employee can sue if the writer can't provide documented evidence to back up negative comments - is there anything similar in place in the US?)

oh yes

Well, it did seem kind of improbable that the US would be less litigious than the UK about anything, but while we are talking about national stereotypes it did seem possible that the laws might be less in the employee's favour...

"i'm disappointed in you. i'm feeling disappointment with you. in fact, i'm even – i don't know, just disappointed. i expected more from you. and you've provided me with a lot of disappointment. frankly, i feel like you haven't lived up to what i imagined your potential might be, and i'm not sure i can write a good recommendation for you any more. it would just say i'm disappointed, unless you can do things my way for the next few weeks, and really finish out the year strongly" (pause, while she studies my – kind of incredulous – face) "and i'm sure you're going to take that in your head, and you've already twisted it so it seems like blackmail or whatever but you know that's not what i mean"

She's clearly aiming for that new supervisor job that's opened up in Scranton.

lol Ned

wow, good luck Remy -- I'm glad your supervisor knows the score

Latest issue of the magazine I work for is about 10 days late to the printer because of undisclosed issues with the editor/publisher. (And one day late because of storms, and one more day late because the Staples in Morgan Hill is apparently staffed by the bastard sons of Jeff Spicoli.) Hopefully I can get it all off to the printer today.

many of my normally quite nice and not annoying at all co-workers seem to have turned into zombies passing comment on the dress some woman on the television is wearing at her wedding.

Not annoying, just funny: helped a co-worker who was having trouble burning files to a DVD. Turned out she was trying to burn them onto that clear plastic disc that sits on top of the spool of blank DVDs.

Helpdesk TL: "can you fax this customer a domain name application form?"
Me: "uh... ok" (thinking: if you knew they needed one would it not have been faster to take 5 mins to print one out and fax it to them while you were on the matter, instead of passing it to me, who doesnt do such work normally, and who put it aside, so it wasnt done til an hour later when you asked again? DONT SIGH HEAVILY AT ME. Fuck sake.)

Like seriously, he might as well have said "I need to call this customer can you dial the number for me please?". Nuts. Sick of the interruptions. I've started counting them so I can go back to my boss and say "see THIS is where all my time goes, 2 hours of 5 constant, 5-10 minute interruptions from these idjits".

Please stop with the laughing for 20 seconds at a time after every sentence.

I can't stand when people do that. Every single one of my co-workers laughs uproariously at everything they say, no matter how inane: "How am I doing today? Well, it's Monday! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Maybe thats the "you have to laugh, or you'll go postal and kill everyone with a chainsaw" thing.

I think a lot of insecure ppl do this. Like one of the few people at my work who flat out refuses to say hello/acknowledge your presence when you see them in the lift or wherever and just stares at the ground to avoid eye contact is the loudest cackling disgrace in the office when she's with her 'team'.

Yeah Ive been known to slightly exagerate a crap joke, small talk or hearty laugh at work on occasion out of nerves/hating small talk. Dont do it all the time tho.

Every single one of my co-workers laughs uproariously at everything they say, no matter how inane: "How am I doing today? Well, it's Monday! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Peter: Does anyone ever say to you, "Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?"
Lawrence: No. No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.

My new coworker has Asp3rg3rs and my stereotypes of little Spocks who find humour puzzling have been shattered, as this guy dissolves into uncontrollable giggles for about 5 minutes every time anyone mentions anything not going 100% to plan, any slight incidence of human error, etc, which is pretty much every time anyone speaks

(we are all trying to hold together some pretty badly thought-out projects in the face of general incompetence, oblivious upper management and insane timescales, but then isn't everyone who's ever had a job?)

xposts - the laughter comes literally after every other sentence, not just after lame jokes. As if the whole of the job, and life, is a continual stream of WRY and IRONIC and GOSH WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT and sometimes WE ARE HAVING AN UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATION.

Dude sitting across from me has the volume on his computer absolutely cranked so every mouse click is echoing across the whole office and the new Outlook mail tone is ridiculously loud. Somehow none of this seems to bother him at all.

DUDE, how can that not be annoying the shit out of you?

he's got popcorn stuck in his ears.

lolz

Haven't had to post here in a while, still love the new dept, but...

Last week, long after I've rolled off this project and we'd transitioned to the ongoing te., I get questions from two of the managers asking about missing info from two of their tools.

I point out that anything 'missing' wasn't in the requirements I worked from, and that we found multiple occasions of this prior to me rolling off. Nothing I can do about it, told them what dept they should look to for filling in the gaps, since it's their responsibility now.

So nonetheless, they go to my boss's boss and try to get me tapped to fix their tools...even though three of their people and our client signed off on it prior to my rolloff and I am no longer aligned to them.

My boss's boss thinks they're childish and pushed back...

But then yesterday, I return to the office after a sick day Friday to find a frantic message asking me for files to use in training.

Files that I permanently saved and gave them links to on TEN or more occasions, and that I have permamently deleted from my own drive.

Got sick of it and gave them the links yet again and told them sternly that I am no longer responsible for these, and that they need to save these bookmarks and quit asking us.

Tired of grown adults who can't manage their own affairs!

the interns here drive me crazy...useless. I get back at them by taking my morning shit in their bathroom.

upper-deck?

Goddammit. Nothing ruins a nice cup of coffee more than the rancid smell of burnt cheap-ass, "lo-cal" popcorn. I'm just going to start microwaving rancid week-old McDonald's cheeseburgers and throwing them in the trash under her desk.

they have a rule at my place that you're not allowed to pop popcorn on any floors other than the one the cafeteria is on. POSs break it all the time and burnt popcorn smell permeates and I want to poison the entire building when that happens.

we have a no microwaving fish rule!

the interns here drive me crazy...useless. I get back at them by taking my morning shit in their bathroom.

― Crooked Lust (thebingo), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:55 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

upper-deck?

― got electrolytes (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:28 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Goddammit. Nothing ruins a nice cup of coffee more than the rancid smell of burnt cheap-ass.

― 'what are you, the Hymen Protection League of America?' (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, May 23, 2011 10:56 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

thanks Evan for the much needed LOL right now

:D

&%^^%$%#$@$#@#$#@^%$&%*^%*^%&^%

Get told to sort something out involving ordering phone lines for new office. No one in the staff seems to have any direct idea how this would be done, which beggars belief because SOMEONE here must have ordered the damn things last time we mmved. It's dumped in my lap.

I keep hitting walls when I ask the people I'm told to ask, who all say "go ask these people". I'm getting nowhere. My boss doesnt answer the email where I ask for assistance and then this morning isnt in, so I quickly go ask the billing manager for a copy of the invoice the lines are on so I can work out more clearly who to order new lines from.

AND I GET TOLD OFF FOR ASKING SOMEONE ELSE FOR HELP AND NOT MY BOSS WHO WASNT IN.

Ok SURE, NEXT time I'll just sit here and let it slide and when we move office in 2 weeks and have no phone lines you figure out why. OK THEN.

He has this BIZARRE chip about me going to/involving other people when I'm trying to do my job, instead of him. Hes a director. I dont want to involve him with every nitpicky little pissant thing, he has better things to do. Its like hes paranoid he wont know whats going on if I dont keep him involved, which is so strange to me.

he should reply to an email then if he's so worried!

Indeed. Ah well, its sorted out now.

no phones for anyone.

tin-cup-and-string for all.

\o/

honestly any manager who would get upset that you tried to do something without them is fucking retarded.

independence and not disturbing your boss all the time are two skills you're supposed to learn. mine have always been annoyed if I just immediately ran to them for everything.

I hate when co-workers gossip to you about people at work you like and respect. Like this one part-timer, a woman, whom I don't like very much. She told some people that my boss was once disciplined for sexual harassment at his old job. I know for a fact this is pure bullshit. This kind of talk is toxic and I consider it a form of sexual harassment.