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

I'm not opposed to whistling in general. This unknown coworker was whistling SUPER LOUD while walking down a hall lined with offices where people are writing things and it just struck me as an affectation, plus it was rude.

usually i just hum, or go "do-de-do de doooo"

i usually clap my hands way above my head like i'm at a U2 concert in Europe in 1989

<3 ZS you are amazing

That's true, whistling in an office environment is a bit chirpy. I guess I've heard janitors or delivery people do it, but I'm not class biased. But if you're not doing manual labor, you're a desk jockey it's a bit weird.

One co-worker just asked another co-worker why her headphones are labeled "left" and "right" and if it mattered which ears she put them in. The response was that it's "personal preference".

Responder went on to explain how "some studios manipulate it so that certain sounds only come out of one of them."

HOLY SHIT NO ONE CARES THAT PARTS OF FUNNY FARM WERE FILMED IN THE TOWN YOU GREW UP IN SHUT UP

The coworker that I bitched about for bringing me a 30 page senate bill to read and interpret for her so she could win in a fight with someone in the union who insisted I read it even after I told her I didn't have time to do so? She came back today before I got in to find out what I'd thought, and told our admin to tell me to come by her office and tell her what I thought about the senate bill.

That's damn nervy, sister.

What does anyone think of people who think you need to "sell out" a little bit in order to bring in a sensible amount of money?

I'm finding this argument less persuasive as I get older. And yes, even I have tried the "sell out" thing.

I guess it depends on the definition of sell out? I feel like I sold out by going to work for the government instead of working for a nonprofit or legal service agency, even though I make shit money and still ostensibly am advocating on behalf of workers, albeit in a quieter way than I had hoped.

omgomgomg

We use Lexis as our subscription database here and as an attorney, I use it ALL THE TIME like all attorneys do. It is a famous program. It, or its competitor Westlaw, is a piece of famous legal software. For some reason, when I try to search, I get routed to a Google 404-ish page with a weird text string in the search box. So I called our New! Improved! computer help desk center, waited on hold for ten minutes, and the guy who answered had NEVER HEARD OF LEXIS. Never heard of it. He actually said, "Well, I've never heard of this program so I'm not sure what I can do."

Finally got him to escalate a ticket (instead of just saying, "Oh, okay, I don't need this critical application anymore, thanks"). How long will it take, I ask, because I've got some deadlines and need to do some research. He has no idea. He just couldn't say. Can he make it high priority? He can, but it might take awhile, depends on how busy people are.

There will be blood.

is your computer switched on?

I'll let the desk side service person turn it off and turn it back on if/when s/he gets here just to be passive aggressive.

Jesus fucking christ!! I had at least heard the names "Lexis" and "Lexis Nexis" as far back as middle school b/c I picked them up from the world around me - prob. from advertising and maybe from school? But for a person at a help desk, supporting a pretty big bunch of government agencies employing many, many legal professionals to have never heard of it?? That person's employment needs to be re-evaluated.

Nobody has addressed my open help ticket yet, btw.

posts very much in character warning:

So popcorn girl has really tamed down the popcorn lately, until this week it had been like once every couple of weeks. Very tolerable. But suddenly, she's rocketed back up to three bags a day both yesterday and today. Which, going beyond the awful-smelling cheap crap she burns, who wants to eat popcorn multiple times a day when it reaches 100 degrees outside? idgi

Three bags of popcorn/day. She must have the most amazing digestive system.

Nobody has addressed my open help ticket yet, btw. <-- going to make that my display name soon

guy right behind me (in a call centre, mind) comes in, sits at his desk at 8.59, waits for the first call of the day, inhales like he's about to cartoon blow the fuckin wall down and says EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYY-AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYY-AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, EEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYY-AWWWWWWWWWW until lunch time. he takes an hour off, bums round, whatever, sits back at desk, another huge breath in, fills the aul lungs up good, that phone rings, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYY-AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYY-AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, EEEEEEEEEEEEEYY-AWWWWWWWWWWWWW until 5pm, logs off, goes home, presumably to a fuckin stable i dunno

oh look wait i got a pic of the fucker right here

http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/26/2687/FKWUD00Z/jodi-cobb-close-view-of-a-braying-donkey.jpg

nobody would hire that kind of a animal to answer a phone

ha i was wondering have i mentioned this dude yet and sure enough

i notice yanks didn't address my earlier question maybe they didn't hear me over the BRAYING HAWS of this mountainous amadán to my right

― underleg aeroboots i have smithed (darraghmac), Friday, 4 May 2012 09:16 (2 months ago)

xp public sector

Jvc, popcorn woman crosses my mind sometimes, so your update is interesting. Condolences though.

omg darraghmac's post is killing me.

logs off, goes home, presumably to a fuckin stable i dunno

Why is this so funny? It is so funny.

you have the benefit of critical distance, this motherfucker better have the benefit of critical illness cover

I'm definitely laughing with you, and not at your pain. Also I'm imagining a donkey sitting in a cubicle, straightening his tie before braying into the phone all day.

Carl, it's inexcusable that your help desk isn't being held accountable for their inexcusable incompetence.

Xp the pic of the donkey made it funny

he has a big honest moonish face and talks shite with the confidence of a man who has never fully understood any of the complaints made about him

Sound like its just his job. Position involves just being a burro, so guy who lives in a stable was a good fit.

oy that's my job too

but yes you are right

Are here many positions for braying men in Ireland? I'm very good, but you just can't make a job of it here. Gotta think whether a Yank accented bray would cut it over there, too.

as far as i can tell, there's steady work pretty much anywhere for a fella willing to bray like an ass, most of it is in politics tho iirc

haaaaa

I solved it!

We just got a call in from someone insisting on caint as gaeilge- it was transferred to this guy, and he speaks irish like a warrior poet, and QUIETLY

jfc, can't you at least wait until lunchtime for the popcorn?

xp deems that is an amazing turn of events

ikr, he's bilingual volume schizo

how many times do i have to tell you something to remember it? literally 5 times in the past two days i've clarified my role on a specific project, and you keep remembering it wrong, and i have to keep correcting you. the information has not changed!

About eight months ago a person in management who is politically connected and has no scruples used her pull to have a good friend of mine (who I referred to her job, even) ousted from her position so the person's husband, who already had a job elsewhere mind you, could have it. Gross, right? So other than keeping the bare minimum of pleasant interaction with this person, I've avoided her and her husband even though she and I used to have water cooler chats occasionally and like, I saw her wedding photos and coworker shit like that.

Until first thing this morning when I had to email her because I forgot to take all of the incentive days I racked up (for every two furlough days we took last year, we got one paid day off as an "incentive day") before the deadline and I need to know if I can swap them out for previously taken vacation days.

I haven't heard back from her, or actually from the help desk about my Lexis issue either.

OMG you guys! The help desk FINALLY called me back, almost two full business days after I called to report a high priority issue! And also, after I fixed the problem myself (by using a different browser) and called to cancel the ticket this morning! Two things:

1. I remarked on their atrocious response time, to which the guy replied, "I'm doing the best I can."
2. I remarked on the pitifulness of a service desk support person never having heard of Lexis, an app used by at least one and usually many people in every agency. He said, "You really can't expect every service desk person to know every app people use."

Then I told him I had already solved the problem myself by using a different browser and so canceled the ticket this morning. He then went on to tell me how I can solve the problem in the future by using a different browser.

That last part does not strike me as particularly unique to our IT department though.

omfg I love that he told you how to do the thing you did
ah, IT. you blow goats.

As it was happening I was thinking, "Wait. Is he really telling me to do what I just told him I did? He is!" I was honestly kind of delighted because I knew I could come share it here.

Hahahaha, it's nice to have stories :)

Awesome coworkers:
Coworker took out $360(!) that she owed another coworker (used her credit card to claim a discount on something.. she'd already used her own card for the first purchase) and then just left it in the ATM! Realized about 4 hours later. So she and I scouted the building, talked to security, the bank, etc. Coworker put a sign with our business line on the ATM for any good samaritans who may wish to return the money. But in the meantime another coworker started a collection and we've got about $160 now in a jar to replace her money! I am pleased by this. I also threw in the first $20 to shame-compel. :D

my recent IT call (another issue that i resolved myself by looking through tutorials on adobe's website) ended with the person suggesting that i attend a webinar in two weeks and ask them there. my question was about how to record a webinar. attend the webinar to learn how to use the webinar software.

That's a great story Finefinemusic, love that the coworkers are helping out. I did a similar sort of thing a few years back, but I accidentally dropped the envelope full of cash at some point. I was pretty distraught about it, but my coworker just said "lol dumbass, you'll learn next time".

It feels good to see everyone pull together! The president came by & laughed at her (they've got a relationship where this is okay) but came back twenty minutes later with a $20. :)

That is amazing, ZS.

FFM, your story is pretty sweet, too. ;)

The ZS story kinda reminds me of when I was having tons of issues with my C0mc@st router and I kept having to call them for tech support. Every single time they'd make me power cycle the router, so I just started doing it before I called them to save time, knowing that was not the issue. 75% of the time even after informing them that, yes, I did already power cycle the router and having them even say "okay, let's see what else we can do", they would STILL walk me step by step through power cycling it.

...ended with the person suggesting that i attend a webinar in two weeks and ask them there. my question was about how to record a webinar. attend the webinar to learn how to use the webinar software.

haha! I got an outge notification from one of the upstream wholesale telcos we use, the other day, saying [OurPortalURL] is currently not accessible. bla bla services afected etc. For further information, please log onto [samePortalURL no one can access].

o_0

oh, coworker, your snitty passive aggressive tone in the emails is even more grating than usual today.