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

Boy do I love when we spend weeks putting a plan together, sharing it with our client, getting it all ready to go, and then finding out that our project manager agreed to something completely different behind the scenes without talking to me, assuming that our plan would work with what he wanted (it won't).

took me ten minutes to reword my email from "FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" to something business friendly.

i wish there was one day a year where you could respond to the shittiest emails with full rage face

I wish I could build a custom See 'n Say toy with pics of my least favorite co-workers and send them each their own, so they can pull the string and hear the stupid shit they say daily.

also one out of ten will be armed with an active grenade.

Xpost maybe that's where the idea of toe minutes hate came from in 1984

Tooooo

eh
so i was mini-promoted (acting basis kinda thing, in a department not likely to exist in another few weeks, but still) on wednesday. but complications arising from the fact that i'm on a permanent contract as opposed to temp (95% staff here are agency) means that the boss called me in on thursday to rescind the title and the bucks after HR raised hell.
i'm better off in that the work is supervisory and generally better (experience, cv boost, off the phones and away from braying mouths) but jeez i kinda wish he'd checked his facts before he told me i was getting a raise.
anyway.
― Randy Carol (darraghmac), Saturday, 8 September 2012 09:38 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Theyre putting me forward for this again, even tho nothing has changed from hr pov. I mean i appreciate the effort guys but rly buy me a pint or something else you can mske happen eh

Have you been doing the actual job in the meantime, just without the $$$? (Could not find euro symbol in keyboard options)

Yep

had literally almost this exact thing happen me recently.

literally almost this exact thing

Like a cryptic clue, really

Just moved to a new role within the place I've been working in for four years so have a new line manager as a result. He is the slowest talking man I have ever met. I find it very difficult to deal with. He talks really slowly, slow-motion walks around the room while talking, takes everything weirdly seriously (a discussion about my lunchbreak on Friday led to a 25 minute chat in a 'confidential' room about the 'historical and political context and implications of the receptionist lunch break saga') asks the most redundant questions (there is currently a deflated bouncy castle in the reception area that arrived for a function on friday. he's just come in and asked "did we have the bouncy castle for the weekend?") etc. It's bizarre. I cannot explain just how slow communication with him is.

"a 25 minute chat in a 'confidential' room about the 'historical and political context and implications of the receptionist lunch break saga'"

irl lol

sounds awesome, but that could just be in the telling tbh

It was bizarre. I think I've caused serious tension among head office by asking to, y'know, actually be allowed to leave my desk for a cigarette, a cherry coke and a bag of quavers.

there is currently a deflated bouncy castle in the reception area that arrived for a function on friday

well it was actually due on thursday and it hasn't gotten over the diappointment yet, poor thing

You've let yourself down with that joke

stop i'm on the brinca quitting puns altogether

Oh wow, I haven't posted to or read this thread in age, but...

My day-job is as a temp sub-editor, and I've a couple of regular clients. I work in the offices, and I really enjoy most of the people I work with, and to be honest, it seems like a healthier way to exist than when I was just freelance writing from home all the time.

But at one of the places, I've had a stupid falling out with one of my colleagues. He's someone who I thought I got on with really well, we'd go off to lunch together all the time, had very similar interests and reference points, and very similar senses of humour.

But this week, he came back from a week off, in a really shitty mood, head down, headphones on, not talking. He's a moody guy at the best of times so I figured, fair enough, will give him a wide berth. But then I had to sub a piece of his work, without knowing it was his, and I had a factual query about a piece he'd written about a TV series (we work on inflight entertainment guides) that I couldn't clarify through researching the internet. So I asked if anyone in the office had seen the show, and if they could clarify the fact I was checking, because it was making the piece vague, and all of a sudden he erupted and was getting really belligerent and up in my face, like "why does it matter?" "why is it a problem?" "how does it affect the piece?", and all I could say was that, as a reader and as a sub it made the piece confusing, and that my job was to make pieces not confusing (the piece was actually riddled with mistakes and very clumsily written, but I didn't mention that).

Since then, there's been a real cloud in the office, and I really feel like "the temp" in a way I haven't felt for a long time. I'm sure it will all blow over at some point, but he's been a real dick about this, and I thought he was my friend. I'm really so hugely fucked off about this, and I'm sitting in this office right now and everyone's behaving like Nothing Happened, but this guy has been a real chump and it is bumming me out majorly and making me glad I'm working somewhere else next week.

Like, I essentially got chewed out for doing my job properly (and we almost lost a client last month thanks to a factual mistake in a piece of writing). It's really unfair and fucked.

could you drop him a mail and clear the air? that's what i would do. tho he may reject it, at least you'd feel you tried.

I'm guessing that's what I should do. I don't know, I feel like I've spent so much of my life being the dude who apologises first or is the cooler head, and I can't shake the feeling that it leads me to being the one who most often gets walked over. But being stubborn like this isn't really suiting me.

it's possible to make the first move without apologising but it's a pain alright

tbh i've long reached the stage where i just send stuff like this up the chain without apology or second thought, is there a higher up that you can make a frank statement of affairs to and ask it be sorted?

no way would i do that...

it's probs not a bad idea, but it's a smallish operation, and as I'm a temp I don't think I'd end up doing myself any favours.

why don't you talk to a superior about it first? it's possible there's something going on with this guy's private life that's affecting things. and getting in your face about something that sounds perfectly reasonable is inappropriate in any work environment; regardless of what's happening in someone's private life.

To me it sounds like it's really nothing personal and something v bad is going in in this guy's life, you just happen to be the target of his venting and he can concentrate on being mad at you instead of dealing with his personal shit. localgarda otm - send him an email.

Thirded

"a 25 minute chat in a 'confidential' room about the 'historical and political context and implications of the receptionist lunch break saga'"

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Monday, September 30, 2013 9:32 AM

Sounds like a DFW short story.

thanks for all of youse advice on this. i think you're right that some deep stuff is going down with him that's nothing to do with me. tried chatting with him yesterday but he's still being really off with me, but i'm working for another company for the next month or so so i'm just gonna leave it. but this kind of rubbish is totally why i worked from home for a decade or so!

I wish these shitheads would STFU.

I asked my supervisor a question and as he blankly stared at me for a moment he continually ran his tongue back and forth between his lips disgustingly. Later he came over to ask me to do something - a standard procedure which requires no explanation whatsoever and which he could've easily checked to see that I had done- yet after I said in response that I'd already done it he kept unnecessarily explaining the reason for it.

one of my co-workers mothers died over the weekend and they're passing around a condolences card. i had some trouble figuring out what to write in the thing - don't know the co-worker too well, didn't know her mom or family. other co-workers are pouring out their hearts like they're at an Italian funeral, but frankly, i'm finding it hard to give a fuck. don't know if that makes me some kind-of Mr. Burnsian ogre or something. maybe it's hard for me to relate since i'd probably dance on my mother's grave if she passed away.

guess the 'annoying co-workers' thing here is the expectation that i have to give my heart, or successfully demonstrate such, to people who I don't know at all and don't particularly care to know, and who honestly don't care about me, either. i'm not a fan of this personal/business thing blending together even if it's just a little dance we have to do.

I can't stand anytime I have to write a card at work, whether it's for someone I'm close to or not.

My workplace also does that "workplace family" thing and I don't like it either. There always seems to be something circulating, for condolences or congratulations. I hate to think of being the recipient of any such thing. It seems awkward, I hate emotion at work and I wouldn't want anything to happen that would make me feel beholden or personally bound to my coworkers in any way. When it's for someone else it's not as bad but it's not what I prefer at work at all.

Memorize this:

I'm sorry for your loss.

Optional: You and your family are in my thoughts.

That's all you ever have to put on a coworker sympathy card.

Seriously nobody, including the bereaved, expects more than that in this situation from someone of your level of acquaintance.

More useful greeting card phrases:

Congratulations!

Best wishes in your new position!

I hope you're feeling better soon.

Happy birthday!

Welcome back!

Then sign your name. I swear it really is that easy.

keep on keepin' on

"I'm sorry for your loss" is what I wrote. Felt like it stood out like a sore thumb to these florid paragraphs about life, loss, love, family, memory. Then there's my "SORRY FOR YOUR LSOS" like I'm recovering from a brain injury or something.

No no you are overthinking it, I promise. You did great. It is much better to go for a simple sentiment than it is to gin up some purple prose, especially if it's someone you are not close to.

Now when they passed around a card for a coworker who had just left work due to a terminal cancer diagnosis, that was like Level 11 difficulty.

You can't talk about getting well and you can't talk about being sorry for your loss (of your life in six to eight weeks). I think I just went with a basic "You are in my thoughts," which was not a lie.

If it's someone you are dear friends with at work, then it's fine to write more. otherwise, there's no reason to show off to every other card signer the magnificent truths you've learned about life.

even with my bosses, who I'm usually very tight with, when I hear bad news I just say they're in my thoughts, I hope <situation> works out, offer some comfort if it's a death.

I have maybe one friend at work that I'm actually friends with outside of work, who I'll actually say more to.

Yeah, I'm probably overthinking it a little. I have a "workplace family" thing going on here where we all have to act like we're much tighter than we really are, and I find it a little odd. But the people I work with are a little odd. I've gotten fairly close to some co-workers at other jobs where I'd actually care a little more about their lives. I've also had jobs that are more professional and we weren't expected to give a shit so there was no pressure to "perform".

Here it's just screwy, feels very manufactured and I guess I'm a little resistant to it.

That's totally understandable.

yeah I get that too. I'm friendly with my team as I like them, but overall with colleagues, I don't like to get too chummy where possible cuz I need to be able to scream "WHAT THE FUCK" at them on occasion when they screw up.

that and it's a job. you're going to be fucking off to somewhere else at some point in the future. what i prefer is either something laidback and casual, sort-of a free for all, or something hyper professional. this weird, gooey center is just bizarre and a little frustrating. feels like i'm working in ned flander's reneducation center.

http://i55.tinypic.com/httibm.jpg

It was a little like that when I worked for the state, but part of that was because for a long time, people really did have a family-like bond. I mean, holy shit one of my former coworkers got married in the conference room in the middle of a work day and I am not even kidding. When I was there, a lot of that had faded away because literal politics made the staffing situation unstable so there wasn't that "hired at 20, work in the same job until you retire" longevity, but it was still very much an undercurrent to the culture.

It didn't feel forced, though, is what I am saying. I've worked in forced family workplaces, too, and those are just gross, especially since I tend to like to have a nice, clear delineation between my work life and my home life.