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

people make no effort not to be annoying

right thread

right, conrad

Oh good, another morning tea where we all have to bring something. 'Please make something, don't just buy it.'

Fuck this, I have a baby and no time and can't cook and don't want to socialise.

"i made you a chart of all the fucks i give" (holds up blank sheet of paper)

Dear boss, please stop talking like Yogi Bear ("Hey, hey, hey!").

Are you sure he's not talking like Fat Albert?

Oh good, another morning tea where we all have to bring something. 'Please make something, don't just buy it.'

Fuck this, I have a baby and no time and can't cook and don't want to socialise.

Oh man I am super irritated on your behalf. That's so presumptuous and smug.

Are you sure he's not talking like Fat Albert?

― carl agatha, Friday, May 16, 2014 7:36 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, he has already referenced Boo Boo Bear and picnic baskets.
O_o

two dudes were dressed up like red green for some kind of event yesterday, walked past in the cafeteria

one day at work on Halloween I was in the midst of training a girl and we were already running behind and I looked up to see a giant Pacman chasing a giant ghost whiz by my room. No way in Hell I was able to focus on training after that.

You set a work meeting with me a week ahead of time at 2PM at a worksite I did not otherwise have any reason to go to. I arrived there at 2PM on the appointed day, ready to get down to biz, and saw no sign of you. I asked around and no one had seen you, but I was patient and assumed you were just running a bit late. After a few minutes, I texted to see where you were at. Still patiently waiting. About 15 minutes later you text me:

Hi. I sent you an email this morning, seeing if you still wanted to meet..since I didn't hear, I'm in the middle of working on a project now.

Reaaaaally? You emailed my work email a few hours in advance to check if I was still in and took a lack of reply to mean no? I don't even fucking work during the mornings! I work in fucking TEEN PROGRAMMING. Kind of hard for me to work with teens outside of school while they're in school. I work in the afternoon and evening. I haven't been in to work to check my email. My meeting with you was my first work business of the day.

I text back saying that I'm not available to check my work email during the morning and if you need to change plans on short notice, you need to TEXT me. You reply back:

I communicate via email. You must adjust to change.

What the fuck is this? 1997? No, I don't need to adjust to change, YOU need to adjust to change if you're so hidebound to an inefficient means of communication. It ain't like you don't have my number. And MAYBE, just MAYBE, assume that if we've said we're on, that we're still on unless one of us has said otherwise? And really, just go fuck yourself. Don't dick me around like that. I took time out of my schedule to go all the way out to meet you for nothing.

[/spleen and invective]

you will respect mah communications modalitah

since I didn't hear, I'm in the middle of working on a project now.

this is incredible.

bullshit!

I communicate via email. You must adjust to change.

this is also a pretty insane thing to say

yeah wow @ that

This isn't even an old woman. She's like mayyyybe a couple years older than me?

holy shit

!!! Is she a peer or a boss? If a peer at least you can mentally write her off, maybe? If a boss that you have no choice but to deal with, this would drive me insane with rage. Rude and thoughtless bosses make me completely lose it.

Yeah you dont use that tone with people you have a business relationship with, be it colleague, customer, or ESPECIALLY superior. Christ on a broken crutch.

Peer, who I need to work with on a specific project as she's the only one with the expertise and availability to pull it off. It's alright now, we've both apologized to each other.

both!

commend yr control tbh

I did get kind of snippy with her after her initial response.

Email is pervasive. Honestly I feel the expectation nowadays is that if there was an email, and you failed to see it, the outcome is entirely your fault. Just check your email, seriously. Nobody will ever understand your reasons for not having read an email, they just expect that you've read everything.

Eh, I disagree. My work is very email intensive but it is well understood across the company that if something is truly time sensitive or urgent you need to pick a phone and call.

Pick up a phone, that is...

I miss occasional messages until it's pointed out because my filters need work and I get SO MUCH EMAIL at work and I have time-intensive activities that don't involve being an email processing machine.

Phone nothing, we have an internal instant message server

Sure, but someone may not be able to get IMs either.

If someone can't get instant messages or emails, they can't get a phone call. It's the same device! In fact a phone call is less likely to be received anyway since it's a synchronous, exclusive mode of communication. Multiple email and IM conversations can occur at the same time, making it more efficient in some ways (except when you need to explain something complicated).

That's all possible but it means that your phone is set up to ring or vibrate for every email and IM that comes in. If I had my phone set up that way and monitored it 24/7, I'd be a basket case. Expecting people to constantly monitor these things outside of work hours is unreasonable. (I get that plenty of businesses still expect this anyway)

I have to be on a work computer to see my work email. I had not been at work. I realize that I could set up my phone to receive work emails when I'm not at work but I do not want to receive work emails when I'm not at work. I only even check my personal email about once a day, usually.

It's the same device!

lol not during my work day it's not

Email may be pervasive but if you're last minute changing a booked appointment, you call the damn person. They are likely on route for one thing.

I worked with a guy who used to ignore all kinds of stuff then turn up at meetings and say

"email is not a form of communication"

If someone can't get instant messages or emails, they can't get a phone call. It's the same device!

It all depends on your work culture/expectations. Where I work, you could and would cancel via email bc the firm issues Blackberries or will set up work email on your personal smart phone and the expectation is that you check it during regular business hours (and beyond). Nobody would text work communications. It doesn't sound like that's the expectation where Rev works and this peer is being tone deaf and unproductively defensive about it.

I'm glad you all made up, though!

carl otm. where I work, we have corporate emails go to our phone, however we have to log into a specific program to get them, and many of us opt not to when we're not in the office as it takes a while to d/l them. But we also have instant message programs too. I would have missed that email message too, in Rev's instance, but could have received a phone call/text etc.

Likewise, if a meeting is already scheduled and agreed to, the default assumption should be that if the other party has not said otherwise, that the meeting is still on. You can certainly reconfirm, but do it the day before, not the morning of. and if you do happen to send an email the morning of and get no reply, the default assumption should be "we are still a go", not "oh ok guess he changed his mind, time to make other plans".

I would have been pretty snippy in that situation myself.

not to belabor this but the method of comm doesn't really matter here -- if you have a meeting on the books, you can't throw out a message saying 'hey is this on?' and then assume it's off if you don't get a reply. a date's a date.

Yeah, if something is not explicitly cancelled, it's on!

otm

Not always true. Sometimes meetings are scheduled far enough in advance that they get redundant as the date approaches. Eg a meeting designed to answer a particular question.

Right, but if someone was a mediator of that meeting and didn't know the question was addressed, they're going to show up! This isn't some tree falls in the forest shit. The meeting is a meeting as long as at least one person attends, and if it wasn't clear to all involved that it was off, then you didn't cancel the damn meeting.

I have specifically gone to a meeting room to say "hey, we got this figured out, thanks for showing up" because it was realized at the last minute we didn't need it! No need to be a dick.

Yeah true. Listen I go to a lot of meetings and listen politely even though the ship has already sailed. I'm just saying if everyone goes "is this still happening?" There's a better chance everyone will go "ah fuck it" and we all get an hour back.

Yeah, but The Rev's original point was that he has no expectation of checking his work email outside of the work environment and that lady is a jerk for assuming he would

like, here's the deal, I have a work email account I only check at work, or from my work laptop. If they gave me a phone, I would check work email on it. I can have my own phone connected to work email, but a) I'm not required to, so why not keep my time my own and b) they require that they have the ability to remote wipe my iPhone via a corporate profile I'd have to load.

So unless someone knows I'm working off hours, which I'd only do if absolutely necessary, assuming I'd know about an email or calendar update removing a meeting that is done outside of my office hours is dickish. And I'm on salary. If I was hourly, fuuuuck having work email to check when I'm not getting paid.

You all live in the 1990s don't you.

I'm sorry you're at beck and call for work 24-7, that is very 2014 and a living hell imo

btw "working in 2014" isn't a universal good

There is no fucking way anyone is ever getting me 24/7 for work. Fuck that shit right off. I dont care how much you pay me.