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

tbh that almost happened 4 or so years ago, long before we were coworkers

double down & start sleeping with coworker

― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, April 29, 2015 1:16 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL why not?

I've considered trying to make it happen but tbh I want to sleep w/ coworker's bf much more.

Maybe the 4 of us could all watch a movie sometime?

I had my job orientation last week in the office of a HR manager who had that urn on a shelf reading "Ashes of Problem Employees" so....

In my 20s I worked for a very small family business owned by a real bozo (I don't want to armchair diagnose but she had some kind of narcissistic/borderline personality/total inability to relate to other humans in a way that was healthy or comfortable issue). Her really cute brother worked there, too, so I decided to make my life interesting by secretly dating him (he was also still married, although separated, to his second wife, and he lived in an apartment over the bozo's house, and I drove a Cutlass Supreme with flames painted on it so I had to like, park blocks away and sneak over) (he was also an ex-military muscle car dude who dressed like a greaser, so the whole thing had an air of novelty dating around it anyway). The relationship was never going to last, but he was a nice guy and in hindsight it was pretty fun. Also I quit that job by making two lists - one was all of the bozo's professional shortcomings, and one was all of her personal shortcomings, and literally pulling them out of my pocket and reading the professional items to the bozo herself (I never made it to the personal ones), in front of four other employees, which was wildly unprofessional but extremely satisfying. The brother and I broke up pretty amicably after a little less than a year of casual dating when we both realized we were uninterested in getting more serious (he's now on his third or fourth wife, third kid, and seems really happy).

Anyway, my point is that complicating your work situation by dating more of your coworkers is probably a terrible idea but that one time I did it, it turned out to be pretty fun.

xp LOL oh no. Stevie, you need to send IO your "ashes of ex husbands" jar, stat.

Every time I thought that story couldn't get any better, it proved me so wrong.

That resignation remains a real high point in my life. It's the kind of thing you can seriously only do in your early 20s when you can't imagine any of your actions actually having any consequences (to be fair to my younger self, those actions did not have any consequences of note beyond feeling great and giving me a good resignation story) so you're willing to just be a total asshole to your boss.

I drove a Cutlass Supreme with flames painted on it

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/45/145653126_c25272310f_o.jpg

Unfortunately that's the only picture I have of it.

Had no idea Carl was actually a character from a Peter Bagge comic.

"His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth."

Yeah, okay.

That story should be in the "Lol Twenties" hall of fame

xxxpost "unfortunately"?! omg so rad

awes

glad this thread has returned to form.

What was boss's response???

My boss's response? She cried! I made my terrible boss cry! There was also yelling.

Carl's story is fantastic!

omg you made her cry

there's no better ending for that story

can we give you some kind of parade? I feel like you need a parade

after just having had a very tiresome chat with a co-worker (but... but... but... yes i know but...), that story has completely cheered me up.

that is such a good story.

I was shocked about the crying. I expected anger, indignation, quiet seething rage but when she just burst into tears I was definitely taken aback. But then I rallied and continued reading the items on my list.

If one of the things on your list was about her being a bully, I'm not surprised she fell apart when confronted. They usually do, so their whole lives are about creating an atmosphere where others are scared to call them on their assholism.

i work in civil service and there are a lot of empty shell type people wandering around my building (i don't mean me, i have a rich life full of hobbies i enjoy) - these zombies tend to make strange social missteps - basic human courtesy is rare in this 20 per cent.

this afternoon i was waiting for the lift and a person kind of stormed onto the landing, then pressed the "up" button several times. after a few minutes a lift came, so they rushed ahead of me. i followed them in and they said "i'm going up" and held the 8 button for a long time - the lift however remained loyal to the first button pushed, and as they said "i'm going up!" again, and nothing happened, and they looked at the buttons like an ape that had found a diamond, i felt a kind of sadness and just had to break the news... "i think the lift is going down"

I don't know if I'm comforted or just sad that civil service employees seem to be the same the world over. You could teleport that person to the state government where I used to work and nobody would know they hadn't worked there forever.

I often wonder about civil service in America, I think after reading an article about those workers in the gigantic cave somewhere, maybe it was Inland Revenue letters they process? I guess it's basically the same.

It's so odd how institutionalised the people become - like you see the weirdest behaviour, people eating full English fry-up breakfasts every day in the canteen, a few weeks ago I saw a guy asleep and snoring at 1pm, on a couch.

There are a lot of people who seem like they might not be able to work in other places - and I mean I guess I kind of support that the state should employ these people. But that doesn't mean it's not a bit sad sometimes.

do they do important work, these 20%? or do they just turn up day in day out as if to use up the time? I work in an academic library and sometimes wonder what would happen if all of the staff just stopped turning up. On a pessimistic day I think, not much probably.

it's hard to be sure - i suspect people are handed out basic jobs, eg if you go to get a new security pass there are maybe 5/6 people doing it and it's really dysfunctional.

it's hard to tell - i guess there must be a lot of slack - i find it v hard to actually work out how a state could be efficient, not that i mean that as advocating losing people either, i just think if you want a big state that tends to employ people you must accept the waste that goes with it.

I can only speak to the notoriously crooked government of the state where I worked, but there's a lot of patronage, meaning that people often get jobs because of their connections (anything from being blood related to a senator to being the son of someone active in a church that's pastor is known to bring in votes for a specific candidate). Sometimes these people are in no way qualified to work the jobs that they get, and sometimes they totally are but don't give a fuck.

But that doesn't really explain the just general weirdness of people who worked there. Ronan's elevator person is such a good example and I have seen that exact kind of behavior. Like the professional and social customs of a regular private sector workplace are completely out the window. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's amusing, sometimes it's dreadful.

I've put a lot of the five years I worked in that environment out of my mind, but I'm remembering the coworker who 1) went through my trash can (we put our trash out in the hall for collection) and 2) stopped by to talk about something interesting she found in my trash (the packaging for a wrist brace to help stave off over-use tendinitis) and did not act like it was weird or objectionable at all.

Like the conversation opener was, "I was looking in your trash and I saw the packaging for a wrist brace. What's going on with your wrist?" And I think I was so taken aback by the entire thing that I just told her!

that is really weird, i'm lucky in that the team immediately around me is kind of based on changing behaviour, so we're all sort of in the eye of the storm and can joke about this kind of thing.

i think i mentioned upthread the woman who has just been jettisoned by any team or boss, and spends all day looking at a google map of daventry, talking to herself and muttering things like "but you were holding the child", or grumpily chuntering on in vague terms about whoever "stole" the chair she had annexed since the previous time someone stole "her" chair. like "red coat, red coat, red coat".

lots of weird corridor/lift/stairs behaviour though, people are treated essentially like children and behave accordingly, rushing out of lifts, shoving past each other, there are signs everywhere, like the most basic thing has a sign "don't forget your laptop!", "did you wash your hands!" etc etc.

there's the more higher echelon people too, like someone who's a policy expert or something - the type of people who send an email as if they sat down to write it with a glass of port underneath a big taxidermy deer's head, while drinking a brandy. just so ineffectual.

i published a webpage last month, which i had to fight to publish, which came to me as an "urgent" request last june, in the form of a forwarded email chain which had the same "urgent" subject line when it first originated in december 2013. "urgent" just means "yeah we have to actually do this one, not like the others".

forgot to mention i fucking love it here, prob my favourite job ever

hahaha

whole last 24 hours of this thread has been nuts

Sorry my furtive posting meant I added in both port and brandy

god its rly quite normal over here now :(

We've got this weird wall decal in the restroom that says in cursive font, "Don't forget to wash your hands! Love, Mom"

… and I hate it. My mother is pretty whimsical about most everything, but even that would be too much for her.

And really, thank goodness she's alive. I'm scared that one day I'll go in there, and there'll be a co-worker leaning against the wall trying to contain his tears.

I hate the implication that it's anybody's mother's job to policy handwashing. You're grown. Wash your fucking hands.

See also: "Do your dishes. Your mother doesn't work here."

FUCK YOU

well if my mother doesn't work here, how did she leave that stupid note in the restroom?

"Maybe you should wear something more flattering to work? Love Mum"

"I don't think I could wear lipstick that color. Love Mum"

"Are you sure you ironed that shirt?"

"did you specify non-sequential bills?"

"Don't forget to deliberately not wash your hands! Love, Richard Feynman"

I don't technically work in civil service, but it's as good as. It's actually the most smart and professional workplace I've ever had. (Whereas the creative private sector place my partner works in is total nuts)

I work in a place where I was able to put a sign saying "ONLY FULL-TIME STAFF CAN URINATE INTO THIS BUCKET" on a bucket being used to catch water from a roof leak in our main corridor and the sign stayed there for a whole day; don't know if this makes my workplace good or bad

i vote good