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

and hey guys, if you have an "emergency", please contact me via email. do NOT leave me a voicemail. I always have my blackberry on me, but I'm away from my desk phone probably 40% of the day. in fact, I should never return to my office to see a voicemail light flashing. like ever. unless it's some jack-legged vendor who I won't be calling back anyway.

this is one of the 1,000 reason for me disconnecting my work voicemail!

My boss is belching over and over at her desk 3m away. I can hear it through my music/headphones.

It was a call centre, and this guy was fed up of people interupting him while he was on the phone using a hands free headset. His solution was to go out and buy one of those flashing police lights that crap mobile DJs have.

OK lol at his ridic solution, but jesus h, I hate people who walk up to you when you're on the phone and just start jabbering away at you. I just put my hand up in their face when they do it. Yeah, it probably looks rude but they started it.

"Ha, look at this! They're calling this issue of the Village Voice the 'queer issue'. Every issue of the Voice is the queer issue!"

"[enormous panicked gasp] Farrah Fawcett died??? I just saw her on TV a couple of weeks ago!!"

"You know what the biggest spiritual movement in America is right now? Wicca and Druidism. Going back to the roots. Bonfires."

^i swear to god this came out of a conversation about sinead o'connor

some new guy to my left has been huffing and puffing since he started, and then he has this annoying shake thing he does on his chair, and he keeps staring at me when i talk to other people.

and i wish he wouldn't cough so chuffing loudly.

Seriously, everybody in this office needs to shut up about Michael above and beyond an RIP and playing his music. I'm getting kinda pissed here.

"You know who's glad Michael Jackson died? The Iranian government. He took all the heat off them."

"How is it that I keep emailing myself spam? Someone explain this to me."

http://www.postmoderncritic.com/images/fightclub2.jpg

"You know who's glad Michael Jackson died? The Iranian government. He took all the heat off them."

was this said to you - or was this overheard? i'd really like to know what the reaction was.

All this stuff is overheard; he doesn't talk much to me. The reaction was what the reaction generally is to these kind of announcements: silence from all nearby.

OMG this, yes. I hate, hate this. I work for an architecture firm and deal with these "emergencies" all the time. Like I get a voicemail from a frantic contractor asking me to call him back because he has an emergency on site. Call him back and it turns out the painter wanted to know which color to paint the door frames.

This is totally an emergency. There's nothing worse than an entire job stalling because someone who needs to make a decision either isn't doing it or isn't available.

This is totally an emergency. There's nothing worse than an entire job stalling because someone who needs to make a decision either isn't doing it or isn't available.

― My vagina has a dress code. (milo z), Tuesday, June 30, 2009 3:17 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

You've got it. Workplaces can be become the worst kind of mess if this becomes incorporated into the culture.

"You know who's glad Michael Jackson died? The Iranian government. He took all the heat off them."

― wacky out of context phrase is the worst look (forksclovetofu), Monday, June 29, 2009 7:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Actually I really like the idea of an Iranian clerical hit squad poisoning an American pop star in order to quell a rebellion.

worse then asaping every email is marking your every message HIGH PRIORITY! in outlook.

This is totally an emergency. There's nothing worse than an entire job stalling because someone who needs to make a decision either isn't doing it or isn't available.

No, its a completely avoidable situation that could have been entirely avoided had the contractor had the foresight to call me ahead of time and say, "hey, the painter is heading out tomorrow/the next day/whatever, can you confirm the color". Or, as in some cases, if they'd look at the effing drawings! Point is, not an emergency. An inconvenience caused by lack of forethought.

worse then asaping every email is marking your every message HIGH PRIORITY! in outlook.

Argh I also hate it when that thing pops up saying "the sender wishes you to confim receipt of this email". I always hit "ignore".

i hate when someone sits on a issue for 3 months and then makes a one-line comment and re-assigns it to you as mega-urgent. (usually happens when you're already busy doing other mega-urgent things)

you know communication is bad in a workplace when someone tells you to IM this guy to tell him you're picking up a certain task.. and you're like.. you mean the guy who's sitting in the same room with you?? (and no one else is in this room at the moment)

daria, I get 'oh can you call the manager's cell phone to tell her to call me?' phone calls from people who have her number.

i hate when someone sits on a issue for 3 months and then makes a one-line comment and re-assigns it to you as mega-urgent.

this is every client ever (except the one time i had an ilxor client - who was awesome). everything is really really urgent and they need it asap - you drop everything, get it to them and they sit on it for weeks, loose it and then they give you their pile of comments/revisions the morning it's due. usually accompanied by an inflammatory comment like "this is a priority and we need it yesterday. those changes shouldn't take too long." (they will)

that happened to me all the time at my previous job. always from people who knew nothing about the technical side of the work, yet were happy to make assumptions about it.. "oh these changes shouldn't be hard, this shouldn't take long." BULLSHIT. my boss even did that and he should've known better, but then, getting the work done *well* was never a priority with him.

actually this happens every now and then at my current gig, where clearly someone has been working on a project for at least a couple days, sends me an email saying "can you photoshop this thing," and if I don't turn it around in 20-30 minutes they show up or IM or both like "hey what is the status, what is the status, can you tell me the status, I need that ASAP." gaah. can you not TELL me it's urgent in the first place, or maybe think of asking earlier, when I'm not in the middle of the busiest part of the morning?

you're a photoshop slave too?

TS: Photoshop slaves vs. AutoCAD monkeys

"we don't have none"
"we can't do nothing"
"we don't have them nowhere"

ARGHHH

"Oh yeah I seen that movie."

xpost - not exactly, i just happen to know how to use the photoshop & the programmers don't, so if they need something for a site they'll ask me to do it. it's not often. the recent instance i was utterly infuriated because i'd explained precisely what happened (slight delay due to a bunch of urgent things happening at once!) but the person didn't bother to listen & then had to get someone else to tell me this "we just want to make sure we understand and are all on the same page here" crap.

how to let things like that go? they make me SO ANGRY - when you don't actually fuck something up & the response you get from a director is this condescending "let's all make sure we understand" implying that you did. (follow this up by saying "don't get defensive" and i might actually break something.)

DO NOT SNEAK UP BEHIND ME AND THEN JUST STAND THERE SAYING NOTHING FOR FUCK KNOWS HOW LONG AND THEN SAY "HELLO" AND SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ME.

I hate it when people do that! Come up, grab my attention. Don't waft over like a fart and stand there saying nothing! You're creeping me OUT.

silent but deadly

Ha Trayce I have someone like that here too, very creepy and annoying even when i see him do it to other people.

on another note, had meeting this morning and been informed close colleague was fired on Friday. Can't believe how much it's shook me, and suddenly feel very vunerable in regards to employment.

gonna start leaving this thread open and in full view whenever i leave my desk

Tips on how to fire someone? God, I hate doing this. Or watching it happen. (My mum will, hopefully, do the firing.)

"We think you're ready for a solo career."

i hate *getting* fired.

be blunt, honest, apologetic and make sure they're able to ask any questions and say what they need to say. be fair and give them space to get their head together and to get what they need.

Aye if they're being fired for a reason, perhaps lay out why (diplomatically of course). I know I'd want to know where I'd gone wrong so I could make amends!

Just signed my contract for another 3 years of work this morning, after a hairy period when we wondered whether we'd have our government funding taken away. Very relieved. I've only ever left one job voluntarily--every other time I've been fired, made redundant or a contract has run out.

OK wow. One of my workmates just ambled in to work, at 11.15am (we are meant to start at 8.30-9am). When the support team leader said in exasperation "can you at least tell me when you'll be late and when you will be in so I know" (shes stuck on her own today) he has the gall to say "look I cant adjust my sleeping patterns right now, and the cricket is on so I'm up late, OK?!"

WTF dude. Shit'd get you fired in my last job. Wanker.

did he really say "the cricket"

wow Trayce, that's bad. people like that eventually get their just desserts I'm sure.

"Okay, I've acknowledged your opinion Sean, but I don't think you're being really considerate of my feelings"

The guy my boss recently hired to directly supervise me, arguing with my boss about some shit that's completely set in stone since way before he got here. If you ignore my proofreading comments, yes, expect Sean to ignore your feelings, dick.

did he really say "the cricket"

Yes. Why, is this confusing?

i dont people say im going to watch "the basketball" or "the football" over here

i KNOW people don't say that over here

"I'm going to watch the based balls"

Plenty of people here say "the footy" and "the cricket"!

But you wouldnt say "the basketball".

You would say "the tennis".

I dont effin know why.