December 21, 2006

>> Bitch With No Identity

[ Boss ]

Ugatti2d writes...

"So this chic I work with, we'll call her "Single White Female". Everytime someone in our department buys something new or even gets a new haircut, she has to do the same. She has no identity of her own. It is so bad that another chic in the department built a new house and Single White Female had to build one to. Yes, a whole fucking house! Single White Female has bill collectors call her at work as it is.....she can't afford a new house! She has already filed for consolidation once. The bad thing is, she is such an idiot, that she put the house on land gave to her by her parents. So if the house goes, the land does to. Isn't that a nice way to say "I love you Mom." As if that isn't bad enough, Single White Female's house is a small replica to the chic in our department who just built one. I mean, replica, down to the knobs on the cabinets. The chic who has the big house won't even go to Single White Female's house because it's too weird. In the past, if the chic with the big house bought a little black dress, new shoes, or even got her hair dyed; Single White Female had to do the same thing. It's just unreal...... Recently though, Single White Female has copied me. I have brown hair that I just cut short. Single White Female dyed her hair brown and cut it short. My husband drives a new Dodge Ram, Single White Female's husband just bought a Dodge Ram. Have you ever heard of such? See why I call her Single White Female."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

December 18, 2006

>> New Employee Feeling Unwelcome By 2 People

[ Rant ]

HagAlert writes...

"I just started as a new employee in an office of 6 people who have been there a while. The manager is a guy in his 50s, there are 2 other guys in their 30s, and 3 women ranging from maybe 30, mid 40s, upper 50s. I am in my upper 30s.

I have been there almost two weeks now and let me see if I can explain the situation. My desk is grouped with the women along a row of 4 and the 2 guys are around the corner in their own space...sort of an L shaped configuration. I have been cordial to everyone and have made an effort to speak to everyone. So far, the only 3 people who even give me the time of day is my boss, one of the guys I work with, and the older lady in the office.

The girl sitting to the right of me seems like a manic depressive. I never see her smile and she acts like she hates being there. She will answer the phone and do her job but once the call is over, she has her fist on her temple and sinks down in the chair. She never says a word to me and I think she's already decided in her mind that she doesn't like me because I'm not a trained clown 24/7 to keep her entertained all day.

The middle-aged lady comes in and does her job well but anything overtime is taboo to her. She doesn't talk much and when she does talk, it's usually something snide and sarcastic. She didn't really make me feel too welcome on my first day either. She setup my account on the computer and then went back over to her area and sent me an email with some common commands on it for our AS400 computer. That was it. She always looks at me funny when she walks by and never says a word.

The other guy I work with just had his dad pass away. In fact, I found my first day on the job going to his funeral and I did that out of respect for someone I would be working with and also because I know how it feels to lose a father. This guy is still in a funk and hasn't talked to me at all. I just let that go due to the situation.

Now, I'm about 6'3" tall with short blonde hair, green eyes, decent looking and I dress in slacks, knit shirt, belt, top siders...nothing over the top. I say this because something happened a week and a half after being hired that really bummed me out. One of the ladies from the other department who I had met and got along with came to our office. She asked me, "Why aren't you sitting over with the guys?" The snide middle aged coworker lady blurted out, "I'm not moving! I like to sit right here where I can keep an eye out on the men" (and she pointed towards the other two guys). The manic depressive girl who sits to the right of me lets out a boisterous laugh out of nowhere and that hurt pretty bad considering that I had done nothing to warrant that from these two individuals. What they were implying is that since I sat with the girls, I was gay...and I am not.

Those two seem to go out of their way to make me feel unwelcome and I'm not sure what I can do about it. Have they just set their sights on me from the beginning as someone to despise? I really don't even like being around them because they are so negative. I wish the one on the right would just commit hari-kari and relieve herself of her perpetual depression.

I like my work, I like a few people I work with, and it's only those two making it rough for me. I am getting ready to start my third week and any advice would be appreciated."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

December 14, 2006

>> Scissors/Post-Its/Tape

[ Fools ]

Stuck in the Hell Hole writes...

"I could write a novel based on my daily experiences with the doofus my employer stuck me with. I had a wonderful co-worker, we adored each other and worked wonderfully as a team. He got an offer for a better job and my boss got the brilliant, meaning lazy, idea to hire back someone he had previously fired for driving everyone insane, not to mention, not being able to do his job. My boss is able to utilize the survival technique of escaping from the entire state half of each month, leaving me trapped in what even my sweet 11 year old son refers to as, "THE HELL HOLE."

This person, who we will refer to as S.G., gets paid as better than I do. I work my hiney off being responsible for running an office and he....cuts shapes out of post-it's with scissors. For instance, if someone gives him a business card, he will painstakingly write "CELL #:_ _ _ _ _ _" as small as humanly possible on a post-it and then spend 15 minutes painstakingly cutting perfectly around the edges of his writing with scissors. Then he SCOTCH TAPES IT to the business card. He will draw an arrow on a post-it, then laboriously use scissors to cut perfectly around the shape of the arrow, so he can tape it pointing to the return address and name of a company clearly indicated on an envelope we've received through the U.S. Mail. At least my boss won't allow him to OPEN the mail anymore! He would spend half a day scissors/post-it/taping to indicate grammatical errors in junk mail...that ended up in the garbage anyway!

S.G. will go through the "scissors/post-it/tape" ritual to let us know "Here is a fax someone sent you." "This pertains to someone's insurance."

DUH! It's a frigging Insurance Agency!

Don't go feeling sorry for him.....

He is the most arrogant jerk on the planet and tries to tell everyone how to do their jobs. Including the president of the company.

S.G. -

We can all have a good laugh calling him that, because I swear to God, he even wrote "Super Genius" on a post-it, then got paid $20 per hour to cut it out with scissors and TAPE IT to his own paper clip dispenser.

Next in Tales From the HELL HOLE....

Super Genius isn't sure which end of a toilet plunger goes in first."
01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

December 11, 2006

>> Queen of Annoying Coworkers!

[ Fools ]

Anonymous writes...

"I work as a clerk for a government office where I do the usual office clerk stuff like answering the phone, filing, typing and photocopying. I haven't been there very long - about a year and already I am a disgruntled government worker! Actually most of the people I work with are pretty nice and I like my supervisor. The only really bad part is my stupid coworker who is the Queen of Annoying Coworkers! She and I work as a team to cover the reception desk and cover each other's work for vacation. It started out well between us but now one of the happiest days of my life will be when I leave! Amazing how one person can make work life hell!

Here's some of the many irritating and unprofessional stuff she does!

She's consistently 5 to 10 minutes late relieving me for my lunch break - on a few occasions, even up to 30 minutes late and with rarely an apology. I have to actually notify her in advance if I want to leave for my lunch at the time I'm supposed to so I can actually leave at that time or she will pull her usual crap and be late. She can leave anytime she wants to for lunch but I have to wait until she's back. So unfair!

She packed up her stuff and announced that she was leaving at 2:30 p.m. (this was at 2:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon that she told me) because she had been running company errands the night before and was leaving early to make up the time due to her. Thank for the notice, stupid cow! If she knew that she was leaving early, why didn't she tell me in the morning or did she just feel like leaving early for the weekend!

Books her vacation months and months in advance so that I haven't even had the chance to plan my holidays. Even if I wanted the same time off as her, I am effectively screwed as she has "claimed" those days already. In fact, she has "stolen" days that I had verbally told her that I wanted but did not yet book off through the supervisor as it was still months away.

She has 3 times as many vacation days as I have but to maximize her time off, she takes as many of the weeks with the paid holiday Monday in them as she can. Given how much time she has off, it would have been considerate to let me have some of those paid Mondays weeks. Stupid cow!

Forgets to tell me about vacation days she's taking off - I am supposed to cover her work so shouldn't she clear it with me in advance. No, but I am supposed to clear my days off in advance with her before I can take them! Unfair!

Leaves early but forgots to tell me that's because she is working a different shift for carpooling purposes.

At Halloween, wore this stupid costume where she pinned mini-boxes of smarties candy to her pants so she could be a "smarty pants". It was cute for the first half hour but an entire day of hearing those damn things shake and jangle as she walked away from her desk just about put me over the edge. You work in an open space with cubicles with dozens of people - how incredibly inconsiderate are you, lady? Did she not think it would disturb other people who are working?!? Inconsiderate yet so sensitive that there would have been a fight if I had said anything.

She files her damn nails at her desk.

She had lots and lots of personal calls, especially from her stupid husband. When he can't reach her on her line, he calls the general reception number that I answer. Then I have to tell him that she's in a meeting, away from her desk, at lunch, or whatever. I am not her stinking secretary! Huge waste of my time having to answer his calls. They are never emergencies - just him calling to tell her what moronic thing happened to him that day for the 5th time! Leave her a freaking voicemail!

She's a big girl so she walks like a baby elephant! She wears terrible plastic flip flop shoes that make such loud clopping noises that you can hear her come from a mile away, just like a horse.

Talks and laughs in a high pitch voice, loud enough to curdle milk.

And that's not all of the stupid stuff she does. Unfortunately, the supervisor and everyone else loves her. They all think she's so organized and so wonderful because she tries to be like a mother hen. They don't have to work so closely with her so they don't see all the crap. Even I have to admit that she does get her work done so they're not likely to get rid of her for that.

There have been 5 people in my position over the past 6 years so I know it's not just me. Also some student interns that had to work with her also didn't get along with her! They even had to get a restraining order against one of the students who threatened her! No surprise, huh.

Unfortunately, she's not going to change and probably won't leave so I have to change or leave which make me extremely resentful and bitter. Can you tell?!?

Anyway, I feel much better now! Thanks for listening or rather reading!"
01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

December 07, 2006

>> Office Gremlin

[ Boss ]

Bingo writes...

"What a fabulous outlet. I am happy to have this place because although I tend to rant to on my personal blog-this place makes me feel, I don't know, less alone in the petty game of Office Politics many of us must put up with.

I work exclusively and in close quarters with two other ladies. One is my Office Manager and the other is in charge of finances.

My OM-Office Manager-is a tiny little gremlin of a woman who runs around the office frantically picking at every detail humanly possible. I am able to deal with this when it has to do with cardstock but she jumps the line when she starts asking about my personal life and criticizing me while trying to manipulate my behavior that has nothing to do with work.

"People have said you have low energy and I agree-yesterday you seemed upbeat and boy that was nice!"

"Are you eating enough? Why don't you go to lunch now?" if I fail to leave at 12pm on the dot. "Come on, we're going home now" as she flicks off the light at the end of the day and expects me to jump to whenever she decides to go home. "Come on, we're going to Sam's club to pick up supplies." Not asking-blatantly telling me as if I am her little apprentice-there is no way I want to be doing what she is doing now let alone twenty years from now. Managing how reports look is not my idea of a challenging or good life learning experience. Anal people pick mundane jobs where they can keep control of that one little corner office of their life. The world is too scary to do things differently or God forbid-casually. She sees this as a life or death experience-the everyday project list. I cannot imagine her hostility if a document didn't arrive to the client on time.

And in regards to my fine typing skills she exclaims: "Take a typing class-this is a requirement-not an option."

I needed no instruction in Excel but she said "Take an Excel class-look up what you can do and go to one" wasting her money and making me happy not to be in work for a day anyway.

"Have you thought about going back to your hometown? Do you have any friends here beside your boyfriend?"(I just moved about a year ago)

I think what she fails to understand is that I do not want her input on my life unless its for company review. When I got my photo taken for the website the first few weeks I was there she said "Now button that top button-look professional now". She's like the mother I never wanted.

And she doesn't make me feel half as bad as the President who, when he decides to grace us with his presence, usually shoots down every idea, ignores you when you speak with him, and expects me(who is not his assistant) to take phone messages on specific notepads in a specific way that I will never get right no matter how much I try-and I have been here for 8 months.

They pulled a bait and switch when I got here because I thought most of my work would be Marketing and most of my work is turning out to be "office bitch". I have four bosses-My OM Gremlin, my President-Jerko, His wife the vice prez. and the regional Vice Prez.

They all need things all the time and I have to cater to them equally. All 4 of them. When they aren't travelling and they are physically in the office-I have no duties of my own-suddenly I am a waitress all over again catering to each individual-all while answering the phone that my President yells at me about every time I interrupt his email writing and lunchtime schmoozing. But if I fail to give him the message then I am ind eeper trouble than all of the above.

I hate dimwits and I hate ignorance. Why do we treat eachother like this?"
01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

November 20, 2006

>> Thanksgiving Break...

[ Other ]

Disgruntled here just letting you know I am heading on a Thanksgiving break and plan to be back in early December. The life of freelance at least when there is no work you can take a vacation. Less stress from fools. Take it easy all!
01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

November 16, 2006

>> Caps LOCK

[ Fools ]

Mystery Man writes...

"Used to work as a developer/support for a Unix based system controlling the entire head office and warehouse for a large frozen food retailers.

The guys in the warehouse weren't exactly the smartest.

One day we got a call from a guy complaining his password wasn't working ( they had to log in to transfer stock so that all movements would be recorded ).

it goes like this...

"Hi, computer room? My password isn't working"

"Are you sure. Could you give me your account name and I can check?"

"No its definetly not working, I checked it on my work mates account too. Definetly bust."

Short story ( if you have ever done IT support you know how the next 10 minutes is wasted.)

He had tried to login. He had left the Caps Lock button on so his password was rejected. He then tried to log in using his mates login name BUT still with his own password. Hey, it still didn't work."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

November 13, 2006

>> Asshole making me want to quit

[ Fools ]

DBReed writes...

"There's a guy I work with who has to be the biggest fucking asshole I've ever met in my life. Imagine a guy who uses the anonimity of the Internet to act like a dick to people, and then imagine meeting a guy like that in real life. That's him. We'll call him FA.

FA will always cut me down if I say a like things he doesn't. He's constantly ridiculing me about my weight, even though he's about 30 pounds heavier than me. When I'm in the middle of dealing with customers, he will interrupt me and take my customers away from me, saying that I'm too slow. This has been going on for about a year now.

I almost completely lost it yesterday. After hearing that I had been out drinking the night before to celebrate my birthday, FA got into a conversation with me about how he thought that people who drank were below him and that he would never demean himself like that. I asked him why he thought that and soon the conversation got pretty heated. At this point our district manager came into the store as we're having the conversation. FA then tells our manager that I wouldn't be quiet when the DM came into the store. I told the manager that FA started the whole thing and that FA shouldn't have brought up a topic like that at work in the first place. The manager took FA's side, and at this point I was seeing red. FA was still hanging around talking to me and I told him to get away from me. He left, telling me that I should go cry to the DM if I was feeling upset. I was so angry I almost walked out of the job right there, and I had to go cool off for an hour.

This isn't just an isolated incident, this stuff happens all the time, it happens exclusively to me, and the manager always takes his side. It feels like there's no hope of resolving this between us and I'm about ready to quit my job because of it."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

November 09, 2006

>> Another Crazy Printer Story

[ Fools ]

Anonymous writes...

"The printer story reminded me of something that happened at my office. We have a printer that has two trays for paper. We use one tray for regular paper and the other tray for letterhead. About 6 people share the same printer but there is one secretary who always messes up the printer. I would go to pick up my letters that I had printed on letterhead and they would all print on regular paper. I would open the tray and sure enough the tray that was supposed to have letterhead in it had regular paper. So I asked the secretary to keep the regular paper in tray 2 and the letterhead in tray 3. But everyday after that she continued to take the letterhead out of the printer. So next I wrote out a list on instructions and taped them to the top of the printer figuring that she would understand, but still she took out the letterhead. Finally, I sent her a long detailed email explaining to her how to use the printer and which tray to put the letterhead in and which tray to put regular paper in and she sent me an email back that said that she did not use letterhead so that is why she took it out of the printer everyday. Finally, at this point I switched to another printer even though I had to walk farther to get my printouts because I couldn't deal with her anymore."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled