June 29, 2004

>> Public Sector Patheticness

[ Rant ]

Braveheart warns us all to keep an eye out for these two fools...

"Me and seven others had to work with two psycho bitches who were in cahoots to lodge grievance reports and formal complaints. They fabricated stories and expanded their false realities to say they were being bullied. All while they were stalking staff and keeping spreadsheets on particular staff comings & goings, times, phone calls, etc. Additionally, they decided to spread malicious gossip and destroy peoples careers and reputations by inventing stories of sexual relationships amongst co-workers, even phoning the boss's wife to "advise" her that "he was having an affair" (poor misguided fools). Along with that, they sprouted their ill-formed opinions to all the other agencies in town, so everyone pretty much lost credibility.

And what became of 'fugly' and her friend? They chucked a tantrum and went on Workers Comp for stress and anxiety!!!??? They're still being paid even though they've been on W.Comp for over a year. Disgraceful. More disgraceful is the fact that the organisation's so scared of them that they're still employed. Losers.

I had to cut my ties and walk away because I felt like I was compromising myself everyday just by being there. And all is well for me in a new position."

01:09 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 28, 2004

>> Poor Fido

[ Rant ]

Pay Dude shows us the loophole in the bereavement system run by fools...

"Been a Payroll dude for a number of years and thought I had heard all the excuses and seen all the scams. Received a leave form from the Manager of an employee who was missing two days last week. First day was reported sick but given a doctors cert is required for 2 or more days , the employee claimed that this day was Bereavement.

Now policy is that we have to ask (reluctantly) if the Beareavement was an immediate family member. The Manager who sat down with me said well, you see it was her ........ wait for it ........ Dog I immediately broke out laughing and while I understand how upsetting a loved dog can be if dead (even more than many foolish humans), I asked the Manager did she realise that you can't get Bereavement leave for this.

Her reply was I thought Bereavement was taken out of Annual leave. Doh was she just a fool or was it a scam as she and the employee are close mates ? I left her to answer this one either way.

Maybe the Leave form should have just said Leave Type: "Bereavement Leave" Reason : Death of Immediate Family Memeber , name was Fido.

Any other Leave form classics which people have got away with out in fool land ?"

01:05 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 27, 2004

>> Fools Glory

[ Work ]

done&gone shows us that fools run rampant beyond just look at this local community problem...

"I used to work for a community here in Florida. I was originally hired to do the electronics for a new water and sewage plant and things went along fine until they hired a new Utilities Director. This Director is an ex-army person with delusions of being a superior politician.

Cutting to the chase, the community built a new water boost station next to a major interstate. The Council wanted it to be the "Gateway to the City". Well, he caught those words and went to work.

The project quality was down graded so that he had money to put fake arches on the tank. Then the tank was stripped of interior framing to provide more money for landscaping. On and On.

just before the commissioning of the tank he decided that the grass wasn't "green enough" and had the contractor paint the grass with the green paint the superbowl uses for their grass on game day. Only cost $10,000.

OK, after the grand day and all the speeches, we get down to heavy testing of the facility and discover that it not only doesn't work, it pushes water to the wrong places, and actually backed water up into the water plant
His solution was "shut the plant down when you are running it. I'm not putting any more money into it!"

Sigh. $3 million that could have cut my taxes now sits looking pretty by the interstate with nothing to do."

01:14 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 26, 2004

>> Filthy Fools

[ Fools ]

Like Pigs at the Slop Bucket has a great nickname for this fool...

"I work in sales at a manufacturing facility. It's a professional environment, so even after working here over 2 years I'm still amazed at how completely UN-professional my co-workers can be. This morning I witnessed something so gross that I just had to share.

We have a female sales associate who appears on the outside to be fairly clean and put together, but her personal habits leave MUCH to be desired. For example, I've privately nicknamed her the Explosive Sneezer, since in her mind it's not a proper sneeze unless it's sprayed across a four-cube area. I've seen her pick food up off the floor and eat it, no four-second rule attached. This woman is sick about 90% of the year...gee, wonder why? It's called germs, ladySo anyway, I was in the ladies' restroom, and having finished my business was at the sink performing my ritual Surgeon's Scrub. "ES" came out of a stall, fluffed her hair, and walked right out of the bathroom without washing her hands. I'd never witnessed this before but had already been told by several others that she was notorious for this, so while I was disgusted I wasn't too surprised.

I finished up in the restroom and returned to the sales office, finding that one of our vendors had dropped of several boxes of Krispy Kremes for us. Yum! I hadn't had breakfast so my tummy was rumbling. At least, until ES came waltzing up. She proceeded to pick up - WITH HER BARE HANDS - every single jelly donut to find out what kind of filling it had. I managed to find a box of plain glazed that hadn't been opened yet, grabbed one, and hightailed it before she decided to smear her butt germs all over my breakfast.

It's impossible to try to talk to this woman about her spray-sneezing or her lack of hand washing. She never thinks she is in the wrong, and I think she finds it all kind of funny, truthfully. It's been brought up in countless staff meetings, during which she will promise to try to do better; the promise usually lasts the length of the meeting and no longer. I'm pals with the receptionist, so stopped by her desk (which is close to the table the donuts were set up on) and let her know so she could steer people away from the tainted ones. I can't speak with HR yet because they're in a meeting, but I plan to drop by later and make mention of it. That's just f'in gross."

01:11 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 25, 2004

>> Fools promoting fools..

[ Boss ]

Avanliss has the tip that if you are going to get promoted by a fool... you gotta get to their level...

"Recently our company promoted a person from my office area to a "Lead Clerk" position. This position requires the need to know product coding, prices and general procedure for our area since we handle sales and customer service calls. I spend the day listening to this person say "do we sell that?" and "I don't know", while I sit in my cubicle and try to figure out how can you lead a department in sales if you don't know the product.
After listening to my new "lead clerk" tell other newer members that we don't sell an item or tell them to transfer the call to another part of the office, I started to jump into the conversation and provide the correction information. Thinking that I was helping the new "lead", and preventing misinformation. I thought that I would get a pat on the back for being a team player. But instead upper management pulled me into a private office and told me that I was down grading the authority of the "lead". I defended my position on the grounds that I was trying to help, and was sent back to work.
Again the problem arose were the lead was giving the same bad information, so trying to protect my job I would wait until the "lead" was done and then give him the information that I had. Of course I was pulled in again to the private office and told that if the lead wanted information about a particular item, he would either ask me directly or go to upper management.
So thinking that upper management didn't want me to share my knowledge, I would just sit in my cubie and keep my mouth closed. When people asked me a question about something I would properly direct them to the "lead", so that I won't be stepping on anyones toes. And what do I get in return, another trip to the private office, this time because I am not being a "team player"...
This is just another example of fools promoting fools. Why give a job to a person if the don't know how to do it. I had even asked why the position was given to him instead of myself who had been with the department for five years. The response from other personal in the building was that I didn't have the look of management material. Since when does how you dress deteremine your ability to know something?"

01:19 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 24, 2004

>> Maggie Simpson Noises

[ Fools ]

camelsback oh I feel for you since i have been around someone like this... hope you got your move request in...

"I can't take it any more. My late-20s female desk mate spends all day eating candy - Jolly Ranchers are her favorite, but Starbursts or even lollipops will do in a pinch. She makes horrible LOUD slurping and sucking noises all day long. She also punctuates this rude cacophony with jarring CHOMPS when she bites down hard to break the Jolly Rancher in half. She eats them one after another, nonstop, in quick succession.

She will not touch the candy - touching the candy is bad, so sometimes she uses a Kleenex to avoid getting her fingers on the candy. She never eats lunch - why get up from your desk when you can enjoy the rainbow of refreshing fruit flavors of Starburst or JR candies?

Once, I walked by her desk and she was keeping a running count of how many Starbursts she had downed that day. It seems to be OCD or maybe an eating disorder. But I have no sympathy. I figure I can't say anything to her - she has no self-esteem and would probably crumble if I told her she was bothering me and others in the office.

I asked my boss if I could move next time we switch desks."

01:02 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 23, 2004

>> A Big Dose of B.S.

[ Boss ]

jenibee obviously needed to vent and I am glad we were here for ya...

"There are only four people in my office - one only works two days a week (and is totally clueless), and the other three are full time. One of these three is the "manager" of the office. She thinks she knows everything - like all "managers" do - but she can't keep her stories straight.

Ms. M - as I'll call her - is forever telling me and my other co-worker how we need to keep up on things, get our filing done, no web surfing, etc., but of course, does not follow the same set of rules. She is forever checking email, submitting stuff online for her kids, checking something for her husband, you know, the usual. Well, our office recently moved into new space, and while packing for the move, she realized just how much crap she had in her office that actually belonged to someone else. She is currently going through this five-mile high stack of paperwork and giving us filing dated 1999 and 2000
The latest straw breaking the camel's back was last week. I had a complaint about a specific, non-work related matter, and she suggested I contact one of the attorneys for our group and see if he could help. So I did - I sent him an email and stated that it was not a hurry and contact me if he had any suggestions for my problem. He called me a couple of days later, asked me some questions, and said he would look into it for me. He then need to talk to Ms. M about something else. Once she was done, she came out of her office and informed me that the attorney told her that I was not to contact him with this type of question again and that she had gotten "reamed out" for me contacting him! All I could think was "You Bitch! You are the one who fucking told me to contact him in the first place!" I also thought, if the attorney was so pissed off, why did he offer to help instead of telling me to leave him alone?

I spent the rest of the day silently wishing I had a grenade launcher...... I have a clean shot straight into her office "

01:07 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 22, 2004

>> Working for XYZ Insurance

[ Work ]

Medusa has some advice for you all working at insurance companies... probably applies to many other fool run companies...

"I worked for XYZ Insurance for approximately 3.5 years for their staff lawyers who handle motor vehicle accident and workers' comp claims.

They gave me very little work to do at first and so I asked for more. Instead of appreciating that I wanted to do more, they deliberately tried to sabotage me by making me go from 150 cases to 450 legal files on an overnight basis. Then the legal files were all a shambles with mostly incorrect information identifying each file, all the papers out of order and in a mess. The filing had not been done for years because the secretaries and staff before me could not keep up.

Each file I picked up I had to straighten out and I had to stay late every night for three years to update the files, put them in order etc. and keep up.

My work was appreciated eventually by a new boss that came into the company. He then took advantage of me staying late without pay and asked me to stay even later without pay on a regular basis.

Everything was fine until I started to become physically ill from carrying these legal files. I was loading and unloading massive amounts of files on a metal cart. I also fell down on the job injuring myself. Within a year I had to have a hospitalization due to my injuries and complications.

I had a co-worker who constantly harassed me about my health. I complained to Human Resources. Then in retaliation to my complaint my boss at XYZ Insurance constructed my termination by accusing me of:

(1) refusing to do overtime -- when I had been doing unpaid overtime for three years;
(2) taking long lunches when I was out of the office going to medical appointments.

He was such a god damn idiot that he broke Family Medical Leave Act laws in forbidding me to go to medical appointments and he broke labor laws by not paying me for overtime.

Employees can sue their employers but the key is that to do so first they should not resign, and if they do they should not give any notice and third they need money to sue.

Employers bank on the fact that semi-skilled workers making $35,000 or less will not be able to afford to pay lawyers especially while unemployed.

My advice to anyone thinking about working for a large insurance company is to understand that they are troubled organizations and that you should stay away.

Corporations are looking to blame someone for their problems and it's best to stay away from organizations that have financial problems to begin with, or that are at their peak with nowhere to go but down. In this case, this company was in financial trouble since the early 1990's and even worse off after 09-11."

01:13 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 21, 2004

>> Her cold dead hands....

[ Boss ]

Greyeyes works as a manager for fool boss in run of a charity... that cannot be a pretty combo...

"I work for a small charity in the UK. I am (supposedly) the Deputy Manager of this place and I like the work itself but I discovered very early on that my boss, the project manager, is a true micro-manager and trusts nobody. She is right in a way because her attitude is so destructive that stabbing her in the back is pretty high up on all senior staffs' agenda

The sad thing is in some ways she is truly admirable. She started the charity with a group of friends 26 years ago from nothing and has made it into a really valuable service.but the downside of this is she sees it as 'hers' and guards it and her position with a really unbelievable level of insecurity. She has to prove she is the boss all the time- more to herself I think but the consequences for the staff are wearysome indeed.

Her deputies last an average of 2 years. I have been there 2 and a half so I am lasting well! I recently found out by accident (she didn't mention this of course) that the last but 1 person in my post only lasted 2 months and made an official complaint to the Trustees because she was so nasty to this poor woman. This complaint was thrown out as most of the Trustees at the time were either her friends or had been involved in starting the group all those years ago. It actually made me feel better when I found all this out because like anyone in an abusive/toxic relationship I was beginning to feel 'maybe she is right. may be I am lazy, inefficient .etc' I have largely stopped taking it personally now I realise everyone has been on the receiving end.

Examples of her management technique as follows:
After spending the first 2 hours of my working day on my hands and knees under the desk trying to get the server and the modem up and running I finally managed to actually sit at my desk (I do all the IT support as well as my 'real' job). The dear leader breezes in from her Monday meeting at our other site and precedes to ask me why,oh, why I haven't made a list of phone calls.I should add we are moving to new premises in 2 weeks and things are a bit fraught right now in general. As well as my regular duties I have had to do most of the organising and procurement of the new phone system, IT equipment, security and fire safety and deal with all the contractors. You get the idea?

Of course her idea of efficiency is in the midst of this, is to send me to a pointless media presentation by a Local Government agency because it 'looks good' if our name is on the guest list so instead of being able to spend the day fixing the server and dealing with missing contractors etc I spent it in a freezing cold conference room listening to total crap. Hence on Monday morning being reprimanded for, wait for it, not chasing up the contractors and spending too much time on fixing the server/modem. She still doesn't understand that no modem means no email. Never mind, I keep telling myself, she is old and may one day soon drop dead of a stroke.. then maybe I can prize my life back from her cold dead hands"

01:16 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 20, 2004

>> Frustration

[ Fools ]

T works with this fool... do you all have one like her at your office?

"I work with a woman who drives me crazy. She sits across from me, so there is no escaping her. She has the most fake phone voice that makes me cringe. When she calls people she uses this singsong voice that is really loud and obnoxious, but what is the worst part, is just before she hangs up she says: "Buh-bye" in such a snarky way that I want to puke.

She has this staticy waist length hair that she combs all the time and dresses like Dorothy Zbornak on Golden Girls, and she's only in her late 30's! I know I shouldn't complain about someone's clothes or appearance, but... when in combination with the rest of it, it's just the icing on the cake.

She uses nasal spray all day long, and then sprays this terrible perfume.

When people come into the office, she doesn't EVER look up to assist them, I always have to. But, when someone is at my desk asking for assistance, she interrupts me and answers their questions right as I am doing so!

And, she takes 2 and a half hour long lunch breaks. No one ever says anything about it, either because she's been here forever.

Additionally, her hyperbole is absolutely maddening! Everything is "crucial" or "critical" or "dire." Our office is totally laid back, there's no need for that!

I don't think I'm making it clear how irritating she is."

01:04 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 19, 2004

>> Arrogant Ass

[ Boss ]

Somebody Shoot Me...Please has one of those bosses that is like living in the BBC show The Office...

"My boss is a technical wizard but is somewhat short on people skills. He never fails to chime in on any subject (as he is a know-it-all) and quickly manuevers the conversation to one of his narrow areas of expertise (bowling, golf, his pet dog, or techy gadgets) so he can amaze us with his great authority on all subjects. He is slowly hiring the department full of people he used to work with at a company that was bought out then laid everyone off. These people (some of whom are decent people and workers, some not so great) are first in line for everything and get the boss's ear on every initiative. He communicates almost exclusively with these people and seems shocked when the original employees don't know about something that he only told to the select few. Then he acts like it's a hassle to go through the trouble of explaining it to you. Of course, when I tried to pull some of the stunts that go unpunished with his old co-workers, I get called on the carpet and disciplined for my poor behavior. The very next week, someone arrived one hour late and he was needed to fix a misbehaving computer program. I promptly forwarded the problem straight over the boss's head to his superior, innocently trying to get resolution of the programming problem. Of course, nothing ever happened to the employee in question or the boss and the employee still routinely shows up 30-60 minutes late.

The boss has a number of annoying personal ticks but the worst is with his cellphone. He has the ringer set as loud as it can go to irritating Nokia march music that he lets go on for as much as a minute before answering - even if he isn't doing anything at the moment. He can't switch it to vibrate (even in meetings) or answer it before the bleating notes of the song are echoing off my skull and then the damn little tune is stuck in my head all day, reminding me of him "

01:10 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 18, 2004

>> You People Did What ???

[ Fools ]

Big Guy's Wifey writes in on behalf of the fools her husband works with...

"My husband works for idiots..and has the patience of a saint. Unfortunately, I do not. The big guy is wheelchair bound, and an amputee since last year due to diabetes. He gets around in a 275 pound electric power chair. Not a light chair by no means. For years that he has worked at the God forsaken company he has taken his two vials of insulin with his needles and keeps them in the company breakroom fridge. He came in one morning to find it gone ! We're talking the whole tupperware container and all that had his name on it and what it was and everything..just gone ! Of course he started freaking out (because insurance does not cover RX's for a refill too soon and these 2 vials are 29.99 each) His supervisor says, "Oh they clean out the fridge on Fridays." "Really ? says my husband," what about that crockpot of chili in the fridge that has been in there for about a month, or those half eaten sandwiches?" Someone just wanted to be a prick is what we thought. A few people don't like the sight of needles and feels he should go do his needle jabbing elsewhere...like at home. Oh of course that makes sense on a ten hour shift for a diabetic taking a city bus to and from work...dumbasses. One supervisor actually thought he should keep his insulin in his desk because the fridge is for food not medicine even after explaining this had to be kept cold.
Then if the icing on the cake wasn't sweet enough, I told the big guy that because he will run out of insulin and it will be a cost to us..they need to reiumburse us the price of the insulin. Not the copay, but the price per vial since that is what we would have to pay without insurance coverage. Do you think they understood this ???? It took numerous emails and calls to relay how insurance works (worked for a major health insurance company for several years..I know how it works). Explained that if normally in a 30 day supply he has 2 prescriptions of 2 different kinds of insulin. Each script with insurance coverage is 20.00 a copay, or 40.00 for both. Each RX has different monthly vial amounts, one has 4 vials and the other has 2 vials. The pharmacy fills it DAW (dispense as written) and don't like to fill partial scripts. Problem is that for a refill too soon, to cover both insulins because these idiots threw it out, would be $174.50 ! Like Im made of gold or something.... So all I was asking was 29.99 for each of the two vials that they threw out. We went round and round on it. Finally the supervisor and the admin asst said sure, we will reiumburse you the $40.00 that you paid. Was anyone listening ! Oh God, I thought I was talking to children. They kept saying that reiumbursing above what I paid for (20.00 per script) was not what they could do, even though the pharmacist faxed a statement signed saying yes this is our wholesale cost per VIAL WITHOUT insurance. And yes a refill too soon would be WITHOUT insurnace. Needless to say, I ended up paying the $174.50 for all 6 vials and have yet to even see the $40.00 copay for the 2 vials that they said they would pay for..let alone the $59.98(wholesale cost for 2 vials) that I think they should reiumburse us for...the freakin' fools."

01:05 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 17, 2004

>> My boss is a PYSCHO!!!

[ Boss ]

Anonymous writes in with a tale that smells a bit false but crazier things have happened... so I am posting it anyway...

"I work in a small town with 4 other people. We are in the emergency services business. My immediate supervisor is going through early menopause and as such is extremely moody, even to patients. I have apologised to patients on her behalf many times. Her boyfriend is a cop and is trying to sue the service by lying about a back injury that he openly tells us about. My supervisor was extremely unhappy that a fellow male colleague of mine was a better officer than her and she disallowed him many things and dobbed him in with fabricated information. He retaliated by filing a protected disclosure. She responded by threatening to shoot him, yelling this out in front of 2 other people.

Many times her boyfriend would come to work and talk about weapons they have at home, guns and crossbows. She then told me that she would shoot me. She also told me she was suicidal. OH NO.

Because of her instability and threats I told my boss and it was pushed aside and not taken seriously. I have put in a compassionate transfer stating "I no longer feel safe here", but my work is doing nothing. I can not go to the police as the boyfriend is one of the two cops in town. I haven't been back to work for 3 months. Apparently, this guy got wind of the threats and all hell is breaking out. I don't want to be near this town when the S___T hits the fan..."

01:02 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 16, 2004

>> Is she the dumbest person in the world?

[ Rant ]

Boogsy vents about a foolish receptionist who seems to be missing a few screws...

"Our Receptionist is absolutely lovely and has a heart of gold, but my God, there is NOTHING but fresh air between the ears.

Story 1 : We were discussing my upcoming visit home to New Zealand (from Australia) for a holiday. She says "How long have you lived here"? I say "About 6 years". She says "Gee, your English is good". Of course it's good, you stupid girl, what do you think the main language of New Zealand is"?!?

Story 2 : We have two people called "Mark" in another office interstate. One has a very strong English accent and the other has a very strong Russian accent. She leaves a message for me asking me to call Mark from this particular office. I say "Which one ... Pommy Mark or Russian Mark". She says "I don't know ... they both sound the same". Trust me, this is not possible."

01:11 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 15, 2004

>> "Yes Yes" or "It is broken"

[ Rant ]

heaven's helper finds that these two phrases work for this fool...

"Working in publications you would assume a basic grasp of the English language would be listed as 'desirable' on the job application. Apparently not at my workplace, where we produce a number of magazines and newspapers.

A member of my team has survived on two basic phrases - 'yes, yes,' and 'It is broken' - for over two years. Generally, conversations take place as such... 'Ms E, can you please do XYZ?', 'Yes,yes'... (sometime later).... 'Ms Eejit, why havent you done XYZ?', 'It is broken'.

For example: When trying to burn a CD Ms E repeatedly told me it was broken, however when I tried to burn anything using her machine it worked perfectly. In desperation I watched her try to use the burner... And yes, once I told her she had to put the CD in the right way up, it worked like a charm.

For the life of me I can not understand why this person was hired - surely every interview question cannot be satisfactorily answered by 'yes yes' and 'it is broken.'"

01:07 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 14, 2004

>> The best reason for going freelance

[ Rant ]

Nobody'sbossbutmyown shares a story and advice for you all that maybe a fool can save you...

"In my last (as in final) in-house publishing job, my supervisor "just happened" to be the company owner's mother's best friend.

The woman was an idiot. Period. She had no training in the publishing industry prior to being hired by the company's owner--in fact, even he hadn't been so stupid as to hire her in an editorial capacity initially; her first job was secretarial. By the time I was hired, however, she'd been there for years and had been promoted to Executive Editor. Her only talent was kissing the anuses of anybody who held any power over her. (Readers can probably guess that she also treated those over whom she held power like dirt--her type always does.) I'm not exaggerating, either...she knew nothing about editing or writing and didn't even know how to use her computer. Whenever she had to write a memo she'd either ask me to write it for her (and put her name on it) or ask me to 1) turn on her computer; 2) open up the word processing program we used; and 3) open up the memo template. She'd type her memo--I'll give her this, she was a hell of a typist--and then call me into her office again to print it for her.

She arrived late every day. She also left early every day. She took time off far in excess of our allotted sick, personal, and vacation days--something for which anyone else would have been fired. When she did bother showing up for work she spent most of the day making personal phone calls or regaling coworkers with stories about her children and grandchildren. She "delegated" most of her own work to me (in addition to my own, position-defined tasks) but take credit for having done it herself.

The day I finally realized I had no choice but to leave was the day she insisted that I give each of our group members (including her) a few pages of our journal's proof pages for proofreading. I tried to point out that it wasn't practical (because her plan was that "We'll all proof the pages you give us, then we'll give them back to you and you can check them to make sure we caught everything we shoud have"--in other words, let's do the whole damned job twice, shall we?) but she pulled rank and insisted.

Later, while checking everyone else's work, I found a serious error in one set of pages. One of my "helpers" had changed the symbols in a formula--replacing superscripts with subscripts and vice versa. You'll never guess who it was. Now, as this was a medical journal, changing characters around in any kind of equation wasn't a trivial error.

I started looking for another job but she found out about it and decided to get rid of me before I could make her look bad by quitting. (I guess the dozen or so employees who had already quit after only a month or so of working with her *hadn't* made her look bad.)

Ironically, I found out later (from two sources so I know it was true) that she was giving me bad references when prospective employers called her. The day I heard that, I wrote two letters: One to the owner and another to the company's personnel director. With the owner's letter I enclosed copies of the pages she'd proofed and erroneously changed (I'd saved copies because I knew this broad was going to be a problem) as well as the back cover of an issue that she'd worked on herself and which contained several typos. In the letter to the personnel director (which I also cc'd to the owner), I described the things she was telling prospective employers about me and pointed out that she was in direct violation of Federal law regarding reference checks.

It all turned out to my good in the end, however. My mentor in the publishing industry (who was, ironically, the man for whom I'd originally worked in that company; the only reason I'd been transferred to work for the nitwit was that his job description changed and he was no longer entitled to an assistant--when the company fired me he raised hell trying to get me rehired) took me out to dinner a few weeks later and suggested that I freelance instead of working in-house: "You don't suffer fools gladly, Jess [name changed], and you refuse to play office politics, so you're never going to do your best work in a corporate atmosphere."

Nine years later I'm freelancing full time, living in the country (which I couldn't have done if I'd had an in-house job), and amazed that I have the kind of life I always wanted. Readers, question for you: Every so often I'm tempted to send that old battleaxe a thank-you note telling her that if she hadn't stabbed me in the back, my life wouldn't be as terrific as it is today. (That I'd still be stuck in a cubicle like she is.) Should I? :::grin:::"

01:03 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 13, 2004

>> Never Ending "Story"

[ Fools ]

ain't so naive no more starts out a bit of a fool in this story but still escapes from this other fool...

"I am a freelance writer who until very recently, wrote for a local parenting magazine. The Editor/Publisher has been lying to me since day one, only it took me some time to really see what a manipulator he is. This was my first experience at freelance work. Upon agreeing to bring me on as a monthly contributor, he promised me a contract once things settled down. The publication was new and things were kind of thrown together, as he told me. He told me payment would "take awhile"--approximately 30 days he said, after I submitted my material. 30 days came and went and no check. I questioned him on this and he told me payment takes around 45 days. 45 days came and went w/o payment. Again I questioned him on this and he told me well payment can take around 60 days. So I said your "story" keeps changing on that what is it exactly? He stammered and mentioned something about it being a new publication so I said hey look I am counting on that money to take with me on my honeymoon next week. I guess that worked as I had a check within 2 days.

That was just the beginning of a long line of excuses for late payments and unfulfilled promises of creating a contract that went on for over a year. I admit I was naive to this industry--and this man knew it and took full advantage of it. Plus I had dreamed for years of being an actual paid writer and I didn't want to "rock the boat" too much for fear I'd lose out on this opportunity. I finally realized I couldn't handle being taken advantage of so I created my own contract and let him know any payments received after the 1st of the month would be subject to a certain late fee. Prior to this, he did make a verbal agreement with me on the phone stating he would pay me by the 1st from that day forward. That lasted for two months. When I confronted him on this he denied ever making the agreement. So I then told him I had created my own contract and that all payments received after the 1st would be subject to a late fee. He said he was "unable" to pay me this, even though I have billed him for these fees.

It was then that I quit. He called me up and said it was likely best as we had had a "personality conflict" for some time. I told the little twit to remove his salesman hat....that my quitting had nothing to do with a personality conflict but rather his continual lies and irresponsibilities. (He was also famous for calling me at the last minute to totally re-do an assignment saying he had changed his mind.....while refusing to pay me for the extra work I had to do, plus making endless promises of staff meetings that never manifested, of creating new publications that I would write for which also never manifested...In time I realized not to take any of his words with any amount of truth.) I told him truthfully why I was quitting. He then said the reason we didn't have a contract was my fault as I hadn't returned his phone call of the week prior. I said "So you called me then to create a contract?" and he said "No."

Payment was never "on-time" and the past 3 months, those checks have been arriving later and later. His excuses for all of these late payments? "Hey you know I always pay you at some point." and "You don't get paid until my advertisers do." Unbelievable way to run a business. I also haven't received my 1099 form, which he insists he sent out 2 months ago. My request that he submit another one fell on deaf ears, so he has been reported to the IRS.

Anyone out west who runs into a small man who looks like a leprochaun and says he owns a small parenting magazine RUN AWAY!! "

01:01 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 12, 2004

>> Titles

[ Boss ]

Pug8 has a rant about their supervisor and how did they get to a position without any actual leadership qualities...

"I am a graduate student in organizational leadership, a healthcare professional, and I have a been in the military for quite some time. One thing that agravates me more than anything else is the title "supervisor". What the fuck does that mean? How do you get a job being in charge of people without being a leader or manager?

My boss is a worhtless piece of shit that takes her role as supervisor seriously, kind of, as long as it allows her to slack off, and get out of doing work. She does have manager responsibilities, which she usually puts on her subordinates, as well as some leadership responsibilities that she is completely incompetent in completing. She is the least educated person in the department, and due to her effective slacking techniques over the past fourteen years, she is also the lest experienced.

Education doesn't mean everything, but it does represent a level of accomplishment. I really like the facility that I work at and have no desire to leave, I would jst like to see her gone. I am entirely more qualified than her for her job, but the hospital has this foolosh loyalty to worthless old fools that cannot perform an honest day's work.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though, I just wanted to share my frustration."
01:14 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 11, 2004

>> You Want Me To Do What!?

[ Boss ]

Anonymous writes in admitting that he isn't qualified for the position but his fool boss thinks otherwise...

"The finance person quit at my work on Tuesday. We are a small company, so that typically means that we are all overloaded and overworked. So, today, we had a meeting to talk about how we could pick up the jobs that this person does. The big boss, showing infinite wisdom, tells us that the finance person may not be replaced, we'll just have to wait and see. In the mean time, I get stuck with just about half of this person's job. Nevermind the fact that I am already close to not meeting my goals for the year. Let's just add more to it and see whether or not I can truly swim.

Now, this all sounds typical. Let me qualify it just a bit more, so that you see how foolish this decision really is. I am the IT person for this company. IT and Finance are NOTHING alike!!! The only reason that I even know what the finance part of our software does is that I had to install and verify the stuff when got new computers last year. I've been taught to cut checks with the software, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. Mind you, I am being saddled with the lions share of the financial duties. Me, a person that never took a single accounting course in school, and doesn't even balance my checkbook. Oh yeah... real smart there... put the IT guy in charge of all of the company finances... If it weren't for the big boss having to sign all of the checks, we'd all have spiffy new computers and really kick-butt servers by the time I get done.

The job has been starting to slide down hill for a while now as these technological fools continually try to foist off more and more work on me, but this is just about he last straw. My IT buddies all agree with me... time to spruce up the resume and start fishing for something new..."
01:07 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 10, 2004

>> Part-time hell

[ Fools ]

Anonymous has an issue that I am sure has occurred in various industries the fool hired to do work but pawns it off on others and still ends up getting paid more... hell maybe they aren't fools after all?

"I'm the web site developer at my company. There's a guy who works part-time and is here a couple days a week. Every time, and I really mean EVERY TIME, I walk out the door to go home he asks me a web page question... they're not simple questions either. I'll be walking out the door saying goodbye and he'll ask, "Hey, how do you create a such-and-such" or "I'm getting an error on this page I created. Can you fix it?"

"Um, as you can see I have my coat on, my bag in my hand, and my keys ready. Does it look like I have 30 minutes to spare. By the way, you've been here for 5 hours... why didn't you ask me this before?"

I'm serious, every time."
01:10 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 09, 2004

>> Oh Crap!

[ Fools ]

TakingCrazyPills has a bit of a gross but hilarious story...

"Our office would often hire temporary workers for big projects. One of the more memorable ones was a woman who actually had a mullet, smelled, nay, reeked of cigarette smoke, drove an old beat up van, and constantly talked about her skeevy boyfriend. It was kind of interesting to hear her stories and cringe until one day. On that fateful day, we had a lot of work and agreed to stay through lunch. She volunteered to go get a pizza for everybody. Her ailment of the week was bronchitis- go figure, could it be perhaps all the cigarettes? Nooooo. Well, anyway, she had a cough. When she returned she came in all flustered and crying. She stood in the middle of our four cubes and turned us all off our lunch. Apparently, she was standing in line when she was taken by a coughing fit so severe that it caused her to crap her pants! She came in to ask the boss if she could go home and change. The boss generously told her to take the rest of the day. We graciously declined the pizza that she accidentally left in her van. It was a very classy day!"
01:02 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 08, 2004

>> Manager with Inferiority Complex

[ Work ]

Broken Radius shares with us what happens when a fool takes over a store that was once running smoothly...

"So I decided to go to work yet again for the largest fitness sales company, why I don't know. So I'm selling a bike when I'm supposed to be managing the warehouse. I slip fall and break my arm. I rush myself to the hospital on public transit because my manager "Double H" was too busy overseeing a store void of customer yet full of five other employees. After three years of an unblemished record and countless company peers. "Double H" decided it would be wise to terminate my employment at this great place of employment only two days after the incident. "Double H" is quite the character he thinks his fecal matter smells like roses, because he gets everyone else to do his work. This is indicated by the fact that his store had the worst month in its entire history after my termination and the repercussions afterwards. So lets all hope that "Double H" changes to "Double X", over his freakin' eyes."
01:10 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 07, 2004

>> Maintaining Professionalism in the Face of Immaturity?

[ Rant ]

Ack! has one of those situations I am sure a few of you have had where a fool is out to get you...

"A few years ago, I was hired to a company as a temporary receptionist. Once they learned of my education and job history, they paid extra to get me out of my temp contract to work solely for them in the hopes that I would advance into sales or software support (I chose the latter). However, during the months before I was to take the support position I still worked as the receptionist. My supervisor at the time was a woman younger than me who was always nice to my face, but later I heard differently. She began to complain to everyone about my job performance, despite the fact that she had said a few months earlier that I was the best receptionist they had ever had. She also began giving me pointless tasks to try to keep me busy--even other people's responsibilities. After I began to date the owner's son (we now live together) she began to gossip about me even more. Finally, a meeting was called because of her behavior. She admitted saying one or two things but it was only because she was 'so frustrated' with my work. She tried throughout the meeting to get me in trouble, making false claims and even insulting my intellegence. I never responded to her in the way she would've liked--I managed to keep my temper. I was so angry that I wanted to literally attack her but because I do not believe in high-school behavior in the workplace I didn't yell, cry, or choke her. Afterwards, we still had to work together but fortunately she was no longer my supervisor. For more than a year afterwards until she left, I avoided her to ensure my temper stayed in tact. She, however, would taunt me on occasion to try and provoke me. I knew she mistook my avoidance thinking I was afraid of her, but the fear was of me losing control and acting a fool or getting arrested. Later I found out from other co-workers that her main problem with me had always been that she was jealous because I am naturally thin person. And despite knowing the jokes and insults I endured as a boney, flat-chested girl growing up and when I had cancer (my weight had dropped dangerously low), she still hated on me. Now I find myself wishing that I would've reverted back to teenage-hood and clocked her over the head with my coffee mug."
01:07 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 06, 2004

>> Would not listen

[ Fools ]

Idjit Yahoo shares us a story with only one piece of advice... dont allow your fool son's friends to work for you...

"I was a service manager of a business machine company several years ago. I hired one of my son's friends to be a delivery person and to do cleaning (small company).

One day, he had to make a delivery of a cash register to a store in one of the local malls. Since he was new to the job, I explained to him to use the elevator instead of the escalator because the dolly he was using to carry the cash register would not fit on the escalator stairs and the weight of the cash register would flip the dolly and thus throw the cash register down the escalator stairs. Do you see what is coming? He decides not to take my advice and from the top of the escalator he decides to get on with the fully loaded dolly, to which it promptly dumped the cash register down the escalator, broke into many pieces and broke the escalator. Imagine that..."
01:19 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 05, 2004

>> One rib, two rib, what rib??????

[ Fools ]

berryphil brings us a fool not from the office world but the kitchen...

"I have been a cook for over ten years. I have become skilled enough to pick different cuts of meat in its raw and cooked form. However, with my recent job I don't handle the cooking of the food. I pretty much make sure that orders are correct and garnished correctly. I work with a real jackass, who we will call "Allen". Allen made it very clear that he made almost 13 dollars a hour and that he was a trainer. However Allen can't properly identify the meats he needs to cook. My job has two types of ribs that are identified by bone structured. To this day he still sends out the wrong food on a constant basis. For me this is a pain in the ass. I have to stop what I am doing , fix the proper food, and still make sure that is top quality for our guest. Now to some people this may not seem like a hassle but when I am looking at 20 tables of food with at least three people at each table, it becomes hell to try to preserve my sanity and the quality of food. And my boss wonders why I want a raise?????"
01:04 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 04, 2004

>> Social Club

[ Work ]

Anonymous finds that the social club run by fools isn't all its cracked up to be...

"Our company has a social club. After being in the company for a few months it became obvious that it was only a drinking club for the benefit of a cliche of managers and cronies. I am married with a 2 year old but there were never any family oriented outings and there were many outings that I only heard about afterward where the only attendees were this inner circle. I was paying $20 each month for my wife & I to be members of this social club for about a year before I cancelled our membership. Today the HR manager sent an email saying that the proceeds of the donation from casual friday would be going to the Social Club for the next few weeks to raise funds. When I queried this as a non member I was told that the Social Club had subsidised non-members at a recent function. I replied that I had not attended this function, nor had I any intention of attending any other functions so would not be participating in further casual fridays. I am waiting to be called into the office for my severance chat later :o) People who disagree with the management here tend to meet with strange accidents!!!"
01:12 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 03, 2004

>> Blowhard

[ Rant ]

Vortneeb writes in from the road with a rant to blow of some steam... amazing how fools make ya get that way...

"I'm on the road working right now, away from my wife and 1 year old son (our first). I have been here for 4 weeks being bounced around from one illogical assignment to another, I'm at the mercy of this power-tripping scatterbrain who just seems to be amused watching someone from the other office jump through hoops. If that wasn't enough I have been assigned to work with possibly the biggest blowhard in the world. Picture the most crass, pig-headed buffoon you've ever known in your life, throw in a little Boss Hogg and a dash of pure evil and you're there. What a putz! He will rant on about something that wasn't done the way he wants (though he holds no real authority, especially over me) and then he throws his hands up and says: "Well, I don't give a s***!" Well then what are you yelling for then?!?! Is it me or does an endless stream of profanity really come off as unprofessional? Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who don't swear, believe me, but it just makes for such an aggressive work environment. It wouldn't be so bad if the guy knew what he was doing, but the guy is clueless! It's incredible! I'm away from my family and I have to put up with this fat bimbo? He's just lucky I don't have a violent streak. I'm getting to the point where it just rolls off my back, his constant complaining and know-it-all-edness, in fact I've started getting him riled up purely for my own amusement, just to see how far I can push him. I know I know that doesn't make me any better than him, well fine, in order to give him back a molecule of the crap I've taken from him, I will gladly sink to his level... ahhh feels good to rant.... coffee!"
01:12 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 02, 2004

>> Round and round we go.....

[ Boss ]

Corporate drone # 465319 comes in with one of my favorite user names... and with a hilarious story of too much work being done...

"Long story short, my boss pulled me aside one day to tell me that I was doing too much work. She said that duties I was performing to help our sales force were outside of my job description and that I would be formally written up for acting this way. I informed her that what I did was necessary and needed, and it was helping our company greatly. She said I was out of line questioning her authority and told me I could resign if I wanted. I shut up and told her I was not saying another word for fear of losing my job. I went to HR with a complaint that my boss was incompetent and I did not feel comfortable having my reviews, raises and promotions dependant upon her opinion (she has no clue how to do what I do and can not answer remedial questions about it). HR told me that the company had placed her in a position of authority and I could not submit my two month report documenting her mistakes. This despite the backing of every subordinate under her management. Shocked, I complied to her wishes and began to operate within a strict set of guidelines to what I would and would not do. 2 weeks later she pulled me aside to say that I was following her instructions, but there had been some complaints, and I now had two weeks to locate the middle ground or I was going to lose my job. So despite following her instructions for change, she was still willing to take my job security, despite still having no clue. Move ahead 1 month, and the company opens up a new position, one that includes all of the things I was doing on top of my normal duties (evidentally they figured it was important that someone do these things). When I submitted my name to apply, I was told that I was ineligible due to being written up previously (on a performance plan). And despite a year of promises of a raise, because of this same performance plan, I was given nothing, despite doing more than anyone else in the department in terms of "above and beyond" the call of duty. I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. Just call me corporate drone # 465319!"
01:18 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

June 01, 2004

>> Face up to your own

[ Rant ]

Anonymous takes fools to new lows with ones that forgot to pay a lease...

"While working at a mortgage company, it was required for all employees to attend ongoing classes for the industry. Myself and two loan officers were returning from class, when we noticed the office was locked up, the key did'nt fit, and there was a trepass notice on the door. It seems our fearless leader forgot to pay on the monthly lease. Its not the first time something like this has happened.My mail would come to the office and would get screened, before I got it 2-3 days later.

The office would get calls from collectors regarding internet service, phone service, water bill, etc.,. I would forward the call to the GM, and he was always too busy, so I would have to deal the problem. Got tired of this crap and told the GM to be a man and to face up to his own responsibilities, needless to say, I'm starting my own company and will never follow this jerks examples, I'm doing the opposite of what he would, and business is good."
01:10 AM - Posted by Disgruntled