October 26, 2006

>> No respect/ I raised the bar to high

[ Boss ]

Victim of the bosses wife writes...

"I work for a company that is seasonal in that most of our money is made at Easter, Xmas, and Thanksgiving. Last March my boss transfered me from my store due to the fact that he felt the employees would no longer respect me because of some major personal/medical issues I was going through and they knew about them so he felt their respect was gone.

Being transfered from the busiest store to the slowest store has been a challenge, but once again I have worked my magic of educating the staff on haow to get the sales, and going over and beyond for the customer. In fact since I took it over every month the sales have been up over last year.

My boss does bot attribute this to me but to the fact that they opened a new grocery store down the street a block away.

Thanksgiving comes and we are up 81% in sales over last year, and 350% up in our dinner sales.The store I was at previously was down in sales. Yet my boss sits me down and informs me I am not giving a 100% and that I am hiding when it gets busy. His wife works for me, and she is in charge when I am gone, when I asked for examples he refused to give them to me but said he did not want to talk about it right now.

Once again the idiot goes down the respect road as to the employees do not respect me because I asked an opinion about something to my employees. Though I know all of his wifes personal issues and many of his personal issues.Like the fact that she had to tell him to wear deodarant.

Christmas comes and we again are up my brilliant boss says to me I raised the bar to high for the previous store he didn't think they were going to make the sales goal that I had done last year. When I shook my head and said I wont go there right now he simply said each store has it's problems and walked away.

Just wait till I call the personal dept and complain."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

October 23, 2006

>> We charge extra for copies

[ Fools ]

Formerly Disgruntled writes...

"The idiot office manager at the bizzarro law firm I used to work at was REALLY dumb. She'd started out there as the receptionist and had gotten her promotion because of an affair she was currently having with the managing partner. Whatever the current receptionist said was considered law. Now, at the time (mid 90's) at every other law firm I'd worked at, we'd billed clients for long distance calls. It was a simple system, you wrote down the number you called and the time and date and what client you made the call on behalf of. When the phone bill came, receptionists all over the city simply went through the bill, found each charge and added it to the slip on each long distance call and that was sent to the billing department and it went on the bill (this was a few years back before computer systems evolved that tracked phone calls like this). When our office manager had been receptionist, she hadn't liked that part of the job so she'd stopped doing it and she didn't make her replacement do it either. So phone calls weren't tracked AT ALL. When new people were hired from other firms, they always started out writing down their phone calls only to be shot down in flames and told that it was not necessary. I was aghast at the thought of them losing hundreds of dollars every month and went to her and suggested we do this and her answer was "oh don't worry about it, it evens out, we charge extra for copies to make up for it." They were charging clients 25 cents a page for copies and she felt that would balance it out. Of course, there were people who abused this "free long distance plan" -- people who routinely called their out of town relatives on their lunch hours, one guy who spent hours during work time on the phone to his girlfriend in college in another state, etc. It didn't change till the office manager quit and was replaced by someone else and then they instituted the computerized system where you had to dial in your client's account number to dial out (even though it was a small firm and more than do-able) because the receptionist REFUSED to do the phone bill and upper management wouldn't make her. She was kind of "different" also -- she read People magazine all day between calls and it took her a whole week to get through one. And so she didn't have to share it with the people who came and did her breaks and lunch, she would tear out and remove the pages she'd read."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

October 19, 2006

>> Fat Ass

[ Fools ]

Artist writes...

"I have this problem with two of my coworkers. They come in my cublicle to chat. I do not have a "visitor's chair" in my cubicle because I do not want one. I do not want to feel crowded nor do I want anyone to linger around for ever.

Well here's the problem. I have two fat asses who like to come in and sit on the counters in my office. I have asked them repeatedly not to do this. They are habitual in their nuisance.

Each time they sit, I see the counter literally decending by one or two inches. As my counters become weary, I envision the eventual fate of my monitors, my computer, my coffee pot, and my bosses reaction.

How can I politely get the understanding that cubicle counters are not made to support their rather large asses!?"

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

October 16, 2006

>> Pitting them against each other

[ Boss ]

AnotherEngineer writes...

"Will do my best to make this brief:

I worked for years below an imbecile who became our COO by taking credit for my accomplishments. I suffered it for years because I was assured he was "taking me with him" and the CEO loved him, so I figured this was my best path. Needless to say once he made it he became paranoid about me "exposing" his real skills and set to work moving me around the company.

He moves me to be supervised by a new hire who, lo and behold, promises the exact same thing. I know better this time around, but I let him think I'm playing along.

The new hire is put in place to do the COO's former job. Naturally there is a good bit of friction as each of these geniuses debate the "proper way" of evaluating, measuring and managing the department, but they keep it as cool as possible.

A couple months ago I get an assignment by the new hire to change the way some things are calculated in one of the company's reporting packages dealing with production. Mind you, this is the package the COO created (he dictated, I programmed) and he's very proud of it. He ran me through months of changes before he was satisfied with the initial rollout - including things like font choices and the like.

So I make the changes and innocently copy the COO on the followup email stating that "I've revised everything according to your (new hire's) specifications and all the errors should be corrected".

It has the exact effect I hoped. The COO is not fond of being told he did it the wrong way. The new hire is indignant when the COO comes to correct him. As of today, a two month Email war is still going on over this. I have seen them in heated exchanges behind closed doors and each of them keeps trying to "partner up" with me to show the other one up.

Revenge is sweet."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

October 12, 2006

>> Smiles at you while twisting the knife...

[ Rant ]

Anonymous writes...

"I work with a pack of prententious middle-class punks who live on their illusions of grandeur. This, naturally, is irritating in and of itself. There's one guy with a big butt who likes to butt into everyones' conversations and show that he knows 'everything'. He talks in such a way that he could do voice-overs for the boss on Office Space. Initially, everyone despised him and I thought he was okay. However, after the first time I had mentioned he was really getting on my nerves, Miss Smiley in my group said everyone else in the group had gotten to know him and liked him. Miss Smiley used to be my friend when I started at my job a couple years ago. Actually, we were friends because we had a friend in common. I visited Miss Smiley in the hospital when she had a baby, went to her home and visited her while she was on maternity leave, made her a fabulous gift basket, etc. However, the moment our mutual friend left the company, Miss Smiley became an undercover bi-otch! Exhibit A: She put a note in one of her files that she was currently working on something that only she has access to on her system, and I put a note in the file that the client had called inquiring about this, she mentioned it when I stopped by her cubicle one afternoon. She said, "Yeah, I think it's really shitty when people just put a note in my file saying that I was working on something instead of just doing it themselves...". I am not much of one for confrontation, but figured that it was a good time to note, "Yeah, my pet peeve is when people take things out of my workbasket without working them; at least if they leave them there, I know there's something to be done still." She took this as a sign that it was fine to hold a grudge against me henceforth. Exhibit B of her bitchiness follows: I have a daughter who was going through some issues and could not be trusted at home alone after school. Miss Smiley even knew I had taken my daughter in for evaluations, had her on medication, etc due to these issues.

Due to this, my supervisor agreed to letting me work a shift one hour earlier than the rest of my group so I could be home when my daughter got there after school. One morning I ran into Miss Smiley by the coffee station. She asked what I was doing at work so early. I told the truth. She got furious and vented that it was bullshit that I got to change my hours when she had asked to change hers before so she could be home with her kids in the afternoons (who, naturally, had no issues b/c they were raised by Miss Smiley). She later apologized for this and said she didn't mean to take it out on me. However, since then, I've been dealing with a myriad of shitty acts I like to call Exhibit C: Miss Smiley intentionally excludes me from all group-related activities (not telling me when group is going to lunch, etc). She shares jokes with other coworkers via email and laughs riotously. When I express interest, she dismisses me, either not responding to my comment or not forwarding the funny reading. She also makes a point to talk to everyone on a daily basis, "Hey, Jock! How many files have you closed over there?", "What about you, Lovable Doofus?", "How 'bout you, Know-it-All?". Needless to say, I'm never asked. However, sometimes I'm 'lucky' enough to be graced with her presence when she is bored and has no one else's cube to slack off in for the moment. (note: Miss Smiley probably only works 25-50% of the day and socializes the rest of the day and wonders why she has bad reviews, but likes to brag that she's so caught up and also brags about how she's helping everyone else with their workload, which leads to Exhibit D, which will conclude my rant...) Exhibit D: Miss Smiley has been volunteering for every special project under the sun lately so that she will not get any new work assigned to her, so it appears she is caught up most of the time. I am currently tied for the furthest behind with the one woman in my group besides Miss Smiley. Miss Smiley has made a point of helping everyone but me with their workload. The other day, though, she finally asked if there was anything I needed help with. I told her I was very far behind on making contact on my new files. She asked how my workbasket looked and I told her I had come in over the weekend and gotten it whittled down quite a bit. Her response to this was, "Oh, I see you have 26 items in your workbasket. Mr. Know-it-All has 21. I believe I will help Mr. Know-it-All (who was approximately 45 files closer to being caught up than I was) and Mr. Doofus (who, naturally, is completely caught up and had very few items in his workbasket), then, maybe if I have time, I'll try to hop on yours." The next day, Know-it-All says, "Wow! All my messages are gone! What happened?". Miss Smiley replies, "I called them back and got them all taken care of!". Not wanting to be a bitch, but needing to express my need for assistance as well as my frustration, I jokingly said "Wow! I wish the message fairy would help me out!" Later, I heard Miss Smiley talking to one of my clients. I thanked her for assisting my client. She replied that the Message Fairy was just starting to get on my messages. Ten minutes later, she announced she was leaving for the day, and invited Lovable Doofus and Know-it-All to go with her.... AAARRRGGGHHHH!!! >:( So today (first day back from the weekend following the last bit), she keeps announcing that we each need to take 8 calls for other people every day through the end of the year if we want to hit our goal and get pizza (am I crazy, or does pizza cease to be an incentive after college?). I just kept my mouth shut. Later in the day, she pointedly asked if I had heard her announcement. I advised her I had, but that I had also received a huge file this morning that I had been working on for the past 5 hours and it would be hard for me to take any calls today (including my own) in order to do everything on the file I needed to do by the end of the day, as this file was urgent. She replied, "Oh, okay. I just was checking because there's no point in the rest of us busting our asses to hit the goal if everyone's not participating and pulling their own weight..." 'Nuf said, ladies and gentlemen of the jury: I'm sure I've proven my case that I work with a most heinous bitch-on-wheels. :)"

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

October 09, 2006

>> The ranting old lady

[ Boss ]

E.D. writes...

"I know this isn't work but its close enough. I have this french teacher , lets call her Mrs. Day. She is the most unproffessional , rude , and if you want to say it, abusive.

She doesn't pick favourites - but she does pick lesat favourites. My best friend and her have hated each other since day 1. If he asks someone to use their pencil or eraser or whatever , she'll rant to the whole class about him never been prepared even though he is prepared about 3/4 the time.

Next, if you want to ask a question about a qord you don't know in private since maybe most the class knows (as in she comes over to you or you walk over to here) , she'll ask the entire class what it means.

Then, somedays 1 person will be talking to the person next to then and she'll go on this 20 minute lecture on why you should talk , which doesn't piss me off as much as what she does nnext , she turns around and says in these exact words: "and because you can't keep your mouth shut , we had to waste all this time" . Ehem , if I'm not mistaken we didn't ask for a presedential speech.

Then there are her odd sayings, sometimes its the examples that get me mad. For example this is her speech for things that are accident: "If you're throwing snowballs and you throw one at your friend and it hits a girl thats walking down the street , its not an accident because it could have been prevented" to this I say 3 things:

1. Why couldn't the girl have gone on the other side of the street

2. I'm pretty sure the definition of an accident is something around , not meant to happen.

3. If you're for example trying to get some on a paintball game (trying not to be violent), and you're friend is right beside them, and you accidentally hit your friend, that was and accident yet it could have been prevented by hitting the other person , not shooting , waiting and getting hit yourself.

Also , Mrs. Day can never admit she is wrong. Plain and simple , no example needed.

I hope many people read this and learn that french isn't fun."

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

October 05, 2006

>> Do I slap her now or later?

[ Boss ]

Mee Moo writes...

"Here is my random dribble about my so say "Boss".

I work for a Financial Advisors in England, Im not an actual advisor as Im training at the moment. So as it stands Im basically admin. It's a bit confusing but I work in a company within a company and there is only 5 of us that work in the smaller company.

Now the people I work with are great, funny and good to chat to. But. I work with my sister-in-law. Ive never liked her in the 10 years she has been married to my brother. She is kind of like the wicked step mother in Snow White but in the form of a sister-in-law. She is co-directer of the smaller company so she is partly my boss. I was hired to start with to become an understudy of my collegue, lets call her Faye.

Usually Faye comes in around 10am as she works later so in the morning I tend to sort out all her work for the day and take her phonecalls yadda yadda. Now my sister-in-law is a very bossy woman. Very bossy. She loves the sound of her own voice and is a huge gossip.

The problem I have is she is now trying to take over from Faye and give me her work to do. I don't mid so much doing other peoples work as I do tend to get through my work quite fast. But it's really crap things, such things like phone 20 companies on values of clients invesments. I know it sucks but it has to be done but what really gets up my nose is that she regular asks me to do errands for her because "she can't be arsed to get off her seat" that is her actual words!!

So I do her little errands and because I was out of the office she says to my real boss (the main director of the company) "were going to have to cut down on her pay - she is out of the office a lot"

I try not to scream and throw things at her. It's hard believe me. But the worse irrating thing is that she gives me letter to do and she proof reads it and then hands the letter back so i re-type and so on. This usually goes on about 10 times for one letter. I know she is only doing it to get up my nose so I try rise above it. Try being the operative word.

Now it's really getting tough as she has taken into slagging off my family and I have to sit there listening to how she "hates her mother-in-law" knowing full well I can hear her and she is talking about my mum! I know if I say anything to her I won't stop until Im blue in the face so for now Im gritting my teeth and ignoring her. But one more step out of line I will smack her around the face and boy would it feel good!!"

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled

October 02, 2006

>> My VP is a fucking toddler

[ Boss ]

whitecollarfrenchcuffs writes...

"My VP...we'll just call her BRAT, is such a fucking toddler. She is marginalized by her abrasive personality; her complete lack of management capabilities; and her inability to effectively articulate anything, either written or verbal. It was terribly embarrassing today to be on a conference call with her, and to listen to a number of people on the call digress into a technological issue, about which she has no understanding. Her beady little eyes and arthritic hands clenched together as I could see her angst in losing control of the call. She then yelled, "Can I ask a question!" But, it was not a request. Others ignored her and continued to digress. She then started yelling something incomprehensible, and said "I'd like to ask a question! I'm talking now!"

I cringed because I was so embarrassed for her, and equally to be embarrassed as a part of her "group." In her actions, she portrayed herself as the little girl who hoards toys and who doesn't play fair, and as a result, no one would play with her.

It's terribly frustrating because I have no confidence in her leadership/management capabilities, and I see no upward mobility for myself as a result. She is a micro-manager and as a result, projects that could be streamlined are carried over vast periods of time, often never completed.

I wish she were my peer, so I could do some sort of anonymous "review" of her. She totally blows ass. She needs a reality check. She operates like some warped culture of the 80s. Give me a break. I have to find another job. I do the minimum to appear I am productive...there is little oversight (save her micromanaging when she can stop talking about herself). If I were a psychiatrist, I would definitely diagnose her with histrionic personality disorder.

Thank God I found this site. There are others who work with idiots too. Corporate America just blows. I'm incredibly disenchanted with it. I no longer seek to plunge in headlong, working my way up some non-existent ladder, only to reach a cement ceiling.

Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about our "cubicle reconfiguration initiative...""

01:00 AM - Posted by Disgruntled