Annoying things your work colleagues do all the time? #4

[Hellofish]

My manager always writes in code, never straight forward and you always have to email again to work out what they want! Pretty sure it's a power move.

 

[ChastityDingle]

Mine is so petty but the bloke at work is the loudest eater I've ever heard. It gives me the rage when I hear him get his lunch out as I just know what's coming for the next 20 minutes. Slurping, crunching really loud, smashing his fork into it 200000 times. I've started leaving the room when he's eating as most of the time it's just me and him in the office and there's not enough background noise to cover it. He also shakes his leg constantly which rattles my desk so I've moved even further away from him, and don't even get me started on how noisy he is using the tape dispenser. Luckily I'm leaving soon

I sat opposite his twin. Not lunch but the morning scone and coffee, I almost required sedation to endure the slurping and slopping that went on for at least an hour, every morning. Sometimes I left my desk but couldn't leave for an hour at a time. Also that leg shaking thing, and pounding his keyboard with his fists - or at least that is what it sounded like!

 

[ChastityDingle]

I've got one like this too. She normally asks me to frank her post or something quick like that. I stopped doing it after the first few times when I saw she was sat on her phone most of the day and easily could have done her tasks

I worked with someone years ago who used to try to foist stuff off on others, including stuff that absolutely had to be completed under your own ID and would be traceable back to you.

I used to just nod as though I was agreeing and then not do it. She had no choice but to do it then but I'm certain she got away with it with others, at different times.

 

[JustmeKC]

I'd love to know where this mum has got this idea from?!

I’ve always heard that if you’re available for work as scheduled and the business closes on days you’re scheduled to work, you’re supposed to be paid. I have no idea what the legal basis is for this though, maybe it was just goodwill anywhere I was.

eta - just reread the comment…. Looking for triple time, hilarious!!

 

[Mamacita]

Ugh a supervisor does this, drives me insane. If she let me speak and actually paid attention to what I'm asking, the whole thing would be done in 2 minutes but because she keeps interrupting and guessing what I'm trying to ask and answering the wrong questions, we get stuck on the same issue for 15 minutes, each second more frustrating than the last. How hard is it to just listen??

That's exactly how it goes and then they go on to explain things that I know. I find it quite patronising as my questions would generally be about something more complex or higher level, I don't really ask about basics of my job, don't need that explained to me or it goes something like that:

Me: this person needs this. As they can't do X, should I advise them to do Y or Z?
Them: As they work in this area, they can't do X
Me in my head: Wtf i literally just said that can't you listen

 

[TheGlossy]

My company requires for managers to sit with the rest of us. They don’t have their own offices and they take their calls at their desk. The reasons are different from one company to another as to why hot desking is the current practice but from experience, it’s due to space concerns.

 

[Lola Ruby]

When someone asks if you want anything from the kitchen e.g. water and they come back 2 mins later without the thing you asked for so you sit there quietly seething.

 

[Black.bird]

I understand your frustration but think about why it's usually managers who did this. Yes, it could be a power thing or sheer laziness on their part but it could also be that that manager has been in back to back meetings all day. Or they've been firefighting urgent problems. They may not have had a minute all day to even look at their emails. I speak from bitter experience, I really do my best for my team but some days I just can't get anywhere near my emails until the end of the day.

Nope; in my case it was because the people involved would spend all day farting about doing other stuff - including going off and playing business house sport and standing around the coffee machine chatting - when I was very clear (as the Bid Manager) what had to be done and by when. It meant I'd spend until 2am/3am doing what had to be done, but still be expected to turn up looking focused and professional by 8am. Thank goodness those days are over.
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I hate phantom shitters. We used to have one that stunk the place out and left it looking like a Jackson Pollock painting but a few of us women got together and deduced who it was-some stinker from another floor who used to come down to poo then waft back up to his own floor with no one the wiser.

Ohhhh we had one of those in a building I worked in many years ago. She worked in the same building but for a different company (five floors up). As well as leaving the toilet in an absolutely disgusting and stinky state (we had air freshener that would automatically produce spray every minute or so but it was never strong enough), she'd leave foundation/fake tan - whatever it was, it was brown and stinky - in the sink and over the countertops. We ended up installing a number lock on the toilet door to deter her!
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Yep. I hate having a call when it’s something easily dealt with via email!

I had a manager who used to tell people off for sending emails all the time - "Get up and go and talk to them," he'd say. Well, that's all very nice but if you work with s where having emails to back a situation up are most helpful, it doesn't really fly.
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I'm annoyed with the lady who worked the late shift in this coffee cart last night. She's moved everything that was on the left, to the right; and everything that was on the right, to the left. She also called our telco to get the ordering text messages sent to her phone - meaning they didn't come through to the cart phone this morning. This is the second time she's called the telco to do this - not only is it unauthorised (we would never agree to this!), but it costs money. I told her off the first time, and thought we were on the same page but now she's done it again I'm going to have to issue a warning. I hate being the bad guy! The moving of everything around isn't such a big deal but there's no clear reason for it.

My staffer has resigned! So that fixes that problem. She's met some guy who's been here on a working visa which is about to run out, so she's going to head to his home land with him and see how it works out. I'm really excited for her! I don't think for a moment that her diverting the text messages to her own phone was done maliciously ... she probably just thought it was easier to only have to watch one phone (she spends her life on her own phone). As for the moving of things around ... well, maybe she just got bored or something.

 

[Lolly505]

Folk who act far too familiar for an office environment. I started a new job a couple months ago and there's one new guy who still hasn't grasped that he's among colleagues at the office and not his friends down the pub

He's loud, he's obnoxious. He constantly brings up money and how much he's paid for something - for example, a few guys were discussing collecting vinyls as hobby, this dude immediately jumps in with his Discogs page up to show off the most expensive records his collection (which - spoiler alert - it turns out were all a gift from his well-off dad rather than something he'd collected). He chatters constantly but speaks almost exclusively about himself. He has an opinion on absolutely everything and his opinion is always correct - but this guy also has some of the worst takes imaginable on stuff he clearly knows little about (and gets salty whenever you use his own logic back at him ).

He's managed to alienate everyone in the office he interacts with (whether they've worked there 2 weeks or 20 years) in the space of a couple of months. But what winds me up the most is some colleagues just let him away with it because "Oh, well, he's only young!". Like mate, I'm only a couple years older (and neurodivergent to boot) but by the age of 23, I definitely knew how to behave at work!

 

[Vroomvroom]

Someone in my team was asked to pull some data together and has massively overcomplicated it as per and spent days on it. So I get a few hours to try and simplify it as it’s needed by the end of today

 

[TheDragonWithAFlagon]

I'm all out of patient, friendly, helpfulness today. I want to hide from stupid people, but they seem to be everywhere and, what's worse, have decided that I'm the only person that will help them.

 

[Mamacita]

I know someone who went off sick. Had 2 holidays whilst off sick and then came back and took their annual leave as if they hadn’t had enough time off and yet we had to work even harder and got nothing for it

How long were they off sick for cause I mean, being off sick is not really the same as being on annual leave I'd definitely be taking my holidays even if I was sick before that

 

[MrsPiggleWiggle]

When I get an email notifiction pop up, and it starts with just my name rather than a greeting, eg:

Jane,
Please could you...

Rather than

Hi Jane,
Please could you...

It just feels condescending to me. It has a very slight passive‐aggressive touch to it. Makes me anxious and not want to read it.

I actually quite like this.

 

[Black.bird]

Wow that's awkward. How come the office is at someone's home?

Post-Covid, they decided to get rid of the company's former offices in the town ... and decided they no longer needed a reception area, meeting rooms, etc. Most client meetings are held off-site. They've been working like this for over a year though - so if it's going to continue then surely they'd be considering adding a workers' toilet and kitchen area? I took my own water bottles and coffee in on the second day because I felt awkward walking through their home, but I still had to do that to use the toilet.

 

[cowtastrophe]

My TL is an army bore. He’s also strangely needy and can’t bear to be in the car alone. Usually, there’s another member of staff who he goes with and they just bore each other all day long but if he’s off, TL will announce, ‘right, you’re in with me today’ and you will be stuck with him.

Honestly, it’s living death. He will just bang on and on and on about the army (which he was in for about 5 minutes 25 years ago) or share his views - he calls it ‘imparting his knowledge’ - which are frequently borderline racist and sexist but he’s one of those people who tries hard to justify his views. A few months ago, he literally spent about 2 hours going on about rapists and police prosecutions and it was just soooo uncomfortable. With him, it’s not a conversation, he just blares at you.

Recently, he called me into his office to ask if I’d ever heard him say anything sexist or out of order. I wasn’t in a very good mood so I told him flat out yes and named the rapist stuff as an example. He then immediately started rehashing what he’d said! I was like wtf and just stood there, arms folded, and said ‘I’m not talking about this with you because it’s really uncomfortable’ and even after acknowledging that my body language was telling him I didn’t want to talk about it, he still tried to continue. Sake, man! Stop!

He‘s not really a bad person, he‘s just useless at interactions with people and tries to hide insecurity by being boorish but it’s flippin’ tiresome.

 

[ChastityDingle]

Fuck me where did you work as I think he works here now

No, this guy has to be retired by now ! Might be his brother, lol.

 

[TheGlossy]

This one colleague who joined the team 4 months ago and has been obsessed with getting a promotion.

 

[ChastityDingle]

Would your manager have taken the credit? That happened to me in the past.

Her manager at a meeting of just the three of us then mentioned the great piece of work SHE did. Because I was sitting there, she had to mumble that it was me who had done it.

 

[Black.bird]

I once had this in a previous job when one of the petty directors complained in an email that we came back from lunch 10 minutes late. I replied that I'd consider his words whilst I worked my 3-4 hours unpaid overtime I was doing at the weekend. Nothing was ever said again...

Oh yes, I've definitely had that same experience!

In my client's case, she left and returned to the office within her allotted break, so what is the issue? Her new employers must think they own her as that time comes out of their pocket. It's not an issue during lunch, when she's supposedly off the clock but ends up working through most days because she's so busy.

 

[TheGlossy]

Have you spoken to your manager about this? If so, how did it go?

I caught up with a friend today who is experiencing the same thing ... she pushed back and said she would commit only to the days that they originally agreed on as she lives rurally where there is no public transport and they only have one car. Her boss just waffled on about the 'landscape' being 'fluid' so the need to be flexible, and then suggested he could put her in touch with someone who sells affordable cars. How rude of him to turn it back on her.

I haven’t yet but I will because today was the cherry on top. Last week, they asked us to come in tomorrow and Thursday. Today, they pinged the team asking us to come in on Friday instead because they won’t be able to come in on Thursday because their cleaning lady asked them to drop by to clean their place on Thursday.

I said I’m not available to come in on Friday (that’s when I get my groceries and dry cleaning delivered personally).

No offense to them but I find it particularly unfair and self-involved to impose days on their team based on their own personal schedule. We all have lives.

I’m fine with all of us being in the office together one day a week, but the other two days should be up to you especially as we don’t work together.

How is this flexible working when there’s no consensus and the manager just imposes days based on their own personal schedule outside of work?