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

[If you say so...]

My manager is driving me up the wall.

I am overseas for a project and I had a schedule conflict. One of my meetings for this overseas project was conflicting with another. I tried to get the meeting for the other project moved but the stakeholder was having none of it. I escalated to my manager to see if they could intervene.

Then the stakeholder said “TheGlossy accepted the invite so I thought she was available”.

It turns out I had unknowingly accepted the invite together with a batch of other meeting invites while asking to reschedule. Then my manager said “You accepted the invite, you deal with this. You made me look stupid”.

I tried to tell them I had accepted the invite without realizing and it was a human error. I wasn’t even aware I’d accepted the invite until the stakeholder mentioned it. Then my manager said: “I’m not getting into this, I don’t care”.

They sent me off overseas for a project and gave me zero to do. I don’t even know why I’m here. Then when I have an unreasonable stakeholder who doesn’t want to move any meeting and I escalate, I’m told to deal with it over a petty calendar mistake.

I feel I’m being set up for failure on purpose. Two years and a half, never had an issue. Suddenly I’m leaving this team and have my year end appraisal soon and I’m having these sudden issues. Not a coincidence.

is this your new job? or did you not start that yet?

 

[CrimsonCountess]

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!

I always wonder if they know how loud they are and just don't care, or if they genuinely don't realise? Nobody else here eats like that. Surely when he's chomping his crisps like a hippo eating a lettuce he must realise that it's not normal and nobody else is that loud

 

[TheGlossy]

Was he hot at least??

I sometimes despair at the pics some people at my work put as their outlook/teams photo. It's not bloody Instagram

Actually, I just came across one where the person is holding a huge bouquet of flowers. Like really?!

 

[JustmeKC]

Thank you all for the kind advice It really means more than I can express.

I agree with you all. I had the time to ponder over what happened and I realize she had the intent of deflating me at some point because she made a few strange comments during the week that I didn’t think much of in the moment but I realize they could have been warning signs:

- Monday, her own manager told her she highly valued me (and that must have struck a cord for her). Then she pinged me asking me what I said in the meeting with her manager that impressed said manager.

- Tuesday, her other two reports in the team kept complimenting me over some matter and she said to me ‘seems you’ve been showered with compliments lately’.

- Wednesday, she made a comment saying ‘the strategy is to not stand next to TheGlossy because we don’t want to look bad’ (in response to someone complimenting me about something). Who says that even says that to a direct report even as a joke?

Then Thursday was the culmination when she lectured me after that presentation which I believe was the cherry on top for her.

I’m not an attention seeker. I’m just me and it seems to be a problem for her. Something is clearly not right there and I’m done having to shrink myself to make sure I don’t shine in case the manager doesn’t like it. Been there, done that. This is the clear red flag and this time I’m seeing it for what it is. I think I’m past the stage where I will tolerate this nonsense, especially after all I went through last year. I’ll start polishing my CV and look elsewhere.

Have a read of this - it might be helpful in choosing your next role

Personal Values: Discover What You Value in 7 Easy Steps

A concise, step-by-step personal values assessment exercise to help you define the values most meaningful to you. 7 powerful steps.

scottjeffrey.com

 

[emmer_moans]

I called into my former workplace this morning to help someone with something they just could not understand (they took over my clients and this was something that crops up rarely and the whole process needs to be walked and talked through). I texted my former GM to get the okay first - his response was "Absolutely! Looking forward to seeing you." (I see him daily as he comes and buys coffee off me [and I don't give him a discount! ]).

I couldn't believe how much the place has changed in the space of a few weeks. Aside from our GM, who has always had an office, we used to all sit together, open-plan style in a group. Now, the desks have been moved to face the windows right around the perimeter, leaving a big empty space in the middle where there's a pile of beanbags. It looks weird - everyone is sitting with their backs to the room when you walk in, and their screens are in full view of anyone walking past. Nobody sits on the beanbags - and I'm sure if they did, they'd be barked at to get back to work!

I'm so pleased I no longer work there. The phone kept ringing and nobody would answer it because they were too busy (legitimately busy, trying to meet impossible deadlines [there was a heck of a lot of sighing, huffing and puffing going on]), the stationery area was in a right mess with piled-up boxes and stuff jammed into shelves messily, overflowing rubbish bins and toner powder spilled all over the countertop, the GM was in his office, door shut and blind down (so nobody could see through his window) ... it seems some things never change. When I was there, a student used to come after school to help where needed, but apparently that's a thing of the past. Job done, I came away feeling like leaving was one of the best things I ever did.

Wow, sounds like the place won't last, putting beanbags in the middle of the room and them all having their backs to each over is not a good sign. Sounds like putting a glittery bandaid on a massive crack. The GM sounds like he is headed for a breakdown I bet the others leave soon too.

Sounds like you made the best decision to get out of there.

 

[TheGlossy]

Hey, im sorry you've had to deal with such a difficult person

Don't worry about crying it is a normal human response to being distressed! I'm not normally one to throw around the jealous card but is there any way she could feel threatened by the great job you did with the presentation?

Thank you.

She always talks about how great of a manager and leader she is. She’s quite young for the level she’s in, so she shouldn’t feel threatened. She seems overly confident to me if anything.

That said, without even doing anything special and by just being me and trying to do the job, I’ve been gaining a bit of momentum/attention across the network since I joined the team. Maybe she had enough.

 

[DA Stella]

We use that but it comes up on the work laptop (after entering password and username for the vpn) with a 2 digit number and that has to be entered on the authenticator and then have to approve with fingerprint. Yours sounds very annoying!

Mine comes via a text so I think I get three minutes. I still find it annoying but I get why they do it as my company does government work.

 

[DA Stella]

Supply Chain hired a few new people (because they can't keep employees) but haven't bothered training them properly. So they keep asking me for things that are either unnecessary or are readily available to them. And I have to waste time replying to them explaining they don't need this or that or where to find the info they're asking for. It's fine when I'm not busy but when I get 40 files dumped on me I don't have time to hand hold.

 

[Onthehop]

Have you ever had to read an email or document like 5 times because it is just so shockingly written and nonsensical that you genuinely question how that person managed to even write it.

Yep, daily. Long bulky texts with poor grammar and spelling.

 

[no-no]

My manager does this. He’s a useless sack of shit and so unbelievably immature. His wife hadn’t long had a baby and he sleeps in a separate room to he and the baby so his sleep doesn’t get interrupted. Absolute c***.

Hope he fucks off in the next year. He’s crap and doesn’t give the team any direction, then moans when we aren’t being creative and just churning work out. Lol, it’s your fucking job to shape stuff, arsehole.

Wow, he sounds awful all-round! How crap for your team (and the wife). It must be in the “deflect from how shit I am” rule book. I had to really bite my tongue this morning, I don’t mind if it’s their usual writing style but when it comes mid-email chain I’m like…

 

[TheDragonWithAFlagon]

I never join early, doing small talk with the one other person who joins early is awkward. I join on time to avoid that.

I tell them that I'm going on mute/camera off until the start time because it's for sorting any IT issues, not for the meeting to start early when I don't want to talk to them. It seems to work well.

 

[TheGlossy]

Our IT support guys can be like that. They treat us like we are absolute knuckle draggers when we don't know details about IT (which is the whole reason they have a job!) yet overlook the fact they are all sad fucks with zero social skills.

This is so true. He spoke to me like a was a second class citizen’s garbage and refused to look at me during our interaction. Never felt so disrespected in the workplace. He was acting like it was coming out of his paycheck and how dare I bother him for this!

 

[Emsie]

We’ve got a new person on our team who after being here nearly two months, just categorically is not right for the job. A combination of things that I’m just baffled by and have been fed back to upper management (we do a hybrid model, so sometimes you don’t see people for a week or so):

• She was sick on her first day. We found out after she emailed me at 1:00am the following day.
• She randomly took the Friday of her first week off for holiday to go to Brighton (not even mentioned at interview - pre-existing holiday is fine, just why would you not declare this so we can plan?) she’s also done this a few times without prior notice to anyone.
• She randomly decides to work from home without telling anyone - this is after she’s fed back to me she struggles at home as she gets distracted by her dog (because if you have a pet, you’re physically unable to work? Huh?)
• Last week her Teams status was away for two whole calendar days - this is after we explicitly said to reach out to the team for more training and shadowing (we’ve been asked to attend ad-hoc meetings for a few changes in process). I’ve sent her messages on Teams and they’re not acknowledged for almost full days.
• We have quite a high volume of compliance bookings to complete (think 20 - 40 minute meetings with external applicants for various programmes to make sure they’re genuine - we get high volumes of people chancing it for various visas), she’s been requested several times face-to-face and via Teams to get people booked in. Realistically she has a good number to last her over a two week period and would probably take a day to plan all the documents and get Teams meetings booked in advance. I can clearly see on our group spreadsheet its somehow taking her six hours to book….two appointments. For one day. No idea what she’s doing the rest of the days? Applicants need reasonable notice as well - we’ve had some complaints that the few she’s bothered to get in have had less than 24 hours notice.
• She’s also been claiming on her timesheet she’s working 9 - 5; when WFH she’s appearing around 11:00am, goes on idle for majority of the day and there is a tiny bit of movement around 4 before she disappears for the day. Office days (so few…) she’ll rock up around 10, gossip to everyone for a few hours and then pretend to look busy.
• On the group chat we often do daily check-ins - think “Morning, five in today, had a few no-shows, week is busy but free XYZ” - she never ever responds to these (thumbing up comments from me asking her to book people ASAP and to let me know in the chat to FILL THE WEEK - which she categorically isn’t doing)

Keep in mind she’s apparently had management feed back this behaviour, she shows the bare minimum of improvement and then some absolute nonsense.

It’s causing us more work in the long-run and for some reason they haven’t just ended her temp contract. I really don’t know why she hasn’t been let go - some of the managers have tried to be diplomatic and say “oh well maybe she needs something different on a daily basis to do” and “have daily calls with her to make sure she knows what she’s doing!!!!” -

Orrrrr she could just...use all of the extensive training and documents we have and actually do her job

We had someone like this but when I got her on a project with me she was amazing, worked so hard and well, was logging in after hours. Then the project ended and she went back to the old ways. Bizarre behaviour! Shame really..

 

[DA Stella]

This isn't something my coworkers did, but I signed up to receive my W-2 electronically, which I did, but they still mailed me a paper copy. I presume it's because of some sort of government rule, but I wanted an electronic copy and not a piece of paper. Mail theft is a big problem in my city, so a document that has all my pay and personal info on it is not a good thing to have in my mailbox.

 

[EleanorRigby]

Another pet hate from my office days - when you sit around all day waiting for something to come through from someone that absolutely has to be dealt with that day (this usually happened when I was working on proposals), and it comes through just minutes before you're due to finish.

For some people it's because work is their life and they're happy to drag things out and work all night; but for those of us with a life it simply isn't on. It was usually managers who did this, and it sometimes felt as if they were doing it to remind you who's boss.

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.

 

[OmgObsessed]

Sometimes i wish I had an entrepreneurial spirit because working for myself sounds like a better option, but i am no Sir Alan Sugar and I hate uncertainty ha ha

Same! I'm debating making lip gloss or candles for shopee. Neither are really big in TW though. It makes me not want to try.

 

[Black.bird]

Went to make a cup of tea this morning ... there was a literal drop left in the milk carton which someone had put back in the fridge like that. Went to grab a teabag and someone had filled the teabag canister up while it was wet, resulting in soggy teabags.

Oh well, it's a nice day for a walk in the sunshine to go and get more teabags and milk ...

 

[PillowsofFluff]

We're launching a new ERP system at work in October and currently in User Acceptance testing stage. I've just checked my emails and I've been scheduled to take part in meetings related to the testing of the system Mon-Fri, week commencing 19th June.
I work part time, 3 days a week.

 

[TheGlossy]

Gosh that is so rude isn’t it


I heard someone say something along the lines of:
“…. Not that I have to explain myself to you”
To a person that they line manage
WTF

It’s rude and condescending. Not to mention that it was followed by a ‘you know, the team isn’t just your immediate team, but also the people above me and the other teams in our other locations’.

LOL. I’m experienced enough to understand that the team isn’t just my immediate team under this manager, but the entire function including teams in other locations.

I can’t wait to get away from this manager. I’m seriously questioning if they’ve truly managed people before because all she does is talk a whole lot of BS pretending to be an armchair woke work psychologist.

 

[JustmeKC]

BIB - I used to do that in one place that I worked.
Sod it, it was the only hope I had of saving that time from endless, often pointless meetings.

Same, I block out my diary all the time for lunch. I’ve even started to block out my time after my official finish time because there are some people who work different shifts and are so inconsiderate.