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

[TheGlossy]

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.

Agree! Some people have zero common sense. It’s the next day I’m still annoyed.

 

[HelloStereo]

A good update, the piece of work is up for an industry award and the credit is all mine!

Well done you!

 

[Emsie]

People who leave one second on the microwave timer, resulting in the next person having to press the "Cancel" button before they can set the timer. You couldn't let that ONE SECOND run out? If you're in so much of a hurry you couldn't wait out one more second you need to rethink your time management.

Haha I do this. I can't stand the beep.

 

[Ensay]

A colleague of mine does this all the time and it’s totally down to stupidity. I’ve shown her how to check in teams using the scheduling tab but apparently it’s too easy and clashes are much more fun!
Another is not realising that on teams when it’s a red dot and says ‘in a call’ it means they’re in a call. Absolutely ridiculous

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced it's stupidity. It's surprising how so many people lack what I consider basic skills.
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I don’t even suggest alternate times to these meetings, just decline - they get the message eventually

Yeah I've done that very thing! To be honest, I'm not even needed at the meeting anyway; I think he's using me as a safety blanket. So I've just declined and said my attendance isn't essential.

That's another annoying colleague trait: someone who should know the answer to a question they get asked on a call, but push it in someone else's direction. "I think that's right, but Ensay, what do you think?"

It takes a lot of effort not to reply with: "You should know that yourself, mate."

 

[Rxt156]

I’d give the feedback. She needs to know she’s an arse. Go for it

 

[ChastityDingle]

Absolutely not! That would be the wrong thing to do!

Now, over the front of his trousers so that it looks like he has wet himself, much better idea.

I considered that too. It would probably seem more accidental that way alright

 

[Mollywobbles]

One job that I had (when you get to a certain age and get made redundant, all you get after that is a series of two year contracts) I was told that I must not post the name of the company I worked for or any comments that might identify it. Or else!

 

[TheGlossy]

Sometimes it isn't your fight and you have to look after your own interests first and foremost. My concern for you also would be that you might be handing her a weapon to use against you.

I would be inclined to say nothing. Sometimes silence speaks volumes.

I am not sure if she could then ask you why you didn't give feedback - as she sounds extremely unprofessional, it's a possibility she would ask - so be prepared with a bland answer.

And get the hell out of there as soon as you can.

Thank you.

I agree. If I give her negative feedback she’ll use it against me. However, knowing her, no feedback will equally be used against me as a sign of me being ‘disengaged’ and she will 100% ask why I didn’t give her any feedback.

She’s the type of person who stated that someone remaining occasionally silent on a call means they’re ‘disengaged’, so imagine what she’ll say about the lack of feedback on her. However, I’d rather give no feedback than to give a politically correct one to boost her ego without addressing the areas of improvement.

In any case, she sees a problem in everything I do (down to making a fuss about where I sit in the office). I’ll just remain silent and hope to find a better team soon.

 

[ChastityDingle]

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

This guy was unaware but also didn't care, I think.
He was a fifty something year old manchild who thought he was hilarious, in general.
I would say he imagined himself to be a lovable eccentric or something.

 

[DA Stella]

We've got the Authenticator coming in over the next two weeks. I refuse to use my personal mobile for anything work related, think it's so cheeky to expect it of us all! If they want me to use a mobile phone for something, then they should provide me with one.

We have to use our personal phones to even submit an IT ticket. They recently changed the system to require authentication. Oh, and also to refer someone for a position opening.

 

[TheDragonWithAFlagon]

We have one of these too. She’s been there forever, everyone loves her and she loves being loved by everyone.
Always complaining she has loads to do and not enough time to do it but she’s always running off after someone or something and hardly ever sat at her desk!
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That could be me...except I haven't been there for a long time, just a few years.

I'd love to be able to sit down for more than 15 seconds without about 10 new things cropping up that need urgent attention. And I prefer speaking to people to sending emails that can add to overwhelm and take longer to type, send then somebody has to answer, compared to a couple of minutes' conversation.

 

[Shoequeen91]

@Shoequeen2, I had a boss who would grab mr to talk for an hour st ten to five every day. It made me miss my Tube, and drove me mad.

whs

So so annoying! I’ve logged off and poured myself a Prosecco. It can wait until Tuesday. Especially when I’m now doing the mopping up because something hasn’t thought something through properly

 

[TheGlossy]

It's a tricky one because if you refuse to give feedback, she'll probably want to know why. Obviously you can refuse to give an explanation, but that will likely be an awkward conversation.

That said, I gave feedback for a manager once and, even though a lot of it was positive, he made some snooty remarks to me about the developmental feedback I provided. I ignored it, but it was annoying because I know if I'd made it all positive, he'd have told me no one's perfect and that developmental feedback is important!

She says the exact same thing!

 

[TheDragonWithAFlagon]

God she is an absolute cow that is just throwing her weight around. Absolutely toxic manager that should not be in charge at all. I hate when women do this when in positions of responsibility, totally confirming why lots of men think women don’t belong in management (bitchy/emotional).

I think she needs to be called out. Or reported. Or both. excuse my fast reply I just can’t hold in my rage

Worse are the ones who aren't in management but treat you like they think they are.



There is one person at work where I could quite happily dropkick my base unit out of the front window everytime their name pops up on an email header.

Does anybody else get emails where you only have to check if there's a name in the cc field to know that this is a) something that has never been your job, it's theirs, b) they're claiming that it's your sole responsibility and always has been, c) there is a deadline representing 5 months of work in approximately one and half hours and d) they've copied in your LM because they want you to get into trouble for not having done it? And, of course, the sender is somebody who does not have any authority to order you around like an office junior (not that this is acceptable, either) because actually, you've been promoted way above them and if anything, you have authority to tell them what to do?



Fortunately, my LM was already aware that this is their usual MO I'd made sure of that after they attempted to bully a new member of staff to the point of tears. So they're actually informing the LM of the way they behave to people who do not do confrontation in the usual shouting until somebody cries or resigns manner.


I wish I could put them on mute permanently, but it is vaguely entertaining to have my LM coming up and saying 'Jesus, Dragon, they're incessant, these emails - and so rude' - 'Uh, they're actually being polite because they've copied you into it; you should hear how they speak when there aren't any witnesses'.

 

[mozzarellagirl]

To top it all off, I was asked to co-interview some candidates for a role. The guy I was working with on this is in his 20s and incredibly immature (after one of the candidates was leaving, he said to her that even if it didn't work out he'd love to take her for a drink [!!]). Anyway, my preferred candidate is fabulous - she has a great CV, impeccable references, is well-known throughout the industry and could do this job sitting backwards in the dark. My colleague has said a firm NO to her - "because if she can't control her weight, it makes you wonder what she's like in her job" (she is normal-sized, not that it should make one iota of difference!). She and one other woman (very attractive, minimal experience) who he favours, are returning next week for second interviews with the GM.

and then men will complain that women use their looks to get things...
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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.

HOW is this allowed?!

 

[Norfolking Good]

Oh that’s a bummer. I guess you could still put that if keep the essence of what you want but in a constructive way.
I like the shit sandwich approach, positive wrapping a negative followed by a positive

 

[TheDragonWithAFlagon]

Nobody ever seems to accept planning for problems actually prevents an issue becoming an absolute clusterfuck a problem.

The principle of redundancy isn't get to rid of everything and everybody else so that it all hangs upon nothing ever going wrong with that one system or person - it's that you never, ever, allow a system to have a single point of failure in the first place.


What is it that makes this such a difficult concept to accept?

 

[Ensay]

My manager (the one who made my day to day horrible in the last few weeks) has asked us for written feedback on her.

I honestly dont’t want to give her any. Not only because of her terrible attitude in the last while, but also because she gave credit about my work to someone else and has not given me any kind of feedback on a project I worked my behind on. Only the project lead did, but she’s disregarded it, so my performance on this project was thrown under the carpet.

She wants us to give her feedback on the HR portal but I’m honestly thinking of leaving it blank.

What should I do? Should I go along and give her feedback despite her behavior or leave it blank?

It's a tricky one because if you refuse to give feedback, she'll probably want to know why. Obviously you can refuse to give an explanation, but that will likely be an awkward conversation.

That said, I gave feedback for a manager once and, even though a lot of it was positive, he made some snooty remarks to me about the developmental feedback I provided. I ignored it, but it was annoying because I know if I'd made it all positive, he'd have told me no one's perfect and that developmental feedback is important!

 

[Redrose97]

Four people, trained up from NMW to full time, reasonably paid, secure roles that also make them far more marketable outside if they choose to leave. Could have rejected and stuck with people who already had experience but pushed strongly for them to have the opportunity. As it was an insane workload pre-lockdowns, massive amounts of tasks have been removed and they don't get treated like shit/told they're crap or any of the shitty things that used to happen.


I identified and was asked to plan, design and implement a new process in an existing system that should reduce a particular task down from 300+ hours a year each just in passing things along for somebody else to deal with for another 500+ hours to a 5-15s look and click, everything completed, no more than 2.5 hours' work for them in a year. It also recognises them as the people best placed to make the decision yes or no, with no negative consequences for either decision; if it's no and has to be referred on in 1/100 times, thank you, that's the right thing, you're trusted to make that call as you have the on the ground knowledge nobody else has. It's also using an existing system with inbuilt and carefully thought out security. They were aware that it was being looked into because the previous system had collapsed due to a bone idle manager differences of opinion about whether the work to plan and implement it was an effective use of time.

It could also have been the thousands of hours of work alternative that the previous lazy bastard person had tried to make them do and had started off a massive row in the background because dropping these people in the shit was simply not going to be allowed to happen. Yes, I stamped my feet and said it simply wasn't going to happen, which the big bosses agreed was absolutely the right position to take.

I paid careful attention to how they'd be informed it was happening so that they didn't feel ordered around and it was explained (albeit not in quite so much detail) that it is only being done because the research and tests had established it was likely to be far less work for them (and if something went wrong, it could easily be withdrawn, improved or abandoned).


I personally think that preventing a resignation-level event and then creating an alternative that takes less than 1% of their time AND acknowledges their worth/knowledge is something that should be met with an 'Oh, Okay, that sounds like it might be easier?'. Wouldn't have had a problem with 'Q. Is this going to take us more time? A. No' I wasn't expecting 'OMG, that's amazing, thank you so much for spending hours trying to reduce our workload and once the procedure happens, our day to day so much easier', although it would have been nice. I even did a soft rollout so they wouldn't get lumbered with the entire two hours' work at once, so they're looking at about 3-5 minutes a week. Less time than it takes to answer the phone and type a single email.


Let's just say the response was not as neutral as I had hoped. They interpreted 'you have control and it's quicker for you than you having to pass it to somebody else' as 'you're going to be doing more work'. And needed the precise mathematics explained to them before they stopped bristling with righteous indignation.












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@Redrose97 I've reported your post and asked if the bit that I think could potentially identify him and you is deleted (the BBC stuff).

You don't sound to be doing anything wrong - it sounds as though he's trying to bully you and your colleagues and manager are aware of this. If you can, email your manager each time there's a concern and mention if you feel he's picking on you because of your Autism. It might be helpful if you need to submit a grievance and is another record of your disability/protected characteristic.

Thanks for that and will get that sorted when I'm able to do so! I can't edit it at the moment, but hopefully can do it soon!
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Reuploaded to remove some information so hopefully it's okay!

I've got this new coworker and he is a bit of a troublemaker already. One of the ladies who I work with used to babysit him or something like that and apparently he is not changed since he was four.

He is mid-twenties, the same as me, and he is new to the department. He has been working for the company for a month or two, and with us for a few weeks. I don't know if part of it is him trying to make a good impression on the managers as he is convinced that he is going for a management training program or he is trying to get himself in favour of the department and trying to be a part of it. He is also very open online and to co-workers about his mental health and how he has struggled and tried to harm himself. I am very supportive of mental health and I don't want to be accused of not being so, especially when I have my own family with MH problems and I've had to have a caring role with my dad to an extent because of his.

He has this habit of making up lies about people as well and telling management about them such as 'so and so said this,' or 'I was told that...' He has been bitching about the people who he works with to other people in the department. He told my coworker C that I had apparently given him a headache as I said the same thing about one hundred times when she asked how he was. I have not really spoken to him and I don't know if it was me speaking to the customers as it is a shop we work in and I do follow the same 'script' when I speak to them. C had told him off it and cut him down before he started bitching about me and mentioned that I'm autistic in an attempt to stop him before he makes any more comments about me. At work, my colleagues in the department know about it and it has helped me feel supported in the shop among them as we are a close-knit team.

I don't know why he has a problem with me as I've not really spoken to him as we are a busy shop and there are a lot of customers. When I have, I've been polite to him and I've been helping him out on the till when the shop is busy when I've been doing other jobs. I don't know if I come off as a bit strange because of my autism or if he decided that he doesn't like me as I had to tell him not to block a fire door before. I'm a bit worried about working a shift with him in the next few weeks as I'm worried he might say something that is made up to a manager about me and he is going to get me into trouble even if I have done nothing wrong to him. I do have the feeling that he is going to use the mental health card as a weapon as well in the future, I just get that feeling about him. A few other coworkers have said the same thing about him.

Any advice for dealing with him as I'm a bit worried about the shift that I have with him in the upcoming weeks? I don't know if he is doing this to be on the side of the managers or if he thinks that by moaning about colleagues to others, he is trying to bond with them, but it makes work feel very hostile and I feel like I have to be on the best behaviour with him all the time when I am with him and I feel like I'll be walking on egg shells around him.

 

[ChastityDingle]

Yes, exactly. I can put my headphones in and crack on with it. But when it’s presented to me in the manner of ‘hee hee hee, here’s this crap job for you to do, sorreeeeee!’ it makes me resent doing it.

Oh I completely agree.
As though they are getting one over on you, or something.