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

[Hellofish]

Can I ask, is this on share point or teams? Ive noticed that the formatting seems to change on a shared spreadsheet depending on who opens it & I know they cba going through it to mess it up

It's on teams! Only happens woth them out of 14+ that use it tho!

 

[DA Stella]

The IT guy at work starts every Teams chat with "gm ut". It drives me nuts because it's so unprofessional.

 

[JustmeKC]

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.

Is there someone you can speak with in your Talent team about the lack of anonymity? 360 feedback is so annoying. I had over 50 requests for feedback from people I have worked loosely with and I think completed half of them!

 

[camotea]

My office is pretty good really and it's dawned on me one of the big reasons why - no team meetings. They just wreck me.

I do empathise but our place feels like it’s falling apart without team meetings to keep us together There are two big teams in the dept. One is busy, happy and thriving. The other is threadbare, dank and can hear the clock ticking from 9-5. Guess which one I’m in? 🫣 The nice team talk to each other and are all up to date on things. In ours we only find out what’s happening in general IRL chat with whoever is in that day. The fact that people are leaving or on long term sick is indicative of the atmosphere, but worst of all we only find out after the fact!! I don’t need details, god forbid, but we need to know to E.g. pick up work if a colleague is literally signed off by their GP rather that has taken a long tea break. It has been ongoing for years, but so much worse since a decent senior left for an internal promotion and none of the others give a shit, and the most experienced one is unapproachable*. The nice team make awkward poor-you faces at us. And they are smart/evil - they sent an annoying team member to us as they couldn’t bear their behaviour. Left it to our leaders to demote them, which led to them getting signed off


* and has been complained about several times but has been there since the 90s and untouchable

** lovely and generous soul, diagnosed ND and can’t stop talking really loudly

 

[HoGi]

Not so much an annoyance, but a question. Can someone remain off sick indefinitely?

A colleague of mine has been off sick for a long time. I checked today and Teams says he was last online 602 days ago. I knew it was well over a year, but I didn't realise it was that long.

He clearly hasn't resigned because he's still on the system, but if someone can't work for that length of time, they're clearly very ill and I can't see him returning. I suppose he has to choose to resign, the company can't fire him for being off so long. I expect he's only getting statutory sick pay/ESA anyway, so it's not like the company is 'losing' money.

I obviously don't know what industry you're in, but most companies should have a
HR policy for such things to either medically retire them (if that's an option) or alternatively dismiss them on the grounds of capabilities I.e. their poor health renders them incapable of doing their duties. If there are no reasonable adjustments that can be made to help them back to their role or another suitable role then it is possible to dismiss them.

 

[blahblahboring]

What the what?! Is this person your superior? Why would they expect you to do this?

A colleague I barely know is asking me to schedule a Zoom call to plan her Europe trip itinerary (personal vacation) this summer.

I barely had time to think about what to do on a random weekend. I don’t have time to plan someone else’s whole summer. I’ll do it because I want to be nice, but there are a lot of websites out there for this specific purpose.

 

[HelloStereo]

I’m about to lose my cool because of one coworker today.

1. We had a meeting scheduled for 10am and they moved it to 11am. Fine, no worries.
2. Then, they moved it again to 12pm. Ok.
3. 5 minutes before said meeting, they say they need to move it again to 3pm because they need to catch-up with someone else. Ok.
4. Now, 3pm rolls around and they just pinged me saying they’re running late from some external appointment and they might need to move this meeting again.

Complete lack of consideration for me time because I’m WFH today and I haven’t been able to sort my day properly or even go for a walk because of this.

That's so annoying when someone moves around a meeting that often . Do you block out time over lunch to go for lunch - it would mean they wouldn't schedule a meeting over lunch and you can get your walk in. If I have something I want to do over lunch I block out an hour and set it to "out of office" so I know that time is mine.

 

[TheDragonWithAFlagon]

No shade at you but this is my beef. People who insist on speaking on the phone or in person when an email would do.

Reading it back, I did sound like a bit of a knob.

I'll try again - if I can't get away with a

'Where's my report?',
'Fred's in Thursday - here's the thing for him to sign', '
Can you update x field so it syncs overnight?',

I won't subject people to a fifteen paragraph essay with the first 4 going 'how are you? I hope you are doing well. In the beginning, there was the Word and the Word was.....finally getting to the point with ...so, if we do this, by adding this, and adjusting that, however, the permissions setting on this particular thing seems to be saying that the user hasn't mapped to the LDAP - I do the following;



Keyboard stops working
Checked all connections, tried different USB slot
No batteries or wifi involved
Restarted
Tried with the one from the next desk. That works.
Return working keyboard to colleague.
I know IT won't answer a call, I can't fill a ticket in without a working keyboard and even if I did it from somebody else's computer, the turnaround is around 3 weeks.

I walk upstairs to IT.

'You got a spare keyboard? Mine's buggered. Cheers'.



and if I'm asking for data for a report that's just been sprung on me at the last second, I take biscuits, listen to the ten minute ranting about somebody else, make a mental note of their complaint about their mouse, then swing by IT where I collect a new one, paid for in Garibaldis and drop it off when I'm back over that way for an outdoor meeting vape break with finance.


Speaking is also useful because of one aspect of my job - being seen to be relatively independent. Because I go to people and speak to them, there's the advantage of things not sitting on the company servers. If somebody turns up at my door, there's a good chance that they're going to ask me a question about grievances, complaints or other concerns - they know that unless it's a clear safeguarding/criminal matter, the act of asking about a procedure or policy is not shared.

 

[glitter&sparkle]

When you pop out at lunchtime and ask if anyone wants anything to be polite and people want stuff

Like the most expensive drink from costa

 

[FullFatWater2021]

Not so much an annoyance to do with work colleagues, but one for anyone who uses an Authenticator app when logging into work remotely...

Whenever I get to the screen to enter the code and I open the Authenticator app, so often the code is about to change - so I either quickly try and enter the 6 digits before they vanish, or I sit and wait for them to change.

I know it's a minor thing but considering the code only changes every 30 seconds, it's annoying that it almost always wants to refresh right at the time I want to enter it. It can't just be me can it?

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!

 

[TheGlossy]

It’s something bosses love but everyone else hates

Not sure if bosses love it. It’s mainly because a lot of companies had hiring sprees during the pandemic and don’t have enough desks.

 

[DA Stella]

Not so much an annoyance, but a question. Can someone remain off sick indefinitely?

A colleague of mine has been off sick for a long time. I checked today and Teams says he was last online 602 days ago. I knew it was well over a year, but I didn't realise it was that long.

He clearly hasn't resigned because he's still on the system, but if someone can't work for that length of time, they're clearly very ill and I can't see him returning. I suppose he has to choose to resign, the company can't fire him for being off so long. I expect he's only getting statutory sick pay/ESA anyway, so it's not like the company is 'losing' money.

At a previous workplace we had someone who was out on medical disability for well over two years. She was able to get her doctor to keep extending her disability claim. Her husband worked there too and he told me she just really liked being at home and that she wasn't really unable to work. But (his words) she "charmed" the doctor into extending her claim over and over. She is a very, very pretty lady, so...
There was another employee who was out on an LOA for over a year and counting. She herself told me it was a mental health LOA.

 

[TheGlossy]

Please, for your mental health, please find another job with another employer. You were in a toxic situation and you found another job in the same organisation which has also turned out to be toxic. This is clearly not a good place to work. Find another job and get the hell out of there. It is not worth the angst.

Thank you. I already started looking but finding a suitable job takes time. I’m still stuck in the role in the meantime.

I was on sick leave half this week and it was the only time I felt like myself again ever since she started her shenanigans towards me.

On another note, earlier this week, someone proactively approached me randomly asking if I was ‘OK’ because they overheard the conversation where she basically told an entire report I did was crap based on one sentence at the beginning. They said that they overheard her tone during the call and according to them, nothing justifies speaking to someone that way. They said it was really bad. I wasn’t aware anyone had paid attention at all.

She was in the office that day with tons of people around her. It didn’t go unnoticed.

 

[Mamacita]

My manager told me the day is gone even though they’re aware I was misinformed on more than one occasion by my previous management. No recourse apparently. They suggested to reach out to HR which I did, still waiting for their reply.

To think managers are your go to for HR questions. Moving forward, I’ll just use up all my entitlements.

Don't you have a policy outlining the carry overs allowed etc?

 

[KindnessWins]

Whenever I come back from annual leave and a certain thing hasn't been done and the persons excuse is 'it wasn't working for me'

Weird that, it never seems to work when I'm off. Just admit you don't know how to do it

I use this excuse sometimes (not even that sorry about it lol) x

 

[ChastityDingle]

We have a lady retiring today. Remarkably, she has been with this company (in all its different forms as it's been merged, taken over, restructured beyond recognition) since she was 15, and she's now 70. I get the feeling she would've liked to just stay forever but she's been talked into leaving and spending the rest of her years doing what she loves (which is work, but anyway ...).

So, to make her day extra-special we all had a small list of things to do - digging photos and what-not out of the archives to create a special book, baking or providing food for her special morning tea, decorating a meeting room (for her morning tea) without her knowing, organising travel for her loved ones to fly in (and picking them up), and doing a whole raft of other stuff. Everyone, except for a couple, did their jobs. The couple in question are the usual types that I'm sure every office has - those who sigh a lot and go on about how much they have to do, but don't really produce very much at all; whose desks look like a bomb hit; who moan and groan at every new idea or initiative and constantly look for problems. One is her manager, the one responsible for talking her into retiring. It's really not good enough. Thanks to the quick thinking of a couple of really cool people who thought what we could do instead to fill the gaps, it was an incredible event, and she was extremely surprised, overwhelmed - all the feels. In her speech, her manager was full of "We did, we thought ..." asshat. He did nooooothing!

That's amazing, I am sure it was a lovely send off despite the usual shysters not contributing and then trying to take credit for it. Imagine working from 15 to 70! I hope that she will enjoy her retirement.

Not quite the same but I still remember a colleague leaving a team I was on, and our manager giving a speech about her, that honestly would have applied to any one of us on the team except her. She was some operator, just one example - she openly admitted one time that she booked holidays to avoid certain pieces of work, and then cancelled at the last minute when the work was assigned and well underway. Oh and she was leaving to move upwards, of course! She could talk the talk but she was too lazy to walk the walk!

 

[Kinderbelle]

Edit: completely wrong thread!!!

 

[MediumLoad]

Oh my fucking GOD. This girl who’s just joined us from a different team SLAMS the keyboard everytime she types. It’s as if she’s angry at the keyboard or something!!! There is no need to punch each key goes right through me

Although, I always smile when my colleague those this as I know she is responding to a particular team who are renowned for being a shower of incompetent clowns. She never hammers the keyboard at any other time.

In fact, I dread it when she is away as I must cover for her and end up hammering my keyboard as I deal with the dumb questions from people who have been there for years yet still ask "What letter comes after C in the alphabet?" type questions.

 

[Black.bird]

Yeah, I used to work in a civic centre building. Local government offices on the upper floors and spaces on the ground floor for self-help groups and community organisations to book for whatever they wanted.

I mostly worked doing filing and various odd jobs but would have to work on the information desk sometimes. The number of weirdos we got was unreal. Some days it was all calm and quiet but others were like a tag team. You'd just get rid of one nutter only for another to come in straight afterward. Most were annoying but harmless but there were a few we'd have to get back up as they could turn violent quite quickly.

One of the violent ones was a wizened old man. He would claim that we had stolen something of his and wanted it back. The 'something' was always an item of great value like jewelry, a musical instrument, artwork etc. None of which we would have any dealings with. He collared a colleague once and wanted her to give back his racehorse! If you didn't get him out the door before he had worked himself up into a rage then he'd start throwing stuff and dismantling the shelves and displays.

This was in the 1990s and pre-internet so I wouldn't fancy doing it now what with the amount of crazies fired up by the likes of Facebook and Twitter thinking our humdrum building is the headquarters of the New World Order or something.

Heck, that sounds awful!

I was hoping that I'd come into this thread today and see a range of handy tips for getting rid of our problematic customer visitor (she never buys anything)!

 

[Rxt156]

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 work psychologist.

Is this the same psycho woman manager from earlier in the thread?