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

Black.bird said:

A friend was given a stern talking to by her new boss at her new workplace for taking a chair she had no right to.

Nobody told her that the chair you're given is dependent on your place in the pecking order - she didn't actually have a chair to begin with, so grabbed one from what she thought was a spare desk (it was empty, but that's because the person who sits there works between two offices and carries all their stuff - except for their chair - around with them).

What a stupid policy. Just give everyone a chair that's suited to their needs and be done with it!

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Sounds really petty. At my workplace it’s all hot desking so I sit somewhere different almost every time I’m in the office.

I don’t mind it, but they go on about how we all need a DSI assessment regularly and may need to get our chairs adjusted, but how likely is that when we’re constantly moving?

Ensay said:

Sounds really petty. At my workplace it’s all hot desking so I sit somewhere different almost every time I’m in the office.

I don’t mind it, but they go on about how we all need a DSI assessment regularly and may need to get our chairs adjusted, but how likely is that when we’re constantly moving?

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That's a good point ... and imagine how much downtime must be involved with people readjusting chairs, etc.

I know of people who have taken their own chairs into workplaces because they've had back problems and needed something really good. But there's still no guarantee that others won't use it (and adjust it) when they're not there.

My home office doesn't have today (MLK Jr. Day) as a holiday but the other office I support does. My manager whose home office is the same as mine doesn't seem to be in today. So why again am I working??

TheGlossy said:

To close the horrible manager saga from my previous job:

Today, I got my performance rating for 2022…In 2022, my dad died and I came back to work after a week to:
1. Absorbing some of previous manager’s work
2. working long hours due to excessive workload
3. staffed on extra projects with senior management no other peer in the team worked on
4. took part in a project overseas
5. Got a shout out from senior management and a couple of mini awards from people outside the team
6. Took part in interviewing new employees with management
7. Was the only member in the team present all year because half of them were sick and I covered for them at times.

Fast forward: My manager failed to mention the awards or the shout out from senior management in their evaluation and gave me the exact same rating as someone who was sick and absent for 7 months out of the one year they spent in the team!! This person had no training and no skills to do the job because they were absent during their whole tenure there and has now moved on. Yet, I went above and beyond and I’m getting the same rating as them?

The manager gave me the lowest “pass” rating (which is you do your job as expected but nothing above and beyond). How? When most of my work above from last year was nothing to do with my day to day responsibilities and my manager stated it was outside the remit of my role yet give me a rating that states you don’t go above & beyond.

The rating below that is essentially “low performing employee”.

Disgusting. I’ll be challenging this on Monday (without mentioning the other employee’s rating obviously).

My new manager who hired me on the basis that I came across as a high performer can now see the rating and conclude that I was an average employee in a junior role.

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I spoke to my previous manager stating I was not happy with the rating and he said:

1. I met expectations but failed to deliver above and beyond and I should take another employee as example. This other employee always went on sick leave or annual leave when he had projects assigned to him but only showed up when his workload to work on the same initiative he’s been mentioning for 2 years and nothing came out of it. He also caused a lot of issues to the point where everyone in the team complained about him and delegated a lot of his core work to others.

2. When I pressed him on how I don’t agree with the above and how he should leave this person out of my review and how I wondered how this rating made it through calibration, he confirmed he gave me this rating because I left the team before the year end and if I hadn’t left, we’d be having a different conversation.

Then he advised how much of an excellent employee I was lol.

I’m fed up with the company as a whole at this point.

I made the mistake of checking my emails, even though I don't go back until the end of the month (I did so, because when I met a friend for a drink she asked if I'd read the jaw-dropping email my boss had sent).

I work for a small business that is very successful but is going through a bit of an identity crisis in many ways.

Our GM apparently had a brainwave over the holidays that we should adopt a four-day working week, WITH OUR SALARIES ADJUSTED. Ummmm hang on ... that's not the way most companies adopting this new way of working operate - it generally means you work longer days but just four of them. You don't have to take a salary drop as a result!

Most of us in the business are on base salaries plus bonuses; the base salary is super-low but the bonuses - which have already been tinkered with in recent times to our disadvantage - are fair to generous. The harder you work, the better you earn. But I will add that we don't get our bonuses until the client has paid the bill - and if they don't, then we get nothing. There's a component of debt collection to our roles in that regard. The salary is a buffer for uncertain times, and given that we're about to enter a recession it's much-needed.

One of the reasons for the "suggestion" (which we know will be implemented even though he's asked for input which he's done just to appear as if he's doing the right thing) - is because we apparently treat Fridays as a bit of a holiday anyway. I couldn't disagree more - sure, we wear casual dress and start + finish earlier ... plus, the office feels more relaxed - but we're all still working, still meeting deadlines and KPIs.

I'm so not looking forward to returning!

The worst colleague I have ever worked with has put in her notice and retires in 8 weeks OH HAPPY DAYS!

She is a work shy bully who has spent years talking down to other members of staff and members of the public. She doesn't do it to me as we are same pay grade but I know the job inside out and she needs help off me because instead of learning her role she has been too busy been the office hag.

I was annoyed because I thought she would retire thinking she was the bees knees but a junior member of staff has made a formal complaint about her conduct and so has a customer (all in the last week) so actually she will be going safe in the knowledge that in actual fact everyone knows she is a massive twat and she hasn't quite got away with it.

I have booked her last week off work, no way I am sitting there pretending I will miss her. I will put in for her leaving collection though (I've said to use my money towards a taxi to make sure she actually leaves) see ya you massive bitch.

What's your point said:

The worst colleague I have ever worked with has put in her notice and retires in 8 weeks OH HAPPY DAYS!

She is a work shy bully who has spent years talking down to other members of staff and members of the public. She doesn't do it to me as we are same pay grade but I know the job inside out and she needs help off me because instead of learning her role she has been too busy been the office hag.

I was annoyed because I thought she would retire thinking she was the bees knees but a junior member of staff has made a formal complaint about her conduct and so has a customer (all in the last week) so actually she will be going safe in the knowledge that in actual fact everyone knows she is a massive twat and she hasn't quite got away with it.

I have booked her last week off work, no way I am sitting there pretending I will miss her. I will put in for her leaving collection though (I've said to use my money towards a taxi to make sure she actually leaves) see ya you massive bitch.

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That’s always a great feeling isn’t it? We had a very similar person in my workplace. She had been there forever and because she was so difficult she was moved to a “project” -working alone which basically meant that she did nothing other than gossip and bully.
she retired last year and I did exactly the same… made sure I was off on her last day. It was a pleasure to get back to work and not see her car in the carpark.

Onthehop said:

That’s always a great feeling isn’t it? We had a very similar person in my workplace. She had been there forever and because she was so difficult she was moved to a “project” -working alone which basically meant that she did nothing other than gossip and bully.
she retired last year and I did exactly the same… made sure I was off on her last day. It was a pleasure to get back to work and not see her car in the carpark.

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I honestly am counting down the days, her presence in the office just puts a downer on everyone's day and to be honest it has left me totally unmotivated because I think why should I do all the work when someone on the same pay sits bullying staff all day. I feel like her going will be a huge boost to moral.

She is also one of the most unhygienic people I have ever met, absolutely disgusting.

i have my own desk at work, and when i’m not in due to time back or a day off or just in general it REALLY bugs me when people sit in my seat.
i can see the crumbs or my pen pot moved by an inch none of my lids are on my pens, my two screens been adjusted and my software minimised of the home screen or the brightness as obviously they don’t need it - but it’s annoys me so much!! and i don’t have the heart to tell them to NOT sit there as it makes me seem mean

When you are cc'd into an email and the other person forwards it to you. I AM CC'D INTO THE EMAIL, I CAN SEE IT.

My work colleagues are all snowflakes. Literally cannot do the smallest thing by themselves. And they’re supposed to be clever.

When your witch of a teammate has sprayed so much perfume that you feel sick. My sense of smell is not great at the moment so for me to be knocked back by it, it must be really bad.
Im wearing a mask too and my nose is running and eyes burning from it.
Yet another reason to dislike her.

We have an older chap who comes in a few times a month to manage our accounts and he does my fucking head in.

He insists on fiddling with the numbers on the invoices I have already sent, and resending them, this obviously just makes more work for me because the customers then want to know why they have 2 bills for different amounts.

He is not very tech savvy, so doesn't realise I can see the revision history on each one so I know it's him. i am in a senior role and quite a bit younger than him, and he is very judgemental of how I manage certain things so I think he does it to try and belittle me in front of our boss/ clients tbh.

I don't really want to make it 'a thing' and cause problems but what would others do? would you say something to him? I have already mentioned it to our boss as I do have a good relationship with her but she is a bit of a pushover

Samf2020 said:

When your witch of a teammate has sprayed so much perfume that you feel sick. My sense of smell is not great at the moment so for me to be knocked back by it, it must be really bad.
Im wearing a mask too and my nose is running and eyes burning from it.
Yet another reason to dislike her.

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I once worked with someone who I swear their perfume smelled of piss. It used to make me wince

Helpy helpertons that come around asking if you need help as they finished early, then do a really cackhanded job of anything you ask them to do makes you realise why they always finish early - cos they haven't done their own tasks properly!

I’ve got a colleague who would tell me I’m wrong even if I said the sky was blue. I think she’s a bit threatened by me- I’m younger but have much more experience in our field and know how to do things in better ways- I’m pretty unbothered if she wants to do things her same way, but it’s frustrating when I’m being undermined and lectured about things she knows very little about and is wrong about. I’ve had a really low mood recently and today her disagreeableness was a bit like kicking me when I was down.

lightningmurray said:

We have an older chap who comes in a few times a month to manage our accounts and he does my fucking head in.

He insists on fiddling with the numbers on the invoices I have already sent, and resending them, this obviously just makes more work for me because the customers then want to know why they have 2 bills for different amounts.

He is not very tech savvy, so doesn't realise I can see the revision history on each one so I know it's him. i am in a senior role and quite a bit younger than him, and he is very judgemental of how I manage certain things so I think he does it to try and belittle me in front of our boss/ clients tbh.

I don't really want to make it 'a thing' and cause problems but what would others do? would you say something to him? I have already mentioned it to our boss as I do have a good relationship with her but she is a bit of a pushover

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We had a similar set-up for a while - until our GM/MD/whatever he's calling himself this week decided to get someone in permanently to save some money and as comfort (in his mind) that they'd always be there if he had any questions.

Ours was slightly different though in that an accounting firm sent one of their people in occasionally. The person they sent was argumentative and didn't even try to understand our business - they were very black and white - so rubbed everyone up the wrong way. We, the workers, invoice our clients ourselves and we know how much to charge for whatever phase we're at, less any adjustments for various things - so being questioned by someone who isn't privy to all the discussions is just a waste of time - theirs and ours. It felt like they were just making changes or challenging things for the sake of doing it - in a, "I'm an accounting professional" kind of way. I will say, the woman our GM brought in to replace them is even worse in many ways, but at least she leaves our client invoicing and communication alone.

If it was me, I would lock the files so they can't be tampered with. If your say-so is good enough for an invoice to be issued, then that should be that - there's no reason for this person to get involved. I would mention to your boss that you're doing that, and if the accounting person challenges you tell them there's no need for them to waste their or your time arguing about it.

People who click "reply all" when the email chain stopped being relevant to 90% of the recipients ten emails ago.

Also people who misspell my name when it's literally RIGHT THERE in my email signature.

DA Stella said:

People who click "reply all" when the email chain stopped being relevant to 90% of the recipients ten emails ago.

Also people who misspell my name when it's literally RIGHT THERE in my email signature.

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Yes to both of these. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

I actually wonder why people cannot figure out how not to reply all. Should they be allowed out alone!

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