Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[theredhead77]

I worked for an Internet start-up that had no dress-code until the lone admin was wearing way inappropriate tops and flipflops. So the dress code became no spaghetti strap tops (but regular tank-tops were OK). I loved rolling out of bed and into work in jeans and an over-sized hoodie. This office eventually put in a fancy single-serve coffee machine, before the days of Keurig. It was awesome.

I also worked for a technology behemoth. Their campus is 12 buildings. They have a cafeteria and a gym. Each building had a break-room cooler (branded) filled with soda. Think coolers at the 7-11. That job sucked.

Current job has coffee. We also have 6 dishwashers (one in each section of the building, 2 in the breakroom), 3 refrigerators, a stove and an oven. Yet no one can seem to put their dishes or coffee cups in the dishwasher.

I've never worked at an office that didn't have at least coffee and a water cooler. Even our stores have that in the employee breakroom. Is that really a thing?

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, riley702 said:

So, would you say they really liked to hang out there?

It's too dark and humid. The sun doesn't shine there.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

19 hours ago, Qoass said:

My irritation is that I was taught by the office manager at my first full time job that if your work day starts at nine, that means that you are present, your coat is off and your computer is on by nine o'clock.  These days, I feel like I'm the only one in my office actually working when the day begins instead of trickling in at 9:05 or later in time to chat with my co-workers, play with my phone and consider the coffee options.  It makes me feel quite justified in not staying late if it is not absolutely necessary.

One office where I worked many years ago was very into the appearance of everyone being in the office at 8am sharp. It drove me crazy because everyone showed up on time and then proceeded to waste about thirty minutes putting their food in the fridge, getting coffee, chatting with everyone. I once told my boss that since I didn't do any of those things, I'd rather just show up at 8:30am and start working when everyone else did. Someone else once made a passive aggressive comment when I was five minutes late (because there had been an accident) and I just rolled my eyes and bit my tongue to keep from saying, "Wow, then I'll only be starting to work 25 minutes earlier than you today!"

18 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

Pet Peeve - people who interrupt my work to ask me how to do something with the excuse that it is easier and faster to ask me than Google it themselves. Sure, faster and easier for YOU, coworker, but it's time and effort that I don't have to expend if you do it yourself.

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to use www.LMGTFY.com in cases like that. I also had a coworker who on more than one occasion walked all the way to my office (which was on the opposite end of the hallway from his office) to ask me to email someone for him. First of all, I am not your secretary/assistant/subordinate so why do you think I should do this for you? But more importantly, in the time it took you to walk down here and back to your office, you could have emailed this person yourself!

15 hours ago, ari333 said:

Remember when some of us were kids in grade school and they harped on the use of "I?" The harping was so heavy that I hear people use "I" all the time when "me" is correct. It makes me sad.

Anyway, I've heard, "The anniversary party is for you and I." Nails on chalkboard.

"It's between you and I." nails/chalkboard.

I KNOW! People seem so afraid to use "me" and "my" so instead we get things like "please see Jane or myself" and "between you and I." I actually don't mind the sound of nails on a chalkboard, but hearing stuff like that gives me the heebie jeebies. Sadly, I've been hearing this more and more often on tv and in movies, which makes me sad because that means there are writers who are PAID to write, are ignorant of correct grammar.

14 hours ago, backformore said:

Sorry, but the WORST use is the one that I first heard on Bachelor/ette and Amazing Race shows, and is starting to seep into regular non-TV use:

"__________  and I's relationship"   as in "the best thing about Pat and I's relationship is  how much fun we have."   Or, "I'm really worried about the future of Pat and I's relationship." 

Does that even feel right coming out of your mouth?  because I can't even say those words aloud. 

For some reason, the use of "_____ and I's ______" is disproportionately higher on reality tv than anywhere else and it's HORRIBLE.

7 hours ago, bilgistic said:

"Butt naked" is inexcusable, yet has become ubiquitous. It's buck naked, people. BUCK.

Ahhh, George Costanza's porn alias!

Edited March 23, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[backformore]

we were discussing grammar pet peeves.   I had to attend a training presentation today, and the power point slides continually had the "apostrophe before an S"  error over and over.  "client's who want things to be perfect" is one example. 

It made me dislike and distrust the presenter. 

And I fear that if I fill out the evaluation form saying there were typos in the presentation, my comment will be disregarded as either wrong or nit-picky.

[backformore]

17 hours ago, auntlada said:

Also, I live in hope that one day a Girl Scout will knock on the door again (even though they don't go door to door any more) and ask if I want to buy cookies. Assuming I have money, the answer is always yes.

I have never liked being asked to buy stuff from parents of the kids actually selling the stuff.  But it's usually at work, so I just kind of ignore it.   (I used to buy, but then it was never reciprocated when my boy scouts sold stuff, so fuck it).

But last weekend, I saw something that topped all of it.  You know how girl scout groups will set up a little table outside a grocery store and sell cookies? (never made sense to me, actually, I just spent $100+ on food, if I wanted over-priced cookies, I just bought them).   Anyway -  outside the local grocery store, we saw a card table, boxes of cookies poster, etc, and ONE MOM sitting there selling cookies.   Not a girl scout in sight, just one adult.  

We walked by, and snickered about "Mom scouts"   or "girl scouts who take 20 years to earn that cookie badge." 

No offense meant to girl scouts and their parents, but the actual CHILD selling the stuff should be involved. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

2 minutes ago, backformore said:

And I fear that if I fill out the evaluation form saying there were typos in the presentation, my comment will be disregarded as either wrong or nit-picky.

Too bad I wasn't there because I would definitely note it in the evaluation form, and if enough people would do it, it would be harder to be seen as nit-picky.  But if they want to disregard it because it's nit-picky, so be it.  If they disregard it because it's wrong, then, well, so be it then, too, but with some malice.

 

21 hours ago, forumfish said:

I'm sure my fellow grammar/punctuation police officers have heard this story, but being a fan of the Oxford comma, this made my little pea-picking heart happy:

The Oxford comma comes up in simpler contexts, too.  If your will says you leave your property to "Ann, Bill, and Carol," then it's clear everybody's getting 1/3 each.  But if you say, "Ann, Bill and Carol," you'd think that's 1/3 each, too, but what if Ann is your daughter,  Bill is your son, and Carol is Bill's new wife you've met once, at the wedding?  Not so clear any more.

I actually had that happen to a friend of mine.  She and her sister went in together to buy a house with two attached living units.  My friend was single, and her sister was married, and each put in half the money.  The deed read, "Friend, Sister and Husband."  When the inevitable fight occurred and they were selling it, Sister and Husband claimed they owned 2/3 of the house!  They didn't win, but it was a huge hassle that could have been avoided by careful drafting (more than just a comma, but not much more).

 

22 hours ago, MrSmith said:

Another thing that drives me nuts is getting phrases wrong: "by in large", "nip it in the butt", "one in the same" are some examples. The worst one for me that makes me really want to get shake someone to death is "for all intensive purposes". That one makes me want to kill the speaker where they stand and explain to the listening/reading audience that it's "for all intents and purposes". Most of these errors wouldn't even occur if people would stop and think about them. I mean, really, "nip it in the butt"? Why would you prevent something from growing larger by nipping it in the butt?

Have you heard of eggcorns?  They're fascinating because people have put thought into it and come up with some crazy stuff.

Like people hear "acorn" but haven't ever seen the word so they don't know it's "acorn."  But it's an ovoid object that oak trees can grow from, and they come up with "eggcorn."  So it's ignorant, but I have to give them props for at least thinking.

 

20 hours ago, backformore said:

"__________  and I's relationship"   as in "the best thing about Pat and I's relationship is  how much fun we have."   Or, "I'm really worried about the future of Pat and I's relationship." 

Does that even feel right coming out of your mouth?  because I can't even say those words aloud. 

I still flinch, but "______ and I's relationship" is bush league to me at this point.  I'm more impressed by the more tortured "I'm happy for your guys's relationship." 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The apostrophe error also rears its ugly head every December when people send cards that say things like "Happy holidays from the Smith's" (and then I feel bad for wanting to white out the extraneous apostrophe because at least these people took the time to send me a card).

[MrSmith]

@StatisticalOutlier I had not heard of "eggcorns". And you're right: at least they were thinking.

I went to school with a girl from Texas in about 6th grade (not that her state of origin matters; it's just we were living in Wisconsin at the time and her state of origin has always stuck out in my memory for some reason). She thought blood was blue until it came into contact with air, at which point it turned red. Her thinking was that it was not in contact with air while inside your body and that's why it looked blue through your skin. She never could understand that blood carries "air" to and from the rest of the body and so it would always be red (if that were the reason it is red, which it isn't). Of course, being in 6th grade, I and others ridiculed her mercilessly for this (and I do mean absolutely ruthlessly).

Edited March 23, 2017 by MrSmith

[Blergh]

22 minutes ago, backformore said:

I have never liked being asked to buy stuff from parents of the kids actually selling the stuff.  But it's usually at work, so I just kind of ignore it.   (I used to buy, but then it was never reciprocated when my boy scouts sold stuff, so fuck it).

But last weekend, I saw something that topped all of it.  You know how girl scout groups will set up a little table outside a grocery store and sell cookies? (never made sense to me, actually, I just spent $100+ on food, if I wanted over-priced cookies, I just bought them).   Anyway -  outside the local grocery store, we saw a card table, boxes of cookies poster, etc, and ONE MOM sitting there selling cookies.   Not a girl scout in sight, just one adult.  

We walked by, and snickered about "Mom scouts"   or "girl scouts who take 20 years to earn that cookie badge." 

No offense meant to girl scouts and their parents, but the actual CHILD selling the stuff should be involved. 

I like the Scouts a great deal and am happy to support them. HOWEVER; I very much dislike the idea of minors having to go to public places to pitch their wares to disinterested and/or hostile adult strangers. I can recall doing that when I was a kid and I hated being put on the spot and pressured into selling my 'quota' by the school/organization,etc. Moreover, even when I was a kid there were cases of other children who met harm while doing this. I think they should legally ban schools/organizations from doing this to kids (or at the very least mandate that a parent be within easy hearing/walking distance to ensure the kids don't get harmed and/or consequences happen to any adults who nastily dis the kids).

[DeLurker]

On 3/22/2017 at 10:37 AM, MargeGunderson said:

Pet Peeve - people who interrupt my work

I have severe concentration face when working.  I did not know that until I asked someone who worked for me why they didn't ask me when they had a question on a project.  I suspect it came in handy by keeping people from asking me dumb stuff.

[auntlada]

I don't buy from parents @backformore, and kids are banned from soliciting in my office (probably a good thing, but I wish they could come by if I gave their parents permission for them to come to my desk). That is why I always wish for a Girl Scout at the door. When I knew parents of Girl Scouts, I'd tell them that if their daughter came and asked me to buy, I would, but all those Scouts grew up. I usually buy from them outside Walmart, where the girls are always the ones selling, but one or more adults are always there.

[Popples]

1 hour ago, backformore said:

But last weekend, I saw something that topped all of it.  You know how girl scout groups will set up a little table outside a grocery store and sell cookies? (never made sense to me, actually, I just spent $100+ on food, if I wanted over-priced cookies, I just bought them).

The Girl Scouts in my area must have wised up, because they sell right outside of the Starbucks on the other end of the block from the local supermarket. I mused that their spiel is "Hey, you just spent $6 for some coffee, why not have some $4 cookies to go with it?"

[MrSmith]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

I like the Scouts a great deal and am happy to support them. HOWEVER; I very much dislike the idea of minors having to go to public places to pitch their wares to disinterested and/or hostile adult strangers. I can recall doing that when I was a kid and I hated being put on the spot and pressured into selling my 'quota' by the school/organization,etc. Moreover, even when I was a kid there were cases of other children who met harm while doing this. I think they should legally ban schools/organizations from doing this to kids (or at the very least mandate that a parent be within easy hearing/walking distance to ensure the kids don't get harmed and/or consequences happen to any adults who nastily dis the kids).

When we lived in Sun Prairie, WI, there was a Girl Scout who would come by with her mother every year. They'd go house to house through the neighborhood, and they always made sure to stop at our house because we always spent $200 on cookies. My wife had some secret (from me) hiding spot for them and then when I was jonesing for Thin Mints, she'd go get a box and give them to me. I had Thin Mints all year long! LOL

[backformore]

1 hour ago, MrSmith said:

 

I went to school with a girl from Texas in about 6th grade (not that her state of origin matters; it's just we were living in Wisconsin at the time and her state of origin has always stuck out in my memory for some reason). She thought blood was blue until it came into contact with air, at which point it turned red. Her thinking was that it was not in contact with air while inside your body and that's why it looked blue through your skin. She never could understand that blood carries "air" to and from the rest of the body and so it would always be red (if that were the reason it is red, which it isn't). Of course, being in 6th grade, I and others ridiculed her mercilessly for this (and I do mean absolutely ruthlessly).

I was actually taught this by an idiot teacher in 8th grade.   She said blood going from the heart, in arteries, is red because it has oxygen, but when it goes back to the heart, in veins, it doesn't have oxygen, so it's blue.  I believed it for years.

I call her idiot teacher, because she once exclaimed that there were organisms with only one cell, "so small that scientists can't even tell if they are plants or animals!"   I asked what the difference was, when you're looking at one cell, between and animal and a plant.  She laughed at me, and said, I think we ALL KNOW the difference between a plant and an animal!  (kind of contradicting her original assertion)  the entire class laughed at me, and I hated her ever since.  

Edited March 23, 2017 by backformore

[backformore]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

I like the Scouts a great deal and am happy to support them. HOWEVER; I very much dislike the idea of minors having to go to public places to pitch their wares to disinterested and/or hostile adult strangers

I see it as necessary, I guess, for fund-raising, but there should always be an adult with them.  My post was about an adult setting up shop to see, with no actual girl scouts around.

Our boy scout troop had rules about selling.  Even door-to-door, scouts were only allowed to go in pairs, or with an adult.  Never one scout alone.  Some parents scoffed at this, saying we weren't in a dangerous area.  The scout leader encouraged them to look online at the list of registered sex offenders, and reminded them that the list was only the ones who were caught. 

[Bastet]

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Sadly, I've been hearing this more and more often on tv and in movies, which makes me sad because that means there are writers who are PAID to write, are ignorant of correct grammar.

That's when it bothers me the most:  Character A says, "you and me," Character B snottily "corrects" her by saying, "You and I," and the scene goes on to something else.  The professional writers believe Character B is correct.

[MrSmith]

18 minutes ago, Bastet said:

That's when it bothers me the most:  Character A says, "you and me," Character B snottily "corrects" her by saying, "You and I," and the scene goes on to something else.  The professional writers believe Character B is correct.

OK. I don't know why, but this just reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine when I was in 8th grade. His last name was Nigh. His father's name was Hugh. One night, his father got a call from an associate of his boss or possibly the guy was doing business with the company his father worked for. So, his dad gets on the phone and the caller asks who is speaking. The response was "Hugh Nigh". The caller heard it as "you and I" and repeated the question. This went on a few more times until the caller got fed up and ended up hanging up. I've never understood why his father didn't simply make a clarifying statement, but perhaps this occurred frequently enough that his father was sick of having to do that and just let the guy assume whatever he wanted.

Anyway, back to snarking about our pet peeves. I just had to share that funny story.

[ari333]

2 hours ago, Blergh said:

I like the Scouts a great deal and am happy to support them. HOWEVER; I very much dislike the idea of minors having to go to public places to pitch their wares to disinterested and/or hostile adult strangers. I can recall doing that when I was a kid and I hated being put on the spot and pressured into selling my 'quota' by the school/organization,etc. Moreover, even when I was a kid there were cases of other children who met harm while doing this. I think they should legally ban schools/organizations from doing this to kids (or at the very least mandate that a parent be within easy hearing/walking distance to ensure the kids don't get harmed and/or consequences happen to any adults who nastily dis the kids).

This  should maybe go in the , "I survived" thread, but it is apt here as a peeve.  In second grade I was forced to go door to door BY MYSELF , knocking on STRANGERS' doors to sell those fucking cookies. Then in high school, as a dance team member,  I was forced to sell some gross nasty cheese in a crock for the marching band - door to door as a teen.  YIKES. "Gotta make your quota!"

1 minute ago, MrSmith said:

OK. I don't know why, but this just reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine when I was in 8th grade. His last name was Nigh. His father's name was Hugh. One night, his father got a call from an associate of his boss or possibly the guy was doing business with the company his father worked for. So, his dad gets on the phone and the caller asks who is speaking. The response was "Hugh Nigh". The caller heard it as "you and I" and repeated the question. This went on a few more times until the caller got fed up and ended up hanging up. I've never understood why his father didn't simply make a clarifying statement, but perhaps this occurred frequently enough that his father was sick of having to do that and just let the guy assume whatever he wanted.

Anyway, back to snarking about our pet peeves. I just had to share that funny story.

*SNORT*

bwahahahah

This may be a reach for a peeve, but your post reminded me of the Curb Your Enthusiasm  eppy in which the beloved aunt died. Larry was in charge of the obit and did not proof read. He meant to write "beloved AUNT" but he hit the C key instead of the A key in the word "Aunt." :-)

Ok Carry on

[ari333]

57 minutes ago, backformore said:

I see it as necessary, I guess, for fund-raising, but there should always be an adult with them.  My post was about an adult setting up shop to see, with no actual girl scouts around.

Our boy scout troop had rules about selling.  Even door-to-door, scouts were only allowed to go in pairs, or with an adult.  Never one scout alone.  Some parents scoffed at this, saying we weren't in a dangerous area.  The scout leader encouraged them to look online at the list of registered sex offenders, and reminded them that the list was only the ones who were caught. 

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^

[ari333]

Huge peeve. Chain letters in any form, emails, real letters... HATE.

[riley702]

1 hour ago, MrSmith said:

OK. I don't know why, but this just reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine when I was in 8th grade. His last name was Nigh. His father's name was Hugh. One night, his father got a call from an associate of his boss or possibly the guy was doing business with the company his father worked for. So, his dad gets on the phone and the caller asks who is speaking.

Absolutely HATE this! Well, who were you calling, dumbass? If the voice doesn't sound familiar, ask for the name of the person you were calling. I'll tell you you have a wrong number, you say sorry and hang up. Not. That. Difficult.

[topanga]

45 minutes ago, ari333 said:

Huge peeve. Chain letters in any form, emails, real letters... HATE.

Don't forget those Facebook chain posts.

[riley702]

36 minutes ago, topanga said:

Don't forget those Facebook chain posts.

Type "Amen" if you've ever had cancer, ever known anyone who had cancer, lost a loved one to cancer, etc., etc." Oh, come on! Who doesn't that apply to, nowadays? And what does typing amen actually do?

[ari333]

n/m
 

Edited March 24, 2017 by ari333

[rcc]

Never joined and  have never cared for Facebook. To me too many people are there to either brag about themselves or for hook-ups. Then they wonder why too much information is known about themselves.

[zxy556575]

3 hours ago, ari333 said:

Huge peeve. Chain letters in any form, emails, real letters... HATE.

I'll go you one better because I hate all postal mail. It's bothersome!

I have my bills, banking stuff, insurance notices, etc. set to paperless delivery. I sign up online to opt out of all advertising and take the time to individually write or call to remove myself from other mailing lists* and catalogs. I typically get only 5-6 pieces of mail a week, mostly to Resident. It all goes directly in the recycling bin, but I wish companies would stop wasting trees and money on me.

 

 

* It's especially annoying when I make a charitable donation and the organization takes that as permission to constantly re-solicit me.

[zxy556575]

I never really processed what a nightmare grocery stores are until we started listing all our peeves. Maybe it's because we do it on such a regular basis.

Anyway, the bagging person. When they offer to help me out with my groceries, I always say no thank you. THAT IS MY FINAL ANSWER, Regis. Don't continue asking me if I'm sure, reiterating how heavy the bags are, saying it's no trouble, etc. Today after saying no three times, I looked at the guy and told him he was making me uncomfortable.

Like, are there really a ton of customers who are just fronting by saying no and who want nothing more than to be sweet-talked into accepting a walk out to their car?

[Blergh]

Lord Donia,

 I don't get that very often but what I do get from the cashiers is whether I belong to the 'discount club' followed by  drone pleas to sign up sometimes even after my first 'no, thank you. I'm not interested' !

 

 I have a different pet peeve re grocery baggers. OK, not all of them but to the ones who do, I have this to say:  I know that the mundane tasks of actually putting customers' grocery items isn't nearly as interesting as one's convos with fellow employees or fellow Smartphone users  but could you all please try to at least attempt to pay attention to whose groceries you put in which bags? More than once I've had stuff come up missing or even gotten stuff put in that wasn't mine (and I had no use for)!

[MrSmith]

My complaint about baggers is that I take the time to put my groceries on the conveyor belt such that all the cold items are together, but the baggers never seem to pay any attention to this and just bag them willy-nilly. I refuse to let other people bag our groceries as often as I can, but it's inevitable that there will be times when I'm unable to do it myself.

[StatisticalOutlier]

16 hours ago, Lord Donia said:

I'll go you one better because I hate all postal mail. It's bothersome!

But remember back when it was exciting to go to the mailbox, because there might be a letter from a friend?  It's taken a long time for me to shake that, and it makes me sad.

Since I don't live in a fixed location, I have to have someone gather all my mail and put it in a box and mail it to me where I am.  So getting mail actually costs me money.  I've worked really hard at getting off all mailing lists, etc., and have been quite successful.  But Mr. Outlier's business somehow got labeled as an "auto dealership" by one of the information aggregators and OMG the amount of crap he started getting because of it.  I finally tracked down which information aggregator did it, and had to send a certified letter, signed by the president of the company (it wasn't hard to track him down since it's Mr. Outlier, who also happens to be the only person IN the company), begging them to correct THEIR mistake. 

It's so incredibly intrusive.

 

Quote

* It's especially annoying when I make a charitable donation and the organization takes that as permission to constantly re-solicit me.

I have a strict rule with charities that they never solicit me, including via email.  There was one that was cooperative, and I actually spoke to the woman who was responsible for solicitations.  Then she left, but assured me that the new guy was on board with my request, and he and I had an email conversation to confirm it.  But at the end of the year, I got two or three of their year-end solicitations via email, and I replied that I'd been assured this wouldn't happen, and I cut them off.

I used to process the donations to a nonprofit hospice (BTW, before you go volunteering, find out if the hospice is for-profit or nonprofit), and I handled a few special requests like that, and I didn't love them so I didn't want to be that donor, but my donation was not an insubstantial amount and how hard is it to leave someone alone? 

My latest is that Greenpeace sent a solicitation to me at a friend's address.  WTF??  Oh, and the ACLU sending solicitations to my mother at my address (where she never lived) ten years after she died, plus we asked that memorials to her be made to the ACLU, so it's not like they couldn't know she was dead, FFS.

[Qoass]

Yup, I've mentioned before that I've narrowed my charitable donations down to three or four organizations that have the most meaning for me and they each have been told that if they solicit additional support, I will cut them off.  All the other requests I get go straight into the recycling bin, guilt free.

[zxy556575]

5 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

But remember back when it was exciting to go to the mailbox, because there might be a letter from a friend?

Maybe I remember? Like when it was my birthday and I might be getting money. ;)

There are community mail stations where I live now, so I have to freakin drive to get the mail. (Well, it's three blocks, but still.)

A couple more:

- The company I'm working for as an independent contractor sent me the wrong 1099 tax form. I asked their accountant for an amended one on FEBRUARY 9 and still haven't received a reply. Now I'm emailing her every three days or so, adding higher level managers to the cc list each time. Jeez, woman.

- I went to Walmart, did my grocery shopping and proceeded to check out, only to be told that all the registers were down. This is not the first time this has happened to me there. Yes, we all suffer under the whims of our electronic overlords, but what I don't understand is why Walmart can't post staff at the door to alert customers that the store is effectively closed. At least that way I would have wasted a trip but not the additional 20 minutes filling my cart.

[Petunia13]

Autocorrect doesn't work if you have dyslexia. 

And detour I type betour and it changes to behold or some shit. Or I'll I write lil which is corrected to while or small ect. 

[ratgirlagogo]

On 3/20/2017 at 4:01 PM, Bastet said:

leaving the refrigerator door open?  Didn't they get That Look growing up when they stood in front of the open refrigerator for too long (with or without declaring, regarding a fully-stocked fridge, "There's nothing to eat in here")?  Maybe they did, and this is some odd form of rebellion; now that I'm an adult, I'll just leave the door open permanently?

Oh, that always makes me think of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L_JAGStTcI

We didn't have a dishwasher growing up, and I've never had or wanted one.  All the craziness  y'all describe above is why.  My ideal of a dishwasher would be that you just randomly pile everything into it, no matter what, no matter how dirty or burnt-on crusty - and then your Robot Underling cleans it all up for you.  All this picking and choosing and correct placement and pre-washing - for god's sake I'd rather just wash it all by hand.  Plus much of my cookware is either plain or enameled cast iron, so that means the dirtiest dishes can't go into the dishwasher at all. And you're not supposed to put good knives in either.  Or cutting boards.   Everybody I know who has one bitches that their glassware is spotted half the time.  Etc. etc. etc.   Doesn't seem like something that would make my life easier in any way.

But a clothes washer and a dryer?  Oh, that would be a dream come true. 

Edited March 25, 2017 by ratgirlagogo

[backformore]

3 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

We didn't have a dishwasher growing up, and I've never had or wanted one.  All the craziness  y'all describe above is why.  My ideal of a dishwasher would be that you just randomly pile everything into it, no matter what, no matter how dirty or burnt-on crusty - and then your Robot Underling cleans it all up for you.  All this picking and choosing and correct placement and pre-washing - for god's sake I'd rather just wash it all by hand

I didn't grow up with a dishwasher.  We had 8 people in the family and I used to get stuck washing dishes all the time. (Apparently it's not a manly job, so my brothers were exempt.)  I hated doing dishes.  My brothers would go off and watch TV after dinner, I was stuck in the kitchen.

So, now,  I Love my dishwasher.  It's not hard to load, we run it at night, put dishes away in the morning.  

[riley702]

13 hours ago, MrSmith said:

My complaint about baggers is that I take the time to put my groceries on the conveyor belt such that all the cold items are together, but the baggers never seem to pay any attention to this and just bag them willy-nilly. I refuse to let other people bag our groceries as often as I can, but it's inevitable that there will be times when I'm unable to do it myself.

OMG, me, too! I always try to space heavy cans out and put say, eggs and bread or chips together, but they get tossed in however, with the cold items all separated. The hell, people! I sorted it for you!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

My related bagging pet peeve is that when they ask, "Paper or plastic?" what inevitably happens is that if you choose plastic bags, they put like two items in each bag so you end up with a million bags to carry, but if you choose paper bags, they will dump everything into one bag so that you have one really heavy bag with everything jumbled.

I remember when I was a kid, there used to be a sign in the bagging area reminding the baggers how to bag items properly - put one box on each side of the bag and then put other things in the middle and then bread/eggs go on the very top. Apparently they don't train employees how to bag anymore.

Another thing that bothers me is that stores seem to have less baggers these days, so instead of having one bagger for two lanes, sometimes here is one bagger for four or five lanes which means either you can wait for this poor kid to run over or you can just bag your groceries yourself. I actually prefer to bag my own stuff for all of the aforementioned reasons, but by the time I slide my card, enter my PIN, and get my receipt, the cashier just starts sliding the next person's items down toward the bagging area which makes me feel like I have to hurry up and get my items out of the way as quickly as possible (rather than bagging in the most efficient way possible). The pressure!

16 hours ago, Lord Donia said:

- The company I'm working for as an independent contractor sent me the wrong 1099 tax form. I asked their accountant for an amended one on FEBRUARY 9 and still haven't received a reply. Now I'm emailing her every three days or so, adding higher level managers to the cc list each time. Jeez, woman.

There was a company I worked for several years ago where I was an independent contractor. EVERY year, they were late sending my 1099 which was bad enough (I used to work in accounting so I know when the deadline is because I was the one who had to mail out 1099s with my boss breathing down my neck about how we could be fined by the IRS for every vendor whose 1099 wasn't postmarked by the deadline). And I don't mean a few days late. We're talking they mailed them out in March, but only because I kept contacting them to ask where the hell my 1099 was.

On top of that, every year they would say they had misplaced my W-2 and ask me to submit another one. This was a very small company with very few employees so it annoyed me that they lost my W-2 EVERY year. It's not like this was a huge corporation with thousands of employees. There was the owner, her part time assistant, and a handful of independent contractors like me (I'd say five per year). You get a manila folder. You write "contractor W-2 forms" on the tab. You put all W-2 forms in the folder. The end. It's not rocket science. And what really peeved me is that there were several copies of my W-2 with my social security number unaccounted for, just floating around somewhere.

So every year after I nagged them to send me a 1099 and I ended up having to submit another W-2, I would receive my 1099 late (as always) only to find that the amount they listed was incorrect so then I would have to nag them to send me a corrected 1099. It was such a relief when I finally stopped working there because I knew that I wouldn't be stressing about their incompetence with W-2s and 1099s anymore!

Quote

- I went to Walmart, did my grocery shopping and proceeded to check out, only to be told that all the registers were down. This is not the first time this has happened to me there. Yes, we all suffer under the whims of our electronic overlords, but what I don't understand is why Walmart can't post staff at the door to alert customers that the store is effectively closed. At least that way I would have wasted a trip but not the additional 20 minutes filling my cart.

Mr. EB told me that once when he was in high school, he got sent to KFC to pick up fried chicken as lunch for the other employees at his weekend job. He walked in, the cashier asked what he wanted, he told them he wanted a bucket of fried chicken, and then the cashier said, "We're out of chicken." That's all you sell! Why would you even stay open if you were out of chicken? Do you think people are going to come in and order just a side of mashed potatoes?

[DeLurker]

10 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Apparently they don't train employees how to bag anymore.

My first job was as a cashier in the grocery store.  We were required to go to training for a week at an offsite location to learn how to be a cashier and how to properly bag groceries when we needed to.  It was probably a total of 25 hours of training.  Baggers did not have to go for offsite training, but they were trained in-store, supervised closely for a week and the cashiers were supposed to keep an informal eye on the new ones to make sure they were doing things properly.

[auntlada]

11 hours ago, backformore said:

I didn't grow up with a dishwasher.  We had 8 people in the family and I used to get stuck washing dishes all the time. (Apparently it's not a manly job, so my brothers were exempt.)  I hated doing dishes.  My brothers would go off and watch TV after dinner, I was stuck in the kitchen.

So, now,  I Love my dishwasher.  It's not hard to load, we run it at night, put dishes away in the morning.  

This is really the opposite of a peeve, so I'll make my peeve the fact that I don't have a dishwasher and no place to put one if I got one. There is a place to put one of those kinds that you can move around, but the cat's litter box is there, and there's nowhere else to put that.

We all had to help with dishes when I was a kid. My mom cooked. She didn't like it, but someone had to do it. So my dad did the dishes, and all the kids had to help, a week at a time. For one week each, my brothers and I had to clear the table while Dad did the dishes. When we got a dishwasher, we had to help load it, too. We also had to wipe down the counters and the stove because that's part of clearing up after supper. We traded off weeks. You only got out of it if someone else misbehaved at supper because helping with the dishes was the punishment. And we ate supper together every night except Sunday, when the big meal was at noon. I was the only one who ever got out of dishes for something besides someone else's punishment, which made my brothers mad. I didn't have to help on my week if I practiced piano for 30 minutes after supper, so I did. My brothers also hated that because they didn't want to hear the same songs over and over for 30 minutes.

The not-peeve part is that I'm glad my dad (who also did all the grocery shopping) was willing to do things that were traditionally the wife's jobs. (Of course, my mom did some traditionally male jobs as well because Dad was not particularly handy, and she was.)

Edited March 25, 2017 by auntlada

[DeLurker]

2 minutes ago, auntlada said:

We all had to help with dishes when I was a kid. My mom cooked. She didn't like it, but someone had to do it. So my dad did the dishes, and all the kids had to help, a week at a time.

My Mom liked to cook, but all of us kids had turns helping with clean up.  Since there were 5 of us, we each got a week night for dishes and Dad did them on weekends.  He also made breakfast for all of us Sunday mornings after church - usually bacon & eggs, but sometimes omelettes or pancakes.  Since I was the youngest, my Dad always helped me when it was my turn (Friday), especially when it came to pots & pans.  My brothers complained because Dad continued to help me even when I got older.

They never got a dishwasher until they bought a second place in 1998 - by that time, all of the kids were grown up and married.

[StatisticalOutlier]

I was a very early adopter of using my own bags at stores (as well as taking my own containers to restaurants if I knew I was going to have leftovers).  I've been using this type of bag in various sizes (I bought the ones I'm using now in that Mexican market near downtown San Antonio years ago, but this is the idea):

https://www.alamofiesta.com/GUA-TOR-MESH-BAGSMESH-BAG-MED-19X19IN-GIGANTE-2437

These bags are amazing.  They cost a couple of dollars, and my oldest ones have been in use for pushing 20 years.  I had one particularly heavy one once and put it on the scale--35 pounds. 

The size I use most often is 21" x 18".   It's hard to get so much in one of those that it's impossible to carry, and it's short enough that it doesn't drag on the ground when heavy.  Plus, if you use two of those instead of one bigger one at Target, you get a 10-cent instead of a 5-cent credit, even though with even the smaller bag, I'm forgoing probably 4 plastic bags, especially the way they bag things. 

At the grocery store, I bag the stuff myself because the bags don't stand up, so I just lay it on the end of the conveyor belt and push/throw the items in.  I don't expect baggers to be comfortable (or even understand) doing that, and I generally tell them I'm going to do it myself because it's going to violate their code of ethics.  Then prop it up in the basket and stick bread and eggs on top for the trip to the car. 

So I always put the stuff on the conveyor belt in the exact order I want it coming toward the bag (heavy then light), and divided up if I'm going to need two bags (heavy then light then heavy then light).  It drives me insane when the cashier reaches over something to get something else.  Why?  I mean, why go to the extra effort???  I also use only half of the width of the conveyor belt to make sure nothing gets out of order because it's up against that diagonal metal piece that's supposed to guide the farther-out items toward the cashier.  Nope, it's set up so all the little soldiers go marching side by side, with no diversion.

The resulting huge peeve is stores where they don't have conveyor belts, and you just push your basket up there.  Try as I might to predict where a cashier is going to reach, and place my items accordingly, I just can't quite get it right.  Sigh.

BTW, David Letterman was a grocery bagger, and used to have the winner of the national bagging championship on his show.

[theredhead77]

I used to be a bagger and we received training. I'll bag my own groceries if there is no one around and I'll ask the person who is bagging them to please not put all the heavy things in the same bag. It seems like the "group together by size" we all had in pre-school stuck with a lot of them and I find the 6 cans all in one bag while the light stuff is in another.

I've been using my own bags for years. Thanks, Trader Joe's, for the conditioning via raffle ticket. It doesn't bother me that CA now charges 10cents a bag, or that the city I moved to charged 10cents a bag long before it was state law but I miss the Target bags of the early 00s. Those things were sturdy and made great inside trash can liners.

[bilgistic]

Yes to the early Target bags! How I miss them! I had to buy trash bags for my bathroom trash can because Target, takeout and grocery bags (when I forget mine) are too small. First-world problems, I know.

I have a collection of reusable bags for groceries, and I will have them out and ready on the bagging area at Trader Joe's, yet whoever's bagging groceries will inevitably grab a paper bag. I love TJ's, but the frantic pace sets my anxiety on fire.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I was a very early adopter of using my own bags at stores

Me too.  You now have to bring your own bag, or pay for one at checkout (paper or reusable plastic for a nominal fee - those flimsy plastic bags are thankfully no longer an option - or a canvas bag for $2 or something like that), but I've been bringing my own bags since I started grocery shopping over 20 years ago.  And, like you, a couple of mine still in use date back to that era.  I'll sometimes hand the bagger just one or two bags and have her or him ask, skeptically, "You want everything in this?"  Yep; sturdy bags and strong arms.

I also use mesh produce bags for the produce that needs to be in a bag, so I don't have to use the plastic ones.  I've been using those for about 10 years now, and they thoroughly confused people at first. 

[theredhead77]

6 hours ago, Bastet said:

I also use mesh produce bags for the produce that needs to be in a bag, so I don't have to use the plastic ones.  I've been using those for about 10 years now, and they thoroughly confused people at first. 

I'm interested in getting some of those. Register scales are configured to tare the plastic bags. Do the mesh bags register additional weight?

[Bastet]

6 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

I'm interested in getting some of those. Register scales are configured to tare the plastic bags. Do the mesh bags register additional weight?

You can get them with a tare weight tag on them, but the additional weight compared to the plastic bags is so minimal I don't bother having them adjust the scale.

[MrSmith]

19 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I was a very early adopter of using my own bags at stores.

We have cloth bags for groceries, but we always forget to take them. How did you train yourself to remember to take them?

[JTMacc99]

41 minutes ago, MrSmith said:

We have cloth bags for groceries, but we always forget to take them. How did you train yourself to remember to take them?

Leave them in the trunk. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

Yep.  And if you're in the store and realize you forgot to get them out of the trunk, walk back out and get them.  When there are consequences, you'll be better about remembering.  :-)

When I get home, the bags go back by the door and get taken to the car next time somebody goes out there.  I also have more bags than I need, so even if this batch somehow doesn't make it back into the car, there are others in there.

I don't think I've gotten a disposable bag since the glory days of Target bags, when I'd strategically get one of those because they were so good.  And when I'm buying just a couple of items and don't have/want a bag, I'm proactive about stopping the clerk from using one, even to the point of taking the item out of the bag he's already put it in.

However, I'll note that I'm a middle-aged white lady and am allowed to carry unbagged or self-bagged items out of a store.  I know that others' mileage may vary on that.  I don't generally like trading on that, but in this case I'm personally saving the environment from total destruction, so I do it.

[DeLurker]

My SIL is very green.  A few years ago she started using cloth or reusable bags for gift bags - she'll put whatever your present is in it, dress it up with some tissue paper.  Usually she tries to find a bag that matches the person's interests so maybe a Barnes & Noble bag for a reader.