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

[PRgal]

All I see are ads from Sephora.  I think I shop there too often.

[tearknee]

I'm thinking of running off to join the circus where there isn't any internet ads...

 

[Absolom]

Adblocker extension or Duck Duck Go should solve the problem nicely.  I have no ads.  Should the ads become no longer obnoxious, I'd allow them to appear again.  

[annzeepark914]

My phone and Tablet are Android so Adblock doesn't work. 

Edited October 16 by annzeepark914

[supposebly]

1 minute ago, annzeepark914 said:

My phone and Tablet are Android so Adblocker doesn't work. 

That's unlikely. AdBlock plus is a browser plugin. So, all you need is the plugin for the browser you use. 

[annzeepark914]

1 minute ago, supposebly said:

That's unlikely. AdBlock plus is a browser plugin. So, all you need is the plugin for the browser you use. 

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[Mindthinkr]

I have Adblock and it has worked beautifully. No ads on here at all. 

[fairffaxx]

I use uBlock Origin (free) & it works fine everywhere.

[Cloud9Shopper]

When customers send one email to five or six emails within the company and then complain they’re confused because responses are overlapping. So I tell them use abc@companyname.com for this type of question and use xyz@companyname.com for another type of question for more efficient responses. Then they don’t listen anyway and continue to add five or six emails in the “to” line when contacting us for run of the mill issues that are not that urgent. Now they are probably going to complain again. 

[isalicat]

8 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

When customers send one email to five or six emails within the company and then complain they’re confused because responses are overlapping. So I tell them use abc@companyname.com for this type of question and use xyz@companyname.com for another type of question for more efficient responses. Then they don’t listen anyway and continue to add five or six emails in the “to” line when contacting us for run of the mill issues that are not that urgent. Now they are probably going to complain again. 

This is because someone once told them: "The squeaky wheel gets the grease"...so they are being proactively and unproductively squeaky! Its like sending your resume to HR *and* to every other person listed on the website of a company to which you are applying - doesn't do any good and just confuses all the recipients!

[Ancaster]

On 10/15/2024 at 11:46 AM, tearknee said:

I'm thinking of running off to join the circus where there isn't any internet ads...

 

Yes but there are clowns.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited October 17 by Ancaster

[Yeah No]

On 10/8/2024 at 10:40 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

Ooh, that's annoying about the car dealer.   We have a (very old) Subaru.  There's no Subaru dealer in Manhattan--never has been--so we have to go elsewhere, and it's very inconvenient when you do not have a second car.   Add to that I don't trust any car service people.  We bought the car on Long Island, and we took the car to that dealer for a recall a while back and they tried to sell us on something else.  They overcharge on everything.

Then I got lucky and we started going to another Long Island Subaru dealer where the service adviser/manager was a good friend of my brother-in-law's.  We did not feel cheated there.  (It's still a pain--we always have to devote a day to the matter of getting the car fixed.) 

So guess what--after 30 years he was fired because he wasn't upselling enough.  It's a dirty business.

Now we go to my brother-in-law's new (non-Subaru) service station, where he also is a good friend of the owner's.  My brother in law delivers newspapers, so he has to have working cars.  He rotates among a bunch of cheap used cars.

God, who does this?  How stupid do you have to be? 

Sorry for the lateness of my reply - It's a pretty sad world when you can't even trust a Subaru dealer but that's the way things have gone unfortunately. It's one of the reasons my husband washed his hands of that business after being laid off in 2008 during that recession. I remember him telling me that entire staffs of service advisors were laid off in some dealerships at that time. Many had been there for a long time like my husband. They replaced them with younger, less knowledgeable people at lower salaries. For sure it had become a dirty business.

I am not surprised and a little amused to learn that Manhattan doesn't have a Subaru dealership. In my town we not only have one but it's huge and built like a palace with a nice lounge with an outdoor balcony, lol. 

BTW re: putting hair down the toilet, I have read that it's not good to do that for several reasons so I put my brush hair in the garbage. I am probably more concerned about this because we are on septic and I don't want to encourage any clogs to form in the system.

[Yeah No]

On 10/11/2024 at 1:00 PM, KittyMom4 said:

 

@Ancaster, years ago, when I worked in a different office, there was a little kitchenette that was shared among the nearby offices. It had a small sink, coffee maker and microwave. Someone started leaving dirty dishes from the cafe in there, next to the sink. They would sit there for days until I or someone would bring them back to the cafe. I got disgusted and typed a note that read "Please return your dirty dishes to the cafe, your mom doesn't work here" and taped it to the wall. A few days later it was taken down and an email was sent around that read, paraphrasing, "We don't need snarky, rude comments posted, if you have an issue with something please address it directly or come see us." from our HR dept. Don't get me started on my thoughts about HR, but if I knew who was leaving them there I would have addressed it directly!

The point of this rambling post is: If I feel like cleaning up someone's mess, that's on me, if not, I'll let someone else handle it. If the higher-ups don't want to address it then I'm not going to. 

 

OMG, did you work in my office? Because I had the same situation happen and I wrote a similar note except I didn't even use a snarky phrase, just asked them to please not leave cafeteria plates and trays on the counter and to bring them back to the cafeteria. HR didn't write any note but someone kept taking my note down every day. Being me I kept putting the note up every day anyway. It got to be a "thing" and after a while curious coworkers would come up to me and ask if I had found out yet who was taking my note down, LOL. I never did find out. Eventually I stopped putting the note up but guess what? I never saw cafeteria plates and trays on the counter again, so it obviously worked!

This was a little kitchenette area just outside my little "suite" area - I was an exec. admin. and my boss was a VP so I sat outside his office in a nice little alcove next to a window. It was almost like my own office, so if I was sitting down I didn't see what was going on over my cube wall. Back then it was my job to maintain the coffee machines and their supplies so when people left junk around like that it was on me to deal with it. So I felt more than a little justified in writing my note because people generally knew that. If my mother were alive she would have told me to put in the note that I wasn't the "office scullery maid", LOL. 😉

Note that I was not that happy with having the responsibility of maintaining a coffee area. This was in 2011 so it wasn't exactly the stone ages. Coworkers often asked me if I felt that it was a sexist issue and I would agree with them. When my then boss (who was a really nice person) brought it up in my semi-annual review meeting with him he told me he was working on getting the coffee machines and kitchenette responsibilities transitioned to the kitchen staff. He made good on that promise. Of course he left after 3 years of working for him and my last two years at the company were with a toxic narcissist. My luck!

[EtheltoTillie]

On 10/11/2024 at 9:05 PM, Browncoat said:

Peeve of the day:  When I record a TV show, then play it back, but forget I'm watching a recording and sit through all the commercials instead of fast forwarding.

I do this too!  

[Anela]

I once mentioned here, that I was still seeing ads, even though I had adblock... completely forgetting that I somehow got switched over to ccleaner, whenever that came out, and it doesn't allow for adblocker. I'm going to switch back to chrome, but I downloaded Opera, to try again. 

[Absolom]

5 hours ago, Yeah No said:

BTW re: putting hair down the toilet, I have read that it's not good to do that for several reasons so I put my brush hair in the garbage. I am probably more concerned about this because we are on septic and I don't want to encourage any clogs to form in the system.

I grew up in a house with a septic system and I remember the no hair rule. It supposedly doesn't break down quickly enough and if enough goes down can clog the pipes in and out of the holding tank just like it does drain pipes in the house.  I guess because of that I've never given any thought to putting it anywhere except the trash.

[Absolom]

"The women" had to make and maintain the coffee pot at one of my jobs in my twenties.  I don't drink coffee. I'm allergic to it.  Being resentful, I sabotaged the coffee every time it was my week.  The general manager carefully explained and said see it will taste better this way, try it.  To which he got I've had coffee once in my life and found I'm allergic to it so I'll never be able to taste it for you.  I continued to mess it up.   Within a week or so after my second week of coffee duty, the managers took over the coffee pot.  They were all male so that was a win.  They also drank the most coffee.  

[Yeah No]

4 minutes ago, Absolom said:

"The women" had to make and maintain the coffee pot at one of my jobs in my twenties.  I don't drink coffee. I'm allergic to it.  Being resentful, I sabotaged the coffee every time it was my week.  The general manager carefully explained and said see it will taste better this way, try it.  To which he got I've had coffee once in my life and found I'm allergic to it so I'll never be able to taste it for you.  I continued to mess it up.   Within a week or so after my second week of coffee duty, the managers took over the coffee pot.  They were all male so that was a win.  They also drank the most coffee.  

I can't drink coffee either which sucks because I love it. In my case I have a rare sensitivity to one of the acids in coffee which just happens to be present in coffee and not much else. So it gives me wicked stomach cramps. I am not sensitive to any other acids in anything or any other foods in general. It's weird. I only recently found this out.

It turns out that coffee has many acids in it and some of them are pretty rare. I always knew I couldn't drink coffee but I didn't know why. I have to order acid-free coffee on Amazon as that's the only way I can drink it. I have been a tea drinker my whole life so at least I have that for when I'm not at home. I usually alternate between them. Interestingly I can drink Frappuccinos with no problem but I'm always dieting so I rarely have them. They probably don't have much real coffee in them. Note that in my case it doesn't matter how diluted or weak the coffee is, it will still bother my stomach just as much. So adding a lot of cream doesn't even help.

I couldn't believe my company was still having admins. handle the coffee as late as 2011. Even going back to the '80s I was never asked to do that at any other job. But that was not my favorite company for more than just that reason. BTW, this was not just cleaning a carafe and filling a machine with coffee grounds and water - these were K-cup machines and I was required to order and refill the k-cup displays on a daily basis. And this involved many different flavors and varieties of coffee, cocoa and even tea. It was much more of a job than it looked like on the surface.

My mother was a legal secretary and was often asked to make coffee back in the '60s and '70s. Being the "women's libber" that she was she resisted that and always got her way. She was tri-lingual and very capable and they probably gave in because they needed her more than she needed them!

I love your story, BTW! The men doing it makes it!

[Absolom]

This was the old 60 cup coffee maker.  Part of the job was staying after work hours to clean and set up the beast on a timer so the coffee would be ready at 7:45 plus also making more coffee if during the day it ran out.  Washing all the used mugs in the sink went with the deal also.  I considered finding a way to kill the coffee maker.  I'm sure if they hadn't made a change, it would have died and mugs would have started falling off hooks.  

[SoMuchTV]

28 minutes ago, Absolom said:

This was the old 60 cup coffee maker.  Part of the job was staying after work hours to clean and set up the beast on a timer so the coffee would be ready at 7:45 plus also making more coffee if during the day it ran out.  Washing all the used mugs in the sink went with the deal also.  I considered finding a way to kill the coffee maker.  I'm sure if they hadn't made a change, it would have died and mugs would have started falling off hooks.  

That part explains a lot.  I was getting ready to post my surprise at how many people worked in situations where someone was expected to "take care of" the coffee.  I've worked in office jobs for at least four decades, and I think in every case, the person who finished the pot was supposed to start the next pot.  Unless it was late in the day.  Judgement call, I guess.  I assume some admin somewhere (or the person who ran the coffee fund, if it wasn't provided) took care of getting the supplies.

But I will admit I was happy to give the carafe a good cleaning when I was the one to start a new pot.  Those things get nasty!  I'm sure my insides have the same brown film :(

 

[Dimity]

My first summer jobs when I graduated from babysitting were in offices back when admins were still called secretaries and there was a typing pool.  We didn't have a kitchen or coffee bar or whatever though, we had a woman who pushed a trolley through the building at designated times where you could buy coffee or tea and donuts and the like.  IIRC you could even buy sandwiches and make a lunch from the cart.  I guess those refreshment cart thingies (there must be a name for them!) went out around the same time typing pools and secretaries did!

[PRgal]

56 minutes ago, Dimity said:

My first summer jobs when I graduated from babysitting were in offices back when admins were still called secretaries and there was a typing pool.  We didn't have a kitchen or coffee bar or whatever though, we had a woman who pushed a trolley through the building at designated times where you could buy coffee or tea and donuts and the like.  IIRC you could even buy sandwiches and make a lunch from the cart.  I guess those refreshment cart thingies (there must be a name for them!) went out around the same time typing pools and secretaries did!

I had a summer job/internship at an insurance company when I was 20 where I went through resumes, do phone prescreening and later, took over the receptionist desk when someone had to be off to recover from a prolonged illness.  It was a fun summer, though one woman didn't think I should have green lighted a candidate on the account that SHE didn't understand his very thick Eastern European accent.  Well, I did and he had a good resume.  It was my first "office job."  The year was 2000.  I didn't return the following summer since I wanted to take a few courses through correspondence.  I had also just returned from a semester abroad (now THAT was fun.  It was at my university's UK campus, which is a castle.  Apparently they used it for the Harry Potter movies.  It was VERY Hogwarts like.  So yeah, I went to Hogwarts.  Sorta).

[Browncoat]

Today's peeve is how long it takes for my eyes to get back to normal after they've been dilated for an eye exam.

[isalicat]

15 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Today's peeve is how long it takes for my eyes to get back to normal after they've been dilated for an eye exam.

I thought they have stopped doing that - well at least my optometrist (and the one before that) hasn't needed to dilate my eyes artificially for 15 years - there is technology now that completely eliminates that. Perhaps you need to look around for a new eye doc that is a little more au courant?

[ebk57]

19 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Today's peeve is how long it takes for my eyes to get back to normal after they've been dilated for an eye exam.

I never had an issue with that.  I used to go to the eye doctor, then drive to work and actually work.  Then, about 2 years ago, I had my eyes dilated and proceeded to drive home to finish work... and had a really hard time.  So now I have Mr. ebk drive me.  It's hard getting old.

[Absolom]

The key in the response is optometrist.  They are limited in what they can do.  I have to see a very au courant retina specialist and yes dilating eyes with drops is still part of the process.  It all depends on what needs checking.

Edited October 17 by Absolom

[ebk57]

Just now, Absolom said:

The key in the response is optometrist.  They are limited in what they can do.  I have to see a ver au courant retina specialist and yes dilating eyes with drops is still part of the process.

Totally missed that.  I, too, see a retina specialist twice a year.  Maybe that's the difference.

[ebk57]

3 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I've worked in office jobs for at least four decades, and I think in every case, the person who finished the pot was supposed to start the next pot.

This was the protocol when I worked at the bank.  One day, after pouring the last cup, I dutifully put a new filter in, scooped the coffee, hit the go button, and went back to my desk.   A while later, someone asked if anyone knew who put the last pot of coffee on - and without even asking why, I immediately realized that I'd forgotten to put the pot on the burner so the coffee was all over the kitchen.  Yes, I confessed.  Fortunately, everyone laughed about it. I still do and it was about 35 years ago. 

[Dimity]

My ophthalmologist routinely offers retinal imaging but also does dilation.  The way it was explained to me is that retinal imaging doesn't replace dilation but rather augments it.  I think likely it comes down to why you're having the eye exam in the first place.  

[Absolom]

I've gotten both for so long I can't remember when it began.

[Browncoat]

I have high myopia, and go to an ophthalmologist about once a year.  I don't remember ever not having my eyes dilated.  It's been about three hours, and they're still not quite back to normal, but they're getting there!  But even immediately after, I can see well enough to drive (as long as they give me those tacky sunglasses) -- everything's just really really bright.  

[Dimity]

8 minutes ago, Absolom said:

I've gotten both for so long I can't remember when it began.

For some people it may also come down to cost.  If you don't have insurance or your insurance doesn't cover it it may be an extra expense that some people prefer to do without unless their doctor really pushes for it. 

Last time I was in for a check up I was hoping if I had the retinal imaging I could avoid the dilation so was happy to pay for it even though our insurance has dropped this  from our coverage - sadly the doctor still felt strongly that I needed the dilation.  Oh well...

[Absolom]

Both are medically necessary for me, covered by insurance, and cost me nothing except enduring them every 3 to 6 months. 

[Yeah No]

18 hours ago, Absolom said:

This was the old 60 cup coffee maker.  Part of the job was staying after work hours to clean and set up the beast on a timer so the coffee would be ready at 7:45 plus also making more coffee if during the day it ran out.  Washing all the used mugs in the sink went with the deal also.  I considered finding a way to kill the coffee maker.  I'm sure if they hadn't made a change, it would have died and mugs would have started falling off hooks.  

Oh yeah, I remember that coffee maker and even some of the admins. I knew that took care of one. I always sympathized, my condolences. I should have mentioned that I also had the responsibility of ordering and refilling everything including several different kinds of K-cups, creamer, utensils, straws, napkins, paper plates, cups, etc. on a daily basis. And I maintained and cleaned the fridge too! And this served one half of the floor of the entire building so it was a BIG job!

If it wasn't for the fact that I had been unemployed for 2 years during the recession of 2008 I would have been more upset about it. I was just happy to have a decent job paying 3/4 of what I made before. Thankfully my boss was VERY sympathetic. For him it was not purely selfless, though, because he knew those responsibilities encroached on my ability to support him exclusively. So he had his own reasons for getting me out of it! My mother must have been cheering in heaven the day I was relieved of those duties!

[StatisticalOutlier]

Jesus.  The office coffee industrial complex is really something.  That people display their addiction so openly has always amused me.

And now I know how much they expect their addiction to be fed by their employers.

[isalicat]

20 hours ago, Absolom said:

The key in the response is optometrist.  They are limited in what they can do.  I have to see a very au courant retina specialist and yes dilating eyes with drops is still part of the process.  It all depends on what needs checking.

I agree that special needs may require special procedures, but this is not about optometrist vs. specialist - there is new imaging technology that my doctor uses to photograph the inside of my eye that eliminates the need for dilation - he explained this to me carefully when they brought it on board. Made me happy because I am already very light sensitive and the dilation stuff used to last so long that I was confined to indoor, partially darkened rooms for hours after every exam. Peeve: health insurance that covers opthamologists but not optometrists! So unless there is something wrong (like my mom had glaucoma so all her eye exams and meds were entirely paid for by her insurance) you pay out of pocket if you just wear contact lens or glasses and need a regular annual exam (which is expensive!).

[Bastet]

There's a Health & Wellness thread for pet peeves.

[Absolom]

4 hours ago, isalicat said:

I agree that special needs may require special procedures, but this is not about optometrist vs. specialist - there is new imaging technology that my doctor uses to photograph the inside of my eye that eliminates the need for dilation - he explained this to me carefully when they brought it on board. Made me happy because I am already very light sensitive and the dilation stuff used to last so long that I was confined to indoor, partially darkened rooms for hours after every exam. Peeve: health insurance that covers opthamologists but not optometrists! So unless there is something wrong (like my mom had glaucoma so all her eye exams and meds were entirely paid for by her insurance) you pay out of pocket if you just wear contact lens or glasses and need a regular annual exam (which is expensive!).

Yes, I know about Optomat, yes my doctor has it, and no it doesn't replace dilation for people like me.   It's around 80 per cent coverage and guess what?  I need 100.  That's why even a specialist like an opthalmologist isn't good enough.  I have to have a subspecialist.  

Yes, if you want to wear contacts then you're stuck with an optometrist.  Although even if I didn't have my eye problems and "only" had bad vision, I could and would and did see an opthalmologist yearly.  

[Absolom]

Remember air compressor neighbor?  He's at it again.  This time it's the opposite front tire to the one he did daily for almost two weeks.  

[SoMuchTV]

40 minutes ago, Absolom said:

Remember air compressor neighbor?  He's at it again.  This time it's the opposite front tire to the one he did daily for almost two weeks.  

Oh so he’s rotated his tires?

[Absolom]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

Oh so he’s rotated his tires?

I think he should have bought two.  We had two or three weeks without the daily compresssor. 😁

[Cloud9Shopper]

People who park across driveways. There are people in my mom’s neighborhood who allow visitors to do this and it has to be the most entitled thing I’ve ever seen. It’s a public street and maybe someone would like to park in the space behind the lines of the driveway like you’re supposed to. I dream about “accidentally” smashing someone’s car when they do this. There’s also a bar on the same street so sometimes the customers will pull their car up over the driveway line, so even if they’re not over the driveway, they do block the view if someone needs to check traffic before pulling out. I swear I wonder if some people ever learned car etiquette. Or common sense. My assumption is that they’re rude and think they own the street. 

Someone did this today and because I struggle with parallel parking I couldn’t fit into the space I wanted to. I had just worked a very busy shift at the grocery store so I was tired and just wanted to park. I was not pleased.

 

 

Edited October 21 by Cloud9Shopper

[Absolom]

We have a new neighbor who is doing this.  It's so frustrating.  The parking spot in front of his house is always empty.  Just park there like a normal person.

[Cloud9Shopper]

Oh some of the new neighbors that have moved in are the worst. They blare their music outdoors so loud it can be heard two houses away and probably by the entire block as well. Or turn it up loud enough that one day my mom was complaining that her house was vibrating and one of the dogs was terrified. This is not New York City or New Jersey and it is not a nightclub. (The bar on the corner is more of the corner bar with a jukebox where people go watch football or drink outside, not Coyote Ugly.) We live in PA, so these idiots who came from NY and NJ have been flocking here since COVID. 

In short, these people not only can’t park; they are also horrible neighbors. My mom’s neighborhood has gone downhill in recent years because people like this keep moving in. She wants to move to a quieter area but those types of areas are hard to move into and the housing is more expensive so she hasn’t been able to make it work. 

Edited October 21 by Cloud9Shopper

[Yeah No]

My driveway pet peeve is people making U-turns in my driveway. I never cared about it much because it only happened occasionally but my neighbors, whose house is closest to the main street, must have gotten tired of it because they put up two signs at the foot of their driveway saying, "Private Drive - No turn around". So now they're all turning around in MY driveway! My husband says he doesn't care but it bugs me no end, especially at night when their headlights glare into our windows.

This is a small street that barely gets any traffic so any cars that pass by make me wonder who it is and why they are turning into my driveway. These days I worry more about that. We've had an increase in car thefts like everywhere else so it is a concern of mine. I guess I could buy those signs and put them up too but it's not really like me to do that. I don't think my neighbors realize that this has only passed their problem along to us. They are very nice people and have done more for us than I can ever thank them for, including taking down trees that looked like they were going to hit my house any minute and clearing away brush between our houses that went over the property line. Plus the husband is the retired Fire Chief of the town, so there is that too.

[oliviabenson]

I use brave browser. No ads. Someone on here recommended it. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

13 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

People who park across driveways. There are people in my mom’s neighborhood who allow visitors to do this and it has to be the most entitled thing I’ve ever seen.

I don't understand.  I can see someone allowing a visitor to block their own driveway, but don't see how that would be "entitled."  Are visitors of neighbors blocking other people's driveways?  If that's the case, I don't see how the neighbor could be in a position to "allow" that.  So I'm confused.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Re: Obnoxious parking behavior

I normally would never, ever, ever condone the destruction of someone else's property. Never.

BUT.

Whenever I see some douchebag parking sideways in a public parking lot, because they're too entitled and precious about their car to park within the lines? Visions of "Before He Cheats" or the most famous scene in Waiting to Exhale play in my mind...

[Absolom]

3 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I don't understand.  I can see someone allowing a visitor to block their own driveway, but don't see how that would be "entitled."  Are visitors of neighbors blocking other people's driveways?  If that's the case, I don't see how the neighbor could be in a position to "allow" that.  So I'm confused.

The neighbor of mine parking across the driveway is blocking the sidewalk.  Us more able bodied people end up walking in the street a few feet to go around it.  The ones who must use scooters are in the street for three houses.  They must use the sidewalk cut from house one because the car is blocking cut 2 so then at cut 3 they can get back on the sidewalk.  It's pure selfish entitlement.  

[fairffaxx]

It sounds like the car is parking across the sidewalk, in the driveway but extending across the sidewalk & slightly into the street.  Not parking across the driveway, which would be parking parallel to the curb but blocking entrance into the driveway.  Right?