A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 11/11/2024 at 12:17 PM, Bookish Jen said:

I think this happened while I was listening to a post-election podcast.

Were you on a break, or do you get to listen to podcasts while you're on the clock? 

[Bookish Jen]

On 11/13/2024 at 9:03 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Were you on a break, or do you get to listen to podcasts while you're on the clock? 

I get to listen to podcasts while on the clock as long as I wear my ear buds.

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, Bookish Jen said:

I get to listen to podcasts while on the clock as long as I wear my ear buds.

I can also listen to podcasts depending on what I am doing in my office. There's a big part of my job that is straight up busywork and listening to a podcast or some music helps make the task easier.

[Cloud9Shopper]

It only took me one shift today to learn that working retail during the holiday season is a special type to hell thanks to the following customers at the grocery store today:

-The lady who bought over $400 worth of groceries and then decided not to buy at least 12 other things she originally had in her cart, including four gallons of milk and roughly eight jars of pasta sauce, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. Also, the juice from the turkey she was debating getting promptly leaked on my counter by the register. (She decided to get it.) Thankfully a courtesy clerk was nearby and she was able to help me make all the returns. The customer then decided she needed to pay with three different cards.

-The lady who told me my conveyor belt was “gross” because I had had so much time to clean it (/s) with back to back to back customers.

-Also, all the people who are picky about the bills they want for cash back. I have what I have, Carol; take it or go to the courtesy desk for change. 

None of these things ruined my shift or anything but why do all the worst people come out of the woodwork for the holiday? 

Maybe I should have put my notice in a couple weeks ago after all. 🤣 I was just overwhelmed at the time and impulse reacted. My manager didn’t seem to care that I retracted it; if she was mad she got over it in about four seconds. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Today is my last day at the grocery store. I put in notice last week and told my boss I’d be available through the end of this week (we only get our schedule a week at a time), but she just scheduled me for today because I was busy this week anyway. I got the full time job and raise I wanted and am still training on the core responsibilities of my new title, so it’s time to leave the world of retail behind and have more work-life balance again while I focus on my new job.

While I’ll miss my coworkers and the majority of the customers were fine, I won’t miss customers complaining when they had to use self-checkout at five minutes to close, the nitpicking some of them do about coupons, the ones who came through with bad body odor that nearly made me gag…and I won’t miss working on the weekend or until 9:00 on a weeknight. I also won’t miss my manager being disorganized and scheduling me when I said I wasn’t available or being asked to cover for teenagers. 

Honestly, I won’t go back to retail or entry level customer service again unless it’s a last resort due to a job loss or I have another financial hardship where my primary job won’t cover expenses. Now that I’m out of the general call center queues and will be quitting retail, I think I’ve earned the right to work a little less hard and focus on gaining experience for an even better job in 3-5 years. 

Edited December 1, 2024 by Cloud9Shopper

[Is Everyone Gone]

Omg. Officially the most bizarre thing that has happened to me at work.

Yesterday a lady at work asked me to make photocopies for her of a few worksheets. Ahe said she was "afraid" of making copies. I was like okay fine, and started running off the copies. She starts panicking while I'm running off the copies, and started crying hysterically. "Oh god no, please stop, please stop, this feels so wrong." I was like huh? I'm just running copies for you. she continued crying hysterically, saying she felt like she was sinning, she was so afraid of being caught. She said she was a catholic, and takes sin seriously. I was like "for running photocopies?"

[PRgal]

20 hours ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Omg. Officially the most bizarre thing that has happened to me at work.

Yesterday a lady at work asked me to make photocopies for her of a few worksheets. Ahe said she was "afraid" of making copies. I was like okay fine, and started running off the copies. She starts panicking while I'm running off the copies, and started crying hysterically. "Oh god no, please stop, please stop, this feels so wrong." I was like huh? I'm just running copies for you. she continued crying hysterically, saying she felt like she was sinning, she was so afraid of being caught. She said she was a catholic, and takes sin seriously. I was like "for running photocopies?"

Because technically, photocopying is violating copyright?

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just a rant, I'm curious about y'all's two cents:

Does anyone else think that in most work forces nowadays, no one wants to train anybody anymore? I have been working as a grocery clerk for 2 and a half years, and I was mortified about gaps in my knowledge... until I found out I'm not the only one. I have co-workers who have worked there longer, and they admitted that there are still tons of things they don't know. It is astonishing what they don't teach us, and most of us have just been muddling through for however long.

I also find that if you want a non-retail job, you'd better have a bachelor's degree or license for something or rather. Mind you, I am absolutely not against degrees or licenses, but does one really need one to be, say, a receptionist? Not putting the profession down, it is harder and more important than people give it credit for, but no one wants to take the time to give proper, on the job training for it, so you have to jump through countless fiery hoops.

Not everyone has the finances or the time to go back to college or study for a license (that, to be brutally frank, they don't really want), so good luck trying to get ahead in the job market.

Edited December 10, 2024 by Wiendish Fitch

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Just a rant, I'm curious about y'all's two cents:

Does anyone else think that in most work forces nowadays, no one wants to train anybody anymore? I have been working as a grocery clerk for 2 and a half years, and I was mortified about gaps in my knowledge... until I found out I'm not the only one. I have co-workers who have worked there longer, and they admitted that there are still tons of things they don't know. It is astonishing what they don't teach us, and most of us have just been muddling through for however long.

I'm retired now but even as early as 25 years ago I stopped receiving any on the job training. I was told to consult other admin. assistants if I had any questions or given a list of phone numbers to call for help with various things. And often those people were very busy and didn't have adequate time to give me the help I needed. Fortunately I was good at figuring stuff out on my own which helped. I also got asked to help other new employees too. Everyone always came to the department admin. for help with many aspects of their jobs. 

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I also find that if you want a non-retail job, you'd better have a bachelor's degree or license for something or rather. Mind you, I am absolutely not against degrees or licenses, but does one really need one to be, say, a receptionist? Not putting the profession down, it is harder and more important than people give it credit for, but no one wants to take the time to give proper, on the job training for it, so you have to jump through countless fiery hoops.

Not everyone has the finances or the time to go back to college or study for a license (that, to be brutally frank, they don't really want), so good luck trying to get ahead in the job market.

I have heard that some of that is changing now because fewer young people are getting college degrees, but until about a decade ago it actually worked against you to have a 4 year college degree to get a job as a receptionist or admin. assistant! No lie, I used to leave my degrees off my resume back in the day. They used to assume that you were taking that job until something better came along. How sad was that? I can see why that changed, though, because over time jobs like this started requiring more oral and written communication skills and the ability to handle technical/computer work. And I think employers just wanted to ensure that a person had an education that probably taught them some of those those things. It used to be assumed that a basic high school education would give you adequate preparation, but that changed. Starting around 15 years ago or so a lot of people began to think that a high school education is not enough anymore to qualify many people to do white collar work. I hate to say that I can understand the reasoning behind that, although I'm not sure that the education system is to blame or because more people were going to college it meant they probably weren't up to doing certain kinds of work if they didn't. And of course the work required became more demanding too, so it's probably a combination of things.

Neither my husband nor my father went to college but you'd never think that if you spent any time with them. People used to think my father was a college professor, LOL, and my husband's grammar and vocabulary have always been amazing. I don't believe most young adults today that never went to college would be on their level. As more people in recent years have opted out of getting a college degree, some of this is actually changing. One of my best friends' daughters is an example of this. She's 35 and has a great job with a big insurance company that a decade ago she'd never have been able to get with only two years of college and no degree.

Anyway, just my take.

Edited December 10, 2024 by Yeah No

[Ohiopirate02]

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Just a rant, I'm curious about y'all's two cents:

Does anyone else think that in most work forces nowadays, no one wants to train anybody anymore? I have been working as a grocery clerk for 2 and a half years, and I was mortified about gaps in my knowledge... until I found out I'm not the only one. I have co-workers who have worked there longer, and they admitted that there are still tons of things they don't know. It is astonishing what they don't teach us, and most of us have just been muddling through for however long.

Most retailers are doing everything they can to cut the workforce down to the bare minimum. That leaves no time for managers to thoroughly train people. Not when they have a list a mile long of tasks they must complete every day. When I used to work for Walgreens, there was a set number of employees every shift that is definitely not the case anymore. One person at the register, one at cosmetics, one at photo plus one employee on the floor and at least one manager. Nowadays, I see one employee at the register and maybe one more floating around on the floor. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

13 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Most retailers are doing everything they can to cut the workforce down to the bare minimum. That leaves no time for managers to thoroughly train people. Not when they have a list a mile long of tasks they must complete every day. When I used to work for Walgreens, there was a set number of employees every shift that is definitely not the case anymore. One person at the register, one at cosmetics, one at photo plus one employee on the floor and at least one manager. Nowadays, I see one employee at the register and maybe one more floating around on the floor. 

Bolded mine.

Michael's has become the same way. It is friggin' depressing.

[Cementhead]

46 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Nowadays, I see one employee at the register and maybe one more floating around on the floor. 

Nowadays, I feel lucky if there even is an employee at the register. 

[Dimity]

9 minutes ago, Cementhead said:

Nowadays, I feel lucky if there even is an employee at the register. 

At our local grocery store they've added even more self check-outs so you can either wait in a long line for a cashier or you can do it yourself.  On principle I've always waited in the line, but they're making it harder and harder for those of us who don't want self check out.  I had read that a lot of places have moved away from the self check out (due I guess to people not paying for some of their stuff?) but not around here, sadly.

[Yeah No]

Near me I find it depends on the store. Walgreens has fewer people on the floor in the past few years but CVS still has as many as ever, mostly stocking. Target and Walmart still have a lot of employees on the floor stocking but only one or two manned checkouts on weekdays and maybe 3 or 4 on weekends. Now you have to hunt down someone to help you in the electronics departments and there's no one manning the fitting rooms anymore either. The supermarkets vary but most only have a couple of manned checkouts at any time and all have increased the number of self-checkouts in the past couple of years. The deli section often only has one person at it and a line waiting. And forget the floral dept. and bakeries. You have to go to the service desk to get someone to come over to help you anymore.

 Kohls and all the department stores like Macy's and Penney's have cut down so much on staff that they all now have one big register per floor and have shut down all the others. They also keep only one or two ladies fitting rooms open in the entire store where there used to be at least twice as many. It's horrible on weekends with everyone packed into one fitting room and a line waiting. I feel sorry for the person that has to put all those clothes back because now there's only one doing what used to be the job of several people and I'm sure they have other duties as well.

[Mountainair]

Not related to self check outs but since Covid times our drug stores have been severely lacking. My kids have needed antibiotics in the last year or so and CVS and Walgreens have been completely out of them leaving me in a lurch. I’ve waited in line for hours (seriously) to be told they are out of said antibiotic. There are times lately when the pharmacy is just closed due to lack of staff.  I ended up switching to our local grocery store chain and have had no problems getting prescriptions filled. 

[BlueSkies]

Sunday Night blues....

 

I know many who experience but I feel it as well because I have to actually start thinking about work the night before.  My manager is in the office usually an hour ahead of me and is already deep into work mode by the time I get in.  Then this person will usually ask me what's going on in reference to work.  

 

I usually try to not to think much about work on my days off but I have too to be a little to be prepared for this person.  My memory isn't the best as well until I get back in work mode.  

[Mountainair]

1 hour ago, BlueSkies said:

Sunday Night blues....

 

I know many who experience but I feel it as well because I have to actually start thinking about work the night before.  My manager is in the office usually an hour ahead of me and is already deep into work mode by the time I get in.  Then this person will usually ask me what's going on in reference to work.  

 

I usually try to not to think much about work on my days off but I have too to be a little to be prepared for this person.  My memory isn't the best as well until I get back in work mode.  

I’m feeling those blues majorly today. I work at a year round school and we’ve been off for 6 weeks. Tomorrow is our first day back and I had to take an emergency trip four hours away over the weekend for family. I can never sleep in hotels and I’ve been used to sleeping in until 11 everyday. 5:30 is going to come early tomorrow. We are under a winter weather advisory so I’m hoping school will at least be delayed but I know I have to rip the bandaid off at some point. 

[PRgal]

On 12/10/2024 at 11:09 AM, Dimity said:

At our local grocery store they've added even more self check-outs so you can either wait in a long line for a cashier or you can do it yourself.  On principle I've always waited in the line, but they're making it harder and harder for those of us who don't want self check out.  I had read that a lot of places have moved away from the self check out (due I guess to people not paying for some of their stuff?) but not around here, sadly.

I hate dealing with a more traditional checkout so I always self checkout unless I need something weighed and the self checkout does not have a scale (or you can’t print yourself a sticker at the produce section when you’re weighing it on your own).  I just want to get things over and done with quickly.  It’s also why I order online a lot.  I prefer using stores that have their own delivery service since they’re smaller businesses  but I often have to use Instacart/Uber/Doordash because I need things from stores that have more selection.

[BlueSkies]

Sometimes my work life can dictate the sports teams I root for or the amount of vigor I have for it.

 

Ive been nostalgic of late for my life and jobs from 2009-2014.  To be fair i didnt think it was that great back then but maybe seeing it through the lenses 10 years later it didn’t seem so bad.

 

Yeah anyway really hoping the Jets hire Rex Ryan again.  He was a rather entertaining character even if he didn’t ware out his welcome with the team then.

 

But yeah I’d love to see it and I think would even motivate myself a bit.  

[PRgal]

41 minutes ago, BlueSkies said:

Sometimes my work life can dictate the sports teams I root for or the amount of vigor I have for it.

 

Ive been nostalgic of late for my life and jobs from 2009-2014.  To be fair i didnt think it was that great back then but maybe seeing it through the lenses 10 years later it didn’t seem so bad.

 

Yeah anyway really hoping the Jets hire Rex Ryan again.  He was a rather entertaining character even if he didn’t ware out his welcome with the team then.

 

But yeah I’d love to see it and I think would even motivate myself a bit.  

Dictates because you'd be ostracized at the water cooler? It's weird, my dad managed to make it to the C-level without even being that big of a sports fan.  Maybe being an immigrant and English not being his primary language kind of "excused" him?  He knows enough about what's going on, but he's not obsessed with any particular team.  

[BlueSkies]

8 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Dictates because you'd be ostracized at the water cooler? It's weird, my dad managed to make it to the C-level without even being that big of a sports fan.  Maybe being an immigrant and English not being his primary language kind of "excused" him?  He knows enough about what's going on, but he's not obsessed with any particular team.  

I can appreciate comeback stories.

 

It has nothing to do with "being ostracized at the water cooler".  

[Browncoat]

Snow day tomorrow!  And actually I'm kind of mad about it.  We only have one week until classes start, and I really needed every minute of that week to get ready.  Road and weather conditions are okay right now -- it isn't even snowing -- but the freezing rain is meant to start in a couple of hours.

[GHScorpiosRule]

58 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Snow day tomorrow!  

WOOHOO! After reading this afternoon that only freezing rain was expected tomorrow, I checked my weather app again and 2-4 inches overnight with up to 5 more tomorrow!!! That’s wot I’m tawkin’ aboot!!!!

[Annber03]

I want snow.... We had some last month, but then it melted. I'll happily take some of the snow others are getting off their hands if they don't want it!

[Mountainair]

I love snow if I don’t have to go anywhere in it. Unfortunately our city hasn’t recovered enough from Hurricane Helene to support even more infrastructure damage so I feel guilty for hoping for snow. I just don’t want to go to work :(

[Cloud9Shopper]

I work from home so snow days don’t exist in my vocabulary. 🤣

[GHScorpiosRule]

58 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I want snow.... We had some last month, but then it melted. I'll happily take some of the snow others are getting off their hands if they don't want it!

Like I said above, and in the Chit Chat thread, we haven’t had a decent storm in over 6 years, so I’m doing the happy dance that we will get almost a foot!

23 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I work from home so snow days don’t exist in my vocabulary. 🤣

I go into the office three days a week, but will be able to work from home this week again. I’ve been at home done before Christmas.

I’m happy I don’t have to trek downtown even if I do take the Metro.

[Yeah No]

Thanks to a big Canadian high pressure system, that storm is just going to miss me, and thankfully because I have a doctor appointment tomorrow that I don't want to miss.

Snow never bothered me that much until I moved to New England. It's usually worse up here than down in NYC. Except for times like this.

[Browncoat]

We ended up with a scant 1-2" of snow, topped by a shit-ton of ice.  It is meant to get (barely) above freezing today, so I hope a lot of this ice will melt somewhat before it gets really cold in a couple of days.  I cleared some of the snow yesterday -- mostly the snow hump left by the plow -- but wisely left all the snow on the car.  The ice should be easier to clear from the car with a layer of snow underneath.  

I'd rather have had all snow.  Ice is the worst.

[Browncoat]

Snow day again tomorrow -- or perhaps I should say ice day.  The official ice accretion here was more than half an inch, and not much melting happened today.  And now the wind is picking up, and it's meant to be in the teens tonight, so they've closed work for tomorrow.  

I am so very behind!    There's no way I'll be ready for classes to start on Monday!  

[GHScorpiosRule]

6 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Snow day again tomorrow -- or perhaps I should say ice day.  The official ice accretion here was more than half an inch, and not much melting happened today.  And now the wind is picking up, and it's meant to be in the teens tonight, so they've closed work for tomorrow.  

I am so very behind!    There's no way I'll be ready for classes to start on Monday!  

Taking response to Chit Chat.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Snow day again tomorrow -- or perhaps I should say ice day.  The official ice accretion here was more than half an inch, and not much melting happened today.  And now the wind is picking up, and it's meant to be in the teens tonight, so they've closed work for tomorrow.  

I am so very behind!    There's no way I'll be ready for classes to start on Monday!  

Not stuff you can do remotely?

[Browncoat]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Not stuff you can do remotely?

Unfortunately, no.  My job is fairly hands-on, preparing materials for teaching labs.  We're pretty much ready for the first week of most labs, but there's one that we needed a lot of time this week to get ready for.  Losing two days is huge.  

[Wiendish Fitch]

I've ceased to be a cock-eyed optimist when it comes to the New Year, but, just the same, I'm going to continue my job search. It might come to nothing, but it's all about trying. In the meantime, as long as I don't get fired from my current job, I'll be good.

[Old Lib]

I am so incredibly angry right now. Thank goodness we’re permanently WFH, or I would have said and done things where today would have been my last day.

Work in financial services, so with the day of mourning on 1/9, lots of meetings and items to update. Two others “do” this work. An ex boss who was demoted, who has resigned. Not a shocker as she’s lasted about 5 to 7 years at every job previously; was told by cohorts left every job in a mess. Yay. The other person needed to retire years ago, she’s 75 or will be shortly. She’s been a dingdong for ages, so not her physical age being a factor. She’s been shifted from various departments because no one had the guts to fire her. One manager demoted her saying she was not cut out for this work at all. Her job is being eliminated at the end of the quarter, so she’s all sour, saying we’re all doomed. Nah, they want me to stay, at least until I am ready to retire, probably in a year. 
 

Anyhow, both are doing sub par work. The dingdong, who is self proclaimed expert on one minor system(she’s not), struggling with what needs updating. She acted all clueless, so because any clean up will end up in my lap, I hopped in, saying this is what we need after confirming it with another team. Told the manager asking dingy what we needed. Then the ex boss hops in the chat and says just do this to dingy. Totally chopped me off at the knees. This was while I was working on several items at once. Dingy couldn’t do the follow up because she can’t multitask, can’t even “task”. 
 

I left the group chat, not doing squat, I have something I need to do later, which is all set. They can both rot. I honestly thought about saying I quit, you two can handle it all. I could eke by financially, but I want to get all my ducks in a row first. So I am alternating between seeing red and getting teary eyed.  I have no idea where I land after this quarter, but whatever. Been in corporate enough to know sometimes the next reorg is better than what it was before. 
 

The ex boss always saying how busy she was , but she took on more than needed, liked being the savior. But she messed up some too. I imayee’ll find major gaps. She kept the same $, they could not have her and another person as manager, and he managed domestic and international. She only knows one area, not much of what I do, so the decision by upper management was pretty clear. She got but hurt over the title as she was doing the same work and pay. She could have said no, I am no longer handling this as it’s not appropriate, but decided to be the wronged victim and leave. And taking a pay cut. This after telling me she was strapped financially. It’s just about that stupid title, which I told old boss she was under qualified to be our manager. I also didn’t want to be a manager, been there, never again. Too many headaches and stress.