A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[backformore]

2 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Ugh, y'all. I got my official "merit increase" letter today. Fuck off with that. I scheduled a meeting for Tuesday with the managing director. I plan to show him the stack of commendations I have from brokers, coworkers, vendors, etc. I will tell him exactly how much I have helped sell and how much work I do, and why I shouldn't have to fight to be properly compensated for it. The worst that can happen is I lose my job, and that wouldn't be that bad.

Is there another employee of a different gender who gets paid more than you do, with similar qualifications?  You might have a case for discrimination.

[bilgistic]

I am the only person in our office who does the kind of work and breadth of work I do (other large offices have one of my position, also). The person who writes content for marketing material on another sales team in our office is a (male, older) senior vice president (broker), which is a commissioned position. I'm sure he makes over $1M, easy. I certainly don't expect that because I'm not actively selling to clients like brokers are.

A third sales team has a male broker (VP) and male financial analyst writing content. They both make more than I do. The analyst is mid-20s and bought a house last year for well over $600K in one of the older and nicer parts of town. Meanwhile, I'm sweating over my apartment complex wanting to raise my rent now that it's time to renew my lease.

The argument will always be that I came in at the support level, so I was in blah blah whatever salary bracket. However, from day one, I've been doing two jobs and senior-level work for which they just wanted to pay someone less than a senior salary.

I have my ignorance to blame for that because I was new to this set of responsibilities and didn't fully comprehend the scope beyond what I'd done in the industry previously. However, undercompensating for the job is on them. I'm not the only person to whom that's done (not paid).

NC is a right-to-work state, too. Sigh.

Edited March 31, 2017 by bilgistic

[Guest]

@bilgistic Have you thought about finding another job in the same or related industry?  I've seen that you were looking at changing careers but didn't see if you looked within the same industry before that.  It sounds from your posts that a lot of your issues are specific to this environment.  Maybe you can take your new title and salary and new understanding of how your capabilities should be compensated and find something that pays better somewhere else.

The other thing about salary is that they can expect overtime but that doesn't mean you have to do it if you feel you aren't being compensated for it.  Put in your hours and go home.  I know the ability to do that really varies depending on whether the people you report to are the people that give you work.  In my case, everyone can give me assignments.  The only person that doesn't is my boss.  So its mostly (except when Vice Presidents are involved) up to me on when my deadline is because I owe so many people so much work and everyone knows they aren't the only internal customer I serve and that I am constantly busy.

Now I do have the problem of being constitutionally unable to put eight hours in and go home with work unfinished.  But I'm better than I used to be....says the person that just got off a conference call on a vacation day I took for my mental health.

[Hanahope]

So my firm's office shares the floor of our office building with 6 other companies (most of the offices are small - we only have 11-12 people in our office).  The women's restroom had 1 large "accessible" stall (large enough for a wheel chair, but no handle bars or anything) and 3 "normal" sized stalls.  In the 8 years I worked here, I've never had to wait for stall, they've never been all full at the same time.  I could use any of them well enough, though it was nice to use the large one for a little extra room (since I'm overweight - I've never seen anyone in a wheel chair or use a walker or otherwise looked like they needed the larger room, so I never really worried about using it).

About 10 months ago, the office remodeled the women's restroom.  The large 'accessible' stall is still there, but where there used to be 3 'normal' sized stalls, they've now squeezed in 4 stalls.  These 4 stalls are so narrow, just a couple inches each side wider than the toilet seat.  I can't use these because, given I'm overweight, I can't spread my legs wide enough after I pee (let alone have room to move for the other).  So now I have no choice but to use the one large stall, and I will wait for it if I have to.  And apparently I'm not the only one.  I routinely see women, who are more "normal weight" using the larger stall, even when all 4 of the 'tiny' stalls are empty.  As far as i can tell, no one uses those tiny stalls if the large stall if available.  The other women in my office that aren't overweight tell me they hate the tiny stalls too, that they feel too claustrophic (the walls between the stalls and doors are floor to ceiling) and even they feel like there's no room to move in them.

So with almost everyone using the large stall, its constantly running out of toilet paper.  I certainly tell our office receptionist to let the office management know every time there's no toilet paper in the large stall.  I'm sure we're not the only one and I hope the management is annoyed about the situation as much as we are.  obviously it would be nice for the office management to realize that whoever remodeled/redesigned the women's restroom did an absolutely horrendous job and change it back, but I'm sure that would cost a lot of money.  I just can't fathom why they thought squeezing 4 stalls into what used to be 3 was a good idea or even necessary.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Hanahope

[DeLurker]

58 minutes ago, Hanahope said:

I just can't fathom why they thought squeezing 4 stalls into what used to be 3 was a good idea or even necessary.

I don't know if building code changes might require changes retroactively, but clearly if everyone is using the one stall it means the others are simply not functional.  I imagine there are minimum dimension requirements (similar to parking spots) that apply - I wonder if the changes meet that standard.

Regardless, it shouldn't be the tenants responsibility to look into code.  I would complain to your HR and the property management about it because it is a stupid change and it might impact clients or visitors you have on-site as well as tenants.

[Hanahope]

Oh, I hadn't even thought of that.  Great idea.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

I don't know if building code changes might require changes retroactively, but clearly if everyone is using the one stall it means the others are simply not functional.  I imagine there are minimum dimension requirements (similar to parking spots) that apply - I wonder if the changes meet that standard.

Regardless, it shouldn't be the tenants responsibility to look into code.  I would complain to your HR and the property management about it because it is a stupid change and it might impact clients or visitors you have on-site as well as tenants.

Or maybe there are regulations that require X stalls for every Y employees.  Yep,  OSHA has a standard on number per number of employees.

[ari333]

23 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

Or maybe there are regulations that require X stalls for every Y employees.  Yep,  OSHA has a standard on number per number of employees.

I'm not sure if it is actual irony :-), but they had three regular-ish sized ones that people could use and the large one. Now they have four that no one uses and the large one.? (My screen freezes when I try to scroll dangit. )

I've been in some stalls so narrow that my elbows bang the sides. Yikes. I also hate that delayed auto flush. It doesn't flush fast. It waits til you open the door and walk out.... to see the next person standing there waiting. Then finally... FLUSH. Well, you get the idea. THis was in a work place where you have to see people and work with people as opposed to some random public restroom where you'll never see the person again.

[ennui]

32 minutes ago, ari333 said:

I also hate that delayed auto flush.

Most auto flush toilets have a small black button for a manual flush. Or, wave your hand in front of the sensor to trigger the auto-flush.

[partofme]

1 hour ago, ari333 said:

I also hate that delayed auto flush. It doesn't flush fast. It waits til you open the door and walk out.... to see the next person standing there waiting. Then finally... FLUSH. Well, you get the idea. THis was in a work place where you have to see people and work with people as opposed to some random public restroom where you'll never see the person again.

I didn't know this was a thing.  At my job I put down 2 or 3 seat covers before I sit down to go and inevitably the toilet always flushes before I sit down.

[theredhead77]

On 1/31/2017 at 7:42 PM, theredhead77 said:

Today we did our monthly departmental birthday thing, with cake. It's always good cake. We sing happy birthday, pass out cake, hang out in a conference room for 15-20 minutes eating cake. Usually there are left-overs and people can have seconds or take a slice home. Not this time. Everyone got a slice, the rest was cut up and while we were socializing, CF took it all out, and either passed it out to her non-departmental friends or put it in the Bermuda triangle (where free food disappears).

She did it again! Cake sliced, passed out and immediately took out. It's as if she can't be in the same room as it without being tempted to eat it. It's not like everyone took leftovers home, (especially since the person who orders cakes changed and we get a much smaller one now), it's the rapid pace she does it.

[ari333]

On ‎3‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 1:37 PM, ennui said:

Most auto flush toilets have a small black button for a manual flush. Or, wave your hand in front of the sensor to trigger the auto-flush.

WHAT? Thank you. Live and learn . :-)

[ari333]

4 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

She did it again! Cake sliced, passed out and immediately took out. It's as if she can't be in the same room as it without being tempted to eat it. It's not like everyone took leftovers home, (especially since the person who orders cakes changed and we get a much smaller one now), it's the rapid pace she does it.

Wow. You'd think the birthday person would get to decide. Or is it a group birthday for everyone with a birthday in that month?

I used to hate group birthday time at my grade school. I was the only one sitting lonely at the stupid lunch birthday table. I wanted to sit with my friends like on any other day. And the cake was horrible. So there I was alone with a dried up piece of horrible cake, eating my sad warm tuna  sandwich alone. I guess it's funny now. :-)

Your office cake post reminded me of that Seinfeld eppy. It also reminded me of Jim Gaffigan's (who loves cake) office cake story.

 Coworker: " Susie's having a birthday. We're meeting in the conference room."

Jim: " I hate her,"

"There's cake."

Jim: "Well, maybe I should say, 'hello.' "

[Blergh]

Maybe this should go under 'Unpopular Opinions' but, all in all, I'd rather there NOT be office parties or treats due to all the misunderstandings, whining, etc that often arise from them (and the work doesn't stop despite said blow outs).

[bilgistic]

We have these bizzare, mid-afternoon (2 to 4) beer-and-apps "parties" for sports games, Cinco de Mayo and radomly, "spring" on Thursday (yet, somehow, not one on St. Patrick's Day). There are only about seven people who can actually go to these things and linger. The rest of us must grab food (keeping in mind we've just eaten lunch) and take it back to our desks. But what's up with beer at 2pm at work?

And the folks who CAN go, which includes my departmental supervisor, are always cajoling me to stay. Haven't y'all learned by now that's never going to be able to happen? My broker boss would blow a gasket.

[Petunia13]

@bilgistic I wonder if this is a common problem with higher ups not setting a clear chain or authority and boundaries.

I'm in somewhat of a similar pickle. I am now my department lead and an employee is doing things and making decisions as though she's the manager. In fact she's told people that previously and acts independently and belligerently. The director realizes it's a problem and finds it frustrating but hasn't disciplined her. 

[bilgistic]

Oh, my departmental supervisor is completely cut off at the knees by whatever the brokers want. She has zero authority over them. She should, but she won't assert herself. She also doesn't fight for her subordinates in regards to the abuses by the brokers.

[backformore]

11 hours ago, theredhead77 said:

She did it again! Cake sliced, passed out and immediately took out. It's as if she can't be in the same room as it without being tempted to eat it. It's not like everyone took leftovers home, (especially since the person who orders cakes changed and we get a much smaller one now), it's the rapid pace she does it.

I'm sorry, but there is a RULE about that.   Cake is for the immediate group only, and ONLY the birthday person gets to decide if they want to offer it to another group, wait a bit and have people pick at it all day, Eat it al themselves,  or take it home to their family or dog.  ( or just eat the rest at home). 

[backformore]

10 hours ago, Blergh said:

Maybe this should go under 'Unpopular Opinions' but, all in all, I'd rather there NOT be office parties or treats due to all the misunderstandings, whining, etc that often arise from them (and the work doesn't stop despite said blow outs).

Yep.   I once brought a cake in for an event at work.  I got it from a BAKERY, not a grocery store.  Everyone raved about how good it was. And it really was good, they use real butter and cream, not the fake imitation stuff commonly used.   A few months later, my supervisor asked me, since it was someone else's birthday, if I would mind picking up a cake at "that really good bakery you know about".  (yeah, it's 5 blocks from the office, it's not like I'm the only one who can buy cake)  Anyway,  she asked me to pick up a certain kind of cake (it was either carrot or red velvet, I can't remember)  and she would pay for it.   I reminded her that bakery prices are a lot more than grocery stores or COSTCO, she said fine, bring her the receipt she'd pay me back. 

Then - yeah, you guessed it.  She bitched me out, saying she couldn't believe I paid more than $20 for a cake, when  you can buy a perfectly good cake for half that amount from COSTCO.  She paid me back, but with a lot of eye-rolling and comments. 

Bitch, you ASKED me to go to the bakery!

[MrSmith]

On 4/2/2017 at 11:36 AM, theredhead77 said:

She did it again! Cake sliced, passed out and immediately took out. It's as if she can't be in the same room as it without being tempted to eat it. It's not like everyone took leftovers home, (especially since the person who orders cakes changed and we get a much smaller one now), it's the rapid pace she does it.

I don't mean to laugh, but this reminded me of Office Space and how Stephen Root's character never got any cake. Thanks for the laugh, @theredhead77; I really needed it!

[Hanahope]

Reading through a bunch of these posts is very cathartic.  My office is mostly decent, but there are issues too.

We have our own Control Freak secretary, who has to personally monitor the in and out time of everyone in the office, even those not in her department, so she can tattle to one of the two named partners.  My office used to located on the same side of the office as her secretary bay, so she would see the exact time I came in or left.  Even though I work for the other named partner and we have pretty much nothing to do with the other partner's department, this CF took it upon herself to monitor my 'in-office' time.  I was very happy when I switched offices to the otherside, closer to my boss.  He doesn't care about specific times I'm in or out, as long as i get my work done.   She hates that I sometimes come in later than other associates and leave earlier (because I have kids - and a computer at home to work on).

This CF is also the office manager, so anytime you need a particular office supply, you have to check with her to see if its "allowed" to be ordered.  If you have a computer problem, you have to tell and she has to personally view your problem before you're allowed to call the office tech support people.  She hates that because I work for my named partner boss, I can do what I feel is necessary to get things out (i.e. use fed ex, or courier) and my boss will back me up.

I expect my boss is going to retire in another 2 years (once his last kid is out of college).  I don't think I could work for the other named partner, he's too much Type - A micro manager and I can't stand working for that type.  Besides, I can't put in the "face time" that he wants.  I wouldn't want to work with CF in the same department either.  But, in 2 years (or a bit less), I should have all my credit card and student loan debt paid off and can afford a paycut if I have to.  I expect to get some notice before my boss retires, and probably I'll be allowed to stay on to at least wrap up his files.  but I'm sure it won't be easy to find another job with the freedom my current boss allows.

[BookWoman56]

Apologies in advance for the rant, but here goes: I have just spent the last two months at work watching a train wreck in slow motion that could have been easily prevented if people would do their damn jobs on time. For background, I work as a tech writer with a specific team in a department, and we have our routine documentation work flow pretty much under control.  I write some pieces; other team members write other pieces; I review and edit essentially everything; at the beginning of a project, we establish a timeline with interim deadlines to allow sufficient time for people to write the document, for everybody to review and provide feedback on the content, for me to edit the piece to improve readability, etc., and for the person who has to approve it to read/approve it. Our team also collaborates with another team in our department; we provide documentation to them that they use when writing documentation that has to be submitted to various government agencies twice a year.

Long story short, I got loaned out to this other team a couple of months ago to assist them with a major documentation effort.  I met with the team’s manager and the person who was supposedly in charge of this project. We worked out a schedule of when first drafts were due, when the team would review those drafts, when second drafts were due, when it would go to another department in the company who is responsible for submitting this documentation as well as that from other departments in one huge piece to the federal agencies. We knew the timeline would be tight, but it was workable.

And it would have been workable, if people on that team had bothered to do their individual parts on time. Instead, one person went on vacation the week before the first draft was due, so of course that section was not completed on time. Another person essentially said that she had not agreed to the timeline herself, the final document wasn’t due to go to the feds until the end of March, and so she’d be finished when she was ready. (Note, it was her boss who agreed to the timeline, but for her that apparently didn’t mean anything.) Turf wars ensued. Various people submitted sections of the document, which I edited, only to have them submit completely rewritten sections a couple of days later that bore little resemblance to the section I had just edited. Extension after extension after extension took place. Sections were submitted, yanked and completely revamped a few days later. I gave up editing because my role became one of juggling 10 different sets of edits to the same document, to make sure that the master document had the correct edits applied. People submitted edits to the same sections that conflicted with each other. Throughout the process, I was escalating to everyone who would listen that we were in danger of a total clusterfuck if people didn't get their stuff in before the last minute, because it was not going to come together magically and flow well all by itself.

Finally, two weeks before our absolute drop-dead date, upper management looked at the document and said it needed massive work, so another team was called in to restructure and edit the document. Despite my having been told roughly  a dozen times that we could not change the overall structure of the document, such as which sections came in which order, all of a sudden when this other team said sections needed to be moved around, it was okay. I was asked to assist that team, and so did that. And of course that team is now getting all sorts of praise for how they were able to come in and “rescue” the document, and I’m just sitting here, thinking that if the team responsible for writing had submitted their stuff on time to begin with, I could have done the same restructuring, editing and so forth, instead of this last-minute emergency group re-organization/revision of the document.  Look, I’m glad that the document was submitted in much better shape than it had been. And the team responsible for writing the document, their manager, and the department manager have all expressed appreciation for the work that I did, and I got a tangible reward for my efforts. But the upshot is that I was drafted to assist in a particular role that I was then unable to fulfill because of their own dysfunctional team dynamics, and relegated to a very different role while other people are getting the credit for what I was originally supposed to do.  I spent close to 6 weeks working every weekend and often until 10pm or later during week days, and right now I’m feeling that I don’t ever want to work again with the team that was responsible for the content because they are so very disorganized and dysfunctional.  I am taking the day off today to relax before I have to go back to my regular team, and all I can say is that I will be very relieved to be back with people who understand that you can’t wait until the last damn minute to do your job and still expect everything to go smoothly.

Edited April 3, 2017 by BookWoman56

[hoosier80]

Well, I went into a one on one meeting with my boss a couple weeks back.  I didn't realize he wanted to go over the annual review with me.  Oh well.  I was ready to tell him to kiss off if it was bad.  It was ok, but they did give me more money (not much for anyone overall) to say how much they appreciated all the shit I do to keep things running.  He figured out that my Dipshit co-worker can't really do much, even with over 2 years in this position now.  He told me as much that they'd have definitive goals to work for and if not, it'd be time for some hard decisions.  I said yes, as the Dipshit was bitching about it, while I stayed so neutral I blended in with the beige carpeting.  Then I hear Dipshit with a VP, who berates the Dipshit on a regular basis, but that VP doesn't like my boss (not really but does a fakey fake oh we're buds routine).  Anyhow I hear how Dipshit can't possibly know everything like someone who's been doing this forever (referring to me).  No you can't know everything, and I certainly do not, but you should know more than what you do after 2 FUCKING YEARS.  I mean, I barely get in my seat some days before being asked how do I do this, I have a question about this (when the instructions are on the form they're looking at).  I'm supposed to just drop everything to show Dipshit, according to Dipshit. 

We've got a new person coming into the team, but I have a bad feeling about it.  I think it's a bud of the boss.  Sigh.  Dipshit thinks that they're going to have to train the newbie.  Uh, you have to know something first.  Plus, we're supposed to get a bunch of work in shortly, due to be completed by the end of this month (not likely).  Dipshit wants me to show them how to do it, because they don't know.  So I get to train Dipshit on shit they should already know, plus tackle this mountain of work, train newbie, and do my regularly scheduled pile o'crap. 

Then I look at the vacation calendar.  Yes, all the bitches took time off around Easter - a big kiss my ass to all them!  Then, the kicker.  I wanted to take a vacation day on my birthday in a few weeks.  Dipshit, who also thinks they're Julie from the Love Boat, has a list Athemselves off on vacation on my birthday, and we're allowed one off per day on our little team.  Total Bitch Move.  I was LIVID.  Dipshit wasn't around.  Dipshit also does the - takes every Monday and Friday off for multiple weekends - yes they have that much time. One year they had every Friday off for two months straight.  A former team member finally bitched, so that ceased.  "Oh, I didn't think anyone would mind".  Dipshit has been passed around different parts of the company - I think instead of canning them, management passed them to another area - you deal with it.    I now have scheduled an entire week off around Thanksgiving, and time around Christmas.  Wanna play nasty?  I can cut you with a smile.  I'm still beyond pissed about it.  Multiple times I've been left to deal with shit at period end, when we're busy as hell.  Oh and Dipshit also took time off around Mother's Day.  They have no mother figure in their life, it was a total bitch move as they know I travel to see my mother on mother's day weekend.  As a friend said oh that's getting real salty.  Well, I'm not catching shit they do wrong, you burned that bridge and done blowed it up, so drown bitch, drown.

And the thing is, our boss got his taste of Dipshit when they screwed up management reports, which go way up the food chain, 3 months in a row.  Didn't check it at all, just sent it all out.  Then he ended up with egg on his face.  He asked how the data was pulled, and Dipshit had no clue.  Well, I didn't write this, so and so did and they're gone now (left the company).  Never mind there was a detailed 25 step guide.  Then basically told the boss that they weren't scheduled to be it the office the next day as he asked (to fix the data), and they couldn't possibly do it from home.  Told him to pound sand, and wonders why now he's written a poor review.  He merely asked them to do their job, and they said no. 

Dipshit is out again tomorrow, and I will be entering days in the vacation schedule.  I will be taking vacation time on prime days, and smiling, smiling, smiling.

[bilgistic]

6 hours ago, BookWoman56 said:

Various people submitted sections of the document, which I edited, only to have them submit completely rewritten sections a couple of days later that bore little resemblance to the section I had just edited. Extension after extension after extension took place. Sections were submitted, yanked and completely revamped a few days later. I gave up editing because my role became one of juggling 10 different sets of edits to the same document, to make sure that the master document had the correct edits applied. People submitted edits to the same sections that conflicted with each other. Throughout the process, I was escalating to everyone who would listen that we were in danger of a total clusterfuck if people didn't get their stuff in before the last minute, because it was not going to come together magically and flow well all by itself.

This is the exact description of my job creating the property listing marketing books when we co-list with our Atlanta team. Nightmare.

[BookWoman56]

8 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

This is the exact description of my job creating the property listing marketing books when we co-list with our Atlanta team. Nightmare.

I feel your pain. It's incredibly frustrating. I forgot to mention, this document was roughly 300-350 pages. It has to be in a very specific template, with MS Word specially created styles applied for different heading levels, bulleted lists, tables, footnotes, and regular text, etc. The guy in charge of the "rescue" writers/editors didn't realize that if he combined Word documents, he had to specify to retain the formatting from the original document so as not to lose all that specialized formatting. So guess who ended up having to go through the entire freaking document to apply styles again?  Obviously, I'm capable of doing it, but there's a reason that the company supplied a template, and that was so when you wrote your text, headings, whatever, it would be in the correct format without having to do all that manually. 

[bilgistic]

Welcome to your weekly "Bilgistic Bitches 'Bout Biz", with your host, Bilgistic.

I cancelled the meeting I had set up with the managing director. It was tomorrow. He emailed, "I saw this was cancelled. Let me know when you'd like to reschedule." I thought about it a while and replied, "I decided to cancel. I'm very discouraged, and nothing is going to change."

Over the weekend, I thought about my having scheduled the meeting, and decided to cancel. I finally accepted that he, my departmental supervisor, my broker boss and a middle HR manager in another office spoke at length and decided that I should be underpaid for the job, and paid less than men with far less industry experience. He knows that he helped make that decision. He could've changed that outcome. I don't need to try to convince someone who has already made up their mind.

He also brought to our team this kid who is supposed to save the world, but seems only really good at not working any harder than the bare minimum. And he walks the halls. I swear the kid can't stay in his seat for more than 10 minutes before he's up for 20.

I flat-out asked my male predecessor (my age) who is still at the company (in another department/service line) if he made more than me when he was doing the half of my job (it was two jobs before they hired me) he did several years ago. He told me yes. There you have it, folks. More pay years ago for half the job I do now.

I'm taking Friday off. I have to take the car in for service. While I wait, I'll ramp up my job hunt.

[MrSmith]

@bilgistic I'm glad you're making plans to get out. I haven't read everything you've written, but I have read enough to know that I'd be looking for an exit, too. Life's too short to put up with all that and you sound like you deserve to paid considerably more than you are. I'm sure you'll find a better employer who actually values you - and rewards you sufficiently to communicate that to you.

[BookWoman56]

@bilgistic I think ramping up the job hunt is the best option now. From your posts, it's been clear for a while that this is a job that demands way too much from you and does not pay you according to the value you provide to the company. The fact that your male predecessor made more money years ago for half your current responsibilities just reinforces that this company is not going to do the right thing by you. They paid lip service to your requests about increasing your pay and so forth, and ultimately came up with a solution that does not cost them a dime, all the while no doubt telling you how grateful you should be that they are giving you a "promotion," when they know damn well that promotion is meaningless if there's no actual increase in your take-home pay.  They are playing the office equivalent of chicken with you, betting that now that you vented and got your complaints out of your system, you'll settle right back into doing your job at a pay level significantly below what it should be. Since they hired this kid who is supposed to be able to do such wonderful things, then when you leave, that kid should be able to do not only his current job of walking up and down the halls but your job as well. I hope you have the satisfaction of seeing how well that works out for them. 

I realize jobs and relationships are not quite the same, but sometimes with both, enough bad shit happens that you just can't get past it. Your job is not much different from a boyfriend who treats you like crap 99% of the time but placates you with a few meaningless words when you are ready to leave, all the while sizing up other people to see if someone else might be better. You deserve something much better, so please go and find a job that makes you feel good about yourself instead of one that daily seems to suck more and more of your life force out of you.

[emma675]

bilgistic, I think that's the right move. They are not going to change their ways and it's always better to search for a job while you have one. Plus, the revenge of quitting, instead of being let go, is delicious.

[bilgistic]

Today is Equal Pay Day. Below is a handy fact sheet for the "wage gap myth" folks in your life/Facebook feed/Instagram comments/etc. 

[Petunia13]

[bilgistic]

Speaking of bullshit meetings, my broker boss sent us an email today declaring that we're having an offsite lunch and meeting Friday afternoon. We're supposed to brainstorm new ideas and processes or whatever, as if anything I ever ask them to try is attempted, much less adopted. Where is this meeting happening, you ask.

The...

boss's...

country...

club.

Fucking shoot me.

I "jokingly" replied to the invitation that I'm too white trash to be allowed admittance. Please, someone tell me why we couldn't have ordered lunch and met in one of the forty-leven conference rooms at work? It's so fucking pretentious, I can't stand it.

In related news, he grossed $1.2 million during first quarter. No money for my increase, though!

(Yes, I updated my resume and posted it on several sites last week.)

[hoosier80]

This week has been a turd, and we're not even to Wednesday.  It actually started up last week, new client coming onboard.  Yeah I was invited to ONE meeting, but I have to do the main system set up.  So, basically, I'm just a peon to this male dominated company.   Sigh.  Anyhow, oh it's not the regular set up - multiple clients and then underlying set ups under each client.  WTF.  Oh, and we need it all to be done by Friday (this Friday).  Well the one pompous asshole and I came up with a plan on how to get it done more quickly.  The thing is, we don't have all of the information needed.  I have one or two things left to do with the information provided, then my piece is done for now.  Assholes.  And the part of the team putting this all together - the people who've been in the calls - they're off this week into next week. 

Then the Dipshit, who now has been given goals to actually learn this job (after 2 years on this team - about damned time), is bugging me to learn how to do the setup.  Now, they've been doing "quality" reviews of this shit for two years.  So basically you're saying you don't have a clue as to what you've been reviewing?  Monday, doing a routine task, it won't work!!!  Yeah because you're starting at the wrong place - again.  Then setting up an event, I went over how it works again, after spending over 2 hours in agonizing detail on how it works, what you do, etc.  We have written procedures as well (but Dipshit doesn't learn by reading, they have to do it).  After those 2 hours, Dipshit looked at me and said well thanks, but you'll be covering this, right? I don't think I said a word.  Now, they're all concerned due to a fairly shitty annual review.  Then Dipshit leaves at regular time, right on time, every damned day.  The kicker was when Dipshit left during a meeting, because it was the witching hour - time to go!  I've had to stay for meetings or other stuff - who hasn't? 

Then today I set something up which was super de duper urgent!  Had to be put in place because activity was not allowed at all.  Ok, fine, I got it all set up.  Sure enough, not even 30 minutes later, another request, can you open that up for this one transaction?  Uh, is it type A?  Yes.  Well, the earlier directive was to not allow type A.  I had to get on a freaking conference call, I shit you not, then the brain trust had to think about it more.  Yes, go ahead and lift it, because this is SPECIAL.  No, you all are special. 

Then the kicker.  One set up is probably not needed - the client is closing up that option.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  Just let me get through this week - off on Friday, so yay.

[bilgistic]

I swear we work at the same place.

I have to work Friday and Monday; there are no company holidays. I was texting my mom about the country club meeting (just typing it...I can't deal with it), and she said, "Enjoy yourself. Don't let the bastards get you down. So, I guess you don't get Good Friday off, huh?!" When I said no, but we got President's Day, she replied, "It's a shame that our Savior's death, burial, and resurrection isn't worthy of a holiday."

We don't happen to share the same belief system, but I enjoyed her swearing in one breath and praising Jesus in the next. Oh, Mom.

[BookWoman56]

Now that I've had a little over a week to recover from the insane project that was just finished, I'm feeling much more relaxed. Helping with that is that I've now gotten two rewards for the crazy hours and amount of extra work, initially one from my manager's boss, and another that just arrived from the team that I had been assisting. The second reward was something new to me; you get an email telling you the amount of the reward, and then go to a site where you can choose from around 200 or so retailers, everything from bookstores to department stores to movie theaters. So I was able to split the reward between Amazon for me, and Barnes & Noble and Sephora for my daughter. While the gift cards don't cancel out the insanity of the project, at least it's a tangible recognition of my work, and much more appreciated than some random certificate would be. I'm also feeling vindicated because I've seen some of the feedback on this project, and the very things that I kept saying were problems that needed to be addressed have now been identified by TPTB as problems that should have been addressed.

I also touched base with a former colleague who had worked with me when we were both reporting to my former manager, aka manager asshat. This manager was overtly racist and sexist, and several people had gone to his manager and/or HR to complain about him. And so there was some schadenfreude today when I found out that manager asshat had to move to another part of the company, no longer has his mentor boss to protect him, is no longer managing anyone, and looks to have either accepted a purely lateral move or downright demotion. So today I really have nothing to rant about. The conversation with my former colleague made me remember just how much I hated my former position and what a relief it was to move to another part of the company. It's good to have that kind of reality check occasionally. With the former manager, I had also worked insane hours on a project that was roughly 3-4 months long, and got nothing more than an email that was not even addressed to me individually but to the team as a whole, despite the fact that I was placed in charge of a critical part of the project and pulled off a small miracle to get it done on time. So, yes, despite still recognizing some problems in the new job, I am way the hell better off now than I was this time two years ago, when I was just about to find out that a promotion that had been dangled in front of me was going to go instead to the least qualified person on the team, whose crappy work I had been correcting for close to a year. I am extremely glad I went looking for a different position in the company, instead of just continuing to stay there and be miserable while getting fucked over. Life is too damn short to stay in a job you hate a nanosecond longer than you absolutely have to.

[backformore]

I have a work story to share.   The place I used to work had a thank-you program for employees to show appreciation to other employees for "going above and beyond".  It was supposed to be if someone covered you in an emergency, or helped you with something that wasn't their job, but it could be for just about anything that was more of a favor than doing what was in their job description.  Hence, the "above and beyond."    The reward was a card, that the person could cash in - and the prizes were $5 gift cards to starbucks, Panera, Subway, etc.  

Kind of a nice idea.  EXCEPT ...  

There were two guys in charge of "building maintenance."  Basically, their JOB was to fix a stuck window, change a burnt out light bulb, repair desks or chairs, stuff like that.  If you had something that needed fixing or replacing, if you needed ink cartridge for your printer -  they were the guys to call.   Once I noticed one of the guys "cashing in"  his stack of thank-you cards.  A whole STACK of them.  everyone else would get one occasionally, these two guys got them all the time.   I asked someone,  because my experience was that these guys were idiots and kept "forgetting"  any time anyone in  my department needed anything done.   Yeah, they responded to the departments who gave them the thank-you cards.  SO - an incentive program, based on rewarding co-workers who go "above and beyond", basically turned into a bribery scheme for the building maintenance guys.  If you needed a lightbulb changed, well, your position on their list was determined by whether or not you were one of the people who rewarded them with a $5 thank-you card the last time you needed something done.  if you didn't tend to give them a thank-you card, well, your lightbulb might have to wait.   It was well-known throughout the company that the whole thank-you card system was being manipulated by these guys. 

These two guys - who were very well paid - expected to basically get a $5 tip every time they DID THEIR JOB. ANd there was a limited amount of rewards, so basically they were hogging them.   A co-worker brought it up to the HR director, who was in charge of the incentive program, and was told that , obviously the maintenance guys were very well liked, and everyone was showing their appreciation. 

Luckily, the place went through HR directors like water.  the next HR person didn't continue the program. 

[Petunia13]

That's bullshit @backformore ! 

[ari333]

This is petty of me, but I'll go ahead and jump in. In a former job, there was one guy who always had his hand in his pocket (ok . don't get ahead of me here and start making up your own punchlines - heh.) He'd jiggle his change incessantly. It made me crazy.  But that wasn't the worst part. I didn't wear perfume so as not to bug people with allergies/sensitivities. Yet he'd say over and over, "What is the name of  that scent you're wearing? Wait. I know the name, ' Your place or mine' "

GACK

That is all.

[bilgistic]

As an addendum to my previous post, here are the fees at my boss's country club:

Full Membership Initiation Fee: $70,000–$85,000

Full Membership Dues: $600-$700/month

Social Membership Initiation Fee: $50,000–$55,000

Social Membership Dues: $400–$500/month

I must mention that I make barely more than the "social membership initiation fee".

[MrSmith]

@bilgistic Wow. To be honest, from reading your posts, I would say you're worth at least 80k a year and probably more than that.

[ABay]

Opinion poll: on a scale of 1-10, how many years in prison would I get for turning around and throwing a chair at the fucking students who can't shut up, or even use indoor voices, in a fucking library?

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, ABay said:

Opinion poll: on a scale of 1-10, how many years in prison would I get for turning around and throwing a chair at the fucking students who can't shut up, or even use indoor voices, in a fucking library?

Not even probation. You'll probably get a round of applause.

[auntlada]

Try to get a jury of teachers and librarians.

[ennui]

3 hours ago, ABay said:

Opinion poll: on a scale of 1-10, how many years in prison would I get for turning around and throwing a chair at the fucking students who can't shut up, or even use indoor voices, in a fucking library?

Article in our newspaper recently that libraries are no longer quiet because they offer so many services that do not include reading books. Or research. They are now social places. Sorry.

[JTMacc99]

$50-55K just for the social membership? What a waste. I'm assuming that at those prices, the club comes with a great golf course; learn how to play. 

[bilgistic]

I think the "full membership" includes the golf course use.

In today's adventures, I'm running a new book (a.k.a. doing my job) for an industrial park we are co-listing w/an office in SC. I got the cover mockups (six choices) from the designer and sent them around to the male broker and female support  staffer in Columbia, my broker boss, our associate broker/former analyst and our new analyst/12-year-old child.

All but the woman in SC and my boss respond. The doofus new kid says the blue on one cover reminds him of UNC. That's super helpful. Then the guys (not my boss, though) go around and around talking about UNC. NO ONE CARES. The three of them send three choices among their goofing off.

I respond with my choice, a commentary on why it's strong design-wise and from a photography standpoint, and that my vote pushes that cover into the majority (it was on three of four other people's lists).

After my thoughtful, business-related response based upon my MARKETING job title/duties, my boss replies all and says, "It's not worth fighting over."

It took me a while to compose myself.

I finally replied to him, saying, "It’s tiresome and oppressive that when I give my views with thoughtful commentary, it’s called “fighting” or “arguing”. Three males gave their opinions and no one had a negative word. Please try to be more mindful in the future of the thoughtful contribution I’m attempting to make. I’m happy to discuss it further. Thanks, Bilgistic"

Of course, he had to reply (twice!), "mansplaining" to me that what happened didn't happen. I'm not having it, and didn't reply.

[ETA: Our associate broker has used the word "arguing" before. All I can think is how fragile are they that they can't handle someone (coughwomencough) disagreeing with them?]

Something I really hate about this job is how it's making me feel about men. I swear I don't hate men, even though I had a shitty role model from my age of five. Aside from my "birth father", I've never met a more narcissistic, ethically bereft person than the one for whom I work. He's teaching his protege (our associate broker) how to act in business and life, and it's incredibly disheartening.

Edited April 13, 2017 by bilgistic

[theredhead77]

On 3/29/2017 at 6:26 PM, theredhead77 said:

Someone (not me!) left a note on gum poppers desk. Someone complained ot my boss. It took 5 minutes and pissed off tears to convince my boss it wasn't me. I told him, don't I always tell you the truth, even when I fuck up? Why would I lie about this. I'd  was contemplating asking her to stop with the gum popping but I haven't said a peep.

Mystery solved!
I have the back of a pin card, from a pin I purchased at the Disney store around 2001 as decoration. It has a really neat quote from Walt Disney. I re-hang the stuff on my cube wall every few months so I "re-see" it again. So this time I moved it to my side of the cube wall that I share with gum popper. The way my clips and space work, I had it on the top of a clip which had it standing up about an inch (not an issue, eveyrone has stuff that pops up a little bit). Anyway, on the back it has some quotes about being a good neighbor. I had NO IDEA they were there. But she took them as a sign I was passive aggressively telling her to STFU

So today when I asked if my boss told them I didn't leave a note he asked me about that card. I told him what it was so I could show him and I couldn't find it. Apparently she knocked it down. My boss said after she complained stood up for me, that has been something I've had at my desk since I started. But then he said he was watching it to see if there was a pattern if I moved it around or if I put it back, which I obviously didn't since it was missing.

Anyway, her department is moving in about a month. I cannot wait. She's being super passive aggressive. I'm going to lose my mind. At least she stopped popping her damn gum.

[DeLurker]

1 hour ago, theredhead77 said:

Anyway, her department is moving in about a month. I cannot wait

I'd head up the good-bye lunch for that department.

[auntlada]

11 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

I'd head up the good-bye lunch for that department.

Plan it for the day after they leave.

[hoosier80]

1 hour ago, theredhead77 said:

Anyway, her department is moving in about a month

I'd pack up her boxes, too.  Maybe seal them with chewing gum.

I swear someday I will need bail money.  Had some urgent stuff to take care of last night, oh can't do business in these states.  Fine.  Updated the system so no transactions could go through.  Then, this morning - poof - like magic, one state is good now.  So undue what you did.  Fine.  I am reviewing because some classes of business were closed, so I didn't want to reopen that stuff, as well, they're closed, no longer in business.  I'm looking through stuff, and was like wait a minute.  I opened some of these classes of shares up in 2016, to do business in the U.S.   Every damned state, plus some neighboring territories and countries - I remembered because it wasn't clear and I had to ask for clarification.  I'm like did it get shut down and I didn't see it or remember it?  Nope.  Nary a request to do that.  Hmmm.   Now just two weeks ago, the Dipshit had issues doing an update.  It's not working!  Yeah, because you're doing it wrong.  They ran the wrong one.  I'm like wrot wroh.  Doesn't show on system onlines who did updates, but then I remembered, there are audit reports.  I had to go into an archive, and what do I see?  The shit was updated 4 times.  Three times just the same status, like not allowed to not allowed, which tells me a nitwit was at the controls. Bingo.  The first time I see allowed to not allowed.  I ask the Dip, is 123 your ID?  Yes.  Well, Houston, we have a problem.  Looks like you ran the update wrong, like 4 times wrong.  I said here are the dates, and I have to fix this stuff.  Oh, it's like that "issue" I had a couple weeks ago?  Yes (my silent but loud thought was - your issue is OPERATOR ERROR and/or being stupid).  There's one spot to put updates, and they choose to put the data elsewhere, so yeah their stuff doesn't get updated.  I fixed my stuff, then Dip spent a good part of the day fixing or trying to find out what they'd tried to do.  I had 400 updates to do across multiple states, so I waited.  Yeah, I had to work over due to the Dip.