A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[emma675]

4 hours ago, JTMacc99 said:

The ones who haven't done this yet, or have let employees know that they don't plan to change what was in place prior to 2020, are losing talented employees at an alarming rate to the companies that have made changes.

This is very true at my company--we already had a significant turnover when our new CEO started earlier this year and the numbers really shot up when he announced there was no more work from home (or alternate work arrangements) starting next month. That was the final straw for me and I started looking a few days later. 

[JTMacc99]

1 hour ago, emma675 said:

the numbers really shot up when he announced there was no more work from home (or alternate work arrangements) starting next month.

While there are always exceptions, with things like local employment rates, labor pools, and industry specific job requirements affecting my general statement, I really do believe that decisions like the one made by your CEO are going to materially HURT companies over the next 12 months.

Employee turnover has a negative impact to the bottom line, both short term and long term. That should be more than enough for anybody management who wants to keep his or her job to consider changing WFH policies.

[emma675]

28 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

While there are always exceptions, with things like local employment rates, labor pools, and industry specific job requirements affecting my general statement, I really do believe that decisions like the one made by your CEO are going to materially HURT companies over the next 12 months.

Employee turnover has a negative impact to the bottom line, both short term and long term. That should be more than enough for anybody management who wants to keep his or her job to consider changing WFH policies.

Agree. He's currently spouting the line of "of course there's going to be a lot of turnover the first few months of a new CEO's tenure", but if it continues for long, I don't think the board will be happy and he'll have to revise the policy. It just makes no sense to go back to a super strict "you have to be in the office at all times" policy when the majority of us have proven we can successfully work from home or anywhere there is a wifi connection over the last year. But he seems to be an ass in general, not just on this one thing, lol. 

[bilgistic]

Y'all, I hate my job so much.

My AP boss is a belligerent, hostile garbage face who regularly "shouts" at us in all caps on Teams. Now that my job has been made to be AP 75% of the time, I have to deal with her most of the time. Beginning in June, I have to start training in the office to do mail and bank runs. Kill me now. Communication at this company is atrocious and everyone "above" us has been complete assholes. I'm actively looking for another job.

As follows is a tale of just one of the inefficient processes at this shithole company. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that literally everything is like this.

My partner and I process vendor invoices for the 98 properties the company owns. We got an email from one of the vendors; their address is changing as of June 1. Instead of me being able to just go into the "system" (Microsoft Dynamics) and change the address, the "process" is:

1. I log the address change in an Excel file that three different people review--the outside company that actually cuts the checks, this other incredibly hostile AP woman that has a nebulous job description (Microsoft Dynamics Gatekeeper?), and my AP boss;
2. "Prove" the change was "real" after my AP boss asked us, "Who is adding addresses in the 'Vendor Address Update' [log]?" I asked her, "What did I do wrong?"  because that's where we're supposed to put address changes...? I told her where the email was saved since she didn't believe that it was a real address change ("Also trying to figure out why their address didn't change on the most recent invoice email? All addresses there say their old address." OK? I'm not the vendor so you'll have to ask them. Also, it's not June 1 yet, so...);
3. Forward the email to her since apparently that's what I was "supposed" to do and I didn't know because my ESP is on the fritz, and she didn't fucking tell us, like everything else and then we get "in trouble" for not knowing something we could never know because no one ever tells us anything; and
4. The Gatekeeper enters the correct address in Dynamics, despite the fact that I enter other things in Dynamics.

OR I COULD'VE JUST ENTERED THE FUCKING ADDRESS IN DYNAMICS MYSELF AND ELIMINATED 18 FUCKING STEPS.

This is all so incredibly stupid and rage-inducing to me, and I will never get over how inefficient this company is. Their reasons for the bagrillion "processes" are always "because of auditors", but I don't buy it. This company is not public. I worked for a publicly traded global commercial real estate firm and a publicly traded holdings company that bought and sold companies and reported to the SEC, some of the filings to which I completed my very own self, and absolutely nothing I ever had to do ever was 1/100 as convoluted as any of this shit.

[supposebly]

@bilgistic, I really hope you'll find a decent job that you enjoy. And soon.

Pretty much since I've started checking this thread more or less regularly, your jobs have been terrible for one reason or another. Crossing my fingers for you!

[bilgistic]

My partner just told me that our AP boss is thinking about having "her team" work in the office starting June 7. We were hired as remote.

Our boss just left for a week's vacation and won't be back to work until June 7. So when are we going to know? She only just told my partner because she's there doing the mail and bank run today and was in our boss's sightline.

Fuck this company forever.

[magicdog]

Well, today was my edit partner's last day.  I had not seen her in 14 months and miss her already!  I wished her luck via IM and asked to to please keep in touch and let me know where she lands.  She's a good kid, she'll land on he feet.  I was flattered when she told me she thought it was ME (!) who helped make the nightshift easier.  I don't know how (my charming personality?).  But it was nice to hear!

My supervisor said he was waiting for background checks to clear before new people start.  He says the guy willing to be my new partner knows AVID and definitely doesn't mind the odd hours.  Let's hope he's a keeper!  At least until I retire!

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by magicdog

[bilgistic]

2 hours ago, supposebly said:

@bilgistic, I really hope you'll find a decent job that you enjoy. And soon.

Pretty much since I've started checking this thread more or less regularly, your jobs have been terrible for one reason or another. Crossing my fingers for you!

Thanks! Yeah, my partner asked me, "How have you always landed at such shitty companies??" JUST LUCKY, I GUESS!

[theatremouse]

On 5/26/2021 at 1:51 PM, emma675 said:

Agree. He's currently spouting the line of "of course there's going to be a lot of turnover the first few months of a new CEO's tenure"

Ha! That's nonsense. The usual reason that's an "of course" is because the CEO may want to bring in their own people for certain types of roles. If there's turnover because people are fleeing new leadership, that always reflects poorly on the new leadership.

[SuprSuprElevated]

On 5/26/2021 at 12:45 PM, MargeGunderson said:

I’m going to put on an eye mask, set the alarm for 1:45, and hopefully snooze. 

You have just detailed why some companies don't/won't like the work from home model, imo.  Being a sales professional, I have dealt with short sightedness about unseen employees my entire adult life.  The prevailing attitude seems to be that sales people who aren't in the office at least twice per day, are out f*cking off somewhere.  Obviously, there are those who are doing just that, but I've always countered those managers who insist on detailed call reports, mileage sheets, office check-ins etc., with "Give me 30 days.  If the results aren't evident, then you'll know what I have or haven't been doing." 

Managers who insist on having employees on-site, if those jobs truly don't need to be performed on-site, are simply people with trust issues.  Probably because they themselves screwed off when the cat was away.

I haven't filled out a call report in 35 years.

p.s.:  I'm certain there will be those here who will disagree.  That's fine, this is just my personal opinion based on my own experience.

[MargeGunderson]

@SuprSuprElevated, I’m lucky to work for a company that trusts us to manage our time. It’s at least in part because we are a (small) multinational company with people in many countries. On my immediate team, only two of us are in the same location, the others are on the opposite coast or other continents. As a result, I have meetings at odd hours (usually at night). I might take a nap in the afternoon, but have 3 hours of meetings from 7-10pm (for calls in Asia). This is typical here, so I think that has shaped the attitude about when you are “on the clock” so to speak. As long as you are performing, no one is checking to see if you are in your seat. 

[magicdog]

4 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

Managers who insist on having employees on-site, if those jobs truly don't need to be performed on-site, are simply people with trust issues. 

I think it's not to much a trust issue as a control issue.  They like thinking of themselves as minor princes of their little fiefdoms.

Got a little more info about the buyout:

Seems Gray Broadcasting is not too keen on huge salaried talent (on camera anchors and reporters) and management.  Here, most of the talent (especially those who have been working for us for some time) make 6 figure salaries easily.  News Directors also make in that range (and in this market, it goes pretty far - I've seen the fancy homes they live in).  It's possible they will either offer pay cuts or let people go.  Still have to wait to see what they'll do.  It would be amusing if Bitcheroo had to get let go because her mistakes are so damn costly!

This is my first week without my partner - a photog is helping me but it's not the same.  I also am taking on the brunt of the work - because there are things the photog just doesn't know how to do and even if I showed him, the knowledge won't stick long enough since it shouldn't be too much longer before the new guy clears his background check and comes by.

Meanwhile, a new producer (I think he's for a different shift) was introduced around the newsroom yesterday - Bitcheroo was fawning all over him as she introduced him to everyone - except the editors.  You'd think we weren't important or something!  I could have developed a cavity for all the sugar she was laying on thick for the poor guy!!

[Moose135]

1 hour ago, magicdog said:

I think it's not to much a trust issue as a control issue.  They like thinking of themselves as minor princes of their little fiefdoms.

Yeah, if they can't look out their office door and see you in your seat, they don't believe you are working. We're WFH until at least Labor Day, but they haven't announced definite plans for a return to office. I'm hoping they are going to be flexible, and at least allow several days a week remote. I'm an analyst and have been getting my job done well for the past 15 months (including reacting to several major revisions to our data reporting warehouse) so I don't see why I shouldn't be able to continue that. Of course, I'm a contractor, and my current assignment expires July 5, so if I'm not extended, I won't have to deal with it come Labor Day anyway...

[magicdog]

@Moose135 I hope they do allow you to continue.  My edit partner wanted to keep working remotely, but she quit when they said no.  It seems to be all or nothing with my employers.  

[Stats Queen]

On 6/2/2021 at 11:13 AM, SuprSuprElevated said:

You have just detailed why some companies don't/won't like the work from home model, imo.  Being a sales professional, I have dealt with short sightedness about unseen employees my entire adult life.  The prevailing attitude seems to be that sales people who aren't in the office at least twice per day, are out f*cking off somewhere.  Obviously, there are those who are doing just that, but I've always countered those managers who insist on detailed call reports, mileage sheets, office check-ins etc., with "Give me 30 days.  If the results aren't evident, then you'll know what I have or haven't been doing." 

Managers who insist on having employees on-site, if those jobs truly don't need to be performed on-site, are simply people with trust issues.  Probably because they themselves screwed off when the cat was away.

I haven't filled out a call report in 35 years.

p.s.:  I'm certain there will be those here who will disagree.  That's fine, this is just my personal opinion based on my own experience.

The insisting of having employees on site every day when their work could be done remotely can be a combination of things including 1) being a product of an older generation and mindset where you need to be seen, 2) not have accountabilities in place for remote working relationships, 3) one bad apple spoiling the whole barrel vs. doing something about the bad apple.

In 2019 I had a large consulting project with an organization where the commissioner was not a fan of people working from home because he wanted to “see them”. On our final meeting with out recommendations, the Comissioner said, “do I really have to let people work remotely” and I replied, “if you want to keep them you need to”.

This was October 2019 and in March 2020 COVID happened. Not to mention that this was in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

 

 

[bilgistic]

My partner and I have to start working in the office full-time Monday. I live 30 miles from the office. It's going to be only us and our accounts payable boss. (We have other duties that take up about a third of our time, but fuck that, I guess.)

No one else in the company is being made to work in the office; this was confirmed in a conversation between us and a staff accountant today. I asked our AP boss about partial remote/in-office time and was shot down immediately. I hate this woman so much I can't even express it. There's no reason to be in the office besides her power trip and watching us work. She literally sat behind my partner and watched her, in complete silence, perform the steps to the mail and bank run duties. I start training on them next week. It's really not going to go well with her sitting on my shoulder like a parrot. I'm looking so hard for a way out.

Also, today was my year anniversary and tomorrow is my partner's. The company admin assistant in Atlanta sent to the whole company via Teams chat a list of June's anniversaries and birthdays, and we weren't on it. It's like we're literally here just to be shat upon and forgotten.

Oh, and also, I had to ask three people if I have PTO. Turns out, it began accruing after six months. Our agency account rep--who has had the company account for years--didn't know and asked me what the policy was after I found out from within the company.

Fuck all these people.

Edited June 4, 2021 by bilgistic

[magicdog]

I checked the latest schedule and I'm partnered with the photog for at least 2 more weeks.  I have been feeling so stressed because of all the work I've had to do to make up for losing my regular partner.  Worse, apparently some mistakes were made in editing (photog sometimes edits when there's no script).  I don't know if I can make it much longer like this.  Like I've said, the photog is a good guy and does his best but he's not an editor.  To top it all off, he isn't allowed to come in earlier to start editing.  His normal shift starts at 3am.  Typically it's hoped that he can go and shoot some stuff after the news show ends at 10am.  Of course the news show begins at 4am and I need someone to edit like at 1am or so.  Since I've been taking up the slack, management doesn't see the need to have him come in earlier so I have to be the one to constantly monitor the first 3 hours of the show.   I'm just plain exhausted mentally.  I couldn't wait to leave the office yesterday.  I've taken to listening to calming music and sounds to get through the day.   

Sometimes I find combining the rainfall sounds with this album really helps!

[Browncoat]

Dear job applicants,

If you don't really want a part-time job, please do not apply for the one I am advertising.  It is abundantly clear in the job description that it is part-time only, with no benefits attached, so you should not be confused.  And for the love of Pete, please stop accepting my part-time job only to turn around two weeks later and say, "Psych!  I got a full-timer, so I'm outtie!"

Sincerely,

Browncoat

This is the FOURTH time this has happened in the past year and a half, and the stretch between March and December of 2020 don't even count.  I am tired of it.

[magicdog]

53 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Dear job applicants,

If you don't really want a part-time job, please do not apply for the one I am advertising.  It is abundantly clear in the job description that it is part-time only, with no benefits attached, so you should not be confused. 

Here in NV, we've been reporting similar stories.  I think people are applying to appease the unemployment gods while not serious about taking what they applied for.  We've also had reports of the opposite happening;  people have been reporting they applied for work but never heard back from these so called desperate employers.  We even ran two stories in which two different restaurants were so short handed, one closed on Sundays because they just didn't have the staff, and another was closed completely until enough trained staff could be found.    

Meanwhile, I began working with my new edit partner.  Nice enough kid.  He's familiar with the AVID system but spent his first week on the afternoon shift, so much slower paced and less to do.  He did quite well though.  We'll be working on a few more things tomorrow.  I think we'll be OK.  

Edited June 14, 2021 by magicdog

[WinnieWinkle]

So disappointed.  One of the women I worked with at my last library is retiring in August and in the before times (pre pandemic) I had expressed interest in being considered for this job when it became available.  Well today I got an email from the supervisor asking me a bunch of questions about  how to go about organizing some specific training for that position - not for me but for the person who was hired to replace her.  I know there was no guarantee of getting this job but I am a little upset (okay a LOT upset) that I was never even given the chance to apply.

[theredhead77]

That's really crummy, @WinnieWinkle

[MargeGunderson]

That is upsetting, and it sucks, @WinnieWinkle. 

[WinnieWinkle]

Thanks guys.  It really does help to have a place to vent and get some support.  I'm fine now but it took  a few days to get there!

[magicdog]

Well, it's been one week with the newbie.

He still has a ways to go.  He's still a little green around certain edit procedures, so I suggested he bring a notepad and write down step by step how to do some of them.  He's getting better but he's still slower than I'd like.  

I feel a bit like a drill sgt trying to get him up to speed since in the event I'm not there, he needs to take the lead.  Right now I'm still doing the lion's share of the edits, which makes me exhausted mentally.  The good thing is that the show is often edited much sooner than usual - probably due to my panicking that he may not be paying attention to last minute changed to the show.

 

[magicdog]

Newbie update:

He's doing much better and is starting to take on more edit responsibilities.  

Today he received a baptism by fire when we had to edit a TON of videos for two different segments surrounding entertainment (who's playing in town this weekend?) and wacky cat videos.  I tried to prep him before my break but there was too much too fast.  I had to end my break early to make sure things were taken care of.  The EP wants us to go on break 30 minutes earlier to see if this will improve things.  I think writing the scripts sooner would be the trick.

Some good news this week - Big Mouth HR is leaving us!  Now she'll be Florida's problem (apologies to our Floridian posters).  If you're not near any AFB you should be safe! 

They were passing a goodbye/farewell card yesterday.  They asked me to sign it.  My mind went wild with the possibilities.....  

"Goodbye and good riddance!"

"About time you pudding of a woman!"

"AND... STAY OUT!"

"May Karma bite you hard!!"

What did I actually write?  "Bye, bye, bye!"

[Spartan Girl]

So I’m going back to working full-time in my office on Monday. Sounds like most of my coworkers will be doing a hybrid of telework/office or full time telework, at least for now. I hope more people will return eventually. But everyone is acting mystified why I want to work in the office if I can work from home; I told them because I’m sick and tired of having to travel back and forth to do stuff in the office and the home—and I only have to do that because I’m the one that does their mail. Plus it’ll be easier to concentrate on things.

I’m sure I’ll have to reorient myself to office behavior again. I hope it won’t be too lonely, but I’m sure it’ll be better than the last two weeks I worked their last spring when EVERYTHING was shut down and downtown was deserted. I’m vaccinated but I’m still going to wear my mask and be careful.

Sounds like I’ll still be doing virtual meetings for the time being when I’m at the office which is fine. I really hope by next year things will be more like the way they used to be.

[Quof]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

So I’m going back to working full-time in my office on Monday.

Me too!  I could have gone last week, but lunches in the office rather than lunches at homes requires different grocery shopping.  I expect I'll be more productive, and it cuts down on the mindless snacking. 

[magicdog]

Can someone tell me if we landed on the moon, why it's hard to keep cool air circulating in an edit bay?

I walked into work as usual and noticed the air was getting warmer and warmer.  My new partner noticed the same.  I contacted Engineering who went to find out what was going on.  It seemed the rest of the building was cool as a cucumber (even the nights are in the 90s!) but the edit bays were the only area where nothing was circulating!  

Engineering said their repair crew will fix it - Monday afternoon.  So we have to do with some portable fans until then.  It's not just about the heat, but having to keep the bay doors open.  Bitcheroo and her spies can more easily listen in on us and I don't trust anyone who passes through the hall behind us.   

Edited July 17, 2021 by magicdog

[chocolatine]

This isn't a vent, but I had to review over 120 data scientist resumes today for an opening on my team, and I usually hate reviewing resumes because most of the candidates who apply are under-qualified. After 70 or so resumes, I came across a candidate who listed as one of their projects "a cannabis recommendation system using collaborative filtering," which is a fancy way of describing an Amazon-style "potheads who like strain X also like strain Y" application. That made me laugh so hard and turned a tedious all-day task that I was dreading into something fun.

[MargeGunderson]

I hate when the project manager makes my life harder, not easier. 

[EighteenTwelve]

Yesterday at 3:00, the lights in the office shut off, because the sensor couldn't see me in my cube.  As it turned out, I was the only person in this entire half of the second floor.  So much for "Everyone must be back in the office at least three days a week starting in early July."   There were three of us (out of 16) in the office yesterday morning, and the other two people left at 2:00 and 2:30. 

[Stats Queen]

6 hours ago, EighteenTwelve said:

Yesterday at 3:00, the lights in the office shut off, because the sensor couldn't see me in my cube.  As it turned out, I was the only person in this entire half of the second floor.  So much for "Everyone must be back in the office at least three days a week starting in early July."   There were three of us (out of 16) in the office yesterday morning, and the other two people left at 2:00 and 2:30. 

That reminds me of being in a class in grad school. The professor was so boring that despite of having a class of 20 students, the lights went off because there was no movement at all.

Not the same thing at all, but it was different.

[magicdog]

Well today was kind of interesting.

First, my supervisor needed someone to work this weekend and since they refuse to pay overtime, they gave me off Thursday and Friday.  Because the weekend morning news show is so much shorter than the weekday version (Saturday's show was 2 hours long, today's show was only one hour long) and operates on a super skeleton crew (1 anchor, one weatherperson one producer, one director), it doesn't take much time to stack and edit.  Yeah it was a vacation for me to just sit around for a 9  hour shift watching TV and playing on the internet, but I couldn't help but think that if they were willing to pay me the OT, all I would have had to work was maybe 4 hours for BOTH days (2 Saturday, 2 Sunday)!  Of course I work for morons.

Speaking of, these said morons claim we must now wear masks again if we leave our desks/bays ("safety" they say).  They are also looking to separate the anchors again by having them operate in different studios again.  However, many of them have received the vaccine (and as we speak two of those anchors are partying in Miami) and even the producers are beginning to question the logic.  Especially since the competition is not doing this.  They just pulled it out of their posteriors.

When I left the building this morning, I found a pile of handwritten notebook paper with a rock on top of them.  I called security immediately not being sure if it could be potentially threatening messages (the GM is paranoid -  he's having a new gate built around the employee parking lot).  I took a picture with my camera as evidence when I found it.  Security said he didn't see anyone walk around the front of the station so it must have been left there just minutes before i came out.  The writing on the papers was gibberish;  something that only made sense in someone's addled mind.   

 

[magicdog]

It's been a bit of a week....

One of the reporters is out so there's less material to work with, so that means more stories from the web (because the money we spend on video from FOX and CNN isn't good enough!).  I swear yesterday I pulled about 12 stories from the web for the last 2 hours of yesterday's show!!  I know the computer does the majority of the work but I was plain exhausted!  Even my edit partner was amazed at how much was pulled!  

Wednesday was also a day of requests from FOX for no less than three different packages!  Usually, the "cool" stories are requested in the afternoons/early evenings and the other shift does the sending. 

Today was a kicker of a day, one reporter in the field who was reporting on the anniversary of Elvis' death (big celebration at the hotel where he had his residency ), he fed back video which was cut off halfway in!  Producers were freaking out.  I found a complete version further in, but reporter forgot to tell us that.

Producers freak out again when news breaks of a supermarket front collapsing.  They took some raw video in with an interview of a bystander but didn't have time to pick a good sot from the interview.  They begged me to use my best judgement and pull something that sounded good for air.  

Mission accomplished and another broadcast day is saved by the overnight editors!!

 

[Guest]

It weirds me out posting specific stuff about work because what if some random person from work reads stuff here and pieces things together.

So lets just say this...

Today I decided to start a journal about what happens at work because I need to figure out how to let stuff go or get a mindset change.  And I feel like if I can't do that then I need some reference material to persuade me to quit my job.

I'm having one of those "the leaders of your company doesn't care about its employees, so I should stop caring this much about my job" kind of days.

So I unloaded a page and a half of stuff today. 

Tomorrow is not going to be a good day.

[chocolatine]

@ParadoxLost I'm not sure what kind of job you have, but many industries are experiencing an unprecedented hiring boom, so now is a great time to look for a new job. If the things you don't like about your current job are persistent and not just temporary frustrations, you may want to update your resume and start networking.

Journaling is still a good idea even if you decide to make a move. Get all the negative thoughts about your current job out of your system, so you don't bring any of that negativity into your job hunt.

[Spartan Girl]

Masks are once again required in my office building, which isn’t a huge change for me since I always wear mine. Except I now apparently can’t even take it off when I’m alone unless I’m eating. And I’m pretty much the only one in my immediate area that comes in every day.

[SweetSable]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

Masks are once again required in my office building, which isn’t a huge change for me since I always wear mine. Except I now apparently can’t even take it off when I’m alone unless I’m eating. And I’m pretty much the only one in my immediate area that comes in every day.

That's crazy.  But since you'll be alone most of the time, no one will know if you're wearing your mask or not.

[ABay]

My bargaining unit will not be allowed to work from home. To telecommute I'd have to file for accommodation under the ADA. Assholes.

[chocolatine]

3 hours ago, SweetSable said:

That's crazy.  But since you'll be alone most of the time, no one will know if you're wearing your mask or not.

There may be cameras in the office. It's not unheard of for employers to terminate employees citing the tiniest of infractions as "cause."

[magicdog]

13 hours ago, chocolatine said:

There may be cameras in the office. It's not unheard of for employers to terminate employees citing the tiniest of infractions as "cause."

True.  Are you in a right to work state and/or a member of a protected class?  If you do there may be legal options.

[bilgistic]

23 hours ago, ABay said:

My bargaining unit will not be allowed to work from home. To telecommute I'd have to file for accommodation under the ADA. Assholes.

We had our annual conference changed from in-person to virtual because of the surge of the Delta variant. Fully 95%+ of the company is working from home. There's an indoor mask mandate in my county. AND YET...I still have to work in the office...after I worked remotely for a year.

They hired a replacement for my partner who left to go to law school. The new employee is conscientious and doing a really good job, but our work is incredibly complex and requires remembering a lot of information that isn't recorded anywhere. My former partner and I developed guides because there weren't any.

We trained with the woman who did the work prior to a woman who did it and was fired...or something that no one will talk about. Processes were "changed" in between the time when our trainer did the work and we took it over. So a lot of what we learned was "wrong" and we constantly got "in trouble" with our boss, and it was EXHAUSTING.

My boss is a narcissistic, controlling, hostile shitbag, and one of the worst humans I've ever had to work with, which is saying something, since I've worked with some incredible assholes. My former partner and I trained remotely for four hours a day for two weeks. My boss has trained the new employee for TWO WHOLE DAYS (using my partner's and my guides, LOLOLOL) because she's so lazy and refuses to actually train anyone in person despite paying lip service to it. She asked me to train her on one process and I got out of it, basically because of how shittily she treated ME when she trained me on it. She kept telling me, "I AM YOUR SUPERVISOR and I haven't trained you enough on this!" any time I showed initiative. But she's leaving the new employee out in the cold after two days. OKAY.

She didn't come into the office Thursday or Friday. I asked her if training had now fallen on me, as I assumed she would be there Friday. She was "having trees cut down on her property" Thursday and had to supervise. She had to be there for her trees but not her employees.🙃🙃🙃

She said she would be there Monday "to coach the new employee when issues arise" (so not proactively train her but scold her like you did us...OKAY) but I should be available to support her. I told her I would be and had been BECAUSE SHE DROPPED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH AFTER TRAINING THIS POOR WOMAN FOR TWO DAYS. I needed more training to run a cash register at the grocery store.

FUCKING ASSHOLE.

Oh, and one of the other supervisors (who is a joy) for whom I do other work told me that "they think I'm looking for another job" (I am/have been) but haven't offered me any incentive to stay even after I explicitly asked my boss's boss. When my partner gave her notice, I told him that I could do all the work myself if I could work from home where I'm more productive. I asked him again a few weeks later if he'd come to a decision and I was put off again. I got my answer.

Edited August 21, 2021 by bilgistic

[chocolatine]

6 hours ago, magicdog said:

True.  Are you in a right to work state and/or a member of a protected class?  If you do there may be legal options.

I'm not the OP, I was just replying to the poster who asked why the OP couldn't ignore the mask mandate if she was alone at the office. I was pointing out the risk involved in doing that, since employers can and do monitor their employees and can use any minor infraction as cause for termination. 

2 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Oh, and one of the other supervisors (who is a joy) for whom I do other work told me that "they think I'm looking for another job" (I am/have been) but haven't offered me any incentive to stay even after I explicitly asked my boss's boss.

Keep looking for another job! It sounds like even the "nice" supervisor is a hypocrite if they're only paying lip service and not actually trying to give you any incentive to stay. And when you do find another job, negotiate the terms, such as whether you can work from home, *before* you accept the offer. You'll have more leverage at that stage than after you've accepted.

[theredhead77]

On 8/20/2021 at 10:58 AM, Spartan Girl said:

Masks are once again required in my office building, which isn’t a huge change for me since I always wear mine. Except I now apparently can’t even take it off when I’m alone unless I’m eating. And I’m pretty much the only one in my immediate area that comes in every day.

 

On 8/20/2021 at 12:07 PM, SweetSable said:

That's crazy.  But since you'll be alone most of the time, no one will know if you're wearing your mask or not.

 

21 hours ago, chocolatine said:

There may be cameras in the office. It's not unheard of for employers to terminate employees citing the tiniest of infractions as "cause."

Businesses are supposed to notify their employees if there are cameras, or newly installed cameras.

7 hours ago, magicdog said:

True.  Are you in a right to work state and/or a member of a protected class?  If you do there may be legal options.

I highly doubt mask wearing is covered under those umbrellas. And fighting mask wearing under that scope that is a slippery slope that one must carefully decide if they want to go down. Businesses are trying to do what they think is best, as misguided as some of their decisions can be. 

Edited August 21, 2021 by theredhead77

[chocolatine]

1 minute ago, theredhead77 said:

Businesses are supposed to notify their employees if there are cameras, or newly installed cameras.

There's usually language buried in the fine print of job offer letters that gives the employer the right to monitor employees.

[BooksRule]

Today was the first day of the fall semester.  The library was fairly busy, which is a good thing (it's been so slow all summer).  We do have a 'masks required' policy for all campus buildings, which is good, but they've relaxed all other mandates, including the social distancing rules (everyone is just being told to be sensible and stay at a distance from others). 

It would have been a good day, except that the A/C wasn't working well and although the first floor was pretty cool, the 2nd (and I'm guessing 3rd, but I didn't go up there) was warmer than it should have been.  And my office was hot (mainly because I needed to keep my door closed so I wouldn't disturb any students studying in the public area when I was on the phone or had the occasional visitor who wanted to talk).  I had a fan blowing on me all day but it got up to 85 degrees by lunch.  Hopefully, it'll be better tomorrow.  I didn't realize it was raining until I left the building--in fact it was raining really hard--but I just walked on to the car, happy to be pelted with nice cool raindrops.  (Funny, I live about 2 miles from work and it hadn't rained at all at my house, but now it's really dark outside, thundering, and very windy.)

[chocolatine]

Does anyone else here work in the tech industry and get bombarded by emails and LinkedIn messages by people trying to sell some software solution or "webinar?" At least three strangers every day ask me if I "have 20 minutes to chat." I already spend most of my days in meetings, so the last thing I need is more meetings. Some of them get really creative and claim that their company already has a "strategic partnership" with ours, or that they'd already talked to one of my coworkers and that person had suggested they reach out to me.

I'm seriously considering changing my LinkedIn tagline to "I don't have 20 minutes to chat."

[MargeGunderson]

Ugh, I really hate that. I’m not in IT but have “information” in my title. I get the same type of emails, usually about data analytics. I delete them all.

[theredhead77]

8 hours ago, chocolatine said:

Does anyone else here work in the tech industry and get bombarded by emails and LinkedIn messages by people trying to sell some software solution or "webinar?" At least three strangers every day ask me if I "have 20 minutes to chat." I already spend most of my days in meetings, so the last thing I need is more meetings. Some of them get really creative and claim that their company already has a "strategic partnership" with ours, or that they'd already talked to one of my coworkers and that person had suggested they reach out to me.

I'm seriously considering changing my LinkedIn tagline to "I don't have 20 minutes to chat."

I get similar emails to my company email address (which isn't on LinkedIn). I report them as spam and delete them.

[Jane Tuesday]

8 hours ago, chocolatine said:

Does anyone else here work in the tech industry and get bombarded by emails and LinkedIn messages by people trying to sell some software solution or "webinar?" At least three strangers every day ask me if I "have 20 minutes to chat." I already spend most of my days in meetings, so the last thing I need is more meetings. Some of them get really creative and claim that their company already has a "strategic partnership" with ours, or that they'd already talked to one of my coworkers and that person had suggested they reach out to me.

I'm seriously considering changing my LinkedIn tagline to "I don't have 20 minutes to chat."

A thousand times, yes. I especially love when they keep emailing, and act all perturbed that I haven't replied. Uh, I've never heard of you, and you cold called me. You have zero moral high ground to expect a response.

I've thought about changing mine to, "I don't have any authority to buy anything or hire anyone."