[ARaven0137]

Thanks Seesaw,

It is an absolutely great job in an organization filled with dysfunction and ruled by mad kings, bloodthirsty queens, scheming nobles and grasping climbers. In one climate survey I said we were like Game of Thrones with less blood and more paper. Because those who climb high can find themselves close to the throne in D.C., backstabbing and cronyism are common. Gals like me who just want to do the job and go home are usually roadkill for the blue flamers on their way to greatness.

And now, for another twisted fairy tale.

After the fall and abdication of King Weasel and the elevation of The Red Queen to become the Red Empress, The Kingdom of Dysfunction inherited Kendall the Simple and Tracy the Tremulous as the new rulers. Kendall the Simple rose to power on the platform that his IQ had settled at room temperature and that no one could understand him. Tracy the Tremulous rose to power on a platform of timidity in which nothing went wrong on her watch because nothing was ever accomplished.

Kendall the Simple would hold his subjects captive during folksy meetings in which he would ramble on about the free donuts and coffee that he could get nightly from the hospital while he chatted up nurses. He would frequently hold meetings to plan meetings and meetings could go on all day. Kendall would then demand to know what meeting attendees had done all day. I once had to go see him because of a mistake that I made on a voucher. My supervisor and I met with him for an hour, talking about food. In the last few seconds, he told me to change X to Y. My supervisor told me that my meeting was the fourth hour long meeting of the morning for the same thing. Kendall would frequently issue contradictory and often mutually exclusive commands and then demand to know why you didn't follow his directives. He once demanded that sections not talk to each other and only go through him. He later castigated those sections for overwhelming him and not talking to each other. I would have to show up at meetings with stacks of his emails to present when he contradicted himself over and over. This went over well. He would demand that we finish annual reports months ahead of schedule so he could tell HQ that we were way ahead and get credit, but all of the metrics would change and we would redo the annual reports over and over and over. I joked that why should we do something well once when we could do it five times, poorly. He also forced us to switch to a beta software for our records that was insanely buggy and was not yet approved because he wanted to be cutting edge. I became an expert in the software out of necessity and I had to teach a class that was very popular with the rank and file, but wildly unpopular with management. I said that the software designer quit in disgust before the software was done and numerous designers finished it, but never talked to each other. I told people that if you wanted to save your documents, pressing save would destroy your document and hours of work. You had to do several drop down menus to do it. If you wanted to sign your document, pressing, "click here to sign your document" would destroy your document. You get the picture. Work came to a screaming halt.

Kendall the Simple also developed a wild project. We would have to visit contacts and vendors in other cities, which was a good thing. However, he made every section visit the same people, over and over and over. I would walk into every contact, head held low to be told that the contact just met with another section of ours and then asked, "don't you people talk to each other?"

"No," I would always reply.

He wanted me to go to a nearly deserted island to research technology, where there were just goats and pigs and sugarcane. I told him there was nothing there but goats and pigs and sugarcane, but he wanted me to go anyway. I found goats and pigs and sugarcane. We burned through the annual travel budget in three months, whereupon he demanded to know what we were doing that burned through the annual travel budget in three months. "I's gonna be watching ya'lls," he threatened. I did get a gazillion hotel points though.

Kendall's butchery of the English language was legendary in our work circle and people would be howling in the back every time he spoke...not because he meant to be funny. We had a Kendall to English dictionary and bought him English as a Second Language lessons. He was born and raised in the US.

In mass meetings with multiple other professional organizations we would get gems like, "Ya'lls is repizenting da organizations so ya'lls needs ta behaves and mine yer professionality."

"I's juss here ta hep da pepple."

"We's needs ta papalate dose dacaments."

"Iss furly likely we's gonna needs dose tings."

"Dass machine is done obsolute."

"Ya'lls bettah makes sure dat infamation is accurage."

"Iffen too manys pepple do da same ting, dats duplicity of effert."

"We's needs ta be stroking da cat fer dis to works."

It would be laughable if he were not making close to $200,000 a year and making decisions that impacted thousands of people. It was here that I developed the managerial decision making challenge coin. On one side it said, do the right thing. On the other side it said, do the wrong thing. It would improve managerial decision making by 50%.

[divine1966]

Raven, you need to be a writer. I know it’s not funny how horrible this guy is, but the way you write made me laugh aloud. Goats and pigs and sugarcane 😂 Giving him a dictionary and he is a native speaker 😂

[ARaven0137]

Thanks Divine. All I could do to survive is laugh at it and put great stories in my pocket that were just too weird to be fiction. I still recall the remote island meeting:

K the Simple: "I needs youse to take yer team to dat island and conducts you surveys of tecnologies."

Alice: "Sir, I've been there. It's nothing but goats and pigs and sugarcane. There are no major businesses there. It's a farming community...completely agricultural."

KTS: "How you knows? You wen arounds da island? You saws it all? How you knows?"

A: I landed there. I caught a cab to the local diner to eat. I talked to the farmers. There's no technology there other than for farming."

KTS: "Well, I stills wants you ta goes down there and takes a look. Youse gonna takes two wid you and do ups a survey. I expects nuttin less dan dat."

A: "Yes, sir."

He had this bizarre speech habit of pluralizing singulars and singularizing plurals. Whenever he would hold the mass meetings with multiple other organizations, we would laugh and cry at the same time, mostly in shame. I had a good friend in a sister organization and he and I would sit way in the back, out of sight. This would happen over several iterations of mad kings and sadistic queens. Whenever they would start talking nonsense he would elbow me in the ribs and, without even looking at me, ask, "Is that the best you got?"

To which I would reply without looking back, "Yup."

If I have one skill it's that I do great impersonations and I had Kendall the Simple down to a T, just with a higher voice.

[Mountaindewed]

I wonder if anyone is actually going into the store while it’s closed. Like a manager. Would be pretty funny if someone went into the store a few months from now and something from the food section had expired and the whole store was smelling real bad.

[Have Hope]

My a-hole boss introduced himself in today's client call as the one in charge of strategy (when I am) and introduced me as the one in charge of the day to day (which he is). He made me seem like the peon, when I lead the strategy for this client and on all my client accounts. I am so sick of him and his denigrating BS! I really hope he gets fired. I told HR and I told his boss what he did.

[ARaven0137]

Last night I had to work near an abusive idiot we call Capt Sobel, aka Scroteus Maximus, aka the crusher of female employees. I had to hold back the urge to puke.

I am just growing so tired of my boss. Everyone thinks he is the best human on the planet so you can't say anything.

1. He has become like a baby. He can't remember anything and he is constantly e-mailing with questions that he should know. I suspect he does know these things because, as an extrovert, I suspect the is just in dire need of human conversation.

2. He is increasingly lazy and this means work for me. Every stupid thing that he should just answer the question he wants to have a zoom meeting about. But these meetings are TON of work for me to set up. Last week someone waived his presence at the meeting -- something that has never been an issue before but now, he had a problem with it and we had like an hour meeting about that. The presence was waved so that things could get set up quicker and he says he doesn't care how long it takes, but IMHO he does.

3. It is hard to schedule things because we have limited access to the room with the video. He can't seem to understand that. He thinks we should be able to anything he wants when he wants... when I tell him something isn't happening because I got bumped or something he grouses at me but does nothing. This is doubly frustrating for me because when I get bumped I need to tell everyone of a change to the schedule.

4. My other bosses are constantly setting up guidance and meetings for me and I can't keep up with any of it. Because I am so busy doing work.

I made a sarcastic remark the other day that I don't think he got suggesting I should get a kind word for performing so well under strained circumstances... didn't get a thank you.

I feel like some of my co workers are angry either at me or him, I guess him. He is supposed to be getting things done and he isn't. What this effectively means is similar to me... he keeps telling them to do work, but then when they bring him that work, he doesn't want to sit down and do the work, he just finds a reason for them to re do it.

I am seriously wondering if I can take this job any longer. The work just never ends.. EVER. Basically because they bosses don't have to do any of it and thus there is no impediment to them saying -- do this... - do that... forever. For us to be having a pandemic and also working at home and still be working like dog -- at home -- and sometimes don't even getting a lunch break, is almost making the decision for me. I am just too old for this job and my life it total misery. It is the job itself. Much of my work has been suspended. When it starts back up the need will be horrific.

the one ***** at work who has been giving me a hard time for almost a year decided that she would try one more time and went running to a manager complaining about me. I asked her to not sanitize the carts near me because of my asthma. she continued to do so. she complained that when I was in charge of the service desk I called her up to do the "cart run" (bringing them in from the parking lot) and made her ring on the register...all of which were part of her job.

I guess the manager finally told her if she didn't like it to just go ahead and leave. end of story. so she did. 3 days later no one has seen her and she is now unemployed. guess management will finally believe me now. work just got a lot easier.

[Have Hope]

I am MOST unhappy about a dirty maneuver my team Manager just pulled on me. This is a much needed RANT/VENT.

My team Manager took over the direction of one of my accounts by telling our client Account Manager to schedule a call with my client ASAP to discuss my entire strategy. I was completely unaware of this meeting being called and scheduled; my team Manager NEVER consulted with me to ask if I would be prepared for such a meeting, and now it's scheduled as soon as NEXT WEEK.

I protested to my Account Manager AND to my team Manager yesterday, saying NO ONE informed me of this call happening, NO ONE asked me or involved me in order to prepare me adequately, and NOW this means I am TOTALLY under the gun to prep! I needed a lot more time for proper analysis on this account before talking to my client about my entire strategy!!!!!

I am REALLY upset by this. It backs me up against a WALL. And I am PISSED that my Manager is SUDDENLY calling all the shots, when it's MY client, MY strategy and MY calls that I LEAD? He is supposed to act and function strictly as a CONSULTANT to me and the rest of my team. So in my understanding that means he is NOT supposed to TAKE OVER the direction or even one portion of my account! He is NOT my boss! He hasn't ever been on the phone with my client, yet he decides that a call needs to take place ASAP -- LOVE how I was the last to know!

I am BEYOND upset and exasperated over this. This has been a CRAP month of a whole lot of extra client work to boot. It's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing all day. I have been working my butt off trying to keep up. And now this?????? Now yet another week ahead of additional workload, when I'm already busting at the seams.

GRRRRRRRRRRRR. Rant over.

[Mountaindewed]

They are hoping to have select retail stores open for curbside pickup by May 1st in my state. Since my store was one of the last to close, and since we have stuff people could use for the summer, I think we might open. I’m hoping since my position is in the backroom and I deal with the trucks, I’ve been with the company the 3rd longest in my department, and I am also very young compared to a lot of the other workers and I have no health problems, I will be asked to return.

But ever since I gave them that paperwork to fill out for social security late last year they have been really screwy with my hours. I wonder if I should raise hell if they open but don’t let me return?

[Have Hope]

So since my team Manager called this meeting with my client, without my knowledge and without consulting with me first, I asked him yesterday if he then will lead the meeting since I have NO clue what the agenda is and what he wants to specifically discuss. I decided - it's HIS meeting, therefore, he can lead it. I will just sit back. Screw it. Enough is enough.

[Have Hope]

And.... I have one client who is a negative WET BLANKET no matter what good news we relate. He is sooooo annoying and exasperating. He's the kind of person who if his wife cleans the entire home for him, he'll return home from work and will find the one tiny missing dirty spot and will point it out. That's what it's like working with him. Nothing is ever right, he is never satisfied, he's difficult to please, and he's a total time suck who makes us all work over the required hours for him - the worst kind of client to have in my job. The worst part of it he's actually very nice - he's just difficult to please and has a negative personality.

[Hi IM Dan]

Originally Posted by Have Hope

And.... I have one client who is a negative WET BLANKET no matter what good news we relate. He is sooooo annoying and exasperating. He's the kind of person who if his wife cleans the entire home for him, he'll return home from work and will find the one tiny missing dirty spot and will point it out. That's what it's like working with him. Nothing is ever right, he is never satisfied, he's difficult to please, and he's a total time suck who makes us all work over the required hours for him - the worst kind of client to have in my job. The worst part of it he's actually very nice - he's just difficult to please and has a negative personality.

Another way you could look at this client, potentially, is he'll make you better at your job?
He'll get you better at your job and hes a nice guy!

I don't know sorry to hear about your manager and the recent problems.

[Have Hope]

Originally Posted by Hi IM Dan

Another way you could look at this client, potentially, is he'll make you better at your job?
He'll get you better at your job and hes a nice guy!

I don't know sorry to hear about your manager and the recent problems.

lol.. that's one way to look at it! And thanks.. yeah, it's been rough lately.

Ty.

[ARaven0137]

I feel another twisted fairy tale coming on.

Behold the laborious lay of the LAIRFMFRs. Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Dysfunction there was a group of workers, who's job it was to go into the provinces and liaison with places of lodging and refreshment to set up conferences, seminars, training sessions and meetings. The vast majority of these courtiers were, like myself, millennials, but stereotypically so. They learned that my best friend and coworker, K, and I had done this very same job in the past. So, the senior LAIRFMFR, all of 24, decided to enlist K and my assistance in doing their job. We were a little older, and higher in position, but we're pretty informal and we agreed to help them out. At first, it was a polite request, one or two simple taskings, and a nice thank you after. In two months it was still a polite request, several taskings, and a lukewarm thanks. In two more months it became, "hey, we want you to do x, y, z, a, b and c." The things that the LAIRFMFRs were asking were time consuming. K and I had to drive through traffic, find parking in a very busy area, then walk to the site, find the right person, convince them to set up what the LAIRFMFRs needed and pay for it. One tasking could take two to three hours not counting driving back. By this time they frequently began to ask us to do their job on Friday afternoons at about 3:30 to 4:00pm. K and I wouldn't get done until 10 or 11pm after we had already worked a full day.

It was about this time that I noticed a pattern and brought it to K's attention, but she felt sorry for the LAIRFMFRs and so we continued to help out and it did help the organization immensely. There came a period in which we did their job five out of eight Friday afternoons. It also went from, "could you please help us" to "you two need to head downtown and get..." Thanks had also departed the equation. I asked them why always so late on a Friday and they always said the tasking came in at the last minute. I began to double check and found that they received the tasking a week or two before and just forgot or got distracted and that K and I were their saviors. I circled back after getting a tasking on a Friday and "visited" their office to find that they were watching basketball, playing games and planning a baby shower...while K and I ran downtown to do their jobs. Once, they went to a tea ceremony with the boss Friday afternoon while we did their jobs.

Finally, after K and I flew a four hour flight, we landed, did the post flight and then got tasked to do their job on a Friday evening. K and I worked an 18 hour day and we repeatedly called the woman who needed this done because she had to make some decisions on what we had found. She never answered and never responded. The next day we got a hold of her finally and she said, "meh, it turns out I didn't need that."

I blew a gasket. Right in their work area, I called them all a bunch of Lazy A Incompetent Rat F MFrs. They abused our time, good nature and energy for six months while they watched sports, planned parties, and played games. Not once did they accompany us to do the job. From that point on, informality was out the window and they needed to schedule appointments to see us, wait in the lobby until summoned and would report to us per protocol and respect our higher positions.

You gotta love those millinnials! (I'm one)

[Mountaindewed]

I don’t know who’s going to be back at work and who’s not. It’s been over a month and with Walmart and target and local grocery stores still open, a lot of people may have found different jobs. It will be interesting returning.

[Turtle_Rider]

I'm not sure if it gripes or not, but it certainly not pleasant. So here we go:
A coworker feels offended by me and now she doesn't want to talk to me. The matter is just because stupid chats.
Her task is to check up our designs. Recently, she asked me about some confirmance, and I reminded her about the reference and notes that I gave her earlier. Suddenly, she feels offended and said that my words make her feel stupid (wtf?) and went into emotional outburst. I am able to remain calm this time, so I tried to calm her down. Now she doesn't even want to read my chat.

Admittedly, since I met her, I know that she is a type of person who is too sensitive and unable to accept critics well. Blah! Type of coworkers that hard to deal with. I guess I should contact the HR after work hour.

[IceCreamKid]

Originally Posted by Turtle_Rider

I'm not sure if it gripes or not, but it certainly not pleasant. So here we go:
A coworker feels offended by me and now she doesn't want to talk to me. The matter is just because stupid chats.
Her task is to check up our designs. Recently, she asked me about some confirmance, and I reminded her about the reference and notes that I gave her earlier. Suddenly, she feels offended and said that my words make her feel stupid (wtf?) and went into emotional outburst. I am able to remain calm this time, so I tried to calm her down. Now she doesn't even want to read my chat.

Admittedly, since I met her, I know that she is a type of person who is too sensitive and unable to accept critics well. Blah! Type of coworkers that hard to deal with. I guess I should contact the HR after work hour.

Might I ask how you knew since you met her that she is the type of person who is too sensitive and unable to accept critics well? Did someone tell you that or did she tell you that? Is it possible that by your thinking that about her, you have treated her in a manner to draw out emotional outbursts?

I used to have to interact with a man who would savagely snarl filthy language. He said the meanest, scariest, most filthy things to me when I tried to draw his attention to a fire hazard. It was my responsibility to tell him that. And that was how he treated me. Would you say he was the type of person who is too sensitive and unable to accept critics well? Weeks later when he shouted at my boss using the same filthy nasty hateful and threatening language over another work-related situation, my boss was shocked and horrified. He didn't like being addressed in that manner, and when he told this man that, the man raised his voice even more and swore some more; continued swearing until my boss left the room.

I think you have the right idea to contact HR. You can tell them that you find certain types of coworkers hard to deal with, and describe what you say and do that puts you in those situations. But I wouldn't contact HR after work hours--work difficulties should be solved during work hours. I hope this helps.

[Have Hope]

I'm taking a much needed mental health day off -- well, really only half the day off and last minute. I have been pushed to the brink with far too much work overload, and I hit a wall. I emailed my boss at 1 PM to tell him I was having "personal issues" and needed the rest of the day off. I am being worked waaaay too hard, and now I'm unravelling. It's starting to show. My stress is leaking out everywhere it seems, even in some of my comments to co-workers. I almost cannot help myself. So it's probably best for me to take this time for myself.

I just don't understand why all bosses seem to turn against me. We are supposed to be staying home. But my boss announces last night at 6:30 PM that I need to go in today for something that is going to take 15 minutes.

Just me, not the more *beloved* co workers.

My biggest gripe with that is that (1) I am not supposed to be going in and (2) I am going to have to drive two hours for just something that takes 15 minutes? What a jerk.

It just has to be me. My bosses always turn against me. They always start being jerks.

My best guess is because they see that other people of the same type treat their people bad in this same position.

I tell you -- I don't know if I am going to be able to stay in this job much longer. I swear I might just get emotional and quit .