Things about your co-workers that annoy you

[beernbourbon]

BTW, why do you want a dog with a giraffe's neck? That's what the one voice keeps saying, anyway...

So he can stop jumping up and knockin the damn plate off to get to my dinner when I step away from the counter, that way he can just snarf it up and not keep breaking plates

 

[beernbourbon]

I work for a large hospital corporation with a three letter acronym and THIS...I have an employee who has 14 points for attendance issues when you are supposed to be let go at 7. HR does not make it easy on us.





Different subject, does anyone have any advice on quitting gracefully from a difficult situation? I manage two small kitchens of hospitals and I'm burnt out; been doing the work of two for the last three months including multiple holiday caterings almost entirely by myself. I have about 20 staff under me and the system is just messed up. I had two guys in jail last month, one of them is now on an ankle bracelet. I was supposed to be off this whole week for a much needed vacation but the resource manager we had lined up to cover had another assignment and basically there was nobody left to cover for me. So, I could take the vacation and come back to a giant **** show, or I could do the "right thing" and suck it up and hope for some extra time later this month. What did I do?...



So it's been really hard to just walk away, even thought I know that's what I have to do. I'm attached to the staff and they like me a lot as well, but it's too much and the culture of the company drives me crazy.

Yeah, def time to be looking. The employee market is huge right now. Had to explain that to the owners 'if you would have hired someone 2 years ago when I told you I needed them, we wouldn't be paying someone $5 more on the hour [emoji53]"

 

[Billy-Klubb]

under the new rules in effect 1-1-16, I got in trouble at work today (as well as 2 others) for being 1 minute late clocking in. one new guy couldn't figure out how to clock in and I even helped him. but the rules are now strict on the 1 minute mark. these new heads and their new rules can take a big ol' slob on my grandmas knob. and I hope she has bad gas at the time.

 

[beernbourbon]

under the new rules in effect 1-1-16, I got in trouble at work today (as well as 2 others) for being 1 minute late clocking in. one new guy couldn't figure out how to clock in and I even helped him. but the rules are now strict on the 1 minute mark. these new heads and their new rules can take a big ol' slob on my grandmas knob. and I hope she has bad gas at the time.

So what's policy say about, oh I dunno, 5 minutes early?
25 mins per week x 50 weeks x $30/hr = $625 (cuz you were a$$bags about me clockin in 1 minute late)
Oh, and that doesn't account for the OT created by doing so [emoji16]

 

[Brettomomyces]

Damn, that's a real dilemma. Do you have another job prospect, or at least some "cushion" money in the bank to hold you over until you find a new gig? If you have that luxury, maybe it's time to walk away from it. If the job is that stressful, maybe it's best to leave. OTOH, if leaving now would be a hardship, you'll have to suck it up a while longer while you search for a new job.

I've had jobs like that--liking the work and co-workers but frustrated by politics and other shenanigans. I feel for you. I hope you find something good.

Thanks man, I appreciate it. No prospects yet but I do have some cushion money and if I really wanted to could probably get by 2-3 months without work...I just haven't been unemployed in awhile and its hard for me to get over that. The original plan was to literally use this vacation time to send out some resumes...but the girlfriend is very supportive of me and we worked it out that I would really only need to have a $10/hr job for a little bit to keep us going until I could find something better. This job was a big pay bump for me 2 years ago and I've been really good about staying in my means since.

I also happen to live just outside Denver, so part of me wants to knock on every brewery in a 15 mile radius (there are a lot...) and beg for work.

 

[iijakii]

So it's been really hard to just walk away, even thought I know that's what I have to do. I'm attached to the staff and they like me a lot as well, but it's too much and the culture of the company drives me crazy.

That's a real bummer. I've been through that before, just not enough employees due to budget crunching. Since you don't have much to lose since you're already thinking of quitting, you could simply tell your boss you're sick of doing a two man job and are no longer working OT. Bail at 5 and they can deal with it. Quick way to get fired though .

Honestly all you can really do is find another job and put in a 2wk notice. If you want to take a break you could even do a 1mo notice before finding a job. That's more than classy enough.

 

[Brettomomyces]

So what's policy say about, oh I dunno, 5 minutes early?
25 mins per week x 50 weeks x $30/hr = $625 (cuz you were a$$bags about me clockin in 1 minute late)
Oh, and that doesn't account for the OT created by doing so [emoji16]

We use Kronos here and it's such a pain when someone clocks in 7 minutes early and doesn't break policy, but gets rounded up to 15 minutes on the payroll. Or if you take 29 minutes instead of 30 for your lunch and it decides the employee got called back out of their break, so the entire break didn't count at all.

 

[Brettomomyces]

That's a real bummer. I've been through that before, just not enough employees due to budget crunching. Since you don't have much to lose since you're already thinking of quitting, you could simply tell your boss you're sick of doing a two man job and are no longer working OT. Bail at 5 and they can deal with it. Quick way to get fired though .

Honestly all you can really do is find another job and put in a 2wk notice. If you want to take a break you could even do a 1mo notice before finding a job. That's more than classy enough.

Haha I wish I could do that. I'm trying to leave on good terms...I'm a contractor for the hospitals technically, and my coworkers (management) in my company are strictly forbidden to give other managers job references. Still blows me away. So I need to make sure my clients still like me when I quit.

I think I'm just going to tell them I'm leaving at the end of the month, which is like 3.5 wks if I do it tomorrow. Part of what's hard for me is I know it's going to SUCK for my guys if I leave because it takes so damn long to hire anyone in this company, and longer at management level.

 

[iijakii]

Maybe it'll be a good promotion opportunity for some of your underlings.

 

[beernbourbon]

We use Kronos here and it's such a pain when someone clocks in 7 minutes early and doesn't break policy, but gets rounded up to 15 minutes on the payroll. Or if you take 29 minutes instead of 30 for your lunch and it decides the employee got called back out of their break, so the entire break didn't count at all.

Oof. Did time clock once. Hated it so much that when one place even mentioned it, I immediately found new employment. When asked why, told them if I cannot be trusted to log my time correctly in 15 min increments (well within reason in my profession), then they would not get me to clock in appropriately either. Not to mention; the way I was raised, I always give more than I truly log, so if a company was worried about the tiny minutes, they would lose in the long run.
Heard they put in time clock anyway. Less than a month later they had 2 employees(owner and long time admin)down from 40 or so. Had to close doors by the end of that month.

 

[Brettomomyces]

One of my gals might be able to take over, but it took me a solid year to get the hang of the ins and outs and get my daily pattern down so I know it will be rough. I'm liking this brewery idea though...worked foodservice for awhile but never in a bar/brewery, could be fun.

 

[MaxStout]

Thanks man, I appreciate it. No prospects yet but I do have some cushion money and if I really wanted to could probably get by 2-3 months without work...I just haven't been unemployed in awhile and its hard for me to get over that. The original plan was to literally use this vacation time to send out some resumes...but the girlfriend is very supportive of me and we worked it out that I would really only need to have a $10/hr job for a little bit to keep us going until I could find something better. This job was a big pay bump for me 2 years ago and I've been really good about staying in my means since.

I also happen to live just outside Denver, so part of me wants to knock on every brewery in a 15 mile radius (there are a lot...) and beg for work.

You've got a great attitude about this! And having some cash will help. Not many people are good about saving for a rainy day.

Leaving your colleagues behind will be tough, but if they truly admire and respect you, they will understand. You have to do what you have to do.

Something to be said about doing a lower-stress job as a gap-filler until you land another job in your profession. If you can live on $10/hr. as you say you shouldn't have trouble finding something fun to work at for a while.

Back in '98 I walked off a horrible engineering job that paid well. The place was a snake pit. Everybody blaming one another, cutting throats, and no one taking responsibility. It was like Office Space on steroids. The job made me angry and frustrated and I sometimes brought home that frustration. I decided what to do. I handed a one-paragraph resignation letter to the VP I reported to, cleaned out my desk and headed out the door. It was the only job I had ever quit on the spot like that.

I never looked back. Shortly after that I went back to school, and in the meantime I worked a few low-pay jobs that were far less stressful. I got my head together and got on with my life.

Best of luck on your job change!

 

[Billy-Klubb]

So what's policy say about, oh I dunno, 5 minutes early?
25 mins per week x 50 weeks x $30/hr = $625 (cuz you were a$$bags about me clockin in 1 minute late)
Oh, and that doesn't account for the OT created by doing so [emoji16]

5 minutes early is the max allowed. I try not to clock in too early. if we do, then they adjust it to 5 minutes early. guess what I'm gonna start doing. I'm clocking in 10-15 minutes early as much as I can so they can waste their time adjusting my time. I'm also encouraging my coworkers to do the same "out of fear of being late".

 

[beernbourbon]

5 minutes early is the max allowed. I try not to clock in too early. if we do, then they adjust it to 5 minutes early. guess what I'm gonna start doing. I'm clocking in 10-15 minutes early as much as I can so they can waste their time adjusting my time. I'm also encouraging my coworkers to do the same "out of fear of being late".

Exactly. Then the one minute they supposedly 'lose' by you clocking in "late" is more than overshadowed by your extra time, and the time spent by the person that has to adjust all that time.

My supreme annoyance this week- my guys spend a lot of time out of town. DOT dictates how much we can spend on hotel rooms in certain areas AND GET REIMBURSED (that's important) Ok that's fine. So the admin who handles reservations says 'here we can only have $100, and the cheapest I can find is $105'. Meh, close enough. Book it. Accounting has a floccing COW. So, next time, same admin spends an hour monitoring the travelspediayak sites to get down under the $100, succeeds in finding one at $98.
Hmm lessee. $98 hotel + $18 admin time = $116 - $100 reimbursement for a net of -$16
Conversely $105 hotel + $1.50 admin time = $105.50 - $100 reimbursement for a net of -$5.50.
Ummmm [emoji122] yay accounting. You just cost us $10.50 to stay under the per diem.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

My supreme annoyance this week- my guys spend a lot of time out of town. DOT dictates how much we can spend on hotel rooms in certain areas AND GET REIMBURSED (that's important) Ok that's fine. So the admin who handles reservations says 'here we can only have $100, and the cheapest I can find is $105'. Meh, close enough. Book it. Accounting has a floccing COW.

I travel frequently for work. I usually try to book evening flights coming home that leave me flexibility in case meetings run long or I want to schedule another meeting in the afternoon after the flight is booked.

So, let's say the schedule clears up, I get to the airport early, and I want to catch an earlier flight. "Sir, that'll be $40."

Sorry, I can't expense $40 to change my flight. Accounting won't allow it. So I'll go to the airport bar and spend $40 on beer for "dinner", which is totally reimbursed without question.

Good thing most of my travel is to cities where they serve craft beer in airport bars!

 

[Brettomomyces]

You've got a great attitude about this! And having some cash will help. Not many people are good about saving for a rainy day.

Leaving your colleagues behind will be tough, but if they truly admire and respect you, they will understand. You have to do what you have to do.

Something to be said about doing a lower-stress job as a gap-filler until you land another job in your profession. If you can live on $10/hr. as you say you shouldn't have trouble finding something fun to work at for a while.

Back in '98 I walked off a horrible engineering job that paid well. The place was a snake pit. Everybody blaming one another, cutting throats, and no one taking responsibility. It was like Office Space on steroids. The job made me angry and frustrated and I sometimes brought home that frustration. I decided what to do. I handed a one-paragraph resignation letter to the VP I reported to, cleaned out my desk and headed out the door. It was the only job I had ever quit on the spot like that.

I never looked back. Shortly after that I went back to school, and in the meantime I worked a few low-pay jobs that were far less stressful. I got my head together and got on with my life.

Best of luck on your job change!

I'm sitting here with a GRE study guide at my desk that I bought yesterday...this was another plan of ours. CSU up in Fort Collins offers an interdisciplinary masters in food science/safety that would pair really well with my experience and my BS in nutrition. Thanks for the input, feeling better about life a little.

 

[dkwolf]

Exactly. Then the one minute they supposedly 'lose' by you clocking in "late" is more than overshadowed by your extra time, and the time spent by the person that has to adjust all that time.

My supreme annoyance this week- my guys spend a lot of time out of town. DOT dictates how much we can spend on hotel rooms in certain areas AND GET REIMBURSED (that's important) Ok that's fine. So the admin who handles reservations says 'here we can only have $100, and the cheapest I can find is $105'. Meh, close enough. Book it. Accounting has a floccing COW. So, next time, same admin spends an hour monitoring the travelspediayak sites to get down under the $100, succeeds in finding one at $98.
Hmm lessee. $98 hotel + $18 admin time = $116 - $100 reimbursement for a net of -$16
Conversely $105 hotel + $1.50 admin time = $105.50 - $100 reimbursement for a net of -$5.50.
Ummmm [emoji122] yay accounting. You just cost us $10.50 to stay under the per diem.

You forgot to account for the benefits paid during that hour - she might only be taking home $16/hr, but her insurance, etc. is costing the company probably closer to $25/hr.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

People who take 1/2 a donut/pastry. Even if you didn't actually touch it with your fingers, we don't know that & automatically assume that you did; NOBODY wants your tainted 1/2 pastry. You just ruined an entire donut by taking 1/2, so just man-up & take the whole thing. You don't want to eat it all? fine; save it for later or throw it away, either way, nobody else is going to eat it, so you've just wasted 1/2 a donut regardless. Don't try to fool yourself that you're not wasting food, you ARE wasting it if you don't eat the other 1/2. You're not a pig for eating 1 donut; you're a pig for eating 1 dozen donuts, though that would be impressive. Oh, you're counting calories? Then don't eat the flippin' donuts! And BTW, if you take the last donut, THROW THE BOX AWAY! Don't leave it there for someone else to deal with, it takes you about 3 seconds to toss the box in the trashcan; it's like if you use the last paper on the roll of toilet paper, you put a new roll on the spindle. Of course, that is a whole 'nother rant.
Regards, GF.

 

[Pkrd]

People who take 1/2 a donut/pastry.
...
And BTW, if you take the last donut, THROW THE BOX AWAY!

The last donut (works better for cake) gets cut in half, then a quarter, then and eighth, sixteenth, ... nobody wants to take the responsibility of cleaning up when its finally finished.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

The last donut (works better for cake) gets cut in half, then a quarter, then and eighth, sixteenth, ... nobody wants to take the responsibility of cleaning up when its finally finished.

I'd like to see them try that with toilet paper.
Regards, GF.

 

[beernbourbon]

You forgot to account for the benefits paid during that hour - she might only be taking home $16/hr, but her insurance, etc. is costing the company probably closer to $25/hr.

Ha! I DID forget about that. So even worse stupidity. Sigh

 

[DrunkleJon]

People who take 1/2 a donut/pastry. Even if you didn't actually touch it with your fingers, we don't know that & automatically assume that you did; NOBODY wants your tainted 1/2 pastry. You just ruined an entire donut by taking 1/2, so just man-up & take the whole thing. You don't want to eat it all? fine; save it for later or throw it away, either way, nobody else is going to eat it, so you've just wasted 1/2 a donut regardless. Don't try to fool yourself that you're not wasting food, you ARE wasting it if you don't eat the other 1/2. You're not a pig for eating 1 donut; you're a pig for eating 1 dozen donuts, though that would be impressive. Oh, you're counting calories? Then don't eat the flippin' donuts! And BTW, if you take the last donut, THROW THE BOX AWAY! Don't leave it there for someone else to deal with, it takes you about 3 seconds to toss the box in the trashcan; it's like if you use the last paper on the roll of toilet paper, you put a new roll on the spindle. Of course, that is a whole 'nother rant.
Regards, GF.

Have one of those at work. Its as if the last bite has all the calories. Does this with cookies as well.

 

[Renegades_Brew]

My supreme annoyance this week- my guys spend a lot of time out of town. DOT dictates how much we can spend on hotel rooms in certain areas AND GET REIMBURSED (that's important) Ok that's fine. So the admin who handles reservations says 'here we can only have $100, and the cheapest I can find is $105'. Meh, close enough. Book it. Accounting has a floccing COW. So, next time, same admin spends an hour monitoring the travelspediayak sites to get down under the $100, succeeds in finding one at $98.
Hmm lessee. $98 hotel + $18 admin time = $116 - $100 reimbursement for a net of -$16
Conversely $105 hotel + $1.50 admin time = $105.50 - $100 reimbursement for a net of -$5.50.
Ummmm [emoji122] yay accounting. You just cost us $10.50 to stay under the per diem.

Working in a tax exempt environment is nearly just as bad... I ordered some parts online, when I got the notice on the final invoice they were charging tax. I called the company up and told them that we are tax exempt and asked how I can remove the charge for tax. They weren't set up to handle that. So I canceled that order and spent another 2 hours searching for another vendor who could source the parts I needed without tax... Ended up costing an additional $30 for the two parts...

So: $30 + 2x $25 = $80 extra spent in place of just eating the $12 tax we were being charged...

Oh... And after all that and the company shipped the parts... Turns out they charged tax as well... So we still are going to have to eat another $12-$13 tax anyways...

Can't wait till I have to deal with this with finance next month... The reason I spent the $250(ish) on new parts was to put a $1300 piece of equipment back into service. Which my supervisor broke when he dropped the piece of equipment about 5 months ago and has been using it broken ever since. Can't wait till they tell me I should have just purchased a new $1300 piece of equipment instead of getting charged $13 in tax...

Or the fight I will bring down if they say I have to pay for the $13 tax out of my pocket... That won't go over well... but its been done before here.

 

[phug]

Finance should just suck it up and file the paperwork to get the tax refunded at year end when filing taxes... Except they don't know how to file taxes because they're tax exempt

 

[Renegades_Brew]

They'll make a huge deal about it because they don't want to have to explain something they don't understand (anything other than numbers on a page) to the auditors as to why paying the $12 is actually floccing worth it sometimes.

 

[sablesurfer]

Sorry, I can't expense $40 to change my flight. Accounting won't allow it. So I'll go to the airport bar and spend $40 on beer for "dinner", which is totally reimbursed without question.

Good thing most of my travel is to cities where they serve craft beer in airport bars!

Chicago used to have decent beer when I was traveling. But then Goose Island sold and everyone continued to try to convince me that 312 was still local.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Welp, I just got asked to go to a meeting today at 2pm. All very hush-hush but I'm sure they're going to talk about management changes. The plan was to eventually bring someone else on over at my location but I knew that was going to happen at some point when I was thinking about quitting at first. Gonna be hard but seems like a good time for me to do this, and I will get some small enjoyment over screwing up whatever plans they have. But this is the kind of **** that makes me want to quit...these behind door meetings between the GM and DM like our opinions aren't worth anything and we're just tools of the business.

 

[sablesurfer]

Go down in the basement to throw a medicine ball around and people think you are strange. Then I had to explain highland games instead of just throwing the medicine ball to work out some....stress.

 

[MaxStout]

Welp, I just got asked to go to a meeting today at 2pm. All very hush-hush but I'm sure they're going to talk about management changes. The plan was to eventually bring someone else on over at my location but I knew that was going to happen at some point when I was thinking about quitting at first. Gonna be hard but seems like a good time for me to do this, and I will get some small enjoyment over screwing up whatever plans they have. But this is the kind of **** that makes me want to quit...these behind door meetings between the GM and DM like our opinions aren't worth anything and we're just tools of the business.

Be interesting to see what happens with whatever changes are implemented per the meeting. Take some time to see how this impacts you. If it temporarily makes your situation a little better, that could give you some time to stay on while planning your next move. But if it makes things worse, then it might add enough momentum for you to jump ship now.

If things go the latter route and you leave soon after these management changes, they might interpret that as you being reactionary due to those changes. Be sure to let them know in your exit interview that the problems have been long-running, and the latest changes were just the last straw.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Be interesting to see what happens with whatever changes are implemented per the meeting. Take some time to see how this impacts you. If it temporarily makes your situation a little better, that could give you some time to stay on while planning your next move. But if it makes things worse, then it might add enough momentum for you to jump ship now.

If things go the latter route and you leave soon after these management changes, they might interpret that as you being reactionary due to those changes. Be sure to let them know in your exit interview that the problems have been long-running, and the latest changes were just the last straw.

I've been unhappy for awhile now, my situation over the last three months just kinda sealed it for me. I considered holding out a little longer but I'm ready for a change. I was putting on a good face for a while because I really wanted my mentor/coworker to get the GM promotion (she didn't, they hired from outside), so I was doing what I could to help make that happen and I did not want to leave her in the lurch. I was worried they were going to take her out of the running and have her covering me instead, because we both used to do a lot of the same things.

I'm going to get there a little early, if it's just me + GM + coworker I will bring it up on the spot before the conversation starts. If it's going to be the whole management team I'll ask to speak to them first in private. Thanks for the advice Max