we had a fun day at work on our dept head's last day.
he sent out a farewell e-mail which included the sentence
You are the company biggest asses.
still
'ing thinking about it...
No, tell us how you really feel!!
Can't rely on that Spellcheck too much.
in his defense, he was not a native speaker... but still, c'mon!
Region Philbis wrote:we had a fun day at work on our dept head's last day.
That just reminded me, my dad still has a plaque in his home office that he got when moving on from one of his jobs. It says "To the best head this section ever had".
Any skilled or hard-working employee being absolutely overwhelmed in the workload share, and the less-able or lazier employees getting away with not pulling their weight. My opinion is, if the employee is not capable or not doing their fair share for the salary they are getting paid, then dump their asses and get better, brighter, or just even motivated people to take their places. I am so sick of doing 50% of the work in a department of five.
Being micro-managed in any form. I know my job. I am good at my job. I hate anyone standing over me and asking me forty times for something/a project to be done when I have already told them I am working on it and will have it done by Thursday at 10am. By emailing, texting, leaving voicemail messages for me, that number 25 in all, and asking me over and over again for the same thing, I have now spent valuable time reading and listening to all that junk when it could have been time spent on the project. If you call me one more time asking me to put a rush on it, I will hurt you!
Stupid people. You take up far too much of my time. If you didn't understand it the first three times I explained something to you, I will not explain it a fourth.
Managers who make promises to clients they can't keep. Consult me first (the one who does the actual work) to make sure I can reach a deadline you promised them. When the client calls me two days later ranting about something they expected yesterday, and you haven't even told me about the project yet, I am so tempted to tell them you were talking out of your a$$.
AAAAAARRRGGGGHHGH!!
I just need to vent, because I really don't think there's a solution that hasn't been tried.
Ok, I'm going to start with one of those little things that if taken alone would seem rediculous and petty, but take this and multiply by 50 times a day....
the boss "barb" is going to to one of our locations for an open house. I walk by, and she's talking on her bluetooth, putting her lap top in its case and securing it on top of 2 other electronic gizmos already strapped to her luggage carrier, she got this over 6 foot long projection screen leaning against her so she can put it under her arm, her 20 pound handbag slug over her shoulder....and she's opening a fresh diet dr. pepper....like the 5th one of the day.
this is a very typical scene for when she's preparing to go anywhere, even 5 miles away.
"Barb" I say..."would you just leave some of that stuff and go bring your car around? We'll make a couple trips together."
"no....wait chai...I'm on the phone....no, not you, I'm talking to chai...I can't do that right now (no idea who she's talking to at this point.) hold on, I have to pee...ok....I'll be there in 30 minutes....don't DON'T take that projector screen!! I have to take it with me!! (I know Barb, one guess what I'm trying to do) chai I have to leave now or I'll be late. can you find out how we're breaking up her salary?.....chai...I'm talking to you (Who are you talking about Barb)....SIGH......Loretta!!! I need to find out where her hours are being billed...Get the other salary too... (what other salary?).. Larrys!!!! They're both in the same position. (Barb, you can't pick that all up, let me take that other bag) No...just leave it here...I have to pee and then I'll go get my car and bring it around...
barb drops everything she's holding and leaves for a few minutes, comes back.
ok, I'm going to be in houston next week...no chai, I'm not talking to you, I'm on the phone....where's my soda?....chai? Chai! I'm talking to you, where's my soda? (Barb, I've got this stuff, you get that and we'll go out to your car)...damn I have to Leave!!
At some point we get out to her car....I'm trying to rest the 6 foot screen against the bumper so I can put the box under my other arm down....
No, don't put it there chai I need to get it in the trunk (I know barb, I'm trying to...) turn it the other way, the other way....no....turn...it...the....other way. (barb, I can't turn it ANY way until I put this box on the ground....I stoop and start to put the box on the asphalt) you can put that box in the car, you don't need to put it in the trunk...
I put the box, against her objections, on the ground and turn to her, thinking it's about time for a reality check...
Barb....look at me, I cannot simultaneously take this thing and put in in your trunk, and walk around and put this other thing and put it in your car....human beings are not able to exist in 2 points at the same time. I'll put this screen IN your truck, then I'll PUT the box IN the car, then, I'm going back in to get the rest of your stuff....I pause for a moment and go for broke....you know Barb...I'm going to say this to you on a personal level....You are VERY impatient, and it's not helping you get things done faster....you have to give other people a chance to do what they need to do.
I walk away, come back, and she's in the car, back on the phone. I hand her her 20 pound bag, she's talking away to who knows and drives off..
5 minutes later, she's calling me.
A few years ago, I pointed out to Barb that sometimes she made people so frazzled she's almost put them in tears. She didn't believe me. A couple of times every year, she goes off to one of those bullsh!t corporate things, and comes back with all these realizations about herself, which she needs to "work on" I bet with myself how long it'll last this time.
She and I have actually sat down and talked about how she makes people feel pressured, and how she missed stuff people tell her. I have seen this woman literally talk to the person in front of her, be on her cell, have someone on speaker phone, emailing someone, and looking for something on the internet...all at the same time.
She has no idea that doing this is keeping her from understanding anywhere NEAR any of what she is doing. She doesn't know that people see this a rude. she really, truly doesn't.
No boundaries whatsoever.
whoof.
I made some one scream today at work...it was great!
Re: So, what causes stress at your workplace?
spidergal wrote:
So, what causes stress at your workplace?
Me.
Re: So, what causes stress at your workplace?
Green Witch wrote:spidergal wrote:
So, what causes stress at your workplace?
Me.
Apparently I do as well!
Chai,
Print out this article and the post you made with snippets of examples of her multi-tasking and put them on her desk. Might even help to take a few pictures of her when she's trying to do all those things at once and include them with the article.
If she doesn't get the point after that, she's hopeless and the only thing to do is change jobs, bump it up to her boss, or figure out a way to just laugh at it and not respond to it with stress.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3474058&page=1
Quote:The Grand Seduction of Multitasking
Put Away the BlackBerry, Stash the iPod: Our Brains Aren't Built to Multitask
By FARNAZ JAVID and ANN VARNEY
August 14, 2007
Whether it's driving while talking on your cell phone, sending e-mails during a business meeting or listening to music while you're working, it seems multitasking has become a way of life. Employers, parents, even kids are trying to get more done in less time.
But, does multitasking really make you more efficient? And what happens to your brain when you're trying to complete two important tasks at once?
"Doing just one thing at a time seems like it's out of style," says Edward Hallowell, who wrote the book "Crazybusy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap!"
"Technology may not be helping you as much as you think, and that is the grand seduction of multitasking," Hallowell says. "You think you are getting a lot done at once, but you in fact are not."
An Information Traffic Jam
Hallowell has scientific support for his claim. Vanderbilt University neuroscientist Rene Marois asked students to do two tasks at once and examined their brains using an MRI. Turns out our brains aren't built for multitasking.
"Essentially it slows us down," says Marois. "We do one task and then after that we switch to the other."
It's like an information traffic jam in your head. And it can be life-threatening, especially if you're driving 60 miles an hour while talking on the phone.
"One second of inattention can kill. And studies have shown talking on a cell phone while driving impairs your driving more than having had two drinks," Hallowell says.
The University of Utah has used simulators to study the effects of talking or text messaging behind the wheel. They found that drivers who multitasked were more than five times as likely to get in an accident. It's so obvious that one insurer, Allstate, now offers bonuses to encourage drivers to just drive.
Wasting Time and Money
Multitasking doesn't just take its toll on the road. Research shows it has an even worse effect in the office.
Microsoft -- the company behind high-tech products aimed at helping you get more done in less time -- now worries about the repercussions of some of its high-tech products. Microsoft studied its own employees and found it takes workers interrupted by e-mail or instant messages around 15 minutes to get back into their work groove. Microsoft manager Eric Horvitz says that kind of "downtime" adds up.
"If this happens two to five times an hour, each time taking 10 to 15 minutes on average to get back to what you were doing, what time is left to get the stuff done?" Horvitz asks,.
A recent report by Basex Inc. found workers waste an average of two hours a day on e-mails and recovery time. And that costs American businesses $650 billion a year.
Break the Cycle
Hallowell says there are steps one can take to escape the counterproductive multitasking cycle:
1) Stop being on call 24/7. Check your e-mail -- at most -- once an hour.
2) Turn off the alerts on your computer that tell you there's a new e-mail.
3) If you absolutely have to listen to music while you're working or doing homework, listen to instrumentals. Lyrics are distracting.
Hallowell admits these habits could be hard to break but says the outcome will be worth it.
HA!
Butrfly....I mentioned that article the SAME DAY it came out to her...
she's hopeless.
Re: So, what causes stress at your workplace?
Linkat wrote:Green Witch wrote:spidergal wrote:
So, what causes stress at your workplace?
Me.
Apparently I do as well!
I think I do too!
Whoa! It's an epidemic!
She didn't hear you, Chai. She was too busy talking on her cell phone telling the caller she had to pee while trying to carry her electronic gear to the car for a meeting she was late for because she refused to turn off her cell phone long enough to go pee.
Make the copies, take some photos and just leave them on her desk or mail them to her home address. Tell her it has become a safety issue for the company, herself and others on the road with her. Who will accomplish all those tasks while she's in the hospital or in court for a car accident?
Chai wrote:
HA!
Butrfly....I mentioned that article the SAME DAY it came out to her...
she's hopeless.
For the last three weeks (while my colleague was off work) I had to deal with progams written by him!
Programs that don't work, or at least not always.
Programs that are hard to understand since there's no documentation.
Programs that hard to debug, since they are written in Shell Skripting and usually run through several sub-programs and Config Files.
Programs that still use tools about two versions out of date.
Programs that are so silly at times that another colleague (who knows more about programming than me) couldn't stop laughing at times, when I asked him for help.
Programs that are supposed to backup PRODUCTIVE databases (eeek!!!)
Need I say more?
I wrote:"Cement Head", the ultra-annoying guy who sits near me, is the one and only source of my stress.
i worked with a bunch of people who used to work with him, none of them had anything good to say about him, and i can certainly see why...
CH was let go yesterday.
i did feel a bit bad for the guy -- for a minute or so...
then it was friggin' PARTY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rolaids ain't the only thing what spells relief, ya know...
Region Philbis wrote:rolaids ain't the only thing what spells relief, ya know...
Keep this up and I'm washing you.
<rubbing paws together and drooling a little at the mere thought>
