Workplace pet peeves - what are yours?
Getting threatened with termination
When someone tells me that I worked too slowly or badly
Handshake, germs
There is no point in saying "how are you doing?", Because there are five emotions and happy is just one of them. "Fine" and "good", are the only socially acceptable, answers to "how are you doing?". If you don't say "fine" or "good", idiots bombard you with, well intentioned annoying question. They act like they are trying to "help", you, but just annoying
Micromanagement ("why are you smiling?")
Lil b*****s laughing at me
Mispronounce name
Homophobia
Idiots talk too much and too loudly and there are too many of them
They don't do their job
They blame me for things I did do
They don't take the blame for things they did wrong
blackomen
Toucan
Joined: 8 Sep 2009
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 264
Location: Former Californian in Dallas
Also another one:
Having nothing to do for a week or two then being completely swamped for the next week or two and often requiring overtime.
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... because otherwise the one woman in the office complains of being cold.
I have the same problem but it's not because of women (because it's also too cold in the winter for everyone!) but because our building operator is a lazy, incompetent fool who sets it deliberately low so he can take credit for "saving" energy and helping the environment. Funny how his office and the higher ups are always so well maintained and comfortable while one of my heat pumps has been offline since February.
Someone OT, but I took a building operator class with this guy once (I have never worked in building operations) and actually scored HIGHER than he did on both the tests and the field assignments!
Bosses that are extra nice to their favourite employees and extra mean to their non-favourites
When the most popular or favoured person is also the most annoying person
Male bosses who employ a girl just because she's pretty
Supervisors who don't think things through properly, like making you do unnecessary tasks instead of tasks that more importantly need to be done
When new major changes are sprung upon you all of a sudden instead of being discussed with you first
People who pretend to have a mental illness so they can be privileged, and people who genuinely have a mental illness getting overlooked
Being forced to do things they know you don't like, instead of getting you to do other tasks that you can do and prefer to do
Smokers being allowed extra breaks for smoking
Running out of essential equipment or chemicals
The company messing your wages up or not paying you properly
Not being allowed a bottle of water with you during hot weather
Having to start work too early in the morning
Feeling obliged to do overtime on your day off
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nick007
Veteran
Joined: 4 May 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 27,125
Location: was Louisiana but now Vermont in the police state called USA
I had these problems in my 2nd job
When the most popular or favoured person is also the most annoying person
Supervisors who don't think things through properly, like making you do unnecessary tasks instead of tasks that more importantly need to be done
When new major changes are sprung upon you all of a sudden instead of being discussed with you first
Being forced to do things they know you don't like, instead of getting you to do other tasks that you can do and prefer to do
Running out of essential equipment or chemicals
Feeling obliged to do overtime on your day off
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blackomen
Toucan
Joined: 8 Sep 2009
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 264
Location: Former Californian in Dallas
When you're working on a project and you're blocked from making any further progress due to administrative issues or an essential task in the chain which you cannot do and will take years for you to get up to speed to do. Fortunately, there's a person on your team assigned to do that (let's call him/her "X".) However, X is busy and cannot help you anytime soon. Your managers and stakeholders bug you about the project taking forever and you tell them you're waiting on X but they keep bugging you and you keep telling them you're waiting for X. They even tell you (directly or indirectly) that you need to keep bugging X and get him to hurry up.
Shouldn't they simply contact X and tell him to hurry up rather than pressure me in this situation?
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nick007
Veteran
Joined: 4 May 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 27,125
Location: was Louisiana but now Vermont in the police state called USA
Shouldn't they simply contact X and tell him to hurry up rather than pressure me in this situation?
_________________
"I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem!"
"Hear all, trust nothing"
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blackomen
Toucan
Joined: 8 Sep 2009
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 264
Location: Former Californian in Dallas
Shouldn't they simply contact X and tell him to hurry up rather than pressure me in this situation?
Unfortunately, in my case, I'm completely unqualified to do the work that X is doing. Both X and I are specialists in highly technical fields and X is part of a orohect I'm managing, although neither of us is a subordinate to the other. The expertise of both of us is needed to complete the project and it's very rare to find a person with both of our skillsets.
Unfortunately, X is completely swamped and cannot complete my project and there's no one else in the department with X's specialized skills, yet all of the stakeholders keep harping on my to get it done. Since they're aware that X is holding things up, they keep pressuring me to put pressure on X instead of pressuring X directly which makes no sense.
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The Internet is HUGE and search engines and social media are only showing you a tiny fraction of it.
To the point where, when I was suddenly tapped to train a new batch of employees (on zero notice, of course), I supplied them with an enormous list of acronyms and industry/office jargon, along with explanations, based on everything I'd learned over several years there.
This was, at the time, the only such list available anywhere nationally, and I got a lot of people coming up to me weeks or months later to thank me for it.
The unwritten and completely unnecessary social interaction aspects of almost all workplaces. Almost no job advertisements will ever even allude to them, except with weasel-words like "fun", or the darker "sense of humor". Is it really so bad to be able to want to turn up to a job, do the work required, do it well, and go home? Without having to constantly fend off unrelated socializing from co-workers (and even from the employer itself, if they have an official social club or 'team-building' events)?
Is it so bad to want to keep work and personal life separate? To be able to spend breaks (particularly lunch breaks) taking an actual break from people you have to endure forty hours a week as it is? To have no expectations of after-work or weekend events? To just... I don't know, be paid to do work? Is that not a thing any more?