things at work that make you cringe?

A team of about 20 were chatting after a meeting and the discussion moved on to children.

A: My son has just joined the military, I'm very proud of him.
B: Oh right, what's he up to?
A: He's going to Afghanistan and I feel very sensitive about it, so I'd prefer we didn't talk about him.
B: ...

There was then a fairly awkward silence and everyone shuffled off. Why start an upsetting conversation during small talk?

Paradisiac, you need to behave professionally at all times. Your useless manager can now truthfully say to the owner that you have tried to humiliate your colleagues in front of customers. Don't give other people ammunition to use against you.
 
TJM said:
A team of about 20 were chatting after a meeting and the discussion moved on to children.

A: My son has just joined the military, I'm very proud of him.
B: Oh right, what's he up to?
A: He's going to Afghanistan and I feel very sensitive about it, so I'd prefer we didn't talk about him.
B: ...

There was then a fairly awkward silence and everyone shuffled off. Why start an upsetting conversation during small talk?
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that does seem like an odd thing to do. maybe he thought it would go in a different direction (more into the military itself and not his son)

TJM said:
Paradisiac, you need to behave professionally at all times. Your useless manager can now truthfully say to the owner that you have tried to humiliate your colleagues in front of customers. Don't give other people ammunition to use against you.
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yeh i do try to, but its just been getting more and more constant. it means my work is backing up as im forever doing his jobs or having to explain to him basic things. if he remembered, then great, but he doesnt.
that said, i admit in hindsight i was probably out of order, but he has one of those persoanlities that after 5 mins, its either suicide or murder :p
 
Morba said:
Everyone whinges about their managers, I've done it enough over my time.
However, for once, I am actually happy with my manager. A rare decent one that listens, understands and has a clue what he is doing and want's to help the team as best he can. Shocked.
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This is why my current situation sucks.

For the past 3 years I have had the most awesome manager one could ask for. Knew his stuff, trusted me to know mine, didn't micro-manage but supported us if required, really laid back and had us hitting all targets with distinctions.

Then the company decides to do a restructure, combines a few roles, and creates a new managerial role that was in no way appealing to him (going from a 5 day week in London, where he lives, to 2 days in London and 3 up in Warrington).

So he (and the rest of my team) all took the offered redundancy, and now I am the only one in a department of (now) 50 people who is based in London. Meh.
 
Delvis said:
You're legally entitled to one.

Take it you plonker :p
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Try telling that to the teachers that demand that they're PC has youtube playing right now as otherwise they are completely unable to teach.

It appears to be a gift for all workers to inherently know when you're about to take a bite out of a sandwich/doughnut so they can ring you/knock on the door :p.
 
ok, just to prove i took your adive on board, this is my friendly response to his stupidity
Manager Where would you get drivers for an Acer laptop from?
Me From Acer website?
Manager Yeh, but i dont want to use that, where else?
Me im not sure, i normally use the manufactures site as they are reliable, maybe windows update?
Manager yeh, but other than there as it might not be there
Me i honestly wouldnt like to say, they are my 2 ports of call normally.
Manager well that wasnt very helpful was it
Me i'll tell you what, get the customer to bring the laptop in and i will install them for them if thats easier
Manager how long will that take?
Me i will shuffle everything around and get it done this afternoon
Manager good.

think i was pretty restrained there? sometimes i think he is just looking to wind me up.
 
Zefan said:
Sounds like a douchebag.
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as i have said in my other threads in here, i am trying my hardest to get out of here. i have suffered this sort of attitude for over 3 years now, admittidly it has got worse recently, and with all the other stuff going on in my life i fear might be having a bearing in the way i react to it now.
 
* Pre-meeting meetings......... WHAT is that all about? Just start the meeting earlier!
* Management speak - if someone talks about stepping up to the plate I'm going to hit them with the plate!
 
There's a shared drive on one of the servers I manage which I came across while transferring files between domains. It is labelled "Poostick" and I laughed like a loon when I first saw it, showed my manager and he began laughing too and claimed it was when he was in a bit of an odd mood...I've yet to go into it to see what's inside but I think it should remain one of those things that should never be really checked to leave things to the imagination as to what's inside :p
 
Getting an ear bashing because my figures are not great when other lines of service slowing my job down. Yet they are somehow protected from said ear bashing. I have since resolved this by sending daily emails explaining why jobs are not finished.

Users that keep jobs open so that they have a steady flow of work, I do jobs at a pace so that they are finished quickly and efficiently. Yet a job has been open since the start of may with no update, the user has one of our loan machines that we need back.....whats going on? He doesnt know....opps.

People that think I should be at my desk 24/7. I am taking lunch and I will not work until that time is over unless it is very important.

People that expect me to drop everything to help them fix their "very important problem"

Said problem being caused because they don't trust the processes and procedures, for example:

1) Keeping data on the laptop rather than the network because the sync "takes to long". All network info is backed up....thats why we ask them to put it there.
2) Using .pst files rather than the virtual vault, laptop then dying and shouting at me that they have lost 4 years worth of emails.

Users that have machines we dont support as their company dont pay us to support them.....magically expecting me to drop everything and support their machine.

1 more for good luck - Loud people, talk quieter! There is one in particular I can here over the other side of the building!
 
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Nothing really makes me cringe but a few things frustrate me.

Other teams who seem to think you support them and them only.
Being told by managers when asked to do something that's a tad unreasonable that they have "Done their time doing that kind of thing" as if that some how makes you feel better.
Being asked to do something that will take the best part of an hour 5 mins before your due to either go to lunch or leave for the day
Being asked to dial into work on Saturday at about 5pm on Friday

Most of these are due to not enough staff in the department at present but still frustrating.

At my old place I used to get frustrated by my old boss repeatedly asking me if I had "cleared the cache" on a students laptop whenever they had issues with anything at all.... used to really really really frustrate me. The other one she did was always go on about how she was a independent woman and could do anything a man could in the working world yet would shout at us and say things like "Chivalry must be dead if you all just sit there when a woman needs help" when she was moving equipment and was struggling. Was so glad when she left.
 
I think the best one recently was watching a senior programmer trying to search an excel spreadsheet by typing into the cell value box at the top of the program. He was then astonished to realise he was already selected on the cell which had the value he was looking for!

I just had to bite my tongue and walk away as it wasn't anything important.
 
the thing that does my head in at the moment is just pure lack of work.

since the company downsized 18 months ago ive been pretty quiet. i feel like my brain is wasting away a bit (hence spending so much time here)

owners can be a bit 'drop everything' and expect things doing now but i like them. nice people. one of the owners gave me a big bag of weed last xmas :) which was cool.
 
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