Workplace Gripes – Vent Here! ! (or just share workplace stories)

[katyseagull]

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I work in estate planning. I just celebrated my 4th year with this company. Along with that I was promoted to Supervisor of my dept and got a really nice raise. This whole dept went through a complete overhaul and I was the only one left. One of my new responsibilites was to hire a new staff of 2 employees. No problem! Well this is where the gripe starts. It is really hard to find competent entry level new-hires. In a matter of 1 month, I have gone through 2 new people and a 3rd is just hanging on a thread. First guy left his 2nd day around 9 a.m. without saying a word to anybody. I don't even know if he's alive. Another one quit after 2 weeks cause it was "too hard" and the 3rd is like 2 seconds from being fired. 30 mins late today, texts/answers phone all day and I caught him chatting on AIM yesterday. It was his 3rd day!!! GRRR where do these people come from?

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ASU,

Is the job in fact "too hard"? What do their job duties involve and what kind of education background do you require for it?

I'm glad you wrote this because it leads into another question I have for the supervisors out there. How much do supervisors hate it when their employees are on the internet during the day? Is it considered worse then just chatting on the phone all day, or emailing all day?

Also, I feel sorry for managers. They are caught in between. I don't envy them and never want to be one (I don't think [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) - Who's more frustrating to deal with, your staff under you or your boss?

[katyseagull]

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Katie, speaking as someone involved in hiring and firing issues a lot, I'd say that documenting cause even under "at will" employment arrangements is very important. You have no idea how common it is to get sued these days. Especially, unfortunately, by women claiming sexual harassment or minorities claiming discrimination. The degree to which it happens probably would sound pretty bizarre to people who didn't have to deal with it or with the threat of it.



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Blarg,

Do you work in HR or for a legal department? Sounds like you've had to deal with a lot of this stuff before. Have you known anyone to sue a company for sexual harassment? Did they have a strong case?

[Blarg]

I work in various capacities in a start-up company that exposes me to doing some hiring and firing myself, and to what others have to do in that regard. Additionally, I was a union rep for years and dealt with these issues there. So I've worked on both sides.

I've seen a number of sexual harassment suits go down. I have dealt with insurers over them, and seen them willing to pay off very quickly pretty much regardless of the strength of the case. Just preparing for trial can be so expensive, and so can going to trial. And then you don't even know that you're going to win. People also tend to be heavily naturally prejudiced in favor of women, so it's always a hugely uphill battle to win these no matter the strength of the case. Hence, the quick and easy pay-off. In the long run, it's probably cheaper, and limits liability tremendously.

Heck, if people realized how easy it was to get a quick 10 or 20k or sometimes more, a lot more people would probably be doing it.

[katyseagull]

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I've seen a number of sexual harassment suits go down. I have dealt with insurers over them, and seen them willing to pay off very quickly pretty much regardless of the strength of the case. Just preparing for trial can be so expensive, and so can going to trial. And then you don't even know that you're going to win. People also tend to be heavily naturally prejudiced in favor of women, so it's always a hugely uphill battle to win these no matter the strength of the case. Hence, the quick and easy pay-off. In the long run, it's probably cheaper, and limits liability tremendously.

Heck, if people realized how easy it was to get a quick 10 or 20k or sometimes more, a lot more people would probably be doing it.

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I'm very surprised by this. I've never known of or heard of a single woman doing this. I guess I thought that it was more common 20 years ago or something. I mean the cost of hiring a lawyer to sue a company would discourage most people, wouldn't it? And then how would you prove that you were harassed? I just can't see it happening myself. Not at my type of company. But then again I don't work in HR so I have no idea what they have to deal with. I am kind of sheltered. I definitely see your point that it would be crucial to document all the allegations and to keep a file on all your employees. I never thought of it from that perspective before.

[Blarg]

1. It doesn't cost you anything to hire a lawyer. They do it on contingency.
2. You don't necessarily have to prove it. All you have to do is threaten to try to prove it, and you can very often pocket a check.

Now, I'm not saying all lawyers take all cases. But there's always someone to take almost any case, and even good lawyers don't necessarily care so much about how righteous a case is as they do about how likely they are to win it or get paid to settle before trial. It's just a business.

[A S U]

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I work in estate planning. I just celebrated my 4th year with this company. Along with that I was promoted to Supervisor of my dept and got a really nice raise. This whole dept went through a complete overhaul and I was the only one left. One of my new responsibilites was to hire a new staff of 2 employees. No problem! Well this is where the gripe starts. It is really hard to find competent entry level new-hires. In a matter of 1 month, I have gone through 2 new people and a 3rd is just hanging on a thread. First guy left his 2nd day around 9 a.m. without saying a word to anybody. I don't even know if he's alive. Another one quit after 2 weeks cause it was "too hard" and the 3rd is like 2 seconds from being fired. 30 mins late today, texts/answers phone all day and I caught him chatting on AIM yesterday. It was his 3rd day!!! GRRR where do these people come from?

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ASU,

Is the job in fact "too hard"? What do their job duties involve and what kind of education background do you require for it?

I'm glad you wrote this because it leads into another question I have for the supervisors out there. How much do supervisors hate it when their employees are on the internet during the day? Is it considered worse then just chatting on the phone all day, or emailing all day?

Also, I feel sorry for managers. They are caught in between. I don't envy them and never want to be one (I don't think [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) - Who's more frustrating to deal with, your staff under you or your boss?

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It's essentially a data entry position. Entry level, no degree necessary. It pays $15/hr to start which is pretty average for this type of position in my area. Most applicants have a H.S. diploma and around 1-2 years experience. It's not your typical mindless data entry, but I wouldn't characterize it as an extremely difficult job. I just think we've gotten pretty unlucky in the hiring process. People with decent resumes, performing well in interviews, turn out to be total nut-jobs.

To answer your other question I would order them

emailing>texting>chatting>phone

[Blarg]

That's damn good money for a beginning data entry job. I know why it's not enough, though. I worked for years in variations of jobs like that, and have seen it in myself and others.

Those jobs are inhumanly dull. They make it almost impossible to stay awake or pay attention, they're so completely robotic. It's actually far, far easier to do something more difficult, because then at least you aren't falling off your chair in boredom. That much boredom is also psychologically extremely draining. If ever you wanted your life to feel miserable and pointless, a data entry job will do it. It's like being in a sensory deprivation tank. Pretty soon you don't know whether you're singing out loud or it's all in your head, and your spirit guide is cavorting about and showing you how to peel the cosmic potato. You may find yourself literally falling off the side of the chair without realizing it.

Only a small percentage of people have either the willpower, the psychological health, or the sheer sad desperation and hopelessness to make them want to stay in a position like that for long. It's naturally a short-timer position. If you get anyone with a good attitude, well-tempered, with a shred of a brain or any ambition at all, they are going to be out of that job so fast you'll hear a sonic boom when they go.

Add to this that those jobs are often put in the darkest, most decrepit corners of a firm, and you got trouble. If you want to keep people -- good luck in the first place -- you are going to have to make the process less traumatizing. Frequent breaks, let people bring their own music to work, the whole doughnuts in the morning type stuff, etc. Whatever you do, make the ultimate soul-destroying drudgery any worse by lording these guys' misery over them with a bad attitude, etc. Try to keep them from falling off the chairs or howling out loud in despair by keeping things very upbeat. Lots of new bosses try to be the tough guy, but data entry is not the place to squeeze people's nuts or play games with them. They're dying to get out of there in the first place, or will be very soon, so do what you can to make things better, not worse.

Whatever you do, don't give them the impression that you think the job is easy because it's robotic. It's being extremely robotic that makes it incredibly hard.

P.S.: Treasure your naturally stupid people. It's rare to find people with minds and temperaments dull enough for this kind of job, but cross your fingers. Someone with no interior life and few brain waves in the first place won't miss being effectively brain dead as much as others do. Getting one of these folks is like hitting the lottery, though, so don't expect it, and don't expect others to be like him.

[Your Mom]

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It depends on the type of business. I'm an attorney, so can only speak of the legal field. But in the legal field there are certain cases that you can only get if the firm is a certain size. E.g., let's say a big, multi-million dollar law suit is filed, and the defendant thinks they'll need a team of at least 8+ attorneys working on a case. That client will reject a 5 person firm. So you have to expand your 5 person firm to 8 people in order to get those types of cases.

Since you can't just hire people off the street to become lawyers, you sometimes need to have more lawyers than you need at the moment, in order to get the cases you want--to show the potential clients that you have the capability to handle the case.

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Ok, well this had actually crossed my mind. My company has expressed a lot of interest in getting government contracts. You may be onto something here. But isn't it unethical to hire unsuspecting people just to puff up a firm? It seems pretty crappy to a bunch of us.


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This brings to mind a story.

I used to work for a call centre contractor, that had a contract with a major computer manufacturer that I will not name (but that doesn't use Windows [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]). They had a contract up for bid to replace an in-house call centre. This was a HUGE contract, that would triple our workforce, and open up higher level support jobs.

In order to look better for the contract, the company hired about 75 new support agents (when they started hiring, they had about 140). They got all trained on the bottom level product, and started working. They were taking 5-6 calls a day. I was taking 25-30 (the required standard), since I was working on a different product.

The company didn't get the contract. The day before their probation period was up, they were all taken outside to the smoking area for a "meeting". They were fired ont he spot, told that their security cards were disabled, and that they had to go home. They could return in 2 days to the head office to collect their jackets & purses, when they would have security on site. Fortunately, I had left by that point.

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I'd be calling the cops.

[ChipWrecked]

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Mortar Rounds and RPG rounds really give me too much on the job stress.
My boss will not let me Drink, Gamble, look at religiously objectionable material.

My work environment involves poisonous snakes, spiders and scorpions. The mosiqutos transmit terrible diseases and afflictions. Dust mites are biting me all the time and making my skin look like I have chicken pox.

Most of the people around me are seriously underpaid for the job they do making them extremly disgruntled and most of them are armed.

It's always 130 degrees in the summer and I'm forced to wear long sleeved jackets and pants no matter how hot it gets.

The food is always the same and crappy. I'm forced to live at my worksite in a hot tent with people who snore, cough, sneeze and play music all night long.

My boss makes me use Port o Johns that are 150 degrees dirty, smelly, filled with flies and have holes in them so passerbys can look at my pee pee.

My boss provides for my laundry which always takes 3 days to be done and I have to wait in a 130 degree room for 20 minutes just to pick it up.

My boss is extremly indecisive as to whether we are coming or going never tells us what's going on and usually waits till the last minute to tell us anything.

I'm not even allowed to quit [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Anyone else wanna bitch about their job ??

My job requires Anthrax vaccines which involve 50 million shots. Smallpox vaccination which itches and is annoying.

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Hang in there bro. We're pulling for you. Thanks for serving.


(I'm just trusting that you're not leveling since I'm not familiar with you.)

[A S U]

Agree that data entry jobs are pretty freakin boring. This isn't the standard data entry type. 75% DE and like 25% crafting of language, drafting specialty docs..etc. Disagree about attitude towards the employees though. This is a really really laid back CO., BUT these guys are getting a fair wage, medical, IRA, paid holidays and 3 weeks vacation. I don't think expecting them to stay off their phones/internet and actually work, is asking too much.