Ridiculous demands from work

[marymarkle]

What ridiculous demands has a workplace made on you?
I left a job a few month ago that insisted I print off and file every email with clients, even though all emails with clients also had to be saved in files on a server. And it really was every email, including emails arranging meetings.
Surely there must be other ridiculous workplaces out there?

Same place. I was the first aider for our shed and one day I was called to packing for a man who had collapsed. He had a heart attack. I knew he was dead when i got to him but I preformed cpr until the medics came. I was traumatised I knew this man and I was only 19.
I was taken in to the managers office told to have a sweet tea and 10 minutes then go back to my station. I was shaking and crying, I had never seen anyone die before. I asked to go home as i was too upset to work. My manager told me to stop making so much of a drama and get on with the job i am paid to do.

That's appalling . Some of these stories are absolutely terrible.

My healthcare charity had a reorganisation and my job role increased hugely from having clinical responsibility from one site to five. I had to apply but in all honesty it was a foregone conclusion.

Just four weeks into my new role my mum had a brain haemorrhage and died five days later without regaining consciousness. I was off for just six days over this time then took a further day for her funeral.

Some six weeks after this I had an appraisal with my CEO. She told me how disappointed she was in my performance, how I hadn’t stepped up to the role and she was thinking that she had made a mistake in appointing me. When I pointed out that my mum had just died her response was, ‘yes I know, but surely you are alright by now’. I replied that no I really wasn’t as I had had my mum for all my life and been without her for just ten weeks. So much for a ‘caring’ organisation.

She was a fucking harsh bitch to everyone and when, some time later she phoned me sobbing as her marriage was breaking down due to her working hours and asked me to cover some of her out of hours commitments, I took great pleasure in declining to help.

AlexaAmbidextra
I'm so sorry about your mum's passing. Good for you for declining, she was a disgusting excuse for a human being.

Thank you Luce. It was some years ago. I don’t normally bear a grudge but all this time later I still wouldn’t piss on her if she was on fire.

WhatsApp your shoes😂😂wtf? That’s hilarious!

So many stationery Nazis

I had the most awful employer in the early 90s. He would phone me at home at ridiculous times (late evenings and weekends) to ask questions that could have waited till the next day. Then 'caller display' was invented, so I bought a new phone and happily ignored his calls.
He also drew up a new contract which only had two days off in 28, i.e. work four weeks and have the final weekend off. He was miffed when I showed him the details of the working time directive - he had never heard of it.
This is the same employer who, when minimum wages came in, reduced the hours of one part time employee so he didn't have to up her pay. Illegal, but sadly she never complained.

When I started as a civil servant, you weren't allowed to have a chair with arms on until you were promoted to AO level. My dad's former employer wouldn't allow staff to go home during the flood in 2007, they ended up being taken out by rescue helicopter.

I worked on the checkouts at M&S food hall in the late 1990s. They used to send you your schedule for the week and you were supposed to sign it to show that you had agreed to work those hrs. Only trouble being, after the first time you signed it, they just photocopied your signature onto a new schedule with new hours! I now realise this was illegal.

I once worked in a factory canteen. We weren't allowed to sit down to make sandwiches and suchlike in case one particular director came in he didn't like to see you sitting down, he thought it looked lazy. Fortunately, I was only there for a few months, I do have a problem which makes standing up in one place for even a short period uncomfortable, as it hurts my back, but the other women were older and one, in particular, had problems, and because of a disabled husband and living in an out of town area made it difficult to find work that she could get to for the hours she could so she was basically trapped
I once went into a famous brand scented candle shop and the woman behind the counter shot up off her chair and I said, no need to get up, am just browsing. She said it was company policy that you had to be standing if a customer was in [which is I guess an improvement on always having to be standing in case one did] and there was cctv and she'd be in trouble if she was seen sitting with customers in the shop, and it was randomly checked. She was tiny too, so she wasn't even taller when she stood up. As long as you can do your job why on earth does it matter.

That particular director always used to have a little pot of mustard freshly made each day, and about 3/4 of it was wasted every day, cos it was not possible to mix up such a small amount, as most of it would stick to the side of the pot , so it would have looked messy, which was a no-no. It had to be made with milk too not water. Just a bit odd really, am not a mustard fan so don't know if 2-day old mustard tastes any different.

So foolish of some of these employees. Staff who feel valued stay longer and are more productive.

Because for a lot of people ..managers and office queen bees and predatory males ..work isnt about work its about bolstering their psycopathic egos ..profit is secondary to ego

In the very early 90’s, l worked across the road from the Manchester Arndale Centre.

We heard a massive crump like sound, and it was the IRA who’d bombed Manchester City centre.

The police told all the offices and shops to evacuate asap. However our twatty bosd decided not to let us evacuate.

The police them came storming in and we were evacuated under police guard. They went mad at our boss

What a twat he was.

Placemarking to read later atmd contribute !

Part of our uniform was that we had to wear skirts and tights and they could only be American Tan.

As in we'd get sent home if they were any other colour. And we're not talking airline level of corporate branding, this was a small local business.

When I started my most recent job I negotiated a slightly later start time (10 mins) to facilitate my school run - this was only necessary for a few months before my daughter was old enough for breakfast club. Boss quite happy, I made up the time through lunch/staying later other days. No problem.

A few months later due to family issues I had to request to drop 2 days a week. Bigger boss agreed this, until she was ‘informed’ that I’d been ‘consistently late’ to work. Therefore they’d only agree if my punctuality improved.
I argued that I hadn’t: I’d agreed a short term variation with my boss and never been late. I’d also spoken openly about this to colleagues, why wouldn’t I?
Boss then LIED and denied all knowledge of our agreement stating that she would never have allowed it.

I found the email that proved she did, then told them to shove their and never went back

Years ago I worked for a large department store. Most people were contracted to a few hours but given regular extra shifts. What was particularly weird was the shifts changing. During busy seasons like the run up to Christmas it made sense that extra shifts were regularly offered, because they opened longer and needed enough people for the extra footfall and sales. Fine. Only, they’d change the rotas for the week after the week had already begun. In retail the work week began on Sunday, so basically the rota as of the Saturday should be fixed for the week ahead (barring any emergencies). But they would regularly change the rota on the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... people had no idea if their shifts had changed but management said it was our responsibility to check the rotas. This meant people would phone or drop into the store every day when it was supposed to be their non-rota’d day, just to check. Literally, every day, people popping in and calling to ask a colleague to check the rota for them just in case.

One Xmas temp got in trouble for missing a shift - she’d checked the rota on Sunday, was next due in Wednesday, but on Monday they changed her to Tuesday. She asked them how could she possibly know and they rolled out the same line about it being her responsibility. She left.

I should have left sooner There was far more about the place that was just horrible, the shift thing just seemed like a strange system to me. It was a bullying and unsupportive environment, although my colleagues were nice. One specific thing I do recall was calling in sick - it was Xmas sales times so not ideal, but I had norovirus, I literally stayed next to or in the bathroom all day and was so sick for a couple of days, I lost count of the amount of times I had D or V < sick face. It was awful. I rang in and they said, “Can’t you just take some Imodium and come in?”. Err, no besides the constant diarrhoea and projectile vomiting, do you really want me to infect staff and customers during the Xmas period?! I had told them (in gory detail!) what the issue was because they insisted on the detail, yet still seemed to think I was fit enough for work!

When l first moved to the part of the country where l live now, l got a temporary seasonal job at a very well known food hall. One day one of the managers told me to go over to the general merchandise store which was across the way at the retail park. l went to go upstairs to get my coat and bag (it was November!) and was told l "didn't need them". l said that it was freezing (and raining!) and that l did need my bag. l was actually having a period at the time, and l didn't know how long l was going to be over there, but didn't want to say that as there were three male staff standing with her.
l mentioned it to her later in the staffroom and she looked a bit surprised, then said "oh, l never thought of that! l don't have periods any more!" She was actually younger than me, but l was perimenopausal and occasionally 'flooded' so l did need my supplies!
At the same place, l was on a day off when l got a phone call to say my mother had died. l rang work (this was Tuesday, my next shift wasn't til the Thursday) to let them know what had happened, and that l wouldn't be in for my next shift as l was going to be over 100 miles away making funeral arrangements. This time l spoke to another (female) manager who insisted that l should ring back "on the Thursday morning to let us know you won't be in". When l said l was making it known then, she insisted l had to ring back on the Thursday.
When l got back 'home up North' l found out that my mother had actually committed suicide. When l did ring work, obviously very distressed, this same manager said "well when do you think you'll be back, then?"
My cousin insisted l stay with her as l was in no state to drive. When l got back home, l went to see my GP, l was in such a state l couldn't think straight. He gave me a sick note which covered me for the rest of my contract (another 3 weeks). When l took it into work, one of the managers, who was lovely, hugged me on the stairs on my way in. The one who had insisted on me ringing back on the day of my shift was in the office when l took my sick note in. She couldn't look me in the eye. l never went back. l couldn't believe it.

The last boss I had docked everyone's salary by £10 because someone had left the stationary cupboard open when a client was in the building. There were examples of this kind of stuff almost every day

So foolish of some of these employees. Staff who feel valued stay longer and are more productive.

This is like a textbook on why British business have low productivity. An endless parade of losers who can only find meaning in their lives by inventing and enforcing pointless, or often counter-productive, rules with no basis in reality. The idea is that work should be grim, and the job of supervisors is to make it grimmer. Not just grim as a product of the task at hand, but grim as an end in itself.

I worked in a care environment and, for months of being short staffed, worked 60 hour weeks. On week 11 I was asked to do an extra 6 hr shift and I said no. I was told I was uncooperative and unreasonable!

Very large international online fashion retailer, very popular and praised for how ‘woke’ they are along with supporting various different good works....

Disciplined you for going to the toilet ‘too often’ ...

Went through a thoroughly enforced phase of not allowing anyone to have anything to drink at their desk besides a small bottle of water, if said bottle was too large it was suggested it would take too long to fill up, wasting precious company time as well as contributing to unnecessary toilet breaks so the bottle was taken away ...

Breaks were prescheduled by the company and if you were still dealing with a customer you would obviously for go taking your break at that time in order to help the customer but you were disciplined for poor time keeping anyway...

Weekly meetings with team leader where you would rate yourself on idiotic subjects like ‘enthusiam’ or ‘being a team player’ and discuss how you could improve ...

Hideous - left after a year, skipping!

I always sent my holiday request form to my boss and she'd reply with authorisation and cc in the hr lady. This worked well for years until hr decided that we should do it on paper. So I write out the form, hand it to my manager, she signs it, photocopies it and has to hand it to hr. Then she takes note of my holiday and comes back down 4 flights of stairs to hand it back to me.
This is not years ago...it's just the past two weeks!

What is all this about stationary?!