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?

It's not just stationary. It's anywhere that gives out supplies for a job.
I mean, everyone knows that Storeman Norman buys these supplies out of his own pocket 😂

I mean, everyone knows that Storeman Norman buys these supplies out of his own pocket 😂

So true......years ago going into the stores dept at work (military).

Me: "I need to exchange these PT shorts for another pair please".
SN: "No problem, what size do you need?"
Me: "Small please".
SN: "Ah, I only have one pair of small left".
Me: "No worries, I only need one pair".
SN: "But I need to save them in case someone comes in needing a small...."
Me: "But I need a small".
SN: "True, but what if the next person is smaller than you - can you not take large?"
Me: "Not really; they'll be huge, I'd rather take the small"

Almost ad infinitum although I did eventually get the small shorts....

My story is mild compared to these. I did a temp job at an insurance broker years ago. My department boss was the worst kind of control freak; simply, everything was done her way or the wrong way. The slightest note on a file, no matter how small or routine, had to be dictated and typed. No handwritten notes under any circumstances. If she needed a meeting, it was purely at her convenience and to hell with anyone else. Never made a round of drinks. The odd thing was she was only in her mid-twenties. It hadn't taken her long to become an awful person.

I left after two months.

This hasn't happened to me but did to a friend. She has a chronic medical condition which her managers were aware of because of this she needed to periodically eat and sort her medication out. This was all agreed with occupational health. The managers completely disregarded this and told her she was making it all up (this is a massive company that has won awards for how it treats its staff). She got a new manager whose opening question to her when finding out she had this chronic medical condition was 'well when are you going to be cured' she then had to explain to him that she was never going to be cured but he didn't appear to understand why she couldn't be cured. She does have a well known chronic medical condition which people have heard of and the majority of people know that you can't be cured of it. But that wasn't even the worst. The worst was her sister and mum were knocked over by a lorry in July 2016 which killed her sister she was not allowed the day off for the funeral and was not offered any support I refuse to shop in any of their stores and am more than happy to name and shame them as it is disgusting my friend worked there for 7 years and has been treated appalling and treated in such a way that her health has been destroyed. (This all happened in Norfolk).

What is the store called the, chattyc? That's absolutely appalling.

Years ago, there was a haulage firm infamous for its overt cruelty and contempt for the drivers. Drivers were not allowed into the office, but had to talk to through an outside window, rain or shine. When out on the road, it was a disciplinary offence to park up with colleagues. The lowest performer on the fuel consumption table every week was docked their wages. A new starter told the office he would need to be back in England in a fortnight for his wife's induction. Three days before, they told him he wasn't coming back, but going from Milan to Warsaw, then Paris and back to Milan. So he turned up at the office having abandoned the truck. "If we'd known you were going to do that, we'd have smashed your car up." The CEO eventually went to prison for fraud, and when he came out he found his sister had stolen everything the Asset Recovery Agency hadn't taken.

I'm not certain if she has taken legal action against either the company or individuals so in case she has I better not mention the exact name of the company but it is an upmarket supermarket based in Swaffham in Norfolk.

Similar to the stationary refuser but with medical supplies. Many years ago on a paediatric ward we had two children admitted straight from outpatients with horrendous eczema. The treatment was coal tar bandages which needed to be changed daily. So I needed four bandages per child, one for each limb, daily and multiplied by two children so eight bandages per day. Obviously needed a few days supply.

Phoned stores to be told I couldn’t have that many. I asked why and was told that this would take all their stock. I replied that I needed them only to be told that they needed to keep some on the shelf. ‘Why?’said I. ‘In case someone needs them’ said the storekeeper. He really didn’t get it. We went back and forth for what seemed like ages and strangely enough he handed them over, albeit reluctantly, when the consultant paediatrician phoned.

This is where unions are useful.

Our admin supervisor implemented a rule that everyone has to submit their annual leave requests for the whole year on the 1st April at 11:00 ( even if it falls on a weekend) . She then allocates it in a first come first served basis . Bloody ridiculous.

Receptionist job.
I tried to read a book but told not to coz it would look bad to clients coming in. This was pre phone/desktop PC days. There was Nothing Else To Do. I was expected to just sit there & day dream, I guess. Or play with coloured paperclips. I quit & went to work for a busy supermarket (happy days, 4.5 yrs there).

My colleague is very into fitness and works out every lunchtime. This wouldn't be a problem if he didn't demand the right to drape his sweaty clothes over our office radiator. We've tried telling him to stop but he insists he needs to because he has nowhere else to try them. I don't understand why he thinks it's appropriate to subject us to his running shorts.

He is also a complete cock.

Some of these are great, there is so much bull**it in these corporations.

An owner of one of the organisation brought me in as they were baffled at why his workforce was disengaged "even after he had arranged mandatory training sessions every Saturday morning as a team building exercise " lol

Another organisation wanted higher productivity from its finance department. I then realised that every phone call from or to the finance department was to be documented , not a problem..just record the calls ......oohh no the individuals had to type up the conversation on a word doc until a better system was put in place ...it took 3 times as long to type it up than actually have the conversation.

Ahem..isn't it stationery (=pens, paper etc), not stationary (=not moving)? I was told the way to remember this was "e for envelope."

Ahem..isn't it stationery (=pens, paper etc), not stationary (=not moving)? I was told the way to remember this was "e for envelope."

Oops, yes it is. And I’ve spelled it wrong and I’m so anal about spelling. 🤭

I also worked in an office with a well stocked stationery cupboard and an officious person in charge of it. He kept it locked at all times. You had to submit requests in writing at the beginning of the week and supply your empty pens. He delegated the collation of the list to a junior staff member.

More than once he came and inspected my desk to see if I had really run out of post it notes as apparently I had requested too many too quickly! I practically had to put in a business case for having smaller ones AND bigger ones!

He also once did an investigation into why I had needed three new staplers in a week. As a cost saving measure, he had bought really cheap crap staplers what couldn't staple through the thickness we needed! All of them broke within two weeks.

When he left we actually had a party in the stationery cupboard (it was massive) and too as many pens as we liked!

"o 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!"

I'm impressed that you don't ask your boss to sign and then make the copy and take it downstairs yourself.

Why does he need to dry sweaty clothes? Couldn’t he take them home damp? It’s not like he’s going to wear them again without washing them. Or is he?🤢

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince He cycles to work so needs the clothes to wear on his cycle home in the evening. I don't know why he doesn't just bring a spare set of clothes in - my work has lockers so it's not like he's not got somewhere to store them. It's really quite revolting but we can't make him understand that.

@panicatthebistro I think we worked at the same place. MoD?

I had lots of run ins there (I was taught by my dad to challenge fuckwittage and took great delight at calling out the bullshit in a very calm, polite and assertive manner ). Aged 18, first job, lowest clerical grade in the civil service :

1. not allowed to answer the phone even if I was the only one there. I did and got told off. I carried on answering the phone.
2. not allowed to drive down the front drive to the office (it was nearest entrance) because I was 'too junior and couldn't be trusted not to run someone over'. Got BF to drop me off via the front drive every day in increasingly elaborate vehicles (he was 2nd hand car dealer so had loads to choose from) . They issued an office memo on that one and I was 'called in' to be spoken to. I ignored them on that too.
3. my job was to open hundreds of letters so had daily massive pile of envelopes and a tiny bin. Asked for a bigger bin (there was a store with them in -about 20 stacked high). Was told 'those bins are for a higher grade so you can't have one '. So I said what do I do with all these envelopes ? Told to pile them up next to the tiny bin. I used to sit there, screw up the envelopes and lob them over my shoulder cue much tutting from the quartermaster (who had refused me the bin) as he waded through the pile.

I got promoted and moved to a different department. They were chuffed to bits that I'd gone

MOD contractor near a base lightlypoached

Red sparrows!

My employers decided to introduce a compulsory uniform. They would supply full time workers with two shirts and part time with one shirt. I like to wear a clean shirt every day, our job isn't exactly manual labour but it's not office based either, we are moving stock around and getting dusty, and sweaty in summer. But no, they would only give us two shirts. I'm not washing a bloody shirt every night. It's wasteful and time consuming. But no, we had to wear the thin white shirt!

Turns out it wasn't possible for them to supply a shirt that fitted me - partly because I'm fat and partly because they picked the cheapest, thinnest skimpiest shirt possible to save money. My boss who was a size 12 had to order a size 20 shirt as they were so skimpy made.

Six months later, everyone starts asking for new shirts as the cheap nasty shirts don't stand up to repeated washing and wearing, and the rubbing from carrying stock around and were all starting to wear out, fray and rip at the hems making everyone looking incredibly scruffy. The managers hadn't budgeted to replace any of the shirts for a couple of years let alone within a few months. This is for 200+ staff.

The shirts have been quietly dropped. Now we are just asked to wear a certain colour but we can choose our own style top, as long as it's not a vest top, which suits us all fine. Funnily enough, everyone looks a lot smarter...

And yet we can't order any stationery as there 'isnt any money'. There would have been if you didn't order several hundred shirts!!!

Oops, sorry that was a long rant!
I just get so cross at public money being wasted on unnecessary and uneconomical shite, while we are still in need of basic supplies like A4 paper, in order to do our job.

Being told off for being 1 minute late even though I had walked in with senior management. Not being allowed to park in the car park behind the building, instead having to use a car pass for a very expensive car park and walk from there to the office (public sector!) hence being one minute late.
Being told off for talking in the office, it was no wonder we were behind with our work when all we did was talk, I was talking to a colleague about work and actually we were complete up to date which I did go and tell our glorious leader.
Complete micromanaging (bullying) of certain staff and nothing at all on others, blatant favouritism. Putting staff on reception who can hardly talk because they are so full of cold, can’t ask to be taken off because that means you are being difficult, staff too scared to take time off sick because of the ‘Bradford factor’ so come in and infect the rest of us.
No one over 40 is capable of being promoted, all new employees under 25, people with disabilities being told that the manager ‘will have to consider their job’ when approaching for help following return to work after surgery!
Not being allowed to put the air flow system on in the middle of a heatwave in a windowless office because 1 team member didn’t like the ‘noise’ and another one said that it ‘tickled the hairs on the back of her neck’ never mind that the rest of us were suffering with dehydration ( I ended up with heat stroke because I take medication that means I can’t regulate my temperature). I had to bring in spare clothes to change into in the middle of the day because I am in the menopause and was soaking through my clothes.....also ended up bringing in a towel to sit on because I realised my seat was getting soaked.

Having to fill in a book every time a job was taken from the tray .....even though the letters were being typed on to the system and initials put at the top so could be checked on there. Staff being told off for not being friendly and approachable then being told off for talking to other staff too much. Being told off for ‘looking too busy’ because this makes you unapproachable apparently....the key is to be busy but not look it! I have been working for more than 20 years and have only met 2 types of worker ....hard worker and lazy bastard never met a hard worker who was gifted in working hard but not looking busy!