Work AIBU.. no im not.

[susanfromHR]

This is a safe space for all of us who want to rant about work things that irritate us without being told we are unreasonable.

Share how Susan from HR takes the comfy chair in the staff room every lunch, how your manager drives past you at the bus stop every time it’s raining and waves without offering a lift or how Linda the cleaner throws things away they deem are rubbish without asking but are actually the countries nuclear codes.

I’ll go first- I work with kids and have this parent who is so intent on making sure their child isn’t criticised that they say ‘that’s okay’ to everything. I’ll say ‘they’re tired’, ‘they’ve chosen their own outfit today’ ‘they pronounced xyz word in a cute and funny way today’ always with a ‘well that’s okay’ YES I KNOW, I’m simply observing and most of the time Saying it with the intention of boosting or complimenting your child argh.

It’s every day and it drives me crazy. What’s yours ? 😂

Answering my very direct question with a long winded email that doesn't answer my question.

Just give me a fugging number! I don't care about your issues!

We send a weekly reminder of ongoing queries .
Ignore these for weeks and then complain something on the list is not sorted. Read the damm emails!!

I can't imagine why LoveWine would have suggested them if they didn't! They certainly work for me and the various friends/colleagues I have who use them.

Yeah... but it's really because they love to be super irritating.

In my case its bloody obvious there is someone available, my live chat access portal clearly states theres a real human there 24/7 and theres a response time of under an hour. You can't get to talk to us without that message in front of your eyes. SO yes, there is someone there and no they don't need to wait for me to reply to just state their bloody issue.

For years I had a simple policy of not attending meetings for which no agenda / purpose was distributed beforehand. I'd ask once, but if nothing was forthcoming then ‘decline’. I’d encourage everyone to take control of their diaries and be ruthless with meetings in particular!

Actually, I was going to say this. Lots of the stuff on this thread is really annoying but someone ringing you about work during the working day is fair enough.

And you wouldn't even know who was calling until you answered it! Imagine!!!!

I like to put something like "I hope you're well" or if they ask some think how was my weekend "Good thanks I hope yours was too" and then straight into what the e-mails actually about
That way I've ticked the social nicety box, but without a question so it hopefully doesn't invite more conversation!

I started doing that because I hated it when I e-mail without that, and they reply with "Hi BillStickers, How as your weekend?" at the start - making me feel rude for getting straight down to business!

Yes it does and then I receive a top up to the minimum wage,the worse thing is I can work 45 hours every week and the one time I go home sick and fall beneath my 40 hour contact they deduct my wages. Shocking

I work with someone who puts read receipts on everything. There is absolutely no need. I've asked him to turn them off when he emails me as I support a few people and when we all get them, it crashes my Outlook.

He used to work in my region but doesn't now. He won't take the read receipts off so I keep inviting him to the big regional meetings as he's made it very clear it annoys him. He thinks I'm inept but actually.. I'm petty.

Assuming you're using outlook:

File -> options -> mail -> tracking -> never send a read receipt

I did just have a quick check to see if you could set it as a rule just for him, but I don't think you can so it would have to be a blanket thing, I'm not sure if that would cause issues

I have heard of someone (but never worked with them) who set up his email to automatically delete anything he received outside of work hours. This was a real problem for people who worked in a different time zone to him.

Ah, thank you!!! I never even thought that would be an option.

If somebody needs to ask me for something at work, it’s never going to be a quick question or something I can answer off the top of my head, so the answer will always be “Send me an email and I’ll get back to you by this time.”

Even if they wanted to discuss it first the conversation would end with me asking them to put it all in an email, because I’ve learned from experience that tasks go far more smoothly when the person asking has given me the whole thing in writing.

Managers who give you a heavy workload when you get back from your annual leave as you “didn’t do any work last week”. No shit Cheryl, I was on annual leave!

new clinical lead who is young and in her first management type role. I have underpants older than her. And yet she insists on explaining everything to me as if I am a moron. Because I am not, I have already considered all angles before I go to her, and need a nuanced response. But I get the most simplistic answers. Sort of the equivalent of having a problem in corrupted code in a computer program which needs to be identified and sorted out, but she is asking if I have turned the computer on yet and if that is why it is not working.

What do you mean "calling in sick at the last minute"? Do you want them to give 2 weeks notice of sickness absence?

Coffee! I make coffee at least once or twice a week. I offer everyone (4 other workers in our team) a coffee. I can count on 1 hand the amount of times they have made/brought me a coffee. Just make me a blinking coffee, especially if you see my travel mug isn’t on my desk!

5am wake up calls, unreasonable demands at stupid hours and constant shouting that drives me up the wall. Oh wait, that’s the kids 🤣🤣 (tongue in cheek, they aren’t always like that, sometimes they get up at 4am 😅)

I had been doing a job for 2 years (and previous experience at other job of 8 years) and new manager comes in decides we need rotating. My cover never really covered me but has given it the I want it this way. She went off sick with a rash that she says was stress.... they let me settle back into that job while we were busy. Now it's quietened down she's back on my job. I feel so used. I dont do well with change. But we rotated biweekly and then I've been left for 2 months. They have put me on a job that I struggle with due to being left handed, it's set up to use your right hand. I ended up with a swollen wrist last time. Nobs 😂

Manager who says 'present it whatever way works for you' and then sends a format to put it into when I've finished it.

Pointless whole staff training which only applies to a third of us.

In person meetings, at another site that takes me half an hour to drive to, that could have been an email. Being told that I can claim mileage for travel to
pointless meeting but there is no budget for it so we won't be able to fund x, y or z if I do.

Being shouted at in front of several other staff for a mistake that I didn't make and never receiving an apology.

I have freelance client at the moment. He gave me a lot of complex information during the interview when it wasn't clear if he was even going to hire me, and then sent me a spreadsheet to review.

I sent him some questions by email to clarify my understanding and in one case my understanding was completely wrong. He told me to call him to clarify which I did right away. Now I understand it.

My AIBU is that he was really off with me. 'Wow, you have got this really wrong, that's very concerning' type response and was annoyed to have to speak to me on the phone for 5 minutes because it was his day off. (I did not demand he read my email or speak to me on his day off).

Been feeling unreasonably upset about it for a whole day.

Can you mute him?

I work on a busy reception desk. The one thing that really annoys me is when staff members from the other areas leave rubbish dumped on my desk or in the reception area instead of them taking it out to the bins because it’s beneath them! I did challenge the MD last week after he left a huge Empty box in reception and told him to put it in the recycling outside 😤

people leaving things until the last minute emailing you with high importance at 5 to 5 about something that needs doing by today!

I could go on….

Don't accept him as a client. Ditch him. Forewarned is fair warned, and you know this man is a twat.

@Aquamarine1029 unfortunately I already have so I will need to do my best to make it work 😢

You can fire a client. It's often quite necessary.