(Thursday:)

Boss: “There is a major project that needs done by next Wednesday. What do you need in assistance to get it handled?”

Me: “Can you cover the [day-to-day grunt work]?”

Boss: “You got it.”

(I decide to quietly go above and beyond and work all weekend. Come Monday morning, I gauge how much I have left to do and estimate I’ll have it done by the end of the day. An hour later:)

Boss: *has no insight into the extra work I did* “That project will be done today, right?”

Me: “Uh… We agreed on Wednesday.”

Boss: “I’m being aggressive with our timeline.”

Me: “Yeah. Today or tomorrow.”

Boss: “Good.”

(By mid-day, I start getting calls from other departments that are waiting on the stuff from [day-to-day grunt work]. I don’t want to throw my boss under the bus, so I say I’m on it and follow up with my boss later.)

Me: “Hey, [Coworker in other department] needs that [day-to-day grunt work] done by the end of the day.”

Boss: “Well, I’m caught up in phone calls all day!”

(I end up doing the [day-to-day grunt work], which makes for a 12-hour day after a full weekend, and a delay in my early delivery of the project. Tuesday:)

Boss: *working on something* “Would have been nice to have [project] done to make this easier.”

Me: *letting it slide* “I’m almost done.”

Boss: “I need you to immediately transition back to [day-to-day grunt work].”

(I do, and everything is three to four days behind. Wednesday:)

Boss: “Where are we with [project that hasn’t been discussed in a month]?”

Me: “I’ve been doing [project due today] and focusing on [day-to-day grunt work]. I’ve not had time.”

Boss: “Well, I need to see some progress on that. Don’t feel like you have to do [day-to-day grunt work] on your own; ask for help when you need it.”

Me: “…”

(I am a 20-year-old female with facial piercings. I am fortunate enough to find a job as an office assistant for a realty company. One day, two men come in to pay rent, ask questions, etc. My back is turned to them as I am filing some paperwork. My boss has come up front to answer their questions. Mind you, she is a small female, and both of these men are large, tatted, and bearded. I finish filing while they are still there, and I turn around. The younger of the two looks genuinely surprised at my appearance and looks at my boss.)

Man #1: “Hey, do you guys have complaint or commendation papers?”

Boss: “Not here, but we do on our website. Is there something wrong that I can help you with?”

Man #1: “No, I just think it’s freaking awesome that you guys hired someone with alternative style!”

(My boss looks very confused. [Man #2] is now laughing.)

Man #1: *points at me* “Her piercings! I think it’s cool that you hired someone with them; most people don’t!”

Boss: *chuckles* “Who am I to tell her what the f*** to wear and how to dress? She’s fine the way she is!”

(I love my boss.)

Related:
Piercing Observation, Part 3
Piercing Observation, Part 2
Piercing Observation

I was promoted about a year ago to be general manager for all of our branches in the city. One of my duties is to chair a supervisors’ meeting twice a year. These are usually long and tedious affairs, so to make them bearable, I have all the supervisors over to my house and feed them lunch before having the meeting. This way, everybody gets a good meal, and the meeting can be done on comfortable couches, instead of hard boardroom chairs.

Most of my supervisors are great, or at least good at their jobs, but one of them I have constantly had to speak with about her lousy customer service and basic lack of people skills.

A few weeks after I have had to have another talk with my shoddy supervisor, I receive an email from the union. The email says that they have received an “anonymous” complaint from a member that the supervisors’ meetings are held at my house. They can’t give any reasons for the complaint beyond that it makes the complainant uncomfortable.

So, from now on, all supervisors’ meetings will be held in the windowless boardroom, on hard chairs, and with no food. All in the name of making one supervisor “comfortable.”

(I’m the only woman in an office full of men. Most of the time that doesn’t matter, but I notice that one of my coworkers ALWAYS questions everything I tell him with, “Are you sure?” Every. Single. Time. When is our meeting with this client? Are you sure? I’ll check myself. What are the specifications for this file? Are you sure? I’ll double-check. What was the name of the company we worked with for our advertising last year? Are you sure? I’ll look it up. Every time he asks, I’m right, and he still feels the need to verify. The reason this just started to stand out for me is that I noticed he never does this with any of the guys. He accepts everything they tell him right away. It’s one of those things that starts to bug me the more I notice it happening. It doesn’t help that 90% of his questions often seem to revolve around his scheduling and work — as if I’m his secretary, rather than a peer — and things everyone else keeps track of themselves. I don’t mind helping out — everyone forgets things sometimes — but this is all day, every day. Finally, one day, he asks me when his meeting with a client is.)

Me: “You should probably look that up yourself.”

Coworker: *sounding offended* “And why’s that?”

Me: “For one, I’m not your secretary. We have the same job in the same department. I shouldn’t have to keep track of all of this for you every single day. For another, every time I tell you anything, you always question it, no matter what it is, and end up looking it up yourself anyway.”

(He sputtered for a bit, and gave me the cold shoulder for the rest of the day. Over the weekend, however, he actually sent me a very thoughtful email, saying he’d started thinking about what I said and realized I was right, and he wanted to apologize for it and was going to change his behavior. It really meant a lot to me that he was able to think about where I was coming from honestly and admit it to me. So, while he started out as a bad coworker, I’m happy to say he was true to his word, and he’s started treating me with the same respect and consideration he does everyone else, and we’ve actually become good friends, too.)

I am working for an IT service provider. We are currently replacing all of the PCs of a company of several dozen employees. The old PCs had 512-GB hard-drives; the new ones have 128-GB SSDs. Not much, but aside from the OS and some software, nothing is supposed to be stored on these PCs. All files, databases, and stuff are stored on servers and accessed via shares or terminal connections. In order for us to not have to configure each user profile on the new PCs, and for them to be able to work on other PCs if necessary, their user profiles and everything in them are being synchronized with the servers and downloaded automatically on first login of that user at a PC.

I’m currently installing the new PC for a certain employee. The moment I we try to login with his account, I get an error message, basically stating that the PC could not download the profile stored on the server onto the PC, for whatever reason. I go through a number of troubleshoots, none of which are effective.

I then decide to simply create a new account for him, which works like a charm. However, when I have some waiting time later, I decide to check out his old account, if only to make sure the problem would not occur on other accounts, too.

After checking a few things, I decide to copy the profile to have a backup. My eyes widen as I see that the profile is over 250GB in size, when it should only be a few MB. Way too large for the SSD, of course, which is the reason why it was unable to download. Using a tool, I am able to display all the files in the profile directory, as well as their sizes. What do I discover? The employee has collected hundreds of pictures and videos and stored them locally on his PC, obviously not realizing that they would be synchronized with the server. Almost 250GB of p*rn, some of it the more disturbing variety.

I am told that the employee will not be returning to his office.