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Old 01-31-2014, 02:50 PM   #61
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Poverty I understand. These guys were PhDs that had lived in the USA for years.
LBMers?

Might as well save on laundry bills.

Ha
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Old 01-31-2014, 03:17 PM   #62
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LBMers?

Might as well save on laundry bills.

Ha
Good point. What was I thinking?
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Old 01-31-2014, 03:46 PM   #63
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[QUOTE=Their bathroom stalls had graphics to ask them not to stand on the commodes.[/QUOTE]

At one place where I used to work the commode in the men's room was directly underneath the ceiling exhaust fan. Footprints on the commode were a common sight. Seems the fan was perfect for exhaling pot smoke.
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Old 01-31-2014, 04:10 PM   #64
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My first real task in the US Navy came after my 13 years (k-12) of schooling, 4 years including two full summers of college and 20 months of Navy training. My buddy and I were flown from California to Guam to meet the submarine I was assigned to. We had traveled about 26 hours with little sleep and arrived at the submarine right at the start of the work day, 7 am local. We were exhausted.

Being freshly painted Ensigns, the XO immediately took us in hand and directed that we go with him. He needed some witnesses because he was getting MARRIED. That was our task.

We thought that was weird but realized later that he had no friends, not even the Captain. We did not like him either. We had a field day (cleaning day) for about 11 hours straight once while we were at sea and submerged. It had been scheduled for 4 hours but got extended by the XO because someone stole the door off of his stateroom and hid it. It was not found despite his personal search throughout the entire submarine several times. It magically reappeared after we reached port and the XO left for home.

He was later transferred to a position that had been vacant for 7 years.
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Old 01-31-2014, 05:53 PM   #65
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One day our entire department of ~50 people was suddenly called into a rare meeting with the SVP. After a brief congratulations for achieving our most recent (insignificant) milestone, he introduced our "new" HR representative, who proceeded to lecture us on the importance of never using the company credit card for personal expenses. Perhaps 5 of the 50 people in attendance actually had a company credit card. Meanwhile our department head spent the entire meeting staring off into space, never making eye contact with anyone.

As it turns out (according to well-placed rumors) Mr. Dept Head had been having a tryst with the "former" HR representative. Since Mr. DH and Ms. HR were in different cities, Mr. DH was making weekly "business" trips. He had an apartment and car in the other city. To hide the plane tickets and apartment expenses from Mrs. DH, Mr. DH was using the company credit card. His secretary figured out what was going on and turned him in.

Shortly thereafter, divorce proceedings began for Mr. and Mrs. DH and for Mr. and Ms. HR. Both left the company, they moved in together for a month or two and then broke up.
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Old 01-31-2014, 10:48 PM   #66
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Since Mr. DH and Ms. HR were in different cities, Mr. DH was making weekly "business" trips. He had an apartment and car in the other city. To hide the plane tickets and apartment expenses from Mrs. DH, Mr. DH was using the company credit card. His secretary figured out what was going on and turned him in.

Shortly thereafter, divorce proceedings began for Mr. and Mrs. DH and for Mr. and Ms. HR. Both left the company, they moved in together for a month or two and then broke up.
Whew, I figured it out. I read DH as Dear Husband and was very confused about the story (I was reading the post after a beer and was slow to the story).

My story ... I had a co-worker who was going through sexual orientation change (from woman to man). Megacorp supported it and we all have to get trained on how to behave around her/him, including what to do with restroom usage. Many of us were confused as to what to do.
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Old 02-01-2014, 10:34 AM   #67
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One time I was at an office building for an interview. The sinks were lower than usual and I decided to wash my feet....I got such a strange look from this other guy in the rest room......


While at a mega corp national sales meeting several "team building" exercises were on the agenda. One of them was having regions compete against each other thru an obstacle course. At least 25% of the sales force was over 50 and there were several men/woman in their 60s. This course was pretty tough, with running, climbing and crawling thru 3 ft wide tubes all the while being prodded and yelled at by your region to "move it!". There was huffing and puffing, falling and inability to get back up after crawling thru the 10 ft long tubes - I thought someone was gonna die for sure. One woman fell off the ladder climb and severely bruised her hip. She had to go to the hospital and get X rayed and came back with crutches. Many were limping and grimacing for the rest of the event. The meeting planner was a little over zealous with this endeavor...
The next national meeting team building had regional Jeopardy...
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Old 02-01-2014, 10:38 AM   #68
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One time I was at an office building for an interview. The sinks were lower than usual and I decided to wash my feet....I got such a strange look from this other guy in the rest room...... While at a mega corp national sales meeting several "team building" exercises were on the agenda. One of them was having regions compete against each other thru an obstacle course. At least 25% of the sales force was over 50 and there were several men/woman in their 60s. This course was pretty tough, with running, climbing and crawling thru 3 ft wide tubes all the while being prodded and yelled at by your region to "move it!". There was huffing and puffing, falling and inability to get back up after crawling thru the 10 ft long tubes - I thought someone was gonna die for sure. One woman fell off the ladder climb and severely bruised her hip. She had to go to the hospital and get X rayed and came back with crutches. Many were limping and grimacing for the rest of the event. The meeting planner was a little over zealous with this endeavor... The next national meeting team building had regional Jeopardy...
Though I was from the "public world" I hated team building and always thought the term "team building exercises" was a code word for "we have money in the budget that we must get rid of in as quickly and wasteful manner as possible".
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Old 02-01-2014, 12:09 PM   #69
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In the early 90's, I worked for an EXTREMELY conservative computer consulting company. Hint - they were headquartered in Plano, TX. (Those of you who may have worked at this company in the past probably know which one I'm writing about).

I had to travel to Plano for three months of technical training. Proper dress code was a suit, tie, and jacket, and you were required to keep your jacket on at all times except when you were in your own cube.

One of my first days there, a bunch of us (we were all fairly recent college grads) went to the cafeteria, got our food, went to a table, removed our jackets, and sat down. We didn't notice everybody else there had their jackets on. A "Jacket Cop" (security guard) came by and scolded us and told us we had to keep our jackets on in the cafeteria.

Another incident I remember was a couple years later, when I was working for the same company, but in the midwest. The dress code required either a belt or suspenders, and one day a guy came in wearing neither. A manager told him he was violating the dress code, and sent him home to put on a belt.

Yet another incident...the dress code required very conservative shirts. White, or with conservative pinstripes, but nothing pastel. One of the mainframe programmers liked to "push the buttons" sometimes, and came in with a pastel shirt. He lasted a few hours before he was sent home. Again, for violating the dress code.

The dress code was so outrageous there, I remember running cable underneath a data center raised floor with my jacket on!

When I left, I swore I'd never work anywhere else that had a dress code requiring suits, and I haven't. In fact, the last time I wore a suit was probably at that company, almost 20 years ago. Haven't worn one since, and have no plans to ever wear one again.
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Old 02-01-2014, 12:34 PM   #70
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The dress code was so outrageous there, I remember running cable underneath a data center raised floor with my jacket on!
James Bond routinely beats up bad guys and blow up buildings while wearing a tux! You had it easy.
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Old 02-01-2014, 02:13 PM   #71
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... an EXTREMELY conservative computer consulting company...
Not a personal story, but this happened to a good friend of mine at an extremely conservative computer company that was headquartered in Armonk, NY.

This was back in the late 60s or early 70s, and the rule was suit and tie at all times. Due to something in the air at the time, the dress code had recently been liberalized to allow pastel shirts, instead of the standard white.

My friend's territory was the financial district in NYC (Wall Street). He got an emergency call at home about 3 am on a Sunday morning. He looked at the calendar and the clock, and decided it just wasn't worth it to get dressed up because nobody except maybe a security guard at the client's office would be there to see what he looked like. So he threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and took the subway in.

About 4-5 hours later, he was flat on his back under a machine, rerouting wires, when one of the partners came in. On his way to his office, he glanced through the glass wall into the machine room and saw my friend.

A few minutes later, he was on the phone to Thomas Watson, Jr., head of the company, complaining about "the slob you sent out to service my computer."

Within a week, the dress code rules had been reiterated company-wide, and pastel shirts were right out again. My friend said it took a while before he lived that one down.
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Old 02-03-2014, 06:08 PM   #72
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About 4-5 hours later, he was flat on his back under a machine, rerouting wires, when one of the partners came in. On his way to his office, he glanced through the glass wall into the machine room and saw my friend.

A few minutes later, he was on the phone to Thomas Watson, Jr., head of the company, complaining about "the slob you sent out to service my computer."
That's the kind of thing that used to infuriate me about the "extremely conservative company" I used to work for. After a few years, I figured out how you dressed meant more than the quality of work you did. People I thought were dead wood, and wrote shoddy code, got ahead just because they mimic'd the higher-ups and wore three-piece suits and cufflinks (no joke). I refused to go along with that kind of thinking, which I why I left shortly after, and never wore a suit again.

When I think of all the places I've worked, the brightest people I've worked with have worn jeans and t-shirts in the office, and some of the worst posers, fakers, and underperformers wore suits.
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Old 02-03-2014, 08:56 PM   #73
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In a former Megacorp, the dress code finally got relaxed for engineers and people who had no customer contact, and a ridiculous race to the bottom ensued. Engineers started taking it as a badge of honor to waltz past security in casual, then run down, then just plain ratty clothing. The scuttlebutt was how good must that guy be at his job that he gets away with THAT outfit. Management finally called a halt and re-instituted a "casual" dress code after one engineer wore the same cutoff denim shorts he cut off (unevenly) himself and a ripped undershirt for two weeks without washing them.
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