Q: Worst part of your j*b?

[UserRequested]

I will not miss this dumb job when I make my escape.

Always look at the bright side of life -Monty Python
Ithis dumb job is helping you on your way to ER.

 

[M Paquette]

Hmmm. No reason a hiking boot can't look all spiffy. We did that all the time back in... boot camp.

(ducks)

 

[Onward]

to be one of the dancing monkeys on a panel discussion so that the brain dead automatons who are in the role of officers can pretend they are thinking

Do I detect some dissatisfaction with your job?

 

[brewer12345]

Well, I got several stares and managed to head off comments with a lame excuse. Damn, am I glad that is over.

 

[Amethyst]

Anyone who noticed your shoes probably assumed you are an absent-minded genius who can get away with wearing odd shoes because he is indispensable

Well, I got several stares and managed to head off comments with a lame excuse. Damn, am I glad that is over.

 

[lhamo]

It would have been great if you could have had them play "these boots are made for walkin'" as you left the conference room....

 

[FUEGO]

One of my favorite parts of my job is walking into the board room or executive suite to talk about something with the CEO, COO, CFO, General Counsel, etc, having thick red clay mud on my steel toe boots.

 

[HFWR]

One of my favorite parts of my job is walking into the board room or executive suite to talk about something with the CEO, COO, CFO, General Counsel, etc, having thick red clay mud on my steel toe boots.

Back home those were called "clod hoppers"...

 

[sengsational]

It would have been great if you could have had them play "these boots are made for walkin'" as you left the conference room....

LOL....a dramatic ER!

 

[brewer12345]

Traveling while ill. I arrived on my trip this week with the tail end of a nasty cold that had sidelined me for the better part of a week. Last night I got hit with a stomach virus that is going around my destination (coworker, his wife, and all 4 kids got hit with it a day before I did). Now I am laying in the hotel room with my head pounding and feeling like I am about to burst into flame (fever) and wondering how it is going to go when I try to get home tomorrow.

 

[Sarah in SC]

That is terrible, brew. Try to keep fluids on board and get as much rest as you can. Good luck getting home and hopefully you won't give it to your family when you arrive.

 

[chilkoot]

I actually liked my job (well, mostly). It was the "add-on" aspects that were a drag (status reports, e-mail, presentations, teleconferences, etc). I guess the sales visitations were the worst. Field employees were charged with giving pep talks to people who already had been given the sales positions.

 

[rodi]

Worst part - du jour....

Having gone through a corporate split up, that required changing email systems, then an acquisition by a much big company, then a divestiture of my division to a much smaller company... I'm in email hell.

We're taking 10 steps backwards to Outlook mail. And the porting tools are not happy with me or my computer. 3 random resets, 40 (literally) crashes of outlook, as I try to run the google app sync tool. I've wasted an entire day and am now looking at literally printing hard copies of some key emails I am at risk of losing forever.

I hate this. I've wasted an entire day trying to troubleshoot it.

 

[padlin00]

Worse part of my j*b is that it's no longer the job it used to be, I'm in a dying industry, Newspapers, and I'm too old and making too much to leave it and start over. Where it used to be exciting and vibrant, now it's.... Well I can't think of a good word to describe it now, how about gray.

 

[GatherYeAcorns]

Hmmm. No reason a hiking boot can't look all spiffy. We did that all the time back in... boot camp.

(ducks)

Basic Training . Brings back a lot of memories. I spit shined mine's and I also melted my kiwi straight into my boots for that nice shine before chow time.

 

[Meadbh]

Traveling while ill. I arrived on my trip this week with the tail end of a nasty cold that had sidelined me for the better part of a week. Last night I got hit with a stomach virus that is going around my destination (coworker, his wife, and all 4 kids got hit with it a day before I did). Now I am laying in the hotel room with my head pounding and feeling like I am about to burst into flame (fever) and wondering how it is going to go when I try to get home tomorrow.

That is the worst! I prescribe Tylenol and lots of fluids. Avoid alcohol. If you are still really sick tomorrow (especially with a GI tract that has a mind of its own) consider staying put and calling the hotel physician. There is no journey more miserable than one where you need the bathroom constantly. It's not fair to other travelers either.

 

[brewer12345]

That is the worst! I prescribe Tylenol and lots of fluids. Avoid alcohol. If you are still really sick tomorrow (especially with a GI tract that has a mind of its own) consider staying put and calling the hotel physician. There is no journey more miserable than one where you need the bathroom constantly. It's not fair to other travelers either.

I made it home after a delayed flight last night. Still not quite right, but the worst is over. Hopefully I recover over the weekend.

 

[Original Wally]

Worst part was the management. It was local gubment and they were so freaking stoopid that it was nearly impossible to maintian my sanity.

 

[gozer]

There was a time I could not believe they paid me to do my job because I loved it so much.
That gave way to thinking it was a great job.
Then it was a good job.
Then it was just a job.

International travel, arbitrary deadlines that had nothing to do with the amount of work being done and listening to senior management pep rallies became the things I disliked the most.

I stopped going to the mandatory pep rallies about 8 years ago. Just dial in remotely and set the phone down. Technically you attended. During the last one I actually attended, the president was giving an "Ask not what your company can do for you, but rather what you can do for your company" type of speech. Followed by the "we need to tighten our belts again this year" speech.

So I started thinking. A decade before that meeting, when our current owners bought us they seemed to take great delight in telling us we were "at will employees". They did this almost every time they sent out a company wide email. They were a foreign company and this idea seemed like a shiny new toy to them. At this point I realized, I was an at will employee that was losing the will. So I buried myself in my work to avoid becoming one of the "Working Dead" and now I see something new on the horizon.

 

[Koogie]

Q: Worst part of your j*b?

A: Today.

 

[bUU]

Tech Support analysts (really, the manager) who think that the requirements of the product are the opposite of whatever we didn't say. This morning, the guy starts complaining that the product doesn't do XXX. The specs don't say that the product does XXX. The documentation doesn't say that the product does XXX. The promotional materials don't say that the product does XXX. His perspective is that, because the customer wants it to do XXX, it is a bug that it doesn't, given that we didn't say the product wouldn't do XXX.

I have no problem with the guy putting in a design change request, but he's the one who is setting the customers' expectations, and he continually goes off the deep end ratifying whatever demands the customer puts forward without regard to what we promised the customer, with regard to how much it would cost to give the customer what they're demanding now, and without regard to how giving that customer what they're demanding now will harm other customers. It is impossible to keep customers happy when our main contact with the customers is routinely driving customers toward dissatisfaction by fostering in them expectations for the product that we never actually set forth to satisfy.

 

[Andre1969]

Lately, I've been taking issue with these pompous, entitled little jerks that try to walk right through you in the hallway, like you don't even exist. In fact, just a few minutes ago, I was coming out of our kitchen, with a glass of chocolate milk in hand, and a woman walking towards me, instead of staying to her right decided she wanted "her half out in the middle" as my Granddad used to say. Ended up barely grazing me, and she's lucky she didn't end up with a milk bath, because I had the glass in that hand!

And, she just kept right on walking, no "excuse me" "pardon me" or anything.

I know it's minor and petty, but I look at it as some kind of power trip when people do that. Unless they're really just THAT absent-minded, that a 6'3", 200 pound person just doesn't register with their vision?!

 

[Koolau]

Lately, I've been taking issue with these pompous, entitled little jerks that try to walk right through you in the hallway, like you don't even exist. In fact, just a few minutes ago, I was coming out of our kitchen, with a glass of chocolate milk in hand, and a woman walking towards me, instead of staying to her right decided she wanted "her half out in the middle" as my Granddad used to say. Ended up barely grazing me, and she's lucky she didn't end up with a milk bath, because I had the glass in that hand!

And, she just kept right on walking, no "excuse me" "pardon me" or anything.

I know it's minor and petty, but I look at it as some kind of power trip when people do that. Unless they're really just THAT absent-minded, that a 6'3", 200 pound person just doesn't register with their vision?!

Heh, heh, if that's the worst part of your j*b, I would be thankful. But, to answer your implied question: There are folks who are, indeed, that absent minded. However, I do find (just me personally - not lobbing a hand grenade here) that younger folks (20's to 30's) seem to have more of a self-important, self absorbed attitude. I see it on the street and I see it in stores, etc. (Remember, I'm just saying what I have observed, anecdotally - not professing to be a psychologist). However, I have read that raising children without losers (everyone is a "winner" and everyone gets an equal prize in the school contests, etc. etc.) breeds this type of attitude. Read more than one article suggesting there will be a price to pay for enhancing EVERYONE's self esteem. Not saying I agree or disagree with the authors. That's what my kids got at school (for the most part). I'm just saying there may be some unintended consequences. Your experience could be a consequence. (Naturally, YMMV).

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Looks like as good as any thread to vent in tonight.

Worst part of my j*b? Project Managers who pile on the work, get mad when something doesn't get done, then berate you for exceeding budget.

Today, I was using our intraoffice instant messaging program (Microsoft Lync) to ask the PM a question, he answered the first message with a question, then as I was typing in the answer he suddenly goes offline. Thinking his computer crashed I simply left my answer up on one monitor while getting back to work on the other. A half hour goes by and the phone rings, it's him asking for the answer. I casually mentioned that his machine must have crashed, and he answered, "no, I don't like using Lync. You have to send me email instead." WTF? So he basically hung up on me and then was irritated that I didn't get back to him quicker. I know the real reason - he wants a recording of what was said so he can hang me with it later.

So, back to the thread title. The worst part of my job is dealing with overwork, a-hole PM's, peers who don't hold up their end, and all that.

OK, it's looking more and more like I should make a commitment in that Class of 2013 thread.

 

[Andre1969]

Heh, heh, if that's the worst part of your j*b, I would be thankful.).

Oh, I am thankful, no doubt about that! It's actually a fairly easy, cushy job. Boring though. I think the fact that something so petty is getting on my nerves is a sign that I'm itching to pull the retirement trigger, and just looking for any excuse!

But, to answer your implied question: There are folks who are, indeed, that absent minded. However, I do find (just me personally - not lobbing a hand grenade here) that younger folks (20's to 30's) seem to have more of a self-important, self absorbed attitude.

Yeah, I've been noticing that too. At my job, that self-absorbed attitude seems to run the gamut from young to old, but I have noticed it more among younger people. Not ALL of 'em, mind you, but enough to make generalizations.