The Work Thread

Macha · Jan 29, 2020, 6:26 PM

@Pandora I see you have seen the meme.

mietze · Jan 29, 2020, 9:24 PM

Sorry dude, I can't pull an official 1099 out of my ass for you, they're mailed by corporate this friday. Also when I have reversed engineered a solution for a number you can give your accountant maybe do not scream and threaten me that it better be right or I'll be in trouble, because then I'll just tell you to use the online information you have to figure it out yourself.

Go fuck yourself, hopefully you dont shit on too many other people on your way to your vacation. I bet your accountant just loooooves you.

Rinse wash repeat with like three other tall older men all of which were clearly going for the loud/personal space invasion intimidation tactic today about similar issues.

Still not as bad as the screaming dude we almost pulled the panic button on a few months ago but today was a real shit day. I love my job for many reasons, I get to play with fun office equipment and other specialized stuff, I get to have my own stampy things and a big ass key ring, I love my coworkers and most of our regulars but today I might've cried a little on the drive home.

Sometimes the energy people project just feels like a weapon.

Ganymede · Jan 30, 2020, 12:18 AM

Actually said outside of work:

Other Counsel: I like how you paraphrased A Few Good Men in there.
Me: Thanks. I was glad someone got it.

Aria · Jan 30, 2020, 1:27 AM

I have six competing priorities all due for the end of this week. And bless my primary business partner, because when I told him and my boss about this and how strained I am this week, he sent out an email to his entire team, my boss, her boss, and my entire team that basically said:

"Aria is a wonderful resource and we are lucky to have her! She is also entirely too nice to say to any of us, so I'm going to say no for her. She has several high level and complex priorities due at the end of the week, which are:

Let's all help her do her best work by not adding anything to her plate or making asks that are unrelated to those things."

My boss and her boss were both super thrilled, pushed one of those things to Monday, then told the groups I'm working with on two of them that the heavy lifting is on them until items #1-3 get done and too bad for them if they don't like that.

I have literally never had managers do something like this for me before. I am simultaneously super grateful and wondering if I maybe somehow stole someone else's life. If I did, screw them. I'm not giving it back.

Roz · Jan 30, 2020, 3:59 PM

fuck every version of outlook

Quinn · Jan 30, 2020, 4:06 PM

After working on Firstclass for 20 years let me tell you it could be worse.

Roz · Jan 30, 2020, 4:11 PM

@Quinn My frustration actually has nothing to do with using Outlook, and everything to do with building marketing emails for Outlook. Because it renders HTML differently than everything else in the world. Just to ruin my life.

Alamias · Jan 30, 2020, 4:19 PM

@Roz Oh yeah, I remember in 2007 when MS decided to remove most HTML rendering like repeating backgrounds and a bunch of other things from Outlook, so Marketing emails became a bitch to do. I feel your pain.

mietze · Jan 30, 2020, 8:04 PM

Today has been yet another spectacularly shitty day at work, that pretty much deep sixed my office into negative territory so bad it may take us 6-12 months to recover (at least it wasnt my fault but the person whose fault it is might get shitcanned which means we are back to extreme skeleton crew) along with 3 more screamers (at least one was on the phone).

I kind of wanna to a stupid dorky funny scene tonight or something. Or just go to bed. Its hard to not feel very depressed right now, but hopefully I will hit "fuck it, cannot do anything about that right now so I'm going to compartmentalize" mindset soon.

Aria · Jan 30, 2020, 10:58 PM

@Aria said in The Work Thread:

I have six competing priorities all due for the end of this week. And bless my primary business partner, because when I told him and my boss about this and how strained I am this week, he sent out an email to his entire team, my boss, her boss, and my entire team that basically said:

"Aria is a wonderful resource and we are lucky to have her! She is also entirely too nice to say to any of us, so I'm going to say no for her. She has several high level and complex priorities due at the end of the week, which are:

<bullet points>

Let's all help her do her best work by not adding anything to her plate or making asks that are unrelated to those things."

My boss and her boss were both super thrilled, pushed one of those things to Monday, then told the groups I'm working with on two of them that the heavy lifting is on them until items #1-3 get done and too bad for them if they don't like that.

I have literally never had managers do something like this for me before. I am simultaneously super grateful and wondering if I maybe somehow stole someone else's life. If I did, screw them. I'm not giving it back.

Guess which manager just exploded one of those three priorities with changes that force me to scrap half of what I've done and can't be fully confirmed until lunch tomorrow, but still expects this to go out the door by EOB?

........
........
........

The one who sent the goddamn email.

Bax. Sweetie. You are a darling and I love you and instead of counting how many high-fives you've managed to get from me, maybe you should consider counting the number of times I've threatened to murder you under my breath.

Roz · Jan 31, 2020, 3:27 PM

Gosh, if only we could predict the timing of this newsletter that we do at the end of every month so we're not scrambling to put it together each time!

If only.

Ganymede · Jan 31, 2020, 3:30 PM

@Roz said in The Work Thread:

Gosh, if only we could predict the timing of this newsletter that we do at the end of every month so we're not scrambling to put it together each time!

When is your end-of-month newsletter supposed to be released?

Tinuviel · Jan 31, 2020, 3:31 PM

@Ganymede Fifth of the next month.

Roz · Jan 31, 2020, 3:35 PM

@Ganymede said in The Work Thread:

@Roz said in The Work Thread:

Gosh, if only we could predict the timing of this newsletter that we do at the end of every month so we're not scrambling to put it together each time!

When is your end-of-month newsletter supposed to be released?

Who knows! We don't have a schedule!

Ganymede · Jan 31, 2020, 3:37 PM

@Tinuviel

Ganymede · Jan 31, 2020, 8:15 PM

On the subject of work, something of amusement.

Annoying Opposing Counsel: Okay. I take it you want me to reach out to your expert and discuss his fees with him. Please provide me with his address, telephone number, and e-mail address.

Me: To my knowledge, the address, telephone number, and e-mail address which appear in the invoice I gave you and the e-mail at the end of this e-mail chain are accurate.

silverfox · Jan 31, 2020, 11:29 PM

I ACTUALLY GOT A SUBSTITUTE TO SAY YES TO TAKING MY JOB ON FRIDAY.

This is fucking MIRACLE. This is my 10th year teaching. In those 10 years I have gotten a substitute to cover my class exactly ONCE. (Granted, I've only taken 7 days off total for non-district training, but!) If we can't find a substitute it means one of two things:
a) My kids are split up and groups of 3-4 spend the day with another teacher doing... nothing.
b) One person from each "team" (Grade levels, support staff, admin, specials) give up half of their planning period to stand in for shifts about 30-45 minutes long.
BOTH options suck.

BUT I GOT A SUBSTITUTE THIS TIME. I am so relieved. It's like a huge weight off my back. I can go to my grandfather's funeral and not feel terrible

Auspice · Feb 1, 2020, 8:39 AM

One of the people I interact with on Twitter is Chet Faliszek. He wrote Left4Dead and was a writer on Portal and Half Life. He left Valve a couple years ago to start his own company.

I decided fuck it today and emailed my portfolio to him because why not?

He, at the very least, was kind enough to send me a personalized reply explaining that he appreciated me doing so but he doesn't have a need for any writers right now since he has been building his team for a while. And hey, I didn't expect a miracle but y'know what? I appreciate the personalized, candid response.

Aria · Feb 3, 2020, 9:37 PM

Sooooooooo, my company just updated their dress code and I'm super excited. We're adopting a "dress for your day" policy that now allows jeans, something that never would've been considered even just two years ago. (For reference: I work in the finance industry, which is notoriously conservative re: professional image. They only stopped making all employees regardless of level wear full suits and ties to work in, like..... early 2013.)

But! But. Even more exciting than that:

"At X, all gender identities are respected, and employees are welcome to dress in a way that allows them to express their gender identity and individuality."

Please excuse me. I'm getting a little watery-eyed with pride over my employer.

Rinel · Feb 3, 2020, 9:51 PM

When your bosses pull you in because you left early on Tuesday due to panic and tell you not to... because they have panic attacks too and that if you're going to be panicking, you should just come into their office and cry with them.

Which of course you promptly start to do, and they rush to give you a big hug and tell you that they won't give up on you but you can't give up on yourself.

Y'ALL