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The most frustrating kind of job...

revelated

revelated

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 30, 2010
994
2
Is one where you normally like the job, but hate the work ethic of those you work with.

I'm in such a situation. In any other country this would be a dream job. I get paid a decent salary, I am trusted with responsibility, and mostly have control over my schedule. I'm depended on for the most challenging of tasks, and I'm never bored.

My problem - and unfortunately, it's the one thing I absolutely hate about people in general - is the work ethic of some of those around me. Not all, but some.

In my world, I look at the economy and think about how many people are jobless. I also look at how much the company pays me and can't help but want to carry my fair share. So I'm there EVERY DAY. I don't take vacation, because I'm always needed for something or other. I don't call in sick because I don't get sick and I don't whine about a headache or something; I take an Aleve and tough it out. If I'm not on the phone with a customer, not emailing, not developing something and/or not visiting a customer, I'm in the office working on new technology or assisting someone with a project. Granted - I'm single, no children...but I don't think that's any excuse. I'm fairly young, yet no matter where I go I am constantly confronted by people who just seem to drift through life.

There are cats who sit on personal calls/text message/Google Chat/Yahoo Chat/AIM Chat/Facebook for at least 3 hours out of an 8-hour day. I'm talking people who walk IN THE DOOR, and their phone rings, and it's their significant other calling to ask how they're doing. Huh? Didn't you just see them when you woke up? Can't you wait until lunch/break? Or better yet, why aren't YOU at work?

Then there are cats who take like 8 breaks a day AND a lunch break.

Then there are cats who - and this drives me NUTS - will use speakerphone to dial someone who is literally 20 feet away.

Cats who need to get a project or document to you so you can finish your job, instead of prioritizing that, will call their girlfriend and talk about absolutely nothing for 30 minutes. Mind you, this is NOT during lunch.

Cats who are in such a hurry to leave early that they don't get you the information you need.

Cats who don't know how to manage their own appointments, will tell you they don't need you the next day, so you schedule another appointment, then when you're there they call you in a panic because they desperately need you for some appointment that they didn't pay attention to because they were too busy talking to their girlfriend for 30 minutes.

Cats who take EVERY MONDAY off so they can recover from Superbowl Sunday or parties or whatever from the weekend.

Cats who send emails back and forth about band gigs or weekend parties yet can't respond to work-related emails from customers timely.

Cats who can sit and talk about American Idol for an hour yet are incapable of booking an Outlook calendar appointment.

Cats who can create a football pool in Microsoft Excel yet can't seem to figure out how to do any work-related documents in the same program.

Cats who can tell you the first and last name and stats of every single player of every football, baseball and basketball team in the city, yet can't remember how to do a conference call on their phone.

Cats where customers are figuratively throwing money at them, but they can't seem to find the time to get the customer the simple information they need. Yet they always find time to play some stupid YouTube video.

I go on and on...but I seriously wish I could locate a job where I love the job AND I'm surrounded by people who are as diligent and dedicated as I.
 
Cats? Are you Sammie Davis, Jr.

As said before, sounds like a place a hard worker could shine (assuming they promote based on merit there).
 
sounds like there are too many cats there ... if they hired people to do the work of all these cats things would improve:D

on a serious note ... maybe those cats find it frustrating working with someone more concerned with what everyone else is doing.
 
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The problem here is that your employer has staffed your workplace with animals to save money for the company.

But seriously..........

Why not just be satisfied that you do your job well, possibly better then others would do it? Id also have to say in all seriousness, that your manager or boss probably notices the difference between you and the co workers that you don't seem to like to work with.
 
That sucks. I keep at my job for exactly the opposite reason. The job itself can be boring and frustrating (it should be rewarding but there is micromanagement coming from all angles) but the people I work with are great.

Unfortunately, I think you are going to have to take this into your own hands and I think the easiest thing you can do is to try and find a similar role at a different company. It can take a long time to change the culture in a workplace, so if you don't like it then maybe it is time to go.
 
r1ch4rd said:
Unfortunately, I think you are going to have to take this into your own hands and I think the easiest thing you can do is to try and find a similar role at a different company. It can take a long time to change the culture in a workplace, so if you don't like it then maybe it is time to go.
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the problem with that strategy would be, that during the job interview and stuff, you might know the job, and like the job.

but you would never know what type of animals you would be working with, once you start the job.

it might be worse. they could be monkeys or rats or whatever.
 
You sound too uptight/strict/boring. Truthfully, you sound like a working stiff.

If you aren't taking the vacation time you are entitled to, that's just stupid.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think you need to go on a date.

Yes the cats in your office are lazy and take advantage of the workplace, but you need life/work balance too.

Unless you are heavily invested in your workplace or have some serious stock options and can retire really early (30s), take a vacation and explore the world a week a year.

There is nothing wrong with good work ethics, but you are young, go see the world while you still can.
 
If you're not taking vacation that you're entitled to, that's nobody's fault except your own. Take your vacation, and if they realize while you're gone that they can't function without you, perhaps they'll promote you and force the other employees to get their **** together.

Makes me grateful though...vacation at my job is use it or lose it at the end of the year, so my boss has never said no to vacation requests, and as we get closer to the end of the year, they'll pretty much start forcing you to take vacation because they don't want you to lose it.
 
yg17 said:
If you're not taking vacation that you're entitled to, that's nobody's fault except your own. Take your vacation, and if they realize while you're gone that they can't function without you, perhaps they'll promote you and force the other employees to get their **** together.

Makes me grateful though...vacation at my job is use it or lose it at the end of the year, so my boss has never said no to vacation requests, and as we get closer to the end of the year, they'll pretty much start forcing you to take vacation because they don't want you to lose it.
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I think the advice to take a vacation to be appreciated is very good. I've been at my current place for 7 months. Started part time, bumped to full time 2 weeks later, busted my butt on every project I could get my hands on for a few months, in the office til 1am, working weekends etc. My boss encouraged me to take a few days off and breathe, during which they had an opportunity to realize how much I'd been doing. End of story, I came back and learned that I'm getting a raise and a college intern to work under me. You don't always know what you've got til it's gone...can apply to management as well.

Also you should really start by firing all the cats, my cat has a terrible work ethic and always sleeps through meetings.
 
puma1552 said:
You sound too uptight/strict/boring. Truthfully, you sound like a working stiff.

If you aren't taking the vacation time you are entitled to, that's just stupid.
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QFT.. It also seems like you spend quite a bit of time observing these cats, maybe its time to stop wasting company time being so nosy. Different people have different work ethics, so long as they bring the deliverable forward in a timely manner how they spend their time is really none of your business.

You would be the uptight micro-manager that holds people to dangerously high expectations, I hope for the people in your offices sake you never become a manager.

Take a vacation, you're worrying too much about petty things.
 
Amazes me how many people think sitting on Facebook all day is perfectly acceptable behavior. Such is the reason this country is in a fiscal hole now.
 
revelated said:
Amazes me how many people think sitting on Facebook all day is perfectly acceptable behavior. Such is the reason this country is in a fiscal hole now.
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Not really, if the people are getting their work done, what difference does it make? I always hated when people were nosy, if my work is done, what difference does it make what I do?

I used to work in a demographic office, I'd process the hourly quota of data in 15 minutes or less; that means even if my productivity was 300%, I still had 15 minutes of every hour leftover. My paycheck at 3x the work was the same as the sloth who could barely make quota...why should I work even harder than 3x the limit for the same pay? What was discouraging was how if I ever slipped to like 250%, I got chided for slacking and it was like wtf? Unless you want to pay me more, then don't be disappointed when I'm only doing 2.5x as much work as everyone else. Eventually I had enough of the micromanaging that I just plain left.

That was a valuable lesson for me--work smart, not hard.

"If you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair..."
 
Just remember you may not be as important as you think you are. There will always be someone there to step up to the plate when you're gone.

On another note I've had to say things to coworkers about shutting the piehole and stop talking so much about none work related stuff. In my opinion it is ok to talk to coworkers to build team morale and to vent every once in a while. There comes a point when to much is to much and you should tell them to cork it and do their job.
 
puma1552 said:
Not really, if the people are getting their work done, what difference does it make? I always hated when people were nosy, if my work is done, what difference does it make what I do?
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The problem is they're NOT getting their work done.
 
revelated said:
Amazes me how many people think sitting on Facebook all day is perfectly acceptable behavior. Such is the reason this country is in a fiscal hole now.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone suggested people logon to Facebook all day is fine, most are suggesting you take a vacation once in a while, there are more to life than work.


revelated said:
The problem is they're NOT getting their work done.
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I think if you work hard enough and your boss will see it someday, then you can change/fire lazy cats. In the mean time, I think you should lighten up and worry about yourself.
 
I was with you up until you said you never take your vacations. That's going a bit far into the anal retentive area. Everyone needs a mental break from work at some point or the work suffers, period.

And yes, working with lazy arses is annoying, but I would only concern myself with it when it directly affects my work. In those cases, make it known, otherwise mind your business. You'll only drive yourself crazy for no reason at all. It seems like you enjoy your job and are devoted to it, so just worry about that, you'll probably add years to your life.

Not to be rude, but I'd also take the advice of another poster and date more.
 
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