A recurring theme across every office I work in is no matter where I choose to sit somebody will then start trying to sit in that place.

I make a conscious effort in this hotdesk (where we hotdesk but everybody sits in the same place every day) world to pick the least desirable seat I can find, the one where nobody sits for weeks on end, facing no window, away from the aircon, you get the deal.

I guarantee after about two weeks of me sitting there somebody will move a monitor and say they have to have that seat despite being perfectly happy for however long they were before I came.

Why?

>>13051
Perhaps you work in an industry that often features absolute cunts?

>>13051
I don't understand why hotdesking is a thing.

>>13051
>>13053
It never works - for the last 10 years I have worked for companies that "hot desk" and without exception, everyone sits in the same place every day, for good reason. If it means I can slope off with my laptop and find a place to hide on a sofa and do some actual work, I'm all for it, but the rest of the time, I (and everyone else) sits in the same place.

It's often used as an excuse to have an office that's actually too small for the number of staff you have - and that's a cast iron reason to work at home more (which such companies most usually support), but nobody moves around the office and changes places, like you might think.

I'M GOING TO USE THE LAST OF THE WATER IN THE COOLER BUT I'M NOT GOING TO REPLACE THE EMPTY BOTTLE.

>>13054
At one place I worked, they set a target of 8 desks for every 10 people. The reasoning for this was that lots of people were part-time or away from their desks for extended periods. This works across the organisation, but someone thought it was a good idea to apply it to each team, regardless of the work they do. This meant that when our heavily desk-based mostly full-time division was moved into head office, they insisted we could only have 8 desks for every 10 people we had. This meant that our dedicated hot desk bank was filled every single day with the people we didn't have space to assign desks to, defeating the purpose of having a hot desk bank to begin with.

This is food service so a horrible nightmare of overwork is to be expected, but it still gets on my tits when I get handed all the pans from the front, 10 minutes before closing the shop, and someone deigns to visit the one-man kitchen 5 minutes later to figure out why I'm taking so long.

It's because it's not a five minute job pal that's why. Half the dishes are sticky and baked in. This is after I've had to filter both the fry vats and tidy the kitchen, after having had to prep all the veggies for the next day while keeping the fried food going for the front the whole day.

I know I should probably get out of the kitchen if I can't take the heat but I'm keeping at it anyway because, for some reason, they can't hold on to staff! And there's no way I'd be able to beat the cash I'm making. I'm one of two kitchen assistants at the moment, for two stores that are open 7 days a week for at least 9 hours. The third assistant quit this Monday when he realised he had no days off this week.

>>13057

>but it still gets on my tits when I get handed all the pans from the front, 10 minutes before closing the shop

This happens in more places than it should and it's fucking daft. It's usually possible to explain, slowly and carefully, that if they could just give you pans as and when they're done rather than leaving them in a big cunting pile you'd be done a lot sooner.

When I was in that position I'd just barge in with a big bus tray and grab whatever they weren't using quite frequently. Though it doesn't sound like you can do that or you probably would.

Also depending how new you are and how shit the place is, they might just be surprised by the fact that you're actually trying to clean something properly.

These days I often find I get hunger pangs in the morning sometime around 10 or 11. It probably wouldn't matter so much if I was doing an early shift but I don't have to be in until 10 and can't exactly go to lunch an hour after I get in.

So obviously I do the sensible thing and pay outrageous prices for cake when I go on break.

>>13060
Take in some form of snack? I generally have nuts, grapes or an apple mid-morning.

>>13049
> but with not really having money to go do stuff.
Judging from my own experience way back, I don't need much.
There's a certain threshold after which raises are nice and still don't mean qualitative increase as I can't buy a flat with that salary in reasonable timeframe, nor can I stockpile it somehow that'll at least preserve the value.
That's one reason why I kept working at one place that offered 3 to 5 days off per week, having been offered another position which included more money but also the tedium of 9-to-5.

I've found myself in the middle of a shitstorm where something has gone wrong; nobody is taking responsibility for it and they're blaming others people for it. I'm finding it really, really hard to give a shit about it but they won't stop going on.

>>13063
Is that you Prime Minister?

"I don't shop around for the cheapest petrol because I always put a tenner in wherever I go."

>>13065

People think I'm mental for just filling up wherever I happen to be, and not really looking at the price - even if the price difference is 10p (it's usually only 2 or 3) then if I fill my tank up I might have saved six quid on a tank by going to the Asda on the other side of town vs. the Shell. If it takes me 20 minutes to get there then it's hardly a saving at all, if you value your time.

>>13066
There's merit in that line of reasoning, particularly if it is a long journey to a cheaper petrol station. However, stating that you don't shop around because you always top it up by the same monetary amount is all kinds of stupid.

>>13067

A 50% extra free offer sells better than a 1/3 discount. Most people are functionally innumerate.

I'm starting to worry that I am becoming the workplace annoyance. Apart from someone being a bit of an overly judgemental cow whilst also being quite incompetent at her own job I don't really have any complaints.

There's going to be a couple of junior vacancies within my team at the end of the year; there's going to be at least six internal applicants and I have the final say. One of them sent out an email today and I responded to them pointing out all of the grammatical flaws and telling them to be better if they want any chance of joining my team. I'm clearly dicking around, but I'm probably also being a dick.

>>13069

>I'm clearly dicking around

I suspect that's what most annoying people think. It's pretty hard to get across your intent in an email as well, they almost certainly think you're an arsehole.

There is this cunt who's onto fucking up the schedule for everyone. Yesterday he literally exploded, hysterically yelling that the March schedule is utter shite - after about 2/3 of March has passed, right. He then proceeded with 'correcting' it - which ironically included putting additional workdays for everyone except himself. After being told to fuck off with that by everybody else he decided to fiddle with the April schedule and made a 'better' version - again, with more workdays added.

My only consolation is that so far he's been a tiny minority that wants these changes. Unfortunately, apathy is big here so instead of telling the sod to piss off one more time the folks might just coast along and accept the alterations just so he would cease whining. I have no bloody idea what's in it for this person - he surely won't get paid more for self-afflicted overtime. Others have noted this as well, responding, 'If you like to work that much, we can give you more worktime'.

Utter bollocks.

>>13071
Unionise, motherfucker.

>>13071
>yesterday he literally exploded

Problem solved then.

>>13073
Mirth.

>>13073
I wish.

More kitchen complaints.

So a month ago I casually asked my manager if I'd be alright to get a longer weekend this coming weekend, and he said sure that will probably be fine. So I went home, checked train times and things, and followed up a few days later.
Messaged him the dates, which he read, but didn't respond to. So I asked him again in person and he still said it would be ok. I specifically waited to make sure all the staff (that I knew of) would be back from their own holidays so there would be someone to cover me.

So on the wild assumption that it would be ok because I got the ok from the boss I booked my trains.
Lo and behold, it comes to yesterday and he asks me 'when do you want to work this week?' and when I said 'I can't do Friday' he tries to get me to work Friday.
Another worker was taking holiday this week, something that would have been great to know any of the times I'd asked prior about the days off.
Lazy fucker didn't even check if it was a good idea to let me have the weekend off, didn't think 'maybe the guy is planning something in advance, so best make sure he can actually take this time off', didn't know the rough holiday schedule for a staff of fewer than 20 people (only six of which are the kitchen staff & therefore important) and then when he asked me to work this Friday made out like he only vaguely remembered me enquiring about it the other week. The timetable and staffing hadn't changed at all, he's just a twat.

At least, after more calmly elucidating the prior points, he said he'll actually try and work something out.

Now I've never been a manager anywhere before, the most I've done is work as a treasurer at a uni club, but even then I manage to keep a rough idea of our finances, who owes money and from when whilst I also have a part time job and a ton of uni coursework.

>>13076

Addendum: I used to work at McDonalds which is a fantastic part time job even if it's vaguely embarrassing. Has a proper scheduling system, enough staff to cover mostly anything and lets you work seasonally most of the time.

>>13077
Seconded. I've had a few shit jobs in my time, but that wasn't one of them. The pay was half-decent, breaks were strictly enforced (as in you would definitely get one), and by and large if you asked not to be rostered for a given day you wouldn't be. They put a lot of work into sales projections and matching staffing levels.

>>13076

This isn't a defence of your manager, he's still a twat, take that from a professional. But people managing food places are typically used to scheduling for foreigners who don't give a shit when they work/would rather work than not, that's how they end up so clueless about rotas and stuff, they just draw one up and assume the 6 guys who probably mostly all live together will either be fine with the shifts or change them amongst themselves. Even 'good' managers usually expect kitchen staff to just never have any plans, because they don't see us as human.

When I had a boss like that I just ended up doing the rota for him, though I wouldn't recommend that route. You just have to be annoying enough about their shite rotas that it becomes easier to spend the 15 minutes it takes to actually think about it properly.

I wish we had a proper law in place about how much notice an employer has to give you for work, that always seems to go overlooked. I think it should be a full week at least.

>>13079
AIUI, if you're taking time off, they need to give you at least that in notice if they expect you to work. If you're taking a three-day weekend, and weekends are days you might normally expect to work, if they've agreed to it they need to give you at least three days' notice to get you to work.

>>13079

>used to scheduling for foreigners

Yeah that's mostly it.

He often jokes about wishing he had more of the guy that works in kitchen no.1, 7 days a week for 9-11 hours. Which I'm sure would be good but the guy's earning probably at least 3x as much money as he could have done before he moved over (and he moved over just to work) so he's got some actual motivation.

Oh and this doesn't mention how I applied to one store and found out they're opening another store. First store was open 11 - 7 most days, new one 10 - 9. So I got 12 hour shifts without even expecting (or asking) for them. The difference those few hours make in getting things done before and after work is massive.

>When I had a boss like that I just ended up doing the rota for him

I'd be tempted, don't think it'd go down well.
At least I can just argue/reason with him, I know for a fact he hates hiring people because it's too much work so I've got some leverage, and I'm a good employee (I turn up on time, don't no-show and get the job done properly). I just also have a life outside work.

>>13076 >>13077 >>13078 >>13079 >>13081

Incredible. So after talking with him and agreeing with him again yesterday that it should be fine for me to get Friday off he's put me on the timetable for Friday.
I'm more annoyed that he wouldn't just say 'no this is not possible', fucks sake.

I can't work out if the fat kid at work vaguely smells of piss or vaguely smells of popcorn.

>>13083
I woke a couple of times last week smelling popcorn. I hope I wasn't getting molested by fat lads in my sleep, that would really bother me.

Someone sincerely talked about "being good corporate citizens of [our employer]" today. I know it kind of was a business strategy meaning, but that doesn't mean you've got to use language like that.

>>13084
You probably just dribbled a bit of piss in your sleep.

>>13108
It sounds awful whatever its bloody meaning is. The sugar coating probably makes it even worse.

THERE'S A WASP IN THE OFFICE. BETTER STARE AT IT AND COMMENT ABOUT IT FOR HALF AN HOUR.

>>13110
What else should we do, I had a butane torch with me but the bloody thing was sitting on some pile of documents that nobody wanted to sacrifice.

I genuinely think my colleagues are great and I really like them but it does annoy me when people say I won't be able to eat as much as I do and stay trim when my metabolism catches up like theirs, conveniently forgetting I run several miles several times a week and hit the gym.

I hate how workplaces all say they have a subsidised canteen but in reality you end up paying out the arse for a very limited choice. Of course, the moment they do have something good there is a queue out the door and you have to spend your lunch in line.

Friday's especially gets pretty dire in my office unless you like eating generic battered fish every week.

>>13117
My work has a free drinks machine, it's a step up from my previous places.

>>13117

I currently work airside at an airport and although there's a coffee machine that will give you a fucking awful coffee for 25p, the proper vending machines with good stuff in them are just as expensive as the passenger lounge ones. So you have to pay about 90p for a can of Fanta, and obviously you can't even bring your own in past security.

They don't even bat an eye at a huge tupperware full of pasta or whatever, though, so if you ever want to smuggle drugs into an airport, just cook them into your spaghetti.

>>13118

Ours has been out of service for about 8 months.

>>13118
Mine has a water cooler and a kettle. That's it. Quite often they run out of milk due to a lack of planning.

The only place I've worked with a staff canteen was Tesco, but that was hardly ever open so usually your only options were the likes of not very reasonably priced Pot Noodles.

I recently jumped head first into a new career in a new industry. I still have a business ticking over in the old industry (cheflad) and I've not felt so engaged in my work in a long time, and have very obvious potential to climb the ladder here quickly. The annoyance is that all my new colleagues don't understand why I've done what I've done and clearly think I'm mental. I don't think I can take hearing "eh? but why?" many more times, let alone the looks of bewilderment I get when I explain I just got bored of my old job. I wish I'd just told everyone I'd been on the dole for fifteen years.

Tomorrow at about 11am I will do what i always do and dive into a 100% fruit/nut bar as a healthy way to stave off my hunger cravings until lunch.

Like clockwork somebody will comment on me 'opening his candy bar' as an excuse to dive into the communal office snacks and down a few Jaffa Cakes.

>>13123

Just so we're clear, you're not talking about a fruit n' nut chocolate bar?

>>13123
I fucking hate the word "candy". I can't help but hear it in a comically exaggerated American accent in my head.

>>13123
This sounds like the build up to someone going postal.

>>13124
Raisins with my chocolate, it's healthy and a snack. What's wrong with that.

just fruit and nuts crushed into a bar

>>13126
I just hate people using me as an excuse to do something. If they want to eat the biscuits just eat them. I hate this pretence that somebody doing something normal has 'forced' them or the whole thing where I bring in a breakfast roll and they pretend that they are fighting an inner battle not to go get one when we all know they will.

There's a woman who constantly takes up about a fifth of the fridge because she'll bring in a massive bag for life full of food to sustain her during the three days per week she actually works. For some reason, I'm assuming because she's elderly and has been here longer than anyone else, most people see this as one of the 'cute' things she does.