I'll get the ball rolling - having to bring in pastries on your birthday. I know it's cheaper if people bring their own in on their birthday instead of chipping in every time someone in the office has a birthday, but it's still fucking annoying having to fork out on your birthday.
Most places I've worked at would always pay on the last working day before the usual pay date. There's nothing to stop a company paying the working day after but it would be unusual and rub most employees up the wrong way.
- I'm fed up of being harassed for money. If it isn't a collection because it's someone's birthday, wedding, they've had a knee operation or squeezed out a kid, it's someone raising money for charity by using something they enjoy doing but don't want to pay for themselves as a fundraiser.
- Anyone obsessed with doing a side hustle. Fuck that.
I was speaking with the lad who does my admin and, during his recent appraisal, he was criticised by the office manager for not saying "good morning" loud enough when he comes into work.
I have to do CPD for my job, a certain amount every year. A lot of the accredited CPD courses are pricey (considering my own income and the face it's a zero hour contract), it seems odd that I'm expected to shell out £200 on courses relevant to my role just for the sake of it.
>>14412 Inversely I've been doing work appraisals all week and I've got the final 3 to do tomorrow. I'm Glad to see the back of them for another 12 months.
My boss has gotten into the Economist big-time to the level he has 2 junior employees doing a digest of articles and seems to believe it's some guidebook to understanding investors.
>>14412 I was criticised today during my much delayed appraisal because I once joked that nobody is happy to be in on a Monday during our Monday check-in. I've had many appraisals and conducted many and yet I've never heard something so daft.
Does anyone else have a co-worker that seemingly everyone agrees is good at their job, or perhaps an expert at some particular niche within the job, but you have only ever experienced them being a completely thick cunt, and suspect they have their reputation as "the expert on x" simply because nobody else can be fucked to learn about x?
He called me on Teams today and I got his thoughts on the invasion of Ukraine. I didn't entirely pay attention to what he was saying, but he started off on about how Ukraine shouldn't have got rid of their nukes when the Cold War ended and then tried to join NATO; they should be like Turkey and play both sides against each other so they always come out on top. Something about the Monroe Doctorine and the Minsk agreement. It's not actually Russians they're fighting in Dnipro but other Ukrainians, imagine if Scotland voted to leave the United Kingdom and we sent the army in on them, but Ukraine never made any real effort to integrate the East of the country with the West because they weren't pushed to learn Ukrainian in schools they they're largely Russians anyway. Putin's always set out what his red lines were. We've only sanctioned ourselves and made us poorer. Something about the US are playing a blinder because they're taking over oil and will be pumping it out like the 50s again.
Anyway, he's going to send me some YouTube videos of someone who outlined exactly what was going to happen. Apparently he's almost as good as Are Nige.
Oh, and don't listen to any teachers moaning about the cost of living because their job is recession-proof. There's not suddenly going to be a shortage of kids.
I do care work type stuff. Travelled 90 minutes to see a client yesterday. Knock on her door, her mum answers, looks shocked. "Were you expecting me?" I asked. "No, I told your manager this already". I rang my manager, confused. He said the client didn't want to see me anymore, he just didn't get around to telling me. Felt like a total fucking mug. I don't mind the client not wanting to see me, you can't gel with everyone, just fucked off that management didn't think it appropriate to tell me.
With all your posts in this thread recently about appraisals, perhaps I should tell you what just happened in mine. Every day, we all rage that we're not paid enough. The boss himself asked me how unionising works last week, and if we could go on strike. He has also loudly announced, "If anyone plans to ask for more money in their appraisal, here are some arguments that would really support your case!" So today, I, the world's most docile and subservient employee, suggested that the job should have more opportunities for us to develop and become deserving of a raise. The boss's response was that he asked the higher bosses last week how much more he could offer us, and the answer was zero.
>>14427 Did they email everyone with that policy? If so, reply all (make sure you reply all) to ask for a company laptop that will be separate from your personal computer. Even if they say no, it will be public that you disagree.
> In the UK, monitoring company computers is permissible by law. Employers have the right to ensure that computers in the workplace are used appropriately and not improperly. However, before implementing the monitoring, employers must first discuss this with their employees and clarify the monitoring. These reasons should be legitimate and in line with the business goals. Employers are also required to establish written policies on the use of work computers by employees, and employees should sign these policies accordingly.
At my job, I don't think I've ever witnessed somebody having their work computer searched. Everything seems to function on a don't ask-don't tell basis, and when I was hired, I merely had to sign for receiving my laptop and there was some fine print that I would not use it for purposes that are irreconcilable with work, or that I wouldn't violate laws while using it.
I did install a wipe software on it, I splashed out for a fully licenced copy of East-Tec Eraser, so that whenever there is mildly questionable data in my browser history or in my system traces when I go in to work, I can remove it worry free.
As far as Internet browsing, I still work from home most days, but our network admin at the office has told me that he was only asked by management to block porn sites and material that is clearly illegal. He never really actively goes through traffic data.
>>14429>>14430>>14431 They don't provide anything like laptops. I posted earlier in the thread (>>14070) about them providing people with a one-off payment of £150 to buy equipment if you wanted to continue working from home in some capacity. They offer home working but they do what they can to discourage it.
>>14432 >I don't think I've ever witnessed somebody having their work computer searched.
You won't necessarily witness it. Depending on the network and bossware setup involved, they can do it remotely or they can just search the logs.
From your own quote, "employers must fist discuss this with their employees and clarify the monitoring. These reasons should be legitimate and in line with the business goals". Blanket policies giving them the right to search your devices at any time for any reason are not lawful.
Monitoring of work IT activity is legal, but only within very narrow constraints. RIPA, the DPA and the GDPR still apply, regardless of what your contract might say. Even with consent (which must be freely given and freely revocable to be valid), any data processing must be limited to what is absolutely necessary for the stated purpose. Personal data is still personal data, even if it's gathered when you're on the clock at work.
A bare minimum of a lawful policy might look something like this: "If you work from home, you can only access work systems via our virtualisation software. Anything you do within that virtualisation environment is retained for a period of X months for compliance purposes. We may choose to review relevant parts of that data or monitor your activity in real time if we have reason to suspect that you are engaged in activity that may be illegal or contrary to our policies. All such data access will be logged and audited. If you want to see what data we hold on you or request the deletion of data, please contact Mr X."
This sort of thing is what unions are great for. But I bet none of you office plebs are in a union, are you?
Well, you want to get one, or else you'll be living in corporate 1984 before you know it; except without any edgy ironic tongue-in-cheekness about it, just literally 100% actually for real.
Replying to a very obvious email containing lots of people to say 'please take me off this list' and then being one of the people that continues to hit reply all should be a discipline worth offence.
Maybe acceptable in 2005 when email was still quite scary but not now
Oh fuck, do we work for the same company? This happened to me today, it was even worse because it was a load of different locations responding with "this isn't something I can answer because I'm not in Catalonia" despite the original email being very clearly meant for Catalonia and mistakenly including others.
I suppose I should add emailing EVERYONE by accident to 101 too. Like you say, it's not 2005, there's no excuse. Outlook even tells you when it thinks you're sending things to the wrong people now.
>>14436 My boss asked me how unions work and if we could form one (>>14423), but since there are four of us and we don't want to team up with other, larger companies, it didn't go anywhere. So not only am I not in a trade union, but it's entirely my fault that none of my work colleagues are either. I also have the same birthday as Margaret Thatcher, just by pure coincidence.
If anyone is wondering, you can join a union as an individual even if your employer doesn't have a union recognition agreement. You'll enjoy the same benefits as any other member, including employment rights advice and legal support.
>since there are four of us and we don't want to team up with other, larger companies
I mean the whole point of a union is having the most people on your side as possible. That's the entire purpose. It'd be a bit of a shit union if it was just the four of you.
Aside from the fact you sound like a bit of a set of berks, I would highly recommend you all join whatever the general union is for your sector, and let your colleagues know about it. I can see the economic turmoil of the next few years making unions quite relevant again, and regardless of your political leanings, you want to look after your own interests.
>>14442 I've never had a full-time job that was more than 35 hours.
I did have a colleague who left for a job with a higher salary, but he didn't realise his hourly rate was going down because he'd have to work an extra 2.5 hours a week. As where we worked offered overtime at time and a half if he'd stayed put and done 37.5 hours he'd have been on more than his new position.
What are some of the more annoying ways you've been fired from jobs?
One occasion I just remembered was that I was on my way into work on a Friday morning, a 35-minute commute by car no less, and my supervisor suddenly called me and said "I'm afraid we don't need you here today". So I said, "what do you mean? We've got a report due this afternoon. And besides, I'm almost there now". So he said, "Yeah, I thought you would be, but still... take the day off, we'll get back to you". It wasn't until the afternoon that day that I got hold of his assistant, and she said, "Oh, he didn't tell you? They've decided to let you go". And then the next day, I got a letter in the post giving me my termination in writing, citing "a tendency of below-satisfactory job performance".
I understand nobody likes firing people, but at least have the guts to tell me up front and don't beat around the bush. Up to that point, I was given no hint at all that somebody wasn't happy with my job performance. It was a junior position just out of uni, but full time and full salary nonetheless. It was ok because I wasn't emotionally invested in that job, but to me it still seemed like a cowardly way to fire someone. It was probably an unfair dismissal too, but after all that, I really didn't want to have anything more to do with them. I pinned down a new job offer two weeks later, so that was that.
>>14449 I've never been fired, although my first job was as a Christmas temp for Toys R US and I was one of the people they let go early rather than extending it for a few more weeks. The managers were complete jobsworths and would criticise anyone who wasn't power walking around the shop floor.
>>14449 Took several weeks off due to mental health issues. Had to do an occupational health assessment when I returned. First assessor was a nurse, said I was not fit for work. Second assessor a psychiatrist, said I can work but only part time, and there is a chance I will be ill in future. I did a phased return for a month, working 5 hour days, then had a hearing with some HR woman from another office, who said they can't continue to employ me because I may be ill in future. This was after 6 weeks of perfect attendance in a part time role.
>>14449 I have a similar story. It was my first IT job, I was 28 years old, and I was in the Altrincham office while my boss was down south in the Redhill office. There had been a fair bit of office politics, and my boss's boss had recently "left the company" to much shocked gasping, because apparently he was the one who stuck up for us all through the endless corporate backstabbing that apparently took place. I didn't really know much about any of this, because I'd only started working there a few months earlier, but I knew I'd been hired mainly because a large number of employees there had quit following a contract dispute and I was one of the 15-20 people brought in to replace them. (The whole company had around 200 employees, to give you an idea of the size).
I was called into a room, again on a Friday but at least it was the afternoon, for some sort of conference call. It was my boss's boss's boss (pretty wild when the company only has 200 staff total, but they did love their complicated staff hierarchy pyramid), and he said, "Hey there, I've got your boss on the line and he has something to say to you." He sounded pretty awkward, and apologised for being in the other office rather than there in person, but he was really sorry and they were terminating my employment, effective immediately. It's not anything to do with my performance; it was just happening. We talked a bit more about my time there and how I'd found it, since I was still new, and then I said my goodbyes to my boss and my boss's boss's boss, and hung up.
The HR lady was waiting outside for me, and said, "God, what a day." I know, I agreed; I've just been fired. "I know, and I've had to have this with a dozen people already today, and I'm not done yet." I felt really sorry for her, which was weird since she was staying and I was going. But I did like her; she was lovely and very much my kind of person. I went and got my stuff, said goodbye to the other guys, and was escorted from the premises.
I emailed a couple of others who weren't there, to say goodbye to them too. I got a reply from one who said that loads of people had been fired and everyone else was worried and miserable. Over a month later, I got my P45 and a letter than my employment was being terminated "due to unsatisfactory work performance". It didn't occur to me for ages that my boss had said literally the exact opposite to me while sacking me, and that I had an employee appraisal from a month or so earlier which backed this up. Like with you, I probably could have sued over it, but I didn't. It also occurred to me about a year later that my boss was quite possibly being interviewed for my boss's boss's job at the time, and they were testing him by getting him to fire me. That's exactly the sort of thing that company would do.
A friend was working in middle management for a Murrikin company's UK offices, and at some point, he started developing a degenerative neural disease. Bit like what Stephen Hawking had, but fortunately a lot milder, to this day. It's an illness that leaves your intellect perfectly intact, but my friend started needing a walking cane in his mid-30s, to give you an idea. So one day, they hired a 25-year-old assistant for him "just to help him focus on the more important stuff". No, no, they assured him, somebody like him was a pillar for the company, and he was irreplaceable, they just wanted to make sure his work would be as up to scratch as before.
But being hypocritical Americans who made a point of following U.S. office culture in the UK, they then one day put him on a four-day week, just to help him schedule his many doctor's visits. And it then started to percolate that the plan was all along to have his assistant replace him.
My friend was able to negotiate a hefty severance, which effectively meant he could take a half sabbatical. He threatened to sue them because evidently his actual work for the company was without fault, they just wanted him out because they didn't want to deal with somebody with a beginning physical disability. Which would have been a non-issue because his was a pure office desk job, and their building was even wheelchair accessible.
We badly need to hire more men at my place. The gender balance has been slipping and the ratio of women to men is almost 3:1 now. Unsurprisingly, cattiness and petty drama is on the rise, beginning to dominate conversations over the largely good natured banter we used to have.
There's also a lass who has a bad case of mindworms. I thought she was just common or garden woke but the penny dropped today she's some kind of mixed race, though you'd never tell to look at her. I can't tell if she genuinely thinks she's much more obviously black than she really is, but ever since I noticed it it's becoming quite grating how often she brings race up, even though most of the discrimination she's talks about definitely doesn't apply to her because without her mentioning it constantly it'd never even cross your mind she isn't just a bit of a dark skinned Caucasian.
I worked in an office when I was a younglad that was 90 percent women. It was mainly clerical work, a student job that I got from a bulletin board advert on campus, the sort of work that part-time mums did to return to the job world. And occasionally, they were also hiring students, so there I was.
Interesting environment from the perspective of learning about the female psyche, but it was doing my head in at times, because they were quite freely talking about their husbands' erectile problems in the tea room, or that things had shifted down there a bit after giving birth.
50:50 is a healthy male/female ratio IMO. And it may sound sexist, but a lot of offices just function better when there are one or two strong male authority figures in charge. Female bosses I've had who attempted to project authority more often than not became cold hearted bints who were impossible to negotiate with. I don't deny that women in management positions often need to be that way to be taken seriously, but after 25-odd years of working office jobs, I'm afraid I just find male bosses easier to get on with. They don't have much of a need to overcompensate their latent fear of their authority being questioned, like some female bosses I've worked for.
My area of engineering has had a weird but not unwelcome change in dynamic in the past few years. All of the old guard are big hairy-arsed blokes with leathery hands, but increasing computerisation and a reversal of decades of declining vacancies and stagnant wages means we're seeing a big increase in the proportion of female apprentices. The unusually large gap in average age means that a lot of shops have developed a kind of paternal (rather than paternalistic) gender dynamic - for every young woman, there are at least two men with daughters that age. Nobody particularly asked them to, but most people have made a real effort to tone down the blokeyness and make sure that women feel welcome.
Maybe there's a selection bias of the sort of young women who choose an engineering apprenticeship, maybe there's a bit of latent cultural memory from the days when a workshop was a seriously dangerous workplace, but the tensions you might have expected just haven't happened.
When someone emails you out of the blue just saying, "Please see below", and there's an email chain of hundreds of emails going back months, mostly discussing totally irrelevant things, that you need to read through because they couldn't be bothered to just ask their fucking question, I'm not exaggerating when I say I would cheer such a person being publicly guillotined. Just tell me what you want, for fuck's sake.
There's a majority of women in my department at the minute, but they're mostly older (50ish) so they don't seem to be as interested in putting each other down. Unless they all just gossip about me being a shit boss, maybe.
>>14481 Most times I've worked in a mainly female office it's been quite laid back. There's a lot of banal conversations about what they watched on telly or what they'll be eating that evening, but nothing bad. The only times it's been a paid has been the rare occasion there's some form of power struggle going on and a couple end up at each other's throats.
I've got an email for our work's Christmas party and it's dawned on me that almost everyone I actually like enough to spend an evening getting drunk with has left since our last one in 2019.
>>14521 A fair bit of that is because I've turned into a bit of a hermit over the past couple of years. Their replacements might be alright, but I've just not really got to know them.
