What sucks about your job?

[lonestar]

Inspired by a comment from another thread where npiazza stated....

I know from being in the military that while everything seems cool from the outside, they don't tell you what sucks about it, which is about 90% of what you do. 

I immediately understood where it applies to my occupation as well. I'll type out my diatribewhen iI'm on a keyboard, but let's here it.

What parts of your job suck? Especially the ones that no one out of the field would understand?

[Scorpion]

This is a very broad grievance, no knowledge of the field required, but my immediate superior basically dislikes the rest of our colleagues (not me, though). So far I've managed to stay out of it quite well, but it's difficult because my superior is the one I'm working with on a day-to-day basis, but all of the colleagues are a lot friendlier, nicer and much more fun to talk to.

[PuffyPat]

oh boy. where do i start?

first off, i work in the dairy department of a grocery store (stop & shop,) so no glamour here. what you hear is usually true, and frankly, it's not great. the worst part is having a terrible coworker who can't get fired for the shit he does because we're part of union. but other than personal stuff, corporate sucks, closing shifts suck, not getting paid enough sucks, getting called in because your shitty coworker calls out for the third time this month sucks, almost no vacation time sucks, my boss sucks, and most of all, the customers suck.

what i can say about customers, though, is that one nice customer in a sea of shitty customers makes all that other stuff suck less. seriously. if one, just one, person is nice to me, it really sticks out, and i can use that for motivation to just forget everything else, and just do my job. that's all it takes. it also doesn't hurt that pretty much everyone i work with (except that one guy) gets that it sucks, so we all kind of get by together.

[Zook]

Let's see:

- Upper management is clueless and lazy
- They don't care about the night crew
- There's favoritism
- It took forever to transfer the lazy asshole assistant manager that NOBODY liked because he's buddy buddy with upper management
- Store manager has no backbone
- Worthless employees don't get fired because lazy upper management don't care and don't like grocery manager so they wont work with him.
- Closing manager doesn't enforce rules so baggers and courtesy clerks don't work go backs and when they do, they just stash them everywhere rather than put them where they actually go
- the customers are disgusting, thieving trash
- night crew get's no respect
- night crew is blamed for everything
- the worthless rest of the employees get rewarded for their incompetance.

[hefdaddy42]

In broad strokes, I deal with the general public.  And the general public is an idiot.

[Chino]

There are far more things I hate about my job than I like, so I'll list the things I like to make it easier.

- I walk out at 4:15 every day
- I haven't worked a weekend in two years
- I get five weeks of vacation per year
- Killer salary for a 26 year old
- Matching 401K
- Awesome health insurance
- Ability to work from home if I need to

That being said. I am miserable every second I am in my cubicle and Sunday afternoons and evenings are usually ruined because all I can think about is how much I don't want to go to work the next day.

[King Postwhore]

As a manager of a site, it's dealing with employees who never hold jobs for long periods and trying to get them to be motivated.  It's a low paying job to start here and the job is physical.

[JayOctavarium]

Basically:

In broad strokes, I deal with the general public.  And the general public is an idiot.

And

dealing with employees who never hold jobs for long periods and trying to get them to be motivated.  It's a low paying job to start here...

[ReaperKK]

I'm never truly off. I manage a hotel and I'm always checking in, I always seem to have issues, big issues when I'm out on vacation. I envy people who come home and don't have to think about work until the next day they work. I always have my job in the back of my mind.

[sneakyblueberry]

In broad strokes what sucks about my job is that I don't have one.

[James Mypetgiress]

In broad strokes what sucks about my job is that I don't have one.

Same.

[Tick]

Instead of getting raises I keep getting pay cuts and being told..."Things are tough right now, hang in there and things will get better"

Load of crap.

My boss is a guy that NEVER says "good job". I don't need to be stroked but I am always told when I've  screwed something up.
My boss is a HORRIBLE manager of people, and doesn't understand the value of an employee feeling appreciated. After all, I get up everyday to work for him to try and help make his business successful.

I have two vacations coming up in the next couple months. When they are over I am seriously going to look very hard for a new job.

[gmillerdrake]

For the most part I really enjoy my job. I essentially come and go as I please and can work from home whenever I like, as long as I am not missing any project meetings and I'm doing my job....no one questions what I'm doing. That being said...there are a couple things that bug me.

- Pay Increases. They are a percentage across the board. Individual merit is not considered. I work for a Healthcare System of 28,000 employees. Most Years it's only a 1.5% pay increase....they got crazy this year and gave us 3%. Wooo Hooo

- The job I perform starts out paying $15k more in a different division of the company. I'm in Asset management, on the Construction side someone doing what I do is making that much more. There's an open position on the Construction side and I've applied for it...it'd be sweet to grab that spot!

- Understaffed. Our Management prides themselves on the fact that they've never had to lay anyone off or fire anyone when the inevitable cuts roll around and that's due to the fact that we all are essentially doing the work of three people. It's nice and all having job security but I basically spend my days taking care of whichever person or company is screaming the loudest that day. It's non stop putting out fires that wouldn't be there if we had an extra team or two to help out rather than be slammed out the  continually.

[El Barto]

Having to hear other people talk about the most mundane, trivial silliness every morning. "Oh my God, Did you watch Some Awful Sitcom last night!" This company would be much better to work for if I worked here by myself.

Frank nailed it

[Tick]

Having to hear other people talk about the most mundane, trivial silliness every morning. "Oh my God, Did you watch Some Awful Sitcom last night!" This company would be much better to work for if I worked here by myself.

Frank nailed it

So what your saying is...you missed last nights episode of Mike and Molly?

[Stadler]

I notice that "management" always blows, but interestingly, the people saying that are never actually IN management. 

I guess I've been lucky; with one exception, I've always had not just good, but great bosses.  I haven't always liked the decisions management has made, but I understand them.   I've also learned over time, that it is unreasonable to expect that management is going to blow up their numbers or metrics over one employee.  Finally, in my experience, it is usually the case that third parties don't view an individual's performance the same way they do themselves.

I don't have much to complain about; I work out of the house.  Sometimes I wish I was in the thick of it in an office, to get the scuttlebutt, but usually when I get in there (I am there this week, by coincidence) I usually remember exactly why I'm not. 

[JayOctavarium]

Well said about the management thing, Stadler.


I may not agree with the guys above me all the time but I totally get where they are coming from most of the time.

[Zook]

I notice that "management" always blows, but interestingly, the people saying that are never actually IN management. 

I guess I've been lucky; with one exception, I've always had not just good, but great bosses.  I haven't always liked the decisions management has made, but I understand them.   I've also learned over time, that it is unreasonable to expect that management is going to blow up their numbers or metrics over one employee.  Finally, in my experience, it is usually the case that third parties don't view an individual's performance the same way they do themselves.

I don't have much to complain about; I work out of the house.  Sometimes I wish I was in the thick of it in an office, to get the scuttlebutt, but usually when I get in there (I am there this week, by coincidence) I usually remember exactly why I'm not. 

So a kid that is always a no call/no show shouldn't be written up or fired? Baggers shouldn't do there jobs and shop the store before they go, but just clown around until their shift is up? I realize I'm in a ghetto store, but the lack of actual management is inexcusable. The store managers simply don't care. But you bet they'll jump down the night crew's throat for every little thing.

Management requires a ton of responsibility, but it's not an excuse for ignoring piss poor job performances.

The funny thing is, the store I used to work at has a manager that DOES care and IS very strict, and everyone hates him for it. People suck.

[Progmetty]

What sucks about my job is that I'm not rich.

[rumborak]

My gripe is the same that probably a lot of Microsoft employees have. Working for a large-ish company that was a trailblazer in the late 90s and early 2000s, but then squandered it with in-fighting (5 groups redoing the same task etc) and total lack of direction. Now we've been solidly overtaken by competitors.

[BlackInk]

I rather enjoy my job. I'm part of a crew in a shoe company's warehouse who sends shoes out to that company's shops. I like the people, the other two guys in my band also work there, and the job itself is pretty descent. The problem right now is that they don't want to hire people, as in properly hiring them, so there's loads of people who work week to week, not knowing if they have a job next monday. This is including myself, which I think is really unfair since I am one of those who have been there the longest and I have really worked hard. But I'm in a better posotion now, as I have worked a certain number of days, after which they have to call me back every time they need someone new, so my position there is fairly stable at the moment and has been for the past few months.

[TempusVox]

My editor is an evil, soul-crushing, ego-smashing succubus; but I love her anyway.

My publishing company is comprised of hoards of blood sucking vampires; but I wouldn't be where I am without them.

My agent should be named Renfield, because it seems that most of the time he secretly is working for my publishing company and trying to find ways to allow them to feast off of me. But I desperately need him, and trust him (most of the time...  ) completely.

My fans are wonderful, life affirming, saintly beings who will surely spend eternity in the heavens of their choice; until they start criticizing what I do; or think we're best friends, or think that they "know me".

My critics are mind numbing, inbred, talent-less fuckwads who deserve nothing less than slow painful torture for the rest of their miserable and pathetic lives.

My brain is constantly generating a million ideas, most of which are utterly boring, dreadful, and worthless.

The amount of discipline it takes to do what I do each day is enormous. As it would just be so much easier to surf the web all day and hang out at places like, I dunno...dreamtheaterforums.org.

I can't control when the "good idea's" happen, so I may write all day and get nothing done, and then get an idea at midnight, that takes me all night to get out. Although the older I get the more I'm disciplined, but it still happens.
 
Despite the fact that I write what I want now, when I want, and my publisher is okay with that; there is enormous pressure to write great stories all of the time.
Imagine if you can that everything you do is compared to every other thing you have ever done. You pour your heart and soul into something, and then have people write comments online, in publications, or via mail about it like, ''It was okay, but not as good as his last book."; or "He has really slipped with his character development from his previous efforts."; or "The author ruined this book for me."; or "I really tried to like this, but it was too long and convoluted."; or "I'm not a critical person at all, ever; but this book was ....".  Then if you got 1,000 people who loved what you did, for every 1 who hated it, having your boss (my publisher) throw up the one bad review of your work when it came time to, for example, renegotiate your salary .

Besides all of that, it's peachy! 

[JayOctavarium]

One thing I've noticed, working this place for 3 years,  is that the employees that wind up the worse employees are the ones who show no interest in working as a team,  which is important.  I'm not saying we all need to be BFFs, but the job actually can be dangerous at times and we need to have each other's backs. Those who don't show any interest in that are usually the shit employees who fuck us over and over again until they quit or finally get fired. I can't stand dealing with those people..

[Stadler]

I notice that "management" always blows, but interestingly, the people saying that are never actually IN management. 

I guess I've been lucky; with one exception, I've always had not just good, but great bosses.  I haven't always liked the decisions management has made, but I understand them.   I've also learned over time, that it is unreasonable to expect that management is going to blow up their numbers or metrics over one employee.  Finally, in my experience, it is usually the case that third parties don't view an individual's performance the same way they do themselves.

I don't have much to complain about; I work out of the house.  Sometimes I wish I was in the thick of it in an office, to get the scuttlebutt, but usually when I get in there (I am there this week, by coincidence) I usually remember exactly why I'm not. 

So a kid that is always a no call/no show shouldn't be written up or fired? Baggers shouldn't do there jobs and shop the store before they go, but just clown around until their shift is up? I realize I'm in a ghetto store, but the lack of actual management is inexcusable. The store managers simply don't care. But you bet they'll jump down the night crew's throat for every little thing.

Management requires a ton of responsibility, but it's not an excuse for ignoring piss poor job performances.

The funny thing is, the store I used to work at has a manager that DOES care and IS very strict, and everyone hates him for it. People suck.

I'm not sure what your point is.   I'm not in that situation, so I don't know what the metrics are.  I don't know what the requirements are to actually fire someone (in most companies now it is very hard to actually "fire" someone without any egregious activity and without a PIP in place (which costs money).   If you have a requirement to have a bagger, but that bagger has no metrics, why would management do anything different?  To make you happy?   See above; they're not going to blow up their metrics to garner your approval. 

[TAC]

I love reading the Grocery Store posts. I was a Store Manager for a major chain for 16 years, but stepped down to Grocery Manager a year and a half ago to accommodate some family issues.
I was just having this conversation this morning with my Night Crew Leader and a couple of the guys.
When I was a Store Manager, the only thing I did with my Night Crew was shake their hands.

[Nekov]

I work for a big consulting company and to be honest while I was working for inside projects I thought I had things to complain about but now that I've been working for a client for the past year or so I realize they do things quite well.
So, what sucks about working as a consultant at a client you ask? Well, pretty much everything. First you have to adapt to the fact that the client you work for probably has a very different structure and way of doing things that you are used to so you need to adapt to that. A lot of times you'll have great ideas to make things better that will never be put to use because it's either too "Advanced" for their maturity level or because of some political bullshit. Talking about political bullshit, it's amazing the amount of stupid shit I have to put up with because of that. There are things that get unnecessarily rushed because someone compromised a date for a project even though the company doesn't benefit from having that project deliver in said date and they don't give a single F*** if people are being overworked or that the quality of the product is bad. It just grinds my gears.
The human aspect is also horrible because when you do things good you are part of the team, but when something goes wrong whether it's my fault or not, it's a problem from the consulting service they hired. And sometimes you are not a person to them, you are a consulting service....

rant off.

[Chino]

I notice that "management" always blows, but interestingly, the people saying that are never actually IN management. 

I guess I've been lucky; with one exception, I've always had not just good, but great bosses.  I haven't always liked the decisions management has made, but I understand them.   I've also learned over time, that it is unreasonable to expect that management is going to blow up their numbers or metrics over one employee.  Finally, in my experience, it is usually the case that third parties don't view an individual's performance the same way they do themselves.

I don't have much to complain about; I work out of the house.  Sometimes I wish I was in the thick of it in an office, to get the scuttlebutt, but usually when I get in there (I am there this week, by coincidence) I usually remember exactly why I'm not. 

So a kid that is always a no call/no show shouldn't be written up or fired? Baggers shouldn't do there jobs and shop the store before they go, but just clown around until their shift is up? I realize I'm in a ghetto store, but the lack of actual management is inexcusable. The store managers simply don't care. But you bet they'll jump down the night crew's throat for every little thing.

Management requires a ton of responsibility, but it's not an excuse for ignoring piss poor job performances.

The funny thing is, the store I used to work at has a manager that DOES care and IS very strict, and everyone hates him for it. People suck.

I'm not sure what your point is.   I'm not in that situation, so I don't know what the metrics are.  I don't know what the requirements are to actually fire someone (in most companies now it is very hard to actually "fire" someone without any egregious activity and without a PIP in place (which costs money).   If you have a requirement to have a bagger, but that bagger has no metrics, why would management do anything different?  To make you happy?   See above; they're not going to blow up their metrics to garner your approval.

Back when I worked catering, I had a manager for two years that people constantly complained to the owner of the business about. She was absolutely terrible. She could cook like a champ, but her math skills sucked the big one. Her and I slowly began to hate each other because I started becoming vocal about how she was losing us money and the blame was being placed on all of us in the department instead. The owner of the business had four locations, probably about 30 managers between them, and something like 350-375 employees. He never saw anything other than the weekly reports that said whether or not the individual departments made money or lost money. Now, the department I worked in was in the green, but what the owner couldn't see was lost potential.

Instead of just complaining like everyone else, I decided to make a spreadsheet over the next few weeks logging everything I noticed that was potentially costing us dollars. So while the boss man was seeing green every week, I showed him that he was still losing on average about 6% a week due to this lady's lack of a real business/management degree. He gave me a $2 raise on the spot (which at 21 seemed like a fortune), and that lady wasn't manager for much longer. He offered me a manager position in another location and I turned it down as I planned on leaving the company within the next few months. Prior to that I had made him aware of the produce manager of another location throwing out between $1000 - $2000 worth of stock without reporting it. He was fired about a half hour later after some security footage was reviewed. It may sound like I am a nark, but if I'm slaving away to the public, I'll be damned if my day gets any worse because of some douche who really shouldn't be a manager.

I don't know how long you worked in retail, but I spent 8 years in that shit at four different locations. I saw good and great managers, and I also saw pieces of shit that I would never have even hired let alone made management. There's plenty of them, and most of the time the business owners don't fully understand how bad they are. My company's owner worked a minimum of 60 hours a week and was on two different boards of directors in his hometown (voluntarily). If he took the time to actually micromanage all thirty of his managers, he'd literally do nothing but work and sleep.

[Calvin6s]

What sucks about just about any job is that the workforce is usually made up of:

1.  People that work hard but have limited skills and will probably never overcome that obstacle.
2.  People that coast but have the potential to be so much more and will probably never overcome that obstacle.
3.  People that work hard with a great set of skills (and friendly demeanor) but eventually are worn down by #1 and #2.

Then there is a different set of people:

1.  People that point out problems and offer solutions with the sincere interest of making things better
2.  People that point out problems because they like to point out the problems of others (or to get rid of those pointing out their own problems)
3.  Those that realize pointing out any problem just makes them a target so they don't point out problems
4.  Those that don't care

And then the view of the manger by the employees:
1.  If the manager would just stop looking over our shoulders and trust us we would perform better
2.  How is it the manager doesn't know what is going on?  If they would just check on the people they are supposed to be managing, we would perform better.

[El Barto]

Much ignoring of the Peter principle in this thread. The truth is that there are a ton of people in management positions that really have no business in that role. I get that a lot of good managers get a bad wrap form employees that think they're more valuable than they actually are, but some of them really do suck.

[Phantasmatron]

I work for a franchise of a restaurant chain.  I don't know how other franchises or corporate stores do things, but my company is making very bad decisions that I swear are going to drive the whole thing into the ground.  To a certain extent, I understand why they make these decisions.  But the end result is that their employees are treated like dirt, and over the last several years, I've watched morale in the company sink below the water table. 

We got rid of health benefits for employees years before the Obamacare thing.  Rather than man up and bring them back once Obamacare was a thing, the company decided to stop offering full-time hours instead.  Raises are frequent but crappy (even for management, cough cough), wage caps are low, and I still need to get permission from the higher ups if I ever intend to start a new hire at more than 75 cents over minimum wage.

My immediate supervisor is great, but my actual boss is a bag of dicks.  Being an asshole has always been part of his charm.  It's what makes him hilarious.  But lately, he's been treating us like trash.  I don't think he says hello anymore.  He just walks in and starts pointing out reasons why we suck.  I'd understand that approach if I were lazy and uncooperative, but I think I've proven that I'm not.  He knows what's been going on and he knows about the difficulties we've had lately, but instead of treating us like people and offering helpful suggestions, he just points out problems, basically says "fix it," frequently threatens to force our team to work six days a week, and leaves.  No small talk, no hello/goodbye/haveaniceday, nothing.

Which reminds me, I was going to do some job searching today...

[Stadler]

Much ignoring of the Peter principle in this thread. The truth is that there are a ton of people in management positions that really have no business in that role. I get that a lot of good managers get a bad wrap form employees that think they're more valuable than they actually are, but some of them really do suck.

No doubt; and some companies are worse than others in that regard.  I get it. 

[King Postwhore]

No doubt.  My wife has had terrible bosses.  I hear the horror stories from my brother.  I want to make sure I am not like them and the things I've heard.

[Kotowboy]

Don't we already have a thread for this ?



ANYWAY :

Re: What sucks about your job?

Happy to report nothing right now !

[lonestar]

I work for a franchise of a restaurant chain.  I don't know how other franchises or corporate stores do things, but my company is making very bad decisions that I swear are going to drive the whole thing into the ground.  To a certain extent, I understand why they make these decisions.  But the end result is that their employees are treated like dirt, and over the last several years, I've watched morale in the company sink below the water table. 

We got rid of health benefits for employees years before the Obamacare thing.  Rather than man up and bring them back once Obamacare was a thing, the company decided to stop offering full-time hours instead.  Raises are frequent but crappy (even for management, cough cough), wage caps are low, and I still need to get permission from the higher ups if I ever intend to start a new hire at more than 75 cents over minimum wage.

My immediate supervisor is great, but my actual boss is a bag of dicks.  Being an asshole has always been part of his charm.  It's what makes him hilarious.  But lately, he's been treating us like trash.  I don't think he says hello anymore.  He just walks in and starts pointing out reasons why we suck.  I'd understand that approach if I were lazy and uncooperative, but I think I've proven that I'm not.  He knows what's been going on and he knows about the difficulties we've had lately, but instead of treating us like people and offering helpful suggestions, he just points out problems, basically says "fix it," frequently threatens to force our team to work six days a week, and leaves.  No small talk, no hello/goodbye/haveaniceday, nothing.

Which reminds me, I was going to do some job searching today...

Restaurant managers, in general, suck. Everytime I have a good one, as I do now, I thank my lucky stars, bout more often than not they are tremendously egocentric and power hungry. Why else would someone leave a higher paying server job to do the ungodly chore of managing a front of the house. Pretty much dicks, all of them.

[Phantasmatron]

Restaurant managers, in general, suck. Everytime I have a good one, as I do now, I thank my lucky stars, bout more often than not they are tremendously egocentric and power hungry. Why else would someone leave a higher paying server job to do the ungodly chore of managing a front of the house. Pretty much dicks, all of them.

At my company, most of us aren't power-hungry or egocentric.  We're just tired of all the bullshit.

I probably come off as egocentric sometimes.  But this is a fast-food restaurant, so we have lots of high schoolers working for us.  Every time one of them gives me attitude about something stupid...I go full-on asshole.  One of my catchphrases is "I've been working here since you were in first grade.  I know what I'm doing."  Granted, I'm not always right, but some kid who's worked a grill for two months trying to correct me on something he doesn't know as much about as he thinks he does just makes me want to fire everybody.