What sucks about your job?

[lonestar]

Yeah, I can totally see that as well. I've been in fine dining for a while now, and managers in this arena are usually servers who couldn't hang.

[Kotowboy]

My manager at Starbucks was a get stuck in on bar and checkouts type manager.

Not the type of manager who just sits in the office all day and makes one drink occasionally and pretends they're working

[Phoenix87x]

So I'm just about done Pharmacy school, but for the time being I currently work in 2 pharmacy's. When I graduate, I pray to god that I can continue to work in one of them and never ever again have to work in the other.


Job 1- Hospital pharmacy

Pretty sweet gig. Great pay, lot's of ecentric co-workers, lots of drama that I just sit back and enjoy. Basically, The doctor puts in an order and you as a pharmacist look it over, make sure the dose is right, instructions are right and that it plays nice with their other meds and you verify it. And boom, done. The nurse then gives it. Not too bad and overall just a cool job


Job 2- Retail pharmacy, basically a CVS or Rite Aid

Fucking kill me now. Now...  a lot of people look back there and are all like "oh, $125,000 bucks to count pills and ring people up, hot damn, what a sweet set up"

NOOOOOOO, god no. Fuck me I hate it so much. Imagine a job where almost every single problem that occurs is not only not your fault, but you can't fix it.

1. People expect a zero dollar co-pay and god forbid their insurance changes the co-pay and it goes up. You get screamed at. The person choices an insurance, that insurance that that person chose increased the co-pay and you are the person that get's screamed at.

2. Insurance won't pay for a med until the doctor gives a "prior auth" saying that the patient absolutely needs the med. just an extra hoop to jump through from cheap ass insurance. 9/10 times, the doctor forgets to do it and then takes their dear sweet ass time to do it once you let them know. This boils down to you getting screamed at because the person can't get the med that day and somehow that's your fault

3. Xanex a couple days early. Lovely Benzo addicts goubling the pills like their candy, then they go to refill it and the insurance won't pay for it until its supposed to be re-filled. So somehow this is your fault and you get screamed at.

4. "I'm going down the shore". I live in Philly so everybody just looooves to go down the shore. Which means that every friday night of the summer, you get people trying to refill a prescription one or two days too soon and the insurance won't pay for it. So somehow this is your fault and you get screamed at.

5. No refills and I'm all out. On the bottles we put this crazy thing that tells you how many refills you have left. regardless, people will come into your pharmacy friday night 10 mins before close and will be totally out of refills and totally out of pills. Waited till the last minute, as the worst possible time, to try and get this thing that keeps you alive. So somehow this is your fault and you get screamed at.

6. I don't know what my meds are. People are on like 15 meds. Don't have a clue what they are, what they are for, or even how to take them/use them.

7. Doctor shitty handwriting



I see shit like this WAY too often

A great deal of people die each year from this bullshit. On one hand you have this hot mess in your hand that you really need to call the doctor to clarify. On the other hand, you have some inpatient asshole screaming at you at the counter to just fill it. So you try and call and can't get hold of the doctor and its a problem that can linger for days. I hate it.

8. Oxy and percocet people- This is the real deal breaker for me. Drug abusers and dealers trying to play me for adderall, percocet, vicodin and oxy's. FUCK all of you people. Not one day has ever gone by since I started working where someone hasn't tried to manipulate me into giving them C-II drugs. Yes there are people that really need these drugs, but these assholes have me having to practically do a whole backround check and distrust every single person that has a script for them.

9. Everything always breaks or is slow and I'm all by myself. In the hospital, if something breaks, then you call maintenance or IT and they come fix it in like 15mins. In retail, if your register goes down (and it has) oh my god you are so fucked. You now have to walk everyone over to customer service because of HIPPA patient privacy laws.

10. Flu shot quotas. Yeah, that's right, your district manager sets a number of flu shots you have to give, otherwise they can fire you. cool

11. You get to do nothing healthcare related. You bill insurance all day like a bitch. You go to school for 6 years and its basically med school lite, and you pretty much count pills, bill insurance and get screamed at. You never get to use the knowledge you gained in school.

Basically, I will do everything in my power to get into hospital pharmacy as a pharmacist, because if I have to work at a CVS...




TLDR- Fuck retail pharmacy, yay hospital pharmacy

[KevShmev]

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.

i wouldn't say they are all dicks, but becoming a restaurant manager in most places is not difficult.  I was asked several times back in the day about moving up, when I was tending bar, and I always said no.  Why would I want to work twice as many hours to make the same amount of money?  And there is nowhere to go with that job, and I can't imagine it looking that great on a resume, so it's not like I was turning down a good opportunity.  Doing that wouldn't have helped me get the job I have now. 

The corporate jugheads, as I always called them, were much worse.  Managers were often handicapped in the sense that they had to do the dumb shit the higher-ups told them to do, and often times, it was stuff that was so impractical.  But some of the dumbest people I have ever worked with were restaurant managers.  It's like they become a manager and then completely forget how shit works.

As for my current job, the only thing I can say about it that sucks are the hours.   I can't say I am a fan of being up at 5:30 every day, since I work 6:30-3:30ish, but I will be moving within the company in the next few weeks and will likely transition back to 8-5; I can't wait.

[Skeever]

Federal contractor here, basically I work for a business that pursues government contracts.

The government is the worst scheduler of all time. Here's basically how they think -

Day one: "Hey, let's release an RFP. We'll have it due the Monday after 4th of July weekend"

July 3rd: "Hey, we screwed up the RFP. We're releasing a new one and it's due the day after labor day weekend now"

-later-

"Hey, congrats, you guys won the job! You start Thanksgiving day!"

[El Barto]

 


TLDR- Fuck retail pharmacy, yay hospital pharmacy

For what it's worth I try to be as nice and helpful to my pharmacists as possible, though they probably still think I"m a PITA. That said, one or two points: part of the problem with retail pharmacists is brought on by factors other than the patients. The auto-refill system mine had in place worked well enough to make you think it was reliable, and failed enough to piss you off on a regular basis. Pre-transplant I was in the pharmacy 3 times a week, minimum. Often times I'd go in expecting one thing to be ready only to find it was a no-go but two other things I didn't need already filled. I had the bright idea to make a rolodex card with all of my script IDs on it, only to find that they changed with every refill authorization. Combined with the long hold time it was actually easier just to drive to the place and get turned away than to call and have them check into it. Also, it was perpetually understaffed. I'm sure both of these were more frustrating to the people who worked there, but it certainly results in frustrating us customers too.

I'm dealing with a specialty pharmacy at a hospital down here now, and it's pretty much the best of both worlds. They have their shit together, very rarely screwing up, and they FedEx all of my meds to me so I never have to step foot in the place (a benefit of a weakened immune system).

Also, I do have to get them to remind me of one of the meds I take. I remember 8 of the regular ones, but the ninth is like FTW/SMF/FOAD or some shit.

[jammindude]

I'm an electrician.   I originally got into it because my brother was an electrician and the company he was working for hired me as a favor...I didn't really have any bankable skills at the time, so I jumped at the money.

What sucks most about it is the abuse that construction puts on your body.   I'm 45 years old, and my shoulders are shot from working overhead all the time, my knees are shot from kneeling on concrete for my entire career (I wear knee-pads now...but when I was 20 and "invincible" it was another story)...

...add to that...I've never really been the "mechanical" type.   Do anything for 10,000 hours and you can become proficient at it, and that has been my story, but it has never come naturally for me.   Now I'm stuck, because it's the only thing I know how to do and I'm only really average at doing it because it doesn't really fall into my "natural ability" range.      If time wasn't a factor I'd be great, because I'm an artist and I tend to want to do things "just so"...but guess how far that gets you on a job that's fallen behind schedule (which is EVERY job).   

I keep wanting to fire The Jammin Dude Show back up, because I really love doing it, but my personal life makes it nearly impossible to be *consistent* at it...and there's obviously no pay involved. 

I wish I knew how to do something else.   I ran a CD shop at a department store for 4 years, and I *LOVED* my job, and I was one of the best in the district at it.   But guess how many of those jobs there are today...   ...and of the ones that do exist, how many of them pay a living wage?

*sigh*

Thanks for "brightening" my day, guys...  (isn't there a crying emoticon?)

[j]

So I'm just about done Pharmacy school, but for the time being I currently work in 2 pharmacy's. When I graduate, I pray to god that I can continue to work in one of them and never ever again have to work in the other.


Job 1- Hospital pharmacy

Pretty sweet gig. Great pay, lot's of ecentric co-workers, lots of drama that I just sit back and enjoy. Basically, The doctor puts in an order and you as a pharmacist look it over, make sure the dose is right, instructions are right and that it plays nice with their other meds and you verify it. And boom, done. The nurse then gives it. Not too bad and overall just a cool job

You guys are awesome.  My ass has been saved by a pharmacist on multiple occasions.

-J

[KevShmev]

What sucks most about it is the abuse that construction puts on your body.   I'm 45 years old, and my shoulders are shot from working overhead all the time, my knees are shot from kneeling on concrete for my entire career (I wear knee-pads now...but when I was 20 and "invincible" it was another story)...

 

Tell me about it.  Years of working on my feet took a bit of its toll on my knees, but on the flip side, whenever I have worked sitting down, like now, it has taken its toll on my back, so I am pretty much screwed either way.

[carl320]

I work in LTL trucking, so I'm home every night, and for a truck driver, I get paid pretty well.

What sucks about it?  Well, dealing with a distracted public on the roadways every day.  I've driven a truck for four years now and the general motoring public (IME) has no idea how to drive around big trucks.  Cell phones are an issue, but the biggest problem is that people don't understand how to drive around trucks.  I like keeping a safe following distance (at least four seconds), but people passing me pull back in front of me as soon as they can, sometimes half a second.  I had a person once who, to make a right turn at an intersection less than half a mile, decided to pull in front of me, hit the brakes to the point where I could barely see the roof of their car and make the turn.  I didn't hit that person, but the video that was recorded of me (my company has cameras in the trucks) showed me how close I was to hitting the car.

People see trucks as something that is slow and in the way of where they're going.  They don't want to be stuck behind one so people will do all they can to get around one.  That's what sucks about my job.

[Cable]

The one unique crap part of my job I can add that hasn't been stated is Productivity. This is a monthly and/or yearly quota of billable hours for a practicing mental health therapist to meet via sessions with patients/clients. Yes, in a way it shows how productive someone is, but the percentage is based on a reasonable expectation, and potentially that agency's/companies needs. I do not think this is unique to the field of therapy, as I would guess it applies to physicians and lawyers in some instances. But when things happen like people not showing up and forgetting appointments, or people on the run, you are dinged and have to make up that time. Either working later evenings, calling people to rack up minutes, or taking your time off to invalidate that day (if the agency/company does that).

It is a necessary evil at times, but a rotten one at others. It leads a few unfortunately to fraudulently claim sessions to maintain the hour quota. And "milking" other patients who can go longer in a session.

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.

This, and of course I can echo other's bosses making a job terrible. My present job had my worst boss ever, mainly because he did what you said Tick. I never took stock in it for years, but simple "thanks" or "solid job, keep at it" go a long way.

[Calvin6s]

People see trucks as something that is slow and in the way of where they're going.  They don't want to be stuck behind one so people will do all they can to get around one.  That's what sucks about my job.

I hate to say it, but in heavy traffic trucks make great lane openings.  When nobody is letting you over and  you've had your ignored blinker on forever, a truck can be quite the gift.

[Calvin6s]

Not the type of manager who just sits in the office all day and makes one drink occasionally and pretends they're working

Being a supervisor/manager, it is really hard to fight the natural instinct to "just do it yourself" or show that you don't find the work beneath you.  But in the long run, if you are doing it right, then you really should be playing the larger game.  It benefits everybody.

[Cable]

I personally respect a manager that gets their hands dirty from time to time. The CEO of my agency, and one past boss still saw clients occasionally. It really makes me respect them more, and they could apply theories of treatment that the agency forced down our throats to actual cases they actively had. Too many managers I have had stopped seeing clients, and then expect people to apply the latest and greatest treatment that they have never tried. So their knowledge of effectiveness could be unreasonable.

Same goes for bosses in my previous career life. It worked better when they actually knew what process and how to do things their people were doing. That said, I can imagine it is a hard tight rope to walk Calvin6s, and I would not expect a boss to jump in and fix things frequently. That creates a dependency.

[lonestar]

TLDR- Fuck retail pharmacy, yay hospital pharmacy

My cousin is a pharmacist at a VA hospital, fucking loves the gig.

[Calvin6s]

Same goes for bosses in my previous career life. It worked better when they actually knew what process and how to do things their people were doing. That said, I can imagine it is a hard tight rope to walk Calvin6s, and I would not expect a boss to jump in and fix things frequently. That creates a dependency.

This is why I mentioned natural tendency (which was more aimed at myself than managers in general).  I originally posted with a self-example, but cut it out.  I even pointed out how it gives me "employee cred".  And it does. And I will never stop doing it here and there.  But it became obvious the less I rolled up my sleeves and put myself at a station of the assembly line and instead spent more time organizing others and giving direction, the better the projects turned out.  When I was in the weeds, things would happen where I'd be left saying "I didn't know that happened" or "I didn't know Jim wasted time looking for me instead of me looking for Jim".

The main reasons I still help to some degree are:
- smaller projects require less full time supervision
- the economic situation on the workforce
- when I don't do something enough, I will start to get *ring rust* and fear I could lose the details for training
- gives me a chance to see how things are working (and what needs improving)

A somewhat funny side note:
Getting in the weeds allows me to make jokes like "I'm old and slow.  I better not finish first."
On smaller projects, I will have to do more manual labor.  And the first day of manual labor can really test me.  By the time the eight hours rolls around, I'm huffing and puffing, whereas in my 20s I'd work 12 to 16 hour days 5 to 7 days a week for weeks at a time.  The second day I get past the huffing and puffing (but eventually the aching will start).  So I'll work with these 20yo's and set a good pace.  But if I turn a corner and get 10 seconds by myself, I'm huffing and puffing.  Then when they turn the corner I suck it up and pretend I could go all day.  I figure I got a couple years until I turn that corner, huff and puff but can't recover by the time they catch up and my cover will be blown.

[Chino]

What sucks most about it is the abuse that construction puts on your body.   I'm 45 years old, and my shoulders are shot from working overhead all the time, my knees are shot from kneeling on concrete for my entire career (I wear knee-pads now...but when I was 20 and "invincible" it was another story)...

 

Tell me about it.  Years of working on my feet took a bit of its toll on my knees, but on the flip side, whenever I have worked sitting down, like now, it has taken its toll on my back, so I am pretty much screwed either way.

I'll bet that you'll have less health issues later in life than I will. Atleast you're active and keeping your heart and lungs in shape. Sitting in a chair for 10 hours a day is killing me.

[Stadler]

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.

And I'll bet you a bag of doughnuts that there is a thread on a board somewhere and that high school kid that gave you 'tude is going "there's this guy, at work, and he is a MAJOR douche rocket.  Doesn't have the first idea how to manage people, and yet goes around telling anyone that will listen that "I've been doing this since the stone age" and "I know what I'm doing".   Pud.  If he knew what he was doing, he wouldn't be working at a fast food joint."   


Look, I know I sound insensitive, and I apologize for that, but the reality is, there is no benefit to the things you are talking about.   In a business where the vast majority of employees are gone - sometimes without ANY notice - the second a) college starts, b) their buddy gets them that "sweet" job in the mall, c) their "real" job comes around, or d) they die (if they are seniors), it's wasted effort and counterproductive to do the things you are saying.  If you don't like it, get a job where there isn't that demographic. 

As for "manning up" and "doing the right thing", well, what would you rather have?   30 hours and no healthcare (through the company) or no job?   Those offerings are EXPENSIVE.  That's part of the criticism (valid, in my view) of the Obamacare effort to start with.  it was (and is) tone deaf to the idea that businesses have to ultimately make money (or at least break even, though in reality even that doesn't work) in order to continue to be able to supply jobs to the community. 

[cramx3]

When I tell people I travel for work, specifically to Amsterdam, everyone thinks its the best job ever.  The reality is that my business trips are like 100 hour work weeks and I hardly experience the location I am at and not a single one of the people who think my job would be fun would think its fun if they had to do it.  Granted I did just get a day off in Amsterdam on Sunday so that was actually really awesome.

[Phantasmatron]

And I'll bet you a bag of doughnuts that there is a thread on a board somewhere and that high school kid that gave you 'tude is going "there's this guy, at work, and he is a MAJOR douche rocket.  Doesn't have the first idea how to manage people, and yet goes around telling anyone that will listen that "I've been doing this since the stone age" and "I know what I'm doing".   Pud.  If he knew what he was doing, he wouldn't be working at a fast food joint." 

Yeah.  I mean, I was on the other end when I was a teenager and I hated some of my bosses.  Looking back, I realize my complaints were sometimes (but not always) off-base.  I've pissed plenty of people off, but I have the benefit of only being the second-biggest hardass in the store, so a lot of times people put up with me because it's still better than having the other manager around.

Look, I know I sound insensitive, and I apologize for that, but the reality is, there is no benefit to the things you are talking about.   In a business where the vast majority of employees are gone - sometimes without ANY notice - the second a) college starts, b) their buddy gets them that "sweet" job in the mall, c) their "real" job comes around, or d) they die (if they are seniors), it's wasted effort and counterproductive to do the things you are saying.  If you don't like it, get a job where there isn't that demographic.

Hey, it's a thread about complaining about your job, right?  That's all I was doing.  What I mentioned doesn't happen very often, it's just something I thought of in a response to lonestar.  In a lot of cases, one reminder that I know what I'm doing does the trick.  And in the cases where it doesn't, it's usually someone I'm hoping will quit soon anyway.

But, for the record, the vast majority of our staff is not made up of high schoolers.  Maybe 20-25%, most of which are not the kinds with attitude problems.  So I'm not looking for a new job because of some uppity kids.  I'm doing it for all the other reasons.
 

As for "manning up" and "doing the right thing", well, what would you rather have?   30 hours and no healthcare (through the company) or no job?   Those offerings are EXPENSIVE.  That's part of the criticism (valid, in my view) of the Obamacare effort to start with.  it was (and is) tone deaf to the idea that businesses have to ultimately make money (or at least break even, though in reality even that doesn't work) in order to continue to be able to supply jobs to the community. 

I agree with your criticism of Obamacare.  But my company started doing dumb stuff way before that.  And I realize it's expensive to offer health benefits and such, but especially when Obamacare hit, they had an opportunity.  A lot of fast food places slashed their people's hours, and we might have benefited from being the first to step up and say, "we're going to absorb the cost because we care about treating our staff well."  Morale wouldn't have plummeted and we could have had a better selection of candidates for hiring.  We could have had better staff, better productivity, a better public image.  Instead, we cut everybody's hours and spent a buttload of money buying out another franchise.

I mean, I don't have a business degree or anything, so I realize I could be wrong about all this, but Obamacare is just one area of many in which my company has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for their employees.  In the long run, I think it's hurting them.  Several stores in my area have recently gone through periods of insanely low staffing.  Nobody wants to work for us.  Productivity is laughably low.  My girlfriend works for a competitor and her company hasn't had these problems, but then her company also offers full-time hours and a better wage.

[TempusVox]

I see shit like this WAY too often

Oh come on!! Are you serious?? That's easy to read to me. Maybe you need glasses. It very clearly reads,

"Alfred Hearse   1009 N. Tortoise St"

"Sodium Salt Cyalis Gift"

"Mitten Lilac Doves #24" (must be like Strawberry Letter 23 or something)

"Sing, Take in Traffic"

and it's signed by, "Beethoven".

How can't you see that?? Jeeze! 


On a serious note, I think the three jobs I would hate in order are,

1) Air Traffic controller. I went to high school with a guy who became an air traffic controller. He just retired, but now has tons of serious health issues that pretty much all traced back to stress. He tells me there are an enormous amount of what the general public would perceive as close calls almost every day. The pressure to make sure you're perfect all the time is enormous. He actually had to take off work for like two years because of stress related to the job.

2) Cop. I have several friends in various forms of law enforcement from the Met, Homeland Security, FBI, DEA, ATF, Fish and Game, and state and local cops. I would not want to be a cop. At all. The bullshit they see and experience everyday. Especially right now.

3) Retail pharmacist. I know people in this field too. Most younger people don't last long, and for all the reasons you mentioned. They get far too little respect for what they have to do andpout up with every day.

[Implode]

Whoa! Signed by Beethoven? Must be worth a lot.

[El Barto]

Not the type of manager who just sits in the office all day and makes one drink occasionally and pretends they're working

Being a supervisor/manager, it is really hard to fight the natural instinct to "just do it yourself" or show that you don't find the work beneath you.  But in the long run, if you are doing it right, then you really should be playing the larger game.  It benefits everybody.

I agree with this, but at the same time I'm frequently guilty of this (and most of the other bad manager stories here). In my case I usually want to insure something doesn't get fucked up. Of course taking on too much frequently means fucking it up myself, hence the bad management quality.

One thing that does bug the hell out of me is managers who won't help out when it's actually required. Having to wait in unduly long lines while there are mangers standing around not helping out genuinely pisses me off. Grab a till and open a damn register you prick!

[TAC]

I hear you Bart, standing around is not the right thing to do, but there are two things that I would never do. One is run a register myself, and the other is to get stuck behind the Deli.
I may need to get to another part of the store at a moment's notice and you can't do that if you are ringing.

I will say that when I was promoted, it was in a VERY small and low volume store, and I did ring occasionally, but managing a large size Grocery Store, ringing isn't really the right thing to do.

[King Postwhore]

I make it a point to talk on the floor and help when I can, have an open door to talk about anything.  I want them to feel wanted.  A happy worker is a good worker.

Of course we have goals, I'm walking around looking at safety and letting them know when I see something unsafe but also praise them when I see something good or something safe.

[TAC]

I make it a point to talk on the floor and help when I can, have an open door to talk about anything.  I want them to feel wanted.  A happy worker is a good worker.

Of course we have goals, I'm walking around looking at safety and letting them know when I see something unsafe but also praise them when I see something good or something safe.

Yeah, I agree. I tried to help whenever I could. I spent the last 10 years in Union stores, so what I could do was somewhat limited. But It may just be something simple like taking the Meat room's cardboard to the baler for them. They appreciated little things like that.

[Calvin6s]

Oh come on!! Are you serious?? That's easy to read to me. Maybe you need glasses. It very clearly reads,

[Phoenix87x]

Yeah, it must be my glasses. Maybe I should get a new prescription 

[Stadler]

I agree with your criticism of Obamacare.  But my company started doing dumb stuff way before that.  And I realize it's expensive to offer health benefits and such, but especially when Obamacare hit, they had an opportunity.  A lot of fast food places slashed their people's hours, and we might have benefited from being the first to step up and say, "we're going to absorb the cost because we care about treating our staff well."  Morale wouldn't have plummeted and we could have had a better selection of candidates for hiring.  We could have had better staff, better productivity, a better public image.  Instead, we cut everybody's hours and spent a buttload of money buying out another franchise.

I mean, I don't have a business degree or anything, so I realize I could be wrong about all this, but Obamacare is just one area of many in which my company has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for their employees.  In the long run, I think it's hurting them.  Several stores in my area have recently gone through periods of insanely low staffing.  Nobody wants to work for us.  Productivity is laughably low.  My girlfriend works for a competitor and her company hasn't had these problems, but then her company also offers full-time hours and a better wage.

We're going to get off on a tangent here, but regardless of what the exact issue is, but the one thing that has to be remembered above all is this:  companies have to make a profit.   Not for the reasons that you hear about on TV ("BIG [industry], "greed!", etc.) but by law.  That is the raison d'etre of a company's existence.   Now, from that premise, you can do that 1000 different ways, and some of those ways are attracting the best talent through strong benefits and reasonable salaries.  Got it.  But it HAS to make financial sense.  If those offerings don't match up with employee productivity or market realities, then something has to give.   The common discourse is that the corporation has to be the one to give (you see this a lot in minimum wage discussions), but that's really a false equivalency.  It's not a choice of "unhappy workers at low benefits/wages" versus "HAPPY workers with high benefits/wages" and carve a little out of the "obscene profits".   It's really more stark.  "Profit", like "interest", is a measure of risk.   It's not free money that just sits around.

[KevShmev]

What sucks most about it is the abuse that construction puts on your body.   I'm 45 years old, and my shoulders are shot from working overhead all the time, my knees are shot from kneeling on concrete for my entire career (I wear knee-pads now...but when I was 20 and "invincible" it was another story)...

 

Tell me about it.  Years of working on my feet took a bit of its toll on my knees, but on the flip side, whenever I have worked sitting down, like now, it has taken its toll on my back, so I am pretty much screwed either way.

I'll bet that you'll have less health issues later in life than I will. Atleast you're active and keeping your heart and lungs in shape. Sitting in a chair for 10 hours a day is killing me.

Perhaps.  I am going to my chiropractor again, for the first time in years, thanks to a bit of back and neck pain here and there that causes headaches and even a tad bit of nausea on occasion.  Pretty annoying.  I still have all of my movements, but the occasional small pop in my neck (like when you crack your knuckles, but more subtle) when I turn my head scares me, so I am taking preemptive measures.

One thing that does bug the hell out of me is managers who won't help out when it's actually required. Having to wait in unduly long lines while there are mangers standing around not helping out genuinely pisses me off. Grab a till and open a damn register you prick!

Amen to that!  That happened last month when I was the Dollar Tree buying a mother's day card.  There was one line open and about eight of us in line, and the manager just sat there stocking shelves like 20 feet away.  I am not an impatient person, so having to wait a few didn't bug me that much, but it is still BS that he didn't come up to help.  A few people in front of me were mad as hell.

[T-ski]

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

this sums it up rather well.

[Stadler]

Amen to that!  That happened last month when I was the Dollar Tree buying a mother's day card.  There was one line open and about eight of us in line, and the manager just sat there stocking shelves like 20 feet away.  I am not an impatient person, so having to wait a few didn't bug me that much, but it is still BS that he didn't come up to help.  A few people in front of me were mad as hell.

Coincidentially, that happened to me at a Dollar Tree as well.  One woman was doing check out and blowing up balloons, and the line went all the way back into one of the aisles.   I didn't know there was anyone else on duty, but one woman must've, because she yelled "Hello?  Can we please get some help?" and the door to the manager's office opened and two guys came out looking pretty sheepish.  I'm not saying there was funny business going on, but I have a kid and I know a "guilty" look when I see it. 

[Kotowboy]

I'm covering for the washer upper this week which is fine because it's in no way like my previous washing up job.

1. It's only a small cafe and the kitchen is next to the dining area

2. There are windows *everywhere* so there's air and sunlight coming in.

3. It's nowhere near as busy so the workload is extremely manageable.

[mimipetrucci]

Gossip, Malicious and Ignorant people 

[CrimsonSunrise]

What sucks most about my job is I have about 2737 days left till retirement.  All the other shit is secondary really.  My job used to be halfway decent until our recent company bought us 2 years ago.  After 25 years here, and the 3rd refinery owner, thing are circling the bowl rapidly.  These asshats are going to run this place into the ground, I just hope we survive it...   Even our Refinery management folks aren't happy.  Hey!  The boards making big coin though!