Things I find a tad exasperating v.3

[cramx3]

On the subject of smoke breaks... one of our crew takes a TON of smoke breaks. But he also busts ass and gets the job done. He had a laborer with him who was struggling and complained to the boss about it. The boss's response was that when he ran his own job, did it on time and under budget, he could take all the smoke breaks he wanted. Until then, don't worry about how other people allocate their time.

I don't think this just applies to smoking.  Management will look the other way at lots of things if you deliver the goods. 

[Lonk]

On the subject of smoke breaks... one of our crew takes a TON of smoke breaks. But he also busts ass and gets the job done. He had a laborer with him who was struggling and complained to the boss about it. The boss's response was that when he ran his own job, did it on time and under budget, he could take all the smoke breaks he wanted. Until then, don't worry about how other people allocate their time.

I don't think this just applies to smoking.  Management will look the other way at lots of things if you deliver the goods.

Agree, when I worked in retail, my supervisor would take at least 5 smoke break a day, but since he was getting his work done the store manager did not have a problem with it.

In terms of flights, I told the story before but in 2010, I had a flight scheduled for July 10 ( or 11, can't remember) to come back to NY. I had DT tickets for the following day (When they opened for Maiden at MSG) and I ended up missing out the show since my flight was cancelled because of a hurricane. I was already at the airport when they cancelled the flight  . Another time I was coming back from Mexico and we sat on the plane for 2.5 hours because of plane issues. it was hot AF outside and the place was completely off so no AC.

[pg1067]

OOC, did you know/feel/hear something when the bird got sucked in?  That would freak me out.

I heard a THUNK, which I didn't think anything of at the time.  However, when the pilot came on the intercom and told us what had happened, I thought, "ohhh...that's what that was."

[ReaperKK]

I was in Frankfurt airport when a plane caught fire on the runway and basically every plane for the rest of the day was cancelled. I spent 8 hours in a queue to rebook my flight and to be told they had run out of hotels to offer those caught overnight. Not the most fun day I had.

Frankfurt was also where I had the worst travel experience, 5 hour delay with a ton of jet lag. I was dying because it felt so hot in the airport and I just couldn't fall asleep, it felt like an eternity.

[cramx3]

I was in Frankfurt airport when a plane caught fire on the runway and basically every plane for the rest of the day was cancelled. I spent 8 hours in a queue to rebook my flight and to be told they had run out of hotels to offer those caught overnight. Not the most fun day I had.

Frankfurt was also where I had the worst travel experience, 5 hour delay with a ton of jet lag. I was dying because it felt so hot in the airport and I just couldn't fall asleep, it felt like an eternity.

At least you could eat pretzels  that's a big airport.  The thing I enjoyed the most was how it has a smoking section so I chilled there for a bit and used my vape pen to feel nice and toasty before boarding.  I do think it's fairly common for smoking sections at airports in europe, but I can't recall seeing them in the US airports. 

[Evermind]

I was in Frankfurt airport when a plane caught fire on the runway and basically every plane for the rest of the day was cancelled. I spent 8 hours in a queue to rebook my flight and to be told they had run out of hotels to offer those caught overnight. Not the most fun day I had.

Frankfurt was also where I had the worst travel experience, 5 hour delay with a ton of jet lag. I was dying because it felt so hot in the airport and I just couldn't fall asleep, it felt like an eternity.

When we were flying to Netherlands for The Theater Equation (Ayreon) live show in 2015, we had a 1,5 hours transit in Frankfurt (which is quite a short time but hey, the tickets were cheap). We spent about 3 hours just standing in line for TSA. Thankfully they had put us on another flight so then we spent four more hours (I think) in the airport waiting. Good times.

[jingle.boy]

I was in Frankfurt airport when a plane caught fire on the runway and basically every plane for the rest of the day was cancelled. I spent 8 hours in a queue to rebook my flight and to be told they had run out of hotels to offer those caught overnight. Not the most fun day I had.

Frankfurt was also where I had the worst travel experience, 5 hour delay with a ton of jet lag. I was dying because it felt so hot in the airport and I just couldn't fall asleep, it felt like an eternity.

When we were flying to Netherlands for The Theater Equation (Ayreon) live show in 2015, we had a 1,5 hours transit in Frankfurt (which is quite a short time but hey, the tickets were cheap). We spent about 3 hours just standing in line for TSA. Thankfully they had put us on another flight so then we spent four more hours (I think) in the airport waiting. Good times.

Ruslan !!!!

[Skeever]

Anyone remember the days of doing your job without MS Teams or Zoom? Oh, sometimes I forget that when I started this job, I didn't even have a messenger program on my PC. We just emailed, and did phone calls when you needed urgency beyond a, say, 24 hour turn around.

This morning, I'm sitting on a conference call, and a coworker is blowing up my Teams with side commentary on one of the agenda items. Another coworker is blowing up my messenger with questions about our agenda for the next meeting. I damn near missed half the meeting, trying to ignore all this side-banter.

Who decided having a series of work-related chatrooms would make us more productive?

[Chino]

Anyone remember the days of doing your job without MS Teams or Zoom? Oh, sometimes I forget that when I started this job, I didn't even have a messenger program on my PC. We just emailed, and did phone calls when you needed urgency beyond a, say, 24 hour turn around.

This morning, I'm sitting on a conference call, and a coworker is blowing up my Teams with side commentary on one of the agenda items. Another coworker is blowing up my messenger with questions about our agenda for the next meeting. I damn near missed half the meeting, trying to ignore all this side-banter.

Who decided having a series of work-related chatrooms would make us more productive?

I ran a 12 person meeting from the office yesterday. 11 of us were actually in the office. We still had the meeting virtually. I actually really like virtual meetings, but I hear what you're saying about the side chatting. I run a lot of meetings and ceremonies as part of my position (think scrum master stuff). It drives me fucking nuts when I'm trying to get notes down about deadlines, constraints, dependencies, etc... and my boss starts blowing up my chat about something someone just said. Even if I don't respond, it still breaks my concentration and I miss stuff.   

The thing I hate most now is that we use Teams primarily for meetings, but it doesn't sync to our Skype status. Skype will just say "in a meeting" as my status. It no longer says "on a call" or "presenting". Every meeting I'm in, people still reach out and try to talk as if I'm not in one.

[TAC]

So, I had a doctor's appointment this morning but couldn't remember the time. I wrote it down somewhere when I made the appointment, but I couldn't find the piece of paper. They never sent me a reminder, so I planned on calling after work yesterday. I called around 4:15 yesterday. I get the answering service. Apparently, they close at 4pm.
I see they open at 8am so I call right at 8. Answering service. Call again at 8:10..answering service. I asked what time they shut the service off and they say 8:30. I called again at 8:35...Answering service. I called right back and asked if they had a roster of appointments and they said they didn't. I asked again when the service is turned off, and this time I was told the office starts taking calls at 9:15. WTF??
The office is like 5 minutes away, so I get in my car at 8:40ish and drive over. I walk in and the receptionist says..."Tim?". I said I was wondering what time my appointment was and she said 9:00. So by chance, I just happened to arrive on time...

[wolfking]

Anyone remember the days of doing your job without MS Teams or Zoom? Oh, sometimes I forget that when I started this job, I didn't even have a messenger program on my PC. We just emailed, and did phone calls when you needed urgency beyond a, say, 24 hour turn around.

This morning, I'm sitting on a conference call, and a coworker is blowing up my Teams with side commentary on one of the agenda items. Another coworker is blowing up my messenger with questions about our agenda for the next meeting. I damn near missed half the meeting, trying to ignore all this side-banter.

Who decided having a series of work-related chatrooms would make us more productive?

FUCK MICROSOFT TEAMS!!!!

[TAC]

I don't even know what Microsoft teams are.

[King Postwhore]

We use Teams for our conference calls.

[TAC]

Oh ok, it's an office thingy.

[King Postwhore]

Its like Zoom but more from Microsoft. 

[TAC]

Gotcha.

[wolfking]

I don't even know what Microsoft teams are.

Lucky son of a bitch.

[wolfking]

So, I had a doctor's appointment this morning but couldn't remember the time. I wrote it down somewhere when I made the appointment, but I couldn't find the piece of paper. They never sent me a reminder, so I planned on calling after work yesterday. I called around 4:15 yesterday. I get the answering service. Apparently, they close at 4pm.
I see they open at 8am so I call right at 8. Answering service. Call again at 8:10..answering service. I asked what time they shut the service off and they say 8:30. I called again at 8:35...Answering service. I called right back and asked if they had a roster of appointments and they said they didn't. I asked again when the service is turned off, and this time I was told the office starts taking calls at 9:15. WTF??
The office is like 5 minutes away, so I get in my car at 8:40ish and drive over. I walk in and the receptionist says..."Tim?". I said I was wondering what time my appointment was and she said 9:00. So by chance, I just happened to arrive on time...

Couldn't possibly disrupt the morning coffee time with annoying phone calls.

[wolfking]

Oh ok, it's an office thingy.

And I still have to fucking use it sometimes. 

[wolfking]

Sitting here once again trying to work on rosters.  I am fucking over rostering!  The fortnights come around so quickly and this is so tedious and time consuming.  Trying to get the motivation to get it done and stop bloody procrastinating! Just one of the worst things ever!! 

[TAC]

Sitting here once again trying to work on rosters.  I am fucking over rostering!  The fortnights come around so quickly and this is so tedious and time consuming.  Trying to get the motivation to get it done and stop bloody procrastinating! Just one of the worst things ever!! 

Other than accounting for day off requests or vacations, does it really change much from schedule to schedule?

[King Postwhore]

Tim calling technology "Thingy." 

[wolfking]

Sitting here once again trying to work on rosters.  I am fucking over rostering!  The fortnights come around so quickly and this is so tedious and time consuming.  Trying to get the motivation to get it done and stop bloody procrastinating! Just one of the worst things ever!! 

Other than accounting for day off requests or vacations, does it really change much from schedule to schedule?

Yeah it kinda does but I know what you mean that there are some constants.  Although, we are in the time of year where we have groups of kids coming in for scheduled swimming lessons.  At the moment there's 3 schools each day so that's 15 instructors right there daily.  Plus lifeguards and front of house covering 3 venues 7 days a week going into summer.  Some of those Front of House/Lifeguards are needing for the swimming lessons which obviously has a massive roll on effect with everything else.  A lot of the guys also are uni students where their timetables change and it's also exam times.  Plus all the young ones these days seem to love to take days off left right and centre which always throws things off.

Plus add in a new guy in my second role just being a muppet and making things harder instead of helping.  Half the time a reason why my own name gets put down is because it's easier covering shit myself.  As usual it's a long story haha.

[wolfking]

I guess I've just done literally every fucking fortnightly roster for 14 years.  It just gets old and somewhat annoying. 

[ReaperKK]

Anyone remember the days of doing your job without MS Teams or Zoom? Oh, sometimes I forget that when I started this job, I didn't even have a messenger program on my PC. We just emailed, and did phone calls when you needed urgency beyond a, say, 24 hour turn around.

This morning, I'm sitting on a conference call, and a coworker is blowing up my Teams with side commentary on one of the agenda items. Another coworker is blowing up my messenger with questions about our agenda for the next meeting. I damn near missed half the meeting, trying to ignore all this side-banter.

Who decided having a series of work-related chatrooms would make us more productive?

FUCK MICROSOFT TEAMS!!!!

We just got Teams after a large internal battle if we were getting it or not. The issue is now we use Skype, Teams, and Symphony (a chat system a lot of other banks use), and our bloomberg terminal. It's a fucking mess.

[hefdaddy42]

We use Teams.  It's a valuable tool.

[jingle.boy]

We use Teams.  It's a valuable tool.

For many industries, this is the way.

[cramx3]

We use Teams.  It's a valuable tool.

For many industries, this is the way.

I don't think the problem is Teams itself.  I think I understand Skeever/Chino's original dislike is that you go onto a meeting and you are still getting messaged on the side distracting you from the meeting.  I know this well too and this was going on before we migrated (or started to migrate) to Teams.

My issue relating to this is that we use Slack but we are migrating to Teams so right now we use both and I need to be on different VPNs to access either so it's a real PITA to try to juggle both.  Luckily, almost no one uses Teams yet besides for meetings so it's not as bad as it sounds, but we are in a weird limbo situation with our communication tools. 

Personally, I love slack.  I think it's a great chat app.  Teams so far seems like a crappier version.

[Skeever]

I don't think the problem is Teams itself.  I think I understand Skeever/Chino's original dislike is that you go onto a meeting and you are still getting messaged on the side distracting you from the meeting.

Yes, that's it. Sometimes I get messaged by people who are in the same meeting as me. It's crazy. Aren't you supposed to be paying attention, taking notes, contributing? Why are we wasting our time here, if not?

[hefdaddy42]

I mean, I don't know.  We do that at work also, sometimes in meetings, often in interviews.  I just see it as a modern version of talking to the student next to you while the professor lectures.

If it's done to excess, I can see it as a problem, but otherwise, *shrugs*

[cramx3]

My coworker used to side message people in our meetings to try and get them to laugh.  He got me so good one time I had to turn off my video/mic.  One time one of the network engineers started laughing in a meeting and his manager who was running the meeting asked what was so funny, his response "the chats" which got everyone else to burst out laughing because we all knew exactly who was messaging him.  I can't condone this stuff, but it's a rare instance when it's just so funny to see it happen.

[pg1067]

I don't think the problem is Teams itself.  I think I understand Skeever/Chino's original dislike is that you go onto a meeting and you are still getting messaged on the side distracting you from the meeting.

Yes, that's it. Sometimes I get messaged by people who are in the same meeting as me. It's crazy. Aren't you supposed to be paying attention, taking notes, contributing? Why are we wasting our time here, if not?

We had a Teams meeting yesterday.  It's basically all the folks who report directly to the EVP and couple folks on the next level down.  One of the topics mentioned yesterday was that we need a couple more folks to become notaries.  The EVP asked one person, who has a propensity for being difficult and straying off topic, how much something cost, and she proceeded to launch into five minutes about everything required to become a notary.  Almost immediately, started a separate chat with a couple folks on the call poking fun at this woman.  Should we have been paying attention, taking notes or contributing?  Not in this case.  But yeah, the EVP should have stopped her (and, frankly, the question didn't matter anyway since the company would reimburse the costs, but it should have taken 5 seconds to answer).  Since the folks on this call are in three separate offices (plus some who may be WFH), these meetings are often just an opportunity for everyone to have face time with each other.

I mean, I don't know.  We do that at work also, sometimes in meetings, often in interviews.  I just see it as a modern version of talking to the student next to you while the professor lectures.

If it's done to excess, I can see it as a problem, but otherwise, *shrugs*

Exactly.

[hefdaddy42]

My coworker used to side message people in our meetings to try and get them to laugh.  He got me so good one time I had to turn off my video/mic.  One time one of the network engineers started laughing in a meeting and his manager who was running the meeting asked what was so funny, his response "the chats" which got everyone else to burst out laughing because we all knew exactly who was messaging him.  I can't condone this stuff, but it's a rare instance when it's just so funny to see it happen.

We do this to each other occasionally.  I cannot lie.

[jingle.boy]

My coworker used to side message people in our meetings to try and get them to laugh.  He got me so good one time I had to turn off my video/mic.  One time one of the network engineers started laughing in a meeting and his manager who was running the meeting asked what was so funny, his response "the chats" which got everyone else to burst out laughing because we all knew exactly who was messaging him.  I can't condone this stuff, but it's a rare instance when it's just so funny to see it happen.

We do this to each other occasionally.  I cannot lie.

Absolutely.  I love testing peoples' poker faces.  Some are good, others ... not so much.

[cramx3]

My coworker used to side message people in our meetings to try and get them to laugh.  He got me so good one time I had to turn off my video/mic.  One time one of the network engineers started laughing in a meeting and his manager who was running the meeting asked what was so funny, his response "the chats" which got everyone else to burst out laughing because we all knew exactly who was messaging him.  I can't condone this stuff, but it's a rare instance when it's just so funny to see it happen.

We do this to each other occasionally.  I cannot lie.

Absolutely.  I love testing peoples' poker faces.  Some are good, others ... not so much.

Mines terrible.  I'm an easy get.  I would log off slack if I felt like I was going to be tested during a meeting