Topic: General Workplace Bitching Thread

I'm sat here at the moment, steaming over the wilful stupidity of some of my colleagues, so I thought what better place to vent than in the warm bosom of my pX family?

Todays gripes (in no particular order)

1) Colleague asked me on Monday how to resolve an issue, told him he needed to replace a piece of software. Sent me an email last night saying "Yeah, can you sort this, I've replaced an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT piece of software and it doesn't work"
2) Being told by one of the directors here that "I shouldn't try thinking, I'm not equipped". I can feel the morale building!

What have you guys got?

Ouch! Way to build your team up!

I've been asked to book resources for a new project. When I held a kick-off meeting with said resources, I found out a) the project is not yet approved, so I have no budget for resources and b) half the (standard for our organisation) environments are missing so the development cannot start. The best bit is, before the project is approved I need to increase the budget estimate to include the 'missing' environments, but I cannot get an architect to do the design without a project charge code, which comes after project approval! Round and around the circle I go.....

I work in IT support so I'm bombarded on a daily basis with stupid problems that could have been solved with just a tiny bit of effort on the users part but it's easier for them to just pick up the phone and whinge...

However my absolute pet hate are the douchebags who cc my boss into an email to me complaining that stuff isn't working when they've never even told me about it prior to that email. Yes there may well be 6 PC's in department X that haven't been working for several days... but if you've never reported any them as faulty before how the effing hell am I supposed to know? Telepathy?

Then there's the lazy colleagues who create fictional PC 'problems', mysterious files that vanish overnight (but never appear on any of the backups), computer 'crashes', emails that vanish into the ether etc etc, as an excuse for not having done this that or the other... which again creates needless grief for me...

I suppose it keeps me in a job at the end of the day though

I'm in IT support too, so I feel your pain Stylon. Our customers pull the same dick moves, cc'ing all and sundry in before even reporting the issue.

Then we have our lead programmer, who has a typed form of Tourettes. Every email he sends has a subject like "C**ty F**ktits" or something similar. Very amusing to receive, not so amusing when you are trying to find the one piece of SQL that he sent you 3 months ago...Then we have our director, who was behind the door when personalities were given out, but tries to make up for it by being the biggest douche in the history of the world. Course, theres not many places you could get away with telling a director to go and f**k himself, so swings and roundabouts, I guess...

One day I'll write a compendium of cockhonkery that is my average day, but until then I'll just keep on keeping on, one step away from grisly action.

I did many years in IT support before transitioning into Project Management, so I'm nodding in agreement with you @Stylon and @Red620Ti.
@Utena-mobile - you have my sympathy too. Retail at this time of year must be a nightmare.

So, this guy phones a retailers tech support:
My screen is blank....
Is there a light showing on the front of your screen?
No
Is it plugged in?
Yes
Can you check?
I need to go and get a torch then
Why?
We've got a power cut here and it's dark under the desk
Please bring the computer back to the store
Why? Is it broken?
No, you're too f...in stupid to own a computer.

Supposedly a true story. I spent many years as a support engineer. The stupidity of the human race no longer surprises me.

In my last job we had a guy ring in to complain that the cup holder in his new PC was broken...Yes, you've guessed, the CD-Rom tray. :facepalm:
I've also extricated corn snakes from laser printers (wondered what the funny noise was, oh and by the way my snake got out...) and had to pay a house call to lady who complained her footpedal was broken. Went out and she had the mouse on the floor, trying to work it with her foot. Closest I've ever come to losing my cool on a job.

Its not only customers though....I've been working in a loft, slipped and ended up with my legs dangling into the Garden Centres MD's office. My progress through the roof was arrested by a metal bar jamming itself into my testes, so that was lucky!
One of our guys has drilled through a wall into the back of a large and busy office's telephone exchange...and so many more.

(Supposedly true story)
Helpdesk gets a call from a secretary, panicing cos she's spilled coffee on the MD's keyboard. Not to worry says the helpdesk, just rinse it under the tap and leave upside-down to dry. A while later the MD called asking who told his secretary to put is laptop under the tap...

@Red620Ti:
Digger went through the junction box where every security camera on the mine came in.
Dude put a pick through a 35kv underground feed cable and survived! (Demon ate my pick).
Guy got out of a crane that had connected with an overhead line (didn't).
Man making BBQ from 50 gal empty oil drum used cutting torch - blew every item of his clothing off and all of his hair. Like something from Tom & Jerry.
Sold a camera (sh) to someone who complained it only took pictures of ears (back to front).
Security guard shot a piece of his finger into his arm whilst cleaning his pistol.
Man heard the food wagon turned around and walked towards it (he was 50' up).
Nurse took a blood sample from my wife and disconnected tube (whilst leaving needle in).

I have many many more. Some funny, others tragic.

The bloke who on lates on Friday had 2 jobs: Backup one database and restore a different one on a different site. Long story sort, got it all wrapped around his head and cocked both jobs up. so after restoring the backed up database (a process that took 23 hours!) it turned out he hadn't made a small change before backing it up, so thats a day wasted as we'll have to begin again. And the one that he restored was left in a state that meant no one could access it, so I had to restore it again on a Saturday morning in the run up to Xmas. Ideal if your customers are all in retail, like ours.

And my immediate manager will return this morning after a week off, and no doubt I'll be in trouble for these failings. Sometimes I wish I was a hermit...