Tales from the Office Space: Complain about your coworkers

[EggMcMuffin]

@Renascent

Weed would probably make all of the things wrong with me worse. I'm a really lazy, depressed shithead loser to begin with and I've heard too many horror stories of people becoming totally couch locked and like, *actually* fat from overdoing it with weeeed. If you're not talking about weed, I'm skeptical of psilocybin only because my mom had psychotic breaks during menopause, and I seem to have inherited most everything from my mom so I have to wonder if I have a risk of developing schizophrenia or other psychotic illness from tripping...everyone I've talked to about it (like 9+ people by now) including @Hanley says they'd probably help me but that risk of ruining my life even harder than I already have scares me out of whatever potential benefits it may bring.

Also I'm just not that comfortable with the idea of drugs to begin with, I don't even drink.

[GlasgowJock]

3. "and if you do you still wind up being crapped on just because I'm the kind of person who is waaaay too honest". Let me tell you, as a manager, what I read when someone says "too honest". I read "asshole". I don't go to work to put up with asshole underlings or people at my level. I'll eat shit from my boss, but I'll be fucked if I'm eating shit from people at my level/below me. It's not enough to shut your trap, although that's a good start, you need to project "Happy Warrior", or at least "Befuddled Kind Person" (but, as you're young, this befuddled kind person mask will probably fuck your chances at promotion".

100%

Anyone who tells me they're 'too honest' is straight up telling me they're an arsehole that lacks empathy, social nuance, the ability to work amiably with others etc.

You can 99.9% of the time put what you really think across to someone without being a dick/ bitch about it. It's not 'fake', it's you evidencing your ability to use more than the bare minimum of words when disagreeing with someone.

[Renascent]

@Renascent

Weed would probably make all of the things wrong with me worse. I'm a really lazy, depressed shithead loser to begin with and I've heard too many horror stories of people becoming totally couch locked and like, *actually* fat from overdoing it with weeeed. If you're not talking about weed, I'm skeptical of psilocybin only because my mom had psychotic breaks during menopause, and I seem to have inherited most everything from my mom so I have to wonder if I have a risk of developing schizophrenia or other psychotic illness from tripping...everyone I've talked to about it (like 9+ people by now) including @Hanley says they'd probably help me but that risk of ruining my life even harder than I already have scares me out of whatever potential benefits it may bring.

Also I'm just not that comfortable with the idea of drugs to begin with, I don't even drink.

I was referring to the former of the two, but I totally hear ya.

I really miss nature sometimes.

Stay gold, my dude.

[Hanley]

Hanley says I should become a nuclear tech and eat pussy in New Mexico

A good life.

[cgeorg]

Let me tell you, as a manager, what I read when someone says "too honest". I read "asshole". I don't go to work to put up with asshole underlings or people at my level.

See...

In defense of people like me, the most recent exchange would be pointing out to the engineer about to be receiving a new product needed that he needed to specify he had a particular sized mounting plate in mind for the tooling he is getting to put on his production line before it was designed, not two weeks out from transfer and expecting it to be changed/delivered on time, and I told him as such.

Engineer thinks I'm an asshole, but he's the guy who waited so damned long on a detail that ends up wasting my time.

Devil's advocating:

Until he told you there was a particular sized mounting plate, what was the plan? Was there no or an incorrect mounting plate included in the design? Had (you/fabrication) made an assumption about a different size, or that there wouldn't be one? In other words, should it also have been clear to someone in tooling production that there was something missing from the spec?

[PuddingFace]

Let me tell you, as a manager, what I read when someone says "too honest". I read "asshole". I don't go to work to put up with asshole underlings or people at my level.

See...

In defense of people like me, the most recent exchange would be pointing out to the engineer about to be receiving a new product needed that he needed to specify he had a particular sized mounting plate in mind for the tooling he is getting to put on his production line before it was designed, not two weeks out from transfer and expecting it to be changed/delivered on time, and I told him as such.

Engineer thinks I'm an asshole, but he's the guy who waited so damned long on a detail that ends up wasting my time.

Devil's advocating:

Until he told you there was a particular sized mounting plate, what was the plan? Was there no or an incorrect mounting plate included in the design? Had (you/fabrication) made an assumption about a different size, or that there wouldn't be one? In other words, should it also have been clear to someone in tooling production that there was something missing from the spec?

Sounds to me like the engineer ordered the products, then sprung it on our friend here shortly before delivery that it would need to be installed, plus some other pieces fabricated.

Often an interesting struggle between engineers and toolmakers since the jobs are so closely related but there are different perceptions of each. Toolmakers often relied on for their expertise when the engineer can’t be bothered to work out the details, bit excluded from planning.

[mouse]

Devil's advocating:

Until he told you there was a particular sized mounting plate, what was the plan? Was there no or an incorrect mounting plate included in the design? Had (you/fabrication) made an assumption about a different size, or that there wouldn't be one? In other words, should it also have been clear to someone in tooling production that there was something missing from the spec?

Sounds to me like the engineer ordered the products, then sprung it on our friend here shortly before delivery that it would need to be installed, plus some other pieces fabricated.

Often an interesting struggle between engineers and toolmakers since the jobs are so closely related but there are different perceptions of each. Toolmakers often relied on for their expertise when the engineer can’t be bothered to work out the details, bit excluded from planning.

Without going too far down the rabbit hole that includes a conversation here years ago that was supposed to hash out a set of 'standards' for these plates that never actually concluded... its comes down to:

Other than two dimensions that are mostly agreed upon (the plates are 3/8" thick and 14" deep, and even then, there are heathens out there using 1/4" aluminum sometimes) there is no standard. We basically make the plate as big as it needs to be to comfortably house whatever is on it, while also being as small as it needs to be to conserves bench space. The size of the plate (unless otherwise specified) is at the discretion of the designer.

Somewhere along the line, this guy's department decided they had a "standard plate" (which only applies to one line, and only some times it would seem, so him throwing a hissy fit over these not being on a "standard" plate is kind of a joke) which is a giant slab of 1/4" aluminum, regardless of the size of whatever is going on it.

We are an absolute shitshow... I know this...

I went on the defense at the meeting because 1) he threw aforementioned hissy fit, 2a) he implied I should just take the nests off the existing plates and put them on their 'standard' plates, that don't exist at the moment because no one else uses them, 2b) he did not want to accept that the right way to correct this would be having our model shop cut/drill the new plates which would take time, and 3) these weren't actually MY responsibility, but it's going to land on my plate (no pun intended) now because again... he didn't have this conversation in the beginning, with the actual design guy responsible.

I am the asshole though.

[alek]

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

[Renascent]

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

What do you normally use in its place?

I can't stand Google Docs, and haven't used LibreOffice much. Word's fine by me, but it hasn't been the same since they sent Clippy on a trip to Belize.

[alek]

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

What do you normally use in its place?

I can't stand Google Docs, and haven't used LibreOffice much. Word's fine by me, but it hasn't been the same since they sent Clippy on a trip to Belize.

I use LaTeX to do all my document/desktop publishing generation if I can. It’s a typesetting language that requires a compiler; I’ve been using it since college.

[Hardartery]

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

You can extend that to all things Microsoft Office as far as I am concerned. I hate the entire suite, everything about it is stupid and clunky and slow. Did I mention stupid? But that is Microsoft, which I hate with a passion. They do not innovate, they produce no good products, but they have gotten excellent at buying innovative stuff and ruining it or replacing it with something that sucks. Given the opportunity, I would punch their CEO directly in the head without warning given the opportunity. And every time one of these damn updates that I can't opt out of anymore restarts my machine 4 times in a row, I fantasize about making that happen.

[Renascent]

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

What do you normally use in its place?

I can't stand Google Docs, and haven't used LibreOffice much. Word's fine by me, but it hasn't been the same since they sent Clippy on a trip to Belize.

I use LaTeX to do all my document/desktop publishing generation if I can. It’s a typesetting language that requires a compiler; I’ve been using it since college.

Never used LaTeX myself, but after a quick glance at a few search results blurbs, I can see why you'd be annoyed with a step back.

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

You can extend that to all things Microsoft Office as far as I am concerned. I hate the entire suite, everything about it is stupid and clunky and slow. Did I mention stupid?

Was discussing this with someone the other night, specifically about how fortunes were seemingly made by using the right packaging and presentation to woo the masses (I'm including myself in that number).

Kinda brilliant, actually, so I'll give Microsoft that.

But yeah, something about the Win10 update irked the shit out of me, and 11 furthered that newfound disdain. I built a PC for home use with a dual-boot setup, but have not made a full leap to open-source just yet.

I really wish I had a practical reason to use a Linux OS at work, but it seems only the programmers are allowed to do that or boot up virtual machines without drawing curiosity from people who think non MS-based systems are for anonymous, uh, "browsing."

[alek]

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

What do you normally use in its place?

I can't stand Google Docs, and haven't used LibreOffice much. Word's fine by me, but it hasn't been the same since they sent Clippy on a trip to Belize.

I use LaTeX to do all my document/desktop publishing generation if I can. It’s a typesetting language that requires a compiler; I’ve been using it since college.

Never used LaTeX myself, but after a quick glance at a few search results blurbs, I can see why you'd be annoyed with a step back.

I’m a very mediocre mathematician, and I’ve been using LaTeX to write math papers, tests/quizzes/etc for my students, edit a textbook, write letters and other documents, and do a bunch of other things for a long time. It does so much so well that it’s frustrating to use almost anything else.

But Word… I have a special disdain for it.

[convergentsum]

I use LaTeX to do all my document/desktop publishing generation if I can. It’s a typesetting language that requires a compiler; I’ve been using it since college.

Never used LaTeX myself, but after a quick glance at a few search results blurbs, I can see why you'd be annoyed with a step back.

[math] \LaTeX[/math] is available as a plugin on this board (click the "math" button), so you can try it out without installing it.

Not a coworker, but something I'm forced to use every once in a while: Microsoft Word. I fucking hate you, Word. I fucking hate you.

You can extend that to all things Microsoft Office as far as I am concerned. I hate the entire suite, everything about it is stupid and clunky and slow. Did I mention stupid?

Was discussing this with someone the other night, specifically about how fortunes were seemingly made by using the right packaging and presentation to woo the masses (I'm including myself in that number).

Kinda brilliant, actually, so I'll give Microsoft that.

In my opinino it was far from brilliant, rather it was bullyboy tactics to displace every competitor. Look up their "embrace, extend, extinguish" strategy. Computers are my goto example for how brilliantly the free market can work (hardware), *and* how badly it can go wrong (software).
Word and the rest weren't terrible back in the 90s, but they weren't the best. It's since they achieved ubiquity that they've become truly terrible. With each new addition a bunch of contradictory features got stacked on top the original engine so in terms of user experience, nothing makes sense. Technical typsetting is a nightmare. Large documents (eg. a thesis) are a nightmare. Use latex if either requirement applies to you.

But yeah, something about the Win10 update irked the shit out of me, and 11 furthered that newfound disdain. I built a PC for home use with a dual-boot setup, but have not made a full leap to open-source just yet.

I really wish I had a practical reason to use a Linux OS at work, but it seems only the programmers are allowed to do that or boot up virtual machines without drawing curiosity from people who think non MS-based systems are for anonymous, uh, "browsing."

I actually find the last few editions of windows somewhat useable (once all the linux-y tools I need have been installed via mxys2 -- this is where latex goes). Pre-XP was pretty horrible, but I suppose Linux at that time was harder to maintain and supported less hardware too. But I'm not paying much attention, I did upgrade to windows 11 but I couldn't tell you how it differs from windows 10.

There's a decent argument for paying the premium for a mac, but I'm too cheap... although I am tempted by those new non-x86 processor chips...

[cgeorg]

There's a decent argument for paying the premium for a mac, but I'm too cheap... although I am tempted by those new non-x86 processor chips...

The macbook touchpad is proof that god exists, and loves us. The rest is no better or worse than the windows/nix world. Some things are nicer and some things are infuriating.

Also check out windows subsystem for linux. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

[convergentsum]

There's a decent argument for paying the premium for a mac, but I'm too cheap... although I am tempted by those new non-x86 processor chips...

The macbook touchpad is proof that god exists, and loves us. The rest is no better or worse than the windows/nix world. Some things are nicer and some things are infuriating.

Also check out windows subsystem for linux. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

I tried that for something that needed good disk performance, and it was a non-starter.

[cgeorg]

There's a decent argument for paying the premium for a mac, but I'm too cheap... although I am tempted by those new non-x86 processor chips...

The macbook touchpad is proof that god exists, and loves us. The rest is no better or worse than the windows/nix world. Some things are nicer and some things are infuriating.

Also check out windows subsystem for linux. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

I tried that for something that needed good disk performance, and it was a non-starter.

Ah bummer, I thought that they had built that stuff into the kernel so that it basically had direct access to the hardware. I guess if they rely on different filesystems the adapter layer would kill things.

[broseph]

I sure want to complain about my work situation but don't want to dox myself and get fired if someone from Extremely Upper Management peruses an obscure lifting forum and realizes "hey that's broseph!"

We're a small organization in a field where small organizations are no longer viable, so we're being bought out by a bigger system. So it's cool that I get to keep my job and stuff, but...

This particular bigger system is officially religious and has already started advertising for a "blessing ceremony" for the new acquisition and I'm already sick of hearing about it. And it super pisses me off that my employer-dependent health insurance (which is basically necessary for health and financial survival) probably won't be covering tons of forms of reproductive healthcare. Especially since this particular religion is well known for thinking sex is exclusively for reproduction.

I can't believe this stuff is legal. Especially considering the field in which I work.

[Renascent]

This particular bigger system is officially religious and has already started advertising for a "blessing ceremony" for the new acquisition and I'm already sick of hearing about it. And it super pisses me off that my employer-dependent health insurance (which is basically necessary for health and financial survival) probably won't be covering tons of forms of reproductive healthcare. Especially since this particular religion is well known for thinking sex is exclusively for reproduction.

I can't believe this stuff is legal. Especially considering the field in which I work.

Had second thoughts about my original reply...

...but for an unrelated reason, Psalm 94:3 just popped into my head a few minutes ago ("LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?")

I'm getting vertigo on this damn planet.

[convergentsum]

There's a decent argument for paying the premium for a mac, but I'm too cheap... although I am tempted by those new non-x86 processor chips...

The macbook touchpad is proof that god exists, and loves us. The rest is no better or worse than the windows/nix world. Some things are nicer and some things are infuriating.

Also check out windows subsystem for linux. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

I tried that for something that needed good disk performance, and it was a non-starter.

Ah bummer, I thought that they had built that stuff into the kernel so that it basically had direct access to the hardware. I guess if they rely on different filesystems the adapter layer would kill things.

There might be a way to mount a partition directly from the linux subsystem, but I didn't find it. Not that I tried hard -- wasn't motivated enough to reorganise a hard drive...