Work Pet Peeves

[Dark_Lady_Jade]

Pet peeves. We've all got them. Those irritations in life that just make your skin crawl, but seem like no big deal to others. But most only talk about the ones outside of work. You know, more general stuff.

Where do you work, and what are your pet peeves there?

I've got some. First of all, I work in a library (despite what people think, a library is far from quiet >.<). I'm a Page. The Pages are the ones you see putting things on shelves and organizing things and moving stuff around.

Anyway, here are my pet peeves at work:

- When people bring their obnoxious kids with them to the library (why can't people keep their stupid kids at home when they're annoying?)

- When I find hair in the pages of books. Not only is it gross (you don't know when someone last washed their hair), but it's just plain annoying. Who the heck combs and brushes their hair while reading anyway?

- When I find food remnants/residue on/in books. Just plain nasty. If I wanted food all over my hands, I'd just clean up after my little cousin once she's done eating. Plus, most of that stuff is sticky! gonk

- When a certain co-worker uses the computer in back, where the staff goes. She eats and types with the same hand! scream When I eat at the computer, I have my food in my left hand, and I type with my right. Then when I'm done, I carefully get up any crumbs (I usually don't leave crumbs, though), then go wash my hands, then continue using the computer. But not her. Oooohhh no. She just has to eat and type with the same hands. She sometimes gets junk on the keys. It's gross. Everytime I use the computer after her, I always wipe the keys and the mouse off with alcohol, to clean them.

- When the patrons (the visitors) completely mess things up just after I organized them. Okay, not only is this rude, it shows you have no respect for the library. I take my time to make sure the books and music and movies are nice and neat and organized so that they can find what they want more easily. The least they could do is put the books and stuff back where they got them. If they can spend time looking for something, they can take 5 seconds to put it back. It also annoys me when they mess up the order, or just leave things lying around. At least put stuff in a stack! gonk

- When I'm putting things away, and patrons stand right over my shoulder. Have they never heard of personal space? They see me putting stuff on the shelves. I'm not going to go faster just because someone is breathing on my neck. That crap annoys the heck out of me. Most people don't do that, but every once in a while, I'll encounter someone who does. I just want to tell them, "You see me working. Back off." But of course, I'll get in trouble if I do that. Or the people who huff and puff when I have to get around them to put something away. Listen, moron, you're in the way. Move. You don't have to stand in the middle of the aisle like you own the place.  

[dyejob]

I work in a comic book store. Every stereotype you've ever heard about comic book stores is absolutely, horrifyingly (sometimes wonderfully) true.

Added bonus, we also sell a lot of geek-oriented games such as on-the-fringe board games, Games Workshop, RPG sourcebooks, et cetera.

I love my customers to death mostly because they're a comparatively meeker, better-read set of people in general.

But seriously, if you're going to leave the house for the first time in a week, bathe. Don't hand me crumpled wads of greasy dollar bills, either.

And please don't give any of us guff if we don't know everything about the comic/game you're looking for. STFU K THX.  

[Headhunter]

I work at Toys R Us, and will likely be quitting very soon.

-I mainly work in the back unloading trucks and what have you. All too often, because there's no door or anything like that, customers will wander back there and hold me up from what I have to do because they can't find what they're looking for when there are already people on the sales floor who are there to help them with that.

-I sometimes get called to deal with stuff in other departments that I used to work in. I specifically asked to work in the back because I got tired of dealing the same inane questions time and again.

-Sometimes other employees will come back there and ask me or one of the other two guys I work with to look for something in the upstairs stock room when they know how to do that themselves. This occurs A LOT during christmas time.

-When we're right in the middle of unloading a truck, customers sometimes make a point to come back there and ask "Ya'll got any -insert name of flash in the pan toy thats been sold out forever here-". This too occurs often during christmas.

-People, adults and kids alike, think it's perfectly acceptable to tear a** around the store on one of the display bikes or Power Wheels with complete reckless abandon.

-When putting full palletes (they're these wooden things that we stack the boxes of product on top of so that they can be lifted and moved with ease all at once) on the floor for the stockers toy collector's often start picking at them to see if they can find anything good without so much as asking, and its almost always either Star Wars or Hot Wheels that they want.

that's all I've got for now.  

[Starlit Revolver]

I, too, work in a library--but I work in the computer lab, and page occassionally.

Okay, kids, my computer lab is not your personal daily LAN. If you're going to be in here every day, all day, you will respect me and the library rules.

Please bathe. >_<

Don't huff at me when I kick you off. If you're so addicted to Runescape, MySpace, what have you, get your own computer and internet connection.

Parents, the library is not a babysitting service. Don't call and ask for little Jimmy.

Again, parents, we aren't a babysitting service. Don't wander off and leave your younger children alone. This is a free, public library--Anyone, and I mean anyone, can walk in off the street, and then walk off with your child. Everyone who works here is very busy. Either hire a babysitter or quit your job/shopping/whatever. I don't want to be sued for something as inane as "but.. but.. it's a LIBRARY. It's supposed to be SAFE." No. Libraries are supposed to be resources open to the public. That means anyone who wants information.  

[The Beef-Mover]

Wow, I actually wanted to work at a library, but ours got so much money taken out of it by people voting in fear of taxes that they can't hire. :/ It does sound pretty challenging, but I think that after the food service jobs I've had, I'd like the change. I worked most recently at this cafe/catering service and....oh...mygod...I...I'm going into a PTS fit. Okay...anyway.

I had the WORST manager ever. I was the only waitress in the place. I managed the waitress station, brought coffee and stuff (it was a buffet), cleaned tables, closed and washed dishes. That's WAY more than a normal waitress does and when people left tips? I had to take them to the tip jar and at the end of the day, I got 15% of them. They were MY fricken tips and I got 15% at the end of the day and my psycho manager with a drinking problem and, I'm pretty sure lots of emotional problems, got to keep the rest.

I got paid under the table, which, I guess was okay in some ways, but it was still less than minimum wage, so basically, what I'd lose out of a paycheck anyway was given to my manager.

Aaaaaand oh yeah! Her fricken developmentally delayed 37-year-old son would just come and hang around and hit on me. He was training to be a fire fighter, I guess and it took me the longest time to figure out that he was going on FORTY because he dressed and acted like some fresh-out-of-college guy. And he was CREEPY and apparently thought I really ought to be all aflutter about him.

So there were management issues, but also just...little food service things...like customers, I guess trying to be helpful when they stacked their syrupy plates at the end of the table...soooo I had to peel them apart to wash them with all this gooey syrup drizzling everywhere. Really gross.

Ah! and when we went catering! I got paid more by the hour, which was nice, so after one day, I'd usually have about $180 for a 19 hour day. BUT we'd always be catering these...really....REALLY yuppy events and the people were SO RUDE. They'd snap at me to get my attention. I kid thee not.

Worse job of my life so far and I think it'll take a pretty shitty one to beat it.  

[AntoniaMerEnfant]

Wow, lots of valid beefs here. Food + books = nonononono! Kids + Libraries =baddddd idea.

And working waitressing is the pits (my first job was at a bar and grill)

I've worked a variety of jobs my biggest beefs from each were:

Serving: People who gave babies sugar packets to play with, pain in the butt cleanup etc, getting stiffed on cut tips

Receptionist/Mail Girl: Having coworkers want to send mail without an address-- or a city. When there are several branches of one business I needed to know which city to send it too... one coworker was so snotty about it I decided to play a guessing game and send her letters to the wrong cities biggrin

Patient Sitter at a Hospital: A patient couldn't pee, he wanted me to do it for him. There's some things we just can't do for our patients!! Hallucinating patients... let me tell you, the removal of people and objects that aren't there is a far trickier process than you can ever imagine!

Cleaning Houses: Dusting mantles with a jillion nick nacks on them.

Cell Phones: People who would show up one minute before close and want to activate a new phone... who didn't know the plan they wanted, who didn't know the phone they wanted... I'd get off between half an hour to an hour after my scheduled hours. FYI- cell phone activation takes time for paperwork and such, give yourself at least a half hour.

Post Offices: People yelling at us because their mail hadn't arrived yet. At Valentines day last year we got reamed-- when it turned out nobody had sent these girls anything. If nobody loves you do NOT blame the postal workers!!!! Oooh and my sexist supervisor trying to corner me and give me a hugs, calling me darling and such stare

Para Professional at a School: Being kicked, hit, etc whenever the kid I was working with threw a tantrum, being harrassed by a coworker sad

My new job: Started today smile I can share later, I'm working at a deli.  

[Kitten_Ember]

I'm an administrative assistant and my biggest pet peeve would ahve to be when these MBA weilding sales managers treat me like I'm an idiot because I don't have a degree. Of course the humor comes when they have to call me asking for help because they forgot how to work their e-mail or something else just as basic.

Oh and the guys who call me with the same question everytime they have to fill out an expense report...it's relaly not that hard guys...I swear!

My last one is mre a personal thing, it's the guy in my office that thinks I need to know what he is doing every second of the day. If he's shiping a package I know about it, if he's filling out a claim I know about it...you get the idea. The worst of it is he is the one that likes to come stand at my desk and tell me really long stories about how it was when he worked at the corporate office and then proceeds to pass gas while doing so...and I'm not talking silent but deadly here, I mean AUDIBLE! ACK!  

[Headhunter]

KittenEmber

The worst of it is he is the one that likes to come stand at my desk and tell me really long stories about how it was when he worked at the corporate office and then proceeds to pass gas while doing so...and I'm not talking silent but deadly here, I mean AUDIBLE! ACK!

Yeesh! gonk  

[NessaChan]

Dark_Lady_Jade

Pet peeves. We've all got them. Those irritations in life that just make your skin crawl, but seem like no big deal to others. But most only talk about the ones outside of work. You know, more general stuff.

Hi! I used to work in a library, too. I hated feeling like a babysitter instead of a librarian! It was so terrible to have to look after other peoples' kids and try to keep them from destroying things. Even though there was a policy of "no unattended children" there were always unattended children anyway. Dumping over plants, pulling books off shelves, and turning lights on and off, screaming & yelling, etc. (I worked the children's department.) Not that there wern't angellic children, too. Just.. the bad ones are the ones you remember. xD But on the whole, I agree with all of your library peeves. At least when I worked there, there wasn't an internets yet.. or at least not as a standard thing at libraries, so I didn't have to deal with kids on computers and porn and whatnot.

I hated finding food and boogers in books as well xp But I must say, I'm a long-haired person and I shed over everything if I'm brushing my hair or not, so I've surely left a hair or two in books. xD  

[AntoniaMerEnfant]

Farting in public? Gas-tly!

Do you work for an insurance company (I heard the word claim in there)? My mom has been both a personal trainer and a customer service rep for corporate insurance, so I've heard many a story. I'm sorry they treat you like crap. Whenever I deal with things I always ask the personal assistants, because they KNOW. PA's do all the real work. When I worked as a mail/girl receptionist the Boss's son (and mind you VP of the company), phoned his personal assistant who was the desk right outside his office, to have her call me, so I could go pick up post-its from the supply closet.

I forgot one of my better rants... which also happens to be a very valuable public service announcement:

I worked Quiznos one summer as well (yeah I've had a lot of jobs... I usually worked two or three during undergrad). Well the boss was a "good christian man" who was stingy as heck. His wife would sometimes come in to help out with lunch rush... well instead of paying for a babysitter or day care they brought their 4-5 kids to the store...

It gets worse... they let these kids, all under age 9 hang out in the backroom. The backroom at Quiznos had the following: a walk in freezer with a handle inside taller than the toddler and the baby, knifes, the occassional dismantled slicer with an exposed blade, heavy containers and boxes of supplies, dressings, etc on metal shelving, 1-2 boxcutters, cleaning supplies that can are highly toxic if ingested, etc.

The older kids were not always with the younger ones, and one time when I was getting something off from a shelf the toddler began to play around by pulling the ladder I was standing on out from under me. The kids hung out so much in the backroom they began telling employees what we were doing wrong when we were trying to work.

Ontop of that when my manager Jeff sliced off the very tip of his finger, Tom (the owner of that particular franchise locale, the one with the evil little aryan looking kids in the back room), told Jeff to slap a bandaid on it and keep working. Tom went home to enjoy his evening while Jeff continued to work through Twilight Fest, an event in the town that has most vendors open well past normal hours. For those of you who haven't worked in food, a. if a wound won't stop bleeding on its own, as Jeff's finger continued to bleed throughout the night, it is a serious health risk (think HIV), and b. it is a work hazard which could have gotten infected.

So please DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT let your children in the backroom of a sandwhich shop, restaurant, etc, ESPECIALLY unsupervised. And I guess this is a long rant... but once you get me started about that job... yick.  

[Seeress]

Dark_Lady_Jade

- When I find food remnants/residue on/in books. Just plain nasty. If I wanted food all over my hands, I'd just clean up after my little cousin once she's done eating. Plus, most of that stuff is sticky! gonk

eek Sacrilege!

My first job was as an accounts receivable lackey for a graphics company. That actually wasn't too bad, except that my manager, the accountant, kept trying to generally "improve" me. I have social anxiety, so she would make me cold-call customers and deal with people as often as she could, even though that stuff was never part of my job description, as if it would somehow fix me. xp

Then, I worked in a music/movie store in the mall for a while. That was as annoying as all retail... and our customers were incredibly stupid. I seriously once had someone come up to me and ask me if we sold movies... while I was standing in the movie department. sweatdrop And there would be people who wanted to find a song they didn't know the name of, but it went "La la la, and it was about love". Thanks, that's very helpful. Oh, and the guy who was absolutely convinced that since I was a girl I didn't listen to anything but Mariah Carey and couldn't possibly be familiar with the movie, Platoon. Bite me, sir. And the people who would get mad at us for checking their ID when they paid with a credit card, as if it's some personal affront that we're trying to prevent fraudulent charges. I'm always grateful when people remember to check my ID when I'm buying things.

Now, I have just about the perfect job, for me. I transcribe interview tapes for a state education grant. I never have to deal with people and am allowed to be on the internet all day long. The only pet-peeve I have is when people use my room as a conference room and they talk so loud that I can't hear the tape I'm trying to transcribe.  

[Kitten_Ember]

AntoniaMerEnfant

Farting in public? Gas-tly!

Do you work for an insurance company (I heard the word claim in there)? My mom has been both a personal trainer and a customer service rep for corporate insurance, so I've heard many a story. I'm sorry they treat you like crap. Whenever I deal with things I always ask the personal assistants, because they KNOW. PA's do all the real work. When I worked as a mail/girl receptionist the Boss's son (and mind you VP of the company), phoned his personal assistant who was the desk right outside his office, to have her call me, so I could go pick up post-its from the supply closet.

Actually I work for a large manufacturer in the sales and marketing department. The claims are for warranty repairs. And please, don't get me wrong I love my job and most everyone treats me with a great deal of respect. There's always one or to who think they are better than you. I'm pretty good at reassuring them they are indeed highly dependant upon me and better play nice...especially when they remember I have to approve all their sales for year end bonuses! xd  

[Marcious Pharoe]

Mar the security gaurd here, telling you the top 6 annoyances of my work...

6) People calling the shack saying someone jumped their fence. ....dude, by the time I get to thier house, the person is GONE. And I don't get paid to jump over the fence and track them down.

5) If a water main breaks, and I call CRIT (Colorado River Indian Tribes) water to shut it off and get someone to come out and fix it, why does every body demand that *I* should fix it? Do I look like a friggin alchemist to fix every major serious thing at thier whim?

4) Lost dogs are NOT my problem. I am not an animal shelter and should not be called upon like one.

3) Remember, there might be only so many strees and house numbers in a small gated community, but for the love of Oswin KNOW THE ADDRESS OR LAST NAME!!! I mean, what the crap!? Not knowing your (enter whatever)'s last name and giving me just a number or street is freaking annoying as hell.

2) If you're a resident using the visitor side (as there are two gates, one is automated and posted (remember this fact), and another is on the guard shack), and I do not know you are a resident, then tell me. It's a waste of time and paper work to sit there and enter information and then have "I'm a resident" said after all of that....

1) If you are visiting, and you don't know what you're doing or/and it's your first time..... Drive in the right lane! I mean, Jesus.... You'd think it'd be common sence.... If you are lost and decide to drive in the lane FARTHEST from the PERSON in the little building and expect to get answers and entrance far away from him/her, then you should get executed The Warriors style with a brick. Who in their right mind get's the farthest from help?!?!?!?!?  

[Lucky Hoku]

Top 5 Pet Peeves of being the Art Teacher, don't get me wrong... I love teaching art, it's an absolute dream job HOWEVER

1) just because I'm the art teacher doesn't mean that it is my job to decorate the school for every halfarse event that some dumbarse teacher decide they need a decoration for. If it is your event you decorate your own bloody classroom.

2) just because Art starts with an A doesn't mean your little brat will get an automatic A in my class without doing any work! Where do people get off thinking Art is easy. If your kid wants an A in art then tell him or her to get off his damn arse and do the work... for god's sake how hard is it to draw a straight line with a ruler.

3) just because this is the Art room doesn't mean it is also the Supply Room... every teacher has got a classroom allowance use it! Better yet try walking down the hall to the Supply Room and ask the attendant for a ream of computer paper or a bottle of glitter yourself. The walk will do your donut filled arse some good.

4) your Mum doesn't work here, so clean up after yourself. Why can't students pick up after themselves or clean up their own mess? I'm the Art teacher, this is the Art room... this is not your bedroom and I sure as hell am not you Mummy. You make, you brake it... You take it!

5) and last but not least, have you ever heard of P E R S O N A L S P A C E. Why do students feel the need to touch everything on my desk, or come up around my desk and stand next to me to see what is on my computer, or go into my desk or help themselves to my food! Last week, I had a Jamba Juice on my desk. I turned around to help another student and when I turned back to grab my drink it was in a student's hand. She was drinking it. I was horrified. I looked at her, she smiled and said "wow, this is really good." then handed the drink back to me. I threw it in the trash and told her that what she did was not only gross but stupid. How does she know that I didn't have some fatal disease that she could have contracted by drinking my Jamba Juice. What would your mother say if she knew you did this? The student looked at me and said "oh, my mom lets me drink her stuff all the time." Well, I'm not your Momma so don't touch my stuff again or I'll call your mum. Where the hell are these kids boundaries... you set them and they don't respect or observe them... it drives me crazy. twisted  

[Sedesla]

I work as a personal assistant, and I couldn't love my job more. I just wish my boss wouldn't smoke in the office. She only does it when she's stressed, but working as she does, that's almost constantly. She says I'm the Riker to her Picard (I am not kidding, I could even get you a soundclip if you don't believe me) so I wonder just how much she would smoke if I wasn't there. gonk

She's my mentor, so it bothers me not only because I'm physically repulsed by it, but also because it's really bad for her. She's got two kids, and risking her health just for a quick nicotine fix is really quite stupid.

And though I'm not paid, I do have a real bone to pick with my volunteer job. I work at a three day con, which means I honestly only have to dedicate a week out of my year to them, but fricking hell if they did not manage to pick the worst time ever for the con this year.

July 20-22

Right smack-dab in the middle is the release of Harry Potter book 7. I know in the grand scheme of things it's not that important, but being a huge nerd this is like life altering for me. I will still be working at the moment that book is released. And I can't duck out on my job for a couple of hours, because the convention is staffed by 500 other nerds, and they all want copies too.

I'm kind of bummed about it right now. At midnight on the 21st I'll probably be locking down an exhibit hall or something. sad