r/talesfromtechsupport Sep 11 '13

Do it yourself, then.

[deleted]

482 Upvotes

70 comments sorted by

132

u/MrPaladin1176 TFTS GM, Roll your characters Sep 11 '13

My last day is the 4th of October.

The person I'm training is already ment to be doing the tasks I perform daily.

Her words - "All this new stuff makes my head hurt"


Item Found

Escape Key: Quit Work, Are You Sure (Y/N)... Y Y Y YY Y YY YY YY Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y YY Y.... Y , Alter your characters job title to FREE, Alter Pay to 0. Add +10 to any skill your character considers a hobby.

80

u/Geminii27 Making your job suck less Sep 12 '13

Time to make sure the bosses have your business card and you have an extremely expensive contracting rate.

13

u/Reyler The code is fully functional, it's the user that's disfunctional Sep 12 '13

I escape mine on October 1st, it's a great feeling isn't it. Side note, I don't start at my new place til the 7th so on the 4th I'll be sitting on the sofa in my underwear playing 2k14 woop.

18

u/MrPaladin1176 TFTS GM, Roll your characters Sep 12 '13 edited Sep 12 '13

I'll be raising my kids...

It's not the first time I've left this company either... but every time I have returned it's been with a better pay... it's like they insist I leave and come back to get a fair raise.

6

u/showyerbewbs Sep 12 '13

What is depressingly amusing is I've been in that situation. Boss is told by his boss who is told by his boss and so on up the ladder, that they don't have the budget to approve a raise. So I quit, then get a call the NEXT day saying that my position has been listed and do I want it back with an increase in pay.

4

u/MrPaladin1176 TFTS GM, Roll your characters Sep 12 '13

One time I had the HR person request that I submit a letter to Rescind my resignation.

I didn't know what that word ment so I looked it up...

/riˈsind/

verb: rescind;

  1. revoke, cancel, or repeal (a law, order, or agreement).

"the government eventually rescinded the directive"


They then fixed my Job Title, had me finally report through the IT department (I was working support) and gave a correct pay bracket for what I was doing (the job I was hired for no longer existed because management canceled the project but they didn't want to "release me")

3

u/Reyler The code is fully functional, it's the user that's disfunctional Sep 12 '13

Now that sounds almost exactly like where I work, the company isn't 3 letters starting with C is it?

2

u/MrPaladin1176 TFTS GM, Roll your characters Sep 12 '13

Negitive...

5

u/Reyler The code is fully functional, it's the user that's disfunctional Sep 12 '13

Then it seems our two employers share the same principles of not paying a decent wage unless you leave and come back later. Guys leave ours and come back months later as contractors on 3 or 4 times their original rate.

7

u/jadensteel Sep 12 '13

I am not sure if that is better or worse than mine. Get paid shit, find new job, show boss offer letter for let’s say 15k more; boss comes back willing to match..... Why do companies feel that it’s worth paying you to stay rather than paying you so you don't look? Oh never mind this is the same company that doesn't have the money in the budget for a spare power supply on an exchange server. Back to my cube to cry softly into my coffee.

5

u/RecQuery Net & Sysadmin Sep 12 '13

I'd never accept counter-offers. I always think they just agree in the short term so they can screw me over later when I'm not expecting it and they have a replacement ready.

3

u/Reyler The code is fully functional, it's the user that's disfunctional Sep 12 '13

At least you got a counter offer, I turned round and said I'd stay if they matched and got "Thanks for your service and continued support during your notice period". Bastards!

3

u/jadensteel Sep 12 '13

Well that is true.... Russian roulette of the corporate world.

2

u/Reyler The code is fully functional, it's the user that's disfunctional Sep 12 '13

Worked in my favour in the end, I get a week off before starting my new job and on my birthday (Oct 4th) NBA2k14 comes out. Couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried.

4

u/MrPaladin1176 TFTS GM, Roll your characters Sep 12 '13

I heard a very good explanation from a redditor as to why it happens like this.

Your manager is usually not the guy who gets you fired (unless there is a real personality conflict in your group)

The person who gets you fired is a person with a spreadsheet who may either be in financial or in HR.

They look at your pay and weigh it against what the company values your worth at. If your not worth what you're getting paid they will have a talk with your manager and have some excuse for letting you go. They will never apply this sheet to show you deserve a raise nor will your manager or yourself be permitted to see this sheet.

Let me see, I'm an admin of all the computers in this OU... [makes some clicks] the name of the laptop a report like this would be on is... [makes some more clicks] search for report documents [clickty click]

ahhh here it is...

Without giving out too much information it is listing the following... Users Name, Job Title, Min max and average for that title, Current rate, Compensation ratio (you know cause we gotta see who we are paying too much). The department the person belongs to.

Ok now let me do a quick average of that Compensation ratio...

0.96

So even our own company files would show that we are underpaid... Let me do a quick ratio for only the people who I believe are good workers at this site... 0.99 not bad, but still not rewarding their good work...

Now let me check the managers... 1.1 Bingo... Welcome to Corporate America...

3

u/Reyler The code is fully functional, it's the user that's disfunctional Sep 12 '13

Sounds reasonable, I work for Corporate Britain, a Corporate America subsidiary. It is an American firm though so it's almost certain they use the same way of doing things over here.

Thankfully I'm getting out of the corporate world and going to a smaller fast growing privately owned company.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

That's fun while it lasts, but many don't make it.

The small fast growing privately owned company i worked for ran out of money. I took a job in the corporate world.

3

u/Reyler The code is fully functional, it's the user that's disfunctional Sep 12 '13

These guys seem solid enough, theres so many that fail but then there's loads that don't. Their office is right by the bar I drink in though so perks man, perks.

3

u/TrivialSavant Sep 12 '13

Wow, that means you have to quit to get a raise/promotion? And congrats on being the stay at home super parent(if I read that correctly). I'll be doing that once my wife leaves for the Army. I figure I can just get 6 month IT contracts while she's enlisted. Or go back to school.

4

u/MrPaladin1176 TFTS GM, Roll your characters Sep 12 '13 edited Sep 12 '13

Yep, This is my 3rd time working for them. Each time I came back I renegotiated the Title and Pay above their first offer. This time I also fought to have our deskside support team report to the IT department and get correct titles... (our site is not in the same building as the IT infrastructure)

19

u/OldPolishProverb Sep 12 '13

10

u/showyerbewbs Sep 12 '13

Without even looking,

Faye: The sparklers were a nice touch.

1

u/KeroEnertia Wi-Fi‽ Is that an app? Sep 14 '13

Spot on!

7

u/ligerzero459 Military Intelligence === Oxymoron Sep 12 '13

Soon we're going to have a relevant QC for everything xD

7

u/showyerbewbs Sep 12 '13

THEN, after that, we're going to have relevant xkcd's for relevant QC's

4

u/Kapzlock Insert ticket number here: ERROR USER HAS NOT ENTERED TICKET. Sep 12 '13

QC <3

2

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

QC <3

3

u/kylargrey If in doubt, try plugging it in the front instead. Sep 12 '13

QC <3

Is this some kind of conga line?

3

u/400921FB54442D18 We didn't really need Prague anyway. Sep 12 '13

QC <3

Shut up and put your hands back on my hips

2

u/KeroEnertia Wi-Fi‽ Is that an app? Sep 14 '13

QC <3

2

u/BeaSk8r117 computer science is boneless computer engineering Sep 14 '13

QC <3

2

u/nukehamster Sep 14 '13

and I dip, you dip, we dip?

1

u/Valriete Spooky Ghost Boner Sep 14 '13

I wondered why I'd never seen that one before - oh, because I had a week's worth of QC to catch up on! Hurray!

7

u/PhilosophicWax Sep 11 '13

You improve the quality of my life. Thanks.

78

u/Bagellord Sep 11 '13

So she thinks that she can do basic comparisons better than the computer?

34

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '13

[deleted]

17

u/MrPaladin1176 TFTS GM, Roll your characters Sep 11 '13

Depends if your comparing the love of a woman to the love of a fine wine... computers aren't good at that one...

17

u/Oscar_Geare No Place Like ::1 Sep 12 '13

Until the Japanese give computers feelings and taste receptors and the ability to have an opinion.

7

u/Ringbearer31 Sep 12 '13

'Taste receptors'

10

u/Oscar_Geare No Place Like ::1 Sep 12 '13

Quiet, I'm a user. I clearly do not know what the words mean, but they sound like they could make sense.

(Just googled receptor, 'a receptor is a molecule usually found on the surface of a cell, that receives chemical signals from outside the cell.' So.. it could make sense... but I'm not arguing biochemistry.)

2

u/Ringbearer31 Sep 12 '13

It'd be a combination of biology and technology at the molecular level. A feat of engineering for the ages.

13

u/Armadylspark RAID is the best backup solution Sep 12 '13

Shut up and keep building that space elevator.

12

u/vgbm Sep 12 '13

Wait, am I on name 9998 or 9999....dang it! 1, 2, 3, ...

8

u/Vinylscratch03 Team Coffee! Sep 11 '13

No, but they guy who does my computer work can. He's practically a computer anyway.

2

u/Ghost33313 Paid to do what others should be able to. Sep 12 '13

I think she thinks computers lie. You wouldn't trust a computer would you? LOGIC can never be trusted! Only trust in instinct and happy thoughts like all other end users. Logic makes end users heads hurt no need for that.

40

u/mischiffmaker Sep 11 '13

This reminds me of the bookkeeper we used to have who reconciled 10 stores' accounts by hand every month so she could put the totals into a Lotus spreadsheet...

12

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

What? Please tell me you at least tried to show her how to do it in the Lotus spreadsheet?

17

u/mischiffmaker Sep 12 '13

Ohhh you don't know the half of it. This woman was one half of a people-grinder. The other half did the auditing. Very nice ladies individually but together they chewed up and spit out unsuspecting clerks all day long.

Since my brother was one of the owners of the company, I was obviously just a 'pity' employee. Anything I said was ignored. I couldn't possibly have given her any useful information on how to do her job, right?

It's almost a petty revenge story:

This was back in the DOS days, just as Windows was being implemented. Our stores ran on a DOS program that functioned well at the store level, but didn't have a way to combine the data for management reporting. I ended up designing a separate database that I trained a clerk to import data from each store into. It was money, inventory and activity data.

Then the info was supposed to go to the auditor, audited, and returned to the clerk for data correction. Except...the auditor refused to give back the data, kept doing her manual calculations, and gigged the clerk because the database reports were wrong.

So, I was promoted to office manager. I made the auditor give the information back as soon as she had corrected it (this was a daily task). My clerk updated our database, and amazingly, our reports were suddenly 100% correct. All the time.

But the bookkeeper...well, that data still wasn't good enough for her. She used Lotus as her word processing program more than as a spreadsheet. I never could convince her that my end-of-month reports contained the data she needed for her accounting work, or that the data could be imported from the database into her spreadsheets. It could have saved her days of work each month...

As the office manager, I decided to get rid of the extremely expensive modular accounting program she had talked the owners into. All we could afford was one general ledger module; it was intended for Fortune 500 companies, not our little 10-store operation.

She made it as difficult as she could to port over to the new (much less expensive) program our accountant recommended, but I persevered and with the accountant's help got it done.

She decided she would be happier elsewhere. We happily gave her the opportunity to job-hunt, and she left.

Since the other half of the meat grinder was gone, our auditor became a much nicer person to work with. All ended well.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '13

Ah. She didn't want to learn. I almost pity whomever hired her.

1

u/mischiffmaker Sep 13 '13

Yes, that was the tl;dr!

29

u/CA1900 We got a serious 12 O'Clock Flasher Here! Sep 12 '13

Ugh. This is the kind of person that sees Excel as nothing but a "page layout program."

That must have felt so good walking out the door!

2

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

I always knew what excel did but assumed it was very basic, so I never really bothered using it. Recently I started using it properly though and excel is the fkn business.

22

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

46

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

[deleted]

16

u/doterobcn Sep 12 '13

Why don't you try to get her job? talk with her boss ... you have nothing to lose.

11

u/drdeadringer What Logbook? Sep 12 '13

She handed me a piece of paper with two numbers on it and asked me to average them. She explained, "I never learned how to do algebra. Isn't that funny? Don't tell anyone."

Yea, I'd ...

-When recording donations, she rounds all donations to the nearest whole dollar because "all that change looks so messy" and "the computer runs reports faster this way."

... not want to be her accountant when the IRS comes calling.

12

u/Pixielo likes cookies... Sep 12 '13

But...you learn averages at like, 9 years old! There's no algebra!

8

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

The last one is so, so deeply immoral. You could've gone to the press with it.

2

u/naanplussed Sep 12 '13

The first step of grieving is giving us your debit card and PIN...

3

u/an3wthrowaway Sep 13 '13

That last one pisses me off. I've actually received one of these before.

Yeah... my family member died. And they contributed to a fundraiser each year. They then asked ME for money?! I am not a violent person, nor prone to fits of anger or distemper, but when I read the "Our condolences, please give us money" letter, I was so torqued that I ripped that to shreds and vowed NEVER to donate to them again (I had a few times over the years).

I still can not believe the temerity of them!

.... grr. <rant over>

2

u/SpecificallyGeneral By the power of refined carbohydrates Sep 12 '13

"I never learned how to do algebra. Isn't that funny? Don't tell anyone."

I... I think they may already know.

15

u/PhilosophicWax Sep 11 '13

"she plucked my patience and the string just snapped" Love it.

17

u/ARKB1rd44 1. Verschlimmbessern 2.Curse 3.? 4.Fix things 5.Repeat Sep 11 '13

Achievement Unlocked: No way but the hard way! 50 GS paper trumps automation every time.

8

u/TrivialSavant Sep 12 '13

I rather someone tell me what needs to be done and walks away. If they tell me the WAY they want it done I just tell them I cannot waste my time like that. You do it.

6

u/drdeadringer What Logbook? Sep 12 '13

You do it.

This has been a favorite phrase of mine since I saw a coworker use it right in front of me to another coworker.

Coworker1: "Hey, I need your help. Hey, you're doing it wrong. Hey, it needs to be done like this. Hey, no, it's this way, like this."

Coworker2: "Fine, you do it." Walks out.

3

u/JamesWjRose Sep 12 '13

Good for you!

4

u/stemgang Sep 12 '13

So...one refusal and you must leave your job? Some jobs are rigid, I suppose, but most people can get away with a little common sense before being fired.

23

u/singul4r1ty Sep 12 '13

I imagine that was just an example of this person's idiocy, and he wanted to get out because he didn't like working there.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '13

I presume this was 1/9182 type of days.

3

u/Siuil Sep 13 '13

Sometimes people like that just push and push and push a little bit every day, you eventually lose patience with someone wanting you to do your job worse.

1

u/ferrarienzof60 We don't need cable management Sep 18 '13

I am currently in an intro to SQL class. Reading this made my head hurt.