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her "it's so hot, have maintenance lower the temps!"

me "bet we're fine, comfortable, not hot"

her "just do it!!!!"

me "oook"

some time later, as I'm freezing cold, and everyone else is bundled up

her "ahhhh this is nice"

me "no, no it's not" (chattering teeth)

6/8/2012 3:44:44 PM

Yeah that's when you claim you emailed maintenance when you didn't

6/8/2012 3:46:34 PM

lol the only way to contact them is by phone call and we work in one large office so she will know

I tried to convince her to get a desk fan but nooooooooo, she doesn't like air blowing on her. I should just get a sweater. I always dress in layer just in case. She wears long sleeves and is post menopausal.

6/8/2012 3:53:03 PM

That's one instance where I'm grateful for our strict office rules on temps. Our thermostats have to be set between 71 and 74 degrees. Keeps the outlying people from controlling the rest of us.

6/8/2012 3:57:45 PM

Pretend you're making the call. "Hello, this is Minkagrl01 from XYZ Company. Could you please turn down the temperature some in our office? Thanks," while your finger is on the button the whole time

6/8/2012 4:00:21 PM

^hahahaha I am so going to do that!!

6/8/2012 4:04:42 PM

I hate it when IT and other departments don't coordinate, or people can't get permissions set up correctly.

My team just got an email with a link to some new stuff on our internal portal. We all clicked the link..."Access Denied"

6/8/2012 4:19:23 PM

Quote :

"And don't ask me for your break or lunch! I'll send you when it's time for you to go! "

yeah... i would totally expect people who are told when to go to lunch to act like adults other times.

6/8/2012 6:36:48 PM

Quote :

" her "it's so hot, have maintenance lower the temps!" me "bet we're fine, comfortable, not hot" her "just do it!!!!" me "oook" some time later, as I'm freezing cold, and everyone else is bundled up her "ahhhh this is nice" me "no, no it's not" (chattering teeth)"

better too cold than too hot... you can always put on a jacket if you are too cold... things get ugly quick when it's too hot.

6/8/2012 6:37:36 PM

my predecessor continues to get collection calls to my phone number....

6/11/2012 11:53:37 AM

I thought collections agencies weren't allowed to call work numbers.

6/11/2012 11:55:01 AM

i hate when they close down the cafeteria because they are seving pizza or some shit for a sitewide function

because i dont want to eat that shit

6/11/2012 11:57:27 AM

On the topic of HVAC at work:

The majority of the time when building occupants are uncomfortable with the environment at work (from a hot/cold perspective) it actually doesn't have that much to do with the number the thermostat is reading. In fact, if you design an office right, the ideal temperature (based on years and years and years of empirical data) is generally around 75-78F for the majority of the occupants in the summer.

Also, the reason some people are hot and others cold often has to do with the fact that buildings are zoned. Even if one unit is serving the space, there are separate thermostats for different zones that the AHU serves and their location (if they are near a heat source or near a window or right near an air drop etc.) can cause them to not accurately represent the true ambient condition in the zone they serve. The same applies for people. If you sit right below a register dumping air, it can easily feel like 73 to you even though the space is actually at 78. Windows: Same thing applies if the perimeter heating/cooling wasn't designed right (or if it was designed to have blinds and the building owners value engineered them out late in the job or they are always kept open etc.)

One of the big problems when designing commercial buildings though is that the HVAC designer was likely given very little info to work with up front and even then the building owners have probably changed the layout of the space since the system was designed or the occupants don't know what assumptions the HVAC engineer was told to make (ie blinds being closed in the afternoon in the summer).

Unfortunately the maintenance people end up getting bugged when there is often not a lot that they can do to satisfy the majority of the occupants unless there is a pretty detailed control system for the system that they can tweak. Oh, and of course building owners tend to "value engineer" those kinds of things out as well.

TLDR: The blame usually likes on the cheap building owner (or whoever paid to build it) or the HVAC contractor who designed it but the maintenance guys get bugged about it

[Edited on June 11, 2012 at 12:22 PM. Reason : ]

6/11/2012 12:17:09 PM

Quote :

"I thought collections agencies weren't allowed to call work numbers."

no clue... they've called multiple times in the past 4 weeks

6/11/2012 12:59:06 PM

They are also not allowed to harass. So, next time they call, ask for their supervisor and say you're going to report them for harassing. They won't call after that.

6/11/2012 1:01:59 PM

the thermostat for my zone is located about 18" from a large server rack case that was put in as a training simulator, years after the building was built and the HVAC system designed. it runs hot in that room. the door remains shut and locked, 99% of the time.

So, here I am, mid june in south texas, heat index well over 100 today, and im wearing long sleeves and a hoodie, just to sit at my desk.

i dont give a shit though. spend a few hours outside and come into this? it's glorious.

[Edited on June 11, 2012 at 1:04 PM. Reason : e]

6/11/2012 1:02:56 PM

I rigged a piece of cardboard that I put over the vent, I can control the flow with it. Before that it was winter clothes in the summer, summer clothes in the winter.

6/11/2012 1:09:53 PM

getting graded / evaluated low on part of my anual review for something I have no control over and have not been assigned

6/11/2012 1:13:20 PM

Calibration Meetings every day ftl. last week we played bank bingo. we learned wonderful facts about Wells Fargo.

6/11/2012 1:23:53 PM

Not sure if this will be a recurring annoyance or just a one time thing. Facilities came by and changes the codes to get into the main management systems office. They did this at 11 at night. So now when all those folks come in at 6-8am they need to stop by and get the new code from me. Why they don't change it when everyone is here I don't quite understand

6/12/2012 4:23:37 AM

Often when codes/locks are changed after hours it's because someone (or often lots of people) are getting fired. Prevents people from going crazy and going in to fuck something (or someone) up.

6/12/2012 7:53:53 AM

WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR PEOPLE TO JUST STAY HOME WHEN THEY ARE SICK?? UGH IT'S LIKE THEY THINK THEY ARE SOME KIND OF MARTYR OR SOMETHING

6/12/2012 2:12:14 PM

At the place I worked before this, if you were sick, you were encouraged to stay home. Here, if you are sick, they want a doctor's note if you want to stay home for the support staff (they don't care about attorneys really). I think it's ridiculous. If I'm vomiting and running a fever, I don't need to be at work, but I also don't need to run off to the Urgent Care either.

6/12/2012 2:14:48 PM

she finally left for an appointment and we all started talking about ridiculous it is and she's going to get us all sick and then a coworker of mine says "I dont believe that antiquated theory about germs..."

me: what??

him: I don't believe germs make you sick.

6/12/2012 3:12:13 PM

Quote :

"WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR PEOPLE TO JUST STAY HOME WHEN THEY ARE SICK?? UGH IT'S LIKE THEY THINK THEY ARE SOME KIND OF MARTYR OR SOMETHING"

When I worked in Oklahoma, we had no sick leave. We had to use annual leave, which we basically accumulated one day a month. We also had holidays, but we could only use our accumulated leave days if we got sick. So I had to come to work sick if I wanted to have a week long or more vacation back to NC.

6/12/2012 3:16:15 PM

we have unlimited sick time, there's no problems with calling in. I even set up logmein for her to use at home if need be, but she's technically inept and doesn't want to learn to be able to use it.

6/12/2012 3:18:18 PM

How do they manage to slow down time between 8 and 5?

6/12/2012 3:27:03 PM

Yeah, I don't have sick time either. I just call out whenever.

6/12/2012 4:43:53 PM

STOP SPRAYING LYSOL ALL OVER THE OFFICE JUST BECAUSE YOU SMELL SOMETHING BAD, YOU STUPID BITCH.

6/13/2012 11:46:58 AM

Voicemails that consist of:

Quote :

"Hey this is dumbass, can you call me back as soon as you get this?"

a - unless it's an emergency i ain't calling you back as soon as i hear your words
b - you could enlighten me with what the hell you're calling about so i can prepare for calling you back

6/13/2012 12:15:40 PM

^ on the topic of voicemail add these to my list:

a: those who leave neither a name or number yet get pissed when I don't promptly return their call.

b: people who leave ten messages regarding the same matter and expect me not to get annoyed.

6/13/2012 4:09:20 PM

every time i bring food into the office

"so what did you bring me??"

6/14/2012 8:10:25 AM

Reply All...fucking hate it. Nothing like 1124524562345 emails from one chain conversation of which you had no part

6/14/2012 8:12:10 AM

Quote :

"When I worked in Oklahoma, we had no sick leave. We had to use annual leave, which we basically accumulated one day a month. We also had holidays, but we could only use our accumulated leave days if we got sick. So I had to come to work sick if I wanted to have a week long or more vacation back to NC."

Yeah, that's why people do it. They cut our sick days down several years ago. When you get sick you weigh your options... well I'm sick, but it's only January. I feel terrible but at the same time there's the possibility I might feel even worse than this at some point later in the year so I better go in. Then a week later everyone in the office is sick because everyone essentially has to make that same decision.

But at least the sick day liability got reduced on some financial spreadsheet somewhere.

6/14/2012 8:25:11 AM

I hate vacation policies like that. One of the perks I loved about the company I came to here out of school was that they just give you a set hours per week that you accrue for time off. No distinction between sick, vacation, holidays or anything. Because of that you do have to use it for holidays which might sound weird if you're not used to that, but it definitely works out so much better than policies that categorize all the time off.

6/14/2012 8:35:42 AM

Yeah, provided they give you enough time off. "Here's your 10 sick/vacation days for the year" would just reinforce coming in while sick.

I guess you can use that as a gauge for how terrible a job is... do you feel like you have to come in when you're sick?

6/14/2012 8:45:04 AM

Well yeah that would definitely suck. I get 6 weeks so luckily that's not an issue.

I wouldn't ever feel like I had to come in if I was truly sick unless I had a big deadline that day and didn't have something finished already for some reason. Even then I'd probably just come get my laptop to bring home

That being said, I have been very fortunate healthwise as I think I have only spent like 3 days off for health reasons since being here. But I remember my dad's vacation days being like yours when I was younger and it just seemed like a PITA.

[Edited on June 14, 2012 at 8:53 AM. Reason : ]

6/14/2012 8:50:42 AM

I actually like having the categories separated. I get 11 hours/month vacation leave and 8 hours/month sick leave. Plus, it rolls over if you don't use it by the end of the year. Encourages you to actually use the sick days when you don't feel good as, unless you are chronically ill or have a long hospital stay, there are usually plenty of them. I have something like 400+ hours of sick leave banked currently. Too bad you can't get that paid out when you leave.

(Vacation does, but I only have ~210 hours of that...)

6/14/2012 8:57:31 AM

Currently, my leave & sick days get paid out or rolled over. I opt for teh money.

6/14/2012 8:59:57 AM

^^ that's pretty similar to mine minus the separation. I basically get 20 hours per month for a combined pool and it rolls over and can be paid out when you leave.

The reason I don't like the separate categories is because, like you said, you generally aren't going to get the sick time paid out if you leave and a lot of companies don't roll sick days over. Plus, it may look like you are either chronically sick or trying to game the system (by using "sick" time when you aren't sick) if you use all of it every year but if you don't you're leaving possible hours on the table.

Having it all lumped into one pool kind of removes having to make any decisions about it imo. If you're sick, take sick leave. If you don't feel like taking memorial day off because you have nothing planned, work memorial day and save that time to spend on an actual vacation instead of being forced to take it etc. At the end of the year, no one can see how many days you were sick or out of town or just felt like staying home, only what days you took paid time off.

They used to actually let people cash some out whenever they wanted and people would do that for down payments and stuff I think they had to stop that though for some sort of tax or labor reasons.

[Edited on June 14, 2012 at 9:08 AM. Reason : ]

6/14/2012 9:06:03 AM

My company treat sick leave as general vacation anyways. Per their words, "use it how you want to".

6/14/2012 9:07:40 AM

You have your own printer, it works, and you know how to use it. Why the fuck do you forward emails to me and have me print out the attachments??? so stupid and tedious

6/14/2012 9:35:05 AM

^5

I'd probably get 'sick' and have to stay at a spa in Hawaii for a few weeks every now and then.

6/14/2012 9:55:24 AM

Is that your job? ^^

[Edited on June 14, 2012 at 9:56 AM. Reason : ]

6/14/2012 9:55:51 AM

just bc she is a girl you automatically assume that is her job in the office?



you misogynistic bastard

6/14/2012 10:00:28 AM

^No, I'm sure she's supposed to make coffee, clean-up the breakroom, and run errands, too

[Edited on June 14, 2012 at 10:01 AM. Reason : .]

6/14/2012 10:01:25 AM

Minka, where the fuck is my coffee then?

6/14/2012 10:02:31 AM

And if she likes raises, she also sits on the boss's lap and wiggles.

6/14/2012 10:03:24 AM

lol

6/14/2012 10:04:27 AM

Seriously? There'a a whole row of open spots and this woman felt the need to park so close I couldn't even open my driver's door

6/14/2012 12:07:29 PM