Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[RickM]

sending an email (to chancerider's colleague) with three questions that need to be answered in order for me to perform the task they originally requested. getting one question answered in the response with zero acknowledgement of the other two.

i didn't ask them three questions just for fun. i need the answers.

oh, and tomorrow, when they send me an email asking for an update on my progress, i will remind them that there are still two unanswered questions and therefore zero progress.

What?!!? Those do-nothing passive/aggressive fuckers. PM me names, dammit, I need names. Although I can probably guess who...

Pushups now....

[allerge99]

I have been very busy lately handling issues outside my area of responsibility. This has caused me to fall behind on my compliance training and a auto reminder that I have fallen behind is sent to me and my manager every morning. The other day he has the nerve to send me the email saying "I need it get my training taken care of so we can focus on our day to day business". Have you fing forgotten what other task you wanted done at the last fing minute because you screwed up? Needless to say I have had to take this stupid training at home for the last three hours.

[devlin]

So over the last couple of years I've formed a few friendships with some of the guys I ride and race with on our team. Really top shelf genuine people. Over the last few days I've been in Melbourne immersing myself in the cycling culture by default from visiting another very good non racing friend of mine. The problem now is my heart is split. knocking about with my Brisbane mates is a realgrounding and humbling experience (all ultra competetive roadies, go figure) but Brisbane just does not have the cycling culture that Melbourne has. Bike paths galore, inner city mtbing, multiple velodromes, cooler weather the list of positives goes on. My wife wants to move there. I'm almost decided, but leaving my mates behind would be very difficult.

[Too Tall]

Last week is going to be hard to top you grumpy MoFos.
Here is mine and it just happened so I don't have to wait 6 days to get it off my chest.
Note that no diminutive peoples were harmed in the course of this described event.

I walk into Starbucks behind a gentleman dressed in a green Harris Tweed. He happens to be about 5 foot tall. Maybe he has gold chains maybe he does not. As we are standing in line the gentleman turns to me and says "How do you fit in that car". His tone is not friendly, it is sharp and insulting. Maybe he starts all conversations with off putting remarks who knows? I reply with a fake Jersey accent (Hey I love Jersey) "How do YOU fit in cars?". Works right? The guy does not get off his high horse and has to prove he is right and says "Well you are driving a small sports car and I bet you don't fit in it". D@mn that is some nerve am I right? My reply "I am comfortable, it is important to properly order these cars and have the correct seats if you are tall". He says "well my friend ordered a Ferrari and it does not fit". Me..."I have nothing to say about that".
I felt like saying "Look Mini-me if you are going to tug on Supermans cape at least blow in my ear first". Folks if you are going to eff with people use some humor and esp. if you have a severely restricted sense of self preservation. That is all. OMG I get this @#$@#$ almost every day of my tall life. Mostly I laugh about it.

[Britishbane]

Last week is going to be hard to top you grumpy MoFos.
Here is mine and it just happened so I don't have to wait 6 days to get it off my chest.
Note that no diminutive peoples were harmed in the course of this described event.

[snip]

One can relate. As if you'd make a comment about any other physical characteristic a person may possess. "My word, with your girth how can you find clothes." As if.

My grump: work + school + life = a wasted CX season. Harumph.

[MarkC]

It's year end assessment time. Folks seem to believe that "exceeds" means showing up for work 3 days out of 5. Also when providing 360 feedback everyone is "great" or "outstanding" or a "role model". Ok.....

Feel like I'm trapped in a old fashioned radio show where the women are all handsome and the children are all above average.

[Britishbane]

It's year end assessment time. Folks seem to believe that "exceeds" means showing up for work 3 days out of 5. Also when providing 360 feedback everyone is "great" or "outstanding" or a "role model". Ok.....

Feel like I'm trapped in a old fashioned radio show where the women are all handsome and the children are all above average.

Mark, similar thing happened here, but the opposite. Say you are killing it in many aspects, but the boss doesn't want to see too many exceeds. If you can't accurately grade someone WTF is the point???

Jesus, I'm getting fired up this AM.

[davids]

I received an email from a fellow department head yesterday. She has not only replied to an email that is, at best, a blind troll for sales leads and, at worst, out and out spam. She has also included both my email addy and our Communications Director’s email addy in her reply, so that the salesman/spammer now has at least three legit addresses from our organization.

I wrote her a short, testy reply instructing her to never give out my email address to an unknown party, and pointing out to her that she is, in this particular respect, a complete and total idiot.

[RickM]

Mark, similar thing happened here, but the opposite. Say you are killing it in many aspects, but the boss doesn't want to see too many exceeds. If you can't accurately grade someone WTF is the point???

Jesus, I'm getting fired up this AM.

Hah! Oh yeah... the problem is twofold. At GE, we had to brutally rack and stack employees every quarter. Managers and Director's were subject to the same process. I always knew that if I stayed there long enough..the bell would toll for me too. In GE management, the pyramid gets very pointy very fast. So...on one side of the equation you had employess who thought that showing up and doing their defined job duties deserved an "Exceeds Expectations" grade. Uh...No. What you are doing is Price Of Admission work. On the other side...several years of Rack and Stack can winnow even the most high-performing team down to where everyone is really doing a pretty crackerjack job...but..you need a body to give, to borrow a line from Dashiell Hammet. That sucked. I had competent colleagues let go and/or gently pushed out..and I let my share of good emplyees go. I don't miss any of that. Actually, sometimes I do miss some of it. In my curent environment...every time someone asks the stupid question; "How can we work smarter, leaner, and faster?" my first gut instinct is to offer up; "Fire 1/3 of your work force now. Today. Then appoint specific responsibilty sets to specific owners and make them completely accountable...but also give them the autonomy to act as they see fit to run the show." None of that will ever happen in an academic medical computing environment...but a boy can dream, can he not?

[RickM]

Josh wrote; "OMG I get this @#$@#$ almost every day of my tall life.."

TT--> My 6' 6" son, while not as tall as you..gets this kind of stuff every day too. It drives him batty. It's like people feeling totally free to make comments about preggers women and/or lay hands on their bellies, etc.. People just feel like they can say and do this kind of stuff. You should have laid in to Shorty. Sometimes the Low Road is a really fun detour.

[Nierman]

Coup de Grass





I've turned into a suburban Walt Kowalski
sitting on my front porch
in the dark
drinking bottled craft beer
Crossman in lap
pumped once
waiting for the neighbor's dog
The tell-tale heart of Arcade Fire
beats harrowingly in my head

I'll plunk some steel in your ass
then go inside and sleep like a baby

[Britishbane]

Coup de Grass


sitting on my front porch
in the dark
drinking bottled craft beer
Crossman in lap
pumped once
waiting for the neighbor's dog
The tell-tale heart of Arcade Fire
beats harrowingly in my head

I'll plunk some steel in your ass
then go inside and sleep like a baby

Sounds like an ideal evening. Jealous.



pushups pending.

[Britishbane]

Hah! Oh yeah... the problem is twofold. At GE, ...SNIP... where everyone is really doing a pretty crackerjack job...but..you need a body to give, to borrow a line from Dashiell Hammet. That sucked. I had competent colleagues let go and/or gently pushed out..and I let my share of good emplyees go.

Exact opposite here. Incompetence reigns. There are MANY folks who literally do nothing, like anything other than consume HFCS (yup going there) all day everyday. They've been here forever. A culture of mediocrity is entrenched and I'm caught up in it. Those at the top know it (how can they not?) but they're making the big bucks so who cares, right?

FUCKING Thursday.

[nahtnoj]

I'm 6'3". Not a giant freak like some of you, but still more likely to get cancer than normal-sized people. Which doesn't make me terribly grumpy, but it is a long-term consideration I'll now have weighing on my mind along with everything else.

Height and longevity: The research is clear—being tall is hazardous to your health.

Next time a shorty spouts off, remind him of this.

[Britishbane]

I'm 6'3". Not a giant freak like some of you, but still more likely to get cancer than normal-sized people.

Height and longevity: The research is clear—being tall is hazardous to your health.

Next time a shorty spouts off, remind him of this.

6'7'' here, add this to my list of bitches.

[mnoble485]

My new to me Hampsten is built up and ready to ride. My work schedule is so wacked out I don't know when I will get my first ride in.

Mike

[boxerboxer]

My new to me Hampsten is built up and ready to ride. My work schedule is so wacked out I don't know when I will get my first ride in. Mike

Ah, the humblebrag of grumps.




...aaaand 20.

[monadnocky]

I try. I really do. I try not to post something every Thursday, but sometimes it's just impossible to resist.

I'm working less than full time right now. I am able to do this financially at the moment and may -or may not- look for more work when I am done completing a move east of here. I have no idea why people are so fascinated by this fact and ask at every opportunity some intrusive question about my plans for finding more work, etc. To make matters more interesting, my wife is mostly not working right now- by her own choice- and she's loving every minute of it, but just about everyone who hears this asks "what does she do with all her free time?" What the fuck business is it of yours? Why do you care? Shall I provide you a detailed flowchart of what she does on a minute-to-minute basis? Do I demand an accounting of what you do in your "free" time?

The last person who asked me what my wife does with her "free" time I wanted to answer that she cooks methamphetamine and sacrifices children to Satan. Instead I offered my usual response of "oh, she keeps herself pretty busy..."

[j44ke]

I am 6'1" which makes me above average height in NYC. Raining today, so that means I get umbrellas in the face no matter where I go. If you are 5'2", whyaduck do you need a 48" diameter golf umbrella? I've had my hat hooked off my head, my glasses nearly launched and quite a few ear jabs. I watch out. But when I try to walk around you umbrellists, why why why do you move towards me when there is NO ONE ELSE ON THE 20' WIDE SIDEWALK? I had a tiny Chinese lady with a giant umbrella nearly put me into a window today. Get a good raincoat and walk in a straight line. Otherwise, leave the gdm umbrella at home. You aren't licensed to use it.

As the late great Woody Allen once said, "What I wouldn't give for a good polo mallet."

[boxerboxer]

This is so petty, but when I say "by the end of the week" on Thursday, and people immediately say "oh, you mean tomorrow", and I can't grab them by the throat and ask them what the fuck they think I mean by "the end of the week"...