You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

The increasingly blurred line between home and work and the general lack of respect for personal time RGMG today. We are unexpectedly short staffed at work this week due a coworker unexpectedly on short term medical leave. We has a customer complain about the increased wait as a result and flat out stated that person should be able to work from home, there was no excuse for them to not be working.

I used to think people were whiny but I am on the phone replying to stuff in all my waking hours and thinking about work in the sleeping hours. Go home talk to the kids drive them to stuff but constantly replying to things and directing traffic. At least I will be known as a legend work loser when I die with a measly pile of cash. What a depressing existing all this is.

Some nameless investors in Houston will be happy I existed.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

The increasingly blurred line between home and work and the general lack of respect for personal time RGMG today. We are unexpectedly short staffed at work this week due a coworker unexpectedly on short term medical leave. We has a customer complain about the increased wait as a result and flat out stated that person should be able to work from home, there was no excuse for them to not be working.

Pre-covid, it was extremely rare for someone to book a meeting over lunch. It happened maybe twice a year, and the organizer would be apologetic.

Now it’s routine - multiple times a week. I guess people stepping away from their desk for an hour at lunch is no longer a thing.

I’ve noticed people rarely take sick days anymore. Were people faking when they took 4-5 “I can’t some in today, nursing a cold/flu” days a year? Are they getting sick less? Or is the assumption now that you can just suck it up and work from home if you have a cold, flu, or gastro-intestinal issues?

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

The increasingly blurred line between home and work and the general lack of respect for personal time RGMG today. We are unexpectedly short staffed at work this week due a coworker unexpectedly on short term medical leave. We has a customer complain about the increased wait as a result and flat out stated that person should be able to work from home, there was no excuse for them to not be working.

Its an ongoing degradation of society. We are deeply, deeply into a "#### you, got mine" type of spiral where everyone is focused on themselves. Society is essentially set up to favor people who are more focused on themselves than others, and continually the benefits of being selfless are removed or non existent.

I encounter this on a daily basis now- people don't care about other people. Who cares what their circumstances are, who cares what they're dealing with. I have to care about me and the delay you have caused me is intolerable!

I have no idea how to overcome this spiral.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Pre-covid, it was extremely rare for someone to book a meeting over lunch. It happened maybe twice a year, and the organizer would be apologetic.

Now it’s routine - multiple times a week. I guess people stepping away from their desk for an hour at lunch is no longer a thing.

I’ve noticed people rarely take sick days anymore. Were people faking when they took 4-5 “I can’t some in today, nursing a cold/flu” days a year? Are they getting sick less? Or is the assumption now that you can just suck it up and work from home if you have a cold, flu, or gastro-intestinal issues?

I think the sick days are a combination of a few things

- less people getting sick because more people work from home when a little sick. At least in the office world. That you can stay home on the days you aren’t too sick to work and not infect people I think reduces the sweeping sicknesses through the office

- shorter duration of actual periods of not being able to work. Even when knocked out with the Flu or something on most days you can do an hour or two of work without impairing recovery. So while you are too sick to come in and do a full day and too sick to attend meetings it’s rare that you are too sick to do anything.

- Less benefit to faking sick given the expectation to do some work.

So the combination of these things turns what used to be 3 days of work missed is down to 4hrs of work missed half of the time.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Pre-covid, it was extremely rare for someone to book a meeting over lunch. It happened maybe twice a year, and the organizer would be apologetic.

Now it’s routine - multiple times a week. I guess people stepping away from their desk for an hour at lunch is no longer a thing.

I’ve noticed people rarely take sick days anymore. Were people faking when they took 4-5 “I can’t some in today, nursing a cold/flu” days a year? Are they getting sick less? Or is the assumption now that you can just suck it up and work from home if you have a cold, flu, or gastro-intestinal issues?

I faked most of my sick days, but we need mental breaks as well that needs to be normalized you don't need a flu or cold to call in sick.

I got 8 sick days and used them all. When the CEO is a useless sack of #### and most of the management are useless trash as well who hardly work for what they get, I am going to use all my days and sometimes more.

[PepsiFree]

I use sick days when I’m sick and never have meetings over lunch #blessed

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by GGG

- shorter duration of actual periods of not being able to work. Even when knocked out with the Flu or something on most days you can do an hour or two of work without impairing recovery. So while you are too sick to come in and do a full day and too sick to attend meetings it’s rare that you are too sick to do anything.

But this speaks to the blurring of the lines between private and company time that Lubicon raised.

We used to have a binary work-time/ home-time model. Lunch = away from work. Sick = away from work. Now it means “still working a bit while you’re eating lunch or between naps while nursing a cold.”

This is unhealthy. People need breaks and clear, bright lines. To shut work off completely from mind and body.

Or most of us do, anyway. The careerists who derive their self-worth from their jobs and career status seem to thrive on being needed all the time. No doubt they’re the ones fostering the culture of availability.

[Wormius]

Once you come to the realization that the likelihood you’ll be let go, fired, or excluded from raises for not responding to work-related issues after hours is infinitesimally small, you’ll have a lot better work/life balance knowing you can just disconnect without negative consequences.

[Fuzz]

I get emails Friday and on the weekend from my boss, and unless the server has exploded, they always start with "For next week..." or "For Monday...". That takes away any thought of doing it quickly, but is also nice because I can plan my week when I see what they are. Maybe I just have one of the good ones.

[MoneyGuy]

I was a boss who sent those emails.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

But this speaks to the blurring of the lines between private and company time that Lubicon raised.

We used to have a binary work-time/ home-time model. Lunch = away from work. Sick = away from work. Now it means “still working a bit while you’re eating lunch or between naps while nursing a cold.”

This is unhealthy. People need breaks and clear, bright lines. To shut work off completely from mind and body.

Or most of us do, anyway. The careerists who derive their self-worth from their jobs and career status seem to thrive on being needed all the time. No doubt they’re the ones fostering the culture of availability.

I'm one of those, but I don't think (well, I hope) I'm not fostering a culture of availability. If I'm sending emails after hours or on weekends, I'm either (a) replying to an email someone sent to me after hours or on the weekend; (b) sending something that requires no response (an opinion or something); or (c) clearly mark it as not requiring attention until work hours.

But yes, I desperately need to feel needed all the time. Its a sickness.

[jonesy]

Originally Posted by Sliver

IDK, man. His daughter is considering adopting this lady's baby. He'll be a grandfather to an adopted child. I think we may have just saved him a fk ton of embarrassment and family drama/hurt feelings by letting him know making a distinction between granddaughter and adopted granddaughter could make him look really bad within his family. Letting that slide here could have had real-life negative consequences for him.

Do you mean child?

[DoubleF]

Do some of you not know about the "delay send" function or use an email client that disallows it or something?

Why should I send an email on the weekend saying, "Don't worry about it till Monday", when I can delay send set for 7AM on Monday morning?

The same works for a 4:45 email you delay for an hour or two if you want to seem like an after hours badass.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I was a boss who sent those emails.

Hoping for a pat on the back?

[puckedoff]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Do some of you not know about the "delay send" function or use an email client that disallows it or something?

Why should I send an email on the weekend saying, "Don't worry about it till Monday", when I can delay send set for 7AM on Monday morning?

The same works for a 4:45 email you delay for an hour or two if you want to seem like an after hours badass.

Sending the email gives your good employees a chance to respond, then you get the info sooner. Plus you get to see who is a slacker (Fuzz).

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by puckedoff

Sending the email gives your good employees a chance to respond, then you get the info sooner. Plus you get to see who is a slacker (Fuzz).

My apologies. Then you should delay send that 16:45 email on Friday for Sunday at 21:00. Your CEO may love you.

[topfiverecords]

I delay send my Monday morning responses to Friday at 4:59pm.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Do some of you not know about the "delay send" function or use an email client that disallows it or something?

Why should I send an email on the weekend saying, "Don't worry about it till Monday", when I can delay send set for 7AM on Monday morning?

The same works for a 4:45 email you delay for an hour or two if you want to seem like an after hours badass.

Delay is my go to for the majority of my after hours emails, problem for me lately is Outlook has stopped reliably sending them at that designated time and they sit in the Outbox. Not a huge issue if I am at the office Monday morning and can see they did not go out but not so good if that is not the case.

Time delay has also been wonderful (at least makes me feel somewhat better) when a client sends an unreasonable demand late in the day and wants it 'by the end of the day'. More than a few emails have gone out at 11.59pm.

[Wormius]

They should make distracted driving PSAs that aren’t overly dramatic, but just show what an inconvenience you caused the person by rear-ending their otherwise fine 15 year old car.

[Reggie28]

People who answer an either or question with a yes or no answer.

“Did you send over a sales order for the parts we picked up the other day or are you waiting for the rest of the parts to arrive?”

“Yes”

Yes, as in thirty days from now, when you don’t have a PO and accounting is on your case you are going to submit a stale order and want me to back date a PO?

Ok good, as long as we are clear.