Workplace Annoyances

My heart goes out to all of you. I've worked as a receptionist/secretary twice, and it's not an experience I ever care to relive. I would have to be in dire straits to even consider taking a job as a receptionist. The assinine behaviour of the customers is only surpassed by the patronizing arrogant attitude of most of the co-workers, supervisers. One of the hardest jobs I've had and one in which I felt the least appreciated. As you can probably tell, I feel quite strongly about this. It's been over 5 years since my last receptionist position and I still need to vent! I'm now a student and make my living teaching and performing music: much more my speed...

Thought I would shake things up a little, let us all gripe about those things that happen at work that just drive you nuts!

I have a few to start with... (I'm a receptionist, so a lot of mine have to do with basic phone manners.)

When people call based on a caller ID. "Someone called me from you office. It was on my caller ID. What does your company do? I've never heard of you. Find out who called me." Hello, ever heard of a wrong number?

People who call on a speaker phone. Take the extra time to pick up the receiver. And don't get mad at me because I can't understand who you are asking for or your name when you mumble into your vacuum!

The best sign I ever saw in an office: Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

So what annoys you at work (or past workplaces)?

Oh boy, where to start?

Actual work-wise, my last job was fine. I worked in a research lab in a graduate department of a respected medical school. The research was interesting and utilized a number of new techniques.

On the other hand...I hated the politics, the back-stabbing, the cliques and the impression that only the "popular" students got real mentoring. It was a highly competitive environment, but instead of supporting each other, students actively tried to underut each other. Also, it was not unknown for some of the faculty members to say nasty and derogatory things about students to other students.

I'm still in research, but in a lab affiliated with a hospital and not a school. The atmosphere here is so much nicer, and I haven't sensed any competition between the labs. Maybe the difference is that there are no students here.

One annoyance here-we have an older woman who keeps on calling our number by mistake. We have determined exactly what error she is making-dialing 4 instead of 1 before a long distance number. But, each time she calls, she doesn't believe that it's the wrong number. We've tried many different ways to convince her, and the only idea we have left is to have one of the lab members, who is from the Czech Republic, to talk to her in her native language. Maybe that will finally "scare" this woman away!

I can definitely add to this. I am the payroll administrator for a school district. I can't believe the things that go on here!For starters I am fighting a losing battle because I have to deal with 2 very powerful unions...the teachers and the support staff...by the way I am not part of a union because my position is considered confidential so there is no protection for me. What most of these people seem to miss is that I am one person compared to the 600 of them and I can't understand why most of my employees seem to accept no personal responsibility for their own finances. I can't imagine ever not being somewhat aware of what I am making and the deductions from that amount. But I get people all the time who say "well I never really look at my checks" or "I didn't realize I was having that deducted" or, now here is the best one, " Well,we closed our checking account and got new checks but I didn't think that would effect my direct deposits" I could go on and on!
Thanks for letting me vent!

At my workplace favouritism exists and unfortunately it has nothing to do with work performance. The manager is extra friendly with people who go partying after work with him. I am not a party person - I have responsibilities at home. I do, however, do an excellent job. I also find that 1 supervisor makes a lot of sexually suggestive comments that make many people uncomfortable, but we feel that there is nothing we can do about it is we want to stay in the "good" books.

In all my past retails jobs it has been the same thing. When you are out of something on the shelf, someone will always ask "don't you have any in the back?" Like "in the back" is some magic place where we hide stuff from them. If you tell them no, then they ask "can't you just check in the back?"
In my current occupation, body piercing, I get this that really annoys me. "I got this done at the filthy hack down the street, can you look at it and tell me why it's red and about to fall off? What do you mean I have to PAY you?"

Oh goodie where do I begin? I thought when I applied for my job at the clinic it was going to be the perfect job because I got to work with the animals not the people.... WRONG!!

First and foremost it really annoys me when people feed their animals before surgery. It doesn't matter how many times you tell them they still are going to feed them. I'd like to have them come in and hold their animals up on their chest while they're comming up from anesthesia so they have a clear air way to puke all the food back up.

In the exams rooms I cannot stand when clients feel the need to hold on to their dog's collar while he is up on the table and pull one way while I have the collar the other way. They step on your feet, the try to pet the animal to comfort it but are really petting your hands that are holding the animal up there. I guess I don't have a good enough grip either because some of them place their hands over mine.

Then if the dog jerks or starts kicking up it's legs and growling they think it calms the dog when they shove their face in his. A lot of people have been bitten by their own animals this way.

I hate the clients who expect things.... They expect you to see them first if they walk in with out an appointment. They expect you to see them right away if they have an appointment at 10, they better be in the exam room at that time. They expect you to remember their dog named Max who came in for a check up a year ago out of all the other hundreds of Max's that come in.

Then there's the people who noticed a funny smell comming from the dog's ears on Monday and all of a sudden on Friday at 4:30 it's an emergency.

Then you'll get the smart ones who will let their huge lumbering dog shove his face in front of the cage out front that has cats in it up for adoption. So the more scared the cat is by the dog the funnier it is. It's not so funny when the cat takes a slice out of the dog's face.

I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of for now.

I am a high school teacher, so I deal with a lot of annoyances n a daily basis. the normal kid ones don't count -- I signed up for it. What I did not sign up for is a long list. Here goes:

family counseling
nasty office backstabbing
making copies for lazy staff members
making leson plans for lazy staff members
being interrupted during class by parents who want to discuss grades in the last 2 weeks of the school year
the interminably boring meetings
being "asked" to donate to every student club
being badmouthed in the local press for whatever problem a kid has
and last, but not least... having my lunch supplies stolen by a ghost!

UGH!! Don't get me started!! :laughing: Im also a Receptionist, and again as Valanhb mentioned, its just common courtesy - or lack of it that bugs me...
People ring up and ask for Mr Smith (we have aorund 50 Mr Smiths here) so I say "which Mr Smith" they say "I don't know" so I ask which department he's in or what its regarding so I might get some idea of who they're talking about... they say "don't know... he just called and left a message, Mr Smith, can't you put a call out for him?" YEAH RIGHT!!! We don't have the facility to do that, but even if we did, would it be worth it only to get all 50 Mr Smiths anwser the call out!?!!
Then we get people who can barely bring themselves to speak to a "lowly receptionist" and if you tell them something they don't want to hear (like who ever they are looking for isn't in) they just hang up.
Then as usual, you get the people who just have the worng number and nothing you can say will ever convince them of that.
We also get people ring up and say, " Oh I need to speak to someone about a 320 PHB soffit breaking circuit board with h97 componants - can you put me through?" Im like... Yeah, whatever.... there are about 1000 people working here - you expect me to know the exact person for that thing?!?!?!!? I think not... ARGH!!!

Anyway, theres plenty more.... but I'll stop now.... :LOL:

My last job was awesome! I love it. I worked at a camera store that did hour film processing. I was the lab manager. The only annoyances that I had was with customers. Stupid people actually. I hate stupid people. They would come in with negatives. The negative would have someone with their head cut off of the negative and they would ask "Is there any way that you can print it with their head included?" The same with a picture of a group of people with someone cut off on the side. "Can you include all of them?" Yes. Let me get out my magic set and magically make part of someone reappear! Please! And people who are so convinced that a panoramic picture that they took with their point and shoot camera is actually a panoramic. It's not. It's an optical illusion. You can take ANY regular 35mm negative and make it into a panoramic. All a panoramic picture is is an enlarged, cropped picture of the negative. Take any picture, crop the top and the bottom and enlarge it to stretch out the ends and you have a panoramic print. There are real panoramic pictures. But they quite expensive to have printed and are very much a special order type item. But if you take a panoramic picture with a point and shoot camera (35mm not APS), you can't make it into a normal 4x6. If you try it will have black lines on the top and the bottom.

I just wanted to add a few that I have experienced since the start of this thread. I have to agree with many of you - I have been through the favoritism, dealt with many stupid people, done the politicing in the office thing, and yes, they all suck!

Here's a few more of my personal ones:

Pushy sales people. I have to say, they are getting really good. A lot of them ask for specific people in the office instead of "Whoever's in charge of..." I realize that they are trying to do their job, but don't they realize that part of my job is to stop them from getting through to the President of the company? He doesn't have time to listen to their stupid schpeel, and we won't buy what they are selling anyway. They also don't have to be rude the receptionist - they won't get ANYWHERE doing that!

Going along with Bodlover, those people who call and A) don't know who they want to talk to (The engineer working on X project. Yup, I have them all memorized! ) or B) know part of the name of the person they are calling. We have 2 Matt's. This same guy has been calling for 2 months now, and still won't ask for him by his full name, but gets all testy when I ask which one he wants...

People who think they are too good to deal with the receptionist/secretary. I have a degree, and I am very good at what I do, and more than that, I am a person (just like you, whoever you think you are!) who deserves at least basic manners if not respect. Being rude to the receptionist may result in "accidental" disconnections, lost messages, and a not very happy boss of the receptionist (if the boss acknowledges their importance to the company).

I don't like incompetent supervisors or managers. I work at a nursing home and for the last three years we had to put up with the Supervisor from Hell. Here are just a few examples:

She read magazines when she should have been working.
She didn't understand the job or the work load.
She spent at least three hours reading the white pages of the phone book when she should have been making out the next work schedule.
She never communicated with us, instead she wrote annoying notes and left them on the bulletin board for months.

Fortunately for us this woman has now resigned, and tomorrow will be her last day. One of my co-workers has been promoted to the supervisor position and is planning some positive changes for our department.

Thanks for starting this thread! Like most of you, I work with customers! And some are stupid!
Here are some:
I have my 7-11 uniform on and I am working. A customer comes up to me and asks, Do you work here? Doh

The manager changed the door lock on the bathroom door so you just push the door. You don't need a key to get in. So many people don't know how to open the DOOR! Everytime, someone comes to me and say, "Do I need a key?" Or they look at the door and can't figure how to open it! I tell them just push the door!. Sometimes they say, well its locked. I say, well it maybe because someone is in there.

I just finish cleaning the coffee counter and have just made fresh coffee. I make about six pots every half an hour. Two regular, one mountain roast, one decaf, one french roast, and one or two flavors(usually Irish Creme and French Vanilla). Someone comes in, gets coffee, and messes up my counter with sugar and cream. And I end up making a new pot because the customer almost finished it.

Customers leaving their straw wrappers or other garbage around the floor and not throwing it in the trash. I see the wads of wrappers on the counters. Yesterday, someone was making dressing his hotdog and left the counter stained with ketcup and mustard. Also leaves the nacho wrapper on the floor.

Or how about customers who know the laws especially beer and tobacco sales and try to talk us into selling them to minors! Or if they are too drunk, we will not sell them the alcohol. Or if they are buying them to minors.

But the worst so far is when I mop the floor. Since 7-11 is open 24 hours, you can't lock the door. So, I try to wait until no customers are in the store, grab the mop, and start the chore. But as soon as I start to mop, a hord of customers come in! And although they see me mopping, they HAVE to walk on the wet, clean floor. Can't they go another way? NO, it has to be a certain product they need!

I love customers, but sometimes they act so rude. Since most of us who work with customers, we hear the phrase,'The customer is always right!

I also get mad at employees, especially the manager's son. When I started, the trainers were telling me about how to be properly groomed and professional. Yet, the manager's son has green dyed hair. The manager, himself, has long hair and an earing. The radio is on to rock music and loud! The other employees are always arguing(in front of the customers), and I already commented on the son's lack of customer service! Very rude! Sure, some customers do stupid things, but I always smile and bare it! He, on the other hand, dosen't smile. When a customer comes to pay for his food, Dan is always saying, can I help you? But in an uninterested voice. Or if the store is busy(long line and only two cash registers), after he helps one customer, he goes, 'Next?' as if the customers were in a doctor's office. I can't tell him the best way is saying, "Can I help the next person?"
The other employees do a lot of talking and not working. Only handling the cash register. I come in and clean and stock. If I find a mess nobody has cleaned up, I end up cleaning. I get the attitude of 'Someone else will do it'.

I have a whole lot of bad work experiences but I will post next time!