Boss message



  • You have to love this one:

    From: Boss
    To: Underlyings
    Subject: Tomorrow's meeting cancelled
    Message: Everyone has a lot going on as we are in the final stages of the project.  So tomorrow's meeting has been cancelled.  Also, I will be out of the office. 

     



  • @paladin said:

    You have to love this one:

    From: Boss
    To: Underlyings
    Subject: Tomorrow's meeting cancelled
    Message: Everyone has a lot going on as we are in the final stages of the project.  So tomorrow's meeting has been cancelled.  Also, I will be out of the office. 

     

     

     

    LMAO!  Gotta love those bosses who are just soooo giving and understanding to the needs of others.  Is his name Raj?  He sounds like my clusterfuck of an injun boss who used to QQ about us coming in late but he would just call in that he was going to be late all the time.  I remember one time he told me that he was disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm for the company and that he woke up Sunday and got dressed for work because he was just so happy to be working at Enron v2.0.  I think my look of "Ummmm riiiiiiiight" was pretty clear. 



  • @Lysis said:

    he woke up Sunday and got dressed for work because he was just so happy to be working at Enron v2.0

    To add to the many WTFs of your boss: 

    Sunday was invented for recovering from Saturday.  He must have nothing to do on Saturday if he's able to come in to work on Sunday.



  • It kind of defeats the purpose of making up an excuse for cancelling if you give the real reason right after the excuse. :)



  • @Lysis said:

    LMAO!  Gotta love those bosses who are just soooo giving and understanding to the needs of others.  Is his name Raj?  He sounds like my clusterfuck of an injun boss who used to QQ about us coming in late but he would just call in that he was going to be late all the time.  I remember one time he told me that he was disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm for the company and that he woke up Sunday and got dressed for work because he was just so happy to be working at Enron v2.0.  I think my look of "Ummmm riiiiiiiight" was pretty clear. 

     

     You do realize that you are now one level under the outsourcers in relevancy now? Its supposed to be the other way around :)



  • I think I missed something here ...

    Generally speaking if I get a "meeting cancelled" notice I'm ecstatic.  

    Just got one earlier:

    From: peer
    To: Tim
    Message:
    [contractor] can't make it so I'm cancelling this meeting.

    Unwritten subtext: no need to be wasting our time 

    As for being out of the office my boss and a lot of others call in remotely ... 21st century and all. 



  • @paladin said:

    You have to love this one:

    From: Boss
    To: Underlyings
    Subject: Tomorrow's meeting cancelled
    Message: Everyone has a lot going on as we are in the final stages of the project.  So tomorrow's meeting has been cancelled.  Also, I will be out of the office. 

     

    Leaving aside the glorious kiss-off in the message, it's actually kinda refreshing to see a boss being pragmatic about meetings here. I've been in situations where pre-meeting meetings, meetings and post-meeting meetings were far higher on the priority list than actually getting anything done.


  • @Jonathan Holland said:

    @Lysis said:

    LMAO!  Gotta love those bosses who are just soooo giving and understanding to the needs of others.  Is his name Raj?  He sounds like my clusterfuck of an injun boss who used to QQ about us coming in late but he would just call in that he was going to be late all the time.  I remember one time he told me that he was disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm for the company and that he woke up Sunday and got dressed for work because he was just so happy to be working at Enron v2.0.  I think my look of "Ummmm riiiiiiiight" was pretty clear. 

     

     You do realize that you are now one level under the outsourcers in relevancy now? Its supposed to be the other way around :)

     

     

    The department was indeed outsourced along with him.  He was an Americanized injun and actually left his village and camels for the good American life and then his job was outsourced to the camel jockeys for 3 bucks an hour.  Isn't that the full cycle of a developer's employment?  Get hired, write platform, Alahabeeb from India needs to be "familiar" with the system because he's your new team member, you get laid off. 



  • @medialint said:

    I think I missed something here ...

    It looks like I left out the part where he frequently disregards the written specs when telling us what he wants.  A couple weeks ago in one of our daily meetings, he told a coworker: "The specs for that feature are in sharepoint, but don't look at them as they are wrong."



  • @paladin said:

    "The specs for that feature are in sharepoint, but don't look at them as they are wrong."

    That's better than what we get. Our BA in the Northern office constantly demands documentation from us (an e-mail from him yesterday even included I must have design documents), but then he turns around and tells us how we are wrong -- even though he never has a clue as to what we are actually doing. He also goes on unrelated tangents and won't shut up. I told my immediate supervisor that anyone can do his job as the real description is annoy the shit out of everyone. She agreed with me.

    EDIT: I just noticed your sig! LOL



  • We got this one last October (paraphrasing, since I deleted the original):


    From: CEO's underling
    Subject: Extended Holiday Break

    We here at TechCompany recognize that family and the end-of-year holiday season are very important to our employees.  To show our appreciation of this, all employees will be given an extended holiday break at the end of December.  We want to encourage our employees to spend time with their families to enrich their lives and (blah blah blah lots of other really progressive-sounding stuff about how important it is to spend time with families and enjoy life outside of work and all of that.  Sounds really cool.)

    To provide this break, TechCompany will be closed between (date1) and (date2).  Employees will be required to use their vacation time during this period.  If an employee does not have enough vacation time saved up to use during this period, s/he will be permitted to borrow against next year's vacation time.

    This policy will help TechCompany decrease the amount of outstanding vacation time that has accrued companywide, improving our financial standing.


    I have no problem with their saying "our books are getting overloaded with accrued vacation time, so we're forcing you all to use it at the end of the year."  Well, actually, I do have a problem with that, but my real problem is how they presented it.  Sweetness, light, happy, family, holiday season, we care, puppies puppies puppies SLAM!  PSYCH!  YOU ONLY THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO DO SOMETHING NICE!!!!!!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

    Why, why, why can't companies treat their highly paid, professional employees like mature adults and give them the straight honest truth?



  • @RobFreundlich said:

    Why, why, why can't companies treat their highly paid, professional employees like mature adults and give them the straight honest truth?

    I've been wondering that for many years. A co-worker and I end up discussing this almost once a week. This week, he asked "Why do they insist on treating us like 5-year olds?".

    @paladin: OMFG! You changed your avatar to her! LOL


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    I've yet to work with a company/industry that 'T&C's holiday may be carried forward to future years forever. This includes McDonalds, teaching, petrochemical and telephony.

    If you don't want to use up your 5* days holiday this year, what's going to change next year? Hurrah, you now have 10 days you won't use.

    If you want 5* days extra pay for holiday you're not using, say so.

    If your contract precludes you from using last years holiday, fucking use them anyway!

    If work cancels holiday, carry them over/use them elsewhen!

    * substitute 5 days for 25 or 36 if your country legislates this.



  • @PJH said:

    I've yet to work with a company/industry that 'T&C's holiday may be carried forward to future years forever. This includes McDonalds, teaching, petrochemical and telephony.

    If you don't want to use up your 5* days holiday this year, what's going to change next year? Hurrah, you now have 10 days you won't use.

    If you want 5* days extra pay for holiday you're not using, say so.

    If your contract precludes you from using last years holiday, fucking use them anyway!

    If work cancels holiday, carry them over/use them elsewhen!

    * substitute 5 days for 25 or 36 if your country legislates this.

     

     

    My favorite is when people use the statement "I haven't taken a vacation in years!" or "I rarely call in sick!" as some kind of bragging rights.  When they tell me this I must have the biggest "You're so dumb" look on my face.  So, essentially, while I'm relaxing by the pool ignoring any work related issues and getting paid for it, you're at work. Kudos to you, loser. I also make sure I use up all my sick days by every couple of months calling in sick on a friday or a monday.



  • @Lysis said:

    I also make sure I use up all my sick days by every couple of months calling in sick on a friday or a monday.

    That's normally what I end up doing. Last month I got slammed by the flu, though. It spanned from a Friday through to the following Wednesday. I ended up taking 3.5 sick days. We lost our tallied "sick days" after the second merger. Instead, it went the logical route: If you're sick, stay out. However, if it becomes excessive, it will be reviewed and appropriate action taken if needed. No one complained about my extended sick period nor did they ask for a note, as my supervisor knew the whole area was coming down with an agressive strain of the flu.

    I've always thought that accrued sick days is a retarded concept. No one can predict how many days they'll be out. Instead, it forces people to come in sooner after being ill, which runs the risk of contaminating everyone else.

    I usually don't take my vacation days until near the end of the year. Almost the whole company is out for the last two weeks of December. This year, I gained an extra week of vacation that I've got to do something with.



  • @Lysis said:

    So, essentially, while I'm relaxing by the pool ignoring any work related issues and getting paid for it, you're at work. Kudos to you, loser.

    I like my company's policy, where we can carry over one week of unused vacation and the rest gets paid out.  We get no sick time, so we just get three weeks of vacation (the first year ... goes up after two years).  So if I were so inclined (which I'm not), I could work instead of take vacation and get extra money for it.   



  • @belgariontheking said:

    I like my company's policy, where we can carry over one week of unused vacation and the rest gets paid out.  We get no sick time, so we just get three weeks of vacation (the first year ... goes up after two years).  So if I were so inclined (which I'm not), I could work instead of take vacation and get extra money for it.
    I have to use my vacation time (currently 22 days per year, and I get an additional day for every year of work) till the end of June next year, otherwise I automatically get paid for the unused time. As for sick days, that's unrelated - if I'm sick, I call in, and that's it (though I'm expected to bring in doctor's notice if it's for a longer period of time, like when I had pneumonia, and was at home for almost a month).



  • @Lysis said:

    sick days

    What? 



  • 29 days holiday a year here. It scares me thatsome people actually accept single digit holiday entitlements!

    However, we do have a retarded sickness policy, based solely on occurances.Three separate days off ill? You're in trouble there, disciplinary time! Twenty days split into two two week illnesses? Great, that's fine! See you again if you dare be ill again, though!



  • @RayS said:

    29 days holiday a year here. It scares me thatsome people actually accept single digit holiday entitlements!

    However, we do have a retarded sickness policy, based solely on occurances.Three separate days off ill? You're in trouble there, disciplinary time! Twenty days split into two two week illnesses? Great, that's fine! See you again if you dare be ill again, though!






    We suffer from the opposit here. You get 70% of your salary for the sick days if your physician fills a form proving that you're sick. No time limit restrictions, and this system actually encourages you to stay at home and better pay a small sum for your doctor to fill that form for nothing.



  • @Lysis said:

    My favorite is when people use the statement "I haven't taken a vacation in years!" or "I rarely call in sick!" as some kind of bragging rights.  When they tell me this I must have the biggest "You're so dumb" look on my face.  So, essentially, while I'm relaxing by the pool ignoring any work related issues and getting paid for it, you're at work. Kudos to you, loser. I also make sure I use up all my sick days by every couple of months calling in sick on a friday or a monday.

    Did it occur to you that some people actually have important stuff to do? I work for a hospital of all places (irony is, I never get sick) and our work is actually really important, so I'll only take (sick) time off if I actually need it. It also helps that they roll over sick leave until the next year with a maximum of one month total sick leave outstanding so I have it available if I need it.



    I also only take annual leave (which also rolls over, with no maximum at all - with enough years under your belt you could accumulate an entire year of annual leave. And if you leave for any reason, it turns into cold hard cash paid out at a rate of 100% of your hourly rate) when I really need some time off. But then, time off isn't really time off when you're on call so there's no point taking it unless I just want to work from home (at a rate of $40 per hour)



  • @Kyanar said:

    Did it occur to you that some people actually have important stuff to do?

    So what, people who have important things to do have some magic that prevents them from getting sick? Huh?
    "No, doctor, I can't have the flu, for you see, I am far too important to be ill!"

    @Kyanar said:

    I work for a hospital of all places (irony is, I never get sick) and our work is actually really important, so I'll only take (sick) time off if I actually need it. It also helps that they roll over sick leave until the next year with a maximum of one month total sick leave outstanding so I have it available if I need it.

    Well that's awfully generous. By which I mean, not even remotely generous. So long as it is sanctioned by doctor, I am 'allowed' to be ill for a month without having to use and BS "gotta collect 'em all" credit scheme over several years.@Kyanar said:

    I also only take annual leave (which also rolls over, with no maximum at all - with enough years under your belt you could accumulate an entire year of annual leave.

    And meanwhile have no life for the 53 years that it took you to have time off. Sweet. Meanwhile I have this awesome thing where I can take a year off without even having to save up credit for it. It's called savings and investment.@Kyanar said:

    And if you leave for any reason, it turns into cold hard cash paid out at a rate of 100% of your hourly rate) when I really need some time off.

    Again with that awe-inspiring generosity. They are kind and wonderful enough to pay you what is owed to you? Gee, that's special.@Kyanar said:
    But then, time off isn't really time off when you're on call so there's no point taking it unless I just want to work from home (at a rate of $40 per hour)
     

    So even when you get time off, you don't even have time off?

    I wonder what part of my 35 hour week, no weekends, 29 days holiday a year when I am actually on holiday, it is that I like more than the nightmare scenario of living to work that you describe?



  • @RayS said:

    Well that's awfully generous. By which I mean, not even remotely generous. So long as it is sanctioned by doctor, I am 'allowed' to be ill for a month without having to use and BS "gotta collect 'em all" credit scheme over several years.

     

    LOL!  Gotta feel bad for the guy.  My sister worked for doctors for many years and the crappy thing about it was they had the worst health benefits.  Plus, he thinks that he's very important and has to come to work every day cuz...like...he's another one of those people who feels they are that important.  So, while I'm lazing around using up sick days, you're at work thinking you're that important. GG.




  • @Lysis said:

    stuff...
     

    Could you pretty please take that stuff back and change your position on this? I fear that your agreement with me is detrimental to the strength of my arguement. 

    Thanks. 



  • @Kyanar said:

    Did it occur to you that some people actually have important stuff to do? I work for a hospital of all places (irony is, I never get sick) and our work is actually really important, so I'll only take (sick) time off if I actually need it. It also helps that they roll over sick leave until the next year with a maximum of one month total sick leave outstanding so I have it available if I need it.

    While lounging on the beach while "sick" is excessive, I would want people who work at a hospital to take sick time when they're sick. The last thing I want when I go to the hospital
    is to be treated by sick people and just make my condition worse.

    I also only take annual leave (which also rolls over, with no maximum at all - with enough years under your belt you could accumulate an entire year of annual leave. And if you leave for any reason, it turns into cold hard cash paid out at a rate of 100% of your hourly rate) when I really need some time off. But then, time off isn't really time off when you're on call so there's no point taking it unless I just want to work from home (at a rate of $40 per hour)

    Unlimited rollover is not a good thing and conversion of vacation to cash is not a good thing. It makes you think about any vacation you take in terms of the money you're losing. I'd like a little rollover on vacation, just for flexibility (If I want to take a big vacation in January instead of December), but taking time off work to just relax, or enjoy time with family or travel is a good thing. Leave your phone turned off and tell them they need to hire more people so they can actually cover the "vacation" time they're offering.



  • @RayS said:

    @Lysis said:

    stuff...
     

    Could you pretty please take that stuff back and change your position on this? I fear that your agreement with me is detrimental to the strength of my arguement. 

    Thanks. 

     

     

    No can do.  Occasionally, I like to pull out the ol' troll favorite of agreeing with random posters and branding them.  One of these days, I'll agree with MasterAsshat which will probably make me wrong. 



  • Coming out of college, I did an on-campus interview with Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.  Pretty cool place with some pretty cool projects (apparently too cool for me;) ) The recruiter talked about how you accrue time of and sick time at a certain rate per hour.  I think you wound up with something ilke 2 or 3 weeks vacation and a week or so of sick at the end of a year.  Anyway, she said they had to put a cap on the amount you could accrue because people had worked there for 5 years without using any of it.  She said this as a selling point to how great the company was.  And at the time, I bit on it, but after I started working, I realized that those people are just idiots.  I enjoy my job, but I also enjoy my kids, my house and my dog. 

    Contrasting that with when I went contract while I was back in school.  Even though I was contracting to the company I had just spent 4 years at, doing the exact same job, the contract company (Volt Technical Services, aka: Satan's Contract Company) showed no leniency on vacation time, as a result, I had to work a man-year before even getting a week of vacation (which consequently took me about 18 months since I wasn't full time)  During those 18 months, I got a couple holidays, and if I took a sick day, it just meant that the next day I had to make up my hours.  I can honestly say that going 18 months without the ability to take off is ridiculous.  Again, I enjoyed the work, but it would have been nice to turn off my computer, and not feel guilty that I wasn't fixing bugs.



  • @RayS said:

    And meanwhile have no life for the 53 years that it took you to have time off. Sweet. Meanwhile I have this awesome thing where I can take a year off without even having to save up credit for it. It's called savings and investment.
     

    Hmmm... So you SAVE your money and investments so you can take a year off, while Kyanar just takes the year off and continues to get paid, and that makes you somehow superior? Please explain that to me; I don't see the difference. You're saving money you've earned in order to take unpaid leave, and Kyanar is saving time earned in order to take paid leave.

    @RayS said:

    Could you pretty please take that stuff back and change your position on this? I fear that your agreement with me is detrimental to the strength of my arguement.

    Too late, I'm afraid. <g> But that's Ok, as I'm not sure there was a lot of strength in your argument to begin with. ;-) 



  • @KenW said:

    Hmmm... So you SAVE your money and investments so you can take a year off, while Kyanar just takes the year off and continues to get paid, and that makes you somehow superior? Please explain that to me; I don't see the difference. You're saving money you've earned in order to take unpaid leave, and Kyanar is saving time earned in order to take paid leave.
     

    The difference is that during the the preceding years I still have my month or so of time off per year, the year off after that is a bonus.

    Plus I can actually go places and do stuff during that year, since I'm not still on call 24/7! 


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