Unreasonable Job expectations/requests

[actaeon277]

I guess I have unreasonable expectations of my workers .

One guy today could not figure it out why he got sent home after being at work for only one hour. He was confused as to why I expected him to work during work hours and do personal stuff during his personal time.

Wait.
You don't just have to show up?

 

[Sigblaster]

I've never been accused of exercising tact in my communications. I have a habit of expressing things in a matter-of-fact manner that some people find to be rude or condescending. This is true of my jobs before my military career, especially during it, and for the most part, in my civilian career after my time in the Army.

In the past few years, I've tried to be better about that. As most of my communications are by email, where it is hard to decipher the attitude in written text, I usually type a reply, save it as a draft, then think about it for 10 or 15 minutes and revisit it. I soften my language, add some "please" and "thank you" into it, and I even sometimes will ask others' opinions before I send it.

My boss right now assigned a project to me. It is something way outside my sphere of expertise, and I told him so. I suggested he assign it to someone with more knowledge of the situation. He replied with something so infuriating that I'm seriously considering taking early retirement. I typed out a long reply that probably would have gotten me fired, but I saved it as a draft and then reconsidered it. I edited it way down, and as it's the kind of thing that I can't really ask for advice about from colleagues, I used my wife as a sounding board for my reply. I read it to her, and she said it sounded good, but I should remove "Wow." as my first sentence. My brain says she's right. But my gut really wanted to send that "Wow".

 

[wtburnette]

I've never been accused of exercising tact in my communications. I have a habit of expressing things in a matter-of-fact manner that some people find to be rude or condescending. This is true of my jobs before my military career, especially during it, and for the most part, in my civilian career after my time in the Army.

In the past few years, I've tried to be better about that. As most of my communications are by email, where it is hard to decipher the attitude in written text, I usually type a reply, save it as a draft, then think about it for 10 or 15 minutes and revisit it. I soften my language, add some "please" and "thank you" into it, and I even sometimes will ask others' opinions before I send it.

My boss right now assigned a project to me. It is something way outside my sphere of expertise, and I told him so. I suggested he assign it to someone with more knowledge of the situation. He replied with something so infuriating that I'm seriously considering taking early retirement. I typed out a long reply that probably would have gotten me fired, but I saved it as a draft and then reconsidered it. I edited it way down, and as it's the kind of thing that I can't really ask for advice about from colleagues, I used my wife as a sounding board for my reply. I read it to her, and she said it sounded good, but I should remove "Wow." as my first sentence. My brain says she's right. But my gut really wanted to send that "Wow".

I do the same thing with certain emails. Type up the reply and let it sit for a bit, then reread it. Pretty much 100% of the time I decide to edit the email after I let my initial reaction calm down.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I do the same thing with certain emails. Type up the reply and let it sit for a bit, then reread it. Pretty much 100% of the time I decide to edit the email after I let my initial reaction calm down.

Same.

Of course the first draft starts something like this.

Look, mother****er.....

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Of course its a good question - that's why they asked

I once personally witnessed an adult male ask an instructor how page numbers in a book worked. He did not get a "that's a good question" response. He did, however, fail criminal law shortly thereafter.

 

[KellyinAvon]

I once personally witnessed an adult male ask an instructor how page numbers in a book worked. He did not get a "that's a good question" response. He did, however, fail criminal law shortly thereafter.

I take it this wasn't a technical manual with figure and index and the like... it was a regular book?

 

[actaeon277]

I'm here 16 hours today, and they expect me to work.
WTF

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I take it this wasn't a technical manual with figure and index and the like... it was a regular book?

It was a standard textbook. Roman numerals for the preface, regular ol' numbers for the page numbers after that.

 

[wtburnette]

I'm here 16 hours today, and they expect me to work.
WTF

The nerve!

 

[WebSnyper]

I'm here 16 hours today, and they expect me to work.
WTF

Next they will start trying to charge you rent...

 

[actaeon277]

You load 16 tons
And what do you get

 

[The Bubba Effect]

You load 16 tons
And what do you get

Work your fingers to the bones, whatya get?