Tell Me About Your Co Workers ;Good Or Bad

[mylilnikita]

I just need a laugh to pick me up from the stupidness that I walked into work today. I’ll share my story later after I decompress.


So how are your coworkers?

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I like my coworkers. I DO get a bit irritated at them sometimes when they do not show up for work though.

 

[RogueX]

I have a coworker who is really sweet but I swear, keep a rolodex of dead people. Every contact card in it is someone from the agency that she started working with over 40 years ago and they have long since died. I only know about them because she's told me. For some reason she holds onto this.

The same coworker also insists that I've been to some of the agency meetings they went to years before I was born...

 

[kdonnel]

No stories. I changed jobs in June and have only seen most of my teammates on camera.

 

[scrhsa]

I've only been here since September so pretty decent so far. It's the 8, 2 yr olds that cause all the drama Just kidding. I am really enjoying working with the 2 women in the co-2 yr old class and the other woman that is the floater that comes in and helps. The drama happened not long before I got there. Which I've only heard snippets and I try not to hear those.

 

[Pink Partridge]

I work in a setting where there are academic "doctors", as well as skilled physician doctors.

It is hysterical how the online PhD folks demand to be called "Doctor", and the surgeons repeatedly beg you to call them by their first name. After all, we are co-workers.

Academia Folks are a strange breed. At least in my workplace. Sometimes it is like a sitcom how they refer to each other as simply "doctor", with a strange nod of the head.

But as pretentious and embarrassing as that is day after day, it does add entertainment to the workplace.

 

[ronandannette]

I'd have to say they're pretty good overall. I really, really, really like my own staff members (having recently had a departure of one I didn’t like so much) and the executives I report to. I also really like the guy that manages the department I work most closely with, and most of his staff. We have a ton of laughs, which we need just to get through it, KWIM? The rest of the people in my office are kind of irrelevant - I don’t really give any though to liking or disliking anybody I don’t have to deal closely with.

 

[ronandannette]

I just need a laugh to pick me up from the stupidness that I walked into work today. I’ll share my story later after I decompress.


So how are your coworkers?

Ready to dish yet? We’re waiting!

 

[BrianL]

I like my coworkers a lot. The only thing that annoys me is that sometimes there is an effort to do something "fun" like a trivia game or other group activity. I'm the type who just wants to sit at my desk and work. I want to get all my work done so that when I go home I don't have to think about the next day. I just don't care about the silly games and such.

 

[Kitty 34]

I'm retired. But when I subbed my coworkers were teachers, parapros, secretaries, food workers and custodial to name many people I dealt with in my 34 years of teaching. It was a small district so I got along with most. My BFF of 30 years was a parapro.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I work in a very small office and I like my co-workers. The one woman cracks me up because she startles very easily and she also wears headphones to listen to music during the day so she never hears anyone approaching her. She faces her office door, too. At least once a day, I hear a loud scream from her office which is someone startling her.

 

[ronandannette]

I like my coworkers a lot. The only thing that annoys me is that sometimes there is an effort to do something "fun" like a trivia game or other group activity. I'm the type who just wants to sit at my deks and work. I want to get all my work done so that when I go home I don't have to think about the next day. I just don't care about the silly games and such.

Amen! Our department is exponentially busier and under more pressure than some others and by necessity we have a whole different work ethic. Stop bugging us!!

 

[BrianL]

Amen! Our department is exponentially busier and under more pressure than some others and by necessity we have a whole different work ethic. Stop bugging us!!

Right? We had a big conference for our over-arching department once and while it was great to be all together, one of the "rules" was no checking email. Our team is support oriented - we can't really do that. So, we'd end up attending the mettings and functions, then working in our rooms late too.

 

[Keli]

I work with a great team right now. So thankful for them all. I've had a few bad employees on my team in the past and that's awful. Makes you so grateful when you end up with all good coworkers. Hoping this season lasts for a long time, lol.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Years ago one of my coworkers got a gift of a Santa-shaped cookie jar with a sealed package of cookies. We were all very hesitant regarding these cookies. He opened the bag and said they smelled weird. I took one and ate it and said "yeah, that tastes like kerosine". Then four more members of my team each took one and confirmed they did in fact taste like some type of petrochemical.

Yes, we are all men.

 

[mylilnikita]

Ok OP here lol.

I work second shift and for the most part our shift is great, we kid around but we will also help each other even though we are in different departments.
Occasionally, like the other day when I started this thread, it was a someone had a brain fog day and it wasn’t me lol and it affected what I had to do and that drives me nuts. Lol

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I'm lucky. I work with a great team, and really like my current manager. The workplace environment has changed so much since I first started, though. My department was moved, and the one coworker that actually went into the office retired a couple of weeks ago, so when I go in I'm by myself in an 8-person cubicle office, so I mostly work from home. Maybe that's for another thread - work environments, lol.

We are all so diverse. You have the ones like me that talk... a lot, and the quiet ones that put up with us, lol. But we all support each other and no one tries to take credit for others' work. I work in the Facilities group for an aerospace company (Northrop Grumman).

Oh.... but, I will talk about another boss that I used to work for. In the end, she is one of my favorite bosses, but some of the things she'd do made for good conversation among us employees. On a business trip to a remote site in North Dakota we had to stay at a small casino because there was no other lodging available. There was a couple that was trying to stay another night (they wanted to gamble), and there were no rooms available - so she gave up MY room (no, didn't consult me). She was in a one-room suite with a king bed, so I got the rollaway in the living room - had no bedding and when I called for some, they brought me a blanket. I told them I needed sheets, too. lol Then on the airplane she expected ME (who is shorter) to put her carry-on in the overhead bin. That happened once. After that time I just looked at her and she got the message that I wasn't her lackey. The guys would tease me about that for years.

Same boss - at the end of the year she would take her staff, and some employees that supported us throughout the year, out to breakfast - on her own dime (so around 15-20 people). She also bought a bunch of little gifts. We would all pick a number, then choose the gifts, with an option to steal a gift twice. One year, she had a couple of good quality tape measurers. The guys were fighting over those. lol She is challenging in a good way, and will fight for her employees.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I'm a teacher and for the most part I work with a great staff. The biggest thing is the age difference. I am 43 and most of our staff is under 30, so I feel like the "old lady" among all the young teachers.

 

[sunshine1178]

I'm a teacher and for the most part I work with a great staff. The biggest thing is the age difference. I am 43 and most of our staff is under 30, so I feel like the "old lady" among all the young teachers.

Yes, we had a tremendous amount of turnover lately and now we have a majority of employees who are under 30 (several under 25) and I’m like Sophia on Golden Girls…waiting to be sent to Shady Pines!

 

[VandVsmama]

My coworkers, overall, are pretty great. There's been a few 'interesting' characters over the 10 years I've worked for my current employer. Here are some highlights for everyone's entertainment:

• there was the "VP of IT" (aka senior IT director, but he gave himself a huge fancy title, it was dumb) who made us all physically stand up in a 'daily stand up meeting' during one particularly hellacious project a few years ago. If you were telecommuting that day, he made you physically come into the office for a 15 minute meeting where we all stood up in a small conference room. I started a mild form of protest one day and started sitting down during the 'stand up meetings.' None of us were sad when he left the company.
• There was also the IT systems analyst guy who started as a college intern. Once he became a full time regular employee, he seemed to work drug dealer hours...showing up at 9-10 am, leaving at noon for a sometimes 2 hour lunch break, leaving work at 3 pm. All he seemed to do all day was watch Youtube. None of us were sad when he left.
• 1 of the managers hired a contractor guy to do some development work. That guy had a big chip on his shoulder, called me "Honey" and "Sweetie" and tried to school me on how I should do my job, when I've been in this particular line of work for a long time and I could run circles around him. Then he went on to claim that "nobody" does Job X anymore or cares about Certification X, EVERYBODY is only hiring people with Certification Y (which literally nobody has ever heard of). When his contract was up, he was not brought on as a regular employee. None of us were sad about that, either.
• 1 boss of mine originally got hired as my peer, but then was promoted to my boss, even though I had way more experience and was better at my job than him. The nature of the group I work with us such that on projects, we need to work collaboratively together, bouncing ideas off of each other, and be able to challenge each other and say stuff like "Hey, we need to watch out for X." This particular bozo decided one day that he didn't like me and a coworker doing this, so he chastized us in front of Mr VP of IT (from the 1st example above), raked us over the coals, and came so unglued in the meeting that I really thought that he was going to come all the way across the table to hit me. My coworker filed an HR complaint about it. His position was later eliminated, but he schmoozed with somebody in another department, who saved his butt for a couple more years before he quit to go elsewhere. None of us were sad when he left.
• An IT manager guy was hired by Mr VP of IT. IT manager guy thought himself to be amazing. He targeted my female coworker and would threaten her with stuff like, "You know, I can have security confirm that you actually showed up when you claim you did," while he never monitored anybody else in the department the same way. One day, he brought his little kids w/him to the office and let his 3 yr old DD run around unattended all over the huge cubicle farm. He was a total butt head. None of us were sad when he left.
• A contractor project manager was hired for a short term project this one time. She'd previously worked for the county government in an IT project manager capacity. She thought it was ok to disparage people assigned to her project & say rude things like "Well, you better get it done by that date if you know what's good for you. Maybe you need to rethink your priorities around here." She thought that you could attract more flies with vinegar than honey. She was released early from her contract. She was not missed.
• When I worked for a different employer a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, my boss at the time would tell homosexual jokes in Monday morning meetings. He'd refer to grown women at work as "girls." And other nonsense.
• A year and a half ago, my boss's boss (a woman) told me that she doesn't like working with women and prefers working with men instead. OMG, what?! Did she say that out loud? Yes, yes she did. Her favorites of her direct reports were all...guess what...men. And if you did not show 100% loyalty to whatever dumb thing she came up with, you were ostracized and you were out. She also was famous for snarkily talking smack about other people at work...something that someone in a leadership position should not do. She'd have lots of "inside jokes" with her favorites and you could tell that they were quietly mocking somebody in the room, but when asked what was so funny, she'd say, "Oh nothing, it's just an inside joke." Well, earlier this year, she totally screwed up and told senior leadership that this one really big thing was just fine, all systems go, everything's great, when it really was not. It was a train wreck. She was fired 6 months ago. It's taken this long for the work culture to change for those of us who were in her reporting chain. A few people are still in mourning over it and are still asking, "Who moved my cheese?" Most of us are not sad that she was kicked out.