The grumpy thread

[GrumpiusMaximus]

9 hours ago, cobblers said:

I got about the same amount of work done on friday as I did monday-thursday, because I wasn't being distracted  every 15 minutes with "when will my xxxx be done?" or "Can I just pick your brains?"

An honest response would be "I don't know when it will be done, and if everyone would stop fucking phoning me it would have probably already been done! Yes, I know your customer is nagging you, just fob them off. When you sent it in I said it would be a week or two - it's been here two days! Call back if you don't hear from us in a fortnight!"

Very soon this is all getting turned digital and progress questions etc will be directed to the repair portal website thing.

I did actually say that to a customer once: - "If you stopped calling for updates every five minutes and making me stop what I'm doing, it would probably be fixed by now."

Being on demand at work is a pain in the arse and it's why I'm envious of people like my brother (a developer) who sits there all day just writing code and only has to update the manager or project team once every couple of days.  I don't think a lot of people realise how difficult it is to stop what you're doing, answer the phone to deal with something else and then pick up what you were doing again.  It's a major drag on productivity and it leaves people right on edge all day in case the phone rings again.  If you're working in a team it means you're constantly having to negotiate your breaks around everybody elses' availability as well and it's much harder to be flexible around working hours if you need a favour.

Phones are the worst for it because they're 'active' and will interrupt you.  Emails are at least passive and get dealt with on your time scale.

We are going to be trialling a phone triage service soon, which will make me outbound-only most of the time and I am seriously looking forward to that.

I do think that the public have become accustomed to a World where everybody is always available and everything can be obtained next-day.  The number of times staff in my old job used to complain that I couldn't get them a new laptop next day delivery, that couriers prioritised Amazon and that we weren't, in fact, Amazon was infuriating.  Other people are seen as this cog in a machine and that the 'customer is always right' because they've been conditioned that way by consumerism.

It's utter bollocks and instant gratification in society is a fucking awful thing.

[fairkens]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:11 PM, GMcD said:

 

When I was a very junior lawyer working in conveyancing, pre-crash, I said the same to an arsehole estate agent - if you and your colleagues would stop ringing for updates every 5 minutes  I might actually be able to get some work done. I received the absolute adoration if my colleagues but management were livid - my first official warning. It did seem to work though.

Appreciate not possible if its your own business

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

It's utter bollocks and instant gratification in society is a fucking awful thing.

Anybody remember "Please allow 28 days for delivery?"
Even out here in The Boonies we are getting 24/48 hour delivery on a lot of gear - not just Amazon - and I think it's incredible . Visitors from 'the city' think its crap as they want it all 'right now' and actually have been known to try and order a 'fuckaccino' or whatever they're called from their bed for breakfast delivery? Really? You pay £6 for a cuppa and then get a peasant to deliver it?
Anyways - back to moaning - sprog #2 on last Thursday is here checking her phone non-stop - not Tinder, work - she's a conveyancer. Arsehole client from hell plus the boss from doom has her (on her day off) stressing over a completion. Some bosses seem also seem to expect instant gratification from their peons and the youngsters are terrified of saying no to them, not saying I was ever the happiest twenty-something but, by the time I was in my thirties, I was grumpy enough to tell a shite boss where to shove their job.

Consumerism is not making the younger generation happy methinks....

[Rust Collector]

3 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Emails are at least passive and get dealt with on your time scale.

*Phone rings*

'Good morning, Rust Collector speaking.'

'Hello, it's Idiot Client here. I just wanted to check you got my email.'

*Checks emails*

'Ah, the email you sent 20 minutes ago?'

'yes, I hadn't heard anything from you yet so I just wanted to make sure you had it. Would you be able to come back to me please?'

*Soul leaves body*

'Not a problem, I'll come back to you shortly.'

*leaves email until last*

[GrumpiusMaximus]

10 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

*Phone rings*

'Good morning, Rust Collector speaking.'

'Hello, it's Idiot Client here. I just wanted to check you got my email.'

*Checks emails*

'Ah, the email you sent 20 minutes ago?'

'yes, I hadn't heard anything from you yet so I just wanted to make sure you had it. Would you be able to come back to me please?'

*Soul leaves body*

'Not a problem, I'll come back to you shortly.'

*leaves email until last*

We have a 4-hour SLA on emails, which is a bit annoying.

My last job had a 24-hour SLA on initial response and I loved telling staff this was the case.  They lost their nut but it was right there in the automated reply.  The best thing about that was getting a member of staff that was a total arse.  So you waited until the 23rd hour (i.e. three days) to respond with an initial contact, asking them more questions.  They would then reply but that used to reset the SLA counter, so you didn't have to reply for another 3 days.  I could make a fairly simple (but not first-contact fix) ticket last three weeks this way.  It was glorious.

[barefoot]

SLA?

[Rust Collector]

Just now, barefoot said:

SLA?

Service Level Agreement - an arrangement between organisations or departments for the supplier of a service to deliver a set amount or time frame or other measurable parameter. There's normally a bonus or penalty associated with the SLA depending on if you meet it or fail to meet it.

Senior managers get super excited about them in meetings as it's a chance to bust out a presentation showing KPI's... 

[cort1977]

4 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

 I don't think a lot of people realise how difficult it is to stop what you're doing, answer the phone to deal with something else and then pick up what you were doing again.  

Phones are the worst for it because they're 'active' and will interrupt you.  Emails are at least passive and get dealt with on your time scale.

It's utter bollocks and instant gratification in society is a fucking awful thing.

There are various studies showing how after each distraction it can take several minutes to get back in the flow of what you are doing. If it's continual then your work quality suffers.

That Text Message Is More Distracting Than You Think (forbes.com)

Couldn't agree more about instant gratification.  Good thing I can moan about it on here, young people today etc. etc.

[horriblemercedes]

5 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

There are various studies showing how after each distraction it can take several minutes to get back in the flow of what you are doing. If it's continual then your work quality suffers.

That Text Message Is More Distracting Than You Think (forbes.com)

Couldn't agree more about instant gratification.  Good thing I can moan about it on here, young people today etc. etc.

Anecdotally, I definitely find it makes a difference. If I'm concentrating on something, getting into a working rhythm and flow etc, when someone calls I can't just continue at the same pace that I was before.

 

Even more annoying when it's a call to ask if I've received an email nine minutes after the email was sent (as happened this morning) when I'm trying to work through the 120 or so I've received over the weekend. Especially because it was something non-urgent.

[Rust Collector]

8 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

There are various studies showing how after each distraction it can take several minutes to get back in the flow of what you are doing. If it's continual then your work quality suffers.

Visits to Autoshite are obviously the exception to the rule and definitely* focus your work.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

27 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

There are various studies showing how after each distraction it can take several minutes to get back in the flow of what you are doing. If it's continual then your work quality suffers.

That Text Message Is More Distracting Than You Think (forbes.com)

Couldn't agree more about instant gratification.  Good thing I can moan about it on here, young people today etc. etc.

We are hopefully employing a phone monkey (official job title) to triage as, in fairness to my employer, they fully understand these challenges and they've been very understanding when I've complained about it.  They've been trying to get me off direct support and into something more strategic for at least the last six months but it's proving very difficult to find a direct L2 replacement, especially one that meets our specific requirements.

We have an outsourced support team that do a chunk of our L1 but they're in the middle of training a UK dispatch so we're not happy with just diverting the phones and some of the customers will be a bit resistant...

[EyesWeldedShut]

Fuckin' lying twats on YouTube/Interweb.
"Here's how to quickly flush the ATF in your barge"

No. That. Is. A. Lie.

That and the fact I nipped the thread on the cooler  fitting and had to pull it out of the car to recut it, and it rained, and wet ATF is slippier than a bucket of KY Jelly. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

Anecdotally, I definitely find it makes a difference. If I'm concentrating on something, getting into a working rhythm and flow etc, when someone calls I can't just continue at the same pace that I was before.

 

Even more annoying when it's a call to ask if I've received an email nine minutes after the email was sent (as happened this morning) when I'm trying to work through the 120 or so I've received over the weekend. Especially because it was something non-urgent.

I'll see your 120 and raise you a couple..... I gave up and went out to tinker with the car - see elsewhere in this thread how happy* that made me.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

@EyesWeldedShutThe worst I've ever seen was 1,400 unanswered emails in a work inbox in my last job.  Not our inbox thank goodness but one of the other teams.  We had to intervene.  It was a disaster.

[New POD]

1 minute ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

@EyesWeldedShutThe worst I've ever seen was 1,400 unanswered emails in a work inbox in my last job.  Not our inbox thank goodness but one of the other teams.  We had to intervene.  It was a disaster.

I have over 1000 unopened emails after 18 months in a job. 

Get about 5 daily MOP and Project Status emails automatically every day, including weekends.  I never open them.  I gave links on my desk top to the relevant information, which I look at occasionally. 

There's another which sends me an email daily telling me how many overdue tasks I have.  

Anyway, wife thinks I should resign next week.  I've emailed in sick this week.  I've listened to her figures and they seem flawed to me. But I will be getting my spreadsheet out and working out how little we actually need to live on. 

I did also did a little search on linked in a total jobs. 

There's a part time job 3 mind walk away, making dental implants. And false teeth. 

There's 3 jobs as manufacturing improvement engineers within 30 mins drive. 2 at Leyland trucks. And one at a ceramic brake disk company. 

There's also a consultant job at The MTC in Liverpool. 

My problem us I don't know if it's me, or the job.  Even after 35 years in industry, I feel like it's me. I can only do one thing at one time.  That seems to be the problem. 

[cobblers]

4 minutes ago, New POD said:

I can only do one thing at one time.  That seems to be the problem. 

I have ADHD, so as soon as I get pulled off one job onto another, the first job is totally wiped from my mind. Then halfway through this job, the phone rings and something else pulls me away, and I start another job, rinse and repeat all week and nothing really gets done.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Dental implant manufacture is quite specialised.  I've got a mate that has done that (and is a dental nurse, apparently it's very unusual to be qualified in both) and there's certainly call for it.  Not without its own stress though.

If you're feeling unwell mentally or physically it's equally valid.  If you can afford a month out of the industry to evaluate your options then it might help.

[New POD]

https://www.totaljobs.com/jobs-at/udl/jobs

 

[artdjones]

I hated being called away during timing belt changes, and any work on brakes or suspension. Times when you just can't afford to be distracted.

[artdjones]

4 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

*Phone rings*

'Good morning, Rust Collector speaking.'

'Hello, it's Idiot Client here. I just wanted to check you got my email.'

*Checks emails*

'Ah, the email you sent 20 minutes ago?'

'yes, I hadn't heard anything from you yet so I just wanted to make sure you had it. Would you be able to come back to me please?'

*Soul leaves body*

'Not a problem, I'll come back to you shortly.'

*leaves email until last*

That's one reason WhatsApp is good for fairly simple stuff. You get a notification when the other person gets it, and when they open it.

[Markeh]

7 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Being on demand at work is a pain in the arse and it's why I'm envious of people like my brother (a developer) who sits there all day just writing code and only has to update the manager or project team once every couple of days.  I don't think a lot of people realise how difficult it is to stop what you're doing, answer the phone to deal with something else and then pick up what you were doing again.  It's a major drag on productivity and it leaves people right on edge all day in case the phone rings again.  If you're working in a team it means you're constantly having to negotiate your breaks around everybody elses' availability as well and it's much harder to be flexible around working hours if you need a favour.

I wish your brother's project team and manager could teach my manager/higher ups - I get pestered several times daily some days!

[Rust Collector]

4 minutes ago, artdjones said:

That's one reason WhatsApp is good for fairly simple stuff. You get a notification when the other person gets it, and when they open it.

I manage to upset people on that as well, apparently it's bad form to read something then not respond until later.

In my defence, I only use WhatsApp for my private life, and I read everything as it comes in and then decide if it needs my immediate attention or if it can be delayed. I personally don't see what the problem is if I don't respond to 'what you been up to lately' the moment I read it.

Which reminds me, I forgot to reply to my friend the other night and I'm sure the countdown on the 'he's ignoring me' clock is getting close to zero 😅

[Bren]

Purchased a new outside tap from screwfix.

Useless straight out of the packaging.

It's replacement did work.

Is everything unfit for purpose?

[cobblers]

20 minutes ago, Bren said:

Purchased a new outside tap from screwfix.

Useless straight out of the packaging.

It's replacement did work.

Is everything unfit for purpose?

Yes.

I ordered an expensive ish (£500) stainless steel catering sink unit for our new work premises.

Drop shipped flimsy chinese shite turned up. Hey ho I thought, so I built it up. 

It was bowed up in the middle so the sink always had 1/2" of stangant water in it and the draining board sloped away from the sink. Contacted the seller, they said "You need to fit it level"

I sent a video of me showing how it was 100% level and there was pools of water that would never drain out. 

"OK we can't see a problem but would you accept a 20% refund?"

 

[iainrcz]

My family heirloom shredder shit the bed. Looks like one of the nylon cogs has gone pop.

 

[MikeR]

at home on my own and just done 3 things in half an hour that would not of got done any other time  , not that any one of them is noticeable ...

but I must put my shirt in the wash that has the remains of a poundland pastie on it before anyone notices ...

[Volksy]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

I manage to upset people on that as well, apparently it's bad form to read something then not respond until later.

In my defence, I only use WhatsApp for my private life, and I read everything as it comes in and then decide if it needs my immediate attention or if it can be delayed. I personally don't see what the problem is if I don't respond to 'what you been up to lately' the moment I read it.

Which reminds me, I forgot to reply to my friend the other night and I'm sure the countdown on the 'he's ignoring me' clock is getting close to zero 😅

You can turn off read receipts from the settings menu. Means the sender wont receive the 'blue tick' read sign. Although you wont be able to see if they have read yours either......

 

Someone I used to see got all angsty if I'd been online after their message had been sent and I hadn't read or responded to it. 

You can also be selective with who can see when you are online or 'last seen'. Which can be handy....

[chadders]

2 hours ago, New POD said:

 

Anyway, wife thinks I should resign next week.  I've emailed in sick this week.  I've listened to her figures and they seem flawed to me. But I will be getting my spreadsheet out and working out how little we actually need to live on.

If you cut your property empire down to one house I reckon that you'd be surprised

My problem us I don't know if it's me, or the job.  Even after 35 years in industry, I feel like it's me. I can only do one thing at one time.  That seems to be the problem. 

That's normal to me, it's called focusing.

 

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, New POD said:

I will be getting my spreadsheet out

[New POD]

3 hours ago, Bren said:

Purchased a new outside tap from screwfix.

Useless straight out of the packaging.

It's replacement did work.

Is everything unfit for purpose?

Yes