Hate
I’ve been thinking about the topic of work lately. And how it’s a taboo subject for many of us. Because we don’t want our employers outing us. Or getting in trouble for things we’ve said in this space. So, while I still refrain from blogging about work, here’s a list of things I hate about work:
- It’s cold here. REALLY cold. My fingers are frozen. My toes curdle. I have a fleece that I permanently keep at my desk. It hasn’t been washed in months. Because I fear I’ll forget to bring it back. And I cannot go a day without it. I wear long pants and long shirts to work. Even when it’s 90-icky-humid-sticky degrees outside. Yes, I look like an idiot. Because I’m still cold at work. Is it a problem that I make frequent trips to the bathroom. Because it’s warm in there? I don’t think there are any vents in there. It’s like my own personal oasis. Only, there are other people coming and going.
- Speaking of bathrooms. We have two on our floor. And I refuse to use one of them. Because the ladies down the hall. Working for another company. Are so disgusting and disrespectful. They miss the trash can when throwing away paper towels and turn around and leave it as a present for the next person coming in. And that’s only when they wash their hands – many times they don’t. They often miss the toilet and don’t clean up the seat. They don’t flush down what’s brown. And are generally little piggies. It’s really gross and unfortunate. The other bathroom on the other side of the building? There’s one lady there who brings her curling iron in the mornings. And leaves broken hairs behind. And another few who give me funny looks because I don’t belong to their clique (again, they work for another company). But, at least they are clean. And wash their hands. And make sure their trash makes it into the bin. Respect goes a long way in my book.
- There is a short, squat lady that works on my floor (not for my company). We’ve nicknamed her the Smoke Bomb. Seriously, she goes out for a smoke at least 8 times a day. And leaves this path of smoky ickiness behind her. It’s hard not to cough when enclosed in an elevator with her. We’re all incredibly shocked she’s lived as long as she has.
- Speaking of smokers, the whole lot of them are a bunch of illiterate imbeciles. Sorry if you smoke. Actually, no I’m not. I really don’t care if you’re offended. This is my blog and you should know better. The smokers in my building? Ignore any and all smoking signs and laws. The best is when I come back from lunch. There is a big sign next to the door that says, No Smoking Area. On any given day, there is always a group of smokers. Hanging out around the sign. Idiots on more levels than one. I wonder what it’s like to get dirty looks all day. Bad karma’s a bitch.
- There’s another firm down the hall from mine. It’s a bunch of attorneys and a title company rolled into one. We think they’re all Russian. As are all their clients. In fact, we hypothesize they are the Russian Mafia. It’s a strange vibe coming from that end of the hallway. And those ladies? Are the ones who populate the bathroom I do not frequent.
- I am, by far, the coolest person in my building. I say this with some sarcasm, though a tone of truth to it. Does anyone else have this problem? Working in the suburbs. In an office building. Where there just isn’t anyone you’d ever think of wanting to befriend? I’ve been in this kind of office building for most of my career. So, it’s nothing new to me. Though, I do have a twinge of envy when my friends talk about their downtown experiences. Sigh.
I think that sums it up. What’s the thing you like least about your workplace that has nothing to do with your work?
August 7th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I have 2 jackets and a blanket slung over my chair at work at all times. And sometimes? I have to use all three. I feel you on the OMG it is so effing cold! :)
August 7th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I also feel you on the “OMG it is so effing cold”. Should something ever happen to my space heater I might consider calling in sick. I go to the bathroom to warm up my hands using the hot water.
Other things I don’t like about my job…HR. Idiots.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
So far the worst I’ve got is that my office requires me to change El trains. Boo hoo. It’s only day 4 though.
And that’s a pretty solid list of yours.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I used to work in a place where I had to go outdoors at regular intervals to thaw out.
I also used to smoke years ago, and was ALWAYS respectful of signs and other people. It drives me nuts that so many are not, and I am very sorry that you have to deal with them.
For me? It’s the parking lot. The salon I work at is right off of the highway, on a very busy road. People bring their stupid right into the parking lot like there is a giant “Stupidity Refuge” sign that only the stupid can see. They can’t park, they can’t drive, and they think that the whole world should get out of their way.
I think I have told you before that I have to go to work early so that i have time to decompress from the highway and the parking lot before trying to do some hair. It would be bad for my career if I didn’t.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
After 12 years of working in the same place? I could speak VOLUMES about the things that annoy me. But most of all? I’m the only girl here. And while I’m happy to have my own bathroom, most of the men I work with? Are over 50. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But I have like ZERO in common with anyone.
Somehow, though, now that I know I’ll be leaving (AT SOME POINT), I don’t get as easily irritated. Or at least I don’t complain about it as much as I did.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I hate that our autoflush toilets are so sensitive that they flush before you’re done. GAH.
Also, I was looking at your cute little date tracker thing up in the left sidebar? And I really think the day and month should be reversed. The way it is now, it reads August Thursday 7 2008. That’s just wrong.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Oh the many, MANY things I would love to list here and tell you about, but unfortunately I can’t. If we ever do meet one day in person, I’ll have stories for you. But I will leave you with this, if you watch or have ever watched an episode The Office (the American one), then you get an idea of what mine is like. Fun stuff.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Hahaha. Well for me, since I work at home most of the time, it’s probably that when I have to work late I can actually see my husband lounging on the couch drinking a martini!
August 7th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
First, ew.
I hate the lack of offices/cubicles at my company. We are growing quickly, but don’t have enough room for everyone. I’ve been in three different offices since I’ve been here and none of them are really “mine.” Once a new position has been filled I’ll be moved again.
August 7th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Okay, it is SO COLD in my office that sometimes I am too froze to think. I’ll take breaks and go downstairs to defrost myself, coming back thawed out, only to freeze into a barely movable state again.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I hate the smokers too. I actually have a post in my head about that. Not just at work but at my apartment building. Ok, everywhere. It’s not that they are idiots (in my book) but that they are selfish.
I know because I was one once.
The big peeves I have about work right now are: The parking garage situation and my coworkers inability to squeeze out the sponge in the communal kitchen.
Oh and also that my job bores me to tears.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I have the opposite problem -- my office is 8,000,000 degrees by the end of a hot day. We own a house that we now use as our office, and the room I’m in didn’t use to have vents at all. Now it does, but they hardly work. On a bad day it’s over 80 by the time I leave. Some days I leave early because I just can’t take the heat anymore.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I am always freezing at work so I too leave a cardigan/ heavy sweater over my office chair every day. It also doesn’t get washed very often.
I start my new job in less than two weeks, so I’m sure that I will have more for you then. :-)
August 7th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
My office is freezing as well. I’ve decided to bring a blanket in tomorrow. It’s necessary!
August 7th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
LOL I love that you hate how you’re cooler than everyone you work with!
There isn’t one thing I can think of that I hate about my workplace -- I think I hated the last 4 places I worked enough to bank some love time…. hopefully!!
Lame, I know….but being recognized and remunerated for work and effort in a pretty positive workplace is such a sharp change of pace from working in TV that I still have stars in my eyes after 8 months here lol
August 7th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
omg, the cold office. HAAATE. i wear a sweater all day, take frequent warm-up-outside-in-the-sun breaks, and drink a lot of hot tea. and it DOESN’T HELP.
i am so, so thankful that the women at work here do not pee on the seats. it was a HUGE problem at my last job. pissed me off royally.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
My office is freezing also, but I have been in an office that was too hot and I will take too cold any day.
My biggest complaint is annoying loud people who think they are really important. There are two of the in my area and they have loud, personal phone conversations all day long. Dude, seriously I don’t care if you wife has her period or your truck needs new brakes. Just shut up!
August 7th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Are you my coworker? LOL #1 and 2 could have been written by me. In fact I just recently did a post about how darn cold I always am at my desk! And the bathrooms here- seriously, I’ve been tempted to use the men’s because I swear, anything has to be better than our woman’s!
August 7th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
1) My office is also ridiculously cold -- we have all this equipment that has to be kept cool and therefore we are in an icebox.
2) I sit next to the kitchen, where no one can seem to work the coffee machine but me, so I’m constantly being asked to help.
3) We have ONE women’s bathroom upstairs and there is a constant line for it.
4) Our office is located in one of the worst gang areas of LA and we are routinely put on lockdown because of some a-hole gang banger who is being arrested.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I still work from home, so anything I would complain about is my own damn fault. ;)
However, when I’ve been in a big downtown office, I suffer from the arctic tundra syndrome as well. It takes a helluva lot to make me intolerably warm.
And I think everytime a smoker gets a smoke break the rest of us should get a shopping break. :-)
August 7th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
my office is quite far from my home sweet home, since i used to work at the heart of town (less than 20km to n fro), now the fact that that i have to drive approx 42km + traffic + higher petrol price is sucks!!
August 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
The thing I like least? The fact that people use the restroom across from my office after lunch to polute the entire hallway with the vile smell of doodie or the sweet smell of doodie combined with spray. What the hell do these people EAT to make it smell that bad. Geez.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I wear a wool sweater all year long. It’s a game to see how long I can take it in the morning before I put it on.
And I work with just one other woman and a surgeon. And we have just one bathroom, which is very nicely ventilated so no poop smells, ever. The surgeon? I think he likes to pee in the toilet in the morning before we get here to make the water turn green (yellow and blue make green) and then leave it for us as a joke. I gag, but then he makes me laugh about it. I work for a strange, strange man…..
August 7th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
It’s FREEZING in my office too. And I go to the bathroom to warm up as well.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Well, we do not have ANY bathroom on our floor. We have to walk up two flights of stairs to take a pee. And I pee A LOT. The temperature is never right either. One minute I’m freezing and have a jacket and a heater on and the next minute I’m sweating like a pig. Of course, I hate being here in general so… LOL
August 7th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
What is it with all the refrigerated offices? I thought we were having an energy crisis. How can the landlords afford to crank the AC like that?
Anyway, work bathrooms… we have to share with our clients. Not always ideal. Some of us used to go up one floor so as not to run into clients but the ladies on the next floor up cliqued together and made mean comments to us because they didn’t want to share. So immature! Anyway, I stopped going up there because I can’t take that kind of verbal abuse with my pants down.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Oh, that’s just naaaassty. Not flushing poop? I’ve never heard of such a thing! Then I got to the part about them being Russian… Makes *total* sense now. Not that they’re bad people. Just not as clean.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I thought the woman who brushed her teeth in our bathroom was bad.
GROSS.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
That we’re all girls. Which is cool in that I’m friends with most of them and I love talking with them, but it can get catty and passive-aggressive when someone can’t be direct or doesn’t have the balls to approach someone else about a problem and instead talks about them behind their backs. I grew up in a family of 7 women, not including aunts and mothers, so I think I scare my co-workers with how direct, no-drama, no-bullshit I am. I think we could use a little testosterone here.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
i think the one thing that unites of all mankind is that we each can (and do) complain about our workplace. i think for me (when i was still in an office) is that sense that i just HAD to be sitting at a desk for 7 hours a day. who does that?! i hate to sit for that long at one time! also, the cold thing. the office was SO cold in the summer that i had to keep sweaters at work. in august!
August 7th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Dude.
When I get down about missing out on an exciting career to be a SAHM, I am totally going to re-read this post.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
amen amen amen!
there’s a guy who shares the floor with our office who owns his own company but is rarely ever there. i always know when he is though because he leaves the toilet seat up in the bathroom and uses up the toilet paper and paper towels without replacing the holders with new ones.
i HATE that.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:43 am
I work from my own home. Every day my sister-in-law comes over to work here too. She never EVER washes her hands after the bathroom and I am constantly thinking “dont touch anything, dont touch anything!” which has lead to my daily routine of completely wiping down my kitchen at 5pm. Thankfully I have my own toilet, that I banned everyone from using aside from emergencies coz if someone peed on my toilet seat, I’d lose the plot! Seriously, how do women even do that?!
August 8th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Nilsa,
I was just starting to miss life in the office, but you’ve reminded me of a few reasons why I like the life of a student. I know that old, ratty sweater that hangs on the back of the office chair well!
August 8th, 2008 at 2:39 am
I think anyone who also works in an office [Like you and I] can relate to all these points.
My girls and I have nicknames for “those people” who pee on the seat, smell like they live in an ash tray, brush their teeth every day at the same time, don’t smile, smell real bad, … I can go on and on.
What I’m really here to say is that I love your writing and I can relate to your pain of being cold! [I have a vent right behind me and it blows on me like that it's job]
August 8th, 2008 at 3:47 am
Where I “currently” work it’s neither downtown or the suburbs..had to classify. anyway, aside from it being pretty cold as well, i actually like the building and location. the one thing that is kind of funny, yet uncontrollable is it happens to be located in an area which is kind of a wind tunnel, so on days where you’re wearing a skirt….um, look out! :)
August 8th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
no air conditioning on my floor
and i have to take a fright elevator that i have to manually lift the doors to get to my floor (5th)
August 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Bring a new sweater in before you bring the fleece home, that way you’ll make sure you have something there.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
By far, the worst part of where I work would be the RAT TRAPS (!!!!) I have next to my desk and under my desk. OMG the horrors of it, not to mention it’s SO disgusting! Also, I’m the youngest person in my office by 20 years, not such a good time.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:04 am
So, I have to clean bathrooms (Yeah, because my summer IS that lame…) and it COMPLETELY baffles me when I walk into the women’s bathroom and find pee on the seat. WTF? Maybe a little help figuring this one out? Are the ladies not the ones who have been getting after guys since the beginning of time about proper bathroom procedure including, but not limited to, not peeing on the seat?
Also, on smokers: There are no fewer than 11 ashtrays attached to the hotel, all conveniently placed at/near entrances. Now, granted, you’re not legally supposed to smoke within 30 feet of a door (but they do…), but would it kill them to carry their nasty-ass butts the 30 feet to the ashtray, or at LEAST a garbage can? I must pick up at least 25-30 butts per day. It’s disgusting.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:32 am
the AC is way too cold, and the soda machine eats my $$ sometimes!