Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, Xela said:

I don't know how they survive? 

Magazines? Stationary? Music? Books? It doesn't have a USP. It provides things that are cheaper elsewhere, apart from magazines, but they are in decline anyway in general.

I wondered about this as they seem the very best candidate to go under, but found out 2 things. 

1) they seem to be a very well run company and got all their leases at the right price, therefore are not crippled by huge overheads, most retailers go bump at rent time which is every 2 months. Basically they can afford to be in their shops, but  mostly 

2) They make an absolute f ton of money from their shops within airports and railway stations. It's the main place they make profits. 

It shows that you can still have a good retail business if your offering is right and you negotiate affordable rents. 

[StefanAVFC]

I play football with a load of Polish guys.

I don't know if it's cultural but blimey, what a load of pansies.

I went shoulder to shoulder with a guy, he was off balance and went flying and I got harangued for being too rough. 5 mins later, I get an elbow across my chest. Whatever for me, I'm used to it, but if we're playing by their rules then it's ridiculous.

I hate how football is genuinely a non-contact sport these days.

[HanoiVillan]

13 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

It was a totally unrealistic expectation.

But that is how he works. He asks for something totally unrealistic, shouts at you for not achieving it, but ends up with something in between that is acceptable for a normal person.

He's a psychopath. But he gets results so it's hard to argue.

Sorry to persist with this, and feel free to tell me to mind my own business if you want, but the presentation you were giving: what was the actual purpose of it? What I'm trying to get at is, what was this individual hoping to achieve by having an employee deliver a presentation on a subject they couldn't realistically know about?

The whole thing seems bizarre to me. It's interesting that you compared the situation to that Peep Show episode. Of course the joke behind the joke in that episode is that Mark had a crap boss with a crap plan which had crap reasons for its implementation. Is that the real parallel to your situation?

[Stevo985]

9 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Sorry to persist with this, and feel free to tell me to mind my own business if you want, but the presentation you were giving: what was the actual purpose of it? What I'm trying to get at is, what was this individual hoping to achieve by having an employee deliver a presentation on a subject they couldn't realistically know about?

The whole thing seems bizarre to me. It's interesting that you compared the situation to that Peep Show episode. Of course the joke behind the joke in that episode is that Mark had a crap boss with a crap plan which had crap reasons for its implementation. Is that the real parallel to your situation?

His goal was to force people into investigating a persisting issue that nobody understood and make some headway into solving it.

Which to be fair he's achieved. I've made a lot of progress and I'll probably get a tonne of credit for it.

Depends on how you define a crap boss. Is he crap to work for? Absolutely. My boss hates working for him and any interaction I have with him is terrifying.
But he undoubtedly gets results.

[ender4]

15 hours ago, ChrisVillan said:

Alright, someone needs to sort out this roundabout thing because it's doing my head in and I NEED TO KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. 

Lets set up a real life experiment at a roundabout in Birmingham.

 

[Paddywhack]

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

Lets set up a real life experiment at a roundabout in Birmingham.

 

There's one at the Stag and Three Horseshoes in Quinton that would be perfect for this experiment.

It's right by my house so I could walk there. I wouldn't have my car then though so it'd be pointless me walking there.

[Dr_Pangloss]

3 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

His goal was to force people into investigating a persisting issue that nobody understood and make some headway into solving it.

Which to be fair he's achieved. I've made a lot of progress and I'll probably get a tonne of credit for it.

Depends on how you define a crap boss. Is he crap to work for? Absolutely. My boss hates working for him and any interaction I have with him is terrifying.
But he undoubtedly gets results.

In general for me that's the hallmark of a bad boss because he will alienate people, make them feel resentful and then ultimately look to leave. This leads to inefficiencies and costs - e.g. people won't work as hard for him over the long run and people leaving is ultimately very costly as well. 

[choffer]

17 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

In general for me that's the hallmark of a bad boss because he will alienate people, make them feel resentful and then ultimately look to leave. This leads to inefficiencies and costs - e.g. people won't work as hard for him over the long run and people leaving is ultimately very costly as well. 

I read recently something that really resonated - People rarely leave their job, they leave their boss.

[AlwaysAVFC]

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

Lets set up a real life experiment at an island in Birmingham.

 

Fixed

[Davkaus]

I think I last spoke to my boss about 3 months ago at the Christmas party. Bliss.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Davkaus

[choffer]

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

I think I last spoke to my boss about 3 months ago at the Christmas party. Bliss.

I think my boss last spoke to me before Christmas too. Bit worrying seeing as redundancies are being announced on Monday 

[Davkaus]

Yeah, that's not exactly ideal. Mine is only down the hall so I can walk in if I need him, and we're probably due a catch up next month or so, but for the most part, if HR aren't forcing us to do some appraisal bullshit and I don't need anything, he just leaves me to it.

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

In general for me that's the hallmark of a bad boss because he will alienate people, make them feel resentful and then ultimately look to leave. This leads to inefficiencies and costs - e.g. people won't work as hard for him over the long run and people leaving is ultimately very costly as well. 

That's certainly not how his boss will view his performance which I can guarantee is positive.

They're ruthless. They care about the bottom line and he's very successful in that respect.

[StefanAVFC]

I speak with my boss multiple times a day. We have a really good relationship tbh.

[chrisp65]

Mr Crispy: 'look! behold! I have been out and bought a new drainage gulley grid as required for the last several weeks!'

Mrs Crispy: 'well done, did you measure the drain before you bought it?'

Mr Crispy: 'ha,ha, no my little sweet pea sugar titted goddess, these things are a universal size, I know this as I am a man'

Mrs Crispy: 'oh ok, I just thought it odd that our drain is round and you've bought a square cover'

Mr Crispy: '~#!"£$T)(*D>*~[]L kin ell'

 

[Dr_Pangloss]

56 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

That's certainly not how his boss will view his performance which I can guarantee is positive.

They're ruthless. They care about the bottom line and he's very successful in that respect.

That's interesting. Your boss might be in the minority but in general if a manager's behaviour leads to a high churn then it would be gross incompetence to view his performance positively, obviously high employee turnover is extremely costly (not saying this is the case at your firm but in general bad, abrasive managers tend to responsible for people leaving) so it shouldn't be rewarded.  

Although you can never underestimate how thick/ ignorant senior management are. In a past company one department was run by an absolute dickhead, in my time there he oversaw his entire team leaving, somehow he kept his job and then a little later on most of the replacement team left, all citing him as the reason. 

[ender4]

35 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

That's interesting. Your boss might be in the minority but in general if a manager's behaviour leads to a high churn then it would be gross incompetence to view his performance positively, obviously high employee turnover is extremely costly (not saying this is the case at your firm but in general bad, abrasive managers tend to responsible for people leaving) so it shouldn't be rewarded.  

Although you can never underestimate how thick/ ignorant senior management are. In a past company one department was run by an absolute dickhead, in my time there he oversaw his entire team leaving, somehow he kept his job and then a little later on most of the replacement team left, all citing him as the reason. 

I worked in a multinational company where the senior manager of the department only had 8 people in his team, yet 14 people had started and left in 18 months.

Even though my job was permanent, and they paid really well (danger money!), i lasted 4 months before i quit.

Everyone in the department hated the manager, but his senior manager didn't seem to care as long as the work got done.

Also, no-one ever cited him as the reason to be leaving as they were too scared of being the person to dob him in.

Edited March 16, 2017 by ender4

[Stevo985]

30 minutes ago, ender4 said:

I worked in a multinational company where the senior manager of the department only had 8 people in his team, yet 14 people had started and left in 18 months.

Even though my job was permanent, and they paid really well (danger money!), i lasted 4 months before i quit.

Everyone in the department hated the manager, but his senior manager didn't seem to care as long as the work got done.

Also, no-one ever cited him as the reason to be leaving as they were too scared of being the person to dob him in.

This basically. I'd say there's a relatively high turnover here, but I doubt you could get anyone to admit they left because of the guy in question.

[Davkaus]

It's a pretty stupid idea to burn your bridges when leaving by blaming a manager for you leaving, definitely.

[Dr_Pangloss]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

It's a pretty stupid idea to burn your bridges when leaving by blaming a manager for you leaving, definitely.

Depends on who it is and the structures in place. If it's to HR then it might not be the worst thing in the world if it puts it on their radar for monitoring.