The complaint compartment.

[FriendwithTractor]

Re: "It doesn't need maintenance!"

I am an IT guy by trade, and for 99% of my career, I've butted heads with upper/middle management about replacing/repairing equipment. I get it, this stuff is expensive and full of magic smoke that no one knows how it works. They get bonuses for keeping it as lean as possible, making them look like a Rockstar. When I find a particularly tough case who won't do even basic upgrades...( "We don't need to replace those 11 year old laptops that are coughing shop dust! They're perfectly fine! Just a little slow.") I send them this video:

When you defer maintenance long enough, it WILL bite you and will take a huge chunk out of your bottom line. If that happens on your watch, you might as well kiss it goodbye.

 

[Jstpssng]

My complaint for the day is that it's Monday.

 

[bigtiller]

My complaint for the day is that it's Monday.

This is the worst Monday since....last week.

authored by Garfield

 

[WinterDeere]

When you defer maintenance long enough, it WILL bite you and will take a huge chunk out of your bottom line. If that happens on your watch, you might as well kiss it goodbye.

You just described a major flaw in both publicly traded companies, and our very government. When officers are only interested in keeping the ship band-aided together for 4 or 8 years, all sorts of critical long-term expenses get deferred, in the name of quarterly gains.

 

[paulsharvey]

How about every single large corporation constantly adding new training every year, often that has nothing to do with your job. Or adding a new wonderful payroll system to replace the old two systems; but wait; you still need to go into system 1 to view your PTO and system 2 to get tax docs; so we didn't roll out a new system to replace two old ones; we just added another on top to it.

On the training, I get that you need fire safety every year, but then we add "preventing micro aggressions in hiring" and "recognizing and preventing human trafficing" and 12 other trainings, every year...

 

[WinterDeere]

...you still need to go into system 1 to view your PTO and system 2 to get tax docs; so we didn't roll out a new system to replace two old ones; we just added another on top to it.

My last employer had an HR department who was constantly rolling out new systems and policies, which would save a few hours per week for one $30/hour HR administrator, but waste an equal amount of time of 40-50 employees each making 3x that amount. Save $300/week by burning $40k/week!

 

[Eagle1]

My last employer had an HR department who was constantly rolling out new systems and policies, which would save a few hours per week for one $30/hour HR administrator, but waste an equal amount of time of 40-50 employees each making 3x that amount. Save $300/week by burning $40k/week!

Where I used to work we had an interesting dynamic. Home office 15-20% of the work force average tenure 2-3 years (including HR) and Field service average tenure 20-25 years. For some reason we had different view points on everything.

 

[paulsharvey]

Last employer, an international engineering services company, but maybe max 2500 employees worldwide, we used to joke that we need a time sheet charge number, for the time we spent doing our timesheets. It could take an hour or more, every Friday, to make sure each billable hour is on the right phase of the right contract, and it matched the other stuff. Often times you would go to put hours on a job, and low and behold someone else had hit that job with admin hours, so you would need to sprinkle hours on other jobs.

 

[paulsharvey]

It's absolutely critical that as a US employee that works in the US, I need to know what to do if my cab driver in the Philippines bribes a cop at a check station... I can't pay it, he can, but it need to report the bribe to my office head...

I'm just complaining; and I don't really disagree with some confined spaces, trench safety, fire safety, traffic control training; but all big corps seem to knee jerk react to everything, and assign trench safety training to the girl answering phones, after an incident

 

[paulsharvey]

So, maybe my overall complaint is Lawyers?

 

[FriendwithTractor]

Adding onto the Training & Software: I guarantee that those were purchased by corporate off of a slick-talking salesman who says that the software will work seamlessly out of the box, give 99.9% uptime and the employees who use it will either s**t or go blind from how amazing it is. Also, your long-suffering IT department will finally shut up because our service is top-notch!

It's funny how once the check clears, you never see the salesman again. The software then suddenly requires 400 man-hours to integrate with your existing systems, goes down every time the wind changes direction, and has been designed by someone with his head stuck permanently in a filing cabinet and written in a dead language. Oh and your IT department has to support and maintain it because the service is in Jalhapsbad and has a 48-hour response time...when you get responses.

Haven't seen that before...No never...

 

[WinterDeere]

So, maybe my overall complaint is Lawyers?

We all love to hate them... until we need them.

 

[paulsharvey]

I had a younger guy that was put under me quit after a few months. HR calls, and says he has unresolved expense reports, a cleaning fee on a rental car, from before I was his supervisor. Spend probably 4 hours trying to figure it out, and finally they say, "You're going to have to call the rental company for a detailed explanation of charges, with backing evidence. At that point, I finally told the HR lady, either fricking pay the $53 charge or hold it out of his last paycheck, I dont care, but I've spend probably close to $500 or more of non billable time, chasing $53

 

[ultrarunner]

How about every single large corporation constantly adding new training every year, often that has nothing to do with your job. Or adding a new wonderful payroll system to replace the old two systems; but wait; you still need to go into system 1 to view your PTO and system 2 to get tax docs; so we didn't roll out a new system to replace two old ones; we just added another on top to it.

On the training, I get that you need fire safety every year, but then we add "preventing micro aggressions in hiring" and "recognizing and preventing human trafficing" and 12 other trainings, every year...

Lots of mandatory training and much on sensitivity…

I had to take I.V. Safety but as a facility engineer when would I start or remove a patient I.V.?

Sometimes I think it’s just to check the boxes…

 

[JethroB]

Last employer, an international engineering services company, but maybe max 2500 employees worldwide, we used to joke that we need a time sheet charge number, for the time we spent doing our timesheets. It could take an hour or more, every Friday, to make sure each billable hour is on the right phase of the right contract, and it matched the other stuff. Often times you would go to put hours on a job, and lo and behold someone else had hit that job with admin hours, so you would need to sprinkle hours on other jobs.

My company was once going through an on-site IRS audit. It lasted several months. The auditor didn’t come in on Fridays as he had to go into his office to do his time sheet. He made it clear he would be retiring soon and we WOULD be his last assignment.

 

[JethroB]

Adding onto the Training & Software: I guarantee that those were purchased by corporate off of a slick-talking salesman who says that the software will work seamlessly out of the box, give 99.9% uptime and the employees who use it will either s**t or go blind from how amazing it is. Also, your long-suffering IT department will finally shut up because our service is top-notch!

It's funny how once the check clears, you never see the salesman again. The software then suddenly requires 400 man-hours to integrate with your existing systems, goes down every time the wind changes direction, and has been designed by someone with his head stuck permanently in a filing cabinet and written in a dead language. Oh and your IT department has to support and maintain it because the service is in Jalhapsbad and has a 48-hour response time...when you get responses.

Haven't seen that before...No never...

And I’ll add, “oh you wanted that function you saw in the demo? That’s optional and $50,000”. (KRONOS)

 

[ultrarunner]

And I’ll add, “oh you wanted that function you saw in the demo? That’s optional and $50,000”. (KRONOS)

We had Kronos for the hotels but no more…

My employer uses Kronos and the system is not able to accurately account for my schedule…

If I work 12 or 13 hours it defaults to me having forgot to clock out so every future in clock is an out…

Or going home and getting called back it will say long interval for a break but I was off the clock.

Starting this week Kronos no longer rounds up or down and staff is walking around with their phones being used as timers as no overtime… so 8 hours and 1 minute now shows 1 minute as overtime.

 

[Jstpssng]

My complaint for today is that I can't think of anything to complain about.

 

[Fixastuff]

I hired two new people last month and they already wore out(not broke) two pick axes digging!

 

[paulsharvey]

I hired two new people last month and they already wore out(not broke) two pick axes digging!

Get them a 20 pack of Modelo Exspecial. I've seen plenty of worn out shovels, but never a worn out pick.