[STICKIED] Community Question Post #64 - INEPTITUDE

[theidolhands]

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theidolhands asks: Have you busted/caught someone trying to cover up their own ineptitude

Comments

[kelemvor]

Oh, yeah

[kaspurr]

saw that "big meeting" coming. Yeh. That was more about them trying to avoid a lawsuit. Clever legwork on your part though. I've also become skittish of HR, which initially I believed did exist to protect the worker and now believe is better designed as a warning system for the company. I'd be reticent to interact with them in a negative manner unless I'd already spoken to a lawyer.

[kelemvor]

The last positive interaction I had with HR was when one of the genuinely empathetic staff their (who was already planning to leave) told me in all seriousness that in order to advance my career, I'd have to look outside the company.

I once recruited an old landlord to fill a vacancy in the IT Support team, which entitled me to a £750 bonus payable after his 90th day. Took me another two months to get that paid, due to HR's lack of processes.

I firmly believe that HR exist for two reasons - corporate box-ticking (like out pointless PDR process) and covering the arses of management above the golden line.

[theidolhands]

You know, in the states it is the exact same thing, very hard to get HR to pay promised money. I don't get it. Why dangle the "bonus" in the first place if they don't expect to pay it?

I don't have this on authority, but I was once told by an employee that it's not even illegal for them not to pay a bonus despite advertising one that has been earned. That was told to me by someone who did a stellar job finding employees for the holiday rush, about nine, and went through the same pain to get paid for a little over two of them. They said they gave up on ever getting the nice chunk of change they were owed, since those employees all did a good job! They also, understandably said, that they would never go out of their way to find good employees for the company again, which imo was a big loss!

[sayuri_rose_k]

The new manager (who has now been here 6 months) has continuously shown that he's a failure. He may be able to run the front end well, but he doesn't pay attention to giving people their breaks or sending people home on time. Other managers don't like him because he doesn't pay attention to the big picture, only the small details (like wether people are actually doing something or not, when most times we are).

I think he tries to mask his inability by literally screwing up everything. This is one of the reasons why he's my least favorite manager.

[theidolhands]

Just curious, does that new manager ever fail to take their own breaks?

[sayuri_rose_k]

Oh he'll take his own breaks, but sometimes it's later since the front end gets busy sometimes. Sometimes, he'll take his breaks on time, while making the other courtesy clerks/checkers wait longer than they should.

I've had days where I've worked 8 hours (supposed to get 3 breaks, 2-15 minute breaks and 1-30 minute off the clock) and I would only get 2, my 15 and 30. Or even just my 1-30 minute break. I would sometimes wait until 4 hours in to get my 30, and sometime my 1-15 minute would come an hour or less before I get off. Most times, it's been him working the front.

The way the breaks work for 8 hours is usually 15-30-15, where your first 15 is 2 hours in, the 30 is 4 hours in, and second 15 is 6 hours in. That way it's evenly spaced out, and they can work other front-end workers breaks in between. This makes sense to me, and I have other managers who do it this way, but not him.

[theidolhands]

Yeah, that's totally illegal and one anonymous call to worker rights people or corporate could get him in a lot of trouble. Tip: I actually altered my voice one time when making a report on an anonymous line, my managers where BBF with the "regional" and she could hear the complaint, and let them listen too (shouldn't have), but try as they might...they couldn't figure out WHO made the call. Pro Tip: deliberately try to sound like another co-worker.

It's easy-peasy, every two hours a break, and if any compromises need to be made it should be the salaried manager. Alternatively you could try making a point of it like, "I don't mind skipping my break when you guys get busy, so long as I get extra credit for it! *giggle*" or "So...when am I gonna get a beer for all the breaks I've skipped around here?" And keep a log.

[psychomatt]

I'm a QC technician for a decent-sized food processing plant. (Basically, a place that takes harvested grain & turns it into products that other companies mix into things that go on the supermarket shelf.) Most department supervisors & shift supervisors have no idea how their departments work, and refuse to listen to operators who have been on the job for decades. When a department starts having major problems, their "solution" is to send a bunch of pointless samples to the lab for tests that don't tell them anything (but give them ammo in the supervisor meetings to claim that they're doing something," then blame us when the flood of garbage samples/tests puts us behind on the routine tests, and claim the delays that they caused are why stuff went to hell in the first place.

[theidolhands]

ermahgad, actually allow employees to think they have more knowledge or authority than meeeeee?!?!?

Seriously, I can easily imagine what you're stating to be true, and knowing how petty and toxic these work cultures can be, I'm often amazed that more utter ineptitude doesn't occur or that more of us aren't dead due to same.