I'd go nuts if I was still an employer.

[aczlan]

I agree many employees nowadays need to get a clue.
I'm particularly annoyed as a customer to approach an employee in a store to either check out or ask a question.
But no- they are too busy talking to their coworkers about their personal lives to handle a customer.

Or you go to the checkout RIGHT behind someone else (In this case, it was Grandma and we shared a cart), she checks out and the person on the register picks up their phone, reads a text and responds before acknowledging that you exist.
If we weren't short on time, I would have sought out a manager.

Aaron Z

 

[Baby Grand]

At work I am refereed to by many as a "gray beard". I think it's mostly a good thing, meaning that you're someone who has experience and can help you if you get painted into a corner. Sometimes, I wish they'd call me a "young turk" - I know it won't happen, but in my heart I'm still 23 and questioning "the man".

As a gray beard, I am often paired up with new hires to serve as a mentor until they feel confident as "independent contributors". I actually enjoy this role as the younguns are a lively bunch and haven't turned into morose cogs or "check in the box" hard axes as some of my contemporaries have. They keep me on my toes and challenge me frequently, which helps prevent my ego from out-pacing my abilities.

All of this is background to the fact that I still get livid when I stop working on a project to help one of the pups with something that just can't wait until I finish typing a sentence or finish punching an equation out on the calculator. So I'll stop what I'm doing and listen, consider all the implications of the path they're advocating and, as I am in mid-sentence explaining why they don't want to suggest a particular design at a meeting, they get a look like they just peed their pants, reach for their crack-berry and start diddling with it. My response had been to go back to what I was doing and ignore them for the next day or two.

But some of them don't get it and it happened again and again. Over the past year I have come to think that the urge to "social network' has become deeply hardwired into their behavior. So now when it happens I explain that I consider this behavior to be exceedingly rude and disrespectful of my time. I try to do this without getting emotional - probably not entirely successfully. This seems to be working- I think the word is out that the old phart won't help you if you don't play nice - and my anger management has become much easier.

-Jim

 

[blueriver]

I own a small business and have some issues with employee's ... my business is such that full time is not an option. I have a staff that gets put on the schedule as the need arrives.

I am always asked ... How long do you think we'll be here? Often am told I will have to leave as soon as I can ... Or the night before the event, I can't make it ...

The biggest one I hate is the darn Cell phone and texting ... I am know telling some that it will be shut off when you start working.

 

[chopped]

I agree many employees nowadays need to get a clue.
I'm particularly annoyed as a customer to approach an employee in a store to either check out or ask a question.
But no- they are too busy talking to their coworkers about their personal lives to handle a customer.
Wal Mart seems to be really bad about this...the light is on at the register but no clerk is there, she's 50 ft away chatting. I turned off the light once and boy they got mad!:thumbsup:

Lol good one. shutting the light off. Might consider a cell in the store yourself. , next time flip it open and call the same store your in..lol

 

[chopped]

Or you go to the checkout RIGHT behind someone else (In this case, it was Grandma and we shared a cart), she checks out and the person on the register picks up their phone, reads a text and responds before acknowledging that you exist.
If we weren't short on time, I would have sought out a manager.

Aaron Z

Yes so true. we were on the other side last time at wal mart. I hate customers who cant hang up when they check out. But my wife took an inportant call as we were checking out and only giveing a glancing gesture to the clerk.This probably isnto out of the ordinary, but it was for us..Just didnt seem right..

 

[Duffster]

Sounds like shutting down your business saved your mind. Most are not cut out to manage people.

I think you missed his point.

 

[Dennisfly]

This thread reminds me of the picture that is going around on the net that is looking over the shoulders of members of congress during a session. There are a number of lap-tops visible and they all had Solitaire or some **** site visable!

 

[riptides]

Mm, interesting.

Wonder how many here post while at work??

What is even more interesting is the number , frequency and sites.

I would not be concerned with one post a day, but tens and hundreds... yes....

 

[jinman]

I used to have a job training folks who built F-16s. Being a defense industry and very secure, you had to go through a guard gate to get to the parking lot and another guard gate to check your ID before entering the factory. We were allowed no recording devices, laptops, or any data medium into and out of the building. Employees were limited to 3-min calls at breaks and lunchtime. It seems we got along just fine that way because we planned our lives accordingly. I only worked there until the very first cell phones came into existence. I left that place and went to a non-security environment where eventually cell phone use and internet abuse were rampant. I think if business and industry don't get a handle on employee communcation device distractions, we are toast. I don't know how sensitive industries handle security with all the devices out there today. My guess is they don't. Nobody can afford to be 100% secure.

Does anyone here work in a high-security environment like the defense industry? I'd be curious how things are handled these days.

 

[Skyco]

Lol good one. shutting the light off. Might consider a cell in the store yourself. , next time flip it open and call the same store your in..lol

Don't laugh! More than once I have called a store I'm in when I can't get help in a department! It is kinda funny when the clerk comes dashing out of the back to answer a page on the PA about his department having a call. Then when he answers the call I wave at him and tell him it is me, that I got tired of standing there.
Most are amused by it but I actually had one guy in WalMart's sporting goods section get mad about it. Unluckily for him I saw a manager on my way out and told him about the grumpy employee, of course I'm kidding myself that management actually cares

The other day in Lowe's I gave the manager what-for about having all 2 ft wide roofing metal stocked in the 3 ft wide spot. I'd made a special trip to his store to get 3 ft wide...apparently Lowe's employees aren't required to know how to measure.....