Minor things that bother you

[JayhawkCO]

Referring to co-workers as a team, team members or teammates not felt correct to me.  It isn't as though I'm going out to play softball with them after work.

I have two different groups of employees that work on different tasks/initiatives, and those people collaborate together on those things. Team makes relative sense in this case.

[kphoger]

I have two different groups of employees that work on different tasks/initiatives, and those people collaborate together on those things. Team makes relative sense in this case.

One of those groups is a "team".  If one person is a leader among them, then that person is a "team leader".  But you are not the team leader;  you are their boss/supervisor/manager/whatever.

[JayhawkCO]

I have two different groups of employees that work on different tasks/initiatives, and those people collaborate together on those things. Team makes relative sense in this case.

One of those groups is a "team".  If one person is a leader among them, then that person is a "team leader".  But you are not the team leader;  you are their boss/supervisor/manager/whatever.

Correct. We have team leads/SMEs and then managers. Team lead refers to being classified as an IC (individual contributor) vs. M (manager).

[vdeane]

I don't know.  They came on Wednesday and began doing work.  That's a good sign.

Unfortunately I still have no idea when this will be done, after originally having been under the impression it would be finished Monday (after finally starting last Friday).  The scope wound up being very different, too - I was led to believe that it would consist solely of low-impact painting, which is the only reason I allowed them to also do the bedroom as well.  Had I known it would be a higher-impact job involving sanding, new sheetrock, etc. I would have said hell no to the bedroom work (especially as I had dusted everywhere but the bathroom in anticipation of things being finished Monday; dusting takes me the same amount of time as the rest of my cleaning combined, so I wanted to get ahead of it, but that has proven to be a big mistake).  They seem to have a talent for causing me to make the least optimal choices with my life.  Just today I decided to use a 1.5 hour schedule adjustment from an out of town workshop I attended the past couple days so I could go talk to them, only for them to be nowhere to be seen.  I still haven't heard back from my phone messages and emails, either.  Literally anything else other than what I did would have been a better use of those 1.5 hours (and my extra available time off to deal with things is quite limited thanks to me using so much time off as it is).

[kphoger]

I once had a supervisor who had business cards made for himself, and he used the title "Balrog", just because he could.

[wxfree]

One I recently came up against:

I tried to sign in to an e-mail account, and to verify my identity, I had to give it a code that was sent to an alternate e-mail.  I went to that account, and it asked for a code sent to a third e-mail.  You can guess at this point what happened next.

I was perplexed, having three e-mail accounts sending codes to each other, and not able to get any of them.  Until recently I could sign in just with a password.  I don't remember how, but somehow I got into one of them an unlocked the others.

[kphoger]

One I recently came up against:

I tried to sign in to an e-mail account, and to verify my identity, I had to give it a code that was sent to an alternate e-mail.  I went to that account, and it asked for a code sent to a third e-mail.  You can guess at this point what happened next.

I was perplexed, having three e-mail accounts sending codes to each other, and not able to get any of them.  Until recently I could sign in just with a password.  I don't remember how, but somehow I got into one of them an unlocked the others.

This happened to me on AARoads, after a long absence.  To log in, I had to go through a chain of e-mail verification codes.  I had signed up on here with a junk e-mail account, which I had in turn set up with an older junk e-mail account, which I had in turn set up with an even older junk e-mail account that didn't even exist anymore.  I ended up having to join under a new profile, then PM one of the mods and explain the whole situation.

[1995hoo]

I remember having a similar issue to that four or five years ago when I had to help my mother reset a password. The problem was that the account in question was set to send the reset code to my father's mobile phone number. But he had died in the meantime and his phone number was no longer valid. I recall I eventually found a way to circumvent it and we got the password reset, but I don't remember what we did. I think I dug around and found an option for "I don't have access to that phone" and I was then able to use an alternate method to get a code.

[Rothman]

Referring to co-workers as a team, team members or teammates not felt correct to me.  It isn't as though I'm going out to play softball with them after work.

So, isolated individuals it is for your office.

[Scott5114]

When a package has a helpful "Tear Here" indication, except the packaging machine put the perforation it refers to elsewhere (or didn't make it at all), so you futz around with the spot that says "Tear Here" for too long before giving up and trying to find the scissors.

[vdeane]

How do you get a landlord to stop ghosting you?  I haven't been able to get any answers in regards to the status of my apartment because the property manager never answers the phone, never returns my calls, and never responds to email.  My attempt to use a schedule adjustment at work to go in person yesterday failed with a "we'll be back at 10:00" (when I needed to be to work by then because I can't afford to use any time off for this; the only reason I could even walk down at all was because I had worked 1.5 extra hours the past couple of days, which I unfortunately used on that failure).  I tried to go down today, and they have a substitute who doesn't even have computer permissions to look up anything related to this property, so I'm not sure why he was even there.  All he could do is take a message - and if the property manager actually replied to messages, I wouldn't have been there in the first place!

[kkt]

How do you get a landlord to stop ghosting you?  I haven't been able to get any answers in regards to the status of my apartment because the property manager never answers the phone, never returns my calls, and never responds to email.  My attempt to use a schedule adjustment at work to go in person yesterday failed with a "we'll be back at 10:00" (when I needed to be to work by then because I can't afford to use any time off for this; the only reason I could even walk down at all was because I had worked 1.5 extra hours the past couple of days, which I unfortunately used on that failure).  I tried to go down today, and they have a substitute who doesn't even have computer permissions to look up anything related to this property, so I'm not sure why he was even there.  All he could do is take a message - and if the property manager actually replied to messages, I wouldn't have been there in the first place!

Everybody has a boss.  Find out who owns the building - the county website probably has that information.  Send them a registered letter with return receipt laying out the repairs that only fixed the surface and needing to be repaired again a few weeks later, the amount of time you've taken off work, and how unhelpful the manager has been. Polite but insistent.  Also specify what action you would like them to take - ask the manager to get a contractor who will get to the root cause, show up when they say?

You might see if there's a tenant's rights organization in your area too.  Sometimes it's a part of local government, sometimes it's a private group.

[Scott5114]

How do you get a landlord to stop ghosting you?

As kkt says, try sending a paper letter by registered mail. That creates a tracking number so you have proof that they received it.

Generally a landlord knows the only reason someone sends registered mail is to create a paper trail, so that should put a fire under their ass.

[ModernDayWarrior]

How do you get a landlord to stop ghosting you?  I haven't been able to get any answers in regards to the status of my apartment because the property manager never answers the phone, never returns my calls, and never responds to email.  My attempt to use a schedule adjustment at work to go in person yesterday failed with a "we'll be back at 10:00" (when I needed to be to work by then because I can't afford to use any time off for this; the only reason I could even walk down at all was because I had worked 1.5 extra hours the past couple of days, which I unfortunately used on that failure).  I tried to go down today, and they have a substitute who doesn't even have computer permissions to look up anything related to this property, so I'm not sure why he was even there.  All he could do is take a message - and if the property manager actually replied to messages, I wouldn't have been there in the first place!

Do you rent your apartment through a rental company or a private individual? If it's the former, sometimes they will take you more seriously if you start causing PR issues for them. If they have social media pages, post your complaints there. Leave negative reviews on every review site imaginable. Complain to the Better Business Bureau and to a tenants' rights organization if you have one in your area. Document and photograph everything. (I've been down this road myself, although my incident was with a bank. I had an obviously fraudulent charge and an obnoxious employee who flat-out refused to refund it. It took one post to their Facebook page and I had an apology and a refund an hour later. When I went back to the bank a week later to formally close my account, that employee was no longer there.)

If it's a private individual, frankly I don't think there's a whole lot you can do other than threaten to take them to court if there's anything they've done (or haven't done) that violates your lease. Been down this road too, sadly.

Then get the hell out of there as soon as your lease runs out, because bad landlords don't change and turn into good landlords.

[Rothman]

Got a new desktop computer and hooking up USB thumbdrives caused BSOD in Windows 11.  Turns out there's some stupid power-saving task called the USB selective suspension that causes this to occur and turning it off prevents BSOD from happening.

Makes me wonder what Microsoft meant to be plugged into USB ports that wouldn't cause BSOD...

What an annoyance.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

That Mr. Google didn't drive down this road earlier. Now the signs are rearranged to what they used to be (IIRC the WI 28 and CR A shields used to be in the other's place, thus creating A-SS).

[Beltway]

Noisy mufflers - that are deliberately made noisy. Sputtering, popping, flatulence sound, high levels of low frequency sound and infrasound.

Actually it is not minor at all.

[thenetwork]

Noisy mufflers - that are deliberately made noisy. Sputtering, popping, flatulence sound, high levels of low frequency sound and infrasound.

Actually it is not minor at all.

At least in my area, those who have loud mufflers and/or loud music systems that are heavy on the bass in their car, more of those vehicles look like shit than vehicles that are well kept.

I will never understand why someone will spend the money on something to make their car car heard from a mile away, yet when you look at the physical appearance of the car, it looks like there's more than 30 years of age on the car, yet it's only 10 years old.  Does that really make it a chick magnet??

[Max Rockatansky]

That description reads to be me like there is a backfiring issue with whatever engine is being described. 

[Rothman]

I like it when my car has more acceleration than the noisemakers.

[Beltway]

Noisy mufflers - that are deliberately made noisy. Sputtering, popping, flatulence sound, high levels of low frequency sound and infrasound. Actually it is not minor at all.

At least in my area, those who have loud mufflers and/or loud music systems that are heavy on the bass in their car, more of those vehicles look like shit than vehicles that are well kept.
I will never understand why someone will spend the money on something to make their car car heard from a mile away, yet when you look at the physical appearance of the car, it looks like there's more than 30 years of age on the car, yet it's only 10 years old.  Does that really make it a chick magnet??

Most of the ones I see otherwise seem to be normal recent model cars. I suppose there are subcultures where loud exhausts and boom cars are considered "cool" in attracting members of the opposite sex.

That description reads to be me like there is a backfiring issue with whatever engine is being described. 

Some vehicles just have a failed exhaust system. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

But some do have an engineered "pop pop sput sput" cycle.

[vdeane]

When imagery clearly exists per Historic Aerials but does not appear to be available anywhere via USGS Earth Explorer.  It's too bad Historic Aerials won't tell you where imagery came from.  I'd love to have their 1975 imagery from Newburgh (it's the only good image of exit 9 of I-84), but USGS doesn't even know it exists.

[kkt]

How do you get a landlord to stop ghosting you?

As kkt says, try sending a paper letter by registered mail. That creates a tracking number so you have proof that they received it.

Generally a landlord knows the only reason someone sends registered mail is to create a paper trail, so that should put a fire under their ass.

With registered mail, you can also have a physical return receipt postcard attached, which the person getting the letter must sign when they pick it up and gets sent back to you.  Now you have the signature of the person who signed for it.  With a tracking number you can see it says it was delivered but you don't really know to whom, and your proof is a screenshot which might be provoked an argument if you tried to present it as evidence in court and they denied receiving it.

With registered, it's signed for every step of the way, every truck or plane it gets on.  This makes it take a few days longer, but it's very unlikely to get lost.  (Trivia:  The Titanic was carrying some registered mail.  When the ship was taking on water, they moved the registered mail to a higher deck.  It got wet a couple of hours later than the rest of the mail.)  Registered can also be insured for a lot - if you're sending jewelry or precious metal coins that's the way to go.  But the insurance only pays open market replacement value, so would not help for a letter to your property owner.

If all you want is the tracking info, you can also send it certified for cheaper.  That's how I send things like my tax return.

[Scott5114]

With a tracking number you can see it says it was delivered but you don't really know to whom, and your proof is a screenshot which might be provoked an argument if you tried to present it as evidence in court and they denied receiving it.

Well, the proof is the number itself, since USPS does retain the tracking information for a number of years, so the screenshot could be verified by just looking the tracking number up on the USPS site. I imagine USPS has additional information (like an exact address) not shown on the site which they can supply if subpoenaed.(At the very least, I don't think it would be too hard to get something on USPS letterhead saying their system shows X, Y, Z and signed by a postmaster if you wanted something more ironclad than a screenshot.)

In any case, the main purpose of sending registered (or certified) mail at this point is to simply create a paper trail, and to signal to the recipient that is what you are doing. Most people don't intentionally create trails of evidence and send registered mail for the sheer fun of it, so it communicates to the recipient that you feel like such a thing would be useful for something in the future, such as a lawsuit or complaint to a regulatory body. A smart person would take that as a sign that they should give this particular squeaky wheel all the grease it wants and shift the corner-cutting to someone less savvy.

[thspfc]

People who took one statistics class in college and subsequently believe every situation is like flipping a coin, have no concept of what events are independent and what events are not, and believe any statistical outlier, no matter the context, must be luck and will eventually regress to an average.