Minor things that bother you

[D-Dey65]

Amazing what a position of racial privilege allows.

Yeah, I still can't see how that applies to southern white men calling me a "Yankee."

I still don't mind though. On a slightly related topic, when I went to Folkston, GA last week, every other railfan had what can only be described as typical thick southern accents. They knew I was from Long Island by my accent.

And for years I've had people insist that I had a New Jersey accent, and I wasn't even raised in New Jersey. Somewhat recently though, one employee at a local Wawa franchise swore I had a Bensonhurst accent. Not a Brooklyn accent, but specifically a Bensonhurst accent. She said she recognized it as such, because her grandfather also has one.

[JayhawkCO]

This isn't really a minor thing, but this thread is as much for venting as anything else.

For some reason, below a certain level in my company, they make ICs (individual contributors, i.e., not managers) hourly instead of salary. Most of the time it doesn't much matter since people either work their 40 and get paid what the "salary" they were offered or they work more and make OT. I have a team under me that's on a shift schedule, so they work on a 5-5-4 schedule (on 5 days, off 4 days, on 5, off 4, on 4, off 5, repeat), so they don't always work the same amount of hours in any given pay period. But, my company "pre-pays", so essentially the cut off to submit your hours is on the 10th for the 15th's paycheck.

So, I have my guys just submit the whole month ahead of time based on their schedule, just so they don't miss the submission date and not get paid. Then, if they actually work more hours than scheduled or take PTO, I have them edit it at a later date. It's a giant PITA, but whatever, we're working with the system that they gave us.

So one of my employees submitted, and I approved, his hours for the most recent paycheck nine days in advance of the submission deadline. When he got his check, they didn't pay him for two days of the five that he happened to work in that pay period. So obviously I reached out to payroll with screenshots of his time card submission date and approval date from my inbox. Didn't hear back for a couple of days. Then he resubmitted the hours with the OT he worked on the 3rd (so three days after he had already received the incorrect check). When they finally got back to me, they basically didn't even look at the pics that I sent and told me that he didn't submit the hours in time -- that he had submitted on the 3rd, or 10 days late. So now I have to send the exact same documentation over to payroll showing that we were, in fact, on time and that they need to get their heads out of their asses and actually read the whole email, but somehow do that corporately politely.

</rant>

[kphoger]

When they finally got back to me, they basically didn't even look at the pics that I sent ... So now I have to send the exact same documentation over to payroll showing that ... they need to get their heads out of their asses and actually read the whole email, but somehow do that corporately politely.

Yeah, it's really frustrating when you go to all the work of including all the pertinent information/documentation, but the recipient doesn't even do you the courtesy of reading the whole e-mail.

[7/8]

When they finally got back to me, they basically didn't even look at the pics that I sent ... So now I have to send the exact same documentation over to payroll showing that ... they need to get their heads out of their asses and actually read the whole email, but somehow do that corporately politely.

"As mentioned in my previous email"

[JayhawkCO]

It's more that they don't seem to give a shit if their employees get paid. Seems like if you work in payroll, you might be partial to actually paying your people.

[kphoger]

The real snarky way to do it is use the Snipping Tool to grab the pertinent portion, then simply paste that image as your reply.

[kphoger]

It's more that they don't seem to give a shit if their employees get paid. Seems like if you work in payroll, you might be partial to actually paying your people.

My impression is that people in payroll tend to think that quibbles over smaller amounts aren't worth the fuss.  This in turn may be due to their never having lived paycheck to paycheck, or at least not since long ago.

[JayhawkCO]

The real snarky way to do it is use the Snipping Tool to grab the pertinent portion, then simply paste that image as your reply.

1000% that's how I provided the info showing the emails I got that the hours were submitted and then the approval that I sent in return.

It's more that they don't seem to give a shit if their employees get paid. Seems like if you work in payroll, you might be partial to actually paying your people.

My impression is that people in payroll tend to think that quibbles over smaller amounts aren't worth the fuss.  This in turn may be due to their never having lived paycheck to paycheck, or at least not since long ago.

These aren't small sums of money though. They screwed up another paycheck a month ago (that, this time WAS partially our fault), and didn't seem to think that it was a big deal for a person not to receive a $4,000 paycheck. Mind blowing.

[1995hoo]

Minor bother, yet very frustrating when it happens: When you're waiting for a workman to arrive (say, he's scheduled at 8:00) and a few minutes before the scheduled time (say, 7:55) you start to feel the need to take a crap, but you don't want to be sitting on the toilet when he arrives, yet you also know that if you don't go, he'll arrive late and you probably would have had time to go.

(Our HVAC service always calls to tell you when the man is en route, which I very much appreciate.)

[thenetwork]

The real snarky way to do it is use the Snipping Tool to grab the pertinent portion, then simply paste that image as your reply.

1000% that's how I provided the info showing the emails I got that the hours were submitted and then the approval that I sent in return.

It's more that they don't seem to give a shit if their employees get paid. Seems like if you work in payroll, you might be partial to actually paying your people.

My impression is that people in payroll tend to think that quibbles over smaller amounts aren't worth the fuss.  This in turn may be due to their never having lived paycheck to paycheck, or at least not since long ago.

These aren't small sums of money though. They screwed up another paycheck a month ago (that, this time WAS partially our fault), and didn't seem to think that it was a big deal for a person not to receive a $4,000 paycheck. Mind blowing.

I once worked for a company that didn't put my approved PTO vacation on my one pay period, thus being short on the following pay.  Told my boss, who was a real tool (to put it nicely), and I asked if our corporate could cut a check for the difference that day and overnight it (since it was their error) because I had a sizable outgoing check that was going to bounce if I didn't I didn't have the monies within a day.

My boss refused to suggest the overnight check.  Instead he said that, I will make sure it gets on your next check in 2 weeks.  And as far as my issue with needing the money by the next day or so, the "turd leader" told me that I should manage my personal budgets better.   

Yeah, buddy, I did -- I was budgeting with getting the regular FULL paycheck in mind!   

[D-Dey65]

Well, the good news is that I bought the mouse last night, and that was all I needed. And it was a wired mouse too.

I tried to get it from a nearby Target store, and they didn't have one. They were convinced it was going to be more expensive than the remote mice.

Then I went to a Wal-Mart that's a little further away from the one near me, and I snagged it right away. And it was cheaper, just as I expected.

And I was ready to disconnect it and haul it down to the nearest Best Buy for either a tune-up or repairs. If I have any trouble blending images, I may end up doing that anyway.

[JayhawkCO]

Yeah, it's really frustrating when you go to all the work of including all the pertinent information/documentation, but the recipient doesn't even do you the courtesy of reading the whole e-mail.

"As mentioned in my previous email"

I got another boilerplate "he didn't submit his hours until the 3rd" response this morning, so my follow up today began with:

Unfortunately, I feel like you're not reading what I'm writing nor looking at my screenshots.

<Employee Name>, 100%, unequivocally, submitted his time sheet for the week of 2/24-3/1 on February 13th, and I approved it on February 14th. The submission deadline for this week was February 22nd. So, we got this done eight days in advance.

See, again, per my previous emails, these screenshots: <snipper tool grabs of everything>

And completed my email with:

So, if I'm reading your response correctly, you're saying he didn't submit the hours AT ALL until the 3rd, which I have proven incorrect. The check itself was cut for payday on the 29th, so you would have had no knowledge of the impending re-submission 4 days later.

Please immediately pay <employee name> for the 22 hours which we owe him, and then it was fully expected that his additional hours submitted would be on the next paycheck.

If anything at all that I'm trying to convey is not able to be understood, please reach out to me via phone at <personal phone number>. We need to get this addressed as soon as is humanly possible.

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.

[kkt]

The real snarky way to do it is use the Snipping Tool to grab the pertinent portion, then simply paste that image as your reply.

1000% that's how I provided the info showing the emails I got that the hours were submitted and then the approval that I sent in return.

It's more that they don't seem to give a shit if their employees get paid. Seems like if you work in payroll, you might be partial to actually paying your people.

My impression is that people in payroll tend to think that quibbles over smaller amounts aren't worth the fuss.  This in turn may be due to their never having lived paycheck to paycheck, or at least not since long ago.

These aren't small sums of money though. They screwed up another paycheck a month ago (that, this time WAS partially our fault), and didn't seem to think that it was a big deal for a person not to receive a $4,000 paycheck. Mind blowing.

I once worked for a company that didn't put my approved PTO vacation on my one pay period, thus being short on the following pay.  Told my boss, who was a real tool (to put it nicely), and I asked if our corporate could cut a check for the difference that day and overnight it (since it was their error) because I had a sizable outgoing check that was going to bounce if I didn't I didn't have the monies within a day.

My boss refused to suggest the overnight check.  Instead he said that, I will make sure it gets on your next check in 2 weeks.  And as far as my issue with needing the money by the next day or so, the "turd leader" told me that I should manage my personal budgets better.   

Yeah, buddy, I did -- I was budgeting with getting the regular FULL paycheck in mind!   

If your state's department of labor was any good, I'd have a word with them too.

[vdeane]

The real snarky way to do it is use the Snipping Tool to grab the pertinent portion, then simply paste that image as your reply.

1000% that's how I provided the info showing the emails I got that the hours were submitted and then the approval that I sent in return.

It's more that they don't seem to give a shit if their employees get paid. Seems like if you work in payroll, you might be partial to actually paying your people.

My impression is that people in payroll tend to think that quibbles over smaller amounts aren't worth the fuss.  This in turn may be due to their never having lived paycheck to paycheck, or at least not since long ago.

These aren't small sums of money though. They screwed up another paycheck a month ago (that, this time WAS partially our fault), and didn't seem to think that it was a big deal for a person not to receive a $4,000 paycheck. Mind blowing.

I once worked for a company that didn't put my approved PTO vacation on my one pay period, thus being short on the following pay.  Told my boss, who was a real tool (to put it nicely), and I asked if our corporate could cut a check for the difference that day and overnight it (since it was their error) because I had a sizable outgoing check that was going to bounce if I didn't I didn't have the monies within a day.

My boss refused to suggest the overnight check.  Instead he said that, I will make sure it gets on your next check in 2 weeks.  And as far as my issue with needing the money by the next day or so, the "turd leader" told me that I should manage my personal budgets better.   

Yeah, buddy, I did -- I was budgeting with getting the regular FULL paycheck in mind!   

How would things have worked out with the bank if they had overnighted the check?  I know some banks play games with when things are deposited/withdrawn to maximize the amount of overdraft/bounced check fees they collect.

As for "why don't you just not live paycheck to paycheck"... ugh.

I wonder what would have happened if you had shown up in small claims asking for compensation for any financial fallout from this...

[kphoger]

It's not the DOL or small claims court would have gotten your money faster.

[roadman65]

Auto Correct again.

[vdeane]

It's not the DOL or small claims court would have gotten your money faster.

Small claims can at least get you back any penalties paid for the bounced check (both to the bank and whoever the check was for).  And if the DOL is able to sanction the company after the fact, that's still better than letting them just get away with it.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

This staircase. I'm now out there and I've counted the stairs it has, and dang, it could have had one more so it had 41.

[Rothman]

This staircase. I'm now out there and I've counted the stairs it has, and dang, it could have had one more so it had 41.

Shouldn't it have 39?

[D-Dey65]

How many stairs are here?

[kphoger]

It's not the DOL or small claims court would have gotten your money faster.

Small claims can at least get you back any penalties paid for the bounced check (both to the bank and whoever the check was for).  And if the DOL is able to sanction the company after the fact, that's still better than letting them just get away with it.

I seriously doubt the DOL would have sanctioned the company, considering the company had already agreed to make it right on the next check run.  What had been requested was to make it right between check runs.

[kphoger]

I think the gist of it is that waitstaff aren't often trained in what "polite" verbiage actually entails. When I was running restaurants, servers weren't allowed to use certain phrases:

"Hi, my name is XXXXX, and I'll be taking care of you today."
"Are you still working on that?"
The word "guys" in any context
The "we" that we're discussing

I'm sure I'm missing a few more.

I talked about you to my wife yesterday, during our lunch date.  We were at the kind of place we typically only go to if we have a gift card, because it's more expensive than we like to spend.  Not super fancy, but fancy enough that it's pretty much all yuppies eating there.  White tablecloths, separate wine and cocktail menus, waitstaff in black slacks and white shirts, prices pretentiously shown in whole numbers, but entrées still in the $20–40 range.  (We weren't actually all that impressed by the food, but that's beside the point.)

Anyway, our waiter was over the top with the language he used to hype up the food:  divine, fantastic, phenomenal, etc.  And of course, all the expected buzz phrases.

But he was young and enthusiastic, so whatever.  At least he was trying.  I told my wife, though, that I supposed he had never actually been trained on what to say and not to say.  Which, of course, led to my bringing up this post.

We decided to tip him well because, as I put it, he definitely got an E for Effort.  But I do wish you could train him.

On a related note, this thread has made me hyper-critical of what the waitstaff says to us, and it has now rubbed off onto my wife.  It makes for fun conversation between us after they leave the table, but still.

It even encroached on my non-restaurant life.  I'm a teacher in one of our church's home small groups.  One large-ish small group recently split in two, but we each teach the same basic material each time.  In advance, the other teacher and I get together and compare notes and ideas.  Last session, we had a combined (both small groups together) game night in lieu of a lesson, but the other teacher skipped because he and his wife were out at a concert that night.  So yesterday, while their family was over at our house for our planning session, he asked how game night went.  "So what games did we play?" he asked.  I couldn't help it.  "Do you mean our group? ... Then why did you say we?"  Uggh, now I can't stop it.

[JayhawkCO]

I think the gist of it is that waitstaff aren't often trained in what "polite" verbiage actually entails. When I was running restaurants, servers weren't allowed to use certain phrases:

"Hi, my name is XXXXX, and I'll be taking care of you today."
"Are you still working on that?"
The word "guys" in any context
The "we" that we're discussing

I'm sure I'm missing a few more.

I talked about you to my wife yesterday, during our lunch date.  We were at the kind of place we typically only go to if we have a gift card, because it's more expensive than we like to spend.  Not super fancy, but fancy enough that it's pretty much all yuppies eating there.  White tablecloths, separate wine and cocktail menus, waitstaff in black slacks and white shirts, prices pretentiously shown in whole numbers, but entrées still in the $20–40 range.  (We weren't actually all that impressed by the food, but that's beside the point.)

Anyway, our waiter was over the top with the language he used to hype up the food:  divine, fantastic, phenomenal, etc.  And of course, all the expected buzz phrases.

But he was young and enthusiastic, so whatever.  At least he was trying.  I told my wife, though, that I supposed he had never actually been trained on what to say and not to say.  Which, of course, led to my bringing up this post.

We decided to tip him well because, as I put it, he definitely got an E for Effort.  But I do wish you could train him.

On a related note, this thread has made me hyper-critical of what the waitstaff says to us, and it has now rubbed off onto my wife.  It makes for fun conversation between us after they leave the table, but still.

It even encroached on my non-restaurant life.  I'm a teacher in one of our church's home small groups.  One large-ish small group recently split in two, but we each teach the same basic material each time.  In advance, the other teacher and I get together and compare notes and ideas.  Last session, we had a combined (both small groups together) game night in lieu of a lesson, but the other teacher skipped because he and his wife were out at a concert that night.  So yesterday, while their family was over at our house for our planning session, he asked how game night went.  "So what games did we play?" he asked.  I couldn't help it.  "Do you mean our group? ... Then why did you say we?"  Uggh, now I can't stop it.

Ha! Glad I could infect you.

Re: training servers on how to speak. I honestly didn't do THAT much of it. I think a lot of it comes down to my interview technique. I am the world's least "technical" interviewer. Especially in the hospitality industry, I would just start conversations and go back and forth with the candidate for 15 minutes or so. I didn't really talk much about skills, and scenarios, using the STAR method, blah blah blah. Their resume already seemed good enough to make them a candidate for the position, so if they could engage in a conversation with me that seemed relatively effortless, I would immediately know that they're a "people person". So that's the basis for anything you do in hospitality -- you have to care about people having a good time and you have to be able to read them both verbally and non-verbally. Then I could worry about if they knew anything about wine, food, spirits, etc. But if they have an ease about the way that they speak, they're highly unlikely to need to resort to those weird, generic restaurantisms like "Hi there. My name is Chris and I'll be taking care of you today." I used to tell people that that's how you greet people at Applebee's and if you want to make Applebee's money, it's right down the street. (Plus, I always wanted people to drop their names at the end of the greet, because it's way more memorable as a lasting impression instead of being the intro followed by drink orders, appetizer orders, features, etc.)

On the conversational front, during training, I would often bring up an example from my "chain restaurant" days. I used to work for McCormick and Schmick's, an upscale-ish seafood chain for those unfamiliar. We got bought by Landry's, the country's largest restaurant group, and their style of service was a lot more formulaic than independent M&S was. The greet that you were supposed to use at every single table was "Good afternoon/evening. May I interest you in a cocktail or glass of wine?" I, personally, much prefer to personalize service, but if they company wanted it that way, then it is what it is. So I had to get it in my servers' heads that <robot voice>"Good afternoon/evening. May I interest you in a cocktail or glass of wine?"</robot voice> was a hell of a lot different than <friendly voice with lots of intonation>"Good afternoon/evening. May I interest you in a cocktail or glass of wine?"</friendly voice with lots of intonation>.

tl;dr, it's not hard to work in a restaurant. The things you do -- taking orders, refilling drinks, table maintenance, etc. are not individually difficult tasks. But when you find someone that can do all of those things efficiently and also speak to tables like they've been friends for years despite having known them for two minutes, that's when you know you've found a good server.

[kphoger]

New password does not meet length requirement ... but doesn't tell me what the length requirement is

New password does not meet complexity requirements ... but doesn't tell me what those are

[kphoger]

1) get up from your desk to go pee
2) walk in, take your position at the urinal
3) start doing your business
4) realize halfway through that you also need to poop
5) internal debate:  is it worth it to re-fasten your pants?
6) flush
7) shuffle over to a stall with your pants undone and your junk hanging out
8) hope nobody else walks in at that exact moment you're in transit
9) do your other business
10) flush again

And God help you if you're Rothman and you happen to walk past a mirror along the way!