The "Things that annoy me" thread

Like I said: bad employer = bad service. Caring about and training your employees properly costs money.
 
Also remember the rule - never accept a no from someone without the power to give you a yes.
 
Interesing. In the US, I don't think UPS or FedEx will deliver to a Post Office, even if it's a PO Box. Pretty sure, anyway. However, if you had a UPS Store box, they will accept anything shipped by anyone.
 
NecroJoe said:
Interesing. In the US, I don't think UPS or FedEx will deliver to a Post Office, even if it's a PO Box. Pretty sure, anyway. However, if you had a UPS Store box, they will accept anything shipped by anyone.
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Except for the odd setup where FedEx delivers a parcel to your local post office, that is then delivered by the postman. I think it's called FedEx SmartPost.
 
MWF said:
Also remember the rule - never accept a no from someone without the power to give you a yes.
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That's a very good hint. I have to remember that for the next time. Should have propably asked for the supervisor... on the other hand she said that the driver was already complaining, so he most likely wouldn't even *attempt* delivery at the post office anyway.

NecroJoe said:
Interesing. In the US, I don't think UPS or FedEx will deliver to a Post Office, even if it's a PO Box. Pretty sure, anyway. However, if you had a UPS Store box, they will accept anything shipped by anyone.
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The Swiss actually have a pretty sweet deal with their PickPost system. You create an online account, the postal service sends you a verification letter to your home adress (in order to verify that you actually live in Switzerland), and from then on you can register multiple mailboxes at post offices, stores, train stations and so on (obviously these stores have to be part of the PickPost system, but you can find all PickPost adresses online). So basically you can have your deliveries brought to a store that's on your way home, or to the train station you have to use anyway for going to work/home. The delivery simply needs to be labeled with "PickPost + Customer Number" and "Postfach Nr" (Mailbox Number), and the adress of the store. The employees there accept the parcel and store it safely until you show up to claim it. Of course you need to show an ID and sometimes also the notification they send to your phone when the delivery has arrived.

It's actually a great service because the Swiss seem to have realized that people usually have 8+ hour jobs and know in advance that they won't be home all day waiting for the mailman to show up. So you have your stuff sent to whatever adress suits you best and has business hours that are more convenient to you. I actually learned about this from a co-worker and couldn't believe it at first because it sounded too good to be true. But so far it's been working out great (except for the DPD thingy).

The nearest post office is about 1 km away and also directly on my way home (I pass it every day). So I direct anything bigger than letters directly to that post office, get an email when it has arrived, and then pick it up on my way home or on saturdays. But DPD was having none of that. Germany knows mailbox, Germany does not deliver parcel to adress that contains word 'mailbox'. End of story. God I'm glad I no longer live there...

(but I will admit that Switzerland - or at least the region I live in - has a larger number of crappy drivers. Traffic is a nightmare and it's mostly due to people not indicating at roundabouts and intersections, people driving way too slowly - like 20 km/h below the posted limit, people not thinking one bit ahead and blocking intersections, people using only ONE lane because they know that they'd have to merge in a mile anyway: I actually got honked at by people when I overtook them in a totally free lane and then merged into traffic once that lane ended. Afterwards I read up on it and what I did was totally legit, the Swiss just don't do it that way*. Apparently most of them change lane as soon as possible, which leads to huge single-lane traffic jams that block intersections while leaving all other lanes unused. And there are traffic lights everywhere. The number of intersections where you can turn right without having to wait for a green light is microscopic. But apparently drivers here can't be trusted to give right of way, so everybody has to wait for their green light, even if there is no oncoming traffic.)

*even though their law explicitly states that traffic should use ALL available lanes and merge only 100-200 m before the lane ends. This is of course in order to avoid traffic jams that go further back than they would if all lanes were used. But in Switzerland you go into the left lane two miles in advance if you know that the right lane will end eventually. And damn the immigrant bastard that dares to use all the road and overtake you. Funny enough the Swiss have no problem using the hard shoulder on the German Autobahn to bypass traffic jams...
 
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Later today i have a talk with my bosses about my carreer in our company. (everyone in our dept has or had this talk)

And i have no idea what to say.

Since our debacle with our sysadmins earlier this year i consider that option closed. I no longer want to work with those people, let alone sit in an office with them.
Then there is the development route. I really want to learn programming, but i don't want to do it for a living. And there are basically 2 options: Oracle forms with PL/SQL or Java and ADF. Neither of those i want to learn. Forms is ancient tech, and i have a strong dislike towards java.

And that's where it stops.

Last year i also mentioned i wanted to "manage" our servicedesk team. And even though my manager at that time said that would be an option if the person in charge at that time would continue to suck at it. But that door is closed as well. I tried to talk to my manager about this for many times in the months after my evaluation last year, and he always said i would have my chance. But then around april he said i would stay at the servicedesk and someone else would "manage" our team.

So ... now i'm left without any idea of what to do and all my ambition and motivation has gone down the drain.
 
CD82 said:
That's a very good hint. I have to remember that for the next time. Should have propably asked for the supervisor... on the other hand she said that the driver was already complaining, so he most likely wouldn't even *attempt* delivery at the post office anyway.
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Could you have the thing delivered to your local coffee shop? :?
(It does not have the word "mailbox" in the address.:p)
 
Adamar said:
Later today i have a talk with my bosses about my carreer in our company. (everyone in our dept has or had this talk)

And i have no idea what to say.

Since our debacle with our sysadmins earlier this year i consider that option closed. I no longer want to work with those people, let alone sit in an office with them.
Then there is the development route. I really want to learn programming, but i don't want to do it for a living. And there are basically 2 options: Oracle forms with PL/SQL or Java and ADF. Neither of those i want to learn. Forms is ancient tech, and i have a strong dislike towards java.

And that's where it stops.

Last year i also mentioned i wanted to "manage" our servicedesk team. And even though my manager at that time said that would be an option if the person in charge at that time would continue to suck at it. But that door is closed as well. I tried to talk to my manager about this for many times in the months after my evaluation last year, and he always said i would have my chance. But then around april he said i would stay at the servicedesk and someone else would "manage" our team.

So ... now i'm left without any idea of what to do and all my ambition and motivation has gone down the drain.
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Then the problem isn't the job it's the company you work for. Get your resume up to date and start looking for other positions. It shouldn't be too hard to identify firms who have a good reputation as employers and from there the relevant people to contact. Contrary to popular belief speculative applications can work because having quality staff drop into their lap is a lot less hassle and much cheaper than paying agencies and/or reading dozens of applications then conducting loads of interviews. It might not pay off right away but I speak from experience in that knowing you are planning an escape makes a current, toxic situation easier to deal with.

Good luck! :thumbup:
 
calvinhobbes said:
Like I said: bad employer = bad service. Caring about and training your employees properly costs money.
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It's not just training. If the employees really feel connected with their jobs and their employer, they'll give better service. They'll simply give a shit, which is a big thing.

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CD82 said:
but I will admit that Switzerland - or at least the region I live in - has a larger number of crappy drivers
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Aargau?
 
Find a candy that has nuts, gluten AND dairy. Stock up on that.
 
Heathrow said:
Could you have the thing delivered to your local coffee shop? :?
(It does not have the word "mailbox" in the address.:p)
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Actually it would have the world mailbox in it because it would also be a PickPost adress. It would just be a different mailbox number. One that is perfectly fine with accepting parcels, but hey, I'm done trying to explain that to DPD.

StillNotNeedingAChestWig said:
It's not just training. If the employees really feel connected with their jobs and their employer, they'll give better service. They'll simply give a shit, which is a big thing.

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Aargau?
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Agreed - my current employer makes us (the employees) its top priority and it feels really good and creates a very positive environment in which (almost) everybody is happy and full of energy.

And yes, it's Aargau. I've already been told that it's Redneck Central of Switzerland, home to all sorts of hillbillies. So far the people have been great, but traffic is just the worst. And the accident rate is just appallingly high. Almost every morning there are traffic jams due to someone crashing into someone/something else. And from personal observation, the ratio between "too old to drive", "reasonable driver" and "hot blooded alpha male" is about 1 to 1 to 1. For everybody that drives in a reasonable fashion (i. e. indicating, driving around the speed limit, generally looking out for other people) you find at least one other driver that either drives way too slow or wants to drive way too fast (the kind that thinks that your rear bumper and their front bumper should be best buddies). And zebra crossings work a lot like I come to expect from eastern european countries where it's basically just a suggestion of where you might cross the road, but in no way any car is obliged to actually stop and let you pass (although the law clearly states that zebra crossings are supposed to work the way I'm used to from Germany: pedestrian is near zebra crossing, walking towards it or waiting there = car has to stop). The thing I can't really wrap my head around is the fact that the Swiss have insanely high fines for speeding, but apart from sticking to the speed limit (most of the time) the people (in Aargau) drive like ass.


Jay said:
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Since it says "attention parents", does it mean that for people without children it would be ok to give "bad" candy to children? Because I'm not a parent, so I don't have to care, right?
 
Easiest reaction to that poster, shut off your lights and lock the door. What a sense of entitlement.
 
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