triggered? no not really, but thanks for the concern. just tired of those special few at work. it's a large retail company and one little cashier and a mid level supervisor don't have a whole ton of power..except in their minds. neither one would last a hot minute in a gov't workplace or large corporate workplace. but they are fun to watch..as I've heard someplace else "stupid is as stupid does."

[winter4me]

Not sure what you are saying but I can feel the emotion.
I wouldn't categorize workers as you do----or be so sure about who would survive where.
You might be surprised by who makes big changes at work.
No, you Would be surprised.

yeah no I wouldn't..been there worked gov't for almost 20 years both as upper mgt and a lower level employee. supervised for almost 14 yrs...am pretty confident what it takes to work and function in a large setting. also started and ran my own company for over 10 yrs. this little retail job is just spare cash...nothing more.

I've seen a supervisor cry thru an entire shift, employees scream at supervisors during closed door meeting and call them not worthy of being alive, others slack at work, some who lied and are barely literate, abusive ….and people who treat customers like they should never be treated. they think it is the major hub of the world and sorry our little store just isn't..staff has no real experience in this little corner of the world...

so yea...they are fun to watch as they try to figure out things and how to anger people...I've fought bigger battles..so it's no huge deal...

[Mountaindewed]

My coworker totally blew up today. I didn’t really get why. I think because she (I’ll call her coworker A) was trying to move things around and “annoying” coworker B was getting in the way. I have no idea and really didn’t see what the issue was. coworker A (who is in her late 50’s and fully cognitive by the way) had a full blown meltdown and had to be calmed by a couple coworkers. Not sure how much coworker B heard since she was out of the room for part of the meltdown. But coworker A was really making a scene.

Also at one point people were getting upset because the supervisor hadn’t brought any boxes to us yet and they were yelling for more boxes. I was just chilling and eating popcorn and watching people making fools of themselves. I knew the supervisor was doing her hardest and would give us boxes when she had the chance. She does a lot. But seriously, the way 50-60 year old adults act at my work is ridiculous.

[Medusax]

Does anyone here work in a production job? As in "line worker'/ Everyone here seems to work in an office style situation.....

[BreakForTheLight]

Somehow every day when I come home from work I notice my clothes stink of cigarettes
There's no one even sitting next to me so I don't get where the smell comes from.

[rechu]

@Medusax - I work from a home office. I used to telecommute for a local company. Now I am freelancing for a US-based business.

retail..no office for me.

[SlumberKitty]

Office--I do accounting and HR for a manufacturing firm.

[Turtle_Rider]

I am angry right now, not at my current workplace but the old one. They said that my paycheck would be paid 2 weeks after I resigned. But we're in the third week and I still haven't received my payment yet. It also turned out that they are still holding my insurance, so my new employer can't register my insurance yet. Furthermore, I need to file my tax soon, but they haven't given me the payroll tax data yet, despite my request. I asked the HR, but he told me to aske the Finance Manager. I asked for her number, but he and anyone else from the company ignored me. I'm not sure what should I do at the moment.

[rechu]

That sucks, Turtle Rider. I was pretty lucky that when I lost my job they paid everything as promised - severance 10 days after the termination notice and the remaining salary at the end of the month.

Is there any sort of labor regulation agency where you live? Here any issues about not being paid are dealt with through the labor inspection office. A complaint to them usually gets action.

[WastingAsparagus]

I am frustrated with freelance work. I haven't been getting paid basically anything for my freelance translations. Anybody have any experience with this or know who I could turn to to figure out how to make more with them? I just know that a lot of companies try to take advantage of freelancers, so I am trying to charge as much as I feel I am worth.

@WastingAsparagus you should talk to @rechu she does the same type of freelance work. I am frustrated that since I finished my profile on UpWork and applied for 16 freelance jobs now, NO ONE has responded. What I hate about UpWork is that you are only allowed 25 attempts to bid for jobs before UpWork shuts your profile down so that you can't contact more clients to bid for their job via emailing them a proposal. It's a system set up to fail the freelancer. On the other hand, FlexJobs requires you to pay for access to contact clients for jobs. The difference is that you are not limited to how many clients you can contact, and you don't "bid" or submit "proof" of your work to get the job. You have to post a resume for the clients to see and FlexJobs claims that they verify the employer and the employers pay for the freelancer, which is why there is a fee for freelancers. I get that, but I have a different set of skills so I can't "prove" myself with just one resume version. I'm so frustrated!!

Oh, and a temp agency I am in good standing with, decided to send me on a one-day assignment tomorrow since my last role was back in July of 2019. I have to "prove" to them I am a good worker, who is polite and respectful to their client, so that they will submit me for more contract work. Groveling. That is what contract work is as a temp. And right now, ironically, I'm writing a book review of a book I'm reading for one of my two grad school business courses, about women in leadership. The book review has to be 30 pages so I'm terrified yet excited because I love to write. Maybe I should review books for a living. But, I think only published authors can become book reviewers. My friend does it on his blog -- reviews published books -- and he's not a published author. So, I have to brainstorm this further. Hmmm.

[rechu]

@WastingAsparagus without knowing what your experience is or how much you are charging, I can't really say if you can increase your rate or not. There are a few sites out there where translators can post their information/resume. I forget the names at this time, but I am sure a quick google search will turn some up. I just remembered that Translation Directory may be one. I know that some people post their rates per word on sites like that, so it could give you an idea of what others are charging. Also, if you have some specialty – experience with legal documents, technical documents, etc. you can generally charge more for these types of projects.

In my case, nearly all my translation-type work has come from personal contacts rather than freelancing websites. These are people who know I am a serious professional, so they accepted the rates I quoted.

[seesaw]

Originally Posted by WastingAsparagus

I am frustrated with freelance work. I haven't been getting paid basically anything for my freelance translations. Anybody have any experience with this or know who I could turn to to figure out how to make more with them? I just know that a lot of companies try to take advantage of freelancers, so I am trying to charge as much as I feel I am worth.

@WastingAsparagus if you are having trouble getting paid, you could try using Upwork's feature where you bring your own client. Then you can use the payment protection processes like escrow or hourly payment to ensure they actually pay instead of ignoring you.

And FYI, Upwork no longer suspends profiles for sending out too many proposals. Since it now costs money to send a proposal (2-6 connects, which cost 15 cents per connect), you can buy as many connects as you want and send as many proposals as you want, regardless of response, and you will not get suspended. I am a heavy Upwork user, I am active on their community help board as a "Community Guru" and I can safely vouch this information is true. They instituted the change in July 2019 when they began charging for connects.

[Mountaindewed]

I walked into the break room this morning and a coworker came up to me and patted me under the chin and said “smile!” What the actual ****???

[ARaven0137]

Unqualified, uncaring, socially inept bosses. A few lazy, incompetent or manipulative coworkers. Oh, since this is a rant thread...hahaha, I had a coworker, Mr. X, who was the laziest, most incompetent and the least intelligent person I have ever flown with. I joked that, over three years, he improved so much, that it got down to once a flight did I think he was going to kill me. 100% of the time he would get his position from a fix incorrect. If we were east, he'd say west. Then, he had a 100% success rate in screwing up every tasking that he had. He would sit there, texting his son while I did all of the preflight requirements...and he was junior. Whenever he got into a jam, he'd freeze up and I'd correct it. I told our boss that his performance appraisal should just say "Alice will fix it."

Anyhow, that's one rant. :P

[Turtle_Rider]

@rechu, yes, there is.

Thankfully, they have done my insurance and tax request. Although it was tiring because I had to call them too many times. I'm giving them time until next week. If they still didn't pay me, I'd file the complaint.

[Mountaindewed]

I think I should be more worried about losing my job instead of getting coronavirus. If there’s a recession, and my hours are already getting cut. Yeah, I’m screwed. Then with all these cuts to Medicare and social security what is literally the ****ing point?

[ARaven0137]

My current gripe is the serious increase and severity of abusive male bosses where I'm at, who target minorities and women. I've seen a significant number of women leave as a result. Also, the upper management that condones the good ole boy system and protects the abusers. A good friend of mine left as a direct result. When we reported her being abused by her boss, upper management circled the wagons and protected the abuser. They also have a "policy" where the victim must remain with the abuser so there is no escape. I said that this would put a chill on women who would report abuse and embolden the abusers since their victim cannot leave or has to transfer or resign. And, guess what? It did.

[Mountaindewed]

Thanks for calling my house 5 minutes after I had already left to tell me not to come in. Then send me home at the door once I got there. Also why do you call on my cell phone sometimes and then sometimes my house phone other times? Also they sent someone else home at the door too. So I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get the message. Bad communication again.

[Mountaindewed]

So that coworker who got screamed at by that other coworker apparently quit. She just stopped showing up after the incident. The coworker who instigated the incident, and another coworker and my supervisor were really happy about it today. They were talking about celebrating with a lasagna party (yes there really was lasagna) and were joking around about it. I must have had a look on my face because my supervisor said “Mountaindewed isn’t having any of this” Yeah, because you guys are being assholes. I felt like they almost bullied her into quitting.

[Mountaindewed]

I was in the bathroom at work and I was washing my hands and this customer comes out and just walks out. Without washing her hands. Who does that in the first place but especially right now? Luckily I had hand sanitizer on me.

[BreakForTheLight]

I had an angry customer on the phone today, I didn't handle it very well and it has caused a major surge of self-doubt. I think the things I said probably only made him even more angry. He was sent on to me by someone from another department who gave me too brief of an overview of the situation but I was also only half listening and then suddenly I had this angry customer on the line and I could hardly follow what he was saying. The system didn't have very clear notes about the situation either which I feel like I shouldn't have revealed to him but I had no idea what to say. I vaguely remember the colleague mentioned what I should've tried to make clear to him but I was completely overwhelmed. I said all the wrong things.

Yes I'm new and still learning and yes it's a difficult situation for anyone but I feel so ashamed over how badly I handled it and like a complete failure.

[ARaven0137]

The tale of the Octopus. Once upon a time, there was a woman who was brand new to an organization, who knew more and was more talented and far superior to anyone in that organization. She had her tentacles in every project and in everyone's business and was thus given the name, Octopus. Octopus told 20 year veterans that they didn't know what they were talking about and that they were wrong. So, people in her particular section flushed the Octopus down the drain and she floated up in my section. I, poor Alice in Wonderland, had no idea that the Octopus had so many slimy tentacles so I took her under my wing and mentored her, completely unaware of what was in store for me. For six months, the Octopus was glued to my behind, saying the sun shined because of me.

I was contemplating a transfer so I offered to recommend that the Octopus succeed me. Well, I didn't get the transfer so the Octopus decided to accelerate the transfer of power. Octopus began going behind my back to torpedo me to my superiors, blaming me for things that were so minor and not my fault, like a lizard setting off an alarm or giving away a section vehicle when I was ordered to do so. I began to learn that she had done this dozens of times to many other people and I was horrified that the Octopus was coming for me with all those suckers and tentacles. The Octopus had this amazing skill that I could not comprehend nor wished to replicate. She could go into a top boss' office and say, "these are not the droids you are looking for" and he would repeat it. Or, "the wizard is not welcome here, my king. Begone, Gandalf Stormcrow." It was some kind of Sith magic/Wormtongue stuff where she could whisper a name into management's ear and that person would befall an evil fate. So, my name came up and I was out of that section, lickety split and Octopus set herself up and destroyed the section that I had built in less than a year.