At least they aren't trying to monitor what people are doing while in the bathroom.

One boss in Norway was reported for requiring female employees to wear red bracelets during their menstrual cycles

Oh...

EnviroDude: Work or be fired

Because lord only knows poor working conditions are soooo good for productivity.

When I was working at the Palazzo as an utility porter, I went to use the closest employee restroom and passed a kidney stone or something which was for me, something of a time-consuming and painful experience (Clueless moron doctors here weren't much help afterwards). Our shift manager came looking for me because we employees could only take five minute bathroom breaks. She found out where I was and started pounding on the door. I tried to tell her what was going on, but she didn't understand.

It took about a half hour to pass the thing and by that time the toilet bowl was kind of...red. By that time, security had finally came and opened the door. My shift manager saw the mess and jumped to the conclusion that I was trying to commit suicide. Despite being a little thing, my shift manager tackled me and knocked me to the floor before the security guards could react. I then went to the emergency room and spent a week recovering.

I really should've sued those people.

Coelacanth: When I was working at the Palazzo as an utility porter, I went to use the closest employee restroom and passed a kidney stone or something which was for me, something of a time-consuming and painful experience (Clueless moron doctors here weren't much help afterwards). Our shift manager came looking for me because we employees could only take five minute bathroom breaks. She found out where I was and started pounding on the door. I tried to tell her what was going on, but she didn't understand.

It took about a half hour to pass the thing and by that time the toilet bowl was kind of...red. By that time, security had finally came and opened the door. My shift manager saw the mess and jumped to the conclusion that I was trying to commit suicide. Despite being a little thing, my shift manager tackled me and knocked me to the floor before the security guards could react. I then went to the emergency room and spent a week recovering.

I really should've sued those people.

You know the first question I thought of while reading that was "How do you like your old boss' house now that you own it" and then I read that last sentence....

Such a sad note to end the weekend on.

broadsword: You know the first question I thought of while reading that was "How do you like your old boss' house now that you own it" and then I read that last sentence....

Such a sad note to end the weekend on.

It ain't over yet. I'm trying to get a speaking gig commenting on the sheer awfulness of contemporary casinos.

EnviroDude: Beats the policy where I work, "Work or be fired". Of course, we are not a union shop and did not have a union approve our work contract that would have allowed surveillance and monitoring of our breaks.

/stupid union contract lawyers - not catching this.

I thought you had your own dental practice.

It's not just restrictive; it's unhealthy. Sitting on your ass continuously is incredibly bad for you. That's why I'm trying to get DVT warnings put on minifridges.

EnviroDude: Beats the policy where I work, "Work or be fired". Of course, we are not a union shop and did not have a union approve our work contract that would have allowed surveillance and monitoring of our breaks.

granted, the risk of std's and the diminished prospects for a long career do indeed make "homosexual prostitute" a less-than-desirable career, but you don't have to worry about unions or government interference.

You read something like this and your first reaction is to think how big an asshole those bosses must be. But truth be told I'm quite sure this was the result of employees using the bathroom for a break room.

I worked with a guy once who would go into the bathroom and not come out for 20-30 minutes. I get that you might suffer from the occasional bout of constipation but good god if you need that much time day after day just to drop a deuce then you got medical issues that need addressing.

I've know others who wouldn't use the bathroom on their break time because the way they saw it, that was their time and taking a crap shouldn't be included in their breaks. I even knew a guy who used to take naps while sitting on the can.

8 minutes might seem a tad short on time but I'd bet my next months pay these people brought it on themselves.

What about the employees and their right to take a quick 5 minute fap during the mid-day?

/Oh, like you haven't.

Yes he does

Yay Europe!

Gunny Walker: Well, obviously subby has never worked in a call...

***Checks article***

[i170.photobucket.com image 320x240]
Oh, never mind.

Was about to check that article and look for 'call center' myself.
Call centers are micromanaged hell-holes. A place where you are just a cog in a massive gear system that is easily replaced.

CSB

I worked as a DB admin for a manufacturing company. Our cube farm was full of people who had never uttered the phrase "I was wrong, you were right" in their lives, and there were DAILY screaming matches about which direction a project should go. It was borderline hostile at all times.

Since my particular duties didn't require that I be involved in their shenanigans, I decided to bring headphones to drown everyone out.

I got pulled in to my manager's office two days later and was told that I was not allowed to have headphones, because the guys on the work floor were not allowed to have headphones for safety reasons - they needed to be able to hear alarms, machinery, etc.

When I tried to point that we were a block away from the machine shop, and that the employee handbook specifically stated that headphones were not allowed "on the shop floor" my boss decided to turn the informal meeting into a "write-up for insubordination."

I got written up two weeks later for being 10 minutes early and "not starting work on time." Apparently, "on time" means "when your shift starts, not a minute before."

It was the most ludicrous thing I had ever heard, and I've worked for the government before.

They eventually fired me for doing what my boss asked me to do, and during the exit interview I told them what a relief it was and thanked them profusely for having mercy.

The best part? All the improvements I made on their database system went with me. They never had me sign anything that specifically stated that they were entitled to any software I developed. Of course, they asked me about it a couple weeks later when the new DB guy came in to work. I pointed out that since they were so specific about shift start times, headphones, etc. that they should have been specific about code development.

/CSB

tl;dr: I worked for a shiat company, got fired, and took my code with me when I left.

My first boss told me that if I was going to spend more than 5 minutes in the bathroom, then I had to provide her with "documentation." So, I gave her a handful of severly used toilet paper.

/And that's how I got fired from Micky D's.
//Like my new job a lot better.

aspAddict: CSB
I worked as a DB admin for a manufacturing company. Our cube farm was full of people who had never uttered the phrase "I was wrong, you were right" in their lives, and there were DAILY screaming matches about which direction a project should go. It was borderline hostile at all times.
. . . (clip) . . .
The best part? All the improvements I made on their database system went with me. They never had me sign anything that specifically stated that they were entitled to any software I developed. Of course, they asked me about it a couple weeks later when the new DB guy came in to work. I pointed out that since they were so specific about shift start times, headphones, etc. that they should have been specific about code development.
/CSB
tl;dr: I worked for a shiat company, got fired, and took my code with me when I left.

A truly CSB. Thanks for sharing that.

Call center? Call center.

Minimum wage in Norway is $3500 per month.

Average work week is 27.5 hours.

They are number one on the Legatum prosperity index.

You american losers are number 10.

Call Center. One of the most brutal first world problems generators on earth, right up there with the bear bile extractors of China.

The toxic cesspool where I worked until 2 weeks ago would love the contents of the article and some comments in this thread to add to their already 'family' like business work ethic. Work 50 hours in 4 days, fine; take of 30 minutes early on that Friday, make sure you fill out the paid time off form because you are stealing from the company.

If I ever hear someone refer to the work environment as 'family' I'm going to run, run very quickly away from there.

EnviroDude: Work or be fired

Perhaps you meant this to be implicitly qualified in some way, but isn't this the basic precept of all employment?

/Did not RTFA

Minimum wage in Norway is $3500 per month.

Average work week is 27.5 hours.

They are number one on the Legatum prosperity index.

You american losers are number 10.

Down from number 1 in 2007.

unlikely: Most of us quit the day after orientation.

that was probably the idea, so that they wouldn't have to cover unemployment

had a boss like that at the bank of hell. but i fixed her wagon.

we had to stagger the times we left to go grab lunch (and come back to eat at our desks). in theory we were entitled to an hour for lunch according to company guidelines.

but when she went after me for being away from the desk for too long (after I had constipation), I told her that I was taking a long shiat.

she was completely mortified. other than the lunch crap she stopped bothering us about breaks during the day. and I still received a great christmas bonus.

Where I used to work, we had to run a program that we used to keep track of every piece of work we handled. It also kept tracks of our breaks and lunch. If you got up to go to the bathroom, and was away for any length of time, it counted it as "idle". If you were "idle" for more than 4 minutes, the boss would use the program's instant message feature to ask why were you away from your desk for so long. You had to explain that there was a bathroom line up, etc. Or if you went to grab a coffee, and noticed the counter was a mess/supplies unstocked, and you spent time stocking the sugar/wiping up spills, etc, you had to note that too.

Other departments on our floor did not have this program. When we told them "oh, I gotta get back to my desk and note why I've been gone for 4 minutes..." they couldn't believe it. Only our production department. The red-headed stepchild of our company.

I've taken naps in the bathroom when things are slow so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: Holy crap some of you guys have worked in some real goddamned Hell-holes.

not everyone is lucky enough to be a postdoc who can spend half an hour reading the newspaper in the toilet, asshole.

Solution.

Find a different job.
Quit.

Do a before b.

If you ever worked in a Call Center this shouldn't be news to you. This type of Time Adherence software is probably used in just about every Call Center to track people throughout the day and make sure they are on the phones when they are supposed to be. If you don't like to be tracked, don't ever go to work in a call center. Now the whole thing about the 8 minutes is really ridiculous, but then again it depends if they are using it as a baseline of when to ask the employee if something is wrong or if they just start automatically start punishing the employee at the 8 minute mark.

proteus_b: LouDobbsAwaaaay: Holy crap some of you guys have worked in some real goddamned Hell-holes.

not everyone is lucky enough to be a postdoc who can spend half an hour reading the newspaper in the toilet, asshole.

How did he "get lucky" to have a docotrate? Was there a lotto for them? Idiot

LouDobbsAwaaaay: Hey, I have a great idea! Let's get all jealous and start insinuating that other people don't work hard just because their work-environment isn't a Hell-hole.

let's be serious, we're postdocs. are you working hard? you're reading fark. so am i. my simulation is farked and i'm giving up on it, since i can't shiat any more today. arrivaderci.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: Well, it's Sunday. And there's a difference between "working hard" and "being treated like shiat by your boss"

well, yes, but there is possibly some correlation. i meant no harm man, this is fark. i have no desire to return to the kind of jobs where they time your piss breaks and just thought i'd make a jab about it. i am possibly interested in a job which doesn't required getting a new job every two years though...

They're paid to work, not goldbrick. This should raise productivity, and help raise dividends.

I declare it to be an excellent innovation, and suggest GM deploy it to its unionized plants forthwith. That should help apply the spur to those lazy, idle, so-called "working" men.

Welcome to our new post 8-10% unemployment world. Which is in reality about 20% which is in keeping with what most of the western world is experiencing. I dont have any answers for it but it does suck to be alive at a time when I dont know if my children will ever be able to get a job outside of shiatty retail jobs. The good times are over and hard times are ahead for everyone but the very few. There is enough blame for this to go all around. It was avoidable. We didnt even try.

ReapTheChaos: You read something like this and your first reaction is to think how big an asshole those bosses must be. But truth be told I'm quite sure this was the result of employees using the bathroom for a break room.

I worked with a guy once who would go into the bathroom and not come out for 20-30 minutes. I get that you might suffer from the occasional bout of constipation but good god if you need that much time day after day just to drop a deuce then you got medical issues that need addressing.



There's at least a few people in my company who I know do this. Every day right around the same times there's this one dude who goes in and sits on the can and I can hear him just clicking away on his cellphone checking his facebook or whatever the hell. He basically uses it as his own personal extra 1/2 hour break every day. If you go in the bathroom, you can see his distinctive pair of shoes sticking out from under the stall and you know its this guy.

I dont tell on him because he's somewhat of a friend and I'm not a snitch, but still, its a little upsetting when I spend all day running around working my ass off just trying to keep my department running and there are flakes like this who are just farking off and loafing it.

Mental note: stop wearing my stylin' kicks to work.

aspAddict: CSB

I worked as a DB admin for a manufacturing company. Our cube farm was full of people who had never uttered the phrase "I was wrong, you were right" in their lives, and there were DAILY screaming matches about which direction a project should go. It was borderline hostile at all times.

Since my particular duties didn't require that I be involved in their shenanigans, I decided to bring headphones to drown everyone out.

I got pulled in to my manager's office two days later and was told that I was not allowed to have headphones, because the guys on the work floor were not allowed to have headphones for safety reasons - they needed to be able to hear alarms, machinery, etc.

When I tried to point that we were a block away from the machine shop, and that the employee handbook specifically stated that headphones were not allowed "on the shop floor" my boss decided to turn the informal meeting into a "write-up for insubordination."

I got written up two weeks later for being 10 minutes early and "not starting work on time." Apparently, "on time" means "when your shift starts, not a minute before."

It was the most ludicrous thing I had ever heard, and I've worked for the government before.

They eventually fired me for doing what my boss asked me to do, and during the exit interview I told them what a relief it was and thanked them profusely for having mercy.

The best part? All the improvements I made on their database system went with me. They never had me sign anything that specifically stated that they were entitled to any software I developed. Of course, they asked me about it a couple weeks later when the new DB guy came in to work. I pointed out that since they were so specific about shift start times, headphones, etc. that they should have been specific about code development.

/CSB

tl;dr: I worked for a shiat company, got fired, and took my code with me when I left.

Sounds like public education. I had an admin who decided I was too popular with the other employees, and started writing me up for things I a) had done a few months earlier, and b) I had done at his request. Seriously. Of course, he disavowed any knowledge of these requests, and when I dared print out the e-mails that showed the requests, or ask why a particular action took three months to stick in his craw, well, then I got written up for being "unprofessional."

What a cock.

walkingtall: Welcome to our new post 8-10% unemployment world. Which is in reality about 20% which is in keeping with what most of the western world is experiencing. I dont have any answers for it but it does suck to be alive at a time when I dont know if my children will ever be able to get a job outside of shiatty retail jobs. The good times are over and hard times are ahead for everyone but the very few. There is enough blame for this to go all around. It was avoidable. We didnt even try.

My great grandparents said the same thing during the depression. If you're clever, motivated, and committed, there will always be opportunity.

farker99: The toxic cesspool where I worked until 2 weeks ago would love the contents of the article and some comments in this thread to add to their already 'family' like business work ethic. Work 50 hours in 4 days, fine; take of 30 minutes early on that Friday, make sure you fill out the paid time off form because you are stealing from the company.

If I ever hear someone refer to the work environment as 'family' I'm going to run, run very quickly away from there.

Went though a similar situation for 5 years working with a bi-polar boss. I worked on items that had to be completed by the end of the month and would watch this person literally be all happy at the beginning of the month and turn in to a total raging bi-polar bear by the end of it. Due to the volume of work my work team could never close on time (Not enough workers), take vacations or use sick time (I had almost 200 hrs of vac and 400 hr of sick), get yelled at for going to the bathroom because it took time away from the desk, could not talk to coworkers (not even for work related issues), everything had to go through her, required to worked 50+ hour work weeks (Mandatory OT at her leisure) and put up with Sharking episodes (where the height of her head going down the cubical maze looked like a shark's fin; she would block the cubical exit to yell at me in front of everybody about something and retreat back to her office.). I was so mind fu**ed it took me getting fired to finally leave, I was so burnt out from the experience.

However, I made a positive out of my experience. I finished my BS in Business and took time out to do some things I wanted to do. It may be a bad economy but no has to put up with abusive behavior.

ReapTheChaos: You read something like this and your first reaction is to think how big an asshole those bosses must be. But truth be told I'm quite sure this was the result of employees using the bathroom for a break room.

I worked with a guy once who would go into the bathroom and not come out for 20-30 minutes. I get that you might suffer from the occasional bout of constipation but good god if you need that much time day after day just to drop a deuce then you got medical issues that need addressing.

I've know others who wouldn't use the bathroom on their break time because the way they saw it, that was their time and taking a crap shouldn't be included in their breaks. I even knew a guy who used to take naps while sitting on the can.

8 minutes might seem a tad short on time but I'd bet my next months pay these people brought it on themselves.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Smokers tend to get 5 smoke breaks per shift and no one ever says a thing, cause no one wants to put up with being on the wrong side of a nic fit. Others have different uses of time.

If you're a manager and you watch the clock religiously and do shiat like this, guess what? You're a farking shiatty manager and should be fired!

The only metrics that count is if someone is able to get what is asked of them done promptly and correctly. It's then the managers job to balance what addition stuff you can give them, vs what you think it too much. Clock watching is not in your farking job description, and if it is you're a worthless piece of shiat that isn't doing HIS job.