Business Pet Peeves
I've gotta say, we all are different and all have our own pet peeves. I took a test the other day on what mine would be and I was slightly surprised. The worst for me has gotta be working for someone who gets bent out of shape over a question. Now this may seem specific, but based on my previous experience, this happens to be way more common than you would think.
I am a very independent person and I rarely ask questions, so when I do ask one, if my boss sighs or gives me attitude, truthfully, I get pissed off.
I've had employers in the past who were great, and every once in a while it happened from stress, so I never took it personally. But if EVERYTIME I ask something small I get an "ugh" or an eye roll, it makes me start looking elsewhere ASAP. I get we all handle our stress in different ways but to me that is just minimizing the importance of your employee's learning process. It makes sense to act this way when you're stressed out, but if you make your employees feel stupid or like a burden it! will! come! back! to! you!
What about you?
Random one but my last boss always made me get him a coffee during the internship I was at. No big deal. Eventually though, I got promoted and he didn't have any of the new interns get him coffee. Still me!
It made me look kind of stupid compared to other associates and even the interns. I think he just got used to me doing it but after a while I was like.....uh.... can one of the interns do it? I am kinda busy?(was literally slammed with work) and of course the intern messed up the order so I was stuck with it til I left.
Idk I just found it really annoying towards the end
My last boss gave me an annoying nickname (can't say it or it will expose my identity, but it had to do with something personal) but then everyone at the office started calling me it. They didn't know the reason behind the nickname but after a while I was tired of something from my past being brought up constantly even if they didn't know what it actually stood for. I didn't care at first but it kinda turned into a joke and the interns though it was okay to throw shade at me since they considered me the office joke.
Luckily my boss was a woman so I told her it was bothering me and she was very cool about it. The guys at my firm on the other hand continued to piss me off about it until I left. Still follows me around now sometimes
Big tuna
ConeyIsland should be honored if they were compared to Jim
Halpert
Mine and yours are the same for sure. My last boss got pissed for no reason. His instructions were extremely unclear and he'd give me and my coworkers shit for doing it wrong. Then when we wanted to ask questions he'd get even more pissed. It was a lose lose situation so I left.
Bosses like that are huge motivation killers
Those kind of people are the worst! Damned if you do and damned if you don't! It is exhausting, and 100% demotivates you. It also causes a LOT of resentment.
The way my MD either owns or distances himself from my book depending on the month.
His attitude basically summed up as:
Good month = They're MY clients, and they're killing it! Yea me!
Bad month = Why are YOUR clients so slow this month? What are YOU doing about it?
I've had bosses like those before. A total motivation killer! Kind of like my situation where you are sort of "screwed" either way.
My last MD took it upon himself to always drink cold drinks on hot days so the outside of the cup would always be wet. He then would always place it on my desk and all my papers would get smeared with ink and ruined. Literally every time he did it I would move the cup and guess what
HE MOVED IT BACK. At some point you have to think it's on purpose. He even asked once why my print out was "crunchy". I'm like.............. because your cup was on my desk and he acted genuinely surprised. I have no idea tbh
Must have happened quite a few times for you to remember so clearly ahhaha
One of the VPs on my team always has a metal cup full of ice water, and while he’s generally careful to make sure it doesn’t get anything wet, he actually plopped it on my resume when I interviewed with him. Kinda blew my mind at the time.
I guess this is a common thing hahaha
OP I relate to everything you've said. This has also led me to stop asking questions, even if sometimes it's for a clarification as I've gotten responses where they were reluctant to answer or have answered with a tone that indicates their annoyance. But lately during performance reviews I've been told that I do not speak up or ask enough questions. Which ironically, the people who tells me these are the same ones that judge me for it.
Might be helpful to add that I am a female too (I've read your other posts) and the only one in my team, so sometimes I also try not to ask questions to not appear "dumb" or as if I was hired for different reasons.
I was literally going to say that about performance reviews. I've been told I am too independent and don't ask questions so I said "you create an environment where people don't feel comfortable asking".
It was a little awkward but its the truth and was worth it
Any time someone does their thinking on someone else's clock, instead of their own, it drives me insane. The thing OP describes is a perfect example because its like, why did you bother me with your directions before making sure the directions were clear?
People should never think on someone else's time. If your thought isn't good enough to eat into your own time, maybe that's a sign its not worth mentioning?
The worst is one guy I work with who is on the team for one of our portfolio companies that has a lot of operational issues. We deal with these issues on a daily, ongoing basis and have weekly team update calls with 10 people on the call. This dude never has any original thoughts during the week - he has a defined role just does his jo, and that's fine - but then on the big team call he's suddenly Steve Jobs with one outside-the-box idea after another.
If he was coming up with real ideas and strategically saving them for the calls for some office politics reason, that would be bad enough. But he's actually coming up with these ideas on the call. Obviously, the ideas are not audience-ready at a best, and stupid at worst.
167 hours out of the week, this project isn't worth spending his free time on, but this 1 hour a week he wants to get creative while 9 others listen. Counterproductive and arrogant.
People should believe, to some degree, that it's a good thing to think more and speak less. Those who feel largely the opposite way make pretty horrible coworkers
Think more and speak less all the way!!! If you are going to get bent out of shape when I don't understand your instructions, maybe someone else should do the explaining!
Really unprofessional and rude to sigh or shake your head like you are too busy for employee questions, if you have enough time to bring up that I don't ask enough in a performance review!!
Definitely considering bringing it up the next time I converse with them but honestly some of these people have ego issues and are in the position to sabotage me so I have to tread carefully haha
Funny I was just thinking about this today if it ever comes up as an interview question. My biggest pet peeve would be that one person who would non-stop spew filler words such as 'uh huh' or 'yeah yeah' when another person is speaking during a meeting to make it seem like they are paying attention. But when they are asked to comment about a subtle detail, they would stutter and reply with something so off-topic.
or they ask a question that has been answered like 500 times
Mangers who want to get to the "root" of a problem in the middle of a shit storm. Ummm how about we deal with the problem now and figure out why it happened later - because the deal is closing in 5 minutes.
yeah that never fails to baffle me hahaha
biggest pet peeve - when your boss uses archaic old technology and then complains that there is just not enough time in the day to do "all the work" when implementing new app/tech/systems/process would literally solve all their issues. it.is.mind.boggling.
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or makes the job seem really hard when its not, they just use the worlds slowest and oldest methods
Honestly I hate pets. But my favorite one was my parrot who ate the fuck out of my goldfish one day just to spite the cat. Favorite pet by far, considered getting engaged. Pets peeve me though overall, so yeah fuck em.
MDs/Senior types bragging about how they grind juniors to the bone and spit them out and the work (much of it ultimately pointless and unused) they make them do. And then complaining a while later extensively of how "no young people are loyal anymore"
The world has changed brah
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