The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[Memento Mori]

Is there anything more annoying than people who refuse to use email?

A client asks me to call them because it will be quicker. I call them two minutes after he sends me the email. He asks if he can call me back at 11:30 because he's busy. He still hasn't called. A waste of my strawberry floating time.

[Outrunner]

Is there anything more annoying than people who refuse to use email?

People who use email but, despite university policy, don't get back in touch with you in the required time frame. Or even at all sometimes. I'm more than happy to email you but at least give me the courtesy of a reply. I changed module choices based on the fact that two tutors never answered my emails about course content.

[Cheeky Devlin]

So glad to be back working in the office 3 days out of 5.

I'm especially grateful to have picked up the first cold I've had in over 2 years.

banana splits.

On the plus side I had an interview for a promotion the other day and I'm pretty sure I smashed it, so that's nice.

[Drumstick]

Good luck mate!

Should have got around to posting this earlier but I've some good news.

I interviewed for a role in February. The interview went very well and I later learned that I placed 2/15, narrowly missing out.

A couple of weeks on, recruitment called me out of the blue to say that the same hiring manager had secured funding for an additional resource, same role and having interviewed many candidates, the hiring manager wanted to reach out directly to his preferred candidate: me.

Had a meeting with the hiring manager on Tuesday, offer came through on Wednesday and I accepted that afternoon.

Confirmed start date of 23/05.

[Qikz]

Is there anything more annoying than people who refuse to use email?

A client asks me to call them because it will be quicker. I call them two minutes after he sends me the email. He asks if he can call me back at 11:30 because he's busy. He still hasn't called. A waste of my strawberry floating time.

A call is never strawberry floating easier than an email either. Nobody pays any attention to what you say on the call so it's better to write it down so it's articulate and there's a record of it.

People who send emails then call IMMEDIATELY after sending it as well to discuss can strawberry float off too.

Also congrats Drummy!

[Lagamorph]

People who start a teams chat with "Can I call you?" deserve to be immediately fired for Gross Misconduct.

[Cuttooth]

Everyone's aversion to internal phone calls is really weird.

[Cheeky Devlin]

Good luck mate!

Should have got around to posting this earlier but I've some good news.

I interviewed for a role in February. The interview went very well and I later learned that I placed 2/15, narrowly missing out.

A couple of weeks on, recruitment called me out of the blue to say that the same hiring manager had secured funding for an additional resource, same role and having interviewed many candidates, the hiring manager wanted to reach out directly to his preferred candidate: me.

Had a meeting with the hiring manager on Tuesday, offer came through on Wednesday and I accepted that afternoon.

Confirmed start date of 23/05.

Good luck to you as well man.

[Victor Mildew]

Everyone's aversion to internal phone calls is really weird.

Things need to be in writing for accountability.

[gaminglegend]

Sometimes a question or situation can be quickly solved with a phone call and it’s more likely to get a quick response, there and then.

[aayl1]

Good luck dev!

[Qikz]

Everyone's aversion to internal phone calls is really weird.

Things need to be in writing for accountability.

This. Also if it's written down then I can go back and check it later so I don't forget.

[Snowcannon]

Different formats, different use cases.

If I need to discuss something with someone to help make a decision, I will absolutely call them. Much easier and less subject to confusion than writing an email. Especially as I work for a multinational so many people who I am speaking to don’t have English as their native language.

If I know what I need and I just need to ask someone to do it, or I know what I have to do and just have to deliver it, then yes email is easier. And often necessary for audit reasons.

[Green Gecko]

I think it's important to take into account neurodivergencies as well. For me, a "3 minute conversation" is absolutely never in a million years going to take 3 minutes, and be extremely exhausting and confusing for me; yet you should then have some sort of PA, with my experience being access to work recommendations in this country barely exist, you are basically strawberry floated out of being able to do a job if everyone insists on phoning you always. It can be incredibly unproductive, then, when the call literally is pointless and more an opportunity for someone bored at work or doing "bullshit work" to shoot the gooseberry fool or go around in circles discussing the exact same thing that is actionable to begin with. You can bet they are salaried, and get paid regardless of what their productivity or contribution is like. A long ass phone conversation is often an opportunity to justify someone's involvement in a task at all. Including managers. So they can say, oh I did that thing, I discussed this stuff that someone else is actually doing, for 40 minutes, preventing them from doing any of it.

On the other side of the coin, dyslexics understandably would much rather write little if nothing, yet still struggle with memory - they might prefer to record things visually, which, ironically, does include words. Presumptions, are always bad.

[Tomous]

People who start a teams chat with "Can I call you?" deserve to be immediately fired for Gross Misconduct.

Don't really understand the issue here.

Rather than bombarding you with calls, that youl obliged to take, they're checking to see how busy you are.

"Yep I'm free" or "sorry got something on call me later" and away you go.

[Lagamorph]

People who start a teams chat with "Can I call you?" deserve to be immediately fired for Gross Misconduct.

Don't really understand the issue here.

Rather than bombarding you with calls, that youl obliged to take, they're checking to see how busy you are.

"Yep I'm free" or "sorry got something on call me later" and away you go.

Obliged to take? strawberry float that, if someone calls me on Teams when I'm not expecting it I hit that reject button.

If someone wants something they can send me a message and actually write out what they want. Not just send "Hi can I call you?" Out of the blue.

99% of the time it's something that either I can tell them to go talk to someone else about because it's nothing to do with me, or it's something that will ultimately boil down to "Have you logged this? What's the reference number?". They see Senior Engineer in my title and assume I'm the go to person to skip the queue the rest of the team are going through.

[Tomous]

People who start a teams chat with "Can I call you?" deserve to be immediately fired for Gross Misconduct.

Don't really understand the issue here.

Rather than bombarding you with calls, that youl obliged to take, they're checking to see how busy you are.

"Yep I'm free" or "sorry got something on call me later" and away you go.

Obliged to take? strawberry float that, if someone calls me on Teams when I'm not expecting it I hit that reject button.

If someone wants something they can send me a message and actually write out what they want. Not just send "Hi can I call you?" Out of the blue.

99% of the time it's something that either I can tell them to go talk to someone else about because it's nothing to do with me, or it's something that will ultimately boil down to "Have you logged this? What's the reference number?". They see Senior Engineer in my title and assume I'm the go to person to skip the queue the rest of the team are going through.

Okay, but that's a specific issue with people at your work bypassing appropriate channels and organisation structure rather than a problem with the general behaviour you initially described.

If people had meltdowns over "can you talk?" messages at my work, there'd be no one left after a few days

[Sprouty]

Recently apllied for a new role and smashed the interview. Will have to wait for a couple of weeks to hear back, but I suspect I'll get it.

In the meantime, my current team has been cut repeatedly and the work of 4 people is being done by 2, which is tough. I refused a request this week, partly out of principle, but using very justifiable reasoning. The requestor threatened to escalate it if I didn't back down, so I jumped the gun, escalated it to my manager who has only just joined us and explained the issues. It was a vague threat to scare me into submission, but the end result is that my new manager has now agreed that we can now turn down ALL new requests. For a team producing over 100 reports, the ongoing maintenance is high, so it will make a big difference, but god it will be hard on the person who is left if I move on and a lot of people are going to struggle having to do work themselves which they could previously palm off on us.

[Barnsy!]

Good luck mate!

Should have got around to posting this earlier but I've some good news.

I interviewed for a role in February. The interview went very well and I later learned that I placed 2/15, narrowly missing out.

A couple of weeks on, recruitment called me out of the blue to say that the same hiring manager had secured funding for an additional resource, same role and having interviewed many candidates, the hiring manager wanted to reach out directly to his preferred candidate: me.

Had a meeting with the hiring manager on Tuesday, offer came through on Wednesday and I accepted that afternoon.

Confirmed start date of 23/05.

That's great news. Really happy for you - well done

[Barnsy!]

Good luck mate!

Should have got around to posting this earlier but I've some good news.

I interviewed for a role in February. The interview went very well and I later learned that I placed 2/15, narrowly missing out.

A couple of weeks on, recruitment called me out of the blue to say that the same hiring manager had secured funding for an additional resource, same role and having interviewed many candidates, the hiring manager wanted to reach out directly to his preferred candidate: me.

Had a meeting with the hiring manager on Tuesday, offer came through on Wednesday and I accepted that afternoon.

Confirmed start date of 23/05.

That's great news. Really happy for you - well done