The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

Green Gecko wrote:I mean, this is a guy in an arts university who couldn't even be bothered to format a word document and stuck with Calibiri every time.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.... what's wrong with Calibri?

Calibri Supremacy :datass:

Tahoma or GTFO

You know what's never been annoying? Skypeing someone to let them know you've just sent them an email.

It's even worse when that kind of mentality is pushed by the company as expected. At my place if you send someone an email and they don't respond then you have no right to complain unless you chased them continuously, including going around to their desk and annoyed then until they acknowledge you. You need to show you've done "everything you can" and if you don't put this much effort in then it's your fault they've ignored you because you're just passing the buck to someone who's probably just busy.

I use read receipts on Gmail so I know when they've been 1. delivered and 2. Read.

Also on my CRM I use full deliverability reports using a massive email deliverability network/cloud service (Sendgrid), so I get proper email error reporting back if it fails. I know what time they've been opened too. This way I can judge how responsive customers are, whether they give a gooseberry fool or how often they actually check in on things, when they are ignoring emails, and so on. It's very useful.

I've already mentioned the time I got a text saying, on a Sunday, "Got your email on Thursday mate". What :lol:

Been more careful since and not giving out my mobile number. The amount of time I lost and anxiety generated was insane. I'm not sure I get a single thing actually made all week.

I blame my mother who's often the most cynical person of all time for telling my voicemail greeting was weird asking customers to e-mail me for the fastest response, something I think is totally reasonable especially as I have a disability that severely affects phone calls (worse than a stammer, it's a processing thing). So I just changed it to, "leave me a message and I'll get back to you asap". Have to remember to change it back.

GH there’s just too many ways to contact people now Messenger/SMS/WhatsApp/Email/Phonecall (the only everyone seems to avoid when needing an instant answer)

Managing a team I can’t tell you the about of times one of the managers under me will say well I told them on what’s app or they told us on what’sapp when it’s against company policy and I purposefully don’t use it for work as a result.

If someone mate Fb message me about sickness - again against policy and I’m not even in. I used to be really nice about it but now I just ignore it. They know what to do, pick up the phone and match the policy.

I might sound like a dick but too much gets misplaced and misread over sms/email and such for simple conversations that could be had in 1 min on the phone

I don't consider apps like that platforms for work discussion, unless it's a corporate installation.

It's e-mail/tel, but then I get to do what I want. I do ocassonnally get asked to whatsapp or send images on whatsapp. No, open your email app and attach a strawberry floating image you bellend.

I even have the ability for people to log in to a webpage and view all their correspondence and attachments etc, if for some reason they're incapable of using or accessing email. It costs me less than a smartphone contract per month.

You can't use whatsapp whatsoever without a smart device. I don't need 100 notifications every 10 minutes for stupid gooseberry fool, nor do I want to pay to replace one every 1-2 years for no good reason. It's far easier to manager your time on an actual computer.

The mobile phone I use is from 2008 and still works fine. Spare parts cost me £10 on eBay. It takes good photos and it's even possible to google basic stuff like phone numbers for businesses. In fact, the battery lasts 2-3 days on average. I've had two different high end smartphones on 2-3 year contracts and they all strawberry floated up eventually or got battered into redundancy by the app/developer platforms.

As long as they get a message to me I don't care how. I've got the vast majority of my lot on WhatsApp and most of them like to use that as it's just nice to have a casual method of communication.

Would consider myself a right prick if someone told me they were unwell on WhatsApp and I replied using my work email to say they have to tell me 'properly' :lol:

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Oblomov Boblomov wrote:As long as they get a message to me I don't care how. I've got the vast majority of my lot on WhatsApp and most of them like to use that as it's just nice to have a casual method of communication.

Would consider myself a right prick if someone told me they were unwell on WhatsApp and I replied using my work email to say they have to tell me 'properly' .

This, policy should be to let the person know but being that rigid about the method is just dickish.

Errkal wrote:
Oblomov Boblomov wrote:As long as they get a message to me I don't care how. I've got the vast majority of my lot on WhatsApp and most of them like to use that as it's just nice to have a casual method of communication.

Would consider myself a right prick if someone told me they were unwell on WhatsApp and I replied using my work email to say they have to tell me 'properly' .

This, policy should be to let the person know but being that rigid about the method is just dickish.

Surely it's for record-keeping purposes? So if the question ever comes up about why an employee was not working a certain day, an email can be easily pulled up as evidence that sickness was reported.

Somebody Else's Problem wrote:
Errkal wrote:
Oblomov Boblomov wrote:As long as they get a message to me I don't care how. I've got the vast majority of my lot on WhatsApp and most of them like to use that as it's just nice to have a casual method of communication.

Would consider myself a right prick if someone told me they were unwell on WhatsApp and I replied using my work email to say they have to tell me 'properly' .

This, policy should be to let the person know but being that rigid about the method is just dickish.

Surely it's for record-keeping purposes? So if the question ever comes up about why an employee was not working a certain day, an email can be easily pulled up as evidence that sickness was reported.

Can't say for certain about everywhere but surely most places have a system/database for tracking annual leave and all other absences?

That’s an issue we had at work where a girl in my team would keep messaging on me on WhatsApp when she was off sick rather than the official process and she ended up getting fired for her absences. I had to spend ages screenshotting conversations for her disciplinaries to get the evidence of me telling her the process etc. Absolute nightmare.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:
Somebody Else's Problem wrote:
Errkal wrote:
Oblomov Boblomov wrote:As long as they get a message to me I don't care how. I've got the vast majority of my lot on WhatsApp and most of them like to use that as it's just nice to have a casual method of communication.

Would consider myself a right prick if someone told me they were unwell on WhatsApp and I replied using my work email to say they have to tell me 'properly' .

This, policy should be to let the person know but being that rigid about the method is just dickish.

Surely it's for record-keeping purposes? So if the question ever comes up about why an employee was not working a certain day, an email can be easily pulled up as evidence that sickness was reported.

Can't say for certain about everywhere but surely most places have a system/database for tracking annual leave and all other absences?

Even the smallest place would have at least a spreadsheet that the manager updates with sick leave. Keeping an email would be hugely inefficient.

Must places will have a timesheet/rota/absence system - but I doubt most of these will have an option to give an absence context - time and method of contact, that type of thing. For single absences it's not really important, but as Joer had pointed out when you're trying to build a pattern or show the whole picture during an escalation/hr situation just knowing that they were 'off' isn't enough.

That's not a growth wrote:Must places will have a timesheet/rota/absence system - but I doubt most of these will have an option to give an absence context - time and method of contact, that type of thing. For single absences it's not really important, but as Joer had pointed out when you're trying to build a pattern or show the whole picture during an escalation/hr situation just knowing that they were 'off' isn't enough.

Screenshot the chat at the time and save, make a word doc with a note, have a notes field on the spreadsheet, most systems will have a “details” box.

The “how notified” doesn’t stop you logging why it’s pure corporate pettiness and nothing else.

I would agree with you need to notify person x but the method shouldn’t matter. If it is a designated person they can easily collect the evidence and reasoning from whatever method of communication.

Thing I hate absence wise at my place is if you're ill you have to call in and that's the only option you've got. This means when you're actually sick and probably not sleeping well you have to drag yourself out of bed super early to call them when it would be better for you and healthier for you to stay in bed and strawberry floating sleep longer. You can't call up the night before either, it has to be on the morning. Man I'm barely off sick I know when I feel sick enough to work and it's not going to go away after a broken nights sleep.

Qikz wrote:Thing I hate absence wise at my place is if you're ill you have to call in and that's the only option you've got. This means when you're actually sick and probably not sleeping well you have to drag yourself out of bed super early to call them when it would be better for you and healthier for you to stay in bed and strawberry floating sleep longer. You can't call up the night before either, it has to be on the morning. Man I'm barely off sick I know when I feel sick enough to work and it's not going to go away after a broken nights sleep.

It's the same at my place. Even worse, they insist you speak to your manager (or a manager at the same level). So if you call while they are in a meeting, you have to call back again later. And it has to be before 10am, so you're strawberry floated if they are in a long meeting.

And you have to do that EVERY day you're sick.

Moggy wrote:
Qikz wrote:Thing I hate absence wise at my place is if you're ill you have to call in and that's the only option you've got. This means when you're actually sick and probably not sleeping well you have to drag yourself out of bed super early to call them when it would be better for you and healthier for you to stay in bed and strawberry floating sleep longer. You can't call up the night before either, it has to be on the morning. Man I'm barely off sick I know when I feel sick enough to work and it's not going to go away after a broken nights sleep.

It's the same at my place. Even worse, they insist you speak to your manager (or a manager at the same level). So if you call while they are in a meeting, you have to call back again later. And it has to be before 10am, so you're strawberry floated if they are in a long meeting.

And you have to do that EVERY day you're sick.

I have to call every day im sick too. It's so stupid.

Official policy dictates I must call my superior if I'm ill.

Thankfully my superior takes a common sense approach to managing and he understands that to get the best from his employees, he should be as helpful as possible when it comes to ignoring unnecessary policies. As long as it gets logged in the system the method of contact is arbitrary.

Therefore I normally drop him a text.

I really need to find out who I contact.... not sure if it is my “official” line manager or my scrum master.....

The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

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