C
conradbl
Sorry for the length, but 1. Since several folks have been getting on the whole ?co-worker/colleague/office horror stories?; 2. Being that Christmas is near; and 3. I have admittedly not participated much in the forums, I figured I?d jump on the band-wagon. Here goes:
I have been employed for a little over 3 yrs by what I?d estimate as a small-to-medium size civil/enviro/survey company with several offices in the Midwest, and our particular office being the smallest. My boss is pretty easy to work for, easy-going, low-stress. The benefits are pretty good. For some reason or other, this seems to be the year of discontent.
Item 1. We have a CAD guy (I'm noticing a general trend with CAD guys being mentioned in these things) who for some reason (I?m guessing he has naked pictures of my boss in compromising situations), gets away with a lot of crap. There were rumblings this summer that his timesheets claimed he was arriving at work at 4:30 a.m. everyday, supposedly not taking lunches, so essentially getting oodles of OT and billing extra time to some of our big-time clients.
This was brought to my boss?s attention and his solution was to SHOW UP AT 5:30 a.m. for a week to ?investigate? (I know this because I was coming in early at that time because we had a deadline). Who?s he kidding? One of my co-workers did a little investigating himself and would be in the vicinity of the building to witness what time exactly the guy was coming in. For the most part, it was a half-hour or more later than what was being put on his timesheets. So not only is the guy pocketing more money from the OT, but he is also taking away from our profit-sharing yadda yadda yadda. And he?s a jerk to boot (reference previous posts about some CAD guys being jerks, who, when you ask them to make a few changes on a drawing, react as if you just asked them to go castrate 18 litters of pigs). Note: we do have some nice CAD guys. I could go on about this guy in particular, but I don?t wanna add more to this, just understand that he is in general a jerk, and no one likes him.
Anyway, on to Item 2 & 3 (related), the new HR guy and the new health care plan. I just don?t get it with this guy. He?s something like 60 years old, used to work at a large corporation, and when mentioning around town who we hired as the new HR guy, the general response is: ?you gotta be fuckin shittin me! You hired him?!?!? Even from my boss?s brother. The thing that doesn?t smell right about this hire is that he goes to the same church as my boss. But he just doesn?t seem to fit in, doesn?t try to get to know you, and to boot, he has issued several company memos, and GOT THE NAME OF OUR COMPANY WRONG! Does he even care? Plus, he is a really loud talker on the phone ? annoying.
Anyway, it?s that time of year whey you usually get the Healthcare sign-up etc, so what does this guy do? Sends out a company-wide email with all the forms as 8 attachments, and the kicker is that our insurance premium paycheck deductions went up around 30-40%, and the deductible went up 400%. Four hundred freaking percent! So we get this email, and for sure people will have questions on this, but the guy sends the email at 2:58, and at 3:00 is gone. Out the back door.
Now these increases don?t really affect me right now because I?m single and the company pays my premium. I am a healthy young stallion who hasn?t been to the doctor once in the past 2 years (and that was for knee surgery). It will be affecting me come the end of February because I?ll be getting hitched and adding my wife-to-be to the plan. (they don?t cover the spouse?s premiums, which I suspect is typical across the industry). But what about the people with families who will most likely have more DR. visits and they have to find ways to be able to afford the new health insurance? Now I?m no insurance guru, but you?d think if the deductible went up, your premiums would go down, kind of like a risk thing, same thing with car insurance. What gives here? They supposedly did a lot of investigating, blah blah blah, but none of us here believe he is shooting straight with us. Our general consensus is that there is $$ being scrimped in certain places to pay this doofus? albatross salary.
Is this what it's gonna be like? Makes the whole thought of starting my own company seem more and more tempting. I've never been around an HR guy, but I thought they were supposed to look out for the people, and have some tact. I can tell you if was a prospective employee and interviewed with him, he would be a deal-breaker.
I?ve really loved working here the past few years, and I?ve learned a lot, but this past year has been hard, and the morale seems to be getting worse, and I am not claiming to be perfect myself, but a lot of ugly stuff seems to go on. If I didn?t have this wedding and honeymoon coming up, I?d leave in a heartbeat. Hey, that's a good idea, maybe I'll just take an extra long honeymoon, and never come back! I?m willing to stick it out-maybe till my new vacation hours roll in next October, but ultimately mine and my bride-to-be?s plan is to bolt somewhere to the east coast. This past year is making that decision A LOT easier. Anyway, rant off; I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I?m keeping my fingers crossed for those of you waiting for your P.E. results.
I have been employed for a little over 3 yrs by what I?d estimate as a small-to-medium size civil/enviro/survey company with several offices in the Midwest, and our particular office being the smallest. My boss is pretty easy to work for, easy-going, low-stress. The benefits are pretty good. For some reason or other, this seems to be the year of discontent.
Item 1. We have a CAD guy (I'm noticing a general trend with CAD guys being mentioned in these things) who for some reason (I?m guessing he has naked pictures of my boss in compromising situations), gets away with a lot of crap. There were rumblings this summer that his timesheets claimed he was arriving at work at 4:30 a.m. everyday, supposedly not taking lunches, so essentially getting oodles of OT and billing extra time to some of our big-time clients.
This was brought to my boss?s attention and his solution was to SHOW UP AT 5:30 a.m. for a week to ?investigate? (I know this because I was coming in early at that time because we had a deadline). Who?s he kidding? One of my co-workers did a little investigating himself and would be in the vicinity of the building to witness what time exactly the guy was coming in. For the most part, it was a half-hour or more later than what was being put on his timesheets. So not only is the guy pocketing more money from the OT, but he is also taking away from our profit-sharing yadda yadda yadda. And he?s a jerk to boot (reference previous posts about some CAD guys being jerks, who, when you ask them to make a few changes on a drawing, react as if you just asked them to go castrate 18 litters of pigs). Note: we do have some nice CAD guys. I could go on about this guy in particular, but I don?t wanna add more to this, just understand that he is in general a jerk, and no one likes him.
Anyway, on to Item 2 & 3 (related), the new HR guy and the new health care plan. I just don?t get it with this guy. He?s something like 60 years old, used to work at a large corporation, and when mentioning around town who we hired as the new HR guy, the general response is: ?you gotta be fuckin shittin me! You hired him?!?!? Even from my boss?s brother. The thing that doesn?t smell right about this hire is that he goes to the same church as my boss. But he just doesn?t seem to fit in, doesn?t try to get to know you, and to boot, he has issued several company memos, and GOT THE NAME OF OUR COMPANY WRONG! Does he even care? Plus, he is a really loud talker on the phone ? annoying.
Anyway, it?s that time of year whey you usually get the Healthcare sign-up etc, so what does this guy do? Sends out a company-wide email with all the forms as 8 attachments, and the kicker is that our insurance premium paycheck deductions went up around 30-40%, and the deductible went up 400%. Four hundred freaking percent! So we get this email, and for sure people will have questions on this, but the guy sends the email at 2:58, and at 3:00 is gone. Out the back door.
Now these increases don?t really affect me right now because I?m single and the company pays my premium. I am a healthy young stallion who hasn?t been to the doctor once in the past 2 years (and that was for knee surgery). It will be affecting me come the end of February because I?ll be getting hitched and adding my wife-to-be to the plan. (they don?t cover the spouse?s premiums, which I suspect is typical across the industry). But what about the people with families who will most likely have more DR. visits and they have to find ways to be able to afford the new health insurance? Now I?m no insurance guru, but you?d think if the deductible went up, your premiums would go down, kind of like a risk thing, same thing with car insurance. What gives here? They supposedly did a lot of investigating, blah blah blah, but none of us here believe he is shooting straight with us. Our general consensus is that there is $$ being scrimped in certain places to pay this doofus? albatross salary.
Is this what it's gonna be like? Makes the whole thought of starting my own company seem more and more tempting. I've never been around an HR guy, but I thought they were supposed to look out for the people, and have some tact. I can tell you if was a prospective employee and interviewed with him, he would be a deal-breaker.
I?ve really loved working here the past few years, and I?ve learned a lot, but this past year has been hard, and the morale seems to be getting worse, and I am not claiming to be perfect myself, but a lot of ugly stuff seems to go on. If I didn?t have this wedding and honeymoon coming up, I?d leave in a heartbeat. Hey, that's a good idea, maybe I'll just take an extra long honeymoon, and never come back! I?m willing to stick it out-maybe till my new vacation hours roll in next October, but ultimately mine and my bride-to-be?s plan is to bolt somewhere to the east coast. This past year is making that decision A LOT easier. Anyway, rant off; I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I?m keeping my fingers crossed for those of you waiting for your P.E. results.
