The Venting Thread

[jimbogumbo]

Just so I won't screw up, is black the correct color ink?

[arcturus]

My vent: I filled out the forms to renew my passport today. It took like five tries. First I used the wrong color ink. Then I put my first name in the box for my last name. Then I accidentally printed out the fourth form double-sided, when it needed to be single-sided. Then I got a digit of my post code wrong. By the last time, I realized I could have written my phone number more neatly, but I was DONE. Paid the fees, mailed it off. Let's hope it works.

When I lived in Canada, I was disappointed to learn that I needed to mail my (USA) passport renewal material to the same USA Post Office Box as I would if I were in the States. No consulate office for me. Rather, I had to find a photographer that could translate the US requirements for photo size (listed in inches, of course) for the photographs and then trust Canada Post not to lose the outbound and inbound mailings.

[the_geneticist]

We have a new crop of HR staff at my school, most of them straight out of college, so they're encountering the divide between theory and practice. They've just sent out a campus-wide directive for all employees to fill out a work grid saying in what locations we work and what we do every hour of the week. Faculty are irate, deans are rolling their eyes, and the provost is gobsmacked. Morale has already been low, and short-sighted, draconian decrees and wastes of time like this are not helping!

Yikes! 

I'd be tempted to:
1) ignore this nonsense
2) if required, put in big boxes that say things like "research time", "teaching preparation", "meetings", etc.
3) if required by hour, I'd sneak in obviously snarky weird things like "hiding in office", "missing", "doing pointless tasks for HR", etc.

[ergative]

Just so I won't screw up, is black the correct color ink?

In my case, yes. It's funny--five or ten years ago it was always blue OR black ink for official documents, and I got into some trouble with someone telling me I needed to send an original document, not a photocopy, when I had sent an original document filled out in black, so I guess it looked like a photocopy. So I've since then gotten in the habit of using blue ink for official documents, and that led me astray today.

[paddington_bear]

I need a pair of comfy work shoes so that my legs and feet are hurting at the end of the day. I think I've settled for athletic shoes (Kurus), but I miss wearing "dressier" shoes.

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm looking for something at my mother's house. I know for a fact it's there (not thrown out, etc.), yet it eludes me. Grrr.

[Larimar]

I'm looking for something at my mother's house. I know for a fact it's there (not thrown out, etc.), yet it eludes me. Grrr.

I recommend starting to search for something else. Then you'll be tripping over the first item. Subsection G of Murphy's Law.

[clean]

I'm looking for something at my mother's house. I know for a fact it's there (not thrown out, etc.), yet it eludes me. Grrr.


I recommend starting to search for something else. Then you'll be tripping over the first item. Subsection G of Murphy's Law.

Buy another one on EBay and as soon as you pay for it, you will find the one you are looking for!

[Parasaurolophus]

Hehe.

I found it by tossing out a pile of old papers and junk. Whew! Replacing it would have been... well, extremely costly. (Not that it's of use as anything but a collectible.)

[fishbrains]

People! You cannot merge onto a busy interstate going 30 miles an hour. You're going to get us all killed one of these days.

[Parasaurolophus]

Whelp. Now an even bigger whackjob is in charge of Alberta. Uuuuugh.

[apl68]

This makes nine straight days that we haven't received anything on our paid-for daily New York Times print subscription.  Wall Street Journal is never more than a day or two out.  It really makes it look like NYT's journalists hold those of us in flyover country in disdain.  Not a good way to treat people who are at least open-minded enough to read what you have to say.

[Harlow2]

This makes nine straight days that we haven't received anything on our paid-for daily New York Times print subscription.  Wall Street Journal is never more than a day or two out.  It really makes it look like NYT's journalists hold those of us in flyover country in disdain.  Not a good way to treat people who are at least open-minded enough to read what you have to say.

We are 85 miles from NY on a major interstate. The delivery person here has always been unreliable, and now I get just the Sunday paper—on Sunday afternoon. Saturday apparently is not the weekend. I complained a year ago to customer service, then set the delivery to "away," and hoped when it resumed 6 months later things would improve. Nope, now they are worse.

[glowdart]

We have a new crop of HR staff at my school, most of them straight out of college, so they're encountering the divide between theory and practice. They've just sent out a campus-wide directive for all employees to fill out a work grid saying in what locations we work and what we do every hour of the week. Faculty are irate, deans are rolling their eyes, and the provost is gobsmacked. Morale has already been low, and short-sighted, draconian decrees and wastes of time like this are not helping!

Well bless their hearts.

I'd be so tempted to fill it out accurately at 60+ hours per week to see if they accidentally up my salaried pay at the hourly "rate" they currently use for my supposedly 35 hour week.

[mamselle]

A little "malicious compliance," hunh?

;--}

M.