I need to rant

[Adeen]

So, I've already got this entire trip with 3 other friends planned months ago, and it's coming up in 2 weeks. And the police academy (I'm being sponsored by a department who's hiring me) scheduled my entrance physical agility test on EXACTLY THE SAME DAY!?!?!?! This is such a HUGE opportunity for me, but I've already spent a few hundred dollars on this trip, plus 3 other people are counting on me (I'm the driver), but I REALLY want to go to the academy!!
GRAKKAJKSDAJKEJKAMNDANDKLSNPSHH..... <---(me freaking out)

So yeah, I emailed the HR director asking for a schedule change about an hour ago and I haven't heard back yet (probably wont until tomorrow). But seriously, the trip is only 3 days, and the test is scheduled on the 2nd day of the trip, just perfectly screwing things up! I'm free pretty much ANY other day. Grrr...

/end rant

So... this kind of stuff happen to anyone else?

[d13]

The whole time. Especially when the wanted activity takes TOO MUCH TIME to plan ahead.

Seriously.

It plain sucks.

[Agamid]

that sucks... i hope you can reschedule...

i'm moving to canberra in about 7 weeks and have been planning this for 6 months or more and had had two friends volunteer to help drive all my stuff and me down (as i need to take animals down and one of them just can't fly). About a month ago both of them pulled out, one because we had a massive fight over her trying to control the lives of my animals without my permission and being an all around control freak, and we were kind of dating but i broke up with her(so to be perfectly honest i'd rather stab myself in the eye than spend 2 days in the car with her) and the other over financial reasons as it's taken him 5 months to realise how much it would cost in petrol to drive an old volvo with a trailer and full of gear 1.3km.
I've very annoyed. Luckily my super dad has stepped in as going to help me move. But i'll need to hire a removalist as all my stuff won't fit in my dad's little VW golf.

[Rowsen]

Not quite the same, but whenever I plan something with friends, they'll have a change of plans and usually not tell me until the day before, or when I call them to check if everything is still going according to the plan.
95% of the time this happens.
:furious: FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU-

[Solaris]

Heheh. The Army is made of this. I don't even bother trying to plan things out anymore - it's just easier (and cheaper) to wing it.

[arguskos]

Heheh. The Army is made of this. I don't even bother trying to plan things out anymore - it's just easier (and cheaper) to wing it.
You know, being told the army of any country is made out of "AUGHWEDON'TKNOWWHAT'SGOINGONAUGH!!!!" is not an amazingly comforting thought. :smallwink:

[Adeen]

Hah, just checked my email, got told there is no chance of a reschedule, I either go or I don't. So... f**k... I'll try to figure something out.

[Solaris]

You know, being told the army of any country is made out of "AUGHWEDON'TKNOWWHAT'SGOINGONAUGH!!!!" is not an amazingly comforting thought. :smallwink:
I have reason to believe that ninety percent of the US military's operations are improvised as we go along. The other ten percent start off with a map.

Hey, Kirrik, can you reschedule the trip? If it's a plane, I can almost guarantee you'd be able to reschedule the flights with a little cash.

[xPANCAKEx]

reschedualling flights costs only about $25 for the admin fees

[arguskos]

I have reason to believe that ninety percent of the US military's operations are improvised as we go along. The other ten percent start off with a map.
:eek: That... is QUITE disconcerting. Well, at least the military does a decent-ish job in day-to-day affairs. :smallsigh:

Also, the OP mentioned they are the driver for their trip, so I think rescheduling is sorta out.

@OP: Ask your friends if you can delay two days. I know, they'll be upset, but it's that or call it all off so you can take this hyper-important test. If they're really friends, they'll understand and will work with you.

[Mitth'raw'nuruo]

Solaris, you said it very well, all except the map part. IT starts with a map, but we ignore it.

I've been in Iraq since January, and I've never seen an op order or really, had any othermissions briefs other then "we are going there, setting up a (checkpoint/cordon/dismounted patrol/coverwatch) we are/are not letting people/cars through.

And it usually changes when we hit the ground, if not location, then truck position, troop position, or the whole mission....

it feels like we are :belkar: being lead by :thog:

[Mitth'raw'nuruo]

:eek: That... is QUITE disconcerting. Well, at least the military does a decent-ish job in day-to-day affairs. :smallsigh:



eh, that is because you get good at just rolling with whichever bright idea :thog: is telling you to do, because he was told to do it by :mitd:

It is really just a giant perpetual motion machine.
It is not really the military fault; it is a branch of the government, and well, it is still the government. Like everything else the government does, the free market could most likely do it better/faster/cheaper; but who wants large private armies running around?

[billtodamax]

Yes, but privatisation usually ends up worse for, as it were, the little guy. But I don't really want to get into an economics debate with any of you, so I'll be quiet now.

[KuReshtin]

t's like that in the corporate world as well. Things get changed with little or no warning, and most of the times, the changes are stupid and won't work in real life.

The company I work for has a tendency to ignore the fact that there are different cultures in different countries of the world, so just because they want to use ultra-conservative, formalised language when talking to customers because that's what they do in one country, the average customer in another country will find that same standardised way of talking to him either mind-numbingly stupid or, in worst case scenario, offensive.

And when the people who actually speak to the customers and get the feedback from the customers that this is the case, the management still persists with the idiocy that doesn't work. Mainly because they haven't spent a day of their lives in a proper customer-facing environment.

So, that's my rant over...

[Blayze]

Local government's no better.

"Yeah, let's solve the problem of too many cars on the road and causing vast amounts of congestion by REPLACING HALF OF ONE OF THE CITY'S LONGEST AND MOST USED ROADS WITH A BUS LANE THAT CARS CANNOT USE."

True story from my town. Don't even get me started on the computer systems we have to use ("It's better! It's in real-time!" really means "You know that ability you currently have? You know, the ability to go back and correct errors in previous weeks costs? Yeah, well... you don't have it any more."), but the truly great thing about it all?

I'm committing fraud, every day, as part of my job -- sanctioned by the council. We all are, every one of us. The costs of each lorry, each sweeper, of every damn piece of plant we use? Wrong. Haven't even been altered by inflation in the four years I've been working there. Ever.

Hours not matching up between jobs? Take half an hour from one and add it to the other, it'll be fine -- and that's coming straight from the supervisors. Job's made a loss? Fair enough, I'll just TAKE MONEY FROM MEN ON OTHER JOBS and give that money to the ones who didn't break even. That's what the damn *managers* get away with.

Then there was the accidental "multiplied a cost by itself" error my line manager caused -- a simple error to make given the rubbish system we have to use, but when it accidentally almost costs your employer over £15 million...

So yeah. Fraud and incompetence. Not a good mix.

[RandomNPC]

that cost thing? no big deal. I work with machines that are ten years older than I am, they doubble cycle, mis-cycle, fall out of setups, and some of the emergency switches aren't connected to anything.

We make 1.5 million a month, on a rough average, but we can't fix any of the machines because the owner of the company has a pay rate of 99% of proffit.

I'll admit you've got problems, but atleast if you have a screw up you don't have a chance of blowing up a drill bit, or putting a gouge in a 56 inch blade that costs a grand to have replaced.

[Keld Denar]

Ok, since everyone's ranting here...how about working for a STUPID UPPITY OWNER!!!! I work for a contractor. A contractor who does work for a VERY big client. Probably in the top 20 biggest employers in North America + Europe. The client is sooooo paralyzed by their size that it takes 3 weeks to come back to us with a decision. But, the work can't stop, so I gotta keep putting my crews to work, so they'll generally go out and start workin on something that hasn't been approved to work on yet, charging money to accounts that haven't been created yet, and using materials cannibalized from other jobs which probably had funding cut half way through. And thats for jobs that don't get re-IFCed 3 or 4 times in a couple weeks.

And then the owner has the GALL to come out and complain why we are so expensive.

Sometimes I just wish the owner would leave us the hell alone since we obviously know what they want better than they know themselves.

And don't get me started on crane and lifting proceedures. The number of people that have to sign off on those things is preposterous. And, just because they can, every layer of "management" that touches it feels like they have to change something on it, just to leave their mark. And its not even technical stuff, like changing to a different crane, or using stronger straps or rigging in a different configuration to reduce wind loading...no, its bullsheit superficial stuff like the formatting of the signoff forms because 9/10 people who are REQUIRED to sign off on it couldn't differentiate a lift plan from ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS! God save us from "management".

Basically...take everything you've ever seen from the pointy haired boss in the Dilbert comics....times 10. Maybe even 15, if I were to be honest. And thats not even 1 person we work for...but like, nearly everyone responsible for my entire area of work!