Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[afbluebelle]

I'm a snozzberry!!!!


They taste like snozzberries, you know

[Lady Snowdon]

Short BG - my DH works in inventory and purchasing for a local chain of grocery stores, and as such has lots of contact with receiving and shift supervisors.

At least once a month, he'll have a version of the following conversation:

*phone rings on a Saturday or Sunday*

Random Guy (RG): LordSnowdon, we're out of *insert random ingredient here*!
DH: Are you sure?  I know we were supposed to get a shipment in yesterday.
RG: I'm sure!  There's none in *place ingredient shouldn't be*!
DH: Have you checked *correct place for ingredient*?
RG: No...
DH: Have you checked *other possible site*?
RG: Well, no.
DH: Why don't you check those places and see if you can find any.  If you don't find any there, send me an email, and I'll order more. 
RG: So...you think we might have some *ingredient* still? 
DH:    I know we have some, since we got a shipment yesterday.
RG: Oh.  Well, I guess I can look around some more...

I have no idea why these guys cannot think to *look* for something before they call my DH to complain that they don't have any of it!  I keep telling him he needs to record himself saying "Please check all the coolers and on the dock" and just play it on repeat when they call.  9 times out of 10, he comes home the next day, and when I ask if they had to order more *whatever*, he says "No, we had it.  It was in *correct place*". 

[blue2000]

Short BG - my DH works in inventory and purchasing for a local chain of grocery stores, and as such has lots of contact with receiving and shift supervisors.

At least once a month, he'll have a version of the following conversation:

*phone rings on a Saturday or Sunday*

Random Guy (RG): LordSnowdon, we're out of *insert random ingredient here*!
DH: Are you sure?  I know we were supposed to get a shipment in yesterday.
RG: I'm sure!  There's none in *place ingredient shouldn't be*!
DH: Have you checked *correct place for ingredient*?
RG: No...
DH: Have you checked *other possible site*?
RG: Well, no.
DH: Why don't you check those places and see if you can find any.  If you don't find any there, send me an email, and I'll order more. 
RG: So...you think we might have some *ingredient* still? 
DH:    I know we have some, since we got a shipment yesterday.
RG: Oh.  Well, I guess I can look around some more...

I have no idea why these guys cannot think to *look* for something before they call my DH to complain that they don't have any of it!  I keep telling him he needs to record himself saying "Please check all the coolers and on the dock" and just play it on repeat when they call.  9 times out of 10, he comes home the next day, and when I ask if they had to order more *whatever*, he says "No, we had it.  It was in *correct place*". 

We get the opposite brain hurty conversation at our store with some of the supervisors (not supply chain management).

"We are out of X. There is none on the shelf, and none in the storage bins. We need to order some."
"The computer says we have lots! You need to go look in the bins!"
"We LOOKED in the bins. We have none. They are on sale. We need to order some."
"Well look again! We are supposed to have five thousand!"
"Buddy, if we had five thousand they would fill the whole twelve-foot bin and then some. Do you SEE twelve feet of X product?"
"...Oh... OK, we'll order some..."

Or another conversation, just as fun -
 
"We are out of X. We need some, since it is on sale this week."
"We have lots in the back!"
"Where in the back?? They aren't in the bins or in Receiving."
"They are in the back corner of Y. We had to put stuff back there to make room for the sale items."
"That IS a sale item."
"...Oh... right."

[Reika]

I have no idea why these guys cannot think to *look* for something before they call my DH to complain that they don't have any of it!  I keep telling him he needs to record himself saying "Please check all the coolers and on the dock" and just play it on repeat when they call.  9 times out of 10, he comes home the next day, and when I ask if they had to order more *whatever*, he says "No, we had it.  It was in *correct place*".

Sounds like a good chunk of the people I work with. I work for a competitor of Aflac, and in my call center I do internal helpline as well as escalation. Most of the time the reps would get their answers if they just looked at the policy benefits, or the claims system, or the system that has electronic images of documents we've gotten on policies. Then they get annoyed when we asked them if they did their research before calling us, then verbally pout when we make them actually look stuff up instead of spoon feeding them the information.

[ladyknight1]

When I am training new staff, I...

Give them a very concise manual
Show them what to do
Watch them do it
Then let them practice on their own

This is a time consuming process, but the results are worth the time. New location manager does not agree. She things I am taking too long to train her staff person and that the training is unnecessary. My boss and I beg to differ.

[Reika]

When I am training new staff, I...

Give them a very concise manual
Show them what to do
Watch them do it
Then let them practice on their own

This is a time consuming process, but the results are worth the time. New location manager does not agree. She things I am taking too long to train her staff person and that the training is unnecessary. My boss and I beg to differ.

Having been dealing with the horrible combination of lazy people who haven't had proper training, I have to support you and your boss.

[Syfygeek]

I've been having a rash of brain hurty conversations lately. The weird thing is these usually happen via text, so I know that I'm not being misheard. The first conversation was with a friend on Sunday:

Me: So, do you want to hang out later or not in the mood for company?
Him: I'm busy right now, could we do later?
Me: Um... I was asking about later. Not now.
Him: Yeah, I can't do now, so later would be better.

And then yesterday I was texting my mother about what soup she wanted to split for lunch:

Me: So there's chicken and quinoa with poblano peppers or Moraccan chicken with chickpeas. Which do you prefer?
Mom: I'll try the one with the chicken.
Me: You realize they both have chicken, right?
Mom: Oh...

And no, she wasn't making a joke, she honestly missed the fact that they both had chicken. Neither one is actually a big deal, but it does kind of bug me...

For some reason I have to know, which soup did she pick?

[Elisabunny]

Nearly every person that moves to my area (plus any local teens who haven't come across this info before) eventually has the same brain-hurty conversation.

BG: About an hour from MyTown, out in the middle of a desert, is a nuclear research facility, which is commonly referred to as The Site.  Among the many people who work there are those who are training to serve on Navy nuclear-powered submarines.  So we get some version of the following:

Local: blah, blah, blah Navy guys.
Newcomer: Navy??
Local: Yeah, *short explanation*
Newcomer: Oh, ok.  Wait-- sailors.  Stationed in the middle of a desert.  *sproiinnng*

[Reader]

Had one with my coworker Friday.  My car was in the shop from Friday morning till today.  I clean one of our accounts at night.  I was scheduled for Friday night.  So I couldn't work.  My coworker, who knew my car was in the shop, wanted me to go to the account on Saturday because I couldn't go Friday night.  I had to remind her that if my car isn't fixed by 6pm Friday I wouldn't have a car all weekend, so it was not possible. 

[mmswm]

Nearly every person that moves to my area (plus any local teens who haven't come across this info before) eventually has the same brain-hurty conversation.

BG: About an hour from MyTown, out in the middle of a desert, is a nuclear research facility, which is commonly referred to as The Site.  Among the many people who work there are those who are training to serve on Navy nuclear-powered submarines.  So we get some version of the following:

Local: blah, blah, blah Navy guys.
Newcomer: Navy??
Local: Yeah, *short explanation*
Newcomer: Oh, ok.  Wait-- sailors.  Stationed in the middle of a desert.  *sproiinnng*

I think I know where you live, as my brother-in-law was stationed at a site just like that.

[ladyknight1]

DS was off school today, so I asked him to make the bean soup for dinner. All he had to do was...

Check the beans for rocks and bad beans
Rinse the beans
Add them to a pot
Add water
Add pork bones
Let them boil, then reduce to simmer

I got home, to find it sitting there, on low, not even simmering. I don't think they ever went to a boil. I don't think we will be having bean soup tonight for dinner.

[Amava]

DS was off school today, so I asked him to make the bean soup for dinner. All he had to do was...

Check the beans for rocks and bad beans
Rinse the beans
Add them to a pot
Add water
Add pork bones
Let them boil, then reduce to simmer

I got home, to find it sitting there, on low, not even simmering. I don't think they ever went to a boil. I don't think we will be having bean soup tonight for dinner.

If it's a comfort, it's better than coming home to a pot full of black-burned beans and a kitchen full of smoke that reeks for a week. 

[WillyNilly]

Had one with my coworker Friday.  My car was in the shop from Friday morning till today.  I clean one of our accounts at night.  I was scheduled for Friday night.  So I couldn't work.  My coworker, who knew my car was in the shop, wanted me to go to the account on Saturday because I couldn't go Friday night.  I had to remind her that if my car isn't fixed by 6pm Friday I wouldn't have a car all weekend, so it was not possible.

This hurts my brain. If your car is done on Friday evening, why wouldn't you have a car for Saturday?

[jedikaiti]

Had one with my coworker Friday.  My car was in the shop from Friday morning till today.  I clean one of our accounts at night.  I was scheduled for Friday night.  So I couldn't work.  My coworker, who knew my car was in the shop, wanted me to go to the account on Saturday because I couldn't go Friday night.  I had to remind her that if my car isn't fixed by 6pm Friday I wouldn't have a car all weekend, so it was not possible.

To be fair, there are auto shops that are open on the weekend. I only wish more of them were.

[sevenday]

Depends on WHEN it's done on Friday.  If you have no transportation to the place and they're about to close when they call you to tell you the car is done, you don't really have a choice but to let it sit there until they're open again (and of the handful of car repair places near me, only one has Saturday hours).  I've run into that problem before when I had no one available to give me a ride there to pick up the car when they called me at 5:15 - closing time 5:30 - and they're half an hour across town anyway.