Absurd requests/demands

[Dazi]

A few work related ones...

I had approved scheduled leave for three weeks for my wedding and honeymoon.  My time was approved nearly a year in advance.  The week before I'm scheduled to be out, my boss blows a gasket and tells me I can only be off for a week and then I have to be back for an unscheduled inventory as no one else knows how to do what I do.  He was not impressed when I called to GM to complain about this madness, especially since the GM sided with me.  I had arranged a sub for me for the time I was gone and had already done all the schedules.  When I got back, the sub asked me how I could work for that madman.


I accepted a position with the understanding that I would be allowed off because I was already contracted to work in another state for a week long event.  The uber boss hired me knowing this ahead of time...I offered to start afterward if it was a problem, but he said it was fine, I could do my few weeks of training, fullfill my contract, go on regular employee schedule.  The day before I'm set to go, I realised I was on the schedule for the following week.  I went to talk to my immediate supervisor, to let her know it was a mistake.  She started screaming at me that no one was allowed off during this time and if I wasn't there the following day, not to come back.  I hunted down uber boss and he tries to back pedal and even offers to pay me what I would make on contract, if I would skip out on them.  When I informed him I made $6K last year for the same event, he suddenly had no problem with me going.  Funny that.

[Piratelvr1121]

Not mine, but a friend's.  She used to work in Cedar Rapids and lives about 1/2 hour from there.   As anyone who lives in Iowa, or really any other area prone to major cold, snow storms and "white outs", as well as being rural and having long stretches of highway between towns, you'll understand this. Oh and she worked a very early shift so was getting in before the sun even came up.

It snowed a few years ago and it really was unsafe for her to drive from her town to CR, so she called in and explained to the manager she couldn't make it in. He insisted the roads were fine and she needed to come in. Mind you, he lived in CR, or at least on the very edges so that he didn't have to drive on the highways. Plus he went in later, after the sun had come up. 

My friend kept working there for a while but quit a few months later when another opportunity presented itself.

[SamiHami]

My father works at a campground. He's had lots of characters come through there over the years, but this one especially popped into my mind when I read the title of this thread.

We are in the deep south. The muggy, humid, swampy, hot south. One day a female camper approached him, furious. You see, there were mosquitoes. She didn't like them and couldn't understand why the campground managers didn't just get rid of them. Dad tried to explain that in this part of the country mosquitos are everywhere at certain times of year and that the best you could do is get some repellant or Skin So Soft. He offered to show her the selection they had for sale at the campground store, but oh no. The furious woman was adamant that they just need to get rid of the mosquitoes, now! Dad tried to reason with her, but it was no use. He finally just said something along the lines of camping perhaps not being a good activity for her and walked away.

Oh, and another one from Dad! The campground gets a LOT of elderly people coming through; you know, older retired folks who finally have the time to see the country. As a result, there are often medical emergencies that occur, even including deaths. So, when the attendants on duty hear that there is an emergency, they respond very quickly.

Dad got the word one day that there was a ME at one of the campsites, so rushed over there to see what was going on and to determine if 911 needed to be called. He found a couple relaxing in their camper. When he asked about the emergency, they tried to hand him their prescriptions so that he could go get them filled for them. They were quite irate when he, of course, refused to do this. He was happy to give them directions to any of several differnt pharmacies nearby, but that wasnt good enough. They wanted HIM to go so to not interrupt their camping vacation.

They were so angry that he wouldn't do it that they packed up their stuff and left!

[CakeBeret]

When DH and I got married, we had an afternoon wedding. DH normally works Thursday through Monday, and so had to take off work Saturday (for the wedding) and the following few days for the honeymoon.

DH's boss is a miserable man who doesn't care if you're dying, if he wants you to work you WILL work, dang it all.

So DH scheduled time off months in advance. The week before the wedding, DH's boss cornered him and informed him he HAD to work Saturday, the day of our wedding. DH said no way. Boss said "But you can come in at 4am and leave at 1:30, plenty of time to get to your wedding on time." [Note that the wedding was at either 3 or 4 o'clock, DH worked 45 minutes away, and he works a dirty job and would need a thorough cleaning after work.] DH again said no, and Boss proceeded to berate him for being such a lazy, useless employee.

Unfortunately DH still works there, and his boss is still a miserable, angry lunatic.

[Kaora]

They were so angry that he wouldn't do it that they packed up their stuff and left!

Good riddance?

[Pippen]

When DH and I got married, we had an afternoon wedding. DH normally works Thursday through Monday, and so had to take off work Saturday (for the wedding) and the following few days for the honeymoon.

DH's boss is a miserable man who doesn't care if you're dying, if he wants you to work you WILL work, dang it all.

So DH scheduled time off months in advance. The week before the wedding, DH's boss cornered him and informed him he HAD to work Saturday, the day of our wedding. DH said no way. Boss said "But you can come in at 4am and leave at 1:30, plenty of time to get to your wedding on time." [Note that the wedding was at either 3 or 4 o'clock, DH worked 45 minutes away, and he works a dirty job and would need a thorough cleaning after work.] DH again said no, and Boss proceeded to berate him for being such a lazy, useless employee.

Unfortunately DH still works there, and his boss is still a miserable, angry lunatic.

Good grief. I can't imagine having to work for that awful man

When my flatmates got married the husband was still in the air force. He booked leave 9 months out and had it approved. 2 weeks before the wedding they told him there was a compulsory survival training course starting the day after their big day. Bonus for it being at the other end of the island and about a 8 hour drive away. He absolutely had to be there no if's buts or maybes. The poor guy had to leave his wedding reception early, drive to the stupid course and then spend 2 weeks living on bugs. His wife was not well pleased with this new development either.

[JenJay]

When DH was in the Marines he was stationed on a base with jets. Having grown up with posters of the Blue Angels on my walls, I was in heaven, but apparently not everyone gets up at 6am to sit on their porch while drinking coffee and watching the pilots start their day.

DH was military police and there was a woman who lived in a nearby neighborhood (which went up long after the base) who would call and complain that the jets were noisy and she wanted their flight path changed. They tried explaining to her that they had no control over such things but she was adamant. I'm not saying I approve of the solution they resorted to, but it worked.

Finally, after this had gone on for awhile, someone (it may have been DH, can't recall) said "Ma'am, I can get the path changed, but i need to know which jet is bothering you. Here's what you need to do: next time you hear the jet coming run outside and look up. There's a number on the bottom of the jet and if you call me back with that number I can call the hangar, tell them which jet is the problem, and have them rerout it." She thanked him profusely but never called back. Those suckers are kinda fast!

[Piratelvr1121]

When DH was in the Marines he was stationed on a base with jets. Having grown up with posters of the Blue Angels on my walls, I was in heaven, but apparently not everyone gets up at 6am to sit on their porch while drinking coffee and watching the pilots start their day.

DH was military police and there was a woman who lived in a nearby neighborhood (which went up long after the base) who would call and complain that the jets were noisy and she wanted their flight path changed. They tried explaining to her that they had no control over such things but she was adamant. I'm not saying I approve of the solution they resorted to, but it worked.

Finally, after this had gone on for awhile, someone (it may have been DH, can't recall) said "Ma'am, I can get the path changed, but i need to know which jet is bothering you. Here's what you need to do: next time you hear the jet coming run outside and look up. There's a number on the bottom of the jet and if you call me back with that number I can call the hangar, tell them which jet is the problem, and have them rerout it." She thanked him profusely but never called back. Those suckers are kinda fast!

LOL!!! That's good!

My IL's live near a busy highway, have a lot of air traffic going over their house, since they're not far from BWI, and they also have train tracks not even a mile from their house, so it can be noisy.  They've never expected anyone to change any of this, but MIL has joked that when they move after FIL retires, she wants a place where they won't have to deal with planes, trains and automobiles.

[norrina]

When DH was in the Marines he was stationed on a base with jets. Having grown up with posters of the Blue Angels on my walls, I was in heaven, but apparently not everyone gets up at 6am to sit on their porch while drinking coffee and watching the pilots start their day.

DH was military police and there was a woman who lived in a nearby neighborhood (which went up long after the base) who would call and complain that the jets were noisy and she wanted their flight path changed. They tried explaining to her that they had no control over such things but she was adamant. I'm not saying I approve of the solution they resorted to, but it worked.

Finally, after this had gone on for awhile, someone (it may have been DH, can't recall) said "Ma'am, I can get the path changed, but i need to know which jet is bothering you. Here's what you need to do: next time you hear the jet coming run outside and look up. There's a number on the bottom of the jet and if you call me back with that number I can call the hangar, tell them which jet is the problem, and have them rerout it." She thanked him profusely but never called back. Those suckers are kinda fast!

I was watching My Fair Wedding yesterday (My name is Norrina, and I am addicted to Reality TV Shows. I really need a FT job stat. Anyhow....), which for those unfamiliar is a show where this guy, David Tutura, comes in and remakes the bride's fairy tale wedding. The couple in this instance was getting married in an airplance hangar, and David actually sent his assistant to ask the air traffic control tower to divert traffic during the ceremony because the planes were too loud. And it was done!

[artk2002]

DH was military police and there was a woman who lived in a nearby neighborhood (which went up long after the base) who would call and complain that the jets were noisy and she wanted their flight path changed. They tried explaining to her that they had no control over such things but she was adamant. I'm not saying I approve of the solution they resorted to, but it worked.

Our townhome complex is below the northern approach to LAX. When the planes go over us they're still quite high, but if you listen for them, you can hear them on occasion. Our property manager tells us about a woman who moved in and wanted the manager to call LAX to get the flight path changed because of the noise.

BTW, you're far, far more likely to hear fire trucks and police since the street we're on is a major thoroughfare; my guess is that we hear sirens an average of 6 times a week. I *might* hear a plane once a month.

[Minmom3]

2 places I used to live:

1) a block away from a busy fire station.  I knew I was acclimated to the neighborhood when I started sleeping through the sirens, because I generally don't sleep through ANYTHING.

2) 100 yards (at most) from a busy 4 lane highway (2 each direction), that had cross traffic on it on the side opposite us.  Horrible stretch of road, many accidents over the years, state and county ALWAYS looking for funds to reroute around and build overpasses, etc..  It was loud, no doubt about it.  But it droned and you could pretty much ignore it.  We were on 2 or 3 acres, we had hawks that flew low over the cars on our way in and out the driveway,  we had goats and geese, and it was generally a nice place to live.  You always knew when there was an accident down on the road, even if it was a few miles away, because you'd realize that road noise was no longer a drone, it was idling, RIGHT THERE....  The best accidents (from the lookie loo perspective) were the ones that happened right down on the road.  There was a delivery truck (15 ft long?) that tried to turn left off the highway and onto the side road and it fell over.  Didn't get hit, just over balanced and went flop on the road.  That was Very Loud and shook the house.

3) When we first got married, we lived right over the sound barrier from a very busy freeway (3 or 4 lanes each direction, MAJOR artery).  It was endless.  Late one night, I heard an accident out on the freeway - screeching brakes, the metallic crumple of the actual collision, and then some guy got out of a car and starting screaming "O M G over and over again".  I called 911 and reported an accident and the dispatcher got angry with me when I couldn't tell him which side of the freeway it was on because I couldn't see it.  "Well, HOW do you know there's an accident then?"  It was nuts, and I hung up really not knowing if he believed me and planned to do anything about it, because at the very least, they had glass to get off the roadway...

The thing is, when you move next to/on top of/within a certain distance from a noise hazard, YOU KNOW IT GOING IN.  You have no call to fuss when you bought or rented knowing full well that the loud thing exists, it's ridiculous to pitch a fit after.

[siamesecat2965]

I used to live very close to both a small municipal airport, which handles a lot of corporate flights, as well as other minor bigwigs's flights.  I was also on the flight path For the local regional trauma center, where helicopters came and went on a regular basis, rattling my windows in the process (old house, crappy windows).  Right after 9/11, when all flights were halted, it was eerily quiet – actually kind of scary!

[2littlemonkeys]

I have two work ones, both from the same place.

1) We were granted 2 weeks of vacation per year.  However, lots of luck actually taking them.  I can't count how many times I'd have a day off scheduled only to be told it wasn't possible and that I'd have to reschedule.  One year, I actually, miraculously got a whole week off.  The very first day, I got a call on my cell.  It was my boss and he was insisting I come in because his pet employee really messed something up and "I was the only one who could fix it." (Whatever.  His pet just didn't want to do it because it was grunt work and Pet didn't DO grunt work.)  Since I was a state away, I had to tell him this wasn't possible.  He was very angry that I wasn't willing to jump into my car and drive hundreds of miles back so I could collate mailers correctly.  I got stink eye for quite some time after that.  And heaven help me, I actually considered it.  My mom talked me down.

2) After too many time of dealing with scenarios such as the above, I finally decided to find a different job.  I finally landed one and gave notice. On my last day, my old boss told me that I'd need to make myself available to help out until they could find a replacement.  He wasn't very happy when I told him that I'd be at work and wouldn't be able to come in.   

[Sirius]

One of the smarter things a town where I used to live did was institute a "no build" zone around the flight line of the local Air Force base.  Hey, I lived 25 miles from the base, but the flight plan of most of the really large planes that landed at that base went directly over my home, noise included.  So moving farther away was no guarantee that there'd be no plane noise. 

Another issue in that town:  While I could sympathize (sort of) with the woman who got highly upset when the hot air balloons went over her house while she was sunbathing in the nude, it's not that hot air balloons can really govern where they drift (and if this is wrong, feel free to correct me).  Plus, it wasn't exactly a secret that there were frequently hot air balloons in that area.  In fact, that's one of the few things I miss about living there - the frequent hot air balloons. 

[Wulfie]

Sometimes it is not an absurd request for plane noise/problems.

An acquaintance of ours got the US Air Force to correct some issues with their air traffic. Everyone in his neighborhood had been complaining about low flying aircraft buzzing houses in their neighborhood. They were NOT at the end of the runway, nor were they in an area where they should expect low flying aircraft. The Air Force denied that they were doing it and blew them off when they called with the “that’s what you get for living near a base” excuse.

Acquaintance called them up one day and asked for the base commander. He proceeded to inform him that the correct tire air pressure of a (type of cargo plane) was ( I forget the number). The base commander, or someone pretending to be him, was confused and asked how he knew this and why was he calling.  Our acquaintance told him that he thought he would like to know as he had just read the numbers off the tire of the plane that nearly hit his house. 

Planes stopped buzzing the neighborhood.