Workplace Shenanigans (i.e. let's complain about work)

Started by fcgamer, May 15, 2015, 01:01:43 am

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fcgamer

I work for a private school and have been there for over three years.  I like my colleagues, I like the students, and for the most part, I like the job.  By now I am tired of the location, and I long to head downtown, moving away from the rural area.  But I also love the (free) apartment that my job provides me, as it is quite large.  Besides, by now I have started acquiring private tutor jobs and stuff like that just by my reputation, and I think this reputation is only going to help me for my long-term goals.  And thus I remain (for now, anyway).

The one large complaint I have is with the temperature regulation inside the school.  The owner sits inside a windowless office, which is shielded from the sun.  Therefore during the hot summers, he doesn't have to put up with the heat.  He even has the nerve to say that "the school is cool inside" and for that reason he doesn't want to turn on the central air conditioner, well that is the justification of his, but the real reason is because he is just too cheap and doesn't want to pay the extra cost.

Of course an issue like that does not make me happy, but the real kicker is this.  None of the teachers, parents, or students ever have complaints about me, I am one of the favorites in the place.  Yet a few weeks ago I was reprimanded by the owner (indirectly, he sent the lower manager to tell me) for wearing shorts to work!  Now, normally you might say "Okay, you need to dress less casual", but I see other colleagues wearing t-shirts and casual wear.  Other (male) colleagues in the past had also worn shorts during the hot months (see the air conditioning situation above).  And the thing which really pisses me off is my female colleagues all wear shorts, some even wearing really short (skanky) shorts.  I was told that "some parents might not be happy if their male teacher was wearing shorts", and I thought, "Oh, of course, so as always, it is okay for a woman teacher to wear short shorts just because the men like to stare at her legs and would never complain about it!"

I told my manager that maybe I will just buy a kilt and wear it to work. 

The whole situation makes me feel bitter though, and the funniest part is that imo, if the worst thing I have done is wore shorts to a non-air conditioned building during hot weather, maybe it is better just to shut up and not say anything...especially when the school has a track record of being unable to keep foreign teachers hired after a few months, since all of the foreigners would rather work downtown (who wouldn't?). 

Anyway, anyone else have anything they'd like to bitch about, regarding their jobs?   
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zmaster18

My last job was a total effing bummer, I worked with such bullies in the workplace. I find it crazy how emotional intelligence isn't important in the workplace nowadays. I was a cashier supervisor at a drugstore/convenience store chain in Canada, Shoppers Drug Mart. My superiors were this old bitch of a lady (who acts and sounds like Judge Judy) and her fucking assholish daughter. The old hag was extremely unpleasant to work with and she often embarrassed me in front of customers. She even starts arguments with customers, some of which are regular customers who come daily. She has even grabbed my wrists and pushed me around. Her daughter is also rude, but slightly better. I have never, ever, EVER been treated so poorly.

I quit. I quit working for other people, all my other jobs since I moved to Toronto I got treated like shit. Starbucks and Five Guys Burgers and Fries were like sweatshops. I quit working for minimum wage too.

Now I work from home and make $500+ a week for 10-15 hours of work. I like being my own boss and I'm proud of what I do. I'm currently running a little retro game shop that is expanding every few weeks. I would love to get it to the size where I can make $50k a year, while pursuing video game development for my next career. My family always told me getting a job in video games was near-impossible. I already have one job as a seller, and one day I'd like to be a maker. 

I'm also only 20 btw.

mrtselevel

Well I dont really have anything too bad to complain about my current job, but if I had to put down something, people like putting Inspirational quotes on pieces of paper and sticking them all over the office walls. They arent motivating to me and just seems like clutter to be honest.  As for the two people that have already shared I feel for you both

fcgamer- That sounds like a super lame situation. I bet you there will come a day when they will actually want to turn on that air conditioner and it wont work or something to that effect.  I really never thought it was fair either that its okay for females at work to wear skirts or shorts while they wont let guys wear shorts.  If I have to deal with being distracted by some legs at the workplace other people should have to deal with my distracting legs as well  ;)  I once worked in an office where it was only okay for a male employee to wear shorts if they were in the shipping department which was defended by how much moving around they had to do.  BLEH.  However, I say all these things but those situations were in an AC'ed building so again I cant possible imagine the uncomfortable temps you have to deal with esp if were talking about asia when its hot and humid.  3 years is a decent amount of time to be in a spot, but I get the sense you are aware you need to move on at some point, so I'm sure you'll know when

zmaster18-  Those are some pretty toxic work environments you described there, good for you on getting out of them and being able to make some money doing your own thing.  Making money and being proud of what you do isn't always an easy situation for people to find.  So again kudos to you.  Nice to hear you are pursuing what you want despite what your family thinks.  Are you planning on learning on your own or going to some school to do video game development?

zmaster18

Quote from: mrtselevel on May 16, 2015, 02:07:54 am
zmaster18-  Those are some pretty toxic work environments you described there, good for you on getting out of them and being able to make some money doing your own thing.  Making money and being proud of what you do isn't always an easy situation for people to find.  So again kudos to you.  Nice to hear you are pursuing what you want despite what your family thinks.  Are you planning on learning on your own or going to some school to do video game development?

I'm planning on learning my own, for free, with the world's most powerful tool - the internet. Maybe I could do online college, but I don't know any schools that teach retro-style game development. I would like to learn NES/FC 6502 assembly language, which can be found on some websites. Eventually when I'm confident enough I can release games on the console marketplaces, like the Nintendo eShop. I would love to be a one-man indie studio, and possibly collaborate with others in the future. Many people my age who go to school for game development want jobs at Ubisoft or whatever. I'd rather not do that, as I'm not really a fan of modern-gaming. I'd like to make authentic retro games with modern design, similar to the latest hit Shovel Knight.

mrtselevel

Quote from: zmaster18 on May 16, 2015, 06:24:41 pm
I'm planning on learning my own, for free, with the world's most powerful tool - the internet. Maybe I could do online college, but I don't know any schools that teach retro-style game development. I would like to learn NES/FC 6502 assembly language, which can be found on some websites. Eventually when I'm confident enough I can release games on the console marketplaces, like the Nintendo eShop. I would love to be a one-man indie studio, and possibly collaborate with others in the future. Many people my age who go to school for game development want jobs at Ubisoft or whatever. I'd rather not do that, as I'm not really a fan of modern-gaming. I'd like to make authentic retro games with modern design, similar to the latest hit Shovel Knight.


Again nice that you have an idea/goal of what you want to do.  I was curious about your thoughts because I was thinking you could possibly go a route where you dont need to go to college.  I say this as someone with a Bachelors degree, its possible to get in some fields you want with out a conventional way of education.  From my experience, college was a big networking situation, I didnt get that much out of the education part, but who I ended up being friends with helped with finding work

zmaster18

I honestly think that building a great portfolio of work is better than just having a degree. I actually dropped out of college twice because I really didn't like where it was going. Right after high school i went to Carleton University/Algonquin College in Ottawa for a degree in Interactive Multimedia. I dropped it after one year to move to Toronto with my girlfriend and attended Seneca College at York University for a degree in Software Development. I also didn't like what I was doing at that college an dropped out after a year. My dad agrees that college isn't the best investment nowadays, as some graduates still can't find jobs. Or even worse, many of the jobs are outsourced to places like India where they will do work for much cheaper. Creative-type jobs are promising if you can independently earn money.  Even if I'm not successful, I always have a retro-game shop business to fall back on.