“Look, pal — I’m done taking advice from you. I thought you could show me the light, but I guess I was just a dim bulb. It turns out that just because you can plug your tail into a wall socket, that doesn’t mean that anybody else can.”
I was wondering what that burning smell was, Sharon H.
I love lamp.
I want lamp.
I cannot find words. This cannot be a coincidence.
I became totally upset at work today, because a new co-worker has decided to lecture me with all her work experience of 6 months how to do the job I have been doing for 15 years. She spread her words of wisdom like ” at a customer service you need to focus on the customers” Pff I wish she had told this to me 15 years ago (when she was about 5), it has never occurred to me.
When one of the lights went off, I was seriously contemplating to ask her what to do – maybe she would have some expert opinion on how to replace the light bulb correctly, as she obviously has the inclination to bring some light to the dark. Moreover I don’t think I have done it any more than 100 times in my adult life, so I am far from being an expert on light bulbs. Thank you for bearing with me, fellow Cutetropolitans.
Everyone needs to vent sometimes. Better than blowing your top at your co-worker.
OMG that is so difficult! People like that are too clueless to know how really stupid they sound. Arghh. Its almost like they are defective in some way… definitely lacking basic manners and in affording respect for others.
Patience will reward you, EMS. Just give her a sweet indulgent smile when she
does this again, and she will. She will pull this stunt at the wrong time, with the
wrong person ( not you) and she will at least look like a jerk and at worst be
sacked. It’s bound to happen sooner or later and you can innocently watch
from the sidelines with the same s#%t-eating smile.
I can’t helieve there is a lamp resembling the collar of shame, poor mocked doggie.
Emsthemonster, I can tell you just love it (lol) when a younger employee shares their ideas and wisdom, about a position you have been doing for awhile. I’ve experienced that a few times and it’s annoying. One of them I corrected and we then got along fine, the other one, I let her babble and proceeded to do things the way I had been taught. I wasn’t against learning a better or easier way to do something, it’s more about the lack of respect, the way one goes about it. I presume this is what you encountered.
Yes, you are absolutely right about what annoyed me. But she crowned the whole lecture by bullying my dearest co-worker. This was when I lost my patience and sent her to where the sun won’t shine. My dearest co-worker is the nicest guy I ever came across. He has endless patience and he tends to avoid conflicts and also very good at the job we do. I am truly astonished how some of our customers and co-workers quickly realize his vulnerability and go for his throat as soon as I leave the room. Sometimes I am so disappointed with people. Of course it is never the competent ones who bully him.
Sorry about both experiences today, Ems.
Thanks, DebG! <3
Geez, I wish I had been a fly on the wall. I was a buyer for many years
for a very big electronics company and found myself sometimes in your
situation, EMS. Because I was not a screamer and was more like your co-
worker, using softer techniques to get what was necessary, I was perceived
as weak by some at the start of our relationship. They found out how
wrong they were when trying to put one on over me. Then, I used to scream
profanities at the windshield on the drive home to vent. Customer service
can be a thankless job, as was mine. You have my sympathy. Go ahead
and scream. There are indeed some nasty people out there. Cutetropolis
is wonderful group therapy.
Aw man! Sorry for your day Ems. I too have suddenly reached the age where I don’t know a thing and am surrounded by three co-workers trying to shout over each other in a massive tornado of one-upmanship. They have the nerve to wonder why I won’t eat lunch with them.
Do you know this book?: Dealing with People you Can’t Stand? https://www.amazon.com/Dealing-People-Stand-Revised-Expanded/dp/0071785728
This is not a joke, it is the best book I ever bought. It’s my workplace bible when I can’t figure out how to work productively with coworkers. Even the ones I like very much.
Thank you for the book recommendation, Tara. I think I will need to read it 🙂
It’s good, EMS. Read it.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
This little cone of shame, is shining like a flame
When there’s a bulb to screw, I’m gonna call on you
‘Cause you’re in the dark, you bark and bark and bark
But this little light of mine, lights my life life just fine.
Bravo! ??
Brilliant! I think we have a Cutetropolis Poet Laureate here.
I wrote that little poem to cheer you EMS! Keep you little light shining when everyone around you is in the dark.
Actually it worked, I was smiling while reading it. I would make it part of my “rainy days” collection if you don’t mind.
Oh, please do. I’m glad it brought a smile.
Great bunch of comments. Ems – you’ve described why I was a freelancer – and I realize it’s not an option for everyone. Of course, I never made any money – I’m an illustrator! But I was happy to do what I was doing. Hopefully your young associate will become less clueless over time.
Murray! I was an illustrator too! It was great to work at home, often not changing out of my pjs until the afternoon. But still, I had some idiot editors and art directors that left me with severe, nearly permanent, cases of eye roll. I was once assigned to draw a skyscraper to fit into a horizontal space… yeah, that’ll work.
One of the little factoids my company used to like to share with visitors to the building I work in is that you can lay the Empire State Building down in the length of it (not sure if that includes the antenna or not). That is what I pictured at the mention of a horizontal skyscraper.
Oh, man, yes, we could exchange war stories. I once had to do a drawing about 1 1/2″ square, of voters in line to go into a voting booth, different ethnicities glasses-wearing, one wheelchair bound, someone leaving the booth and a voting poster on the wall. It had to be done to size because all of the over 100 illustrations (children’s educational materials) couldn’t be different sized for production reasons. And then there was the censorship – no witches, e.g. I had a friend who did similar work and he wasn’t allowed to put an udder on a cow. (Everything went through the Texas Board of Education? speaking of eye roll.
OMG! I had the same situation with the cow’s udders! No women wearing pink, and other odd and seemingly capricious rules concerning stereotypes. I once got into a debate with an editor about the difference between nationality and ethnicity. And yes, these were text books for children. Makes you worry about our whole society.
Murray, this was quite a thought provoking comment.
I spent 2 years as self-employed. I don’t have the skills to be an illustrator, but I did some translations, private tuition (chemistry calculations and English) and I also held an English course for beginners.
While I really enjoyed not having to get up at dawn and having some time for myself every now and then, private tuition gave me a glimpse of how families live: parents’ inability to cope with their kids’ teenage years. Some of the children were silently screaming for help, for their parents’ attention, for any love they could get. These kids got everything that money could buy and the list ended there. They were clinging to me, called me in the evenings to tell me about their secret crush, being bullied/bullies at school etc. And where were the parents? At the gym, cosmetician’s or checked out new cars and so on.
So I decided to give up “my freedom” and swap the emotional problems of teenagers’ with regular adult stupidity (= customer service) It was really depressive to see the very prevalence of child neglect in families and it was too much for a twenty-something idealist monster. My adult life was also starting (bank loan, apartment with future husband etc) so I needed a regular job. I did not take a bad decision, English can be learnt alone as I had done it at the age of 16, while stupidity does not seem to have diminishing returns, it always comes back at full force as we experience it daily at the customer service, so my work is going to be needed 🙂
Where I work is not a real customer service though, I don’t work with people from the street (those who do that are true heroes) but with people wrongly considered to be professionals. There are even really nice ones among them, just not many.
I have to admit that I never wanted children. I would often say “You never hear of someone longing for a teenager” – it’s a baby they always want. And they are lovely little creatures and they are cute for a very good and sound evolutionary reason. But I always had an inkling that I couldn’t cope with parenthood and never had that drive. I don’t think I would’ve been a parent like those you describe but I would’ve used myself up trying to be good and just end up being miserable. I struggle to keep myself together!?
Ditto.