Deadwood at work

[Corneo]

Deadwood at work

So given the state of the economy and the constant news of companies doing layoffs, you would think people would work harder to demonstrate how important they are to their employers. That would be a logical train of though...

Not at my work. I have 3 deadwood coworkers in my group. Some how my boss "lend" me out to do work for this one guy who is designated as a lead engineer. Mr. Lead Engineer put forth a firm deadline for me. For the past 3 weeks, I've been slaving away doing his work, while clocking in 10 plus hours a day. Last week I stopped by his cube to report progress and caught him checking his brackets on March Madness. WTF. I always knew this guy was deadwood, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Here is a guy who makes close to 100k a year, delegates all the work down to me. Here I am working my *** off for less half of his pay.

Anyone else have deadwood in their team? Or worst, work for deadwood?

 

[PFSS]

Re: Deadwood at work

Anyone else have deadwood in their team? Or worst, work for deadwood?

My companies continued involvement in the project I am working on, hence my job, is dependent on two specific people upping their game - neither of them has a vested interest in keeping it going as they are both planning on retiring.

Which annoys me as I like my current job - I basically get paid to spend 10 hours a day trolling the other companies working on my project.

 

[BobCox2]

Re: Deadwood at work

Well with a series of cut's = 20% of the workforce right before the new year we are running pretty lean and mean at my firm, some of the long term upper managements value is hard to guess at from my viewpoint but other than that I don't see it at my work.

I do see it in Retail sales though, the lack of not only service but basic competence to do a simple job I encounter is scary, I had a basket of items at home depot the other day for example, a Hose in the main basket, and a few cans of spray paint and cleaning items in the kiddy ride part of the basket with a pool skimmer on top, I get in line it's not a big one (3 people) and yet by the time I get to the front the kid doing checkout is on the phone a yelling for someone to come help him, while still on the phone he reaches over with the scanner and gets the hose and the skimmer on top of the kiddy basket and hits total not charging me for the other items because he's to lazy, or stupid to bother to pick it up and see them.

 

[Corneo]

Re: Deadwood at work

I do see it in Retail sales though, the lack of not only service but basic competence to do a simple job I encounter is scary, I had a basket of items at home depot the other day for example, a Hose in the main basket, and a few cans of spray paint and cleaning items in the kiddy ride part of the basket with a pool skimmer on top, I get in line it's not a big one (3 people) and yet by the time I get to the front the kid doing checkout is on the phone a yelling for someone to come help him, while still on the phone he reaches over with the scanner and gets the hose and the skimmer on top of the kiddy basket and hits total not charging me for the other items because he's to lazy, or stupid to bother to pick it up and see them.

I see that too, I don't think its limited to retail. It can be any job that's just a stepping stone to their "real" job. McDs, Walmart, Shoe store, etc...

 

[Dondrei]

Re: Deadwood at work

Just because you caught someone checking out a recreational site for a few minutes doesn't mean they're dead wood. Everybody does that.

 

[stillman]

Re: Deadwood at work

I am a patient attendant, or "sitter" as the nurses like to call it, and what I do is I get sent to hospitals to sit and watch a patient who may be confused, at risk of falling, wanting to escape, etc. I do night shifts, so most of the time the patient sleeps while I sit in a chair and do absolutely nothing for 12 hours. I write stories and read. Bringing a portable DVD player or laptop is encouraged. Things are pretty swell for me even though it's not much money. My job is never going to go away. It's good to have a job where people will get broken bones if you aren't there anymore.

Sometimes a few nurses seem like 'deadwood', but good thing though, because I'd get more difficult patients if the nurses always checked up on the easy ones.

 

[Johnny]

Re: Deadwood at work

Damn. You office zombies sure are petty ****ers.

Reminds me of that thread Smeg made about what to do when someone at the office is a potty mouth. I couldn't believe that ****. I know you office zombies spend all day backstabbing each other in hope of getting to a position with the same pay but more work just so you can be closer to the bosses colon. Then you spend every break talking about each other like it's days of our lives "She's trying to destroy me!!" But atleast try to have a good time.

 

[stillman]

Re: Deadwood at work

Yeah, other people with my job come up with silly things to complain about. I mean, we're getting paid to do nothing, or whatever we want while sitting there. People will always find things to complain about.

 

[Dondrei]

Re: Deadwood at work

Well, you shouldn't take Smeg as representative of any group. Not even dweeby pretend cowboy Freemasons with sad personal lives.

 

[Telzen]

Re: Deadwood at work

I am a patient attendant, or "sitter" as the nurses like to call it, and what I do is I get sent to hospitals to sit and watch a patient who may be confused, at risk of falling, wanting to escape, etc. I do night shifts, so most of the time the patient sleeps while I sit in a chair and do absolutely nothing for 12 hours. I write stories and read. Bringing a portable DVD player or laptop is encouraged. Things are pretty swell for me even though it's not much money. My job is never going to go away. It's good to have a job where people will get broken bones if you aren't there anymore.

Sometimes a few nurses seem like 'deadwood', but good thing though, because I'd get more difficult patients if the nurses always checked up on the easy ones.

Ok so what do I have to do to get this job? If you don't mind telling, how much do you make?

 

[Stoutwood]

Re: Deadwood at work

Damn. You office zombies sure are petty ****ers.

Reminds me of that thread Smeg made about what to do when someone at the office is a potty mouth. I couldn't believe that ****. I know you office zombies spend all day backstabbing each other in hope of getting to a position with the same pay but more work just so you can be closer to the bosses colon. Then you spend every break talking about each other like it's days of our lives "She's trying to destroy me!!" But atleast try to have a good time.

Johnny said it. Although thinking everyone but yourself is lazy is hardly limited to offices. Seems to be about as common as thinking everyone but yourself is a terrible driver.

 

[Garbad_the_Weak]

Re: Deadwood at work

I bet another one is what percent of forum posters think they are above average intelligence. I bet its at least 75%.

 

[stillman]

Re: Deadwood at work

I'd rather not get into intelegence. Many posters can't make the effort to type "you" so they go with "u". Many are also afraid to read more than one paragraph. Then, you got people posting definitions from wikipedia for words we all know anyway; they're just trying to make someone else look foolish. Then, you have people who take metaphores literally or they don't understand when a hyperbole is being used and they take that literally too.

Then there's social intelegence, and other things forum posters likely suck hard at. Then there's this IQ test fake yard stick which anyone can master if they put some effort into studdying for it.

 

[Garbad_the_Weak]

Re: Deadwood at work

intelegence
metaphores
intelegence (lol thats twice)
studdying

I think you are one of the 75%.

 

[stillman]

Re: Deadwood at work

I beleive I spelled intelegence right. I'm not sure what you're after me for...I clearly upheld the notion that we can't compare one person's smarts against another's. A mechanic is going to suck at some things, but he's going to beat us at spatial skill tasks, for example. Who's to say which skills make us more intelegent?

 

[Yaboosh]

Re: Deadwood at work

I bet another one is what percent of forum posters think they are above average intelligence. I bet its at least 75%.

I really hope you realize that it is entirely possible that 75% of the forum members ARE above average intelligence.

 

[KillerAim]

Re: Deadwood at work

Yaboosh:

I really hope you realize that it is entirely possible that 75% of the forum members ARE above average intelligence.

That could be true, but I'm sure the fact that I'm a poster raises the mean by at least 20 points . :whistling:

 

[AeroJonesy]

Re: Deadwood at work

Last week I stopped by his cube to report progress and caught him checking his brackets on March Madness. WTF. I always knew this guy was deadwood, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Here is a guy who makes close to 100k a year, delegates all the work down to me. Here I am working my *** off for less half of his pay.

Everyone checks their brackets during March Madness.

Do you know how much work this guy does on the weekends? How many hours a week he's in the office?

Besides, pay doesn't just reflect the amount of work you do, it also reflects the amount of responsibility you bear. (Unless you're a CEO, but that's a story for a different day.)

 

[Corneo]

Re: Deadwood at work

Everyone checks their brackets during March Madness.

Do you know how much work this guy does on the weekends? How many hours a week he's in the office?

Besides, pay doesn't just reflect the amount of work you do, it also reflects the amount of responsibility you bear. (Unless you're a CEO, but that's a story for a different day.)

I highly doubt he is doing any work during the weekends simply because we work in a team environment, so if everyone else is not working on the weekends, its unlikely you can get anything done on your own on the weekend. I definitely put in more hours a week then him, and I don't check brackets.

Yes, this person bears the responsibility to get this project done. However, the project can only be done if someone physically does it. Sitting in your cube while making powerpoint presentations and checking brackets will not get the project done. However, delegating it to someone lower to you evidently does.

In any case, I don't forsee myself in this situation much longer. I am taking off in a few months to further my education...

 

[Glurin]

Re: Deadwood at work

Oh come on. Who can blame the poor guy for taking a breather to check his brackets? I mean, running a project is a lot of work. There's the motivational speeches, the meetings, the delegation, the meetings about next week's meetings, listening to complaints, the meetings about last week's meeting to discuss this week's meeting, the useless memos he has to send out, the meeting about scheduling the meeting to discuss if they have to many meetings......