People piss me off

Ok I'm a receptionist for a county agency that mostly has unemployment services. I don't have a heck of a lot to do cause we're a small office most people end up going to the huge office down town with 10 times the resources we have. I have permission from my boss to have a book at my desk to read during the slow times. We share the offices with a much busier agency. I see in my 4 hrs a day at the front desk maybe 5 people I have to help. So most of the time I sit at my desk with my coffee and my book. At least once a day a random client for the other agency decides to stop at my desk out of the blue and make some sort of snide comment about my "Not Working". What exactly gives people the right to comment on my job performance when they have no idea what my job even is? It's rude and annoying and I would never do that to anyone. I really have to resist saying something rude back to them as I am employed and 90% of the people who pass through both agencies are not. Did people just stop having any sort of manners?

Get a cattle prog and punch em up whenever asked a stupid question or they are rude... that should do it!

There are days I really wish I could do that

Yes.

A long, long time ago.

Some good replies

"Oh sorry, this is the latest book by Miss Manners and I just wanted to brush up on my etiquette. Would you like to borrow it when I am done?"

"Oh no, I don't want to work too hard here, because it might make our clients feel bad about their unemployment."

"I'm sorry, you must have confused me with someone that might find that amusing."

You have to look at it from the other side too...you're a county employee being payed with tax dollars to read a book....With everyone so tax happy these days it might piss some people off.

Well if its unemployed people complining i can maybe understand

Here they dont have a job and they see someone being paid to read a book.

But realistically if there is nothign else to do a simple , "were not very busy right now" should be enough I would hope to silence detractors.

Anyone in the office should be able to tell how busy things were or werent simply by the number of people there at the given time.

and thats her fault how? So they are unemployed it gives them a license to say whatever they want to someone just because they don't have what she has too?

True its a county job that she is getting paid tax dollars, but if these people are unemployed aren't they getting those same tax dollars with an unemployment check?

And where I live, if you are a county employee you get to pay piggyback tax. That means you get to pay more taxes than someone who isn't.

no no , Its not her fault at all , I didnt mean that.

I meant I understand why they are a bit disgruntled. Ive been unemployed.

And what I meant was the fact that they would like a job and cant get one. Has nothing to do with tax dollars. That was someoen elses post. They see someoen who has a job reading a book. And they might have had to work extremely hard and got fired anyway.

No they shouldnt try make her feel bad , as I said later in the post - Im just able to see a motivation for comments.

I actually got this job going through the appropriate channels of the agency I now work for so it's not like it would be impossible for someone coming in to get the same kind of job. I personally just think it's pretty screwed up to belittle someone just because they happen to be paid by taxes. I pay taxes like everyone else. I don't go into places like the DMV and pick on their employees. So I don't see why people feel it's ok to do it to me.

Whatever their reasons, it is just plain rude of them to make snide remarks like that. I can't stress this enough, but people seem to have no common courtesy, no manners anymore, no matter where you go. No *please*, or *thank yous*, greetings are a thing of the past, tact is just MIA and so on and so forth... I feel like an anachronic fossil.

Blayze these replies are BRILLIANT! I've worked in customer service for 15+yrs and have heard some pretty snide remarks from all kinds of people. Customers, colleagues, management etc. I always remind myself that you just never know whats happened to someone that day before they end up in front of ya making those remarks. Theres no excuse for that kind of behavior dont get me wrong here, but some people just dont think before they speak sometimes. Dont take it personally because you are under direction from your supervisor to do what youre doing. Obviously that person didnt have enough to do that day but come and bug ya so offer them a book to read next time or tell em if it bothers them that much go talk to your supervisor lol. that really pisses em off hehe.

Better then being Pissed on, unless you like that.



There is nothing else you can do that would work related other then read? If I was a Tax payer in your State I would be pissed to see you sitting at your desk reading a book when I am paying you. Yes me, my Tax money!



And you are not ashamed of this?



They are your boss. If you are working for a government agency you are a government employ there for paid by tax money. There for they are paying you to sit and read a book. That is a problem. If your office is so small then maybe it’s time to close your office and fire you or more you to the big one.



I agree manners is a problem today, but you are just as rude sitting there reading your book on there dime. The ones that unemployed also feel give me your job at least I will work for it. Remember Unemployment pay you really nothing. I was on it for a year and was living on $250 less then what I was when working and I was maked out. Maybe you should HIDE what you are doing so it does not look bad.

I am paid barely more than minimum wage to be a substitute for an answering machine, I have other duties true but they take maybe an hour of my 4 hr shift. My supervisor is the only boss I have to answer to the general public is in no way my boss. that's like saying you can walk into an elementary school and demand they teach creation simply cause you pay taxes. I am not ashamed of the fact I do my job well enough that there are protions of the day I don't have work. I have no idea why my office has not been closed. I think they must have an office for every area of the city and mine is out in the burbs therefore not the busiest, and it is not their dime, because if I haven't said it enough these are UNEMPLOYED people therefore they are getting paid by my taxes to sit on their ass without even being in an office.

Maeve - rudeness is never the right thing to do. That said, people pay taxes and they think that the people they pay with these taxes should be busy every second from the moment they walk in the door way. That this is not a realistic expectation dosen't matter to them, particularly when they are unemployed.

One of the things that you could do to help give yourself some peace of mind and keep the snide remarks down is to get (or make with word or photoshop) a book cover. Give it a title appropriate to the job that you are doing (something like "Department Policies for PoDunk County Placement" and then put the cover on whatever book you are reading. Even if you are reading a paper back - if you have a cover on it saying something that pertains to your job, they would have to be pretty rude to call you out on it.

.

And this justifies the waste of Tax payers money?



So you are saying in 4 hr you only work 1 hr? And get paid to read your book 75% of your working time? You feel this is ok? Work ethics people!


Your Boss has a Boss and you have to answer to them. Your Bosses Boss has a Boss and you have to answer to them. And so on till you get the big boss, the tax payer. You are mixing two different things there. A Teacher has to teach, if I walked in and seen them just sitting there reading a book all day to them self I would be pissed and go to the board and have the Teacher fired.


And you can’t find more work to do? You can’t find work so that the money you earn is justified?



Man you have no idea what you are talking about. Two Cases here for you.

Me: Took the optional Payment of Tax upfront on each Unemployment Check (when I was on unemployment), I did not owe the following year.
Best Friend: Tool the option not to Pay tax upfront on each Unemployment Check, owed on his Taxes the following year.

And if you don’t buy that, I work and pay my Tax to the Federal Government that also Pays Unemployment. I want to know why you are not working for the money that is given to you from my Paycheck.

People want to always know why I think Big Government is so bad. Well Simple, 75% over head or YOU!

e-books...I love them.
I can read at my desk, act like i'm clicking or typing, and me looks soooo productive...

I work in a university, doing a ton of boring jobs, mainly at my pc.

I tend to be here all day (as we all know) but I still manage to get all my work done AND have time to surf the net.

Its not about being lazy, or not working, its about spending your time efficiently.

Yes. It's about being GOOD at being lazy.

Shut up and come feed me ice cream.

Deal. That sounds way better than working

What always amazes me is that many people feel that they have the right to pass value judgements on how you are living your life. Generally, these are the same individuals who would launch into orbit if you passed judgement on them.

I have had the kind of job where you are busy for 4 hours, and you sit around reading for 4 hours. Someone needs to be there in case something comes up. Those jobs typically suck and have not future, but at the time I was glad to have them.

The kicker is that people who like to do this kind of stunt prefer that you be in a position where you can't tell them off. Since you are at work, you can't really tell them to bite off.

All you can do with the self-rightous is ignore them and smile sweetly...it makes them crazy.

Oh yeah, she is the corruption of the whole federal system because of her minimum-wage job. Please. Save the soapbox for a more worthy target.

You are comparing apples to orange with the teaching aspect to what she does. And don't get me started on the downtime teachers get. Maybe thats a cause you should take up.

Last time I looked, I paid an unemployment tax myself. I guess so if I get unemployed I am paying myself as well. If I don't, then it goes into the pot. You have the same crapshoot with Social Security. I'm paying but I have no idea if I will ever get to see that money since it hovers on bankruptcy all the time. Oh yeah there are no scammers in that system either, right?

Are you saying that you would make some off-hand comment to her about it as well? And because you think she has no "work-ethic" she should quit this job because its not giving her enough to do? Are you judging her "work ethic" based solely on this job?

I've seen plenty of people, in Government positions and not, that don't give a full 8 hours of work. Please don't even try to make me believe that you have NO downtime on your job.

You are jumping down her throat because you think she is "robbing" the system working for "the man". Give me a break. There are bigger fish to fry.

No she and all the people like her are part of it. She came on here looking for sympathy, every one here has given it to her. No one has looked at her and said hay you are in the worng even thought we would all be pissed if we were standing in line for a hour and look over and see her reading a book. There are things she could be doing. And my Federal, State, and local Reps all probably know me by name by now. I write them all about once a month, even GWB.


First she brang up Teachers not me. All the Teachers I know work well in to the night every night to check homework and Test. Yes they are off right now and that does bother me but that is part of there Job description so there for most of my problem is mutt and has nothing to do with them. Unlike her who’s job description is not to sit and read a book.


You are right but that is not the topic at hand here. The topic here is how people are rude to her because she is not working as she gets paid.


No, I would make a official complaint. If that didn’t fix things I would call ABC, NBC, or CBS and have they do a story on it. They have done that many times here in Chicago. They would walk in and ask her on film why she feels she is ok to sit and read as she is paid by the government and the tax payers. Her and her boss would go down in that.


One I take no Brakes other then my Lunch so I get my 30 min here and there. I also have to regenerate and my computer is working my job is the computer. So yes I do have down time. I AM NOT A FEDERAL WORKER so there for I am only liable to my Company, my company is not a public company so I am not liable to the stock holders. When I did work at a Public company I would say I am liable to the Stockholders (same as Tax Payers).


Did I ask Hay how is a federal worker who fucks off at work? And then when she replied I jump down her thought? NOPE! She came her and was looking for sympathy. None of you had the balls to say you know they were rude but you were in the wrong too. Some one had to step up. You can’t tell me you would not have been made if you walked in to Unemployment and seen her sitting there reading a book for over a hr as you sat there waiting inline.

I had that sort of job only once in my life... after I was hired, my new boss told me it would be a good idea to bring a book to work, since the office was very slow sometimes (it was a county office). I had a problem with that... it didn't feel right. Instead, I found quite a few things to do that were office related. The files were a mess - had been for years, apparently - so I took those on and straighted them out. I learned enough about the other girls' jobs to take over when they were out. I took over doing payroll since the girl who normally did that was often out sick.

Anyway, it's surprising how much work one can find to do, even in a "slow" office. And it sure fends off the critics!

While this is a good idea in theory I'm so low on the totem pole I'm not even allowed PC access. I've asked for more work and been told there isn't any. There is nothing I can do about this situation I have worked there 3 months now and I mainly keep working there because it allows me to pay my bills and actually get to see my kid for a few hours a day rather than the job I had before where I'd take him to the sitters in the morning pick him up at night feed him dinner and put him to bed. I didn't even want to pull the single parent card in here. I don't see doing this for the rest of my life, just til I manage to finish my degree and actually get a job I like doing something useful.

Lupo either you don't remember being in your 20s and taking whatever job will pay the bills and keep your family fed or you're one of those people who is lucky enough to actually afford to go to college for 4 years straight and never had to put up with this either way you're an unpleasant person as much as the people who give me crap at work. So I'm sorry to say I can't value your opinion. TY everyone else for letting me vent