Little things that annoy you

[Avril]

I don't want to be terribly specific, but a certain person I know who HATED living in Oklahoma and never wasted an opportunity (or an opportunity to create an opportunity) to say so, and to say how much better everything in his home state was (terrain, cars, food, people...everything) is now gaining a bit of notoriety by making a big stinking deal about how he "helped" Oklahoma during the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 1999 tornado outbreak.

I really don't want to say more, except that I want to somehow fling things at him (he returned to his beloved home state, many years ago,, and I moved away, so flinging won't work...but I absolutely hate vicarious assertions of heroics).

[Spud Sabre]

Maybe not a "little" thing, considering society's obsession with appearance and weight loss and how bad it is for me, but as stupid and irrational it is, I can't stand people offering me advice, criticism, compliments, encouragement, acknowledgement or any sort of judgement or opinion on matters of, for lack of a better term, physical self-improvement.

[crocoduck_hunter]

I hate having a section of my nostril that keeps cracking open and bleeding while I'm asleep, causing blood to flow up into my sinus. That freaking hurts when the scab starts coming out!

[chillas]

More of a "Little First World Problems That Annoy You" kind of thing - but I hate when I go to the website of a national or regional chain (store, restaurant, whatever) and they won't let you browse for a location - you have to enter an address or at least a zip and it will only return results within a certain radius. I might be traveling and not know the zip codes, I might be willing to go outside your search radius limit, I might have a flexible route, I might be looking on behalf of someone else. Just let me browse a list of locations if I choose!

[LadyLockeout]

when a job emails you with a time for you to be sitting by your phone for a phone interview and then it's 45 minutes later and they still haven't called.

[Mad Jay]

Tautologies:- Today we had this big meeting and the CTO and other executives presented how the organization is being re-organized. The CTO ended the meeting with "there is a study that showed that companies are successful in the long run when their products are better. So, the way we will be successful is by trying to make our product better"

I was about to pull my hair out "Gee thanks for telling us that. I am glad those other schmucks down the road are trying actively to build an inferior product"

[LizzyBean]

Finding a product on the shelf that expired a year ago. And only finding it because a customer pointed it out to you. And also discovering that it wasn't the only one on the shelf that had already expired.

[Bobcat Warrior]

LizzyBean:

I'll bet some "less than diligent" employees didn't bother to rotate stock as new shipment came in.

BW

[Arriah]

Programs that run completely opposite of standard (such as it is) for no good reason. *Sage* Why do we have to Enter through all the fields instead of tab like the whole internet? Why can't I remove sales tax from my purchase orders at the end? Why does enter take me to the right instead of tab like in nearly every other program I've ever used?

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Bobcat Warrior

LizzyBean:

I'll bet some "less than diligent" employees didn't bother to rotate stock as new shipment came in.

BW

I think it has been LB who has complained about one or more co-workers who shelf new product to the front rather than behind the old product, such that the old product just stays at the back, never sold, and getting staler.

[LizzyBean]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

I think it has been LB who has complained about one or more co-workers who shelf new product to the front rather than behind the old product, such that the old product just stays at the back, never sold, and getting staler.

That would be me. The thing is, as far out of date as some of them were, it could have been any one of about 5 people. So who knows. I'm afraid to know what else in that section could be out of date. ETA: ATNM, every time you post LB for me, my brain thinks you're talking about lavenderblue!

Originally Posted by Bobcat Warrior

LizzyBean:

I'll bet some "less than diligent" employees didn't bother to rotate stock as new shipment came in.

BW

That's exactly what happened. I sort of expect a month or two sometimes; things do get missed in large sections. But nearly a year? Good thing the boss is on vacation. He would have had a coronary. It's not that hard, dang it!

[dfresh]

Originally Posted by Mad Jay

"there is a study that showed that companies are successful in the long run when their products are better. "

Better? We are supposed to be making them BETTER? Dang it, we will have to totally revise our process now. I could have sworn we were supposed to make them BITTER.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Mad Jay

Tautologies:- Today we had this big meeting and the CTO and other executives presented how the organization is being re-organized. The CTO ended the meeting with "there is a study that showed that companies are successful in the long run when their products are better. So, the way we will be successful is by trying to make our product better"

I was about to pull my hair out "Gee thanks for telling us that. I am glad those other schmucks down the road are trying actively to build an inferior product"

I have heard far too many times of companies that insist it is all in the marketing, not the quality. Or maybe hitting price points with serviceable but lower quality products. I am sure you, too, could come up with examples where either of those strategies actually seem to have served the companies well. Until somebody came along who marketed well a nicely-priced product that was good quality (the US auto industry before the Japanese cars made a big impact comes to mind)

Originally Posted by LizzyBean

ETA: ATNM, every time you post LB for me, my brain thinks you're talking about lavenderblue!

but she is lb, not LB. Really I was just being lazy, and I have seen your posts more than hers of late, so I did not even think of possible confusion. BTW, seeing lavenderblue referred to as lb always makes me think "pound"

[Mad Jay]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

I have heard far too many times of companies that insist it is all in the marketing, not the quality. Or maybe hitting price points with serviceable but lower quality products. I am sure you, too, could come up with examples where either of those strategies actually seem to have served the companies well. Until somebody came along who marketed well a nicely-priced product that was good quality (the US auto industry before the Japanese cars made a big impact comes to mind)

Right.. but I'm pretty sure that if you go and ask the employees who are building a product, they will all say they are making a better product. Everyone is building something better. No one makes an inferior product on purpose. The question is really "Define better". Everyone's definition of better is differrent

That statement reminded me of how all leaders of countries want peace, and yet we have wars. Everyone wants peace. Everyone is for peace. All sides in an conflict want peace. The problem is that the definition of peace is differrent.

Similarily, within the company the definition of "better" is different for different people. To me, the definition of better is building a product that does one thing but does it exceedingly well. To the accounting dept, the definition of better is building a product cheaply. To the sales and marketing guys, better is building a product that is chock full of features. These are conflicting things. we can;t all be making it better because we might make something that is akin to a diamond encrusted piece of crap:- it costs a lot, we spend a lot of blood sweat and tears producing it, it looks awesome, no one wants it.

Saying "build a better product" doesn't mean anything. It just makes the speaker sound profound.

[LizzyBean]

That there are certain words I can never seem to spell correctly, no matter how hard I try to remember.

[WildaBeast]

When someone puts a question mark on the end of a sentence that isn't actually phrased as a question, like this one from an email I just received: "Let me know if you have any ideas?" That's a request, not a question. Whenever I see something like that I think it looks like he's unsure as to whether or not he really wants me to let him know if I have any ideas.

[Bobcat Warrior]

WildaBeast:

Me too, and how about a sign I see all the time: "For more information, ask our employees?"

BW

[marrya]

[Do you think that] perhaps it's a conjuction of "[Would you mind taking some time to] let me know if you have any ideas?" ?

Apparently I do it too.

[Latiam]

Originally Posted by LizzyBean

Finding a product on the shelf that expired a year ago. And only finding it because a customer pointed it out to you. And also discovering that it wasn't the only one on the shelf that had already expired.

Well, it's better than the product I found on on a shelf that was two years expired, and there were five of them. I told the person I found stocking shelves "Either someone can't rotate product or isn't following your plan-o-gram" which seemed to be unnecessariily complicated.

I got a note from a parent because her kid hurt himself twice and didn't tell teachers about it. Okay, yeah, that's a problem. Thing is, the teachers aren't me, and I can't say to her, "Yeah, X is an buttchapeau who make your sun stand against the wall for getting hurt. Or not. It varies. and since he's teaching them a subject there isn't a hell of a lot I can do about it."

Yes, I was taken aback to find out he had been hurt fairly badly and did nothing about it, but none of this had anything to do with me whatsoever and yet I am supposed to solve it.

I gave her some solutions and then "suggested" she to go talk to him.

[Wolf333]

Originally Posted by Arriah

Programs that run completely opposite of standard (such as it is) for no good reason. *Sage* Why do we have to Enter through all the fields instead of tab like the whole internet? Why can't I remove sales tax from my purchase orders at the end? Why does enter take me to the right instead of tab like in nearly every other program I've ever used?

A program that I once had to use was terrible about this. On one screen, tab would actually go back to the previous field.

Originally Posted by WildaBeast

When someone puts a question mark on the end of a sentence that isn't actually phrased as a question, like this one from an email I just received: "Let me know if you have any ideas?" That's a request, not a question. Whenever I see something like that I think it looks like he's unsure as to whether or not he really wants me to let him know if I have any ideas.

I hate that, too? I really hate it when they end a sentence with multiple question marks??? Then there are the folks who end every sentence with an ellipse...