Taking no pride in one's work

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chas
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Taking no pride in one's work

Post by chas »

/rant mode

I got an email today wondering whether I'd gotten to a sample someone sent awhile back. No, I hadn't received it yet, should I have? Yes, it was delivered two weeks ago, my buddy sent me the tracking info. So I call the receiving room. I knew I was in trouble when the guy on the other end asked me to repeat the number, then repeated it back to me. No, they have no record of it. I say it was signed for by so-and-so two weeks ago. Yes, he works in the receiving room, would I mind being put on hold. I'm cut off, but do hear back about five minutes later, yes, they did receive the package, no idea what happened to it. It will take some time.

Now, all package tracking at work is 100% electronic, so if he's verified that they did receive the package, he knows exactly what happened to it. But an hour-plus later, I hear back that, yes, they did deliver it to somebody in another building. I figured that maybe my buddy had put the wrong address or something, so I go over to the office it had been delivered to. Nope, no package there, couldn't imagine why they'd say my package had been delivered to that location. I showed the signature, which belonged to the occupant of that office. Geez, that was a couple of weeks ago, no idea what could have happened to a package in that time. I'm getting a bit agitated, and this person finally says, well, maybe it had been delivered to another office and she just signed for it. So we stroll down the hall to a couple other offices with packages in them, and lo and behold, there's my package. Which had been sitting there for two weeks.

There were three screwups that I can think of that had to happen for this to go this wrong. It had my mail stop, my building, and my mailstop's room #, all of which were different from where it was delivered. So shipping and receiving screwed up royally. But they handle several hundred packages a day; I can see how one falls through the cracks now and then. (The guy on the phone still gave me the runaround, though.) The person it was delivered to saw that it didn't belong in her office (the tracking says which office it was delivered to in addition to who signed for it), but instead of calling me, just took it to another office it didn't belong in. And then in its final resting place, it sat for two weeks and that person didn't get in touch either, although s/he must have noticed that there was a package addressed to someone in another building sitting on the desk.

This is the third time this has happened to me in the last few years -- a package goes to the wrong place, it takes me some time to realize it (I don't always know when someone is sending me something), and the person who gets the errant package takes no action whatsoever. I can't tell whether it's apathy, stupidity, passing the buck, or what. But it bothers the s4!t out of me.

/rant mode off
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by Nanohedron »

Let's call it an existential malaise. Yeah, that's it.
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by ytliek »

Could've been worse... never located package... or someone else keeps it. All in all its a happy ending.

BTW, speaking of rants: I had recently been given Dunkin Donuts gift cards with ten large cups on each. When the card is used up the receipt indicates there are no more cups left. So I've asked at several of the D&Ds here how many cups are left on card because I don't keep the receipts? And several of the employees at differing D&Ds cannot read their own receipts or read their cash register which also indicates the number left on card. Rant over. :)
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by An Draighean »

ytliek wrote:And several of the employees at differing D&Ds cannot read their own receipts or read their cash register which also indicates the number left on card.
Shows you what passes for an education in many liberal arts college majors these days. :o
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by kkrell »

chas wrote:/rant mode

/rant mode off
Regarding the thread title "Taking no pride in one's work":

Nothing to be proud of.
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by chas »

kkrell wrote:
chas wrote:/rant mode

/rant mode off
Regarding the thread title "Taking no pride in one's work":

Nothing to be proud of.
Please clarify. Are you saying "Taking no pride in one's work" is bad grammar? I beg to differ.

If you're saying I should have written

[rant mode]
[/rant mode]

you're correct in terms of standard netspeak. But one doesn't always have to speak in netspeak, even on the net.
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by kkrell »

chas wrote:
kkrell wrote: Regarding the thread title "Taking no pride in one's work":

Nothing to be proud of.
Please clarify.
I'm sorry for being unclear. My comment was meant to indicate that there is no pride to be had from the performance of those individuals. In the language of the internet, "They give no f#*@ks". They are neither seeking nor achieving anything worthy of pride.

As for malaise, isn't that something people put on sandwiches? :lol:
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by s1m0n »

Is there any likelihood that they're simply overworked, and have no time to worry about things that are clearly someone else's problem?
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by Nanohedron »

kkrell wrote:As for malaise, isn't that something people put on sandwiches? :lol:
"Lord Mayo" always makes me think of a chef in a greasy spoon.
s1m0n wrote:Is there any likelihood that they're simply overworked, and have no time to worry about things that are clearly someone else's problem?
Otherwise, it might be a matter of philosophy.
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by chas »

kkrell wrote:
chas wrote:
kkrell wrote: Regarding the thread title "Taking no pride in one's work":

Nothing to be proud of.
Please clarify.
I'm sorry for being unclear. My comment was meant to indicate that there is no pride to be had from the performance of those individuals. In the language of the internet, "They give no f#*@ks". They are neither seeking nor achieving anything worthy of pride.

As for malaise, isn't that something people put on sandwiches? :lol:
Thanks for the clarification, Kevin, and apologies for misinterpreting your post.

Cheers, Charlie
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by walrii »

I’m seeing less pride in workmanship these days even in established firms with a solid reputation for quality work. Every shop, except one, I have dealt with over the last five years has returned the work with errors in workmanship. Not low quality work. Errors, things that don’t work. If I have the time, I do it myself. If not, I grit my teeth, swear softly and get on with it.
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Re: Taking no pride in one's work

Post by chas »

walrii wrote:I’m seeing less pride in workmanship these days even in established firms with a solid reputation for quality work. Every shop, except one, I have dealt with over the last five years has returned the work with errors in workmanship. Not low quality work. Errors, things that don’t work. If I have the time, I do it myself. If not, I grit my teeth, swear softly and get on with it.
The main lead screw on my new lathe was ridiculously bent. Like in two feet, probably 50-100 thousandths. I saved 50% by not going with one I knew would be good, but am losing two months using it (assuming all the new stuff solves the problems I was having). Possibly a net gain, but awfully frustrating.
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