• spaceman (unregistered)

    wrist

  • Welpe (unregistered)

    This story is rather ... disturbing.

  • froob (unregistered)

    Because workplace bullying is sooo funny.

  • Zaz (unregistered)

    This story just fills me with sadness.

  • Doctor_of_ineptitude (unregistered)

    import andy; Are you sure? (y/N) Y warning: Nobody likes andy import battleaxe; battleaxe in set office.collections import secretary; secretary in set office.people import bbcMicro; BBC Micro in set office.collections import tapes; tapes in set warehouse get tapes.state; tapes.state = UnWound create task tapeRewind; task tapeRewind created andy.executeTask(tapeRewind); warning: andy crying warning: someone in set office.people likes andy warning: secretary in set office.people crying wtf? incorrect syntax battleaxe.destroy(bbcMicro); warning: EOF reached

  • (cs)

    Your pathetic attempts at trying to convey British English disturbs me.

  • Dave (unregistered)
    Andy is a dog's bollocks

    "Dog's bollocks" is used in completely the wrong context.

  • Dave (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi

    Yep. It makes Dick Van Dyke actually sound cockney.

  • anon (unregistered)

    dog's bollocks... used incorrectly.

  • (cs)

    No no no! Just no. Don't end the story by breaking a BBC Micro. Please let it be a Spectrum or a Commodore 64!

  • tony (unregistered)

    After reading this i feel sorry for Andy!!

  • CigarDoug (unregistered)

    Is... is the purpose of this story to get us to wish we had Hanzo stories again?

  • (cs) in reply to CigarDoug
    CigarDoug:
    Is... is the purpose of this story to get us to wish we had Hanzo stories again?

    More likely get the typical "Erik Gern sucks" comments.

  • Adam (unregistered)

    TRWTF is thinking this is funny. It's bullying.

  • Black Bart (unregistered)

    What's a BBC Micro - Faux British?

  • Rob (unregistered)

    Would a drill on a slow setting work?

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    Sigh.

  • (cs)

    Note for the non-British in the audience who are baffled by the dismissals above of the use of "dog's bollocks": "X is the dog's bollocks" conveys that the general awesomeness and excellence of X is unbeatable. The phrase "a dog's bollocks" is nonsense.

  • (cs) in reply to Black Bart
    Black Bart:
    What's a BBC Micro - Faux British?
    Learn
  • (cs)

    Replace BBC micro with facebook, replace tape winding with photocopying, replace computer department with ANY OTHER department.

    The story still works perfectly. This means the story doesn't work at all.

    That, and the british fail, and the bullying fail.

  • Fritz, a.k.a. Fritzo (unregistered)

    Why doesn't Alex just hire Spectateswamp to write all the content on the site? At least that would be entertaining.

  • Joey (unregistered)

    It shouldn't have come to bullying because Andy should have been removed from the company. I think that was supposed to be the wtf.

    It was clear Andy didn’t have respect from his peers. If he wanted to earn that respect he needed to suck it up and pile those potatoes; metaphorically speaking. Instead he pushed the work to whomever he could find.

    That is my two sense.

  • rohcQaH (unregistered)

    Assigning work to someone who clearly has the time for an additional workload is now called "bullying"?

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Joey
    Joey:
    That is my two sense.

    You have only two senses? I have at least five.

    I only have one cent though.

  • (cs)

    So why would i give a fuck about whose son he is? If his dad is really dumb enough to mix business with family then: a) i dont want to do business with him b) he can hire his son in his own company

  • Eric gaped (unregistered) in reply to rohcQaH
    rohcQaH:
    Assigning work to someone who clearly has the time for an additional workload is now called "bullying"?

    Assigning meaningless, stressful work with the express intent to get someone to leave the company is not only called bullying, it's called all sorts of scary legal things like "constructive dismissal" and "creating a hostile work environment".

    Not only did this story make the submitter sound like the biggest cock in the world (not only was he too cowardly to just tell Andy to shower and stfu: he failed even in his attempts to bully the guy out the company), it also makes him sound like an utter cretin, given that if Andy had left and then found out about this, the company would have valid cause to fire the submitter of this story.

  • anonymous_coder() (unregistered)

    Bullying? Nah. When someone is an unrelenting shit, and relying on nepotism to boot, you are limited in what you can do.

    Working as a mechanic a number of years ago, we had a guy whose father was a supervisor, and was completely useless. He would leave vehicles in utter disrepair, and another mechanic would have to go in and fix all the damage he did.

    Eventually, we got the other supervisors to start making him finish his own messes. And when 6 hour jobs were stretching into 3 and 4 day jobs, he started getting worse and worse, until he finally quit.

    Sometimes, due to office politics, you have to resort to driving someone away via handing them drudge work.

  • ANON (unregistered) in reply to anon
    anon:
    dog's bollocks... used incorrectly.

    I think it's the correct use at Hesse university Dresden.

  • anonymous_coder() (unregistered) in reply to Eric gaped
    Eric gaped:
    rohcQaH:
    Assigning work to someone who clearly has the time for an additional workload is now called "bullying"?

    Assigning meaningless, stressful work with the express intent to get someone to leave the company is not only called bullying, it's called all sorts of scary legal things like "constructive dismissal" and "creating a hostile work environment".

    And that depends on where you're from, doesn't it? In right-to-work states in the US, legal terms like that are met with blank hostility from the courts. People pretend that labor law gives them some kind of armor against bad behavior, when it's going to take you tens of thousands of dollars to litigate that case.

    Companies know that, and will violate the law, well knowing that someone they fire won't be able to afford a lawyer to fight it, or willingly pay the violations because they're cheaper than the cost of fighting it.

    And I was a union steward - I saw it happen all the time. Tried to defend people from it whenever I could, but didn't have the resources, and when contracts bind you to arbitration for labor disputes, you have limited redress.

    Now, in civilized countries, the law is far more on the workers' side, but Americans (and I'm including myself in that category) are kind of boned.

  • GrowAPair (unregistered)

    Methinks a great many people don;t understand what bullying is. Giving someone a crap job to motivate them to either shape up or leave is just good management style. You don't reward laziness and do-nothing attitudes.

    No wonder the world is going to heck in a hand basket! Let's ge some responsibility up in this b*tch!

  • EvilSnack (unregistered)

    The Daily Wally.

  • (cs) in reply to GrowAPair
    GrowAPair:
    Methinks a great many people don;t understand what bullying is. Giving someone a crap job to motivate them to either shape up or leave is just good management style. You don't reward laziness and do-nothing attitudes.

    No wonder the world is going to heck in a hand basket! Let's ge some responsibility up in this b*tch!

    +1

    Bullying? Fuck off. When you've seen real workplace bullying you'll know it. And this isn't it.

  • EvilSnack (unregistered) in reply to anonymous_coder()
    anonymous_coder():
    And that depends on where you're from, doesn't it? In right-to-work states in the US, legal terms like that are met with blank hostility from the courts. People pretend that labor law gives them some kind of armor against bad behavior, when it's going to take you tens of thousands of dollars to litigate that case.

    Companies know that, and will violate the law, well knowing that someone they fire won't be able to afford a lawyer to fight it, or willingly pay the violations because they're cheaper than the cost of fighting it.

    Except that there are lawyers who will work on contingency, bringing the cost of litigation down.

    And I was a union steward - I saw it happen all the time. Tried to defend people from it whenever I could, but didn't have the resources, and when contracts bind you to arbitration for labor disputes, you have limited redress.

    Now, in civilized countries, the law is far more on the workers' side, but Americans (and I'm including myself in that category) are kind of boned.

    In civilized countries, the law isn't on anyone's "side." It's neutral.

    If one side can sever the employment relationship at will, then the other side should have this right as well. Outside of a contract, employees can quit at any time. Therefore, businesses should have the same right.

    It's true that one side appears to have advantages that the other side does not appear to have. That situation is not fixed by giving the other side legal privileges that are denied to the first. For every good worker that was fired in an employment-at-will state, I can show you a bad worker in another state who gamed the system to stay on a job that they were unable or unwilling to perform.

    And the harm done by firing a good worker is minimal, because good workers can get another job. The harm done by forcing a business to retain an unwanted worker is greater; they keep the business from freeing up the position for a worker they actually want, or from performing a downsizing that is needed to survive as a business, or from expanding production in another area of the business.

  • (cs)

    Nobody likes Erik

  • (cs) in reply to Black Bart
    Black Bart:
    What's a BBC Micro - Faux British?

    It's a government issued micro mini skirt. I'll leave it up to you to decipher the meaning behind "playing some game he had bought down the street."

  • gnasher729 (unregistered) in reply to EvilSnack
    EvilSnack:
    And the harm done by firing a good worker is minimal, because good workers can get another job. The harm done by forcing a business to retain an unwanted worker is greater; they keep the business from freeing up the position for a worker they actually want, or from performing a downsizing that is needed to survive as a business, or from expanding production in another area of the business.
    In this case, harm on the business was self inflicted - Andy was the bosses son, anyone else being as useless as he was would have gone long ago without any problems. Andy can sue the company, but it's his dad who is paying the bill.
  • qazwsx (unregistered)

    Everyone at Daily WTF, knew when Erik arrived for work. At 11 AM, the smell of stale beer and body odor would fill the office. Mark Bowytz, Erik's coworker, could set his clock to it.

    "Workin' hard or hardly workin'?" Erik said, slapping Mark's shoulder and leaving a patch of foul air hovering over him. He sauntered over to his desk, guffawing as he sat at his BBC Micro, typing some story he had heard from a hobo down the street.

    "How is it that he gets stuck with us?" Mark had tea with Snoofle, an old battleaxe of a secretary, that afternoon. He kept his voice at a whisper. "Surely there's another department he could be shuffled off to."

    "I'm afraid not," Snoofle replied. "Erik drifted through the whole firm until there was only the Feature Articles Department left. No one wants him, but no one can sack him, on account of being a partner's son."

    "So how about we find another way to get him out the door?" Mark said. "If you know what I mean."

    Snoofle had a gleam in her eye. "I believe I do."

  • (cs) in reply to qazwsx
    qazwsx:
    Snoofle had a gleam in her eye.

    Interesting. Maybe Snoofle changed sex like Roger/Sophie Wilson - one of the original creators of the BBC Micro...

  • userdel -r andyb (unregistered)
  • the beholder (unregistered) in reply to ochrist
    ochrist:
    qazwsx:
    Snoofle had a gleam in her eye.

    Interesting. Maybe Snoofle changed sex like Roger/Sophie Wilson - one of the original creators of the BBC Micro...

    If that's the quality of his proofreading it appears to me that qazwsx isn't in a position to dismiss Erik's article writing skills.
  • (cs) in reply to anonymous_coder()
    anonymous_coder():
    Eric gaped:
    rohcQaH:
    Assigning work to someone who clearly has the time for an additional workload is now called "bullying"?

    Assigning meaningless, stressful work with the express intent to get someone to leave the company is not only called bullying, it's called all sorts of scary legal things like "constructive dismissal" and "creating a hostile work environment".

    And that depends on where you're from, doesn't it? In right-to-work states in the US, legal terms like that are met with blank hostility from the courts. People pretend that labor law gives them some kind of armor against bad behavior, when it's going to take you tens of thousands of dollars to litigate that case.

    Companies know that, and will violate the law, well knowing that someone they fire won't be able to afford a lawyer to fight it, or willingly pay the violations because they're cheaper than the cost of fighting it.

    And I was a union steward - I saw it happen all the time. Tried to defend people from it whenever I could, but didn't have the resources, and when contracts bind you to arbitration for labor disputes, you have limited redress.

    Now, in civilized countries, the law is far more on the workers' side, but Americans (and I'm including myself in that category) are kind of boned.

    So in "civilized countries", you'd throw the tape away because it would be "bullying" to have anyone wind it. Doesn't sound very green. Why do Europeans hate the environment? So backward.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Zagyg
    Zagyg:
    GrowAPair:
    Methinks a great many people don;t understand what bullying is. Giving someone a crap job to motivate them to either shape up or leave is just good management style. You don't reward laziness and do-nothing attitudes.

    No wonder the world is going to heck in a hand basket! Let's ge some responsibility up in this b*tch!

    +1

    Bullying? Fuck off. When you've seen real workplace bullying you'll know it. And this isn't it.

    WTF's all round here.

    WTF 1: John. "Bullying" seems to be what Andy himself was doing, with his accusations (albeit "jocular") that his colleagues are lazy ("hardly working" would get my back up, well and truly) coupled with the undesired physical contact ("slapping John's shoulder" -- oy, sunshine, that's assault). Approach Andy's familial connection and (in extreme cases) threaten him with a lawsuit.

    WTF 2: Andy. If there was a tedious job to be done, and I had been assigned it, I would either knuckle down to do that job and suck it up, or devise some way to automate. If the latter were impossible and the former needed to be repeated I would demand a change to the process to render said operation unnecessary. If it was clear that the tedious job was caused by an accident and/or someone else's carelessness, then ... etc. etc.

    In this context, if I were Andy, I'd knock myself a little winder from a pencil / pen / whatever fitted in the hole, something else arbitrary, and a bit of sellotape, and then off I'd go. Can't take more than an hour or so, once you get into the rhythm of it.

    However, it is clear that Andy doesn't have the gumption for such a move, which is the basic WTF of the story.

    WTF 3: Catherine. If I had the reputation for being a battleaxe then it's not doing that reputation any favours by being swayed by a big weeping soft baby.

  • v (unregistered) in reply to Doctor_of_ineptitude
    Doctor_of_ineptitude:
    warning: EOF reached
    Error: Very unexpected EOF while reading from socket thedailywtf.com:80
  • Captain Oblivious (unregistered)

    Are they all so limp wristed winding a few hundred yards of tape takes hours?

    No wonder they can't get the guy fired.

  • v (unregistered) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    In this context, if I were Andy, I'd knock myself a little winder from a pencil / pen / whatever fitted in the hole, something else arbitrary, and a bit of sellotape, and then off I'd go. Can't take more than an hour or so, once you get into the rhythm of it.

    However, it is clear that Andy doesn't have the gumption for such a move, which is the basic WTF of the story.

    But why Catherine didn't have the "gumption" is an even bigger WTF.

  • Anon (unregistered)

    Came to complain about the incorrect use of "dogs bollocks". Glad it's already been addressed.

    Also, this story just kind of meandered around without any real resolution. Certainly not the "dogs bollocks".

  • anonymous (unregistered)
    ... tape backups of their computer data... giant pile... still valuable...
    What? No shredded tape? No tape bonfire? My instincts failed miserably!
  • Lars MB (unregistered)

    So mobbing someone with an alcohol problem is funny now?

    I see the real WTF here.

    Proper: get counseling and help (HR's job), or at least do a formal and proper layoff, instead of mobbing someone. This is ass-hat behaviour.

  • foo AKA fooo (unregistered)
    After Gertrude left, Johno grabbed an axe from the basement. He couldn't stand the thought of Andy playing at his desk on his Micro one more day. Well, if he couldn't get rid of Andy, he could always get rid of the Micro, right?
    Didn't happen. Nuff said.
  • Swearing badly, what? (unregistered)

    Its pretty weird how British people can happily use American swearing normally, but Americans unswervingly manage to bugger up British swearing.

    Twat. Rhymes with Bat. Not Bot, or Bart.

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