Working with idiots can kill you

[TheNiteHwk]

Can anyone here relate to this?


Working with idiots can kill you

Stress caused by dim-witted co-workers may give you a fatal heart attack!
By KATE McCLARE

STOCKHOLM -- Idiots in the office are just as hazardous to your health as cigarettes, caffeine or greasy food, an eye-opening new study reveals. In fact, those dopes can kill you!

Stress is one of the top causes of heart attacks -- and working with stupid people on a daily basis is one of the deadliest forms of stress, according to researchers at Sweden's Lindbergh University Medical Center.

The author of the study, Dr. Dagmar Andersson, says her team studied 500 heart attack patients, and were puzzled to find 62 percent had relatively few of the physical risk factors commonly blamed for heart attacks.

"Then we questioned them about lifestyle habits, and almost all of these low-risk patients told us they worked with people so stupid they can barely find their way from the parking lot to their office. And their heart attack came less than 12 hours after having a major confrontation with one of these oafs.

"One woman had to be rushed to the hospital after her assistant shredded important company tax documents instead of copying them. A man told us he collapsed right at his desk because the woman at the next cubicle kept asking him for correction fluid -- for her computer monitor.

"You can cut back on smoking or improve your diet," Dr. Andersson says, "but most people have very poor coping skills when it comes to stupidity -- they feel there's nothing they can do about it, so they just internalize their frustration until they finally explode."

Stupid co-workers can also double or triple someone's work load, she explains. "Many of our subjects feel sorry for the drooling idiots they work with, so they try to cover for them by fixing their mistakes. One poor woman spent a week rebuilding client records because a clerk put them all in the 'recycle bin' of her computer and then emptied it -- she thought it meant the records would be recycled and used again."<end>


Some really funny stuff here:

www.iWorkWithFools.com


Can anyone relate or have a stupid co-worker story to share?

 

[Questor]

LOL Correction fluid for the computer monitor. Actually, my coworkers are okay so I am not subjected to a daily dose of stupidity at the office. But the article makes me wonder if I should be spending less time in the Politics and International Affairs Forum

 

[Bob LaBlab]

I love the commercials where the guy works with a "bunch of monkeys" he apologizes in one ad to a woman who says I understand everyone here is an ass.

 

[WhaWhaWha]

I'm presently working in technical support where all the callers are as stupid as the day is long. Maybe i should keep a defibrilator next to my workstation.

 

[Yuri]

Can anyone here relate to this?
Working with idiots can kill you
Can anyone relate or have a stupid co-worker story to share?

I had to work with a Chi***se, Administrative Manager, when I was with City Hall....She use to spend 3 hrs in each morning reviewing the work of the staff, from the previous day, and than take a 2 Hr lunch because she claimed she was stressed.
Her antics included yelling at the staff in public, in front of co-workers and and the general public, using a red-magic marker to write over submitted reports (example... I wrote March 02, 2005///she over-wrote the report submission to read 3rd of March 2005 and told me to re-write the whole report)...claimed that if I wore a colonge, that she suffered a migraine headache and than proceed to take the next 2 days off from work/City Hall and submitted in her absentee report that because I wore colonge that her migraine headaches were directly a result of me...use to yell at loud that staff were stupid/dumb and never did anything right and that she would have to work 10-20 hours overtime, per week, to correct our errors (overtime claim 2.5X overtime pay)

I had discussions with the City Hall Department Manager, about her antics, and he would just listen than say she has been doing this to the past 5 years and that I should just accept her behaviour. He was 2 years away from his City Hall Pension, and privately stated that he just didn't want to get involved in the matter. apparently the Manager tried to discipline her 2 years ago, and she filed a "female gender harassement grievance
complaint" that lasted 6 months of reports/hearings, so now eveyone tried to ignore her actions at work.
Since I was a "Contracted Employee", the Manger just ignored the whole issue, hoping that I would give-up.

In summary, I did just that...at the contract-end, I did not renew and vowed never to work at Toronto City Hall ever again.

 

[shack]

The only thing worse than working with idiots is hiring and having to pay idiots. It seems that is all that's available nowadays. No wonder my hair's falling out.

 

[drlove]

That is unbelievable, esp. the one with the liquid paper for the computer! Wonder how long she lasted after that?!?! Moreover, I can't believe she was actually hired in the first place.

Any more stories out there??

 

[jwmorrice]

Egad!

The story cited by NiteHawk originally came from the World Weekly News!!

See http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/idiots.asp

jwm

 

[great bear]

My job consists of reading posts from Maryland.

 

[nograpes]

just more proof that only stupid people are breeding

 

[WhaWhaWha]

A couple of years ago, I sold industrial supplies for a small distributor, looking to broaden it's clientelle. I had a lot of ideas for making contacts in property management and fast-food franchises and spent my first month building relationships with them. It wasnt telesales as much as lead generation, using the phone as a primary means to make new contacts. A more respectable position than some I had taken previously or since.

My first grievance
I had sold some wire shelving and plastic bins to a well known Pizza franchise. While finalizing the payment arrangements, my sales manager called them back to tell them that the bins they selected were unsuitable for food storage. He did not offer an alternative. I checked the bin materials. They were made from a heat resistant grade of non toxic polypropylene acrylic commonly used in food storage bins at bulk food stores. I could have had shelving units in several stores right away, and standardized orders for future franchises for years to come. My manager purposely burned me for no reason.

The same manager hired a friend from his previous job. Apparently the two of them had recently been fired together. The two friends took long lunches together while I worked through lunch building more leads.

My second grievance
I made appointments with a property director for Metro Toronto assisted housing, and another for a large residential / commercial property manager. The assisted housing manager was downtown. My manager told me it was too far out of my way, and not to bother when I could make more headway on the phones.

My third grievance
The other large commercial / residential property manager came to our premises. She took several catalogues, and toured the warehouse with me while we talked. She expressed pleasure and relief that a supply house was in the district where she needed it as she was dissatisfied with her current supplier who also happened to be out of her district. I was negotiating small orders for mop heads, brooms, garbage bags, and offering preferred pricing to win her approval on a 24-foot trailer of salt -- enough to clear the ice off 30 major properties. We reached an agreement. While arranging payment my manager called her back to tell her we were an intermediate supply and that her salt needs could be better satisfied by one of the direct manufacturers. Then he charged her standard wholesale prices on the remaining order for garbage bags, brooms, and mop heads. I objected. My manager told me that instead of chasing pipe dreams I should look for orders in our own market.

The last straw
That same day, the manager's friend negotiated a single jug of non-toxic aquarium soap for 35 dollars for the Metro Toronto Zoo. The manager and the friend delivered it together. Then they put on their suits and ties to deliver more utility grade liquid soap to a casino for the mens room and kitchen staff. Casinos tend to stock higher grade product for their customers than their staff and when I suggested they bring samples, I was reminded to attend my own accounts.

I filed a complaint to the owner, wherein I detailed missed and wasted opportunities. A short time later a meeting was arranged. I was dismissed for punctuality issues after it had been documented that I arrived more than five minutes late on three occasions in a one month period. The manager also cited that I had poor rapport with the clientelle.

The business was family owned. Two sisters, a brother, an elderly mother, and a youngish stepdad. The brother and the stepdad took turns driving the truck and puttering around the warehouse. The sisters did the bookkeeping and created one of the ugliest unnavigable websites known to mankind. My unpaid commissions were never applied to my accounts. The owners said nothing to stop this fiasco. They trusted their sales manager's judgement completely. They were too busy fighting among themselves to care about details like staffing.

Ajax is a small town. A month later, while delivering food for a local Chinese Food store I ran into the owner who told me she fired the manager. She said he clearly lacked direction and seemed unmotivated. He just seemed to be hanging around and doing little for the company. She asked me if I would consider coming back, and I declined. While I may have clung to the job when i shouldnt have I knew enoughnotto go back when i was finally free.