When the template isn't the template then it's not a template

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
02/14/2018 at 11:16 • Filed to: None

I have a certain challenging coworker who I work with on a regular basis and manages to consistently just be a pain in my you know what. This person is oddly nitpicky and often comes off as dissatisfied or impatient even in response to totally innocuous questions. Here’s what they did today.

We’re hiring a bunch of interns at my company. The interns aren’t actually going to be hired by my company, they’re going to be payrolled through a staffing agency as temps. Because reasons.

Normally when we do this we don’t give people offer letters, the staffing agency does. But my coworker for whatever reason decided the interns would think it’s weird to get offer letters from the temp agency instead of my company, so they and one other person worked on creating an “opportunity letter” template that’s on our letterhead but says the interns will be contracted through the staffing agency.

I’m the one sending out the offer letters, which this coworker is reviewing before sending out. At one point this coworker thought that to make things look official I should print out the opportunity letters, have each department manager that’s hiring an intern physically sign their intern’s letter, and scan that and send it to the intern. We don’t even do that with full-time employees!

I nicely said that would create a bottleneck and since this coworker wants the opportunity letters to go out ASAP, I’ll just type the manager’s name in handwriting font above the regular font as a “signature,” since lots of companies do that. This was acceptable.

I did the first one yesterday, filled out the template as provided to me, and sent it to my coworker to review. I got this response:

It looks fine, with two exceptions: first, the size of the font (26) on (manager)’s “signature” looked too large for the page, so I adjusted that downward and reattached.

Second, I noticed there’s not a reference to what time of day the intern should report on their first day (we did 9 am in each of the last years). The student would probably appreciate it if we inserted the time of day on May 29 th . I didn’t do so in the rev, but please go ahead and add it to the end of the sentence that begins, “On May 29…”

Ok fine whatever, adjust the handwriting font size if you’re so concerned about it. BUT YOU WROTE THE TEMPLATE. WHY DIDN’T YOU PUT A START TIME ON THERE IF YOU WANTED A START TIME TO BE ON THERE?

Le sigh.

DISCUSSION (13)

ttyymmnn > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 11:26

Why would your coworker do it when he/she can get you to do it? Clearly, you are not management material.

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 11:34

I’ll be honest - I’ve got enough DGAF in me these days that I’d send it right back and tell them to go ahead and do it.

Tekamul > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 11:37

A response I’ve written more than once that may fit your situation.

Have at it, chief.

Best Regards,

Transit > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 12:20

We get that situation around here. Managers don’t know what they want, but they’re willing to let you fumble around and repeatedly tell you that that wasn’t what they wanted, until/if they finally make up their minds.

Textured Soy Protein > WilliamsSW
02/14/2018 at 12:45

Generally I try not to be adversarial with people at work unless it’s to my benefit. This particular person, I often struggle with. They’re just surly. I’ve basically given up on trying to get a straightforward answer from them about stuff.

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 12:49

Yeah, same here, it’s just that my work has been a complete shitshow lately, so it’s more reflective of my mood.

I think you can get more with honey than vinegar in most situations.

Textured Soy Protein > WilliamsSW
02/14/2018 at 13:03

This person frustrates me because I’ll go to them with a simple question or thing that I’m just updating them on, and out of nowhere they’ll respond way more negatively than anyone would reasonable expect based on the topic.

Textured Soy Protein > WilliamsSW
02/14/2018 at 13:08

At one point it got so bad that I had to tell them I don’t know what I did but I feel like I never know when I’m going to get this overly negative response from them. Their response was that if I knock on their open door, ask if they have time to talk, they respond yes, and then I talk, they actually don’t like switching gears from whatever they were working on and they may come off more negatively than intended, so let’s set up recurring check-in meetings.

My thought about this was, wait, I’ve been knocking on your door like that for 6 months, and if you don’t have time to talk or ability to change focus then don’t tell me you have time to talk! I’m not barging in demanding to have my conversation right in that minute, I’m asking if now’s a good time and giving an opportunity to have the conversation later if desired.

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 13:19

That’s ridiculous - I’ll admit that I can be a bit rude to people who walk in on me and just start talking, as the interruption is a pet peeve of mine (I work in finance, so I’m usually trying to concentrate on spreadsheets etc).

HOWEVER, as long as you are courteous and ask if I have time to talk, and give me an opportunity to say ‘no how about at 3 pm’ or whatever, then that is totally appropriate for you to do - - and unprofessional of them to whine about it.

tl;dr, sounds like this person is just a dick

Textured Soy Protein > WilliamsSW
02/14/2018 at 13:27

They are definitely a dick. I would often ask if they have time to talk about something that requires closing the door for privacy, which they would say ok to, and then after I said whatever I had to say they would, out of nowhere, be way more harsh in response than I had any expectation of. It’s like, come on, don’t tell me you’re cool with having a closed door conversation if you really aren’t, and then lash out. Just tell me to come back later or email you or whatever.

The crazy thing is I work in HR and this person has both an HR and counseling background, and is a licensed professional counselor. If anyone should know better it’s them.

My wife also happens to be an LPC but she’s way nicer.

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 15:41

I presume that you’re not the only one who gets a lot of grief from this person - I would think they’re doing it to most of the office. Although people like this often are as sweet as saccharine to higher ups...

And how pathetic that they’re an LPC, too... Maybe they need a change of company...

Textured Soy Protein > WilliamsSW
02/14/2018 at 15:51

They are definitely also irritating to others. I actually had to go and ask people I could trust about this person to confirm I was not the only recipient of this behavior, and of course I wasn’t.

And yes they definitely are capable of two-facedness and putting on a nice calm voice when they want.

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein
02/14/2018 at 15:56

Well, you’re the one who’s being a professional here. And as much as it may suck right now, in my experience, the dick usually gets what’s coming to them in the end.

Hopefully sooner rather than later...