what stuff do you deal with at work

fife

its now 4:40 where I am and I am about to eat lunch and i have decided that I want to find out what crazy/weird stuff people deal with at work.

Today i had a client cry in front of me cause their doctor told them that they had less than 2 years to live. the crazy part is that this person was happy cause now it means that they will get government housing faster.

what crazy/weird stuff do all of you deal with?

Idris

fife wrote:

Today i had a client cry in front of me cause their doctor told them that they had less than 2 years to live. the crazy part is that this person was happy cause now it means that they will get government housing faster.

Thats just so sad, on many levels.

hedonist

Idris wrote:

fife wrote:

Today i had a client cry in front of me cause their doctor told them that they had less than 2 years to live. the crazy part is that this person was happy cause now it means that they will get government housing faster.

Thats just so sad, on many levels.

Agreed. Even with my selfserving complaining (which I think is necessary, to a point, no matter if to others or even myself), I realize that really, I have no room to bitch.

Truly, for all the daily shit I deal with at work, it's minute and insignificant.

fife, how do YOU deal with this? As in, when you come home, have some separation from it? Decompress, find peace?

This is why I first sought, and then decided not to pursue, a career in psychiatry. I knew I'd have a tough time at the end of the day...even during the day.

fife

Idris wrote:

fife wrote:

Today i had a client cry in front of me cause their doctor told them that they had less than 2 years to live. the crazy part is that this person was happy cause now it means that they will get government housing faster.

Thats just so sad, on many levels.

I notice your from Toronto so I say when your thinking of voting please vote for someone who cares about housing and affordable housing.

fife

hedonist wrote:

Idris wrote:

fife wrote:

Today i had a client cry in front of me cause their doctor told them that they had less than 2 years to live. the crazy part is that this person was happy cause now it means that they will get government housing faster.

Thats just so sad, on many levels.

Agreed. Even with my selfserving complaining (which I think is necessary, to a point, no matter if to others or even myself), I realize that really, I have no room to bitch.

Truly, for all the daily shit I deal with at work, it's minute and insignificant.

fife, how do YOU deal with this? As in, when you come home, have some separation from it? Decompress, find peace?

This is why I first sought, and then decided not to pursue, a career in psychiatry. I knew I'd have a tough time at the end of the day...even during the day.

I think I find happiness in the fact that people still care. I have to admit I am not always the happiest person in the world but I try to surround myself with people who bring me joy.

but what do you deal with at work.

I don't want this to be a competition but really want to know what crazy stuff people deal with.

my best friend works at a bank and he tells me some crazy shit. last week he was telling me about his boss who was very mad cause AC wasn't working and he complained to the president of the bank about it.

Idris

fife wrote:

I notice your from Toronto so I say when your thinking of voting please vote for someone who cares about housing and affordable housing.

Do You have anyone on your mind that you like? Or someone you figure will do what needs to be done to help remedy our housing disease?

hedonist

fife wrote:

I think I find happiness in the fact that people still care. I have to admit I am not always the happiest person in the world but I try to surround myself with people who bring me joy.

but what do you deal with at work.

I don't want this to be a competition but really want to know what crazy stuff people deal with.

my best friend works at a bank and he tells me some crazy shit. last week he was telling me about his boss who was very mad cause AC wasn't working and he complained to the president of the bank about it.

Well, I think most people always WILL care. That's the upside of not always being happy (and really, who ever said we should be, always?). I guess we need to create it as we can, find it as we can - like, as you said, keeping those near who do you good.

At work, there's a homeless fellow who comes by now and then - his mind is mostly but not completely gone - when he comes round he screams at air, lays on the ground with his pants down, masturbates from time to time. It breaks my heart and pisses me off at the same time. Police can't really do much. But, they've been very gentle and compassionate with this man. It's nice to see.

(and yet, not all that crazy of shit I suppose)

PJ_Soul

Part of my job entails dealing with university students who need to reschedule exams because of horrible things going on in their lives. I've had to sit and advise students whose parent/sibling/grandparent/spouse/child has died. Once it was someone whose brother had been gunned down in a very high profile story (just needed to consult the newspaper for confirmation of the circumstances to allow her to reschedule her exam). Another guy came in whose roommate had just been found drowned in the university pool. :( Some situations are just heartbreaking; I have to strike this odd balance between compassion and making them adhere to university policy (which often involves stuff like making them present death certificates and police reports, etc). Sometimes it really sucks. Others need my help because they have lost their minds and therefore can't do exams. I had one guy who was a psychiatric patient threaten my life a few years ago ... he'd gone off his meds. I had to call his psychiatrist to see if she thought he was going to show up with a fucking gun or something. Another dude tried to sue me for not allowing him to reschedule his exam because he wanted to go on vacation, lol.

I also once had a completely insane criminology professor flip out on me. She went batshit ballistic, screaming and yelling and shit, for some imagined reason, and security had to come, and I had to have meetings with her and the human rights lawyer on campus since the incident was reported to VP Legal's office (professors do NOT generally act this way towards colleagues!), and she went mental in that meeting too! She recently "moved on" (aka was told she needed to go unless she wanted to be fired). Crazy - she was up for tenure when that happened. Goodbye tenure. :?

And students coming to me in tears is a very common occurrence. They have mini-breakdowns all the time, and they just burst into tears while sitting in my office and start unloading all their problems and telling me their sordid life stories as though they've mistaken me for their therapist or something.

Haha, one time this really fucked up student who was in an online course where you get on video and talk to other students got on there stark naked and started smoking a huge joint while he had a discussion with his classmates, hahaha!! Crazy people everywhere, especially in higher learning!

And I won't even go into the complete nut job co-worker I have to tolerate, who likes to sabotage people in the office in an attempt to make herself look better ... I don't want to get angry! :roll:

So yeah, I deal with crazy shit all the time at work! It's like an insane asylum! :corn:

Actually, not funny - I have had to go to several seminars about dealing with suicidal and violent people as a part of my job, and I am not in the mental healthcare industry. I'm a university administrator! Wtf!

But luckily I am totally one of those people who can leave all that shit behind me at the office. When I'm not at work, it's kind of like I don't have a job at all! I think that just has a lot to do with a person's particular disposition.

Meg8686

Flowers, trees, mud, at worst.... a spider. I used to be stuck at a desk indoors.
I am much happier outside

fife

Idris wrote:

fife wrote:

I notice your from Toronto so I say when your thinking of voting please vote for someone who cares about housing and affordable housing.

Do You have anyone on your mind that you like? Or someone you figure will do what needs to be done to help remedy our housing disease?

to be honest, im not to happy with city hall right now. there are some like adam vaughan who i respect but he doesnt seem too progressive right now.

Idris

Ever think about doing some sort of 'City Hall Protest'?

Get as many friends, people you work with, and people you help, go down and see if you can bring more notice/attention to the cause.

Imagine if whatever amount of people who need 'real' 'help' and are not getting it, shows up etc.

How can the city not react to it?

Perhaps we can get adam vaughan or whoever else to become a little more 'progressive'?

We could write something really powerful, submit it to the city, Like draw up an 'action' plan, a 'break down' of 'what's' needed, 'why' it's needed, and how we can get to where we really need to be etc etc etc

Hold our officials feet to the fire.

fife

Idris wrote:

Ever think about doing some sort of 'City Hall Protest'?

Get as many friends, people you work with, and people you help, go down and see if you can bring more notice/attention to the cause.

Imagine if whatever amount of people who need 'real' 'help' and are not getting it, shows up etc.

How can the city not react to it?

Perhaps we can get adam vaughan or whoever else to become a little more 'progressive'?

We could write something really powerful, submit it to the city, Like draw up an 'action' plan, a 'break down' of 'what's' needed, 'why' it's needed, and how we can get to where we really need to be etc etc etc

Hold our officials feet to the fire.

cause we are funded by the city we are not allowed to start a protest. its part of the bylaws, just like we are not allowed to campaign for a political party.

my boss and some other people on the board here do have talks with government offices on a daily basis to talk about housing in the city but things have not been going so well.

we actually have recruited banks to show the real cost of homelessness to the city but the city has never really taken that into effect. its a major political issue cause the city doesn't want to be seen to give housing for many people today who are looked upon as Fuck Ups. the other issue is location. there was a rule that before some private market housing had to have a certain amount of RGI housing but that has been dissolved.

Idris

fife wrote:

cause we are funded by the city we are not allowed to start a protest. its part of the bylaws, just like we are not allowed to campaign for a political party.

my boss and some other people on the board here do have talks with government offices on a daily basis to talk about housing in the city but things have not been going so well.

we actually have recruited banks to show the real cost of homelessness to the city but the city has never really taken that into effect. its a major political issue cause the city doesn't want to be seen to give housing for many people today who are looked upon as Fuck Ups. the other issue is location. there was a rule that before some private market housing had to have a certain amount of RGI housing but that has been dissolved.

Ah yea, of course, 'bylaws', "We will help you, but don't ever complain, even if our 'help' is not the best help and get's worse? and worse."
What to do? Bite the hand that feeds? Protest anyway? I mean if it's not working out, if the system is so inefficient(?) the talks are not working, what other choices do we have, when things are not going well, and we have no good person to vote for, and the general public is rather apathetic to this issue

polaris_x

it's only a part-time gig but i take people on hiking/kayaking adventure trips ... nothing too crazy ...

but on occasion - i have to deal with that delicate balance of being responsible for someone's life and their perceived happiness ... many of my clients are older - and for many of them, this is what they worked all their lives for to be able to enjoy it through these trips ... and sometimes they focus too much on their goals rather than experience ... i had a guy close to 70 and we were doing the hike to plateau point in the south rim of the grand canyon ... i think it's like 19 km return ... straight down for 7 km then flat to about 9.5 km and back .. as as sidenote to anyone who hasn't been to the grand canyon ... many people underestimate the heat and its impact and forget that going uphill can be much harder than going down and often get in trouble in this park ...

anyhoo - i told my group that if you don't get to indian gardens by a certain point, you best turn around and start making your way up ... it's about 5 km return from indian gardens to plateau point (flat) where you get great views of the colorado river ... so, this guy and his wife got there a little after the cut off and my recommendation was that i strongly suggest they turn around as it will be a slog coming back and we may come back in the dark ... well, they are around their 70's and who knows when they will ever come back and if they would be able to do this hike ever again ... they really wanted to go to the end and back ... so, to shorten the story a bit ... i'm left with a dehydrated 70 year old having to climb about 1,000 m (3,000 ft) in elevation to get out ... part way up - i can see his is not doing well and then he begins to puke ... not a good sign - as it could point to other problems but more importantly at this stage is contributing to his dehydration ... although there is plenty of water on the trail ... it's not simply just drinking water ... there is a chemistry relating to food consumption and other things ... fortunately for me, his wife did not panic so, my priorities change from getting him out in time to meet everyone for dinner to making sure he survives ... in the end - i got him out through a program of small food with plenty of rest and we came out in the dark ... but the entire time up ... it's pure stress as his condition can deteriorate bad ...

there are numerous stories that are essentially the same ... people not wanting to stay within their physical limits and then reliant on others (mainly me) to get them home ... i try to stress to people that climbing mountains should not be the goal ... it's about appreciating our time in these places and that that experience halfway up the mountain can be as rewarding as on top ...

stargirl69

Children and Families Social Work ... Enough said :shh:

JOEJOEJOE

I have to deal with people who don't understand that I don't feel like working today!

Godfather.

a whole union shop...with the exception of a few that got pissed when they found out I was not voting for Obama ...hay they asked

Godfather.

comebackgirl

I work with trauma survivors, so I deal with everything from dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities) to ptsd to borderline personality disorder, but the crazy shit comes from the administration, not the clients

Cosmo

Godfather. wrote:

a whole union shop...with the exception of a few that got pissed when they found out I was not voting for Obama ...hay they asked

Godfather.

...
Look at the bright side...
Hopefully, your company will bust up your union and sell itself off to the highest bidder who will dismantle it and sell off your socialist pension plan and fire you because they can get 3 people to do your job at your pay rate if they pay them minimum wage and cut those socialist benefits that you wealthy union folks feel are entitled to you... right?

DS1119

Bitchy customers. Bitchy salespeople. A bitchy general manager. Pretty much this.

PJ_Soul

A diabolical, insane person who masterminds these weird little schemes to sabotage me in strange and petty ways, like if I put an important memo into a bunch of people's mailboxes she'll go and take them all out and then say I forgot to send out the memo. No shit. :crazy: Luckily she's retiring soon!! Fuck, I will throw a "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" party!!

peacefrompaul

PJ_Soul wrote:

A diabolical, insane person who masterminds these weird little schemes to sabotage me in strange and petty ways, like if I put an important memo into a bunch of people's mailboxes she'll go and take them all out and then say I forgot to send out the memo. No shit. :crazy: Luckily she's retiring soon!! Fuck, I will throw a "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" party!!

:corn:

peacefrompaul

Plenty of assholes.... plenty of decent people...

pandora

Money money money and lack there of...

Cash flow thats not there...payables not paid on time... I take the calls.
Oh joy! I'm sorry is all I got.

Taxes not settled in time I call the IRS and State. The IRS is is particularly nice to me,
I have a little voice.

I can't collect money though cause I have a very non threatening voice and I cry after
JB does that.

All on site daily monthly quarterly bookkeeping...
money in ... fun part! money out... too much of it.
Payroll invoicing etc.

Family issues I'm the Mom... and we have our share of dynamics at times
but after 20 years now it's me and JB against the world

dimitrispearljam

Kevinman

Building Automation, which consists basically of heating, air conditioning, security, and fire alarm systems. I can't tell you how many offices I've been in where there is not two people comfortable with a certain temperature. It's mostly women, and it seems one is always hot and one is always cold. I usually tell them I've fixed the problem, even when there wasn't one, and the next time I see them they tell me it has been much better since I fixed it. The other trick is to tell them if they are cold they can adjust the temp. by turning the dial on their thermostat. What they don't realize is in most big offices the thermostat dials are disabled and the temperature is controlled by the building engineers or a computer program in the engineers office or nearest control panel. They always feel better when they think they have some kind of control. After years of doing this, you learn all the little tricks to make them happy. Well not happy, but less bitchy. I wish I could tell them sometimes, "It's 5 degrees out, put a sweater on for fucks sake!".

JOEJOEJOE

Co-worker whose feelings I hurt when I jokingly told her the partner under whom I work has better clients than the one for whom she works.

Tax manager who tells me to use someone else's computer when mine won't perform a needed function. Instead, I took it upon myself to call the software company to fix the problem.

Client who doctored the social security number on her 1099R (Pension distribution report) in order to avoid paying tax on the income.

I am thankful for my job and the lifestyle/perks it yields, but sometimes I just have to shake my head in disbelief the way Robert Irvine does during "Restaurant Impossible"

madtowndave

I'm finishing up my Master in Counselor Education with an emphasis in Higher Education, so I deal with a lot of lost students, students who have no confidence, and students are complete tools

Sprunkn7

Snot, blood and earwax.

The surprise to me is people who try to cheat on a hearing exam. haha. They think I can't tell.

Patients who say they have an emergency and need to be seen and you give them multiple times that day that they can come in and none of the times are good for them :fp:

I love seeing patients get better, I hate watching patients deteriorate.

One coworker who is a pain in the ass in so many ways I can't list them here.