The best and worst thing about your job?

[Oakie]

As the label says: What's the best and worst thing about your job ... and what do you do? I'll go first:

DX Postie. Best ... getting paid to ride a bike, worst ... bloody alarm going off at 4.50am.

[husaberg]

As the label says: What's the best and worst thing about your job ... and what do you do? I'll go first:

DX Postie. Best ... getting paid to ride a bike, worst ... bloody alarm going off at 4.50am.

best most people
Worst "other 1%" of people

[AllanB]

Pays good for the field.
Excellent colleagues.

It's a wind down company (this is good) the bad is it is taking too long to wind down!

[HenryDorsetCase]

downside: Deadlines, long hours, can be fucking stressful, unrealistic client expectation, some people are dicks.

upside: (now) excellent colleagues and decent non-toxic work environment, decent money (though I never have any wtf?). some days its really interesting.

lawyer.

[sidecar bob]

Best thing, absolutely everything about it except for the worst thing.
Worst thing, being away from home for weeks at a time sporadically.
The adventures are great, but I really do like my home.
Having said that, I won't be chucking it away any time soon.
Race bike preparation & transport.

[JimO]

self employed in the building racket, best thing im my own boss, worst thing the boss is a cunt.......and customers a a pain in the arse

[tigertim20]

Best thing: good company that values people
worst thing, the odd dumb cunt you must deal with, the occaisional dishonest / unreliable / shit subbies, and fuckwits that try to pass the buck.

on balance = worth it. I love my job.

[OddDuck]

Best thing: work in science, incredible freedom to chase projects as I see fit. Lots of cool toys

Worst thing: I work in the Dilbert Zone

[FJRider]

I work on a Salmon farm in Big Glory Bay on Stewart Island. I work seven days on (the worst bit) and seven days off (the [almost] best bit).

The best bit is ... I get paid for both weeks. Seven day weekends ... :woohoo:

[russd7]

several parts to my job but two main ones,
first, coating shell laminates and producing tiles and panels, best bit, producing high end products, (have produced for high end yachts and high end hotels in the middle east, worst part, the nasty chemicals I have to work with.

second part of my job, health and safety co-ordinator, best part, taking a factory that had pretty much no health and safety to passing an audit with flying colours,
worst part, trying to convince people that health and safety is about attitude and does not actually make their job harder.

[granstar]

Best... own boss with freedom from any assembly belts; worst... forkseals that don't listen to sound advice. I'm a Pest Control Technician.

[awayatc]

Seafarer offshore
Great work, good crew, good pay, at least 6 months off each year.

The bad is 12 hour days, seven days a week, 4 week ( or longer) trips away from home.
Noisy work environment , extremely unforgiving if you get things wrong...

[TheDemonLord]

Cloud IT Engineer/SME for various systems:

Best bits: Pay isn't too shabby, Air conditioned office with a comfy chair, Arguing on KB on work time, Youtube, Boss is Awesome, Getting to spend hours upon hours of time on geeky projects that eventually get released into the wild and you see the impact it has on the customer experience.

Worst Bits: The On-Call is Brutal - it's basically a week with no decent sleep, Office Politics, The Company has a Fetish for 'Legacy Systems' - some of which (if they got compromised) could be considered 'negligent', One business unit of the company gets all the money whilst has yet to generate any real revenue, When the proverbial hits the Fan (especially with some of the aforementioned Legacy systems) the Buck stops with me - and that isn't always a pleasant experience.

[bluninja]

IT Solutions Architect at a DHB

Best bit, good people around the workplace, being able to make a difference in people's lives., a window seat, cuddly toys on my shelf and a stress ball.

worst Bit: vendors who charge like a wounded bull for health software that is 20 years out of date and doesn't integrate with other stuff. Managers that play buzzword bingo...we are being rebranded Digital Services....we have a few analogue phone lines, but computers have been digital since Charles Babbage :yawn: and Cloud is just other peoples computers:yes:

[release_the_bees]

Software development and technical writing for a software company.

Best:
Great company that takes good care of its staff. Working with lots of smart and energetic people who are seriously engaged in their work. We're openly encouraged to up skill and to experiment and try out new ideas.

There is also a locked private car park where I can practice my motorcycle skills after work. Also, I'm based near Whitford, so there's some great motorcycling roads nearby and it's easy to escape from the city after work.

Worst:
Some of the work can be quite repetitive, especially the writing side of things.

[Oakie]

second part of my job, health and safety co-ordinator, best part, taking a factory that had pretty much no health and safety to passing an audit with flying colours,
worst part, trying to convince people that health and safety is about attitude and does not actually make their job harder.

Well done. I know how much work goes into an audit. Persevere with the people. It's a hell of a buzz when someone who was always 'anti' finally sees the light.

[slofox]

Best: I get paid. Ergo I get to keep the bike.

Worst: I have to work. Even though I get to keep the bike. Summer days it is no contest. Stinky winter days it is a moot point...


Simple really.

[russd7]

Well done. I know how much work goes into an audit. Persevere with the people. It's a hell of a buzz when someone who was always 'anti' finally sees the light.
its not so much anti, its more arrogance of "I know better so it doesn't apply to me" and the small town attitude of "oh that only applies to big cities and big companies."(actually had that said to me by a couple of the other staff members)
owners want health and safety but don't/wont put the foot down and say do it or walk, can be frustrating but I look back and generally a lot has improved

[HenryDorsetCase]

its not so much anti, its more arrogance of "I know better so it doesn't apply to me" and the small town attitude of "oh that only applies to big cities and big companies."(actually had that said to me by a couple of the other staff members)
owners want health and safety but don't/wont put the foot down and say do it or walk, can be frustrating but I look back and generally a lot has improved

Just read them some of the penalties for directors personally* in the HSWA and watch shit change. Its the only thing that has changed the attitude to safety in NZ IMO

*including jail time!

[johcar]

IT Solutions Architect at a DHB

Best bit, good people around the workplace, being able to make a difference in people's lives., a window seat, cuddly toys on my shelf and a stress ball.

worst Bit: vendors who charge like a wounded bull for health software that is 20 years out of date and doesn't integrate with other stuff. Managers that play buzzword bingo...we are being rebranded Digital Services....we have a few analogue phone lines, but computers have been digital since Charles Babbage :yawn: and Cloud is just other peoples computers:yes:Ahhh. I sense you are talking about ISoft. I had the misfortune to deal with them as a vendor about 10 years ago. They were 20 years out of date then, and charged like a wounded bull...

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[Katman]

Best - motorcycles.

Worst - motorcyclists.

Nah, just joking.......











....motorcycles are boring.

[BMWST?]

prenailer

customers
customers

[WALRUS]

Insurance Underwriter

Good: Pays mortgage, services Ducati, buys guitars, no face to face with my company's customers

Bad: Internal Customers, "Corporate Attire", too many squares in the office who gauge their importance by how expensive their tie was

[russd7]

Just read them some of the penalties for directors personally* in the HSWA and watch shit change. Its the only thing that has changed the attitude to safety in NZ IMO

*including jail time!

The owners know what the penalties are, problem is they have had two incidents investigated in the past, one was before I started working for them and one about 12mnths after I started working for them, they got off pretty much scot free on both, the second incident a colleague cut his thumb off on a table saw, I was the only one in the workshop when it happened and had to suggested to that particular colleague that the way he was using the saw is unsafe as had another colleague that worked there at the time, but he knew better as he had done some night classes (arrogance that I mentioned in my first post), I was not interviewed by the OSH investigator at all as part of the investigation, the only reason the company had any thing to show OSH was because I had written up a basic H&S manual as soon as I started (there was no H&S system in place at all), the only thing the company had to do was put us through an apprenticeship, consequently I am now Technically a qualified furniture maker.
the employee got off scott free.

the only thing the company learnt was that as a small company they would only get a smack on the hand

I got made H&S co Ordinator when the new penalties came in but that same employee is still there and still doing the same old shit.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Insurance Underwriter

Good: Pays mortgage, services Ducati, buys guitars, no face to face with my company's customers

Bad: Internal Customers, "Corporate Attire", too many squares in the office who gauge their importance by how expensive their tie was

What you need is a decent earthquake. There has been a massive change in "office culture" in this town since then. I rarely wear a suit these days, have worn a tie twice in the last four years (funerals both times) and if I ride the motorbike to work I wear jeans and boots. even way stuffier law firms than ours seem to go for suits or blazers/pants and shirt no tie now. Also a huge (entirely money driven) shift to open plan offices (which suckdiddlyuck). If you dont see customers/clients and spend your day in an office dealing with people on the other side of a computer screen there is no reason whatever you cant wear fishnets, a loincloth and a gold sequinned tanktop to work. All that other stuff is bullshit. Took a major natural disaster to show us that.

[husaberg]

If you dont see customers/clients and spend your day in an office dealing with people on the other side of a computer screen there is no reason whatever you cant wear fishnets, a loincloth and a gold sequinned tanktop to work. All that other stuff is bullshit.

odd i can think of a few reasons.:rolleyes:you big city folk
Where i used to work the for a pretty big stuff SOE the CEO took to wearing jeans and shirt everyone followed suit.
I am expected to wear approved colour dress pants now and a corporate sourced 1 or 3 designs shirt. kind of sucks.
Open plan offices is old hat, hot desking is the new de-clutterd look.
I walked into one of our offices in a provincial city the other day and was amazed to see old school office cuby hole dividers ful of notes etc . It was like a rabbit warren.
The hot desking saves on office supples, no need for everyone to have stapler etc. Be no good for anyone that wants to have private conversations though.
I mainly work out of home now.

[R650R]

Heavy machine driving moving big stuff...

Best- Outdoors with views most of time and playing with variety of big boys toys that many only ever dream of using... employer always investing in upskilling and training plus safe work culture

Worst- A slight mistake can be fatal to you or others and not something you can sweep with broom before the boss gets back....

[JimO]

there is no reason whatever you cant wear fishnets, a loincloth and a gold sequinned tanktop to work. . just the usual then

[HenryDorsetCase]

just the usual then

It was what I was wearing when I posted.

[FJRider]

I am expected to wear approved colour dress pants now and a corporate sourced 1 or 3 designs shirt. kind of sucks.

The only MUST WEAR items in my job is a life-jacket and steel toed Gumboots. Everything else is optional.

But as the air temperature is usually between 6-10 degrees (C) ... fashion and frills don't feature. Getting wet is common (if not usual) so common sense applies.

But the view out the office window (if you can see anything) changes daily.

Attached are a few images of a few things you see ...

[FJRider]

It was what I was wearing when I posted.

We'll give you credit for at least being dressed ... :calm:

[WALRUS]

What you need is a decent earthquake. There has been a massive change in "office culture" in this town since then. I rarely wear a suit these days, have worn a tie twice in the last four years (funerals both times) and if I ride the motorbike to work I wear jeans and boots. even way stuffier law firms than ours seem to go for suits or blazers/pants and shirt no tie now. Also a huge (entirely money driven) shift to open plan offices (which suckdiddlyuck). If you dont see customers/clients and spend your day in an office dealing with people on the other side of a computer screen there is no reason whatever you cant wear fishnets, a loincloth and a gold sequinned tanktop to work. All that other stuff is bullshit. Took a major natural disaster to show us that.

I'm slowly breaking them and so far I've ditched the tie and polished shoes but there's still a fair way to go.

I do have a one on one meeting with my CEO coming up.. I might have a chat about how little it matters whether or not my shirt has buttons or otherwise when I'm not front facing

[eldog]

Hot desking....

Been doing that for years

And a standup desk as well

[Voltaire]

Best thing is despite being in Auckland only a 15/20 minute drive to/from work and I can leave early to avoid traffic and work from home.

Not so good is the client is a large US tech firm going thru fiscally tight times.

I do have to wear a suit from time to time but have ditched the tie.

[neels]

Maintenance team leader

Best thing - Looking after the whole south island and deciding who goes where to do what, meaning me getting to travel to nice places with nice scenery for work if I feel like it.

Worst thing - Professional managers with no understanding of the industry taking over.......

[bluninja]

Ahhh. I sense you are talking about ISoft. I had the misfortune to deal with them as a vendor about 10 years ago. They were 20 years out of date then, and charged like a wounded bull...


They became CSC and now DXC. Yes they are one of them. We just installed their latest PAS....requires frames so only runs on IE!! However they are not the only ones...

[TheDemonLord]

requires frames so only runs on IE!!

I hate every word in that sentence.

I feel your pain, deeply, my sincerest condolences.

[husaberg]

Hot desking....

Been doing that for years

And a standup desk as well

Whats stand up desk,is that new corporate speak for working at the bar?




Worst thing - Professional managers with no understanding of the industry taking over.......

Same everywhere by the time you get them educated about all the things that don't know that they should have before they got the job and get them to a stage of usefulness they move to another job.
Then its rinse and repeat.

[eldog]

Whats stand up desk,is that new corporate speak for working at the bar?

Yes, free drinks supplied too

[Voltaire]

Maintenance team leader

Best thing - Looking after the whole south island and deciding who goes where to do what, meaning me getting to travel to nice places with nice scenery for work if I feel like it.

Worst thing - Professional managers with no understanding of the industry taking over.......

Thats happening in our AU office, the tradies are retiring or moving on, and being replaced by grad with elect/mech degree, with a shift to more

pointless meetings too.

[layton]

Thats happening in our AU office, the tradies are retiring or moving on, and being replaced by grad with elect/mech degree, with a shift to more

pointless meetings too.


i work for an Australian owned company, the health and safety rules are absurd. i manage a small crew of guys and feel like the meat in the sandwich some retard in an office deicedes "No more ladders" with no replacement.

but anyways i do enjoy the freedom my job gives me, and some of the people i meet.

[HEsch]

downside: Deadlines, long hours, can be fucking stressful, unrealistic client expectation, some people are dicks.

upside: (now) excellent colleagues and decent non-toxic work environment, decent money (though I never have any wtf?). some days its really interesting.

lawyer.

Didn't have to go far to find an accurate explanation of my job, which is Project Manager with an engineering company, working in Civil Infrastructure on (predominantly) roads, highways, bridges, with a few buildings here and there, and some other shit on occasion.

[Swoop]

Whats stand up desk,is that new corporate speak for working at the bar?

It's literally a desk that rises up so the person can stand, instead of sit, at it.

I've pondered it for years and can only deduce that its purpose is to get fat cunts a minuscule amount of exercise.


I had a good laugh with my doctor a little while ago. He said "the people who worry me are those who sit in their car going to work, then sit at their desk before sitting in their car to go home... where they sit in front of the TV / computer until bedtime.".
Heart attack city!

[F5 Dave]

Electronics. I'm proud of what I do. But I'm constantly amazed at a few of my coworkers .
I've always prided myself with working with people smarter than me but understanding how to get what I want from the team and others I need to interact.

It's the sociopaths that confound you.

[husaberg]

Electronics. I'm proud of what I do. But I'm constantly amazed at a few of my coworkers .
I've always prided myself with working with people smarter than me but understanding how to get what I want from the team and others I need to interact.

It's the sociopaths that confound you.
As you hsve learned Bosses tell people what to do leaders get the best out of people Dave.
Don't ever try to figure a sociopath out other than then have no conscience and no real feelings after than anger, if you have to interact say nothing personal as they will only feed of it.
Never let on that you suspect they are a sociopath. Or else you will become a target.
You can only sit back and watch as they manipulate people and situations as they are masters at gaining peoples trust and keeping people onside despite balently using them.
Never try and beat one,, They will win almost every time as they will do or say anything to win. They devote all attention to this as they are not bogged down by emotions empathy or thoughts for others
Any victories you have against them will be repayed against you 100 times.
They often rise to high levels as they have no morals.

[Oakie]

As you hsve learned Bosses tell people what to do leaders get the best out of people Dave.

Even though a 'leader' sounds the most inspiring, the best managers are a combination of both boss and leader. The percentage changes depending on the task. Some times a boss is needed more than a leader.

[husaberg]

Even though a 'leader' sounds the most inspiring, the best managers are a combination of both boss and leader. The percentage changes depending on the task. Some times a boss is needed more than a leader.
I agree of course.but if the leader is decent he will command enough respect he shouldn't need to throw his weight around thats what managers and sergeants are for.

https://youtu.be/tHxf17yJsKs
if he has no others whose primary responsibility to maintain discipline the simplest method is to remove non team players from the team same as a coach would from a sports team.

[Voltaire]

I agree of course.but if the leader is decent he will command enough respect he shouldn't need to throw his weight around thats what managers and sergeants are for.

if he has no others whose primary responabilty to maintain disapline the simplest method is to remove non team players from the team same as a couch would from a sports team.

Some staff are self starters and need minimal imput, others seem to need more.
I remember once at a job interview that I was not too fussed about saying" so what you want is a self starting person with initiative who is a team player.
The military is probably not a good example.
If you ran a business along those lines you would have no staff pretty quick.
Surely the couch's job is to support the viewers at home :laugh:

[husaberg]

Some staff are self starters and need minimal imput, others seem to need more.
I remember once at a job interview that I was not too fussed about saying" so what you want is a self starting person with initiative who is a team player.
The military is probably not a good example.
If you ran a business along those lines you would have no staff pretty quick.
Surely the couch's job is to support the viewers at home :laugh:

Possibly i might bench seat myself.
Yes i prefer someone who thinks before they acts. As situations change.
The army model admittedly while relying on a captive workforce, works.
The people with the flair and initiative and above av intelligence are filtered out and sent to officer and NCO training.

To get a true team player in the situation, the army wants them in, The foot soilders have to follow without question.
In order to achieve this, they first break down an individual and build them back up again they way they want them.


"so what you want is a self starting person with initiative who is a team player."
I think these attributes are not mutually exclusive, these people just need reminding more often that its not an individual sport and that there are team goals.
initiative should be always acknowledged, just needs to be channeled towards productive endeavors.
I dont think you can teach initiative, but you can foster it.
I think leaders are great listeners just as much a role models or strategists.
They need to understand whats going on and why people do things in certain ways and gain trust to get to what the real issues are.

I have 12 people in my Team.
The work thery do is highly regulatory and rule bound and process driven.
But the people all individually plan their own work and rosters.
They are distributed the work but its up to them when they do it within the time frames.
Most people in our organisation think my job is to make sure they do it prioritize it correctly and do it correctly.
But the majority of my job to to remove the impediments to them doing it quickly and productively.
I am have thus far got good results moving tasks to others and freeing up time for them to do what they do best ie generate money.
Funny enough over the years since i left previously 10 years ago and then came back so many additional admin tasks had been passed on to these staff they were unable to generate the expected revenue.
While the staff in the admin departments were the ones who passed on these tasks see themselves as being to important to carry out these tasks they are far better equipped, trained and suited to carrying out.
This happened as the feild and admin teams had their own separate management and clearly separate agendas.

[Katman]

Don't ever try to figure a sociopath out other than then have no conscience and no real feelings after than anger, if you have to interact say nothing personal as they will only feed of it.
Never let on that you suspect they are a sociopath. Or else you will become a target.

You would be one of the biggest sociopaths around.

Your pathological targeting of certain individuals on here is legendary.*



*(And not legendary in a good way).

[husaberg]

You would be one of the biggest sociopaths around.

Your pathological targeting of certain individuals on here is legendary.*



*(And not legendary in a good way).

I sometimes wish i was a sociopath, that way i wouldnt feel sorry for you Steve so often.
Unlike, say you steve, I never target individuals who are not narcissistic racist trolls, A sociopath would only target what they viewed to be weak.
That said, some might call you a sociopath Steve, but its clear, you don't actually function high enough to ever be be one, as you lack the required social skills.
While you talk a good game, but unfortunately, most would define you as a garden variety narcissistic troll.

Ps Humour me Steve exactly how many sites have you been kicked off from now?

I hope that reply gave you the attention you so craved.

[oldrider]

husabergs team in action:- https://twitter.com/i/status/1094358133273710593 :msn-wink:

[F5 Dave]

Jesus don't start me on military. Had to deal with way too many fucked up .

. anyway let's not start.

[Blackbird]

I've been watching this thread with interest. I retired at 60 and throughout my working career, the technical stuff was always enjoyable, even the knotty problems. It was always the people-related stuff which caused the greatest grief. Dealt with militant unionists in the 80's (remember the national boilermaker and rigger delegates?) and whilst frustrating, it was pretty straightforward. The biggest problem was executive management in our company who by and large were ill-informed and seat of the pants operators who most certainly didn't walk the talk. This cost us dearly in both true costs and morale.

In my whole working life, I only worked for 2 people who were genuine leaders as opposed to good managers. Rather than repeat myself, I actually put pen to paper and the link to it is below. There's even a motorcycle connection! Wonder how many other people have had the same experience?

https://geoffjames.blogspot.com/2017/05/some-idle-thoughts-about-inspirational.html

[husaberg]

I've been watching this thread with interest. I retired at 60 and throughout my working career, the technical stuff was always enjoyable, even the knotty problems. It was always the people-related stuff which caused the greatest grief. Dealt with militant unionists in the 80's (remember the national boilermaker and rigger delegates?) and whilst frustrating, it was pretty straightforward. The biggest problem was executive management in our company who by and large were ill-informed and seat of the pants operators who most certainly didn't walk the talk. This cost us dearly in both true costs and morale.

In my whole working life, I only worked for 2 people who were genuine leaders as opposed to good managers. Rather than repeat myself, I actually put pen to paper and the link to it is below. There's even a motorcycle connection! Wonder how many other people have had the same experience?

https://geoffjames.blogspot.com/2017/05/some-idle-thoughts-about-inspirational.html

Carbonhead posted this the otherday its a long watch but highly intersting and not at it what you would think from a 4 star general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v-NfZ1j918
He compare 13 leaders from thatcher to martin luther king to General lee and so on.

[caspernz]

I've been watching this thread with interest. I retired at 60 and throughout my working career, the technical stuff was always enjoyable, even the knotty problems. It was always the people-related stuff which caused the greatest grief. Dealt with militant unionists in the 80's (remember the national boilermaker and rigger delegates?) and whilst frustrating, it was pretty straightforward. The biggest problem was executive management in our company who by and large were ill-informed and seat of the pants operators who most certainly didn't walk the talk. This cost us dearly in both true costs and morale.

In my whole working life, I only worked for 2 people who were genuine leaders as opposed to good managers. Rather than repeat myself, I actually put pen to paper and the link to it is below. There's even a motorcycle connection! Wonder how many other people have had the same experience?

https://geoffjames.blogspot.com/2017/05/some-idle-thoughts-about-inspirational.html

You too huh Geoff? I've found this an odd thread to follow, maybe it's because I'm sliding into semi-retirement mode, or dealing with the boss vs leader syndrome first hand :innocent::facepalm: and it leads to thoughts of good & bad in my job :laugh::confused:<_<:shutup:

The irony of ill-informed executive management which was one of your issues, well let's just say it sums up my frustrations in my present corporate entity :scooter:

In short, the best and worst thing in my job? The people and the people.

[Blackbird]

You too huh Geoff? I've found this an odd thread to follow, maybe it's because I'm sliding into semi-retirement mode, or dealing with the boss vs leader syndrome first hand :innocent::facepalm: and it leads to thoughts of good & bad in my job :laugh::confused:<_<:shutup:

The irony of ill-informed executive management which was one of your issues, well let's just say it sums up my frustrations in my present corporate entity :scooter:

In short, the best and worst thing in my job? The people and the people.

Hi Rob,
Your last sentence sums it up perfectly. Taking the broader view, I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Truly exceptional people, whether it be top management, tradespeople, health workers or whatever are rare. Part of the human pareto curve I suppose. Yet when an exceptional person pops up, the impact on the people around that person is massive. I would have walked over broken glass for the people I mentioned in the blog post. It changes lives too.

[Oakie]

Hi Rob,
Yet when an exceptional person pops up, the impact on the people around that person is massive. I would have walked over broken glass for the people I mentioned in the blog post. It changes lives too.

Yes. Two of my managers (one was a General Manager) I would have walked into hell for (as long as they were infront of me). They others ... not so much. A couple I would have pushed through the gates of hell then run away.