Most frustrating part of your job?

[CampingJosh]

Simple question: What is the most frustrating part of your job?

For me, it is compliance with state regulations. I wouldn't have any problem with it if the regulations were written by someone who had actually tried what they are requiring, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Because we run a "transient noncommunity water system," (official name) we have to test our water quarterly. No big deal, and it really is a good idea. Here's the problem: they just changed the requirements on the test spigot. Again, no big deal... except that the required test spigot is not manufactured by anyone. So I had to make up these three spigots, sterilize them, install them, and then take my water samples.

Again, not a big deal really, but it's just frustrating to get these letters in legalese and have to make sense of it in order to keep letting kids get a drink from the drinking fountain.

This change in regulations only cost us $135, though, so it's one of the cheapest changes we've ever had to deal with.

[JLA]

'legalese' thats good. I like it...

Id have to say the most frustrating part of my job is working with stubborn customers. You know, the ones who know your job better than you, yet they called you to help... I get them both at the gunshop and at my day job pumping septic systems. Id say probably 1 out of every 20 customers is this way. I just take em with a grain of salt and do them a good job none the less. Most of my customers are solid gold folk so it doesnt bother me that 5% of society is unbearable

[armedandsafe]

Many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was CAL-OSHA interface for a printed circuit board manufacturing plant. They published new standards for our silver and gold solder lead percentage. However, they had used the water supply percentages in the solder document and the solder percentages in the water supply document.

They weren't the least bit embarrassed. However, they did issue new copies of the (corrected) regulations.

Pops

[Big ugly]

What Job!!!! I have been laid off so damn long I am starting to grow mold. I broke the wifes van the other day just to have something to fix. Now the damn thing is tore apart and I cant fix it cuz I got one hand. Jobs, Thats funny.

[ponycar17]

Hmm, the most frustrating part of my job is dealing with people who have no idea the complexity of what my department does. They sit on their budget until October and suddenly decide that engineering needs to complete a 6-8 month project by December 31st. They're really freakin' clueless and all they know is that they protected their budget. Then, my year end family and holiday time is gone while that useless smilin' sack of crap takes time off with their family and wonders why I'm behind. Yeah, that bothers me... A little...

[JLA]

I can see that pony, Id be a little aggravated too.

[Helix_FR]

Besides the personal issues with my job which I have stated before, really the biggest pain is the general public that know just enough to confuse everything. As a manufacturing facility we don't deal with general walk in's every day, more of a corporate or business to business thing over here, but when joe schmo wants a 100 cd made of his local band singing cover songs, they think were kinkos want it done in an hour and b/c they bought the sheet music, they think they own the music. Its constant hand holding and legal BS. I call it baby sitting. I get to deal with it every now and then, I hate every second of it.

[fleetwood1976]

not having one

[JLA]

bear with it fleetwood things will hopefully pick back up soon.

[Eddie N]

Mine is an easy job. But I still have to deal with the so-and-so's on the roads. And considering the time I'm out there, probably most of them are drunk and/or drugged.

[CampingJosh]

Originally Posted by Helix_FR

Besides the personal issues with my job which I have stated before, really the biggest pain is the general public that know just enough to confuse everything. As a manufacturing facility we don't deal with general walk in's every day, more of a corporate or business to business thing over here, but when joe schmo wants a 100 cd made of his local band singing cover songs, they think were kinkos want it done in an hour and b/c they bought the sheet music, they think they own the music. Its constant hand holding and legal BS. I call it baby sitting. I get to deal with it every now and then, I hate every second of it.

Ah, copyright law! I had almost forgotten.

I get to deal with that from time to time, but usually only in June and July. It's amazing how many people get mad at me for their lack of planning/preparation. It's quite easy to get consent to use most copyrighted material, but no, I can't get permission for you in writing in the next 20 minutes.

[45nut]

I now work for a manufacturing company that makes metal panel walls. I have to deal with architects that put out Construction Documents with too little information on the drawings. When I worked in an architects office doing CAD work, I would have gotten fired for putting out drawings as poor as these.

Dimension the entire building as well as the canopies and roof screens.....PLEASE. Don't assume I can read your intent, I need to see some numbers please. Other than that, I'm cool. My boss doesn't mind surfing the net as long as I get my work done.

[Helix_FR]

Originally Posted by CampingJosh

Ah, copyright law! I had almost forgotten.

I get to deal with that from time to time, but usually only in June and July. It's amazing how many people get mad at me for their lack of planning/preparation. It's quite easy to get consent to use most copyrighted material, but no, I can't get permission for you in writing in the next 20 minutes.

Yep, especially when they wrote there own lyrics but used the music written by someone else. Guess what its not only the lyrics that are under copyright, it the guitar licks too. Best is when they show that they bought the disc. "See I own the rights" they say. Weeeeeeeeee!

[JLA]

I cant stand those customers that wander into the gunshop with a buddy and try to show off to them by trying dissassemble a firearm then put it back together. About 90% of them get lost putting it back together but only about 10% of that 90% admit defeat before attempting to beat the gun on the floor to make it fit back together. The other 80% of that 90% get the gun taken from them by me or stu and they arent given another one to 'look' at...

[CampingJosh]

Originally Posted by JLA

I cant stand those customers that wander into the gunshop with a buddy and try to show off to them by trying dissassemble a firearm then put it back together. About 90% of them get lost putting it back together but only about 10% of that 90% admit defeat before attempting to beat the gun on the floor to make it fit back together. The other 80% of that 90% get the gun taken from them by me or stu and they arent given another one to 'look' at...

I've never had the urge to take apart someone else's gun. When considering buying a used gun, I will sometimes ask the owner to break it down for me (half to see what the insides look, half to see if it was owned by someone competent to care for it ), but I don't mess with other people's stuff.

That would be pretty obnoxious.

[JLA]

Youd be suprised how many 'know it alls' we get. And i aint even there all the time. The other peave i have is the guys that ask to look at the lever guns thinking they are the rifleman. We actually had a guy break the lever on a henry trying to twirl it. what a dummy

[hogger129]

Most frustrating part of my job is that I've been a pre-apprentice for three years while all these newbs are getting indentured after maybe one year or so. I've talked to my boss about it, but he doesn't give a crap. Called up the union and asked them. Their hands are tied too. They don't want to teach me anything, yet they expect me to be able to do the work that an apprentice can. Planning to get back in school and get a degree in computer programming.

[hogger129]

Originally Posted by JLA

I cant stand those customers that wander into the gunshop with a buddy and try to show off to them by trying dissassemble a firearm then put it back together. About 90% of them get lost putting it back together but only about 10% of that 90% admit defeat before attempting to beat the gun on the floor to make it fit back together. The other 80% of that 90% get the gun taken from them by me or stu and they arent given another one to 'look' at...

Or I have seen like kids my age come in with their buddies and ask to look at guns they saw on Call of Duty or something. Like when I was at Gander Mountain, there were these two younger guys that saw the GSG-5 in the cabinet and were like "Hey can I see that MP5?" I just shook my head and the Gander Mountain guy saw me and laughed a little bit.

Or when people ask to look at pistols, the owner will lock the slide back for them and let them handle it, and they hit the slide release so the slide slams forward. Can't stand that.

[hogger129]

Originally Posted by 45nut

I now work for a manufacturing company that makes metal panel walls. I have to deal with architects that put out Construction Documents with too little information on the drawings. When I worked in an architects office doing CAD work, I would have gotten fired for putting out drawings as poor as these.

Dimension the entire building as well as the canopies and roof screens.....PLEASE. Don't assume I can read your intent, I need to see some numbers please. Other than that, I'm cool. My boss doesn't mind surfing the net as long as I get my work done.

I get that at my job too. I'll be reading a blueprint for my piping, and it will have things missing. Like they won't note where reductions in size are. Sometimes they forget to label the piping diameter. Gets irritating really fast.

[Bobitis]

Educating engineers, that have expensive degrees, that don't know squat!

Nothing I hate worse than having to explain something to someone that makes 5 times as much as I do, that's usually common sense.

Lets see....
You spent $250,000 on your education, and when you got your degree, you forgot how to google?

Mind you, I have NO problem explaining/reccomending something for a certain application. 30 years of experience has a lot to be said for. You can't know everything after all. It's the stoopid questions I can't tolerate.

That and the abusive customer that berates the girl at the front desk.
Wanna get on my ugly side? Talk down to her.

[ponycar17]

Originally Posted by JLA

I can see that pony, Id be a little aggravated too.

Yeah, it really brings out the holiday cheer, every freakin' year without fail!

[ponycar17]

Originally Posted by Bobitis

Educating engineers, that have expensive degrees, that don't know squat!

Nothing I hate worse than having to explain something to someone that makes 5 times as much as I do, that's usually common sense.

Lets see....
You spent $250,000 on your education, and when you got your degree, you forgot how to google?

Mind you, I have NO problem explaining/reccomending something for a certain application. 30 years of experience has a lot to be said for. You can't know everything after all. It's the stoopid questions I can't tolerate.

That and the abusive customer that berates the girl at the front desk.
Wanna get on my ugly side? Talk down to her.

I suspect that you're referring to some older engineers who really don't think the use the tools most available to them, like Google. I too get frustrated with guys at work that ask me a question in our group, and I say "hold on a minute... Ok, it's xxxxxxxxxx..." "How'd you know that?" "Google...." "Oh, I didn't think of that..." It's amazing...

I understand the frustration. On the other hand, I didn't pay $250K for an education but more like about $25K at Clemson University (1997-2002) before they started shooting for the stars and raised costs ridiculously to attract Northeasterners. And I also likely don't make 5X what you do either unless you are borderline destitute... So don't put me on your S list...

You'll get a kick out of this though since it sounds like you do tech support. I did manage to diagnose a bad DIMM on my new laptop for the guys at Dell a couple of weeks ago. They kept suggesting, "it's a bad driver... " I said, "no, it's bad RAM. All of the new laptops are the same configuration with the same software." Finally, they let me swap RAM with another laptop and I found the DIMM, saving them money on site service. They sent out a good DIMM and all was good. All of us aren't lacking common sense. The real problem I see is that there aren't many new engineers coming into the field where I've worked and the older ones aren't very computer literate...

[Bobitis]

Ponycar, I sell plumbing supplies.

My expertise is on the industrial side, but I must say that some of the questions I'm asked are inept at best.

"Do I have to use primer when glueing pvc together"?

Ummm.... Yes.

"I have a customer that wants to spec pvc for compressed air. What types of fittings are available"?

NONE!
NONE YOU IDIOT! If you rupture it, it comes at you like a claymore!
End of conversation.

The problem I have is spending 30 years of my life learning this stuff, and then edjumacating the 'pros' on the simple stuff.

I guess it all stems from me being expected to show my boss how to do his job (at one time). Nope. Never. Ain't gonna happen.

If you make more than me, you should know more than me. If not, fish in another pond (with exceptions).

I guess it boils down to the lazy factor.

If you just want to pick up the phone and get an answer, I'll be pretty unreceptive. If you've done some research and can't find an answer, I'd be happy to help.

[ponycar17]

Well, it doesn't always work that way Bob. Just because they're "educated" doesn't mean that they have any common sense or practical knowledge. There are sadly some Engineers with little common sense and they don't do the simplest of jobs around their own homes. What they're good at however is managing multi-million dollar projects on the macro level. They're project managers. Sadly, that's what most engineers have become in the US. They rely on good people like yourself to help with the particulars. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank ALL the maintenance technicians over the years who have taught me the real story behind getting jobs done. Those guys are almost taken aback by the credit I do give them at times but I'd be ignorant not to give them credit for what I learned alongside them. There's nothing like getting your hands dirty to understand what it takes. I'm somewhat like that. I'll bump an electrician out of his slot on an installation to do his job because he's slower than crap. I can do it faster... It's not a way to make friends with the guy you offended but it is a good way to boost the moral of those who learn to respect you! Don't give us all a bad rap.

[navis128]

Clients thinking I'm trying to rip them off when I advise them of what they are regulated by and subject to and them blowin' me off...then getting a frantic phone call a couple yrs later when they get the letter and acting oblivious.