CUBE LIFE! Office Etiquette

[Giff]

Yeah we had a similar thing for some leadership training where we picked several people across several departments to give honest anonymous feedback, but it was all in survey form online. I agree with mister d here.

[degenerasian]

Yeah, I've been here 13 years, this has never happened in my department with this manager.

[GoodKarma]

So just by reading that text between the lines, how much trouble is this guy really in for such an email to have to go out? Or is this just some window dressing?

He's not necessarily "in trouble" but there are questions about his performance and he's probably on some sort of performance improvement plan.

[Giff]

I have to say, there's not much that feels better than turning on the OOO reply at inbox 0.

[Johnnie]

Man, I thought I would've been a shoo-in for Raytheon. But I've since had another interview and it seems to me that 'logistics' (or at least the 'logistics' jobs I've been applying to) means 'warehouse management.' That's a different career field in the AF called 'materiel management.' My job was more operationally based keeping track of all the goings on for everything movement related. I wasn't the one managing the equipment in the warehouse. I'm the one making sure it gets sent to wherever when the time comes.

Everything in the interview goes good until I get asked if I've ever managed one before. And when I don't lie I can feel that the interview is over at that point.

I've since applied to over a dozen other jobs at Raytheon that, according to the interviewer, fits more of my expertise, but it has been a couple weeks and I'm slowly getting "you have not been selected" emails. It's extremely discouraging.

I applied to a program manager job through USAJOBS for Customs and Border Patrol. And I feel like I have to keep searching elsewhere.

(Also, I think I did all the right things on LinkedIn, but the only professional picture I've had in my life was from several years ago in uniform and I look nothing like that now. So I haven't uploaded a picture yet.)

[Nonlinear FC]

So just by reading that text between the lines, how much trouble is this guy really in for such an email to have to go out? Or is this just some window dressing?

He's not necessarily "in trouble" but there are questions about his performance and he's probably on some sort of performance improvement plan.

Yeah, degen, I forget if you're in civil service/government work or not. I know that if that email got sent out about me (or another manager in my dept) it would be on the front end of a PIP. My organization can't just let ppl go (except for the Senior Leadership Team--they can get shown the door for cause.)

[The Sybian]

Man, I thought I would've been a shoo-in for Raytheon. But I've since had another interview and it seems to me that 'logistics' (or at least the 'logistics' jobs I've been applying to) means 'warehouse management.' That's a different career field in the AF called 'materiel management.' My job was more operationally based keeping track of all the goings on for everything movement related. I wasn't the one managing the equipment in the warehouse. I'm the one making sure it gets sent to wherever when the time comes.

Everything in the interview goes good until I get asked if I've ever managed one before. And when I don't lie I can feel that the interview is over at that point.

I've since applied to over a dozen other jobs at Raytheon that, according to the interviewer, fits more of my expertise, but it has been a couple weeks and I'm slowly getting "you have not been selected" emails. It's extremely discouraging.

I applied to a program manager job through USAJOBS for Customs and Border Patrol. And I feel like I have to keep searching elsewhere.

(Also, I think I did all the right things on LinkedIn, but the only professional picture I've had in my life was from several years ago in uniform and I look nothing like that now. So I haven't uploaded a picture yet.)

Customs and Border Protection, get the name right! I doubt I know anyone outside of the Legal department or the NY/NJ area to help you out. Job searching sucks and can take a long time, the key is trying not to get too discouraged and finding someone internally to have as a contact and either get feedback or get them to forward your resume to the right person. Dropping applications in a portal is like throwing your resume into the wind in the parking lot and hoping someone finds it.

As for the picture, just take some photos dressed professionally, easy enough. My wife just tested an AI program for fun. You upload 10 selfies or shots of just you, and it generated 100 professional head shots. Some were hilarious, like the two where she looked black. A few where she looks like she is 18 yo. I'd say 20 just didn't even look like her at all, but she got a bunch that were legit good pics. They came back in all different styles of clothes and accessories, which inspired a shopping spree to match the photo she calls "that time I was riding horses in Montana and hopped off to take a quick picture before sunset." Her company was going to hire a professional photographer to do head shots of all the executives, but they are using this program instead. It cost $17. I'll get the name if you are interested. Well worth it for the entertainment value of the bad pics, but I think she is using a couple for her LinkedIn and other social media profile pics now.

[mister d]

(Not to be all luddite-y, but it sucks ass they're going to use this software rather than a professional photographer.)

[A_B]

Listening to a Webinar, and the host just introduced someone who has worked with Beyonce. And he pronounced it Bay-on-say. Like, what did the attendant in Bayonne say when AB tried to fill his own tank?

[degenerasian]

So just by reading that text between the lines, how much trouble is this guy really in for such an email to have to go out? Or is this just some window dressing?

He's not necessarily "in trouble" but there are questions about his performance and he's probably on some sort of performance improvement plan.

Yeah, degen, I forget if you're in civil service/government work or not. I know that if that email got sent out about me (or another manager in my dept) it would be on the front end of a PIP. My organization can't just let ppl go (except for the Senior Leadership Team--they can get shown the door for cause.)

I work for the SEC-equivalent here. Self-funded government, non-union. So people do get let go.

It's been a week, nothing. Not even a meeting set up yet. Department continues to meander along.

[Nonlinear FC]

Yeah, people get fired here all the time. I'm just assuming you guys have some kind of formal process. Not having one or de-facto not adhering to the existing policy is a great way to get sued.

[wlu_lax6]

So just by reading that text between the lines, how much trouble is this guy really in for such an email to have to go out? Or is this just some window dressing?

He's not necessarily "in trouble" but there are questions about his performance and he's probably on some sort of performance improvement plan.

Yeah, degen, I forget if you're in civil service/government work or not. I know that if that email got sent out about me (or another manager in my dept) it would be on the front end of a PIP. My organization can't just let ppl go (except for the Senior Leadership Team--they can get shown the door for cause.)

I work for the SEC-equivalent here. Self-funded government, non-union. So people do get let go.

It's been a week, nothing. Not even a meeting set up yet. Department continues to meander along.

ASC?

[Giff]

AOC?

[degenerasian]

ASC?

Yes

[elflaco2]

could be a rant, but lets see where it goes
one of my colleagues in the service said (i'm ops) has recently taken on new responsibilities. that along with significant pressure around business growth (rev, volume, cx).. so she wants in on everything. being he hero. becoming indispensable (which in itself is a death sentence on career growth) she has begun to act out more than usual to the point taht calls/emails/meetings take on a very aggresive tone (she even texted her managers and told them not to be nice to my team) my team has responded not quite in kind as i've asked them to remain professional, but they've added their own level of snark.

many discussions and emails

finally the two respective VPs held a joint meeting.. and we were thinking we're going to get an open discussion.. nope. we got.. be professional. trust each other. 20 minutes of that. dissapointing. already shared with my vp so i told her i'm taking the lead on setting up call w the other director (and an adjacent one) as well as my directs to have it out... lay it all out and find a way forward.
what a cluster. ultimately the cx can't be affected, but also can't have team mgrs at odds trying to one up each other or finding new ways to point fingers..

[DaveInSeattle]

Here's my venting...and this might be better suited to the "things that make me feel old" thread...

There's a guy on one of the teams I work with you ABUSES Teams messages. He will send multiple messages over the course of the day, with each one being a single sentence, such as:

image.png (31.18 KiB) Viewed 583 times

So each one of these messages makes the "alert" go off. Its maddening....dude, c'mon...its called a paragraph. Its not that difficult.

[DaveInSeattle]

More old-man bitching...meetings being scheduled for 12-1pm.

I know that sometimes there is no choice, and its the only time when everyone is available (there's a reason that's when people are available), but it should be on an emergency, case-by-case basis. But I now have two regularly scheduled lunch time meetings per week, and two more have been added in this week. That's nuts.

[degenerasian]

Don't you block your calendar from 12-1? Mine is blocked for the entire year.

[mister d]

Unless you all work in the same time zone its pretty impossible to avoid someone's regimented noon lunch.

[DaveInSeattle]

Don't you block your calendar from 12-1? Mine is blocked for the entire year.

Wouldn't help...people still send meeting invites even though I have conflicts (I get double and triple-booked frequently).

And sometimes there is a legit reason for them. But regularly scheduled seems wrong.

[Nonlinear FC]

I just got "detailed" part time to a team where the guy running it, while a very nice guy, is waaaay too into scheduling meetings. And this new team has a ton of offshoot meetings. Which isn't the end of the world, but it's turning into a time suck. I told my boss when he put my name in the ring that this was gonna happen. He insists it is only going to be 4 hours a week. It's already 3 hours just with standard/scheduled weekly meetings. And there's work associated with it, of course.

Anyways, the point is that this guy has a standing "weekly wrap up" at 4:15 on Friday.

Fucking annoying.

[A_B]

I just got "detailed" part time to a team where the guy running it, while a very nice guy, is waaaay too into scheduling meetings. And this new team has a ton of offshoot meetings. Which isn't the end of the world, but it's turning into a time suck. I told my boss when he put my name in the ring that this was gonna happen. He insists it is only going to be 4 hours a week. It's already 3 hours just with standard/scheduled weekly meetings. And there's work associated with it, of course.

Anyways, the point is that this guy has a standing "weekly wrap up" at 4:15 on Friday.

Fucking annoying.

That guys gets off on it. I hate monday mornings, but that's a better time for a standing meeting. say 10 AM and call it good. not like you missed anything since that 4:15 meeting was running til quitting time anyway.

[Nonlinear FC]

I just got "detailed" part time to a team where the guy running it, while a very nice guy, is waaaay too into scheduling meetings. And this new team has a ton of offshoot meetings. Which isn't the end of the world, but it's turning into a time suck. I told my boss when he put my name in the ring that this was gonna happen. He insists it is only going to be 4 hours a week. It's already 3 hours just with standard/scheduled weekly meetings. And there's work associated with it, of course.

Anyways, the point is that this guy has a standing "weekly wrap up" at 4:15 on Friday.

Fucking annoying.

That guys gets off on it. I hate monday mornings, but that's a better time for a standing meeting. say 10 AM and call it good. not like you missed anything since that 4:15 meeting was running til quitting time anyway.

This guy has a Monday morning meeting - 90 minutes. Then a supposedly "short" 30 minute meeting on Friday afternoon.

Like, WTF man?

[elflaco2]

so friggin precious.
this is a light meeting week. only five instances of double bookings (no triple bookings this week)
i block 8-9a - used to block 4-5p daily and 1-5p on fridays.
i show 34 hours of meetings this week -- and thats only cause we had a big dr appt today (43 days to go! and leaving early today to go see the oldest run at GMCs and taking a couple of hours tomorrow to take the youngest to his regular appt.

work mainly w houston and Albany based folks (and some from Sac, Dallas, NY, CT) -- Houston starts emailing at 7a ET and the latest person emails around 11p ET

meetings i have.. i set up to last 25 or 50 minutes. so i get some time back - others have started doing the same.

[P.D.X.]

You can't skip lunch!

[Shirley]

Yeah, I think I've mentioned it before, but my calendar is similar to Flaco's. And if I'm scheduling a meeting and trying to find a time, you can be sure that I'm going to ignore your blocked off lunch. Like MrD said, our employees are in different time zones and lots of folks have busy calendars, so it's hard to honor obvious blocked-out times like that. I do try to avoid early or late meetings though.

[degenerasian]

the 4:15 friday meeting is simply to keep people from taking off early on fridays, which I often do.

[sancarlos]

the 4:15 friday meeting is simply to keep people from taking off early on fridays, which I often do.

I’m imagining Degen sneaking out on a Friday afternoon going something like this. (Same first name, too!)

[Nonlinear FC]

the 4:15 friday meeting is simply to keep people from taking off early on fridays, which I often do.

But the thing is... With this guy, it's really not. I don't want to get into it too specifically, but his background is incredibly impressive in terms of emergency management and incident command stuff. Those folks meet ALL THE FUCKING TIME. They just want to touch base constantly and the idea of something slipping through the cracks keeps them up at night.

Just trying to be fair to this guy. But, still, it's fucking annoying.

[L-Jam3]

This could go in the Learn Something New thread, but yesterday was my first introduction to the Chatham House Rule.

[Nonlinear FC]

Those of us that follow US men's soccer closely are nodding our heads in agreement.

[Shirley]

This could go in the Learn Something New thread, but yesterday was my first introduction to the Chatham House Rule.

Had to Google it.

Under the Chatham House Rule, anyone who comes to a meeting is free to use information from the discussion, but is not allowed to reveal who made any particular comment.

[Nonlinear FC]

That was the "rule" that was violated that put Gregg Berhalter on blast for blasting Gio Reyna about his attitude at the WC.

Twasn't supposed to be aired out, but someone in the COMMS office at the conference he was attending fucked up.

[degenerasian]

Today is a probably a good day to go home early. Last night our IT group had a scheduled outage to replace a switch in our datacenter. Of course that has screwed everything up this morning and none of BI reports updated at their scheduled times. Now I need to track down where the issues stems and get this resolved. Also, our network went down so no work can get done.

I've been asking IT, "Do they not have backups/rollbacks? Go back to the previous day?"

IT here has been shit for the past year ever since they got a new director who's a arrogant prick.

[Johnnie]

So, update on me.

I've applied to multiple jobs now. Mostly Raytheon but also Target, BAE, and a couple on USAJOBS.

My biggest takeaway: civilian logistics is not military logistics. I didn't manage warehouses. I didn't buy millions of dollars worth of stuff through procurement. I didn't certify contracts or obligate funds. Nothing like that at all. Those are all completely different jobs in the military.

From my few interviews, I learned that my military experience doesn't translate exactly and civilian companies want someone else. No big deal. It just means I would have to start at a more entry level job and learn from there.

Second biggest takeaway: Civilian companies are sloooooow to get back to you on job openings. I still haven't heard back from Target or BAE. And there are still 14 open applications with Raytheon. So damn slow. I'm not bugging out because my military retirement keeps me afloat, but heaven help those not in my position.

With that said, I have an interview Monday for the federal civilian position I applied to on USAJobs. The window to apply was 2 May - 9 May and I got the email a couple hours ago for the interview. I guess I'll know next week if I got the job or if I'll be waiting back to hear from everywhere else. Much quicker turnaround comparatively.

What sucks is that I have to shave down my beard. Was given multiple instances of "you're a civilian now so you don't have to shave, buuuuut you're still judged on your appearance, soooooo you should shave anyway" talk from a few people.

[Steve of phpBB]

Good luck with the interview, Johnnie.

[Johnny Carwash]

Good luck, Johnnie.

[A_B]

So, update on me.

I've applied to multiple jobs now. Mostly Raytheon but also Target, BAE, and a couple on USAJOBS.

My biggest takeaway: civilian logistics is not military logistics. I didn't manage warehouses. I didn't buy millions of dollars worth of stuff through procurement. I didn't certify contracts or obligate funds. Nothing like that at all. Those are all completely different jobs in the military.

From my few interviews, I learned that my military experience doesn't translate exactly and civilian companies want someone else. No big deal. It just means I would have to start at a more entry level job and learn from there.

Second biggest takeaway: Civilian companies are sloooooow to get back to you on job openings. I still haven't heard back from Target or BAE. And there are still 14 open applications with Raytheon. So damn slow. I'm not bugging out because my military retirement keeps me afloat, but heaven help those not in my position.

With that said, I have an interview Monday for the federal civilian position I applied to on USAJobs. The window to apply was 2 May - 9 May and I got the email a couple hours ago for the interview. I guess I'll know next week if I got the job or if I'll be waiting back to hear from everywhere else. Much quicker turnaround comparatively.

What sucks is that I have to shave down my beard. Was given multiple instances of "you're a civilian now so you don't have to shave, buuuuut you're still judged on your appearance, soooooo you should shave anyway" talk from a few people.

There's an above zero chance you'll never hear from them. Of the places I've applied to (granted, only 5-6 or so) only one got back to me and that was after I reached out to them a couple of days after what they said was their "deadline". Most wither on the vine or move to "not selected". But I'm also weird in my qualifications.

[The Sybian]

So, update on me.

I've applied to multiple jobs now. Mostly Raytheon but also Target, BAE, and a couple on USAJOBS.

My biggest takeaway: civilian logistics is not military logistics. I didn't manage warehouses. I didn't buy millions of dollars worth of stuff through procurement. I didn't certify contracts or obligate funds. Nothing like that at all. Those are all completely different jobs in the military.

From my few interviews, I learned that my military experience doesn't translate exactly and civilian companies want someone else. No big deal. It just means I would have to start at a more entry level job and learn from there.

Second biggest takeaway: Civilian companies are sloooooow to get back to you on job openings. I still haven't heard back from Target or BAE. And there are still 14 open applications with Raytheon. So damn slow. I'm not bugging out because my military retirement keeps me afloat, but heaven help those not in my position.

With that said, I have an interview Monday for the federal civilian position I applied to on USAJobs. The window to apply was 2 May - 9 May and I got the email a couple hours ago for the interview. I guess I'll know next week if I got the job or if I'll be waiting back to hear from everywhere else. Much quicker turnaround comparatively.

What sucks is that I have to shave down my beard. Was given multiple instances of "you're a civilian now so you don't have to shave, buuuuut you're still judged on your appearance, soooooo you should shave anyway" talk from a few people.

There's an above zero chance you'll never hear from them. Of the places I've applied to (granted, only 5-6 or so) only one got back to me and that was after I reached out to them a couple of days after what they said was their "deadline". Most wither on the vine or move to "not selected". But I'm also weird in my qualifications.

Yeah, if you are applying online through a portal, you are lucky if you get a generic rejection letter months later when the hired candidate begins working and they close out the search.

[Johnnie]

Yea, now that you both mention it, I think it was stated here before about that portal stuff. Annoying because that's where all the Indeed, Zip.....RECRUITER (Bill Burr voice), Google searches, and LinkedIn notifications send me.

I'm hoping I make a good impression Monday so I can get hired and put all this searching crap behind me. I'll make less than I would in the private sector, but that'll be offset by federal benefits.