Bizzare work cultures

[63dot]

for my senior project at university, many of us looked at different work cultures and found there are as many work cultures as there are businesses

some are funny, some strange, and some aggravating, but few really fitting any standard of work conduct

here are a few i came across

i belonged to a nudist club near uc santa cruz...hippies, students, and a lot of silicon valley high tech workers...the staff there wore clothes but when they had to clean out the saunas or change out the water and refreshments, they made sure they were nude too as not to offend the patrons who were all nude

there is a national chain grocery store, while they allowed you to be late up to ten minutes with no big penalty, clocking in more than one minute early caused them to have a heart attack...it was the single biggest sin at that corporation...go figure

one banking/credit card company had this policy that all supervisors and managers had to possess at least a bachelor's degree, no exceptions, even if the job required very menial tasks

a government agency where i live in the defense department had a higher management clique that banned all college graduates and chased them out if they got within spitting distance of a supervisor or managerial position...managers usually started at dod after high school and paid their dues and worked up through the ranks often starting at GS-4 and usually at least making GS-12 or the equivalent...college grads started higher at GS-5 but rarely ever passed GS-9 and were "chased" out of fired on trumped up charges before they could make the management status of GS-12 or higher

while none of the cultures are totally wrong or totally right, they are unique and interesting

what are your stories

[scooteraz]

Originally Posted by 63dot

...a government agency where i live in the defense department had a higher management clique that banned all college graduates and chased them out if they got within spitting distance of a supervisor or managerial position...managers usually started at dod after high school and paid their dues and worked up through the ranks often starting at GS-4 and usually at least making GS-12 or the equivalent...college grads started higher at GS-5 but rarely ever passed GS-9 and were "chased" out of fired on trumped up charges before they could make the management status of GS-12 or higher...



...what are your stories

After I graduated from university, I got a job as an engineer at a large consulting company. I was pretty stoked, because at the time, most of the consulting companies would not hire directly out of school (most seemed to want 2-5 years of experience). In any event, I thought I was pretty special.

My grandfather, who had been a plumber in knitting mills, brought me back to reality. When he asked what I would be doing, and I described it, he asked when I was going to get a real job...and he MEANT it. Designing large power plants was not real work to him. His culture was you worked with your hands (brain work was for whimps and sissies).

[bonefish]

i spent 15 years as a professional chef...where do i start?

actually, the weirdest company i worked for was quite small. in the two yrs. i spent there i saw all kinds of sexual harrasment issues, shady business practices, backstabbing, excessive meetings and e-mails/memos, verbal and mental abuse, you name it, all in a company with 11 employees!

by contrast, i also worked for the third largest grocery chain in the country, and the only beef i had was grossly incompetant management (and a spineless union shop foreman).

[tbradshaw]

A lot of people think this is strange...where I work everyone has a TV on their desk with a full cable feed. And they're almost all on, all the time.

I can even remind some people that I work for a large broadcaster and they still think it's somehow decadent to have a TV at work.

Kind of cool to be able to tune in The Players Championship on the Golf Channel later today.

[Guitarzan]

Do any companies still sing company songs?

I believe that IBM was one of the more notable companies that did that.

[63dot]

Originally Posted by 63dot

i belonged to a nudist club near uc santa cruz...hippies, students, and a lot of silicon valley high tech workers...the staff there wore clothes but when they had to clean out the saunas or change out the water and refreshments, they made sure they were nude too as not to offend the patrons who were all nude

i called a friend who went to one in malibu and sometimes a family would go but there may be someone in the family that wasn't so keen on it .. stupid family outings :)

so that nervous, first time nude person, may get intimidated by anyone wearing clothing in the vicinity and think, "hey, why can't i wear clothing, too?" or a person with clothes in the colony only makes it apparent how naked you really are, not being used to the idea yet if it's ones first time

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by bonefish

actually, the weirdest company i worked for was quite small. in the two yrs. i spent there i saw all kinds of sexual harrasment issues, shady business practices, backstabbing, excessive meetings and e-mails/memos, verbal and mental abuse, you name it, all in a company with 11 employees!

Man oh man....ain't that the truth.

Many of you have read my co-worker rants, posted here during my tenure at my previous job. The TV "The Office"...I can't believe how close that show is to my old office environment.

And we often had staff meetings....with the announced agenda as "We haven't met in a while, so let's get together around 3:00 this afternoon."

Meet just to meet.

There were also several positions within that company that could have just been titled, "Executive Email Forwarder". That's all that person did...was just receive email from sources outside of the department, and forward them to everyone in the department.

I even had a boss once that got angry at an outside contractor for copying everyone in our department on his incoming messages....as opposed to just sending it to her....so that she could forward it to everyone in the office...with a "fyi" at the beginning of it.

[63dot]

Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan

Man oh man....ain't that the truth.

Many of you have read my co-worker rants, posted here during my tenure at my previous job. The TV "The Office"...I can't believe how close that show is to my old office environment.

And we often had staff meetings....with the announced agenda as "We haven't met in a while, so let's get together around 3:00 this afternoon."

Meet just to meet.

There were also several positions within that company that could have just been titled, "Executive Email Forwarder". That's all that person did...was just receive email from sources outside of the department, and forward them to everyone in the department.

I even had a boss once that got angry at an outside contractor for copying everyone in our department on his incoming messages....as opposed to just sending it to her....so that she could forward it to everyone in the office...with a "fyi" at the beginning of it.

man, i wish i had the show "the office" as a reference point when i did my school project :)

i hate the fyi thing as the people who tell me something after that statement think and act as if they are god ... the next time someone does an fyi to me i should ask them if:

1) they made the world in 7 days
2) if women fake orgasms

...and umm, well, the rest of the info in the world is just stupid commentary!

[geoff_in_nc]

Originally Posted by Guitarzan

Do any companies still sing company songs?

I believe that IBM was one of the more notable companies that did that.

One of the old IBM "fight" songs. :)

[woodman]

i worked in the newroom of a large paper for many years and watched the culture change from a bunch of feisty mavericks with ideals to a pathetic pack of fearful corporate drones pandering to advertisers ... saddening and sickening. real journalism is an endangered species.

[Jackson Jackson]

Not quite a business culture per se, but...

I knew (never worked for him) a manager who's hiring practice started with a lunch appointment with the candidate. If that candidate salted their food before tasting it, they were immediately disqualified for the position - no exceptions.

the logic was that, the candidate obviously makes snap decisions before they have all the fact, therefore shows poor judgment.

Although I found this to be an interesting, and somewhat telling social experiment, I though it was a pretty poor hiring practice. By the way, he drove that and several other businesses into the ground :)

[Jakedog]

I worked once for an older grocery company, as a sacker/runner. We were not allowed to accept tips for our work, as management felt competition amongst the sackers would lead to no good. My philosophy was, everybody would stay more focused, and move faster, as to make more trips, in a shorter period of time. I can't tell you how many times cashiers would get backed up because half of the sackers were standing around outside smoking or just BS'ing. Wouldn't have happened with a little more financial motivation.

I also worked for a Pizza company, as a delivery driver. Waitstaff in the restaraunt room were paid $2.22 per hour, and forced to claim enough tips to make that add up to minimum wage for their shift, even if they didn't make that much in a shift. Drivers on the other hand, were paid over minimum wage, and were therefore not required to report or claim tips.


Jake

[jimd]

My wife's current situation is pretty bizarre. The boss has issues and the #1 priority for all the employees is to be her friend. My wife recently had it out with the boss and they had a sit down "lay it on the table" talk to exchange expectations from each other. My wife had a list of things like treating her with respect, recognizing her efforts, not berating her in public etc. The bosses requests, stop in and say hello to her in the morning and goodbye to her in the evening. Her request had nothing to with keeping tabs on her hours.

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by jimd

The bosses requests, stop in and say hello to her in the morning and goodbye to her in the evening. Her request had nothing to with keeping tabs on her hours.

At my last job, I worked on commission - and I loved it. I was there for 7 years and everyone in our department generally came and went as we pleased. We were expected to be there 40 hours a week, but there was no policy on it.

I generally got to the office around 7:00am, and generally left around 4:00pm, taking an hour for lunch. I did this for the first 6 1/2 years that I was there.

One day last summer my boss called me into a meeting with her boss, our VP of Sales....with no prior warning about what the agenda for the meeting was. The VP proceeded to chew me out for "leaving early every day". I explained my schedule to him, and asked my direct boss why she didn't confront me personally about it, rather than take it up a notch.

That's when they told me that the "policy" had always been that the office is open until 5:30, and that we're all expected to stay until 5:30, regardless of our arrival time. I asked to see this "policy" in writing, because I was never aware of it...and I had worked for our company longer than these two "bosses".

It was never produced for me.

I was told that any time I have to leave before 5:30, I need to let my boss know in advance.

The next day I had a doctors appointment at 4:00pm, so I sent my boss an email saying "I'll need to leave before 5:30 today."

She sent me a reply back - "You don't have to let me know when you're leaving early, as long as you get your 40 hours in each week."



She didn't even remember what had been stated in "her" meeting the day before.

Power grab.

[Tony]

I work for a small (less than 50 employees) company.

1. Our company has always been very casual dress. Shorts and shirts, clean, not cutoffs, dress up for business meetings. A couple of years ago, the owners got PO'd and decided everyone had to wear long pants, tucked in shirt, belt, no open toed shoes, etc. After the meeting, I put the new dress code into a memo and asked the owners to sign off on it. They would not.

2. In my company, you are discouraged from taking time off to go to the doctor or dentist, but it is okay to leave early to "go pick up the kids".

3. In my company, they take away the accrual of sick days at the beginning of 2008, and do not inform anyone either verbally, or in writing.

4. In my company, I get a company car, which I am not allowed to use for personal use, only for business, but the company will not pay for me to wash the car.

5. In my company, there are three equal owners, none of whom communicate the same directions to the employees, so you have to figure out which 2 of the 3 are most similar, and follow that lead, or face discipline.

6. In my company, you are not working unless you are IN the office, but when you are in, they ask why you are not out in the field, and when you are out in the field, they ask "what the eff are you doing?".

I have a ton of em'. I'll think of more.

[beach bob]

Originally Posted by bonefish

actually, the weirdest company i worked for was quite small. in the two yrs. i spent there i saw all kinds of sexual harrasment issues, shady business practices, backstabbing, excessive meetings and e-mails/memos, verbal and mental abuse, you name it, all in a company with 11 employees!

Small world; I see you worked at my local Catholic Church.

Kidding, only a little bit. Before anyone whomps me about this, I am talking about the local work environment, not the religion itself. My old music director / secretary at that church quite literally got a brain aneyrism that nealy killed her, from the stess of working there. All of the above items occured there, plus a few others, like the pastor and other employees showing up drunk for work. She left a few years ago to save her health, and is much better now for it. I stopped attending church and quit the music ministry for many of the same reasons.

>> 6. In my company, you are not working unless you are IN the office, but when you are in, they ask why you are not out in the field, and when you are out in the field, they ask "what the eff are you doing?".

sounds like where I work, or at least the attitude of my recently promoted boss. He'd eye you suspiciously and accuse you of boondoggling if you returned to the office at 3:50pm (we close at 4pm). Then the next day he'd harass you about not being out working some other job, when you were at your desk doing paperwork to wrap the prior day's project. My coworker finally asked him, Well what time do you want me to return from the field? He never got a straight answer

[Dan German]

Originally Posted by Tony

1. Our company has always been very casual dress. Shorts and shirts, clean, not cutoffs, dress up for business meetings. A couple of years ago, the owners got PO'd and decided everyone had to wear long pants, tucked in shirt, belt, no open toed shoes, etc. After the meeting, I put the new dress code into a memo and asked the owners to sign off on it. They would not.

I used to work at a smallish (1000 employees) division of a large company. I did circuit card assembly, so it was a factory floor but not really a factory floor if you get my drift. The dress code allowed women to wear skirts, but I was told that I was not allowed to wear shorts "for safety reasons."

Also, company policy was that if we wanted to listen to music, we should listen to it on headphones (one ear covered only) because that way they avoided one person's music offending or annoying another person. Well, come Xmas, someone brings in a boombox and cranks up Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bell Rock on endless loop. I pitched a fit and was forever known as "the guy that ruined Xmas." I probably would have let it slide if it was actual religious music like Silent Night, and not that schlock.

[O- Fender]

Things used to be great. Then the company was taken over by a large corporation.

There's one manager at work that wants everyone to spend less time online yet gets upset if his emails are not answered within twenty minutes. He also has asked me several times if I'm on facebook and obviously spends company time on it.

People used to be able to pretty much come and go as they pleased, as long as the work is done. People would be at work by 7:30 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so they could take Friday afternoon off. Now that has changed. People are in as close to nine as they can be. Friday afternoons are pretty much spend "clearing out emails", the code word for secretly going online. The place is empty at five minutes to nine and people start clearing out at five minutes to five.

The CEO of the company doesn't like clutter. So desks have to be neat and clutter free at all times, no drawer left open even a crack. This also includes no shelves (filing cabinets only) no clocks on the walls, no pictures, awards or paintings on the wall and nothing personal on your desk and no TV's (and we are a tv station).

The CEO was coming to town to inspect the place and the brown nosers went into overdrive getting rid of anything that resembled clutter. A lot of office equipment was tossed then later it was announced (like it was a treat) that we were getting new equipment, like we didn't know that perfectly good stuff was thrown out.

The brown nosers really went all out on this visit, you'd think the pope, queen and dalai lama were coming. They were actually giddy and walking around whispering "He's here, he's inspecting the parking lot." and "He's here, he's getting the tour of downstairs." You should have seen them panic when I leaned back in my chair and put my feet on the desk. I thought they'd chuckle and see the joke but I guess that was nothing to laugh about.

There's more but I think I'll start my own thread.

[63dot]

Originally Posted by O- Fender

The brown nosers really went all out on this visit, you'd think the pope, queen and dalai lama were coming. They were actually giddy and walking around whispering "He's here, he's inspecting the parking lot." and "He's here, he's getting the tour of downstairs." You should have seen them panic when I leaned back in my chair and put my feet on the desk. I thought they'd chuckle and see the joke but I guess that was nothing to laugh about.

There's more but I think I'll start my own thread.

even though i am asian american, i was born here and my father went from an internment camp to the us army and served in world war II

what really gets my goat, but what is somewhat cute and funny is that many asians i run into impose this pecking order...my country better than yours, my village better than yours, etc..

so one day i go into this asian restaurant and they ask me what nationality i am, and since i am so sick of that question on almost a weekly basis, i answer the only asian country that has no enemies...bhutan

and they say where? i say, kind of tongue in cheek and not too accurately, "you know, where the dalai lama is from" ... and the waitress who doesn't speak english does runs back into the kitchen and all i hear is dalai lama, dalai lama

granted, i am younger than him but with my build and shaved head, it's kind of scary since i look like a younger version of him

after that, the restaurant gave me a king's treatment...man, i felt guilty but due to her lack of english skills, i didn't want to go through explaining...now my family calls me the dalai lama :)

[beach bob]

Very cool! The Dalai Lama hangs out here

[neocaster]

Just a word of caution from personal experience:

Think carefully before you post to this thread. I know somebody who was pulled into a CEO's office, shown a post they had made (under a username, they never disclosed their real name) about their work environment. The person did not mention the name or location of the company, or even the nature of their business. The person was let go in that meeting. No cause was given.

[Jakedog]

Originally Posted by neocaster

Just a word of caution from personal experience:

Think carefully before you post to this thread. I know somebody who was pulled into a CEO's office, shown a post they had made (under a username, they never disclosed their real name) about their work environment. The person did not mention the name or location of the company, or even the nature of their business. The person was let go in that meeting. No cause was given.

That truly sucks giant rump cheek.

But lots of companies operate this way. Which is why I don't work for anybody but me. The pay is worse