It's jus' there's some bad people out there
There are 46 posts tagged: corporate cobblers
- Corporate they/thems
- 17 May 2024
Today, I received one of those letters from a pension trustee fund that I barely read. Who does?
(more…)- CookGPT
- 8 May 2024
Another low-energy, web-based
(more…)self-training
exercise, this time on the security dangers of generative AI. And the video starts with a little analogy to explain generative AI to us neophytes.- Keep it in the family
- 24 April 2024
Old King Cock has awarded top gongs to his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. But this is not for simply doing the day job. Oh no. According to the BBC's royal(ty) correspondent,* this move
(more…)will be seen as an acknowledgement of those keeping up official duties when royal numbers are diminished
. Hmmm I'm not sure how that's different to their day jobs, such as they are, but ne'ermind.- Anon admin
- 14 July 2023
Anyone who's suffered corporate IT for any length of time will be familiar with its vagaries, bestowed upon it by individuals who're too good for HR, but little else. Alongside the standard cheap hardware and
(more…)guess the password requirements
bullshit, we have the unnamed and uncontactable admin accounts.- Pride comes before a fall
- 6 June 2023
Like Black Friday and trick-or-treat, Pride month—a whole freakin' month—is a cultural import from across the pond. But it hasn't gone unnoticed that corporate fawning over the rainbow mafia only extends to tolerant countries. Because support for oppressive minorities, or minorities with zealously oppressive
(more…)allies
,* only applies to those countries in which they're not themselves oppressed. Saudi Arabians, for example, don't have to accept this pandering bullshit. Natch.- Phishing licence
- 8 March 2023
Phishing is a major security concern, no doubt about it, and it's one that troubles InstantlyForgettableNameCorp greatly. We're constantly reminded, as if we were attention-deficient toddlers, about the dangers of phishing attacks. IT security tries to trap us on occasion, by sending us test messages with naughty links, as if we didn't have anything better to do than play silly-bugger games. They even preface all external mail with a warning that gets in the way of scanning messages for prioritisation in the Outlook inbox.
(more…)- The safety dance
- 17 January 2023
It's that time of year again, when we keep HR's catatonic shitheads happy, by pointlessly measuring immeasurable achievements. Yes, it's time to self-assess our progress against our 2022 goals. For each one, we have to rate our performance on a scale from 0% to 150%.
(more…)- The end of a microera
- 20 September 2022
Organisational changes are afoot in InstantlyForgettableNameCorp, and my line micromanager is one of the casualties. With immediate effect…talk about brutal.
(more…)- Quietly quitting
- 30 August 2022
Sometimes it's reassuring to know that you're not alone in how you feel, and how you respond. So not alone, that there's actually a name for it. In this case, the name is
(more…)quiet quitting
: no longer going above-and-beyond at work, and doing the bare minimum to get by.- Oh no, poor lamb
- 22 August 2022
In How workplace bullying went remote, Joanna York examines workplace bullying in the remote-work era on behalf of BBC Worklife (Hello Hybrid subdivision). But is she really discussing bullying, or simply hurt fee-fees, when she refers to
(more…)unkind behaviour
?- Everything I imagined, and less
- 10 August 2022
My line micromanager is paying us a visit from the US. He's been itching to make this trip, pretty much since he joined the company eighteen months ago. I don't know why.
(more…)- The new office…portal
- 8 August 2022
It has come to pass that InstantlyForgettableNameCorp's new IT platform will be M$ 365. Or Office 365. Dunno, don't care. (shrug)
(more…)- Trad-Med man
- 27 July 2022
Since the 4th Edition of International Conference on Traditional Medicine, Ethnomedicine and Natural Therapies is expected to be such a raging success, Elena Claire is taking over from Linda Joseph to manage the fifth edition. At least I think that's what's happening. Both of them seem to be involved in similar conferences this year. But it's possible that internal communications at Scientific Meetings, or whatever, are as ineffective as those at InstantlyForgettableNameCorp.
(more…)- Time to leave
- 18 July 2022
As InstantlyForgettableNameCorp arises from the ashes of MegaCorpCH, it's moving its IT infrastructure to a new platform. I haven't been keeping abreast of the developments because I have no spare shits to give: what happens, happens. But one thing that pleases me greatly is that we are ditching Kronos, the user-unfriendly time management system that MegaCorpCH bought over a bloody good game of golf.
(more…)- Clarity for morons
- 7 July 2022
I've just received a request for clarification from someone at work who clearly didn't read the originating request thoroughly, otherwise she wouldn't have needed clarification. I hate spoon-feeding morons who're paid enough, but are too lazy to do their job properly. (grumpy)
(more…)- A spoonful of Sugar…is a spoonful too much
- 11 May 2022
British entrepreneur, and host of the BBC's rip-off of The Apprentice, Lord Sugar, has lambasted PwC's staff for taking Friday afternoons off over summer. The offer is valid as long as they have their work completed by lunchtime.
(more…)- Back to office
- 3 May 2022
My first day back in the office since April 2020. Two years since I was last here, and I'd like to say it's good to be back. But it really isn't.
(more…)- Open goal
- 24 March 2022
My line micromanager has shared his goals with his team, so that we can align ours with his. Whelmed, I am not.
(more…)- Are you trained?
- 1 March 2022
Not long after I joined the company, MegaCorpUSA introduced mandatory web-based training on business ethics, and other stuff that was too dull not to forget. The concepts that we were being
(more…)trained
on were so basic that, if you had even a modicum of common sense, you could pretty much wing it. So I did. The training itself was non-existent and a waste of time; this was simply a box-ticking exercise.* Anyhow, I just got on with it, raced through to the end, successfully completed without even having to think too much. Job done.- A different parochial perspective
- 21 February 2022
The BBC has been moving some of its light programming out of London and into the regions. The most recent move, of Morning Live to Manchester, will offer a
(more…)broader perspective on the whole of the UK
, according to an ex-sportswoman-turned-daytime TV presenter. This is, of course, utter bollocks.- Unlisted number
- 17 February 2022
Yesterday, I was met with an authentication error when attempting to access InstantlyForgettableNameCorp's time-management system. The login system is run on Microsoft Azure…you can see where this going, can't you? In order to reset my account, I had to enter a code sent to my mobile number, xx-xxxxx93. Except, I don't have a mobile with a number ending with 93. (confused)
(more…)- GOAAALLLLLLL
- 11 January 2022
Goal-setting season is upon us! The time of the year when HR's catatonic shitheads expect us to waste our precious allotted time on this planet, jumping through pointless hoops to please their brain-dead selves. And the same time of the year when I wish them a wretched new one.
(more…)- Pandemic posting
- 31 December 2021
The pandemic lockdowns have resulted in increased levels of shit on the interwebz. This is not least in part due to me posting more. Much more. But only in terms of quantity, not quality. Fortunately, no one reads this garbage, so no innocent brain cells have been harmed in the course of the fiasco.
(more…)- Tail wagging the dog
- 17 December 2021
We're having a problem at work with one of our vendors. Or, rather, InstantlyForgettableNameCorp's admin are having a problem with one of our vendors' admin. I can't pretend that I understand it, because I've been excluded from the discussions.
(more…)- MegaCorpCH no more
- 7 December 2021
Earlier this year, MegaCorpCH was sold. I can't remember the exact timeline, since it's lost in the mists of corporate lethargy. But, sometime in the summer, a committee of highly-paid, crack corporate nonentities announced that they'd decided on a new company name. It's a very clever name, derived from the Latin or Greek for something-or-other, and symbolising whatever-the-hell. Unfortunately, it's not particularly memorable or inspiring. But, at least it's home.
(more…)- A vacant lot
- 29 November 2021
End-of-year bullshit from the mouth-breathers in MegaCorpCH's HR department.
(more…)- When 'yes' means 'no'
- 19 November 2021
According to David Robson, for BBC Worklife, people are more likely to comply with requests for assistance, through fear of disagreement otherwise. All very psychological.
(more…)- Just the fax, ma'am
- 6 September 2021
And more non-news on outdated business practices from Ashifa Kassam, for BBC Future.
(more…)- Carded
- 6 September 2021
For want of anything better to do with her time, and the BBC licence payers' money, Adrienne Murray asks the burning question of the day:
(more…)Has Covid killed off business cards for good?
- If you manage the micros, the macros will manage themselves
- 24 August 2021
When I first spoke with my current line manager, after he joined the company, he assured me that he's not a micromanager. If that's true, then he certainly demonstrates micromanaging tendencies. Is there anyone less inspiring than a man, or woman, with a tracking spreadsheet? I think it's a sign of insecurity, or not having enough real work to keep them gainfully occupied.
(more…)- Marco is a NSFW
- 18 August 2021
A colleague at work sent an internal email, requesting feedback on a particular vendor. I work in a multi-cultural, multi-national company, and I am at the upper end of the age spectrum. So I fully expect that different people have different points of view and personal standards. Nevertheless, I found the response from one of our newer, non-Anglo members of staff a little surprising; especially since it didn't even include a NSFW warning.
(more…)- Meet the new boss…
- 22 July 2021
MegaCorpCH has a new CEO. Yay! And this is only the fifth that we've had in the six years that I've been working here. (SMH)
(more…)- Secret password
- 20 May 2021
I finally got access to the LAN and Roomz. Except, not quite. Of course, the password for Roomz is not synchronised with the company's single sign-on, because that would make things too easy. Roomz requires a password to be set separately, with its own specific requirements.
(more…)- Corporate utopia
- 24 February 2021
Octopus Energy is a UK start-up selling green energy. The company is valued at £1.4bn, has 1,200 employees and more than 1.9 million UK customers, and is expanding into into other countries. Most importantly, its CEO, Greg Jackson, has no interest in HR or IT departments.
(more…)- Those who can, do
- 29 October 2020
For those who can't, a career in HR beckons.
(more…)70 GOTO 10- 7 September 2020
As part of its response to the
(more…)China syndrome
, MegaCorpCH has instituted remote working, as well as social distancing for those who have to go into the office. To comply with the latter, we are required to book office space usingRoomz
.- I have a dream…
- 1 September 2020
…that one day I'll be LinkedOut.
(more…)- Time bandits
- 27 July 2020
Last year, MegaCorpCH changed its time recording system from SAP to Kronos. I'm not a fan of SAP, but all I can conclude, from my subsequent experience, is that the decision to move over to Kronos must've involved a bloody good game of golf, followed by a bloody good dinner, accompanied by copious amounts of a bloody good wine. Because, even in comparison to SAP's meagre user friendliness, Kronos is a sack of shit.
(more…)- Looking a gift horse in the mouth
- 18 December 2019
'Tis the season of glad tidings, and MegaCorpCH is in generous mood. My US colleagues have each received a $25 gift voucher, to dispose of as they wish.
(more…)- Safety in mind
- 5 December 2019
MegaCorpCH is committed to worker safety. This gives all of its employees a warm, fuzzy feeling, for it means that
(more…)the man
cares about us.- Must. Drink. More. Koolade
- 25 October 2017
MegaCorpCH's Internal Communications department seems to think that employees are stupid. Or perhaps they just assume that we're as brain-dead as they are?
(more…)- The Dark Side
- 13 April 2013
Mondo sadness…I have purchased a Windoze computer! (sad)
(more…)- By jingo(ism)!
- 6 September 2012
MegaCorpUSA runs a weekly poll on the company intranet. It's trite and easily overlooked. But the most recent asks which nation will win the most medals at the paralympics. Usually these polls attract about 3000-5000 votes, so this one's at an early stage, but of 175 people we seem to have a distinctly deluded majority. Presumably these are night-shift workers, who're either tired or simply just not that bright.
(more…)- Should I become gay?*
- 17 August 2012
MegaCorpUSA, in an effort at inclusion, has set up a
(more…)gay and lesbian and allies group
, to spread awareness, if not interesting diseases. Apparently, thenetwork exists for the positive advancement of gay and lesbian issues
, andTheir goal for this year is to establish themselves further…and increase the number of members
. So I think they're asking people to becomegayhomosexual. - Happy holidays from MegaCorpUSA
- 7 December 2011
MegaCorpUSA shares the office complex with a small subsidiary joint-venture company, for which Frank works. I was having lunch with Frank today, during which he bemoaned the Christmas gift that he, and all the other office staff, had received: an iPad.
(more…)- Square pegs, round holes
- 8 May 2004
Six Sigma (6σ) is a methodology for manufacturing process improvement. It's been successfully used to reduce failures, and thereby increase efficiency, which saves money. MegaCorpUSA likes saving money. So, duly, MegaCorpUSA introduced 6σ to the workplace.
(more…)