Letters to the Editor
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re: "Terrible work environment"
If my dad/uncle owned the company I worked for, I wouldn't have to work - so all I can say to that is -I wish. Not sure what makes you think I'm in my first job, but as much as I'd like to claim I'm fresh out of school, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, sadly that is not the case either.
The point of my post was to highlight that many of the responses that had been posted were dismissive of the LW because the e-mails referenced are fairly harmless when taken on their own (which is not entirely true anyway, but whatever). The point I was making is that forwarding those types of e-mails to such a wide distribution (obviously including associates who are not receptive to them) is professionally irresponsible and detrimental to the manager/direct report relationship.
Obviously, things could be worse. I wasn't saying that cuddly kitten e-mails are the worst of all possible circumstances. I was saying that the e-mails are a symptom of a larger problem with the manager.
I've been through plenty of the more unpleasant stuff (one manager dallied with subordinates on the floor on a regular basis who were also my peers, and relished in providing me with the gritty details). I don't think my views on cuddly kitten e-mails really have any bearing on my work experience.
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"Just delete the e-mails. What's so hard about that?"
I get about 300 pieces of Spam *a day*.
I literally missed a job offer earlier in my life because I didn't see it through the Spam.
Thank God for gmail's Spam filtering, but I still spend many dozens of hours wading through all the semi-crap email I get from people I actually know.
If you ask people to take you off their lists, they don't. If you write back and insist, they say, "Just delete the e-mails. What's so hard about that?"
I've heard this literally hundreds of times. As I explain, if it were just them and just one message it'd be one thing, but it's thousands of scumbags just like you who want to send me email messages every week.
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Use his obvious ignorance to solve the problem.
People who pass along those types of emails are the most gullible computer users on the planet.
If you casually mention something like "I hear that 99% of all chain e-mails are now infected with this virus that wipes out your hard drive within two weeks of opening them"...
...he will, in all likelihood, stop it the next day.
(Better yet: preface that remark with "I have a cousin who's a programmer for Microsoft...")
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Bankergirl, this is not "unpleasant stuff"
Unpleasant stuff is when you are told to come in to work at 3 in the morning, or lose your job. Or when you're told to work at a job that damages your health and you have to do that because there is no other work available. Been there done that, got laid off as soon as physical therapy was over.
One of my friends ended up with an ulcer after a year of working for morons who delighted in wielding power over her. The ulcer went away after she found another job.
Another one of my friends is no longer with us because of work-related stress. He committed suicide after his work situation became unbearable.
Kinda puts fluffy kitties in perspective, no?
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These stupid emails drive me crazy too.
First of all, to all the writers who are saying things to the effect of "If this is your only problem you should drop to your knees and thank the heavens, you lucky bitch," I would like to say Lighten the Fuck Up. Geez. I'm sure the LW has plenty of other problems, but s/he probably thought this was something Carey could help with whereas the others are too big, personal, etc.
I get these emails all the time, like most everyone does, most often from my mother. A few years ago, I got sick of it and sent her the snopes breakdown of the myth in question, and told her what a fun and interesting site snopes is, and that I hoped she enjoyed it as much as I do. So now what she does is forwards me the crap emails and says something like "maybe this isn't true, but it seems realistic. Maybe you could look it up on snopes." Argh!
And politics. I get occasional emails from people who are on my end of the political spectrum. Sometimes I agree with them and/or find them amusing/interesting. Mostly I find them to be patent propaganda. But the ones I get from my family members, who are on the other end of the political spectrum, are especially nauseating. I never forward even the most interesting ones from "my side" to them because I don't want to offend them. So why do they keep forwarding theirs to me? And any time I try to argue with the contents of these political ones, I end up in a huge, painful email debate with someone who I otherwise love who gets me totally hostile by defending the bullshit with lots more bullshit. I've learned to stop arguing, even politely.
I think Carey's right. S/he should leave that job. I would be pretty unhappy if I was getting those from my boss. Fortunately that sort of thing doesn't happen at my workplace. Occasionally someone sends around a cartoon about our particular industry and it's cute. That's the extent of it.
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I beg to differ
Annoying e-mails are unpleasant stuff. If they weren't, the LW wouldn't have a problem with them. I think using the term 'unpleasant' to describe the examples you provided is underestimating the seriousness of them. I would hardly describe suicide as 'unpleasant'
That said, the instances you describe are obviously much worse than an e-mail forwarding problem...
...and no one is debating that, so I'm not sure what your point is.
I think we can all agree that there are worse things in life than kitties flooding your inbox. Again, I don't think anyone - myself included - has called that into question.
You going into a litany of regretful work situations doesn't really enter into the point. You could respond to anyone that writes into Cary with that same response. It's like someone asking, "I'm $100,000 dollars in debt, what do I do?" And responding - "That's not a problem! At least you're alive! At least you haven't been brutally injured and mangled in a car accident! At least you don't have a terminal illness!"
All I have stated in my posts is that the problem is greater than just some annoying e-mails. Obviously the manager doesn't have a good grasp on how to conduct herself/himself appropriately in a work environment, which I would guess is having more impacts than just the kitty e-mails. I have never stated that annoying e-mails are the worst thing that can possibly happen to someone at work.