rethinking the open door policy in my office thanks to douchery

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Do you office people leave your doors open?

We do, but today some old bat (who we are certainly not beholden to obey) came in and basically yelled at us to stop whatever we were doing (all 3 of us) and implied that we should fix something (a missing word on a webpage) immediately for her and wasted about 5 minutes of our 3 of our time going on about it. Then she criticized our graphic design choices and told us to tell the Bigger Boss how smart and wonderful she was.

All of this should have been a 1 line email. Do people not understand that interrupting someone's (never mind 2 other people who don't need to help) workflow (particularly on say... the day we rolled out an entire new web site and visual identity... TODAY) is rude?

Also, respect for the elderly - c/d? (DUD obv)

KtS IT jerk mode is now OFF!

Poll Results

Option	Votes
See comment because I'm a stupid asshole and want to make some remark about how I close it after lunch or when I have cl	7
My door is closed.	6
My door is open.	3

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:45 (eighteen years ago)

it's not very politic, sorry, but i'm a closed-door dude

― gabbneb, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

i wish i could keep a closed door policy, personally. there is a couple douchebags in this joint (mostly in billing/finance but there's a couple of others who feel that everything they have to say is worth immediate interruption) who feel it is their place to come in, march right up to me, demand i do some very minor thing immediately, even if i am on the phone or with a client or otherwise unavailable or in the middle of something else. one in particular will literally stand directly behind you and watch what you are doing on the computer the entire time, and lurk even while you're on the phone on an obviously business-related call until you hang up and pay attention to him.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

i think you should put your office door on an axle so it spins like a riverboat's paddle-wheel.

― chicago kevin, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:51 (eighteen years ago)

My boss (me+him+graphic designer share an office) is the most diplomatic person (superschmoozy) ever so it takes a lot of the edge off of dealing with assholes, but a lot of times I just drink coffee so I don't have to talk when we have someone.... say.... complaining that the web CMS isn't Microsoft Word and "WHY CAN'T WE JUST POST A .DOC"?

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:54 (eighteen years ago)

i wish i could keep a closed door policy, personally. there is a couple douchebags in this joint (mostly in billing/finance but there's a couple of others who feel that everything they have to say is worth immediate interruption) who feel it is their place to come in, march right up to me, demand i do some very minor thing immediately, even if i am on the phone or with a client or otherwise unavailable or in the middle of something else. one in particular will literally stand directly behind you and watch what you are doing on the computer the entire time, and lurk even while you're on the phone on an obviously business-related call until you hang up and pay attention to him.

I seriously could have posted this myself. Except that my lurkers are real estate agents, and it's a nightmare that they exist at all let alone demand things from me. They're kind of unstoppable assholes, all with this "DUDE DO IT NOW or I don't make commission and my trophy bimbo girlfriend won't fuck me anymore and HEY can you make that picture of me a little bigger because let's face it that's what people really want to see."

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:54 (eighteen years ago)

― nickalicious, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:56 (eighteen years ago)

it also really depends on how closely you work with a person. i mean, there's a lady here who will do the interruption thing but she is A) always polite about it B) someone i work with all of the time C) someone who directly affects my clients so her questions are generally fairly important in terms of getting my people what they need. woman who i have nothing to do with who just marches in to be a bitch to darr3ll and me over some TERRIBLY important "i received a misdirected e-mail and somehow this is all your fault" beef--FUCK YOU.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:56 (eighteen years ago)

Kenan, you should make them bid on order of preemption on a week to week basis.

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:57 (eighteen years ago)

The plus side is I have learned to type one thing while speaking something completely different at the same time.

― nickalicious, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:57 (eighteen years ago)

are you sure you didn't learn that watching primus videos?

― gabbneb, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:58 (eighteen years ago)

hahaha

To be fair to the Mexican drop-ins I have petitioned my bosses to pay for me to learn Spanish. I know I should be all Nike just do it and learn Spanish on my own watching Star Wars on Telemundo but these guys are carpenters and roofers and shit not intergalactic bounty hunters.

― nickalicious, Thursday, 1 March 2007 19:59 (eighteen years ago)

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:01 (eighteen years ago)

SORRY

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:01 (eighteen years ago)

They have me sitting out front, I have to deal with walk-ins all the live-long day, stop being such a pussy and learn to cope, at least you don't have daily no-English-speaking Mexican drop-ins, inarticulate Eastern Kentucky idiots who don't know how to spell the name of their own business (it's MASONRY not MASONARY), random coupon booklet solicitors, unannounced laughaholic fat face company reps, etc.

I used to work in a shared office in front of an editor's office and would have people thinking I was a work study student or a personal assistant. Fuck you losers, stop interrupting me while I work :(

WRT not being a pussy, these kind of interruptions aren't as bad as people who you have to maintain a good working relationship with day in and day out.

sort of WRT teh schef:

Since we're the webmasters we usually get these awful emails and calls from assholes too dumb / self important to try to find stuff on the site. Worst are people using us a general point of contact for the school instead of using department / program / office pages to get to a person close to whatever you're interested in.

Also awful, but somewhat understandable for old people: people who think we are the entirety of IT in the school/university. I mean FFS, you have desktop support contracts with central IT which is available 24/7.

One good thing about being the perhaps the least personable of the web team is that people go to the nice guy for help first. ;D

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:08 (eighteen years ago)

I have a cubicle.. so.. no choice really. :( Part of the reason I am about to look for a new job is.. too often folks around here try to get something done for them immediately by 1) vaguely threatening that such-and-so people in the organization are "getting angry" (like I care - so unprofessional) and 2) looking up the org chart and cc'ing my boss on emails. this organization is so hierarchical and people get really, really petty and passive-aggressive

one person i did a web site for who knows NOTHING about web got all huffy about my refusal to put a home page link exactly where she wanted it. first she kept emailing me, then she calls, then she cc's my boss, then she looks up the org chart and emails my boss's boss saying please fix this link. so incredibly rude and demanding!

― daria-g, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:10 (eighteen years ago)

Daria: I am guilty of liking to do the up ladder thing but as the academic world is sooo feudal, sometimes you need dept chairs or deans to crack heads as people think having a shitty website = ACADEMIC FREEDOM!!

haha I wrote that before I read your second paragraph!

emails my boss's boss saying please fix this link.

If I were Bigger Boss, I'd be annoyed at her for wasting my time with this shit.

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:14 (eighteen years ago)

dude we just did a new site + visual identity and you wouldn't believe the craziness that went on. i nearly quit & walked out the door a week before launch because deadlines impacted by factors 100% beyond my control yet I still had to work 12+ hour days for a week to get site ready..

Not to mention a certain person who is totally scatterbrained wanting to "help" & his answer is to try and call more meetings (I'm like I don't have TIME to do all this work, that's the issue, ergo meeting about it with others who can't do it anyway and wasting my time at a critical moment is not helpful!).. his other answer is put together 100% disorganized "to-do" list for me that is about half stuff I didn't do because I didn't have TIME to do it yet, and other half stuff that is not at all important for launch!

― daria-g, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:15 (eighteen years ago)

she sounds like an idiot. i much prefer requirements to be e-mailed. i don't really have a door tho, am in a large open plan office.

― blueski, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:17 (eighteen years ago)

WRT not being a pussy, these kind of interruptions aren't as bad as people who you have to maintain a good working relationship with day in and day out.

YES INDEED. Also it is hard to maintain a state of feigned ignorance wrt boss's dragon breath when he's an over-the-shoulder leaner type. In a rush of professionalism and/or ballsiness I think I said something to him about his breath the other day, he has been chewing gum literally ever since! Sorry boss dude!

― 404 Error: Page Not Found, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:20 (eighteen years ago)

this is what we fight about around here: people who want business cards that look like this

http://www.color-business-cards.com/realtor/bcard.jpg

DEMAND it and try to explain that that's what people like and how would we, the marketing department, know about how important it is for real estate agents to look like they're fucking EXPLODING with self-regard. And I'm like, this is why people don't like you.

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:21 (eighteen years ago)

If I were Bigger Boss, I'd be annoyed at her for wasting my time with this shit.

I hope that was the case, I don't actually know because by then I quit reading her emails, I only saw it months later by which point all I could do was laugh

By the way.. Regarding your web team, I'm in the same feudal world but my team doesn't deal with departmental sites. But.. a serious question.. When you do a site, do you have a process? A project manager? Do people have deadlines for their parts of projects & do you manage to make them stick to deadlines more or less? Do you actually get to talk directly to people for whom you do projects or do you have to play a game of telephone all the time? I am just wondering if my world is especially insane and chaotic or if all university environments are pretty similar..

― daria-g, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:21 (eighteen years ago)

your business card has your face on it = you do not actually provide any service whatsoever

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

kenan, if someone had tried to foist a business card that looked like that upon me when i was in real estate, i would've ripped their nuts off and that is a goddamn fact, so please do not besmirch all real estate over that kind of thing. you're right though, that shit is intolerable.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

Do not have door. :(((((((

― Laurel, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

THAT IS THE WORST BUSINESS CARD EVER, WOW

― HI DERE, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

Jennifer Maitland's got a lot of problems with her brain, and her eyes. Jesus Christ.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

sorry, but i hate real estate agents. Doesn't everybody?

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

no, i agree with you on hating real estate, i'm just saying don't call everyone in it tacky.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:25 (eighteen years ago)

deal.

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:26 (eighteen years ago)

NO DEAL

― nickalicious, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:30 (eighteen years ago)

Real Estate Agents: at least they're not pomeranians.

― nickalicious, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

i much prefer requirements to be e-mailed.

Yes, this is very good for covering your ass from douchebags who don't think before they ask.

i nearly quit & walked out the door a week before launch because deadlines impacted by factors 100% beyond my control

Bigger Boss here is the dean of d3v3lopment so we've been given the authority to sometiems just make decisions for people if they take forever to get back. That usually makes requirements more specific. :D Also annoying: douchebags, when shown demo sites always focus on layout / visual minutia that will be fixed (and they're usually told this) rather than organization / navigation / features

I'm in the same feudal world but my team doesn't deal with departmental sites. But.. a serious question.. When you do a site, do you have a process? A project manager? ... Do you actually get to talk directly to people for whom you do projects or do you have to play a game of telephone all the time?

We are three people for a school with over 1000 faculty. My very nice bossmang handles all communication so I can just do what I need to.

― JW, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:32 (eighteen years ago)

send her some cash money records album covers or something and see if agrees that's what she would really like to see.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:34 (eighteen years ago)

My office is in my bedroom, so door open. There's nobody else here!

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:35 (eighteen years ago)

NO DOOR EITHER, hence ILX images turned off

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:42 (eighteen years ago)

Thanks JW.. I don't know why my team is so inefficient.. Well, I know some of the reason why.. We don't have authority to make decisions about anything so everything we do goes through endless rounds of changes because people can't make up their minds.. Everyone I do a site or set up pages for decides they want to design navigation/organization instead of focusing on producing decent content..

It's true demo sites always get critiques re: design/layout.. so aggravating.. terrible communication around here & thus trying to tell people not to focus on design/layout yet gets response like "you're being defensive" or else things happen like.. I get to hear all the gripes people have about design/layout because the person who showed the site couldn't get them to focus.. it's crazy I tell you

― daria-g, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:55 (eighteen years ago)

I have a "no door" policy.

― o. nate, Thursday, 1 March 2007 20:59 (eighteen years ago)

JW, question again.. web team of 3, do you do all the sites inc. campaign for nyu?!

― daria-g, Thursday, 1 March 2007 21:05 (eighteen years ago)

I thought I would miss the days when I had an office and a door, but I don't so much. I do miss having a window, though.

― jaymc, Thursday, 1 March 2007 21:08 (eighteen years ago)

How do you get content for your sites? Is content all ready & finalized by the time you all start on development process?
Feel free to ignore if you don't want to talk shop, by the way. I've just persisted in raising the red flag about the crazy making working conditions at my office and if anybody is paying attention I try to tell them constructive things instead of just bitching

― daria-g, Thursday, 1 March 2007 21:10 (eighteen years ago)

I have no door, but I did get paid to fish for three hours this morning.

― milo z, Thursday, 1 March 2007 21:13 (eighteen years ago)

Since moving my office into the house, I've had to start closing my door to let my wife know when it's not cool to distract me with cute kitten pictures and Perez Hilton gossip.

― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 1 March 2007 21:20 (eighteen years ago)

JW, question again.. web team of 3, do you do all the sites inc. campaign for nyu?!

SCHOOL != UNIVERSITY

― JW, Friday, 2 March 2007 23:56 (eighteen years ago)

Closed Door.

― Pashmina, Saturday, 3 March 2007 00:00 (eighteen years ago)

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