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Careers šŸŽ© The neverending workplace "issues" thread

Wow.. just wow. As someone who took over a dysfunctional department, not a day goes by where I have a "wow" that actually happened moment. Case in point. A few months back i was recently deposed for a lawsuit in our fair city. I had to review a good 1,000 pages of emails and other documents to prepare because, well it was quite the sum of money involved. Let me just say, my predecessor wasn't the sharpest knife in the tool set, and the former city manager let a lot of things slide, like a lot. Very similar. If the higher ups knew you, you would get some alternate permitting pathway or they looked the other way. This has in turned "upset the natives" with my, everyone is treated equally philosophy, which typically ends up in a meeting with myself, my CM, and they mayor, and me explaining what was suppose to be the law, and how this person was treated "differently" in the pass. Luckily going on year 3, most council members have figured this out. I will part with this gem:
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arcplans said:
Wow.. just wow. As someone who took over a dysfunctional department, not a day goes by where I have a "wow" that actually happened moment. Case in point. A few months back i was recently deposed for a lawsuit in our fair city. I had to review a good 1,000 pages of emails and other documents to prepare because, well it was quite the sum of money involved. Let me just say, my predecessor wasn't the sharpest knife in the tool set, and the former city manager let a lot of things slide, like a lot. Very similar. If the higher ups knew you, you would get some alternate permitting pathway or they looked the other way. This has in turned "upset the natives" with my, everyone is treated equally philosophy, which typically ends up in a meeting with myself, my CM, and they mayor, and me explaining what was suppose to be the law, and how this person was treated "differently" in the pass. Luckily going on year 3, most council members have figured this out. I will part with this gem:
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Wow. I continually have to remind some public employees that anything in a municipal email is a Public. Record.

Despite what some may think...this is not a venue for casual language and personal 'opinions'.
 
mendelman said:
Wow. I continually have to remind some public employees that anything in a municipal email is a Public. Record.

Despite what some may think...this is not a venue for casual language and personal 'opinions'.
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I'm continually amazed by the dumb shit that shows up in open records requests/public information requests. Not to mention much of the dumb shit carries with it significant HR risks. I can picture the eyes closed "serenity now" moment when the HR director read that.
 
Suburb Repairman said:
I'm continually amazed by the dumb shit that shows up in open records requests/public information requests. Not to mention much of the dumb shit carries with it significant HR risks. I can picture the eyes closed "serenity now" moment when the HR director read that.
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And some in my Dept want IT to enable the Teams chat function in our public network.

No No No GIF


Not a good idea. I have said that will create even more lax rigor.

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt". - A. Lincoln
 
mendelman said:
Not a good idea. I have said that will create even more lax rigor.

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt". - A. Lincoln
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Can confirm. People change. It releases some kind of brain chemical that removes inhibition and makes people more stupider for typing stuffs.
 
Out naysayer has sent at least 5 FOIA request since filing began & each one contains 3 to 6 requests.

I've dealt with my 3 items. I didn't release "any and all" documents that were requested, but I submitted the outcome of the information & cited that the term "any and all" was ambiguous.

Our Fire Chief went the other direction and printed out over 1500 sheets of paper for the new fire station information.
 
Planit said:
Our Fire Chief went the other direction and printed out over 1500 sheets of paper for the new fire station information.
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We have to provide the documents, but we don't have to organize/collate them.

:cool:
 
I had some attorney do a records request for all documents on a master planned subdivsion. I called like I always do to narrow down the scope so I'm not coping a bunch of crap. Most attorneys appreciate this since it cuts out the BS and gets to the point of what they want. Not this guy. He wanted it all. Okay, I didn't have to fill this one so I let it go. 15,000+ home permits, all the subdivision, zoning, transportation studies, and the list goes on. The zoning garbage alone filled up a bookshelf before we even started on the rest.
 
Our admin services director, for being the keeper of the budget, sure know how not to spend money wisely. Case in point. We need to have our forms, and other things ADA compliant. Okay, makes sense, follow a required action by state law. She wants to hire a firm to go through all our forms and do the checking for us. Cool. 1) Word and Adobe already do that for free. 2) some of us have a paid version of chatgpt that will automatically generate the required tags and ADA compliance, and fix fonts and other visibility issues.. but sure let's spend thousands of dollars for a firm to do this.
 
mendelman said:
And some in my Dept want IT to enable the Teams chat function in our public network.

No No No GIF


Not a good idea. I have said that will create even more lax rigor.

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt". - A. Lincoln
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You can somehow set Teams so that it automatically deletes chats everyday. One of the guys in IT was talking about it. But most state records laws including archiving requirements that make that feature useless. We actually use Teams chat heavily for project communications, tying it to Sharepoint as well. And we also have completely unhinged group chats (for example, we have a Teams channel for "Cats of <firm name>" where people across the firm talk about their cats). I've found Teams is actually pretty good for workplace culture in that regard as long as people have their heads screwed on straight.
 
Suburb Repairman said:
You can somehow set Teams so that it automatically deletes chats everyday. One of the guys in IT was talking about it. But most state records laws including archiving requirements that make that feature useless. We actually use Teams chat heavily for project communications, tying it to Sharepoint as well. And we also have completely unhinged group chats (for example, we have a Teams channel for "Cats of <firm name>" where people across the firm talk about their cats). I've found Teams is actually pretty good for workplace culture in that regard as long as people have their heads screwed on straight.
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Cool.

But you work for a private company. No FOIA mandate. You're still discoverable, but only through court order.

But you know this. ;)
 
I'm fairly careful about anything in writing or that is discoverable. I typically send my IT Director an email when I'm having to do research on "unique" uses or things that might look odd in a search history or emails. While this has included multiple drug and adult uses, the one that was the funniest was when we had a yoni spa want to open up. I didn't know what that was and so I googled it and went to the first page. I was a little surprised HR didn't call because it happened in while I was meeting with a few other staff members.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
I'm fairly careful about anything in writing or that is discoverable. I typically send my IT Director an email when I'm having to do research on "unique" uses or things that might look odd in a search history or emails. While this has included multiple drug and adult uses, the one that was the funniest was when we had a yoni spa want to open up. I didn't know what that was and so I googled it and went to the first page. I was a little surprised HR didn't call because it happened in while I was meeting with a few other staff members.
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quickly googles yoni spa
 
I am so tempted to google yoni spa on the work computer. I might have to mention it to a coworker so they look it up and tell me what it is.
 
The place I was at before this had (and continue to have) so many issues that are relatable to this but on a much lower scale. I was told that a recently settled lawsuit was going to require several of the elected officials to turn over their personal devices for discovery since they refused to provide copies of e-mails. They quickly decided to settle to maintain their privacy.

The issues at the new gig are not even a fraction of the craziness that some of you reference. A recent one was trying to figure out why a water line was installed a few inches below grade about 10 years ago. The past several people who had my role were all really good at what they did.
 
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