My Friend Carrie (aka salami face) writes about things her 1st graders say...and it got me thinking about the things I hear at work. So with out further ado I am stealing her idea...
Sometimes I get employees who call and say some pretty crazy things...being in Human Resources, you tend to learn more about employees than you really want too! For instance, I don't need to know if an employee has "Irritable Bowel Syndrome" especially if they are in my singles ward. All of the below situations are actual instances and comments made by employees:
Situation #1: We had an employee call in about how much money she elected to put into her FSA (it is not necessary to know what this term means). On the form she faxed us, she wrote $2000. Well, after a paycheck or two she called in because this amount seemed unusually low to her. We looked at her form and explained the situation. Then she said this: "The form I faxed you only says $3,500, do you think the numbers changed when it went through the fax?" Luckily, I wasn't the person talking to her...or my response would have been "Oh! Dang it! That happens when we forget to feed the Fax Machine People. I am really sorry, I will get the corrected for you right away!" Wow...seriously. What makes it worse is we looked at what she does for us...and let's just say...I don't know that I would want to be a patient in her care. The other sad thing...she makes more than me...so sad!
Situation #2: We have an employee that we will never forget, let's call her Sally. Sally sent us a fax it was too someone named "Bob" at a different company, but with our fax number. We called her to let her know that she sent the fax to the wrong place that she had the wrong fax number. This was her response "Can't you just forward it on to BOB?" I think the appropriate response would have been "Since the fax number on the sheet is ours and Bob doesn't work here, if we try to fax it to him again...we will be faxing it to us, and then we will get the fax again, and try to fax it to him again, and around and around we will go...eventually someone in our department is going to get awfully dizzy!" Wow, again...wow.
I didn't know that fax machines were so hard to use...and that is only the beginning.
One of my favorite shows is "The Office"...ask any HR professional, and they have had circumstances that come pretty close to the scenarios from the show...it is scary. At each place I have worked, I could name a department that would fit right in to the TV show...pretty crazy!
Some days, I wonder if I picked the right career path. I definitely did not pick one that pays the most money...but I did pick one that makes me laugh, and isn't that what life is all about?
April 21-23rd 2017
9 years ago
3 comments:
Isn't there a phrase that goes something like, "Laughing all the way to the bank" Which according to my Google search means: to be pleased about the profit earned from doing something. Well, even if you aren't laughing about the obscene amounts of money you're making, at least you can laugh at other people. Thanks for sharing, I had a good laugh!
That's hilarious. I wish you really were talking to that lady when she asked if the numbers got changed in the fax machine. She might have believed you about the fax machine people.
More stories about work!
Aaaand, I wasn't going to say anything, but your Molybdenum is showing...
Your work stories are great. I am sure you have more up your sleeve. If you frequently laugh at work I think that is something amazig in itself.
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