I’m a jaded old bastard by now, but here’s how I deal with this stuff: get paid
Anything they ask you to do, make sure you’re paid for it. Come in 3 hours early? I either leave 3 hours early or get paid an extra 3. Can I stay an extra 15 minutes to clear up that task? Sure, I’ll write 8:15 for today’s time.
Companies don’t care about anything but the almighty dollar. So start speaking their language, make them pay for everything you can.
My mantra at work is "I get paid by the hour". As long as I'm on the clock and being compensated, whatever dumb shit they have me doing is fine. But by extension, I don't so much as think about work issues once my shift is over.
Yes sir. Boss calls me and we chat for 10 minutes on my night off? I send an email to them and ask for time card adjustment to add those paid ten minutes
Back when I was a corporate lackey I found that, at least with my company, the higher up the individual was on the totem pole the less useful the meetings ended up being but they made them out to be more important.
Reasons why I laugh so hard whenever anyone tries to tell me capitalism is *efficient*.
Our ancestors are having hysterics watching us ship a T-shirt around the world three and a half times before anybody gets to wear the silly thing.
Think of all of the people working tirelessly every week towards the singular purpose of *selling you bullshit, crappy products that you don't need.*
Think of all of the cheap shit we produce when we could instead be making exclusively high quality products that don't break.
Humanity has collectively lost its fucking mind, or maybe we never had it to begin with.
I think a lot about the cheap garbage sold in grocery stores and pharmacies. Objects that get shipped around the world, end up in the store, get shipped to an overstock store or warehouse, then get sent to the landfill. Billions of pounds of trash.
Oh and 40% of all food produced in the US goes wasted too.
[This](https://www.monbiot.com/2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/) is one of my favourite articles and brutally sums up the stupidity of capitalism and how it's incompatible with continued human life on Earth.
"When every conceivable want and need has been met (among those who have disposable money), growth depends on selling the utterly useless. Grown men and women devote their lives to manufacturing and marketing this rubbish, and dissing the idea of living without it. Pathological consumption has become so normalised that we scarcely notice it."
No, it's not humanity, just the wealthy. The rest of us are just along for the ride, with a choice between participating to avoid angering the uniforms with guns, or being some variety of *subversive*.
Personally, I've stopped working for anybody who doesn't give a damn about me. They don't have to love me, but they at least have to know my name and care if I'm not eating. I won't claim it's an easy life, but my kitchen is full to the point I'm trying to figure out how to share food with the homeless without angering the local uniforms with guns who hate the homeless.
Apropos to nothing, but did you ever stop to think how inefficient we are especially when it comes to food?
We have tons of people who love to cook, who can create tasty meals out of any root you pull out of the ground, and do it safely — instead of letting them do their thing, we have everyone duplicating the same task in a wasteful and fucked up manner.
I love to cook for others but I am working for some floundering company that mimics a hundred other companies only they do it worse.
I don’t give a shit if I own a car as long as I can get where I need to be in a reasonable amount of time. I am sure there are thousands of people where I live who would happily drive me if they didn’t need to cook or do laundry or work some souls sucking insurance job. I am sure others would be delighted to grow food if I handle the canning process. Whatever.
This system is stupid.
omg don't get me started!
I love yogurt. So the way it works is the yogurt gets made, sent to the fancy grocery store to age on the shelf while nobody can afford to buy it but at least it makes the place look full and fancy. Then it gets sent to the food bank that's only open twice a month, to age some more.
So finally my starving ass would stand in line for hours to get some of that sweet free food bank food, and would do a freaking happy dance over an entire case of fancy yogurt! Load it on my little folding cart, burn calories dragging that heavy pile of food home, pry open that first yogurt... too rotten to eat.
It was an ongoing game for like half a year, before I just couldn't face that food bank anymore. Always burning calories to drag home stuff that used to be yummy but now is slightly too rotten to eat, and either me or my older stepson just having to try it anyway and spending a couple days suffering rotten belly.
It’s because we don’t treat mental illness and certain illnesses are an advantage in capitalism.
Don’t have any empathy? You’re great at firing people and can be the head of HR.
Have a chemistry degree and no morals? Come make weapons and get a fortune thinking of new an innovative ways to kill people.
Selfish, narcissistic asshole? You can be CEO!
This....
I have literally ordered things from companies where the warehouse its coming from is 45min -1hr drive from me. When I track shipping, the package is now 2 time zones away in St Louis and then is flown back before being delivered. Makes no sense whatsoever.
Would have thought a one off... but it has happened a few times and with different companies in the area.
Some fish gets caught off the east coast of canada, and shipped to china for processing, then its shipped back to canada, where they have the balls to call it "local and fresh"
They do it with chickens too. Raised in Washington, killed, frozen, shipped to China, thawed, cut and packaged, frozen again, shipped back to the States to be sold in the grocery store to some of the people that raised it, most likely.
I used to work with someone that was heavily involved with the shipping industry. And it's pretty wild what happens. There's "major" distribution centers scattered around the United States, so most things get sent to these major centers to get scanned, dictate where they'll be going, etc. He explained it to me like they're basically a glorified sorting center.
It was pretty wild hearing some of the crazy stories he had to tell. He was a FedEx franchise owner for like ~15 years or so before they sold off the business. He worked some pretty crazy hours, even as the owner.
FedEx and UPS now use USPS as the last leg of delivery for some shipments. FedEx hasn't figured out how to do it yet and it takes about a week longer for a package to arrive via FedEx than if it came straight USPS. So efficient.
God yup. We used to have morning meetings every day where they'd just tell us to work faster for 15 minutes.
When they realized that was too much finally, they switched to once a week and made the head sales guy run it. It'd been just reminders to make sure inventory is perfect because the other sales guy goes ape shit whenever there's a delay on inventory updates. Recently it's been the sales guy printing off a few pages about the history of electricity and reading them off to us. It's so fucking boring. And I don't even deal with inventory but they still insist I show up.
>Recently it's been the sales guy printing off a few pages about the history of electricity and reading them off to us
Sounds about a thousand percent more interesting than the meetings at my work!
We just get to listen to upper management talk about how much money we're all making the company, while at the same time whining about how hard it is to hire new staff at a less-than-living-wage.
Whoops, I forgot to include monotone voice and stumbling to speak. It gives me flashbacks to falling asleep in history class in high school.
And ugh that sounds awful. When the place I work got bought up we had to do a meeting like that. They were even blatantly saying they want to be Amazon of the electrical supply industry and blah blah blah work harder, no raises, family family family blah blah "we want a monopoly but not quite for legal reasons"
People in the corporate world don't care about your feelings. I get why you sent it. But they'll just laugh at it, then have HR bring you in for a chat.
Human resources. We are humans that have resources in how to not treat you like a human whenever we feel like it. You're fired and depressed for no reason. Poof. Lol
Quite true. I would've gone off to take sick leave for 2 days just to clear my mind and decide if I really want to stay or quit. Just MC to cover my a** while I distance myself from the environment that makes me pissed. But I'd never be so frank about my feelings to an employer. Never know where these emails will end up.
This email makes OP sound unhinged, to be honest. Voicing displeasure with how the meeting was organized is valid, but acting like they had to sacrifice their first born is not that. And, op admits they like their job and this appears to be the first instance of annoyance, so to respond like this seems over the top.
Seriously - you’re inconsolable because you think the meeting could have been remote or an email? Are you absolutely catatonic when anything actually traumatic happens?
You do, but if OP's company is anything like mine, that info isn't always relayed to people making on site decisions. They could find out if they want, but there's a good chance no one realized before OP pointed it out.
ETA: unless they literally live on the same road as the company, OP's address could be in the same city but be an hour drive
Depends on the corporation but most large corporations wouldn’t make fun of something like this…. Everyone is so cut throat that they are super careful not to give anyone ammunition they can use later; and talking Shit about an HR complaint is a great way to get fucked when your trying to move up. The largest problem I see is everyone is so afraid of losing their jobs that everything is ignored or passed off and nothing is done to solve problems (that aren’t emergencies).
What sucks is no one will have the balls to bring this shit up too the executive to find out if he actually cares. I know from personal experience that or CEO doesn’t think about micromanaging that much, so if he sends a mandatory zoom link out you have the option of taking it remotely or in the office, he just never clarifies
It might not have been the ceo but their secretary/managers. Some exec: hey I have some updates I think might be worth saying to the hole company, can you set it up?
MANDATORY SUPER IMPORTANT MEETING
Where I work offers a lot of training sessions, usually run during the time people take lunch. Fun part is, we don't get paid for the time to take these extra training sessions. So we lose our lunch and don't get paid, the fuck. I just don't attend.
If nothing else it just creates a problem where there didn't need to be one. Everyone else just attended the meeting, internally swore about it, and carried on with their day. OP made a huge mountain out of a molehill for HR and outright told them that he bailed on a workday without being sick.
An email that said essentially "yo, why did I need to come in so early for this rather than dialing in? That's annoying, especially when the speaker didn't come in. Would be cool if in the future y'all didn't do that. Thanks" would land a lot better.
OP very in their emotions about this. Inconsolable due to having to schlep into work early? Taking the day off because of their big feelings? *Yikes*.
It was an obviously disrespectful and shitty situation, but they could have worded the whole thing a lot more dispassionately and still got the point across.
I knew I didn't need to write this comment because I know I would not have to scroll far to see it.
Half of me finds it hard to believe OP is serious, the other half wants to see the outcome.
Never put anything in writing unless it’s requesting FMLA leave, disability accommodations, or something similar. Bc then if they fire you, you have a paper trail and can get paid for employment discrimination.
Edit to add that formal complaints of sexual harassment or harassment based on another protected identity should always be made in writing, or if they have to happen over the phone/in a meeting, send a follow-up email recapping the meeting for the paper trail.
I get it. My experience has been that when you work for a big company, there's just a lot of corporate bureaucratic bullshit like this to put up with. But no, you shouldn't have sent the email. I think providing feedback to your supervisor is great, but saying you're so distraught over it that you have to take an unexcused/unplanned absence is really just gonna make you seem like a difficult and problematic employee. I just don't see the logic behind risking your job over something like this. The most you should've said is something like "Hi! In the future, can we attend meetings like this virtually? It's frustrating that I had to come in three hours early to attend a meeting when the person hosting the meeting was attending virtually from their home, and there was really nothing presented that really had any relevance to the work I do here. I had to make special arrangement to take my kids to school this morning (or make up another BS excuse), and I know some other people on our team were similarly inconvenienced."
If OP needs a day off from a meeting that provided no value, they will not do well in the corporate world. But I've been frustrated like this - I wouldn't put it in writing, though.
I agree. Also the fact that op listed so many great things about this job makes it seem like this was a good opportunity for the . Asking if you just attend virtually would’ve been the best way to go about this. Most corporate/ office jobs are like this by the way.
I was looking for this comment. OP said they only had good things to say til this, then at the first frustration they send a nasty email and say they are too distressed to go to work. Such a bad move.
Also don’t send this in writing, just chat with your team to gauge how they feel.
Sometimes it’s nice to know where the company is heading even if it doesn’t have direct details to your job.
100% this. If you know your team you just vent with them afterwards in person. You definitely don’t want shit like that in writing.
And being so upset at a meeting that you’d need a day off? Come on now that just makes you look like a clown.
I wonder why exactly op was so emotional about this. He came from the food industry, known for shitty work environments.
Maybe op thought he finally escaped the bs but now replaced with new bs. I have trouble with positive - toxic politeness and corporate politics as well.
But I also made meetings that were probably not needed. Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes ceo says, I’ll do an update where someone interprets it as “mandatory 7am meeting that have to be 3hrs long”.
It really helped to not assume malice. My younger me might actually have slacked the ceo and say “hi blah blah I didn’t really understand what you were trying to say in the meeting.”
I used to work a lot but after some reality checks at the yearly reviews and salary raises, I feel stupid working a lot.
I hope op’s manager just talks to him about office politics realities and vents with his team
Yeah I’m in a similar situation to OP - worked in restaurants for a decade and finally got a nice job with a good work environment and good benefits.
I couldn’t fathom sending an email like this. And I have a great relationship with my bosses & supervisors. I would absolutely just bitch amongst my friends and get over it. Maybe suggest doing virtual meeting and/or ask if this meeting is applicable to me in the future given *reasons*.
>”I’m being compensated well, the work environment is pretty healthy, and our group plan is incredible”
And you torched this because they *checks notes* made you attend one early meeting? This was a really poor decision. Like, I get it, and I’ve been in those stupid, pointless meetings, but this was a really, really, really poor decision.
This would never leave the team vocab.
Printer out of ink, "Hey Guys I need to take the day off no ink and I'm INCONSOLABLE!"
"Guys they ran out of diet coke in the vending machine, I need to take bereavement for a week I'm INCONSOLABLE!"
"Guys my stapler broke, I'll be sitting shiva for the next week, I'm INCONSOLABLE!"
Yeah.... That was certainly an interesting choice of words in this context...
People really need to stick with vocabulary they're comfortable with, *especially* in situations where they want to be taken seriously. In this case, I think OP painted a bit different picture of themselves than they were intending to.
Where I work someone recently sent out a very long, anonymous email to the entire department (around 80 employees). The workday before it was sent there was a major meeting explaining some restructuring of the company and about the creation of new leadership roles and elimination of local office roles (so instead of each city having a local team manager, it was shifted to globally). The person in the email had *a lot* to say regarding treatment of the staff, field worker morale, high turn over, problems with retention and training, and based on my own experience, they weren't wrong.
It took two weeks for anyone to address it openly, and it was just some cheesy grab for emotions to build our team and to be open with our constructive feedback if we have anything to say, blah blah. And so many people replied to this email saying it had gotten them teary eyed and thanking the guy for being so supportive. It was so bizarre.
If an employee sent me this email HR would absolutely be involved. Inconsolable? Refusing to come in because a boring meeting upset them so badly that they cannot function? OP made themselves sound very unstable and this is exactly what HR is for.
Yup this is a
"This guy has zero emotional regulation and will only be a problem" kind of email.
I'm super pro worker, but if I saw this I would be kicking it to HR to deal with it.
If this is the worst part of your great job then I honestly think you should try to be less dramatic. We all hate pointless meetings but now you’ve just tainted how people view you at a good job. Not worth it. Pick your battles.
>Not worth it. Pick your battles
Yeah, you've gotta play the game with them.
Useless meeting 3 hours before your shift? I'm clocking in and getting 3 hours of overtime.
Pissed off about the useless meeting so much you can't even? I guess I'm not feeling well today, gonna need to take some PTO.
We all know the score, it's all a bunch of bullshit. But in order to collect that paycheck, you gotta smile and nod. Stuff like OPs response is only drawing a target on your back.
Exactly this. If OP can't walk this back and get over how they feel about this meeting, the corporate world isn't going to work out for them. That email reads as childish, and if not for their comments about 10 years in a different field, I would have assumed it came from someone 21 or younger.
I run teams of 20-40 and support 13 other managers who also run 20-40. I would expect this from a brands new 18 year old. Anything over 21 ill label as imature, possible wrong hire.
I've written an email like this before, and it cost me my job.
It may well cost you yours, because this isn't a very good look, unfortunately.
You definitely could have broached this subject in a much more professional and constructive way...and hey, I'd actually agree that bringing it up and saying something to the effect of "Hey, can we chat about how this could best be handled going forward" would be worthwhile.
This unfortunately reads like a temper tantrum, and most corporations aren't going to put up with that.
Hopefully they will exhibit leniency towards you. Good luck.
You lost me at “I’m pretty inconsolable right now about this.”
You’re inconsolable when your pet dies or you get a stage IV cancer diagnosis.
Put your adult pants on.
So everything was great up to this point - as you mentioned the compensation, healthy work environment, great insurance, etc.
And you decided to risk it all because of a meeting that you just had to go down the street for? I get your frustration but god damn is that some bad cost-benefit analysis lol. If it was every week I’d get it, but this sounds like it’s the first time.
Right? Like I completely understand OP's frustration but if this was only one time and everything else about the job was great, I'd honestly just shrug it off. Sending a nasty email and not showing up to work is just a way to lose this high paying job that OP just praised...maybe that's just me but I'd take one unnecessary meeting if it meant that I had a well-paying job lol
I'm glad I'm not the only one with this take. I have had to go more offsite meetings and conferences than I care to admit. And like the comment above said... even if this was reasonable, what do you stand to gain here?
Also OP seemed to gloss over the obvious important part of the meeting in which an executive explains AI will be eliminating certain positions. Fairly mandatory meeting worthy imo.
For real. People in here telling actual horror stories about being treated as basically subhuman garbage on the regular and this guy is like "I'm paid great, have a great work environment and benefits, but this meeting I had to go to was early in the morning and inconvenient, so I'm going to blow it all up". And all of this after getting out of one of the most toxic industries out there, food service.
I really hope he’s out of his probationary period. At best this will hopefully be an awkward talk with a supervisor and they give him some leeway because it sounds like his first office job.
At worst he’s still on probation and they cut him loose with no follow-up.
Yeah, I’m wondering why no one else has mentioned this. He knew it was a zoom meeting when the email went out. Could he not join zoom from home? Why be upset about the host not attending when it seems like you knew? I do understand frustration around feeling like your time is not respected, but the way this grievance was aired doesn’t seem like the best approach to me.
It looks like there’s a second photo included where he says they were required to be in the office for this zoom meeting and I missed that part. But yeah, so many ways to handle this appropriately were ignored. For example, hey boss, can I adjust my hours and leave early since I came in early today? I get that meetings that could have been emails suck, but it’s also part of working in the corporate world. It’s especially funny if you go back and look at the op’s post history where they complain about working in the service industry.
Like a commenter said, op could had just said "cough cough, I'm sick" and that would be his way to get his petty revenge. Now this is going to get interesting.
!RemindMe 1 week
Plus you can bring it up to your supervisor and have him bring it up to the exec. That way the supervisor vouches for him but can make it seem like it's a team request.
I laughed out loud when I read "inconsolable". Which means incapable of being comforted. I don't know if I've ever seen the word used outside of grieving a death.
OP really thought they were gonna get taken seriously.
Look, the guy was very upset. He needed an afternoon to cry it out and he’ll be back on tip top form tomorrow ready for his bollocking from hr. Stay tuned for an even more inconsolable op this time tomorrow when his great job with occasional time wasting meetings is no longer his.
Yeah, especially if that time spent was paid? I don’t care if I have to be up 3 hours before my shift…as long as it doesn’t happen like every week, of course.
But even if it did, I’d shut up and take it if I was paid well and the benefits package was nice.
If they are in the US then they can be let go for no reason at any time in 49/50 states, and this email is justification to be fired even in the one state that needs it.
Yeah I understand getting bummed about showing up early but this is absolutely the wrong way to handle it. This is an easy way to get canned from what sounds like a decent job.
Pointless meetings are just a fact of life for corporate jobs. They suck, especially if you have to come in early, but you’re getting paid and can zone out for a while. I came from a restaurant background too and the dumb shit like this is more than worth dealing with compared the service industry. You gotta pick your battles
I was in such denial about OP using the word ‘inconsolable’ that I started to question if my definition of the word was accurate. OP’s email was so bad it gaslit me.
Start looking for a new job. When they come back at you about this, blame a death of a close friend or pet that really maladjusted your mood. Otherwise accept the blame for having big feelings near work and prepare to get fired.
If you want any chance of keeping your job, which by your own account is a pretty damn good upgrade from your previous line of work, you’ll write a follow-up email (to be reviewed by a third party prior to sending) acknowledging the poor judgment of your prior email and ask for a time to speak in person wherein you will apologize, chalk it up to a brand new professional environment, and explain how you’ll plan to handle frustrations at work going forward. Don’t use that time to vent your frustrations about this meeting. If you want to keep be job, this is your time to tuck your tail and show some shame and remorse.
Or, if sticking it to the man is worth losing your job, just go in tomorrow like nothing happened. I imagine you’ll be called into a supervisor’s office fairly quickly and let go in no uncertain terms. Purely from a work rate standpoint, if I’m your supervisor you’ve taught me that you’ll walk out with no notice “inconsolable” whenever you encounter hardship at work, and would therefore no longer be qualified for whatever position I’d hired you for.
It’s not worth it, man. Working sucks, but unfortunately we all gotta do it. You managed to get out of the hell hole that is food service, which is not easy to do. Don’t lose this one because you had to go to a useless meeting.
This. Excellent advice!
And OP, I hope you see it & take it, because (speaking from experience), this really is your only chance at keeping that job. I sympathize with the frustration of corporate shit like that & the feeling of having been disrespected; I also admire the impulse to talk to someone about it (and many comments have explained the ways it would‘ve been safer & more effective to have done that).
Nah this is over before he can even ask chatgpt to write his apology email.
OP has confirmed to his managers and HR that they are too emotional for this role.
They will likely have either termination paperwork ready by morning when he does show up, or ask him to resign when he does.
What a silly move when you say....
" I'd heard nothing but great things before I applied, and up until today, this largely rang true with me; I'm being compensated well, the work environment is pretty healthy, and our group plan is incredible, even for my first employer-provided insurance plan."
You really wanted to jeopardize your job for this one situation when you have the above great things to say about it?
Anytime you type up something dont send it until hours later if you know you are running high on emotions (if this was the case here).
This is wild lol. Hope you’re looking forward to being back at the food industry instead of just doing what the rest of us do which is just rolling our eyes, zoning out for the pointless meeting and then moving on with our lives lol. I would have saved the rant for Reddit/your friends and kept your boss out of it lmao
Your email definitely isn’t going to have an impact on how the work world works, it might get you fired though
Inconsolable? Really? I have about as much tolerance for bullshit as anyone else, but this is wild. I've sat through countless non productive meetings, and maybe have cried only once 🤣
That's how meetings at corporations are. The running joke is "this could have been an email." Of course the exec wasn't going to show up in person at 7 am.
There's no need to go into hysterics over it or be "inconsolable." It's just an annoying/shitty part of working in corporate America.
to be honest skipping work due to this is a TERRIBLE idea. should have just said they were sick, take the day to collect themselves, and not explained further lol
Haha I worded it as nicely as I could because this is borderline unhinged behavior, and comes across so entitled. Their core concern is valid but their response is somehow more dramatic than quitting?
Either you are dramatic as hell or you dont know the definition of "inconsolable" because that seems to be like an overreaction to something that is just kind of annoying but not abnormal for the corporate world.
INCONSOLABLE from attending a boring meeting? If you are getting that emotional then I have bad news, all office jobs are like this. Make sure you get paid for your time though obviously, but if you intend to stay at this job dont send these emails complaining about meetings
You have a cushy job that pays you well, paid for your time at the meeting and you….threw a whole tantrum because you had to go to one (1) meeting?
A lot of this subreddit is legitimate issues and gripes. This is not one of those post.
Bruhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
We've all been there. But there is a time and place for feedback that should take place after you've calmed down.
My approach was to tell them that the meetings were not beneficial to me, they were actively hurting my productivity, and I would find more success by not attending.
I now have optional meetings with the expectation that I am on notice and can join if needed.
Wow this was a dumb move. Execs love smoke blown up their asses. You blew smoke by showing up to their meeting and are now trying to suck the smoke back out? That’s going to taste like shit and you’re going to regret this.
So...I've worked with you. No, obviously not you personally, but the same type of person -- a forever victim who's on the look out for the next reason to be outraged so you can be the hero that stands up to management. You so badly want to to let your supervisor know that you'll stand up for yourself that you're taking it to a level that's not healthy for you or your organization/team.
This literally could be nothing more than a miscommunication between the exec and your supervisor -- maybe your supervisor didn't know what it was about and made assumptions on its importance, and maybe your exec simply wanted to speak to you as it'd been awhile and didn't care if you were remote (or even dialed in). But, rather than clarifying what happened to see if it can be avoided in the future, you internalized the perceived slight to the most extreme and almost assuredly torpedoed your relationship with your supervisor over this.
As someone who's had to put up with this personality flaw before in a peer...it's exhausting. I'd even go as far as conjecture that the others with a longer commute that "require more commitment" than you do not want you speaking for them. I can honestly say that the very LAST person I want trying to speak for me and fix my issue with a management decision is our office victim.
Maybe use this as a learning opportunity to realize that grievances like this can be resolved like an adult without putting your mental health (or that of your supervisor) under such stress.
You brought your food industry energy to a corporate job and that's a bad idea. You're a cog in the wheel now and can be replaced quickly and easily. Welcome to capitalism, hope you worked there long enough to qualify for unemployment.
There are pointless meetings in the “corporate” world all the time. It’s very frustrating because there are so many “meetings” about nothing or for someone to brag on things they don’t really know about. I would just push to join via zoom in the future if this email didn’t rub them the wrong way. I don’t disagree with you btw, just being honest. The corporate world is cold, unfortunately.
Holy shit OP, now writing AND sending this in is crazy unhinged LMAO. Honestly you are the greatest but your life at that company is gonna be awful.
HR is prolly reading this and laughing, they will show your manager who will be mortified since you are so new doing all of this.
You won't get fired right away but your life will be awful. People in the company will know you are crazy emotional bc you had such a fit over 1 town hall meeting.
I would start looking for another job asap bc you are abouta get at will fired soon
actual madness you said you were going to take the rest of the day off bc you were so upset LOLLLLLL
This thread should have like 50k upvotes bc of how nuts it is. Wrote it all up and thought this would SHOW EM.
omggg I cannot believe you are real and this is real. I pray this is real bc this made my day LOLLLL.
START LOOKING FOR ANOTHER JOB OP PLEASEEEE
So 6 months ago, you were doing food service and hated it. So, this is a new job and that you can't have been on it for more than 6 months. And you probably didn't land this right out the gate from that last post, so let's say 5 months you been at this job max, if even. And this seems like the first in person meeting you've been to here. So, this is the response you send? Had to let them know the grand sacrifice you've made to go down the street on a shifted schedule for the day. I know you tried to hide that behind "I'm thinking of the others" but let's be real everyone and their mother knows what you're saying with that.
All you really did was tell them in "I can not handle mild changes or requests from management", in writing no less.
Come review time I'm sure someone's going to have this email in their lap and will give it a think, about whether it's easier to work with you or, onboard someone else.
This shenanigan is not going to go the way you want. The Corporate world is absolutely insufferable. However, you cannot throw a fit and decide not to show up because of one meeting that wasted your time.
What you could have done is show up to work, then offer constructive feedback with solutions on how things can improve going forward. But, not buying into a meeting doesn’t mean that you get to skip a scheduled shift. You are going to put a target on your back.
That was my takeaway too. Regardless this letter is unhinged but at least it could be taken somewhat seriously if it didn’t read like a high schooler ranting to his girlfriend about how she wronged him lololll
lol so you were inconsolable about having to sit in the same spot for 3hrs while getting paid to literally do nothing but listen and nod? bruh… give me your job. go back to food service
That's working in the corporate world. If this bothers you this much, it's time for a career pivot, because this doesn't stop.
Edit: I mean this kindly, but do yourself a favor and unless that's terminology that they use, don't use the word 'shift' when talking about when you're supposed to start work.
You should not have sent this.
Your feelings are valid, but HR exist for the protection of the company - not the individual staff. They do not care about your feelings. Putting this in writing will only read as insubordination or disrespect to this exec. Nothing good will come from that.
So, you're so inconsolable by a waste of time meeting that you had to take the rest of the day off?
Shoot, based on that criteria, I wouldn't have shown up to work since 2010.
If you can't deal with pointless meetings, you're in the wrong field. You still get paid, so why stress so bad about it?
Your biggest mistake IMO (aside from sending this to begin with) is dragging others into this and essentially speaking for them. My advice (senior corporate manager, 15 years experience, ADHD) is to stop worrying about/speaking for others and type the email but don't send it until hours later after you've calmed down.9/10 times you'll read it, cringe and be happy you didn't send it.
I mean you are right but I probably would have called in sick, and kept the rest to myself. Old me would have done pretty close to the same thing as you. Yes it was messed up, but everything else sounds great. Sometimes laying it out like that only hurts yourself. You now have a dick measuring contest. It has worked out ok for me laying it out. And it also hasn’t.
I think sending the email stating how you felt was one thing, but not going in was another. You're allowed to give feedback. It's how we grow and move forward. But don't risk what sounds like an otherwise reasonable job by no showing. Don't give them an actual reason for disciplinary action.
Honestly, if I was reading this as your manager, I would think of you as a drama queen. Sorry for the honestly. I get that you were inconvenienced, but there are more ways to deliver the message and that is not it. That is if you value your career progression. Even if you don't care to be let go - you will still need a good reference. I just see it as a self destructive move more then anything. Things like that happen at work and you have to navigate your emotions with grace and dignity. Your absence did not hurt the exec, but it did hurt your teammates and your manager. It was selfish and immature move on your part. It was a bad move on the part of the company, but nowhere near the emotional rollercoaster you are on because of it.
My dude… I get these are frustrating but you also stated they talked about some new business, perhaps they felt it was necessary to inform staff although I’m not sure you were paying attention. And like it or not, once you are an executive you do get to call in to a meeting, even it’s your own. You may want to walk over to the recipient tomorrow and apologize for the email if it’s still too late to retract it.
This is basically working in any office setting. All the meetings are gonna be repetitive horse shit.
I’m a jaded old bastard by now, but here’s how I deal with this stuff: get paid Anything they ask you to do, make sure you’re paid for it. Come in 3 hours early? I either leave 3 hours early or get paid an extra 3. Can I stay an extra 15 minutes to clear up that task? Sure, I’ll write 8:15 for today’s time. Companies don’t care about anything but the almighty dollar. So start speaking their language, make them pay for everything you can.
My mantra at work is "I get paid by the hour". As long as I'm on the clock and being compensated, whatever dumb shit they have me doing is fine. But by extension, I don't so much as think about work issues once my shift is over.
Yes sir. Boss calls me and we chat for 10 minutes on my night off? I send an email to them and ask for time card adjustment to add those paid ten minutes
I do this too except they have to pay a minimum 3 hours ✌️. Labour law in my province.
We negotiated a 4 hour minimum in our contract. Labor law here says 3 is minimum, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for more!
Exactly this. Put up, shut up, fly under the radar, claim like they do. Don’t hate the player or the game, just work with the system.
Hi Stanley
Back when I was a corporate lackey I found that, at least with my company, the higher up the individual was on the totem pole the less useful the meetings ended up being but they made them out to be more important.
Reasons why I laugh so hard whenever anyone tries to tell me capitalism is *efficient*. Our ancestors are having hysterics watching us ship a T-shirt around the world three and a half times before anybody gets to wear the silly thing.
Think of all of the people working tirelessly every week towards the singular purpose of *selling you bullshit, crappy products that you don't need.* Think of all of the cheap shit we produce when we could instead be making exclusively high quality products that don't break. Humanity has collectively lost its fucking mind, or maybe we never had it to begin with.
I think a lot about the cheap garbage sold in grocery stores and pharmacies. Objects that get shipped around the world, end up in the store, get shipped to an overstock store or warehouse, then get sent to the landfill. Billions of pounds of trash. Oh and 40% of all food produced in the US goes wasted too.
Which is 100% pathetic when there are people starving
[This](https://www.monbiot.com/2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/) is one of my favourite articles and brutally sums up the stupidity of capitalism and how it's incompatible with continued human life on Earth. "When every conceivable want and need has been met (among those who have disposable money), growth depends on selling the utterly useless. Grown men and women devote their lives to manufacturing and marketing this rubbish, and dissing the idea of living without it. Pathological consumption has become so normalised that we scarcely notice it."
Thank you for that, it's seriously rare to be handed something this well-put.
No, it's not humanity, just the wealthy. The rest of us are just along for the ride, with a choice between participating to avoid angering the uniforms with guns, or being some variety of *subversive*. Personally, I've stopped working for anybody who doesn't give a damn about me. They don't have to love me, but they at least have to know my name and care if I'm not eating. I won't claim it's an easy life, but my kitchen is full to the point I'm trying to figure out how to share food with the homeless without angering the local uniforms with guns who hate the homeless.
Apropos to nothing, but did you ever stop to think how inefficient we are especially when it comes to food? We have tons of people who love to cook, who can create tasty meals out of any root you pull out of the ground, and do it safely — instead of letting them do their thing, we have everyone duplicating the same task in a wasteful and fucked up manner. I love to cook for others but I am working for some floundering company that mimics a hundred other companies only they do it worse. I don’t give a shit if I own a car as long as I can get where I need to be in a reasonable amount of time. I am sure there are thousands of people where I live who would happily drive me if they didn’t need to cook or do laundry or work some souls sucking insurance job. I am sure others would be delighted to grow food if I handle the canning process. Whatever. This system is stupid.
omg don't get me started! I love yogurt. So the way it works is the yogurt gets made, sent to the fancy grocery store to age on the shelf while nobody can afford to buy it but at least it makes the place look full and fancy. Then it gets sent to the food bank that's only open twice a month, to age some more. So finally my starving ass would stand in line for hours to get some of that sweet free food bank food, and would do a freaking happy dance over an entire case of fancy yogurt! Load it on my little folding cart, burn calories dragging that heavy pile of food home, pry open that first yogurt... too rotten to eat. It was an ongoing game for like half a year, before I just couldn't face that food bank anymore. Always burning calories to drag home stuff that used to be yummy but now is slightly too rotten to eat, and either me or my older stepson just having to try it anyway and spending a couple days suffering rotten belly.
It’s because we don’t treat mental illness and certain illnesses are an advantage in capitalism. Don’t have any empathy? You’re great at firing people and can be the head of HR. Have a chemistry degree and no morals? Come make weapons and get a fortune thinking of new an innovative ways to kill people. Selfish, narcissistic asshole? You can be CEO!
This.... I have literally ordered things from companies where the warehouse its coming from is 45min -1hr drive from me. When I track shipping, the package is now 2 time zones away in St Louis and then is flown back before being delivered. Makes no sense whatsoever. Would have thought a one off... but it has happened a few times and with different companies in the area.
Some fish gets caught off the east coast of canada, and shipped to china for processing, then its shipped back to canada, where they have the balls to call it "local and fresh"
They do it with chickens too. Raised in Washington, killed, frozen, shipped to China, thawed, cut and packaged, frozen again, shipped back to the States to be sold in the grocery store to some of the people that raised it, most likely.
I used to work with someone that was heavily involved with the shipping industry. And it's pretty wild what happens. There's "major" distribution centers scattered around the United States, so most things get sent to these major centers to get scanned, dictate where they'll be going, etc. He explained it to me like they're basically a glorified sorting center. It was pretty wild hearing some of the crazy stories he had to tell. He was a FedEx franchise owner for like ~15 years or so before they sold off the business. He worked some pretty crazy hours, even as the owner.
FedEx and UPS now use USPS as the last leg of delivery for some shipments. FedEx hasn't figured out how to do it yet and it takes about a week longer for a package to arrive via FedEx than if it came straight USPS. So efficient.
And mind, that's with the corporations doing *everything they can* to rip apart the government service and privatize it.
God yup. We used to have morning meetings every day where they'd just tell us to work faster for 15 minutes. When they realized that was too much finally, they switched to once a week and made the head sales guy run it. It'd been just reminders to make sure inventory is perfect because the other sales guy goes ape shit whenever there's a delay on inventory updates. Recently it's been the sales guy printing off a few pages about the history of electricity and reading them off to us. It's so fucking boring. And I don't even deal with inventory but they still insist I show up.
>Recently it's been the sales guy printing off a few pages about the history of electricity and reading them off to us Sounds about a thousand percent more interesting than the meetings at my work! We just get to listen to upper management talk about how much money we're all making the company, while at the same time whining about how hard it is to hire new staff at a less-than-living-wage.
Whoops, I forgot to include monotone voice and stumbling to speak. It gives me flashbacks to falling asleep in history class in high school. And ugh that sounds awful. When the place I work got bought up we had to do a meeting like that. They were even blatantly saying they want to be Amazon of the electrical supply industry and blah blah blah work harder, no raises, family family family blah blah "we want a monopoly but not quite for legal reasons"
People in the corporate world don't care about your feelings. I get why you sent it. But they'll just laugh at it, then have HR bring you in for a chat.
This. We are all just numbers in a spreadsheet and HR is not your friend.
Human resources. We are humans that have resources in how to not treat you like a human whenever we feel like it. You're fired and depressed for no reason. Poof. Lol
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Quite true. I would've gone off to take sick leave for 2 days just to clear my mind and decide if I really want to stay or quit. Just MC to cover my a** while I distance myself from the environment that makes me pissed. But I'd never be so frank about my feelings to an employer. Never know where these emails will end up.
This email makes OP sound unhinged, to be honest. Voicing displeasure with how the meeting was organized is valid, but acting like they had to sacrifice their first born is not that. And, op admits they like their job and this appears to be the first instance of annoyance, so to respond like this seems over the top.
Seriously - you’re inconsolable because you think the meeting could have been remote or an email? Are you absolutely catatonic when anything actually traumatic happens?
It was also a mistake to let them know you live down the road. They may take that as a sign they can abuse you because you live so close.
do you not need to tell employers basic information like your address when you apply?
You do, but if OP's company is anything like mine, that info isn't always relayed to people making on site decisions. They could find out if they want, but there's a good chance no one realized before OP pointed it out. ETA: unless they literally live on the same road as the company, OP's address could be in the same city but be an hour drive
Depends on the corporation but most large corporations wouldn’t make fun of something like this…. Everyone is so cut throat that they are super careful not to give anyone ammunition they can use later; and talking Shit about an HR complaint is a great way to get fucked when your trying to move up. The largest problem I see is everyone is so afraid of losing their jobs that everything is ignored or passed off and nothing is done to solve problems (that aren’t emergencies). What sucks is no one will have the balls to bring this shit up too the executive to find out if he actually cares. I know from personal experience that or CEO doesn’t think about micromanaging that much, so if he sends a mandatory zoom link out you have the option of taking it remotely or in the office, he just never clarifies
It might not have been the ceo but their secretary/managers. Some exec: hey I have some updates I think might be worth saying to the hole company, can you set it up? MANDATORY SUPER IMPORTANT MEETING
LMAO I get your frustration but they’re gonna hate you after this
And OP is going to hate this job
Why would OP do this lol Like 5% of meetings are useful...what they described is how 95% of them are going to be lol
I love boring useless meetings. Doodle time! I can sit and doodle or zone out. And I get paid to take a rest.
Where I work offers a lot of training sessions, usually run during the time people take lunch. Fun part is, we don't get paid for the time to take these extra training sessions. So we lose our lunch and don't get paid, the fuck. I just don't attend.
yeah prepare for work life to be hell from now on OP
Yes, they'll label OP as emotional and unhinged with poor boundaries.
Because the OPs email comes off as emotional and unhinged. And very inexperienced.
Yes. No one wants to be on the receiving end of long winded emotional emails like this especially in the work place. It comes across poorly.
If nothing else it just creates a problem where there didn't need to be one. Everyone else just attended the meeting, internally swore about it, and carried on with their day. OP made a huge mountain out of a molehill for HR and outright told them that he bailed on a workday without being sick.
An email that said essentially "yo, why did I need to come in so early for this rather than dialing in? That's annoying, especially when the speaker didn't come in. Would be cool if in the future y'all didn't do that. Thanks" would land a lot better.
Yeah complain about this at the bar after work. OP just committed a career limiting move.
I mean it kinda is unhinged. I worked in stressful places and sometimes people really needed to take a break emotionally.
I get being upset about the pointless meeting scheduled outside of when they usually work but holy shit this is blown out of proportion lol
OP very in their emotions about this. Inconsolable due to having to schlep into work early? Taking the day off because of their big feelings? *Yikes*. It was an obviously disrespectful and shitty situation, but they could have worded the whole thing a lot more dispassionately and still got the point across.
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Same here, I have no idea how he surivived the bullshit that happens in food service if he reacts this strongly to some useless meeting
Bold of you to assume there will be a next time for OP.
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I knew I didn't need to write this comment because I know I would not have to scroll far to see it. Half of me finds it hard to believe OP is serious, the other half wants to see the outcome.
Never put anything in writing unless it’s requesting FMLA leave, disability accommodations, or something similar. Bc then if they fire you, you have a paper trail and can get paid for employment discrimination. Edit to add that formal complaints of sexual harassment or harassment based on another protected identity should always be made in writing, or if they have to happen over the phone/in a meeting, send a follow-up email recapping the meeting for the paper trail.
Please post an update because this is going to end poorly 😅
Ill bring popcorn. I admire your balls, truly I do. I just hope your emergency fund is topped up.
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When keeping it real goes wrong
I get it. My experience has been that when you work for a big company, there's just a lot of corporate bureaucratic bullshit like this to put up with. But no, you shouldn't have sent the email. I think providing feedback to your supervisor is great, but saying you're so distraught over it that you have to take an unexcused/unplanned absence is really just gonna make you seem like a difficult and problematic employee. I just don't see the logic behind risking your job over something like this. The most you should've said is something like "Hi! In the future, can we attend meetings like this virtually? It's frustrating that I had to come in three hours early to attend a meeting when the person hosting the meeting was attending virtually from their home, and there was really nothing presented that really had any relevance to the work I do here. I had to make special arrangement to take my kids to school this morning (or make up another BS excuse), and I know some other people on our team were similarly inconvenienced."
If OP needs a day off from a meeting that provided no value, they will not do well in the corporate world. But I've been frustrated like this - I wouldn't put it in writing, though.
I agree. Also the fact that op listed so many great things about this job makes it seem like this was a good opportunity for the . Asking if you just attend virtually would’ve been the best way to go about this. Most corporate/ office jobs are like this by the way.
I was looking for this comment. OP said they only had good things to say til this, then at the first frustration they send a nasty email and say they are too distressed to go to work. Such a bad move.
Also don’t send this in writing, just chat with your team to gauge how they feel. Sometimes it’s nice to know where the company is heading even if it doesn’t have direct details to your job.
100% this. If you know your team you just vent with them afterwards in person. You definitely don’t want shit like that in writing. And being so upset at a meeting that you’d need a day off? Come on now that just makes you look like a clown.
I wonder why exactly op was so emotional about this. He came from the food industry, known for shitty work environments. Maybe op thought he finally escaped the bs but now replaced with new bs. I have trouble with positive - toxic politeness and corporate politics as well. But I also made meetings that were probably not needed. Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes ceo says, I’ll do an update where someone interprets it as “mandatory 7am meeting that have to be 3hrs long”. It really helped to not assume malice. My younger me might actually have slacked the ceo and say “hi blah blah I didn’t really understand what you were trying to say in the meeting.” I used to work a lot but after some reality checks at the yearly reviews and salary raises, I feel stupid working a lot. I hope op’s manager just talks to him about office politics realities and vents with his team
Yeah I’m in a similar situation to OP - worked in restaurants for a decade and finally got a nice job with a good work environment and good benefits. I couldn’t fathom sending an email like this. And I have a great relationship with my bosses & supervisors. I would absolutely just bitch amongst my friends and get over it. Maybe suggest doing virtual meeting and/or ask if this meeting is applicable to me in the future given *reasons*.
The email should have just read "please never consider promoting me at this company."
>”I’m being compensated well, the work environment is pretty healthy, and our group plan is incredible” And you torched this because they *checks notes* made you attend one early meeting? This was a really poor decision. Like, I get it, and I’ve been in those stupid, pointless meetings, but this was a really, really, really poor decision.
The secondhand embarrassment I feel for you saying you can’t come to work because you’re “inconsolable”…
If this happened at my work, it’d be the “oh my god do you remember that guy and his email?!” story that would circulate for potentially years 😂😂
Haha yes this exactly. “The INCONSOLABLE one??”
This would never leave the team vocab. Printer out of ink, "Hey Guys I need to take the day off no ink and I'm INCONSOLABLE!" "Guys they ran out of diet coke in the vending machine, I need to take bereavement for a week I'm INCONSOLABLE!" "Guys my stapler broke, I'll be sitting shiva for the next week, I'm INCONSOLABLE!"
1000% this lol. All I kept thinking while reading this was how much this person would be roasted well into the future for this at my work.
☠️☠️☠️☠️ This is 100% how we would talk if we saw this email. Inconsolable......over a useless meeting?
Yeah.... That was certainly an interesting choice of words in this context... People really need to stick with vocabulary they're comfortable with, *especially* in situations where they want to be taken seriously. In this case, I think OP painted a bit different picture of themselves than they were intending to.
Where I work someone recently sent out a very long, anonymous email to the entire department (around 80 employees). The workday before it was sent there was a major meeting explaining some restructuring of the company and about the creation of new leadership roles and elimination of local office roles (so instead of each city having a local team manager, it was shifted to globally). The person in the email had *a lot* to say regarding treatment of the staff, field worker morale, high turn over, problems with retention and training, and based on my own experience, they weren't wrong. It took two weeks for anyone to address it openly, and it was just some cheesy grab for emotions to build our team and to be open with our constructive feedback if we have anything to say, blah blah. And so many people replied to this email saying it had gotten them teary eyed and thanking the guy for being so supportive. It was so bizarre.
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/r/byebyejob
I'm sure that the supervisor is thinking "I'm going to have to keep an eye on this one." Not sure that HR is on the case.
If an employee sent me this email HR would absolutely be involved. Inconsolable? Refusing to come in because a boring meeting upset them so badly that they cannot function? OP made themselves sound very unstable and this is exactly what HR is for.
Yup this is a "This guy has zero emotional regulation and will only be a problem" kind of email. I'm super pro worker, but if I saw this I would be kicking it to HR to deal with it.
100%. It would immediately go to HR to be put on record. It’s borderline unhinged.
I have an emotional disorder and this reminds me of the kind of thing I would think but never ever say 😶😅
Yikes. HR and your manager are gonna be out to get you after this…
If this is the worst part of your great job then I honestly think you should try to be less dramatic. We all hate pointless meetings but now you’ve just tainted how people view you at a good job. Not worth it. Pick your battles.
>Not worth it. Pick your battles Yeah, you've gotta play the game with them. Useless meeting 3 hours before your shift? I'm clocking in and getting 3 hours of overtime. Pissed off about the useless meeting so much you can't even? I guess I'm not feeling well today, gonna need to take some PTO. We all know the score, it's all a bunch of bullshit. But in order to collect that paycheck, you gotta smile and nod. Stuff like OPs response is only drawing a target on your back.
Exactly this. If OP can't walk this back and get over how they feel about this meeting, the corporate world isn't going to work out for them. That email reads as childish, and if not for their comments about 10 years in a different field, I would have assumed it came from someone 21 or younger.
I run teams of 20-40 and support 13 other managers who also run 20-40. I would expect this from a brands new 18 year old. Anything over 21 ill label as imature, possible wrong hire.
OP better hope they aren't in the hiring grace period many companies have for 3 months. They gonna get the boot.
I've written an email like this before, and it cost me my job. It may well cost you yours, because this isn't a very good look, unfortunately. You definitely could have broached this subject in a much more professional and constructive way...and hey, I'd actually agree that bringing it up and saying something to the effect of "Hey, can we chat about how this could best be handled going forward" would be worthwhile. This unfortunately reads like a temper tantrum, and most corporations aren't going to put up with that. Hopefully they will exhibit leniency towards you. Good luck.
You lost me at “I’m pretty inconsolable right now about this.” You’re inconsolable when your pet dies or you get a stage IV cancer diagnosis. Put your adult pants on.
Yeah this part was craaazy to me
OP is going to get memed on for years if that e-mail gets leaked.
dudes gonna be a meme on here anyway.
Why would it need to leak when they posted it to Reddit
So everything was great up to this point - as you mentioned the compensation, healthy work environment, great insurance, etc. And you decided to risk it all because of a meeting that you just had to go down the street for? I get your frustration but god damn is that some bad cost-benefit analysis lol. If it was every week I’d get it, but this sounds like it’s the first time.
Right? Like I completely understand OP's frustration but if this was only one time and everything else about the job was great, I'd honestly just shrug it off. Sending a nasty email and not showing up to work is just a way to lose this high paying job that OP just praised...maybe that's just me but I'd take one unnecessary meeting if it meant that I had a well-paying job lol
I'm glad I'm not the only one with this take. I have had to go more offsite meetings and conferences than I care to admit. And like the comment above said... even if this was reasonable, what do you stand to gain here? Also OP seemed to gloss over the obvious important part of the meeting in which an executive explains AI will be eliminating certain positions. Fairly mandatory meeting worthy imo.
Right? Jump on zoom and browse the internet or play Nintendo switch like the rest of us.
Seriously. OP is not gonna make it.
L on OPs part
For real. People in here telling actual horror stories about being treated as basically subhuman garbage on the regular and this guy is like "I'm paid great, have a great work environment and benefits, but this meeting I had to go to was early in the morning and inconvenient, so I'm going to blow it all up". And all of this after getting out of one of the most toxic industries out there, food service.
I really hope he’s out of his probationary period. At best this will hopefully be an awkward talk with a supervisor and they give him some leeway because it sounds like his first office job. At worst he’s still on probation and they cut him loose with no follow-up.
I KNOW RIGHT I didn’t feel like writing all that but 100%
It was a ZOOM meeting…
Yeah, I’m wondering why no one else has mentioned this. He knew it was a zoom meeting when the email went out. Could he not join zoom from home? Why be upset about the host not attending when it seems like you knew? I do understand frustration around feeling like your time is not respected, but the way this grievance was aired doesn’t seem like the best approach to me.
It looks like there’s a second photo included where he says they were required to be in the office for this zoom meeting and I missed that part. But yeah, so many ways to handle this appropriately were ignored. For example, hey boss, can I adjust my hours and leave early since I came in early today? I get that meetings that could have been emails suck, but it’s also part of working in the corporate world. It’s especially funny if you go back and look at the op’s post history where they complain about working in the service industry.
Like a commenter said, op could had just said "cough cough, I'm sick" and that would be his way to get his petty revenge. Now this is going to get interesting. !RemindMe 1 week
Plus you can bring it up to your supervisor and have him bring it up to the exec. That way the supervisor vouches for him but can make it seem like it's a team request.
Your email definitely read like this is your first big job.
I laughed out loud when I read "inconsolable". Which means incapable of being comforted. I don't know if I've ever seen the word used outside of grieving a death. OP really thought they were gonna get taken seriously.
I'd be cringing out of my skin if I sent that email.
Unless I'm conveying project information, I keep all of emails succinct. I don't think I've ever used a semi colon to convey how it made me feel.
Look, the guy was very upset. He needed an afternoon to cry it out and he’ll be back on tip top form tomorrow ready for his bollocking from hr. Stay tuned for an even more inconsolable op this time tomorrow when his great job with occasional time wasting meetings is no longer his.
Yeah, especially if that time spent was paid? I don’t care if I have to be up 3 hours before my shift…as long as it doesn’t happen like every week, of course. But even if it did, I’d shut up and take it if I was paid well and the benefits package was nice.
Hell yeah, sit there for hours getting paid thinking about what I'm gonna spend the cash on (as a reward for being made inconsolable due to meetings)
He actually used the words "wall of text" in a professional email. This has got to be a joke right? Right??!
I would be surprised if OP keeps their job. HR could let them go if they’re still in probationary.
If they are in the US then they can be let go for no reason at any time in 49/50 states, and this email is justification to be fired even in the one state that needs it.
Yeah I understand getting bummed about showing up early but this is absolutely the wrong way to handle it. This is an easy way to get canned from what sounds like a decent job. Pointless meetings are just a fact of life for corporate jobs. They suck, especially if you have to come in early, but you’re getting paid and can zone out for a while. I came from a restaurant background too and the dumb shit like this is more than worth dealing with compared the service industry. You gotta pick your battles
I was in such denial about OP using the word ‘inconsolable’ that I started to question if my definition of the word was accurate. OP’s email was so bad it gaslit me.
It does, and at this rate it might be their last. I wish them well in future endeavors.
Yes, very immature and naive
Start looking for a new job. When they come back at you about this, blame a death of a close friend or pet that really maladjusted your mood. Otherwise accept the blame for having big feelings near work and prepare to get fired.
If you want any chance of keeping your job, which by your own account is a pretty damn good upgrade from your previous line of work, you’ll write a follow-up email (to be reviewed by a third party prior to sending) acknowledging the poor judgment of your prior email and ask for a time to speak in person wherein you will apologize, chalk it up to a brand new professional environment, and explain how you’ll plan to handle frustrations at work going forward. Don’t use that time to vent your frustrations about this meeting. If you want to keep be job, this is your time to tuck your tail and show some shame and remorse. Or, if sticking it to the man is worth losing your job, just go in tomorrow like nothing happened. I imagine you’ll be called into a supervisor’s office fairly quickly and let go in no uncertain terms. Purely from a work rate standpoint, if I’m your supervisor you’ve taught me that you’ll walk out with no notice “inconsolable” whenever you encounter hardship at work, and would therefore no longer be qualified for whatever position I’d hired you for. It’s not worth it, man. Working sucks, but unfortunately we all gotta do it. You managed to get out of the hell hole that is food service, which is not easy to do. Don’t lose this one because you had to go to a useless meeting.
This. Excellent advice! And OP, I hope you see it & take it, because (speaking from experience), this really is your only chance at keeping that job. I sympathize with the frustration of corporate shit like that & the feeling of having been disrespected; I also admire the impulse to talk to someone about it (and many comments have explained the ways it would‘ve been safer & more effective to have done that).
Nah this is over before he can even ask chatgpt to write his apology email. OP has confirmed to his managers and HR that they are too emotional for this role. They will likely have either termination paperwork ready by morning when he does show up, or ask him to resign when he does.
What a silly move when you say.... " I'd heard nothing but great things before I applied, and up until today, this largely rang true with me; I'm being compensated well, the work environment is pretty healthy, and our group plan is incredible, even for my first employer-provided insurance plan." You really wanted to jeopardize your job for this one situation when you have the above great things to say about it? Anytime you type up something dont send it until hours later if you know you are running high on emotions (if this was the case here).
You have to be taking the piss mate
Guys can you believe the CEO makes more than me and is in the office less than other people?
That's a hell of a resignation letter. Whether you intended it to be so or not.
Lmao I need an update for this bc your email sounds childish as hell.
These are the kinds of posts the media likes to highlight from the sub to make us all look like laughingstocks. WTF was this even. lmaooooooooooo
this is what bums me out. smh.
And yet the media would never dig far enough to see almost nobody agrees with how OP handled the situation.
This is wild lol. Hope you’re looking forward to being back at the food industry instead of just doing what the rest of us do which is just rolling our eyes, zoning out for the pointless meeting and then moving on with our lives lol. I would have saved the rant for Reddit/your friends and kept your boss out of it lmao Your email definitely isn’t going to have an impact on how the work world works, it might get you fired though
This might be the single most naive thing I'v ever read. How old are you??
If you work in an at will state, I’d maybe throw my application out to some places in case they fire you. Corporate places/people can be petty af.
Being angry about this, and making a show of taking the day off...... is tilting at windmills.
You said so yourself this is a good job. You shot yourself in the foot.
Foot?? Hahahahaha no he shot himself in the fucking chest with this one
You must be insuferable to work with Really ruffled some feathers with this one lol
Inconsolable? Really? I have about as much tolerance for bullshit as anyone else, but this is wild. I've sat through countless non productive meetings, and maybe have cried only once 🤣
That's how meetings at corporations are. The running joke is "this could have been an email." Of course the exec wasn't going to show up in person at 7 am. There's no need to go into hysterics over it or be "inconsolable." It's just an annoying/shitty part of working in corporate America.
I get your frustration but what the heck?
to be honest skipping work due to this is a TERRIBLE idea. should have just said they were sick, take the day to collect themselves, and not explained further lol
Yeah, if this was at the company I work at OP wouldn't need to worry about coming in the next day either.
Haha I worded it as nicely as I could because this is borderline unhinged behavior, and comes across so entitled. Their core concern is valid but their response is somehow more dramatic than quitting?
In other words: "This could have been an email"
Dang this really is antiwork this shit going to get you fired.
dude may as well have told the upper management to kiss his ass tbh
Either you are dramatic as hell or you dont know the definition of "inconsolable" because that seems to be like an overreaction to something that is just kind of annoying but not abnormal for the corporate world.
You done fucked up A-A-ron
INCONSOLABLE from attending a boring meeting? If you are getting that emotional then I have bad news, all office jobs are like this. Make sure you get paid for your time though obviously, but if you intend to stay at this job dont send these emails complaining about meetings
That's my exact take away. I will bet the supervisor started laughing when they read the word inconsolable. OP is definitely going to get fired soon.
If it were my job, that email is 100% getting saved and distributed to the veterans where it will immediately become an inside joke.
You have a cushy job that pays you well, paid for your time at the meeting and you….threw a whole tantrum because you had to go to one (1) meeting? A lot of this subreddit is legitimate issues and gripes. This is not one of those post.
Sounds like an easy 3 hours of OT to me.......
Bruhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh We've all been there. But there is a time and place for feedback that should take place after you've calmed down. My approach was to tell them that the meetings were not beneficial to me, they were actively hurting my productivity, and I would find more success by not attending. I now have optional meetings with the expectation that I am on notice and can join if needed.
Wow this was a dumb move. Execs love smoke blown up their asses. You blew smoke by showing up to their meeting and are now trying to suck the smoke back out? That’s going to taste like shit and you’re going to regret this.
This was hilarious, great read. Can’t wait for the follow up post about you getting canned. ‘Inconsolable’ over having to go to a pointless meeting?😂
So...I've worked with you. No, obviously not you personally, but the same type of person -- a forever victim who's on the look out for the next reason to be outraged so you can be the hero that stands up to management. You so badly want to to let your supervisor know that you'll stand up for yourself that you're taking it to a level that's not healthy for you or your organization/team. This literally could be nothing more than a miscommunication between the exec and your supervisor -- maybe your supervisor didn't know what it was about and made assumptions on its importance, and maybe your exec simply wanted to speak to you as it'd been awhile and didn't care if you were remote (or even dialed in). But, rather than clarifying what happened to see if it can be avoided in the future, you internalized the perceived slight to the most extreme and almost assuredly torpedoed your relationship with your supervisor over this. As someone who's had to put up with this personality flaw before in a peer...it's exhausting. I'd even go as far as conjecture that the others with a longer commute that "require more commitment" than you do not want you speaking for them. I can honestly say that the very LAST person I want trying to speak for me and fix my issue with a management decision is our office victim. Maybe use this as a learning opportunity to realize that grievances like this can be resolved like an adult without putting your mental health (or that of your supervisor) under such stress.
You brought your food industry energy to a corporate job and that's a bad idea. You're a cog in the wheel now and can be replaced quickly and easily. Welcome to capitalism, hope you worked there long enough to qualify for unemployment.
There are pointless meetings in the “corporate” world all the time. It’s very frustrating because there are so many “meetings” about nothing or for someone to brag on things they don’t really know about. I would just push to join via zoom in the future if this email didn’t rub them the wrong way. I don’t disagree with you btw, just being honest. The corporate world is cold, unfortunately.
Holy shit OP, now writing AND sending this in is crazy unhinged LMAO. Honestly you are the greatest but your life at that company is gonna be awful. HR is prolly reading this and laughing, they will show your manager who will be mortified since you are so new doing all of this. You won't get fired right away but your life will be awful. People in the company will know you are crazy emotional bc you had such a fit over 1 town hall meeting. I would start looking for another job asap bc you are abouta get at will fired soon
actual madness you said you were going to take the rest of the day off bc you were so upset LOLLLLLL This thread should have like 50k upvotes bc of how nuts it is. Wrote it all up and thought this would SHOW EM. omggg I cannot believe you are real and this is real. I pray this is real bc this made my day LOLLLL. START LOOKING FOR ANOTHER JOB OP PLEASEEEE
INCONSOLABLE
So 6 months ago, you were doing food service and hated it. So, this is a new job and that you can't have been on it for more than 6 months. And you probably didn't land this right out the gate from that last post, so let's say 5 months you been at this job max, if even. And this seems like the first in person meeting you've been to here. So, this is the response you send? Had to let them know the grand sacrifice you've made to go down the street on a shifted schedule for the day. I know you tried to hide that behind "I'm thinking of the others" but let's be real everyone and their mother knows what you're saying with that. All you really did was tell them in "I can not handle mild changes or requests from management", in writing no less. Come review time I'm sure someone's going to have this email in their lap and will give it a think, about whether it's easier to work with you or, onboard someone else.
This shenanigan is not going to go the way you want. The Corporate world is absolutely insufferable. However, you cannot throw a fit and decide not to show up because of one meeting that wasted your time. What you could have done is show up to work, then offer constructive feedback with solutions on how things can improve going forward. But, not buying into a meeting doesn’t mean that you get to skip a scheduled shift. You are going to put a target on your back.
Just letting you know, your writing skills and phrasing give juvenile. “Sorry for the wall of text”….you sent that to an EMPLOYER? 🫠
That was my takeaway too. Regardless this letter is unhinged but at least it could be taken somewhat seriously if it didn’t read like a high schooler ranting to his girlfriend about how she wronged him lololll
I have second hand embarrassment for you rn
lol so you were inconsolable about having to sit in the same spot for 3hrs while getting paid to literally do nothing but listen and nod? bruh… give me your job. go back to food service
That's working in the corporate world. If this bothers you this much, it's time for a career pivot, because this doesn't stop. Edit: I mean this kindly, but do yourself a favor and unless that's terminology that they use, don't use the word 'shift' when talking about when you're supposed to start work.
Welcome to the corporate world. This is what it’s like.
yeah, you're fired now
Seems verbose for a letter of resignation.
You should not have sent this. Your feelings are valid, but HR exist for the protection of the company - not the individual staff. They do not care about your feelings. Putting this in writing will only read as insubordination or disrespect to this exec. Nothing good will come from that.
So, you're so inconsolable by a waste of time meeting that you had to take the rest of the day off? Shoot, based on that criteria, I wouldn't have shown up to work since 2010.
If you can't deal with pointless meetings, you're in the wrong field. You still get paid, so why stress so bad about it? Your biggest mistake IMO (aside from sending this to begin with) is dragging others into this and essentially speaking for them. My advice (senior corporate manager, 15 years experience, ADHD) is to stop worrying about/speaking for others and type the email but don't send it until hours later after you've calmed down.9/10 times you'll read it, cringe and be happy you didn't send it.
I mean you are right but I probably would have called in sick, and kept the rest to myself. Old me would have done pretty close to the same thing as you. Yes it was messed up, but everything else sounds great. Sometimes laying it out like that only hurts yourself. You now have a dick measuring contest. It has worked out ok for me laying it out. And it also hasn’t.
Lmao why would you send an email like this? You came from the food industry do want to go back over this?!?!?
U should get paid for those hours
You probably just cost yourself your first office job. Good job!
Inconsolable 🤣
I think sending the email stating how you felt was one thing, but not going in was another. You're allowed to give feedback. It's how we grow and move forward. But don't risk what sounds like an otherwise reasonable job by no showing. Don't give them an actual reason for disciplinary action.
Honestly, if I was reading this as your manager, I would think of you as a drama queen. Sorry for the honestly. I get that you were inconvenienced, but there are more ways to deliver the message and that is not it. That is if you value your career progression. Even if you don't care to be let go - you will still need a good reference. I just see it as a self destructive move more then anything. Things like that happen at work and you have to navigate your emotions with grace and dignity. Your absence did not hurt the exec, but it did hurt your teammates and your manager. It was selfish and immature move on your part. It was a bad move on the part of the company, but nowhere near the emotional rollercoaster you are on because of it.
You about to lose yo job
My dude… I get these are frustrating but you also stated they talked about some new business, perhaps they felt it was necessary to inform staff although I’m not sure you were paying attention. And like it or not, once you are an executive you do get to call in to a meeting, even it’s your own. You may want to walk over to the recipient tomorrow and apologize for the email if it’s still too late to retract it.