BS: Do you work with stupid people?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Oct 07 - 05:22 PM

Dunno about working with some.

I log on to some forums where...

Oh-oh. Best not go there...

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 06:10 PM

A quote (made 30 years ago) by Richard M. Nixon, upon hearing of the appointment of a young senate lawyer by the name of Fred Thompson to the Watergate Committee to lead the Republican investigation ....

"Oh shit, he's dumb as hell. Fred Thompson,"

stupid peeple on the job ... ya gotta luv them.


biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 05:58 PM

It could be worse. What if you were working in the Oval Office?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Blowzabella
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 05:37 PM

I work in the Cultural Services dept of a local authority and most people don't even consider folk music to be of cultural value. I think i wil at working for the stupidest people ever!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 05:35 PM

Kim, reading your post made me remember a line Mark Twain once used......

"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 05:29 PM

I had a similar experience with milk, Bill. I loved it till I was about 6 years old, then I went totally off it. My body was telling me it didn't want any more cow's milk...ever. I do not drink milk to this day, but I'll injest it now and then if it's mixed in with something else and reasonably well camouflaged...as in certain soups.

Most orientals cannot digest milk properly. It may be that I have a similar constitution to them...and I do love oriental cuisine.

The trouble with people in those stupid chain restaurants is that everything is on a coded menu keyed to the cash register and they are terrified that they will get in trouble with the boss if they deviate in any way from the official "system", and they're usually stressed out anyway as it is. The tyranny of bureaucratic systems in this world, whether it be in business, the military, religious orders or government, has probably resulted in more stupidity than all other things put together.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Kim C
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 05:19 PM

Many of the people in my office have a considerable amount of education they don't appear to use. The Big Boss has two Master's degrees and I am constantly baffled at some of the dumbass things she does.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 05:11 PM

My mother said I ate eggs until I was 1½ yrs. old, then quit them suddenly. I'll eat eggs...if they can be disguised so I can't identify them AS eggs.(I have friends who tease me by offering to cook me an egg & onion omelette)

And while that diner scene...(thanks, Wesley!)...was great, thatwaitress was a bit beyond the one I met...*grin*, as she didn't even OFFER him the individual items. But it did illustrate the issue a bit. I wasn't even trying for a substitution...all I wanted was to not have one item included.

Anyway, I'm gonna probably go to my grave believing that either 1)the restaurant owner, or 2)the waitress was stupid for not 'reasonably' providing for individual preferences. Surely not 3)me... ☺

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 04:30 PM

Har! Har! Omigod...I love that scene. People under stress in Ay-merika. Har! Har! Har! Nobody can do barely controlled inner rage and contempt like Jack Nicholson.

But, Bill...you say you don't eat eggs? Never???? Geez! I always suspected you were a bit bonkers, Bill, a bit nutso, a bit off the rails, sliding slowly but surely into paranoid dementia, a closet kook on the verge of something sinister...now I know it. You are a danger to society. You are fucked. I think am going to inform Homeland Security. Get help, man, before it is too late!













Heh! (Just joking, okay? I went through about a ten-year phase when I absolutely would not eat eggs, right after moving out from my parents' place. They insisted on eating eggs EVERY fucking day of the year for breakfast....and I had reached the bitter end. I could not look at a cooked egg without feeling nauseated.

I have since, however, gradually gotten to like them again. Egg McMuffin, anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 04:05 PM

Well done, Wesley !

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 03:53 PM

Try this - maybe it will work...

Five Easy Pieces

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 03:51 PM

It's a classic scene in American Film - with Jack Nickelson. I would think that you could find a clip somewhere. I don't get youtube here at the office or I'd try to provide a link.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 03:46 PM

Why, no....I haven't seen that, as far as I remember. Is this a common issue that has been immortalized on film?

(and my buddy didn't really eat eggs either)
If I wasn't such a grump about unreasonable rules, I might have thought to let them cook the egg, then throw it away...but I was on an environmental survey...and felt that unnecessary waste was bad....silly me!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 12:23 PM

Bill, haven't you seen the film "Five Easy Pieces?"

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 12:18 PM

I'd've gone with the oatmeal... and I HATE porridge.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 11:57 AM

I would have ordered the #3 and asked for the egg on a seperate plate - on the side. I assume the diner had no rules against that. Perhaps your friend would have wanted to eat it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 11:50 AM

Now...here's a story that actually happened to me. I'll let you decide whether there was 'stupidity' involved, and by whom, and on what level.

Many years ago, I was traveling with a friend on a project in Colorado. We had stopped for breakfast at a small diner in Poudre Canyon. There were the usual items on the menu, complete with a list of 'standard' combinations, most of which included eggs, which I do not eat (at least in forms identifiable as 'egg')

But...the #3 breakfast was almost exactly what I wanted, sausage, hash browns, and toast...except for the egg. ($1.75) So...I told the waitress I wanted sausage, hash browns & toast. "No egg?", she asked, "That's the #3, and it comes with one egg."

"No, I don't eat eggs", I replied.."Just the sausage, hash browns & toast."

"Ok", she said, "but that'll be "$2.25"

"Ummm...why?"

"Because you are ordering ala carte, the sausage is $1.25, the hashbrowns are 75¢, and the toast is 25¢."

"You mean," says I increduously, "you are gonna charge me 50¢ to NOT cook an egg?"

"Well, that's the way the menu works, the regular breakfasts are at set prices...the ala carte items are priced individually.

I was so nonplussed, I just ordered & ate the expensive way. My buddy said later, "you should have just ordered the #3, and said "hold the egg"." I really wondered if that would have worked.
What I really should have done was order the #3, ask for the egg, raw...in the shell...and at the end, leave her the egg as a tip, saying that she could sell it to someone else for 50¢....or maybe not.


So...was the restaurant stupid for not having a simple way to resolve such issues? Or the waitress, for not suggesting that she just CALL it #3 and not cooking the egg..? I suppose I could have ordered the egg scrambled hard, and left it on my plate....but, dammit, I don't like LOOKING at egg on my plate, and they'd no doubt have gotten it mixed with the potatoes.

This has been a troubling question for 35 years now....but now I have Mudcat to clear it all up for me!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 11:22 AM

Coulda been worse, 'spaw...

This guy sits down a a restaurant and orders "coffee, without cream".

In a minute the girls come back and says, "We're all out of cream, sir. You'll have to take it without milk."

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 11:57 PM

The stupid are everywhere as in this story I told here a few years ago........................

We stop at Ponderosa for supper. I asked the teenage girl behind the counter for some cream for my coffee. This turned out to be a stupid question. I had looked in the stainless bin thingy and all there was left was the ice to cool the little creamer containers. She stared down at the empty bin like it had just been deposited there by aliens. Since she wasn't moving, I thought I should elaborate.....a real mistake.

I said, "You know, that bin there with the ice.....It holds the milk.......The ice keeps it cool.........It's empty....." She stares at me as though I am the alien and still doesn't move. Okay, I keep trying. "You know, cream? Milk? To put in my coffee. The milk goes in the bin there and I get some to put into my coffee???" Suddenly it seems to dawn on her and she says she'll be right back. I turned to Karen, who's a bit incredulous herself, and I make disparaging comments about the girl.

Karen is chastising me for being a curmudgeon when Miss Ditz returns with an open pint of milk. I'm thinking, "Okay, so they're out of creamer," and reach to take it from her when...........have you got it figured out?................yeah, that's right,....she pours the carton of milk into the bin with the half-melted ice! There is a 2 second pause before Karen and I look at each other and then are convulsed in laughter. It's so bad that it takes a minute or so for me to say, "Can I see the manager for a minute?" Manager arrives and I, choking with laughter, try my best to tell the tale. He finally looks down and sees the bin, full of watery, icey, milk and stares at Miss Ditz..........Then back at the bin........Then again at Miss Ditz.........Then back at the bin.........And after his own "pregnant pause," starts laughing himself. Nice fella'.......gave us a 25% discount saying the laugh was worth it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 11:41 PM

Saw a guy pour water into H2SO4. I was hitting the deck after I saw what he was about to do. My last word was, "DUCK!" Some of the kids did. I was in Grade 11 at that time.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 11:35 PM

I'm reminded of the guy in high school chemistry lab. We were making chlorine and he left his on to boil, uncorked and uncollected, to turn wet litmus paper white clear across the room.... Or the one who, when told that phenolphthalein was a powerful laxative just HAD to try it, and ended up spending a week in the hospital eating powdered charcoal....

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 10:01 PM

Shimrod,
You and Micca should exchange stories. He too works in a lab and has amazing but true tales to tell.
SINS

By the way, Rapaire, I too had a face plate in one hand and the screwdriver in the other. ZAP!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 08:21 PM

Dick, I have exactly the same problem.

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 08:04 PM

I have to, and it's often infuriating. Particularly since I run a one-man shop.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 06:21 PM

I once worked in a lab. with a bloke who left an open beaker of diethyl ether at one end of a long bench and attempted to boil a beaker of ethyl alcohol, over a bunsen burner, at the other.

The alcohol caught fire (oh, what a surprise!) and the ether flashed the length of the bench. I, and everyone else in the lab., retired to the back of the room and watched with interest as he hopped about attempting to put the blaze out with a fire extinguisher.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 05:56 PM

Then there's two of my nephews:

1. A stray dog runs into the yard and harasses their dog. Nephew runs upstairs and gets dad's BB gun (using the hose or just chasing the animal away didn't occur to him). By the time he has it all pumped up, the stray dog is long gone. So in putting the BB gun away he shoots himself in the hand. Cost to dad to remove the BB that's working its way into the carpal tunnel: $1,800. Cost to nephew: well...

2. I'll work on the brakes to the pickup, said nephew 2, and jacks the truck up. Places a jackstand under each side of the axle, takes the wheels off. Crawls under. Knocks a jackstand loose and the truck comes a-tumblin' down. Pinned under the truck (but otherwise only bruised) he calls his sisters for help. They call 911, he gets a nice ride in an ambulance.

Of course, there was their father:

3. who bought himself a blowgun a few Christmases back. His eight-year-old son took it and shot targets, trees, and the back end of his father who was sitting on a porch swing at the time....

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 04:54 PM

Did he cut himself?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: michaelr
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 04:46 PM

Yes, there ARE stupid people. Just google "Darwin Awards".

Some guy who had just moved into a highrise apartment wanted to demonstrate to his friends that the windows were shatter-proof. So he threw himself at the windows.

They weren't...

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 03:56 PM

In one of the last scenes of Miller's "Death of a Saleman" Willie Lohman says to his son Biff "There'll be no swearing in this house!"

On closing night, playing Willie, my brother said, "There'll be no swearing in this house, goddamnit!"

Deliberately, of course. It WAS closing night.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 03:55 PM

HA! HA! HA! Man, I knew you was stupid, Rapare! I knew it! I bet you are the stoopidest person in all of flippin' Idahoe! Or maybe in the whole flippin' WORLD! Ha! Ha! Ha! I would never do a lame-ass thing like that. Not me. No way, man. Cos I am smart, eh?

I am usualy srounded by stupid people, eh? Just about everyone I know or meet is a total idiot execpt for my brother Don. He is more like a halfway-idiot. He knows how to fix the truck and he buys good beer. He is not too bad with chicks. I hafta admit that. So he ain't a total looser.

I bet yer brains will work better now after that shock you took, eh, Rapare? Good thing it was just a screwdrivver that you stuck in there, insted of you know what! Rock on, dude.

- Shane

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 03:47 PM

My husband has a colleague who has a way with language ... wouldn't say he was stupid, at all, but here are two quotes which we're very fond of.

"Whose coat's that jacket?"

and, my personal favourite

"How many chairs do you want for the string quartet?"

That's not counting the "stop that f***** swearing, will you?"

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 03:42 PM

I was working at home, and took the faceplate off the electrical outlet. Good so far, but then the screwdriver slipped and, well, it was stupid of me not to have turned the breaker off, and...you can get the rest. The breaker was off when I recovered myself, though.

Yes, I knew better. But the breaker box was upstairs and it was just so much trouble and besides, I was only taking the plate off....

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 03:25 PM

One out of ten might be a little high in my experience - but then again you live in Canada. I'M KIDDING. Seriously - one in twenty might be a little closer for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 02:55 PM

Let me elaborate. ;-)

Yes, I have worked with the occasional stupid person over the past few decades, but I would say that genuinely stupid people comprised only maybe 1 out of 10 of all the people I have ever worked with. Most people are not stupid, in my opinion, although that's not to say that they don't have a few emotional hangups of one kind or another.

Let's put it this way. Really stupid people are actually rather rare, despite what movies, commercials, and TV shows would have you believe... ;-)

Stupid practices, laws, and social customs, however, are quite common...

What I am saying is that the public, in general, is rather poorly served by the pressures of the social conformity and the marketplace around them.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 11:16 AM

The Villan – Here's the deal. My son will be seven years old in December. He's autistic and completely non-verbal. So far no one has called him stupid – that I know of – at least not in my presence. We have every hope that he will start speaking within the year. We'll see. So I can certainly relate to the struggles you've had raising an autistic daughter. My best wishes to you both.

One thing my son is capable of doing is learning from his experiences. If he does something several times and it doesn't work – he changes his behavior. He slips from time to time – but eventually he gets it. The woman I discussed in my initial post however just doesn't get it. She's been here for two years – and one of her primary functions is to use the same fax machine. She's in here as many as a dozen times per day. And she just did it again about five minutes ago. "So the busy signal means my fax isn't going through?"

There are other things I could tell you about her but I've got better things to do. What bothers me is that she doesn't appear to want to learn how to do her job better. I'm sure there is someone out there that is capable of doing her job – but we hang on to her and keep her in the job that she is either incapable of doing or unwilling to do.

And on that basis I will continue to think of this woman as stupid. So I'll stick with my original assessment.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 10:28 AM

My post above is in response to the points ...

Drunken driving.
Meth use.
Driving while using a cell phone.
Listening to extremely loud music, esp. on an MP3 player.

Sinsull ... I agree, we are all guilty of such incidents you mentioned in your post. God Bless us All.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 10:24 AM

I say those points exhibit irresponsibility, if not to others, than to onesself.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 10:20 AM

Ah yes, I have been stupid too.
Grounding a TV plug landed me on my butt across the room.
And I was banned from the office coffee machine for two infractions:
First I tried to reheat the coffee by pouring it back through the machine. It took days to clean out the filter.
Then I made a pot of coffee, poured in the water and turned to get a filter and coffee when I discovered that the water goes through instantly. Scalding hot water shooting all over the room. The whole event was made hilarious by a very proper temp who stood there yelling at me because I was laughing (as was the entire office). The woman could not see the humor in it. And the rest of the office was fed up with her interfering ways so they joined in the hilarity.
I got to clean up that mess.
BUT...I learned from my mistakes and no longer use office coffee makers.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 09:49 AM

Let's assume that I'm out at the rifle range, shooting my little .22 rifle at paper targets. Two stations down from me is a guy shooting a black powder, muzzle loading, flintlock.

Loading a flintlock involves pouring a measured amount of loose black powder down the barrel, seating a lead ball on top of it, and then priming the pan with a tiny amount of loose black powder.

Unlike the Davey Crockett myth perpetrated by Walt Disney, you DO NOT "load from the horn" -- that is, you don't dump powder directly down the barrel from the powder horn. If you do, any remaining spark from the last shot can follow the powder up like a fuse and the horn will explode in your hand like a grenade. Not always, but often enough that the practice is proscribed and banned and badmouthed and in general seriously frowned upon.

You DON'T learn to fire muzzleloaders without learning this.

Now suppose the guy two stations away is loading from the horn.

Sorry, but after his next shot I'd march over, explain his stupidity to his face, call him stupid, and likely take his gun away. I don't care if he hurts himself -- that's stupid. But he would be endangering me and others, and possibly leaving behind a family -- that, in my book, is criminally stupid.

The same thing is true with someone who digs a trench (for a waterline, say) and doesn't shore up the sides.

As I said, ignorance can be cured...and I will do whatever I can to help cure it. Stupid is always fatal...unfortunately, others are either left behind or taken with the fatality.

Here are some more examples of stupidity:

Drunken driving.
Meth use.
Driving while using a cell phone.
Listening to extremely loud music, esp. on an MP3 player.

You can think of others, I'm sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 08:15 AM

Now isn't that something.

Hmmmmmm

I would have thought that the "Pork Pie" was named after Lester Young's hat.

Boy ..... am I ever Schtooopid.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Stupid Person
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 08:09 AM

How about the school teacher who appeared on the TV quiz show 'Eggheads' (UK) last week.

Question (paraphrased) was,' John Montagu had which food item named after him when he refused to leave the card table to eat'
a) The Pork Pie
b) The Sandwich
C) The Jam Tart

His answer?
Yep - The PORK PIE

He didnt stop to consider that a pork pie is so-called because it is a pie full of pork!
Or that a Jam tart is a tart full of jam!

Even if he does not know that John Montagu was the 4th Earl of Sandwich, surely he could have eliminated the other two.

And he teaches our children !!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Mooh
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 05:51 AM

Not anymore, and being self-employed helps. My bride looks after such things as scheduling and financial concerns, with some help from me, but we keep each other from doing anything too stupid. There were many "stupid people" on other jobs I have had to do, but as time passes it's easier to forgive them.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Jim Carroll
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 03:00 AM

Have you noticed that it is only other people who are stupid
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 09:33 PM

To answer the original question posed by the thread...

No. I don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 08:44 PM

dianavan ... "Then again, little kids know that stupid is a bad word."

very interesting ... great point.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 08:29 PM

Villan - I don't think anyone is referring to autistic, learning disabled, or mentally challenged people. What makes a person stupid is when they are too lazy to use the brains they have. If someone is functioning at the best of their ability, they are not really stupid.

Then again, little kids know that stupid is a bad word.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Bill the sound
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 08:08 PM

Thanks Peace. It's just something I thought up because i'm usually sat on the mixing desk at our local folk club.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 04:25 PM

...I used to but I did the sensible thing and got a new job and left the stupid fuckers!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 03:02 PM

I ran a communication skills class for council employees and at the end of the first week asked students to bring in any examples of bad communications they came across.

I got one which was a memo and at the bottom said "Please photocopy and distribute".

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 02:46 PM

I have never, nor would I ever refer to a mentally challenged person as stupid. Stupidity, as in the case of George Bush, is something he could avoid. He seems not to. I expect that the day will come when my own child needs an employer who will understand her limitations. However, that will not make George Bush any smarter than he is, or any less stupid.