BS: Do you work with stupid people?

Subject: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 04:43 PM

Today someone from our accounting department came in to use the fax machine. Somehow she managed to change the language function of the machine over to Spanish. So when you looked at the little screen it said you were making "uno" copies instead of "one".

Suddenly she's in a panic - "I've sent the customer a fax in Spanish". It was all we could to to convince her that - yes - her fax that was printed in English would still be in English when the customer received it. And - no - our fax machine was not capable of translating just yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 04:49 PM

Sometimes all I have had to do is look in the mirror in my cubicle to find the stupidest co-worker I have ever, ever had. I try to enjoy stupidity-- mine and others'-- because it helps to counteract the deadly seriousness of so much of common life these days. I like the idea that we can relax and not always be right, accurate, smart, responsible, whatever-- that it's just fine to take a turn on the low side of the common denominator and life will actually go right on anyway.

:~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:25 PM

lol I'm with Susan. I was going to say that because I work alone at the office I most certainly fairly frequently discover stupidity afoot.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:31 PM

My cats in my at-home office make me feel stupid. They can leap the highest bookcase and really fly when they need to!

Wesley, that IS pretty funny!

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

I work with a bunch of rocket scientists. Watching some of these folks wrestling with a jammed copier can be very entertaining. Yes, we're all stupid, just at different times.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:36 PM

It was like a bad joke from a bad TV show. Hard to believe either way.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:41 PM

Just think how over-burdened that poor lady must chronically feel, and she probably also feels too stupid to ask for clarification about how basic tech tools work. If only these types of stupid people would join Mudcat-- where we tend to help fools, more often than not (at least above the line).

I wish I could convey in text how I squeal and gurgle with laughter when something stupid particularly delights me, even my own "famous" dumb lines. Not a finger-pointing, but just delight in rediscovering how silly we human beans are (as well as how grand). "People"-- gotta love 'em!

I'm sure I've told this one, but CRS. I was driving the kids home from high school one day when they said that most of their friends had been dismissed at 1PM to attend a funeral at the nearby church. "A FUNERAL!? What, did somebody DIE?" I said sarcastically. We all peed our pants. Then there was the "Look!!! Korean ICE cream!!!" I'm still living down.

I'm overdue. Any day now (God grant me witnesses to help me remember it afterwards!)

:~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:43 PM

PS, another way to take the thread title:

Q: "Do you work with stupid people?"

A: "I seldom break down in service, as I am quite compatible; although with nasty people I don't function as well."

~S~

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

"Just think how over-burdened that poor lady must chronically feel, and she probably also feels too stupid to ask for clarification about how basic tech tools work"

Susan - you don't know this woman. Three or four times per week she stands there and listens to the fax machine as it gives her a busy signal. After it beeps at her for about a minute she turns to us and asks - every time - "So - is it not going through?"

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Amos
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:57 PM

The legend sprang up in techie circles -- oh, maybe 1983 or so -- that a secretary wanted to reduce the size of a word processing file, and decided to do so by using 10 point fonts instead of 12 point fonts in the file.

In my present occupation I work with decent and civil people, and the only one who is not civil is brilliant anyway, so he is frequently forgiven. It's a brainy group and I always feel honored to be welcome among them.


A

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

'"So - is it not going through?"'

Maybe she's puttin' y'all on!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:04 PM

Peace - if you could see the bovine look on her face you would know the answer to that question.

This doesn't make her a bad person. She's just someone that from time to time does stupid things. Just like me.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:13 PM

I was tryin' to look on the positive side.

One day I put a sign in each of the staff washrooms. It read, "Due to government cutbacks, you are requested to help save money by using both sides of the toilet paper."

The signs stayed up for about six hours. People were indignant.


##############################################################


Just after a presentation to staff about sexual harrassment, I went to the office to get a form to fill out.

"May I have a sexual harrassment form please?"

"Why? Is everything OK?"

"I don't wish to discuss it. May I have a form."

"Well, is there anything we can do to help?"

Yes! I'd like the form, please."

"But, but . . . ."

"Look. I have worked here for five years and NO one has harrassed me. I want the form so I can complain."

"But that's not what the form is for."

"Oh."


##############################################################

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Becca72
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:24 PM

I used to work at a travel agency and one day I was covering for the receptionist when the owner of the company came up front to use the fax machine. He stood there for several minutes punching in numbers and getting a busy signal. After about 5 minutes he was fuming and asked me if there was something wrong with the machine. I got up and looked and told him, "um, Steve, that's OUR fax number you're dialing". He handed me the fax that needed to be sent and walked off without another word.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:37 PM

I've put up a sign outside my office that reads "Caution!! Dry Paint!!"

People love it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:43 PM

Do I work with stupid people? ... not anymore! My brother and I are retired! Bad Bad Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:45 PM

Posted elsewhere, but apposite for here.

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots.

So far, the Universe is winning.

We had one colleague who, after spilling tea down his shirt, rinsed it under the tap and tried to dry it in the microwave, then wondered why the fire alarms went off.

He denied all knowledge when asked later, until he was confronted with a melted piece of plastic that had formerly been his identity badge, pinned to the shirt he'd been trying to dry in the microwave.

He no longer works with us.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 07:00 PM

Years ago I worked at a Forest Service station where there was a young man who simply had no common sense. He was hired for simple manual labor around the office. Somehow this idiot got to move into a gorgeous little cottage down the road--if I'd known it was available I'd have rented it in a heartbeat, and have taken great care of it.

One day he locked himself out, so he got his chainsaw out of his pickup and cut the door jamb apart so he could push the door open. It had lovely woodwork all on the front porch. I remember meeting the owner later, and when he realized I knew about the mess of the door he asked what had happened. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he'd rented to the stupidest git in the county, I just shrugged.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Bill the sound
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 08:42 PM

No I'm retired but I remember when passive smoking was big news and I worked in an office with quite a lot of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, one member(not Me) immediately became a passive engineer!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 08:45 PM

"Bill the sound"

That is the best handle I have seen on Mudcat. Has this neat thing to it, like "Louie the Finger" or "Freddie the Hand".

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

Runyonesque.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 09:43 PM

Years back when I made tombstones we'd clean the stone with gasoline to get the stencil adhesive off (don't worry about this, just accept it). One old codget who sometimes worked with us did this while smoking a cigar; he never did what everyone thought he would -- all the same, the boss made him wash the stones in the alley and not in the shop.
----------
One warm July night in the Army we were all abed after a full field inspection. Hot, sticky...and I awoke to an "odor" that was familiar, and yet I couldn't place it. When I opened to door from my room into the bay where all the non-NCOs slept it was like walking into a hot gas chamber! "Sarge, what's that smell?" they asked and I immediately replied, "That tear gas! Put on your masks!"

Ever see a hundred men running around in their skivvies, all wearing gas masks?

Seems like someone from a unit a block or so upwind had brought a tear gas grenade back from a field exercise. He was tossing it up and down while laying in his bunk when the pin came out and the handle flew off. He pitched it outside....

It took a squad (10 men) of MPs to get him safely off to the lockup and away from the literal mob of angry soldiers affected by the gas.
----------------

Today was my 36th anniversary working as a professional librarian. At this time I work with the best staff, bar none, of any I have ever worked with. No, I've worked with stupid people, but not at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 09:49 PM

Congratulations, Rapaire.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: mg
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 12:11 AM

no thank heavens. I work with scientists and medical people and there is a selection process that goes on I believe. I have however worked in schools in the past..oh dear. No offense to anyone here...but oh dear...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: frogprince
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 01:21 AM

I put in a couple of years with a remarkable collection of drug-oriented co-workers, including some married couples. One morning one couple came in complaining that they had bought some pot after work the day before, but it had no "kick". They were smothered with sympathy as if they had lost a family member. I finally said, "It's a damn shame; if you can't trust your pusher, who can you trust". Out of the whole group, one young guy gave me a sly look that indicated that he recognized my sarcasm; the rest just nodded in hangdog agreement.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,bert on kelley's machine
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:04 AM

mg. they make the stupid medical people GPs. Like the one who treated Lou's skin lesions of non Hodgkin's Lymphoma as poison ivy, and put her on a starvation diet to reduce the growth.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 03:16 AM

My GP is a bit like that. Diagnosed asthma when it turned out to be a heart condition.

The best one was earlier this year when another GP in the practice diagnosed arthritis in one shoulder joint, without even looking at me. It was a frozen shoulder (rotator cuff muscles).

Working with stupid people is one thing, relying on them for your health care is quite another!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 04:25 AM

I was once called into another office by the Chair of Trustees to look at her PC which was making continuous beeping noises. I did and managed to remove her filofax that was resting on part of the keyboard. I managed to keep composed all the way back to my own office.

Elfcall

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: jonm
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 04:40 AM

Every morning, when my colleague came in to work, he would find me at my computer. One morning, he came in to find me desperately trying to do paperwork close to the window, in the dark. I told him there was no power and that neither the lights nor computers would work.

"I can sort that for you," he said, and marched off for a couple of minutes, returning with...... an anglepoise lamp! This, ear in mind, is a lecturer in electrical engineering!

On another occasion, I had to catch him, literally, as he discovered changing a fluorescent tube is not wise standing on a swivel chair on wheels.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:47 AM

My Assistant Director (2nd from top in our division - her boss reported to the big boss) was also standing on her wheelie chair when I ran in & grabbed the chair, then yelled at her (it was a very friendly place, where I could yell at my boss).

Point of the story is that OHAS (Office Health & Safety) was one of her responsibilities.   

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: MaineDog
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 06:48 AM

It isn't nice to call people stupid just because thay don't know some things that you do. -- like caregivers who want to cover you with oil when you're on oxygen -- I've got lots of medical stupidity going on now, funded by insurance companies.

Actually, such people, if properly trained and manged, can be of great value, especially if they will follow orders and not try to be smart.

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 07:08 AM

"It isn't nice to call people stupid just because that don't know some things that you do"

Ah yes, but it can be very satisfying. :-)



"Do you work with stupid people?"

Not now.

And I have decided after a lifetime of doing it in various fields, that I will no longer attempt to perform artistic endeavours with them either... Being abused and ridiculed because they are too stupid to know when they are outclassed is no longer fun, especially when they then try to later claim my ideas, the very ones they attempted to discredit, as their own!

Now we ALL, and I include myself, CAN be stupid from time to time, so I will perform with those who are prepared to admit their stupidity and ask forgiveness for when their acts of stupidity cause me grief, but as for the rest, there's not much point really. Never attempt to teach a pig to sing - it wastes your time, produces and unsatisfactory result, and just annoys the pig anyway! But it can be a lot of fun to join with others who DO know what they are doing... :-) (And like me are prepared to admit occassional stupidity!!!)

Don/t get up...

I know my way out! ... :-(


:-P

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Micca
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 09:50 AM

Do you mean like the Chemist colleague with the platinum wedding ring that had been a bit "corroded" and had alcohol spilled on it, and who then accidently passed his hand through a stream of Hydrogen gas?


The platinum black on the ring catalysed the reaction with the trace of alcohol adhering to the ring and turned it almost white hot in situ......!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: frogprince
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 09:57 AM

Forgot to mention the store owner I worked for years ago, who ran an extension cord along the wall and secured it by stapling through it with a staple gun. In this guy's case, we weren't even surprised when he did that. Someway, somehow, he neither got electrocuted nor caused a fire.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 10:48 AM

I play Piano Accordion.

Run Away!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,rock chick
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 11:07 AM

No person should be labelled as stupid; maybe they are confused or have been misguided. Stupid is a strong word and should not be used lightly when referring to people or their actions. We all do daft things at times but that does not make people stupid, unintelligent, dim, thick, dense, slow, dull, brainless, dim-witted, obtuse, or any other name you want to call it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 11:57 AM

sorry, rock chick, but there are some that can't be described any other way. The only rules are about when and to whom references are made. Mostly, I would not say it to someone's face.

You are correct that " We all do daft things at times..." which means anyone can make bad decisions. But some are flatly incapable of comprehending WHY their actions are bad, even when it is explained to them. This is NOT always their fault, and we must have tolerance for those with injuries, learning disabilities and genetic flaws.

What is hard to deal with...and what is represented by most of the semi-funny stories above....are those who are regularly do 'stupid' things, and seem to not learn from them...or who don't seem to care.

It is no sin to be ignorant about an issue, but it IS a problem when someone 'seems' to be intelligent enough to cope, and not motivated to improve.

It is a complex thing, this being human, and some are just better at coping than others.....thus we have threads about people doing stupid things.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 12:26 PM

I worked with a woman who was always trying to save the company money. Every day she snuck in an unplugged the FAX machine because it was wasting electricity. If someone wanted to send a FAX, they had to call so it could be turned it on. Very frustrating and no amount of explanation ever got through.

Kendall had a nurse who, when told Kendall couldn't speak after his surgery, accepted notes from him and then WROTE BACK THE ANSWERS. Go figure!

A manager of mine insisted on joining me on a sales call to a national account. He showed up 45 minutes late and proceeded to apologize profusely and explain that he had diarrhea. The bathrooms in the service stations were too nasty to sit so he had to stop several times before he found a clean one.
The customer sat there dumbfounded. I shrank in my chair not sure what to say. I knew that this guy had just overslept. He drank and was always late.

Another time when a customer was discussing a major snow storm, this same manager remarked in dire tones "Since man walked on the moon, the weather has changed. We were never meant to go there." I prayed the customer wouldn't think he was joking. I had heard his "science" before. Customer changed subject with a baffled look preferring not to get into that discussion.

Another manager stumbled through a presentation (he hadn't bothered to prepare) and then fell asleep during a sales call with another national account. Another drinker. The customer later remarked "How sad that such a young man is so ill." I asked what she meant and she said "Well he's had a stroke, hasn't he?"

I always had to cover for these idiots. If your company has no credibility, customers won't buy. I was always amused at their incompetence vs. the common sense dedication to quality that the people behind the scenes provided. We had first rate inside sales, product development and customer service people who saved accounts daily and solidified relationships.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: heric
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 12:39 PM

Turning off the fax machine is brilliant! I'm going to take it to a higher level if I can find the switch for the e-mail.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 01:11 PM

Right out of the Army the first time I worked in the Maintenance Department of a medium-sized hospital. It was a new building, and it had a dual oxygen system: one could be used with the other side was being serviced.

We'd been in the building three years at that point and Oxygen System A had been used the whole time. The boss wanted to switch over to System B so that A could be serviced. Since A was low on oxygen, we could prepare B for use and fill 'er up with liquid oxygen, bleed of the residual oxygen from A, and proceed.

So a specialist was hired to prep B. He had a wonderful record with oxygen systems, and the hospital hired him as a technician.

He prepped B, and the day the LOX was to be delivered my boss decided to check on the work. Good thing he did, too -- the "specialist" had lubricated all of the valves in the B system with household lubricating oil.

I leave it to you rocket scientists to explain why the specialist was fired and continued using System A for another six months.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,rock chick
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:14 PM

Well Bill D whilst I understand what you are say I still say using the word stupid is wrong, I again I say no one has a right to call another person stupid or any of the other names, we all have our reasons for doing things the way we do, and they are just as valid as anyone else's, what ever light you may see it in, it still does not give anyone the right to call another person 'stupid' whether their actions make sense to others or not.

Each and everyone of us has our own way of processing things, a dyslexics person was, and still is often called stupid, in fact their IQ can often be much higher then the average person, they just have a different way of learning and processing everyday things, that does not make them stupid, far from it, and this is quite often the same with other people, so labelling someone stupid because they do not do the 'norm' is totally ignorant.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:31 PM

I'm stupid for sitting here reading this thread. It's one beautiful day outside and I'll think I'll take the hounds for a walk in the park. I'm sure I'll encounter some stupid person there who will ask ... "are those whippets"? ... "no you stupid person,they're greyhounds" ... then I better get home home and finish the stupid list of chores my wife gave me to do ... she's on the weekend shift this weekend ... and I'm sure I'll hear all about the stupid people she had to cope with today.

Basically ... we're all stupid, but that's what makes us all special.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:38 PM

"it still does not give anyone the right to call another person 'stupid' whether their actions make sense to others or not....."

rockchick...*sigh*....you say you read my post, yet you seem to ignore everything I said as disclaimers and proceed to make your point over again.

I agree it is not nice to CALL someone stupid to their face. That is obvious. But it is NOT correct that some folks ways of doing things ".... are just as valid as anyone else's,"...witness Rapaire's story above...or unplugging the fax/copier. Some ways of doing things are ineffective, dangerous....and just plain stupid - whether we we say so to their face or not. If you fire someone who smokes around gasoline or gunpowder, you WILL be justified in explaining it to others as 'avoiding the results of stupidity'.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 03:24 PM

I got a hot flash for y'all.

George Bush IS STUPID.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 03:33 PM

And given the opportunity I would say so to his face.
Thanks for the example, Peace

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:08 PM

I dunno Peace ... I'd have to say all of us who are responding to this thread are stupid "marked by or resulting from unreasoned thinking or acting" and that Bush is a fool "a person lacking in judgment or prudence"

Just my stupid 2 cents worth of unreasoned thinking.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:27 PM

Sttupidity comes in many flavors; some folks just lack information because they've been sequestered in the back hills, or something. Others aren't good at recovering data they once had, which amounts to not having it. Others can tell you any old datum you like, glib as a whippet, but the notion of using information in application to a real situation just dumfounds them. Still others are beleaguered by false information, from cultural authorities, or just poor sources, and make perfectly good decisions based on that false information, which ends up being stupid in use because they relied on data that was distorted.

One skill that too few develop is the ability to assess data for distortion. Another is to assess a situation for its relative importances. Both of therse things result in poor evaluation and "stupid" decisions.

Others who are natively brilliant get forced ot look stupid by being required to use symbol systems they never trained in such as specialized vocabulary or even basic language grammar, etc. This sort of stupidity is easy to see through because they are often brilliant in ordinary human affairs they can deal with directly.

There are some kinds of stupidity that are, to me, more egregious and more irritating than others, the worst of which is the willful sort which is determined not to even seek to improve itself.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:38 PM

If you are reasonably intelligent but lack information you're ignorant, and ignorance can be cured by education.

Someone with less intelligence than others isn't shamed; he or she still functions, and sometimes better than those more intelligent.

It's when you hold yourself out to be knowledgable but aren't, or when you are unwilling to learn, that I'd think you were stupid. And stupidity is the only crime for which Nature imposes a death penalty.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:40 PM

There was a time when I didn't like to ask things in case people thought I was stupid. Now, I ask all the time and its amazing what I have learned.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: HuwG
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:43 PM

Try this site for a gallery of egregiously stupid things people have done with computers. (I contributed two of the tales; I won't say which.)

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 06:00 PM

Wesley, your fax machine needs a large 700 mile fence to keep unwanted faxes out with a
border patrol.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 06:03 PM

Sly as a fax.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Alice
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 06:45 PM

There is one person at HQ who routinely sends out
her emails ending with:
"let me know if you don't get this email."

... and she is serious.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 08:38 PM

Sometime reply that you didn't get the email.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 09:05 PM

Regarding that email ... could it be that the emails in question are going to specific 'divisions' or 'groups' within the realm of the 'HQ' ... if so, if an individual is within a specific target 'group' or 'division' and did not receive the email and had heard about this from an associate they could get in touch with the email's source and ensure they are in the list of addresses for any further pertinent emails arriving from the 'HQ'.

I have seen this 'message' before in some comapnies and it does serve some purpose as such ... sounds stupid, but can make sense.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 09:29 PM

Shannon, order UP!
Uh, which table?
How the HELL should I KNOW? That's YOUR problem! I just cook em.

Danny, I need spatulas!
How many?
All you can wash! NOW!

Danny, come get these pans! The shelf is full!
What pans?
The pans that are falling off the shelf onto my feet!

Danny, big on the right, small on the left!
Oh, I didn't know that.
(He's only worked there 6 or 7 years)

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 09:36 PM

I work with alot of stupid people who seem unable to understand cause and effect.

I also work with some who are not really stupid but like to play stupid because they think its cute and relieves them of responsibility. They usually giggle alot.

I also work with five year olds who think that "stupid" is a bad word.

I like to "get stupid", sometimes, but not at work.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 09:29 AM

well .... yesterday while my wife toiled at work I completely ignored her 'stupid' list of chores to do ... instead I goofed off here on this thread, took the hounds out to the park, kicked around the garden with my camera getting some shots, had a coffee and some useless conversation with a good friend, and even had enough time for an hours nap ... so how did I explain things to my wife on not completing the tasks I was supposed to do ... well, as soon as she came home I asked "how did the day go with all those stupid peeple" ... she ranted and vented for an hour and she completely forgot to ask about that list.

Sometimes ya gotta luv those stupid peeple at work. *wink*

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rasener
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 12:57 PM

I think the question should be changed to "Do you work with people that have done stupid things"

I have found lots of people in life who think they are clever and go out of their way to try and make otehr people look stupid. Those sort of people are dispicable.

In my time I have taught many people how to use computers as paert of my career. I wish I had a £1 for every person who said "This is a stupid question", when in actual fact it was the best question asked.

A lot of older people who have never learnt to use computers feel stupid, becuase they haven't been taught how to use them.

Worst of all, I could smack anybody who makes my Autistic daughter come home feeling upset becuase the other kids have called her stupid. The bastards, and this thread in its present form should be closed. Its insulting.

So you think you are clever Wesley. You are not, you are an arsehole.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,rock chick
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 12:58 PM

Bill D I agree it is not nice to CALL someone stupid to their face. It's not nice to call anyone stupid at all whether to their face or behind their backs.
But it is NOT correct that some folks ways of doing things ".... are just as valid as anyone else's,"...witness Rapaire's story above...or unplugging the fax/copier. Why is it not correct because YOU say so, that's just right ignorant.

If you fire someone who smokes around gasoline or gunpowder, you WILL be justified in explaining it to others as 'avoiding the results of stupidity'

If someone did this then they need educating in the dangers of their actions, calling them stupid is not the way.

Stupidity has a different meaning, Foolishness, inanity, folly and more, whereas stupid means; unintelligent, dim, thick, dense, slow, dull, brainless, dim-witted, and obtuse.

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

"whereas stupid means; unintelligent, dim, thick, dense, slow, dull, brainless, dim-witted, and obtuse."

As I said, that's George Bush to a T.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 01:21 PM

I worked as a summer seasonal in a national park in the Pacific Northwest where the new superintendent was sent as a part of the NPS contribution to the Peter Principal--as part of a RIF at the Seattle office he was transferred laterally beyond his ability to function (and he'd been pretty low-level functioning before, as the region "uniform officer," making sure they are contracted, ordered, worn properly, etc.). Not superintendent material, and when he arrived he acted like he'd arrived at his own private fiefdom. I think "ignorant" or "pompous" are the best descriptions for most of his actions. He would walk around the park with open containers, regularly borrow park equipment and have the staff do work at his house (he didn't live in government housing).

One day he arrived in the office with a large pressure bandage on his index finger. These are used to hold broken bones in place and to stop bleeding. Seeing his bandage I asked if he'd cut it or broken it. "Both," he said. So I offered a quip, thinking of the remotest, dumbest, and (I thought) least likely thing he could possibly have done. "What did you do, stick it in a running lawnmower?"

"Yes."

Geez. I left it there. But a few weeks later I heard he was hospitalized and was very ill. He was back a couple of weeks later and I asked how he was and why he'd been so sick. Seems he decided to eat some raw oysters. They'd been in his fridge for a week.

Stupid. There's no other explanation for it. The man has lived on Puget Sound for decades and he doesn't understand about fresh seafood?

I learned later that the high density of idiot permanent employees was due to the fact that this was the last stand for the employees who were complete goof-ups who couldn't easily be fired. They were sent out to this island "retirement park" until they finally got the message and retired. Too bad for the park, because it was a beautiful place but it was run incompetently. I left as early as I could without affecting my evaluation, but it turned out to not matter--I worked for a pathological liar (I learned about his lies about staff from some state park rangers who ran into him in a bar one night--amazing stuff, but the state park guys had known me for years and knew he was fabricating this stuff) who wrote the most creative and amazingly smearing evaluation that I spent my last day sitting at a park table documenting the problems in the park as my rebuttal.

There should have been an asterisk by this park in the list of places with job openings for seasonals. Working there was cruel and unusual punishment.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 01:24 PM

I know a fellow who--so far--has stuck his tongue to frozen metal three times (that I know of). Folks, it's hard to do that by accident.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 01:24 PM

Oh, and Wesley, ignore The Villian. He was making sense until he started the name-calling.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rasener
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 01:58 PM

Well I wouldn't like my daughter, if ever she manages to get a job, to be working for some of you people.

By the way SRS its The Villan not The Villian.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rasener
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 02:05 PM

Oh and I will apologise to you, for my outburst Wesley, however I do not find it funny whatsoever.

have you ever thought of being sympatheitc to such people and helping them, without being insulting about them. Just think yourself lucky that people in you family are not that way inclined.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 02:23 PM

There are two kinds of people who are weak, physically:

Those who are born with physical limitations or acquire them by illness or accident (or war), and can't exercise.

Those who don't choose to exercise.

I think the same distinction applies to "stupid" people, but in terms of mental limitations and mental exercise.

In each case, the first group ought not to be picked on. The second group probably should.

IMO

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Becca72
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 02:26 PM

Well put, Peter

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

Point well taken, Villan. People do stupid things but it does not make them stupid. Case in point: the lady who turned off the FAX machine was the brains and brawn behind customer service. Her silliness re: the FAX was tolerated because she was critical to office function.

Can't say the same about the manager who regularly used diarrhea as an excuse for oversleeping. His feats of stupidity are legendary. I had a close friend dying of cancer. Once per week I delivered him copies of this manager's memos and we laughed until we cried. One classic example was a two page run on sentence that made absolutely no sense. His secretary dared to edit it and was severely reprimanded. "I know what I am saying. Don't ever change my letters." And so we had to call her to find out exactly what the gibberish was about.
He was also infamous for requiring extensively researched reports which he then retyped and submitted to management as his own. Can you guess where that got him? He was fool enough to submit deliberately written nonsense.
Two classic stories:
He was told that we had to be innovative in keeping up with our competitors. Brainiac then decided to have each salesman enter competitors' premises illegally or fraudulantly to gather information. One was apprehended on the tracks behind the plant. Management could not believe that he had ordered it.
The best was a sales contest. Instead of tying it to sales, all we had to do was TALK TO a customer who used X amount of a given product. We all picked up $1000+ for talking to people at a trade show. They came to the booth for free goodies. The company did not make a single dollar from the contest.
But he kept his job - go figure. Always suspected he had something on somebody high up.

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.

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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Peace
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 04:54 PM

Did he cut himself?

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 04:05 PM

Well done, Wesley !

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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