Things you should never do at work

• Story Highlights
• Stealing is just a bad idea, the company doesn't "owe you" Post-its
• Blaming others for your mistakes will make you unpopular
• Don't turn your co-workers into your therapist
• Dress for work, don't undress for your boss and don't hit on employees

By Mary Lorenz


From the e-mails we "forget" to return to the voicemails we "never received," telling little white lies has become a very real part of our workplace routine.

For the most part, we get away with it. After all, we tell ourselves, who are we really hurting? Anything beyond the occasional fib, however, and the lines get blurred.

To avoid a serious faux pas -- and possible career sabotage -- stay clear of the following 10 workplace sins:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/11/09/not.at.work/index.html

YIKES, I guess I should return all the pens that somehow manage to sneak into my purse.. :innocent:

I always thought it was amusing,how just before the Christmas holidays,suddenly everyone was running out of rolls of scotch tape,or suddenly were losing their scissors.Items we hardly ever use in our daily work.

Two beers in your lunch hour will get you the sack here.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=322049

dingo said:

Two beers in your lunch hour will get you the sack here.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=322049

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He sounds like a nice guy but a rule is a rule. I personally refrain from drinking during work hours, even if out on lunch with a client. If they want to drink that's fine by me, but I'll just stick with a water or a Coke. There's no sense in risking it.

Using company post it notes are a job "PERK" as far as I can see. :innocent:

Paladin said:

He sounds like a nice guy but a rule is a rule. I personally refrain from drinking during work hours, even if out on lunch with a client. If they want to drink that's fine by me, but I'll just stick with a water or a Coke. There's no sense in risking it.

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Yep he should have stuck to the rules I suppose..most employees here are randomly drug tested now..the tests will pick up just about any drug in your body even prescription ones...alot of companies go by the three strike rule though....the first time you are caught you are sent to be counciled..the second time you are given your final warning and the third time you are out the gate...cant be much fairer than that.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

capps said:

I always thought it was amusing,how just before the Christmas holidays,suddenly everyone was running out of rolls of scotch tape,or suddenly were losing their scissors.Items we hardly ever use in our daily work.

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PaperDoll said:

YIKES, I guess I should return all the pens that somehow manage to sneak into my purse.. :innocent:

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You end up with a huge box of pens, and pencils, some never used, some pens are dried out, some still work, all of the erasers on the pemcils are dried out, and you think that one of these days, you will sort them out, and keep the "really good ones", but you never do................and the pens continue to dry out. I'm guilty as charged; can't believe everything I ended up with; had to give extra, this, and that, away.

During a certain period of time, on the occasion of a special lunch for someone, we would just not go back to work for the afternoon, and we would just spend the afternoon drinking beer, and BS'ing. It usually wasn't appreciated, but there would be 15-20 of us, so they couldn't single us out, or do much, and we were salaried. Of course, there was justification for it, as we sometimes worked 100+ hours a week, ungodly hours, for periods of time, and so one deserved the other.

I did the office supply orders. If we couldn't find it locally, I ordered on line from Quill. I often purchased things for my personal use. I bought myself flash drives for my college computer courses, an extra ream or two of copy paper, a dozen pilot .5 gel pens, a camera, photo paper for home and a dozen or so of highlighters and yes, even post-it notes for personal use.

However, I also added up each item I purchased and wrote the company a check for them. I just netted out the check I gave against the office supply expense to reduce the cost. The boss got a full copy of the bill and photocopies of my check and the deposit slip showing my check appearing for the day's banking. Granted, a couple of legal pads or paper clips I took home with work I did at home never made it back, but I wasn't getting paid for overtime as I was salaried. I spent my own money and time writing programs for work using Excel and my own printer ink for various projects for work. I was ignored when I requested payment, so that box of paper clips and the few legal pads were way less than I personally spent in time or my own ink cartridges used.

When I left after an angry confrontation similar to DK's first post on this thread about women "hitting" on the boss and customers and getting preferential treatment in return.....................(ahem), and left the company, it was requested that my personal computer that I brought in as the one supplied didn't work worth a hoot, I was to be paid for it. I haven't yet received the $1500 for a loaded Dell Dimension and some very expensive programs they are using I spent at least $2000 for. We're talking a 3 year old computer with XP Professional and a complete Microsoft Office 2003, very expensive Photoshop and Quickbooks I had just loaded, etc. The 50 Excel workbooks I wrote for work and was never paid for were still loaded, including a very complicated one for sales taxes that would take them 3 days to do by hand as was done before I wrote the sheets. I could plug in numbers and have it done in 1/2 hour.

Consider employee/employer "theft and cheating" a two sided street.

I use to have a boss that would TAKE us to lunch and buy us beers..
At the end of the day he would take out a bottle of whatever and it would be drinks all around.

capps said:

I always thought it was amusing,how just before the Christmas holidays,suddenly everyone was running out of rolls of scotch tape,or suddenly were losing their scissors.Items we hardly ever use in our daily work.

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The notebooks, pens and highlighters tend to move fast before the start of school, too.

How about in a restaurant where the employees get a shift meal...and a few always manage to make themselves a large sub or pizza. Can't eat the whole thing? Oh well, they'll just take it home for later.

Idiots.

Amraann said:

I use to have a boss that would TAKE us to lunch and buy us beers..
At the end of the day he would take out a bottle of whatever and it would be drinks all around.

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Do you know if he's hiring??

angelmom said:

How about in a restaurant where the employees get a shift meal...and a few always manage to make themselves a large sub or pizza. Can't eat the whole thing? Oh well, they'll just take it home for later.

Idiots.

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I'm just as aggrivated at the waste that is thrown out at the end of the day, rather than being donated to the homeless shelters.

GlitchWizard said:

I'm just as aggrivated at the waste that is thrown out at the end of the day, rather than being donated to the homeless shelters.

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I used to work at a grocery store. This pissed me off to no end, but their rationale was people would start producing extra food (in the prepared foods section as well as the bakery) on purpose if they started giving it away. They are a business afterall and need to protect themselves against dishonest people.

However, to be fair, the department I worked in (dairy department) would always put alot of products aside in giant box for the food bank. The store also has an annual fundraiser every year for homeless shelters so it takes away the sting a little bit I suppose, but it still doesn't seem right that they just toss away the food.

Squishified said:

Do you know if he's hiring??

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HAHHAA!!!!

My guess is he went bankrupt because he was to drunk to pay the bills

Paladin said:

I used to work at a grocery store. This pissed me off to no end, but their rationale was people would start producing extra food (in the prepared foods section as well as the bakery) on purpose if they started giving it away. They are a business afterall and need to protect themselves against dishonest people.

However, to be fair, the department I worked in (dairy department) would always put alot of products aside in giant box for the food bank. The store also has an annual fundraiser every year for homeless shelters so it takes away the sting a little bit I suppose, but it still doesn't seem right that they just toss away the food.

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I used a clean garbage bag to put chicken in (Kentucy Fried Chicken) after the manager counted it. The guys that were clearly homeless, but living underneath my apartment building would be watching for me to come home at 4am - in the dark - walking - and I felt safer. They might have been watching out for their chicken, but I sure felt like they were watching out for me.

We used to let our cooks take home extra pizzas at the end of the day. You know what? Suddenly there were always extras.

I'm not talking about a few slices left. I'm talking about multiple whole XL pies every single night. Hmmm...how could that be???

And our favorite waitress who, if the boss weren't around, would decide that her shift meal was going to be a chicken parm or lasagne instead of a slice or a salad. The laziest employee who never could be bothered to move the napkin dispenser when she wiped down the tables, but she would pick the most expensive and labor intensive (for someone else) things on the menu for her free lunch.

Ugh!!!

PS Shelters won't take slice pies that have been cut into or food that is opened. But a pie that hasn't been cut into might be accepted for delivery. I'll ask the guys to look into that.