What part of your job do you enjoy least?

[JimW]

Art gallery puff pieces, wankery all the way down, especially ones with throwaway references you have to check that have been mangled or are just plain wrong and in spades if it includes Japanese or other East Asian names that can be written with Chinese characters but have their own transliteration systems that I'm not paid to know.

 

[miss direct]

When I do mock speaking exams and I have to record it on zoom, then watch the recording back and keep pausing it to write detailed feedback. Takes ages and is tedious.

Also just marking in general.

And annoying paperwork, like having to collect signatures and scan them and send them to head office. Boring.

 

[rubbershoes]

People not returning phone calls or responding to emails, when deadlines are looming

 

[oryx]

Looking back on my long and not-so-illustrious career, the worst part was dealing with arsehole colleagues.

The over-competitive stab you in the back types, the snidey, the spineless, the awkward, the self-aggrandisers, and so on.

 

[ouirdeaux]

When I do mock speaking exams

However strong the temptation to mock, you shouldn't give in to it.

 

[Elpenor]

For me as a freelance worker the job has different people involved every time and a different set up. The worst part is usually the bit before the new job starts where I imagine every worst case scenario and assume that's exactly how the job will play out over the next few weeks.

I am a year into my job and still learning things. I don’t think I could take the trauma of starting a new job regularly.

 

[Clair De Lune]

The occasional unexpected visits from my cruel supervisor Monsieur I. Syndrome.

 

[StoneRoad]

the worst people for references are tutors. there've been times when they've given the wrong authors, the wrong article title, the wrong journal, the wrong page range and for good measure the wrong year. that takes a very special sort of genius

Nah, there's worse. far worse than that.
That is, when all the reference details are correct, and one of the first group of students to access the papers / books think that they have some G-d-d-m-d right to tear out the relevant pages ... instead of making notes or waddling off to the photocopier ...

When I found the damage I made such a stink with shouting, I must have been audible over several floors in the Library ...
Had the duty librarian fetch [not just call] the tutor to hear my complaint ...
The repercussions lasted several weeks and "X, Y and Z" were suspended.
And we had to do another assignment in place of the one with the ruined documents.

 

[Pickman's model]

Nah, there's worse. far worse than that.
That is, when all the reference details are correct, and one of the first group of students to access the papers / books think that they have some G-d-d-m-d right to tear out the relevant pages ... instead of making notes or waddling off to the photocopier ...

When I found the damage I made such a stink with shouting, I must have been audible over several floors in the Library ...
Had the duty librarian fetch [not just call] the tutor to hear my complaint ...
The repercussions lasted several weeks and "X, Y and Z" were suspended.
And we had to do another assignment in place of the one with the ruined documents.

In my experience the sort of thing law students do

 

[blairsh]

Its a list, a long fucking list of equally shit things.

 

[StoneRoad]

In my experience the sort of thing law students do

Wasn't Law, but there were only a limited number of references acceptable to the tutor [three or four, and all had been filched].
Severely damaging two volumes of bound periodicals and a couple of books, which why the suspensions.
ILL & BostonSpa came to the rescue [one of the periodicals was no longer produced, so no chance of a back issue ...]
The references then went onto the restricted shelves, and you had to sign them in and out & they were checked each time.

Many years ago now, but the memory of the situation still offends my sensibilities as a Librarian.

 

[seeformiles]

I quite enjoy my current job. Only thing that annoys me is being passed calls from customers who are angry about having their (usually quite reasonable) complaints ignored. Trouble is they write/call directly to my boss who ignores their calls and messages for days and sometimes weeks upon end until they call up completely wound up and get passed to me who has to pour oil upon troubled waters while wondering why things were allowed to get to such a stage in the first place.

 

[marshall]

Self-employed, so chasing overdue invoices.

 

[BigMoaner]

Project deadlines. The fuckers would be so much easier without. Not enough going with the flow in my job

 

[weltweit]

Being told by one set of people that I can promise Tuesday and then seeing that another group of people arrange that deliver will actually be a week later on Thursday which I have then to tell the customer who usually is rather displeased. .

 

[petee]

eh, never mind.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

The annual review. What a pathetic waste of time for all involved. We have to fill out a bloody massive form, review last year's ridiculous objectives, set more ridiculous objectives, go through a load of old bollocks, then have a meeting, then revise the form, have another meeting, sign the form, get it authorised ..... I think that's it.

Then it gets filed away and ignored for a year.

And it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to our payrise or grade.

Utter stupidity.

Apart from that, I really like my job.

 

[izz]

In the fairly recent days when I worked, constantly being alert against undermining, backstabbing and attempts to humiliate me publicly. Having to check my own work multiple times to avoid criticism.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

At the moment, all of it.

 

[kabbes]

Being beholden to other people

 

[Pickman's model]

Further to previous replies, the bits in between pay days

 

[Steel Icarus]

Setting SMART targets.

 

[BigMoaner]

Setting SMART targets.

Annoyed just reading that.

 

[thismoment]

I spend most of my work day covering/helping/general dogsbody out where there are staff shortages (in roles I really don’t like) that I’ve lost my way/purpose professionally…meh.

 

[bellaozzydog]

Pulling contractors on their safety standards that inevitably lead to the lowest on the totem pole getting more effort/shit

 

[seeformiles]

The annual review. What a pathetic waste of time for all involved. We have to fill out a bloody massive form, review last year's ridiculous objectives, set more ridiculous objectives, go through a load of old bollocks, then have a meeting, then revise the form, have another meeting, sign the form, get it authorised ..... I think that's it.

Then it gets filed away and ignored for a year.

And it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to our payrise or grade.

Utter stupidity.

Apart from that, I really like my job.

It’s a pointless annual exercise to supply HR with paperwork. At one time, I was responsible for 3 women a few years shy of retirement all of who were quite happy doing what they were doing. They asked me to make up stuff and make sure the next year’s goals were things they were already doing. I’d also arrange for them to do courses that had nothing to do with work just to give them a day off e.g. a fire awareness course where they got to try out lots of different fire extinguishers.
My boss hated it as well and I certainly wasn’t going to learn new tasks for the same money.

 

[maomao]

Stupid fucking meetings about what to do when Ofsted turn up.

Inset days where we stop educating children to watch stupid fucking videos of stupid fucking overpaid federation management droning on about stupid fucking bollocks.

Having to stop my classes for stupid fucking uniform inspections.

Having to wear a stupid fucking tie.

Apart from that, love it. Even the marking. In fact marking might be the best bit.

 

[Nikkormat]

Stupid fucking meetings about what to do when Ofsted turn up.

Inset days where we stop educating children to watch stupid fucking videos of stupid fucking overpaid federation management droning on about stupid fucking bollocks.

Having to stop my classes for stupid fucking uniform inspections.

Having to wear a stupid fucking tie.

Apart from that, love it. Even the marking. In fact marking might be the best bit.

My place is light on most of that, thankfully. My annual annoyance is preparing then uploading coursework for external assessment. The exam board we use are useless shits of the highest order with their constantly changing, ill defined requirements.

 

[Pickman's model]

.

 

[StoneRoad]

I've got to have another bite at this ...

I absolutely detest the "chasing up payments" ie invoice follow-up.
I do my very best to pay suppliers as soon as I can [our present record is less than five minutes from receiving a pro-forma !].
So, I find it highly annoying & frustrating in the extreme that some customers delay paying for spurious reasons, or tell porkies as to why they can't part with the "bakeesh".
Recently, because of a missing payment, I was within 24 hours of telling my team to "down tools" for one job !
To the point I sometimes wish the grant-awarding body would pay me directly, in bulk [as per the 50%,40%,10% formula] ...