Dude, how sad is this?

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Man, I got this second job at a local newspaper man...the bastards are primitive as all hell there. Check it out:
  • There is NO network. For a modern daily newspaper, that is unheard of.
  • No CD burners either. We do everything by way of disks
  • We use all Macs (not that uncommon), but almost all of them are OS8 or 7. They are so old that they cannot read PC-formatted disks AT ALL (normally they read just very slowly). The computers even recently turned away a burnt cd because they can't read writables.
  • Check out this ILL software list:
    • Photoshop 2.0+4.0 LE
    • Quark Express 3 (currently up to 6.1, I believe...but it's made worse because they go in decimals of 10's...we have 3.32, and it's up to 6.1 or so...)
    • Acrobat 4
    • IE4
    • Netscape Navigator (Yes, the OLD SCHOOL ONE, that was out to compete with like, Prodigy dialup)
  • You photoshop jocks might know this but the default Adobe color profile is from 1998 on considered the industry standard for digital imaging on the web. The computers in work largely predate 1998, and thus, predate the color profile...meaning simple jpegs won't even read unless they're converted to grayscale or the old hideous profile.
  • I sent a 200dpi image that was 6x6 inches to the printer and it took a half an hour to finally come out.
  • They still print out the pages, then cut them up on what's called a pasteboard. Then they paste them together in the final layout for the paper. When they met me they were shocked by all the technological stuff I knew, but when I saw that I was totally awed. They were confused, and then I explained: when I was in college, they talked about it, but never at length, because it was thought that no currently operating papers in heavy circulation in the US still did it.
  • The place is run by an incredibly cheap and annoying old man, in his 80s. He is completely senile and has no idea what he's doing anymore. His two sons run the rest of the company but they don't have any type of clear cut policies or anything. The place is just a mess.
  • There's this ****ing scanner we have, the scanjet4c by HP. It's been broke for a while; the HDD is corrupting and won't let me access the software. It is literally like the second desktop flatbed scanner ever made. I told them, "I can fix it if you give me the cd." Of course no one knows where it is. So I go on the busted ass powermac dialup machine (the only machine with internet access in the place), and look it up. It gives me two options for drivers: MacOS8, or Windows 3.1.
  • The toner in our one good printer is low. They are completely unaware of how to change it.
  • They hire outside computer technicians to come in and install programs or zip drives and such.
  • THIS IS A BIGGIE, people: THERE ARE NO DIGITALLY CREATED DOCUMENTS IN THE ENTIRE COMPANY. Time sheets are hand drawn and xeroxed; forms for advertisements are done the same way. There is no email or memo or voicemail system set up; it's all done with ripped off pages of crappy paper and hand-written notes. When I get an ad to design, it's usually a really bad fax printout that is all cut up and pasted together VAGUELY in the shape it is eventually supposed to be. Everything is written by hand. EVERYTHING. The sheet you sign your credit card numbers on when you take an ad out included.
  • These people don't understand ANY concepts regarding computers AT ALL, even the most basic stuff. I told one of the girls who was scanning something for me, "Save it to this folder" and she was like "...ooh boy, you'd better write that down for me cause I'll forget!"
  • I've been *****ing to them to get a new scanner--WE NEED IT, WE'RE A NEWSPAPER FOR CHRIST'S SAKE--for over two weeks. They keep pushing it off, telling me to fix it. I showed them the dates on the computer and on the scanner software--the comp is 1994, the scanner 1996. The **** is ten years old!! GET A NEW ONE!!
  • The Old Man will come in and ***** that I spent a certain amount of time there. They are extremely CHEAP--which is infuriating because my advertisements that I make for them earn them thousands of dollars which lines their pockets way before ever reaching the company.
  • We're not allowed to turn on most of the lights, to save electricity. The cut up and paste up the pages in the dark! We're also supposed to shut off any computer equipment all the time unless we have to use it...which means I get a photo I need to scan, I go out and boot up the computer and the scanner, then I scan, then shut it all off to repeat the process 15 minutes later when a new photo comes in.
It's BY FAR the most AGGRAVATING PLACE ON EARTH. But I have a good story from it.


There's this psycho ***** named Betty. She's a crazy old hag, a fatty with cheese who's three thousand years old and has never had a good roll in the way with anyone besides her dog. She's the most bitter miserable human being on earth.

Well, this lady Betty has terminal cancer. Rather than live out the rest of her days as best she can manage, she just walks around criticizing everything. Now, she is also an ex-teacher. So, on top of being insanely bitter about her cancer, being generally hateful towards everyone, and being a complete douchebag, she also hates on young people and men particularly (cause she was ugly her whole life and never got any play).

So needless to say, we've clashed a few times. The most recent of which was over a paper clip holder. See, her hard drive died a week ago, and I noticed that these paper clip holders we have around are all magnetic, and all of them are significantly demagnetized.

When I brought up the possibility to her that this was how her hard drive got ****ed, she chuckled cheerily and snidely at the same time, called me "Young man" and told me in no uncertain terms that I was apparently insulting her intelligence. She went on a tangent about the way I keep MY office--where she has to go to print her one page every other day--and in response to the paper clip holder thing, brought up how I had bent a paper clip straight and left it on my desk.

****ing stupid, eh?

I flipped out and through the clip holder against the wall, shattering it. She started ranting but instead I kicked in the front of the desk she was at and yelled at her to shut up. She instantly quieted when I got violent; some people just only understand that sort of thing, even medicated and retarded as she is.

Well, the next day (yesterday), the douchebag is sitting her tankass at a computer which has happily frozen. She calls me over.

"My disk is stuck. Do you know how to get it out?"

I happily pick up a paper clip, and bend it straight, just like the one she complained about. I made sure to do this right in her face, letting the gesture drip with spite.

Then I go to use it in the pinhole on the disk drive. She starts telling me, "Oh no, no no, that can't be right"...but pop, out comes the disk.

She said, "Thank you."

I said, "I'd say your welcome, but that would, you know, imply that you're welcome. And you're not." and I flicked the clip in her face.

Man, this ****ing job sucks.
 
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Sounds to me like you need to hit the Help wanted pages!
sounds like that place is something from the past with its equipment...

And that lady, lol she sounds retarded, and computer irliterate,I can't STAND computer irrlitirate people, i mean, they are everywhere doing everything, how can you not learn it!

But seriously, How long have you been working there? And how can you Stand it?!?! That kinda stuff daily would drive me insane!!... :shocked:
 
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Time to get a new job methinks...

i work in a newsagents, and it sounds like the door locks has more advanced technology than your entire workplace, dig around, you'll find much better places :eek:
 
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Geez, sounds like the kind of place that printed the original bible :p
 
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Pride, if anything is gonna improve at that job. It's gonna be either you convincing that old man that he needs to actually stop being cheap or get over being a newspaper publisher and sell it to someone who will.

Because, he is 80 years old and probably set in his ways. It's like arguing with a pencil sharpener.

So, the best thing for you to do is... (if your truly interested in the Newspaper area) is to make a resume (if you haven't already) including the fact you have worked for a low grade publishing company, and find a job with a company who realized were in the 21st century.
 
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There's this psycho ***** named Betty. She's a crazy old hag, a fatty with cheese who's three thousand years old and has never had a good roll in the way with anyone besides her dog. She's the most bitter miserable human being on earth.
I said, "I'd say your welcome, but that would, you know, imply that you're welcome. And you're not." and I flicked the clip in her face.
(LMAO) Sorry to hear that man. I don't know, why don't you try searching for another job?
 
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Well I already have another job. This one is just to build up a portfolio and experience.

As for me not getting fired...that lady treats everyone like ****, and doesn't really help anything. She just wanders around and grills people about things. She only works there because she is friends with the old man and he feels sorry for her. She doesn't actually really DO anything. So everyone else was happy I did it. Luckily, the Old Man wasn't around.
 
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dude, you dont need to yell at an old lady. you should just be the bigger person and be mature about the matter. i found a while ago that if you show some maturity then they will ease off of you, and then YOU dont have to look like a jackass for being violent around an old lady who is dying of cancer.
 
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fatmanterror said:
dude, you dont need to yell at an old lady. you should just be the bigger person and be mature about the matter. i found a while ago that if you show some maturity then they will ease off of you, and then YOU dont have to look like a jackass for being violent around an old lady who is dying of cancer.
Yeah, that's very true. The more mature person takes hatred with ease and only looks to solve the confrontation. I'd apologize to her. If she truly is a nice person, she'll level with you. If not, it will only piss her off more.

Being nice to someone who hates you, really scrambles everything up and might even change her attitude completely.
 
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lucky you, i have to do thow's things by hand.
there is an pc but that is just an 286 -_- with just one program(paint)

the light thing and shut down thing is nonsense, you can better talk about that.
just say that it's better to think about the time that can be saved by letting them on, even if they nead money to pay off the company, and alsy remember him that time is money :D
o btw, it sound's strange but try to be nice to peaple even when they hate you, saved me some job's ^_^
 
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Well, I went into the job knowing that this lady was psychotic, hated men, was overly medicated, really rude, and hated young people. I started off trying to be as cordial as anyone would be. But little by little she started picking at me. While in my office, she'd rearrange things. At one point, she even stole my disk that I use to transfer news from the wire computer. She "misplaced" an important ROP form that was how I was supposed to make this family's memorial. It cost them 200 bucks and it never went in cause she "lost" the paperwork that should have been sitting untouched on my desk, and only had left the picture. I put up a picture in my office and she took it down; I brought in a pack of drinks and she took them all and threw them in the garbage while I wasn't in my office. She did a whole ****load of stuff that was completely unprovoked to me the last couple of months. She told the boss I was secretly planning on doing my newspaper pages a totally different way then everyone else, that I wasn't putting certain news in there when it was supposed to go, etc. She got me scorched by that ****headed old guy almost every night. She even once demanded that I go into my office and shut the door and not talk to anybody in the building about anything--which is just preposterous and absurd in an office like this one.

So..it was a lot of build-up. A LOT of buildup. :0\
 
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I blame you for tollerating it
 
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It isn't a matter of maturity when you get pushed that far. I know from personal experience... I don't blame him at all.

This may sound like BS but I'm either the single nicest person I know or the second nicest, depending on whether or not I am considering people that are constantly doped up on anti-depresants. People can and have been total complete *******s to me, and I have been calm and not said a word back to them for extend periods of time. It does build up though. That crap you take in just sits there, and sits there. Until a couple of years ago I would have somewhere around one massive hatred explosion per year because of the way I just absorbed stuff, and most often I would explode at someone who didn't completely deserve it. At least Saiyan blew up at somebody who did.

Sure she's old, but so what? If she's making his life a hell regularly and only doing it because she thinks she's invulnarable then he did the right thing, even if he took it a little too far. Heh, I wouldn't have done anything to her, but I'll bet you I would have ended up slamming my fist into a whiny co-worker shortly thereafter.

Well if she stays nice to you apologize to her, otherwise leave things where they are and take it easy.
 
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wow thats kinda crazy to let someone who is probably senile run around and yell at people and not do something about it.....good job at putting her in her place
 
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:laff: Holy ****!

Pride. . . you're my new hero.
 
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That ***** needs a taste of her own medicine. I would personally make her life a living hell if she treated me like that. I hate anyone that tries to make me look the fool, or get one up on me, and from the sounds of it, you do too. At least she got well and truely owned as it were, good job :p
 
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wow guys, some of you really seem to not understand life. this lady is dying. and she is old. she probably hates every aspect of her own life. imagine living that way, where NOTHING anybody does could make you feel better. you are old, frail, and just waiting to die. now, i understand ur young and most young people cant appreciate death yet. i cant say i do, but i can say most of you dont. just block her out. i understand its hard, my grandma does that kinda crap, but i say to myself, hey, the empty can rattles the most. she has nothing left. on the other hand, you and i have our whole future to plan. so does it make you guys feel like big men to get violent with old ladies? granted they mess with you, but even so man.... thats just not how a man does things....
 
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In all honesty I don't see how any dying old woman can go around critisizing people and doing mean things. Why not live it the best you can. Get a dying wish or do something you always wanted to do before you die. That's what i would try to do. I mean. I can't say if i would be mean to people or not. Because i have never experienced something like this. But i certainly wouldn't be crammed in some newspaper publishing company. Or whatever it is.

One more thing... If it's such a bad job. Why not quit? Or why did you apply for the job anyway?
 

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