Just had a seriously cranky day at work. first bad day on my

[yellowdogintexas]

new job and I did not like it.

I am old enough to know better and generally speaking I am a very easy going person, and not easily riled up.

I have been in a training class all week, learning the stuff I need to know to do the Cust Sv job I was hired to do. There are 14 people in the class. Half the class seems to be in the same boat as me, want to feel at least semi prepared when we get on the phones. The other half of the class is apparantly not concerned with anything. Today I promise you there were four of them that did not shut their mouths for more than 5 minutes the entire day.

On top of which they were obsessing about the fact that the last class that did this topic got a "graduation party" with cake and balloons and were we going to get one too. Apparantly cake is life for one of these people and if cake was mentioned once, it was mentioned 200 times.

I lost it, folks I totally lost it. I said "I will make you a cake and a damn good one if you will just not talk about it any more"..no they want the cake that is bought by the manager. Then they started ragging on about it again later, we were not getting anywhere in our work and I said, Enough with the cake, we know you want the cake . Then I got jumped on (by three of the motor mouths) because I talk too and I have opinions, etc. But I did not spend the whole day talking loudly about BS and keeping the rest of the class from getting the stuff properly.

I apologized to the teacher, he just smiled and said, well, you know I could have done a few things myself, but remember, I get to write reviews of everyone after the class is over. But four of the other people in the class came up to me after and said they were glad I did it.

So of course we got our new team leader assignments and guess who is on the same team with me? You got it, the cake obsessed one with the motor mouth. I hope I am as far away from her in the cubicle assignments as I can get. I'm just sayin' because after this week, even her voice is getting on my last nerve.

Nice to have this opportunity to vent, folks!!!!! I can say that I feel better.

[democracyindanger]

1. But what kind of cake?

If it was gonna be a regular ol' sheet cake, well, that's nothing to get excited about. But if we're talking about a German chocolate or a really good coffee ring...

[yellowdogintexas]

3. oh ho, I don't do regular old cake unless time constraints force

me to do so.

it could have been Italian Cream Cake
or German Chocolate Cake

or triple Chocolate

or fresh coconut

or carrot cake

or heart attack on a plate chocolate pound cake.

Serious cake baker here.

[democracyindanger]

5. Aha! Maybe you were just being a cake snob

because subconsciously, you knew the people who couldn't stop talking about the cake wouldn't know a good cake if it hit them in the face--and thus, did not deserve the rumored company cake anyway.

[yellowdogintexas]

6. of course that was it, I was offering something far superior and

they just didn't get it

you are right.

they should be happier with mine.

guess it is better to be a cake snob than some other kinds I have encountered over the years LOL

[Hans Delbrook]

9. Hey me too

Do you make Red Velvet Cake? That's one of my most popular offerings. Though no one wants the traditional icing - they seem to prefer the whipped cream or cream cheese frosting.

Sorry - kind of off topic but I get carried away.

[yellowdogintexas]

10. I have one friend who bids on my cakes every year at

our Christmas charity auction and she always requests Red Velvet, and
she always wants the cream cheese frosting.

When you say "Traditional" frosting, which one do you mean?

Other than Cream Cheese, the only other frosting I have seen with this cake is the one with the cooked and cooled flour and milk, creamed into the butter and sugar mixture. It results in a whipped cream like frosting.

[Hans Delbrook]

11. The cooked one

That's considered the "traditional" one but my clients all either want cream cheese or the stabilized whipped cream frosting I do.

[yellowdogintexas]

14. how do you do the stabilized whipped cream?

I do a nice faux whipped cream with vanilla pudding mix, 1/2 the milk
needed for pudding and cool whip. It is a lovely light frosting.

Some people put 7 minute frosting on it too.

[Hans Delbrook]

15. Several ways

If the cake isn't going to sit out very long I use the stabilized whipped cream from "The Cake Bible" (my bible :-)) that uses cornstarch and powdered sugar. If it is going to sit out at room temp then I use either the gelatin stabilized recipe from "The Cake Bible" or lately I've been using the "unflavored mousse mix" from the Baker's Catalog. It's easy and just about fool-proof. Let me know if you want any of the recipes and I'll e-mail them to you.

[mermaid]

2. But....See, The Cake IS Important, Because

employees know that the company is out to screw everyone, and they want to make damn sure they get every damn thing they CAN out of the company. It's a symbolic thing.

Not that I don't sympathize with you...but understand WHY the cake was so important to THEM.

They know damn well it won't be long before the company is screwing them over, and they will never get jack-shit out of the company, ever again!

[yellowdogintexas]

4. see, nothing that this company has done has given me any

impression they are out to screw the employees, quite the opposite in fact.

What I have learned in 35 years in the work force is that there are always those who do assume the employer is out to screw somebody.

We sort of are caught in a situation that is the direct result of very rapid growth and so we got switched around from our original assignments into a new department that is just sort of getting itself organized.

and the persons who were most upset about it are quite young, not too experienced in the working world and somewhat immature in many ways.

Not to mention one with an annoying little nasal voice.

[mermaid]

7. You Wouldn't Happen To Be Working For

Cingular Wireless, wouldya??

Don't even get me STARTED about them. They screwed me royal!

Now, I am a lot more cynical than I used to be about employers, because of some very bitter experiences of getting screwed over in the past few years. I now DO believe that most employers ARE out to screw their employees...any way they can....and damn well I'm getting every last bloody thing I can outta them!

A crappy sheet cake gotten out of the company would take better to me than any cake you could make...merely for the fact that it was gotten OUT OF THE COMPANY.

But I'd get annoyed, too...at 200 repetitions of the SAME QUESTION when you are trying to learn a new job.

again, though, try to understand it from their perspective. It tastes better because it was gotten out of the company, and it is as simple as that.

[yellowdogintexas]

8. actually Countrywide Home Loans

and I may have an anxiety attack before noon tomorrow since I have to tackle this new stuff for the first time...but we do have helpers and they are giving us a very liberal learning curve.

I am so happy to have a job, after 6 months of job hunting since being laid off because my last job was outsourced to India!

[ikojo]

12. Good luck Yellowdog...I've done customer service for an HMO

and it is not an easy job.

I wish you success in your endeavor. Don't worry I doubt you have much contact with the cake obsessed co-worker once you get on the phones and up to speed. When I've worked CS I barely had time to eat lunch or go to the rest room, let alone interact with a co-worker.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. I was a CSR in Medical Insurance for several years; all the

medical insurance jobs are over in Dallas now, and I am NOT driving over there. So I am having to learn a new language, but I have decided that if I could retain all that I knew about the umpteen plans we managed at my last job, I have enough left in me to learn this. I just am feeling a little shaky because we went into it so fast and the last day in class was really a waste.

Yeah, getting to the restroom can be challenging but this company does allow for the fact that we all have bodily needs. Unlike my last company ...you were supposed to only go to the potty on your lunch and break and if you took a bathroom break you were supposed to take the amount of time you were in the potty off of your break time. No pity for the person who had a diarrhea or IBS attack AFTER their second break and had no break minutes left.

Thanks a bunch for your good wishes, I need all of them that I can get!!!