I work in a public school district and i visit about a dozen different schools. Bosses are making us share our calendars, thinking they’ll be able to track us and catch us doing something wrong. I’m planning to add “started my period” every couple of weeks. Are there other good outlook tricks to fuck with them?
ETA- This is my work calendar, not my personal calendar. I know that seems reasonable but it’s being done as a petty micromanagement tactic. There are about 20 of us in my department who drive from school to school every day working with kids with physical disabilities. They don’t just want to know when we’re in meetings - they want every minute of our day to be accounted for - 8 to 830 school A, 840 to 11 school B, etc. I go to 14 schools. If my kid at school A is absent or if i get a call from school J that i need to stop by to fix a wheelchair, am I supposed to pull over and update my calendar so they can find me? I could spend an hour a day in parking lots editing my calendar. Most days i eat lunch in my car between schools. Last year they made a rule that we can’t carry to-go cups because it looks like we have enough free time to drive thru Starbucks. It’s just to be controlling.
Add your driving to/from schools to the calendar, turn by turn
- 9:21 - Leave parking lot, turn to Capital Blvd and drive 420 ft
- 9:22 - Turn right towards Trawick Rd and drive 2.5 miles
- 9:27 - Turn left, enter parking lot
Make sure to turn on “at time of event” reminders for every single one, then turn your own phone/pc to DND mode so bitch boss’s only way to make them shut up is unshare the calendar
I didn’t know your could do that! Perfect!
“pulled over to put following comments in calendar”
Right? I got a call on a new first grader who showed up at school in a baby stroller. I thought, “huh, should i look for a wheelchair and class chair for him and rush over to get him set up for his first day of school? or sit here and update my calendar for each stop in that process? Visit school A to meet kid. Visit school b to look for wheelchair. Visit school c to find wheelchair. Visit my garage to clean wheelchair. Visit tire shop to air up tires on wheelchair. Visit school A to deliver and fit wheelchair.”
Well I have a pretty good idea where you live :) (I used to live in Brentwood)
The only one here so far not likely to immediately get you in trouble is the one about setting calendar reminders. By default, everyone with access to the event gets the alert with the event reminder.
Also, just being stupidly stringent with your time logging. 10:03-10:17 Gas, 8.9gal, $XX.XX to start pushing for (increased) mileage compensation.
Log every minute you go over time. It’s a wonderful way to make managers twitchy.
Also, there are certain things you could reasonably expect them to want logged with this that legally they are not allowed to ask for. Not “Took a big fat steamer”, what are you, 12? But “Bathroom” 1:10-1:15, and dare them to challenge it on the record. If they do, take it up the chain “I felt pressured to include this information in my time logs and now I’m being judged for it”. That should raise alarm bells with anyone up above them.
Most of all, chill out. Just keep your shit in order and keep moving on. No reason to jeapordize your employment for pettiness.
Yeah. I really need to learn how to let things go and stop being petty, but I just can’t stand her stupid lying face! “Share your calendar so we can find you if there’s an emergency.” Well, you could call me or you could use the multi million dollar emergency alert system that i sign into at every building.
If you’re not in the clock, then there is no emergency you could respond to.
I don’t understand this “work ethics” of US americans to be available 24/7. Just don’t and you don’t habe to complain vor be petty.
Had to do similar for a micromanager that thought I was lying about my start times. He started calling asking where I was seemingly randomly. Then I saw him driving around one day in the lot swiveling his head around and realized he thought I was clocking in from home. (At the time I’d been occasionally parking about a mile away and hoofing it so my fat ass could get steps in before work. I explained this but he didn’t believe it).
So from then on if I didn’t feel like exercising I’d mark my arrival and hide my car somewhere in the lot behind trailers, a big dumpster, etc. and watch him drive around searching trying to catch me out. Then I’d see him find my car and shake his head. He knew what was up then. He stopped stalking my calendar and me after a couple days of that.
Does your boss fish? If not, this might look disturbing to him.
Five Guys Hooker tournament 2-4. Entry: $75. Min length: 8". Biting = Big OFishing tournament sponsored by Five Guys from 2-4pm. Entry fee is $75. Any fish under 8" don’t count towards total weight. “Big O” lure is expected to perform well.
Resign, it will be better for both
Exploring options. Love my job and my team, but everyone above my immediate supervisor sucks! They take these director and Asst. Superintendent jobs to bump up their ‘five high pay years’ before retirement, even though they’re not qualified.
Not unless another job is secured.
Otherwise, never resign. Do bare minimum, make them do their job.
Fuck 'em
Yeah. I’m shifting from “I’m outta here!” to “Fuck it. They can try to fire me.”
Exactly… Make these clowns earn their fucking wages.
Make them uncomfortable withim the bounds the employment policy.
While you do this, obvi plan that exit.
In Asymmetric engagement with a bad faith actor that is still bound by some rules, flip the rules on them;)
I’d advise saturating him with an excessive amount of information. If he wants details, give him 10 times to many. Pollute every day with 50 status reports. Just keep on piling it on. If your boss decides to drive you crazy, then drive him even crazier.
Add a bunch of just normal things and then right in the middle:
10:45 - Rectal exam
1300 rectal exam
1700 rectal exam
2245 rectal exam
self- rectal exam
Just like checking your breasts for lumps, the fight against colon cancer begins at home.
No I prefer to start at work
My recent benefits enrollment meeting talked about being able to do an annual physical through a virtual visit. Being a man of a certain age, “self rectal exam” was the first thing I thought about.
Rectum? Damn near killed 'em!
If it ain’t on the calendar it ain’t happening
They keep telling us that. Leaves me wondering if i should just pick one kid that i really like, never put their visits in my calendar, and then just spend all of my time there trying to make up all the times i didn’t see them.
Your school district has crappy leadership. Look for a better district. Put those job interviews on your calendar.
We hired a new superintendent a few years ago. Since then they’ve been chasing away the old people and hiring their friends, who suck. They’re all just trying to get higher paying jobs to bump up their ‘five high years’ before retiring.
Sooo many awesome suggestions here for you, OP!
One thing I don’t think I’ve seen yet, is that you should create your calendar events as barebones as possible and then edit them to add each additional detail. This will notify everyone else attached of the updates to your event, every time you update any of them.
Have you ever thought of tracking your bowel movements?
Don’t forget to note consistency and whether or not there’s corn.
Be professional, use the Bristol Stool Chart.
I actually have that on the wall in a couple of my schools. I could take a pic and note my ‘score’.
A picture is good but a video really captures the consistency.
I don’t really follow your reasoning unless your bosses have already shown they’re malicious people. At work, my work calendar is shared with the entire company to see. I like it as it lets people easily schedule meetings with me, know at which of the two locations (or at home) I am. I have a personal calendar which I don’t link to my work calendar at all. I do think that accountability is an important part of healthy work relationships with managers because (with good managers) it comes with autonomy. Why do you think your bosses will use it maliciously?
They’re lying, shitty people who do petty things so they can pretend to be busy while ignoring any real issues. This isn’t sharing so they can see our meetings. They want us to write 8-930 school A. 945-11 school b, … to fill our whole day. That’s not how it works. I make a list of schools i need to get to and i fit those in between calls for random things that come up.
Thanks for explaining! That sounds very different than what I had in mind (just sharing an outlook calendar of meetings) and I understand your frustration as I’d hate that too. That must really suck. Wish I could help.
Actually I do have a suggestion. When I’m asked to do something that I think is pointless I go full nice, but rational mode. Keep asking questions as if you’re trying to understand their request. And as you keep asking why this way and not that way they may end up realising how ridiculous they sound and drop it or accept an easier alternative. It may be important to avoid gloating and to propose your preferred solution (available by phone) as a suggestion to help them save face. The way to work with crappy managers is to keep them feeling good about themselves. You can use that to your advantage. It sucks and it may not work but there’s only so much you can do.
At work, my work calendar is shared with the entire company to see. I like it as it lets people easily schedule meetings with me, know at which of the two locations (or at home) I am.
“Fun” fact: Outlook and Teams have a Scheduling assistant feature that makes that unnecessary. If a person wants to schedule a meeting with you, they don’t need access to your calendar to check availability. They just add you, pick a day, and it will suggest to them time slots you have open in your calendar for that day. There’s no longer a need to share an Outlook calendar with anyone just so they can know when you’re free to meet.
you sweet summer child. (or management plant)
Could you please explain what is naive in my reasoning?
You must work in a role where your input is valued and you have a degree of autonomy, your calendar is a collaboration tool to work with other people.
Most jobs aren’t like that, and bosses will use your calendar to micromanage you instead of supporting you
And not using the calendar means giving the boss carte blanche access to bother you any time.
After all, if you don’t have anything scheduled, you aren’t really busy, are you?
let me put it on my calendar.
Found american gen z
Or just a generic bootlicker…
I dont think genz appreciates clown corpo culture
Period every couple of weeks… lmao.
For every hour put “8am block” “9am block” etc and it will completely fill their calendar.
You could use a paper planner and refuse to use the calendar too.
I like this. Just one little further tweak: every hour block should be a time zone conversion to a completely useless time.
For example the hour long block at 8:00am would be:
0:00-0:59 Ugandan timeFor even more bonus points, account for Uganda not observing DST.
I love this!! Everything in my calendar is now going to occur in a different time zone !
I use a separate calendar for real stuff. Just making up stuff to put in this one and copying it each week.
Excellent!
Your planned menu: all meals.
Including snacks. Notate all deviations, including free samples and “one grape from bunch”.
Don’t add anything new to your calendar, just add them and they can see it’s useless for the purpose they want. When they complain, mention the checkin system and that you need to be called. Or just a generic “School Visits” event that isn’t specific to each location.
Make sure you have other evidence you’re actually working. Make sure people see you at each location so you have witnesses if your boss complains.
Just be overly nice…laced with some sarcasme. Being nice will get them infuriated because they want to be the asshole.
I’ll try, but i didn’t think i can do it. Maybe I’ll practice throwing out, “Bless your heart…”
Comes with the years. My virtue is patience and malicious complience.
