Couples at work...*rant*

[blas]

No offense to anyone on here who is dating a coworker or found their husband/wife at a job at one time........but I just have one rant........why do couples at work always have to bring their problems to work and why do they have to make things miserable for everyone else?

There is a couple that works in my department. One works on my side of the room, the other one works on the other side of the room.

Everything they do at work has to revolve around THEM! Now, bear in mind, these two are from another shift (the weekend shifters) and they absolutely HAD to make Monday night their one weeknight shift. They had to have THE SAME day. Not only that, but when people from that shift work with 3rd shift, it's polite to do things the way 3rd shift does it. They are helping us, they are on our terf. When we do overtime on THEIR shift, we are expected to do things their way. It's just how it's supposed to work.

We have scheduled breaks, so that machines and work areas are never left unattended. When these two work together, they HAVE to take break together. Now, I realize it's nice to be able to take breaks with friends, but sometimes, it just doesn't happen that way. Well, with those two, they MUST go together. Their shift is really lazy, and they just shut machines off for breaks. Maybe I'm immature because I get angry when he just up and leaves when it's my breaktime just because his girlfriend buzzed him over to let him know she was going. I get mad that it's MY break, and now I have to wait another 30 minutes for him (he takes 30 minute "15 minute" breaks) to get back.

Sometimes they will talk on the headsets to each other and not do their work. They will talk for what seems like forever. Especially because half of the time they are fighting or not getting along and are just bitching at each other.

Oh, and forget talking to the supervisor. This coworker is a suck up just like my ex bf. He sits and hangs in the supervisor's office for quite a while every break talking about video games and clothes. It's not like I'll get anywhere doing that.

I swear, some people should NOT work together. Especially people from other shifts who spend the whole night not doing anything and then bring their lazy tactics to my shift and then bring us DOWN and bring our production DOWN because they won't work. RRRRRR.

[Jester]

I agree and I disagree.

First of all, I have to say it sounds like the main problem with the couple in your post is not that they're a couple, but that they are just plain lazy. If only one of them worked with you, they would still be lazy.

I disagree with your generalization about couples because I have worked with many couples that did not bring their personal lives into work at all, or not that much. Currently, at my one job I work with four couples, two of whom have one partner who is management. Of those four couples, none of them seem to bring their personal lives into work. At my other job, I work with three couples, only one of which ever seems to bring their personal spats into work.

I agree with your assessment, however, as the six couples I mention above seem to be exceptional, and that quite often couples working together can be a royal pain for their coworkers, and quite often for each other as well. I personally believe that in a relationship, some separation is good. Which is why I personally have a rule that if I am dating someone, they cannot work where I am working. This rule doesn't apply if I meet them at the job, of course, but I have virtually never been involved with a coworker, so that hasn't really come up. I just think it's healthy to have separate lives as well as your life together, and that it makes each person better, and the couple stronger.

Also, there are times at work where I admit I can be a major asshole, or just difficult to work with or around, as my purpose is to Get The Job Done, and I am not necessarily all that diplomatic around my coworkers when it is busy and I am trying to Get The Job Done. Also, a lot of times in restaurants and bars, coworkers can just get on each other's nerves and in each other's faces when it is busy and everything is going crazy. And I just think that bringing a relationship into that kind of environment is not the brightest idea in the world. To wit, I don't want my girlfriend hating me or mad at me because of something that happened at work in the heat of the moment.

Just my 3.4 cents.

[Witch of Endor]

I think that's an unfair generalisation. Genuinely smart and professional people will be smart and professional on the job whether they're close to a coworker or not.

I do agree with the common practice of not hiring two members of the same family (such as a parent and child, or husband and wife) when there's a chance that one of them will end up promoted above the other. That's a weird kind of stress to put on a relationship.

Once in a while, I work for my boyfriend's boss when he needs extra help in the shop. It's a small business, and everyone is pretty much equal except for the manager. We keep work out of our relationship (I'm not bitter about the fact that he knows more than I do at work and therefore gets to tell me what to do), and we keep our relationship out of work (no getting distracted by each other when we're on the same shift).

[KamenRiderOsaka]

I have to agree with the others. These two people sound more like theyre lazy than the couple thing. I actually work with my husband, and while we have been in different departments, not once have we brought our personal lives into the work place. Work is work. Too bad management where we work can't see that. I'd like to work with him in the same dept since he and I work our asses off when we're at work, and would be good for productivity. So, yeah, sounds like theyre lazy gits if you ask me.

[Killer Bees]

What I want to know is, how do they not get sick of looking at each other? Living and working together? Ugh!

I would need to miss that person, even just a little.

[blas]

Oh we had tons of fun last night..........they were in another fight, and spent 6 out of the 8 hours I was there fighting with each other over the headsets.

I did not mean to make an "unfair generalization". As I posted earlier, it was not intended to offend married coworkers or other people dating coworkers, as not EVERY couple who works together acts like this. We all know I've dated coworkers and things have never gotten to that point.

The point I was trying to make was that I'm sick of these two slacking off and the work piling up and always having to be late to break or missing break because of those two having to revolve their entire night schedule around each other.

[digilight]

This is one of those gray areas. In the best of circumstances it could be a great thing. For example in separate departments. My parents worked for the same company twice. First one was a large oil company, mom was a receptionist type officey person while dad was a machinist then a electrician then after his back injury a computer programer. THe second was for the local county, mom worked for HR while dad was again a programer analyst. Both times they worked on at least separate floors if not different buildings. They got the plus of being able to drive to and from work together (save on gas) at the county they used dads handicaped parking pass for great parking (dad couldn't walk distances due to back issues, lets just say that now 50-100 feet is a struggle). They also have always had a great marriage and didn't have the kinds of problems that most couples do.

These kinds of situations go on every day and we don't think anything of them. But what ruins it and causes companies to impliment rules not allowing couples to work together or even be employeed by the same company are the same kinds of asshats that blas is having to deal with.

I think that the only solution is to shrink wrap them and send them off to live in a large bin of packing peanuts.

[blas]

The packing peanuts would refuse to let these two hollow heads to be in the same box as them.

[tollbaby]

I think it mainly depends on the maturity level of the people involved. I once had a job scanning the Library of Parliament's clippings collection into electronic format, and as my then-fiancé (now ex-husband) didn't have a job, I got him a job there too. When we were at work, we WORKED, and we didn't EVER have our breaks at the same time. When they wanted to put one of us on a different shift, we never questioned it, and he even got promoted to a higher, more technical position because he had a degree in some kind of computer stuff It just wasn't an issue. We were there to earn a paycheque, and that's what we did.

That being said, I've worked with couples who were absolute jerks about working together. Actually, when I was in high school, there were several married couples teaching different subjects.... when I was in grade 11, one of the history teachers started having an affair with one of the math teachers, and his wife (a geography teacher) found out about it (who the hell carries on an affair in a building full of teenagers???). It was REALLY ugly and broke up not only their marriage but the math teacher's marriage as well (she'd been married 1 1/2 years and had a new baby too!) and you had all these teenagers who loved the two older teachers and didn't know which side to pick, etc. bleh. High school sucked, for multiple reasons.

[upsidedown_orchid]

I think the best strategy when you are involved with someone you work with is to just forget about that fact at work.

Actually, I've dated one of the other managers at work for almost 2 years now, and it was great, until I was cross promoted into his department and he was training me. That sucked and almost destroyed our relationship. It was fine when we only interacted for about 4-5 mins a day, but when we were sharing an office... it was tough.

The only thing that helped was that we didn't tell anyone about our relationship.
We'd both seen too many people get dragged through the gossip wringer when they were dating. Keeping it hush hush also makes it kinda... extra hot too.

[AirHostess]

Flight attendants who are dating a pilot and spend the whole flight with them in the flight deck annoy me!

[Primer]

I once had a job scanning the Library of Parliament's clippings collection into electronic format,

OT: Why did I visualize you scanning GRASS clippings?

[Swordsman422]

My only problems with couples at work are that break-ups are awkward and that when I've got a no-show on their day off, neither of them are available.

The first problem usually results in factioning within the work force, not a real problem at my small store, but the second can be crippling when there are only four employees and 50% of them are doing something together.

[Melxb]

I'm going to echo what other people have said. How couples behave at work depend on the individuals, not the relationship. In my last office there were 2 couples who met on the job but no one had any idea that they were together. One couple only came out, so to speak, after dating a year and a half and announcing their engagement. No one had any idea, because a) it wasn't any one's business, b) it didn't affect their work in the least--both were promoted within that year and a half and c) both were hard-working, upstanding individuals who were great co-workers on their own.

Also, my sister married one of her co-workers. Back in the early 1990's she was out of a job and her (soon-to-be-ex) boyfriend got her a job by a business partially owned by his parents. She loved the job. She excelled at it. The BF dumped her, but she was so good at her job that his father literally begged her to stay, and gave her a pretty good pay raise. 6 months after breaking up with the BF one of her co-workers asked her out. He was very shy and very sincere. Turns out he liked her from day 1, but didn't say anything because of the bf. She said yes. They were together, while co-workers, for about a year before she quit to go to school full-time. They were married 6 years ago.

[tollbaby]

OT: Why did I visualize you scanning GRASS clippings?

I dunno, but if someone's willing to pay me for it, I'll do it