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  • Co-Worker Oddities

    I've posted a few times about a co-worker--let's call her Cat--who I find to be just a little odd. During meetings, she tries to finish everybody else's sentences, and usually gets it wrong. She can get very talkative when at her desk, but she will barely make eye contact with anyone she passes walking down the hall. Stuff like that.

    In a meeting this week, she was getting frustrated because she didn't think the rest of us were listening to her. Truth to tell, we weren't, for the simple reason that her comments had nothing to do with the problem we were trying to discuss. So her interruptions were getting a little louder and almost angry. Somebody said something, and she interrupted again.

    Cat: No, because. Because! BECAUSE!
    Paul (softly): Because of the wonderful things he does. Hmm hmm, hmm hmm, hmm hmm.

    I started laughing. So did Paul when he realized I'd heard him. Cat stopped talking. Everyone else looked at Paul and me, so we had to explain, and for the next minute or two, we made Wizard of Oz song jokes.

    Later that afternoon, I heard a strange electronic voice coming from Cat's cubicle. Apparently, she'd downloaded some language-learning app and was trying it out... without headphones... in a quiet office setting. And it's one of those where you're supposed to listen to someone speak a sentence in the language you're trying to learn and then repeat it. I tried to ignore it, but she had it really loud, and I think she missed the point of the program.

    Language App: *Something in German*
    Cat: Oh. Hmmmm...
    Language App: *Same thing in German*
    Cat: Uh...
    Language App: *Same thing in German*
    Cat: Mmm.
    Language App: *Same thing in German*
    Cat: Mm-hm.
    Language App: *Same thing in German*
    Cat: Um. Oh. Uhh...
    Language App: *Same thing in German*
    Cat: Mmmmm.
    Language App: *Same thing in German*
    Cat: Huh.

    And so on. I've learned that she often doesn't want to talk to me, which is fine, so I didn't try to point out that she will have a hard time learning a language if she doesn't actually try to speak it.

    Just weird, is all.
    I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
    - Bill Watterson

    My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
    - IPF

  • #2
    Oh the sentence finishers! I have a coworker, who doesn't exactly try to finish your sentences, but tries to say the words WITH you. like the last 3 words you say, she says them at the same time that you do. It's actually really weird, and I want throw out some bizarre things at the end of my sentence

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    • #3
      Cat wants to learn German? Here's a phrase for her: Du bist ein scheisskopf.
      Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

      Comment


      • #4
        Quoth wolfie View Post
        Cat wants to learn German? Here's a phrase for her: Du bist ein scheisskopf.
        You're a shit head?
        Figers are vicious I tell ya. They crawl up your leg and steal your belly button lint.

        I'm a case study.

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        • #5
          Quoth April View Post
          ...tries to say the words WITH you. like the last 3 words you say, she says them at the same time that you do. It's actually really weird, and I want throw out some bizarre things at the end of my sentence
          What's funny about this is that Cat used to do the very same thing. I got annoyed and started using uncommon words, which threw her off for a bit, but she didn't stop until I just paused and gave her a mild glare every time she tried it.
          I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
          - Bill Watterson

          My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
          - IPF

          Comment


          • #6
            Cia - Ja, es gibt korrekt!

            wolfie - Just because it's you Scheißkopf, technically (still pronounced the same way). All nouns are capitalized in German.
            Last edited by EricKei; 06-11-2016, 04:46 PM.
            "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
            "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
            "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
            "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
            "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
            "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
            Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
            "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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            • #7
              Quoth HawaiianShirts View Post
              Later that afternoon, I heard a strange electronic voice coming from Cat's cubicle. Apparently, she'd downloaded some language-learning app and was trying it out... without headphones... in a quiet office setting.
              Does your workplace have acceptable use policies that everyone had to sign? Unless she's learning another language for work related purposes, that is a work computer and she's on the clock.
              Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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              • #8
                Quoth wolfie View Post
                Cat wants to learn German? Here's a phrase for her: Du bist ein scheisskopf.
                How about Dummkopf?

                Learned that one from my dad, who fought in Germany in WWII.
                When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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                • #9
                  Quoth HawaiianShirts View Post
                  What's funny about this is that Cat used to do the very same thing. I got annoyed and started using uncommon words, which threw her off for a bit, but she didn't stop until I just paused and gave her a mild glare every time she tried it.
                  I have to admit to being guilty of saying stuff with people sometimes. Except, when I do it, I rarely get thrown off if they say something weird or unexpected. In my defense, I don't do it often, at least not out loud.
                  You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

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                  • #10
                    An oddity of my own, that I started doing years ago:

                    Eating my lunch at work at 11 AM instead of noon. I started doing that years ago, and I've just kept doing it.

                    Sometimes, it's easier, and usually affords me more time, since I get to a restaurant shortly after they open, and before they get too busy. Which also means I get my food faster.
                    Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

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                    • #11
                      MC: Dummkopf works too. Both mean pretty much exactly what you think they mean

                      Bonus: Having to deal with a CW named Cat made me think of the German word for a kitty: "Katz" -- which can also be used as slang for "headache" ^_^ ...or, in Katzenkrank (literally "sick cat", iirc), which means "hangover."
                      "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                      "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                      "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                      "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                      "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                      "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                      Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                      "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth EricKei View Post
                        MC: Dummkopf works too. Both mean pretty much exactly what you think they mean
                        Yep.

                        I've always been partial to "Geh zum Teufel!" ("Go to hell!") myself.
                        "I often look at every second idiot and think, 'He needs more power.'" --Varric Tethras, Dragon Age II

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                        • #13
                          Story which supposedly happened to a friend's father Over There in the 40s:

                          They captured some German soldiers. One made a break for it. His dad tried to say "Stop or I'll shoot your *ss off!" in German. What he said, however, was more like "Halt, oder ich scheissen in die hosen!!" Which means "Stop or I'll s**t in your pants!"

                          The prisoner fell down laughing, and they were able to collect him and re-secure him.
                          “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
                          One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
                          The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

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                          • #14
                            Quoth Nunavut Pants View Post
                            Story which supposedly happened to a friend's father Over There in the 40s:

                            They captured some German soldiers. One made a break for it. His dad tried to say "Stop or I'll shoot your *ss off!" in German. What he said, however, was more like "Halt, oder ich scheissen in die hosen!!" Which means "Stop or I'll s**t in your pants!"

                            The prisoner fell down laughing, and they were able to collect him and re-secure him.
                            OMG my dad would have laughed his butt off over that one!
                            When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Nunavut Pants View Post
                              Story which supposedly happened to a friend's father Over There in the 40s:

                              They captured some German soldiers. One made a break for it. His dad tried to say "Stop or I'll shoot your *ss off!" in German. What he said, however, was more like "Halt, oder ich scheissen in die hosen!!" Which means "Stop or I'll s**t in your pants!"

                              The prisoner fell down laughing, and they were able to collect him and re-secure him.
                              Gotta love a language where you can go from shooting someone to shitting them, just by transposing two letters...
                              "I often look at every second idiot and think, 'He needs more power.'" --Varric Tethras, Dragon Age II

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