I worked at a bank and a secretary in the next department asked me how to find a program file, what to look for if it didn't run. I told her that she probably needed to look for the .exe file. I didn't know her boss had removed solitaire from her system because she was spending up to 30 hours a week playing it and not working (her department was one of the busiest in the bank and she was notorious for putting big $$ clients on hold until they hung up). She went into her system files and found solitaire and reinstated it, then told her boss that I did it. Her boss told my boss that I did it for her and that I knew that they took it off of her system!!! I told my boss that I knew NOTHING about solitaire being gone! That she told me she lost a program she needed to run a client file and wanted to know how to find it and make it run and that tech services could not get there before her boss needed the file. I told her only to look for the the .exe file. I did not even touch her computer.
Luckily my boss trusted me and no one trusted a word out of her mouth, so I was believed.
Working on that floor was so strange. The VP in charge of the biggest department was the biggest jerk. He had some serious Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) issues. His secretary had to go and highlight his stocks in the paper each mornings because it took to long for him to find them on his own. He could spend an hour playing office putting but not 60 seconds looking for 4 stocks in the paper. There were 6 departments on the floor and no one could make microwave popcorn because this one man couldn't stand the smell of it. One VP went ahead and made a bag of popcorn one time and the screaming went on for three hours - the head VP had the man fired for making a bag of popcorn. It was the silliest thing any of us ever heard of. The other VP turned around and sued for several million dollars and won, which burned the owner of the bank bigtime, and cost the VP that hated popcorn his bonus for a quarter. Many of us little people who were not directly impacted thought it was all truly funny.
My boss was in a unique position. We controlled appraisals for the loans that the powerful VPs did. If we didn't approve the numbers for what they wanted, they couldn't do their deals, and my boss couldn't be pushed or bribed. His wife was related to owner of the bank and he was given a lot of leeway and if he said a deal wasn't worth the amount the VPs wanted to loan on it, they VPs could scream all they wanted, the bank owner would back my boss. So my boss never once screamed. He just smiled and sat back and said no. It could be a lot of fun to watch because he was often the only person in town who said no to some of these very powerful bankers.
Some of them tried to make me influence my boss or they tried to be mean to me if my boss wasn't doing what they wanted. My boss never once put up with that. He told me to never be rude but to never put up with it. If they got really mean, to tell him, but to feel free to politely tell them to put them in their places. One VP was female and for some reason thought she could use me to run her errands. I have no idea why she thought I would do her dry cleaning and deal with her mutt, but I didn't work for her. She had her own very good secretary who didn't do those things. Sure, I wasn't busy at all, but that didn't mean I did errands for anyone other than my own bosses and only those errands if I was in the mood. Which I never was. Unless they paid extra. So the day she came and dumped four loads of laundry in my office and ordered me to take them to a dry cleaners ten blocks away like I was her slave, well, it didn't go over well. I called her by her first name (which she hadn't invited me to use) and told her that I only did laundry for my children. SInce I hadn't given birth to her, she could schlep her clothing back to wherever it came from before I put it in a trash can before my bosses saw it cluttering up my office. Thanks, sweetie. The sweetie was because she called me 'honey pie' as she ordered me to take it to the dry cleaners.
We had a dry cleaner who would pick up and drop off in the office, but they were expensive and seh was the cheapest woman known to the office. The gifts she gave to her secretary for holidays were always regifted from years past and always out of date. The one year her secretary ate one of the gift baskets, the poor woman spent Christmas in the hospital with food poisoning!
Luckily my boss trusted me and no one trusted a word out of her mouth, so I was believed.
Working on that floor was so strange. The VP in charge of the biggest department was the biggest jerk. He had some serious Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) issues. His secretary had to go and highlight his stocks in the paper each mornings because it took to long for him to find them on his own. He could spend an hour playing office putting but not 60 seconds looking for 4 stocks in the paper. There were 6 departments on the floor and no one could make microwave popcorn because this one man couldn't stand the smell of it. One VP went ahead and made a bag of popcorn one time and the screaming went on for three hours - the head VP had the man fired for making a bag of popcorn. It was the silliest thing any of us ever heard of. The other VP turned around and sued for several million dollars and won, which burned the owner of the bank bigtime, and cost the VP that hated popcorn his bonus for a quarter. Many of us little people who were not directly impacted thought it was all truly funny.
My boss was in a unique position. We controlled appraisals for the loans that the powerful VPs did. If we didn't approve the numbers for what they wanted, they couldn't do their deals, and my boss couldn't be pushed or bribed. His wife was related to owner of the bank and he was given a lot of leeway and if he said a deal wasn't worth the amount the VPs wanted to loan on it, they VPs could scream all they wanted, the bank owner would back my boss. So my boss never once screamed. He just smiled and sat back and said no. It could be a lot of fun to watch because he was often the only person in town who said no to some of these very powerful bankers.
Some of them tried to make me influence my boss or they tried to be mean to me if my boss wasn't doing what they wanted. My boss never once put up with that. He told me to never be rude but to never put up with it. If they got really mean, to tell him, but to feel free to politely tell them to put them in their places. One VP was female and for some reason thought she could use me to run her errands. I have no idea why she thought I would do her dry cleaning and deal with her mutt, but I didn't work for her. She had her own very good secretary who didn't do those things. Sure, I wasn't busy at all, but that didn't mean I did errands for anyone other than my own bosses and only those errands if I was in the mood. Which I never was. Unless they paid extra. So the day she came and dumped four loads of laundry in my office and ordered me to take them to a dry cleaners ten blocks away like I was her slave, well, it didn't go over well. I called her by her first name (which she hadn't invited me to use) and told her that I only did laundry for my children. SInce I hadn't given birth to her, she could schlep her clothing back to wherever it came from before I put it in a trash can before my bosses saw it cluttering up my office. Thanks, sweetie. The sweetie was because she called me 'honey pie' as she ordered me to take it to the dry cleaners.
We had a dry cleaner who would pick up and drop off in the office, but they were expensive and seh was the cheapest woman known to the office. The gifts she gave to her secretary for holidays were always regifted from years past and always out of date. The one year her secretary ate one of the gift baskets, the poor woman spent Christmas in the hospital with food poisoning!