Why is passive aggressiveness the SOP of the corporate world?

[Rman]

SOP=Standard operating procedure for you civilians.

Holy heck, why can't people learn to ask for their needs and wants in the corporate world. It's always a damn guessing game. I used to work in food service, far from glamourous. Not fast food, mind you, but fine dining, and people were just straight and direct.  The fast paced nature made it a necessity.

But the corporate world is just full of spineless cretins that's its driving me insane.

I should've become a plumber

How do you deal with passive aggressiveness at your work?

[Great Rumbler]

Because there's no fighting in the boardroom.

[nudemacusers]

lol i work in escrow which is 90% women so i have reams of passive aggressive emails to sort through every day. i just flatly ignore it and phrase my emails in a direct manner. no cutesy purple-font emails with smiley faces. I've also found picking up the phone and calling for follow up is a good way to cut down on the bs that tends to accumulate from single-sentence reply-forward-reply email chains.

i also decline read receipts. fuck you.

[Rman]

Idk, I think it's healthy to express anger healthily.  I remember hearing about a former CEO and President arguing like crazy one day. It was a shouting match.

It was due to crap bubbling below the surface for years. 

[Kara]

People with unfulfilling jobs tend to accumulate anger and displace it onto others. Most people don't go into corporate because they dreamed of being a middle manager and most of them don't achieve the goal of their Faustian bargain (getting rich).

[Phoenix Dark]

At this point I just recognize the game and move on. Although sometimes it's done so well that I almost want to reply with "bullshit aside, that was impressive."

Mary Tyler Whore was right: save your emails bros. If it's not passive aggressive shit it's a series Alzheimer's impressions strung together in a lazy attempt to fuck you.

[Rufus]

Idk, I think it's healthy to express anger healthily.  I remember hearing about a former CEO and President arguing like crazy one day. It was a shouting match.

It was due to crap bubbling below the surface for years.

Just like marriage.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I only have second hand knowledge, but I maintain my position regardless.

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[nudemacusers]

Idk, I think it's healthy to express anger healthily.  I remember hearing about a former CEO and President arguing like crazy one day. It was a shouting match.

It was due to crap bubbling below the surface for years.

well it goes beyond expressing anger imo. a lack of directness in communication just leads to bottlenecks and poor business performance. so often we have stuff sit for half the day while people moan about not getting guidance, feedback or whatever, instead of going in proactively and addressing the situation, so we get to funding cutoffs and have to scamper around like crazy to get stuff out the door on time. lighting a bit of fire under someone's ass from time to time is necessary. especially in this industry where we are the middle men between various groups of crazy people who for example have a notary signing for a deed whose funding expires that day and forgets their wallet at home goddamnit this dude drove me crazy yesterday fuck

[Rman]

At this point I just recognize the game and move on. Although sometimes it's done so well that I almost want to reply with "bullshit aside, that was impressive."

Mary Tyler Whore was right: save your emails bros. If it's not passive aggressive shit it's a series Alzheimer's impressions strung together in a lazy attempt to fuck you.

Definitely. Keep a record of every fucking thing. I learned that the hard way. 

My favorite is the infamous Peter Principle.

We had this person, who no one liked at all, but got stuff done, promoted to management.

However, this person was terrible with people and socially distinguished mentally-challenged. They used sarcasm at every opportunity and half the staff left the company due to her lack of social skills and ability to read people.

They corner office'd her recently. She doesn't talk to anyone now lol.

[nudemacusers]

'hey get off your stupid ass and send me the money you fuckmonkey do you want this property or not' = 'touching base'

[ToxicAdam]

The greatest passive aggressive move is to CC someone else when you make a request. When someone does it to me I get so irate.

[T234]

Threads like these make me realize why working for yourself rules so much.

[dkdk]

because most people are bitchmade.

[Supermanisdead]

I work with a bunch of fobs so it's all just aggressive-aggresiveness with tons of grammar related misunderstandings.

[Kara]

The greatest passive aggressive move is to CC someone else when you make a request. When someone does it to me I get so irate.

I just do that to cover my ass.

[brawndolicious]

I work with a bunch of fobs so it's all just aggressive-aggresiveness with tons of grammar related misunderstandings.

Like half my sentences are some combination of "what were you saying?"  or "WHAT?!". I'm also the only natural born citizen under 40 who doesn't have a vagina so it's like a monologue of menopausal angst that I can barely understand.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I'll agree that it's been far more aggressive-aggressive for me.

Don't get in anyone's way and fuck everyone that's in yours

[ToxicAdam]

The greatest passive aggressive move is to CC someone else when you make a request. When someone does it to me I get so irate.

I just do that to cover my ass.

That's what irks me. It's basically putting me on the clock to do your request otherwise I will look bad in the eyes of the person you alerted.  Which is fine on the second or third time you make a request, but not the first time.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Because the whole point of entering the corporate world is to avoid having to deal with the real world, duh.

[Rufus]

I thought that's what universities are there for.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Yes but there has to be something for the plebs who aren't cut out to be professors or perpetual grad students.

[Positive Touch]

passive aggressive shitbird cacs are the #1 reason why the corporate world complete sucks ass

[Kara]

The greatest passive aggressive move is to CC someone else when you make a request. When someone does it to me I get so irate.

I just do that to cover my ass.

That's what irks me. It's basically putting me on the clock to do your request otherwise I will look bad in the eyes of the person you alerted.  Which is fine on the second or third time you make a request, but not the first time.

I don't care if you do what I ask. I have no professional obligation to complete work, only to not knowingly file fraudulent work.

I CC someone (not a superior) because when you don't do what I ask and you face consequences for it I have proof to protect myself from being held financially liable.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

The greatest joys I have are when I can plow through corporate passive aggressiveness and other people's bullshit.

[benjipwns]

I thought that's what universities are there for.

Yes but there has to be something for the plebs who aren't cut out to be professors or perpetual grad students.

Passive aggressiveness is like the core function of academia at this point.

I miss my old universities listserv because the torrent of it when an office was coming open or someone got a good publishing deal.

[benjipwns]

Hours of argument between two people over how one person needs to be ten minutes late to a department meeting and the other stating this is unacceptable where they're CCing everyone in the prof/grad list looking for a decision because they're idiots. 

And they don't remove the expanding prior email chain shit at the bottom.
 

[benjipwns]

Demanding department votes on things that don't need them. Then constant e-mails until everyone has voted or some arbitrary deadline has passed.

 

[brawndolicious]

Still lots of passive aggressive nonsense in academia (and I was responsible for a little as an undergrad). Highlight was the retiring tech in charge of the lab building asking in his final email what to do about warts. Who knows if yev even got a response.

[Samson Manhug]

I listened to a good podcast about office culture recently. Some teenagers in Australia made a Facebook group parodying office culture so well that actual adult office culture did what it always does and ruined everything:

http://gimletmedia.com/episode/29-the-takeover/

[PlayDat]

The greatest passive aggressive move is to CC someone else when you make a request. When someone does it to me I get so irate.

I just do that to cover my ass.

That's what irks me. It's basically putting me on the clock to do your request otherwise I will look bad in the eyes of the person you alerted.  Which is fine on the second or third time you make a request, but not the first time.

I don't care if you do what I ask. I have no professional obligation to complete work, only to not knowingly file fraudulent work.

I CC someone (not a superior) because when you don't do what I ask and you face consequences for it I have proof to protect myself from being held financially liable.

I'm planning on doing something similar in the next few hours and I'm worried I'll come across as feckless/passive aggressive.  Some backstory:  I got an internship out of town this summer so I'm subletting an apartment. The other two tenants had been splitting their bills 3 ways with the guy I got the room from from.  I don't have a checkbook so I'd gotten into the habit of paying my share of bills by phone.  When I tried to pay my third of the last Comcast bill their phone rep assumed I wanted to pay the whole thing and charged me ~$102.  I spoke to my roommates about what happened and explained that while I didn't need to be payed back urgently, I'd like to have the money by the 28th since I'm moving out (to another country) that day. 

Well, one of the roommates paid me back within a week and the other still hasn't.  I texted a reminder on Friday afternoon and got no response.  Our doors are literally inches from each other, but I haven't actually seen them in about 5 days since I only really use my apartment as a place to sleep and shower.  Due to time and budget constraints I ended up with a place that had no furniture and I had to agree to pay rent + utilities for August even though I won't actually be there at all that month. 

Since I'm leaving so soon and I still haven't been paid yet I'm thinking of just sending a group text asking the delinquent roommate to cover 2/3 of the next bill.  Hopefully it'll all go over fine.

[studyguy]

Someone CC'd or BCC'd your boss while disagreeing with you over emails?
 

They're low key trying to get your ass fired without you taking note.

I feel like I've posted this before.

[Tasty]

Getting BBC'd

Oh wait this is about emails

[studyguy]

Getting BBC'd

Oh wait this is about emails

 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you getting BBC at work then you're prob getting promoted.

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