Just accepting things are broken...a UK thing or my work thing?

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Solidus27@reddit

This is definitely a British culture thing I notice a large contingent of people on this sub who will fiercely defend the UK and UK culture beyond reason

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What happens when you report these things as broken? I work somewhere (a university) where it is not the case that if you report a broken phone you can guarantee it will be replaced. I have to make a real effort to pick and choose the things that really matter (broken essential equipment, lights not working in a dark corridor) to make a fuss about because it takes so much effort and pushing to actually get things fixed, and you end up with a 'trouble maker' or 'complainer' attitude if you raise issues too much. so, if reporting is hard and unproductive, people quickly learn to live with it (and yes that's partly a British attitude of not making a fuss). But if reporting works and things get fixed then no, this is a thing that's specific to this workplace.

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liseusester@reddit

I work in a team in a university that responds to these "thing is broken" reports. We just don't have the time, manpower, or money to fix everything. We get the reports, we triage them for severity and do the big things and then try to get round to the smaller things as and when we can. One light out in the library where there are 99 other lights? Not going to get picked up quickly. No electric to the room with the blood testing machine? We'll be there in five minutes. I'd still rather people reported things because I need to be able to present hard evidence when I request a budget uplift. People not reporting things ironically makes it harder for things to ever be fixed. If I could get people to both report things and report things accurately - there's a difference between "boiler doesn't work" because the boiler is too slow and because the boiler spits boiling water in your face - I'd be a happy bunny.

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AF_II@reddit

I appreciate that it's not the people doing the fixes fault, but it is also the case that I've had shit for reporting stuff (and I'm the H&S rep) so I've learnt to keep my mouth shut/space my reports/delegate it. It might be better for you to have the data, but I'm not going to provide it if it gets brought up at my APR as me having a "negative attitude", sorry.

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liseusester@reddit

I am befuddled by your place even having the time to track who is doing multiple reports of things! I did once politely go back to someone who kept reporting a locked toilet to clarify that it was locked because of the broken drain we’d told everyone about and that we knew, but we needed three free weeks to dig the drain out. I only knew it was them because every time they logged it on our help desk they emailed me to tell me they had. I’m on my union branch exec and I think I spend half my life in meetings saying “with my work hat on: if it’s broken, please tell us. I do not have the time to do an audit of every chair in every office.”

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AF_II@reddit

> I am befuddled by your place even having the time to track who is doing multiple reports of things! Every fix has to come out of a specific part of the estates (or whatever) budgets, so it has to be allocated to a department, and a nominated member of staff because of the way our budgeting system works, so at the end of the financial year they can see that Professor Whiner cost them £100,000 in lightbulbs or whatever. Plus there's also the run around game of finding who is actually responsible for anything because there's not a single point of call so there are a lot of "OK who do I report this to emails" with my name on that get forwarded around until we get an answer.

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liseusester@reddit

Wowwwwww. That is … bananas. We don’t allocate anything outside of projects to cost codes other than our central estates ones. I would kind of like to track where the bulk of my furniture requests come from because I have ~suspicions but I also can’t be arsed to set up a tracker and our finance system can’t do it for me.

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AF_II@reddit

ha, yes. You know how you just get used to the weird systems in your own place and then sometimes when you're talking to other people about it like it's normal they look at you gone out and go "no, dude, that's fucked up". I get that about almost everything around here. It's special.

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liseusester@reddit

Yeahhhhhh. I love it when people join us from other universities because it’s a glorious year or so of “oh, we did this thing Normal Way but we also did the thing you do Normal Way, Batshit Way and everyone does this thing in a stupid way I guess”. Though it is far funnier when people join from the private sector.

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Westsidepipeway@reddit

When I first started managing my dept I realised how slow my computer was, that we didn't have enough desks for people and loads of stuff was just wrong. I had it all replaced before the team returned from covid. I'd been going in once a week to acclimatise and been like wtf. I think lots of people are too lazy or apathetic. In contrast to loads of stuff I do in my job this was such an easy win.

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Farscape_rocked@reddit

It's a bit of both. Stuff doesn't get fixed - that's workplace culture. Everyone puts up with it - that's British culture.

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beseeingyou18@reddit

Yeah, it's worth OP checking to see if issues have been raised in the past. If the company doesn't care about the rank and file and just expects them to get on with it, people will simply...get on with it whenever something breaks.

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New_Mathematician352@reddit

Definitely varies between work places but also within different departments of the same workplace! For example the office workers at my work, complained that their fridge was smelling because of their rancid food. They swiftly got told to fuck off and sort it out themselves. My department isn’t innocent. If a communal PC decides not to work then that job wouldn’t get done that day… As a general rule though at my work, the older or more someone earns the more self important they become

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Prestigioussepia@reddit

I was complaining about something similar at work recently, obvious problem, obvious solution and was told to just not worry about things outside of my area of influence. Effectively its a culture of just do your job and not someone else’s. So if you aren’t going to fix it yourself - just accept it’s broken and work around it.

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smackdealer1@reddit

Ah I see you also work for the NHS. I was wondering why this sounded familiar.

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SnooHabits8484@reddit

This is the whole public sector, no-one has the money to repair or maintain anything.

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cthomp88@reddit

One set of lifts at my local government office has been out of order since at least 2018 (though they did eventually stick 'engineer aware' signs on them).

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smackdealer1@reddit

Plenty of money to hire outside consultants (not doctors before you start). They spend £1000 a visit from some external cleaning consultants to walk around pointing out issues that won't be solved without more staff. They have plenty of cash to hire tonnes of middle managers that just sit around and do very little. But when it comes to repairing equipment or facilities "there's no money". Load of shite tbh.

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SnooHabits8484@reddit

There's a lot wrong with how NHS finances flow (and don't). A lot of it imo comes down to a lack of training in procurement and budget management for clinical staff who become managers. I've heard some really baffling stuff. There are also definitely way too many layers of management.

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merryman1@reddit

Trying to get anything done that isn't immediately in my own remit that I do not have the tools or competency to fix myself, its just become so much of a hassle and a ballache I've just given up personally. Its not my job, they barely pay me enough as it is, if they can't be arsed having systems in place for me to do my job properly, that's no longer my problem or concern. Sitting here right now I can count to double digits issues ranging from PCs being too slow (i.e. running at 100% disk usage constantly while operating) down to structural faults like our ventilation concks out if it goes much above 25 degrees outside. They have all had ample noise made about them, there are paper trails going back *years* with complaints about some of them, and still they are not fixed.

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Espe0n@reddit

We have that attitude with the whole country to be fair. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, if it is broke, still don’t fix it

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longwait444@reddit

When I worked in a pub, there was an issue with the Pepsi dispenser where it would get air blocks in it and would "spit" while pouring a glass, this would cause it to massively foam over. The engineer on a routine visit said it was a 50p float valve but as it wasn't a routine service item, the boss would need to sign off. He didn't. So I invented the "three week rule" which I still use now - three weeks seems like a reasonable time to get something fixed. There might be parts delays or a cashflow issue. In this time I'll happily work around it, like I did with the Pepsi machine waiting for it to settle. After that time, all bets are off. The person responsible had time to fix it, they didn't play ball, so I won't either. The Pepsi would be flooding all over the floor. I'd just keep the button held regardless of the air block. My manager (also a good mate and still is now, but useless and I had no respect for as a boss) would go mental as Pepsi was pissing everywhere but I'd explain that's what the boss wanted. I'd been in shit before for questioning the boss's bizarre ways of doing some things, and was told "if that's how Ian (boss) wants it doing, don't question it, just do it". So I'd tell my manager mate "that's how Ian *wants* us to serve the Pepsi, otherwise he'd have fucking fixed it. He's not an incompetent stingy lazy *cunt* is he? Are you calling our boss an incompetent stingy lazy cunt? He wouldn't be happy to hear you say that if I reported it!" Haven't worked there for years now but still drink there as it's a nice pub, Pepsi machine STILL fucked. I still apply the three week rule, good examples are supermarket/office automatic doors. I'll wait if they're jammed/slow for a few weeks. After that they're getting slammed open.

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SirLoinThatSaysNi@reddit

There are a fair number of people who think everything is always someone else's responsibility and take the option of doing nothing. Most normal people though take some responsibility and will try and get the problems sorted out.

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Slothjitzu@reddit

This is also in a workplace though. There's only so much responsibility your job requires, and there's only so much you can do. If I'm some rando office worker and one of our phones break, I'd assume it's my job to tell my line manager. It's not my job to chase up my line manager or remind them periodically and even if I do, I still can't actually make them get the phone fixed anyway. It's easy to look at someone in that boat and say they don't care about the broken phone, but it's just as likely that they *did* care about it one point and now they've given up.

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Vernacian@reddit

I think this depends on the company though. If OP's co-workers know that reporting a broken phone won't result in it being fixed then they won't continue reporting them. They learn the company doesn't have the budget/priority of fixing it. OP describes their own approach as "throwing their toys out of the pram" when this happens which, in a company like this, is a pretty dysfunctional response too.

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malewifemichaelmyers@reddit

My work is the same but with the added issue that the council gives us our budget and needs to approve our purchases, so when our printers break we have to justify our usage and wait 6 months to get a new one because that's how long it takes them to deliberate over it.

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another_online_idiot@reddit

This isn't a general thing for us. Where I work we fix things very quickly. We have a three tier system: 1 is for immediate fix within the hour; 2 is for a fix within 24 hours; 3 is for a fix within seven days. I've been here 10 years and have had my laptop upgraded twice. If things don't work it affects our abilities to do our jobs and keep our customers happy.

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LionLucy@reddit

This is, to an extent, a British thing. We definitely value the ability to muddle through and cobble together an improvised solution, working around broken equipment and other disadvantages. The alternative (making a fuss until something gets fixed, and therefore the seeming inability to work in less than ideal circumstances) isn't always seen as a positive trait.

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Pornaltio@reddit

It’s definitely not just your work, it’s a common situation at the large chain coffee shop I work at too. Things only get fixed if the money lost by not having that thing is greater than the cost of repair. One of the branches I worked at literally had the front door fall off on top of a customer after weeks of us telling the higher ups that it was buggered. Can’t say if it’s just a UK thing. I’d imagine shitty, penny-pinching bosses and complacent middle managers cause the same problems the world over.

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dread1961@reddit

Sitting in my worn out office chair which is 25 years old and hasn't worked properly for the last 15 trying to open emails on a desktop which was never great and now just laughs at you if you try to do anything which involves graphics. We like to complain amongst our peers but not to the people that could do something about it. Don't want to be seen as a trouble maker.

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I_want_roti@reddit

It's a bit of both. But it's also a general UK complacency and lack of desire to improve. We as a nation generally can't get something done without moaning about it or saying it costs too much to maintain something. We'll happily let something get worse and worse before spending more money redoing/replacing something when maintaining would've been the better solution. Its partly why other economies do better because they identify an issue and get it sorted quickly rather than dither about it

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laminator5@reddit

I think the idea that everything is bad and is slowly getting worse and there isn't anything we can do about it is part of our national psyche. Probably comes from the fact that we used to be the world's most powerful empire (I'm not saying that is a good thing, but it is a fact) and our wealth and power has been going steadily downhill since the high water mark of the early 20th Century. Not only that, but we are surrounded by evidence of our past greatness and have in many ways been surpassed by nations we used to rule (again, not defending imperialism). Unless we change the way we think about ourselves and our place in the world the problem will only get worse.

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StopThatUDick@reddit

Are you asking if a deeply specific behavioural trait is exclusive to your immediate surroundings, or country wide? You’re allowed to consider the middle ground, you know?

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EvadeCapture@reddit (OP)

There are a lot of weird things that turn out to be just English things.

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remington_noiseless@reddit

Sounds like something to do with where you're working. Try reporting the problems and you might find out why. Like maybe there's no one to report it to, or maybe that person is massively overworked. Or maybe they just don't care. Try and report the issue and you'll find out.

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Western-Edge-965@reddit

Where I used to work it was like that but now I work somewhere and things are always replaced (when possible).

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furrycroissant@reddit

Bit of both. Stuff doesn't get fixed in my place cause they can't afford to, so we just get on with it.

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burner-999b@reddit

> Computers are slow like its 1999 Most companies give you shiny laptops and replace as necessary. > sitting down and a desk and trying to make a call and the phone doesn't work. To be honest, office and landline phones are dying. Why aren't your company on Teams or some other chat app

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Butter_the_Toast@reddit

Work culture. Low pay low effort, who cares if shit works or not, doesn't change my pay

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delaquanda@reddit

Just your work thing.

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ApologiesArePainless@reddit

sounds like there is a need for better management at your place

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All_within_my_hands@reddit

In the same vein my most hated phrase is "we've always done it that way". It's always, without fail used as a lazy excuse for a piss poor practice or procedure that with the tiniest effort could be made so much better. The thing that I hate most about this is the the way they have always done it has caused them days of needless work over the years. I will never understand people who give themselves more to do through laziness.

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Iamamancalledrobert@reddit

I think we do get into a culture where fixing things is disincentivised— either because people view you with suspicion, or because people expect you to fix many more things once you do. Also, I think so much has broken at this point that it can be psychologically easier to think none of it can be fixed. If it turns out some things are *very easy to fix*, then in a way that can feel much worse.

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Duxsta@reddit

Sound like you work where I do…

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pencilrain99@reddit

Companies just aren't prepared to pay for repairs these days

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StephaneCam@reddit

The organisation I work for is the same, but it’s because we’ve all learned that there’s no point trying to get it fixed because it won’t ever happen. I had a new colleague last year who found this attitude infuriating and spent the first six months in a whirlwind of trying to fix the many things that we all just ignore. They were so burnt out by around the 8 month mark that they quit. That’s why we all just let it go, because it’s not worth the stress. We’re one small department of a huge organisation and we’re at the very bottom of their priority list so we just don’t ever get anything new!

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Charming_Ad_6021@reddit

Sounds like it's where you're working tbh. If my work laptop breaks or has issues I would log a ticket with IT, head to the office and walk out with a replacement this afternoon.

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Seldom-Posts-836@reddit

It varies between workplaces but certainly there is always an undercurrent of 'don't make a fuss, make do' in the British context. My last workplace had a buzzing AC duct above my desk and I took to making a fresh fault report to our facilities team every day, cheerfully reminding them that today's report was the 67th report without them doing anything and they can look forward to the 68th report tomorrow. I later found out the person in charge of handling all of the fault reports was off with stress because of the onslaught of reports building-wide. Short of getting the damn thing fixed I'm glad I contributed to driving someone else insane.

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terahurts@reddit

Sounds like your company is either shit or is about to go out of business.

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Witch_of_Dunwich@reddit

Sounds like this is specific to your company. Anything breaks where I work and they replace it. My chair broke and they posted one out to me within the hour (I work from home)

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Tim-Sanchez@reddit

I think that's a very company-dependent cultural thing. I've worked in places where random equipment wasn't working and people just shrugged, and worked in places where people would get annoyed if you didn't report something.

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