More work problems

I totally understand the situation you're in.

Staff at my company are told not to use their phones in "secure areas" such as the helpdesk and it's apparently a big frustration for my department manager.

Yet this same department manager who complains about personal devices being used and tells us we're not allowed to open office windows in the office because otherwise we'd lose our ISO certification [which I think is total BS] allowed a TEMP (yes that's right, a temp, some random guy that was working for the company for a month) to use his personal iPhone and Apple laptop as work devices.

Logically you'd think that such rules would be applied even more strictly to a temp, who's more of a security risk than permanent staff.

I also regularly notice various members of other departments with their personal phones blatantly sitting on their desk or being actively used in view of everyone.

It's for this reason I became very irritable a couple of weeks back when I lent a colleague one of my Philips LED lamps so he could try before he buys - he was going to take it home for a couple of week but on the morning I brought it to work I set it up behind his monitor for a laugh so when he walked in the panel behind his monitor was glowing neon blue.

The dept manager walked in and asked why there was a light there, so I explained exactly as I have above (just for a laugh,etc) and he started behaving like a petulant child, pulling faces as he walked over to his desk. I watched him the entire time and his behavior enraged me - he looked like he was about to cry so I called him out on it and his response was that it was an unauthorized device (hinting that it's a security hazard) to which my response was to tell him that "it's just a lamp, it has no network connections or internal storage" and disconnected it / threw the mains adapter on the floor, said something abrasive like "there you go" and walked out of the office in a huff.

He doesn't seem to understand [or care] how hypocritical he and many other managers are there, or the effect it has when staff members see such behavior.

Just like another manager who has a reputation for abrasive and bullying behavior lecturing staff on respecting each other in the workplace.

This coming from someone who's caused two staff members to leave and attempted to weaponize my mental health and stir trouble with my line manager because I challenged her for breaking a rule she insisted everyone else follow just because it wasn't convenient for her and her staff at the time. 

He also does things like leaving passive aggressive Post It notes on laptops because the asset tag (label with the computer name on it) isn't perfectly aligned with the display bezel, which apparently gives our clients the impression that we don't care. Yet he let staff re-cable the office, the result of which is an absolute joke. They had the idea of attaching Intel NUC (very small form factor) PCs to the bottom of the desks using high strength Velcro and forcing the various cables and mains adapters into trays that are clearly too small.

So now the supposedly important area of the building that has to be kept free of personal devices, food and bins because of potential and existing clients being shown around now has cable trays hanging down by a single fixing, cables dangling everywhere so that users are coming into contact with it and NUC PCs with faulty Velcro that are dangling purely by their various cables.

I asked him if he'd considered a better solution such as some form of cage or plate that'll allow it to be securely mounted to the desk rather than the s**tshow he have now and he insisted on continuing to use the Velcro.

It's exactly this kind of selective thinking that contributes to the meltdown I had last week.

The man clearly thinks he's superior and that rules apply only when it suits and it makes me angry and frustrated.

This type of thing is precisely why I no longer make much effort to make friends at work and is a large contributing factor in why I'm cynical and distrusting of people.

I've had nothing but problems at work because of people like this.

I totally understand the situation you're in.

Staff at my company are told not to use their phones in "secure areas" such as the helpdesk and it's apparently a big frustration for my department manager.

Yet this same department manager who complains about personal devices being used and tells us we're not allowed to open office windows in the office because otherwise we'd lose our ISO certification [which I think is total BS] allowed a TEMP (yes that's right, a temp, some random guy that was working for the company for a month) to use his personal iPhone and Apple laptop as work devices.

Logically you'd think that such rules would be applied even more strictly to a temp, who's more of a security risk than permanent staff.

I also regularly notice various members of other departments with their personal phones blatantly sitting on their desk or being actively used in view of everyone.

It's for this reason I became very irritable a couple of weeks back when I lent a colleague one of my Philips LED lamps so he could try before he buys - he was going to take it home for a couple of week but on the morning I brought it to work I set it up behind his monitor for a laugh so when he walked in the panel behind his monitor was glowing neon blue.

The dept manager walked in and asked why there was a light there, so I explained exactly as I have above (just for a laugh,etc) and he started behaving like a petulant child, pulling faces as he walked over to his desk. I watched him the entire time and his behavior enraged me - he looked like he was about to cry so I called him out on it and his response was that it was an unauthorized device (hinting that it's a security hazard) to which my response was to tell him that "it's just a lamp, it has no network connections or internal storage" and disconnected it / threw the mains adapter on the floor, said something abrasive like "there you go" and walked out of the office in a huff.

He doesn't seem to understand [or care] how hypocritical he and many other managers are there, or the effect it has when staff members see such behavior.

Just like another manager who has a reputation for abrasive and bullying behavior lecturing staff on respecting each other in the workplace.

This coming from someone who's caused two staff members to leave and attempted to weaponize my mental health and stir trouble with my line manager because I challenged her for breaking a rule she insisted everyone else follow just because it wasn't convenient for her and her staff at the time. 

He also does things like leaving passive aggressive Post It notes on laptops because the asset tag (label with the computer name on it) isn't perfectly aligned with the display bezel, which apparently gives our clients the impression that we don't care. Yet he let staff re-cable the office, the result of which is an absolute joke. They had the idea of attaching Intel NUC (very small form factor) PCs to the bottom of the desks using high strength Velcro and forcing the various cables and mains adapters into trays that are clearly too small.

So now the supposedly important area of the building that has to be kept free of personal devices, food and bins because of potential and existing clients being shown around now has cable trays hanging down by a single fixing, cables dangling everywhere so that users are coming into contact with it and NUC PCs with faulty Velcro that are dangling purely by their various cables.

I asked him if he'd considered a better solution such as some form of cage or plate that'll allow it to be securely mounted to the desk rather than the s**tshow he have now and he insisted on continuing to use the Velcro.

It's exactly this kind of selective thinking that contributes to the meltdown I had last week.

The man clearly thinks he's superior and that rules apply only when it suits and it makes me angry and frustrated.

This type of thing is precisely why I no longer make much effort to make friends at work and is a large contributing factor in why I'm cynical and distrusting of people.

I've had nothing but problems at work because of people like this.