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Do you know any Energy Vampires?

John Marston

John Marston

GAF's very own treasure goblin
A while back I did a small rant on the Meta thread about a coworker who's very loud yet is the most incompetent person I've ever seen.
Since some of us still work from home he's constantly spamming on Teams about useless shit or procedures everyone is already familiar with.

Then Maiden Voyage Maiden Voyage replied with the term "Energy vampire" and it opened my eyes.

A quick google revealed the truth.

He loves playing the martyr. He's often "sick". He has no qualms about describing to all of us how hard life is for him sometimes.
In the 3 years he's been on my team he never did a normal 40hr week.
You know the regular week where you just do your shift, go home, eat dinner, watch a movie & go to sleep.
With him? No way. There's gotta be drama.

He openly refuses to do some tasks because "I never tested that in the main game so I'm not touching this" (We work in game dev).

I once told him to shut the fuck up in one of our Teams channel because he was talking for 2 hours basically to himself about Gundam & Transformers. I know we have a cool job but when you're spamming Teams for 2 hours you're not working.

He has no basic knowledge of his job. He's a fumbling idiot who brings shame to our profession.
He's dead weight taking the place
of someone motivated who could make a difference.

Of course I talked to some of my Leads about this but all I got was " Hey just ignore him man, you know it takes forever for HR to fire someone like that".

He has the same 17 year seniority as me and I'm dumbfounded why he's still employed.
All of us can have a bad day, even a bad week with personal issues or whatnot but a bad 3 years!? Getthefuckouttahere 😄

I'm now on a new project and that fuckass has unfortunately followed me.
Good news is I've got a new Lead & we had a good conversation.

I love my job & the people I work with. We're not changing the world but the games business is a great business.
This useless fucker spits on my sense of belonging to our project and I wish him asshole cancer.

So have any of you experienced something similar?

Thanks for hearing me out 🙂
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I made it clear to everyone in my department (and other departments), MS Teams is not my priority method of communication. So send me an email or come to my office.

I purposely dont answer all Teams chats, and sometimes even close down Teams.

And if someone says did I see their Teams message, I say I didnt and email me instead.

As long as your job doesn't need Teams in a mandatory kind of way and hate getting bogged down with it, use it as little as possible. I find a lot of Teams chat (like you mentioned) are idiots posting dumb shit because some treat the tool as more of a one-on-one goof off tool or party group chat as opposed to doing it in Outlook. They some reason got a fear of doing this shit in Outlook.

And others treat the tool like jumping the line hassling with their dopey request when an email will do. But they dont want to be 8th in line so they send a Teams chat hoping I help them first. Beat it. Send me an email.
 
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ÆMNE22A!C

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Sure they excist. But when I read your post it quickly included his, in your eyes, overall incompetence work wise. That alone will make your initial problem about his behaviour even worse I reckon.

With that said, and please take my uneducated psychological analysis in a thinking out loud way. From the limited information I can only vaguely guess that this person has some sort of psychological issues and has used this (semi subconscious) specific behaviour since childhood because the feedback (Family/friends/Etc) helped him (in his eyes) in I can only guess get some sort of misinterpreted validation and support (?)

But it's clear (?) he's unaware of this loop he's in. Which could be a side effect of a disorder in which he's living in a bubble. Or just plain not introspective enough which correlates with your description of his work inadequacy. I dunno.

Using myself as an example; I stopped talking about my issues because at one point I realized I was just bringing up the same shit in a slightly different way thus putting a burden on those on the receiving end.

I occasionally indulge in moaning about my shit (because I'm human after all and venting in a proper context can be very helpful) but I can catch myself and stop before it crosses a border. And if I cross it I apologize. In my case I've pretty much keep everything inside now, which isn't helpful but I don't want to be the broken record guy. Which also has it's complexity in such as when to allow yourself to open up. Do I have reason enough?

Anyways I'm rambling but yeah they excist in many forms. And it's origin most likely stems from their childhood.

Just my 2 cents
 
FunkMiller

FunkMiller

Member
Excited Colin Robinson GIF by What We Do in the Shadows


Please do watch WWDITS for all your energy vampire requirements.
 
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AJUMP23

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
I have a guy under me who is good at his job but is also letting everyone know how good he is. He knows everything and tells you. He will also let you know how bad others people work is. It is exhausting. I haven’t figured out how to communicate this with him either. I just need him to let his work speak. But he sucks up all the energy in the room.
 
ÆMNE22A!C

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
AJUMP23 said:
I have a guy under me who is good at his job but is also letting everyone know how good he is. He knows everything and tells you. He will also let you know how bad others people work is. It is exhausting. I haven’t figured out how to communicate this with him either. I just need him to let his work speak. But he sucks up all the energy in the room.
Click to expand...

When he's around randomly and indirectly mention that ( I just need people to let their work speak for it selves) and make up some context in which you can mention humbleness is something you praise and direct it to another colleague close to him. Perhaps he'll pick it up. Just spit balling.

Pardon my grammar
 
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The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
I have some undesirable coworkers but nothing too severe like yours. The job itself is an energy vampire, but what shitty corporate job isnt? Best you can do is keep reporting him to your manager. Eventually, they'll get tired of giving him excuses.
 
Husky

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
I figured you were talking about people like this, but I hoped you would be talking about people who actually identify as vampires who feed off some sort of human "energy." I knew a woman who actually claimed to feed off people's energy, but that's because she identifies as a faery (not fairy or faerie, but faery). She suffers from an extreme form of "main character syndrome," as another friend put it. Every day I was around her, I'd learn another exotic fact about how her thrilling backstory.
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Zelphyr,

If the guy is that bad at his job, probably gets paid a lot since he's been there a whole, and acts all weird, why does the company take forever to gas someone like that?

My company will fire people no problem. I've seen people fired after one month (the asshole lied about what he did and knew nothing), within the probation period etc...

Was this guy always like this? Or maybe just the past bunch of years he's lazy and weird?
 
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LordOfChaos

LordOfChaos

Member
See also: Main character syndrome, narcissism

My own sister only seems to think about things in terms of happening to her, everyone else is just along on her journey. If she's an ass to multiple people and called out on it, people are "ganging up on her" clearly for zero reason.
 
West Texas CEO

West Texas CEO

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
I know a few, who go into minute detail of everything, conversations they’ve had, holidays, what happened on their shopping trip etc, and that saps all my energy, as do people who are in a state of “ poor me”. And tell me the minutiae of everything about their terrible life, leaving me mentally and physically exhausted.

One of my sisters is like that. She would tell you in great detail exactly her every move when she’d been on a trip, including exactly what she’d eaten. Now her oldest is the same, so it must be hereditary.
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
German Hops said:
I know a few, who go into minute detail of everything, conversations they’ve had, holidays, what happened on their shopping trip etc, and that saps all my energy, as do people who are in a state of “ poor me”. And tell me the minutiae of everything about their terrible life, leaving me mentally and physically exhausted.

One of my sisters is like that. She would tell you in great detail exactly her every move when she’d been on a trip, including exactly what she’d eaten. Now her oldest is the same, so it must be hereditary.
Click to expand...
For me, I dont mind much if people talk about themselves in a good way. I do it myself. Its just all part of having fun and getting to know people at work.

But what does bug me are the ones that:

- Whine like crazy. Everyone can be pissy at something at work, but some people have that whiney voiced way of doing it like they're still 8 years old
- They always act stressed out (even though I know what they do and it's not as hard as it seems)
- Their home life gets involved too much.... always away, got to leave early, cant meet or come to office due to home issues

Well, if the company and job suck so much, get another job. We dont need to hear about it every week. The rest of us are talking sports, movies, vacation spots, which people at the offsite meeting got drunk (LOL) etc... The rest of us like it here. We dont need to hear about your downer emotions and issues with your spouse and kids.
 
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ÆMNE22A!C

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
German Hops said:
I know a few, who go into minute detail of everything, conversations they’ve had, holidays, what happened on their shopping trip etc, and that saps all my energy, as do people who are in a state of “ poor me”. And tell me the minutiae of everything about their terrible life, leaving me mentally and physically exhausted.

One of my sisters is like that. She would tell you in great detail exactly her every move when she’d been on a trip, including exactly what she’d eaten. Now her oldest is the same, so it must be hereditary.
Click to expand...

I can act like your sister, sadly. But also consider perhaps that for some it's all or nothing. I can answer a question of how my day was with either "fine" or "blablabla" And then again it's a grey area. I often keep it short because i know otherwise it'll take to damn long to answer. But I'm an observer of subtle details (ykwyk) and not a "big picture = conclusion" guy by nature. Even though I can. I have difficulty expressing myself without going into minute details because said details are the most fascinating to me.

I think you can see it in my posts. Either long and detailed or very short. Eh.

=/

Edit: It's very often if not daily I just don't post because it'll take me to long as i want to convey my thoughts as good as possible. Text/mobile/lack of adequate grammar etc play a part in this as well.

Like last night. I was overstimulated (ykwyk) and couldn't be bothered to give each quote or post a proper response so I don't.
 
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DeceptiveAlarm

DeceptiveAlarm

Gold Member
AJUMP23 said:
I have a guy under me who is good at his job but is also letting everyone know how good he is. He knows everything and tells you. He will also let you know how bad others people work is. It is exhausting. I haven’t figured out how to communicate this with him either. I just need him to let his work speak. But he sucks up all the energy in the room.
Click to expand...
I had a ex like this. Under me over me. Always good at her job. And talk about sucking. We never figured out communication either. That is what ended the relationship.

Edit. Beaten by Maiden Voyage Maiden Voyage guess i should of kept reading before responding.
 
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RJMacready73

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Maybe it's an Irish thing maybe it's a me thing but I have no qualms in pulling cunts up on their actions or inaction firstly sarcastically/jokey, then sarcastically and they don't get the message it's a plain ole you are fucking useless gtfo my sight, I've had some amusing exchanges with my directors over the years when asked about my opinions..

So Macready what do you think of the new apprentices?

The gothy looking cunt is alright, works hard seems legit

The other dude, I'd sack HR for hiring that useless waste of air, he'll not be on my team so you may reassign him or sack him.

Yes yes, we're gonna stick him on your team see if you can shape him up..

Ahhh ffs

3wks later he quits, Gothy cunt is now in my private workteam WhatsApp and comes out on the piss with us and is a top bloke

There are good people out their looking a job and are willing to work hard and fit in, useless bastards should not be given the time of day especially when it comes to young people entering whatever business, I hate to see it and unfortunately UK labour laws make it hard to sack people unless it's gross negligence or somit serious so you have to go through the motions, I preferred the old days of Pack your bags an get out
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Member
RJMacready73 said:
There are good people out their looking a job and are willing to work hard and fit in, useless bastards should not be given the time of day especially when it comes to young people entering whatever business, I hate to see it and unfortunately UK labour laws make it hard to sack people unless it's gross negligence or somit serious so you have to go through the motions, I preferred the old days of Pack your bags an get out
Click to expand...
Definitely doesn't feel like the balance is there with regards to protecting employees without letting them get away with murder. When I worked in retail I went through the proper channels for some wastes of space and it got me nowhere. Luckily I realised the solution was to stop giving a shit, so I did.
 
ÆMNE22A!C

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
dorkimoe said:
Anyone who talks about their kids
Click to expand...

I know.

With that said I've a lady friend who's son is past the spectrum and beyond.

This boy stopped talking around the age of 3 and isn't potty trained equipped regarding number 2.

He's 13 now and in his midst of transitioning into a teenager. With all the hormones and such which he can't express verbally.

Since 2 months he's been self mutilating and has to find a new place to call home because the counselors are ill equipped and or inadequate in their approach. Yeah.

Hearing that and helping is taxing but what am I to do except to offer support in a myriad of ways.

Sometimes external "draining" exposes and thus creates a perspective which one can feel grateful and humbled by.

/rant
 
March Climber

March Climber

Member
An energy vampire just feels like a person with internal problems that they know they need to handle, who doesn’t know how to internally cope. So they externally bring everything and everyone else down with them, like a black hole. Misery loves company, etc.

This forum has a few. They come into nearly every single thread, even the ones with universally good news, and decide to act edgy and threadshit.
 
ÆMNE22A!C

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
March Climber said:
An energy vampire just feels like a person with internal problems that they know they need to handle, who doesn’t know how to internally cope. So they externally bring everything and everyone else down with them, like a black hole. Misery loves company, etc.

This forum has a few. They come into nearly every single thread, even the ones with universally good news, and decide to act edgy and threadshit.
Click to expand...

I know man. West Texas CEO West Texas CEO ....

So Good Smh GIF
 
rofif

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Oh absolutely. There is one guy at work. he is a good guy but he NEVER stops complaining.
As Soon as I see him, he starts complaining.
 
ÆMNE22A!C

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
There's a difference between complaining and getting shit of your chest.

The complexity of the for me unknown context makes it hard to reply adequately.

Please Stand By State Champs GIF by Pure Noise Records
 
Puscifer

Puscifer

Member
Sounds like the guy we work with, will take the simplest prompt and goes on tirades. Once got into a discussion about how amazing GrapheneOS was and how the guy in charge, while kind of an asshole, is so amazing at what he does when it comes to attack vectors the he was patching Android bugs MONTHS before Google was even aware of the problem and he immediately stole the conversation and start nagging on about the government, how we can't trust anything, etc for over 10 minutes despite the endless "yeah, uh huh, yep you're totally right man even though you're showing your ignorance RN" and it was non-stop till everyone literally walked away or turned around.


I'm not even mad at my boss for finally writing him up for what essentially amounting to wasting everyone's fucking time. Legit lold to myself when I saw the write up lol
 
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