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posted by martyb on Monday June 26 2017, @05:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the that-bites! dept.

Wipro has a 600-employee call center in Chamblee, Georgia that is infected with bed bugs according to Atlanta, Georgia television station 11 Alive.

The facilities manager admits there is a bed bug problem and it's been an issue since late May.

Employees told the TV station that the bugs are all over the three floors - and they're biting. But employees are being told they still must go to work. Kwanita Holmes sent 11Alive photos of what she said is a bed bug bite on her arm -- "We're at work 8 hours a day and we're getting munched on all day," she said.

Wipro said it's paying for in-home bed bug consultations and treatments for employees.

What are the worst conditions you've had to work in?


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 26 2017, @06:08AM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 26 2017, @06:08AM (#531149) Journal

    Wipro said it's paying for in-home bed bug consultations and treatments for employees.

    Can you imagine if Winpro would be paying for home in-bed bug consultations and treatments for employees.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @06:09AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @06:09AM (#531151)

      > What are the worst conditions you've had to work in?

      Just watch Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, plenty of unpleasant jobs that are still waiting to be automated.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Monday June 26 2017, @06:20AM

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday June 26 2017, @06:20AM (#531155) Journal

    I remember one night when the coffeemaker broke down...

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Mykl on Monday June 26 2017, @06:43AM

    by Mykl (1112) on Monday June 26 2017, @06:43AM (#531162)

    (or more accurately, the worst thing I was asked to do).

    During High School I had a casual job at the local supermarket, stacking shelves etc. One week there was some issue with the cleaners (quit, fired - don't really know) and the manager asked me to clean the public restrooms at the supermarket. Being 16 years old, I didn't really know what I was in for and didn't really think I could refuse. Wow, was that a mistake. The general public is disgusting.

    During my next shift, he asked me again and I point blank refused. He nodded, as if expecting this answer, and went off to find another victim.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by kaszz on Monday June 26 2017, @07:34AM (2 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:34AM (#531176) Journal

    Name: Wipro Limited
    Founder: Mohamed Hasham Premji (in 1945)
    Headquarter: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Chairman: Azim Premji
    CEO: Abidali Neemuchwala

    Indian standard of management in a nutshell ?

    So what is the US law on quitting the job unilaterally ?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by lx on Monday June 26 2017, @07:42AM

      by lx (1915) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:42AM (#531177)

      For years the US have exported their shitty jobs to India, now the tables have turned.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @02:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @02:53PM (#531334)

      In any at will state you can walk off the job any time. A chap at my job quit at end of his day on Friday. Was rather interesting....

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Monday June 26 2017, @07:51AM (2 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:51AM (#531179) Journal
    Installing ceiling insulation in the summer in Queensland Australia. 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the breezy shade. Actual temp where we had to work would run 130-140 maybe more. Unbelievably hot. Wasn't always fiberglass but placed enough of that my work clothes had to be burned when I quit that job, if you just tried them on you'd itch for a week. A lot of clothes I hadn't worn to work were trash too, just from being in the wash with them. That shit's awful.

    You'd go up and work as hard and fast as you could (delicate balance, you don't want to fall through the ceiling, or damage anything that will mean money and more time in the space to correct) as long as you could and when you couldn't take it anymore you'd come back down the ladder, that was the most dangerous moment. A short lapse of consciousness right there and you break your neck. Made it back down the ladder safely. Find a bit of breezy shade and just lay down for a minute now.

    Ugh, still a lot to do here, better call all the other people we're supposed to see today with revised times. (A little more time in only 100 degrees, my perk as the boss.) Now back up that ladder let's get this done.

    Well in terms of physical discomfort that was probably the worst. There are other measures of worst. I'll say that while it was the most physically unpleasant thing I've ever done for a living, and the pay was pretty lousy, it wasn't the job I'd most prefer to never do again.

    That was in sales. And this is the thing. I can actually do very well in sales - in a certain tiny percentage of the large category called 'sales' at least.

    That tiny slice of the 'sales' slice is not officially recognized as distinct, and there is no official term for it. I like to call it the 'not-fraud' slice of sales.

    If I can give you something I really think is fair value then my simple, naïve honest good-will shines through. People like to buy from me, in that situation. This led to some small successes in 'sales' which lead, as small successes in any field are supposed to, to more challenging positions.

    Which lead to me, at age of approximately 19, getting paid quite good money for a 19 year old in that time and place, to cold-call strangers that had absolutely no sane reason to want what I was selling, and bother them. For about a week. I worked in a climate controlled office surrounded by pretty young women with caviar and evian for free in the break room, it was possibly the least physically unpleasant job I've ever worked, but I don't miss it a bit, and I'd lay ceiling insulation again rather than do that, in a heartbeat.

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday June 26 2017, @12:32PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Monday June 26 2017, @12:32PM (#531274)

      For IT, I've never topped this story [thedailywtf.com] about a company that put its offices right next to a city dump.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday June 26 2017, @07:22PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:22PM (#531476)

      There is a demand for cooling work suits, ether self-contained (ice or batteries) or with a hose.
      It is a testament to the disposability and slavability of the US poor that it isn't a huge market.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @09:59AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @09:59AM (#531233)

    Probable management reaction on hearing that there are bed-bugs in the building:

    "Well, the employees are paid to work there, not to sleep there. So why do they care about bed-bugs in the building?"

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 26 2017, @01:53PM

      by kaszz (4211) on Monday June 26 2017, @01:53PM (#531301) Journal

      Or they just ask if the fines, suing etc are larger than the profit of squeezing the last drop out of the employees. Profit as priority one.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @11:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @11:48AM (#531264)

    The worst experience to come to mind was working with my father felting/guttering a slanted roof.

    Lying down on the roof, head hanging over the edge to hold the felt/guttering in place.. in torrential rain.

    Closest I've ever been to being waterboarded.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @01:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @01:17PM (#531291)

    They are not bed bugs; they are bed features.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @01:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @01:21PM (#531293)

    Diatomaceous Earth. Get that, and sprinkle protective circle around your work area, if possible. For example,

    http://img03.deviantart.net/9f48/i/2005/261/2/2/circle_of_protection___friends_by_blackenedheart13.jpg [deviantart.net]

    Then bedbugs shall not cross!!!

    (ok, some of this advice is actually real - diatom kills all types of crawling insects)

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by art guerrilla on Monday June 26 2017, @02:07PM

    by art guerrilla (3082) on Monday June 26 2017, @02:07PM (#531308)

    ...but one of the worst jobs i had as a CAD drafter/designer, was one of my first jobs with a local architect who was an asshole... (when he had visitors to the office, he would come back to the drafting room and make sure nobody was chewing gum, etc) stuck me in a room where the blueprint machine was, and -if you don't know- old school diazo print machines had an ammonia fixer, so i was treated to ammonia fumes all day... nice...
    as i was young and stupid, i just endured it for a couple weeks, but the other office mates were so disgusted by his doing that, they complained on my behalf until he was shamed into moving me to a desk of an inferior decorator, er, interior desecrator, er, interior decorator who came by every couple months...
    he was a prick, i got another job a couple months after that...

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Popeidol on Monday June 26 2017, @02:30PM (3 children)

    by Popeidol (35) on Monday June 26 2017, @02:30PM (#531322) Journal

    What are the worst conditions you've had to work in?

    For a couple of years I was a supervisor in an interesting office. They'd welded iron bars over all windows to prevent break-ins. During the last renovation, they'd put drywall over the emergency exit. There were two fires in the building while I was there, but thankfully nothing spread. There was a quarter-tonne UPS that had been wheeled in 5 years prior and never maintained, in a small supply room with no airflow. We got some complaints from the neighboring office about how hot the adjacent wall was on their side.

    Other quirks: They had live video feed of the whole workplace they could access in violation of local laws, and there was a hive of bees in the roof that would come into the office via the light fittings whenever it rained. Oh, and one time a guy on my shift found a corpse in the shared toilets.

    It's weird saying it but I kind of miss that place.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 26 2017, @06:56PM (2 children)

      by kaszz (4211) on Monday June 26 2017, @06:56PM (#531466) Journal

      Corpse in the toilet. What's the story behind that?

      • (Score: 2) by Popeidol on Wednesday June 28 2017, @12:24PM (1 child)

        by Popeidol (35) on Wednesday June 28 2017, @12:24PM (#532394) Journal

        As far as we were told it was a heart attack. He didn't work with us, so we didn't get any updates after the paramedics had left.

        It was the kind of strange, surreal office where that sort of thing just happened. We had more than a few people quit half way through their first shift, often leaving without telling anyone. There was a strange cult-ish religion two doors down from us that you could hear singing all sunday. The supervisor I replaced brought her partner to work on a leash and made him sleep on a mat outside during her shift. When the phone rang it could be a stoned scot with login issues or an FBI agent handling a child trafficking case. A couple of times I came to work to find candles burning in a ring outside the front door. The building manager was a 50-year-old guy whose office regularly had pumping techno at 3am while entertaining girls well under half his age.

        I dunno, it's really hard to describe that kind of place.

        • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:24PM

          by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:24PM (#532449) Journal

          Seems like a place you won't get bored at .. :-)

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday June 26 2017, @02:37PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday June 26 2017, @02:37PM (#531327)

    For office jobs, it can be worse: you could be required to work in a building with a serious mold problem. People have gotten seriously sick and died from this.

    I haven't read TFA, but honestly I'm not sure how bedbugs can be such a problem in an office. Are they sure these are bedbugs? Bedbugs normally stay hidden during the day, and come out at night, seeking hosts by the CO2 exhaled by humans.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @02:58PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 26 2017, @02:58PM (#531338)

    No pets!

    • (Score: 2) by etherscythe on Monday June 26 2017, @07:26PM

      by etherscythe (937) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:26PM (#531478) Journal

      You fed it, it's yours now. *g*

      --
      "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
  • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Monday June 26 2017, @11:25PM

    by t-3 (4907) on Monday June 26 2017, @11:25PM (#531633)

    My friends mom had a fridge in their carport, there were several blackouts that year and she had flipped the circuit breaker off and apparently forgot the fridge was full. About a month later, she paid me $100 to clean out the fridge. There were puddles of juice from meat in the bottom of the fridge with maggots swimming in them, I distinctly recall grabbing a carton of ice cream and it dissolving into a flood of maggots in my hand. The smell was bad I could only work in spurts before I had to get fresh air. This experience made later jobs seem tolerable though - dredging packaging, cat litter, one time someone's boxers, and many other things out of the plumbing at the grocery store was no biggy.

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