|
Volmarias posted:Ottoman, you should probably get the heck out of Pennsyltucky if you want a real job, preferably one that isn't "Whatever computer stuff needs to be done I guess." Alternately, start working for Anyway it's my understanding that I deserve everything I get professionally because my bachelor's is in Film. Which I realized in my last year of college I had no long-term interest in and I should have taken any number of REAL majors that would have suited me better, but didn't realize until after incurring all that debt and working a bunch of lovely jobs that I had talents that would have lent to something with an actual future. When I am financially stable (ha!) I will consider at least going to school part time so I can get more relevant training etc. ibntumart posted:Wait, are you saying you came into work and got regular pay as opposed to holiday pay? Or that you weren't paid *at all*? Did I mention that when I applied for Obamacare, even though I told it how much I was bringing home, I still only qualified for insurance that either had a $400/mo premium or else $2,000 deductible? (Pennsyltucky opted out of the Medicare assistance with Obamacare, otherwise I could have possibly had way cheaper premiums. I think the "poverty rate" is something like $11K.) I take an expensive medication (even the generic is $130/mo) so I had to opt for my employment agency's lovely insurance which is less than $100/mo. Thank god for the RX discount website, my med is about $30/mo even at the CVS. Oh another factor towards the high premium, no doubt, is because I am a female in my childbearing years and so I am ripe for mass amounts of expenditures. Even though personally I am extremely careful about contraception because I want no children, not to mention I COULD just pump out kids and live on the dole anyway so I don't know what the issue is. Meanwhile I am losing pay sitting here at home not working ... because I am about to get my physical for my new position. Then I'll truck over to my current job and make a few bucks to help hold me over until I get a real paycheck. Speaking of which, I've got to find out when the first one is coming since I will not have much to hold me over until then. (I'm fortunate I don't have a lot of credit card debt so that could help hold me over if I really, really had to.) Thanks for listening, goons, I feel a lot more validated now that I have reactions to my salary. Now please tell my sister-in-law who lives in Long Island and makes $100K that no, I can't just spent $60 (either gas/tolls or bus/train) to visit them whenever because I am actually poor.
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2014 12:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 11:58 |
|
|
quote:Ding ding ding! Contracted for a state government means lowest bidder employment agency Saw that one coming a mile off.  The Pennsylvania thing in your profile gave it away.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2014 14:08
|
|
|
It's OK if you have a useless degree, if you have real work experience doing relevant things for a job. You're still tragically underemployed if you have a brain and you're doing IT. At least you're making minimum wage now! Have you considered making a BFC post? Volmarias fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Aug 5, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2014 14:17
|
|
|
So, I posted about hating some professional speaking and image seminars back in February in the this thread and I thought I'd follow up here with the end results. I enrolled in a 4 course series covering presentation skills, professional image projection, negotiation, and business writing and I absolutely have to say it was a great investment. Yes, this was the course with the railroad executive freaking the gently caress out about fat people during the image seminar. No, he didn't come back but there were others there to keep things interesting. I'm not shilling for the company here, but if any of you has the chance to go to one of these things offered by a good company, absolutely take it as soon as you possibly can. I'm the kind of person who cannot stand to hear the kind of mealy-mouthed business speak that's taken over a lot of corporate offices in the past decade, so I went in with a really negative attitude to the whole series. Thing is, I found out you can strip off the insubstantial word choices and the principles of speaking methods and whatnot still maintain their validity and impact. I was an absolutely horrible student the first couple of sessions, and I'll be the first to admit that it damaged my overall absorption of the material, but what I did pick up has made such a huge difference in how I'm interacting with the people at my job. I'm not sure the best way to tie this into existing discussions, but for some of you, it might help boost your standing if you even mention an interest in this stuff to your supervisors. As I said up above I sound like an absolute parrot for this thing, but good god I wish I had only approached it with a more open mind. edited: I don't write good. Immanentized fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Aug 5, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2014 16:39
|
|
|
Just an update in my ongoing life, we have dusted off forms from the 1980's that someone had kept in order to create a paper trail for things. I of course said we should have thrown them out about 3 years ago. We are never getting rid of those stupid things now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2014 18:24
|
|
|
Ottoman posted:Did I mention that when I applied for Obamacare, even though I told it how much I was bringing home, I still only qualified for insurance that either had a $400/mo premium or else $2,000 deductible? (Pennsyltucky opted out of the Medicare assistance with Obamacare, otherwise I could have possibly had way cheaper premiums. I think the "poverty rate" is something like $11K.) I take an expensive medication (even the generic is $130/mo) so I had to opt for my employment agency's lovely insurance which is less than $100/mo. Thank god for the RX discount website, my med is about $30/mo even at the CVS. Oh another factor towards the high premium, no doubt, is because I am a female in my childbearing years and so I am ripe for mass amounts of expenditures. Even though personally I am extremely careful about contraception because I want no children, not to mention I COULD just pump out kids and live on the dole anyway so I don't know what the issue is. I am not a healthcare expert or certified in any way to make insurance recommendations. Since you work in healthcare, I assume you might know a little bit more than the average bear, but this is also aimed at other people who might be in a comparable situation. If you can find a way to get a special enrollment, you might want to take another look at the plans available in your area, particularly the platinum plans. https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/ A 30 year old in Lehigh county can get a platinum plan with zero deductible for $262. These plans are restrictive on which doctors you can use, but when you're on a budget, that's what you've got to do. The premium is unrelated to you being a woman, they're not allowed to discriminate based on sex anymore. I just remembered that you are making around 27,000. That'll yield something like a $10 subsidy. That sucks. If you've looked at the plans and none are going to work for you, then that sucks, but at least you know the options. Too many people think there's nothing available when there are good options. Dr. Arbitrary fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Aug 5, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2014 18:32
|
|
|
Volmarias posted:It's OK if you have a useless degree, if you have real work experience doing relevant things for a job. You're still tragically underemployed if you have a brain and you're doing IT. At least you're making minimum wage now! Also to clarify: I'm not really doing IT. Aside from helping the office manager with normal stuff like copying and phones, I'm mostly doing light graphics work (since no one knows what to do with their digital camera pictures/PowerPoint), doing random reports for the boss including making Lovely Documents (Scott Adams' phrase), and also doing clerical support for a number of specialized clinics which includes typing minutes, coming up with workflows, dealing with vendors, and inventing tracking spreadsheets, print templates, etc. Essentially I am a professional Good End User. Which explains my good rapport with our IT department. sbaldrick posted:Just an update in my ongoing life, we have dusted off forms from the 1980's that someone had kept in order to create a paper trail for things. I of course said we should have thrown them out about 3 years ago. We are never getting rid of those stupid things now. Dr. Arbitrary posted:I am not a healthcare expert or certified in any way to make insurance recommendations. Since you work in healthcare, I assume you might know a little bit more than the average bear, but this is also aimed at other people who might be in a comparable situation.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2014 23:16
|
|
|
You need to read some Ramit Sethi or literlaly any biz-dev, because there's more to life than minimum wage. Build skills, learn to code, do anything, because going from broke-to-not requires a lot of self knowledge and change.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 01:42
|
|
|
Golden Bee posted:You need to read some Ramit Sethi or literlaly any biz-dev, because there's more to life than minimum wage. Build skills, learn to code, do anything, because going from broke-to-not requires a lot of self knowledge and change. Yeah, pretty much this. I assumed that you were actually in IT, since I've seen you post on the SH/SC complaint threads. Take a look at getting certs or otherwise stepping up your game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 02:12
|
|
|
Thank you all for the advice. In other news, I had to get my physical evaluation for my new job today. Which I thought would take 60-90 minutes tops, and on the safe side I told my boss I shouldn't arrive past 11 am (the evaluation was scheduled for 8:30 plus 30+ minutes to get from place to place). I get to my new employer and wait with other new hires for THREE HOURS to see the nurse for ten minutes and the doctor for five minutes (and nearly get canned for forgetting to bring a second form of ID - another new hire got canned for the crime of being ten minutes late and not possessing a cell phone). I have to go back in for TWO follow ups during office hours due to the TB test (a healthcare environment necessity) and I got a call this afternoon from my future supervisor asking me if I can come in for an orientation before my start date. Meaning, on my dime, and interfering with the two weeks of work I promised to my current employer so I don't burn bridges. Also the doctor, when I told her what position I was starting, gave me this look of pity and said "God bless you" but to me sounded like "God have mercy on you." I think it's pretty clear I am trading one hell with another. "But the benefits are fantastic!"
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 02:50
|
|
|
Is running the gently caress away an option at this point? Because you should run the gently caress away, if at all possible.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 03:01
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:Is running the gently caress away an option at this point? One of my current coworkers told me the three hour wait thing was totally normal for government healthcare. But I'm crossposting in the Healthcare Stories thread since maybe they have a more realistic insight on how things work in this field and I think I've derailed here long enough. (I believe I mentioned in another post how very long-winded I am. Every time I compose a post I end up deleting several paragraphs of overly verbose tangents.) Maybe I should be posting in the Career Path thread too. I suck at this job transition stuff. Anyway. My gut is telling me to run the gently caress away. But I can't keep on going the way I've been going. I can't afford it, monetarily or stress-wise, and the stagnancy alone is getting me no where (except firmly rooted in alcoholism). So after years of searching for "real" work I should go through with it. Maybe it should be on my terms though, such as, orientation will have to wait for when it was originally scheduled.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 03:31
|
|
|
You should at the very least get paid for the time you are working for them. Early or otherwise
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 03:39
|
|
|
Evidently when I make a direct statement or request, it's impossible to understand.  (me) - "I'm short-handed today. Can I have two of your standby folks work events for me from 10 to 2?" (them) - "What would they be doing?" - "Events. Managing traffic, welcoming people, nothing big (i.e., nothing that requires special training, just a warm body)" - "Okay, and when would that be?" - "From ten to two." - "Well, we've got three on standby. How many do you need?" - "Just two would be fine." - "Okay, where should they go and when?" - "Just send them to my office, 1103, at ten. I'll take it from there." - "And when did you say they'd be done?" - "Two o'clock. Plenty of time for them to get their lunch break." - "Okay, because they have to have time for their lunch break." - "I know. Just send them to 1103 at ten o'clock and I'll have them back in plenty of time for it."One hour later, over the radio - "Where and when should the standbys meet you?"Seriously. What the everlasting gently caress. This is far from uncommon. I'm starting to wonder if the problem is on my end, but as far as I know I don't have a speech impediment and the words I think I'm saying are indeed the ones coming out of my mouth.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 14:21
|
|
|
ItalicSquirrels posted:Seriously. What the everlasting gently caress. This is far from uncommon. I'm starting to wonder if the problem is on my end, but as far as I know I don't have a speech impediment and the words I think I'm saying are indeed the ones coming out of my mouth. This is kind of like when you send someone an e-mail asking two questions, and without fail they will only answer one. Usually the less important of the two. Bonus points when you start the E-Mail with "Can you answer the following two questions for me"
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 15:28
|
|
|
Renegret posted:This is kind of like when you send someone an e-mail asking two questions, and without fail they will only answer one. Usually the less important of the two. Easier not less important, need to minimize that workload!
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 15:42
|
|
|
Renegret posted:This is kind of like when you send someone an e-mail asking two questions, and without fail they will only answer one. Usually the less important of the two. Would you like me to do X or Y? "Yes"
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 16:37
|
|
|
It'd be nice if clients read the e-mails I send them every week on the same day instead of whatever it is they actually do with it. Especially if they're going to send an angry e-mail (to my boss, no less) demanding the information that is provided in those e-mails. An extra bonus would be if they didn't completely lie about things that can easily be checked.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 17:12
|
|
|
Solkanar512 posted:Would you like me to do X or Y? "You sent me an email about ABC a few weeks ago, can you send it to me again?"
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 17:24
|
|
|
Solkanar512 posted:Would you like me to do X or Y? I have a text file of all the instances that this one specific person has done this to me. When she says that, I just take the option that's more convenient for me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 17:40
|
|
|
I put in a purchase order yesterday for some computers and today I got 4 emails (one from my management, one from the purchasing department, and two from IT who will set the computers up) and all 4 emails asked me what room the computers were in. ... I put in the purchase order yesterday. You received it because you need to approve the purchase order, so that the computers can be purchased. They aren't in any room. They have not been purchased. jesus christ
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
ladyweapon posted:It'd be nice if clients read the e-mails I send them every week on the same day instead of whatever it is they actually do with it. Especially if they're going to send an angry e-mail (to my boss, no less) demanding the information that is provided in those e-mails. An extra bonus would be if they didn't completely lie about things that can easily be checked. One of the small pleasures in life is forwarding an email from ages ago sans comment to people who are all upset they "never received" said email. Bonus points if they replied to it and you forward their reply with the original email.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 18:44
|
|
|
Once I had someone who flipped out about not getting something from us, so I forwarded the earlier email to him and he replied back apologizing, about how it must have been accidentally deleted by his spam filter or something, and he would get right on it. About six weeks later he emailed me again about the exact same thing, fuming about never having received anything from us and how terrible our work was. This time he copied my boss, his boss, and a bunch of other people I guess he wanted to shame us to. I took enormous pleasure in replying all with the previous chain attached so that everyone could see he was full of poo poo and had gotten what he needed ages ago.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 18:54
|
|
|
Oh my God. Somebody just burned something in the microwave and everyone is acting as if it were they themselves who had been set on fire. We've got fans going, doors open, must be the most exciting thing to happen to my coworkers all week. Personally, my husband and I are in the process of buying a farm and saying goodbye to the corporate world in the next 2 years. He's working on one now and I was just there for the long weekend, visiting and working. I milked cows, castrated piglets, got pecked by bitchy chickens and at certain points was covered in actual poo poo (I loved every minute). I probably shouldn't be annoyed that that isn't everyone's jam, but seriously, you need to leave the floor because of a smell. These are the same people who talk poo poo about the homeless people outside and their perceived addictions. Like, I'm so sure you could handle the stress of homelessness without some sort of narcotic escape when you can't even deal with a bad smell.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 19:01
|
|
|
Aquatic Giraffe posted:One of the small pleasures in life is forwarding an email from ages ago sans comment to people who are all upset they "never received" said email. Bonus points if they replied to it and you forward their reply with the original email. I'm a dick, so I'd reply to those requests with "I first emailed you this document on (date) at (time). Please find it attached." FrozenVent fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Oct 29, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 20:15
|
|
|
Renegret posted:This is kind of like when you send someone an e-mail asking two questions, and without fail they will only answer one. Usually the less important of the two. Yeah, I have a customer that does this, so I just send him separate emails now for each question. I used to make a numbered list of like 5 things I wanted to/needed to know (and these weren't exactly essay question answers, just what the address was for a new location, what the store number is, etc), and he would answer questions 1, 3, and 4 or something ridiculous. Now he just gets 5 emails and for the most part answers them all. I don't get it really but hey whatever.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 20:42
|
|
|
I'm getting panicked texts from people at my old job about some stuff that no one bothered to learn after I left despite me sending out a novel of an email explaining all of it before I left. It's really simple stuff, too. Should I offer to fix it for them for double or triple my hourly rate? I'm thinking triple with a little padding to make it an even $100/hour plus travel and accommodations.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 21:25
|
|
|
Ashcans posted:Once I had someone who flipped out about not getting something from us, so I forwarded the earlier email to him and he replied back apologizing, about how it must have been accidentally deleted by his spam filter or something, and he would get right on it. Did you close the email with "Have a great day!" or something similar? This is important.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 21:26
|
|
|
Aquatic Giraffe posted:I'm getting panicked texts from people at my old job about some stuff that no one bothered to learn after I left despite me sending out a novel of an email explaining all of it before I left. It's really simple stuff, too.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 21:52
|
|
|
Somebody put up a handwritten (with a highlighter!), passive-aggressive note on our pinter room door saying something like "Thanks for cleaning up here as well!". I didn't like that as it looked super unprofessional and probably completely ineffective, so I was going to tell our facility guy to just talk to the janitors about it and take down the sign. If you guessed that he was the one who put the sign there in the first place, you get the employee of the month reward.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 21:54
|
|
|
Combo posted:Yeah, I have a customer that does this, so I just send him separate emails now for each question. I used to make a numbered list of like 5 things I wanted to/needed to know (and these weren't exactly essay question answers, just what the address was for a new location, what the store number is, etc), and he would answer questions 1, 3, and 4 or something ridiculous. One of the main people in my project does the same will do the same, but she gets angry if we send her too many emails. So if items A, B, and C are missing, I go ahead and ask for all three. She'll answer Question A, usually with as few words as she possibly can, and that will be it. Maybe a few days later, it will turn out that she was working on the answer for B, but didn't say anything about it. About a week later she'll demand to know why the entire thing isn't finished yet, and that's when I'll follow up on the original question. Sending her the old email seemed to give her an unfortunate idea, so often the answer is just "see attached" and she's either resent the paperwork (usually still missing the info) or given me a low-res screenshot of an updated file, but not sent it. She's so particular that I go ahead and just see how long winded I can make a request for something.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 22:20
|
|
|
Combo posted:Yeah, I have a customer that does this, so I just send him separate emails now for each question. I used to make a numbered list of like 5 things I wanted to/needed to know (and these weren't exactly essay question answers, just what the address was for a new location, what the store number is, etc), and he would answer questions 1, 3, and 4 or something ridiculous. Some people need their hands held and some people are just loving clueless. And then after a while you can ask your boss to bug their boss and hopefully get the information so you can get this poo poo off your desk and over to quality where they can find some mundane poo poo you overlooked and get you fired. Oh wait, that was me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 22:41
|
|
|
peter banana posted:Oh my God. Somebody just burned something in the microwave and everyone is acting as if it were they themselves who had been set on fire. We've got fans going, doors open, must be the most exciting thing to happen to my coworkers all week. Do you work with me? Because that exact thing, fans and doors and co-workers and all literally just happened in my office. yesterday
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 23:05
|
|
|
mobby_6kl posted:Somebody put up a handwritten (with a highlighter!), passive-aggressive note on our pinter room door saying something like "Thanks for cleaning up here as well!". I didn't like that as it looked super unprofessional and probably completely ineffective, so I was going to tell our facility guy to just talk to the janitors about it and take down the sign. This was placed in every bathroom at my building last quarter, this includes the bathrooms that auditors and customer tours use. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 23:20
|
|
|
Fine, next time I take a poo poo I won't flush.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2014 23:23
|
|
|
ItalicSquirrels posted:Seriously. What the everlasting gently caress. This is far from uncommon. I'm starting to wonder if the problem is on my end, but as far as I know I don't have a speech impediment and the words I think I'm saying are indeed the ones coming out of my mouth. The person I have to coordinate most closely with in our office somehow manages to be both a domineering control freak who demands to be consulted on every goddamn thing (even when it has little or nothing to do with her) and also to have little to no ability to process or retain any information you give her. We recently had this delightful exchange: Jane let me know that she has a medical appointment next week, and won't be able to work with (Client) as scheduled. Ok Tom or Trisha could fill in for her. Who would you prefer to have do it? Sarah isn't available? No, just Tom or Trisha. Well then, I... Wait, doesn't Jane usually work with (Client)? Apraxin, what are you doing changing things around?!? Jane let me know she has a medical appointment next week. What? Oh yes, you said. Have Tom do it then.Every week we have a recurring conversation where she asks me why a particular employee isn't scheduled on Wednesdays and I have to remind her that that's the day they have custody of their kid. She's surprised every time. Jesus loving christ. She's been on vacation the past week, and even with the office being shorthanded it's been so much easier without her there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 00:35
|
|
|
Aquatic Giraffe posted:One of the small pleasures in life is forwarding an email from ages ago sans comment to people who are all upset they "never received" said email. Bonus points if they replied to it and you forward their reply with the original email. This but with contracts. People come up with amazing stories about contracts: it was in my stolen briefcase, the file it was in was in a basement that flooded last winter and then froze over, we don't keep contracts, we only keep contracts on microfilm and don't have a microfilm reader, etc. I haven't heard the dog ate it yet but it's only a matter of time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 00:53
|
|
|
Lawlicaust posted:This but with contracts. People come up with amazing stories about contracts: it was in my stolen briefcase, the file it was in was in a basement that flooded last winter and then froze over, we don't keep contracts, we only keep contracts on microfilm and don't have a microfilm reader, etc. I haven't heard the dog ate it yet but it's only a matter of time. We had a project with a very, very long contract and the client thought that we hadn't read the whole thing and kept trying to convince us stuff was/wasn't in the contract and were SHOCKED when we pulled up a digital version of it during a meeting and did a ctrl+F of what they were trying to tell us they never agreed to and read it to them. This happened several times, to the point where we made sure we had a PDF of the contract present in every meeting.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 02:32
|
|
|
Apraxin posted:The person I have to coordinate most closely with in our office somehow manages to be both a domineering control freak who demands to be consulted on every goddamn thing (even when it has little or nothing to do with her) and also to have little to no ability to process or retain any information you give her. We recently had this delightful exchange: There's more than one of those around. Awesome. Lawlicaust posted:we only keep contracts on microfilm and don't have a microfilm reader To be quite honest, I could believe this one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 02:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 11:58 |
|
|
FrozenVent posted:There's more than one of those around. Awesome. The contract was signed only 2 or 3 years ago. Who uses micro film these days? The story in question wasn't just that though. They stored it on film and the film was in this warehouse that wasn't anywhere near their office. Like different state. Then the next week, it was oh we checked at the warehouse but it burned down this weekend. Then you produced the signed copy of the contract and they magically found it. It was in the drawer right beside them the whole time. I've had someone take the digital copy they received after signing a paper one and deleted whole sections of it, save it, then try and claim they didn't know their responsibilities. Me: Why did you delete the section? Them: Well my hard drive is always so full so I always delete sections of every contract to save space. I have heard this excuse at least three times.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 02:48
|
|