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MJBuddy posted:My client and previous boss are both retirement age, so when they made a comment about working with so and so in 1980-whatever I got to remark I wasn't alive yet. One of my old coworkers favourite things to say to me was "I have outfits that are older than you are." At my last job I was a bit of a wild child so the "What did you get up to this weekend?" stories became somewhat amusing after I told my (work safe) abbreviated story of what I got up to, while they all told me about what they did with their kids/nieces/nephews.
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Oct 30, 2014 05:51
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Ezekiel_980 posted:The only time a firing was really advertised at my job was when someone was let for for altering data, and the announcement was mostly to say "don't alter data unless you want to get fired" We once got an announcement email about a departure which was effectively: "John has left XXXX to pursue other opportunities, his last day is today. In unrelated news, a reminder to all staff please ensure that confidential matters are kept confidential."
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Oct 30, 2014 08:31
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I went from a horribly run company with awesome coworkers to a well run company where I have zero things in common with my coworkers. I'm a 20something woman in an office of 40+ year old men. Many of them have children my age or older. Combine that with it being a STEM field and my gender I have a hell of a time getting them to take me seriously sometimes. They were shocked and amazed that I could identify different types of screwdrivers. I get called "sweetheart" more often than not. Did some research on a company that I will be interviewing with, software development in Oil&Gas and checked out the management lineup. All men and the only woman on that level is with HR. SpartanIV posted:We have several people I work with who are 50 or 60+ and love to justify their horrible and incorrect ways of doing things by saying "I've been doing this for 30 years/longer than you've been alive!"
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Oct 30, 2014 09:52
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I may be walking into a trap and I need some of you more experienced cynics to set me straight. I got headhunted by a company that's about 50 times as big as my current one (800 -> 45,000) last week. I've been thinking I might be underpaid, so I figured I might as well get a look at my market value. Went in for the interview yesterday, it was pretty much the softest of softball interviews (No competency questions whatsoever, barely anything behavioral except "can you keep a cool head and manage your time well?") and I think I nailed it. There's one thing that's bugging me -- apparently this company was just bought out last week by a slightly bigger (~50,000 people) company to the tune of 4 billion. The merger is set in writing, but no real company policy changes are going to be made until January. I'm wondering if there might be some sort of pump and dump in hiring to absorb the casualties that come with "eliminating redundancies" that so often comes with mergers. Is that a thing that happens? I'm probably going to turn them down anyway unless they give me a massive raise, but I'm wary of the whole situation. Who hires when your company is about to grow by 50,000 people?
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Oct 30, 2014 13:51
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Not a Children posted:I'm probably going to turn them down anyway unless they give me a massive raise, but I'm wary of the whole situation. Who hires when your company is about to grow by 50,000 people? Most companies have a shortage in some area's and a surplus of nitwits. The larger the company, the higher the relative amount of nitwits as the work of the competent can absorb it. In smaller companies, to many nitwits makes the company go belly up as the impact of their fuckups is so much larger. So it is not about the growth of the headcount that should have you worried, as hiring will always be done in certain domains. Instead, you ought to worry about the merger itself. A company that size that is bought out mostly means that, even tho they are that big and generate the revenue to sustain the day to day operations, there is not only a competitor that does much better so it can buy, there is also a leadership that is willing to sell. And the group of people that ought to be creating value with the company itself, rather sell the company meaning the profit is to low to continue on the current path or change and make a profit. The buyer knows this but thinks that with effort, the assets are valuable enough in itself to make the acquisition. To make it worth their while, they will have to look at what goes in and what goes out. In most organizations, the biggest line item of money going out is human resource costs. Expect lay-offs, expect a complete absence of raises for years to come, expect all perks to be cut and expect deterioration of secondary things such as canteen quality or building maintenance. So unless you are offered an obscene amount of money for work that you can comfortably do and you enjoy, there is no progression or career to be made. Ah well, all the capable people probably already moved on, leaving the company stuck with the nitwits. Consider if you want to be part of that.
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Oct 30, 2014 14:18
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Not a Children posted:I may be walking into a trap and I need some of you more experienced cynics to set me straight. It's kind of a non-answer, sorry, but there's just no way to know. In a company of that size, your hiring manager probably doesn't even know details about staffing stuff like that, and his/her boss, and maybe even his/her boss's boss might not even know the details. In fact, no firm decisions have probably even been proposed, let alone made, since the acq. was just last week. There is nothing wrong with asking your interviewer in a brief e-mail about your concerns as long as you ask in a polite and pleasant way just realize they won't probably have any more info for you. Lack of competency questions isn't always a red flag. I don't know the details but if you are interviewing for a widget making position and have 4 years experience and references to back up that you can make widgets then your general drive, attitude, ability to work with people is gonna become a lot more important than your tech skills. I've had this happen once with a hire -- he literally fit the job like a glove with his lab and computer skills and was the right experience level so all I had to confirm was that he would be able to communicate well and have a good work ethic and be able to deal with our particular brand of inter-department policies. Mergers & acquisitions do very often lead to layoffs and restructuring but really managers are the #1 on the chopping block. Long story short I wouldn't worry because there's no point just too many variables and nothing is set in stone. Of course my #1 piece of advice is do never trust corporate business major fucks but without knowing any more I wouldn't say there's a reason to assume any shadiness in this position being open. quote:Instead, you ought to worry about the merger itself. A company that size that is bought out mostly means that, even tho they are that big and generate the revenue to sustain the day to day operations, there is not only a competitor that does much better so it can buy, there is also a leadership that is willing to sell. And the group of people that ought to be creating value with the company itself, rather sell the company meaning the profit is to low to continue on the current path or change and make a profit.  ). When my company got bought a couple years ago I managed to negotiate a 20% raise and promotion by carefully approaching the new CEO. Caveat though it's a company of 200, not 45,000 people.
seacat fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 14:21
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Thanks for the advice. Right now my big concern is that I'll be trading off a foreseeable career progression (starting a paid masters in the Spring, have good relationships with my boss and the partners of the company) for potentially higher cap space in a bigger company. I just don't want to get burned after making the move, so unless there's buku bucks involved I'll probably shy away from the risk. I did ask directly about the potential for downsizing during the interview, and the manager I was speaking to said "I don't know," just as you figured. I'm in a fairly in-demand field (electrical power engineering), so I figure a lot of my worrying is just paranoia, but it's a little unnerving moving into a company just as these major changes are cropping up. Not a Children fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 17:34
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Yesterday I was told the giant stack of invoices (~100, give or take) didn't need to be entered until next week at the earliest so I put them at the bottom of my to do list. Today the same person needs me to enter half of the invoices by 2PM. 
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Oct 30, 2014 19:13
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ladyweapon posted:Yesterday I was told the giant stack of invoices (~100, give or take) didn't need to be entered until next week at the earliest so I put them at the bottom of my to do list. I hope that person enjoys getting them by next week at the earliest.
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Oct 30, 2014 21:42
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in_cahoots posted:As a fellow twentysomething woman in a STEM field, it's not all bad. My coworkers are all older men as well, and I feel like I get the respect I deserve. If anything standing out so much means people remember my contributions more. You just have to find the right company. My old company was fine (maybe because a larger number were youngin's) but this place is kinda aggravating. They're not mean-spirited, but it's like working with 20 dads.
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Oct 30, 2014 23:54
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So the program we use for pricing and all most everything we do has had issues making it impossible to do work for several hours three days this week. Can't wait for next weeks meeting when we're all asked why productivity numbers are down.
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Oct 31, 2014 02:18
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Not a Children posted:Thanks for the advice. Right now my big concern is that I'll be trading off a foreseeable career progression (starting a paid masters in the Spring, have good relationships with my boss and the partners of the company) for potentially higher cap space in a bigger company. I just don't want to get burned after making the move, so unless there's buku bucks involved I'll probably shy away from the risk. I was apprehensive about moving from a small company (smaller than yours) to a big company (bigger than the one you interviewed.) It was for a LOT more money, probably a better career progression, and way less stress. Only downside is that I often feel like I'm not accomplishing much. Looking back it was a great decision. I could still tomorrow either get my old job back or work for my former boss somewhere else, so I think as long as you leave on good terms, go for it.
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Oct 31, 2014 03:00
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1500quidporsche posted:So the program we use for pricing and all most everything we do has had issues making it impossible to do work for several hours three days this week. Can't wait for next weeks meeting when we're all asked why productivity numbers are down. Our email was out for 4+ hours this morning (during which time we also had a building-wide fire drill - yay). We'll be trying to catch up and wrap up a week (thank God it's not a month) tomorrow, while also trying to avoid being distracted by the siren songs of our HR assistants calling us to participate in all the Halloween contests and stuff they've had planned for weeks. I hate mixing work and pleasure.
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Oct 31, 2014 06:22
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My boss is going on vacation for a week, I will probably accomplish more in a week than I do in a month.
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Oct 31, 2014 12:39
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:They're not mean-spirited, but it's like working with 20 dads.  "I'm so bored."    "Hi bored, we're your coworkers."
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Oct 31, 2014 12:59
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Sat down to read the company news letter with my morning cup of tea. CEOs article opens with a quote from Machiavelli.
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Oct 31, 2014 13:19
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Sat down to read the company news letter with my morning cup of tea. CEOs article opens with a quote from Machiavelli. I rather have CEO like that, who is constantly looking to beat his competitors then a lazy one just coasting.
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Oct 31, 2014 17:43
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ItalicSquirrels posted:
A+ We have two huge funding applications due today and the people in the office who aren't implicated in their preparation are going around giving everyone poo poo for not wanting to go wrap up our VP in toilet paper for charity or whatever. Do you morons not realize that this money keeps us running? Would you rather we forget about several millions of dollars so that we can go goof around with cat ears or whatever? Jesus Christ.
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Oct 31, 2014 18:25
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The Berzerker posted:A+ A short exchange between me and someone from the Party Planning Committee at my old job, that got me a half hour lecture from HR on "Team Dynamics": "Why aren't you participating in the prize drawings? "Because someone has to actually produce the product we sell so we have money to buy the iPads your department seems to swim in."
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Oct 31, 2014 18:47
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potee posted:A short exchange between me and someone from the Party Planning Committee at my old job, that got me a half hour lecture from HR on "Team Dynamics": I got lectured that I'm not a team player because I declined to go bowling to catch up on work once.
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Nov 1, 2014 02:00
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1500quidporsche posted:I got lectured that I'm not a team player because I declined to go bowling to catch up on work once. And suddenly I'm happy that team building at my job consists of talking poo poo about management behind their back and nothing else.
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Nov 1, 2014 17:48
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1500quidporsche posted:I got lectured that I'm not a team player because I declined to go bowling to catch up on work once. An old boss of mine decided to host a team-building session-thing for the deaprtment. Nothing creative, just trust falls and who-gets-to-go-in-the-submarine-during-apocalypse poo poo and anything that you could find in a So You Want To Be A Manager book. This boss also loved to talk and beat the corporate drum, so I expected at least one long-winded speech about vision and the future and other cringe-worthy nonsense. Starting at 5:00 PM. In a department where about half the employees were salaried. Mandatory. I was the only one with the gall to coincidentally need to call in sick on that very day.
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Nov 1, 2014 22:10
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Che Delilas posted:An old boss of mine decided to host a team-building session-thing for the deaprtment. Nothing creative, just trust falls and who-gets-to-go-in-the-submarine-during-apocalypse poo poo and anything that you could find in a So You Want To Be A Manager book. This boss also loved to talk and beat the corporate drum, so I expected at least one long-winded speech about vision and the future and other cringe-worthy nonsense. We had a scavenger hunt one day. Mandatory. I was maybe two months into my job at this point so I figure alright, I still need to make a good impression I'll do this stupid thing, it'll be over in an hour and I can take off early (was on a friday). So I turn up in my beat up sneakers only to find everybody else has some quality running shoes, big bottles of water, and maps. three. loving. hours. of running around loving downtown trying to solve stupid riddles, taking wacky pictures with policemen infront of a food truck and other stupid bullshit. could barely walk afterwards and got home an hour later than I would've.
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Nov 2, 2014 03:08
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Team building for us was like a couple weeks ago on a saturday. Chum was up in the JLG lift pressure washing some pipes and things. The shift supervisor and I were shooting mini marshmallows and things at him through a homemade alcohol powered canon. He was about 40' up in the air watching marshmallows fly by. The load of floor dry was pretty funny too. Sometimes it's good to not work in an office.
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Nov 2, 2014 03:31
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It's burgin' time! 
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My department head's idea of team building is to take the department out for lunch once every month or so and turn a blind eye to the good natured pranks that go on. Department has a pretty good morale and ridiculously high retention. I'm happy about how relatively bullshit free my current company is. There's a few pockets of middle management that have that starry eyed approach to corporate culture improvement and what have you, but overall it's all about getting your job done and going home. Of course it takes longer to expense a cab ride than to order a quarter million bucks worth of supply but... The reasons why that is make sense. I'm liking it so far. After the slug heat my old job was, it's refreshing. My biggest problem right now is that I'm annoying my boss by asking for permission to do anything, guess it's what happen when you go from a micro manager to a more hands off type.
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Nov 2, 2014 04:06
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The closest we have to "Teambuilding" is people ad-hoc deciding to go to a bar/go out for pizza/go play pool with an e-mail then being sent out saying "hey we're doing x at y time come along if you want."
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Nov 2, 2014 15:46
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Once upon a time I worked for a company that hired an Australian as CFO. The very first thing he did was to find the local bar and open a company tab. We did a shitload of "team building" in the years that followed. I really miss working for that guy.
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Nov 2, 2014 16:08
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Teambuilding at my office is the company doing a monthly meeting every month to say how well we're doing and giving us all free lunch from actual good restaurants. The one on Friday the CFO told us that since we were growing so fast and making so much money our insurance will be paid by the company next year and we'll only have to pay co-pays and only 25% of the cost for family members. I love working for a company that is actually successful. Between this and getting severance when I quit, leaving HP was the best decision I've made in my goddamn life.
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Nov 2, 2014 18:02
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I love working for a company that is actually successful. Between this and getting severance when I quit, leaving HP was the best decision I've made in my goddamn life. I worked for a successful company too, except the employees didn't get jack poo poo for it. In fact, over the past two years when our revenue growth and subsequent profits were tripling, there was also an insane cost-cutting program where they did things like stop buying paper coffee cups for the kitchens in the building and tell everyone to bring their own coffee mugs. It became a real problem when we couldn't offer coffee to interviewees and guests who obviously didn't have their mug with them. The whole thing was a game of "maximize the money going into the CEO's pocket." Oh well. Friday was my last day. I'm so loving glad I quit.
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Nov 2, 2014 18:29
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Nothing like putting in 2-3 hours a day on the weekend for a project that doesn't even have a project management line item in the costs! Thanks, sales!
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Nov 2, 2014 21:00
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I've started talking with a friend of mine about working for his company. It's a small outfit of only 5 employees and I'd take a pay cut, but it sounds like the stress level is much better there. They also pay for all of the employees' healthcare costs, which would help lessen the financial impact. But I will miss having a brand new company car so, so much. Being a BFC regular, I will never buy a brand new vehicle. I hate working corporate so, so much. Maybe soon I will only read this thread for pleasure, like the call center thread.
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Nov 3, 2014 15:14
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Hello, thread, I'm an IT cablemonkey in a corporate datacenter. So I finally scored 5 days off in a row, first time in years. I used to be a pastry chef, so time off wasn't a thing that happened. Boss is out of town too, so no way I am getting called in. So of course, I check my account Friday and find half my expected paycheck. Hit up the online hours system, and discover the boss hasn't bothered to approve the last two weeks' hours. We're a week ahead, so of course payroll paid out the one approved week, but didn't write a check for the other half of the pay period. Can't get a response out of any of the local management via email. Just about to lose my temper here, needed to vent. I came back into the corporate world to get -away- from being shorted on my checks, damnit! 
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Nov 3, 2014 19:22
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Well you're in IT, so you're non-exempt. The pro of that is you almost never have to work overtime because your department doesn't want to pay time and a half unless it's drat important (ie: no mandatory team building after 5pm ). The con is that you still have to fill out a loving time sheet and some shmuck has to approve it.  As much as I miss being able to decline off-hours meetings by pulling the overtime card, I enjoy not having to worry about time sheet shenanigans more.
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Nov 3, 2014 20:56
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Nocheez posted:I've started talking with a friend of mine about working for his company. It's a small outfit of only 5 employees and I'd take a pay cut, but it sounds like the stress level is much better there. They also pay for all of the employees' healthcare costs, which would help lessen the financial impact. But I will miss having a brand new company car so, so much. Being a BFC regular, I will never buy a brand new vehicle. Buy a thousand dollar Japanese car, fix it yourself, and stack up money until the "fixing it yourself" bit lures you into AI and you spend your entire salary on rusty Jeeps. Good luck, hope you get somewhere smaller. I'm looking at small places too, but the downside is that they tend to have one guy wearing so many hats that it's easy to fall through the cracks unless you harass him to the point of nearly telling you to gently caress off.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:11
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Liquid Communism posted:Can't get a response out of any of the local management via email. Just about to lose my temper here, needed to vent. I came back into the corporate world to get -away- from being shorted on my checks, damnit! On the plus side, in IT the odds are good that your manager will be embarrassed about it. HR sure will be.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:19
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Sydin posted:Well you're in IT, so you're non-exempt. He's actually not depending on how much he makes
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Nov 3, 2014 21:19
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mllaneza posted:On the plus side, in IT the odds are good that your manager will be embarrassed about it. HR sure will be. My manager's going to be -seriously- embarrassed about it if he doesn't get back to me today because I'll be on the phone with HR in the morning. I emailed him and his backup first thing Friday since we're supposed to go through our direct supervisors first on payroll issues. I'm non-exempt, running fiber pays well but not -that- well. Thankfully, since I work 10's and have been averaging 40hrs of OT a month lately. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Nov 3, 2014 |
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Nov 3, 2014 21:28
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Necc0 posted:He's actually not depending on how much he makes Oh, never knew that. I never made that much money when I was in IT.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:40
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Sydin posted:As much as I miss being able to decline off-hours meetings by pulling the overtime card, I enjoy not having to worry about time sheet shenanigans more. I was a software developer for a place that made all their salaried employees punch a clock. I was also written up (as in, written reprimand, goes into my employee file, too many of those and you're fired automatically) for punching in at exactly 8:00 one day. Because that meant I was at my desk at 8:01, and my  posted schedule (again, salaried, production-oriented position here, not some customer-facing desk or phone that needs to be manned 100% of the time) had me down for 8:00.What I'm saying is, salaried/exempt means nothing if you work for a sociopath who doesn't know how or care to evaluate someone's actual work. Count your blessings.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:49
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Buy a thousand dollar Japanese car, fix it yourself, and stack up money until the "fixing it yourself" bit lures you into AI and you spend your entire salary on rusty Jeeps. Thanks. The car thing I'm already good on, I have a beater '99 Miata and lots of knowledge about fixing cars. It's just nice to hop into a modern car with a corporate gas/maintenance card.
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Nov 3, 2014 22:02
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