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Xibanya posted:Do you make less than $53k? You can get your taxes done free on the internet. It's what I do because I'm a filthy poor. it's Australia and I have multiple years worth to do so I cant do it online without locking myself out of the several hundreds of dollars my boss's laziness has cost me
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Jan 6, 2015 01:30
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necrobobsledder posted:Maybe I should have clarified it as budget, not capital. The way people spend their capital is closer to how home budgets spend their money than how corporations spent back in even the 90s, which makes it super conservative considering we've been technically out of recession for years. What is the difference?
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Jan 6, 2015 02:17
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Pidmon posted:You guys get Christmas bonuses? I get a lazy gently caress of a boss who puts through multiple weeks worth of pay as a single week therefore I get taxed more and therefore I actually get LESS money than I would had I been paid at my ususal weekly pay! Due to circumstances out of my control my year-end bonus evaporated away from being projected at 25% of my salary two months ago to a $10 amazon gift card consolation prize.
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Jan 6, 2015 05:01
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Bo...nus? Is this some kind of newfangled term?
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Jan 6, 2015 05:21
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MickeyFinn posted:What is the difference? Capital is the total realizable funds to the entire entity / corporation that isn't necessarily liquid while budget is what you can spend from it and that's sometimes defined by the nature of the capital sources. If you're a startup and raised $4M but the money comes out in monthly chunks you don't have $4M now to spend, right? I might have a billion dollars in the bank, but if I allocate only half of it for internal capex and opex total with the rest to just reinvest into some random external fund or something, you have good capital but low budget. The capital comes from who the hell knows where and is rather hand wavey in many respects, but your budget is always a subset of it. For personal finance analogies it's somewhat similar to how much access to credit and gross income you have is not exactly what you put into your budget... We would have a peculiar situation if our credit card rates were something like 7% and your boss at work pays you partly based upon how steadily you're getting points on your different reward cards.
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Jan 6, 2015 05:58
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Employee survey results are in and a stunning seventy-something percent of employees said upper management has very poor communication skills. The solution, of course, was to hire a consultant. The consultant proceeded to rotate us all through a seminar on how to be better listeners, and also how to build the best card houses by thinking outside the box. Problem solved and money well spent.
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Jan 6, 2015 07:10
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Hugbot posted:Employee survey results are in and a stunning seventy-something percent of employees said upper management has very poor communication skills. "The fact that you are unhappy is entirely your fault and you should be grateful for the opportunity to learn." On New years day my direct manager returned to India and there is no replacement on the horizon. The team of three that remains at the client site is without leadership, this in a culture where you are expected to only work on what your manager gives you. Still on sick leave and not getting better soon. edit: Also found this on the internet: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/horrible-hr-policies-nuke-2015-liz-ryan We score 100% Keetron fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 09:47
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Keetron posted:
Yep. Not quite a 100% since there are a few N/A's, but pretty close. We aren't allowed to use any frequent flyer programs at all for business travel, and our Employee Discipline SOP is restricted-access, only available to Salary Tier 30+ People Managers. I'm only a 26, so I don't get to read it and thus have no idea what's in it. Those are the only two exceptions to the 100% answer.
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Jan 6, 2015 16:02
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Keetron posted:edit: They were all (somewhat) believable until that last one. Keystroke tracking? Wtf.
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Jan 6, 2015 16:59
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Stolennosferatu posted:They were all (somewhat) believable until that last one. Keystroke tracking? Wtf. That's a thing. Seriously. http://www.wellnomics.com/wrm/m1/computer-use/ My previous company used WorkPace and tracked how much you typed, moved your mouse, and clicked mouse buttons. They used it for ergo purposes, but I've heard of companies using it to determine whether you were working or not, because it also tracks what programs you typed the most keys into. 30,000 keystrokes on Mozilla Firefox? Sounds like someone's on SomethingAwful posting poo poo about his job!  The real impact of the software was that any time you had just settled into a groove and were really cranking out a tough part of a paper, it'd freeze your computer and make you stand up and do exercises. You'd then swear profusely at the screen and lose your momentum, then bury your sorrow in cat videos until lunch time. Sundae fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 17:02
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I work harder because my boss doesn't get on my rear end about being late (the whole 1-2 times per year it happens) and respects me enough to leave me alone provided my job is getting done. Micromanaging only seems to encourage people to do the minimum not to get hassled. 
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Jan 6, 2015 17:04
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We received modest Christmas bonuses, which was nice, but we're not allowed to decorate in the office. It looks really weird walking around the complex. All of the offices except ours have something out for the holidays, even if it's generic winter end of year non-denominational celebration stuff. Building management gave all of the tenants a lush, healthy poinsettia plant for the holidays, but the president made me put it outside because he hates Christmas. Literally, he called Christmas a disaster because that means he's forced to give us time off. He skips work frequently, sometimes for days or weeks at a time during Diwali, to go to the big local Hindu temple for pujas and donates thousands of dollars out of the company bank account. He brags about how many religious statues he's donated and then in the next breath complains about how much coffee we're drinking and that it's too expensive. Yeah it's a privately owned company and he's the owner; he can do whatever he wants and not come in whenever he wants. He's not actively blocking anyone from celebrating whatever, but his attitude about it is really childish.
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Jan 6, 2015 17:09
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Ahahahah penny pinching (Indian) bosses. I had one a few years back that would squeeze a quarter until George passed out.
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Jan 6, 2015 17:32
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Hugbot posted:Employee survey results are in and a stunning seventy-something percent of employees said upper management has very poor communication skills. Every employee survey where I work, included the one I was one that reported in person directly to the board (I was on vacation and was volentold to the job) say we have lovely communication and most of it is through gossip. Nothing has changed. Xibanya posted:Do you make less than $53k? You can get your taxes done free on the internet. It's what I do because I'm a filthy poor. Keetron posted:
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Jan 6, 2015 18:29
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How does the IRS tool compare to the ease of use of say, TurboTax?
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Jan 6, 2015 18:55
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Radio Talmudist posted:How does the IRS tool compare to the ease of use of say, TurboTax? One of the free file options the IRS links to is Turbo Tax.
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Jan 6, 2015 19:26
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Radio Talmudist posted:How does the IRS tool compare to the ease of use of say, TurboTax? You have several you can choose from - private tax software given subsidies to help poors. I use it every year and it's just as easy. (Lol I used to walk our clients thru Turbotax so I actually know it quite well.)
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Jan 6, 2015 19:45
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In the middle of a 90 minute "presentation" where the managers of each department present their employees' ideas to meet some insane and arbitrary goal senior management decided we should do but didn't actually provide any guidance for. e: We have to target an entirely new segment of clients to meet these goals but our primary focus needs to be customer retention! Pleads fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 16:52
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Pleads posted:In the middle of a 90 minute "presentation" where the managers of each department present their employees' ideas to meet some insane and arbitrary goal senior management decided we should do but didn't actually provide any guidance for. We need to make a single product and sell it to many different customers but also customize that product for each individual customer.
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Jan 7, 2015 17:16
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Sundae posted:Failed Project of the Year: The KEEP IT SIMPLE & SUSTAINABLE (KISS) Box: They've replaced the iPad. It's still not bolted down, but at least the whole thing isn't out of order. Image Removed. I got a really dirty look from the site quality lead when I asked if I could sell my share of ownership. Edit: I figured my stories were getting pretty preposterous, so I might as well start including photographic evidence when possible. 
Sundae fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Apr 5, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 19:36
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We have contracts which specify what we are being paid to do. They are usually one to two pages long and I make a habit of either printing them out or downloading them onto my phone for reference while I'm out on that contract. These contracts are written in plain English, not legalese (eg - "Put out [supplies] at [location] by the evening prior to the event"). Several times in the past, members of another section have been about to violate these contracts (usually through ignorance). When I have tried to tell them, "Please don't do that, we have a contract with [department] about that," I've been told that the only way they'll stop is if word comes down from their boss or a senior staffer. I just got out of a meeting with a senior staffer, my boss' boss. I explained my problem to him. I made sure he knew we were being paid for these things. I told him that these people wouldn't listen, even when I pulled the contract out and showed it to them. His response was, "You can't expect them to read every contract." I said that, yes, I understood, but I was showing it to them there in black and white. Nope, gotta go through channels. I have accepted that the pay raise I received last year (3%) was the first in six years and will probably be the last for another two or three. I have accepted my promotion being stopped by a hiring freeze. I have accepted that my co-supervisor's replacement, which would have given me another supervisor and thus take a day off here or there without worry, was stymied by the same hiring freeze. But this? This made me feel like they just flat don't trust me. Am I wrong here? I feel like I must have some sort of weird hangup, because I'm one of the few here who apparently believes that if I can show you the contract which details exactly what should be done, that ought to be the end of it.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:16
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"One Dream. One Team." really is an incredible slogan. It somehow manages to be that perfect blend of buzzword salad that means nothing, and painfully obvious insincere design by committee bullshit. Yet you just know senior management thinks it's just the most inspiring thing to the peons.Sundae posted:WE ARE ALL OWNERS OF OUR BUSINESS. Shine on, you crazy bastard.  Edit: ItalicSquirrels posted:Contract stuff.  The manager's reaction sounds less like mistrust and more like apathy on his part towards the contracts being completed to the letter. I don't know the full situation from what you posted, but it may very well be that he doesn't care if people are violating the contracts, if at the end of the day everything's completed work-wise. Having said that:ItalicSquirrels posted:His response was, "You can't expect them to read every contract."  My old boss got this once from a University IT senior manager once more or less verbatim. We technically worked for one of the Uni's child companies and not the Uni itself, so because of weird regulations we had to contract out UIT to lay some wiring even though we were more than capable of doing it ourselves. They botched over half the jobs in one way or another, and when my boss went to complain he got fed the same "you can't expect the techs to read every contract line for line" BS. My boss's response was "Uh... yes I can? That's kind of your job."
Sydin fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 20:20
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Sydin posted:In my experience working with contractors, your situation isn't that uncommon. I must have misspoke. These aren't contractors. They're FTEs, some of whom I've known for over a decade. And this isn't contracts being completed to the letter. This is that we might end up billing thousands of dollars to visitors that we legally shouldn't be, which creates a massive PR problem that usually drops on me because I'm a field supervisor and thus the most visible target. Sydin posted:My boss's response was "Uh... yes I can? That's kind of your job." I really wish I had your boss. Mine will have my back in a private meeting and talk about how I'm right, but as soon as his boss steps in he does a complete 180 and tells me his boss is right. It's getting to the point where if I keep trusting him to have my back, Vaas is going to step out of the woodwork and ask if I know what the definition of insanity is.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:54
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ItalicSquirrels posted:I must have misspoke. These aren't contractors. They're FTEs, some of whom I've known for over a decade. And this isn't contracts being completed to the letter. This is that we might end up billing thousands of dollars to visitors that we legally shouldn't be, which creates a massive PR problem that usually drops on me because I'm a field supervisor and thus the most visible target. Explain to them that the client won't pay for the work beyond the contract, that generally solves the issue.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:58
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ItalicSquirrels posted:His response was, "You can't expect them to read every contract."  quote:But this? This made me feel like they just flat don't trust me. ItalicSquirrels posted:This is that we might end up billing thousands of dollars to visitors that we legally shouldn't be, which creates a massive PR problem that usually drops on me because I'm a field supervisor and thus the most visible target. 
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Jan 7, 2015 20:58
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ItalicSquirrels posted:I must have misspoke. These aren't contractors. They're FTEs, some of whom I've known for over a decade. And this isn't contracts being completed to the letter. This is that we might end up billing thousands of dollars to visitors that we legally shouldn't be, which creates a massive PR problem that usually drops on me because I'm a field supervisor and thus the most visible target. Oh, so it's straight up incompetence and that you having a slimy, spineless manager. Sounds like fun.  Also if you're field supervisor, doesn't that mean you have the authority to go up to people doing work outside the contract parameters and say "stop doing x, I need you to go do y" or something similar? Sydin fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 21:04
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Sydin posted:Oh, so it's straight up incompetence and that you having a slimy, spineless manager. Sounds like fun. This sounds like one of those cases where he is responsible but has no authority. It is the perfect combination engineered by feckless management superiors to avoid blame.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:13
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MickeyFinn posted:This sounds like one of those cases where he is responsible but has no authority. Bingo. Contract has to be fulfilled, but I'd better not correct anyone outside my immediate subordinates. I've been yelled at for waking a guy up and asking him to please not sleep in a work truck while on the clock and in full public view, because he wasn't my employee.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:22
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Hugbot posted:Employee survey results are in and a stunning seventy-something percent of employees said upper management has very poor communication skills. I love those seminars. My favorite part is how each seminar has some sort of GOTCHA in the instructions and multiple steps to the process, so once you overcome the gotcha everyone can be amazed at how you've suddenly improved your communication skills.
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Jan 8, 2015 00:12
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ItalicSquirrels posted:I have accepted that the pay raise I received last year (3%) was the first in six years and will probably be the last for another two or three. I have accepted my promotion being stopped by a hiring freeze. I have accepted that my co-supervisor's replacement, which would have given me another supervisor and thus take a day off here or there without worry, was stymied by the same hiring freeze. But this? This made me feel like they just flat don't trust me. If you're not getting COL raises, you're effectively getting pay cuts. Inflation was about 10% between 2008 and 2014. You're making near 90% of what you were hired for, and you have the benefit of more than half a decade of experience. If there's no light at the end of the tunnel, you should probably  and find someplace that will treat you better, personal situation permitting.
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Jan 8, 2015 04:38
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CCKeane posted:I love those seminars. My favorite part is how each seminar has some sort of GOTCHA in the instructions and multiple steps to the process, so once you overcome the gotcha everyone can be amazed at how you've suddenly improved your communication skills. The gotcha in the card house one is the discreetly placed scotch tape dispenser. I didn't really mind the seminar. Nobody learned anything but it wasn't any worse than any other meeting. What got me was the pure, childish defensiveness from management. Somebody else said that literally every office survey will come back with "lovely communication" but I haven't worked enough corporate jobs to know. At my current place, there is actually really good communication between everyone who is not upper management. The problems come from upper management not communicating with each other, and sometimes giving contradictory directives to underlings without communicating to everyone all at once. It grinds efficiency to a halt and has caused more than a couple massively expensive fuckups. This was why those surveys came back the way they did, and the response was, "the problem isn't us, it's you. Go build a card house and learn how to listen."
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Jan 8, 2015 05:34
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sbaldrick posted:... we have lovely communication and most of it is through gossip I've curried a lot of favor by having dirt on everyone else. Gotta play the game, son.
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Jan 8, 2015 05:37
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all this talk about communication seminars makes me angry again about our sexual harassment training, which was 10% yo don't harass people and 90% how to talk to harassers so their fee fees don't get hurt. the activity was writing a script of what to say to the offenders in various scenarios. Because clearly the important part of this is communicating in the most milquetoast way possible
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Jan 8, 2015 05:44
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Hugbot posted:I've curried a lot of favor by having dirt on everyone else. Gotta play the game, son. If there's one thing I've learned from this job, it's that the trick is to never tell anyone the dirt, but just hint at it opaquely. Only trade information for information.
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Jan 8, 2015 05:44
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Our meeting to discuss employee engagement survey results began with management taking all hard topics off the table saying senior management was looking into them (this included poor pay, inflexible work hours and ironically lack of communication with senior management). This left us to discuss things like wasted time on tasks and career advancement.
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Jan 8, 2015 17:36
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I brought one of these into the office this week: http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Gift-Box-Of-Laughter/dp/B00E1P0ER4 I took our labeler and printed "The Deadline Box" on the lid. Next time I get someone asking me for an impossible timeline, my response is going to be "Let me check my big box of deadlines" and open it to let it laugh at the request. It's either going to get me fired or morph into some strange Office Space-esque epiphany on corporate culture. We'll see.
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Jan 8, 2015 17:47
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Sundae posted:I brought one of these into the office this week: http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Gift-Box-Of-Laughter/dp/B00E1P0ER4 Ah, a win-win situation!
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Jan 8, 2015 21:19
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sbaldrick posted:So due to the US household average income everyone in the US can do their taxes online for free. Seems fair. Other countries manage it. If you're in the UK and you're a salaried employee instead of self-employed or whatever, there are no tax forms to file and no refund/money to pay at the end of the tax year. HMRC calculate it for you automatically. 
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Jan 8, 2015 21:22
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Hugbot posted:I've curried a lot of favor by having dirt on everyone else. Gotta play the game, son. Sadly it's never that kind of gossip, not that anyone here would care as we are currently 82% men. Our gossip is "did you hear about the layoffs in x department or about the stupid cell phone plan" I have to tell everyone about our stupid cell phone plan that has never been officially announced, but everyone knows about to the point they had to send out an email saying it was put on hold. The plan is to give everyone cell phones to replace our desk phones, which would be fine but for the fact we have no cell reception in 90% of the buildings. Everyone hopes the project has been put on hold because the executives have finally listened to the IT people about needing repeaters, but that's unlikely.
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Jan 8, 2015 21:32
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feedmegin posted:Other countries manage it. If you're in the UK and you're a salaried employee instead of self-employed or whatever, there are no tax forms to file and no refund/money to pay at the end of the tax year. HMRC calculate it for you automatically. You can do this for California State taxes, but it keep getting help up by lobbying from the tax preparation industry, and Grover Norquist/American for Tax Reform. See, if you make paying taxes too easy, people won't hate them as much.
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