Stuff. Not good. Not bad. Just...stuff.

[Craig H]

I have stuff. It's pretty fucking bad and not good. My role with my company is being eliminated. I never thought it would happen for numerous reasons that I don't feel like getting into here. And today I've talked to one project manager after another who were also impacted. It just gets worse and worse. I love this company. I love the people I work with. I was looking forward to 20 years here coming up in June. And now it's all over as of 9/22 unless I find another role within the company. 

Very angry. Very fucking angry. And depressed. Scared. And so on. I've always had this impostor syndrome where I feel like I'm just skating by and no one has noticed that I'm not as good at my job as my performance would indicate. Some of that has to do when friends or family ask what I do here and it's like, uh, I do everything? I can't say I do any one thing. I manage relationships with outside agencies that write insurance on our paper, I'm responsible for delivering newsletters to many of our channels (service call centers, sales call centers, local sales offices, contracted employees, etc.), I handle graphic design, copy writing, copy editing, project management, and on and on and on. It makes me scared to even think about updating my resume because I haven't done that in forever and I don't even know what I would say.

And I'm beyond angry for the people I know of being let go. Some of them were just brought onto our team. Let them go back to handling claims. Don't make this role a trap for them when you promoted it as job security.

As I hear from more and more people affected, it's like HR just pulled names out of a hat. These are some of the most intelligent, driven, experienced, and non-problematic people I know of. It's not a tenure or money thing either for why we've all been selected. It would make sense if it were - sure, ok, you get rid of the highest tenured people making the most money and factor in poor job performance.

I just know that I'm going to want to strangle that fucking emu any time I see one of our commercials.

[driver]

Sorry Craig.

[Curt McGirt]

Goodwill is now jerking me around for FMLA paperwork. GOODWILL. The person in HR is trying to work with me but it's clear that she is under pressure by now. If the head of the place wants a photo of the 7" scar I got from being drunk, falling against my bed and dislocating my arm and breaking my humerus bone, thus meaning surgery where they installed a steel plate with ten screws, he can have it. So Craig, I feel your pain. 

EDIT: I was working at Ruler Foods when that happened. It's an Aldi-type grocery store. They didn't ask for anything. Nothing. I was out for six months. And Goodwill is... Goodwill. Supposedly. I also lost the two main managers there right after I went on leave so I have no rabbi (to use a Wire term) out there. I don't want to walk out on another job though, and one that was real good for the most part. 

Edited July 13, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[Dolfan in NYC]

There's been a serial killer on the loose on Long Island for over 25 years now.  The m.o. was hire a prostitute via Craigslist, use her services, kill her, and dump her body on the dunes of a stretch of beach on LI's south shore that's uninhabited.  He'd been doing it off and on for a couple of decades but seemed to stop after Hurricane Sandy, leading some to believe he'd been killed in the storm. 

However, the police made an arrest this morning.   It appears they got him.

 

[Zimbra]

22 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Goodwill is now jerking me around for FMLA paperwork. GOODWILL. The person in HR is trying to work with me but it's clear that she is under pressure by now. If the head of the place wants a photo of the 7" scar I got from being drunk, falling against my bed and dislocating my arm and breaking my humerus bone, thus meaning surgery where they installed a steel plate with ten screws, he can have it. So Craig, I feel your pain. 

EDIT: I was working at Ruler Foods when that happened. It's an Aldi-type grocery store. They didn't ask for anything. Nothing. I was out for six months. And Goodwill is... Goodwill. Supposedly. I also lost the two main managers there right after I went on leave so I have no rabbi (to use a Wire term) out there. I don't want to walk out on another job though, and one that was real good for the most part. 

I have heard so many horror stories of how Goodwill treats their employees that I feel hinky shopping there anymore.  I'll make the extra drive to St Vinny's.

I appreciate you and your posts.  I'm sorry you're going through all this, dawg, and that everyone seems to be getting in the way of you trying to get help.  Keep putting one foot in front of the other and know that you have some internet weirdos rooting for you.

[Curt McGirt]

Aside from the two managers who got fed up, I also had another person with an undisclosed illness leave on my watch, and another serious elderly drunk who was also a former crackhead and homeless person go on leave and vanish into the wilderness. Earlier today I filled out two more sheets of paperwork at my hospital allowing them my private medical records. I called them up and they said they didn't need them, they just needed my doctor's signature. Which was supposed to have been already filled and sent out to them. I called them back and HR asked for the number of the hospital and name of the doctor and I haven't gotten a reply back. The sheets were supposed to have been faxed to them AGAIN with the extras allowing the records to be reviewed. I've done my due diligence. If they can't look at my records (injuries, hospitalizations) and believe me, they can fuck the fuck off. And guess what else? I called the rehab facility and they said I wasn't on the waiting list and also needed a doctor's signature.

Thank you Zimbra, and anyone (everyone) else, with all my heart. 

Edited July 14, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[Curt McGirt]

I'm also convinced that despite how polite and patient the HR lady is with me, HR is the IAD of the business. They are there to snoop, examine, and punish. 

[Curt McGirt]

HA! And now the hospital said they are going to "review my case" according to HR. So I'm skewered from both sides. HR lady is nice as ever and patient as ever but this is fucking insane. 

[driver]

FFS, Curt. I hope it gets sorted out soon.

[The Natural]

Sorry, Craig. Best wishes xxx.

Sorry, Curt. Best wishes xxx.

[The Natural]

8 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

There's been a serial killer on the loose on Long Island for over 25 years now.  The m.o. was hire a prostitute via Craigslist, use her services, kill her, and dump her body on the dunes of a stretch of beach on LI's south shore that's uninhabited.  He'd been doing it off and on for a couple of decades but seemed to stop after Hurricane Sandy, leading some to believe he'd been killed in the storm. 

However, the police made an arrest this morning.   It appears they got him.

 

This reminds me of two cases where I'm from. The first was the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer long before I was born. My Dad would walk my Mum home. The second, the Crossbow Cannibal who went to the University I went to, shared a class. Both with the same MO.

[JLSigman]

16 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

I'm also convinced that despite how polite and patient the HR lady is with me, HR is the IAD of the business. They are there to snoop, examine, and punish. 

HR is absolutely on the side of the business, and never the employees.

Good luck!

[Cobra Commander]

Huge day for the redundancy of my phone apps as the Audacy radio stations return to TuneIn (a deal announced weeks ago that I was unaware of until today's app update).. this comes about 5 years after Audacy/Entercom/Radio.com left TuneIn to launch their own app

Right now I have TuneIn, Audacy, iHeart, and RadioGarden where there's a station or two on one app that isn't on another and so on. TuneIn kinda sucks for any commercial stations these days and the non-commercial stations which they don't insert ads over are the ones on a bunch of other apps. Also they obliterated their directory for a worse idea and if you wanna find anything you gotta search for it instead of just looking at "radio stations in (x) area and pressing your luck".

My main draw to the Audacy app is the ROQ of the 80s HD2 station because listening to 80s alternative music for 8 hours on a Friday Night just makes sense. My main draws to the iHeart app are either passing some time with the American Top 40 station or an RNB station in this area that isn't on any other app. RadioGarden's app has a neat map you can go around looking for anything worthwhile.

Sometimes you don't wanna put in the work of throwing yourself into a Spotify algorithm after listening to some album and you wanna hear about somebody working on a freeform radio station brought into the studio this week.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

I had an interview with an insurer (....the one the Jets stadium is named after). Got offered the job, so I took my 13 weeks paternity leave early, thinking I'd collect two pay cheques at once. Contract took forever to arrive.

We'd discussed salary, I was pretty happy with the bump. Saw the contract, they'd calculated it as being 65 hours of minimum wage a fortnight and an additional 40 hours of overtime a fortnight on top. I mean, I was probably going to do 2.5 hrs a day overtime in the role, but didn't like that it was contractually stipulated, could be used for constructive dismissal, and could fuck with my salary if they decided the overtime was no longer warranted.

So I took paternity leave early for no reason, and we're really struggling to find a day care centre for when my wife goes back to work in two months. Most are either more interested in shaming us for going back to work too early (bills gotta be paid fucko), or just have no capacity. Found one that's just been built, spared no expense on the build, new centre, and it's in the shittiest part of town, and I just get the worst vibes when they keep trying to sell me on how there's a full time barista in the centre, feel as though they've overleveraged and are going to cut corners as a result.

Hoping like hell one of the other centres get back to me soon.

[writeradam84]

Been feeling awful since Friday night with cough, congestion, feeling warm and clammy despite not running a temperature, and just general tiredness. Decided to take an at-home Covid test this morning and … well … positive for Covid!

To make matters even more fun, my 3-year-old daughter was sick with some viral stomach bug this time last week, which spread to me and my wife Wednesday night/Thursday morning now has spread to my five-year-old who got sick overnight and now has a cough as well and had a fever of 99.5 this afternoon. And now my wife is starting to get the same symptoms I’ve been having. So yeah, fun times in the house right now!

[Octopus]

Car was stolen in the middle of the night or very early this morning. Juggled phone calls between insurance and police, getting my son picked up by my dad for a fun day at nana and grandpa’s, and updating my wife with texts. Money issues so I still go to work until hopefully the car turns up or I get more phone calls. Bastards gets caught. Turned out after the stole my car and derped around, they ran to Walgreens to steal a ton of Benadryl type stuff and other random goodies then ran to Target where they got caught. After some time the car is available to check out at the police station. Back driver side window was smashed and the ignition is ripped to shit, the whole panel under the wheel was out. Everything that was in the glove compartment was just thrown around. Luckily my prescription sunglasses and tripod was still there. But they jacked the baby seat and the stroller or even just tossed them. Those things are expensive. 
Insurance should cover a bit of it but it’ll be classic insurance moves, likely. We’ll have to figure out some logistics and figure things out for a bit.

Luckily my brother said I can borrow his car for a bit (he has a scooter and is a teacher with summer off outside of some tutoring gigs). So hopefully the repair/ insurance looking things over doesn’t take too long. KIA’s are easy to steal now and some of the parts are annoying to get. But I’m taking it to a Kia dealer so hopefully they get parts first. Might be a bit though. 

Could be worse but fucking sucks. Luckily they didn’t do that while my wife was going to work and no one got hurt. I had a customer I really liked a few years ago that was carjacked and shot in the head. It’s crazy out there. 

[The Natural]

39 minutes ago, Octopus said:

Car was stolen in the middle of the night or very early this morning. Juggled phone calls between insurance and police, getting my son picked up by my dad for a fun day at nana and grandpa’s, and updating my wife with texts. Money issues so I still go to work until hopefully the car turns up or I get more phone calls. Bastards gets caught. Turned out after the stole my car and derped around, they ran to Walgreens to steal a ton of Benadryl type stuff and other random goodies then ran to Target where they got caught. After some time the car is available to check out at the police station. Back driver side window was smashed and the ignition is ripped to shit, the whole panel under the wheel was out. Everything that was in the glove compartment was just thrown around. Luckily my prescription sunglasses and tripod was still there. But they jacked the baby seat and the stroller or even just tossed them. Those things are expensive. 
Insurance should cover a bit of it but it’ll be classic insurance moves, likely. We’ll have to figure out some logistics and figure things out for a bit.

Luckily my brother said I can borrow his car for a bit (he has a scooter and is a teacher with summer off outside of some tutoring gigs). So hopefully the repair/ insurance looking things over doesn’t take too long. KIA’s are easy to steal now and some of the parts are annoying to get. But I’m taking it to a Kia dealer so hopefully they get parts first. Might be a bit though. 

Could be worse but fucking sucks. Luckily they didn’t do that while my wife was going to work and no one got hurt. I had a customer I really liked a few years ago that was carjacked and shot in the head. It’s crazy out there. 

Really sorry to read this, David. Love to you and your family, my friend. Paul xxx.

[Mike Campbell]

I was working on my review of the 3/19 NOAH show using my laptop when my kiddo needed to use it for a Zoom meeting. I saved my file and picked up where I left off using my wife's. Well, her version of Word started making some curious choices as to what words it alerted me were misspelled. I don't mean words like "brainbuster" or "Kenoh" but rather "would" "stretch" and "routine." I asked why her University provided copy of Microsoft Word was apparently really stupid about misspellings and she started poking around in the settings. Somehow or another, the default proofreading language was changed to Spanish.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

Today marked me reaching a thousand days on Duolingo.

Je ne parle peut-être pas très bien le français, mais je fais de mon mieux.

[Zimbra]

Last night when we were getting ready for bed one of our 17 year old cats decided to try to jump from the bed to the dresser.  He biffed it, and as he fell he got his foot caught in a drawer that was slightly open so he was hanging from his stuck ankle yowling his head off.  Thankfully we were right there and I could grab him quickly.

He seems OK this morning; he's limping but he's putting weight on it and has been eating and using the litterbox.  Poor guy already has arthritis and it was his 'good' back leg that he hurt.  He's going in to the vet for a once over this afternoon.

I'm glad he's alright but jesus tapdancing christ it was terrifying to see happen.  

[Log]

I think, at least once a day, I look at our cat and say, "What the fuck are you even trying to do?"

[Zimbra]

Same.  This was very out of character for Simon who doesn't usually try anything more difficult than jumping up onto my wife's recliner.  Guess the new arthritis meds are helping, at least.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

On 7/30/2023 at 7:11 PM, Sparkleface said:

Today marked me reaching a thousand days on Duolingo.

Je ne parle peut-être pas très bien le français, mais je fais de mon mieux.

On peut pas les sentir
Dans le monde ils sont les pires
On aime les faire fâcher quand on dit
We love the USA
Hey

[The Natural]

Please keep to here only. We fostered a dog on Tuesday and the fucker attacked Offy today. Thankfully Offy is ok. My Dad and Sister have puncture wounds to their hands. I couldn't get into the room to help. We're all shaken up. Could have been so much worse. The dog's been taken away and put down. When I saw the size and breed of, I wasn't comfortable with having it. It's the first time we've ever had a biting dog. This day has fucking sucked.

[Control]

On 7/27/2023 at 4:17 PM, Mike Campbell said:

I was working on my review of the 3/19 NOAH show using my laptop when my kiddo needed to use it for a Zoom meeting. I saved my file and picked up where I left off using my wife's. Well, her version of Word started making some curious choices as to what words it alerted me were misspelled. I don't mean words like "brainbuster" or "Kenoh" but rather "would" "stretch" and "routine." I asked why her University provided copy of Microsoft Word was apparently really stupid about misspellings and she started poking around in the settings. Somehow or another, the default proofreading language was changed to Spanish.

Sometimes when I copy and paste from another document, the default language changes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯