Month: March 2022

A very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence. That’s the exact definition after doing a search for those that didn’t know. We have them all over the place in America (other countries too I’m sure). We NEED to start calling them this immediately. When I hear oligarch I think of a leech. Elon Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg = Oligarch. Let’s make it happen.

I'm not sure if this is a regular or legal thing since this is my first job but it's the second time it's happened now and I'm wondering if the problem is really the workplace. A number of months ago, one of our coworkers just completely disappeared and didn't answer any of our manager's calls or us coworkers' calls. They did complain about working here but they're also the type to at least finish up hours they're scheduled to work to not burdern the rest of us general workers(it's a fast food place, and its beyond hectic if even one person doesnt come in without prior notice since theres not even barely enough workers to serve customers) so it was super weird that they didn't even notify us they werent coming back, which was why I was sure there was some emergency or something where they couldn't come in contact…

As i wrote this post i realized i wrote too much and my thoughts wandered a bit so this is a long post. I will add a tl;dr in the end. ​ I was always amazed by the work stories of US employees on this sub until i experienced one. I work for a company that has offices in most major city/financial hubs in the world. Offices that i have helped set up with my team(not all of them). Since 2018 i have travelled with my team in different large cities to help set up their systems and train new employees. Generally we would set up/train people for 2 months. Leave back to our home offices in Switzerland and return after a month or two to fix the smaller problems that remained for another month or two. Now in this company i have two roles, i work my main job…

He’s coughing and spluttering everywhere

Obligatory “this happened like 6-7 years ago” So I’m a bicycle mechanic and about 6-7 years ago I got a job at a non profit bike shop. I was somewhere between “experienced” and “still have a lot to learn” and had been working at a big box store for a few years and thoroughly jaded. I thought working at a non profit bike shop would be awesome and fulfilling and add extra purpose to my life. I was wrong. The “organization” (it was very looked down upon to call it a company) had/has very high turn over. It’s pretty much fueled by idealistic young bike mechanics who want to make a difference in the world, they get slapped into the machine like a cog, wear out in a few years, and then they jump ship to realize working in a more normal “for profit” bike shop is actually less demanding…

First off, I'm on board the anti work train. But I've got some gripes with some of what gets seriously pushed here. I'm a boss. Think mid level. I do my own hiring, firing, pay raises, etc. I try very hard to treat my employees well. Won't ask them to do work I'm not willing to do, and I often take the crap work specifically so they know it.  Recently, my worst employee, a kid on the verge of being fired, went on an anti-work rant. He referenced the sub and all that. He literally told me, his boss, “I don't need to be the best employee. I don't even need to be a good employee. I just need to be slightly better than the worst employee so I don't get fired.” Holy. Hell. I tried not to stare. I know I'm a friendly boss and that I try to…