Month: May 2022

The company I work for has gone to absolute shit. They cut everyone’s commissions and bonuses in the past 2 months. The company is down 90% since Jan 1. Management totally restructured and many top performers have left the organization and the culture is horrible now. I am there for one reason, insurance and a check until I find something else. I’ve interviewed for 16 different roles in the past 2 months when all this change started. I turned down 3 now and the others didn’t select me. I’m pretty deep with a company that I think is a good fit and after next week I’ll have an answer. I’m banking on getting it, which probably isn’t the best strategy but here I am. I figure I’ll never see another bonus or commission check so why even try? I was well over 100% to goal every month until the beginning…

I often read on here about the ways people are ‘terminated’. In the UK it’s different…. 1) We say ‘let go’. The implication being we are gently released. You say Terminated as if you’ve been thrown into an industrial killing machine. 2) We aren’t ever immediately removed from site unless it’s a criminal issue such as theft. We work out our remaining time and have time to say goodbye to colleagues. We get a card, we have drinks etc. So many times I read in here about Americans getting told they are surplus to requirements and then kicked out there same day without getting to even say goodbye. 3) if a company does want to exclude an employee for commercial reasons (typically high powered sales jobs to protect client lists) the employee is out on Gardening Leave. This is paid leave sometimes up to one year where you are paid…

Immiseration is upon us, and anti-workers are absolutely married to pacifism, hippieism, electoralism, etc. There will eventually be revolution, but under social conditions that make Judge Dredd look optimistic. Because revolutions are violent as shit, and it's impossible to be violent when all you want is better pay, dank weed to smoke and Netflix. “The logic of the guillotine” is the loic of revbolu

I overslept for the first time. I was fired from my last job for being late too many times, so I'm trying to be on time for this job. I haven't been late yet in 4 months until today. I've never overslept before for a job, so I didn't know what to do. So I dilly-dallied around for a while panicking. Because to be honest I didn't want to go to work. My stepdad said I should go in so I called and said I would be in. Then in the parking lot I had another panic attack and couldn't get out. Eventually I forced myself out and went to work. I am a very suicidal person, it doesn't take much for me to want to kill myself. And I've gotten pretty close twice now. Today was one of those 2. Okay rant over. Sorry. I just had to vent.

Okay, folks, here’s a challenge: What should people know about being in the first level of management that you would NEVER admit to your direct reports? My example is allocating money for raises. I would get a dollar budget for the people in my department based on a percentage of wages. The problem is that annual raises were often about 1% above inflation. So, on average that’s what people got. If the budget was 5%, then if I gave a star employee 6%, I would have to give someone else 4% (assuming the same wage.) When inflation is low, the manager has to say something obviously stupid like “Hey, you’re doing a great job! Here’s a 2.3% raise.” “Hey, you’re doing okay, but you need to learn some aspects of the job. So, I could only give you a 1.4% raise.” In the meantime the local newspaper would report the…

An email I found at work today really brought home for me the accelerated change in working culture triggered by covid. I used to work in the office 5 days a week. There was no question of doing anything else. It was 2018 and my boss made me stay late on a day when it was minus temperatures, the roads were rapidly icing over. I remember driving home or rather sliding home realising: I am not safe. In the email in question I had emailed my work health and safety department asking if there were any risk assessments around winter driving and what were my rights to WFH if the weather was too bad. They literally replied: carry a winter survival kit in your car. Fast forward, in the same company we are now all hybrid workers trusted to choose our office and WFH days. If it was snowing or…

I’m back with an update. Here’s the original post for the curious. tl;dr: I was invited to interview for a role at the Pasadena Center Operating Company only to be ghosted by the HR rep. A week later, I learned they hired someone else, but didn't bother to cancel my interview. So, I emailed the HR rep expressing my disappointment and, later, the CEO and ED. /// Okay, it's been about 24 hours and I got a response from the HR rep and the ED. But before I share the exchange, I just wanna address two things that came up in my original post: Some folks said I was too polite in my email. I get it. Give respect, get respect, right? I am a brown skinned trans person and have a very non-white name. Racial bias during a job search is real and code switching is my way of…

I've seen a lot of posts over the year of people posting termination letters from their boss for engaging in legally protected practices (discussing wages, union talk etc.). Has anyone actually filed a suit? What happened?

Safeway is paying her $11.50 dollars per hour and can't even garuntee her basic safety. This man has harassed multiple employees who are children and they have done absolutely nothing. When she reported the incident of being followed into a bathroom and harassed, management told her to “take a picture of him next time”. Next time???