Month: August 2023

I worked for a pest control company in Texas and I was basically fired over an emoji. Long story short, we were asked repeatedly by office personnel to respond with an emoji when we got a message from them on Slack, our company app for communication. As if we don't have bigger fish to fry, the technicians were responding as one would expect, in a condescending way. One tech told everyone to pick an emoji so the office knew had gotten their messages according to the emojis. Well I picked the clown face and someone else picked the middle finger and so forth and so on. Well needless to say, I responded to a message with a clown emoji and got fired. The laws for at will states suck by the way. Doubt there is anything I can do about it. Well here lies the question at hand. I was…

I’ve been unemployed for a while and looking for a new job. I still work retail/restaurant type of jobs but I need something with no or very minimal direct customer service. Recently I applied for a position to go bake donuts at a Dunkin in the early morning. I get to the “interview” and when asked about my availability I started talking about which mornings I couldn’t work and the lady starts looking at me confused. She says they’re only looking for mid or closing shift team members (workin drive thru, cashiering). I said I applied for an early morning position and she just mutters something about having to take that down. I say I’m not interested anymore and go on my way. Today I had another interview at a department store for a positions that was described as merchandising before the store opens. Again, I get there and when…

Only increase are the ones that the government mandates for minimum wage. So 7 years on and I am minimum wage earner. As my duties increased I requested pay increases. Lots of excuses that are not a “me” problem but a “they” problem with no pay increase. When I do go with why I deserve an increase they find OLD NEVER MENTIONED infractions to deny me. Owner and life partner are the ones I have to deal with. I am 7 months away from retiring and have 2 weeks vacation time I have requested to use but they can't commit to as it is busy season. I walk with a cane due to a degenerative disease, my spouse is disabled. Sick of not being paid what I am worth so I have scaled back on the amount of invoicing and the speed I did it at. I walk slower than…

This story (ongoing) is about my husband and his highly incompetent workplace. My husband has been at his place of work for fifteen years. He doesn't have a college degree, but he has learned on-the-job to be pretty excellent at it. He's also had side work in the same field at numerous other places, always with a stellar reputation. June '22, his boss resigns (aka pissed off the wrong person and was forced out). Hubs is promoted to “interim” manager. This comes with a nice pay raise (50%!) however, because it was only interim, they didn't fill his old role, planning to wait til they made the manager position official for someone. So for a year, he has done the work of two full-time people. A couple months ago, someone who retired in May sent out an email letting the team know what was going on with staffing. She probably…

I had a very promising career where I was being groomed for a leadership position and it vanished in an instant…I put up with so much crap, worked beyond my job description, put in extra hours, and volunteered for so many side projects over the years… Fast forward to earlier this year. A new Executive was brought in from another company. They fired, demoted, or pushed all the current managers and replaced them with the new Executive’s friends/former colleagues. Of the half dozen new leadership positions only 2 were actually posted (i.e. not handed out to friends). I applied and didn’t even get an interview! Today I found out at least 1, likely both of those roles are going to friends of the new managers who didn’t even apply for the position! Just goes to show that working hard, working late, putting in extra effort is completely pointless.

Title pretty much sums it up. Just graduated college, made many applications and only got one job offer so I essentially had no choice but to take it. The company I'm working for is known for overworking its employees and I'm just sad that this company will basically be my life for the next 2 or so years, or however long until the position looks good enough on my resume for me to jump ship. I really wish I could have more time to work on things I'm passionate about, especially right out of college where I still have a passion for life and some youthful exuberance. Alas.

​ https://preview.redd.it/rpmhfykiaefb1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a454d5a27fa90920f50c05d89b0a09163d2888b4 Musing on today's news of the passing of Paul Reubens, it occurred to me that Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was one of my earliest anti-capitalist lessons. No amount of money is worth sacrificing something you cherish. R.I.Pee-Wee