Month: November 2023

Fellow members of the workforce, Have you ever felt like your job title was decided by throwing technical jargon at a dartboard? In my 15+ years in the workforce, primarily in IT, I've seen the titles for essentially the same roles evolve from straightforward to downright grandiose. 'Tech Support' becomes 'System Engineer', 'Network Admin' turns into 'Network Engineer' – and somehow, we're all supposed to navigate these changes seamlessly. It's becoming a theater of the absurd. We're parading around with inflated titles that could require a decoder to translate back to their original, simpler meanings. Yet, we do not necessarily acquire new skills with these new titles, just a fancier badge to wear on our resumes. The confusion doesn't end there. Recruiters seem to be playing a matching game, where the pieces don't always fit. They tell us we're perfect for roles that even they can't explain, leading to interviews…

Quick backstory, my company is going out of business and we have been told that layoffs are going to happen within the upcoming two months. They originally stated we were going to have work until December. Now, apparently I’m getting laid off next week on the beginning portion of it in the first wave of layoffs offs due to me being a recent hire(an entire year). The company obviously has favoritism because people are staying on who got hired after me. They have mentioned that it’s not personal, just business and I completely understand that part of it. Anyways, they’re asking me to come in on Monday in order to turn in my vehicle and equipment that they lended me. I have 20 hours of sick time that’s paid that I never used. I never called in sick once and now that I’m being laid off I am thinking of…

Today was a very busy day at work and sometimes I can't answer the working cell phone especially if a client is talking or paying. I saw 2 missed calls from my boss and called back right away and during the 8 working hours, she called at least 6 times, 4 of them which I picked up. If I don't pick up, she normally waits till I call back but today she called me on my personal phone. The first time she asked why I didn't pick up, I said I was in the toilet and then 3 hours later, she called and I was in the toilet and off the clock. Then I went out and a client wanted to get something and then in between I saw my personal phone's screen flashing. I picked up and then I heard my boss shouting and screaming about who I think…

I’m just curious to see how people prepared for rainy days and how much do savings do they need to feel safe and to cover expenses until you find a job. Especially for one income families with kids.

Last year, I worked with a government lab to test water quality. This job was pretty good, all things considered. However, it made me aware of some of the worst jobs of all time. The first one was Biosolids. Thank goodness I didn’t have to work in Biosolids because I probably wouldn’t have made it. Basically, you work in a plant that blast furnaces all of the city’s excrement and turns it into fertilizer pellets for non-food uses. Having something go wrong and ending up covered in shit is apparently a regular occurrence there. Every single person who works Biosolids gets sick for their first couple of weeks. The next one, however, I would argue is much worse. In my city, oil companies will keep their tankards on the river, holding pretty much all of their oil for the region. Since it is a requirement, at least one person has…

But whatever… money is more important than human lives.

I'm an expat working in tech. I just started my first job a few months ago. I asked my boss if I can work from home for some time during Christmas so I can spend a few weeks with family. He said “no problem, go ahead!”. And I thought to myself, “wow this is a progressive employer, I feel motivated to work here”. Multiple times I was told by my boss that my work was really good, and he was super impressed. A week later he comes back to me saying “actually I spoke to my boss and he is not in support of this. It's too early for you. So you are not allowed to go”. Keep in mind we do have a work from home policy of 2 days a week. All I was asking for was if I could work from office all days while I'm here,…

My annoying ass stress-inducing boss has been gone for the last month on a vacation. Before she left her and the rest of the manager/upper people on my team acted like my coworker and I who are under her would implode and fall apart without her because she treats us like we’re incompetent and seems to have the rest of the team believing we are as well. While she was gone we were technically under the supervision of her boss, who is much more hands off (aka not a micromanaging hawk) and allowed us to work on our shit in peace. We were to handle all of the stuff our boss normally does plus whatever we usually do. And lo and behold…it was fine. Everything got done. No issues. No mistakes. No delays. It was fine. And on top of that, I had my first month EVER at this job…