Take This Job And Love It

[speedpimp]

This is a counterpart to Nate's thread. What do you really like/love about your job?

Mine are pretty simple:
1. I have a great deal of freedom and don't have to worry about someone watching over my shoulder.

2. I've learned more about food in the nearly three years I've been doing this job that I never knew was possible.

3. It keeps me active. Up and down a ramp all day with a loaded cart could count as exercise.

4. It feels good to be outside and being able to soak up the sunshine(and sometimes the snowshine and rainshine).

[dodint]

I have a very wide range of responsibilities and so I can craft my operational tempo so that I'm not living every day the same. The best analogy is that I am a technology policeman for our enterprise computer system; installing preventative controls as well as investigating various kinds of incidents.

I get to travel fairly often, and I have a pretty good say in when I go.

I work in downtown Pittsburgh which is the realization of a life goal for me.

I work with basically no supervision and have a lot of leeway in how I structure my day, including flexible arrival/departure times.

Benefits and organizational structure is very solid.

I'm well compensated for this stage of my life.

[Cam]

Working from home is great, but lonely sometimes. It's also more difficult to focus on work. Animation certainly a skilled job and my supervisors like my work, but the pay sucks. It's pretty cool to work on projects that will air in numerous countries around the world and be seen by millions. Directors are fickle though, and can sometimes be difficult. My job is an artistic endeavour, but I actually rarely do any drawing. I basically push paper dolls around the computer screen. It has its ups and downs. It's a tough career to be in. I know many former animators that have changed careers.

[JoshInKC]

I like my job, although its only kind of a job. Some of the actual classes I have to take aren't that interesting, but the research I do is very interesting. My co-workers are incredible, and all lunatics. The digging portions are about the most fun you can have with you pants on. The teaching is weirdly fun, though it can be frustrating some times.
I only wish it paid better.

[dodint]

I want to teach eventually. Nothing major, just adjunct work for online programs. Who knows when, though. I'm not going to do it while I'm in law school (at least not as a 1L, fuck that), and I don't know if I'm going to leave my IT job to pursue law as a full time career when I finish school so who knows what I'll end up doing regarding teaching.

I've talked to Keith about this a good bit, but I'm 34 and approaching the event horizon of not giving a shit about striving for major leaps of career progression. I need to draw the line at some point and enjoy what I've worked for. I'll be ~37 when I pass the bar. If I don't switch to a law career by 40 I'm going to settle into my federal IT job and just coast to retirement. I'm a fairly driven individual but I'm tired and need to reap the reward of all this before I'm too old to enjoy it.

[Yw-slayer]

Lots of things.

[Dicknose]

Hmmm.. current job, beach volleyball coach.
I love it.
Meet people who are keen to enjoy volleyball. Keen enough to pay to do it. And they smile and come back.
Learning new stuff.
Other coaches/boss are really supportive, considering I'm the worst player out of the coaches (most are playing elite level, I'm old and schmuck player). I'm also the only coach who is still a paying student at the company!
And well, come on, I'm at the beach, having fun, with fun people and it's all glorious!

Ok the pay is poor. i can do one days computer work and it gets me the same amount as about 3 weeks of coaching at 5 hours a week (yes it's a part time job)

Another plus, when people ask me, "what do you do?" Instead of saying I'm not working I get to I'm a beach volleyball coach! Usually they ask if I get paid to do it as it doesn't sound like a job more like a hobby.

[IMOA]

I sometimes get frustrated with work but it doesn't hurt to sit back and take stock of what it gives me

I do for the most part enjoy what I do. Like every job there are sucky bits but they are rare
I am paid pretty well. It's not outrageous but I don't really have to think about money while still being able to travel a lot and buy cool stuff so I can't complain
I can come an go as I please, whether thats starting early/late or working from home I can pretty much do what I want without asking anyones permission
Extension of this now is I want to work 4-6 months a year in Bangkok, 2ish in europe and the remainder in aus so they're working with me so we can make this happen. Thats pretty generous/understanding
The people I work with are awesome. Truth be told I don't really care about the company itself but I do care very much about the people I work with.

[M4FFU]

I'm paid quite well, do interesting and challenging work which varies widely, am given responsibility to work how/when/where I want to when applicable, and ultimately effect how most people in the UK go about their daily lives.

Tis fun. :)

[JSGeneral]

I've been able to keep a stable and rewarding job in the video game industry with a small, driven company of talented co-workers. Sometimes it's just work. Other times... video games can be fun! (http://www.demiurgestudios.com/blog/the-demiurge-offices-creep-ever-further-toward-art-gallery-status-or-jimmys/)

[novicius]

Excellent! :up: :up:

[Cam]

Awesome, JSG! Very cool. :D :up:

[Crazed_Insanity]

HA! That's awesome JimmySpidermanGeneral! :D

[Jason]

I'm being paid to play Zelda today, so I can't complain :lol:

[Random]

I've been able to keep a stable and rewarding job in the video game industry with a small, driven company of talented co-workers. Sometimes it's just work. Other times... video games can be fun! (http://www.demiurgestudios.com/blog/the-demiurge-offices-creep-ever-further-toward-art-gallery-status-or-jimmys/)

:up:

[IMOA]

Actually I forgot one thing. Work is highly amnenable to my goal of organizing business trips around the world to coincide with major Motorsport events. Multiple Japanese grand prix's, goodwood festival of speed, Le Mans, all attended due to a bit of a lame excuse and a generous boss.

[Crazed_Insanity]

That's awesome. Best I can do is come up with some lame excuses to work at home! If I do actually skip work and take my daughter to Disneyland, then I have to be pretend to be sick!

My pay is not bad, but not great either. However, I do appreciate its schedule being flexible. Boss usually looks the other way as long as I get my work done.

My work is mostly pretty boring, occasionally rewarding. Here's Steven Colbert talking about the program I'm currently working on..., attempting to make what I'm working on interesting and exciting! (no I didn't work on the suit, just the thing he sat in...)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUO5HO0C8qc

[Yw-slayer]

Being able to eat what I kill is a major benefit. Being tasked with representing people is an incredible privilege.

[dodint]

Starting my telework schedule this week. Not gonna lie, it's pretty awesome working in bare feet with my dog sleeping next to the desk. :up:

It's only two days a week (Mon/Thur) but that's two days of no commute and not paying for parking. And Ash just brought a freshly toasted bagel and fresh cut fruit to my desk so I'm pretty much in occupational heaven right now.

[Cam]

Yeah, it's cool to roll out of your bed and into your work chair. :lol::up:

[JoshInKC]

First weekend in the field just finished - Prepping for the fieldschool for 7 undergrads.
2401
I'm holding the ladder in the lime sherbet-colored shirt.

[Drachen596]

Slowly tiring of constant 50+ hour weeks. The overtime may pay more but i dont feel any benefit to it.

My boss is rumored to be transfering in a couple months. Our lead cant put together a schedule without requirig multiple revisions. Senior management is currently offering a company cook out if we manage an impossible goal.

[speedpimp]

We have hired two new drivers in the past month. The newest one has been there for two weeks. He called off yesterday because he hurt himself during his route on Friday. So they called me to cover that route and tried contacting the other new guy(who had the day off but was on call) to come in and cover my original route. But they couldn't get a hold of him and when they did contact him he said he was in Fort Wayne(90 miles away) and then said that he had to take his wife to work. I wonder if he finally settled on an excuse. I was walking out to the truck I was supposed to drive and it was missing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another driver had taken it(the trucks were similar in their numbering and it was the other driver's normal truck). I went in and informed the boss about the situation. His only comment was "God damn it! What else is going to go wrong?"
I jumped in the other truck and took it to where the other driver/truck were and swapped them out. So what should've been a six hour day on my original route turned into a fourteen hour, near 400 mile odyssey.
When I finally made it back to work the skies opened up and it started pouring down. I made it over to my regular truck and grabbed my rain jacket(Frog Togs FTMFW) and maanaged to only get soaked from the waist down.
Things went so comically bad that the terms "Monkey Fucking A Football" and "Cluster Fuck" couldn't be applied. So I settled on "Chihuahua Fucking A Great Dane".
I was so happy when the day was finally over. Heh.

[21Kid]

Why did you have to swap trucks? Couldn't you just trade for the day?

Oh wait, were they already loaded?

[speedpimp]

Yes they were already loaded. Today I was given a $20 gift card for swapping routes when they needed it. That's the third or fourth one I've gotten this year.

[21Kid]

Nice that they recognize your help with more than just a "Thanks" :up:

[speedpimp]

Another week another $20 gift card for taking another route on a Saturday. This time because the driver had poison ivy. At the end of the day the receptionist had to drive to Coldwater, MI(130 mile round trip) with a credit card so that a driver could get fuel. The driver has been with us for three weeks and they still hadn't gotten him a fuel card. And because the receptionist had gone way above the call of her duties she was rewarded with jack shit. Not even sure if they gave her gas money. Biggest benefit of this is I was able to get 10# each of chicken breast and ground chuck for $15.

[21Kid]

I used to like getting OT and additional mileage checks... But, nowadays I enjoy my free-time more. #old

[dodint]

I volunteered for a trip to Cincy next week. Not sure what's wrong with me. :\

[Tom Servo]

Had two first-round interviews last week, have a second phone interview with one place this morning and an in-person with the other tomorrow. The two places are a block from each other and both in downtown Santa Monica, so the commute would be fantastic. The two jobs are also using languages and/or environments I don't know (Node.js and Scala at one, Go at the other), so that'd make for an interesting challenge.

The Go one would also involve twice yearly trips to Tel Aviv. Can't tell if that's awesome or annoying...I have a feeling the first couple of trips would be awesome, then it'd get old to have to leave home for a week.

[dodint]

Tel Aviv > Cincy if you need some perspective. ;)

Good luck, though. Hope you get what you want.

[FaultyMario]

Not a "Job" Job.
But a consultancy doing fieldwork on a project measuring* community accountability in indigenous regions.

The Good: Relatively well-paid. Doing the stuff I like to do. Working with Award winning researchers.
The Bad: It's a short-term project. It's wide-encompassing stuff. The 2 week visits per location might not be enough time, especially during hurricane season in the mountains.
The Ugly: My ethnography* skills are lacking. (We are not really measuring, we're looking for community narratives on polity, governance and accountability).

I'm excited and a bit scared, but all-around happy.

[Crazed_Insanity]

A job is a job! :up:

[Tom Servo]

Well, first of the second round interviews went reasonably well. Got tripped up on two questions that I have to work on the answers to, but it seemed like it went okay.

[Drachen596]

First 40 hour week since April. Had been working at least 50 hour weeks due to being short about 3 people till this week.

Glad that I can have my normal 3 days off but will miss the overtime money.

[FaultyMario]

A job is a job! :up:

Yeah, thanks.

[Tom Servo]

People I phone interviewed with tell me the think I'd fit in better with a different department, so back to square two and soon to talk to a director of a different group.

[Random]

That's kind of cool that they seem to be thinking "we want this guy, but he's not the right fit for our piece of the puzzle."

[novicius]

That's how my wife got her new job: interviewed, they went with someone else but called her back to interview with a different department = success. :cool: :up:

[Cam]

That's kind of how I got my Simpsons gig. I interviewed for the movie, but they put me on the series to replace series people going on the movie. I ended up working on the movie anyway. I WAS THAT GOOD. ;) :lol:

[Yeti]

Been at the current job for one year as of the 20th. Still enjoy going to work every day.

[Tom Servo]

Things are sounding really promising with my #1 choice. Hoping that I'll hear about an offer soon.

[21Kid]

*crosses fingers*


Good luck! :):up:

[Tom Servo]

Huh, well, the message I got yesterday is that they were "getting the offer process started, looking forward to working with you!", then I got something this morning about another interview. It's leaving me a little confused.

Also bummer that the interview is scheduled for Monday, which puts a wrench in our plans to celebrate employment over the four day weekend as Michele gets Monday off.

[George]

"Sorry, I can't come to a job interview today. It's my day off!" :D

Good luck.

[Tom Servo]

Heh, yeah. The interview is with their director of engineering in Tel Aviv, so it's over the internet. Normally that wouldn't be an issue pretty much anywhere we're going, except we wanted to go hiking in the mountains where there isn't any internet, and I don't want to give them any chance at the impression of "Oh, we thought you wanted this job, I guess not!", so that's cancelled.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Too bad for the trip..., but sounds like you are going to get the job and just going thru the formalities... Hope you'll get another big raise so that you can compensate the Mrs. approximately... ;)

[Tom Servo]

Dude, then I just got an email saying they want to call about my offer details and asking for my phone #. Which is on my resume. All this while I'm on a phone interview with the director of engineering at another company.

[Tom Servo]

And now I got the verbal offer. Slightly less than I was making before, but pretty negligible. Still confused about the other person I'm supposed to talk to. Going to wait until an actual offer letter exists before I do anything about that.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Left and right hand not talking to each other..., see if you can get the same company to compete for you with multiple competing offers! :D

[speedpimp]

Tentative congrats.

[Tom Servo]

I heard from HR, I have to do the standard background check and I had to actually fill out an application, which I imagine is just kept on file in case they need to use it against me later. Other company has not gotten back to me after odd interview yesterday. I think I did well on it, as I came up with the same strategy to solve an issue as they did, but the guy was so bad at explaining the problem that it took me about 20 minutes just to figure out what the hell he was asking me.

At any rate, I think I'm in good shape and have asked that the Monday interview be moved to Wednesday so I can go hiking.

[21Kid]

:lol: :up:

[Tom Servo]

I got the offer letter and have signed it. I know it's contingent on the background check, but it's not like I've got a bunch of felonies or anything, so I think I'm pretty safe in saying I'll be doing engineering at ZipRecruiter. I have a lot of recent and long-time friends there. When I met with my future boss for a lunch interview, we were talking about places he'd worked and he told me he'd been at rent.com. I asked him if he knew a friend of mine who I worked with at eToys and had headed to rent, who had suffered a bad crash on his motorcycle and ended up paralyzed from the waist down. He had, and told me about a fundraising event with a silent auction they'd done for him after the crash. I got to tell him that I was at that event, and that I was the guy who put in the winning bid for the Alice Cooper box set, so even this new guy I'm meeting I have mutual friends with.

It's in a great location, and is super bikeable. I have high hopes. Now I just have to figure out the wording to the other company to let them know that I've accepted another offer.

I'm so happy I get to relax this weekend.

[novicius]

Congratulations Swervo! :D :up:

[Crazed_Insanity]

:up:

[FaultyMario]

Is this the Telaviv, habibi?

[Tom Servo]

It is, actually. I may be making twice a year trips to Tel Aviv with this job. I'm hoping we can work out the vacation time/money to have Michele come with. I hear it's a great city, so while I'm not looking forward to the jet lag, I am looking forward to the trip.

[FaultyMario]

'grats!

[Random]

:up:

[Cam]

Nice.

[speedpimp]

Two months ago they hired a new guy. Thursday was his last day because he didn't like a driving job where he actually had to touch the freight. Good riddance.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Speaking of truckers... Is this story real?
https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forced-into-debt-worked-past-exhaustion-left-with-nothing/

[Dicknose]

I think I finally cracked and signed up for a "real" job.
So I'm still coaching beach volleyball - life's tough!
But I'm going back to an office job, coding away as a keyboard jockey. I've said I only want to do 3 days a week and they were happy with that. The guys know me, this was our main customer at my last job. So there is something like 100 computers running my code across several different applications.
It's also walking distance from home, which is a big deal in a city as large and busy as Sydney. If it's a bad day I'd be quicker walking than driving!
And the money is good, better than I was expecting. Always tricky when you are a senior person (and not to be too humble, but damn good at what I do).
It's a 12 month contract, but I said I'll see how I go on the projects, I might want to end early. If we are both happy then I can always come back later when more work has piled up.
Start next week, will be interesting to put jeans on instead of shorts and head into an office again.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It's always good to be making good money doing something you're good at... :up:

[speedpimp]

Speaking of truckers... Is this story real?
https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forced-into-debt-worked-past-exhaustion-left-with-nothing/

Sadly it is very true. It is called lease purchase but is also known as "fleece purchase".

[Crazed_Insanity]

Do you think Costco and target need to shoulder some responsibilities for this appalling practice?

[speedpimp]

If they put pressure on the trucking company owners to end this bullshit it might accomplish something. This is a windfall for the company owners because they don't have to provide any benefits, the drivers aren't employees they are "contractors" who are responsible for filing/paying all of their own taxes, and the companies get to make money off of their drivers with the exorbitant lease payments and all of the associated costs they charge to the drivers. These practices aren't just limited to the port truckers. A lot of companies follow the "lease purchase" gimmick and very rarely does it ever end well for the driver.

[Tom Servo]

Ahh, so it's the same shit Uber's trying to pull on their drivers?

EDIT: Okay, after reading some of that, it's way fucking worse than the horrible shit Uber's trying to pull.

[Crazed_Insanity]

You can't expect these retailers to fight for truckers who aren't their direct employees. Government should step in to sort out this mess.

[Drachen596]

Fedex pulls that with their route drivers or used to. They were responsible for their own vehicles and paid with 1099s instead of W2s.

Backfired on them in at least California due to requirements for what they could wear which actually made them employeesand not contractors under the law.

Also in the case of the port drivers in that article lots and lots of people basically told the governments thats the kind of stuff that would happen. I have seen more than a few articles about it since it all went into effect.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Sigh, there ought to be some sort of universal law against predatory lending/leasing/contracting to prevent stuffs like these. I just don't think we can expect these companies to be able to fix these problems by themselves. It's like asking the stores back then to put pressure on the slave owners to not sell any of their goods that involved slave labor... and expect that to help end slavery.

Anyway, sorry to derail this thread with such a downer story, was just amazed by this crazy story. Thanks for confirming authenticity of is Pimpie. Let's get back to more lovable job topics!

[speedpimp]

Fedex still uses contractors. Most are small fleets and handle both the linehaul(from one terminal to another) and home delivery(in the step vans).

If I ever apply for a job and find out its 1099 I am turning around and walking out the door.

[Tom Servo]

I'm just finishing up my first week here. The commute has overall been really nice - I get secure bike parking at the SM bike center (which the company reimburses me for), and got an annual membership for the bikeshare in town which gives me 90 minutes of riding a day without having to worry about my bike getting stolen. It's all linked up via my bus card, so I just have to tap it on a bike and ride off.

The company itself reminds me of the old timey .com companies, which has me unnerved as I saw almost all those companies go under. Sorta ridiculous perks, like catered breakfast three days a week, a game room with a PS4, fancy coffee, etc etc. Not that I'm complaining, and apparently they're making it work as the company is doing very well, so hopefully I'm just overanalyzing.

Getting used to their systems, and I've already had one ticket get out into production, so that's a good sign. I won't be going to Tel Aviv with a few people I've worked with before next week, as I was warned by the guy who runs that office that you should never, ever visit during July or August, so I begged off the trip. Maybe the next one. I have to take Michele to get needles put in her spine next week anyway, so it wouldn't work out.

It's been about 10 years since I really seriously coded in perl, and I'd forgotten some things. Like how archaic the debugging and instrumentation tools are. It's incredibly painful to work with. But, I need to dive into this codebase if I want to understand it well enough to migrate it to a more modern language that will actually let us do things like step through it with a debugger.

So far, so good.

[Cam]

Good to hear. :up:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Cool. :up:

[retsmah]

I get secure bike parking at the SM bike center

SM being Santa Monica?

I haven't posted here pretty much at all since I moved to SoCal a few years ago, can't remember who all is down here! (Although I'm down in San Diego now)

[Crazed_Insanity]

I'm here! ;)

You sure move around a lot... Both geographically and career-wise... What kind of cool stuff are you working on now?

[Tom Servo]

SM being Santa Monica?

I haven't posted here pretty much at all since I moved to SoCal a few years ago, can't remember who all is down here! (Although I'm down in San Diego now)

Yep, Santa Monica Bike Center. New gig is right on the north side of downtown Santa Monica.

[Dicknose]

Ok I've cracked and accepted a "real" job. Will still coach beach volleyball on weekends, but it's back to an office and keyboard.
Foxtel (pay TV company) approached me and wanted me to help on a couple of projects. I said I can only do 3 days a week! They were happy with that and they are paying respectable money, so Monday I'm back to work.
Commute... it's a 10 min walk from my place. A complete luxury in a city like Sydney.
Some money will be nice, been spending a bit more than I planned. And it will be good to stretch the grey matter a bit more.
And it's a 12 month contract. That's probably more than I want, but we will see how it goes and if the projects get finished.

[Tom Servo]

Hey, only having to work 3 days a week ain't bad.

[speedpimp]

Four day weekend sounds like a blast.

[retsmah]

Yep, Santa Monica Bike Center. New gig is right on the north side of downtown Santa Monica.

Sweet, I always liked Santa Monica!

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, me too, so I'm really happy about this. Endless lunch options, grocery store 1/2 block from work, bikeshare, and basically perfect weather every single day. I'll take it.

[Dicknose]

4 day weekends sound nice, but I work weekends (for a few hours a day) and have been having 5 day breaks during the week.
This is going to be a bit of an adjustment!
Quick calc is that I'll earn as much as I got from 6 months beach volleyball in my first 6 days (2 weeks). Clearly I wasn't doing the volleyball to get rich!

[Dicknose]

Yeah, me too, so I'm really happy about this. Endless lunch options, grocery store 1/2 block from work, bikeshare, and basically perfect weather every single day. I'll take it.

Amazing how the little things like commute and lunch options can make a big difference to a job.
Enjoy!

[21Kid]

SM being Santa Monica?

I haven't posted here pretty much at all since I moved to SoCal a few years ago, can't remember who all is down here! (Although I'm down in San Diego now)

I didn't know that. I'm in Irvine now.

I think there's about 7 of us in SoCal now, with a few (4?) more above us.

[Random]

Cuda, me, tsg, and Reynard from the "pretty active on the site" category. Vince (vkeks), Mapper, and BenJammin still active on FB.

[Kchrpm]

Who is the closest to Long Beach and has a big, comfy couch?

[Jason]

I feel like I should go abuse Swervo's guest bed again soon...

[21Kid]

I counted :random: & Mapper as one. :p I don't have Reynard or BenJammin on the list.

I told you my couch is open Keith. If you can stand my dog.;) I'm probably 2nd closest (about 30) miles. Long Beach is almost 1/2 between me and the LA crew.

[Tom Servo]

SM being Santa Monica?

I haven't posted here pretty much at all since I moved to SoCal a few years ago, can't remember who all is down here! (Although I'm down in San Diego now)

Just occurred to me that I'm remiss in asking where in San Diego you're at. I grew up in Clairemont, folks still live there.

[tigeraid]

Dredging up an old thread, I guess because I need to get my thoughts out and can't really talk to anyone in person about it yet...

I've been offered a NAPA store. I'm a senior counterman now, with 12 years experience, but it's kind of a jump, to be honest. Tara and I were trying to figure out a way to maybe move back up North, since we miss the outdoors and having to drive 6 hours to see our family was wearing a bit thin. As soon as we started talking, lo and behold, this offer falls in my lap.

I've been offered either a lateral move, keep my current position/pay/whatever and just move up there. Which is nice all by itself, frankly. Or, I can take over the store and get paid a significantly higher salary. I've been consistently the top performer and "go-to parts guy" here forever, and the regional manager spent half an hour praising me in the meeting. So I almost feel like if I don't take the offer, it'll be like an unofficial smudge on my record going forward.

I like the company, as far as gigantic corporate entities go. But I'll admit I'm also getting kinda bored with the routine here, too, and don't feel challenged. But there are a lot of unknowns: the store in question is struggling, apparently due to a shitty salesman who did nothing to cultivate new customers. The regional manager made it clear there's a chance the store could be sold to another company if it continues to struggle (although that company, from what I know of it, would be fine to work for too).... I also am not particularly comfortable with the sales side of this job, and they spent some time soothing that worry by promising a solid sales force to help me out.

It's also a very fast move. Even though we love the Ranch we moved into 3 years ago, we don't like London much anymore, but Tara would still have to quit her job and rely on my salary while we try to sell it and buy a house up there. Stressful, no doubt.

Has anyone else gone through this sort of big move, for work? It's a little scary, if I go through with this....

[George]

Has anyone else gone through this sort of big move, for work?

Sort of. We moved to somewhere else because we wanted to be there, jobs be damned. I managed to work a deal with my employer to transfer but I ditched that job and burned that bridge as soon as I possibly could after moving. I stumbled into a fresh start as an $8/hour temp in a discipline I had no experience with. My only regret is I waited until age 37 to get serious about a "career". I always had okay jobs, but I didn't wasn't on a recognizable career path.

Big jumps can be good. You have a ton of experience in the parts biz, so if the store they send you to doesn't work out, you should have no trouble finding a job anywhere with a population large enough to support auto parts and repair businesses, I'd think. Go be the boss at the new place. If everything falls apart, you'll have Manager on your resume in addition to your prior experience and expertise.

"Do you have management experience?"

"Oh, sure. I was promoted to GM and became responsible for a store doing $X business per week/month/year with X employees reporting to me. While there, I grew revenue by X% by developing [whatever] and cut losses by [yadda, yadda, yadda...]"

Life's short. Take a chance before you get older and wonder why you stayed so long in one place/job/state of mind.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Times like these is when Jesus can come in handy! ;)

Seriously, during uncertain times, I'd pray and ask for signs. If my signs/conditions are met, I'll take that as Jesus telling me go. Otherwise, I'll take it as no. I've never had such big job move offer as yours, but I've done the prayer thing for couple of job changes or unchanges... and also for my marriage as well. So far no regrets!

Anyway, since asking God is likely not your thing, why don't you just be more secular and just ask around. 1st ask your boss for certain conditions. Do you have any additional 'demands' you can think of? Sweeten the deal more! Also, can you ask the other store manager for tips... and info why he's leaving? Gather as much info as you can... but of course if you're pretty sure in your heart that you're not management material, then just go for a lateral move then and save yourself all the trouble. If you enjoy taking on additional stress, then you'll thrive. If you hate the additional stress, then it'll likely kill you.

Whatever you decide, good luck. I'll pray to Jesus for you. ;)

[tigeraid]

Times like these is when Jesus can come in handy! ;)

No.


Anyway, since asking God is likely not your thing, why don't you just be more secular and just ask around. 1st ask your boss for certain conditions. Do you have any additional 'demands' you can think of? Sweeten the deal more! Also, can you ask the other store manager for tips... and info why he's leaving? Gather as much info as you can... but of course if you're pretty sure in your heart that you're not management material, then just go for a lateral move then and save yourself all the trouble.

I've done management before, particularly in a training environment. I don't think that worries me much, it's having the shadow of a budget and a sales quota hanging over me. The worry that I need to "sell the store" to potential garages. But, again, the bigwigs did try to calm those fears by saying they were gonna offer that support, and have a strong salesman to help out in that department. So I might be worrying about nothing.



If you enjoy taking on additional stress, then you'll thrive. If you hate the additional stress, then it'll likely kill you.

That's part of the catch of moving up there--I'll be back in nature, where I grew up. Right on the doorstep of Algonquin Park. Now that I'm back to being active and outdoorsy. So in theory, that solves the stress problem.

[dodint]

Has anyone else gone through this sort of big move, for work? It's a little scary, if I go through with this....

Yes. I promoted twice in under two years and took a position that I was qualified for on paper but had not done 80% of the duties first hand before getting here. It's stressful, particularly at first. But as time goes on and you grow into the position you'll be glad that you seized the opportunity. The downside is you'll have to say goodbye to being the 'go to' expert for what you do now, and the enjoyment that comes with doing that stuff. You'll get to dabble in it but it will be somebody else's responsibility and you'll need to learn to manage them and not micromanage the work.

Take the plunge and grow with it. It sounds like you already have support from your superiors which makes this a lot easier. I plunged into this stuff blind and was lucky that my boss is very easy to work with.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I've done management before,... So I might be worrying about nothing... So in theory, that solves the stress problem.

So what's your problem? Waiting for Jesus to send a green light from heaven? ;)

[George]

:sing: Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goal posts of life

I've got the will, Lord, if you've got the toe :lol:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO5Y1OuQIxo

[Crazed_Insanity]

:lol:

That's good George! That made my day! :)

[IMOA]

Understand what’s important to you.
Check that against the offer.
Make decision

To often people do the third step before the first

That said, fuck it, go for it..

[Crazed_Insanity]

Another approach is to expect the worst possible scenario.

What's the worst that can happen? Can you prepare yourself for that?

IMOA is right that you need to take an inventory of what's important to you and your family. Your own career actually isn't the #1 priority... this job could fail, but surely you don't want to fail the family.

Don't make an emotional decision. Don't just accept it because you're excited or don't refuse it just because you're scared. Take your time to think it thru... may the force be with you.

[Cam]

That sounds like a cool opportunity, tigeraid, and I think you would do it well. Best of luck in what you decide. :cool::up:

[speedpimp]

Back in December I got a bug up my ass and decided to test the waters for other jobs. I applied for three different companies(two delivering roll-off dumpsters, the other driving a semi that would've had me in Chicago on a daily basis). One called to set up an interview on my day off and on the day of the interview a driver called off so I got called into work, I called the other company to let them know I had to cancel and they said someone would call to reschedule the interview(which never happened). A recruiter for the Chicago job called to schedule an interview and since I don't get my schedule for the following week until Saturday it is hard to know what day I'd have off. So around Xmas she said she'd call on a Saturday to set up an interview the following week. That call never came. Two weeks later the recruiter calls and apologizes for never calling me back. This time she said she'd call me on a Sunday to schedule the interview...and that call never came. Flash forward to now and the bug is no longer up my ass, but you'd think that they'd at least follow through on the call. Blech.

[Cam]

Sounds like you would not want to work for that company anyway. :erm:

[Godson]

Understand what’s important to you.
Check that against the offer.
Make decision

To often people do the third step before the first

That said, fuck it, go for it..

This is so fucking accurate.

[tigeraid]

Thanks, gents.

[shakes]

When I was trying to get out of the mortgage business into the car business I made a pretty crazy move for work. I interviewed for a job I'd never done before but had the skills to do. The move wasn't quite as far as yours, going from Hamilton, ON to Huntsville, ON but it was far enough (about 300kms). I interviewed twice at the dealership, the second interview was on a Wednesday. The next day, I got the offer. We went up the following Sunday to look at apartments knowing that we were going to have to sign a lease that day. We booked a bunch of showings with the intention of picking one right then and there. The following weekend was when we moved. Ten days from start to finish. We were just starting out so we didnt have a lot of stuff to move and no children to consider either so it wasn't too bad. But its not something I think I'd put myself through again. You don't need the stress of moving on top of the stress of a new job.

While the bigger pay cheque and greater responsibilities that come with a management role are nice, they do come at a cost. If you're okay taking on all of those extra tasks, then take the new job. You'll figure out the ins-and-outs of the day to day stuff easy enough. Don't worry about whether or not you feel qualified to do the job, if you weren't, they wouldn't be offering it to you. Its the extra management functions that you have to consider (e.g. dealing with an under-performing employee, or an angry customer or customers who don't pay their bills) plus you've mentioned the sales quota/sales target aspect of the job as well.

[tigeraid]

On the OTHER other hand... Real estate in Huntsville and Bracebridge is a bit heavier than here. Which is confusing. Maybe cottage country jacks up the prices. Tara is refusing to settle for a shit house... :/

[Crazed_Insanity]

Why should anyone settle for a shit house after a promotion?

[Cam]

Because of the outrageous housing price increase from moving to a more expensive town, duh.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It's really not his problem. This is a problem his boss needs to solve.

[Cam]

Many of us do not have the luxury of being in a career that is in high demand. :|

[tigeraid]

I'm walking a bit of a tight-rope, because the store in question is struggling, and I'll be expected to help right that ship. Some I've talked to have said "wow, really? I thought they were selling that store." And they might. I'm not so worried about it being sold off, because the company in question that'll buy it are fine to work for, too. It's just a bit confusing that they'd take one of their best parts guys, from the top store in Ontario, and plunk him down in a store that they're just gonna sell? It's nerve-wracking. I suppose eventually I'll just have to say "okay, seriously, what's the deal here?"

[Crazed_Insanity]

Proceed with caution.

Never mind what the real deal is... if you can only settle for a shit house in order to make the move work, that alone would make me want to forget about it.

[Kchrpm]

I started a new job today. It's not as good as my last job, but better than being unemployed.

[dodint]

https://media.giphy.com/media/26u4iJvsYLP6mzX1e/giphy.gif

[Cam]

Great news, Kch!

[novicius]

Yeah congrats Krunch!! :up: :up:

[Crazed_Insanity]

:up:
Hope this job will somehow lead you to your dream job!

[Cam]

My gal was contacted by a head-hunter for the first time. I figured it was coming, but I did not expect it only four years in. She did not give me many details, but it is in an area I would not prefer.

[Phil_SS]

Great News Keith! :up:

[dodint]

My gal was contacted by a head-hunter for the first time. I figured it was coming, but I did not expect it only four years in. She did not give me many details, but it is in an area I would not prefer.

Vocational area or wrong continent area?

[novicius]

Big Oil. :lol:

[Cam]

It is clear where she stands on climate. Those views do not sync with fossil fuel companies. They would not contact her.

Not many places would be able to provide a deal significant enough to get us to move. The aforementioned job comes with noteable research money. However, it is in a small city that is kind of in the middle of nowhere. :lol:

[novicius]

It is clear where she stands on climate. Those views do not sync with fossil fuel companies. They would not contact her.
Hence my :lol:.


:)

[George]

I started a new job today. It's not as good as my last job, but better than being unemployed.

And you're already surfing the web from work. Well done! :lol:

[tigeraid]

Shoulda known there would be some corporate fuckery. Can I switch this to Take This Job and Shove It?

The "job offer" for manager turned into an "opportunity for an opportunity to take manager training and psychiatric evaluation (what the FUCK) while still being a counterman and being paid as a counterman."

:smh::smh::smh:

But after a week of thinking I was headed to promotion, Tara went nuts looking into moving/real estate/employment shit and whatever else, so now she's wanting to move come hell or highwater. Oh well, same job anyway. :rolleyes:

[novicius]

Damn, that sucks Tiger. :smh:

[Cam]

:down::thppt:

[Crazed_Insanity]

So it was all just a 'verbal offer'? Wonder if you just heard it wrong or they just switched it on you...

I guess nowadays we need everything in writing.

Anyway, most important thing is to keep the wife happy. If she's happy, you can be happy. :)

[George]

...the regional manager spent half an hour praising me in the meeting. So I almost feel like if I don't take the offer, it'll be like an unofficial smudge on my record going forward.


The "job offer" for manager turned into an "opportunity for an opportunity to take manager training and psychiatric evaluation (what the FUCK) while still being a counterman and being paid as a counterman."

Makes me wonder if the RM was making an honest effort to reward you and spread your name around in a good way, or if he's a Machiavellian ladder-climber who needed a warm body to throw under the bus to please his superiors.

Good luck.

[speedpimp]

So yesterday afternoon one of our drivers happened to somehow wedge his 13' tall truck under an 11'10" railroad viaduct. They had to remove the rear axle to free the truck. The truck is a complete loss. The driver is okay.
2973
This is standing at the rear of the truck looking towards the front. The white panel hanging down is roof insulation. The daylight is the hole in the roof.
2974
The cab is tweaked as you can't close the doors all the way.
2975
Passenger side of the truck. The front and side walls of the box are coming apart.
2976
The damage in all of its "glory".

[dodint]

Shoulda known there would be some corporate fuckery. Can I switch this to Take This Job and Shove It?

The "job offer" for manager turned into an "opportunity for an opportunity to take manager training and psychiatric evaluation (what the FUCK) while still being a counterman and being paid as a counterman."

:smh::smh::smh:

But after a week of thinking I was headed to promotion, Tara went nuts looking into moving/real estate/employment shit and whatever else, so now she's wanting to move come hell or highwater. Oh well, same job anyway. :rolleyes:

I just want to point out that Rich created this thread to counteract my angsty job thread (http://gtxforums.net/showthread.php?1707-Take-This-Job-and-Shove-It) and now everyone is bitching in this thread.

Not that I care; just want to take the time to point out that the internet has stomped out yet another attempt at joy. ;)

[Tom Servo]

Re: Speedpimp's post, this page is always a good time.

https://www.facebook.com/11foot8videos/

[Godson]

Today I was able to give comfort to a girl who had a brain tumor.

Both sad and at the same time, beautiful. She should have a full recovery as the tumor is benign.

I do love my job as a nurse, no matter how bad it may be at times.

[dodint]

My feelings about my job haven't changed much at all from the original post in that other thread. I'll get there, though.

[tigeraid]

I just want to point out that Rich created this thread to counteract my angsty job thread (http://gtxforums.net/showthread.php?1707-Take-This-Job-and-Shove-It) and now everyone is bitching in this thread.

Not that I care; just want to take the time to point out that the internet has stomped out yet another attempt at joy. ;)


:lol: At least I started on a positive note!

[novicius]

My positive job note? After three years here at this insurance company, my contracting gig finally has an exit date! Just in time for Spring! :rawk:

I could really do with a few weeks (months? :D ) off right about now. Plus we live cheap so we've got plenty of fuck-you-money in the bank. :finger:

[dodint]

You'll never break into the Madison housing market with that attitude.

[novicius]

Probs for next year. ;) :toast:

[Godson]

And another excellent day at work.

[Drachen596]

Anyone want to work for Lingenfelter? They're hiring a calibration specialist and an engine builder for their place here in Indiana.

[Godson]

I don't think anyone here qualifies for the position...

[Drachen596]

I know I dont. Thought someone here might or might know someone interested though.

Wish I did though cause I think it'd be cool.

[dodint]

Our division is expanding at work and in a separate conversation my boss is encouraging me to start working towards a promotion. They want to keep me on the enterprise team so he seems to think I can make that leap while physically staying in Pittsburgh. I find this both encouraging and distressing because I'm personally and professionally exhausted right now and I just don't have it in me to keep trying to move up. I was hoping to do another year or two at this level before getting the itch to move up.

I don't need the extra money, but it's hard to ignore the trajectory it would put me on. There are 15 levels to my job classification and I'm already on level 12, I'm only three years into a minimum 20 year gig so so if I can get to 13 now I'll spend most of my career near the top, which would guarantee me steady six figures of base salary in a few years. If I stay as a 12 I can't get to six figures until I max out that time in grade and inflation pushes the top step over that mark.

[Dicknose]

Had a great moment at work yesterday. Running a volleyball class at a primary school with 8-9 year olds. This was their second week and I’m there with my boss, Michaela, setup the courts (outside on grass) and we are ready for a tidal wave of kids.
So over comes the kids, smiling and looking excited to be there. So I ask them to go to the same court they were on last week, those who were with Michaela go to her court, those who were with me come over to my court.
With that the first 2 girls heading towards my court start yelling “David, David” (yes that’s my name, although it would have been cool if they yelled “Dicknose, Dicknose”). Next thing I know 30 kids are all screaming “David” as loud as they can as they follow me onto the court.
Oh man - that is great!
So I wave them to circle me, so I can talk to them, but the chant is still going. Ok let’s bring it down, they keep it going but now quietly. I drop to a knee to be closer to their height, they all drop to a knee. Cute. And the chant is still going, humming along relatively quietly. Damn it I’m loving this and going with it. So I jump up and wave my arms in the air. Cue... they jump up and back to a full scream.
Intoxicating!
So I bring it to and end and we get into playing volleyball. Ok throwing and catching and underarm serves is about their level. At the end I get them in a line so I can go along and hi-five them all. Yes the chant started again.
Glorious.

Best class ever.
The kids had fun, but I had the best time.

[Crazed_Insanity]

That's awesome! :D

I bet you'd make a great/fun physics teach as well!

As for my current job, I certainly don't hate it, but it doesn't quite move me that much either...

Hmmm..., maybe it's time to make a change...

[shakes]

I like reading this thread because it lets me know that it IS actually possible to have a job that you truly love doing. It gives me hope that eventually one day I'll find my calling.

[Kchrpm]

I like my new job. They give me large batches of complicated data and ask me to fix/convert/summarize/visualize, I come up with fancy solutions to do it automatically.

[Dicknose]

I like my new job. They give me large batches of complicated data and ask me to fix/convert/summarize/visualize, I come up with fancy solutions to do it automatically.
That sounds fun! And hard!
But a great job for someone who likes solving puzzles.

[balki]

I'm going to one-up dn on the dorkness scale and ask what the job title is / what posting should i be looking for?

[Kchrpm]

Business Analyst (Data Analyst)

[Crazed_Insanity]

Sounds interesting indeed!

[dodint]

My bonus from my performance review came through. Pleasantly surprised to see that I got an award that is equal to about 1.6% of my salary, or over twice the amount my bonuses usually end up being. Should be good for two sets of tires and brakes for the E46.

[Tom Servo]

I got one of those too. Bought a new washer and dryer with it. That's when I realized that I am officially old, as I was quite excited about the purchase.

(And I was totally right to be. Our towels feel like they did the day we bought them. Sooooo fluffyyyyyy)

[dodint]

:lol:

[George]

That's when I realized that I am officially old, as I was quite excited about the purchase.

Yup. Not much left to look forward to other than new stuff around the house once you settle in for the decline into your dotage.

https://dansversion.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/13696829_651844551632682_511632113_n1.jpg

[Crazed_Insanity]

:lol:

[speedpimp]

"Great guy. Will show up to work every day. Dark sense of humor. If life were a ten speed bike, he'd always be stuck in fourth gear."

The most honest assessment of myself I've ever heard.

[Cam]

:lol:

[tigeraid]

Minor update:

House is basically sold, conditions close on Friday and the buyer seems to be a cool guy, should be fine. Got the price we wanted for it too, most importantly. Made a ton of money on the sale, the market is crazy righ tnow.

Purchased this house just south of Huntsville. 20 minute commute to the Bracebridge NAPA, so despite being even more "in the middle of nowhere," my commute is way shorter than it is here. Nice mid-70s home, 3 bedroom/2 bath, wood stove, old-fashioned hardwood floors. Large 2-car detached shop, fully finished, on 3 acres with some bush and a creek out back for fishing. Pretty happy with it. And the best part? Fibre-optic broadband right at the driveway. In the middle of nowhere!

http://www.denisepenney.com/listingphotos_crea/1586434/19112812_27.jpg


The regional manager still has it in his head that I'm going to "try to prove to him I can be a leader" to get offered the management position. But after a big long corporate-double-speak speech from him I'm almost terrified of the idea now. Oh well. Worst case, I'm still a counter guy. I'm still kinda scared about the whole move to be honest, the store isn't doing well but we hope to turn that around. And Tara still has to find work.

Two months to go. :|

[shakes]

VERY VERY jealous about the high-speed internet service you've got. I too live in the middle of nowhere and have two options for 'high speed' internet, neither of which involve particularly high speeds. Internet in Muskoka has always been good and I don't know if it was infrastructure they put in for the G8 Summit a few years back or if it was/is market conditions demanded by the cottagers.

[tigeraid]

VERY VERY jealous about the high-speed internet service you've got. I too live in the middle of nowhere and have two options for 'high speed' internet, neither of which involve particularly high speeds. Internet in Muskoka has always been good and I don't know if it was infrastructure they put in for the G8 Summit a few years back or if it was/is market conditions demanded by the cottagers.


I think it's mostly rich Americans who own cottages here. Like Kurt Russell.

I live in the middle of the country in Southwestern Ontario right now and was JUST lucky enough to buy in sight of an Xplornet tower, so I could at least get their Fixed Wireless LTE. Only 10Mbit but at least it's consistent and doesn't cost a fortune. But yeah, this'll be a giant upgrade.

[Cam]

Someone Lori was friends with growing up, their family had a cottage in cottage country. It eventually became so valuable they had to sell it because they could not afford to pay the property tax. :eek:

[George]

That's an awesome homestead, tigeraid. Congratulations! Seriously.

[tigeraid]

Thanks. I just hope the job is the right decision. Still nervous as fuck about it.

[Leon]

Unless it kills you, no decision has to be the last decision you make.

If after a year, it isn't for you, give something else a go :)

[Ashie]

Today was a long day coming. Since 2012, I have been working towards going to school for Physical Therapy. Today, I was accepted into the Doctoral program at Slippery Rock University. I can not explain how excited I am about this. So in three years, I will be a physical therapist and have the job I have been wanting for a while!!!!:D

[Godson]

:)

[dodint]

Lets crush a box of Merlot!

[Ashie]

[QUOTE=dodint;121412]Lets crush a box of Merlot![/QUOTE :lol:

[Cam]

:lol:

Congrats, Ashie! :)

[Tom Servo]

:up:

[dodint]

Slippery Rock University.

https://i.giphy.com/media/26tjZMm6GmoKnBOYE/giphy.webp

[George]

:up::up:

/toys with idea of posting Duane Johnson meme

[dodint]

We didn't crush a box of merlot, but we drank a bottle of champagne on a work night and I'm feeling it this morning. I'm getting too old for this. :lol:

[Cam]

Nothing wrong with being a cheap date. :lol:

[George]

I'm getting too old for this. :lol:

Practice makes perfect.

*burp*

[Cam]

G, you never cease to entertain me. :lol:

[Ashie]

What movie is that from? Also, thank you everyone.

[dodint]

What movie is that from?

The Rock...

[tigeraid]

NAPA Marine, Excavator and Pressure Washer Parts, John speaking, how may I help you?

I swear to fuck, I'm gonna sell SOME auto parts at this new place if it kills me. :|

[dodint]

I went to a restaurant the other day and there was a NAPA across the street. Mentioned to Ash that I swear they only do business with garages because every one I've ever been in has been completely devoid of customers.

[Godson]

Same, I will say that I use NAPA when it is some crazy odd part. Most other places don't even know what I'm talking about and Napa will have it on the shelf.

[George]

Ah, yeah, John. Listen man, I need to send my guy right over for a chain stretcher and a steam bucket. You got them in stock over there?

[Random]

I went to a restaurant the other day and there was a NAPA across the street. Mentioned to Ash that I swear they only do business with garages because every one I've ever been in has been completely devoid of customers.

The one in Davis is a pain-in-the-ass location. They do seem to do a fair amount of business with the local shops/dealers, as you note.

I use it for filters/oil and actual car parts (they also had the blind tap we needed for the diff on the LeMons car--score); I go to the easier-to-access O'Reilly's for light bulbs and rags. :D

[dodint]

Any single use composite compression fasteners?

[tigeraid]

Actually I hope we have a chain stretcher around here somewhere. I gotta put up a fence in a few weeks....

[Godson]

Any single use composite compression fasteners?

Lmfao

[Kchrpm]

I enjoy my job at Fifth Third. It lets me work on various projects and tasks of differing sizes, with a heavy reliance on doing Excel stuff.

I enjoy hosting trivia. It's a bit like being a traveling game show host, except I'm also the DJ and sound tech, and I've been able to set up a regular location that doesn't need much travel. I hope that it stabilizes and grows.

[dodint]

I look forward to experiencing that in a few weeks. :up:

[speedpimp]

Next week marks four years at the current job. This past year has crammed about ten years worth of excitement and anxiety into twelve calendar months.

[Dicknose]

Had a good weekend at work - coaching beach volleyball.
It’s winter, but it’s really sunny weather. Ok that means very cold starts (saw 1C coldest I’ve seen at my place) but the days hit 20C.
Anyway we got a new coach and she played at the London Olympics. So yeah about 1000 times better than I ever was. But she had a beginner class and I don’t think she had worked with absolute newbies in a while. So I came over and asked if she needed a bit of help since it was a large group and an odd number. So I jumped in the group of 3 guys and made it two pairs so they could do the same drill as the others. Then I showed one of them a little variation of the drill that just made it a bit more interesting. Then I noticed the other coach see this, go “oh” and started getting everyone to do that.
So I managed to teach the Olympian something!
Yeah not a huge thing, but for someone who has only been doing the coaching gig for less than 2 years it was great to feel I could bring something new to someone vastly more experienced than me.
I do at times feel like I’m an imposter, but then something like this happens and I’m like “yeah I’m actually good at this”. It’s a great feeling!

[Ashie]

:up: Glad you had a great experience with coaching

[speedpimp]

In the past year we had two drivers leave for better paying jobs at much larger companies. One went to work for a trash company that had a "3 PTs on contact rule(your hands/feet must be in contact with the steps/grab handles when entering/exiting the trucks)", he came back after six months. The other driver left a little over a month ago to tend to his farm and drive part time for a dairy company. Found out yesterday he's coming back full time because slinging milk "wasn't his thing"(and he didn't like the way they micromanaged EVERY "miss" movement of the truck). Glad to have them both back, even though one decapitated a truck on Valentine's Day.
Yesterday marked four years of slinging produce. I've looked at other opportunities and missed out on a couple(missed interview due to being called into work on a day off), fucked off a friendship, and have decided to stay where I am at until the place implodes around me(hopefully not for another 10-20 years). This week was only 67 hrs in 6 days. Can't wait until Pitt to see some of you fuckers. It's been way too long.

[dodint]

We'll fix you up.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I'll be with you in spirit Pimpie, but Jesus is with you always!

Don't work too hard man!

[FaultyMario]

Any experience with the Ivy Lee method (http://jamesclear.com/ivy-lee)?

[Crazed_Insanity]

I think any method that's as simple and basic as possible can help. The simplicity is necessary in order for us to keep at it day in and day out.

One draw back of that Ivy Lee method is that I might get too tired at the end of the day... may be in the rush to get home from office... or if really at the end of the day in my bedroom... I just might dose off before I figure out my next 6 tasks for tomorrow.... ;)

I'm super easily distracted... this forum is one of the main distractions in my life...

Anyway, I found a method called the focus funnel method... you just write down whatever tasks you think you need to do on an index card... so you end up with a pile of cards... whenever you think have a block of time to do something and not sure what to do, just go thru the deck of cards.... and quickly go thru these thought processes:

Can you eliminate this card/task? No?
Can you automate this somehow? No? (If yes, figure out a way to deal with this recurring task so you don't need this in your pile of cards again!)
Can you delegate this to someone else? No?
Can you do this later? Yeah?
Okay, the you go pick out the next card in the deck and keep on recycle thru these cards...
If you can't do this later,
Then you fucking concentrate on this task and try to get it done!

I've found this method working out for me because I'm very good a procrastinating too...

The draw back of this method is that I can often times lose my deck of cards after a while... it can also get kinda overwhelming when deck gets thicker...

[balki]

Sounds like the Ivy Lee method would work REALLY well for me, except most of my time is spent on other people's emergencies, one-off inquiries, system glitches, ...

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, that's probably not for 'fire fighter' type jobs..., but can still be useful for personal goals whenever you're not fighting fires...

[speedpimp]

I have one coworker that constantly bugs the piss out of another. It started when he sent the other person pics of his dog's penis...repeatedly. It got so bad that the other person broke down crying and did the wise thing and blocked the tormentor's phone. The other day I got back from my route to hear the tale of the tormentor giving the other a Wet Willy. If you you unaware of what that is, it's when you lick your finger and stick it in another person's ear. The tormentor only does this because he knows it gets under the others skin, but either doesn't realize that the person he's tormenting is extremely volatile or just chooses to ignore that fact. So the Tormentee went to the owner of the company and nothing will happen. Tormentor says he didn't give the Wet Willy. This what happens when you work with people in their thirties and fifties who act like fucking children.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Interesting.

I’d consider wet Willy a form of sexual assault. Nobody fucks with my ears!!!

[Tom Servo]

Wow, you'd be immediately terminated at my job for the dog dick pics, and likely terminated for the wet willy. At least you'd be put on some kind of probation where, if something else happened with you at that same co-worker, you'd get the axe.

[Godson]

I've wet willied people at work...

The dog dick pics is no go. I'd report your bitch ass to HR faster than Usain Bolt can do a 100 meter dash.

[Tom Servo]

I guess it kinda depends. I know people at work who would be okay wet willying each other, but I personally wouldn't be okay with it and expect to be able to go to work and not have to deal with that.

[Godson]

Well, we aren't in cubicles or anything either where I work, so that aspect is a lot different too. Lol

[Dicknose]

Big difference between wet willy from a friend and one from someone who is harassing you.
Id expect a letter from a lawyer would sort it out damn quick. One wont be working there, depending on which one, they could be walking with a large wad of cash and a business that is no longer in business.

[speedpimp]

The one who was willied was told to quit showing up to work an hour early. The willier says he didn't do it. Situational status quo.

[FaultyMario]

Is this thread now like the work-window thing from way back?

[balki]

I don’t see how a dog’s lipstick pic is it the same category (let alone worse) than a wet Willy.
One is mildly inappropriate, the other involves swabbing a bodily fluid in someone else’s orifice.
I can’t imagine going to HR for any animal pics, but even my best friend is liable to catch an elbow, jab or cross for sticking their spit-covered finger in my ear.

[Tom Servo]

It's been a really shit last 8 days for me - a funeral, my father hospitalized (he's out and doing better), and a crisis at work that lead to a lot of long days during this.

Over the past few days of the crisis I've been working on a program to process a ton of files from S3, massage that data, and get it loaded into SQS to eventually be pulled into DynamoDB. I haven't done a lot of multithreaded coding, but today my app managed to hold together while running 2,400 concurrent goroutines (read: threads) and processed a few hundred million records, at times reaching 140k records/second. It's been a shitty week, but it's really cool to see your code absolutely smash through a ton of data and fix a problem that looked like it'd take weeks to fix in a matter of minutes.

That dopamine rush has lessened over the years, but it's still there when you can tell the stakeholders that that thing that was going to take weeks to solve just got knocked out in < 45 min.

[Cam]

:lol::up:

[dodint]

That is the exact opposite of what I do. Sounds like fun.

I have someone coming to inspect some of my assets today. As a compliance officer this is kind of my super bowl. Except, yeah, it's even more boring than the actual super bowl.

[dodint]

And, I failed. Yayyyyyy. No because of anything I did, but, still. Blah.

[FaultyMario]

Dude! It almost feel bad to come to gloat.

Almost.


Just gave a presentation on my research project. Aced it!

Nailed it, actually. Still, it feels like a win.

[Cam]

It has been tough to keep going sometimes, but my “job” may finally be starting to pay off. It has been over two years since I started. I had many minor successes along the way. I never felt like I made it until the last several weeks. I had a few clients purchase and commission several pieces. If I can continue my current momentum, I will actually be able to make a living at this. :cool:

(I am intentionally vague to remain somewhat anonymous.)

[Leon]

Nice one! I love your insta stuff :)

[Tom Servo]

Awesome!

[Kchrpm]

At the end of last year, both of the trivia shows that I hosted were cancelled, I found out later because the pub was being sold. They had never had strong regular attendance, usually around 5-15 people. They had been going since the summer and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue hosting regularly. Low attendance at shows didn't really affect me monetarily, I get paid the same regardless, but it could be disheartening.

Fast forward to now. The pub's new owners are great: they're not just invested financially, they're at the local regularly and just last night they were seating tables. They have regular customers from their other restaurant and businesses that they brought over, and I was just told that trivia night is their most consistently successful night. They finally posted Facebook events a few weeks ago, and we've seen an uptick of new teams, going from around 20 players consistently to 30.

Also, I took over another location for my second weekly show in May, and after maybe a month the attendance had grown so much that they moved it from the bar area to the huge open area, basically making trivia the star attraction of the night. It's now 40+ people every week, and on monthly theme nights can get over 100 (for The Office it was 400-500!).

I'm now over 150 shows hosted, using a sound system with silly lights that I got at Best Buy and the cheapest microphone they sold at Sam Ash (which died around show #140, and was replaced with another el cheapo), and I'm really glad I stuck with it.

[Cam]

Nice, man! :cool:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Cool man! Sounds so fun too!

Can you do a trivia show here for us? (Of course participants will have to promise to not google for answers! :p )

[FaultyMario]

Hey, good to hear!

[Tom Servo]

The job's mostly just okay, but the view doesn't suck.

https://i.imgur.com/kOXz3dR.jpg

[Alan P]

Wow Tom that certainly beats my view over the work car park!

Started a new job within the same company about 8 weeks ago. Rather different to what I was doing before. Previously it was dealing with home customers Broadband and Sky TV Issues. Last year we started branching out into Business Broadband leased lines (Broadband connections, usually over Fibre, exclusively for companies use, with options from 50MB right up to 1 GB symmetrical) and as we use several business partners we never speak to the end user.

It's MAGICAL.

On a normal day we'd have back to back calls, usually around 30 a day with moans, complaints, demands for compensation for minor issues etc. This place? I waited over an hour for a call on Tuesday. Sure there's other work to be done as most of the comms are done via email, but considering it's Monday to Friday, 8:30-5 with an hour lunch (previously 30 mins) compared to Tuesday to Saturday with a late night on Thursday I'm in heaven. Small wage bump (actually the highest in my team as it happens, although only by around £400 a year) but we have such a good laugh as well and can chat and talk to each other and we had music on most days as well! Loving it and there's a major expansion planned next year too so things might be looking up!

[Dicknose]

If we are doing work photos...
3391
3392

[JoshInKC]

Work photos it is.
3393
33943395

[Crazed_Insanity]

What lousy views!

I love my cubicle walls and LED screens!

Next year, so looking fwd to our new downsized cubicles. I guess I’m so lucky to not be down sized myself yet...

[shakes]

Every week we have a safety meeting and a bulletin from upper management. One of the headings in this week's bulletin was a request specifically asking employees not to take pictures of, or selfies with the uranium fuel bundles that are currently being staged to go into one of the reactors. I definitely get to see some cool stuff working in a nuclear facility but sadly I'd probably get in a fair deal of trouble if I ever posted anything to social media.

[Cam]

Don't worry. We know what you look like at work.

3408

[Kchrpm]

After more than two years at my company, I was finally offered a direct position.

Twice.

I accepted (the second offer), and will now be working on the same team but with heightened responsibilities and influence, as well as better pay and benefits. I'm very excited!

[Cam]

Great news, Kch! :cool:

[neanderthal]

After more than two years at my company, I was finally offered a direct position.

Twice.

I accepted (the second offer), and will now be working on the same team but with heightened responsibilities and influence, as well as better pay and benefits. I'm very excited!

Awesometacular!!!

[George]

Cool! Glad to hear some companies are hiring now.

Enjoy the The Key.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFhbpVodd_o

[Crazed_Insanity]

In this day and age, how do you get multiple offers, from the same company?!?!

You must be awesome! :D

[Kchrpm]

In this day and age, how do you get multiple offers, from the same company?!?!

You must be awesome! :D

Timing! I interviewed in February for a different team, someone on my current team put in her two weeks in April, I got the offer for the February interview the same day I was told they wanted to interview me for the current team, and one of the few remaining people on the current team threatened to quit if I was gone from the current team, too. I went from applying to offer in less than a week.

[neanderthal]

Brilliantastic!

[Tom Servo]

Nice, congrats!

[Crazed_Insanity]

Timing! I interviewed in February for a different team, someone on my current team put in her two weeks in April, I got the offer for the February interview the same day I was told they wanted to interview me for the current team, and one of the few remaining people on the current team threatened to quit if I was gone from the current team, too. I went from applying to offer in less than a week.

Anyway, it’s not timing, like I said, it’s your awesomeness!

[FaultyMario]

I accepted (the second offer), and will now be working on the same team but with heightened responsibilities and influence, as well as better pay and benefits. I'm very excited!

Awesome news!

Here's to a long and prosperous career, Huzzah!

[dodint]

Well earned, Keith!

[speedpimp]

I've been off the road for the past month and working inside the warehouse. With me inside hours are freed up and other drivers are able to work a full week instead of only working 3-4 days a week. In the past month I have done painting, sanding, people wrangling and other assorted oddball shit. We have a meat department where I work and the dumpster area has a constant smell of moist decay. Well one Friday they pulled the trash compactor out to empty it and I saw the opportunity to get down in the compactor pit and clean some trash up. Me and my brilliant fucking ideas. I grabbed a barrel, a pair of shovels and another driver to get the job done. The pit smelled like leaking hydraulic fluid, blood and rotting produce. Within ten minutes we filled up the barrel and it was time to empty it. We hauled the barrel out of the pit and went to dump it into the dumpster. We lifted it up and my helper smacked the barrel from the bottom which made it smack me upside the head and then it fell into the dumpster. He started apologizing profusely. I told him it was "all part of the job". We tried to get the barrel out of the dumpster. It weighed too much to get out so the only alternative was to climb into the dumpster, so that's what I did. I got the barrel emptied of all the rotting sludge, handed it to the helper and climbed out of the dumpster. After that we went back down in the pit to finish the job. By the time we finished the smell finally got to me and I started gagging. We emptied the barrel again and managed not to knock it into the dumpster. Then we tossed crystallized chlorine down into the pit to neutralize the smell. Since this is also the smoker's area, I emptied out the cigarette butt bucket and filled it with water and some of the bleach crystals. That really smelled for a few days.
Amazingly the smell came out of the hoodie I was wearing after only one washing. The soles of the boots I was wearing are probably scarred for life. It's all in a day's work.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Holy smelly shitty shit. I guess you really really love your job? :p

[speedpimp]

Somebody had to do it.

[JoshInKC]

Whew! Finally got the approval to go out in the field for research this summer. I had just about given up until we got some guardedly optimistic info a couple of weeks ago. My research co-lead and I jumped into action to try and get a team together and write up a ~12 page "covid safety plan" to be able to present to the university provost.
We got final approval today, so June 1 I'm headed back to the Chihuahuan Desert to dig square holes and look for evidence of human occupation @ 15000 years ago.

Woooo! 20 days in an un-airconditioned ranch house in far Southwest Texas.
Then two weeks at home followed by another 20 days at a different site nearby. Yeah! Southwest Texas desert in July!!!!

Seriously, if my job was only digging and teaching it'd be about the perfect life.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Wow! Impressed me yet again in a different thread... a real life Indiana Jones! :p

[Tom Servo]

That's awesome, despite the heat!

[George]

Somebody had to do it.

This guy knows what it means to work. :up:



Woooo! 20 days in an un-airconditioned ranch house in far Southwest Texas.
Then two weeks at home followed by another 20 days at a different site nearby. Yeah! Southwest Texas desert in July!!!!

Sounds like a good place to catch up on some Louis L'amour novels.

Enjoy.

[speedpimp]

Thanks, George. Finally got the smell out of my work boots. Two weeks later and it's back to smelling like decay. A combination of people not caring whether or not trash lands on the ground and not scheduling enough people to cover a shift.

Stabs, where will you be in relation to El Paso? Congrats on getting the green light. At least it's a dry heat.;)