Job and General Employment Thread

[willeyeam]

I have one voicemail I saved from my grandma. I'm anal about a clean inbox/voicemails/unread texts

[NTP66]

I have more e-mail in my inbox right now than ever before, thanks to multiple projects being railroaded by our new manager. Two of my projects went yellow, and one is well on its way to red.

[DigitalGypsy66]

My university’s president congratulated via a tweet one of our new VPs on some CSPAN show, talking about the importance of American civics and history education (he has a consultancy business on the side that promotes civics education).

Meanwhile, we’ve eliminated our History major, and as a result, both tenured history professors took early retirement.

[faftorial]

My university’s president congratulated via a tweet one of our new VPs on some CSPAN show, talking about the importance of American civics and history education (he has a consultancy business on the side that promotes civics education).

Meanwhile, we’ve eliminated our History major, and as a result, both tenured history professors took early retirement.

When do you give notice?

[DigitalGypsy66]

I’m hoping to hold out until January, with a last day in mid-February. Two weeks between jobs, with a week or so in Disney/Universal (twice postponed since March 2020). I’ve heard of three more staff quitting between last week and this week, including our registrar right before spring semester registration.

[meow]

We will be in Disney last week in January. See you there?

[Pavel Bure]

I'm surprised how many people are anti-work phone. A huge part of my job is on the phone every day, and I do not want candidates and whatnot to have my personal cell number. Plus, I like being able to silent my work phone after hours and not think about it until the next day.

I do agree that I would never, ever want my company email, etc. loaded on my personal phone.

My work cell stays in the office unless I’m working remotely or traveling. Some of the office takes it everywhere. No thank you.

[DigitalGypsy66]

We will be in Disney last week in January. See you there?

We’ll be there the end of February.

[nocera]

Hope you guys have done your Genie+/Lightning Lane research.

[willeyeam]

We will be in Disney last week in January. See you there?

We’ll be there the end of February.

You used the wrong emoji. Is there one for breathing a sigh of relief?

[meow]

Are you working yet, you bum?

[dodint]

A worker in Florida applied to 60 entry-level jobs in September and got one interview
https://www.businessinsider.com/worker- ... ge-2021-10

Joey Holz recalled first hearing complaints about a labor shortage last year when he called to donate convalescent plasma at a clinic near Fort Myers, Florida.

"The guy went on this rant about how he can't find help and he can't keep anybody in his medical facility because they all quit over the stimulus checks," Holz told Insider. "And I'm like, 'Your medical professionals quit over $1,200 checks? That's weird.'"

Over the next several months, he watched as a growing chorus of businesses said they couldn't find anyone to hire because of government stimulus money. It was so ubiquitous that he joined a "No one wants to work" Facebook group, where users made memes deriding frustrated employers.

He said he found it hard to believe that government money was keeping people out of the labor force, especially when the end of expanded federal unemployment benefits did not seem to trigger a surge in employment. The expanded benefits ended in September, but 26 states ended them early in June and July.

"If this extra money that everyone's supposedly living off of stopped in June and it's now September, obviously, that's not what's stopping them," he said. Workers have said companies struggling to hire aren't offering competitive pay and benefits.

So Holz, a former food-service worker and charter-boat crewman, decided to run an experiment.

On September 1, he sent job applications to a pair of restaurants that had been particularly public about their staffing challenges.

Then, he widened the test and spent the remainder of the month applying to jobs — mostly at employers vocal about a lack of workers — and tracking his journey in a spreadsheet.

Two weeks and 28 applications later, he had just nine email responses, one follow-up phone call, and one interview with a construction company that advertised a full-time job focused on site cleanup paying $10 an hour.

But Holz said the construction company instead tried to offer Florida's minimum wage of $8.65 to start, even though the wage was scheduled to increase to $10 an hour on September 30. He added that it wanted full-time availability, while scheduling only part time until Holz gained seniority.

Holz said he wasn't applying for any roles he didn't qualify for.

Some jobs "wanted a high-school diploma," he said. "Some wanted retail experience," he added. "Most of them either said 'willing to train' or 'minimum experience,' and none of them were over $12 an hour."

He said: "I didn't apply for anything that required a degree. I didn't apply for anything that said 'must have six months experience in this thing.'"

Holz isn't alone. Others have also spoken out about their troubles finding work, despite the seemingly tight labor market.

In a Facebook post on September 29, which went viral on Twitter and Reddit as well, Holz said, "58 applications says y'all aren't desperate for workers, you just miss your slaves."

"My opinion is that this is a familiar story to many," he added.

By the end of September, Holz had sent out 60 applications, received 16 email responses, four follow-up phone calls, and the solitary interview. He shared a pie chart showing his results.



Holz acknowledged that his results may not be representative of the larger labor challenges in the country, since his search was local and targeted the most vocal critics of stimulus spending.

He added that despite the claims of some businesses struggling to hire, his boss had no staffing issues during the pandemic.

"Nobody leaves those positions because he takes care of his people," Holz said, referring to his boss.

While not terribly scientific I found this interesting in that it reinforced my view from early in the pandemic. The battle cry that people were quitting good service industry jobs so they could sit at home collecting a $1200 check every few months always rang as really hollow to me. I admire the length he went to illustrate the point.
Florida Man did a good thing.

[tifosi77]

So that mirrors my own personal experience. The last couple years (going back even to the Before Times) I applied to random hourly wage jobs, just to have a second income. I'm talking Trader Joe's, Crate & Barrel, Total Wine, etc. The only call back I got was from the GM of a dog daycare place who didn't want to interview me but was just curious why someone with my background/experience (and, implicitly, of my advanced age) wanted to work at a dog daycare. He told me to apply again after Labor Day when the college kids he employed went back to school.

[MR25]

Only 6 more work days here... only 6 more work days here... only 6 more work days here...

I shouldn't need to explain something to you 5 **** times, and you send me a 6th email asking me if you should do exactly what I've **** told you 5 times.

[Morkle]

6 more days? It'd be checked out city after the 2nd time telling that person.

[NTP66]

Work is allowing us to purchase an office chair on their dime (we pay the taxes), giving us 4 options from the vendor they use. I may grab one for my wife, since hers isn't that great.

[willeyeam]

My last day of freedom. Really thought after three weeks I'd be ready to get back to work. I'm just ready to retire

[NTP66]

[willeyeam]

Honestly I stayed really busy. Only maybe two days just bumming around at home. Gives me hope that when I retire I won't be endlessly bored

[shafnutz05]

My last day of freedom. Really thought after three weeks I'd be ready to get back to work. I'm just ready to retire

I took a week off between my last job and this one, and my God was it glorious. I can't imagine three.

[willeyeam]

I haven't even taken a full week off in years, just long weekends and the like. It's been great. I feel good

[meow]

[dodint]

I feel bad for my wife. She's caught in one of those situations where her field has a standardized test that gatekeeps entry and she just doesn't possess that arbitrary skillset. She did great in school, deans list, etc. She works in a PT clinic and is by all accounts a really fantastic and engaged practitioner. Health systems have been hammering down the door throwing contingent job offers at her. She studies three-four hours a night with fellow students, tutors, and instructors from companies that teach only this test. But she found out today that she failed the exam for the second time, by a few points.
It's only offered once a quarter so now she has to regroup and start all over again, with this hanging over her head for the next three months. And if she fails the next one she has to skip the spring administration of the test because you're not allowed to take it four times in a row.

It all feels very stupid and arbitrary. Both in terms of the fact they only administer it in Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct and that it's a multiple-choice exam testing memorized material. Nobody operates that way in real life; similar to the bar exam. If it was a practical application test where she had to demonstrate actually helping a patient they would have given her a passing score immediately. I'm not overstating how much of a disconnect there is between her actual proficiency in the clinical setting and her inability to pass this objective test. It's maddening.

It'd be really super great to have two real incomes again. Right now she makes about $12/hr for 20-25 hours a week so she can study for this **** exam. When she passes she'll jump to over $20/hr and full time. We're not hurting but I have new golf clubs to buy and they're expensive af.

[NAN]

Good luck to her dodint. The CPA exam (at least when I took it) was similar in that you could only take it once a quarter, you had to pass 2 of the 4 parts in order for them to count (couldn't just pass one part the first time), and after I think it was 6 failed attempts, if you didn't pass all 4 parts, you had to start over.

Fortunately I passed all 4 parts after 3 tries, but it was frustrating and seemed to take forever. And while there was some essay/problem solving to it, most of it was multiple choice, and a vast majority of it I probably have never seen in real life.

However it did open up a ton of doors, regardless of how stupid it is. Tell her to keep plugging away and I'm sure when she looks back, it will be worth it. Best of luck!!

[willeyeam]

Nan also had to etch his responses into the stone tablet when he took the exam