Job and General Employment Thread

[obhave]

American work culture can suck in many ways, but I today I got an email that just upsets me about corporate expectations.

I am working with a consultant for something. He told me in an email that his father passed away last night, so he will be OOO for a few days. But he would ensure to check his email and respond promptly to me during that time. Like wtf dude, you shouldn't ever feel pressure to do that.

It adds on to the amount of OOO things I see from American says they are on holiday but will be checking email.

Step away from the computer, people.

[skullman80]

Yeah that kind of stuff is insane to me. The last thing that guy should be worried about is anything related to work.

[RonnieFranchise]

It’s engrained, too. I felt bad for taking the day off today with my dog passing. My boss and every one of my employees and colleagues said, do not worry about work today.

But I’m here worried about work. It is a culture problem.

[NTP66]

Source of the post It adds on to the amount of OOO things I see from American says they are on holiday but will be checking email.

I will never understand this. The second my vacation time starts, work is dead to me. Don't call me. Don't text me. I will not respond.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

There are a finite number of people who are so vital to an enterprise that they should be obligated to monitor emails when they are on vacation. I am most definitely not one of them

[DigitalGypsy66]

I remember the days before email, way back in the 1980s. We used to go to OBX for two weeks. No phone at the house, although Dad had a state issued cellular phone in the van. He used to go to gas station to call back to his office (at Pitt) to check in. Maybe 1x-2x for the two weeks we were there.

First of all, taking two consecutive weeks off is fairly unheard of today. I am actually feeling guilty even thinking about doing something like that Next, he had next to no contact with his office for the trip - also a rarity today.

So now we work too much, even when we are supposed to be on vacation. Our society is lesser because of it imo.

[Orlando Penguin]

Source of the post It adds on to the amount of OOO things I see from American says they are on holiday but will be checking email.

I will never understand this. The second my vacation time starts, work is dead to me. Don't call me. Don't text me. I will not respond.

I was usually pretty good about this as well. Once I walked out of the office after my shift or once the day at the course was done, work became the furthest thing from my mind. It wasn't as easy when on the road though just due to circumstances.

This all goes to show the erosion of work/life balance and priorities across society being messed up.

[meow]

My out of office has always been

“Thank you for the message. I am out of the office until XXX XX and will respond when I return. If you have a pressing need, please contact the service center.

ya boy”

[count2infinity]

I do a lot of good networking on LinkedIn, but man... some of the posts that my connections like or reshare.

I proposed to my girlfriend this weekend.

Here's what it taught me about B2B sales:

Just... what?!?!

[MR25]

"You have to wine em and dine em before you can **** em and get their money"

There, saved you the click.

[skullman80]

LinkedIn is honestly 99% cesspool. Every once in a while there is something worthwhile on there, and I'm on there just to network, but overall it's a giant turd of people patting themselves on the back and making AI generated posts.

[Kane]

I do a lot of good networking on LinkedIn, but man... some of the posts that my connections like or reshare.

I proposed to my girlfriend this weekend.

Here's what it taught me about B2B sales:

Just... what?!?!

that post spawned a lot of mockery and memes on reddit. Absolutely ridiculous.

[Morkle]

I have never been busier job life, ever. Every day is meetings from like 8:30-5, and I am double and triple booked. Thankfully, most of my life is communication so it’s not over bearing, but IT is so goofy in that everyone wants to meet, double and triple time.

[NTP66]

We're very meeting heavy where I am, too. Half of the time, the meeting should have been an e-mail or IM. My team does have three working sessions per week where 1-5pm is blocked off, and for the most part, we don't have others booking meetings in that time, which is nice.

Our team lead was given **** last week when a PM asked when his task would be done and he replied with 'when I can stop coming to these meetings and actually do the work'.

[tifosi77]

No one wants to have a meeting with us. What I do and where, if you're meeting with us it's like 50-50 you did something wrong.

[dodint]

I have a second interview at the nuclear propulsion lab. So that's cool.

My second interview went very well. I am pretty certain they're going to extend an offer...We'll see, they said if I get an offer it would be Friday or Monday.

Friday and Monday came and went last week. So I let it simmer and then finally reached out with a note this morning. The hiring manager called me and quickly said they sent my selection to HR the day after the interview (March 26th) and it is languishing with them. So I am getting an offer, but it's too early to tell about salary or schedule.

My current job happened to put me in for a pay bump (without knowing about the lab stuff) so the incentive to leave is now slightly less. We'll see what they put on the table.

To close the loop on the Bettis situation. They took a month to make me an offer. The offer they came back with was the standard 8% offer, when I had requested a minimum of 10.4%. What they offered me would be the equivalent of a lateral move with modest pay bump instead of a promotion, so I declined. If they can't afford 2.4% over standard to get me in the door I highly doubt their incentive pool reward model would've been very fair; HR told me to take the weak offer and wait until I get bumped at my annual review next year. Nah.

While all this was going on I had a frank discussion with my boss's supervisor, who is the supervisor that hired me and has been a career mentor for me. I'm currently on a 5-year temporary promotion; sitting in someone's seat who went to Korea and has return rights. At the end of the 5 years I go back from being a lead to just an analyst. I'd get to keep my pay rate but upon demotion, I would be at the highest step for that grade and would no longer be eligible for pay increases. I have about two years left in this promotion billet.

What my mentor was able to do was find an empty billet in the organization at my promotion level and lobby our CIO to convert me from term to permanent by reallocating that billet to my team. For an agency heavily strapped by budget constraints that was the most creative way he could come up with to retain me. The only hitch is that the position had to be advertised for one day to candidates working outside the US; the cyber version of clearing waivers. I was notified today that nobody claimed the billet so it's mine.

Independent of all of this I was awarded an out-of-cycle pay increase at my annual review. So combine that pay increase with my regular annual increase I'll get bumped about 6.4% this year, and now I'm permanent in my role. This will have the effect of shutting me the **** up about new jobs for about 3-5 years. That said, I'll still monitor vacancies at the next level, but I'm already at grade 13 of 15 so the top of the pyramid is getting pretty small.

It's a bittersweet day as one of my best performers and an all-around great guy is leaving for the Dept of the Interior today. I'm happy he was able to get promoted but he is going to be sorely missed on my team.

TL;DR: I turned down the nuke gig and leveraged my current employer for a better situation.

[NTP66]

Source of the post he only hitch is that the position had to be advertised for one day

The last two places I worked at had this same policy - even for promotions. Positions had to be posted externally for one day, and anyone with a qualifying resume that applied were to be interviewed. I was once an interviewer for my own promotion... which, in all honesty, is shitty because it completely wasted the guy's time.

Congrats, though. Clever way to get what you wanted.

[meow]

Good. I wouldn’t trust dodint with the nuke codes anyway

[tifosi77]

Well done and good on ya

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

@mikey out of curiousity, are you using any resources on your entrepreneurial endeavor?

I had read Lean Startup a few years ago and being from the software world it all was pretty straightforward for me. I recently purchased Disciplined Entrepreneurship which seems to be the most well-regarded text for start up hopefuls (it's written by an MIT prof so I trust it). It seems to be good but the main focus of it (do market research before ever building anything and wasting time) is a bit different than what I had expected

also didn't realize that states typically have their own Small Business Development orgs with free consulting services (at least, NC and SC do and I'm making use of both). That is a super nice surprise

[mikey]

@mikey out of curiousity, are you using any resources on your entrepreneurial endeavor?

In short, no. Not yet. I'm still in the cursory investigation period right now because it's #3 on my list preferences. I'm taking a couple of homerun shots first and foremost. Once I get those out the door, I'm going to go hard at making my own thing...

And then, barring it being a huge hit to make me independently wealthy, I'll keep it alive as a side piece and return to the miserable experience that we mostly all share - a 9 to 5 job involving something I'm not passionate about...

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

mikey is gonna start an OF confirmed.

[count2infinity]

Gonna start? Who the f*ck have I been subscribed to for the past year???

[dodint]

Finally, I don't have to fap to his Facebook anymore.

[meow]

keep it for that nostalgic jerk though