Work Status Update

[dovecanyoncat]

As a xeno-something misfit worker I find this lexicon utterly heartbreaking. Don't get me wrong, I cynically presume the pain-point intimacies of work life drill into all of us: who the fuck wouldn't. But those that flourish across a broad spectrum of human commonality are especially gruesome, not for their every single impact, but for the breadth of their aggregation.

There was a time in life when I thought this depicted the proper professional thing to shoot for, and I was ashamed for having failed to make it. Decades later I read an aged unspecified chagrin in my old mates who in the day hit the mark and soldiered on to endure their special reward/torment. We weigh each other both in that reckoned chagrin. They have a cultural community of commonality and understanding. I try to lay off an envy and disappointment and relief I can't explain.

"Pease explain"= What the fuck does this actually mean?

A year and a half or so before I walk out the door.

I worked in a very small world of virtual anonymity and isolation compared to millions of folks who, by contrast, survived a work-world/community of shared ugliness that also comforted them in a way I'll never really understand: The straight world I call it to myself. When now I meet up with old buds from the straight world ...... those (mostly) men who gave me the look back when I veered off the path ..... they have a strange version of that same look, only now it's mixed with some proud regret. At least that what it seems like. It's as if the proper trials of professionalism never bound me rightly on the wheel, and as such there's a lesson in life I never learned. Of course I can't make common to them my particular sufferings anymore than a combat vet can share war with a trust fund socialite: we are just different creatures now.

I was seized and saddened by the body of language, the nomenclature of corporate blackholes that people find themselves in as cynically monumented by the email phrases Eebs posted. It's a world of shit deeply populated by real people suffering in that living language. It makes me feel that I both dodged a bullet and never really earned the world for what it is.

[Chicat]

This is some deep stuff, to which I’ll add my own simplistic spin…

The world is what you make of it, and also what it makes of you.

By which I mean some people absolutely thrive in that world where that language you saw there is the norm. Others exist in it against their will. And still others learn to navigate it like a ship in seas that are at times calm and in others turbulent; always remaining upright but progressively more battered and beaten.

I have colleagues who read every email from HR like it was a letter from a far off lover, not realizing the company doesn’t give a fuck about them and are only saying things that sound nice to keep up that level of infatuated interest. I have others who spend all day dreaming about the day they put in their 2-weeks notice so they can do what they truly want to, while at the same time knowing it will probably never happen.

I’m much more pragmatic. I enjoy being a part of a team and knowing I’m contributing while concurrently living with the truth that the moment I become superfluous or a pain point I will be booted with zero remorse. I also have become adept at making 40% look like 100%. For instance, I have three deliverables due by the end of the week, two of which I haven’t started, and yet I’ve posted here countless times while getting paid for that work I have not yet done.

I often think about my brother who was a forestry firefighter and crab boat fisherman. I envy the beautiful and destructive natural things he must have seen. The mountains and streams, eagles and storms. But then I think about his bad knees, worse back, three baby mamas, kids that don’t talk to him, and his crippling addictions which have all rendered him practically unemployable at this point. When he was pulling in a crab pot on a day so crisp and clear he could see Russia, or when he was clearing a fire line to protect some shitty town in the middle of nowhere, did he think to himself… “at some point I should learn to type out a business email because before I know it this world will be done with me”?

The world carves us … and it carves us up. No matter what you do or who you are.

[Alieberman]

Every February at my company we have to do performance reviews... they are a complete waste of time and everyone seems to freak out about them. Everyone... except me.

While others spend weeks crafting their reviews and spewing out flowery nonsense about how they are god's greatest gift... I do mine on the last day before it's due and spend less than 10 minutes on it.

They are fucking meaningless

(Also last year I got the biggest $$ bump on my team)

[EastCoastCat]

I find great value in this thread = you guys are all full of shit

[ASUHATER!]

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

This isn't a flex. At all. Stay home if you're sick. Doesn't make you more manly or a better employee to always be at work. That's the attitude which leads to us not having livable wages and bare minimum working conditions for most people in America.

Haha. Jeez. Good one.

Just saw this comment now, and yeah not a flex. It translates to "I've been a mattress for my bosses my entire life and love being taken advantage of and treated like shit. I also hate my coworkers and keeping people healthy and safe and am selfish".

Stay home if you're sick, everyone deserves time off and rest to recover.

[Chicat]

I have a very young coworker (this is her first real job) who is very much a people pleaser but the leadership on her team is made up of petty stupid people who actively try to squash ambition and growth because they don’t want to be surpassed. The type of manager that will tell you to send them the presentation an hour before the meeting to “look it over” but then just delete your name and stick their name on it so they get the credit.

About 6 months ago it came to her managers’ attention that informally and outside of work she referred to them as the WOAT (worst of all time). They’ve made her life hell ever since. Going so far as to provide her guidelines because she’s moving from Chicago to New York that are so restrictive that she practically has to ask permission to use the bathroom even though both here and there she is a 100% remote employee.

Every day she texts me telling me how they get mad at her for trying to grow and learn. Today she reached out to a vendor to find out more about their offering and was told in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t her job and not to do that even though having that knowledge would benefit the team.

They don’t like her and they want her to quit even though she is the most eager and skilled person they have.

Meanwhile there’s another girl on their team who does not give a fuck. Late to every meeting and deadline. Has a “that’s not my job”attitude. Throws coworkers under the bus regularly for things she was supposed to do but didn’t.

Those same managers LOVE that slacker. They think she’s so funny and never get mad even when she tells them to fuck off. Meanwhile my girl is literally crying because she wants to learn and grow and they get pissed when she does.

I’m trying to guide her toward caring less and enjoying the freedom of only doing what you’re told to do. I’m also trying to let her know gently that no matter what she does, no matter how well or quickly she gets her work done, they will never like or respect her and it’s time to move on. But she’s literally just being crushed by a job that might not even exist in ten years once our AI overlords take over. It’s really very sad to me.

[Carcassdragger]

In 39 years of full time professional life, I've taken a total of less than three days off as sick leave. Just wasn't raised that way.

To me, if you have the sniffles, get your ass up and go to work.

This isn't a flex. At all. Stay home if you're sick. Doesn't make you more manly or a better employee to always be at work. That's the attitude which leads to us not having livable wages and bare minimum working conditions for most people in America.

Haha. Jeez. Good one.

Just saw this comment now, and yeah not a flex. It translates to "I've been a mattress for my bosses my entire life and love being taken advantage of and treated like shit. I also hate my coworkers and keeping people healthy and safe and am selfish".

Stay home if you're sick, everyone deserves time off and rest to recover.

Great attitude Skippy. Stay home when you have a little sniffle and keep thinking your bosses are out to get you. Hope your career goes well.

[Carcassdragger]

I have a very young coworker (this is her first real job) who is very much a people pleaser but the leadership on her team is made up of petty stupid people who actively try to squash ambition and growth because they don’t want to be surpassed. The type of manager that will tell you to send them the presentation an hour before the meeting to “look it over” but then just delete your name and stick their name on it so they get the credit.

About 6 months ago it came to her managers’ attention that informally and outside of work she referred to them as the WOAT (worst of all time). They’ve made her life hell ever since. Going so far as to provide her guidelines because she’s moving from Chicago to New York that are so restrictive that she practically has to ask permission to use the bathroom even though both here and there she is a 100% remote employee.

Every day she texts me telling me how they get mad at her for trying to grow and learn. Today she reached out to a vendor to find out more about their offering and was told in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t her job and not to do that even though having that knowledge would benefit the team.

They don’t like her and they want her to quit even though she is the most eager and skilled person they have.

Meanwhile there’s another girl on their team who does not give a fuck. Late to every meeting and deadline. Has a “that’s not my job attitude”. Throws coworkers under the bus regularly for things she was supposed to do but didn’t.

Those same managers LOVE that slacker. They think she’s so funny and never get mad even when she tells them to fuck off. Meanwhile my girl is literally crying because she wants to learn and grow and they get pissed when she does.

I’m trying to guide her toward caring less and enjoying the freedom of only doing what you’re told to do. I’m also trying to let her know gently that no matter what she does, no matter how well or quickly she gets her work done, they will never like or respect her and it’s time to move on. But she’s literally just being crushed by a job that might not even exist in ten years once our AI overlords take over. It’s really very sad to me.

I've seen similar situations at my job and it seems to be the newer females that catch this shit. You're right. It is sad and hopefully she'll move on to somewhere that recognizes her value.

[Carcassdragger]

Chi and Dove, your much appreciated posts here are making me reflect on my career which I'm preparing to walk away from.

All I can say is somehow most of us seem to find a way to whatever idealistic dream/goal we once had. Hopefully most of us find it as fulfilling as we hoped.

At times in my career I've been required to travel a bit. Oftentimes, when catching an evening flight I've seen these poor bastards who, as soon as they can, loosen their tie, and order a stiff drink while opening their laptop. I presume this is often after a long day of trying to convince strangers that they should buy some piece of crap they are selling. They look tired as shit and don't look much like they are enjoying it.

I'm not found the fulfillment in my gig that I once thought was intrinsic to it, but I did achieve the goal that I thought many years ago would be worth it. I have great health insurance and make a decent living although I think I might've made more with different goals.

It's the small things I guess, but I've only rarely had to wear anything more dressy to work than a pair of blue jeans and a clean collared shirt. This suits me just fine and I'm thankful for that at least.

I've also had some great adventures on the job, but the shame of it is that these are too few and far between and I'm not finding the rest of it to be worth it anymore.

I just nominated my 5th grade teacher to the district Hall of Fame and called her up today to tell her what she meant to me after she was my teacher 49 years ago. Her former students have come out of the woodwork to support this nomination and all have related to me what a great influence she was. Just a humble teacher, but in the end, she really made a difference. Now that's a career!

[CatsbyAZ]

I worked in a very small world of virtual anonymity and isolation compared to millions of folks who, by contrast, survived a work-world/community of shared ugliness that also comforted them in a way I'll never really understand: The straight world I call it to myself...

I was seized and saddened by the body of language, the nomenclature of corporate blackholes that people find themselves in as cynically monumented by the email phrases Eebs posted. It's a world of shit deeply populated by real people suffering in that living language. It makes me feel that I both dodged a bullet and never really earned the world for what it is.

This might be the most Kafkaesque thing I’ve read since reading Kafka.

It also reminds me of Heidegger’s House of Language: “Language is the house of being. In its home human beings dwell. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home. Their guardianship accomplishes the manifestation of Being insofar as they bring this manifestation to language and preserve it in language through their saying.”

A painfully theoretical statement indeed, but to simplify—
Heidegger is saying that we live inside our language systems (in order to live at all); and we conform to our environments architected by our language systems. Theoretically, language does not come into the world so much as the world comes into language.

How does this practically play out? Look at the medical world’s highly complex vocabulary. This exclusive vocabulary is how medical professionals comprehend, navigate, and live in their worlds – through dedicated language systems. To live in this world, Heidegger’s idea of Being conforms to this world through its language.

Language is how one learns to play a satisfying contributing role in those worlds as part of one’s self worth. Surgeons certainly must master the language of their sciences. Which allows a surgeon the satisfaction and even self-identity of contribution.

Similarly, practitioners of various arts learn their languages of music, writing, painting, etc. For the artist, mastering their language worlds facilitates the transcendence of psychological flow that is the artist’s creative escape.

So why would the corporate world’s “body of language” unsettle you? Because bureaucracy’s “house of language” is contrived and inauthentic in a way science and the escape of art is not; those who traffic in and according to bureaucracy’s terms neither contribute or find the artist’s creative escape.

Many individuals don’t realize they're “suffering in that living language” of contrived corporatism, and for the few who do, even fewer can articulate their frustration as descriptively. Kafka’s writings prototype this deeper, modern age anxiety.

David Foster Wallace’s posthumous novel Pale King has a great passage similarly capturing the main character’s quiet sufferings as a Tax Accountant:

“Lane Dean summoned all his will and bore down and did three returns in a row, and began imagining different high places to jump off of. He felt in a position to say he knew now that hell had nothing to do with fires or frozen troops. Lock a fellow in a windowless room to perform rote tasks just tricky enough to make him have to think, but still rote, tasks involving numbers that connected to nothing he’d ever see or care about, a stack of tasks that never went down, and nail a clock to the wall where he can see it, and just leave the man there to his mind’s own devices.”

[dovecanyoncat]

I worked in a very small world of virtual anonymity and isolation compared to millions of folks who, by contrast, survived a work-world/community of shared ugliness that also comforted them in a way I'll never really understand: The straight world I call it to myself...

I was seized and saddened by the body of language, the nomenclature of corporate blackholes that people find themselves in as cynically monumented by the email phrases Eebs posted. It's a world of shit deeply populated by real people suffering in that living language. It makes me feel that I both dodged a bullet and never really earned the world for what it is.

This might be the most Kafkaesque thing I’ve read since reading Kafka.

It also reminds me of Heidegger’s House of Language: “Language is the house of being. In its home human beings dwell. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home. Their guardianship accomplishes the manifestation of Being insofar as they bring this manifestation to language and preserve it in language through their saying.”

A painfully theoretical statement indeed, but to simplify—
Heidegger is saying that we live inside our language systems (in order to live at all); and we conform to our environments architected by our language systems. Theoretically, language does not come into the world so much as the world comes into language.

How does this practically play out? Look at the medical world’s highly complex vocabulary. This exclusive vocabulary is how medical professionals comprehend, navigate, and live in their worlds – through dedicated language systems. To live in this world, Heidegger’s idea of Being conforms to this world through its language.

Language is how one learns to play a satisfying contributing role in those worlds as part of one’s self worth. Surgeons certainly must master the language of their sciences. Which allows a surgeon the satisfaction and even self-identity of contribution.

Similarly, practitioners of various arts learn their languages of music, writing, painting, etc. For the artist, mastering their language worlds facilitates the transcendence of psychological flow that is the artist’s creative escape.

So why would the corporate world’s “body of language” unsettle you? Because bureaucracy’s “house of language” is contrived and inauthentic in a way science and the escape of art is not; those who traffic in and according to bureaucracy’s terms neither contribute or find the artist’s creative escape.

Many individuals don’t realize they're “suffering in that living language” of contrived corporatism, and for the few who do, even fewer can articulate their frustration as descriptively. Kafka’s writings prototype this deeper, modern age anxiety.

David Foster Wallace’s posthumous novel Pale King has a great passage similarly capturing the main character’s quiet sufferings as a Tax Accountant:

“Lane Dean summoned all his will and bore down and did three returns in a row, and began imagining different high places to jump off of. He felt in a position to say he knew now that hell had nothing to do with fires or frozen troops. Lock a fellow in a windowless room to perform rote tasks just tricky enough to make him have to think, but still rote, tasks involving numbers that connected to nothing he’d ever see or care about, a stack of tasks that never went down, and nail a clock to the wall where he can see it, and just leave the man there to his mind’s own devices.”

Kafka gets me: I was 30 before the world had form. Heidegger echoes one christian tradition I deeply admire: speaking something into being. Between the two of them it's a natural house to live in. I don't envision ideas; I hear them. Language builds world from word. In work, I can't imagine a more expedient prison cell than the perversion of person implicit in the dreadful mission statement: that edifice built of anti-identitary artifice that guts individual speech and agency. It's an Orwellian hell. It escaped and reproduced in the online language-body perversion we're talking about. Our natural moral revulsion to it is comforting: it's there in Chi's explicit compassion for his co-worker, in CD's recognition of suffering in fellow warriors. In the proud regret I witness in old buddy straight-worlders it's not resentment I see, rather I see it as their way of reckoning the opportunity cost of innocence. We pay eventually. We all pay eventually. When language itself becomes the ledger of account, little else is more tragic than that.

[cats101]

Hey fellow Wildcats. This not something I'd typically do but Im going to share/ask.

Yesterday I was laid off for the second time in less than a year. I work in the Mortgage industry (FinTech to be exact) and the market is just volatile for those that follow. I'm a Business Systems Analyst and I have 10 years of experience in said industry in many different roles. I'm open to changing industries. I'm at a lost right now and barely holding it together. I live in Washington, DC and I'm open to hydrid or even on site (remote is a given, I feel). Any tips, suggestions, opportunities or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[azgreg]

I got my yearly review form yesterday. It's blank. My boss told me to fill it out myself.

[UAEebs86]

I got my yearly review form yesterday. It's blank. My boss told me to fill it out myself.

Sounds like the new President and CFO is azgreg!

[azgreg]

I got my yearly review form yesterday. It's blank. My boss told me to fill it out myself.

Sounds like the new President and CFO is azgreg!

No thank you. I like the idea of not having a phone on my desk. Besides, my wife is up for a promotion and I might have to move soon.

[pc in NM]

I got my yearly review form yesterday. It's blank. My boss told me to fill it out myself.

Sounds like the new President and CFO is azgreg!

No thank you. I like the idea of not having a phone on my desk. Besides, my wife is up for a promotion and I might have to move soon.

Whatever - maybe a change would be for the best.

Obviously, you work in a flawed organization...

[azgreg]

Well, just got the call. My wife is the new store manager for the Las Vegas Dillard's.

[UAEebs86]

Well, just got the call. My wife is the new store manager for the Las Vegas Dillard's.

Congrats. Does this mean you will have to find something new?

[azgreg]

Well, just got the call. My wife is the new store manager for the Las Vegas Dillard's.

Congrats. Does this mean you will have to find something new?

Thanks and yes. You know the old saying: "I was looking for a job when I found this one."

[azgreg]

Anybody know any realtors in Vegas?

[Merkin]

Ace Thakore knows "people" there.

I didn't realize Dillards was still a thing. Thought they went the way of Levys, Gottschalks, Goldwaters, Robinson-May and so on.

But looking at the map, not too many out here in Cali but a whole lot in the South.

[azgreg]

I gave my boss my 4 week notice this morning and he just floated the idea of working from home.

[pc in NM]

I gave my boss my 4 week notice this morning and he just floated the idea of working from home.

The same boss who gave you his performance evaluation of your work to complete?

[CalStateTempe]

Taking a meeting on Santa Monica beach.

Life’s good

[azgreg]

I gave my boss my 4 week notice this morning and he just floated the idea of working from home.

The same boss who gave you his performance evaluation of your work to complete?

My boss's boss.

[dovecanyoncat]

I gave my boss my 4 week notice this morning and he just floated the idea of working from home.

The same boss who gave you his performance evaluation of your work to complete?

My boss's boss.

It's safe to say: that represents very very good planning on your part Greg.

[scumdevils86]

Working from home is the tits.

[azgreg]

Here's a nice listing.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/512- ... 8757_zpid/

[azgreg]

Here's the leader in the clubhouse for my wife. She wants to buy it without even stepping foot inside.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7757 ... 6ee8531bae

[pc in NM]

Here's the leader in the clubhouse for my wife. She wants to buy it without even stepping foot inside.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7757 ... 6ee8531bae

Nice views of the neighbor's walls ~6 feet away???

[Chicat]

Here's the leader in the clubhouse for my wife. She wants to buy it without even stepping foot inside.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7757 ... 6ee8531bae

Looks nice! Excited for you guys.

[VegasCatFan]

Here's the leader in the clubhouse for my wife. She wants to buy it without even stepping foot inside.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7757 ... 6ee8531bae

You’d be about 10-15 minutes away from me. I’ll have to buy you a beer.

[Merkin]

That is an amazing price for a near new house. I do like the easy care yard and the kitchen. Short drive to the golf course.

Looks like a Steven Spielberg view of suburbia. Close walk to the park shown.




You could use that greenspace next door as your personal backyard for barbecues and such.

[azgreg]

My wife fly to Vegas this morning to meet with a realtor. So far her favorite house is a new build near Nellis. I'm concerned.

https://search.theschneidergrp.com/sear ... ce]=400000

[Merkin]

What's the address? I can't get to that link: High Risk Website Blocked


Note Nellis has F35s which are so loud they were not allowed to be deployed at DM.

[azgreg]

What's the address? I can't get to that link: High Risk Website Blocked


Note Nellis has F35s which are so loud they were not allowed to be deployed at DM.

4254 Lemay Street 2 Las Vegas, NV 89115

Here's the Zillow listing.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/4254-Lemay ... 1093_zpid/

[Merkin]

Wow, brand new. Love the kitchen, and having more bathrooms than bedrooms.

End unit too, and HOA only $199 mo.

[azgreg]

Well, my wife started texting me soundscore ratings from a site called Howloud comparing our home with the one by Nellis. Sounds like she's made up her mind.

[scumdevils86]

Dunno if I trust that site. It says my old address at Prince and Campbell is quieter than my current one. Not even remotely true. Lol

[dovecanyoncat]

I can't get the site to work at all.

[Merkin]

I can't get the site to work at all.

Didn't work for me in Chrome, but using Firefox my house received a 76 which seems right.

[CalStateTempe]

Three years in….im reaching that point…

[wyo-cat]

Dunno if I trust that site. It says my old address at Prince and Campbell is quieter than my current one. Not even remotely true. Lol

You’re closer to the railroad tracks and I-10. That would be my guess.

I could hear the trains up the hill east of Shannon sometimes.

[azgreg]

Dunno if I trust that site.

I don't disagree, but you're married so.....................

[dovecanyoncat]

I can't get the site to work at all.

Didn't work for me in Chrome, but using Firefox my house received a 76 which seems right.

Edge, Firefox, and Chrome won't work.

[azgreg]

Chrome is what I used to look at it this morning.

[dovecanyoncat]

You're all gaslighting me. I don't know why, but you're all against me on this one.

[UAEebs86]

You're all gaslighting me. I don't know why, but you're all against me on this one.

[dovecanyoncat]

Told ya

[azgreg]

Looks like we're going to go the apartment route first. The wife wants to get one at Apex Apartments. She'll be able to walk to work.

https://www.apexatmeadows.com/