Protesters are being assholes today. First a bunch came in and marched through the store with drums and loudspeakers trying to convince us to walk out for an issue our union is already working on, and now they've pulled the fire alarm.
Yeah! Why can't they just enjoy the taste of boots like the rest of us?!
Without more context this seems like a really unhelpful response, especially since Weaver specifically said the union is working on whatever issue these folks are up in arms about. The act of protesting is not inherently righteous. The fuckers with guns protesting for the right to not wear a mask were obviously in the wrong.
What are they protesting and why aren't they coordinating with the union if they apparently share the same aims?
I guess there was a larger BLM protest nearby and a group split to come down here because our parent company in Ohio banned employees from wearing anything BLM related like buttons or pins, which the union is pushing back on.
sounds like a reason for public protest to me.
+1
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
What are they protesting and why aren't they coordinating with the union if they apparently share the same aims?
I guess there was a larger BLM protest nearby and a group split to come down here because our parent company in Ohio banned employees from wearing anything BLM related like buttons or pins, which the union is pushing back on.
Definitely down with a protest of a company pulling this shit but fucking with employees just trying to get a paycheck and go home so they don't get evicted during a pandemic is proooobably not the way to do it.
+18
WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
The specific buttons that parent company used as an example when they made this policy were originally handed out by the union. The union is working on getting the new policy reversed, but busting in, calling for us to walk off the job in violation of our contract when we already have representation working for us, and then pulling the fire alarm when we don't walk off, dick move. Not to mention we're just getting fed up. Protests have been going on since, what, the spring? We're not even replacing broken windows anymore. We're a bunch of pro-BLM employees with a vocally pro-BLM union, stop fucking with our workplace. It's just a grocery store!
Last week a colleague visited my first completed scheme (a residential urban courtyard) to take some photos to see how the planting had got on after being finished nearly a year ago.
A resident was apparently sunbathing stark naked on the lawn next to the flowers and trees in view of all the other residents, and if that isn't the best compliment about how much they loved my design and how comfortable they feel I don't know what is.
Last week a colleague visited my first completed scheme (a residential urban courtyard) to take some photos to see how the planting had got on after being finished nearly a year ago.
A resident was apparently sunbathing stark naked on the lawn next to the flowers and trees in view of all the other residents, and if that isn't the best compliment about how much they loved my design and how comfortable they feel I don't know what is.
I'll fill out the bullshit surveys. But they still enrage me
That's a disagree. As someone who runs those type of surveys (caveat - some people who run these are dicks) PLEASE answer honestly so we can beat senior management with the number cudgel. Most often senior management is meeting with each other and doesn't have enough "on the ground" info because it just isn't their daily world. Surveys are one of the instruments we use to get better info out there in a quantified format. There's other ways, but they're invasive and unreliable, so we prefer not to even open that door - surveys are opt-in. For the engaged groups we've made meaningful improvements and been able to help people make decisions that make daily life in our company materially better.
Key things to be aware of:
1. Is it anonymous? Most likely yes - GDPR et al have made tracked surveys a giant pain. That said - compare your link with a coworkers - if they're different it's likely tracked. That said, anytime I run a tracked survey it's just to be able to do business unit breakouts, not for any nefarious reasons. I've never once been asked to unmask a commenter, and I've dropped some hot fire on some of the presentation slide decks.
2. Does it matter? Depends on how much people care about their employees. Surveys only work if they're tied to real action, so I'd recommend asking about what they do with the results action-planning wise.
3. Why is it a crappy survey? Most people don't understand how to properly use survey. It's a sentiment instrument, but people think that humans can answer various questions that they truly cannot. It sucks, because management will repeatedly ask for questions that can't be answered properly (like how much time do you spend doing X) - this is why ideally survey is just one instrument in an array that help describe employee experience.
When you run these types of surveys, do you also include the weirdly intrusive questions that Hava was complaining about, concerning whether "My work helps me fulfill my sense of purpose in life"?
Surveys in general can be helpful, but questions like this foster an unhealthy expectation that work should be... spiritually fulfilling? No. Just no. Even if I generally like my job, it's something I do so I don't fucking starve in the streets. My sense of purpose in life is not tied to making the numbers go up for a corporation.
Generally no, but it's grounded in a lot of social science why people ask the question. A lot of it comes down to investment - if you have a bunch of highly paid professionals, your resources might be better spent on programs that provide meaning, such as sponsored volunteering or community investment.
A big piece of recruitment and retention is "do I derive meaning?" So people focus on it a lot. That said, you need to make sure other benefits are aligned before you start kicking that rock over.
I'm starting to wonder if I got Langoliered or something. I noticed it had been quiet while I worked on inventory stuff (Google sheets is such crap for this) for the past couple hours. Too quiet.
Check the chats: nothing for the past couple hours.
Better check my email! Did I mute something and miss notifications? Hrm, can't load the webmail. Clear cache and cookies, still no. Check on phone, last sync a couple hours ago, can't refresh. Try the webmail on phone browser, won't load there either. Okay, likely the Exchange server is down.
Ping some people on chat: hey is there an issue with Exchange? No replies in 35 minutes and counting.
Text some other people: email working for you? Also no replies.
Is there a big meeting I've forgotten or haven't been told about? Was there a glitch in the system concerning my employment status that they fixed? A sudden holiday and I should be off?
I'll fill out the bullshit surveys. But they still enrage me
That's a disagree. As someone who runs those type of surveys (caveat - some people who run these are dicks) PLEASE answer honestly so we can beat senior management with the number cudgel. Most often senior management is meeting with each other and doesn't have enough "on the ground" info because it just isn't their daily world. Surveys are one of the instruments we use to get better info out there in a quantified format. There's other ways, but they're invasive and unreliable, so we prefer not to even open that door - surveys are opt-in. For the engaged groups we've made meaningful improvements and been able to help people make decisions that make daily life in our company materially better.
Key things to be aware of:
1. Is it anonymous? Most likely yes - GDPR et al have made tracked surveys a giant pain. That said - compare your link with a coworkers - if they're different it's likely tracked. That said, anytime I run a tracked survey it's just to be able to do business unit breakouts, not for any nefarious reasons. I've never once been asked to unmask a commenter, and I've dropped some hot fire on some of the presentation slide decks.
2. Does it matter? Depends on how much people care about their employees. Surveys only work if they're tied to real action, so I'd recommend asking about what they do with the results action-planning wise.
3. Why is it a crappy survey? Most people don't understand how to properly use survey. It's a sentiment instrument, but people think that humans can answer various questions that they truly cannot. It sucks, because management will repeatedly ask for questions that can't be answered properly (like how much time do you spend doing X) - this is why ideally survey is just one instrument in an array that help describe employee experience.
When you run these types of surveys, do you also include the weirdly intrusive questions that Hava was complaining about, concerning whether "My work helps me fulfill my sense of purpose in life"?
Surveys in general can be helpful, but questions like this foster an unhealthy expectation that work should be... spiritually fulfilling? No. Just no. Even if I generally like my job, it's something I do so I don't fucking starve in the streets. My sense of purpose in life is not tied to making the numbers go up for a corporation.
Generally no, but it's grounded in a lot of social science why people ask the question. A lot of it comes down to investment - if you have a bunch of highly paid professionals, your resources might be better spent on programs that provide meaning, such as sponsored volunteering or community investment. A big piece of recruitment and retention is "do I derive meaning?" So people focus on it a lot. That said, you need to make sure other benefits are aligned before you start kicking that rock over.
Research on public sector employees absolutely backs this up fwiw
0
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I'm starting to wonder if I got Langoliered or something. I noticed it had been quiet while I worked on inventory stuff (Google sheets is such crap for this) for the past couple hours. Too quiet.
Check the chats: nothing for the past couple hours.
Better check my email! Did I mute something and miss notifications? Hrm, can't load the webmail. Clear cache and cookies, still no. Check on phone, last sync a couple hours ago, can't refresh. Try the webmail on phone browser, won't load there either. Okay, likely the Exchange server is down.
Ping some people on chat: hey is there an issue with Exchange? No replies in 35 minutes and counting.
Text some other people: email working for you? Also no replies.
Is there a big meeting I've forgotten or haven't been told about? Was there a glitch in the system concerning my employment status that they fixed? A sudden holiday and I should be off?
Hrm...
Expendable? Why, nobody by that name has worked here for nigh on twenty years, ever since the night of the fire.
I know many of ours are only anonymized at a team level (ie they know what team the response came from). Because they want that granularity, which make sense, but when you have a team of five people it ... limits the degree of privacy that's actually afforded.
Surveys can be good but man is it real easy for a company to be super out of touch when they write the survey.
I say be honest cause if they need a wake-up call they'll appreciate it, and if not then fuck em.
Good survey writing is an art. Even moreso when you only get one shot and can't buy more sample. Most people suck at it because they don't get much practice, don't fully understand it as an instrument and don't get good support (a decent part of my job is telling senior leadership that no, I am not adding that question and people have tried to end run me for that reason on multiple occasions).
+7
Gabriel_Pitt(effective against Russian warships)Registered Userregular
Last week a colleague visited my first completed scheme (a residential urban courtyard) to take some photos to see how the planting had got on after being finished nearly a year ago.
A resident was apparently sunbathing stark naked on the lawn next to the flowers and trees in view of all the other residents, and if that isn't the best compliment about how much they loved my design and how comfortable they feel I don't know what is.
You literally blew their socks off.*
*and everything else as well, unless they went out into the courtyard only wearing socks.
+5
lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I do my best to be as honest as I can on the surveys.
We have weekly ones that run through office vibe and those are mostly five questions and usually about recognition or collaborating, or if I'm feeling respected.
The one I was bitching about yesterday was a larger mental health and resiliency survey contracted to an external group to help the company ostensibly check in on our mental health after however many months of lockdown it's been.
I answer that honestly as well.
But I work for the phone company. I do not derive my meaning of life from my career. My career enables me to buy food, pay for shelter, and buy yarn. And I'm sorry but any company trying to get their employees to say that they get the meaning of life from their job are just being dishonest.
And I'm not including public sector or non profit.
If I were working for a non profit they was doing their best to connect the country to broadband as a means of lifting the social structure up a bit more? Sure. I'd probably find a lot more meaning in that. But I'm not. I'm working for a corporation that's Duke purpose is to make money for shareholders and I just wish they'd stop pretending otherwise
I'll fill out the bullshit surveys. But they still enrage me
That's a disagree. As someone who runs those type of surveys (caveat - some people who run these are dicks) PLEASE answer honestly so we can beat senior management with the number cudgel. Most often senior management is meeting with each other and doesn't have enough "on the ground" info because it just isn't their daily world. Surveys are one of the instruments we use to get better info out there in a quantified format. There's other ways, but they're invasive and unreliable, so we prefer not to even open that door - surveys are opt-in. For the engaged groups we've made meaningful improvements and been able to help people make decisions that make daily life in our company materially better.
Key things to be aware of:
1. Is it anonymous? Most likely yes - GDPR et al have made tracked surveys a giant pain. That said - compare your link with a coworkers - if they're different it's likely tracked. That said, anytime I run a tracked survey it's just to be able to do business unit breakouts, not for any nefarious reasons. I've never once been asked to unmask a commenter, and I've dropped some hot fire on some of the presentation slide decks.
2. Does it matter? Depends on how much people care about their employees. Surveys only work if they're tied to real action, so I'd recommend asking about what they do with the results action-planning wise.
3. Why is it a crappy survey? Most people don't understand how to properly use survey. It's a sentiment instrument, but people think that humans can answer various questions that they truly cannot. It sucks, because management will repeatedly ask for questions that can't be answered properly (like how much time do you spend doing X) - this is why ideally survey is just one instrument in an array that help describe employee experience.
I've filled out more than one "anonymous" survey that asked for my gender, location, role, and how long I'd been with the company.
I don't trust the company engagement surveys to be truly anonymous. In my mind there is little to gain and lots to lose by being open and truthful.
They'll usually be team-level at most (there's a huuuuuuuuge clusterfuck the companies actually try to avoid if they're shown to not have properly anonymized surveys) but also I realize I am super privileged.
In that I'll say what's on my mind right to their faces, so a survey is fine too.
I don't have any of that old school loyalty, because it's a false loyalty to employees these days. We are under no illusions that we're together only because the arrangement works. And it does! I super enjoy my current company but would bounce if I had cause, no question.
If you're in a job that isn't so great of an arrangement for ya and you are stuck cause the whole, needing to pay bills shit, ya know. Well, you take care of yourself first and if keeping your head down is the right call then do it.
Just got notification that our office/lab is gonna be WFH until April 2021
which means that on my one year anniversary at the company, I will have spent something like 25 hours actually in the building.
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
One of the issues with surveys is that if I were to raise my particular issues, quite often the problems are so specific there's literally no way to highlight them without losing anonymity.
The company I use to work for, where my wife currently works, decided they need to get in touch with its younger employees. So they assembled a Millennial Task Squad (literally what they called it) to find out why more young people don't work for the company.
They didn't have a single one working at their headquarters in Kentucky apparently, and asked managers at the one here to find 5-7 people for this Squad. All of them are friends of mine, and most of them are from the same department. They did not ask my wife because as her boss said "You feel older then a millennial". Which feels stupid? Anyway the 5 person team, were given a survey to fill out about what things would entice millennials and maybe even Gen Z to work at the company, I was told 'High wages' and 'Better benefits' were not included, neither was 'more vacation' but 'flexible vacation' was.
All 5 of them write in higher wages and better benefits and the task force was never again assembled.
I had someone ask me a similar question a few months ago
"We're one of the lowest paying warehouses in the state, we're the lowest starting pay in the hospital system, our inventory system is "custom" and held together with evaporating dreams, upper management LEAN'd us by not replacing people who left and everyone knows it"
0
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited October 2020
So, my dad called me. This may not seem unusual to normal people, but my dad has never called me in my life, and I'm not even sure he's ever called any of his kids - basically it's my mom's job to keep up any correspondence, though he will get on the line too once the call has been established. However, he did bust his hip falling out of bed recently, and he's in rehab now, so maybe he's bored?
Anyway I bring it up in the job thread because he asked about my job hunt, and suggested, about a job that I'm waiting to hear an answer for, that I resend them my resume to "remind" them. Boomers are so weird.
Cambiata on
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
+31
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I also play the game show Butt Dial Or Dead Mom every time I get a phone call from my dad.
So far, all butt dials. Got a good streak going.
+5
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
If I'm honest, I think he was a little high on quality painkillers.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
0
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
So, my dad called me. This may not seem unusual to normal people, but my dad has never called me in my life, and I'm not even sure he's ever called any of his kids - basically it's my mom's job to keep up any correspondence, though he will get on the line too once the call has been established. However, he did bust his hip falling out of bed recently, and he's in rehab now, so maybe he's bored?
Anyway I bring it up in the job thread because he asked about my job hunt, and suggested, about a job that I'm waiting to hear an answer for, that I resend them my resume to "remind" them. Boomers are so weird.
You gotta get out there in your best suit and tie and a bundle of resumes and pound the pavement.
Just pound the ever loving heck outta that nasty, filthy, dirty pavement until it can't handle it anymore and then make it some waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.
You gotta get out there in your best suit and tie and a bundle of resumes and pound the pavement.
Just pound the ever loving heck outta that nasty, filthy, dirty pavement until it can't handle it anymore and then make it some waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.
And a firm fucking handshake! Also go into the store and ask to see the manager! That shows initiative!
A joke stat we track is how many people say surveys are the biggest waste of their time. It's not something you do if you dislike criticism.
Perfect way to segue to my work survey story.
My district does these surveys every year where everybody is supposed to evaluate the district and their supervisors, etc. At my previous job title I was on my way out and they were holding up my transfer and working at that school had been so miserable for so many people for so long that I was just done. I filled out the survey and was scathingly honest and brutal about what I saw as a systemic culture problem in that building that was due entirely to a toxic administration and it was having a detrimental effect on the kids. I laid out dated and documented instances of incompetence, misconduct, pettiness, favoritism, retaliation, etc. It was honestly extremely cathartic and played a big part in me fulling accepting that I was doing the right thing in leaving in the middle of the year and was quite justified in the anger I felt at it being held up for several months.
But then I cashed in on my good reputation with the rest of the faculty and encouraged the teachers I had a good relationship with that I knew were dissatisfied to actually also fill out the survey and be honest. Everybody always has the fear that the survey isn't truly anonymous or that it'll be traced back to them somehow and they'll be retaliated against. So usually the survey isn't completed or it's filled out blandly and not entirely honestly. Ended up with a response rate between 90-95% that year instead of the usual 70-80%.
I was gone by the time the results were compiled and released though. The admin instead tried to send out their own survey done with a Google form that only a few teachers filled out with nice or neutral things. The Google Survey quietly captured the google account that was signed in to do it. The admin is supposed to have a meeting with all the staff to go over the results and points of growth for the building and the members of admin using data from the real survey. The kept putting it off until the union complained to a superintendent or whatever the level above a school principal is. The meeting I'm told was glorious. "Approval ratings" (I don't recall the exact metric or question wording) for admin were all sub 50%, and for the worst most petty assistant principal in all the land were below 20%.
Nobody in admin lost their job though. I don't know if they got put on some kind of performance plan or not. There was some scapegoating. Two or three people that were in that inbetween place where they weren't quite admin but got all the responsibility, none of the recognition or pay, and all the blame, ended up leaving. A couple of them left involuntarily but one had seen the writing on the wall and fled on their own. All those are now assistant principals or Deans at bigger, better schools. The teacher turnover problem they had has gotten even worse as even some of the stalwarts that had been there for many years are out. They still haven't kept a single SPED person on their 3 or 4 person SPED team for longer than a year yet. Between 80 and 90% of first year teachers don't teach more than a year there, as opposed to the district average of 50% of new teachers being gone at 3 years.
I think the biggest change though is that the school admin no longer has a good reputation around the district. Before people would say they'd heard some stuff about admin there but the performance metrics were kind of improving some so they must be doing something right. Now the general consensus is that any success is in spite of admin rather than because of it and the place is known as a toxic meat grinder. Except, apparently, at the levels that would step in and, you know, fix the problem with some personnel changes at the admin level. Because the test scores aren't arbitrarily low yet.
Mgr (to customers): For this order request, please only provide the usernames of the users who need it. We do not need any other data, just usernames.
customers: *sends first name, last name, username, email address*
team: *bitches and complains as they copypasta one username at a time*
Me: *pulls up excel, imports data with delimeter*
team: ...
Me: ...
team: Dude are you pulling random tickets? How are you getting through these so fast?
Me: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay yeah it's true knowing even basic how-to stuff in Excel can make you seem like a god.
The company I use to work for, where my wife currently works, decided they need to get in touch with its younger employees. So they assembled a Millennial Task Squad (literally what they called it) to find out why more young people don't work for the company.
They didn't have a single one working at their headquarters in Kentucky apparently, and asked managers at the one here to find 5-7 people for this Squad. All of them are friends of mine, and most of them are from the same department. They did not ask my wife because as her boss said "You feel older then a millennial". Which feels stupid? Anyway the 5 person team, were given a survey to fill out about what things would entice millennials and maybe even Gen Z to work at the company, I was told 'High wages' and 'Better benefits' were not included, neither was 'more vacation' but 'flexible vacation' was.
All 5 of them write in higher wages and better benefits and the task force was never again assembled.
Company I worked for hired a company to do consulting like that too. I saw some literature lying around the break room, I think. It looks like it was focusing on management. I was not involved or anything. Here are the only screenshots I can find backed up on Google. I pretty much screenshotted the whole thing, because it was just insane. Boomer materials made for Boomers by Boomers.
The company I use to work for, where my wife currently works, decided they need to get in touch with its younger employees. So they assembled a Millennial Task Squad (literally what they called it) to find out why more young people don't work for the company.
They didn't have a single one working at their headquarters in Kentucky apparently, and asked managers at the one here to find 5-7 people for this Squad. All of them are friends of mine, and most of them are from the same department. They did not ask my wife because as her boss said "You feel older then a millennial". Which feels stupid? Anyway the 5 person team, were given a survey to fill out about what things would entice millennials and maybe even Gen Z to work at the company, I was told 'High wages' and 'Better benefits' were not included, neither was 'more vacation' but 'flexible vacation' was.
All 5 of them write in higher wages and better benefits and the task force was never again assembled.
I think I'm gonna get a tattoo that just says "FUCKIN' PAY ME".
+12
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
So, my dad called me. This may not seem unusual to normal people, but my dad has never called me in my life, and I'm not even sure he's ever called any of his kids - basically it's my mom's job to keep up any correspondence, though he will get on the line too once the call has been established. However, he did bust his hip falling out of bed recently, and he's in rehab now, so maybe he's bored?
Anyway I bring it up in the job thread because he asked about my job hunt, and suggested, about a job that I'm waiting to hear an answer for, that I resend them my resume to "remind" them. Boomers are so weird.
Well you see I heard on the news that there's hundreds of people applying for every job opening, so every time you apply you only increase your chances of getting the job!
If 39,800 of the 40,000 applications they get are all from you, your chances are incredible!
Posts
Without more context this seems like a really unhelpful response, especially since Weaver specifically said the union is working on whatever issue these folks are up in arms about. The act of protesting is not inherently righteous. The fuckers with guns protesting for the right to not wear a mask were obviously in the wrong.
sounds like a reason for public protest to me.
Definitely down with a protest of a company pulling this shit but fucking with employees just trying to get a paycheck and go home so they don't get evicted during a pandemic is proooobably not the way to do it.
A resident was apparently sunbathing stark naked on the lawn next to the flowers and trees in view of all the other residents, and if that isn't the best compliment about how much they loved my design and how comfortable they feel I don't know what is.
was it DaddyPhatty69?!?!
Generally no, but it's grounded in a lot of social science why people ask the question. A lot of it comes down to investment - if you have a bunch of highly paid professionals, your resources might be better spent on programs that provide meaning, such as sponsored volunteering or community investment.
A big piece of recruitment and retention is "do I derive meaning?" So people focus on it a lot. That said, you need to make sure other benefits are aligned before you start kicking that rock over.
Check the chats: nothing for the past couple hours.
Better check my email! Did I mute something and miss notifications? Hrm, can't load the webmail. Clear cache and cookies, still no. Check on phone, last sync a couple hours ago, can't refresh. Try the webmail on phone browser, won't load there either. Okay, likely the Exchange server is down.
Ping some people on chat: hey is there an issue with Exchange? No replies in 35 minutes and counting.
Text some other people: email working for you? Also no replies.
Is there a big meeting I've forgotten or haven't been told about? Was there a glitch in the system concerning my employment status that they fixed? A sudden holiday and I should be off?
Hrm...
Again? Didn't that happen the other day too?
Regardless, we don't use 365 and host our own Exchange server. Chat is done through Google.
Research on public sector employees absolutely backs this up fwiw
Expendable? Why, nobody by that name has worked here for nigh on twenty years, ever since the night of the fire.
I say be honest cause if they need a wake-up call they'll appreciate it, and if not then fuck em.
We shall see if this goes anywhere...
Good survey writing is an art. Even moreso when you only get one shot and can't buy more sample. Most people suck at it because they don't get much practice, don't fully understand it as an instrument and don't get good support (a decent part of my job is telling senior leadership that no, I am not adding that question and people have tried to end run me for that reason on multiple occasions).
You literally blew their socks off.*
*and everything else as well, unless they went out into the courtyard only wearing socks.
We have weekly ones that run through office vibe and those are mostly five questions and usually about recognition or collaborating, or if I'm feeling respected.
The one I was bitching about yesterday was a larger mental health and resiliency survey contracted to an external group to help the company ostensibly check in on our mental health after however many months of lockdown it's been.
I answer that honestly as well.
But I work for the phone company. I do not derive my meaning of life from my career. My career enables me to buy food, pay for shelter, and buy yarn. And I'm sorry but any company trying to get their employees to say that they get the meaning of life from their job are just being dishonest.
And I'm not including public sector or non profit.
If I were working for a non profit they was doing their best to connect the country to broadband as a means of lifting the social structure up a bit more? Sure. I'd probably find a lot more meaning in that. But I'm not. I'm working for a corporation that's Duke purpose is to make money for shareholders and I just wish they'd stop pretending otherwise
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
I'm mostly aiming my ire at the company.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
I've filled out more than one "anonymous" survey that asked for my gender, location, role, and how long I'd been with the company.
They'll usually be team-level at most (there's a huuuuuuuuge clusterfuck the companies actually try to avoid if they're shown to not have properly anonymized surveys) but also I realize I am super privileged.
In that I'll say what's on my mind right to their faces, so a survey is fine too.
I don't have any of that old school loyalty, because it's a false loyalty to employees these days. We are under no illusions that we're together only because the arrangement works. And it does! I super enjoy my current company but would bounce if I had cause, no question.
If you're in a job that isn't so great of an arrangement for ya and you are stuck cause the whole, needing to pay bills shit, ya know. Well, you take care of yourself first and if keeping your head down is the right call then do it.
which means that on my one year anniversary at the company, I will have spent something like 25 hours actually in the building.
They didn't have a single one working at their headquarters in Kentucky apparently, and asked managers at the one here to find 5-7 people for this Squad. All of them are friends of mine, and most of them are from the same department. They did not ask my wife because as her boss said "You feel older then a millennial". Which feels stupid? Anyway the 5 person team, were given a survey to fill out about what things would entice millennials and maybe even Gen Z to work at the company, I was told 'High wages' and 'Better benefits' were not included, neither was 'more vacation' but 'flexible vacation' was.
All 5 of them write in higher wages and better benefits and the task force was never again assembled.
"We're one of the lowest paying warehouses in the state, we're the lowest starting pay in the hospital system, our inventory system is "custom" and held together with evaporating dreams, upper management LEAN'd us by not replacing people who left and everyone knows it"
Anyway I bring it up in the job thread because he asked about my job hunt, and suggested, about a job that I'm waiting to hear an answer for, that I resend them my resume to "remind" them. Boomers are so weird.
So far, all butt dials. Got a good streak going.
Hey, it worked 50 years ago!
What? Times have changed? The hell you say!
Just pound the ever loving heck outta that nasty, filthy, dirty pavement until it can't handle it anymore and then make it some waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.
And a firm fucking handshake! Also go into the store and ask to see the manager! That shows initiative!
Perfect way to segue to my work survey story.
My district does these surveys every year where everybody is supposed to evaluate the district and their supervisors, etc. At my previous job title I was on my way out and they were holding up my transfer and working at that school had been so miserable for so many people for so long that I was just done. I filled out the survey and was scathingly honest and brutal about what I saw as a systemic culture problem in that building that was due entirely to a toxic administration and it was having a detrimental effect on the kids. I laid out dated and documented instances of incompetence, misconduct, pettiness, favoritism, retaliation, etc. It was honestly extremely cathartic and played a big part in me fulling accepting that I was doing the right thing in leaving in the middle of the year and was quite justified in the anger I felt at it being held up for several months.
But then I cashed in on my good reputation with the rest of the faculty and encouraged the teachers I had a good relationship with that I knew were dissatisfied to actually also fill out the survey and be honest. Everybody always has the fear that the survey isn't truly anonymous or that it'll be traced back to them somehow and they'll be retaliated against. So usually the survey isn't completed or it's filled out blandly and not entirely honestly. Ended up with a response rate between 90-95% that year instead of the usual 70-80%.
I was gone by the time the results were compiled and released though. The admin instead tried to send out their own survey done with a Google form that only a few teachers filled out with nice or neutral things. The Google Survey quietly captured the google account that was signed in to do it. The admin is supposed to have a meeting with all the staff to go over the results and points of growth for the building and the members of admin using data from the real survey. The kept putting it off until the union complained to a superintendent or whatever the level above a school principal is. The meeting I'm told was glorious. "Approval ratings" (I don't recall the exact metric or question wording) for admin were all sub 50%, and for the worst most petty assistant principal in all the land were below 20%.
Nobody in admin lost their job though. I don't know if they got put on some kind of performance plan or not. There was some scapegoating. Two or three people that were in that inbetween place where they weren't quite admin but got all the responsibility, none of the recognition or pay, and all the blame, ended up leaving. A couple of them left involuntarily but one had seen the writing on the wall and fled on their own. All those are now assistant principals or Deans at bigger, better schools. The teacher turnover problem they had has gotten even worse as even some of the stalwarts that had been there for many years are out. They still haven't kept a single SPED person on their 3 or 4 person SPED team for longer than a year yet. Between 80 and 90% of first year teachers don't teach more than a year there, as opposed to the district average of 50% of new teachers being gone at 3 years.
I think the biggest change though is that the school admin no longer has a good reputation around the district. Before people would say they'd heard some stuff about admin there but the performance metrics were kind of improving some so they must be doing something right. Now the general consensus is that any success is in spite of admin rather than because of it and the place is known as a toxic meat grinder. Except, apparently, at the levels that would step in and, you know, fix the problem with some personnel changes at the admin level. Because the test scores aren't arbitrarily low yet.
customers: *sends first name, last name, username, email address*
team: *bitches and complains as they copypasta one username at a time*
Me: *pulls up excel, imports data with delimeter*
team: ...
Me: ...
team: Dude are you pulling random tickets? How are you getting through these so fast?
Me: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay yeah it's true knowing even basic how-to stuff in Excel can make you seem like a god.
Company I worked for hired a company to do consulting like that too. I saw some literature lying around the break room, I think. It looks like it was focusing on management. I was not involved or anything. Here are the only screenshots I can find backed up on Google. I pretty much screenshotted the whole thing, because it was just insane. Boomer materials made for Boomers by Boomers.
I believe they thrive near hydrothermal vents that emit sulfide-rich fluids they can extract nutrients from
... wait no that's annelid worms, I'm thinking of worms again.
I think I'm gonna get a tattoo that just says "FUCKIN' PAY ME".
Well you see I heard on the news that there's hundreds of people applying for every job opening, so every time you apply you only increase your chances of getting the job!
If 39,800 of the 40,000 applications they get are all from you, your chances are incredible!