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Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



SubjectVerbObject posted:

Yeah this is going to be important. I am in a pretty good position, but my fall back position is not good. The bigger picture is quality of life though. Before, if I have to work late, or miss an appointment, it was because something was screwed up big time, and there was OT as compensation. If being salary means that I am tied to a cell phone and they can call me whenever, and I can't make commitments for anything going forward, that will be a bigger problem.

Definitely bring up the idea of comp-time or flex-hours if you don't feel the financial aspect is up to par. I've been salaried for ages over several positions and companies and I've always negotiated comp time for after hours works, with a minimum of 1/2 day and then moving up to hourly parity after that.

My argument is the salary is based off of X hours per week. If you want more than X hours of work, there needs to be a little give and take.

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kensei
Dec 27, 2007

He has come home, where he belongs. The Ancient Mariner returns to lead his first team to glory, forever and ever. Amen!


Hermaphrodite posted:

For christmas one year I received special clamshell scissors. Packaged in a clamshell.

An old school manual can opener works really well to open clamshell packaging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WHRr1w05pM

Che Delilas
Nov 23, 2009
FREE TIBET WEED

flosofl posted:

My argument is the salary is based off of X hours per week. If you want more than X hours of work, there needs to be a little give and take.

I've never had a problem with the "give and take" taking the form of flexible hours. Like, just being allowed to cut out early on a Friday sometimes just because, or taking Monday off after coming in on Saturday because we needed something to get out the door, and all of it without me having to keep a ledger.

If they're not willing to do that, if they start talking about "scheduled hours" and "minimum 40 per week" and poo poo, then yeah, show me the money if you want more out of me.

Che Delilas
Nov 23, 2009
FREE TIBET WEED

kensei posted:

An old school manual can opener works really well to open clamshell packaging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WHRr1w05pM

Does that rear end in a top hat know that you have to squeeze down on shears to get them to cut things, not twist them around like a monkey?

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

kensei posted:

An old school manual can opener works really well to open clamshell packaging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WHRr1w05pM

I learned two things from this.

The first is that the kind of can openers I've always used are the "old school manual ones", even though all the automated ones tend to be pieces of poo poo that take up an unnecessary amount of space.

The second is that the person who made the video has the dexterity level of the average infomercial schlub.

Shears are fine.

stubblyhead
Sep 13, 2007

That is treason, Johnny!

Fun Shoe

evol262 posted:

The first is that the kind of can openers I've always used are the "old school manual ones", even though all the automated ones tend to be pieces of poo poo that take up an unnecessary amount of space.

Agreed, this is an old-school manual can opener.



I've tried using the crank kind to open packaging before without much luck. Utility knife works great though.

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

evol262 posted:

I learned two things from this.

The first is that the kind of can openers I've always used are the "old school manual ones", even though all the automated ones tend to be pieces of poo poo that take up an unnecessary amount of space.

The second is that the person who made the video has the dexterity level of the average infomercial schlub.

Shears are fine.

Just use your teeth like a normal person.

Siochain
May 24, 2005

"can they get rid of any humans who are fans of shitheads like Kanye West, 50 Cent, or any other piece of crap "artist" who thinks they're all that?

And also get rid of anyone who has posted retarded shit on the internet."


Che Delilas posted:

I've never had a problem with the "give and take" taking the form of flexible hours. Like, just being allowed to cut out early on a Friday sometimes just because, or taking Monday off after coming in on Saturday because we needed something to get out the door, and all of it without me having to keep a ledger.

If they're not willing to do that, if they start talking about "scheduled hours" and "minimum 40 per week" and poo poo, then yeah, show me the money if you want more out of me.

I miss that so much about my old job. I'd usually come in 30-60 minutes early to tool around and get some things done before the shop opened. In return, if I took a 1/2 day here or there, or needed to get to an appointment or whatever, nobody cared. I'm sure it worked out really in the negative for me, but I was happy, and they were happy. Its one of those things more jobs need to let you do - problem is, someones always going to gently caress it up :(

psydude
Apr 1, 2008

Heartache is powerful, but democracy is *subtle*.
So last week my coworker decided to slap a new firewall in one of our production networks without consulting a network diagram or polling stakeholders about what services are running where and then promptly went on vacation. The results were exactly as you may expect. Now, he really doesn't know a lot about networking (despite being the network guy), so I've been trying to help him fix it. I made a list of recommendations of things he should find out/do and he looks at me and says, "I don't have time for that."

You made your bed, motherfucker, now lie in it. I'm not fixing your goddamned problems for you.

Alliterate Addict
Jul 10, 2012

dreaming of that face again

it's bright and blue and shimmering

grinning wide and comforting me with it's three warm and wild eyes

psydude posted:

and he looks at me and says "I don't have time for that."

The only response to this, in my mind, is "Okay sucks for you :v:"

In email, so that when he complains about you not being a team player you can point to it and tell your boss that you tried to help him but he was too lazy to implement a fix for a problem he caused.

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go

psydude posted:

So last week my coworker decided to slap a new firewall in one of our production networks without consulting a network diagram or polling stakeholders about what services are running where and then promptly went on vacation. The results were exactly as you may expect. Now, he really doesn't know a lot about networking (despite being the network guy), so I've been trying to help him fix it. I made a list of recommendations of things he should find out/do and he looks at me and says, "I don't have time for that."

You made your bed, motherfucker, now lie in it. I'm not fixing your goddamned problems for you.
The heeeeell? How was he allowed to do this?

We had someone drop a new monitoring tool in without configuring anything or really having any understanding of what they were doing. It generated about 10,000 emails an hour - we didn't realize it at first because it so overwhelmed the SMTP relay that it was running through that we were only seeing about 500 per hour. Once I realized the extent of the devastation, I did the old "right click, turn off" on any VM related to his monitoring. Him so upset. Hey, why don't you figure out what you're doing before you deploy something?

dennyk
Jan 2, 2005

Cheese-Buyer's Remorse

SubjectVerbObject posted:

Yeah this is going to be important. I am in a pretty good position, but my fall back position is not good. The bigger picture is quality of life though. Before, if I have to work late, or miss an appointment, it was because something was screwed up big time, and there was OT as compensation. If being salary means that I am tied to a cell phone and they can call me whenever, and I can't make commitments for anything going forward, that will be a bigger problem.

You should read up on the FLSA and the laws about exemptions for the overtime rules and see if you actually qualify for any of them. Since you mentioned getting time-and-a-half in your other post, I'm guessing you are currently non-exempt (unless your company is unusually generous or clueless when it comes to labor costs). You company does *not* decide your exempt status; that is determined by your job duties and pay rate. If you don't qualify for any of the overtime exemptions, then you are non-exempt regardless of whether you are paid on a salary or hourly basis, and your company still has to pay you time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 in a week (your normal hourly rate is calculated by dividing your gross weekly salary by 40). If you were previously being paid OT and now your company says you are exempt, and your job duties haven't changed, they may be breaking the law, and if they are, you can file a wage claim with the DoL.

Also if people were literally working more OT than regular hours when it was costing the company time-and-a-half, you better believe they are going to abuse the poo poo out of exempt (or supposedly "exempt") employees working on a salary basis.

Brut
Aug 21, 2007

kensei posted:

An old school manual can opener works really well to open clamshell packaging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WHRr1w05pM

stubblyhead posted:

Agreed, this is an old-school manual can opener.



I've tried using the crank kind to open packaging before without much luck. Utility knife works great though.



This is what I thought of as an old-school manual can opener. :smugbert:

Siochain posted:

I miss that so much about my old job. I'd usually come in 30-60 minutes early to tool around and get some things done before the shop opened. In return, if I took a 1/2 day here or there, or needed to get to an appointment or whatever, nobody cared. I'm sure it worked out really in the negative for me, but I was happy, and they were happy. Its one of those things more jobs need to let you do - problem is, someones always going to gently caress it up :(

I'm salaried and officially only have 5 days of PTO, but as far as I can tell nobody tracks that and I've definitely taken more than 5 last year despite only having become salaried in April. As long as they have notice and I don't abuse it, it seems like it's fine, but it could be that if I actually ask for an answer they might stop to think about it and arrive at a less desirable conclusion.

As for poo poo pissing me off today:
Macs. Specifically my unfamiliarity with them, I probably understand the deeper structure due to mild Linux experience better than I do this UI and where to find anything in it. All I had to do was plug in Ethernet cables and install an HP MFP, turns out one of the macbooks doesn't have en ethernet port, and HP's driver website is returning server errors instead of download pages. Having leaped over that hurdle I'm faced with the realization that the MFP mac software contains no scanning support of any kind beyond both device's mutual support of SMB. To top it all off, the one Windows laptop in the office is infected and can't even install the software.

I've gotten a few of these absurd "Task A can't be done because problem B which can't be solved because problem C..." situations back to back and it's really causing me to question my own competency just from how time consuming this poo poo ends up being.

thebigcow
Jan 3, 2001

Bully!

Brut posted:


I've gotten a few of these absurd "Task A can't be done because problem B which can't be solved because problem C..." situations back to back and it's really causing me to question my own competency just from how time consuming this poo poo ends up being.

Can we post gigantic feel memes here?

kensei
Dec 27, 2007

He has come home, where he belongs. The Ancient Mariner returns to lead his first team to glory, forever and ever. Amen!


I laughed at the person doing that opening in the video, glad some of you got a kick out of it too :)

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



Brut posted:

As for poo poo pissing me off today:
Macs. Specifically my unfamiliarity with them, I probably understand the deeper structure due to mild Linux experience better than I do this UI and where to find anything in it. All I had to do was plug in Ethernet cables and install an HP MFP, turns out one of the macbooks doesn't have en ethernet port, and HP's driver website is returning server errors instead of download pages. Having leaped over that hurdle I'm faced with the realization that the MFP mac software contains no scanning support of any kind beyond both device's mutual support of SMB. To top it all off, the one Windows laptop in the office is infected and can't even install the software.


Give VueScan a spin. It supports a staggering number of scanners. It's an ugly looking program, but it will do the job. And Apple's built in printing system (based on cups) should be able to use the printer function. If it's got a fax as well and that's needed, well.. I'm out of solutions at that point.

mllaneza
Apr 28, 2007

Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952




flosofl posted:

Give VueScan a spin. It supports a staggering number of scanners. It's an ugly looking program, but it will do the job. And Apple's built in printing system (based on cups) should be able to use the printer function. If it's got a fax as well and that's needed, well.. I'm out of solutions at that point.

And Apple's Image Capture.app might support the scanner functions.

psydude
Apr 1, 2008

Heartache is powerful, but democracy is *subtle*.

MC Fruit Stripe posted:

The heeeeell? How was he allowed to do this?

We had someone drop a new monitoring tool in without configuring anything or really having any understanding of what they were doing. It generated about 10,000 emails an hour - we didn't realize it at first because it so overwhelmed the SMTP relay that it was running through that we were only seeing about 500 per hour. Once I realized the extent of the devastation, I did the old "right click, turn off" on any VM related to his monitoring. Him so upset. Hey, why don't you figure out what you're doing before you deploy something?

He's a federal employee, whereas I'm just a contractor. I can only advise him to not be retarded; I can't prevent him from being retarded.

MJBuddy
Sep 22, 2008

Now I do not know whether I was then a head coach dreaming I was a Saints fan, or whether I am now a Saints fan, dreaming I am a head coach.

psydude posted:

He's a federal employee, whereas I'm just a contractor. I can only advise him to not be retarded; I can't prevent him from being retarded.

If he your client or just a federal co-worker?

Our situation is that we all answer to a client, and I basically disclose a list of known screw-ups to him so that he can prepare our strategy for avoiding those people accordingly.


But yeah, my client frequently insists on being in our meetings solely to push back on federal employees who treat contractors like poo poo, because we can't be honest with them if honesty is "you're wrong".

Brut
Aug 21, 2007

flosofl posted:

Give VueScan a spin. It supports a staggering number of scanners. It's an ugly looking program, but it will do the job. And Apple's built in printing system (based on cups) should be able to use the printer function. If it's got a fax as well and that's needed, well.. I'm out of solutions at that point.

Yeah the thing is I'm not there to solve those problems or bill extra for them, I'm there to execute the original scope of work, and it's just annoying getting wrenches thrown in left and right. Would be nice if I knew the printer model ahead of time. or if 3 computes weren't mistaken for 2. or 2 printers for 1. These aren't really technology problems folks.

Turns out HP M575 Color Flow (wtf does that mean) only does SMB scanning even on windows. It's consumer level counterpart does like 6 different ways.

gaymartin
Jan 5, 2015

by FactsAreUseless

(and can't post for 7 years!)

psydude posted:

So last week my coworker decided to slap a new firewall in one of our production networks without consulting a network diagram or polling stakeholders about what services are running where and then promptly went on vacation.

poo poo like this is a requirement of being a Network admin I think, they do poo poo like that when they're leaving the company too.

psydude
Apr 1, 2008

Heartache is powerful, but democracy is *subtle*.

MJBuddy posted:

If he your client or just a federal co-worker?

Our situation is that we all answer to a client, and I basically disclose a list of known screw-ups to him so that he can prepare our strategy for avoiding those people accordingly.


But yeah, my client frequently insists on being in our meetings solely to push back on federal employees who treat contractors like poo poo, because we can't be honest with them if honesty is "you're wrong".

Federal coworker, but since his manager and boss are remotely based he's indirectly our client, too.

poo poo not pissing me off: unscheduled telework.

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



psydude posted:

poo poo not pissing me off: unscheduled telework.

It's a nice perk. Took one look at the temperature/wind chill and went, "welp, time to fire up the VPN"

Spazz
Nov 17, 2005

"We are DBAs so we would not know how to write a SQL query."

Actual quote from a Sr. DBA. This is from the same company that we are battling to explain the reasons why you reboot a Windows server after patching a critical vulnerability.

mewse
May 2, 2006

Spazz posted:

"We are DBAs so we would not know how to write a SQL query."

:stare:

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
Then.. what do they do all day long?

Zamboni Apocalypse
Dec 29, 2009

Gounads posted:

Then.. what do they do all day long?

Not write SQL queries?

Spazz
Nov 17, 2005

Gounads posted:

Then.. what do they do all day long?

That's a good question, and probably the reason I wasn't allowed on the call because I would have told them to get someone on the phone who actually does write/execute queries.

Alliterate Addict
Jul 10, 2012

dreaming of that face again

it's bright and blue and shimmering

grinning wide and comforting me with it's three warm and wild eyes

Zamboni Apocalypse posted:

Not write SQL queries?

It's easy to write an SQL query, the hard part is not writing them when you know how easy it is.

Exit Strategy
Dec 10, 2010

by sebmojo

Ursine Asylum posted:

It's easy to write an SQL query, the hard part is not writing them when you know how easy it is.

Ah. The good old Unseen University approach.

meanieface
Mar 27, 2012

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

Ursine Asylum posted:

It's easy to write an SQL query, the hard part is not writing them when you know how easy it is.

SSSSH, don't give away my secrets. I like my job.

...

Angry-face-making: I just found a database where table a and table b had column_x collated differently, so where I should be able to compare them (need to be able to compare them), I couldn't because collation conflict. :vomit:

I'm dropping all the indexes, setting them to what they should be, and readding the indexes. :effort:

(There's probably a better way to do this, I don't know it [yet?]. So this is what I'm doing.)

Gumball Gumption
Jan 7, 2012

So it isn't happening to me but a coworker of mine applied internally for a 3rd tier application support job. When he first started talking to the other team they told him 60k salary. Today they offered the position, 40k salaried because "We can't approve a larger raise because you are currently helpdesk.".

It also took almost a month for them to give him the offer. In that time the guy who was going to train him is gone and the new app he will be supporting is releasing next week.

Thanks Ants
May 21, 2004

#essereFerrari


I presume the answer went something along the lines of :laffo:

Gumball Gumption
Jan 7, 2012

They're going to see if they can get something else approved but with this company if anything else is approved it will take 2 weeks or more. I told him when he laughs at them if he'll let me listen in so I can laugh too.

Lil Miss Clackamas
Jan 25, 2013

ich habe aids
Before this CTO came on, working at my job was great. Things were relaxed, and we just did our jobs. When he came onboard, he didn't trust any of us to do our jobs and we had to push back hard to get him to just slightly tone down the micromanaging. He would openly question my boss' decisions and thought processes in front of the team and do things like literally stand over my shoulder and watch what I was doing on the computer. He started implementing metrics for everything we touch which he now uses to create more work for us e.g. "The site went down for 15 minutes on Saturday, this is wrecking our metrics, we need to get all hands on deck to figure out why and prevent it from ever happening again in the future." When before the metrics nobody got upset and nobody besides the person on-call noticed a small amount of downtime on the weekend and it ultimately had no impact or effect on anything. It's just a constant hair-on-fire attitude to everything; you can't even make an innocuous joke about what you're working on because he will take that to mean you don't take the issue seriously, so he steps in to fill the serious part for you.

He started these stand-up SCRUM meetings, which were really just status updates to him disguised as a team-building exercise. Now no one stands up at these meetings, they run 30+ minutes - whether there's three people there or ten - because everyone feels like they have to say as much stuff as possible to make themselves look as busy as possible. Now that's not enough for him, and he wants us to say what we're planning to work on for the week in addition to the daily status reports. It's a very small company, I'm almost exclusively working on help desk, and saying, "I'm working on help desk tickets" isn't a good enough status report even though that's my job. It feels like I'm being put on the hot seat when compared to the developer I'm standing next to who can wax on and on for 25 minutes about crons.

The worst part is that nobody will listen to us. He was friends with a bunch of the executives prior to coming here, and now he's friends with all of them. Complaints to his superiors might as well be written on a piece of paper and thrown in a trash bin. I've worked for shittier companies with shittier bosses, but the fact that this place was so good to work and almost overnight turned into crap is so incredibly disappointing and frustrating. I dread coming into work now, and I really don't know what to do short of finding a new job, but I dread job interviews just as much.

This whole thing sucks.

Maneki Neko
Oct 27, 2000

Spazz posted:

"We are DBAs so we would not know how to write a SQL query."

Actual quote from a Sr. DBA. This is from the same company that we are battling to explain the reasons why you reboot a Windows server after patching a critical vulnerability.

Based on many of the people I've interviewed to fill a DBA position, this is correct! Christ that's a hard position to find good people for.

Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.

Chalets the Baka posted:

...the fact that this place was so good to work and almost overnight turned into crap is so incredibly disappointing and frustrating. I dread coming into work now, and I really don't know what to do short of finding a new job, but I dread job interviews just as much.

This whole thing sucks.

Please use my example and don't hang on too long trying to turn that job into something worth having again. If there's one thing I've learned about work it's that if your boss is the only problem you're still screwed, because you can't fix your boss.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

But you could fix his brake lines. :unsmigghh:

stubblyhead
Sep 13, 2007

That is treason, Johnny!

Fun Shoe

Chalets the Baka posted:

I dread coming into work now, and I really don't know what to do short of finding a new job, but I dread job interviews just as much.

You may find interviews unpleasant, but they're temporary. Your current work situation is unpleasant permanently. :frogout:

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Roargasm
Oct 21, 2010

Hate to sound sleazy
But tease me
I don't want it if it's that easy

Chalets the Baka posted:

It's a very small company, I'm almost exclusively working on help desk, and saying, "I'm working on help desk tickets" isn't a good enough status report even though that's my job.

He sounds like a dick but this is the worst possible answer when you get asked for an agenda.

On the other side of the coin, my (non-technical) boss completely ignores me. I see him twice a week on average for five minutes. We mostly talk over text now and all he ever says is k and ok. "K" means keep on trucking, "OK" means pump the brakes.

Roargasm fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jan 6, 2015

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