[Mezla PigDog]

I went to a senior managers meeting and they were trumpeting about how revenue and profit is up (it's always up!) but the latest 3-yearly staff survey shows staff wellbeing is low due to heavy workload. The result of the same survey 3 years ago was the same but now we do even more. The execs can't for a moment compute that their choice to drive up revenue is what is causing the wellbeing problems. I understand from a marketing perspective we have to maintain our reputation as best in class service provider but can someone just admit that it is a business choice and staff are expected to suck it up???

[Maark Abbott]

Mezla PigDog, on 22 April 2021 - 07:38 PM, said:

I went to a senior managers meeting and they were trumpeting about how revenue and profit is up (it's always up!) but the latest 3-yearly staff survey shows staff wellbeing is low due to heavy workload. The result of the same survey 3 years ago was the same but now we do even more. The execs can't for a moment compute that their choice to drive up revenue is what is causing the wellbeing problems. I understand from a marketing perspective we have to maintain our reputation as best in class service provider but can someone just admit that it is a business choice and staff are expected to suck it up???

They don't see. They are quite literally a class of Mattias Torres; they will sacrifice a million staff for the sake of ten million pounds. Stop thinking so small! It's salvation on a far grander scale!

This is very much the case for us. I'm on anti anxiety meds now because the workload is much higher, file numbers are up, the team can't remain stable due to staff haemorrhaging out to places with better pay and less stress... It's just profit, profit, profit. We had a meeting with the new HR head and the question of 'why is wellbeing scoring so badly' was answered largely with 'because you give us an unreasonably high workload for crap pay and don't do anything to mitigate it'.

[Abyss]

Maark Abbott, on 23 April 2021 - 07:52 AM, said:

Mezla PigDog, on 22 April 2021 - 07:38 PM, said:

I went to a senior managers meeting and they were trumpeting about how revenue and profit is up (it's always up!) but the latest 3-yearly staff survey shows staff wellbeing is low due to heavy workload. The result of the same survey 3 years ago was the same but now we do even more. The execs can't for a moment compute that their choice to drive up revenue is what is causing the wellbeing problems. I understand from a marketing perspective we have to maintain our reputation as best in class service provider but can someone just admit that it is a business choice and staff are expected to suck it up???

They don't see. They are quite literally a class of Mattias Torres; they will sacrifice a million staff for the sake of ten million pounds. Stop thinking so small! It's salvation on a far grander scale!

This is very much the case for us. I'm on anti anxiety meds now because the workload is much higher, file numbers are up, the team can't remain stable due to staff haemorrhaging out to places with better pay and less stress... It's just profit, profit, profit. We had a meeting with the new HR head and the question of 'why is wellbeing scoring so badly' was answered largely with 'because you give us an unreasonably high workload for crap pay and don't do anything to mitigate it'.

As long as profit goes up they have zero incentive to do anything about employee wellbeing, because from an exec or shareholder perspective, everything is just fine. They will make changes in only two circumstances: profit drops and the drop is linked to employee wellbeing, or someone demonstrates, with concrete evidence involving excel spreadhseets, pie charts, powerpoint presentation, stick figures, a seven minute animation produced by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Mark Hamill, Katy Perry, and the Muppets, a surprise guest appearance motivational speech by Mark Cuban, and the totally nonviolent yet utterly threatening hostage-taking of all the execs' families, illicit lovers, and/or pets, that with greater employee wellbeing would come greater profit.

[worry]

I think you're onto something...

[Mezla PigDog]

Completely agree Abyss but the most bonkers part of is that we are a not-for-shareholder-profit organisation. We're a specific type of business called Royal Charter in the UK where we can make profit but it has to be 100% invested back into the business. There are no shareholders and no owner. So it is theoretically a utopian place to work. Except it's not. There are some valid reasons for recently needing a lot more £££ in the bank but that's been done and they are still driving for more. I can only assume it's so the execs CVs can just say they did it. Our part of the business is also propping up some less successful parts.

So the bottom line is that it is very frustrating and anywhere else would be worse.

Anyway. I'm feeling lucky today. I went to the pub last night with 2 friends. One of whom has long covid and one who works in hospice care and has a husband who is in the police force who is suffering serious mental health problems due to some horrific cases he has worked. The latest lockdown as hit the "explode" button in their lives, I didn't really know as I've just been surviving myself. You know one of those evenings where you end up having to sit and say "I have zero things to complain about compared to you guys". It was pretty depressing.

[amphibian]

Your feelings are your feelings. Having them doesn't mean they can't have theirs and them having theirs doesn't mean you can't have yours. But it might not be the best idea to express them at the same time the other person is expressing theirs.

A paper cut can hurt something fierce at the same time someone gets clawed by an angel cat and both can be crappy at the same time someone gets in a car crash and so on up the chain of pain.

Hope it gets better for you.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Work is insanely busy. I was booked solid through the end of August with projects I might just be able to finish on time if I take no vacation time and work stat holidays. Then a couple weeks ago we got into discussions with someone about a high priority rush project that is 50-75 person days of engineering. One person in the office had enough open time coming up to put a week or so into it, but when dealing with repeat clients we are never willing to say that we don't have the time available at the moment. And honestly, it is a fun interesting project I would like to do, we just don't have the time.

Of course, I got approval to go ahead a couple days ago. With some juggling of schedules we've managed to split things up among four people, but as I'll be managing the whole thing it is 200 hours of extra work I don't have time for and that has to be done right now. I still have other projects that have been sitting idle since last fall, when we weren't as busy, while waiting for city or provincial approvals. A couple of those are expected to get the go ahead soon and either would add another 150-200 hours of work on top of that. I basically need to work 50 hour weeks now to be able to finish anything on time, and as more approvals and bid results come through in the next few weeks the time crunch is only going to get worse. Stress levels are a bit high today.

[Malankazooie]

Not sure why it has shot up, but the number of pedestrian deaths on the roads is concerning. I've seen, and been involved, in close calls myself, by no fault of my own. People will just walk out into traffic now. Not sure why. Maybe opioid haze/space cadet/head in the clouds? Hopelessness coupled with mental illnes? ... don't know. But I had to slow down while a vagrant was pushing a shopping cart into the street. He flexed on me like I was wanting to start something. I was just being cautious, not wanting any part of hitting him and having to deal with the ramifications. Then watched a woman walk across a busy street in front of the traffic ahead of me, head down, not looking. As I drove past I yelled at her "that's a good way to bite it". I know it's mean, but damn, this is a trend and maybe being harsh will get them to snap out of it. It's a problem.

[Abyss]

It's.
Fucking.
Snowing.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'An Asian woman in New York City was attacked in the head with a hammer by a stranger who demanded the victim remove her mask[...]

After the attack, the woman with the hammer ran, police said. Authorities are still searching for her.'

https://www.nbcnews....er-nyc-n1266237

'Anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked in cities around the U.S.

[...]

"Some of this increase that we've seen is going to be due to what we call 'reporting effect,' certainly, but not at this level," he said. "You have all these jigsaw puzzle pieces you put together, but it points to a horrifying surge in violence against our Asian American community, which is being sustained."

Some experts have noted that these attacks are probably underreported due to barriers such as language and technology.'

https://www.latimes....ies-study-finds

Philadelphia:

'[...] This time a 27-year-old Korean American woman was smacked in the face as she was walking to H&M with her sister near the Convention Center.

I called my father and reminded him, yet again, not to walk alone.

Then two days later I went through the same terrible cycle. This time, a 64-year-old Chinese American dad was assaulted in Chinatown.
The attacker yelled, "YOU GAVE ME THE CORONAVIRUS!"'

https://www.inquirer...h-20210502.html

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 04 May 2021 - 10:38 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Azath Vitr (D, on 04 May 2021 - 10:38 PM, said:

'An Asian woman in New York City was attacked in the head with a hammer by a stranger who demanded the victim remove her mask[...]

After the attack, the woman with the hammer ran, police said. Authorities are still searching for her.'

https://www.nbcnews....er-nyc-n1266237

'Anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked in cities around the U.S.

[...]

"Some of this increase that we've seen is going to be due to what we call 'reporting effect,' certainly, but not at this level," he said. "You have all these jigsaw puzzle pieces you put together, but it points to a horrifying surge in violence against our Asian American community, which is being sustained."

Some experts have noted that these attacks are probably underreported due to barriers such as language and technology.'

https://www.latimes....ies-study-finds

Philadelphia:

'[...] This time a 27-year-old Korean American woman was smacked in the face as she was walking to H&M with her sister near the Convention Center.

I called my father and reminded him, yet again, not to walk alone.

Then two days later I went through the same terrible cycle. This time, a 64-year-old Chinese American dad was assaulted in Chinatown.
The attacker yelled, "YOU GAVE ME THE CORONAVIRUS!"'

https://www.inquirer...h-20210502.html

... and I hadn't even read about this one yet: '[...] Stabbing of 2 Asian Women on Busy San Francisco Street

Police [...] say they now have a suspect in custody after a knife attack on two Asian women on Tuesday sparked a manhunt. The attack, which took place at a bus stop in the city's busy downtown, left one woman "badly bleeding,"[...] and another with the knife still stuck in her arm. [...] the suspect [...] simply wandered off after the attack "like it was Sunday morning."'

https://www.thedaily...-on-busy-street

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 05 May 2021 - 04:53 AM

[Maark Abbott]

Lawyers who don't know the area of law they're practicing.

Be me. Receive a letter suggesting a professional negligence claim is being prepared against me.

Be the defendant. Say that I failed to include a head of damage thus prejudicing their client entirely meaning they can't recover the same.

Be me. Note that the paragraph their client's damages become applicable for inclusion hadn't taken effect when the matter settled.

Be them. Not understand that literally all they have to do is issue on the defendant and follow the normal goddamn process as per the written and reasonably easy to understand protocol.

But of course this is going to be a faff and a fucking half to sort out, all because some asshole elsewhere doesn't know their job.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Turns out I have to pay taxes on significantly more than I was expecting. Wasn't sure if it would bump me up into a higher tax bracket. Entered the calculation with trepidation. It happened to be just $50 under the threshold... so I was happy briefly, until I remembered that it was just dumb luck. And while I'm almost certain I included everything, anything I missed could easily put me over. (IRS might even audit me in hopes of finding that extra $50....)

Also, Philadelphia tax authorities still haven't bothered responding to my request for a refund because of overpayment for previous years. It's been over a year... and refunds are only available for up to three years into the past, so that might be at least one year lost if they claim they never received it.

[Slow Ben]

Landscaping.


I. Fecking. Hate. Landscaping.



House looks nice though.

[Mentalist]

Looks like Sony discontinued my favourite wired sport headphones.


shit,

[QuickTidal]

Mentalist, on 10 May 2021 - 03:48 PM, said:

Looks like Sony discontinued my favourite wired sport headphones.


shit,

That sucks man.

Probably too little too late, but always buy more than one of items you love in case this happens. It's happened to me often enough that I've started following the rule and buying backups for things like this...because you can't trust that companies will stick with it, even if it's popular. All it takes is for some marketing newbie fuckwit to say "let's change this line up because _______" while trying to make a name for themselves and they discontinue good products for some other shittier ones.

[Malankazooie]

Update - I think mama bird lost the battle to keep her eggs and/or young ones warm, as I don't see her sitting on the nest anymore. I'm going to wait until June and grab the telescoping limb pruner and knock the nest out of the tree and have a look. I'm really gutted by this. Mama bird was doing her best but we've been in a pattern where every weekend a new cold front moves in and near record low temps are here through the start of the week, then it warms back up to nice, even summer like, temps by the early start of the weekend, only to get cold again by Sunday into Monday.

https://en.wikipedia...ackberry_winter

[Mezla PigDog]

Booked 11.5 hours onto my work timesheet on my day off

[Maark Abbott]

Big lightning storm last night about 10pm, lasted until maybe 11:30ish. Pretty violent rain and hail, but a young lad in Blackpool was hit by the lightning earlier in the evening and died.

[Malankazooie]

Plucking eyebrows. Worse then plucking a nose hair. At least with nose hairs you usually get a satisfying sneeze out of it.

Plucking nose hairs > bleaching butthole > plucking eyebrows.