[Tiste Simeon]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 07 October 2025 - 07:32 AM, said:

We've got a crisis meeting at work tomorrow. They seem to have finally accepted that morale in my office in particular is terrible and have spoken to staff individually about what the concerns are (the biggest one being we've got very unprofessional members of senior management causing a lot of misery), now the Chief of Ops is coming up and asking for meetings with everyone (I have no idea what repeating what we've already said to another manager will do, but that's what they've asked for). I'll be very glad when this week is over.

Forgive me for being very cynical but I suspect that what it will do is give the people at the top a tick in the box to say "we listened" without action to back it up.

I hope this grumpy old so and so is wrong though and it results in things becoming better at work!

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Tiste Simeon, on 07 October 2025 - 09:01 AM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 07 October 2025 - 07:32 AM, said:

We've got a crisis meeting at work tomorrow. They seem to have finally accepted that morale in my office in particular is terrible and have spoken to staff individually about what the concerns are (the biggest one being we've got very unprofessional members of senior management causing a lot of misery), now the Chief of Ops is coming up and asking for meetings with everyone (I have no idea what repeating what we've already said to another manager will do, but that's what they've asked for). I'll be very glad when this week is over.

Forgive me for being very cynical but I suspect that what it will do is give the people at the top a tick in the box to say "we listened" without action to back it up.

I hope this grumpy old so and so is wrong though and it results in things becoming better at work!

Oh I don't disagree with you at all - the fact this has all been said to a member of senior management already makes me feel it's a tick box that Chief of Ops has met with everyone and "listened" so that they can say in future that they did.

I'm leaving when I find another job anyway, and I think even if they acted on concerns it's too late for a handful of other people also. I'd still like things to be better for my colleagues though, hence agreeing to participate on the slim hope it results in change. In reality though, one of the main problems is my direct line manager and because of all the functions that sit with her, they have absolutely no backup plan for if she left/was demoted, so I don't believe for a second they will act on anything to do with her. Most of the other problems are structural and will be the work of months not weeks to solve, hence me feeling it's too late.

[Tsundoku]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 07 October 2025 - 09:49 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 07 October 2025 - 09:01 AM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 07 October 2025 - 07:32 AM, said:

We've got a crisis meeting at work tomorrow. They seem to have finally accepted that morale in my office in particular is terrible and have spoken to staff individually about what the concerns are (the biggest one being we've got very unprofessional members of senior management causing a lot of misery), now the Chief of Ops is coming up and asking for meetings with everyone (I have no idea what repeating what we've already said to another manager will do, but that's what they've asked for). I'll be very glad when this week is over.

Forgive me for being very cynical but I suspect that what it will do is give the people at the top a tick in the box to say "we listened" without action to back it up.

I hope this grumpy old so and so is wrong though and it results in things becoming better at work!

Oh I don't disagree with you at all - the fact this has all been said to a member of senior management already makes me feel it's a tick box that Chief of Ops has met with everyone and "listened" so that they can say in future that they did.

I'm leaving when I find another job anyway, and I think even if they acted on concerns it's too late for a handful of other people also. I'd still like things to be better for my colleagues though, hence agreeing to participate on the slim hope it results in change. In reality though, one of the main problems is my direct line manager and because of all the functions that sit with her, they have absolutely no backup plan for if she left/was demoted, so I don't believe for a second they will act on anything to do with her. Most of the other problems are structural and will be the work of months not weeks to solve, hence me feeling it's too late.

Oh, they'll listen alright. Then they'll sack anyone who complained. Under the guise of "restructuring" or similar BS.
Be careful what you say.

[Macros]

say enough to get sacked but be clean enough to take them to the cleaners as you go

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

All very good advice - thanks all.

It wasn't what I expected, but I'm happy I said what I needed to in a constructive way and they'd have to work hard to get me for any of it. We shall see what comes of it. Sounds like they heard much the same from everyone they spoke to as well.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 09 October 2025 - 08:22 AM

[Maark Abbott]

Trying for the life of me to work out why our government seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate a football firm with a track record for public disorder.

[Tiste Simeon]

Maark Abbott, on 21 October 2025 - 06:14 AM, said:

Trying for the life of me to work out why our government seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate a football firm with a track record for public disorder.

Yeah this one has gone way too far in the "trying to appease Israel for some reason" thing. Like the Tel Aviv derby game was cancelled because of violence between the fans. Does that make the Israeli police anti-Semitic too? Obviously not.

[Maark Abbott]

Tiste Simeon, on 21 October 2025 - 07:05 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 21 October 2025 - 06:14 AM, said:

Trying for the life of me to work out why our government seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate a football firm with a track record for public disorder.

Yeah this one has gone way too far in the "trying to appease Israel for some reason" thing. Like the Tel Aviv derby game was cancelled because of violence between the fans. Does that make the Israeli police anti-Semitic too? Obviously not.

it's just nuts to me to see this happening. Why are we as a country attempting to appease a nation conducting an active genocide. Why do we want to curry favour with them. I suspect that I'll not like the answer, whatever it is.

[QuickTidal]

I dunno if I've ever talked about this before, but I came across this freshly again and it made me mad and sad all over again...

Came across an old friend of mine on TikTok accidentally. A guy I have not seen in probably 20 years. He's a cop in Ontario, and I actually went to his swearing in ceremony to clap for him and support him all those years ago with some other friends. We hung out pretty regularly for about 5 years in my early to mid-20's.


He was into comics, nerdy stuff like D&D, renaissance faires, LOTR, superheroes...ect. He loved content where the plucky rebels overcame the evil empires...And so was I.

His mom won a small windfall in the local lottery in the early oughts, and gave him about 700k, which he used to buy his own condo apartment. One of the last times I saw him was when he showed me his new place and how he'd filled it with all his nerdy stuff. He was pretty proud. We didn't lose touch for any strange reasons..just because I left the suburbs and moved downtown, and we just stopped hanging out a lot. I saw other people from the burbs, many of whom I'm still close with...but not him as his new police job kept him busy at odd hours.

Fast forward to now. He has a TT page that is just one right wing screed after another ripping on leftists, Kamala Harris, liberals, and VOCAL support of Trump...Every single topic you will find him weighing in on and usually on the exact same talking points that Right Wing Media machine feeds him. I have no idea if the Police Services job bent him this way...but this man is UNRECOGNIZABLE to the person I used to know...like not even a shadow of that dude is left. In his place is an angry, misinformed, and caustic troll who delights in shitting on those politically opposed to him...amusingly he will post some of these screeds while wearing t-shirts of bands that I know he loves like The Dropkick Murphys...who would fucking HATE him...so the cognitive disconnect is wild.

I'm also fascinated that he gets away with what he says online while also working for the police services...a public servant going off on a whole section of the electorate on social media to the tune of multiple videos a day...seems like it should be a fireable offence...but I haven't got it in me to confront him, nor to rat him out...the whole thing is just so sad.

It was hard to watch my sister fall down the right wing rabbit hole, but she's BEEN a conservative for as long as I could remember, since she could vote...she just got worse after Trump and Covid...but watching someone I know who used to stand for everything he's now viscously against...makes me really upset.

I'm posting it here to get it out, because every now and again I wonder if I should reach out and say "Hey man, what the fuck happened to you? This isn't you."....but then I second guess myself and think...maybe this IS who he is and was, and he just disguised it well back then? Trump allowed him to let it out?

I dunno. It sucks.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 22 October 2025 - 03:44 PM

[Slow Ben]

That really sucks.

One of the saddest things to me about everything that’s happened since Trump came around is seeing how many people I’ve grown up respecting or loved are either straight freaking morons, hateful, or really don’t actually care about anyone if you aren’t a straight white Christian.

Beats the shit out of my mental health.

[QuickTidal]

Slow Ben, on 22 October 2025 - 05:08 PM, said:

That really sucks.

One of the saddest things to me about everything that’s happened since Trump came around is seeing how many people I’ve grown up respecting or loved are either straight freaking morons, hateful, or really don’t actually care about anyone if you aren’t a straight white Christian.

Beats the shit out of my mental health.

Yeah, for sure. That's me as well. It just does my head in...

[Tiste Simeon]

I don't think there's anything you can say QT. I think these people are too far gone.

[QuickTidal]

Yeah, that's the truth.

[worry]

Does he know that the US is a different country than the one he lives in?

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 22 October 2025 - 06:28 PM, said:

Does he know that the US is a different country than the one he lives in?

You would think so...but no.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Tiste Simeon, on 22 October 2025 - 05:49 PM, said:

I don't think there's anything you can say QT. I think these people are too far gone.

I agree, though it's still horrible to see it when it's someone you knew to be so different from that.

I worry about just how many people are too far gone at this point.

[Tiste Simeon]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 23 October 2025 - 08:25 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 22 October 2025 - 05:49 PM, said:

I don't think there's anything you can say QT. I think these people are too far gone.

I agree, though it's still horrible to see it when it's someone you knew to be so different from that.

I worry about just how many people are too far gone at this point.

I expect if we could remove the internet from a huge number of people for about 6 months we could probably help them all back to some level of sanity but I'm not sure how else it could happen.

[Cause]

Another colleague of mine lost his job this week. Just another moment of stress and anxiety I don’t need. Worse for him of course. Essentially another victim of RFK and Trump, the negative pressure the government is putting on biotech is particularly harsh on a few sectors. The company essentially decided we can’t support that sector in the USA, making him redundant. It’s doing well in Canada, and Europe. America is literally losing billions because of this nonsense.

Also sometimes I hate America. Overseas he would have protection or some warning. In America the moment profit is threatened companies can just cut employees to cover the loss. Also I really don’t like what happened. He had a customer meeting out of his home city on Wednesday, and they fired him Thursday. Which means they timed it to not stop the meeting from going forward…

Also I’m looking into how to donate to food backs because the USA is such a fucking mess right now.

[Cause]

I have a perfectly good tempur queen size matress, 2 years old. Only reason I am getting rid of it is that it was too soft and I sank into it like a stone. I thought great, lets doante it. Its impossible. Due to fear of bed bugs no major charity will accept it.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 09 November 2025 - 05:16 PM, said:

I have a perfectly good tempur queen size matress, 2 years old. Only reason I am getting rid of it is that it was too soft and I sank into it like a stone. I thought great, lets doante it. Its impossible. Due to fear of bed bugs no major charity will accept it.

Is there really no cost-effective way to inspect it for bedbugs? Or sterilize it relative to potential bedbug infestation?

Perhaps you could make a "direct donation" to someone, maybe over something like Craigslist... granted, then you don't know whether the person you're donating it to is actually in need of charity, but I doubt most charity organizations really check for that either for things like this.

When I moved I discovered some lighter fluid and an old lighter (fancy one that kept the fluid inside from evaporating) that I'd like to get rid of but the only way to legally throw it away is at one of the "hazardous waste disposal" events that happen less than once a month---last one for this year already happened. So I saw people on Reddit saying I should just offer it to random homeless people. But is it really charity if I'm helping them do something that harms their health, and potentially encouraging a debilitating addiction that will make it even harder for them to secure stable housing?... OTOH I don't want to die in a fire, and my new apartment has hardware floors that I thoroughly detest---the better to shatter my smartphone screens and erupt in flames beneath my bare feet as I try to race to the door, brandishing my fire extinguisher and sprinting through the mildly toxic yellow dust it spews...

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 09 November 2025 - 05:38 PM