[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 19 November 2025 - 12:20 AM, said:

Well I am unemployed again. Still trying to process it. I am honestly not sure what happened. We have been undergoing several firings all year for restructurings and layoffs due to reduced revenue but I dont seem to be have been let go for this reason. I was fired supposedly for being unprepared but wasnt given a specific example, and also my manager mentioned being distracted in meetings occasionally (probably true at times but I think thats true for everyone). one of the examples she gave was when I spent a meeting looking at flights to travel home because my grandmother had died that morning, I came to the meeting because I was scared to be late but explained what happened. This example is from July 2024 and even as she gave it she said she understood.

I have no proof but I have a suspicion given the timing that it may have something to do with the fact that I have been covering for a colleague who has been on maternity leave and it probably put me given our slower revenue at at least 1.5 peoples work if not quite a full 2 (thought the difficulty and stress of covering less familiar work was hard, especially when so much of the isntitional knowledge had been fired). Still we had discussed adding the new instruments and territory to my commission but they gave me far less than the person I was covering would have received. I asked if it was a mistake on a monday, received the negative feedback Friday, did an important install the next week and was fired this Monday. So 2 weeks between mentioning the commission and being fired, and 1 week between the feedback and being fired so no chance to act on it. Which makes me believe the decision was already made, they either waited for me to finish the important install or maybe tried to create some paper trail.

I am trying to be introspective but I feel if my performance was dropping that my manager should have/would have stepped in sooner to correct it. I dont think I am so delusional that I would have missed obvious failures in my performance. After discussing the commission I may have pushed back too hard on trying to set some boundaries and pushed back on dealing with some emergencies that popped up what was otherwise the only week I would have been home the whole of November and so which I used I to schedule several medical appointments, podiatrist, dentist, doctor, vaccine before the year ended and I lost my funds. I was expecting December to be equally busy. I was working remote and available for most of the day for emails and customer support but wanted to avoid traveling that week. I was a team player, pulled my weight, and had never received negative feedback before. I asked about performance review with my manager at the end of 2024 but was told we don't do them.

As I said, still processing it. I am secure financially and trying to take some time for myself before hitting the job search to calm myself and relax but am worried about the US economy right now. Late novemeber and decemeber between thanksgiving and christmass is probably not a good time to be searching but jan-march is prime time. A layoff would also be easier to brush off but being fired for performance apparently hurts worse.

Wonder if they're actually going to hire someone to replace you or if their real primary motivation was just saving money, given the loss of funding under Trump. Or perhaps they wanted to make an example of you for daring to push back on sacrificing your self-care to your job.

If aside from your lease you haven't really put down roots locally it seems like it could be an opportunity to move to a more hospitable country with a strong biomedical industry... the situation in this country will likely get much worse in 2026.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 November 2025 - 01:55 AM

[amphibian]

Cause, on 19 November 2025 - 12:20 AM, said:

Well I am unemployed again. Still trying to process it. I am honestly not sure what happened. We have been undergoing several firings all year for restructurings and layoffs due to reduced revenue but I dont seem to be have been let go for this reason. I was fired supposedly for being unprepared but wasnt given a specific example, and also my manager mentioned being distracted in meetings occasionally (probably true at times but I think thats true for everyone). one of the examples she gave was when I spent a meeting looking at flights to travel home because my grandmother had died that morning, I came to the meeting because I was scared to be late but explained what happened. This example is from July 2024 and even as she gave it she said she understood.

I have no proof but I have a suspicion given the timing that it may have something to do with the fact that I have been covering for a colleague who has been on maternity leave and it probably put me given our slower revenue at at least 1.5 peoples work if not quite a full 2 (thought the difficulty and stress of covering less familiar work was hard, especially when so much of the isntitional knowledge had been fired). Still we had discussed adding the new instruments and territory to my commission but they gave me far less than the person I was covering would have received. I asked if it was a mistake on a monday, received the negative feedback Friday, did an important install the next week and was fired this Monday. So 2 weeks between mentioning the commission and being fired, and 1 week between the feedback and being fired so no chance to act on it. Which makes me believe the decision was already made, they either waited for me to finish the important install or maybe tried to create some paper trail.

I am trying to be introspective but I feel if my performance was dropping that my manager should have/would have stepped in sooner to correct it. I dont think I am so delusional that I would have missed obvious failures in my performance. After discussing the commission I may have pushed back too hard on trying to set some boundaries and pushed back on dealing with some emergencies that popped up what was otherwise the only week I would have been home the whole of November and so which I used I to schedule several medical appointments, podiatrist, dentist, doctor, vaccine before the year ended and I lost my funds. I was expecting December to be equally busy. I was working remote and available for most of the day for emails and customer support but wanted to avoid traveling that week. I was a team player, pulled my weight, and had never received negative feedback before. I asked about performance review with my manager at the end of 2024 but was told we don't do them.

As I said, still processing it. I am secure financially and trying to take some time for myself before hitting the job search to calm myself and relax but am worried about the US economy right now. Late novemeber and decemeber between thanksgiving and christmass is probably not a good time to be searching but jan-march is prime time. A layoff would also be easier to brush off but being fired for performance apparently hurts worse.

I would get your applications in sooner rather than later. The interviews in January are set up with December scheduling.

The reasons given to you aren't strong. This smells much more like a fake for cause situation to avoid paying unemployment or the layoff package being given.

I would hop to Boston and go work for a biomedical company there fast.

[Cause]

I live in Boston now, one good thing to come from this job was they paid to move me. I feel like they wouldn’t have offered to move me or give me extra work if they felt I was terrible. If there was a drop in my performance it was from being overworked.

They are offering one month pay if I sign the standard won’t sue waiver. I believed I will still get unemployment benefits in Massachusetts even if fired for poor performance. They would have to prove I was fired for malicious non compliance of company rules for that to be true as I understand. Still sucks, I chose to say fired for poor performance rather than laid off in my application for benefits. I never received any written warnings.

This post has been edited by Cause: 19 November 2025 - 03:01 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

amphibian, on 19 November 2025 - 02:35 AM, said:

I would hop to Boston and go work for a biomedical company there fast.

Cause, on 19 November 2025 - 02:49 AM, said:

I live in Boston now

I think he misspelled "Toronto"... that is, provided you don't have any criminal record (including expunged records and ARDs---even though they're not an admission of guilt, Canada treats them as such) for which you haven't been pardoned yet by the Canadian government, since Canada is pretty strict about that. (And unlike the United States, they don't give white South Africans refugee status... though wait a few months and you might get refugee status for fleeing from the United States. Being from South Africa would make it seem less likely that you might be a spy (or biomedical saboteur...).)

[QuickTidal]

We cleaned the couch last night and pulled out the cushions (where my son sits every morning) and found 12 of his ADHD med pills shoved behind the cushions.

We confronted him about it, and he claims he doesn't like the taste of then...but of course instead of telling us that, he said nothing and just hid the pills.

The only silver lining is that now neither my wife nor myself feel crazy on the days in the last two weeks where he seemed "extra" unfocused and we turned to each other to confirm we'd indeed given him his meds....we did, it just turns out he was not taking them.

Bloody hell.

[Mentalist]

Ugh
The other team's forward tried his hardest to break me last night. Gave me a "shoulder to shoulder" shove when I got in front of him to intercept. So instead of pushing me off the ball, he shoved me towards it, but loosing my footing in the process. We got the foul call.

Landed on my right shoulder, and my whole body tried to roll over it. Thankfully, I avoided another dislocation, as my mom was flying out on vacation this morning and she'd have killed me herself if I messed that up for her.

Anyway, after a night's sleep, it feels all bruised up inside. I can go through the full ROM of my typical stretch routine, at least, so that's encouraging.

The guy was increasingly getting frustrated, b/c we were leading 6:2 at that point and I've been keeping him from doing anything meaningful for better part of the game at this point. Ended up wining 7:3, which wasn't bad, considering they got a 2:0 lead in the opening minutes until we got organized properly.

Still, it's gonna be a few painful days.

[Mezla PigDog]

I drove into the back of someone on Friday. 100% my fault. Got to get my bumper replaced and I feel rotten for the woman in the other car. Then yesterday getting the Christmas decorations from the loft, I slipped and put my foot through a gap in the boards, so now we have a big crack in the plaster in the bedroom ceiling.

These things come in 3s.....

[Tiste Simeon]

Oof that's rough Mez. Hope the third one is just like an embarrassingly loud sneeze or something.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Mezla PigDog, on 07 December 2025 - 04:27 PM, said:

I drove into the back of someone on Friday. 100% my fault. Got to get my bumper replaced and I feel rotten for the woman in the other car. Then yesterday getting the Christmas decorations from the loft, I slipped and put my foot through a gap in the boards, so now we have a big crack in the plaster in the bedroom ceiling.

These things come in 3s.....

Was relieved to read "in the other car"...

[Mentalist]

with all the hubbub about the spiking PC component prices, I dug up the receipt for my PC parts from January, b/c I figured I should get more RAM.

The price literally quadrupled. Since January.

IN-SANE.

[Tsundoku]

Mentalist, on 09 December 2025 - 09:19 PM, said:

with all the hubbub about the spiking PC component prices, I dug up the receipt for my PC parts from January, b/c I figured I should get more RAM.

The price literally quadrupled. Since January.

IN-SANE.

WTF? Why are component prices going up that much?

[Tiste Simeon]

Tsundoku, on 10 December 2025 - 10:03 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 09 December 2025 - 09:19 PM, said:

with all the hubbub about the spiking PC component prices, I dug up the receipt for my PC parts from January, b/c I figured I should get more RAM.

The price literally quadrupled. Since January.

IN-SANE.

WTF? Why are component prices going up that much?

Because tech bros pushing AI need all the parts. When this bubble bursts I'm going things will return to sanity a bit. Except for the tech bros. I hope they crash and burn.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Tsundoku, on 10 December 2025 - 10:03 AM, said:

WTF? Why are component prices going up that much?

From the New York Times:

Quote

The A.I. Boom Is Driving the [US] Economy[...]

[...] A.I. developers and chipmakers are raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in investments. Data centers the size of theme parks are sprouting around the country. Utilities are racing to build new power plants and to bring old ones out of retirement to meet surging electrical demand [...]

Everything tied to artificial intelligence is booming. Just about everything else is not. [...] investments in computer equipment and software accounted for more than 90 percent of growth in [US] gross domestic product in the first half of the year.

https://www.nytimes....om-economy.html

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 10 December 2025 - 12:18 PM

[QuickTidal]

Bubble. The word you’re looking for is BUBBLE ai.zath

[amphibian]

It's absolutely a bubble and the data centers to use these chips, GPUs, or RAM don't exist yet. So these are literally sitting in a series of warehouses.

https://www.wheresyo...-so-what-is-it/

This is close to a panic.

[Cause]

Yeah it’s absolutely crazy.

Crucial one of the big 3 Ram manufacturers has basically said it’s abandoning personal computers and gamers and will focus entirely on ai buyers. That can’t be normal. Which means Ram prices for standard users will skyrocket.

[Tsundoku]

At least 10 dead, many injured in mass shooting at Jewish Hanukkah festival at Bondi beach. 1 suspect dead, another injured and in custody. Possible IED on the site.

https://www.news.com...30a3157e69e5cec

[Tsundoku]

12 dead now.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Tsundoku, on 14 December 2025 - 10:30 AM, said:

At least 10 dead, many injured in mass shooting at Jewish Hanukkah festival at Bondi beach. 1 suspect dead, another injured and in custody. Possible IED on the site.

https://www.news.com...30a3157e69e5cec

Horrible. (And Novakill might want to refrain from performing "Kill Everybody" around Sydney for at least a couple of days...)

Etymology of the name Akram:

Quote

derived from the Arabic root word Karam (كرم), meaning "generosity". In the Arabic language, Akram is a comparative adjective and means "kinder."

Akram - Wikipedia

Wonder whether long-range nonlethal weapons could have stopped it sooner.

There was also a mass shooting yesterday at Brown University (Ivy League school in the United States which I have some personal connections with, though I'm pretty sure no one I know was injured---well, not "physically", at least). Active shooter alert went on for hours with the university and surrounding area on lockdown. People hiding under desks for hours. "Person of interest" taken into custody today but not yet confirmed as a suspect.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Apparently the Bondi beach parade did not include police officers armed with firearms in case an anti-Semitic terrorist attack took place... which seems like a major mistake. (Provided the police are trained not to be trigger-happy...) Granted, I'm basing that on reports that police arrived after the shooting started, which don't explicitly rule out the possibility that there were already police there with assault rifles.

Quote

A mother with a young baby said bubbles floated in the air and music played. Then the gunmen, wearing black, emerged from a small silver hatchback and began firing into the crowd, according to a witness.

[...] Videos from the scene show people fleeing from the busy beach, a half-mile crescent of sand, as the sun set. Panicked people sprinted, jumped over cars and scaled concrete walls, many pulling their children along. [...]

The shooting is the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks in Australia that intensified last year, when arsonists targeted a Jewish business and a synagogue. The violence has unnerved many in the country, which has the world's highest concentration of Holocaust survivors after Israel.

A Hanukkah Attack - The New York Times

Brown University was advising students and faculty to improvise weapons.

Perhaps they should have mentioned that the shooter appeared to only be using a handgun; the body armor needed to survive a handgun blast is much lighter and less cumbersome than what's needed for a rifle. Students who happened to have bulletproof hoodies would have had a good shot at tackling and restraining the shooter (... hey maybe American football is good for something? actually the rugby teams are still pretty good (for the United States...)). Then again, if the shooter had switched over to an assault rifle, that could have led to more deaths, and they may have judged that being blamed for those deaths by taking action would be worse than potentially facilitating more deaths through inaction.

Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday that a suspect had been apprehended... and then a little while later was like oops no the active shooter is still out there.