Octopus Overlords

Jeff V wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 8:03 pm I did tell her we need to start seeing income from her other properties so we can reinvest into still more.

You've turned into a tycoon game.

The game would be more fun if I didn't have a room full of garbage she thought she could make a killing reselling. She does spend considerable time trying to educate herself on business, but is easily swayed by promises of quick profits.

She wants to build a 20 unit apartment complex. I want her other investments to start paying off to fund this -- 20 units is large enough to be productive. She also wants to build some student housing near a local university, but I think that's likely to be harder to sustain since kids are notoriously poor. Managing such a facility (including computer lab and the like) is, however, something I could actually do there.

Oh snap! This thread!

I'm currently unemployed.
A recruiter lined me up an interview.

...With the employer that just fired me.

I wish I was making that up...

...Look.

I'm stable right now doing freelancing. I got actual interviews lined up.

So I have no issue taking a bit of time out of my day to have some fun.

coopasonic wrote:I'm not a fan of interviewing but we have some very objective interview standards (that RM9 would hate) that makes it easier for me to make an assessment and I am recognized most every quarter as a top interviewer and that helps my annual review. Also, top interviewers gets a $250 "bonus" each quarter which motivates a little bit.

I would probably hate them, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. Whatever system you have to help your process is acceptable to me, I just probably wouldn’t be the right fit.

Remember the company that put me through 6 interviews only to say, "fuck you very much?" A week after that, I was contacted by a recruiter they hired who thought I'd be perfect for that job (for the record, I know I would have been perfect for that job. I can only assume it's the old as fuck problem).

I had a surprise interview yesterday. I was contacted on Sunday (Halloween) and provided times, but never got a response.. They did respond, but somehow the email doesn't appear in any of my inbox bins (and was not in spam). After the fact, I searched and found it. I got the impression they want someone a little cheaper, but the job is an ass-in-the-office gig in the west loop area, meaning considerable communing expense and the need to hire someone to prepare the kids for school (and drive my daughter to her school). I won't be sad if they don't call back.

Got a rejection email from a job I applied for with the federal court system. I think I applied for that 3 months ago and had frankly forgotten about it. They cited an over-abundance of applicants as one of the reasons. Yeah, my profession isn't suffering from a lack of candidates.

I was contacted again from a recruiter from Wisconsin for a 100% remote job. Who cares about the details, that's what I want. I suspect she secretly wants to convert me to a Packer fan, but she did say this was a premature inquiry - as in they don't yet have the green light to recruit for the position. This is a recruiter from a company (Tek Systems) that has been jacking me around for a good 20 years.

And I found a half-dozen jobs to apply for this week. I don't think my wife will try to move us to the Philippines until I'm able to draw social security (2.5 years at the earliest). I really need to find a job that would take me to full retirement (age 70, about 10.5 years) at which point we'll be in position to maintain a house here and keep the kids in school here with their friends. The Manila condo won't be ready until 2024, and the house in Ormoc is still being investigated.

I billed 58 hours last week (Mon to Sat) and am now getting up to go back in today. A coworker left the company the week before and we’ve got some high profile projects coming through that are trying to recoup schedule with weekend coverage in my test lab.

It’s going to be a big paycheck.

The Meal wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 7:26 am I billed 58 hours last week (Mon to Sat) and am now getting up to go back in today. A coworker left the company the week before and we’ve got some high profile projects coming through that are trying to recoup schedule with weekend coverage in my test lab.

It’s going to be a big paycheck.

You get to charge by the hour? Is that typical in that field?

stessier wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 9:10 am

The Meal wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 7:26 am I billed 58 hours last week (Mon to Sat) and am now getting up to go back in today. A coworker left the company the week before and we’ve got some high profile projects coming through that are trying to recoup schedule with weekend coverage in my test lab.

It’s going to be a big paycheck.

You get to charge by the hour? Is that typical in that field?

Yes. No.

It's AMAZING. SAT + SUN time is at ×1.2 pay rate as well. Everything beyond 40 hours is at regular pay rate. (If I got paid like this in the hard drive world, I'm pretty sure I'd own all of the US land West of the Mississippi.)

My career is done. I'll officially hand in my Intent to Return letter tomorrow with No checked. I'll teach through the end of the school year of course but handing in that letter will be the first step to retirement. I'm mentally ready. I love the day to day interactions but I'm finding it harder and harder to motivate myself to do the things that make the difference between being an ok or passable teacher and a good teacher.

I'm also doing the final step in a 15 year plan to retire early. Both kids are self supporting. We have enough money. I have things that I want to do that always seem to be put off because of needing to spend 8+ hours a day teaching. It still feels like a big step.

Because I had an unusually strong Q2, the Commonwealth has instructed me that I am now required to file my payroll reports and remit my withholding payment monthly, rather than quarterly. Grrrr. My annual income will come in below that trigger amount, but the state's not waiting around to see if that's so.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:44 pm

Jeff V wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 8:03 pm I did tell her we need to start seeing income from her other properties so we can reinvest into still more.

You've turned into a tycoon game.

Now she found a new subdivision being built in the mountains above Ormoc. A brand new, 3-bedroom, 2 story house will cost us $200 per month if we buy-in now.

One of the largest retailers in the Philippines, Robinson's, put up a mall about 10 minutes drive away. If it's anything like the mall in Tacloban, it's OK for staples, but not so much for international foods (which really is what I'd be looking for). When I was last there (we got married in Ormoc), there wasn't any non-Filipino restaurants in town, but I hear it's developed a lot in the decade since.

I still think the condo in Manila is where I'd rather be. Wife says in Ormoc we can hire a driver, a house keeper, a cook, and a tutor for the kids. Labor is cheap there, so that's probably correct, but I do not like the idea of home schooling for the kids, I think this negatively affects their social development.

In 2020, I put in so much work as a temporary hire (almost 13 years now) that we now qualify for health care benefits through my employer until 12/31/2022. And based on the work I've done in 2021, I should then re-qualify for health care benefits through 2023. My wife's plan charges us close to $600 a month for crappy coverage and so we're now going to get better coverage for $200 a month instead.

This has been...a weird 20+ months.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Sun Nov 07, 2021 10:44 pm

I did use the pirate resignation letter at my old job! Well, I sent it to my principal but I sent a normal letter to the school board.

So today I applied at Fermi Lab. A friend who works there told me about the job, and for once, there was actually a place on the application where I could mention him! The job is a pretty good match for my skills, in total, it's probably a step up from where I've been and things that I've done some I'd have to do lots. The application process took about 2 hours, which isn't bad for a government job. They are recruiting through Nov. 20, so I expect to hear back late spring or so. I'm not exaggerating -- the other day I got a "fuck you very much for applying, but no." email from a job I applied for in the Federal Court system back in July. They sited an "overwhelming volume of applicants" which seems to confirm my suspicion that my occupation does not suffer the same dearth of workers that others are bitching about.

So my wife didn't go with the $100/mo house -- as far as I know, she never got as far as dispatching her sister to do recon on it. Instead, now she's in the process of signing papers to buy a house in a new subdivision being built in the mountains overlooking Ormoc. It could be a scenic location, punctuated by the occasional catastrophic typhoons. A 3 bed/2 bath house will cost $200 until occupancy in 2024 (the same time the condo will be done), then it would jump to a $700/mo mortgage for 20 years.

When I told her our friend send me this Fermi Lab opening, she was not all that excited. Seconds after telling her about it, I got a call from a recruiter asking if I was available for a permanent role with some medical industry experience in Chicago (this could be anywhere in the area, no specifics...the recruiter's number was New Jersey but hit sig indicated New Jersey and Chennai - I'm certain he's located in the latter). I took the call on speaker in the car, when he asked if I was available, my wife said she almost shouted NO! I think she's decided that I'm probably done as a useful wage-earner, and is accordingly accelerating her plans to move us to the Philippines. Last night though, a 62 year old patient of hers died. She considered that Ormoc probably won't be the best place for me and I best be kept in Manila. I like that idea a little better, since Manila has international restaurants as well as different ethnic foods in supermarkets, which are much larger than those in the province. A new supermarket opened up 10 minutes away from this Ormoc housing development, but in all of the times I've been to that city, there's never been anything but Filipino restaurants.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:23 pm there's never been anything but Filipino restaurants.

Or, as they call them in the Philippines, 'restaurants'.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:23 pm The application process took about 2 hours, which isn't bad for a government job. They are recruiting through Nov. 20, so I expect to hear back late spring or so. I'm not exaggerating

Well, you exaggerate a little bit. It's not unusual for the feds to take 6 months to fill a slot. If you have a manager on the inside that wants you, it can be quicker than that. I'm working with a group that has had an open slot for a couple of years and they think nothing of it.

I’ve applied for agencies and worked at agencies that allow positions to languish for what seems like indefinite amounts of time. My current organization, the HR department runs a tight ship and even still it can take several months to fill a position. Once an announcement is posted it is typically open for 10 to 15 days, sometimes more usually less. Once the announcement closes HR has 30 days to process the certificates and forward the relevant candidates to the hiring manager, who then has 30 days to review the candidates and setup interviews. Once interviews are completed the hiring manager has up to 30 days to make a hiring decision or reject the entire pool and the process starts over again. If a candidate is chosen it can easily take 30 to 90 days to do preliminary checks and get them onboarded. So even in a case with an efficient HR your looking at nearly 3 months just to get a response for an application and only then if your in the best qualified group.

dfs wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:00 pm

Jeff V wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:23 pm The application process took about 2 hours, which isn't bad for a government job. They are recruiting through Nov. 20, so I expect to hear back late spring or so. I'm not exaggerating

Well, you exaggerate a little bit. It's not unusual for the feds to take 6 months to fill a slot. If you have a manager on the inside that wants you, it can be quicker than that. I'm working with a group that has had an open slot for a couple of years and they think nothing of it.

Umm...6 months from now would be late spring...unless you're suggesting I'm exaggerating on the optimistic side!

This is the first time I ever applied to Fermilab directly. Twice I was submitted by a recruiter along with a hand-picked (by me) team for long term, quasi-permanent contract teams but in each case we were outbid by someone who said they could do it cheaper.

Tao wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:50 pm I’ve applied for agencies and worked at agencies that allow positions to languish for what seems like indefinite amounts of time. My current organization, the HR department runs a tight ship and even still it can take several months to fill a position. Once an announcement is posted it is typically open for 10 to 15 days, sometimes more usually less. Once the announcement closes HR has 30 days to process the certificates and forward the relevant candidates to the hiring manager, who then has 30 days to review the candidates and setup interviews. Once interviews are completed the hiring manager has up to 30 days to make a hiring decision or reject the entire pool and the process starts over again. If a candidate is chosen it can easily take 30 to 90 days to do preliminary checks and get them onboarded. So even in a case with an efficient HR your looking at nearly 3 months just to get a response for an application and only then if your in the best qualified group.

I'm not quite sure why an agency would be the bottleneck. Don't they typically work on their client's time-table?

Last week I had a 3rd contact from a recruiter who actually seems to have an eye open for me. She admitted at this time, she was just doing pre-work on a potential job -- they were not yet directed to recruit, but she wanted to be ready to jump on it if given the green light. It's commendable, especially since her agency has a decades-long history of jacking me around. That job, should it come to pass, would please my wife as it's 100% remote. Such a job I could ostensibly take overseas with me. The holy grail would be a remote job where I can be paid in American wages while living in a country with a far lower cost of living. FTR, the going rate for what I do in this country (W2, not contract which would be higher) is about $60 per hour (with benefits), in the Philippines, the same job goes for about $200 -- a month (what are these benefits you speak of?) When my wife did the calculation from my last salary to Philippine Pesos, she said that was about the rate a bank president gets paid. This is why she believes we can make do on half-social security if I formally retire at 62. Apparently there's some extra too when you have under-18 children.

What is a livable wage in the Philippines?

President is getting ready to go on vacation. Suggesting no second round of interviews coming in the near future pretty much guaranteeing that I won't have a replacement in training in before the new year. I guess that means I'm getting reset for my vacation time. That's be 5 free weeks of pay for enduring a few months. But I am so ready to be gone today.

Recruiters only found 4 viable candidates and I nixed one of them. Not a good sign. In the meantime my productivity is in the toilet. I wish the company could what a dis service they are doing to themselves by keeping me around. It's so very odd. I flat out suck at my job and am only going to get worse. Collecting a paycheck for sucking at my job and desperately wanting out is the strangest problem to have. But I guess that is a sort of existence for the perpetually exhausted. I do hope I can get me fixed to some degree after I finally exit.

At this point you are doing this to yourself. You can leave at any time. The company will survive. Can you say the same for yourself if you stay?

It feels irresponsible to leave. I also hate leaving people I've worked with two and a half decades holding the bag.

They're bending over backward trying to accommodate me... short of hiring my replacement. But yeah the day may come, where it's time to say good bye without a replacement. I guess breaking up is hard to do.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Nov 10, 2021 12:21 pm It feels irresponsible to leave. I also hate leaving people I've worked with two and a half decades holding the bag.

They're bending over backward trying to accommodate me... short of hiring my replacement. But yeah the day may come, where it's time to say good bye without a replacement. I guess breaking up is hard to do.

How dare you have integrity!!!
In this day and age, dont you know it's all about me, me me?

It's not even integrity, I don't think. If I had integrity, I'd be pushing myself a lot harder than I do. I'd still be trying to keep up with the demands of my job and I clearly don't. I don't know that I have the words. "Deserve's got nuthin to do with it." It's some sort of sense of feeling accountable and that this accountability should be handed off in proper fashion, even if the company can't get its ducks in a row for that hand off. It's one of those hang ups I was raised with, I guess. Do right by people. And it helps that they people would like to do right be me, though that's not a necessary conditional.

At the end of the day, your tired husk is worth more behind a desk than you not being there at all. You need to figure out your line(s) and know when it's time to walk away. They would replace you in less than a second if they could so always view this through your own mental/physical/social health lens.

The sad part of your resume being out there is you're being offered all these scam jobs of "logistics" companies, or recruiters who just want to throw you at menial jobs like delivery drivers and admin assistants with jobs HOURS from where you live.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Nov 10, 2021 12:53 pm At the end of the day, your tired husk is worth more behind a desk than you not being there at all. You need to figure out your line(s) and know when it's time to walk away. They would replace you in less than a second if they could so always view this through your own mental/physical/social health lens.

This. I suspect they know they burned him the fuck out. I also suspect they were unpaying him and a replacement will be money coming out of someone's pocket. And until he leaves they'll keep on grinding him into dust because that's all that matters. I only say this because I see this over and over and over in my line of work.

One of the outcomes of consulting is that I see tons of organizations. I am literally sick to death of the words - 'we're a lean organization'. I hear it at nearly everyone of my clients who is paying me ridiculous rates to give them a report while burning their staffs to the ground. And by nearly everyone, I mean I usually am there in the first place because they are a hot mess. Why are they a hot mess? Because they are usually burning the entire staff out pinching pennies.

I often tell them a cleaned up version of the following, "If you don't want to pay the money for the proper level of staffing then outsource the function because it is literally killing people."

I thought about it on the drive home. March, I think will be my deadline. I won't be able to speak to my boss for a week but when she returns, I'ma tell her I want to be gone by March. Get rid of me before then, that's fine. I'm having a hard time seeing how I make it to March anyway. No crazy amount of work just because I've given you a horizon but come the beginning of spring I'm taking care of my house. I'm taking care of my health. By then it will have been six months notice.

That makes sense. And I know I said it once before but I really recommend a support group. You are showing all the tell tale signs of extreme burn out including the guilt. I'm not going to change your mind on this - it's pretty much impossible. In time once you are out of the situation you'll almost certainly figure out you should be a lot more compassionate to yourself about the situation including supposed failures in work performance and should have a lot less compassion for the some of these folks.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Nov 10, 2021 10:11 am It's so very odd. I flat out suck at my job and am only going to get worse. Collecting a paycheck for sucking at my job and desperately wanting out is the strangest problem to have.

My first response is that you probably don't suck at your job nearly as much as you think you do.

I'm also not sure it is that strange. I'm retiring to avoid that end game. I've seen it in too many teachers hanging on only because they can't imagine not working or they desperately need the money/healthcare and I have to think it occurs in other fields. I have the luxury of going out when I know I'm still pretty good at my game and I'm very conscious that it is a luxury.

Madmarcus wrote: ↑Wed Nov 10, 2021 7:54 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Nov 10, 2021 10:11 am It's so very odd. I flat out suck at my job and am only going to get worse. Collecting a paycheck for sucking at my job and desperately wanting out is the strangest problem to have.

My first response is that you probably don't suck at your job nearly as much as you think you do.

Exactly. It is burn out talking. It is depression adjacent and can be just as dangerous.

Depression adjacent is definitely a thing and likely something I will have to work on... sometime... More so than depression is anxiety and exhaustion, which I think are triplets at this point.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Oct 28, 2021 4:17 pm The only way I understand that overqualified thing is if they need a long term position and fear you'll jump ship, using them as placeholder.

That's one benefit of the 7-11 job. They *know* they're a placeholder.

Drazzil wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 10:43 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Oct 28, 2021 4:17 pm The only way I understand that overqualified thing is if they need a long term position and fear you'll jump ship, using them as placeholder.

That's one benefit of the 7-11 job. They *know* they're a placeholder.

I worked there for most of my college years. Probably close to six years. I think I topped out at a whole $7.50 an hour with no benefits in mid 1990s money before going on to wait table for less hours and more money and a whole lot more insanity. Six years seems to be longer than the majority of the workforce stay somewhere either by choice or by corporate changes.

malchior wrote: ↑Wed Nov 10, 2021 7:52 pm That makes sense. And I know I said it once before but I really recommend a support group. You are showing all the tell tale signs of extreme burn out including the guilt. I'm not going to change your mind on this - it's pretty much impossible. In time once you are out of the situation you'll almost certainly figure out you should be a lot more compassionate to yourself about the situation including supposed failures in work performance and should have a lot less compassion for the some of these folks.

Its like bad relationships. Once you get loose of them you will wonder how and why you stayed so long.

Drazzil wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 10:51 am Its like bad relationships. Once you get loose of them you will wonder how and why you stayed so long.

Or I'll get all passive aggressive and never want to hear their name again...

Really, I have no love for the company but I do care about many of the people I work with and they will have a really bad time for quite some time if I check out without having a replacement settled and in place. At the same time, I can't wait forever. March is not the deadline they want to hear but it's the one they are going to get. It's not a good time to work on replacing me but quite frankly with the way the shop is run, it will never be a good time.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 11:26 am they will have a really bad time for quite some time if I check out without having a replacement settled and in place.

There are some real headscratchers in here. I mean there are some implications there.

It's possible they didn't take your conversation seriously. When I left my job last year it was after I had several pointed conversations with VP level people about how I felt stagnant, disconnected from the business, and underappreciated. They acted with surprise and hurt when I told them I was leaving for those reasons. It turns out they weren't actually listening in the first place. That could be very well what is happening. If you have a culture where people are constantly managing up this happens a lot. They lose touch with folks on the ground.

Another is that they might not get what you do. Meaning they have no idea what the impact of you leaving will be and that it is a fundamental emergency. This is something I see a lot in IT beyond the 'we're lean' bullshit. They don't realize that from onboarding an employee, to making everything work, to the break/fix tasks, to terminating an employee , is generally coordinated *by you*. (I'm assuming a lot here but this is the way most places work).

Strange stuff. It truly sounds like a bad situation all around.