Octopus Overlords

i had nearly hit an overdraft on my bank account and there is no way that should have happened. i didn't notice it til now because i had a cash-out stockpile there from my previous job...

the (part-time) HR person confirmed they had entered my 'semi-monthly' salary instead of my 'monthly' salary. the rest of the money i've earned since i've started should arrive tomorrow.

i asked why no cashflow audit flagged this. she said she'd discuss with the CEO about setting one up. startups, man....

the lesson here is to always, always confirm your direct deposits when starting a new job.

Something similar happened to me two years ago at my previous employer. I was to be paid an addition to my usual bonus. I was running around the world at the time and the bonus payout was supposed to coincide with the original bonus. They entered it wrong and at the time I thought they combined them. I didn't notice it wasn't paid out for nearly a year until I went to do my income taxes. I never got a real good explanation how they didn't know about it. What was fun is I left the firm late last year and they unsuccessfully tried to claw back the bonus. It was paid as an adjustment ( and was a year later). It had a time based element and they mistakenly thought it was bonus money for that calendar year.

i had a super hard time sleeping last night because of this - i couldn't believe something this major was actually an error. now i just want to call in sick to work and nap for a few hours

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 pm i had a super hard time sleeping last night because of this - i couldn't believe something this major was actually an error. now i just want to call in sick to work and nap for a few hours

I had something similar happen to me in the beginning of this year...except my company is not a startup (just mismanaged as hell). They changed HR software and had to move our direct deposit information from the old software to the new. I have my deposit split between my personal and joint checking accounts. They entered the account # for the joint checking incorrectly, and I didn't catch it because it's a 14-digit number and it kinda looked right (it never occurred to me to check every digit). From January until mid-May a large part of my paycheck was going into la-la-land. Once I caught it, it took another 2 months for Finance to get me the missing amount (I don't know if they ever figured out where it was being deposited and if they were able to get that money back).

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 pm i had a super hard time sleeping last night because of this - i couldn't believe something this major was actually an error. now i just want to call in sick to work and nap for a few hours

There's a scene in Goodfellas that perhaps you can offer as a suggestion to your HR rep? Good lord that's crazy.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:07 pm the lesson here is to always, always confirm your direct deposits when starting a new job.

I dunno about the lesson but I always check my direct deposit after every check just to make sure it's deposited and I check all my accounts several times a month. I used to check them all every day but that got to be a bit much of a bother and now I have so many notifications set on my accounts that I'm not as paranoid as I used to be.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:40 pm

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 pm i had a super hard time sleeping last night because of this - i couldn't believe something this major was actually an error. now i just want to call in sick to work and nap for a few hours

There's a scene in Goodfellas that perhaps you can offer as a suggestion to your HR rep? Good lord that's crazy.

The one where someone thought Joe Pesci was funny?

the HR person just sent me a $200 Amazon gift card (out of her own money!) as an apology for this error. i told her she realllly didn't need to do that, but she said it helps her 'feel better'.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:22 pm the HR person just sent me a $200 Amazon gift card (out of her own money!) as an apology for this error. i told her she realllly didn't need to do that, but she said it helps her 'feel better'.

$200 covers 40% of your pay?
Where do you work, Nike?

(I kid)

OK, I thought it was funny.

My job is on hold again. Apparently I am a shoo-in for the position, but the person in charge is taking an extended Thanksgiving break. Was hoping for Zoom interview tomorrow and Driving Test on Friday, but looks like it'll be later this week and early next week. Will have to reschedule.

I'm taking a late breakfast, then head off to get my booster shot. Now where's my original vaccine card?

Today marks my 11 year anniversary at this joint, making this my longest stay. I was at my previous job for 10 years, and when I got laid off back in 2010, I had 29.3 days of leave accumulated that they were supposed to pay me. They direct deposited 2.93 days, and I about had a heart attack.

Anyway, to the 11 years. It has taken me some time, but I have crafted a suitable workplace environment around me. The last couple of years have been pretty solid, as my boss and I convinced the powers that be to let us completely re-architect our product from scratch. Projects in this area are notorious for being *years* late. We put our proposed schedule together in Feb 2020 (without knowing that lockdown was coming, and which scattered the team to the winds). We are still operating within one week of our initial schedule - and that's only because they added a significant requirement about 75% of the way through implementation that I was able to get in without too much delay.

I will say though, it's made people pay attention and stop fighting us on nonsense.

It feels good though, because the initial rejection back in 2019 inadvertently caused a spiral that lead to a mental health crisis, which uncovered all sorts of shit I didn't know I had been failing to deal with for decades. Going in to get help dealing with work, and coming out with a complex, dissociative PTSD diagnosis made for an interesting 2019/2020. But we are getting through all that now, and things are pretty, pretty good here on this anniversary.

I remember you losing your job back then and your troubles. Sure glad things worked out in the long run.
Damn! Hard to believe it's been ten years.

dbt1949 wrote:I remember you losing your job back then and your troubles. Sure glad things worked out in the long run.
Damn! Hard to believe it's been ten years.

I don’t know if I ever really went into detail on what happened in 2019, but I might have, since it contributed to a lot of rage in the April to May 2019 time frame that ultimately led to me leaving the forums for a year or so until Grifman wondered what happened to me.

Losing my job sucked, but thankfully it was a very short gap between jobs. And this place is the sort of place people stay until their careers are over, so with luck I won’t go through that again.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:13 pm I don’t know if I ever really went into detail on what happened in 2019, but I might have, since it contributed to a lot of rage in the April to May 2019 time frame that ultimately led to me leaving the forums for a year or so until Grifman wondered what happened to me.

I noticed your absence - I'm glad you've decided to return. I kinda missed The Treatment.

As long as it's not directed at me.

Exodor wrote:

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:13 pm I don’t know if I ever really went into detail on what happened in 2019, but I might have, since it contributed to a lot of rage in the April to May 2019 time frame that ultimately led to me leaving the forums for a year or so until Grifman wondered what happened to me.

I noticed your absence - I'm glad you've decided to return. I kinda missed The Treatment.

As long as it's not directed at me.

I’m getting to be too old for that! Plus, letting four decades of rage out in healthy ways has made me far more reasonable and less likely to apply the Treatment(tm), although I did use it in the thread on the Wheel of Time show.

I’ve been back for a while, but I mostly read now. Not engaging helps to maintain the zen!

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:29 pm I’ve been back for a while, but I mostly read now. Not engaging helps to maintain the zen!

I understand completely. I read OO every day but I only post a few times a week and almost never in R&P.

Exodor wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:48 pm I understand completely. I read OO every day but I only post a few times a week and almost never in R&P.

It's like looking in a mirror!

Exodor wrote:

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:29 pm I’ve been back for a while, but I mostly read now. Not engaging helps to maintain the zen!

I understand completely. I read OO every day but I only post a few times a week and almost never in R&P.

I don’t even know what subforum I’m in, I just scan a list of new or unread topics in the app and read up when interested.

Looking back, I can clearly see that The Treatment was a manifestation of one of my biggest PTSD triggers, so I’m not at all shocked that I used to be insufferable with it.

These days, I’d like to be correct much more than I care to be right, so I’m much more likely to just passively read. The one thing that I still get riled up about is crypto and now NFTs only because it still seems so utterly senseless to me.

Other than that, I’ve just accepted that we are doomed and that I can’t do anything to alter that trajectory and I’ve made peace with that. But work is going well at least!

The Treatment, is that a Scientology thing?

hepcat wrote:The Treatment, is that a Scientology thing?

One advantage to getting mentally healthy is that I have more time to spend on my studies.

feeling somewhat disgruntled today, to be sure, but i'm starting to consider looking for a new job - current new job is really not what i expected it would be (then again, i couldn't get a good idea of what it would be like from the interviews) and it's too much manual hands-on testing. being bored AND overworked is not a good combo, either.i will have to bring it up with the co-founder if it gets to be unbearable, and so i'm sticking with it for now, but i might be hitting up indeed, et al starting tonight

what's the statute of limitations for bailing, if/when it comes to references? i just started here beginning of September.

If it's not a good fit, it's not a good fit. That's a perfectly valid reason to bail, just as it would be for them to cut you lose.

I got a new PO from NVIDIA today to edit the spring GTC, starting next week. This will be my fifth consecutive contract, and I think outlasting one program manager makes me a grizzled veteran now. I can probably count on this job twice a year indefinitely.

In related news, I told the new PM that I'm raising my rate to $75 next year. Not for everyone, probably -- after giving myself a 25% raise last January, another one this year might be overreach -- but they can afford it.

The Blue Technology Barometer is a story that I fact-checked and copy edited. This was one of the more interesting jobs I've done for MITTR Insights (which is the magazine's custom publishing arm). I pray that there are no typos.

The document that they submitted to me was almost pristine, so I could only bill them for two hours.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:13 pm
I don’t know if I ever really went into detail on what happened in 2019, but I might have, since it contributed to a lot of rage in the April to May 2019 time frame that ultimately led to me leaving the forums for a year or so until Grifman wondered what happened to me.

I'm really glad that you are both back and in a better place mentally. I'm still working through a lot of that myself.

That’s appreciated. It’s more pleasant to not be a seething ball of anger 99.9% of the time.

Looks like I passed the video interview and going on the road test today. I may be employed next week.

Godspeed!

Good luck on the job, Kasey!

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 9:43 am That’s appreciated. It’s more pleasant to not be a seething ball of anger 99.9% of the time.

I sometimes find myself being angry at times for no real reason. I can trace that back to my mother, who loves to be mad at people, I believe. I'm trying to recognize those moments in myself though and work through them.

hepcat wrote:I sometimes find myself being angry at times for no real reason. I can trace that back to my mother, who loves to be mad at people, I believe. I'm trying to recognize those moments in myself though and work through them.

My biggest rage trigger is the feeling that is generated when I’m trying to convey something and I can tell no one’s listening. Disagreement? No problems. Getting dismissed? I cannot abide.

You can imagine how that could escalate here sometimes in certain kinds of discussions with certain people.

Please compare and contrast ‘The Treatment’ with ‘The Business’. Thank you.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:39 pm

hepcat wrote:I sometimes find myself being angry at times for no real reason. I can trace that back to my mother, who loves to be mad at people, I believe. I'm trying to recognize those moments in myself though and work through them.

My biggest rage trigger is the feeling that is generated when I’m trying to convey something and I can tell no one’s listening. Disagreement? No problems. Getting dismissed? I cannot abide.

You can imagine how that could escalate here sometimes in certain kinds of discussions with certain people.

A psychological breakthrough happened with me in an argument with my (now ex-)girlfriend. "I don't need to be right, I need to be heard."

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:40 pm Please compare and contrast ‘The Treatment’ with ‘The Business’. Thank you.

Doing The Business is how you get the disease.
Doing The Treatment is how you cure the disease.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:39 pm

hepcat wrote:I sometimes find myself being angry at times for no real reason. I can trace that back to my mother, who loves to be mad at people, I believe. I'm trying to recognize those moments in myself though and work through them.

My biggest rage trigger is the feeling that is generated when I’m trying to convey something and I can tell no one’s listening. Disagreement? No problems. Getting dismissed? I cannot abide.

You can imagine how that could escalate here sometimes in certain kinds of discussions with certain people.

Just out of curiosity, would that include people not understanding what you're trying to say too? We have a developer at our office who sometimes speaks in what we like to call "Eric-a-nese", a language that is often changing or sometimes way too technical for his audience. He gets frustrated and angry when people don't understand him. It's at the point now where some of the higher ups in the company just don't even want to talk to him because they're afraid of making him angry if they don't understand what he's saying immediately.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:39 pm My biggest rage trigger is the feeling that is generated when I’m trying to convey something and I can tell no one’s listening.

In a parallel universe, you and I are married.

...and I could be your wacky neighbor who barges in at inopportune times!

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 3:59 pm ...and I could be your wacky neighbor who barges in at inopportune times!

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 3:59 pm ...and I could be your wacky neighbor who barges in at inopportune times!

Pretty much the role you play here, no?