Octopus Overlords

So wife's job hired some more nurses and her OT has dried up. She's contemplating taking a second job again -- it's at an assisted living place, so easy work. This would be double shifts 4 times per week. In return, I need to commit to being a full time Mr. Mom, including doing more housework than I've been doing.

There was nothing but crickets from the job I interviewed for a couple of weeks ago, despite me being 100% qualified for the role and their specific needs. Again, I can only assume they want my experience in a much younger package.

I was only 44 when I found that out.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:00 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 3:02 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 2:43 pm I'm broken.

Me too! I would retire tomorrow if I could. I completely appreciate your position and wouldn't be looking to adjust my timeline if I'd already mentally committed to the exit date. It's not about money for me anymore. I'm basically working at this point for Cadillac healthcare benefits. I'm doing everything I can to help others move forward, but for me? I'm done.

I realistically should still work 3-5 more years but I'm broken.

You may have covered this before but have you considered phased retirement? Not necessarily in the same field. My current plan is to retire from my job in 2.5 years and teach elementary school. Then retire from that and substitute. My BA is in Education and I did some subbing a few years ago and enjoyed it. I would have stayed in it but got an offer from the college I work for now which paid better and offers tuition remission for my kids (one of which just finished his first semester).

I'm not saying teaching is the thing for you but you might have something like that you enjoy but it pays poorly. You could even do desktop support for a local school. It's pretty low stress and teachers are always very appreciative of the desktop support people.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:11 pm It’s been almost 25 years practicing law before I’ve had to “no comment” reporters. Next week is going to get interesting….

I already told you that it’s okay by me to tell reporters how awesome I am. That non disclosure I had you sign was for…other things.

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 6:08 pm

Zarathud wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:11 pm It’s been almost 25 years practicing law before I’ve had to “no comment” reporters. Next week is going to get interesting….

I already told you that it’s okay by me to tell reporters how awesome I am. That non disclosure I had you sign was for…other things.

Now I have to keep an eye on the news in Chicago... Or Columbus... Or wherever...

EvilHomer3k wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 6:01 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:00 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 3:02 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 2:43 pm I'm broken.

Me too! I would retire tomorrow if I could. I completely appreciate your position and wouldn't be looking to adjust my timeline if I'd already mentally committed to the exit date. It's not about money for me anymore. I'm basically working at this point for Cadillac healthcare benefits. I'm doing everything I can to help others move forward, but for me? I'm done.

I realistically should still work 3-5 more years but I'm broken.

You may have covered this before but have you considered phased retirement? Not necessarily in the same field. My current plan is to retire from my job in 2.5 years and teach elementary school. Then retire from that and substitute. My BA is in Education and I did some subbing a few years ago and enjoyed it. I would have stayed in it but got an offer from the college I work for now which paid better and offers tuition remission for my kids (one of which just finished his first semester).

I'm not saying teaching is the thing for you but you might have something like that you enjoy but it pays poorly. You could even do desktop support for a local school. It's pretty low stress and teachers are always very appreciative of the desktop support people.

First I need to right the the ship that is me. Then I'll see maybe about doing something later. As it goes, it looking likely that I'm spineless and I'm sticking around after the end of the month. Training is going slllooowwwllly and I have other things to wrap up after training. But money is a good thing to have I guess, especially as I'm watching my portfolio shrink faster than my paycheck brings in cash.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:45 pm There was nothing but crickets from the job I interviewed for a couple of weeks ago, despite me being 100% qualified for the role and their specific needs. Again, I can only assume they want my experience in a much younger package.

Everytime I see you post this it scares the shit out of me. How old are you again? Is it easy to deduce how old you are based off your resume? There are tricks there, but I guess you've been coached on those or researched that yourself?

Zarathud wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:11 pm It’s been almost 25 years practicing law before I’ve had to “no comment” reporters. Next week is going to get interesting….

Wow, what in the world did you do?!

I thought I was going to be able to take one day off this weekend for the first time in forever, but Nooooo, I got a bunch more assignments dumped on me late this afternoon, all due on Tuesday. It's not like I wanted to do anything fun; I just need to finish the taxes and try to fix the clothes dryer again.

Q1 is always my busiest. It's not that I don't appreciate having the work and making the money. Busy is good. I just need a break to get some other unpleasant shit done.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:11 pm It’s been almost 25 years practicing law before I’ve had to “no comment” reporters. Next week is going to get interesting….

And right after Trump is ordered to testify.......hmmmmm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 8:36 pm

Jeff V wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:45 pm There was nothing but crickets from the job I interviewed for a couple of weeks ago, despite me being 100% qualified for the role and their specific needs. Again, I can only assume they want my experience in a much younger package.

Everytime I see you post this it scares the shit out of me. How old are you again? Is it easy to deduce how old you are based off your resume? There are tricks there, but I guess you've been coached on those or researched that yourself?

I've tried...this one was through a recruiter, and I usually give them the full CV, not the abbreviated version I send to hiring companies. But when they ask for such things as school dates, it's hard to cover the fact the odometer will click 60 in a few months.

It will be going OK if I win the HGTV dream home giveaway Monday.

I think I got conned into working though April with the hope the I will do contract work beyond and getting my health care through the end of the year with the caveat that I might walk out at any time and they take away their promises. Nothing is in writing and honestly I don't want it in writing because I don't want to commit. I need the freedom knowing "fuck this shit I'm out" is on the table every day I drag my ass out of bed and sell myself.

At least I need the money? Is that a positive?

LordMortis wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:16 pm I need the freedom knowing "fuck this shit I'm out" is on the table every day I drag my ass out of bed and sell myself.

At least I need the money? Is that a positive?

As long as it really is something you can walk away from on any given day I'm not sure that is much of a con job. That freedom relieves a lot of stress and money without too much stress is a good thing.

I don't know if my conscience would let me walk on any given day but it does give me license to not take shit from a few people who desperately want to make me take it. And yeah, that relieves a lot of stress. My boss backs my play and her boss does too because they know there are no strings on me. I won't say it's been a relaxing last two weeks but as much as there has been more work to do, training someone, I'm focusing on one or two tasks at a time and fuck everything else with the known quantity of if I walk now, it's not my problem, takes a ton of stress off the table. And money when I see portfolio ever shrinking is a good thing. I still don't know that I can make it through April, nor that I have any desire to. I want to work on me and my house while it's still spring and not too hot for me. I'm taking it one day (week?) at a time right now.

Looks like I'll at least have partial employment. Got the job as Chinatown Food Tour guide and I start this Sunday.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:26 pm Looks like I'll at least have partial employment. Got the job as Chinatown Food Tour guide and I start this Sunday.

That sounds interesting. Is it?

I've taken similar food tours in other countries. The guides always look like they are enjoying themselves. I'm sure it gets really repetitive but if you like talking to people it seems fairly decent.

March 1st and I'm still working but the work load is pretty minimal right now. New guy is taking on all the work and can't learn more until he does what he needs to do, leaving little for me moment to moment. I'm OK with that, only I still want to get out.

Interviewed for two more part-time jobs. One helping PollenMobile build some hardware, another helping kids learn programming. Neither pay a lot, but they don't conflict with the food tour. They may conflict with each other, but I'm trying to schedule them apart.

And I applied for two more jobs, no reply yet.

Lord willing and dam don't rise, tomorrow is my last regular day in the office. I move to WFH to close items and come in to the office one day a week to make sure new guy isn't missing anything he needs. This may go on for two more months. We'll see. I have a lot of items to close but I'm motivated to close items quickly. How things work after that still aren't on paper for good or bad. Effective Monday I should only look at email like twice a day and just work on things all day. Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Lord willing and dam don't rise, tomorrow is my last regular day in the office. I move to WFH to close items and come in to the office one day a week to make sure new guy isn't missing anything he needs. This may go on for two more months. We'll see. I have a lot of items to close but I'm motivated to close items quickly. How things work after that still aren't on paper for good or bad. Effective Monday I should only look at email like twice a day and just work on things all day. Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

There's never been a point in my career where sending/receiving email is a primary part of the work I do.

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:18 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

There's never been a point in my career where sending/receiving email is a primary part of the work I do.

You work in the Patent Office, no? In manufacturing, depending on the role, it can certainly seem like one lives to just answer emails.

stessier wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:28 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:18 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

There's never been a point in my career where sending/receiving email is a primary part of the work I do.

You work in the Patent Office, no? In manufacturing, depending on the role, it can certainly seem like one lives to just answer emails.

I do. I can leave work for a week (or two!) and come back to zero emails I actually need to answer.

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:34 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:28 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:18 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

There's never been a point in my career where sending/receiving email is a primary part of the work I do.

You work in the Patent Office, no? In manufacturing, depending on the role, it can certainly seem like one lives to just answer emails.

I do. I can leave work for a week (or two!) and come back to zero emails I actually need to answer.

Me too, because my work phone is always with me and I can answer most of them there.

I frequently go all day without opening Outlook (which is f’ing weird coming from a development engineer background, which involves a shot-ton of coordination with fellow developers, vendors, and manufacturing along with being at management’s beck-and-call for answering design questions). I’m currently paid to test multimillion dollar value test subjects in ways that could easily break them if I push a couple of wrong buttons or otherwise good up my test setup. By way of a one year anniversary update, this is a good lead in for how things are going.

I did make lifestyle changes to better fit with the new job. No more staying up weeknights to play online poker with friends. No more alcohol consumption in the evenings during the week. I figure a sizable portion of my salary comes from them expecting me to be bright eyed and bushy tailed on a daily basis. The one test snafu I had happened to come on the highest profile testing I’ve done (proving out a new mechanical design for a much larger satellite framework, known as a “bus”, opening up our available market significantly). The CEO is a former mechanical engineer with some vibe background, so when he checked in with me I gave him the straight and narrow for what happened. His response was that’s why we test to prove out the design: not just to show the mechanics are robust, but also for us to nail down our testing techniques before “flight hardware” (e.g., actual mechanics destined to go into space, which is 95% of what I test daily) goes on the vibe table. Such a cool response.

The company is still really amazing. I’d have zero reservations recommending friends come work here. I do report through a different management structure and to a different human from when I started (the management chain is a slight improvement as I’m now considered part of manufacturing rather than test; the direct manager is a pretty big step backward as he has a “just good enough” philosophy which is at odds with my preferred way of doing things, but he still relies heavily on me and very obviously appreciates me — I’ve never seen such a glowing review, and I actually got a raise after nine months). The work is fun (but not terrifically challenging—the biggest thing is no unforced errors), the people pretty terrific, and the company culture is stellar (pun not intended). It’s still pretty physical with the positives and negatives that entails. If I didn’t live in fear/annoyance of how my boss handles his side of things, I’d struggle to find any real negatives.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:16 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:34 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:28 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:18 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

There's never been a point in my career where sending/receiving email is a primary part of the work I do.

You work in the Patent Office, no? In manufacturing, depending on the role, it can certainly seem like one lives to just answer emails.

I do. I can leave work for a week (or two!) and come back to zero emails I actually need to answer.

Me too, because my work phone is always with me and I can answer most of them there.

Time off = time off. Even if I could access my work email on my phone, I have zero desire or will to do so when I'm on leave.

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:38 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:16 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:34 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:28 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:18 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

There's never been a point in my career where sending/receiving email is a primary part of the work I do.

You work in the Patent Office, no? In manufacturing, depending on the role, it can certainly seem like one lives to just answer emails.

I do. I can leave work for a week (or two!) and come back to zero emails I actually need to answer.

Me too, because my work phone is always with me and I can answer most of them there.

Time off = time off. Even if I could access my work email on my phone, I have zero desire or will to do so when I'm on leave.

If I could teach my younger self one thing, it would be this. Even when I was on vacation, even before we had kids (and even on our honeymoon!) I had my laptop with me and probably answering emails or working when I could around activities. I will be the first to admit I have a hard time relaxing, but I should have done better. It caused quite a few problems that didn't crop up until much later.

It's especially egregious considering my boss (at the time of my honeymoon) somehow found out I took my work laptop with me and he was not happy.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Mar 04, 2022 10:53 am

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:38 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:16 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:34 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:28 pm

pr0ner wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:18 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:09 pm Anyone else remember that time when you worked on things and weren't making a career of sending and receiving email?

There's never been a point in my career where sending/receiving email is a primary part of the work I do.

You work in the Patent Office, no? In manufacturing, depending on the role, it can certainly seem like one lives to just answer emails.

I do. I can leave work for a week (or two!) and come back to zero emails I actually need to answer.

Me too, because my work phone is always with me and I can answer most of them there.

Time off = time off. Even if I could access my work email on my phone, I have zero desire or will to do so when I'm on leave.

If I could teach my younger self one thing, it would be this. Even when I was on vacation, even before we had kids (and even on our honeymoon!) I had my laptop with me and probably answering emails or working when I could around activities. I will be the first to admit I have a hard time relaxing, but I should have done better. It caused quite a few problems that didn't crop up until much later.

It's especially egregious considering my boss (at the time of my honeymoon) somehow found out I took my work laptop with me and he was not happy.

I am always available for work even when I am on PTO. I just have a hard time disconnecting. But I work with my wife, and block time to check email, and do a few work things. It's really for my own sanity, as I average almost 200 emails a day, not all things I need to do an actionable item with, but things I like to be aware of. But the key to all of this, is I make sure to work with my wife, and don't let it get in the way of our vacations. I will check emails, when her and the kids are still sleeping, and my managers don't want to bug me, so will only call if it is really needed.

When I was just an analyst, I very rarely did things on vacation, but I have been in leadership positions for almost 20 years now.

I had gotten into habit of not looking at my phone all day in the past year, since I never had to. My previous jobs don't allow personal devices. I had almost everything echoed to my PC and I spent far more time on the PC, and when I'm not on the PC I am on my Amazon tablet.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Sun Feb 20, 2022 12:25 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 8:36 pm

Jeff V wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:45 pm There was nothing but crickets from the job I interviewed for a couple of weeks ago, despite me being 100% qualified for the role and their specific needs. Again, I can only assume they want my experience in a much younger package.

Everytime I see you post this it scares the shit out of me. How old are you again? Is it easy to deduce how old you are based off your resume? There are tricks there, but I guess you've been coached on those or researched that yourself?

I've tried...this one was through a recruiter, and I usually give them the full CV, not the abbreviated version I send to hiring companies. But when they ask for such things as school dates, it's hard to cover the fact the odometer will click 60 in a few months.

If someone asked me for school dates, I think I would decline to answer. At the LEAST make them guess how old you are, don't confirm it. Yeah, it could make things awkward, but depending on your personality, you could laugh it off a bit to smooth it over. I suspect answering the question might torpedo the potential of getting the job more than standing your ground and savvying your way around the question. It might irk them, but it's possible that they will respect you for having balls enough to refuse their question.

Also, not sure if this will be helpful, but there are some pretty good nuggets in this thread:
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/ove ... s-4679265/

Did my first Chinatown tour, I did okay. I grade myself a B, but I did get tips. That's the important thing.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sat Mar 05, 2022 1:44 pm
If someone asked me for school dates, I think I would decline to answer. At the LEAST make them guess how old you are, don't confirm it.

They kind of force it by requiring the field to be completed on their online application. It's only when their online application is lacking (or just requires an uploaded CV) that I can safely avoid the question.

Apparently my team is a great place to level up your skills to be successful on some of the higher profile teams. I've lost my top 2 devs and a product owner in the past several weeks. If anyone knows a solid dev that loves cloud infrastructure (preferably AWS) and a bit of devops, let me know. We pay like a tech company and care about our people like a... ummm... a company that gives a damn. I can't promise 100% remote forever, yet, but fingers crossed. Actually we do have 100% remote openings on other teams.

People leadership has become stressful recently for some reason.

Sharing that to channels on my veterans' tech slack.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 6:05 pm Sharing that to channels on my veterans' tech slack.

Thanks. I now have approval to post help wanted on linkedin, but my network in 90% folks that I've worked with here and are all at my level or above already.

Whew, been a moment! Been crazy last year, in a good way. Became a head of marketing for good-sized crypto marketing, and we outperformed the market last year by a good margin. So it had been a crazy role coster. Ended up way overworking, and kind of burning out. So stepped down from that position, took a break, and now got an offer and accepted from a similar-sized company.

How is my crypto homies doing here?

Matrix wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 1:05 am
How is my crypto homies doing here?

Bought recent lows in BTC around $35K but that's been it.


Congrats on the good year.

I just found out that I'm about to reach the salary cap for my position. I have 1, *maybe* 2 more years of raises before I'm maxed. That's going to bring some interesting decisions. Really the only way for me to move up to a new tier is to go into management, something which I've been loathe to do since I enjoy the technical side and don't really want the stress that comes with a management role.

On the other hand, never getting another raise is a sucky position to be in as prices continue to climb. My wife hasn't had a raise in 6 or 7 years, so we've been depending on my raises to keep up with the cost of living.