What you did today

[Guard Dog]

I Dont want a leprechauns treasure.

It might help you get the womans treasure though.

[Meshugger]

I'm trying to figure out this last problem for my accounting exam.

ah, mesh and i are both tarded.

 

taks

 

d'oh!

[mkreku]

I'M IN LOVE AND SHE'S WONDERFUL but she's unavailable to me so I hate my life and eveery woman I ever meet.

 

I'm not very drunk.

[Tigranes]

Sometimes, I approve mkreku's posts, and it feels really weird.

 

Even weirder if I'm doing it at work!

[Guard Dog]

I have a question for all of you professionals here. Most of you work in offices of one kind or another so most of you have been around people who are being laid off, surplussed, positions eliminated, whatever. Have you ever noticed that co-workers treat them differently once it gets out? Our office Christmas party was today and I'm walking in with one of the design guys who is in the same boat I am and I noticed the conversation volume in the room dropped perceptibly. I swear it actually got quieter. Plus I've noticed a lot of them are treating me differently now. They either avoid me all together or lay the courtesy on so thick it is obviously false. I spoke to a couple of the other folks on death watch and they have noticed similar things. I don't see why that would be. I made peace with what was coming immediately. That is just how the business works. It happens to everyone sooner or later. I guess we serve as a reminder than no ones job is safe right now.

 

Anyone else ever notice that?

[theslug]

That sucks GD but if they are doing stuff like that then they are definitely not worth talking to anyways. You should steal stuff from their cubicle and then burn it in the dumpster in front of the office and laugh maniacally as you give them the finger and then peel out in your miata to never see them ever again.

[Trenitay]

But that wouldn't be the mature thing to do. The mature thing is to challenge them to a duel (pronounced: dee-oo-ell) and face them in mortal combat.

[Fionavar]

Ate too much ... yes sheep of course that were roaming too close to the Roost - naturally they were of the pizza variety, but hey ...

[Gorth]

Anyone else ever notice that?

Yes, sadly so. I am probably even guilty of it myself. You might as well have been a dead man walking in the room. I think it might be a mixture of several things, feeling guilty over your own relief that you are not in their boots, a stark reminder that nothing in this world is permanent, the knowledge that where "he" goes, you might walk some day, like trying to stay cheerful at a funeral. It makes you think twice before you open your mouth, because what would normally be a witty, fun remark can become a hurtful, even spiteful insult to people, given their changed circumstances (banter at work often involves work). Better to say less and avoid saying things that makes you facepalm yourself afterwards.

[taks]

Most of you work in offices of one kind or another so most of you have been around people who are being laid off, surplussed, positions eliminated, whatever. Have you ever noticed that co-workers treat them differently once it gets out?

i've been around when people were getting laid off, but never when "the end is nigh, find another job" as you are going through.

 

the first company (uh, that experienced layoffs), a dot-com, went through 3 rounds before it got to me. they did it professionally and sent us ALL home while the people getting laid off were being informed, and we were off for the day. the second company, run by a bunch of retards, did the layoffs one by one so everyone was walking by and saying goodbye. it was sickening and horribly wrong. one guy, a good friend, was hiding in the building trying to delay the inevitable, just to be a pain. we that did not get the axe helped him for spite (to the company). not a surprise that this classless operations is now no longer (not in CO at least).

 

I guess we serve as a reminder than no ones job is safe right now.

 

Anyone else ever notice that?

part of the reason i have all these advanced degrees. got the masters because nobody was hiring in 1990/1991. got the phd because it put me into an extremely rare labor pool that consists of more jobs than people to fill them, and probably always will.

 

taks

[Guard Dog]

The company has been pretty decent about it actually. I'm an exempt employee so I am on their good graces when it comes to severance packages and they one they offer is pretty generous. It's one months base pay for every year with the comapny (up to 6) and they will buy back all outstanding vacation time. My last day is Jan 30 so I'll have a full set of vacation days. Like I said earlier, if I can find somewhere to land quickly this may work out to be a good thing. I was miserable at first but then I realized just how lucky I am to even HAVE severance. A lot of good people are losing their jobs lately with nothing more than a kick in the rear as they exit. So I really can't complain. My director informed me that all of my projects are being either defunded or turned over to someone else so I can spend much of January conducting "tower inspections" (our code word for not coming in to the office). I have my resume on Monster and Career Builder and I've sent it cold to at least a dozen companies in the West-Tennesee area.

 

Plus I have a killer idea for a home business. It won't make enough to live on but it will be fun and will make a little money. More on that later.

[Shryke]

went to a friends place last night for a killer xmas dinner

 

there were about 15 of us and we all pitched in for ingredients and stuff

 

the chick cooking it all made some awesome lebanese dishes that none of us could pronounce, but they were damn good none the less

[Musopticon?]

The company has been pretty decent about it actually. I'm an exempt employee so I am on their good graces when it comes to severance packages and they one they offer is pretty generous. It's one months base pay for every year with the comapny (up to 6) and they will buy back all outstanding vacation time. My last day is Jan 30 so I'll have a full set of vacation days. Like I said earlier, if I can find somewhere to land quickly this may work out to be a good thing. I was miserable at first but then I realized just how lucky I am to even HAVE severance. A lot of good people are losing their jobs lately with nothing more than a kick in the rear as they exit. So I really can't complain. My director informed me that all of my projects are being either defunded or turned over to someone else so I can spend much of January conducting "tower inspections" (our code word for not coming in to the office). I have my resume on Monster and Career Builder and I've sent it cold to at least a dozen companies in the West-Tennesee area.

 

Plus I have a killer idea for a home business. It won't make enough to live on but it will be fun and will make a little money. More on that later.

Well, good luck with your job search. Give'em hell.

[Meshugger]

The company has been pretty decent about it actually. I'm an exempt employee so I am on their good graces when it comes to severance packages and they one they offer is pretty generous. It's one months base pay for every year with the comapny (up to 6) and they will buy back all outstanding vacation time. My last day is Jan 30 so I'll have a full set of vacation days. Like I said earlier, if I can find somewhere to land quickly this may work out to be a good thing. I was miserable at first but then I realized just how lucky I am to even HAVE severance. A lot of good people are losing their jobs lately with nothing more than a kick in the rear as they exit. So I really can't complain. My director informed me that all of my projects are being either defunded or turned over to someone else so I can spend much of January conducting "tower inspections" (our code word for not coming in to the office). I have my resume on Monster and Career Builder and I've sent it cold to at least a dozen companies in the West-Tennesee area.

 

Plus I have a killer idea for a home business. It won't make enough to live on but it will be fun and will make a little money. More on that later.

 

From what i gather, at times like these many major companies are either downsizing or outsourcing. So i see 2-3 options available for you:

 

1) Outsourcing is usually the key. Find a company that specialises in engineering, preferbly on such areas that are currently being outsourced: Namely high-level engineering, enterprise solutions and information systems. Also, different specialist and consultant-firms would be an area to look out for. Companies will not take any risks at the moment and they will settle with those that have established a good name in the industry. I wouldn't be suprised if you would find work where your old company would be one of your first customers.

 

2) Find a nice scholarship and/or get a job at the labs at the local university. Usually the people in the engineering departments have the necessary contacts in the industry. You also have to the chance to get yourself a PhD diploma

 

3) Go fulltime with your home business. This might be of the highest risk, but you will probably work with the most enthusiasm as well.

[Meshugger]

And oh, i bought myself a xmas present: A 37" FullHD LCD TV with an internal HD digital reciever.

 

/me pats himself on the back.

[Calax]

The company has been pretty decent about it actually. I'm an exempt employee so I am on their good graces when it comes to severance packages and they one they offer is pretty generous. It's one months base pay for every year with the comapny (up to 6) and they will buy back all outstanding vacation time. My last day is Jan 30 so I'll have a full set of vacation days. Like I said earlier, if I can find somewhere to land quickly this may work out to be a good thing. I was miserable at first but then I realized just how lucky I am to even HAVE severance. A lot of good people are losing their jobs lately with nothing more than a kick in the rear as they exit. So I really can't complain. My director informed me that all of my projects are being either defunded or turned over to someone else so I can spend much of January conducting "tower inspections" (our code word for not coming in to the office). I have my resume on Monster and Career Builder and I've sent it cold to at least a dozen companies in the West-Tennesee area.

 

Plus I have a killer idea for a home business. It won't make enough to live on but it will be fun and will make a little money. More on that later.

If you want to move out to Cali I think Lockheed might have positions. I'd have to ask my brother (he's a network tech on stuff people don't talk about)

[Walsingham]

Some time this week I'm going to have to find time to do a simple systems dynamics model of recession proof jobs. I guess the main thing would be jobs which depend directly on basic human needs as much as possible, and on other industries as little as possible. Hmmm...

 

Pimping?

[Calax]

more grumbling, but not about customers

 

I work at a tiny gamestop (I think my bedroom is about half the size of the entire store... maybe a third but anyway) but we are the highest volume gamestop in the entire Sacramento Metropolitan area because we are the only one within a reasonable drive of 2 suburbs and a part of the urban sprawl of Sac. Now as you probably have guessed we have seasonal hires who come in between September and October and work until mid January. and with the store the size of ours we probably only really need 2 of the temps. Now heres the kicker, our manager was practically forced to hire 4 of them, and because he didn't want to have to go back and fix every third transaction he barred them from the registers (no biggie). But here's where me and most of the crew get frustrated. Within a week of being hired one had to quit because his primary job also ramped up it's hours (hes a data puncher for the prison system or somthing like that), ok we understand. He's also probably the only one who had a CLUE about what he was selling. So we hired a replacement who was actually pretty good (and will probably end up permanent if we have the room the only one of the 5 total temps we had in the store). Then today I learn that a second one is getting fired for a no show, and he checked out (against company policy) a brand new ps3 game, and came back to the management with a sod story about his cat jumping into the entertainment system or... something. Anyway, the BRAND NEW item comes back with a HUGE circular scratch in it. So he tries to weasel out of purchasing the thing but the boss put his foot down (thank god) and forced the kid to buy it, then he no show's twice.

 

The other two remaining temps are... mediocre at best, One (a girl) is a friend of the manager and is a really good salesmen, or would be if she played anything newer than the original Call of Duty. And she also forced herself onto a register and forced us to train her (sometimes we leave her dangling about what to do, just to see her squirm) on the sucker. She also doesn't really get along well with two of the permanent employees and is talking of getting a third job, also she got angry at me for contradicting her about a game and it's quality in front of a customer (mirrors edge, she told the customer it was terrible, I corrected her saying it's pretty good but short). The last guy is very good at staying away from the register but his style of customer service usually is acting as message boy between the customer and the counter (where me and the other permanent employees are running registers and otherwise helping customers as best we can). Since we've hired him we're guessing that he's been the cause of some really bizarre filing screwups, we found Gears 2 in between call of duty 3 and 4 (we run on a alphabetical system) for example, and the only other thing we've seen him really do is straighten the shelves. Which admittedly they do need alot of straightening during the holidays but not that much.

 

Anyway me and some of the crew were running over the total tally and decided that we could have either made it with just ourselves and no temps, or we could have hired two Competent people who knew what they were talking about and been able to BREEZE through the season.

[Meshugger]

Some time this week I'm going to have to find time to do a simple systems dynamics model of recession proof jobs. I guess the main thing would be jobs which depend directly on basic human needs as much as possible, and on other industries as little as possible. Hmmm...

 

Pimping?

 

Powerplants, agriculture, pharmacy, porn, alcoholic bewerages industry (wine, beer, whiskey) <-- Should be a start.

[Gfted1]

[Amentep]

also she got angry at me for contradicting her about a game and it's quality in front of a customer (mirrors edge, she told the customer it was terrible, I corrected her saying it's pretty good but short).

 

I confess, I'd have thought that people who worked at a game store wouldn't be allowed to "review" games for the customer, particularly since its subjective in so many areas.

[Trenitay]

I got a two-hour late start at school for snow, and its going to stay below freezing at least through the rest of the week.It's awesome

[taks]

-4 F when i dropped my son off at school this morning.

 

it wasn't even this cold on the mountain yesterday (powdery goodness at copper mountain). well, it was probably this cold, if not colder, at the top of the lifts up around 12,000 feet.

 

taks

[Gfted1]

Our weather has been crazy. Yesterday it was 48F, which allowed me to finally hang the outside Christmas lights, then today its currently 5F. WTF! My back sliding door was even frozen shut this morning when I went to let the dog out. As an aside, Im very happy I dont have to go out in 5F weather, without shoes, to take a dump.

[Walsingham]

My phone went nuts today with people ringing, but I decided I'd rather work, so very rudely blanked all calls. Fascinating job on, with the science etc. I also updated the zombies thread with my latest research on the virus.