People who give pets a bit of chocolate when they know it’s their pets last day are a bit of a funny concept. Imagine being old and friends with an alien who will live ten times your lifespan and they’re like “ah shit he’s dying, well since you’re dying anyway haven’t you always wanted to know what uranium tastes like?”
Padme lives aus are always good but it gets funnier when you consider that if padme lives the rebellion vs the empire will be just the messiest divorce in history featuring custody battle for the twins
padme leading the rebels and vader leading the imperials meeting in the battlefield and the fight stops for a verbal argument of galactic proportions
Do Not Let HR do this to you. It is not illegal to talk about wages in the work place. I did and got a 12% raise!
True info. Now let me add something: The power of documentation. (I was a long time steward in a nurses union.)
Remember: The “‘E” in email stands for evidence.
That cuts both ways. Be careful what you put into an email. It never really goes away and can be used against you.
But can also be a powerful tool for workplace fairness.
Case 1: Your supervisor asks you to do something you know is either illegal or against company policy. A verbal request. If things go wrong, you can count on them denying that they ever told you to do that. You go back to your desk, or wherever and you send them an email: “I just want to make sure that I understood correctly that you want me to do xxxxx” Quite often, once they see it in writing, they will change their mind about having you do it. If not, you have documentation.
Case 2: You have a schedule you like, you’ve had that schedule for a while, it works for you. Your supervisor comes to you and says “We’re really short-handed now and I need you to change your schedule just for a month until we can get someone else hired. It’s just temporary and you can have your old schedule back after a month.” A month goes by and they forget entirely that they made that promise to you. So, once again, when they make the initial request, you send them an email “I’m happy to help out temporarily, but just want to make sure I understand correctly that I will get my old schedule back after a month as you promised.” Documentation.
[Image ID: Text reading: In the middle of a busy clinic at our practice, I got pulled in by my manager to speak to HR, who must have made a special trip because she lives several states away, and told I was being 'investigated’ for discussing wages with my other employees. She told me it was against company policy to discuss wages.
Me; That’s illegal.
Them: (start italics) three slow, long seconds of staring at me blankly (end italics) Uh…
Me: That’s an illegal policy to have. The right to discuss wages is a right protected by the National Labor Relations board. I used to be in a union. I know this.
HR: Oh, this is news to me! I have been working HR for 18 years and I never knew that. Haha. Well try not do do it anyway, it makes people upset, haha.
Me: people are entitled to their opinions about what their work is worth. Bye.
I then left, and sent her several texts and emails saying I would like a copy of their company policy to see where this wage discussion policy was kept. She quickly called me back in to her office.
HR: You know what, there is no policy like that in the handbook! I double check. Sorry about the confusion, my apologies.
Me: You still haven’t given me the paper saying that we had this discussion. I am going to need some protection against retaliation.
HR: Oh haha yes here you go.
I just received a paper with legal letterhead and an apology saying there was no verbal warning or write up. Don’t even take their shit you guys. Keep talking about wages. Know your worth. /End ID]
At one of my old (shit) jobs my boss would continually come have these verbal discussions with me and would never put anything in writing I took to summarizing every discussion we had in email. Like “just to confirm that you asked me to do X by Y date and you understand that means I won’t be able to complete the previous task you gave me until Z date - 2 weeks later than originally scheduled - because you want me to prioritize this new project.
The woman would then storm back into my office screaming at me for putting the discussion in writing and arguing about pushing back the other project or whatever. At which point I would summarize that conversation in email as well. Which would bring her storming back in, rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
Anyway I cannot imagine how badly that job would have gone if I hadn’t put all her wildly unreasonable demands in writing. Bitch still hated me but she could never hang me for “missing deadlines” because I always had in writing that she’d pushed the project back because she wanted something else done first.
Paper your asses babes. Do not let them get away with shit. If they won’t put what they’re asking you to do in writing then write it up yourself and email it to them.
If you don’t have this kind of job but someday you’d might: start practicing.
After a casual conversation with friends, write up a brief synopsis of what you discussed & agreed to. (…Do not email this to friends unless you have their agreement that this would be a fun group project.) Get practice with,
“A, B, and C had a brief meeting about food options after the big game. We decided on pizza, with A&B agreeing to contribute X dollars each, and C agreeing to contribute Y dollars and also bring soda. A will call for pizza on the day of the game and schedule it for delivery at 8:30 pm.”
“A, B & C discussed movie options. A wanted something lite and fun; B wanted something scifi; C was fine with anything but horror. Nobody wanted superheroes. Decided on Lost Space Wanderers which opened last weekend; C agreed to research theatre options and report tomorrow.”
…and so on. Practice describing the results of “meetings” with friends and you’ll be ready to sum up “boss told me to set aside Project A to focus on Project B for the next two weeks” - because what’s likely is that boss didn’t say anything that clear; boss talked about how important Project B is and how the company needs parts X and Y done asap and you have the best skills for that, and when you mentioned how much time Project A was taking, boss said “eh don’t worry about that right now; marketing is breathing down my neck so we really need part X by Friday, okay?”
…at no point did you get a direct instruction.
Which is why anyone who is not the screaming-drama boss mentioned above would think it was perfectly reasonable for you to say, “I want to clarify the discussion we had earlier - you told me to focus on Project B to the exclusion of Project A for the next two weeks, even if that means Project A will miss its deadline; is that correct?”
Genuine question: what do I do when the boss in question doesn’t reply to my confirmation email, then says that he never approved the project delay?
In person or over the phone you say “that doesn’t match with my memory of the project but let me check my records and I’ll get back to you about what happened on this project.” Then go back to your desk and write the pettiest email in the world.
To: Boss
From: you
Cc: work group, team lead, project partner, direct supervisor, etc.
(Depending on severity of problem) Bcc: your personal email
“Hi Boss, I’m trying to resolve some confusion here. After our conversation about priority projects on [date] I reached out to you for confirmation of these details (see attached outlook item) and didn’t receive an update to the timeline since that communication. I have been working from the agenda we discussed (summarized in attached outlook item from [date]) in absence of further direction. Do you have a copy of your response updating the changes or correcting mistakes in my summary? It’s possible that I didn’t see your email and I’d like to identify where a communication was missed so that we can avoid issues like this in future projects.
Best,
[Name]”
For this to work you have to be militant about sending summary emails and firm with coworkers and supervisors that you will be documenting project plans via email, but once they’re used to your MO it’s worth the work.
It’s worth noting that the good bosses and coworkers you have will either a) know where this reflex comes from bc they’ve been there themselves and gladly support it or b) actively appreciate it bc they are (like me) doing about 6 jobs at any one time and having someone else write up summaries of meetings is a huge weight off of their shoulders and gives them something to refer back to.
My wife’s current boss really really loves the fact that she keeps notes on every meeting for her own records and emails them to everyone after the meeting.
This habit protects you from shit bosses and makes you look gold-plated to good ones.
sure, “I’m part of this marginalized group that I’m writing about” isn’t a get out of jail free card for all bigotry, but if someone says “I’m portraying an exact experience I’ve had, this literally happened to me” and your response is “okayyy but think of the optics of showing that that happens? maybe keep that to yourself?” it might be time to reconsider your approach.
[Video: a construction worker shoveling dirt as children on the other side of the fence yell “YAY!” every time dirt is moved.]
Often I am struck with the child like desire to just dig a hole. Kids love to dig holes.
Kids have a pure admiration for blue collar workers. Garbage truck drivers, construction workers, fire fighters, etc. They appreciate and respect these people more than grown ass adults do.
Cause kids see big trucks and machines and the awesome people that know how to use it. Their mentality is “Parents don’t let me play in dirt and this guys gets PAID to play in dirt”
And that’s a good thing. We need to hold on to that and foster it in kids. That all labor is valuable and that there is no shame in doing it.
B Dylan Hollis’s cookbook was delivered today and it’s lovely! As a baker, it’s laid out very nice. Lots of pictures, full index by decade and ABC. I haven’t seen any recipes split on two pages, they all seem to be single page instructions. I’ve seen most of the good ones he’s made videos for, a lot of new recipes, and a short section of the worst.
That’s because in older generations, milk was framed as a stupid children’s drink for children, so teens and adults didn’t drink it. After all, a cool 17-year-old doesn’t want to look like a BABY in front of her even cooler friends! This was especially true for girls and women of the time, who might also stop drinking milk in an attempt to lose weight.
As a result, practically an entire generation developed osteoporosis and other health problems due to a lifelong lack of Vitamin D and calcium. Ask any woman you know over 50 and she’ll probably have a story like “oh yeah no one drank milk and I really regret it because a light breeze will break all my bones.” For one example, my mother-in-law has a calcium deficiency that is affecting her health. But because she hasn’t drank milk in like 60 years, it’s both hard to get in the habit of having a glass, plus the texture is kind of gross to her since she’s not used to it. Which in turn makes it harder to fix the deficiency.
So go back to the early 90s, and combine public health officials desperate to prevent another generation of vitamin-deprived kids, 90s parents looking for alternatives to soda to give their kids, and dairy farmers around the US concerned with their low sales, and you get the Got Milk campaign.
(Please note this is just me giving historical context to weird retro ads. I’m aware that there’s other ways to get nutrients in your diet, and I’m not saying anyone HAS to drink cow milk specifically)
ALT
