Struggle Thread mk II - No one likes us, we don't care

[PlayDat]

Sorry to hear that.  Hope you're doing okay.

[chronovore]

Just found out I lost a really good friend today. He was a really, really good guy. He really wanted us to work on cars together but things could never line up, I tried to visit him three days ago but he wasn't around 

R.I.P. Abdullah

I'm sad for you. I'm glad you made the effort to go see him so recently.

[Phoenix Dark]

sorry to hear that Wrath. how old was he?

[Steve Contra]

One of my favorite teachers ever died yesterday

[Van Cruncheon]

with my boss out on vacay, i am now the dumpster for every bad executive idea that needs a spec and a "tiger team". there should be a law against top-down management, especially when said management gives such mediocre reacharounds

[CatsCatsCats]

Two days into a work trip I'm already missing my family and my cat a ridiculous amount. Like, get me the fuck outta here

[I'm a Puppy!]

That sucks steve.

[Mr Gilhaney]

My favorite band is splitting up and it made me legit sad. 

[Mr Gilhaney]

My favorite band is splitting up and it made me legit sad. 

What band split up?

The dillinger escape plan. They will still release their album, and do a full tour cycle (which should be  around 1 to 2 years). So I guess 20 years of them playing was a good run... But going to their shows and their album releases is the last thing in adult life, that really gets me excited like when I was a kid for Christmas. Feels bad man.

On the positive side, their new album sounds great from the one track they released, if you are into that kind of thing.

[seagrams hotsauce]

Zero percent chance they're staying broken up for more than 5-10 years

[TakingBackSunday]

company's backend fucked up this morning and lost us nearly $6,000 due to faulty payment processing

It's not my fault but I'm scared for my job since I'm the newest hire and we're a startup 

[Atramental]

$6K? I wipe my ass with $6K. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

—AIA

[close]

[Rufus]

For real though, unless you're missing a zero or two, that does not sound like a serious number.

[Mr Gilhaney]

Zero percent chance they're staying broken up for more than 5-10 years

I don't know. Don't really see them doing this in their 50's.

[seagrams hotsauce]

You're probably right, but at the same time I would not be shocked if they come back around to it. "Extended hiatus" usually means "we're tired and old," not "we all hate each other now," and I've seen plenty of times when the former has turned into "we're bored/broke".

[TakingBackSunday]

For real though, unless you're missing a zero or two, that does not sound like a serious number.

if our client pulls out because of this, we lose a significant source of revenue

[Rufus]

For real though, unless you're missing a zero or two, that does not sound like a serious number.

if our client pulls out because of this, we lose a significant source of revenue

Right. I didn't think that far.

[toku]

did someone say rave?

[Mr Gilhaney]

Zero percent chance they're staying broken up for more than 5-10 years

I don't know. Don't really see them doing this in their 50's.

What we all said, about every and any band ever, and have been wrong each time.

Except the countless we don't remember, because you know, they never came back.

(but please do botch and isis).

[seagrams hotsauce]

Methinks an Isis reunion would be a bit difficult PR wise lately

[Steve Contra]

My father in law was out for my wife's birthday, went for a run collapsed and died.  We're all pretty fucked up about it.

[Mupepe]

   I'm sorry, Steve.  Best thoughts for you and your wife

[Phoenix Dark]

Wow sorry to hear that, you have my thoughts and condolences.  :'(

How old was he? 

[Brehvolution]

Sorry for your loss, Steve. My mother in law passed suddenly a little over a week ago. My oldest has slept her grandma's bed every night since then.  :'(

[Steve Contra]

Wow sorry to hear that, you have my thoughts and condolences.  :'(

How old was he?

64.  He was in the best shape of anyone I knew.   :'(

[Madrun Badrun]

Man that's scary.  Sorry for your loss. 

[Van Cruncheon]

sorry to hear. that sorta sudden passing, especially for what sounds like a healthy guy, is terribly traumatizing. :-(

[Steve Contra]

TVC helped rally a bunch of our friends yesterday to clean our house while we were dealing with everything in case you're wondering who the best bore poster is.

[Cerveza mas fina]

horrible, condolences Steve

[TakingBackSunday]

jesus christ.  That's awful.  Makes me realize my dad is close to that same age

[brawndolicious]

Damn. Sorry Steve. GFs father got diagnosed a month ago with terminal lung cancer (never even smoked) and all I tell her is that there's at least a cushion of time to spend together.

64 is so young.

[Steve Contra]

He was the USAA national masters trail marathon champion at his age.  It's so weird that he died that young.  Fuck.

[Phoenix Dark]

Had an eye appointment earlier today. I was in the waiting room with two other people: a cute college aged girl and a disheveled neckbeard. I'm pretty sure he was a wizard. The young chick was reading something on her kindle...

Wizard: Hi, I'm Will. What are you reading?
Girl: Oh hi. Harry Potter & The Cursed Child
Wizard: Oh, I heard it was shite [not shit, he literally said "shite"]
Girl: *nervous giggle* I kinda like it. But not as much as the other books
Wizard: Yea. Have you read Game Of Thrones?
Girl: No but my brother watches the show. I haven't seen it
Wizard: Have you read The Hunger Games?
Girl: I saw the movies but haven't read the books
Wizard: Cool. Yea. Have you read Outlander?
Girl: I don't know what that is *laughs*

I shit you not, he asked her about 4-5 more books before she was called into the back for her appointment. At that point he looked at me and said "I tried." I was pulling a MAF at the time, ie pretending to do shit on my phone, but I looked up and
 



I suppose he deserves some credit for actually talking to a girl, but still..

[Madrun Badrun]

Should have deflated his confidence, PD.  Kinder that it be from you than the next girl. 

[Atramental]

His name really was Will?

[Phoenix Dark]

His name really was Will?

Yes 

[Atramental]

Fuck. 

[brawndolicious]

There's a difference between trying to try and trying to fuck.

[bluemax]

Got yelled at by the boss today and then had to go watch Suicide Squad with the entire company and go back to work after.

[Mupepe]

Got yelled at by the boss today and then had to go watch Suicide Squad with the entire company and go back to work after.

What a strange punishment

[Am_I_Anonymous]

Got yelled at by the boss today and then had to go watch Suicide Squad with the entire company and go back to work after.

What a strange punishment

Hmmmm. Not a bad idea. Break them down a bit with the yelling then rub salt in the wounds with a shit ass movie. I like it.

[Mupepe]

"Work doesn't seem so bad now, eh?!"

"No, sir "

[Am_I_Anonymous]

"Work doesn't seem so bad now, eh?!"

"No, sir "

[I'm a Puppy!]

Got yelled at by the boss today and then had to go watch Suicide Squad with the entire company and go back to work after.

You're working for an evil genius

[bluemax]

Today I had an outburst at work and got told that my tone of late has been "aggressive".

One of our QA guys was put on "sabbatical" (which was announced today he would not be returning from) for being "aggressive".

I'm going to get fired, I can feel it.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Wow that's good management right there, curb the rebellion with a culture of fear.

[Yeti]

Today I had an outburst at work and got told that my tone of late has been "aggressive".

One of our QA guys was put on "sabbatical" (which was announced today he would not be returning from) for being "aggressive".

I'm going to get fired, I can feel it.

Bring in some snacks for your coworkers, all is forgiven with free food.

[zomgee]

Today I had an outburst at work and got told that my tone of late has been "aggressive".

One of our QA guys was put on "sabbatical" (which was announced today he would not be returning from) for being "aggressive".

I'm going to get fired, I can feel it.

Nah, now he's going to take you to Ghostbusters.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Work 

Months ago I said that I was given an opportunity to create my own department, form my own team, etc.  Got a #yuge pay raise and was excited to get into it.  In July I submitted a key deliverable (a binder with a bunch of reports, charts, and shit) to senior management.  The VP said "great work, hold back a bit and let me provide feedback in a few days."  Those few days turned into weeks.  I called and e-mailed but it went into a black hole.  I began rolling out some of the obvious items because fuck waiting.

So yesterday I got a few redlines and some comments that didn't mean much.  Then my phone started blowing up with calls from the VP.  He's now frantic, saying that X, Y, and Z from my plan should be executed as soon as possible.  This isn't easy and will take a lot of time.  Some of these were Q1 2017 plans and are now supposed to be done as soon as possible.  Then I get a call from another manager about putting together a presentation on my department for next week!  I can put it together but FFS, I asked for today through next Tuesday off so I could unwind but nope, I'm going to the office and likely spending all of my vacation time executing plans and crafting a presentation.  I'm confident in the presentation but the plan executions are going to be painful.

Turns out after getting more frantic calls from other managers, we invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a boondoggle that isn't going to give us much revenue and wound up costing more than planned.  So now we have to find about $50 million in savings from now to the year's end.  So everyone now is scrambling to find savings.  So everyone is in a panic because $50m in savings when 2/3 of the year is gone is a tall order, some people are probably going to have to stop working and discontinue any projects in order to meet this new goal.  I should also point out that we're making more money than ever so this isn't an issue of whether we continue to work or not, it's one of those things to ensure executive compensation gets a 10-20% yoy increase.  The CEO of the company makes over $50 million a year.  For reference, ExxonMobil's CEO gets about $25 million per year.  So yeah.

Not only that but I notice a lot of my old co-workers are leaving or retiring.  Vast amounts of knowledge are walking out the door in the next few weeks.  The company, due to said earlier budget cuts, are balking at replacing all of the positions, which is a huge WTF as these are critical positions.  These departments are freaking out and many people have sent out resumes.

I had dreams last night of getting fired.  I kind of wished it happened but as a wagecuck, I will waste my vacation days instead 

[I'm a Puppy!]

Dude that's my whole life just company after company. I know the feel man


Reminds me of this client that I was chatting with a few days ago told me that everyone in her team is worried because there are coming layoffs. I was like "Layoffs? Your company exceeded your plan and posted over a billion in profits just last month. Profits. I know. I've seen the numbers."

Doesn't matter. They could be making more

[Am_I_Anonymous]

I once had a department literally disappear overnight at a FF I was working with. It was bizarre.

[Phoenix Dark]

We had a lot of retirements last year, plus various people moving to different firms. It doesn't seem like there's hesitation to re-hire but man, some of the hiring that has gone on+intern promotions baffles my fucking mind. Not in terms of being able to do your job or not, moreso an influx of people who seem shell shocked and can't adapt quickly. If you aren't communicating with management, integrating with teams, etc you lost. No one is going to hold your hand (unless they want to fuck you  ).

[ToxicAdam]

Same thing is happening in my place. Dudes that worked from the bottom up (for 40 years) are retiring and they are replacing them with college kids with 3-4 years of real work experience. Its a disaster. They re-hired most of those old dudes as consultants, but it's just not the same. They don't have the same investment in the company as they used to. Most are just cashing the easy checks and laughing at the mess.



 

[I'm a Puppy!]

I'm not kidding in the last 4 weeks I was a client and they wanted my company to replace this COBOL code that helps them close the books. We get onsite and are like "OK, we need to talk to your dev  team and analysts and see all your documentation." They're like "That might be a problem. It was written by just one person."

"Uh....OK. Let me talk to that person."

"She's no longer here. We let her go."

"You mean the one piece of code that closes your books and reports to outside parties, including the government was not only coded by ONE person but YOU LET THAT PERSON GO?!!"

They were able to get that person back as a consultant for a few weeks but they were like "eh. whatever."

[Alcoholic Fish]

You guys are making me happy I'm at a competent firm in a competent department. We have internal political cold war, but who doesn't?

[VomKriege]

So many accurate feels on this page.

Always baffling to see how uninterested management can be with experience and craftsmanship nowadays.

I'm also working in an industry that is getting killed by clients being leeches. They are looking after their money, I get that, but when exceptional deep rebates and price favors become the norm regardless of how much money you have, how do you expect the whole thing to be sustainable ? Also a widespread tendency to defraud public subsidies by trying to avoid paying their own legally mandated stake in bids. Then cry like children when the subsidies get cut.

[Am_I_Anonymous]

So many accurate feels on this page.

Always baffling to see how uninterested management can be with experience and craftsmanship nowadays.

I'm also working in an industry that is getting killed by clients being leeches. They are looking after their money, I get that, but when exceptional deep rebates and price favors become the norm regardless of how much money you have, how do you expect the whole thing to be sustainable ? Also a widespread tendency to defraud public subsidies by trying to avoid paying their own legally mandated stake in bids. Then cry like children when the subsidies get cut.

I've always employed and believed that you need a mix of educated managers as well as ones that came up the hard way. It's always worked for me.

[Brehvolution]

Turns out after getting more frantic calls from other managers, we invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a boondoggle that isn't going to give us much revenue and wound up costing more than planned.  So now we have to find about $50 million in savings from now to the year's end.  So everyone now is scrambling to find savings.  So everyone is in a panic because $50m in savings when 2/3 of the year is gone is a tall order, some people are probably going to have to stop working and discontinue any projects in order to meet this new goal.  I should also point out that we're making more money than ever so this isn't an issue of whether we continue to work or not, it's one of those things to ensure executive compensation gets a 10-20% yoy increase.  The CEO of the company makes over $50 million a year.  For reference, ExxonMobil's CEO gets about $25 million per year.  So yeah.

Cut this dude and there is your savings. Pretty obvious. Not sure why you are so nervous. 

My consulting bill is in the mail.

[Cerveza mas fina]

There is only about 10 companies where the ceo makes more then 50 btw

[Am_I_Anonymous]

There is only about 10 companies where the ceo makes more then 50 btw