#I have the PTO but we don’t have the coverage

[isthemedia]

Me: Another comic thumbnailed

Brain: how many have you finished?

Me: well I have the one CLH one inked, two more almost cleaned up—

Brain: but how many are finished?

Me: I have the OCs with @cryptidfoxes OC inked, and 3 more thumbnailed—

Brain: Completion count?

Me: And I have one more CLH thumbnailed and another in process of final sketching.

Brain: And none finished.

Me: A…and none finished.

In my defense-I had to deal with a big financial issue (ie replacing my car)…followed by my job’s department now getting down to a skeleton crew where I’m putting in overtime now, and in the process of trying to pack things since I’ll be able to start moving at the end of April.

Being able to sit and color isn’t quite feasible right now. But if you want to see WIPS I’ll happily share.

[andhumanslovedstories]

A bunch of healthcare unions are going on strike in Oregon, and my nursing union is one of them. We’ve given the mandatory ten day warning and we will be escorted off the premises by 6 am the day the strike starts. We struck last summer, but that time we had a strike, from the outset we said it would be limited to five days. This is an indefinite strike, which means it’ll go until it’s done.

I’m in a good enough financial position to weather being out of work for a bit. That’s super not the case for everyone. If you need to work during the strike, management is saying you don’t commit to working on day one, you won’t be allowed to change your mind. In or out. If it continues into February, we’ll lose our healthcare coverage, so you either have to get absolutely robbed by COBRA or you go without. There’s a union hardship fund, but apparently last strike, it was not very helpful for people having hardships.

Like solidarity forever and this is very stressful. There’s a lot of small and new unions bundled into the strike, so I’m excited that they will get to negotiate with way more power behind them than they would normally have. And a big point of contention for the strike is staffing requirements—that’s a patient safety issue and also something that can make work miserable so it’s good we’re negotiating about that. And I would like more money and more PTO, I mean obviously. But I’m really struck by how much worse this strike could be for us than the last.

[customerservicestartswyou]

Leadership 101

I want to work for a company and have a manager that says and ACTS like this. 👇 Wouldn’t you?

We are human. We need to rest and recover.

If we are sick, how can we work?

If we are depressed and/or anxious (or have other things going on), how does that make us productive? It doesn’t.

Our mental and physical health is just as, if not more, important than our job. If only businesses acted that way too.

I always say no to PTO requests when my team asks for time off.

Well.. to be clear I reject the "asking" part.

I don’t like to be asked for permission.

I always tell my team not to ask, because it’s something that’s owed to you and earned. You negotiated it. It’s weird to ask for it.

This isn't Kindergarten where you need to ask for permission to use the bathroom.

The only thing you need to do is put it in our system, because…. Company policy. And try to give me a bit of time to plan if you can.

We work together to get coverage and figure out priorities. That’s what teams do. And if we don’t have coverage? I’ll pick up the slack as best I can.

Or it can wait. Because let’s be honest, most things don’t need to be done in the week someone is on PTO. Not everything is a priority.

But I’ve never denied a PTO request. My job isn’t to gatekeep YOUR time off.

My job is to ensure things get done, priorities get managed, teams work together, and most importantly people don’t get burnt out.

That's simple leadership 101.

Get your work done. Be productive. Communicate that you need time off. And go enjoy your life.

The only thing you owe me is maybe a treat from your exotic travels 😏

Be a good human

PS: insulting or hateful comments reflect far more on you than they do on me. The world watches

[myeyesarebrighter]

The shit hit the fan at work again today. It’s part of the job. But the pure CHAOS that followed was nuts.

At the end, I was like, “hey team lead, how’d that go for you!” Which was met with her confirming everything I was saying here yesterday (and to her, which she did not receive well). She was like, this is nuts and so stressful. YES YES IT IS. I did it 4x last week while you were out…

So now she gets what I was saying yesterday and was fully like FUCK I got nothing else done and that was more stressful than it had to be!

There was more rambling about the flexibility she counts on having at work to make her family run, but at the same time she’s doing nothing to ensure continuity and coverage while she’s using that flex. Again this is something I’ve been nagging about. I’m so supportive of people making the most of their flex but it’s up to her to use one of her team members to cover her. Part of that is managing time off requests and making sure the team is well staffed, which occasionally means we have to ask people to shift pto… none of it is fun and no one wants to be managing it, but when you don’t it just causes so much chaos for everyone. A well run team is a lot of work, but it keeps things under control for everyone. Sigh.

That’s your ask a manager rant for today. Being a boss sucks some days.

[the-empress-7]

The exploitation of mental health

I’ve thought a lot about how to articulate why I found the Apple show to be in such poor taste, regardless of No.6’s involvement. And it is because when problems are presented without a “solve”, it becomes voyeurism and exploitation; tragedy porn. It’s entertainment in the guise of activism. The repeated calls to “get help” don’t solve anything, because it’s extraordinarily hard to afford help in the US. Yes, stigma is a soft barrier, but the hard barrier is quite literally having nowhere to go to get help, when you are uninsured and living paycheck to paycheck, as most Americans are. Go to any major city here and you see the resulting wreckage of not having a comprehensive mental health coverage system. Veterans self-medicating their ptsd with drugs, living on the street. Trans teenagers who need understanding, who have no one and nothing to turn to. It is terrible and it is sad. I had a difficult childhood and had to spend my 20s plagued with panic attacks because I couldn’t even afford a weekly $50 copay for very helpful therapy when I was just starting out by myself. And I had a job, insurance, and therapists I could visit every block in NYC. An acquaintance of mine was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her 20s, and she had to abandon a career as a lawyer to be cared for by her family for several years - and this is only by the grace of having a family to turn to that could afford her care. Mental health problems are devastating. I think we all recognize that. But in the absence of a realistic solve, and calling out the problem for what it is - what O and her team are peddling is a disgusting montage of suffering for entertainment.

=====

I truly appreciate this, you have hit upon so many important points. Your words really resonated with me, so thank you for sharing them.

Most people outside of America, do not understand how complicated and inequitable our healthcare system is. Therapy is a luxury that a few people can afford. And those who can afford it, have so many other barriers to overcome.

I can tell you that I personally would love to have hours of therapy a month, God knows I need it. And I am one of the lucky ones, not only do I have insurance I also have the money to pay for my deductibles and my copays. What stops me? The fact that I have a job and children to raise. I only have a finite amount of time I can take off from work. So I save my PTO for when my children have doctor appointments. I save my time for when my children are sick and need someone to sit with them all night. I save my time for others, the last time I took a sick day for myself was when I last gave birth, so let's see over 11 years ago.

You are 100% right. For most people it's not as simple as raising the hand and saying they need help. It comes down to our respective support structures and circumstances. Life is rarely as easy as celebrities make it out to be. In fact, life is horribly unkind and frustratingly unfair, Harry needs to realize that 99.99% of people on this planet would love to have been born into the family he was born into.

You used the right term, voyeurism. I find it gross, and don't want anything to do with it. Welcome to life Harry, adversity is part of the human experience and none of us are immune from pain.

[weathergirl8]

Mental Health Is A B!%&#

- Major Depressive Disorder

- Generalized Anxiety Disorder

- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

You all have heard me use the words depression, anxiety, and OCD. These three disorders are the official names of my mental health battle. I saw my first psychiatrist Tuesday and she confirmed that these three are the ones calling the shots at the moment.

This has been an uphill battle and one that isn't even close to being finished yet, but on a day where I'm feeling some positivity and hope I just wanted to share it!

We're changing up my meds and hoping that with therapy and regular psychiatrist visits we will get this under control.

I have been working tirelessly to pull myself out of this darkness that is without fail exhausting EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I am entering my third week of a reduced work schedule. I feel very blessed to work for a company that I do. My normal day-to-day life with mental health included consists of working at least 8 or 9 hours a day at the bank, doing my required responsibilities for the weather page I forecast for, and then complete required school work. I've been drowning. My bosses took note along with my HR lady and they approached me with a temporary fix. At first, I was going to apply for short-term disability, which in itself was a stressful and anxiety-induced process. However, President Biden passed more Covid legislation and within that is coverage for Emergency Pay Hours. Cue no longer needing short-term disability and now I am able to draw from these 480 hours of time. I am currently working roughly 20 hours a week and the Covid hours are replacing the rest of my 40 hour total pay at two-thirds of my normal salary. Up until this week, I've been using my PTO to pay for the difference. So this week and going forward is especially scary because even though my mental health is taking over my life the bills are still coming. They don't get a break.

If you've stayed with me this long, I thank you.

I thank you for being my sounding board when some of you were/are struggling as well. I thank you for reminding me to keep breathing when on certain nights I just didn't see the point. I have so many names I want to highlight as a thank you for reaching out (@godsliltippy @janetm74 @willow-salix @dragonoffantasyandreality @bonsaiiiiiii @ak47stylegirl to name a few that have popped in my inbox regularly), but there are so many more. I really want to give a HUGE squid-sized shout-out to @misssquidtracy.

Squiddy, without your constant encouragement I don't think I would've fought as hard as I have had to the last two months. I wouldn't have fought to find a new therapist. I wouldn't have fought to find a psychiatrist. I firmly believe I would've taken my life a while ago. You know when those days were. When certain members of my family weren't there like they should've been.

In a world where mental health is often seen as "seeking attention", I am incredibly thankful for the Thunderfam for not treating me as such. This is hands down my worst bout of battling my mental health. It has never incapacitated me to this degree before.

I am currently focused on trying to get my head on straight and have my eyes on the next five weeks. In five weeks I will graduate from junior college with my associate's degree and if I am in a stable mind by Fall, I will attend Northern Ilinois University to finish the rest of my bachelor's degree in Meteorology.

I pray that I am finally on a good path. I pray that my rituals get under control. I pray that my depression doesn't derail all the hard work I've accomplished in everything and mostly school. I'm so close to closing part of my school chapter that I thought I would NEVER see. I want to cry at how close I am. Five years ago I almost completely gave up on my dream and school. Now I am so close to having what no one in my family has accomplished - a degree of any sort. It might be an associate's degree, but to me, it means the world and my bachelor's will be unimaginable.

[911-i-fell-in-a-hole]

(CW: alcoholism, personal story?)

from your local retail worker:

I’ve worked in retail for over 4 years and I’m looking for a new job bc my old manager was there on Tuesday and was gone on Wednesday and we never heard from her again and after that everything else went to shit. She had been calling out of work for months with hangovers or headaches and then would input time punches as PTO so our DM never questioned her absences. In the month of June she called off 10 times. TEN! And of course it was always the morning of her shift and me and the other team leads were stuck with finding coverage. I finally realized I was unappreciated, the store was understaffed and I was overworked.

I was getting shit on by an ex coworker who continuously texted our DM and told him that I was harassing her and badmouthing her at her new job which would be hard for me to do as I literally never saw her in person after she “stepped down” from her position but bc of her, the DM refused to even tell me about a potential promotion that I had fucking deserved after everything I did for that store. We ended up getting a temp SM and she was so awful and tried to get one of our coworkers fired so he quit instead and after that the store continues to lose 8 other associates and with around 25 people on staff to begin with, that’s a whole lot. But the 8 of us had all ageeed that the only reason we were staying through this shitshow was for each other bc we didn’t want the others to deal with this on their own so we literally all quit.

anyways now I’m looking at all these other positions and base pay for these jobs are literally twice as much as what I was making at my previous job where I was doing the same tasks and having the same responsibilities as I would at the new jobs.

point is, retail fucking sucks and if you don’t know what you’re worth, you will be stepped on a million times over until you do:)

[discjockeyetc]

To Everything, There Is A Season

On March 17th, 2020, I (along with about 17 other people) was told that my position at my previous company had been eliminated. I had been there for just shy of nine years.

Three days later, my resume ended up in the hands of a hiring manager at Owens & Minor/Halyard Health. I skipped over much of what should have been a lengthy interview process and was offered a position that afternoon. I accepted the position and started on March 30th. I mean, how amazing is THAT?? What an incredible blessing... especially at the start of some really rough times in our world.

I came on board at O&M as a contractor with a six-month assignment. As those initial six months came to a close, I was extended another three months (end of December). As those three months neared their expiration, I was extended once again (end of March). In mid-February, I was given another three month extension which would take me to the end of June.

While these extensions were going on, I had already decided that being a contractor was simply not for me. I wasn’t getting access to any benefits. I wasn’t able to take PTO. I also wasn’t able to receive pay for holidays like Christmas and the like. Basically, if I didn’t work, I didn’t get paid.

Working as a contractor, I never felt like I couldn’t “unpack”. It all felt very temporary and I never really got comfortable. I’m at the point in my professional life where I want to be able to “set up camp” at a company and grow along with it. I just wasn’t getting the opportunity to do that. Again, great people, a blessing to have been there, but it wasn’t the ideal situation for me.

Don’t get me wrong. I am incredibly grateful to have been able to stay stably employed during such uncertain times. Especially without ANY downtime in between jobs. I mean, a TRUE blessing. I worked with some really great people and learned a LOT about an area for which I knew basically nothing. The team I was on is highly skilled, extraordinarily friendly, and always professional. I’ll always cherish the wonderful opportunity to have worked there.

Nearly 13 months later, I’m starting another new journey in my professional life. I am now an employee of Optiv, Inc.

I began looking for a new career around the first of the year. I went on several interviews, but hadn’t found just the right fit. That is, of course, until I connected with this NEW opportunity. Optiv is a cyber security company, and my position is “Purchasing Specialist”. The majority of professional experience has centered around the purchasing field which makes this a great fit for me. The culture of the company is also really desirable. It’s exactly the kind of place I’d want to work.

Here’s a picture of me in front of my new office building! Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: “Wait, isn’t that your house?” Why, yes! Yes it is! This is a %100 remote position! I will be working from home permanently because there IS no office to go to!

My manager is based in Kansas City. HER manager (who I also interviewed with) is based in Denver. What’s more, I’m coming on board at the same time as a a few other people (my counterparts) who are in other parts of the country. We’ll actually have coverage in ALL continental U.S. time zones. Pretty awesome!

I’m incredibly excited to jump into this new role! It’s such a relief to be able to join a team on which I can grow and develop on a long-term basis. As grateful as I am to have been able to stay employed during the pandemic, it’s time for me to enter a new season. Here we go!

[rgr-pop]

good news is that my college has a fund (hmmm where did that come from) where we can take PTO that doesn’t come from our banked hours if we’re sick or have to be a caretaker, but we can’t use them for quarantining (my supervisor would probably lie for me, but still) and i personally still can’t work from home for 60% of my weekly hours because it’s desk coverage for a s t i l l o p e n l i b r a r y. now i’m just desperately hoping we decide to have limited hours so i do’t have to continue covering 30% of weekly desk shifts that are distributed between four to five people, half of which would be me being the only non-student staff who had to be there 🤔 weird that the full time equivalent positions of my positions work 12 hours more than me but don’t have all the responsibilities i have & rely on me for a lot while they make almost twice as much as i do hourly for the same position with the same job description!

the ideal, if we really wanted ~continuity of service would be to be open just til like 5 or 6 m-f (ten desk shifts) and for me to only have to take three desk shifts (about 40 some % of my weekly hours) and be able to work from home for most of the rest of it (I literally have like three or four hours of college-required web training to complete rn). the funny thing is that we’re being stubborn about this to offer support to students who now have to do classwork online and might not have the resources but...we have zero public computers in the library right now because of the renovation. we have computers to check out but we’re strongly encouraging no one check them out because of the virus, and we’ve extended the due dates for everyone that has one out, so we probably only have 100 left anyway.

[regular-lord-reckoner]

well, yesterday was my last day at the job i’ve been at for the past three years 

these were the gifts my supervisor gave me that i absolutely adore 

i know your boss isn’t your friend, but...she was an awesome supervisor and i’m really going to miss her 

in general, i’m going to miss how laid back everything was there and that most of the people who worked there were really cool and easy-going

but boy oh boy, the fucking adrenaline rush of knowing i don’t have to do public speaking anymore........ i feel so relieved. 

although, i do feel kinda bad because i didn’t end up having any luck getting any of my counties to commit to having us back this year which will be more work for whoever comes after me. then the only other person on the team who was brand new and filling in for someone who quit before the summer also just quit!! 

which....is pretty shitty because she knew when accepting this position that it’s one of those where you kind of need to commit to a year when signing on, that’s how this works but she’d still had some applications out there, i guess, and her dream job came through so she said peace out! 

(she also apparently got mad that she wasn’t able to take pto after turning in her notice and was like “but you let anna!!!” like...first of all, don’t drag me into this, but secondly no i did not. i actually know company policy and knew i wouldn’t be able to take pto once my notice was in so i asked and my supervisor was kind enough to let me use most of it before i turned in my notice so...shut up!) 

i feel bad that my supervisor is now out two people, but i’m hopeful they’ll still be able to get some new hires and they’ll be good. they’ve also already asked me if i’d be willing to do a 10 day work contract with them once they hire people so i can come and help train and i do love making money so....sure!! i’ll do the best i can! 

but apparently even the boss that’s over my supervisor is like, “it’s whatever, man” so i think it’ll be okay. and this program in particular has been going for over ten years and every year they’ve met their goals so i think if they’re able to say, “hey, we lost two people at the beginning of the school year and that made it hard for us to meet our numbers” i’m hoping the state will give them a pass. ultimately, though, it’s out of my hands and nobody’s mad at me for leaving, they’ve all said they understand and that i have to do what’s best for me and that they wish me well so i feel better knowing that (i’ve also been told i’m welcome back at any time as i’m eligible for rehire so that’s good to know)

i hope the best for them and i think it’s an important program, but i am so glad i’m not the one doing it anymore. it was taking an absolute toll on my mental health and i need to really take time now to focus on healing and dealing with my shit

i’m still not really sure when i’ll officially start full time with this other thing i have set up like...i’m still working on it and putting in hours, but they still don’t have me on the ding dang payroll which sucks because the longer i’m on a work contract i feel like the worse that’s gonna be for me come tax time, but...we’ll see, i guess

i also had to call about my insurance situation because i got a letter saying the cobra people couldn’t find my account or some shit and basically i guess the company i just left has 45 days to turn in some paperwork to them and then when they get that they’ll send me a packet of stuff and i have to fill something out and then turn that in and i guess we’ll see what happens? 

which...kinda sucks, but okay. although apparently if i do get the coverage it’ll be retroactive so anything i have done in between then i guess i’ll be reimbursed for? i don’t really know at this point, but the good news is.....i apparently don’t have a kidney disease!! 

at least not as far as my urologist could tell. the ultrasound said it could be suggestive of a renal disease, but obviously that’s not a diagnosis i just assumed that when the nurse called me and told me it was REALLY IMPORTANT that i keep my appointment and mentioned something about me possibly needing to see a nephrologist that i was like...fucked, basically, but nope!! just......need to drink more water as always. 

in my defense, though like...i’ve honestly just gotten out of the habit of drinking a lot throughout most of the day because i’ve been working jobs where it’s not really possible to be running to the bathroom all day long. when i’m teaching sometimes it’s back to back to back and there isn’t any time to stop for a break for at least an hour or so and back when i was at this other job if i was doing something like front desk or switchboard i also wanted to be at my desk as much as possible, especially the several times i was left to do that by myself and sometimes multiple jobs at the same time so like it’s not that i hate water and i hate having to drink it, i actually really like water i just....haven’t had the time to go to the bathroom a lot so i’ve been avoiding it and as a result have just been a kidney stone making machine apparently but...everything else looked good and i’m now at a “call us if you need us” basis with the urology folks so hopefully with this new job i can start drinking more water and fingers crossed never have to deal with another stone again!! 

but yeah! insurance-wise i think that’ll be okay, then, i’ve already looked up the out of pocket cost for the medicine i have to take and it’s reasonable if i had to pay it a few times (especially if i do get reimbursed once my cobra kicks in), but i was smart and i picked up a fresh new bottle yesterday and it was $0 so i’m good for at least a month now and i guess if need be i can reschedule my upcoming appointment with my new neurologist and i guess just ask my pcp to refill my meds in the meantime or i can just bite the bullet and pay whatever bill i get after that and hopefully get reimbursed for that as well. ultimately i think it’s all going to work out just...a little stressful still, but definitely a lot better now that i’m officially back down to just one job and one that’s definitely less demanding of me and overall i think going to be a good opportunity for me to do what i need to do in terms of getting myself on track :3 

[insertclassyusernamehere]

True Life: I worked for a Sociopath

In early 2013, I started a journey with a company that I loved. I was hired on as a sales associate by a strong, powerful and amazing store manager who literally taught me everything I know. She promoted me 6 months in to a lower level management role, and when she got an offer to move onto bigger things in the company, she helped push me into a fulltime management role. Her assistant manager at the time ultimately ended up filling her position as she left, and to be honest, I had no idea what I was in for. I hadn't worked too much with this particular manager prior, and didn't have much of a real raport with her at all. I truly was excited about the change, and everything felt like a new beginning. The first year was pretty rocky in general, but we just chalked it up to us all being new in our roles, and pushed through it until we got onto a schedule. The assistant manager at the time and I were incredibly close, and it was pretty clear to me at the time that she was being bullied and demonized by our store manager, but I thought maybe it was just some kind of personal bad blood between them. The store manager (we will call her Sarah) would talk to associates and other managers behind her back, calling her names, and pointing her fingers at her for anything going awry in the store. Finally, our ASM snapped, and left the company. Sarah told us all that things would be SO Much better without her there "creating hostility". Most of us knew that the former ASM wasn't the problem.

With the separation of our ASM, I was then ushered into the role as a replacement. I was excited. I was excited about a raise, about more responsibility and the growth that I had worked SO hard for. To give you just a little information on my character: I'm a fiery personality, but I'm also incredibly compassionate. I'm a giant mama bear, and I looked at all my employees as my little cubs. With that being said, I was always doing everything with theirs and the stores' best interest in mind. Now at this time, Sarah had A LOT of personal stuff going on. She always did, to be honest. The personal shit never stopped. But, unlike most people who put themselves in a store management position, she used her power to work everything in HER favor so it didn't conflict with her super dramatic life. This meant breaking every rule along the way. She scheduled herself only opening shifts, on a consistent schedule. Every single Sunday off. And when any small thing happened in her life, she just wouldn't show up to her shifts. She would expect me to come in on my days off to cover her shifts on a monthly basis. She made me work doubles covering her shifts more than a few times. If you were not flexible with her, she would tell you that you just needed to take one for the team and would punish you with a cold attitude and talk shit about you behind your back to the rest of the staff. She bullied everyone in the store, but especially the management team. On the other hand, if you were sick and tried to call out... she'd refuse to cover your shift and make you come in anyways. When she wouldn't come in for a scheduled shift, she would just code in PTO for herself and move on with her day. When she was there, she didnt do anything at all. One time she passed out in the back room from pills while our sales lead was on the floor by herself. As fulltime managers we were assigned DORs (departments of responsibility). There was Operations, Talent and Merchandising and they were split between the 3 fulltime managers. My last year with the company, I was working 2 of the 3 while Sarah was doing none. I took more than half of the conference calls. I planned our entire fiscal year. I made ever schedule, did every interview and every new hire onboarding. I was training our keyholder in the merch DOR. When I say that I was literally running a 1.6 million dollar store with no help from my SM, while only making $13hr I AM NOT KIDDING. All the while, anytime I tried to initiate positive change, and enforce standards I was immediately shot down and told "I am not the Store Manger". So essentially - we were failing. At this point I learned that on top of everything I was doing, she was telling everyone else in the store than I was a horrible manager and did nothing. She called me names to people, and even lied to them about crazy shit she claims I did. When I confronted her, she would tell me it never happened. All our employees were quitting left and right because she was literally crazy. She would yell at them on the sales floor and make them cry, force them to stay past their scheduled shifts and the few times she did make the schedule she would schedule them outside of their availability and fuck us over with coverage on the weekend. She manipulated every single person on staff. I left work crying every day.

Now here's where things got fucking psychotic. My keyholder and I had to drive to Tampa for a training certification class, and one thing led to another that ended with us spilling only a small portion of the crazy shit going on in our store. The manager training us empowered us to go to our DM. I spent the night writing and incredibly detailed list of everything she had been doing with help of the rest of the store staff and management team. The next day I called our DM and she was floored. She told me that she was going through HR to get it figured out (this was in august) and while she got in a small amount of "trouble"for a few small things, Sarah was still our store manager and she was bullying us worse than ever. Sarah immediately assumed that I was the one that got her in trouble (even though every single person on staff contributed) and she took it out on me in the worst ways. She denied all of my request offs and had my working every single weekend. Things hit rock bottom after Hurricane Irma hit us on October 2018. We had an emergency close the day before the hurricane touched down because our entire staff was living in evacuation zones and were running out of the state to stay safe from the storm. The night we closed it was me, Sarah and an associate who we will call Ashley. Things were totally normal, low stress and went fairly smoothly. When we arrived back after the storm everything seemed normal. Another week passed, and my husband and I were driving down south to his parents house when I received a call from my DM. In this call she Informed me that my CRAZY BITCH SM told her that on the night of the emergency closing I told her that if we didn't close the store I was going to KILL HER AND HER FAMILY.

WHAT THE FUCK.

She also made the mistake of telling the DM that the associate was a witness. And the DM told her that she needed to have a conversation with me and ask me why I said that. The DM (thankfully) warned me that this conversation might happen, but neither of us thought this bitch was crazy enough to actually lie about something so serious that she claims I said TO MY FACE.

BOY WERE WE WRONG!

She called out of her next shift with me, but then proceeded to come in before hours at 8:30 AM as I was opening the systems, cornered me alone in the stock room, and this bitch looks at me and says "Kianna, do you remember saying anything inappropriate to me during the emergency close?"

Me: No...

Her: Nothing... at all?

Me: Nope. Nothing at all, why?

Her *yelling*: SO YOU DONT REMEMBER THREATENING TO KILL ME AND MY FAMILY??!

ME*completely shocked that she literally said it*: No, Sarah. Seriously? We both know I would never say something like that. I literally dont even use that kind of language jokingly.

Her: Just admit you said it and apologize.

Me: I'm not going to admit to something I didnt say.

Her: Ashley was working she heard you!

Me: Oh really? Ashley happens to be my opener. Let's ask her! If she heard me say that, I will apologize and just accept that I somehow said this horrible thing and blocked it out.

Her *hesitantly*: oh... okay.

When Ashley arrived, we sat her down and Sarah asked her the same uncomfortable question. "Do you remember Kianna saying something incredibly inappropriate and threatening the night we emergency closed?"

Ashley: Uhh... no?

Sarah: So you don't remember her threatening my family's life?

Ashley: UHM, DEFINITELY NOT?!

Sarah: UGH, WELL I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY, ASHLEY, THAT SINCE YOU WON'T ADMIT THAT SHE THREATENED ME THAT I WILL LOOK LIKE A LIAR TO MY BOSS!

Turns out she then tried to groom Ashley into lying for her by offering her a raise if she lied. Ashley told our DM this. SARAH WAS STILL OUR STORE MANAGER. By the end of October, 3 MONTHS AFTER TURNING HER IN, I was done waiting. I turned in my notice, found a better paying job and left that toxic situation. I left because I felt unsafe in my work environment and despite all my evidence and her threats and her literally lying in hopes to get me fired and arrested I WAS STILL BEING FORCED TO WORK WITH HER.

The day I turned in my notice, I found out I was pregnant with my son. Leaving that toxic environment was the best decision I ever made. KNOW YOUR WORTH, GUYS.

[mr-entj]

Mr. ENTJ can you break down how to interpret the compensation from an offer letter such as salary and bonuses for someone with multiple offers trying to weigh options? What to look for? Thank you and all the best to Princess Mango and INTJ!

Related answer:

Hi Mr Entj, if you’re comfortable, could you provide tips on how to negotiate salary? Many thanks for your amazing blog!

What other qualities do you look for in a job before you accept? What should we be aware of before we accept an offer?

Sure, let’s talk money.

Understanding your offer letter

1. Base Salary: Your bread and butter, your annual income that’s typically paid in bi-weekly paychecks. A quick way to ballpark your take-home pay after taxes is this: $20,000 in annual income = $500 per bi-weekly paycheck. For example:

$20,000 annual salary = $500 per paycheck (or $1000 per month)

$40,000 annual salary = $1000 per paycheck (or $2000 per month)

$60,000 annual salary = $1500 per paycheck (or $3000 per month)

$80,000 annual salary = $2000 per paycheck (or $4000 per month)

$100,000 annual salary = $2500 per paycheck (or $5000 per month)

These are very rough estimates for a single person in California without any dependents. Paycheck City has a good paycheck calculator by punching in your numbers and location.

This is the hardest number to negotiate an increase because it commits the company to paying a higher salary for the entire year and any subsequent raises.

2. Signing Bonus: This is a one-time payment for joining the company. Bonuses are typically paid out within 90 days of joining and folded directly into your paycheck with taxes already taken out. To avoid people stealing signing bonuses, quitting immediately, and jumping to the next job, signing bonuses have conditions to stay a minimum amount of time at the company (example: 1 year) or to pay back a prorated amount.

Example: Receiving a $12,000 signing bonus ($1000 per month) but quitting after 4 months on the job would result in a $8000 payback amount to the company for the 8 months you didn’t work.

Bonuses are taxed before they’re paid out so calculate approximately 50% off the number given (a $10,000 bonus will pay about $5000).

This is the easiest number to negotiate an increase because it’s a one-time payment.

3. Stocks: Stocks are basically pieces of a company; the more valuable the company becomes, the more valuable your pieces of it are.

For public companies and especially in Silicon Valley, stocks are a huge part of compensation because they make the person heavily invested in the company’s success. A cashier at McDonalds doesn’t need to care about providing great customer service because he/she gets a fixed salary independent of how the company does, but when you’re awarded stocks, your net worth is linked to the company’s performance and it’s in your best interest to go above and beyond in your role to make the company successful.

Stocks are awarded at the time of signing and are called stock grants. A granted stock isn’t yours yet– it can’t be sold for cash until it’s vested. A vesting cycle is basically a waiting period so people don’t join companies for a ton of stocks, quit immediately, and then move on to the next company to repeat the cycle.

Example: A $400,000 stock grant vested over 4 years means that I need to stay at the company 4 years to receive the entire $400,000 amount. My company vests 25% per year so I’m given $100,000 of my $400,000 stock grant every year. If joined the company in 2017, I must stay until 2021 to get the full $400,000.

More stocks are granted every year with the same 4-year vesting cycle. If you quit the company, you forfeit any stock grants that haven’t vested. This is why stocks are referred to as “golden handcuffs”– people can feel chained to companies to avoid leaving behind and losing any unvested stocks. Always ask about the company’s vesting cycle to understand what percentage vests when.

This is easier than the salary but more difficult than the signing bonus to negotiate an increase because of the vesting cycle. If you leave before your stocks vest, shares are forfeited and the company doesn’t pay you anything.

4. Relocation bonus: One-time cash payment for moving expenses like renting a truck, plane tickets to bring your family across the country, fees to ship belongings, and money for a deposit to a new apartment. This is a cash lump sum and it’s taxed approximately 50%.

This number is negotiable depending on how far you’re moving for the job. If you’re moving out of state, you’ll get more money than if you were moving to a different city in the same state.

5. Insurance: This refers to health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, etc. Understand how much (or how little) the company covers to calculate how much money will be deducted from your paycheck on a bi-weekly basis. This varies wildly from company to company but as a general rule of thumb ask about: deductibles, premiums, co-pays, maximums, coverage (network), and waiting periods.

Health insurance is expensive in America so understand the insurance coverage because companies can lure you in with a high salary but with bad benefits that will cost you more money in the long run than if you had stayed at your old job and at your old salary. 

6. Paid time off (PTO): The number of paid time off, sick days, and official holidays the company has. This varies from company to company and it factors into total compensation because it affects how many days in a year you have to work.

7. Retirement: This refers to 401k, Roth, IRAs, etc. Retirement is an entirely separate discussion we won’t get into right now but ask about company matching.

[xanadontit]

So

Partner has taken quite a bit of time off since she started in February. Which: fine! It’s unlimited PTO! But between long vacations and random days off (or wanting to leave early every Friday this summer) she announced when she got back from Cape Cod in late August that she would not be taking any other time off for the rest of 2018 (save for any sick days or a doc appointment - but that’s normal stuff). 

Cut to our staff meeting yesterday where she announces she’s leaving before lunch Friday to catch a flight to Seattle to celebrate her boyfriend’s birthday (she’s taking him away for the weekend). She booked this trip as soon as she got back from Cape Cod, apparently. She made a comment about how there was really no reason to say anything before since we wouldn’t need her most of Friday (?) and it’s just a half day. She is heading up a national show in Chicago starting Monday. Sure. Sounds legit.

Boss sent out a reminder email to our team about our time off policy and that it’s nice to give a heads up if you’re going to be gone for more than an hour or so so we can plan ahead for projects and redistribute anything that may need coverage. No big deal. No scolding. Also a good reminder for me and Demand Gen since we’re newer and haven’t taken any time off; the holidays are around the corner, too.

She freaked out to me via Slack, sent an apology email to the team, and we walked to get coffee where she expected me to side with her. I told her that if this is the company policy, it doesn’t really matter if she likes it or not: this is how it works here. I also asked if she’s planning to take time off for the holiday and she huffed, “I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.” Cool. Guess that whole “no more time off in 2018″ was a joke! I think she expected me to side with her but considering I have stayed late to keep her shit going while she flits off or storms out due to happy hour plans I’m not feeling too generous with her these days. 

Anyway, thanks for the confirmation that a heads up (if not a time off request) is expected and how adults roll. 

[lycorogue]

In truth, I’m still struggling with this because it’s not really management that suffers, it’s my coworkers. And I kinda don’t want to screw them over. (1) I kinda like them. (2) Even if I didn’t like them, we still have to get along for 8hrs a day 5 days a week. (3) I really don’t want to have to deal with any fallout for dicking them over.

That said? Screw ‘em! You earned that PTO. You deserve to take it!

Due to the limited number of employees my job has at my location, if one of us uses PTO, the others CANNOT have the day off or we won’t have proper coverage. I’ve worked 10 or 14 days in a row because of this. It sucks, but I don’t hold it against my coworkers because THEY DESERVE THAT TIME OFF. So, if, in turn, they do hold it against me that I use mine? Well... I guess a big “screw them” then. If I can work 2 weeks straight for them, they can do the same for me.

TAKE YOUR TIME OFF!

[haiverings-blog]

Wasn’t He Recently Elected As President?

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[bakurapika]

starbucks’s goal as a company is to become a “third space” - the idea that people generally have home, work, and a third space that they regularly go to in free time, like a coffee shop. they want to be seen as a vital part of a community.

i’m guessing this store doesn’t have a drive-through, where wait times are generally prioritized over customer interaction.

note that it is very difficult to find coverage for shifts - when I quit starbucks, I found out I had a bunch of accumulated sick days (not PTO, which would have been paid out). you can ask for help from other stores, and you can fill in at other stores as suggested above, but the shifts are often odd hours and stressful enough that it would be difficult to have two in the same day at different stores. 

Eg if you’re scheduled to work from 10am to 2pm at your home store, you can’t pick up a 6-10 shift at another store; you can’t get that 10-4 shift that’s open at another store, and you technically could get the 6:30 - 10:30 (with the probability of staying late since it’s a close) at the store across town, but then you’ve spent more than 12 hours at your workday being paid for 8 hours, with a significant amount of that extra 4 hours being spent on travel, and since someone is sick, this may come up unexpectedly without a chance to plan for it - so you may get off your shift, go home, start to relax, then see at 5 pm that there’s another shift you can pick up, so you stuff dinner in your mouth and get ready to go to work again because you can’t afford not to. And/or you know the barista in question and feel bad for them and don’t want them to have to work while running to the bathroom to puke every 10 minutes.

I’m just surprised that the manager let people call off without coverage. That was very rare and highly discouraged, even at our store where our manager was nice to us and would allow it. We were already regularly understaffed. When I was a closing supervisor, closing at 8 with a scheduled shift end of 8:30 but in reality getting out around 8:45 - 9 (I tried my best to be efficient but with just 2 people it was hard if we wound up getting extra customers in the evening). If she called out without coverage? First off, it wouldn’t be safe since we’re supposed to have two of us in the building at all times, so my manager would have to show up. She was salaried so she would sometimes work 12+ hour days. We wouldn’t be getting out by 9 either, I’ll tell you that for sure.

In case you would like to know what it’s like working at Starbucks