#underworked and underpaid

[such-a-downer]

My sister received pjams from her coworker came with a funny message:

[iloveyoudreitausend]

.

[steampunkforever]

I'm underpaid by at least $5k-$10k right now but also more or less underworked at the moment and so I feel like a tiger trapped in a cage with nary a pumpkin filled with hamburger in sight and simultaneously this cage is on a train car at the back of the gravy train and I must be patient and ride it until an opening appears.

Which is to say that I can't complain and yet I have the fatal Italian need to complain about pretty bog standard sub optimal situations. The only thing I'm wasting here is my precious youth but also I could sell a script next week and quit my job forever

[seoafin]

Do you mind saying what you do for work currently? Are you an editor? I’m trying to pivot to that career please share tips

neottttt an editor im doing 3 internships rn, one at a literary agency, one directly under a literary agent who owns her own agency, and another with a literary scout, which means i read a bunch of manuscripts and give my opinion on it which is scut aka intern work. ideally i'd like to work towards become an editor at a publishing company but i feel like my career trajectory is leaning towards being an agent

my one advice would be you need publishing experience whether that be an internship or working in bookselling. maybe if you're later in your career you can pivot but only if you can manage to sell yourself and you have transferable skills. publishing is notoriously underworked, underpaid, thankless, and elitist. loving books is not enough to survive here 💀

[meatballerino]

whats your job situation?

the fun one is that i work at a gay sauna and it's actually tight as fuck. i'm cashier but u best believe i'm twirling my hair batting my eyelashes in the general direction of the tip jar all day. occasionally folding towels and gossiping w some old queens. the harrowing one is social work, i was like, i'm gonna change the system from the inside. u can't, kids, u can't. my burnout is inevitable as it was for the past two people who had this gig before me. the healthcare system in my province is in fucking shambles and they keep me underpaid and underworked and i'm just slapping wet bandages on gaping craters of problems and everyone's falling through the cracks

[bryceslahela]

Why is everyone looking in different directions on the cover???

because leland got em running abt like headless chickens 😭

[fadedseas]

lessons.

nick amaro x fem!reader

summary: you get held hostage during a confrontation with a serial rapist - feelings ensue

tw: guns, violence, mentions of rape, cursing

(gif not mine but good lord, that expression...)

you knew there was an intrinsic reason you hated school. you knew it was a mistake to ever return to a classroom again. you knew this notion was affirmed as a serial rapist pressed his gun deeper into your skull so hard that you could feel the metal ring of the barrel.

there was something about the stuffiness of a classroom, the monotonous drone of an underpaid and overworked public school teacher (or that of an overpaid and underworked tenured professor) and the unrelenting stiffness of academia that made your skin crawl and your muscles twitch. it was probably why you had tried to get out as soon as possible. college as a scholarship kid with the four years passing quickly in a blur of all-nighters, coffee hangovers and then sweet relief during graduation. you had signed up for the police academy before the ink on your degree was even dry. and now you’re here. 

“now let’s just stay calm,” you closed your eyes at nick’s voice, trying to allow the deep tenor of his voice permeate your bones and calm your trembling. you hadn’t allowed yourself to make eye contact with him ever since the perp had grabbed you right when you had walked in. 

“i know you don’t want to do this.” nick moved slow, his muscles deceptively relaxed under his white button down as he moved slowly towards you and the professor. 

it was supposed to be a cut and dry case. a student from hudson university had walked into a squad room on a wednesday morning reporting a rape, her arms around her middle as if she were holding herself together. you and nick had pounded the pavement, interviewing classmates, boyfriends, administration officials that seemed less than pleased to have the nypd scaring off prospective students and donors. and one name kept appearing time and time again. professor daniel hershaw. english literature. tenured for the past fifteen years. 

“you really think it might be him? he’s the image of a family man. mentor. i mean the guy makes model planes for godssake - he’s a walking cliche.” you mused 

“one thing you learn on this job - most of the time, we’re not pulling rapists off the street. they hunt where they’re trusted.” nick said as he handed you a coffee from the coffee cart with his lips curved into a sad smile. your heart jumped as your fingers brushed. and oh. yes. that was another thing that was happening.

liv had assigned you and nick as partners given that you were the newest recruit and he was one of the senior members of the team. it was late nights, terrible coffee, greasy chinese food and floods of case notes that turned stagnant work chatter into deeper, more revealing conversations. you learned about his tendency to dance to the cuban music station on the radio (”we can work on your moves rookie”), his secret love for musicals, his divorce that had ended a year ago with an aggressive custody battle and long negotiations for weekends and holidays with his daughter, zara. you had learned more about his family, about zara’s obsession with anything disney, about his mother and her fretting, about his father and his tendency to communicate with his fists that made nick’s rage swell whenever your team handled a case involving women with black eyes and voices weak from sobs. 

and he learned of you. of your love for terrible reality tv shows and home cooking blogs that made you way too optimistic of your own cooking skills (”damn rookie, you burned water? i’ll have to teach you how to cook some ropa vieja someday - we’ll work up to it”); of your nightmares about each victim you’ve seen from your years in homicide and how their last expressions have been etched into your memory; of your parents and their incessant pushing for college and their disappointment when you joined the force. 

and you learned about the strong curve of his arms as he held you in his arms the first time you had shot and killed a perp who was raising a gun at you. the smell of his cologne and old spice filling your lungs as you tried to steady your breath. the flutter of his lips against your ear as he whispered that it was going to be ok. you learned about the roughness of his voice when he called you, late at night after drinking away his sorrows of his previous marriage at the bar and you learned about how he nursed his his hangovers the subsequent day when you curled up with him on his couch, not quite touching, after you had come over the night before to make sure he had gotten home safe and didn’t choke on his own vomit. you learned about the unfamiliar pressure of your chest as you realized that somehow, somewhere down the line of cold morning rides around the city, warm coffee, inside jokes, and progressively lingering stares across the squad room - you were in love. 

and now you were learning about his hostage negotiation skills.

it was a mistake to have spoken to the professor’s wife before you arrived at the classroom. she seemed entirely too calm about the matter, methodically pouring you and nick tea as she answered your question in short, snipped sentences. you made sure to note the gun cabinet as you left through the front door. you didn’t note the cell phone in her hand as she closed the door behind you. 

“stay back or i swear i’ll shoot her.” professor hershaw’s hand trembled as he kept pressing the metal into your head. 

“ok! ok! i’m staying back.” nick stopped his progress towards you. you could see the slight shake of his legs from the tension. 

“put your weapon down!” the professor barks behind you. 

 nick lifts his hands and your breath caught in your throat as he slowly kneels places his gun on the floor. he wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest. you hadn’t expected a confrontation like this. he was completely open and exposed to a man with a gun.

since you had worked closely with the dead prior to this position, you had often thought about how you would die. you knew it was possible you could die in the line of duty. hundreds did every day. but you didn’t think it would be here. in front of nick. in front of the man you’ve been in love with for the past year. you didn’t think it would be before he taught you how to dance or cook or whether he would ever fix the radiator in his car. before you ever felt his lips against your and whether that would feel as slow and passionate as you had often fantasized it would. before you even had the chance to tell him how you felt. so many plot lines unfulfilled. so many questions left unanswered. but at the moment, all you could think about was how you wanted to look into his eyes once more before you died.

“you’re a good man. you got kids - good ones. i’ve met them -” nick’s tone was placating, slow.

“don’t talk about my children!” the professor jerked his gun, knocking your head a bit to the side, “i know they’re good. i raised them. better than the whores that walk through these halls. in these classrooms.”

“yea. yea i understand professor. it’s unfair - all of them just get to walk around like they own the place. like there’s no consequences for them -”

“exactly,” you could feel his spittle on the back of your head, “i showed them the lesson they deserved.” 

nick’s eyes moved from the perp to meet yours. and a shudder of warmth flowed through you as you saw fear, anger, determination - and something else that as more than you could process at the moment. but you did catch his slight nod. “that’s right. you punished them. rightfully so. because - it’s like you wrote about right? ‘Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.’“

"you - you read victor hugo?” the professor stuttered, his arm slacked slightly in shock and there it was. you immediately ripped yourself from his arms as he staggered back in surprise. you dived for the floor as you heard the professor’s shout echo on the walls of the lecture hall and a gunshot. and then silence. 

you scrambled up, drawing your weapon quickly, your heart in your chest, terrified at what you might see. 

“call a bus!” you felt your entire body relax as you saw nick towering over the professor with his gun drawn and a bullet wound in the professor’s shoulder. 

later, much later, after you had been subject to medical exams by ems (albeit quite reluctantly) with nick hovering behind the paramedic’s shoulder like an unfriendly poltergeist that radiated anxiety, after liv had ordered you to take a few days, after you had returned to the squad room to fill out some paperwork in nick’s car as the both of you sat in heavy silence with too many things left unsaid between you two. you finally had a moment alone with your partner. 

most of the team had left with liv retiring to her office to have a quick call with the babysitter and say goodnight to noah. fin had clapped you on the shoulder and amanda had stopped by with coffee and an offer to let her know if you needed anything before she left to take care of the kids. the night shift had transferred in and you were finishing up the last words of the report when you sensed a presence and looked up. nick was standing by your desk, his lips in a firm line and brow furrowed. 

“can we talk?” he gestured towards the bunks. your heart flipped as you nodded, scribbling your signature onto the paperwork and shutting the file.

nick closed the door behind you. and you waited until the silence between you became unbearable.

“thank you for everything today nick. i mean - you saved my life. i could have died today and -”

“i know.” his voice seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet room. nick paced the floor, his hands gripping at his thick, dark hair. “i know you could’ve died. and i can’t stop seeing it. there’s just - i can’t describe how i felt watching him touch you. seeing how afraid you were. and how f**king helpless i was when all i wanted to do was just take your place - and when i finally got him away from you - i just wanted to -” he collapsed on a bunk and covered his eyes with his palms. 

you moved towards him, placing your hands on his shoulders, feeling the crisp fabric of his shirt crinkle under the heat of your hands. 

“you just wanted to what?”

nick lifted his head to meet your gaze, “you know you’re my partner. and there’s nothing i wouldn’t do to protect you. you’ve been there through everything this past year and i kept telling myself that i didn’t deserve everything you’ve been doing for me - didn’t deserve you.”  

you inhaled sharply, “nick - “

“i love you. there, i said it. and that was all i could think about today. losing someone else in my life that i love.” he sighed, rubbing his hand across his face, “i’ve been in love with you since that christmas party when you walked in with discount boy george - “

“kevin,” you automatically corrected the name of your old friend from college that you had brought as a date. 

“and you were just so beautiful. and i know that i don’t deserve you. but i just couldn’t stop wanting you. hoping for you. and it’s so selfish -”

he never got to finish his sentence. because by that point you had fully processed his words. you framed his face in your hands, bent down and pressed your lips against his. 

and suddenly all you could think, feel or taste was nick and his mouth moving against yours - warm, firm, steady - just like him. you were pushed back as nick got up from the bunk, his hands gripping your waist. you separated for a moment, drawing back to look into his eyes. beautiful brown. just like you never thought you would ever see again. 

and then nick pushed his body against yours, pressing you against the wall of the bunk room, his lips sweeping the corners of your mouth before exploring down your neck. 

“f**k - i thought i was going to lose you.” he growled, puncturing each word with a kiss and a nip at your neck. you gasped, your fingers diving deep into his hair. 

“never - you’ll never lose me nick. i never want to be apart from you.” 

nick dragged his face up to your, pulling you into a ferocious kiss, dominating you as his tongue swept through your mouth. his hands, large and seemingly burning, explored your back, and you shivered his his fingers played with the hem of your shirt. 

“everything about you,” his lips were everywhere, your hair, forehead, cheeks, “i cannot lose - do you understand me mi alma.” he closed his eyes, muttering in spanish as he held you close.  

you nodded, feeling intoxicated in his presence, his smell, the feeling of his body against yours. your hands gripped his shirt pulling him to you, anchoring yourself in the storm of his affection, “i got you. i love you too nick. i’m ok. i’m going to be ok.” you repeated the last sentence as nick’s body slowly went lax. 

he pressed his forehead to yours, and your breath caught at the vulnerability in his expression. “i know you’re going to be ok. it’ll just take a while before i get the image of you held at gunpoint out of my head every second of the day.” 

you smiled, pressing your hand against his cheek, “then i’ll be right beside you. reminding you that i’m right here.” his lips twitched as he grasped one of your hands from his chest, sweeping kisses across his knuckles.

“i know quierida.” 

you both stood in silence for a moment, basking in the presence of each other and the feelings you had just released. your heart felt lighter than it had in a very long time, and the butterflies in your stomach settled as nick’s body heat calmed you. 

“i’m tired, and i want to go home. come with me?” your request was bold but you trusted nick more than anyone to keep you safe. and you weren’t looking forward to the nightmares you knew would be resurfacing.

“i wouldn’t be anywhere else.” nick pressed kisses across your hairline. 

you both exited the bunks, and tried to suppress the red that bloomed across your faces. liv was exiting her office with her coat on and her bag slung on her shoulder. she raised an eyebrow as you both approached her.

“well i expect not you see you here for a few days,” she reiterated to you, “good night guys - try not to stay too late.” she turned and then paused, “and i expect the paperwork about your relationship on my desk by the time you get back from leave.” without another word, olivia exited to the elevators.

“oh god.” you placed your head in your hands, unable to stop the burning in your face and neck. nick strolled over to your desk, chuckling. 

“well she’s captain for a reason. you really can’t get anything past liv.” 

you rolled your eyes, “great, more paperwork to do then.” 

nick smiled as he swooped down for another quick kiss when no one was watching, “it’s all for a good cause. c’mon, let’s grab your bag and go. it’s late.” 

you laughed and nodded. grabbing your coat off the back of your chair and putting it on. as you and nick walked out of the station, hand-in-hand, a thought occurred to you - 

“when did you read victor hugo?”

[techmomma]

Common town jobs in a Western setting

mayor

secretaries

judge

lawman (good?)

lawman (corrupt?)

jailer

blacksmith/farrier/leatherworkers/tanners

carpenter/general handyman

dentist/barber

doctor/barber

barkeep/saloonkeeper

ostler/hostler (person who looks after your horse while you stay at the inn and often de facto veterinarian)

postal worker/telegram operator

general store owner/grocer

tailor/seamstress

various shop owners

farmers/ranchers/millers/brewers/ditch riders/wranglers

hunters/traders

laborers/miners/roustabouts

brothelkeeper/brotherworkers

banker/teller

butcher

baker

candlestick maker?

shoemaker

gunsmith (may be the same person as the farrier/blacksmith if a town is small enough)

train engineers, railroad operators, stage coach drivers

launderer

priest/pastor/clergyman

midwives

travelling salesmen/peddlers

cooks

pharmacist/apothecary

entertainers/dancers/singers/musicians

journalists/photographers/painters

prospectors

undertaker/grave diggers

firefighters? fire chief? (is town big enough?)

school teacher

croupier (person who manages gambling tables)

hatmaker

hairdresser

loggers/lumberjacks

lawyer

bookkeepers/clerks

printers/book-binders/paperworkers

seasonal workers

soda jerk (usually in pharmacist or bakery)

jeweler/watchmakers

freighters (cargo-deliverers)

iceworkers/deliverers/water deliverers

surveyors/assayers/civil engineers

masons

librarian

Unofficial “jobs”

town drunk

hooligans

vagrants

street kids

lesbians spinsters

gunslingers

newcomers

old hands and residents

gossipmongers

new folks coming to prove their grit and not yet disillusioned

stern prairie women who don’t take guff and are trying to raise a family and/or trying to survive

Travelers With No Name

bandits and bankrobbers

town weirdos (isn’t that this whole town?)

pinkertons/undercover police/union breakers (technically also an official Job but not one you want to advertise, usually; these people are not well-liked for good reason in this time period; lots of blood on their hands)

bounty hunters

underpaid and overworked employees

overpaid and underworked managers

folks looking for a quick buck in a lawless west

folks looking for an honest living in a strange world

entrepreneurs (successful and failing)

inventors

folks with secret pasts

snake oil salesmen

Folks Who Don’t Take Kindly To Strangers Round These Parts

brothel workers who love their job

brother workers who hate their job

city folk what moved out to the country and don’t know what they’re in fer

town bullies and cronies (may be working for corrupt lawmen/robberbarons/mayors/gangs/independent)

and many more!

And remember that in small towns in the West, many people worked more than one job, or had jobs that weren’t exactly concrete. Jobs were often fluid: if you have experience shaping stone, you could be the town mason, or you could be the gravestone carver--who’ll also carve and shape stonework around town and give you a professional consultation if you’re doing your own or the stonework for a building is bad and they need to figure out why. A launderer who knows their way with fabric could also be the town tailor, as well as town textile seller, able to create dresses with the very fabrics they’re promoting. If the farrier knows enough about blacksmithing, their job might solely be making horseshoes, but they may sometimes get special orders for things that aren’t horseshoes, or may be asked to help with the gunsmith--or may BE the gunsmith, as well as farrier. 

Small western towns worked similarly to families, in the sense that whether or not it was your official title, if you could do a job, you did it. If you’re the town layer but you know horses inside and out, then you’re who people are gonna call if their horse gets sick.

[jojosbabe]

Sending love to the most underrated af character

Keicho nijimura

Underworked,underappreciated,and underpaid.

Smh.

[green-sweatered-spinster]

Cons of working at the Electric Palace:

Dealing with Rodney and his gang trying to steal stuff

Having Bart watch you like a hawk so you don't steal anything

Getting blamed for something Rodney did

Being underpaid

Dealing with Doris

Customers

Angry customers

People trying to return something

Bart making you take the blame for a scam he pulled

Not having the eternal youth serum that the people who work at Whit's End have

Being overworked

Being underworked

Pros of working at the Electric Palace

Seeing Bart make a fool of himself

Watching that rude customer go through someone else's line

Having that person you dislike's card be declined

Hearing all the drama about Doris, Bart, and Rodney

Free Bones of Rath: As Crusty as They Want to Be merch

Gaining the patience level of Jesus

Having the best customer service/Bart Rathbone stories to tell

[fantasticanations]

LOOKING FOR VOICE-OVER ARTIST FOR SMALL PROJECT UNRELATED TO FANTASTIC GAME*

(*BIG NOTE: I AM BROKE AT THE MOMENT SO YOU WOULD NOT GET PAID UNLESS THE THING I MAKE WITH YOUR VOICE GETS SOLD FOR MONEY AT SOME POINT - CLICK BELOW FOR MORE INFO)

From someone who:

- is good at doing calmer, more ‘soothing’ voices

- has a decent microphone/audio setup, don’t need Pro Level but a lack of background noise and no rumbling noises goes a long way

The project is (hopefully, oh lord what am I getting into) very small and the lines would entail 7-8 short lines of dialogue - they’re kind of weird but nothing too weird - it’s not sexual or anything.

Send me a tumblr message if you are actually interested, preferably with some sort of link to prior work, and I will contact you back if I think you are a good fit!

You would not be paid at the outset for this because I am totally broke:

I understand that sounds really not cool. I think artists deserve to get paid for their work.

BUT: if this idea ends up being decent and makes sense / feels good with the voice acting lines in, i’ll let you know before the project ever goes live in any form anywhere for anyone other than you and I to play, AND I guarantee if you (the voice-over artist) and I decide to move forward on this project past a certain point, and we will openly discuss when that is, to make sure we’re both comfortable -  you will get 40% of any profits gained from this thing, if it is ever sold for money. The voice in this thing is so important I want to make it clear the voice-over artist should get a huge share if it is successful.

That’s the best deal I can figure out to not make this project something that unfairly utilizes free labor from already underpaid and underworked VO artists, which I really want to avoid because people deserve to be paid appropriately for their work. If anyone finds any issues with this, please let me know, I may have screwed up somewhere and I do not want to be a dick!!

Thanks!

[grison-in-space]

You're right, and you should say it. Admittedly, most of your profs are also underworked and underpaid--that's a huge crisis of adjunctification--but that doesn't mean that having a good syllabus isn't crucial for everyone's sanity during the semester, including your fucking profs'.

A good syllabus is a structure that you, the teacher, can collapse onto. It means knowing that the exam will be on X day, so you'd better have that exam written by X-7 days and proofed before it needs to be printed. It means that when you're exhausted and cranky because a student is whining at you and you just want everything to die in a fire, you have a Rule printed out to go by, and if the student whines more, you can point to the Rule. (The Rule should be as fair as you can manage when you are well rested and well fed and have met none of your students yet, anticipating everything that might happen to a well meaning student approaching the class in good faith over the course of the year, including "my abusive boyfriend is trying to sabotage my performance", "my house burned down", and "I am having a medical or mental health crisis and I have no idea how to handle it." This doesn't necessarily mean that the Rule should be unfair to other students, but you should have a thought out plan for what happens when Life hits your students and ideally a policy that can absorb a certain amount of Life without your needing to deal with it personally.)

The syllabus is something you might need to amend as you go, but you should always know where you are in the class and what you want your students to take away and internalize from each lecture. You should prioritize accordingly on your test materials and project rubrics, too. If your exams or projects have any flexibility (i.e. short answers, essays, etc.) whatsoever, you should write the rubric at the same time as you write the exam. Then you grade ten answers/projects by that rubric. Does it need adjusting? Is there a common problem you didn't anticipate? Adjust it now, re-grade those ten answers if necessary, and use the rubric evenly.

These elements of course structure are things that an educator, especially a neurodivergent educator rolling with chaotic expectations on the fly, needs in order to be effective. They aren't optional or fluff that can be cut. If the apps make that harder for you to achieve, the thing to do is step away from the damn app.

Sometimes college professors like to hop on my posts lamenting the sorry state of syllabi these days and joke about how they haven't thought that far ahead in the course themselves, or talk about how they struggle to complete a schedule for their students.

With all due respect, that's your job. If you can't do your job, you should have a different job. If you need help, ask your colleagues or your department chair or *someone* because I know that professors aren't given a hell of a lot of education on how to educate, so you probably *need* help.

But every single time I make one of those posts I get anywhere from ten to thirty messages, replies, reblogs, and asks say "oh man, that's exactly why I had to drop out of school; I couldn't keep up with the assignments because I didn't know when they were due until the week they were due."

I have been a college student in three separate decades, and "not having a schedule of assignments in the syllabus" is new to my experience. That shit didn't fly in the 2000s or 2010s and I think it likely has to do with professors being overly reliant on apps.

AT A MINIMUM your syllabus should have:

Contact information (including preferred method of contact) for the professor

Office Hours

Grading Policy

Assignment schedule.

Your assignment schedule doesn't necessarily need to have the exact page numbers of every reading or a full assignment sheet for each project, but it should have things like:

December 1st - Major Project 3 second draft due December 9th - Quiz 10 December 12th - Major Project 3 final draft due December 15th - Final Exam

If you end up presenting a more thorough schedule with readings and homework later, that is acceptable to present a week or two into the semester but it is absolutely insane to me that students these days don't know what homework they're going to have to get done over Thanksgiving break during the first couple weeks of class.

If I had three professors at once who didn't give me a schedule, how on earth would I know if I was going to have to read three chapters of a novel, take a midterm and turn in two stats homework assignments, and complete a history research paper the same week that I'm planning to travel to see family? If I'm aware of this from the beginning of the semester I can make sure not to pick up extra shifts, or I can plan to leave a day later to accommodate the midterm, or I can start working on the paper early to complete it before the due date but if I don't know what's going to be due when, I'm going to have a big problem.

If you don't give your students a schedule you are communicating that you don't care about their schedule, and that you think it's their responsibility to contort their life (and their job, and their other classes) around your class, and honestly my advice to students in that situation is "drop in the first week and pick up another class". That's actually part of why I recommend signing up for one more class than you can really manage - if you get a professor whose class looks like it's going to be a disaster because they don't have a schedule, you can bail before the withdrawal period and get a refund for the class.

I'm only in one class this semester but the professor's response has fully dropped me into "Fuck it, I guess I'll fail" mode and I don't even know if I can pull myself out of my current D grade because I don't know how many assignments we have left in the semester.

This is a shitty way to run a class. If you can't do better than this, you shouldn't be running a class.

[freelancesumandas]

Answers to popular questions regarding military divorces

Houston Family Lawyer: In yesterday’s blog post the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC introduced the subject of military divorces by posing a number of questions that we have been asked throughout the years from servicemembers and their spouses. Since there are no people that deserve our help more than veterans and active duty servicemembers, our attorneys wanted to take this opportunity to see if we can answer these questions in order to provide as much information as possible to those who are considering filing for divorce.

If you have any questions for the attorneys with our office please do not hesitate to contact us. We work with clients from across the country and all over the world, notably in military divorce and child custody cases. It is our honor to serve you and assist your family during difficult times.

How much can you expect to pay in attorney’s fees for your divorce in Texas?

A relevant question to ask an attorney when you are interviewing him or her is how much he or she charges. Our office provides potential clients with a sample contract that goes over the financial aspects of your case including what each staff member (Attorneys included) charge per hour for working on your case. Do not leave the meeting without a firm understanding of how much upfront costs are associated with your case and how the attorney will charge you after an initial retainer is paid.

Costs in a divorce, depending on how many issues are inherent in your case, are fluid. No attorney can predict to the penny what your divorce will end up costing you in attorney’s fees. If you have children, property or other issues that you anticipate being time-consuming ones to figure out then assume that your divorce will cost a bit more than the average case.

Understand also that attorneys who tell you that they can handle your case for a flat fee are likely leading you astray. A flat fee, to me at least, tells me that the attorney will put forth so little work and time into your case as to make the fee that they are asking for justified.

On the other hand, if your case becomes more contentious than the attorney thought initially it could be that the low fee is keeping him or her from working on your case to a degree necessary to get the work done. This is a recipe for your attorney to be underpaid and for your case to be underworked. Nobody is happy in this situation.

Remember- you are interviewing attorneys in any consultation that you are able to attend. The attorney’s job in these consultations is to educate you on the process, your rights and to help you to problem solve the situation that you are in. If the attorney comes off as more of a salesman than as a teacher then you are probably speaking to the wrong attorney. Make sure you understand the issues that exist in your case and ask questions if you do not understand something that is being told to you by the attorney.

What are the issues that arise in military divorces that you need to be aware of?

Houston Divorce Attorney: Spousal maintenance is a big deal in a lot of military divorces. More commonly known as alimony in many parts of the country, spousal maintenance is court ordered financial support that is paid from one spouse to the other for a set amount of years. If you are the primary breadwinner in the family and your spouse lacks the wherewithal to provide for himself after the divorce then you may be ordered to pay spousal maintenance if it is requested. The key is that your marriage must have lasted for at least ten years for spousal maintenance to be ordered.

As we alluded to a moment ago, issues regarding property division are often huge sticking points in divorce. Texas is a community property state which means that all property that you and your spouse have come to accumulate during the course of your marriage is considered to be community property and subject to division in your divorce.

There are exceptions to this rule but the burden is on the party trying to prove that the property is part of their separate estate to provide evidence to the court to show that the property is in fact not part of the community estate.

It is likely that you and your spouse will be able to negotiate and settle any issues regarding property division in informal settlement discussions or in mediation. If you own real estate, have large amounts of cash in multiple bank accounts or any other more convoluted situation involving money and property then you may be in store for a trial on property issues. This means submitting evidence to a judge and leaving it to him or her to make a decision on the issues for you and your spouse.

How will the divorce process actually begin for you and your spouse?

Family Law Attorney Houston: Texas law requires that you be a resident of the state for the six months preceding the divorce being filed in addition to being a resident of the county in which your divorce was filed for the prior three month period. Keep in mind that as a member of the military you do not actually have to wake up every morning in Harris County in order to assert that you are domiciled in Harris County.

Your case may be complicated by the fact that while you are domiciled in Harris County, your children may be living with your spouse in another Texas county or even in another state. If this applies to you then you need to speak to an attorney about where you are best off filing your divorce. The fact of the matter is that while the court in Harris County may have jurisdiction over your and your spouse’s property issues they will not be able to render orders regarding your children if they are not Harris County residents.

Once your divorce petition is filed in the correct county, the paperwork will be processed by the court’s clerk, assigned to a judge and prepared for service. A private process server or law enforcement officer hired by your attorney will pick up the paperwork and serve it upon your spouse. Your spouse has until 10:00 a.m, on the first Monday following the expiration of twenty days from the day she is served to file an Answer to your Petition.

Your case can proceed to a trial or can settle in mediation. The vast majority of cases that our office works on end up settling in mediation but your particular circumstances may make that more or less likely.

How can you best prepare for a divorce?

You will be in a difficult position, preparation-wise, if you are living and serving our country overseas. Normally what I tell clients to do in the immediate days following their retaining an attorney is to look through paperwork- bank statements, retirement account statements, journal entries, etc. to compile and organize documents that may help your attorney.

Since you are not in the country and likely don’t have access to these hardcopy documents I would advise you to begin to take whatever steps you can to make sure your information is not accessible to your spouse.

This means changing passwords on your personal email and maybe even opening up a separate bank account for your paychecks to be deposited. Keep in mind that if you have children and your checks are the only means by which they receive the support you will want to make sure that your spouse has money to pay rent and buy groceries.

What’s more, your branch of the military may have requirements in place for you to support your family so be sure to ask your legal assistance programs for more information on this. The bottom line is that you should seek to access electronic documents and provide those to your attorney when you are able, but at the very least you should protect your income and information to the greatest extent possible.

More questions and answers will be provided in tomorrow’s blog post

Houston Divorce Lawyers: The attorneys and staff with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC have more information to provide regarding military divorces and we will share that with you all tomorrow. In the meantime, if you have any questions for us please do not hesitate to contact our office. We provide free of charge consultations with our licensed family law attorneys six days a week ... Continue Reading

[blessed-but-distressed]

Applying for jobs

I am underworked and underpaid and I have a desire to make use of Easyjet more often. So give me a job, please. I wanna go to a lot of places whilst I'm still living north of the Equator, and for that I need to be a gainfully employed individual with weekends off.

[sociologicallyinsignificant]

When Derrida wrote that the spectre of Marx will continue to haunt Western civilization, I don’t imagine he was envisioning Brooklyn or any and every American city, packed with creative children quilting identities from yesteryear’s styles. There is the Bushwick cliché: the bigger the trust fund, the worse the outfit. Ripped tanks, shoes covered with duct tape. Hungry to display the material symbols of authentic, essential struggle. But if you’ve never had to have a job, how can you know what it’s like to struggle economically? To arrange your biological functions not to the clock of the sun, or to the waves of your creativity, but to capital’s schedule? If you’ve never had a boss, how can you understand contempt and shame? How can you feel empathy or sympathy for the underworked, the overworked, the underpaid and the overtired? If you’ve never had a job, you can’t know what life is like for the majority of Americans. If you haven’t had a job, you can’t create great American art. Not at this point in time. Not in this era. (Or am I afraid of exactly this: that the “great art” of this era will be empty, made only by those who can afford the time, space, and hype: the flashy, ironic, sons and daughters of financial industrialists?)

Jasmine Dreame Wagner The Eternal Polishing of the Self

[frogsandfries]

I'm so tired of waiting

I'm tired of trying to wait for other people to do something, or work with me on something, and having to wait longer for them than it would take me to do it myself. I really resent having to wait on someone else because I simply can't do that thing, practically, legally, logistically, etc, by myself. I hate it. It's really stressful for me to try to have patience for someone else, and it's even worse since I waited on someone for a year and a half and they were utterly unwilling to reciprocate my motivation and I was trying to haul this team around singlehanded. Besides that, I think the biggest underlying component behind this do-it-my-damn-self panic attitude is always having to tell my dad I needed something ages ahead of time, and trying to have that foresight as a kid to plan far enough in advance so as to not run out of something crucial and always worrying about running out. So now instead of tangible resources running out, it's time that's constantly running out. I don't know how to be patient and slow down and be present and it's worse when the present sucks and I'd rather get everything done so that the future is better when I get there, because I'm tired of the present being horrible. *sucks in a huge breath* Like right now, I don't know if I saw myself being anywhere specific when I turned twenty-five, but I definitely thought I would have my college diploma, and I'd be on my way to a career somewhere, probably not in Wisconsin. Instead, it's been a month since I've gotten any studio work done and not only am I panicking over a month loss that I will never get back whether I become the most sought-after sculptor under thirty next summer or spend my whole life surrounded by work that I can never seem to entirely be rid of. I'm also panicking--more stressed than panicked, that I have all this pent up emotional energy and nowhere to put it. I have no meditation to start my day, or end my day. I have no ritual. I have nothing satisfying to do with my hands. I have nothing to look forward to anywhere in my day. Life is too short, in the first place, to work a job that doesn't pay enough and doesn't offer enough hours. It's too short to take those losses and have no way to balance them out. Life is too short to lose money working a job that doesn't pay, waste my education even if you think my $35000 education was a total waste of money, have no motivation, have no ritual, have no pleasure.......and then lose steam on wherever I was going with that. Anyway. I'm just stressed because I'm underpaid and underworked. I'm stressed because I've been stripped of not only the biggest thing in my life that does me good, but the one thing that I actually want to be doing in my life--with my life. And then I have to wait on my dad to get me out driving, so that I can get my license, so that I can get a job that pays more than minimum wage, so I can fix up this van and still have money for my obligations without freezing to death this winter, so that I can look for a job that is more than just a paycheck. It's not like I want to keep working these jobs that I wasn't entirely keen on in the first place. It's not like I want to take on these jobs that probably don't pay well and almost certainly won't offer enough hours. Or shady jobs with no punch card. I want to work a job that I'm excited about. Why is that too much to ask?? Maybe if I either got off work or first thing in the morning, and grabbed a meal or some coffee or whatever, and rolled on into my studio, I wouldn't give a shit about this job that I'm working right now. But the job is the centerpiece of my life right now. Of course, I just have to stick with it till I have the van. Once I get the van, stripping out at least the back end to get my desk in there. Or fuck it. Build the desk, or maybe a low-key version that can be folded up and moved around while I'm working, but something I can pop out when there's nothing to do for the van. Or when I need some stress relief. Which is going to be for a while. I've got a lot of pent up stress and aggravation. But then it's like, I've got so much on my mind, I've lost so much time in the studio, the first thing I'll probably do is freeze. Like I always do. Then I'll grab the project that is my most pressing matter and wrap that up. Or maybe I'll start something totally fresh and work my way back. I think I'll design something quick for my dad to help me put together that'll help me get some sculpting done right away.