How's work been?

Robear wrote:

MrDevil, I have every faith that you will pull this off. Perhaps Veloxi can assist with his accumulated knowledge? We must have other folks in the business, too. Maybe start a "My podcast media adventure" thread to solicit advice?

Let us know if there is a way we can support you if needed.

Yeah I'm no expert but I'd be happy to help if I can.

Glad you're settling in, Halfwaywrong! It's a great feeling to be part of a close-knit team.

Thanks everyone for the support and suggestions. I hadn't considered soliciting major networks so that's an area I'll definitely explore. But I'm definitely open to any and all possibilities.

bobbywatson wrote:

Nobody should have to go through two months of all-day testing meetings.

FTFY

Ugh. Thoughts and prayers.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

Nobody should have to go through two months of all-day testing meetings.

FTFY

Ugh. Thoughts and prayers. ;)

Looks like it's going to go well into next week, too...

Prederick wrote:

Today is Day 2 of full-time back-to-office work, and it barely took me 4 hours on Day 1 to realize how utterly performative bein back here is.

The entire work experience and my workflow is almost exactly the same as WFH. I am, essentially, now paying to do WFH (due to commute costs).

Not really much to say other than to excoriate management for utter ignorance, cowardice and lack of progressive thinking.

Looks like they've got a borderline open revolt on their hands and are on the verge of losing 50% of webstaff. Because my co-workers are pissed.

Good. They've completely mishandled the return-to-office onboarding process (there hasn't been one), failed to do the most basic COVID safety stuff, and again, we're doing work we're entirely capable of doing from home at the office for literally no reason other than appearances. Here's hoping it goes nuclear.

Seriously Pred, if they haven't thought about concessions and protections for the return to office, they don't give a sh*t about you. When other companies are doing even just the bare minimum and your company thought they could snap their fingers and "normal" just reappears? Do you want to work for that kind of tone deaf leadership? At the very least, your company's leadership deserves a 50% walk out... of the entire company

And it isn't just tone deaf, its dangerous! Start looking, pronto.

Prederick wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Today is Day 2 of full-time back-to-office work, and it barely took me 4 hours on Day 1 to realize how utterly performative bein back here is.

The entire work experience and my workflow is almost exactly the same as WFH. I am, essentially, now paying to do WFH (due to commute costs).

Not really much to say other than to excoriate management for utter ignorance, cowardice and lack of progressive thinking.

Looks like they've got a borderline open revolt on their hands and are on the verge of losing 50% of webstaff. Because my co-workers are pissed.

Good. They've completely mishandled the return-to-office onboarding process (there hasn't been one), failed to do the most basic COVID safety stuff, and again, we're doing work we're entirely capable of doing from home at the office for literally no reason other than appearances. Here's hoping it goes nuclear.

if you ever want to dabble in the dark side (PR), I'm pretty happy with my company.

Oof. Sorry Pred. I know that gig isn't easy to replicate. Return to work cost us about two-thirds of our digital staff.

In personal news, it took me about three years after our last acquisition to hit "I've made a terrible mistake." On the flip side I think I'm about to jump 76 markets up -- so I got that going for me, which is nice.

So I like the variety of work I'm getting with my new job... but I keep getting the feeling that we are not high enough up in the org to keep things going in the right direction.

Kind of jumped in during a rebuilding stage... seemed like upper management fixed some major issue that had developed... but we are still pretty early on, no one wants to push forward yet. Well, I'm kinda pushy and know the basics of what's needed to literally stop stuff from exploding... guess I'll be the push.

Side note... why are materials folks so rare? It's like they just take the stuff from 60-70 years ago, throw it in a design program, and let 'er rip. It limits sooo many things, then when tribal knowledge leaves we have to redo all the learned stuff cause no one bothers to document it for the young folk. Just had some basic adhesive tests fail because no one did basic surface prep... like this was figured out probably before the Egyptians made the pyramids... smooth surface won't stick... rough it up a bit first. I understand the poor new folks never tried this stuff before not getting it, but damn our company is 100 years old and we still don't have basic guideline paperwork for new folks.

Sounds like opportunity is knocking manta...

The Federal Government in Canada is ramping up the return of federal public servants to the office, after over 2 years of 100% work from home for all but those jobs which are required to be in the office, like meteorologists or mail room clerks for departments that have a legislative requirement to date stamp things. Needless to say, the great majority of public servants want to work from home full time.

One of the departments (Health Canada) had a town hall a couple of weeks ago, and one of the higher up managers, in expressing her happiness in returning to the office, mentioned that the subway dude remembered her order, and that made her realize just how important returning to the office was.

Public Servants did not appreciate that comment, and expressed that in memes on the Canada Public Servants subreddit.

It was dying down, and would have stopped, but then the deputy minister of Health Canada sent out an email that could be tl;dr'ed as "Memes are mean and hurt our feelings!!" Which kicked off a new round of memes.

I've had more Subway in the past 2.5 years of WFH than I have in the previous 20 years working at the office in the city. Management logic failure!

My journey to potentially go from public to private continues. I am moving nicely towards getting a position with one of the big Agencies. Nothing set in stone, but I saw an email from the customer that said I have an "absolutely fantastic resume", and that they will be wanting to set up an interview next week.

As long as I don't mess that up, I think I have it. I'm worried about stressing over contract work, but I just have to convince myself that it's worth it potentially fighting for a new position once every three years if my company loses the bid, it gets bought out, etc.

Honestly, I might get cold feet and stay a public servant, but I really really am feeling the mental drain of having to deal with the same red tape and bullsh*t that has not seen me get a promotion for eight years -- even as I continue to go above and beyond whenever I have the opportunity.

A 25% pay bump, and a new place to go to for work, sounds like a nice change of scene. I can always go back to official public work a decade down the road.

fangblackbone wrote:

And it isn't just tone deaf, its dangerous! Start looking, pronto.

Oh no, I am, unfortunately.

I have heard the office scuttlebutt today and apparently there was a meeting with management where their position was "everyone's coming back or you can walk," full stop.

Apparently, someone much higher up in the company said something along the lines of "I'd had 50 employees come in asking about WFH with their little doctor's notes..." and frankly I'm just amazed at the outright idiotic intransigence.

I didn't particularly want to be on the job hunt, but lo and behold. I'm not quitting, but yeah, it is now time to start looking for newer, smarter pastures.

It has been said many times that people don't leave jobs. They leave managers.
Whomever said that doesn't deserve to be in charge of 5 employees let alone 50 employees or 50% of a department/company.

mudbunny wrote:

The Federal Government in Canada is ramping up the return of federal public servants to the office, after over 2 years of 100% work from home for all but those jobs which are required to be in the office, like meteorologists or mail room clerks for departments that have a legislative requirement to date stamp things. Needless to say, the great majority of public servants want to work from home full time.

One of the departments (Health Canada) had a town hall a couple of weeks ago, and one of the higher up managers, in expressing her happiness in returning to the office, mentioned that the subway dude remembered her order, and that made her realize just how important returning to the office was.

Public Servants did not appreciate that comment, and expressed that in memes on the Canada Public Servants subreddit.

It was dying down, and would have stopped, but then the deputy minister of Health Canada sent out an email that could be tl;dr'ed as "Memes are mean and hurt our feelings!!" Which kicked off a new round of memes.

Let me tell you a story about office memes. Sherman, set the wayback machine for early 2022. There was an ice machine in the kitchenette on my floor that had been broken for about 6 months. Basically one of those big silver boxes you see in the corner of a hotel. One day, someone taped a meme printout making fun of the fact that we had been waiting for 6 months for this thing to get fixed. Within about 6 hours or so the entire surface of the machine and half of the wall next to it were covered in dozens more meme printouts. The next day, they had all been taken down and replaced with a note from facilities basically saying, we're really sorry, the parts have been on back order, covid, supply chain issues, etc. Also, the memes are a little mean, please stop, and also the tape is ruining the paint on the walls and there are working ice machines on every other floor of the building. So someone rolled in a giant white board from a nearby office, and an entirely new round of memes were posted to the whiteboard. Some with the same theme, some gently mocking the letter, etc. The whole floor got a sternly worded e-mail from our management basically saying, "haha guys, facilities is doing their best, be nice please." A few days later someone 3d printed labels to go above the ice and water buttons saying "Not Ice" and "Hot Ice," respectively. In the middle of this, facilities decided to add a third microwave to the area, which was doing fine with just two, which set off a new round of memes about choosing between a third microwave or fixing the ice machine. Word got around and eventually the whole building would visit to check for new ones once in a while. Eventually the ice machine was fixed and all the offending memes were taken down, but new ones went up that were very jovial about how nice it was to have ice again and thanking facilities.

Some of the memes, the 3d labels, and printouts of the e-mails were eventually put together and displayed nicely in a little box in the award cabinet of my group's front office. Fun times.

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)

Mixolyde wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

The Federal Government in Canada is ramping up the return of federal public servants to the office, after over 2 years of 100% work from home for all but those jobs which are required to be in the office, like meteorologists or mail room clerks for departments that have a legislative requirement to date stamp things. Needless to say, the great majority of public servants want to work from home full time.

One of the departments (Health Canada) had a town hall a couple of weeks ago, and one of the higher up managers, in expressing her happiness in returning to the office, mentioned that the subway dude remembered her order, and that made her realize just how important returning to the office was.

Public Servants did not appreciate that comment, and expressed that in memes on the Canada Public Servants subreddit.

It was dying down, and would have stopped, but then the deputy minister of Health Canada sent out an email that could be tl;dr'ed as "Memes are mean and hurt our feelings!!" Which kicked off a new round of memes.

STUFF

See? And this type of fun is what will drive an office's morale for a long, long time. Poke fun at stuff, but keep on going. It sets the charm and atmosphere for a company/office, and literally will be the reason why people stay sometimes.

"Great people, great humor, great work."

That'll get you real far. Management could have easily killed it by saying "the next time a meme goes up with a proprietary picture from a movie or TV show that we don't have the trademark to use, warnings will be issued."

Ok, work question. Let's say there are two companies you are choosing between to go on a contract over. Which would you choose?

Company A: The prime on a contract. Pays $5k more. Bigger company though. Thousands of employees. Lots of contracts, but you might be a face in the crowd. However, the bigger company may mean there are better contracts lined up if your current one ends. Indeed/Glassdoor reviews are mixed (3.5/5 stars.)

Company B: Small company. 50-100 employees. Pays $5K less A. Indeed/Glassdoor reviews rave about the company (4.75/5). Less reviews though due to size. However, the Prime (company A) stated that Company B has not been one of their most successful partners, and when I asked for more information, they were coy. "I don't want to say bad things about them since we work with them, but I just want to set you up for success." I wonder if they are just trying to grab me since, well, it's a business. They make money off of me.

Which would you choose? Contract has 2.5 years left on it. Obviously no one can tell what the next contracts will look like, but my heart says Company B due to the rave reviews, but Company A for the potential of job security.

Personally, so grain of salt because you're not me, it grinds my gears when Company X says bad things about Y.

I always think, "Why do you need to say that?"

I've been going through this myself and several firms have talked sh*t about their competitors, "You won't want to work at Z because..."

I'll do my own research, thanks, and get perspective from people I trust (and lol at me when people I trust have 180 degree different perspectives about a firm, like 'I'll walk through fire for that owner' vs 'Toxic culture beyond belief').

To your question:

Determine how much $5k means to you, both now and over the next 2.5 years.

Line out your values of work and what you want/need from an employer. Positive work culture? Space to grow/join other teams?

I don't know your industry but smaller firms CAN offer less structure/freedom and the opportunity of working "outside" a strict job role. Some people love that and thrive. Others want more structure of, "I do X and Priya does Y, not me."

For what it's worth, I tend to listen to my gut BUT I'm an intuitive person with more tolerance for risk.

Good luck, it's GREAT to have options!

I'd say company B. Even if true that they aren't one of the more successful competitors:
It could be because they don't burn out their employees.
It could be an opportunity for you to further stand out by making them more successful.
And like mentioned above, if you are so great, why do you bad mouth your competitors that you also work with?
Also, smaller companies can grow which you can also stand out as being central to...

That's the general feeling I am getting too. Go with my gut, and go with what other people have said about the company. People saying "This is an extremely caring and respectful company" on Nextdoor is a pretty good indicator instead of Big Faceless Defense Contractor #15 (in the case of Company A).

Yeah, if job security isn't right at the top of your concerns... I would lean towards B.

If being unemployed for a bit puts you on the street... A. With the shake ups happening I think it will be 3-4 years before contractors settle in for the long haul again. But, again, I am on the aerospace side of things and am just watching SLS/ Artemis leave NASA and Jacobs' hands to go to the primes.

Company B. You can always, always pivot to one of the Big Bois. But you'll find just as much uncaring bureaucracy and face-stepping ambition in the big contractors as in government (ie, it will depend on your immediate supervisor and your immediate co-workers). Small companies, on the other hand, are only functional if the folks who work for them respect each other and avoid internal politics, factionalization and abusive behavior.

One other thing to note that isn't necessarily good or bad:
Companies that small are going to have lots of "there is no one else to do it, so it is now your responsibility".
If you don't have experience in that type of environment, it can be jarring. There will be issues with "why are there no systems in place for this?" - because you haven't created it or someone else patched something together that because of immediacy couldn't predict scaling issues. So there will be more than a handful of things you are going to have to deal with because there is no time or prior standards to follow.

TLDR - how do you handle random, frequent and irregular growing pains? I love it buit I've worked at a lot of start ups. Others may not...

If it's not a startup, though, they could have well-developed systems for crises. Mine does. We also hire *really* experienced people and tend to keep them for a looong time.

Its 50-100 employees. I guess I shouldn't presume though many problems with startups also show up in small companies...

Hey, the company I hate bought us company Mega Million tickets. Wish me luck, because if we win I (and I imagine everyone else) will quit.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Hey, the company I hate bought us company Mega Million tickets. Wish me luck, because if we win I (and I imagine everyone else) will quit.

Not if I win and quit first.