Things That Annoy You

[Pragmier]

          ... panache ...

So, I heard EC uses 'big words'! What? Is it too soon??

JK! Welcome back 

[Treading Water]

And just to set the record, we are all assholes. We have all had academy award winning fits of anger. Most of us just don't want others to know.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.  I know I'm still an asshole.   

Eddie, Eddie.  Budd Dwyer?!
I remember that!  And at the time, here in good 'ole SCentral PA, the big hubbub didn't seem to be "why" this guy offed himself in front of cameras, but which station would be the First to broadcast it.    

Mmmmm, memories.   

[McPhallus]

and all is well, and all will be well, in the CoastGab garden ...

I can really feel the love.

[Sardondi]

*yaaaawn* Well I'll be. Depressed at how this crap was going, I uncharacteristically sign off at a decent hour, sleep like I'm dead, and wake to find......magic! I'm so happy. Thank you - everybody.

Eddie, you've had the gift of a George Bailey moment, no less real for being virtual. Go thou and explode no more.

[b_dubb]

EC welcome back.  don't feel too bad. i got sucked down the troll rabbit hole earlier this year. 

re: things that annoy me ... the vast corporate festival of bullshit that applying for a job has become.  do i really need to fill out a forty page personality inventory to get a job stocking a retail store?  wtf?!!!

[BobGrau]

 

re: things that annoy me ... the vast corporate festival of bullshit that applying for a job has become.  do i really need to fill out a forty page personality inventory to get a job stocking a retail store?  wtf?!!!

In a similar position. Do you also have a flock of 'recruitment industry' vultures bombarding you with opportunitys for part-time work about 50 miles away?

[Juan]

EC welcome back.  don't feel too bad. i got sucked down the troll rabbit hole earlier this year. 

re: things that annoy me ... the vast corporate festival of bullshit that applying for a job has become.  do i really need to fill out a forty page personality inventory to get a job stocking a retail store?  wtf?!!!

Absolutely.  And those jobs seem to have the most poorly designed sites.  One requires that I type each piece of information into a field, then hit tab.  Instead of tabbing to the next field, the cursor goes to the top of the page and I have to scroll down (on a page worthy of a Coast guest) and find the field again.  Doing this on a 100-answer personality profile takes a couple of hours - all for a part-time, barely above minimum wage job.

Bob, here, we don't seem to have recruiters anymore.  Just job seekers.

[Pragmier]

A while back as part of a job search I found a book that discussed how to answer those tests. IIRC these were some of the suggestions.

1. If asked 'have you ever stolen anything' - NO is incorrect because it shows dishonesty. EVER being the operative word.
2. If asked any questions about your emotions, such as getting angry at work, frustrated, or anything that shows lack of self control you cannot admit that.
3. You LOVE people. No 'wanting to be alone' allowed - they tend to prefer extroverts. Think Ferris Bueller parade.
4. Somehow show you're independent and will take calculate risks without being reckless.

It's a real balancing act - the book (sorry I forgot the title) had several practice exams.

[Ben Shockley]

Re the job seeking: they want the maximum amount of info on you to afford them any and every opportunity to find / label something "wrong" with you; all the stuff they demand from you is for the singular purpose of disqualifying you.
Beyond that though, beyond the technical requirement of weeding out people by whatever method to fill the 1 or 7 or 300 positions they have:  I remain totally convinced that a lot of people responsible for placing job ads and a lot of those who vet the applicants are TOTALLY INTO FUCKING WITH applicants for the simple reason that they can.
Well, it's a little deeper than that, but still totally twisted.
Anyway- That annoys me.


Edited for Pragmier--
yes, the whole industry about trying to "game the system" and "give the interviewers what they want" is an obscene charade that would make the job seeker a suicidally, uselessly pathetic performing poodle.

[Juan]

I agree with you, Ben.  I worked for a small company where the president was sold on the idea of doing psychological tests on existing employees.  We all took the tests, and the boss shared the results with us.  They were absurd.  Even the boss laughed at them.

I don't think I would actually want to work for a company that used one of these things.  Unfortunately, to get unemployment, I have to apply for a certain number of jobs a week, and after a while, one has already applied for all the semi-legitimate positions.

[MV/Liberace!]

1. If asked 'have you ever stolen anything' - NO is incorrect because it shows dishonesty. EVER being the operative word.
2. If asked any questions about your emotions, such as getting angry at work, frustrated, or anything that shows lack of self control you cannot admit that.
3. You LOVE people. No 'wanting to be alone' allowed - they tend to prefer extroverts. Think Ferris Bueller parade.
4. Somehow show you're independent and will take calculate risks without being reckless.

it's not hard to understand why people hate corporations.  oh, wait... corporations are people. 


fuck that.  i'm glad i work for myself.

[Ben Shockley]

On a related topic worthy of bitching:
On "at will" jobs -- the kind where you have to agree that you can be fired for any or "no reason," and which are the new standard in marvelous right-to-work-less-and-for-less America -- it seems to be becoming more common for them to 1) fire you for the infamous "no reason," and 2) to report something to your state labor dept. so that you can't get unemployment insurance, even though you didn't do anything wrong.   I guess you could sue, and would probably win, but they bet (and probably are usually right) that poor-ass sorry-ass You won't.

[Pragmier]

On a related topic worthy of bitching:
On "at will" jobs -- the kind where you have to agree that you can be fired for any or "no reason," and which are the new standard in marvelous right-to-work-less-and-for-less America -- it seems to be becoming more common for them to 1) fire you for the infamous "no reason," and 2) to report something to your state labor dept. so that you can't get unemployment insurance, even though you didn't do anything wrong.   I guess you could sue, and would probably win, but they bet (and probably are usually right) that poor-ass sorry-ass You won't.

heh I had this happen, except they sent me the 'no reason' letter which I presented to the state and pronto! benefits undenied.

Which brings up another aspect of this - many times firms will fire an employee for very good reason, such as stealing, but instead give no reason so as to avoid liability. Then another employer hires that person without knowing their history.

[Eddie Coyle]

   

           Again, thanks guys for being forgiving of my idiocy.

          The good news. David Mamet is interested in adapting those posts for a future project.

[Ben Shockley]

heh I had this happen, except they sent me the 'no reason' letter which I presented to the state and bingo! benefits undenied.

I'm guessing that you aren't in a "right to work" state.  I'm no legal expert on this.  But it happened to me about 8 years ago, in one of those crap hole states, and (pardon my numbers) 1) I never got any "letter," and 2) when I called the state labor folks, it was like they had the [company] script and just told me that it was "for cause" or some shit that the company didn't have the balls to communicate to me.  Funny, how the company can't be bothered to (and usually makes a point to NOT) be honest with you, yet they can studiously do all the paperwork for the state to make sure that they don't have to bear whatever burdens come with firing people.

[Ben Shockley]

           Again, thanks guys for being forgiving of my idiocy.

Howdy, Coyle.  I missed it while it was happening.  Only saw the censored results.   At least ol' Tubby let that name stay   

[Pragmier]

I'm guessing that you aren't in a "right to work" state. 

I live in right-to-work state, but employer is Michigan based so maybe that's why.

[Eddie Coyle]

re: things that annoy me ... the vast corporate festival of bullshit that applying for a job has become.  do i really need to fill out a forty page personality inventory to get a job stocking a retail store?  wtf?!!!

It's a joke. Some years ago I applied for a shitty weekend job at a fish factory, just moving boxes from one side to the each other....and the motherfuckers wanted 7 refererences("friends") beyond work history.

              Reading that made my blood boil, made me decide I didn't want the job...but I'd still fuck with them.

            The 7 people I listed...included Miles Davis, Duane Allman, Sirhan Sirhan,Oscar Wilde. Except I gave real phone numbers of pizza places in my general area.

[Ben Shockley]

            The 7 people I listed...included Miles Davis, Duane Allman, Sirhan Sirhan,Oscar Wilde. Except I gave real phone numbers of pizza places in my general area.

And?  And?  Do you know if they called them?
Me: everyone I know is in another country or dead.

[Eddie Coyle]

And?  And?  Do you know if they called them?
Me: everyone I know is in another country or dead.

         I wish I knew. I hope they did. Unfortunately, the bosses of the company appeared to be of unknown origin, those white guys from southeastern Europe that really "ain't white guys" and the pizza shops are exclusively owned by the Albanian Mob around here...so my efforts to bust balls may have been over their head and futile.

           I never gave my bosses my real number anyways. Pay phones in hockey rinks across Boston were called when they wanted Coyle in three hours early for OT or to tell me that my non-scheduled day was cancelled. Fuck 'em, let them tell me in person at work. And that's no easy feat either.

         

[Juan]

That's why a Google phone number is great.  Don't link it to your regular phone so you don't actually receive the call. You have a phone number to give out to such people as employers, potential employers, etc.  You can go online occasionally to see if you have any messages.

My recent firing was by letter, too, in which it cited lack of sales as the reason.  I was not in the sales department, so it had no bearing on me.  And its in a right-to-work state.  I had no problem with "reemployment" as it's now called here.  I guess the company knew that, if the 10 of us who were fired were denied unemployment, I'd gather them together, sign up one of my lawyer friends, and file a class action suit against them.

[BobGrau]

Bob, here, we don't seem to have recruiters anymore.  Just job seekers.

Oh, the government considers me to be a job seeker, but there are various recruitment agencies and charitable organisations who seem to consider me to be some sort of 'funds-generating unit'. They spin these units round and round the system and somehow salaries are created out of thin air.

[HorrorRetro]

by the way...  today, my wife could tell i was kinda depressed.  then she asked what's up.  does anyone else here feel like a douche when trying to explain coastgab stuff to a spouse?

My husband is used to it.  I ran my own board for about five years.  It wasn't nearly as large as this one, but it was all women.  That alone should scare anyone.  What happened here yesterday was a small blip.  My board imploded over the course of one morning.  We had a moderator board that only a few people were members of.  We're women -- we gossip.  :  One of the members turned into a bitch on wheels and decided to post all the messages from the mod board to the regular board in the overnight hours. Needless to say, that didn't go over well with anyone.  I shut it down that morning and never went back. 

I'm glad you all worked out your differences.  There is a great group of really intelligent people here, and I'd hate to see it change very much.

[HorrorRetro]

          It's a joke. Some years ago I applied for a shitty weekend job at a fish factory, just moving boxes from one side to the each other....and the motherfuckers wanted 7 refererences("friends") beyond work history.
         

On the military base here, the car wash has a sign out asking for resumes for car washers.  Resumes, really? Why not ask for a CV?  I'd think a simple one-page application would suffice, but I guess not.  :

[BobGrau]

1. If asked 'have you ever stolen anything' - NO is incorrect because it shows dishonesty. EVER being the operative word.

I would honestly laugh in their faces and walk out if asked that. Or I might say 'no - have you'?

[BobGrau]

HorrorRetro, I've only just noticed that your avatar ISN'T an astronaut 

[HorrorRetro]

HorrorRetro, I've only just noticed that your avatar ISN'T an astronaut 

Ha!  Yeah, it's Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched.

[Eddie Coyle]

On the military base here, the car wash has a sign out asking for resumes for car washers.  Resumes, really? Why not ask for a CV?  I'd think a simple one-page application would suffice, but I guess not.  :

         It's absurd. Yeah, I was CEO at Lockheed-Martin and King of Siam, too...now I can assault that windshield with a wet rag? It's funny...but not.

[b_dubb]

the world has a stick up its and has lost its mind to boot. we're all fucked

have a nice day

[MV/Liberace!]

for the record, i am considering changing my display name to Em Vee.