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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • A guy at work did something like that. Went on vacation for a week, just never returned. Didn’t return phone calls or emails. Eventually he popped up on social media about 6 months later and some coworkers spotted him and got the story. If I remember correctly (which I may not), I think his girlfriend convinced him to stay, so he did, and he just ghosted his job.



  • Okay, thanks.

    A recent experience here has made me think of the phrase “conveyor-belt health care”. I think I made that up, but I may have heard it somewhere and forgot.

    In my case: I had major pain in my neck that was leading to numbness in my arm and hand. I didn’t even bother with my primary care physician, I just scheduled an appointment with a back pain specialist. The back pain place is extremely efficient and has been very good about treating the pain…but not once have they raised the topic of, “What caused this and is there anything we can do to prevent it in the future?”

    And, I don’t want to detract from them, they are absolutely excellent at that treatment. But it’s get in, get in the OR or exam room, chat for a minute, see you in 5 weeks. My appointments generally take 10 minutes or less when the doctor is in the room.

    Years ago I had issues with my neck - which turned out to have the same root cause, but the symptoms were very different, so I didn’t connect them - and multiple primary care physicians told me to take advil, even after I told them this was a recurring issue. Irritating experience, to say the least. “Hey, I’m stuck on the couch and can only move in agony for a few days two or three times per year.” “Take Advil.” Conveyor belt moves on.

    I know we hate chiropractors here, with good reason, but it was chiropractors (who are also physical therapists, which might be the difference) who actually looked at the X-ray or MRI, found the underlying problem, and came up with treatment plans involving various exercises to attempt to solve the underlying problem. The MRI was ordered by the back pain specialist, so they had the imagery and could have found the issue. Why is there no room for that kind of analysis in our “legitimate” health care system?

    Conveyor-belt health care.



  • The worst part is that many of these people would help you if you needed it - if you were, say, in a car crash, most of these people probably would help you out. But…for some reason…extending that help to a more general sense just causes them to start frothing at the mouth.

    I ride bicycles, and when I ride on Sunday mornings, I’m always amused by the thought that some drivers are probably on their way to or from church when they decide to pass me dangerously close, just for fun or to teach me a lesson or whatever the hell their justification is.




  • I have an old S9 right here on my desk. I cracked the screen, and took it to one of those screen replacement places, and he asked if I had insurance. I told him I didn’t, and he said, wellllllll it’s going to be a lot more expensive than you think to replace this screen.

    That wraparound screen they had was basically also the frame of the phone - you’re not so much replacing the screen as you are moving the rest of the components to a new phone body. I wasn’t sold on value of that wraparound screen in the first place; this didn’t improve my opinion of it.

    We put a plastic screen protector on it and a new case, and I used it for a few months until we were ready to upgrade phones.


  • Even Go Fund Me came out and said, uh, wait, funding health care isn’t what we really intended for the platform.

    I recall one of the coaches of a major league baseball team had some major illness and had set up a GoFundMe for it…the team decided to cover it, fortunately, but…come on.

    I don’t know how anyone can seriously claim there’s nothing wrong with our system, but they do.

    One guy said, in earnest, that it’s a good thing that our medical system is so expensive - because that means it’s a good system. (This was in response to me saying that I think our technology and care are pretty good; it’s how we pay for it that’s the main issue.)

    How do you even respond to that? I just ignored him. Does he think Europe has cut-rate health care? Canada?



  • Update: They kicked me out of the meeting. The employee’s first-line supervisor was still in it, and it was really short - they basically asked if the employee could do the job remotely or not. It sounded like they were going to approve the request. This whole meeting setup is very strange; it’s never happened before on any accommodation request I’ve been involved with (maybe half a dozen over the years). Maybe they review a few at random or something.







  • Thanks. Part of me wants to find an employer similar to yours, the other part of me is like, hey, I’m planning to retire in like 7 years.

    There’s a LOT of concern over what this return-to-office plan will do to staff - we think quite a few people will find other jobs. A few have said so out loud; who knows how many more are planning the same quietly (of course, some people also talk a big game, but when push comes to shove…will they really?). We’re also running into more issues hiring; another manager I know had a candidate decline because the position wasn’t remote and they didn’t want to move here. When I talk to candidates, it’s now the first thing I check, even before I schedule the interview - no point in wasting time for either of us if it’s a non-starter.

    It’s kind of weird - we only have to go in once a week, which actually isn’t that bad at all - for those of us who already live in the area. But it’s harder to convince people to move across the country to a high cost of living location so they can sit in their apartment 4 of 5 days each week. But we have to support the local Popeye’s fast food joint, I guess.



  • Back when I was in online dating (I got married in 2010, so it has been a very long time), this is how it seemed to work in the hetero arena:

    • Women (by which I mean, legitimate accounts from women who were actually looking for dates): Get 1,000,000 messages, approximately 999,900 of which are dick pics.
    • Men: See 1,000,000 ads, of which about 3 are legitimate people looking for dates.

    So, both could be true in relation to the image.

    I remember a guy once telling me that basically you have to respond to EVERY AD and hope something sticks. I never did that, and I felt bad for what the women must have had to deal with when I heard that. I had very limited success - dates with, at most, two or three women, and none of those really went anywhere. I ended up marrying someone from work instead.