A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[theredhead77]

40 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

Believe it or not, some people think it's a power move to not do simple things like setting up a printer themselves. They consider it a menial task not worth their time, and having an underling do it for them reinforces (if only in their own mind) their position in the company food chain.

I spent decades in IT support and, in my experience, the people who had issues with the printers and basic peripherals were low to mid-level employees. I'd get calls all the time to plug in a keyboard or mouse for an A/P admin because they didn't want to "break anything". One person would call at least 3 times a week in a panic because her computer kept turning off. The reason: she kept kicking the power strip and would turn it off.. We suggested she slide it over a bit but it "wasn't her job" to turn it back on, or move it to a spot her feet wouldn't kick it.

I was "talked to" more than once for asking people if they had computers at home and explained the keyboard / mouse and power worked the same way.

Edited February 13, 2022 by theredhead77

[KittyMom4]

On 2/12/2022 at 9:40 PM, theredhead77 said:

I spent decades in IT support and, in my experience, the people who had issues with the printers and basic peripherals were low to mid-level employees.

Not where I work, admins, clerks, heck even our day porter all know how to reset printers and reboot computers. We also have been known to crawl under desks to find unplugged cords, squeeze behind large copiers to fish out a lost stapler and stand on chairs to change a light bulb. 

 

[bilgistic]

Does this seem...off...to anyone else?

The rep at my employment agency sent this to our office manager and me yesterday: "Since you both go to the bank and post office, we need to run your driving record and get a copy of your insurance to have on file. If you would please send me a copy of your current license and insurance card, I would greatly appreciate that."

Run my driving record?? I've been going to the bank for the company in my own car since June 2020. The agency would've run my credit and background report when I applied with them. I raised the liability issue initially when I was asked to do the bank trips. It falls on the agency and company—not me—if something happens while I'm on a company errand. So, do I get a copy of their insurance?

I'm not employed as a driver (unlike my boyfriend, who is literally a delivery driver), so why do they need my "driving record"? I have nothing to hide, but this seems like an overreach. The rep claims it's part of an "audit". Thoughts?

Edited February 15, 2022 by bilgistic

[ginger90]

Requiring proof of auto insurance is not out of the ordinary. Driving records are sometimes reviewed annually.

 

Driving your own vehicle on company business makes it a  “non-owned auto”. If something happens, your insurance pays first, and the company picks up anything over what your insurance allowed.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I’m starting to prepare to go back on the job search, and I got frustrated last night because I thought I did a good job taking the suggestions given to me for resume feedback, but the person reviewing it suggested even more changes and I got upset/disappointed. It was just one of those things where I believed I did a good job but it still wasn’t enough.

But then I took a breath and realized it’s one person’s feedback and suggestions, and I can incorporate some of what she recommended and ignore what I don’t think suits my resume/job. Like does the job I haven’t worked at in seven years that has nothing to do with instructional design (it was a media job where I did not work on training materials) really need painstaking detail on my resume? In my opinion, no. She also did not listen well again when I tried to explain the job I do does not track metrics/numbers in my work. I don’t know what’s so hard to grasp for some people that some jobs just aren’t like that. 

I’m also struggling with the one page versus two page debate. I’m changing careers so I’m looking more for an entry-level ID job. I feel I really shouldn’t have a two page resume but there are hiring managers who say that’s fine. I think I just always get overwhelmed because your resume these days basically has to suggest you can cure cancer while writing a Pulitzer-winning novel and every hiring manager will have different preferences.  

[theredhead77]

17 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Does this seem...off...to anyone else?

The rep at my employment agency sent this to our office manager and me yesterday: "Since you both go to the bank and post office, we need to run your driving record and get a copy of your insurance to have on file. If you would please send me a copy of your current license and insurance card, I would greatly appreciate that."

Run my driving record?? I've been going to the bank for the company in my own car since June 2020. The agency would've run my credit and background report when I applied with them. I raised the liability issue initially when I was asked to do the bank trips. It falls on the agency and company—not me—if something happens while I'm on a company errand. So, do I get a copy of their insurance?

I'm not employed as a driver (unlike my boyfriend, who is literally a delivery driver), so why do they need my "driving record"? I have nothing to hide, but this seems like an overreach. The rep claims it's part of an "audit". Thoughts?

 

17 hours ago, ginger90 said:

Requiring proof of auto insurance is not out of the ordinary. Driving records are sometimes reviewed annually.

 

Driving your own vehicle on company business makes it a  “non-owned auto”. If something happens, your insurance pays first, and the company picks up anything over what your insurance allowed.

What ginger90 said. But also, you are submitting for mileage, right? 

[bilgistic]

I do get mileage reimbursement.

Thanks for the replies and insight, all. I just inherently distrust anything the rep says because she has lied to me and my former coworker multiple times.

[Cloud9Shopper]

Started applying for jobs with my revised resume over the weekend. Obviously too early to tell if it will have any impact, but I am also almost done with my portfolio and started an instructional design volunteer gig. 

The one thing that I hate about job searching is watching as everyone else gets great opportunities while I slog away. I just found out yet another person in my department is leaving; we’ve lost 6-7 people in the last year. (Maybe a little more but I’ve given up on counting.) People in my LinkedIn sphere are getting hired at their dream jobs, as are people I talk with in other online communities. I’m up to over 60 apps and still can’t celebrate a new job. Hopefully soon.

I have my quarterly performance meeting on Thursday and am going to give my boss one more chance to see if he can help me outline a path to promotion. I am not going to go give ultimatums or a timeline, but if he waffles or gives some generic explanation again, I will just keep looking. 

[chocolatine]

10 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

People in my LinkedIn sphere are getting hired at their dream jobs, as are people I talk with in other online communities. I’m up to over 60 apps and still can’t celebrate a new job. Hopefully soon.

Of course people are only talking about their successes and not the long, hard road that led to them. For all you know, it may have taken some of those folks over 100 applications before they got an offer.

[estellasmum]

Ok, here's one. A few weeks ago our employer brought in a therapist from our EAP for us to talk to about anything, because of all the stress we have had in work dealing with mask enforcement, or a lot of people have had other major problems in life lately. We all were given an hour off (paid) to go talk to them should we choose. A bunch of us did. Yesterday, in a staff meeting our bosses went over what the therapist told them about what we said "in generalizations, and with total anonymity" and wanted suggestions on what they could do to help resolve the issues. Now, from what I can tell, not only is that unethical, it should be illegal, (right?), because none of us had committed abuse or harm to ourselves or others in these conversations. I never said anything about work, because I had a more pressing issue to talk about, but feel duped, like this was a fact finding expedition, instead of a we care about you gesture, and the people that did say something are feeling incredibly betrayed, and wondering how general and anonymous the feedback actually was. 

[ginger90]

53 minutes ago, estellasmum said:

Ok, here's one. A few weeks ago our employer brought in a therapist from our EAP for us to talk to about anything, because of all the stress we have had in work dealing with mask enforcement, or a lot of people have had other major problems in life lately. We all were given an hour off (paid) to go talk to them should we choose. A bunch of us did. Yesterday, in a staff meeting our bosses went over what the therapist told them about what we said "in generalizations, and with total anonymity" and wanted suggestions on what they could do to help resolve the issues. Now, from what I can tell, not only is that unethical, it should be illegal, (right?), because none of us had committed abuse or harm to ourselves or others in these conversations. I never said anything about work, because I had a more pressing issue to talk about, but feel duped, like this was a fact finding expedition, instead of a we care about you gesture, and the people that did say something are feeling incredibly betrayed, and wondering how general and anonymous the feedback actually was. 

You may find this article of interest:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/216507999103900207

[Cloud9Shopper]

I had my quarterly performance discussion today and it went well! I talked to my boss about my goals without giving any ultimatums or timelines, and he said he wants to support me and knows I have talked about it before.

However. Our department is in a hiring freeze and my boss isn’t high up enough that he has any say in when or how it ends. And if it does end the department may not fill all the vacancies that exist for the job I want. (Four people have left the role in the last several months, so in a normal time there would be four vacancies but who knows right now. They could only fill one of those jobs.)

I decided I will keep looking quietly, and I got invited to a phone interview tomorrow! I also just finished my portfolio and was able to provide it to the hiring manager. So here’s hoping!

[estellasmum]

4 hours ago, ginger90 said:

You may find this article of interest:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/216507999103900207

Thank you so much. I have other info I was going to use, but it wasn't about EAPs specifically. I can't thank you enough for how helpful this is.

[bilgistic]

9 hours ago, estellasmum said:

Ok, here's one. A few weeks ago our employer brought in a therapist from our EAP for us to talk to about anything, because of all the stress we have had in work dealing with mask enforcement, or a lot of people have had other major problems in life lately. We all were given an hour off (paid) to go talk to them should we choose. A bunch of us did. Yesterday, in a staff meeting our bosses went over what the therapist told them about what we said "in generalizations, and with total anonymity" and wanted suggestions on what they could do to help resolve the issues. Now, from what I can tell, not only is that unethical, it should be illegal, (right?), because none of us had committed abuse or harm to ourselves or others in these conversations. I never said anything about work, because I had a more pressing issue to talk about, but feel duped, like this was a fact finding expedition, instead of a we care about you gesture, and the people that did say something are feeling incredibly betrayed, and wondering how general and anonymous the feedback actually was. 

Fucking WOW. That's so incredibly unethical. I would report the counselor to their licensing body. And your company SUCKS. Doing that under the guise of "we care" is fucked. Companies never tire of finding ways to break down employees, do they?

Edited February 25, 2022 by bilgistic

[magicdog]

3 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Companies never tire of finding ways to break down employees, do they?

Speaking from experience, no, they don't.

[Blergh]

14 hours ago, estellasmum said:

Ok, here's one. A few weeks ago our employer brought in a therapist from our EAP for us to talk to about anything, because of all the stress we have had in work dealing with mask enforcement, or a lot of people have had other major problems in life lately. We all were given an hour off (paid) to go talk to them should we choose. A bunch of us did. Yesterday, in a staff meeting our bosses went over what the therapist told them about what we said "in generalizations, and with total anonymity" and wanted suggestions on what they could do to help resolve the issues. Now, from what I can tell, not only is that unethical, it should be illegal, (right?), because none of us had committed abuse or harm to ourselves or others in these conversations. I never said anything about work, because I had a more pressing issue to talk about, but feel duped, like this was a fact finding expedition, instead of a we care about you gesture, and the people that did say something are feeling incredibly betrayed, and wondering how general and anonymous the feedback actually was. 

Oh, I can recall 'voluntary' (but pressured by the big wigs for everyone to do )surveys on a job that all  were supposed to be 'anonymous'   yet had such detailed demographic questions beyond just mere gender and age range that I couldn't help but believe that they were specifically trying to pinpoint EXACTLY who said what. I usually avoided doing those if at all possible, but, if not, giving the minimum positive but vaguest answers imaginable so they'd have no interest in trying to use anything against me. I think I finally got them to stop having them be compulsory by mentioning that these took up a great deal of work time when we had more urgent ontask things to do AND that those who truly wanted to provide detailed answers would do so but those who didn't want to would NOT so it was to no one's benefit to try to force things. 

[magicdog]

It's been one hell of a week!!

Because we're separating from a lot of Meredith related computer features (like their IM features, email, etc.) Engineering did a literal blowout of the computer systems on Friday and were supposed to reset everything with Gray tech.  They didn't quite get it right.

My edit bay didn't even have the AVID license in it (had to use a different bay for at least 3 days!), we can't contact Engineering directly anymore when we have a problem (we have to fill out a "ticket" on the computer and wait!), our new sign in system sucks (have to click in and out all the time including breaks-  people constantly forgetting to do it!), we can't even record ALEXA for the time being because we can't figure out how to record and send it now!!  Until this morning, we didn't even have access to our video archives!!  I know it will get better in time but one would think they would have made sure everything was kosher before we walked in Monday morning!  

[bilgistic]

I guess I shouldn't expect better treatment than this by now, but it'd be nice to have a new computer after being with my company for a year and nine months. My computer is five years old. Instead, the new guy who stayed five months got a new one. And his replacement is now getting it.

[chocolatine]

7 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I guess I shouldn't expect better treatment than this by now, but it'd be nice to have a new computer after being with my company for a year and nine months. My computer is five years old. Instead, the new guy who stayed five months got a new one. And his replacement is now getting it.

Can you accidentally-on-purpose spill your coffee or tea on it so that it stops working and they have to give you a new one?

[Cloud9Shopper]

Had my phone interview yesterday and it went pretty good, I thought. I wouldn’t say great or that I knocked it out of the park (I definitely blew one question because it was about something I had no experience with so I got nervous and had to fake it), but I feel I could get invited to round 2. I really need to work on not hyping myself up too much and focus on one round at a time because I think that’s where some of the stress comes in. Especially now that I know about my current department’s hiring freeze and feel like I do want to get out more than ever. 

I got lax after my interviews last month and ended up getting rejected anyway so this time around I am going to keep applying and doing professional development and hopefully there’s a role out there for me. 

[chocolatine]

4 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

(I definitely blew one question because it was about something I had no experience with so I got nervous and had to fake it)

If I may offer advice as someone who's done hundreds of interviews, the interviewer can usually tell when the candidate is "faking it," and it doesn't reflect well on the candidate. It's much better to admit that you don't have first-hand experience with the subject of the question, but based on your knowledge and intuition, you would do XYZ. The goal of the interview is not to see if the candidate can answer every question "perfectly" but to assess their strengths and weaknesses.

I genuinely hope that you passed this round, but you'll do much better in future rounds if you stop "faking" and the interviewers can chalk up that one occurrence to nervousness rather than a pattern.

[Browncoat]

I agree with @chocolatine -- never fake it.  I would much rather someone tell me they don't have experience doing X than bluff then screw something up on the job.  If you're a strong candidate in other ways, I can teach you X.

[Lady Whistleup]

nvm

Edited February 26, 2022 by Lady Whistleup

[Cloud9Shopper]

6 hours ago, chocolatine said:

If I may offer advice as someone who's done hundreds of interviews, the interviewer can usually tell when the candidate is "faking it," and it doesn't reflect well on the candidate. It's much better to admit that you don't have first-hand experience with the subject of the question, but based on your knowledge and intuition, you would do XYZ. The goal of the interview is not to see if the candidate can answer every question "perfectly" but to assess their strengths and weaknesses.

I genuinely hope that you passed this round, but you'll do much better in future rounds if you stop "faking" and the interviewers can chalk up that one occurrence to nervousness rather than a pattern.

Thank you for your help. :) I shouldn’t have really said “faked it”, since I did say I don’t have experience in X but here’s what I have seen at work. But I definitely did get nervous and felt like my answer didn’t make sense. I thought the interview was going fine until that point. I just panicked a bit. 

[chocolatine]

38 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

Thank you for your help. :) I shouldn’t have really said “faked it”, since I did say I don’t have experience in X but here’s what I have seen at work. But I definitely did get nervous and felt like my answer didn’t make sense. I thought the interview was going fine until that point. I just panicked a bit. 

Good! Try to practice staying calm when you're asked a difficult question. It's absolutely fine to take a moment to think before answering, paraphrase the question to make sure you  understood it, and/or ask follow-up questions. (Some interviewers ask questions that are deliberately vague and expect the candidate to ask for clarification. That's because real-life project requirements are often ambiguous and we want want to make sure that the candidate validates their assumptions before jumping into a solution.)

[chocolatine]

Tech people, I swear to God!

Our company is fully remote, so we have a "random" Slack channel for non-work related water cooler chat. Needless to say (or at least I thought so), the topics in that channel should still be work-appropriate. Well, one of the company's best DevOps engineers saw it fit to post a photo of an old British book about penile injuries yesterday. Most of our coworkers don't check Slack over the weekend, but there were still several reactions as to how inappropriate the post was. As an engineering director, I was completely horrified - not because I was offended by the post, but because it would be a total nightmare if this guy got fired and we had to find someone to replace him in this job market. I happen to be good friends with this guy's director, so I PM-ed him immediately. He made the engineer delete the offending post, and he and I are crossing our fingers that, of the handful of people who saw it before it was deleted, nobody was offended enough to report it to HR.

This is a really smart guy, and he almost got himself fired in the dumbest way. (I guess he still could get fired, but I really hope not.)

[estellasmum]

On 2/24/2022 at 8:57 AM, estellasmum said:

Ok, here's one. A few weeks ago our employer brought in a therapist from our EAP for us to talk to about anything, because of all the stress we have had in work dealing with mask enforcement, or a lot of people have had other major problems in life lately. We all were given an hour off (paid) to go talk to them should we choose. A bunch of us did. Yesterday, in a staff meeting our bosses went over what the therapist told them about what we said "in generalizations, and with total anonymity" and wanted suggestions on what they could do to help resolve the issues. Now, from what I can tell, not only is that unethical, it should be illegal, (right?), because none of us had committed abuse or harm to ourselves or others in these conversations. I never said anything about work, because I had a more pressing issue to talk about, but feel duped, like this was a fact finding expedition, instead of a we care about you gesture, and the people that did say something are feeling incredibly betrayed, and wondering how general and anonymous the feedback actually was. 

Well, had a talk with the bosses after I posted this. It did NOT go well. They don't think it is a Hippa violation at all, and even if it was, the therapist gave them "good feedback" as to help them help us more, so what's the problem. I told them how I felt like I was in a trap (definitely could have phrased it better, but I was so mad at the lack of concern, and did feel that way) and they got angry and they have nothing more to say to me, and I have nothing more to say to them. Someone else wants me to go to the City HR person with them and file a formal complaint, but at this point, I just don't have it in me. I do not want to go back to work tomorrow. My husband wants me to go in tomorrow and just quit.

[chocolatine]

22 minutes ago, estellasmum said:

Well, had a talk with the bosses after I posted this. It did NOT go well. They don't think it is a Hippa violation at all, and even if it was, the therapist gave them "good feedback" as to help them help us more, so what's the problem. I told them how I felt like I was in a trap (definitely could have phrased it better, but I was so mad at the lack of concern, and did feel that way) and they got angry and they have nothing more to say to me, and I have nothing more to say to them. Someone else wants me to go to the City HR person with them and file a formal complaint, but at this point, I just don't have it in me. I do not want to go back to work tomorrow. My husband wants me to go in tomorrow and just quit.

This is terrible and I'm sorry you have to go through this. Since you don't want to work there anymore anyway, do you think you could bring yourself to file the formal complaint before you leave? I know it's nerve-wracking, but it could change things for the better for the people who are staying. Of course, if that's too much stress for you, you should just quit. Always do what's best for your own well-being.

[ginger90]

The information covered under, What are some misconceptions about HIPAA? would be of interest.

 

HIPAA in the workplace:

 

https://www.paychex.com/articles/employee-benefits/hipaa-rules-for-employers

Edited February 28, 2022 by ginger90

[magicdog]

8 hours ago, ginger90 said:

The information covered under, What are some misconceptions about HIPAA? would be of interest.

 

HIPAA in the workplace:

I looked into this - in my state, HIPPA doesn't apply because a "Health Emergency" was declared and despite the mask mandates having finally been dropped, it is still in effect.  COVID is being treated like an STD or TB and reports go through the County health district.  So no medical privacy here.  

[StatisticalOutlier]

18 hours ago, chocolatine said:

Our company is fully remote, so we have a "random" Slack channel for non-work related water cooler chat.

Is this considered a good thing?  Do a lot of companies do it?  Because I've never had any water cooler chat that I wanted broadcast to everyone in the organization. 

Even "Who shot JR?"  I talked about it with various people at work, but would never want my opinion broadcast to everyone.  And that goes for any of my opinions. 

Are people just so used to everybody knowing everything about them that they don't even notice?

[chocolatine]

55 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Is this considered a good thing?  Do a lot of companies do it?  Because I've never had any water cooler chat that I wanted broadcast to everyone in the organization. 

Even "Who shot JR?"  I talked about it with various people at work, but would never want my opinion broadcast to everyone.  And that goes for any of my opinions. 

Are people just so used to everybody knowing everything about them that they don't even notice?

We're a medium-sized company (less than 1000 employees), and there was a similar Slack channel at another medium-sized company I'd worked at in the past (before the pandemic, and that company wasn't remote), so I don't think this is unusual. Participation is optional, of course, and anyone can create a private channel with a small group of people on any topic, if that makes them more comfortable.

Even the two FAANG companies I'd worked at in the past (each with ~50k employees) had public chats/groups/mailing lists for anyone who wanted to participate, though those were designated to specific topics and not just random chit-chat.

[SuprSuprElevated]

21 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Are people just so used to everybody knowing everything about them that they don't even notice?

Hmm, I dunno.

Edited March 1, 2022 by SuprSuprElevated

[Spartan Girl]

My office dropped the mask mandate. Today was the official day that masks were “encouraged but not required” but I’m infuriated and disgusted that some of my coworkers didn’t bother to wait until today. And just because they’re no longer required doesn’t mean they’re not a good idea—especially when they only come in the workplace maybe once a week!

And could they maybe understand that it would make one a little jumpy if they keep clearing their throat without a mask?!

[Browncoat]

Our mask mandate will end on 14 March.  I'm planning on continuing to wear mine unless I'm safely ensconced in my office, but I suspect I'll be about the only one who will.

[partofme]

So glad I still work from home.  Hope this won't change.  The CEO talks about how profits are up since we've all been wfh and in the same breadth talks about how important it is to be in the office face to face, which makes no sense.  Fortunately my direct manager and the people in my department seem to have no interest in going back to the office on a regular basis so I'm somewhat hopeful I'll be able to continue to wfh for the forseeable future.

[MargeGunderson]

I went in to the office today because I had to verify the receipt of some files. I was the only person from my department in the office, and altogether there were maybe 7 people total. It was glorious! Apparently that’s pretty typical, so I may go in more often. It was nice to get out of my house to work. I’m sure I would feel differently if there were a lot of people on site, but for now we are still primarily WFH.

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, partofme said:

So glad I still work from home.  Hope this won't change.  The CEO talks about how profits are up since we've all been wfh and in the same breadth talks about how important it is to be in the office face to face, which makes no sense.  Fortunately my direct manager and the people in my department seem to have no interest in going back to the office on a regular basis so I'm somewhat hopeful I'll be able to continue to wfh for the forseeable future.

I think it's nice to have occasional in-person time, such as monthly or quarterly, for morale purposes, but it's not necessary for productivity, as most teams have demonstrated over the past two years.

[Cloud9Shopper]

Had a rough week on the job hunt. Didn’t hear back from the interview I had last week (will follow up on Monday) and got three other automated rejections. My current job still isn’t going well. We still haven’t started our first project cycle and I keep ending up on tedious side projects, as we all do sometimes. I ended up crying at my desk today because the boredom and lack of work just feels exhausting on its own. 

I’m working on a group project for school, too, and while I did dread that and still don’t love group assignments, the women in my group are at least nice and we all seem to get along. 

[theredhead77]

60+ resumes, 15 interviews, no offers. I've been looking since May. I'm super glad I turned down the "compassionate move' offer my company made me, which would have allowed me to move back to CA, and give me 90 days to find a job. Those 90 days is the end of March. I just want to go home.

[Cloud9Shopper]

On 3/4/2022 at 8:11 PM, theredhead77 said:

60+ resumes, 15 interviews, no offers. I've been looking since May. I'm super glad I turned down the "compassionate move' offer my company made me, which would have allowed me to move back to CA, and give me 90 days to find a job. Those 90 days is the end of March. I just want to go home.

Ugh I’m sorry. I’ve been searching for about six months and haven’t gotten an offer yet. I’ve sent out about 85 resumes and had three interviews (four if you count the one I made it to the second round) and I have another one in a couple weeks. What field are you in? I’m trying to do instructional design, which has been flooded with teachers trying to leave the classroom plus experienced IDs looking for jobs.

I think the thing I hate most about job searching is how you’re always assumed to be at fault when you don’t get an interview/job. It’s always your resume, the way you interview, your network or lack thereof, your portfolio (if you’re in a field that uses them), and on and on. The employers are always right and you’re always the one who’s not good enough. I wish there were more of an acknowledgment that job seekers can only do so much and there are elements they can’t control as well. 

[theredhead77]

9 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I think the thing I hate most about job searching is how you’re always assumed to be at fault when you don’t get an interview/job. It’s always your resume, the way you interview, your network or lack thereof, your portfolio (if you’re in a field that uses them), and on and on. The employers are always right and you’re always the one who’s not good enough. I wish there were more of an acknowledgment that job seekers can only do so much and there are elements they can’t control as well. 

I'm sorry people in your life are making you feel that way. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Thank you. I talked about it more in the family thread but my mom blamed and shamed me when I didn’t get to the next round for a job I had a phone screen for. I’ve talked to people online who either assume I have a bad resume (someone told me my resume must be bad, which means no good job, last night when they’ve never even seen it!) or repeat the same advice we’ve all heard 1000 times about networking or tailoring your resume. It’s like people just assume you’re stupid/have no social graces if you can’t get a job. My job doesn’t really measure metrics for people in my role either, so I can only come up with so much for that aspect.

I’m hoping this interview in two weeks goes well, and the fact that I’ll have a good amount of time to prepare for it will hopefully be helpful. 

[magicdog]

5 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I think the thing I hate most about job searching is how you’re always assumed to be at fault when you don’t get an interview/job. It’s always your resume, the way you interview, your network or lack thereof, your portfolio (if you’re in a field that uses them), and on and on. The employers are always right and you’re always the one who’s not good enough. I wish there were more of an acknowledgment that job seekers can only do so much and there are elements they can’t control as well. 

Keep in mind many resumes are knocked out of contention by a computer!

These days, resumes get scanned by some program that looks for certain things and just discards what [the parameters set] doesn't like.  It used to be all resumes were looked over by a human being and if they thought you had something to offer, you'd get a call.  These days it's hard to get your foot in the door no matter how qualified you are.  

Throw in various mandates and you lose even more potential candidates.

[MargeGunderson]

So my manager sprung my annual review on me today. Not by putting a meeting on my calendar with the subject “Annual Review” but by hijacking our regular weekly meeting with no notice. Not cool, man, not cool!

[magicdog]

6 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

So my manager sprung my annual review on me today. Not by putting a meeting on my calendar with the subject “Annual Review” but by hijacking our regular weekly meeting with no notice. Not cool, man, not cool!

That is a violation of protocol!  One's review is a one on one thing, not meant to be a show for the rest of the staff!!  

[chocolatine]

6 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

So my manager sprung my annual review on me today. Not by putting a meeting on my calendar with the subject “Annual Review” but by hijacking our regular weekly meeting with no notice. Not cool, man, not cool!

Doesn't your employer have set times for annual reviews? My current employer has two review cycles per year, and there's a detailed calendar for every step of the process, including a two-week period during which all managers are supposed to deliver reviews to all of their direct reports. And everyone has two write a self-review, so they *know* it's happening.

I did have a manager at my last job who took it upon himself to do an "off-cycle review" for me because I started too late in the year to be eligible for a regular performance review. It wasn't an official review so didn't have any effect on my compensation, but it gave me a taste of the many shitty things still to come. I left that job after a year.

[Bastet]

57 minutes ago, magicdog said:

One's review is a one on one thing, not meant to be a show for the rest of the staff!!  

I didn't read it as being conducted in front of others, just that in the standard weekly meeting between OP and their manager, it was suddenly annual review time.

If accurate, that's a total jerk move; people deserve to be notified of the primary purpose(s) of any meeting, so they can best prepare and make the meeting as productive as possible to the benefit of all parties and the company as a whole.  A performance review meeting with a supervisor is on another level, and should be a dedicated meeting for which notice is given well in advance.

Circumventing that norm indicates an attempt at a power-hungry quest for a possible "gotcha!" situation, rather than a collaborative determination of how best to proceed as a team. 

[MargeGunderson]

Thanks for confirming that I wasn’t off base in thinking I was right to be surprised!
Sorry I wasn’t clear - it was my weekly one-on-one with my manager. And we do have 2 review periods a year so I had submitted my review but I didn’t know that we were going to go over it yesterday. This was my year-end review for 2021 (the mid-year review in July is more of a check in). He’s usually a great manager, so I was surprised that I didn’t get a heads up before diving right in. It was a great review, so I think he probably thought it would totally fine to do it during our regular meeting, since it was all good stuff and I would be thrilled with my rating and bonus (which I was, so he wasn’t wrong about that).  But I prefer time to get in the right headspace, and I was already having really crazy week. It was also my first review at this company so now I know to be proactive about scheduling the review meeting with him unless I want a surprise!

 

[chocolatine]

19 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

Thanks for confirming that I wasn’t off base in thinking I was right to be surprised!
Sorry I wasn’t clear - it was my weekly one-on-one with my manager. And we do have 2 review periods a year so I had submitted my review but I didn’t know that we were going to go over it yesterday. This was my year-end review for 2021 (the mid-year review in July is more of a check in). He’s usually a great manager, so I was surprised that I didn’t get a heads up before diving right in. It was a great review, so I think he probably thought it would totally fine to do it during our regular meeting, since it was all good stuff and I would be thrilled with my rating and bonus (which I was, so he wasn’t wrong about that).  But I prefer time to get in the right headspace, and I was already having really crazy week. It was also my first review at this company so now I know to be proactive about scheduling the review meeting with him unless I want a surprise!

So maybe it wasn't malicious on his end - he just thought you'd want to know ASAP that you got a great review? In your next one-on-one you could tell him that while you appreciate the great feedback, you prefer to know ahead of time when you'll be getting your review, and ask if he could kindly do that in the future. If he really is a great manager like you say, he'll want to know what works and what doesn't work for you.