A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[Bookish Jen]

2 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

It’s really sad how hard it’s gotten. I think there needs to be a better balance, where employees should of course do everything they can to be strong candidates, but some employers are way too picky and drag things out unnecessarily. I saw a posting for an entry level job the other day that required five interviews: recruiter call, two “discovery interviews,” a case study and a “culture fit” interview. For an entry level position, that process should be cut in half. I don’t know how anyone gets through so many hoops. Most of us are not trying to be CEOs or top trauma surgeons or FBI agents where you’d want that many conversations. 

This article from last year is interesting and discusses how more and more companies want longer interview processes. The candidate they interviewed for the article went through three rounds with a company only to be told they wanted six more interviews and had no idea when they’d make a decision. It’s getting beyond out of hand and no wonder some employers complain they can’t find anyone. 
 

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210727-the-rise-of-never-ending-job-interviews

Thank you for sharing this article. The job hunting and interviewing process has become ridiculous. I know of someone who went through eight interviews for a lower-level management job, and then was totally ghosted by the company. It's infuriating.

[Cloud9Shopper]

12 minutes ago, Bookish Jen said:

Thank you for sharing this article. The job hunting and interviewing process has become ridiculous. I know of someone who went through eight interviews for a lower-level management job, and then was totally ghosted by the company. It's infuriating.

Last month I talked to four people in as many days about an instructional design job and got ghosted. The recruiter didn’t even respond to my follow-up email.

I understand it’s unrealistic to expect a response for every application sent but after that many interviews, it is completely rude to not take less than five minutes and send a canned “thanks but no thanks” email. I would not consider working for that company again. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

14 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

There has to be something wrong to still be looking after nine months and have no offers when a lot of my now former colleagues and others I’m connected to are getting hired,

11 hours ago, theredhead77 said:

It's a really tough market. I shared upthread I've been looking for a year and a half, over 100 applications out in my field. There are so many qualified and talented candidates in the pool it's just a numbers game.

I don't know if this will make you feel...less disheartened, but I looked and applied for almost three years before I landed my current job. Went through all the hoops, made it to a final interview, where I thought I would get it, but they dragged and ultimately went with someone else.

And this was while I was finishing up chemo and undergoing reconstructive surgery. Hell, I think one of my interviews was two months after my first mastectomy.

I know it sounds trite, but keep applying.

[Cloud9Shopper]

49 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I don't know if this will make you feel...less disheartened, but I looked and applied for almost three years before I landed my current job. Went through all the hoops, made it to a final interview, where I thought I would get it, but they dragged and ultimately went with someone else.

And this was while I was finishing up chemo and undergoing reconstructive surgery. Hell, I think one of my interviews was two months after my first mastectomy.

I know it sounds trite, but keep applying.

I appreciate the help! It does encourage me a little because I’m my own worst critic and am always wondering “what is wrong with me?” that I can’t accomplish what seemingly everyone else can right now. So sometimes hearing from others who have been through similar issues is helpful because I can say “well maybe there isn’t some fatal flaw I have then.” I think it’s especially harder that I’m trying to make a career change and not just look for a job similar to what I have now. (I want to get out of editorial work. If I had wanted to stay an editor I bet I would’ve landed something already.) 

I hope you’re in better health these days! 

[GHScorpiosRule]

42 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I hope you’re in better health these days! 

Yes, thanks. Remission for 7 years 8 months and counting.

[emma675]

Ugh, my boss was laid off this morning for not signing a new ridiculous form our CEO has suddenly decided is needed for execs (it involves committing to staying for at least 3 years or forfeiting your stock options and bonuses). I'm totally on her side, but I loved working with her and I don't plan on staying any longer than necessary now that she's gone. Already dusting off the resume and trying to work myself up into applying over and over again. Uggghhhhhh. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Management culture is part of the reason I’m trying to get another job. My direct boss was good for a while, but lately he seems like he’s more focused on his kids even during my 1:1 meetings with him and he seems completely indifferent about helping me advance. He’s not really acting like a boss at this point, and I’m pretty much setting goals with no faith that I’ll have his support because I’ll communicate goals and priorities to him, and he’ll say yeah that sounds great! and then drop the ball on his end.

The bosses above him seem more focused on fluff like motivational videos and meeting icebreakers than generating any actual change or fixing issues people have expressed frustration with. I need a more supportive environment at this point. I read all these stories of people whose companies treat them like they’re valuable and basically give them everything they’ve ever wanted, and I wish I could find the same. 

[Bookish Jen]

Just found one of our higher up execs was let go. I think it's because we've lost so many clients in the past two years. 

[bilgistic]

These recruiters, man. You'd think reading comprehension would be a requirement of the job but apparently not. No, I'm not looking to commute 45 minutes one way again, thanks.

Someone from my former company looked me up on LinkedIn. I'm laughing forever.

[emma675]

I've got four interviews booked next week, one of which will be a second round. I had to take the dumbest personality assessment test for one of them, which was such a waste of 5 minutes, lol. It was two questions, one of which was how would you describe yourself on the job and the other was how would others describe you and they each had the same descriptive words to choose from. The hoops companies expect recruits to jump through is amazing and yet they all complain about not having enough good candidates to choose from. 

[Jaded]

The hoops these companies expect people to jump through described in this thread sound like science experiments that are collecting data for research and not actually seeking information on qualifications. It makes me wonder if some of the companies sell the data from these tests people take to make money on top of the money they already make from whatever they usually do. I also think it's a way to dehumanize people too.

[Bastet]

I hate those stupid tests because they're inaccurate, and because the "right" answers are heavily biased against introverts.

[bilgistic]

...and people with mental illness. I was considering an application today but when I saw there was a "personality test," I backed out of it so fast that I left virtual skid marks.

I left the apartment today for the first time since Sunday to pick up my meds.

[Bookish Jen]

I hate those personality tests, too. I'm an introvert, and I also struggle with mental health issues-depression, anxiety, and PTSD. I'm a good worker with a lot of talents and skills, but I hate the bias so many employers have towards people like me.

[emma675]

I'm an introvert who is very good at faking being an extrovert, so I'm usually able to fool those personality tests, lol. They are still pointless, a waste of time, and a terrible indicator of how good a person will be at the job. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

I had an initial interview today for a professional development and recruiting coordinator role at a law firm. I like that they’re only looking to do two interviews before they make a decision, and I got along well with the person doing the interview. We were both legal assistants in the past although she went on to paralegal work for a time. We also both live a couple hours from one of the firm’s offices (in different directions) and I really could see myself doing the work if I get hired. I’m hopeful I can get to the second round.

I also am trying to get set up for a second interview for a tech sales job, but things have been moving a little slower because the recruiter I was working with is on vacation and we’re trying to coordinate to get me to the next step. I don’t see any other red flags, though, and am chalking it up to someone being out of office unless I see other major concerns. 

I don’t even get paid $20 an hour at Current Job, which is completely unacceptable considering the economy and the fact that this job requires a degree and semi-challenging work. They claim to be doing a “compensation study” but I’ll believe them when I see increased pay…

[bilgistic]

My "work friend," the accounting manager, is quitting because she got another job. I am so happy for her and am loving how fucked the company is going to be without her and me, because we were the experts on the quarterly reporting software. This news really turned my mood around. They are so fucked.

[isalicat]

1 hour ago, bilgistic said:

My "work friend," the accounting manager, is quitting because she got another job. I am so happy for her and am loving how fucked the company is going to be without her and me, because we were the experts on the quarterly reporting software. This news really turned my mood around. They are so fucked.

Schadenfreude can be really great sometimes!

[Cloud9Shopper]

One of my online friends who was job searching got an offer yesterday, and another person I used to be acquainted with when she lived in my area also got a new job. 

I know this is crappy of me but I find it hard to feel happy for people who are getting new jobs now. I’m tired of watching everyone else get amazing news and congratulations and signing goodbye cards for coworkers while I have to keep interviewing and waiting. My mom said she prays for me all the time (we are both Catholic) and I hate that I’m jealous because I know I should be happy for people and celebrating. After a while it just gets in your head of “why can’t it be me?” 

[magicdog]

Trust me I feel it too!  It's just as frustrating when you see incompetence (hello, Bitcheroo!!) constantly rewarded and they get away with the crap they do.  I keep hoping they get caught and punished somehow.  The only other thing I can do, is focus on my own business (I'm a great boss!) and make it the success it should be!  I only wish I took steps to do it sooner.

[Cloud9Shopper]

Good for you! I am aiming for a better paying full time job for now but I just got my first freelance project on Upwork. (I can’t rely on Upwork, and don’t plan to, but for now when I need experience and extra money, it works.) I am going to keep working on paying down debt too which is a combination of bad choices and having low paying jobs for a while. Once I work on those goals maybe I can think more seriously about what kind of business I’d want. It’s just not something I feel comfortable with at this moment. 

[magicdog]

Wound up doing some OT today! Yeah I was shocked too!

My edit partner had the day off and I was paired with a photog who usually helps out in such situations.  Unfortunately, due to breaking news, they needed to send him out to the field around 8am and they thought they might need me for video feeds.

It was only an hour, but that's a bit more in my paycheck!

[theredhead77]

From the Royals thread

6 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

I have employees. Right now they are super pissed at me because I told them they could have Juneteenth or Fourth of July off, but not both. The employment contracts clearly lay out the paid holidays  (we work Columbus, Presidents' and Veterans' Days) and the creation of a new federal holidays does not mean an additional paid day off. I also set a rule about family members (with brand new grandchildren coming to visit.) My office is not a day care. My employees are getting paid to work, not visit. I provide free health insurance, higher than average wage and a 2% guaranteed retirement plan. 

That's crazy. Are they new to the work-force and somehow don't understand that most people don't get "Federal" holidays off?

We get New Years Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, Christmas Day, and here in the shitty south, they make us use one of our two floating holidays for Christmas Eve (in CA we're open on Christmas Eve unless it's a weekend). As someone who does not celebrate Christmas I had words with HR over this policy. Of course, it didn't make a bit of difference. But I shouldn't be surprised, this is the same Senior HR leadership team that allowed bible verses to be written on department white boards and responded to that complaint (made by another HR manager I voiced my concerns to) with "it's the South".

I've worked for only one company that gave MLK Day as a holiday but I think we had one floating holiday instead of two.

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by theredhead77

[BlackberryJam]

5 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

From the Royals thread

That's crazy. Are they new to the work-force and somehow don't understand that most people don't get "Federal" holidays off?

We get New Years Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, Christmas Day, and here in the shitty south, they make us use one of our two floating holidays for Christmas Eve (in CA we're open on Christmas Eve unless it's a weekend). As someone who does not celebrate Christmas I had words with HR over this policy. Of course, it didn't make a bit of difference. But I shouldn't be surprised, this is the same Senior HR leadership team that allowed bible verses to be written on department white boards and responded to that complaint (made by another HR manager I voiced my concerns to) with "it's the South".

I've worked for only one company that gave MLK Day as a holiday but I think we had one floating holiday instead of two.

 

I give MLK day off put not President's Day because PRIORITIES!

[CrazyInAlabama]

When I worked in a military post library, pretty much like a public library, we had holidays, but worked all of them, except Christmas Day, and Thanksgiving, Labor Day, and Memorial Day and 4th of July.    Other holidays the library was open, and the staff that worked then got another day off the next week.  There was extra pay, but we worked shorter hours, so it was really no extra money in the end.    

At one time, the post libraries were open every day of the year, including Christmas, etc. and no one would come in.  That was a total waste of money for staff, because the staff still got paid, and for no customers.       Other types of libraries we had the holiday off, but if you wanted a four day weekend, you had to take leave for the Friday before.    

We had one employee who worked Sundays with me, and before Easter she said she was going to enjoy the day off.   This was a long term federal employee and just figured we gave Easter off.   She was so ticked when I told her that's not a holiday.    

[Bastet]

We get as paid holidays (and where it's a Monday holiday, we get a half day the Friday before):

- MLK Jr. Day
- President's Day
- Cesar Chavez Day
- Memorial Day
- Juneteenth
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Native American Day
- Thanksgiving Eve (half day), Thanksgiving, and the Friday after
- Christmas Eve (half day) through New Year's Day

Our state courts are open on Juneteenth (which will hopefully change; I'm quite appalled the feds are ahead of us on this one) and federal courts are open on Cesar Chavez Day and Native American Day (but are closed on Columbus Day)* and obviously neither shut down for a year-end break, only closing on Christmas and New Year's Day, so sometimes someone has to work one or more of those days due to an appearance.  If so, we can take another, mutually agreed, day off in exchange.

*Federal court is closed for Columbus Day, which is the second Monday in October, a day state courts and our organization are open - but we, and the state courts, are closed for Native American Day, which is the fourth Friday in September, so around the same time of year; we basically swap one for the other.

The state courts also close on Lincoln's birthday, but we do like the federal courts and just close on President's Day, and I've never worked anywhere that didn't do it that way, so Lincoln's is this random, court-only holiday to me.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Bastet

[chocolatine]

When I worked at Amazon, we didn't have the Friday after Thanksgiving off, because Black Friday is one of the busiest days in retail, so the engineering teams had to work in case there were any technical issues due to the increased website traffic. It was still possible for individual employees to take the day off, but they had to use their PTO balance. Then after I left and started getting Black Friday as a company holiday at my next job, it felt like a huge gift.

My current employer is very generous with company holidays and gave us last Friday off in observance of Juneteenth, but some people still had the gall to complain that we didn't get today off instead.

[Annber03]

I work at our local hospital, in the business section of the clinic, and we get Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas off for sure at my workplace. Don't know yet if New Year's or MLK Day counts in that or not. We also get the day after Thanksgiving off, but we have to use PTO time for that. I wonder if Juneteenth will soon be added to that list at our workplace. Would be nice if it were. 

I'm just happy to be working a job where I can be guaranteed some of the big holidays off. When I worked retail, we did get Thanksgiving and Christmas themselves off...but that was it. Every other holiday was a work day. Shorter hours than usual much of the time, but still... 

[partofme]

I’ve been getting Juneteenth off for 3 years now

Also get:

Martin Luther King Day

President’s Day

Memorial Day (Friday and Monday)

4th of July (Friday and Monday)

Labor Day (Friday and Monday)

Thanksgiving (Thursday and Friday)

Christmas Eve - Jan 1

[SoMuchTV]

Oh wow, y’all are making me reflect. For most of my full-time career, I got a paid-time-off allotment that went toward holidays, vacation, sick days, and maternity leave. Then when I went to part-time, I got paid for the time I worked. Period. So I guess I got as many or as few holidays as I wanted- not necessarily paid, though. 

[Moose135]

Back when I worked for a newspaper, we got something like six paid holidays per year - we put out a paper every day, so if we got a paid holiday, the folks who had to work to put out the paper would get additional holiday pay. Limiting the number of paid holidays reduced that. Then I worked for a financial services company, and we got a bunch of holidays, mostly the typical days banks were closed, although we got a couple extra because we also closed when the stock markets were closed. In my last position, also at a large financial services company, I was a contract worker through an agency, paid for the days I actually worked. We still got a bunch of holidays off, I just didn't get paid for them. In addition, the company required all contractors to take at least 10 days unpaid time off each year, I assume it had something to do with our status.

At my current job, started in mid-December, we get 11 paid holidays, including the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Pioneer Day...anyone else get that one?

I also get unlimited PTO, and they are serious about us taking time off. We have two company-wide 'recharge weeks' where most everyone is off, and they strongly encourage everyone to take personal recharge weeks in the two quarters we don't have the full company ones.

I know some people think unlimited PTO is a way to scam you out of paying for days you don't use, and depending on the company's culture, that can be. That hasn't been my experience here - counting the two company-wide weeks, days I've already taken, plus a couple days I have schedule in the next few weeks, I'm at 26 days PTO, and will likely take a handful more later in the year.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Moose135

[ebk57]

1 hour ago, chocolatine said:

When I worked at Amazon, we didn't have the Friday after Thanksgiving off, because Black Friday is one of the busiest days in retail, so the engineering teams had to work in case there were any technical issues due to the increased website traffic. It was still possible for individual employees to take the day off, but they had to use their PTO balance. Then after I left and started getting Black Friday as a company holiday at my next job, it felt like a huge gift.

I worked in banking for a lot of years way back in my misspent youth.  I always worked the day after Thanksgiving (since the banks aren't allowed to be closed more than 3 days in a row).  I've worked in my current job for almost 30 years and still wake up (late!) on that Friday and roll over thinking "yay - I don't have to go to work!!"  

At the current job, we get most of the Federal holidays, but not Columbus Day or Veterans Day.  But we do get the day after Thanksgiving! - Did I mention that already? 😄  And yes, we now get Juneteenth off. 

I should mention that while I worked full time jobs, I also worked in theatre, so I never really got days off, but it didn't matter because that was my "fun" job. 

[Annber03]

33 minutes ago, Moose135 said:

I also get unlimited PTO, and they are serious about us taking time off. We have two company-wide 'recharge weeks' where most everyone is off, and they strongly encourage everyone to take personal recharge weeks in the two quarters we don't have the full company ones.

Dang, that sounds like heaven. I'd LOVE to get something like that. I think it'd be a good idea for ALL jobs to implement something of that sort.

[Cloud9Shopper]

My company had Juneteenth off today too (second year in a row I think), and we only get the other major holidays off. So we work Veteran’s Day, MLK Day, etc. My dream come true, though, would be to work at a company that closes the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I have yet to get into one of those places but I haven’t stopped trying. Every place I’ve worked at is open that week though I’ve been able to take PTO if I want it. My current job is already coming down and saying they don’t want everyone out of the office at that time this year. Even someone in management will have to be in for at least some of the week. 

I took a few days off last week because my birthday was Thursday and my job has been making me feel bad, as many of you know. I have to go back tomorrow and am trying not to dread it. 

[Moose135]

48 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

my birthday was Thursday

Happy Birthday! Mine is this Friday, and yes, I'm taking the day off!

[emma675]

@Moose135 is your company hiring? Kidding, not kidding. 🤣

[Lady Whistleup]

I'm a teacher so I get all the holidays off, plus summer and Christmas break and spring break. But tbh I always feel like I get no time off because the minute I get home it's tons of lesson planning and grading. It never ends. Students pepper me with emails at all hours of the day.

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

My dream come true, though, would be to work at a company that closes the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

My first job out of college provided a paid year-end break for that time period, and it was so vital (to my mental and physical health, and this is back when both were robust!) to have that time off it became a requirement in all future job hunts.  I also looked for, with respect to paid time off, adequate vacation time (none of this two weeks per year and only after you've been here a year shit), a flexible bank of personal time on top of that, and unlimited sick days, but I wanted the baseline of paid holidays (where everyone is off) to include that in addition to a handful of long weekends scattered throughout the year.

Adequate paid time off shouldn't be a "wow, so lucky!" thing, and it shouldn't only be available to medium- and high-earners in white collar jobs.  There are countries where an entire summer month is a paid shutdown for all but non-vital services, and nearly all industrialized nations other than the U.S. mandate some amount of paid vacation time for all; not just the scattered holidays throughout the year, but additional time to actually go somewhere.

But here in the U.S. about 60 percent of low-wage workers in the private sector receive zero paid time off.  And far too many of those who do have paid vacation time are discouraged from or even retaliated against for using it, especially in chunks.  Across the board, Americans work the most hours per year in the industrialized world - yet on the whole our wages remain mostly stagnant despite our employers bringing in massive profits - but Europeans who enjoy mandated time off are the most productive workers in the world; our system is utter bullshit.

[supposebly]

56 minutes ago, Bastet said:

but Europeans who enjoy mandated time off are the most productive workers in the world; our system is utter bullshit.

True. Although I  think it's even worse in Japan.

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

Across the board, Americans work the most hours per year in the industrialized world - yet on the whole our wages remain mostly stagnant despite our employers bringing in massive profits - but Europeans who enjoy mandated time off are the most productive workers in the world; our system is utter bullshit.

Not only do workers get substantial paid time off in Europe - five to six weeks is the norm - but there are also other laws protecting European workers' free time, such as the French law against employers contacting employees outside of business hours or the German law that mandates ten hours of "continuous rest." The latter was my favorite. Amazon always does new product launches in the middle of the night so that if there is a bug the launch can be rolled back without too many people noticing. When I worked at Amazon in Germany, I got to have those ten hours of rest after attending a product launch, so I didn't have to leave my house to go to work until noon the next day. After I transferred to the US I was dismayed that there was no such perk. I had to work a full day even if had been up until 2am that morning working on a launch.

I do have to say though that earning potential for my field is a lot higher in the US than in Europe, which is why I moved here over a decade ago and haven't regretted it. 

[Lisa418722]

10 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I work at our local hospital, in the business section of the clinic, and we get Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas off for sure at my workplace. Don't know yet if New Year's or MLK Day counts in that or not. We also get the day after Thanksgiving off, but we have to use PTO time for that. I wonder if Juneteenth will soon be added to that list at our workplace. Would be nice if it were. 

I'm just happy to be working a job where I can be guaranteed some of the big holidays off. When I worked retail, we did get Thanksgiving and Christmas themselves off...but that was it. Every other holiday was a work day. Shorter hours than usual much of the time, but still... 

I used to work in the business office of our local hospital and we were always open the Friday after Thanksgiving because someone might want to come in to pay their bill that day.  When I went to work in a law firm and got that day off I was thrilled. 

But I always ended up losing my PTO time when I worked in a law firm because I had billable hours and if I took my vacation I wouldn't hit my billable goal which meant no bonus and not that much of a raise.  So it was either take my vacation and not get a bonus or much of a raise or not take my vacation.  Now I'm working as a legal assistant so no billable goal. Maybe I'll actually be able to start taking my vacation when my probation period is over.  

[Cloud9Shopper]

6 hours ago, Bastet said:

My first job out of college provided a paid year-end break for that time period, and it was so vital (to my mental and physical health, and this is back when both were robust!) to have that time off it became a requirement in all future job hunts.  I also looked for, with respect to paid time off, adequate vacation time (none of this two weeks per year and only after you've been here a year shit), a flexible bank of personal time on top of that, and unlimited sick days, but I wanted the baseline of paid holidays (where everyone is off) to include that in addition to a handful of long weekends scattered throughout the year.

Adequate paid time off shouldn't be a "wow, so lucky!" thing, and it shouldn't only be available to medium- and high-earners in white collar jobs.  There are countries where an entire summer month is a paid shutdown for all but non-vital services, and nearly all industrialized nations other than the U.S. mandate some amount of paid vacation time for all; not just the scattered holidays throughout the year, but additional time to actually go somewhere.

But here in the U.S. about 60 percent of low-wage workers in the private sector receive zero paid time off.  And far too many of those who do have paid vacation time are discouraged from or even retaliated against for using it, especially in chunks.  Across the board, Americans work the most hours per year in the industrialized world - yet on the whole our wages remain mostly stagnant despite our employers bringing in massive profits - but Europeans who enjoy mandated time off are the most productive workers in the world; our system is utter bullshit.

My job requires a bachelor’s degree and I’ve been here for three years and still don’t even make $20 an hour. That is unacceptable, especially with how high inflation is right now. Both our job search processes and current working conditions are broken. But management where I work just shrugs it off and says they are doing a “compensation study” and at least in my department they focus more on fluffy things like “concept board” icebreakers and who wants to post the Monday motivation. You know, the real issues that totally solve being underpaid and not giving your employees any room to grow in their jobs. This YouTube video will totally fix it! 🙄

[bilgistic]

The other day, I saw a job listing with a salary of $50K–$70K, and it required a master's degree or DOCTORAL DEGREE! These companies are out of control.

Edited June 21, 2022 by bilgistic

[SuprSuprElevated]

I continually roll my eyes at job listings which detail daily duties, including what appears to be the performance of everything imaginable within an office, catgorized as "entry level", which as we know, is code for "low wage".  College degree preferred/required of course.

[Moose135]

5 minutes ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

"entry level"

'Entry level salary'

And we all know 'competitive salary' means it will be competing with your bills, and not always winning...

[chocolatine]

My favorite is tech job descriptions that require ten years experience in a programming language/library that hasn't even existed that long.

[Bookish Jen]

Another thing that bugs me about job want ads are the over-blown, ridiculous language they use. I actually responded to one ad on my blog with my more understandable prose:

Not too long a headhunter sent me this job ad. I’m paraphrasing and shortening a bit of it so your brain doesn’t explode (and to protect the not so innocent). My comments and translation of the ad copy are in italics.

Job Title: On-line Newsletter Operations Professional (On-line Newsletter Writer)

Principal Accountabilities (Principal accountabilities? Oh, I think you mean job tasks or position’s duties)

• Manages the daily activities necessary to produce the monthly and quarterly newsletters with a focus on the execution of the on-line newsletters (Write and edit monthly and quarterly on-line newsletters)

• Coordinates creation of each newsletter between internal content creators and an external partner (Work on newsletters with both internal and external parties)

• Manages external partner’s efforts to send each newsletter on-time (Make deadlines)

• Acts as primary resource for discussion on the capabilities of the newsletters (Collaborate with staff on how to produce effective newsletters)

• Assists with continuous testing efforts to improve the results of the newsletter program (Monitor newsletter results and create improvements if necessary)

[magicdog]

28 minutes ago, Bookish Jen said:

Another thing that bugs me about job want ads are the over-blown, ridiculous language they use. I actually responded to one ad on my blog with my more understandable prose:

I look at it this way:  I use those same descriptions when looking for work!  Makes me seem bigger in skills! 

[Ohiopirate02]

3 hours ago, bilgistic said:

The other day, I saw a job listing with a salary of $50K–$70K, and it required a master's degree or DOCTORAL DEGREE! These companies are out of control.

This really depends on the field.  I'm a librarian with the requisite master's degree, and I would kill to make that salary range while keeping the same level of responsibilities.  I may hit the lower end of that range next year if funding stays the same.  

[PepSinger]

22 hours ago, theredhead77 said:

That's crazy. Are they new to the work-force and somehow don't understand that most people don't get "Federal" holidays off?

And…

13 hours ago, Bastet said:

Adequate paid time off shouldn't be a "wow, so lucky!" thing, and it shouldn't only be available to medium- and high-earners in white collar jobs.  There are countries where an entire summer month is a paid shutdown for all but non-vital services, and nearly all industrialized nations other than the U.S. mandate some amount of paid vacation time for all; not just the scattered holidays throughout the year, but additional time to actually go somewhere.

I have been in the workforce since 2013. I was appalled when I realized that having federal holidays off weren’t a given, especially after coming out of K-12 and college where federal holidays were a plenty. At my first job, I started with two weeks off plus five federal holidays. That was it. No sick days were included. By the time I left, I had three weeks off & 6 holidays. My next job, I only got two weeks off, but I did have all federal holidays off. Then, I went to work in the hospital system, which is where I am at currently (although I’ve moved around in the system once). Now, while I’ve switched positions, I get 20 days off (vacation, sick, personal looped in together), and nine federal holidays. Next year, we will get Juneteenth off.

I say all this to say that just because something has “always been that way” doesn’t mean it’s right or good for employees. The reason people look forward to federal holidays is that they are probably hoping and praying for additional time off to live their lives because their current PTO is inadequate. The U.S. has an incredibly unhealthy work culture, and it needs to be fixed. Europe is so far ahead of us that it’s ridiculous. Personally, I think that no job should have less than three weeks off, no less than six sick days, and should have all federal holidays off. I’ve gotten to the point where I will not accept less than four weeks of PTO at any job going forward. Plus, I take a two week break during the holidays to work from home, which has been an improvement for my mental health since I’m able to be with my family. Highly recommend.