Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[violinp]

If you are a company which contracts with movie theaters to have your pre - show on their screens, it might be a good idea to try and make sure your pre - show, which was obviously meant to have sound*, y'know, has sound. Otherwise, literally everyone at the theater will be very cross with you, because the patrons are concerned that the movie's broken, and the workers have to tell a blue million people that, no, it's not the movie, it's the other guys. 

*We have the exact same pre - show in another auditorium which is playing a 3D version of the movie, and no - one is having any problems with sound there.

[cwm]

Speaking of gamers... boyfriend is making me play amnesia.... he said it was scary... its not even scary...

My BF had me play a game that he got on a recent humble bundle. I can't remember the name, but he said it was a scary game. I couldn't even play it, the camera sways back and forth and tilts, it looks like you're constantly tilting on your feet and can't stand straight. I don't even get motion sickness and I couldn't do it, it was so bad. It's not scary, it's literally nauseating.

[Isilleke]

I  have to nominate myself for PD.

About a month ago I was hired with the knowledge it would be a temporary job (until the end of January). I also told them during my interview that I was applying for the military and that is my main focus at the moment.

Well, come to find out after a week that they lied about several things, most importantly my pay (which is about $300/month less than they said) and that when you are on call you don't get paid for it. It bugs me a little, but not too much since I thought "it's better than nothing for a couple of months".  Also, since it's only temporary, I don't mind as much telling them I'll be late/can't come in because I have an interview or tests somewhere else.

Except now they want me to stay on for or good. On the one hand I'm reluctant because they lied and the job is very boring (I work maybe 2 hours total tops, which is totally fine by them... My first day we had lunch for over 3 hours with all 5 of us!! We sit close by the phone, but still, I can't imagine having to pay 5 people for just sitting there talking.) On the other hand, I do really like my coworkers  and if nothing else pans out at the very least I'm still "working".

[gramma dishes]

I  have to nominate myself for PD.

About a month ago I was hired with the knowledge it would be a temporary job (until the end of January). I also told them during my interview that I was applying for the military and that is my main focus at the moment.

Well, come to find out after a week that they lied about several things, most importantly my pay (which is about $300/month less than they said) and that when you are on call you don't get paid for it. It bugs me a little, but not too much since I thought "it's better than nothing for a couple of months".  Also, since it's only temporary, I don't mind as much telling them I'll be late/can't come in because I have an interview or tests somewhere else.

Except now they want me to stay on for or good. On the one hand I'm reluctant because they lied and the job is very boring (I work maybe 2 hours total tops, which is totally fine by them... My first day we had lunch for over 3 hours with all 5 of us!! We sit close by the phone, but still, I can't imagine having to pay 5 people for just sitting there talking.) On the other hand, I do really like my coworkers  and if nothing else pans out at the very least I'm still "working".

I wouldn't even consider accepting a full time position with them if they were dishonest about my pay.  Do you think that's going to change once you're there for good?  (I mean being truthful with you about very important things like pay!) 

First I'd find out what happened there before even remotely giving a thought to sticking around.  Maybe you misunderstood?  Maybe the person who told you what the pay was had it wrong?  Maybe bookkeeping messed up and you're really supposed to be getting more than you are?  Not paying what they promised is a HUGE thing!!

Also, have you already applied to the military?  Are you reconsidering that now?

[Isilleke]

I'

I  have to nominate myself for PD.

About a month ago I was hired with the knowledge it would be a temporary job (until the end of January). I also told them during my interview that I was applying for the military and that is my main focus at the moment.

Well, come to find out after a week that they lied about several things, most importantly my pay (which is about $300/month less than they said) and that when you are on call you don't get paid for it. It bugs me a little, but not too much since I thought "it's better than nothing for a couple of months".  Also, since it's only temporary, I don't mind as much telling them I'll be late/can't come in because I have an interview or tests somewhere else.

Except now they want me to stay on for or good. On the one hand I'm reluctant because they lied and the job is very boring (I work maybe 2 hours total tops, which is totally fine by them... My first day we had lunch for over 3 hours with all 5 of us!! We sit close by the phone, but still, I can't imagine having to pay 5 people for just sitting there talking.) On the other hand, I do really like my coworkers  and if nothing else pans out at the very least I'm still "working".

I wouldn't even consider accepting a full time position with them if they were dishonest about my pay.  Do you think that's going to change once you're there for good?  I mean being truthful with you about very important things like pay!!

Also, have you already applied to the military?  Are you reconsidering that now?

I've applied and have my tests on 12/12, but won't know anything until the 14th of January so fingers crossed! If (very big if since I had to work very hard physically and still am not really up to where I want to be) I get in, I can start in February. I'm mentally preparing myself that I won't, but the good news is that as long it's just the physical tests, I can retake them until June since there will be another start in September and I will know what to work on.

Yes, I was very appalled when I realised (I get paid by week, so it took me actually sitting down to look at it to let it sink in) and it is the main reason why I'm so reluctant.

[LazyDaisy]

I'

I  have to nominate myself for PD.

About a month ago I was hired with the knowledge it would be a temporary job (until the end of January). I also told them during my interview that I was applying for the military and that is my main focus at the moment.

Well, come to find out after a week that they lied about several things, most importantly my pay (which is about $300/month less than they said) and that when you are on call you don't get paid for it. It bugs me a little, but not too much since I thought "it's better than nothing for a couple of months".  Also, since it's only temporary, I don't mind as much telling them I'll be late/can't come in because I have an interview or tests somewhere else.

Except now they want me to stay on for or good. On the one hand I'm reluctant because they lied and the job is very boring (I work maybe 2 hours total tops, which is totally fine by them... My first day we had lunch for over 3 hours with all 5 of us!! We sit close by the phone, but still, I can't imagine having to pay 5 people for just sitting there talking.) On the other hand, I do really like my coworkers  and if nothing else pans out at the very least I'm still "working".

I wouldn't even consider accepting a full time position with them if they were dishonest about my pay.  Do you think that's going to change once you're there for good?  I mean being truthful with you about very important things like pay!!

Also, have you already applied to the military?  Are you reconsidering that now?

I've applied and have my tests on 12/12, but won't know anything until the 14th of January so fingers crossed! If (very big if since I had to work very hard physically and still am not really up to where I want to be) I get in, I can start in February. I'm mentally preparing myself that I won't, but the good news is that as long it's just the physical tests, I can retake them until June since there will be another start in September and I will know what to work on.

Yes, I was very appalled when I realised (I get paid by week, so it took me actually sitting down to look at it to let it sink in) and it is the main reason why I'm so reluctant.

My guess Isilleke is that you are an hourly rate employee and they gave you a general idea of what you could expect to earn per month based on a full-time amount of hours. Is this your first job? When you "worked out" the numbers did you take into account deductions from your paycheck for taxes? If you did factor that in, the only other explanation I can think of is that you didn't work the full number of hours because you arrived late or called out. I've never heard of someone "on call" being paid unless they were actually called in to work. Being on call means you have to be reachable and prepared to go in should they need you but isn't the same as working.

[FauxFoodist]

I've never heard of someone "on call" being paid unless they were actually called in to work. Being on call means you have to be reachable and prepared to go in should they need you but isn't the same as working.

I work in a public university hospital.  EVERYONE who is on call is paid what is called "stand-by" pay (which, for my department, is $5/hr; when working they get $20-25/hr).  It is somewhat like working because, when you are on call, you have to be ready to report no later than one hour from when you are activated to work.  The on-call employees may not be engaged in something that will prevent them from reporting for work in the required amount of time (like traveling further than one hour from work); that is why they get paid stand-by pay.

A friend of mine works for one of the state departments in IT.  When any of them are on call, they also get paid.

Everywhere I've worked that has employees on call has had to pay them to be on call.  If it helps, I'm in California.

[Isilleke]

I've never heard of someone "on call" being paid unless they were actually called in to work. Being on call means you have to be reachable and prepared to go in should they need you but isn't the same as working.

I work in a public university hospital.  EVERYONE who is on call is paid what is called "stand-by" pay (which, for my department, is $5/hr; when working they get $20-25/hr).  It is somewhat like working because, when you are on call, you have to be ready to report no later than one hour from when you are activated to work.  The on-call employees may not be engaged in something that will prevent them from reporting for work in the required amount of time (like traveling further than one hour from work); that is why they get paid standby pay.

A friend of mine works for one of the state departments in IT.  When any of them are on call, they also get paid.

Everywhere I've worked that has employees on call has had to pay them to be on call.  If it helps, I'm in California.

I'm in Europe, but everyone I know does get some. Not that much (my brother gets like 1$/h), but it's something.

My guess Isilleke is that you are an hourly rate employee and they gave you a general idea of what you could expect to earn per month based on a full-time amount of hours. Is this your first job? When you "worked out" the numbers did you take into account deductions from your paycheck for taxes? If you did factor that in, the only other explanation I can think of is that you didn't work the full number of hours because you arrived late or called out. I've never heard of someone "on call" being paid unless they were actually called in to work. Being on call means you have to be reachable and prepared to go in should they need you but isn't the same as working.

What I did was take my paycheck for a full week and look at how much I'm actually earning minus the holiday bonus (you get that immediately when you're not fully hired yet) and multiplied by 4. I know it's not going to be exactly that much, but I thought it would be a good indicator. I do realize I won't be getting the full amount since indeed I haven't worked fulltime every week, but I think I did calculate from a good beginning? Or did I do it completely wrong?

[ladyknight1]

When I was between jobs, I went to a few fairs and took a job with a information calling service. The amount promised, benefits cost and hours did not match the actual amounts once I started working. I also found that employees were penalized for time off, even for jury duty! The company was fined for fraudulent business practices after I left. I could only take three months of that.

[cwm]

Not sure if this counts as PD, as the person is gone already, but surely there should have been more oversight.

We have a huge back-end website where client companies send referrals for customers to us. Nearly every single of our 100+ client company base has its own unique website, all maintained on the main website. It's how we get a great deal of our referrals.

As of December 1st, our ownership of the domain expired. All of the notifications of the expiration of the domain went to a person who no longer works with our company. Nobody knew that the domain was set to expire until today.

Today was also the go-live date for one of our newest client companies. So now we have to tell them on their first day (and every single other client company) that we can't accept referrals through this method until it's fixed. Which is a process that usually takes 72 hours through the web hosting company. Luckily we managed to work with them and get it fixed as of 10:00 AM local time, but that's still something that you'd think someone would keep track of.

[ladyknight1]

We had an employee of the special kind. She spent all of her time working on super secret project that would make the world so much better! She frequently worked late or came in early, but she was salaried, so that was okay with everyone. Every staff meeting included a discussion about how SS project was going and how much it would drastically change workflow for the people in the department.

Two years of 40 hours a week on SS project. Suddenly, special employee gives notice and leaves to work at another institution.

We discover that not only is SS project not usable, it violates privacy law in the way it stores student information (not secure) and it duplicates processes and programs already in place. Also, special employee locked part of it so it can't be accessed! Three years after special employee's departure and we are still finding remnants of SS project in the webpages we manage.

[Shalamar]

Speaking of salaries not matching, I had something similar happen to me - but it was partly my fault for not getting anything in writing.  I was hired as a secretary back in the late 80's, and when they called to say that I had the job, they said "The salary is thirteen-fifty."  Stupid me thought they meant $13.50/hour, which was considerably more than minimum wage at the time, so I was thrilled.  It turned out that they meant $1,350/month, which translated into $8.30/hour - a smidge above minimum wage.  That was a crushing disappointment.

Plus, something they definitely didn't mention was that we only got paid once a month.  I was used to weekly or bi-weekly paycheques, and being very young and not very savvy, found that I kept running out of money before I ran out of month.

[LazyDaisy]

I've never heard of someone "on call" being paid unless they were actually called in to work. Being on call means you have to be reachable and prepared to go in should they need you but isn't the same as working.

I work in a public university hospital.  EVERYONE who is on call is paid what is called "stand-by" pay (which, for my department, is $5/hr; when working they get $20-25/hr).  It is somewhat like working because, when you are on call, you have to be ready to report no later than one hour from when you are activated to work.  The on-call employees may not be engaged in something that will prevent them from reporting for work in the required amount of time (like traveling further than one hour from work); that is why they get paid stand-by pay.

A friend of mine works for one of the state departments in IT.  When any of them are on call, they also get paid.

Everywhere I've worked that has employees on call has had to pay them to be on call.  If it helps, I'm in California.

I'm also in California. I guess I'm thinking more on the level of retail workers or food servers rather than healthcare workers.

side story: My sister-in-law was a dairy truck dispatcher (she coordinated the trucks to pick up when a dairyman had a load of fresh milk to go to the processing facility; which is a 24-hr 7-day-a-week job. Cow's have no respect for business hours or holidays) She did have regular office hours but since her job was primarily by telephone she had to be reachable when she was on call but would only get paid for time actually logged as work. The phone records were her "timesheet."

Back to Isilleke: When you used "$" I assumed you were in the US. It tends to be a shock for young workers to receive their first paychecks here and see deductions for things like federal social security taxes, medicare, and state income taxes, etc. Low wage earners usually eventually receive that money back when they file a tax return, but it's deducted up front. I'm not sure what kind of taxes or other deductions may be taken from a paycheck in Europe so I don't know if you missed anything -- I would hope that if applicable they would be noted somewhere on a payroll stub. I would also double check that what you have for your hours worked is equal to what your employer has recorded. Other than that I'm not sure why you would want to continue on permanently with what sounds like a very bad job.

[purplerainbow]

I knew a guy who seemed to get fired/dismissed from every job I ever knew him to have.
- Working at a school uniform shop. OK, to be fair, he had had his gallbladder removed. However, he didn't help himself by drinking heavily while on medication, or complaining about every conceivable aspect of the job, pulling sickies.
- Working at major supermarket chain #1. He complained that he was being treated like an idiot and made to do the donkey work, stuff he already knew how to do ( they HAVE to show you how to mop the floor as part of your training, so you don't stray from basic staff procedure, and to cover their backs; get over it! ), whining about which department he was put in, taking more sickies, drinking while on medication again.
- At supermarket chain #2. Whining about which shifts he was put on ( um, you're new, you're going to get the unpopular shifts until you're established! ), talking to colleagues about other colleagues behind their backs (something he did to everyone, so it got around), taking more sickies, drinking on medication again.
- On his university course to become a music teacher for high schools, he was required to do placements/work experience of so many days in schools. He went out drinking and slept in during the day, rarely turned up, and then said the university was "mean" for wanting him to make up the extra days. He tried to blame his absences on his medical conditions related to the removed gallbladder... sorry, but when you're on strong opiate medicine and STILL go out drinking until you black out at every opportunity, you're not helping yourself.
He shared inappropriate information with students. For example, he's into men... nothing wrong with that (I'm into both men and women myself), but high school kids do not need to hear that Mr Blueberry spent the weekend with his boyfriend (emphasis!), and they had male+male scrabble. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for supporting students who want to know more about LGBT issues etc, but the thing about teaching is, you have to draw a line between your personal and professional personas. (My mother has been a teacher for 20+ years, and I work in schools myself.) He let the kids out of class early when he couldn't be bothered teaching (which of course is against the rules), and was utterly convinced that he was the only person to understand certain students, who he claimed were really gifted but those other MEAN teachers didn't see it.
I haven't seen him in a few years... I have no idea if he got his teaching diploma. I hope not. 



Oh, and just because I only recently started reading this thread, and am still way back at page 40 or something, there's one post I do know of. The rest of you have probably forgotten about it by now, but I can expand on this one for you:

 I work in an adult oriented kid friendly store, adults looking at clothes, with alot of kids running around. My (former) co-worker referred to kids as cr@tch fruit. Usually when she was off duty. Well, she slipped up one day and told a customer to "keep her bratty little cr@tch fruit from running around." The customer she said that too was our new DM. Co-worker was fired 2 days later.

The only place I've actually seen that phrase used is on a movie review site called Pajiba. I wonder if the person who got fired was a Pajiba regular?

The term (among other non-Ehell approved ones) is used in the ChildFree community (people who choose not to have children, and don't want them - not to be confused with childLESS people, who want children but don't/can't have them for whatever reason). 
I am Childfree, but nowhere near as extreme as some of the people I know. The CF community has a lot of (often offensive) terms for children and some of those who have them. However, most CFers I know of, only use them when ranting to other CF people, not to parents or children. If anyone wants to know more, or discuss it further, feel free to make another thread. I'll happily contribute.
By the way - of course I in no way condone, support or agree with what the coworker said or did - that was highly unprofessional.

[WishUponAStar]

Before my current job, I worked at my university (work study) in an office. Basically, you answered phones, filed files, and assisted students who came in to drop off or pick up paperwork. One girl worked with us very briefly. I was the one who trained her and boy, what a headache!

Her very first day:

1) After showing her around, I said, ''Looks like we have some deliveries to make in the building. Can you take them?'' She only went after rolling her eyes multiple times. She basically never delivered things.
2) She wouldn't answer the phone. She would just look at it/me/whatever coworker she was with. Even if they were already on the other line.
3) She would be rather unhelpful when people came in needing things.


Pure laziness. I know this was a work study job, but she'd already had one before so she knew how to work. And this job represented a major part of the university (specific college within) because transfers and new students often had to come in. She never got fired, but thankfully quit after that summer.