The Bitching Thread

[Buffalobiian]

She took a page out of Gasai Yuno's book.

[Sapphire]

This semester is going to be... fun.

[Uchiha Barles]

You know, she offered to pay you. So instead of telling her no, if she approaches you again, remind her of your tenure in that room and how much of an inconvenience it would be for you to move. Remind her she offered to pay, and then state the price at which you would be willing to suffer the inconvenience of moving. If she comes up with that kind of money, hey, win win . If not, well...fuck her .

edit: Make sure there are no witnesses and no recording devices on you when she pays you, and demand the payment be made in cash. Bitch might try to screw you out of your money afterwards.

[Animeniax]

Why are people so unreliable, even for the smallest requests?

I'm filling out a job application that requires supervisor and coworker references. I've been trying every method possible to locate my supervisors and coworkers from a job I had more than 7 years ago. I've emailed them repeatedly, emailed others who might be able to get in touch with them, called their companies multiple times trying to locate them, and even emailed them on facebook... no replies. One of them even updated his profile picture since I emailed him, but didn't bother to reply to my email. Why are people so unreliable?

[Uchiha Barles]

Why are people so unreliable, even for the smallest requests?

I'm filling out a job application that requires supervisor and coworker references. I've been trying every method possible to locate my supervisors and coworkers from a job I had more than 7 years ago. I've emailed them repeatedly, emailed others who might be able to get in touch with them, called their companies multiple times trying to locate them, and even emailed them on facebook... no replies. One of them even updated his profile picture since I emailed him, but didn't bother to reply to my email. Why are people so unreliable?

They probably don't want to be bothered so they're ignoring you. It's pretty assholish unless they're constantly bombarded with reference requests even from people they barely even knew in passing. This is why it's important to make and keep some kind of contact (i.e. fake friendships) with people you work with. This is true in particular of your immediate supervisor.

If you're finding yourself with no other option, you probably want to keep a-knockin' until they begrudge a response.

[Animeniax]

They probably don't want to be bothered so they're ignoring you. It's pretty assholish unless they're constantly bombarded with reference requests even from people they barely even knew in passing. This is why it's important to make and keep some kind of contact (i.e. fake friendships) with people you work with. This is true in particular of your immediate supervisor.

If you're finding yourself with no other option, you probably want to keep a-knockin' until they begrudge a response.

I've always tried to keep a good relationship with all of my coworkers. I don't like the idea of fake friendships just to keep connections, hence my lack of a real facebook account. People have 1000 "friends" on there but they'd be lucky to count even 5 of them as real friends.

As far as the guys I'm trying to contact, I had what I thought was a good relationship with them, though I haven't contacted any of them for 7 years or more. I'm especially upset with my former supervisor who gave my pretty high reviews every year that got me 5% merit increases each time, but now he won't even bother to return a facebook message request.

What really annoys me is how this application process checks that far back in your work history. The way things are in the 21st century, you'll be lucky if you know anyone at your old company once you've been away for a year or two. People switch companies and jobs like it's nothing these days, so keeping track of them is nearly impossible.

[rockmanj]

I've always tried to keep a good relationship with all of my coworkers. I don't like the idea of fake friendships just to keep connections, hence my lack of a real facebook account. People have 1000 "friends" on there but they'd be lucky to count even 5 of them as real friends.

As far as the guys I'm trying to contact, I had what I thought was a good relationship with them, though I haven't contacted any of them for 7 years or more. I'm especially upset with my former supervisor who gave my pretty high reviews every year that got me 5% merit increases each time, but now he won't even bother to return a facebook message request.

What really annoys me is how this application process checks that far back in your work history. The way things are in the 21st century, you'll be lucky if you know anyone at your old company once you've been away for a year or two. People switch companies and jobs like it's nothing these days, so keeping track of them is nearly impossible.

Yea, it is a tricky thing. I was always told that now it is good to send a note about every 6 months or so to your contacts just to let them know you are still alive. It is a bit unreasonable for those with large networks. People can only maintain something between 100-230 relationships total (in theory anyway). Hopefully someone gets back to you.

[Animeniax]

Yea, it is a tricky thing. I was always told that now it is good to send a note about every 6 months or so to your contacts just to let them know you are still alive. It is a bit unreasonable for those with large networks. People can only maintain something between 100-230 relationships total (in theory anyway). Hopefully someone gets back to you.

My faith in humanity is restored somewhat... 2 of the contacts replied, but it was more my diligence than anything. I had "hello" in the subject and I remembered from way back in 2004-2005 when the company was deluged with spam email containing "hello" in the subject which forced us to implement filtering of those email. So I re-sent with a new title and they replied.

Of course, the 2 I contacted using Facebook messaging have yet to reply, though that could be because we're from an older generation and we don't really use Facebook.

[Uchiha Barles]

See, there you go. Looks like you did indeed handle your networking duties appropriately and simply forgot a little bit of protocol necessary to get attention. My facebook sits virtually unused. I don't usually go on it unless for some reason my friends decide to use it to send out invites to events I'm interested in. So just use the same sense you did for the two that responded, and contact the other two through their e-mails if you have them.

[Animeniax]

See, there you go. Looks like you did indeed handle your networking duties appropriately and simply forgot a little bit of protocol necessary to get attention. My facebook sits virtually unused. I don't usually go on it unless for some reason my friends decide to use it to send out invites to events I'm interested in. So just use the same sense you did for the two that responded, and contact the other two through their e-mails if you have them.

Thanks for the tips and keeping faith. I've never been good about maintaining contact with people. I'm a bit of a pragmatist in that I focus on the here and now (and somewhat for the future), including with people. So if you're not a part of my daily life, I tend to lose touch with you.

What really bugs me about the Facebook contacts is that I've seen them make other updates to their facebook pages, but they've yet to respond to my messages. Maybe they didn't notice the little '1' flag on their messaging icon because they don't use it much, or maybe their Facebook accounts are tied to email accounts they don't check regularly. But it's the only contact info I have for them, otherwise I'd send them repeated email messages directly until they had no choice but to respond.

[complich8]

Yea, it is a tricky thing. I was always told that now it is good to send a note about every 6 months or so to your contacts just to let them know you are still alive. It is a bit unreasonable for those with large networks. People can only maintain something between 100-230 relationships total (in theory anyway).

Good ol' "Monkeysphere" (aka "Dunbar's Number"). Out of my list of facebook friends, probably 1/4 of them would draw no reaction beyond a passing "huh... it really makes you think" if I found out they were found dead in some grisly way.

What really bugs me about the Facebook contacts is that I've seen them make other updates to their facebook pages, but they've yet to respond to my messages. Maybe they didn't notice the little '1' flag on their messaging icon because they don't use it much, or maybe their Facebook accounts are tied to email accounts they don't check regularly. But it's the only contact info I have for them, otherwise I'd send them repeated email messages directly until they had no choice but to respond.

My officemate at work offers another possible explanation. I've seen his facebook front page. At any given time, all three notifier numbers are pegged at some ridiculously high number. IIRC after a certain number they just give up and say like "99+" or "300+".

If you've got more messages to catch up on on facebook than minutes in your day, you'd never notice a legit request in the noise. That's where being a facebook friend and having them provide their current email/phone to friends is useful! Call up and be like "WTF Bitches!!!" and then ask them for a nice letter of recommendation ...

Also, going back 7 years? You getting a clearance? Or just some other kind of background investigation? 'cause IIRC Secret and TS roll out the SSBI and go to 10 years minimum now...

[Buffalobiian]

Also, going back 7 years? You getting a clearance? Or just some other kind of background investigation? 'cause IIRC Secret and TS roll out the SSBI and go to 10 years minimum now...

I would have thought that Ani just doesn't change jobs very often and one of his "previous 3" jobs or something dates back 7 years ago.

My new small-classroom-permament-study-people group decided to pick Facebook for our communication means. I'll have to use it now.

[Animeniax]

Good ol' "Monkeysphere" (aka "Dunbar's Number"). Out of my list of facebook friends, probably 1/4 of them would draw no reaction beyond a passing "huh... it really makes you think" if I found out they were found dead in some grisly way.

Also, going back 7 years? You getting a clearance? Or just some other kind of background investigation? 'cause IIRC Secret and TS roll out the SSBI and go to 10 years minimum now...

It's a background investigation for a job in law enforcement. They actually check 10 years back into your work and personal history but the job I listed spanned from 7 years to 13 years ago in my work history. I won't get a clearance but I'd like to get one eventually as it would open up job opportunities, but that's for the future. Right now I'm thinking locally.

My officemate at work offers another possible explanation. I've seen his facebook front page. At any given time, all three notifier numbers are pegged at some ridiculously high number. IIRC after a certain number they just give up and say like "99+" or "300+".

If you've got more messages to catch up on on facebook than minutes in your day, you'd never notice a legit request in the noise. That's where being a facebook friend and having them provide their current email/phone to friends is useful! Call up and be like "WTF Bitches!!!" and then ask them for a nice letter of recommendation ...

That could be the case but we're old school... most of the people I worked with are an older generation and do not use Facebook. The person I posted about in particular only has 76 FB friends and not much activity in general. He still hasn't replied, so I used another reference. He was a cool supervisor and a nice guy, so I'm sure there are legitimate reasons he hasn't responded.

[Animeniax]

Thought this was apropos in light of my criticisms of facebook "networking":

AFw5Z.jpg

[Sapphire]

I got in an argument with a trainee about how to clearly organize task sheets. (Her own badly done sheets made her screw up.... and were pretty incomprehensible for any outsider.)

She ended up saying "I'll do it your way on your sheets and how I want on all of the other sheets". I was like, wat.

[Animeniax]

You seem like a combative person, Sapphy. Do you tend to engender defensiveness by being aggressive, or are you the one trying to be nice and that in turn elicits aggressive responses from those you deal with?

My bitch: took an online exam for my community college class today, got 86/100. I hate multiple choice exams. I found at least 5 questions with multiple correct answers, but the test won't let you backtrack to see your responses or change answers. What a crappy testing system.

[Sapphire]

She takes a lot of short-cuts, and she got pissed cuz she thinks not taking short-cuts is an insult to everyone's intelligence, and use useless "busy-work". I never get angry or provoke a fight at work (or in my living space).

[Buffalobiian]

My bitch: took an online exam for my community college class today, got 86/100. I hate multiple choice exams. I found at least 5 questions with multiple correct answers, but the test won't let you backtrack to see your responses or change answers. What a crappy testing system.

I love multiple choice.

There was this exam one time that had 2 questions with the second question dependant upon your answer of the first one. I couldn't get the first question to match any of the choices, so I worked backwards from the possible answers of the 2nd question to find the one that has a matching response from the 1st question.

A good MCQ paper shouldn't allow this to happen.

[Buffalobiian]

I'm stuck with 32kbps internet for a week+.

[Animeniax]

I'm stuck with 32kbps internet for a week+.

Just think how much more productive you may be without internet access. I'd see it as a challenge to take care of stuff you've been putting off.