…so…it’s sunday…the day of rest…but for reasons surpassing understanding it’s me putting this together so where you deserve lots of nice lazy-day stuff & links to amusing things on twitter & all that other stuff you can rely on the likes of @megmegmcgee to provide…I’ll give you three guesses what I’ve got?
…I mean…I’m not saying I’m going to hit you with links until you feel like you’ve been beset by talking tiger for their own amusement…but that’s mainly because I’m not as cool as hobbes…& speaking of shit that ain’t cool
At a wide range of departments and agencies, Mr. Trump’s political appointees are going to extraordinary lengths to try to prevent Mr. Biden from rolling back the president’s legacy.
Inquiries into the president and his businesses, one criminal and one civil, are now looking at tax deductions taken on consulting fees. Some of the payments appear to have gone to Ivanka Trump.
…so it does seem like this guy might have a point about “the market” not being likely to be what grants us salvation
Student loans are the kind of debt from which there is often no escape. They generally cannot be discharged by claiming bankruptcy. Deferment and forbearance periods are finite. If you default, the stain of it will follow you for quite a long time. The consequences can be devastating — wage garnishments, no tax refunds, whatever the government needs to do to get its money back — and your credit score can be destroyed.
Giuliani in Public: ‘It’s a Fraud.’ Giuliani in Court: ‘This Is Not a Fraud Case.’
…here’s a spot of tucker-fucking-carlson-asshole-extraordinaire…being almost rational about the whole undermining-the-electoral-result-with-utter-bullshit thing?
Tucker Carlson Dared Question a Trump Lawyer. The Backlash Was Quick.
…& you know what…for once I think calvin might have it wrong?
…not least since there’s an unsettling argument to be made that the pretty-definitely-doomed efforts of the biggest & sorest loser in the land aren’t intended to succeed in their own right but to drive the thin end of several wedges into various things in the hope of making similar efforts in the future shift from the desperate-nonsense category into the this-time-it-might-fly column
Donald Trump Is Leaving Behind Blueprints to End Democracy
…which I’d like to say doesn’t bear contemplating
Republicans Supporting Trump, Remember: Lies Have a Long Half-Life
…except for the fact that we need to head that shit off at the proverbial pass
President Trump and his lawyers are engaged in a spectacle that would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous, and if the stakes weren’t so high.
…still & all…at least we know there’s people on the ground trying to make those hard yards
One of the Nation’s Closest House Races Is Down to a 100-Vote Margin
…so…with that in mind…here’s something a little nicer for your sunday…& since I know a number of you have been watching the crown & a little bit of british influence seemed appropriate…we’ll start with a translation guide of sorts
Kate Tempest: 13 Commandments […do check that one out – it might not want to embed here…but there’s a lot of sentiment in it that you could do worse than embed in your sunday vibe?]
…& finally…in case you ever decide to be nice enough to offer a cup of tea to a brit, here’s doc brown again to tell you how to avoid it backfiring on you
42 Comments
am i the only one thats a little bit concerned about a vaccine?
i mean…. dont get me wrong…i dont doubt theyve done all the testing they could do
just seems a little short term to figure out the long term term is all
welp anyhoo…when the gubment tells me to ill be getting vacinated…not like i give a fuck…ill add it to the pile of shit that will kill me before i get to reitre.
…I don’t think you’re alone in that concern, to be fair…certainly the FDA & their counterparts in other places are doing a good deal to try to provide clarity about the safety of such things?
…there’s not really a way to know that kind of thing, sure…but we’ve been doing vaccinations for a long time, one way or another…& off the top of my head I can’t think of one that has that kind of concern attached to it
…or at least a concern of that sort that seems to be valid…clearly these days there are no end of dubiously-founded claims about the evils of various childhood vaccinations that are espoused by the anti-vaxxer contingent…but I’m not aware of any of those making it beyond correlation & into causation territory?
*shrugs*
tbh……part of me is hoping for the end of mankind
tho…i was kinda aiming for a fire and brimstone kind of finale
but i guess i can live with a wet fart of a pandemic
…I believe that’s what bill hicks referred to as “that wacky fire & brimstone, revelations ending”
…& some folks these days seem to go with #teamasteroid as a shorthand for something similar
…but…I dunno…I think I like the good omens version better…I think the norse myths were on a similar tip, too…some end-of-the-worlds are less permanent than others?
Well, hell, maybe if you wish hard enough the vaccine will cause some hideous mutations down the line and we’ll have our zombie apocalypse after all. 🙂
My plan is to give it a month or so, if I can, before getting the vaccine. The problem is that I work for a hospital (although currently working from home), so they may do what they do with the flu vaccine and make it mandatory. We’ll see what happens.
why wait?
i mean shit…..not like you’ll be able to tell the effects anyhoos
they’re gonna inject the old biddies first
and old biddies die
ergo….it must be safe……….(i should be fucking management)
Well, like you said, this whole process has been rather rushed and I’d like to see if there are any short-term side effects as a result of rushing this out the door. For example, when the first polio vaccine was distributed, it was supposed to be of the dead virus variety–but in the rush to get it out, one of the manufacturers screwed up one of the batches and sent it out with live virus, which resulted in a bunch of kids getting polio from it, and a few of them dying. I’d prefer to just give it a little time to make sure the distribution of the COVID vaccine doesn’t suffer from the same problem.
They’ve been working on the vaccine since patient zero.
My only worry is there are enough anti vax nutjobs around the world to make it functionally useless.
weeeell…. on that note
over here the gubment is considering not letting you do shit if you arent vaccinated
you must be this vaccinated to enter this club *holds up two birdies*
its rare for me to agree with the gubment…but in this case im in their corner
i respect your beliefs as an anti vaxer and a human….just stay the fuck away from me plague bag.
I also agree with your gubmint. But here in the land of the free! *pounds chest* Home of the brave! *stabs you with an eagle* you can’t MAKE ME because I’ve got RIGHTS even if my rights KILL YOUR GRANNY.
And lest you think it’s just the RWNJs running this show, plenty of crunchy green juice drinking crystal healing lefties won’t subject themselves or their little Neveahs or Redwoods to the needle either.
yeah…….lol
you lot are baffling….land of the free….but you put up with police brutality (tho…admittedly…not so much no mo…good on yous)
home of the brave
but everyone needs to be armed in case of home invasion
*shrugs*
me no comprende
you lot are fucking wierd
And lest you think it’s just the RWNJs running this show, plenty of crunchy green juice drinking crystal healing lefties won’t subject themselves or their little Neveahs or Redwoods to the needle either.
Weird how that horseshoe-shaped distribution links tinfoil hat wearers and self-regarding hippies in the same libertarian/anti-government boat. [Also, that the name Nevaeh has this broad appeal to crystal keepers and the hyper-religious alike.]
I’m not as worried about the anti-vaxxers as I am about all the right wing imbeciles who insist that COVID is a hoax. There’s a lot more of them out there.
Observations…
1) It turns out I have a Trumper in my vague social Canada City circle. He comes from a rich family, pretty much pissed away every good opportunity he’s had, deluded that none of his problems are his fault and he’s married badly now divorced. It is shocking to many folks, but not to me.
On the other hand, he lost his job almost a year ago and is floundering, cast adrift without purpose. That is about the only thing I sympathize with him on. I’ve been there. It sucks. However, my sympathy for his situation ends there as I didn’t constantly vote/support people who believe only rich people should get everything they want and everyone else suffer (unlike him.) So he’s watching ONAN and Faux Newz/reading Breibart and they’re telling him to blame immigrants, liebruls and antifa which he does. Added to this is him not realizing that his closest friend in the group is an naturalized citizen and liebrul.
2) Communication/empathy really is an issue. Turns out someone else in my vague social circle always tries to look on the bright side of life even if it is pancreatic cancer. I don’t know what the hell he said to the others, but my sick friend suddenly got people asking him to come out with them like he’s not really really sick (and extremely immuno-compromised which isn’t good in non CoVID times.)
One of them is my ex-roommate/ex-friend who has a habit of telling people how they should feel especially when he wants them to do WHAT HE WANTS (which is wrong most of the time, but I find extremely infuriating in this situation.) He tried to pull that on my sick friend so I almost called the ex-friend up to rip him a new one after my sick friend mentioned that to me. Turns out someone who doesn’t have a personal vendetta against the ex-friend (ie: not me) told him to knock it off. For that I am glad. According to the friend who did talk to him, ex-friend was floored and somewhat ashamed. That’s good enough as some reality pierced through the mental bubble where my ex-friend’s mind mostly lives in.
3) Some folks do lead insulated lives even in the age of CoVID.
One thing I’ve learned is that money is a shit insulator against reality. Don’t get me wrong, having money is a comforting and it’s better to have some more than less. Having too much makes one smug and unprepared against harsh reality (been there too.) Also wanting it too much poisons ones mind.
4) I relearned that the things you literally sweat/bleed for is more precious than things given to you. Working as a grunt and not paper pusher re-taught me that.
Thanks to my safety crusades, the fact I trained 40% of them and quiet leadership style over the years, I earned the respect and influence among my coworkers. I am a mere loner (in terms of race and background-sadly racial politics is big where I am) and without a patron saint in management. I’ve heard certain managers bitch about the “power” I have on the floor and my alleged cult of personality.
I am the first one to laugh about cult of personality. If I have one, I earned it. “Follow me” is my leadership philosophy. I don’t try to fuck over my fellow workers. I try to be fair on things including OT which always causes a big fight. I’ve even fought management over things that don’t benefit me at all (also because I think I like to tilt windmills.) I try to do my best for my coworkers (even if they don’t see it and even if I don’t really like them.) My views were the same when I was supervisor years ago.
Yet I’ve always clashed with people who never really earned their leadership roles only had it handed to them. Like the typical rich kid who was born on third base and believes they hit a triple. Makes them feel insecure, I’m told. Don’t try to make them feel insecure when you act like a leader. This is kind of like having people tell others to be nice to the bully.
To all insecure jackasses: “Hey, if you don’t want to be an insecure leader then be an actual leader. Don’t go around acting like you know everything. Learn it. Listen. Grow a spine. Be a reasonable and relatively fair person then maybe people might respect you instead of trying to fight those who make one “feel” bad.”
But it’s a fuck lot easier to just remove pains in the ass/leaders than be one.
As Farscythe said yesterday, whoever first said that money can’t buy happiness was probably rich. Money can damned sure buy the peace of mind that comes with not having to worry how you’ll avoid becoming homeless (much less how to get out of homelessness), or being able to get medical attention when you need it–and peace of mind is the doorway to happiness. My criminal father was one of those people who chased money at the expense of literally everything, and everyone, else. That’s why he died alone and nobody knew about it for a few days. This was a problem of his own making.
Regarding the leadership thing, I’m right there with you. Leaders lead–they don’t push. One of the ways that leaders lead is by developing good relationships with their workers. They don’t have to be best friends, but they should know something about their lives and understand that a person doesn’t just shut their life off when they clock into work. I learned that lesson about 7 years ago (far too late than I should have learned it), and it served me very well during my most recent leadership role at work. I’m currently a worker bee in a completely different department (and making more money than I did as a manager–go figure), and I’m fortunate enough to have a good manager. I’m lucky enough to make enough money to not worry about things the way I used to, and I also don’t have to deal with the headaches of being a manager. The best of both worlds. Right now I have high class problems, like the fact that our cesspool failed and there’s nowhere to put another one. It’ll cost a goddamned fortune to resolve the problem, but it won’t bankrupt us and put us in the street. It’ll simply mean we have to live without certain luxuries like date nights and vacations. But, it’s a far cry better than the days when I had to figure out how to live on $27 a month so I’ll take that trade any day of the week.
…money in sufficient quantities is a disturbingly good insulator from many of the harsher aspects of reality that are unavoidable without it
…but the flip side of that is that should those money walls be overcome at some point the collapse is liable to be of more cataclysmic proportions not just because there’s farther to fall but because the people who rely on that kind of insulation (in many cases at least) are fundamentally fragile…it’s often one of the reasons they try to buy their way into the illusion that reality is the way they’d like to believe it is & they’re better than people who can’t do the same…the trump family would appear to be a particularly stark example of that tendency, for example
…I like to joke that “character building” is synonymous with “no fun” but in truth adversity can make for the most resilient characters while the “powerful” in financial/privileged terms can be the opposite…I’m pretty sure it’s what hemmingway was on about when he said this:
“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”
…either way it’s certainly true that the kind of respect you earn is worth any amount of the kind that’s bought or otherwise leveraged out of an unequal dynamic…& most people who rely on the latter kinds know it, too…it’s what makes them so desperately insecure…& why they have such childish responses when dealing with people who they realize can see that…at least in my experience?
“I’ve heard certain managers bitch about the “power” I have on the floor and my alleged cult of personality.”
A long time ago I spent 10 years working for a man who spent 27 years in the Special Forces as a sergeant major. Two tours in Vietnam. Not an officer — an enlisted man. He taught me more about managing people than I ever learned in any of my management classes.
One of the things he taught me (along with a vast and comprehensive knowledge of profanity) was preemptive positive reinforcement, although he’d never have called it that. He’d do nice things for people in other departments, without a specific reason. Do them little favors, bring them little gifts, etc. He’d even do it to me. I asked him why and he told me that when he needed something from one of them, he always got it. He told me “Someday I’m going to need to go above and beyond. When I do, you’ll remember this.”
My first professional job was working in a marketing agency where I wrote copy but I was dependent on graphic artists for layouts. There was a pool of 30 or so and you didn’t know who you’d get assigned. I’d take my job jacket and walk to their department and sit down and chat and go over everything with them. Some of them I’d bring little presents and treats for.
At my first review my “manager” (moron) told me I was not being efficient and I should just email these people and I was wasting time. I pulled out my job tickets and pointed out that my jobs were done in almost half the time as the entire rest of the staff (about 70 people). I asked her if she saw any correlation there and who was more efficient, me or the other 69 account managers?
My last manager there, a friend, finally called me into his office one day and said, dude, you gotta stop. I said, stop what? He said every time one of your jobs goes back to art (and I had the highest account load in the company when I left — correlation there obvious) they drop whatever else they’re doing and work on your stuff. It’s pissing everybody else off. I’m like, nah, I’m good. I don’t ask the artists to do me favors (well, rarely, anyhow). I don’t have to. If other people are pissed off they can tell me. And by the way, I’m billing more than $2 million annually. Didn’t hear about it again.
The point is, treating people nicely isn’t a personality cult — it’s being a human being. Unsurprisingly enough, at least to normal folks, most people will react positively to such treatment and to you.
Biden should be doing this, but of course he isn’t–and won’t. He’s too locked into that whole “healing the country” thing to realize that doing exactly what is laid out in the opinion piece will do far more to heal the country and letting Trump spew his bullshit unchallenged.
…I am entirely behind the suggestion that biden & the dems should be pushing the two-faced insincerity of the bullshit narrative these assholes are running with precisely because that narrative is a front in what amounts to a war based on the reality people (unbelievable numbers of people as it turns out) actually believe they live in despite copious evidence to the contrary
…but then I tended to think more ought to have been made of the dubious underpinnings of the shit that pushed Dolt45 over the electoral college line last time…& I’m pretty sure that was avoided primarily so as not to fan the flames of potential illegitimacy when it comes to the result of US elections…despite the grounds last time seeming to be a good deal more substantial than this go around
…so it’s very possibly a good thing I don’t have much influence on that sort of thing…I’m prone to naive beliefs like “facts matter & people aren’t as dumb as they sometimes seem”…which is the kind of thing that currently comes off as wildly irresponsible?
Thank you for the Katie Tempest link. I think that she is right about this “In every single person there exists a possible perfection”. Her joy and optimism are both wise and infectious.
Yesterday Boggs really pulled a fast one on old Ma. I couldn’t find him. In my 1000 sq ft condo. The only furniture he can go under is the bed and I tore that apart. I looked in closets, cabinets, the DISHWASHER. I was calling him & shaking his food dish. I even looked in the building vestibule and outside because I took out the trash, but there’s no way he could sneak out without my noticing. After 20 min I finally called my dad in a total panic. Boggs emerges from inside my entertainment center, asleep behind the tv. WHAT. WHY.
I needed to go lay down, but I ripped all my sheets off looking for a cat.
I’m authorizing you guys to discuss this stuff on my behalf, because I’m checking out. My plan for today is to not do a goddamn thing that requires more effort than pressing a button or strumming a string.
am i the only one thats a little bit concerned about a vaccine?
i mean…. dont get me wrong…i dont doubt theyve done all the testing they could do
just seems a little short term to figure out the long term term is all
welp anyhoo…when the gubment tells me to ill be getting vacinated…not like i give a fuck…ill add it to the pile of shit that will kill me before i get to reitre.
…I don’t think you’re alone in that concern, to be fair…certainly the FDA & their counterparts in other places are doing a good deal to try to provide clarity about the safety of such things?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/21/vaccines-advocates-nurses-doctors-coronavirus
*shrugs*
i mean shit…that confirms no stones have been skipped in the the testing this year
but what about ten years from now?
…there’s not really a way to know that kind of thing, sure…but we’ve been doing vaccinations for a long time, one way or another…& off the top of my head I can’t think of one that has that kind of concern attached to it
…or at least a concern of that sort that seems to be valid…clearly these days there are no end of dubiously-founded claims about the evils of various childhood vaccinations that are espoused by the anti-vaxxer contingent…but I’m not aware of any of those making it beyond correlation & into causation territory?
*shrugs*
tbh……part of me is hoping for the end of mankind
tho…i was kinda aiming for a fire and brimstone kind of finale
but i guess i can live with a wet fart of a pandemic
…I believe that’s what bill hicks referred to as “that wacky fire & brimstone, revelations ending”
…& some folks these days seem to go with #teamasteroid as a shorthand for something similar
…but…I dunno…I think I like the good omens version better…I think the norse myths were on a similar tip, too…some end-of-the-worlds are less permanent than others?
/me is team fucking end me….if you can
Well, hell, maybe if you wish hard enough the vaccine will cause some hideous mutations down the line and we’ll have our zombie apocalypse after all. 🙂
heres to hoping 😀
I need to watch that show again soon. Before it’s too close to home to enjoy.
oh on a side note
welcome here mate
good seeing you 🙂
My plan is to give it a month or so, if I can, before getting the vaccine. The problem is that I work for a hospital (although currently working from home), so they may do what they do with the flu vaccine and make it mandatory. We’ll see what happens.
why wait?
i mean shit…..not like you’ll be able to tell the effects anyhoos
they’re gonna inject the old biddies first
and old biddies die
ergo….it must be safe……….(i should be fucking management)
Well, like you said, this whole process has been rather rushed and I’d like to see if there are any short-term side effects as a result of rushing this out the door. For example, when the first polio vaccine was distributed, it was supposed to be of the dead virus variety–but in the rush to get it out, one of the manufacturers screwed up one of the batches and sent it out with live virus, which resulted in a bunch of kids getting polio from it, and a few of them dying. I’d prefer to just give it a little time to make sure the distribution of the COVID vaccine doesn’t suffer from the same problem.
Yeah, big oops there.
They’ve been working on the vaccine since patient zero.
My only worry is there are enough anti vax nutjobs around the world to make it functionally useless.
weeeell…. on that note
over here the gubment is considering not letting you do shit if you arent vaccinated
you must be this vaccinated to enter this club *holds up two birdies*
its rare for me to agree with the gubment…but in this case im in their corner
i respect your beliefs as an anti vaxer and a human….just stay the fuck away from me plague bag.
I also agree with your gubmint. But here in the land of the free! *pounds chest* Home of the brave! *stabs you with an eagle* you can’t MAKE ME because I’ve got RIGHTS even if my rights KILL YOUR GRANNY.
And lest you think it’s just the RWNJs running this show, plenty of crunchy green juice drinking crystal healing lefties won’t subject themselves or their little Neveahs or Redwoods to the needle either.
yeah…….lol
you lot are baffling….land of the free….but you put up with police brutality (tho…admittedly…not so much no mo…good on yous)
home of the brave
but everyone needs to be armed in case of home invasion
*shrugs*
me no comprende
you lot are fucking wierd
I don’t get it either and that apparently makes me pinko commie scum!
welp pinko commie scum is always welcome in my house
you ever find yourself on this side of the pond theres a room for you 🙂
Weird how that horseshoe-shaped distribution links tinfoil hat wearers and self-regarding hippies in the same libertarian/anti-government boat. [Also, that the name Nevaeh has this broad appeal to crystal keepers and the hyper-religious alike.]
Thinking of making a mask that says “stay the fuck away from me plague bag” LOL…
I bet you could sell thousands of those 😂
🤔 Maybe enough to quit having to work for those plague bag employers of yours…
That’s how you live the dream.
I’m not as worried about the anti-vaxxers as I am about all the right wing imbeciles who insist that COVID is a hoax. There’s a lot more of them out there.
Observations…
1) It turns out I have a Trumper in my vague social Canada City circle. He comes from a rich family, pretty much pissed away every good opportunity he’s had, deluded that none of his problems are his fault and he’s married badly now divorced. It is shocking to many folks, but not to me.
On the other hand, he lost his job almost a year ago and is floundering, cast adrift without purpose. That is about the only thing I sympathize with him on. I’ve been there. It sucks. However, my sympathy for his situation ends there as I didn’t constantly vote/support people who believe only rich people should get everything they want and everyone else suffer (unlike him.) So he’s watching ONAN and Faux Newz/reading Breibart and they’re telling him to blame immigrants, liebruls and antifa which he does. Added to this is him not realizing that his closest friend in the group is an naturalized citizen and liebrul.
2) Communication/empathy really is an issue. Turns out someone else in my vague social circle always tries to look on the bright side of life even if it is pancreatic cancer. I don’t know what the hell he said to the others, but my sick friend suddenly got people asking him to come out with them like he’s not really really sick (and extremely immuno-compromised which isn’t good in non CoVID times.)
One of them is my ex-roommate/ex-friend who has a habit of telling people how they should feel especially when he wants them to do WHAT HE WANTS (which is wrong most of the time, but I find extremely infuriating in this situation.) He tried to pull that on my sick friend so I almost called the ex-friend up to rip him a new one after my sick friend mentioned that to me. Turns out someone who doesn’t have a personal vendetta against the ex-friend (ie: not me) told him to knock it off. For that I am glad. According to the friend who did talk to him, ex-friend was floored and somewhat ashamed. That’s good enough as some reality pierced through the mental bubble where my ex-friend’s mind mostly lives in.
3) Some folks do lead insulated lives even in the age of CoVID.
One thing I’ve learned is that money is a shit insulator against reality. Don’t get me wrong, having money is a comforting and it’s better to have some more than less. Having too much makes one smug and unprepared against harsh reality (been there too.) Also wanting it too much poisons ones mind.
4) I relearned that the things you literally sweat/bleed for is more precious than things given to you. Working as a grunt and not paper pusher re-taught me that.
Thanks to my safety crusades, the fact I trained 40% of them and quiet leadership style over the years, I earned the respect and influence among my coworkers. I am a mere loner (in terms of race and background-sadly racial politics is big where I am) and without a patron saint in management. I’ve heard certain managers bitch about the “power” I have on the floor and my alleged cult of personality.
I am the first one to laugh about cult of personality. If I have one, I earned it. “Follow me” is my leadership philosophy. I don’t try to fuck over my fellow workers. I try to be fair on things including OT which always causes a big fight. I’ve even fought management over things that don’t benefit me at all (also because I think I like to tilt windmills.) I try to do my best for my coworkers (even if they don’t see it and even if I don’t really like them.) My views were the same when I was supervisor years ago.
Yet I’ve always clashed with people who never really earned their leadership roles only had it handed to them. Like the typical rich kid who was born on third base and believes they hit a triple. Makes them feel insecure, I’m told. Don’t try to make them feel insecure when you act like a leader. This is kind of like having people tell others to be nice to the bully.
To all insecure jackasses: “Hey, if you don’t want to be an insecure leader then be an actual leader. Don’t go around acting like you know everything. Learn it. Listen. Grow a spine. Be a reasonable and relatively fair person then maybe people might respect you instead of trying to fight those who make one “feel” bad.”
But it’s a fuck lot easier to just remove pains in the ass/leaders than be one.
As Farscythe said yesterday, whoever first said that money can’t buy happiness was probably rich. Money can damned sure buy the peace of mind that comes with not having to worry how you’ll avoid becoming homeless (much less how to get out of homelessness), or being able to get medical attention when you need it–and peace of mind is the doorway to happiness. My criminal father was one of those people who chased money at the expense of literally everything, and everyone, else. That’s why he died alone and nobody knew about it for a few days. This was a problem of his own making.
Regarding the leadership thing, I’m right there with you. Leaders lead–they don’t push. One of the ways that leaders lead is by developing good relationships with their workers. They don’t have to be best friends, but they should know something about their lives and understand that a person doesn’t just shut their life off when they clock into work. I learned that lesson about 7 years ago (far too late than I should have learned it), and it served me very well during my most recent leadership role at work. I’m currently a worker bee in a completely different department (and making more money than I did as a manager–go figure), and I’m fortunate enough to have a good manager. I’m lucky enough to make enough money to not worry about things the way I used to, and I also don’t have to deal with the headaches of being a manager. The best of both worlds. Right now I have high class problems, like the fact that our cesspool failed and there’s nowhere to put another one. It’ll cost a goddamned fortune to resolve the problem, but it won’t bankrupt us and put us in the street. It’ll simply mean we have to live without certain luxuries like date nights and vacations. But, it’s a far cry better than the days when I had to figure out how to live on $27 a month so I’ll take that trade any day of the week.
You are a wise man.
Thanks, but I sometimes doubt that because a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. I’ve learned mostly from my own blunders.
…money in sufficient quantities is a disturbingly good insulator from many of the harsher aspects of reality that are unavoidable without it
…but the flip side of that is that should those money walls be overcome at some point the collapse is liable to be of more cataclysmic proportions not just because there’s farther to fall but because the people who rely on that kind of insulation (in many cases at least) are fundamentally fragile…it’s often one of the reasons they try to buy their way into the illusion that reality is the way they’d like to believe it is & they’re better than people who can’t do the same…the trump family would appear to be a particularly stark example of that tendency, for example
…I like to joke that “character building” is synonymous with “no fun” but in truth adversity can make for the most resilient characters while the “powerful” in financial/privileged terms can be the opposite…I’m pretty sure it’s what hemmingway was on about when he said this:
…either way it’s certainly true that the kind of respect you earn is worth any amount of the kind that’s bought or otherwise leveraged out of an unequal dynamic…& most people who rely on the latter kinds know it, too…it’s what makes them so desperately insecure…& why they have such childish responses when dealing with people who they realize can see that…at least in my experience?
“I’ve heard certain managers bitch about the “power” I have on the floor and my alleged cult of personality.”
A long time ago I spent 10 years working for a man who spent 27 years in the Special Forces as a sergeant major. Two tours in Vietnam. Not an officer — an enlisted man. He taught me more about managing people than I ever learned in any of my management classes.
One of the things he taught me (along with a vast and comprehensive knowledge of profanity) was preemptive positive reinforcement, although he’d never have called it that. He’d do nice things for people in other departments, without a specific reason. Do them little favors, bring them little gifts, etc. He’d even do it to me. I asked him why and he told me that when he needed something from one of them, he always got it. He told me “Someday I’m going to need to go above and beyond. When I do, you’ll remember this.”
My first professional job was working in a marketing agency where I wrote copy but I was dependent on graphic artists for layouts. There was a pool of 30 or so and you didn’t know who you’d get assigned. I’d take my job jacket and walk to their department and sit down and chat and go over everything with them. Some of them I’d bring little presents and treats for.
At my first review my “manager” (moron) told me I was not being efficient and I should just email these people and I was wasting time. I pulled out my job tickets and pointed out that my jobs were done in almost half the time as the entire rest of the staff (about 70 people). I asked her if she saw any correlation there and who was more efficient, me or the other 69 account managers?
My last manager there, a friend, finally called me into his office one day and said, dude, you gotta stop. I said, stop what? He said every time one of your jobs goes back to art (and I had the highest account load in the company when I left — correlation there obvious) they drop whatever else they’re doing and work on your stuff. It’s pissing everybody else off. I’m like, nah, I’m good. I don’t ask the artists to do me favors (well, rarely, anyhow). I don’t have to. If other people are pissed off they can tell me. And by the way, I’m billing more than $2 million annually. Didn’t hear about it again.
The point is, treating people nicely isn’t a personality cult — it’s being a human being. Unsurprisingly enough, at least to normal folks, most people will react positively to such treatment and to you.
Exactly.
I read this yesterday and thought this would be a good place to put it.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/21/opinions/bidens-mistake-about-trump-ghitis/index.html
Biden should be doing this, but of course he isn’t–and won’t. He’s too locked into that whole “healing the country” thing to realize that doing exactly what is laid out in the opinion piece will do far more to heal the country and letting Trump spew his bullshit unchallenged.
…I am entirely behind the suggestion that biden & the dems should be pushing the two-faced insincerity of the bullshit narrative these assholes are running with precisely because that narrative is a front in what amounts to a war based on the reality people (unbelievable numbers of people as it turns out) actually believe they live in despite copious evidence to the contrary
…but then I tended to think more ought to have been made of the dubious underpinnings of the shit that pushed Dolt45 over the electoral college line last time…& I’m pretty sure that was avoided primarily so as not to fan the flames of potential illegitimacy when it comes to the result of US elections…despite the grounds last time seeming to be a good deal more substantial than this go around
…so it’s very possibly a good thing I don’t have much influence on that sort of thing…I’m prone to naive beliefs like “facts matter & people aren’t as dumb as they sometimes seem”…which is the kind of thing that currently comes off as wildly irresponsible?
Oh, hey, I see that you like reading.
This is some good stuff:
https://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/sites/pamd/files/opinions/20-v-2078.pdf
Odds are I have nothing in common with hizzoner here, but I do enjoy a good Trump roast.
Thank you for the Katie Tempest link. I think that she is right about this “In every single person there exists a possible perfection”. Her joy and optimism are both wise and infectious.
…yeah, she’s pretty great…& I’m inclined to agree about the wise thing, too
…glad you liked it
Yesterday Boggs really pulled a fast one on old Ma. I couldn’t find him. In my 1000 sq ft condo. The only furniture he can go under is the bed and I tore that apart. I looked in closets, cabinets, the DISHWASHER. I was calling him & shaking his food dish. I even looked in the building vestibule and outside because I took out the trash, but there’s no way he could sneak out without my noticing. After 20 min I finally called my dad in a total panic. Boggs emerges from inside my entertainment center, asleep behind the tv. WHAT. WHY.
I needed to go lay down, but I ripped all my sheets off looking for a cat.
WHAT: He’s a cat.
WHY: It gets warm back there.
Little menaces.
It wasn’t even on!!!!!!
I’m authorizing you guys to discuss this stuff on my behalf, because I’m checking out. My plan for today is to not do a goddamn thing that requires more effort than pressing a button or strumming a string.