Midweek Meh-Ness [DOT 3/1/24]

3/1/24 MegMegMcGee 33
Image of blackboard with text "I Don't Need an Inspirational Quote, I Need Coffee" written on it.
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Hey look it’s Wednesday already, so that is nice. I’m feeling much better and am thankful I was just waylaid by a cold as opposed to Covid or the flu. One of my coworkers has Covid and a double ear infection.

Yikes!

Crash involving gasoline canister-filled car kills two at New York concert venue
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/02/new-york-rochester-car-crash-investigated-terrorism

Insane state.

Texas doctors do not need to perform emergency abortions, court rules
https://wapo.st/3NNw6Oa

Impressive action by the pilots & flight attendants

How safety rules ‘written in blood’ saved lives in Tokyo plane crash
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/travel/tokyo-plane-crash-safety-rules-analysis-intl/index.html

Sprots?

A 16-year-old is shaking up the heady, often bizarre, orbit of the World Darts Championship
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/sport/luke-littler-world-darts-championship-alexandra-palace-spt-intl/index.html

Stonks!

Stock futures are little changed after Nasdaq registers worst day since October: Live updates
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/02/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

Pro tips!

How to get the most days off with your vacation time in 2024
https://wapo.st/3NJvV6D

Have a great day!

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33 Comments

  1. …not that I’m averse to multipliers for days off but…the way that tends to work is mostly static & (as the article notes) tends to be mirrored by jacked up prices for exactly those reasons…so I get there are swings & roundabouts involved

    …but if it’s true around half of workers don’t use their full allotment of un-multiplied days off…I have to assume the majority of those either held on to a “bankable” number that could be rolled over & added to their supply…or are paid so badly that they can’t afford to skip overtime or something…because otherwise that’s…if you’ll pardon my saying so…fucking crazy?

    • You’d be surprised. Better Half theoretically has unlimited vacation time. This is not an uncommon perk at C-suite (ugh, that term) levels. But you can’t really take it. People call you morning, noon, and night, and you get sucked in. He was supposed to be off the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s but not a day went by when he wasn’t on the phone putting out fires and massaging clients (figuratively) and all kinds of other nonsense.

      Another aspect of 21st-century culture that I could do without. I remember years ago, the mid-90s I think, we were driving back from Palm Springs to LA and BH had this walkie-talkie-sized cellphone. It went off and he answered it and passed it off to me. “This is for you.” “Well who the hell could it be?”

      I had forgotten that on that trip we did a lot of roaming around, so I had left that number in the office in case anyone needed to get in touch. I never dreamed anyone would. That was the beginning of the end.

      • …I hear that…it’s just…well, I guess it’s one of the reasons I’ve never been particularly envious of people I knew when I was younger who went on to make vastly more money than me…I know I couldn’t do their jobs…whether or not I could do the “job” part is academic when I’d get fired in a heartbeat the first time they wanted time I considered something else to have a prior claim to

        …but that’s a me thing…my bar for fuck off money is laughably low & I can vouch for that very much not being the route to make money & influence people so I don’t exactly advocate for that…I do accept though that in terms of relative kinds of crazy the latter is one I can live with without getting certified as the sort they medicate you for

        …I was once on a night out for new year’s eve with friends & one…who worked a foreign desk at a major merchant bank…got a call from the office about 03:00…& went. to. work. …like…straight there…& worked on some massive deal worth 10 or 11 figures depending on what currency you picked…until after lunchtime

        …if I’d imbibed everything I’d seen them neck in the way of new year cheer & someone asked me to drop everything & report to work I’d have had to tell them I was no good to man or beast until at least a point 16 hours or so in the future

        …wouldn’t mind the gardening leave…but…it takes all sorts & apparently whatever sort I am isn’t that one?

        • In the 80s (!) we had a friend who was a legal proofreader and his pager (!) used to go off and he’d leave to go into the office. First of all, I never realized pagers worked in the subways. Cellphones didn’t until very recently, because what takes 4 months in other places takes 40 years in New York. But after the fourth or fifth time this had happened and he abandoned us I said, “[X] must be really good at his job if his law firm keeps calling him in like this.” And a couple of people rolled their eyes and one said, “Do you want to tell Mattie or should I?”

          It turns out he was a gay male…sex worker, I guess the term is. He was very beautiful, tall, blond, the Aryan ideal. He once told me about his trip to Stockholm. “It sucked, because everyone looks like me. I’d go to these bars and people would completely ignore me because I can’t speak Swedish. Which is ridiculous because they can all speak English.”

          I’m telling you: it’s been a wonderful life, and I have no regrets.

      • So much of that 24×7 phenomenon happens because the executive world has gotten incredibly undisciplined to the point where it has leaked down into corporate culture.

        The descriptions of corporate operations in the 50s and 60s are wild compared to today, because companies had strategic plans and they followed them. Ford is a famous example, where Henry II took over after his grandfather left the company in a complete ad hoc mess. H2 hired the “Whiz Kids” who rationalized information and planning systems and basically saved the company.

        So much of US corporate leadership has devolved into vibe and superstition based management, and disciplined analysis-based planning is beyond them.

    • Certainly true in my case. I get an obscene amount of time off each year which rolls over until you hit 125% of your annual maximum. But every five years your maximum goes up and I’ve been there for 11 years now. Also the PTO is all in one bucket so it’s vacation, sick days, fuck-you-I-need-a-goddamned-break days, etc. Also I have short term disability and long term disability which only pays 60% so I have to use PTO to get my full paycheck—which I had to do after my first year when I had shoulder surgery. So I try to keep at least 100 hours in the bank as a little self-insurance.

    • So my company also went to unlimited time off this year, which in theory sounds great, but in practice is just a money-saving device because they have to bank enough payroll to pay off unused vacation time each year. I fully intend to use it liberally. I occasionally get the stray email or call when I’m off and I hate it, but our corporate culture (such as it is) is that if you’re out of office, you’re out of office and shouldn’t be bothered. I know that’s not the case everywhere.

  2. …also…sigh…we need a word for the opposite of getting everyone off a burning jet plane alive

    Israeli forces intensified their bombing of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and told civilians to leave a refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian enclave after the war stretched into Lebanon with the killing in Beirut of the Hamas deputy leader.

    Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it killed Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday. But military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were in a high state of readiness and prepared for any scenario.

    The assassination was a further sign that the nearly three-month war between Israel and Hamas was spreading across the region, drawing in the occupied West Bank, Hezbollah forces on the Lebanon-Israel border, and even Red Sea shipping lanes.

    [https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-war-spreads-beirut-with-killing-hamas-deputy-leader-2024-01-02/]

    …no disrespect to mother mary…but I’m not sure “let it be” is the cri de cœur I’m reaching for in this time of trouble?

  3. Happy recovery, Meg! It’s good that it was just this nasty cold that has been going around.

    I will say this about Covid circa 2024: I know people are still dying from it, but in my case (and my doctor told me my reaction wasn’t atypical) people are often completely asymptomatic. We have reached peak post-Covid, where no one really masks anymore, not even in health care facilities, and if you catch it, que sera sera. When I was diagnosed I was in the hospital (unrelated; I caught it there) and then the rehab, and I was kept in isolation sort of for a few days but no one masked up around me nor did they ever offer me a mask. (The efficacy of masks is a subject of dispute, so that was probably part of it.)

    But that doctor did tell me that if you’re vaxxed and boosted you’re much more likely to suffer no real physical consequences from Covid. I remember when the vaccine was rolled out. We couldn’t wait to get it. And then there were the “vaccine hesitant.” Idiots. Putting us all at risk when the virus was much more deadly than it is now. We went to an armory in the Bronx because we had heard that they had ample supplies for local residents. Equity.

    Good times.

    • …joe r. lansdale convinced me the place isn’t irredeemable…& I hear nice things about austin

      …but it’s hard to ignore the whole state of insanity deal?

  5. As for vacay…

    One of the curses/benefits to being an office drone is that we had in-lieu/bank time instead of OT.

    At my current job, I have both but the banked and OT, but my banked bucket is quite limited but I have all the OT I want (till the corporate goons figure out why my dept is the company leader for OT… I know 60% why, but it is because both management and scheduling are fucking stupid.)

    As an office drone, it was unlimited. In my first two years at Nortel I banked almost 300 hours which allowed me to spend only 4 days a week at the office for 4 months (May to August) because my boss was a demanding workaholic so I had to work a lot of extra time to keep up. When he moved on to sales, I had a big bucket of time to take advantage of which I did for a couple of years.

    It is one of the few things I miss.

    One thing I do not miss is how quickly the cold or flu goes around in the office. All it takes is one selfish workaholic asshole to get everyone sick. Fortunately, I was a runner during my late 20s to late 30s so my immune system was tough. At one point I only got sick once in 6 years which ended when I was slowly dying of sepsis. Colds and the flu were going around and I was laughing at them (unlike my mid 20s where I got sick once every three months.)

    During my one year sabbatical as an office drone at the current place, I avoided five major outbreaks of the flu. However the sixth one got me and kept me off work for 3 days (at least I took the fucking time off to get healthy unlike the asshole who got everyone sick.)

    I get a cold twice a year pre CoVID working on the factory floor. Mostly because I work in isolation and my team gives anyone who is coughing grief although during CoVID one idiot nearly spread CoVID to half his shift because he is a stupid greedy fuck who didn’t want to lose his OT (he got a suspension…)

  6. Gross.

    I will never understand what grown adults find so attractive in barely adult teens, or children. What would you say to them? I suppose their bodies are attractive, in their way, young and supple, and I became sexually active when I was 14, but that was with another guy who was 16 or so. We were out on a sailboat. My own lakeside “Love Boat.” The “Romeo & Juliet” legal clause.

    “What a piece of work is a man.” Hamlet.

  8. As for PTO. Same story here. My husband gets unlimited PTO. Does he take advantage of it? Nope. He didn’t even use all his parental leave when we had our kids. A healthy work life balance looks achievable on paper but takes planning. That maximization list is actually really helpful because we rarely plan for him to take time off more than a month ahead of time. If we followed the list and blocked off those days now, he’d be more inclined to manage his projects around them.

    • The unlimited PTO thing is essentially a scam by employers because they are relatively assured that most American workers will not take nearly enough time off for their various and sundry reasons.  So there’s much less HR overhead to keep track of and certainly fewer days to pay out.  They win all the way around.

      • Oops, I didn’t see this before I posted above. My company was at least honest enough to admit that not paying out days was a part of the move to unlimited PTO, which is a big reason to do it. (The other, as you both noted, being the idiotic American work ethic.)

        • My husband’s company is upfront about it too. But like you said work ethic/culture will prevent most employees from taking a reasonable amount of time off let alone abuse the new system.

    • But her district is enormous, isn’t it? Down here we have districts that are just a couple of hundred blocks, because we’re packed in so tightly. And we’re probably undercounted, because so many people don’t want to inform the authorities about their presence here. Which is fine, bienvenidos, but it affects funding, and Queens natives Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo absolutely hated us so they were in no mood to cough up additional funding. Then Joe Biden turned on the taps and the cash started flowing in, but it was all squandered. The MTA got billions but it seems to have evaporated. Just one example.

      This city. It’s like living in Sicily with the Cosa Nostra, except without the tropical heat.

      • Yeah, her district is enormous, bigger than some states. I’m right near the southernmost point of her district and it runs all the way to the Canadian border at the north — which is a solid 180 miles away. But a lot of it is the Adirondack Park which is, of course, lightly populated even accounting for upstate’s emptiness.

        • We are on the north/west tip. Once got pulled over in NY city, and they asked where I was from, I said “Watertown?,” he gave me a blank stare, I said “Syracuse?,” another blank stare, so I said “Canada?,” and he got kind of pissed. Ended up getting busted for less than a dime of weed and he literally said, “I’ve busted teenage girls with more than this,”.

    • The problem with being any kind of celebrity is that once the fame disappears, it usually gets worse if you’re not aware/anti-social enough to deal with fame withdrawal.

      Fame is a bigger addiction than coke, I’m told.

      If that jackass did her job and kept her damn mouth shut then she’d have a job and not get more fines but she decided to interject on someone else’s business. I’m pretty sure she’s on the wingnut/fundy grifting circuit but I’m betting it’s not enough to pay for this. Just enough to keep her and her idiot brood fed. Celebrity in the wingnutosphere is not only fleeting but a miserable existence (see James O’Keefe and the late Joe The Not Plumber.)

    • Seriously that was my reaction too. Imagining the pain that they must be in made me shudder and cringe. I used to get ear infections all the time as a kid (from swimming 🤮 I don’t want know what was in the water). They were debilitating. The only upside was banana flavored penicillin.

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