The Water Cooler

jmac

12:03 AM

@RhysW Yes, it's early morning for me

Well, 9am. Not so early.

RhysW

@jmac as early as 1am? :P

ah no then xD

mods are gonna love me, i have even more meta questions to post after i wake up :L

Jim

@MichaelGrubey Yes. Only on new questions being posted though. No notification for answers/comments/edits (except the normal notifications for our own posts)

jmac

@RhysW Yeah, I'm 8 hours ahead of you. 9 in the winter.

Jim

@RhysW The notifications don't roll up - 10 meta questions will appear as 10 separate notifications

RhysW

@jmac gotcha, though i swear whenever we do talk its always 1am for one of us :L

Jim

12:05 AM

so yeah, we'll love it

RhysW

@Jim youll be pleased to hear its not as high as 10!

jmac

@RhysW Usually 10-11pm for me when I'm at home before bed. Which is 2-3pm your time.

RhysW

makes sense, between us we cover a large portion of the day though

jmac

It seems silly that all 'discussion' questions would be sent to all mods @Jim, why is it set that way?

I mean, if it's a bug it makes sense, but discussion? Seems excessive.

RhysW

can make the difference between a good experience and a bad experience for a new user who wants answers and wants them fast i suppose

jmac

12:09 AM

Touche @RhysW

RhysW

@Jim we must be on very different time zones too jim, i dont think i see you often (not a dig at you, i swear!)

jmac

@RhysW it says on his profile that @Jim is in Massachusetts or Boston or somesuch -- so he'd be 5 hours before you if that's the case. It is a reasonable time for him at least!

BVR

3:16 AM

-4

Q: Organization is started lay offs. What are the dos and donts to put my self in safe situation?

The Organization that I am working is started lay offs. It has laid off few team member last month. I would like to save my job due to the following reasons. As per the contract I won't get full benefits of lay off like notice period etc.. I am not in a position to get new job immediately. W...

I have modified the post. Please consider for reopen it

jmac

7:01 AM

If anyone can help refine this question in to something on-topic, it would be quite useful:

0

Q: How to handle the work pressure in company?

I working software developer one of the company which has too much of task assigned daily. I can able to finish it as much as possible, If i unable to finish those work in a day, then our Superior Leader ask me to finish those task then you leave to home(Like that he told). If i take off any one ...

software-industry professionalism work-environment management time-management

Hey @BVR, thanks for the edit but I think it still isn't in a place where I feel comfortable re-opening it. I understand what you want, but there isn't really much advice I can give since there isn't a real problem that can be solved. Your company is restructuring and that sucks, but no matter how much you want to keep the job, if they are laying people off, you will either be laid off or not, and there isn't anything you can really do to change your fate at this point.

@BVR do you mind if I totally rewrite the question for you in an aggressive manner to try to get you good answers?

Michael Grubey

8:14 AM

Morning all

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey mornin

oi :P quit editing over me xD (kidding of course, seems like we had the same idea!)

@jmac Right, i took a hard hit at this and focussed it on methods for dealing with the stress and pressure rather than the orginal rant / legal question it could have been

Michael Grubey

8:46 AM

@RhysW Ah my bad aha I'm usually all over edits this time of morning for those shoddy how do I lie questions ;). Would you like me to roll back so you can edit?

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey its fine i refreshed the page, took your edits for a starting point then added to it

Michael Grubey

@RhysW I cant believe I left I'm have one fail on my part.

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey haha its early morning, go have your coffee :P

Michael Grubey

@RhysW I have given up coffee...had none since 16/08. Its like a part of myself has disappeared on that date.

I'm have no coffee :(

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey I don't drink coffee anyway so i don't blame you!

Michael Grubey

8:51 AM

Why dont you drink coffee?

RhysW

Was told never to do drugs

im kiding ofc, i just dont like the taste :P

Michael Grubey

But...but..drugs help you see unicorns o_O

I sat next to a expresso machine so it was like 4 a day...far to much coffee

RhysW

wow, i had to cut back on my sugarry drink intake, damn vending machiene in the office

was going through 2-3 cans a day minimum

Michael Grubey

See I couldnt do that as it would cost a load...its all about the free coffee and biscuts

RhysW

0

A: Cleaning up our Low voted closed Questions

how-would-you-define-invoiceable-software-rd-and-likewise - This is yet another list question asking what is and isn't ok to charge your client for. The question itself has been knocked down to -6 with 0 upvotes and i do not think it can be saved to be on topic for us here at the workplace. It ...

Moving on to making us give a good impression of the site to the community if people would like to contribute with delete votes or opinions, all are welcome

run out of deletion votes already today :/

Michael Grubey

9:14 AM

I am just rinsing through some support crap and I shall start looking through the delete review queue.

Are you into dubstep btw?

RhysW

I suppose, im not really 'into' anything, I won't go looking for music, but if i hear something I like i will listen to it again

Right, time to mash out a long answer about dealing with stress in the workplace

Michael Grubey

►

Not going to lie she is so pretty....

RhysW

9:33 AM

@MichaelGrubey workplace.stackexchange.com/a/14226/5305 did i miss anything obvious do you reckon?

@MichaelGrubey cant argue with that xd

Michael Grubey

@RhysW Looks good, covered everything in it.

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey much appreciated, workplace stress is a fairly new field to me

Michael Grubey

@RhysW Its those eyes...she looks into my soul

RhysW

9:50 AM

man i really need to get busier, so far im just writing meta post after meta post xD

@MichaelGrubey i like that they are slightly off center, i dont know why xD

jmac

10:03 AM

@RhysW Thanks Rhys. Just FYI, the Indian legal system is incredibly slow (years) and likely isn't a good recourse for him even if the law does say his contract is invalid.

RhysW

@jmac i tried to focus more on dealing with the stress aspects assuming that the legal recourse would take longer than the 2 months anyway!

jmac

10:32 AM

@RhysW Yeah, and I'm not faulting you for that, it's just a very ... different ... working environment in India

RhysW

@jmac true, tbh i didnt even notice it was india specific

i always feel guilty when i edit a question, provide an answer and get accepted, feels like i changed the question to suit my answer

jmac

11:35 AM

@RhysW Ditto. I got asked to give an answer to a question I edited heavily. I felt dirty.

not a legal question...

0

Q: How can I minimize the risks of moonlighting in violation of my contract?

I am currently making a decent salary developing web applications in a Fortune-50 consulting firm, but have high-interest student loans I want to pay off more quickly. My current contract specifically forbids moonlighting, but I do not want to renegotiate that clause at the moment since my compa...

resume management career-development contracts freelancing

Michael Grubey

12:37 PM

Does anyone here ever have issues with their HR Department?

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey all the time, all developers are put into the system as 'contractors' for some reason, so HR declines any of our questions saying 'we dont deal with contractors' despite the fact we are full time employees

Michael Grubey

1:02 PM

@RhysW Is that the only thing....I wish I had that only aha!

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey its not only that thats just the easiest one to pick out xD

Michael Grubey

@RhysW I'm trying to figure out if its possible to take out a grievance against an entire department?

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey i think they call that a career limiting move

Michael Grubey

@RhysW Actually HR falls under a different heirarchy section then us so it wouldnt matter ;)

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey i dunno, filing for grievance is a difficult thing to get away from!

Michael Grubey

1:21 PM

I'm only joking aha I wouldnt actually do it :

:P

RhysW

Sorry,w as writing short answers because i was writing, yet another, meta post xD

Michael Grubey

No bother, I'm just fighting loosing battles against everyone over here :(

RhysW

:( come apply for a job with the same one i am in london xD imagine being coworkers :P poor you

Michael Grubey

Like on what planet would it not cause a issue if someone was set on a system to be two different types of car users...company and InLiue that later being use your car we pay you, the first being we pay you an amount per month extra.

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey shrugs, some poeple dont like logic

Michael Grubey

1:41 PM

They wrote the specs for us to create the tool for them...

RhysW

1:52 PM

extra money for the people in both groups xD

facedesk dont you hate when you get stuck on a problem then realise its because of a really obvious mistake that you kept overlooking

Michael Grubey

Is HR the mistake?

@RhysW What was it?

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey forgot the 'new' keyword in one of the methods i was using

Michael Grubey

2:11 PM

@RhysW how long had you been after that for?

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey only 2 minutes, but still ittirating :L

Michael Grubey

2:27 PM

@RhysW Ik the feeling

Did you want to hear the corniest joke Ive ever seen :L

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey ug, just found out my notice period is a month,

@MichaelGrubey go for it

Michael Grubey

what do you call a dog in a submarine?

RhysW

uuummm, a dog in a submarine, hmmm, canned woofs? no, umm,

20000 woofs under the sea? no thats silly

Michael Grubey

sub...woofer

RhysW

....oh, i would never have got that!

Michael Grubey

2:32 PM

Its just so funny....

awkward silence

RhysW

:P still dealing with silly support?

Michael Grubey

I have been doing that none stop for the last 3 weeks. In fact I have applied for a 2nd Line Support job aha...got the interview coming up in like 2 weeks

RhysW

awesome, nice job, seems like were both going for new jobs! thats what support does to you xD

jmac

2:56 PM

@RhysW For questions that you think are bad, just vote delete -- it will put them in the queue.

RhysW

@jmac i only have 6 a day, and im through those, so getting everyone else to chip in, plus the delete queue is a little hard to find, i dont usually see a lot of people use it

BVR

@jmac @jmac: Please go ahead and edit the question in order to make it reopen

Michael Grubey

3:11 PM

@jmac What queue, I cant find one for delete :(

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey review, then click on tools (nearly top, left)

Michael Grubey

dafuq did that come from D:

@RhysW Thank you!

RhysW

No worries, this is why i was bringing it to peoples attention, its not intuitive like the other queues!

Michael Grubey

3:28 PM

These are the mod tools that I got

RhysW

@MichaelGrubey I got the stupidest call in earlier, to paraphrase 'I dont know what i need to do, but if i did know i would [details exactly the fix in depth]'

Chad

4:59 PM

@MichaelGrubey I am convinced that HR is where people go when they fail at everything else they try but have not done anything bad enough to be fired.

@BVR I reworded it and opened it up so that it applied more broadly.

enderland

6:16 PM

@Chad LOL

@MichaelGrubey of course!

RhysW

7:22 PM

@enderland hey its enderland :D i thought you pulled a chad and dissappeared :P

enderland

7:34 PM

@RhysW har har har

RhysW

@enderland thats a new turn of phrase, dissappearing for extended periods of time is called a 'chad' :P

man, i never thought i would be at this place, stuck between two awesome possibilities, but they are very different career tracks, and i dont know what one to take

enderland

@RhysW forge your own!

RhysW

one of the choices keeps me on my current career track, developing corporate solutions, the other takes me down the path of game development and working for thos kinds of companies, both interest me, both i could do, but its hard to make a choice!

enderland

8:11 PM

@RhysW apparently space got featuresd in the podcast - blog.stackoverflow.com/2013/09/…

RhysW

@enderland mm i remember hearing about that one!

Jim G.

9:29 PM

Your career is only dead with your current manager. Transfer or get a new job. — Chad 53 mins ago

^^^ Definitely true.

jmac

10:55 PM

@JimG. I don't understand your answer here, is there a thread discussing this somewhere?

-1

A: High volume of questions being put On Hold or Closed - is that a problem?

At this moment, 7 of the top 10 questions are either On Hold, or Closed. Does anyone consider this a problem? It's a huge problem. It's also "the elephant in the room" that we aren't paying attention to. I know that Workplace.Beta.SE got off on the wrong foot. The early moderators tri...

Jim G.

11:05 PM

@jmac: There were several.

jmac

@JimG. mind digging one up? I checked through your question history on meta but can't find anything that jumps out.

Jim G.

-4

Q: Were the "Bikeshed Effect" and "Gorilla vs. Shark" Blog Entries Considered When Workplace.SE was formed?

Preface: I submit myself as a super-enthusiastic Stackexchange user. My Question: Were two key Jeff Atwood blog entries considered when Workplace.SE was formed? Bikeshed Effect Although discussion can meander in any topic, the probability of meandering goes up as the technical difficulty o...

discussion

@jmac: There were others that I asked in good faith, but were deleted because they highlighted opinionated questions that were left open for reasons unknown.

jmac

Yeah, I just read through that, but I didn't see the mods redefining stuff ("legislating from the bench" as you put it)

then again, I don't really know who the mosd were

Jim G.

@jmac: Ya. I can't find that either.

jmac

@JimG. Ah well, care giving a brief summary here for posterity?

Jim G.

11:13 PM

@jmac: My bottom line here is that I began as an über-enthusiastic Workplace.Beta.SE, and some of my enthusiasm has regrettably eroded because of some over zealous moderation.

jmac

@JimG. My understanding was that many of the mods changed (Rarity at the very least, I believe there were others?)

@JimG. Any chance that enthusiasm can be rekindled?

Jim G.

@jmac: You're correct. It's 1000% better today.

@jmac: Definitely.

@jmac: And to that end, I think we should reevaluate our site scope in an effort to be more welcoming to new users.

jmac

@JimG. There are a lot of great people contributing right now -- look at how much @RhysW and @MichaelGrubey have added in just the last couple months. We are getting some great answers even with some of the regular heavy hitters (@Chad, @enderland) not contributing as much

2

Jim G.

@jmac: Oh for sure. I see a lot of positives these days.

jmac

(of course, having a bunch of questions on the hot list always seems to significantly impact the quality of questions for a couple days, but other than those speed bumps...)

Jim G.

11:19 PM

@jmac: During that overzealous period, Workplace.Beta.SE felt like a library. I was trying so hard to create awesome questions, and the mods would just close them abruptly without any chance of a reopen.

@jmac: @jmort253 is the total opposite, which is awesome.

@jmac: And that gives me a lot of hope.

@jmac: Oh - And another thing too. @jmort253 is a cool guy who isn't very interested in rep points. With that in mind, he doesn't defend slam-dunk off-topic questions just because he earned 100 rep points on them.

jmac

@JimG. Ah, @jmort is new as a mod? I thought he was around from the start?

Jim G.

@jmac: No. He was always a great user, but it wasn't until a moderator vacated a seat that he was appointed.

jmac

@JimG. He is a great community builder, we're lucky to have him.

Jim G.

@jmac: My biggest gripe at the time: All I wanted was to establish a freaking dialogue about my questions! But it just wasn't possible! [I know - All of this sounds surreal because we have it good now.]

jmac

Wait, AnnaLear was a moderator here? Or still is?

Wait, NickC is a moderator too? Today is full of surprises. I thought we had two: Jim and jmort.

Jim G.

11:37 PM

@jmac She's another all-star. Although she was a moderator on Programmers.SE; which has had the best moderation of any StackExchange site since @Yannis took over.

jmac

@JimG. My biggest participation other than here is SO, but I only really frequent unpopular tags (google-visualization) and that has a community of two really.

@JimG. So I am not so familiar with moderation in general, I thought they were involved regularly, or is it more administrative? Is it their choice?

Jim G.

@jmac: And that's another thing... When I was trying to figure out the "new rules" on Workplace.Beta.SE, I told those mods - Look at my StackExchange profile! I've participated so constructively on several other sites! I'm here to help! And yet, they would have none of it.

@jmac It's their choice.

jmac

@JimG. Sorry to hear that -- pity really. At least things are looking brighter now. We just need better participation in improving questions and fewer knee-jerk closes, and we'll have a better resource. A new FAQ wouldn't hurt either.

Jim G.

@jmac Yes. I think there is hope. But I'd like to dangle a carrot for some of those alienated users too.

@jmac: And to be fair, even Programmers.SE has some alienated users too,

jmac

@JimG. We have alienated users too? Man. There must have been some drama well before I got here.

Jim G.

11:42 PM

@jmac: Actually there wasn't much drama at all. Those would-be enthusiastic users simply left and never returned.

@jmac: That's what kills me.

@jmac: So their view isn't represented at all in this debate.

jmac

@JimG. If they have just departed, it'll be harder to get them back. People who leave once are less inclined to come back again because of the sour taste left from the first experience. Like using version 1 of a computer program that crashes, no matter how good version 2 may be reviewed as, they can only remember the issues with version 1.

Jim G.

@jmac: You're 100% right; but I'd still like to try. Even if we can't lure those people back; let's make sure that we "plug up the leak" so that similar users don't leave us too.

jmac

@JimG. I would like to think we already are. I think we need to brush up the FAQ though -- it is in pretty rough shape.

our on-topic mostly describes off-topic 1

Jim G.

@jmac: Right.

jmac

our off-topic links to on-topic

Time to make a meta thread perhaps?

Jim G.

11:47 PM

@jmac: Sounds good to me! :)

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