The Water Cooler

Lilienthal

11:04 AM

@gnat @PlasmaHH | I'm actually surprised by the quality of the comments on this site.

PlasmaHH

@Lilienthal I think the amount and quality is quite orthogonal on the stacks

Lilienthal

Most of the time they are actually related to the question, typically about helping define the scope or pointing out problems.

I haven't seen much noise in the comments at all.

I make a habit of avoiding Worldbuilding but I can only imagine the cesspool that must be.

It might as well be called drunkenbartalk.stackexchange.com :)

PlasmaHH

hm, drunk at a bar, that sounds nicer than where I am right now... hm, 1pm ... don't think the bars that I like are open already, dang it

Lilienthal

Actually now that I think of it, perhaps I'm not seeing those comments because mods keep deleting them.

PlasmaHH

aren't they more often moved into chats rather than delter?

Lilienthal

11:11 AM

I think that's more of an issue for HNQ posts though. Most regular questions don't seem to have comment overload.

That's typically also reserved for HNQ questions.

Comment threads rarely spiral out of control for non-HNQ questions in my experience.

PlasmaHH

hmk, reading mostly hnq ones, that might skew thew view a bit

sigh boss is avoiding me again because he knows I am really pissed and doesn't want to deal with it...

checks bar opening times

PlasmaHH

11:52 AM

I need one of these:

Lilienthal

Small note: I mentioned Worldbuilding but the meta thread seems to be about Community Building instead.

@PlasmaHH You should have worked for a brewery congolomerate a few decades ago

Instead of coffee ladies they had beer ladies.

PlasmaHH

@Lilienthal a few decades ago I was not quite at the legal age for drinkin ^^

or working

David K

12:22 PM

5

Q: Asking out someone from the office

A bit silly but I may have a small crush for an HR advisor in my company. The company is large and the culture is quite formal. However, we have the tradition of sending emails to people when we celebrate a birthday or holidays. Last time I did so and this HR advisor replied thanking me but say...

Edited and looking for some reopen votes

Lilienthal

@DavidK Imo we're not a dating advice column and I'm not convinced this should be reopened.

At the very least the title should be a variation on "Is it really inappropriate in a workplace if I ask someone out?" to make it clear what the actual question is.

David K

12:48 PM

@Lilienthal I edited the title as well. I don't think this is really asking for dating advice. Yes, it's not the best written question, but I think it has the potential for some good answers about how to determine what is and is not appropriate behavior in the workplace.

Lilienthal

1:16 PM

@DavidK That's fair. I think the question should be improved further before reopening, like clarifying that the OP brought in a cake originally. That seems to be the case but it's not made explicit and the post is a rather confusing read.

Richard U

1:37 PM

@Lilienthal I'm in agreement with DavidK. It's not about dating but about what's appropriate. I think a good deal many people would benefit from that question being answered. I'm voting to reopen

enderland

2:23 PM

answers to that will be very culturally dependent too

Lilienthal

Yeah. Don't get me wrong I'm not opposed to a question like that being asked.

But this one has plenty of issues imo.

StackExchange

0

Q: How come there isn't a tag for questions regarding investors or VCs?

Well as the title says, how come there isn't a tag for questions regarding investors or VCs?

discussion feature-request tags

PlasmaHH

what are they thinking... "~1.5 hours commute on the highway is too much for me, thanks" .... "well you could use public transport" .... "no thanks, its the time, that would take far more than 2 hours" ... "but we pay the ticket" sigh

Richard U

2:50 PM

@enderland Would making the nation of origin make it on topic. US rules and guidelines are pretty specific and universal within the 50 states. I'm pretty sure it's universal within other cultures too. I understand that no-nos in one culture are expected in others, but eliminating questions based on cultural differences seems to me to be setting the bar pretty high. That basically eliminates any conduct question across the board.

If for example, a question came up about is it appropriate to ask about someone's family at the workplace. In India, the answer would be "NO" in the US it would be "YES". But if someone said, "I am working in the US, would it be appropriate to ask about someone's family", it would be easy to answer.

enderland

@PlasmaHH I biked to work this morning in about 25 min ;)

@RichardU the biggest question is what normal social interaction between men/women looks like in different cultures

PlasmaHH

@enderland I drove by car in 10 min... that was a discussion with a recruiter I had today... she somewhat thinks I am the perfect fit for their position, which might be, but I do not care with that distance.

enderland

@PlasmaHH yeah 10 min is nice :)

PlasmaHH

it gets worse though when you don't find a parking spot and have to drive a few minutes around and then walk from there which can easily add up ato another 10 minutes... and now with the new place I live in, there is a railroad crossing which can add in the worst case 45 minutes... but mostly it is nice, and I should really repair my bike now that the weather gets better

enderland

aww yeah workplace representing on that meta question hehehe (I see @Chad and @RichardU there too)

Chad

3:09 PM

@PlasmaHH ask them if they are willing to pay your for your commute time.

PlasmaHH

@Chad you mean like out of the 8 hours paid spend 4 with commute, or work 8 hours, commute 4 and get paid 12 ?

Chad

@PlasmaHH The answer will be no but it will get them thinking properly

But if they do it im sure it would be work 8 commute 3-4

PlasmaHH

Exactly, and besides that being against the whole point, it is probably even illegal here

Chad

India?

PlasmaHH

huh?

Chad

3:16 PM

where are you at

PlasmaHH

since when does india have labour laws? ^^

germany here

Chad

India has crazy labor laws but they almost all protect the employer not the employee

enderland

@Chad I felt pretty bad when I basically single handedly got 1/2 our contractors released there (since I was awesome), knowing that... wasn't good for them

PlasmaHH

@enderland nothing to feel bad about if you are two times as fast and ten times as good. if ;)

Chad

@enderland Most of them probably went to the bench or to new contracts

enderland

3:18 PM

@PlasmaHH well at that time I was planning on leaving my employer, too, so that was awkward (I was waiting for the 2 weeks of time off around xmas and mid-december bonus payout) :P

Chad

Its so cheap there they keep them on so that they do not have to give them a releasing letter that would allow them to find new jobs.

enderland

@Chad yeah though those guys were pretty useless tbh

it was annoying, honestly, because my boss and I basically spent more time trying to facilitate them than it would have been for us to get rid of all of them and just work on stuff ourselves

Chad

3:48 PM

@enderland That is usually my experience with offshore help. It takes longer to figure out how to tell them to do something, and iterate to working status than it would to just do it myself.

enderland

@Chad my boss had asked me something hypothetically like, "if we had more enderlands, how many would we need to replace the offshore team (I think it was 5 at that time)" and I thought and really the answer was basically 1 - the extra efficiency gain would have more than accounted for that :(

Chad

How ever if you have someone skilled from India that can be the go between that can actually show results.

I have seen that model be successful several times

but more often that go between is a moron too

enderland

we had one like that, a team lead guy who actually knew his stuff but... still there is a lot of overhead

Chad

4:04 PM

I really like your idea Enderland

enderland

it's a lost cause imo

Lilienthal

6:33 PM

2

Q: Suitable Company Wear

Our company (IT and software development) requires us to wear a top with the company logo embroidered on it whenever we go to meet with clients. As of now, the options are polos, fleeces, and shell jackets (basically nothing but certain polos that are suitable for a woman to wear) but we can tech...

company-policy

Are you working for the Geek Squad? I can't imagine taking an IT consultant with a company logo on their outfit seriously, let alone hiring them. — Lilienthal 4 mins ago

This can't possibly be real, can it?

Lilienthal

@Chad I've noticed that as well when visiting our Indian branch. There was no real meritocracy in place and whether a given manager was competent or just knew the right people / had the right ancestry was basically a toss-up.

Chad

6:53 PM

@Lilienthal I have several nice shirts and polos with my company logo on them.

Lilienthal

@Chad That's not an issue. It's requiring consultants to wear a uniform that's hilarious.

Chad

Of course my company also sponsors an NHRA Top Fuel Funny car

@Lilienthal Its not a uniform it is their company wants them to represent the company in the interview. Its not just that you are hiring the consultant but that you are hiring the support of the company

So you wear one of those shirts or polo's when doing an official meeting with a customer. Not required for day to day activities when you are an onsite consultant

@Lilienthal Though my wife is a consultant for another company, she is on the leadership team now so she wears nice clothes, but before she had company provided shirts that every one there was expected to wear with quality jeans. Its not unheard of

Lilienthal

Apparently. It would get you laughed out of every boardroom here. :)

enderland

8:23 PM

I'm glad we don't have a dress code

Chad

@Lilienthal In the US we nascarize everything but our politicians

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