The Water Cooler

jmac

01:29

So many comments discussing what is actually being asked, but zero close votes and 12 upvotes and 8 answers? I am confused:

12

Q: How can you send the message that you deserve respect as the new guy in a department of experienced coworkers?

I am a young woman fresh out of college in a department filled with older men. I'm afraid if my situation isn't corrected soon, I'll be dealing with it long term. My coworkers make the sort of jokes and comments that are mostly related to me being the new guy. When I cant answer a question, I u...

colleagues

Hey user, and welcome to The Workplace! I'm a bit unclear on your question due to the wording. Is the issue that you are a young woman in an office on old men? Is it that you want to be treated as if you are one of the old men? Just not treated as a young woman? Without understanding what the cause of the teasing actually is, or how you want to be treated if you could wave a magic wand, it will be incredibly difficult to answer. Would you mind an edit to add a bit of clarification? Thanks in advance! — jmac 17 secs ago

Another one that has no close votes and I can't figure out why as it seems pretty clearly opinion-based:

2

Q: Is it good to just focus solely on a task and nothing else when programming?

I like to read articles and check twitter every morning (usually no more than 30 minutes) and then I get down to my programming tasks. However, I have found that sometimes where I have a large programming task which is about 3 or 4 weeks, I am so engrossed in my work, I rarely get time to do any...

productivity

Hey more, and welcome to The Workplace. "Is it good?" depends on what works for you. As explained in our help center, Questions looking for opinions on what to do but with no specific problem are suited for discussion boards (not a question/answer site) and generally will be closed on The Workplace as "primarily opinion-based." Any chance you could try to edit your question to explain the problem a bit better (what's the issue you're facing?) and less on asking us what works for you (which we can't do anything but guess)? Thanks in advance! — jmac 42 secs ago

jmac

02:03

209 users have already voted in the election. There are 356 people who have visited the election page. Interesting stuff, we have a lot of people interested in the outcome it would seem!

2

BVR

03:45

-6

Q: How can I keep my self in the right direction to wards my work goals?

I am working for consulting firm. I am employed at client location as consultant. And I don’t have any reporting manager from my employer side. I am directly reporting to Client Manager. I have recently prom toted Dev Lead role from Senior Developer role. Since this role is a bit new to me, it is...

new-job self-direction

I have edited this question. Hence request all of you to review and reopen if you can. If you guys can not reopen please let me know reason and what details make it reopen. Thanks in advance

@jmort253, Please help

@jmac, please review and help

@Jim G, Please help

@RhysW, Please review

jmort253

04:21

@BVR With the edits, it looks a lot more realistic. The challenge is that it seems like a bit of a polling question still, like you're looking for guidance instead of answers...

I understand where you are.... you basically have questions, but you're not sure what those questions are... you just feel like there's something, but not sure what...

What I'd suggest is to look for a blogger, a mentor, or otherwise someone who has been in a similar team lead role. If you can dig into this a little on your own and maybe read/hear what those folks have to say, that might uncover the burning question you're trying to ask but just can't quite put your finger on.

Hope this helps! :)

Stack Exchange

06:40

2

Q: The workplace has invisible upvote and downvote buttons sometimes?

I am not a "The workplace stack exchange" user, but I visit it sometimes when there are hot questions from the site on the side bar. Sometimes I have found that the upvote and downvote buttons do not show up. But I can still click them. I will try to post a image if possible. Has anyone else se...

bug design css voting

jmac

06:53

@BVR think about this from a reader's perspective. What is the 'right direction'? What is the 'right track'? What are your goals? What are the things preventing you from being on the 'right track' going in the 'right direction' and achieving your goals? None of us can possibly answer how to stay on the right track if we don't know what the right track is.

That is why our help center says: "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site" -- you don't have a problem right now to be solved, so the question ends up as an open-ended request for generalized motivational advice.

It sounds to me like you don't need professional support solving a specific problem from us, it sounds like you need a mentor, a life coach, or someone else who you can bounce ideas off in real time and can figure out what the actual issue is that you're struggling with and ways to tackle it. This just isn't the right format for that type of support.

jmort253

We're not a social network, but still.... good advice:

michaelqtodd.com/names-social-media

RhysW

07:13

@jmort253 huh, I wasn't aware that was a thing, thats an interesting link

gnat

I have sort of a double flagger-jubilee: crossed 500 helpful flags at Workplace today, 5000 at Programmers yesterday

RhysW

@BVR Is your question about how to ensure you keep moving in the 'right direction' even though you now have a lot more freedom / responsibility / less poeple checking up on you in the workplace?

gnat

0

Q: Establish a "handicap" (whatever it means) for Workplace questions in the hot list

How come there are 5 Workplace questions in the hot list? When discussing above question in elections chat, Shog noted: ...TWP needs a handicap with 100+ sites, none of them should have more than a handful in the list at once This feature request is to establish a handicap mentioned abov...

feature-request hot-questions

^^^ looking for advice. After posting, I realized that it may fit both at our meta and MSO, which one looks more appropriate?

Stack Exchange

0

Q: Establish a "handicap" (whatever it means) for Workplace questions in the hot list

How come there are 5 Workplace questions in the hot list? When discussing above question in elections chat, Shog noted: ...TWP needs a handicap with 100+ sites, none of them should have more than a handful in the list at once This feature request is to establish a handicap mentioned abov...

feature-request hot-questions

RhysW

@gnat I would say on Our meta, they check all feature-request tags ( as far as i know) and putting it on SO meta is pretty much asking for external validation from users that it might not even effect

gnat

07:28

@RhysW yeah that's what I thought, until I realized hot list is network-wide concern and Shog's note I refer is stated site-agnostic "with 100+ sites, none of them should have more than a handful in the list at once". If that's not substantial I definitely would be happier to have it stay here

RhysW

two secs, just throwing some edits around

jmac

@gnat How big is a question? For all we know, 5 questions could be far less than a handful. And whose hands are we supposed to use as a measure?

Are these African or European questions?

gnat

@jmac Klingon questions! by the way, why don't we have these already?

RhysW

@jmac Well I don't know ahhhhhh

jmac

(While I'm glad you both got the reference, I realized that as a blank quote it may sound like I discriminate against questions based on their ethnicity, which is certainly not the case. I do discriminate against swallows based on their unladen coconut-carrying capacity though)

@gnat klingon.stackexchange.com? How much do you want to bet there's been an Area 51 proposal for it before? (Don't cheat by checking!)

RhysW

07:35

@gnat I would say if you were asking / requesting that a handicap can be implemented for any site / every site then it would be fitting for SO meta (as thats the hub for 'all' sites at the moment) but at the moment you are requesting solely for workplace, Some might disagree with me but to me the fact its limited to a request for here means it makes sense to keep it internal, see how our own community feels about it ect. as not everyone who visits our meta necessarily visits SO meta

@jmac I'm certain there has been

gnat

@jmac 8:2 there is such a proposal, got to be about 1/100 less popular than Relationships and Dating, because such serious matters are for narrow audience

RhysW

Im 100% sure there has been one at some point

gnat

@RhysW thanks! sounds good to me, a sensible justification to prefer keeping it here

RhysW

now to check

oh, there isnt one :(

jmac

It would seem there hasn't been one. Though it seems to potentially fall under the umbrella of linguistics.

gnat

07:36

@RhysW that's easy to fix, you know

jmac

Bonus points if you write everything about the community in Klingon.

RhysW

@jmac Klingon is most certainly an artificial language.

gnat

culture umbrella may fit too

RhysW

morning @CMW

gnat

Klingon

The Klingons (Klingon: tlhIngan, pronounced ) are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid warrior species in the science fiction franchise Star Trek. Klingons are recurring antagonists in the 1960s television series Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series, along with eight of the feature films. Initially intended to be antagonists for the crew of the USS Enterprise, the Klingons became a close ally of humanity and the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. In the 1990s series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine t...

RhysW

07:37

@jmac oh! there might have been one, but if the proposal was deleted we wouldnt know

for example this one on constructed languages was deleted

area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/12409/…

gnat

jmac

@gnat My advice would be to make your current meta post a discussion where the community gives its input on whether or not they want a handicap (some may not?). Based on that, then we should make the request to Shog, on our meta or just by pinging him.

gnat

@jmac okay, will do

jmac

@RhysW Now that is a question for MSO

RhysW

there is also no meta.area51

which would have been a sensible place to ask

gnat

07:39

0

Q: Do we want such a "handicap" (whatever it means) for Workplace questions in the hot list?

How come there are 5 Workplace questions in the hot list? When discussing above question in elections chat, Shog noted: ...TWP needs a handicap with 100+ sites, none of them should have more than a handful in the list at once Do we want to establish a handicap mentioned above, for the re...

discussion hot-questions

^^^ @jmac there you go

jmac

@gnat Danke schoen. Or however you spell it. @CMW?

RhysW

Now for someone to add what the advantages and disadvantages of this might be :D maybe throw in some links to previous discussions on it too so people can get up to speed

gnat

@jmac bitte sehr (or zehr, I forgot the spelling)

jmac

@gnat Did you just hex me?!

RhysW

I don't remember much of my german lessons

Otherwise i'd bother CmW a lot more frequently

I do remember how to apologize for being late, had to use that all too frequently

gnat

07:42

@RhysW I sometimes have a little practice, that keeps me from totally forgetting it. "Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten Das Ich so traurig bin Ein Maerchen aus alten Zeiten Das geth mir nicht aus den Zinn..."

and, of course, listening to Rammstain helps

@RhysW entshuldigen Sie bitte fuer spaet - something like that

►

RhysW

07:55

all way over my head :P

jmac

@gnat You know what? I'm kind of indifferent to be honest. They can fiddle with the numbers for TWP, and it may make our lives a bit easier, but if it takes time away from actually solving the root cause of the problem (the inability of the community to deal with poor drive-by content), I would rather live with the hassle for a better solution for the entire SE network coming out sooner.

Basically we'd just shift the burden from here to somewhere else if our handicap is instituted, and while that's all well and good (for us), I don't think it's necessarily the best for the entire network. Let's say they adjust it so we have 3 questions instead of 5. That means 40% fewer eyes on it (since the list seems to always shuffle now). Other than saving a bit of moderation, how much will that 40% reduction really help?

Especially since we will be getting 3 mods in 8 days, I think that will have a far bigger reduction in our community moderation burden than the 40% reduction in eyes will.

CMW

@jmac spot on

@gnat that too

@RhysW good morning :)

jmac

@CMW I am an idiot savant, clearly. Although I'm guessing you saw it:

in Workplace 2014 Election, 14 hours ago, by Shog9

@RhysW and @CMW have not answered the questionnaire. SHAAAAME!

CMW

08:10

I did and I'm on it :)

thanks for the reminder, though

jmac

I just got a downvote on this answer. I really want to know why. Not that I mind the downvote, I just always find it fascinating when one trickles in on an old upvoted answer out of the blue.

CMW

@jmac It has amassed two DVs already

jmac

@CMW Yes, it will soon be slated for deletion.

This is a great question for our site. It clearly states what the issue is, clearly states what the goal is, and doesn't get mired in details or the like:

5

Q: How can I politely request that I get a chance at a second interview?

I have just been interviewed via Skype after which I was given a coding assignment to complete.The interview was okay except that I got nervous and couldn't answer some of the questions properly. I feel my nerves meant I wasn't performing at my best and I would like another chance,the interviewe...

interviewing email

This one, on the other hand, is either unclear what you're asking, or too broad. I voted for the former:

0

Q: Planning for a second job

I have been for a while in my first job after college and pondering a move for my second job. There are lots of questions and answers about first jobs but this is a new area for me. How does one prepare for a second job? Specifically with the resume.I filled my resume with projects and internship...

interviewing job-search hiring-process new-job job-change

jmac

08:32

Another great question:

1

Q: How can I respond to negative comments about my accent in a non-native language?

I am a non-native English speaker working in a software company. Some of my coworkers (especially people in more senior positions) make comments about not understanding due to my accent, when a majority of the people in the room have no problem understanding exactly what I said. Right now I feel...

international

gnat

@jmac I don't think this will really shift the burden. I tend to view these issues a bit separated. True, when there are waaay too many questions in hot list, this will make addressing low quality answers practically undoable. But even when amount is reasonable, we will have to address these anyway, the nature of the site won't let answer quality issue go away without enhanced community control. Even with perfect hotness score, or without hot list at all, we'd have to deal with bad content

gnat

08:52

^^^ in that sense, my post is more about technical things, that's why I didn't initially make it discussion. Shog laid out a "specification" - none of them should have more than a handful in the list at once - request is to fix things to follow it. That has impact on content for new users, but more like a side effect in this case

@jmac I checked, your answer looks okay. In the absence of explanatory comments, one can only guess that someone either 1) is angry at you or what's written there or 2) tries to give Justin's answer a bit more edge (I for one like Justin's a bit better - though I upvoted both) or 3) something else

Yannis Rizos

09:13

@jmac The TWP election seems a bit more active than the norm. Here's some data for comparison: meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/a/5753/25936

gnat

10:24

@gnat The aim of the answer to help OP, not to abide to your standards of originality. When it comes to feelings, even when there is some overlap in content, saying something a certain way may "click" where another way may not. — Danra 31 mins ago

^^^ yeah sure these standards are mine

19

Q: FAQ proposal: Back It Up and Don't Repeat Others

I'm considering adding the following clauses into the first bit of our FAQ: How should I answer? Make sure your answer adds helpful information and is a complete, stand-alone answer. Read other answers first and be sure not to completely restate information that has already been posted. ...

discussion status-completed faq faq-content

gnat

11:03

close and delete votes please:

-1

Q: Topic for giving powerpoint presentaion?

I am working on .Net since last 1 year. Here in my office every body is told to give presentation on some topic, it can be some technical topic or related to MS office or can be some other. I am searching for any topic that is not much technical, cause there will be my seniors and i will be unab...

offices company

jmac

@YannisRizos Active meaning a larger % of people who visited the election pages voted?

jmac

11:48

@RhysW Ever seen an American political attack ad? That's really what they sound like.

RhysW

@jmac really?

in that case

@Jmac only has one year of experience on Stack Exchange, and no moderation experience at all. Are you prepared to have him handle your flags? Does he even know what a flag is? I am RhysW, and I approve this message.

jmac

@RhysW Yeah, let me find you a sample.

RhysW

Though we joined at the same time, so the 1 year experience argument sort of falls apart :P

Oh man, my answers really dont hold up against some the rest of yours!

jmac

Here is a sample attack ad:

►

And another:

►

RhysW

ahh right, those kinds of things

its a special type of person who can only win by running the others down

jmac

11:57

They all do it

RhysW

why cant people just win on their own merits, rather than win on their enemies demerits

jmac

both sides, all candidates.

And they do it because it works.

RhysW

I dont want a leader who is going to berate others, id rather have someone who can appreciate what they can bring to the table

seems very backwards to me

jmac

Here is an attack ad for experience:

►

RhysW

What the

jmac

11:58

@RhysW Everyone says they want that, and yet fewer people are willing to meet in the middle.

RhysW

thats just beyond my comprehension

jmac

What is?

RhysW

@jmac people want entertainment, not results

@jmac that ad

jmac

@RhysW I think that's overly pessimistic. People don't know what they want. They think they do. And they think they know how to get it. And the parties manipulate that in to votes because they can.

Sample:

►

RhysW

@jmac yeah actually i agree with you

jmac

12:00

This is the gap between what people think and what actually is (in regards to wealth distribution)

RhysW

people might know the results they want, but not how to get there, so thats exploited

@jmac how reliable a source is that?

jmac

@RhysW Everything is sourced, or at least it was when I originally saw the article that featured it.

RhysW

because theres a number of things 'debunking' it aswell, though they seem equally unreliable

jmac

I mean, granted different polls will get different results due to sample sizes, methodology, etc. But I sincerely doubt it's incredibly far off the truth.

RhysW

either way, some poeple have way too much, and some have too little

jmac

12:07

@RhysW I can even be satisfied if people are cool with the current distribution and can properly identify it. To me the core of healthy politics is when people make informed decisions based on fact. When there is such a glaring disparity, that is a far more serious issue (and I think it would be as serious of an issue if the distribution gap was skewed the other way too)

(at the end of the day, I studied political science and religion because more than anything I'm interested in understanding why people believe in the things they do both politically and religiously. In hindsight I would have been better off learning that over pints in my local, and studied something of consequence like engineering or economics)

RhysW

I know nothing about politics, never interested me

im interested in why people do what they do, but not really from a political point of view

jmac

Don't worry, politics don't explain much.

RhysW

identifying why people believe what they do religiously is usually straightforward

not to downplay your education of course, was not my intention

jmac

A liberal arts education teaches you two invaluable skills:
1) How to read well
2) How to write well

Both can be done by spending time on The Workplace instead.

RhysW

Haha, was just about to say that

why do i feel like im insulting you every time i agree with you

jmac

12:14

And identifying why people do what they do religiously is not straightforward. That's the nutty thing. It seems straightforward because so many people assume it is, but when you talk to people about it, it's anything but straightforward.

RhysW

huh, ive had the opposite experience

then again i dont approach religion from a logical point of view, but an emotional one

jmac

@RhysW It's my self-deprecating charm? I'm practicing being English.

RhysW

@jmac you forgot to add that you werent doing very well, you always have to downplay yourself in england

pride is encouraged and frowned upon :P

enderland

@jmac That sort of thing is fascinating to me

jmac

In my experience (having spent time around people of varied faiths), the faithful tend to assume that the people around them have the same religious experience they do. And when you're in a religious setting (be it services of any sort), folks tend to follow the same script.

RhysW

12:16

you should be happy with what you did, just don't admit it

@jmac would definitely have to agree with you there

jmac

But then it ends and you take them aside and you ask them why they go, or why they worship, or why they believe, and you will get 10 different answers from 10 different people.

RhysW

i heard a great analogy somewhere

enderland

@jmac I've thought I'd be quite good at sales, but have no interest in it heheh

RhysW

ill see if i can replicate the story for you from memory

jmac

And so many of those people are actually ashamed because they believe that they are 'worse' at the religious experience because their participation is based on some portion of selfish needs

that they assume nobody else actually acts on (but usually do)

enderland

12:17

ahhhhh too much active chatting for me to read everything and respond, haha

jmac

the most interesting religious folk I've met are the ones who are the deepest in to it: jesuit priests, buddhist monks, and Jewish seminary students

RhysW

Imagine being a detective, you spend most of your time trying to find evidence, then evaluating the evidence to see what conclusion you can draw.

Now imagine those cases where you know who did it, and you know what happened, but you just need enough evidence to prove it. At this point, all evidence is analyzed and only kept if it agrees with what you know happened.

This is whats its like for some religions, they know the answer, the reason for life, so they only keep evidence that agrees, and discard that which does not

(very generalized of course)

jmac

Yeah, that may be a rough analogy for your average Easter-Christmas Christian

But it doesn't at all match my experience speaking to folks like the Jesuits who are far more critical of their beliefs than your average person who goes on faith without much questioning of it

RhysW

@jmac no definitely generalised

jmac

That's what makes it all so fascinating to me!

enderland

12:21

@jmac I'd agree, however, there are definitely quite a few Christians who could make quite a defense of their faith ;-)

jmac

I heard this description of the Japanese: 70% are Buddhist, 70% are Shintoist, and 70% have no religion at all.

@enderland Yeah, and I love that! Not trying to belittle any faith, I just find it so interesting, not trying to be critical at all!

I'm more than happy to hang around folks of any faith. Or no faith. As long as they aren't jerks. Tends to work better that way.

(I've recently been working and hanging around with more Muslims and Hindus, and it's such a huge shift from the general agnosticism of the Japanese where religion and culture and tradition are intertwined and not seen as religion, or the Judeo-Christian standard in most of the US and Europe)

RhysW

12:38

oops, thought we wer ein cooler, this is the election chat :P

will just move those messages methinks

← 80 messages moved from Workplace 2014 Election

There we go

enderland

@RhysW you might as well move all @YannisRizos messages from here to the election chat then hahaha :) lots of election discussion here

RhysW

→ 2 messages moved to Workplace 2014 Election

@enderland will just stick those 2 back there we go

think thats close enough without rereading the last few hours

jmac

Woah.

RhysW

?

@jmac what have you broken :P

enderland

13:17

25

Q: How can you send the message that you deserve respect as the new guy in a department of experienced coworkers?

I am a young woman fresh out of college in a department filled with older men. I'm afraid if my situation isn't corrected soon, I'll be dealing with it long term. My coworkers make the sort of jokes and comments that are mostly related to me being the new guy. When I cant answer a question, I u...

colleagues

should I protect this? it seems like "opinion away" type of question

I'd suggest you take a trip to Chat as most of the regulars (in fact everyone who has answered this) frequent chat. If you are serious about wanting to be involved in helping make this community better, that would be a great first step. — enderland 19 hours ago

this sort of thing bothers me a lot. someone posts "this community is mean" and after a lot of community members put a lot of time into answering their concerns, they basically don't have any interest in actually working to better it

drive by "waaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaa" really makes me frustrated

gnat

@enderland I'd say, go for it. 3 or 4 answers from new users in 12 hours (I can't tell whether there were deleted ones besides these), fits the idea of auto-protection recently suggested by Shog:

19

Q: Auto-protect questions that get more than N answers from new users in a 24-hour period

Expanding the criteria for auto-protection has been discussed in the past: Should we automatically protect all questions with more than N answers? But I think that discussion addresses the wrong problem: Protecting a question with a large number of answers doesn't do anything to fix the probl...

feature-request new-users protected-questions

^^^ if they had this implemented, question would already be protected about 4 hours ago I think. And there would be no need for Workplace-unique instant-protection magic by the way :)

hey @YannisRizos at Whiteboard jmort has a question, I would appreciate your thoughts as Programmers moderator:

in The Whiteboard, 8 hours ago, by jmort253

Not sure if this question would fit here... it sounds interesting... definitely NOT a project management question though:

^^^ about migration from PM to Programmers; to my surprise question feels okay for that

Monica Cellio

G'morning all. (Good afternoon, Rhys and CMW.) Hey mods, I've got a question about a recent flag -- not arguing but just trying to understand what happened. I used a custom flag on this post to point out a comment thread that was veering off-course. The comments were cleaned up (thanks); my confusion is that the flag is marked "disputed".

I thought "disputed" only happened with NAA and VLQ where somebody else disagrees (and I think it can happen if posts get deleted, but that didn't happen here). How does a flag that only a mod can handle get disputed?

Again, I'm not whining about a flag -- just trying to figure out how that happened, is all.

Yannis Rizos

13:36

@MonicaCellio Disputed comment flag? That's weird. Not sure what exactly happened, but I'm pretty sure we don't have the option of marking a flag disputed.

The one thing I can think of - in analogy with deleted posts - is if the flag ends up as disputed if the comments are purged, or self deleted.

enderland

is there a way to search chat for messages posted by one user? @CMW linked a question the other day I wanted to bounty

but I can't find it since this place is so damn talkative, ha

Monica Cellio

@YannisRizos I flagged the post (so there'd be one flag instead of a bunch of individual-comment flags). But I don't see an option in the mod tools to dispute a post flag; I can mark it helpful or decline it, but it doesn't make sense for a mod to just dispute.

Oh, maybe purging comments does that -- hadn't thought of that!

Yannis Rizos

@enderland chat.stackexchange.com/…

RhysW

@YannisRizos beat me to it

Monica Cellio

@RhysW me too. :-) (@enderland, do note that if it was oneboxed, the message in chat will be the link, not, say, the title of the question.)

RhysW

13:40

ooh good call

enderland

6

Q: More job responsibility than is noted in job description, how do I decline these additional responsibilities?

In the 3 years that I have worked at this company, my job responsibilities have grown, but am not getting compensated for them financially. Company policy states that my official job description must match my job duties, but when I asked to revise my job description, I cannot. How do I approach ...

job-description

why can't I put a bounty on this?

I don't even see the "eligble for bounty in" note

RhysW

@enderland too new

@enderland unsure

i dont see it either

Monica Cellio

@enderland I think you only see the "eligible for bounty in X" message on your own questions, but I'm not sure. For all questions, you have to wait 2 days before starting a bounty.

RhysW

@MonicaCellio that sounds familiar, so is probably right

enderland

huh, that's sad I guess, I really want to bounty that one

I think it's a GREAT question for this site, though way harder than most we get

RhysW

13:56

I had the same situation at my last place, so definitely a good question

Monica Cellio

@enderland come back tomorrow?

RhysW

@MonicaCellio Your call is very important to us, please hold the line?

Monica Cellio

@RhysW no one wants to sit on hold that long. "We are experiencing high call volume; please call back later."

RhysW

Oh of course, but I was told I was next in the queue!

I feel like im just following you between rooms at the moment :P

Monica Cellio

14:14

@RhysW you are, but that guy who's on now? He never shuts up, and the reps aren't allowed to hang up on clients. Go get some coffee, have lunch, write a new app for your phone... it'll be a while.

RhysW

@MonicaCellio Oh that guy

gnat

15:02

83

Q: Why can't I just offer a bounty for a question right off the bat?

Sometimes at work I have an immediate need to get an answer for a question. I have 3,000 points at my disposal so I'd like to just put a bounty on the question as soon as I post it to give it the highest possible chance of being seen. Why do I have to wait?

discussion bounty stackexchange

Jim

@enderland it's too new

workplace.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/set-bounties

48 hours

CMW

15:45

@enderland this?

enderland

16:01

I can't believe I never thought to check privaleges. lolfail

@CMW yeah that one

RhysW

16:12

@enderland Worse for me, i actually did check the privileges

still didnt spot it

gnat

17:20

7

Q: How can I respond to negative comments about my accent in a non-native language?

I am a non-native English speaker working in a software company. Some of my coworkers (especially people in more senior positions) make comments about not understanding due to my accent, when a majority of the people in the room have no problem understanding exactly what I said. Right now I feel...

international

^^^ worth keeping an eye, may eventually need protection because of HN exposure:

in The Whiteboard, 7 mins ago, by MichaelT

@gnat btw, Hacker newsed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7516595 (not much activity on it - just something to keep on the radar)

Chad

17:46

@BVR What specifically are you having a problem with? the term "Right direction" is very generic and could mean many different things to different people.

@jmort253 We arent facebook or twitter but we are definately a social network.

-4

A: How can you send the message that you deserve respect as the new guy in a department of experienced coworkers?

First you need to figure out if they are just having fun or being hurtful. Just because it is hurtful to you doesn't mean they mean to hurt you. Try to figure this out with an open mind. I bet they are a bit intimidated of working with a fresh grad and a woman. If you have come to the conclus...

I wish i could down vote that answer again and again

enderland

@Chad heh

Chad

@enderland I think we need a banner that says "Your answer is really bad. Please self delete!"

enderland

@Chad the first two points are pretty solid, it's the rest of the post which is questionable...

Chad

@enderland Seriously you think its a good idea that the lady makes friends with one of the guys so that she has someone to stick up for her?

And then he says " Also on the other side going nuts or crying isn't going to help either"

Did she say she was doing that? no but that is the assumption presumably because she is female. I do not see him suggesting that a guy not cry

the entire thing reminds me of a 70's cliche

enderland

#1 and #2 is useful advice, stand alone

I guess the "crying" part is pretty ridiculous in light of the rest of it, since it's fairly sexist frmo that perspective

Chad

18:00

@RhysW Thats why you have a Political Action Committee so you do not have to get your hands dirty. you can even condemn the ad which gets you both the benefit of the attack ad and the honor of being above it.

RhysW

18:11

@Chad hey chad, wanna be my political action committee?

Chad

@RhysW Yes I have all kinds of ideas for attack ads

Did you know Jmort and CMW are also motor cycle riders... Are they in the Hells Angels? Why have they not answered this question? What are they hiding?!

Vote for RhysW He is not in a Biker Gang!

The preceding message was produced by the committee to elect RhysW as a mod and has not been approved or endorsed by the candidate.

RhysW

haha i love it

Chad

@RhysW No! you have to denounce it so you can appear above this kind of dirty politics

RhysW

um er, @Chad how could you say such a thing? Bikers are the spice of life, we need more bikers

Chad

We literally had a candidate for congress that lived 3 miles from a country club. There was an attack ad that painted her as being an aloof country club wife that was not in touch with the common man. She did not belong to the country club...

capitolfax.com/wp-mobile.php?p=16552&more=1

gnat

18:26

Nevertheless, gnat, I contribute to a lot of stack sites and you guys are heavier handed with the downvotes than any other site by a good deal. After all, (nearly) everyone who posts on here is trying to help. "Not upvoting" is an alternative. gnat, you could have posted your link in your first comment. Instead, you chose to criticize, and to only post the link when you could use it to win an argument. — BobRodes 3 mins ago

^^^ bad guys like gnat downvote those who "are just tryin' to help"

RhysW

@gnat geez gnat, whats wrong with you :P

Chad

@gnat We dont need you to "Try to help" we need people to give authoritive answers.

gnat

I am apparently wrong. and all we are, and of course enderland!

@kleineg with all due respect, I've spent a year and a half working towards getting this site to graduate (which it now has). One of the primary problems is chatty and low quality posting from users not familiar with the site. I suspect had this been allowed to be as prevalent as you seem to want, the site would have not been around for you to post on. You can dislike the specific style, but the reality is this site is a question/answer site, not a hugglefest - the voting mechanism here is one way the community can promote good behavior and discourage things which do not improve the community. — enderland yesterday

RhysW

@gnat whats interesting is that he chose not to upvote, but criticize you for your choices

@gnat @enderland is the most wrong of us all by those standards

gnat

@RhysW sure, note "Not upvoting" is an alternative. Sounds attractive isn't it.... if I only didn't see it failing (except for SO where not-upvoting seems to more or less work)

RhysW

18:34

hmm,

might need to get him to realise what the site is about

1

A: How can you send the message that you deserve respect as the new guy in a department of experienced coworkers?

First, read Chad's link. Note the "Making disparaging remarks about an individual’s gender that are not sexual in nature" as one of the definitions of a hostile work environment. Then, do the following: Tell the individuals involved that you do not find the comments to be appropriate. If the ...

0

Q: Got in over my head on a project, how do I tell my boss I can't do it anymore?

I have been working as a Jr. Developer at my current job for about a year and half. After been at my job for about 5 months I volunteered to do complete rewrite of a very old system that the company had. At the time I said I would do it I was confident it would take a few months at the most, but ...

software-industry management

im certain this Q is a dupe, im not alone in that thought right?

gnat

18:53

@RhysW absolutely, I was going to post the same. We had it asked and answered, I swear

RhysW

I just cant find it!

Chad

19:10

Maybe we should ask the question on meta how can we make The Workplace more hostile towards low quality posts

gnat

6

Q: We need to downvote answers more (even mediocre ones)

I propose that: This site's core users MUST much more frequently downvote answers even if they are "only" mediocre or we are going to face a consistent decrease in quality because (each of these is expanded on at length below): All (or at least most) our questions are subjective Anyone can ...

discussion voting

Chad

@gnat Obviously that is not doing enough...

we need to be more hostile

gnat

@Chad that sounds like a good idea, I need to think it through :)

Chad

hostile enough to disuade people from posting crappy opinions about subject that admit not to know about

I dont really know about hiring and benfits but it seems to me that a new employee should never make as much as someone who was hired before them.

Vote for RhysW! The candidate that will provide the Frontal Lobodomy that these morons need!
The preceding message was produced by the committee to elect RhysW as a mod and has not been approved or endorsed by the candidate.

4

gnat

@Chad reality is opposite more often than you may think. this is a matter of a market value, supply / demand. Newcomer may be in demand, may have competing offers etc - company is forced to make them in. Oldtimer might be in less demand in the market because their skills have narrow appliance. IIRC I've been through this myself, at all sides of this funny "configuration", old+more / old+less / new+more / new+less

Chad

19:21

@gnat I know that was an example of the type of answer I want to see people permabanned from TWP For posting

gnat

oh I see :)

Chad

I have no idea about the subject, but I have an opinion and feel like sharing it on this hot question

And all the other answers are really long so I dont want to try to understand what they are saying.

0

Q: Got in over my head on a project, how do I tell my boss I can't do it anymore?

I have been working as a Jr. Developer at my current job for about a year and half. After been at my job for about 5 months I volunteered to do complete rewrite of a very old system that the company had. At the time I said I would do it I was confident it would take a few months at the most, but ...

software-industry management

This question is a hybrid programmers / workplace question. Part of it (how to I go forward with the project) belongs on Programmers - The other half how do I communicate with my manager that I need more time is a TWP issue

jmac

23:43

@RhysW You are very bad at this politics thing. The proper response would have been something along the lines of, "Recently I have been made aware of an ad implying that both CMW and jmort are Hell's Angels. I think their membership is a matter for them to address. I do not agree with the message the ads are delivering -- they were not made by my campaign, and I believe that Workplace Members deserve to make their choice based on facts, not accusations."

That way you get to take the high road while making the same implication more public at the same time. Win-win!

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