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Jim G.
Jim G.
2:20 AM
@Shauna Baby boomers come from an era where you get rewarded for extra effort, exceptional performance, and where they had a relative peace of mind that loyalty to the company meant that they had a high chance of retiring comfortably. X'ers and Millenials have not been afforded this and don't entertain the notion that the company will reward loyalty or that they will be able to retire comfortably. We are used to companies using us up and throwing us out like garbage so we have learned to take advantage of every benefit the company offers. — maple_shaft 7 hours ago
@maple_shaft: ^^^ Damn. What a good point.
 
 
12 hours later…
Rachel
Rachel
1:54 PM
How come this question was closed?
31
Q: Colleagues frowning when I take vacation days

ElfyI work for a company that gives 25 vacation days a year. Unused days are not paid and if not used they become wasted and you cannot use them the next year. When you leave the company, you are not paid the unused vacation days. I used roughly 15 of the 25 I have but a few people (both above, belo...

company-culture united-states vacation
I'd like to try to address the reason it was closed with an edit, and get it reopened. I find it fairly common to see that kind of attitude towards vacation time and employees who use their PTO in a spread out basis, such as taking every other Friday off
 
Ben Brocka
Ben Brocka
2:11 PM
@Rachel It's another lame "was what I did okay? Please socially validate me". We've had other less biased "You have vacation days, just use them FFS" questions before too in various circumstances
 
Rachel
Rachel
@BenBrocka Well the OP said he's not originally from the US, and is wondering if it is "normal" to not use all his vacation days in the US and if that is what he should be doing instead because of the way his colleagues are treating him
I would say that's definitely a valid question
It may seem obvious to anyone familiar with US employment laws, however not everyone is familiar with them or thinks to look them up
 
Dhaval Kariya
Dhaval Kariya
2:28 PM
hi
u there?
 
Rachel
Rachel
2:42 PM
@Chad I see you've changed the core question quite a bit. I was going to make a less-drastic change, but don't want to roll-back your edit unless my change would be enough to get it reopened.
The summary of my changes was to change the title to "My colleagues frown on me for using my vacation days. Should I stop using them so much?", and to clarify in the body a bit more that the OP is not from the US and is looking to find out if there are unspoken rules in the US about taking PTO that he is not aware of. Would this change be enough to keep it open? I'd prefer not to invalidate the current answers if possible
(I'd also prefer not to get in an edit-war with you over it) :)
 
Chad
Chad
3:23 PM
@Rachel That question is not constructive.
I want it rolled back or changed into something constructive
Is it normal is not constructive. Is there anything i can do about is
Please ask in the form of what can i do
Avoid asking about is it normal and avoid inserting perceptions
 
Rachel
Rachel
3:39 PM
@Chad Hrrmm we probably need some 3rd parties to step in here then, because I think your edit invalidates all the answers given so far and changes the core question too much
@jcmeloni @jmort253 @NickC Are you guys around?
 
enderland
enderland
A question purely asking, "is the american perspective on vacation different than european?" is worthwhile in my point of view
Because I've had quite a few conversations with people in Europe about this - the culture there is completely different wrt vacation than in the USA
Getting so little vacation in the first place seems outrageous - not using it is even worse
 
Rachel
Rachel
@Chad "Is it normal" may be a sign that the question may be not-constructive, however I think asking "Should I reduce the amount of PTO I take because my colleagues frown upon me being gone so much. It should be noted that I'm working in the US, and not from the US, so don't know of any unspoken rules about PTO" seems fine
@enderland I think asking if you should let company culture influence how much PTO you take to be a worthwhile question too. It's one I had as well when I first started working and before I had any prior experience with PTO
 
enderland
enderland
@Rachel That works too, and it is the question I basically felt the original question was
 
Rachel
Rachel
@enderland That's my thoughts too, which is why I voted to reopen it in its original form and only made a minor edit to try and clarify that was the question being asked
 
enderland
enderland
@Rachel I felt the original question was (albeit borderline) a good question
0
A: How can we make this question "a real question"?

enderlandThis question was fine in my opinion. Was it a "what should I do?" - somewhat, yes. But the asker was from a different country than the USA and was confused about vacation practices here, because coworkers seemed to look down on them for using vacation. They asked: What should I do? Not use...

 
Rachel
Rachel
3:52 PM
@enderland +1 to that answer, although I'm not going to rollback the edit @Chad did a second time because I don't want to turn it into an edit war between two users. Someone else has to roll it back if they disagree with it.
 
enderland
enderland
@Rachel I'm not sure how big of a concern this is, but, none of the answers right now address the current question
-4
Q: How to hunt for graphic designers who have the skill of listening to instructions?

drabsvMy question regards graphic designers for the web - those who do only the visual, illustration part of the job and not coding/ UX/ etc. I am currently looking to hire a designer and I have already gone through a number of people with quite decent portfolios. The problem I encounter is that these...

hiring-process professionalism communication pre-screening
didn't we have nearly the exact question about "how do I get graphic designers to do what I want" ?
 
Ben Brocka
Ben Brocka
@enderland Borderline was the biggest problem for me, since it was getting sooo much attention it really needed protection from bikeshedding/generic answers. It needed more focus on a problem to solve than "is it okay" even if the problem was implicit
99% of the time if a problem is implicit in a question it should be made explicit
 
Rachel
Rachel
4:20 PM
@enderland That's my big problem with the edit as well, but like I said I'm not interested in getting in an edit war by rolling it back a 2nd time. Right now it seems to be me vs Chad and I don't want that.
 
enderland
enderland
I did... :)
 
Rachel
Rachel
@enderland @BenBrocka I flagged it for a protection notice from a moderator due to the attention it's receiving too. That should help with the low-quality answers from users who don't know our site and standards very well
 
Rachel
Rachel
4:32 PM
I also changed the title to "Should I let company culture influence how I use my PTO?", which I think accurately reflects the OP's original question while being "constructive" by SE standards
@Shauna - The current edit is fine by me once the mini rant at the end was removed. The prior edit was not constructive. — Chad 4 mins ago
All the 2nd edit did was clarify what was being asked by adding a single concise question in bold that summarized the question...
Was it that hard to tell what was being asked?
 
Rachel
Rachel
4:50 PM
Hrrrmm
@Rachel: The original title was much better. More likely to be found by someone googling for this exact problem, etc. — BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft 7 mins ago
Should I change the title back to being "My colleagues frown on me for using my vacation days. Should I stop using them so much?"
 
jcmeloni
jcmeloni
@Rachel I'm not really around; I'm turning in my diamond so am not taking moderator actions of a major type these days. This is something that @jmort253 or @NickC should deal with. So, if you see me around (like now) and I'm not helping out, that's why. I agree that you need a 3rd party, though.
 
Shauna
Shauna
@Rachel I didn't think it was that hard to tell, but I've been known to think the opposite of the rest of the world, which is why I posted the question to meta after the question got closed.
 
Rachel
Rachel
5:08 PM
@Shauna I'm glad you posted it :) I think it was a good question and just needed some tweaks to stay open
@jcmeloni =O When did this happen? (thanks for the reply though)
 
Chad
Chad
I am ok with either title personally
@jcmeloni :(
 
Rachel
Rachel
@Chad Good enough for me, I'll set it back :)
 
enderland
enderland
while you guys are fixing titles
-2
Q: chairs and policies

mechanicumWe have a low dialog, quiet, open office styled workplace. While it is great for concentration, I have noticed I get carried away and there have been instances where I moved only for lunch. I decided to at least start somewhere and begin random chats or go to breaks with people. While going out ...

company-culture relationships company-policy offices
wtf is that one all about
 
Chad
Chad
@Rachel FYI I am not invested in the question.. I think the problem the OP has is that people have been so babied they forgot how to deal with jerks in the real world. So long as the question is constructive(as it is now) I am good with it so long as it does not revert back to what do I do?
@enderland There is no question there.- Rant as a question close and delete.
 
Rachel
Rachel
@enderland His office space is open-floor and very silent to not disturb others. He wants to change that environment because he feels he can't talk casually with another co-worker except during his break times. He thinks management did it that way on purpose to increase productivity, however he thinks it decreases his productivity because his mind is often on conversations with co-workers from outside the office area. Break times seem fairly strict, so people notice if he's gone too long
I'm not really sure where chairs come into it though..
Oh I think I got it - "I have noticed I get carried away and there have been instances where I moved only for lunch." He wants a more comfortable chair since he doesn't move much
 
Ben Brocka
Ben Brocka
5:27 PM
i am not compute that can search all of stackexchange for answer my question — Shahrooz Jefri 5 hours ago
How to be compute that can search all of stackexchange for answer questions for great justice
 
Rachel
Rachel
@enderland There, its edited into something readable and easily understandable. I still think it needs some clarification from the OP about the exact question being asked in order to get reopened though though
 
Chad
Chad
6:12 PM
0
Q: Can we implement a policy of "Discuss in meta first" for closed question edits?

ChadWe have differences of opinion on what a good question is here. But generally we can find a common ground and constructive version for most questions worth saving. But editing them on the site is counter productive and sometimes creates conflict. Instead I propose if someone other than the OP w...

discussion questions suggested-edits
@BenBrocka first slap them. then ask what should I do. Then sleep with their wife
 
enderland
enderland
Or just sleep with their wife, and slap them in the process ?
 
Chad
Chad
@enderland Order of operations is important here i think
slap in sleep out
0
Q: Are the changes here appropriate?

Chadhttp://workplace.stackexchange.com/posts/8849/revisions I am considering implementing a policy that all employees must speak the language of the country where the company is located in when speaking to another employee in the office, even during lunch, breaks, by the water cooler, etc. ...

discussion specific-question asking-questions editing
 
enderland
enderland
6:35 PM
0
Q: Is it legal in the United States to electronically distribute forms with income data for tax reporting?

GreenMattThis is specific to the United States, but hopefully that's not too localized. For those not familiar with the W2 form, it is a brief statement reporting income and tax data that employees of U.S. organizations receive from their employers. It is for use in preparing income tax forms. Last yea...

taxes paperwork
ugh just because a question is not necessarily too localized doesn't make it on-topic when the entirety of the question is a legal question!
 
Chad
Chad
@enderland there is no problem to solve other than can he sue his employer for making it available... it is off topic and should not be saved
 
enderland
enderland
@Chad but i wanna chance to use google! :P
 
enderland
enderland
7:03 PM
Wow I've never gotten the Vox Populi badge for voting 40 times in one day, sad
 
Ben Brocka
Ben Brocka
@enderland Vote all the things
 
enderland
enderland
@BenBrocka I normally force myself to vote on questions
I dislike "meh not good enough for a + or bad enough for a -" on questions in particular
 
Rachel
Rachel
@enderland I think it's a legal question, however I think it's a legal question that HR managers should be expected to know, which is why I think it would be on-topic here
2
 
enderland
enderland
7:27 PM
@Rachel That's actually a really good point
 
Rachel
Rachel
@enderland In regards to your answer here, did you mean to say "bad idea" in the first line instead of "good idea"?
 
enderland
enderland
@Rachel no, he's asking when to discuss on meta first
 
Rachel
Rachel
@enderland Ohh ok, I misread that sorry :)
 
enderland
enderland
On the legal aspect, our FAQ says - "If a question requires a lawyer to answer it, we can't help. These situations are simply too specific and too complex to definitively answer on our site."
it doesn't say "if it addresses legal issues it's off topic"
 
Rachel
Rachel
7:49 PM
@enderland It may not say it explicitly, but I think it's implied. I would agree with most legal questions being off-topic, but that one seems like something HR managers should be able to knowledgablly answer
 
 
1 hour later…
Rachel
Rachel
9:07 PM
Awww apparently this question didn't get its 5th reopen vote, and they're starting to expire now:
4
Q: How do I deal with a coworker who listens to the radio all day?

demonz demonz Possible Duplicate: What can I do about a very loud coworker? I have a really annoying workmate. As soon as he gets to the office he turns on the radio and listens all day long to a horrible radio program. I think that's disrespectful, because he could just use earphones and respect ot...

work-environment colleagues
Loud co-worker != loud radio
2
 

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