The Water Cooler

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 ...

Chad

yeah...

enderland

I enjoy answering questions, tbh, find a fair bit of satisifaction out of it. But there are a looot of places I can do this :)

it's hard to find The Workplace to be the "easiest" or "best" place to do this

actually SE in general, since so much of the "rep reward" is based on who posts first, rather than the best answer

enderland

1:54 PM

@Rachel how went the interviews?

Chad

2:07 PM

@enderland And there is a tendency to award upvotes to answers that may not be good but that readers kinda agree with

RhysW

2:27 PM

@Chad this is the exact reason ive taken to putting a little humour in my answers. i of course make sure my answers are as correct as i understand the situation, but ive found the added humour gels well

@enderland theres other places?

enderland

2:49 PM

@RhysW I'm fairly passionate about people learning basic personal finance

those sorts of questions are not really SE appropriate, ever, since they involve a lot of back/forth to get informatino, etc

Chad

@enderland Basic is not hard to do here.. the problem is people want specific guidance and prognostication

enderland

@Chad right, which is also a bit more rewarding than generic answers ;)

Chad

Especially if you can tell the future... unless your future is not favorable to the left viewpoint cause then it is voted down as right wing nut caseness

RhysW

Hmm im curious, i wonder what the highest voted answer is on wp

Chad

Its a horrible answer

RhysW

3:03 PM

no doubt its high voted because its a feel good one, but id still like to know what one it is

Chad

116

A: How should I deal with an employee who has slept with my wife?

What concerns me most is the attitude in the statement "he's put too much work into the company to just get fired just because I'm the boss.". This is a person who has access to all the source code for your systems and as a team lead is likely to have production server access. This is a very dang...

RhysW

are you sure thats the highest voted answer? and not the highest voted answer of the highest voted question?

Chad

Enderland has a few in the 90's though

No that is the highest voted answer of all active users anyway

RhysW

ah, did you use search criteria? or just been on a search for it yourself before?

127

A: Is it rude to leave an interview early if you have already made your decision?

I don't think there's anything wrong with leaving a marathon-length interview if you realize in the middle that neither party will benefit (personally, it would have to be very bad for me to leave in the middle because I always hope that the situation might turn around and something can be salvag...

higher voted

scratch that

203

A: Is it rude to leave an interview early if you have already made your decision?

It's easy to forget an interview goes two ways. I suspect their reaction was mostly an ego shock, and had very little to do with how polite your friend was or wasn't. Walking out as soon as he saw the dress code and floor plan would have been rude. Once you've spent enough time to see past ini...

ridiculously high

Chad

Yeah you are right

that one by Karl is

RhysW

3:09 PM

over 200, that one got a lot of visibility

Chad

Which makes me much happier

RhysW

:D

im good at that lately xD

Chad

it didnt used to be

RhysW

it annoys me that jmac did a really good answer on this, yet it can never be accepted because the user doesnt exist on here

64

A: Boss does not answer questions

Give a man a fish... If you ask me what the current rate between JPY and USD is, I can tell you (about 95 JPY/USD). If you need to know the same thing again next week, or next month, and I'm not around, what will you do? It may be efficient in the short-term to just tell you to use 95, but long...

enderland

@RhysW it'll be worse when it's auto deleted ;)

RhysW

3:11 PM

@enderland :/

enderland

or was it not migrated? maybe not

Chad

For a long time that slapped with my wife question was... Not the HLGEM answer though the other one

RhysW

@Chad that poor guy, i wonder what ever happened about that

Chad

He found another bridge to troll under :p

RhysW

haha, you think it wasnt a serious question?

Chad

3:13 PM

Yeah the next question he posted was that he was slapped by his employee for confronting him

enderland

slappers gonna slap

RhysW

oh really, i never follow users, so i never notice those things

@enderland haha thats funny on two levels

Chad

That is where the slapped his wife meme came from

RhysW

i dont think its the same guy, he only has one question

Waiter John

821 2 3 4

relationships work-environment

unless it got deleted

Chad

And now new users hear it and think we our humor is twisted

there was a different account

enderland

3:15 PM

there were also a lot of questions deleted on that subject lol

Chad

I still say we are not Jerry springer... though is someone wants to show their...

enderland

is it wrong of me to use adblock to block various parts of internal webpages?

RhysW

@enderland haha, i like it, our internal stuff is shoddy

enderland

our homagepage of intranet has a stupid rotating picture

RhysW

fun

i can top that, our company made their own internal social network, and forced it upon us all

and then spammed us with email until we used it

its a cross between twitter and facebook, and given the level of the people who use it ive taken to referring to it as twitbook

Chad

3:20 PM

I was thinking FacedIt!

RhysW

@Chad haha i like it, maybe ill alternate between the two

Chad

Or TwitFace

RhysW

ill admit, i laughed at that one

Chad

If you have the rights you should create a DNS entry for it

well if you have access to the account infor of someone you would like to see fired... append previous suggestion here!

RhysW

haha, all these suggestions are still better than its actual name xD

Chad

3:28 PM

New TWP Question : How can I blame everyone else for my failures in an interview and not seem like a weasel?

Ohh that is a dup 3 or 4 times now

RhysW

0

Q: Whats more important Company potential for growth or job satisfaction

Considering you are a junior with less than 2 years experience. You joined a company where you dont like what are you doing but the company has a huge potential for growth. Would you stay with the company so you grow with it or leave to seek job satisfaction elsewhere. let me rephrase that what...

career-development job-change

facepalm

stop trying to get our opinions on things dammnit D:

what is this, super long friday? Its normally friday we get all the odd questions

Chad

NRQ NC and OT

RhysW

i can only vote once :/

enderland

didn't we have a questino comparing those which was good?

Chad

3:47 PM

That oculd have been closed as a dup of that quesiton you linked

enderland

4:03 PM

put interoffice IM on "available" - receive IM in about 30 seconds. hmmmm

Chad

@enderland Quick put it back on "Busy"

enderland

"busy - lunch is more important than you" ?

which considering it's an awesome homemade hummus sandwhich? it might be :)

Rachel

4:40 PM

@enderland No employer interviews yet, it's mostly meeting with staffing agencies to go over their jobs and for them to see if I'm a candidate they want to recommend. Have a phone screen later this afternoon

Chad

What part of US Rachel?

Rachel

@Chad Western NY

Chad

lol if you were midwest Florida or Texas I could help you out :p

enderland

@Chad midwest ftw!

Rachel

@Chad Thanks :) I'm not minding the process so far other than it all being completely new to me, and to be perfectly honestly I'm enjoying the extra time at home

Chad

4:55 PM

lol that is the hardest part of finding a job when you are off work... its so much better doing stuff at home if only I could get paid for doing my chores like when i was a kid

enderland

5:09 PM

xkcd.com/208 <--- this is me right now :-)

jcmeloni

5:47 PM

Hey @rachel, I just quit my job, so ... solidarity!

Rachel

@jcmeloni Hi Julie :)

Why'd you quit?

Chad

@jcmeloni Ohhh nooooo!

Rachel

6:57 PM

Hrrmm if someone asks for "3 professional references", and I have 2 professional and 2 personal references, should I go out and try and contact a former coworker for a 3rd "professional" reference?

(I do have letters of reference from other co-workers/supervisors, but those are from years ago and I wouldn't really consider them as a reference now since we've been out of touch for like.. 7-10 years)

enderland

7:12 PM

just ask @Chad to be your reference

what could go wrong?

Chad

@enderland Ohh the stories i could tell :p

Rachel

Haha thanks, but I'd prefer references that I know will say nice things about me ;)

Chad

@Rachel i would never ever ever call one of my personal references a professional knowing that chances are that they are never going to be called

that just wouldnt be right...

Rachel

@Chad well my sheet of references clearly says 2 are professional and 2 are personal.

and technically, I did work for a few years with one of them (she's a Registered Nurse), so she'd probably be Ok being a professional reference too

Chad

@Rachel No one is going to say anything because no one is going to be called

if she worked with you she is a professional reference anyway

Rachel

7:16 PM

Even if she's my kind-of mother-in-law? ;)

(we're not married, but not likely to be going anywhere either since we've been together almost 10 years)

Chad

does she have the same last name.... if so I would probably avoide that :p

Rachel

Nope, no same last names

Chad

Then no one will ever know

Rachel

haha ok, I'll just call her and warn her in advance to expect the call, and they'll be looking for a professional instead of a personal reference :)

enderland

@Chad YOU will know ;)

Rachel

7:18 PM

I had completely forgotten I'd worked with her... not necessarily the same department, but the same company and our jobs had us interacting on occasion

Chad

@enderland I know nothing...

Unless you put a former manager for a reference (and a recent one at that) they are not going to call your references.

Rachel

@Chad The email she sent me specially said they would be calling references, and asking for 3 of them. I have both my former managers as my other two professional references :)

enderland

@Rachel that's kinda awesome then that if asked "any relation?" she can answer "no" honestly hah

Chad

Why would they ask for references then tell you they do not plan to call them...

Rachel

From the email of stuff to send her: "Name, email address and phone number for 3 professional references – please make sure that your references are aware that you are using them and that I will be contacting them after our interview."

oh wait, I read that wrong :)

enderland

7:23 PM

there should be an "email review" SE, like code golf, but for writing emails

Transcript for