The Water Cooler - 2014-08-06

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12:38 AM

@MattGiltaji A bunch of us got that on a t-shirt.

@MattGiltaji I feel like any way we word it, we're likely to run into speculation. However, you could maybe edit it to be "How can I find out if my company uses employee monitoring software? If they use it, what things should I keep in mind when using work computers, and how would this differ if I knew I weren't being monitored?"

Or perhaps some variation of that which draws on user experience but without speculating about what your employer will or will not do.

Was getting really really slow internet, because apparently the router that came with my 100 Mbps connection was only 802.11g. So I was getting 12/12 Mbps. And it was awful. So I got a new router:

user image

@jmac Your Internet is so much cooler than mine....

Makes mine look like stone knives and bear skins...

@jmort253 I wanted to get a 1 Gigabit connection, but my building is locked in to 100 Mbps :(

@jmac you can download all of SE in like 10 minutes

12:53 AM

@MattGiltaji Assuming someone else has proper upload speed, quite likely, yes.

@jmac I'm sure SE is sitting on a huge pipe in a datacenter

@MattGiltaji That sounds uncomfortable.

There has been recent talk at my company about software being used to monitor employee's activities on their work computers.

How would I be able to find out if my company uses this type of software?

How should I adjust my behavior when using work computers if I know I am being monitored?

What have been the effects of monitoring in your environment?

@MattGiltaji I'd nix the last part though.... that's too much shared experience :D)

alright, submitted

0

Q: How widespread is the usage of employee monitoring software?

There has been recent talk at my company about software being used to monitor employee's activities on their work computers. I realize that asking about my specific company is off-topic, but do most companies use employee monitoring software? How would I be able to find out if my company uses t...

work-environment employer-relations india

12:59 AM

That should kick it back into the review queue. nice edits.

thanks jmort

1:14 AM

@Ian, your handy-work will become world-renown:

jmort253 ♦, Clackamas, OR

8.3k 4 31 65

professionalism software-industry company-culture communication interviewing management career-development

1 hour later…

2:36 AM

I see that @jmort253 has embraced the hydra, but where are the knightly deeds on your profile @jmac?

@MattGiltaji I don't know how to do it, let me try to figure it out.

@jmac - >                    
<img src="http://i.stack.imgur.com/eMalH.png" width="290"/><br>

But what's your goal? To get them fired? More... permanently eliminated? Remove their influence? Get them to stop talking? How to stop being a blind "yes man" yourself? How to better utilize this person's experience? There are a lot of things you might be hoping to do by "deal with" but nothing in your question right now indicates which option you want to do. Presumably you are hoping to get him to stop talking about his background unnecessarily, which is what I have edited your question to reflect, but if this is not the case feel free to edit it again. — enderland 6 mins ago

I believe I got it handled @jmort, now I am also fighting developers in my profile.

I hope that person answers they are trying to get the coworker permanently eliminated, would make an interesting question

2:46 AM

BEST CM EVER. Fight largest user base.

oh... jumped the gun lol

Some people here just plain don't care about keeping this community not as a forum

I feel like Monica might need one too, @IanHolstead :D)

@enderland Cary's a bit young yet... a wee 16 reputation.

Still trying to find his way around in the big SE world.

walking around on wobbly legs.

Good edit!

@enderland Yeah, @jmort has the right idea on this one. It isn't that people don't care, it's that they don't yet realize how we are different, or why that's important. Part of the job of being a mod is to bring up those discussions so that the community can mull over them and hopefully come over to the good side of things.

(plus eat a lot of flak for deleting comments, that is part-and-parcel of the mod job)

@enderland nice tag team, I edit the first question, you edit the second

2:51 AM

And battle dragons with tags for heads...

3

@jmort253 That is in the mod agreement. In the fine print. I think.

-3

A: How to get remote workers to properly engage while working on a task together?

I agree with the Mathemagician. You must evaluate if you want to invest some time (personally or through someone else) into developing social skills and collaborative skills on your team. The fact is that some highly skilled programmed just lack of basic social skills. And some of them need an en...

This is one example of why comments as answers are bad. It encourages people to post answers that actually reply to comments instead of address the core question.

Uhh... I just removed it so the link is only 10k+.

Person was definitely trying to be helpful, just he/she was answering the wrong question...

3:20 AM

Quick reminder on how/when to use flags. Especially VLQ. People like using those to say what a downvote should:

2

A: When/how should I flag content as 'very low quality' or 'not an answer'?

When should I flag? Flags are a way to let the moderators know about issues with content on the site that can't be handled by the community, or are so harmful to the community that they need to be dealt with promptly. If you aren't sure whether or not to flag, consider asking in chat, or asking ...

I hit this with a VLQ (10k only)... was I wrong in that

workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/31909/…

actually, looks like its not even 10k only

it was called Hey, all you software engineers [on hold] and looked like some sort of survey

@MattGiltaji That was most likely spam. I flagged it as spam and got rid of it because, well, it was probably spam, and if the rest of the network starts getting similar stuff, I want to teach it that it's bad.

k, didn't process it as spam as it didn't seem to be advertising anything, but that makes sense

and flagging on the mobile app while driving is a bit fun :D

@MattGiltaji Please don't do that, for the safety of all the drivers

Safety First! Flagging Second! Family Third!

2

Friends don't let friends flag and drive.

3:34 AM

user image

user image

Wow, look at that upload!

more memes

user image

@jmac @jmort253 Wow thanks guys! I guess I will have to make one for the Monica and the new mod now!

3:52 AM

@jmac, please post your exit interview

11

Q: Current moderators: please tell us about the job

As experienced job-seekers (and regular readers at The Workplace) know, an interview is a two-way street. Just as it's important for the community to ask questions of candidates, it's also important for those candidates to have answers about key parts of the job. Sometimes the best answers come...

discussion moderators election

it should be quick with your lightning internet

@MattGiltaji I will consider it. We really doing that again?

¬_¬

Man I really need to get back on answering/asking questions. I would love to be able to vote to close and insta edit, but you need rep to do so!

Im more interested in improving the content then producing it, but you cannot have one without the other

good job @MattGiltaji on your 1k! (For realz this time)

@IanHolstead thanks

the 1k powers are not as fun, I'm looking forward to 2k

@MattGiltaji and then 3k and then...

:)

After 10k, it doesn't matter much. You can see deleted stuff, which is the bestest of the powers.

4:04 AM

but but 100k!

Cannot fathom 100k.

I don't have 100k on the network.

mere mortal flee from your presence !

I wonder how long it will take skeet to hit 1M?

Just calculate it at 200/day.

@IanHolstead just divide the remaining amount by the rep cap and you'll get the number of days

Because he will get at least that.

4:05 AM

@jmac right

I should head off to bed, good chatting with all of you!

4:37 AM

0

Q: Look too young and interview

I am a 25 year old guy and many people say that I look 16-18. Is it possible not to get hired based on how you look? Perhaps if I gain some weight I would look more professional?

Since there aren't a lot of details, I put on hold as too broad instead of linking as a duplicate. The answers here, while detailed, are mostly speculative and assuming when instead we should seek clarification in the comments.

4 hours later…

8:15 AM

0

A: Current moderators: please tell us about the job

What do you love about the moderator job on TWP? The other mods. More than anything else, having two people you work closely with and can bounce ideas off is a learning experience. 99% of a site is the community, but the remaining 1% that the mods handle is made infinitely better by having a...

2 hours later…

10:39 AM

12

Q: How can I approach career development with a boss who doesn't seem to support this?

I really enjoy my current job. The team is friendly, my manager is friendly, and the work is challenging, interesting, and fulfilling. Because of this, I have no interest in leaving this company or necessarily quitting my current position. The thing is, I don't feel like my manager is interested...

career-development management

-3

Q: Need to get to the next level in my career

I am at that point of feeling stuck just stuck I have no idea where to head next I'm 24 years old I work at my local radio station as a promotions assistant and also work at Comcast the position I'm in now is fine but I want to transfer from the Comcast to NBC side of things and become a producer...

communication applications work-experience united-states online

those are duplicates

that's nearly the exact reason I posted my question in the first place...

@enderland My summary for that question is "Punctuation, yo"

2 hours later…

1:12 PM

I edited your question slightly as it seems you are looking specifically for an interview, to clarify and focus this to be a bit more on topic here. If this changes your intent too much feel free to edit and update again - great question! — enderland 8 secs ago

Back in the saddle again, eh @enderland?

@jmac thanks! I'm surprised that mod activities only take up 30 min per day, I would have expected it to take more.

@MattGiltaji 30 minutes a day is a whole lot when you really think about it.

@jmac I don't mind editing questions which are basically good to be great questions, I dislike editing bad questions which will always be bad

(I would do the math for you @Matt, but I don't want to discourage you or anyone else ;) )

@enderland When you become a mod, you get a lot less choice in what you interact with on the site, just FYI.

1:27 PM

@jmac yeah but I can just delete all the things I don't want to edit right? nom nom nom

It doesn't tend to be that simple, but yeah, you could theoretically.

Yeah I know, hah :)

I wasn't kidding when I said the toughest part of the job was making the executive decisions when other users won't.

Or rather when the community doesn't have a conclusion.

You end up in a situation where inaction is the wrong course, but it's also the path of least resistance. So you have to gauge whether it's better just to do it and deal with the fallout, or if it's really worth continuing to discuss it. And yeah, you can do stuff like delete billions of comments, but members of the community notice and call you out for it, and you have to explain it.

Yeah

3.5 hours per week, 14 hours per month, 147ish hours per year.

Btw the chat rooms look terrible on mobile, but they actually work pretty well

1:31 PM

0

Q: Is it also disability discrimination if it's something related to the disability that prevents hiring?

I'm a disabled person who has had to look for work for 2 years before I found a company that hired me. My disability mainly manifested in diminished social skills, which meant I couldn't really be asked to meet customers in person for project analysis, and I had somewhat higher communication nee...

job-search discrimination disability

this guy is asking for a legal interpretation, literally

You need to speak with a lawyer specific for your country/state if you want to know if you have been discriminated against, this is not really on topic - see the FAQ on this - 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.. — enderland 15 secs ago

@jmac I do kind of want the copy-editor badge, too, so far only one person has it on the entire site

Ok, I guess that legal question was resolved

> deleted by Nate Kerkhofs 1 min ago

@enderland I wouldn't have guessed it was Jim!

Tag edits probably

workplace.stackexchange.com/users?tab=Editors&filter=all

is that broken? I don't understand why it shows so many fewer edits

0

Q: What are the differences between revisions and edits?

This view shows me having 192 edits. However when I go to my profile, I see 336 revisions. What is the difference between an "edit" and "revision" and which is used for the copy editor badge? It seems the summary for edits is not used since Workplace only has one with this badge but three peopl...

discussion edits badges

err nm, I'm an idiot

1:47 PM

Do explain, it's still early for me

59

A: What kind of edits contribute to the editor badges?

What is included community-wiki posts tag wikis and excerpts What is NOT included edits to your own posts edits to tags To count for S&W/Copy Editor, the edit must cover the title, the body or both.

I only have 149 eligible edits for that, going to be a while...

Ah, good info. Thanks

2:48 PM

Hi Brandin, as a Stack Exchange Q&A site, we're looking for actual, hard answers to the question backed by facts, references, and specific expertise. Our goal isn't to have folks guess at what we're getting at but to directly answer the question. Please see How to Answer for more details. Answers should also be backed up. In short, if you got to the point in the answer, that would probably help. Good luck! — jmort253 ♦ 1 min ago

2:59 PM

@enderland Thanks for pointing out. I have seen the above question. But I feel it is generic in its aspect. My is specific. I have done the research stated in the answers for the question you pointed out. But I was not able to come to a conclusion based upon the research. That is the reason I posted this question. — karthikbharadwaj 53 secs ago

I'm unsure if that's a dup or not, I feel the way the question is worded IS but the asker doesn't htink so

3:55 PM

oh boy

0

Q: Should I tried to bypass the recruiter after she rejected me?

I found an ad for my dream job (at least seemingly) and applied for it. The company's website says they recruit only via a recruiting agency, so I applied with the assigned recruiter. She rejected me because I have never worked before with the software XYZ, which the company makes. She added the...

hiring-process recruitment

4:40 PM

@enderland Are you here? :)

@MattGiltaji And personally I don't see anything wrong with that question, it is one I would ask myself.

IMO, the asker seems to be fishing for a "yes" with some justification

@VietnhiPhuvan Companies will also often say things like they require X years of experience or a specific degree too, yet they are willing to bypass those on occasion if an appropriate candidate appears that they really like. I'd say it can't hurt to try, however if a person from the company also specifically rejects you based on the same rule, or simply redirects you to the recruiter, then it might be time to try your luck elsewhere and not harass them. — Rachel 3 mins ago

There's my "yes" :)

It really depends on the company, their need, and how set in stone they are about going through the recruiter

@Rachel very true

The bottom line is, it can't hurt to try. And the question shouldn't be closed because of it too, as I think it's a very valid question and one I would ask :)

There are some very good points I had not considered in the existing answers too

I think its more of a wording problem

4:54 PM

Hrm then we should edit it to remove or rephrase the offensive wording :)

@Rachel agreed, but I'm not sure how to word it

and justin gave a great answer, so I don't want to invalidate that

@MattGiltaji Ok, I'll give it a shot then. What parts do you think are causing it to attract close votes?

The current close vote is because they think the question is of the tone of "What job should I take", or "What skills should I learn", but unfortunately I don't see that

I see a very practical, narrow, targetted question

"Should I bypass a recruiter and try to contact the company directly, after the recruiter has already rejected me"

it should be noted, the rejection appears to be based on the recruiter trying to balance out the job candidates they're giving the company

instead of asking "should I do this or that", maybe "what are the ramifications of bypassing the recruiter", or is that too close to polling?

and isn't based on any specific flaws the user has

Hrm I think that may change the question too much, and possibly invalidate some existing answers

Honestly I like the question the way it is, simply because it's a very specific targetted "Should I do X" question. It's not one that only you can know the answer to

And X is a specific, on-topic, workplace function :)

@Rachel yes, somewhat

5:06 PM

but should I do X encourages multiple right answers

eh I found it in the review queue and voted to Leave it Open

yes and here's why, no and here's why

That's great!

If i were looking for an answer to that question, I'd want to know exactly that

"here's why you would do X, and here's why you wouldn't do X"

3

A: How can I deal with other people broadening my question when I have tried and failed to keep it focused?

One of our fantastic, insightful editors took a moment to slightly reword some things in the question to make it a better fit. The answers explain how you can decide how to proceed. The answers are objective and include plenty of reasoning. In short, they're the types of answers we're looking for...

5:20 PM

y'all mind if I move this conversation to the election room? I think it's probably of interest to other candidates / voters

shog9 awakens!

go for it @Shog9

yeah :)

...

@MattGiltaji donno if I'd go that far

how do I find the other chat room now?

5:21 PM

Workplace 2014 Election Number 2

Open Discussion for workplace.stackexchange.com/election/2

ahhh thank you :)

and when shog moves it, there will be a link

→ 39 messages moved to Workplace 2014 Election Number 2

5:40 PM

0

Q: Can we please grow up here?

Seems that everytime I disagree with someone, a serial downvoting binge is launched. I thought this was a forum for "professionals". I guess I was wrong: -2 47 mins ago downvote Addressing burnout when applying for a new job -2 47 mins ago downvote Convincing my manager to let m...

6:17 PM

0

Q: Why does this site support political censorship and editorializing?

I downvoted this question: What are tools/resources I can use to check a company for transphobia and sexism during a job search? After downvoting, I was prompted to add a comment explaining my reasons, which were that I found the language of the question - "sexist" and "transphobia" - ...

6:32 PM

hey @jmac, surprised you're still awake

2 hours later…

8:25 PM

looks like we made the hot list .. 35k hotness points

8

Q: How can I get my manager to stop flirting with me?

I'm currently on a team of 6 developers, with a female project lead, who we'll call L. L manages both the developers and business side of things as well. The team is extremely effective, and the company as a whole is supportive of our project, but I have a problem. L has made it clear to me disc...

management work-environment relationships

8:47 PM

@MattGiltaji When I first saw the question I got the feeling it was gonna end up there...

(not saying its not a bad question)

:(

9:11 PM

not a great question, but it always burns a little when I see something like this

B-School homework seriously? You don't have to be so menstrual about it. I have been given this as a part of my training at Lloyd's Bank plc during a training session for my next review. It was my mistake to have come here only to get a B-School answer from a highly rated community. Apologies, won't be posting again. — Navik Goswami 20 mins ago

@MattGiltaji That comment which sparked it was bad.

@IanHolstead I agree

but it sucks to have goodwill undone

Hi Navik Goswami and welcome to The Workplace! Unfortunately, chatty, open-ended questions tend to not work out so well on our site, since almost every answer will be correct and we can't as easily vote on them to rank the best answers. Instead, ask questions about a real, actual problem you're facing, which includes plenty of details so answers are more targeted. For more details, please see the ask and about pages in the help section. Good luck! — Matt Giltaji 55 mins ago

vs

Voting to close because our site is about navigating issues in the workplace not about us doing your B-school homework for you. — Vietnhi Phuvan 39 mins ago

@MattGiltaji I know

my coworker and I are basically managing my department right now, this is awkward

@enderland replace "awkward" with learning opportunity and i'll upvote it

:p

or is it managing the dept because the real manager is not up to snuff?

9:15 PM

@MattGiltaji No, it's awkward, because I am heavily involved in implementing and discussing decisions which are affecting not only my department but all other related departments in the entire company

With great responsibility comes a larger paycheck? Maybe?

woah an @Ampt sighting in Workplace?

@enderland Ampt is the new powerhouse

hot question, plus answers on a bunch of questions this morning

@enderland I missed you. You never come by any more.

I'm trying to broaden my horizons. And stave off the boredom of being on the bench.

2 hours later…

11:20 PM

@MattGiltaji I'm not ;)

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The Water Cooler

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