The Water Cooler

@MisterPositive Da, most glorious People's Republic of New Jersey is for to checkink in today as well. Tovarisch Murphey has been implementing his ten year plan to ensure the proletarian masses are to be given much bounty from dirty bourgeoisie.

Mister Positive

@Snow No.

@RichardU Hello sir.

@Snow At least I am not staring at me evil self.

Richard U

@MisterPositive greetings. I have been liberated from a week long class and have again returned. Good class though

Mister Positive

1:48 PM

@RichardU I took a few weeks off from here...

Did not miss it much :)

Richard U

@MisterPositive you didn't miss much either

Mister Positive

@Snow is moving up fast...

Missed this easy REP Grabber
https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/111075/file-on-somebody-elses-computer-with-my-name

Richard U

@MisterPositive None of the questions as of late have required my trademark level of snark and/or taking of someone behind the woodshed.

Mister Positive

LOL

I see @MaskedMan is no longer semi retired.

Snow

He was never retired, that's just a fable he told himself. No one else believed that one.

3

Richard U

1:53 PM

I still think my personal best was still this one.....

195

A: How can I deal with troublesome Professional Engineer?

Key points: He has always been a dependable employee So, you started with a good man, now what happened. but since being overlooked for a promotion to principal engineer. Your company screwed him.... (which would have been a large pay increase) AND you hit him in the paycheck L...

@Snow MM is a master of confusion Fu

Snow

@RichardU In the same way that Kato was a master of Karate...

Richard U

@Snow I love to play with ideologues IRL. I get all zen on them and get them to question their own ideology by asking them questions. Ideologues hate questions.

Snow

IT have installed a physical VOIP phone on my desk. I'm finding it hard to resist picking up the handset and shouting "SELL!! SELL!! SELL!!"

Mister Positive

Gotta run ladies and gents....Take it easy!

Snow

Has anyone told that guy he runs like a girl?

Belle-Sophie

1:58 PM

Lol

Oh, I used some of the things I read here to talk to my boss. I just wanted a permanent contract so I couldn't be fired at will, but I received a promotion too.

So, YAY

Snow

Yay for you. I wonder whether that would work for me too.

Belle-Sophie

@Snow You can always try... :)

Richard U

@Belle-Sophie you may want to check out the book "Rhinoceros success". Audacity is the key to advancement.

Snow

I guess I'm a bit strange that in all the 30 odd years I've been working, I've never felt the need to ask the internet for help on a workplace related matter. Technical questions, yes - office related, never.

Belle-Sophie

@RichardU Thanks! I'll add it to my list :)

@Snow I'm pretty new in the workplace. I have almost 10 years of experience in high school/college-jobs, but I started working in an office just half a year ago.

The internet has been pretty useful with some questions I've had and some I didn't even know I had

Snow

2:11 PM

The book I based my professional life upon was "Bottom-feeding for Dummies".

Masked Man

@Snow My retirement varies from 0% to 100%, that's what retired in restricted mode means. :P

@RichardU Nobody here knows me better than you. :) There aren't too many people in real life who know me as well as you. ;) Confusion Fu is indeed my favourite tactic, a constantly moving target is difficult to hit regularly.

Belle-Sophie

@MaskedMan You're... an interesting person. In a good way.

Richard U

@MaskedMan Kindred spirits recognize each other

Masked Man

@RichardU Oh, excuse me while I make an edit to the Refuge in Audacity page. I read an extremely interesting news story recently.

Richard U

@Belle-Sophie The difference between academia and the private sector is immense

If you want to see some amusing topics, read the questions that my top answers are from

Belle-Sophie

2:21 PM

@RichardU I just read the one you linked earlier. Wut.

Snow

I sometimes wish I could answer a question using simply a GIF - link

Richard U

@Belle-Sophie Yeah, that one was a doozy. "We promoted someone's nephew over the man who busted his but for years. Now, he's working to the book, how do I bully him? Er..... no

@Snow the gif I want to use most is this one.....

@Belle-Sophie we also need to introduce you to the mantra HR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

Snow

The GIF I wanted to use was Admiral Ackbar.

Belle-Sophie

@RichardU Oh, too late, I already befriended most people in the HR department. What do I do now?

Then again, I kind of befriended half the office

Richard U

@Belle-Sophie LOL. It doesn't mean that they are the enemy, just that too many people go in assuming that HR will jump to their defense.

and, over trivial stuff too like "My coworker is crunching snacks at his desk, should I go to HR?"

Snow

2:30 PM

and "HR won't answer my emails, should I go to HR?"

Belle-Sophie

@RichardU Haha. I can understand that wouldn't work :P

Richard U

Be friends with as many people as possible, but remember that the organization itself is part of the company, not your personal resource.

Belle-Sophie

But our HR department is weird. Everything that's not IT, consultancy, helpdesk or development is HR.

Richard U

@Snow yeah. I'm thinking of throwing up a webpage that I can link to to explain "HR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND"

Snow

Your manager being your friend only seems to last until the day before the redundancy consultancy period....

Belle-Sophie

2:32 PM

So my desk broke a while back. So I had to call HR for that.

Home time!

Richard U

@Belle-Sophie we have a similar situation. HR is also responsible for acquisition of materials

Belle-Sophie

Cya later

Richard U

Auf Wiedersehen!

Snow

Darn. Another hour for me to be sitting here.

Richard U

@Snow six more for me

Snow

2:36 PM

Sucks to be you then.

Just saw an interesting question in HNQ "Why are bars important?". Then I saw it was a music question.

Snow

2:48 PM

I just overheard the team admin woman on the phone, spelling initials to someone "B for Baby, H for Hotel, F for Duck..." Maybe I misheard.

Belle-Sophie

I didn’t get very far. Managed to hit the second pigeon in 3 days. What’s with my luck?

Car seems okay. Heartbeat is not.

Gonna try getting home without hitting more pigeons now

Richard U

@Belle-Sophie The pigeons are plotting against you.

Snow

Pigeons are weak. Deer is where the real action is.

Masked Man

3:07 PM

At one of my previous jobs, it was "HR IS NOT". They did nothing noticeable, few people even knew of their existence.

Oh the joys of HNQ! One of my "meh" answers gets a bazillion upvotes ... yet again.

70

A: Laptop turned in to IT support has a document with staff member's name. Is it ethical for the staff member to read it?

As an IT support person, you are only authorized to do what is needed to resolve the users' IT issues. In this case, the user wanted his hard drive replaced without losing his data. Hence, you should only move the data from the old hard disk to the new hard disk, and of course, replace the hard d...

Snow

And I was typing out an answer to that one when you posted your answer. You stole all of my rep...!

IDrinkandIKnowThings

3:24 PM

@MaskedMan This is why common sense answers should be spelled out. You did it perfectly here.

The point of answers here, is that after reading one a person should be able to know if that was the right answer an why. That was worded perfectly.

Masked Man

@Snow You are welcome. Taking one for the team as usual. I am a good team player.

Snow

And home I go. Adios!

Nofel

3:47 PM

my colleague is asking me my pat

shld I tell him

so he can assist manager to extend my probation or not

Richard U

what is your pat?

I

I am not clear on that @Nofel

Nofel

pay*

is a ninja contractor

I told him i got a review

he asked me my pay so he can tell

I gave him rough estimate.

Richard U

that's odd

Nofel

4:07 PM

what is

Masked Man

Ooi, 10k guys, please have a look at this:

workplace.stackexchange.com/q/108162/3192

I edited that question according to OP's clarifications on a bumped-up meta post. Please undelete it if you think that would be ok.

Richard U

4:31 PM

VTRO

IDrinkandIKnowThings

5:10 PM

@Nofel what would you possibly gain from sharing that information?

@MaskedMan For this one maybe i am missing the common sense aspect. Why would the OP need to say anything to the team? Why not wait until they expect him to take some action he is not able to make in his current role that he would have as a Tech Owner.

Nofel

@IDrinkandIKnowThings according to him If I am being paid 35k which is a mid level dev

and he thinks I m not mid level programming wise

IDrinkandIKnowThings

@Nofel What does that get you?

Nofel

donno what that mean

when asked if I am junior dev

IDrinkandIKnowThings

what possible advange would their be to sharing your salary with them.

Nofel

he will be able to tell manager

as he is a guru of his field

IDrinkandIKnowThings

5:17 PM

Tell them to ask your manager they are the only one authorised to share that information with coworkers

Nofel

to what to expect from me

IDrinkandIKnowThings

I expect you to do the best job possible for the rate you are being paid.

Nofel

well I gave him my last salary

IDrinkandIKnowThings

too high or too low is not for either one of us to worry about

Nofel

true

IDrinkandIKnowThings

5:18 PM

It is only for coveting that sharing that information has any value

Nofel

I think and I know manager will ask him

coz he interviewed me and hired me

IDrinkandIKnowThings

no

Nofel

so he will ask him

IDrinkandIKnowThings

you let him ask the manager

Nofel

he did this for 3 weeks, do u think he is worth it

IDrinkandIKnowThings

5:19 PM

stay out of this

Nofel

well did I do wrong

Richard U

No, he's pulling something

Nofel

by sharing my old info

Richard U

DON'T TRUST HIM

IDrinkandIKnowThings

there is nothing good at the rainbow for you that will not be there if you dont go with.

Nofel

5:20 PM

of my pay

Richard U

@IDrinkandIKnowThings I smell a rat with this "guru"

IDrinkandIKnowThings

if he really wants to help, then your being involved is not required. If he is trying to stir up trouble then you being there is a bad thing.

Nofel

Well I said it like "My last pay was 32k and I get enough to sustain my small family

IDrinkandIKnowThings

And if he is bungling in blindly in a misguided sense of duty to you... let him fall in that quicksand with out you.

Nofel

He ended conv saying I think they shld keep u.

IDrinkandIKnowThings

5:22 PM

yeah he used it to take a dig at you

Richard U

@Nofel don't trust him.

IDrinkandIKnowThings

That is why best to let managers handle rate of pay questions in every case

Nofel

Well I got performance meeting day after tomorrow

my task was 3-4 tickets every week

I hardly met that

IDrinkandIKnowThings

@Nofel your "friend" is not going to be of help there

Nofel

who friend

IDrinkandIKnowThings

5:25 PM

that you were talking to

Nofel

I can only help me

he asked I replied that I am not comfy with it, and he said ur call but doing so will help me tell them what to expect from u

to which I estimated

but I couldnt understand

what he meant by "I think they are giving you 35k which is mid level, I don't think you are mid level programming wise"

Masked Man

@IDrinkandIKnowThings I think the issue is there was much hullabaloo about the OP taking over as the new XYZ Owner, but duh, turns out he ended up being a "mere" Senior XYZ. I don't think the OP needs to "do" anything about it, but he probably just wants to clear the air so that everyone can move on, rather than die wondering.

IDrinkandIKnowThings

@MaskedMan I suspect they already know...

Transcript for