Morning!

Morning!

How's today?

@ExtrovertedMainMan Kinda a shame this was removed, I feel this could've made an interesting question

Today is busy... my high priority market research project just had a change in its brief so I have to make more changes before resuming my other... also high priority market research project

@AlexRobinson It could be, but... It was little more than a rant, honestly. It did not include anything about how the OP usually goes about trying to ignore/not engage in talks, just a complaint about how others behave.

We get too many questions like it, sadly. Maybe our new help/on-topic text will help a tiny bit, but I doubt it.

@AlexRobinson Ah, having more than one high priority thing often isn't good, no.

@Tinkeringbell yeah, unfortunately a lot of people don't immediately know the difference between inter and intra-personal, assume they do and view this site as a self help Q&A type thing and even if we had the most concise well written "new question FAQ" in the world we'd still have to close a lot of quetsions

@Tinkeringbell its fine :)) idk it does kinda fall under my job description by the written letter but less so in spirit. my main issue is that its repetitive

@AlexRobinson Yeah, I'm afraid so. It doesn't help that this site already has a huge amount of questions that are very focused on specific, personal situations (Mine are almost all like that too).

And it's not off-topic, but it requires so much that I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be better if it were off-topic.

@AlexRobinson Ah, okay. Usually high priority stuff here means 'something broke in production' or 'we need this done in a very short time or something will break in production' and that's not really repetitive, but very, very chaotic.

I'm the SE rarity of not being a coder haha. for me high priority means high level deep dive data analysis for executives, or urgent market research to inform strategy. data analysis is my bread and butter but market research bores me - as much as I understand its importance

Ooh, rarities! :D

I doubt I would survive market research for a long time. Though I do enjoy a good chat with a stakeholder, like a user of the software I develop, from time to time.

Other stakeholders could be managers, those are always boring to talk to :P

The nice thing about working in a small business is that most people have a role that (if not unique in itself) has unique responsibilities rather than just "finance" or "IT", so its nice to converse with just about everyone

Oh, probably... though I have worked for small businesses before, those were retail stores and I was just the cashier :P

They also were parttime jobs, worked while I was still in school (and for 2 years after graduating university). My 'career' started with working for a big company, and haven't done anything for a small business since.

I do kinda want to work for a big company in the same industry because they typically have better career progression but I need to get atleast a few years here... that and there aren't a massive amount of satellite companies

I would love to switch employers, and just start working directly for the current client (if the fiances work out). But I have some kind of non-compete, so... I would probably have to work for two years somewhere else (can be the same field, which isn't too difficult, but it would add some serious travel time). And I like the coworkers and work at the current client too much.

I really should check up on my contract in general cos I haven't looked at it in a while

And I'm going to wait for my performance review (and pay increase) for this year, and if I'm not sufficiently compensated to keep up with at least part of this inflation, I may need to look up my CVs and start looking for another job.

This is the thing, I know that the mean salary for my position at my level is higher than what I have... but i really need like two years on my CV before I can contemplate moving

Oof :(

I already have six with this company, now about 3 with this client/programming language. So moving would be feasible for me. I do think if I had wanted to this before I had like 2 years experience with the programming language, it wouldn't have been easy/possible either.

Makes sense, experience is super valuable

Salary-wise comparisons are difficult for me. The current company has all sorts of added benefits (like 130 a month for health insurance, a lease car, buy-one-get-one-free shares program) that make comparing the money I get in my account now to the money I would get with e.g. working for the client directly (higher direct pay but less compensation for health insurance, no lease car, no shares program) difficult at least.

If I really wanted to switch, I would have to start calculating things like 'okay, what will I be spending on a car, what do I need to spend on health insurance, and I still want to end up with a net increase, so, I need at least this number'

(I'm not allowed to go working for this client directly, but we (as a team working for this client) just put out a new job offer which inspired that reasoning, which I will apply to other job offers too if I were to switch)

I haven't properly sat down and budgeted stuff like that in a hot minute - my monthly spending is effectively static and my balance goes up each month so I haven't massively felt the need to

Oh, pretty much the same here. Though my spending isn't as static, I started with a budget of 200 for groceries back in November and with all the inflation I'm now already at 230/250. And electricity was 77 back in November, then went down to 23 for the new year, and is now back up to 50 a month.

It's more that if I'm going to switch jobs, I don't want to end up with a bigger number being paid to me each month, but also larger expenses (for e.g. a car or health insurance).

i spent ~£70 more this month than like the previous six but thats because some of my friends from before uni are back so we've gone out a few times

but excluding that, my spending hasn't changed by more than ~30 from the baseline in a year

That's pretty good.

I've seen basic stuff like eggs, bread, cheese, chicken breast all get much more expensive.

(And the non-basics like orange juice too :P)

Some stuff definitely has, but I live in a relatively affluent area which I think probably helps

I don't know. The area where I live isn't poor either. But most supermarkets here set their prices for the whole country.

I'm still pretty much buying the same things I did back in November, and weekly groceries are about 10 euros a time more expensive.

It's annoying, but I can 'miss' the money.

Others can't though, and that sucks.

I'm still pretty upset about the idea that in this day and age people are really expected to work a 35-40 hour work week

Nevermind difference in salaries for "unskilled labourers" who were also the essential workers that didn't receive a payrise for working high covid risk jobs during the height of a global pandemic

Oh, that too! I would love to be able to keep the same standard of living I have now, yet only work 3 days or so. Less and I'll probably get bored though.

Initially maybe, but I believe if a 3 day work week can be normalised then the new normal will be to spend more time with friends or family and enjoy real connections, or spending that time for self improvement - whether that be education, exercise or anything really

As for 'unskilled labour'... yeah. And also a bit 'no'. Take for example flash delivery drivers, where you have an app that allows you to order groceries, and they will deliver it within 10 minutes. That's a kind of unskilled labor I think we can do without, not a kind of unskilled labour that should be more rewarded.

@AlexRobinson I would probably not spend it like that, but more likely still use two days for chores, and two days to do nothing. I'm great at doing nothing, and I have too little time to do it.

I also might consider starting a vegetable/fruit garden, just to spite the large companies that are making record profits just because people have to eat.

I greatly enjoy doing almost nothing but only because I don't have that much time to. I think if i had a consistent 4 days a week to do anything, I'd have to find something to fill the time

@Tinkeringbell You are probably right, but food deliveries I can't see going into decline anytime as long as people are willing to pay

@AlexRobinson Nope, I don't see it happening either. Just like I don't see it happening that people stop using (private) jets for travelling for fun, or yachts... What is totally superfluous and decadent for the one, the other will defend as 'hard-owned'

@AlexRobinson I just spent three weeks doing 'nothing' (okay, with the exception of some basic chores, being annoyed at a heat wave and trying to keep my apartment cool) and I still feel like I could use another three weeks.

@Tinkeringbell its especially egregious when people like musk are trying to promote themselves as beacons of environmentalism that are single handedly saving the planet... meanwhile is using child labour to mine cobalt and funding quarries for lithium and taking those 5 minute private jet flights over the public transport he claims to be passionate about

I do feel that's also slightly because this was a lot of nothing where I had other stuff I wanted to do (like cleaning all the kitchen cabinets inside and out) that I didn't do because heat wave... but I wouldn't complain if I could stop working today and just go hang on the couch again.

@AlexRobinson Stuff like that, yes.

But I was thinking more between 'regular' humans. I sometimes dive into the comments on news articles here, and what I find, I do find a bit scary.

There was this article about 'unnecessary electricity usage', and about how we don't really know how much of our energy usage can be deemed unnecessary, because we simply can't say that e.g. all laundry driers are unnecessary: They are for some, as some people may be able to dry their laundry outside if it's not raining yet still use the drier, while others simply don't have the space to put a rack of laundry.

The reactions there were... typical.

"I'm not going to use stand-by stops as long as the neighbor is using his leaf blower"

Like... duuude. There's millions of those little tv-receiver boxes in this country that are all always on or on standby, they were mentioned as probably a good example of unnecessary energy usage... if the argument was 'I'm not going to pay for a stand-by stop, let the provider that provides me with the box fix it' I might've understood, but this?

People just look to others too much, and as long as others get to have something they deem worse, they aren't going to change their own behavior.

@Tinkeringbell I'm in two minds over this. Like its obviously bad to say 'i'm not doing it beacuse Alice also isn't doing it', but it can be hard to break out of. I don't wear a mask in public anymore because I would literally be the only person out of thousands to do so - I was wearing a mask for the longest time because even though i'm young enough for covid to not be too bad if I did catch it, its never been about me its about those more vulnerable

@ExtrovertedMainMan whilst not a fit for this SE, it is a really unfortunate story

@AlexRobinson Oh sure. I'm also not saying that just because everyone does something, you have to do it too... that's how you get some of the nastier bits of history. The argument here would be more like "I'm not going to do X because Alice is still allowed to do Y'.

So, for all we know Alice may be vegan, not drive in cars and never take a plane, but she does own a laundry drier because in her tiny, not well-ventilated rental apartment, she simply doesn't have another option.

Bob however eats huge steaks every dinner, drives around in his Jeep for both work and fun, and takes a holiday by plane twice a year. Yet he refuses to install the standby stop as long as Alice gets to have and use that laundry drier, because in his opinion laundry needs to hang outside to dry (and he does that too, in his garden)

(Bob probably does some other, probably expensive, environmentally friendly stuff too, like having a very green garden, solar panels and a heat pump :P)

wait

what's a standby stop?

One of those things you put between the socket and the power plug, that allows you to turn off the electricity to a device entirely. Usually comes with a remote, or a timer. Used for devices that can only be 'on' or 'on standby' when plugged in, where you don't have easy access to the plug to unplug things.

Lots of TVs, sounds systems and those tv-receiver boxes I mentioned for example can only be on standby. But it's quite common here to have their plugs be behind the furniture they are standing on, so it's quite a job to plug/unplug each time you want to use/are done using the device.

I have quite a few of them here, but that is also because I find pressing a button on a remote 'easier'/'lazier' than having to constantly plug/unplug things.

Ah, so like a remote switch?

(I've never heard of those)

Stuff like that ^

don't know if you'd call it a 'remote switch', googling those gives me some stuff like this but also a lot of other stuff that's definitely not this.

i.sstatic.net/vD4L2.jpg#.png < Also comes in power strip versions. You use the remote to turn power to the whole strip on/off.

that's a remarkably unfancy design for those

Why would you need fancy ones? These are for stuff you don't easily reach anyways, which means they're also pretty out of sight :P

Oh

stuff like uh wifi :D

that's literally a remote control and a relay, and those remotes are cheap/simple

Oh, yeah. You can get them in fancy wifi shape too, I found that overkill.

lol

Much more expensive, and I don't mind pressing buttons on remotes. I have a small apartment, so having two remotes (one bedroom, one living room) is good enough.

I don't need to have an app so I can turn off the lights I forget to turn off in the attic :P

ah, I was looking at them to power cycle stuff :D

@JourneymanGeek Ah, you could get one with a timer then.

oh

when it dosen't work

Ohh.

Yeah, maybe an app and some wifi is useful then :D

thedailywtf.com/articles/ITAPPMONROBOT

I have one of those power strips connected to the TV, sonos, tv-receiver and Ninendo Switch docking station. Then those single connectors for a lamp (lazy, can now just turn it on instead of getting up from the couch! :P), the mechanical ventilation (plug is way up high yet I need to be able to quickly turn it off in case of I dunno, radioactive attacks or forest fires), the wifi access point (don't use it while I'm sleeping, so why should it use power?),

lol

two beneath my desk (with power strips I already had plugged into those) for the monitors, work laptop, docking station, private PC, and stuff like lights and the fan I use to keep cool at nights, and one above my bed so I don't have to unplug loads of chargers in the morning, just take the devices, press the button and run :P

@JourneymanGeek I remember that one :D

Problem is I don't need one often enough to do the legwork

(and the new place may have some smart sockets built in)

Fancy!

Its time for my irregularly scheduled microsoft related horror storytime :)

I meant to close a chrome tab with ctrl + w but I still had my powerpoint that i've been working on for 8 days in focus so closed that instead, and when I went to the folder it was in it was saying last edited on friday

Thankfully after a few moments of my heart not beating I found that the copy I was working on was actually in a different folder and last edited 1 minute beforehand so everything is fine apart from my blood pressure