151–160 of 246 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ha. My dad has an account at cooperative bank ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksbanken_und_Raiffeisenbank... ) and every time he has business at the bank, he says: "You know, I am a co-owner of this bank". Usually the personnel is confused by this.
They probably hear that dozens of times a day.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A good one in the Southern U.S. is the pronunciation of the word "Appalachian". I'm from NC and whenever I hear someone say "Appa-lay-shin" I immediately know they aren't local and I start acting a little different accordingly. Not in a mean way, but I know I can't open up completely to those people because from experience I know they might judge me according to stereotypes about that region.
How would you pronounce it? Appa-lah-chi-an?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A good one in the Southern U.S. is the pronunciation of the word "Appalachian". I'm from NC and whenever I hear someone say "Appa-lay-shin" I immediately know they aren't local and I start acting a little different accordingly. Not in a mean way, but I know I can't open up completely to those people because from experience I know they might judge me according to stereotypes about that region.
How would you pronounce it? Appa-lah-chi-an?
Many of these are equivalent to demanding to speak to the manager in order to get what you want. That can backfire quickly if you’re not careful. > Present as if you are collecting a paper trail. Prominent indicia of this include notebooks, organized files, and repeatedly asking for specific names, dates, and citations for authority “for my notes.” I worked at a smaller company where any semi-threatening support requ…
That is hardly fair as the whole "this conversation may be recorded for training purposes" puts the caller on edge right from the start. Are they allowed to record the call too? Is that legal?
Obviously, the caller should just record the call and tell the other side they are doing that. I guess most people don't know how to record calls.
Interesting USG shibboleths are using the correct acronyms, especially for insider stuff (TDY, "allowances", "authorities", and referring to NSA as NSA and not "the NSA", CIA as CIA and not "the CIA", State for "the State Department", etc.)
Is that good grammar? If you expand out the acronym you get "I work at National Security Administration," and if you remove the adjectives you get "I work at administration." Administration isn't a proper noun so that's why you would want to use "the." In electrical engineering you are supposed to say "DIP" which stands for dual inline package, but laymen tend to say "DIP Package" which expands out to "Dual inline pa…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
About 30 years ago I was being asked by some guy I barely knew to do something over the weekend. I didn't know how to tell him that I would rather just be at home with my family. Eventually and without thinking it through, I just said "It's my weekend with the kids." He instantly became apologetic and said he understood completely. And I instantly felt like a heel for pretending to be someone I'm not. I had accidenta…
It’s not your fault that the listener assumed you were divorced; you implied it (accidentally) but did not state it. You were not untruthful-what you said was literally and exactly correct. The assumptions made by a listener as a result of intentionally limited data are not your responsibility in any way, indeed even if you were able to predict them with any reasonable level of accuracy, which you are not. I have an…
We all look forward to reaching a conclusion you didn't intend us to due to our assumptions.
Many of these are equivalent to demanding to speak to the manager in order to get what you want. That can backfire quickly if you’re not careful. > Present as if you are collecting a paper trail. Prominent indicia of this include notebooks, organized files, and repeatedly asking for specific names, dates, and citations for authority “for my notes.” I worked at a smaller company where any semi-threatening support requ…
> Before you try these “Dangerous Professional” tricks, please just try to be a decent human with the front-line support staff. - they aren’t tricks. - making documentation and taking notes is something decent humans do. - only less-than-decent people are threatened by documentation.
This is a rephrase of "only guilty people need to worry about privacy." But:
1. Are you sure you act perfectly above-board at ALL times? You don't occasionally say something that could be misconstrued, lose your temper, etc.?
2. Are you aware of all contractual clauses and laws you may be violating at any given time? Are you able to think about them, in real time, and always act perfectly?
This is not always fair but saying “500mg of acetaminophen” is more likely to get you labeled a kook or someone with illness anxiety disorder, at best someone trying too hard, rather than a pro. Doctors in the US say Tylenol.. like most brand names it’s easier to say than the generic.
The actual medical shibboleth is knowing your dose and dosing interval, total doses over time period X, dose adjustments, that gives doctors the information they need about your drug. Basically just know your history down cold. You'll be forgiven for mispronouncing med names, using the trade or generic name when the other one is more common, etc. Nobody cares. All (yes, all) doctors have a specific framework when it comes to history taking, and it's easy to get. And it's easy to tell when people don't get it. It goes something like, "I (or pt Y) have med problem x, y, z. Recently, I noticed u happening. I tried a, and then b but neither worked." Boom. You're now miles ahead of everyone else seeking care, you're not wasting time while the doc tries to organize and digest everything you're saying, it's that simple.
For health insurance claims in the US, apparently you want to say "I want to file a grievance", at least in Massachusetts (magically fixed $5000 bill where health insurance company was obviously lying). I'm told "I want to talk to the ombudsman" also works.
NYC's electric utility, Con Ed, was giving me a massive run around [0] until I filed a complaint with the New York State utility regulator. After that, Con Ed fixed my problem within a week.
[0]: Long story short, Con Ed installed new electric meters that were supposed to automatically send readings to themselves but they never "provisioned" it (to this day, I don't know what "provisioning" means). But since they had installed those new meters, they stopped sending out meter readers to my apartment building despite the building manager repeatedly making appointments that the meter readers never showed up to. Consequently, my apartment building of ~400 units got estimated bills for three consecutive months.
>A bank: a) Do it only on paper. b) Address to any of Office of the President, Chief Compliance Pfficer, General Counsel, or Investor Relations. My dad speaks English as a second language and asks my family to proofread things. I have no idea where he got this from, but there was a period of time when he'd write letters addressed to the President of JP Morgan, or, The Comptroller of Maryland, etc. At first we all tho…
This is my dad too. I thought he was nuts, but it was very effective. Looking at your name I am going to assume that like me you are from the former USSR. The explanation my dad said is the following: a lifetime of dealing with soviet bureaucracy informed him that orders always flow down, and each worker tries to prevent complaints from flowing up. Therefore, to get a problem resolved, your request has to come from u…