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Don’t be spooky

therealadam.com

161–170 of 228 posts

Re: Don’t be spooky

#161
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With health insurance connected to your employment, references checks, previous salary leveling, noncompetes, the interview process.. the American system doesn't make it easy to get another job.

Yeah I felt bad for writing the comment a while back “if you want a big vacation just take time off between jobs” and then I realised in the US that means you’d probably have no health insurance for that time. I saw another comment saying you need more than 10M to be truly financially independent in case you get sick … to a single person!

COBRA allows retroactive opt-in. That could help with taking a long vacation, depending on how your healthcare costs come in

Re: Don’t be spooky

#162

It’s good advice for many circumstances. Do a little 5 whys analysis and ask why in the absence of information your employees are moved to terror. It might be a normal human reaction and an unavoidable power asymmetry between labor and management. On the other hand, if the median expectation is terror, perhaps that provides some valuable information about the background energy left behind from all your other communic…

Even in romantic relationships, it's a common trope that "we need to talk" is going to be a breakup. Is it really realistic for working relationships to have a level of trust that even most intimate personal relationships don't achieve?

Did you alter the article’s phrase “let’s talk when you get a minute” to "we need to talk" inadvertently?

Re: Don’t be spooky

#163

Early in my career I got a Monday morning meeting invite on a Friday afternoon just after I left the office. The meeting was called “The future of “ Entire weekend was a write off. I was so anxious. And yep. They shut down the unit (but I got to keep my job). As a result this is forefront in my mind as a manager. One thing that works great is whenever I ask questions about something, anything, I also say “this is on…

I feel your pain ... I got a late afternoon invite to a meeting with HR and my bosses-boss for the next morning and the 12 hours of not knowing what was going on was way worse than being downsized.

Re: Don’t be spooky

#164

Tons of comments here agreeing that this kind of vague messaging is to be avoided (and I'll toss my comment in there as also being in agreement). But....clearly there are people out there who use this kind of communicaton, some of them doubtlessly reading this thread. So my question is: those who do say vagaries like "let's talk when you have a minute* - why? What is your intention?

> "let's talk when you have a minute* - why? What is your intention?

Well - you're busy, they are busy - you need a moment of their time at their convenience and you're asking for it.

Although I've learned to add context or just jokingly say "nobody's getting fired" which does relieve the tension.

Re: Don’t be spooky

#165

I feel like most anxiety among people today is due to lack of confidence. Confidence isn't just about getting things done in time, it's also about willing to accept the outcome of an event and run with it. Without it bothering you.

[deleted]

Re: Don’t be spooky

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American system is designed to keep the power balance by making it easy to get another job. Yes, there's some economic power difference - and sometimes it is out of balance. The idea that your boss has control over you is silly; your boss has the control over you that you give them in exchange for compensation, and you can always just quit - I wish people would do so more, because many of the worst attributes of…

I mean, I think designed is a bit strong here. And the long history of labor restriction, including today's tendency toward non-competes, clearly suggests it's not working so well. But to the extent that people do quit jobs, that does certainly help. But you're very breezy here about quitting jobs. It's easy enough for a young, single guy in a hot industry. It's quite difficult for others, especially given how things…

Health care tied to employment is an invention within our lifetime. Free health care from employers has been a thing for a long time - since the 50s, but the rise in costs to the point where it's untenable to purchase individually is new, driven by laws forcing employers to provide it.

In the 1980s, it was possible for families - Two adults, two kids - To buy health insurance for https://listwithclever.com/research/healthcare-costs-over-ti... . Prices started spiking in the 90s, but really skyrocketed in the 2010s.

Re: Don’t be spooky

#168
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the opposite. You lay off on a Monday so you have 5 business days to call recruiters. You give a promotion or bonus on a Friday so the employee can celebrate on the weekend and won't slack off the rest of the week.

This feels like the area of advice where you can probably concoct a narrative that supports any particular day of the week. :D

You fire on Wednesday because that lets them have a long weekend to relax.

Promote on Saturday so that they're not distracted on a workday.

Re: Don’t be spooky

#169
It's an annoyingly common TV and movie trope that one person will call another person and say "Come over here right away, I have something extremely important to show you!", not bothering to give them any idea about what it is, and by the time that person gets there, they're dead.

Re: Don’t be spooky

#170

It's an annoyingly common TV and movie trope that one person will call another person and say "Come over here right away, I have something extremely important to show you!", not bothering to give them any idea about what it is, and by the time that person gets there, they're dead.

Or on Star Trek, “[Officer], please report to the bridge.”
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