What's Going On at Work?

Reminds me of my late father in law, who worked for an agency whose existence was only declassified in 1992…

7 Likes

That’s maybe the one that isn’t. Ha.

4 Likes

What’s going on at work… A continual dribble of students who are out because of COVID and me just grateful that the university is doing something to control the spread (masks required in all campus buildings).

Just let me say that, when you live with your elderly parents, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to work with the demographic that is generally the least vaccinated and most likely to spread the virus.

Is there money in being a hermit because that sounds really good to me lately.

11 Likes

We’re thinking treehouse. With a retractable ladder. And a moat. And boiling oil, and a trebuchet.

8 Likes

Oh, that sounds great. As long as I have books, music and an internet connection (and no social media), I can watch MST3K, read, write and rock out as I choose.

Sheer bliss.

5 Likes

I am also a Civil Servant. I work in the Environmental Department of a military base. We don’t have a lot of employees on base so there is only one other Environmental person. We each have 8 programs to run, so I do a lot of different things. My main jobs are Natural Resources and Hazardous Waste. Yesterday I rescued a bat first thing in the morning that decided a smoke detector in a busy hallway was a good place to hang out. Today I had ‘birthday lunch’ with my coworker since our birthdays are 2 days apart, but I’m taking next week off, so we had to do it this week. And I had to get my paperwork in for my next hazardous waste loadout and relabeled one of the drums. My favorite activity is checking my 14 trail cameras, it’s like opening Christmas presents. I’ve posted pics here:

Wildlife Pictures

And so has @SandyFrank!

6 Likes

I work for a very large Credit Reporting Agency in their identity theft division. It’s okay, but stressful and it feels like we need twice the staff we have right now.

Folks, please regularly check your credit reports for unusual accounts and inquiries, and if you see anything you don’t recognize, report it to the police and get a police report and report the fraud on the FTC web site. If you need to dispute something on your credit report, credit reporting agencies may ask for this information, so get it first and save yourself some heartache.

7 Likes

I posted about this in the RiffTrax forum:

October 15, 2021: Well today was a crazy day at the post office…
I was reading a safety email about a shooting that took place at the Memphis, TN distribution center when 2 city carriers had to be separated as one accused the other of not helping when he finishes his route and the other saying he’s too slow on purpose so as not to help the other carriers out with partial routes created when a carrier is off or sick… One guy is huge like 6’4" and over 300 pounds, the other guy is a stocky retired Marine. Might have made for an interesting Pay-Per view match but stress is already at an all time high with mail carriers being over worked and under staffed, and we’re over 2 months away from Christmas !

12/04/2021: So the union has been working hard trying to get these 2 city carriers back to work and the postmaster is fighting tooth and nail not to bring them back. Got word yesterday that she sent out a ‘Letter of Removal’ to both carriers without informing the city union reps so now the city union will file another grievance against the postmaster for trying to terminate their employment without consulting the union. These carriers have been out of work going on 2 months and this will keep them out of work another month or longer. They have bills to pay and families to support and she’s purposely trying to destroy their lives simply out of spite. The postmaster is very vindictive and because she seems to think she has the power to do what ever she wants to do and does not care at all who she hurts or steps on when she doesn’t get her way. It’s like a war of attrition between her and the unions.
Eventually the union will win the arbitration and those 2 carriers will get their jobs back. We’re pretty sure she’s either trying to get transferred or forced to retire as the district manager as well as the postal inspectors have made several trips to our post office because of the chaotic working environment that doesn’t seem to be getting any better. It’s even worse now with the Christmas rush underway and stress levels are at an all time high. We can only hope something gets done before another clash happens…

2 Likes

OMG so stressed out, pulled in too many directions - my office assistant will be leaving on the last day of school before our winter break (I work at a school) on maternity leave and I have to find a substitute, our Assistant Principal and our Coordinator left to work at different schools closer to home and guess who a whole lot of their responsibilities fell on top of? And there’s a teacher who’s trying to get me to take the last day off to join “Educational Awakenings Center” - he thinks their four day immersive whateveritis will help me become a more fully realized person (I signed up 'cuz the guys so damn hot, but there’s no way I’m going - sounds like a cult). I just want to go away…

5 Likes

OK, I’ll post some positive stuff: The company I work for is on the cusp of getting some revolutionary health technology into people’s hands. I have to be vague for a variety of reasons, but the underlying science is real and solid, and truly game-changing.

7 Likes

Ignoring the stuff I posted in the griping thread (I’m through the crying phase and onto the bitter phase so I’ll keep it there), I got to start astronomy today and that is my favorite science, has been for as long as I can remember, ever since I was a little first grader watching my first planetarium show. I love it, and I love teaching about it. I love showing pictures of it. I love trying to get my students to see how amazing it is.

Plus, I now know how to run the planetarium myself (coincidentally, the same planetarium I sat in over 30 years ago) and so I can take my students in and play the star shows for them. I showed one today. Wednesday, they have a constellation quiz and then Friday I’ll show them another star show just before the semester ends.

8 Likes

I loved astronomy as a kid… until I discovered that real astronomy was mostly math and not looking at pretty constellations. I still have my copy of H.A. Rey’s The Stars, though.

6 Likes

[studies 30 or 40 junk mortgage offers which came in the mail yesterday]

Also, be prepared for the credit check to send out a beacon to every well-dressed con artist within a 20,000 mile-radius saying, “HA! Another sheep waiting to be sheared! [click click]”

4 Likes

Astronomy is the best. In a way it’s the study of everything; all around us, all the time. I learn about it voraciously, and I’ve managed to get my teen daughter interested in it. It blew her mind that a light year is a measure of distance, not time, and that you can have variations of it – light months, light minutes, light seconds, etc.

7 Likes

We wrapped up Impact Summit week last week and I got to see a lot of the amazing nature conservation projects we are doing. I work in the IT department so much of the time all I see are programs and data, rather than the frankly beautiful work happening around the world. It was a real thrill to see the actual end result of my oft abstract labours.

6 Likes

This. So much this. Epic amounts of this.

It continually baffles me that people consider the government to be so incredibly intrusive to the point of listening to all your phone conversations and internet chatter whether it’s innocuous or not. Ain’t nobody got time for that sh-, knowmsayin’? It barely has time for the things actually considered important, half the time.

4 Likes

(Refresh: Cube rat at small transportation company.)

Clients and carriers are already trying to wrap up for years’ end, so I’m getting daily calls and emails on invoices that were only sent in 48 hours ago. Oh, and somehow it’s our fault that a carrier is taking 10 days to move freight from KY to GA. Nope, I’m not driving the bus here, m’dear.

Oh, and I have one team member out with a stomach bug and another with Covid, so it’s been more of a blast than usual.

But I am currently having a taco salad for lunch, so that’s something!

6 Likes

Today I incorporated the Douglas-Peucker algorithm into our code to reduce the number of latitude and longitude coordinates we’re sending to the Google Maps Static API, works like a champ!

I’m pretty proud of myself. I’ve reduced the number of coordinates by 2/3rds without losing polyline detail woohoo!

4 Likes

I was just teaching about that yesterday in my class! I brought up a calculator and typed in the numbers to get from km/s to km/yr and said, okay, so the closest star to us is 4.3 times that number.

I even tell my students that one of my goals is to blow their minds because it’s so fun to do. :smiley:

5 Likes

Maybe that’s why I still love it. I was never able to take advanced astronomy classes because they weren’t available at the schools I attended. :slight_smile:

But then, I tell my students that astronomy is simultaneously the hardest and easiest science to study because you can step outside and look up and you’re doing astronomy, but you can’t touch the things you study. Pretty much ever. :slight_smile:

6 Likes