Back in January 2018, we did a survey of the work life of the Glibertariat.
Well, we have many new members since then, and many people who have changed jobs, careers, or directions in life. So, I thought we were due for an update.
Since then, I’ve formed a new boutique agency with Web Dom. With our combined education and experience, and employing a couple contractors, we are able to provide website design services, digital marketing services (including copywriting, and social media/email marketing management), coaching and management for online businesses, and a few other services that are not our core offerings. With my plan to re-enter healthcare being stymied by a zillion things–now also including a cross-country relocation, this agency and my ongoing product photography work will consume most of my professional life for the foreseeable future.
How about you? What are you up to work-wise in 2019?
Comments
399 responses to “Employment Survey 2019”
Counting down the days until my first retention bonus arrives.
Consulting- truly feast or famine. Im in the middle of a mild famine.
Hit it hard…and get bombed !
She dropped me the bomb. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFfD5jVsKQ
Move ‘ZIG’, for great justice!
I wonder, HM–have you ever dressed as CATS? Say, for Halloween (yeah, let’s go with that)?
‘Cause, I can envision it. Sorta.
I’m almost 20 years in to my current job. In the process of trying to revitalize my current employer and coworkers. It ain’t easy.
Worrying that New York’s new extreme-left government is going to price me out of the labor market.
What part of the state are you in, Ted?
Catskills. Ulster County.
Down in the valley or up in the hills? I gotta make it down there to go to COSM one of these days.
I make money.
And then?
And then I ask that you stay the hell out of my personal life, Sean.
And then?
No and then
Along came Jones?
https://youtu.be/oqwzuiSy9y0?t=94
This guy makes money , too
Sorry, but that’s just awful.
Don’t apologize. That’s worse than cancer.
No shit, Nigga can’t even take the O’Jays beat and make it work. It’s like sampling 101 and he fucks it up, I’d hate to see what he’d do to funky drummer.
In a deep hole, next is climbing out, right now I’m well and truly fucked.
It’ll get better, it always does
Sorry Yusef. I hope it gets better soon for you.
You’ve got mad skills so you’ll be good.
Thanks
No HVAC jobs?
My phone isn’t ringing, but it’s Winter, or I’m too old to hire
Maybe try to sell your experience and reliability?
I need a different resume,. You are correct
If you are willing to move to Tucson, We might have an opening at the hospital. Maybe. Lemme know if you want me to check.
I’m continuing my career in Pro-Am porn.
Are there midgets? Asking for a friend.
Do I need to post the Hank Johnson m-word clip again?
The question that answers itself.
How many Rollergirl Spin Off series can a man star in?
The answer, my friend, is blowing.
*conducts Heather Graham image search*
So you’re a fluffer?
20 bucks is 20 bucks.
This is a man with some serious work ethics…
Also, accounting skills.
LOL!
Dammit, Count!
Same as downtown.
Isn’t “pro-amateur” a bit of an oxymoron?
It’s pros and amateurs together, not a “professional amateur”.
Ooooh yeah, apprenticeship porn.
Who are the pros and who are the amateurs?
Also, “amateur” is one of those words I can never remember how to spell.
I’m a Sr. Financial Analyst aka Data Jockey for a very large well known evil corporation. I have a job interview with another department Friday which will be a raise if I get the job.
Hopefully less than 7 years to retirement. If you ever want time to start slowing down, start thinking about retirement.
Not always. Once I started thinking seriously about retirement I figured out I didn’t have to work for 7 more years; two to three is all I need. Which probably keeps me from killing people.
LOL, I can relate to that:)
Do you work in Columbus? I’m in still grad school and thinking about a similar career in the future.
I am in Columbus. I can recommend the career but not my company. Unless you like to move around the country at the companies whim, then it’s perfect:) My FP&A job moved to Chicago 5 years ago and luckily I was able to find work in another department. I could have moved but I’d rather live in Hilliard than Chicago. I would recommend you get aquanted with Data Analytics and statistical forecasting as well as big Data tools like hadoop and tablaue. Big Data and Data Modeling is where it is all going for finance.
I lot of what used to fall under finance has been taken over by IT. I would also encourage you to learn database and SQL skills if you don’t already have them.
It’s been a good living dispite having to play corporate musical chairs every 3 years. The constant lack of job security is stressful. Working someplace that has there HQ in Columbus might be different.
Swinging a hammer for a GC. We finished a new home in May, and are now up to our eyeballs in a major renovation project for a 6000 sq foot lake house just outside of Ithaca. The client is a rich crazy lady who barely ever shows up at site and has a difficult time making up her mind. We are still going to be here when my eight month old hits puberty.
Trucking is beginning to feel like the memory of a lost lover whom I will never see again.
Getting my act together for a job search. Yeah, I’m lazy.
Oh megadittoes. The signs have been there for years. Except years ago I had a job.
At my current employer for 11 years. Been managing projects and doing strategic planning for about half that time.
Since they told us no raises this year, my resume has been making the rounds.
I help packets get from computer to computer. Except the bad packers from bad computers, I try to stop those.
At the same company supporting the Army. I’m working a new task on helping to change how the Army operates in regards to peer competitors.
Are the “peer competitors” other countries’ armies, or the USN and USAF?
Russia and China.
I help authors publish themselves in print and ebook. I also write books, but that makes me candy money.
Mmmmmm… candy.
RETIRED!
Bailed at the end of last March. Can’t imagine going back to work again; I’m having too much fun!
Jelly.
Congrats.
I still work as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan, but my final contract (5 very fast contract years) ends in August this year. I’m most likely going to be moving back to the States where I’ll work on getting a teaching license (goal is to be certified to teach ESL and social studies -read history- at the junior/senior high school level) and pick up a substitute teacher gig/other part-time jobs until the licensing course ends. It’s going to be a bit hectic, but I’m excited and just glad to be closer to my family again.
In a lot of states, if you already have a Bachelor’s degree you can get a temporary certification for two or three years that will let you work full time while going through the licensing/certification course. I know you can in Floriduh, and there are a number of other states with differing rules depending on how desperate they are.
They keep changing our titles. Last year it was Finance Analyst, now its Business Intelligence Analyst.
I don’t care much either way about what they call me, so long as they continue to pay me.
My job is to make and maintain operational reports for the midlevel managers to make sure their teams are in compliance with various metrics.
I’ll have been at my current employer for 10 years this June
Last 4 years I’ve exclusively worked remote. Company usually only allow its professionals about one day a week to work remote.
My boss was able to work it out with his boss that I get a trial period for permanent remote work and its been going well ever since.
I try to avoid discussing it with people that don’t get that arrangement though. No sense in upsetting the apple cart.
Considering the whole department is already spread among 4 or 5 cities anyway, the department is mostly remote workers anyways even if a handful show up to work in the same space almost every day.
I manage a portfolio of ~300 patents. I do a little bit of everything. Patent drafting, reviewing outside counsel’s work product, web development, triage work, meeting after meeting, competitive landscape analysis, strategerating, navigating company and fedgov bureaucracy, reading glibs, snarking about outside counsel with my coworkers, reading trade articles, reading legal articles, and the like.
I have been planting trees. Lots of trees.
A logger of the future revs up his chainsaw and says thanks.
Actually I am hoping not. Hunting leases are getting more expensive. Pretty soon the leases will be worth more than the timber. When that day comes I will stop cutting. Hell, it is nearly breaking even now.
Hunting leases here have gotten stupid. Way too much California money coming in.
Wait, what’s a ‘hunting lease’? People actually pay to hunt on your land instead of trespassing?
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, I’m guessing the hunters will want you to.
Still self-employed, still teaching medical device/biotech/pharmaceutical companies how to solve problems, currently on a long-term project expected to last until Q4 2020.
As of May I will have been in this industry for thirty years.
Thirty.
Fucking.
Years.
Any experience with GMP on drug/device combos?
You betcha.
Any idea how often the FDA site inspection database is updated?
My company got priority review on their NDA last week. The device portion of the medication is manufactured at Evonik Birmingham Labs in Alabama (formerly Surmodics). I can’t find any record of a GMP inspection at that location.
If I find that they passed with NAI, I might pick up a few more shares.
If you just got a priority NDA review, then I’d expect your device component guys would normally see an FDA visit within 30-90 days, but right now? Who knows? I gather the inspection arm of FDA is affected by the partial shutdown.
GMP?
Good Manufacturing Practices.
still teaching medical device/biotech/pharmaceutical companies how to solve problems
Regulatory problems?
It’s not my field, but I’ve helped on a few new product submissions. That shit is brutal. Especially international.
It’s helpful to go in with the understanding that the EMA has no real authority. After EMA approval, you have to negotiate with each country individually.
Yep, that was my experience. The frustration was compounded by the regulator not understanding the wording of their own regulations. Though, I think that’s something everyone can relate to at all levels of government here in the US as well.
Oh, and when it comes to the healthcare industry, the UK is a 3rd world country.
How do they rate for dental?
They have it?
When your older brother is a Glibertarian.
Needs moar free candy.
Fuckin’ A, Ice Cream.
Still in the same job. Still hate it.
The good news is that I haven’t been at work all week. The bad news is that it’s because I have the flu and I feel like I’m dying.
Get your fucking flu shots, boys and girls.
I don’t recall if I’ve ever had a flu shot. Outside of childhood – which was a long-running series of sicknesses – I think I had the flu once a few years ago. Hopefully never again. Knock on wood.
Afaik, there isn’t any downside in getting the shot.
I’ll consider it next year. Being jobless means I don’t interact with anybody for now. Yay?
You can get them for free at many pharmacies.
The one time I was forced into getting a flu shot was by a former employer and it gave me one of the worst cases of it I’ve ever experienced. As long as I avoid visiting friends with debt-ridden children during the Winter months I’m usually fine. Holiday related family gatherings are a crap-shoot I just have to deal with.
My rather hazy understanding is don’t bother unless you think you’re at risk.
*debt
germ
WTF, autocorrect?!
I did, so no flu. Although I’m still dealing with a bunch neurological problems. Unfortunately, doctors are so specialized these days, it’s like a game of hot potato — everything is some other doctor’s problem.
Anyway, hope you are feeling better.
Oseltamivir. It works.
I feel you. Don’t have the flu, but I have a head cold that’s killing me only because I haven’t been sick in forever.
I am just getting over both the flu and a lung infection courtesy of some lady that boarded an international flight sick as a dog then vomited all that crap in my lap during one of her numerous hack fests. Been taking antibiotics and everything. Hopefully I won’t be sick again for a long time after this is gone.
Yikes!
Hope you are feeling better.
I’m convinced that I have never had the flu. At least in the past 10-15 years.
I eat food off of the floor and don’t wash my hands.
My dad was real proud he never got sick, turns out that’s because he had MS which is an autoimmune disease. Your immune system works so good it attacks your own nerves!
JESUS.
Morning nightmare fuel activated.
I ride the NYC subway regularly.
A-HA!
Point Rhywun!
Two weeks ago, I finished my two-year contract teaching English at my school in Daejeon.
I’m doing the hustle and trying to get into editing full-time. I’ve been picking up small gigs and recently I got some good leads that hopefully are fruitful. I’ve got about $15k saved up and I am (OFFICIALLY!) debt-free. Lady and I are moving to Chiang Mai in a couple of months. Going to plop down rent for 6 months and give it a whirl.
It should be a very interesting year.
Congrats on being debt-free! Good luck over the next few months and hope it goes well in Chiang Mai.
Store some of that money away somewhere. The traveling lifestyle eats it up quick, even in a place like Thailand.
I make by hand exactish copies of things made thirty years ago. I have great sympathy for medieval monks.
I’m curious. Prints? Objects?
Dildos based on the cocks of hair-metal rockstars in the 80s?
Backdrops,
Evan can has teh kink.
Oh brother. Tucker in on his marijuana kick again.
Scizophrenia Suthen, schizophrenia!
As in high on camera or hating on the debil-weed?
He foams at the mouth when he talks about MJ legalization.
I am guessing Rufus must be working.
Executive Assistant supporting the head honchos of a six-branch credit union, coming up on nineteen years in March. Boss says I’m overqualified (two useless degrees) but he also says I’m not allowed to leave until he retires. (He’s three years younger than I am.) That’s unconstitutional though, right?
Seth Macfarlane’s ‘The Orville’ is on tonight. I wonder what sort of social justice message this has, after Family Guy Sunday.
Never seen it.
Me neither. The commercials aren’t helping. Is it really worth watching?
Initially, I found it worthy of killing 30 minutes. Not so much now.
Seth has come a long from way from this, when he was trying to be edgy.
Language NSFW.
If you liked ST:TNG, you’ll appreciate Orville.
So you’re saying it sucks.
Shut your dirty whore mouth.
science fiction > fantasy fiction > absurd bull shit that insults your intelligence fiction > Star Trek: The Next Generation
Fuck off, Tulpa. You’re dead to me.
I suppose I should at least check it out. I really know nothing about it. Other than the critics hate it and audiences seem to like it.
Bringing the wife through season one, haven’t gotten to the current season yet.
Given current events, the episode on social voting to determine guilt isn’t quite as humorous these days…
I take that back….its not on
And I woulda sworn on football Sunday they were hyping it for Thursday…
and….its Wednesday
See what happens when I dont drink?
I am a clinical scientist. I take data from clinical studies, analyze it, and publish the results. My main metric for success is publications in peer-reviewed medical journals. In 2018, I authored 6 publications and a chapter in a medical textbook. There’s a few still under review. I’m aiming to beat that number this year.
I’ll have my MS in May and then start my PhD in the Fall. Those letters will open a lot of professional doors. I *should* get a nice promotion with the MS and even bigger one with the PhD. I’ll also be viewed as competitive for Director-level positions if I start job hunting.
I really enjoy my job and have great colleagues. Unlike many programs out there, the classes in MS and PhD programs do help build my professional skillset. I wish it didn’t cost so much, but you have to pay to play these days (aka credentialism).
*Narrows gaze*
*Contemplates own terrible choices*
Well, before I was unemployed and homeless I didn’t have to work until 1:30!
*Looks at life. Kicks pebble.*
It’s funny you say that because I really enjoy reading your stories about life on the other side of the world. It’s sounds like your living some incredible experiences… whereas I fell asleep at 9:30 on New Year’s Eve and my wife likes to make fun of me on days I forget to put on pants.
Oh, I’m just bullshitting. It’s just been stressful recently not having a permanent place to stay– having to live on a backpack and no privacy going from friend’s apartment to friend’s apartment.
But now Lady is still sleeping next to me (it’s 11am here), we have Indian leftovers and I’ll get to have the first day to myself in about two weeks. Incredibly contented.
I’m (FINALLY) finishing up my story about Sri Lanka. It’s a bit personal and made it harder to write, but I think you’ll enjoy it and the art.
Nice! I look forward to reading it.
Just remember, you’re still just 1 Evan old
Is your PhD going to be related to data analysis or management?
data analysis and more general research
Still part time in the mail room. Still part time doing construction with dad. Still part time in class. Putting my resume together and looking for internships.
(This guy looks like he could use a raise.)
Was research scientist, now R&D engineer. Thug Life!
Still have my little locksmith and door hardware business. Going on 11 years now. No shortage of work thank god, even though sometimes it gets very hectic.
Chronically retired, sucking off the public tit. Married to a chronically retired woman who ripped off the little guy as an evil corporate banker.
Been a Harley mechanic for close to thirty years. Got sick of the fun (well, maybe the lack of real money, too) so now I’m an equipment mechanic for LAX. Never had benefits or security before. I’ve been self employed for the last 12 years or so, owning my own shop. I had good times and bad (sometimes very bad!) times on my own. Now, I’m unfireable, have retirement bennies, vacay, healthcare, and decent pay every time, no matter what.
If there’s one area of Los Angeles that’s recession proof, it’s the airport.
Budget not balanced? Increase the landing and gate fees.
Yeah, it’s run by the city. They steal their money. A buncha people transferred to the airport after the recession, because of the separate budget with it’s own income. Rest of the city had furloughs and cutbacks, not the airport, harbor and dwp.
Head the DevOps effort and write A.I for a huge company. Nothing really sexy but it pays my bills. Been looking but have not seen anything that really jumped out at me. Wondering if I should keep going through the hell I do to keep a security clearance or just let it go already.
Once our lives are back in order, I’ll get my terrain shop up and running and see about consulting. Truth is, after getting Cancer burned off my nose, the lifting, the heat, cold and perpetual dirt, 32 years is enough HVAC.
What’s a “terrain shop”?
I make custom model landscapes for tabletop War gaming and sell it
I used to war game MANY years ago. Didn’t realize there were still enough people doing it to create any kind of market for custom landscapes.
The market is there, everyone wants terrain but doesn’t want build it, they will pay for it though
Same old same old. I really like my job, my boss(es) are good with me, got some interesting work on the horizon, can’t complain about the pay. Hell, in a 2/3 female workforce, there’s always a pretty woman to rest my eyes on.
I was told not to shit where I eat.
Just the eyes, Playa.
I literally (and I mean it) will not touch a female employee.
What are you up to work-wise in 2019?
I think my company/department is trying to mold me into the state road guy. Usually I design residential infrastructure, which involves roads (and utilities/storm water management/environmental quality/etc.), but state road projects are on a whole other level and I have no formal training in it. The difference/complication is that the review process and what is expected to be shown on plans is way more involved than residential roads, even though residential roads are also accepted into the state system. So I am learning on the go with a couple projects with one rather large one (a few miles of arterial with intersections) that started last year and a significantly smaller one (a few thousand feet) that I just submitted (and which is a better project on which to become familiar with different expectations.). And I have a ton of other subdivision design stuff going on. So I guess I am staying busy.
So you play Sim City for a living? Cool
Any Diverging Diamonds?
The people who wrote this should be ‘post-employed’ with something rusty and sharp.
Ho ho, motherfuckers took it down.
TL;DR
British Medical Journal put out a paper justifying ‘post-birth abortions’.
I guess those in charge at BMJ didn’t want to become unemployed.
I’ve seen that shit before though.
SF’d the link, but once you read it, you will see why I thought they took it down.
https://jme.bmj.com/content/39/5/261.full?fbclid=IwAR08FqPg5uQO6EcJtjQG6UdqY1L20-T_0fkCwcRocE8taCF6s89ngWWnNsg
Sick fucking people
Is that real?
Sorta.
They explain that the purpose of the paper wasn’t to advocate for ‘post-birth abortion’ but to show how if one accepts the premise that pre-birth abortion is ethical, then, if one is interested in being logically consistent, one has to accept that ‘post-birth abortion’ is ethical too.
It’s quite interesting to note that the Ancient Greeks and Romans (as per, Hippocrates) believed that abortion was immoral, however, it was perfectly acceptable for a father to choose to leave a newborn to die by exposure on the side of a road. Actually, for the Romans, the father had the power to kill his children at any time, even after they were adults with their own families.
So it’s a “thought exercise”? Glad I didn’t waste my time reading it.
If it was good enough for Kronus, it’s good enough for me!
I got as far as the opening sentence:
“When we decided to write this article about after-birth abortion we had no idea that our paper would raise such a heated debate.”
Yeah, because no one could predict that using Orwellian language to describe what is everywhere else known as “first degree murder” might raise a bit of a fuss.
This is why they want single payer. Control.
Analyst at a large Silicon Valley company. My boss says I work with supermodels. The pay is decent and relatively low stress. The company is starting to spout diversity and inclusion BS which makes me think I should start thinking of retirement before I get fired for rolling my eyes and having a Tourettes moment in a company meeting.
I am definitely targeting smaller companies in my job search – that crap just ramps up the bigger you get. Luckily I’m seeing tons of companies in my field/industry I wasn’t even aware of. (20 years with my head down in one job will do that.)
It used to be my goal to only work at companies without an HR department. That’s hard to find these days.
Marijuana causes schizophrenia seems a bit of a wild claim to me. Turns out pot smokers have a higher rate of schizophrenia than the wider population but comparing families with schizophrenia compared to families without it have similar use of cannabis.
Pot smoking doesnt cause schizophrenia, schizophrenia causes pot use. They schizos are smoking pot to self medicate.
I am not sure why Tucker has such a hard on for pot legalization.
They are fearful that violence will be committed against them for engaging in a peaceful activity.
If he’s going to use dubious reasoning, there’s a much higher correlation between smoking cigarettes and schizophrenia.
Therefore, tobacco causes schizophrenia.
Well, 9 out of 5 sichizophrenics do smoke.
schizophrenics
Is what the other me meant to type
Long time smoker, I don’t feel schitz……….
Yes I do
No I dont
“I am not sure why Tucker has such a hard on for pot legalization.”
He used to be for it.
maybe one of his kids or a close relative came down with schizophrenia.
Yeah, they are all playing a dance. Tucker and Glenn Beck were both on CNN when Bush was the one they were criticizing, both moved to Fox when Obama was elected. Gotta dance for the puppet masters.
^THIS^
None of this is real.
That’s just what the voices in your head say.
I’m convinced that the so-called “opioid crisis” is a reaction to the wave of marijuana legalization. Control freaks are going batshit insane that they are losing something that they can control the public with. Can’t blame it on the evil weed now, let’s blame it on … opioids! No one is going to object to that! It’s the evil narcotics!
The “opioid crisis” is the result of disruptive technology. Fentanyl is so strong that dealers do not have the ability to measure out accurate dosages.
Nah, it’s a thing even without Fentanyl. We had to open a new unit just for heroin addicted newborns.
Latter-day crack babies!
Engineering, non-software. Small group with a startup feel inside a ~$1B company. In NJ and underpaid relative to the industry, but I really like my job, so it’s been worth it for going on six years.
In case you didn’t know, I make cartoons now! Not sure that counts as employment, but damn trshmnster is a good customer!
Oh, I forgot the link for anyone who didn’t watch last night. I crave attention! (For my work, not me, I’m a hermit)
Retired. So, mountain biking, working on an old car and glibbing.
Coming here and hearing the work gripes keeps reminding me how lucky I am not to have to deal with meetings, powerpoint and excel.
Actually, y’all are the only thing (other than family) left from the before times.
Wisdom from Cardi B?
Much brave
I encourage the bigots to keep screaming from the rooftops how deplorable we are.
I do agree with her call for more transparency in Federal spending, however.
We already had the most transparent administration in history. Geeez, some people are never satisfied.
I started my second semester of grad school this week. Tuition is covered and I get paid to teach an undergrad course. I’m thinking about going for a PhD in math after my masters. I’m considering a future career in data analysis/science or finance.
Good luck in school and looks like you got a pretty sweet deal going on now!
That’s awesome you are able to get your tuition covered (I’m looking at ~$110K). When you asked me about data analysis, that’s really a subset of what I do. In terms of medical research, you could get a PhD in data analysis and work for a CRO analyzing clinical study data for medical device or pharm companies using SAS. It’s a good job and pays very well. I don’t know what exactly the take-home pay is, but we were billed $250/hr for his time before I started doing it in-house. You could charge that freelance as well if you went into consulting after building up some industry experience.
Other data analysis role is market analytics. This is a critical job in the medical industry. All of the companies have onsite staff to do this, but there’s also companies that do nothing but research and sell their market analyses.
Still DoD contracting and reserverating.
Really weird at the moment – my last company was supposed to complete a major merger this week…then last Thursday we get a heads up that our specific contract and a couple others were sold off to a completely different company….not bad in the big scheme, but a major PITA for the short term while we redo all the onboarding and security paperwork.
Will probably stay here about another year and a half and then head out.
Hahaha, yes my contract is over at the end of the month, was supposed to hear today if I am picked up on another project and nothing. Hopefully tomorrow. Fortunately I have additional opportunities.
Government drone
Watching the military trying to figure out how to clean up PFC’s.
Starting bees for retirement
This place much better than TOS
Hi, Preet!
When I’m not flying rockets into space, I spend my spare time racing cars or working on the fusion reactor I have powering my house.
Hello Mr. Stark
I’m the much maligned FedGov. Work as a radar and automation systems specialist. Wifey on the hand is getting ready to open up a mobile pet grooming salon. That industry is flush with cash right now and we haven’t a brick and mortar shop that isnt a drive. Living in the “hills” of Vegas helps.
Starting Fyre Fraud.
I love me some cheese sandwich.
Ewwwwwww
I had a review with two project managers last Tuesday that was generally positive and was promised a promotion, raise, and a company van by Spring if I continued progressing at my job at a steady rate. On Friday the project manager I report directly to was fired for ineptitude and I found out my division actually was a net profit loss for the company last year. Lots of managerial back-stabbing, rumour, and uncertainty amongst the employees in the trenches is now in full swing…so, fuck me.
You work for human traffickers?
Company van
That’s a ‘Mobile’! Like the Bat Mobile!
For hot-dogging around town, so you can ketchup to traffic. I’m going to relish the puns, coming.
I think you’ve added enough cheese to the discussion.
No need to be such a sauerkraut.
Now we’re in a pickle.
I appreciate your frankness.
Don’t be such a brat. It’s nothing to relish.
You people really are the wurst.
A young lady I dated while fresh out of high school was generous enough to flash her tits at the driver of that particular vehicle while we passed it on the interstate one afternoon…she was a fun girl.
パイずり. Copy and google it.
Worse, an overpriced remodeling company.
I took early retirement 7 years ago, because I could. Mostly research science type stuff, sometimes bordering on engineering, it was fun while it lasted. The rising level of BS in the bureaucracy killed it for me. Did some part-time consulting work for a few years, but now that’s over I’m really done. Just filed for Social Security, so get back to work suckers!!
Joke’s on you! No one here works! I mean we may have jobs…
Technically, I’m paid to drink all day.
As long as you and your employer are paying into the pyramid scheme I don’t care if you work or not.
Laying in my hospital bed after my NDE I decided that I was done working. I figured that between SS and my retirement I was pretty much breaking even each month so I took the plunge. Well, SS paid less than I figured and taxes were much more than I’d planned but I’m still glad I did it. I’m still broke each month but I no longer have to put up with the idiots on the road when it snows.
NDE = near death experience?
Yup. I knew I had broken ribs, didn’t realize that they had punctured my lung and lacerated my spleen. I recall the EMT saying, “I can’t get a blood pressure reading.”
Goddamn, dude.
Damn that sounds rough! I’m ashamed that I quit just because I got tired of the bullshit, it didn’t nearly kill me.
Dang, that’s tough.
If you want back in the bizz, you know you can email me. 😉
Do contract work for 8 or so companies in addition to my fullish time job. Can’t tell you the main gig, but the other jobs range from editing to translation to voice acting. Everyday I’m at a different place doing something different. Getting a bit old trying to keep all the plates spinning. On top of that I take care of the kid and the house.
So what you are saying is that I’ve heard your voice while fapping to hentai OVAs?
If you’ve jerked off to Lafcadio Hearn, well, you’re an interesting man.
If it was good enough for Bond, it’s good enough for me.
Wait?! Is This you!?
Not that one. I don’t believe any of mine are on YouTube.
So you got a Godzilla gig?
Jeez, that’s a lot of gigs you got going on. Hope you can get to cut down a bit, cheers for you and the family though!
Spent so many years taking anything to keep my foot in the door of as many places as possible that it feels weird turning anything down. Just get up and do it every morning. My friend described my schedule book as looking like the nuclear launch codes.
Engineer for 33+ years — 26 years at the current place.
Started out in software, transitioned to systems engineering in ’94 which means I have produced anything tangible in about 25 years.
I have produced anything tangible in about 25 years.
Ouch, that hits close to home.
My elevator speech: I go to meetings and write technical papers.
I’ve been to meetings in Montreal, London, Paris, Toulouse, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Moscow, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney.
I’ve written proposals, operational concepts, system requirements, test procedures, certification reports, and patent applications.
But in reality, I go to meetings, and I write technical papers.
I’m into my 27th year of not working. I feel like Chico Escuela, for a country bumpkin kid life has been very, very good to me. Did my army time and then found a good boss that allowed me freedom to produce. It worked out well for both of us.
Country bumpkin kids know what it’s like to have NOTHING in the cupboard. Everything is gravy when you grow up like that. Cheers!
I’m still fixing equipment for a living. Been doing it at a steel mill for the past five years and will likely stay there for the foreseeable future.
I’m considering a side hustle in bulldozer operating in the near future. I’ll just have to see how that goes.
I could use a dozer to flatten my lumpy drive way, want to drive it up to Wisconsin?
If you pay for the fuel and the set of tracks that wear out on the way, along with about 30 an hour for my drive time, sure.
I’ll be there by next Friday or so.
Will you accept a cartoon as payment?
getting paid will be a drawn out process?
His cartoons aren’t even real, it’s all photo shop
Are you sure? WaPo seems to believe them.
‘The truth, my only weakness, how did you know!?’
Side hustles are the best. Do it.
The Battle of Avarayr 451 AD
Well some of y’all that bored and aren’t working can come slop around in the mud with me and put out about 1000 persimmon, 5000 acorns mixed red and white (I wish I could find some blackjack) about 5000 pecans, 2 lbs american beech, 2 lbs yellow poplar, ten pounds super pine, 30lbs of hickory and 30ish pounds of black walnut.
Sack on one shoulder, take three steps make a divot, drop a seed, cover with your foot. It is about 85 acres to be planted. By myself I should be done by March.
Good luck. Sorry, but I won’t be part of any project that involves persimmon production. Disgusting fruit.
They aren’t for you, they are for wild life. Possums, Coons, deer, red wolves and hogs. Everything in the woods eats them. I may even be able to find some paw-paw seed. Oh, and black cherry. I have that too.
I thought coons ate…
Nope, not gonna say it.
Mistletoe?
Thank you for directing the joke in a different direction.
What’s your opinion of durian?
I am unfamiliar with it. Looked it up. I have tried that before, planting exotics, they dont do very well here. I have tried macadamia, english oak, hazelnut, chinese chestnut and some other stuff. They cant compete with the natives or handle the soil funguses. It is hotter than hell in summer and cold as hell in the winter. I gave up years ago and stick with the natives now.
Besides, you will never see more beautiful forest than a mixed native forest here with end stage species at maturity. That is why I hope to never have to cut again. The hunters can pay the taxes (which is cheaper than most land leases for).
Gustave just wants you to plant stinky trees.
Was poking straff about his disgusting fruit comment. Never considered durian for planting until now.
Do love mature forests that are more or less self maintaining. Once you cut, all the invasives move in and it’s a bitch to root that stuff out.
Why would you want to plant blackjack. Thats one of the least useful of the oaks. Sawtooth, red, or post would be what I would want.
Also. Holy shit have you ever tried to split blackjack? It’s like iron.
Yes, I have cut a few and split them. It is a lot of work. Have you burned any? You have to be careful with how much you put in the stove. It burns HOT. You have to mix it with cooler burning wood.
I just want a couple of them around. Don’t see them in these parts very much because no one plants them.
I’ve got black oak on my property in the Sierra’s. That stuff burns VERY hot.
You’re missing the blizzard.
I would, but… malaria. Yikes.
Sounds good to me!
What’s with the “Racist Rednecks!” slur? Shouldn’t you be more angry at the people in suits that passed Jim Crow laws etc.?
Racism is not non-existent amongst conservatives but it is absolutely a raging out of control blaze on the left. Either they think they get a pass or they are unaware of it.
Apparently crashing Microstation repeatedly.
Duck this shit. Time for bed.
Wine & spirits buyer for a rather large (193 stores last I checked) booze retailer. Specialize in southern France and northern Italy.
Transitioning to retirement this year. More time at home doing projects (finished a kitchen backsplash today), keeping an eye on the portfolio, cooking for Mrs. Shpip, going to Track Day weekends once or twice a month. 25th anniversary trip to Lanai and Oahu in August. Retired for keeps after that.
Manele Bay or Koele on Lanai?
And why aren’t you sending me wine?
Having stayed at Hualalai, then at Wailea, for our honeymoon I’m sorry we didn’t just stay at Lanai instead. We did a day-trip snorkel sail there, which was fantastic.
High point was a getting buzzed by a Globemaster on the sail back. Somebody was having some fun with that big-ass bird.
The former Manele. The wife and I have been to Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and Hawaii (and dived off Niihau). Lanai will complete our list.
Piles of pulchritudinous posteriors.
http://archive.li/9b62A
Employment: professional crushin’ it consultant.
That’s a serious butt on 2.
Gillette keeps the hits comin’.
https://twitter.com/Suffragentleman/status/1085587019110195201
I never expected to have to pull the gay card at work some day, but… needs must, I guess.
It’s not a card. More like confetti.
Yeah but the backup card fits more easily in my wallet, though.
relevant
I might have to reimagine some upcoming interviews now. Well, when they up-come.
Nay, glitter.
“What this world needs is a couple hundred years without white men.” Quote from my white male poet / activist cousin. His new gig is teaching communism under the guise of English Lit at a prestigious HS.
Home schooling seems less zany by the minute.
Amen.
Oddly enough, the only home-schoolers I’m personally acquainted with are pretty far to the left. Terrible public schools are not exclusively a right-wing concern, it seems.
I’ve heard that every charter school in NYC has a miles-long waiting list. Caring about your kids’ education isn’t a left/right, it seems.
left/right “issue”
I’m not sure how to even respond to that sort of crazy.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Before he made his Twitter private and scaled back his Facebook comments, it was a couple crazy posts every day. I could fill pages of his crazy comments. When I would read them to friends or family either laughter or a look of shock / disgust would come across their face.
Before his current gig, he was a professional protester for about a year after the Trump election. Him and his agnostic minister fiance still spend all their free time organizing and going to protests with his 10 year old daughter. Last year he posted pictures of a birthday party his daughter went to where all the kids made protest signs and then went out and had their own protest. His daughter’s sign said “We might be small, but we are powerful” with her pink pussy hat on.
I wanted to go with shock/disgust but all that came out was laughter.
Him and his agnostic minister fiance still spend all their free time organizing and going to protests with his 10 year old daughter.
AKA, how to raise a future exotic dancer.
I wish to withdraw that comment – his daughter is an innocent in all that mishegas and hopefully turns out perfectly fine.
You can’t choose your parents.
Same place as last year, just another year more. Telecom world continues to move sideways, which is somewhat concerning in what was supposedly a growing economy. I think this is the year to start looking for alternatives a bit more seriously, but we shall see.
Principle systems engineer for a S&P 500 tech company.
“Principle” meaning I’m old-ish and “systems engineer” meaning not really an engineer, but someone who lashes together all the disparate systems and makes them work as a harmonious whole. i.e., I’m a high-tech plumber, in the sense that nobody notices what I do unless things go horribly wrong.
I spend a fair amount of time writing software and yelling at other people who are doing things manually (I then automate those things).
I also spend a large amount of time setting up monitoring for things and yelling at people who want to get alerted about situations they don’t plan to do anything about (monitoring systems are not substitute for capacity planning and e-mail is a terrible medium for tracking metrics).
12 years in the current gig, after spending all my previous years in financial services. I can’t imagine going back, other than for a truly large pile of money.
Despite flying under the radar (see above: no breakage = no notice), my manager, his manager and possibly even his manager are aware of the work I do to keep things boring and I’m well taken care of.
JFC – “principal”, dammit. I’m so used to “principles” here I screwed it up.
I also have job-related principles.
Owner of lawn care / landscape maintenance company for the last 22 years. We do some landscaping projects, but just for large clients. Before that I worked for 10 years doing Golf Course Management at some nice country clubs.
Last year on this day I was in the hospital with flu and pneumonia, employed as an engineer in a defense company in Minnesota in which a key colleague and a project manager conspired to wring every bit of knowledge and use from me but not acknowledge my value.
Now I am living in sunny San Diego working for the “competitor” and managing an engineering department they created just for me to corral these brilliant minds into achieving great things.
Yeah, I’d say it’s working out OK.
I am very glad to hear that. IIRC I had advised you to be extremely cautious (there was a red flag, I dont remember what it was) before taking the leap. I am glad you did not take my advice and happy to hear things are working out so well for you.
Flirty colleague at newco?
That’s right. That’s what it was.
Good that the California move has gone well. This state needs more good people. It’s become a progressively more nutty place by the day so any sanity is welcome.
Plus, she can blow shit up. That can’t help but make it a better place.
Sunny?
*looks out window*
Pretty nice storm going.
So you’re saying someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets?
That storm would need to last months.
First!
If we loop the comments then everyone can be first!
I gamble on sports. It pays the bills. Looking forward to baseball starting and football ending. Occasionally longing for another deployment, but glad I’m done with the shitshow that is the army reserves. Then again, I’ve been told I have a bad attitude.
I gamble on sports. It pays the bills.
That’s impressive. For how long now?
For a couple of years now. It has its plusses and minuses like anything else. No boss (probably the best thing), no customers, no commute to the office, but also no steady paycheck, everything revolves around sports schedules, and the only day last year I wasn’t bothered with sports was the day after the MLB All-Star game. Oh, and those thieving shits in fancy capital buildings stealing my money, but that’s the same for everyone.
Finally, hey! Fuck Off!
The Gillette I remember. Toxic indeed.
https://youtu.be/agD4Qxsw7Ik
I think Gillette’s had nearly a monopoly with the safety razor until Wilkinson came out with Inox blades in the mid-’50’s. I think it was Wilkinson. That was the greatest thing anyone had seen. Gillette took a real hit from that.
Insty bringing some heat, re: the Gillette and a TOS hot-take (“The Gillette Ad Tells Men Not to Hurt People. Why Is This Offensive?’)
per TOS:
Aaaannd, I screwed up the blockquote. You get the gist.
I get why I stopped visiting TOS, that’s for sure.
I just dipped in for the first time in forever – what a shitshow those comments are. So much Tony.
Hah!
I would have gone with ‘Teach journalists not to lie’. Why is that offensive?
It also asks when you stopped beating your wife. Why is that offensive?
Well shit, I just responded to last years employment survey like 2 weeks ago….. I suppose nothing has changed since then.
Another one? Fuck Off! Damn Tulpas……….
Tulpae?
We have many here, it’s fun to fuck with them when they come out of the woodwork,……..
For some reason I’m reminded of this.
I was wondering if I’d ever get Tulpa’d!
Funniest work story?
Why can’t we live forever?
Why homos?
What is a Pelosi?
Do Eskimos like the cold?
Why are Black people black?
Why did the Chinese land on the DARK side of the moon?
Are you all sleeping? It’s ten pm ffs
Um. I just answered you upthread old man.
I’m not going to dig up a reply on my tablet, fucking hassle
I now know your identity, CPRM: You’re the ghost of Rodney Dangerfield.
You are one of 3 people on here that know my identity, and knowing who I am my connections to the German Mob should also be clear, so be careful Digby, lest you wind up in bratwurst!
I wouldn’t mind being in bratwurst, and I don’t even need to know who you are.
Oh you want to play the messenger boy?
Now, see….anyone who uses Beerfest as a reference should get tons of respect.
And, Rhy–I… I don’t even know what that means. You want to work in the processed meats industry? Or, just dress up in a weird costume? Is “bratwurst” a local hunk?
OK, now you have to explain it.
I did cut my chatboard teeth over at the Broken Lizard site, so it’s surprising I don’t link to more of their stuff.
@Digby – sorry, just momentarily imagining myself buried in a pool of delicious German sausages.
I, uh…. Yeah. OK, I can kinda see it. I’ve liked brats in the past (can’t really have them these days), so I can see the appeal.
Oh, and Rhy-
Get the hell outta NY. I mean, seriously. I’m a Texan; not a New Yorker, so I don’t truly know what I’m saying you should give up. And I get it’s not that easy.
But, really-you (and Ted, and any others) deserve better than what it’s serving up these days.
According to the timestamp, you posted that just past midnight central time, which means it was just past one AM in real people time.
Still doing sort of physical verification for semiconductors. Don’t like it much and should have changed years ago but changing is hard and it gets harder and more necessary as the years go. it is a vicious circle
Good morning glibs
Hello Pie, are you doing QC work?
Nope. Depends on what you mean though. I mostly test my own stuff but that is not what QC should be. The main project I worked on fell behind due to some problems and there was no money left for QC so it was skipped.
That could work…. if nothing goes wrong…
It’s Romania, if something goes wrong no one in the real world will hear it.
So, you’re say you’re anti-science. Got it.
I got one Cobra left, who’s with me?
Tall Can!!!!!!!
I’m working on a tall tumbler full of vodka and Mountain Dew – does that count?
eeewww gross
Commie (former)
More for me.
Yes it does!
Go for it!
I hate the fact that I can debate Libertarianism, but can’t write a coherent sentence about it.
And I hate that you think using photoshop makes me less of an artist! *runs from room crying*
Debate like speaking? I’m a terrible speaker myself.
So am I, but people still pay me to do it.
Here is what I do Yusef: I imagine I am talking with someone and I say it out loud. Sometimes I will pace back and forth in the house or the yard and talk it out. I will go over the same bit until it sounds right then I dash to the computer and write it out, then I will get up and pace and talk some more. My wife is used to seeing me that. The first few times who I was talking to. “Me. I am thinking out loud. I can focus better like that. No, I am not talking to someone no one else can see. I am not crazy.”
Then, even on partially finished work I have learned that if I read it over too soon after writing it I will see what I want to see, read what I wanted to say rather than what is actually written. So, I wait a few days or even a week and then read it over and invariably all kinds of dumb stuff pops right out at me. Then I start over. I am far from the smartest or most articulate person around here but that process mostly keeps me from embarrassing myself.
Contract killer employed solely by individuals and small groups.
How’s the pay?
I understand you don’t get dental with that. Pass
“Wheh-ah I com from, a man like you? Dey pay me five hunnad dolla to keel a man like you. But you? You my fren. I keel you fo’ free”
I fell asleep early, now I’m up early, and it’s only Pie and me.
I’m a shameless mercenary with degrees in engineering and finance, and I’ll do pretty much anything for a buck. Mostly that has meant process deveopment in chemicals or product development in HVAC. After stints with huge firms from Germany, Japan, and France, now I’m starting a pure sales job for a small, private American consulting engineering firm.
The chemical packaging plant took two years to get going and created about 100 jobs, but the management situation flanked my position, so I had to call an orderly retreat. I don’t run on promises, but I did hate stepping away from my baby, from an industry I know well, and from a rare but reasonable opportunity to work with old friends. I had hoped that would be my last position, but I am more than content to prospect about the States some more. Sadly, there’s no foreseeable chance to work internationally at my new gig: I’ll miss Europe and Europeans.
I am here. Not a wink of sleep last night.
I have been all over the world and I didn’t leave anything in the places I have been.
*goes to throw another log on the fire*
I have been all over the world and I didn’t leave anything in the places I have been. – except a part of your essence
And all those dead hookers.
/just kidding, Suthen
With what most people here know about me and the rarity of people like me in my industry/location I would be doxing myself to say what I do for a living. It’s a tiny field in which the industry never hires foreigners at my level.
Good morning all. I’m on my second year doing overnight stocking at the grocer; just got home from work. NY’s minimum wage has gone up to $15 per hour as of this year. Consequently, at my store, those of us who made that much already are having our hours cut to make up for the raises for others. Fuck you very much Fight For Fifteen!; I’ve gone from 39 hours to 29 hours the past 2 weeks with no reduction in workload. I’m pretty sure the lost sales from not having the merchandise on the shelves is going to outpace the labor cost but what do I know? I’m enjoying a whiskey before everyone wakes and I have to the kids off to school.
And since you decided to post this after I was no longer at work, I have to answer early this morning.
No change – I still try to keep a mishmash of computers of different eras working together with lowest-bidder duct tape and crony contract baling wire.
I’m not making enough from selling books to leave this post.
Well, in about an hour I’ll be heading in to my now four-year-long gig as a web developer for the University of Maryland. I actually work for a group within the university system on a long-term assignment with a bunch of different government and non-profits, but it’s long and tedious to explain. This time next year I should be finished my MBA and will start trying to get into product management, likely somewhere else as neither that position nor anything really like it exist at UMD, or schools generally I think. The longer I work from home thanks to the shutdown (#MAGA! Whee!) the more I want to go in to consulting and ditch this whole having-a-manager thing.
it’s long and tedious to explain- erase male privilege?
I’m a developer/solution architect/jack of all trades in IT.
For a lot of my career, I’ve done IoT projects. My current gig is for a company that is heavily involved in education/testing. I’ve downgraded myself to a simple dev role and am planning on running here a few more years and retiring. My commute is a mile. Loving my simplified life.
Next year, my wife and I are planning on spending part of the winter somewhere warmer (I will work remotely).
Traveling so I missed the thread last night.
Still makin’ and sellin’ stuff. Working on a new product now, so that’s always fun.
Gonna finish this coffee and crossword puzzle then go play with power tools and marvel that people pay me to do so.
Electrical Engineer working in industrial automation at the moment. It sounds fancy (Robots!) but actually kind of sucks. Largely because the owner and I don’t click. Been looking for something new.
I started this new gig about 16 months ago. I got along great with the guy I hired on to work for. He quit about halfway through and the new boss and I don’t click. I’m half hoping he’ll fire me for anything, something.
Same deal at the same company although they did change their name so it looks like a different company, Testing software, writing automation, bitching about moronic management that can’t seem to identify a good decision when it bites them in the ass.
Still at same job at same university in Floriduh. Being tenured makes staying easy and moving hard. Plus, we paid off the mortgage in August.
Sometimes I think about stepping down from administration and going back to the faculty, but I promised my dean I would stay as long as he wanted me.
It’s not a bad gig, and there are still a few people who don’t hate me yet.
Was busy last night and just chiming in now.
On the faculty at a midwest power 5 university for 31 years, tenured for 25 years. Teach and do science research (144 published papers plus a book). My summer funding dried up a few years ago, but since my wife got elected to a full-time position in the county, we make more than before. Plan to retire in 2.5 years and let her support me if she runs for re-election.
You university guys must keep your glib reading on the down low to avoid being hurled into the void.
I certainly don’t broadcast it.
I mostly do Unix server administration and Postgres database consulting.
Or do when I find work, currently I’m “between contracts”, so I’m looking.
I’m also building a server oriented linux distribution, which I hope to get out
the door sometime next month. The goal is to compete with Redhat for
the server distribution market. I don’t have any marketing acumen though,
so we’ll see how it goes. Anyway, that’s what takes up all my time currently.
I also have a law degree, and will probably take the Wisconsin bar maybe
next February. I practiced in Texas for a year, and like attorney work.
It’s not that much different than computer consulting really. “Well, this
would be a lot easier to fix if a: you’d come to me much earlier in the process,
and b: you’d actually take my advice”. Both seem to come up way too often
in either field.
I also do woodworking as as (newish) hobby, but that’s not work stuff.