Time and again, New York City’s dependence on the rich and private corporations has led it into fiscal crisis. As mayor, Zohran Mamdani has the opportunity to start building an economic base that better serves the needs of the city’s working class.

Zohran Mamdani ran his campaign for New York City on two messages: making the city affordable and taxing the rich. This has been a winning formula for many progressive candidates for more than a century.

But history also reveals a more sobering lesson: you can’t finance progressive policies with a regressive economy. Social democracy in New York City and elsewhere has repeatedly learned this lesson the hard way. To be fiscally dependent upon the same wealthy individuals and firms who displace working-class residents, contest our policies, and undermine our public finances is profoundly self-defeating.

That’s why past progressives and socialists, from the Knights of Labor to the Wisconsin sewer socialists, didn’t just look to tax wealthy individuals and firms — they looked to diversify urban economies so they wouldn’t depend as much on the wealthy to begin with. By cultivating public enterprises and worker-owned firms, and by aspiring to build economies organized around the needs of working-class residents, these radicals tried to create cities that delivered affordability and justice. They recognized that letting the private economy produce ever more inequality, then trying to tax those at the top to redistribute sufficiently to everyone else to correct structural imbalances, was an impossible task.

For genuinely progressive economic policy to take root and succeed, taxes on the wealthy need to be paired with revenue from flourishing working-class economic sectors. Redistribution must be paired with predistribution. That’s the lesson we should take from New York City’s recent economic history, and it’s one that Mamdani must apply if he is to be successful.

New York Fiscal Crisis Blues

New York City struggled with a host of fiscal crises well before the 1970s. These crises weren’t the result of overspending on behalf of the city’s poor, as my book, The Menace of Prosperity, argues, but were largely due to the wealthy wrecking Gotham’s economy. During the 1870s and 1930s, for example, real estate speculation by banks and property owners repeatedly plunged the metropolis into debt. Landlords foisted the social costs produced by their slums — crime, sickness, pollution, fire — onto the public sector to clean up. High rents and low wages, along with price-gouging by utilities, increased poverty in the metropolis to an extent that taxation alone couldn’t make up for. As socialist Baruch Charney Vladeck declared in 1934, “One-third of the budget of the city of New York would be saved if New York had been built for the accommodation of its people instead of having been built for the accommodation of landlords and bankers.”

That’s why, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a host of populist coalitions emerged in New York that aimed to reconstruct the city’s economy in the interest of its working people. Followers of Henry George (Georgists) declared that local fiscal policies should eliminate land speculation to better encourage productive enterprises and affordable homes. Labor organizations like the Knights of Labor established cooperative enterprises in which profits would flow to workers rather than idle rentiers. Parties such as the Municipal Ownership League argued that by seizing control of profitable franchises through public ownership, cities could deliver affordable goods and services while generating revenue for themselves.

Even public housing, a cornerstone of social democratic redistribution, was thought of by reformers as an economic development strategy as well. By building for the working class rather than the wealthy, housing reformers argued, cities could reduce the social costs of crime and health problems, lower rent burdens, and — through the device of the public authority — pay back housing costs. Instead of just relying on taxing the private real estate market, New York could reshape its economy in the interests of both fiscal stability and economic justice. As Vladeck put it, public housing was “not an expense but an investment, and [the] sooner we make that investment the better for the economic and social future of our country.”

But these radicals wound up being outflanked during the Progressive Era by a broader convergence among technocratic finance officers and city planners. Where Georgists had seen real estate’s “progress” as causing poverty, liberal officials believed taxing such progress would help reduce poverty through the new welfare expenditures that tax revenue enabled. This theory was promoted through economic textbooks and converted into abstruse budgetary practices, insulating economic development decisions from democratic oversight. And rather than support bold initiatives in public ownership of profitable enterprises, liberals preferred to leave profit-making to the conventional private sector.

Revenge of the Rich

The result was that, by the 1950s, radical economic alternatives in New York had been sidelined in favor of a trickle-down approach to welfare state financing. Liberal mayors like Robert Wagner and John V. Lindsay tried to both attract and tax corporate firms in the hope that they would pay for the city’s welfare state. A focus on economic alternatives was pushed aside by a desire to grow the public sector regardless of how it was financed.

But the contradiction between cultivating an economy for the 1 percent and sustaining a welfare state for the poor caught up with New York’s liberals. On the one hand, attracting and retaining white-collar industries cost the city heavily in the form of tax breaks, debt-financed infrastructure, and other subsidies. Economist William K. Tabb complained at the time that New York’s “capital budget debt . . . owes far more to the Banker-real estate developer agencies . . . than it does to helping the poor, more to subsidizing commuters than to helping the unemployed get jobs.”

On the other hand, the city’s high welfare costs were made necessary in the first place partially by the flight of well-paying entry-level jobs, a flight city officials had encouraged by expelling factories in the hope of making their city a corporate mecca. As Jane Jacobs complained in 1975, “A city can’t let its skills, manufacturing plants and suppliers plants wither away and then not suffer the consequences. . . . The notion that the city could live on financial and white-collar services was nonsense.”

All this suggests that relying too much on the wealthy to finance an affordable city is both economically and politically risky.

But that’s where we are now. According to the city’s Independent Budget Office, the top 1 percent of earners now contribute about 45 percent of all local personal income tax revenues, up from roughly 30 percent in the 1980s. Meanwhile, the city’s corporate tax base has narrowed, with fewer firms accounting for a growing share of total receipts. This gives the wealthy a good deal of fiscal — and hence, political — leverage over Mamdani’s platform.

At the same time, New York’s economy is starting to shift in ways that might threaten public finances more broadly. The share of New Yorkers employed by finance has shifted from 11.5 percent in 1990 to 7.7 percent in August. While wealthy people continue to flock to New York, wealthy employers are leaving it. Given the city’s currently high dependence on the wealthy for tax revenue, this could pose a fiscal threat to Mamdani’s agenda.

Building a Better Base

For both political and fiscal reasons, therefore, Mamdani needs to diversify New York’s tax base in a way that can help him deliver on his affordability agenda. This doesn’t mean doing away with taxes on the wealthy: it means broadening the city’s economic base to reduce our exposure to economic risk.

The incoming mayor can help do this through leveraging the city’s existing public procurement toward small alternative businesses — public enterprises, nonprofit enterprises, etc. — that can offer both good-paying jobs and affordable goods and services. He can also support affordable housing developers, helping reduce welfare and social service costs over the long term. Eliminating costly landlord giveaways like the 421-a tax break and reforming inefficient contracting and economic development subsidies can redirect billions toward public needs without raising taxes on ordinary New Yorkers.

Finally, Mamdani can move the city’s $100 billion in deposits, which currently flow through the kind of extractive financial institutions that help make New York’s economy both fragile and unaffordable (and which cost the city mightily in fees), into a newly created municipal bank that directs public money to the economic sectors where it will most benefit the public and not just private shareholders.

Above all, Mamdani can reveal the true costs of New York’s current economic development model, thereby building the political constituency for alternatives. Unlike its social welfare state, New York’s corporate welfare state is often hidden from view. The public doesn’t see the tax subsidies or debt that go into boondoggles like Hudson Yards (which cost the city $2.2 billion in public funds), and it rarely traces how an economy of the 1 percent translates into higher rents and staple prices for the 99 percent. By exposing and politicizing our current development strategies, Mamdani can tap into the populist energy for affordability that propelled him into office and that can help deliver on his platform.

There are good signs that the incoming mayor is ready to do this. Mamdani’s transition committees include leaders in the solidarity economy movement, such as Gianpaolo Baiocchi and Deyanira Del Río, and is cochaired by antitrust leader Lina Khan. As an assemblymember, Mamdani supported public-bank legislation, and he recently released a homeowner policy memo endorsing community land trusts (CLTs) and co-ops. By building on these proposals and rallying diverse New Yorkers against the oligarchs rendering Gotham unaffordable, Mamdani can help rebuild New York’s economy in the interests of ordinary people and construct a political base for further socialist victories.

In other words, Mamdani is poised to help New York City shift its economic foundations while continuing to tax the wealthy as much as necessary — moving toward an economy that is healthier, more balanced, and better aligned with the needs of the public and the public sector.

ACIP is meeting this week, which means we all get to clench our sphincters as we await whatever small, medium, or large sized horrors will come out of this panel of clowns.

It wasn’t always this way. ACIP, and the larger CDC, used to be the world standard when it came to government bodies dedicated to fighting infectious diseases. RFK Jr. did away with that earlier this year, when he disbanded every member of ACIP and installed a group mostly comprised of Dr. Nicks from the Simpsons in their place.

The focus of the agenda this week will be the vaccination schedule for hepatitis B, particularly the CDC’s long-held guidance for vaccinations to begin within 24 hours of birth. It’s really, really important to note that CDC guidance on this doesn’t take the form of a mandate. Parents have a choice on the timing of the vaccination. Instead, the CDC guidance does two primary things: it mandates coverage of the vaccine by insurance companies and it informs medical professionals on what to recommend to parents that understandably largely follow their doctors’ advice on the matter.

Because Kennedy has commented in the past that he believes this vaccine is responsible for autism disorder diagnoses, and because ACIP is staffed with his handpicked clowns, the medical community is holding its breath to see what decisions are made this week. Since CDC’s vaccination guidance in 1995, hep B infections among infants have dropped by a great deal and the resulting liver cancer in children has essentially gone away. Despite this, and despite just how brutal hep B is as a disease, Kennedy has been coming out against immunization, wielding misinformation as per usual.

On Tucker Carlson’s podcast in June, Kennedy falsely claimed that the hepatitis B birth dose is a “likely culprit” of autism.

He also said the hepatitis B virus is not “casually contagious.” But decades of research shows the virus can be transmitted through indirect contact, when traces of infected fluids like blood enter the body when people share personal items like razors or toothbrushes.

Hepatitis B causes incredible pain, cancer, and death. In children. And Kennedy is wildly wrong; it is incredibly contagious and particularly resilient on surfaces. And, again, this is a vaccine that is still voluntary by parents at birth. There is no government mandate for vaccination, only the recommended vaccination schedule.

Now, ACIP may be discussing the use of combo shots, as it has done in the recent past. That’s still fairly dumb, but it would be a far cry better than altering the recommendations for the first-24 hours immunization, which is a single vaccine, unpaired with any other. But ACIP is no longer trustworthy.

And that’s not me saying it. Take it from Republican Senator and do-nothing coward Bill Cassidy, who both had a heavy hand in getting Kennedy confirmed to DHS and who can’t be bothered to do more than say words about all the harm that confirmation is causing.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Thursday called a federal vaccine advisory committee “totally discredited” ahead of a vote on whether to change hepatitis B vaccine guidelines, an issue very close to the Louisiana physician. Writing Thursday on the social platform X, Cassidy specifically decried Aaron Siri, a prominent anti-vaccine lawyer who is presenting before the committee this week.

“Aaron Siri is a trial attorney who makes his living suing vaccine manufacturers. He is presenting as if an expert on childhood vaccines. The ACIP is totally discredited. They are not protecting children,” Cassidy wrote.

Neither are you, Senator. If you are interested in doing so, you can introduce articles of impeachment on RFK Jr. today. You’ll have plenty of support from the other side of the aisle, and likely a decent amount from your own.

I write this on Thursday and ACIP has already met. Because everything Kennedy touches is chaos, however, the panel moved its hep B vote to tomorrow, Friday, due to the panel not actually knowing what the fuck it was voting on.

At one point in Thursday’s session, committee member Dr. Joseph Hibbeln said that the group had seen three different versions of questions to vote on in the past 72 hours. A technical issue prevented the new voting language from being put up on slides. The presentation was later moved to the end of the agenda, to be displayed just before the vote. There were questions of how many questions members would be asked to vote on. There were no hard copies of the language available. 

“We’re trying to evaluate a moving target,” Hibbeln said. 

Panel members presented information on the prevalence of acute and chronic hepatitis B, and discussed transmission and safety data. Former board members and liaisons to medical organizations sharply criticized the presentations and said some data was mischaracterized. 

Dr. Jason Goldman, liaison to the ACIP for the American College of Physicians, called the meeting “completely inappropriate” and accused the panel of “wasting taxpayer dollars by not having scientific, rigorous discussion on issues that truly matter.” Goldman also highlighted that the hepatitis B birth dose is not mandated and that parents are encouraged to make decisions in consultation with their doctor. 

Chaos, confusion, misinformation, and so on. This is American health in RFK Jr.’s America. MAHA has become how it sounds phoenetically: a laugh track. A joke. And a deeply unfunny joke at that.

So now we wait for tomorrow to see just what horrors this gravel-voiced Cthulu of healthcare has in store for us. It seems the best we can hope for is probably advocacy for individual vaccines versus combo-shots. But I fear it’s going to be much, much worse than that. I’ve never seen a child writhing in pain as he or she dies from liver complications due to hepatitis B.

And I pray I never have to.

#RoninWarriors

Well ... we've had an awful lot to think about today, and 'fraid the times up. So, until next time, think about it! #CowboyWho

Oh, it really is nothing. Quit your crying.

Tensions between the United States and Venezuela are escalating, with President Trump stating that land strikes on drug traffickers could come “very soon.” The Onion examines the pros and cons of entering a war against Venezuela.

PRO

“Caracas” fun to say

Raises total number of countries Americans can name to respectable nine

Would be nice to invade somewhere warm for the holidays

Something to tide us over until war with China

CON

Kind of an inconvenient time

May have to come up with a reason for doing so

Don’t know how to roll our R’s

Kathryn Bigelow already won two Oscars

The post Pros And Cons Of War With Venezuela appeared first on The Onion.

VATICAN CITY—In a milestone many Roman Catholics hope will bring the church into the 21st century, Vatican officials issued a statement Tuesday formally recognizing Generation Z’s first demon. “For his innovative use of digital communications to torment and possess the Christian faithful, Melapheus, better known by his online handle DiabolusMel, is hereby accorded full demonhood,” Pope Leo XIV wrote in an official decree announcing the decision, adding that countless young sinners had been inspired to lead lives of infernal debauchery thanks to the 23-year-old malevolent spirit’s wretched example. “The church has verified and can attribute to him the demonic possession of a girl who was left in a coma after a car accident. Through the intercession of Melapheus, this child was awakened from her state of unconsciousness and forced to pick up a surgical scalpel, which she then used to carve out the hearts of several doctors and nurses. His live-streamed inflictions of strange maladies that defy scientific explanation have spread the unholy word of Lucifer to millions who might not have heard the vile blasphemy otherwise. Indeed, many in their late teens and 20s say it was Melapheus’ terrible screeching emanating from their phones that first led them to seek out our church’s exorcists.” At press time, the Vatican confirmed that Melapheus was eligible to become an archdemon after a verified possession that gave a blind man the ability to see into the endless depths of hell.

The post Vatican Formally Recognizes First Gen Z Demon appeared first on The Onion.

The bride and groom want to call what happened on Saturday a wedding, but it wasn’t even in a church—and they both wore tennis shoes!

The post Reyna Cobb and Luke Butler appeared first on The Onion.

ARLINGTON, VA—Describing the incident as a split-second operational judgment made under rapidly evolving conditions, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth invoked the “fog of war” Thursday to explain why he urinated inside a Pentagon break room refrigerator. “In the heat of the moment, you’ve got to make a decision, and sometimes that decision is imperfect,” said Hegseth, arguing that under the intense pressure of warfare it can be nearly impossible to distinguish between a porcelain urinal and a white refrigerator. “Civilians can never understand what it’s like to be in the thick of it. On the ground, you don’t have time to dilly-dally. You just unzip and go. When you’re back home, it’s easy to have all these high-minded ideals about the ‘rules’ of combat, but the truth is, when you find yourself totally blasted and face-to-face with a brightly lit shelf of individually wrapped string cheeses, you don’t have the luxury of calculating whether there’s time to run to the bathroom or even open a window. Throw around terms like ‘war criminal’ or ‘coworker’s insulin-ruiner’ all you want, but I acted with significant restraint by urinating in the vegetable crisper when, by all accounts, I would have been totally justified in fully dousing every inch of the fridge in my piss.” Asked for comment, President Donald Trump defended Hegseth’s actions and appeared to imply that the Pentagon custodian who filed the initial complaint should be investigated for treason.

The post Pete Hegseth Invokes ‘Fog Of War’ After Pissing In Break Room Refrigerator appeared first on The Onion.

A Japanese tech firm has developed a capsule-style human washing machine, which is able to automatically wash and dry a person. What do you think?

“It’s nice to see real innovation in drowning.”

Joshua Gibson, Salami Slicer

---

“Thanks, but my dishwasher already gets me spotless.”

Astrid Thackorie, Junior Referee

---

“And fire the servants who sponge my body down?”

Maurice Hissom, Button Replacer

The post Japanese Company Unveils Human Washing Machine appeared first on The Onion.

SYNOPSIS
High school is no picnic for anyone, but especially if you’re one of Shakespeare’s most iconic leading men. Hamlet might be the big man on campus, but that doesn’t mean he’s got it all figured out. This drama puts a much-needed spin on a classic by imagining a world where Hamlet is young and hot.

HAMLET
Sexy football player type, but not just a football player, because we need him to be smart and sensitive too. Lacrosse team, maybe? We’ll come back to this.

Required skills: Smoldering glances, ability to look deep without creating forehead wrinkles.

OPHELIA
Hamlet’s friend, who has an unrequited crush on Hamlet. It needs to be realistic that Hamlet wouldn’t want to date her, but legally, we can only cast hot people at CW, so we’re kind of in a bind. Maybe she’ll wear glasses? Also, obviously, we’re putting her on the swim team because of foreshadowing.

Required Skills: Able to look hot but in a way where every straight male viewer will be convinced he’s the first person to realize she’s hot. Think Linda Cardellini in Scooby Doo. Or Linda Cardellini in everything.

HORATIO
Hamlet’s best friend and the comic relief. He’ll have a crush on Ophelia, but it’s imperative she never gives him the time of day. We’ll give him an off-putting hobby that will be repulsive to women, like reading, to solve this. It will also be implied that Horatio has a thing for Hamlet without ever explicitly saying so (but there will be plenty of textual evidence to support it).

Required Skills: Serviceable cafeteria-style cooking. We are on a budget, so we’re cutting the catering company to add this role.

GHOST OF HAMLET’S DAD
Technically not a ghost, but alive in this series since the show is set in the past, where Hamlet is a hunk, but also in modern times, so that he can go to high school. We should probably change this character’s name to ALIVE GHOST OF HAMLET’S DAD to make it less confusing. Looking to cast an older actor who appears to be on the brink of death, preferably a Timothée Chalamet type in their mid-to-late twenties.

Required Skills: Old.

GERTRUDE
Hamlet’s mom. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has recently released a statement that if Gertrude is not a total MILF, all the grips are walking off set. This is NONNEGOTIABLE.

Required Skills: Juggling (affairs).

CLAUDIUS
Ghost of Hamlet’s Dad’s best friend. Cool approachable guy, the kind that you could really settle into a tryst with. Claudius is obviously already hooking up with Gertrude, which will make the inevitable betrayal of murdering the Ghost of Hamlet’s Dad and stealing his wife that much hotter.

Required Skills: Shoulders that you can cry on and/or bounce a quarter off.

POLONIUS
Occasional third in Gertrude and Claudius’s affair. In the source material, Polonius is hiding behind Gertrude’s curtains when Hamlet confronts her about being with Claudius, so we think it tracks if we make Polonius a total freak who likes to watch. We’ll also later reveal he is a werewolf for the Season 2 omegaverse storyline, so he’ll be really hairy and wear ears sometimes.

Required Skills: [REDACTED].

LAERTES
Ophelia’s brother. He hates Hamlet, but in an enemies-to-lovers kind of way. He’ll frequently confront Hamlet in very closely blocked scenes where the two guys are screaming at each other, but it also looks like they’re about to kiss. And then one day they do. And then they both kiss Horatio. Hamlet is canonically bi now. Public domain material rules!

Required Skills: Ability to make Shakespeare scholars fight in the streets.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

1. Everyone likes me, so why am I not in the group chat?

Well, I’m still not in the group chat, so I’m sorry to say I can’t report if it’s really about medieval falconry as discussed in the comments :-)

I’m still happy at the job and have not asked to be included or started a new chat or anything like it. You and several commenters suggested I could just leave it be and that’s what I did.

When I started the job, I was a bit apprehensive about being new to (and the only woman in) such a tight-knit long-term team, and then everyone was so nice that it seemed too good to be true, and I was maybe looking a bit too hard for red flags that might mean that I’m not accepted/excluded/people didn’t like me.

Now I know a bit more about my coworkers and their dynamics, and I think it’s just the case that, because they have been working together for so long, they know a lot of things about each other’s private lives. Health issues, trouble with grown kids, stuff like that, which I, by now, have heard about in broad terms, but I assume that the other chat is where they go into more detail about this. Could be totally wrong of course, but they are generally super supportive of one another (which I hadn’t expected from an all-male team, but that’s my own bias I guess). So it’s plausible, that, when the main chat gets “I leave early today for an appointment,” the other one gets “It’s my turn to host the support group for spouses of people with depression, wife is still not doing great” or something along those lines. If that’s the case, I’m totally okay with not being in there because I just don’t have the same history with them. I still haven’t found any other signs that people try to exclude me or are in any way toxic, so even if the chat is about something else, I don’t think me not being in there means anything bad.

However, my one-year anniversary is coming up, so there is still a chance that I will be added with great fanfare (and hopefully not an initiation ritual, as other commenters speculated) on that day, who knows ;)

2. New manager’s team hates her — but she says they’re the problem

I did try your advice, along with some other guard rails — for instance, processes fully documented so that there was no question about team members being given conflicting direction — and, long story short, it became clear that Catelyn wasn’t going to change, and was never going to be able to manage the team effectively. And it became really clear that our HR wasn’t going to back me in addressing her problems, in any sense of the term. My prediction in the comment thread of how that was going to play out was pretty accurate.

I couldn’t fix her and I couldn’t fire her, but I found an opportunity to at least salvage the team. There was another section of the organization which desperately needed help of the kind of work that Catelyn is actually good at (not managing, obviously, but the rest of her job), and I knew that layoffs were in the air and I was going to be told to give up one or more positions. I managed to broker a trade where I “gave up” Catelyn’s position, with her in it, to this other area as an individual contributor — with the asterisk that when (if) finances recover, I will need to refill her previous role, which I wouldn’t be able to do if she’d just been laid off.

The team is now being managed by someone they know and trust and they’re happy, in spite of there being one fewer person to do the work. Catelyn seems to be doing well in her new role, though I understand they’re moving at least one person to report to her and I wouldn’t put money on how that’s going to go. I also hear that even more shuffling is coming, and that she will end up reporting to the person who labeled the team member who’d carefully documented Catelyn’s issues as a “troublemaker.” So all the toxicity is in a single basket, and hopefully it won’t spill far enough to reach us … though when you have to say a thing like that, it does not bode well for the organization as a whole.

Thanks for your response. It really helped me reframe what I was seeing (and not seeing).

3. My “on-site” coworker is never on-site

So first and foremost, I dropped the spreadsheet immediately.

Both you and the (very adamant) comments section made very compelling and correct cases for my mental health. That, on top of pointing out the now obvious fact that my boss cared less about it than I did, was immensely helpful in changing my mindset around the whole thing. I’m only responsible for my own work and business. Worrying about things out of my scope doesn’t do anything except add to my stress levels. So I let all that ish go and focused on getting my stuff done. My day to day improved greatly.

As for my coworker, there’s still the occasional delay or surprise day off, but much less than before. There was a large company-wide return to office initiative earlier this year and there’s a lot more folks around in general. I suspect those two things are related.

I actually took some vacation time in September, and it went swimmingly.

Thanks for the advice, and the folks who took my struggles seriously. This kind of thing can be very difficult when you’re autistic, and the kind voices doing the explaining heavily outweighed the ones calling me a nosy Nelly. It was very much appreciated.

4. I’m ready to retire young but don’t want to burn bridges (#5 at the link)

I’m happy to report that I carried out my plans earlier this year! It was scary timing, as the stock market was in a bit of a free fall and the job market is tough should I need or want to go back, but I’d spent too much time planning for this to not see it through. The first few weeks of the break were filled with administrative tasks, like enrolling in an ACA health plan, but that’s behind me now and I’m enjoying just my time off. It’s still early days, but I can’t imagine myself ever wanting to get back into the corporate grind.

If I have one regret, it’s that I gave more than two weeks’ notice. As I’d been planning for this departure for a long time, I had everything well-organized and prepared, and my likely successor was as ready as they would ever be to step into my role. The notice period was intense, because as I suspected would happen, I was subjected to multiple “what can we do to keep you?” conversations with my boss and grandboss. I’d been transparent over my tenure about the stressors of the job and things that I’d have liked to see changed, but it seems they were only willing to take action when I was on my way out the door. It’s possible I could have gotten them to agree to let me go part-time, remote, or any number of other things, but I had already mentally moved on and wasn’t willing to entertain these conversations. I needed a clean break … and I got it!

The post updates: I’m not in the group chat, new manager’s team hates her, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

Remember the letter-writer who turned down a bait-and-switch job offer and the firm started blowing up his phone? Here’s the update.

I wish I had a wild update, or a satisfying update, but here is what ended up happening in my saga with the strange contractor who tried to change the pay rate and then assaulted me with endless texts and calls.

I wrote to the woman who seemed to be the highest-ranking officer at the subcontractor and said, “Hello, I’m withdrawing my candidacy, and these are the reasons why.”

She immediately pressed for a phone call, but I replied with a firm no and said, “The incessant calls from multiple people, including ones I don’t know, and the general sense of urgency are really out of step with what I’ve experienced in the past.”

You would think that was clear enough, but she again pressed hard for a phone call (“A five-minute call would clear this up! Please say you’ll take a call, I can be available at any time starting right now until 10 pm”). I sent a final reply saying, “No, thank you.”

Then I started getting automated emails from the HR lady who initially argued with me and tried to browbeat me (and then guilt me) into accepting the lower rate. The automated messages were all the same: “You have outstanding paperwork that is past due. You must sign the paperwork immediately. Onboarding is not complete until you have signed everything. Do this now.” etc. etc.

I just ignored it, and eventually blocked the email address.

A final note: I’ve made a number of contacts in the legal contracting world over the years, and I touched base with a few of them to ask if they knew of this company. Most did not, but one said he had heard of them … they were known primarily for acquiring security guards for secure government installations. He had never heard of them attempting to work with lawyers or in the contracting space.

So my takeaway is that they are trying to expand their business but are out of their depth and panicked when they realized they were losing out on a headhunting fee.

Thank you again for publishing my letter! And for your advice — it was much appreciated.

I ended up moving forward with the competing offer I had. I’m still in the long, vague process of onboarding, but obviously the awful government shutdown has derailed that to some extent. I’m selling my condo and a lot of possessions to make ends meet, and hope that this situation resolves soon. Thank you for your posts about the shutdown as well! I know so many people here in DC who are really struggling.

The post update: I turned down a bait-and-switch job offer and now they’re blowing up my phone appeared first on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are five updates from past letter-writers.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

1. My employee wants us to stop ordering “unhealthy snacks”

After I wrote in and read your advice, I decided that if the employee were to make any of his comments about others’ food choices in my presence, I would address it with him and explain how it’s not appropriate and used the language you suggested. However. I never really had the opportunity and he never broached the topic with me or my employee again.

Also, to clarify, I am not his manager. However, my manager had a meeting with me and another coworker to discuss his request and how we would respond to him. I used the points you made about how he should not be commenting on what others eat and that we would always be happy to accept suggestions for other healthy snacks that we could order, but we would not stop purchasing other snacks that could be considered unhealthy. I don’t know exactly what was said to him, but since then honestly I don’t think he’s done it again. I have made an effort to change up the variety of fruit we bring in and try to keep it a good balance for everyone, but we definitely still have chips and cookies.

I know some felt that he was not meaning well, but I genuinely think he was. He’s also young, so it could be that he wasn’t aware that what he was saying could trigger someone or make them feel judged! I think he believed he was helping others. However, if he ever does start up again or starts commenting on what others are eating, I know how to handle it.

2. A man at our events makes other attendees uncomfortable

After you printed the letter, the other planners and I sat down and decided we wouldn’t allow Alex to attend, which we had been leaning towards. It ended up being moot, as he didn’t try to register. He no longer engages with this fandom as far as we can tell.

Our event went really well earlier this year. We had a code of conduct that included a rule about levels of socialization, and we had pins for badges to indicate how much someone would like to be talked to.

We got so much wonderful feedback from people, and many people said they appreciated the steps we took to be inclusive. Thanks again for the advice!

3. I accidentally let a contact think my dad is still alive

Thank you for your advice. It made me feel a lot less worried about this ultimately quite funny situation! The next couple of times I saw my Narnian contact I made a point of saying, “Oh, my dad would have loved X!” or things like that, and seems to have cleared up the confusion.

I also wanted to say thank you to the commenters who reassured me that they have also made this kind of past/present-tense slip when talking about people they’ve lost. I think that what I was really worried about was the idea that I might have given people the idea that I’d somehow forgotten about my lovely dad, who was very precious to me and a huge influence on the person I am now, and it was really comforting to know that other people do the same thing. I’m choosing to think of it as him continuing to make his presence felt!

4. My coworker refuses to share her calendar and says she’ll quit if she’s ordered to

As many of your readers pointed out in the comments (which I read voraciously), the real issue was not so much the private calendar, but more the lack of available time to schedule on the calendar. Our boss/CEO spoke to her about this issue and it has gotten better. She has more usable time on her calendar, so it is less of a bottleneck to put meetings on, and the onus of scheduling has been put back on her – if she can’t make a specific time work, but refuses to let something happen without her, then she has to solve it.

Overall, it’s better. It still bucks the trend of the office, she is the only one with a private calendar, so it can come up as an issue that rankles others – but a lot of the drama has died down.

5. Do I need to rush to buy a new car for my job?

My boss transported project stuff and I also attempted to use a Big Name package pickup company to make some deliveries, but the package pickup company was unreliable.

After a while, I did end up getting a car when my local dealership got a car I couldn’t pass on!

Ultimately, having a car does make my job a lot easier. I wish my workplace provided some type of additional compensation for myself and my colleagues who regularly use our cars while working. Thank you to everyone who reassured me that I was not obligated to buy a new car for work!

The post updates: the unhealthy snacks, the coworker who won’t share her calendar, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives.

1. My office has a wall of shame with the names of people who are late or out sick

My workplace has recently instituted a “wall of shame,” where the names of everyone who called in sick or was tardy are posted above the computer where employees clock in. The rumor mill has it that this is supposed to help us with our “accountability,” although no announcement has been made on the matter – it just appeared one day. My managers have some problems, but are generally pretty reasonable people when I approach them. How can I suggest this public shaming is a Really Stupid Idea without coming across like a whiner? (If it makes a difference in your answer, I’m never late myself. Also, perhaps shockingly, this isn’t a call center!)

A wall of shame is a stupid idea on its own, but including people who call in sick? What exactly are they being shamed for? Being sick? (This is even more outrageous if they’re using company-provided sick time, since people shouldn’t be shamed for using a benefit that’s part of their compensation package.)

Since no one has announced or explained it, why not ask about it? As in, “Can you explain what this list is about?” And then if it is indeed what it sounds like, ask, “Why are people being listed there for being sick?” … which should lead you to, “Is it possible to rethink whether this is the right approach? It signals that every unplanned absence or lateness is an incident of wrongdoing, when that’s not the case.. If someone has reliability problems, I’d hope it would be taken up with them directly, rather than everyone feeling that any instance is considered a problem.”

– 2014

2. Shirt sizes for conferences

I’m being positioned as something of a thought leader in our teapot supplier’s niche market — speaking at conferences, consulting for their clients, etc. This is good experience for me, and good business for my company.

The problem? At an annual conference, we were provided shirts by the vendor to identify ourselves as teapot experts. I am a size 0, and despite providing my size in advance, I was given a men’s small. I looked like a kid who had borrowed dad’s clothes, particularly since I am young (in my mid-twenties) anyway.

I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill, and had planned to simply emphasize my need for a smaller size when asked for my size next year. However, it came up recently that I am expected to wear my current shirt at a teapot event next week. I appreciate the teapot vendor’s desire for branding, but I also want to look professional when meeting peers and prospective clients. I would prefer it if I could stick with my normal business casual clothing that fits properly.

Is there a way to handle this? Should I just show up dressed normally as if I forgot? Address it directly? Suck it up and wear the shirt? The vast majority of teapot experts are men, so I get why it’s easier to just order one sizing line, but I still feel self-conscious when wearing it.

“I’d love to wear it, but I was swimming in the one I was given because it was men’s-sized. If you can get me a women’s small before the event, I’d be glad to wear it.”

If they push back and you to wear the ill-fitting one, you say pleasantly, “Oh, I really need one sized for a woman or it just doesn’t look professional. I can wear normal business clothes though if it’s not doable by then.”

And yeah, it’s annoying when they default to men’s sizes, which aren’t just larger but are also cut differently.

– 2015

3. My coworker gets angry when we chew

I have a coworker who has undiagnosed misophonia. She has never been formally diagnosed, and as I understand it, has never even mentioned it to her family doctor. But she hates chewing sounds so much that she actually had a verbal altercation with another coworker over his eating an apple.

Since that altercation (several years ago), everyone is on alert about eating at their desks. Some of us occasionally eat at our desks because of operational needs (teleconferences over lunch, temporarily heavy workloads, etc.), but now we are hyper-aware that nothing we eat should make crunching sounds. It’s so bad that if she even mentions to management that a new employee’s chewing is bothering her, that new employee will get moved to a different desk (to the inconvenience of the new employee, as well as IT, who has to move everything). If we chew audibly around her, she complains to our managers and we’re asked to stop. Most people will take their crunchy foods to a meeting room and eat there, but it’s not always easy to find an open room.

While I understand how maddening chewing sounds can be to her, there are things she can do to lessen her reaction to them — exposure therapy, talk therapy, white noise machines, medication, ear plugs, noise cancelling earphones, listening to music. Our workplace is all for accommodations when prescribed (and we do have policies around accommodations), but again, this is an undiagnosed condition, and she is not being asked to do anything to help alleviate her reactions.

Am I wrong to think everyone else should not be inconvenienced for one person’s sensitivities? If scents gave her migraines, I could understand requiring a scent-free workplace (which we also have). But for sounds? Is management handling this correctly, or are there other avenues they should/could be taking? I’ve made my stance known to management, but I still try to accommodate when I can in the spirit of team harmony.

I think it’s pretty unreasonable. I’m curious why they haven’t just moved your coworker to a more private area, rather than banning everyone around her from eating. And yes, she has options to alleviate the impact too, like headphones, as you pointed out. If she hasn’t even spoken with a doctor yet, finding herself in a verbal altercation with someone over eating an apple should have nudged her to do that.

I suspect that if you and a group of your coworkers pushed back more firmly — the as a group part is key here — and said, “We’ve tried to be accommodating, but this isn’t reasonable, we’re not able to eat when we need to, it’s not workable for us, and there are other solutions that would significantly lessen the impact of this,” you might make some headway. (You might also point out that “no one eats around the person” isn’t one of the accommodations that the Misophonia Institute or the Job Accommodation Network suggest workplaces use.)

– 2019

4. My former boss is still trying to manage me

I am a manager at an organization; I’ve been there almost 10 years. Back when I was at an assistant level, I reported to Fergus for about a year and a half. We we had an okay working relationship back then, but he had weird ways of asserting his authority (i.e., whenever he approved a day off, he’d also include a list of all the things I’d be missing while I was out — things that my teammates could cover, so it seemed he was trying to make me feel bad.) I was promoted to another department five years ago, and while we still worked near each other, we haven’t been working closely.

He recently changed jobs and now is in my department. He chose to make the switch, but he is no longer a manager. His job is different from mine, but he seems to think he is managing my work again. He’s making recommendations on projects I manage without being asked. Recently he offered to help with something our CEO asked me to work on. The way he asked was, “Have you done this yet? (It’s been a few days.)”

While the help is appreciated, the way he offered was by pointing out that it had been a few days since she made the request. The day after she made the request, there was a death in my family and I’ve been out of the office. I saw his note as I’m looking through my emails to prep to go back to work. How do I tell him I’m happy to work together on this project, but the CEO will come to me if she has a problem with my timeline, and it’s not his job to subtly point out my shortcomings?

If he asks you “have you done this yet?” about something that he doesn’t have standing to manage at all, respond with, “Why do you ask?” You can say this perfectly pleasantly and in a tone of genuine curiosity, but train him to see that you’re not going to respond to his requests the way you would a manager’s.

If he makes unsolicited recommendations for how you approach a project, say, “Thanks, I’ll think about it.”

If he offers help that you don’t want, say, “Thanks, I’ll let you know if that looks like it would be useful” or “Oh, I’ve got this, but thanks.” If you’d actually appreciate his help, accept it in a way that makes it clear you’re choosing to accept it — like, “Sure. I’m fine on X and Y, but I’d be happy to have you help with Z. Thanks for offering it.”

And if he makes subtle remarks about your timeline seeming insufficient to him, either ignore it (because his opinion doesn’t matter) or dryly say, “Jane’s in the loop on the timeline” or “I’ve got it covered, thanks.”

If you do this stuff, it’s likely that he’ll get the hint and you won’t have to have a big You Are Not My Manager conversation with him. But if you do this for a few weeks and he’s not backing off, you may need to do that. In that case, you could say something like, “Hey, I’m glad to be working with you again. I’ve noticed you’ve been critiquing my work and checking in on my progress. I’m happy to have any suggestions you feel are worthwhile, but ultimately I’m leading this area and don’t want either of us to inadvertently go back to the dynamic we had when I was reporting to you.”

– 2017

The post my office has a wall of shame, coworker gets angry when we chew, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

I’m in here! OW!

Italian restaurants of the 1960s were the height of chic. They had all the dishes: long thins, tubes with tomato, cheese mystery and the best of all, the timpano, which was a drum filled with meatballs.

The post Only the best looking ones appeared first on Bad Machinery.

“This ‘blame Muslims’ thing has been great, but we can’t ride that wave forever.” Luke and the Panel (Ian MacIntyre, Clare Blackwood and Nile Seguin) talk about the fallout from the Pipeline MOU for Carney and Smith, Pete Hegseth’s war on narco smugglers/human decency and Quebec hitting the racism disguised as secularism button again. Then […]

The post Quebec legislators brainstorming ideas for which religion to scapegoat next appeared first on The Beaverton.

VICTORIA, B.C. – CPC leader Pierre Poilievre has expressed keen interest as news broke that BC Conservative Party leader John Rustad is unilaterally rejecting his party’s attempts to remove him. “Hang on,” Poilievre said to a group of reporters. “Your party votes to shitcan you, and you can just tell them to go pound sand? […]

The post Poilievre asks BC Conservative leader for tips on just refusing to leave appeared first on The Beaverton.

Heated Rivalry, a new Canadian romance series, has exploded in popularity since it premiered on HBO Max last week. Here is everything you need to know about the show.

Q: What is the plot?

A: Two men have a steamy sexual affair despite not being vampires or elf nobility or anything.

Q: Where does it take place?

A: An alternate universe where hockey players meticulously wax their body hair.

Q: Are the actors actually playing hockey?

A: Yes. It’s illegal in Canada to impersonate a hockey player.

Q: Who is the target audience?

A: The horniest woman in Saskatchewan.

Q: Is there a lot of sex?

A: All of the sex is implied off-screen through shots of popping Champagne bottles and trains entering tunnels.

Q: Is the show better than the book?

A: Yes, it has far fewer words to read.

The post What To Know About ‘Heated Rivalry’ appeared first on The Onion.

The post Kristi Noem Places Pushpin In Bespoke Map Of Every Place She’s Deported Someone To appeared first on The Onion.

#CowboyWho

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
The only down side is that in the bio pic there's a 45 minute musical montage as he prepares to battle the aliens.

The US Department of Energy has approved an $8.6 million grant that will allow the nation’s first utility-led geothermal heating and cooling network to double in size.

Gas and electric utility Eversource Energy completed the first phase of its geothermal network in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 2024. Eversource is a co-recipient of the award along with the city of Framingham and HEET, a Boston-based nonprofit that focuses on geothermal energy and is the lead recipient of the funding.

Geothermal networks are widely considered among the most energy-efficient ways to heat and cool buildings. The federal money will allow Eversource to add approximately 140 new customers to the Framingham network and fund research to monitor the system’s performance.

Read full article

Comments

Amazon Prime Video has scaled back an experiment that created laughable anime dubs with generative AI.

In March, Amazon announced that its streaming service would start including “AI-aided dubbing on licensed movies and series that would not have been dubbed otherwise.” In late November, some AI-generated English and Spanish dubs of anime popped up, including dubs for the Banana Fish series and the movie No Game No Life: Zero. The dubs appear to be part of a beta launch, and users have been able to select “English (AI beta)” or “Spanish (AI beta)” as an audio language option in supported titles.

“Absolutely disrespectful”

Not everyone likes dubbed content. Some people insist on watching movies and shows in their original language to experience the media more authentically, with the passion and talent of the original actors. But you don’t need to be against dubs to see what’s wrong with the ones Prime Video tested.

Read full article

Comments

Dear Soft Millennial Man,

You’ve been quiet lately, but we know you’re still out there. You’re probably hiding out at Whole Foods until this whole “Is America a dictatorship?” question gets settled. Smart move. Hopefully, this letter reaches you before you stumble through a trapdoor on the internet and the manosphere eats your brain. There are a few things we, heterosexual millennial women, want you to know before it’s too late.

For starters, we apologize for complaining about the mustache you grew for Movember, and for using the term “dad bod” to describe how you look in your swimsuit. We also regret our lackluster support for your hobbies. In hindsight, pickling vegetables and making sourdough starter are two of the more benign things a guy can do with his time. Our bad, Millennial Man.

We understand that the times are a-changin’, but we hope you’ll more or less stay the same. We’re not saying that you’re perfect, but your flaws—like the second Bush administration—are starting to look quaint from our current vantage point in the MAGAverse circle of hell. Contrary to what you may be hearing on TikTok, you don’t need to learn mixed martial arts or eat more protein. And unless you’re Michael B. Jordan, we don’t care about your muscles. If you don’t believe us, just look at Timothée Chalamet; men with spaghetti arms can be sex symbols too. You just need confidence, great hair, and generational talent.

Speaking of muscle: We know that your hunter-gatherer brain wants to protect us, but it’s 2025, and no neighboring tribes are looking to ransack the village and drag us off as concubines. If you’re feeling the urge to show off your man-strength, there’s probably a jar in the fridge you can open for us, or a spider in the basement you could kill. We also still welcome your help with the Roku and are willing to set aside our opposition to traditional gender roles when it comes to taking out the trash.

If you’re still feeling the need to impress us, please don’t challenge another man to a cage fight on X. What really turns us on is a guy who isn’t afraid of feelings. Make supportive eye contact with us while we cry, and you’ll steal our hearts forever. If that sounds like more than you can handle, there’s no need to worry. As long as you can hold a job for six months and watch a child for up to two hours, most of us already consider you marriage material.

We know podcasts are all the rage these days, and that you might be feeling tempted to check out one of those shows where the host interviews vaccine skeptics and Nazi sympathizers. Might we suggest instead a marathon of all those Marvel movies we once refused to watch with you? Stay away from Joe Rogan forever, and we’ll give you a lifetime of Monday Night Football plus one free Saturday of uninterrupted playing video games in your underwear.

All we ask, soft Millennial Man, is that you keep being you. Keep going to brunch and watering your plants. Keep standing in line for cronuts, listening to Mumford & Sons, and watching YouTube videos of men unboxing sneakers. We know we complained about these things in the past, but we’ve come to realize that you, the man who brews beer in our closet, are the most evolved of your species. So, why not pretend it’s still 2017? We can grab an eleven-dollar slice of avocado toast at the coffee shop, and spend eternity browsing the West Elm website looking at midcentury furniture for the home we’ll never be able to buy.

It might not be the life either of us dreamed of, but things could be worse. They already are.

Yours Truly,
A Blue-State Millennial Woman

I’m crying because I miss having no pants on.