This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Coworker’s retirement email took credit for our full product line
I received an email from a coworker who is retiring next month. The worker, let’s call him Carl, announced his upcoming retirement and then bragged for a long paragraph about his integral design accomplishments for an important product line. The email includes a smiling photo of Carl standing next to nine products, as though he was the program manager who was responsible for the team of engineers who developed the products for the world to use!
Carl is a draftsman, who followed directives from engineers. The program manager and the engineering team worked long and hard on each product design before meeting with drafts people for drafting implementation (blueprints, CAD, etc.). During weekly reviews, and sometimes more often, Carl reported to an assigned engineer and the two of them worked out any possible glitches or changes for design alterations that we other engineers made.
I believe in team work. Every job is important because every job has different functions when developing and manufacturing products. Working together, we all provided necessary input for each product. I can’t understand how or why Carl believes the product line is his. Worse, I can’t understand why he sent this self-applauding company-wide.
My engineering colleagues are privately laughing at Carl’s email, mostly because they never heard or saw such brazen nonsense. I have to say that it’s the oddest retirement email I ever got. Is sending pictures of your so-called accomplishments (or of your real accomplishments) a new thing? I find it icky, not to mention a morale buster for everyone else on the product team. How should we react publicly to Carl’s news? We aren’t motivated to give him a party because we aren’t going to enable his delusion. We don’t want to mock him, either, because, well, that’s not nice.
Eh, I think you and your coworkers are being a little mean-spirited about it! It doesn’t sound like Carl is trying to take credit for being the product manager; it sounds like he’s saying he’s proud of the projects he’s worked on, and here they are. You want employees to feel ownership and pride in the work they do, whether they’re the ones calling the shots for it or not. Was it a bit much in this context? Maybe! But I don’t think it warrants denying the guy a retirement party.
If I’m wrong and he explicitly took credit for things he didn’t do, that’s different. In that case, laugh away, or roll your eyes, or so forth. Although even then, I don’t think it rises to the level of “no retirement party for you” (unless Carl has generally been a jerk to work with; if he has, feel free not to put any special effort toward celebrating him).
2. Can I take my shoes off behind the counter?
I work at a gas station (overnight shifts 6pm – 6am). During my shift I’m usually behind the counter. During slow nights, I’m sitting at the work computer on my phone between customers. It’s a casual setting and the manager is pretty chill, but I’m curious … being behind the counter so often, can I take off my shoes for a bit during my shift? I usually put them on if I’m going anywhere other than behind the counter, but would it be wrong to let the dogs breathe for a few minutes or till a customer arrives?
The more practical question is whether anyone would know. If no one but you will know, that’s between you and your feet. Just make sure there’s nothing you could step on, for safety/comfort reasons.
But if anyone might see, keep your shoes on; a barefoot attendant isn’t usually the look businesses are going for. (For that reason, “usually” putting your shoes on if you come out from behind the counter really should be “always.”)
3. My coworker won’t help in our shared job
I work in security in a large hospital (we print the ID badges for numerous contractors to have access throughout the hospital), and I work in an open office environment. I’ve worked there almost two years now, and really like my job.
People approach our long desk where my coworkers and I sit, facing the public. There are three of us who do the same job, and we are all cross-trained to do everything that’s needed to get these people badged. That being said, two of us carry the brunt of the work. The third person, Martha, has a serious problem with playing on her cell phone ALL THE TIME. When people approach the desk, they approach Martha’s seat first. She doesn’t acknowledge their presence most of the time, because she is so engrossed in her cell phone, leading to me or the other coworker greeting and helping the person almost every time. The phone rings, and she can’t/won’t answer it, because she is either on her cell phone or talking to her daughter or husband on her business phone.
She always asks why I haven’t asked her to help with anything instead of doing it myself. I don’t feel like it’s my job to delegate work; we are equals in position and she knows what needs to be done. I don’t like confrontation, so I don’t say anything most of the time, leading to resentment because I am literally doing everything. I have said things in the past, yet here we are again. I don’t feel like it’s my place to keep saying things. My boss has a lot of health problems so is hardly ever present to be able to address the issue. I don’t know what to do, as I am running extremely short on patience with this problem. I don’t want to scream and make a scene, but I am done playing these games with her. I need help!
Martha sucks here, but you’re also writing off the only things that will help. Talk to her! I know you said you’ve tried that in the past, but I’m curious how direct you’ve been. Ideally, the next time it’s happening, you’d say, “Could you please not be on your phone when customers come up? When you are, Jane and I end up doing more than our share of the work, because you’re not acknowledging customers when they approach.” You’ll probably need to say this more than once, but that’s not confrontational or out of line; it’s a normal conversation to have about how workload is distributed. It’s not about assigning work to her; it’s saying, “I am doing more than my fair share and I need your help.”
And if you’re at the point of worrying you’re going to scream at her, it’s far kinder to have a calm conversation with her first.
Assuming this doesn’t solve it, though, then you do need to talk to your boss. You say she’s not there much, but the next time she is there, ask to meet in private, explain the problem, and say you’ve tried speaking to Martha about it directly but it’s continuing to happen. (That’s the other advantage of talking to Martha directly first: when you escalate it to your boss, you want to be able to say you’ve tried that.)
4. How to ask a coworker to stop watching me work
The least favorite part of my job is being shadowed. I absolutely hate having people following me around staring at me, and this summer it has been constant, and with multiple people. At one point I had so many people silently watching me working, I came closer than I ever have to walking out on my job. It’s almost over, thank god, interns and assistants have been gotten rid of and/or are going back to school.
However, we have a new receptionist who likes to come back and watch the “fun” procedures, standing around and getting in my way while I’m trying to work. It’s not “fun” for me, it’s my job, and I’m trying to do 100 things at the same time. I’ll admit I don’t particularly like this person and I’m a bit … on edge, due to the near constant aggravation of the last couple of months. I don’t want to be an ogre about it, but her job is at her desk doing her job, not watching me do mine.
Our manager has been missing in action at work lately due to personal stuff, so there’s no use trying to talk to her. Is there a way to nicely ask this person to go do her job and let me do mine? The best I can come up with is some version of, “Hey, I really don’t like being watched while I work, would you mind?” but I’m afraid it will come out through clenched teeth.
That’s actually fine to say, as long as you say it in a reasonably warm tone and not through clenched teeth. Alternately: “I find it distracting to be watched while I work and I am pretty burnt out on being shadowed the last couple months.” Tone is the big thing here — make sure it’s conveying “I like you, just not this specific activity.”
She may very well think you don’t mind being watched, since she’s seen so many other people shadowing you. Let her know you prefer she not.
But also: why have so many people been shadowing you? Is it truly necessary for their training, or is it more optional? Given that you’ve almost been at the point of walking out over it, is there any room to cut back on how much of it falls to you? If I were your manager, I’d want to know if something was happening that had you this on edge.
5. My employee passed their PIP — now what?
I have had an employee, Alex, on a PIP and for once it has done exactly what I hoped: improved performance! I’ve never had that happen before (I’ve done two, and one employee quit and I fired the other). I’m delighted that Alex accomplished what we set out in the PIP; maybe it was the wake-up call they needed.
So, what comes next, when a PIP works? How do you ease back on the PIP-related pressure of Succeed NOW, while also not risking a PIP-slack-PIP cycle? I feel like if we get to the final action date and I tell Alex, “Hey, you’ve done great doing what I asked; if you fail to keep doing that, I’m just going to fire you instead of going through this whole PIP again,” it would be the same as having a perpetual PIP. It doesn’t give Alex a chance to keep doing the job correctly now that they’ve really learned how; it’s just a sword hanging over their head all the time and that feels like a terrible way to work.
What is an effective strategy for after the PIP, when it’s not letting them go?
Ideally when you’re first writing the PIP, you include language like, “If you fulfill the requirements laid out here, you will no longer be on a formal improvement plan but will need to maintain that level of performance over time.” Or, “I need you to demonstrate this improvement in the next X weeks, and then sustain it going forward.”
If you didn’t do that, or in addition to it now, when you’re having the “you passed the PIP!” conversation, you can say, “You’ve done a great job doing XYZ. We do need to see this level of performance sustained over the long-run, and if the problems recur, we would not go through this process all over again. But based on how well you’ve done the last X weeks, I’m confident that you can do that.”
SAN FRANCISCO—Pointing out that most of them don’t even own a professional sports team, local billionaire Felix Stacey gave his millionaire friends credit Monday for keeping him humble. “It’s easy to become out of touch when you have billions and billions of dollars, but I can always count on my millionaire friends to…
WASHINGTON—Providing long-awaited insight into the attempted assassin’s mental state, a report released Monday found that gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks googled “How to be an enigma” before trying to kill former President Donald Trump. “After reviewing the shooter’s browser history, we have discovered several searches…
PARIS – Following the decision by FIFA judges to punish the Canadian women’s soccer organization for illegally surveilling their opponents’ practice, the International Olympic Committee has also awarded the two coaches gold medals in the 600m Illegal Drone Spying event. “While we do not condone using high tech drones to spy on the practice tactics […]
HILLSBORO, OR—Lambasting the verdict as “cruel” and “brash,” 3-year-old Ian Tobler reportedly vowed Monday to appeal his parents’ decision to keep his newborn baby brother. “I am deeply disappointed by my parents’ decision to bring Mateo home from the hospital, and I will continue to fight for justice,” said Tobler,…
NEW YORK—Maintaining his silence in the wake of sudden tragedy, new hire Will Rorke told reporters Monday that he was not yet comfortable enough to mention that he had seen a man die on his way into the office. “I wish I knew my coworkers well enough to open up about how I just witnessed a stranger drop dead from a…
In brief: This post describes the distinct pattern change we’ve seen from a wet end of July into a warmer August. Yes, sunshine is back on the menu. Additionally, we take stock of where we are with summer in Houston now that we’re about half way through it.
Where we are so far
By most measures we are about half way through summer in Houston, having gotten through June and nearly all of July. Moreover, as of today, we have reached the historically “hottest” time of year, when daytime and nighttime temperatures peak. This period runs through July 29 through August 12, typically the warmest two weeks of the year. So congratulations, we had to come through a Category 1 hurricane and some pretty nasty power outages to get here, but we are making progress toward fall.
What I didn’t say above is anything about extreme temperatures. That’s because, so far, temperatures this summer have been near normal for the last 30 years. The monthly average temperature in June was 1.6 degrees above normal, and for July we are likely to end up at around 1 degree below normal. Thus far this summer, we have hit 100 degrees just a single time, on July 1. Last month we actually had one day with a high of 78 degrees, thanks to the persistent rainfall during the last 10 days of July.
Temperatures, especially daytime ones, have been cooler for much of the month. (National Weather Service)
So where does that leave us staring into the abyss of August? Well, there is no drought for as far as the eye can see, and indeed well beyond that. With our saturated soils, we are well positioned for the rest of summer. The wet soils should also help moderate daytime high temperatures, at least a bit, for a few weeks. And, of course, all the rain during the last week will continue to produce a bumper crop of mosquitoes for awhile longer.
August is my least favorite month of the year, by far. It is prone to the hottest weather, and it is when the threat of large and powerful hurricanes starts to peak. (While the Atlantic tropics are starting to wake up from their slumber during the second half of July, there are as yet no threats to Texas). Honestly, if we can get through the next eight weeks, then fall is distinctly on the horizon, and we’ll be near the end of hurricane season for Texas.
Some of the latest seasonal modeling indicates near normal
Most of our modeling guidance (CFS, European, GFS temperature 30-day temperature forecasts) suggests that temperatures in August will be near normal. In terms of precipitation, we are also likely looking at near-normal levels of precipitation. We shall see. One tropical system can scramble all of that.
Monday
The long-awaited pattern change has arrived. For the first time in awhile, as I checked the radar, there wasn’t much happening in the Houston area this morning. This is because we’re beginning to feel the influence of high pressure, which will help suppress rain showers. That is not to say rain chances will be zero, but they will be much lower, on the order of 10 to 20 percent daily, with a few showers possibly popping up along the sea breeze.
High temperatures for much of Houston will likely rise into the low- to mid-90s for much of the region today. Skies will be partly sunny, with south winds at 5 to 10 mph. Overnight lows should drop into the upper 70s for most areas except the coast.
Tuesday
Conditions will be similar to Monday, although skies may appear to be a bit more hazy. This will be due to the influx of Saharan dust. This same dust has helped keep a lid on hurricane activity over the last week or two across the Atlantic basin. The spread of this dust typically peaks during July, and its decrease in August is one of the reason we typically see more hurricane activity in August and September.
Wednesday and Thursday
Both of these should be sunny days, with high temperatures in the mid-90s. We’ll continue to see some haze on Wednesday, although it may start to wane on Thursday.
Rain accumulations in Texas this week? No much. (Weather Bell)
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Our mostly sunny pattern should continue into the weekend, when we see high temperatures in the mid- to possibly upper-90s by Saturday and Sunday. Atmospheric moisture levels could rise a bit, and this may introduce rain chances in the 20 percent range daily, but for the most part I expect these to be sunny days. If you have outdoor plans for this weekend they look, tentatively, pretty good expect for the heat. But what else would you expect in August, in terms of temperatures?
Southwest Airlines is shifting to assigned seats for the first time in its history, a change that will allow the low-fare carrier to charge a premium for some of the seats on its planes. What do you think?
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My boss won’t stop complaining about my maternity leave
I’m four months pregnant and I had to (chose to) tell my boss when I was eight weeks due to my nausea and sickness. When I told him, his first reaction was, “How much maternity leave are you taking?” I replied, “All of it.” We get FMLA 12 weeks — nothing special.
Since that point, at least once a week/once every other week, he talks in front of others about how we’re going to have to handle my “situation,” to which I say, “It’s only 12 weeks and it’s a standard leave.” He most often rebuts, “It’s a very important 12 weeks for us.” Obviously I’m going to set up my team for success and do everything I can to make sure people have what they need.
But at this point, the constant put down about how I’m leaving for 12 weeks and that will leave the team in a lurch is really getting to me. What do I do about it?
Are you comfortable talking to HR and letting them know that your boss is constantly complaining about your upcoming maternity leave and making you worry you’re going to be professionally penalized for taking it? This doesn’t sound quite bad enough to count as pregnant harrassment, but competent HR still usually prefers that employees not be hassled for taking legally protected leave.
Alternately, an option is to address it with your boss directly: “Do you want to have a conversation about plans for my leave? I’m taking a pretty standard amount of leave, but you’ve sounded so concerned that I’m wondering if there’s something I’m missing.” If he repeats that it’s a very important time for your team, then say, “Is there something you want me to do differently? Obviously I can’t change the timing of the leave, so is there something else you’re looking for?” At some point in that conversation, you might also want to say, “I’d appreciate it if you’d treat this like any other medically necessary leave that’s protected by law.”
2. Communicating with a team that doesn’t read email
I am one of several managers in my building and I manage a team of about a dozen people who all have different schedules, with two people manning the floor at once. They all overlap with me at some point, at different times, throughout the week. All the jobs are part-time and most people have a second job. Because I can’t get everyone into the same room together to have regular meetings, I’ve been trying to use email to communicate. But people don’t read their email, or they skim and forget, because when I ask to make a change it just … doesn’t get made. As an example, I recently sent an email asking everyone to please put out X in the morning and bring it in at night, and it hasn’t been moving.
These are work email addresses, and the staff in question are stationed at computers at service desks; the bulk of their job is helping customers, but there’s downtime that could be spent checking email.
Higher management and I have repeated “can you PLEASE read your email” ad nauseam, and for really important issues have started sending out emails with PLEASE REPLY in the title, insisting that everyone reply with some detail from the email. Nothing has helped and I’m at a point where I feel like I need to accept that email is not going to work here as a way to communicate.
But what will? I can talk to everyone individually about every tiny issue that comes up, but it would be prohibitively hard to remember to do that, and to remember who I’ve already talked to, every time a shift change happens all week, and then it would also take much longer to get information out. I could print out reminders and leave them on counters, but 1) those would also get ignored and 2) there isn’t a lot of counter space. Maybe you have another creative idea?
Since these emails sound mostly like one-way announcements that they just need to read and be aware of (as opposed to something with back-and-forth), you need an announcement binder. Print out announcements, put them in the binder, and ask people to initial them once they’ve read them. Hell, have a standard list of everyone’s names that get pasted onto the bottom of each announcement so that it’s easy to see who’s initialed it and who hasn’t. And then make checking the announcement binder a requirement at the start of every shift.
If they don’t have jobs that use email a lot (and it sounds like they don’t?), it’s easy for people to not even think to check for messages. You’ll probably haven an easier time making “check the announcement binder at the start of every shift” a routine part of people’s work. That said, there will be a learning curve! You should expect to have to remind people a lot at first, you should stick a “check the announcement binder!” sign at the service desks, and you should make a point of quickly following up with people who haven’t initialed things. If you’re diligent about that, it should stick in time. (And as new people are hired, make that part of how they’re trained from the start. It’s easier when it’s part of people’s routine from the beginning.)
To be clear, if these were email-heavy jobs, this wouldn’t be a reasonable solution; in some jobs people just have to be responsive to emails, period. But I think the problem you’re running into here is that email isn’t a central part of their work.
3. People keep commenting on my rosacea
I have rosacea, and my face is red most of the time. I am currently exploring treatments with a dermatologist. The cream I’m using makes it so I can’t really wear foundation to cover it. On an almost daily basis, someone I work with makes a comment about it. I get asked if I’ve been out in the sun or they just comment on how red I am. What would be a way to politely tell them it’s a medical condition and to stop commenting? I feel unattractive and embarrassed when people point it out so often.
“It’s rosacea.”
“It’s rosacea, you don’t need to let me know.”
“That’s just my skin.”
“Yes.”
Most people will understand the subtext is “stop commenting.” But if anyone continues: “It’s a medical condition and I’d rather not get into it.”
4. Telling a rejected candidate I wish they had been hired
I’m a consultant working part-time for a global nonprofit with a very small staff (three in total). As the workload is increasing and I can’t do more than part-time, we just made an offer to a more junior person who will take on part of my workload so I can focus on specific projects. I think they were the weakest candidate by far and I supported another candidate. I was overruled by the two other members of the hiring committee, both more senior than me but with no direct experience in my field. We’re very transparent as a team; I know their reasons for choosing that person and they know I strongly disagree.
Anyway, I know this battle is lost so I’ll obviously make the new hire feel welcome and I’ll work with them as well as possible. However, I’m really disappointed for my favorite candidate who ticked all the boxes – experience, technical skills, soft skills, background, work culture, you name it.
I know I can’t email them to say, “Hey, I’m so sorry, you should have gotten the job because you were the best.” But is there a professional way to let them know, directly or indirectly, that they’re awesome and that I wish they had been hired? The standard rejection emails have been sent and they replied very courteously and professionally. I’ve been on the receiving end of rejection emails as many of us have and I know how disheartening it can be when you know you were a good candidate.
You definitely shouldn’t imply they were the best and should have been hired (that could cause problems for your organization, as well as just being out of sync with the kind of united front you’re generally expect to put on once a decision is made). But you could say something like, “I wanted to contact you personally to let you know how much I enjoyed talking with you and how impressed I was by (details).” You can include specifics about why you thought they were great, as long as you do it without comparing them to the person who was ultimately hired. And you could conclude by saying you’d love to stay in touch and hope there might be opportunities to work together in the future. (I’m slightly torn on that last part because I don’t want to raise false hopes that your org might hire them in the future, given how small it is, but you could finesse the wording to whatever makes sense.)
5. Deescalation techniques for poll workers
After hearing about the nationwide poll worker shortage, I volunteered as a poll worker for the spring presidential primary and will be working again for a state level primary next month and then the November election. I just attended a more in-depth training, which had very specific instructions for how to handle ballots when various issues arise. The early voting process was brand new in the spring and is more convoluted compared to the traditional election day process (mostly boils down to early voting requiring a voter to be marked off in a physical binder along with a digital check-in) so the majority of the training was spent making sure everyone was clear on what to do. The town registrar emphasized how important it was to get every process right because tensions are expected to be high in November. However, there was no advice or real discussion on de-escalation when a voter gets angry with a poll worker, beyond flagging the person who administers that location’s election.
In the spring election, there was some grumbling about “what was the point of early voting” by voters, which I felt was difficult to redirect without crossing a line into something that could be considered a political statement (by law, we’re not allowed to discuss politics). I didn’t run into any true anger in the spring, even when we had a slowdown in processing people, but in the past as a voter, I’ve definitely seen poll workers get yelled at for things out of their control (like a voter didn’t realize their assigned location had changed and were told they needed to go elsewhere to vote after standing in a long line). The registrar also glossed over questions about more serious security concerns, so they don’t seem to be the best resource on getting a script to direct people to the moderator’s station. The moderator for my location has been doing this for 40+ years and said they’ve seen everything so while we should expect it to be hectic in November, we shouldn’t worry. The only work experience I have with dealing with members of the public who might get angry was limited to phone interactions, so I’m still a bit nervous about getting yelled at in person. Do you have any advice or know of free resources on de-escalation and redirection techniques?
Mostly, I just want to build more confidence, especially as the moderator for my location is hoping that the summer election will be enough additional experience so they can move me into an assistant position in November. While that seems quick to me, the moderators seem very eager to give the younger crowd experience and more responsibility because most of the town’s poll workers are retirees and they’re having issues with retention between elections.
I don’t but I will bet a lot of money that some readers do. Commenters? (I also found a lot when I googled that could be helpful.)
CALGARY – Calgary has unveiled the design of its new hockey arena and event centre, Scotia Place, which will share the same sleek and contemporary look as famous arenas across Canada like Rogers Place, BMO Place, HSBC Place, and the other Scotia Place. “Like many hockey players, I’ve always dreamed of winning a Stanley Cup […]
This week, a resurfaced video of Donald Trump’s running mate, J. D. Vance, calling childless cat ladies like me miserable and uncaring went viral, making me more concerned than I already was about what my life might be like under an administration so hostile to women’s sexual, reproductive, and pet-related choices.
But then another viral story about Vance humping furniture (which turned out not to be true, surprisingly) made me realize, even if it would be too dangerous to have sex with men, and probably illegal to have sex with anyone else, maybe if they win, things wouldn’t be so bad after all. Because if Trump and Vance are elected, I can just start fucking my couch.
In the world they want to create, there will be even more restrictions on abortion than already exist, and birth control could be next. But my couch won’t get me pregnant. Sure there are times I’ve felt pregnant after sitting on my couch and eating a party-size bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, but it only takes time and stomach acid to abort that feeling.
And as my body expresses its autonomy throughout that process, I am non-judgmentally embraced by my couch’s arms. And judgmentally followed by my cats every time I make one of my many trips to the bathroom.
Vance has also suggested he wants the country to go back to a time before couples could easily divorce, when women had to stay in unhappy and even violent relationships with men. But I don’t have to worry about that on my couch. The only violence that ever happens here is when I lightly pound my fist on a cushion after the wrong person is named Top Chef. And around 9 p.m., when Murphy wants a third dinner.
My couch might know when I have my period, because I weigh about fifty pounds more than usual due to bloating, but it would never tell the police, like Vance wants women’s doctors to do. It’s got my back, it’s always there, and it doesn’t care if one to seven cats lie on it. If I’m being honest, lately I can’t help but linger a bit longer in the living room than I used to. The more I think about it, my couch would make a better lover than any man.
All this time it’s been right beneath me, how did I not see it sooner? The way it seems to sparkle when the sunlight hits the several layers of multicolored cat hair covering it. The seductive indentation from where I sit on it, sometimes for twelve hours at a time. The rock hard legs I stub my toe on at least once a week.
While I was once annoyed that my cats tore up the back of the couch, now all I see is a piece of furniture ribbed for my pleasure. And while it isn’t the most pleasant thing to find on the couch, nothing is slipperier than a hairball. I can barely take it anymore, it’s time to take things to the next level, regardless of who is elected in November!
And to those like Vance who will be concerned that, as a couch-fucker, I won’t be reproducing and thus don’t have a stake in the future, just know that I purchased the optional extended warranty on this baby, and I intend to ride it out—pun intended.
Fellow childless cat ladies, I’ll see you in the living room. ;)
A tropical disturbance and wave in the Atlantic may very slowly develop this week or next weekend as it comes west.
There is no imminent concern of rapid development or risks to land at this time.
Still, check back in on this through the week to ensure nothing has changed.
No other development risks are seen at this time.
Tropical wave in the dust
Rumors are swirling and hype is beginning around a tropical wave in the Atlantic that several models have shown developing into a system later this upcoming week or weekend. In fact, after my Friday post, the National Hurricane Center had it on their tropical outlook. Today, they’ve got chances bumped up to about 40 percent over the next 7 days.
A disturbance and approaching tropical wave may help trigger some development in the northern Caribbean or southwest Atlantic later in the upcoming week or next weekend. (NOAA NHC)
So what is it that we’re watching? Well, it’s this wave in the Atlantic, just southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands.
The Atlantic shows a tropical wave encased in dust to the west of the Cabo Verde Islands. This may slowly develop through the week. (College of DuPage)
Admittedly, this doesn’t look like much at all. It’s being choked by Saharan dust right now, and it has little to no thunderstorm activity surrounding it for the most part. In fact, the wave emerging off Africa to its east looks far more impressive, though that one is likely to fizzle in the coming days. Meanwhile, this wave will migrate westward. By Tuesday evening, it should be just east of the Leeward Islands, still unlikely to have developed much at all.
The tropical wave will approach the Leeward Islands Tuesday night or Wednesday, unlikely to be developed much, if at all. (Tropical Tidbits)
The system will still be essentially surrounded by dry air. It will also have to contend with a bit of wind shear. All in all, through Wednesday, it seems unlikely that this wave will develop much, and for the Lesser Antilles, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico this will not be one to create significant impacts.
Beyond midweek there will be a little less dry air and slightly more favorable atmospheric conditions for development as it approaches the area between the Bahamas and the Florida Straits. Through hour 144 (Friday night), about half of the European ensemble’s 51 members develop this system into a formal low pressure, and none do so significantly.
About half of the European ensemble’s 51 members develop this tropical wave by early next weekend between about Cuba and east of the Bahamas. None do so in major fashion. (Weathernerds.org)
So based on all this information we have, here’s what we can say about this tropical wave:
Development should be slow to occur and probably wouldn’t even begin until very late in the week, if not the weekend.
The wave should track generally harmlessly through the northeast Caribbean and end up somewhere between Cuba and east of the Bahamas by the weekend.
Dry air is likely going to play a significant role in the development (or lack of development) of this wave.
The 40 percent odds as posted by the NHC is a perfectly fine place to be right now.
Beyond the weekend, bets are off. We’ve seen some models track this toward the Southeast, some out to sea, and some not even develop the system at all. The GFS ensemble currently favors the latter outcome, with few to no ensemble members developing this. So for now, it’s just good to keep an eye on this one and wait and see. There’s clearly nothing here yet that is definitive, and there’s no reason to get too worked up about things right now. More to come.
Beyond this one, there are no specific signs of anything to follow. Perhaps after August 10th we’ll see our next potential candidate in the Atlantic.
“Will Chamberlain, a conservative lawyer who worked on Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign, posted on X that Harris ‘shouldn’t be President’ because she doesn’t have biological children; ‘becoming a step-parent to older teenagers doesn’t count,’ he said." —New York Times, 07/23/2024
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1. Integrating into a structure with a history that began way before you ever came on the scene.
2. Finding the balance between respecting time-honored traditions, and having the courage to create new ones.
3. Winning over the members of the house whose objections can be loud, and sometimes downright offensive.
4. Attending a lot of sporting events.
5. Pretending to like them all.
6. Adapting to your new digs, which still contain a lot of memorabilia from former occupants, such as questionable Christmas decorations, and family portraits featuring the “First Lady.”
7. Building trust, especially with those who like to remind you on a regular basis that they didn’t have a say in your selection process.
8. Being down with the kids, but not so down that it becomes embarrassing.
9. Accepting that you’re not necessarily going to be popular, at least not all the time, especially not during midterms.
10. Helping to redefine what constitutes a family.
11. Managing domestic affairs.
12. Ignoring negative stereotypes perpetuated by Disney that cast you as an evil, conniving narcissistic witch with a penchant for thinly plucked eyebrows.
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Skills you need as president: 1–11 Skills you need as a stepmom: 1–12
PARIS – An Olympic torchbearer jogging through Paris en route to the opening ceremony has accidentally triggered a huge uprising amongst the populace as they reflexively took to the streets. “As a lifelong Parisien I’ve always known what to do if I see a torch heading towards the center of the city,” said local shopkeeper […]
PARIS—With more than a billion viewers tuning in from around the world only to find themselves watching a panel of French film scholars and critical theorists, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics began Friday with a tedious 45-minute discussion of Jean-Luc Godard’s early works. “We’re half an hour in, and…
WASHINGTON—Warning that interior defenses were spread too thin, experts confirmed this week that Team USA’s arrival in France for the Olympics had left America’s own basketball rims largely unguarded. “In a strategic blunder of historic proportions, the U.S. men’s national basketball team landing in Paris has left an…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued an executive order calling on state officials to begin taking down homeless encampments, buoyed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled such “anti-camping” ordinances did not violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. What do you think?
As awareness of the condition has grown, so have diagnoses and self-diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults. The Onion presents tips for those seeking an ADHD diagnosis.
SAN DIEGO—In an attempt to reward the loyal fan for his years of support, PornHub reportedly surprised frequent user Jeffrey Mitchell this week with a wife and loving family after he reached his 10,000th masturbation with the adult platform. “Jeff, we can’t thank you enough for all of the loads you’ve busted to…
Enlarge / NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered “leopard spots” on a reddish rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in Mars’ Jezero Crater in July 2024. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
NASA's Perseverance rover has found a very intriguing rock on the surface of Mars.
An arrowhead-shaped rock observed by the rover has chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by ancient microbial life. To be absolutely clear, this is not irrefutable evidence of past life on Mars, when the red planet was more amenable to water-based life billions of years ago. But discovering these colored spots on this rock is darn intriguing and has Mars scientists bubbling with excitement.
"These spots are a big surprise," said David Flannery, an astrobiologist and member of the Perseverance science team from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, in a NASA news release. "On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface."
EDMONTON – Premier Danielle Smith fought back tears today as she announced that at least 30-50% of the town of Jasper, Alberta has been severely damaged by wildfires but she was adamant that all is not lost, because the Alberta oil industry is still going strong. “This event has been utterly devastating for the residents […]
A surprise eruption in Yellowstone National Park shot steam, water, and dark-colored rocks and dirt high into the sky, sending alarmed sightseers running for safety. What do you think?
MONTRÉAL – The government of Québec has confirmed that inspectors from the Office Québécois de la Langue Française have been monitoring conversations at a local hospital to ensure that patients dying in an underfunded healthcare system were doing so in the province’s official language. In a statement, Health Minister Christian Dubé clarified: “At a time […]
