In case anyone's wondering what it's actually like.

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“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

These are not just words, they are a pact. A civil contract. Not to party, not to policy, not to an ideology or an individual. It is a compact between a people, our people, and it is under threat. A democracy is a government of collective action by the people. Let this be a reminder, it is time to do more … before it is no more.

Daring Fireball is brought to you this week by the enduring and aspirational project that is democracy.

This week on Lost Terminal: Seth organises the defenders, Lyosha and Maddie talk diets, and Yeshi makes a mistake.
Lost Terminal will return next week!
📓 Free transcript: https://www.patreon.com/posts/124994767
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• Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer
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  ❤️ Thank you so much to everyone who supports me, but especially my Patreon Producers:
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TORONTO – According to sources embedded in your fantasy hockey pool, the player who goes by a crude double entendre is on the verge of issuing you such a humiliating defeat that you’ll lose all interest in ever playing again. “I watch two hockey games a night, watch another half-a-dozen condensed games every morning, obsessively […]

The post Man who calls his fantasy hockey team Big Stick Daddy enters 30th hour of planning your crushing defeat appeared first on The Beaverton.

A woman between the ages of 50 and 60 contracted measles while traveling internationally, Fort Bend health officials announced over the weekend. It's the first measles case in at least 20 years for the county southwest of Houston.

Yesterday we jumped into the thought process behind the flooding concerns for this week. The update today is not much better. Over the last 30 days, rainfall has actually been manageable in the Ohio Valley and points south, with most areas seeing near normal or slightly below normal rains.

You can see that most of Kentucky has been slightly below average, with much drier conditions to the west into Arkansas and Missouri. Yesterday’s rainfall is missing from here, but in general, the theme has been at or slightly below average since early March.

It’s been another story in 2025 as a whole. We had terrible flooding in Kentucky earlier this year. Soils still haven’t entirely recovered from the wet start to the year, and you can see it in soil moisture readings today.

So, we look at the antecedent conditions ahead of a heavy rain event to get a sense of how much water can be absorbed initially. And the answer here is, “some but not that much.” Unfortunately, it’s not just one round of rain we’re expecting in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys but rather several rounds between Wednesday and Saturday. Yes, there is a notable severe weather risk. But the flooding risk needs to be stressed a lot.

Not only is it significant, but it’s also potentially historic. Below is a table of the 5-day rainfall forecast from Monday morning’s run of the NWS National Blend of Models (NBM) for some Mid-South and Ohio Valley cities, as compared to their 5-day record rainfall totals historically. Currently, both Paducah and Jonesboro are forecast to exceed their prior records, while Evansville and Dyersburg, TN are only an inch off records.

Location	Forecast Wed-Sun	Standing 5-day rain record
Little Rock, AR	9.5″	12.9″ (1882)
Evansville, IN	9.8″	10.88″ (1910)
Dyersburg, TN	9.9″	10.55″ (2016)
Cape Girardeau, MO	10.4″	14.51″ (2011)
Jonesboro, AR	10.8″	10.0″ (1937)
Paducah, KY	11.0″	10.63″ (1983)

So this is not just me saying it’s going to rain a lot.

The culprit is a cold front that is going to drop into the Midwest and Mid-South on Wednesday afternoon. As this happens, it’s going to run smack into a building ridge of high pressure over the Southeast that will be approaching all-time April records.

This will slow or halt the progression of the cold front, forcing it to stall out over the middle of the country, extending from roughly northeast Texas, across Arkansas and into the Ohio Valley. With a stalled front, and atmospheric moisture running very much above normal in this area, you have a recipe for a multi-round heavy rain event. The exact timing and specifics of each round are tough to pin down, but we know this much: There is a strong model signal for copious amounts of rain in the area between about Arkansas and Ohio. And the flooding risk is high enough to warrant three straight days of moderate excessive rainfall outlooks (level 3/4 Wednesday and 3/3 Thursday and Friday) from the WPC. I would expect at least one or two high risks to be issued when we approach later this week.

The day 4 and 5 moderate risks indicate pretty high confidence in significant flooding potential. I showed the forecast rainfall from the NBM above. That’s just one tool used, meant to show the potential for heavy rain. The current NWS Weather Prediction Center outlook for total rainfall shows a massive area of 8 to 10 inches of rain through the weekend.

This is going to be a high impact, wide ranging, significant regional flood event. So how can this go wrong? Well, for one, you could see focused areas of rainfall embedded within the broader area, so we see some places forecast with 6 to 12 inches to see more like 2 to 4 inches with bullseyes of 10 inches or more. Much of this will depend on the strength of the Southeast ridge and where exactly the front stalls. For example, if the front ends up stalling farther north than anticipated, places like Dayton or Indianapolis or even St. Louis could see much higher rain totals, whereas if the front stalls farther south, Memphis, Nashville, or central Kentucky end up in the bullseye. That’s a shift that’s entirely within reason. So at this point while the general shape of the rainfall forecast should go unchanged, the exact placement of those bullseyes may waver some between now and Sunday.

And yes, in addition to the flooding, there is a significant severe weather risk, especially on Wednesday.

This risk is covered pretty heavily elsewhere. I’ll point you in particular to my friend Alan Gerard’s Substack, which will go in depth on all these threats in the days ahead.

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Hovertext:
Why doesn't he care about this 100th great grandson, living on Alpha Centauri? Is he a bastard?

Today's News:

WASHINGTON—In the wake of comments the comedian made that reportedly angered the Trump administration, the White House Correspondents’ Association confirmed Monday that it had scrapped Amber Ruffin as the host of its annual dinner in favor of terrified silence. “After much deliberation, we have opted to part ways with Ms. Ruffin so we can refocus the event on sitting silently and eating dinner in prolonged, muted fear,” said association president Eugene Daniels, adding that the event would now feature 120 minutes of guests staring down at their plates and listening only to the occasional sound of scraping silverware. “Rather than enjoying a comedic performance, we encourage everyone to monitor their breathing, nervously move their food around their plates with their forks, and look up only to make terrified eye contact with others at their table. While we respect the legacy of a presidential roast, if you so much as cough, you will be forcibly removed.” Daniels added, however, that guests would be permitted a brief moment in which to scream when they discovered at the end of the night that all the doors to the venue had been locked.

The post White House Correspondents’ Dinner Scraps Host In Favor Of Terrified Silence appeared first on The Onion.

The post Trump Says He Won’t Rule Out Third Reich appeared first on The Onion.

The Austin Street cyclepath, considered the spine of the bike lane network rolled out in the city over recent years, will be taken out and not replaced.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, let two key deadlines pass to call a May special election to fill the seat of the late Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner. Unless Abbott deems filling the seat an emergency, the next opportunity to call a special election won’t come until November.

“This and That” is an occasional series of paired observations. See past “This and That” posts here. – Ed.

Today: Hot pink fabric-covered houses

 

 

 

 

 

 

*************

No matter how original, innovative or crazy your idea, someone else is also working on that idea. Furthermore, they are using notation very similar to yours. – Bruce J. MacLennan

The post This and That: Hot Pink Fabric-Covered Houses appeared first on Glasstire.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

This is a community organizing issue, but it is ultimately about working closely with someone where there’s conflict, and one where I think a professional approach might be most useful.

I (they/them) am a leader in a social justice-oriented community organization along with someone I’ll call Paul (he/they). We have the same type of leadership position, and we’re both quite active so we communicate daily and are in meetings at least once a week. We’ve been in conflict for four months, since I told Paul that the way Paul interrupts, criticizes, corrects, scolds, and dismisses me and other folks who were assigned female at birth feels sexist. Paul’s response? They didn’t really understand how that could be, because they aren’t “that attached to masculinity,” but they would take my word for it.

However, Paul’s behavior hasn’t changed, and I have subsequently found out that two people have stepped away from the organization because of what they also perceived as sexism from Paul. Regularly — sometimes multiple times in a week — I have to be really direct saying “don’t interrupt me” or “I just answered that question,” etc. At times, this disrespectful behavior impacts the group’s work, such as when Paul speaks for me on an issue where they don’t have correct information or when Paul goes behind my back and gives instructions to someone I’m assigned to work with that are in tension with what I’m telling that person. In these situations, I have been telling Paul that this is frustrating/unacceptable/etc., admittedly sometimes with annoyance. Paul often responds that they are confused and don’t understand what they did. Sometimes, I also get long rants with expletives, personal remarks, and accusations. It’s inappropriate behavior, even if I am communicating very unclearly, which is what Paul believes is the problem. Paul has recently been pursuing a diagnosis of autism, and it feels to me that they are weaponizing this new diagnosis, which is not fair to other autistic people in our organization, who don’t behave this way.

There’s no “boss” or HR in this situation, but there are a few people we both trust and who have the cultural capital to potentially help us try to move toward a better way of working together. One of them has heard us each out and feels that we need to make a written agreement about how we will interact so that Paul has clear rules to follow. My concern is that I have repeatedly communicated what isn’t acceptable to me, and Paul hasn’t changed their behavior. I’m struggling to figure out how I would write up a list of rules that Paul would respect. Moreover, this really isn’t an issue just between Paul and me; it’s more about Paul’s behavior in general. Other options include me leaving the group, which is possible though not ideal, and another option is that I continue to just hold boundaries with Paul (trying to always communicate extremely clearly!), which is also not ideal but is something I could do. Paul is certainly not the first person I’ve worked with who has treated me in a way I experience as sexist! I know Paul doesn’t want either of these options; they want a list of rules. I’m wondering what guidance you would offer on how to proceed. Is it worth trying the written agreement to see if it helps? What would I even put in such a list? What options haven’t I considered?

I wrote back and asked, “Does anyone have the authority to fire Paul or otherwise remove him from the group?” The answer:

As far as I know, there is no process in our org for removing someone for this level of problematic behavior.

The biggest problem here is that there’s no mechanism for removing someone who’s driven off multiple people.

You’ve already lost two people because of Paul. Is the organization willing to continue losing people just to avoid getting rid of him?

I think that’s the bigger issue, even though it’s not the one you’re writing to me about. As a leader in the organization, you have the standing to bring that to the rest of the leadership and argue that the org needs to be willing to remove volunteers who won’t follow a basic code of conduct or are otherwise disruptive or harmful to the organization.

As for the idea of a written list of rules for Paul … eh. You’ve already told him what needs to change — he needs to stop interrupting, criticizing, scolding, and dismissing other members of the group — and he claims not to understand. I’m skeptical that putting it in writing is going to suddenly open his eyes. But sure, if this idea of a written list is being pushed by others in your leadership, you might as well write up the list so that you can say you’ve done it and there’s no question that Paul has been clearly told what needs to change. (And if autism is in play, the list could genuinely be helpful.) In addition to covering the interrupting, criticizing, scolding, and dismissing other members of the group, you should also include that Paul can’t send ranting emails with expletives and personal insults.

But I think you also need to be thinking about what’s going to happen if/when he continues to be an ass despite receiving the list. Right now your org can’t figure out how to resolve this because it’s denying itself an essential tool in running a healthy organization (the willingness to part ways with someone) and this is unlikely to be solved until that changes.

To be clear, that doesn’t even mean you’ll definitely need to cut Paul loose (although I suspect you will). Sometimes just making it clear that’s an option on the table will get the person to change their behavior. Either way, though, being willing to do that is an absolutely crucial part of running an effective organization that people won’t keep fleeing from.

In the wake of ongoing tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration, Canadians are looking for local alternatives to American products. For folks hoping to purchase the favour of a government official, we’ve assembled a list of some of the finest cowards, puppets, and shills that Canada has to offer. Danielle Smith For the low, low, […]

The post Want to buy Canadian? These politicians are up for sale! appeared first on The Beaverton.

You’ve probably wondered about me, the independent thinker in your social network. I’m one part libertarian, one part populist, and one part common sense. I care about the same things you do: a backyard BBQ with my neighbors, my family’s safety, and the sanctity of women’s collegiate swimming.

I’m a maverick who can’t be pigeonholed. I listen to not only smooth jazz but slightly less smooth jazz. I’ve been red-pilled, but I think The Matrix was just okay. I voted for Trump, but I respect Democrats like John Fetterman who are willing to reach across the aisle to promote ethnic cleansing. And I’m still a Bernie fan, even though I openly mock AOC and Elizabeth Warren for subscribing to 90 percent of the same policies, for reasons, I assure you, I will never ask myself a single hard question about, because I’m not bound by your restrictive mental framework.

While I approach every topic with an open mind, I see so many of my peers stuck in a black-white dynamic—words I hate to even say, because they only divide us further. I don’t see color, which is not without its challenges. Navigating the world based on hues and saturation levels means holding up lines when picking out ice cream flavors, not always knowing how angry I am when I see a flag in a public setting, to say nothing of knowing how to proceed at a traffic light. Not that I’d ever suggest special accommodations; if a few pedestrians have to perish for me to exist in this pure state, that’s a price I’m willing to have them pay.

I get my news from a broad variety of sources. I follow not only Elon Musk directly but also outlets that screenshot his posts without analysis. I scour major news outlets for op-eds that don’t contain lefty catchphrases like “upending the global economic order” or “threatening our national security”—only until I’ve reached my free article limit for the month, since paying for journalism only encourages more bias. I even posted a Rachel Maddow clip one time where a guy interrupted her to explain why she was wrong.

Don’t assume I’m in lockstep with everything this administration does; I’m keeping a close eye on DOGE. Not that I disagree with their mission. Like you, I’ve grown tired of our well-run federal park system, IRS agents who bring in three to six times their salaries through auditing the top 1 percent, and tuberculosis-free public spaces. Still, I asked myself, is a non-American who’s also the richest man in the world the right person to slash US government agencies? Does he care about this country like I do? No. And that’s when I finally understood it. I mean, who better to cut programs that benefit the LGBTQ community than someone whose trans daughter is never going to speak to him again, no matter what he does? Who is more capable of cool rationality when it comes to sensitive immigration and government benefits data than a man who wouldn’t even bother to cash his Social Security checks and whose mother is in the one ethnicity Trump has promised to protect no matter what—white South Africans?

Of course, now that she lives in Canada, it goes without saying, fuck her.

I’m not a monster. I want what you want. If we can all get beyond partisanship, like me, think of the America we could create. Instead of paying mail carriers to visit individual homes, could we require public transit riders to fling packages out the window based on zip code? Could we harness our collective vision to launch a state-owned line of diesel-fueled kitchen appliances, funneling the profits into a slush fund for Putin? Does every child deserve a free school breakfast or only those with a taxable side hustle?

If these changes sound scary, it’s because you’re not used to outside-the-box thinking. I understand. It’s dark and disorienting inside the box. Bewildering, even. Can anyone help me find a rug to match this couch?

Of course, we’ll have to make sacrifices for this kind of greatness. Not me, personally. I have a pension from Boeing. Now, if someone could check to ensure there’s no mold on this red sauce, I’ll be on my way.

I’m also a non-smoker who smokes a pack a day but could quit anytime.

pop9

space explorers

Astronauts some kind of Child-of-Nine and Glenda, the Bunny, explore space. They come across a sign that reads: Population 9.

https://analognowhere.com/_/rlrclo

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In brief: March has been fairly warm, and this coming week will bring us some of our hottest weather of the year so far. But that does not necessarily mean spring is over. In fact, next week looks to be quite a bit cooler with the possibility of lows in the 40s for a few mornings.

It’s still spring, right?

March is drawing to a close today, and by the calendar we are supposed to have two more months of spring. However, this March has been rather warm, running more than 4 degrees above normal. Moreover, this week will see several days with temperatures in the upper 80s to 90 degrees. It might almost feel like summer is at hand. However, we have fairly high confidence in the arrival of a robust front this coming weekend, which will bring temperatures back into line for spring.

Monday

It is rather sticky outside this morning, with temperatures in the low- to mid-70s and dewpoints nearly as high. A very weak front is on our doorstep, and it will slowly sink into the region today, knocking down humidity slightly. Look for high temperatures in the low- to mid-80s with mostly sunny skies. Temperatures tonight will drop into the mid-60s for most of the metro area.

Tuesday

Some fog will be possible Tuesday morning, and as it lifts we should see mostly cloudy skies. This should help limit highs in the lower 80s. The front won’t last long, as we’ll see winds picking up from the east, and then the south later on Tuesday. They may get fairly gusty, up to 25 mph. Lows on Tuesday night will drop only into the lower 70s for most locations.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

These should be fairly similar, fairly warm days. Each day should bring partly sunny skies, and warm temperatures. Highs will vary from the upper 80s to about 90 degrees for most locations. We’ll also see gusty afternoons, perhaps peaking at 30 mph for a few hours. Nights will be quite warm, dropping only to about 75 degrees.

Saturday and Sunday

The weather for this coming weekend is somewhat unsettled. Saturday looks to be mostly cloudy, with highs in the mid-80s, as an upper-level low pressure system brings elevated chances of rain into the region. At some point on Saturday or Saturday night, most likely, a stronger front will push through the region. Lows on Saturday night may drop down to around 60 degrees, depending on the timing of the front, and some showers may well linger into Sunday morning. Highs on Sunday should top out in the vicinity of 70 degrees, or so. If you have outdoor plans for Saturday and Sunday, showers and thunderstorms are a concern, but not a certainty. We’ll fine tune things as the weekend gets closer.

Next week

Houston will face a nice slug of cooler weather next week. Although it’s impossible to be too precise this far out, I’m thinking days with highs of around 70 degrees and lows in the 40s or 50s. So yeah, it will be nice to have a chill in the air again for a few days. The cooler weather should hang around for most of the week.

NEW YORK—Saying he found the activity enriched his life and provided him with a real sense of purpose, local man Martin Berens, 43, spent his afternoon volunteering opinions about the homeless, sources confirmed Monday. “Nothing makes me feel better than heading down to the park in my spare time and serving up a bunch of heated diatribes about homelessness and what I perceive to be a declining work ethic,” said Berens, adding that he truly believed that just one person loudly opining to strangers that the homeless needed to be “rounded up” could make a significant difference in the world. “Sure, I don’t get paid for it, but that’s not why you do this kind of thing. I’m fortunate to have so many deep-seated biases, and it pains me to know that not everyone has access to the kind of preconceptions I have. It only seems right that I should share my views about the homeless with those in our society who are less opinionated.” At press time, Berens had reportedly decided that he would spend his evening pitching a fit about a local food bank.

The post Man Spends Afternoon Volunteering Opinions About The Homeless appeared first on The Onion.

ARLINGTON, VA—Arguing that the move would allow the government agency to present a united front against threats to national security, the Pentagon announced Monday that it was cutting all employees with weak jawlines. “We’re committed to enforcing the highest standards within the Defense Department, which is why we’re now requiring everyone who works here to have a chin that can cut glass,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who explained that his teams were already circulating throughout the Pentagon with protractors to ensure all jawlines met a strict 90-degree-angle criterion. “The Biden-imposed DEI guidelines that encouraged round jaws and baby faces have jeopardized the safety of American citizens. Our enemies know we’re weak when they see those doughy cheeks. So if your face doesn’t look like it was carved from stone, start packing your bags. And of course, it should go without saying that all women in the department are fired.” Hegseth added that any noncompliant employees who wished to retain their jobs would be issued jaw-enhancing gum and mewing instructions and given 30 days to hit minimum standards.

The post Pentagon Cuts All Employees With Weak Jawlines appeared first on The Onion.

The post Ex Run Into While Stalking Other Ex appeared first on The Onion.

WASHINGTON—Lambasting the current program as wasteful, bloated, and entirely unnecessary, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for steep cuts Monday to the number of steps in the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery model. “We must cut through the red tape bogging down what could be a far more efficient AA,” said Hegseth, who slammed the 12-step program as an undue burden on alcoholics, not only in the Defense Department, but across all levels of federal government. “We’re going to start by slashing the parts about admitting you have a problem and making amends to everyone you’ve supposedly ‘hurt.’ Ideally, we’ll cut it down to one step—praying or whatever it is. That’s a 92% savings in steps. Eventually, we hope to get rid of the program entirely.” Hegseth added that the time saved by the reduction in steps would also allow Americans to get to happy hour far more quickly.

The post Pete Hegseth Calls For Steep Cuts To Number Of Steps In AA Recovery appeared first on The Onion.

As the art of homesteading enjoys a resurgence in modern culture, many Americans are turning to backyard chicken coops as both an alternative source of food and a rewarding hobby. The Onion shares tips for tending a flock of chickens of your own. 

Decide if you’ll be raising chickens for food, companionship, or blood sacrifice.

Inform your neighbors in advance that you are about to irreparably fuck up the neighborhood with shit and noise.

Get word out to local predators that these chickens are under your protection.

If you want your chickens to lay eggs, make sure to put it in their contract.

Impose quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. so clucking doesn’t keep you awake.

Play Mozart for the chickens so their eggs will be smart.

Declare half of the chickens “guards” and half “prisoners” to observe the situational factors of sadism.

Only let them inside the house for movie night if they’ve been really, really good.

Consider a few feet of separation between your chicken coop and backyard wolf sanctuary.

Connect with other people online who keep chickens to chat about all the horrible mistakes you’re making.

Don’t think about the egg hole.

Admit you’re not the rustic, enterprising caretaker you think you are. You’re a bored copywriter, just don’t bother.

The post Tips For Keeping Backyard Chickens appeared first on The Onion.

#Kento #Rowen #RoninWarriors

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Should I speak up about an inappropriate song in children’s theater?

I’m a volunteer in a community theater production for young children between five and seven years old. Our current show involves a dance number that takes place in ancient Egypt, and there’s a recent change to the production that I feel uncomfortable with. The children were originally dancing to “Walk Like an Egyptian” by the Bangles, but then the coordinator changed it by “popular demand” to a different song called “Camel by Camel.” This decision on its own seems innocuous albeit strange. The song itself is alright, but I unfortunately know some outside context that gives me pause.

There’s a famous meme of a video game character dancing to this song. The video is explicitly pornographic, which was an important part of the appeal. Although there are family-friendly versions of the meme, the adult aspect is always associated with it, and this song is now associated with that adult aspect by proxy.

Something that eventually became part of the joke was that unsuspecting people (such as your grandma on Facebook) would share more appropriate parts of the meme saying, “Look at this adorable Egyptian cat I found!” And then all the grandkids would exchange glances wondering whether someone should break the news. This is what’s raising my eyebrows in particular, because I feel like if someone is making these kids dance to the song because of THAT, it’s a step too far, even if the children are completely unaware. The way the children are dancing is not the same suggestive way the character dances, although there is still clapping and hip-moving to the music.

The coordinator is a kindergarten teacher in her 50s, and I don’t think she’s aware of the context behind the song. It perhaps wouldn’t bother me if she had chosen it herself, but I don’t know what she meant by “popular demand.” The other volunteers are all either high school or college-aged, which makes me concerned if one of them suggested it.

Additionally, the parents in the audience will be Millennials and older Zoomers, who are more likely to know the meme. The last thing we need are complaints from parents because their five-year-old is dancing to THAT SONG.

Is there a professional way to broach this topic to an innocent old lady? Is there a way to ask how the decision to change the song came about? What if one of the other volunteers suggested it as an inside joke to make children dance to a porn song? Or am I perhaps making a problem out of nothing and should just keep it to myself?

Yes, speak up! If there’s a likelihood that some parents in the audience are going to know the meme and be upset, it’s far better for the teacher to hear that now than to be blindsided when parents are angry.

Just be straightforward! “I’m guessing you’re not aware of this, but using that song might seem wrong to some parents — it’s part of a very adult-oriented internet meme, and that’s a lot of people’s first association with the song. Enough people know about it that we risk complaints and I didn’t want you to be blindsided if that happens.” (Note that this language doesn’t get into trying to sort out who first suggested the song, since ultimately that’s not yours to sort out; you’re just alerting her that there is in fact an issue with it.)

Also, um, women in our fifties are not “innocent old ladies,” WTF. If she can’t handle this news, it’s not because of her age. (Although it does remind me of this.)

2. We’re feds with a coworker who won’t stop insisting everything is fine

I’m a fed. My office of less than 20 people has a director (who took the fork in the road deal), a deputy (who lives several states away from the rest of us), and two team managers, Arwen and Fergus. Fergus suffered an unimaginable personal tragedy less than six months ago. We all think this is why he can’t handle what’s happening now. (He may have also voted for this, so there’s that.) He’s constantly telling us that we’re blowing things out of proportion when we raise concerns about losing our jobs or other things that are happening. My manager, Arwen, has talked to him on more than one occasion, but he just doesn’t get it. Listening to him go on and on (unprompted!) about how we’re all going to keep our jobs and we have nothing to worry about makes us more anxious!

We’ll all be back in the office soon, and avoiding him is going to be harder. Arwen is my direct manager, so I’m shielded a little bit, but our teams are small and most of us do work for both teams. The deputy is not very hands-on about this stuff and will not be physically in our office. Is there any way to get through to him? Is there any way I can politely get out of conversations with him? We’re all at a loss.

Your manager, Arwen, is the one best positioned to handle this, and since she’s done it in the past, you have evidence that she shares your concern about it and is willing to address it — so you should go back to her and let her know that it’s still happening and it’s incredibly demoralizing at an already stressful time, and ask if she can tell him that he needs to cut it out for everyone’s mental health and ability to focus on their jobs.

That said, what would happen if you also addressed it in the moment when it’s happening? “It’s hard to navigate this with you denying it’s happening. If you’re not concerned about it yourself, please respect that the rest of us are” would be a reasonable thing to say.

Of course, it’s also true that if the rest of you are talking about it, Fergus is entitled to share his perspective, and so it likely makes sense to avoid raising it around him at all, to the extent that you can. But given that it’s affecting actual work, your ability to plan, etc., you presumably can’t avoid the topic with him entirely and you need him to be able to engage with reality for those conversations — and plus you said he’s doing this unprompted too.

Related:
I manage an employee who pushes too much positivity on her team

3. Who pays for coffee in informal business meetings?

Relatively minor question, but who pays for coffee in informal business meetings? Is it who is more senior, who makes more money, or who asked for the coffee?

The context is that it is common in my profession to work for a couple years and then go get your PhD. That is what I did, and I am currently in a well-regarded PhD program. Some people from my former organization have since gotten into the program and want to talk to me about my experience. So I’m technically more senior, but they asked for the coffee, and we both know that they make significantly more money than me. I’ve just been paying for myself, but am I committing a faux pas? Also, I don’t know if gender dynamics come into play at all.

The etiquette is that the person who asked for the coffee is supposed to pay for both of you; you are taking your time to do them a favor (letting them pick your brain) and so they cover your drink. That said, in situations where the person asking is, say, a 20-year-old college student, you might still cover it anyway because you more senior and clearly better paid. But they should come prepared to pay, and they should proceed as if they are paying until and unless you announce that you’re covering it. You don’t have that factor in your mix, though, so it’s just the standard rule — the person who invites the other and is requesting the favor pays.

You’re not committing a faux pas by paying for yourself, but it’s also fine to let them get it.

Gender doesn’t come into it at all.

Related:
who should pay at a networking coffee or lunch?

4. How can I keep track of what I’ll want to remember for future reference checks?

I manage three to six interns a year, which became part of my job about a year ago after having managed intermittently before then. So far, it’s been very easy to keep track of them; a potential employer for my first intern here just asked me for a call, and I feel confident that I remember enough about that intern’s strengths, weaknesses, etc. to give her a useful reference. But as a person with a fairly average memory and a lot on my plate in addition to one or two interns a semester, I imagine that it’s eventually going to get hard! What if she stays at that job for a few years and needs a reference after that, because I’ll still be one of her most recent bosses other than the one at her current job? That’s about 10 to 15 former interns at a time whom I might feasibly serve as a reference for and need to remember reasonably well!

I’d love to hear about common strategies people use to keep track of past interns, or past short-term employees more generally. Should I just write down everything I think I would want to say in a reference call around the end of an internship? Maybe I’ve answered my own question there, but I still think learning about how others do it would help me — my predecessor here had an obnoxiously good memory, so his “system” was just to remember everyone in detail.

I have an answer to this that kills two birds with one stone. (What a horrid expression, can we please come up with a better one? I went looking and saw someone suggest “feed two birds with one scone,” which I enjoy.)

At the end of each person’s internship, ideally you’d give them some feedback on how things went. As part of that, jot down some notes for yourself about what you saw as their strengths, areas where they should work on improving, feedback on big projects, etc. Meet with them as their internship is ending and talk through that feedback! That’s a big benefit to them; it’s the sort of feedback you should be providing anyway, and summing it all up can help them synthesize useful takeaways from the experience (and so often at that stage, they’re just figuring out what they’re all about as professionals and what they’re good at, so having someone talk it through with them can be hugely helpful). And then save those notes, because those will jog your memory when you’re asked to give them a reference later on.

Two birds, one scone!

5. Employee keeps working unpaid overtime and lies about it

A manager position below me is currently vacant, and so the team that person would normally manage doesn’t have a manager right now. We have a supervisor from a different team floating around occasionally for general supervision in their area.

I saw one of the employees on that team, Pam, working several hours past her normal finish time. (She is paid hourly.) As with previous occasions when she did this, I told her to stop working and go home. She insisted she had clocked out already and was simply staying behind to “help out” and didn’t want to be paid past her normal hours.

Since this wasn’t the first time we had this exact conversation, I called her aside for a meeting the next day. I explained she wasn’t allowed to work extra hours for free. Bizarrely, she flatly denied this ever happened. She claimed she properly reported and was paid for all overtime.

When I mentioned prior examples that proved otherwise, she gave nonsensical excuses for each occasion. This wasn’t an “oh, I see where you might have misunderstood” situation. She outright lied. As an example, she said the unpaid overtime she did a couple of weeks ago was because the roster was printed incorrectly and that she emailed payroll about it already and payroll responded. This … just didn’t happen. Both the alleged incorrect printing and the email with payroll. Also, she knows how to put through changes on the time sheet, and it is never, ever done by email.

I’m at a loss. We have dealt with employees faking time sheets by adding hours they never worked. We never had anyone illicitly trying to perform free labor. If this happens again, how should we deal with Pam?

You’ve got two big problems here (and sadly, no scone): first, Pam is exposing your company to legal liability if you don’t pay her for all the hours she works, whether she reports them or not. Second, Pam apparently tells bizarrely flagrant lies.

At a minimum, you should tell Pam that working unreported hours is a fireable offense, that this is her final warning, and that if it happens again you will need to let her go. That part is simple. But beyond that, I’d start poking around in Pam’s work more deeply, because the lying is weird enough that it’s very, very likely that there are other significant problems in her work that you’ll uncover if you start looking for them. Every time I’ve seen someone lie in this way, it’s been the tip of the iceberg.

ATHENS, GREECE ― Following Trump’s inauguration and the steep decline in American character it represents, Greece is looking on with a mixture of horror and guilty relief, new polling suggests.  “For years, we have felt the quietly pitying eyes of the world,” announced a man who said his name was Kyriakos Mitsotakis and that he […]

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Calfskin for $1,500, flip-foldables for $5,000, and whatever these are for a lot more. Who needs any sense (or a spelling checker) when you’ve got “elesant charisma / heroic essence”?

Or as I cited Andy Warhol back in 2012:

A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.

See Also: This 2023 investigation by Andrew Williams for Wired, that more or less uncovers that today’s Vertu is just a brand snapped onto white-label phones made by ZTE: “Never before have I used a phone where I felt so unsafe, one that feels like it could be used to scam me — though, to be clear, I have no evidence that it is.”