Harris County Public Health’s Dr. Ericka Brown says vaccines are the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles. The rate of kindergarteners receiving the MMR vaccine has dipped since the 2018-19 school year both in the Houston area and statewide.
Atlanta, GA – Reports first made on social media have corroborated that the devil went down to Georgia looking for some souls to steal late Friday night where he was quickly taken into custody by ICE officials. Several eyewitnesses stated the Dark Prince was in a bind because he was behind. As a result, he […]
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I supervise a small team of seasonal staff in a resort community. Most of my team lives a short drive or 10-minute walk down the road from our main office and compound. About two-thirds of the work we do is based out of various buildings in the resort town, all within about a five-block radius (short walking/cycling distance or a short drive, though nearby parking is at a premium on busy summer days), which are usually scheduled in half day chunks (morning shift in one location, then lunch, then swap to a different location a short distance away). We also have some duties that take staff 30-45 minutes’ drive away. (Think: collecting fees and talking to visitors in smaller outlying campgrounds.)
I don’t watch the clock when it comes to staff taking time moving between workstations in the town, because part of our role is to give out information so it’s common for staff to be stopped by visitors asking for directions, and some staff prefer walking versus cycling or driving, and we have a rough sense of how much time it takes to travel to do the duties outside of town and that driving time is accounted for in the staff schedule. We provide work vehicles and bicycles for getting around. Generally, staff have been very reasonable and don’t dilly-dally between workstations, especially for visitor-facing roles as they are scheduled to be in front of the public to provide a service at specific hours of the day. The schedule has worked well for the last five years or so — we’ve come up with a good balance of how much time it takes to get between workstations and making sure everyone gets their breaks while also having consistent opening hours for our public services.
We have unionized roles, so our collective agreement dictates that staff have two paid 15-minute breaks per day, plus a one half-hour unpaid lunch break. These are generally taken as three separate breaks in our work unit (morning coffee break, lunch, mid-afternoon break). In the public-facing duties where they’re staffing a building (like a visitor information center or campground kiosk), staff can step away for their short breaks with a sign on the desk if we can’t relieve them, but we always relieve them for their half hour lunch so there isn’t a long break in service. The expectation is that your half hour break is half an hour away from your workstation, not half an hour away plus “commute” time somewhere (which would make it a 45-50 minute lunch break, and against the collective agreement, plus a scheduling challenge for relieving other workstations for their own breaks).
Most staff have their lunches with them and eat at the staff picnic areas tucked in shady areas around town or in our small office kitchen if the weather is poor, but some staff who live in town prefer to go home for lunch. I’m fine with whatever they choose to do — that time’s their own — provided they’re back in time to resume work as scheduled.
My question is around dogs, and to what extent I as a supervisor should be scheduling around what my staff tell me are their needs. Some staff who live in town have dogs at home, and prefer to let them out at lunch to pee. This isn’t a problem 80% of the time, as they can get there and back and still have time for lunch within their half hour, when they are scheduled to work in town all day. The challenge has become that now that about half of my team have dogs, several staff have started to push back on me scheduling them for duties that take place outside of town, or on public-facing duties too close to lunchtime.
I haven’t had to worry about scheduling around the question of dogs before, because I generally consider staff taking care of dogs like taking care of dependent children, or other home duties like an appointment with a plumber that has to happen during the work day: not really something that is my primary role to solve. They have their collective agreement-mandated breaks, and we have different kinds of PTO for family-related care, personal leave, things like that, if they need to take time away from work.
There is some flexibility in the schedule and I say yes when I can, but I don’t have infinite flexibility and have to consider impacts on the work of other members of the team or impacts on the services we provide for the public. We have legitimate work reasons to have them spend the morning, afternoon, or whole day out in the field away from town, or public-facing duties at specific times right before and right after their lunch break. My staff do have a reasonable amount of warning. I usually set the schedule at least a month in advance, unless someone calls in sick and even then it’s usually modified duties based on what the staff members that are available are able to do.
Once, I scheduled a team training session on a topic that several people had been asking for more training on, and planned to bring in an external expert to deliver the training. The best place to do it was outside the public eye about 30 minutes’ drive from town, at a quiet scenic picnic spot. I gave them three weeks of warning that we’d be spending the day out there with the trainer I’d brought in, but three of my staff requested that they only take half the training because they needed to drive back to town to let their dogs out at lunch. When I pushed back a bit, asking if they could make alternate arrangements, such as a family member letting out their dog for this day so they could take the whole training, one of them even said I’m party to animal abuse (!!) because it’s unconscionable that the dog stays inside all day in their house without AC. These dog pee breaks keep coming up and I keep getting asked to change work schedules to accommodate them. I try to be flexible when I can be but I cannot always find alternatives that work for the dog owners without it being at the expense of work duties (for instance, having to close a building to the public) or giving a disproportionate number of certain kinds of shifts to the non-dog owners on the team. I also can’t go against the collective agreement when it comes to breaks by extending them.
I’ve never owned a dog myself, but I do love them, and I’ve lived in a house with a roommate who had dogs so I’m at least a little bit familiar with their needs. I’ve never encountered this issue before, and neither have any of the other supervisors of other teams I’ve asked who work on site (many of whom also have employees with dogs). What do other working people do when it comes to dog care during the day, if they are gone from home for eight hours plus commute time a day? How much should I reasonably be accounting for dog pee breaks in my staff schedule, particularly when accommodating their requests would impact our public offerings?
Yeah, this is not reasonable of your employees. They took the job understanding where the work was located and what the expectations were. Figuring out how to balance an eight-hour workday and half-hour lunch break with the rest of their lives is something most working people figure out on their own.
Generally people with dogs leave them at home during the work day, have someone stop in mid-day to care for them if the dog can’t be alone that whole time and they can’t easily get home on a break themselves (such as hiring a dog-walker), use doggy daycare if more care is needed, or find other solutions. They might occasionally have a dog-related emergency that they need to ask for additional flexibility from their job to accommodate — but that’s a rare thing that’s defined by its being out of the ordinary, not the routine, day-to-day care plan.
You absolutely should be flexible with people when you can without putting an unfair burden on the rest of the staff … but it sounds like you already try to do that.
The one thing in your letter where I’d maybe be more sympathetic to your staff’s stance is with the all-day training outside of town. If they took the job assuming they’d always be close enough to run home at some point during the day, I can see why they asked about ways to modify the plan. Even there, though, it’s generally understood that this sort of thing might come up at work from time to time — and accusing you of being party to animal abuse is way over the top, and says that they see figuring out their dog care as much more your problem than it should be!
It sounds like you need to sit down with the people who have been pushing on this and approach it as, “I want to be really clear about what the scheduling requirements of the job are, so you can make plans that work for you. This job provides everyone with two 15-minute breaks and a half-hour lunch break every day. Sometimes those breaks may come when you’re scheduled for duties outside of town. I understand that you prefer not to be scheduled for duties outside of town close to lunchtime, and I try to be flexible when it’s possible, but sometimes the job — and fairness to other staff — mean you’ll need to spend the morning, afternoon, or whole day away from town, or doing public-facing duties right before or after your break. I will always give you advance notice of your schedule so you can plan around it, but these are the requirements of the job because of the services we offer.”
Hell, you could add, “I understand some of us have commitments to animals, and it’s because I understand that commitment that I want to be sure we’re on the same page about the job’s requirements and what is and isn’t possible in our scheduling, so that you can make realistic plans for pet care.”
You might also try to head some of this off at the pass by being clear about the scheduling requirements when hiring people. Before anyone accepts the job, you could say, “We hire a lot of people who live nearby and are able to run home at breaks for pet care and so forth. I’ve learned to warn people that while that’s possible on many days, it’s not possible on all days because sometimes you’ll be scheduled further away from town.”
La Ley 92.1 FM – La NEW radio station Que Manda en Houston – KROI-FM was announced as the replacement for the Praise 92.1 back in December 2024.The new station is debuting former longtime Qué Buena 102.9 FM KLTN and syndicated personality Raúl Brindis.Now FOX 26 KRIV's Sherman Desselle is reporting that the new radio station believes its transmitter was sabotaged."I can understand some people
Now that we’ve elected a president who promises to make America great again, it’s time to bring back our traditional American values, including:
Strict gender roles for men and women
Christianity (white Jesus only; ignore any passages about the weak or poor)
Classical architecture
Growing our own vegetables (after farms collapse without undocumented workers)
Canning our own foods (after the FDA stops regulating goods)
Homeschooling (after public schools are defunded)
Respect for elders (but no social services for them)
Justice (for President Trump)
Fairness (except for people of color, women, LGBTQ, disabled…)
Abstinence until marriage
Putting one hand over your heart when you recite the Pledge of Allegiance while looking at the American flag waving at a NASCAR game
Apple pie
Cold beer on a Friday night
Measles
Belief in the rule of law and a democratic system of checks and balances instilled by the framers of our Constitution to prevent the United States from falling into the corrupt hands of a wannabe dictator bent on selling the nation for scraps
In brief: Houston will see spring-like weather for as far as the eye can see, with generally moderate temperatures and plenty of sunshine. The only blemish will be the potential for foggy mornings through Thursday before a weak front ushers some drier air into the region.
Tuesday
We are seeing widespread fog again this morning, and this pattern will repeat itself again on Wednesday morning, so be prepared. However as temperatures rise this morning, the fog will dissipate and we’ll be left with sunny, brilliant skies. High temperatures today will generally reach the lower 70s, with reasonably dry air. Winds will be light, from the southeast at 5 to 10 mph. It’s hard to beat this kind of weather, so if you can snatch a few moments outside this afternoon, you should. Lows tonight will drop into the low- to mid-50s, with fog developing again after midnight.
High temperatures on Tuesday will be extremely nice. (Weather Bell)
Wednesday
After the fog lifts on Wednesday we’ll see another mostly sunny day, with temperatures a bit warmer, in the upper 70s. Humidity will be a bit higher on Wednesday, but it won’t be unpleasant. Lows will be warmer, generally in the upper 50s. Fog development is likely again on Wednesday night before a cold front slides into the area on Thursday.
Thursday
The front’s arrival is likely to be a non-event aside from the development of some clouds on Thursday morning, possibly into the afternoon hours. While we cannot entirely exclude the possibility of a few light showers, I think the front’s arrival will be dry. Highs will be a bit cooler on Thursday, perhaps around 70 degrees. Lows on Friday night will likely fall to around 50 degrees in Houston, with cooler conditions for inland areas. With lower dewpoints, we should finally be rid of the fog for a bit.
Friday
We can expect another sunny, pleasant day with high temperatures in the vicinity of 70 degrees. Lows on Friday night will, again, fall to around 50 degrees, or a tick warmer.
Saturday
The first half of the weekend looks gorgeous. We can expect mostly sunny skies, and high temperatures generally in the low- to mid-70s. Some clouds will start to build during the afternoon and evening hours, and this will herald a slightly warmer night, in the mid- to upper-50s.
Here’s the NOAA rain accumulation forecast for now through Sunday. (Weather Bell)
Sunday
This will likely be a partly to mostly cloudy day, with highs in the 70s. As the overall flow turns more southerly and the atmosphere more disturbed, we could see the possibility of a few light showers at some point on Sunday or Sunday night or Monday. But this is far from a slam dunk. Sunday night will be warmer, with lows possibly falling only to the lower 60s.
Next week
Our weather turns more humid on Monday and Tuesday, with high temperatures likely pushing up toward 80 degrees. Rain chances look to be modest, but non-zero. At some point, possibly on Wednesday, a front will push through to bring temperatures down. Even so, we are probably looking at nighttime lows around 50 degrees after the front, so it will likely be mildly chilly, rather than cold.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. People complain that I don’t want to be at work social events
I’m in a senior leadership role, and have been for the last six years. I keep running into the same problem and I’d love your advice.
I don’t enjoy social activities at work (Christmas parties, picnics, etc.), and I also don’t like corporate retreats. I’d rather do my tasks, as I’m very busy. I’m very much in the minority.
I always encourage my staff to participate. I do attend, but it’s out of obligation. People notice and then complain to my boss, who keeps talking to me about my participation.
I resent this. To me, attending even though I don’t want to is my way of being a good leader and teammate. But apparently that isn’t enough; I’m supposed to like the activity itself. I’m told I should want to do the thing.
My job isn’t at risk. But it’s causing my boss stress I don’t think is fair. I also can’t abide the idea that I would be inauthentic by being overly enthusiastic. I’ve asked to be told when something is mandatory, but it’s been made clear to me that I shouldn’t need to, and should go to everything.
If people are able to tell that you don’t want to be there to the point that they’re complaining to your boss about it … yeah, you’re in the wrong. Particularly as a senior leader, it’s rude to make it so obvious that you don’t want to be there that people around you can tell (which I’m guessing is what’s happening, because otherwise there would be nothing for people to pick up on, let alone take to your boss). If you didn’t enjoy the activities but went out of obligation and behaved graciously while you were there, this would be fine. You don’t need to be “overly enthusiastic”; you just need to not be obviously unenthusiastic.
Part of being in senior leadership is that you not only show up for this stuff, you do it graciously.
For what it’s worth, there’s plenty else about being in senior leadership that’s “inauthentic” but is still part of the job, like not rolling your eyes when a colleague says something absurd, or implementing a decision that was made above you and isn’t what you would have picked, and on and on.
2. How can we create a schedule that’s fair to people with and without kids?
I work in a small department that has strict customer-facing hours from morning through evening; the team is me and two coworkers.
Our manager used to ask for our scheduling preferences each quarter and would try to make sure everyone was pretty equal (one closing, one opening per week per person, no weird shifts that make taking a lunch impossible). She retired and hasn’t yet been replaced. Big Boss has been having us work out the schedule amongst ourselves, and we’re running into trouble.
We’re trying to collaboratively create a schedule that covers all the hours and works well enough for everyone. But both my coworkers are coming to the table with very limited hours. Both have children and need to come in and leave at very specific times to do dropoff/pickup, but this is leaving difficult gaps of time to fill. I find that my colleagues aren’t being particularly flexible and I understand that they have children, but I don’t want to work every late afternoon or evening, work every day while they get 1-2 days completely off customer-facing work, or have a really irregular schedule (close one night, open the next morning, split shifts) while theirs are more consistent.
How can I approach this? I have no “need” to leave work early or refuse these shifts, and saying I just don’t want to work all the bad shifts doesn’t seem to carry as much weight as family obligations. Are there any solutions? I’m hoping not to bring it to Big Boss if I don’t have to.
Your framing is wrong! It doesn’t matter what your reasons are for not wanting to have the short end of the stick every day, or even the majority of the time. You get to say your time off is important too, and you’re presumably not being paid any kind of extra premium for taking on more scheduling hassle than your coworkers are.
It’s enough to simply say, “I don’t want to work late every afternoon or evening or have a really irregular schedule while everyone else’s is consistent. That won’t work for me, and I propose we handle it the way OldManager used to — for example, (fill in specific proposal).” If they reply with, “Well, I can’t because X,” then you should say, “I can’t either, and I’d like to schedule the way we did under OldManager, which everyone seemed to be able to accommodate then.”
And if an agreement can’t be reached relatively quickly, then do bring in Big Boss — that’s part of what they’re there for, and it’s more likely to solve the problem than having to convince people who have already demonstrated they’re not willing to be fair to you. Sometimes you need someone in authority to step in and resolve things.
3. I have to log my work on the days I work from home
I’m a third-year attorney, and I started a new, non-private-sector job three months ago. I’ve had some frustrations and trouble adjusting to this place, but I did appreciate that it had a hybrid work option. Today, though, I found out that there’s been an existing requirement (which my supervisor only informed me about today) to send a log every week summarizing the work we did on the days we worked from home. It’s a company requirement, not from my supervisor. She explained that she’s waived the requirement for senior attorneys, but the junior attorneys still need to do it — in other words, I read it as not for billing purposes, but to “prove” that we’re doing work on days we work from home.
I’m furious. The pandemic started during my time in law school, so I’ve had hybrid or remote work since even before I passed the bar. I’ve never had this requirement at any place I’ve worked as an attorney or law clerk — not firms, nonprofits, or the federal judiciary. In law, if you weren’t actually working on your days you worked from home, it would show in your total work product (i.e., not drafting enough briefs or filing enough cases). So this requirement makes me feel that my job doesn’t trust me to manage my time, even though I’ve already done extensive work during the short time I’ve been here and gone far over the 40 hours a week (not due to my speed, but due to the amount of work). Every time I go to fill out the form, I’m furious, even though it only requires a summary for each day. Two questions: (1) am I overthinking this, and (2) regardless, how do I get over this enough to do the log?
Well, first: yes, it’s a bad requirement. And yes, effective managers are able to spot it if people aren’t being productive on their work-from-home days.
But “furious” seems excessive, particularly if you otherwise like the job. Since the requirement is coming from above your manager, it’s likely that this is a firm that wasn’t fully comfortable with remote work (as many aren’t) and this is key to them allowing it. Find it eye-rolly, by all means, but anger is an overreaction. See the log as an investment in keeping hybrid work available to you and others there.
Also, though … is other stuff going on that’s making you unhappy with this job? This is the kind of thing that will grate far more if you’re already not happy for other reasons.
4. Can I ask my old job to take my name off their website?
I left my last job about four months ago after almost six years there. It’s a small business and, for context, there were two other people doing the same job as me, although there should have been four. We’d been looking for another person for at least six months with no results. About two months after I left, one of the two remaining people also left so they now just have one person doing this job and no real leads for anyone else.
Both of us who left are still listed on the business website “meet the team.” I don’t know if this is deliberate in order to make it look like they are still fully staffed, or just the manager not doing her job. Unfortunately, I didn’t leave on the best of terms with my manager — she was a very nice person but did absolutely no actual managing. If you wanted to sit around all day on your phone, no one would say anything. This was made worse when she hired her daughter to be an “assistant.” Anyway, I don’t want to be associated with this business anymore, and I would like my name off the website. Would it be inappropriate for me to email my former manager and ask her to take me off?
It’s not inappropriate to request that. You can’t force them to do it, but you can absolutely ask them to. I would frame it this way: “I noticed the website still lists me as an active employee. Would you please remove my name so that anywhere I apply in the future doesn’t mistakenly think I am still there? Thank you, and I hope you’re doing well.”
5. How do I tell my former boss to stop digging into how I am?
The full context for this situation goes back a couple of years. My department was going through a reorg right as I was going out on parental leave, and I went from having one report to being one of two newly promoted team leads. I came back from leave to a company that had gone through significant change and to a job in which I didn’t really know what was expected from me. Additionally, we went through a serious lull in work and I had no real projects. My counterpart had been leading both teams while I was gone, so I really floundered. I also was dealing with becoming a parent, so I spent my energy trying on that rather than work. Somewhere in there, the powers that be decided they wanted one person in charge of revenue for our area rather than two. I was still trying to get my feet under me and told my boss that I didn’t want that responsibility, so it went to the other lead, but I still had multiple people reporting to me and some other responsibilities.
Fast forward to now and there is another reorg, in part to make more of a triangle reporting structure. The outcome of this is that I have essentially been demoted. I now report to my previous peer, some of the people who were reporting to me now report to him, and all of my higher-level responsibilities are gone. I tried to make a case for moving into a different reporting structure with some different higher level responsibilities but was told no.
I am angry and humiliated. No one in my reporting structure ever said to me that this sucks and isn’t a reflection of my performance. There keep being little reminders of what was taken away that turn the screw a little more (like someone asking me about a standing meeting that I am no longer a part of). Being at work is miserable.
I have worked with my (previous) boss for a long time and have told her quite plainly that I am not happy about this. And every time we meet, she keeps asking how I am. I say I’m fine, but she pushes and I end up crying in front of her. At this point, I just want to be left alone to do the job I am left with. I have a lot of feelings about how this ended up happening, some of which are directed toward my company, some of which are directed inward toward my own decisions, and some of which are directed at the universe toward the horrible timing of the promotion and baby coming together. None of these feelings are my old boss’ business. As far as I know, there are no issues with my performance since the change, and I’m sure my old boss is coming from a good place, but how do I tell her to leave me alone with this? And is it possible to do it without crying in front of her again?
(Yes, I am job searching but my industry is in a tough spot with recent layoffs affecting a lot of candidates I am competing with, so I anticipate it being a long search.)
“I appreciate you checking in on how I’m doing, but it ends up stirring things up that I’m trying to put to rest. In the interests of my being able to move forward with the situation as it stands, I’d be grateful if we can just take it as read that I’m doing okay and talk about about other things instead!”
And then if she does it anyway, be prepared with a subject change to push the conversation to something else.
It is with great enthusiasm that we announce Starfleet’s commitment to moving beyond so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and embracing a post-bias future where everything is fine and no one needs to think too hard about it.
For too long, our DEI programs have distracted us from our true mission: boldly going where no one has gone before, while ensuring the same five conventionally attractive humans get the best bridge assignments.
Effective immediately, the following programs will be discontinued:
The Universal Translator Sensitivity Module, which prevented us from making first contact by immediately blurting out phrases like “Whoa, you guys smell insane.” Instead of continuing this program, we will simply assume that every species understands and respects the nuanced diplomacy of saying things louder and slower.
The Command Track Accessibility Initiative, which ensured that people with diverse physical and neurological needs could serve in leadership. But since we recently saw a blind guy totally fly the Enterprise once, we’re just going to call that “good enough” and pretend that solves everything.
The Vulcan Emotional Intelligence Training, which taught non-Vulcan crew members that just because a Vulcan isn’t crying does not mean they don’t have feelings. It will be replaced by the standard approach of saying, “Wow, you’re so logical,” while they silently suppress the urge to snap your neck.
The Anti-Terran Bias Workshops, which were implemented after non-human crew members pointed out that the Federation claims to represent thousands of planets but somehow 95 percent of Starfleet captains have been white guys from Earth. Rather than fixing this, we will simply place a single Andorian officer in the background of a recruitment poster and call it “representation.”
The Klingon Sensitivity Program, which was originally created after multiple crew members accidentally triggered honor duels by saying things like “good morning” with too much eye contact. Rather than educating personnel, Starfleet has decided to lean into it and now considers minor stabbing-related injuries to be “a valuable part of cultural exchange.”
The Borg Deprogramming Initiative, which helped ex-drones recover their individual identities instead of just standing awkwardly in hallways whispering, “I am Hugh.” Going forward, ex-Borg will simply be given a friendly slap on the back and told to “shake it off.”
“But what about the Prime Directive?”
The Prime Directive remains in place as a guiding principle that we will absolutely violate whenever dramatically convenient.
“Wait, isn’t Starfleet supposed to be a utopian meritocracy?”
Absolutely. And if our leadership team happens to be a rotating cast of the same species and backgrounds over and over again, that is simply the natural result of a fair and just system, not structural bias that needs correcting. If you’re not rising through the ranks, maybe try being born a more inspiring protagonist.
“Doesn’t this decision ignore centuries of systemic inequality?”
It does. And we’re very proud of how efficiently we managed that.
Going forward
We assure you that eliminating DEI initiatives will have no negative consequences—except for anyone who isn’t already perfectly positioned for leadership. But they should simply work harder, learn to navigate unspoken cultural norms more skillfully, and—above all—never, ever, ever complain about it.
Thank you for your continued service. And remember, we don’t see species, gender, or planetary origin; we just see qualified candidates.
Live long and prosper (unless that’s too political now), Supreme Chair of the Starfleet Initiative for Completely Merit-Based Leadership
Officials say an individual who tested positive for the virus in West Texas traveled to two major universities and one of the nation's busiest tourist attractions — the San Antonio River Walk.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
My father-in-law was visiting over the weekend. He started talking about how my brother-in-law is job-hunting to escape new company ownership.
At one of my brother-in-law’s interviews, the employer asked to talk to his wife (my sister-in-law, who isn’t employed and cares for my three young nephews).
I was so surprised that I exclaimed, “They can’t do that!” Well, I guess my comment offended my father-in-law because he raised his voice and said back, “What do you mean they can’t do that?!”
I said what if the candidate was a single mom with kids? My father-in-law snapped at me, saying the employer wants to make sure that my brother-in-law’s wife “is on board.” (He missed my point that not everyone who works is a married man.) I dropped the conversation and said nothing more after that, because it wasn’t worth fighting over it in front of my daughter and husband.
So now I’m wondering, is it okay for an employer to ask to talk to “The Wife” before hiring? It seems very outdated to me. It’s like they want to know that she will agree to provide free childcare so my brother-in-law can work as many hours as the company wants.
It’s a very retro and outdated practice.
And I’d love to know whether they’re asking to talk to female candidates’ spouses, because I bet they’re not.
Some years back, I had an interesting conversation with Suzanne Lucas of Evil HR Lady about companies that ask to meet the whole family before offering a job that would involve moving to a new country (something Suzanne herself has done; she and her kids moved to Switzerland when her husband took a job there). She made a good argument for why it makes sense in that situation — the job won’t work out if the family is unhappy in the new country / doesn’t want to move — but that’s very different than interviewing for a job locally.
My guess is that the explanation is one of the following:
* Your brother-in-law is interviewing for a high-up executive role where his spouse will be expected to play more of a role in his career and/or the company is more-than-usually invested in the character of the executives they hire and think meeting his spouse will give them insight into whether they’d be comfortable having him as representing their company.
* The role is relatively senior and they want to make sure his spouse is on-board with what the demands of the role are expected to be. (Typically this is something that the company would convey to the candidate and let the candidate talk with their spouse about, but again — retro.)
* The company thinks of themselves as “family-oriented” and this is part of that.
In any case, it’s pretty weird, and your father-in-law sounds like a difficult in-law (not because he doesn’t find it weird, but because he took it personally to the point of snapping at you about it).
WASHINGTON—In an attempt to raise morale by providing a fun yet challenging activity for employees of the U.S. DOGE Service, Elon Musk announced Monday a new office-wide contest to guess how many sperm were contained inside a cup placed on the front desk of the group’s headquarters. “Everyone take a good look, and no cheating! There might be more than you think!” said Musk, speaking to his team at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where he kicked off the contest by holding the cup of sperm high in the air so everyone could get a good look before beginning to formulate their guesses. “It’ll be right here in the reception area so you can see it every day when you come in. You can pick up the cup and feel the weight of it, but no one is allowed to peer inside and count them with a microscope—I know it’s tempting, but we don’t want to ruin the fun. Just try your best to guess how many are swimming around in there, and at the end of the month, the winner will get a special prize. Won’t that be fun?” According to reports, Musk went on to strongly hint that the winning employee would be rewarded with a second cup of his sperm.
KYIV, UKRAINE – Citing a desire to “connect face to face”, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently reached out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with an aim to “share some insights” about being invaded by a hostile neighbouring superpower. The meeting, which took place in Kyiv today, was the result of a carefully-calibrated DM from […]
EDMONTON – Local woman Melissa Orlon has reported that she is “over the moon” and “soooo blown away” by the depth of familiarity, passion and expertise her date of last night had for the online betting platform DraftKings. “At first, I wasn’t sure about this guy. He was going on and on about his job, […]
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
We work in a completely open plan office, and are a PR/ creative services agency. There are separate meeting rooms, and two banks of unused desks round the side of the kitchen which feel slightly separate from the main seating area and are often used for hot desking or ad hoc meetings.
We are mandated in the office three days a week. The guidelines are for everyone to be in Monday and Wednesday (these are our anchor days), and for teams to make an effort to choose the same third day to maximize the chances for in-person working on office days.
We’re a small staff of around 25, so on some days the office can feel incredibly quiet. For the last six months or so, on and off, we’ve been playing the radio from a small Alexa speaker, which is controlled by whoever has taken the initiative to turn it on, and plays local radio stations or old school pop playlists. The speaker/radio was introduced following widespread feedback to the Employee Council after returning to the office that the environment was dead, with a specific request for music to played in the background.
Despite majority support, there are a few people in the office who dislike having music in the office (understandably, can’t please everyone!), one of whom is my direct report, Julie. Whenever the radio is turned on, she visibly/audibly is annoyed and often abruptly packs up her desk and moves to the co-working area for the rest of the day, without saying anything to the team. The manner in which she does it could be read as passive-aggressive, and her working away from the team then makes the point of coming together in the office slightly null.
Julie has previously formally complained to me about the music (in writing), and I handled it by speaking to her in person to explain that while I understood her frustrations, the music is not on all the time (about 10% of the time I’d say, since it’s often forgotten about) and that as an office, we want to be creating a “buzzy” atmosphere and the music is part of that and a specific request from the majority of the office. I also told her she’s welcome to leverage the co-working space when it feels too much, and that she can always speak to me if she feels the volume is too loud (personally, the HR manager and I don’t feel it is), so I can ask the person in control that day to turn it down.
However, her huffy response each time the music comes on is starting to become really obvious to everyone in the office, and I worry it’s setting the wrong expectation of how we should interact with each other to her new employee, who only joined our team a few months ago. I think what jars the most is the lack of communication when she heads over to the other desk and the way it sets the tone from her for the rest of the day.
Is there a better way for me to handle the situation? For what it’s worth, Julie listens to music in her headphones most days as standard throughout the day, and has previously vocalized that she’s unhappy working from the office due to her commute and would prefer to work from home.
It’s not okay to be repeatedly huffy at work … but it’s impossible to tackle this without acknowledging that a lot of people would have trouble working with music on! It’s not unreasonable if Julie finds it tough to do that. And the fact that she listens to her own music through headphones doesn’t change that; people often have a certain type of background music that they can work easily with, while having a harder time focusing with something different. (One easily understood example would be someone who finds classical music helps them focus, but music with words breaks their concentration. The same can be true of music you know well — which might fade into a sort of pleasant background buzz — but less familiar music intrudes on your focus differently.)
If you’re someone who can’t focus with certain types of music on but is told you have to be in the office “to be more productive” … well, that’s going to grate. And if you raise it to your manager and are told, essentially, “too bad because everyone else likes it” and “we want a buzzy atmosphere” … it’s going to feel pretty bad, like your ability to focus and do your job is less important than other people’s desire for “buzz.” (That’s why typically music in an office is one of those things where a veto from any one person should be decisive — especially when other people can use headphones to listen to what they want.)
All that said, you’re in office that sometimes plays music and it doesn’t sound like that’s going to change — and Julie does have a space she can move to where it’s quieter. You’ve heard her out, you’ve told her the music is there to stay, and you allow her to move when she needs to. It’s reasonable to expect her to do that without obvious huffiness.
To be clear, I’m sympathetic to Julie’s frustration. I’d find it hard as hell to write in the conditions you describe. But being obviously huffy about it every time she moves isn’t okay either. If she’s that upset, she needs to either revisit it with you or conclude the conditions of this job aren’t ones she can work with.
That said … how huffy are we talking about? If she’s rolling her eyes and sighing heavily and storming off, that’s not okay and you should tell her she can’t do that. (Be prepared for her to be frustrated that you’re telling her to stop disrupting others but not stopping them from disrupting her … but if that happens, you can point out that injecting anger into a shared work environment is not the same thing as playing music.) But if it’s more that she’s quietly picking up her things and moving without saying anything … that doesn’t seem like such a problem. What real benefit is there to her announcing she’s moving every time? (If anything, it might be more disruptive if she declares it every time.)
Again, obvious huffiness/frustration is not okay. If that’s what’s happening, I would say it this way: “I’m sympathetic to it being harder for you to work when music is playing, and I fully support you moving to a quieter area when you need to. I also understand why you’re frustrated. But when you roll your eyes and slam your things down, you’re making the work environment uncomfortable for others in a very different way. Again, it’s fine to move to a different space if you need to. I just need you to do it without the visible display of frustration.”
But you should also recognize that you’ve put her in a situation where she’s required to work from an environment that would be tough for a lot of people to focus in.
Ying Yi, a Professor of Physics at Lone Star College and former model has realized her lifelong aspiration of launching her own fashion business. Her company, MY Knitever, is taking the extra step to tackle an issue often unacknowledged by the public and one that could have drastic environmental consequences: textile waste.
Professor Yi believes this issue can be addressed by using innovative technology to reduce the need to sew multiple strands of fabric and allow for on-demand production. At MY Knitever, custom-fit knitted dresses are designed using smartphone body scanning and 3D knitting technology. When customers order products from MY Knitever’s website, they are guided through the process of scanning their bodies using their phones. The scanning app sends the information from the customer’s phone to one of the many company’s 3D knitting machines. From there, the dress tailored to the customer’s accurate body measurements is produced.
As a former model, Yi knows the importance of having a dress that perfectly fits someone’s body. She disapproves of the fashion industry’s traditional sizing system, which she believes doesn’t consider how human bodies have changed over time due to new foods being produced and advancements in exercise technology. In Yi’s view, to solve the textile waste issue, fashion companies must first understand how to correctly size modern women’s bodies and present them with a dress that fits them well.
And so far, this strategy has paid off for Yi’s company. Although it’s been two years since Yi launched MY Knitever, the company’s customer base has steadily grown thanks to social media marketing and networking. After attending a friend’s fashion show, what started as an idea from Yi has now turned into a successful rising fashion business that wants to give customers an alternative shopping experience while hoping to help push an industry known for its glints and glamor to a more sustainable future.
MY Knitever’s 3D-Knitting machine
Much of today’s textile waste comes from our reliance on online shopping. Over the past 50 years, the production of polyester used to make inexpensive fashion products has increased. This rise in affordable clothing has made it easier for consumers to discard the clothes they order online. An article from Columbia Climate School addressing the issue of textile waste mentions that consumers purchase 20% of newly worn clothing from impulse shopping alone.
When it comes to the environment, these statistics paint a grim picture. The article explains that fashion is responsible for 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, global fashion consumes 93 billion metric tons of clean water annually. When washed, synthetic plastic fibers used in polyester can release microplastics, which subsequently enter the wastewater, contribute to soil pollution, and ultimately become part of the food chain. Researchers have suggested that Americans are consuming roughly 74,000 of these microplastic particles each year.
For Yi, addressing these issues head-on requires only some effort and a willingness to accept that sustainability isn’t a cute idea but a necessary solution.
“Sustainability isn’t a choice,” said Yi. “It’s a must.”
A temporary freeze was placed on Federal Student aid (loans and grants). Though this has been rescinded since then, many students are left wondering what this means for their Aid and the future of FAFSA.
The initial memorandum caused widespread concern, leading colleges to clarify that students who depend on federal student aid would not experience any disruptions in their aid. Additionally, according to AP, the FAFSA form remains available for students to access and fill out.
The announcement from the administration was lacking specificity which caused concern regarding which programs would be affected. The Department of Education later clarified that direct student aid programs, such as Pell grants and Federal student loans would remain unimpacted.
The vagueness and potential ramifications of the announcements led to legal challenges. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an administrative stay, which blocked the the freeze just minutes before it was set to take effect. This intervention provided immediate relief to institutions and individuals dependent on federal student aid and loans. Subsequently, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded the original memorandum, which effectively lifted the freeze or any concerns thereof allowing for federal aid to continue as it had prior.
Historically, this type of freeze on federal funding is uncommon. Most administrations implement a reallocation of funds or a budget cut, rather than a comprehensive and immediate freeze. A freeze this abrupt and widespread with so many people reliant on its funds is unprecedented. Typically, changes to federal funding, especially regarding education, have to go through legislative approval.
Small businesses are growing throughout America every year, especially in Texas. Cesar and Ana Torres, a couple from Cypress, Texas, have a small but growing business, which is just one of the many. Cesar and Ana are the founders of SAR Party Supplies, a local business where they craft homemade piñatas and party decorations for all sorts of events like birthdays, gender reveals, and even weddings. When asked why they started the business, Cesar states, “We started this business because we love to craft things and we wanted to teach our kids a little bit of our culture.” This proves to be a recurring reason for most small business owners as the majority of their products relate to their cultures or home countries. At many farmers markets and craft fairs, the diversity of all the vendors is extremely fascinating as so many different people from different walks of life work so hard to create a product that others would love.
Cesar and Ana Torres hard at work crafting a piñatas.
This is the main reason why supporting small businesses is important now. That’s not the only reason, though. Cesar states, “It is very important! When you support small businesses, we help boost the local economy.” With the economy we live in now, citizen’s full-time jobs aren’t paying the bills, so supporting your community can go a long way. Supporting small business also allows for you to network with new people, networking is a very important key skill to have in life, so any ways to increase meeting new people will help. Next time your out and about look up local farmers markets to check out, support people in your communities as they are trying to channel their very own passions just like Cesar and Ana.
If you’d like to know more about SAR party supplies you can check them out on Instagram: @sar_partysupplies
“Why do you wear a mask?” Asks my coworker earnestly. “You know it’s over… right?” He refers to the virus that needlessly claims the lives of about 1,000 Americans a week. He has fallen for the propaganda that the pandemic is a thing of the past.
The CDC warns that “respiratory” illnesses like the Flu and COVID-19 are ravaging through the United States—both airborne and highly contagious, yet masking is listed as an additional prevention strategy instead of a core one, with “treatment” and “staying home and prevent spread” occupying its rightful place. Similar erroneous messages riddle the site and obfuscate the true danger of COVID-19.
Respiratory is in quotes because the flu is a respiratory illness, but COVID is more than that; COVID damages nearly every organ in the body including the heart and the brain, and it is well documented that COVID has similar effects on the immune system as HIV to the point where trials are being held to see if HIV medication is effective in treating Long COVID, a condition caused by repeated COVID infections. I know you might express incredulity to this because surely, this would be enough to declare a state of emergency?
At what point do we accept that maybe the government cares more about profit than people (see the CDC reducing isolation time from 10 days to 5 even though the infection time never changed because flight attendants calling off work made Delta lose money)? And, it’s no secret that quarantine caused an economic downturn, sparking the big push for “normalcy”.
The result is most of the public is, for lack of a better word, raw dogging a deadly, heart attack causing, and brain damage inducing virus due to being uninformed, causing C19 to constantly mutate and generate different strains, rendering vaccines less effective. Vaccines will not end this; They do not stop transmissions. Masks do.
Wearing a well-fitted mask, no matter what kind, lowers your chances of contracting COVID-19, along with your chances of unknowingly spreading it. This information is on the website, however they emphasize masking if you’re contagious or immune compromised, when a focus should be placed on daily masking even if you’re asymptomatic because that is how 59% of COVID-19 infections are spread.
NEW YORK—Warning that their sudden desire for a new sports car could leave you completely broke, many financial experts now recommend setting aside an emergency fund they can bilk you out of, reports confirmed Monday. “Many Americans are completely unprepared for a rainy day, and ideally you should have three to six months of salary for us to swindle from you,” said investment consultant Curtis Haberlin, who warned that even if you think you don’t need it, an emergency fund of at least $20,000 is essential to have on hand due to the unforeseen expenses and desires of financial experts. “Even if you don’t have the money right now, putting aside 5% of your income provides the security of a small nest egg that we can snatch. Unexpected income like tax refunds or inheritances are also great ways to help us line our pockets. You don’t want all your money tied up in less liquid investments like property, because that can be tougher for us to steal from you. It may seem like a lot, but then when the time comes, you’ll be glad you had an extra $30K to invest in a can’t-miss swindle.” Haberlin added that an emergency fund is just the bare minimum, and ideally you should be investing in a 401(k) you can lose so financial experts are able to comfortably retire.
KFC, formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is leaving its namesake state, moving its corporate headquarters to Plano, TX from Louisville, KY. What do you think?
“So that’s what the ‘C’ stands for.”
Randy Templeton, Research Funder
“This should send a clear message to woke Kentucky.”
Caroline Gruter, Viscosity Tester
“They might’ve been a big deal in Louisville, but good luck making it in Plano.”
Meow Wolf, the popular immersive arts and entertainment company based in Santa Fe with permanent exhibitions in Denver, Las Vegas, Grapevine, and Houston, will launch the Texas Takeover Artist Talk Series on Wednesday, February 26.
The series aims to create a statewide dialogue between Meow Wolf artists and audiences, with monthly Q&A sessions moderated by an artist or curator. In honor of Black History Month, the series kicks off at Meow Wolf Houston, with a Takeover Artist Talk featuring Houston artist El Franco Lee II, Austin artist Dawn Okoro, and Dallas artist Sam Lao, moderated by Imani Thomas, Meow Wolf’s Social Media Manager.
Dawn Okoro’s art as part of Meow Wolf Houston. Photo by Atlas Media/Jess Bernstein/Jess Gallo
Each artist contributed an installation at a Texas Meow Wolf site, with Mr. Lee and Ms. Okoro’s work displayed in the Houston exhibition Radio Tave, and Ms. Lao’s work in the lobby of the Grapevine location. A press release described Mr. Lee’s Liquid Analog: Lee’s Congo Barre as channeling the rich cultural past of Houston’s Fifth Ward, Ms. Okoro’s Liberty Vault as a golden mosh pit frozen in time, and Ms. Lao’s The Muses a surreal exploration of the act of creation.
The inaugural event takes place at Meow Wolf Houston on Wednesday, February 26, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. A simultaneous watch party will be held at the Grapevine location in the Neon Kingdom portion of The Real Unreal exhibition.
Discounted exhibition pricing of $25 per ticket, $10 for children ages 4 to 12, will be available at both exhibitions during Artist Talks, which are included with admission. An additional $5 student discount is available for guests with a valid student ID using promo code ARTISTTALK20.
“This series is an opportunity for guests to not only appreciate the artwork in our spaces but to also connect with the humans behind it,” said Kaitlyn Armendariz, Meow Wolf’s Impact Manager.
The Takeover Artist Talk Series will continue throughout the year with artist talks highlighting Women’s History Month in March, Earth Month in April, Pride Month in June, and Hispanic Heritage Month starting in mid-September.
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with new people, networking is a very important key skill to have in life, so any ways to increase meeting new people will help. Next time your out and about look up local farmers markets to check out, support people in your communities as they are trying to channel their very own passions just like Cesar and Ana.
