CALGARY – After claiming that Big Tech censored her facebook account with little evidence Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is now claiming that they have gone a step further and cut off her access to the country’s beloved rotisserie chicken vendor Swiss Chalet. “Big Tech is trying to keep Conservative voices from our Quarter Chicken and […]
The post Danielle Smith decries Big Tech censorship after she forgets password for Swiss Chalet website appeared first on The Beaverton.
Wheezer
Glucose Styx
The Who Left This Light On?
A1C/DC
The Police Aren’t All Bad
Cialis in Chains
Supergramp
Tom Petty and the Heartpacers
A-Ha I Just Remembered Why I Walked into the Living Room
The Arrhythmics
Talking Heads with Subtitles
Depressed Mode
Dinosaur Sr
Blood Work, Sweat & Tears
Dad Halen
Dire Straits Due to Our 401(k)s
REM Stationwagon
Sugar Ray Vaughn
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and No Longer Young
Boyz II Balding Men
Blue Pillster Cult
The Guess Who Just Saved 10% with Their AARP Discount
Huey Lewis and the Fox News
Radioheadache
Squint 182
Queasy Dan
CHARLESTON, SC—Slamming her 2024 rivals for “not having the guts” to do the same, White House hopeful Nikki Haley announced Thursday that she would marry Donald Trump if elected president. “I promise you that on day one, I will don a flowing white gown and wed former President Donald Trump in a beautiful ceremony in…
PALO ALTO, CA—Saying the innovation merits development because it “has the power to change lives,” angel investors have begun flocking to a new AI technology that removes the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein from old photos, sources told reporters Thursday. “All over the country, we’re seeing…
BOSTON—Stressing that the move would help keep digital currencies liquid through the coming year, crypto leaders called for an infusion of 20 million dopes Thursday to stabilize the market. “We’re calling for millions of bozos to be infused into the crypto market to stave off collapse and assure investors their money…
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
One of the most amusing things about work is how just plain petty it can make people. Here are some excellent stories of pettiness that have been shared here over the years:
• “At one of my early jobs one of my coworkers was a, shall we say, interesting character. She was called out about something in a meeting and was fuming at the rest of us. The next morning she came in, went into the rest room, and then went into her boss’ office to quit on the spot. She left without a word to anyone else. Later it was discovered that she had removed every roll of toilet tissue from the rest room.”
• “I’m a graphic designer for a company that has a lot of athlete ambassadors, and thus a lot of my coworkers fancy themselves elite athletes as well (they’re not). For a New Year’s post on social media, we had a ‘meet the team’ post where everyone on the team had a picture and a bio of them using their favorite athletic product we manufacture. I have one coworker who particularly thinks he’s god’s gift to the world and has a huge ego about his supposed athletic ability, and it drives me INSANE. So as the graphic designer, I built out all of the posts before posting on the brand’s social media. This coworker put one of his personal records in his bio, so I decided to take his bloated ego down a couple pegs and added a zero to the end of his record time. After it was posted, he noticed immediately and had a total temper tantrum, crying about how people are now going to think he’s super slow! It was so *chef’s kiss* satisfying.”
• “When I worked as a cashier in Target, if a customer was especially horrible to me (seriously though, why are some people so mean to cashiers) I would start to scan the items on the conveyor belt slower…and slower…..a n d s l o w e r.. .. .. . .a n d s l o w e r . . . . until I could see them seething at my incredibly frustrating pace. I would take their money and punch in the amount slowly and bag their items at the same pace too. And to make sure they knew I was being a d*ck specifically to THEM, I would then make sure they saw me scan and bag the next customer’s items very fast as they collected their bagged items. I’m lucky I never received a complaint.”
• “A coworker, Jane, was very protective of her lunch hour (and the culture of our office was you eat lunch when possible and sometimes that might be late or early to accommodate other meetings, so her attitude was out of sync with the office). We had a grandboss who liked to schedule meetings right at lunchtime, and when Jane asked for them to be moved for her lunch, grandboss said just bring lunch in with you if needed. So Jane brought in a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jelly jars, and a tray of cheeses and proceeded to make everyone in the meeting a sandwich and cheese plate during the meeting. Neither she nor the grandboss blinked at this, and for a while we all had yummy veggie trays, sandwiches, and once a full salmon (like the entire grilled fish cut into servings conference table side) during lunchtime meetings. It was the craziest showdown ever- and both people were pretty miserable so it was great to watch.”
We need more of these stories. Let’s hear about the pettiest thing you’ve ever done at work, or seen done. Share in the comments!
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are three updates from past letter-writers.
There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.
1. My company asked for documentation of my dietary restrictions (#2 at the link)
I followed up with both my organization’s parent organization and my supervisor. From the parent organization I received only the following vague text: “interpretation of policy” and a link to the policy.
My supervisor emailed citing the parent organization’s policy that food costs are not covered when they are included with a conference registration and noting that funds for professional development are to defray travel costs and may not cover the entirety of expenses. In a meeting with my supervisor following this email, I noted that the travel was a meeting that’s core to my position responsibilities and not a conference. Thus there was no registration fee and this wasn’t professional development. I also noted that technically I wasn’t provided a meal. I noted too that while I have medical documentation for gluten intolerance, I do not have medical documentation for not eating pork and beef, and that my colleague’s meal was covered. I also noted that getting medical documentation required time from the employee and doctor’s office and depending on the doctor’s office could require a copay. I reiterated that this experience did not foster a culture of inclusivity.
From my supervisor I learned that the organization’s business office has been dealing with many, many instances of employees going to conferences with meals provided and choosing to eat elsewhere due to *preferences* (not allergies, intolerances, or dietary restrictions) and so the business office is getting a lot of pushback from the parent organization for *any* exceptions to the policy from the parent organization.
It was clear that if I don’t want to pay for this meal, I need to provide medical documentation or follow-up with the parent organization. Given that I’m tired of dealing with this modest meal cost, I’ve sent a screen capture from my doctor’s health portal.
I completely understand that the organization should not be paying for meals twice (e.g. conference registration + restaurant meal) because of an employee’s preferences and I am also disappointed with the blanket hardline approach and that the nuances to my situation (not a conference, no registration, not professional development) are being dismissed by the parent organization.
Update to the update:
The screen capture of my health portal with the gluten intolerance note circled in red was sufficient and my organization paid for the meal.
2. I’m afraid people at work will think I’m being abused (#2 at the link; first update here)
I’m the one who first wrote you laughing about how I’m so clumsy that people thought something terrible had happened to me but eventually got a game-changing diagnosis after your readers urged me to check in with a doctor. My last update was just under a year ago, and a lot has happened since then!
My manager at the new job from my last update continued to be an incredible support, even when six weeks of physical therapy turned into five months. However, problems started to arise last summer that ended up being indicative of a pretty toxic corporate culture. At one point, our billion-dollar parent company decided furniture movers were too expensive, so on-site admin staff were suddenly required to do a lot of heavy lifting. I had to get an exemption under ADA, because even though my collarbone was doing great, the amount of physical labor that was expected was way more than I’ll ever be able to do again.
Weirdly, that ended up being the spark for some major drama of dubious legality in a series of semi-related incidents over the course of several months. During a few of the dramatic incidents, I found myself drafting emails to you that I never bothered sending because I knew what you’d say: the situation wasn’t normal, safe, or ethical and the chances of me single-handedly fixing such a messed up and hostile workplace were slim to none. Once again I heard your commenters in the back of my mind, this time telling me to run for the hills.
The good news: I just accepted an offer for a new position! It’s a 55% increase in pay with way more PTO, mostly WFH, and the person who recommended I apply says it’s the healthiest, most functional workplace she’s ever had. I’ll get to travel more, help underserved communities, and feel good about my professional life.
More good news: while I continue to be something of a medical novelty (my collarbone x-rays were at one point being used as a teaching tool), I’ve seen a significant and sustained decrease in accidents. I’m definitely not graceful by any means, but I’m getting there.
Thank you (and the commenters!) again for the support, even if it was sometimes just in my mind.
3. How honest can I be with recruiters that money is the only reason I want to leave my current job?
Well, I ended up using an offer I received from one of those recruiters to get a counter offer from my current employer. I was totally prepared for them to lowball me, but true to their word, they matched my offer. The amount ended up being 5x the raise they traditionally give! On top of this, I’ll still be eligible for our yearly increase in a few months. So really, I’ll be making even more than the other company offered me in about 90 days. I also used this time to negotiate a few other perks and benefits I had been wanting – always negotiate! The worst they can say is no.
I know you usually recommend against taking a counter offer from your current employer, but I do still love the job and now they’re paying me exactly what I asked for (and soon, more!). I believed my boss when they told me they were bound by the company’s raise structure, and I appreciate that they shared with me a way to get around it. We’ve always had a good relationship and I honestly would have hated to leave their team if I hadn’t gotten the match I wanted. A good boss is truly invaluable.
In a total coincidence, I’ve also been assigned some new projects that I’m so excited to be working on, things I’ve literally been waiting years for. I have no doubt I made the right choice and am so happy my company came through for me!
Thank you to everyone who gave advice in the comments. More than anything else you all convinced me to just go ahead and see what I could do to change my current situation — and I did!
Pat Sajak, who has hosted the syndicated game show Wheel Of Fortune for more than 40 years, has announced that he will step down next year. What do you think?
A section of Interstate 95 outside Philadelphia collapsed on Sunday, and officials predict a lengthy repair process with significant impact on travelers. The Onion tells you everything you need to know about the I-95 bridge collapse.
Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty after he was arrested and booked at a federal courthouse in Florida for allegedly refusing to return classified documents to federal authorities after he left the White House. What do you think?
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers.
There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back– there’s more to come today!
1. My employee is obsessed with cleaning
Thank you for your advice last year, but I’m afraid my update is a downer!
After multiple staff quit and cited upper management’s constant absence and lack of accountability and needing more autonomy as reasons for leaving, I realized this was the real cause of my problem as well. Upper management is unwilling to provide support or be present in any way, but they also refuse to give up authority or let me enforce anything without asking for permission for every little thing. It’s no wonder I ran into a wall trying to fix the constant cleaning because I have to plead my case to get permission to do my basic job whenever there are issues. When I look back on previous management positions I’ve had, the constant cleaning never would’ve been an issue because I would have been able to address it promptly and with a standard system in place.
Your advice resonated with all the things I wanted to do but couldn’t, and it turns out my actual problem wasn’t the cleaning or not knowing how to deal with it–it was the fact that I couldn’t fix the situation because every normal solution had been shut off from me. I think I was hoping to get some sort of outside the box solution, but with hindsight I can see that if I was in a better work environment I wouldn’t need an outside the box solution in the first place. Other problems have popped up in the company since then, and each time it’s played out where nothing is dealt with in a good, timely manner because upper management has left everyone hanging and disappeared but refuses to allow anyone else to take control of a situation.
I wish I could say I quit and got an amazing new job like I see in many of your updates, but the reality is that this job pays way more than anything else I could hope to find with my skill set. I finally realized that the reason I’m paid so much is to put up with the bad environment and incompetent owners. I had to give up on hopes of being able to fix problems and just remind myself that I’d have to take a serious pay cut to work somewhere less dysfunctional.
And yes, the office is still spotless.
2. I slept through an entire day of work (first update; second update)
I wrote in 5 years ago (!????) and here’s how things went after that:
I stayed at that job for 5 years, or 4 from my last update. It was overall a great experience. I learned a ton and became close with my manager (professionally). I managed projects that seemed impossible at the time but grew professionally by leaps and bounds. Very recently my manager from that job gave me a glowing recommendation to take a HUGE jump forward in my career (that came with a 70% pay rise). I am now in a new, much more demanding position, as leadership in a new organization.
I am still chronically ill. This very moment I am experiencing a flare up but some commenters said the first 3 years of chronic illness are the worst and then you learn the rhythms, and that was spot on for me. I don’t feel the need to discuss my illness at work because I am able to manage it pretty well with our (company wide) flexible working arrangements.
I now lead a central department and was told just yesterday by a departing employee that working with me showed him “what good management can look like” – I was grinning ear to ear!
Still so much to learn but my own health/work journey has made me a very empathetic and flexible (and adaptable) leader. I led through a massive leadership crisis last year, and I think in large part I was able to do that by using my own prior experience from challenging times.
I read AAM most days on a break at some point and recommend it to other people. The dysfunctional stories in particular fill me with gratitude to be working in a place where people tell me, multiple times a day, how much they appreciate me. One of our core values is kindness. I just hope other readers know that: there are workplaces that will value you as an imperfect person and an imperfect employee. If you don’t already have it, demand better from your employers. I wish that everybody was as lucky as I am to have personal struggles and still be able to feel supported and successful at work.
P.S. I never finished my doctoral dissertation. That’s one of the things I had to cut, it just wasn’t in the cards. I don’t regret it, it hasn’t held me back, I still learned a ton. So no – I am not flawless or perfect and didn’t manage to make everything work out. But I am 100% comfortable with the sacrifices and tradeoffs and have no regrets.
3. I recommended a friend and it went terribly (#2 at the link)
At this point this friend had blocked me on everything so this is an update from my friends at the firm. My friend or should I say ‘ex-friend’ ended up retaining an employment attorney. It sounds like she was likely told she didn’t have a wrongful termination case so she instead asked for owed wages and for the company to sign off on credit working under a licensed professional in our field. In our field you must pass an exam and then work under a licensed professional for a number of years to become a professional yourself. When they sign this the person approving your time under them must vouch for your ability. You are able to write to what degree they succeeded but most people get signed off with high merit.
The company disputed her owed wages but offered to pay her the amount she asked for with a condition of no liability. (I have no clue how much money this was). Regarding the professional vouching process her supervisor refused to do it but the owner of the company said they would under the condition that they be allowed to say that it was completed at the bare minimum standard. My former friend is fighting this and last I heard they were moving ahead with taking it to court.
Our field is relatively small in our neck of the woods and there’s a lot of gossip about this but as guessed my name has stayed out of it. It sounds like former friend likely will have a hard time finding a new position in this field after everything that’s happened. As for me, I’m going to limit recommending people for jobs unless I’ve worked with them directly. It’s definitely a lessons learned all around. Thanks for the help!
4. How can I make myself look less qualified? (#2 at the link; first update here)
I have an update to a letter you answered for me years ago. I was looking for a part-time admin type job and was wondering if I should leave my master’s degree and big-city experience off my resume, so I wouldn’t appear over-educated for the type of position I was looking for. I laid off the job search for a while after that due to some family-care needs that came up. Last year, I started casually looking again and happened to spot an article in our county paper about my town approving a new part-time position in the town park office—admin, secretary, office manager, receptionist, holder-down-of-the-fort while the rest of the park workers were actually out in the park. I fired off an application before the job posting was even listed, and I got the job! It’s perfect. Low-stress, quiet, just enough human interaction to keep me sane, and I’ve gotten to use my editing and project management skills as we work to get an online facility reservation system up and running. I still have time for my freelance editing, and the addition of a regular (if not large) paycheck has greatly eased our financial situation.
And I do think I wrote a good cover letter. It also helped that my boss’s wife also does freelance editing work, so he knew the types of skills I’d bring to the job.
Just what is happening around here? I take off a few days for a family reunion in a cooler climate, and return to sultry, face-melting summer heat and a forecast that includes 100-degree temperatures. I absolutely blame Matt for this and let me tell you, I’ll be writing a stern letter to the managing editor.
Alas, it’s only going to get hotter. And there remains no real confidence in when an end-date might be in sight. It high pressure domes for as far as the eye can see.
Temperatures remained confined to the mid-90s on Monday and Tuesday in most of Houston, but today we’re going to begin taking another step up. The central and western parts of the metro area will see highs in the mid- to upper-90s, and combined with the high humidity, this will bring dangerous heat to the area. The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for the time period from 1 pm to 7 pm CT today for all but the eastern part of our region. Winds will generally be light, at 5 to 10 mph, with slightly higher gusts. Lows tonight will only drop to around 80 degrees.
Temperatures will pretty much be in the upper 90s to 100 degrees for the entire area, with the exception of the immediate coast. And if you’ve lived in Houston for more than 10 minutes, you probably don’t need to ask about the humidity.
We’re highly confident that these will be sunny and hot days, with most of the area reaching triple digits. This extreme heat will be driven by a high pressure system that will lead to sinking air, clear skies, and ideal conditions for daytime heating. Please take precautions with outdoor activities during the afternoon and early evening hours. Rain chances look to be 10 percent, or lower, each day.
The truth is, there is no concrete sign that high pressure will abate during the second half of next week, so the most likely forecast is one of continued high heat and very low rain chances. Maybe some slight relief will arrive as we get toward next weekend. We’ll see.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Intern wants me to drive him to and from work
I have a summer intern who came from out of state without a car. Fortunately, our city has a good bus system. But he is refusing to take the bus and said, “You can pick me up when you go to work, since I’m along the way.”
After a few weeks of driving him to work and taking him back at night, I told him he had to get to work on his own. He is not happy. Now, my boss is telling me, “What’s the big deal? Just drive him to work.” Even my husband is telling me that taking the intern to work is not a big deal.
I feel pressured and forced to do something I don’t see as my responsibility. The big deal is that I am losing my autonomy. I can’t go shopping immediately after work because I need to drop him off first. I can’t leave earlier or later now.
The intern, who is in college, drops hints that it would be be nice to see this new city more if only someone would show him around. After serving as his work day chauffeur, I’m in no mood for driving him around on weekends.
All this is making me feel like a terrible person.
You’re not a terrible person for not wanting to be someone’s regular ride to and from work. As you point out, it means that you can’t leave earlier or later, and you also can’t do things on your way home from work without dropping him off first.
And you didn’t even offer — he just announced you’d be doing him this favor twice a day?! That’s … not how favors work.
It’s perfectly reasonable to explain you can no longer do it. Especially since your boss is pressuring you to continue, it’ll probably be easier if you say you’re going to be going to the gym straight from work, or need to start swinging by a family member’s who you’re helping, or starting an art class, or whatever you’re comfortable with. Or you can keep it vague — “I have a lot of commitments right after work, so I’m not able to keep giving you a ride after Thursday.”
If you want to be nice, you could offer to show him how to figure out the bus route. But you really don’t need to be his driver.
And you can definitely just ignore the hints about weekends. (That’s the nice thing about hints! You can just decline to pick up on them.) But if he ever asks outright, the answer is, “Sorry, no — I rarely have any available time on weekends.”
Related:
I’m being pressured to chauffeur interns to and from work
how can I get out of chauffeuring my coworker everywhere?
2. Can I say no to a last-minute weekend party in my honor?
I’m resigning and am on my last two weeks with the current job. Today my boss said that she wants to throw me a going-away party, which is cool, except that it’s on the weekend and I already have plans. She is scheduling it for Saturday or Sunday at lunchtime. On Saturday I have relatives visiting, and so my boss suggested just bringing my relatives to the work luncheon. However, we had planned on making a big brunch together and hanging out by the pool so I don’t want to cancel that and bring them to a lunch with a bunch of people they don’t know. They visit once in a blue moon and I’m really looking forward to seeing them. On Sunday I’m doing a motorcycle ride with a longtime friend from out of town, which I’d have to cancel.
I feel my judgment is a bit impaired by the frustration I’ve had at my boss over the years, so I’m not sure if I’m being crusty and impatient or if it’s actually okay for me to say no to the lunch that’s being thrown for me. It seems like such a gesture of goodwill. My boss is even booking a hotel room for my out-of-town coworkers who live a few hours away. I suggested we have the lunch on a Friday or Monday, but my boss said no because it’s on work time. Can I reasonably say no to a weekend going-away party for me?
Yes, absolutely you can say no! It’s completely normal that you would already have plans for the coming weekend … but even if you didn’t, or even if there was more advance notice, it would still be fine to say no.
Say this: “Sorry, it’s a really bad weekend for me to do anything because of family stuff and I won’t be able to make it.” If she pushes, stick with, “I really can’t, but thanks for the thought!” If she suggests moving it to a different weekend (even after your last day), it’s fine to say, “My weekends are really hectic for the foreseeable future. The only time I could do it would be during the workday before I go, but if that doesn’t work, please don’t worry about arranging anything. I appreciate the thought, though!”
3. How transparent should we be with an employee about why we’re not promoting him?
I have an employee who has applied to an open management position that would be a step up from his current role. I am not the only decision-maker (there’s a search committee) but as his direct supervisor I have a lot of insight on whether or not he’d be a good fit, and therefore a lot of sway in the decision. It is my and the committee’s opinion that he is not only wrong for the job, but he would be disastrous in this role. Luckily for us, he doesn’t have one of the big educational requirements for this job, so it’s easy on paper to turn him down for this reason alone. But another equally compelling reason is that he would be required to directly supervise his aunt, who he lives with, and he would work closely with his brother (who works for another business that liaises with ours frequently). There have been issues with this close family arrangement in the past, which we believe would be exacerbated should this employee become a manager.
We have an anti-nepotism policy, but it doesn’t include nieces/nephews or aunts/uncles in its definition of close family, and there is nothing about not being related to our community partner. However, I know from supervising him that he would absolutely bend rules for family. Furthermore, we don’t think it’s wise for him to supervise his aunt, ever, for lots of reasons I won’t go into here. This is not likely to change, even if he were to meet the educational requirements and suddenly start improving at work. As this is the second time he’s applied for this type of role, we feel we need to say something about the nepotism so he knows the full reasons why we are saying no … but how do we bring it up when supervising his aunt isn’t strictly forbidden in policy? Technically we could go about amending the policy to include nieces/nephews and aunts/uncles but that will be a long process and it can’t be done before we need to tell him we aren’t proceeding with his application. Any advice for informing him why he won’t be getting the position, or should we just stick to “you’re not qualified, sorry”?
If he’s a reasonable person who you think could benefit from hearing the full slate of reasons reasons, you could go ahead and share them. But if he’s not reasonable or if there’s any risk he’s going to try to rules-lawyer you on the wording of the nepotism policy, then just stick to the fact that he doesn’t meet the educational requirement (and maybe any other clear and easy-to-explain work reasons if you think it’s useful to share those — like if he would need to be skilled in X and you’ve had multiple conversations about his struggles with X).
One note: if you’re going to cite the educational requirement as your reason, be sure that you don’t bend it for other candidates.
But separately from this, you should definitely amend the nepotism policy to cover all family members. No one should be supervising a family member, period (assuming you’re not running a family business where it’s unavoidable).
4. Should I wait until the next day to answer after-hours emails when I’d prefer to respond right away?
I am working my second job out of grad school and still learning the ropes of corporate etiquette. When anyone above me in the org hierarchy emails me outside of work hours, they often include a disclaimer that they do not expect me to respond until the following work day. To be clear, I really appreciate this! But sometimes, it just makes more sense to respond in the moment (e.g., they sent me a simple question with a simple answer and I don’t want an extra task on my desk the next day).
If I respond right away, the recipient will often reiterate that they did not expect an immediate response. I am starting to wonder if my fast responses, though convenient both for myself and the recipient, are actually a net negative. Are there bad optics or other issues around responding right away after being told it’s unnecessary? Or is it fine to keep doing what I’m doing, as long as I am not ignoring direct requests to wait until the following work day (e.g., “Please do not respond until tomorrow morning”)?
By responding outside of work hours, you’re making them worry that you felt obligated to, even though they told you that you shouldn’t. It’s fine to do that occasionally, but if you do it a lot, I’d suggest at least acknowledging it in some way — like, “I happened to be checking messages for something else and this just took a second.” Even then, if you do it a lot, some people will feel guilty about it. Do you have the ability to schedule the message to go out the following morning to sidestep this altogether?
To be clear, you don’t have to manage other people’s guilt in that way — if they’re that concerned about it, they could schedule their own messages for the next day — but if you’re willing to take the few extra seconds for it, it can make the relationship slightly smoother.
(Caveat: this assumes a reasonably healthy workplace. There are also workplaces where, despite their disclaimer about waiting until morning, you’ll be seen more positively for constant after-hours availability. If you’re in one of those, ignore all the above.)
5. Cutting full-time hours instead of doing layoffs
I have friends who work for a small tech company that does custom work for clients. They were recently advised that they’re being forced to take 15 days mandatory unpaid time off for the next two months and maybe longer. So they’re only getting 10 paid days of work per month. Obviously, this is a major blow to them and they’re going to start looking elsewhere.
Is a company allowed to do this to avoid laying off employees and putting them in a position to apply for unemployment? Apparently, the owner is keeping their insurance intact at least, but the whole thing seems very sketchy.
Yes, the employer can legally do it — but the employees can apply apply for unemployment due to the cut in work and pay. (Not full unemployment, but in most states they’d be eligible for partial benefits.)
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers.
There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.
1. My coworkers’ plants have infested the office with gnats (#3 at the link)
I have kind of a bizarre update? So, I finally banded my coworkers together to help pin down which plant (or plants) were causing the issue. Good news: it was only 1 that had the problem. Bad news: it was belonged coworker who has been absent for personal reasons.
One of the more plant savvy people offered to take the plant and try to remedy the situation and asked our manager to notify the coworker so they weren’t blindsided by its disappearance. Which, my manager did.
My manager and I are fairly close and she shared (possibly shouldn’t have, I’m not sure, it’s too weird of a situation) that the coworker admitted to knowing it was infested and didn’t want it in their home while they were on leave so they brought it in to the office.
There is already some weird tension in the office with this coworker and things are weirder now. Not sure how it will play out upon their return.
2. My coworker sends an all-staff email any time someone makes a mistake (#3 at the link)
I think Jane was just really unhappy! She was certainly underpaid and underappreciated by the higher-ups, and though we got along outside of our occasional brushes against each other regarding purchases, I understand now that she was just all-around frustrated. She wound up finding a remote position, and in our brief communications since she left, she seems much more engaged and excited about her new job.
The big update is that after I wrote to you and while working at home during the first year and a half of the pandemic, I began taking courses to allow me to switch careers. My boss was supportive, and though I am still in the midst of my degree, when Jane left, I put my name forward to fill her position. So now I do Jane’s job! I know even more intimately now the ins and outs of how difficult our purchasing can be, and I’m still learning every day. I’m much happier doing this work than my previous role, I’ve implemented new systems, and I’ve received feedback that my coworkers appreciate my approach as well. After serving in an interim position for six months, I was just hired permanently and given a promotion.
Thanks for answering my initial question. I think about it often when I come up against a problem, and I use my past frustration to guide the way I treat others.
3. Can I negotiate more time before I start my new job so I can help my old job replace me? (#3 at the link)
I only worked the two week notice period, and it was an absolute misery. For two straight weeks, I was browbeaten for leaving, told I would get fired at New Job, told how I would fail – they even offered to let me stay for exactly zero dollars in an increase in salary. The abuse was ridiculous, and I’m convinced I have PTSD from it since it was everyone there browbeating me to stay.
I’m glad to say that I’ve been at my new job four months, and I’m enjoying it. It’s so different from where I was that it’s like night and day. It’s nice to not be the “it” person for every little thing that comes along. My boss is kind and hasn’t given me any indication that he’s not like that all the time. Everyone else in the office gets along, and it’s just very refreshing from where I left.
Thank you for your advice! I’ll always remember it in the future!
4. Am I the only one excited to return to the office?
About two years ago, I wrote you asking if I was the only one excited to go back to the office. I saw the call for updates on your page and while I didn’t submit a terribly interesting question, I thought I’d give you one. Going back to the office remained more or less optional, and while I tried to go pretty regularly, I was definitely an outlier among my colleagues. I ended up getting laid off from that job this past fall, and found a new one that’s 100% remote for non-COVID reasons. I like my new job much better, it’s the same kind of work but in a different industry. Sometimes I still feel nostalgic passing by a suburban office building. Maybe someday I’ll find my way back to one.
Also, as a side note, this blog was quite helpful when I was job hunting at the end of last year after being laid off. Thank you!
At Daddy’s on Saturdays
Girard
1987
Submitter: Truly awful book, weeded out of the [Public Library] collection and finally just weeded out of our used-book sale. The dated illustrations would be enough, but the sexist text just adds spice.
Holly: I’ve seen worse (exhibits A and B), but this is definitely dated. Kids whose parents divorced in 1987 are 35 years old and potentially looking for books to read to their kids about divorce.
A security vulnerability report came in that claimed to have “found a way for privileged accounts to force the system to crash, and for non-privileged accounts to force the termination of any process.” They claim that they were exploiting a vulnerability in MessageBox.
They included a proof of concept, which went something like this.
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
public class Program
{
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr OpenProcess(int access, bool inherit, int id);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr VirtualAllocEx(IntPtr process, IntPtr address,
int size, uint type, uint protection);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern bool WriteProcessMemory(IntPtr process, IntPtr address,
IntPtr source, int size, out uint written);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr CreateRemoteThread(IntPtr process,
IntPtr attributes, uint stackSize, IntPtr address,
IntPtr parameter, uint flags, out uint threadId);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int MessageBox(IntPtr window, string text, string caption, uint type);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int EnableMenuItem(IntPtr menu, uint id, uint enable);
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Func<IntPtr, uint, uint, int> MessageBox = EnableMenuItem;
GCHandle gcHandle = GCHandle.Alloc(MessageBox);
IntPtr inject = GCHandle.ToIntPtr(gcHandle);
int size = MessageBox.ToString().Length;
int id = Process.GetProcessesByName(args[0])[0].Id;
IntPtr process = OpenProcess(0x1F0FFF, false, id);
IntPtr memory = VirtualAllocEx(process, IntPtr.Zero, size, 0x00001000, 0x40);
uint written;
WriteProcessMemory(process, memory, inject, size, out written);
uint threadId;
CreateRemoteThread(process, IntPtr.Zero, 0, memory, IntPtr.Zero, 0, out threadId);
}
}
The instructions for running the proof of concept were very simple:
As administrator:
attack.exe svchostAs normal user:
attack.exe notepad (or any other process name)
As is customary of low-quality reports, the finder provides no explanation of what they’re attacking or how the attack works. They just attach a program and say “Good luck figuring out what I did!”¹
I mean, I like puzzles. But this is not the place for puzzles.
Here’s what’s going on.
First, the code gets the native address and size of the MessageBox function.
Next, they take the program name from the command line and find the process with that ID. (If there’s more than one, then they take the first one.)
Once they have the process ID, they use OpenProcess to get a handle.
With the process handle, they use VirtualAllocEx to allocate (MEM_COMMIT = 0x00001000) read-write-execute data (PAGE_ = 0x40) in the victim process, and then copy the MessageBox function into the process.
Finally, they inject a thread to execute the injected code.
Is this a security vulnerability?
Notice the first parameter to OpenProcess: It is 0x1F0FFF = PROCESS_.² If you can get “all access” rights to a process, then you pwn the process, and it’s therefore not suprising that you can inject code into it to make it crash.
In fact, if your goal is to crash the process, you don’t need to do all this nonsense. PROCESS_ includes PROCESS_, so this entire program could be simplified to
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.
GetProcessesByName(args[0])[0].Kill();
}
}
or a C# 9 one-liner,
System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName(args[0])[0].Kill();
or avoid having to write any code at all: Run Task Manager, find the svchost.exe or notepad.exe you want to terminate, and click “End Task”.
Oh, and did you see the sleight of hand?
The report first says that an administrator can terminate any process, and they picked svchost. But then when they said that a non-administrator can also terminate any process, and somehow they switch from svchost to a lowly notepad.
That’s because when they tried having a non-administrator attack svchost, it didn’t work.
Somehow conveniently forgot to mention that.
Remember, you’re a researcher, not a student turning in a homework assignment. If you find evidence that runs counter to your hypothesis, you need to take it into consideration, not hide it and hope that nobody notices.
Bonus chatter: There are plenty of other wrong things about this vulnerability report. I’ll leave them as Easter Eggs for you to discover.
¹ I suspect that one of the reasons they don’t explain what their code does, or how the code accomplishes what it claims to do, is that they don’t know themselves. They just wrote some code, gosh it acts funny, must be a security vulnerability, send it to Microsoft!
² Specifically, it is the value of PROCESS_ from Windows XP. The value was upgraded in Windows Vista to 0x001FFFFF to include the “limited information” access bits, but this finder is apparently working from a very old worksheet.
The post Pulling sleight of hand tricks in a security vulnerability report, episode 2 appeared first on The Old New Thing.
Some time ago, I wrote on the topic of auto-restarting a program when it crashes or terminates. If your program is a service, you can set the service restart policy, which will restart the service if it crashes. I mentioned that there is no similar feature for regular applications. Turns out I was wrong.
The RegisterApplicationRestart function lets you specify a command line to use if the current process crashes or hangs, or if the program had been running at the time the system restarted to install an update. You can also specify flags that modify the default restart conditions.
Note that if the program crashes or hangs, the program does not restart automatically. The system informs the user of the crash or hang, and then asks if they want to restart the program. Only if the user agrees does the system execute the restart command. Note also that the restart command is not executed if the user manually terminates the program, such as by using Task Manager. The idea of the restart command is to make it easier for the user to recover their work, not to give programs an easy means of persistent execution.
Bonus chatter: To avoid infinite restart loops, both service auto-restart and process auto-restart have minimum uptime requirements before they will restart the crashed process. You can read the documentation for details.
The post How can I register a program to auto-relaunch if it crashes or is terminated?, redux appeared first on The Old New Thing.
Sajak, 76, has presided over the game show, which features contestants guessing letters to try to fill out words and phrases to win money and prizes, since 1981.
(Image credit: Richard Shotwell/nvision/AP)
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.
There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.
Remember the letter-writer who was sick of having to their incompetent coworker’s work? Here’s the update. (Reminders: The incompetent coworker is Ron, his boss is Kate, and the letter-writer’s boss is Joe.)
A couple weeks before your answer to my letter went up, Kate quit her job out of nowhere! Here is where I should point out that she had what everyone in the office has independently characterized as “horrible undiagnosed/unmedicated ADHD” (which I, as a longtime diagnosed/medicated ADHD-haver, can pretty much confirm) and was sort of constantly in trouble for not doing various parts of her job. Well, we’re now pretty certain she had an executive-dysfunction freakout about a massive grant to our organization that we have historically relied on to fund parts of our budget, lied to everyone about how she was working on the application, and it built up and built up to the point where she knew the situation was unsalvageable, so instead of coming clean to everyone, she simply got a new job and quit this one, giving us zero notice about this grant situation. So that was fun to deal with. (We ended up explaining the whole series of events to our contacts at the foundation and got an extension on the application, but this explains exactly what kind of person hired Ronald in the first place. And also — because he currently has no official manager at the moment — why he has not yet been put on a PIP or fired.)
Anyway, onto the Ronald Update.
I don’t know what to say here other than that conditions have NOT improved. In the weeks before the holidays, Ronald so badly screwed up several projects that when I returned, I learned that the bulk of his job duties in that area had been reassigned to me and a much younger assistant in another department, Shannon. It’s been fine — I honestly spend less time doing this stuff myself than I had before, fixing his errors — but it’s still infuriating, and neither Shannon nor I can figure out what he does all day now.
Remember when Ronald referred to me as “Joe’s assistant” in front of everyone and it sparked a tense conversation about how I had a whole job that in no way involved being an assistant? Well, a couple weeks ago, Ronald pulled me into an email thread involving materials that were overdue to an outside agency (HIS FAULT!), and in doing so both threw me under the bus and referred to me as both “his” employee and a job title that was completely NOT my own! I ended up fixing the issue and forwarded the thread to Joe; Joe replied to Ronald with an all-out reaming about his mismanagement of the project and quoted heavily from my official job description; and Ronald responded with ZERO apology, another weird under-bus-throwing reply, and concluded it with a sarcastic “Wooooow” [sic].
WOW!!!!
So — that brings us to this week. Joe and I have had many, many hard conversations about how the Ronald Problem is untenable, how we cannot continue to work under these circumstances, and this week, Joe was on vacation and I was in charge. The main task for the week revolved around getting an email with a video out on the morning of a very important anniversary for our agency. And this would’ve happened if RONALD HAD NOT LIED ABOUT HIS ABILITY TO EDIT VIDEO, AND SHANNON HAD NOT HAD TO STEP IN TO SPEND SIX HOURS EDITING THE VIDEO ON THE DAY OF THE ANNIVERSARY. But ALAS. That email went out at almost 6PM. I ended up leaving work two hours late. And — adding insult to injury — I was subsequently dumped by the person I’d been newly seeing for being almost two hours late to the date we had planned. (This was probably a bullet-dodging thing as I was very apologetic, but it doesn’t change the fact that Ronald has now managed to blow up both my professional and personal lives.) So… it’s going great.
I don’t know when/if you’ll print this, but all I can say is that I hope very dearly that when/if you do, there will be some resolution to this situation. Because this is literally insane.
Update to the update:
Well, we still don’t have a replacement for Kate. Ronald still has a job and still doesn’t bring much to the table, though he’s chilled out considerably with all the weird missteps and miscommunications. I don’t actually know what he DOES all day (neither does my boss), and Shannon and I still do most of the work that would typically fall under his job description, but I don’t seethe every time he crosses my eyeline anymore, in part because it just isn’t healthy to carry around a grudge like that and in part because there simply isn’t an end in sight and you just have to get used to it.
There are numerous other weird, dysfunctional things that have happened at this place recently, but none of them have been Ronald-induced, and for the meantime it seems like our long collective workplace nightmare has come to a middle.
Hovertext:
Every time you pray to God, one finger of the infinite monkey's paw curls inward.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My office ignored my surgery and medical leave
About six months ago, I announced to my office of 30+ staff that I would be on a medical leave following knee replacement surgery. I am the office manager for our regional branch, and have been with the company for six years. We have no HR in our branch—it’s located in our corporate office. Whenever anyone in our office is sick, experiences a death in the family, retires, or otherwise deserves to be acknowledged, that responsibility falls to me; I am the person who ensures that cards are passed, pizza is ordered, and the employee feels seen and supported.
In the weeks leading up to my absence, I had two meetings with leadership to review my temporary coverage; trained my replacement and created pages of documentation to help her navigate the tasks I handle; helped to plan the retirement party for my boss (he will go out on retirement while I’m on leave); and made sure that everyone knew who was responsible for specific facets of my job while I was gone.
My last day in the office was two weeks ago. My surgery was one week ago. I have not received a card, a bouquet of flowers or any acknowledgment of my absence. I am disgusted by the lack of humanity and compassion displayed by my officemates and leadership.
Is there an expectation that the person who cares for others in the office deserves some modicum of care themselves in situations like this? Is it the Oxycodone talking, or am I right to feel the way I do?
I cannot tell you how many letters I’ve received over the years from people in exactly your situation. When the person in charge of this kind of recognition/care is the one who is out, it’s really, really common for them to receive none of that care themselves. On a strictly logical level, you can probably see why — no one else has been assigned the responsibility. That doesn’t make it not sting — you have spent years ensuring others are cared for in this way, and now when it’s your turn you’re neglected — but it’s very likely that no one thought to handle it because it’s never been their responsibility before.
Now, should it occur to people that the person who normally handles this stuff is out and someone else will need to step in? Yes, of course (particularly your boss). But in reality, most people are focused on their own work, and it’s not an intentional slight.
If you want, you could point out that no one is covering this task during your leave and someone should be. Not only for your own card/flowers/etc., but for anyone else who has this kind of life event while you’re away — if Cordelia’s dad dies or Niles is hospitalized while you’re away, presumably they’re going to get ignored too. So if you want to, you could message your boss and your replacement with a note pointing out that’s a task someone needs to be handling while you’re out. You could add, “Receiving no acknowledgement of my surgery made me realize we have no one covering this in my absence” … and if they’re not entirely oblivious, that should jog them into realizing the oversight. (In the future, it’s a good thing to include in the training for your temp cover — not “send me flowers” but “send flowers to anyone who is out for XYZ reasons”).
2. My coworker isn’t following through on handing off a project to me
I am new to my firm, and we all work primarily remotely. One coworker, Jane, who is roughly lateral to me but has been with the company for a couple of years, seems very brusque when speaking with me. This may simply be a difference in style, and I’m willing to chalk it up to that. However, she was supposed to hand off a project of hers to me. She has an unbelievably full plate, and since I’m new, I believe the company is trying to ensure that I have enough work and the project is in my catchment area. When our boss (who is a very light touch with regards to management, and not very assertive) asked me if I’d take over the project, I told him that I’d be happy to, as long as Jane was okay with that transfer. Our boss reported back that yes, Jane was fine transitioning the project over to me. However, whenever we have a project call or follow-up, I ask if I might take that on, and Jane says no, she’ll handle it. She never seems to actually hand anything over, at all.
Perhaps the boss should have had the hand-off conversation with all three of us on the line at the same time, but that’s not what happened. Considering that Jane is so abrupt with me in general, I honestly want to avoid another unpleasant interaction. But I feel like I should be a big girl and say something directly, rather than going back to the boss and asking about the firm’s intentions with regards to this project assignment. What exactly should I say, and how should I go about it, given that we are remote, and it’s not so easy to just tap her on the shoulder and say “Do you have time for a quick chat?”
Be matter-of-fact about it! “Hi, Jane. Rupert asked me to to take on X. Can we set up a time this week to do the transition?” If she’s vague or blows you off, try asking, “Do you still think it makes sense to move X to me? If not, I need to go back to Rupert and let him know, since currently he’s expecting me to take it on.”
If that doesn’t solve it, go back to your boss and say, “I’ve asked Jane several times about when we can meet to transition X to me, but I haven’t been able to get time with her, and I think I’m at the limits of how much I can push her to do it. If if still makes sense for me to take it over, could you ask her to make time to meet with me so I can get started?”
3. Undergrad using ChatGPT to network (badly)
Last week I got a LinkedIn message from an undergrad at my alma mater, asking to connect and get advice on how to get started in my field. I’m always happy to help people who are getting started, so we’ve exchanged some messages, and… it’s become very clear that they’re using ChatGPT to write theirs. My field is in fact machine learning, specifically natural language processing — I know an LLM when I see one! I put genuine thought and effort into my advice, and I’m getting back businessy rephrasings of what I said and generic requests for more information.
Is this as rude as it feels? Should I say something to them about it? I get that networking is hard for students, but I really don’t like this!
This is an area that’s likely to evolve quite a bit in the coming years, but answering right now, with our current norms and expectations … I can certainly see why you see like it’s a one-sided conversation and that your levels of effort are not equivalent. That’s particularly galling when you’re offering up your time as a favor to this person. (And no one likes to receive back businessy rephrasings of what they just said, WTF.)
Just name it and ask about it! For example: “Since we’re talking about machine learning, can I ask — your responses sound very much like they’re being written by ChatGPT. Are they? If you’d like to continue corresponding, I’d ask that you not do that.”
If it continues after that, feel free to just discontinue the conversation … or offer a phone call, and only a phone call, instead.
4. Is my voicemail greeting inappropriate for job-hunting?
I’m about to start job-hunting soon and am wondering if my voicemail greeting would be considered unprofessional, as it is intented to be funny. My last name rhymes with “phone.” So my greeting is, in my best imitation of a recording, “FirstName LastName cannot answer the phone. Please leave a message after the tone.” It’s my normal voice, but very much monotone. I wanted to avoid accidentally adopting a sing-song tone (the whole recording is iambic, after all), so I tried to speak very flatly. Think 1990s robocalls that had a bunch of phrases recorded from someone’s voice rather than synthesized.
Should I change it to “you’ve reached FirstName LastName; please leave a message,” or just my name with the generic recording instead?
If you were using a jokey robotic-sounding voice, I’d definitely suggest changing it while you’re job-searching. But if it’s just your normal voice speaking a normal outgoing message that happens to rhyme, that’s not a big deal.
That said, I haven’t heard the message (I always wish for sound files with letters like this one!) and you’re always safer with a blandly professional greeting, so the more cautious approach would be to change it.
5. I don’t want to manage anyone
I don’t want to manage anyone, ever. Is that ever okay, or am I being naive?
Most people in the world go their whole lives without ever managing anyone, so it’s not at all naive to expect you could do that. However, it depends heavily on your field, as well as your income expectations. In some fields, you’d need to stay at a fairly junior level your whole career to avoid managing people, and that would mean accepting a correspondingly junior salary. You might be fine with that! Lots of people are fine with that. On the other hand, in other fields you can still advance without managing people (becoming a more and more senior version of whatever it is that you do). To really know what it’ll mean for you, you’d need to look at what career paths exist in the fields you’re interested in.
But for the record, it would be a major improvement if people who didn’t want to manage didn’t get pushed into management roles, where they are often too passive and shy away from using their authority, in an effort to avoid the hard and even sometimes painful parts of managing (On the flip side of that, there are also people who are too interested in being in a position of authority.)
