Tropical Weather Outlook
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL
800 AM EDT Thu May 25 2023
For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:
Southwestern Atlantic:
A non-tropical area of low pressure is expected to form along a
frontal boundary offshore of the southeastern United States coast
within the next day or two. The system appears unlikely to become
a subtropical or tropical cyclone since it is forecast to remain
frontal while moving generally northward and inland over the
Carolinas this weekend.
Regardless, the system is likely to produce gusty winds and
dangerous surf and rip current conditions along portions of the
southeastern United States coast late this week and into the
weekend. Heavy rainfall is expected in portions of the Carolinas
with hazardous marine conditions expected over the coastal and
offshore waters where gale warnings are in effect. For more
information, see products from your local National Weather
Service office and high seas forecasts issued by the National
Weather Service.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.
* Formation chance through 7 days...low...10 percent.
&&
High Seas Forecasts issued by the National Weather Service
can be found under AWIPS header NFDHSFAT1, WMO header FZNT01
KWBC, and online at ocean.weather.gov/shtml/NFDHSFAT1.php
The punishment for Stewart Rhodes on a seditious conspiracy charge could set the bar for others, including top members of the far-right Proud Boys group, this summer.
CLEARWATER, FL—Hoping that she had done enough to obtain one of the coveted feminine hygiene products, local Florida woman Jessica Calderon filled out a 25-page application Thursday in order to receive a tampon from a dispenser. “Let’s see, I’ve filled out my personal information and my medical history, now I just…
The alarm blares, and I wake up with a renewed vigor to indoctrinate America’s youth.
I ride my bike to work, smugly turning up my nose at real Americans who drive trucks. As I pedal, my thoughts are preoccupied with how I will infect children with my liberal agenda. No other ideas flow in and out of my mind on my commute, like wondering if I should donate plasma this weekend to make some extra cash to pay rent.
I pull into the parking lot and say hello to the drag queen we recently hired as the school librarian. As we walk into Socialist Snowflake Learning Center (previously called Robert E. Lee Elementary), we schedule a time for her to visit my class and expose my students to sexually explicit material.
As the bell rings and students arrive, I refuse to let Bethany G. enter the classroom, since she’s wearing a Paw Patrol backpack; I send her to the principal’s office to be expelled and possibly jailed. I allow my students to kneel during the Pledge of Allegiance but force them to blow kisses at framed portraits of George Soros, Ibram X. Kendi, and Joy Behar.
Circle Time #1: Students engage in Social Emotional Learning, which is just an hour of me interrogating kids under a single swaying lightbulb, demanding that they admit whether or not their parents are anti-vaxxers.
Story Time: I read The Lorax aloud. By the end of the book, all the kids are radicalized and collectively devise a plan to dismantle capitalism.
Science: I perpetrate the lie that the weather is getting more extreme due to the rampant use of fossil fuels and continued deforestation. I intentionally neglect to tell students what nature and its resources are really for: earning as much money as possible in your ~80 years on earth without considering how your short-sighted choices will affect future generations.
Lunch: I continue my ongoing quest to undermine the frozen food industry by encouraging students to balance eating veggies alongside their chicken nuggets. Publicly humiliate any kid who drinks cow’s milk. Deliberately instruct low-income students NOT to pay for their lunch and to pass this heavy burden onto the taxpayer instead.
I call students back from recess, ask them to wash their hands, and allow them to use whatever bathroom sink they want. Society crumbles.
As students filter back into the room, we hear a loud, popping noise. The young students look to me to protect them, but my snowflake ass has refused to conceal and carry, despite the onslaught of angry parents at school board meetings who demand teachers start packing heat and become de facto security guards. (These parents believe we are incompetent in nearly every aspect of our jobs but DO trust us to handle a firearm during a dangerous situation.) Thankfully, the noise was just a car backfiring, so I can return to being a cowardly professional educator who indoctrinates third graders to become nonbinary communists.
Math: Almost immediately after thinking our lives were at risk, we pivot to our math lesson. For many adults, this abrupt transition might be difficult to navigate, but the third graders are resilient and used to these scares. After working through word problems that contain characters with diverse names, I hand out their homework for the evening. I have purposefully created math problems that third-grade students can answer, but adults who are unable to problem solve cannot complete.
Circle Time #2: Instead of reading an offensive chapter book aloud, I give an impromptu thirty-minute lecture in which I encourage my students to consider undergoing a gender reassignment surgery over summer break or before their tenth birthday, whichever comes first.
Music Lesson: The students learn the lyrics to “WAP,” Lil Nas X’s entire catalog, and whatever the national anthem of Norway is.
As we begin tidying up the room, I mandate that the tallest white boy in class clean out the litter box the kids who identify as cats use.
We end the day with five minutes of mindfulness, a.k.a. a nod to New Age Wiccan Pagan anti-Christian practices. During this time, Muslim students are allowed to pray, and atheist students can play with Legos. Christian students are persecuted.
I lock up my classroom, jump on my bike, and leave school grounds. I’m already excited to return tomorrow so I can continue brainwashing children.
Then I ride to my local Planned Parenthood clinic to get an abortion.
While I recuperate, I spend the rest of my day devising ways to undermine the American way of life while drinking Bud Light out of a glass. \
My letter was actually published the same day I was leaving for a vacation. While I was away, I had some time to really reflect on your response and think through my next steps. What stood out to me the most in your response was when you said that this investor seemed cavalier about my protection; after reflecting on my interactions with him, I think this statement hits the nail on the head. I am also incredibly grateful to the commenters for sharing words of wisdom. Nearly everyone was urging me to not pursue this opportunity. Several people had even expressed that they were in similar situations that didn’t pan out the way they had hoped. I knew in my gut that something wasn’t right, and I think I just needed some validation.
I came back from vacation knowing I would not be taking part in this opportunity and interestingly enough, I never heard from the investor again. This pretty much confirmed exactly what I was thinking in the beginning, which was that he was perhaps viewing me as a means to an end. To be fair, I did not bother to reach back out either. We essentially both ended up ghosting each other. I am glad I did not spend any of my time giving him my ideas or knowledge; my husband recently started his own business, so instead, I’ve been pouring my free time into helping him grow it. It’s been extremely fulfilling, and I am able to get that “entrepreneur bug” out of my system!
I sincerely wish this investor the best in his business endeavors, but I’m happy I didn’t take him up on this offer.
The good news is two-fold: Jim has had some wins in his area of work that seem to have calmed his anxiety at least to the point he’s not fretting at me constantly about his own work. He’s definitely an anxious person though — I hear from him at least once a week about how much he’s worried that generative AI is going to take over his job. That’s easier for me to ignore than a stream of anxieties in our one-on-ones though. The other part of the good(ish) news is that due to some big miscommunications with him, I implemented shared note-taking for our one-on-ones and that has turned out to also help give our meetings better structure. We have a shared running document where we add notes about the current meeting at the top and save all the previous ones below. We both add agenda items to this document. It’s definitely helping keep our weekly one-on-ones on track and gets me around the issue that I don’t want his advice on anything I’m working on because I can think more carefully ahead of time about what to discuss (oddly, he’s constantly suggesting I use generative AI on my work tasks, even though he’s super anxious about this technology — I ignore that advice too).
The bad news is that his anxiety is the least of his problems. He works incredibly fast on projects that really need thoughtful work, says yes to everything with no prioritization for our team which has resulted in us being signed up for work that is nowhere near what we should be doing, and makes a lot of mistakes. After more than a year in this job, he still doesn’t understand the fundamentals of our technical field. I spend a lot of time correcting his misconceptions, although I’ve realized it doesn’t really do much good so I’m trying to pull back on doing that too. My grandboss, Jim’s boss and my former manager, is highly uninvolved in our team’s work to the point I doubt he is seeing the majority of Jim’s mistakes. All this to say, I am pretty sure I’m not long for this job, which is disappointing because it used to be a great position. I have hired a summer intern so am planning to stay through the summer since there’s no one else to mentor them, but am thinking of giving notice at the end of the summer and working as a freelancer/contractor for a while. Very excited to be my own boss! Thank you again for your great advice.
Shortly after I emailed you, I actually got offered a much higher-paying job at a company in California and decided to take it, so I ended up just paying everything back in full and it feels like a weight off my shoulders. I’m much happier at my new job too and have a lot less stress. I wanted to say thank you again for your advice – it was very much appreciated.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
When my company mandated a return to in-office work, I did not expect the biggest problem to be the office noise machine. But hear me out.
During the pandemic, my company installed a Bose speaker system in the ceilings of our large open office to play white noise (actually brown noise, which is supposed to be more soothing). Sounds great, right?
Everyone is bothered to some degree, but I seem to be unusually sensitive to it. It’s triggering a mix of anxiety, irritation and just …hyperarousal? Like it’s going straight to my amygdala. I don’t (didn’t?) have misophonia. The effect builds over time, and volume/proximity matter.
There are control knobs in each section of the office with settings from 1 to 10. At 8, it’s extremely disruptive to everyone in my area. You have to raise your voice to have a conversation. At 6, people 15 feet from the speaker complain. At 4, I don’t notice it if I keep my own headphones on, but it still affects me — the first day on that setting, I didn’t realize what was happening until I went outside and my mood abruptly (eerily) improved. At 3, I’m tense and feel mentally wrung out at the end of the day, but within a more normal scale. (It may be my real reaction to being in the office again.)
When coworkers showed me the controls, they warned me not to turn it down too far, lest the company president insist it be set to 9.
Her office is in a different speaker zone, but it’s her pet project — and an emotional hot button. During the lockdown, one of the remaining in-office staff got into a long conflict with the prez before eventually being fired. The noise volume was the focus. Feelings were hurt, and positions became entrenched.
Every night (and whenever the prez passes by), the volume is turned to 8. Every morning, we turn it down, hoping not to go too far. My neighbor brought it up with our manager and was told we shouldn’t be touching the knob.
The speaker is above my head. I need to stick this out until I find a new job.
Is there any effective way to improve things? Maybe something is wrong with the sound balance or this is some infrasound effect, and an audio-savvy reader knows a way to frame it as a technical glitch and fix it?
Good lord. If the company president wants white noise while she works, she can play white noise in her own office — not inflict it on everyone who’s stuck in an open office, when people have made it clear they hate it.
I can’t speak to the technical parts of this question (readers who can are welcome to!) but I’m going to assume for the sake of this answer that the speaker is functioning the way it’s supposed to.
You’ve got two different options.
The first, and possibly the most effective, is to band together as a group to address this. One person battling it out with the president isn’t the way to go — someone got fired after doing that! — but there’s safety and power in numbers. If a large group of you point out that you can’t easily hear each other and it’s making a lot of you tense and uncomfortable (and affecting your mental health, if that seems true), it’s possible you’ll get some traction. If you have HR, that’s where your group should start. If you don’t, talk to whoever manages the physical space or look for someone who works closely with the president and has the ability to get things done. If that doesn’t work, you’ll at least have protection of having spoken as a group — as opposed to one person trying to fight the battle alone.
The other option is to approach it as a health issue and ask for a medical accommodation. The Americans with Disabilities Act probably isn’t in play here, but you can use the same basic framing for requesting a medical accommodation. In fact, you might even talk to your doctor and see if they’re able to write something official for you, given the effect it’s having on you. (I don’t know the right medical language to use to describe that effect, but your doctor probably will.) Your requested accommodation could be anything from moving you to a quieter space or further away from the speaker, to setting up a speaker-free zone for you and others who need it, to getting rid of the white noise altogether (that would be logical, although who knows how much your president will dig in her heels), to letting you work from home if that’s feasible for your job.
To be clear, employers aren’t required to provide the specific accommodation a doctor says you need — and if the ADA isn’t in play, they’re not required to accommodate you at all — but most employers will try to work with you when they can. It’s at least worth a try.
If none of that works, all you’re really left with is the hope that someone in your office (not you, of course) will eventually be driven to destroy the speakers.
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00:00 Intro 01:47 Demonstration 03:15 Regen braking and one-pedal driving 09:17 Somebody forgot about the brake lights 12:25 One solution that GM came up with 15:12 Adaptive cruise control 16:25 US regulations 21:15 The Boy who Cried Wolf problem 21:50 Europe's previously terrible regulations and their fix 25:47 An earnest call to action 28:38 Bloops
ST. LOUIS—In an effort to distance itself from a controversial marketing campaign featuring a transgender influencer, Anheuser-Busch confirmed Thursday that all cans of Bud Light beer had undergone gay conversion therapy. “As of today, all of our Bud Light cans, bottles, and kegs have been fully cleansed of all traces…
Tropical Weather Outlook
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL
800 PM EDT Wed May 24 2023
For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:
Southwestern Atlantic:
A non-tropical area of low pressure is expected to form along a
frontal boundary offshore of the southeastern United States coast
during the next day or two. The system appears unlikely to become a
subtropical or tropical cyclone since it is forecast to remain
frontal while moving generally northward and inland over the
Carolinas this weekend.
Regardless, the system is likely to produce gusty winds and
dangerous surf and rip current conditions along portions of the
southeastern United States coast late this week and into the
weekend. Heavy rainfall is expected in portions of the Carolinas,
and hazardous marine conditions are expected over the coastal and
offshore waters where gale watches and warnings are in effect. For
more information, see products from your local National Weather
Service office and high seas forecasts issued by the National
Weather Service.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.
* Formation chance through 7 days...low...10 percent.
&&
High Seas Forecasts issued by the National Weather Service
can be found under AWIPS header NFDHSFAT1, WMO header FZNT01
KWBC, and online at ocean.weather.gov/shtml/NFDHSFAT1.php
A Texas Tribune review of the investigators’ employment history, voting records and campaign donations found a lack of support for the attorney general’s claim.
“SA to HOU | HOU to SA is a two-city art exhibition exchange between Clamp Light Studios & Gallery, an artist-run studio and exhibition space based in San Antonio and Box 13 Artspace, an artist-run studio and exhibition space in Houston. While close to 200 miles separate the two artist groups, the common goal is to support their fellow artists and share their community’s creative output. The exhibitions will be curated by curators Bianca Alvarez (San Antonio) and Rosa Ana Orlando (Houston).
Curatorial Statement by Rosa Ana Orlando:
Using their own visual languages, the artists included in this exhibition delve into themes that deal with identity, self-reflection, anxiety, loss, fears, and introspection, which are examined through a variety of approaches, formats, materials, and styles.
I truly believe in the power of art to connect us as humans, as it transcends cultural and generational barriers. Art allows us to express feelings and communicate messages in powerful ways; it makes us aware of different perspectives and points of views, and it contributes to developing empathy and understanding for unfamiliar situations. I am thankful for the opportunity to engage with the thought provoking and compelling works included in this exhibition, which all embody these ideas.”
Tahir Karmali, “Untitled,” 2022, corrugated steel in Georgian revival home, 16 x 4 feet. Photographed at Wave Hill. Image courtesy of the artist.
“Fluent~Collaborative & testsite are pleased to present Pulp Friction, a collaboration between Tahir Carl Karmali and Regine Basha.
Tahir Carl Karmali is a Kenyan-born artist based in New York. Over the past 15 years, his work has spanned photography, sculpture, textile installation, prints, and drawings. Though his formal approach may appear deceptively minimal, his choice of materials is often imbued with hidden narratives of ecological exploitation, human migratory patterns, and intersections of the personal with the geo-political. He cites artists such as Eva Hesse, El Anatsui, Agnes Denes, Isamu Noguchi, and Zarina Hashmi, as artists with whom he has connective tissue. The work he has created specifically for testsite, which includes drawings as well as a new sculpture made onsite, reflects upon the border – its physicality as well as its porousness and the trauma it causes to migrant bodies and to land use.”
Fernando Andrade, “Espacio 60,” 2021, acrylic on canvas.
“Rockport Center for the Arts hosts Confluence, an art exhibition featuring the abstract paintings and figurative/abstract mixed-media work of artist Fernando Andrade. Presented by Neiland Sammons II, the exhibition will be on display through June 11 in the H-E-B Gallery located on the upper level.
Confluence brings together select works from the artist’s two series, Espacios and Suspended Thoughts. Espacios is a series of abstract paintings, improvised organic compositions that are colorful and dynamic, while Suspended Thoughts, his new, ongoing body of work, represents the struggles of mental health taking place during the pandemic, utilizing contrasting mediums to create a pause in time using suspended bodies in an abstract space.”
“Actual Footage of Me is a vibrant and playful collection that features some of the most beloved artworks by Dallas-based illustrator and fiber artist Nikki Dionne. The exhibition showcases Niki’s unique artistic vision and explores themes of self-discovery and identity as a black woman.
As visitors enter the show, they will be immediately drawn into Niki’s world, where they will encounter a variety of faceless black women brought to life through different mediums such as fiber, oil pastels, and digital illustration. The exhibition space will be filled with Niki’s signature illustration style and textures that create a captivating visual experience.”
Bo-Tan, “White Culture,” oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches.
“The Charles Adams Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of paintings by Bo-Tan, a highly experienced painter specializing in traditional representational art, particularly oil portraiture. Born in Dalian, China, Bo-Tan graduated from the oil painting department of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang and went on to teach at the school for 14 years. He is a recognized associate professor and a member of both the Chinese Artists Association and the Chinese Oil Painting Committee.
Bo-Tan has been a West Texas resident for over two decades, contributing significantly to the local art community through his own professional gallery and studio space near downtown Lubbock, as well as through exhibitions at LUHCA and Art on the LLano. Visitors to the Charles Adams Gallery can experience Bo-Tan’s captivating use of color and light in this collection of portraits and still lifes. This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see the work of an accomplished artist with a distinguished career in painting.”
Mexico has deployed some 7,000 soldiers to the area of the volcano, which is near Mexico City, in case an evacuation becomes necessary. More than 25 million people live within 60 miles of the peak.
Richard Barnett became one of the faces of the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, and the judge said in announcing the sentence that Barnett seemed to enjoy the notoriety.
President Biden joined celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger and Angela Bassett, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role playing Turner in her biopic, in honoring the late singer.
From social security payments to interest rates, a lot hinges on a debt-ceiling deal. Personal finance experts say you should prepare for a possible debt default as you would a recession.
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts park entrance, architectural rendering. Courtesy of Studio Gang and SCAPE
On Saturday, April 22, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, formerly known as the Arkansas Arts Center, opened the doors to its newly updated campus in downtown Little Rock. Breaking ground in late 2019, the expansion has been conducted under the leadership of executive director Dr. Victoria Ramirez.
Dr. Ramirez joined the AMFA in the fall of 2019, following her stint as the director of the El Paso Museum of Art from January 2017 through August 2019. Prior to that, she was the director of the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin. She has also previously served as the education director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and an absolute honor to be a part of this historic reimagining of an institution with a history of community development going back over a century,” said Dr. Ramirez.
Dr. Victoria Ramirez. Courtesy of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.
AMFA’s new building was designed by Studio Gang of Chicago. Among many key features, the design preserves the original structure’s 1937 Art Deco facade, returning it to its original role as the building’s north entrance. The 133,000-square-foot building also includes a new 20,000 square foot gallery space, the Windgate Art School, a performing arts theater, a museum store, and restaurant. The building is surrounded by an 11-acre greenspace designed by the New York-based landscape architects SCAPE.
Included among the many exhibitions and programs surrounding the opening is an installation by Houston-based artist Natasha Bowdoin. Selected as the institution’s inaugural Art Perch artist, Bowdoin was commissioned to create the site-specific installation Spring Song, which is viewable from outside the building through a 32-foot-long window on its northern facade. Created in the artist’s signature style, the installation consists of bold, three-dimensional florals paired with complementary wall graphics, creating a fully engulfing, nature-inspired environment.
“It’s been a real honor to be invited to envision and install new work for a specific site never before experienced,” said Bowdoin. “The Art Perch, in particular, has a unique advantage of offering up a visual experience from both an extreme near and far. From the outside, viewers on the street can catch a much smaller view of the work that, when viewed in closer proximity, offers up something quite different. Since much of my work as of late has played with notions of bringing the outside in, this site offers a different kind of exchange that is more back and forth, cultivating a sense of the wild inside the museum space while bringing it back to the elements outside.”
A selection of books related to the artist’s interests and inspirations will be available in the gallery for visitors to peruse. Additionally, a number of related performances will be held in the space throughout its run. Spring Song will remain on view through spring 2025.
“Our intention is that everyone who visits the museum sees a reflection of themselves in an artwork — or a play or program — and that as an institution we are fostering connections in a creative space where diverse voices are heard,” commented Dr. Ramirez.
With free timed tickets, guests can explore the new museum and its inaugural exhibitions, including Drawn to Paper, Together, Chakaia Booker: Intentional Risks, and Sun Xun: Tears of Chiwen.
The museum is located at 501 East Ninth Street in Little Rock. Regular museum hours will begin on Tuesday, May 2. AMFA will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Should I leave my job with great benefits but a problem boss?
I need some help figuring out if I should stay in my current accounting job, or if I should start job searching. I work for a pretty small business, about 80 people across four locations. The office I work in has eight people, including the two owners. The good things here are very good, and the bad things are pretty bad. I only started here five months ago (but I have a solid work history, so I’m not super concerned about leaving soon if I need to).
Here are the good things: I am essentially working part-time for full-time pay and benefits. The owners overstaffed this role so I’m working about 15 hours a week making a competitive market salary for a full-time role with my title. I get to completely set my own schedule, come to the office when I feel like it, and work remotely when I feel like it. I don’t deal with any clients, so I truly can just work whenever I want as long as all the work gets done in a timely manner. Some days I start work at 7 am, and some days I don’t start until 4 pm, depending on what I need to get done in my personal life. The owners are only in the office about 15-20 hours a week and don’t monitor us at all. I have unlimited PTO and the owners really let us take advantage of this benefit. People routinely take 6-8 weeks off a year, including the owners, and no one gets any flack for it so long as work is done. My husband and I are actively trying for our first baby, and I genuinely don’t think I could find this work/life balance and level of flexibility at any other company.
Now the bad: When I was hired, the owners were honest with me that they weren’t 100% sure why I was being hired. They explained that the person working in the finance department already was overwhelmed, and they didn’t know if it was due to business growth or because she couldn’t handle the workload. It became immediately apparent to me that she just couldn’t handle the workload, so this department is overstaffed (hence why I’m only working 15 hours a week, sometimes less). When I mentioned this to the owners, my manager explicitly told me he knew we were overstaffed, but he planned on making no changes. This colleague, “Marissa,” has more education and experience than me. But she’s making my life hell. She’s a very nice, friendly person, but doesn’t understand even the basic concepts of our type of work. She is routinely going through my work and changing it (even though she’s not my manager) and screwing it up so I’m constantly redoing work. When I explained what was going on to the CEO, he told me it was my responsibility to handle “personality conflicts in the workplace” and that he “doesn’t know enough about what I’m doing to determine who’s right.” Because our CEO has zero knowledge about my type of work, when I try to explain things to him, he gets angry if I don’t do things the way he wants. For example, he constantly wants me to change our financial statements in ways that are not legal. When I tell him the changes are not permitted under IRS rules, he calls me insubordinate and sends me home. My name is signed on those financial statements, and if we’re ever audited, I’d be the one at risk. Also, I feel like my skills are atrophying already, and my sense of norms are being warped. My manager yells at people and everyone here just acts like it’s normal. I’m doing so little work that it feels like I’m not growing or progressing at all.
Do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, or is this a cut my losses and run scenario? If it makes a difference, while I do want flexibility in my career so that I can start my family, my husband is going to be a stay-at-home father, so long-term my career success is more important for us than my ability to be really flexible.
If it weren’t for your CEO pressuring you to break the law — and calling you insubordinate when you explain you won’t! — I’d tell you that this just comes down to what you personally value most: flexibility versus satisfying work and professional growth. There’s no right answer to that; it depends on what’s most important to you. Some people would love the situation you have (minus the legal issues), even with the Marissa situation, and others would be itching to get out. It’s a personal call.
But the legal issues and the CEO’s handling of it tilt the scale to “get out.” That’s a serious situation that could have legal and professional ramifications for you even after you’ve left this job and it’s not worth it, even for the very real benefits you’re getting in return.
2. Coworker has a quote about weapons in their email signature
I received an email from someone who works for my company but in a different location, and they had a TV show quote in their email signature. Normally I wouldn’t have thought twice about it but the quote was from The Mandalorian: “I’m a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion.”
I should add: we work adjacent to higher education. I feel like referencing weapons even in a quote from a show is probably in very poor taste!
I’ve obviously never met this person and I’m not sure about what, if anything, I should say to them about it. Thoughts or advice?
WTF? That’s wildly inappropriate in a work context. In an era of workplace violence, it’s outrageous that (a) someone would think this was a good thing to put in their work email signature and (b) it hasn’t already been swiftly dealt with.
Forward it to HR or whoever plays that role in your company with a note that you were alarmed to see it and hope they’ll ensure it’s removed. Don’t engage with the person directly about it; they might just say no, so you need someone with the authority to handle it to handle it. (Ideally that would be their boss, but I’m suggesting HR instead because I assume their boss has seen the email signature by this point and for some reason hasn’t found it worth addressing.)
3. I don’t want people to think my pronouns and time zone are part of my name
I’m a director at a fairly progressive company that’s predominantly remote. Recently, the powers that be dictated that everyone is “encouraged” (read: “you have to do this”) to add their pronouns and time zone to their name in Slack. I don’t want to do this! My name isn’t “John Doe (he/him) (PST),” it’s just “John Doe.” There’s no bigotry angle here, as I already have my pronouns and time zone in my Slack profile and did so willingly before I was asked to. I have a real problem with my name being presented as anything other than my name, but I’m worried that not doing this will be interpreted as some sort of political stance when it’s not. Is my only option to bite the bullet and do it even though it bothers me on a personal level?
Yes, it will definitely be interpreted as a transphobic stance even if you don’t intend it that way, because what you’re saying doesn’t make sense any other way. No one is going to think your name is “John Doe (he/him) (PST).” It’s going to be obvious that that’s your name, your pronouns, and your time zone. It’s no different than if your company wanted you to include your job title after your name in your email signature, as many do — no one is looking at “John Doe, engineer” and thinking “engineer” is part of your name.
So the good news is that you don’t need to worry about that at all! You can include your pronouns and time zone without any risk that they will appear to be part of your name.
(If “encouraged” truly does mean “required,” though, that’s a problem since it can force people to out themselves or declare pronouns they don’t identify with. Encouraging it is good; requiring it isn’t.)
4. Can I mention the work I do for my disabled spouse on my resume?
I’m a carer for my disabled spouse — not formally or legally recognized, but in practice I do an awful lot of administrative work, scheduling, advocacy, research, and communication on their behalf. This has definitely helped me develop and demonstrate significant experience in all these skills, but I’m not sure if it’s something I can or should include on my resume or job applications. I’m concerned that employers might worry that my role as a carer might impact my attendance or performance. And if I were to include this experience, I’m not sure where or how to do so! I’d really appreciate any advice you have on this.
Leave it off. In general, work that you perform for your household or family doesn’t belong on your resume — partly due to convention, but in larger part because there’s no way to assess how well you did it. If you frequently dropped the ball, were horribly disorganized, and regularly messed things up, a prospective employer would have no way of knowing that … and there’s no appropriate way for them to probe into it. Plus, your family members can’t be references for the work (and they’re also much less likely to fire you than an employer would be!).
5. Helping an intern with the transition from intern to employee
I work for a small nonprofit where I’m the only full-time staff member (my boss, our executive director, works part-time and on a volunteer basis, so I’m the one running things day-to-day.) We’ve had a paid internship program for about a year and a half now, and it’s been great. One of our interns (Greg), who has been with us since the internship program began, will be coming on as a full-time staff member in a few weeks. I’m thrilled, because Greg is fantastic and a perfect fit for our organization, and having him on full-time will really help take stuff off my plate and help our organization grow.
I’ve onboarded new hires before, but since Greg has been working here for over a year (and honestly operating much more like an employee than an intern, in terms of the level of ownership he’s been able to take on), I know that the onboarding process should be a little different than it would be for someone who’s totally new to the organization. Do you have any recommendations for how I should structure Greg’s onboarding into this new role and what that onboarding should include? Is it just the typical onboarding process minus the “here’s how our organization works” part? Are there any other things I should incorporate to help him transition smoothly from a part-time intern to a full-time staff member?
Do all of it, just like you would if he were brand-new to the organization — because there are probably holes in his knowledge about how your org works that you don’t know about (and that he may not even be able to identify). In fact, although it wouldn’t be practical, I sometimes think there would be benefits to re-doing new employee orientation once people are six months in, because everyone misses a lot in the beginning.
You can explicitly tell him your plan at the start — “I’m going to go over everything with you that I normally would with a new hire. Some of this will be familiar to you, but I want to make sure you don’t miss out on anything just because you’ve already been interning with us.”
In addition, think about what’s changing for Greg now that he’s moving from intern to staff. What expectations will be changing? Are there things he didn’t have the authority for previously that he will have now? Do you want him to manage his work any differently? Step up differently in certain areas? Whatever those things are, spell them out explicitly. (That said, generally you won’t be able to anticipate all of those little changes, so assume you’ll be naming some as you realize them, too.)
BILLINGS, MT—With tears in their eyes as they gazed at the room, local childless couple Harrison and Kylie Neubauer reportedly watched an empty crib Wednesday from the doorway. “Look at it. It’s so peaceful,” said Kylie Neubauer, who came rushing to the room after hearing the most adorable radio silence on the baby…
WAUKEGAN, IL—Explaining that she wasn’t so good with all the technology that was out there these days, local grandmother Beatrice Rowland asked her grandson Dan Larkin for help looking up Rule 34 images, sources confirmed Thursday. “Honey, could you help me find a nice picture of Tom and Jerry sixty-nining? I want to…
Submitter: I recently came across Southern Plantation Cooking in my high school library’s cookbook section. It’s part of a series that includes titles called Civil War Cooking: The Confederacy, Civil War Cooking: The Union, and Cooking on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The cataloging-in-publication summary states that this title “[d]iscusses the everyday life, family roles, cooking methods, most important foods, and celebrations of people on southern plantations before the Civil War.” And while the book does do the job of discussing these elements of Southern plantation life, it’s the tone that I find awful.
A recipe for “Feather-light Buttermilk Biscuits” next to a sidebar on “Plantation Children” pretty much represents this book’s horrifically tone deaf presentation of information. And that table of contents: Puttin’ Up Pork (!). Christmas in the Big House (!). Big Times in the Slave Quarters (!). Some of the hand drawn illustrations are borderline offensive at best. Also the outdated language of (e.g., plantation, slave) desperately needs to be updated (labor camp, enslaved person). And at the end of the day, who is this book for? I think it would do more harm than good in either the cookbook or history section and I was delighted to stamp it “WITHDRAWN.”
OTTAWA – Officials at Carleton University held a press conference today, announcing their discovery that the long-thought-completed NHL playoffs are, in fact, ongoing. Graduate student Jason Chun explained that the revelation came about serendipitously. “I was doing a little data gathering on various sports sites when I noticed frequent uses of key words like ‘Dallas’, […]
A spoonful of sugar? — Should one take sugar in one’s tea? Feedback is mindful of two things about this question. For one, nearly everyone, in the UK especially, considers (or pretends to consider) the question to be of life-and-death importance; and secondly, they consider (or pretend to consider) one answer to be clearly correct. The Annals of Internal Medicine has published a 280-word item that – let’s be blunt about this – throws a spanner in the teacup. A necessary and welcome spanner….
Packaging philosophy — Mark Dionne tells Feedback of his surprise on learning that you can become a Doctor of Philosophy in packaging. It is Michigan State University’s school of packaging that confers the necessary degree. “We all have questions about packaging,” reads its website, “such as, what is packaging and why is it important to society?” That statement is a little vague as to who, exactly, the “we” is. One question we (whoever we are) might ask about packaging is…
Leftist food — The preference of Canadians as to which side of a bento (a traditional Japanese lunch comprising rice and vegetables with meat or fish, usually served in a lacquered box) should have the largest, most calorie-heavy component of the meal hadn’t been determined – not with investigative rigour – until now. Lisa Poon and Lorin Elias at the University of Saskatchewan presented 483 Canadians with a photo of a bento box and another of its mirror image. They published a report about it, called “What’s in the box? Preference for leftward plating of food in bentos“, in the journal Food Quality and Preference. Citing earlier research by others, Poon and Elias say…
Ex-superpowers — Rex Waygood adds two entries to Feedback’s growing catalogue of trivial superpowers, along with a sad warning that some trivial superpowers can be temporary….
The weird rules of quantum mechanics lead to all sorts of bizarre phenomena on tiny scales— particles teleporting through walls or being in multiple places at once or simultaneously existing and not. Shame all this magical behavior doesn’t happen on scales large enough for us to see. Except that there is a way for us to see large-scale quantum weirdness, and that’s Bose-Einstein Condensates & Superfluids.
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