Try out my quantum mechanics course (and many others on math and science) on Brilliant using the link https://brilliant.org/sabine. You can get started for free, and the first 200 will get 20% off the annual premium subscription.
Today we talk about wave-like dark matter, wires that learn, the core of planet mars, why quasars ignite, a superconducting highway, fabric that changes shape and colour, chemistry on a quantum computer, the Brazil nut effect, and of course, the telephone will ring.
00:00 Intro 00:26 Wavelike Dark Matter 04:11 Wires That Learn 05:42 Mars Has a Liquid Core 07:38 How Quasars Ignite 09:28 A Superconducting Highway 11:35 Fabric That Changes Shape and Color 13:52 Chemistry on a Quantum Computer 14:55 The Brazil Nut Effect Without Shaking 16:37 Learn Science With Brilliant
How to Find A Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other Social Networks Schepp and Schepp 2010
Career books are always going to be my trigger in collection management. Social media leads for jobs isnât outdated, per se, but this book is now over 10 years old and that already makes the information questionable. The platforms themselves have been changed several times since this was published.
âThe pandemic is now becoming a mile marker for collection development. There will be items throughout the range of topics that will render many items obsolete. The large shifts in how the world works has dramatically changed the entire employment landscape from both the employer and employee perspective. âThe pandemic is now becoming a mile marker for collection development. There will be items throughout the range of topics that will render many items obsolete. The large shifts in how the world works has dramatically changed the entire employment landscape from both the employer and employee perspective.
WASHINGTONâIn a rare unanimous opinion that did not pertain to any case pending before them, the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief but official order Wednesday that stated, âWe wear gold crowns now.â âIn addition to our long black robesâwhich henceforth will be woven from the finest velvet andâŠ
The founder of iWeatherNet, a Facebook page and website that posts updates about Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta-area weather, commented about being armed and impatient when a child rang his doorbell.
(Image credit: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for MoveOn.org Civic Action)
Some people donât like to talk about dewpoints because theyâre confusing. But theyâre a really helpful way to quickly assess how stick the air will feel. The scientific definition of a dewpoint is the temperature to which the air must be cooled to achieve a relative humidity of 100 percent. So if the air temperature is 70 degreesâwhich may sound comfortableâand the dewpoint is also 70 degrees itâs going to feel really sticky outside. But you donât have to remember that definition for dewpoints, just this handy guide:
Dewpoints in the mid-50s or below: The air is dry and comfortable
Dewpoints in the mid-60s: The air starts feels somewhat sticky during the day, and somewhat muggy in the evenings
Dewpoints in the mid-70s or higher: Oh my god Iâm dying.
I am sorry to say that today, specifically the period from around noon to late afternoon, is going to be our last shot of dewpoints in the 50s for awhile. After today weâre looking at dewpoints in the upper 60s to lower 70s for the foreseeable future. While we may get a front to knock them back in 10 or more days, it is by no means a certainty. Welcome to May.
Dew point forecast for late this afternoon in the Houston region. (Weather Bell)
Wednesday
After some fog and clouds this morning, skies are going to clear out and leave us with a mostly sunny day. This, combined with the slightly drier air mentioned above is going to allow temperatures to pop up into the mid- to upper-80s. Winds will be slight, at 5 to 10 mph, generally from the southeast. Some clouds return tonight, but lows should drop into the mid-60s for all but coast areas. This probably will be our last night in the 60s for quite a while.
Thursday
As high pressure moves off, the region will open up to a more pronounced flow off the Gulf of Mexico. This will result in more humidity and clouds, to go along with high temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s. With increased moisture the region may see some scattered showers and thunderstorms on Thursday evening and overnight. The most likely areas for this will be north and west of the metro area, in places such as College Station and Conroe. I would not expect anything particularly severe. Lows on Thursday night will only drop into the 70s.
Maybe find some water this weekend. (Weather Bell)
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
This three day period will be hot and humid. Look for partly to mostly cloudy skies each day, with daytime highs around 90 degrees or slightly above. Rain chances are not zero, and there will probably be a few isolated showers each day. But if youâre planning outdoor activities things should be fine as long as you have plan for some temporary shelter. Which to be clear, probably wonât be needed. In addition to hot days, nights will be warm and sticky, with lows only dropping into the mid-70s.
Next week
The overall pattern does not change much next week. Daytime temperatures may drop a degree or two, but the humidity should remain more or less the same. Some better rain chances may pop up by the middle or end of next week. Weâll see.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I recently applied to a job for which I was well-qualified. The role was with a start-up thatâs hoping to shift into doing the type of work I do. My current employer is very well respected in the field, so this start-up likely has a lot to learn from someone in a role similar to my current one.
I applied and two days later got an email from the CEO inviting me to a 15-minute meeting with her. I eagerly selected the first available time slot, and we met later that week. For the first half of the 15 minutes, she told me about the company and the new direction theyâre exploring (my area of expertise).
For the second half of the 15 minutes, she asked me general questions about what interested me in the role and what challenges I foresee. Since my current role is quite similar to the one I was interviewing for, I had very tangible examples to share. I was intentional about giving precise answers linking examples of my past/current work to what I understood her companyâs goals to be. My partner overheard the interview since we both work remotely and congratulated me on sounding friendly, knowledgeable, and well-spoken. My partner said it was clear the CEO and I were âspeaking the same language,â i.e. the questions I asked sounded thoughtful and the examples I shared matched the description of the role that the CEO provided.
Less than two hours later, I got a rejection email.
I was peeved! I felt like this CEO hardly tried to get to know me; I only spoke about my experience and asked questions for seven minutes. I would have happily submitted a work sample and had a longer conversation with her and the broader team, had I been invited.
I know that Iâll never know what exactly happened, but do you have any insight about why workplaces do this? I absolutely understand that I wonât get every job I interview for, but I canât understand how I couldâve mucked things up in such a short amount of time. Arenât these very short interviews supposed to just be a chance to ensure the applicant clears the bar of being worth getting to know better?
There are five zillion reasons why this could have happened. With the caveat that itâs possible that none of these applied to you, some examples of why a candidate might be rejected after only seven minutes of discussion:
* Talking to you made the manager realize that theyâre not ready to hire for the role yet, or they need to clarify its requirements, or thereâs someone already onboard who would be able to tackle lots of it.
* They already had a candidate they were leaning strongly toward, or even had already decided to hire, but this conversation was on the books so they went through with it rather than canceling at the last minute.
* There was a disconnect on what theyâre looking for â for example, you saw the role as higher-level than the one theyâre envisioning, and itâs clear that youâre too senior for the level theyâre planning to hire at.
* Something about your conversational style landed wrong with the interviewer: you sounded sluggish/uninterested/disengaged, or overly frenetic, or you interrupted them, or something else about your style just happened to rub the interviewer the wrong way. (And itâs important to note that some people will interpret others in X way even when another observer wouldnât get the same impression. Itâs possible that your partner â who knows you â could have a different interpretation than the interviewer did.)
* You just arenât what theyâre looking for. You did a great job at speaking to X, but they really care about Y. Or they want someone with more X (whether thatâs realistic or not), or they didnât accurately convey what theyâre looking for and they donât really want X at all.
* They respond more to flash than substance, and youâre more substance. Or the opposite, for that matter!
* Your interviewer has a bias against people who went to X college, speak with a Y accent, are over (or under) Z years old, or a million other possible biases.
* Theyâre about to make an offer to someone else but wanted to do a quick call with you just in case you were so overwhelmingly fantastic that theyâd want to pause their offer process with the other person.
* They were excited about your candidacy when they first set the call up but something has changed since then (other candidates emerged, the role is being reconfigured, theyâre hiring someoneâs brother, who knows what) and the interview changed from âgenuineâ to âobligatoryâ without anyone telling you that.
* They just got bad financial news and theyâre not moving forward with hiring at all.
* Your interviewer sucks at interviewing. Or worse, sucks at managing and prefers to hire people who donât sound confident and knowledgeable because this company likes employees it can more easily mold to its dysfunctional culture.
* Your interviewer was tired or distracted or sick and was more focused on getting through the conversation so she could go home and take some aspirin than on assessing your qualifications. It happens.
* You were a solid candidate who they might have moved forward under other circumstances, but theyâve got candidates theyâre more excited about.
* They already had an offer out to someone and that person accepted the same day as your call so now theyâre rejecting everyone still in their process.
I think your mistake is in thinking that a rejection after such a short conversation means you messed something up. Itâs certainly possible that you did â but itâs just as possible that it was something from the list above.
Candidates have a tendency to assume that the pieces of the hiring process they see tell them everything they need to know. But youâre really only seeing a tiny piece of it and thereâs so much that could be going on behind the scenes that has nothing to do with how well you interviewed.
Republicans in Congress are attempting to use the debt ceiling standoff to push work requirements for food stamp recipients. The Onion asked politicians why they support the controversial bill, and this is what they said.
âI was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. Itâs not how white men fight.â â Tucker Carlson in a leaked text to a producer at Fox News (New York Times)
- - -
Silently comparing dicks at urinals
Hostile takeovers
Chest to chest, lots of shouting, making a big show of being led away by girlfriend before a single punch is thrown
Sulking in silence until SOMEBODYâS ready to say, âSORRYâ
Drawing pistols at dawn, noon, and sunset
Recklessly overpaying for a social media platform
MONSTER TRUCK SMASHJAM CRUSHFEST
Banging your best friendâs girlfriend
Writing a hit country song about that bitch who left you for your best friend
Taking subtle digs at neighborâs lawn-mowing technique
Ghost pepper challenge
Taping Larry Lesterâs buns together
BLAME AND CLAIM: blame the victim, claim victimhood
Mano-a-mano (in the comments section of an article about the winners of the Westminster Dog Show)
Arm-wrestling like in that Sylvester Stallone movie, maybe one of them eats a whole cigar??
HOUSTONâAfter the measure was fast-tracked through the city council, a new zoning law went into effect this week that requires all developers in Houston to put in 10 additional parking spaces for every parking space. âWeâre dedicated to adopting urban planning strategies that ensure our community has access to aâŠ
Abbotsford, BC â Whatâs the secret to a long and healthy life? According to those currently being hunted by hungry lions, the trick is running as fast as you possibly can. âJust donât stop running, no matter how tired you are,â says Victor Cho, panting heavily as he sprints away from a pack of lions [âŠ]
SHREVEPORT, LAâWriting his 10th consecutive post on a Telegram channel dedicated to the menâs rights movement, local resident Gabe Gearhardt, who googled âhow to kissâ two years ago, is currently in the midst of a full-blown misogynist tirade, sources stated Tuesday. According to reports, in 2021, Gearhardt earnestlyâŠ
In response to a new law that requires porn sites to verify users' ages, Pornhub has completely disabled its websites for people located in Utah. From a report: As of today, anyone accessing Pornhub from a Utah-based IP address doesn't see the Pornhub homepage, but instead is met with a video of Cherie DeVille, adult performer and member of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, explaining that they won't be able to visit the site. "As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website," DeVille says. "While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk."
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
Iâm about to start my first real office job soon. Iâm in my mid 20s and still working on my degree, so Iâm a little worried about seeming immature. I have an unfortunate habit of drinking one or more energy drinks per day. Ignoring the health aspect of that, will it look bad if I am drinking an energy drink at my desk in the morning?
I feel like it shouldnât matter, other sources of caffeine like coffee and tea are perfectly normal after all, but at the same time itâs hard to picture a can of NOS or some such on the desk of a working professional!
This is such an interesting question because it definitely should not matter! And my first instinct was, âNo, it wonât matter.â But itâs also true that I would notice an energy drink in a way that I wouldnât notice a coffee or a tea. Not enough to care, but Iâd notice it. And if I saw you had one every day, Iâd notice that too. It wouldnât matter at all â drink what you like! â but youâre not wrong that when you picture âpolished professional,â you donât picture a can of Red Bull on their desk.
There are probably people who would see a daily energy drink (or especially multiple daily energy drinks) and think, âThis person isnât managing their health/sleep very wellâ ⊠which is ridiculous because coffee is outright sponsored by most offices ⊠but weâre into optics territory now, and optics often arenât logical. Even with people who think that, though, itâs not likely to influence their opinion of you in any real way thatâs likely to impact you at work.
So I think where I land is: If for some reason you need to put an unusually high premium on appearing as polished as possible, the daily energy drinks might be something to reconsider. But if youâre in more typical territory of âIâd like to appear reasonably professional without turning myself into a work robot,â then youâre fine. Drink what you want.
(Interestingly, though, I wouldnât recommend taking an energy drink into an interview. Thatâs because your interviewer has few so data points about you so the ones they do have can easily count for more than they should.)
And finally: some offices stock energy drinks in the kitchen for employees to drink. If youâre in one of those, I would give it exactly zero more thought.
LOS ANGELESâEmphasizing the negative effects the recent union action would have on the company, Netflix officials condemned the Writers Guild of America strike Tuesday for putting future show cancellations behind schedule. âWe have dozens of shows already stuck in the early stages of the preproduction process, butâŠ
LOS ANGELESâTaking short breaks from standing imposingly behind a Writers Guild of America picket line, Scabby the Rat kept quietly trying to give striking Hollywood writers a copy of his screenplay, sources confirmed Tuesday. âUh, this is super embarrassing, and I really hate to do this, but if youâve got a fewâŠ
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
Warning: this letter includes a death by suicide.
A reader writes:
I work for a small company (about 150 employees) that is about to merge with another company. We are in the midst of planning for allocating offices and reconfiguring our space to make it work, but our leadership team is stuck on what to do with one office in particular.
About four years ago, one of our employees died by suicide in her office. While her family asked that the cause of death not be disclosed, her body was found by a coworker and the manner of death required a full scale cleaning and refurbishment of her office. The whole office was closed for a week and Iâm certain that the rumor mill did its thing and that most folks at the time knew what happened and where it happened. She was in a role that meant she interacted with everyone in the company and it was a deeply traumatizing event.
In the aftermath there were several employees who requested to do various cleansing or religious rituals in the space (burning sage, having a priest bless it, bringing in a psychic to send a message to our deceased coworker) but leadership felt like that could get both practically and legally problematic in a hurry, so said âno.â Despite the fact that the office in question would be highly desirable under normal circumstances (large space, lots of windows, a beautiful view), nobody wanted to move into it.
After about six months, there was some discussion about converting the office into some other kind of space but nobody could agree on what it could be used for since some people flatly refuse to enter it. Then the pandemic hit and it became a moot point due to remote working.
Now we are about to begin sharing office space with new people and that office is still vacant and there is kind of an unspoken office taboo about it (even some staff who werenât working here when the incident happened wonât go into it). On the transition planning team we have one person who thinks we should just give it to the new people, with no reference to the history. One person thinks we should convert it into a storage room (which we donât need), and one person who thinks we should offer it to the new people but give them a heads-up about why people are weird about the space. But if that means that they donât want it either ⊠does it just sit empty forever? We have pretty low turnover so it is entirely possible that there will be people still working here in 20 years that knew about the event, so will it forever be âhauntedâ? I think someone on our leadership team should just take it but Iâve been overruled.
Whatâs the right thing to do here?
Turn the space into something else and make it as different as you possibly can.
Do you not need storage space because you already have sufficient existing storage spaces? If so, relocate one of them into this room. Or stick a copier in there, or filing cabinets, or a fridge and some cupboards. If you can bring in a carpenter so the space looks completely different, thatâs ideal. Knock down a wall, do a new layout, different paint, everything â but most of all you want a different use for the space so itâs not an office.
Your companyâs employees have made it clear that they canât see this as an office; they see it as the scene of something traumatic, and understandably so. Yes, itâs been four years â but people are allowed to feel what they feel, and what happened sounds awful enough that itâs not surprising that they do. And yes, itâs possible that if you assigned it to someone as their office and forced them to work in there, in time people would stop associating it with tragedy. And if the person you assign it to is one of the new people, maybe they wonât care that much. But maybe they will â and theyâre likely to hear about it from other employees at some point â and why do that to someone if you donât have to?
Itâs worth some reshuffling to respect peopleâs feelings.
We take a look at the ecosphere that was made with maximum biodiversity in mind. The last update was two and a half years ago. Is this closed ecosystem still very biodiverse after three years? What secrets has this three year old closed ecosystem to reveal? Enjoy!
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
Itâs five answers to five questions. Here we goâŠ
1. My employee assumes Iâll always pay for her food
This is more of an âam I the asshole?â type question. My husband and I run a small business and have one full-time employee, Jane. During tax season, itâs really stressful and one day we decided to take a break and take our employee down the street to a nice restaurant and treat for a big lunch as sort of a morale booster. We made it clear that we were treating, and the lunch was for our convenience during one of the 12-hour days. We put it on the company credit card, and it was a business expense on the books.
The next week was stressful but the weather was nice. Jane suggests we take an ice cream break. Great idea, letâs drive down and grab some. All three of us get in my car, I place the order and get out my personal credit card, and when it is time to pay, Jane doesnât even offer. She just stands there and lets me pay.
This week, there is a calendar entry that neither my husband nor I made that says âTaco Tuesday.â Jane made it. She thought it would be a good idea to take a therapeutic break to go grab lunch again. I agreed, so we all go out to lunch and when the bill arrived she jumped up from the table and went to the restroom. I sorted out my husbandâs and my share plus tip and laid cash in the folder, and when Jane came back she said, âThanks for lunch.â I said, âI didnât think this was a business lunch!â like I was surprised. She was embarrassed and grabbed her card and paid for her share, and then hid from me for the rest of the work day. Should I have discussed beforehand that we werenât going to eternally pay for lunches and ice cream? I think I handled it fine, but Iâm not a professional manager/HR person.
It can be tricky in these situation to know whoâs paying for what, because itâs so common for managers to always cover the bill when theyâre out with employees. If you had been the one to suggest the tacos or the ice cream, Jane wouldnât have been wrong to assume you were paying ⊠unless you said something ahead of time like ânot our treat this timeâ or âcanât expense it, but want to go grab X with us?â (as the boss, you should always make that clear before someone accepts the invitation so they know the terms). But even with Jane being the one to initiate the plans, a lot of bosses still would have picked up the bill; itâs just a common thing that happens because of the power dynamics. Jane shouldnât have assumed you would, though, since she was the one to propose the plans.
In any case, because the power dynamics make the âwho pays?â question less clear than it would be if you were all peers, ideally you would have addressed it up-front before solidifying plans. For example: âWe canât do it as a business lunch â we donât budget for a lot of those â but if weâre all paying our own way, sure!â Or, âI saw you put Taco Tuesday on the calendar! Itâs not something the business would pick up the tab for, but Iâm always up for sharing the bill on tacos if you want to.â Or just addressing the pattern head-on: âWeâve covered some treats lately but we canât do that as a regular thing. If itâs an event we initiate, weâll always cover the tab, but otherwise I wouldnât want you to assume that.â
Also, if itâs just a time or two, itâs worth it to have the business pick up the bill as a small investment in morale, even if you hadnât originally planned to! But it does seem like a pattern was developing that you needed to clarify.
2. Should I tell a community partnerâs boss that he was unprofessional?
Iâm a program manager for a school board. My staff work in schools providing education around mental health. I am new to this role (this is my third month) and prior to this I was in the same position as my now staff.
Part of my staffâs role is to make connections with community partners and bring them into schools for presentations. The idea is that if the students meet these people in a safe environment, they are more likely to seek them out outside of school. We have worked with one organization for a long time. Today one of my employees came to me with a concern about one of this organizationâs staff, John.
John was booked to come into a class and do a series of presentations on topics like financial literacy, career planning, and conflict management. My staff had told me earlier that he had been hard to get organized. He wouldnât answer emails and missed several deadlines in confirming dates and sending us information on his topics that we could pass along to the teachers. He also just didnât show up for one of the sessions. When that happened, I emailed his supervisor to make sure he was okay. Apparently his schedule had changed and he said he sent an email that must not have gone through (we did receive an email from him about 10 minutes after his supervisor replied, saying he wouldnât be coming that day, but by that point it was three hours after the scheduled session).
Today my employee told me that the teacher told her they donât want John to come back. Apparently he was not very professional in how he spoke to the students, talked about how he never finished high school and was doing great, made jokes about high school not being important, didnât manage his time so didnât get through all the content, and acted, in her words, âlike a bro, not a professional trying to educate students.â
Iâm wondering if I should say anything to Johnâs supervisor. We could very easily just not invite him back, but if we want to work with this organization again, John is their go-to person for youth presentations. It would be near impossible to not have him assigned to the job if we asked for more presentations. And it seems weird to ask for someone else without giving a reason. I know if my employee behaved like that, I would want to know so I could coach them to improve.
This is my first time in a management role. Previously if I had a situation like this, I would tell my manager and let them deal with it. But now Iâm the manager! Iâm also an anxious person who hates conflict, so this is extra challenging for me.
Yes, contact Johnâs manager. Those are serious issues for someone whoâs presenting to students, and it doesnât make sense to invite the organization back without addressing it. Itâs very reasonable to explain what happened and ask if they can send someone else in the future. (What they do with that information in regard to addressing it with John is then up to them.)
3. Canât get an answer to a time-off request from new job
At the end of March, my partner accepted a new job with a start date of May 15. In the offer conversation, he brought up two somewhat-long vacations that we have planned for the summer (one for two weeks and one for four weeks). The organization said that they would try to accommodate him and would let him know as soon as possible. We understand that these lengthy amounts of time off may not be approved, but would like to know either way so that we can plan. The two-week trip is to Alaska at the end of June, and plane tickets just keep getting more and more expensive with each week that they donât provide an answer.
My partner continues to follow up each week, and multiple times now the answer has been, âWeâll let you know by next week.â Three weeks later, we still donât have an answer. Weâre beginning to feel pretty frustrated and think that this may be a red flag that this organization doesnât value employee work/life balance. Is there a reasonable or standard amount of time for getting time off approved before starting a new job? Is this a ridiculous thing to back out of a job over?
Itâs possible thereâs something going on that genuinely makes it hard for them to answer him yet, but if you need the answer right now youâre safer assuming itâs a no and planning accordingly.
Would your partner have accepted the job if the company had said no to the vacation time initially? If so, I donât think their delay warrants backing out of the offer; it sounds like theyâre at least trying to make it work and probably donât realize theyâre making things harder on you. If he might not have accepted the job originally if theyâd said no ⊠well, it doesnât sound like thatâs the case, but if it were, he could try one final âIâm sorry to keep asking, but at this point the timing means I really need a clear answer so I can planâ ⊠but if theyâre not ready to give a yes, that statement just makes it more likely that theyâll give a no. Which means he likely needs to choose between a clear no right now or a potential yes with a longer wait to get it.
4. If I quit, will I have to pay my org back for the leadership program theyâre sponsoring me in?
I work at a nonprofit that has been going through transitions, including a change in the executive director. A year-long program for developing leaders in a sector (that my organizationâs work covers) launched in my city at the beginning of the year. I told my organization that we should have someone apply even though the role that would normally lead my organizationâs work in that sector has been vacant for almost a year. It was decided I was the best person to apply for the program, and I got in. It also looks like my organization wants to move me up into that vacant role.
I am looking to leave my organization, preferably sooner than later. I would have a little guilt if I left soon after getting promoted, but I can deal with that. The issue is my work paid for my participation in that program. Itâs not a super high amount, but it is an amount I would not want to pay my organization back. It feels different from (for example) them paying for me to attend a conference and me leaving, because I assume in those situations the organization eats the cost and the employee wonât still get to go to the conference, etc. I would/could continue participating in the program, so I would still be getting benefits. It also would mean my organization wonât benefit from having a staff person in that program, making connections, learning about best practices, etc., despite paying for someone to go.
I just want to get a gauge of what is normal in this type of situation. Is it a normal âsucks for the organization, they shouldâve retained the person they were investing in betterâ situation? I canât imagine the right route would have been for me to decline opportunities because I knew I wanted to leave at some point.
Yeah, this is basically the same as with business travel, conference registration, etc. â as long as youâre still working there and donât have concrete plans to leave (like another job that youâve accepted, not just âIâm hoping Iâll be leaving soonâ), it makes sense to proceed with arrangements the same way you would if you were planning to stay. Thatâs because thereâs no guarantee that youâll be gone by the time those things roll around, and it doesnât make sense to put your work and professional development on hold meanwhile. Then if you end up leaving before the thing your employer has paid for has happened, the organization does typically eat that cost. (Sometimes they can transfer the thing they paid for to someone else, but not always. If the leadership program is already underway, this is probably a case where they cannot, and thatâs just how this stuff goes.)
Do be prepared, though, that they might expect you not to continue in the program â probably not, but if youâre really there to represent the organization and its interests, it could come up. If itâs more about professional development for you and youâve already started the program, itâs less likely. But either way, paying them back shouldnât come up.
5. Are salaries typically listed as pre- or post-tax?
A university Iâm hoping to work for lists a range of target salaries with the other details on their job board. These seem to always be specific, not-round numbers (think $4627 monthly). Do you think the sums they list are pre- or post-tax? I assume theyâd want to list the pre-tax wages since those will be more and will attract the eye, but theyâre such specific numbers Iâm not sure. Or maybe in fields other than the one Iâm coming from itâs customary to give very precise salary ranges, even pre-tax? In my current field itâs a very standard â$900/week, 60 hours guaranteedâ type thing and always pre-tax.
Itâs almost certainly pre-tax.
It would be extremely weird if they were listing salaries post-tax because (a) thatâs not how this is ever done and (b) they canât know what tax bracket youâre in so they couldnât accurately list the post-tax amount regardless.
Universities â like government employment â often list their salaries as very specific, non-round numbers because they are weird bureaucracies.
Good morning. Houston just experienced what was very likely its final truly spring-like weekend of the season, with temperatures bottoming out at 53 degrees on Sunday morning. Weâre about five degrees warmer this morning, and after a few more nights in the 60s, lows are headed to the 70s by Friday morning, and we probably will stay there for awhile.
In truth, it has been a splendid spring. We have seen mild weather since mid-February, and while March was a few degrees above normal, April was a few degrees below normal. The bottom line is that weâve had about 75 days of mostly temperate days and mostly cool-ish nights. To top it off, April brought some widespread rains that provided our region with a nice foundation of moisture heading into the hotter time of year. After these April showers, only Brazoria County is experiencing slightly drought-like conditions.
Yes, April had some warm days. But most of the time we were in the 70s with pleasantly chilly nights. (National Weather Service)
Of course all good things must come to an end. We still can see decent cold fronts in May, but time is running out. And there is scant sign of the next front in the models through the middle of the month. While things can certainly change, it seems pretty clear that spring is ending, and pre-summer has begun. For the next four to five months we can expect predominantly humid conditions, with warm to hot days. Some of you live for this weather, to which I say bless your hearts.
An âomega blockâ pattern is set up for this week in the United States. (Weather Bell)
Expect highs today to reach about 85 degrees with mostly sunny skies. Light winds will turn more southerly this afternoon. Lows tonight will drop into the mid-60s with partly cloudy skies. Rain chances are zero.
Tuesday and Wednesday
Expect a pair of partly sunny days with highs in the mid-80s. Lows will again be in the 60s. Winds will generally be light, out of the east and southeast. Humidity will be slowly rising, but not reaching oppressive levels. So these days should be fairly nice.
Thursday and Friday
A more pronounced onshore flow resumes by Thursday or so, and this will lead to more humid air. Highs may hold on in the mid-80s on Thursday, but by Friday weâll see temperatures close to 90 degrees. Both days have a slight chance of seeing some light rain, along with partly to mostly cloudy skies.
Saturday and Sunday
The weekend looks warm, with highs of around 90 degrees, and partly to mostly cloudy skies. Lows by this point will only be dropping into the mid-70sâso almost summertime lows. Rain chances are sort of a question mark at this point. The air will be moistening, and weâre going to see a few disturbances pass overhead. But is it all going to come together and produce some rain? Iâll broad-bush some 30 percent chances for both days, and hope to get a more precise forecast for you in a day or two.
Next week
The pattern we see this weekend looks set to continue for most of next week. So lots of upper 80s and possibly lower 90s, to go along with warm-ish nights. As I said, welcome to pre-summer, Houston.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
Last month we had a letter from someone whose coworkers kept asking about her assault and were being really pushy about getting answers. Hereâs her update. (Content warning for discussion of assault below.)
Thank you so much for the advice! It was really helpful to get a more objective view of the situation, and to feel so much support from the commenters! Initially it seemed like some of your suggested responses were helping my coworkers understand how intrusive they were being. Unfortunately, things got significantly worse before they got better.
One of the other admins in my office, Jane, would. not. leave me alone about it. She said she just wanted to help, so I tried your suggestion and said that what I really needed was to stop being asked about it constantly, and asked her to help field off the rest of the office. I said that I knew everyone meant well (although at this point I was really doubting whether that was true), but being interrogated about it fifty times a day was making it impossible to focus on my work, and that if she could discreetly tell our coworkers to cut it out I would be very grateful. She agreed, but instead of doing anything helpful she convinced another of our coworkers, Jack, that cornering me in the kitchen and refusing to let me leave unless I told him what happened would solve all of my issues. From what I pieced together after the fact, she thought that I wasnât telling anyone what happened because I was afraid of whoever did this to me and that having a strong man on my side to protect me would fix it. (?!?!?!)
Later that afternoon I went to the kitchen to make a mug of tea, and Jack came up behind me to ask about the bruises again. I didnât know he was there, so I jumped when he started talking, then tried scooting past him so I wouldnât be blocked into a small room by a very large and strong man. He put his hand up on the wall to prevent me from leaving, and said he wasnât going to move until I told him what happened. I feel somewhat bad about this, but I completely lost it on him. Everything had been building up for days at this point, and I just couldnât take it anymore. The constant pestering was hard enough, but being physically trapped by a man so soon after being assaulted pushed me over the edge. I started yelling. âWhat the fuck do you think happened, Jack? Are the literal bite marks not enough to get the point across? I have been doing everything I can to keep coming in here every day so that everyone else wonât have to take on another 15 hours of work this week when all I want to do is curl up into a ball and die, and the only thanks I get is to constantly be cornered and interrogated about my face! I think itâs pretty clear what happened! I donât understand why you think this is any of your goddamn business! I am traumatized! I am trying to do everyone here a favor in the middle of the worst thing that has ever happened to me and every single one of you has only made things ten times worse! You are not helping and I cannot do this anymore!â I was hysterically sobbing, Jack was stumbling over himself trying to apologize and get out of my way, and since literally everyone in the office was within earshot of me yelling, every other coworker was either staring at us horrified or guiltily trying to avoid eye contact with me. I didnât have it in me to try and do anything else, so I walked to my desk, grabbed my keys, and left everything else behind.
Luckily I was able to get an emergency session with my therapist scheduled that evening, where we decided that a few days in an inpatient facility would be hugely beneficial in my recovery. Iâm still frustrated with my office, because I donât think that would have been necessary had they just listened to me, but it is what it is. I notified my immediate supervisor that I would be using PTO for the rest of the tax season, and that I was planning on returning at the end of April but Iâd be in touch with more specific details when I was able.
My office pays for every employee and a plus one to go on a week long, all expenses paid vacation to Costa Rica right after tax season ends as a thank you for all of our hard work. I almost didnât go because I was so afraid of seeing my coworkers again after my outburst, but I decided Iâd worked too damn hard to turn down a very expensive stay in an all inclusive resort. The airport gate was the first time Iâd seen anyone since my breakdown, and it was incredibly awkward. For the most part, people seemed too ashamed to talk to me at all. One of my supervisors did come over to personally apologize for not stepping in earlier, and said that the entire company really just wanted me to enjoy the vacation. She said she couldnât think of a single member of our team who deserved it more than me, and that she didnât want to get into things until we were actually back at work, but wanted to tell me that I would not be facing any repercussions so that I didnât have to worry about it while I was supposed to be on vacation. She also let me know that the company would be upgrading me from economy to business on the flight there and back, giving me a gift certificate for the resort spa, issuing me a bonus in my next paycheck as a token of their appreciation for all my hard work, as well as granting me an extra week of PTO to replace the time off Iâd had to use at the end of tax season. The resort ended up being big enough that I didnât see a single one of my coworkers the entire week we were there, which I will forever be grateful for.
Seeing as my life is not an episode of Criminal Minds, Iâm still pretty upset with the way my coworkers treated me in their quest for juicy information. However, the bonus I received will more than cover my mental health care expenses since Iâm lucky enough to have very good health insurance, sitting in the sun on a beautiful beach did wonders for my state of mind, and not a single intrusive question has been asked since Iâve returned to the office. Iâve received handwritten apologies from both Jack and Jane that seem very genuine, my clients were all handled perfectly while I was out, and for the most part things have gone back to normal. My biggest takeaway is that Iâm allowed to advocate for myself and my needs, and that even if itâs inconvenient, your company will always find a way to make it work. I will absolutely be taking the time off in the future if I need it, as I probably could have avoided a lot of the stress Iâve experienced over the past month if I had just done that from the start. Honestly I just hope I can move on, and that my coworkers have learned that a good bit of gossip is not more important than someoneâs actual feelings!
Amazon has announced it's making over 100 Prime Video original series and movies available on Freevee, its free streaming service. It seems to be a natural part of the lifespan for exclusive video content these days: In April, HBO and Warner Brothers made a bunch of their shows available for free on Roku, some of which originally aired on TV.
The full list of Prime original content expanding to Freevee isn't available yet, but titles will include The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Wheel of Time, Late Night, Troop Zero and Reacher. The 100-plus titles won't all arrive at once, as Amazon reports that new series and movies will become available on Freevee throughout the year.
It appears that Amazon is dedicated to using Freevee to capture the free-streaming market. Last year, it rebranded IMDB TV into Freevee in a move it said reflected the streaming service's free access â other names reportedly in consideration included "Zon" and "Free TV." Ads are likely a small inconvenience for many people when Amazon Prime starts at $14.99 a month or $139 a year for individuals. You can access Freevee through Amazon and its Fire TV stick or as an independent app on iOS, Android, Xbox, most smart TVs and other systems.Â
Freevee already produces a range of original content, like Americaâs Test Kitchen: The Next Generation and Judy Justice. The streamer also offers titles outside the Amazon production family, including Schitt's Creek, John Wick and Bones.Â
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-making-over-100-prime-video-originals-available-for-free-160032958.html?src=rss
WASHINGTONâGesturing with a frail hand while shuddering under a blanket, President Joe Biden reportedly asked the nation Monday to come and sit by him and keep him company until the end. âCome, my hour draws near,â said Biden, who patted the couch cushion and spoke in a strained whisper as he urged all 330 millionâŠ
