Free Speech Systems submitted the filing during a two-week trial to determine how much the Texas-based conspiracy theorist will award the parents of a victim in the 2012 school shooting, prompting speculation about the company’s effort to avoid bankruptcy oversight as a small business.
Hovertext: Why are we so focused on the ethically good and not the ethically OK?
Today's News:
Sorry for the dearth of blogs. Thank you Pablo for the check-in. I am finalizing a manuscript for our next big pop sci book and there is no time for thoughtful opinions on gourds. More soonish, I promise!
Life has its ups and downs. Same for the economy. Today we ask, can the business cycle be tamed? Two stories of recession and techniques for moderating the ferocity of booms and busts. Plus, how bankruptcy is a secret weapon of the American economy. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. | At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.
Let’s talk about states of matter. You know your states of matter don’t you? We have solids, liquids and gasses, and plasmas, quark-gluon plasmas, nuclear matter, bose-einstein condensates, neutronium, time crystals, and sand. Come to think of it, maybe I don’t know my states of matter. Or what a state of matter even is. Let’s see if we can figure it out.
Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by: Fernando Franco Félix & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria GFX Visualizations: Ajay Manuel Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executives in Charge (PBS): Adam Dylewski, Maribel Lopez Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
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I have an employee, Tim, who is a highly focused, highly productive member of the team. He frequently has personality clashes with others on the team that usually, but not always, stem from an imbalance of work. Tim has been our “old reliable” in his role, while many others have come and gone over the last three years. As a result of his stability, high productivity, and professionalism, he has been given multiple pay raises that are higher than others in the same role, as well a “senior” in his title, denoting his experience and rank. He also receives regular shout-outs from varied teams, showering him with praise for his good work. Lastly, he was granted permission to work at home full time, while his counterparts (newer hires) are required to work physically in the office five days a week.
All of this said, Tim routinely gets aggravated because it’s very noticeable that he’s more productive than other members of the team. He claims to be so stressed about his work that it affects his home life.
But the thing is, he’s not working any overtime. He’s not working any more hours than his coworkers. Some work more hours than he does. He works 40 hours a week on the dot, but gets twice as much done as his coworkers. He has never been put under pressure to “get it all done” and we have reiterated to him many times that he is welcome to step away from his work when he needs a break, and allow other, less experienced people on the team to pick up the slack. But he won’t. It’s like he is compelled to do everything he can, as quickly as he can, all day long, and if others can’t keep up, he considers them totally incompetent and worthless. He makes a big stink about it every few months and threatens to quit.
How do I get him to realize that: a. He is compensated more because he is more productive. b. His good work earns him more public praise and the “senior” title he holds. c. If others are held to the same standard, for less pay and less praise and a lesser title, how fair would that be? d. He is not working any overtime, nor is he pressured to work overtime. e. He has remote work privileges that his coworkers (at lesser pay rates) do not.
He is not, in any way, getting the short end of the stick … but considers himself to be taken advantage of. How do I tactfully reset his perspective without telling him he’s being spoiled and self-centered?
I wrote back and asked, “When he has these freak-outs, what is he asking for? Or what is your sense of what he wants/what he’s looking for?”
It seems he wants us to push his coworkers to be more productive. I generally will outline my tactics to do so, and then check in with him again a couple weeks later to see if he feels they’ve made a difference.
Sometimes I think he’s feeling for other opportunities within the company, which is okay, but he’s concerned that if he’s too good at his current role and his direct coworkers aren’t carrying their weight, he won’t be able to get promoted or do more project based work as opposed to the transactional stuff he does now.
So … I think you might be making a similar mistake as the manager in yesterday’s letter who asked an employee to act on a complaint that she didn’t actually agree with.
If you don’t agree with Tim that the rest of the team needs to be more productive, it doesn’t make sense to tell him that you’ll push them to do that. If you do agree with him, then you need to be actively managing the others yourself, not waiting for Tim to raise concerns about them. But it sounds like this is just Tim’s opinion and you don’t share it — in which case you need to tell him more clearly, “I am happy with the rest of the team’s work. They are producing at the level I expect from them and for which they’re paid.”
It sounds like time to consider whether Tim has outgrown his role and whether the best thing you can do as his manager is to help him find a higher-level position that he’ll be happier in. That doesn’t mean pushing him out if he doesn’t want to go — but it could mean explicitly naming for him that you think this might be the situation, helping him explore other positions, and helping him get considered for other roles within your organization.
Big caveat: That assumes you can wholeheartedly recommend him for those other roles! If Tim’s colleagues can tell that he considers them “totally incompetent and worthless,” you’d need to really think about how strongly you can recommend him for other jobs, especially ones in your own organization. Alienating his coworkers is a big deal and, depending on the specifics of how that’s played out, might be something that should be a significant worry — both currently and for any future job.
Beyond that, I don’t think you need to try this hard to find a way to convince Tim to see the situation the way you do. You definitely should spell out everything from your letter if you haven’t already — that he’s paid more, gets more public recognition and more perks, and has a higher title because he’s more productive and that he isn’t expected to work any overtime — but you can’t force him to see things the way you want him to. Explain it clearly and calmly and hear him out to make sure there’s not a piece of his perspective that you’re overlooking, but from there it’s not your responsibility to cajole him into seeing things differently.
It is your responsibility to ensure he doesn’t disrupt your team or alienate his colleagues. One big piece of that: when he threatens to quit, you don’t need to soothe him and woo him back. The better move might be to say, “I understand if that’s what you’d like to do. Let me know if that’s what you decide.”
I assume you’ve been hesitant to do that because Tim does great work and you want to keep him. But you’re never going to keep anyone forever — he’s going to leave at some point because everyone does — and things might be at the point that all you can or should do is clearly lay out the situation, offer him help in changing jobs if he wants it, and let him decide how he wants to respond (as long as that response doesn’t involve being disruptive or awful to his coworkers).
New, untested abortion bans have made doctors unsure about treating some pregnancy complications. That's led to life-threatening delays, and trapped families in a limbo of grief and helplessness.
Ramon G. Deanda, “Rumbo Al Paraiso (En Route to Paradise),” 2018, woodcut print, 12 x 16 inches.
Eight years ago, Mr. Deanda was given a rare opportunity by a family friend who offered to sell him five acres of land for $4,000. According to Mr. Deanda, the property’s previous owner thought that an artist could use the land to build a cabin and draw inspiration from the environment. A printmaker and sculptor, Mr. Deanda often uses West Texas imagery, like desert landscapes and animals, as well as references to West Texas’ culture and economy, to highlight issues related to capitalism, power, and human rights. With his father, the artist began construction on a studio space on the property.
Artist Ramon G. Deanda (right) and his father (left).
Mr. Deanda told Glasstire, “To me, it’s full circle. I started this thanks to working with my dad [and his friends] since I was a kid… and then, all through college working with them paying for tuition… and now, as a professional I’m still working with them, but instead of working for other people we’re building our own structure.”
The first elements of the 1,500-square-foot structure went up six years ago, but the project stalled until recently, in part because the artist was not fully based in Presidio for some of those years. Mr. Deanda received his BFA in Odessa at the University of Texas Permian Basin in 2011, and his MFA from the University of South Alabama in Mobile in 2019. After pouring the concrete foundation in 2021, earlier this year Mr. Deanda found new inspiration for the space through conversations with Adele Jancovici. Ms. Jancovici is the founder of LLAP (Le Livre Art Publishing) and a new Presidio transplant, and is planning to open a gallery in the city.
Ramon G. Deanda’s studio in progress. Photograph via Instagram, posted on March 12, 2021.
When asked what impacted him about his conversations with Ms. Jancovici, Mr. Deanda said, “It was a phrase that she told me, ‘What you decide is on the other side of fear.’ And I decided I’m going to stop being afraid and just go with it. Starting in January [2022], I haven’t stopped working and adding to my future studio.”
The interior of Ramon G. Deanda’s studio, which is currently in progress. Photograph via Instagram, posted July 7, 2022.
Mr. Deanda’s timeline for completing the community studio space is still a year or two away depending on funding, but he intends to have the exterior of the structure completed by the end of this year. The artist is mostly funding the project himself through his job working at a local high school, and through sales of his work.
Ramon G. Deanda transports two printing presses. Photograph via Instagram, posted June 16, 2022.
Recently Mr. Deanda also received two printing presses from a former professor who now works at California State University, Fresno. Initially Mr. Deanda drove out to see a lithography press, but while in Fresno, he also learned that an etching press was available. Both have been transported back to Presidio and will be part of the future studio.
Though originally Mr. Deanda thought of the space as a personal studio, his intentions have shifted; he plans to make his printing presses available to other artists, both locals and those visiting. Oftentimes, after leaving university, artists do not have access to large-scale printing equipment. While larger cities sometimes have community presses and printshop membership opportunities (like the Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Austin and Burning Bones Press in Houston) the West Texas region lacks these types of facilities.
Additionally, Mr. Deanda plans for his studio to be a space for community building around art through learning opportunities and through fostering artistic dialogue. Mr. Deanda hopes to open the space to young artists as well, and has talked about the possibility of apprenticeship opportunities. As an educator, this is particularly important to Mr. Deanda who sees a lack of these types of resources in Presidio.
Marfa (which is about sixty miles north of Presidio) has school tours, workshops, and educational resources offered through the Chinati Foundation, year-round arts educational programs offered for children and adults through the Marfa Studio of Arts, and an after school program for high school students that provides studio space, art supplies, and mentorship. Talking to Glasstire about the availability of arts resources for the community in West Texas, Mr. Deanda stated, “If Marfa can have something like that, then why can’t Presidio?”
Hey man, I know we never really speak—but I’m about to have loud sex. Like really loud. We’re talking a troop of howler monkeys absolutely going to town on each other in front of a megaphone loud.
Like a horde of demons unleashed from hell loud. Like the Blue Man Group wailing on each other’s asses to create a human bongo loud.
This is the most I will ever say to you.
Sure, you may get a mumbled introduction to my partners as we hastily scramble our way up the stairs—but all the other details of my life will remain a mystery.
You don’t learn much from our brief glances in the hallway.
Do I play tennis? Maybe. Sing? Perhaps. Do I fuck real noisy? Absolutely.
That is more than most people will ever know each other. Me, deep in the throes of passion with an indeterminate amount of people. You, listening through the walls, I imagine, like an eager Dutch child waiting for Sinterklaas on Christmas Eve.
It’s beautiful. Don’t you think? Two strangers, joined by Craigslist, becoming as close as two humans with nothing in common can be.
Not that you’ll get an accurate picture of what we’re doing. No. To you, it’ll sound as if I’m smacking around a pair of wet bowling balls and groaning with the ferocity of a mountain gorilla.
Just as it should be.
We’ve never discussed what I do for work. But it’s a smart hypothesis that I don’t work mornings. Seeing as I’m shagging well into the witching hour.
The witching hour is what I call it when it sounds like I’m boning the soul out of twenty-five horny witches.
Sure, there may be some gentle moments of silence. Yet just as the eye of a hurricane provides a temporary respite from the raging wind, the worst is yet to come.
The house walls will shake.
Books will tumble from their shelves.
The floors will buckle under the immense weight of my pleasure.
The auditory sensation of a naked, thrusting freight train will crash down upon you. You’ll beg God to return you to your old life—and receive no answer.
Then, as quickly as it began, the sexy storm will end.
A smattering of footsteps will waltz carefully as field mice from the house.
You’ll peek out your door, hoping for a glimpse of what has transpired. However, it will be only me—red, sweaty, and expressionless.
I’ll say, “What’s up?”
You’ll answer, “Not much.”
Then you’ll retreat to your room without a hint of who caused the ten-megaton nuclear fuckfest that just rained down from the heavens.
“Did it even happen?” You wonder. Is a sex sesh with the combined energy of five-hundred tuna slapping together in a net even possible? Or was it some magical dream of lust, passion, and butt boinking?
Remember Judge Alan Albright? He was the former patent litigator who became a federal judge (the only federal judge) in Waco, Texas, which is part of the Western District of Texas. You may remember, going further back, that the Eastern District of Texas became quite infamous for being the favored venue for of patent trolls, after a bunch of judges there made it clear that they were super friendly to them. That resulted in two courts in the district, Marshall and Tyler, being flooded with patent cases. The Supreme Court cut back on that a little bit, by saying that such cases should be filed in the proper venue. And, even though the West Texas judges tried their best to ignore the Supreme Court, things began to finally settle down a bit.
That seemed like a problem to Albright who, upon being appointed as the only federal judge in Waco, realized that he had gold on his hands, and literally went on a tour telling companies to file patent cases in his district. Since he was the only judge in that district, the cases were guaranteed to be assigned to him. In late 2020, two professors, Jonas Anderson and Paul Gugliuzza, called this out in a paper and referred to the concept as “forum selling,” as an alternative to the concept of “forum shopping” (plaintiffs searching for the most favorable venue to file suit in) that people have known about for years.
Just the fact that a judge was directly advertising for litigants to file in his court seemed pretty damn corrupt. That he was then flooded with cases, and appointed a patent troll lawyer to help him handle the load as a magistrate judge, seemed even more sketchy. At one point, one out of every four new patent cases in the entire country was going to Judge Albright — who was then basically resisting efforts by other courts to force him to transfer those cases. As Senators Thom Tillis and Pat Leahy noted last year, Waco would previously get about one or two patent cases every year, but after Albright became a judge there, it got nearly 800 such cases in 2020 and around 900 in 2021.
It got so crazy that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts weighed in at the end of last year, listing Judge Albright’s forum selling as one of the three biggest issues he saw facing the US judicial system.
Many of us have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it appears that the Western District of Texas federal courts have finally stepped in to try to solve their Judge Albright problem. Not by firing him, of course, because the US has a weird aversion to getting rid of even the worst judges.
However, on Monday, somewhat out of the blue, the Western District of Texas announced that, for patent cases, no matter which division you filed the case in, the case would be randomly assigned to a judge somewhere in the Western District but not necessarily the district you filed in. The order, from Chief Judge of the Western District Orlando Garcia, doesn’t try to hide what this is about. Everyone knows this is about Albright and his court in Waco:
Upon consideration of the volume of new patent cases assigned to the Waco Division, and in an effort to equitably distribute those cases, it is hearby ORDERED that, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 137, all civil cases involving patents… filed in the Waco Division on or after July 25, 2022, shall be randomly assigned to the following district judges of this Court until further order of the Court.
Basically, no more choosing Judge Albright for your patent cases. Yes, Judge Albright is one of the listed judges, but there are now 11 other judges who might get the cases as well, which massively diminishes the likelihood of any patent plaintiff of getting Judge Albright on their case.
This needed to be done. But the fact that this needed to be done seems like a condemnation of the entire system that allowed a Judge Albright situation to occur in the first place. The fact that it took two years to even attempt to fix it, during which time a ton of patent defendants were forced into Judge Albright’s court, should be seen as a real problem.
This fix is a band-aid. An important one, but one that should still call into question how we got here in the first place.
This video shows the development of the closed ecosystem in a jar containing fruit flies during a year, depicting various events including plant growth, the emergence of springtails, mites and rotifers and much more! Enjoy!
Sorry for the late post! Pearland and Friendswood were the big winners of Monday’s rainfall lottery. Pearland saw 1 to 3 inches east of 288, centered right over downtown. Friendswood saw a bit less, around 1 to 2 inches, mainly along and west of Dixie Farm Road.
Areas east of Highway 288 in Pearland and in the Friendswood area were the rainfall lottery winners on Monday. Congratulations! (RadarScope)
That was basically the only meaningful shower in our area yesterday. We will give it another go today.
Today
Atmospheric moisture is just a little higher today than it was yesterday. This should translate to at least a few additional showers and storms in the area. Indeed, we are already seeing at least a few showers on the radar as of this later than usual post. Much like yesterday, the heaviest action may be fairly isolated, but you could quickly go from no rain to 2 or 3 inches in the right scenario. Chances today are around 30 percent. Highs will be in the mid to upper-90s to near 100 in spots.
Wednesday through Friday
Yesterday I noted how this would probably end up being the most “normal” week we’ve had so far this summer. This is very much embodied in the forecast for Wednesday through Friday. First off, the heat will remain with us: Expect mid to upper-90s each day with 70s to near 80 each morning.
As far as rain chances go, there will be little in the way of specific predictability as to where and when rain will occur over the next few days. We know that there will be roughly a 20 to 30 percent chance each day, with storms likely starting on the edge of the sea breeze moving in from the Gulf. From there, atmospheric “bumper cars” will probably take hold, where outflow boundaries (or the rain cooled breezes that precede storms) bump into each other and form new storms on their way inland. There’s little predictability to how that all unfolds, short of us saying there’s a chance of storms each day. We may get a better sense of which days have higher rain odds than others as the week progresses.
Rainfall through Thursday morning will be very, very isolated, with many places seeing nothing, but others perhaps seeing an inch or two. (Pivotal Weather)
Inland areas won’t be shut out, but their rain chances are lower than in the city and south. We desperately need rain in some of those inland locales. Per the Houston National Weather Service office, the 0.21 inches of rain in College Station since June 1st makes for the driest June/July combo on record, back to 1882.
Weekend
More of the same, as it stands right now: Sun, clouds, mid to upper 90s or hotter and low-end rain chances each day.
Next week
We have not officially hit 100 degrees since Thursday. Could that change next week? Yes. High pressure is expected to re-intensify over Texas next week, which probably means we’ll lower the rain chances a bit and dial back up the heat a little more.
The upper level pattern next week as shown by the GFS ensemble is one that implies we will see weather that we are unfortunately familiar with this summer: Hot & mostly dry. (Weather Bell)
Monday and Tuesday probably start the same as the weekend, but things begin to cook for mid to late week.
Tropics
All is quiet. We’ll have our weekly Eye on the Tropics published later this afternoon explaining more about what’s happening.
I am applying for a director position that I was recruited to apply for (via a LinkedIn recruiter). The job description has changed and so have the requirements. I am beginning to think the application process is excessive? The process is such: cover letter, resume, four-question response (one-pager), behavior assessment, cognitive assessment, provide five work samples, six questions on culture/climate as relates to the company’s mission and how candidate fit (they stated they expect candidates to spend one hour at least on it), and re-creating a work sample project based on one of the companies core competencies/beliefs/plans, then email the project sample and ask questions, get feedback, and re-tweak as needed.
This to me is asking lots for a candidate before the interview. Am I off-base, or is this the new norm as companies have less face-to-face time with folks they hire? (This is a remote position.) Maybe I’m old school but cover letter, resume, interview, and even work samples seem adequate.
This is all before you’re even interviewed?! Yes, this is excessive. No, it’s not a new norm. No, you’re not old school or off-base.
This would be excessive even after you’ve been interviewed. Before you’ve been interviewed, it’s ludicrous — you haven’t had any chance to learn about the position and ask your own questions to determine if you’re even interested … and if they haven’t done even an initial screen to determine that you’re a plausible candidate, it’s in the realm of full-on offensive, given how utterly thoughtless it would be of your time. (To be clear, it’s utterly thoughtless regardless, but asking you to do all this before even bothered to assess you against their needs and the rest of the candidate pool would move it to a new level.)
Before you’ve been interviewed, it’s reasonable to ask for a resume, cover letter, and one existing work sample or possibly some very short answers to a very small number of very short questions. After they’ve done some initial screening and determined you’re plausible, it’s reasonable to ask for a very short exercise/work simulation. Once they interview you and you’ve been able to ask your own questions and establish mutual interest, it’s reasonable to ask for a little more — but at no point all of it. (And asking you to spend time pre-interview writing out answers to questions that they could just ask you in the interview — or going through a work/feedback/revise cycle — is just ridiculously thoughtless.)
Pass on this company.
2. How do I answer coworkers’ questions about all my band-aids?
I have obsessive compulsive disorder, autism, and ADHD, which my coworkers do not know about and I’d like to keep it that way. As you might be able to imagine, just making it through a day can be tough sometimes (in addition to my neurodivergencies, I also have depression and PTSD; talk about a cocktail!). One of the ways I soothe my anxiety is by picking the skin around my nails, often to the point where there are wounds. I’m working with a therapist and have been for years, but since it’s an anxiety behavior related to my three conditions, it’s not an easy habit to break. I’m quite good at hiding the actual habit from my coworkers, but not the consequences.
In order for me to, you know, not have giant gaping wounds on my fingers, I wear band-aids so that any particularly bad wounds can heal. But it’s never just one band-aid — sometimes it’s eight, nine, or even all my fingers. I even keep band-aids in my work bag in case I’ve had a particularly bad episode so I can patch myself up, or just replace one that’s looking kinda raggedy.
I recently had a coworker ask me about the band-aids (I was wearing seven at the time) and I just stammered out a response about being clumsy in the kitchen, because I both have never had anyone ask me about it and am afraid of accidentally saying something about my conditions (which would probably open a whole other can of worms). My company is very clear that they support people with disabilities and have committed to having at least 15% of the workforce be people with disabilities, but I’m still afraid of saying something and being treated differently. Nobody is so clumsy as to cut eight or nine fingers in the kitchen and I could tell my coworker was skeptical. I know bringing awareness to different types of neurodivergencies is important, and I’m okay with being the way I am, but I’ve disclosed to other employers before and have been treated differently, reprimanded unfairly, or even let go as being “not a good fit,” so I feel like my hesitancy is warranted. Do you have any advice for things I could say when people ask about my fingers?
“Oh, it’s a medical thing! Nothing to worry about.”
Because it is. They don’t need to know the details. “Medical thing” could cover anything from bad eczema to skin ulcers to who knows what.
Generally people who ask questions like this just assume there will be an interesting story about a one-time injury that you won’t feel uncomfortable sharing and they aren’t considering that it might be something more personal. If you breezily say “it’s just a medical thing,” most reasonably polite people will understand the subtext is “that’s all the info I want to share.” If someone does push for more, you can say, “Oh, nothing I want to get into at work, but I’m fine!”
3. Spotting mistakes in my cover letter after sending it in
I am a high school English teacher. I also tend to make typos when I’m tired or when stakes are high (for example, I filled in the wrong boxes on my college applications so my name — let’s say Harry James Potter — got printed as Harry James Potter James Potter). I am also experienced and good at what I do, so this hasn’t held me back as much as one would expect.
With that said, I am casually applying for other teaching jobs (I don’t need a new position but wouldn’t mind moving to a better paying district) and I noticed that I wrote the wrong school name repeatedly on one of my cover letters and email sending the cover letter in. It’s not a major difference (think “Fair Hills Magnet School” vs “Fair Hill Charter School”) but it does imply I haven’t done my research and that I don’t understand the type of the school. I’m tempted to email the hiring principal again and correct my mistake, but I’m worried that will look desperate and draw her attention to the matter.
Obviously this job is out the window, but should this happen to me — or anyone else in the future — what’s best practice here? Immediately email and correct? Ignore until it’s brought up? Change my name and move to a different country and never work in the field again? I’m aware of the irony with the specific subject that I teach and I know if I was on the other side of the table, I’d blackball myself from the district.
With a little, insignificant typo, ignore it and hope for the best. People are human and make mistakes, even outstanding candidates. But with something significant (like the name and type of the school, something they’re likely to notice and wonder about), it does make sense to email to correct it. Don’t make a big, lengthy thing out of it — just “how mortifying, I just realized I wrote ‘Fair Hills Magnet School’ but I of course realize you are a charter school and your name is Fair Hill.”
But more importantly, since it’s an ongoing issue, can you build a check into your process to catch it before stuff goes out this way? For example, can you have a checklist of things you look at before you consider a cover letter final, like employer name, date, your name, etc.? I’d rather you take an extra minute to spot it before it happens than have to correct it afterwards.
4. How to help underpaid female coworkers
My fiance recently started his first salaried office job at a small (less than 10 employees) company in a large city. He has two female coworkers who both work in the same role he does. One of them has been at the company in that role for two years, and the other was hired at the same time he was. He recently found out he’s being paid more than both of them by about $3,000 for the same work. His industry is a struggling one that pays poorly overall, and he’s working in an entry-level role, so his pay is already barely enough to cover a rented apartment with roommates — and his coworkers are making even less!
He’s incensed about this and I encouraged him to advocate to his boss (the man who owns the company) on behalf of his coworkers since his boss has already demonstrated he values my partner more. From what he’s told me, the boss is a holdover from a different time — one where paying women less for equal work was acceptable. He also sounds like he’s very easily angered by trivial things, and my partner is afraid that bringing it up will result in retaliation either against him or against the two coworkers. Because it’s such a small company, it doesn’t have an HR department my partner can go to.
But I really think that if women who aren’t receiving equal pay don’t have solidarity from their male colleagues, this whole stupid gender pay gap our society has insisted on maintaining is never going to be fixed. Is there anything he can do to help his coworkers receive equitable treatment without bringing the wrath of an out-of-touch and regressive boss down on all of their heads?
He can talk to his coworkers and tell them what he’s making, and he can tell them about the Equal Pay Act (which makes this illegal if they’re doing the same work, unless the pay difference is due to an established seniority or merit system, which doesn’t sound like the case). He should also tell them about the National Labor Relations Act, which protects employees’ right to discuss salary with each other, because the owner sounds like the type who will try to come down on them for that too. (That protection only applies to non-supervisory employees, but since this is an entry-role role, they’re covered.) From there, his coworkers can decide if they want to use the info about his salary as background info or explicitly in their own negotiations and whether they want to make this a group push or not. But the first step is for him to share the info with them.
5. I need to move up my resignation date
I finally landed an absolute dream of a job and am leaving my current company on good terms. My new job initially gave me a start date four weeks from when I signed the offer, so I was able to give three weeks notice and also take a week for myself.
They’ve now come back asking if I could start earlier, and I told them yes. Now, though, I have to move up my resignation date to the standard two weeks. Honestly, I’m tempted to just skip the time off I’ve taken to avoid the awkward conversation.
How would you got about having this conversation? Can I just send an email?
Don’t skip the week off you were planning! You tried to give extra generous notice but things changed and now you’ve got to give the standard two weeks. This isn’t like suddenly leaving them with only one week of notice, or if you’d sprung on them halfway through your notice period that actually you’re going to leave tomorrow; it’s just as if you’d first resigned today and given the normal two weeks. That’s not a major crime.
If you work in-person, don’t do it over email. Go talk to your boss in person (today!) and say, “Unfortunately I was hoping to be able to give extra notice but I’ve just found out circumstances have changed and I need to give a standard two weeks after all, starting today, so my last day will be (date).”
My two business partners (and their spouses) and I operate a successful agrotourism business, including an inn where guests come to enjoy delicious food, luxury accommodations, and the chance to do light agricultural work while being outside in the sunshine and fresh air. I own 70% of the company and they split the remaining 30%. This project was our dream; we left successful city careers to make this happen. We employ about 20 other people, but I’m overall in charge. There’s my partner, Alice (chief agricultural officer), and her wife Amy (head of guest services), and my partner John (CFO) and his wife Jenn (executive chef). Business is booming and the heart of it is the inn. None of that would happen without Amy and Jenn. Therein lies the problem.
Jenn’s culinary skills are outstanding, but it’s Amy who’s transformed the experience into something guests rave about. Amy’s job is to shepherd 4-12 guests at a time through a multi-day agricultural experience. Spending long hours with each group, she mentors them in their ag work, ensures safety/quality control, and sees that they’re comfortable and having a good time. From a guest’s perspective, she’s phenomenal – with stellar reviews — but she has a habit others find annoying: repeating anecdotes, explanations, and jokes. Amy’s background is theatre and education. A consummate professional, she’d never repeat a story to a guest – she has layers of stories for repeat guests – but she does repeat in front of other employees. Jenn finds this grating, disrespectful and rude, as does John. They continually complained and insisted that I speak to her, so I did.
I explained that it’s hard on others to hear the same things repeatedly. Amy replied that she does it to remember exactly what she needs to say. She compared it to being a teacher or tour guide: information need to be communicated and she’s found effective ways of doing it. She added that verbal patterns (repeating things) are how she keeps things straight with so many groups coming and going. I get that — you do what works. I also came from sales where people constantly used the same stories to make the same points to different clients. Amy asked me directly if it was Jenn who complained; I didn’t even answer before she said she could tell by my facial expression.
Things got worse and tensions are rising. Amy did tried to switch it up but said she felt anxious and nervous, especially if Jenn was around. She’s reverted to her original schtick, which continues to please guests but bothers John and Jenn. Jenn feels disrespected and unseen because she thinks I took Amy’s side. Did I? My solution was to try to coach Amy into creating new dialogue (failed) and allow Jenn and John to withdraw from the client-facing aspects of their job descriptions they’d previously disliked. This has made a small improvement because they interact less with “public Amy,” but they still maintain that she over-focuses on the clients to the detriment of her coworkers. This is all complicated by the fact that we have two married couples and they’re all on the same rung. We all began this project as friends; I just had more experience and capital. We need Jenn and her amazing kitchen skills as much as we need Amy. In fact, we need everyone here.
I know I blew this one. But what can I do now to fix it?
Since you may ask: The partnership is legally drawn-up and there are no significant issues with fairness, org chart, work distribution, business plan, money, etc. Up until this problem, we had no real problems. People are in charge of their own areas, but we’ve been making major decisions via a consensus model. Technically, I have final say, but I’m not sure what’s fair here.
– Farming in the Vortex of Discontent
Jenn and John are being ridiculous. What Amy is doing makes perfect sense in this context; her job is to entertain guests and impart information to them, and there are only so many ways you can do that. Having a “script” and recycling the same stories and ways of saying things is COMPLETELY NORMAL in this kind of job.
If Amy stuck to a script every time Jenn and John invited her over for dinner, they’d have grounds for being annoyed. But this isn’t a social situation, and social rules don’t apply! This is work, and Amy is essentially on a stage when she’s working with guests. Her patter isn’t directed at coworkers; it’s for guests. She’s doing her job, she’s doing it well, and her goal isn’t (and shouldn’t be) to entertain colleagues while she does it.
This is like if someone managing the sound system for an orchestra kept complaining about having to hear the same songs every night.
I think where you went wrong was by indulging their complaints and asking Amy to change things up. Jenn and John were in the wrong and you should have explained that to them, not tried to get Amy to comply.
As for what to do now … you can try laying this out for Jenn and John, emphasizing that Amy’s stories for the guests are for the guests, not them. Tell them they can’t apply social rules to a work situation. Tell them Amy’s reviews are stellar and her approach with guests has been transformative for the business. Tell them you need them to figure out how to make their peace with how Amy does her job, because you support her approach. And then ask, realistically, if they can live with that or not since it’s not going to change and if it’s a deal-breaker for them, you need to know that.
Because the thing is … “we absolutely need to keep everyone at all costs” isn’t a realistic or smart way to run a business, especially after the very early start-up stage. When that’s your mindset, you put up with behavior that harms the business … and you’ll find yourself putting an unreasonable burden on other people to keep the peace, as happened when you relayed those complaints to Amy. If you had a 50/50 partnership with Jenn and John, this would be harder, although still solvable — but 70% of this business is yours. You have the ability to say “here’s how I need things to run” and “here’s how things will run.” If Jenn and John can find a way to stay happily, great. But don’t get so focused on keeping them at all costs that you let them dictate unreasonable things to the rest of you. That’s much more likely to harm your business in the long run than having to hire a new chef and finance person if it comes to that.
“The name’s Bond. James Bond. Not ‘Jim’ Bond. Not ‘Jamie’ Bond. James Bond. Do you need me to spell that out for you?”
“I’ll have a martini. Shaken, not stirred. If it’s stirred, I’ll send it back.”
“Do you expect me to talk, Blofeld? Because I’m more than willing to talk. In fact, I’ll post about this on Yelp, Nextdoor, Facebook, Parler….”
“I have a license to kill. And I have another license, which permits me to make unscheduled inspections on behalf of the homeowner’s association. Open up.”
“Dr. No? That’s what I said when they told me to get vaccinated.”
“I work on Her Majesty’s Secret Service—and just to be clear, when I say ‘Her Majesty,’ I am absolutely not talking about that horrible Meghan Markle.”
“You only live twice: Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face. Of course, if you’re a lazy millennial, you’d probably just live once and then give up because it’s too much work.”
(After garrotting a man with an N95 mask) “I told you it’s impossible to breathe with these things on.”
(After impaling a man with a TV antenna) “It’s impossible to get good service these days.”
(After decapitating a McDonald’s employee) “He wasn’t even a bad guy. That’s just how I treat service workers.”
“There’s a saying in England: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Or an urban family having a barbecue in a public park, which is just as bad.”
“There’s a mole in MI6. You know what this means. Time to call the police.”
“For Queen and country! But not for the European Union—Brexit means Brexit!”
“I thought Christmas comes only once a year. Oh, I’m sorry, you can’t say ‘Christmas’ these days, can you? I suppose I should call you ‘Happy Holidays Jones.’ Anyway, shall we fuck?”
“My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done. Such as drinking Dom Pérignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs.” (NOTE: Bizarrely, this one’s already a real quote.)
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