When Maddie Messer was 12 years old, she noticed an unfair dynamic in the video games she loved: playing as a man was often free, but she had to pay to play as a woman. So ... she decided to take on the video game industry. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Professionalism isn’t a thing people are born knowing — and it’s often a rocky journey to figure it out. I want to hear about unprofessional things you did in your past (maybe the recent past, who knows). To kick us off, here are some great moments in unprofessionalism that people have shared here previously.
• I was in my early 20′s and working with a placement agency to find that perfect job that would take me out of food service. My agency contact had set up an interview for me for my dream job, the day after my birthday. Being young and not much of a responsible drinker, I partied like it was 1999. I showed up at the interview not just hung over but still drunk. The person conducting the interview asked me if I was sick, and if I was we could reschedule. I answered, “Nope, not sick, drunk.”
• I used to use my cubicle as an extension of my vanity at home. I’d usually put foundation and eye shadow on at home and then finish with mascara, blush, and lipstick at the office. (WHY?! Why could I not just apply those at home when I was obviously already in the throes of applying make-up?!) Sometimes I would just wait and put on all my make-up at the office. It was ridiculous. I had a full make-up kit in my drawer at work. I had an eye shadow palette. I had blending brushes. I had a hair straightener. What must people have thought as they passed my desk and saw a hair straightener plugged in?
• Phone interview for a bank role. They asked about how I would handle confidential information. I gave examples of experience I had with HIPAA info and handling private information and then I blurted out, “But ya know, everyone gossips!” I have no idea why I said that! I’m not a gossipy person! I think I was trying to say something funny or friendly or whatever to connect to the interviewer.”
• It was my first professional job out of college but I had been there at least a year. I was in the habit of making a cup of tea and chatting with my coworker who sat directly in front of the manager’s office. We had a new manager (one of my favorite managers so far!) and she had received a request from her boss to get something done ASAP and she asked me to do it. I replied, “Sure, right after I finish my tea” and then I kept chatting until I finished my tea.
• I once went to an interview where they asked for an example of a time I’d resolved conflict – and I responded with a terrible laugh and said, “Well, I’ve caused some trouble.”
Now it’s your turn. Please share in the comments.
And if you’re thinking it sounds like I’m collecting stories for Mortification Week 2022, coming this summer, you are correct.
This post contains minor spoilers for episode 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."
Each "Star Trek" Captain has a different style of leadership, but something that Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike does in the second episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" gives us a good idea of what his might be. The captains tend to either be a bit more standoffish and reserved, or they like getting into the thick of it with the entire crew of their ship, from the most junior ensign to visiting senior officers. In the episode 2, "Children of the Comet," Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) discovers some of the traditions on Pike's Enterprise, including a bit of harmless hazing as a part of "Enterprise Bingo" and a dinner with members of the crew in Pike's quarters. Pike cooks for those invited, and helmsman Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) explains that the captain likes to invite crew from all over the ship to join him along with senior staff in order to better understand everyone's experience on his ship. It brings to mind another Starfleet officer who loved to cook: Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) of the space station Deep Space Nine.
Pike and Sisko both understand that dining can be an important communal experience, and the act of cooking for the crew allows them to give back to the very people who put their lives at risk on captain's orders. They strive to be a part of the crew as much as they lead it, and it sets them apart from captains like Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and even James T. Kirk (William Shatner), who had to find other ways to connect with their crews.
Let's take a little look at the captains who cook, because everyone knows the way to the heart is through the stomach.
The Power Of A Shared Meal
Sharing a meal as a means of bonding is a human ritual that dates back to our earliest recorded history, because a person's gotta eat. What we eat tends to be influenced by a number of things, from available resources to cultural traditions. On "Star Trek," food scarcity is no longer an issue because of replicator technology, but some cooks still enjoy the joys of combining real ingredients to share with their loved ones. Sisko was taught to cook by his father, who owns a Creole restaurant in New Orleans, and he learned to show love through cooking for others. He cooks for his future wife, Kasidy (Penny Johnson Jerald), he cooks for his son Jake (Cirroc Lofton), and he even cooks traditional Ferengi tube grubs for Ensign Nog (Aron Eisenberg). Some of the crew are initially disarmed by Sisko's desire to not only cook for them but have them as guests in his quarters, as it breaks down the barriers between senior leadership and the rest of the crew. But they soon learn of the joys of jambalaya and a good souffle.
We similarly see Pike cooking for an overnight guest in the first episode of "Strange New Worlds," making pancakes from scratch, and in episode 2 he cooks a big dinner for the gathered crew. Some of the crew even help in the kitchen, including Hemmer (Bruce Horak), who helps cut vegetables for the salad. People from engineering, medical, command, and operations might not do much mingling outside of their teams, and these group dinners help them get to know one another as much as the captains get to know their crew. It's also a lot of fun for the audience at home, who get to see the Federation folks letting their metaphorical hair down and relaxing with one another in a brief moment of respite between adventures.
The Importance Of Food In Star Trek
Food is heavily affected by culture, and members of Starfleet can use their culinary knowledge to help win over some of their alien acquaintances. Just like Sisko cooking tube grubs for Nog helped the young cadet trust his captain more, a shared understanding of food and food customs can break down barriers. In the fifth season of "Deep Space Nine," Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) serves on a Klingon Bird of Prey alongside her Par'Mach'kai/Klingon boyfriend, Worf (Michael Dorn). When she enters the canteen and immediately comments on the poor quality of the stewed bog rat liver and mentions that bloodwine might make it passable, she ingratiates herself to the generally xenophobic Klingons. To make them like her even more, she reveals that she brought casks of bloodwine onboard before they left DS9, and she intends on sharing with her new comrades.
Beverages in particular seems to be a point of bonding in Starfleet, and there are as many unusual "Star Trek" drinks as there are kinds of food. Captain Kirk doesn't mind if there's contraband Romulan Ale aboard the Enterprise, for example, and bloodwine is a massive part of Klingon culture. There's also raktajino, a kind of Klingon spiced coffee that becomes the daily beverage of choice for quite a few of the various crew. One of the only times we get to see the crew truly at rest is when they're eating, and these moments provide vital insight into the characters. The crew on "Deep Space Nine" are also afforded the luxury of having several restaurants in the promenade and not just a basic ship's cafeteria. They can have a drink at Quark's, get some gagh at the Klingon restaurant, and then maybe slip into the holodeck for an after-dinner song courtesy of Vic Fontaine.
A Captain Who Cooks
Here's the thing: in a time when you could just replicate everything, taking the time and energy to cook from scratch is even more of an act of love. Sisko and Pike take the time to cook for people because it allows them to connect more deeply than they would otherwise, because they're both deeply damaged individuals who refuse to talk about their feelings. Pike knows his grim future, while Sisko feels distanced from everyone because the Bajoran prophets chose him as their emissary, and neither man knows how to share that alienating knowledge with their loved ones. On top of being the captains of their respective crews, they also both seem to take on a paternal role, offering advice and guidance to everyone who serves under them.
Picard may have a stellar mind, Kirk may have all of the swagger, and the rest of the captains are fine, I guess, but if I was given a choice of assignment, I would want to serve under Pike or Sisko. Not only do you know that you'll be treated with equal respect and generosity, but you'll also get some great starship-cooked food out of the deal. I, for one, need to try Sisko's chicken paprikash.
The Santa Fe-based arts and entertainment company Meow Wolf has announced its expansion into Texas. After hosting temporary immersive experiences in Austin as part of the South by Southwest festival, Meow Wolf’s next permanent projects will open in Grapevine (a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth) in 2023 and Houston in 2024.
Digital rendering of Meow Wolf facade.
In a press release announcing the new spaces, Jose Tolosa, CEO of Meow Wolf stated, “The Meow Wolf story universe is expanding, and Texas holds the keys to our next chapters. Opening a permanent exhibition in the largest and one of the most diverse states in the country has been on Meow Wolf’s radar for years, and we are excited to be formally underway. The opportunities this state has presented have already become the touchstones of a vibrant, arts-centric portal of imaginative creativity.”
Meow Wolf opened its first space, House of Eternal Return, in 2016 in Sante Fe, New Mexico. Since that time, it has opened two other permanent locations, or “portals”: Omega Mart at AREA 15 in Las Vegas and Convergence Station in Denver. Meow Wolf counts a combined total of over 3 million visitors to its three sites.
Meow Wolf’s expansion into Texas comes at a time when immersive art complexes are thriving. In addition to the various Van Gogh experiences across the state, other, more localized efforts, like Hopscotch in San Antonio and the Color Factory in Houston have included and commissioned local artists. Nationally, complexes that are dedicated to museum-quality immersive art, like Superblue in Miami, have also gained prominence.
Dale Sheehan, Executive Creative Director of Meow Wolf explained, “We’ve never designed two exhibitions in the same state at the same time. The Texas experiences will be deeply rooted in artist collaboration and connected by concealed Easter eggs. Of course, the locations themselves are also creative prompts.”
He continued, “In Grapevine, we’ll be leaning into the energy of a shopping center [Grapevine Mills]—a nostalgic place for many of us, where families gather and young adults often find their first moments of freedom. In Houston, we’ll engage a burgeoning arts community in the most diverse city in the nation, which we believe will result in a groundswell of revolutionary artistic expression.”
The company plans to work with hundreds of artists both from Texas and Santa Fe to create these new spaces. Meow Wolf will begin recruiting artists and staff this summer. Those who are interested in contributing to or working at Meow Wolf should visit its employment website and sign up via the Texas Portals website.
Over the last week, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) have each been at the center of legal issues related to specific works of art.
Jean Siméon Chardin’s “Basket of Wild Strawberries,” painted in 1761.
Last month, the Kimbell purchased Jean Siméon Chardin’s Basket of Wild Strawberries, a still life painting made in 1761. The museum purchased the piece at an auction in France for more than $26 million — more than three times the nearly $8 million record for a work by Chardin, which was set last November.
However, within a week of the Kimbell’s purchase, the Louvre made a move to freeze the export of the artwork by classifying it as a national treasure. This action can block the export for up to 30 months while the Louvre works to raise funds to cover the purchase. This move is not without precedent: in 2019, the French culture ministry temporarily blocked the export of The Standard-Bearer by Rembrandt, in hopes of raising funds to keep the work in the country. However, this past December, the ministry announced that they were unable to secure the nearly $175 million to retain the piece. The Netherlands government was ultimately able to go through with buying the piece, contributing $170 million, while the Rembrandt Association and the Rijksmuseum contributed an additional $28 million.
Bernardo Bellotto, “The Marketplace at Pirna,” c. 1764, oil on canvas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Samuel H. Kress Collection.
Last week in Houston, a federal judge ruled in favor of the MFAH, allowing the museum to keep an 18th century painting by Bernardo Bellotto that was once owned by Hitler’s art dealer. Three grandchildren of Max Jame Emden sued the museum last year, claiming that they are the rightful owners of the painting. They have stated that their Jewish grandfather (who once owned department stores around Germany, Italy, Hungry, and Scandinavia) was forced to sell the work after he retreated to a property he owned near Switzerland and had his business property and financial assets seized by the Nazis in the 1930s. The painting was acquired by MFAH in 1961, over sixty years ago.
In 2019, a German advisory commission ruled that two other works by Bellotto that Dr. Emden sold during the same time period should be returned to the Emden family. At the time of the decision, both works were owned by the German government. The official recommendation also makes a brief mention of Marketplace at Pirna (the painting owned by the MFAH) stating, “A third Bellotto of the same origin (Marketplace at Pirna) was erroneously restituted to the Netherlands after 1945 and is now considered lost.”
On May 6, the MFAH released the following statement: “The Museum has received a prompt and definitive decision from the federal court on this matter. As was the case in 2006–2007, when we thoroughly researched and reviewed the claim, we found no evidence that suggests that the Bellotto had been stolen, seized, or confiscated, and we have extensive documentation that in 1938 Dr. Max Emden, a Swiss citizen and resident, initiated the voluntary sale of our painting, for which he was paid his asking price. The decision affirms our good title.”
As the MFAH will now presumably close the door on its legal matter, the Kimbell’s might remain in limbo for the next few years.
Good morning, Houston. The overall picture remains the same for Houston, with hot and mostly sunny weather ahead. We’ll see a pair a slightly drier nights on Wednesday and Thursday, and a low-ish chance of rain on Saturday, but mostly it is just going to feel like mid-summer in Houston.
The good news is that, with this pattern, we should see mostly clear skies on Sunday evening, when there will be a lunar eclipse. From 10:29 pm CT through 11:54 pm the Earth will move between the Sun and the Moon, casting a reddish light on our satellite. Such total eclipses of the Moon are relatively rare during the evening hours, so you should definitely check it out.
Timing for the lunar eclipse in Houston on Sunday evening. (Timeanddate.com)
Wednesday
High temperatures today will reach about 90 degrees for Houston, with slightly warmer temperatures possible for inland areas. Winds will blow out of the southeast at 5 to 10 mph, with occasional gusts to 20 mph. A slight slackening in this southerly flow tonight will allow for tiny dip in temperatures and humidity tonight and Thursday morning, with lows falling to around 70 degrees in Houston.
Thursday
Look for hot and sunny weather, with high temperatures in the low- to mid-90s. Dewpoints “bottom out” on Thursday afternoon and evening, dropping into the low 60s. This won’t be much, but it will be something as you venture outside on Thursday evening. Lows Thursday night have a chance to drop into the upper 60s for parts of Houston.
Low temperature forecast for Friday morning. (Weather Bell)
Friday
Look for hot and mostly sunny weather, with light southerly winds, and highs likely in the mid-90s.
Saturday and Sunday
Most of the weekend looks hot, sunny, and humid with highs in the mid-90s. The exception to this will come on Saturday afternoon, evening, and overnight when the atmosphere is perturbed by some passing disturbances. For now I’ll go with a 20 percent chance of rain west of Interstate 45, and a 30 percent chance to the east. Accumulations will be slight, likely only a tenth of an inch of rain, or two.
Next week
I’m afraid there’s likely to not be much of a change in this overall pattern through much of next week, which looks downright hot for mid-May, with highs generally in the mid-90s. The next real chance of rain after this Saturday probably comes next weekend, in the May 21 to May 23 time frame, as high pressure continues to dominate the central United States. We’ll be on the lookout for a pattern change, but I’m afraid the middle of May in Houston is going to feel more like the middle of June or even July.
The Sea Vegetable Gelatin Cookbook and Field Guide
Madlener
1981
Oh no! Another gelatin book has found it’s way to ALB. Brace yourselves! Instead of Bill Cosby and Jell-o treats, we have sea vegetable gelatin or agar.
I was okay at the strawberry souffle, and maybe the pineapple-coconut punch, but wait! Right next door is beet and red cabbage drink. Beets are not bad, cabbage is not (that) bad. Together in a drink? NO!
The worst picture is the Beef and Carrot souffle, with hard boiled eggs. Somehow seeing this dish is worse than reading the recipe. Given that agar is used as a vegetarian option for gelatin, it seems a bit odd to be specifically using agar for a beef dish.
Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Childless Colleague Who Was Promoted after a Year
Nancy Drew and the Twin Mysteries of Who Exactly Is Emma P. and Why Does She Want a Recommendation Letter from Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew and the Sneaking Suspicion She was Granted an Interview for That Tenured Position Only Because of Equal Opportunity Employer Regulations
Nancy Drew and the Case of the Ghost Student Who Never Attends Class but Also Never Drops
Nancy Drew and the Troubling Clue of the Dean’s Continual Inability to Remember Her Specialty, Rank, Department, or Name
Nancy Drew and the Phantom of Guaranteed Non-Tenure Track Stream Employment
Nancy Drew and the Puzzle of the Colleague Who Somehow Negotiated a 0/0 Course Load and Lives Full-Time in Bahrain
Nancy Drew and the Pressing Need to Be Moved Out of the Classroom with a Non-Working Thermostat, a Broken Podium, and a Blinking Fluorescent Light, Which Also Happens to Be Next to the Active Construction Site Where Nancy’s University is Building a New Sports Center, Due to Be Completed in 2027, Which Costs Approximately 500,000 Times Nancy Drew’s Salary.
Nancy Drew and the Mystery of Why Some Professors Have Paid Research Assistants While Others Are Stuck with a Cranky Work-Study Student Who Doesn’t Care Much for Girl Academics
Nancy Drew and the Quest to Figure Out Whether It Was Branden, Brandon, Brayden, Branton, Bransen, or Dylan Who Asked for a Permission Number?
Nancy Drew and the Hidden Message Behind Being Assigned Both an 8 a.m. and an 8 p.m. Class on Tuesdays
Nancy Drew and the Unknowable Difference Between Letters of Support and Letters of Recommendation and Letters of Interest and Letters of Notification and Letters That Go into Nancy Drew’s File
Nancy Drew and the Unavoidable Trap of the Academic Calendar’s Extremely Generous Eighteen Weeks Off a Year
Nancy Drew and the Incident of the Thank You Note from Just One Student That Somehow Redeemed the Entire Semester
Sunflowers have the reputation of all being dedicated to facing the sun. An Ig Nobel Prize-winning team has now tried to measure how well that reputation matches reality. They dispatched some drones and some software to do this.
Mature sunflower (Helianthus annuus) inflorescences, which no longer follow the Sun, face the eastern celestial hemisphere. Whether they orient toward the azimuth of local sunrise or the geographical east? It was recently shown that they absorb maximum light energy if they face almost exactly the geographical east, and afternoons are usually cloudier than mornings. However, the exact average and standard deviation (SD) of the azimuth angle of the normal vector of mature sunflower inflorescences have never been measured on numerous individuals. It is imaginable that they prefer the direction of sunrise rather than that of the geographical east. To decide between these two photobiological possibilities, we photographed mature inflorescences of 14 sunflower plantations using a drone and determined the average and SD of the azimuth angle of the normal vector of 2,800 sunflower heads.
What they found is slightly (or more than slightly) complicated, as you will see if you dip into the study.
The 2016 Ig Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Gábor Horváth, Miklós Blahó, György Kriska, Ramón Hegedüs, Balázs Gerics, Róbert Farkas, Susanne Åkesson, Péter Malik, and Hansruedi Wildermuth, for discovering why white-haired horses are the most horsefly-proof horses, and for discovering why dragonflies are fatally attracted to black tombstones.
“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions.” — Justice Samuel Alito.
- - -
In keeping with the logic used to strike down Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is also doing away with the following, non-deeply rooted rights.
The right to contraception. Virtually unthinkable when the United States was founded, the right to copulate recreationally—and not specifically to bear children—shall be overturned, unless an influential Republican lawmaker’s mistress needs Plan B.
The right to indoor plumbing. James Madison shat in a pot and so will you.
The right to check your email. The bizarre technology we know as “electronic mail” would have been utterly foreign to the Founding Fathers. (Note: The same goes for the rights to watch Netflix, drive automobiles, eat Funyuns, play electric guitar, and consume any pornography that does not involve detailed etchings of goats.)
The right to buy a machine gun without a background check or anything. The historical jurisprudence around gun ownership shows broad, bipartisan support for meaningful gun control that deviates radically from the far right’s current—just kidding, the court’s not doing jack shit about this.
The right to attend desegregated schools. Okay, so the likeliest outcome here is that the court will continue to whittle away this right without straight-up overturning Brown v. Board of Education. It’s complicated, so let us explain. On the one hand, any constitutional scholar could tell you that Brown was very much not in keeping with the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment’s framers, but rather an activist recognition of a previously denied right. On the other hand, none of the conservative justices want to be known as “that prick who overturned Brown.” Not even Gorsuch. Weird, we know.
The right to live in Wisconsin. Sorry, but nowhere in the Constitution does it say the word “Wisconsin,” nor does it reference the cheese hats they wear to signal that it is time to mate, so these rights are now void.
The right to go about wigless. You have to wear a wig now, understand? People were wearing them left and right in the 1700s, so you have to as well. Those are the rules. Do wigs itch? Probably. Do they look good? No. Are they expensive to maintain? Almost certainly. But John Adams wore one, so here we are. (You should probably also get smallpox or fleas or something, just to be safe.)
The right to same-sex marriage. You better believe they’re coming for this one—less because of a strict constructionist philosophy, and more because the conservative justices have always wanted to live in Saudi Arabia without the hassle of moving there, y’know?
The right to dance to “Hey Ya!” at your cousin’s wedding. Article IV of the Constitution clearly states that Outkast’s 2003 mega-hit is wholly inferior to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke,” and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” while the landmark Supreme Court case Kevin’s Drunk Best Man v. The DJ Kevin Hired (2009) held, five to four, that it’s also worse than “Mr. Brightside,” depending on the night’s vibe.
The right to live a happy, dignified life in which you’re secure in your bodily autonomy, where you can make your own decisions about your health and well-being without interference from an unelected judicial body that quotes—literally quotes—a dude from the 1600s who sentenced women to death for, we shit you not, fucking witchcraft. Yep, gone.
1. Our performance evaluations penalize my highest performer
It’s annual performance evaluation season where I work, and I’m wondering if I’m being soft in my expectations or if my company is being unreasonable. One person on my team has been with my organization for over a decade and has found a niche that suits their skills and interests while filling a vital role for us. They consistently deliver excellent work and meet all their goals (which are set at a high level, given their history), but they feel no desire to grow their responsibilities. And I think our team is best served by them continuing to do what they’ve been doing. They are probably the most valued member of my team, and I’d consider them a very high performer.
However, from the HR rubric I’ve been given, someone who meets their goals, rather than exceeds them, counts as a “solid performer” rather than a “high performer.” It seems crazy to me for someone to have to keep exceeding their goals, when the goals are already set high and in line with the organization’s needs. Am I being lax? Should we come up with lower or differently framed goals, so this person can be scored as exceeding them and get a higher rating? Or is there another way I should be approaching this?
Yeah, this is a bad system; it’s a one-size-fits-all system that doesn’t allow for people whose goals grow as their skills and experience increase. It’s also incentivizing people to aim low, which is the opposite of what a company should want.
Can you start doing two sets of goals with this person — one that reflects what solid performance would look like and then a separate set framed as stretch goals? It’s more work to create to two sets of goals, but it would get you around this system. It would also protect them if they have a year where they don’t achieve at their normal high level (because of things going on in their personal life, for example) but still turn in a solid performance; this way they wouldn’t risk getting penalized for having a year where they were merely good instead of great.
2. What should I do with old company swag?
I recently left a job (on good terms) from which I’d received a fair bit of branded clothing — dress shirts, mostly, but some jackets/sweaters and golf shirts as well. I have no desire or need to wear the clothing in the foreseeable future, even though it’s all in very good condition — it’s just not my personal style. If it weren’t branded, I’d have no qualms about donating it, but I’m hesitant because it is clearly branded. It’s not a company that the average person on the street would be aware of, but if someone in the field would recognize the company.
While there weren’t any code of conduct requirements around the corporate wear while I was at that company, I am aware that some organizations do have them. Off the top of my head, I could see that someone who receives the shirts could either misrepresent themselves as a representative of the company (at a trade show, for example), or display extreme misbehavior that could lead towards public impressions of the company. I don’t think either of those is necessarily likely, but it did give me pause before adding the shirts to the donation bag. Am I overthinking this? Is there a better way to rid myself of these garments?
Some companies do prohibit donating company-branded clothing for exactly those reasons, or because of security concerns (for example, could someone buy a utility-company-branded shirt and then wear it to scam their way into someone’s home?). If your company doesn’t have a rule against it or you don’t see obvious security issues like that, I wouldn’t worry about it terribly … but if you’re concerned, I can’t think of many options besides using them for sleeping, turning them into rags for cleaning, or simply disposing of them. (It’s worth noting that even if you donate them, they may not end up where you think— a huge portion of donated clothing ends up in landfills or harming local economies after being sent overseas.)
3. Can I offer to freelance for my company when I quit?
A little less than a year ago I started a job as a graphic designer at a small company. I was relatively inexperienced at the time, but they were impressed with my portfolio and took a chance on hiring me. I was quickly able to step up, and they’ve seemed very happy with my work.
However, I’m miserable. The deadlines are tight, the hours are long, pay isn’t great, and management is ineffectual. I think I could handle all of that if I 1) loved the work and 2) weren’t also trying to finish my MA degree in the next few months. The combination of work and school stress leaves me frayed and frazzled at best, absolutely despondent at worst. Even typing this I feel ridiculous! But it’s true. On top of that, I don’t feel much “passion” for the work I’m doing, despite this being exactly what my degree is in and what I thought was my dream job. I’m considering leaving the field altogether, but I can’t tell if stress is clouding my judgement.
Is there a graceful way to quit while also proposing to freelance for them? The deal is that we are understaffed as is, and my leaving would be a shock and screw over my coworkers. Our current freelancers produce work that is … highly variable and my company is always looking for good freelancers. Expressing my interest to still take on freelance projects for them would leave them in way less of a lurch (and ideally give me some financial cushion and the time for schoolwork).
But is this even a thing? Am I naive for thinking that this is a viable suggestion? On the one hand, my boss could be pissed that she took a chance on hiring me and this is how I repay her (I’m really fearing this!). On the other hand, it makes smarter business sense for them to keep me on their freelance list.
Is this a super presumptuous way to quit that no manager in hell would respect? If so, I will suck it up and stay and continue trying to finish school at the same time. Or maybe freelancing for your former company is super common and I’m overthinking it. If the latter, do you have tips or a script for how to go about it?
It’s a very common thing to offer. Your company may or may not take you up on it, but there’s nothing presumptuous or rude about suggesting it; rather, you’re offering them a solution that might help them. It’s not weird. You can simply say, “If it made sense on your end, I could still be available for freelance work if you wanted me to.” (Make sure you think about your rates ahead of time though! Sometimes employers will assume they can go on paying you whatever you were earning as an employee, but freelancers charge more because you’ll be responsible for your own taxes and you won’t be getting benefits like paid time off. Typically a freelance rate is about double your employee rate, if you choose to charge hourly. If you charge per project instead, factor that general idea into your rates.)
But also, please change the way you’re looking at the whole thing! Your boss didn’t take a chance on hiring you as a favor; she did it because it believed it would benefit the company (and indeed, it seems to have — and she’s gotten a year of good work from you). And resigning a job is never “screwing over your coworkers.” If it leaves them in the lurch, that’s on your company for not staffing sufficiently, not on you for making a perfectly normal business decision for yourself. You get to leave a job at any time and for any reason, and it’s not personal … and while you don’t need your decision to be understandable, leaving because you need more time for school is on the highly understandable end of the spectrum.
4. Background checker wants to see my tax forms
I’ve been offered a position at a company that is respected in my field. However, they have an outside company that does background checks. The process is something that I’ve never seen before. I was asked for my SSN and ID as normal, but I was also asked to provide references for all the places that I have worked in the last five years. This was not a big ask, and I complied, and I warned my references that they may be called or emailed. However, the company has come back and demanded I give them my W2s or 1099 tax forms to verify my employment since they claim they can’t. But, oddly, they haven’t called or emailed any of my references who could verify my employment. I’m not inclined to give that information to an outside agency, and I feel like I’m being made to do the work they should be doing. And that’s beside the fact that them knowing how much I’ve been paid is icky and invasive. Is this normal? Do you have to give people your tax returns to verify your employment now? I’m inclined to say no. Can I say no?
It does sometimes get asked if they truly can’t find a way to verify your employment otherwise, but it’s odd that they’re claiming that’s the situation when they haven’t contacted anyone to try. I’d get in touch with your contact at the hiring company, explain the situation, and see if they intervene. If for some reason they won’t, you can refuse but it’s possible that it’ll torpedo the offer.
However, before you get to that point, try submitting the forms with all income information redacted. In some situations that require tax forms, redaction is perfectly as acceptable as long as they can see the parts that are relevant (in your case, the company names).
5. Using a new phone number and email address
The single best sanity-saving piece of advice I’ve given to recent job searchers is to use a new email address and a free Google phone number. Never in my life have I had as many spam emails, texts, and calls as when I began job searching and made the mistake of posting my personal email and cell.
Consider it passed along! Also, for the email address, people can set it up to forward to their main email address so they’re not having to check two separate places.
101 Costumes for All Ages, All Occasions
Cummings
1970
This book sure looks old and the illustrations are awful. I just want to cringe at “instant Oriental” as well as some culturally insensitive assumptions. Yikes. It certainly needs to move on from a public library collection.
This isn’t really for a serious costumer or theater person and it also seems a bit much for the basic Halloween costume or even school play. Is there a real need for an “Instant Napoleon”?
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Last month, we expressed how it’s long overdue for Apple to kill the iPod lineup. Ultimately, the company first released it over two decades ago, and its concept no longer fits in our modern world. For music streaming on the go, people can use iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. As for those seeking an affordable device for gaming or watching online content, the iPad is both affordable and has a larger display that better suits these use cases. It’s now official — the Cupertino tech giant has just announced that it is killing the iPod lineup. The iPod Touch 7 (2019) will be the last model to go on sale.
In a Newsroom post, Apple has just shared that the iPod Touch 7 will remain on sale while supplies last. The company won’t be restocking or releasing upgraded models afterwards. Greg Joswiak — Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing — states:
Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared. Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music.
The Cupertino tech giant mentions how the music will still live on — through the other devices it sells today. After all, Apple Music and other streaming services are available on iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, HomePods, etc. So a low-end device created specifically for music consumption no longer makes sense today.
How do you feel about Apple killing the iPod lineup? Let us know in the comments section below.
1. Should I tell my coworker she’ll never get the promotion she deserves?
I have an ethical dilemma and I feel like I’m definitely in the wrong here. I have a coworker, Sammy, who is absolutely incredible at her job. She’s been here for six years and worked very hard to get out of her entry-level position, which she has done. She has also gone above and beyond with her education and licensing important for this industry, so she is currently vastly over-credentialed for the work she is doing. She has been trying for years to be promoted to a higher level, but keeps getting passed up. She was passed up by me, in fact, two years ago. It’s happened two more times since.
I was at the meeting discussing the next promotion to our team. We brought her up, we discussed her favorably. She is so incredibly good that she has saved us thousands by catching errors, even mine. But upper management blocked her promotion. Why? Because they would have to hire two to three more people to cover what she does, and they didn’t budget for that. They need her “where she is” because she’s so good at what she does. They picked a different person, Peggy, who has only been with us for a year and does not possess the experience or credentials Sammy has. Peggy is okay, but not exciting.
I knew about this for a week but was not allowed to talk about it. When they blasted out a congratulatory email about Peggy yesterday, I saw Sammy get the email from across the room. I saw her shoulders just sag and her heart break. Then she just went to work like nothing was wrong.
I bumped into her at the grocery store last night. We have a really good relationship so she did unload a little, and she mentioned that she should have known she was getting “f-ed over” when everyone kept popping by her desk to tell her how much they appreciated her over the last week.
I want to tell her the truth. I want to tell her that she’s never going to be promoted here, that everything she has done to secure a better rate of pay and position is a waste of her time with this team. I want her to stop wasting her time and incredible ability and work ethic here and do what she needs to do for her. But I’m afraid to lose someone like her because I need her where she is too. I will definitely suffer along with everyone else if she up and quit, which she absolutely should. Am I the real asshole here for not telling her?
You could be if you don’t tell her. What your company is doing to her is shitty. You know it’s not in her interests to stay, and you know she’s wasting valuable time when she could be building a career somewhere else. That’s not an abstract thing! For every year Sammy stays where she is, she’s losing out on career growth and real actual money. And now you’ve sat in the room where it’s happening; if you had a voice in that meeting and didn’t speak up, you’re now complicit in it.
And in purely practical terms, Sammy could figure this out on her and walk away at any time (and hopefully this latest incident will push her to do that), so it’s not like your choices are “tell her the truth” or “keep her forever.” She’s going to leave at some point, so you and your team are going to suffer through that at some point. (And if it involves real suffering, that’s a huge indictment of your management for not giving your team the resources it needs, separately from what they’re doing to Sammy).
I do need to point out that, assuming that management discussion was confidential, you have a professional obligation not to share obviously confidential details with people who weren’t there (although that’s at odds with your human obligation to Sammy) and it could affect your own standing at work if it gets back to your management that you broke that confidentiality. If you want to avoid that risk, you’ll need to be thoughtful about how you frame a discussion with Sammy but you can still get the point across. Even just urging her to assume nothing is going to change and encouraging her to look elsewhere would be a kindness.
2. Is a two-week vacation excessive?
I’ve been planning a two-week trip with my wife for our five-year anniversary and ran the dates off by my boss. He responded that a two-week vacation is not a normal thing to do, with the exception of weddings/honeymoons, and that he’d have to see what the policy is. The written vacation policy permits me 20 days off and put no restrictions over how many consecutive days can be taken. Is a two-week vacation really an excessive request? Is it reasonable for my boss to claim that some reasons, like a honeymoon, justify a two-week vacation and an anniversary trip doesn’t? Is it reasonable to bring to his attention that, that prior to the pandemic, other people in the group took two-week vacations on an annual basis and thus this is a policy he just made up?
Two-week vacations are normal and common. There are offices that discourage them, but those offices are mostly outliers; two weeks off at a time isn’t generally considered excessive. A lot of international travel would be impossible otherwise!
In theory your boss can stop you from taking two consecutive weeks even if there’s no written policy against it (or at least he could in some companies) but since he said he wanted to check what the policy is and you know there’s no policy against it, proceed as if of course that will be the deciding factor. Go back to him and say, “I looked at the vacation policy and we don’t have a rule against taking two weeks off at a time. I recall people regularly doing it in the past before the pandemic. I’d like to go ahead and book the dates unless there’s something I missed in the policy.”
3. Can I edit my boss’s emails before forwarding them?
I frequently receive emails from my boss with errors. I’m expected to forward the emails to the managers under me, but I find myself correcting typos or misspelled words before I send them. I feel like I’m making my boss look good, but is that an acceptable thing to do?
I get the impulse, but when you forward someone else’s email, you shouldn’t change what they wrote, even to correct typos or misspellings. The assumption is that you’re forwarding the message untouched. (There can be an exception if you’re an admin where a regular part of your job is to edit your boss’s messages before they go out.)
But if the email is difficult to comprehend or rife with errors, could you send your own email summarizing it instead?
4. Should you avoid the verb “helped” on your resume?
I am updating my resume to reflect my new position, and I am struggling with how to capture several items that may not be accomplishments per se but probably should be reflected somehow. For example, I have been asked by management, over my peers, to assist in developing a couple of new processes: workflow procedures and QA. I have read that one should never use the word “help” in a resume because it is overused and sounds weak. However, I’ve said “collaborated” in a couple of places in my resume already, and I really can’t take credit for executing/initiating/managing/directing the new processes, but I did, well, help. Is there any nuance to this rule?
It’s not really a hard and fast rule. But the problem with “help” isn’t that it’s overused. It’s that it’s vague; I can’t tell what your role was. “Help” could mean anything from taking phone messages for the people doing the work to playing a substantial and crucial role.
Instead of of “help,” try to describe exactly what your role was. Specifically what did you do and toward what end? That’s what you want to put there.
5. Can I ask not to be managed by someone who doesn’t like me?
In my first internship, right after college, I had a manager I’ll call Kara. Kara was cordial and professional to me in person, but had serious concerns with my work a few times. Some of these concerns were warranted (it was my first job in the field) but I also felt (and still feel) that some were overblown. Other senior team members expressed to me during my time there that they were puzzled by the grudge Kara seemed to have against me.
Additionally, I was in a non-traditional family arrangement for part of that internship and was public about it with the team. Kara is very religious, and I heard through the grapevine that she strongly disapproved of this.
Kara did not extend me a job offer at the end of the internship. I was the only intern in my cohort who didn’t get one; it was fairly unusual. In our exit interview, she was clear that she thought I was not cut out for this field. It was so upsetting that I cried afterwards and considered leaving the industry. However, I was convinced (mostly by the senior coworkers on that team, who convinced me that I had a lot of potential and shouldn’t listen to her) to stay.)
It has been quite a few years now, I’m in the same field, and I’ve advanced a lot. I work at a much larger and more prestigious company in a senior position. I have an excellent manager, Jane, who thinks I am great and who I love working with. I am not in contact with Kara apart from occasional polite greetings at industry events; I do not use her as a reference. Meanwhile, almost all of Kara’s team from the old company has left, including Kara herself. I have heard that Kara was fired due to issues with her management.
Our company is hiring a new executive and we’ve been told that many of Jane’s reports will be moved to them. I was in our hiring system the other day for an unrelated reason, and happened to see that Kara is a finalist for the position!
Is my bad experience with Kara worth bringing up to Jane if Kara is hired? Would it look entitled to request that she not manage me? Or am I obligated to give Kara another chance because it’s been so many years? Is this just something I should accept about working in a small industry?
Talk to Jane. Given the positive feedback you got from senior colleagues during your internship — and their urging you to stay in a field she told you to leave, a field you’ve apparently thrived in since then — there’s enough reason to think that Kara might have been biased against you because of your non-traditional family situation or simply had a personal dislike of you. There’s no way to know for sure, but there’s enough to make it a concern. And since it sounds like there’s some flexibility in who ends up managed by the new hire and who stays with Jane, it’s not entitled to ask to stay where you are rather than be managed by someone who might already have a personal bias against you. A good manager in Jane’s shoes would want to hear info like this.
Many items are added to the Internet Archive’s collections every month, by us and by our patrons. Here’s a round up of some of the new media you might want to check out. Logging in might be required to borrow certain items.
Game Shows Archive – A collection of game shows throughout television history, involving chance, skill and luck, usually presided over by a host and providing in-show commercials.
Dutch Television – Television programs and videos in the Dutch language, or from the Netherlands.
This month we’ve added books on varied subjects in more than 20 languages. Click through to explore, but here are a few interesting items to start with:
The audio archive contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Explore.
Founded in 2005, Librivox is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record audiobooks of public domain texts in many different languages. Explore.
The Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format, along with the convenience of on-demand streaming (all with artist permission). Explore.
This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’. These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres. Explore.
Who is Sonia?🙄🤭🤔🥱 in math: my solution ➗☺️ in history: my queen👑😣 in art: my canvas 🎨🥳 in science: my oxygen 💨😝 in geography: my world 🌎🤯 - Kazuichi Soda
