The first class of Planet Money Summer School starts off with a field trip. With the help of a cow, two economists, and three cute animals, we learn what a stock is and how stocks are priced, and we begin to see the psychological forces that make prices move up and down on the stock market. Keep an eye out throughout for our big theme for the course this summer: risk and reward. | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
If you’re a South Park fan, you should be very familiar with Casa Bonita. The ultimate Mexican restaurant experience is totally worth trapping a friend in a bomb shelter and telling him there was some kind of meteor strike that led to a post-apocalyptic cannibal society, which is exactly what Cartman did to Butters so he could attend Kyle’s birthday meal at the real Lakewood, Colorado eatery. So it should come as no surprise that South Park creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone are trying to buy the beloved restaurant to save it after the previous owners filed for bankruptcy back in April.
The Hollywood Reporter learned about the South Park creators buying Casa Bonita, which has been a beloved restaurant in Denver for decades. Even before the establishment was featured on South Park, it was a favorite destination among locals. Even though the place is famous for not having the best Mexican food, it’s about the dining experience. They have an arcade, a cave and waterfall with cliffdivers and performers putting on little shows, a magic theater, and more. The restaurant opened in 1974 was even designated as a historical landmark in 2015.
Unfortunately, the pandemic hit the restaurant hard. The eatery, which can sit up to 1,000 people, had to close in 2020, which is why Summit Family Restaurants filed for Chapter 11 back in April. But Trey Parker and Matt Stone want to keep it alive for many years to come, which is why they’re teaming up with unidentified Colorado-based restaurateurs in an attempt to strike a deal to purchase it. Parker said, “We are going to do everything we can. We want to make it right and make it amazing.”
Just take a look at all that Casa Bonita already has to offer in this video from Munchies:
Making Some Changes
If Parker and Stone are able to finalize a deal to purchase Casa Bonita, they want to make some changes. Even through the South Park creators and many members of the writing staff responsible for the seventh season episode about the restaurant all have wonderful, fond childhood memories from eating at Casa Bonita, there are things that can be improved. Parker noted:
“We started talking about the changes we’re going to make — mostly with the food. We’re going to make really awesome food. I was already thinking about how I was going to make Black Bart’s Cave a little bigger.”
Parker also noted that he felt like Casa Bonita “was neglected even before the pandemic,” so they want to treat it right if they’re able to make the purchase. Plus, with the South Park correlation, this place stands to become an ever bigger tourist destination, especially if Parker and Stone integrate elements of the show into the restaurant.
Hopefully the residents of Lakewood will be happy to have Parker and Stone swooping in to save the day. And if they’re really going to make the food better, then it should be a win-win situation for everybody involved.
Outdoor installation from Donna Huanca’s “Espejo Quemada” at Ballroom Marfa.
While in Marfa last week, we had and then missed an opportunity to check out the full-moon activation of Haroon Mirza’s stone circle from Ballroom Marfa. For those considering a trip out west to see stone circle, you still have a couple of years; it’s scheduled to remain in Marfa through 2023. (Ballroom Marfa also commissioned Prada Marfa from artists Elmgreen & Dragset back in 2005.)
“stone circle,” by Haroon Mirza via Ballroom Marfa. Photo Credit: Rowdy Dugan.
Ballroom describes stone circle as follows:
“Mirza’s stone circle refers to prehistoric monuments such as Stonehenge and Nine Ladies, standing stones erected by humans and used for mysterious practices of communion with the Earth. Each of the eight stones in the circle is carved to integrate LED lights and embedded speakers. The ninth stone, the ‘mother’ stone, sits apart, mounted with solar panels that charge a bank of batteries to power a sound and light score that is activated with each full moon. Visit on a full moon to hear for yourself the complex patterns of electronic sound and light translated from energy generated by the sun.”
Espejo Quemada from Donna Huanca at Ballroom Marfa.
Donna Huanca’s paintings at Ballroom Marfa.
We got a chance to view Espejo Quemada from Donna Huanca at Ballroom. The exhibition included GUERRERA PROTECTORA (pacha), 2021, an earth installation in the courtyard of the gallery.
Not from a lack of trying (and by trying I mean hiking up into the hills behind Sul Ross State University in Alpine) to find The Desk, we failed in our mission, but were treated to really great views of the city of Alpine from the hills. We were comforted to hear that most folks climb back down having never laid eyes on the readymade.
Trail to “The Desk” in the hills of Alpine, TX. Photo Credit: Tina Blay.
Our trek to find the desk was preceded by a really beautiful drive into Big Bend National Park, and later through the town of Terlingua. By the time we realized that a quarter of a tank of gas would be dangerously close to not cutting it for our round trip, we were halfway there. Fortunately we had enough to get us back to Terlingua to refuel.
The drive into Big Bend and our subsequent stops along the way were simply breathtaking, and with apologies to Dennis Blagg, far surpasses any photograph or painting.
Unidentified peak, Big Bend National Park.
Snapshot of Mule Ears Peak at Big Bend National Park.
Entrance to Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend National Park.
We tried, but the Marfa Lights eluded us. My only other drive out west to see the mysterious desert illuminations, ten years ago, produced the same level of disappointment. Perhaps it was the near full moon, or the proximity to the highway, or even the light pollution from distant oil rigs. Whatever the impediment, the light show was a no-show. We did enjoy the moon, which cast an almost day-for-night pale across the desert, and a cool breeze gave us fall weather in the middle of July.
In the end, we saw more than we missed, and being in Marfa was the perfect blend of desolation, art, and nature.
Night transformed to day, Marfa Lights Observatory, Marfa, Texas.
“After pausing in-person public programming due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Project Row Houses will re-open on July 31, 2021, with the unveiling of Round 52: Gulf Coast Anthropocene, curated by Ryan N. Dennis and Dr. Willie J. Wright.
“Round 52: Gulf Coast Anthropocene is an intervention into global conversations about climate change. In other circles, it has been viewed as an example of the Anthropocene, a geological era associated with humans’ impact on the earth. This Round questions what public art can inform us about this era, our connection to the built and natural environments, and our need for a more just and sustainable world.”
“Originally exhibited at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Slowed and Throwed is the first museum exhibition with a conceptual focus on the late Houston hip hop legend DJ Screw. The exhibition explores visual arts practices that parallel the musical methods of this innovative DJ and feature unconventional photography and new media works by artists with personal ties to Houston, including B. Anele, Rabéa Ballin, Tay Butler, Jimmy Castillo, Jamal Cyrus, Robert Hodge, Shana Hoehn, Tomashi Jackson, Ann Johnson, Devin Kenny, Liss LaFleur, Karen Navarro, Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud, Sondra Perry, and Charisse Pearlina Weston.”
“Inspired by the fine detail and luminous colors of the Flemish masters, Tanner has sought out information on their techniques and and has cobbled together a personal approach to painting with thin glazes of color over a grisaille. She applies these skills with a microscopic focus that makes each painting a tiny yet fully realized world, rich with detail and color. Sources of inspiration include ancient tales exposing human nature, the secret lives of animals, creatures, and characters in myths. These stories provide the framework which she fills with a unique cast of characters.”
“Erica Felicella will share a new art film, release, that highlights her 2020 performance art piece Resistance, Re-Live and Proceed on July 31, 2021. The film is directed by Dallas photographer and filmmaker Christian Vasquez and Kyle Montgomery is a contributing cinematographer. The event will start at Sweet Pass Sculpture Park after the closing of Material Girls’ Desire Paths at 8 pm. The screening itself will kick-off at 8:45 after a brief artist talk from 8:30-8:45.”
“Talley Dunn Gallery is honored to announce an exhibition featuring the works of artists in the inaugural Talley Dunn Gallery Equity in the Arts Fellowship cohort. Jer’Lisa Devezin, Nitashia Johnson, and Kevin Owens each present a distinctive body of work emblematic of their outstanding respective practices in sculpture, photography, and painting. This exhibition brings the vibrantly dynamic creative energies of Dallas’ contemporary art scene uniquely into view through the works of three artists who have sculpted, photographed, and painted their own terms of social engagement during these unprecedented times. After a year of shared learning and discussion, please join the gallery in celebrating the work of these talented emerging artists.”
Ron Popeil was both a high-spirited inventor and yarn-spinning salesmen, amplified by the airwaves into millions of homes. He died Wednesday, July 28, according to his family.
I was hired about six months ago at a prestigious organization in my field. My coworker, Fergus, started at the same time in a similar position. We work closely and we get along well, for the most part. I consider him something of a friend — or, at least, I felt that way until recently.
Fergus and I have been working on a big report that needs to get done in the next few months. Last week, I had been working on other projects and logged back our the shared file to begin work again. We were sitting together and as I was logging in, he said (unprompted) that he had been hard at work on the report and updated and added information to a key section. I noticed that very few things had been changed, so I checked the version history and found that he had worked on it for a total of two minutes in the 24 hours before I checked.
So I asked him in the moment about what exactly he had done on the report, and this is where I caught him in the lie. He doubled down and said that he had changed four or five big things, and when I pushed and said those sections looked exactly the same, he said that he had been working on it offline. I asked him firmly to always work on the shared document and moved on in the conversation. None of the changes that he said he had made have been since that conversation.
I’m having a hard time letting the lie go. The lie was small and not very significant in the long run, and I don’t want to harm my working relationship with my closest coworker. I haven’t said anything else about it to him or anyone else at the office. But I hate being lied to, especially because he doubled down when I honestly wouldn’t have cared if he hadn’t done the work in the first place. I’ve also had issues with him in the past for being oddly obsessed with delineating the work that he did versus the work we did together, and for taking a lot of the credit in front of our bosses. I’ve started standing up for myself more and being less collaborative and more clear about assigning credit to myself.
How should I handle this? I’m paying a lot of attention to any potential future lies that he might make, but is that the best way? Or should I speak with him directly?
The most important response is what you’re already doing — being aware that Fergus is willing to lie to protect or promote himself, paying more attention to it in the future, and being more assertive about getting credit for your work and less willing to collaborate since he’s a credit hogger.
But I don’t know that there’s a lot to be gained from calling him out more directly for this lie. In a way, you already did call him out — you made it clear that his claim didn’t align with what you were seeing and you gave him firm instructions for the future. There’s a good chance that he already realizes you caught him, and it might be better for your relationship — since you have to keep working together — to let him save a small bit of face by not spelling it out explicitly. That said, if something like this ever happens again, I would not give him that same grace; at that point you’d need to have a more direct “you told me X but it was Y” conversation.
2. Should I warn someone that I’m reporting them before I do it?
I’m currently expecting my first child and my husband and I are taking prenatal classes through the hospital. The teacher is DREADFUL. Some of what she says is garden-variety eyeroll-inducing stuff (suggesting harmless but robustly disproved home remedies), some of it is absurd (when she said that you have to pull the crib an inch away from the wall because otherwise there won’t be enough air for the baby), and some of it is dangerous, like giving conflicting and misleading information on sleep safety and SIDS.
I’m a physician myself (not a pediatrician or a obstetrician), and I’m able to identify, access, read, and critically appraise which studies she’s referring to when she prefaces every ridiculous thing with “Studies show…” That’s a pretty fortunate position that most people aren’t in, and I’m angry and concerned that she’s dispensing hokum as a representative of the hospital. I want to write a letter with feedback to whoever is her supervisor.
Should I let her know about my concerns? I feel like going over someone’s head and blindsiding them with strong negative feedback is not the best practice, but at the same time, there’s no response that she could give me that would make me NOT write the letter — I just don’t trust her to take my feedback seriously and act on it.
I think either way is fine! When someone who’s supposed to be a subject matter authority is using that authority to spread serious misinformation, there’s no obligation to address it with her first. That’s doubly true when you’re a student and they’ve been tasked with teaching you, because there are power dynamics there even when everyone involved is an adult. That said, if you’d like the opportunity to discuss the issue with her first, you could — and could frame it as, “I’m concerned enough about this that I’m contacting the hospital and I wanted to share my concerns with you directly as well.” But this is bad enough that it’s fine to skip that step and go straight over her head.
3. How to get a coworker to stop asking me for so much help
I have a coworker I need to draw boundaries with and I have no idea how to do it kindly. She joined my company about a year ago. We do not work on the same team, but we have some overlapping clients.
We are both lawyers with experience. She went to schools far more prestigious than mine, so I expected her to be pretty self-assured in her role. But ever since she arrived, she checks in with me about almost every step in many (all?) of her assignments, from what to do about X problem down to how to word emails to clients. I initially thought it had to do with being new to the job, so I wanted to help her out. (I’m not sure why she doesn’t ask her fellow teammates instead.) But it has never improved. I have so much of my own work to deal with and really don’t have the time or mental capacity for this.
I don’t know if this is imposter syndrome or she’s just suffering from a complete absence of self-confidence, but I feel it must be something like that, so I want to refuse further help in the nicest possible way. Any ideas?
She might be asking you instead of someone on her own team because you’ve been so helpful in the past, so she sees you as a resource that’s there for the taking and doesn’t realize she’s imposing on you (and feels comfortable doing it because you’ve been kind to her). Or it could be more machiavellian than that; she could be deliberately hiding her lack of knowledge/confidence from her own team. Either way, the next step is the same.
Say this: “Going forward, you should bring questions like this to your team. My schedule is really busy right now and I won’t be able to keep helping.”
Then if she still keeps sending you questions, just reply with: “Sorry, can’t help — I’m swamped. You should check with (her manager’s name).”
4. Is my new boss signaling she doesn’t trust me?
My boss of many years recently retired. Before he left, he promoted me to handle many of his responsibilities. I was given a raise, a direct report, and more responsibility than I’d ever had before. However, my new boss (previously my grandboss) seems determined to walk back this promotion as if she hadn’t okayed these plans in the first place.
For instance, a couple pay periods after my promotion, my former boss announced that he would be giving me an end-of-year merit-based raise of X%, but my new boss later clarified that it would be an X% increase compared to my previous salary, not my new one — which added up to a raise of just a few dollars annually (think double digits). This felt harsh, especially since another team member received a larger raise proportionately despite being in poor standing and on a PIP.
Also, after my direct report resigned, my new boss decided that his replacement will now report to her — a replacement who I hired, trained, and began to manage. She’s even decided that this replacement will take over some of my duties. I feel like I’m caught in a tug-of-war between my lovely former boss and my new one, and all of the things my former boss wanted me to have have been taken from me. My gut is telling me I should get out because my new boss doesn’t appear to trust me. My performance is great, and my old boss never did anything but sing my praises, but the signals I’m getting from New Boss seem very negative. Can you give me a reality check?
Yeah, these are not good signals. At a minimum, she’s not as sold on you to handle the new role as your old boss was … and it’s possible she’s preparing to push you out (I’m particularly concerned about her giving some of your new responsibilities to your new hire). But before you conclude anything, talk with her about it! You should be able to be pretty direct: “I wanted to talk with you about how things are going in my new role. A few things have given me the sense that you might have concerns about my work, like lowering my raise and moving Jane from reporting to me to reporting to you. If you have concerns about my work, I’d definitely want to know.”
It’s possible she just has a different vision for the role now that your old boss is gone — especially if, for example, he had a lot more experience or a significantly closer working relationship with her than you do — but either way, it’s time for an explicit conversation about what’s going on. (It’s actually past time, but that’s on her.)
5. Can my employer make me use vacation time for jury duty?
I got called in for jury duty and was picked to be on a jury. The judge anticipates the trial to last 10 days. My work contract is vague when it comes to employee jury duty terms but it basically says we will be paid even if we are serving jury duty. I am a salaried employee. The company owner is upset that I was picked to serve on a jury and wants me to use all of my 10 days of PTO to cover my jury duty. I don’t feel this is fair, but is it legal? I’m in California.
It’s quite crappy — especially since you could end up using all your vacation time for the year, depending on the length of the trial — but it’s legal. Some states prohibit employers from making you use vacation time during jury duty, but California is not one of them (surprisingly, given that they’re normally ahead of the curve on employee protections). California requires employers to give you time off to be on a jury, but that time can be unpaid or charged to your PTO. (Here’s a complete list of state laws on this.)
by kpodd@uxbridgeshimoda.com (Dan Kennedy and Benjamin Harrison)
It's 12/11/1997 and a settlement with Annie's Hallmark could force the guys to do on-air PSAs promoting exactly the opposite kind of behavior that forged their career. Él Farto is scheduled to move out at the end of the month, but in the meantime is storing some patio furniture in Machine Bolt’s apartment and making a real hassle for everyone. Meanwhile, a deadly rock slide, Machine Bolt is in love, Microsoft is trading at an all-time high of $16.16, and it's really looking Lynn really has it in for our heroes. You win!
During the 2011 Microsoft Build conference keynote, the volume of messages was so high that Twitter went down.
Well, it went down in the convention center.
There was some frantic network troubleshooting going on to identify why nobody could access Twitter via the convention center wireless network. Eventually, somebody called Twitter technical support¹ to get some help with the problem, and they learned that Twitter blocked all traffic from the convention center because it looked like a denial-of-service attack.
“Nope, we just have a lot of excited developers.”
They got the ban lifted, and Twitter access came back for the remainder of the keynote.
I recall that some attendees complained that the wireless access during the keynote was terrible, though they didn’t name Twitter specifically. Well, now you know why. And it was partly your fault.
Bonus chatter: I assume that nowadays, Twitter keeps track of major events and knows to expect, say, a lot of activity at major music concerts, conventions, and sporting events.
¹ I had no idea that Twitter even had a technical support phone number.
After 15 years as a nonprofit executive director, I’ve struck out on my own as a nonprofit consultant. While much of my business is word-of-mouth and comes to me, I do sometimes throw my hat in the ring for positions I see posted online. One such position was for an organization that works in a very niche field of victim services for children. I’ve worked in child welfare for many years and their scope of work seemed like a good fit. I went through three Zoom interviews, several (paid) exercises, and a fourth interview before being invited to speak to the founder and board. While the process was cumbersome, the time was paid, the work was critical and executive-level, and I enjoyed the people with whom I spoke. I didn’t feel there were red flags.
Then came the meeting with the founder and the board. What started off as an informative and productive conversation devolved within about 15 minutes to their statement that we needed to “harness the power of QAnon” because this organization serves a population that would be harmed if one of QAnon’s biggest conspiracy theories was true … and the board felt that QAnon members would want to throw money at this cause. I probably was just open-mouthed and speechless on Zoom for a solid 15 seconds before composing myself and diplomatically (I think) saying that based on the information about the nonprofit they’d already shared, I’d think it would turn off other donors if they aligned themselves with QAnon. It went badly from there, and I politely excused myself from the call and followed up with an email that reiterated I was withdrawing my candidacy.
I could just write this off as a ridiculous story to tell people, except that one of the board members called my references (which were furnished at the time we scheduled the final interview, assuming that was just a formality). That board member told at least one of my references — who is a current client — that I was hugely unprofessional, let my politics get in the way of work, and didn’t have the best interests of victims at heart. I found this out when this reference, a very long-term client, let me know. She and I have discussed politics some and she knows my positions (Left. Just…very left, and I don’t own a tinfoil hat) so she could laugh about it.
But it seems this board member called my references just to badmouth me, not to actually ask for references. My client said she wasn’t asked any questions asked about me, but rather she was “warned” about my character. The board member didn’t explain that they had suggested that I “harness the power of QAnon”; she just said I put my “unreasonable political beliefs” first and refused to help victims.
This client was fourth on a list of six references so I’m concerned she called them all to badmouth me. They’re newer and I’m not sure how to best broach this with each of them. I want to be proactive but am really unsure of the wording. I don’t want to badmouth a (former) potential client but also want to make it very clear what happened.
Any ideas?
Whoa.
So they want to “harness the power” of a deluded and dangerous organization not because they believe its conspiracy theories, but because they see an opportunity to raise money? And they’re offended by you pointing out that might not go over well with the rest of their donor base (which is, uh, a very practical concern)?
Even if they disagreed with your take (BUT YOUR TAKE WAS 100% CORRECT), how on earth did that turn into you “being unprofessional, letting politics get in the way of work, and not having the best interests of victims at heart”? Is this is an organization that takes any differing perspective on strategy as a personal attack?
And then to take the extra step of calling people who know you — not for references, but just to trash-talk you — to go out of their way to try to harm you … who are these people and why did this become so personal to them? (Are they QAnon believers themselves? That’s the only explanation I can think of.)
The saving grace here is that it’s going read as Highly Unhinged to anyone who gets that call.
In fact, because it’s such a strange thing to do, I actually wouldn’t be that freaked out about whether the board member called your other clients. Any reasonable person who got a call like that from a stranger is going to be predisposed to think the problem is with the stranger, not with you, the person they know and have had good experiences with.
That said, you presumably told these clients that you were going to be putting their names on a reference list, so you could follow up now with an email that says something like, “Thanks for agreeing to be a reference for me! Unfortunately it might have resulted in a really strange phone call from an organization I’m very sure I don’t want to work for, but which was offended by my disagreement with some of their proposed strategies. If you did get that call, I’m so sorry your time was used that way (and I’m happy to talk to you about it if you want!).”
Keep it short and breezy, and that should put it in context for anyone who’s wondering.
"Following superstar gymnast Simone Biles citing concerns of mental health after shockingly pulling out of the women’s team competition, a number of conservative media figures and pundits attacked her on Tuesday for supposedly being a ‘quitter’ and ‘selfish sociopath’ who had brought ‘shame on her country.’ — The Daily Beast, 7/27/21
Over the last few weeks there's been a weird, wasteful, and just silly dispute in which the White House has tried to blame Facebook (and misinformation on Facebook) for not enough people agreeing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 (in light of cases ramping up again). Things have gotten so stupid that two Senators have released a terribly unconstitutional bill attempting to hold Facebook liable for "health misinformation" on its platform.
But... is Facebook actually to blame? Mark Zuckerberg (who, um, is obviously not an unbiased party) made a completely valid point in response to all of this: Facebook is available around the globe, yet much of the rest of the world is not seeing the same levels of vaccine hesitancy (indeed, the problem elsewhere tends to be a lack of supply), and that might raise questions as to why Facebook is facing the blame for vaccine hesitancy.
"..if one country is not reaching its vaccine goal, but other countries that all these same social media tools are in are doing just fine.. should lead you to conclude that.. platforms are not the decisive element.."
Of course, there's more to it than that, but what strikes me as most notable is that actual health experts in places where there are high levels of vaccine hesitancy don't seem to think that Facebook is the problem. They seem to recognize that it's actually a Fox News problem. In an article talking with health officials in states like Alabama and Louisiana, where vaccine hesitancy is the highest, they're saying the real problem remains Fox News.
Doctors and health officials in Alabama and Louisiana say their only hope for getting people vaccinated is if the media outlets that message to these areas, primarily Fox News, start advocating people get the shot, instead of pushing them away from the jab.
“I have people come up to me and say, ‘Why on CNN? Couldn’t you go on Fox?’ They are still very angry over the last couple of years. There’s an irritation. They are super frustrated. They need to hear it from the people that they trust. They need to hear it from where they get their news every day. And I don’t know why not Fox. Why not?,” O’Neal said. “But it has to change this week. Every single show. And it has to be about the community, not the ‘you’ because there’s been too much about the ‘you.’ ‘You’ they got indoctrinated. It is not about ‘you,’ it is about the community. You’re going to kill your community.”
But despite the enormous reach of Facebook, only one media outlet has devoted itself to injecting falsehoods about the pandemic into the nervous systems of its audience on a 24/7 basis. That, of course, would be Fox News, the right-wing cable station that tells its viewers, over and over, that vaccines are dangerous and that wearing a mask to prevent COVID-19 is ineffective — and, in any case, is not worth the price we’d pay in giving up our freedom.
None of this should be surprising. For years now we've been pointing people to the detailed, data-driven research findings of Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts in their book, Network Propaganda, which traced the actual flow of mis- and disinformation regarding the 2016 Presidential election, and found that the main vector (by far) was not Facebook, but Fox News. Yes, things would spread on Facebook eventually, but only after Fox News would make it into a story. A later study they did regarding disinformation about mail-in ballots found the same thing.
That's not to say that mis- and disinformation don't travel on Facebook. Clearly it happens all the time. But focusing on social media, as if it's the primary culprit, or that somehow getting Facebook to delete the propagandists on that platform will magically solve all disinformation is clearly folly. Of course, you won't see Senators Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ray Lujan introducing bills to make Fox News liable for the health misinformation they spew -- they at least recognize that that would not only be blatantly unconstitutional, but would be interpreted as an attack on conservatives' favorite TV news channel.
Mis- and disinformation remain a real problem, but kneejerk attempts to blame social media are not helping and not getting at any of the root causes of the credibility crisis currently facing people throughout the US.
Toyota introduced the Prius Prime in 2016, years after other manufacturers released electric-only models. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
Executives at Toyota had a moment of inspiration when the company first developed the Prius. That moment, apparently, has long since passed.
The Prius was the world's first mass-produced hybrid car, years ahead of any competitors. The first model, a small sedan, was classic Toyota—a reliable vehicle tailor-made for commuting. After a major redesign in 2004, sales took off. The Prius' Kammback profile was instantly recognizable, and the car's combination of fuel economy and practicality was unparalleled. People snapped them up. Even celebrities seeking to burnish their eco-friendly bona fides were smitten with the car. Leonardo DiCaprio appeared at the 2008 Oscars in one.
As the Prius' hybrid technology was refined over the years, it started appearing in other models, from the small Prius c to the three-row Highlander. Even the company's luxury brand, Lexus, hybridized several of its cars and SUVs.
The officers who testified on Tuesday posed for a photo afterward. | Oliver Contreras/Getty Images
“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,” said a DC police officer.
The first hearing of the January 6 Select Committee contained harrowing accounts from four law enforcement officers about the physical, emotional, and racial abuse they suffered that day — and served as an indictment of Republicans who have spent recent months trying to downplay the insurrection and deflect criticism.
One of the main themes of Tuesday’s hearing was that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was a really big deal — one that imperils the future of American democracy. DC police officer Michael Fanone drove that point home during perhaps the most memorable moment of the proceedings, pounding on a table as he alluded to the disinterest of GOP leadership like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is boycotting the committee: “The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,” he said.
“Nothing has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day and in doing so betray their oath of office,” Fanone added.
Fanone pounds the table as he says, "the indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!"
"Nothing has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day and in doing so betray their oath of office," he adds pic.twitter.com/LrJOxT0ueh
Fanone, who like the other officers was appearing in his personal capacity, later detailed how he was beaten unconscious by rioters and pleaded for his life by telling them, “I’ve got kids!”
The two Republicans on the committee, Reps. Liz Cheney (WY) and Adam Kinzinger (IL), also sounded off on members of their party for not treating the January 6 attack on the Capitol with the gravity it deserves.
“On January 6th and in the days thereafter, almost all members of my party recognized the events of that day for what they actually were,” Cheney said during her opening statement, contrasting that with more recent efforts to downplay January 6. “No member of Congress should attempt to defend the indefensible, obstruct this investigation, or whitewash what happened that day.”
"If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic, undermining the peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democracy system." -- Liz Cheney pic.twitter.com/D8LBl64yn3
Whitewashing is exactly what most Republican members of Congress are trying to do. Take the structure of the commission itself: For two of his five spots, McCarthy chose to nominate House Republicans who voted in January against certifying the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to seat each of them, McCarthy decided to dissociate from the committee altogether.
One of those House Republicans, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), went on Fox News as soon as Tuesday’s hearing ended and shrugged it off as “scripted by Nancy Pelosi.”
Another Republican who voted against certifying the election results, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), took to Twitter earlier Tuesday and called for Cheney and Kinzinger’s expulsion from the House Republican conference.
Kinzinger, for his part, repeatedly became emotional while questioning the officers. Choking up, he concluded by telling them, “we thank you for holding that line.”
"I never expected today to be quite as emotional for me as it has been" — Adam Kinzinger breaks down as he commends the officers for the jobs they did on January 6 pic.twitter.com/JrgPEK0h8P
“Like most Americans, I’m frustrated that six months after a deadly insurrection breached the United States Capitol for several hours on live television, we still don’t know exactly what happened,” Kinzinger said at another point. “Why? Because many in my party have treated this as just another partisan fight. It’s toxic.”
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t appear as though the first January 6 select committee hearing persuaded Republican leaders to take the insurrection more seriously. McCarthy said he was stuck in meetings and didn’t see any of it, while McConnell told reporters he was too “busy doing work.” But both of them made clear months ago that with the 2022 midterms looming and January 6 being a political loser for Republicans, they wanted to move on as quickly as possible.
The hearing drove home that the insurrection wasn’t a “normal tourist visit”
The four officers who took part in Tuesday’s hearing humanized some of the statistics from that day — 150 officers injured, and five deaths, including four Trump supporters and Officer Brian Sicknick (there’s some controversy over his cause of death). Each of their respective body cam videos from that day was played.
My God. The January 6 footage from Officer Fanone's body camera is harrowing and at one point shows him yelling to the insurrectionists assaulting him, "I've got kids!" pic.twitter.com/7QfVPKIVrc
While Republicans like McCarthy and Banks have sought to shift the focus from how Trump and his supporters encouraged the insurrection to law enforcement failures that contributed to the Capitol being overrun, the officers who testified on Tuesday linked Trump’s rhetoric to the unrest. They urged the select committee to focus on the bigger picture.
It’s worth noting that securityplanning failures helped enable the insurrectionists to overrun law enforcement officers and come perilously close to laying hands on members of Congress — the Senate last month released a bipartisan report outlining some of those failures. But that report didn’t tackle the root causes of the riot.
“The rioters that attempted to reach the Capitol were shouting, ‘Trump sent us,’” said US Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell: “I recall thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m gonna die.’”
Gonell later said he views Trump’s comments about how the insurrectionists were actually a “loving crowd” on a “normal tourist visit” who were “hugging and kissing” officers as “a pathetic excuse for his behavior,” adding, “I’m still recovering from those ‘hugs and kisses’ that day.” (Gonell testified that he’ll have to undergo multiple surgeries to address injuries he suffered that day.)
Cheney asks Sgt. Gonell how he feels when he hears Trump describe the mob as a "loving crowd." He says it's "upsetting" and that "it's a pathetic excuse for his behavior, for something that he himself helped create ... I'm still recovering from those 'hugs and kisses' that day" pic.twitter.com/cnK1s826CE
“Well, if that’s what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don’t like American tourists,” he said.
Officer Hodges on Republicans describing insurrectionists as "tourists": "Well, if that's what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don't like American tourists." pic.twitter.com/fmV6I7QEJz
Capitol officer Harry Dunn — a Black man who testified about being showered with racial slurs at the Capitol that day — commended Cheney and Kinzinger for serving on the committee, but suggested the involvement of Republicans in an effort to get to the bottom of an attack on the Capitol shouldn’t be remarkable.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes. And while I agree with that notion, why? Because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard? I guess in this America, it is,” Dunn said.
Officer Dunn: "Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes. And while I agree with that notion, why? Because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard? I guess in this America, it is." pic.twitter.com/CeBD6kHl7P
Tuesday’s hearing was meant to get the January 6 committee off to an emotional and headline-grabbing start, and on that front, it succeeded. It’s unclear when their next public hearing will be held, but panel chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) recently told the Washington Post that he’s prepared to subpoena Republican members of Congress and perhaps even Trump himself.
“We’ll follow the facts,” Thompson told the Post. “I would say we need to have as much factual data from any and all individuals implicated. And so that goes from the top down — it could be leadership in the House, it could be members of Congress, it could be financiers of the people who came to Washington on that day. It could be people who paid for the printing of material, people who paid for robocalls to go out, inviting people to come to Washington to help ‘stop the steal.’ All of that is a part of the review.”
Dunn closed the hearing by indicating that he and his fellow officers are supportive of that plan to take a big-picture view.
“There was an attack carried out on January 6, and a hitman sent them,” Dunn said. “I want you to get to the bottom of that.”
I started what I guess you can call my “dream job” six months ago, and it’s been going well except for one thing: my new boss. My boss, Jane, is a highly uninvolved person, and I am struggling to figure out the best way to communicate with her.
When I started my job, I spent the first two weeks on my own reviewing training documents because Jane was too busy to meet with me. When I finally met with her, our first meeting was less than 15 minutes and all she talked about was herself and she simply told me to keep reviewing training. That was the last time I have met with her. In the six months I have been here, I have tried to email and call her to set up meetings with her or ask questions about work to no avail. She is always “busy” and will either ignore my attempts to reach out or give me a one-sentence response that doesn’t give me any clarity on what to do.
My coworkers have been very supportive of me and have tried to help me out as best they can. I should also point out that the issue isn’t me in particular; my coworkers have similar problems with communicating with Jane and have just told me to hang in there.
Well, today I reached a breaking point. I emailed my boss to ask her to please review and approve an assignment I worked on and instead I get something else. My boss, who never communicates with me or gives me any feedback, just sent a mass email to the entire team where she sets some ground rules on communicating with her. In her email, she claimed it is highly inappropriate and disrespectful to use the word “please” when sending emails to her and that the phrases “please approve,” “can you please review,” etc. are unacceptable. She said those statements are orders and her staff should not be giving her orders. She also claimed she will not respond to any emails with those words/phrases to her.
In the years that I have been working professionally, I have never heard that the word “please” can be considered an order. And if that’s the way Jane wants to interpret that word, it’s fine, I can adjust how I communicate with her, but I need her to be clear on what her expectations are and to address this with me directly instead of sending an angry email to the entire team! It’s frustrating that in the six months I have been here, she has never once said anything to me about how I communicate with her and instead she has been stewing in her office and ignoring my emails when she sees the word “please.”
I’m at a loss at how to communicate with her. This and other issues with my new boss have made me question if this “dream job” is worth it. What should I do?
Yeah, this isn’t a dream job! It can’t be a dream job when your boss refuses to speak to you for six months, thinks “please” is rude, and proclaims she’ll ignore all emails that contain it (!).
There’s so much here that’s troubling but this is what really gives away who your boss is: “She said those statements are orders and her staff should not be giving her orders.” That is … a remarkable interpretation of “please,” and it’s also an incredibly bizarre thing for her to focus on. She’s far more invested in her emotions about authority than in actually using her authority to make things run smoothly (see: ignoring you and others for months).
For what it’s worth, I don’t agree with your supposition that she’s been ignoring your emails this whole time because you used “please.” She’s ignored your emails this whole time because she apparently ignores everyone. It’s far easier to believe that she’s just a crappy boss who can’t be bothered to train, guide, or manage her employees than to believe that she’s been nursing a grudge over “please” for six months and secretly punishing you for it by never responding to you. (I mean, it’s possible. We’ve seen far weirderthings. But it’s just not nearly as likely.)
Things you’re not going to get from this job as long as you report to Jane:
* Clear expectations
* Clear/any guidance
* Communication
* Transparency
* Common sense
The best thing you can do for yourself is to see that really clearly and decide if you want the job long-term given those conditions. You might decide you do! Maybe there are enough other good things about the job to make it worthwhile. But take a really clear-eyed look at who Jane is and decide if you can live reasonably happily with that or not — because this isn’t someone who you’re going to be able to get to change (not that you’d ever have the opportunity to try, since she won’t bother to meet with you).
While I await the new Yellowstone v2.1 PCBs, I’ve been spending more time on testing. With my hacked-up v2.0 PCB, most things are working pretty well, especially with DOS3.3, ProDOS, or game disks. I can connect any odd combination of drives to the Yellowstone card, and expect that it will behave more-or-less correctly, but of course there are still a few bugs. Here’s what I’ve been working on recently.
Laser Bugs
Yellowstone supports booting from drive 1 or drive 2, but I noticed that if both drives were 5.25 inch floppies, then attempting to boot from drive 2 would always crash the computer. To find the cause, I had to go digging deep into the Laser ROM on which Yellowstone’s core disk routines are based. After some effort, I identified this as a bug in the original Laser ROM. With this drive configuration, if booting from drive 1 failed, it would prepare to boot drive 2 but never actually load anything from the disk. Then it would attempt to run the code in the uninitialized memory buffer where track 0 sector 0 was supposed to have been loaded. Doh! This is a surprisingly severe bug to find in a successful product from a major company in the 1980s, but maybe expectations were different back then.
I found another Laser-related bug in the 3.5 inch drive support. Although Yellowstone was already working OK for 3.5 inch drives, the disk I/O sounded like a panicked chicken or one of The Muppets. While reading from a disk, the 3.5 inch drive made an odd mechanical sound several times per second, which was not present when using the same drive with other disk controllers. I eventually tracked this down to the 3.5 inch / 5.25 inch switching behavior. After every sector read from the 3.5 inch disk, the Laser ROM routine was switching back to 5.25 inch mode before exiting, only to immediately switch back again for the next sector. This was causing the drive to turn on and off rapidly. I’m not sure how that made it through anybody’s QA process, because it made an obvious unpleasant noise.
With the Apple IIgs, if you boot the computer with a DOS3.3 disk using another controller card in a higher-numbered slot than Yellowstone, then Yellowstone’s ROM initialization code will never have an opportunity to run. The motor detectors for Yellowstone’s slot will never get enabled, so the IIgs won’t slow to 1 MHz when attempting to do I/O with Yellowstone’s drives. The result will be a garbled mess. Fortunately this is pretty obscure, and it only affects software based on DOS3.3 and not ProDOS, and where Yellowstone is not the primary boot device. I don’t think there’s any complete fix, but there are several possible work-arounds, including manually running the initialization code with PR#x for Yellowstone’s slot number.
GS/OS
Some other bugs I’ve identified, but not managed to fix yet. Most of them are related to GS/OS. When sitting at the desktop, GS/OS makes a Status call for each drive every 800 ms. I assume this is so it can update the GUI, and change a disk’s icon when it’s been swapped or removed. But this creates a problem for Yellowstone. Part of the data that’s returned by a Status call is the size of the disk. For 3.5 inch disks, the size is different for single-sided 400K disks and double-sided 800K disks, but it can’t know which type of disk is in the drive until it tries reading it. So every 800 ms, the drive spins up to read the disk and see whether it’s double-sided, over and over forever. It’s very distracting, and other disk controllers don’t have this problem. The Yellowstone Status call handler is going to need more smarts to cache the disk info instead of re-reading the disk each time, and to know when the drive must be checked again after a disk swap.
Yellowstone 5.25 inch drives currently aren’t working great with GS/OS, because GS/OS doesn’t know they’re 5.25 inch drives. It thinks they’re some new type of drive that supports standard API calls and that just happens to be 140K in size, so it treats them the same way as 3.5 inch drives, including the every 800 ms status call. But 5.25 inch drives can’t work that way. If you boot GS/OS while having a 5.25 inch disk in the drive, then everything works OK at first. But if you remove that disk and insert another one, GS/OS won’t know about it. If you click on the 5.25 inch drive icon, it’ll ask you to reinsert the original disk and there’s no way switch disks. If you boot GS/OS while having an empty 5.25 inch drive connected, it will complain that the disk can’t be read and needs to be initialized. If you cancel that, then the 5.25 inch drive disappears from the GS/OS desktop, never to be seen again.
With a standard Disk II controller card, or the built-in disk port of an Apple IIgs, 5.25 inch drives have a different behavior than other types of drives under GS/OS. It doesn’t attempt to access the drives or check their status until you choose to open them. As I recall, it also shows the 5.25 inch drive with a separate icon from the disk that’s in the drive. I’m not sure how to force GS/OS to treat Yellowstone 5.25 inch drives the same way, or if it’s even possible. The behavior may be determined by a signature check of the disk controller’s ROM, and if it looks like a Disk II controller, it’ll use the special 5.25 inch drive behavior. There might be a work-around if you’ve booted GS/OS from another drive and disk controller, and are then accessing one or two 5.25 inch drives using the Yellowstone card. But if Yellowstone is your only disk controller, with a Smartport hard drive at D1 and a 5.25 inch drive at D2, I’m not sure what the solution might be.
Floppy Emu
The Floppy Emu disk emulator has been my go-to testing device for use with Yellowstone, and I’ve found a couple of bugs with it too. When Floppy Emu is configured as a Unidisk 3.5 drive, but no disk is inserted yet, it displays a menu for selecting a disk. During this time the disk emulation is paused, and if the computer queries the drive, it will appear unresponsive. If you’re planning to boot from the emulated Unidisk 3.5 then you’ll probably never notice this, but if you use the Yellowstone card to boot from a ProDOS disk in another drive, then ProDOS will fail with a “Relocation/Configuration Error” mid-way through booting when it queries the Floppy Emu and gets no response.
In researching possible solutions for the GS/OS Status Call, I also realized that Floppy Emu isn’t correctly emulating one of the Sony 3.5 inch drive’s internal registers called SWITCHED. I had never found any documentation about this, so years ago when I created the emulator framework, I made this register always return zero. But now I realize that’s wrong. After experimenting with a real 3.5 inch drive, I see how it’s supposed to work. At power-on the SWITCHED register should be zero, and it should change to 1 if a disk is ejected automatically or manually with a paper clip. Software can set the value back to zero again. This probably explains why a few old Macintosh games like Dark Castle don’t seem to recognize when a new disk has been inserted, when they’re run from a Floppy Emu.
It’s not a Bug, it’s a Feature
With the exception of the GS/OS items, I think most of these issues should be possible to fix, and if I’m wrong then they’re at least easy to identify and work-around. But I’m a little worried about 5.25 inch drive handling under GS/OS. Hopefully it’s just a matter of providing the right flags in response to the Status call and other API calls. I suppose it’s not the end of the world if it never works, since most people who are running GS/OS with Yellowstone will have a separate Disk II card or the built-in disk port for their 5.25 inch drives. But I’d love to make this combination work if I can.
If you’re new to electric vehicles—or are starting to research options for an upcoming purchase—you may not know that in addition to the high-voltage battery pack that supplies power to the motor, they also use the same 12-volt batteries that gas-powered vehicles do. And, yes, these 12-volt batteries can lose their…
Thought I would give an update on the farting in the boardroom story of a little while back as the issue did not go away and things turned out a lot differently than how I expected.
So there were another 4-5 meetings. The farting continued, in some meetings it was worse than others. It did seem that those scheduled in the morning were less gassy affairs, although by no means did attendees enjoy fresh air for the entire duration of those. Despite the regular bouts of nostril-burning flatulence wafting throughout the room, it became clear we were going to be working with this client on a long term basis and the atmosphere grew a little more relaxed accordingly. On one occasion near the end of a meeting someone cracked a very funny joke, which provoked an outburst of communal laughter, during which someone, presumably involuntarily, let out an audible fart. It was short, not very loud, and if anyone noticed it they didn’t let on. However, whilst I couldn’t be sure if everyone heard it, it was certainly smelt by everyone. The eye-wateringly foul stench wiped the smiles off some faces and replaced the amused expressions of a few others with frowns. This seemingly brought this particular meeting to a slightly premature end as the most senior member of the client team rose to his feet and said without a hint of irony, “Well that’s probably as good a note as any to end on for today.” It was unclear if he was referring to the funny joke cracked moments earlier or the fart, indeed he seemed a very sharp individual who probably realized it was a perfect moment for ambiguity. But I have to admit the sight of everyone’s eyes darting around the room as people tried to gauge each other’s reactions to try and figure out exactly what he meant was an amusing one. But not as amusing as moments later watching senior management leaning over the table exchanging farewell platitudes and shaking hands whilst yet another stinking fart assaulted everyone’s noses.
It got to the point where people let their guard down a bit and became a little less restrained in hiding their reactions. An electric fan mysteriously appeared in the corner of meeting room one day, but it wasn’t used for the first meeting it appeared in, probably as it was an early morning affair with limited silent and deadly emissions. But during one particularly gassy afternoon episode a week later, one of the clients, a younger female, was sat with the corners of her mouth pointing downwards and using a piece of A4 to fan the air, trying to make it look like she was just trying to cool her face. Our director saw this, and asked the junior member sitting nearest the new fan to “switch it on please, seems its getting a little hot in here” with a completely straight face. On the fan went – but the speed was set on a higher speed than anticipated and all that happened was pieces of paper, meeting notes, and a newspaper were blown off the table and flew around the room along with the familiar pungent stench. Thankfully this was laughed off, and I took advantage of the interruption to suggest a break, as we left the office juniors to clear up the chaos. During the unplanned interval, I noticed our most senior executive had hung back to help reorganize the room. This was most out of character, but it turned out he just wanted to get the newspaper, which had been blown inside out.
Seconds later he emerged from the room and walked towards the gaggle of us who were drinking coffee and chatting in the open plan area outside the meeting room. He radiated a beaming smile as he strode right past everyone in the direction of the men’s restroom with the newspaper tucked under his arm. Seeing that he didn’t return to the meeting room for a good ten minutes after everyone else had, it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce why he had been so eager to get his hands on some reading material. This brazen and unashamed approach to bathroom business quickly led me to place him in the number one position on the silent boardroom farter suspect list. I also especially noted there were no more silent-but-deadly interruptions for the remainder of that meeting, which went on for a further three hours or so.
During our very last meeting, which was to seal the deal, there was an awkward culture clash. We work in a multi-national office in a major Asian city. English is the working language, and between us and the client team everyone speaks English fluently, but there is a varying mix of comprehension of our host countries language. All of our senior executives are westerners and unable to converse in the local language. I’m not a local but I’m fluent in the local lingo. During the meeting, two maintenance men wearing overalls entered the room and announced they were responding to a report of a fault in the ventilation system. But both the workers were not fluent in English, so I did some on the spot interpretation, to which our most senior executive replied, “Please tell the janitors the air con and ventilation system are working fine, we have important business to conclude today.”
I duly interpreted. But the workman, not at all concerned with the subtleties of boardroom etiquette, bluntly replied in the local vernacular “There’s no ventilation problem? It smells like shit in here!” which basically caused the half of the room who could understand to laugh and the other half to respond with smiles and looks of curiosity as to what exactly was said. Thinking on my feet I didn’t translate anything back to my side, but urged the maintenance guys to come back in a few hours because it was a really important meeting and we really had to get on with it. It was a ruse which seemed to impress the client executive who is also fluent in that language, and offered my side a way to continue without drawing more attention to the constant bad smells than was necessary.
The deal ended up being signed off and it was decided both teams would go out for dinner and drinks to celebrate. Sure enough the drinks flowed and both sides let their hair down as the night drew on. Whilst chatting with one of the clients, someone of similar level to myself, and with a few drinks in me, I couldn’t help but bring up the farting issue. The client replied, “Oh, that was our boss, we’re soooooo sorry about that! He’s a great guy but sits there in our office telling dick and fart jokes all day, he says it’s an example of “thinking out of the box” to make our team more relaxed comfortable with each other. So after each meeting we were telling him to quit passing gas. He would deny it each time but the whole thing had just became a running joke for our team so we just rolled with it, sorry!”
Very surprised by this revelation, and at the level of humor coming from such an otherwise professional and serious team, I felt it best to just laugh it off and not reveal real source of the reek. But emboldened by this, days later I ran into our senior executive’s PA (who was usually in the meetings) and asked her straight up if the guy had a wind problem. “Oh yeah,” she replied, “I’m glad my desk is outside, he just sits and farts in his office room all day and just doesn’t care.”
I ended up feeling like I was the one who had the problems all along — a keener sense of smell than most, not especially amused by fart jokes, and a little naive — seniority level and attitude to public farting are not necessarily linked!
Credited by a generation of book nerds for shaping their identities on Reading Rainbow, LeVar Burton guest hosts Jeopardy! this week after a campaign hyped by his large and enthusiastic fandom.
I have a few questions regarding vacation time for exempt employees. I recently submitted 40 hours of vacation time that my boss approved. During my vacation, I received a lot of requests for various tasks that my boss needed. He sent requests via email, texts, and on Teams. So during my vacation, I spent time researching the things he requested and sent him the information.
Why should I be docked from my vacation time if technically I was still working? My boss never indicated that the requests could wait till after I returned from my vacation. He said he needed the information asap. Should I request to be given my vacation time back or at least the time I spent working while on vacation? Really appreciate your help with these questions!
This answer would be completely different if I were writing to your manager. But, since I’m writing to you, here it goes.
Federal law doesn’t give regulations on vacation time. Companies don’t have to offer any vacation time, and they are free to put rules around it as they see fit, as long as those rules aren’t a violation of law. (Men can take vacation, but women can’t, would be an example of an illegal vacation policy.)
Many exempt employees and many managers of exempt employees consider it normal to answer a few emails and take an occasional call while on vacation. In practice, I’m totally fine with this. In theory, I’m absolutely opposed. This is definitely a do what I say not what I do situation. I would happily answer a few emails while on vacation, but I would not expect anyone else to do so, and I would tell managers to let their employees take a true vacation.
My point, though, is this is fairly normal. No one raises an eyebrow at doing a bit of work on vacation. (We should, but we don’t.)
However, if it’s more than a “bit of work” then you should definitely go to your boss. If you were spending hours each day doing work, he should restore some of your vacation time. (Sometimes exempt employees will claim that if they did 15 minutes worth of work, then they should not have to take vacation at all for that day. They base this on the “touch the wall” rule, which is that you have to pay an employee for a full day if they did any work at all. However, the requirement is only to pay the person, not that it can’t count against PTO.)
Have a conversation with your boss, explain how much you worked, and ask to have a reasonable amount of your PTO restored. A reasonable boss should be willing to do so.
Then talk about boundaries and expectations for the future. Your boss may always expect that you will be available while on vacation. Your boss may be shocked that you felt pressure to do the work. It may be something in between. What you don’t have is a clear understanding of expectations and boundaries. And that is something you need to have in this position.
So, ask for some time back (depending on how much you worked) and get a clear understanding of boundaries for future vacations. If your boss’s expectations aren’t going to work for you, then it’s time to find a new job and move on.
1. Round 52: Gulf Coast Anthropocene
2. Slowed and Throwed: Records of the City Through Mutated Lenses
3. Ellen Tanner: Fables & Family
4. Erica Felicella: Release
5. 2021 Equity in the Arts Fellowship Exhibition
I have a few questions regarding vacation time for exempt employees. I recently submitted 40 hours of vacation time that my boss approved. During my vacation, I received a lot of requests for various tasks that my boss needed. He sent requests via email, texts, and on Teams. So during my vacation, I spent time researching the things he requested and sent him the information. 
