Daina Dajevskis

I wish I had this shirt when I was in Afghanistan. In 2009, we were situated in a little Observation Post somewhere in Kandahar for a week or two at a time, with nothing but rations to fill our bellies. After many days and much elaborate drawing, I finally managed to communicate to a local Afghan National Army soldier that we were interested in real food. For the rest of our stay, and for just a few dollars per week, we were treated to hot meals twice per day. But had I had this IconSpeak shirt, weeks of eating cold rations could have been avoided.

IconSpeak is a useful T-shirt printed with 40 universal icons, perfect for those occasions when you don’t speak the local language and have forgotten how to sign “I think there’s a problem with my carburettor.” The shirt was thought up by three Swiss “pen-pushers” over numerous drinks and after an adventure with a broken-down motorcycle, somewhere in Vietnam. Read a little bit of their story below:

“Many times we were confronted with a language barrier that was only to be overcome by drawing signs, symbols or icons on a piece of paper, map, or into the dirt,” explain George, Steven, and Florian. “We thought it would be great to have an essential set of icons with you, permanently, so that you could just point on whatever you need – and people would understand. Soon the notepad was pulled out again and we started listing more or less essential icons that would have been of great help during not just ours, but basically anyone’s trip.”

More info: iconspeak.world (h/t: ufunk)

A reader sent along a note about some of the recent layoffs we've been seeing across pharma/biotech companies. Different organizations have very different ways of handling things like stock units and options, and in a layoff one of the key variables is the vesting schedule. Remember, if you have compensation of this sort that hasn't vested, it isn't yours. It may show up in your statements (albeit under its own category), and you will have seen the announcements of it being awarded to you, but until this stuff vests that's all provisional.

I think that most people realize that part, although if you don't, it's going to come as a nasty surprise. What seems to have taken some people unaware recently, though, is that companies have different schedules for vesting the employer match contributions in 401(k) accounts. Some companies vest immediately, but those are probably not a majority. The rest follow different schedules, and if you are laid off, that unvested money is going to disappear unless the company specifically changes its mind about that.

Now that said, there's not much you can do about this, but it's worth knowing the real situation in advance so you can plan accordingly. Seeing money disappear from their retirement accounts was something of a shock to people in these recent layoffs, from what I'm told, making a bit situation just that much more painful.