Kittymoticons
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Questions that would be nice to ask in a job interview
What's the suicide rate of your employees?
Does the company healthcare cover suicide? Or heart-lung transplants, cosmetic surgery such as liposuction, tubal, boobjob and cures for erectile dysfunction?
Have you ever had sex with an employee? Or with a customer?
What kind of shooting facilities are there in the office?
How many diversity persons are there working at the site? Would you consider hiring a 35 years old white male as your diversity person?
Who did you sleep with to become a manager?
What kind of possibilities are there to explore the possibility of collecting the protection money from the employees for keeping their computers working?
Is it true that the outgoing calls are not recorded?
I can see asking creative questions that have nothing to do with the job I'm applying for or with measuring the candidates attitudes are in ... don't you want to ask anything relevant?
Is it part of your dress code that everyone dresses as if they were working for Microsoft?
I had a look walking around the office before this interview, and man, I didn't see anyone who would look happy in their job. What reasons do the employees usually give when they leave?
Could you give examples of your micromanagement style?
What's your company policy for sexual harassment?
Do they sell beer in the canteen?
How often do you get extra paid time off for funerals?
How much underperforming do you tolerate before firing your employees?
Is swearing in the office allowed?
How many hours are there typically time to watch movies during a typical work day?
Does your company dress code allow the employees to wear a burqa?
Are those real?
Does the company healthcare cover suicide? Or heart-lung transplants, cosmetic surgery such as liposuction, tubal, boobjob and cures for erectile dysfunction?
Have you ever had sex with an employee? Or with a customer?
What kind of shooting facilities are there in the office?
How many diversity persons are there working at the site? Would you consider hiring a 35 years old white male as your diversity person?
Who did you sleep with to become a manager?
What kind of possibilities are there to explore the possibility of collecting the protection money from the employees for keeping their computers working?
Is it true that the outgoing calls are not recorded?
I can see asking creative questions that have nothing to do with the job I'm applying for or with measuring the candidates attitudes are in ... don't you want to ask anything relevant?
Is it part of your dress code that everyone dresses as if they were working for Microsoft?
I had a look walking around the office before this interview, and man, I didn't see anyone who would look happy in their job. What reasons do the employees usually give when they leave?
Could you give examples of your micromanagement style?
What's your company policy for sexual harassment?
Do they sell beer in the canteen?
How often do you get extra paid time off for funerals?
How much underperforming do you tolerate before firing your employees?
Is swearing in the office allowed?
How many hours are there typically time to watch movies during a typical work day?
Does your company dress code allow the employees to wear a burqa?
Are those real?
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Updates on the way ...
The past few weeks have been surprising. Surprising slow and fast on the same time, confusing and making some changes, giving the air of more changes to come soon. While the other half is still in the paperwork hell, I might get some good news soon regarding work - keep thumbs up.
Winter has never bee my best time. Cold and dark just suck most of the energy out. That and being sick for the past few days make it that I don't yet have a good rant update. Maybe tomorrow though.
Winter has never bee my best time. Cold and dark just suck most of the energy out. That and being sick for the past few days make it that I don't yet have a good rant update. Maybe tomorrow though.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Lying will take you far
After some years of observing people in the work and social life I have come to a weird conclusion : lying is worth it. I should have disregarded all the good parental and moral advice about lying and just started to do it, and properly, a long time ago.
Especially in the past year, I have noticed how much some people lie. I have observed two pathological liars at the work environment - one of them got herself a job promotion with lying, after spending weeks and months in several occasions sick for a reason that isn't medically credible (but when one just keeps lying systematically, no one seems to even notice that), and the other person was a bit surprisingly close to me.
The sick and then job promotion liar according to this other liar, keeps lying constantly. The second liar helped me recognize signs of lying - where she thought she'd be hiding her own signs of lying so well. Anyway. Normally when one has four sick incidents in any six months, the person is fired. The only exceptions to this have been one boss who had really really many and who was then sick for a year in the row but that didn't matter either because of her position or someone that she knew or because pregnancy gets somehow so special treatment (even though it is one's own fault to get in that condition in the first place), and this liar. She got allergies that caused her to be sick for weeks - the great stories of medication that she mentioned included details about her allergy medication, Xanax ... even if that medicine hasn't ever been used for anything else than mental disorders and panic. Still allergic (for work?) for weeks, on Xanax and booze .. no questions asked. After coming back for work for a few weeks then a tennis elbow, from using the mouse. Which was another weeks in a row of being sick. Physiologically, anyone using a mouse except maybe as a tennis ball replacement doesn't really cause it. So you would think that weeks of rest and physiotherapy would fix it if it was present. And if it didn't fix it, at least steroid injections would. She got those, and that in the storyline just made it worse .. I remember seeing her occasionally after that at work, probably because the management started to be suspicious enough, and shortly after she landed in a new job. I am definitely curious to see what kind of stories were involved in getting this new job as I know a bunch of more compatible people than her who were running for that particular job. Unless of course what the other applicants were missing was the ability to feed BS to everybody and lie without any consciousness issues.
The second liar taught me how to see when someone is talking BS.
Both liar would fit to the categories of pathological, chronic and habitual liars. Both liars main points are usually to make them appear nicer, to make the reality appear nicer to them, to get something (money, pay rise, sell things, get what ever you have they want), avoiding being caught of lying (by telling more lies), avoiding embarrassment and so on.
What they sometimes forget that once they start to treat you as their trusted friend, and reveal the amount of total lies ... you will have hard time believing anything they say. Or what they do and say may look totally nonsense. Once you get a lot of results of lying just keep lying and everything will be fine ... and then just keep lying. So the second one went to a holiday, landed in a week holiday to a job offer with 50 % more salary. She thought about it for a while, decided being bored with her actual job then, and quit. Telling some people about taking that job she was offered, other people that she'd get to the other side of the world to study, and went to live in a boring country 'while the visa would be processed for a maximum of two weeks' months ago. I don't fully get it but it will be a lot easier to believe what I see. So for most people to just ignore what they say and concentrate on what they do, believing in what they say when they have done it.
Another good example of how far you can go with lying is observing the politicians... of any country.
I think my new year's resolution would sort of have to lie more and better. And not have any moral problems lying so that the lying is even better.
Especially in the past year, I have noticed how much some people lie. I have observed two pathological liars at the work environment - one of them got herself a job promotion with lying, after spending weeks and months in several occasions sick for a reason that isn't medically credible (but when one just keeps lying systematically, no one seems to even notice that), and the other person was a bit surprisingly close to me.
The sick and then job promotion liar according to this other liar, keeps lying constantly. The second liar helped me recognize signs of lying - where she thought she'd be hiding her own signs of lying so well. Anyway. Normally when one has four sick incidents in any six months, the person is fired. The only exceptions to this have been one boss who had really really many and who was then sick for a year in the row but that didn't matter either because of her position or someone that she knew or because pregnancy gets somehow so special treatment (even though it is one's own fault to get in that condition in the first place), and this liar. She got allergies that caused her to be sick for weeks - the great stories of medication that she mentioned included details about her allergy medication, Xanax ... even if that medicine hasn't ever been used for anything else than mental disorders and panic. Still allergic (for work?) for weeks, on Xanax and booze .. no questions asked. After coming back for work for a few weeks then a tennis elbow, from using the mouse. Which was another weeks in a row of being sick. Physiologically, anyone using a mouse except maybe as a tennis ball replacement doesn't really cause it. So you would think that weeks of rest and physiotherapy would fix it if it was present. And if it didn't fix it, at least steroid injections would. She got those, and that in the storyline just made it worse .. I remember seeing her occasionally after that at work, probably because the management started to be suspicious enough, and shortly after she landed in a new job. I am definitely curious to see what kind of stories were involved in getting this new job as I know a bunch of more compatible people than her who were running for that particular job. Unless of course what the other applicants were missing was the ability to feed BS to everybody and lie without any consciousness issues.
The second liar taught me how to see when someone is talking BS.
Both liar would fit to the categories of pathological, chronic and habitual liars. Both liars main points are usually to make them appear nicer, to make the reality appear nicer to them, to get something (money, pay rise, sell things, get what ever you have they want), avoiding being caught of lying (by telling more lies), avoiding embarrassment and so on.
What they sometimes forget that once they start to treat you as their trusted friend, and reveal the amount of total lies ... you will have hard time believing anything they say. Or what they do and say may look totally nonsense. Once you get a lot of results of lying just keep lying and everything will be fine ... and then just keep lying. So the second one went to a holiday, landed in a week holiday to a job offer with 50 % more salary. She thought about it for a while, decided being bored with her actual job then, and quit. Telling some people about taking that job she was offered, other people that she'd get to the other side of the world to study, and went to live in a boring country 'while the visa would be processed for a maximum of two weeks' months ago. I don't fully get it but it will be a lot easier to believe what I see. So for most people to just ignore what they say and concentrate on what they do, believing in what they say when they have done it.
Another good example of how far you can go with lying is observing the politicians... of any country.
I think my new year's resolution would sort of have to lie more and better. And not have any moral problems lying so that the lying is even better.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Enough paperwork BS, again
Six more weeks or so, before the Department of Justice will have to give an answer.
And to send our paperwork back.
Can't wait really.
Six months without a passport, driver's license, marriage certificate.... can't travel anywhere even inside the country where you would even stay overnight, no way of getting out of the country (did I mention my parents are over 70 and sick?), can't drive the car without the driver's license (not that we could afford a car with one lousy salary for two), and part of us who can't work before getting the papers back, can't get a PPS (SSN) number before those papers are back .... being forced to not do anything during the day for so long time is getting on the nerves. It's not really getting on the nerves, it's been very much on the nerves since last August. Really, enough of this paperwork BS. And really, it sucks.
And even more BS if the non-EU part of us would have had a working visa here to start with...
When we'll get that paperwork, then will be months and months for other paperwork perhaps, but just can't wait to get out of here. We are both going thru some interviews - thankfully I have a stable job - he here, I there... would be nice to get the things running again. Life feels too stale when you can't get a weekend break, when you can't afford to rent a car for a weekend, to buy a new toy like an iPod when you happen to see something that you like... it becomes stale, and having a seasonal depression and all this happening during the winter will not make it much better either. There are moments when the work sucks (no matter which work, any of them), when you need a break, want to go out, can't afford to .. and the other part is glued in front of the computer for all day, with the lousy network speeds not allowing to even basic browse on a broadband... days become repetitive, drag on to work, not for the pleasure of it but because of the need of an income, do the job, serve, get back home, another lousy night without being able to get anywhere... days go by, making it one by one a day closer to getting the papers, getting those damn pieces of paper, stamps on passport, more visa applications...
May this be a better year from now on.
And to send our paperwork back.
Can't wait really.
Six months without a passport, driver's license, marriage certificate.... can't travel anywhere even inside the country where you would even stay overnight, no way of getting out of the country (did I mention my parents are over 70 and sick?), can't drive the car without the driver's license (not that we could afford a car with one lousy salary for two), and part of us who can't work before getting the papers back, can't get a PPS (SSN) number before those papers are back .... being forced to not do anything during the day for so long time is getting on the nerves. It's not really getting on the nerves, it's been very much on the nerves since last August. Really, enough of this paperwork BS. And really, it sucks.
And even more BS if the non-EU part of us would have had a working visa here to start with...
When we'll get that paperwork, then will be months and months for other paperwork perhaps, but just can't wait to get out of here. We are both going thru some interviews - thankfully I have a stable job - he here, I there... would be nice to get the things running again. Life feels too stale when you can't get a weekend break, when you can't afford to rent a car for a weekend, to buy a new toy like an iPod when you happen to see something that you like... it becomes stale, and having a seasonal depression and all this happening during the winter will not make it much better either. There are moments when the work sucks (no matter which work, any of them), when you need a break, want to go out, can't afford to .. and the other part is glued in front of the computer for all day, with the lousy network speeds not allowing to even basic browse on a broadband... days become repetitive, drag on to work, not for the pleasure of it but because of the need of an income, do the job, serve, get back home, another lousy night without being able to get anywhere... days go by, making it one by one a day closer to getting the papers, getting those damn pieces of paper, stamps on passport, more visa applications...
May this be a better year from now on.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
2006 in a few lines
2006 in very few lines :
Depression most of the time, while trying to survive the daily BS in life
Marriage - finally. No more of the 90 days BS either way
Visa hell - 6 months two on a lousy salary .. and well, this after finishing the 90 days hell
Reorgs - how much worse can everything get reorganized?
BS - way too many levels
People - social networking when I really want to be alone
Gadgets - nothing really exciting
Home - the third year in same house
Money - at least still used to life in student income ...
Depression most of the time, while trying to survive the daily BS in life
Marriage - finally. No more of the 90 days BS either way
Visa hell - 6 months two on a lousy salary .. and well, this after finishing the 90 days hell
Reorgs - how much worse can everything get reorganized?
BS - way too many levels
People - social networking when I really want to be alone
Gadgets - nothing really exciting
Home - the third year in same house
Money - at least still used to life in student income ...
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