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  • Ted Cat has never seen anyone have a cup of coffee, he thinks everything is a cat food bowl!! And if he doesn't get his way he is cranky. I don't think he's ever lived with humans or been taught how to behave. 😨 He reminds me of a zoo animal.

    I also think he was only neutered very recently 😬

  • So any emotional extremes today. Tonight is comfort food, blanket, couch and either Netflix or gaming. Tomorrow will be better.

  • Rollercoaster day. Got an email this morning asking that I attend the office later this week to meet with the directors. No details provided on what the meeting is going to be about. An ex-colleague of mine recieved a similar meeting invitation earlier in the year where they got made redundant. So naturally I began to freak out, thinking I'm about to lose my job. I asked if I needed to prepare anything for the meeting and the response makes me think I'm not about to lose my job, but they're going to be raising something performance related. I'm pretty nervous because I have no idea what I'm going to be walking into. The response could just be throwing me off the scent. I feel sick.

    I already want to leave, but better hurry up with finding that new job. Tonight I'm going to apply for a few roles and clear my work PC in case the worst happens.

  • I've just spend two hours on phone setup stuff. So many apps, so many accounts to sign in. I haven't even spent any time actually organising anything, just downloading and logging in.

  • If you had the choice, what would you go for:

    1. Increase of pay to relieve cost of living pressure
    2. Decrease in work hours (but not pay) to increase your work/life balance

    I know for me it's the latter but that comes from a position where cost of living, while putting a bit of pressure on me financially, isn't my biggest concern. I've lived frugally before and can do that but seeing my hours slip away while companies make big profits off of my work isn't fun.

    • On average, I'd guess it'd be 2 for most people who already got into the property market and are comfortable with what they have. 1 for people who are starting out/trying to buy things.

      I'd rather the prices of things stopped getting insane so we didn't have to try to keep up with huge pay rises though, in general. I don't know how the world can turn this around and things can get better. All of the systems around the world are effectively just 'made up' so I feel like the world as a single unit could just decide to make it a better place for most at the expense of annoying those profiting most from the current system, but that's some John Lennon Imagine style daydreaming and I think the days of things being good for the masses is over and just going to get worse.

      Yay now I'm sad.

      • I would love for the highest paid in a company to have their wage proportional to the lowest wage (ie. 30x), enshrined in law, so there is still motive for increasing profit but it benefits everyone.

    • its all a balancing act I guess. I'd absolutely take 2, but not if its going to increase financial stress.

    • At the moment I'd go with increased pay. Not so much for cost of living pressures, but to put towards retirement which will give me a really good work/life balance by cutting out the work aspect entirely.

    • Probably 2. I had a pay rise not long ago but family circumstances mean I think I'm going to need more time for life admin.

      • (I know this is from yesterday but thought I would reply anyway - sorry for the lateness)

        That whole life admin piece is the real kicker, huh? Especially when family is to be considered - whether it's older or younger family members, those that need that little bit of extra time (as in, anyone that isn't fully independent) really does end up chewing into the other time you would use to do things like, you know, live life. That's what I don't understand about a lot of the debates going on around the world where the birthrate is dropping - people don't feel they have the adequate time to raise a family. Couple it with the other side of the sandwich where you also have to help out older family members who aren't nearly as independent as they were when we were younger, and suddenly you're caught in the middle.

    • Increase in pay. I mean I'd love to be able to work 4 days a week, but I think money is my main issue. The only thing work/life balance would achieve is I'm not spending an extra $20 to go to and from work.

    • I’d take the increase pay first if I had a choice then move to better work life balance once things were better.

      I think being away from work more could increase expenses whether that be by utilities or going out.

    • My work/life balance is pretty good at the moment, so I'll take the extra $$$ all day.

      • Same here although I’d love it if the profits made by the company were evenly distributed downwards to all of us, especially us at the bottom of the ladder.

    • At this point I'm going with 2 because of burnout and I've long since given up on the idea of buying property - my time and sanity is more important atm. As long as I can cover my basic expenses I'm fine. For me, part of cost of living pressures come from discretionary expenses borne out of the stress of FT work; in some way I can save money doing PT hours by accessing cheaper and more sustainable improvements in well being.

      It's a fine balance though. Depends a lot on the actual $ offered and the nature of the job

  • cough COUGH cough cough
    Another day or so of bromhexine and I should be able to let Pei Pa Koa take over.

  • ...Have any of you gotten an employment lawyer to run through a contract before signing? I've finally got my short term one for this project I'm meant to do, but it's both incredibly vague about my responsibilities as well as incredibly broad about IP created in my own time (anything that "relates" to the business?? what does that mean exactly?)

    I'm wondering whether it's worth it since they are a small business that probably won't have the resources to really lawyer up and fight (and would ruin their reputation in the process if they really did). But they have been really hard to trust lately. It just doesn't sit right with me.

    • IP created in my own time

      We are a company that sells pet food. Any and all animal or food art you have ever created and will create belong to us.

      🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

    • Trust your gut feel. This doesn't sound right at all. For a short term contract, you need to know that they have thought out exactly what they expect from you in the time available. And it doesn't seem that this has happened.

      • I'm especially sus about how they might define whether what I create during the period of employment, in my own personal time, on my own hardware/software, is relevant to the business operations and therefore they can lay claim on it. When my tasks are so vague.

        I get that IP clauses are not uncommon (although not present in my previous contracts!) - but the way they've worded this really grinds my gears because (a) they rely extensively on open source software and have never spent a red cent contributing to it, and (b) a good part of the solutions I've come up with for the business have been based off publicly available code and answers on stackexchange, github and the like - from people helping each other out on their own time (Much of that extra research being shit I've learned on my own time as well)

        Now they want to turn around and potentially stop me from giving back to those same communities? Grrr.

    • I think the question is more of it's worth the money for a lawyer. You'll probably pay $400 at least. If this contract ain't worth the expense of the review it might be worth proposing an alteration yourself.

      • I might just start with suggesting alterations but I suspect I might not get a straight answer out of our hideously incompetent business mgr (this contract was sent through as late as possible!) I feel like I'd benefit from professional opinion just do a once over and say 'eh this is OK with a few tweaks' vs 'this needs major changes', to back up my position (or help me decide to just bail).

        $400 is definitely going to sting, but I don't want this to impact what I want to do after I leave... Maybe I should just look for another job.

206 comments