Epic FU money stories

[LennStar]

One dumb outcome has been not enough offices for everyone who has come in.

That is not your problem. If they can't provide working space, you can't work. Tell them you can't and wait.

[Captain FIRE]

One dumb outcome has been not enough offices for everyone who has come in.

That is not your problem. If they can't provide working space, you can't work. Tell them you can't and wait.

So first, this is my husband not me. And as mentioned above, if all they have is cafeteria space that hurts his back (not office chairs) and is in the open (we try to be COVID cautious), then he’ll badge in, take a few meetings and go home. I’ve also told him to track these instances for a record but I’m not sure he has.

[NorCal]

One dumb outcome has been not enough offices for everyone who has come in.

That is not your problem. If they can't provide working space, you can't work. Tell them you can't and wait.

So first, this is my husband not me. And as mentioned above, if all they have is cafeteria space that hurts his back (not office chairs) and is in the open (we try to be COVID cautious), then he’ll badge in, take a few meetings and go home. I’ve also told him to track these instances for a record but I’m not sure he has.

Is your husband at a larger company?  If so, most larger companies have policies mandating ergonomic accessibility, and even have experts that will come and install all the ergonomic gear.

He could have a lot of fun tweaking corporate policies by asking for ergonomic accommodations, and telling them he mostly works from the cafeteria.

[Captain FIRE]

One dumb outcome has been not enough offices for everyone who has come in.

That is not your problem. If they can't provide working space, you can't work. Tell them you can't and wait.

So first, this is my husband not me. And as mentioned above, if all they have is cafeteria space that hurts his back (not office chairs) and is in the open (we try to be COVID cautious), then he’ll badge in, take a few meetings and go home. I’ve also told him to track these instances for a record but I’m not sure he has.

Is your husband at a larger company?  If so, most larger companies have policies mandating ergonomic accessibility, and even have experts that will come and install all the ergonomic gear.

He could have a lot of fun tweaking corporate policies by asking for ergonomic accommodations, and telling them he mostly works from the cafeteria.

Ha. I’ll tell him. They do make him do an annual ergo assessment. European company, shy of $50 billion in revenue

[frugalnacho]

This is the US. Unless OP is a SVP or higher, there almost certainly is no contract.

Oh, wait, what? What are you meaning with that?
You can't mean someone is working months or even years for a company and there is nothing written down?

Yup. It's not uncommon in the US.  US employees often have to sign a lot of documents protecting the company, but your own protection is left to labor laws and not a contractual agreement.  It varies state to state. If you work in an at-will state, it means they can let you go very easily, with little reason.

I am 40 and have literally never worked a job that I couldn't legally be fired from on the spot for no reason.  It's been very explicitly laid out that it's at-will employment and can be terminated at any time with no notice, by either party, for any/no reason.  While I guess there was technically a signed "contract" between me and the employer, I wouldn't describe it as a contract because that usually implies some specific end date.

I am in Michigan, USA.

[markbike528CBX]

This is the US. Unless OP is a SVP or higher, there almost certainly is no contract.

Oh, wait, what? What are you meaning with that?
You can't mean someone is working months or even years for a company and there is nothing written down?

Yup. It's not uncommon in the US.  US employees often have to sign a lot of documents protecting the company, but your own protection is left to labor laws and not a contractual agreement.  It varies state to state. If you work in an at-will state, it means they can let you go very easily, with little reason.

I am 40 and have literally never worked a job that I couldn't legally be fired from on the spot for no reason.  It's been very explicitly laid out that it's at-will employment and can be terminated at any time with no notice, by either party, for any/no reason.  While I guess there was technically a signed "contract" between me and the employer, I wouldn't describe it as a contract because that usually implies some specific end date.

I am in Michigan, USA.

On the other hand, an actual ‘fireing’ is rare.  That would prevent unemployment insurance (partial pay reimbursement )from being applied for the employee.  My sense is that most employees are ‘laid off’, which includes unemployment insurance to avoid litigation.  “Involuntary resignation” would prevent a stain on the employee’s resume, so is also an option.  States in the US vary to a degree that I’m not willing to look up, since I’m retired .

Giving the other party (employer or employee) more than two weeks notice is non-standard . There are several threads about how much notice an employee should give.  The two week notice is the most acceptable answer for US persons.

[charis]

Being fired doesn't prevent an employee from collecting unemployment benefits, it's reason for the firing that may give the employer grounds to oppose the application, usually something beyond poor performance, such as misconduct or policy violation of some kind.

[saguaro]

One dumb outcome has been not enough offices for everyone who has come in.

That is not your problem. If they can't provide working space, you can't work. Tell them you can't and wait.

We are running into this very issue at one of my company locations.   They consolidated a couple of locations into one building and implemented workspace sharing during the pandemic.   Now they are talking about requiring all employees to report to the office however, there's one problem: there is no room for everyone to show up at once.   

[mm1970]

One dumb outcome has been not enough offices for everyone who has come in.

That is not your problem. If they can't provide working space, you can't work. Tell them you can't and wait.

So first, this is my husband not me. And as mentioned above, if all they have is cafeteria space that hurts his back (not office chairs) and is in the open (we try to be COVID cautious), then he’ll badge in, take a few meetings and go home. I’ve also told him to track these instances for a record but I’m not sure he has.

Same issue.  And they keep re-doing things, so a few of our employees keep getting bumped and moved.  To the point that I think we are going to risk having a couple of people quit (newer employees with a lot of experience), because they are getting pissed.

[BuffaloStache]

One dumb outcome has been not enough offices for everyone who has come in.

That is not your problem. If they can't provide working space, you can't work. Tell them you can't and wait.

We are running into this very issue at one of my company locations.   They consolidated a couple of locations into one building and implemented workspace sharing during the pandemic.   Now they are talking about requiring all employees to report to the office however, there's one problem: there is no room for everyone to show up at once.

We almost have the opposite at my company, but it's effectively a non-issue. They didn't consolidate physical space during the pandemic, are now asking people to come back "on a regular basis", but do not define what that means. In practice, it plays out where some of my company's buildings are full and bustling with people, but ~50% of the buildings are typically less than 10% occupied because the employees come into the office on sporadic/random days, and typically don't work the entire day in the office. Spoiler alert, I'm one of those latter employees :-)

[LennStar]

Regular means once a month, right? Like regular payments.

[jinga nation]

Regular means once a month, right? Like regular payments.

Regular means annually. E.g: filing your taxes, or paying property tax, or vehicle registration, or car insurance payment, or an annual visit to the doctor. ;-p

[LennStar]

Regular means once a month, right? Like regular payments.

Regular means annually. E.g: filing your taxes, or paying property tax, or vehicle registration, or car insurance payment, or an annual visit to the doctor. ;-p

O.o What??? Do you buy a new car each year?

And I wish I only had to go to the doctor once per year... going tomorrow to get my regular allergy med starter for this year. If it goes like last year I will only need to take it 4 month, everything was dead, so not much in the air.
Climate change does have its good sides, but I would still prefer a life without. 

[dcheesi]

Regular means once a month, right? Like regular payments.

Regular means annually. E.g: filing your taxes, or paying property tax, or vehicle registration, or car insurance payment, or an annual visit to the doctor. ;-p

O.o What??? Do you buy a new car each year?

And I wish I only had to go to the doctor once per year... going tomorrow to get my regular allergy med starter for this year. If it goes like last year I will only need to take it 4 month, everything was dead, so not much in the air.
Climate change does have its good sides, but I would still prefer a life without.

In some US states, you have to pay to keep your car registered, which is typically annual, or optionally biennial.

[deborah]

Regular means at more or less equal intervals. Your employer pays you regularly - probably weekly, fortnightly or monthly. I suggest that means their definition of a regular basis is similar.

[grantmeaname]

O.o What??? Do you buy a new car each year?

Odd choice to throw stones about new cars from a nation where government policy ensures more new car buying and a substantially younger average age of cars than in the US, to support a planet-destroying sector full of bad actors and corporate malfeasance ... and Germany has a annual motor vehicle tax barely different from ours, just not called 'registration'.

[RWD]

Regular means once a month, right? Like regular payments.

Regular means annually. E.g: filing your taxes, or paying property tax, or vehicle registration, or car insurance payment, or an annual visit to the doctor. ;-p

O.o What??? Do you buy a new car each year?

And I wish I only had to go to the doctor once per year... going tomorrow to get my regular allergy med starter for this year. If it goes like last year I will only need to take it 4 month, everything was dead, so not much in the air.
Climate change does have its good sides, but I would still prefer a life without.

In some US states, you have to pay to keep your car registered, which is typically annual, or optionally biennial.

Correct. I'm also not aware of any US states that don't require you to continue paying for registration of a vehicle you already own. Many states also charge a value-based tax as part of the registration renewal.

[LennStar]

Regular means once a month, right? Like regular payments.

Regular means annually. E.g: filing your taxes, or paying property tax, or vehicle registration, or car insurance payment, or an annual visit to the doctor. ;-p

O.o What??? Do you buy a new car each year?

And I wish I only had to go to the doctor once per year... going tomorrow to get my regular allergy med starter for this year. If it goes like last year I will only need to take it 4 month, everything was dead, so not much in the air.
Climate change does have its good sides, but I would still prefer a life without.

In some US states, you have to pay to keep your car registered, which is typically annual, or optionally biennial.

Correct. I'm also not aware of any US states that don't require you to continue paying for registration of a vehicle you already own. Many states also charge a value-based tax as part of the registration renewal.

Ah, so you don't register every year, the payment is called registration!

[APowers]

Regular means once a month, right? Like regular payments.

Regular means annually. E.g: filing your taxes, or paying property tax, or vehicle registration, or car insurance payment, or an annual visit to the doctor. ;-p

O.o What??? Do you buy a new car each year?

And I wish I only had to go to the doctor once per year... going tomorrow to get my regular allergy med starter for this year. If it goes like last year I will only need to take it 4 month, everything was dead, so not much in the air.
Climate change does have its good sides, but I would still prefer a life without.

In some US states, you have to pay to keep your car registered, which is typically annual, or optionally biennial.

Correct. I'm also not aware of any US states that don't require you to continue paying for registration of a vehicle you already own. Many states also charge a value-based tax as part of the registration renewal.

Ah, so you don't register every year, the payment is called registration!

Basically. When the notice comes in the mail, it is a "registration renewal" notice, as RWD said-- for registration to remain current, the taxes/fees must be paid annually, and they give us a little sticker to place on our license plate to show that we've paid for the current year. We just linguistically shorten "registration renewal payment" to "registration".

[Alternatepriorities]

Correct. I'm also not aware of any US states that don't require you to continue paying for registration of a vehicle you already own. Many states also charge a value-based tax as part of the registration renewal.

In Alaska it varies by municipality, the state allows permanent tags on vehicles more than 8 years old if the local city or borough agrees. Most of the local governments have adopted the policy including the one I live in. As everything I own is older than 8 years I won't have to register again until i replace on of our vehicles!

I think I left a comment on this thread long ago about the value of FU money and DMV... It was summer of 2020 and the state run DMV office was much grumpier and slower than normal. I was told to expect to spend 6-8 hours there to register one vehicle and one trailer. I could only sign up for a single registration at a time "to speed things up" so I'd have to wait 3-4 hours twice...  I drove 10 miles to MVD express office which is privately run and charges $15 each for registration. Twenty minutes later with everything done I told the clerk "people who say money can't buy happiness have obviously never come here after trying the DMV" and happily paid their fee.

[BicycleB]

Correct. I'm also not aware of any US states that don't require you to continue paying for registration of a vehicle you already own. Many states also charge a value-based tax as part of the registration renewal.

In Alaska it varies by municipality, the state allows permanent tags on vehicles more than 8 years old if the local city or borough agrees. Most of the local governments have adopted the policy including the one I live in. As everything I own is older than 8 years I won't have to register again until i replace on of our vehicles!

I think I left a comment on this thread long ago about the value of FU money and DMV... It was summer of 2020 and the state run DMV office was much grumpier and slower than normal. I was told to expect to spend 6-8 hours there to register one vehicle and one trailer. I could only sign up for a single registration at a time "to speed things up" so I'd have to wait 3-4 hours twice...  I drove 10 miles to MVD express office which is privately run and charges $15 each for registration. Twenty minutes later with everything done I told the clerk "people who say money can't buy happiness have obviously never come here after trying the DMV" and happily paid their fee.

Maybe not epic, but I did literally laugh out loud

[talltexan]

I remember the first DMV office I went to, near a University in Charlotte, NC. It did seem like one of the people there genuinely enjoyed witnessing suffering.

[Dicey]

I remember the first DMV office I went to, near a University in Charlotte, NC. It did seem like one of the people there genuinely enjoyed witnessing suffering.

It's a requirement of the job, IIRC.

[Alternatepriorities]

Oddly enough only a couple years prior I had a pleasant and efficient visit to that same office. DW stopped in there last Dec (vehicle i registered in 2020 was only 7years old when we got it so it needed renewal to permanent tags) and it only took here 20 minutes. Something is still broken higher up the chain though because the new plates are still not here three months later.

[Michael in ABQ]

Correct. I'm also not aware of any US states that don't require you to continue paying for registration of a vehicle you already own. Many states also charge a value-based tax as part of the registration renewal.

In Alaska it varies by municipality, the state allows permanent tags on vehicles more than 8 years old if the local city or borough agrees. Most of the local governments have adopted the policy including the one I live in. As everything I own is older than 8 years I won't have to register again until i replace on of our vehicles!

I think I left a comment on this thread long ago about the value of FU money and DMV... It was summer of 2020 and the state run DMV office was much grumpier and slower than normal. I was told to expect to spend 6-8 hours there to register one vehicle and one trailer. I could only sign up for a single registration at a time "to speed things up" so I'd have to wait 3-4 hours twice...  I drove 10 miles to MVD express office which is privately run and charges $15 each for registration. Twenty minutes later with everything done I told the clerk "people who say money can't buy happiness have obviously never come here after trying the DMV" and happily paid their fee.

I lived in Oregon and Washington and the only option was the DMV. When I moved to New Mexico I found that in addition to the government run MVD there were a bunch of private contractors that would just charge an extra $15-20 and be way faster. Needless to say, we've gone with those private entities and happily paid for the convenience. Not to mention there are 2-3 MVD locations in a city of nearly a million but dozens of private locations.

[Taran Wanderer]

We have a different sort of DMV here I guess. Every time I go, I’m in and out in less than ten minutes, and it’s the best part of my day.  To be fair, I time my visits at less busy times, and if there are more than 1 or 2 people waiting, I come back on a different day, but the customer service is amazing and it’s all done with a smile.

[oneday]

I time my visits at less busy times.

At my hometown DMV, these times do not exist.

[Taran Wanderer]

Location: SF Bay Area, USA

I love the Bay Area, but…

[iluvzbeach]

Location: SF Bay Area, USA

I love the Bay Area, but…

I am not in the Bay Area and I’ve never entered my local DMV without there being at least 100 people in line ahead of me. My DH had an appointment one day for something that had to be done in person and he still waited in line for five hours. Not joking.

[Taran Wanderer]

That is wild. And horrible.

[bill1827]

As a UK resident the idea of actually going to an office and queuing to pay vehicle tax seems antediluvian. We have had online vehicle tax payment since 2004.

[Dicey]

As a UK resident the idea of actually going to an office and queuing to pay vehicle tax seems antediluvian. We have had online vehicle tax payment since 2004.

We have online payment options, but some things must be done in person.

[hdatontodo]

As a UK resident the idea of actually going to an office and queuing to pay vehicle tax seems antediluvian. We have had online vehicle tax payment since 2004.

I am in Maryland in the US, and there are multiple ways to renew to get the new sticker with the expiration year to put on the rear tag.

https://mva.maryland.gov/vehicles/Pages/registration/renew.aspx

My girlfriend is in New Jersey in the US. NJ does not update tags or stickers upon renewal.



Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

[bill1827]

As a UK resident the idea of actually going to an office and queuing to pay vehicle tax seems antediluvian. We have had online vehicle tax payment since 2004.

We have online payment options, but some things must be done in person.

O.K.
I got the impression that the only way to do it was in person.

[dcheesi]

Location: SF Bay Area, USA

I love the Bay Area, but…

I am not in the Bay Area and I’ve never entered my local DMV without there being at least 100 people in line ahead of me. My DH had an appointment one day for something that had to be done in person and he still waited in line for five hours. Not joking.

Yeah, same in VA & MD, and the COVID restrictions just made it even worse. You had to make an appointment for a specific time, which were so limited that it could be months in the future. And then you got there, and you still had to take a number and wait, seemingly just as long as before.

As a UK resident the idea of actually going to an office and queuing to pay vehicle tax seems antediluvian. We have had online vehicle tax payment since 2004.

We have online payment options, but some things must be done in person.

O.K.
I got the impression that the only way to do it was in person.

The things you have to go in for are things like a new license or some vehicle transactions, where they want to verify your identity and/or original documents. And sometimes with license renewals, they'll want to re-test your vision or something.

[LightTripper]

In the UK you have to go to a DVSA test centre to take your test - but I don't remember ever having to go to an actual office either before that (to get my provisional licence) or after that (to get my full licence).  I think the former just required me to fill in a form that I got from the post office and send it off (this was pre-internet - you do it online now) and the latter was sent automatically as far as I can remember. Registering a new (to you) vehicle is all done online. I can't think of a single person I've ever heard of actually going to a physical location to do anything related to car taxation or licensing other than for their test (which you book, so no queuing)....  For a country that theoretically loves queues it seems a bit of a missed opportunity really.

[Taran Wanderer]

To be fair, vehicle registration renewals are done online here, and if you buy a car at a dealership, they take care of it and then you get your plates and/or stickers in the mail. In-person trips to the DMV are for driver’s license renewals (every 4 or 8 years), registering a car from a private party purchase, or a new driver’s first license. This really cuts down the number of people going to the DMV.

[Fresh Bread]

Can you start a new thread about the DMV / vehicle regos?

[talltexan]

antediluvian

Great vocab word there!!!

[AccidentialMustache]

Here, I can help get y'all back on track.

I'm in tech -- staff software engineer, in specific. My gig has been stressful. The short version is there's the job I was hired for, and then the numerous other jobs I'm moonlighting at (management, product, data analyst, architect), because they need to be done and either aren't being done by the people who should be doing them (not competent or overworked doesn't really matter, either way it is my problem) or are nobody's official job (data analyst/architect).

It became obvious to me as the CEO's tone shifted that layoffs were coming, so I told my manager I volunteered. I'd been considering just quitting, so getting laid off with a likely severance sounded pretty good. It'd also mean if there was a big layoff I didn't get added stress from same-work-even-less-hands afterwards. I didn't manage to tell up the chain, because those folks were busy bailing pre-layoff. Layoff happens, and I'm not laid off. So I told my VP the day after (when he didn't need to meet with people who were being laid off), "hey why don't you just add me to the layoff, I'd already volunteered but clearly the message didn't make it up the chain."

This apparently has Caused Drama and got me scheduled for an hour long 1:1 with said VP. He said, "we really want you to stay, figure out what you want and we'll see about making it happen" so I'd first asked to just be made architect officially, but got hedging from my direct management chain. So I told my VP that I didn't see this working out (if my manager/director isn't behind it, it wouldn't matter if the VP forced it, I'd end up undercut and it wouldn't work anyway) and maybe he should just add me to the layoff like I'd asked. He suggested switching teams instead, since in our discussion he thought I'd be interested in and fit well with the developer productivity team. I agreed with his position on that, but I figured "the req game" would make that a non starter. I'd actually looked at switching to developer productivity 6 months ago but "the req game" killed that and I said as much. My VP had some... uncomplimentary things to say about "the req game" and said he'd step in and use me as a case study to break down said stupid HR game.

So I'll be switching teams (away from my high-stress, millions of $ on the line daily team that manages to deliver anyway despite been consistently underinvested in/understaffed). And when I talked to the manager of the developer productivity team she goes, "You're seriously burnt out and stressed. I want you to join my team... but I want it after you take a serious break from work. At least multiple weeks of vacation, but preferably longer. That is leave-of-absence territory, but if you can swing that level of break, you need it and you have my complete support to take it."

So shortly I'll switch teams... and then shut my laptop down for two months of (unpaid) leave.


Edit: Typing is hard. Fixed missing 'i'

[SwordGuy]

@AccidentialMustache , Bravo!!!

[Malossi792]

Here, I can help get y'all back on track.

I'm in tech -- staff software engineer, in specific. My gig has been stressful. The short version is there's the job I was hired for, and then the numerous other jobs I'm moonlighting at (management, product, data analyst, architect), because they need to be done and either aren't being done by the people who should be doing them (not competent or overworked doesn't really matter, either way it is my problem) or are nobody's official job (data analyst/architect).

It became obvious to me as the CEO's tone shifted that layoffs were coming, so I told my manager I volunteered. I'd been considering just quitting, so getting laid off with a likely severance sounded pretty good. It'd also mean if there was a big layoff I didn't get added stress from same-work-even-less-hands afterwards. I didn't manage to tell up the chain, because those folks were busy bailing pre-layoff. Layoff happens, and I'm not laid off. So I told my VP the day after (when he didn't need to meet with people who were being laid off), "hey why don't you just add me to the layoff, I'd already volunteered but clearly the message didn't make it up the chain."

This apparently has Caused Drama and got me scheduled for an hour long 1:1 with said VP. He said, "we really want you to stay, figure out what you want and we'll see about making it happen" so I'd first asked to just be made architect officially, but got hedging from my direct management chain. So I told my VP that I didn't see this working out (if my manager/director isn't behind it, it wouldn't matter if the VP forced it, I'd end up undercut and it wouldn't work anyway) and maybe he should just add me to the layoff like I'd asked. He suggested switching teams instead, since in our discussion he thought I'd be interested in and fit well with the developer productivity team. I agreed with his position on that, but I figured "the req game" would make that a non starter. I'd actually looked at switching to developer productivity 6 months ago but "the req game" killed that and I sad as much. My VP had some... uncomplimentary things to say about "the req game" and said he'd step in and use me as a case study to break down said stupid HR game.

So I'll be switching teams (away from my high-stress, millions of $ on the line daily team that manages to deliver anyway despite been consistently underinvested in/understaffed). And when I talked to the manager of the developer productivity team she goes, "You're seriously burnt out and stressed. I want you to join my team... but I want it after you take a serious break from work. At least multiple weeks of vacation, but preferably longer. That is leave-of-absence territory, but if you can swing that level of break, you need it and you have my complete support to take it."

So shortly I'll switch teams... and then shut my laptop down for two months of (unpaid) leave.

*Slow claps*

[Adventine]

@AccidentialMustache best FU story I've read this 2023!

[Extramedium]

@AccidentalMustache: this just made my day.  Thank you, and congratulations!

[Dicey]

What a way to get this thread back on track. Good job, @AccidentialMustache!

[bmjohnson35]

Congrats AccidentalMustache!

[Taran Wanderer]

Wicked cool.

[Fresh Bread]

Brilliant!

[BicycleB]

Mustache accidental, FU epic!

[AccidentialMustache]

Thanks, y'all.

It's good to have a reminder like this thread (which I should be better about reading as a reminder) because I'd been holding on for "it'll get better in a month when sister-team can be on-call, but we're working through EU employment regs for that to happen..." for probably about six months now. And I probably shouldn't have been, I should have threatened to quit earlier if the problems weren't fixed, be that a transfer or being officially architect.

But I got there eventually, and pretty on-brand. We tend to the risk adverse, so staying with the devil you know is some awkward form of comfortable.