Author Topic: Epic FU money stories  (Read 2794933 times)

gaja

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1800 on: September 23, 2017, 09:50:14 AM »
This isn't exactly an FU money story, but several months ago our CEO told me that they had "squeezed out" a $5k raise for me.  This would have put me into the position where I was earning just a bit more than 3x the salary of the newest person on my team.

My husband and I have a good annual income (probably 8x what we actually spend, not counting taxes), no debt, and savings such that he is just on point of FIREing.   $5000 * 60% (amount after taxes) is going to make basically no difference at all.  Told the CEO to gave the raise to New Guy instead.  It felt great, and still feels great, especially since no one else knows about it.

Even 5 years ago this would have been inconceivable.
Well done! How did the CEO react?

Secretly Saving

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1801 on: September 23, 2017, 12:12:52 PM »
I was wondering this too!

crispy

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1802 on: September 23, 2017, 12:55:01 PM »
 Congrats, Daisy!

retireatbirth

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1803 on: September 23, 2017, 08:13:39 PM »
Just realized I had a mini FU a few weeks back. I had my mid year and since I hate my job and am contemplating just quitting, I took the time to complain about my job and demand changes within a few months. No shouting and I kept it professional. Things have improved a bit and boss is trying to make me happy now, but I know there's not much that could convince me to stay long anyways. I'm feeling empowered to be this blunt in all future reviews though as my finances will only keep putting ne in stronger and stronger position.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1804 on: September 24, 2017, 03:22:17 AM »
This isn't exactly an FU money story, but several months ago our CEO told me that they had "squeezed out" a $5k raise for me.  This would have put me into the position where I was earning just a bit more than 3x the salary of the newest person on my team.

My husband and I have a good annual income (probably 8x what we actually spend, not counting taxes), no debt, and savings such that he is just on point of FIREing.   $5000 * 60% (amount after taxes) is going to make basically no difference at all.  Told the CEO to gave the raise to New Guy instead.  It felt great, and still feels great, especially since no one else knows about it.

Even 5 years ago this would have been inconceivable.
Well done! How did the CEO react?

That's amazing. You are such a thoughtful, generous person. What did the CEO say, though??

GettingClose

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1805 on: September 26, 2017, 11:36:25 AM »
This isn't exactly an FU money story, but several months ago our CEO told me that they had "squeezed out" a $5k raise for me.  This would have put me into the position where I was earning just a bit more than 3x the salary of the newest person on my team.

My husband and I have a good annual income (probably 8x what we actually spend, not counting taxes), no debt, and savings such that he is just on point of FIREing.   $5000 * 60% (amount after taxes) is going to make basically no difference at all.  Told the CEO to gave the raise to New Guy instead.  It felt great, and still feels great, especially since no one else knows about it.

Even 5 years ago this would have been inconceivable.
Well done! How did the CEO react?

That's amazing. You are such a thoughtful, generous person. What did the CEO say, though??

Basically, "Wow - but it's your team, so ...."

I was trying to convey that this wasn't that generous an action  - New Guy was buying a house and had a combined household income of probably $70k.  Also, I have some opinions about fairness/equality in compensation, and it would have probably cost me considerably in the area of guilt (difficult to monetize) to have someone working the same hours as me for less than 1/3 the pay. It's my personal cutoff for whatever reason - I can justify 3x the salary due to my greater education, experience, innate ability, whatever - but not more than that.  Need to put my money where my mouth is to feel OK about myself.  I hope this makes sense.

nawhite

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1806 on: September 26, 2017, 01:17:47 PM »
Basically, "Wow - but it's your team, so ...."

I was trying to convey that this wasn't that generous an action  - New Guy was buying a house and had a combined household income of probably $70k.  Also, I have some opinions about fairness/equality in compensation, and it would have probably cost me considerably in the area of guilt (difficult to monetize) to have someone working the same hours as me for less than 1/3 the pay. It's my personal cutoff for whatever reason - I can justify 3x the salary due to my greater education, experience, innate ability, whatever - but not more than that.  Need to put my money where my mouth is to feel OK about myself.  I hope this makes sense.

Not downplaying this at all, I'm impressed you donated your money to some other cause, but just curious why you see that guy as more deserving of your money than people in other countries who don't make 1/3rd what you do but 1/3000th? ~20% of the worlds population makes less than $1/day. Sure you don't need it, but if you're going to donate your money to a charity, I think you should do it purposely in a way that best matches with your values rather than to some guy at work you feel bad for.

GettingClose

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1807 on: September 26, 2017, 01:32:14 PM »
Basically, "Wow - but it's your team, so ...."

I was trying to convey that this wasn't that generous an action  - New Guy was buying a house and had a combined household income of probably $70k.  Also, I have some opinions about fairness/equality in compensation, and it would have probably cost me considerably in the area of guilt (difficult to monetize) to have someone working the same hours as me for less than 1/3 the pay. It's my personal cutoff for whatever reason - I can justify 3x the salary due to my greater education, experience, innate ability, whatever - but not more than that.  Need to put my money where my mouth is to feel OK about myself.  I hope this makes sense.

Not downplaying this at all, I'm impressed you donated your money to some other cause, but just curious why you see that guy as more deserving of your money than people in other countries who don't make 1/3rd what you do but 1/3000th? ~20% of the worlds population makes less than $1/day. Sure you don't need it, but if you're going to donate your money to a charity, I think you should do it purposely in a way that best matches with your values rather than to some guy at work you feel bad for.

a) "charity starts at home" principle
b) I make other donations - but (despite the wording of point "a") there's a difference between charity and justice.  Can't articulate it very well; need to think more first. 
c) I work for a single company and have a single team, and this was my single chance to address income inequality in a meaningful way.  This particular instance had a name and a face, and rightly or wrongly, that matters.

Dicey

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1808 on: September 26, 2017, 09:12:55 PM »
It's not wrong. It matters. Gotta say, that other comment made my blood boil.

Charity begins at home, indeed.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1809 on: September 27, 2017, 12:47:52 AM »
Yup - seems like you acted exactly in line with your values regarding income inequality. And hopefully in a way that will make a long-term difference to the organisation. Good on you.

nawhite

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1810 on: September 27, 2017, 06:56:42 AM »
I want to continue this discussion about giving styles but I don't want to derail this thread so I broke it out into another thread at https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/'charity-starts-at-home'-vs-givewell-philosophy/ Please comment there instead so we don't derail this amazing thread.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2017, 07:00:34 AM by nawhite »

Taran Wanderer

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1811 on: September 27, 2017, 10:22:47 AM »
Wait, you gave five thousand dollars a year to your employee and now you are suggesting we take our comments to another thread so we don't derail this one? I think you're going overboard on this thoughtfulness thing. Rein it in!

/sarcasm

My real comment:  Bravo!

dandarc

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1812 on: September 27, 2017, 10:31:25 AM »
Wait, you gave five thousand dollars a year to your employee and now you are suggesting we take our comments to another thread so we don't derail this one? I think you're going overboard on this thoughtfulness thing. Rein it in!

/sarcasm

My real comment:  Bravo!
Different person gave the $5K raise to an employee from the one who wanted to discuss giving strategies, and was polite enough to open a new thread for that purpose.  Bravo to both of them!

talltexan

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1813 on: September 29, 2017, 06:54:08 AM »
My wife works for a large, multi-industry corporation. They are re-jiggering how they track work hours, so my wife--who currently works 32 hours a week--asked me whether our family was better off with her at 35 or 30 (I think they're going to want her to supply the same amount of time each day).

I gulped, then told her 30. The mustachian muscles are a little weak (we have a Disney habit that we cannot seem to kick), but we've managed to save more than $0.8 million in various investments. Losing 7% of her hours is not nothing, but I couldn't justify asking her to work more with us this far along.

Livingthedream55

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1814 on: September 29, 2017, 08:13:33 AM »
My wife works for a large, multi-industry corporation. They are re-jiggering how they track work hours, so my wife--who currently works 32 hours a week--asked me whether our family was better off with her at 35 or 30 (I think they're going to want her to supply the same amount of time each day).

I gulped, then told her 30. The mustachian muscles are a little weak (we have a Disney habit that we cannot seem to kick), but we've managed to save more than $0.8 million in various investments. Losing 7% of her hours is not nothing, but I couldn't justify asking her to work more with us this far along.

Sweet!  Great choice!!   

FYI - there are ways to do Disney for less (lots of blogs about doing Disney on a budget) so you can challenge yourself to try to still have what brings your family joy for less money. Case in point - I have brought my kids to Disney a few times and the one they have the happiest memories of is the time we stayed off site at a Holiday Inn that had these cheesy character decorated rooms and bunk beds and kid karaoke in the lounge. They don't even remember the time I splurged on a hotel within the park system!  : 0 )

GettingClose

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1815 on: September 29, 2017, 11:24:44 AM »
My wife works for a large, multi-industry corporation. They are re-jiggering how they track work hours, so my wife--who currently works 32 hours a week--asked me whether our family was better off with her at 35 or 30 (I think they're going to want her to supply the same amount of time each day).

I gulped, then told her 30. The mustachian muscles are a little weak (we have a Disney habit that we cannot seem to kick), but we've managed to save more than $0.8 million in various investments. Losing 7% of her hours is not nothing, but I couldn't justify asking her to work more with us this far along.

That's really great - congratulations!

JustGettingStarted1980

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1816 on: September 29, 2017, 11:42:36 AM »
Wait, you gave five thousand dollars a year to your employee and now you are suggesting we take our comments to another thread so we don't derail this one? I think you're going overboard on this thoughtfulness thing. Rein it in!

/sarcasm

You don't Derail a Thread, you Unravel It (right?!)

Taran Wanderer

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1817 on: September 29, 2017, 10:54:58 PM »
Different person gave the $5K raise to an employee from the one who wanted to discuss giving strategies, and was polite enough to open a new thread for that purpose.  Bravo to both of them!

Oops, that's what I get for zooming in and not looking at the usernames. Thanks for the correction.

RWD

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1818 on: September 30, 2017, 08:15:22 AM »
You don't Derail a Thread, you Unravel It (right?!)
Why not both?

Lews Therin

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1819 on: September 30, 2017, 10:26:22 AM »
@ RWD : So many bonus points if you did that yourself, just to prove a point.

CowboyAndIndian

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1820 on: September 30, 2017, 10:31:46 AM »
Enough of derailing.

Can we please get back to FU stories?

RWD

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1821 on: September 30, 2017, 11:19:52 AM »
@ RWD : So many bonus points if you did that yourself, just to prove a point.
I just did a Google image search. Not much creativity required.


Enough of derailing.

Can we please get back to FU stories?
Sorry...

The closest things I've got to FU money stories is with some project flexibility. In one of my early years of employment I was assigned a crappy project for a product I was otherwise not associated with. There was a lot of miscommunication over who was supposed to take responsibility for different parts of the project. Turns out they wanted me to do all the documentation in addition to the coding, even though I wasn't familiar with the product at all. My efforts were met with complaints and criticism from multiple people involved with the product, but no one ever stepped in to actually help. I then I found out that this was essentially a lifetime project... They wanted me to do updates periodically even though I had written up all the documentation such that anyone (preferably someone familiar with the product) could maintain it. Well that went on for several years, but eventually I had a talk with my boss and convinced him that the project could be done much better by someone else and it would be more efficient for the company all around. Afterward I was much happier (and less likely to be fired for my attitude), all because I was willing to stand up and suggest an alternative to my boss's directive.

More recently instead of waiting to be assigned a project I just started my own pet project and have been including it in my status report. No one has complained yet that I'm almost becoming my own boss. I've never been happier at my job, which is kind of ironic since I've been so focused recently on obtaining early retirement.

force majeure

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1822 on: September 30, 2017, 11:57:48 AM »
A guy in my company was working his last day in the office. I have to say he was kind of "managed out the door", so he could give a crap about consequences. He set up a rule in Microsoft Outlook - to block any incoming emails with @thecompany.com in the address, if you get my meaning. It was a very quiet last day, and he had made "bank" already.

scottish

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1823 on: September 30, 2017, 02:15:30 PM »
A guy in my company was working his last day in the office. I have to say he was kind of "managed out the door", so he could give a crap about consequences. He set up a rule in Microsoft Outlook - to block any incoming emails with @thecompany.com in the address, if you get my meaning. It was a very quiet last day, and he had made "bank" already.

Hmm, no wonder he was managed out the door.

arebelspy

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1824 on: September 30, 2017, 04:49:33 PM »
More recently instead of waiting to be assigned a project I just started my own pet project and have been including it in my status report. No one has complained yet that I'm almost becoming my own boss. I've never been happier at my job, which is kind of ironic since I've been so focused recently on obtaining early retirement.

That's awesome.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

RWD

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1825 on: September 30, 2017, 08:54:52 PM »
More recently instead of waiting to be assigned a project I just started my own pet project and have been including it in my status report. No one has complained yet that I'm almost becoming my own boss. I've never been happier at my job, which is kind of ironic since I've been so focused recently on obtaining early retirement.

That's awesome.

Thanks. I had pitched the project before and the general consensus was "yep, that would be a good thing to do some day in the future," but no one officially authorized me to start working on it. Probably because it's a huge project that I expect will take six months to a year to complete and there are always smaller tasks that have been given priority.

Spiffsome

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1826 on: September 30, 2017, 10:37:24 PM »
I recently took a six-month leave of absence from work due to the current work situation being weird and terrible, and wanting to spend more time with my grandfather as he gets older. The first FU was telling HR that I was taking the unpaid leave option. "You're aware that it's unpaid leave ..."

The second FU was a temporary job that I'd applied for before I decided to make the jump. They invited me in for an interview. The email chain went sort of like this:

"Sorry, I'm not looking for full-time work anymore; family commitments."
"How many days a week are you looking to work?"
"Uh... three, I guess?"
"Come in and we'll interview you anyway."

At the interview itself, they had two placements for someone 3 days / week. Now I'm waiting to see if I've made the cut for one of those. Just gobsmacked that I could get a pretty good job changed to part-time by turning it down.

MrMoogle

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1827 on: October 02, 2017, 10:44:42 AM »
My financial status is known generally, but not the details.  One of my coworkers is switching projects, his current job is a key position, but it's mostly in the background, so there's not as much recognition.  I have commended him in the past in front of others that his work doesn't seem like it would be enjoyable, but he's always happy to do it.  It's obvious I didn't want to do it.  When they looked for someone to take on his work, they didn't even ask me even though it would fit well with what I'm already doing.  #smallvictories

EconDiva

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1828 on: October 05, 2017, 10:16:11 AM »
That was why I was so annoyed last week...I have been busting my tail off to get prepared for this audit because we didn't know when they would show up (they give you a three month time frame but no specific dates...they just show up) and she is acting like a damn fool over an Outlook calendar entry. On a funnier note, the auditor I worked with today was complaining that he didn't get lunch yesterday...guess who was responsible for ordering food?

I'm an auditor, and I deal with external auditors as well. Escalate this. Seriously. If you promise me food, and don't provide it, you make me crabby. Trust me, you do NOT want to make your auditor crabby. I can make your life so much harder. I can decide to write the finding when it could go either way. There can be serious consequences to pissing off your auditors, and you do not know these people. This one person could significantly hurt the company by pulling those types of stunts.

One of our problems in this world: People can be petty.

Yep...clearly.

Maenad

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1829 on: October 06, 2017, 10:32:02 AM »
I have a sad lack-of-FU-money story. I ran into a coworker at a break area who's being denied a PTO request for the days between Xmas and NYE because she's "needed here". Her request was to fly home to Mexico to visit her elderly father and commemorate the anniversary of her mother's death. :-(

TomTX

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1830 on: October 06, 2017, 10:46:23 AM »
I have a sad lack-of-FU-money story. I ran into a coworker at a break area who's being denied a PTO request for the days between Xmas and NYE because she's "needed here". Her request was to fly home to Mexico to visit her elderly father and commemorate the anniversary of her mother's death. :-(

Please keep these stories to other threads. I come here for a pick-me-up.

Thank you.

Larsg

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1831 on: October 06, 2017, 10:49:16 AM »
OK back to the topic! Has anyone ever just up and left a job with no FU money? Just enough to maybe get them thru for a little while in the hopes of getting something better?

 In my early 20's when I was first starting out after college, I did this quite a bit. It was the early 90's and unless you were in accounting, finance, or engineering, then corporate jobs were hard to come by. What was left were a lot of dregs with bad bosses, people mills, etc. When I had enough and realized that I needed more time to focus on getting a better job, I would make sure that I very quietly and confidentially lined up people to cover my work load, document all notes and follow up items still to do, etc so that they were not left in the lurch, and rather than giving notice so that I still had to work for and with people I could not stand, I would just type up a note "I Quit"and leave in the middle of my bosses desk on a Sunday so that he would see it first thing Monday. So I would go in the weekend before, clean out my desk, wrap up anything left undone, and leave clean. I did this probably 3 times and it gave me an incredible sense of control. I would then use the down time to look for a better job and than found those jobs pretty quickly.

Now as a grown up now in the corporate world, I have always been seen as a top performer/top 10% hi-po, etc and when I've had enough a couple times, my bosses would not accept my resignation, asking "what do you want, will give you more money, we'll let you work from home, we'll let you switch jobs, etc. I have had to employ the same routine where I confidentially work with people i trust in advance of my defined exit date to hand off work, document notes and follow up. I then go in the weekend before, clean out my office, leave a nice hand written note as well as an e-mail that outlines that I resign, thank you for everything....etc., leave my bade and laptop, then I'm done. Difference in the corporate world is that i did always line up a new job outside before I did this and have stash vs my 20's where I was completely broke.

My next time, I don't anticipating having another gig lined up. I am close to being completely done, for now at least.

RyanAtTanagra

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1832 on: October 06, 2017, 10:59:27 AM »
I have a sad lack-of-FU-money story. I ran into a coworker at a break area who's being denied a PTO request for the days between Xmas and NYE because she's "needed here". Her request was to fly home to Mexico to visit her elderly father and commemorate the anniversary of her mother's death. :-(

That's sad, one of the subtlest results of having FU money that I didn't even realize I started doing was I stopped asking for things, and just started doing them or telling them I was going to do it, assuming it was kosher.  People at work ask me all the time 'how did you get them to agree to X?'.  'Uh, I never asked, I just did it and they never said anything'.  At which point they look at me like I'm a wackadoo.

dandarc

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1833 on: October 06, 2017, 11:22:06 AM »
I have a sad lack-of-FU-money story. I ran into a coworker at a break area who's being denied a PTO request for the days between Xmas and NYE because she's "needed here". Her request was to fly home to Mexico to visit her elderly father and commemorate the anniversary of her mother's death. :-(

That's sad, one of the subtlest results of having FU money that I didn't even realize I started doing was I stopped asking for things, and just started doing them or telling them I was going to do it, assuming it was kosher.  People at work ask me all the time 'how did you get them to agree to X?'.  'Uh, I never asked, I just did it and they never said anything'.  At which point they look at me like I'm a wackadoo.
I've gotten so used to telling rather than asking at work that I kind of did it to my wife yesterday.  "I'm going on a trip to meet up with my old friends at the end of March" <Pause> "Whoops - what I meant to say is 'I'm thinking about going on a trip at the end of March to meet up with my old friends.  What do you think about that?'"

Maenad - did you suggest CW rephrase the request to not be a question.  "I'm going to be out of the country XX to YY" might elicit a different response.  Of course, the consequences might be worse since employer already heard the question and denied it, but there's always the "elderly father / anniversary of mother's death" card to play.  "Are you really going to fire me over visiting my elderly father?  I don't know how much time he has left . . . "  There's also the option of CW developing a bad cold at the end of December.

Maenad

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1834 on: October 06, 2017, 03:30:50 PM »
Maenad - did you suggest CW rephrase the request to not be a question.  "I'm going to be out of the country XX to YY" might elicit a different response.

I did tell her, "I think your flight home may be cancelled and you'll need to catch another one a couple of days later." ;-) She thought about it, and then mentioned that she already had a meeting scheduled with HR.

Luckyvik

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1835 on: October 07, 2017, 04:36:22 PM »
OK back to the topic! Has anyone ever just up and left a job with no FU money? Just enough to maybe get them thru for a little while in the hopes of getting something better?

 In my early 20's when I was first starting out after college, I did this quite a bit. It was the early 90's and unless you were in accounting, finance, or engineering, then corporate jobs were hard to come by. What was left were a lot of dregs with bad bosses, people mills, etc. When I had enough and realized that I needed more time to focus on getting a better job, I would make sure that I very quietly and confidentially lined up people to cover my work load, document all notes and follow up items still to do, etc so that they were not left in the lurch, and rather than giving notice so that I still had to work for and with people I could not stand, I would just type up a note "I Quit"and leave in the middle of my bosses desk on a Sunday so that he would see it first thing Monday. So I would go in the weekend before, clean out my desk, wrap up anything left undone, and leave clean. I did this probably 3 times and it gave me an incredible sense of control. I would then use the down time to look for a better job and than found those jobs pretty quickly.

Now as a grown up now in the corporate world, I have always been seen as a top performer/top 10% hi-po, etc and when I've had enough a couple times, my bosses would not accept my resignation, asking "what do you want, will give you more money, we'll let you work from home, we'll let you switch jobs, etc. I have had to employ the same routine where I confidentially work with people i trust in advance of my defined exit date to hand off work, document notes and follow up. I then go in the weekend before, clean out my office, leave a nice hand written note as well as an e-mail that outlines that I resign, thank you for everything....etc., leave my bade and laptop, then I'm done. Difference in the corporate world is that i did always line up a new job outside before I did this and have stash vs my 20's where I was completely broke.

My next time, I don't anticipating having another gig lined up. I am close to being completely done, for now at least.

Yep, in my mid 20's I had a job in a call centre that I detested, I had no money at the time, maybe $500 in the bank if that, I got offered a part-time job at a friend's small business paying less but enough to get by and I thought I could go back to uni part-time to finish my last semester of uni a month later so I told my team leader I was giving them one weeks notice, he sent me to the manager, I told them the same, the manager said that I had to give 4 weeks notice as per my contract, I said I can only give you 1 weeks notice, they said no, I said ok, let me reconsider, that was a Friday, I told my team leader and colleagues I wasn't coming back the next week and I didn't, the manager tried to call me the following week but I didn't answer my phone and that was that.

 They should have just accepted my 1 weeks notice. Now that I'm older and wiser I wish I had insisted on the 1 weeks notice and left it at that.


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SwordGuy

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1836 on: October 07, 2017, 05:33:07 PM »
Someone asked for a Lack-of-FU-Money story.

I went to work at a new company some years ago.   I was there about a week when I received an email from the DBA on a different project.  It had been blind-copied to everyone in the office and had been sent to his project manager.   Let's just say he had nothing nice to say to the project manager.

Since I didn't know any of these people, I just kept quiet and observed.

A few months later the project manager took away the DBA's database privileges.   For non IT folks, that's the equivalent of taking away a truck driver's keys.   He's not going to be doing anything useful for the project under those circumstances.

A few days later, someone noticed that his office was empty (i.e, no person or belongings in it).  A hand-written note had been taped to the door that simply said "Gone!!!"   

No notice, no email to HR, nothing.  Just "Gone!!!".

After 3 days he was considered to have abandoned his position and his job was ended.

A couple of days after payday, about 2 weeks later, he showed up at the office hoping to get his job back.   He didn't.

But the story gets better.

A couple of months go by and I'm told that same project manager is not threatening to turn in the company to the Feds and claim "Fraud, waste and abuse" because the project has been mismanaged.

I think to myself, "But isn't he the project manager who would be responsible for said mismanagement?  Surely he's not really planning to do that..."

A couple of weeks go by and I have to go over and ask him something.  I step behind his desk to see the screen he wants to show me and I notice that his web browser on his 2nd monitor is on the federal fraud, waste and abuse website...

"Okey, dokey.  He really is that stupid!"

Some time passes and the fellow is let go.

But it gets better.

Both of them have taken contracts to work in Iraq because they (a) can get a job and (b) it pays really well.  They are stuck in the same 2 person shack in the desert working together...

We all laughed our asses off when we found that out.

Karma!!!!

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1837 on: October 07, 2017, 06:23:31 PM »
Someone asked for a Lack-of-FU-Money story.

I went to work at a new company some years ago.   I was there about a week when I received an email from the DBA on a different project.  It had been blind-copied to everyone in the office and had been sent to his project manager.   Let's just say he had nothing nice to say to the project manager.

Since I didn't know any of these people, I just kept quiet and observed.

A few months later the project manager took away the DBA's database privileges.   For non IT folks, that's the equivalent of taking away a truck driver's keys.   He's not going to be doing anything useful for the project under those circumstances.

A few days later, someone noticed that his office was empty (i.e, no person or belongings in it).  A hand-written note had been taped to the door that simply said "Gone!!!"   

No notice, no email to HR, nothing.  Just "Gone!!!".

After 3 days he was considered to have abandoned his position and his job was ended.

A couple of days after payday, about 2 weeks later, he showed up at the office hoping to get his job back.   He didn't.

But the story gets better.

A couple of months go by and I'm told that same project manager is not threatening to turn in the company to the Feds and claim "Fraud, waste and abuse" because the project has been mismanaged.

I think to myself, "But isn't he the project manager who would be responsible for said mismanagement?  Surely he's not really planning to do that..."

A couple of weeks go by and I have to go over and ask him something.  I step behind his desk to see the screen he wants to show me and I notice that his web browser on his 2nd monitor is on the federal fraud, waste and abuse website...

"Okey, dokey.  He really is that stupid!"

Some time passes and the fellow is let go.

But it gets better.

Both of them have taken contracts to work in Iraq because they (a) can get a job and (b) it pays really well.  They are stuck in the same 2 person shack in the desert working together...

We all laughed our asses off when we found that out.

Karma!!!!

Is it just me, or are IT folk generally egomaniacal, socially maladjusted drama queens who make every one else's life as difficult as possible???

EricL

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1838 on: October 07, 2017, 06:26:48 PM »
Someone asked for a Lack-of-FU-Money story.

I went to work at a new company some years ago.   I was there about a week when I received an email from the DBA on a different project.  It had been blind-copied to everyone in the office and had been sent to his project manager.   Let's just say he had nothing nice to say to the project manager.

Since I didn't know any of these people, I just kept quiet and observed.

A few months later the project manager took away the DBA's database privileges.   For non IT folks, that's the equivalent of taking away a truck driver's keys.   He's not going to be doing anything useful for the project under those circumstances.

A few days later, someone noticed that his office was empty (i.e, no person or belongings in it).  A hand-written note had been taped to the door that simply said "Gone!!!"   

No notice, no email to HR, nothing.  Just "Gone!!!".

After 3 days he was considered to have abandoned his position and his job was ended.

A couple of days after payday, about 2 weeks later, he showed up at the office hoping to get his job back.   He didn't.

But the story gets better.

A couple of months go by and I'm told that same project manager is not threatening to turn in the company to the Feds and claim "Fraud, waste and abuse" because the project has been mismanaged.

I think to myself, "But isn't he the project manager who would be responsible for said mismanagement?  Surely he's not really planning to do that..."

A couple of weeks go by and I have to go over and ask him something.  I step behind his desk to see the screen he wants to show me and I notice that his web browser on his 2nd monitor is on the federal fraud, waste and abuse website...

"Okey, dokey.  He really is that stupid!"

Some time passes and the fellow is let go.

But it gets better.

Both of them have taken contracts to work in Iraq because they (a) can get a job and (b) it pays really well.  They are stuck in the same 2 person shack in the desert working together...

We all laughed our asses off when we found that out.

Karma!!!!

Is it just me, or are IT folk generally egomaniacal, socially maladjusted drama queens who make every one else's life as difficult as possible???

Nope.  But perhaps I was just unlucky.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1839 on: October 07, 2017, 06:31:46 PM »
Someone asked for a Lack-of-FU-Money story.

I went to work at a new company some years ago.   I was there about a week when I received an email from the DBA on a different project.  It had been blind-copied to everyone in the office and had been sent to his project manager.   Let's just say he had nothing nice to say to the project manager.

Since I didn't know any of these people, I just kept quiet and observed.

A few months later the project manager took away the DBA's database privileges.   For non IT folks, that's the equivalent of taking away a truck driver's keys.   He's not going to be doing anything useful for the project under those circumstances.

A few days later, someone noticed that his office was empty (i.e, no person or belongings in it).  A hand-written note had been taped to the door that simply said "Gone!!!"   

No notice, no email to HR, nothing.  Just "Gone!!!".

After 3 days he was considered to have abandoned his position and his job was ended.

A couple of days after payday, about 2 weeks later, he showed up at the office hoping to get his job back.   He didn't.

But the story gets better.

A couple of months go by and I'm told that same project manager is not threatening to turn in the company to the Feds and claim "Fraud, waste and abuse" because the project has been mismanaged.

I think to myself, "But isn't he the project manager who would be responsible for said mismanagement?  Surely he's not really planning to do that..."

A couple of weeks go by and I have to go over and ask him something.  I step behind his desk to see the screen he wants to show me and I notice that his web browser on his 2nd monitor is on the federal fraud, waste and abuse website...

"Okey, dokey.  He really is that stupid!"

Some time passes and the fellow is let go.

But it gets better.

Both of them have taken contracts to work in Iraq because they (a) can get a job and (b) it pays really well.  They are stuck in the same 2 person shack in the desert working together...

We all laughed our asses off when we found that out.

Karma!!!!

Is it just me, or are IT folk generally egomaniacal, socially maladjusted drama queens who make every one else's life as difficult as possible???

Nope.  But perhaps I was just unlucky.

Huh. Every place I've ever worked, IT end up being the tail wagging the dog, holding the entire place to ransom essentially for some ridiculous process. I once had to cancel an exam because nothing worked and the IT dept were in their weekly meeting. I mean, screw 200 students and staff, because 10 people have to have a meeting..... And this was an exam they knew about in advance because I'd contacted them to make sure everything was operational!

RyanAtTanagra

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1840 on: October 07, 2017, 08:53:23 PM »
Is it just me, or are IT folk generally egomaniacal, socially maladjusted drama queens who make every one else's life as difficult as possible???

Does everyone not in IT think computers are magic and when things go wrong the IT people can just wave their magic wands and immediately fix whatever is wrong and the reason they don't make it magically better right away must definitely be out of spite and hatred of others?

Paul der Krake

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1841 on: October 07, 2017, 10:07:54 PM »
Is it just me, or are IT folk generally egomaniacal, socially maladjusted drama queens who make every one else's life as difficult as possible???
Yes, that's us. In our spare time, we also love pointing out everyone else's spelling mistakes to give them a chance to better themselves. These selfless qualities are why we are the Chosen Ones.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1842 on: October 07, 2017, 10:32:57 PM »
Is it just me, or are IT folk generally egomaniacal, socially maladjusted drama queens who make every one else's life as difficult as possible???

Does everyone not in IT think computers are magic and when things go wrong the IT people can just wave their magic wands and immediately fix whatever is wrong and the reason they don't make it magically better right away must definitely be out of spite and hatred of others?

No, but IT folk seem to think that everyone not It folk is a complete digital moron who will buy a dumb excuse because they don't feel like staying after 5pm sharp.

bacchi

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1843 on: October 07, 2017, 10:42:14 PM »
I have a sad lack-of-FU-money story. I ran into a coworker at a break area who's being denied a PTO request for the days between Xmas and NYE because she's "needed here". Her request was to fly home to Mexico to visit her elderly father and commemorate the anniversary of her mother's death. :-(

I was denied a request to attend my grandmother's funeral. As a 23 year old with no FU money, I quietly accepted my fate. One of the worst life decisions I made. I should've just bought the ticket and left work.

I eventually started "telling" rather than "asking," as others mentioned.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1844 on: October 08, 2017, 06:40:09 AM »
Is it just me, or are IT folk generally egomaniacal, socially maladjusted drama queens who make every one else's life as difficult as possible???

Does everyone not in IT think computers are magic and when things go wrong the IT people can just wave their magic wands and immediately fix whatever is wrong and the reason they don't make it magically better right away must definitely be out of spite and hatred of others?

No, but IT folk seem to think that everyone not It folk is a complete digital moron who will buy a dumb excuse because they don't feel like staying after 5pm sharp.
I think it comes from too many experiences with users who *are* complete digital morons, users who lie ("of course I restarted my computer!"), and users who are abusive (seen in a customer's email just this week: "I hope you're fired!").  It might also come from the ability to fix things with a few keystrokes when all is going haywire around you.  It strokes the ego a bit :)

JLee

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1845 on: October 08, 2017, 09:43:59 PM »
A lot of people have had some pretty terrible experience with IT people...I'm going to go out on a limb and say you either work for shitty companies, have shitty IT departments, or don't have a job function that's critical enough to merit a response that you deem satisfactory.

I'm on call 24x7 and technically work in IT.  I also don't work on a help desk...

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1846 on: October 08, 2017, 10:28:07 PM »
A lot of people have had some pretty terrible experience with IT people...I'm going to go out on a limb and say you either work for shitty companies, have shitty IT departments, or don't have a job function that's critical enough to merit a response that you deem satisfactory.

I'm on call 24x7 and technically work in IT.  I also don't work on a help desk...

Well, we're talking government departments, essentially, even though we're hospitals..... so I'm gonna go with shitty company. With a shitty IT department that's really trying to adapt the hospital processes to the way IT wants to work instead of the other way around. Thank God our mediquip techs and diagnostic equip techs are extraordinary. They GET the fact they work in a hospital. IT doesn't.

Pooperman

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1847 on: October 09, 2017, 07:16:28 AM »
A lot of people have had some pretty terrible experience with IT people...I'm going to go out on a limb and say you either work for shitty companies, have shitty IT departments, or don't have a job function that's critical enough to merit a response that you deem satisfactory.

I'm on call 24x7 and technically work in IT.  I also don't work on a help desk...

Sometimes it's shitty process that has been stuck to things it shouldn't be. For example, the cloud-based software I deal with requires a 2-week process to get any changes done in the IT department, despite there being no downtime or any difficulty in undoing changes. I don't work in the IT department so I just ignore that process because it's stupid. However, it does mean that anything I need from IT takes forever and a half to get done. We requested a couple of email boxes 2 weeks ago and they were finally created today.

CowboyAndIndian

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1848 on: October 09, 2017, 07:49:17 AM »
Please, can we get back to FU stories?

Create a new thread if you wish to complain about IT.

dandarc

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Re: Epic FU money stories
« Reply #1849 on: October 09, 2017, 08:34:50 AM »
Please, can we get back to FU stories?

Create a new thread if you wish to complain about IT.
Here's a minor one.  Wife used to work for the legislature here.  She planned a trip with a friend, and was approved for this trip, leaving the day after the session was supposed to end.  Less than a week before the end of session, they decided to extend it because in spite of the same party controlling the entire legislature, they couldn't get a couple of things done on time.  There was time at the beginning of session for them to do a bunch of BS like "follies" and other "partying like its 1959" type of activities though.  Supposed to be an all hands situation, but wife went on the trip anyway.

Now, she doesn't like to even keep an eye on the money, so I really had to push her to realize we have FU money.  She also really freaks out about work stuff.  "Just go - we have lots of money and you're quitting this summer anyway to go back to school, worst they can do is give you a couple extra months of vacation."

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!