Posts made by Auspice

I've had some sort of stomach bug flu thing since Saturday (either that or some RL shit I'm dealing with has made me feel like I do) and yesterday I got into work and my boss asked me to proofread an email he had to send out.

An email announcing that they were cutting hours by 30%, project-wide.

"But I'm hoping not to cut yours at all!" He assured me.

My team, however, with their families and such, aren't in similar boats. And the "you can find spots on other projects!" isn't really a consolation when it'd be a $2-3/hour cut. So I spoke to the HR guy. He was already going to be talking to upper management about ensuring local / in office people can work those other projects and get the pay bump (to at least $12/hour). I tried to press how much it's needed.

I mean, the downside is there's less flexibility (work from home is work any time. Work from office is work when the office is open and it closes at 8p CST mostly because they couldn't talk me into being there later), but I'm doing what I can.

Why are they cutting hours? Oh because they pushed everyone to work harder and solve more tickets per hour. We did. So there's fewer tickets in queue and the client decided they don't need as many people working. So basically, we're being punished for doing a good job. I expressed worry this would happen. Repeatedly. For the past couple weeks. I was told there was no way it would.

I wish I could quit and not end up homeless. It's a bad sign when your job reaches "makes you physically ill with stress"

I'm... trying to learn to listen to podcasts.

So far I listen to...

Grammar Girl: Quick & Dirty Tips
I Should Be Writing
Writing Excuses (sometimes, sometimes I get bored of the inane chatter and delete it halfway through)
Tanis
Nightvale (doesn't everyone?)

But often podcasts either cause me to really lose track of what I'm doing (and I'm so busy IRL that I need to be multi-tasking) or I lose track of the podcast. Once I'm driving again, I'll probably listen to more. Right now I usually listen to them while on the bus home, but I've almost missed my stop when the former happens or I find myself reading websites when the latter happens.

If I made a character, this song would inform all of my CG decisions.

@surreality said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice It would legit be cheaper for them to return it to your lounge rather than pay to have it stored.

What in the actual hell.

We went from a nice, cool kitchen table with 4 chairs to a folding table someone dug out from god knows where and a desk chair ganked from an unused desk.

I shit you not.

Again, they'll have the same sized 'floor space' at SxSW as major media corporations and almost no one knows who the fuck they are.

They do this at every gaming/media con, worldwide, because... yeah, as Theno said, 'networking,' but I honestly think it's because they just like that they get to feel special doing it.

Meanwhile, they pay their employees $9-10/hr. $12/hr if you're lucky enough to work in a local office because 'We like to do well by our office people.' No benefits beyond health insurance.

And they wonder why so many of their employees have such a low opinion of the company in general.

@tek said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

My company's too busy sending its execs to cons (Extra Life, SxSW, etc) to say or do anything at all.

Despite its CEO, most of its executive staff, etc being women.

So hey, enjoy using all the money you don't pay your staff with to run around at conventions, guys!

Does he call it "South-by"? If so, set him on fire.

She and I'll probably find out within the next week. They'll be in and out of the local office.

Which, we found out that almost all of the non-desk furniture we got in January? "SxSW props" so they got pulled out of the office yesterday.

Oh and "they'll probably just be going back into storage."

This includes the seating in our lounge area.
Our kitchen table/chairs.
etc.
because they decided (our little, barely known company) to shell out for the largest possible floor space one can get.

Yeah.

Thanks, guys.
Really appreciate that.
Give us, y'know, furniture, and then take it away to use for a few days at SxSW and then put into a storage unit for a year.
Super awesome.

@thenomain said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice

It's called networking.

My company's too busy sending its execs to cons (Extra Life, SxSW, etc) to say or do anything at all.

Despite its CEO, most of its executive staff, etc being women.

So hey, enjoy using all the money you don't pay your staff with to run around at conventions, guys!

@sonder said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

So the other week I dealt with a 'feedback' email from a user that was just laden with abusive language and profanity. I basically said: 'We appreciate your feedback if not the abusive language it was delivered in.'

Got chewed out for doing so and told 'Saying that isn't needed. Just thank them for the feedback.'

Fuck that noise. Part of being a team lead is going to bat for my team and I know it bothers some of them when they get abusive language and threats, even in an email. I was actually downright polite. I've shut people down in the past and told them we'll gladly assist them when they can be polite about their request.

I fucking hate when companies are OK with their front line agents being treated like shit.

As someone who has to deal with this shit and who supervises the people being abused, FUCK THAT. The customer is not always right and that shit should never ever be rewarded. It feels really bad when you get abused at work and your bosses tell you to suck it up.

Fuck that.

The entire reason I will no longer work call center jobs is every single one I have worked in the past required that you stay on the line no matter how abusive the customer got. It didn't matter if I was getting death threats slung at me. I had to stay on the line and 'just try to hear them out. They're just frustrated at the situation, not at you.'

And I'd get lectured on being too sensitive if I was called any number of slurs, cussed at for half an hour, threatened, etc... and begged if I could release the call. Nope. 'Stop being so sensitive.' 'Just hear them out and let them get it off their chest.'

So no. I don't want the people on my team to have to become inured to that like I have. I don't want them to get to where it's just a part of life to be seen as being worth less than anyone else. I can pretty much point to working in customer service for well over a decade as to why I have been utterly incapable of building up any remote ounce of self-esteem. The customers didn't help. Management didn't help.

And while my company, internally, doesn't stand for that (on other projects, they've always supported nipping that shit in the bud)... They so desperately want this client that they're bending to them and their 'just deal with it' on the abusive language front.

I need a new job so bad. They want us to start taking calls 'soon.' I've always said I'd never, ever take calls again. But I'm about to be forced to because I have absolutely no other options if I want to keep paying my bills.

So the other week I dealt with a 'feedback' email from a user that was just laden with abusive language and profanity. I basically said: 'We appreciate your feedback if not the abusive language it was delivered in.'

Got chewed out for doing so and told 'Saying that isn't needed. Just thank them for the feedback.'

Fuck that noise. Part of being a team lead is going to bat for my team and I know it bothers some of them when they get abusive language and threats, even in an email. I was actually downright polite. I've shut people down in the past and told them we'll gladly assist them when they can be polite about their request.

I fucking hate when companies are OK with their front line agents being treated like shit.

Users might piss me off, but at least coworkers entertain me:

Me: "I wish these people could send us full sentences. This email just says 'cannot afford.'"
Coworker: "So just three words."
Me: "Cannot is a compound word. One word."
CW: "...is this one of those things where you're fucking with me? Fuck this. I'm Googling it."
<Minute later>
CW: "I'm mad. The definition of cannot is "cannot.""

@ganymede said in Random links:

@auspice

I just want Google Images to go back to the way it was.

RIGHT?!
I have given the big ol' middle finger to Google and switched to Duck Duck Go. THEIR Image search works the same still.

So, Google:

I'm just going to leave this right here.

@ganymede said in Random links:

@surreality said in Random links:

In part because... wtf, google image search. Truly.

Fine. Have some blue-footed boobies instead:

@sg said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice aw, dang. I was hoping for the inside scoop on some sort of secret CIA code or something.

Nah, no sekrit code. It just began as a 'there's too much bland text. Toss some bold words in there for visual interest!' and became 'bold words that are emphasized.'

I mean some of them still make no sense because comic scripting is sort of like the wild west.

In the world of scripts, you have a sort of scale:
^ Super Strict
TV Scripts (every studio has its own rigid rules and requirements and each show has its own set of rules and requirements)
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Movie Scripts (there's generally accepted formats, but a storied writer or director may get away with putting their own spin on it)
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Webisodes (the format is still new enough that it takes its cues from movies, but is a little more loose)
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Comic Scripts (this is no man's land, I mean this is a single panel from one of Alan Moore's* scripts).
/The wild fucking west

*But he is a wizard / Rasputin impersonator after all.

@sg said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

So in my comic class, I had to learn how to letter comics. 

I've always been curious--what's with the random bold words in comics?

For that answer, we'll turn to The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics!

As Dennis O'Neil puts it:

"...this word is spoken with emphasis, a bit louder than normal. Once, it was standard practice for editors to make several words in each balloon bold, sometimes without regard to the content of the dialogue. The idea was to provide the reader with eye candy--to vary the presumed monotony of ordinary lettering. There may have been a bit of validity in that theory, but only, I think, a bit; and when illogical words were emphasized, the practice may have slightly damaged the literary and narrative quality of the work."

Nowadays, the writer tends to select the bold words as we might select italicized ones in standard print (in a comic, the italics will get lost visually), but in older comics it is mostly as above. The editor doing it willy-nilly because "it looks cool."

Oh my god you goddamn idiot how many goddamn times can I tell you that you have to contact the fucking publisher about the fucking book. We have been emailing back and forth about this for almost two fucking weeks now I have given you their email, their web contact form THEIR FUCKING PHONE NUMBER.

I CANNOT HELP YOU ANY FURTHER YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT. If I knew what school you went to I would be making damn sure to let everyone in the world know that they have absolutely no standards for their medical degree program because you are the most obtuse, useless excuse for a medical student I have come across in the past year.

</rant>

Okay. I feel better now.

@tnp said in Random links:

I'll see your nostalgic link and raise you.

#notmymarypoppins