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Admin
This story lacks a punchline. I mean, "guy gets fired, and incompetent manager mixes up the last day they work" needs something more than just him and the guys going out for drinks. I seriously expected there'd be something with a major production outage the day after he left or some situation where Gene got canned instead, but... right now, it's just a story that peters out.
Admin
After Gene realized his mistake, he shouldn't have let Sheldon through since all his accounts had already been disabled.
Admin
My previous boss got the date for my leave wrong by two weeks. I could not understand why he took me and my colleagues out for lunch.
Admin
Apart from the crappy boss (and who hasn't been there?), this isn't all that much of a WTF. Sure, boss got the last day wrong, but that's a fairly minor error in the grand scheme of things. Compared to being unable to do anything for weeks due to the proper accounts not having been enabled (which happened to me at several big companies), having stuff terminated one day early isn't that bad.
Admin
Where's the WTF?
Admin
"But he'd soon be free to look for a better job and a better manager."
...the WTF is; you always were free to look for a better job and a better manager.
Admin
Moderation moderatly held for moderate comment about moderation.
Admin
This isn't a WTF, and it isn't even uncommon. I know bosses that have done this on purpose, in order to prevent someone from trying to pull something on their last day. Also, it isn't uncommon to have everything pretty much wrapped up by your last day, and not really have any useful work to do anyway. Firing someone after they just took a long vacation isn't uncommon either; a lot of companies falsely think that because they now have other people who were able to pick up your slack and learned what you do while you were gone, that they don't need you anymore. Skill redundancy is something a lot of companies don't think about. That, or they wanted to fire him for a while, and used the vacation as a reason to train someone else and then pulled the trigger.
All in all, not really any WTF here.
Admin
this is a pretty normal situation, I was waiting for a twist at the end like the manager being fired and the guy getting a last minute reprieve.
Admin
Once you take this out, and realize that stuff like "Gene blurted with no preamble" or "Gene's extended avoidance had been just another of his immature games" or "Gene smugly informed Sheldon" is entirely Sheldon's perceptions, it just sounds like this guy got sacked and is upset. #genedidnothingwrong
Admin
So a guy was gone for a few months, management realized he wasn't really required and as is common in a re-org found himself obsolete. Sounds like sour grapes from someone that didn't bring value to the company
Admin
Not really a TWF, EVERYBODY has worked for a 'Gene' at some point in their career...
Admin
I once got called back in during my vacation to be told I was being laid off.
Admin
The one thing I don't understand is the "months away" part. How can someone take months off? How can you accumulate that much time off in six years to take that much time off? What employer lets you take that much time off?
Admin
Maybe you live in a civilized country and have 30 days off per year?
Admin
Hm.
So, this is a WTF these days, huh? Smells like "donwnsized" guy Sheldon is bitter.
Admin
At my company, it would be possible, but you'd have to have almost never taken a day off. We still have PTO that rolls over.
I'm getting close to my accrual limit. A couple of months off is sounding reaaally good about now.
Admin
Months away sounds more like some kind of sabbatical scheme than accumulated holiday, in this context. But in general the more senior you are, the more you can afford not to work full time. Some people go part-time, others find/negotiate themselves full-time positions with lots of holiday time. I know some people who work e.g. 40+ hr weeks 9 months of the year, and take the rest of the time as holiday.
If you're good enough, they're happy to take as much or as little of your time as you're willing to sell them.
Admin
You mean one of those countries that has a lower standard of living than Alabama?
Admin
LMFAO. I have 30 days off a year. Pretty sure my standard of living is pretty good.
Admin
I would hardly call most of Western Europe as having a lower standard of living than Alabama.
Admin
Isn't it possible that your perception is affected by this person being named Sheldon (Cooper)?
Anyway, that's usually been my experience with layoffs. Management is aimless, so they don't tell you what they want you to do, and spineless, so they try to catch you off guard with a last minute "surprise." I don't think I've ever been bitter about being losing the job so much as I resented having my time wasted.
Admin
I live in Sweden, we have at least 25 days of vacation yearly and even 30-35 days aren't uncommon, our livingstandard is higher than the average mid-incometaker in the USA, we have a law that forces our employer to give us four consecutive weeks off sometime during june through august. We are one of the worlds leading economies calculated per capita, we have free healthcare (well paid by high taxes), we have cost-free schools and we dont have many bosses like Gene. I can pretty much tell my boss to go f--k himself without risking repercussions, there are laws preventing employees from woking more than 50 hours overtime per year and laws that prevents our employer from demanding overtime without a weeks notice, by law our workhours are regulated to 40 hours a week (some even have 30 or 35 hours per week). And oh, we also have red days (like christmas, new years eve and so on) and they are only three fewer than yours since you have Columbus day. Labor day and Veterans day. Oh and also, did I mention job-security? We can't be fired without legitimate reason and without talking to the union first, and even then we have between 2-6 months of time before we have to leave (usually that time is fully paid without needing to work) the trade-off is that we can't quit on the same day (usually we have to quit with a 4 weeks advance).
I think the american way is weird, you must be very inefficient since at my last job we produced more than our american counterparts in terms of functionality and quality with fewer people, just because they were worked to hard...
Admin
What you call it is up to you. The facts are as stated, though. The poorest parts of the US have a higher standard of living than almost anywhere in Europe - partly because the cost of living in places like Alabama is very low, so while wages there are low by US standards, adjusted for PPP they're much closer to (or even above, in some cases) the average.
Admin
Thats just not true, most of western europe is somewhere in the lines of the american middleclass in standard. I know that for a fact, I live in europe and have lived in the states (and three countries in europe and two in asia, not in alabama but I've been there a couple of times) as upper middleclass and my standard then doesn't reach my standard as upper middleclass here in europe. The poorest parts of the states might compare to the chineese middleclass but not much more than that...
Admin
I have 30 days a year (in addition to 10 public holidays), and Norway is consistently at the top of UN's Human Development Report.
I can only transfer 17 days to the following year, though. So I cannot have several months off.
Admin
Living in Alabama might give you a high PPP, but your standard of living is limited by the fact that you're living in Alabama.
Admin
I propose that moderation is more annoying than spam.
Admin
You can assert whatever far-right fantasies you prefer, but they're wildly contrary to the economic data. The majority of EU countries do not have even a single area with a higher standard of living than the poorest state in the US.
Admin
A fair point, in my book. But that's apparently a matter of taste...
Admin
What is the definition by "higher standard"?
Since I've lived in many countries and visited a magnitude more I can only say that from what I've seen not many countries reach western europes standard in terms of access, living area and convenience, at least if you live north of southern France (where the majority of EU countries resides).
Admin
The general standard of living here in Europe is amazing. A few years back I was engaged to an American, and listening to her talk (nay, gush) about life in the US was just plain scary... any number of things could, and apparently regularly did, happen that would financially ruin US citizens through no fault of their own. Here we have legal protections against stuff like that.
Admin
The definition of a higher standard of living is that the 'standard of living' is 'higher', that is, 'better'. If you don't know what the 'standard of living' is, why are you claiming to know about whether it's better or worse anywhere?
Admin
The general standard of living in Europe may be 'amazing', but it's also considerably lower than in the US, on average. Even if you just stick to the rich European countries, it's substantially lower.
Americans love to complain about job insecurity or poor working conditions or whatnot, but they're just out of touch 1%ers - pretty much everyone in the US is a 1%er on a global scale. They never mention when they're taking home double what they'd get in Europe for the same job - usually because they don't know.
And in fact the US has much stronger legal protections for workers than Europe. Less of a social safety net means you have to make it harder to fire people, because keeping jobs is much more important, and conversely having more of one, like here, means you need less worker protection. (By the way, it's not like e.g. catastrophic illness etc won't wipe you out financially in the UK to very nearly the same degree. The government won't pay your debts for you when you can't earn, so you're going to be impoverished until you subsist week to week on the stingy government cheques.)
You have to look at the actual figures and facts, not the rabble-rousing propaganda the politicians and their fans feed us.
Admin
I know what I mean when I say living standard but I don't know what you mean. For me living standard is a combination of social security, material standard and social standard (what the society offers in terms of education, health care and stuff like that). Usa is behind four european countries (and two asian countries, and Canada) in UN's best country to live in so if thats the measure of living standard you are refeering to you are wrong. Businessinsider lists 10 countries as better than Usa, most of them nordic european, go figure....
So not even cold hard numbers supports your statements, therefore I am inclined to ask what you mean by living standard and what "actual figures and facts" you are talking about...
Admin
"And in fact the US has much stronger legal protections for workers than Europe."
European work laws are way better than american work laws, take it from somone who has a wife that have been involved in the union in both the states and EU. Job security in the states is a joke in our part of the world...
Admin
I once worked for the IT department in college, my immediate boss was so eager to get rid of me on my last day he asked me "how many hours do you still owe us?". I said "I finished 4 hours ago, I stayed to help this other guy".
the WTF is, I had him for teacher next year, his idea of teaching "advanced architectures" was "learn how to install/run W2k...
Admin
Calling bullhonkey on that one. Although the logic seemed to be because there's no protections everyone is too scared to get fired so we don't need them!
http://www.oecd.org/els/emp/oecdindicatorsofemploymentprotection.htm
Admin
So what you're saying is that you're just going to make up your own definition of a technical term? That works...
Admin
Again, you're simply asserting something, and it's not true. The EU universally has less job protection than even 'at-will' US states. Far, far less in the Scandinavian economies.
Is reality that much of a challenge to your prejudices that you have to reject it outright? Guess you might not be able to trot out your genocidal far-right nonsense if you let reality get in the way.
Admin
'Genocidal far-right nonsense'? That escalated quickly.
Why is your response to people offering first-hand experience of the matter to turn it into a political discussion and make wild accusations against those who you disagree with?
Why not back up your assertions with citable facts and figures, rather than just referring vaguely to non-specific 'facts'? Or at least let us know that you've experienced both sides and are talking from personal experience, like others here have?
Admin
So, what in my assertion isn't true and what is the defintion you talk about and why doesnt Usa beat neither Norway, Sweden or Denmark (you don't beat Iceland and Finland in that many either) (theese countries being the defintion of northern europe) in most of the positive UN-list? ( http://data.un.org )
In Usa you can be fired overnight (with what the management calls a just cause), that is a fact. In EU-countries we have treaties protecting employees from being fired with less than a months notice, most workplaces have six months notice and the you can always challenge the descision in workers court for free and what a "just cause" is, is regulated by law so everebody are on equal terms. So exactly how is your job security better than the european?
Oh, and if you mean that me being a social libertierian is your definition of "genocidal far-right" then you are plainly wrong and need to check up what "far-right" means...
So I refeered to the UN-lists as a factoid for my claims, I refeer to my firsthand experience as a developer in New York, I refeer to my friends firsthand experiences in Silicon Valley, to my wifes expertice as a Union lawyer (in oth europe and Usa) and to my experience of both the swedish and american education-system. And no, I am not a crazy leftie (even though with american standards I might just be one) and I'm not gonna cave because you "said so". First hand experience might be biased of course but no facts to contradict my first hand experiences have been produced (that I've found) by neither you, UN or the White House (or have possibly they have been covered up by the fake news-industri?).
Admin
So, how's your universal health care and tuition-free universities? Oh, you don't have those in the states? Imagine that.
Admin
True they dont, but what to expect from a country where the right bear arms have a stronger protection than the right to be treated at the hospital from injures of said arms?
Admin
You are claiming a "right" to force others to provide for your needs, whether or not you are willing to give anything in exchange. In other words, you believe in slavery.
Admin
The right to universal healthcare should in 2017 be undebatable in a civilized society. I believe that everybody should contribute to society so those that at the moment have nothing can get the basic minimums needed to survive (healthcare, food and roof above their heads) and have an equal chance to prosper. An open heart surgery shouldn't be a question of money, it should be provided as a free service for those that need it. It has nothing to do with slavery or charity, it has all to do with compassion for your fellow country men.
If you get harmed from a weapon you are not at fault so it treatment for those injures should be free for you, the same goes for sickness and injures from accidents, in order to provide a service like that we all have to pay taxes, the same goes for the army, roads and other stuff in society so why should health care be equal to enslavement when paying for a justice system, a goverment, an army or roads isn't?