The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.

Dave

Dave

Staff member
bhamv3 said:
One of my hot female subordinates has recently gotten into some trouble for missing deadlines. I probed into the situation a bit, and it turns out that when our supervisor asks her for estimates on how long she'll need to do a case, she'll give pretty tight times, and then inevitably she'll fail to hit some of them. So I showed her the video of Scotty telling Geordie to not give the actual time he thinks he'll need, and instead to give a more conservative time estimate, and she replied that she thinks it's unethical to give longer times when the real amount of time she needs is actually shorter.

On the one hand, I admire her work ethic. On the other hand... damn girl, you got a lot to learn.
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You tell her this: If her estimates are correct she would not be missing them. It's not unethical to pad time, it's intelligent estimating. Sure the job itself might take X hours, but you have to factor in other variables that you can't foresee that will drag your timeline out.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
How I tell this to the project managers where I work is "If you plan for perfection, you're setting yourself up for failure." Could this job take 16 hours? Yes, if EVERY SINGLE THING GOES RIGHT AT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY and that never happens. So you pad. Because life is what happens while you make other plans.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Dave said:
You tell her this: If her estimates are correct she would not be missing them. It's not unethical to pad time, it's intelligent estimating. Sure the job itself might take X hours, but you have to factor in other variables that you can't foresee that will drag your timeline out.
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I wouldn't evn call that padding, it's just including a margin of error in the estimated time.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Yeah, it's like people who go "Google maps says it's a 43 minute drive so I'll leave 43 minutes in advance and be on time".
Neither you nor Google can predict a slow vehicle in front of you, a red light, a cop pulling you over, bad weather, having to park 5 minutes walking away, having to turn back when you're five minutes out because you forgot something, etc etc etc. You don't have to leave 90 minutes in advance and be 40 minutes early, but maybe give yourself a 5 or 10 minute margin?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Ask her if she has ever in her life paid cash for anything. Did she receive change after the purchase? Why doesn‘t she carry the exact change for every transaction? Why does she still have free space left on her phone? Why are there leftovers in her fridge?

—Patrick
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

I pad time when I give estimates. If I finish early, I turn it in early, and everyone is happy. It's not unethical to give yourself breathing room for unknown variables. If those variables involve me getting information from a 3rd party (like someone else in the office) I double the padded time, because these things seem to take forever.
 
drifter

drifter

She's also kind of fucking things up for others if she's giving estimates she can't meet. I imagine her supervisor makes plans based off those estimates, so missing them can throw a wrench in the works. I also assume the supervisor is the one who has to deal with clients and let them know they aren't going to be able to deliver on time.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Had a VERY up & down moment yesterday. I knew student loans were starting up again so I went to Nelnet to start making payment and get ahead of things. A HUGE payment was made in the last few years and my balance was $0. Uh...wut? Holy shit....HOLY SHIT!!!!

After calling the wife all excited we decided to investigate further. Found out that another entity had bought the debt, which zeroed out my Nelnet account. So I have to pay the new entity now. Woe is me.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Friend of mine: "Hey, did you hear that Joe (mutual friend of ours) got divorced?"

Me: "Oh no, what happened?"

Friend: "I really shouldn't tell you, I should respect their privacy."

Me: "Was there cheating involved?"

Friend: "YES! In fact, what happened was.... (long description of who was cheating, for how long, with whom, and the subsequent aftermath)."

I think my friend figured that since I'd correctly guessed "cheating" it counted as me figuring it out myself, therefore it wasn't an invasion of privacy any more?
 
Frank

Frank

Well, since turning 40 in January I seem to be aging in fast forward. No longer boyish looking with my beard almost entirely grey now after a few months.

It could be from all the stress this year, but man, I feel as old as I look in the mirror.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

I got my first grey hairs (in my beard) at -28- thanks to my stressful college situation. I'm 38 now and they are still the only ones I have. Yes, stress ages you.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I've somehow lucked out and haven't gone grey yet. I've seen a few greys in my beard but that's about it.

It's likely just good genes. Both of my parents have always looked younger. My mother just turned 80 and doesn't even remotely look it.
 
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PatrThom

PatrThom

I lived a relatively carefree existence for a very long time, and people always VASTLY underestimated my age as a result.
Now I have a family, bills, responsibilities, and stress galore, and while people still underestimate my age, they don't do it by anywhere near as large a margin as they used to.

--Patrick
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy said:
I've somehow lucked out and haven't gone grey yet. I've seen a few greys in my beard but that's about it.

It's likely just good genes. Both of my parents have always looked younger. My mother just turned 80 and doesn't even remotely look it.
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Seriously, would you think this woman was 80? (The one on the right. My sister is 55.)

20230819_154052.jpg
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Dave said:
No grey hair at all. Nope, none at all.

:whistling:
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People turn gray as they grow older. Then white. Then translucent. The next four colors don't have names, because no one has ever seen them in real life, except for in Dave's hair, in ages before the invention of speech.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

My wife and I are around 40, and we're starting to develop white hairs. My wife will pluck hers out, while I don't care at all about the color of my hair (and hers). But she cares, so sometimes she'll pluck out my white hairs if she spots any.
 
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Celt Z

Celt Z

In the past few years, Mr. Z has been getting a lot of silver and white hairs. I think it looks good on him, so I'm a fan. So far my red seems to be sticking around, but I have noticed more blonde streaks creeping in.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
I started getting red and white hairs in my beard about 10-15 years ago. Now the beard area around my chin has far more white than brown, though the rest of my jawline and moustache are still pretty dark. It makes me look like I have mutton chops on low res videoconference cameras.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker


Well a big section of the oldest prison west of the Mississippi burned down. No injuries, but a lot of damage. 655 inmates lived in that section that burned.

That is my office in the foreground. They smelled the smoke at 2am but took another 4 hours to find the fire.
 
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