Rant VIII: The Reckoning
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This is typical Big 5/Big 6testing. It's got 5-6 variables and measures them on whether they exist at "healthy or unhealthy" levels.
Openness to Experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism (sometimes called Emotionality)
Honesty-Humility
Most tests like this (Myers-Briggs, Enneagram) are absolute garbage for what they are testing on and basically survived because HR wanted something to point to for it's hiring decisions. Big 5/6 isn't too much better but does has some correlational data for it. The real problem with tests like these is that they require honesty to give any kind of meaningful data but if this is between this and a job, you're going to give the answers you think the person reading the test wants.
Openness to Experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism (sometimes called Emotionality)
Honesty-Humility
Most tests like this (Myers-Briggs, Enneagram) are absolute garbage for what they are testing on and basically survived because HR wanted something to point to for it's hiring decisions. Big 5/6 isn't too much better but does has some correlational data for it. The real problem with tests like these is that they require honesty to give any kind of meaningful data but if this is between this and a job, you're going to give the answers you think the person reading the test wants.
Not always. There are Candidacy Boards that do interviews at various stages of the process. They are responsible for looking at the stuff beyond seminary - emotional intelligence, ethics, belief system, cultural competencies, etc. Some Boards tend toward psychobabble in their deliberations, and it is tiresome. And after a couple of recent experiences it has become quite clear that we miss shit, sometimes rather egregiously. But that's another post.
Apparently my company gives these psych tests to applicants, because when I interview candidates I'll receive a printout of the results.
No exaggeration, I have never once looked at the pysch test results. I don't care about them. I care about whether the candidate can handle the work and whether he or she will get along with the company culture.
No exaggeration, I have never once looked at the pysch test results. I don't care about them. I care about whether the candidate can handle the work and whether he or she will get along with the company culture.
And until the test makers add a “Hotness:” category, that’s how it’s going to stay.
—Patrick
You will never see me agree with this in writing.
GasBandit
Staff member
Difficulty getting hired? But I thought we needed to be bringing back child labor because huge swaths of positions were going unfilled because quiet quitters didn't want to work anymore?
/s
they just throw those things up on hiring boards now; it was like the 20th or 30th one I took through Indeed
My wife has covid and is having a rough go. This is our first round of it, as far as we know. I don't know if I had it or have it. There's upper respiratory crud all over work right now. Amazingly none of our kids are slightly affected.
Dave
Staff member
It really sucks. Hopefully she recovers quickly AND COMPLETELY!
Dear asshole who stole my front bike light while I was in the Braemore Superstore.
Thanks a lot. Now I have to bike the rest of the way home in the dark.
I hope you crash and break every goddamn bone in your body.
Thanks a lot. Now I have to bike the rest of the way home in the dark.
I hope you crash and break every goddamn bone in your body.
So a teacher at my wife's elementary school didn't show up to work yesterday morning. The school called the authorities, and it turns out this particular teacher had fallen off her sixth-floor balcony and is now in critical condition. No further information has been released by the school to the faculty or students, likely in order to respect the teacher and her family's privacy, but the natural conclusion appears to be that one does not simply fall off a balcony, so...
This whole thing is hitting my wife a bit hard because the current indications are that she was the last person to speak to this particular teacher the day before yesterday before they all left work.
This whole thing is hitting my wife a bit hard because the current indications are that she was the last person to speak to this particular teacher the day before yesterday before they all left work.
Someone stole my new gel cushion seat once. That bike ride home sucked. Sorry Nick!
Can you really call it a Superstore if it doesn't even have any replacement bike lights?
They're a grocery store. They don't sell that kind of thing.
I wound up buying a new light at Decathlon on the way home. But getting there was a pain without a front light. Part of my route is through a shared trail around Lake Banook. And there's no lighting for most of it.
GasBandit
Staff member
This really sounds like the beginning of a found-footage style horror movie. Glad a lake cryptid didn't devour you.
Wait, they're even only a 1 type of product store...
This sounds less and less Super by the second...
That's like calling yourself Superman, but only having the powers of the Flash...
There are this rubber straps you can use to put your phone on the bike bars (at least we have them over here) that would also allow you to use your phone's flashlight as an alternative to your front lights just in case. And it's less likely to get stolen of the bike since it's just rubber.
As we approach the end of 2023, my company has been able to look at the revenues we've generated over the last year and compare it to previous years, and... guys, it's bad. It's really bad. It's worse than I thought it'd be. The existential threat of AI and machine translation has truly come for us now.
I always knew that machines would eventually put me out of a job, but I've still managed to be caught by surprise when it really happens.
I always knew that machines would eventually put me out of a job, but I've still managed to be caught by surprise when it really happens.
figmentPez
Staff member
I was making dinner, frustrated with how much of a struggle it is to make food sometimes, when I had a flashback to at least 15 years ago on a different forum.
I had been trying to explain how bad my health problems were, and how tired I was all the time. I said that sometimes it was all I could do to make a meal; putting together a sandwich, chips, and a salad took all the energy I had, and sometimes I had to sit down multiple times in the middle of doing that.
Someone replied, roughly, "well, if you can make a salad you must not be that bad off", and immediately several others chimed in to agree that if I can make a salad, I must be in decent health, because they don't always have the energy to cut up multiple different types of vegetables, so I must be doing better than I think if I can do all that.
Thinking about those replies still makes my stomach sink with fear. Of being called lazy, of people saying I'm faking my symptoms, of people expecting me to burn myself out to prove that I'm not capable of living up to their arbitrary expectations because they made assumptions based on their own biases.
I said "salad" and they heard lettuce and carrots and cucumbers and tomato and onion and croutons and dressing and God-knows-what-else. My actual "salad" was pre-washed romaine from a bag and ranch dressing.
It is so frustrating having to deal with the performative bullshit that people expect when you have chronic health problems. You have to look and act just sick enough for them to believe that you're not healthy, but no worse, or they might accuse you of being dramatic, or just not want to interact with you at all (because it's so stressful being around someone who is struggling). Which isn't easy, since every single person you interact with will have their preconceived notions of what you're supposed to do, and not do, and say, or not say, when you're disabled/sick/whatever. And that's not even getting into trying to accurately communicate with healthcare professionals, who may or may not have a hidden level of hostility based on person bias, or what they read in your records. (Especially for someone like me, who was brought up with alternative medicine and it's practitioners. Which means I speak a different healthcare language. Alernative-medicine-English sounds like mainstream-medical-English, but they are not the same language, and most doctors struggle enough realizing that they no longer speak basic English when they're talking about medical matters. The same communication gap happens to people who get really into computers, niche hobbies, theology, different theologies, etc. You can say words the other person recognizes, but they mean subtly, or even significantly, different things.)
And anyone who says, "well, you just shouldn't give a shit what other people think!" has either never been dependent on someone else for anything in their entire life, or is fucking lying to themselves about how little they care. Do you care what your boss thinks? What about the employee who has the bosses ear? Do you care what rumors people are spreading about you if it means the difference between getting a raise and getting fired? Maybe you're pretty confident you can always get another job with whatever unique skills you have, that are always in demand no matter what people think of you. What if the power company could cut off your electricity because they think you're being too wasteful? What if stores could refuse you service because they think you're lazy? If someone could take away what you need to survive, because you didn't choose the right words to describe your health, how secure would you feel about your life? If you're really not dependent on anyone's opinion of you, what fucking fantasy world do you live in, and what wardrobe do I have to fall through to get there?
If you were struggling to stay afloat in a swimming pool, would you try to swim across a lake to prove that you'd go under and need rescue? That's what my life has felt like, repeatedly. And I always hear "but you got so far before you almost drowned". As if having my lungs filled with lake water, again, is going to do me any good in trying to get to the far shore.
That's all about the past, but I don't really want to get into the present. I'm stable. Currently no one is demanding I try to do more than I think I'm capable of. I'm just worried that I'm not doing enough to improve before I have to do more. I'm worried my parents will die before I can take care of myself. I'm worried I'll always be alone, romantically, because my current life state isn't conductive to meeting women, and even if it were what woman would want to date a guy who can't really even take care of himself, let alone hold a job? And who also doesn't have any sympathetic reason for being disabled. I'm not recovering from cancer, or a car accident. I don't have some degenerative disease. I just have anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, and other mental problems, along with poorly treated allergies with some unknown amount of physical illness caused by ongoing water damage and lots of mold in my last apartment.
TL;DR The holidays are once again reminding me that my life is very small, and I do not know how to change my life or myself fast enough to be sure the progress I'm making will be enough.
I had been trying to explain how bad my health problems were, and how tired I was all the time. I said that sometimes it was all I could do to make a meal; putting together a sandwich, chips, and a salad took all the energy I had, and sometimes I had to sit down multiple times in the middle of doing that.
Someone replied, roughly, "well, if you can make a salad you must not be that bad off", and immediately several others chimed in to agree that if I can make a salad, I must be in decent health, because they don't always have the energy to cut up multiple different types of vegetables, so I must be doing better than I think if I can do all that.
Thinking about those replies still makes my stomach sink with fear. Of being called lazy, of people saying I'm faking my symptoms, of people expecting me to burn myself out to prove that I'm not capable of living up to their arbitrary expectations because they made assumptions based on their own biases.
I said "salad" and they heard lettuce and carrots and cucumbers and tomato and onion and croutons and dressing and God-knows-what-else. My actual "salad" was pre-washed romaine from a bag and ranch dressing.
It is so frustrating having to deal with the performative bullshit that people expect when you have chronic health problems. You have to look and act just sick enough for them to believe that you're not healthy, but no worse, or they might accuse you of being dramatic, or just not want to interact with you at all (because it's so stressful being around someone who is struggling). Which isn't easy, since every single person you interact with will have their preconceived notions of what you're supposed to do, and not do, and say, or not say, when you're disabled/sick/whatever. And that's not even getting into trying to accurately communicate with healthcare professionals, who may or may not have a hidden level of hostility based on person bias, or what they read in your records. (Especially for someone like me, who was brought up with alternative medicine and it's practitioners. Which means I speak a different healthcare language. Alernative-medicine-English sounds like mainstream-medical-English, but they are not the same language, and most doctors struggle enough realizing that they no longer speak basic English when they're talking about medical matters. The same communication gap happens to people who get really into computers, niche hobbies, theology, different theologies, etc. You can say words the other person recognizes, but they mean subtly, or even significantly, different things.)
And anyone who says, "well, you just shouldn't give a shit what other people think!" has either never been dependent on someone else for anything in their entire life, or is fucking lying to themselves about how little they care. Do you care what your boss thinks? What about the employee who has the bosses ear? Do you care what rumors people are spreading about you if it means the difference between getting a raise and getting fired? Maybe you're pretty confident you can always get another job with whatever unique skills you have, that are always in demand no matter what people think of you. What if the power company could cut off your electricity because they think you're being too wasteful? What if stores could refuse you service because they think you're lazy? If someone could take away what you need to survive, because you didn't choose the right words to describe your health, how secure would you feel about your life? If you're really not dependent on anyone's opinion of you, what fucking fantasy world do you live in, and what wardrobe do I have to fall through to get there?
If you were struggling to stay afloat in a swimming pool, would you try to swim across a lake to prove that you'd go under and need rescue? That's what my life has felt like, repeatedly. And I always hear "but you got so far before you almost drowned". As if having my lungs filled with lake water, again, is going to do me any good in trying to get to the far shore.
That's all about the past, but I don't really want to get into the present. I'm stable. Currently no one is demanding I try to do more than I think I'm capable of. I'm just worried that I'm not doing enough to improve before I have to do more. I'm worried my parents will die before I can take care of myself. I'm worried I'll always be alone, romantically, because my current life state isn't conductive to meeting women, and even if it were what woman would want to date a guy who can't really even take care of himself, let alone hold a job? And who also doesn't have any sympathetic reason for being disabled. I'm not recovering from cancer, or a car accident. I don't have some degenerative disease. I just have anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, and other mental problems, along with poorly treated allergies with some unknown amount of physical illness caused by ongoing water damage and lots of mold in my last apartment.
TL;DR The holidays are once again reminding me that my life is very small, and I do not know how to change my life or myself fast enough to be sure the progress I'm making will be enough.
Normally, cities around here charge taxes every year, and an extra fee for public projects. The city I'm helping with their cadastre charged too much for some projects, so now they can't keep collecting the same amount. Also, the mayor promised to make property taxes more fair, so the council passed a rule with lower fees for less expensive properties. Now, it turns out the projected income for next year is $800,000 less than last year, and they are artificially raising property values to make more money . Every citizen is actually paying less, because they are no longer paying the fee, but they are still paying more than they should.
Dave
Staff member
I went & talked to them. One, because I have better control over my emotions, and two because I had an idea of what was going to be said.
Turns out that the first day the dogs refused to eat, drink, or go outside to do their business. After that they calmed down, but the messes were all from the first couple of days. Which is pretty much what I figured happened. Poppy FREAKED OUT when we got home and whined for at least an hour. I think she has bad* (edited) separation anxiety and we had no idea. Yay us!
Turns out that the first day the dogs refused to eat, drink, or go outside to do their business. After that they calmed down, but the messes were all from the first couple of days. Which is pretty much what I figured happened. Poppy FREAKED OUT when we got home and whined for at least an hour. I think she has bad* (edited) separation anxiety and we had no idea. Yay us!
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