Dave
Staff member
Guy at my work today was complaining because his toddler dropped an n-bomb at daycare and got in trouble. I asked where the kid heard it and he admitted to calling someone that who cut him off in traffic. I responded with, “I’m pretty sure the guy could have hit me head on and the thought of calling him that wouldn’t have crossed my mind.”
Yeah. So I found out one of my coworkers is a racist piece of shit. He’s the newest guy so I guess I don’t have to like home. I just wish my work wasn’t so homogeneous.
Yeah. So I found out one of my coworkers is a racist piece of shit. He’s the newest guy so I guess I don’t have to like home. I just wish my work wasn’t so homogeneous.
My daughter got in trouble at school one day, this is 20ish years ago now, for calling a girl that was attempting to bully her, “black.” No, that’s not a euphemism. The teacher admitted that her full statement after being bullied about something (we never got a full story on that) was, and I quote, “Well, you’re black.” She didn’t call her any names, didn’t hit her, didn’t cuss her out, just called the girl black. The teacher wanted our daughter suspended for the “horrible insult” that my daughter used, Principal decided it would just be better for all involved to just move our daughter out of that class. That’s the entire record of our daughter’s trouble in school. Not sure the Principal ever got the full story on the bullying, but that teacher left the school district after that year.
So we did a translation for a client. This wasn't my case, it was another editor's (who I will call "Jack"), but the client wasn't happy with the end product, and gave us a bunch of feedback and corrections. Jack looked at their corrections and basically disagreed vehemently with all of them, and said that it was a problem with the original source text being unclear, and he did the best he could for this text, and that he would not accept the client's feedback. One choice quote from Jack, slightly paraphrased: "We're the professionals, and the client is assuming that they know more than we do. They assume too much."
Since I'm the senior editor for our team, the PM asked me to take a look at the case, and the truth is somewhere in the middle. Yes, some of the client's feedback is incorrect or preferential, but they also made some good changes to issues that existed in the original translation. But right now both the client and Jack are up in arms, both of them are insisting that they're entirely right, and the PM and I are caught in the middle wondering how we're going to respond to this client feedback.
Since I'm the senior editor for our team, the PM asked me to take a look at the case, and the truth is somewhere in the middle. Yes, some of the client's feedback is incorrect or preferential, but they also made some good changes to issues that existed in the original translation. But right now both the client and Jack are up in arms, both of them are insisting that they're entirely right, and the PM and I are caught in the middle wondering how we're going to respond to this client feedback.
I'd remind Jack that the actual professional is the one that meets the client's needs
Document your time clearly, make sure people know well in advance that it's not going to succeed, and when it fails, point to incompetence and failure on the part of Sales to understand the product you're selling.
Salesweasels (sorry Doomies) need to know what they're selling and what they're promising, or they get smacked upsdie the head. The whole "I sold it, I took my commission, now I'll let everyone behind me rot and struggle" mentality is toxic to so many companies, and it is horrible for your name in a business in the longrun. Overpromising and underbilling may look great but always ends up with either disappointed customers or leaving talented staff. Neither is healthy.
Management/direction will want to side with Sales, because, well, pretty numbers go up. And lots of management tends to come from Sales, since they're the best at selling themselves and making it look like they make the company money.
GasBandit
Staff member
In this case, I think it's the Project Manager's fault. We sold hundreds of hours of labor on this job. But that was literally a year ago. It's been pushed back several times.
What I think happened was we told the client "hey we finally got all your parts in" and they replied "sweet can you get it all done over spring break?" and the PM said "of course!" without actually looking at how much work was to be done for it. This guy is basically a dumbass AND a pushover when being confronted by unreasonable clients.
Hey now, don't kinkshame.
Owl, stop eating rabbits.
...Why? They're yummy, healthy, and nutritional. I'm actually literally going to be eating rabbit with red wine sauce this evening.
I miss living near an upscale grocery store where I can buy rabbit.
We used to get a ton of rabbits in the yard in Virginia in the spring. But hunting season is the fall and winter there
Nov 15 to Feb 15 here.We used to get a ton of rabbits in the yard in Virginia in the spring. But hunting season is the fall and winter there
All I need is a hunting license and there is no season or bag limit. If I knew this before, I could have eaten my fill when I first bought this house...
Of course there was the time my dog peed down the rabbit burrow. That was the day I learned that rabbits could scream.
Of course there was the time my dog peed down the rabbit burrow. That was the day I learned that rabbits could scream.
I had a very unpleasant encounter with a stranger in a parking lot today. I wish I could let it go, but I'm having trouble.
I was leaving in my car from a parking spot. I put my car in reverse, looked behind me, see that it's clear, and then started to back out. Suddenly a black minivan comes flying around a corner. I stop, and wait for him to go by. Instead the guy parks behind me and gives me that stare. After a few moments he drives on and parks a few spots down. Because of that stare I start to feel my temper go, but I put myself in check; maybe I should have seen him? Maybe I screwed up? So I pull up behind him and roll down my window.
Him: "You waiting for me?" says the older man as he gets out of his car.
Me: "Yeah. I wanted to apologize for what happened back there. I started to back up and didn't see you. Sorry."
Him: "That it?"
Me: *feeling confused* "Yeah. Just wanted to say I'm sorry for the close call." (FYI - It wasn't even close. Seriously. I was backing out slowly before stopping and there was at least 6 feet between my car and his. I was just trying to defuse the situation a bit.)
Him: "Okay, then. Now fuck off."
Me: *now fully pissed off* "What the hell? You're being an asshole about it."
Him: "Fuck you. Get out of here dipshit." *takes a step towards my car*
So I give him the finger, tell him to go fuck himself, and drive off at a normal speed. He shouts something dumb towards me, I continue to flip him off, and then I'm away.
As far as things go, this is really not remarkable. It's not even worth a rant by itself. But here's the rub: I can't get myself to move on. My logical brain tells me that this guy was a total prick and there was no reasoning with him. He wasn't going to suddenly come to his senses and apologize. But the more primitive part of my brain is unhappy that I didn't get out and challenge the asshole. Stupid, I know. Maybe he has a weapon. Maybe he damages my car. Maybe we get into a scuffle and the cops get called. There's any number of ways it could have ended badly if I get out of my car, but... there's just a part of me that wanted to fuck this guy up so bad. It's frustrating that I feel so unhappy about doing the right thing. I hate that.
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant. I had to get it off my chest.
I was leaving in my car from a parking spot. I put my car in reverse, looked behind me, see that it's clear, and then started to back out. Suddenly a black minivan comes flying around a corner. I stop, and wait for him to go by. Instead the guy parks behind me and gives me that stare. After a few moments he drives on and parks a few spots down. Because of that stare I start to feel my temper go, but I put myself in check; maybe I should have seen him? Maybe I screwed up? So I pull up behind him and roll down my window.
Him: "You waiting for me?" says the older man as he gets out of his car.
Me: "Yeah. I wanted to apologize for what happened back there. I started to back up and didn't see you. Sorry."
Him: "That it?"
Me: *feeling confused* "Yeah. Just wanted to say I'm sorry for the close call." (FYI - It wasn't even close. Seriously. I was backing out slowly before stopping and there was at least 6 feet between my car and his. I was just trying to defuse the situation a bit.)
Him: "Okay, then. Now fuck off."
Me: *now fully pissed off* "What the hell? You're being an asshole about it."
Him: "Fuck you. Get out of here dipshit." *takes a step towards my car*
So I give him the finger, tell him to go fuck himself, and drive off at a normal speed. He shouts something dumb towards me, I continue to flip him off, and then I'm away.
As far as things go, this is really not remarkable. It's not even worth a rant by itself. But here's the rub: I can't get myself to move on. My logical brain tells me that this guy was a total prick and there was no reasoning with him. He wasn't going to suddenly come to his senses and apologize. But the more primitive part of my brain is unhappy that I didn't get out and challenge the asshole. Stupid, I know. Maybe he has a weapon. Maybe he damages my car. Maybe we get into a scuffle and the cops get called. There's any number of ways it could have ended badly if I get out of my car, but... there's just a part of me that wanted to fuck this guy up so bad. It's frustrating that I feel so unhappy about doing the right thing. I hate that.
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant. I had to get it off my chest.
You did nothing wrong, he was definitely being an asshole, which sounds like his normal state of being.
Welcome to the ongoing and never-ending debate between the rational and irrational sides of your brain. Glad to hear the rational side won out. Keep it up.
--Patrick
Thaaat's something you may want to bring up to management. If you're feeling the effects, others probably are too.
Here in the US, if something like that happens and people start feeling sick, they have to evacuate the office per OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) guidelines. Not sure if you have something similar.
Here in the US, if something like that happens and people start feeling sick, they have to evacuate the office per OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) guidelines. Not sure if you have something similar.
I would but there are translation cases that need to be done.
Like @Simfers said, your health has to come first. There will ALWAYS be a pile of work that needs to be done. You have to make yourself a priority.
It seems like each group of incoming college freshmen writes worse than the last. Grading their papers has been an onerous burden. They write like they text, complete with absent punctuation and inconsistent capitalization. It's like reading a half-baked Yelp review. I teach for a Historically Black College and a lot of my students write in AAVE. That isn't really a problem because AAVE has its own rules and structure. It takes a roundabout way but it still expresses a point. There's an enormous difference between AAVE and plain gibberish, and a lot of the papers are in gibberish.
And then there's the plagiarism. Since the pandemic hit plagiarism has gotten a lot worse nationwide. But I catch it and sit the cheater down for a conversation that neither of us enjoys. It gets more frustrating with every semester. They're. Making. Me. Beat. Up. Grass!
And then there's the plagiarism. Since the pandemic hit plagiarism has gotten a lot worse nationwide. But I catch it and sit the cheater down for a conversation that neither of us enjoys. It gets more frustrating with every semester. They're. Making. Me. Beat. Up. Grass!
I teach middle school, and I noticed the exact same thing. It doesn’t matter how big of a deal I make it, how much I try to teach it, and how much I punish them for it. They keep thinking they’re going to get away with it, and it drives me nuts.
I tried to talk a college roommate out of doing that. He went to a website that had papers for download. I let him know that my father, a professor at the same university, had told me that he had personally uploaded some papers to sites like that AND they have a program that checks for matches. Roommate still turned in the downloaded paper.
I never understood that. I mean, plenty of academic stuff is just "read one or two sources, check their sources, kinda rewrite their conclusions in your own words, make sure you add a couple of things from other sources even if they don't quite match the rest, hand in". If your interest is not in actually, you know, becoming an academic, you can get by just fine with just some fairly basic rewrites to existing texts. It takes, what 2-3 hours to turn some phrases, add a few jokes or a graph, a typo, replace the introduction with something of your own, and voilà!
Not replacing/reading/checking anything is just lazy.
Not replacing/reading/checking anything is just lazy.