Rant VIII: The Reckoning

[GasBandit]

Unfortunately a lot of the industry still hasn't gotten the hint that they can't just fire their software engineers and make AI do all their code. Also unfortunately, everybody's bracing for the incoming recession-that-will-probably-turn-depression, and so hiring is also kind of on hold.

Even the guys in my department have had any of their certification/training tasks that would cost money to get quietly cancelled TFN.

The amount of concern I have about my own job security is non-zero, thanks to a combination of tariffs (Everything my company sells is made in China, and sometimes assembled in Mexico) and our primary customers (Universities and City/County governments) having their budgets slashed by DOGE-wannabes in the State Capital. I'm usually super-stacked for work. Right now I'm revising my existing code templates to make future coding go faster, because I've got nothing on my plate until April 2nd.

 

[Dave]

Welp, my wife’s cyst(s) have not decreased. Whether that is because they are resistant or because they are something else is unknown. She is going in for a CAT scan and will then go from there. Doc says it still might be cancer at this point but he’s not that worried about it. Easy for him to say I guess, but Kerri is freaking out.

 

[Ravenpoe]

So, I still have a job for the next two months, during which time I will basically captain the ship while it sinks. If I leave before then I do not get my severance, which I do want, so I'm kinda stuck here until then.

But boy do I no longer want to be here.

 

[Ravenpoe]

After carefully going over the details of the severance agreement, I have unlocked a new quest: get fired.

I don't think they're ready for honest me.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

After carefully going over the details of the severance agreement, I have unlocked a new quest: get fired.

I don't think they're ready for honest me.

Time for my favorite kind of compliance: malicious compliance.

 

[blotsfan]

After carefully going over the details of the severance agreement, I have unlocked a new quest: get fired.

I don’t think this is a morally objectionable idea, but it seems like this could end with you getting fired without severance and them daring you to sue a multibillion dollar corporation.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I don’t think this is a morally objectionable idea, but it seems like this could end with you getting fired without severance and them daring you to sue a multibillion dollar corporation.

I really don't think they care enough for that, I doubt I register to them at all

 

[blotsfan]

I hope you’re right.

 

[Celt Z]

So, I still have a job for the next two months, during which time I will basically captain the ship while it sinks. If I leave before then I do not get my severance, which I do want, so I'm kinda stuck here until then.

But boy do I no longer want to be here.

Ugh, been there. It was such an awful month, I still get borderline PTSD from it.

 

[Far]

I wasn't entitled to any severance because they had offered me another role at a different store. Ultimately, I wasn't interested because it was in a completely different part of the city, I'd come to like working downtown, and it was going from a large bustling store right downtown Vancouver to a tiny mall satellite store. The period from when we found out to the ultimate close date was 6 months, and the 3 I did stick it out for was draining as hell. The first 2 weeks were customers constantly coming in and sympathizing but mostly bemoaning to us how much it sucked to lose the largest book store in the core, most ignoring that the people they were crying to about it were losing their livelyhood.

Then it shifted, and for the next 2 months, it was just people asking when stuff was going on sale for clearance/when are these going to get marked down/why aren't you getting any new stock here anymore? Shudder to think of what it ended up becoming after I left.

 

[bhamv3]

I just learned that one of my favorite professors from university died last night. He lived alone, was in his 70s, and apparently had a heart attack or some other acute issue happen, and he died alone at home.

It sucks. He was a smart guy, a knowledgeable professor, and an engaging educator. He usually ran the department's drama productions, and I participated in three of them so I got to know him pretty well.

 

[PatrThom]

Some years ago, I visited the home of my high school music teacher, possibly the person most responsible for noticing my above-average talent and ensuring that the people who could do something about it heard about me and did something about it, setting me on quite a path. We chatted for some hours, and he presented me with a DVD of some of my performances and other personal memorabilia of things he had saved from 20+ years prior.

During this meaningful visit, I suddenly realized that this would probably be the last time I ever saw him alive. It was a blow. I tried not to let it spoil the moment. I think I was mostly successful.

--Patrick

 

[Dave]

I found out yesterday that one of my oldest friends passed last year. We had a pretty major falling out over his Trumpism and newly discovered extremist views. Dude, you are half Mexican and your grandparents immigrated illegally and were granted citizenship by Ronald fucking Reagan. Now you’re out here saying all illegals should be imprisoned and deported and are celebrating cruelty by forced removal of kids from their parents.

Sucks that he’s gone and I miss the friend he used to be but I swear the world has to be a better place now that he’s gone.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

My new therapist has me using an app (Daylio) to journal every day.

I just wrote this for today's entry:

A busy, stressful day of work. The calls are just non-stop. I have no choice but to endure.

I'm not eating well. I'm barely exercising. I'm just so completely drained by the barrage of customers at the end of the day. They take everything out of me. I'm a shell of a person stuck in an endless loop, trapped in a cynical world of capitalism. I'm swimming in credit card debt.

Watching a bleak episode of Black Mirror didn't help, especially about people also struggling financially.

Neither did finishing reading Lazarus Book Two.

I hate my life so much. I want to die, but I'm too much of a coward to do it.