Other What's ruining your life right now?

My commiserations @David, it does seem a waste of time and resources to do that.

Mrs A is steadfastly WFH and typically goes to Swindon and Northampton for quarterly meetings.
They at least make it worthwhile by making it a 2 day event with an overnight stay and a social evening out with colleagues.

Not been to Woking yet, my daughter is studying there but her accommodation id in Guildford some 7 miles away.
The only other useful attribute of Woking AFAIK is that my brother in law works there for Asahi Europe, so good deals on beer

 

The meeting was every bit as shite as I was expecting. However, after wringing the car's neck all the way down the A3 I managed to scrape on to the earlier ferry - second to last car!

Small victories, I suppose.

 

After a day like that that is a major win

 

Sorry, I'm gonna be that dickhead and say that sometimes it is better to have meetings face to face. You're not pissing about with the tech, repeating yourself because someone's connection is dodgy and they didn't hear you, asking someone else to repeat themselves because it sounds like they're using a mic they've shoved up their arse and you can't hear them, asking someone to mute themselves, etc.

As for whether you should have the meeting in the first place... now that's a whole different kettle of fish, and often the answer is no!

TBF tho I don't make people slog across the country to go to a meeting. If I want us to come in to the office to have a meeting then it's because I genuinely think that: a) we need to have the meeting, b) it'll probably be a couple of hours and we'll be far more productive doing that in person, and c) we have a perfect excuse to piss off for a "team lunch" beforehand or afterwards

 

You don't know, man. You weren't there!

/fake rage

 

True, it is all dependent on who you are meeting at the end of the day.

 

We had one of those today.... 1 hour of my life I won't ever get back. Neither will my boss. Who, if he did bill his hours, would have an hourly rate close to the weekly cost of a central London flat. We should start billing clients for every second we wast---- spend for them.

 

Applied for (and not got) a few roles of late and the last place gave me feedback on my job interview technique: I looked "disinterested"

Given I was keen for the job, and was very much interested, this concerns me... I don't know what I was doing to give this impression, therefore I don't know how to rectify it.

 

FedEx.... really no point in tracking information as its rarely updated and when it does it ends up going backwards!

Grrrr

 

Just like Evri, in my recent experience.

 

That's harsh; how are you meant to defend yourself against that.

 

That's just Manager speak for 'we decided on someone else, I have to make up a reason why it wasn't you,' try not to take it personally.

Still better than my worst phone call. I got turned down for a job at Drax in 2013, part of the hiring process was a series of written exams, I scored 99% in those exams which was the highest score by a significant margin (interviewer's words). When they called their reasons given for turning me down were the way I was dressed (suit and tie) and my lack of technical knowledge. It turned into a bit of an argument when I pressed the poor lady on the phone to be specific, she wasn't the interviewer, hadn't met me on the day and she didn't know about the exams. When I brought that up there was a good 30 seconds of complete silence before she admitted that they had decided to hire someone internally who could start immediately with no training. She did at least give me an apology for trying to talk me down like that instead of just telling the truth like an adult.

Some people are just like that, they have to come up with a 'good' reason to turn you down.

 

Friend of mine was one of the interviewers, so I know it's not as simple as that. He still wants me on the team and said he expects more positions in the next couple of months and to practice my interview technique. Not sure how to practice looking interested in things I'm actually interested in.

 

Meds, they are helping the headaches but I am getting over 50% of the side affects, some fairly serious but grown up me is coping for now

 

Do not buy the MSI G32CQ4 monitor. Nearly three hundred quid that I'll never see again.

I have spent AN HOUR plugging and unplugging cables and ****ing around with it to get to to recognise an input on HDMI2. There is no way to bring up the input select menu or main OSD when it's in standby, and of course it goes into standby constantly because it's looking for an input on HDMI1... even when there is no cable plugged in to HDMI1... or even the DP port... Once it actually switches to HDMI2 it's perfect - rock solid image.

And now my hand hurts because I thumped the desk. Hard.

Edit: How to make me never buy your products again: Don't give me any phone numbers for technical support and make me sign up for an account in order to raise a ticket.

**** you MSI, I'm ****ing done with your ****.

 

Practice this expression:-

 

That's one of the most annoying things about job interviews in Germany these days: the lies they come up with to turn you down out of fear of being sued.

My wife interviewed for a job that was basically created for her. She had 10+ years experience in pretty much all the required fields, she was eager, she is a woman (they needed to fulfil a quota), they really needed somebody to fill the role as soon as possible. Everything was great until they started talking about money. My wife answered the question of "what would be a good salary, you think?" with an honest answer based on her current salary and the overall market situation. What she asked for was very fair, given the fact other (bigger) companies offer about 10k more per year than what she asked for. The interview was over shortly after that with the usual "we'll get in touch...". They actually did after about a week, to tell her that they had "found somebody with a more fitting set of experiences in the required fields". Now, because this was quite a niche position, this is extremely unlikely and they very probably just went with somebody with less experience who asked for less money. They couldn't say that to her, though, because that might be considered enough reason to start a legal battle to get the job. Silly stuff, really, because almost nobody ever sues to get into a job they got turned down for. It does happen, though, so companies are now very careful with the reasons provided for not hiring you.

 

Had osteoarthritis diagnosed in my knees and hands years ago but, now my hips are starting to give a bit of pain from time to time. Saw a musculoskeletal doctor at my local surgery, he confirmed likely arthritis and need to go back if they get worse. Suggested to my wife I should swap my legs for wheels…