~~ CEB Community Thread ~~

[Anathema-]

On 4/25/2020 at 1:30 AM, Anathema- said:

 

A pet wouldn't be interesting if they never did things you didn't want them to do.

 

My cat literally wakes me up in the morning by clawing my head and face.

[Chris-]

Today's episode of 'The Replies Are Even Better Than the Tweet':

 

 

[marioandsonic]

So...my paternal grandfather has been in the hospital for the last few days.  He's been dealing with dementia and Alzheimers for the last couple years, but lately it got so bad that he couldn't walk around anymore.  At the hospital, he refused to eat anything, and even tried to pull the wires and cords out that were hooked up to him.

 

The doctors told my family that they had to choose between giving him a feeding tube...or just make him comfortable and let him pass on.

 

 It was a very difficult decision, but my grandfather had said he wouldn't want to be kept alive like that in the past, so they chose the latter.

What makes this all the more horrible is that due to the coronavirus restrictions, no one, not even my grandmother, can go in and say goodbye.  And for one final slap in the face, he may pass away tomorrow...and tomorrow is my grandmother's birthday.

 

Fuck this.

[SaysWho?]

I wouldn't ask if it weren't important:

 

 

"Long-short: I've backed up all my data, pictures, and everything I've done for work for years and years and years and always had them saved in multiple places. This was the first time I had everything saved on one drive (laptop has a solid state drive and can't hold as much data). My drive was relatively new (a year and a half), and I was planning to buy one soon. Well, it crapped out in February, and after getting it evaluated, the hardware failed. The quote is around $1200. I spent months paying off a trip and then this happened.  

 

If the stuff were replaceable, it wouldn't be as big a deal, but these are photos I've taken since 2006 and work I've done since 2008. Go figure the one time I have it in one place -- albeit a new place -- my drive goes nuts. Back when I made it redundant, my drive lasted, like, 7 or 8 years. Now that it was in one place, lady luck bites me in the ass. Never making that mistake again."

 

So many years of personal stuff, unreachable. I'm not 100% I'll even get all of it back, but I hope to get as much as possible.

 

If you can donate something, I'd be so appreciative/grateful.

[marioandsonic]

An update on my situation:

 

The hospice did allow immediate family members to see my grandfather yesterday.  They also set it up so non-immediate family members or those that couldn't make the trip there could at least use Facetime or Zoom to see him.  He was pretty unresponsive at this point...but at least we all got to see him one last time.  And I was actually the one who suggested the Facetime solution, so my family was really happy with me, especially my parents, who are still waiting for their COVID-19 test results back.

 

I don't expect him to make it to the end of the week, but there was a silver lining to all of this.

[GeneticBlueprint]

4 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

I wouldn't ask if it weren't important:

 

 

"Long-short: I've backed up all my data, pictures, and everything I've done for work for years and years and years and always had them saved in multiple places. This was the first time I had everything saved on one drive (laptop has a solid state drive and can't hold as much data). My drive was relatively new (a year and a half), and I was planning to buy one soon. Well, it crapped out in February, and after getting it evaluated, the hardware failed. The quote is around $1200. I spent months paying off a trip and then this happened.  

 

If the stuff were replaceable, it wouldn't be as big a deal, but these are photos I've taken since 2006 and work I've done since 2008. Go figure the one time I have it in one place -- albeit a new place -- my drive goes nuts. Back when I made it redundant, my drive lasted, like, 7 or 8 years. Now that it was in one place, lady luck bites me in the ass. Never making that mistake again."

 

So many years of personal stuff, unreachable. I'm not 100% I'll even get all of it back, but I hope to get as much as possible.

 

If you can donate something, I'd be so appreciative/grateful.

 

Very disappointed in the lack of commenting on that page.

[SaysWho?]

42 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Very disappointed in the lack of commenting on that page.

 

That said, thank you for the donation!

[Dodger]

On 4/28/2020 at 7:50 AM, Anathema- said:

 

My cat literally wakes me up in the morning by clawing my head and face.

 

My cats just start surrounding me as soon as the sun rises and at the first sign of any real movement get all up in my face to wake me up so I can feed them. 

[marioandsonic]

I just got the text that my grandfather passed away at about 1PM today.

 

RIP grandpa

[Chris-]

 Very sorry to hear it, man. Stay strong. 

[marioandsonic]

Like I said, it wasn't completely unexpected.  He'd been dealing with dementia for the last 2-3 years, so he really wasn't himself for a long time.  Still, it's sad to see him go.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

My deepest and most sincere condolences @marioandsonic 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Hah!  Some guy just leveraged my offer to him into a more lucrative one.
11:30am - my recruiter calls him with my offer and he verbally accepts
1:13pm - he emails my recruiter to say that "after some personal and professional consideration" that he's decided to decline

[Anathema-]

I need to make more money, give me some and I'll do stuff for you.

[Chris-]

54 minutes ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

Hah!  Some guy just leveraged my offer to him into a more lucrative one.
11:30am - my recruiter calls him with my offer and he verbally accepts
1:13pm - he emails my recruiter to say that "after some personal and professional consideration" that he's decided to decline

Got to respect the hustle. At my last job I leveraged an offer into a 20% raise, which was a little under my offer but close enough (though for what it’s worth I was very much considering it; I wasn’t looking just for leverage). 

[Chris-]

 Negotiating can really suck though! At my current job they offered me at what I listed as my ‘desired salary’ (which I lowballed a bit, wanting to balance between what I thought their range was and the minimum I was willing to go for), and when I came back with a counter the HR Partner sent me a terse response that said, ‘we’re offering what you put down, I think you’d agree that’s fair’. Oh well, win some lose some. 

[CitizenVectron]

4 minutes ago, Chris- said:

Got to respect the hustle. At my last job I leveraged an offer into a 20% raise, which was a little under my offer but close enough (though for what it’s worth I was very much considering it; I wasn’t looking just for leverage). 

 

The trick of course is being willing to take the other job if your original company refuses to match or increase your wage! Otherwise you lose all bargaining power in the future.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

9 minutes ago, Chris- said:

Got to respect the hustle. At my last job I leveraged an offer into a 20% raise, which was a little under my offer but close enough (though for what it’s worth I was very much considering it; I wasn’t looking just for leverage). 

Just for reference, my offer to him was $124K plus $3,000 signing bonus.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

32 minutes ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

Just for reference, my offer to him was $124K plus $3,000 signing bonus.

Man, you better believe that once this Virginia HSR starts, eventually, I'm gonna spend 2-3 years milking the commute for those sweet, sweet NoVA/DC salaries. One COL calculation I saw put that 124k as the same as 77k here in Richmond.

[Joe]

1 hour ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

Just for reference, my offer to him was $124K plus $3,000 signing bonus.

 

Is it going to work?!

[Jason]

1 hour ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

Just for reference, my offer to him was $124K plus $3,000 signing bonus.

 

Hi it's me your applicant. When do I start? 

[Chris-]

1 hour ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Man, you better believe that once this Virginia HSR starts, eventually, I'm gonna spend 2-3 years milking the commute for those sweet, sweet NoVA/DC salaries. One COL calculation I saw put that 124k as the same as 77k here in Richmond.

According to NerdWallet's COL calculator, my current $50k salary in Pittsburgh is equivalent to $80k in DC and $124k in Manhattan.  

[CitizenVectron]

In a bit of a dilemma right now at work (in a good way). Two years ago I took a job as a Technical Analyst (computer technician) at a local school division. I am basically responsible for handling hardware and software tickets at 5 schools, totalling around 150 staff and 1,500 laptops. In addition to that I've picked up responsibility in co-managing our jamf system (for our Apple devices), as well as recently taking on some training for support staff on division software. I really enjoy the job, and it pays decent ($56k) with great benefits such as 20 paid sick days, 15 paid vacation days, good matching pension plan (100% matched contributions up to 7.5% of salary), vision and dental, etc. I also get to walk around for a lot of the day at schools, and the team culture is really great (team of 18 in the IT department).

 

A co-worker of mine at the next-higher level (dealing with more software management, database configuration, dealing with our software vendors, etc) just announced he is leaving for another job, so I will have the opportunity to apply. The pay is better ($69k vs $56k) and there is more responsibility, but it is also an office job where I may be able to work from home (after the pandemic) but likely would be in a cubicle most of the time.

 

On the one hand, I do want to advance long-term, and these opportunities are rare due to the small size of the team and the low turnover. On the other, I've only been there two years and I like the job I have, and still have a ways to go before I hit the salary cap (5.5% raises a year for the next five years). It's a good problem to have, and it's not like the new job would be bad because I'm still in the same team, but it would be different, and I do like my current responsibilities even if I hate having to deal with teachers and students who drop laptops every day, haha.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

18 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

In a bit of a dilemma right now at work (in a good way). Two years ago I took a job as a Technical Analyst (computer technician) at a local school division. I am basically responsible for handling hardware and software tickets at 5 schools, totalling around 150 staff and 1,500 laptops. In addition to that I've picked up responsibility in co-managing our jamf system (for our Apple devices), as well as recently taking on some training for support staff on division software. I really enjoy the job, and it pays decent ($56k) with great benefits such as 20 paid sick days, 15 paid vacation days, good matching pension plan (100% matched contributions up to 7.5% of salary), vision and dental, etc. I also get to walk around for a lot of the day at schools, and the team culture is really great (team of 18 in the IT department).

 

A co-worker of mine at the next-higher level (dealing with more software management, database configuration, dealing with our software vendors, etc) just announced he is leaving for another job, so I will have the opportunity to apply. The pay is better ($69k vs $56k) and there is more responsibility, but it is also an office job where I may be able to work from home (after the pandemic) but likely would be in a cubicle most of the time.

 

On the one hand, I do want to advance long-term, and these opportunities are rare due to the small size of the team and the low turnover. On the other, I've only been there two years and I like the job I have, and still have a ways to go before I hit the salary cap (5.5% raises a year for the next five years). It's a good problem to have, and it's not like the new job would be bad because I'm still in the same team, but it would be different, and I do like my current responsibilities even if I hate having to deal with teachers and students who drop laptops every day, haha.

From a strictly monetary standpoint, the 69k now, and even if it doesn't have a salary/cola increases, will net you more money until you max out with your current position.

 

For example over 5 years in your current position with 5.5% annually you'll get a total of ~$330k, but the 69k over 5 years with NO adjustment gets you $345k. If the 69k gets even just 3% annually it totals to ~$377k. So the difference triples to nearly a years salary at your current rate.

 

Worst case you can always go back to the lower level position (at the reduced salary) 

[CitizenVectron]

1 hour ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

From a strictly monetary standpoint, the 69k now, and even if it doesn't have a salary/cola increases, will net you more money until you max out with your current position.

 

For example over 5 years in your current position with 5.5% annually you'll get a total of ~$330k, but the 69k over 5 years with NO adjustment gets you $345k. If the 69k gets even just 3% annually it totals to ~$377k. So the difference triples to nearly a years salary at your current rate.

 

Worst case you can always go back to the lower level position (at the reduced salary) 

 

Oh yeah, monetarily there is no question the promotion would be better money. It also has a 5.5% annual raise for 7 years. Only question is if I would hate my job compared to now. I make enough (combined with my partner) that we are quite comfortable, and I have saved pretty well over the years. But this job (and the subsequent raises, etc) would cut a few years before retirement.

 

I've talked to a colleague who is also a friend (who may even be on the hiring committee) and it sounds like the role may change a bit from what the old guy did, so I am more interested now. There would be more interaction with people via training (teachers, etc) as well as more work with SQL (which I am fairly familiar with). So I am applying for sure now. And it's internal, so likely only 2-3 other people applying. I am a very good interviewer, I think, so I have a good shot!

[SaysWho?]

The place I sent it to when I made the GoFundMe said they felt they couldn't get anything back after they did an evaluation. The one I sent it to right after said something similar.

 

But I finally found a data recovery company that is feeling good about getting the data back.  

 

It's just that it's going to be very, very difficult. 

 

So the quote:

 

$4330

 

 

 

Fuck.

 

I again wouldn't ask it if weren't important. All of you who did donate: you're awesome. Even if it was just $10, that donation from everyone I know could pay for two of these. This will be my second plea for a donation, as the quote is only good for three days (I can see if I can extend it but don't know what their policy is). If this stuff doesn't come back, there's nowhere it's going to be.

 

 

On 5/7/2020 at 6:24 AM, SaysWho? said:

I wouldn't ask if it weren't important:

 

 

"Long-short: I've backed up all my data, pictures, and everything I've done for work for years and years and years and always had them saved in multiple places. This was the first time I had everything saved on one drive (laptop has a solid state drive and can't hold as much data). My drive was relatively new (a year and a half), and I was planning to buy one soon. Well, it crapped out in February, and after getting it evaluated, the hardware failed. The quote is around $1200. I spent months paying off a trip and then this happened.  

 

If the stuff were replaceable, it wouldn't be as big a deal, but these are photos I've taken since 2006 and work I've done since 2008. Go figure the one time I have it in one place -- albeit a new place -- my drive goes nuts. Back when I made it redundant, my drive lasted, like, 7 or 8 years. Now that it was in one place, lady luck bites me in the ass. Never making that mistake again."

 

So many years of personal stuff, unreachable. I'm not 100% I'll even get all of it back, but I hope to get as much as possible.

 

If you can donate something, I'd be so appreciative/grateful.

 

[CayceG]

Why in the world would it cost that much money?

 

Like, I'm not questioning it, but I'm just flabbergasted at what the process might be that that's the cost. 

[Jason]

10 minutes ago, CayceG said:

Why in the world would it cost that much money?

 

Like, I'm not questioning it, but I'm just flabbergasted at what the process might be that that's the cost. 

 

Could be time/labor costs if the drive is really super fucked? I know my car was declared totaled last month and my adjustor said if it was just about the cost for the parts it would have gotten repaired, but that the labor costs were pushing it over the line into getting totaled.

[SaysWho?]

1 hour ago, CayceG said:

Why in the world would it cost that much money?

 

Like, I'm not questioning it, but I'm just flabbergasted at what the process might be that that's the cost. 

 

53 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Could be time/labor costs if the drive is really super fucked? I know my car was declared totaled last month and my adjustor said if it was just about the cost for the parts it would have gotten repaired, but that the labor costs were pushing it over the line into getting totaled.

 

Regular data recovery can be over $1000 for media damage (I asked multiple people in the field and who have gotten services). With mine, there are quite a bit of damage in it, and while I don't know exactly what they do, it's a very precise process apparently.

 

I wish $1200 was the high end for my problem, but it's apparently the low end.

[CayceG]

Damn. That sucks dude. I'm sorry. 

[SaysWho?]

10 hours ago, CayceG said:

Damn. That sucks dude. I'm sorry. 

 

Thanks, man. It does suck a lot, and while I don't expect that I would get this fully covered, I'm hoping this puts a dent on it to make it manageable. I've been backing stuff up for well over a decade, and this is the first time it was all on one drive. And the drive was so new, and I was so close to getting a second that I can't believe the drive crapping out timed out like this.

 

Most expensive mistake I've ever made.    

[CitizenVectron]

Ugh, the promotion I am applying for is opening up today, and will be internal-only. There could be multiple people applying, but there is one in particular I am worried about. I'm not worried he might get it (he might, but that's okay with me, I like my current job and he has 5 years on me in our workplace)...I am worried how angry he will be if he doesn't, and I do.

 

Some history: He has worked in our department for 7 years in his position, and two years ago was passed over for a promotion in favour of a guy who had only been around for 1 year. I have been there two years now (I filled the previous guy's role), and he has made it openly known that he should get it, and I suspect that if I do, he will be quite bitter. Apparently he was openly angry last time and I don't know if he still talks to the guy who got it. He's...less than professional, sometimes (which is why I think I might have an advantage, as I am the opposite).

 

I'm not worried about applying, as it's a win-win for me (if I get it, it's a fairly significant raise and more responsibility, and if I don't, I enjoy my current job and there are other qualified people within the team who also would do a good job), I just hate having to deal with inter-office politics and such.

[CitizenVectron]

I got the job!

 

Unfortunately, the other guy took today as a day off (we found out end-of-day Friday) and apparently he is quite upset he did not get it even with his seniority. I don't feel bad for getting it, but I do feel bad for him. If this had been any other job in the department I think he would have gotten it, but my skill set in this area (database work + good customer service experience) helped me out. While he should be mad at the hiring committee (if at anyone), I think he is also going to be mad at me, which I am worried about, as we have a fairly small team of 20 people in our IT department.

[marioandsonic]

So, this quarantine has been terrible for me.  My gym closed until only recently, and I got  so stressed out from reading day after day about all of the shitty news stories about how we're all going to get sick, the protests, and what shitty thing Trump and his regime did every hour of every day that I just started stress eating.  As a result, I've gained over 30 pounds in three months.

I hate myself.

[GeneticBlueprint]

2 minutes ago, marioandsonic said:

So, this quarantine has been terrible for me.  My gym closed until only recently, and I got  so stressed out from reading day after day about all of the shitty news stories about how we're all going to get sick, the protests, and what shitty thing Trump and his regime did every hour of every day that I just started stress eating.  As a result, I've gained over 30 pounds in three months.

I hate myself.

 

We've all gained a little weight man. Eye on the ball, though.