Business | Piss and Moan

Random application

Not really looking, but I am at the same time. Something happened the other day that kind of surprised me, about myself, and I have thought about it ever since.

As a little background, just over two years ago I was thinking I might lose my job. The organization I work for was being mandated by the state to require it’s employees get a poke in the arm for “immunization,” of…well, you know…. I was thinking I might lose my job because I was going to have to go through the process of basically applying for an exemption and there was some question about whether it would be granted since the process was set up to work against employees who claimed it. In the process of getting ready to lose my job, I started accounts at several online job search sites – LinkedIn and Indeed. After getting all that set up and getting alerts for job notifications set up I was granted my exemption and I have continues to work at my current place of employment.

But, in the meantime, I am still getting alerts about potential job opportunities because loyalty to employees really no longer exists in most cases so if the right opportunity came along, why not jump ship for something better? It’s a tad scary, the thought of starting over so I haven’t really payed much attention to the alerts I was getting. Well, until the other day…

I got a job notification that kinda stuck out. Basically, it would be doing the same thing I am doing but for a REALLY large company. I would be product support for customers, providing troubleshooting and documentation and creating self-help information at Netflix.

Now, I probably wouldn’t have even considered applying except that LinkedIn made it so easy. “Click this button to apply” was basically the instructions. So I did. After literally 10 clicks to verify my info, provide just a tiny bit more, and upload my resume I had applied for the job. It was so easy!

I have no illusion that I’ll get hired, or even an interview. But what surprised me was the easy for submitting an application.

Additionally, I was surprised that I even submitted one in the first place.

I am not really looking, as I said previously, but the thought of a job that would allow me to work fully remotely, for at least as much pay as I am currently receiving, was definitely attractive. And it only takes a few (or more) clickes? What is there to lose at that point?

Anyone else surprise themselves applying for a job they weren’t really looking for?

Phone books

Posted on February 13 by backuphill

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Pexels.com

Truly an amazing piece of publishing…it’s unfathomable how these things are still being dropped off at our doorsteps, isn’t it?

So, the end of last week brought a dude up the driveway to the front door of the house (this is unusual in and of itself since most years it never makes it past the garage door) and he dropped off a double wrapped (in plastic bags) phone book. A completely useless block of paper. Wait, ok, maybe not completely useless – maybe it could be used to start fires or a booster seat for a toddler, or doorstop or a block under a table leg or something…

At my house, it literally gets unwrapped and dropped straight into the recycle bin.

Anyway, it amazes me that these things are even produced any longer.

Imaging being a phone book ad salesperson. What kind of conversation do they have to have to be successful? “Look, I realize no one is going to open this thing and look at your ad, but if you could just spend a small piece of your advertising budget on this pointless square on page X that would be great and I can then try to feed my family.”

Do these things still get produced just for the “older people” because they can’t handle technology? Someone in my family suggested this when I mentioned we got the phone book brick. Maybe that is truly the case. It only takes seconds to find any of the information in the book when you use the internet and do a search. Perhaps that is just too much for an old person to handle.

Anyone else still get a phone book delived to them every year? Anyone actually use it?

WordPress ads a scam?

Posted on January 31 by backuphill

One of the many things you can do here on WordPress is earn money from your blog. There are (apparently) quite a few ways to do this. One of the more simple ways to earn money (at least I thought) was to show ads on your site, specifically on your posts. Seems simple enough, right? Write something. Post it. Ads show up on your page as people view it. You make money from them seeing the ads.

I did this a while back and I am starting to wonder if its a bit of a scam as there doesn’t really appear to be a rhyme or reason to how you earn money. Yes, I am aware that the more volume/traffic you have is supposed to get you more ads displayed, which I thought in turn would also create more money added to your account. It doesn’t, however, seem that this is actually the case.

I experimented a while back, August of 2022, to see if I could figure out how to earn more. What I found is that traffic doesn’t exactly mean you earn more. As such, I am beginning to wonder if using WordPress ads is a scam.

Here’s the thing: If an ad (any ad) is displayed anywhere on my blog, shouldn’t I get paid? They are allowed to insert an ad in my content – literally renting space on my site to display an ad that a company paid them to display. Forget the whole “bidding” thing. Volume shouldn’t matter. If an ad takes space on my site, I should get paid (at minimum) $0.01 per ad. But it looks like they get to rent space for any ad for free, even though they were paid for the advertising by the company purchasing space. If they are randomly generated and randomly displayed, there is nothing to really debate here. If this post has two ads displayed each time it is viewed, I should get paid for the two ads displayed during each view.

But, apparently it doesn’t work that way. Misleading, isn’t it?

A few shots to show a comparison. The first set of pics displays one of the best months I have seen while having ads on my site. As you can see, “Ads Served” doesn’t necessarily mean more income since September 2020 had more ads served but October 2020 had fewer ads but more income. Seems rather random, doesn’t it?

So, that sure makes one wonder when looking at how this whole thing works. Doesn’t it? Here are the test results from (basically) two year later.

August of 2022 saw 846 ads served – the most ever since I set this up – and yet was only paid $0.01. Notice the month prior (July 2022) only 206 ads were served but the earnings were the same as the following month. Yet, June of 2022 saw even fewer ads served but there was triple the earnings.

Got questions now? Yeah, me too. But I am leaning towards WordPress cheating the people they “rent” space from.

They need to pay for ALL ads served. Pure and simple.

Office lunch

Posted on December 14 by backuphill

Here’s a question for you. I probably should preface the question first with some background but I’ll just blurt it out first and then do a little backfilling.

Should the office holiday lunch be catered or “potluck-ish”?

OK, the backfill…so, the office has a holiday party (think office Christmas party, but you know, politics….) where we have a white elephant gift exchange and the managers provide (as in pay for) the lunch of pizza, garlic bread, salad, soda, etc. In the past, the activity took place at a pizza place and everyone travelled there to partake during the work day as it was only about 15 minutes from work. Then the world-wide panic happened and this practice was postponed for a couple years.

Keep in mind this shindig (at least the lunch part) is coming out of the managers’ pockets (there are three of them) because office funds can’t be used. We get paid for the time. They have always framed this as a “Thank you, for doing a great job all year” kind of deal.

So, this year they decided it would be held at the office in the conferences rooms (they can be combined into one large room) and they would provide the food. Like, literally, they would provide the food. They each brought part of the makings for a taco bar. So, in essence, the three managers provide all the potluck items. All of us then proceeded to go past the tables, buffet style, and put together out own plates. They also provided several different desserts. Most everything was from Costco and was either pre-made or prepped at their home prior to the gathering.

So, how should we feel?

Should we feel appreciated or should we feel like the managers “cheaped out”?

I understand it took effort and some expense on their part. I do feel appreciated to a degree, and yet I can’t help but feel the gesture was out of obligation rather than true appreciation. Does it have to be catered or lavish to get a true feeling of appreciation? I didn’t think so when it was at the pizza place. I don’t know. I just feel a little put out this year for some reason.

How would you feel?

Meeting fatigue

Posted on December 8 by backuphill

This week isn’t all that different from any other week, as far as work goes. I realize meetings are part of my job, but I didn’t realize that going to meetings IS my job. At least it feels that way many days.

I was looking back at my work calendar for this week and I added up the time scheduled for me to attend one sort of meeting or another. Altogether, I will have spent 8.5 hours of my 40 hour work week in a meeting. Granted, the week isn’t over so more could be added (or some, please please please, removed).

Do my supervisors understand that attending meetings keep from doing my ACTUAL job? You know, the areas and tasks and functions where I have expertise? That for every hour of time scheduled for attending a meeting that it probably (I’m estimating here) sets me back about two hours of productive time (provided I actually feel like being productive…see recent posts…I am doing effort less…)?

Do other jobs require this much time in meetings? I mean, jobs that aren’t a supervisory type job. We all know supervisors spend lots of time in meetings because they don’t actually have a job or job functions. But that is neither here nor there.

My point is, how much time do you spend in meetings each week? Is this normal, to spend the equivalent of an entire work day in meetings each week?

Least productive

Posted on December 2 by backuphill

What day of the week do you find you are the least productive at work?

I am finding that my least productive day is not one that I would expect. After a crazy busy week (most weeks) and I finally get a day to be productive that happens to fall on a Friday…yeah, that’s my least productive day.

Not because I am thinking of the weekend plans or trying to give myself that stupid buzz-word, “self-care.” I am just out of motivation.

By the end of the week, I could care less if I get anything done.

I am sure my employer would hate to hear that. I actually don’t like to hear it because I really have a ton to do (catch up on email, start projects, complete unfinished projects, etc). But, I just can’t get myself to do any of it. I look at what I have to do, my list of things to do, and all the other stuff sitting on my desk and I just can’t.

Is this normal? To just run out of productive steam at the end of the week?

Gas lit

Posted on October 17 by backuphill

High gas prices and getting higher. OPEC+ announced earlier this month that they are going to cut production. It’s hard to know exactly who to blame. Some say it is the result of inflation. Some say it is the result of government policy. Some say it is the result of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Some say it is just the oil companies jacking prices for profit. It obviously isn’t as simple as one of these things and trying to make it solely about one of them is foolish.

However, here in the the US, it has a lot to do with the fact that our government (the Biden administration) has chosen to take a route with energy policy that does’t keep access to oil easy or convenient. As such, the supply is always short in the US when we could actually be nearly oil independent. The administration refuses to allow more refineries, more drilling, and no new pipelines.

The Democrats believe higher energy prices will force Americans to finally get behind “clean” energy of wind and solar, the faster the better in their view. But they also see the peril in allowing prices to get too high, especially when it comes time to vote. Biden has been trying to keep prices low (very unsuccessfully) over the last couple months because of the looming mid-term elections. With an upcoming election and prices rising rapidly, the Biden administration is trying to put pressure on Saudi Arabia because the cost of fuel (well, the cost of everything really) will be weighing on the minds of Americans when they fill in their ballot. When Americans feel pain at the pump and in their wallet they tend to vote away from policies that made it them feel it.

As an example, I have three receipts less than a month apart. In that time span, the gas price as my local Costco (nearly always the cheapest price) has gone up $1.10/gal. That’s a lot of pain at the pump in less than a month. The worst part is that fuel prices are typically going down this time of year (after Labor Day) since the “driving season” is over and consumption/demand is lower.

Obviously, this is weighing on my mind. I make a pretty good income, but I am feeling the pinch. I can imagine how others who were already on tight budgets are feeling now. It’s a struggle and really hard choices are having to be made. I am sure the last thing they are thinking about is clean energy and long term policy. They (we) all want some relief.

Manipulating voters before an election is nothing new. Both parties do it. It’s irritating as hell that most people don’t see right through it. But, put a little money in the pockets of voters shortly before an election and they tend to forget the pain they felt for a short time while they vote. We’ve seen this fairly often too – and in a not so transparent move, California (the largest state, dominated by Democrats) is giving money back to voters just in time for elections. It apparently goes by many different names – “Middle Class Tax Refund”, “Inflation Relief Check”, “Gas Tax Refund” – but the goal is all the same, make sure voters try to forget their pain at the pump and other places for a short time. Also, just in time (not a coincident or a surprise), the president releases more oil from the strategic stock pile. Didn’t see that one coming…*sarcasm*

Anyone else tired of the garbage going on in DC, or their own state? Anyone else tired of the rich and elite manipulating the government for themselves?

The OPEC+ decision to cut oil production will make prices spike in the short term. How that ends up translating to prices at the pump remains to be seen, obviuosly. However, can we be confident that the OPEC+ members will actually abide by the agreement? Not really. Traditionally, they decide on a production cut and then one or more members decide that the price spike is too good to lower production so they keep producing at the current level to maximise profits during the price increase. Members always accuse other members of violating their agreement and everyone ends up producing just as much or more than previous levels to make up for lost ground in the market.

Ultimately, their announcement is market manipulation and likely won’t really happen. But, it also might be American election manipulation too. To say that oil producing countries are “pleased” with American Democrats and their progressive push towards climate alarmism would be more than a mis-statement. Another political party would be friendlier, in their opinion. This may be their actual goal, but time will tell.

Fury fuel

Posted on September 23 by backuphill

Trying out something new. I have been playing with the idea for a while and then I thought, “What the hell! I don’t have anything to lose by doing it.”

So, if you click on that Menu button on the upper right of the page, you’ll see a new button to donate via PayPal.

If you feel led to do so, send me $5 of your hard earned money. I’ll appreciate ever so much!

Just think of it as fuel for my fury.

With just one more cup of coffee I can produce content that will make you think, make you laugh, make you shake your head in disgust, make you see something from a different point of view.

Really. With just $5.

Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Locked out

Posted on August 2 by backuphill

Buying a car from an auto dealership and using the service department is one of the biggest jokes that can be played on a consumer. They tell you when you buy the car that you have a warranty, you have lifetime oil changes, you have access to loaner cars if needed…they tell you a lot of things.

What they don’t tell you is that they are severely understaffed (which has only gotten worse). What they don’t tell you is that their service department hours are limited to the hours you are working (no weekends), so it makes it virtually impossible to schedule even routine maintenance without having to take time off. What they don’t tell you is that they don’t really have loaner cars, just that they will get a rental for you IF they deem it necessary.

So, the long story…

I bought a 2018 Kia Niro almost four years ago. I like the car. I really haven’t had any issues with it up to this point. But, the routine maintenance has been a challenge for the reasons listed above. It’s just hard to schedule an appointment.

About three or so months ago, the car started to give me issues when unlocking the car. Initially, the car wouldn’t recognize when I walked up to it (mirrors open and lights come on). The keyfob is the trigger for this function so I started keeping my eye on how often it would happen. It slowly began to progress to the point that pushing the button on the keyfob wouldn’t unlock the car. Pushing the button on the door handle wouldn’t unlock the car. Eventually, after pushing the buttons for several minutes, it would eventually unlock.

It did what most people would do and I assumed the battery in the keyfob was going dead. Afterall, it’s been four years with lots of use. I was actually surprised it took so long for it to be needed. So, I replaced the battery.

Did is solve the issues? Nope. It seemed to have made them worse.

Not only was it still difficult to get the doors unlocked, but now suddenly the car wouldn’t start! The car is a push button start, so there is no auxillary ignition slot for a key. Now I was getting a message that the keyfob needed to be in the car – while I was holding it while inside the car! Again, after furious button pushing, eventually it would start. But now I am wondering when I would be stranded for good if something didn’t happen soon…

So, I took the car to the dealership (last Wednesday) to see if they knew if there as an issue that was something fairly easy. They initially discussed that the keyfob might need to be reprogrammed to the car.

Cost? Approximately $75…

Mind you, there is NO OTHER WAY to start the car as there is no key. The keyfob is the key!! So, it is kinda required equipment. To charge a customer for this is absurd!

I complained loudly. The car is even still under warranty. There should be no charge for this!

They decided they better investigate further and find out if that really is the issue. So, an appointment is needed. Remember the whole schedule thing? Can’t do it and I am afraid I am going to be stranded. Soonest they could get me in would be five days (a Monday) because their “electronics guy” is out for training. They offer to pay for a rental while I wait for the car to be looked at.

OK, I supposed. Whatever.

Monday comes, no call from the dealership.

I call. I am told they are too busy to look for the paperwork, they’ll call me back. Two hours later, I call back. I am now told that the car wasn’t looked at and that the “appointment” wasn’t really an appointment so much as they were going to see if they could squeeze me in. I am told they will for sure get to it tomorrow…Tuesday…as yet, still no call with a status update.

Are car dealerships set up this way just to be a pain in the ass? Does everyone else have an issue with their car dealership after purchasing a car?

Afternoon pondering

Posted on April 25 by backuphill

Just had a thought float through the brain. It was sort of a random thing since I wasn’t thinking about this at all, but it just sort of popped in and now I can’t seem to get it out of my head?

Anyone been following the Elon Musk and Twitter thing? You know, that he wants to buy it for like $46 billion?

The thought that floated and stuck…what if he bought it for that boat load of money and then just pulled the plug? Like just shut it down. No more Twitter, period.

How cool would that be?

Anyone else think that would be cool?

Talk about the ultimate boss move. Buy it. Shut it down. Move on.

Cool.

Probably won’t happen, but I think it would be cool if it did.