| RavenBlog |
|
| Comments on Saturday 18 May 2002: |
| My wife's employers are a bunch of absolute shit-heads. They've been working her 80 hour weeks for over a month, now, and they just called her to get her on a fucking conference call for nearly two hours (and still going) at 2:30am. She's spent most of the hour on the phone clearly not being involved in the conversation at all, having her time completely and utterly wasted. Her time in which she should be sleeping. And then they'll bitch if she doesn't show up to work on time due to diabetes causing her to not wake up. Partially her fault, possibly, for letting them behave this way, rather than screaming and breaking all their knee-caps. Which is the least of what they deserve. The tech employment market is apparently like this throughout America. You can beg for employment, and they'll treat you like shit. The really annoying thing is that this apparent saturation of qualified technicians is entirely fraudulent - the market is only saturated because those who have jobs are willing to work for 80 hours a week. If they would all refuse to be so exploited, suddenly there would be twice as many jobs; probably more than there are qualified people. Thus the pay rates would be forced up too. Grr. I want to be in Australia, Canada, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Denmark, or any of a plethora of other not bloody America places. [07:59] |
| TempusRex |
| So come back to Canada for another visit? |
| Tom |
| Nah, not Canada. He really wants to be in Australia. Which country did he put first? Australia rocks the suburbs, just like Michael Jackson did. (We've already captured Ben Folds with an Adelaide girl, you see. It's a finely honed national plot). And we have Holly. We could make her a hostage if you like? That would be somewhat amusing actually. Tell Holly not to be too alarmed if I show up and take her hostage at some stage. Wearing a mask. And possibly a cape of some sort. (Me pokes Adelaide uni databases for addresses and such - she's won quite a few prizes actually, pretty impressive). But I mean ... Canada has maple syrup and a peculiar form of bacon. Where's the competition? Hell, we even have marsupials. Lots of them. They eat all the bananas. If you beg for employment in the tech industry here, they may even give you a banana, especially if you are a possum. I know many possums working the webcam circuit here, they are never treated like shit. Unless they are wombats in drag. We are Australians. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. |
| Nalixor |
| Believe me when I say the IT market here down under is drying up, fast. By the time i finish school, and get out of uni, I will look forward to NOT HAVING A JOB. Bloody bastards. |
| Kevan |
| No enforceable employer-stomping laws against working stupid-hour weeks for an extended period of time, then, over there? |
| RavenBlack |
| Nope. You can quit on a whim, if you want, which is about all the protection you get. |
| Digi |
| No contract saying when she peoples hours are? I thought America was the land of employees sueing the crap of employers. |
| RavenBlack |
| Mm, the contracts generally say "the hours are whatever we say". The suing is not of work things, it's of made up crap, usually things like taking a boss saying "hello" to be sexual harrassment. (Not that all sexual harrassment cases are nonsense, mind, but the ones I've seen have been.) |
| Digi |
| Damn. Shame Damask's bosses arn't lovely, caring, understanding folk, otherwise she would have a bloody good law-suit. |
| helen |
| That's abominable. Here's what you do. Find the craziest, most raving, pickled homeless person you can find and give them this boss's phone number. Tell the homeless person that you have inside information from the world shadow government that they are to call this boss' number at 2:30 in the morning and tell them everything - that this is the planet's only remaining hope. Tell them to be sure to leave nothing out - that complete information is of the utmost importance. Tell them to be sure to call in the wee hours of the morning, because otherwise "they" will be listening in. Give them a little money to help them remember. |
| Eperdu |
| We could swap countries if you like, RB. The only catch is that you'd have to wait a bit before your lady would be able to join you. Also, you'd be back in Stafford. |
| RavenBlack |
| Nah, Tom was right, I really want Australia. Give it to me now! |
| Eperdu |
| You need a hollyday. |
| 12 |
| But Australia has nasty bitey things like triad gangs and funnel-web spiders. My exboyfriend got bit on the head by a funnel-web spider and he ended up hallucinating for a week and having a fever for many more. The doctors were amazed that he lived let alone got off without severe liver and kindney damage. - And marsupials, hah! Marsupials are overrated and sometimes dangerous. What the Aussie folk don't tell you until you get there [and they confirm that they like you and don't want you to die] is that kangaroos, while cute, can disembowl you with a smack from thier hind legs and that koalas, while just as cute as the photos make them out to be, are called pissybears or dropbears because they have a tendency to either pee or drop on top of any human who is foolish enough to walk below thier trees. And the suburbs? I hated living in the innerwest. Maybe its just because I grew up in Minnesota but I never could get used to being harrassed every time I stepped outside my front door just because I was female and not wearing a veil, or having to wade through heroin dealers/addicts in order to catch the train to school. Triple M is an addictive radio station though - I'll give them that. I miss "sucked in"s. |
| 12 |
| Also, I forgot to note, if you move to Australia phrazes which are completely unintelligible to the rest of the world (or at least to the intelligent portions thereof) such as "fully", "clear as", and "I reckon" WILL become a permanent and frequently used portion of your vocabulary. You will also learn to love Billy Connoly. It happened to me. I know. So, whenever thinking about a move to Oz, remember "[They] are Australians. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. " |
| bv728 |
| Hrm. If you're employed in maryland, unless the contract specifically states the hours, you can't be required to work overtime (more than 40 hours a week), and you must recieve time and a half for it. They can't fire you for not working those hours. One of the nicer things about maryland labour laws. |
| Tom |
| Well, I fully reckon that it's clear as dingo's piss that 12 has never really been to Australia and is an EVIL ROBOT from the Minnesota Office of Tourism - suprised she didn't suggest you move on out to Lake Wobegon. For one thing, nobody's died of a funnel web spider bite in 20 years. Actually, there have been less than 15 known fatalities associated with bites from funnel webs. So, while said spiders are potentially dangerous, a bigger risk is getting eaten by a shark which about 180 people are recorded to have managed. The solution to both funnel webs and sharks is to never go swimming. Especially in a swimming pool. Funnel webs have a neat trick of sitting on the bottom of swimming pools in a bubble of air they collect around their hairy legs and waiting to eat people. Kangaroos are allowed to get a bit fed up and disembowl people every now and then because people keep running them over. Which is rather dangerous because if you're lucky the kangaroo will fly up and through your windscreen and sit in your lap, usually only half dead but somewhat upset about things. It's fair enough though, the kangaroos are only doing their bit to even out the numbers; for every 100 dead kangaroos, they get to disembowl 1 person. As for drop bears, you are mistaken in thinking this is a name for a koala. After all, a koala is not a bear. The drop bear (ursus delapsus) is a vicious beast that is of similar size and shape to the koala, but has the temperament of a psychotic piranha. The favoured attack method of this bear is to drop on it's victims from above, hence the name. Unfortunately the Australian government denies the existence of this bear due to fears of losing the tourist dollar, and encourages the story that talk of drop bears originates with koalas. Some of the truth can be found at http://www.dropbear.trav.net , but regrettably government forces have destroyed much of the evidence. I don't love Billy Connolly, though I admit that this phenomenon is common. Only seems to happen to Americans who come over here though. Bit peculiar that. And Triple M is a crappy radio station. Triple J is much better. Besides which, most of 12's problems seem to have come from living in Sydney. I would assume that RavenBlack would be more interested in Adelaide, a city which lacks funnel webs, marsupials, drug dealers, and Billy Connolly. Has lots of churches though. Rumoured to be stuck somewhere in the 1950's. |
| 12 |
| *chuckles* I swear in not a robot or from the Minnesota Office of Tourism, and I wouldn't suggest moving to Lake Wobegon or any small Minnesotan towns. They are horrible. Stay away. About the only portions of the state that are potentially worth time or attention are Duluth (its pretty) and Minneapolis (there are things to do there like supercomputing at the University of Minnesota, theatre, concerts, etc. - not that you couldn't find these acitivites somewhere warmer and more hospitable to human inhabitation). I HAVE lived in Australia- only came back to the USA this last December - but you're right about most of my problems originating from my Sydneyesque location. |