Thanks for all the kind words. We laid pops to rest today. His candle burned bright for all but the last year of his 94. Born in a two room temporary logging camp shack; his generation makes me feel lacking in some ways. From the depression to cell phones; what a ride!
Have you looked at people in the public eye lately. I think artifical Stupidity would be more fitting.
There should be a "bittersweet" thread. Today is my last day on the job. Yesterday, I had my last program, and then ran into some patrons who found out I was leaving I'd been teaching another patron computer skills for a couple of weeks now, and had to tell her that I'd have to switch her to another staffer. her response was "i guess thats ok.... but I like you, though!"
That’s a shame. My local library had this one librarian… a literal little old lady. About 4 foot 10, always happy, somewhere between 80 and 800 years old; that type. Every time I asked for a title that wasn’t in the inventory, she’d pull out four or five other titles she though I might like. One day after their big restructuring, she just wasn’t there anymore. It hasn’t been the same place since. Now everyone acts like you’re bothering them if you even say hello.
Onward. Forward. Strive. Strive. Congratulations and condolences. May I ask what your next great career adventure entails?
Didn't get the job. They didn't say why (yet). Back to the same ole thing I've been doing for just over 5 years now.
Thanks, and congratulations. Once upon a time, I spent a lot of time in the local law library. A couple of years after I went to work, everything was online and accessible with a few taps of my fingers. Sigh. I kinda liked being in that big room with all those matched sets of books.
Congratulations and commiserations in that order! Awesome work @J.T. Woody, and bad luck @Set2Stun; I am a firm believer that if it didn't happen it's because the universe has something better or more suitable in mind for you, and the same thought if it did!
Sorry to hear it, but at least you dodged the Orwellian ennui of management, if that makes you feel any better.
Thank you for your thoughts and commiserations, friends! It is very possible that this is for the best. I do want a little pay boost, though I am currently comfortable with the status quo (as long as inflation chills out a bit!), and it could certainly be worse. It's just weird, I've never been in such a holding pattern for all my working life. It's always been getting recognized and moving up every couple years, but now it seems that I've hit a dead end. Over the past 13 years I have only worked for two companies, so perhaps it's really time to move on and step up my external applications. I've been dropping a few over the past year and a bit, but interviews are unusually uncommon. I don't exaggerate, never mind lie on my cover letters and resume, though. But you'd think my writing skills would make up for this disadvantage. So, I guess that's the plan for now. Submit applications at a higher rate, and maybe spend some time writing instead of working during my shifts since it doesn't seem to matter if I try to do my best
If you mean writing skills in your resume writing, maybe not. I don't even read them anymore. Work history only. And the longer the cover letter part, the more suspicious I get. It might just be me and my experience, but I find there's a positive correlation between the floweriness of the resume and the bullshit content of the person who wrote it. Ability to interview is also overrated. The best interviews always make for the worst hires. Almost every single time. Not that bad interviews make good hires either, but if you have an answer for everything, I'm going to assume you're either a con-artist or a narcissist. Experience? Also overrated. Just because somebody has 30 years in a field doesn't mean they haven't sucked for 30 years. And you likely have habits that will be hard to break and might not translate to the team. And longevity in job experience? RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG. At least in the hospitality business. Anyone who spends 15 or 20 years in a job is always a drunk/thief/pervert who chose an employer willing to look the other way. Every single time. Every. Single. Time. What else... what else? Oh, yeah, people who have never been fired and make a point to mention they've never been fired. That's usually a clear indicator of mediocrity, which I don't mind, so long as it's safe, steady, predictable mediocrity. If you're not pissing people off, you're probably not passionate enough to take a stand when it matters. If you're never perceived as a threat, you're probably not terribly good at your job. Sorry for the rant, but I have Indeed open in another window and am gleefully rejecting resumes.
Damn, more and more I wish you were a part of my chain of command. I was just thinking the other day that we should do away with these strange hiring rituals and focus more on just finding out if the person is an idiot or not. Ask them general questions about the world, life, maybe a little geography. Maybe watch a few episodes of Jeopardy! with them? See if they can state an opinion on anything and intelligently defend their position. That kinda thing. Honestly it's a bit weird for me, and I'm wondering if there are things going on behind the scenes? I've received three prestigious awards over the past four years, the sort of thing where they fly you out to an awards gala, give you a grand in gift cards, plus a couple more perks (it's how I got my Nintendo Switch and gaming laptop). So it's not that I'm mediocre. And I've definitely shaken the boat, although now I think that might be why I'm being held back. When I have seen not only bad decisions being made, but grievous misconduct, I've had to go over the heads of a few people. It's very possible that I'm being punished, but I suppose I'll never know for certain. So like I said, probably time to move on.
So you're in search of a job-hopper with minimum experience, Hemingway's writing style, few interview skills, and a bad attitude?
Actually, yes, sort of-ish. Particularly with managers. Sweet spot is around 3-5 years. Enough experience to know the ins and outs and to have failed a time or two, but not so much experience that you're entitled and unmoldable. The previous failure part is sooooo important... one of the reasons why prior termination isn't a disqualifier for future employment. If you haven't failed yet, you're either not trying hard enough or too chicken to take a chance. And you will fail eventually. I'd prefer not to be responsible for setting you up for that. And our company is non-traditional in an industry that tends to be uniform and repetitive... mainly because the old ways of doing things were killed by Covid and social media, the latter of which, is now the primary access on-ramp for potential diners (don't get me started on that one). Now don't get me wrong. I still hire people with decades of experience all the time, but they almost always end up being trouble. Again, sort of-ish, but not too extreme. 2-3 years in a job is the sweet spot there. Remember this is the hospitality industry where booze, drugs, and sex on the clock would be included on everyone's resume if we were being honest. The ones who log 10+ are almost all drunks who found owners willing to look the other way. And it's a dynamic, agile, aggressive industry with more career opportunity and stability than most other gigs. So if you haven't moved up, moved around, tried this and that, learned from a variety of people, taken a chance and failed, told a shitty employer to go fuck themselves, been a bad leader for a minute before you were a good leader, there's an excellence chance you've focused on stability over opportunity. Nothing wrong with that but I'd be a little worried handing you a business to run. Playing it safe will get you killed. The competition is just too fierce. Again, I'll still hire those, too, but I haven't had much luck with that type. Small sample size in my case, but the aftermath of those hires still haunts my dreams. Irrelevant in my world. And in most people's worlds this days. Grammar and writing comprehension died a decade ago. We have emojis now. I hate it in the societal sense, but literacy is not a qualification for employment. If you can read a kitchen ticket, you're Faulkner. And if you can't, we have pictures. That's not a joke. It's 2023... adapt or die. I don't need you to write, I need you to cook food and take care of our guests. Well, some interview skills, but those are very overrated. The best interviews always make the worse hires. The only things I care about are attitude, character, and work ethic, none of which can be gleaned from across an interview table. You can make some inferences and best guesses, but the ones who interview well--or who appear to have studied and practiced the art of interviewing--often are hiding something. At least in my experience. The first thing I do in an interview after the basic stuff and the hi-how-are-yous is to try to get the candidate off their game. Get them away from the prepared remarks and into the improvisation. That's going to happen to you 50 times a day in a restaurant, be it dealing with staff or guests. So if I can't do that, I'm going to think you're slick, glib, and probably an excellent liar. If I can't read you--or think I won't be able to read you down the road when we inevitably have an issue--there's no way in hell I'm giving you a $3 million dollar business with 50 people who need to depend on you. It's just not happening. I've probably nixed some excellent leaders because of this but I'll take that chance. Once you get a narcissist or con-artist on the payroll, they're almost impossible to get rid of. Mainly because they'll smooth talk you out of your better judgment. Not happening again. Not to me. No way, Jose. Wellllll... how bad? Maybe not bad attitude, but definitely attitude. Constructive attitude? Business is wolves and sheep, and the sheep don't last long in a competitive, urban culinary scene. And while we're more enlightened in 2023, classically, the kitchen has been a hotbed for abuse. I've seen some chefs and owners that make Gordon Ramsey look like Pollyanna. And you have to let them do their thing to a certain extent. But when they overstep, you have to bitch-smack them back or they'll never respect you. That goes for regular life too. People will test you and take advantage of you at every turn until you train them to pick on somebody else. I don't like that part of the job at all, but I'll take attitude over passive-aggressiveness any day. The people I respect the most are the ones that have told me to go fuck myself when I've been out of line. One thing I'll never say is "You can't talk to me like that." I mean, don't insult my wife or mother or anything, but I always tell managers if you're frustrated come yell at me rather than your staff or a guest.
I realized at one point that the people who got hired and had all kinds of confidence right off the bat were trouble—probably narcisssists or psychopaths. People didn't listen to me, they always thought these people were cool and awesome, and within a month they were usually saying "Damn, you were right, how did you know?" If they're too slick and confident their first day, they're gonna be total assholes a week or two later.
