workingman's blues

Question that was posed on a call today: If an Influencer creates a blog does that mean they are no longer an Influencer?

Because they are now a blogger? Can't we all aspire to be the multi-hyphenates we deserve to be?

Working through the pandemic has really changed me in many ways. I’m very done with a lot of work bullshit.

I would NEVER wish anyone to work where I work, though there are many tougher and worse jobs out there.

All I have to say is, thank god I found a doctor that understands what I’ve been through. He has truly been a life saver, just by writing me a note I’ve laid down a huge boundary at my job that has lifted a tremendous amount of stress off of me, and allowed me to focus on WHY I work; to support and spend time with my family and have a healthy life. Neither of which has been happening for years due to my abusive work environment.

Somebody named Kurt Russell just tried to add me on LinkedIn but it wasn’t that Kurt Russell

I’m training this new hire of ours for the next month. This guy is a 61 year old full maga asshole and within five minutes he was going crazy with maga talk. It was truly hard to hold it together rather than just throw him out of my van at full speed on I80. Finally I found out he was a bass player so I shifted the conversation to music and that saved my day. I don’t know what I’m gonna do for the next month…

I hate Excel. I use it daily and am reasonably competent at it but it’s so horrible to look at. I actually find it aesthetically offensive. These weirdos that want giant Excel data dumps with rows and columns or pivot tables… it just looks like a fucking headache to me.

Thankfully this didn’t last as long as I expected. However, He is the worst employee in all facets. He complains during our daily meetings about dumb shit like, ‘why do we have to check in with someone at the store?’ In the 7 months that he’s been with the team he’s called off about 2 full months in various stretches. COVID, his old father, and other health issues are his favorite excuses. When he does work, he needs constant help. During ‘help’ phone calls he’ll just interrupt you and start talking about some ethnicity that he’s had a problem with that day, and it really is a different one each time. It’s funny on one level and totally gross and annoying on others, like how he’s anti vax but gets COVID all the time…

I just replied to a message with “HUZZAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” without realizing I was in the “formal” work WhatsApp group

Wish I could help you.. If it is a read-only document, there is usually an option to duplicate the file, which enables you to make changes.

i hate all of this shit. I am writing a master's thesis right now, which requires to be on my laptop for hours at a time each day. Fucking sucks. So many distractions. Wish I could write this fucking thing on a typewriter.

Feeling this thread.

We got an office whiz kid on staff who built a whole bunch of templates with embedded links, fancy layouts, and auto formatting options that, if you understand them, make our products easier to write and easier to use. If you don’t (see: me) it’s a fucking nightmare.

We used to submit “info papers” before meeting with foreign leaders. It was a simple word document with a headline on top (Dude or dudette, title, time and place of meeting), and paragraphs outlining recommended themes for discussion, background, talking points. Now we do these fancy new things and I focus more on the stupid formatting than the writing… which was the only thing I was worth a damn at in the first place. It blows.

We have another whiz kid who designed a bunch of fancy PowerPoints with embedded…. whatsadoodle algorithms, that have attempted to breakdown all the work we do into measurable numbers/metrics (Don’t even get me started on why this is nonsense). Once the two whiz kids move to another job we’re stuck with their stupid legacy programs that most of us don’t understand… until some new tech wizard shows up and rolls out the next new flavor.

Fuck apps and Microsoft office and all this garbage.

I could actually use some career advice from the wisened oldheads of LoPP. I am getting ready to finish a graduate program (two months out) and have two different pathways in front of me:

The program is both relatively small, a few hundred graduates each year, and relatively prestigious (Johns Hopkins). As a result, there is a pretty active network of alumni who are positioned in the major think tanks, multi-laterals, and development banks (Carnegie, IEA, INERA, World Bank, EBRD, etc. etc.) In many ways, this is the most sensible career path. I am starting to develop these connections and am looking for something related to energy transition and green re-industrialization, especially related to the production, distribution, and deployment of green hydrogen to decarbonize some of the hardest to abate sectors (transport, steel production, etc.) The PROBLEM is that almost all of the entry level positions are either unpaid or hideously underpaid. And they would require me to move to either DC or a major European city (London, Paris or Vienna). At this particular moment, I am financially strained, exhausted, and tired of playing the endless game just to get my foot into the right doors.

So my other option, which becomes increasingly attractive by the day, is to just go back to my old remote job. The work is boring but harmless. And more importantly, it pays much better than any of these other career-oriented prospects. If I were to recommit to working remotely full time, I'd move to Palermo or Rome and would be making a six figure salary (before taxes). That would allow me to pay off all my student debt and get a mortgage on a nice condo somewhere in Italy.. And with that financial stability and independence, I could start living a normal life. Pick up an instrument (want to buy a tenor so badly), travel more, hopefully meet someone, settle down. Basically, life in the present moment rather than constantly chasing some future objective that, if I have learned anything over the last decade, is probably unattainable. And for no fault of my own. The labor market is just fucked.

What would you guys do in this situation? What advice would you give to yourself five-ten years ago? Basically, if you could re-live your thirties, what would you have prioritized differently? Or, alternatively, if you feel satisfied with your choices, please enlighten me.

I think finding a job that pays well, allows for growth opportunities and is a company you don’t find totally offensive is important. Finding one where you feel somewhat inspired and motivated by teammates is even more rare but ideally what you should strive for.

The truth is at some point you have to decide whether pursuing a dream that will leave you a combination of underpaid or unemployed is worth the trade off of making money, setting aside for an emergency fund be it 401K or savings and using a steady paycheck to travel or step up other aspects of life like clothing, dining out, etc.

I’m overall satisfied with my choices. I think exhibiting a balance of patience with being proactive in a role is important. Don’t job hop if you can picture opportunity opening up if a few things go your way and you are well liked. Build a network because that is going to open you up to more roles and be 100% critical if you are ever unemployed.

As much as I’d want you to head to DC to do some underpaid nonsense so that we can meet irl and talk about extremely similar school situations over a beer, don’t do that shit. Pay off debt, make living wage plus, live abroad rather than in this hellhole.

I empathize with the career-oriented desire to do something that’s gonna set you up for greatness… but unless it’s a fellowship/internship with a very well defined path and timeline to when you’re going to actually get paid for your work, I’d say ditch that shit for something real. So much of this trash society thrives on not paying smart people to do its work for it.

But if you do come to DC, let’s grab a few cocktails and talk JHU network shit.

Little Neddy goes to war wrote:As much as I’d want you to head to DC to do some underpaid nonsense so that we can meet irl and talk about extremely similar school situations over a beer

Would love this

Little Neddy goes to war wrote:unless it’s a fellowship/internship with a very well defined path and timeline to when you’re going to actually get paid for your work, I’d say ditch that shit for something real.

This is very much my current attitude.. My worry though is that my current gig is not very "real" at all. It pays much better than any of these other internship/short-term consultancy gigs. But it is a remote job that offers no chance of career progression. That makes me feel like I'd probably be sacrificing some kind of long-term development for the short-term objectives of paying off debt and establishing myself financially..

Eh, fuck a career. Make money and live your life away from work. Seems pretty clear it's what you wanna do anyway.

Duff... wrote:Eh, fuck a career. Make money and live your life away from work. Seems pretty clear it's what you wanna do anyway.

this is the only way to be

Somebody just started singing the chorus from Here Comes the Sun and her friend was like, “What’s that from?”