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[Magmacube_tr]

I recently learned that the preying mantis is not related to grasshoppers or crickets. It's a close cousin of cockroaches.

Yep. Funny how that happens. The headshape is a dead giveaway though.

[Great Order]

Best way to deal with roaches is with a hammer.

It was bunged out the window. It's cold here so hopefully that killed it off.

Tomorrow I'm calling a General Flat Meeting. I would tonight, but I'm out so tomorrow it is. First rule I'm laying down is that once I'm back from Christmas, everything is cleaned and put away. Anything left out for a full day goes in a binbag which gets chucked into the bins, and I don't care if it's food, cutlery, crockery, whatever.

Second rule is the kitchen stays tidy or I'll be cleaning it at 2am as loudly as possible. They may hate me for it, but the alternative is us lot getting E. coli

I was actually going to bake snacks for the social, since it's a "Bring booze and snacks" but in light of the filth that ain't happening. I don't want to be responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning.

[hector13]

I would suggest a bout of food poisoning may do more for your cause than telling people off.

[Great Order]

If the roommates were affected, yes. But they aren't, this is a bunch of people I *actually* care about.

[JoshuaFH]

I'm very anxious typing this out, and this isn't the right place to ask for advice but I don't want to make a thread for one question. The question is about asking my current manager for a raise, when otherwise I'm getting a pay cut this year. I don't want to give too much info here, I feel that if I type too much it'll somehow get discovered and used against me. Though that sounds irrational when I type it out, that's how it feels. I'm hoping that someone here can DM me and they can proofread the email I intend on sending. I wouldn't normally ask this of you guys, but I trust you guys, and I don't really have anyone else to turn to in my life and this feels so vitally important, it might determine the trajectory of my life from this point.

Update: I sent off that email, and as I suspected, he won't budge. He is just an ineffectual middle manager that can't do anything but rattle off rehearsed responses. I think I made a good argument for myself, which he even agrees with (!), but apparently there's no rationale in the world that can reverse me getting a lowball offer. His only argument to fall back on is that my hourly wage is actually a commission, and that my 'draw' needs to exceed a certain percentage of my personal sales, and because I was keeping the office open 50+ hours a week (at my superior's orders), then my wage far exceeded that percentage of my sales, and therefore my worth in the eyes of the company was diminished, leading to the pay cut. Yeah right man, the 'reason' I'm getting punished with a pay cut is because I did as I was asked and worked too hard. The "Draw" rationale is just some bullshit the company cooked up to make themselves seem like the reasonable party when they lowball. MAYBE I could THEORETICALLY get an end-of-season bonus, but I've never gotten that bonus in the two years I've worked there, and I don't anticipate ever getting it without a parade of new, rich customers marching through my door, which will never happen in my neighborhood. And it's not like potential income in the future is helping me now.

He offered to give me a call on Monday to "Give me time to think" but if he doesn't come back to me with news that he begged his boss' boss and finally got approval to give me a raise, then I guess I'm leaving for my new job that I have lined up. They're already suffering staff shortages, and without my help keeping the local branch open will be very difficult, if not impossible. I guess I can leave it to unthinking, unfeeling corporations to cut off their own nose to spite their face.

[hector13]

You could’ve peaced out and left without trying to keep this job, and you chose to ask for what you’re worth. It’s not your fault they won’t do that.

Question: if you weren’t keeping that local office open, would they be making any money from there at all?

[JoshuaFH]

Yeah the office is definitely profitable. I've seen the numbers. I was often booked from open to close and bringing in thousands of dollars on a good day. I had also just gotten access to their online system and could service customers from anywhere in the United States if I wanted to. I imagine the higher ups are just dissatisfied with the margins and want to cut corners anywhere they can to better pursue the infinite growth fantasy; but they'd have to deign to actually speak to a peasant as myself in order for me to confirm that.

[hector13]

Yeah it’s kind of stupid the statistics businesses use to justify their decisions. You’re making more money working for them than not, maybe they’re just not expecting you to actually make the decision to leave.

[zhijinghaofromchina]

College English Test is coming!😭😭😭

[delphonso]

College English Test is coming!😭😭😭

Good luck! I hope your time on the forums helps out!

[Great Order]

Couldn't do a flat meeting, only one room has anyone in it right now, guess everyone else is partying in the runup to Christmas or something.

So instead the group chat's been given the news. I'm off tomorrow, so come the new year I suspect people will be suddenly questioning why their shit's disappearing from the kitchen, and who's making noises in the middle of the night. I also lodged a maintenance request to clear the place of the roaches and tell people to *actually* clean up after themselves. They don't listen to me, ever, apparently they think I'm ignorable or something, but maybe the guys who own the place...

[JoshuaFH]

Update: My Boss called me back, apparently he spoke with his boss and "Went to bat" for me, and secured... my original wage, sans paycut: $17.02 if I remember correctly. I was forced to tell him that I was expecting something more of a raise. When he ventured to ask what I had in mind, I froze up and asked I could call him back later. I DO have research, but the figures I find online are all over the place, and I have no clue what is actually realistic, and I can't for the life of me ASK for these figures because even though the internet says this is a living wage, my heart says I'm a piece of shit that is lucky to get paid anything. I'm positive that my boss knows this, and wants to reinforce the feeling of inferiority of all employees, as a matter of policy to better subjugate them.

So like, this is what I'm turning up, as an example:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And this isn't counting various Reddit threads I've read through, filled with people who'd claim to spit in their employers' faces if they were offered $26/hr. Outside of Overtime, I've never made anywhere close to even $20/hr... I'm not sure if it's the area I live in, or if it's my lack of college education, or if it's because I have a slave-mentality that is willing to work for less; when Intuit offered me $20.80 I didn't even hesitate to leap at it without negotiating, just the chance to 'make it over that threshold' felt like a milestone in my life I've been waiting to clamber over... but there's honestly a breadth of testimony online about people starting even better than that... Must I always hate myself for the pissant I am? Am I going to be the trailer park kid with deeply ingrained "Learned Helplessness" forever?

EDIT: I'm sorry for getting emotional. I need to cool it.

[nenjin]

Don't need to apologize for that.

Dude, you're a tax associate. And they're paying you marginally above McDonald's wages. Seriously. Go poll what fast food positions are offering in your area and use that as your baseline. I deal with tax accounting myself. It's a specialized skill set that requires intellect to process. You should be making a hell of a lot more than $17/hr.

Here's a metric you can use. Take what your position pays elsewhere, and what you're being paid now, and split the difference in what you're asking for your raise. It's more than you're making now, but less than you'd be making somewhere else.

But frankly it sounds like they're jerking you around. You HAVE to strongly advocate for compensation. Businesses aren't just going to give it to you out of the goodness of their heart. Hell, my company is basically 40 people, and I went YEARS without asking for a raise. And my CEO, who is generally a good guy, never went out of his way to compensate me for all the hard work I'd done until I put my foot down and demanded it.

No one is going to pay you what you're worth just because they can. You have to fight for it, and be ready to walk away if you're not getting it.

[hector13]

Yeah, you are your own best advocate.

If you already have another job offer lined up, ask for more than what the second job is paying for you. The worst they can realistically do is say no.

[Great Order]

No one is going to pay you what you're worth just because they can. You have to fight for it, and be ready to walk away if you're not getting it.

Nobody outside of a small business run by a decent person, leastways. Even then they might not be aware that they're underpaying you.