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Posted by kliuless

Republicans: how did they go from Eisenhower to Trump? [mp3; Doug Henwood's intro starts at 5m32s and the interview at 7m19s] - "Paul Heideman, author of Rogue Elephant, on how the Republican party went from a staid vehicle of American business to the frothy lunacy of today."[1,2,3]

one interesting nugget in light of the recent NAFTA FPP (but there are a whole lot more!):
[18:32] In a sense you have to give Johnson credit for the Civil Rights Act. He went all out packing pork into those bills in order to make sure that they passed, ensuring that he could get enough southern defectors on those to pass them. So Johnson does deserve some credit for that. And also the people around Johnson pushing this had a bigger theory than just 'well, there goes the South.' People like Martin Luther King, right, their theory was, look, when you give black Americans in the South the vote, that's going to transform southern politics and actually it's going to make the Democrats more competitive in the South because they're going to have this new base to lean on. And really for 20, 25 years or so after the Civil Rights Act they were right about that. The South was largely competitive, Democrats were winning at a lot of different levels in the South in all of these years. Gavin Wright has a paper showing that it's really the passage of NAFTA that completely kills the Democratic Party in the South and ends this kind of biracial coalition that existed from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in '65 up until the early '90s.
also btw...
  • Heather Cox Richardson: "How the Republicans came to put party over country and, now, how they have put power over everything."
  • The secretive donor circle that lifted JD Vance is now rewriting MAGA's future - "Chris Buskirk put tech elites in power in Trump's Washington. His efforts are grounded in a controversial theory: An 'aristocracy' is needed to move the country forward."
  • Behind the Curtain: Red alert - "Trump officials know they need to shift this perception dramatically — and quickly. Yet big, lavish black-tie dinners with the Saudis or gold-plated White House renovations make it harder to convince voters Trump is on the case."
  • Steve Bannon advised Jeffrey Epstein for years on how to rehab his reputation, texts show - "Pair devised responses to public outrage about Epstein's criminal history, his treatment by the justice system and his friendships with powerful people."
  • ‪@walkerbragman.bsky.social‬: "Right-wing populism has no antidote to genuine left-wing populism. Because the conservative movement, no matter how much you dress it up, is fundamentally about one thing: shielding capital from the reach of democracy. It cannot solve problems like declining affordability that its agenda created."[4,5,6,7]
  • ‪@davidsirota.com‬: "Every now and then I go back and read the Citizens United ruling to see if it is as unhinged as I thought, and every time I do that I see it is actually far more deranged than I remembered."
[T]his Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy.

College Cats of Oxford (with map!)

Nov. 21st, 2025 09:34 am
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Posted by Major Clanger

"There has been no cat at Jesus [College] since the 1950s. Perhaps this is understandable, as a cat killed the Principal, Joseph Hoare, in 1802." The Oxford Clarion features a handy guide to the cats of Oxford University's various Colleges, after a picture of Magdalen College's new kitten Ozymandias let to requests for more Oxford Cat content.

Some of the College Cats featured in the article: Meadow and Alice of Christchurch College (Instagram) Walter de Staplecat of Exeter College (Instagram) Simpkin IV and predecessors of Hertford College (College Website) Teabag of St Hilda's College (Instagram) Baylie, Case and Laud of St John's College (on College Welfare & Wellbeing page, half-way down) Isambard Kitten Brunel and Benny D Cat of Lady Margaret Hall (Instagram) Admiral Flapjack and Professor Biscuit of St Hugh's College (Instagram) Lyra of University College (Instagram) Ozymandias of Magdalen College (Bluesky*) *Technically the Bluesky account of Dinah Rose KC, President of Magdalen College, but it's mainly pictures of Ozymandias.
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Posted by chavenet

Yet what sets the dog apart from these others, and sets Schuster off on his own remarkable avenue of research, is the canine's tendency not to center his own suffering and complaint, or his moral or emotional crisis, but instead to cast himself in a deliberate and positive role as a searcher—a quixotic knight of ignorance. from Man's Best Friend by Jonathan Lethem [The Nation; ungated]
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Posted by Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. I’m being asked to lead DEI training with no expertise in it

I’m very happy to work for a company that remains committed to DEI, even in this strange time. The direction coming down from many levels above me is that the company will be implementing DEI training for all employees. And because my colleague and I have experience conducting training, the powers-that-be have decided that we will present the DEI training, even though we have no expertise in DEI.

We’ve had a chance to preview the course they want to use, and it is A LOT. Maybe this is a model DEI course? I wouldn’t know, since this is not my field! On top of some pretty hard-hitting, in-your-face material, participants are asked to share personal experiences, which feels like a weird ask at work. Adding another layer of discomfort, during the course preview, people were drawing parallels between past practices referenced in the course and current events. The company has a staff of around 1,500 employees; surely it’s reasonable to expect that they vote all across the political spectrum. My colleague and I agree we that we do NOT have the skills and experience to present the material and facilitate the discussion this course is asking for, even if participants avoid politics.

Our supervisor agrees with us that this training should be conducted by a DEI expert, and he has recommended to his leadership that the company should hire a consultant. The decision makers are not listening to him and are doubling down on “anyone with training experience can lead this course.” My colleague and I are preparing to push back as a team. We agree that DEI is an important topic, especially now, and therefore it’s worth doing well. Even if the course material was less dramatic, I still believe we are unqualified to present it. I can’t tell if somebody up in the C-suite just wants to check off that DEI training is being done, or do they truly not understand that assigning this to amateurs does not bode well for a good outcome. Regardless, are we overreacting? Are there other factors we should be taking into consideration?

You are not overreacting; this is a looming disaster. These trainings are sensitive and challenging under the best of circumstances; having trainers without expertise risks it being a catastrophe. Is flatly refusing an option?

For what it’s worth: I’m not sure how committed to DEI your company really is, if they’re not willing to take the training seriously enough to hire trainers with actual expertise in the material. This reads like box-checking from people who aren’t convinced it’s really important.

2. My coworkers keep taking calls on speakerphone

Since returning to the office after the pandemic, I’ve noticed some people using speakerphone for calls in our open office plan. It’s bad enough that you have to hear one side of everyone’s meetings now, but hearing both sides is unbearable! We have phone rooms available that they could be using if they don’t want to use headphones.

Is there a polite and effective way to ask someone to use headphones? For context, my floor is full of “miscellaneous” employees who are all part of different teams and do not work directly together. I have no way of knowing who the person is or what team or manager they report to without asking. There is not a floor manager or other authority who is physically in the space. One person is particularly egregious about this and I have sat on the other side of the floor from her, but others will do it from time to time as well.

Ugh. If it’s pretty widespread, ideally your office would issue some guidance on it as a whole; any chance you could suggest it to someone with some authority to address that? They don’t need to be physically in the space to issue guidelines if you tell them there’s a problem.

But otherwise, it’s reasonable to say to any individual offender, “I’m sorry to ask, but I’m having trouble focusing when your calls are on speakerphone. Would you mind using headphones or just not using the speaker?”

3. What happened with this meeting invitation?

Part of my job is speaking to clients about how they want us to custom-design their products, whether it’s getting preliminary information or gathering actionable feedback to refine the product before shipment. I’ve got a good handle on how these conversations usually go, and it’s a point of pride that I’ve never once missed a meeting (thank you to two planners, several phone alarms and bundles of anxiety!).

After I recently provided a client with my availability to discuss their specs, we settled on a time that worked for all parties. I had about a 20-minute window between their call and a previously scheduled one, which is plenty of time even for my anxiety-fueled soul.

The first call did run a little long, but I still had a solid buffer of time to prepare for the next meeting. So imagine my horror when I got an email from that second client suggesting I no-showed, and that they cancelled our meeting 15 minutes before our mutually confirmed time! Sure enough, the meeting invite they sent was half an hour earlier than the time we agreed on: I had accepted it without even thinking to visually confirm the meeting time, and I’ll take the lumps for my failure to fact-check an invite’s details.

But I’ve also never had a client change meeting times on me without confirming it was okay first. After I apologized and provided a new window of availability, I tore through the digital paper trail between this client and me. They had said nothing about scheduling our conversation for a different time than the one we agreed upon.

Was it an error? Was it a bait and switch? Did I unknowingly agree to an end time for the conversation and not an actual call time? I don’t know, because they didn’t acknowledge their part in creating this confusion when we rescheduled the meeting, which I will admit that I’m kind of salty about.

Is this wholly my error since I should have been more diligent instead of blindly accepting their invite? Am I being unreasonable by expecting someone to signal a change in previously confirmed plans? Are there chaos gremlins out there who hear “Let’s schedule a call at 3:30” and interpret that as when the meeting should be ending?

You’re reading too much into it! This is probably just a mistake on their end. You agreed on 3:30 and somehow they wrote down 3:00. It happens.

It’s not a bait and switch, and it’s not an indication that people have started using ending times as start times. It’s just a mistake.

Should you need to double-check that the time on invitations matches the time you agreed to earlier? You shouldn’t need to, but it’s a good idea to do it, especially when you’re dealing with clients. Is it a disaster that you didn’t? No. But it’s a good thing to check for in the future (especially when you’re dealing with this client, since now you know it’s a risk with them.)

4. Can my performance evaluation mention my maternity leave?

My work will be doing annual performance evaluation shortly. My supervisor and I have already had conversation about it, and there aren’t any surprises ahead. They have asked me to draft some bullet points for their supervisor narrative and I was wondering if it’s appropriate to mention my maternity leave from the past year to provide context within the narrative. Simply, I accomplished a lot for a normal year, much less one where I was gone four months. For example, if my 150-person department normally makes 200 self-sealing stem bolts individually and collaboratively in a year, this year I made five all by myself.

I ask because I would normally consider it not something that goes in that narrative and introduces possibility for bias, but on the other hand, it shows how well I manage my time!

Yes, you can absolutely mention that to put your accomplishments in better context.

Your evaluation shouldn’t mention your maternity leave as something that gets held against you (like “Jane missed a crucial busy season”) but it can mention it to point out strengths (“despite working a compressed year because of medical leave, Jane was still able to have a record year”).

5. What is the purpose of this workplace stress check?

Every year, I get an email from the company that provides my employer’s EAP asking me to take the annual stress check-up. It’s an online test and, according to the email, it’s “a tool for measuring your stress levels.” I’ve worked at this employer for years and never taken it — I’ve never prioritized it before the deadline, those online tests kind of stress me out, and I wasn’t sure of the purpose.

But am I missing out on a workplace benefit? What kind of information can a stress check give you? Also, is my employer getting aggregate data they can use to improve working conditions, or does nothing go to the employer at all? The email says, “You may rest assured that your check results will never be disclosed to your company without your consent,” but I’m not sure if that includes anonymized data as well.

Most likely it’s used to provide you with personalized info on managing stress, as part of the EAP’s offerings. “Personalized” could mean anything from automated results assessing your stress level and recommendations for improving them to marketing emails throughout the year targeted to areas you identified as stressors. It’s unlikely to be more involved than that, although if you’re lucky I suppose it could be one step above the “meditate and have good sleep hygiene” pablum that a lot of workplace wellness programs provide.

It’s possible that your employer also receives aggregated data, but I wouldn’t assume they do — and if they do, it’s unlikely that it gets used in any real way to improve working conditions, although there may be rare exceptions to that.

If you want to know more about how your workplace’s program works specifically, you could also ask HR or whoever administers your EAP. But it’s almost certainly less involved than you’re envisioning.

The post I’m being asked to lead a training with no expertise, coworkers keep taking calls on speakerphone, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

Bully

Nov. 21st, 2025 02:46 am
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Posted by clavdivs

Theodore Roosevelt to Henry Cabot Lodge: "as soon as it lightens up I shall start downriver with two of my men in a boat we have built indoors, after some horse thieves who took our boat the other night to get out of the country with it."
'Theodore Roosevelt, Deputy Sheriff.'


'Theodore Roosevelt and Frontier Lawman.' "He even appointed several of them to positions in federal law enforcement—prompting the press of the era to refer to them collectively as "the White House Gunfighters."...so imagine my delight upon discovering that one of TR's closest confederates from his Dakota days was Seth Bullock, onetime Sheriff of Deadwood." However.
'Teddy Roosevelt and the dark side of American history.'
Teddy Roosevelt's Fght Club.
1910. "There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done" "On the New Nationalism'
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Posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries

Vanuatu council U-turns on absurd period ban. A Vanuatu provincial government says it will repeal parts of its new bylaw banning menstruating women from preparing and selling food at markets and roadside stalls after the decision sparked a public outcry.

The regulation — titled Pest Control of Food Establishment By-Law — states it recognises the "local custom of unclean hands" and it was "forbidden" for women to operate and prepare food at stalls and roadside markets during their menstruation. The same act also notes that enforcement officers have the power to cancel food stall permits if the requirements are not met. Women found in violation may face a fine of up to VT20,000 ($250), imprisonment for up to three months or both, it read. "We call on the Shefa Provincial Council to work smarter and find better avenues to generate revenue for the province, rather than resorting to such ludicrous and discriminatory regulations," said Mr Napat, asking instead to promote the economic empowerment and dignity of women in Shefa Province. The head of the Vanuatu Association of NGOs (VANGO), Dr Willie Tokon, said the ban was "penalising our women", particularly mothers struggling to put food on the table and pay for school fees. He also questioned how an enforcement officer would know which women were and were not supposed to be preparing food.

You are OK

Nov. 21st, 2025 01:33 am
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Posted by swift

HOW TO FIX A TYPEWRITER AND YOUR LIFE: the story of middle-aged facilities manager who escapes corporate hell and finds a new life in the honest work of typewriter repair, taking over the shop of his 95-year-old teacher. (SLNYT gift link) (archive ink)
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Posted by aleph

Both natural DNA repaired breaks and edits leave lasting damage. This damage seems to occur with CRISPR edits as well as natural occurring breaks in DNA. "Repaired DNA leaves lasting scars in chromatin, defying conventional wisdom"

[snip] A recent study in Science* challenges this assumption. Researchers found that even after DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are successfully repaired—with the genetic sequence perfectly restored—the surrounding chromatin, the complex of DNA and proteins that packages genetic material in cells, remains altered. These changes, which the authors term "chromatin fatigue," persist through multiple cell divisions like epigenomic scars. And they have an impact on gene expression, even in daughter cells. * https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk6662 [snip] Their findings showed that a single DSB in the c-MYC domain had lingering effects on c-MYC gene expression, as well as on neighboring genes within the same domain. These DSB-induced chromatin alterations didn't revert to predamage levels, but instead persisted for as long as the researchers tracked them, over many rounds of cell division. "The most surprising element of the whole project was this aspect of heritability," Bantele notes. "These defects are passed on to daughter cells." [snip] The potential implications are significant. Every day, our cells experience DNA breaks from natural metabolic processes, environmental radiation, and oxidative stress. "Even a short unprotected walk during the sun causes thousands of double-strand breaks," Bantele points out. Cancer patients receive treatments that cause DNA damage in tumor cells. Researchers use CRISPR and other gene-editing tools to create DSBs to modify genomes.
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Posted by mugumogu

まるさんはブラッシングが大好きだったから、ブラシを見せるとどこにいてもやって来て、 15分以上はこうやってのんびりとブラッシングされていた。 まるさんのブラッシングタイムは、お互いにとってリラックスできる時間だった。 M […]
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Posted by Kattullus

Les Calamités were a French indie rock band from the town of Beaune in Burgundy comprised of Caroline Augier, Isabelle Petit, Odile Repolt and Mike Stephens. They recorded 16 bangers between 1983-7, a mix of originals by Augier, Petit and Repolt, and covers of 60s rock songs. Their catalogue has been reissued a number of times, most recently by Born Bad Records. There are a number of videos of them online: Malhabile, Toutes les nuits, another video for Toutes les nuits, Pas la peine, another video for Pas la peine and a handful of videos of their biggest hit, Vélomoteur, which reached the top twenty in France, just as they were quitting to go to university. But all was not lost, they reunited in 2022 and played a handful of shows in France.

Getting Killed Live

Nov. 20th, 2025 09:57 pm
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Posted by jokeefe

Geese: Live in From the Basement. Band of the moment Geese performs a set from their recent album Getting Killed in From the Basement, producer Nigel Godrich's recently revived video showcase. Track list: Trinidad; Husbands; Islands of Men; Half Real; 100 Horses; Au Pays du Cocaine; Bow Down. SLYT
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Posted by brainwane

After "Living in a tiny electric van for three years" (found via Mastodon post), reforester Phil Sturgeon shares: "Here is everything good, bad, and on my todo list." (Sturgeon is not telling other people they should do this; he is reporting what he did and how it worked out.)
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Posted by Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

Sending in a question I truly never thought I would have to ask: what are some things that my organization, as an employer, can do to help ensure staff safety in areas of increased and contentious ICE action?

We have staff of Hispanic heritage (“present” Hispanic, names clearly of that background if ID or car registration were checked) who are frequently on the road for our organization. This includes many areas where they are an ethnic minority and which have colloquial reputations for profiling (but staff do not report previous issues) — and areas with increased, visible, concerning ICE enforcement. We’re talking large scale “operations” which seem to have very broad goals, many agencies, masked agents.

Staff are often on the road solo, in their personal vehicles. Our staff are authorized to work in the U.S. but we certainly see from media reports that people are not given the chance to even establish their status in these raids.

We spoke today with those potentially impacted by concerns about ramp-ups in the area. In some situations, staff members come from families/communities with many undocumented individuals, where those families may be limited in their safe ability to get involved. I am struggling what we can do to help support safety and very open to suggestions

My thinking so far:

* We have a lot of flexibility on when/where we decide staff will take these trips (we’re talking about attending events with partner orgs, not service provision to a specific population) — so for us, conveying that they can always flag if a trip doesn’t work for them based on their needs (and they don’t need to spell out this issue as the concern!).

* OFFER the opportunity to have another staff member check in with them to ensure they have arrived at destinations for any trips they want (all, some, whatever), and have a plan for what to do if they do not pick up. (For example: call once, call 15 minutes later, call 30 minutes later, then authorized to call their emergency contact to check in.)

* OFFER location-sharing for any trips they’d like with a similar plan — if you’re not at the location you had planned to be at within a certain time frame, begin calling.

* Have an informal leadership plan of what we would do next if there was a situation where we believe the staff member may be in trouble, including a contact for legal counsel and a list of detention centers in the region for inquiries.

How are folks handling this? I want our staff members safe, period, but feel a particular concern when they are going out into the world specifically to do the work of our org!

I checked in with the community organizer in Chicago who offered advice earlier this month on what to do if ICE comes to your workplace. She said:

This person already has a pretty solid safety plan in place! I’d want to emphasize a point I included in my original letter: don’t make risk judgments for people. Give them information and resources, but don’t tell people they can’t take trips to specific places based on their last name, ethnicity, etc.

It might also be good to have contacts within the partner orgs who can handle things locally. If someone needs to be picked up from detention, for example, it’s better to have someone who’s at least somewhat trusted and known to the employee than not. Otherwise, though, I think they already have a really good plan in place.

She also notes, “The main Border Patrol force has left Chicago and is now terrorizing Charlotte, N.C., and a lot of groups doing this work anticipate seeing similar patterns — one or two cities getting very aggressively targeted, while many other locations have much smaller ICE or Border Patrol deployments. So these kind of resources are going to become increasingly important as these agencies spread across the country, unfortunately.”

I checked with another person who works in this field and they offered this:

Personally, I think this employer’s first impulse to make work travel completely voluntary is the best thing they can do. Employees could know all their rights, and employers could have the perfect safety plan, but if law enforcement or ICE disregard someone’s constitutionally-protected rights or attempt to fast-track their deportation without due process — even if they have legal status — the consequences for employees and their families can be absolutely devastating. If that’s not a risk the employees want to take, and the travel isn’t necessary, then making the travel voluntary is probably the best thing employers can do to help mitigate that risk.

Some additional resources that may help:

Know Your Rights Pages:

  • Immigrants’ Rights: This has some specific information about your rights if you’re stopped and questioned about your immigration status, including advice about being stopped by police, ICE, or Border Patrol while in transit.
  • Enforcement at the Airport: This has specific information about encountering law enforcement at the airport, if that’s part of their work travel.
Safety plans:
  • The ACLU of DC has a hub of really useful resources — in particular, see the advice on “preparing for immigration enforcement actions” and “preparing for ICE raids,” which both have bullet points about preparedness and creating an emergency plan.

The post how can we protect employees traveling to areas with increased immigration raids? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

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Posted by Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

I’ve been looking to move to a new company for many months now, and recently a personal connection was able to introduce me to several high-level contacts in my desired industry. Through this contact I have spoken to senior/executive-director level people at several firms that I would love to work with.

However, with the exception of one conversation where we directly discussed openings at their organization, these conversations have generally been networking/informational interviewing. My connections who referred me to these contacts always seem a little surprised that the conversations have not led directly to at least an interview, but I’ve been very wary of being too demanding of these senior-level people who have taken time to speak to me. I’ve asked them in-depth questions about their work and projects, but I haven’t asked if they can refer me to specific positions.

Am I doing something wrong in these conversations? Is there a tactful way to follow up with a request to know about any suitable openings in their organizations?

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

The post my networking meetings never lead anywhere appeared first on Ask a Manager.

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Posted by Ask a Manager

Sometimes the biggest battles at work — and definitely the funniest — are over very small things: the office-wide meltdown when new phones were installed with fewer speed dial buttons; mundane parking rules that led to threats, bribery, and fake parking tickets; a rebellion after a change to the cafeteria’s sushi trays; and a full-on mutiny over thinner bacon.

Let’s discuss very big office battles over very small things. Share what you’ve seen in the comment section.

The post let’s discuss: very big office battles over very small things appeared first on Ask a Manager.

Homo homini lupus

Nov. 20th, 2025 12:46 pm
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Posted by lalochezia

The Guardian does a deep dive on 'Possibly the most prolific sex offender in British history': the inside story of the Medomsley scandal (TW CW: Rape/Child Abuse/Violence/Trauma/Suicide/Massive Injustice/Institutional and State Complicity)

"At a youth detention centre in north-east England, the paedophile Neville Husband raped and assaulted countless boys. Why was his reign of terror allowed to go on – and why hasn't there been a public inquiry?" Other coverage (The independent) British state supplied victims to 'worst sex offender in history' as abuse continued unchecked at notorious detention centre A new play, Bad Lads, written by Mike Kenny created from a story by Jimmy Coffey and the testimonies of the other Medomsley boys. Directed by Jenny Sealey.

The stuff of nightmares

Nov. 20th, 2025 08:57 am
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Posted by chavenet

Older generations sometimes engage in a trickle of giving, gradually passing possessions to family members . It can be nice to offload some important things, especially while people are still around to explain their stories and significance. But it can also lead to some uncomfortable encounters, where family members fight over coveted items, things start to disappear, or, more often, parents and grandparents discover that their prized possessions are not prized by their offspring. from The Boomer Inheritance Economy gets weird [Business Insider; ungated]

(no subject)

Nov. 20th, 2025 06:14 am
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Sometimes the dark dust of interstellar space has an angular elegance. Sometimes the dark dust of interstellar space has an angular elegance.


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Posted by Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Employee keeps falling asleep in meetings

I have an employee who joined the team about 10 months ago. He is a good contributor so far, but I’ve noticed he has a bad habit of drowsing off during afternoon meetings, especially ones that are within an hour after lunch. I brought it up to him once about 2-3 months after he joined the team, and told him frankly that it was unprofessional and not acceptable. He agreed and said that he would work on getting better. But in the past month I’ve noticed it happening again. He’s also a bit older (maybe early 60’s though I don’t know his exact age) — not that age changes anything, but maybe makes him more susceptible to post-lunch food coma?

I’ll likely bring it up again in my next one-on-one with him next week, but I’m concerned about things possibly backsliding again. Any ideas on what to do if that happens?

Just be direct! “We talked about this previously, but I’ve noticed it’s happening again. If there are things we can do on our end to help, I’m very open to them, but I do need you to get it under control permanently, not just temporarily.”

But also think about whether there are tweaks you can make that would help. For example, it’s probably not realistic to avoid all afternoon meetings but since he otherwise does good work, is there any room for reshuffling things in a way that would minimize this without much inconvenience (like if there’s one meeting where it always happens and that meeting could easily be before lunch rather than after)? Are your meeting rooms too warm? Sufficiently stocked with caffeine? Can you encourage people to stand or move around during meetings if they need to?

I’m not saying this is on you to solve — he’s an adult who has to figure out how to manage his own energy patterns (or needs to raise it if there’s a medical issue he needs accommodations for) — but there’s no harm in being thoughtful about small tweaks that could help.

2. My office party is in a bar with a photo of me in a bikini on the wall

My director is taking out our team for a staff party and dinner at a local bar in a couple of weeks. The problem I have is that on the wall of that bar they have a bunch of pictures of the winners of their annual bikini contest. I won the contest in 2010 when I was in college and there’s a huge picture of me in my bikini on the wall and my name listed below on a gold colored plate. Should I consider not attending the event or perhaps begging HR to force them to move the event? Maybe I should just go and if the picture is noticed make a joke about it? Do you think anything bad would happen if my colleagues see a younger me in a bikini?

Well … if you work in a male-dominated field or just a particularly sexist or conservative one, it’s not great; that’s a context where it’s risks being really unhelpful to have your coworkers see you in the sort of sexualized way bikini contest winners tend to be portrayed in photos that hang on bar walls. (In other words, it’s not just the bikini itself; it’s the social framing around the photo.) If you don’t work in a male-dominated, conservative, or sexist field, it might not be a big deal, particularly since it’s from 15 years ago.

But if you do … any chance you could just ask the bar to take it down? A lot of people would be happy to oblige if you showed up and said, “My whole office is about to come here for a staff party in a week and I really don’t want them seeing a huge photo of me in a bikini; can you take it down for now?”

3. I was promised a monthly schedule, but it changes weekly

I’m two months into a new job as a full-time AV technician at an events venue. I’ve been doing similar jobs for the past few years on a freelance basis. I’m well accustomed to the demands of irregular and unpredictable hours. Before this role, I was often booked for a job the night before or day-of. This work is not my passion but it’s related to my love for making music and performing. I see this as my priority and work as a means of facilitating my passion. I’m in my 20s, if you couldn’t tell!

When I took this job, I was told by the COO in the interview that my working hours would be irregular from Monday to Sunday (anything from 7 am to 1 am) but by consolation I would be given my rota a month in advance. However, to my surprise, on my first day my manager said I would be given my rota weekly. That is, on a Saturday for the following week.

Despite my familiarity with irregular hours, I’m struggling with not being able to plan my personal commitments. When I was self-employed, I had the freedom to refuse work. In spite of my great efforts, band rehearsals are falling to the wayside and I have not seen my friends the past two months. I can request days off but it does not look professional to do so frequently, nor would the requests be approved. (However, this is the best salary I have ever received and am determined to stick around and do well here.)

I have constructively brought this up with my manager, even suggesting that I write my own rota two weeks in advance for his approval, as the calendar is about 90% certain at this point. However, I am simply ignored. I’m aware flexibility is a necessary condition for working in busy events operations, but I feel I was misled in this respect. Do you have any suggestions for how to advocate for myself tactfully or how to learn to cope in my own way?

Yeah, this isn’t reasonable — you can’t make plans if you have to keep your schedule wide open until two days before each week starts and you can only infrequently request specific dates off.

Have you told your boss that the COO explicitly promised you in the interview that you’d have your schedule a month in advance? If so, and he doesn’t care, are the internal politics there such that you could go back to the COO and say, “We talked about this explicitly in my interview, but it’s turned out that I’m only getting my schedule two days before the week starts. Since you’d mentioned when I was being hired that I’d have a lot more notice, I wanted to check back with you about it.”

If that seems like a politically risky move, then I’d ask yourself: would you have taken the job if you’d had the correct info about the schedule from the start? If so, that’s one way to frame it for yourself — that this isn’t ideal and it particularly sucks that you were given bad info, but that it wouldn’t have stopped you from accepting regardless. Additionally, I wonder if it’s possible for you to negotiate one day a week that you’ll always have off (or even every other week) so that you have some ability to plan?

4. Should a CEO’s contract prevent them from being unfairly fired?

The firing of the CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has roiled my nonprofit world. It’s gossipy in and outside Philadelphia partly because so many unusually specific details of the firing were included in the news — for “just cause” almost never is actually part of the press release! — and also because she was under contract and it seems like contracts are supposed to prevent leaders from being fired quickly like this.

Not withstanding the specifics of the situation, can you clarify how a contract does, or does not, protect employees from regular hiring and firing decisions?

It varies widely depending on exactly what’s in the contract, but it would be typical for a contract for that type of position to spell out what would be cause for firing, which would generally include things like ethics violations and failure to perform (as opposed to leaving it wide open like at-will employment typically does) and what terms would govern a separation (how much severance, etc.). It’s also common for a contract at that level to include two different separation packages: one if the person is fired for cause, like fraud or gross negligence, and a higher package if the reason is something more like bad chemistry with the board or the organization making a strategic shift.

In this case, it looks like the board is claiming they fired her at least in part for improper spending; depending on what that means in practice, the firing could definitely be allowed under such a contract (assuming there was real financial impropriety, not buying herself a fancy pen or something). Or it could be BS to cover up that they just didn’t like her and wanted her gone (which sounds like is at least partly the case).

5. Can I give one employee a larger bonus than the others?

I have a newish employee, Jane, who is amazing. She’s been with the company for about six months. Jane inherited a messy situation from her predecessor, who was a poor fit for the role, and has not only cleaned that up, but also made significant improvements in our processes. She is trustworthy, reliable, hardworking, competent, and proactive. I feel really fortunate to have her on the team!

I try to give all my staff flexibility and perks in whatever ways I can manage, but Jane’s role is one of the least flexible on the team. (For example, other people are able to work remote, hybrid, or flex schedules, but she can’t, due to the nature of the role. Other people travel around our area for work and have company cars, but Jane is based in the office so she takes the bus.) It’s also the most junior role and pays the least.

We traditionally give bonuses at the end of the year, and I’d like to recognize Jane’s value and contributions to the company with a larger-than-normal bonus. I’m thinking $500-1,000 instead of $200-400. Is this a good idea even if I won’t be able to match it next year, the year after, etc.? Is it fair to my other staff, who are also wonderful and hardworking, but who get paid more and enjoy more perks year-round?

I don’t want to create bad feelings with other staff if people decide to discuss their bonuses (which may happen), and I also don’t want to set an expectation that I can’t live up to in subsequent years. But I feel strongly that Jane deserves recognition for how much she’s contributed thus far, and money is the best way to do that.

Note: We also give raises, and I fully expect to raise Jane’s salary, but she won’t be eligible until she completes her first year of employment.

You absolutely can give Jane a larger than normal bonus in recognition of her good work; that’s a very common and normal thing to do. You’d want to be prepared to explain the discrepancy if anyone asks about it, but it sounds like you’d be able to do that easily (she’s done an phenomenal job and she has the least flexible and lowest-paying role on the team).

To avoid setting Jane up to expect it every year, you can say something like, “Our year-end bonuses are typically less than this, but you’ve done such a fantastic job this year under difficult circumstances that I wanted you to get some special recognition for that.”

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Dead Guy Isn't Just a Beer Brand

Nov. 20th, 2025 03:06 am
[syndicated profile] metafilter_feed

Posted by drewbage1847

On Friday the 14th, Rogue Brewing and Spirits abruptly shuttered all their pub locations around Oregon as well as the brewery site in Newport OR. While no official word has been released by the company, the news has reported that Rogue owes the Port of Newport more than $500,000 in back rent and $30,000 in back taxes to the county. It's a sudden end for a foundational craft brewery

Rogue Brewing was founded in Ashland, OR by Jack Joyce, a lawyer who became one of Nike's first executives. It was a member of the "Class of '88" - a group of soon to be large craft breweries that included the likes of Brooklyn, Deschutes, Goose Island, Gordon Biersch, Great Lakes, North Coast and Wynkoop. Rogue eccentric brewmaster until 2019 was John Maier, a Los Angeles homebrewer turned Alaskan Brewing Company brewer turned the creative force behind Rogue's beers. The lineup of hundreds of beers over 37 years included classics like Brutal Bitter, Shakespeare Stout, Hazelnut Brown, Old Crustacean and Dead Guy Ale (before it became a whole "brand"). Of course they weren't all hits with misfires like Voodoo Maple Bacon Donut Ale, Sriracha Hot Stout and the infamous Beard Beer made with yeast isolated from Maier's beard. They had many successes becoming one of the first American craft brands to export to Japan, launching a distillery and a hop farm with B&B and working with Iron Chef Morimoto. Unsurprisingly, Rogue also became famous for questionable labor practices - including Union Busting and job postings like the "IT Jack of All Trades". The closing took many people by surprise because despite outsourcing their sales department recently and the other headwinds facing craft breweries - Rogue still remained the 50th largest craft brewery in the US and one of the largest breweries in Oregon
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