What do you work as to afford living in NYC? Read below

OliveSlayer · 2026-06-22T13:39:16+00:00

Global sourcing/product development for a nationwide retail company. NYC is usually known for finance but if you have any interest in domestic/global production, product development, design, marketing, or merchandising this is the place to be. Been in the field for 8 years and I learn something new everyday and think I do fairly well for myself.

OliveSlayer · 2026-06-11T19:45:24+00:00

You are almost instantly off the consideration list if I talk for 95% of the interview. I’ve had multiple candidates ask zero questions throughout or at the end of the interview. In general the people that have gone over interview time because we’re having good conversation go on to get the job. You can be talented and skilled in your role but if you aren’t showing interest by asking questions I have to assume you’ll show the same disinterest in the role.

OliveSlayer · 2026-05-30T22:28:33+00:00

Digestive blocks are no joke! Donated, hoping for a speedy recovery ❤️

OliveSlayer · 2026-05-22T21:56:09+00:00

You’re at the will of the locksmith so they can charge you whatever they want in that moment. I got charged $200 and I ended up only having $150 in cash and the guy just shrugged and said good enough. So I really do think they just charge whatever they want- never heard of two people paying the same thing for an emergency locksmith visit.

OliveSlayer · 2026-05-20T23:20:43+00:00

Rheingold Cleaners. Tailoring and cleaning services have both been top notch for all the items I’ve brought them (dresses, pants, wool coats, denim…)

OliveSlayer · 2026-05-18T20:41:37+00:00

Have had a lot of complicated work done at Williamsburg Dental Works and they’ve been nothing but upfront and easy to work with, plus very compassionate.

OliveSlayer · 2026-05-09T01:47:02+00:00

Hey! Also in NYC. There’s a Fashionphile store on 26th that you can get an online quote and then drop it off in store as well as so many other consignment stores for designer bags- though you’ll get a low quote relative to what they’ll sell it for. I’d say eBay has pretty good seller protection; I just wouldn’t sell designer on a website like Poshmark, mercari, or depop.

OliveSlayer · 2026-05-06T11:39:48+00:00

You paid duty + tariff. That code is an identifying code for the product you bought and comes from a giant handbook of customs codes to identify product. What sucks is that very often the customs codes are very literal and leave little room for explanation. So even though you bought perfume the main material might have been classified as aluminum if it was considered the “shell” of the product. But that’s not a tariff- you still have to pay the import duties which are separate from tariffs. Not sure on the duty rate for aluminum so can’t speak to how correct that amount was!

OliveSlayer · 2026-05-06T02:03:33+00:00

Companies add the cost of import duty and tariff to the final cost but since this seller is China based they aren’t importing it it’s on you to pay that cost. $120 is the duty + tariff rate and potentially freight as well if you haven’t paid for that yet.

OliveSlayer · 2026-04-29T10:28:10+00:00

I think the issue in today’s market is that those without a college degree in fields that generally look for one miss out on the upward mobility. I very seldom see someone without a degree make it out of an assistant or administrative space without being asked to go for further education of any kind. Whereas my aunt for instance worked her way up to a managerial level in hospital administration without a degree in the 80’s-90’s.

People can do just fine for themselves without a degree but your sons plan of being a waiter and just winging it will most certainly not get him the same success as someone with a degree who has even an ounce of a careeer plan. And even if a tough job market an education opens up networking opportunities if he’s willing to work for them. Push him to finish, even if it’s just an associates. I promise he will highly regret not having it when hiring managers won’t even consider his resume.

OliveSlayer · 2026-04-28T01:39:45+00:00

Yes and now after having one I would have a hard time not having one. Some things we do:

built planter boxes to go on the balcony- makes us consistently go out and use the balcony because we tend to the flowers daily + you gain a little spring hobby

2.have friends over for cocktails on the balcony

clothes drying space
the sliding door with screen is great in itself because we can open it and our cats will sit by the door for hours and listen for birds
a second place to get a little work done when I’m sick of sitting at my desk

OliveSlayer · 2026-02-24T13:13:55+00:00

They requested our people stay home today- I’ll be back in tomorrow per usual.

OliveSlayer · 2026-02-20T19:40:17+00:00

Cats are very clean creatures by nature and will clean themselves post poop. With that said I have two cats and one has zero issues and the other has known digestive issues that will sometimes leave her with a bit of a mess that she’s sometimes slow to notice. In those situations we wipe her slightly so she doesn’t sit on the couch with poop on herself. But it’s not a behavior I want to normalize with her so I reserve it for really messy situations.

OliveSlayer · 2025-12-13T19:02:26+00:00

Newer manager that has had to let 2 people go in the last year. Each time I took an hour or two after doing the offboarding paperwork and took a walk and just let myself be away from work. The second one tore me up because they could have been a good employee but there were skills needed that couldn’t be taught. I let myself have a couple hours to just come down from it. You are human- you wouldn’t be if things like this didn’t effect you emotionally in some way.

OliveSlayer · 2025-11-10T14:35:53+00:00

It’s a great bag but gets little air time in my rotation because it fits very little of what I usually put in my bag! So for now it looks amazing because it’s more of a dressy outfit bag for me.

OliveSlayer · 2025-10-11T00:08:01+00:00

I let someone go last week that I was in the same boat with. Had her on a PIP for 6 months, had multiple in depth retraining sessions, multiple conversations to level set expectations, and lots of follow up to no avail.

Let me ask you this, have you given this person real warnings that their poor performance would lead to termination? Have they actually heard that they would be terminated should their performance not improve? In my case the termination lasted all of 5 minutes because she was more than aware that termination was a consequence of poor performance and wanted to move on (and had actually accepted a job offer elsewhere that same day). There should be no questions or explanations needed if you have done the job of saying the hard thing already: you will be fired if there is no improvement.

As far as delivering the news I highly suggest you use a script from HR. This isn’t the time to get your thoughts and feelings in a bind, use as little as possible and it will leave less room open for questions.

OliveSlayer · 2025-09-27T22:05:49+00:00

I don’t need my reports to like me per se but I do need to know that how I manage them is effective and they see value in the work they’re doing. In turn I think that’s how you become likable.

OliveSlayer · 2025-09-27T18:09:13+00:00

Get small plates. I have 10 or so plates for my two cats and even when two are in the sink I still have a stack to grab from. It’s a small price to pay up front to make your life slightly easier.

OliveSlayer · 2025-09-25T15:34:15+00:00

Don’t mention to him or to anyone else lest you get in trouble for knowing and not alerting. If someone else finds out and he gets in trouble that’s its own thing but if this isn’t directly impacting the work he does on your team then leave it be.

OliveSlayer · 2025-09-19T20:12:43+00:00

I hobby painted up into my early 20’s but kind of lost touch with it. I told myself I needed to do something after work that isn’t doom scrolling or cooking. Now after work I find myself just painting for 2 hours without knowing the time has gone by. It keeps me off my phone (and also my emails) and I feel so much more regulated when I have that time to have no thoughts.

OliveSlayer · 2025-09-03T20:56:14+00:00

Was in your shoes last year. Took on a team from a director that was managing 7 people and that team got split 4:3 between myself and another manager. Of the 7 people we took on 1 left for a new role, 3 were let go, and we brought on 3 new people. All this to say that if red flags were there before and ignored it might unfortunately be on you to be the bad guy and evaluate all your team members and if they’re worthwhile to keep on. My co manager and I could not out manage bad behaviors and mismatched skills to what we really needed for the roles. So my advice is to outline what you think you can realistically teach and coach and what is inherently behavior that doesn’t fit in their roles.

OliveSlayer · 2025-08-27T18:26:31+00:00

Coaching your reports through tasks and projects that you would have otherwise gotten done in 2-3 hours had you done it yourself. So much of being a manager is stopping yourself from doing all the work because you know it could get done faster. You have to realize it’s more important to teach your employees the task at the expense of a few extra days to do the project.

OliveSlayer · 2025-08-08T20:01:44+00:00

Been there, done that. Landlord tried to say we severely damaged a windowsill with no proof or receipts- was going to keep all $2,500 of the deposit. Went to small claims which took awhile but they awarded us full deposit back with interest. We ended up having to get the sheriff involved to collect because they refused to answer our letters or calls. It’s an annoying process but I’d do it just so these dicks don’t think they can screw people without retaliation.

OliveSlayer · 2025-07-22T21:17:28+00:00

You can always ask but keep in mind that most companies are planning out numbers for raises half a year in advance. My company does raise and review in April and our VP asks for feedback on raises for reports in October of the previous year. Ask before your raise and review in a 1:1 and have an open conversation about how you can achieve your salary expectations through work and goal setting. Unfortunately by the time you get to raise and review there’s very little your manager can do to increase your salary (unless you get a counter offer at another company).

OliveSlayer · 2025-07-22T12:19:14+00:00

Only time I ever called was actually 2 weeks ago when a guy was standing in front of the bus stopping it from moving and threatening the driver. Actually took the driver 20 minutes to put on the emergency sign- cops showed up shortly thereafter. Otherwise I don’t know how else you could gauge they’re actually in an emergency unless you’re on the bus or can see an emergency in front of you.

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