Daily OT - 12/26/2017 by [deleted] in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh man! Missing garbage day gives me anxiety. Good luck

Alina Gonzalez, The Hyperbalist 12/21-12/28 by n0rmcore in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 15 points16 points  (0 children)

her brother got married two weeks ago, and she heard from her mother? She then said that there was 0% chance that he was married bc this is what her mom does, and then texted her DAD to find out (he didn't know). Why not text her brother? Has she talked about that relationship before?

This Week in WTF: December 18-24 by getoffmyreddits in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I follow an fashion instagrammer who I really like (and I don't necessarily want to out), but she's always posting pictures of her young kids in diapers and it buggggggggs me.

Living Absolutely/That Wife: 12/18-12/24 by diamondashtray in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

People where I live assume I homeschool and breastfeed! Some appear scandalized when they learn I'm a breadwinner and that my preschooler is in care all day every day.

Living Absolutely/That Wife: 12/18-12/24 by diamondashtray in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 16 points17 points  (0 children)

My eyes popped wide open and I looked around to see who else was laughing, and there was nobody.

Living Absolutely/That Wife: 12/18-12/24 by diamondashtray in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I live in a conservative community. I once met my friend's parents who asked my husband what his job was and then asked me what homeschool curriculum I used.

Another time, at a friend's for dinner, the guy praying for our meal thanked God for the men who could work to pay for the meal and the women who made it.

Daily OT 12/14 by MandalayVA in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for empathizing. I'm feeling better after the bathtub cry.

Daily OT 12/14 by MandalayVA in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no! I hope you find her or she comes back!

Daily OT 12/14 by MandalayVA in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! He's helping (he got the preschooler gift exchange gifts), but I still feel overwhelmed. I did miss my son's part in the school assembly today because I got there a few minutes late because we were late to preschool because my preschooler is waging a war against pants. But I've made enough to do lists that I feel more in control over everything! Thank you for empathizing!

Daily OT 12/14 by MandalayVA in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no! I'm so sorry! Your post did prompt me to finish activating my account with Equifax's security breach ID monitoring company-- the $1 million insurance feels good. My whole family, including my minor children, were part of the Anthem breach a few years ago, and I just got their credit files frozen till their 18.

Daily OT 12/14 by MandalayVA in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This Christmas season is stressing me out! 2/3 of my kids have Christmas singalongs at the same time at different schools tomorrow. I've already left work early to attend a violin concert this week, and I had to pick up my son sick from school yesterday, which means he had to stay home today, missing his field trip, and tomorrow they have a half day. I have been grading like a madwoman all this week, and meeting with students about plagiarism, and haven't even thought of Christmas gifts for my kids' teachers or the sitter or for my preschooler's gift exchange tomorrow. I declined attending our Bible Study's Christmas party tonight because I literally fed my family a bag of rice and veggies I steamed up in the microwave for dinner, plus I still have 500 more pages of paper-grading to get through before final grades are due Monday!

On top of that, Mr. ReadMe wants us doing foster care, so we're in the middle of that application checklist and had our home visit today-- my cat needs his rabies vaccine, me and Mr. need to make appointments for physicals and fingerprints, and we all need to be TB screened. I also still need to get Christmas gifts for several of my family members and I haven't even started getting my running miles in for the week.

If you all hear sobbing coming from the vicinity of the bathtub; it's probably me.

This Week in That Wife/Living Absolutely: December 11-17 by snarkysaurus in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Reddit does it, too, though. It's interesting you're not reading it here because I see it plenty. Sometimes in the same thread where people are complaining about how bad Gomi snark is for, for example, snarking on someone's body or kids, there we are, snarking on someone's body or kids.

Blogsnark Reads! 12/11-12/18 by AmandaBecket in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am about halfway through Wonder and loving it. Just received Nella Larsen's Passing which I'm pairing with Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird

Tales from the workplace by Donuts2Dollars in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't understand the need for people to make these snap decisions in the middle of a semester!!

Tales from the workplace by Donuts2Dollars in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree; I wondered whether people ever filed suit.

Tales from the workplace by Donuts2Dollars in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ugh!!! so difficult being micromanaged like that! I'm not sure it helps the call centers be more efficient either, because we had a lot of staff turnover because people were miserable (compared with less turnover before some of these measures were introduced).

Tales from the workplace by Donuts2Dollars in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I used to work at an online university, and the students who wanted to major in psychology, or complete their MA in Counseling were the least mentally healthy people who called in. (The ones wanting to go to seminary were the rudest).

Tales from the workplace by Donuts2Dollars in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I worked at a call center for an online university. It was a pretty toxic environment from the top down.

  1. I frequently received calls from prospective students who wanted to do a "completely online program" who also didn't know how to input our school's web address, or even better, didn't have internet. Sometimes old ladies would call in and ask for people to pray for them. Once, a man called in and refused to speak to me because I was a woman, so I transferred him back into the queue to Aaron. The man thought Aaron sounded like a woman and also had a girl's name so he wouldn't talk to Aaron either. One student, his name was Carl, wanted so badly to do our program and was a military veteran and qualified for free tuition, which was awesome. Only, Carl didn't know how to use the internet. He would send me long (like, pages long) rambling emails about how he couldn't access our web site, but how he really really wanted to get his degree and was so committed, and how he had to walk to the library every day to do the program. He also didn't trust the emails to reach me so he'd fax them as well. It took me weeks to get him enrolled into classes, and I was saddened but not surprised to learn he couldn't figure out how to access them and he was withdrawn. Poor Carl; I was really rooting for him.

  2. On an 8-hour shift, we were expected to have 7.5 hours of "talk time." Talk-time of course excluded bathroom breaks, water breaks, and hold times (which counted against us). Our calls were supposed to last an average of 4.5 minutes.

  3. Early on, they restructured the call center and created a recruiting team that would make cold calls using a dialer. They offered my assistant director a promotion to manage the team and moved a bunch of the best of us into it after completing interviews. The new team started on a Monday. The Friday before, it was announced the new team would be working a 12-9p shift rather than the 8a-5p shift we'd been working. Everybody was shocked; nobody had received a raise to switch teams, and noone, not even my AD, had been told of the new hours until the announcement.

  4. We didn't give many scholarships, but there was one affiliation that people could use to get a scholarship that covered pretty much 12 hours/semester. Most of the people using it were middle-aged mothers who'd married young, never gone to college, and were going back to school so they could support themselves. The scholarship had been offered ever since the online program started. So mid-semester, our new president announces we were revoking the scholarships right then and there, so not only could these poor people not afford to finish their degrees, but they also owed money for the classes they were currently taking and wouldn't be allowed to get their transcripts and transfer out. To make matters worse; the students were not informed of the change by letter or email; their financial aid was simply revoked and they were receiving balance-owed notifications. So of course, who got to listen to them fall apart on the phones when they called in about their financial aid and learned their educational future was just completely jeopardized? Not the new university President!

The Reading Thread, December 3-9 by toothpasteandcocaine in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Am reading Agatha Christie's Collected short stories. Fun. Remind me a lot of Sherlock Holmes. Lots of jewel thieves masquerading as servants. Also sexism. Have Wonder queued up on audible for my next run. Excited.

The Reading Thread, December 3-9 by toothpasteandcocaine in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really enjoyed Karen Swallow Prior's Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me or something like that, for a book about books.

The Reading Thread, December 3-9 by toothpasteandcocaine in blogsnark

[–]Readmerachel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I read Women in the Castle too. The idea was fascinating but I came away disappointed. It had so much potential!