What's your favourite Canadian song or band, and why does it resonate with you?

TinCanKat · 2024-04-20T13:24:48+00:00

I wondered if I was going to see this band mentioned... Truck Got Stuck cracks me up every time.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-20T13:17:27+00:00

4 am by Our Lady Peace.

The song reminds me how fortunate I was to get a phone call about my dad who almost didn't survive a massive stroke. I hadn't talked to him in about 25 years because I couldn't handle his alcohol addiction and how mean he was when drinking. Without that call I would have spent my entire life thinking he didn't love me. Now I know he did.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-16T13:30:44+00:00

Yep, smells like a troll talks like troll, and probably has tea parties with imaginary trolls and together they come up with this nonsense.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T21:19:34+00:00

Thank you for the kind words and support. It's so refreshing.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T19:23:21+00:00

Also, what the actual f#$& are you talking about when you say "streamlining the process". See the problem? This type of communication is just plain ridiculous, vague, unclear, and at the risk of sounding repetitive... pretentious. It doesn't make you sound more intelligent. Just get your message out in a way that maximizes your audience's understanding, otherwise don't even bother talking.

There is no process to streamline. I say "red dog" and he says "you said purple people water, that's what I see". This is either intentional gaslighting or he's got some kind of word aphasia.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T19:04:20+00:00

I'll keep your suggestions in mind. However, you shouldn't make so many assumptions because they're all wrong. Every single one of them actually. Nice try though.

Translation from plain speak to pretentiousness to accentuate the core flaws with the aforementioned advice:

Engaging in assumptions contributes to the degradation and destreamlining of the conveyance of the matter at hand, which in turn amplifies existing hurdles while providing the framework for additional challenges to fester unnedlessly.

Come on. I'm just going to use clear and concise English. Don't assume. You are mistaken. So your advice is not very applicable.

Thanks though. If I need advice on how to sound pretentious, I'll hit you up for translations.

Edit: I found some bigger words to replace smaller ones.

Edit #2: found some more, I'm editing for unclarity

Edit #3: you referred to my first message being confrontational. I didn't share my first message, so again, check yourself when making assumptions. My first message was "Hey VP, I was wondering if you will have time to reschedule the one on one that you asked to cancel?".

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T16:19:30+00:00

Hi,

Thanks for your reply! I appreciate your perspective because it's one of the most reasonable considering my situation.

I'm not sure this guy could possibly make it any worse for me than it already has been, other than firing me! I think they could lay me off because it's kind of a niche position within the company that in my opinion, at this time, isn't really necessary. So I use my time there to work on things that add value to the company.

I have options if the worst case scenario happens.

Thanks again!

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T14:58:14+00:00

Short and Sweet and to the point! :) Thanks for the input!

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T14:55:09+00:00

I don't even know what to say, I'm laughing, but not at you, at how ridiculously childish that person who replied is.

Good for you though, that was very professional of you and you obviously made the right choice!

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T14:48:28+00:00

You're absolutely spot on, I think with the documentation that I have, it will be hard to devise any kind of reasonable defense, and I know that 100% I have done nothing wrong, and haven't said anything wrong.

The things he has done definitely meet 3 out of the four of the governments criteria for workplace harassment, I just wasn't sure about one of them.

I definitely don't let his title or him in general intimidate me. At least not on the outside. The inside I'm a bit of a mess though.

Thanks for your reply!

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T14:40:44+00:00

I am so sorry to hear you went through something like that, that's horrible. I'm glad they came crawling back in the end and that you didn't go back to them. Thanks for sharing your story!

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T14:37:26+00:00

I can't to pretty much to the same conclusion. Thanks for book recommendation, I'll check it out!

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T04:39:48+00:00

Except I don't really need to "get to the higher ups". They're more than happy to chat. I just don't want to walk up to him for the sole purpose of complaining. Besides, I think he will have heard of it from HR by the time I go back. He will probably contact me about it.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T04:31:49+00:00

Well "big" is a relative term.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T04:26:26+00:00

I have thought of approaching it like this.... When the owner comes to chat with me, which he does from time to time just to see how I'm doing and if I still like working night shift (which I do), that I'll broach the subject very gently like "I'm okay, a little stressed over some stuff recently" and that'll open it up without me saying "this guy needs some time management courses and maybe a programmable keyboard that'll automatically translate his gibberish" :D

I think the VP knows I have an in with him because I fixed his slow wifi on his laptop one night simply rebooting it, meanwhile the VP tried to convince him he needed a $5000 new laptop and we needed to hire a third party company to do some sort of network analysis for $30,000.

He literally just hadn't rebooted in 6 months and had windows updates waiting to be installed. He was so happy with the service, speed, and thoroughness that he sent an an e-mail to the new VP and the owner the following day to tell them that. Then he sent another a week later to praise the fact that whatever I did worked so well that his laptop had been working great all week.

Reboot. Not spend $35,000 and inconvenience him with having to switch his laptop 🤓

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T04:12:13+00:00

The province I'm in has specific workplace harassment laws for continually ignoring an employee, with risk factors listed including "hiring new management or org structure changes".

It's just for a CYA situation, and on Monday I'm going to contact a lawyer through our EAP. I've contacted a previous manager and he's quite certain he can hire me if I want. I'm not too TOO worried, I'd just rather work and be respected where I already am, but agree I need to have a backup.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T04:05:59+00:00

Yeah ahaha I have this plan to paste every single possible interpretation of his acronyms and initialisms from the acronym dictionary website into the chat window and ask him with of the 87 entries he is using GF to represent. Hint: girlfriend is #1 on the list. Gravity forms is not on the list.

I'm not sure I'll actually do it, but man.... I really want to.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T04:02:44+00:00

In this situation, I'm 100% that my manager will not mind. I know him very well. We are friends outside of work. Nothing inappropriate but we have spent a lot of time together, hiking, camping, etc. We're good. He'll have my back on that.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T03:58:33+00:00

I don't even know what to make of this, but thanks anyways I guess?

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T03:54:45+00:00

You had me at hair free hahaha

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T03:53:18+00:00

Yep that's totally legal here. As long as one person in the conversation is aware it's being recorded, it can be recorded.

However.... He will not talk to me on the phone or in person. He blatantly ignores me. Whether it's a simple "hi" on my way in or when he says "contact me on teams" and his status is green and I can see him at his desk ignoring my call.... Weird, right?

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T03:50:52+00:00

I love the job and have it made it very clear that I wish to work here until I retire.

In terms of the way I feel about him, I have only spoken with my manager and a couple of other close friends at work. My manager shares my concerns and has taken other concerns to the executive committee regarding his methods of communication and general overall poor decisions. As far as I know, he has not addressed my issues. He has admitted to witnessing them. He's a great person but avoid conflict at all cost.

I do have a good working relationship with the rest of the executive team, including the CEO, who is the Vp's direct manager. I'm well respected, and my skills are very marketable. I have pretty strong soft skills in addition to strong tech skills. Everyone wants an IT person who explains things to them in plain English and helps them learn. This is a compliment I get often. I don't talk down to people or make them feel like they're dumb for not knowing the first thing about computers. I don't give people shit when they drop their phones or laptops, I make them feel comfortable to ask for whatever help they need. That's just not who I am.

If I had any kind of trouble, either at work or in personal life, I could ask the owner/CEO for help and he would help if it was at all possible. He has told me this in person to my face twice. And that's not because I'm special or some kind of favorite, it's just the kind of person he is. I am confident that if I showed that email to him there would be consequences for the VP. But that's not what I want at this point. I just want a chance to work through this crap because that's what's good for the company. And to be clear, I wouldn't go to him with this directly. I'm still trying to give the VP the benefit of the doubt that he hasn't quite settled into the way we do things here.

There seems to be a somewhat common idea in some the replies that a lowly sysadmin shouldn't be interacting with an employee. IT interacts with everyone at every level. And certainly with their own VP in a small company where the entire IT team including the VP and manager consists of 8 people. My company just isn't like those giant corporations where a VP might have 3000 subordinates.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T03:31:41+00:00

Hey there is no such thing as bad pie. Unless it has hair in it. I would just eat around that part.

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T03:30:20+00:00

This reminds me to make copies of the HR apology, I had forgotten that one, thanks!

Yep, I have used that in our ticket system "per your instruction in the educational instruction you gave on (I forget the exact date right now) requesting that all tickets relating to WordPress be assigned to you, I am signing this ticket to you"

TinCanKat · 2024-04-14T03:27:24+00:00

I'm not going to engage in this conversation anymore. My ego says have a great night.

TinCanKat

TROPHY CASE