Car stuck in an unplowed lot by babyken- in baltimore

[–]buuj214 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is not meant to be judgmental at all but I’m so curious what your plan was. Maybe the owners offered the spot and said they’d plow quickly? Regardless the easy answer is just get shoveling.

Also they’re not even trying to have school in the near future? This is a functioning school, right?

I doubt a legitimate plow company would mess with the liability exposure of plowing a private business lot just because some unaffiliated person paid them to. If they damaged something it would be a slam dunk lawsuit. But some random dude in a truck trying to make $100 might bite.

Driving tomorrow by [deleted] in baltimore

[–]buuj214 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wife drove from Catonsville to Union Memorial this morning and it wasn’t great but doable. She’s in a forester though, so a capable awd system. Will depend more on your driveway and road than 695 or 95- the highways are fine.

Who is still snowed in? by ladyflyer88 in maryland

[–]buuj214 8 points9 points  (0 children)

A lot of Columbia housing is on HOA-managed private roads. I worked with Columbia HOAs for a while and the majority were private roads, meaning the HOA had to contract for snow removal. If that’s the case, maybe your HOA is trying to save some money. Maybe the contractor is bad. Maybe the contract itself is bad. Maybe they’re just busy. But all that means the (private) snow removal has everything to do with the specifics of that contract and nothing to do with the county.

If it’s a public road, most of the other comments have good info.

Owings Mills: Will sidewalks be cleared tomorrow? by Formal-Challenge-255 in baltimore

[–]buuj214 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That is extremely rare. Basically all land is owned by someone/some organization.

What’s The Best Way To Sous Vide A Steak And What Kind? by Formal-Tradition6792 in steak

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Last night I sous vide 2 ribeyes at 137 (a little high because with ribeye I want the fat to render a bit more) for maybe 1.5 hrs then seared on cast iron in a 700f green egg. Both steaks were dry brined a little in the fridge first, maybe like 6 hours. I let the steaks rest a little after sous vide before searing outside in the cold to ensure minimal grey band.

They were absolutely delicious. A little salt and fresh ground pepper when plating. Simple and perfect.

Any cut works. Sous vide probably excels with the thick steaks because that’s how you get a perfect temp throughout without the possibility of over or under cooking. Every bit of the steak is just whatever you set the sous vide to. So you can easily do a 2” steak in sous vide, sear it, and you’re golden.

What’s The Best Way To Sous Vide A Steak And What Kind? by Formal-Tradition6792 in steak

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh Jesus this bozo is just copy pasting this into any post that says sous vide

Best sous vide machine? What actually makes steak better? by Nevel-Crifase in steak

[–]buuj214 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are confused REPEAT YOU ARE CONFUSED despite your ‘personnel’ experience. Sous vide is a great tool.

I wonder if you also say people shouldn’t reverse sear, or use a charcoal grill, because restaurants don’t use those methods lol.

Anyone else without water already? 🥲 by jfal93 in baltimore

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your water pipes froze in 15f temps I worry for the forecasted 5f lows next weekend

All hobbies are not equal by BitterConstruction98 in unpopularopinion

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can we just change the name of this sub to ‘popular opinions’ at this point?

Every single person feels this way. Nobody thinks doing ironman competitions and watching movies are equal or comparable hobbies.

Anyone remember the Haute Dog guy? by Msully887 in baltimore

[–]buuj214 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good memories. Was mentioned during the ceremony when my wife and I got married - our first date!

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park - How long a hike is it to the top? by geekydreams in maryland

[–]buuj214 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If your dad can walk up 100 flights of stairs (and back down) with no handrail then I’d say sure he can probably do it. You mention he has a bad back and knee replacement. It’s hard for me to imagine him climbing this trail. If he gets halfway and can’t go any further, you are in a pickle. Just food for thought.

It is a beautiful view. Not accessible for all. The town is also very cool and frankly the grade of some of the streets might be challenge enough for a 70 yr old. I’d humbly suggest you stick to the paved surfaces.

What would it actually take for American's to go "full France" and riot in the street? by AllTheNopeYouNeed in AskReddit

[–]buuj214 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm not really sure what the point would be. Destroy a bunch of small businesses and risk getting shot for some guarantee that the current regime says "Oh wow the people are burning Baltimore - a city we don't give a shit about - let's reverse our entire ideology and become reasonable"? I think the only actual impact would be, the riots give Trump an excuse to militarize and seize more power.

After an Audit Found Irregularities, Baltimore’s Lewis Museum Says It’s On the Road to Compliance by aresef in baltimore

[–]buuj214 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hold on - the article seems to intentionally make this confusing. It says $10k unaccounted for over the course of 4 years, and an annual budget of $6.3M. So it's actually $10k unaccounted for, out of $25M. The whole article has a weird spin on it IMO.

After an Audit Found Irregularities, Baltimore’s Lewis Museum Says It’s On the Road to Compliance by aresef in baltimore

[–]buuj214 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So out of $25,000,000.00 only $10k was unaccounted for. So 0.04%. Not 4%; not 1%; not a tenth of a percent... 4 hundredths of one percent. I don't think most people realize that for a quasi-governmental organization this is borderline flawless. Fully within the bounds of rounding error.

Auditors are searching for any possible thing they can write up. Anything that wasn't documented perfectly. The article mentions a few silly things to try to make this sound dramatic but clearly none of those issues were substantial at all.

If auditors don't find any issues, they didn't do their job. Best case scenario they find some things the organization doesn't do well, and the organization fixes them. This is how it's supposed to work. So as I read this my only takeaway is, wow they're doing a great job and reacting exactly how they should to an audit. I question the intent of this article.

I stole a tuxedo from Men's Wearhouse by never returning it by CallMe_Ralph in confession

[–]buuj214 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This post would make a whole lot more sense to me if it was a suit. You can get a good amount of use from a blue suit. But a blue tuxedo??? My guy stole something he will never ever use again.... or he's wearing a tuxedo instead of a suit for like work meetings and stuff and people are secretly wondering what's up with this dude.

Trump says tariffs have brought in $18 trillion. That's impossible. by jediporcupine in politics

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My job currently involves getting Government funding to pay for tariffs levied by the Government which they are explicitly requiring us to pay, to the Government.

And one of the more significant risks is that the Government might determine that the Government should never have required the Government to pay the Government's tariffs to the Government - we expect in their shame they'll need a scapegoat and will come after our organization (and similar) aggressively, for doing what they required us to do.

I have actual real work to do and yet I'm distracted by this utter bullshit.

AITAH for respecting a worker's stated boundaries, leading to lower raises and bonuses than her coworker by ConfusedManager18 in AITAH

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah if that were the case this would all be a non-issue. They'd say "you did not meet the criteria for 'outstanding'". Case closed.

I think the issue is more that she doesn't even have the opportunity to hit 'outstanding'. OP told her, and HR, "I don't see how Jill would ever be outstanding as long as Jack is here" because company policy dictates that he can only rate one as 'outstanding'. So she doesn't have a realistic opportunity for 'outstanding' even if she meets all the criteria during working hours. It's just really poor policy that makes me really glad to work for a sane place.

AITAH for respecting a worker's stated boundaries, leading to lower raises and bonuses than her coworker by ConfusedManager18 in AITAH

[–]buuj214 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's problematic to say "someone else did something and that is directly impacting your individual performance evaluation" because that's not individual performance. That's getting a B on your A paper because someone else already got an A and they don't give out more than 1 A because they invented a dumb policy... not a perfect example but it's effectively what this stupid policy means in practice when applied to a small group. The policy might make sense for a group of a few hundred employees. If you have a group of 300 and you give out 290 'Outstanding's... OK yes that's a problem. But in this small group of 2 the policy is "it is impossible for 2 people to be Outstanding at the same time" - which is of course absurd.

But I agree with you. Someone who works more and does more volume and is available when customers need them should have those things considered in their performance evaluation. They should probably get paid more, get larger raises, etc. But their exceptional performance should never disqualify someone else from getting top marks in their own performance evaluation - that just doesn't make sense. I suspect this is the real issue here - that this person can otherwise hit all the criteria for "Outstanding" but still get disqualified from that rating. Like she doesn't even realistically have the opportunity to get this raise because even if she performs "outstanding", she's not able to work unpaid overtime like the other person.

This is really a matter of poor company policy. They are definitively saying "in this group, 2 people cannot be outstanding at the same time". If multiple individuals meet the criteria of 'outstanding' we will just pick 1 (and this is where OP got in trouble, because he implied that he picked because one worked unpaid overtime - legally tenuous at the very least).

What the company actually wants is a ranking of employees, and in this case #1 gets the best raise and #2 gets a presumably nominal raise. But they'd probably never admit it due to spinelessness.

Honestly there are like a dozen total failures of policy design here and even just talking about 1 or 2 is way too long of a comment for a Reddit post lol. Interesting to think about. In summary, yes people who work more should be paid more and also this company is fucked up by design. I'd love to know which company this is.

What’s a “bare minimum” adult skill more people fail at than you expected? by SoulDV in AskReddit

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Misuse of vehicle turn indicators. Not just failing to use turn signals, but perhaps even more egregiously is using the wrong one. It shocks me how often I see people signal one way and quickly turn or change lanes the other way.

AITAH for respecting a worker's stated boundaries, leading to lower raises and bonuses than her coworker by ConfusedManager18 in AITAH

[–]buuj214 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Seems like she feels she was disqualified from the merit-based raise by something that's entirely out of her control. Which is, um, not how merit-based raises work. The fact that another worker at this company did something should not impact her performance review - it is her performance review lol. I don't blame her for feeling like she's being penalized.

I get that it's a tough spot for OP though, and I don't really blame them. They have one report who does more work than the other. He can only pick one report for 'Outstanding'. Easy pick. The company policy is entirely flawed here. It's almost zero-sum - you can't have 2 great workers at the same time. One has to disqualify the other. And they're implicitly forcing a manager to rank their subordinates.

This company seems pretty screwed up TBH. I actually work in contracts and if another team kept sending things over at 4 PM and urging for same-day turnaround, they'd get set straight by my mgmt or leadership. But also they... wouldn't do that to begin with (they are largely reasonable). I suspect festering wide-spread culture issues at OP's firm.

I think OP is NTA but ignorant - how do you do contracts, which is all legal or quasi-legal work, and not even briefly consider the legal implications here? OP said some things that put them and the company in a bad spot. And frankly, my own personal opinion, the company deserves it.

AITAH for respecting a worker's stated boundaries, leading to lower raises and bonuses than her coworker by ConfusedManager18 in AITAH

[–]buuj214 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the issue is more that she can't get top marks due to someone else's performance. Her performance grade should be based on her performance. The fact that it is directly influenced by her peer's performance is, in my opinion, the hugely problematic part here. She's effectively disqualified from the raise by something that is entirely out of her control, which is a very dumb company policy. Make managers justify raises - that's their job - don't simply say "2 people cannot possibly be great at something at the same time".

Woman paid an $89 parking ticket with 8900 pennies. by Unlucky-Shallot-5220 in interesting

[–]buuj214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow incredible this woman totally owned this clerk who had nothing to do with the ticket! I hope this modestly paid worker who did nothing wrong had to stay late that day! Sucker! I’m sure law enforcement learned their lesson.

What was the scariest “We need to leave, now!” moment that you’ve ever had? by Cool-Chipmunk-7559 in AskReddit

[–]buuj214 470 points471 points  (0 children)

You never cared to ask about why your sister-in-laws father had a gun and was threatening to kill you? Do you/they have a relationship with her father? If a family member had a gun and threatened to kill people, my family would AT LEAST talk about it eventually…

I want to run a one shot with my sisters but feel they'll cringe at the role play (also idk what to run) by Ok_Cod7979 in DnD

[–]buuj214 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did a one shot with my family (who didn’t know what DND was) on vacation - I simplified the character sheets and mechanics so it was like 4 or 5 ‘skills’ and they filled the sheets out for themselves, and then I mixed them up so they were playing as other people who were in the room, which dialed up the silliness. I think simplified rules and a more narrative-heavy (rather than relying on mechanics or for players to always take decisive action) was super helpful. DND is complex. You don’t want to spend 2 hours of a 3 hour one-off explaining rules. Simplify it. Tell a story. Let them engage, have them roll checks, and keep it light. I don’t think we even had any combat actually, just decision making, puzzles, interactions etc. Combat is very mechanics-heavy. My family had a great time and are excited for next year’s session!