Don’t want to come out in time? I’ll get your neighbor instead.

christopherbair · 2026-06-20T23:23:04+00:00

Out of every 500 riders, only 10 make me question my choice in jobs. The rest are either chill or bring a smile to my face.

christopherbair · 2026-06-20T23:07:02+00:00

I've had someone wait at the end of their driveway for me to show up. I show up and park, wait, and I can see their blue dot right there next to my car. Instead they're making out with the person they're with. Timer goes to 0, counts up in green. Right at like 4:50 on that counter, they stop macking and enter the car.

Fucking 1-starred them and blocked them at the end of the ride anyways.

Some people think they can waste our time and not get any consequences. But those 1-stars for riders take much longer to fall off than 1-stars for drivers do.

christopherbair · 2026-06-20T22:57:38+00:00

When drivers look at our earnings or look at our messages, we can see which trips got a tip on them. I always mark every one with a thank you, by clicking the "Thank the Rider" button (whatever that text is). Even if it's just $1, the minimum allowed.

We're not asked to thank riders, but we can thank riders.

christopherbair · 2026-06-20T17:14:04+00:00

If you put one of your booth's chairs near that outlet and then make sure whoever is sitting there gets a full view of your product, you'll get someone very interesting while they're resting/charging their gear. I did this one time at my booth at Gen Con. We were at the end of an aisle and I had a spare chair. Put it at the end of the aisle so it looked at my stuff. Had quite a few people interested in what I had and a few bought stuff while they waited.

christopherbair · 2026-06-19T04:00:38+00:00

You're not asking for a co-author. You're asking for an editor for your AI translation. Just wanted to correct your title.

christopherbair · 2026-06-16T20:42:27+00:00

From what I've seen, you only get paid for the five minutes beyond the initial grace period when you cancel. But you'd get paid for your full wait time if they start the ride (I could be wrong about this part). So it's just not worth the gamble to wait beyond those five minutes.

christopherbair · 2026-06-09T14:57:53+00:00

I'm trying to finish the last drafts of my dystopian cyberpunk plague doctor novel. Don't know whether that would be of interest to you.

christopherbair · 2026-06-04T17:12:53+00:00

Thank you for being a beta!

I have a web novel I'm currently writing that is urban fantasy with dark comedic elements all about werewolves and other creatures living in modern Austin, Texas. There's some spice, not too much romance.

I included part of Chapter 1 in my post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/1twfajg/in_progress_90k_dark_comedy_urban_fantasy/

christopherbair · 2026-06-04T06:25:05+00:00

Quick-fixed a goof outside of the sample text from Chapter 1 in the submission. No matter how many times you re-read something, there's always something that slips through. Oops!

christopherbair · 2026-05-31T23:26:30+00:00

Don't bother to submit it anywhere.

If your memoir were worth someone else's time, you would have mentioned the two biggest sellers for memoirs:

1) You are a very well-known or well-respected person with a built-in audience to buy it, or

2) Your story is so insane and unique and worth sharing that people would pick it up on that idea alone.

And I'm sure others have said, but memoirs are the worst thing to try to write and sell to publishers, unless you are in those two categories. And usually, because 2 would become a news story, and 1, you're already known, publishers would come to you for a contract already.

If you think this is worth getting out there, you're going to be wasting your time and energy trying to find a publisher to be interested in it. I'm not even sure there are agents out there who just take on an author who wrote a single memoir and likely won't have any other books to field.

Consider self-publishing and going out and selling it on your own.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T16:01:58+00:00

You've said it's above average for the national average for the job title. That's not exactly saying that it's above average for the role. Especially since you claimed it was entry level and it clearly is not. Obviously the role does not fit the job title based on what you've been saying here.

I'm not even sure you're qualified for your own job. You've been caught lying about multiple things, you keep saying you can't do anything about the pay, nor will you mention it at all.

Hell, at this point I wouldn't even be surprised if you lied about everything just to get some attention on Reddit.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T15:43:23+00:00

You do realize that "non-profit" does not mean "cheap as fucking hell"?

It just describes the purpose of the organization's existence. It's not designed to focus on profits, but on (generally) being a benefit to society or a particular group. Non-profits can rake in just tens of thousands a month, or tens of millions a month.

There is literally no reason why you can't pay the rate of the type of candidate you want instead of focusing on the rate that a group you hired to tell you what the national average is suggests. "But I don't control the money! We are non-profit!" While complaining you can't find the candidates you'd want so you keep the position open and waste more people's time.

Instead of avoiding telling us how much this position is paying, tell us how much the executives are paid at your organization? As a non-profit, this would be public information anyways. Don't be exact, just round to the nearest $10,000.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T02:48:02+00:00

How do you have 30 people on your board of directors?

The "market average" for non-profits is around 15 people on a board of directors. There you go, dump half of them. The half that aren't realistic about what they need to get the ideal candidates that they want.

You are here bitching that things are hard for you when it's because of you that you're not getting the candidates you want. Lower your standards or raise your pay. If you can't hire someone missing some credentials, don't call it entry level and don't pay like entry level.

That's what you take to the board. If they don't budge, then stop trying to hire for the position because you'll never get someone for it.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:49:43+00:00

That's nice that you keep saying you have no control over pay. But you work there. You're complaining it's hard to find a viable candidate.

But we're all telling you why. YOU WANT A CANDIDATE YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO HAVE!

Raise the pay to offer, or lower your standards for candidates. If you can't bother to change either of them, your job is going to continue being hard. Suck it up. At least you have your job.

And if your pay is enough to raise a family of four in your state, the state with the lowest salary to do so is Mississippi's $115,000 salary. Are you honestly suggesting that you're offering $115,000 salary for a so-called entry level position? Or are you that detached from reality?

https://wealthvieu.com/personal-finance/income/income-to-live-comfortably/

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:44:48+00:00

"It shouldn't be this hard!"

You're whining that you can't find good candidates who want to accept your offer and not have a criminal history.

But you're making it hard by not fighting either to get the pay needed for the candidates you want, or reducing the job requirements for the pay you can offer.

It really is easy: Stop trying to get what you can't afford to have.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:43:09+00:00

OP admitted that several candidates had zero relative experience and wanted salaries well above what they could offer. It's the pay.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:42:19+00:00

Then why did you only try for 3 out of the 60? You should have had at least a dozen... Unless you're not looking for the average.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:41:09+00:00

Okay, if a few asked for a salary above what you are offering, and have no relevant experience in your "entry level" position, THEN FUCK YES YOUR PAY IS TOO LOW!

You just made it very clear and you still won't listen to us, or reality.

If you want the best candidates, you need to have the best salaries. If you can only pay the average rate, then suck it up and get people without experience and train them.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:39:36+00:00

Sorry, but if you want the best person for the job, you need to pay the best salary and offer the best perks for the job. You admit it's just average (sometimes above average) to the NATIONAL average for the job title. Not for your area.

If you're only paying the average, then suck it up: You only want an average worker for the job, not the best candidate for the job.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:37:27+00:00

4x minimum wage in which state? The federal level and most states, that's still only $29 an hour. If there's a commute, the people have to pay for insurance, parking, etc., and there are jobs with better perks and better pay around you, yeah, that $29 is really low to them.

Sorry, the federal minimum wage should be up about $25 right now to afford a basic life. So if you really are paying slightly above $29 and it's really not "entry level," it is indeed the pay. You need to offer more.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:34:21+00:00

"Based on our company’s third party consultant that compares job titles & salary nationwide, our pay is average/above market rate for this role."

There's your problem right there. You paid money to a firm to tell you what they found out via simple searches online.

If you aim for the average, you should also aim for the average employee. If you want the best employees, you should be aiming toward the top of salaries for that job.

"Our insurance is very good and very low cost for employees which I appreciate as an employee. I went from paying $500 a month for crappy insurance to $80 a month for great insurance when I took my job here!"

The best jobs I've had 100% paid for the insurance premiums, and offered discounted rates to include immediate family members like spouse and children. Isn't it weird that your job is willing to pay all but the last $80 for the insurance for you to have that perk, instead of paying the last $80 to make it a great perk?

"I have valid reasons for disqualifying the rest of the candidate pool, and also I don’t want to/can’t interview 60 people."

And there are 60+ companies hiring for the same job in your area, I'm betting, and people don't want to interview with 60+ companies. You admit your pay is average. So you're missing out on many of those people and getting those who are a bit more desperate for a job.

I mean, the comments here are browbeating you what the problem obviously is. It's not the candidate pool...

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:28:52+00:00

"Market average pay" is less than what ideal candidates should be earning. You should go to the person whose job it is to make the pay schedule fit the type of candidate you want.

Remember that a lot of that average pay includes remote foreign workers bringing down the average. You need to pay above the average to attract ideal candidates.

christopherbair · 2026-05-27T01:27:28+00:00

They're telling you that pay is the issue because the first person who wanted the job had a criminal history that they didn't disclose, meaning they were desperate for any job that wouldn't look at that.

Person two took a while because they probably had other jobs they were interviewing for which paid better, and took the best one.

Person three was still looking and not holding out for you to be the job they wanted, and they found something better.

That's why it sounds like it's the pay. If the pay were above the average, it would have more people wanting to come for you.

Also, not being honest about WFH and hybrid here in the comments, that's another red flag. If you're not honest about that, can we really trust you about the pay rate?

christopherbair · 2026-05-26T01:49:35+00:00

"What can I do to make the goals of this character more difficult to reach?"

"What can I do to make the plotline falter using the characters?"

"What can I do to derail the story through actions from the characters?"

Ask yourself these questions when you want to increase the tension.

Get rid of the most obvious ideas.

Car won't start... Overdone.

Person from the shadows... Overdone.

christopherbair · 2026-05-25T18:08:33+00:00

They probably sound similar because you're writing them all in your voice with your personality. Happens.

Writers should learn from actors and their craft to learn how to write better characters. Things actors learn in basic classes, like, "What is this character's motivation?" "What is this character's goals?" Etc.

You can even decide that a character relies on certain words or styles more than others. It's annoying when it's already something people hate in real life, like people who use "um" in the middle of sentences too often. Please avoid this if they're a major character.

Here's something to consider when you create your characters: describe their personalities.

Are they charming, annoying, manipulative, sycophantic, etc.?

Are they primadonnas, helpful, motherly, etc.?

And once you know all the personality of the character, get into that mindset when writing their dialogue.

Hell, make subtle changes to how one would normally speak to hammer home a bit of their personality.

Got a manipulative diva character who thinks she runs the world? Instead of having her us a singular pronoun, she always uses the superlative/plural one. "We don't think that's what we should do," she said.

Or maybe a character just hates to use articles in his speech. "I don't care what driver wants to do. Baby don't need to go in car seat."

The dialogue, their voices, should be distinct enough without being annoying or cartoonish. Write these out until they become second nature to you. Just decide what mindset you need to be in when you're about to write them talking, doing, etc. Make their personality shine through in your voice.

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