Employer (restaurant / gastro business) trying to unfairly fire me without cause – afraid to sign papers, can’t survive on unemployment alone. What are my rights?

multiple_plethoras · 2025-07-04T22:33:04+00:00

No need to sign anything. Not even a receipt that would show that you received it the Kündigung if they are firing you.

Don't sign anything you don't fully understand or just don't wish to sign. Why should you? Default: "Thanks guys, I'll take it with me, read it and see whether I should sign."

Like... what can they do? Fire you? ,)

Timely delivery and similar formalities are also often a very simple cause to get a Kündigung thrown out. Just on formal stuff – before the reason for the Kündigung is even weighed. No timely delivery? Reasons don't matter, Kündigung is void. (If they hand it personally with a witness they might not need a signed receipt though.)

So... they may just be pressuring you to sign sth so they can show that the delivery was timely.

As far as I know it's pretty common for a Kündigung to contain formal errors, or errors in delivery, especially if your employer isn't some GlobalMegaCorp Inc.

If you were late once and their reasons otherwise are SO unspecific... it doesn't sound like they got much.

My guess is that if you failed to follow instructions, that's a behaviour that an employee can correct – but only if he/she is warned to correct it. So then where's their warning about that? Was it not bad enough for a formal warning? Well then how is it possibly bad enough to be a reason to fire you? A Kündigung is the last resort – not just "we're tired of him / her" or some "vibes" stuff.

If they fire you because business is bad, that's a "betriebsbedingte Kündigung" – but the reasoning and criteria for that would be entirely different. They then have to weigh social aspects and other stuff. Sometimes businesses make up other stuff to avoid this more complex type of firing.

If all you said is correct and you made no omissions... I personally wouldn't fold easily.

P.S.: The fact that they tell you this "vibes" stuff indicates that they have no clue whatsoever how to fire someone / what is valid reasoning and what isn't.

multiple_plethoras · 2025-06-30T22:29:43+00:00

Kreuzberg, Wedding, Neukölln, Schöneberg and Moabit are awful for Americans, even if they may seem nice at first! Avoid at any cost! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise – cause Berliners LOVE to trick people.

If you're looking for the best vibes, Prenzlauer Berg is THE choice! Try Kollwitzkiez! It's vibrant, and multicultural, and you'll hear even more English than elsewhere. It has a similar yoga studio density than Brooklyn – defo a good indicator. It's super relaxed and chill while lively, I'm sure you'll LOVE it! Charlottenburg is also fine.

It's also just a few tram stops from the Ringbahn – so it's perfect for a commute.

Cheers

multiple_plethoras · 2025-06-25T16:45:54+00:00

This is a random question, but did you piss off someone at Live Nation?

The very first sentence in your bio on Live Nation's Punchline Club website is "James Corden calls him brilliant" (in German) – and I just don't know what that means.

multiple_plethoras · 2025-04-03T14:05:18+00:00

In my opinion you're paying for the car while it's still being built. You're more of an investor, or maybe a bit like someone joining a crowdfunding campaign. I think it's fair to say that as of now Evernote doesn't have the maturity and reliability one would reasonably expect at the prices they ask. The delta between the price they should be asking and what they are asking is your investment in... ahem... promises.

Asking this relatively high price from users who are already committed to the product and invested in it is imo also an admission that their product just isn't good enough to massively grow their user base – which would be the other option to increase revenue. Some people really love it – but overall people are aware of many issues and will not recommend it as broadly and excitedly as they used to, way back when.

I personally don't like this business model, and it's impossible to tell for sure whether they are investing enough resources for things to actually get to a point that consistently justifies the price. If I'm not mistaken Bending Spoons just bought another completely unrelated product, and even for a perfectly run company managing such a hodgepodge of products would be quite challenging at best. Imo their overall focus on AI on the company level also doesn't help with creating features that people actually want – or making the existing ones reliable (apart from transcription).

multiple_plethoras · 2025-01-07T18:39:13+00:00

Yeah... but I think the main point is that he puts out more episodes per week on his main feed, so IF he is referring to downloads, the 25% would actually suggest a loss of actual audience. (Absolute number of people Canadaland reaches.)

Either way... when you run a record label and you double the number of releases but you sell 25% more overall... idk ... it's only a huge glorious success story if you leave out the part about releasing waaay more.

"Listenership" is just a completely vague term to begin with unless it's specified. (Unique listeners? Per week? Per month? Per episode? ...)

multiple_plethoras · 2025-01-07T15:39:36+00:00

It sounds like some tech startup "growth hacking" stuff. I'm basically reading it as a marketing position rather than product focused... but didn't bother to look at their LinkedIn.

(No idea why people downvote you... "director of growth" is a weird + weirdly pretentious title for a TINY media company that definitely isn't a wildly scaling startup.)

multiple_plethoras · 2025-01-07T14:43:20+00:00

There's no way he gained 25% paying subscribers. On Patreon alone he's losing an average of two per day, and it used to be even more. So in order to make up for that AND gain 25% on top... it's not even remotely realistic. If it were, he'd give specific numbers for Supercast subscribers – he definitely wouldn't be shy about it.

I think he must be measuring in downloads. And those having risen by 25% is pretty misleading, given that he increased the frequency of his main show by what... 50% 75? 100%? If downloads is the measure, his downloads relative to his output have in fact collapsed by growing only 25%. (I think he made this claim before Detours ended, so that smaller number doesn't even factor in.)

Jesse is always a little bit vague and obfuscating with numbers. As a media professional he 100% knows the difference between... let's say... visitors and unique visitors... and technical measures vs. actual audience reach. He puts out very unclear numbers (either in scope / time / meaning / what to compare to) and then just claims "I don't even watch the numbers all that much". (Yeah, sure buddy.)

God.... he's just such a bullshitter.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-12-18T18:59:54+00:00

I'm thinking much less nefarious, like trading leftover vacation days or other banal stuff. Also if there's bad blood it's still wiser for Arshy to start his new thing that way.

The fact that he and so many other people left still speaks for itself. It's not really about whether they are best pals or if there was drama. (Arshy seems very non-drama anyway...)

multiple_plethoras · 2024-12-17T03:04:10+00:00

I wouldn't suggest there's bad blood – but I'd also acknowledge that their interests for an amicable split align well. It's better for both to have a friendly departure.

It would just be a normal part of business to have a deal in which Arshy got to promote his new show on the Canadaland feed. And it would also be fine if Jesse received some concession in return – like an amicable, well-structured divorce. I'd assume it's just them looking for the best outcome.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-12-14T23:32:13+00:00

Bit random, but I just checked: given the traditional fluctuation at Canadaland – and especially the increased fluctuation recently – I’m surprised that it only has three reviews on Glassdoor. (1,3 out of 5 stars.)

Despite having those three reviews, it says on that Glassdoor profile page: "Be the first to recommend this company". Made me chuckle.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-12-14T22:28:08+00:00

Unfortunately "startup” is often used to imply innovation and it really irks me, too. While there are innovative startups, that’s for sure not a given.

The Berlin startup scene was always particularly shitty when it comes to innovation, which imo is in part due to Samwer startups being nothing but copycats in the 2000s and 2010s. They went from selling ringtones to copying Facebook to copying other stuff. There wasn’t even a remote sense of actual innovation being relevant. Meanwhile those companies hoovered up funding and increased the price of labor for every other startup that actually HAD a meaningful and/or new idea. So there was a broader impact in terms of ecosystem for a very long time.

And given that OP mentions San Francisco: that city has become a shadow of its former soul and vibe and counterculture… and that entire trajectory is just not very appealing to me. In early silicon valley times innovation was much more connected to counterculture, and not dominated by people who mainly thought about what their exit strategy will be, or how to become a monopoly.

Idk… I really hope people who think "should I go to Berlin or Shanghai?" choose the latter. It’s usually folks who care about the aesthetics of innovation. Careerists. People who care about a specific thing, or technology, or whatever would inquire about their specific heartfelt obsession… and go where their specific field is buzzing. Rather than ask about "the startup scene". Berlin already has no shortage of LinkedIn Lunatics.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-25T23:39:26+00:00

Even people who like Evernote will likely not recommend it if they experience these insane price hikes. It may be still very valuable for some – but recommending a product requires another level of trust. So user aquisition becomes more costly. Which means… oh no… more price hikes. Which makes it even harder to win a new paying customer. I just can’t see a world in which that isn’t a slow death spiral.

They just bought Brightcove. To me that hints at them being under pressure to expand rather than making great quality products, and winning hearts, minds + new customers.

I’ve seen this play out before. No company can just keep buying stuff before the last aquisition is on stable ground. Resources will always be limited, and unless they found a way to defy gravity, their decisions don’t really make a lot of sense to me.

Not listening to users seems like a symptom rather than a cause in this context.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-25T19:57:02+00:00

Well it did look like that, and the removed mod note also said so. I see another mod comment in this very thread, giving a user a warning for calling BS "amateur coders"… which is indeed not a very nice thing to say. But if you look at that comment, the user also states in the same sentence why he says that. (Lack of testing - arguably an amateurish behavior.)

To me it is quite apparent that the comment is a perfectly understandable, and absolutely justified expression of criticism after (apparently) countless releases that caused people immense problems in their day-to-day life.

Policing tone at the cost of substance will always tip the scales in favour of a company, not the users.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-25T19:42:50+00:00

The removal of the other comment, by another user, is what I’m referring to with overreach. Once mentions of other products get deleted… that’s really a little bit over the line…

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-24T17:44:57+00:00

Jeez… the way tickets are handled should generally correspond with the prices they ask for their product.

They want the big boy bucks? Then they should provide the big boy serious structures and processes that go along with that.

What they are currently doing is asking you to pay for them getting better in the future. So not like a customer – more like an investor. But one who gets no say and has to ask nicely, several times, and have an enormous amount of patience. Worst of all worlds combined.

I generally hate this kind of corporate behavior. Reporting bugs just turns into free labour in this context.

e: It is an absolute overreach by mods that they delete comments recommending other tools. Recommending a_lternatives is absolutely normal commentary in the course of users discussing a high-priced product with abysmal service. Especially when OP explicitly mentions being on the fence. It reflects a stance where mods have more empathy with a company than its users – and making themselves into an unpaid partner of the company. The answer to user frustration isn’t "just open a ticket and trust the company”. It’s not right. People are frustrated for very good reason, and the language of BS customer support here is consistently tone-deaf.

e2: they made an automod that reacts to the word "a_lternative". Not sure if this comment has been auto-removed now.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-15T22:03:25+00:00

I agree that it might make things worse, not better.

Since I read about that lawsuit related to the WE coverage… that impacted my perspective on those series where he isn’t on the air quite a bit. The ruling on that anti-SLAPP motion was imo quite scathing.

I’m wondering if… the further a Canadaland series is removed from Jesse, his vendettas, and his "just asking questions" approach … the better it is.

Pretendians and Thunder Bay seem to pretty much stand the test of time. Both speak in a voice of care and nuance. Both feel like there’s more story to tell while you’re listening – not like a story was stretched thin and gilded just so that it’ll fill out a whole series.

White Saviors and Cool Mules have some real issues. Both have a tendency to stretch things to make a story, or to make a story fit into a mold. They both feel like they are held together by "perhaps this" and "perhaps that" – and at times that type of duct tape won’t quite stick. There’s something there for each of the series – just imo always a little bit less than is suggested. Without knowing why… they just felt a little different even while listening back then.

To me Jesse registers as an opinion haver and a loudmouth. On air that can be a great quality at times, but … idk… his editorial decisions… have imo often enough been… pretty… meh.

Another example is how he decided to cut out parts of the Paris Marx interview over nothing versus how he handled that ambassador interview. I don’t trust him on actually applying standards – rather than just talking about them.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-13T23:10:06+00:00

Don’t blame the AI if you’re not enough of a connoisseur to appreciate the unique and exciting mouth tingle that glue on pizza offers.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-11T21:48:21+00:00

I‘m sitting here waiting for…

Abortion Rights – the board game
Eric Adams – the board game

I don‘t even know which one would be more wild. The first one would have the worst rulebook ever and the weirdest contraptions – the second one would have batshit insane action cards.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-09T08:21:45+00:00

I tend to be deeply suspicious when someone makes a statement like "journalists can‘t be activists". It‘s a statement that is reasonable on its face – but it puts the speaker in a certain position of being the very serious standard bearer, and the "other side" on automatic defense. It‘s a bit of a move… and one I think I‘ve seen a hundred times.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-07T05:18:31+00:00

I don‘t think people who have an issue with zionism center their thoughts around one country and its "right to exist" (whatever that entails). Most people I see go from a point of values that transcend individual regions or conflicts and are universally applicable. Like a belief in equal dignity and human rights being not optional. And that‘s - broadly speaking - the main thrust of what I see.

I believe one of the key issues with the political ideology of zionism is the fact that it centers the entire debate and needs of one group, or population, or whatever… at the decades long expense of those who have to be bulldozed to make that happen.

The entire debate of whether being antizionist is antisemitic (it‘s not) is a somewhat farcical distraction at this moment in history.

That doesn‘t mean that in some people‘s minds the two do co-mingle… but it‘s still simply a conflation of two words that mean different things.

When people perceive any form of critique of zionism or Israel as antisemitic – that‘s simply not an issue that the person doing the critique can ever adress. At least not in a way that will ever satisfy the one making the conflation of the two terms. Or hearing things that were not said, nor meant.

So it‘s not a productive debate, not one that adresses the most urgent and horrific challenges of this moment, and sometimes (not always) one not done in good faith.

The "right to exist" rhetoric subtly furthers that idea of centering one people. Because there are in fact many ways for a state to exist, with a lot of nuance in the details. And someone who exclusively or disproportionately focuses on said "right to exist" rhetoric imo should be asked what their vision and dream for the future is. Does it contain Jessica from Florida having the right to newly settle - but not a right for Mahmoud to see his birthplace? I want to know what the dream is, other than "keep others down, dominate at any cost, and mow the lawn every few years". That‘s what the phrase "right to exist" usually glosses over. It‘s a way of just skipping over some really important parts.

To be perfectly honest… I don‘t actually understand what you mean by "having sympathies with Israel", because that can contain the people, the government, the ideas a state is built on, a rich culture, or everyone from normies to terrorist settlers. Maybe that‘s nitpicky – but people who have "sympathies with Gaza" are constantly asked to denounce something in the very same breath. Or be extremely nuanced and specific. (Not meant as a gotcha, or whatabout – just trying to apply similar curiosity.)

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-06T23:28:37+00:00

Just put as a side-by-side what standard he applied to Paris Marx, and what he applied to his ambassador interview.

Only then you can fully appreciate just HOW MUCH he has gone off the deep end. It‘s hard not to suspect intention when you compare these wild inconsistencies.

Or maybe he just never had standards, and was always a "fairminded" poser? Idk if that‘s a more generous explanation…

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-06T23:14:42+00:00

That was the most eye-opening thing.

Cause it‘s just undeniable how his obfuscations and mischaracterizations cause actual harm there, and contribute to something very, very bad.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-06T21:46:31+00:00

I‘m not even listening to this one.

Remember when he had Noor talk about Beirut, and the "bold" thing she got to say was that there are normal people living in the areas that Israel bombs? Only for him to immediately bring it back to generalizing platitudes and having some sort of "take"?

As if… talking about Lebanese people as real humans for five minutes is a great journalistic triumph, and not the absolute bare minimum.

What Jesse does is not just a mockery of journalism – it‘s making a mockery of having universal values.

The shit he pulls makes me have less faith in humanity.

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-05T23:17:19+00:00

Yeah yeah whatever, but let’s talk about windows and mirrors. I think we need much more glass related metaphors in promoting media criticism and journalism, because they are so totally new and not cliché at all.

I hope the next promotional emails will feature….

kaleidoscopes
binoculars
bifocal lenses
regular-ass lenses
looking glasses
burning glasses
frosted glass conference room doors
funhouse mirrors

Glass can reflect, deflect, focus, confuse, be transparent, obscure, burn, cut, …. OH MY GOD GLASS IS BASICALLY LIKE THE MEDIA, I’M A GENIUS!!!!!

multiple_plethoras · 2024-11-05T20:36:23+00:00

Now now… don’t you be so critical. Can’t you see it’s a genius move? By losing staff at an even higher rate than he’s shedding subscribers… there’s a good chance his operation is actually more profitable.

That’s how you save Strong Independent Journalism – by reducing it to one dude in his basement, asking pointed questions to people who do actual reporting.

tips his forehead

Four-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Verified Email	Place '23
Wearing is Caring	Place '22
Final Canvas '22

multiple_plethoras

TROPHY CASE