And, hopefully, the bricks are yellow due to gold, and not piss.

Looks like the drinking-water-loudly guy has noticed that it bugs me. He caught me rubbing my ears whenever he drinks from his bottle.

If I didn't, though, I'd have to strangle him. That sound drives me nuts.

Currently actively trying to switch jobs. The place I work for now merged with another company 18 months ago, and it's killing me. They moved me to a job they knew I wasn't a good fit for, and am now punishing me for not "thriving" (gosh, wonder why???). I'm currently in another office for a most definate temporary job, that despite 60-140 minute commute is SO MUCH more enjoyable than my normal job.

But looking for work sucks, especially now. Nobody wants to do after-hours interviews (although after-hours work is part of my job no matter where I go), even though I'm currently employed (no, my boss will never be suspicious when I need to go away for four hours). Blech.

Ugh.

I'm not sure what to suggest.

Are you able to work from home, or work odd hours such that you can squeeze an interview into the end of a day?

What a complete waste of time this meeting is turning out to be for me.

Same as last week.

Yep, completely wasted a little over 30 mins, with more of this tomorrow.

The bright side of this is the office I'm currently at is managed by a former co-worker, who is cool with my leaving for interviews - but the four-hour time commitment seems extreme to me on a first interview, and I don't want to test his patience by leaving for half-a-day on a regular basis. Not much I can do, though, I guess.

Demanding a letter of reference is a common way of getting them to
fire you before you quit.

...unless you are a Physics teacher. That gives you the ability to make all sorts of outrageous demands and - actually - get most of them met! <evil grin>

I had the honor of introducing one of our managers to www.penisland.net.

Hmmm... we closing our office for an extra six days over the next two months without having warned the employees earlier in the year that they'll have to take time out of their saved vacation (if they have any) to do it.

In my case, it puts me in the red... I haven't worked here long enough to save enough days to accomodate their enforced, mandatory vacation.

I think this is a new low in corporate strategies to fuck over their employees.

Feh. Being forced to take time off and complaining...
Who are you, Sheldon Cooper?

It's a problem if you had other plans for the time off, or won't get paid for it.

Maybe I didn't explain the problem clearly enough.

They are not giving me time off. They're forcing me to take the time I wish to acrue for vacation and spend it at a time of their choosing rather than mine.

If this were a matter of having two weeks of vacation saved up and they're telling me that I cannot have any more until I use what I have, no problem.
I get that. Well, at least if they don't deny me the opportunity to take vacation so I can spend what I've saved, I'm okay with it.

But here, I haven't worked long enough to acrue much vacation time at all.
Yet, they're forcing me to take time I haven't saved, putting me in the red (I will owe them vacation days). If they opted to fire me, I'd probably have to take them to court to fight for the pay they would take from me because they forced me to go negative on my vacation days.

Do you have a contract of any sort?
Are you hourly? Per-diem?
In what state is your workplace? Is it the same as the state in which you live?

This may very well be illegal, but unless you feel very secure in your job then fighting it may find you unemployed.

The thing I'm not understanding is why? If they're forcing everyone to take paid vacation, it doesn't save them any money?

I live in a state where contract cannot compel either party to enforce employment... I can leave anytime I want, and they can fire me anytime they want, without cause.

I work where I live (at least as far as the state is concerned). So that's okay.

I'm not going to fight it, unless they fire me then demand that I pay them for the time off I took that they forced me to take. And, even then, I shouldn't think there's a crazy amount of money involved over a few days. It's mostly for the principle.

But, it does make me feel just a tad less loyal than I might otherwise have felt towards my employer.

oh, it could be a lot worse.

strange decision, though, to close down a software company. doubtless you all have a bunch of work that you need to catch up on, so it doesn't feel like this is to their advantage, unless there's something I'm not seeing.