Black Workers: "Going To Work Is Racist!"

[SamSpade]

There's a commercial on kid's TV where a black kid starts talking about micro aggression, and he feels uncomfortable because the police can't see him as anything but black and feels people in general are watching what he does. It's obvious it's just a bunch of buzz words someone wants him to spew.

I want to just slap the crap out of him and say, "You're a teenager! It's just teenager paranoia! EVERY teen feels like the cops are looking at them, just waiting for them to do something wrong! You're no frikkin' different than anyone else! Stop using the race card and get a life!"

I have a story I often tell which I never quite explain the lesson I learned from it right.

Many years ago, I was trying to get a date with a girl. My roommates knew about it and they were - trying - to help me.

I waited until after our choral practice to ask her. Someone said she had gone to the bathroom. I waited in the lobby and everyone left. I realized I must have missed her. So later that day, I called her. She wasn't home, so I left a message. I called back many hours later, they said she got the message - but she was in another room with a friend in a very serious discussion. I called later, and she had left with her friend. I waited with one of my roommates, and I called later that night. She had gone to bed.

I looked at my roommate and said "you know, if I didn't know better, I'd say she's going out of her way not to go out with me".

He looked at me and said "I think you're right".

"Thanks, Jim! I thought you were supposed to be helping me!"

"Yeah, well listen to you! She barely knows you, but for her to go to all this effort, you'd have to be the most important person in the world to her. Face it - you're JUST NOT THAT IMPORTANT!".

_______________________________________________________________________________________

That - little nugget of wisdom - has enabled me to understand, forgive, overlook and deal with so much in life. Jerks who cut you off in traffic - they're not TRYING to hurt you. They DO NOT CARE and probably didn't notice - because otherwise, they actually notice YOU and do ALL THAT - just to bother YOU.

And the most basic fact in the universe is that people care almost totally about themselves. It's not wicked or evil - it's just human nature. People are into themselves. If they hurt your feelings, chances are they never noticed. It's not like they choose their actions or words JUST TO MAKE SURE you're not offended.

You don't have to look down on yourself as being insignificant. But only small children think the world revolves about them. GROWN-UPS know that most people could give a chit.

 

[Kinnakeet]

And I'm black.

Is that how you identify

 

[Kinnakeet]

I have a story I often tell which I never quite explain the lesson I learned from it right.

Many years ago, I was trying to get a date with a girl. My roommates knew about it and they were - trying - to help me.

I waited until after our choral practice to ask her. Someone said she had gone to the bathroom. I waited in the lobby and everyone left. I realized I must have missed her. So later that day, I called her. She wasn't home, so I left a message. I called back many hours later, they said she got the message - but she was in another room with a friend in a very serious discussion. I called later, and she had left with her friend. I waited with one of my roommates, and I called later that night. She had gone to bed.

I looked at my roommate and said "you know, if I didn't know better, I'd say she's going out of her way not to go out with me".

He looked at me and said "I think you're right".

"Thanks, Jim! I thought you were supposed to be helping me!"

"Yeah, well listen to you! She barely knows you, but for her to go to all this effort, you'd have to be the most important person in the world to her. Face it - you're JUST NOT THAT IMPORTANT!".

_______________________________________________________________________________________

That - little nugget of wisdom - has enabled me to understand, forgive, overlook and deal with so much in life. Jerks who cut you off in traffic - they're not TRYING to hurt you. They DO NOT CARE and probably didn't notice - because otherwise, they actually notice YOU and do ALL THAT - just to bother YOU.

And the most basic fact in the universe is that people care almost totally about themselves. It's not wicked or evil - it's just human nature. People are into themselves. If they hurt your feelings, chances are they never noticed. It's not like they choose their actions or words JUST TO MAKE SURE you're not offended.

You don't have to look down on yourself as being insignificant. But only small children think the world revolves about them. GROWN-UPS know that most people could give

I have a story I often tell which I never quite explain the lesson I learned from it right.

Many years ago, I was trying to get a date with a girl. My roommates knew about it and they were - trying - to help me.

I waited until after our choral practice to ask her. Someone said she had gone to the bathroom. I waited in the lobby and everyone left. I realized I must have missed her. So later that day, I called her. She wasn't home, so I left a message. I called back many hours later, they said she got the message - but she was in another room with a friend in a very serious discussion. I called later, and she had left with her friend. I waited with one of my roommates, and I called later that night. She had gone to bed.

I looked at my roommate and said "you know, if I didn't know better, I'd say she's going out of her way not to go out with me".

He looked at me and said "I think you're right".

"Thanks, Jim! I thought you were supposed to be helping me!"

"Yeah, well listen to you! She barely knows you, but for her to go to all this effort, you'd have to be the most important person in the world to her. Face it - you're JUST NOT THAT IMPORTANT!".

_______________________________________________________________________________________

That - little nugget of wisdom - has enabled me to understand, forgive, overlook and deal with so much in life. Jerks who cut you off in traffic - they're not TRYING to hurt you. They DO NOT CARE and probably didn't notice - because otherwise, they actually notice YOU and do ALL THAT - just to bother YOU.

And the most basic fact in the universe is that people care almost totally about themselves. It's not wicked or evil - it's just human nature. People are into themselves. If they hurt your feelings, chances are they never noticed. It's not like they choose their actions or words JUST TO MAKE SURE you're not offended.

You don't have to look down on yourself as being insignificant. But only small children think the world revolves about them. GROWN-UPS know that most people could give a chit.

I hope you looked for other poon tang and put her in the bucket list

 

[stgislander]

Is that how you identify

Only at work.

 

[Gilligan]

Is that how you identify

He's our token minority hire.

 

[gemma_rae]

He's our token minority hire.

You mean SGI looks like this?

 

[Sneakers]

View attachment 172069

You mean SGI looks like this?

A little more depressed.

 

[22AcaciaAve]

There's a lot to be said for WFH - I was doing it all but one day a week BEFORE the pandemic.

But - lunches are - "free" - inasmuch as they're my own food from my own fridge. Commutes cost nothing. I'm always on time - no traffic or weather concerns. Bathroom breaks - well, it's my bathroom, and I don't have to WAIT. The coffee pot ALWAYS has coffee in it and it doesn't cost anything.

When I am PHYSICALLY at work - most of my co-workers are either NOT in - because they also telework, part-time (a neccessary situation, because GSA keeps closing buildings and cramming us together in others) - or they are PHYSICALLY too far to make the walk to talk in person worth it.

What do I do? I use any of the instant messaging tools we have at my DESK. I can video conference - chat - and we can share each other's screens and share control (something I CANNOT do visiting a desk).

How does this differ from working from home?

No difference. My "contact" with other workers is IDENTICAL to that at home. I do it all remotely.

Now - at my physical job - I honestly cannot just stay late - I commute by bus, and it's not as though the schedule runs all night or they have THAT man buses. At home - I can pop in on my day off - late at night - REALLY early -

And my experience from home is almost identical to being in the office. I sit at my "desk" (a cubicle assigned to me for the day) and I work, just like home, with the same laptop. I attach to the network the SAME WAY. And I "talk"to others the same way. The ONLY difference - other than the advantages I've listed - is where I do it.

I gain NOTHING from being "in the office".

Agree 100%. The people who feel you need to be in the office to be productive are so out of touch. Yeah, sure some people take advantage of it. But it's not too hard to figure that out. When I was in the office it was impossible to find people in their cubes. They were always away either using their phone, or taking a walk, or hitting the snack machine. When we all work from home we know you need to be available when someone IM's you and there are so many less distractions.

The people who have a problem with WFH are control freaks and micro managers. Some jobs can't be done on a remote basis. But many can. It's a cost savings for companies. But you need to get past the people I mentioned from above. People should be judged on productivity, and not made to conform to a standard that is out dated.

 

[SamSpade]

Yeah, sure some people take advantage of it. But it's not too hard to figure that out. When I was in the office it was impossible to find people in their cubes. They were always away either using their phone, or taking a walk, or hitting the snack machine.

There's a constant refrain of people NOT being at work when at the home office. Well, newsflash, that happens AT THE OFFICE just as much.
I do think - given the opportunity - it's better to talk in person and barring that, talk on the phone - when it's something that requires the nuances of language to communicate. But IM works just as well - and better if it's not urgent.

People should be judged on productivity, and not made to conform to a standard that is out dated.

And see, my job - and those of the rest of the project - all have their jobs broken into much smaller tasks, with starts and deadlines. And we review them every week, at minimum. I've heard folks on here mention a co-worker who claims they were working on something for months and in fact, had not done anything. That really can't happen with my project - once the deadline hits, your work goes through testing. By others.

Unless you're really bad and other people are COVERING FOR YOU - you have to do the work.

To be honest - it's been rare in my career here that the work was too difficult. The slowest part of my work is often - waiting for others, such as the IT guys who grant privileges or fix network problems - and so forth.

 

[WingsOfGold]

View attachment 172069

You mean SGI looks like this?

Eyes aren't bloodshot

 

[GURPS]

A real estate billionaire said Fridays are ‘dead forever’ for offices and remote work guru Nick Bloom says he’s right—it’s part of a new 3-part week​

In June, Steven Roth, the billionaire chairman of Vornado, one of New York City’s biggest commercial landlords, said that as far as in-office work is concerned, Fridays are “dead forever.” He added that Mondays weren’t far behind (“touch and go,” as he phrased it).

Now, Nick Bloom, Stanford economics professor and head of WFH Research—a group that has been digging into remote work data since before the pandemic—has officially deemed Roth correct.

“Friday has become the day to #wfh,” Bloom tweeted on Friday, adding that it “looks like [Steven Roth] was right.” But as always with Bloom and his vaunted remote work research, there is more to the story.

Despite the fact that offices have been completely desolate on Fridays for over three years now, Bloom told Fortune that he was nonetheless surprised that Roth’s prediction has ended up bearing out. “I thought this would be more stable, but I guess…Friday [is] increasingly winning out in the WFH stakes,” Bloom told Fortune by email on Friday. “I think it’s part of the bigger push towards coordinated hybrid, whereby we have firms pushing for folks to come in on the same days.”

 

[GURPS]

80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans: ‘A lot of executives have egg on their faces’



A whopping 80% of bosses regret their initial return-to-office decisions and say they would have approached their plans differently if they had a better understanding of employees’ office attendance, their usage of office amenities and other related factors, according to new research from Envoy.

“Many companies are realizing they could have been a lot more measured in their approach, rather than making big, bold, very controversial decisions based on executives’ opinions rather than employee data,” Larry Gadea, Envoy’s CEO and founder, tells CNBC Make It.

Envoy interviewed more than 1,000 U.S. company executives and workplace managers who work in-person at least one day per week.