1924 réponses à ce sujet

[Lorien19]

Take all the time you need,we are not going anywhere.We are all in agreement here that it shouldn't cause you more stress than you already have.I wish you the best with your work!

[Kerridwynn]

I agree with everyone else.  This should not be a source of stress and please do not be concerned about us.

 

We'll be here.

[Mahumia]

Just... mind-blowing. There was just a topic on the news here about Obama wanting to introduce 'maternity leave'... wait what?! The US does not have maternity leave?! Ok, not every country has to have such an awesome regulation as the Scandinavian countries have, but I was taking for granted that the proposed 'six weeks' was just.... normal?

 

The topic also mentioned some other things we take for granted over here, like protection for the employee when getting ill, instead of 'oh, you're in your bed with a serious flu, vomiting and having a fever? Well, too bad, you're fired!'

 

Seriously blowing my mind that a modern country like the US is somehow capable of having medieval standards when it comes to their employees Now I feel seriously spoiled with my 40 hours a week contract, minimum of six weeks a year holiday leave, paid sickleave on top of that, etc...

[Kerridwynn]

Most people in the professional arena have good benefits.  Most of those companies do have policies for paid sick leave, maternity and paternity leave, paid time off, etc etc.  It's just not regulated by the government.  Most companies realize that by treating their employees correctly they get better employees.

 

However, there are some sectors that don't have those sorts of benefits lined out for their employees.  Off the top of my head I'm thinking retail workers.  Most of those people have minimal benefits in their jobs.  I assume that's why Obama has decided that he wants to make maternity leave mandatory across the board in the US.  

[berelinde]

Many companies, even large ones, do not offer paid maternity leave. They are legally obligated to give you 6 weeks off as unpaid family leave without fear of being fired for it, but there is no legally mandated paid maternity leave. As a contractor, I have not had a paid holiday, paid sick day, or paid vacation day since 2005. I have not had a week of consecutive days off since 2005.

 

The job market in some fields is very competitive. In New Jersey, the average is 3 applicants for every available job (including retail and fast food!). If you're a chemist, the job market is completely saturated, three times the average rate, and benefits are something your parents remember. It is very rare for companies to hire you directly, and even rarer to transition from contractor to permanent employee, especially if you're over 40. I was unemployed for 11 months and only took my present job because my benefits were running out and I was desperate. The pay is less than I have made at any point since 2000, well below industry standards, but running out of unemployment benefits is worse. I'm only allowed to bill for 40 hours/week, so at the end of the day, my pay per hour worked comes out to be about the same as retail. I know PhD scientists who work in convenience stores because their benefits ran out and they had no choice.

 

Any time Obama says that he's going to attempt to legislate corporate ethics, I cringe. Obama care, what a wonderful idea. Forty percent of Americans lack health coverage? No problem! We'll make a law that says that employers must provide health coverage. Except that they added a loophole where employees who work less than 30 hours per week are exempt. Now, whenever a company wants to hire somebody, they'll hire 2 people at 25 hours/week instead. Great. Plus, it drives down the unemployment figures because 2 people are working instead of 1. This isn't just retail. J&J (Band-Aids, Tylenol, etc) is now filling professional positions with part-timers, all contractors, naturally. I'm talking chemists, biologists, scientists. Making hourly rates barely above retail with no paid time off or health coverage.

 

Fact: Contractors are exploited by companies, working for a decade or longer for the same company without ever getting benefits or any kind of job security. The government's answer: require companies who employ contractors to limit contracts to 2 years maximum, after which, contractors are forbidden to work for the same company for six months. Great. So now, companies hire you as a contractor (often for less than 40 hours a week at low rates) and then cut you loose after a year. After all, there's plenty of workers. They'll hire more. Meanwhile, unemployment benefits take 2 years to reset. If you were unemployed before, you've already used all or part of your 6 months unemployment benefits, so you stand a good chance of having them run out. And with 6 months between contracts, your benefits will not last long enough for the company to rehire you. And if anything happens to you, serious illness or whatever, they'll just cut you loose. There's plenty. They'll hire another one. Welcome to my hell.

 

If Obama does mandate paid maternity leave, it won't help. There are *always* reasons to fire someone, and the burden of proof is on the employee. It's like the rules against sexual harassment. Yes, the company is legally forbidden to penalize employees who report offenses... but the employee has to prove their termination was the result of the offense. I have a  good friend who decided to report a coworker for harassment. They didn't fire her for reporting him. They fired her for being 5 minutes late. Once. Yes, it happens.

 

Oh, and here's the fun part. If you quit a job, you aren't eligible for unemployment benefits. I'd have quit my job ages ago... but I can't. It's illegal to work hours you don't report, but I have because I need the job. My hours are undocumented. So if I quit, I can't prove it was over working too many hours, so it will look like I did it on a whim. No unemployment benefits. If you get fired from your job for not meeting performance objectives, no unemployment benefits (if you contest it in court and win, you may claim benefits after 12 weeks). So, if I keep to the 40 hours/week I'm supposed to work, I won't make my deadlines, and I won't get unemployment when my contract ends.

 

Last time I was out of work, it took me 11 months to find a job. At the time, unemployment in NJ was super high, 9%, so they had a supplemental unemployment program that provided 46 weeks of unemployment benefits. Now, unemployment in NJ is down to 7%, so the state offers only 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. I am worried.

 

Keep in mind that unemployment figures show only the people who are actively collecting unemployment benefits. It does not include people who have been out of work long enough for those benefits to run out.

[berelinde]

Sorry for being such a jerk. I realize that nobody likes a Debbie Downer, it's just that all this has had such a profound affect on my life, it's hard for me to be neutral about it.

 

Something to put it in perspective.

 

Spoiler

 

For my family, it started back in the mid '80s. They deregulated the trucking industry in the US, so competition between various trucking companies became intense, with every company attempting to squeeze profit out of a saturated market. In order to remain competitive, companies cut costs. Salaries plummeted and the payroll was slashed. My dad, a salesman for a trucking company, was forced to jump from job to job, working 6 months here, a year there, until he was eventually forced to retire at 59 1/2. There was simply no more work to be had. That was not good news for someone who was just entering college. We did without a lot, and I had to work full time as a waitress while going to college.

 

In 1990, I graduated college and became a chemist. The pharmaceutical industry is big in my part of the country, so that's where I managed to get a job. Because I'd been forced to work to pay for my schooling, I didn't have any experience as an intern anywhere, so I had to take what work I could get. Also, because I worked so many hours, my grades weren't quite as good as they could have been. I did what I could, with a solid B average, but I wasn't in a position to be too choosy.

 

For the next 15 years, things were pretty good. I made good money, the company was doing great, and it looked like everything was going to be ok. The bubble burst. Just like in the 80s when fierce competition forced (and eventually destroyed) the trucking industry, pressure about managed healthcare and generics turned the pharmaceutical industry very competitive. Like my dad, I had a lot of experience in my field, and I was expensive. Ever since then, I've been jumping from job to job, a year here, two years there, always wondering if there's another job coming. My dad was 55 when the trucking industry collapsed. I was 37. Not good. But at least I don't have 3 kids to support, so that's something.

 

So yeah, when your field is in its boom years, it's really easy to take things for granted and assume that prosperity is the norm, but when funding drops and companies start looking to cut their budgets, benefits (and job security) disappear.

 

On the flipside, it's maybe too easy for me to imagine that the bleak worldstate in my field is the norm. It's possible that my perspective is biased. I guess it depends on who you ask.

 

Anyway, sorry for rambling at such length about this. If I can get a few hours later on, I'll see if I can get the combat stuff up to give us something less controversial to talk about.

[TreeHuggerHannah]

Ruth, the last thing I would ever call you is a jerk! *hugs* I couldn't agree more that people need to be treated fairly as human beings, not just cogs in the wheel.

 

Just to let you know, I've been hit with a stomach bug and don't have much energy for posting. Hopefully it'll clear up quickly, but if you need to skip me, Tempest entered Stealth when she heard the alarm as I mentioned in my last post, and unless someone is significantly injured before her turn, she'll use her first combat round to cast Rock Armor on herself.

[berelinde]

Hope you feel better soon! Stomach bugs are the worst!

[BFace]

Feel better, Hannah! *careful hugs* 

[Mahumia]

Get well Hannah! 

 

And Ruth: thank you for sharing your point of view! It's helpful for me to get some input from the 'actual side', instead of only hearing things via the news I do not pretend that everything is alright over here (for example: employers only want to hand out temporary contracts, so they can ditch employees easily. A downside is that those employees can hardly get a mortgage to buy a house, as they have no security. So, the government came up with a 'solution': after 4x a temp contract, employers have to offer a permanent one. In practise employers just won't renew the contract and fire the person who all of a sudden isn't functioning anymore). I was just surprised to see that so little is arranged via law. I mean: it leaves so much more room for disaster when sh!t hits the fan, as Ruth mentioned  

 

I hope everything will come around for you Ruth. I wish I could do something I have no idea whether my company has any chemists (they do have a lab though), but that's all the way over to Indiana anyway. 

[berelinde]

It's the same here, Miriam. After 2 years, the host company is *supposed* to offer a permanent position... but they get around that by refusing to renew contracts a second time.

 

Mine is a special case. I'm an "old" chemist. I began my career when modern technologies were just starting to appear, so I learned both the modern, more automated methods and older, more labor-intensive methods. In my current job, I'm analyzing skin oils and fats, which respond very poorly to modern analytical methods. They needed somebody who knew the older methods, which was me... but most people with that knowledge are in their late 40s at the very youngest, and most of them have already progressed in their careers long past the point where they'd ever consider the pay on offer. So, they *want* to end my contract and bring in somebody new... but there's nobody with the skillset they need who is willing to work for what they're paying. So they keep renewing the contract and hope that nobody from the government investigates. There are companies in Europe who will do the testing they want... for 10 times the cost.

 

As usual, I'm going to try to get a post up, but it may or may not happen. I have to work this weekend, and we're waiting on news about my mother-in-law, so no idea how much free time there will be.

[TreeHuggerHannah]

Thanks for the well wishes, guys! My stomach bug was miserable but fortunately very short-lived. I'm back to my usual routine now.

 

I hope you get good news for your MIL!

[berelinde]

Hey, folks, I'm noticing that a lot of your character sheets don't have updates for your recent level gain. Everyone is Level 2, regardless of when your character joined the party or whether or not your character took a leave of absence. Please make sure that your character sheets are updated and send me a copy ASAP. Even if you think you sent it already, please resend it. The last few months were a nightmare for me at work, and my organizational abilities suffered for it.

 

I'm getting ready to post the first round of combat. There will probably be errors since I don't necessarily have your latest character sheet. If there are errors, don't panic, just let me know via PM or email.

[berelinde]

FWIW, life is still crazy. I'm working way, way too many hours and have impossible deadlines... but I seem to be getting used to it. Either that or I'm getting so accustomed to the idea that I'm never going to get it all done that I no longer kill myself trying anymore.

 

 

She says after working her 14th consecutive day...

[TreeHuggerHannah]

I sent you a PM with what I *think* is the updated version. I'm not having the best day so I'm a little scattered - if it's not the new one I'll search my hard drive again.

 

Glad that you're at least settling into a routine and feeling calmer! Hopefully things will take a turn for the better soon.

[Mahumia]

I do currently not have access to my character sheet, so can I please resend it to you when I'm back home? 

[berelinde]

Sure! I got overwhelmed at work again and my good intentions got caught in a landslide.

 

Given how little time I actually have these days, I need a consensus about the combat spreadsheet. I can open it up to allow anyone to edit it, which would save time for me... but it's a complicated spreadsheet, and I'm going to need to be able to follow along. Does everyone understand it well enough to do the edits for their own characters?

 

I can post a tutorial, if it would help.

[TreeHuggerHannah]

I'm sure we can figure it out.

 

A tutorial would certainly help if you have time.

[BFace]

I'm with Hannah. Surely we can get the hang of it, but a tutorial is always helpful.

[berelinde]

Gotta do something, because I just don't have the kind of time I used to have. So it's either learn to delegate or pull the plug on the game. Hannah and Tracie, I know you're in. I'm guessing that Mirriam is, too. I haven't heard from Ann, Lorien, or Meli lately.

[TreeHuggerHannah]

Yeah, I would really like to make sure this is continues, so whatever we can do to help, just say the word.

[Mahumia]

Sure, with some explanation it should be doable, even to an excel-n00b as me

[TreeHuggerHannah]

I'm not totally sure how to word what I want to say, so forgive me if it doesn't make sense or I ramble:

 

I feel like with this particular group, the primary roleplaying interest is in interactions between the characters, not the combat - that a lot of times combat is something we plow through to get to the next bit of story. That's not to say that we don't enjoy the combat parts too, of course. But if combat is where things are really bogging down, then I think anything we can do to simplify or streamline is probably going to be fine with the group, because that's not really the main part we're here for. So I guess the basic point I'm trying to make is just that if something needs to give, having complex combats is probably going to be the place where this group of players is willing to compromise.

[BFace]

I agree with everything Hannah said. If something has to give, I'd rather it be the complexity of combat than to park the game altogether.  I you folks and our characters.

[berelinde]

Yeah, the combat is what's bogging me down at the moment. Ordinarily, I'd say that combat is already too easy... but I don't have time to manage it, so I guess that means that we need to find a way to streamline it. I'm open to suggestions.