I’m not usually one to complain about free stuff… but It seems like you won a $60 debt.
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I have read them twice, they are definitely the books that brought another level to fantasy in my reading experience. A funny anecdote is that GRR Martin used to heckle Tad Williams to finish the final book… but God forbid if you mention where is the next Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones saga) to him…
Anyway, not to make this thread into another literature one, I am feeling grateful today. After a few weeks of hard work and wet weather, the sun is shining, I have trimmed the hedge (jumping on the back of the ute, kiwi style) and sorted out the garden after a so much needed workout, and we will go this afternoon to see some friends that are camping by a lake about an hour and a half away. Picnic times are back.
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Like Chewy77, I’m enjoying the sunny weather today - there’s a skylight over my desk* so I’m getting the benefit. My wife has finished a course that’s been stressful for her, so there’s a sense of relief in the flat (and I obtained a cheeky Nando’s in celebration). Those are definitely nice, a good start to the week.
I’ve made less progress on various gaming projects than I hoped, partly due to concern about employment; I’ve spent time revamping spreadsheets related to my sideline in proofreading, which was actually fairly interesting (for those of us who enjoy getting spreadsheets to do things). Really need to get a more stable influx of work if it’s going to be a viable fallback, though.
*okay, the wobbly, tattered, nth-hand card table on which my computer is hazardously perched
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Is it possible to refer to a Nando’s without saying ‘cheeky’? I even heard Jay Rayner use it.
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Just got told by the boss that the translation department is “baggage”, and one of us should expect to be fired next year.
He can’t fire anyone now, as a condition of receiving Coronavirus-related government support, but nice to know we are appreciated.
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Just got told by the boss
Good GRIEF
(I’d leave it at that if the minimum word count would let me. What the HELL)
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Insert chosen profanity here.
That’s pish!
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Ouch. That’s no good. One out of how many?
I mean, can they clear up the company’s thoughts on the matter? I’m little unsure
[END SARCASM]
Bloody hell, what a git.
Two.
Pressuring people to quit is the Japanese way. I think it means he wants me to quit, but it’s also possible as head of the translation “department” (12 people when I joined the company!) he was giving me a warning not to expect any more concessions, like the half-day off work I had just asked him to sign off on.
I mean, I appreciate that his company is failing, but he really has no idea how hard it is to get people as good as we are to do this job. That’s what bugs me, his ignorance. Also, one person alone would have no cover, my colleague can’t do real-time interpretation or English phone calls, and I can’t do professional English to Japanese translation. So, although he doesn’t know it, if he fires me, my colleague will quit. I’m mulling over the same response.
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That’s shocking. It is terrible when you are faced with a boss like that, that just see figures but not resources. It is understandable that in these days many companies are under duress, but to refer to a whole department as baggage is sooo unprofessional 
Any other prospects for you locally?
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Probably. It’s also a job I can do working from home, although there usually is concern over entrusting sensitive data to freelancers. For now I’m sticking with this because 9-5 with no overtime is hard to find, and my wife’s hours means I’m the one that has to drop off, pick up, and feed the kids.
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Back when I still worked for a large publisher, instead of freelancing, the last employee meeting I attended had a corporate manager speaking who discussed how well the company was doing in reducing its labor costs. I remember looking around the room and thinking that I was looking at a roomful of labor costs. That can’t have been good for morale . . .
I once worked for a company that announced that even if they laid off every employee in the company, they still couldn’t make a profit (meaning the rate of loss was higher than the total cost of payroll).
Then they announced a round of layoffs.
I am sorry, but that sounds like bad management to me. And even if the company does not make a profit, it does not mean is not sustainable. Making ends meet means a company cuts its growing ability (if not included in the budget already) but it does not mean it needs to sack anybody.
Sad to hear. I know these are difficult times, but I am on the search for a house to buy and prices continue to soar. I wonder where all this money is coming from, in times of “difficulty” like these. Three offers we’ve put have been turned down for higher prices, and we were not precisely undercutting, quite the contrary…
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I’m always amazed that house prices always seem to rise, regardless of the wider economy.
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We had to up our search price range by 25% from what we looked at last year just to look at the same quality/grade of houses.
But, with the mortgage rate we locked in, the monthly payment only went up by like 5-10% (hard to pin down exactly, due to tax rates in different areas) compared to what we were expecting to pay monthly before.
So, in short: mortgage rates dropped… and house prices compensated… at least that was the story in my part of the world. Worst bit of all of it is me having to pay higher property taxes because my house is “worth more”.
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It absolutely was bad management. Decades and decades of inept leadership.
The company is out of business now.
Said company was once in the Forbes 500.
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In Boise, at least, housing prices rose between the time we started thinking about moving there and the time we made our final decision. It’s commonly attributed to Californians moving there and bidding up residential property. That’s why we decided on Lawrence, where few Californians have yet migrated.
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