I think we are part of a larger thing in some vaguely connected financial sense that the company answers to some entity somewhere, but really it’s his company, that he founded, to do with as he pleases.
Anyway, cheers for the support all. I’m fine, I just put my headphones on and do the 9-5. It beats being the new guy at another office.
Glad you are doing okay, and sorry you have to deal with this boss.
Hopefully your colleague will find something good soon. If by any chance she fancies a job teaching in a Chinese university, I know my old place is recruiting English & Japanese speakers…
What a piece of work 
I am not looking forward to this conversation tomorrow: “so, hey, I know you are busy and you aren’t a translator, but I’ve got 18,000 words of French translated into English that needs translating into Japanese. Our translator just got fired, and I can’t do it, so do you think you can muddle through by fixing up the machine translation?”
We’ve been rather fortunately in my local area during the ongoing pandemic. While parts of Spain have been hit rather badly, here in the southern Costa Blanca we’ve coped well with relatively few cases. Being part of the Communidad Valenciana though, we’ve been dragged into new restrictions by the more northerly parts of the region which rather buggers up my intended birthday plans for the weekend.
Still, mustn’t grumble: it just means that instead for a nice dinner out and few drinks, it’ll be a quick lunch at best and a long evening in with friends playing games. Times like this certainly make me thankful for this hobby.
I am just about to finish my first day back at work; tired but okay. Well, technically my second day back, except that yesterday I, um, didn’t realise I was meant to be at work. I found my boss’ text message at 3pm… 
Honestly it’s quite dispiriting knowing how much the 9-5 will cut down on my time & energy. The last few weeks I’ve at least been able to put a few hours most days into something creative (or housework).
Also, my garret is absurdly cold (as in, three jumpers while the heating is on, and my hands are still cold), and I just found out I didn’t get an editing gig I’d applied for.
So nothing particularly bad, but I’m downbeat and feeling like a lot of things are quite rubbish right now.
TIL what a garret is.
Hope you (and everyone) find this thread cathartic.
TIL what TIL means!
I, too learned what TIL means. This thread is somewhat cathartic for me, although my main problem is loneliness, rather than lack of work.
In a further installment of the awful boss adventures, it turns out he is claiming that saying to me in early December that we are baggage and only one of us is needed qualifies under law as giving her 30 days notice, and therefore doesn’t intend to pay my colleagues’ salary beyond the 20th and intends to record this as her quitting, and not being fired (bad for her unemployment benefits, possibly necessary for him to continue claiming government support).
How can you argue you’ve given someone notice and that they’ve quit?
Is there some employment department that you or your colleague could report him to?
She’s going to get free legal advice. I don’t think he has a leg to stand on.
FFS!!! Really. That is some poor business practice.
There’s a lot of stuff going on at the moment, so I’ve uploaded a picture of a cat dressed as a Frenchman.
Seems inconclusive. Could just be a French cat, no? (I may be American, but I can’t help but think is what cats look like in France)
But where’s the cigarette? 
Can you see it’s paws? Non…
Received my covid vaccination invitation today. Getting the shot on Saturday. What a strange feeling! Very excited that it’s all coming through now.
