Cellar Scribblings

[Jeff Wrangler]

pervert

Heh. You're the one talking about blowing driveways, not me.

[serious crayons]

Heh. You're the one talking about blowing driveways, not me.

Are you just joking about blowing, or is "blowing driveways" some actual term for something? Must I go to Urban Dictionary and discover some practice I never even knew existed? That has happened to me more than once at Urban Dictionary.

 

 

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends!!!!

TGIF!

Today was a busy day for work, but I didn't have the "Monster Report" looming over me, so I feel like I got a lot accomplished.

I also had a very strange experience with work.   Review time is here, and I'm getting a raise and a bonus.  I'm happy about that.

However, I was also told that I was getting a promotion (along with others on my level) and I was being made into an AVP (Assistant Vice President).

So I asked "Ok, so are my authority levels changing?"

"No"

"Ok, so are my job duties changing?"

"No"

"Ok, so, is my salary changing?"

"No".

"Ok, so it's really just a title change, and not a promotion."

 

I wasn't angry at my supervisor, I know this decision was made by people higher up than her, but why call it a promotion?  Just call it what it is.....a title change.

[CellarDweller]

Hi Chuck, good that they have snow plows to help the residents.  And glad you're finished with your monster report.  How long do your virtual meetings last, and do they use Zoom?   We started out using Webex but they just phased that out and now we use MS Teams.  They rolled it out last year and it took a LONG time to get used to, everyone hated it, but now it's not so bad.

That's exactly what happened where I work. They said Webex was too expensive. Just when I was getting comfortable with it, they switched to Teams. I can't really say I hate it because all I have to do is show up, at least for now, and so far I can handle that. I'm too far down on the totem pole to have to schedule meetings.

Teams meetings are great, it's the files we have to update and maintain that gave us hell in the beginning.  Multiple people are supposed to be able to update the same file at the same time - well, that didn't work.  Data was disappearing and it was really slow at first.  Haven't noticed that for a while now, not sure what they did, but it seems to be working...it's still cumbersome though, especially when you're used to Excel.

We don't have Zoom at work.  We do have WebEx, and Teams.  They can't seem to decide which one to use, so some of our meeting are on WebEx, and the others are on Teams.

As long as they know I attended the meetings, that's all I care about.  LOL

[CellarDweller]

Heh. You're the one talking about blowing driveways, not me.

Are you just joking about blowing, or is "blowing driveways" some actual term for something? Must I go to Urban Dictionary and discover some practice I never even knew existed? That has happened to me more than once at Urban Dictionary.

 

You're not missing anything, Katy.

I meant to type "plow", and typed "blow" and Jeff ran with it. 

[serious crayons]

I meant to type "plow", and typed "blow" and Jeff ran with it. 

Ohhh. I thought you meant "blow" as in what a snow-blower does.

We don't have Zoom at work.  We do have WebEx, and Teams.  They can't seem to decide which one to use, so some of our meeting are on WebEx, and the others are on Teams.

My work uses Teams because it's free with a Microsoft account, but I like Zoom much better.

Our meetings consist of one full-screen image of whoever's talking and a row of dots at the bottom of the screen with people's initials. So you can see only one person at a time and the image is huge. (After all this time, the top editor seems to still not understand that he's tilted his computer in such a way that you can only see the top half of his face.)

Zoom meetings, at least the ones i've been too, are squares in which everyone who has their camera unmuted can be seen in their square simultaneously -- say, six faces at once. When someone's talking the border of their square lights up. People whose cameras are muted are identified by their whole name, not just initials. IF they want to talk they can, of course, unmute their camera.

I realize it might be possible to change either of these configurations. But to me, Zoom just looks better and makes it easier to communicate.

I also had a very strange experience with work.   Review time is here, and I'm getting a raise and a bonus.  I'm happy about that.

However, I was also told that I was getting a promotion (along with others on my level) and I was being made into an AVP (Assistant Vice President).

So I asked "Ok, so are my authority levels changing?"

"No"

"Ok, so are my job duties changing?"

"No"

"Ok, so, is my salary changing?"

"No".

"Ok, so it's really just a title change, and not a promotion."

 

I wasn't angry at my supervisor, I know this decision was made by people higher up than her, but why call it a promotion?  Just call it what it is.....a title change.

Well, at least you got a raise, so the promotion does come with increased pay even if that's not why you got the raise. But also, I think there's some value in the title change if the new title sounds more "important" than the previous one. AVP sounds pretty impressive to me.

My son went to a college in LA and was able to go really inexpensively because my income was low at the time and the school gave him a lot of "need based" financial aid. When he graduated, he had good enough grades that they redefined all of his financial aid as a merit-based Mary Pickford Scholarship. (Yes, it's LA, where the closest airport is named after Bob Hope.)

He didn't get any more money, but the scholarship looks better on a resume.

[morrobay]

Ohhh. I thought you meant "blow" as in what a snow-blower does.

My work uses Teams because it's free with a Microsoft account, but I like Zoom much better.

Our meetings consist of one full-screen image of whoever's talking and a row of dots at the bottom of the screen with people's initials. So you can see only one person at a time and the image is huge. (After all this time, the top editor seems to still not understand that he's tilted his computer in such a way that you can only see the top half of his face.)

Zoom meetings, at least the ones i've been too, are squares in which everyone who has their camera unmuted can be seen in their square simultaneously -- say, six faces at once. When someone's talking the border of their square lights up. People whose cameras are muted are identified by their whole name, not just initials. IF they want to talk they can, of course, unmute their camera.

I realize it might be possible to change either of these configurations. But to me, Zoom just looks better and makes it easier to communicate.

Well, at least you got a raise, so the promotion does come with increased pay even if that's not why you got the raise. But also, I think there's some value in the title change if the new title sounds more "important" than the previous one. AVP sounds pretty impressive to me.

My son went to a college in LA and was able to go really inexpensively because my income was low at the time and the school gave him a lot of "need based" financial aid. When he graduated, he had good enough grades that they redefined all of his financial aid as a merit-based Mary Pickford Scholarship. (Yes, it's LA, where the closest airport is named after Bob Hope.)

He didn't get any more money, but the scholarship looks better on a resume.

when you log into a Teams meeting you can choose to have your camera on or off.  If everyone has their cameras off, then you see the dots at the bottom (or you can choose to see participants, and the names of everyone on the call shows in a list on the right side).  If everyone has their camera on, their pictures come up on the screen like the Brady Bunch.  We've had a couple "happy hours" like that since we started WFH, just to have some interaction with out team besides just work stuff.

[morrobay]

Chuck, congrats on the good review, raise and bonus!  And the title bump 

[serious crayons]

If everyone has their camera on, their pictures come up on the screen like the Brady Bunch.  We've had a couple "happy hours" like that since we started WFH, just to have some interaction with out team besides just work stuff.

Thanks. I've seen the Brady Bunch configuration on Zoom, but on Teams it's been only one full screen at a time. Maybe everybody turns their cameras off when someone else is talking, sort of like yielding the floor?

[Jeff Wrangler]

Ohhh. I thought you meant "blow" as in what a snow-blower does.

Actually, i did, too. It was just too good of an opening line to pass up. 

My work uses Teams because it's free with a Microsoft account, but I like Zoom much better.

That could be why we switched to it. We're using Zoom and Teams, now. Just when I'd gotten used to using Webex.