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I don't know any one south central LA, so I guess no one getting shot is nothing to report on
I had my meeting with the director of my department today. After a morning of uncomfortable work in business casual dress, a far cry from the general jeans and tee shirt we're allowed to wear on a day we're not having a meeting for a potential promotion, I had our sit down and gave him my spiel for why I should get more money. In a nutshell, I can do everything without supervision and I am actively seeking new ways to contribute to the team in a way that is meaningful and productive. That was all it took. I was a bit shocked. Never had more money been as easily accessible in the best of ways. It felt so good being recognized for the work I've actually done.
I've mentioned before that I used to work for Target Corporate, for those who may be unfamiliar it is a big box retailer not unlike Walmart, Carrefour or your local equivalent. I just got a buddy of mine with whom I used to work to my current company in a related role. Target as you may or may not have known is cutting 2 Billion Dollars from their budget, a core percentage of which is being done through local layoffs in the Twin Cities, my place of residence. While it is rather serendipitous timing for this former and soon to current again colleague to be leaving the retailer, many employees current or otherwise have called out a phenomenon which I believe to not be unique to Target, and is agitatedly summarized below (forgive the spacing/grammar, I didn't want to link you to a Gawker article):
To get a promotion at Target, as I last tried to do so, you are fully expected to commit to talking to a hiring manager for months in the hope there will be an opening, and the hope that they like you well enough to be considered. It is a social game.
Of the ideas presented in this little diatribe the only piece of advice I can give to anyone at this point and time, is find some place that appreciates your work. What you actually do, produce, say into a telephone, crap out into photoshop (or onto a canvas, I've never pooped on a canvas what do I know), whatever it is that might be. This was something that I never got from my previous employer, and something for which I was circuitously punished. Staying at my desk, being productive was viewed as, and this is a quote from my former manager at Target, "Aloof, or self involved."
Buster Keaton everyone, badass extraordinaire.
I felt for the first years I was working out of college, I was doomed to a life of what I would hesitate to call a career that I would be doomed to be expected to pick up the phone on a semi-regular basis defending a faceless corporation to someone who was rightfully pissed off. I was lucky enough to find something that wasn't what I expected to be doing in my now latter twenties, but for here and now feels like it is where I am meant to be, and feels like a place I can both be proud and reasonably content to put in my weekly 40 hours.
For those who have never seen Invader Zim, he has inserted said, "Happiness Probe," to force the child to be happy all the time and yes this was on Nickelodeon. For more see any book by Jhonen Vasquez, I recommend Squee, but this was my Monday-Friday/every other weekend for two years.
TL;DR, you may not wind up precisely where you thought you wanted to be, but you'll likely wind up somewhere where you'll be reasonably content to be. Life doesn't have any promises, we're not entitled to anything if we're to believe our latest installment of House of Cards, and mine and your professional trajectory may more closely resemble the graph below at times than the meteoric rise we are oft led to believe will follow our collegiate, graduate, or post graduate education;
but the one thing I've found that really makes me not mind going to work, is that whatever my work may be at any given point and time is valued in a way that I find meaningful. Having found a company that at this point and time meets that particular goal, I am smitten as a kitten to have gotten a promotion today.
Shout out to Aeromi as well for being a general French badass, entrepreneur des esports, and favoritor of tweets; heartchu bby gurl
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Aeromi favorited your tweet? All you need now is a cameo in P&W and your life is complete! Best of luck in the future.
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100% agree with all of this. I was going to write a similar blog, but you are way better at writing than I am. That being said, I had a similar experience at a local grocery shop locally where I live and other places where your actions are heavily regulated. The company I now work for let's me do as I may by embracing my personality and abilities. I'm a bit intense at moments, but focused and given a clear direction, I can make shit happen.
Doing what you love for people you like (or yourself) gains you opportunities that no job that pays you any amount of money to put up with a whole life of bullshit could provide.
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On March 10 2015 09:00 hoby2000 wrote: 100% agree with all of this. I was going to write a similar blog, but you are way better at writing than I am. That being said, I had a similar experience at a local grocery shop locally where I live and other places where your actions are heavily regulated. The company I now work for let's me do as I may by embracing my personality and abilities. I'm a bit intense at moments, but focused and given a clear direction, I can make shit happen.
Doing what you love for people you like (or yourself) gains you opportunities that no job that pays you any amount of money to put up with a whole life of bullshit could provide.
Preach. I appreciate the compliment too (:3)
On March 10 2015 08:59 Cricketer12 wrote: Aeromi favorited your tweet? All you need now is a cameo in P&W and your life is complete! Best of luck in the future. Just have to convince him my elementary French is good enough for Proleague Rebroadcasts.
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Sounds like it's high time to spend 6 months salary on a lil somethin somethin, ya dig?
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I believe those are referred to as "provinces".
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On March 10 2015 11:05 farvacola wrote: Sounds like it's high time to spend 6 months salary on a lil somethin somethin, ya dig?
Ya dude, what do you work for if not to buy something? I'm thinking a down payment on a certified pre-owned BMW.
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Great to hear this
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On March 10 2015 11:05 farvacola wrote: Sounds like it's high time to spend 6 months salary on a lil somethin somethin, ya dig?
I agree soo much with this.
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On March 11 2015 01:14 MysteryMeat1 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2015 11:05 farvacola wrote: Sounds like it's high time to spend 6 months salary on a lil somethin somethin, ya dig? I agree soo much with this. Live stream the ceremony on TL, have Lorning start an LR blog for it?
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Lorning
Belgica34432 Posts
On March 11 2015 01:29 ThomasjServo wrote:Show nested quote +On March 11 2015 01:14 MysteryMeat1 wrote:On March 10 2015 11:05 farvacola wrote: Sounds like it's high time to spend 6 months salary on a lil somethin somethin, ya dig? I agree soo much with this. Live stream the ceremony on TL, have Lorning start an LR blog for it? Gonna need a schedule tho, else Aeromi gets upset
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I'll have a detailed itinerary drawn up.
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TLADT24920 Posts
Grats on the promotion!
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Remember me? Buddy? Friend? D:
This is 10-star material because I'm where you're at. I got this job, out of necessity, around the end of college. I finished my degree, and had always had an escape plan, yet as fate has it, I'm still at my college job. However over 4 years I moved up, changed departments, and make double what I made just two years ago... Now it's almost like, why leave at all? Job security, perks, decent pay, good relationship with superiors, time off whenever I need it... Last week my boss even called me a "lifer."
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i'm really glad i went to a co-op post secondary school. i moved 8 times in 4.5 years. it took an extra year to graduate; it was sometimes brutal and lonely. however, it enabled me to graduate and start my own software consulting biz right away with 2 solid customers and zero debt.
i knew Target's management was totally out of touch with reality when they announced they'd expand into Quebec as though it was the same thing as going into Ontario. there is a reason Walmart abandoned any attempts to enter Quebec.
its hilarious watching Target go down, but not surprising.
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On March 11 2015 14:11 MountainDewJunkie wrote: Remember me? Buddy? Friend? D:
This is 10-star material because I'm where you're at. I got this job, out of necessity, around the end of college. I finished my degree, and had always had an escape plan, yet as fate has it, I'm still at my college job. However over 4 years I moved up, changed departments, and make double what I made just two years ago... Now it's almost like, why leave at all? Job security, perks, decent pay, good relationship with superiors, time off whenever I need it... Last week my boss even called me a "lifer."
May 23rd lets go get a beer, first one is on me.
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