Choo choo! All aboard the Complain Train!

[Dirty Hipsters]

Lost 8% of my 401k in one day. Thanks Trump.

 

[Xprimentyl]

My company recently merged with another company, and as they pitched this to us a "great" thing to be excited and enthusiastic about, it didn't take long for reality to wipe the phony, corporate smiles off everyone's faces. First things first, they identified redundancies at the executive level, and several people in senior positions were unceremoniously let go from both companies. They made it seem like the Band-Aid had been ripped off, then they hit us with a second round recently, much closer to home. I lost two co-workers, both of which were performing vital roles that aren't easily made up, and now my group is just shrugging and looking around waiting for these jobs to magically do themselves.

What's worse is that as I was in meeting with a couple of people and were collectively discussing how insane and imprecise the layoffs were, I got a text from one of my newly ex-coworkers saying he "heard through the grapevine that they let ME go, too." Having just seen the new org chart with me on it the day before, of course, I was a little concerned that he might have known something I didn't and that the company wasn't telling me. He never disclosed where he heard it from, but he said his source was most likely mistaken; there was a lot fo speculation and misinformation being bandied about amidst the chaos and fallout.

There haven't been any other moves in about a week now, but I have ZERO faith in my company and ZERO feeling of job security. Haven't done it in over 15 years, but it's time to tighten up my resume and find something else. Perfect timing too; headed into a recession and World War III, who wouldn't want to start looking for a new job, right?

 

[Kyrian007]

My company recently merged with another company, and as they pitched this to us a "great" thing to be excited and enthusiastic about, it didn't take long for reality to wipe the phony, corporate smiles off everyone's faces. First things first, they identified redundancies at the executive level, and several people in senior positions were unceremoniously let go from both companies. They made it seem like the Band-Aid had been ripped off, then they hit us with a second round recently, much closer to home. I lost two co-workers, both of which were performing vital roles that aren't easily made up, and now my group is just shrugging and looking around waiting for these jobs to magically do themselves.

What's worse is that as I was in meeting with a couple of people and were collectively discussing how insane and imprecise the layoffs were, I got a text from one of my newly ex-coworkers saying he "heard through the grapevine that they let ME go, too." Having just seen the new org chart with me on it the day before, of course, I was a little concerned that he might have known something I didn't and that the company wasn't telling me. He never disclosed where he heard it from, but he said his source was most likely mistaken; there was a lot fo speculation and misinformation being bandied about amidst the chaos and fallout.

There haven't been any other moves in about a week now, but I have ZERO faith in my company and ZERO feeling of job security. Haven't done it in over 15 years, but it's time to tighten up my resume and find something else. Perfect timing too; headed into a recession and World War III, who wouldn't want to start looking for a new job, right?

Yeah, I hear that and am doing the same. My company just floated a huge promotion in front of me, gave me the job to do without the official title or raise, and are actively interviewing people to replace the person who transferred and whose job I'm currently doing as well as my own job. I was pretty stoked at first, it would mean almost x3 in my pay. Now I'm looking at just being a temporary solution and then just dumped back into my old position. So I'm actively looking elsewhere too. Been here 20 years and actually... not really surprised. Or even really afraid. Their loss and they'd realize that pretty quickly.

 

[Masonicon]

Play-to-Earn Mobile games require us to binge-watching too many ads within time limit to take our prize money from those games

 

[Gergar12]

Thanks, workday...

 

[Chimpzy]

So a few days ago I returned from a trip in Switzerland, both to visit/hang out with a friend who lives there, and just as a long overdue vacation. Trip itself was great, did lots of stuff, lots of laughs, tho still a bit sore in the legs from the cumulative 100km of walking over 4 days across mountainous terrain.

But there were some hiccups.

For one, when I boarded the plane from Brussels to Geneva I had a laptop bag with me containing my laptop, my Switch, a powerbank, some assorted chargers and cables, and backup boarding passes and travel pass. I got in my seat, put the bag under it, and quietly amused myself on my phone waiting for the plane to depart. After lift-off, I go to grab my bag. I instead pull out a different bag, and the lady behind me protests in French "hey, that's mine". I tell her my bag was there before, but now wasn't, and asked if she knew what happened to it. She says she doesn't know.

So I call a flight attendant over, explained my bag was missing. Her eyes go wide. She tells me the lady had given my bag to them, saying it must've been left by a passenger from the flight before mine. Apparently she just assumed that to be true. She calls over the cabin manager, who explains they had given my bag to the ground crew to bring to the airport lost and found before take-off, that a should file a lost item report, and that I would be able to get it there when I return. I ask the guy why no one bothered asking me "hey, is this by any chance yours?" before taking it away, since it was underneath me. The manager says he couldn't ask me because I was not in my seat. Bullshit of course, I hadn't left that seat from the moment I first sat down. The passenger sitting next to me backed me up on that front. No real reply to that, just some apologizing.

After landing, as I was making my way to the terminal, I was held up by the captain, who advised me to report my bag as having been lost on the flight preceding mine, since that is what the crew had reported it as, to improve my chances of getting it back. So I did, making my lost item report the first chance I got, with detailed descriptions of the bag and all of its contents. So done, the app said it could take up to a week for my stuff to be found. If not found I would get an update every other week. If not found in 30 days, the search will be seized. It's been seven days. Not found. By now I'm pretty sure my stuff is just gone. Currently in progress of changing all my passwords.

Moral of the story: don't fly Easyjet.


But that wasn't the only snag. Because having stage 4 kidney disease, I need dialysis treatments. Meaning I had to get one treatment in Switzerland. No problem, my regular hospital could arrange that for me given enough advance notice, so I did. Took until the day before I left to fully arrange because the hospital on the other side couldn't guarantee in exactly which site I would be able to get my treatment until a couple days before, but it worked out. In the meantime, I had inquired which documents I would need so my treatment would be covered by insurance. Solidaris, my public health insurance provider told me I should only need my ID and my European insurance card. I double checked with Mutas, the service for international travel assistance, and they also said I should only need my ID and my insurance card. I also had my hospital check with the Swiss one which documents I would need to provide. They replied with my ID, my insurance card or an S2 document if I wasn't a European citizen (which I am).

Anyway, now in Switzerland, it was time for my treatment. So I arrive at the reception desk at the site in Martigny. I explain who I am and that I was expected for a dialysis treatment. I was informed they had not received any word about that from the main office. But they had room so I could receive a treatment, if I could provide my ID and an S2 document. I said I was told by their office a European insurance card would be accepted here. Nope, that was changed six months ago, so unless I could provide either a private insurance card or an S2 document, I would have to pay out of pocket. Don't have private insurance, so I called Mutas, see if they could help me, but only Solidaris can issue S2 documents, and because it was a saturday their offices were closed, so no go. So I paid. 1000 franks, or about 1150 euros.

No biggie, I can just get a reimbursement from my insurance provider. Except the payment receipt I got is not enough, I need a proper invoice for the treatment. Which I did request, but it can take up to 7 weeks before that shit is processed and sent to me.

 

[Xprimentyl]

So a few days ago I returned from a trip in Switzerland, both to visit/hang out with a friend who lives there, and just as a long overdue vacation. Trip itself was great, did lots of stuff, lots of laughs, tho still a bit sore in the legs from the cumulative 100km of walking over 4 days across mountainous terrain.

But there were some hiccups.

For one, when I boarded the plane from Brussels to Geneva I had a laptop bag with me containing my laptop, my Switch, a powerbank, some assorted chargers and cables, and backup boarding passes and travel pass. I got in my seat, put the bag under it, and quietly amused myself on my phone waiting for the plane to depart. After lift-off, I go to grab my bag. I instead pull out a different bag, and the lady behind me protests in French "hey, that's mine". I tell her my bag was there before, but now wasn't, and asked if she knew what happened to it. She says she doesn't know.

So I call a flight attendant over, explained my bag was missing. Her eyes go wide. She tells me the lady had given my bag to them, saying it must've been left by a passenger from the flight before mine. Apparently she just assumed that to be true. She calls over the cabin manager, who explains they had given my bag to the ground crew to bring to the airport lost and found before take-off, that a should file a lost item report, and that I would be able to get it there when I return. I ask the guy why no one bothered asking me "hey, is this by any chance yours?" before taking it away, since it was underneath me. The manager says he couldn't ask me because I was not in my seat. Bullshit of course, I hadn't left that seat from the moment I first sat down. The passenger sitting next to me backed me up on that front. No real reply to that, just some apologizing.

After landing, as I was making my way to the terminal, I was held up by the captain, who advised me to report my bag as having been lost on the flight preceding mine, since that is what the crew had reported it as, to improve my chances of getting it back. So I did, making my lost item report the first chance I got, with detailed descriptions of the bag and all of its contents. So done, the app said it could take up to a week for my stuff to be found. If not found I would get an update every other week. If not found in 30 days, the search will be seized. It's been seven days. Not found. By now I'm pretty sure my stuff is just gone. Currently in progress of changing all my passwords.

Moral of the story: don't fly Easyjet.


But that wasn't the only snag. Because having stage 4 kidney disease, I need dialysis treatments. Meaning I had to get one treatment in Switzerland. No problem, my regular hospital could arrange that for me given enough advance notice, so I did. Took until the day before I left to fully arrange because the hospital on the other side couldn't guarantee in exactly which site I would be able to get my treatment until a couple days before, but it worked out. In the meantime, I had inquired which documents I would need so my treatment would be covered by insurance. Solidaris, my public health insurance provider told me I should only need my ID and my European insurance card. I double checked with Mutas, the service for international travel assistance, and they also said I should only need my ID and my insurance card. I also had my hospital check with the Swiss one which documents I would need to provide. They replied with my ID, my insurance card or an S2 document if I wasn't a European citizen (which I am).

Anyway, now in Switzerland, it was time for my treatment. So I arrive at the reception desk at the site in Martigny. I explain who I am and that I was expected for a dialysis treatment. I was informed they had not received any word about that from the main office. But they had room so I could receive a treatment, if I could provide my ID and an S2 document. I said I was told by their office a European insurance card would be accepted here. Nope, that was changed six months ago, so unless I could provide either a private insurance card or an S2 document, I would have to pay out of pocket. Don't have private insurance, so I called Mutas, see if they could help me, but only Solidaris can issue S2 documents, and because it was a saturday their offices were closed, so no go. So I paid. 1000 franks, or about 1150 euros.

No biggie, I can just get a reimbursement from my insurance provider. Except the payment receipt I got is not enough, I need a proper invoice for the treatment. Which I did request, but it can take up to 7 weeks before that shit is processed and sent to me.

Holy hell, what a nightmare! I'm sorry you're having to got through this, dude; this is terrible.

 

[Gordon_4]

So a few days ago I returned from a trip in Switzerland, both to visit/hang out with a friend who lives there, and just as a long overdue vacation. Trip itself was great, did lots of stuff, lots of laughs, tho still a bit sore in the legs from the cumulative 100km of walking over 4 days across mountainous terrain.

But there were some hiccups.

For one, when I boarded the plane from Brussels to Geneva I had a laptop bag with me containing my laptop, my Switch, a powerbank, some assorted chargers and cables, and backup boarding passes and travel pass. I got in my seat, put the bag under it, and quietly amused myself on my phone waiting for the plane to depart. After lift-off, I go to grab my bag. I instead pull out a different bag, and the lady behind me protests in French "hey, that's mine". I tell her my bag was there before, but now wasn't, and asked if she knew what happened to it. She says she doesn't know.

So I call a flight attendant over, explained my bag was missing. Her eyes go wide. She tells me the lady had given my bag to them, saying it must've been left by a passenger from the flight before mine. Apparently she just assumed that to be true. She calls over the cabin manager, who explains they had given my bag to the ground crew to bring to the airport lost and found before take-off, that a should file a lost item report, and that I would be able to get it there when I return. I ask the guy why no one bothered asking me "hey, is this by any chance yours?" before taking it away, since it was underneath me. The manager says he couldn't ask me because I was not in my seat. Bullshit of course, I hadn't left that seat from the moment I first sat down. The passenger sitting next to me backed me up on that front. No real reply to that, just some apologizing.

After landing, as I was making my way to the terminal, I was held up by the captain, who advised me to report my bag as having been lost on the flight preceding mine, since that is what the crew had reported it as, to improve my chances of getting it back. So I did, making my lost item report the first chance I got, with detailed descriptions of the bag and all of its contents. So done, the app said it could take up to a week for my stuff to be found. If not found I would get an update every other week. If not found in 30 days, the search will be seized. It's been seven days. Not found. By now I'm pretty sure my stuff is just gone. Currently in progress of changing all my passwords.

Moral of the story: don't fly Easyjet.


But that wasn't the only snag. Because having stage 4 kidney disease, I need dialysis treatments. Meaning I had to get one treatment in Switzerland. No problem, my regular hospital could arrange that for me given enough advance notice, so I did. Took until the day before I left to fully arrange because the hospital on the other side couldn't guarantee in exactly which site I would be able to get my treatment until a couple days before, but it worked out. In the meantime, I had inquired which documents I would need so my treatment would be covered by insurance. Solidaris, my public health insurance provider told me I should only need my ID and my European insurance card. I double checked with Mutas, the service for international travel assistance, and they also said I should only need my ID and my insurance card. I also had my hospital check with the Swiss one which documents I would need to provide. They replied with my ID, my insurance card or an S2 document if I wasn't a European citizen (which I am).

Anyway, now in Switzerland, it was time for my treatment. So I arrive at the reception desk at the site in Martigny. I explain who I am and that I was expected for a dialysis treatment. I was informed they had not received any word about that from the main office. But they had room so I could receive a treatment, if I could provide my ID and an S2 document. I said I was told by their office a European insurance card would be accepted here. Nope, that was changed six months ago, so unless I could provide either a private insurance card or an S2 document, I would have to pay out of pocket. Don't have private insurance, so I called Mutas, see if they could help me, but only Solidaris can issue S2 documents, and because it was a saturday their offices were closed, so no go. So I paid. 1000 franks, or about 1150 euros.

No biggie, I can just get a reimbursement from my insurance provider. Except the payment receipt I got is not enough, I need a proper invoice for the treatment. Which I did request, but it can take up to 7 weeks before that shit is processed and sent to me.

Fuck me what a fiasco.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Got bit by a dog today.

Was taking a walk in the park during lunch, a huge mastiff pulls his owner toward me, seems like he wants to play. I ask if he's friendly and if I can pet him, owner says yes. I reach out to pet him and he bites my hand.

Didn't bite me that hard, but hard enough to draw blood in a few spots. Ended up going to urgent care and got a tetanus shot and some antibiotics.

My friends are like "did you learn your lesson about petting strange dogs?"

Absolutely not.

Sucks being left handed for a while though.

 

[Chimpzy]

Little update. I tracked down where my stuff is. It's not at the airport lost & found. It's at the offices of Aviapartners, the company that handles lost items on behalf of Easyjet, which is apparently standard procedure. The guy I talked to on the phone didn't understand why the crew told me it would be at the airport lost & found.

Anyway, I got a reference number, a location and opening hours, so I should be able to go fetch my stuff tomorrow.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Got bit by a dog today.

Was taking a walk in the park during lunch, a huge mastiff pulls his owner toward me, seems like he wants to play. I ask if he's friendly and if I can pet him, owner says yes. I reach out to pet him and he bites my hand.

Didn't bite me that hard, but hard enough to draw blood in a few spots. Ended up going to urgent care and got a tetanus shot and some antibiotics.

My friends are like "did you learn your lesson about petting strange dogs?"

Absolutely not.

Sucks being left handed for a while though.

Mastiffs have some powerful jaws, so I think the dog wasn't even trying to harm you- he was probably overenthusiastic. Still, sucks to be bitten.

Little update. I tracked down where my stuff is. It's not at the airport lost & found. It's at the offices of Aviapartners, the company that handles lost items on behalf of Easyjet, which is apparently standard procedure. The guy I talked to on the phone didn't understand why the crew told me it would be at the airport lost & found.

Anyway, I got a reference number, a location and opening hours, so I should be able to go fetch my stuff tomorrow.

Well, that's a deserved bright spot. But at any rate I think I'll stick to driving.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Mastiffs have some powerful jaws, so I think the dog wasn't even trying to harm you- he was probably overenthusiastic. Still, sucks to be bitten.

Yeah, not sure if he was overenthusiastic and got too rough play-biting, or was unhappy and gently telling me to fuck off.

I honestly didn't immediately notice that I'd been bitten. I play with my friends' dogs a lot and am pretty used to dogs grabbing my hands with their mouths, and I also have pretty decent pain tolerance, so I didn't even immediately react until I saw the blood. It's not like he viciously mauled me, more like a hard nip.

I think overall the owner was more freaked out than I was, she kind of just froze and started apologizing over and over.

 

[Gordon_4]

Little update. I tracked down where my stuff is. It's not at the airport lost & found. It's at the offices of Aviapartners, the company that handles lost items on behalf of Easyjet, which is apparently standard procedure. The guy I talked to on the phone didn't understand why the crew told me it would be at the airport lost & found.

Anyway, I got a reference number, a location and opening hours, so I should be able to go fetch my stuff tomorrow.

Ah, excellent news.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

WTF have humans done to this word -

High school students make devastating discovery while testing water in iconic national park: 'I cried three times'

High school students found a concerning level of microplastics in water samples collected from two remote lakes in Grand Teton National Park.

www.thecooldown.com

High school students make devastating discovery while testing water in iconic national park: 'I cried three times'
"I don't think you could sample anything and not find plastics anymore."