So it looks like working from home is coming to an end

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

What do you spend your money on?

As of now outside the usual bills, just videogames. I no longer buy DVDs/blu-rays or have any online subscriptions to streaming, I retired from collecting action figures/toys (I still have my old TMNT toys, but I don't buy new ones), and in terms of comics I wait till collections of TMNT and sell off the individual issues.

Once in a blue moon I'll buy some new clothes, but I usually get clothes as gifts anyway. At home I just wear T-shirts and shorts, or sweatshirts and sweatpants in the winter, and I have some dress outfits but that's all.

I hate spending money on food and transportation. Unfortunately there's no way to stop doing that, so that's where my money goes.

Getting paid less vs finding a job that pays more. Like dude, you gotta leave your confort zone. There are definitely jobs that are easier than what you're doing.

I'm an old man now in my mid-30's. I'm not a young 20 year old like I used to be, so there is no career I'm heading toward. I'm probably going to have an early retirement at around age 45 due to my savings.

[The Deadman]

Being in your mid 30s definitely isn't old....

[CyberCubed]

I’m sitting in the office right now. But I have nothing to do which is why I’m posting on message boards right now like this one. I’m probably one of the few people in the world paid to surf the Internet for 85% of my work hours.

[Leo656]

When I worked in the gym I'd get a f*cking ten-minute talking-to if I spent too long checking my email. God forbid my boss came to ask me a question while I had Yahoo News open.

I did occasionally have Facebook open, but only after I saw that he (and everybody else) was doing the same thing. So I figured it wasn't a big deal. But oh man, if only two people came in to sign up that day instead of twelve, you better believe you'd hear about it, and somehow it would 100% be because you had Facebook open and weren't glued to the goddamn phone all day.

I came on here a few times during work when it was DEAD and he was nowhere to be found, like a Saturday morning or Monday night, but otherwise that was basically begging to get fired. I made it ten years, but you can imagine how many days of those years included some conversation about "Wasting company time" or some variation thereof.
-------------

The previous decade's version of that would be called "reading the newspaper", which I read two per day of back then. When I worked in the warehouse, very often my boss would somehow ONLY come back there when I was sitting at my desk eating, drinking coffee, and reading the newspaper. Guys would come back from jobs and be like "Don't let the boss see you doin' that sh*t," and then he actually would show up like he was summoned out of thin air at the mention of his name, or something.

Funny part about that was, I was always way ahead on my work, and as long as you didn't stay past 4pm without permission or request and all the work on your sheet was done by that time, what you did in between didn't matter. So in all the times the boss "caught" me in the act of not working, he'd just look around and be like "Hmm. Place looks good. You get that other thing down yet?" "Right after this coffee, the forklift needed to sit for a minute." "Ah, alright." And then he'd leave for a while. That would happen in front of the other guys and they'd get so aggravated.

Some days I got absolutely slammed, to the point where I barely had time for lunch, but most days I could work for 30 and then chill out for 30, from 7 to 4. Never had any problem with anything going on over there, outside of being laid off from New Year's through April or May.

[CyberCubed]

It’s funny I always thought a boss who yells at their employees or chews people out and screams, “one more mistake and you’re FIRED!!!!” was something that movies and TV shows made up, I never really knew it happened in real life. I always thought it was dramatized for TV shows for humor/comedy or drama, like when Mr. Spacely threatened to fire George Jetson.

I never had a boss like that so I had no idea it happened outside of the realm of fiction. I guess I’ve been living on “easy street” my entire life, which is why I don’t ever complain about anything in life (besides growing older, lol) because it’s all been smooth sailing for me even since High School.

Sometimes I honestly forget people have real problems in real life like money issues, problems with their family or parents, relationship issues, or drug related problems and work problems....because I only ever see this in movies and TV shows but not to myself or anyone in my family. I guess I got lucky.

[Leo656]

My boss had two flavors of "Your job depends on this conversation." One was, he'd laugh (or sometimes not) and say, "Do you honestly think you are somehow not replaceable?" Usually because I was five... or ten... or fifteen minutes late... which was at least once a week. But that didn't mean sh*t anyways at that job because the place opened for business at 4 (it was a 24/7 gym but only staffed 4 to 9) but if a single person came in to ask about joining before 4:30 or five, it happened like once a month. Meanwhile, the boss was ALWAYS late; I was constantly having to tell his appointments he was on his way, sometimes for up to an hour, and at least once he just had me train his clients myself because he couldn't get there. And if there was a staff meeting scheduled for 4, and he wasn't on the call by 4:10, you knew the meeting was gonna have to be switched to the next day before he even told you. I'm sure he had his reasons but he was TERRIBLE with that kind of thing.

So it was fairly often that I'd walk in at 4:07, my cell would ring, he'd be like "Did you just walk in now?" And I'd be like "Yeah, but real quick, your client is on the treadmill, she's asking if you're gonna be here soon since she's been here since 3:45 and your appointment was 4pm. What should I say?" ".......Tell her I'll be there in five minutes." "Okay then. Anything else?" "...We open at 4. That's it." "Okay." He HATED when I'd do that and flip that sh*t on him, but it happened often enough that I could get away with it.

But if he was in a REAL bad mood, he'd pull me off to the side and ask me if I thought I was irreplaceable. And I'd be like, "No, but for one thing, all our commissions are on a spreadsheet, and last month I was about 60% of your company's revenue, AND I work at multiple locations, which makes me and you the only ones working here doing that. Nobody else wants to, you interview people and they don't take the job over that, and you don't have time to train them to replace me anyway. And even if you did, you'd inevitably lose a lot of money in the short-term because I wasn't pulling 60% of your sales in overnight, and neither will they. So no, I don't think I'm irreplaceable, I just think that firing me over nonsense would be stupid and ultimately hurt your business. Neither of us wants that, so let's move on from this subject." And that was usually plenty.

To be honest, I think he fired plenty of people for a lot less than talking to him so bluntly, but over a period of years and me being consistently-performing it got to a point where I had that leverage. You don't walk in the door with it, for sure. But it was true, he wanted to make money and I made most of whatever he himself wasn't bringing in for the company. We had other salespeople but a lot of times I was way ahead of them, and it's just stupid to cut a person like that unless you can immediately replace them. A few times he hired people as "back-up" (who were clearly there to take over for me, in theory) but it was a goddamn disaster every single time.

Less fun (but a lot more rare) were the times he'd pull me aside, ask me something, we'd have words and he'd be like "Y'know what? Get your sh*t," and I'd just be like "Nah, that ain't happening, take a breath." Sometimes he'd be like "You can come in tomorrow but you're done for today," and I'd be like "I can't get a ride for at least an hour so I'd just be sitting here anyways, and I was in the middle of doing something so how about I just go back to doing that?" And he'd walk away pissed but he'd let me stay and we just wouldn't bring it up again. That only happened a couple of times. Never for a good reason, usually like he didn't like my tone, or something to that effect. To be fair, I have a mouth, but very rarely did I ever actually get mouthy with him, only if he was already leaning on me first. Like if my phone rang and I was in the bathroom or something, he'd get pissed I didn't answer and I'm like "I'm not answering my phone while I'm in the bathroom" and he wouldn't like how I said it. Or if he'd curse at me then I'd curse at him, but I'd try not to like say anything "worse" than what he said, I'd try and keep it the same level. And then if *I* ended up cursing, that's when he'd be like "Alright, let's not get like that, let's bring it back to before..."

Sometimes it's amazing I was there ten years. It's not like that sh*t happened a LOT but I mean, from my perspective even once was too many. I don't look for those situations. But I also don't let people motherf*ck me, if I think someone's screwing me around or being unfair I'll say so. It's not like we didn't get along, but it definitely had a lot of tension.

Just a personality conflict, I'd guess. We got along more often than not, but he's the type of guy who takes everything SUPER seriously, and I'm the kinda guy that only takes my money seriously, and sometimes not even. So while we both worked hard for the place, he just had no "Off" switch and no patience for anyone who didn't keep pace with him. People like that are hard to be around or get along with, they're constantly judging people for not living up to their standard.

He wasn't a bad guy. But he's the kinda guy who gets up at 5am, and I'm the kinda guy who goes to bed at 5am. Even if you get along, you're never really on the same wavelength as people, y'know what I mean? That creates problems, inevitably.

I do miss working there. The one thing he and I saw eye-to-eye on that removed all differences was... at the end of the day, I made him a lot of money and the customers loved me. After a few years, it's like a rocky marriage, you can cuss each other out but it doesn't mean anything and you just get over it.

[CyberCubed]

Yep, I have had easy going bosses.

Today is my second day in the office. I have nothing to do so I’m doing my usual rounds on the 15-20 different forums and social media sites I visit posting messages like this one. I have nothing to do, getting paid to look online.

[Coola Yagami]

Eh, I guess the only 'mean boss' I ever had was for a retail store once. We just hated how he always wanted us to 'hurry it up' upon stocking stuff if it looked like we were having too much fun. Like dude, yes, we're talking but we're also working. It's not like we put everything on hold just to joke around, we were still stocking shelves.

Hmmm I think the boss in Mexico was the closest we ever had to 'do this and this or you're fired', though a lot of times unless you actually disrespected him he was just blowing smoke.

The only thing I hated about him is how he'd just chew you out in front of everyone rather than pull you aside or something.

[Leo656]

My last boss was admittedly really good about that. He always had us take it to the back to have it out. If we went in the office and he said "Shut the door, please," I generally knew it wasn't gonna be a good conversation. But he was insistent that we always have a "united front" in public so that was nice. Any cross words we had were in private.

[Coola Yagami]

I remember the time I was imitating the boss 'yelling' at the others lmao. I'm glad no one ratted me out.

Then there was the time he was sleeping and I kept trying to egg people on to just put a beer bottle in his hand and snap a picture, to make it look like he passed out drunk. I have no idea wtf I was on cause that woulda gotten me fired for sure.

[IndigoErth]

One of the worst ones I had would, according to our team lead, spend a lot of time watch the security cameras. Not watching customers... watching us. Because how dare people who work together as a team talk to each other and not act like empty robots. She'd often like to come down and give us a hard time and decided to divide us up, as if we weren't always getting our work done despite acting like humans beings.

I eventually heard (after I'd been gone for a bit) that she quit after the recession and the state of the company would have required her to take a small pay cut for a time. I'd sometimes wondered where she went... that way I could avoid ever encountering her again, because I feel bad for anyone who has to put up with her since. lol

Another lower manager they brought in while I was still there was the "have a bitchy attitude with subordinates in order to feel like you're in charge" type. Our lead and her would sometime exchange some sharp words... That store seems to have been mistaking crappy personalities with leadership traits.


Now... becoming a vendor/rep for a company has been one of the best job choices. I've had one great supervisor, a new one who is also pretty great, if a little less involved/communicative than I'd like and I've still only met her once, and never have anyone breathing down my neck because I work alone. So long as the work gets done and in the time allotted, they have no idea what I'm doing. They have no idea I take a moment each week while on the clock to stop and look if that TMNT stuff showed up in Walmart or if I'm grabbing a few things on the way out. (Though I try to be fair and clock out while I pay before leaving...)

[Leo656]

Oh, God yeah, my boss used to love reviewing security tapes. "I see you were sitting on the computer for 20 minutes before. What were you doing?" "Email blasts. Why?" "...You sure you weren't on Facebook?"

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Oh, God yeah, my boss used to love reviewing security tapes. "I see you were sitting on the computer for 20 minutes before. What were you doing?" "Email blasts. Why?" "...You sure you weren't on Facebook?"

"I was jerkin it to your wife's OnlyFans, whatcha think about that huh? I get to see everything you do for 5 bucks a month. How's it feel knowing your wife feels her cooch is worth only 5 bucks huh?"


"So um.... AEW.... you guys hiring?"

[Leo656]

My goodness. His wife did the payroll, I certainly wasn't gonna pull sh*t like THAT.

[sdp]

I was told we were going back to the office,
The dream is over.

Spoiler:

That's what I would be saying if there weren't plenty work from home jobs for me. I will never and I mean ever work in an office again.

Well I got a new job, they will be paying me more and It'll be from home, my current job doesn't know but I guess they will when I go to the office...to quit. :

The pandemic really taught me how important time is and to trust myself.

[CyberCubed]

I mean I imagine working for Citibank would pay more than an indie game company, and it has a more secure future obviously, but what do I know?

[CyberCubed]

I wish i could find a job that pays more money doing more or less what I do now, but it's too hard to find anything. I don't make a lot of money for someone in my age bracket but it doesn't matter too much since I have money saved up like a hoarder and I don't spend much.

Kind of blows my mind how many people make $100,000 a year and to them it's like nothing.

[Leo656]

The best part is, when the revolution inevitably happens, rich people taste like salty chicken, just like poor people do. Except that rich people have well-stocked wine cellars and lots of fancy cheeses to wash them down with.

Should be fun to watch. Nobody's gonna be feasting on the bones of poor people. Too gamey. But those rich folks are gonna be in for some sh*t. Can't happen soon enough.

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I wish i could find a job that pays more money doing more or less what I do now, but it's too hard to find anything. I don't make a lot of money for someone in my age bracket but it doesn't matter too much since I have money saved up like a hoarder and I don't spend much.

Kind of blows my mind how many people make $100,000 a year and to them it's like nothing.

How much do you make? Not judging and I know you aren't shy about it. You saved up a pretty good stockpile from what I remember, even if you don't make much.

I am mostly curious as to what you think someone in your age bracket should make, because to me there are so many variables.

[Anarchistguy]

Not me....ever.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!