A Jorb Well Done (new job thread)

[Good Intentions]

Also, it's different in New Zealand. You qualify for the full benefit below a certain income (I don't know what it is these days, but unless you've got a great part-time job, it can't be much more than what you're earning), and for every dollar you earn over that threshold, they scale back the benefit by a certain amount (80c?). I was on the unemployment benefit for a bit more than a month (shitty times) and then got part-time work which was supplemented by a bit of a handout from the state (slightly less shitty times).

[elpollodiablo]

I'm so checked out at work, it's good for the company that I've only got a week left. I've stopped taking work calls on my personal phone, the number of which is going to change soon anyway. And just this morning one of our commissioned recruiters came in to bitch about his check and his accounts and things and I just told him, "Look dude, you're gonna have someone new to complain to next week. Why don't you come back then?"

[davy]

The weirdest thing about the way it's done in Georgia is how they determine the monetary amount of the benefit. You'd think, well, it must be based on how much you were earning when you lost the job, but no--it's based on what you earned last year. It's some convoluted quarter system: your benefit is determined by the amount you earned during the 4 quarters prior to the most recent 2 quarters, or something like that. I guess it's supposed to prevent fraud of a sort, like getting a raise right when you're let go to increase the benefit, but it makes things a lot more complicated.

For me, it worked out brilliantly. I was in sales, and my sales before the economy tanked were approximately twice as high as they were after the economy tanked.

[jm]

I'm pretty sure that's how it works in MA, too.  If not that, then something similarly convoluted.

[RavingLunatic]

The weirdest thing about the way it's done in Georgia is how they determine the monetary amount of the benefit. You'd think, well, it must be based on how much you were earning when you lost the job, but no--it's based on what you earned last year. It's some convoluted quarter system: your benefit is determined by the amount you earned during the 4 quarters prior to the most recent 2 quarters, or something like that. I guess it's supposed to prevent fraud of a sort, like getting a raise right when you're let go to increase the benefit, but it makes things a lot more complicated.

More likely it's to prevent fraud of the opposite sort, where companies try to lower the amount they have to contribute to unemployment by cutting a worker's wages just before they cut him loose. I'm assuming companies' unemployment contributions are proportional to the wages of the people they lay off, which I'm not entirely sure of.

[G.C.R]

one thing that is grating my cheese at the moment is that how my student allowance is affected is on when I make my money, not how much I make. Which as a contractor, fucking sucks a dick. Say if I made $150 one week, then nothing for the two weeks after that, they would dock my allowance. But I made $50 a week for three weeks, then my payments wouldn't be affected at all.
Now, I don't get a lot of work most of the time, but occasionally I'll get a blessed windfall of four days work or so. I struggle, but I make enough to get by on. I also work a job that I like, that is in an industry that actually relates to my degree, and that gives me skills for later employment. But I get penalised more than if I was working a few more hours a week waiting tables, even though I make so little. RAGE
(I'm not suggesting this stuff should be predicated on how useful your job is to you, but it just sucks that you get punished for trying to do anything outside the model of regular hours, same pay-packet each week that they seem to think makes up everyone's working life.)

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

wow, that really is bullshit. i can't figure out if i'm getting the same deal - i'll work for a week during study week or whatever, and i'm pretty sure i've never received anything less than the maximum student allowance.  in fact, i'm not sure they've ever looked at how much i earn? is yours the same as mine, based on parental income?

[diesel_powered]

is yours the same as mine, based on parental income?

It's like dating banter for log cabin Republicans.

[G.C.R]

wow, that really is bullshit. i can't figure out if i'm getting the same deal - i'll work for a week during study week or whatever, and i'm pretty sure i've never received anything less than the maximum student allowance.  in fact, i'm not sure they've ever looked at how much i earn? is yours the same as mine, based on parental income?

Probably not, since I'm over 25. That parental income thing is some rubbish though - i remember when i was younger the only options for why your parents wouldn't fully support you financially that you could tick on their list amounted basically to a) my parents have disowned me, or b) my parents are impoverished. I hope that's changed.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

nope. even if your parents are divorced and one of them lives overseas, you have to tick a box that says you never have any contact with the absent parent. as if a phone call a week amounts to them supporting you financially.

[elpollodiablo]

It could be worse: you could be in America.

[RavingLunatic]

It could be worse: you could be in America.

True dat. Even though my parents can't list me as a dependent, I still can't qualify for food stamps or Medicaid since I live in the same house, regardless of whether I pay rent or not. It's kind of funny, but when I start my new job, I'll be helping people get housing assistance and state assistance, and I'll likely be taking notes so I can figure out how to take advantage of those programs myself.

[G.C.R]

It could be worse: you could be in America.

I say this to myself all the time.

[Good Intentions]

I've been working for a fortnight, but because the fucking bureaucracy has fucking around with their fingers in their fucking asses, I don't actually have a contract yet. They finally posted it to me today (they tell me, maybe because I was taking a shit on their fucking heads). So I don't get a paycheck till the next fucking pay cycle. I'm broke, and fucked off.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

So I think I mentioned a while back that me and the girls are gonna move to Melbourne Australia soon. One of them just got back tonight from a job interview (they paid for her flights!) and the other (chef) has been offered a trial at a dream restaurant any day she turns up.
So I really need to get my resume together and start sending it off. But that'll mean telling my boss that I'ma leave soon and he's gonna be a little pissed as I'm the only person keeping him from going insane. I could not put him as a ref but I kinda need to.
Will do it tomorrow.

[Good Intentions]

Oh, I didn't know Emma and Emma were joining the defection too.

[elpollodiablo]

3.5 hours left at this job, including tomorrow morning 

[elpollodiablo]

New girl is singing along to Drops of Jupiter and I'm leaving in 59 minutes             

[jm]

ahahahahahahahahahahahha

[alex]

Haha, awesome!

[DCDave]

Going to London for a week for work, WHAT WHAT.

[diesel_powered]

Haha, awesome!

[alexandra]

Going to London for a week for work, WHAT WHAT.

Bring me back some dark treacle.

[milesofsparks]

yet another work problem solved for someone with the power of Google. though to be fair, this time the answer was like the third thing down in the results, not the first.

[Aglaya]

FINALLY got to promote my second in command!  I've been training her for it since before my predecessor even left, and she finally made it over that last bump.  Not just made it actually, but blew everyone away with how well she could do it.  She really deserves the promotion, and I really need her to have that job, so all is awesome!  She also has managed to consistently take our silly note-leaving to new heights, which is nearly as important as being good at your job.  Because if we didn't all leave each other silly notes, well, that would just be terrible.