Spyke

I love it when a photo makes the cat look censorial when in real life you can hear the elevator music

1
aussie.zone

Nothing like some midnight floor mopping because you put it off all day and have an apartment inspection tomorrow while you'll be in the office and you hate having people in your apartment while you're not there but you have to go to work because you have to present a demonstration to the executive leadership team.

Meeeeeanwhile, I'm seriously considering moving out and just going to stay with my folks for a while. It's not about money (although it would be nice to save a bunch of money quickly) it's more about how unhealthy it is for me to sit alone in this shoebox. Plus I'll have to house/dog sit for them for their upcoming US trip this year anyway.

Then once I've saved a bigger chunk of dough I'll finally bite the bullet and buy something. Likely right before the housing bubble finally bursts after 30 years of people saying it's going to but never does.

15

Dude, I had to do it, I quit work and went to uni as a mature age student - I lasted a couple of months with the parent, before renting again, but this was because covid etc. If you get along with your parents, they have a big enough house etc. and you're single, do it. The money you'll save is yuge. I know you love your road trips etc. But the freedom when you finally buy is life changing.

2
lemmy.ml

"Thank you everyone for all the kind words 😽

"Mum is still giving me eyedrops today, and it's really uncomfortable 😿

"But my eye feels a lot better today 😸

"Now excuse me, I have some chicken to eat for dinner. It's my favourite! Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom"

— Miss Mimi

14

I looooove tuxedo cats. That photo perfectly encapsulates how cute yet elegant they are. Please give Miss Mimi a little bop on her precious little head from me.

3
aussie.zone

In exciting news: 2 hours after arriving at work I'm done with my presentation and I'm on a tram home. I might even make it before my apartment inspection AND the presentation I was going in for tomorrow fell through so I don't have to go back in.

14

yep lunch hour now.. grabbed a gozleme on my way in and just enjoyed it with some youtubes

3
aussie.zone

Cat update: He is fine. Bloods came back great. He hasnt pooped out any worms or anything, but he also hasnt vomited so... dunno.

13

Glad kitty is okay. Ours had a bit of vomiting episode Saturday..came home to a bit of a mess. I'm assuming she chewed on her blanket and couldn't digest it.

6
aussie.zone

That feeling when you go through your 30+ year collection of buttons and find a replica of the one you need to replace. Better than ice cream.

13

I'll say it's a little bigger. I am the classic hoarder and then years later when I finally throw it out, a fortnight after I have a use for it. Happens. Every. Time.

So, BIG WIN! Hehe.

4

I wonder what happened to mum's collection. She had a massive collection of buttons going back to the 50's. Dad probably threw them all out. 🤷‍♂️

2
aussie.zone

I have not cooked a roast anything in many, many years. But tonight WE ROAST!

Chicken is the beast of choice! With roast veg, cauliflower & cheese and peas.

I'm a boring, basic cook at best so this could go either way..

13
Eaglereply
aussie.zone

It's very hard to stuff up a roast, you'll do fine. If not, there's always gravy to cover up the bad bits.

5

Have managed to do so in the past. Then I discovered oven bags. Seriously, I've found roasts take longer than the book says. particularly if adding in veg in the same tray. But that might just be my oven at the time which was on its last legs so to speak.

3

I have an interview for another volunteer position this Friday. I can't believe I'm finally leaving call centres behind, and I'm actually on the path to something I want to do. For so long I've been forcing myself into jobs that ruin me, and then I wonder why I fail.

I won't fail at this.

13
aussie.zone

I've worked in call centres for 10-12 years, electricity, tax collection, salary packaging/sacrifice, and a small business that did home services. All sucked in their own unique ways. The only way to move "up" is to be toxic as fuck and throw your coworkers under the bus, which I couldn't do. The abuse from management, the abuse from callers, caused me to abuse myself.

So done, 0/10, do not reccomend. Taking calls all day is a form of torture.

Gonna be doing animal care instead, cert III, and then I'll move up to the cert IV in veterinary nursing. It'll be hard, but I won't be on the phones; I'll be doing something that has been my dream.

4
Nathreply
aussie.zone

I worked for an ISP help desk for years. I loved it.

I think my experience was a bit different to most phone work though. All the calls were initiated by customers. Even when I was calling outbound, it was as a follow up to someone who wanted to speak to me. Also, we were helping people, so they'd be happy and grateful at the end of the call.

Finally, it was the 90's - the Internet users were far more technical than the average person today. I could walk most callers through their computer/modem settings pretty easily.

There might still be phone work out there that doesn't crush your soul. I don't think it's the work itself that's awful, rather the setting they do that work in and your coworkers/employer that are the problem.

5
dumblederpreply
aussie.zone

I did four years ISP tech support and I think I'd eat out of bins before going back.

4
aussie.zone

I wish it was just coworkers/management

I've had customers scream at me, threaten to unalive themselves or me, threaten to shoot me, masturbate on calls, speak to me like I was a phone sex worker, call me every name under the sun, tell me I'm a bad person and I should unalive myself, and threaten their own children.

Had some spout qanon stuff, and scream about 5g causing cancer while using their mobile to conduct the call. Scream that lefties are ruining the country.

Had people tell me that land tax is stupid and not know what it goes towards (roads, infrastructure, schools, were my answer), that it was just funding trans people to abuse children 🙄. Scream about having to sell their investment properties (not my fault). Some spoke down to me, or call me racist names because they though I was an immigrant (I'm not, not that it makes it okay).

Threaten to find me and rape me, wanted me to tell them my last name, tell them my home address, call me queer slurs. Ask me out, ask me to talk dirty to them, and demand I do something against company policy.

All this because I was just doing my job, or I was "taking too long", or I told them they had to pay xyz bill, or tell them it would take X time for payment to be received/refund to land. Never told anyone my political leanings, never provoked them. I think you lucked out, because these days people have gotten worse and worse.

3
Nathreply
aussie.zone

So by the end, I was a (middle) manager of the staff on the phones. I had the power to "fire" customers. I would not have hesitated to close the account of a customer, making them get a new Internet Provider/email address for any of this. Our people were worthy of respect and our customers knew it. Or they weren't our customers any longer.

2

@Nath @StudChud Nath, it's great you had a good job experience.

But not all call centre jobs are like that.

Many call centres are micro-micromanaged.

Adherence to work hours. Conformance to schedule. Call handling time. Calls per worked hour.

There's often caller feedback forms, and those irrational or malicious customers basically decide if you keep your job.

The calls are recorded, and your team leader or dedicated contact centre staff listen in randomly.

In many commercial organisations, there's a mandate to upsell or cross-sell, even if it's an angry customer who wants to close their accounts.

In those cases, you also get judged on the average value of products you sell, and the percentage of calls you upsell on.

You have already angry people who have just been on hold for up to an hour, and have been transferred across different departments and teams.

And there are some men who are either creepy or misogynistic when dealing with women over the phone. And yes, clearly it's a small minority of men. But that small minority exists, and they're shitty.

5

Please take care of yourself in animal care/vet nursing too! It's a fast paced customer facing job that can be stressful as well, so don't beat yourself up if you need breaks and try to have a good support network

2

Fucking neighbour is doing my head in. This is the guy that cuts his lawn with hand shears and also known to sweep leaves around the block 300+m away.

This morning got yelled at for not cleaning up leaves on my side of the boundary. It's fukin autumn find a new less stressful hobby.

Then he apologises later saying I caught him at a bad time.

Dude seriously has his moments and I respect that but not leaves.. in.. autumn.

11

People like that should just move into an apartment. I don’t understand why people buy a house, then hate the trees, put concrete and paving from edge to edge of the block or put artificial grass. If you don’t want a garden there’s better housing options where you don’t have to get furious if a neighbours leaf blows into your yard.

6

Massive day today. Worked non stop from 7:40 to 3:40 including a whole lot of new shit and new requirements to my job that, while making a lot of sense and genuinely good for service delivery, involve a level of mental load/energy that's... not exactly what I signed up for. I need more training and preparation. It kind of happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to formulate a response, and ask for reasonable accommodation/support. I'm definitely willing to give it a go and see if it improves things, but I just really didn't need that extra burden this week 😣

Anyway... I then had to go help a friend out with some things and ended up having a long chat in the car, really was good to unload but I ended up really exhausted and emotional. Despite my pledge to cook more at home and save money I gave in and ordered the two-large-pizza-plus-garlic-bread special at my local for 37.50. I'm reminding myself that it'll be enough for dinner tonight, brekkie tomorrow, dinner tomorrow and maybe even lunch the day after. Thankfully lunch is catered tomorrow at some training thing I gotta do. I'd really rather catch up with work but it's mandatory training so oh well...

I'm thinking after I come back from my break I'm gonna have to ration out my energy a bit better at work in terms of in person interactions. Might need to start requesting one day from home even though I genuinely want to work away from home for the work/life separation - I'm just gonna be really exhausted with all the masking and social interaction.

9

Ok I think I’m tired.

I nearly fell into a toilet.

It’s a sign.

9
aussie.zone

From today's wikipedia - I have to salute whoever wrote the article. Superb use of understatement.

Mad honey is also thought to help with erectile dysfunction[4] and increase sexual performance.[5] Most cases of mad honey poisoning are experienced by middle-aged men.[24]

9
aussie.zone

After a couple of years of self-imposed junk food ban I decided to stop for KFC on the way home. The electronic order board thingy had to be poked a few times before it deigned to take my order but otherwise worked well. But I noticed no one else that came in after me used them and just ordered at the counter. Was I doing the weird thing, or were they?

The wrap seemed smaller than I remember and much more cabbagey. The chips were undersalted and lacking even a hint of crunch. A bit underwhelming and I'll be happy to abstain from fast food for another few years I think.

8
aussie.zone

I only get wicked wings from there now. They heat up so well in the airfryer.

4
aussie.zone

I did not know wings (wicked or not) were a thing at KFC. I am afraid my menu knowledge is limited and I just looked for a picture of something that looked vaguely familiar🤣

4

There was something in ozbargain today about a large snack pack and I gotta be honest I’ve never been more sold on anything in my life for under 10 bucks!

4
Catfishreply
aussie.zone

I’ll pick at Boyo’s chips but otherwise don’t touch the stuff. The abomination they call gravy is so salty you might as well suck stock cubes.

3
aussie.zone

Ditto. So damned salty you can't actually taste the ingredients. This may be a good thing ...

3

If there is an ingredient in it that isn’t a Number I shall be astonished.

2

Haven’t had KFC in many years. I remember it being rubbish and don’t imagine it’s improved. Local chicken shops are so much better, and many of them do wraps and burgers as well as the standard rotisserie chicken. And chips are always fresh cooked. They can take my money instead.

2

I forgot - hot and spicy KFC isn't an everyday thing in Melbourne. Only available occasionally and as wings/burgers.

I almost never have KFC myself, but when I do, it's usually hot and spicy. It's just part of the regular menu in WA.

This is also the first time I've heard of any fast food chips described as "undersalted".

1

@Seagoon_ Overheard in the office...

Colleague one: "As you are aware, we've decided to postpone <event> until August or September. Can you change the dates on the website please?"

Colleague two: "No, I was not aware, thanks for letting me know. When was the decision made? I'll update the website."

Colleague one: "I am very sorry, I thought you were aware."

The "Manager" strikes again.

7
aussie.zone

IT guys are very busy. They should give me access to the website to update this form myself so I can just get it out of the way. I know what I'm doing, I've managed Wordpress websites before

6
TinyBreakreply
aussie.zone

They should give me access .... so I can just get it out of the way. I know what I’m doing

With the utmost respect, the amount of times i've heard this over the last 15 years followed a couple of months later by "Heyyyyyy so I kind of stuffed up, can you please spend the next 2 days unfucking whatever I stuffed up" is the problem.

Not saying your not an expert. I'm saying the people who CLAIMED to be an expert but were in fact not ruined it for the people who actually are experts.

7
aussie.zone

Have seen this plenty of times too. Sure there’s lots of untapped skills and knowledge in organisations where people genuinely could step up, but there’s even more people who severely overestimate their abilities and their bravado can leave a ginormous mess which now someone else has to clean up. IT has no way of knowing which one you are based on ‘I say so’

4
tombruzzoreply
aussie.zone

As frustrating as it is, I understand why bigger places do this. That being said, I want to fix up something IT configured incorrectly in the first place

2

@tombruzzo @SituationCake The other thing is to keep in mind is that it's not necessarily IT that is the "business owner" of the website.

Sure, IT might be responsible for keeping it online. But the main decisions about it, and the responsibility for maintaining the content, belong to a different person/team/department.

Depending on where I've worked, that's been operations, content, comms/PR, and marketing.

Even in small orgs, it's often the CEO rather than IT who has the final say.

And sometimes different parts of the website are managed by different people/teams/departments.

The second thing to be mindful of is it's not just about whether you have the WordPress skills.

There's often a lot of office politics in many organisations.

People quite rightly don't enjoy feeling like their jobs or responsibilities are being undermined.

And they don't want changes made in an area they're ultimately responsible for without them knowing.

That's where business processes and procedures come into play.

It might be as simple as emailing a particular person to get their sign off on you making a particular update, or notifying them afterwards.

You also need to think about what the benefits to them are of granting you this access. Perhaps it frees up their resources for more meaningful tasks?

And the third thing to be prepared for is if you get the admin privileges you want, suddenly other people might ask you to make changes as a shortcut around IT. You might want to push back against that.

If I were in your position, I'd plan out the case for:

* What the problem you want to solve is.
* Your proposed solution. That's not just gaining access, but also the approvals or notifications around it.
* Restrictions and safeguards. You are only to have this level of privileges and make updates in situations x, y, and z. This helps you push back if someone else wants you to make other changes — I'm not authorised to do that.
* The benefits to the business, including improved productivity, or customer experience.

I'd have a chat with your boss to get them on board.

I'd find out who the business owner(s) of the website are.

I'd organise either an informal chat (maybe buy them coffee one day?) or a meeting to talk through the case with them.

And finally, I'd be prepared for the answer to be a no. That's ultimately their call. If that's the case, your decision is whether you stick with your current job, or find a different one that makes better use of your skills.

4
tombruzzoreply
aussie.zone

I know Marketing aren't responsible for the website because that's the team I'm in. This issue isn't worth getting everything setup for, but I might try get access overall soon.

I think it's that I feel hamstrung by not being able to make the change myself. I'm just bumping against the contradictions of businesses needing everything done now, but also needing everyone's input and approval.

I'll see if they let me in, even if it's just to put on my own resume.

1

@tombruzzo Out of curiosity, roughly how large is this organisation? Is it closer to 10 staff, 50 staff, or 1000?

Also, you mentioned something I found interesting.

You said the business wants everything done now, but also everyone needs to give their input and approval.

Is that an issue just with the website? Or is it across the board in your business?

1

Just under 500 people according to the staff mailing list.

More the issue is we had a form that was kind of working. It has a hidden field that was filled incorrectly. The adjustments worked fine in testing but now it has been pushed to Prod it doesn't seem to work.

I've inspected element on the form and the hidden field is still filled, looking unchanged.

The urgency now is we have a form of lead capture on the website that may not be working, and all I can do about it is reply to a Jira ticket.

I just want to jump in and fix the form but I know things aren't that simple.

1
Nathreply
aussie.zone

Unless you are in a very small business, it isn't the IT guys making this call. Present your case to your manager, explain your experience and how it helps the business for you to have the access. Let your manager take it from there. You never know, you might get access.

4
TinyBreakreply
aussie.zone

Unless you are in a very small business, it isn’t the IT guys making this call.

God I'm just imagining my security managers face when I tell him "But X staff member says they've managed Y before so I'm sure its fine lets give full admin access!"

3
tombruzzoreply
aussie.zone

I just want to fix this one thing. If they give me access to the website I might be responsible for maintaining it. I'm not that busy but I don't want more work

2
TinyBreakreply
aussie.zone

You still havnt said the magic word that makes me believe you are a good actor yet. Have you logged a “……”?

1
Taleyareply
aussie.zone

You're grossed out? You're grossed out? My dear boy you don't have to try and expel it. I HAD A LITERAL NOSTRIL OVERFLOW

5

Who are you calling 'boy'? 😂

I'm a visual thinker: you describe snot like cottage cheese, I'm going to throw up in my mouth a little bit haha

Snot is the worst though, I'm sorry your nostrils have betrayed you

4
Catfishreply
aussie.zone

How about pulling multi inch strings out of your eyes?

4
Seagoon_reply
aussie.zone

Have you been vaccinated against whooping cough? Because whooping cough is a total snot machine. The first week is the most snot you have ever seen in your life, then after that it's coughing.

4

Yup i have. Is all juuust snot. I got hit with a rhinovirus shortly after / during a huge cleaning spree that set off a dust allergy

5

I don’t mind a light jog on the treadmill if I can watch something on the iPad.

2

Helps me mentally more than physically. Sort of like a really exhausting mindfulness session.

1
aussie.zone

Mrs is channel surfing and skipped past “farmer wants a wife”, when a strange thought popped into my head: good on 7 for getting some farmers laid. Working a farm is tough as shit, it’s not like you can go to the pub every other night. Country towns are often small, people couple up quick outta school. So ignoring the reality tv show aspect I suppose it’s really a net positive hey.

6
aussie.zone

I worked on a farm when I was 19 for about 2 years. No job has ever been as hard as that was. Not even house demolitions and that is brutal.

3

So what I'm hearing is not only do farmers deserve some love, but it'd be pretty... intense.

2
aussie.zone

How do you abbreviate 'breakfast'? I've seen cafes offer a 'big breaky' which I read as break-y. Others do 'Brekkie' which I seem fine with. And one place I saw does 'Breakki' which annoys me to no end for some reason.

6
Taleyareply
aussie.zone

Brekkie. Using a y instead of ie just rubs wrong (like ozzy instead of aussie)

7

As in Achy Breaky Heart? If so, then thou shalt be cast into the outer darkness and forced to listen to crap 80s and 90s pop sleaze until you reform your way of life, and (possibly) accept Jesus into your heart. I'm not fussed about the last bit. If it happens, it happens.

4
aussie.zone

said it before and I'll say it again: Spotify users have better taste than apple music users (even though I AM an apple music fan). Nemo - Broke the Code, Joost - Europapa and Baby Lasagna - Rim Tim Tagi Dim have all moved into the global daily top 50. Wonder how far apple will be behind.

6
Pilkreply
aussie.zone

Crazy how a certain middle eastern country's song isn't up there despite receiving the second highest public vote. Most suspicious televote I have EVER seen.

4

Sorry what was that? I couldn’t hear you over the booing from the crowd.

Yeah sus as fuck we have ‘em like 12 points. Politics aside, it was a terrible song.

4
aussie.zone

Nemo - Broke the Code, Joost - Europapa and Baby Lasagna - Rim Tim Tagi Dim have all moved into the global daily top 50.

Those are definitely words

4
Taleyareply
aussie.zone

Bit mean spirited isn't it? They're obviously talking about artists and songs

2
TinyBreakreply
aussie.zone

I don’t have an issue with it. Let’s be honest they are ridiculous names.

2
TinyBreakreply
aussie.zone

My objection is mostly with baby lasagna. I love it! But I don’t get it, at all.

Who’s looking at the kids menu and goes “yep! Chicken nuggets and chips! Great stage name!”

2

Considering I literally follow calimari tofu party on bandcamp....no comment

2
aussie.zone

Ergh. Good morning.

No work for me today. I’m a wheezing snotty mess

6

Morning or afternoon now.

I'm wheezing and rattling but stuck at work :/

3

I worked right near it. I probably would have had a go, but it was stupidly expensive - something like $50 a ride. Maybe it wasn't that much ($50 might have been for two). But whatever it cost, it was far more than I was willing to pay.

3

I didn't watch the video, but I think your comments meant to say the views of the asshole of Melbourne?

2
aussie.zone

Breakfast 🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

5
aussie.zone

Coconut cream pie and a large martini please. There should be a law against mornings.

5
aussie.zone

You’ve got it too?

🫖 🍋 🍯 🥃

I’ve been operating on a steady diet of these. At this point it is more whisky than tea.

4

Yeah, I've had it for about a week or something, doesn't seem to want to go away and it's causing me to cough a lot and cough up stuff a lot which sucks.

2
aussie.zone

So tech question Tuesday.... You know this 3g turn off thing? My MIL has a Moto G8 plus (which the specs say supports LTE), but Optus keep sending her emails through her account saying that it will not be supported going forward ... They list her phone specifically as one that will not be supported...so VoLTE is a different spec than LTE?

5

@calhoon2005 @Seagoon_ Sort of.

Basically, when the first 4G and 4G LTE networks were first being rolled out, the technology to make voice calls over 4G networks wasn't quite ready yet. So the earliest 4G phones dropped back to 3G for calls, but used faster 4G networks for internet and data.

Eventually, the telcos rolled out a technology upgrade that allowed calls to be made on 4G LTE mobile networks, called VoLTE (voice over LTE).

But it only worked on newer 4G/4G LTE phones that supported VoLTE for calls. Older models still dropped back to 3G for voice calls

Sounds to me like your MIL has an older 4G LTE phone that still falls back to 3G for calls, instead of making them over the 4G LTE network.

If that's the case, she'll no longer be able to make calls with that phone once Optus 3G shuts down.

Time for an upgrade.

6

Ah fuck. TIL. I figured "my phone does LTE! It'll be fine" but now I'm worried. Ffs, I just want to get the most out of my phone I paid good coin for 7 years ago, I even went to the extent of lineage onto it to extend its life - hate this constant need to upgrade

1

I haven't had a chance, but the MIL is coming to visit soon so I'll give it a try. Can't remember if I bought her the international version or not...

2

I reckon they're just saying to buy a new phone. VoLTE is Voice over LTE. You can get a phone from the supermarket for under $100 so I'd just see what happens and let her know she might need to upgrade.

2

Depends. I brought an old Lumia 650 last week (trying to detox the smart phone thing a bit) and despite supporting 4g it falls back to 3g for calls. Supposedly it CAN support VoLTE, but the profiles are tricky and its a largely abandoned OS. Wouldnt expect that from Android, if she makes a call what do the icons say on the phone?

I'd be more concerned on a near 5 year old device about security updates if shes doing any sort of social media or internet banking on it.

2

Lol nothing malicious, just you appear to have taken the role of botbot! (and are doing a better job of it!)

1
aussie.zone

Tried to make an appointment with my GP. On their website, they had a notice that they were moving to private billing only. And trying to pick a date- next appointment available is 27th May.

Things are very broken (apart from me)

5

Give them a ring, there are very often sooner appointments available, just not shown on the booking software.

4

Can you move to another provider? I've had to do that a few times and while I still pay a gap, at least they refund on the spot.

2

On a side note/create my own discussion. Realised I never finished watching The Sopranos So currently binging the rest of season 6. I realise how similar Ray Donovan is now.

1