[Rant] Minor Rant III: For a Few Hollers More

Dave

Staff member
Nah. 2.0 is on their site but isn't even available yet. Plus it's going to take a LOOOOONG time for the addon writers to update their stuff to the new platform. So we're a long way away. Probably not until 2018 or maybe even 2019. That's why this was a MINOR rant. :D
 
Spent $55 a few days ago to upgrade the board to the latest version of XenForo. Today they announced the release of Xf 2.0...
Is it better?
Do they offer a discount for people who just upgraded in the last 30 days or something?
EDIT: Ah, you already addressed that.

--Patrick
 
$&*#?#!! Volunteer job. This is not five hours a month. I spent five hours yesterday and will spend another five at least today if not twice that.

Each month I get angrier and angrier that I was lied to by the person who was unloading it on me. I would love to quit and just throw it at them. Not professional in any way, but tempting.
Is it really unprofessional though? Granted I don't know any specifics about your situation, but how about "Look, I'm sorry, I was promised this would be x amount of time, because this is extending into x+y, I need you to bring in someone else to cover the y time, or else look for someone else entirely. I can't commit to this length and I would not have volunteered if the time estimate given to me by my predecessor were accurate. I'm giving you a two weeks notice, if you can fix this before then I'll happily stay." I would argue it's more unprofessional of them to not respect the time frame of your availability that you gave before starting.
 
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"It appears that the work involved in this position is far greater than had been explained to me. Unfortunately I can't increase my commitment, so I've prioritized things as follows (provide list of things you can do in the time allotted), which leaves out these things (provide list of things you can't do). I'm happy to reprioritize if needed, but obviously moving things up in priority will shove other things down. Note that a few seemingly low priority tasks are in the high priority list - this is because I can't complete other higher priority items until these specific ones are done."

"As of right now I can only commit to completing items on the high priority list. The other items will need to be done by someone else, or will simply not be done. Hopefully you can find someone else to help out with that, and it would be good to have a second person anyway so I'm not the only person who can do these things."

What you'll find, though, is that people will ask you to do things that are useful and important to them, but if they don't get done the work doesn't stop. So make sure you set your boundaries, communicate them, stick to them, and eventually things will work out. Don't feel bad, and don't let them make you feel bad, for the things dropping by the wayside. This isn't what you signed up for, and them dumping additional work on you is disrespectful - the problem exists with them, not you. So make sure they deal with it, don't just accept it.
 
The previous person quoted me 5 hours a month and its easily taking 30+. The email described the position in such a way that I thought I would be the treasurer for one account and its actually 10 accounts (soon to be 11) over two levels so I am doing inter-company stuff and a sort of consolidation will be required at year end to remove transactions between levels. I'm also responsible for taking all the deposits and writing all the cheques and many of the other volunteers are lazy asses who won't come to me because they're lazy. They don't get that once I take my pain meds for the night, I'm in. They also don't get that as cool as the rest of the executive is, I don't live with them so they can cry and bitch all the they like, but I can't magically produce a cheque with two different signatures within an hour and no amount of wailing will change that. The service standard is a week. Suck it up. I will make exceptions when someone has spent a huge amount of money personally, but $30 is not huge. I also am over the people who get wild over mid sized cheques and start guilt tripping me that someone needs reimbursed within hours of them spending the money. I was feeling terrible one night and wasn't going to my daughter's meeting that night and when a certain person heard that they freaked out and told me that I had to because person A absolutely must have their cheque today for something they had just bought that afternoon and that money was tight in their household. I said ok then, my husband will have to drive me because I feel horrid and I can't walk today without meds. A decent person would have backed down. Nope....I got told that I had better come because otherwise I was taking the food out of her kids mouths. Uh huh....I'm sure that this sounds terrible of me, but if things are that tight in your household, and you can't be without your money for the full week of the service standard to get a cheque (or even a couple of hours), then you have no business spending money on behalf of a volunteer group. I got all the way there and her kid had forgotten all the receipts anyways. The other women looked to me to drive back in to town to go pick them up...hell no.

The previous person totally lied and she also only did part of the job. She handed the books over to me and then did the HST returns for the past three years. Yes....past three years all in arrears. I got my January one for this year in before any of her 2014 stuff. Brutal. I am getting more back in rebates in one month than she did for an entire year.

I also hold open houses a few times a month in a central location during meetings where another cheque signer will be there so that everyone has a few chances a month at instant cheques. So when all these other crying situations are happening, remember that I offer at least two open houses a month for them all to drop in to for instant cheques. The previous person did not do this. She attended zero meetings. The people who whine about wanting cheques right away just aren't making use of my open houses due to the lazy thing I mentioned above. One chick makes me go to her work to pick up deposits. Sadly, we had a massive deadline where we had to write a huge cheque out to our Area so I had to chase these deposits. For what it's worth, I don't hand deliver cheques. If they want them outside of my open houses, they can come to my house.

Sadly, I feel that I need to stay at least the entire year to avoid them the huge cost of the audit that will be required if I quit. Some of them are really awesome, but its hard to see that when I'm on hour 20 of a month end and HST return and I'm in so much pain that I can barely sit and I don't feel that my work is appreciated. I also don't think that any of them understand the difference between the quality of what I'm doing vs what the previous lady did. I plan to send out an HST spreadsheet to show that in six months I have collected more than double what the last lady did over the last three years combined. I also am going to implement some changes (or try to if they don't get voted down) to make my life easier. If they get voted down, or get bitched about too much for my liking, I am prepared to tender my resignation at the meeting later this month effective the end of the year. I have NFC how I am going to train someone in this. The previous lady shut down all the individual accounts and created this bizarre virtual account system and I understand it being an accountant, and she did because she created it, but I don't think anybody else will.

I kind of wrote a book here, but it does feel better to vent some and this is more fun than HST :)
 
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I'm also days away from my monthly infusion (which is no longer happening but that's another long story) and in a scary amount of pain which is making me super unpleasant. I'm aware that I'm unpleasant to be around at the moment so this is just making me more angry than usual.

I do feel like they're taking advantage. I also made it clear up front that I was sick and they all said that they understood back when I signed on, but they don't seem to get it. When I'm a few minutes late to something, the frantic texts start and all that. I can't do stairs quickly. I can't do icy parking lots quickly. One night they were calling and texting and I was in the damned building trying to get down the stairs!! If I have a surprise hive and swelling attack two hours before a meeting and it takes a while to control, I can't rush that if I want to be in any shape to drive. There are more scenarios, but they're all the same.

Then a few of them found out that I was good at photography...and then they all did. I'm kind of scared for the fall. I was told I could charge supplies (printing for all the portraits and consumables for the interactive photo night I did with the kids) so that's all I did. I met someone at the year end ceremony who submitted an expense form to me and her name seemed familiar so I checked. When she did work for them, she got to charge professional fees/labour. I wasn't offered a studio fee/sitting fee or whatever its called or any pay for my time teaching that night, but another volunteer was?

I'm making myself angry lol so I had better stop.
 
Yeah, they're completely walking all over you, and it's obviously hurting you in more ways than emotionally.

The fact that you are considering continuing working essentially 30 hours a week for what you're getting in return for the remainder of the year - well, to be blunt that's foolish.

The fact that they've paid for professionals to do work, then given you the same work for free should cast this whole situation in a different light.

Yes, it's good to volunteer for a good organization. Yes, you may be wiling to donate services and that's uplifting and fulfilling for you.

But they are clearly abusing you. They will take and take and take and ask and ask and ask and demand and demand and demand - because it works. Then when you say no they will turn it back on you, as that person asking for a check did, blaming you for something that has absolutely nothing to do with you or your efforts, and in fact without you they simply wouldn't have it at all.

This is a business.

It's a business.

They may be doing good, but it's a business.

I'd strongly suggest divorcing the emotional/empathetic aspect of why you're doing from what you're doing and re-negotiate.

And your opening salvo isn't bad - submit your resignation effective at the end of the year. But it's not nearly strong enough, and absolutely nothing will change between now and then. And if they get a huge fee that's not your fault. Not only that but they've got over three months to solve that problem if it happens to be important to them.

The fact that they put up with a bad accountant before you should help you understand that it really doesn't matter to them, and they're just using as much of you as they can convince you to give them without regard to you.

You're a tool - an object - the organization and the people within it it uses, and it's clear form the way they are treating you and letting others treat you that they don't value you, just the work you're doing.

If nothing else, you should at least get paid commensurate with the work you're doing.

You really need to stop working after 5 hours a week, and make them understand what isn't being done, and if you're willing and able to work more, perhaps up to 30 hours but you must be paid more, perhaps up to 6 times whatever you're getting.

You have to be hard nosed about this, draw a line in the sand, and let the chips fall where they may.

The most likely outcome is that they'll relent at least a little bit, and they'll continue to badger you for more free time, but at least in this case you're getting paid more for the work you're doing.

You've got them over a barrel and you can show them exactly how much you are making/saving them a month, so you should be able to make the case that your additional paid hours will yield significant benefits for them that would pay for those hours. Point out the huge fees they're facing without a competent accountant, and how you can and have been save them all that money.

You're being far too nice. I can understand 10 hours a week to a good cause for reduce or no pay, but 30 hours a week is no volunteer position.

Your anger is completely valid, and this is no way to live. Renegotiate the terms and either cut your hours, explaining what that means in terms of money lost, or increase your pay, or somewhere in between.

This isn't good for you, and waiting even weeks, nevermind months, to resolve this issue is self-destructive behavior. Don't be a martyr - fix the problem or walk away. If you're willing to spend your emotional energy on something I expect there are groups who deserve it more than this one.

If, on the off chance, you depend somewhat on the pay or benefits of this position, then you should immediately cut your hours down to the minimum required, and report each week on the things not getting done and the money lost due to those things, and let them know you are available for more but a commensurate increase in benefits/pay is required. I've written the above assuming you're largely a volunteer, providing professional services at well below market rate for a good cause, but if you depend on this in any way then you should immediately formalize the relationship and make sure that it's completely a business relationship, rather than volunteer.

And deflect, deflect, deflect. "I cannot spend time chasing down those receipts or getting the check signed, please call [boss, president, ceo, someone else] and ask them to drive around or come to my house if this is urgent." Make sure every time someone tries to pressure you into going beyond your job requirements they are redirected to the people above you. If you receive direction from them to add that to your job list, make sure they understand the cost - hopefully in dollars and cents - of the increased time and pay and/or what will go undone as a result of these distractions from your primary responsibilities. When I've been in the position of handing out checks I simply gave the unsigned checks to the person that needed to sign them, and redirected all inquiries to them. Let them deliver the checks if it's important to the business. Note that I didn't actually give them to the person - I put them in their box in their locked office with one signature and then it was out of my hands.

If at all possible, convince them to give you a paid intern to assist you - not just with the running around, but also to help you get around for meetings and on-site work. (I can't believe they aren't paying for a building with a working elevator, and haven't moved the meetings to a better location that doesn't require stairs for you).

You deserve better.

/rant
 
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Yeah, they're completely walking all over you, and it's obviously hurting you in more ways than emotionally.

The fact that you are considering continuing working essentially 30 hours a week for what you're getting in return for the remainder of the year - well, to be blunt that's foolish.

The fact that they've paid for professionals to do work, then given you the same work for free should cast this whole situation in a different light.

Yes, it's good to volunteer for a good organization. Yes, you may be wiling to donate services and that's uplifting and fulfilling for you.

But they are clearly abusing you. They will take and take and take and ask and ask and ask and demand and demand and demand - because it works. Then when you say no they will turn it back on you, as that person asking for a check did, blaming you for something that has absolutely nothing to do with you or your efforts, and in fact without you they simply wouldn't have it at all.

This is a business.

It's a business.

They may be doing good, but it's a business.

I'd strongly suggest divorcing the emotional/empathetic aspect of why you're doing from what you're doing and re-negotiate.

And you're opening salvo isn't bad - submit your resignation effective at the end of the year. But it's not nearly strong enough, and absolutely nothing will change between now and then. And if they get a huge fee that's not your fault. Not only that but they've got over three months to solve that problem if it happens to be important to them.

The fact that they put up with a bad accountant before you should help you understand that it really doesn't matter to them, and they're just using as much of you as they can convince you to give them without regard to you.

You're a tool, and object the organization and the people within it it uses.

If nothing else, you should at least get paid commensurate with the work you're doing.

You really need to stop working after 5 hours a week, and make them understand what isn't being done, and if you're willing and able to work more, perhaps up to 30 hours, you must be paid more, perhaps up to 6 times whatever you're getting.

You have to be hard nosed about this, draw a line in the sand, and let the chips fall where they may.

The most likely outcome is that they'll relent at least a little bit, and they'll continue to badger you for more free time, but at least in this case you're getting paid more for the work you're doing.

You've got them over a barrel and you can show them exactly how much you are making/saving them a month, so you should be able to make the case that your additional paid hours will yield significant benefits for them that would pay for those hours. Point out the huge fees they're facing without a competent accountant, and how you can save them all that money.

You're being far too nice. I can understand 10 hours a week to a good cause for reduce or no pay, but 30 hours a week is no volunteer position.

Your anger is completely valid, and this is no way to live. Renegotiate the terms and either cut your hours, explaining what that means in terms of money lost, or increase your pay, or somewhere in between.

This isn't good for you, and waiting even weeks, nevermind months, to resolve this issue is self-destructive behavior. Don't be a martyr - fix the problem or walk away. If you're willing to spend your emotional energy on something I expect there are groups who deserve it more than this one.

If, on the off chance, you depend somewhat on the pay or benefits of this position, then you should immediately cut your hours down to the minimum required, and report each week on the things not getting done and the money lost due to those things, and let them know you are available for more but a commensurate increase in benefits/pay is required. I've written the above assuming you're largely a volunteer, providing professional services at well below market rate for a good cause, but if you depend on this in any way then you should immediately formalize the relationship and make sure that its completely a business relationship, rather than volunteer.

And deflect, deflect, deflect. "I cannot spend time chasing down those receipts or getting the check signed, please call [boss, president, ceo, someone else] and ask them to drive around or come to my house if this is urgent." Make sure every time someone tries to pressure you into going beyond your job requirements they are redirected to the people above you. If you receive direction from them to add that to your job list, make sure they understand the cost - hopefully in dollars and cents - of the increased time and pay and/or what will go undone as a result of these distractions.

If at all possible, convince them to give you a paid intern to assist you - not just with the running around, but also to help you get around for meetings and on-site work. (I can't believe they aren't paying for a building with a working elevator, and haven't moved the meetings to a better location that doesn't require stairs for you).

You deserve better.

/rant

While I largely agree, small caveat: it's 30 hours a month, not a week. That would be almost full time employment O_O
 
While I largely agree, small caveat: it's 30 hours a month, not a week. That would be almost full time employment O_O
(I)nformative

Ah well, then it's not as bad as I thought. That said, it's still 6 times more time than originally expected, and the "urgent" requirements to be a gopher are clearly well outside what should be expected.
 
This is purely a volunteer position. I volunteered for financial work and it was a win for them because with my professional background, they didn't need to pay to train me and I was given none of the documents from the prior year so I had to figure it out myself. I think that the lady was going to give them to me, but when she had me over to show me everything, I think she got nervous that I would find errors and/or how sloppy she was. I had already guessed that from what she had already said and I honestly didn't care enough to go looking for errors. Seriously. Had enough on my plate.

It was later on that they realized about my photography skills and started using me for that too. I was told that I could only claim costs yet I see another volunteer who provides her artistic time (which is in a different field than her volunteer time) and gets paid for her costs and her time. Not cool.

I am doing a far better job than the last lady. I don't blame her, she's not an accountant and I doubt that she had any more support than I do. I am also giving them far more opportunities for immediate cheques and centralized deposit taking. It's never enough and no one ever seems to understand that I'm one person. One sick person. I prepare these really nice monthly balance reports and inventory tracking sheets by deposit so everyone knows how every cent they fundraise translates into their unit accounts, yet its still not enough and even though it's two days before a month end, I would still get them yelling for interim balance reports. Get a grip. The previous lady would report three full weeks after month end because she didn't understand how online banking worked. I report within 5 days and that still wasn't fast enough. Give me a break, right?

I finished a huge report overnight that needs to go downtown and I plan to hand deliver it so I can ask about quitting and the official process. They will of course report back and that will reinforce my message when I present my "change your ways or I'm out" speech at the meeting later this month.
 
I laid out my issues with both the number of hours vs what I had been promised before taking the job and the attitudes of those I am helping. I explained that I will be creating and then enforcing new policies that will drastically reduce my time commitment and that whining and bitching will be ignored. I was more direct than I have ever been and borderline rude, but polite wasn't getting through.

I told them that I required their support to present and enforce these rules or I will not be renewing at the end of the year. I also told them that the amount of time that the job takes must drastically reduce over the next few months (even if attitudes improve) or I will be leaving.

I put them on notice that I will not take any more shit. I heard back very quickly that I will have all the support that I need because they can't lose me.

I hope that's true, but I'm done being nice.
 
I have a party to go to tonight and told people I would go, and meant it at the time, but I just have no desire to go and "get lit" tonight fam, or really ever any more. I'm sure they're too drunk at this point to even realize I'm not there but I'm not looking forward to the badgering over the next few days as to why I didn't go. Luckily I'm off for three days more so I'm sure it'll be forgotten.

Edit: Scratch that, they messaged me 15 minutes after I wrote that. Just said that I wasn't down for it today. Seem to understand, we'll see.
 
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One of the hotels put an ad in today's local paper looking for front desk. So I head there with a resume to turn in. The youngling at the desk insisted on putting up an argument that they weren't looking for front desk. The girl wasn't even at her post when I came in. I had to almost shout to get her to come out of the office. Maybe it's *her* job that's up for replacement, hmm?

I'm tempted to call and rat her out to the manager about her attitude. After the shift change so she doesn't mess with my resume.
 
I change the channel to Good Morning America today. After all the crap that went down in Virginia the leading headline was "TOM CRUISE HAD A BOO BOO ON THE SET OF MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 6!"

Then the camera hit Robin Roberts and Micheal Strahan just staring back at the camera in a really uncomfortable way.
 
Car broke down. This is only a minor rant because of the following:

1. Car died on a side road, not a major road.
2. it means I can finally buy a new car. Still debating on what I want!
3. It didn't happen on the way to my vacation weekend with the boys up north.

Here's hoping I can find something I want quick and get it going!
 
I often share some of my Astrophotography images in a few local groups on Facebook. If people ask if they can share them, I usually say yes. With "ask" being the key word. I shared one recently and this person liked it, then commented "Thanks" and shared it publicly on their page! Publicly!! Not ok. I contacted the group admin and at first I don't think he understood why I was upset. He told me that I should take it as a compliment that someone should find my images good enough to share. I said no....I take it as theft that someone shared my image without permission. He is friends with the person and said that they aren't a bad person and that their wall is full of shared things that other people created/posted. That only made it worse for me. I explained that I am very unwell and that I only get out to take pictures very rarely now and that I don't like people taking without asking. I thought it was pretty ballsy of her to thank me and take it like that. It annoys me that people are let into photography groups like this one who never share photos and are only there to leech.

I think that he understood then or at least said that he did. He showed me how to report it to Facebook and sadly, my original post had to be deleted out of the group. The good news is that her post is now gone because there is nothing left to share. I also blocked her so she can't share anything else I post or worse - steal a copy of the image.

The admin who helped me would now like me to re-post the image back to the group. Before I do, do any of you know how to restrict my posts from being shared? Some of my photography groups have turned off sharing all together. I've gone through the privacy settings on Facebook several times but I'm not seeing where this option is.
 
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