The Original Online BODYBUILDING SUPPLEMENTS FORUM. Advanced Techniques. Pro Tips & Insights. The Best Advice!

OK guys I know times are tough and some of you aren't working so apologies on the following rant. In the event you're unemployed (been there) I will bend over backwards to help you. In fact, if anyone needs a letter/email from me attesting to your personal character and such let me know.

Having said that, here's how job went prior to joining the company I work for now. See, over there it was just a matter of time before you get voted off the island:

First, you needed to call and confirm something with a customer. It could be anything, just confirm it. Once verbally confirmed, you'll need to request written confirmation from the confirmer confirming the verbal confirmation. Assuming written confirmation confirms the verbal confirmation, you need to schedule a confirmation meeting with your team. Prior to that though, you need to schedule a pre-meeting to the confirmation meeting so nobody can confirm you didn't prepare properly.

IF both the pre-confirmation and confirmation meetings go well, you'll need to schedule a post-confirmation debrief meeting to confirm the verbal, written, pre and confirmation meetings confirmed all confirmations/re-confirmations. This, to confirm nobody can contest you violated corporate protocol for said verbal and written confirmations. Your supervisor wants to confirm this before the final confirmation request is sent to his manager.

Finally, you'll need to fill out a confirmation form (form for everything)documenting all verbal and written confirmations/re-confirmations were confirmed. The confirmation form is then attached to all related verbal and written confrimation/re-confirmations and forwarded to management for final confirmation. Nothing is confirmed until management confirms all confirmations/re-confirmations. If you violated confirmation protocol, you'll need to start over, call the customer and confirm the original verbal confirmation.

Confirmed?

Sounds as bad as the government bureaucracy.

We should have a meeting to confirm if I confirmed that properly.

Teacher needs to see me after school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0XLKcMoXRE

Thanks for the laugh guys. It was needed.

Happens all the time Draco. I don't think you're affected given your profession. Consider that a blessing!

Do I have a profession??? Had my own rant but erased it......

Ha ha!

Yes, you are a hard working man. A man that works with his hands yes? I know people who I work with who look down on such people. Yet, some of the best people in the world are those with dirt under their fingernails. And these corporate types? Let's see, who caused this economic meltdown again?

Bankers
Businessmen
Investment/Portfolio Managers
Real Estate brokers

Hmmmm.....

RobRegish wrote:Ha ha!

Yes, you are a hard working man. A man that works with his hands yes? I know people who I work with who look down on such people. Yet, some of the best people in the world are those with dirt under their fingernails. And these corporate types? Let's see, who caused this economic meltdown again?

Bankers
Businessmen
Investment/Portfolio Managers
Real Estate brokers

Hmmmm.....

added corrupt politicians especially one from Massachusetts

Hank! wrote:

RobRegish wrote:Ha ha!

Yes, you are a hard working man. A man that works with his hands yes? I know people who I work with who look down on such people. Yet, some of the best people in the world are those with dirt under their fingernails. And these corporate types? Let's see, who caused this economic meltdown again?

Bankers
Businessmen
Investment/Portfolio Managers
Real Estate brokers

Hmmmm.....

added corrupt politicians especially one from Massachusetts

Heck yeah! ***I*** have to have a good fico, history, income, etc... but OTHERS don't!?!? COME ON! I once was told I couldn't afford a home, in the 80s, because I got a RAISE!!!!! Talk about DONUT HOLE! The poor got special terms, about as good as now, and others had FAR less favorable terms. I got a $5000/year raise, and couldn't afford it because I would need like another $10,000 for the downpayment, and increased cost of financing. I didn't even know about the special deal until I was no longer able to have it. If I were black or something, I would probably scream racism, and get the special deal.

Heck, when I finally bought a home 10 years ago, just before the close I was asked to get my employer to state I was making what I was, though I complied with EVERY request. AND, if I have less than 20% equity, I have to pay PMI.

Where are the antidiscrimination laws when you REALLY need them and when they make sense?

Steve

You're the one at fault Steve. Working hard and all this nonsense. Playing by the rules? That'll get you nowhere.

Lie, cheat and steal. This is now the accepted way to get ahead and in fact, rewarded at many companies. Other people watch this and learn. So the cycle repeats. Loyalty? Gone 25 years ago. Now, they'll as much as tell you on day 1 of the job "we're not going to train you, take care of you in retirement, or much care about you in general. Just make sure to get done what we tell you. In the event you're good, we'll just keep piling it on because it allows us to cut even more people". Guess who's going to get their work.

You, as the EE learn quickly that you either join them (grab as much money as you can before you're "re-deployed") or won't last long. Not fun looking for a new job so you start singing their song.

There are no problems in that world. The word is "challenges". These are really "opportunitities" in disguise, because problems have a negative ring to them. Can't be having any of that. It's on you though, to figure out where the opportunity to your challenge is, so get busy leveraging those synergies.

And make sure to confirm it with management.

Wait it gets even better. Ready for this? Stock options. Here's how it worked at my old company:

On the stock options, this is better known as free money. When you're a bigshot, they GIVE you X shares of company stock. Let's say it's $50/share. You have the OPTION at some point in time to sell it.

So what to do? Easy.... motivate. Yep. You get yourself a motivational speaker to come in and get the rank and file fired up. Tell them there might be bad news in the world, but this is really your opportunity (there's that word again) to shine. They want YOUR ideas about how best to solve the company's problems. Hey, isn't that what management is supposed to do? Doesn't matter. Get out there and and find the solution (another GREAT buzzword).

Now, once you've done that make sure to high five each other. Because when they're done with EE appreciation day (free coffee mug with company logo on it), Mr/Mrs Big Shot is going going to sell their stock.... which just went up to $100/share. So they just doubled the money that was given to them for FREE. All that hard work they do..

Well, not really. See, their $ was doubled on YOUR back. You just made them a whole lot richer. Treasure that coffee mug though. It'll continue to pay dividends to them too every time time somebody sees it.

These are things nobody else will tell you. Many of you know this but some of you younger guys may not. Just be aware what's really going on around you. When you enter the job market guys, it's a big casino out there.

And always remember: More often than not, the house wins.

My favorite is about one company that was GOOD, provided a service, lasted a while, and had a pension fund that people invested in and did well with.

Another company LIED, CHEATED, STOLE! They went into california, and some poor people had to pay SO much for electricity that they could LITERALLY have bought a home for the same amount. I stayed at a hotel in northern california, and they started charging a $7/day surcharge for the ELECTRICITY!!!!!! They typically only charged about $260/day! I talked them down to $200. I found out that the lowest paying customer, DISNEY, paid over $140/night. It was IRONIC because that company was supposed to LOWER prices! Their slogan was WHY! Interesting! I started asking why! WHY isn't this company BANKRUPT!?!?!? WHY would ANYONE pay them!?!?!?

And WHY did they do it? They bought OPTIONS, told companies to shut down generators, which raised costs, and they made a KILLING!

NOW, back to that FIRST company. The second one bought them out! The pension shares were replaced with shares of the new company. HEY, GREAT! It was the new DARLING! It went UP, EVERYONE LOVED IT!

Now what was my first question? OH YEAH, WHY didn't they go bankrupt!?!? Well, they FINALLY did! I think it was the biggest bankruptcy EVER to that point. The company's name? ENRON! That first company's pension was OBLITERATED!

Steve

Yeah, those Enron guys were great, weren't they?

Almost as good as WorldCom. You know how I know that? I was our point person on WorldCom. Yep, dealt with those BASTARDS every day for over a year. They legit put many of our people in the hospital over how they treated us. I could tell you stories you wouldn't believe.

I worked that case so hard. Had inside information that allowed us to terminate them, box them into a corner and get the $ they owed us. This was absolutely unheard of at the time, terminating a $20 million/year customer. This was 3 weeks before anyone knew of the impending bankruptcy/fraud that was going on.

So we terminated them, got our money and got off the hook. Had we not done this, we would have been owed hundred of thousands of dollars and been on the hook for ALL of their disability claims until these people died. You know how much money that might have been? Tens of millions more.... with no more $ coming in because WorldCom would have been bankrupt.

So let's see. No money coming in, tens of millions going out the door and Rob helped the company avoid all of this by making the call to terminate them BEFORE anyone knew they went bankrupt (biggest in US history up until that point). And what did Rob get?

Boss says to me "Great job, Division BigShot wants to buy you a beer after work". Oh it gets better. End of that year when it comes time for my annual review/salary discussion:

"Rob, great work this year.. we couldn't be happier with you. Unfortunately, it's been a tough year for the company so we're going to have to DEFER your increase until a later date. Hang in there though. Keep working hard and good things will happen...."

To all you younger guys still in school.. START YOUR OWN BUSINESS NOW!!

Milk these idiots for all their worth if you have to but quietly build your own business on the side. That way, when you're eventually voted off the island you can look at them and say:

"I understand. I learned a long time ago the only person I could rely on was myself, not you or anyone else for my income. You see, it really doesn't matter what you or anyone else thinks of me. I can stand on my own 2 feet..."

For everyone that doesn't take that advice... prepare yourself. Even if you have money socked away it goes fast and NO amount of $ can prepare you psychologically for having to wake up with nowhere to go the next day. It gets pretty bad when you have a 1 year old like I did, a wife looking at you and asking..... "what's the plan"?

Sorry for the rant but there's a lot to learn here. This is more important than The BP folks. Yeah, that important....

You DO realize you just circled back, right!?!?!?

A LOT of people were depnding on BP for part of their retirement. MOST of those didn't, and may still not, even know that!

The dividend is GONE!!!!!
The company is SMALLER!!!!!
Costs are HIGHER!!!!!
The potential for increased income is REDUCED!!!!!

I just hope they got out quick enough, etc... So it shows how a retirement income can't be relied on. The current policies could EASILY make dollars, and even yen and euros, WORTHLESS, so you HAVE to invest to keep what you have, but invest in WHAT!?!?!?

Before the 1929-1933 crash, people invested in gold! Well, in 1933 gold ownership in the US was made ILLEGAL, and gold was CONFISCATED! It was made legal to own gold again around 1971, as I recall. I believe the official value of gold is STILL $35! So, if gold were confiscated today, you would likely lose $1263.70 an ounce! They may even make $50 gold pieces with that ounce.

I couldn't believe it when I saw one they just made, after they started making gold coins again, in 1986. The spot price of gold was less than $400 as I recall, official price of gold about $35, monetary value of $50, and the coin sold for close to $500! Today, they apparently sell the coins for about $170-$400 over spot, depending what the spot price is. But the bank is still only obligated to give you $50 for them, the face value of the coin! BTW TODAY, from the US mint, an american buffalo $50 gold coin will cost about $1560(spot is 1298.70, The cost will jump $50 if spot jumps $3!)! Don't worry though, you get a proof in a nice little display box with a certificate!

Yeah, I earlier had a company. One of my customers demanded all of my time, asked me to be an employee, so I became one. DUMBEST THING I EVER DID!

Steve