Rant Thread (add yours!)

We used to have a daily rant thread. It was cathartic.

My rant today is about how I feel. Ok, so it's bad enough I have this creeping crud that won't seem to go away and introduces a new and exciting symptom each day (today it's a hacking cough, if anyone is interested), but then Auntie shows up with the cramps of death.

Did I slap somebody's baby in a former life or sumpin????

It's gray and gloomy and I have way too much to accomplish this week to feel this way! Argh!!!!

Ok, that's mine. What's your beef?

I'm sorry to hear that, Nik! I hope you feel better soon.

I'm in a pretty good mood but my rant for today is this. In August of last year I bought my first ever house. I love it. I lived in an apartment complex for 8 years before that and they ran it like a slum lord. They never took care of the air conditioning and when it was 95 degrees one day last year my air wasn't working and they didn't think it was an emergency even with a heat index of like 115. I missed a day of work because I could not sleep and had to check into a hotel room for some relief.

When I learned I got the house, I gave my required 60 day notice in writing to my apartment managers. Before I left, I cleaned the entire apartment including the stove, fridge, bathroom, etc. There were some stains in the carpet from having a kid and the walls needed painting, but they should paint everything and replace the carpeting anyway after 8 years of having the same tenant.

Last week I'm at work and some bill collector calls claiming I owe the apartment manager some $365 for cleanup costs after I moved out. I was so pissed and told him to get stuffed. I was never late on my rent and was never a problem when I faithfully paid my rent every month and I cleaned it before I moved out and they have the nerve to try to collect more money from me? It's unbelievable.

I am hoping they just go away and don't sue me in small claims court for the money. I will countersue if they do for the air conditioning fiasco. They should just leave me alone. I've moved on.

 Laura (lawyer here):

Congrats on the new home.  In Minnesota, your landlord has to send you a letter itemizing the amounts owed for cleaning expenses.  It sounds like he skipped that step.  If the collector was not employed by the apartment owner, there are also fair debt collection issues.  You should request in writing proof that the debt exists and that the collector has the right to collect it.  

Good luck!

Thanks, I know I can write to request validation of the debt under the FDCPA but then I would have to provide the collector with my new address and I left without giving them that. I knew they would come after me because they're ******** and they have a reputation for bringing frivolous claims for repairs. I'd rather wait for them to hunt me down and then I'll assert my rights, but I'm not going to make it easy for them by saying here's where you can contact me. It's ridiculous. They should be happy with me paying the rent on time and giving proper written notice and cleaning up the place but they aren't.

 Morning Nik....no rant here other than I fell a week ago and I am still hurting.    When I get the crud I ALWAYS have to go to the doc.   I had it a month ago and had to take 4 prescription meds to get over it.   Maybe you should go see your doctor.   I will pray you feel much better soon...trust me I can relate.

Hugs and blessings ~~~ Vivian

Yeah, I've got a rant all right.

Work for the last year has been challenging, but at least I was finally working again with a manager *****ally cared about the client's results... she's bright, funny and excellent at what she does.  She made work bearable after several prior years of being paired with incompetent managers.

Sad news is that she can't take the bull any more with some of the others on our team and upper management has made it clear that they aren't willing to address the poor performance of these other associates.  So, MY manager has interviewed for a position in a different part of the firm and they JUMPED on her... they are throwing lots of money at her and she has a chance to start something new, where she can feel values.

I am SO happy for her... but her leaving my team is going to literally make my life a living hell.  She's working hard to try to ensure that I'm in a good place before she leaves (either with a good new manager, or even moving into a new role myself)... but I can see the writing on the wall.

I'm definitely feeling a bit depressed.  Personal life seems sucky lately, now works sucks too... I'm totally lacking the motivation to work out and I KNOW I have to snap out of it. Blah.

*rant off*

 I had a sucky supervisor. We eventually had to have a "come to Jesus" moment but I was still so glad when my current position opened up!

I think I'm just afraid of change, honestly.  I guess I can look for a promotion... my manager definitely feels I'm qualified for the next level, but I just hate things to change.  I'm shy so working with a whole new set of people is REALLY hard, even when I work from home.  Rebuilding that rapport, trust and confidence is a pain... ugh.

Things going well in the new position for you then? Maybe I have to take your lead and just go for it...


tori

 Well...it's not a new position. I've been here four years. :)

We could start a "resistant to change" club. Mine goes DEEEEEP. I'm so bad I don't even like transitions in my day and will often stay at wor****il the last possible moment that I have to leave and get the girls. 

My therapist and I are trying to work it out. 

As far as my job, I was an administrative assistant but I'd just got my degree in writing. A staff writer position opened up at a sister organization and it seemed hand written for me, so I applied. This was before I had surgery. I got the job just after I had surgery. I've been here since. I intend to get my masters but I have been slow about it. 

 Ok I have a couple.

My first is along the lines of Tori's.

I came to my current company with a pretty good resume and actually for the job security I took a couple steps back career wise.  Previously I had managed a Business Intelligence team that had as many as 12 people, I then moved into the BI architecture and was responsible for an analytics product that is now the top in it's industry and has customers world wide, comming here I took a position as fairly senior developer around 4 years ago.  I immediately was placed under people less experienced and less knowledgable than myself.  After management shifts I was then placed under a manager that totally didn't understand the technologies or the methodologies so we butted heads A LOT!  I kept pushing for a promotion and was given goals that I had to achieve but when I would achieve them do goals were set and I just couldn't make progress.  At one point when I was interviewing for other opportunities I was told by him that if I wanted more money the fastest way was for me to bring him an offer from another company, like seriously?

Well department shifts happened and again I was placed under new managers fortunately these people are proffesionals and understand the value of knowledge and talent.  I approached them as I was being courted by a company and made them aware of the fact there were other offers, but I did not discuss money but rather focused on opportunities and career path.  They came back with a great offer with postion, responsibilities, expectations and dollars which was in line with what others were offering so I opted to stay. To add to the frustration of this ordeal there are 2 other individuals in my group that hold the position I am working towards but they were promoted under the previous management so they have none of the expectations.  Then since I work for an extremely large company it just takes forever for things to happen.  I was informed that my promotion was start to be processed the first week of Jan.  I had 3 levels of managers sign off my manager, a Senior Director and a VP all sign with no questions.  HR was on board with it last year when they made the offer because they needed to be sure that it would go through before they brought it to me.  So here we are in March and my promotion is still being processed.

The good news is that the pay is retro-active to when the process began so I will get a nice little check once it has been fully processed.

Rant #2 is this freaking Bronchitis just won't clear up.  I developed a cough and gunked up lungs about a month ago and then it seemed to go away, only to return worse than ever last week.  I have some awesome cough meds but is has codeine so NO CAN Take it and drive.... CRAP!  Yeah I should take some more time off but over the past month I have taken it fairly light and I need to keep my training on track.