The Positivity Thread aka "Today was a great day because....."

What would have been a very annoying work trip has become a pretty relaxed little getaway because my flights had to be rescheduled due to a strike. Thanks, Verdi! ☺️

A similar thing happened the week before last, only that time it was the train drivers who were on strike. I rented a car instead, which made the trip to the pickup point in question a lot easier, and I finally got to try out one of Hertz’s Polestar 2s! 😍
 
By not really taking much vacation or sick days last year, I got well into the overproportional range in my contract's bonus system (in short: the more you work, the better your bonus, and at a certain point the gradient of the linear function increases significantly). Which resulted in an overall bonus of just under 10% for last year. Normally I'm at about half that. And I don't really do extra hours - it's just that I don't take days off to just sit around at home, doing nothing.

This year that won't happen though, if my vacation plans become reality...
 
how is a bonus system that rewards “taking less sick days”* even legal? You realize what a toxic system that is?
Similar for the vacation days: you are owed the contractual days of. That’s it. If you don’t take them, your employer has to pay you for those anyway - how is it legal to incentivize not taking your holidays?

* you don’t take sick days. You are sick. It’s not a choice**, so how can you reward it?
** yes you can live a healthy lifestyle etc I get that. Still only tweaking the odds.
 
eizbaer said:
how is a bonus system that rewards “taking less sick days”* even legal? You realize what a toxic system that is?
Similar for the vacation days: you are owed the contractual days of. That’s it. If you don’t take them, your employer has to pay you for those anyway - how is it legal to incentivize not taking your holidays?

* you don’t take sick days. You are sick. It’s not a choice**, so how can you reward it?
** yes you can live a healthy lifestyle etc I get that. Still only tweaking the odds.
Click to expand...
Thought the same thing. Terrible system!
 
The system is, simply put, turnover based, we are a consultancy after all. And the system is terrible for a bunch of reasons that I will not disclose here.
I take pleasure in the fact that I get a bigger-than-expected bonus without even trying to do so. That's all.
 
eizbaer said:
how is a bonus system that rewards “taking less sick days”* even legal? You realize what a toxic system that is?
Similar for the vacation days: you are owed the contractual days of. That’s it. If you don’t take them, your employer has to pay you for those anyway - how is it legal to incentivize not taking your holidays?

* you don’t take sick days. You are sick. It’s not a choice**, so how can you reward it?
** yes you can live a healthy lifestyle etc I get that. Still only tweaking the odds.
Click to expand...
Probably by basing things on an absolute target (e.g. 200 billable days) rather than a relative one (e.g. 90% billable time).
 
narf said:
Probably by basing things on an absolute target (e.g. 200 billable days) rather than a relative one (e.g. 90% billable time).
Click to expand...
yeah, I assumed something of the sort... still pretty bad.
DanRoM said:
The system is, simply put, turnover based, we are a consultancy after all. And the system is terrible for a bunch of reasons that I will not disclose here.
I take pleasure in the fact that I get a bigger-than-expected bonus without even trying to do so. That's all.
Click to expand...
fair enough! I've had the odd "huh, this is more money than expected" moment myself that was based in something better not questioned / thought about too much ;-)
 
This is why I like the consultancy I am at currently - we don't do bonuses at all because we believe any bonus system based on individual or team performance will in the end give wrong incentives.
 
I just realized I'm spreading too much negativity around, and that I should focus on more positive things that are happening in life. Besides, I haven't told the big news, so I'm gonna say it now:

About a month ago, I quit the displeasing (to say the least) TV job I landed in mid-January to accept a paid 6-month internship at one of the most desirable employers in Croatia! So far everything seems good, and the time passes by much quicker than at the previous job. If I do well at the internship, they'll offer me a full-time employment (this is full-time already in terms of working hours, but it's a student contract).
 
NooDle said:
End of the year time, and my electricity company have refunded me what I overpaid (as they should), and have given me (yet again) a new proposal for monthly installments : 54€/month. Which seems devastatingly low, especially if you see what they proposed me in the last few months :

100€
150€
180€
330€
300€
560€
0€ (I think this was a glitch)
52€

For reference, here's my consumption (off their website, they also know this)

View attachment 3571359
Aside from dec 22-march 23 where I was EV less because reasons, it's been pretty consistent if you ask me.
Thus I will conclude my electricity company have no idea what they're doing, and are idiots/trying to con me out of money.
I shall set my own monthly installments because I'm obviously better at it than they are. Good thing I can do that, dunno if every provider allows this.

At their current "prediction" they will owe me about 1000€ at the end of 2024, because I've set it much higher/more realistic than the 52€ they propose.
IDIOTS

Thank you for coming to my tedtalk
Click to expand...
3 months later, same deal.
Now I'm on 150€ and they're proposing 304€ because ... reasons?
Energy prices have gone down, my usage has stayed roughly the same (around1000 kWh/month pretty consistently)
Why are they doing this!
 
Because I don't believe in astrology but believe in baseball, my current rule of thumb is that if I get in the car in the morning and the center display tells me that the New York Yankees have lost, the day will be no good. If they've won, it'll be an okay day or even a good one. This morning I started up the car and Yankees had won Pirates 12-0. And it's been a completely alright day so far.

I also follow Utah Jazz on the same widget and they lost majorly, but I have no skin in their games.
 
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