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16 years in the health bureaucracy and it has finally happened - a meeting whose sole purpose turned out to be to recommend organising other meetings.

 

 

Mind you when I started 16 years ago the managers were reasonably competent and we had rational objectives and processes.  The current mob are worthless oxygen thieves, processes are non-existent and the objectives are whatever little pet bullshit the manager is into.

 

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38 minutes ago, navybsn said:

First-Time-meme-template-of-The-Ballad-of-Buster-Scruggs-1024x576.jpg

 

So it's not just me!

 

This is why more and more I show less initiative, less proactiveness and less commitment to work as time goes on.  

Literally the culture has devolved into doing the bare minimum and staying under the radar.  Also nod your head and be a good yes person.

 

We literally don't even have budgets anymore.  Instead they have a rolling budget that they adjust as you spend money.  And this isn't even based on your exact expenditure or forecast - it just goes up and down randomly, sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly and then the big end of year adjustment where they make some services under budget, some on budget and some over budget all for no apparent reason.

 

Mentally retarded meth addicted hobos would display more competence.

 

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51 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

One of our cats passed away overnight. She was fine last week, and then on Sunday we found her under the couch barely able to move, so we knew she didn't have long. She was 16 and had a good life with us, but it's still a massive bummer. 

Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear that.

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12 hours ago, Dead1 said:

 

So it's not just me!

 

This is why more and more I show less initiative, less proactiveness and less commitment to work as time goes on.  

Literally the culture has devolved into doing the bare minimum and staying under the radar.  Also nod your head and be a good yes person.

 

We literally don't even have budgets anymore.  Instead they have a rolling budget that they adjust as you spend money.  And this isn't even based on your exact expenditure or forecast - it just goes up and down randomly, sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly and then the big end of year adjustment where they make some services under budget, some on budget and some over budget all for no apparent reason.

 

Mentally retarded meth addicted hobos would display more competence.

 

I've thought more about changing careers in the past 2 years than is probably healthy. People in positions of leadership without the adequate skillset or support systems to get those skills, business goals/profits over employees and patients, organization lacking a strategic plan or direction, uncooperative or outright antagonistic service lines sabotaging improvement efforts, people satisfied with doing the absolute bare minimum to get by, uncooperative and outright hostile patients and families abusing staff, and being demonized by a large percentage of the population for actually giving a shit about their health and well-being while relying on actual evidence-based practice and legitimate research rather than facebook/Qanon/TikTok bullshit. It's all very demoralizing and the burn out is real. Personally, I think we are only seeing the beginning of the real collapse of our healthcare system. New enrollments in professional schools (Nursing, Medicine, etc) are down significantly across the board and established professionals are leaving the field. The staffing crisis coming will be more significant than any other single factor in accelerating the collapse.

Ultimately, I have bills to pay, and I do get paid well, so I come in every day and try my best to make positive change. Meanwhile, I'm plotting a long-term strategy into something better. At least as soon as I figure out what that is.

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I am debating how the recent takeover at my place of work is going to pan out.  Lots of nicey bonuses being thrown around at present but that will stop at the beginning of 2022 and we will see redundancies soon after new structures get announced.  Not arrogant enough to think I am above being hit either despite being pretty well-established and making the business a fair few quid annually.  Just going to keep turning up each day and doing what I do for now, earn as much cash as I can whilst I can. 

Is the CV up to date?  Yes.

 

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I keep mine up to date. Never know when an opportunity might arise.

Bonuses don't mean much to me these days. I make plenty of money and I can always reduce spending to accommodate special needs when they come up. Now I'm looking more for quality of life. I think I talked the wife into a major move in the next 5 years last night. Against anything I've ever believed, looks like we will be heading north out of hurricane territory. I want to be setup in the area where we want to retire well before that eventual day comes. I'm only 46, but the years are flying by. I've always had a theory that after a certain age, you are "too old" to move. You get too established/comfortable in an area and the likelihood of a major change decreases.

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16 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

I haven't used a CV since I was 16 and went for a part time job, which I didn't get. Every other job I've had I got through word of mouth or being in the right spot at the right time.

Used mine for every job I have ever got in all honesty.  It gets me through the door usually and then the fun begins.  Psychometric tests, role plays, telephone interviews (before now done in laybys, airport lounges or train stations) and of course my personal favourite the panel interview.

Just did a few weeks of being on a panel for a series interviews we were doing via Zoom.  Fuck me it was boring watching people oversell/undersell themselves and in the end all three of us the panel couldn't agree on the successful candidate. 

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I haven't even done an 'official' interview for a job in about 30 years. I've been offered jobs standing on the back of a truck unloading. I've been offered jobs by mates telling me their boss was hiring, but the last time I sat in a room for an interview it was with a mate of mine who told me I really wanted the cushy government office job he had on offer, in the end I didn't.

Even though I haven't had a huge amount of experience with the interviewing process for jobs I've never liked it and it was a big part of the reason I started working for myself. Of course at the time I started I didn't realise that contracting oneself to some companies wasn't really that much different to interviewing for jobs. The big difference seemed to be interviews were held with people who thought they could judge a person's worth with a few cleverly worded questions, where as contracts still needed certain behavioural patterns but one didn't have to dress as well.

Not liking the interview process was also why when it came my turn to hire drivers I took it casual. No pressure, a casual chat on the phone, then a chat in the pub and then a job offer. But I did have the benefit of not many people applying for the jobs I had on offer because night shift working truckies who worked their arse off for 12 hours a day 6 days a week was not a job too many applied for.

The hardest interview I've ever had to do was asking the bank to trust in me, trust in my ability to earn money, and trust in my ability to repay the more than million dollars I wanted to borrow from them. It's not a job interview by definition but you've basically got to sell yourself and your ability and your worth, the exact things I tried my best to avoid since I was 16.

 

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On 10/6/2021 at 1:33 AM, Dead1 said:

We literally don't even have budgets anymore.  Instead they have a rolling budget that they adjust as you spend money.  And this isn't even based on your exact expenditure or forecast - it just goes up and down randomly, sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly and then the big end of year adjustment where they make some services under budget, some on budget and some over budget all for no apparent reason.

So that sounds like a fantastic opportunity to grift/corruption. Like, what the fuck man?

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14 hours ago, navybsn said:

I keep mine up to date. Never know when an opportunity might arise.

Bonuses don't mean much to me these days. I make plenty of money and I can always reduce spending to accommodate special needs when they come up. Now I'm looking more for quality of life. I think I talked the wife into a major move in the next 5 years last night. Against anything I've ever believed, looks like we will be heading north out of hurricane territory. I want to be setup in the area where we want to retire well before that eventual day comes. I'm only 46, but the years are flying by. I've always had a theory that after a certain age, you are "too old" to move. You get too established/comfortable in an area and the likelihood of a major change decreases.

Moving sucks. I've done it too much for my liking. There's something neat about setting up in a new place, but it's so disruptive and it takes so much energy, it just feels more and more absurd each time I go through it. I really hope the next move we make is into a house that we can enjoy for the next several decades. Unfortunately my family's experience is that you're never too old, my parents and grandparents all wound up making major moves in their 70s.

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I've heard that it can be tough in the military, moving so frequently. We weren't a military family but we moved a ton anyway when I was a kid - 13 different places I can remember before I moved out when I was 17 - and then I kept the habit going, moving 15 times since then. A few of them were within the same town, so it wasn't always complete upheaval, but I had to start over way too much as a kid and I've done it six or seven times as an adult. It's no way to live. I want something a hell of a lot more stable for my kids. Gotta say I really like the community where we moved to up here in MA, I miss the hell out of my Brooklyn friends but we landed in a place with some great people and I'd like to stay in the area.

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It's cool to grow up in a nice place with kids you know all your life, or it can be. I did and couldn't wait to GTFO. We lived in 8 places (3 continents) with my daughter growing up. I'm insanely jealous of her experience and she feels the same way about mine. I guess we always want what we don't have.  A stable family is probably more important than a stable place to live. She had a stable family, I had a stable place.

My old roommate was from Worcester, MA. Weird dude. Really into pop punk. Probably where I picked up a few of my favorites from that time period. He got married and moved out then found out his wife was cheating on him with his best friend 6 weeks later. Hope shit worked out for him later in life. Hadn't heard from him in 25 years.

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I often wonder what happened to my 2 college roommates Wayne & Ray from John's Island in Charleston SC. But I haven't seen or heard from them in 41 years. They had grown up together, one was an art major the other electrical engineering. They could have gone anywhere or gotten up to just about anything in 41 years. I only went to USC for one year, or I guess I should say I lived in the dorm for a year then flunked out for failure to attend my classes. Took 2 of my NY friends and drove down to visit them the following fall of 1980, they were seniors then and still there partying in the same dorm room. Facebook searches haven't turned up anything useful or promising, and I don't participate in any other social media besides here. But it sure would be cool to find them and catch up. 

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On 10/6/2021 at 12:09 PM, Thatguy said:

But they wouldn't look as good in a suit.

They don't even wear suits anymore.  The phrase "frumpy casual" comes to mind when you see how our senior managers dress.  

14 hours ago, Sheol said:

So that sounds like a fantastic opportunity to grift/corruption. Like, what the fuck man?

The corruption is endemic though it's legalised - eg provision of home garaged vehicles on basis of the "manager travels."  

The processes are unravelling - we can now spend $50,000 of taxpayer dollars with no proper process followed- no RFQ, no requirement for multiple quotes, no business cases nothing!

There are no proper review processes for anything and it's become so politicised.

 

  

 

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I bought a black suit as well as a white dress shirt and purple & silver paisley tie for my daughters wedding in 2014. No idea what happened to that stuff, I don't ever have any reason to wear a suit and tie. My wife even made me buy black dress shoes but I wouldn't ever wear them again because I felt pretty stupid wearing shiny pointy shoes. I'll wear some Doc Marten's or something if I ever need to wear a suit again.

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10 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I've heard that it can be tough in the military, moving so frequently. We weren't a military family but we moved a ton anyway when I was a kid - 13 different places I can remember before I moved out when I was 17 - and then I kept the habit going, moving 15 times since then. A few of them were within the same town, so it wasn't always complete upheaval, but I had to start over way too much as a kid and I've done it six or seven times as an adult. It's no way to live. I want something a hell of a lot more stable for my kids. Gotta say I really like the community where we moved to up here in MA, I miss the hell out of my Brooklyn friends but we landed in a place with some great people and I'd like to stay in the area.

I can relate.  My parents weren't military but rather those "grass is always greener somewhere else" types (hint: it never was).

By the time I was 12, I'd moved continents 3 times and went to 7 different primary (elementary schools). 

So I hate moving with a passion.  I only just recently moved because my wife wanted to upsize the house we'd lived in for 11 years. 

 

25 minutes ago, navybsn said:

It's cool to grow up in a nice place with kids you know all your life, or it can be. I did and couldn't wait to GTFO. We lived in 8 places (3 continents) with my daughter growing up. I'm insanely jealous of her experience and she feels the same way about mine. I guess we always want what we don't have.  A stable family is probably more important than a stable place to live. She had a stable family, I had a stable place.

I moved around a lot and I certainly envy the Aussie kids who grew up in one spot and were part of their community.

 

But I grew up poor, my mum was both heavily ill and also physically and psychologically abusive.  I initially lived in migrant suburbs where I was picked on the colour of my skin (suburb was mainly Indian, school was Pacific Islanders and I'm European so I was too white).  There was lots of crime.  

And then I lived through a war because my parents decided to move back to Yugoslavia in 1989 (they ran to escape creditors because they'd borrowed money they couldn't afford to pay back spent like drunken sailors).

 

...And then back to Australia in 1991, more poverty and living in shitty crime ridden suburbs.  At least the Tasmanian ones weren't so bad you required bars on your windows and there were discarded junkie syringes where we played like in Sydney

 

Oh and being an immigrant kid sucks because you don't fit in with everyone else.  In Sydney I was the white kid, in Tasmania the non-Anglo kid.  To be fair the Anglo kids were accepting and I didn't experience that much overt racism unlike the Islander and Indian kids.

 

But you still don't fit in cause all your cultural values are different.  And the Anglo kids' parents work and have nice things, whereas my parents are welfare bludgers who would sooner spend money on cigarettes than clothes for their eldest son (I literally wore old man clothes from estate sales).

 

Oh and as 41 year old man I still don't feel like I fit in anywhere.  I'm still too Yugoslav for Australia and too Australian for Europe.  I literally feel disjointed all the time.   I literally feel like that fate went wrong when that Serb sniper missed me by inches - I should've been dead in 1991.

 

Little wonder I seek to provide the most normal, middle class life for my daughter.

 

 

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7 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Little wonder I seek to provide the most normal, middle class life for my daughter.

As guiding principles go, that is a good one. 

It's a challenge for me to improve on my own upbringing as I had a pretty lucky ride. The only trump cards I have are not polluting my daughter's head with religion (and even that was pretty mild for me - but you can never underestimate the damage that the great lie of religion does to a mind - it is child abuse) and presenting a relatively anti-materialist home life with the environment and health at the core of every decision we make (my mum bought a lot of clothes she didn't need but admittedly was a whizz at balancing family finances on my dad's teacher's salary and her part time job). 

All we can ever do is aspire to be better than and improve on our parents. And in Dead's case be A LOT better than our parents!

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