Random Chit Chat

With all 4 of my wife's pregnancies, I got exactly zero paternity time off. My wife got about 4 months paid maternity leave with each. We both worked for the same company (IBM) but paternity leave was not a common benefit back then.

When we had our youngest child, we then had 4 kids under the age of 8 so childcare would have killed us. We ended up where I worked first shift and she worked 2nd shift. That way she was home during the day to watch the kids and I was home in the evening to watch the kids. We didn't see much of each other during the week doing things that way but at least we didn't have to pay for childcare.
 
Both these countries allow parents to take up to 156 weeks off from work. Parents working in Lithuania have the choice of receiving 52 weeks leave from work with full pay or 104 weeks off with 70 percent pay. The remaining days off from work are unpaid.

Maybe I should move to Lithuania.
 
With all 4 of my wife's pregnancies, I got exactly zero paternity time off. My wife got about 4 months paid maternity leave with each. We both worked for the same company (IBM) but paternity leave was not a common benefit back then.

When we had our youngest child, we then had 4 kids under the age of 8 so childcare would have killed us. We ended up where I worked first shift and she worked 2nd shift. That way she was home during the day to watch the kids and I was home in the evening to watch the kids. We didn't see much of each other during the week doing things that way but at least we didn't have to pay for childcare.
When I was being hired on at Iconic in June having PTO was a question and they told me I had 120 hours when I start. Push come to shove it turns out I had 0 and being gone for her hospital visit after her wreck and when the kid does come (along with my wedding) would have been a no no. So I straight up resigned.
 
When I was being hired on at Iconic in June having PTO was a question and they told me I had 120 hours when I start. Push come to shove it turns out I had 0 and being gone for her hospital visit after her wreck and when the kid does come (along with my wedding) would have been a no no. So I straight up resigned.

That's savage man. I dislike Europe in many ways relative to the US, but I am glad our employee rights are as they are. The amount of mandated time off for things like that are really quite generous. If someone had been in a wreck and I needed to leave work, there is no way they'd say no, and I wouldn't be expected to use any of my annual leave allowance for it either. Most progressive companies here are pretty understanding that life comes before work, if you need to leave to do something even as menial as take your car to be serviced or pick someone up from the trainstation, they're happy to let you do it on work time. There is an expectation that you don't abuse the system with such requests and offer the same flexibility back to them, e.g. working late if there is an issue. But I think that's fair enough.

My sick leave at my last company was 6 months at full pay, then another 6 months at 70% pay, and then 50% pay for a following 12 months. And this was rolling on a 12 month basis. E.g. if I took 6 months off sick, I could take another 6 months off at full pay in a years time. And then on top of all that the company offered payment protection insurance for about $15 a month, so if you had a terminal illness and were off work for many years, you'd keep getting paid a significant part of your salary after the companies own sickness scheme had dried up.
 
When I was being hired on at Iconic in June having PTO was a question and they told me I had 120 hours when I start.
Just about every place that I worked at requires a certain amount of time to qualify for PTO. Mrs. C got a job working for our local library and this is a teamsters union job. For her to qualify for any type of benefits requires a minimum of 6 months employment within.
 
That's savage man. I dislike Europe in many ways relative to the US, but I am glad our employee rights are as they are. The amount of mandated time off for things like that are really quite generous. If someone had been in a wreck and I needed to leave work, there is no way they'd say no, and I wouldn't be expected to use any of my annual leave allowance for it either. Most progressive companies here are pretty understanding that life comes before work, if you need to leave to do something even as menial as take your car to be serviced or pick someone up from the trainstation, they're happy to let you do it on work time. There is an expectation that you don't abuse the system with such requests and offer the same flexibility back to them, e.g. working late if there is an issue. But I think that's fair enough.

My sick leave at my last company was 6 months at full pay, then another 6 months at 70% pay, and then 50% pay for a following 12 months. And this was rolling on a 12 month basis. E.g. if I took 6 months off sick, I could take another 6 months off at full pay in a years time. And then on top of all that the company offered payment protection insurance for about $15 a month, so if you had a terminal illness and were off work for many years, you'd keep getting paid a significant part of your salary after the companies own sickness scheme had dried up.
Yea most companies are rather shit when it comes to a lot of things here, and treating people like a human being is one of them. There's a reason there's a high demand for workers in the states right now, wages and quality of life. People got a taste of what it was like to not work your life away during covid and lower paid individuals got a taste of what 3-4 grand a month income was like. To make matters way worse, this company actually advertised themselves like a company that cared with their quiet room and "big tech" office structure. All kinds of internal apps, meetings, etc to make sure people were happy. When it came down to it my pregnant wife gets in a small accident and had to be seen and monitored for a minimum of 4 hours they were texting me within the hour asking when I was coming in. It's not like they're short staffed, it was ridiculous as shit. Mind you, if she wasn't pregnant this wouldn't have been a big deal as there wasn't even any damage done. She passed out in traffic on the busiest highway due to lowering blood pressure and was hitting the brakes before she blacked out. The car she hit and people around her noticed what happened and helped her get to the hospital while I drove from an hour away. Not pregnant? NBD she woulda went to work. Pregnant? We had to make sure impact didn't shear the placenta (which happened to her sister and she lost the baby). If I had called in like that at Lockheed the way I did they woulda fired me on the spot.
Just about every place that I worked at requires a certain amount of time to qualify for PTO. Mrs. C got a job working for our local library and this is a teamsters union job. For her to qualify for any type of benefits requires a minimum of 6 months employment within.
I him hawed around even taking this job because they seemed desperate for SAs, which came off even worse when they told me responsibilities vs pay. 120 hours of sign on PTO was actually a bonus listed on their Indeed ad and confirmed in both interviews as well as HR onboarding. I straight up asked them why is this a level 3 position making level 2 pay and they had no answer for me. I found out why when I got there rather quickly. I found out the hard way that PTO didn't exist while sitting at the hospital and knew it'd be a problem if I tried to take off for my wedding and when the baby came.

I straight up resigned after a month of their BS because the only good part was the fact that I got free Coke Zero. Level 2s or Level 3s don't even handle VOIP stand up or vendor swaps and they had me doing one for a mega church on week 2 right after all the "training" videos for Trumethods. They have an entire projects team for that stuff that refused to do it so they gave it to me, somebody with minimal VOIP experience. Good news? I can do a VOIP stand up now lol.

Whole reason to kick myself in the ass to be self employed and work for other small companies. I'm doing my own thing and 10x happier, and working for a friend for 12.50 an hour part time during construction slow months (residential not commercial). I'm looking for another regular 8-5 until the wife goes back to work because her job doesn't pay maternity leave and I am 100% using this in phone screens and interviews and it's working because of the movement in the country right now. Something that would normally be an interview no no. Last lady I talked to on the phone said "She works in primary care, as a practice administrator no less, and does not get FMLA or any kind of pay or even a WFH structure because she's a manager??" Nope. And I'm getting interviews still too, it's weird. Will I stick with any of these? No. It's just to catch back up financially, because I'm not going to throw away my mental health anymore for shit companies.
 
Does anyone know how to use the dehumidifier mode on portable AC ? The manual sucks and doesnt explain anything. I've turned it on, put it in dehumidify mode, and opened the water stopper and water is dripping into a bucket. But hot air is coming out the front like it's in heat mode, and cold air is coming out the exhaust pipe. Shrug. Am I supposed to exhaust the cold air out the window or something like in heat mode ?
 
Kinda difficult to say anything without a brand name and model number. It sounds like it is in a heat pump mode. At what temp do your have the thermostat set at on the unit? Normally, as far as I know, dehumidifier would run the a/c and fan in a very low cooling mode to pick up moisture on the evap coill and that would absorb the water from the room..... But if your getting water draining from it then it must be dehumidifying in some kinda fashion. In a heat pump mode the evap coil would become a condenser and cool the hot gas (blows warm air out the front)....That would be the case if the thermostat is set to heat the room instead of cooling it.
Am I supposed to exhaust the cold air out the window or something like in heat mode ?
Yes, in a heat pump mode. Because the condenser is now acting like an evaporator and should blow cold out the exhaust. There is a 4 way valve that reverses the flow of refrigerant from the evap to the condenser and visa versa for cooling mode.
 
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Hmmmmmmmm. Well I gave up with it. It filled a pint glass with water and then it turned off and refused to turn back on in dehumidifier mode. Not sure why. It's a FRAL FSC14.

Whatever, I didn't really need to dehumidify the room or anything. I was just using it out of curiosity lol, I use the heat mode all winter and the AC mode in summer but had never tried the dehumidify mode so it just piqued my interest. I love this thing and it's been perfectly reliable for a good 5 years now... kinda surprising for an Italian company.
 
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