Have you seen the sacrifices made to afford those homes? Just because someone owns a home doesn't show the whole picture.
There are plenty of Americans that own homes and are struggling to make ends meet elsewhere.
Home ownership is set up to consume a person. Miss a payment and there are serious repercussions to one's financial well being, so it becomes a priority.
Up to a point, miss a credit card payment and it's extra fees. Miss a utility bill a month, and it's the same. Buy less food and you'll survive, albeit less comfortably.
I got an Atari XE when I was a kid. In addition to Byte for news, I always had to pick up a copy of Antic, an Atari specific magazine with listings (mnany simple games) in each issue to type in. Mostly in BASIC and some assembly.
"The train, to its credit, since it was near the terminus, was on time."
Had a good chuckle on this one, because with that particular line that statement is dead-on.
"By a little after six I was standing in Port Authority (there are no seats in Port Authority, which is another story) waiting for my bus home."
As someone who uses the terminal everyday, that's just not true. There may not be any where the author was waiting, or may have liked, but there are seats. I don't know if the intent was to paint a glum picture, or just wasn't specific about the fact.
Just like the train the author mentioned, the Terminal is a hotel for the homeless, some levels worse than others.
The place is falling apart. Pieces of walls and ceilings missing.
As far as actual transportation, nearly all buses from the Terminal use that tunnel. There is no dedicated bus lanes through and past the Lincoln Tunnel except during the rush hours. They are all caught in the same logjam on both sides of the tunnel. Like everything else public transportation in NYC, it's not given enough priority. Perhaps because not enough of the upper classes use it.
"with a wealthy downtown professional class that relies on inexpensive labor with long commutes (without the resources to drive) who work early/late shifts."
Much of the labor except for those fortunate enough to afford closer neighborhoods have to endure the long commutes.
I lived in the mentioned Howard Beach until my 30s, and just getting to the first station of Manhattan by subway was an hour.
Belle Harbor at one time had a large number of police and firemen. That's an additional half hour (at the least, depending on train connections).
An entire section of North East Queens is a "transportation desert" that has poor bus service at best. Those buses are often stuck in traffic with those who are able to drive. There are parts of Southern Brooklyn and Queens as well. Forget about Staten Island. If relying on public transportation, it can take longer to get from one end of NYC to another than a flight from JFK to Florida.
This is not new, I've seen this story pop up fairly often over decades. Once every while there's an incident, and a story such as this comes out.
This is sort of the nature of an industry that doesn't shut down regularly, and must be manned. Planes fly, and someone must direct them, at all times.
I work in rail, and it's the same story. A number of us who control trains and train traffic work long hours every day of the week, because someone _must_ be there. You can't just, at the end of eight hours say "time to go home," if the next person doesn't show. That "next person" is now you. This is how it works in _any_ full time operation.
All parties take advantage. While I can not speak for Air Traffic Control, my job, as many American Industries, have realized the benefit of having too few people. Few employees means lower costs in many cases, for example here's the first search hit on helping an employer figure it out [1]. With ever rising costs, some employees are more than willing to work overtime to make ends meet. So, the employer saves costs by hiring fewer people and relying on those who want to make overtime.
The problem is that neither side knows "when to quit," and the cycle continues to feed itself. No one wants to resolve the problem because it's mutually beneficial to most involved.
IIRC it got so bad at FDNY at one point they had to come up with some regulations, however I can't find a source at this time to back it up.
> the software is incorrectly displaying it as a low pressure warning
The post doesn't specify if the display actually says low pressure, or if the TPMS warning light comes on, which we usually interpret as low pressure (most common case). If it is the TPMS light, I'm sure that's more of an "out of range" warning than "low pressure."
About using mental illness as a way of gaining sympathy/popularity?
Unfortunately I have to agree with the parent, it does seem to be true.
In my own experience: my niece never mentioned depression until she saw videos about it on TikTok. Then she was always moody, and constantly stating "I'm depressed, but therapy is expensive. Can you give me money? Don't you feel bad for me?"
I see people walking around with T-shirts advertising they suffer from depression.
I don't know if social media and exposure has brought the correct view of mental illness to light.
> It's not up to the employer.
> There are states where paid sick leave is mandated, and the state law explicitly lets workers take sick leave for _ANY_ reason related to health.
My comment wasn't on defining what constitutes as "sick," but the parent asked what constitutes "abuse." As there is no law which defines it, yes, it unfortunately is the employer that will determine what "abuse" means.
> Aside from being a huge red flag, what's stopping you from just putting in "mental health" and not being very specific?
Requiring doctor's certification that one was ill in my (unionized) workplace. If they don't like the explanation, paid sick leave law or not, pay is refused. Challenged in court and upheld.
I refuse to think this is the only employer in the US that does it. Cases like these however have situations that lead to them. I surely don't think it's right, but do see where if someone's not showing up to work because he's "sick" and then posting photos of having a good time, and doing it often, it doesn't look good. In fact it's stuff like that which lead to such policies where I work.
A search got me this, so obviously it is done elsewhere:
I agree with you, naturally, but most of the time the employee is not setting the terms of what is considered acceptable.
I don't care when I call out sick, you don't care when you do, obviously. But there's someone out there to whom your unexpected absence is going to make a difference in their day.
Well, that's up the employer who will come up with that definition.
I just used it as an example because it was in the article. What did he tell his employer? My job requires one to state the illness, although I understand that's not common, so this may be irrelevant.
If the guy does it every few months, no harm, no foul.
If he's taking every other weekend off and posting pics on his facebook page with a big smile, then maybe his employer may not be so happy.
I think the takeaway would be don't give your employer proof that could be interpreted as you were not straightforward.
What do most jobs give for vacation time? It took me 15 years at my current job to get four weeks. Before that, two.
Assuming that two weeks a year is the norm going on other posts here, you feel it's appropriate to go say six months (evenly spacing those vacations) to work every day and the employee be at their best? What if said employee rarely gets physically ill, they should not have access to a day off here and there?
Good for them. I'm glad they're looking out for themselves.
I've been in my job almost 25 years. I listened to my parents and older workers tell me not to use sick time because "you never know when you'll need it."
I've worked steadily 50+ hours a week for all that time. Most of that time I worked weekends. Yet, upon recent inspection, have used only 20 sick days over that two and a half decades. That includes a stint of 5 years where I used not one sick day.
I am burnt out, and because of my previous attitude, still find it hard to take a sick day. Every morning I wake up regretting it, I am constantly angry and everything - especially the job. I have no social life because I never took time off.
I wouldn't want anyone else to end up like this, and always relate my story. There are a hell of a lot of people out there that are probably the same.
Protect your physical and mental health folks. Use your sick time. Before you know it, one or the other is going to fail on you if you don't look out for yourself.
However, be careful, be smart. The article shows father and son at a ball game, implied on a sick day. People at my workplace abused this, and we now have managers checking at home to make sure the employee is truly sick and home.
The article mentions automakers losing a lot of money due to sick employees, if they find abuse, they could do the same. As would other employers.
I have a 220, it is a PITA, I have taken it apart to repaste it. And yes, taken it apart. Even the display had to come off. However, I have two others - X1s - and they are a piece of cake. Just remove the bottom panel and the fan is right there.
I'm in the same boat as k__ above. Some have been indoctrinated into an "asking is wrong" culture.
On my job, if you ask:
* You're given a rude response.
* You're treated like an idiot.
* You're told you're wasting the other person's time.
and many other less than ideal responses.
Given these reactions enough, one can get tired of it (or angry, or ashamed depending on your personality), and just begin to avoid the situation entirely by guessing.
Then of course when you guess wrong, see the above points.
I got a number of these notices from financial institutions. They of course said "your information may or may not have been compromised." I read this is "my information was compromised or you wouldn't be sending me this notice."
Of course they offered one or two years, depending on the institution, of "basic credit monitoring." Of course they go on to say "this will provide no protection, if you want identity protection, contact us for third party protection services that you can purchase."
So, basically, no liability as usual.
One is my mortgage company, being the amount of money they've collected from me as well as what they will collect in the future, I would have thought it a gesture of good will to offer that protection gratis.
However I wonder, even if they offered two years of identity protection (similar to their credit monitoring offer), what stops these badniks from selling my data 3, 5 or 10 years down the line? So once something like this happens, one is never in the clear are they?
I never tire of exploring the candy aisle of the local Asian supermarket. I guess I'll have to seek out a market specializing in South/Central American stuff next.
There are plenty of Americans that own homes and are struggling to make ends meet elsewhere.
Home ownership is set up to consume a person. Miss a payment and there are serious repercussions to one's financial well being, so it becomes a priority.
Up to a point, miss a credit card payment and it's extra fees. Miss a utility bill a month, and it's the same. Buy less food and you'll survive, albeit less comfortably.