The downfall of Twitter/the rise of X

[TAC]

1. Mental health is a thing.
2. Even if you do have additional energy in your twenties, that's  still energy I could be using on stuff other than work. Maintaining a healthy work life balance on an 80 hour week is hard work. Much better to work 40 ish and have energy to spare.

Mental health is DEFINITELY a thing, something I've been saying for several years now in a variety of contexts.   "Working hard" =/= "poor mental health" though, and that's the myth.   

I think "hard work" in that sense is something we should all do to experience it, even if later we choose not to live a life like that.  I think there is an entire generation of people that have just sort of lost what it means to actually SACRIFICE in order to earn their salary.   I think this notion that all companies have to accommodate 10,000 (or however many employees they have) different lifestyles and different attitudes is a recipe for disaster (or at the very least, poor corporate performance, and like it or not, that's all that matters if we want to continue to have a job). 

Bingo.

And to XJ..I'm not saying Mental Health isn't a thing. Just like physical health is real. If you have cancer or something else, sure you can be fucked. If you have some sort of extreme mental health issue..I believe that can be tough to overcome.

But to improve our physical health, we have to exercise.  Isn't it the same thing with mental health? Don't we strengthen our mental health by actually working through challenges?

It's like when some fat guy cries about diabetes. Fucking lose the weight. I have diabetes and I'm not heavy at all. My pancreas doesn't work.

I don't think someone going to a therapist is cowardly at all, but I do think people claim mental health issues way too easily. Just like me and diabetes, it's an insult to people that actually have mental health issues.

[lonestar]

Always cracks me up to see others describe my old standard schedule when I was still a restaurant chef as a toxic work/life balance (which it was), my industry is notorious for pushing the envelope of what people will tolerate.

[XJDenton]

Oh yeah, restaurant work is hard.

[cramx3]

I'm not entirely sure that work/life balance means poor mental health though, I don't think anyone's claimed that but it almost reads that way.  It certainly could lead to that, but I'm not rushing to say thats the case by default.  A 40 hour work week is plenty to cause mental health issues depending on the job.  There are even days like today where 8 hours is plenty to cause it, but it's almost mentally hard for me to not try to push through, I don't want to just give in.  Something similar to what TAC is saying, sometimes pushing through is better. But it's case by case.  If anyone's wondering, I woke to this morning after a re-occuring nightmare I have (but haven't had in a very long time) and it set me up for a day of mental frustration and anger before I even got out of bed and work only made it worse today. 

[TAC]

If anyone's wondering, I woke to this morning after a re-occuring nightmare I have (but haven't had in a very long time) and it set me up for a day of mental frustration and anger before I even got out of bed and work only made it worse today.

But you pushed through it because you have good mental health conditioning, instead of curling up in bed all day claiming mental health.

[XJDenton]

I'm not entirely sure that work/life balance means poor mental health though, I don't think anyone's claimed that but it almost reads that way.  It certainly could lead to that, but I'm not rushing to say thats the case by default.  A 40 hour work week is plenty to cause mental health issues depending on the job.

I'm not saying that its a guarantee but having extra time to work on yourself does make things more manageable on average.

[cramx3]

If anyone's wondering, I woke to this morning after a re-occuring nightmare I have (but haven't had in a very long time) and it set me up for a day of mental frustration and anger before I even got out of bed and work only made it worse today.

But you pushed through it because you have good mental health conditioning, instead of curling up in bed all day claiming mental health.

Maybe. I'd like to think that, but I don't know.  I'm still thinking about it so maybe not as much as I wish.

I'm not entirely sure that work/life balance means poor mental health though, I don't think anyone's claimed that but it almost reads that way.  It certainly could lead to that, but I'm not rushing to say thats the case by default.  A 40 hour work week is plenty to cause mental health issues depending on the job.

I'm not saying that its a guarantee but having extra time to work on yourself does make things more manageable on average.

I guess it depends on how you spend that extra time.  If you are working on yourself, then sure I think thats very helpful.

[lonestar]

Oh yeah, restaurant work is hard.

The thing is, it's not the hard work that makes it so fucking toxic, it's the bullying, the shaming, the bullshit machismo that's so integrated into the culture. I can't even begin to think of all the habits and behaviors I've had to unlearn in the past ten years just to make myself a bit less of a shit human, especially in the kitchen. In the long run, I think I'm a better manager as a lover than as an asshole. It's no wonder addiction, alcoholism, divorce, and all those other wonderful things are so high in the business.

[TAC]

Oh yeah, restaurant work is hard.

The thing is, it's not the hard work that makes it so fucking toxic, it's the bullying, the shaming, the bullshit machismo that's so integrated into the culture. I can't even begin to think of all the habits and behaviors I've had to unlearn in the past ten years just to make myself a bit less of a shit human, especially in the kitchen. In the long run, I think I'm a better manager as a lover than as an asshole. It's no wonder addiction, alcoholism, divorce, and all those other wonderful things are so high in the business.

My experience is that chefs just think they're the shit. Some how they feel like the kitchen actually isn't a workplace with laws and standards, but for some reason, they think it's their kingdom to speak to people however they damn well choose.

[lonestar]

Oh yeah, restaurant work is hard.

The thing is, it's not the hard work that makes it so fucking toxic, it's the bullying, the shaming, the bullshit machismo that's so integrated into the culture. I can't even begin to think of all the habits and behaviors I've had to unlearn in the past ten years just to make myself a bit less of a shit human, especially in the kitchen. In the long run, I think I'm a better manager as a lover than as an asshole. It's no wonder addiction, alcoholism, divorce, and all those other wonderful things are so high in the business.

My experience is that chefs just think they're the shit. Some how they feel like the kitchen actually isn't a workplace with laws and standards, but for some reason, they think it's their kingdom to speak to people however they damn well choose.

Honestly, I'd blame media for a great deal of that. Things like Hell's Kitchen do my industry zero favors, it gives cooks a false ideal of what's expected, and any actual development as a person and employee gets tossed out the window for some machismo pissing contest instead. The best chefs, the ones I try to emulate, are teachers first and foremost. The business, in the end, is about creating memories. We are integral to some of life's most important moments, the weddings, the engagements, the graduations, the birthdays, the first dates. In the end, unless we're dealing with the top teir of the culinary world, we should create a palate for those life moments to be played upon. Nowhere does ego fit into that scenario.

[TAC]

Honestly, I'd blame media for a great deal of that. Things like Hell's Kitchen do my industry zero favors, it gives cooks a false ideal of what's expected, and any actual development as a person and employee gets tossed out the window for some machismo pissing contest instead. The best chefs, the ones I try to emulate, are teachers first and foremost.

I'm not fooled by the media. I get it. And to the bolded, yes I would agree.

[lonestar]

It's not you the media fools, it's the young and inexperienced cooks coming into the business.

[HOF]

And today all I see when I open Parler, I mean Twitter, is nothing but posts about the deep state, Trump was right about everything, treason, etc.

Making it really easy to flip to Mastodon. And why do I see every freakin' post tweet from Elon when I don't follow him? I just got done blocking about 50 accounts just now. It's all I do when I open the app now. Read some tweets from people I actually follow and block dozens of others.

It's become exhausting.

So, are your content preferences set to “home” or “latest tweets”? Because you definitely want latest tweets to avoid all the algorithm curated content and things from people you don’t follow.

[King Postwhore]

I have barely seen Elon's tweets and scroll on by when I do. No big whoop.

[ReaperKK]

My first job out of college, they would do a yearly power down of the data center for building power maintenance.  It was always done on MLK weekend so the company would have a three day weekend, but the IT department was on site the entire holiday weekend. It SUCKED because it was such a long weekend (I did it i think 3 times) but I definitely believe being apart of such projects lead to a growth in my career.  Not so much directly in these instances as I didn't stay in that job too long, but in the experience and confidence gained from playing my role in those crazy weekends.

Also, we are talking an IT company.  I've been working in IT for 15 years now, it's very common to have days when you work 24 hours. It's part of the job when you have major projects and things usually go wrong that need to be fixed live and you can't just walk out during that time.

This, I can't tell you how many 24 hour shifts I've had to pull because a production deployment went south.

[XJDenton]

Sounds like shitty management tbh.

[King Postwhore]

Sounds like shitty management tbh.

And a shitty job and is illegal I. Many states.

[XJDenton]

Illegal in most European countries as well. Being awake for 24 hours is similar to having a BAC of 0.10%, so in that respect makes mistakes and errors much more likely.

[Stadler]

I'm not entirely sure that work/life balance means poor mental health though, I don't think anyone's claimed that but it almost reads that way.  It certainly could lead to that, but I'm not rushing to say thats the case by default.  A 40 hour work week is plenty to cause mental health issues depending on the job.

I'm not saying that its a guarantee but having extra time to work on yourself does make things more manageable on average.

But that's just priorities.  I have someone in my life that needs mental wellness - needs to work on themselves - as bad as anyone I've ever met in my life.  She even knows it.  But her claim is, "I don't have time; I have two kids, work, blah blah blah".   But she also goes on like five Tinder dates a week.  Dude (Dudette?), grow the fuck up.  Being an adult isn't doing whatever you want when you want, being an adult is doing what you HAVE TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE TO DO IT, without being told.   

We are a society of excuses.  I don't think I'm out of line in saying "if you can, then shut the fuck up and do it".  The number of people who truly CANNOT - as opposed to "won't", or "don't want to" is exceedingly low.   We talk so much about stepping up and having your back and "Boston Strong!" and all these memes about whatever, and yet when the rubber meets the road it's "oh, this is too HARD".  I have little sympathy for that, frankly.

(Again, to be clear, I am NOT including those who truly cannot.  I am sympathetic to that.)

[Stadler]

Oh yeah, restaurant work is hard.

The thing is, it's not the hard work that makes it so fucking toxic, it's the bullying, the shaming, the bullshit machismo that's so integrated into the culture. I can't even begin to think of all the habits and behaviors I've had to unlearn in the past ten years just to make myself a bit less of a shit human, especially in the kitchen. In the long run, I think I'm a better manager as a lover than as an asshole. It's no wonder addiction, alcoholism, divorce, and all those other wonderful things are so high in the business.

My experience is that chefs just think they're the shit. Some how they feel like the kitchen actually isn't a workplace with laws and standards, but for some reason, they think it's their kingdom to speak to people however they damn well choose.

Honestly, I'd blame media for a great deal of that. Things like Hell's Kitchen do my industry zero favors, it gives cooks a false ideal of what's expected, and any actual development as a person and employee gets tossed out the window for some machismo pissing contest instead. The best chefs, the ones I try to emulate, are teachers first and foremost. The business, in the end, is about creating memories. We are integral to some of life's most important moments, the weddings, the engagements, the graduations, the birthdays, the first dates. In the end, unless we're dealing with the top teir of the culinary world, we should create a palate for those life moments to be played upon. Nowhere does ego fit into that scenario.

I love that last half.  Wonderfully put.

I generally don't watch the cooking shows where the chefs come out and are all "I'm here to decimate the competition". if you have to call yourself a "bad ass", you're probably not a "bad ass" at all.   Call me a sap, but I still love the Guy's Grocery Games-type stuff where it's a family and it's a celebration. I've written before about the guy from New Hampshire, with something like $20,000 on the line, playing for his kid who died at like eight of cancer, and he ended his cook and went over to help his competitor who was much older and struggling to get done.  "I'm here to help, chef, tell me what to do!".   I'm even tearing up thinking about it.

[Adami]

I still watch Hell's Kitchen but it does make me uncomfy with the attitude they're promoting.

That said, I greatly prefer TGBBS (before the switch) and even shows like MasterChef and MasterChef Jr have become less competitive and toxic and more about people supporting each other.

[hefdaddy42]

MasterChef Jr. is downright wholesome.

[cramx3]

Sounds like shitty management tbh.

More likely poor planning by engineers.  Most problems we solve are complex, sometimes you don't know how things truly play out, even with all the testing, until it goes into production.   You think if a change in twitter's code lead to the site being down, that the employees should just go home and wait until their next shift to fix it?  That's not on management.  It's part of being an engineer in a production environment.  Of course shitty management could be an issue, but in my experiences, management isn't the one doing the work that causes the issues.

[Ben_Jamin]

Sounds like shitty management tbh.

Some jobs are necessities and you just can't leave them when  something goes wrong. You as a worker are paid to fix things when they've gone wrong.

Imagine if it was a hospital that was having technical issues and you were the only one available to fix the issue. Who knows how long it'll take, this is why diagnosis are done to find out what is wrong. Depending on the severity of the issue and priority of the situation, a worker could be there for hours.

[King Postwhore]

Sounds like shitty management tbh.

Some jobs are necessities and you just can't leave them when  something goes wrong. You as a worker are paid to fix things when they've gone wrong.

Imagine if it was a hospital that was having technical issues and you were the only one available to fix the issue. Who knows how long it'll take, this is why diagnosis are done to find out what is wrong. Depending on the severity of the issue and priority of the situation, a worker could be there for hours.

You staff correctly and not have one person work so many hours.  It's illegal to do so.

[Ben_Jamin]

Sounds like shitty management tbh.

Some jobs are necessities and you just can't leave them when  something goes wrong. You as a worker are paid to fix things when they've gone wrong.

Imagine if it was a hospital that was having technical issues and you were the only one available to fix the issue. Who knows how long it'll take, this is why diagnosis are done to find out what is wrong. Depending on the severity of the issue and priority of the situation, a worker could be there for hours.

You staff correctly and not have one person work so many hours.  It's illegal to do so.

Then what happens when you can't staff correctly because you're short staffed due to people not wanting to do these jobs?

[cramx3]

Sounds like shitty management tbh.

Some jobs are necessities and you just can't leave them when  something goes wrong. You as a worker are paid to fix things when they've gone wrong.

Imagine if it was a hospital that was having technical issues and you were the only one available to fix the issue. Who knows how long it'll take, this is why diagnosis are done to find out what is wrong. Depending on the severity of the issue and priority of the situation, a worker could be there for hours.

You staff correctly and not have one person work so many hours.  It's illegal to do so.

I don't know about that.  My Dr. friends all routinely did 24+ hour shifts during their residency at their hospital.  It was normal.  Although, I always wondered how safe it is to have someone operating without sleep.  I must have brought this up to my friends countless times and they seemed to never have an issue.  I know they are allowed to nap if it's quiet, but still. I'm not entirely sure it's illegal because it's so common and you can't always just have staff available.

[XJDenton]

Then what happens when you can't staff correctly because you're short staffed due to people not wanting to do these jobs?

You raise your wages.

[XJDenton]

I don't know about that.  My Dr. friends all routinely did 24+ hour shifts during their residency at their hospital.  It was normal.  Although, I always wondered how safe it is to have someone operating without sleep.  I must have brought this up to my friends countless times and they seemed to never have an issue.  I know they are allowed to nap if it's quiet, but still. I'm not entirely sure it's illegal because it's so common and you can't always just have staff available.

In the case of long shifts at hospitals you are legally required to get a certain amount of sleep but in practice this doesn't work out. Medical professionals are pretty easy to exploit for extra, unsafe hours simply because if hospitals or surgeries are short staffed, and you don't work, patients suffer, or worse.

[Lonk]

I don't know about other states, but in NY there is no limit on shift-hours. Technically your employer can schedule you for a 24 hour shift, as long as you get paid overtime once you work more than 40 hours/week.

[cramx3]

I don't know about that.  My Dr. friends all routinely did 24+ hour shifts during their residency at their hospital.  It was normal.  Although, I always wondered how safe it is to have someone operating without sleep.  I must have brought this up to my friends countless times and they seemed to never have an issue.  I know they are allowed to nap if it's quiet, but still. I'm not entirely sure it's illegal because it's so common and you can't always just have staff available.

In the case of long shifts at hospitals you are legally required to get a certain amount of sleep but in practice this doesn't work out. Medical professionals are pretty easy to exploit for extra, unsafe hours simply because if hospitals or surgeries are short staffed, and you don't work, patients suffer, or worse.

I can see that being the case.  But to go back to King's point, where do you get extra workers from?  You can't just pull Drs out of your ass.  And while in residency these people don't make much money at all, they will when they are done, I'm not sure it's something you can fix by raising wages. 

[XJDenton]

You think if a change in twitter's code lead to the site being down, that the employees should just go home and wait until their next shift to fix it?  That's not on management.

No, I think there should be OTHER people to replace them and do the fixes. Understaffing, or having a single point of failure (i.e. only "that guy" can solve the problem) is, for organisations above a certain size, bad management.

[TAC]

I think in the medical field, residencies are almost like a medical boot camp. Kind of breaks you down a bit to rebuild. It ideally sets you up for real emergencies and helps you sharpen your focus and increase your stamina.

[XJDenton]

This is the case in the US certainly, but not universal. Swedish medicals residencies are only required by law to work 40-48 hour weeks, and are guaranteed a rest period of 11 hours out of every 24. Unions can arrange for longer hours/shorter rests through collective agreements though.

[King Postwhore]

Get ready for the shitshow today on Twitter and all social medias. Brittney Griner swapped with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.