I’m off today so here’s an older post from the archives. This was originally published in 2020.

A reader writes:

I work in an office where I’m the only person who can do 75% of my job, but there’s a second person who can do essential functions. We have a policy that only one of the two of us is allowed to request advance time off at a given time (so one of us is always in, barring emergencies).

I’m getting married in October, and in relation to that requested — and was approved for — two days before the wedding and the two weeks following. I don’t take much time off and have more than enough “in the bank” to cover that with some left over. It was approved immediately by my supervisor.

Since then, my close coworker (Jane, who covers some of my essential duties) first started asking if I really “need” that much time off. She then dropped a bit of a bombshell on me and said that she “really needs to go to Florida the following weekend (after my wedding) for a cousin’s wedding” so asked if I could be in for the second half of that week as well as the following Monday. I told her that my plans weren’t certain yet, but that I didn’t want to commit to that and leave those requested days open.

That was met with a tirade about how she “always looks out for me” and that I need to “do this one thing for her.”

We normally have a cordial, if not especially friendly, relationship but she has turned nasty and threatened to blackmail me over a a sick day where she claims I “wasn’t really sick.” She had seen me at the grocery, where I was mostly picking up a prescription but also doing general grocery shopping, but don’t have a doctor’s note if push comes to shove. When she brought it up, she said, “That day I saw you at the grocery store, I know you weren’t really sick but were just goofing off for the day. I’ll report you for that.” I responded with, “I was there to pick up a prescription, even though I bought some other things because I didn’t have anything at home that sounded good.” She responded, “If you don’t let me have this, I’m still going to report it.”

(For context, this happened during the work day, probably around 1:00 in the afternoon. Sometimes one of us will go to the store to buy work supplies during the day. When I saw her there, I had just come from the doctor’s office, which is literally right across the street, and was shopping for other things while waiting on a prescription to be filled at the store pharmacy.)

This has gone on for a week and she’s not dropping it that I need to be in those specific days, and I’m not relenting.

There’s a possibility that — for a variety of reasons — I won’t even be working there in October, but at the same time I don’t know how to handle this. I mentioned it in passing to my supervisor, who wasn’t overly interested and he indicated that I was “okay” since I’d requested the time 9+ months in advance. Still, though, I feel that the battle isn’t over yet, and it’s negatively affecting my ability to actually do my day to day job as Jane is refusing to do the small part of her job that I don’t have the proper training/credentials/ability to do.

In addition, there are the logistics that if our supervisor agrees to let us both off, I’m no doubt going have two dozen calls/texts a day on my honeymoon from people who are persistent enough to call me 10 times in a row if I don’t answer. Needless to say, that’s NOT a situation that I want to deal with, but it happens any other day when both of us are off (heck, it happens when I’m off just because of the sheer volume of stuff that she doesn’t care to learn to be able to answer).

Jane is a jerk.

But not a very smart jerk. She thinks she has way more power here than she does! And I think you think she does too.

You requested time off for your wedding and honeymoon nine months in advance. It has been approved. Your manager reiterated that your time off is secure.

Jane’s blackmail attempt is embarrassing — for her. It has no teeth at all. You don’t have anything to hide because you didn’t do anything wrong. You’re allowed to pick up prescriptions when you’re sick. You’re also allowed to buy yourself groceries when you’re sick. But if your manager really doubted you for some reason (which is unlikely), you could always contact your doctor’s office to get documentation that you did indeed have an appointment that day. It probably won’t come to that, though. But if you needed to, know that you could get the back-up you need.

Unless your boss is a complete fool, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t be at least slightly interested in knowing that one of his employees is (a) attempting to blackmail another (b) into altering her wedding and honeymoon plans (c) that have already been approved and (d) is refusing to do part of her job because of a personal vendetta.

I strongly suggest that you talk to him and say this: “Jane is harassing me about the time off I had approved for my wedding and honeymoon. She wants some of those same days and told me that if I don’t change my own time off request, she will report me for misusing a sick day. That’s false. She saw me in the grocery store while I was picking up a prescription on a sick day. I can get a note from my doctor that I was seen that day if you need me to. I think it’s hugely problematic that she’s trying to blackmail me to change my days off, so I want to make sure you’re in the loop that that’s happening. She also is refusing to do (specific work tasks) because she’s upset with me. Obviously, I rely on her to do XYZ to be able to do my own job. Can you intervene, so that her harassment stops and I can do my work?”

If your boss won’t intervene, then he’s passive to the point of negligence and you should say the above to HR as well. This is the kind of BS that managers should handle on their own but which HR will usually step in on if you need them to.

Meanwhile, with Jane, tell her this: “I’m not going to discuss my time off with you any further. If you want to report seeing me in the store picking up a prescription, feel free to. I can get documentation from my doctor if I need to, and I’ll happily let (manager) know the situation myself. But I’m not going to discuss this anymore.” If she continues to push, say, “You need to talk to (manager) about this. It’s not up for discussion between us anymore.”

But if your boss is at all decent, he’ll shut this down once you explain what’s been happening.

If the outcome is that he gives Jane the days off she wants and so you’re both gone on the same dates, let people know ahead of time that you will be on your honeymoon and 100% not reachable. Tell them you won’t be responding to calls or texts, and then stick to that. In fact, block everyone from your office during that time away so you don’t even see it if they’re trying to contact you. If you feel weird about doing that, then tell your boss in advance what you’re worried about, and reiterate that you will be 100% inaccessible. People do this! You’re allowed to take a freakin’ honeymoon without work calls.

But stop fearing Jane. What she’s doing is super messed up in a way no decent manager would condone, you have the power to expose that, and you should use it.

The update to this letter is essential reading! Do not miss it.

The post my coworker is blackmailing me not to take time off for my honeymoon appeared first on Ask a Manager.

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Are 23 eggs not an oeuf for you? (Pun brought to you by Patreon comments)

We recently talked about times AI got it really wrong, and here are 20 of the most ridiculous stories you shared.

1. The fake initiative

Our execs usually send out a hype email right before the annual employee morale survey, emphasizing wins from the past year, basically trying to put people in a positive frame of mind.

Last year’s included the announcement of a major new program we knew employees really wanted. But it was a bit surprising, because it fell in an area my team was responsible for, and we were out of the loop, despite advocating strenuously for this over the years. So I went to the exec to a) convey enthusiasm for his newfound dedication to launching this program and b) ask what support he needed from my team/get us involved again. It turned out the program wasn’t launching at all; he had just asked AI to edit the email to make it sound more exciting and appealing, and it had done so by … launching my initiative.

2. The predator

Sometimes at work my colleague uses AI in Photoshop to extend a background in a photo or clean up the background. We had a photo of a senior staff member outside: the background shows a building to the left of him and some trees and a road to the right, but it was portrait and we needed landscape. He asked Photoshop to extend the background on the right.

It generated a scary looking woman creeping up behind the staff member.

3. The nickname

I was on a Zoom call with AI notetaking software and was referring to a colleague named Bridget–but on the transcription, every time I specifically mentioned her name, it appeared as “Piglet.” This did not happen when others on the call said “Bridget”! It looked like that was just my nickname for her. I was so embarrassed.

4. The fake charity

My company hired an account manager who insisted he was a phenomenal writer and asked if he could contribute to our blog. The first pieces were just AI slop so I politely thanked him and said we had plenty of posts already.

So he posts a third “article” on his own LinkedIn account in which the AI described how our company collaborated with the CDC on researching a certain disease and publishing a groundbreaking study. Then we apparently went into underserved communities and funded a bunch of clinics and immunizations. NONE of this happened. It was hours before I saw it and forced him to take it down, and there were many surprised comments and shares. Months later, we were nominated for an award on our commitment to caring for vulnerable populations.

5. The transcript

I forgot the meeting was being transcribed and was talking to my cat while waiting for others to show up. “Baby, let me put it in” was at the top of the transcript to my absolute horror.

I was talking about his ear mite drops.

6. The grievance meetings

At my former workplace, the HR director did not know that her AI notes tool was recording her classified grievance meetings with the union representatives and sending a full recap after each one to all parties invited on the calendar invite, even if they weren’t in attendance. We got an email after a bit saying no one was allowed to use AI note takers any longer.

7. The “verifiable information”

Me: I’m doing a competitor analysis on [product type] for [customer segment]. Please give me an overview of all the [product type] products offered by banks in [my country] for this type of customer.

AI: (gushes) Sure! What a fantastic question, you’re a genius! (paraphrasing). Here is the overview.

Me: (searching for one of the product names listed … cannot find it anywhere) I can’t find this product anywhere. Did you make it up?

AI: Ooooh … did you mean actual products? Sorry! In future I’ll only reference verifiable information.

Me: (eye roll, crying into coffee mug, closes AI window)

(It continued to manufacture content.)

8. The job description

My mother is on the board of a wildlife habitat nonprofit. They work with wetland preservation and with both bats and owls. They were looking for a new director, so someone on the search committee decided to have AI make up the job listing. It included several useful traits (a reasonable amount of education, experience with fundraising, etc.) – but it also said the position required “five years’ experience teaching birds to fly.”

They rewrote the job listing.

9. The performance review

I had an employee request to use an AI to take notes during her performance review. The summary was one line: “No meaningful conversation took place”. I was glad I decided to take pen and paper notes because it was a very productive conversation indeed. Apparently the AI disagreed!

10. The baby announcement

At the end of a meeting, a colleague asked their boss to stay on the line for a couple of minutes. The colleague then confidentially shared the great news that they were expecting a baby, and they and their boss talked about a few next steps to plan for parental leave. The AI notetaker then sent out notes to everyone who had attended the meeting with the headline, “Colleague Is Having a Baby.”

11. “Dazzling you”

I’ve been involved in beta-testing and quality-controlling AI translation output because my employer wants to see if has utility in professional use cases. Here are some highlights:

– In an AI translation of a report about elder abuse, it randomly inserted the word “child” in front of the word “abuse” in various places. The concept of “child” did not appear in the source text at all.

– Every single abbreviation in the text was incorrect in a different way every single time. There was not a single correct abbreviation, and not a single abbreviation was translated the same way twice.

– The word “negro” was randomly inserted into a sentence for no apparent reason. This was early in my exposure to AI translation and I had no idea it could mess up that badly, so I spent ages trying to figure out if there was some stealth hidden racist dogwhistles in the source text. A colleague of mine also had a recurring problem of the word “bitch” randomly being inserted into sentences.

– Random misnegating – for example, the statement “more work is being done” is translated as “no more work is being done,”

– It translated the standard “Dear Sir or Madam” opening of a letter as “Dazzling you.”

– Rewording the source text in the source language rather than translating it. Yes, all the settings were configured correctly.

12. The Powerpoint

I asked Copilot to create a table comparing two things. It did an okay job. Then Copilot asked me if I wanted a Powerpoint slide of the table. I said sure, since I was going to put it into Powerpoint anyway. Copilot created the ugliest Powerpoint I have ever seen. Three slides (I only needed one) with a color scheme of lavender, salmon pink, and orange. The background of each slide had kind of a plaid pattern a coworker said reminded her of her grandmother’s couch. A random picture in a cartoon cloud shape.

However, that is better than our company’s internal AI. It doesn’t have the ability to output content into powerpoint, excel, etc, but it thinks it does. It’ll offer to create one for you and then do nothing. Coworkers have spent ages trying to figure out where AI is saving their non-existent files.

13. The comp titles

I work in publishing and I wanted to do some research on competing titles for a potential book we had in the pipeline. Asked AI for the bestselling current books on the topic, and it came up with a list that had some really interesting titles on it – great, I thought, I’ve never heard of half of these so we definitely need to check them out. Yep – turns out the AI had just completely made them up.

14. The editable document

Me: Copilot, can you turn this scanned PDF into an editable word document?

Copilot: Sure thing, Another Kristin, here you go!

Me (after opening the file): Copilot, this file is completely blank.

Copilot: Sorry, I made a mistake, here it is!

Me: (opens second file, sees that it is also blank, closes AI window and puts in request for OCR software)

15. The attack

A friend of mine showed me an AI summary of a meeting where the AI notetaker decided to attack someone for no reason– in the middle of the notes about what everyone was saying, it inserted, “Jane contributes nothing to the conversation.” I guess it was accurate because the coworker had been quiet since that part of the meeting wasn’t relevant to her projects … But why did it do that???

16. The scam

We work with a lot of small businesses just starting up, and as a result are asked to recommend professional services often. Knowing this, a client passed on a discreet warning about the bookkeeping firm we’d recommended to them. They had issues with their accounting software, Quickbooks, and called for help. It was right when Google started providing AI summaries for everything, and apparently their account rep pulled the phone number for Quickbooks’ support out of the AI summary, rather than off the website.

You can probably guess where this is going. The number wasn’t legit, but instead put him in contact with a scammer who’d managed to astroturf their way into the AI summary. The account rep gave the scammer full access to our client’s accounting software before he realized his error. Our client didn’t share a lot of details about the damages — I got the sense that they were saying very little because they were planning legal action — but they wanted to let us know so we wouldn’t recommend them again.

17. The transcript, part 2

A woman I work with introduced herself before an online presentation. Her last name is Buckman. The AI transcriber recorded her introduction as “Hi, I’m Amelia. F*ck, man, it’s nice to see you all today.”

18. The transcript, part 3

Two people stayed on the call after the rest of the team had left and complained about others on the project. Not only did the transcription record this, it tagged the individuals being discussed in the summary as an action item: “@Jane needs to stop dragging her feet and get her sh*t together”

19. The equipment

I recently saw a ~$50,000 piece of industrial equipment damaged and taken out of commission for about a month because Google AI search told a worker that the tightening torque of a screw was 50 ft*lb instead of 50 in*lb.

This resulted in them over-tightening the screw by a factor of 12, which unfortunately didn’t strip the threaded hole (which would have been a smaller problem) but instead warped a bearing assembly that required a full rebuild at considerable difficulty and expense.

The kicker is that the correct torque value was clearly printed in the service manual that is stored in the machine.

20. The privacy expert

We once had a IT person come into a meeting to talk about the importance of data privacy and security who didn’t realize he had an AI notetaker signed in until someone pointed it out.

The post the fake charity, the Photoshop predator, and other times AI got it wrong appeared first on Ask a Manager.

Located 45 minutes' drive southwest of Brussels, Enghien is famous for straddling the linguistic border. While it is located in the French-speaking region of Wallonia, several streets to the north-west of the town centre are in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders. Beyond this peculiarity, the town is best known for its Parc d'Enghien, considered one of the most beautiful parks in Europe at the time of its construction in the 17th century. Although the park has been reduced in size and significantly modified, the most remarkable feature to survive is undoubtedly the Pavillon des Sept Étoiles, or Seven Stars Pavilion.

Hidden in the heart of the forest, the pavilion is a white and grey heptagonal kiosk set in the centre of a circular pond. It was built around 1661 at the park's highest point, intended to serve as an observation point for stargazing. Its name, Seven Stars, refers to "the seven planets known at the time". However, a correction is necessary: at the time of its construction, only six planets were known. The seventh was probably the Sun.

Each of its seven arches opens onto a park path lined with a different species of tree. The seven paths were separated by seven smaller paths ending with a statue representing one of the seven "planets". Over the years, this layout around the pavilion disappeared, and the pavilion became hidden under a thick forest.

At the end of the 1990s, during the pavilion's restoration, the decision was made to replant the site according to its original design. Today, you can walk along avenues of hornbeam trees that form a heptagon with a 125-meter radius around the pavilion, just as they did in the 17th century.

The pavilion's construction reflects the widespread enthusiasm for astronomical discoveries at the time, including among the aristocracy, fueled by the works of Galileo and Copernicus. Classified as a monument and historic site since 1972, it is also included on the List of Exceptional Heritage Sites in Wallonia.

bisexualbaker:

regicide1997:

So when I was getting dressed today, I very quickly put on a lab coat and some cat ears, not even trying to have something coherent, just wanting to have some kind of costume, and then I used some eyeliner to draw some whiskers on my face, so, yeah, that’s my costume, cat in a lab coat, does it make sense? no. who cares. Still wearing the same skirt and striped knee-high socks from yesterday, but that’s just my work clothes.

But then when I got to my office in the physics department, one of my colleagues was immediately like, “Oh! Schrödinger’s catgirl!”

It both was and was not a coherent costume until someone observed you and collapsed the wave form.

Have you made a lot of terrible life decisions?

Then our product is specifically for you!

Wow, this sounds like it’s designed specifically to prey on people who make bad financial decisions, by encouraging them to make more such decisions in the wake of their previous mistakes. Let’s ask the CEO about that:

We didn’t build Coverd to help people inhibit their spending; we built it to make spending exciting. We let spenders win twice – the second time is when they play it back and win. Our users want immediacy and upside. Coverd gamifies transactions with real financial leverage, meeting users where they are and turning spending into a moment they look forward to. 

That this is (probably) legal tells you a lot about how degenerate the financialization of everything has become.

The post Stage 4 capitalism appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.