I thank whatever higher power there is on a daily basis that I stumbled across here 9 years ago.

As do we.

The "nine years" still freaks me out, though. Sara was just a few months old when I started posting here. What the hell.

I have never negotiated for shit. They've said "the position pays $XX, want it?" I've never negotiated from a position of strength--the one time I interviewed while I had a job, I got the job and they were so mad I turned it down they wouldn't let me interview again 2 years later, when I was unemployed.

Shit, I just turned on the TV in the middle of the Louisville NCAA coverage and my remote batteries are dead, and now it's "boy doctor from Syria" and WHERE ARE THE BATTERIES???

A computer scans NY Times articles for sentences that work as haiku. Journalists pick the best ones to post: [link]

As dawn broke we warmed // strawberry Pop Tarts over // the dying embers.

As an engineer, // I'm sort of a student of // how things fall apart.

Thanks, everybody. This has been really helpful. And if she's going to gently tell me I did not get the job after all, I will at least know for next time.

My company treats us very well benefits-wise, but there is basically no negotiating on salary. HR tells the managers what they're allowed to pay, and that's that. Raises are teeny, but reliable, and we pay nothing for health insurance, and I have more paid time off than I know what to do with. So there are trade-offs for not having a huge paycheck.

I don't think I can negotiate anything. At the end of spring semester, they just send me an email that says, "You can pick up your contract for next year in the office," and the contract has my new salary printed on it.

I applied for our local public library a few years ago, just to see if maybe I could get in, and I got a lovely letter back telling me I wasn't qualified. I was working in library retrospective conversion at the time and well knew my way around library automation. The letter essentially said, "We're salivating over your experience, but we have to hire someone with specific education. We're so sorry!" It still have the letter, it's great ego boo.

In imaginary land where there would be any chance for me to get a raise, I would happily trade it for more time off.

We are paid very well though and we have good benefits. Just crap crap of a boss.

lisah, yes. It is the speakeasy bar that made me blink. Especially with all these liquor license kerfuffles. And I remember them pulling pranks before.

As far as I know, just the name of the bar is not real. We're involved in the liquor license stuff (I can tell you more about it next time I see you) so, if it's a prank, they are pulling a long and involved and kind of cruel con!

I negotiated my salary and vacation time at my current job. I think I asked for about $5000 over what I was making at the job I was at (because I was happy with the salary and knew it was fair for the someone with my experience) and asked for 4 weeks vacation because that's what I was getting and I didn't want to lose it. My company was very small when I joined, though, and they were flexible and cool with giving me what I asked for. I started with 4 weeks vacation plus a week sick time which was awesome but then lost a week when we went to general PTO, vs a vaca/sick split. I'm back to 5 weeks now, since I've been here 5 years as of last June. And I hardly ever take my PTO as sick time. I work at home if I'm not feeling well enough to come in. I'm lucky I haven't had something that's really laid me out recently, though.

So the .01% REALLY?! REALLY?

I think I might throw something at Benn next time I'm in there or GW.