I saw two Jill Stein for President bumper stickers this morning. In Kansas. Okay, Lawrence, KS so not actually that strange.

Mississippi is a swing state! Texas is trending blue! Up is down and the sky is green! As was the case with the last two elections, this one would be fascinating and fun if I weren't so scared.

I was sort of pondering something this morning. I'm an atheist...

I'm a pantheist, and that's so hard to explain to most people that I usually just go with atheist unless someone questions me further. Most Christians that I tell I don't believe in G*d are either incredulous, or angry. The incredulous ones end up insisting that I really DO believe in G*d, I just don't want to go to

church, and the angry ones take my lack of belief as a personal affront.

My mom explained G*d to me once as, we can't see the wind but we know it's there because we can see what it does. If they've never questioned the existence of G*d and none of their friends/family/neighbors have either, to them it's like someone questioning the existence of the wind.

Pascal's Wager has never made any sense to me either. One can act out the practices of a religion without really believing, but "Protect yourself from the Inquisition" is not the same as "Eh, might as well believe."

I'm drifting here. Back to the original pondering. Is it possible to be an atheist without coming across as arrogant or offensive?

Not if the person you're talking to is hearing "you think I'm stupid" or "you hate G*d!" No matter how polite and respectful you try to be, you still can't control what someone else thinks about what you said.

My department also has a Cult of Positivity attitude. If one complains, one is Being Negative and one should be grateful one has this wonderful job opportunity!

My first job out of college, which was a new position created for the growing need at the organization, after 1 year I asked for a raise because I took on a HUGE amount of responsibility that had been contracted out prior to them hiring me (which wasn't in the job description when they hired me -- this was a big new undertaking about 4 months in to my job). I had a spreadsheet with how much money the organization was saving by doing the thing in-house vs contracted out (and I wasn't asking for a raise commensurate to the total amount we paid the contractor, FTR).

My boss told me, in nicer terms, that I was a recent college graduate and just lucky to even have a job. I was too young and inexperienced to tell him that I was saving him over $10K a year.

But, to be totally fair to him, even though he was a shithead about a lot of other things (including firing me because of office politics), about a month later I got a 12% raise, so I guess he saw the light.

Isn't the holiday counted as part of your normal 40-hour work week?

Apparently not. The official OT policy is that if you have worked more than 80 hours of client billable work in a pay period, then you get paid OT. When there is a holiday, that 80 hour threshold still applies even though it can only be reached if you WORK OT. And, unlike PTO, you can't bank your holiday, you just lose 8 hours.

I have sent a question to Ask A Manager. I searched to see if a similar question had been answered, but didn't find anything.

Not if the person you're talking to is hearing "you think I'm stupid" or "you hate G*d!" No matter how polite and respectful you try to be, you still can't control what someone else thinks about what you said.

I have to admit, I see some atheists (#notallatheists, okay?) on FB making snide comments like "your invisible sky fairy" and I'm sooooooper unimpressed with their self-righteousness. And that shit contributes to the unfair stereotype that all atheists are dicks about it (which they are NOT).

When there is a holiday, that 80 hour threshold still applies even though it can only be reached if you WORK OT.

Now that is wrong. I'm having a hard time believing that's legal.

I vaguely remember some past job where OT was deducted from PTO time taken during the pay period, because of some undefined policy that I interpreted as "you're getting away with something" by taking time off while actually working over, as if the OT was your proper punishment for thinking you could skive out of your responsibilities with PTO. I'm wondering if this is something specific to Right To Work states, ie, Be glad you're working at all for what we pay you, scum. Right To Work is why I like working for big companies that have to answer to higher-ups in non-RTW states, who don't like having iffy-though-legal labor practices lurking in the corners of their conglomerate. Local Utah businessmen too often have figured out how they can work the system to screw the little guy. (There's a reason Affinity Fraud is practically the state sport here.)

Just so I have it straight: Suzi, you are salaried, and classified exempt, correct? If you are, they have much more leeway than if you were non-exempt.

IIRC, your org also plays in the government contracting field. This might be helpful: [link]

I'm salaried non-exempt.

edit - I take that back, I am exempt. I'm reading up on policy while I'm waiting for a meeting that was supposed to start at 1 to start. The other person asked for a delay til 1:30, but still hasn't shown up.

Needing to actually work over 80 hours to get OT actually does sound right, but you should get holiday pay+ straight pay for hours worked. I might need a spreadsheet to explain what I mean...

Ooh, you might have a very good case then. You should be paid time and half for all hours over 40 that you worked, though I'm much less certain how holidays play into that.