Dana I did get a $20 coupon from last time. But it was 70 units at $14/unit—slightly more than last time. Hope it works!

Sheryl that is so tough.

Sheryl, that sounds terrible. I feel like any advice I can give would not be at all helpful, so I am sending calming vibes. I do see a nugget of something in dcps comment about possibly seeing the ER trips as a good thing.

I love watching JZ and David move!

I have an ask a manager question, but I thought I would try here first and see if I am nutty. I supervise one formerly student worker and semi-supervise (she has some of my old job, while I retain other parts of it). They answer direct line phones and email, do projects that I give them, and the one of them does all of our compliance and non-matric registrations. There are down times. That is OK- I have had those jobs. That is how I found the Buffistas- trying to look busy on the computer. But BOTH of them read actual books! Right out in the open. I have no idea how to tell them it looks better if you dick around on the computer then open a fiction book right on your desk! I mean, I guess I could just say that. I also sort of do mind, because I have so much work to do, but that is a little unreasonable on my part because one of the reasons they don’t have something to do is that they are waiting on me. But is this a new young person thing? I asked another young coworker who said they would never use a work computer to play on because they know people watch (I actually know that at our workplace, no one is really watching unless there are complaints- they just cut off sites they don’t want you at, but a certain amount of shopping, etc- or say, an e-book would not raise eyebrows).((I know this because we had a cleaner watching porn on computers at night and the way he got caught was accidentally leaving it up for someone to find in the morning))

I really think you can just tell them that -- it's better to look like you COULD be working! Learning how to be in the office is part of what they should be doing as student workers. (I remember telling someone she shouldn't be calling her friends on the phone all day, but no one would know if she was emailing them....)

Sheryl, that sounds so hard.

It does sound reasonable to tell them that, Sophia. Are there any on-line education options that would be related to the work they do that could be busy work?

Sheryl, I’m so sorry.

I’m feeling lonely and very unmotivated today.

Lol on is this a "new" young person thing! That's what we did before there were computers to dick around on! If you don't have work for them, let them read their books. God knows we can all use more computer-free time. If it bothers you, make time to work out tasks they can do without your supervision, ones that are maybe lower priority they can do when they finish higher priority tasks.

Sheryl, I'm so sorry. The emergency department is not a reasonable way to have to manage your son's ongoing issues. I'm sorry it's the best resource available to you right now.

That's funny, one of the reasons I read so many more e-books than physical books is because I can have a tab open on my computer while I'm working and just tab over to it when I have a bit of time. It's just more convenient, really, though also a bit more discreet, I guess.

Sheryl, I'm so sorry. The emergency department is not a reasonable way to have to manage your son's ongoing issues. I'm sorry it's the best resource available to you right now.

Yes, this. Thanks for finding words for me, lisah!