Someone should have called me!

[EricKei]

I'd suggest Rule #2 here "Don't be a dick" -- but somehow I doubt they'd let you use that


(as most of you know, Rule #1 of CS is "Don't drink anything while reading this site; we are not responsible for liquid damage to your hardware" )

[AccountingDrone]

I know that generalizations are not a good thing, but I'm going to do it now. For the most part, the off the grid folks are very prepared for what they are taking on. They know how much they spend, they know how much wood cutting they have to do for the winter and they don't whine about their living conditions. They also know what they need to do to keep their food stamps coming, so bring everything we might ask about. (I personally don't want to see water receipts as long as they are claiming a reasonable amount, some workers do.)

We don't do the off grid thing, but a military income with undependable civilian employment for me [I had 3 jobs in a row outsourced] and the children of frugal mothers we are always very careful with our 'preparations' - when we had the house [burnt down, *sigh*] we made sure to have at least 5 cords of wood - cheaper to heat the house with oil to 40 F and to the comfort point with wood, wood comes from our woodlot and is free for the cost of gas and oil for the chainsaw, and I had a wood stove that was geared towards cooking so in the winter I always kept a pot of something simmering and baked bread every couple days. Every shopping trip we buy 'durable goods' like canned and dried food - I make an excellent vegan minestrone that can be produced with everything canned except the garlic and onions =) and we add paper towels and toilet paper, foil and medical supplies. Luckily when the house cooked off most of our stockpile was in the barn =) We calculated that if you add in hunting and fishing, we could survive without spending more than about 50 $US a month for half a year plus gas for a vehicle. [between my brother and Rob and I we stockpiled something like 5000 rounds of .22LR, 410 bird shot, 12 ga deer slug and m2 ball 30-06 for my M1. When it went on sale, we tended to buy. Sometimes there is a 'shortage' of available ammo, and part of being a responsible gun owner is maintaining skill levels by target shooting.] Hunting and fishing licenses, and the requisite hunter safety course are an annual thing for us. I really miss our chickens, the absolutely fresh eggs every morning were wonderful.

[Slave to the Phone]

Please don't think that I am disparaging the off the grid folks in any way. While there are times when I am jealous of them, I quickly remember that I am far too lazy to actually live that way. Driving over bad/non existent roads for an hour just to get to a library would be totally NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!

One of the last people I saw on Friday was one of those who breaks my brain.

SC: I didn't get my renewal notice, nobody called me and now you cut my food stamps off. This isn't MY fault and I demand someone do something NOW!!! (at 4:45 pm when the office closes at 5:00)
Me: (For the record, we have never called people to tell them its time to renew, AND I wasn't adding anyone to be worked that late on a Friday, and I'm a bitch who will try to make idiots feel like idiots.) Hmmmm, that's strange, I can see we sent you a renewal notice. It went to ABC 4th ST and was mailed on X/X/XX.
SC: That's not right, I moved a few months ago.
Me: Did you let us know?
SC: No, I was going to do it at my renewal.
Me: Well, that explains why you didn't get the letter telling you to renew, it went to your last address because we didn't have your new one.
SC: Well, someone should have called me!!!
Me: Is your current phone number XXX XXX XXXX?
SC: NO, I changed that when I moved.
Me: Its hard to contact someone when we don't know how to do it. Nobody will be able to see you tonight, we open at 7 am on Monday!
SC: Screaming fit about no food, starving children, not fair, nobody cares and we should all be fired.
Security Guard: Excuse me, but the office is closing in 3 minutes. You can come back on Monday. We open at 7.

[crazyofficeclerk]

"I don't get pay stubs, I just get direct deposit."
"Your employer is legally required to give you access to your pay stubs, you probably have to look them up online."

This. So much this. If I say this once a phone shift I say it 20 times. Our clients love to argue with me that they don't get stubs. They think that if they tell us they can't get stubs, we will just say "ok" and move on. Nope.

Also now our state is issuing half of March benefits on 02/22 and the rest on the regular load date. I can't wait for these questions. We have already had the "missing" benefits for February questions. Nope. Your 02/2019 benefits loaded on 01/16/20193, I'm sorry if you spent them.

[Seanette]

Uh, "20193"? (giggle)

[MoonCat]

One thing about calculators: You have to know how to use them. If you don't know whether you need to add or subtract, or when something needs to be multiplied vs. divided, you are going to have problems figuring out if you were paid correctly. It's sad that an awful lot of people these days have no idea how to do these things. And I say this as someone who struggles with math, but at the very least I know to multiply my hours worked by my hourly rate of pay.

[Monterey Jack]

"Hey, it's that Brenda bitch from Beverly Hills 9-0...2...C3P0...!" [cookies for ref]

[Slave to the Phone]

This. So much this. If I say this once a phone shift I say it 20 times. Our clients love to argue with me that they don't get stubs. They think that if they tell us they can't get stubs, we will just say "ok" and move on. Nope.

Also now our state is issuing half of March benefits on 02/22 and the rest on the regular load date. I can't wait for these questions. We have already had the "missing" benefits for February questions. Nope. Your 02/2019 benefits loaded on 01/16/20193, I'm sorry if you spent them.

Don't you just love the ones who say that their gross pay shouldn't matter because we need to use the money they are taking home, so their bank statements should be enough to prove that?

One thing about calculators: You have to know how to use them. If you don't know whether you need to add or subtract, or when something needs to be multiplied vs. divided, you are going to have problems figuring out if you were paid correctly. It's sad that an awful lot of people these days have no idea how to do these things. And I say this as someone who struggles with math, but at the very least I know to multiply my hours worked by my hourly rate of pay.

I'm sorry that you struggle with math. I once knew a person who understood that there were 4 quarters in a dollar but couldn't get the concept that there were also 4 quarters of anything else. She was the WORSE cook in the world because in her world, there was a whole thing and less than a whole thing. Oddly enough, when it came to wacky tabbacy, she got the whole grams/ounces thing.

[Sparklyturtle]

We used to have this little plastic calculator thing. I don't know where we got it. It had buttons on top that you pushed down to make the numbers move and do the basic calculations. There was no battery, it was totally analog, more like a toy, really, but it worked. We used to take it to the store for groceries and keep a running total to make sure we didn't go over the cash we had.

Of course, later, we had an actual calculator and did the same thing. I will probably be back to that practice shortly but at least I know that you can't spend more than you have.

When I was a teenager we went through some lean times, so my dad and I did the grocery shopping - my dad because he's so tight he squeaks, and me to keep a running total of what we were buying. I did it with paper and pencil, which worked just fine. We managed to feed a family of 6 on $50 biweekly. Granted, this was the 1970s, but that was still not much even back then.