Take heart, have faith and look around, paying attention to the atmosphere and other employees. I am looking now too and its scary, but I am holding out hope, not for perfection, but certainly for improvement.   Good luck!

You are 100% correct there. I am in “management” so there really was not a union for me to join anyway.

“You always feel like you are walking on eggshells or that at any minute, you make one false move and that’s it, you could be fired.”

I would (in some respects) like to learn that, but, I will admit, the productivity is so handy.

I agree, at least in theory, but I can’t even “do nothing” on my days off. You also point out “idle time to do whatever you want” which is still doing something. I freely admit I am severely over-productive, but, I grew up in that mindset (we called it work ethic, especially in a rural background), and as you point…

I am glad to see this is a thing and not just me. The stress they refer to I feel as guilt for what I perceive as “wasting time” when I have so much I could or should be doing. I have to be severely sick to do “nothing” and even then I have to tell myself that healing is not wasting time (but it still feels like it).

I have to admit, these are indeed brilliant and I am deeply ashamed that I never thought of them myself.

I can confirm Ohio and Reeses. Its the #1 candy taken from my bowl (for several years), followed by KitKat. (I buy Baby Ruth for myself.)

Routine is everything with kids (at least it was with mine). At the appointed time, after her show, (usually Spongebob or the reading of a book she chose) we brushed the teeth, said our prayers/I sang her the same lullaby and she went to bed. Since she bored easily, I turned on a radio (no screen!) to classical music…

I remember those days with a new (colicky) baby and it seems like you wont ever sleep again (you will, but it will take longer than anyone tells you it will). It felt like I was in a haze all the time and it causes so many issues in every area of your life including work, relationships and health-mental & physical. Wri…

I keep my lawn just so I can yell at the neighborhood kids to get off of it.

Welcome aboard, good luck and don’t let these folks cow you; they will if you let them, but set that stiff upper lip and have at it.

Love the clip (I needed a laugh) and I think that guy must be married to the lady who complained that deer crossing signs needed to be moved because she kept hitting deer near them.

I make a “plant cocoon” without a cage by making a little “newspaper hat” a few layers (pages) thick and weighting its edges down with rocks, etc., (after the final cut back in fall). Seems to have worked fine for years for my roses in our cold Ohio winters.

My HR friends will tell you that about every industry, even the ones that there is no real reason to have drug testing for safety reasons, and they only do because the company gets a $ break on their WC insurance for testing.

Also, be willing to cool/terminate the relationship if they will not respect your boundaries. Some people will literally suck all of your emotional health and then send you into your own spiral by trying to help them. As hard as it is, you need to place yourself and your health first. Explain to them why, but if they…

For any age, in situations that are appropriate (sometimes it is not) a simple “Thank you” goes a long way. Too often people forget to say that, even to other adults. It also sets a very good example for children for manners.

As the mother of one, I sort of shrugged it off. Yes, both myself and my daughter would have died without my emergency C-sec, but you would be amazed at the “mom shaming” I got over it.

The washcloth works, especially a pretty one (my daughter had a “thing” for purple so I got some really fluffy purple ones and she was happy).

I found switching between glasses and contacts had similar issues. I couldn’t get depth right in contacts, but the glasses of the same prescription were fine. (I worked around this by closing one eye, but it is not a long term fix.)