alorrigan

Sorry for the long post. For those that don't want to read the whole thing I'll sum it up. I apologize to anyone that I may have offended in this thread and what's below explains my frustrations. Some of the things that I said were inappropriate or inconderate and once again I am sorry. Have I stepped out of line in this thread? Yes. This started out as me just getting some things off my chest and turned into an all out bashing of HR people. I apologize to anyone whom I may have offended for that. I'm not going to say that my situation is unique, because I know that it's not. I know a lot of people on this board have lost jobs and are going through the same process I am. I'll just explain my reasons for the things I have said in this thread and maybe you can see some of my frustrations. After this I will never post in this thread again and hopefully it will vanish into the annuals of the board and never be mentioned again. You're told your whole life that hard work and dedication will get you far in life. When I got to college I realized I could graduate in three and a half years if I worked hard. I accomplished that. You hear that the best things you can do to help your future career while in colllege is internships, of which I have done two and also worked for the college in the same position for which I am applying. So in three and a half years I have done what takes many college students five years to do. I was expecting and was told that by graduating in the middle of the school year instead of the end there would be less competition for jobs. I know that because of the sad state of the economy many jobs are being eliminated and the few that are open are being filled by people who have lost their jobs because they have experience and I guess I can accept that. I wouldn't be so frustrated by this all except I have a lifelong medical illness that, while not life threatening, is rather costly. As I neared graduation I began to look at insurance options in case I would not be employed because I need insurance to take care of these bills. Well because of my illness I was told by insurance companies I was uninsurable or it would be ungodly expensive. The only way I could get insurance would be to get a full-time job with benefits or stay in school and stay on my mom's insurance. So I enrolled in the MBA program at the school I graduated from as a backup because it is still cheaper than the overly expensive health insurance and also would make my resume a little more impressive. Perhaps most of my frustration comes because of my mother. I still live at home and have to deal with her daily wonderings about why I don't have a job yet. She asks me if I called this place or that place and why didn't I email them. I explain to her that I'm researching daily in the paper and online and I'm sending out resumes and cover letters and when I do try and contact these places I'm not able to get in contact with anyone. I think she's beginning to think that I'm lying about all this. So despite telling her the god's truth I usually get the mom's stink eye and it's starting to make me feel like a free loader. So yes, I'm a little frustrated and again I apologize to anyone that I offended but it just bothers the heck out of me. I've worked hard in the classroom and for my internships and jobs and have had the few people that have interviewed me tell me that I have a very impressive resume and done all the things that I was told to do to get a job but still don't have one. No, it's not HR's fault. To me, it just doesn't seem like they are trying as hard to hire as I am to get hired. I've said this in just about every post and it may sound mean and insincere but just communicate with me. Someone had posted earlier that they didn't feel like candidates know how to communicate. I'm not being forceful or inconsiderate when I call them. I simply state my name, that I sent my resume regarding this position and ask if they received it. I have only once actually talked to someone on the first call and we set up an interview right away. And when I don't get someone I leave a message with my phone number. All I need is a call or an email. If I'm not a candiate just tell me and we can both move on. Please don't leave me hanging. Sorry for the long diatribe but I just wanted to clear the air. I came off as an inconsiderate jerk in some of my posts but I hope you can understand my frustration. One final time, I'm sorry to anyone I offended.

I'm sure there are plenty of really good HR people in the world. It's just getting really sickening that every one I have tried to contact has ignored me or lied to me. I understand you are busy people but just take 2 or 3 minutes to effectively communicate with me.

They can vacate all they want. It just doesn't make sense to take one when you are currently hiring a position and you know people are going to be trying to get a hold of you.

Side note. I know Gagne's not 100% and Riske is still recovering from surgery. Could we put both of them on the DL to start the year and give them some time to rehab in the minors while we see if some of our other bullpen arms have anything?

More ranting material. I just sent an email to a place that I sent a resume, cover letter, and letters of recommendation to and guess what? Their Human Resources director is out of the office till March 9. "Come work for Human Resources. You'll never feel like your at work, because you won't be!"

I am so going. Whether Spinal Tap or The Folksmen are playing I am so there.

No, I think you have a legit concern over how the online discussion is (not) working. Without overtly mentioning your grade, you might email the prof about how s/he might tweak the format a little so that the discussion isn't just a last-minute rush job for everyone. It sounds like your interest in getting a better grade dovetails with his/her interest in having a real online discussion -- and there's nothing wrong with that (as long as you're cool about asking).Every couple of weeks he posts saying that he's disappointed in the lack of discussion but he hasn't done anything about it. This last week I asked if he could make one or two posts related to the topic for a jump off point for the rest of us and he said he would. He hasn't for this week yet, but it's still early.

I'm all for rules to create disciplined players but telling them how to wear their pants is going a little too far. From reading the article I guess the players have to earn the right to wear their pants the way they want to, which I think is great. But if that's not the case your just going to have a bunch of disgruntled players who can't wait to get out of the organization. Is the way you wear your pants a big deal. No way. But when I played in college we had rules about the littlest details like this and it just doesn't do what it is intended to do.

I'm currently taking some online classes with my on campus classes. The way online classes work is there is regular homework to go along with the discussion board. You are required to post in the discussion board on four different days. I have no problem doing that except there are only 8 people in my class and no one posts anything until the last day of the week. I try to post things to encourage discussion but no one does anything until the last minute. Because of this my participation grade is suffering. I'm getting about half the points for each week. My homework, test, and quiz grades are great but my participation grade is terrible. I'm consideration emailing the professor to ask for a boast in my grade because it is quite obvious that I am the only one who is trying to make an effort to get my posts in during the week and I can't have discussion when I'm the only person posting. The thing holding me back is that I hate grade grubbing and I have never done it before. If I do this am I being a hypocrite or do you think this is a situation where it's ok?

The only reason I ever listen to sports on the radio is to get the score and then change back to music. So if he's giving the score more than once every few innings he's great in my book.

I didn't want to before and I really don't want to know. There are just so few jobs available. Plus my Aunt works there and thought she could pull some strings. Oh yeah. She would get $2500 if they hired me because she referred me. Those are pretty much the only reasons.

Right there is all I'm looking for.

I'm sure this is not the case in any way but... I have my degree in art and really can't stand math. Well not math it self, just the work involved. If the kids got a creative mind he probably sees no point in the doing the same problem over and over again with different numbers. I could be completely off base and reading way too much into it but I think part of the problem with students is that they are round pegs shoved into square holes because the school needs them to pass the test. Sorry for my little art/math rant but I dealt with that in school too. I didn't really hate math, I just hated having to do the same problem dozens of times.

I guess what really set me off was some information I got about the first place recently. I know someone who works there and has been trying to get a different job there and has never once gotten a hold of someone there. She said that the HR department there is horrible. She's heard many complaints about them from other employees too, basically they just let the phone ring all day and won't answer it. I also heard from someone else who applied there that he first heard from them 3 months after he applied. He already had a job by the time they talked to him.

This is partly a rant but... Do you ever answer your phones? Do you ever read your email? Why are you never in your office? Do you ever actually do anything? It's not the not getting a job that has been bothering me about my job search, it's the complete uselessness of HR people. My first job I called the HR person for a week and left messages. Nothing. Then I called another HR person there. He actually answered but said, "That's not really my department" and told me to call back in a week if I havn't heard anything. I never heard from anyone and tried calling him back. No answer. Tried calling the first person. No answer. Tried calling a third person. No answer. Gave up on the job. Next job. Called and got an answer. Said they would call in a week or so to set up an interview. Waited two weeks and then called back. No answer. Talked to someone I know who works with this person and he said that they wouldn't be hiring that position for a while. NEXT DAY I get a letter in the mail thanking me for my interest but the offered the position to someone else. Next job. Actually talked to the lady a few times. Had an interview. Called two weeks later. No answer. Called the next week. No answer. Just sent an email. Out of office till March 2. Side not. My mom had some insurance questions at work. Went to HR person. HR person said my secretary would know more about that but she's out for the day. For any HR people who read this, I'm sure you do a good job but why are the rest so lazy and incompetent? Or I am just dealing with the minority.

You hit the nail on the head. This is pretty much the only reason I am working on my Master's Degree. I know of many people who have or will have a Bachelors who shouldn't that I don't want to be lumped in with them by employers.

I could go on and on about this. Having been in college for the last 3 years I have heard way too many students complain about having to do any work or even that they have show up for class. I had one class where a girl showed up for the first two weeks or so and didn't come back till the final and was mad that the professor told her she couldn't pass! I don't know how you can solve this at the middle and high school level but college's need to really up their standards instead of allowing anyone in. I know that many students are weeded out after their freshman year but there are still many upperclassmen who have the same attitude.

Does this mean that after months of negotiating Melvin talked Cashman down to Wright and Cashman talked Melvin down to Wright. They are two shrewd negotiators. (That would be in blue if I knew how)

My TomTom GPS has been searching for a signal for almost a week now. I did some googling and found that when that happens you need to update it. Well I tried. It downloaded the update but when I clicked install it said it could not install it. Anyone have any advice.

Instead of just taxing teams that spend, tax teams that don't spend wisely. I would like to see the top quarter spending teams pay the tax. However, teams that make the playoffs don't have to pay. This might prevent the big boys from taking on injury risks or just generally over paying for average players because they have to. The one thing that needs to be done though is an international draft. I would say that is bigger than any luxury tax or salary cap. Second would be doing something so team don't draft a player because they can't afford him.

That is just what I was looking for. Thanks Patrick.

Dug through there too.

I only found individual players stats there. I would like numbers for the league as a whole.

If I had to guess, this is based off of no statistical evidence, the top of division got worse and the bottom got better. I don't see the Pirates winning but I think the rest of the division has a shot. It should be a pretty interesting year.

Does anyone know where I can find league wide statistics? I mainly looking for league batting average, obp and slug and google hasn't revealed any answers.