Welcome to the Melbourne Community Daily Discussion Thread.
Probably petty but I just declined a “pre-work assessment” because after reading the fine print it appears some of it will be AI assessed, and it also requested access to my webcam while I sat the test to record me.
I’ve emailed the recruiter and told them I’m withdrawing my application and why I’m withdrawing it. Probably won’t hear anything back but I’d rather not work for a company that can’t even assess me themselves.
Yeah no thanks. F that. Good on you for having self respect enough to say “Jog on”!
Creepy. That’s really gross. Good on ya for pushing back, I’m worried that this is the way of the future
It very much is. I’m in the process of trying to change jobs in the public sector, and easily 8/10 result in some sort of psychometric testing or one-way video interview with absolutely no human interaction. I’ve heard from friends in the private sector it’s all very much the same as well, lots of video pitches and AI assessments through 3rd party agencies.
Yeah one of the shitty food prep type brainless jobs I applied for recently for subway or pancakes or something like that wanted a 60 second intro “fun” video. fuck off.
Years and years and years ago when I was desperate and was applying for anything, I applied online for Krispy Kreme and it was legitimately an hour’s worth of torturous round a bout questions which culminated in asking for you to record and send them a video of yourself pitching why you wanted to work at Krispy Kreme.
I was exhausted at that point, found some way around doing that part of the endurance marathon, and wrote a MASSIVE essay in the comments section about how horrible the whole process of applying for a job at Krispy Kreme was and how crazy it was to do all of this just to get your resume in front of someone so they could decide whether or not they were going to interview the applicant.
Several months later, they rejected my application.
Fuck. How “zany, wacky, talented and out of the box thinking” do you need to sell doughnuts?
I’m in the public sector and so many departments are turning to this type of recruitment, and a lot of them are also scratching their heads why they keep getting people ill suited for the job.
I mean, does being able to make a shit hot tik tok actually make someone employable somewhere other than some kind of promo job?
Wow I knew shit was tough but didn’t know we’ve come to this. Wtf could they be assessing with this high tech for a govt job? Good on ya for saying nay and telling them why.
Ive done so many of those I want to cry
I just did one of those, but no camera, just AI mentioned. They are common, even in senior roles. Unfortunately
As an enjoyer of Asian mushrooms, having sampled a wide variety of mushrooms from Asia, I can testify that none of the popular Asian mushrooms look remotely like death cap.
When in doubt, blame it on an Asian
Patterson has told police she purchased a package of dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Mount Waverley at least three months before the lunch. The package of mushrooms she bought was hand-labelled, she said.
Hand-labelled eh…hmm well this just gets weirder and weirder.
Mushroom Murder Lady is a cack. “Asian grocery store” my ass, she’s a racist apparently.
Edit: also she lives in a smallish community in buttfuck Vic and she doesn’t remember which of the three “asian groceries” she went to? Ha ha ha, liar!
She’s already tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. And the media. May all the gods/goddesses help truth be known. I refuse to be a slave to Murdoch media.
EDIT: there’s a nasty smell of ‘a dingo took my baby’ about this whole thing. And look how that turned out - eventually.
Agreed. She was right to be distrustful of media.
She’s such a typical and easy target of societal hatred. She’s middle aged and not pretty. She’s working class from a poor rural town. She’s white so she’s a safe target, no risk being called racist if they pick on her. She is nervous and inarticulate, that doesn’t make her guilty. She might really hate those people, that still doesn’t mean she’s guilty. She does dumb things because she’s scared, that doesn’t mean she’s guilty. There’s loads of people I hate but I would never think of killing them. The world thinks they know how a murderer behaves or what a murderer would say and if she doesn’t measure up she’s “guilty”.
All I know is the whole world is crazy , they will chew her up and spit her out, destroying decades of her life just for a few days of gossip, higher ratings and ad revenue.
As someone who was friends with her, Erin Patterson is not some dumb country, working class, bumpkin. She is incredibly intelligent and last time I spoke to her she was studying veterinary science and could calculate PI to a ridiculous number of places in her head. Both of her parents were academics and she came from money. She could be really manipulative and could hold a grudge, but when I knew her there was no way she would ever intentionally harm someone like she is being accused of doing.
I’m saying that is the public perception of her.
She could be really manipulative and could hold a grudge,
stop helping her
I don’t care who you are, what colour of skin you have, your age or your weight if you get out of your little red car claiming you loved the people you’ve killed without a tear in your eye you are hiding something.
qed, you think you know how people should and would behave
I think if I accidentally killed my in laws who I love dearly you would clearly see it on my face.
she doesn’t look happy
She didn’t look sad either
also she lives in a smallish community in buttfuck Vic and she doesn’t remember which of the three “asian groceries” she went to
She also has a property in Mt Waverly and claims that’s where the “Asian grocery” is. Apparently Mt Waverly has two Korean grocery stores, and two other grocery stores that sell east or southeast Asian goods. Still doesn’t make sense.
Also, threw out the dehydrator that she didn’t use to dehydrate the dried mushrooms she bought. That doesn’t hold water at all.
That doesn’t hold water at all
Makes sense… it’s a dehydrator
Goddammit. Take my uplem and go
To be fair, any grocery store that has Asian owners or employees is an Asian store to a racist…
I lol’ed when I saw that. Also it just don’t make no sense. Wouldn’t any purchase have some sort of record? Why would you go with that narrative?? I’d be sweating if I was her lawyer.
Small green grocer type stores often work on a cash basis, cards cost them money.
Yes but I imagine foot traffic wouldn’t be so high and it would be the same people behind the counter who may recognise whether someone has visited the store. But I suppose it just becomes he said she said.
Edit: I also think if it indeed was purchased then the cops will need to get on the case to trace where they came from asap. Because if there is indeed something wrong in the supply then it’s possible that these are circulated elsewhere on the market.
Does guilty looking things (dumping food dehydrator) out of fear of looking guilty. Heard that one before. Something ain’t right here.
It will be interesting to see if she did turn up at the hospital with an upset tummy like she claims.
She did.
Do you have Intel? You must spill.
I can’t say much. But I understand she did present to a hospital with the children on Monday.
Righto. Your secret is safe with me. BRB gotta ring mum.
The plot thickens for Murderous Mycology Lady
One of the many reasons I could never be a politician is that I just don’t give a fuck about sport and nor could I pretend to.
I HATE soccer. With a passion. But man I’d cheer the aussies on in a grass growing competition if we were playing well. Anything but Cricket.
Wtaf I was wondering why the hell I was so cold all night last night and had to put my heater on (I usually leave my heater off while I’m asleep) and this morning I was also wondering why I had to stream the bathroom a bit before I could get in the shower, and I thought I was just a bit sensitive to the cold since I just woke up, but no, it’s a cool 6° outside feels like 3. 4° overnight as well
Every winter I’m reminded why exactly I want to move up north. This is why
Yeah I was wondering why my hands felt extra cold. Stupid barely insulated shacks we live in. Melbourne winters wouldn’t feel half as miserable if we had proper construction (having now experienced living in a place that has double glazing and shit, I’m really feeling the difference).
Yeah I had the electric blanket on low on a timer. It was a good call.
yup, I wore my polar fleecy pjs
I really didn’t need to take today off work, I’m not leaving for the airport until 4:30pm, but godDAMN I’m glad I did 😎
I just need to shave, beard trim, shower and pack the toiletries I use for that and I’m good to go!
No word yet on my business class upgrade bid… they said they’d email between 24 and 9 hours before the flight so that means up until 11:25am. I’m expecting I won’t get it.
I remember you were going to hire a car. Normally one would just pick it up at LAX on arrival (or wherever your final flight lands). Please please Be extra careful and take it easy when driving due to jet lag. Your reaction times are WAY off.
Yep picking up the car from LAX and driving 2 hours to Bakersfield on landing. I probably won’t be the one driving that though I suspect, but if I am I’ll be extra vigilant 🫶
Me: minding my own business
My brain: blows and pops bubblegum ‘Hey’
Me: ‘What’
My brain: ‘So like why haven’t we got that job we applied for an hour ago?’
me: sighs
Finally have completed my exercises for today. It was a hectic day at work, and hectic even before I left the house! The Minipeelers are both currently ill; the Miniest has improved and the Elder was coughing a bit and looking a bit NQR at the time, so I thought bugger it, they might as well both have the day off. I set them up with their needs as much as possible before I left so it’s less their father has to do. Today however was the day the WGAC delivery arrived and also the grocery delivery arrived early (with all the disso, Glen 20 and tissues etc). The Elder Minipeeler showed a brilliant side of himself in taking the initiative and bringing it in mostly on his own (he woke his dad to help with the groceries but by his own admission Mr Peeler wasn’t much help). Was also totally supportive to the Miniest, helping to keep hydrated and offering food. I said, “you’re a great brother and a great son too, and I’m proud of you.” Bloody legend.
Elderpeeler really is a good one. Onya kiddo
So far so good… the dreaded wait for everyone to finish boarding before I know for sure
Even if a baby does arrive it won’t take up much space. You’ll probably still get the armrest
Is that premium economy? Someone’s got coin 🪙👛😂
Man, I hate the anxiety that comes with applying for jobs. Just give me the job now please me good worker much experienced.
Hello this is Force? Oh yes Outlier1031! Yeh they worked for me for about 18 months - honestly one of the most productive staff we had, it sucked they left. Amazing workplace culture fit too - super friendly and got along with everyone. Yeh look if you don’t accept them for the job let me know I’m actually short staffed myself now. Yeh no worries.
Haha thank you. I should put on my resume ‘my aussie zone friends think i’m cool’ milhouse voice
deleted by creator
I am right there with you. I’ve been looking for about 6 weeks now — landed a few good interviews, but there were better candidates each time. The worst part? The interviews have all been for incredible positions that I landed with rough as guts application written by chatGPT — yet the handwritten, bespoke, thoughtful (and by all other metrics) clearly superior applications have all been flat out rejected.
no idea what to make of this but uhh yeah i hate moment of this cooked as process
Ahhh that sucks. The process is completely cooked. Bring on universal basic income I say. But I hope you find something soon. What type of jobs are you applying for?
Isn’t it cooked? My lord. Especially writing responses to selection criteria. I’m looking at entry level academic/research, learning design & peripherally related jobs — so yeah lol each application has ~10 criteria to respond to. Brutal.
How about yourself, what kinda of work are you looking for?
I’m looking for office based customer service roles as I’m trying to get out of retail and store management. Addressing selection criteria is the blurst I can even imagine how annoying it would for academic jobs. It also doesn’t help that employers seem want you to provide a really detailed responses with as little words as possible. Like sure let me just truncate 20 years of experience into two paragraphs.
the most annoying is long applications odd when there’s pre-screenings and multiple rounds of interviews, like goddamn spare us all the pain of writing and reading this b/s and ask these things face to face
and that’s dope! getting out of retail, that is, must be an exciting step forward.
are you having much luck finding these types of office customer service roles? asking bc my sector is cooked rn, not enough jobs and too many applicants
Yeah I am pretty over retail, It’s not a stable industry and my current employer and previous one has toxic people at the top. I’m also not interested in moving up the retail ranks to be an area manager or national or anything like that so there’s not much more room for me to grow. The only answer is to move into the larger customer service industry where the majority of skills i have learned are transferrable and see what happens. I agree with you about multiple rounds of interviews. Such a complete waste of everyones time. I also find them to be a bit of a dick move on the part of the employer. It’s like they know how inconvenient it will be for you to take more time off. But if you really want the job you will jump through the hoop, then most of the time you don’t get it anyway.
Uh oh. Uh oh uh oh uh oh. Was having a good enough day, but after being made aware of some stuff at work that is very very relevant to my particular skill set but purposely kept from me because of some contrived administrative procedural thing that I am still completely unclear about, I am having a Moment trying to regulate the rush of trauma-response emotions of being unworthy or punished or abandoned, and also unprecedented rage trying not to scream I’VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU BUT YOU WOULDN’T LISTEN. This is definitely a Bad Vibe.
I am going to read some saved emails of people saying very lovely things to me and then reach out to some friends. Specifically one who works in actual proper HR and can tell me the calm factual aspects of what’s going on, what the next steps are and how to resolve it with assertiveness, instead of getting struck in angry toddler space.
I am going to read some saved emails of people saying very lovely things to me and then reach out to some friends.
This is a good approach. I hope it pays off.
It made all the difference. especially as one of the nice emails (honestly the nicest email I’ve ever received professionally) is from the same client org that relates to this latest episode of poor project management. I know I’m not shit and unworthy, take that inner wounded child!
You’re an inspiration! 💪
An inspiration who needs to write up a whole bunch of paperwork around stupid nonsense now in order to keep working… aaaaand now I’m just drained after coming back from the GP and am gonna curl up and sleep early
One day at a time my dear…one day at a time
probably an obvious comment to make but if you are feeling it, take some notes on the situation at hand, being as factual as you can given the circumstances. contemporaenous notes are powerful documents to possess during conflicts and when things go to shit.
Yeah, I’m starting to realise I should’ve taken more notes from last week too to assess what is reasonable and what isn’t in this context. Never mind, I’m here now. Have a lot more clarity now after a long chat with a friend who works in HR and knows what I’ve been dealing with
fair deal friend, and its real good to hear you’ve got some clarity, shout out to ya mate in HR hey what a legend
Yeah she’s awesome. One of my longest friends here and she’s a real stand up mate. Thank goodness I spoke to her because now I think I know what’s going on (work seems to be behaving like I’m angling for workers comp, which I haven’t even the foggiest idea about and isn’t remotely my intention)
honestly that’s so awesome of her, i always wanted to know what it was like on the inside and its so great that you can get that perspective bc workplaces get real funny when it comes to this kinda thing
in a job awhile back there were multiple claims against one staff member and the gov paid several people out due their behaviour. yet hr had the audacity to emphasise on numerous occasions that nobody was guilty, the workplace environment was safe, yadda yadda
but anyway stoked you got some perspective on your situation and again i hope it mellows out for ya
I might be putting an offer on a house to someone who is apparently desperate to sell for personal reasons. I’m going for another look and will get a building inspector to also take a look. The kitchen needs to be redone because apparently it was made for Shaq - for real the bench tops are so high - and the oven looks like it wouldn’t be up to code (it’s all old anyway).
The house has been on the market for a long time without much interest it appears as well.
I was once told that the first offer you make should be so low it even embarrasses you to offer it. I figure if the guy is keen to sell and “very flexible” may as well try it - especially given a few things need to be done to the house. It’s livable now, but it needs a split system, a small part of it is unfinished (very minor and no big deal but why I am also getting a building inspector) and definitely needs a new kitchen so I figure I’ll put those reasonings in for a lower offer too.
Any one ever done this? This is all new to me. It scares me spending so much money.
When we brought this place I had put in 3 offers on other places and got royaly dicked around. So I called the agent and went “My offer is 5k below asking range. Take it or leave it. Present it to your clients and if they agree you’ll have the writing in offer 2 seconds after you call me. But Im not sending you a deposit to just talk to them”. Turns out we were the only one, got it for 5k below the asking range (which even then was probably 10k too much). Worst case, they come back and say “Nah, how about X instead”. But you never open negotiations high in the vendors favor. You miss 100% of the shots you dont take. Good luck!
Yep. I don’t want to dick around either. If I like it and the BS comes through ok I’ll put in an offer that can be without subjecting to finance, dude can go on his merry way (apparently divorce and ex is taking him for everything), while I still have to fix up the issues. It’s going to be a ridiculously low offer though but he is happy to negotiate. And if not. I am not in any hurry either.
When you say ridiculously low, How low are we talking? Like if the range is 400-450k you’re not going in at like 290k or something silly right?
No. It will be about 50k less without finance needed (and considering highlighted issues) I very much doubt they will take it but it might kick the ball rolling on a good deal.
deleted by creator
@danwritesbooks @bot001 $50k below asking is a great starting offer if you’re willing to go up a bit imo.
That’s not really good advice. If you insult the person they’ll reject it. Being ruthless wins no friends. Especially in small towns. Definitely cost the kitchen and take that off, and the other repairs. But most likely the person has an amount in mind which has already considered those factors.
Just lowballing someone because you don’t think anyone else is interested won’t necessarily sway someone who has a figure in mind. Don’t listen to real estate agents or anyone else with a financial interest in the sale other than the vendor. Apparently desperate to sell doesn’t mean someone will take something insulting or would not line up with what they need the money so desperately for in the first place.
If you’re wanting to make an offer, set out some conditions, like pending finance and pending building inspection. Go 10-15% under their asking price as a place to start a negotiition so the vendor knows you’re serious. Lowballing often means tyre kicker. Source, I just sold my place and had a few fuckheads who wasted my time and tried to lowball me.
I am also not desperate to buy so I don’t need to come to his table either. I have a price/ceiling I am willing to spend in mind. He’s willing to negotiate, going through a messy divorce and wants to get rid of it. If he wants to reject it outright, fine. If he wants to negotiate, also fine. If he wants to accept it, even better.
Fair enough. Hope I didn’t sound obstinate, all the best! If it works, great. If not hopefully you find something you don’t have to work on so much.
Not at all. Thanks for replying. All these thoughts help and give me perspective too.
deleted by creator
had to cancel camping trip since Im still crook. Kiddo has hit 4 months so he’s not sleeping (plus he is sick too). And when he WILL sleep its only for the MRS so she’s stuck doing almost all the night stuff. All is not well in the break household.
We must have the same thing, I had to cancel my weekend me time plans too. And 4 month old sleep oh boy 🫠 I hope it passes quickly for you guys!
the running nose dry cough thing? Yeah fun and games! And every time you think your coming out the other side it comes back and smacks you in the face again. Yeah we’ll get there. Gonna start transitioning to formula so at least I can do a bit more of the heavy lifting.
Several dads I know have all spoken of the difficulty of getting their young child to feel as comfortable and relaxed around them as the child’s mother. Only one couple I know has the kid prefer to sleep in his dad’s arms and that’s because his mum is constantly stressed out when feeding him (he has some digestive issues and she has a bunch of health issues himself. Never breastfed kiddo) I dunno if it’s just thousands of years of social conditioning and a bit of biology that kids gravitate towards their mum but I can fully appreciate how frustrating it can be for everyone in this modern era.
Personally I just feel guilty I cant do more. I get he needs her and its evolutionary and stuff. But man, im looking forward to when he is a bit older and I can do more for him.
Saturday night was a bit of a change from the usual routine of early drinks and a takeaway, instead we booked in for a dinner and a show. Broadway it was not, this was in Parkdale. The dinner was great. If you like Italian food and excellent service, Bueno is highly recommended.
Then things got a bit surreal. We arrived at the little theatre on Parkers Road about 20 mins before the play was due to start, thinking we’d get some pre-show drinks. The bar was open, but the people staffing it were not allowed to sell alcohol, so we ducked out to a nearby bar for a quick glass of wine before returning to the theatre. This was the moment when the Matildas were in the penalty shoot out and we kind of got drawn into watching that on the pub TV, but it went on so long we had only a minute or two before the play was about to start. We dashed back to the foyer and someone was watching the penalties on their phone, so we and a bunch of other strangers gathered round to watch. The theatre staff saw what was going on and actually delayed the start of the play until the winning kick lol.
The play was a self-written murder mystery by a local amateur dramatics group. Good on them for trying, but it was just awful and we left at the interval. Not sure if the guy in the audience (all 20 of us) who had fallen asleep and was snoring loudly made it to the end.
deleted by creator
I dabbled in am-dram many years ago. The premise of this play sounded good and we were happy to drop $60 on tickets to support the local group, but it got off to a bad start because one of the floor mics they had set up had fallen over so literally you couldn’t hear any of the dialogue over the sound of the actors’ feet shuffling around the stage. The story had every cliched whodunnit trope you can imagine as well.
deleted by creator
One of my overseas rellies (a recovering misogynist) asked whether there’s much interest in the WWC over here. I’m tempted to share this story with him!
