Hello,
I am applying for a federal job and am wondering what health benefits federal employees in San Diego have.
I am in my 30s, will request coverage for myself only.
Medical- My specialist visits are only with a neurologist who administers Botox for migraines every 3 months.
Vision - I go in for my annual eye exam and get single vision glasses.
Dental - I go in for my regular cleanings. No major dental issues.
Also, I saw some plans offer an HSA account. Does that mean I get two payroll deductions? One for the medical premium and the other for the HSA contribution?
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I currently have a Healthnet Salud y Mas, an HMO that offers coverage in the US and at Simnsa Clinic in Tijuana Mexico. My vision coverage is the standard VSP and also have Delta Dental PPO.

Hello everyone!! I’m in need of advice on how to or if it’s possible to pay back a 401k loan via checking. I’m planning to take a loan out, but it only takes payroll deductions. While I’ll still be employed by the same company, I won’t have a paycheck to deduct my payments from because I’ll be on LOA.
Technically, I’ll only be missing 1 payment because it takes 1 pay period before the first deduction goes into effect. Unfortunately for me, I’ll be gone for 2 pay periods - hence my conundrum. I don’t want to miss a payment and I don’t know if it’s possible to just pay it back when I return. I also don’t know whether I’ll be able to make the payment for when I return because I’m still not sure whether I’ll be scheduled to work or not (which means no paycheck to deduct from again).
Helpful advice is much appreciated. Thanks y’all!

Oh, boy, Charlotte, do I have a doozy for you. It’s such a doozy that it comes in 2 parts. I guess it would qualify as petty revenge, since that’s the only flair that fit, but it’s more of an entitled Karen story.
For the sake of telling the story a little smoother, I'm going to explain some things up front. I (female, early 30s; let's call me Molly) am the manager in the accounting office of a very small loan company. Like, really small. We have less than 30 offices with only 2 employees at each office. For this reason, we are kind of low-tech, old-fashioned. I'm talking paper timesheets that get faxed to our office (we're also the corporate office that handles the payroll). Our office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a half-hour lunch. Me & my employee (who we'll call Sally) work this shift. Our boss (who we'll call Greg) is the owner & CEO. He works in the office starting at 9:00 a.m. till whenever he leaves for the day. Most of the time, that's around the time we leave, sometimes it's earlier due to errands he needs to run.
So, in Oct 2022, Sally (female, early 30s) gave us a note that her doctor wants to have daily appointments with her indefinitely. She let us know she would need to leave at 3:30 every day. Greg granted that request & even gave her the opportunity to come in early so she didn't miss any of her 8 hours each day. So, she began coming to work between 6:45 & 7:00 & would take however long of a lunch she needed to so she would have an 8-hour day.
Due to a combination of our fiscal year-end work in Oct & Nov 2022, playing catch-up from Dec 2022 to Feb 2023, & the other coworker (who we'll call Irene) leaving the company in Feb 2023 so we had to play catch-up again for several months before we got used to the bigger workload, I hadn't been able to pay too close attention to Sally's work. But in the middle of Aug 2023, I began to suspect her. I realized that the tasks Sally had in the morning would usually take me an hour & a half to do, which meant I would be relatively finished by the time I would arrive at 8:30. Sally, on the other hand, would only have stuff halfway done. Now, I knew Sally worked slower than me since I knew the job better than she did, but this still seemed very slow. I began to suspect Sally was either not arriving as early as she said she was (she was the only one in the office before 8:30) or she was arriving on time but wasn't working.
On Aug 21 (Monday), I decided to come in early to the office since I had to make up time due to a doctor appointment later in the week. So, I arrived at work at 6:40. 6:45 rolled around...no Sally. 6:50...no Sally. 7:00...same thing. Sally arrived at 7:20. Now, ok, maybe she ran into traffic. However, that's a bit of a coincidence that the one day I show up early unannounced is also the day she happens to be late. But I waited to see what time Sally would write down on the timesheet. However, she didn't write down her time until Tuesday right before she left. She had written down that she had arrived at 7:05. I asked her about it, and her response was "I must have copied it down wrong from my spreadsheet." That's strange, 'cause you hadn't arrived at 7:05 any other day that week. Just where did you copy it down from?
Now, I am curious as to what time Sally puts down when she believes no one has seen what time she arrives. So, for Sept 4-15, I would arrive in the parking lot across the street & read a book & eat breakfast while I wait to see what time Sally would arrive. Every single day, she would arrive around 7:15 or 7:20, but would write down 6:45 or 6:50, a half hour discrepancy every single day. & we have no way of knowing how long she's been stealing a half hour every day. She could have been doing this for the past year since her schedule changed.
On Sept 18, I write down Sally's actual times from these 2 weeks on a paper & tell her to correct all the times I indicated. Sally says that she will use the office clock to write down her times from now on. Wait a minute, you're saying that your phone is a half hour earlier than the rest of the world? But only when you arrive at work. When you go to lunch & leave work, it matches the rest of the clocks. & then switches during the night so your arrival time can be wrong again the next day? Wow, that's a pretty glitchy phone you got there.
On Sept 20 after Sally left, I installed a camera that connects to an app in my phone. I put the camera in a place where it wouldn't be able to see any computers/paperwork & turned off the microphone (I didn't want to risk any company info being seen/heard). I only needed to see when Sally arrived. Where I ended up placing it, I was able to see Sally where she sat at her desk.
On three of the following days, Sally would arrive 10 to 15 minutes after the time she would write down. I speak with Greg about this, & we decide to write her up. By the way, usually when an employee is caught forging the timesheet like this, it's an immediate termination. At any other office, she would have gotten fired in the beginning of Sept after I first discovered the half hour forgery. I am deciding to give her a chance to make this whole thing right.
On Sept 26 (Tuesday), I give Sally the write up when she arrives.
Sally: I'll sign it, but I don't know why. I mean, I get here at 7:00. (Ok, there's a sign right there. Who signs an official write up when their employer is lying or setting them up?)
Me: I've observed you arriving between 7:10 & 7:15.
Sally reads the write up & then keeps it at her desk for a bit after signing it. After plenty of time, I ask for it back. She grabs it, so I lean forward & hold my hand out (our desks are right next to each other), but Sally flings it at my desk. The whole thing is made better by the fact that Greg is out of town Tuesday thru Thursday. So, Sally proceeds to be angry & have an attitude all the way through Thursday. She refuses to talk or answer the phones. She does that tossing/flicking-papers-around, aggressive-typing, heavily-setting-things-down thing people do when they're frustrated or angry (which she did all...day...long). She sped out of the parking lot & down the street so fast that I could hear her engine rev & tires squeal from inside the building.
On Sept 27 (Wednesday), Sally is still doing that slamming things thing. I enjoy not responding to her whatsoever. I could see out of the corner of my eye that she would slam something down & look at me. I wouldn't give any kind of reaction, wouldn't look at her, & it would piss her off. Sally would then start slamming things around again. I admit, that was fun.
On Sept 28 (Thursday), I see on the camera that Sally arrives at 7:00, but then I watch her sit on her phone for 45 minutes! She is still having attitude issues, &—unbelievably—is still slamming things. After she leaves for the day, I then see the calendar that Sally keeps on her desk as I was passing by. On the box for Sept 26 (the day she was written up), she had written the words "F***ING JOKE!". The audacity of her to write that in plain view of everyone in the office & think she wouldn't get in trouble for it.
On Sept 29 (Friday), Sally arrives at 7:00 but sits on her phone for 30 minutes WHILE VAPING! (Not sure about other cities or states, but it's illegal to smoke or vape inside a building in the city where our office is.) But Greg is back this day, & I had been texting him what's been going on. He had texted back he wanted to do a meeting on Friday. So, the 3 of us go into the breakroom for a meeting.
Greg: So, Sally, what's been going on with this timesheet thing?
Sally: I just, I forget to write down the time when I arrive.
Greg: Ok, well, whether it's done on purpose or through negligence, we can't have wrong times on the timesheet. So, from now on, you won't be able to come to work before Molly gets here at 8:30. Now, are there any other problems you'd like to discuss with us?
Sally: (begins getting worked up) I just, I feel like I can't talk to her. She creates such a hostile work environment.
Now, I am blown away. Me? Hostile? I'm autistic, so I'm naturally shy & hate socializing, so I usually don't talk to anyone very much. Everyone I tell this story to, their eyes widen when I mention this, 'cause there's no way anyone would ever describe me as hostile.
Luckily, Greg interrupts her to defend me: This isn't a hostile work environment.
Sally: (backpedaling) Well, I mean, she gets mad at her printer & bangs on it, & that just flashes me back to stuff. I mean, I'm trying to work on myself & the anxiety, & she just sends me back.
Oh, so now, we're claiming we have PTSD & that my "violent" actions are giving her flashbacks? Um, who is it laughing right along with me every time my printer jams? (By the way, I know she's lying about the PTSD, 'cause I have a couple friends with PTSD & recognize the signs. Sally doesn't show any sign of fear or panic or shrinking away from things, nothing like that. There are no signs whatsoever of her being alarmed by anything I do.) Oh, not to mention the double standards. You're allowed to slam things around (for 3 straight days, by the way), but I'm not?
Anyway, we wrap up the meeting after Greg underlines (for Sally's benefit) that everyone in the office needs to get along.
On Oct 2 (the next Monday), I had a good drive & happened to get there at 8:20. Sally arrives at 8:25 & comes in, stopping at my desk.
Sally: (annoyed) Are you gonna be early all week?
Me: (frowning & caught off-guard) Um, I don't know. It just depends how long my drive takes.
Sally: (with a snarky attitude) 'Cause I had to keep driving around waiting for you, so if you're gonna be early, I'd like to know.
Ok, first of all, no one is forcing you to drive around. You can park your car in the parking lot. Do you really think we're gonna fire you for sitting in the parking lot while you wait for me? We only said you couldn't come in & work before I do. & second, it's none of your business when I get to work. My shift starts at 8:30, therefore, you should aim for 8:30, just like Greg told you to do. How am I supposed to predict the exact minute I get to work? & you're gonna get angry at me 'cause I didn't show up before my shift starts? Since when is it a requirement of mine to come into work before I start working?
Well, a bit of malicious compliance in this entitled story: if I can see I'm going to arrive at work more than 5 minutes early, I stop at the store just down the road & shop until 8:30. 'Cause guess what? Sally gets there who knows how early & sits in the gas station across the street, waiting for me. Fine, you wanna be that way? I can be petty, too.
By the way, Sally has a radio talk show she listens to from before I get to work until it ends at 10:00. I'm not into talk shows, but it wasn't too annoying (most of the time), so I didn't say anything about it. The reason why I started having a problem listening to it was that they would get into inappropriate things (s** toy review, for example). It made me super uncomfortable when they did segments like this. From the moment Sally was written up, she started only listening to the show on her headphones, thinking she was punishing me by me not getting to hear the show. Joke's on her. Sally did me a favor by not having to listen to that thing.
Sally was also told that she is no longer allowed to take smoke breaks on the clock. As no one else in the office takes breaks but chooses to work through them, this change would be made so all employees were equal now. But here’s the interesting thing: Sally suddenly stopped taking smoke breaks at all, but her bathroom breaks grew more numerous & longer. When she had been taking smoke breaks, the alarm on her phone would go off at specific times, such as 2:00. She would then go outside to take her smoke break. After the on-the-clock-smoke-break privilege was taken away, the same alarms would go off, such as 2:00. She would then disappear to the bathroom for 15 minutes. & I even smelled smoke in there when I went in there right after one of these long bathroom breaks.
Ever since the write up, there’s been attitude every once in a while. Most of the time, I have no idea what it is I did that could possibly have set her off that day. All I know is that Sally’s suddenly slamming things around again (hmm, PTSD cured now, is it?). & she’s still constantly making mistakes (like she’s always done).
On Nov 27, Sally is working on the Funding (loan proceeds funded onto a customer’s debit card). What we do is get the list of customers, determine how much the office funded that customer, transfer the money from the office’s bank account to the holding account, & then transfer the total from the holding account to the account that directly funds the debit cards to replenish the money. We had two customers with similar names (say, John Smith & Jack Smith). Sally hadn’t paid attention to the whole name & had applied John’s $0 funding to Jack. However, Jack had been funded $250. So, that money was missed, & I had to make a separate transfer for it.
On Dec 4, Sally is working on the Funding & writes down $0 for a customer. But the report from the office says he actually got $96.
On Dec 8 & 9, we discovered 2 checks that were supposed to be sent to our office (one from Oct, one from Sept). Neither had been cashed, & neither had ever reached us, even though we had the rest of the paperwork that would have come with those checks. Due to the dots I had connected, I had a pretty strong hunch that Sally wasn’t thoroughly checking the mail envelopes to make sure they’d been completely emptied before they got thrown away. I believed these checks were still in some envelopes that were then thrown away by Sally.
On Dec 11, on the bank reconciliation sheets we work at the end of the month (like balancing a checkbook), one of Sally’s offices was out of balance by $68, & she couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find it, either. I pulled out the one done for the month before. I couldn’t find it there, either. But I did notice one thing. The checks that hadn’t cleared the bank yet didn’t add up to the total amount of outstanding checks Sally had written down. By $68. I go back to the month before that one. There were a total of $68 in old checks that never got cashed & therefore should have gotten written off on the fiscal year-end at the end of Oct. But she hadn’t transferred them to the new month’s sheet. So, now, we have to hold onto them for a whole year to write off next Oct.
The same day, I went through all the offices to double check the GL codes that we post the expense checks to (GL codes determine where an expense gets coded, e.g., post an electricity payment to the GL code for utilities). The day previously, Sally had gotten several GL codes incorrect in the Miller office. She had forgotten to change the codes from the one for the Checkbook to the ones for the expense account. She had caught those ones since it affected the balance of the Checkbook, so I had helped her fix those properly. However, there were expense checks sent to a GL code that wasn’t the right one that Sally hadn’t caught.
I talk with Greg, as I feel that every time I turn around, I am either retraining Sally on stuff I’ve trained her on multiple times, I’m correcting mistakes on stuff Sally should know how to do by now (‘cause again, I’ve trained her multiple times), or I’m disciplining Sally about stuff she’s doing wrong. Greg asks how many mistakes due to carelessness she’s made in the last 2 weeks. I check my notes & tell him 4. He says that’s too excessive for an accounting office. We need to write her up.
So, I made the write up, but I just know I’m going to be dealing with the same attitude as the last time I had to write her up. & guess what? Greg’s out of town till Thursday again. I used my phone this time to record the audio of the interaction. That way, if Sally has attitude towards me again, I’m able to play the recording to Greg so he can hear what Sally’s like when he’s not here (which is why the following conversation is pretty much word for word).
On Dec 12 (Tuesday), I sat her down first thing.
Me: So, in the past couple weeks, I’ve noticed some errors happening due to carelessness, & they’ve become a bit excessive for an accounting office. The most important thing in an accounting office is accuracy. That’s why we focus so much on thoroughness & attention to detail. So, whatever needs to happen to lessen those errors, whether it’s slowing the pace of the work itself or double & triple-checking the work before it’s finished, it needs to happen. For example, when I work the payroll, after I get the total for all the offices, I then subtract each person’s individual hours to double check my entries. That way, if there is an error, at least I know it wasn’t ‘cause I was going too fast or not paying attention or something. So, whatever you need to do to decrease the mistakes, please—
Sally: What errors are we talking about?
Me: I have a page here with the items from the last couple weeks. (hand her the write up)
Sally: (reads the pages for a minute) Ok…
Me: So, whatever you need to do to—
Sally: (talking quickly ‘cause she’s pissed now) I’m gonna need more time & focus strictly on Funding. I don’t wanna touch mail, I don’t wanna touch anything else. I wanna focus strictly on that. ‘Cause I’m getting 80 plus a day (which was a lie, we never get nearly that much), & now, I’m gonna start getting in trouble if it’s not 110%. I am human. I will make mistakes. So, if that’s not allowed, then…(shrugs) let me know, I guess. I’ll talk to Greg & I guess figure something out. I am human, & I am gonna make mistakes, A. B, I feel like crap. He (Greg) has been in here sick the last week. I caught whatever he has. I’ve been hacking. I’ve been sicker than sh** the last week. I am trying. You guys usually have until the 12th to close the month. Since I’ve worked here, I’ve closed before the 8th. Yeah, I made mistakes. I told you I made a mistake on the Miller office. I knew what happened. So, to throw it in my face again that I already made that mistake is kinda rude, but…(shrugs) I’m actually kinda shocked to see that on there.
Me: Well, you did catch the errors involving the Checkbook, but there were other mistakes on that office that you didn’t catch, & that’s the reason that was listed on there.
Sally goes back to her work, & I decide to not ask her to sign the write up I had given her right away since she was diving right into the Funding. She had expressed she wanted to focus solely on it to minimize mistakes. I wanted to use positive reinforcement to convey that this was good behavior & good thinking, so I decided to wait for her to finish before asking her to sign & return the write up.
Now, here’s the issues with her little outburst above.

1. Sally is complaining that she’s human & makes mistakes & we’re not allowing mistakes. We’re not saying that she can’t make mistakes, ‘cause she’s right. Everyone makes mistakes; I make mistakes. What we’re saying is that she’s making mistakes much too often.
   
2. Sally says the reason for these mistakes the last 2 weeks is ‘cause she’s been sick the last week or so ‘cause she caught what Greg had (do you see the timing problem there?). Also, these kinds of mistakes have been happening for months & months. I only brought these examples up ‘cause they were recent.
   
3. Sally pointed out the fact that she closes each month really quick. We don’t care how fast things get done. Our goal isn’t to get things done quickly but to get things done accurately. If we happen to get it done quickly, that’s just a bonus. We would rather things go slow than to have errors causing problems or costing us money ‘cause we didn’t take the time to make sure it was correct.
   
4. Sally states it’s rude that I’m throwing her error back in her face (you already know my reaction to that). She obviously doesn’t know how a job works. Just ‘cause we discussed this error already doesn’t mean it can’t go on the write up. This is just one of the examples that required us to do a write up. We’re not doing this ‘cause we want to write you up or that we’re looking for excuses to get you in trouble. We’re doing our job. If a situation needs correcting, we have to correct it. We can’t just ignore it. & obviously, me talking about your errors all these months hasn’t helped. You’re still making the same mistakes. So, now, we’ve had to escalate to a write up on paper.
   

Sally doesn’t say another word. She, as expected, starts doing her tossing-things-‘cause-I’m-pissed-off thing. I just go back to my work. I’ve said my piece, now we can put it behind us & move on.
Now, we have until 10:30 to make the transfers for this Funding program in order to get the money back to the account the same day. We are still missing the paperwork for 2 customers from an office. (FYI, when we’re missing paperwork, we call the office & ask them to fax it. If we still don’t get it when it gets close to the transfer deadline, we call again & just ask for the amount to get it done.) So, at 10:20, Sally turns to me.
Sally: What do I do for these 2 customers? Do I just skip them?
Me: (frowning) Do what you usually do when you don’t have the paperwork in time. Call the office—
Sally: (in a sharp tone) I did. (she’s assuming I mean call the office to tell them to fax it)
Me: (ignoring her attitude outburst) Call up the office & ask for the dollar amounts.
Sally: But I don’t want to write down the amount without seeing the actual paperwork. If I’m gonna get in trouble for errors now, I don’t want to take down what could be the wrong dollar amount over the phone. I mean, I think that’s only fair to me.
Me: In the instances that were mentioned, they weren’t cases of taking down an amount over the phone. They were instances where we had paperwork or a report to see the amount. We would never write you up if there was a possibility that the office gave you the wrong amount over the phone.
Sally stares at me for a second & turns back to her desk. I turn back to my own work as Sally then calls up the office. I had to deal with her attitude the rest of the day: throwing mail into the mailbox, throwing open the letter folding machine so it made a big bang on the table. I was trying to still be the usual friendly, professional person I am at work; I told her “See you tomorrow” & everything. Sally wouldn’t talk to me unless she had to.
This is when I discovered that Sally has a habit of lashing out at me when she gets in trouble. The first write up involved her trying to drag me under the bus by claiming I’m hostile. This time, it was more personal. See, we do a Christmas gift exchange at the office; we each buy each other a gift. I had searched over & over trying to find something Sally would like. I finally found this desk calendar with gnomes on it (she likes both of these things), so I got it & a couple small items. I open my gift from Sally, & among a few cheap little things, I found…Sally’s own nearly empty bottle of nail polish remover. Wow, this is the thanks I get for not firing you back in Sept with the whole timesheet forgery thing?
& this is where I leave you until Part 2, the conclusion.

I never thought I would have a story to share in one of these threads, but it finally happened. I apologize for the length (so long it has to be split into 2 parts), but this one is a doozy.
For the sake of telling the story a little smoother, I'm going to explain some things up front. I (female, early 30s; let's call me Molly) am the manager in the accounting office of a very small loan company. Like, really small. We have less than 30 offices with only 2 employees at each office. For this reason, we are kind of low-tech, old-fashioned. I'm talking paper timesheets that get faxed to our office (we're also the corporate office that handles the payroll). Our office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a half-hour lunch. Me & my employee (who we'll call Sally) work this shift. Our boss (who we'll call Greg) is the owner & CEO. He works in the office starting at 9:00 a.m. till whenever he leaves for the day. Most of the time, that's around the time we leave, sometimes it's earlier due to errands he needs to run.
So, in Oct 2022, Sally (female, early 30s) gave us a note that her doctor wants to have daily appointments with her indefinitely. She let us know she would need to leave at 3:30 every day. Greg granted that request & even gave her the opportunity to come in early so she didn't miss any of her 8 hours each day. So, she began coming to work between 6:45 & 7:00 & would take however long of a lunch she needed to so she would have an 8-hour day.
Due to a combination of our fiscal year-end work in Oct & Nov 2022, playing catch-up from Dec 2022 to Feb 2023, & the other coworker (who we'll call Irene) leaving the company in Feb 2023 so we had to play catch-up again for several months before we got used to the bigger workload, I hadn't been able to pay too close attention to Sally's work. But in the middle of Aug 2023, I began to suspect her. I realized that the tasks Sally had in the morning would usually take me an hour & a half to do, which meant I would be relatively finished by the time I would arrive at 8:30. Sally, on the other hand, would only have stuff halfway done. Now, I knew Sally worked slower than me since I knew the job better than she did, but this still seemed very slow. I began to suspect Sally was either not arriving as early as she said she was (she was the only one in the office before 8:30) or she was arriving on time but wasn't working.
On Aug 21 (Monday), I decided to come in early to the office since I had to make up time due to a doctor appointment later in the week. So, I arrived at work at 6:40. 6:45 rolled around...no Sally. 6:50...no Sally. 7:00...same thing. Sally arrived at 7:20. Now, ok, maybe she ran into traffic. However, that's a bit of a coincidence that the one day I show up early unannounced is also the day she happens to be late. But I waited to see what time Sally would write down on the timesheet. However, she didn't write down her time until Tuesday right before she left. She had written down that she had arrived at 7:05. I asked her about it, and her response was "I must have copied it down wrong from my spreadsheet." That's strange, 'cause you hadn't arrived at 7:05 any other day that week. Just where did you copy it down from?
Now, I am curious as to what time Sally puts down when she believes no one has seen what time she arrives. So, for Sept 4-15, I would arrive in the parking lot across the street & read a book & eat breakfast while I wait to see what time Sally would arrive. Every single day, she would arrive around 7:15 or 7:20, but would write down 6:45 or 6:50, a half hour discrepancy every single day. & we have no way of knowing how long she's been stealing a half hour every day. She could have been doing this for the past year since her schedule changed.
On Sept 18, I write down Sally's actual times from these 2 weeks on a paper & tell her to correct all the times I indicated. Sally says that she will use the office clock to write down her times from now on. Wait a minute, you're saying that your phone is a half hour earlier than the rest of the world? But only when you arrive at work. When you go to lunch & leave work, it matches the rest of the clocks. & then switches during the night so your arrival time can be wrong again the next day? Wow, that's a pretty glitchy phone you got there.
On Sept 20 after Sally left, I installed a camera that connects to an app in my phone. I put the camera in a place where it wouldn't be able to see any computers/paperwork & turned off the microphone (I didn't want to risk any company info being seen/heard). I only needed to see when Sally arrived. Where I ended up placing it, I was able to see Sally where she sat at her desk.
On three of the following days, Sally would arrive 10 to 15 minutes after the time she would write down. I speak with Greg about this, & we decide to write her up. By the way, usually when an employee is caught forging the timesheet like this, it's an immediate termination. At any other office, she would have gotten fired in the beginning of Sept after I first discovered the half hour forgery. I am deciding to give her a chance to make this whole thing right.
On Sept 26 (Tuesday), I give Sally the write up when she arrives.
Sally: I'll sign it, but I don't know why. I mean, I get here at 7:00. (Ok, there's a sign right there. Who signs an official write up when their employer is lying or setting them up?)
Me: I've observed you arriving between 7:10 & 7:15.
Sally reads the write up & then keeps it at her desk for a bit after signing it. After plenty of time, I ask for it back. She grabs it, so I lean forward & hold my hand out (our desks are right next to each other), but Sally flings it at my desk. The whole thing is made better by the fact that Greg is out of town Tuesday thru Thursday. So, Sally proceeds to be angry & have an attitude all the way through Thursday. She refuses to talk or answer the phones. She does that tossing/flicking-papers-around, aggressive-typing, heavily-setting-things-down thing people do when they're frustrated or angry (which she did all...day...long). She sped out of the parking lot & down the street so fast that I could hear her engine rev & tires squeal from inside the building.
On Sept 27 (Wednesday), Sally is still doing that slamming things thing. I enjoy not responding to her whatsoever. I could see out of the corner of my eye that she would slam something down & look at me. I wouldn't give any kind of reaction, wouldn't look at her, & it would piss her off. Sally would then start slamming things around again. I admit, that was fun.
On Sept 28 (Thursday), I see on the camera that Sally arrives at 7:00, but then I watch her sit on her phone for 45 minutes! She is still having attitude issues, &—unbelievably—is still slamming things. After she leaves for the day, I then see the calendar that Sally keeps on her desk as I was passing by. On the box for Sept 26 (the day she was written up), she had written the words "F***ING JOKE!". The audacity of her to write that in plain view of everyone in the office & think she wouldn't get in trouble for it.
On Sept 29 (Friday), Sally arrives at 7:00 but sits on her phone for 30 minutes WHILE VAPING! (Not sure about other cities or states, but it's illegal to smoke or vape inside a building in the city where our office is.) But Greg is back this day, & I had been texting him what's been going on. He had texted back he wanted to do a meeting on Friday. So, the 3 of us go into the breakroom for a meeting.
Greg: So, Sally, what's been going on with this timesheet thing?
Sally: I just, I forget to write down the time when I arrive.
Greg: Ok, well, whether it's done on purpose or through negligence, we can't have wrong times on the timesheet. So, from now on, you won't be able to come to work before Molly gets here at 8:30. Now, are there any other problems you'd like to discuss with us?
Sally: (begins getting worked up) I just, I feel like I can't talk to her. She creates such a hostile work environment.
Now, I am blown away. Me? Hostile? I'm autistic, so I'm naturally shy & hate socializing, so I usually don't talk to anyone very much. Everyone I tell this story to, their eyes widen when I mention this, 'cause there's no way anyone would ever describe me as hostile.
Luckily, Greg interrupts her to defend me: This isn't a hostile work environment.
Sally: (backpedaling) Well, I mean, she gets mad at her printer & bangs on it, & that just flashes me back to stuff. I mean, I'm trying to work on myself & the anxiety, & she just sends me back.
Oh, so now, we're claiming we have PTSD & that my "violent" actions are giving her flashbacks? Um, who is it laughing right along with me every time my printer jams? (By the way, I know she's lying about the PTSD, 'cause I have a couple friends with PTSD & recognize the signs. Sally doesn't show any sign of fear or panic or shrinking away from things, nothing like that. There are no signs whatsoever of her being alarmed by anything I do.) Oh, not to mention the double standards. You're allowed to slam things around (for 3 straight days, by the way), but I'm not?
Anyway, we wrap up the meeting after Greg underlines (for Sally's benefit) that everyone in the office needs to get along.
On Oct 2 (the next Monday), I had a good drive & happened to get there at 8:20. Sally arrives at 8:25 & comes in, stopping at my desk.
Sally: (annoyed) Are you gonna be early all week?
Me: (frowning & caught off-guard) Um, I don't know. It just depends how long my drive takes.
Sally: (with a snarky attitude) 'Cause I had to keep driving around waiting for you, so if you're gonna be early, I'd like to know.
Ok, first of all, no one is forcing you to drive around. You can park your car in the parking lot. Do you really think we're gonna fire you for sitting in the parking lot while you wait for me? We only said you couldn't come in & work before I do. & second, it's none of your business when I get to work. My shift starts at 8:30, therefore, you should aim for 8:30, just like Greg told you to do. How am I supposed to predict the exact minute I get to work? & you're gonna get angry at me 'cause I didn't show up before my shift starts? Since when is it a requirement of mine to come into work before I start working?
Well, a bit of malicious compliance in this entitled story: if I can see I'm going to arrive at work more than 5 minutes early, I stop at the store just down the road & shop until 8:30. 'Cause guess what? Sally gets there who knows how early & sits in the gas station across the street, waiting for me. Fine, you wanna be that way? I can be petty, too.
By the way, Sally has a radio talk show she listens to from before I get to work until it ends at 10:00. I'm not into talk shows, but it wasn't too annoying (most of the time), so I didn't say anything about it. The reason why I started having a problem listening to it was that they would get into inappropriate things (s** toy review, for example). It made me super uncomfortable when they did segments like this. From the moment Sally was written up, she started only listening to the show on her headphones, thinking she was punishing me by me not getting to hear the show. Joke's on her. Sally did me a favor by not having to listen to that thing.
Sally was also told that she is no longer allowed to take smoke breaks on the clock. As no one else in the office takes breaks but chooses to work through them, this change would be made so all employees were equal now. But here’s the interesting thing: Sally suddenly stopped taking smoke breaks at all, but her bathroom breaks grew more numerous & longer. When she had been taking smoke breaks, the alarm on her phone would go off at specific times, such as 2:00. She would then go outside to take her smoke break. After the on-the-clock-smoke-break privilege was taken away, the same alarms would go off, such as 2:00. She would then disappear to the bathroom for 15 minutes. & I even smelled smoke in there when I went in there right after one of these long bathroom breaks.
Ever since the write up, there’s been attitude every once in a while. Most of the time, I have no idea what it is I did that could possibly have set her off that day. All I know is that Sally’s suddenly slamming things around again (hmm, PTSD cured now, is it?). & she’s still constantly making mistakes (like she’s always done).
On Nov 27, Sally is working on the Funding (loan proceeds funded onto a customer’s debit card). What we do is get the list of customers, determine how much the office funded that customer, transfer the money from the office’s bank account to the holding account, & then transfer the total from the holding account to the account that directly funds the debit cards to replenish the money. We had two customers with similar names (say, John Smith & Jack Smith). Sally hadn’t paid attention to the whole name & had applied John’s $0 funding to Jack. However, Jack had been funded $250. So, that money was missed, & I had to make a separate transfer for it.
On Dec 4, Sally is working on the Funding & writes down $0 for a customer. But the report from the office says he actually got $96.
On Dec 8 & 9, we discovered 2 checks that were supposed to be sent to our office (one from Oct, one from Sept). Neither had been cashed, & neither had ever reached us, even though we had the rest of the paperwork that would have come with those checks. Due to the dots I had connected, I had a pretty strong hunch that Sally wasn’t thoroughly checking the mail envelopes to make sure they’d been completely emptied before they got thrown away. I believed these checks were still in some envelopes that were then thrown away by Sally.
On Dec 11, on the bank reconciliation sheets we work at the end of the month (like balancing a checkbook), one of Sally’s offices was out of balance by $68, & she couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find it, either. I pulled out the one done for the month before. I couldn’t find it there, either. But I did notice one thing. The checks that hadn’t cleared the bank yet didn’t add up to the total amount of outstanding checks Sally had written down. By $68. I go back to the month before that one. There were a total of $68 in old checks that never got cashed & therefore should have gotten written off on the fiscal year-end at the end of Oct. But she hadn’t transferred them to the new month’s sheet. So, now, we have to hold onto them for a whole year to write off next Oct.
The same day, I went through all the offices to double check the GL codes that we post the expense checks to (GL codes determine where an expense gets coded, e.g., post an electricity payment to the GL code for utilities). The day previously, Sally had gotten several GL codes incorrect in the Miller office. She had forgotten to change the codes from the one for the Checkbook to the ones for the expense account. She had caught those ones since it affected the balance of the Checkbook, so I had helped her fix those properly. However, there were expense checks sent to a GL code that wasn’t the right one that Sally hadn’t caught.
I talk with Greg, as I feel that every time I turn around, I am either retraining Sally on stuff I’ve trained her on multiple times, I’m correcting mistakes on stuff Sally should know how to do by now (‘cause again, I’ve trained her multiple times), or I’m disciplining Sally about stuff she’s doing wrong. Greg asks how many mistakes due to carelessness she’s made in the last 2 weeks. I check my notes & tell him 4. He says that’s too excessive for an accounting office. We need to write her up.
So, I made the write up, but I just know I’m going to be dealing with the same attitude as the last time I had to write her up. & guess what? Greg’s out of town till Thursday again. I used my phone this time to record the audio of the interaction. That way, if Sally has attitude towards me again, I’m able to play the recording to Greg so he can hear what Sally’s like when he’s not here (which is why the following conversation is pretty much word for word).
On Dec 12 (Tuesday), I sat her down first thing.
Me: So, in the past couple weeks, I’ve noticed some errors happening due to carelessness, & they’ve become a bit excessive for an accounting office. The most important thing in an accounting office is accuracy. That’s why we focus so much on thoroughness & attention to detail. So, whatever needs to happen to lessen those errors, whether it’s slowing the pace of the work itself or double & triple-checking the work before it’s finished, it needs to happen. For example, when I work the payroll, after I get the total for all the offices, I then subtract each person’s individual hours to double check my entries. That way, if there is an error, at least I know it wasn’t ‘cause I was going too fast or not paying attention or something. So, whatever you need to do to decrease the mistakes, please—
Sally: What errors are we talking about?
Me: I have a page here with the items from the last couple weeks. (hand her the write up)
Sally: (reads the pages for a minute) Ok…
Me: So, whatever you need to do to—
Sally: (talking quickly ‘cause she’s pissed now) I’m gonna need more time & focus strictly on Funding. I don’t wanna touch mail, I don’t wanna touch anything else. I wanna focus strictly on that. ‘Cause I’m getting 80 plus a day (which was a lie, we never get nearly that much), & now, I’m gonna start getting in trouble if it’s not 110%. I am human. I will make mistakes. So, if that’s not allowed, then…(shrugs) let me know, I guess. I’ll talk to Greg & I guess figure something out. I am human, & I am gonna make mistakes, A. B, I feel like crap. He (Greg) has been in here sick the last week. I caught whatever he has. I’ve been hacking. I’ve been sicker than sh** the last week. I am trying. You guys usually have until the 12th to close the month. Since I’ve worked here, I’ve closed before the 8th. Yeah, I made mistakes. I told you I made a mistake on the Miller office. I knew what happened. So, to throw it in my face again that I already made that mistake is kinda rude, but…(shrugs) I’m actually kinda shocked to see that on there.
Me: Well, you did catch the errors involving the Checkbook, but there were other mistakes on that office that you didn’t catch, & that’s the reason that was listed on there.
Sally goes back to her work, & I decide to not ask her to sign the write up I had given her right away since she was diving right into the Funding. She had expressed she wanted to focus solely on it to minimize mistakes. I wanted to use positive reinforcement to convey that this was good behavior & good thinking, so I decided to wait for her to finish before asking her to sign & return the write up.
Now, here’s the issues with her little outburst above.

1. Sally is complaining that she’s human & makes mistakes & we’re not allowing mistakes. We’re not saying that she can’t make mistakes, ‘cause she’s right. Everyone makes mistakes; I make mistakes. What we’re saying is that she’s making mistakes much too often.
   
2. Sally says the reason for these mistakes the last 2 weeks is ‘cause she’s been sick the last week or so ‘cause she caught what Greg had (do you see the timing problem there?). Also, these kinds of mistakes have been happening for months & months. I only brought these examples up ‘cause they were recent.
   
3. Sally pointed out the fact that she closes each month really quick. We don’t care how fast things get done. Our goal isn’t to get things done quickly but to get things done accurately. If we happen to get it done quickly, that’s just a bonus. We would rather things go slow than to have errors causing problems or costing us money ‘cause we didn’t take the time to make sure it was correct.
   
4. Sally states it’s rude that I’m throwing her error back in her face (you already know my reaction to that). She obviously doesn’t know how a job works. Just ‘cause we discussed this error already doesn’t mean it can’t go on the write up. This is just one of the examples that required us to do a write up. We’re not doing this ‘cause we want to write you up or that we’re looking for excuses to get you in trouble. We’re doing our job. If a situation needs correcting, we have to correct it. We can’t just ignore it. & obviously, me talking about your errors all these months hasn’t helped. You’re still making the same mistakes. So, now, we’ve had to escalate to a write up on paper.
   

Sally doesn’t say another word. She, as expected, starts doing her tossing-things-‘cause-I’m-pissed-off thing. I just go back to my work. I’ve said my piece, now we can put it behind us & move on.
Now, we have until 10:30 to make the transfers for this Funding program in order to get the money back to the account the same day. We are still missing the paperwork for 2 customers from an office. (FYI, when we’re missing paperwork, we call the office & ask them to fax it. If we still don’t get it when it gets close to the transfer deadline, we call again & just ask for the amount to get it done.) So, at 10:20, Sally turns to me.
Sally: What do I do for these 2 customers? Do I just skip them?
Me: (frowning) Do what you usually do when you don’t have the paperwork in time. Call the office—
Sally: (in a sharp tone) I did. (she’s assuming I mean call the office to tell them to fax it)
Me: (ignoring her attitude outburst) Call up the office & ask for the dollar amounts.
Sally: But I don’t want to write down the amount without seeing the actual paperwork. If I’m gonna get in trouble for errors now, I don’t want to take down what could be the wrong dollar amount over the phone. I mean, I think that’s only fair to me.
Me: In the instances that were mentioned, they weren’t cases of taking down an amount over the phone. They were instances where we had paperwork or a report to see the amount. We would never write you up if there was a possibility that the office gave you the wrong amount over the phone.
Sally stares at me for a second & turns back to her desk. I turn back to my own work as Sally then calls up the office. I had to deal with her attitude the rest of the day: throwing mail into the mailbox, throwing open the letter folding machine so it made a big bang on the table. I was trying to still be the usual friendly, professional person I am at work; I told her “See you tomorrow” & everything. Sally wouldn’t talk to me unless she had to.
This is when I discovered that Sally has a habit of lashing out at me when she gets in trouble. The first write up involved her trying to drag me under the bus by claiming I’m hostile. This time, it was more personal. See, we do a Christmas gift exchange at the office; we each buy each other a gift. I had searched over & over trying to find something Sally would like. I finally found this desk calendar with gnomes on it (she likes both of these things), so I got it & a couple small items. I open my gift from Sally, & among a few cheap little things, I found…Sally’s own nearly empty bottle of nail polish remover. Wow, this is the thanks I get for not firing you back in Sept with the whole timesheet forgery thing?
& this is where I leave you until Part 2, the conclusion.

Bear with me while I explain where I'm coming from.
The context for this question comes mostly from reading arguments about the role of Essence in the setting and the way Magic is fundamentally a "birthright" to special insight about the way the universe works and the power to interact with it. Now, I personally love that as part of the setting, but what I don't love is how the setting seems to shy away from giving it the Cyberpunk treatment. Yes, Mages are employed by corporations and all corporations want them, but the setting portrays Magic as something that's fundamentally uncontrollable by the corporations. It can pop up anywhere and give anyone the power to ruin their plans. It's a bright spot in the setting, but by dint of that it leaves me with an odd feeling.
This is meant to be speculative fiction to a large extent, and it feels like the speculation there doesn't go far enough. The main culprit, in my eyes, is the MAG score and the role of Initiation.
We all know a higher MAG score is better, and Initiation, the only method to increase it, is usually something you can't do during character generation. It's something left out for the sake of progression and tied directly to karma, which makes its actual cost nebulous. Karma doesn't have a clear material presence in the setting; It exists as a game mechanic exclusively. This creates a strange situation, where, for example, a Mage born with a MAG score of 1 can increase their MAG score by spending Karma up to the limit of their Essence, but that karma doesn't translate to any particular thing that enables that growth. It just happens.
What I want to posit is an alternative to that: A way for Awakened characters to buy up their MAG score with nuyen and to perform Initiation in the same way. I picture it as the cost of reagents and awakened plants or animal parts with high Availability required to increase one's power and control, maybe even to pay an Alchemist to turn this into a pill like in Chinese Xianxia, or to perform treatments. Using these things, Mages would grow stronger in quantifiable ways.
I feel like it would add to the setting in several key ways:

• It would justify the presence of powerful mages working for Corporations, for one. Corporations would pay for all of these resources and treatments to get their Mages up to snuff, the same way they already buy their spells and formulas. It would create a real incentive for the independent Mage to join a corporation's payroll beyond simple lifestyle, and a potential leash for any enterprising Mr. Johnson: You stop taking runs from me and the free upgrades stop coming. This is something that might actually matter to player characters, whereas having their character live in a penthouse instead of an alleyway usually doesn't.
  
• It would push Mages into the rat race. Now they have to think about how much they're being paid, instead of working pro-bono and still getting all they need. Even if the change is to add nuyen as an alternative payment, getting paid in both nuyen and karma becomes a path to two initiations so you don't need working for the people/man rules anymore. It also frees Mages from the working for the people treadmill that pigeonholes them as the "good guys" of the setting. Mages can now benefit from something other than charity work, instead of being penalized for it.
  
• It would create space for new characters and backstories. How did your Mage reach his MAG 6 at chargen, if they even did? Were they born that lucky? Did they have a sponsor or mentor? Was it by working under a corporation or outside their sphere of influence? Was there some kind of Awakened plant or beast involved in the process, and what does that mean for your Magic? It might even create new space for mechanics, like new Adept Paths or Mage Paths that grant spells that otherwise don't see much play. It also creates an excuse not to take MAG to 6 from the get go, and a reason for the mechanics around the numbers there to loosen up a bit. Maybe a way to substitute your MAG in skill dicepools for MAG skills, so low MAG Mages can still roll well but be limited by Force.
  
• Finally, it equalizes augmentations on both sides of the tech/magic divide. It makes Mages corruptible through the promise of power same as mundanes and makes rewards no longer a complicated mess out of character. The Mage can be just as tempted by a big pile of Nuyen because it translates directly to personal power and not simply "fluff" for them.
  

As a bit of context, I work for an American company that handles my payroll via remote.com, so that everything is legal via the dutch laws and I can get my mortgage etc.
Now the thing is that my employer promised me a lease car as a bonus (€800-1000/m) which is now causing some problems because I need to be taxed on this (bijtelling), meaning that the company requesting the lease car should be a Dutch entity if I am not wrong (with KvK number). We tried contacting remote.com to see if they would be able to facilitate something like this for us but unfortunately they are not able to.
What would be the easiest and cheapest way my employer can get this lease car for me? Would it be best if they opened a dutch entity so that they need to do payroll themselves and they have a KvK number to request the lease car? And how long would this take to set up?
Would love to get your thoughts on how to legally make this happen so I don’t have to have to do co-employment (since legally Remote B.V. is my employer now).

I am very different from many people…ok, before I continue, full disclosure: what I am about to reveal are honest, true, and completely real. I do not sugarcoat anything, I never hold back the way I feel when I have something to say. However, I do not see any point in most casual conversation because the truth is, NO ONE LISTENS. People in general do not pay attention to anything but their own thoughts.
I just started a new job. The first day we had orientation where we learned about the history of the company, the benefits, how the payroll system works, etc. i listened to the whole thing. During our training a few things came up that were discussed in orientation but the people who were with me had no recollection of those things. The may as well not have been there.
One of the girls who started the same day I did has gone from nice and friendly towards me to snapping at me. She makes unsolicited comments during conversations that she’s a part of but not actively participating in. The other girl who just started and I were talking about unemployment and social security benefits, I asked “how do you get social security?” and suddenly, out of nowhere and not directed towards her, she snapped “None of your business!!!”
Umm. Wait, was that comment for me? First, I wasn’t asking you and second, that was not an inappropriate question. I wasn’t asking how much money she makes or how she qualifies for government assistance. A few days later I was looking at a ball cap hanging from the side of my neighbors cubicle. I touched the bill of the hat and suddenly heard “don’t touch Ms. Judith’s stuff!” Wow. That time I shot her a look that said you should probably stay over there because I do NOT do drama.
Clearly she’s dealing with issues at home, she said she’s getting married but never discusses it or the man she’s planning on marrying. I honestly feel for this girl. She’s trapped in a situation that she feels she can’t get out of. I’m letting her be, and that resulted in her leaning on me and spilling her guts out, but just a few hours later she snapped at me again. I would never treat her with anything but kindness and respect. Lashing out at me doesn’t have much to do with me, I know that.
So many people are just mean. I can’t treat people that way. They say you should treat everyone the way you wish to be treated. If that were the case I’d be treating everyone so much better than myself.

Hi all,
I mostly see unorganized, small players in the driving school instructor market in my city and I got my training and license through one of them as well.
What I was curious about is the scope for an organized driving school in this market. Something very similar to Maruti driving school. Do you know of any near you? How are their services comparable to an unorganized player?
Just to be clear, by an organized driving school, I mean, 1. Properly registered and compliant with all and any regulations. 2. Multiple branches across/within different cities. 3. Multiple instruction packages and customisability (with/without driving license assistance, various levels of instruction based on days/kms driven etc.) 4. (Preferably) Own test track within a city to practice difficult maneuvers, mock RTA driving test. 5. Multiple driving instructors on payroll.
Any inputs are appreciated. Thank you!

I reached out to Yotta about their lack of transparency and requested an update on their end. This is what the said
Thansak for reahcing out. Funds are not yet moving as a result of the hearing so we have no update to share regarding the timeframe at this stage.
​ The most updated info we have for you: We are experiencing difficulties with payment processing on ACHs, Wires, and our debit and credit cards due to an outage with Synapse Brokerage’s banking processors. We are actively working on a resolution and will let you know once it's resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience. Direct deposits and paychecks The last update we had was that external deposits or paychecks would still be deposited into Yotta accounts. We are now seeing that direct deposits, external deposits, refunds, and paychecks are being returned to the sender. Please reach out to your payroll team or the individual senders or merchants of the external deposits you were expecting to see if they received notice of a return of funds. This would mean the funds were not deposited into your Yotta account and were returned. If a deposit or paycheck was deposited into your Yotta account, then access to these funds is still an ongoing issue until it is resolved. You may see funds have left other financial institutions but don't see the deposit in Yotta, and this is due to the ongoing ACH delays. External payments or transfers using account/routing numbers If you made an external payment outside of Yotta using your account and routing numbers, or if you attempted to pull funds outside of Yotta, it is possible these transactions will also be delayed or will be canceled. We do not have confirmation at this time if these transaction types will be successful until we see a status update within Yotta indicating whether they were successful or not. Any existing funds or funds that are successfully deposited are FDIC-insured. The issue is that the banking processors and networks that move money through the banking system are not currently operating. We rely on banking partners and their banking services for money movement. Unfortunately, at this time those processors and institutions have halted all fund movement and there are no alternate money movement options for accessing funds until this issue is resolved. What happened? On May 7th, we were notified that Lineage Bank, member FDIC, halted ACH processing for all Synapse Brokerage accounts and that Evolve Bank & Trust, member FDIC, would now process ACH transactions on behalf of Synapse Brokerage. Yotta customers hold accounts with Synapse Brokerage. On the evening of May 11th, we were notified by Evolve that they would be halting payment processing effective immediately. These events have left Synapse Brokerage without an ACH processor, and Evolve’s decision to freeze cards is causing all card transactions to fail. At this time there are no alternative methods for money movement. ​ How does this impact me? As stated in all brokerage account agreements, customer funds in the Synapse Brokerage Program are swept (deposited) into accounts at a network of member FDIC banks. Funds held in these accounts are eligible for FDIC insurance. All programs that work with Synapse are impacted by this. ACH transfers and card transactions will not go through until banks restore their services. What we are doing about it? We understand the importance of this matter and are working around the clock to get ACH and card processing restored, which will enable customers to transact. Ultimately, it is up to Evolve to restore card services, and Lineage or Evolve or another processing bank to restore ACH services. We are in contact with regulators to expedite a resolution, since this is unacceptable. But it can magnify the impact and expedite the resolution if complaints to regulators also come from impacted customers like you. Action you can take We encourage you to contact regulators about how this is impacting you. Your collective voices (in addition to our voice) will be very helpful in getting transaction processing back to normal on an expedited timeline. ​ Cards - Evolve is responsible for restoring debit and credit card transaction processing. Please contact Evolve’s regulator at the St. Louis Federal Reserve at 1-888-851-1920 to let them know the impact this is having on you and the urgency of the matter. You can follow the steps here to submit a complaint: https://forms.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/secure/complaint/complaintType.html. ACH It would also be helpful for the FDIC to hear from you about how the lack of access to ACH is impacting you. The phone number for their complaint line is 1-877-275-3342. To file an e-complaint follow the steps here: ​https://ask.fdic.gov/fdicinformationandsupportcentes/?language=en_US. Money Movement Unfortunately, we do not have an update or ETA for any type of money movement or for ways to access funds. For the time being there is no access to funds or the ability to move money in any capacity. This includes payments, wires, checks, all types of card transactions, and withdrawals. There are no alternate money movement options for accessing funds until this issue is resolved. We do not have any estimates or updates on an ETA for resolution. Please know we are doing everything we can to get banking services restored.

An attractive alternative to traditional rewards for outstanding performance

Synthetic equity refers to a collection of strategies and instruments frequently used to provide employees with financial advantages of share ownership without actual shares changing hands. It is a potent instrument that practically all advanced investment organizations may utilize to attract, retain, and reward competent employees.
The favorable economic qualities of equity are embedded into synthetic equity plans, also known as equity alternatives, without the financial obligations coming from purchasing shares from the initial owner. Instead, synthetic equity programs often develop into cash payments to the employee and a corresponding deduction for the employer. Since it represents compensation, synthetic equity may be easily adjusted to handle almost any scenario.
The following scenarios exemplify the situations in which synthetic equity is an optimal solution:

• An employee desires ownership-like benefits but is unable or unwilling to assume the financial risk of purchasing and paying for company equity.
• An employee aspires to ownership but lacks the credentials or licenses required for a role of a full equity partner in the company.
• Employees feel uncomfortable providing personal guarantees or accepting responsibility for credit lines, office leases, payroll-related expenditures, or the commitments made under buy-sell or continuity agreements.
• A company owner wants to share the economic worth of equity rather than the actual equity. This includes owners not interested in supporting this transaction with seller financing.
• A company owner wishes to motivate an employee to work on increasing the company’s value but also wants to discourage them from leaving and creating competition for the business, engaging in client solicitation, or performing other actions that might harm the company.
• An owner planning to leave the company in the following 5-year period wishes to reward one or more critical workers at the time of the sale without requiring them to purchase and pay for equity.

Tokenization of business and individual performance

The above method has been known for decades. The critical challenge in the modern business world is ensuring that innovation and productivity are rewarded equitably across an organization. At the same time, executives must be compensated for creating these conditions.
However, rewarding innovation and equitably delivering executive-level incentives and rewards across the organization from the top to the shop floor is the alternative made possible only by deploying smart contracts and blockchain technology — tokenizing business and individual performance.
The tokenization of business elements such as performance and innovation is one of the newest ways to drive planned outcomes. The process is about moving your business to blockchain. Although it may seem complicated and challenging to implement, almost any entrepreneur can tokenize the building blocks of their business. Tokenization is simply transforming a company’s value into a digitized resource in the form of tokens.
Tokens represent a value within the organization in a transparent and auditable way. They can be cashed in upon completion of the vesting period if both company and individual targets have been met. What makes Synthetic Equity on the chain unique is its transparency, auditability of incentives, and most notably, equitable distribution of tokens corresponding to each employee’s job size.

The Mechanism Behind Synthetic Equity

For synthetic equity to produce favorable results, a profitable, successful firm with a proper entity structure is necessary. Corporations and LLCs can use the tools relating to synthetic equity. In some situations, they may also be used by sole proprietorships, albeit in a slightly different form.
To fully grasp the idea of synthetic equity, it might be helpful to understand the mechanism behind equity in general. Understanding how equity functions allows those interested in synthetic equity to utilize some of the tools used in working with actual equity.
For example, investing in an independent advisory company generally offers the following considerable advantages:

• The right to vote
• Participation in the corporate governance system
• Access to the company’s financial documents
• Limited liability
• A proportionate cut of the revenue
• Sale-related long-term capital gains tax rates
• Capital growth potential

SyntheticEquity.io app is changing how we think about incentives and rewards.
These advantages have a monetary value. Therefore, purchasing equity carries a price, and awarding employee equity has tax repercussions. A tiny ownership share in a fee-based firm might cost several hundred thousand dollars. In these types of businesses, the stock is often acquired and paid for after tax, and the equity partner or shareholder usually expects to obtain the entire set of rights in return for taking on the investment risk.
The rights can be unbundled, meaning that the current owner does not have to sell or provide the full bundle of rights to an employee or investment advisor. To fulfill specific goals, each of the rights mentioned above can also be further divided or redefined in as much detail as necessary. For example, one or two rights from the total package might be provided, such as the opportunity to grow the company’s worth or a percentage of the profits.
By allowing someone to own a portion of the rights in the bundle rather than all of them, synthetic equity generates an advantage. These unique rights or benefits are often described in a plan document and frequently provided via individual award agreements between the employer and employee. A wide range of flexible options for creating a solid and profitable company are produced when equity-like benefits and a long-term remuneration strategy are combined.
Synthetic equity plans often come in one of the following three forms:

• Full-value plans can result in a substantially big payment to an employee since they pay both the value of the underlying stock and any appreciation that is gained over a certain period.
• Performance unit plans swap out equity as the value metric for another metric like sales growth or profitability.
• The value of any growth in the underlying stock value over a specific period following the date of the award is typically paid out under appreciation-only plans.

These kinds of plans are like conventional non-qualified plans insofar as they offer a possibility of discrimination and a significant risk of forfeiture that often lasts until shortly before the benefit is awarded to the employee.
Essentially, synthetic equity is a type of delayed compensation that links a worker’s financial incentive to the company’s performance. By striking the correct balance between the danger of losing a valuable employee and the potential future cost to the employer, each plan is specifically created to meet the advisor’s needs. The plans are intended to reward employees for contributing to the company’s success, but they also ensure that no payment is due if either the company doesn’t develop as expected or the employee doesn’t uphold their end of the deal by quitting their job to work for a rival company or starting their own.

Synthetic Equity Benefits

Synthetic equity is meant to be an equity-related instrument that helps a company find, reward, and keep hold of valuable people.
Synthetic equity benefits are:

• Synthetic equity inspires employees to adopt an owner’s perspective and put development and shareholder value first.
• There is no debt since important participants do not buy phantom shares like full equity stockholders do.
• If a participant’s job terminates before the designated vesting date, they typically forfeit any benefits under the plan.
• Participants normally do not have voting rights or a vote in corporate governance and may or may not be entitled to collect profits from the company.
• Synthetic equity programs provide flexible vesting timelines; vesting can take place over time, depending on the accomplishment of certain quantifiable company or individual goals.
• If the company’s growth is slower than expected and the stock price does not rise, nothing is exchanged.
• When a synthetic equity grant is issued, owners of genuine equity are not adversely affected by a dilution of their ownership percentages.
• Compared to S-Corporations, which are often more restricted, more freedom is provided in terms of stock class and shareholder count.
• The advising business’s shareholders’ or members’ agreement and associated buy-sell provisions do not immediately apply to synthetic equity.

Synthetic equity options’ versatility comes with many benefits but may also have many drawbacks. The companies need to make decisions regarding what valuation technique will be utilized, what vesting rules will be implemented, how liquidity problems will be addressed, what eligibility conditions will be imposed, and what rights to participate in corporate governance will be granted due to the wide range of possible directions for designing synthetic equity plans.

Conclusion

In the hands of a forward-thinking business leader, synthetic equity is a potent instrument. It may be utilized to solve the difficulty of attracting, rewarding, and maintaining top talent to create a great practice or viable business without the challenges of selling and paying for an actual ownership stake.
Like full stock, synthetic equity may refocus the employee’s attention and motivate them to contribute to a flourishing and profitable company.
Authors

Paul Lalovich

Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution Practice

Hi. I'm a woman in my early 20s, who has been in my first ever relationship for the past couple of years now. My boyfriend is a generally good guy, intelligent, has similar tastes to me, and we get along about many things. He has also been generous and patient. I appreciate him for many reasons.... But... There are some things that he has done, which have left me feeling broken and doubtful.
I personally prefer if my partner didn't speak with his exes, but despite my asking him, even begging, he has spoken with an ex several times. Warmly even. Until I had to make it a big deal about why I don't appreciate that.
Another time, I asked him not to talk to someone I didn't like, and he met her behind my back thinking I'd feel insecure if he let me know. What's worse, is that after that happened, he pretended to tell me he did. And he only said this after I found out that he met her. Even if it was just a friend.
I also have repeatedly asked him to get his act together... Stuff like furnishing his home, getting an AC to deal with the terrible summers we've been experiencing. I've asked him and have brought this up so many times over the past 2 years but only now is there any sign of progress towards that. He's been broke for a long time.
Now he's starting his own company that he's roped me in at, and he keeps bringing up how he's trying to get me on a payroll and stuff. He brings this up every time I beg him to get his finances in order. I get it, he's trying his best. But I never asked him to bring me into his company. I simply asked him to get his act together. He makes it seem like a favour that he's finally trying to be a provider after I have begged him to get his ball rolling over the past 2 years.
I have not been perfect either. I have said mean things to him out of retaliation and I haven't always been the best version of myself. But I've had it. I'm done. We've fought way too many times, and I feel like he's broken my trust. Even if he vehemently disagrees.
I don't know what to do. Because on one end, he's been generally good to me, very patient with my mental ups and downs and since he's older to me, he's also been patient with my growth. He's also been good with my parents and generally of good temperament.
But on the other end. I feel like I have so much ahead of me. And frankly, I'm not as attracted to him anymore. I want to marry someone who can provide for me. Protect me and our family. I'm not saying I want to be dependent. But I want those traits in my partner without begging for it.
I'm so lost about what to do. This is so draining.
Sigh.

NOTE: Exit letter has not yet been signed by me and only by my employer as I am still reviewing terms of the letter.
My contract was terminated by my employer at the end of April. I was still owed a salary by them for the month of May as they gave me a one month notice and salary to be paid in lieu of notice. We are usually paid at the end of each month but they decided to pay me my final salary for the month of May around the start of the month of May. I had already been paid my salary for April at the end of the month of April. HMRC has charged me a higher tax rate as their system has taken into consideration two salary payments that were made in the same month and assumed I am receiving a higher salary threshold.
I checked my payslips for the month of April and May and both were submitted as in the same exact period whereas May payslip should have been submitted as a separate payslip for the month of May. I raised this issue with my employer and asked they to resubmit to HMRC the correct payslips and rectify the issue so tax can be adjusted and I can be paid the difference. I was charged nearly £1,500 in overdue tax. I have bills and rent to pay and I can't afford to lose that kind of money especially as I was let go from my job.
I asked my employer why they decided to pay me early and not at the end of the month as they usually do and per our payroll schedule. The exit letter states that I would be paid my salary in the normal way via payroll. One would therefore assume that this would mean that it would follow the same schedule. They said that the exit letter does not specify a date as to when they would pay.
I checked my employment contract and it specifies that I am to be paid around the end of the month. However, given that my employment contract was terminated in April and the payment of my final salary was paid out for May in lieu of notice, does that provision in my contract still stand or does the wording in my exit letter prevail over the term of my employment contract?

After some back and forth with customer service at my payroll provider, I would like to see if Reddit can advise in this situation.
My company recently switched payroll providers, and after the transition I noticed my paychecks were smaller - my spouse was enrolled as a dependent without my permission.
My spouse has had coverage with Kaiser through CoveredCalifornia (the marketplace), and has not needed my employer health plan. She was, however, enrolled in my employer’s dental plan.
After calling my new payroll provider to remove her from my plan and reimburse me for the withheld payroll, they rejected my case because the carrier states they can’t remove her from the plan outside of open enrollment without a qualifying life event.
The payroll transition happened in March, which means her enrollment to my employer’s plan happened outside the open enrollment period.
I called the payroll provider again and they asked me to provide proof of coverage outside of my employer’s plan.
Would a 1095-B work? What other documents could I provide to proof my spouse has been covered all along and never required my insurance?
Thanks for your help!
TLDR: payroll provider enrolled spouse in health plan without consent. Now says carrier cannot unenroll outside open enrollment. Need proof of coverage for the period up to the enrollment in my employer’s plan (March this year). Wondering what documents I should submit.

Drake's own record label OVO wages war against 90s Deathrow Records. All possible methods are allowed to take the other down, so OVO's internet campaigns to make Kendrick look like a liar (okliar.com) can be used to idk spread propaganda about Deathrow and ruin their reputation. Or Drake's Twitter bots and countless influencers on his payroll can be used to achieve the same effect.
Suge Knight and his label can use their underhanded, gangster means on Drake. Drive-by shootings, you name it. Since Drake allegedly has gang ties, so can he as well. Who brings down the other label first?

I’ve seen a few posts and comments on the price of personal training, and I want to dive a bit into the economics and decision making as to why coaches charge what they do.
First, what drives the overall market is cost of living. 100 dollars in the dc area is completely different than 100 dollars in Kansas. You have to factor in that your coach needs to earn a living, and a HCOL area simply means you’re going to pay HCOL prices.
Second, especially in a gym setting, employees cost money. Gyms are responsible for paying the other half of benefits, insurance, payroll expenses, overhead, and then paying out their coaches.
Generally speaking, each employee really costs a business 1.5 of pay (salary plus 50 percent)
Third, trainer skill and experience. Frankly, zach_hack22 at age 18 vs zach_hack22 at 28 can command 3x the pricepoint because I’m extremely good at what I do.
For coaches, an easy way to evaluate session or monthly rate is to take the amount of money you would like to make and reverse engineer it.
Jon Goodman calls it the freedom number. Basically you tally up your expenses and go from there.
Let’s say my freedom number is 100k. This includes rent, car, loans, play money and factors for the very high cost of living in northern VA.
This means I need to make 8340 a month.
If I charge 100 dollars per session, I need to work 84 training hours.
HOWEVER, most trainers pay rent or have commission pay out. So let’s say I make 60 percent of every session, or 60/hr…. Now I need to work 140 sessions a month, or 35 sessions a week, to make that number.
For coaches and clients reading this, this should provide clarity as to why trainers charge what they do, and that most actually need to be charging more to not be living in poverty.

Love Kia's but bought a Ariya a year ago because I couldn't wait for the ev9 lol. I like my Ariya but ready to go back to Kia. Due to my trade in value and the EV9 prices when they first came out I decided it's better to just wait.
So looks like people are getting good deals. I never leased, I prefer to buy and keep the EV9 until I absolutely need to buy another vehicle so I seen there are some lease to buy options that make sense? I live in Texas but open to buy anywhere. I know out of spec says Colorado does business with out of state but don't know their deals. Looking for a GTL.
So my thing is I'm not good at math, especially on the spot at the dealership LoL. I'm looking thru this form and see "36/10/?" (Can't remember the other number). "000.2211 rate", "MF" Etc. I have no idea what any of that means besides the "36" is talking about 36 months lease.
So where have people been getting good deals and do you think I should just keep waiting? Will my Ariya trade in get better or worse by the end of the year ? (Just fyi I pay $970 a month, would rather pay a few hundred less with an EV 9)

I worked for these guys for months. The company is run by a merciless chatbot. You work for an automated system basically. Hardly any people at LS speak or even read English so forget getting adequate teacher support. If you have any problems with the server (it miscalculated so much of my on going pay) or you’re fined unfairly (and they love to fine you at Lingostar) then you can forget solving that problem because no one human responds. The chatbot is always right and sometimes it’s not.
With regards payment base pay was 7 but only if you got an existing student at LS. Trial classes are 6.5. And a new start has tons of them. Then you go to 7.5 - but only if the trial client books with you or the subscription client stays on. If you’re with a student for more than eight lessons you’re supposed to get 8 but it’s not automatic. I was stuck at a level 1 payment structure the whole time I worked there. I had tons of regular students - tons- but when I pressed it (they eventually) responded saying each student had to have more than eight classes with me before a pay increase. When I told them my students had been with me for 8 lessons they said they’d look into and no one ever got back to me. I chased it but still nothing. It’s crazy making.
You can’t get sick. You can’t have any kind of emergency without losing a days money. You can appeal but if your appeal is in English and the person receiving it doesn’t speak English or they have poor English then your appeal fails. I had screenshot evidence and they just discounted it because they can’t read the content. Some admin speak English to be clear but most don’t. I’m talking about the kind of English speakers who think they speak English but they have zero comprehension skills. Most workers rely on chatbot translator and this just adds to the frustration. But none of this matter to LS. It’s mostly a chatbot machine and it deliberately herds teachers towards the AI machine which means accepting the limitation of the machine.
Lingostar pays better than a lot of ESL companies but there was an issue with being paid in April 2024 and that was the last straw for me. We got paid in the end but trying to get Lingostar to respond or tell us what was happening took days. I don’t think it bodes well when a company with thousands of clients misses payroll and so I bowed out.
There are Facebook pages for this company. I located the Philippine teacher website. Some excellent English speakers on there and getting even less money than native speakers which is just criminal. When we didn’t get paid in April LS said it was an issue with their bank and then they blamed PayPal. I got in touch with PayPal and they confirmed no payment had been sent.
You work so hard in this job and the rewards are plenty if you love to teach but we also do it to make money. Lingostar take a huge slice of our pie but they don’t bake it. The other issue? From February I suddenly had all these IT issues. My computer (a Mac) and my WiFi (fibre optic) was too slow but I passed every device test. Then they wouldn’t book classes for me until I tested my device. I even had my internet company test my line. I passed the test but next day same problem. The lady who manages the fibre optic WiFi in my house was so lovely to me. She calmly and with great pity in her voice said “The problem isn’t you” It’s like being in a relationship with a bad boyfriend. It’s all your fault but Lingostar callously deflect it back to the teachers and when I say deflect I mean “gaslight.” If you’re working at LS facing similar frustrations and stress regards your equipment please know it’s really not you.
It was a really upsetting experience because the issue of course is their server and probably the Chinese firewall. The issue is also the clients WiFi but the teacher is always held responsible and loses pay while Lingostar stays in pocket.
And to get 20 dollars an hour at Lingostar you’d have to work for a hundred years. It was a very stressful job. I was glad to leave but I felt very sorry for my students. I also feel bad for the administrators and IT dudes who are probably on even less pay. It seems everyone is so stressed at this company which is not Chinese btw. This company may be based in Singapore but it’s owned by some white European IT nerd exploiting all of us. The future of Lingostar is AI. There won’t be any teachers working on that platform in the future. That’s what you’re really investing in at Lingostar. The creation of a bouncing cyber head with magic ears who doesn’t get paid at all.
You heard it here first.

I worked for these guys for months. The company is run by a merciless chatbot. You work for an automated system basically. Hardly any people at LS speak or even read English so forget getting adequate teacher support. If you have any problems with the server (it miscalculated so much of my on going pay) or you’re fined unfairly (and they love to fine you at Lingostar) then you can forget solving that problem because no one human responds. The chatbot is always right and sometimes it’s not.
With regards payment base pay was 7 but only if you got an existing student at LS. Trial classes are 6.5. And a new start has tons of them. Then you go to 7.5 - but only if the trial client books with you or the subscription client stays on. If you’re with a student for more than eight lessons you’re supposed to get 8 but it’s not automatic. I was stuck at a level 1 payment structure the whole time I worked there. I had tons of regular students - tons- but when I pressed it (they eventually) responded saying each student had to have more than eight classes with me before a pay increase. When I told them my students had been with me for 8 lessons they said they’d look into and no one ever got back to me. I chased it but still nothing. It’s crazy making.
You can’t get sick. You can’t have any kind of emergency without losing a days money. You can appeal but if your appeal is in English and the person receiving it doesn’t speak English or they have poor English then your appeal fails. I had screenshot evidence and they just discounted it because they can’t read the content. Some admin speak English to be clear but most don’t. I’m talking about the kind of English speakers who think they speak English but they have zero comprehension skills. Most workers rely on chatbot translator and this just adds to the frustration. But none of this matter to LS. It’s mostly a chatbot machine and it deliberately herds teachers towards the AI machine which means accepting the limitation of the machine.
Lingostar pays better than a lot of ESL companies but there was an issue with being paid in April 2024 and that was the last straw for me. We got paid in the end but trying to get Lingostar to respond or tell us what was happening took days. I don’t think it bodes well when a company with thousands of clients misses payroll and so I bowed out.
There are Facebook pages for this company. I located the Philippine teacher website. Some excellent English speakers on there and getting even less money than native speakers which is just criminal. When we didn’t get paid in April LS said it was an issue with their bank and then they blamed PayPal. I got in touch with PayPal and they confirmed no payment had been sent.
You work so hard in this job and the rewards are plenty if you love to teach but we also do it to make money. Lingostar take a huge slice of our pie but they don’t bake it. The other issue? From February I suddenly had all these IT issues. My computer (a Mac) and my WiFi (fibre optic) was too slow but I passed every device test. Then they wouldn’t book classes for me until I tested my device. I even had my internet company test my line. I passed the test but next day same problem. The lady who manages the fibre optic WiFi in my house was so lovely to me. She calmly and with great pity in her voice said “The problem isn’t you” It’s like being in a relationship with a bad boyfriend. It’s all your fault but Lingostar callously deflect it back to the teachers and when I say deflect I mean “gaslight.” If you’re working at LS facing similar frustrations and stress regards your equipment please know it’s really not you.
It was a really upsetting experience because the issue of course is their server and probably the Chinese firewall. The issue is also the clients WiFi but the teacher is always held responsible and loses pay while Lingostar stays in pocket.
And to get 20 dollars an hour at Lingostar you’d have to work for a hundred years. It was a very stressful job. I was glad to leave but I felt very sorry for my students. I also feel bad for the administrators and IT dudes who are probably on even less pay. It seems everyone is so stressed at this company which is not Chinese btw. This company may be based in Singapore but it’s owned by some white European IT nerd exploiting all of us. The future of Lingostar is AI. There won’t be any teachers working on that platform in the future. That’s what you’re really investing in at Lingostar. The creation of a bouncing cyber head with magic ears who doesn’t get paid at all.
You heard it here first.

He hoi me noi my buds. It is your baker man Pirate here. With Human Trauma book two coming to a close in the next week, I wanted to shre with you all the next planned novel I am working on. This time around we will have a stuborn human mercanary, a lizard princess, and one goal---escape Heavalun Mass city. all thats in thier way is corrupt cops, gangsters, the general populace and thier willingness to tolarate one another.
Lets get this Bread.
Shooting up from the blankets, Conor grabbed hold of the neck of whoever was jostling him awake, his cybernetic arm whirring while activating. Suddenly touching someone asleep was a stupid idea to do to anyone from Heavalun. Any sentient from this city was on edge most of the time and was usually particularly ornery when waking up.
He was especially prickly after years of contract killing and near-nonstop battles. While most people from Heavalun Mass City were used to fighting or having to keep an eye over their shoulder, watching for gangers, junkies, pickpockets, or the local police, his experience working and living here made him like a rubber band, ready to snap. Be that a neck, arm, leg, or whatever the poor sod he was fighting had.
“Who the fuck do you think you are,” Conor snarled, his natural and cybernetic eye narrowing and focusing in the wan light of his drab bedroom.
In an action built into him like an instinct, he willed his cybernetic eye to switch to see in infrared thermal sight, letting him get a good look at whoever this was while his natural eye adjusted to the lighting.
In bright orange, reds, and whites, Jurilra's face came into focus. She was a Jurintik, a werewolf like species; while he was human through and through. She had dull brown fur, long, dirty blonde hair, and a gaunt face and frame. The Jurintik was an alien species widespread throughout the galaxy, be it in the GU(galactic Union), Freespace, or here deep in the COS (concord of systems); you can’t swing a pipe without hitting at least two of them.
“Conor—let—-go,” Julitra gagged, clutching at Conor’s cybernetic forearm, her claws scratching roughly at the overlapping metal plates. “It’s me.”
Realizing who it was, Conor let her neck go, and she fell to the ground. He had only lifted her several centimeters off the floor, but doing that when half your torso, including your shoulders, one arm, and most of your organs were non-organic, or at least cybernetically enhanced, was a simple task, and he had done so out of sheer reflex.
“What were you thinking waking me up like that? You’re lucky I didn’t just dust you with my hand cannon,” Conor said, gesturing to the massive handgun sitting on the bedside table. “What in the stars are you doing here anyway?”
Taking a moment to rub at her neck and gag for a moment, Conor pieced together what likely happened. Considering that Julitra was naked, save for a thong, he must have hired her last night to blow off some steam—it wouldn’t be the first time he had done that when drunk.
“You didn’t pay me for last night,” Julitra said, standing up and nervously scratching her furry forearms and looking deeper into the shithole of an apartment toward the room where Conor stored all his weapons, money, and other precious items for barter or fencing purposes.
Conor sighed and scratched behind his still intact ear, the other having been halfway taken off by a frag grenade a few local years ago. After taking a moment to swing his legs out of bed, flexing his sore muscles, and rubbing his palms on his thighs, he looked up at her, having deactivated the thermal vision in his eye. “Fine; in the room top drawer on the right, you will find some bags of Murt and Syntrit. Take one of each.”
“Alright,” Julitra said, turning around and sashaying in that direction, clearly doing her best to move suavely and gracefully.
But Conor knew that was a load of Kret shit; She was little more than a strung-out junkie who just managed to keep herself on another fix fast enough by either guy like himself paying her for a quick lay or by managing not to get taken advantage of by one of the dealers on a street corner.
At least if she was selling herself for the night, she wasn’t going to end up in some slave market in the lower sections of the city or crammed into a skiff bound for a star on the far side of the galaxy. Julitra did have some kids to take care of, after all.
Not that it mattered to Conor if she went missing; there would be another skag he could bring in here. He just preferred her because she never tried to steal from him nor kill him in his sleep—finding another girl that he could trust would not be easy, especially in this shithole of a mass city. That well over a billion sentients were nestled in it did not matter; finding another piece of ass would be a pain.
“And only take one. I know how much product I have,” Conor grumbled, standing and heading toward the kitchenette. The dirty, blood-stained carpet was uncomfortable under bare feet.
God he hated going around with bare feet. It paid to have good boots to keep your feet safe from glass, nails, and other debris. That was especially important when operating in urban areas.
When he was out in the countryside or the house, he would forgo wearing them, and switch to sneekers, but being bare foot still sucked.
“I know,” Julitra replied from the room, “can I use your shower?”
“Whatever,” Conor replied flippantly, pulling down dried stulk leaves and tossing a pot of water on the stove.
So long as she didn't cause any issues with him getting started for the day, he honestly could not care less. All he needed to start the day was a pipping hot cup of stulk, and his stims. On that subject, the datapad built into his artificial arm chimed and reminded him of just that.
He frowned while retrieving the volatile cocktail of stimulants from the cupboard. He was almost out and only had enough for three days. Inside were six small autoinjectors about 20 centimeters long, marked with several warnings indicating that they should only be used in dire combat situations. But he was a particularly unique case and needed them just to survive.
After having a solid forty percent of his body replaced with cybernetics, from a metallic jaw, fake eye, a few replaced organs, torso, numerous enhanced joints, and even a few bits of wire running through his brain, the stims kept him working.
Without his friend Stich’s unique stimulant blend twice a day, Conor would start to fall apart. First would come the tremors, then body lockup, followed by seizures and eventually death. He had never made it that far in relapse; it was just easier to keep his organic parts cranked up to keep pace with his enhanced parts, and the video Stich showed him of sentients who relapsed was a good dissuasion.
Those poor sods were mangled wrecks, limbs at unnatural angles, blood, hydraulic fluid, and bone everywhere. And they were at most twenty percent wired up—what he could end up like was something he would rather not learn.
Dutifully and like clockwork, Conor ripped the cap off an auto-injector and shoved it into his thigh; a dull hiss sounded out as the brackish fluid flowed into his muscles. Just as he tossed the now empty injector into the trashcan, the sounds of Julitra starting the shower and humming flowed into the joint living and bedroom.
While Julitra was showering, Conor's friend and coworker Brakul sent him a message.
Brakul: Hey, conor, what are you doing tonight? I think I might have a contract for us to pick up.
Conor: No plans at this point. I just gotta get Julitra out of my safe house.
Brakul: Are you still fucking that scag? You know that won’t end well.
Conor: Yeah, gotta get my dick wet somehow. Besides, aren’t you still plowing that Kurilta we worked with a few months back—the one with the red hair?
Brakul: Yeah, I am. I like the crazy little woman. Plus, she is only a meter tall and makes me feel massive. But are you in or not?
Conor: Yeah, I'm in. When, where, and who is the client?
Brakul: Perfect, meet me at Zyntle’s around 2100. If all goes well, we got a contract for some new upstart to the north out of town. He is looking to hire some muscle for a few months. Don't worry about the contract's legitimacy; Norla sent this man my way to arrange half a dozen bodies. I just want you there in case something goes down.
Conor: So, bring a few extra solutions?
Brakul: if you would, and keep ‘em quiet, no shotguns. We will be in Zynie's place and need to keep things civil.
Conor: Afirm, see you then.
After switching off the arm-mounted datapad, Julitra stepped back into the room, redressed in her clothes from the previous night. They weren't anything fancy by any stretch of the imagination. Just a simple lowcut dress, showing off a shallow valley of furry cleavage, and cut to give ample view up her thighs and see the thong barely covering her womanhood.
For a hooker, it was good enough.
“Want to have some stulk?” Conor questioned, pouring himself a glass.
“Sure,” Julitra replied, going and lounging at the dingy table in the corner of the room.
They were quiet while eating their meager breakfast; neither had much in common or to talk about as is. The only things Julitra knew about Conor were: he killed people for money, sold stolen goods, and could give her a mean dick down. Whereas Conor knew damn near everything about her, acquired through basic profiling of her actions, attire, and mannerisms or from some of the intelligence brokers he dealt with regularly.
Some friends called him paranoid for keeping such tight tabs on anyone he dealt with; at least Brakul and Stich did. But Conor knew that knowledge was power and was needed if you wanted to always end up with your opponent dusted and not you. Conor knew better than anyone that you don’t survive like he has without a bit of paranoia. Hell, he was more persistent than a Hureclian beetle seeking water.
Once they had finished scarfing down crackers, canned meat, and the bitter, brackish brew, Julitra quickly took her leave, with Conor locking the door behind her. First, the deadbolts, then the chain, followed by a biometric scanner, and lastly, he kicked a metal wedge underneath the door—it would take a whole breaching team from the local government a solid hour to breach that reinforced metal monstrosity, and that was just how Conor liked it.
Unless you were invited into his home, it would behoove you to stay out and not try to get in.
Now that he was alone again, Conor trundled into the room Julitra had gotten her payment from and opened up one of the massive ceiling-high safes lining the walls. Inside was some of his equipment. This specific one contained most of his low-visibility equipment: body armor, weapons, knives, toolkits, and anything else he might need for more subtle operations.
In the other safes were other tools he might want, but those kits were built for more specific jobs: sniping, heavy assaults, aerial and maritime operations, along with anything else he could use in a warzone, but most of that was overkill for tonight.
So Conor pulled out a few items he thought could be useful and started his preparations in such meticulous detail that it would take him the rest of the day.
—-
The area outside of Zyntle’s nightclub was insanely crowded, even for Heavalun standards. Up and down the street, as far as the eye could see, were nightclubs, bars, and restaurants, catering to whatever vice once could possibly want.
Unlike some of the out portions of the city, areas in the inner and lower regions like here, you could not see the sky. Instead, if one looked up, they would be met with obnoxious neon signs and more buildings arching overhead, choking out any star or sunlight that might be visible.
Aiding in the choking and oppressive atmosphere, Aliens of all shapes and sizes bumped into one another with little grace, care, or concern. Most were decked out head to toe in bright neon colors that melded together in a caleidoscope of shifting brilliance.
At least that gave the usual drab greys, rust reds, and browns of the cityscape some color, even if Conor usually found it more annoying than not. Thankfully, neither Conor, Brakul, nor their strange contact could not hear the crowd outside from the second-floor window. Instead, they were being bombarded by something as if not more grating.
The happy tones and idle conversations of the crowd on the dancefloor below them, along with repetitive keyboards, synthetic snapping basslines, and ethereal vocals, filled the air to a near-deafening level. If not for the three of them having wired up to a local chatterbox that Conor brought along, they would not be able to hear one another.
The chatterbox was not fancy; it was just a tiny device Conor had whipped up. That lets them speak normally into microphones on their collars and be heard in earpieces. He had devised the idea for it after a few skiff airborne operations, where unless you were jacked into the aircraft comms, you could not talk without screaming.
Now, the chatterbox just doubled as the perfect tool for having conversations you would rather not have others around listen into. Hell, unless you were inches from them, you would not be able to hear them at all.
Brakul and whomever this Farun’se was, a two-meter tall feline-like alien, had been going over the finer details of the contract for the last half hour. Conor had been listening just enough to keep in the loop, but his focus was elsewhere. Namely in the crowds around them, watching for anything he did not want to see: other contractors, a gang war about to erupt, or anything else that caught his eye. People-watching was one of the things Conor enjoyed about setting up jobs; it gave him plenty of time to keep tabs on the ever-shifting city.
He had not spotted anything yet, in regular vision, Thermal, or through tracking, but something was off—he could feel it in his hackles. As such, One of Conor's hands was in his somewhat oversized brown leather jacket, wrapped tightly around the grip of his suppressed handgun. Neither Brakul nor the Client commented on him keeping watch; they both knew he was just filling the role of an enforcer and was backup for them.
“So, what do you think about the contract?” The Farun’se man questioned before taking a sip from his drink.
Whatever that glowing drink was, it was not ethanol-based; the smell was far too sweet. Conor could tell that much even through the skull-like mask covering his face. Not that the flat black ballistic bask he wore to cover his metallic jaw and mangled face covered scents much. It was built much like the other equipment he wore to enhance his senses, not diminish them.
“I think it is perfectly acceptable. But are you certain you only want a ten-man team to provide escort and transport for your client while within the city?” Brakul asked, flipping a palm up. “I am certain I can get more, considering your daily generous payment offer.”
Generous was one way to put it. The politician the Farun’se represented offered a whopping 15 thousand crit a day for well-experienced mercs. It was enough to get Conor's tail wagging; Most jobs barely pay that out, and this contract was supposed to be ten days long. You could almost buy a house outside the city for that kind of crit. If they were actually paid it out and not betrayed by their employer, at the end of the day, Conor likely would do just that; then, he would have a place to live without the threat of death around every corner.
Each of his jobs over the last few years was a means to that end—escaping this shithole. But getting out of the city was difficult, even for guys like him with opportunities to leave and a reasonably regular income.
“Well, we can work that out via messaging, but for now, I am just offering what I am allowed to,” The client said. “Anything more than that, and I won't be able to pay you half upfront.”
At least they are offering half the credits upfront. Conor must have missed that part during their long-winded discussion about what type of experience each mercenary needed, what weapons they would be allowed, and the specifics of the contract.
All they would have to do was finalize details of the team when Brakul had assembled another eight bodies, but they could do that in a few weeks.
“If that’s the case, then I think we should be good for now,” Brakul said, standing and extending a hand for the client.
“Perfect, expect to hear from me in a few days. Please have your team prepared by the end of the week,” The client replied, shaking Brakul’s hand.
After removing his earpiece and microphone, the client nodded to Conor and disappeared into the crowd looming around the stairs leading to the ground floor.
“So you like the sounds of that?” Brakul asked, sitting back down and sipping at his drink.
Keeping his sight on the crowd below, Conor tracked the client as he struggled to weave through the jostling dancers. The Feline was clearly out of his element in the crowds of the mass city. Based on how quickly he was recoiling from each touch by the intoxicated patrons, he was uncomfortable with all the physical contact forced onto him.
The sight was almost comedic, but Conor was used to dealing with people like the client's representative. If you had enough crit to hire ten mercs, you came from one of two walks of life: you were an influential underground leader who could afford the extra muscle, or you were a sheltered individual with no real business in Heavalun Mass City but decided you wanted to make some friends in low places and needed locals who would be loyal to the almighty crit.
But all of that was neither here nor there for the time being; Brakul would handle any issues with the contract. He was far better at being a politician than Conor was.
“So, any issues with what he wants?” Brakul smirked, knowing that it had been several months since Conor's last contract and that he needed the money.
Conor passively waved at his friend; he did not need to comment. Conor would take any contract that came his way so long as the pay was solid enough. In the past, he had taken contracts Brakul refused for moral reasons.
This contract of defending some high-born trader was in no way out of the ordinary and was relatively tame by Conor’s standards. His last contract was far more low-brow enough that he had almost said no. But for the low, low cost of 100 thousand crits and the fancy nanotech armor he was wearing under his tank top, he was more than willing to blow up the wing of a hospital with a firebomb—insurance paid to fix the building and burry anyone caught up when he killed a lowborn noble or some distant planet.
“I’m more interested in what's going on down below,” Conor said, pointing to a group gathering near the club's back entrance.
Below, barely visible through the flashing strobe lights and low haze of fog machines, seven Kyrail lingered at the back doors. One of the amphibian-like bipeds was giving instructions to the others. It was a shame the music was so loud; if not, Conor and Brakul could easily hear them, but even without sound, it was easy to see what they were doing. They were scouting a mark.
“What do you think, Voodals gang?” Conor posed, scanning the crowd for whomever the lead croaker was trying to target.
Voodal is a leader of one of the area's crime families and merc groups. They had been competitors of Conor and Brakul and their usual hiring groups for a long time. While Brakul and Conor did not have beef with them, one of their usual employers, the Farklut clan, had generations of bad blood.
That rivalry was nasty, to the point anyone who was a direct member of either family would dust the other on sight. Both had been caught up in that rivalry several times and had a negative opinion of the Voodal family and any of their ilk.
“Likely. This is part of a contested city, after all,” Brakul replied, sipping his drink.
“I wonder what they are doing here?” Conor said, still not having located whatever it was they were doing, but he had seen them pull out a particularly nasty drug, giving him an idea of precisely what they planned on doing—abduction.
The gaggle’s leader had passed out plastic bags with what looked like Visage clinging to the bags. That drug might as well be chloroform on the strongest combat stim out there. It would put you in a trance and make you forget the next several days until the effects wore off. The perfect drug for slave traffickers and abductors.
The only reason Conor could tell was that he had used the tactic several times to capture targets alive. It was great; you could fish information from them freely, and they wouldn't remember anything beyond where they had been picked up and whenever the drug wore off.
“I see their target,” Brakul muttered, “switch to IR. I will laze her for yah.”
As his friend and partner told him, Conor switched his false eye to IR and watched, and Brakul’s pistols laser pierced the crowd and danced on the back of a red scalled Kurlatra, dancing happily with some other repltilians of her species. All were woefully ignorant of the Kyrail weaving through the crowd toward them, hands tucked into jackets, likely clutching knives, pistols, and bags of drugs.
“Hmmm, odd, not a lot of Kurlatra on this side of the GU borders,” Conor commented.
“For sure,” Brakul agreed.
Kurlatra were a noble-esc species in the GU and tended to stay in the GU, as opposed ot the COS; most here only cared about their nobility for the sake of making money on ransom after all.
The GU was safe but was overbearing compared to the COS. It had far more laws, restrictions, and limitations on carving out a living. Conor’s chosen profession of being a Mercenary was outlawed in the GU unless you were on the Union congress's payroll, But he was not on that list, despite trying a few times.
“Wanna toss a wrench in their plans?” Brakul questioned.
“How so?” Conor replied, keeping a keen eye on the crimson scalled in the center.
Compared to those around her, she was different. Unlike the others who wore simple clothes, she wore a very revealing yellow dress that was low cut in the back and front, showing offer cleavage, but that's not what made her so different. It was all the glistening jewelry that made her smell of crit.
All those stones and precious metals were likely worth a few hundred thousand crits on their own. That was before you sold her pert ass to some slaver.
“We can go down, nab her after the entourage is dealt with, and be big damn heroes. Then we get an award from that payday of a ruby. If she is not feeling up to it, we could ransom her off to the Voodal; they want her for some reason,” Brakul explained, using his keen eye for diplomacy and deals to guide Conor’s mind to the potential payout.
Conor took a moment to take stock of the situation; he had enough ammo to carve through the Voodal family present and could carry such a Kurlatra if needed. Should this shit go sideways and end up in a firefight, they could just use the crowd and vanish.
“What about the contract we just took,” Conor posed
“We haven't taken one yet,” Brakul reminded, “that rep needs to get back to us with upfront payment. Until then, we are freelance.”
Conor could not deny he was right; no crit had changed hands yet, they were still unemployed, and this bitch might be worth some cash. Before Conor had a chance even to comment one way or the other, Brakul pressed on a nerve he knew would get Conor to act.
“Come on. I got fifty crit that says you can't extract that Kurlatra before the Voodal drug her,” the fellow Jurintik mocked.
The bastard knew how to get to Conor for sure. He was competitive and hated to have his abilities brought into question. Just out of professional pride, Conor could not let that lay.
“Two hundred,” Conor countered.
“One hundred,” Brakul retorted, “oh, look, they already nabbed one of the entourage.”
He was right. One of the Kurlatra heading toward the bathrooms near the back entrance just had a bag of Visage slammed into their mouth and had already gone glassy-eyed. Now, there were only five Kurlatra left, including the clear HVT(High-Value Target)
“One fifty,” Conor snapped, eager to have his friend stop messing with him.
“Deal, I will cover and feed you intel from her. Open channel one,” Brakul sneered.
Without missing a beat, Conor shot up from the table and descended the stairs into the crowd, drawing his suppressed pistol and activating his target tracker to keep sight of the HVT.
Conor did not know it yet, but that little bet, one that was not even worth as much ammo as he was about to expend, would send his life on a journey that would change him forever.
So what did you all think? was it a good time? a fun start at bare min? next chapter we will have connor dealing with the voodal, follwed by us meeting the little princess. It should be fun.
Please dont forget to updoot and comment. I will see you all in the comments.
Your Humble baker
-Pirate
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I’ve had my own firm for about 5 years and the stress is literally killing me (lots of stress related health problems that are no longer manageable). I’ve kept putting energy into trying to make it work, bc I’m also a single mom of two special needs tweens with zero support system other than the fact that my ex has 50% parenting time. So, the flexibility was important and non negotiable.
I’m considering throwing in the towel. I have hired, I’ve doubled prices, I’ve made so many changes but nothing is making it sustainable for me and my health and family.
I’m actually considering a complete industry change but I do wonder about the possibility of working for someone else, and if I could find a job that had true flexibility and meaningfully humane hours, plus enough to live on, and someone else can worry about the E&O claims and entitled clients and staff/management headaches.
My assets: I’m an EA with 14 years experience, primarily sch c/sch e/s-corp clients with incomes (like, AGI) between $50k - $600k. Solid tax and bookkeeping knowledge, excellent research skills, excellent tech skills. My bedside manner with clients is outstanding and I love working with people. I am well liked by coworkers and my employees. Excellent big picture person, esp talking with clients about their tax situations (how to understand and improve them). I work extremely fast when I’m in focus mode.
My liabilities: ADHD, shitty time-management skills, not the best with tiny details (to-the-penny payroll reconciliations NO THANK YOU, or if someone has $100 of exempt-interest dividends over 30 different funds, I’m going to make them all taxable to the state vs taking the 30 minutes to calculate the $9 that we also exclude on state). My kids have a lot of needs, some predictable and some not, so I can’t always predict my capacity for a given day, but I can usually predict it fairly well over the course of a week or two. Time blindness means I’m in late pretty often, and underestimate how long something will really take me. While I am much faster than most when I’m in focus mode, sometimes it’s hard for me to get there and I just do the overwhelm stall. Don’t like working with conservatives, racists, homophobes, misogynists.
I can’t do the insane hours that people typically want in season. I’ve been doing 60+ in the final weeks before deadlines, but it’s completely unsustainable no matter how much time I have off in the off season. I’d like to stay near 40 or 45 for tax and extension season, but over the course of the year I’d like to be closer to 0.6 or 0.75 FTE.
I live in a pretty HCOL city with some of the most egregiously annoying and complex local taxes esp for businesses. It’s almost impossible to find employees and it’s almost impossible for taxpayers to find preparers.
Knowing I need that flexibility, what kind of compensation package do you think would be realistic?

There are so few vampires left in the world that many humans have started to collectively forget that vampires ever even existed.
The same thing happened in your great-grandparent’s time with the very last scattered few fairies.
Ours is not a magical time. And vampires should have never really existed at all. And yet a few still do. Though over time, their abilities were said to lessen, such as flying and retracting their fangs.
Nobody else seems to believe except me. People say you have a wild imagination, or that you're crazy. But I’ve done my research.
There was a quiet girl at work. Practically non-verbal, actually. Or at least, I’d never previously heard her speak.
She wore sunglasses all day, and when she ventured outside she carried a parasol and stayed in the shade.
She arrived every day exactly on time. You could set your watch by her. Always drank the exact same lunch from a flask, whilst sat in the far cafeteria corner, sat facing the wall.
People seemed to not really see her, except for me. She’d slip into a crowded elevator at the very last second, then take up the smallest space, as unobtrusive as a midnight shadow.
Nobody knew her. I had to get her name by subtly asking the payroll dept.
Her ear protectors seemed to be a permanent feature, except for that one time I saw them around her neck, just for a split-second, when she needed to scratch her ear.
Her weird little ear. I try to picture it but every time, my mind’s eye paints it differently. It was twitching, upright, like a wolf’s. Or a bat’s, perhaps. And she turned and saw me stood a few feet behind, though I swear I’d made no sound.
Her mouth opened slightly. Just the slightest flash of teeth. I swear they seemed sharp, like a small shark’s.
I timidly approached and offered my hand.
Turned out she could speak just fine. “Sadie”, she said. I pretended not to already know. I mean, it could have looked creepy.
I made some dumb joke. I was always kinda funny. It was all I was ever good at; getting people to laugh at me.
She giggled a little bit. But still I couldn’t really see her teeth. So I told a dumber joke, then an even dumber one. She began to laugh, but looked apprehensive, as if she was afraid to give anything about herself away.
I couldn’t hide my surprise to see neat little human teeth. Not sharp at all.
“I don’t usually understand people”, she said, seeming a little upset. “But you’re even weirder than me.” And she left me standing there, dumbfounded and disappointed.
She never returned to work, and with each day that passed, I felt increasingly like I’d always felt before I met her: Like I was all alone in this world.