munky.org|v3.0

They did what?! Spent how much?! My curlers are about to pop out!

I came online today, to check the site and the news, and about fell out of my chair. In 1 post I matched nearly 2-3 weeks worth of visitors. I was floored.

Which article was it? Post Office Buys $1.2 Million Dollar Home - sourced from CNN. That tells me right off the back at how much people are outraged over this blatant excess. Further than that, people are outraged and blatant excess period.

You can see it all around. People complain about banks buying jets and stadium naming rights (even though naming rights are really and advertising move, and companies need to advertise). The lashing auto execs got for flying into Washington in private jets with their pockets hanging out and shaking their cup. The people who still have that coveted disposable income either not spending it or doing it in stealth.

We have a right to be upset though. Over 12 million Americans are unemployed, and millions of others are underemployed. Millions of people are struggling to make it through this time, while others are still living the life. It can drive a person mad. Why should we starve while they are jet-setting, making it with billions of taxpayer bailout funds? Can’t we get a break? Heck, whatever happened to philanthropy? When we need the charitable help the most, it all dries up.

It’s a sickening cycle, but we can’t let it get us down. We are defined not by our strength in the good times, but for our strength in the bad. I can attest to far too many sleepless nights worrying about what happens next. Everytime my manager tells me to meet him when I get in, I get the jitters and thoughts start racing through my head of what am I going to do if I get laid off. What scares me is I don’t really know, and I’ve always got a plan. I’d get through it I guess, which is the attitude I need to get by. Thankfully it is always him asking me to pick up some extra work. But my nerves can only stretch so thin.

Remember that we are only guaranteed 2 things in life: death and taxes. Everything else we have to work for, to fight for. And if it isn’t worth fighting for, it isn’t worth it.

Microsoft Headquarters

I need to cool it on the software giant. HR took one for the team, saved a little face, and give some breathing room to those who were overpaid on their severance. According to The Bing Blog, Microsoft has announced that they won’t be asking for a refund.

According to sources, 25 people were overpaid by roughly $5,000. Do the math. That’s $125,000, a lot of money for sure, but barely a drop in the buckets of the multi-billion dollar corporation.

This may have been a face job, but regardless, they did the right thing, regardless the intentions. Just remember, the road to hell is lined with good intentions, so those are worthless.

Hopefully HR’s will take a page out of the Microsoft book going forward. It’s bad enough to lay someone off. It’s even worse to realize you overpay them then come back with your pockets sticking out saying we need the money back. Might as well dress em up like spider monkeys and feed em poop pies. 

Now if we could just get Vista to work right….

Microsoft Headquarters

This latest blunder at Microsoft – no matter how cruel it is to its recently unemployed workers – is fitting for the software giant. If you haven’t heard already, a glitch in the system gave laid off workers a larger severance than they were supposed to get. Now Microsoft is asking it back.

For years people have complained about glitches in Microsoft software. Their current mainstream operating system, Vista, may be the most notorious of recent history. Yet when a glitch in their software costs us money (lost productivity, lost information, etc), they point to the EULA and say “sorry.”

Yet Microsoft comes out and demand those former workers to return the extra money, cash, money orders, personal check. Can we rub anymore salt in the wound for these poor people! They’ve just lost their job (probably with a decent salary knowing Microsoft) in the middle of the worst recession in recent memory. Odds are they are going to have a really hard time finding work, and if they do, it may be for $7.75/hour at the local supermarket.

Microsoft does have a legitimate claim for wanting a refund, but of all companies, should Microsoft expect one?