At my last place of employ, they banned toasters from the break room, even though they were plugged directly into 20A outlets on the counter, so actually safer than 99% of home usage of toasters.
I started to post this in the gifts from the company catalogue thread, but after writing it, I decided this is a better place.
In recognition of 30 years of service at my employer, I’ve received a $100 Amazon gift card! The letter ends with a warning that it “is considered taxable income” (their italics).
Because the gift card showed up a few hours after the congratulatory email, in my head I’d set $250 as a reasonable amount to satisfy a “recognition for the longevity of your service”. Small in the grand scheme of things, but large enough to be a nice token of appreciation. $100 (really about $70), seems closer to a brush off. I guess it could have been a $25 Starbucks card.
The FAQ on the website says I’ll be invited to a recognition ceremony[1], but no mention of that in the letter. The website also says I should have received something every 5 years, but I never have. According to the website I should have a handful of useless pins by now.
if I do get invited, I’m not going unless it includes lunch ↩︎
Wow! That is pretty crappy for 30 years.
when I worked for DoD, they did same thing with pins, like I’m going to wear them like ribbons on uniforms. Give me the 25cents
This week is “Custodian Appreciation Week” in our education district. Of course they didn’t tell us until Wednesday of this week, and it doesn’t look like they told the rest of the school district at all. Do you want to know what they gave us in appreciation?
A $5 MacDonald gift card.
ooh $5.00?! Are there still entree items under $5? I appreciate you for more than $5 for sure.
The office staff at the college I taught at were dismayed that I skipped the “Educator Assembly” where they gave out fancy pens for those of us having a 25th Anniversary.
Well, did you notice that NO ONE who’s taught for more than a decade actually shows up two days before the school year starts for the “Love-In”?
They always said it was to make us more “Learner-Centered Teachers”, but you know what would help more? If we spent those two days focused on the students and planning our classes!
What was the rationale behind that?
A few years ago I was helping my coworker set up a luncheon at work. She had four or five slow cookers on a couple tables, and they were plugged in to cheap power strips. Not only is it against our rules (we can’t use power strips for high-power devices or appliances), but she has a PhD in electrical engineering and thought she would know better. At any rate, I told her we’re going to get into trouble if we do this, so we changed the arrangements. (A few years ago I disassembled a power strip and wall outlet. The internals are very different. I now understand why you shouldn’t use a power strip for high-current devices.)
Your post just now about not using power strips for high-current things is advice I should apply in my life. I should take the time to look for other outlets instead.
For years I had heard that you shouldn’t use them for “high power” things. Which I thought was absurd, because there’s absolutely nothing preventing anyone from doing this, and they are (supposedly) UL-listed. So I took one apart. I also took apart a regular outlet, and noted the differences. (See links in my previous post.) The outlet used thick pieces of spring metal to clamp onto the prongs on the plug. The power strip used thin, stamped conductors that produced a very questionable clamping force onto the prongs. Total junk. I am not sure how they passed UL testing. I am not sure how they’re rated for 15 A.
Most are only rated for 12, which probably means they can only handle a continuous load of about 9 amps.
We used to have two microwaves and a toaster plugged into the same 20 amp circuit in the kitchen at work. Any two could run, but a third would trip the breaker, which required a call to facilities to fix. The last time that happened I moved one of the microwaves to a working outlet; guaranteeing it’s on a different circuit. That was the last time, because we haven’t tripped that breaker since.
I don’t know what they’re rated for. All I know is that they’re shit. Do they really meet all UL 1363 specs?
I had the same problem in a prior residence where the prior owner had upgraded the kitchen w umpteen outlets but no more ampacity. Toaster, coffeemaker, and microwave on one undercabinet plug strip with one breaker.
Any two was fine. I could run all three if the coffeemaker was in keep-warm mode. But if it was trying to boil water and the other two devices started drawing, a CB trip was just a few seconds in the future. Fortunately the breaker panel was also in the kitchen.
Funny thing was this mystery trip kept happening to my wife. But never to me. Eventually I watched her breakfast prep and noticed the difference; I always made coffee, drank some, and then started the cooking. She started all 3 at once. A ha! She’d begun to think either I, or the World, was messing with her. 
Ha. Reminds me that I received my 20 year pin and certificate 18 months late. And it wasn’t even handed to me. It was in an envelope, left the hallway propped against my office door. Not a single word from anyone. Yeah, that made me feel valued.
And like you, I didn’t really care about the pin or certificate. But when you get it in the manner that I did, it’s hard not to take it as a big fuck you.
Burnt toast is the culprit in most of our accidental fire alarms. We haven’t been allowed to have toasters for years, they’re trying to limit the number of microwave ovens on campus too.
Someone should invent microwave toast, to take all the drudgery out of making toast.
Oh, did I forget the kool-aid and chance to shake hands with CO, who I already see 5 days a week What an honor (not) /s
I’ve seen an incident report in our office where someone shoved a croissant into a toaster. I guess it got stuck and the fat content was high enough that it caught fire. Our floor was evacuated, rest of the building was not. Amazing amount of smoke from a fire that did not spread outside the toaster.
Yeah, that would be enough to set off our alarms too. I think the ones in my building are quite sensitive where smoke’s concerned as I work in a university building where we have some quite rare and valuable artefacts that they’re keen not to lose.
you forgot the descriptive adjective “idiot” someone