What do people (or The Man) keep telling you to do that you do not have to?
I don’t have to understand any high school math if I’m going into a profession that doesn’t use math. Calculating percentages is useful, but that’s it. The only time H.S. math came in handy was when it helped me understand this cartoon.
I don’t have to buy a computer with your shitty overpriced software. Every crappy and expensive peace of software preloaded with your machine is replaceable by free and better software.
I regret that I don’t really have an idea of your age. If you are in your eighties and are fairly certain that you won’t return to work, I will be more likely to buy your argument.
Other than that, requirements for professions change rapidly. Professional choices can change quickly. And our employment is not the only time that we use high school math. I’ve frequently used ratios, for example. That requires a smudge of algebra. Geometry has come in handy a little.
But I’ve had the chance to have these things be useful. I’m old.
You’re an adult, so no, there’s nothing you really have to do, even pay taxes. No one’s making you do that. You can choose not to and face fines or jail. You can choose not to do many of the things people say you need to do, but then, chances are, you’d be really screwed. They’re saying it for reason, not to hear themselves talk.
You’re what, 23? Very young still. Look at this thread in 15 years for a good chuckle.
My husband’s boss is a real pain in the ass. Every thought he has turns into a memo. He posts it on a bulletin board and wants the guys to read it and SIGN it.
After the first 10,000 of these stupid bulletins, my husband told him he will no longer be signing off on them. Ever again. His boss got all worked up and said, “but you MUST sign off on it.” Mr. K said, “No I don’t” and walked away.
He’s “this close” to retirement, which really changes the amount and frequency of bullshit a person feels obligated to take.
No, I don’t, unless you’re my editor, who assigns me books to read. Even then, I can say, well, I’ll give this one a pass. She’s never disagreed with my decision yet. I actually do have plenty of books I “have” to read without you telling me about your newfound inspirational spiritual meaning of life.
No, I do not have to report to someone who is junior to me in the company, fresh out of school (her very first job!) and the most obnoxious person in the department. I do not have to take direction from someone who is ostensibly a product owner but whose mantra is “Not my job, not my problem,” doesn’t understand the inner workings of her own product and who consistently bellows details of her personal life and walks up and down the aisles on her headset to demonstrate her importance. Unfortunately for you, you will have to hire externally to cover that particular position because no one in the company will work for her. I, on the other hand, am fortunate enough to have received several competing offers for my services. So I do not have to sit quietly by as you give my promotion to someone else. Instead, I think I’ll have my cake and eat it, too. Ciao, baby.
Please don’t tut-tut and say, “Well, you really SHOULD be up” when I don’t answer the phone at 11am, because I am sound asleep.
Listen up, mum. I am THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS OLD. I AM A SHIFT WORKER. My being asleep in the late morning does NOT make me an idle teenager. Not only that, but I have done EXACTLY THE SAME SHIFT for nearly TWO DECADES. Yet, you STILL ring and wake me, and ask, “What are your shifts again?” I"m a shift worker but not a rotating shift worker (God forbid that I was). It’s really simple, mum: calling me at 10am is like calling a normal office hours person at 4am. Similarly, you are retired and can call me any time. You don’t NEED to call me early in the morning unless it’s an emergency.
I do NOT have to be nice to someone if I don’t want to. Sure, I’m generally nice to everyone. But the way I figure it, there are 7 billion people on this Earth, I can do without a few of them liking me.
Eat supper tonight. Look, I know I just got home from work, but I’m not really hungry right now. Go ahead and eat. I’ll have something later. Why is this so hard to understand?
I wonder how many people actually end up in the field they were so sure they would be in when they were in H.S. I’ll bet a lot of them ended up in fields were math was pretty important.
At the armed security place I used to work for, they used to do this all the time. Given that it was posted in one of the few places NOT on camera, the memo would be heavily hand modified and signed by a large contingent of fictional (and rudely named) people.
After a long period of complaining, then threatening, then finally collapsing into pleading for people not to do it, they stopped posting such things. Anything they needed us to sign, they’d pass around in a meeting.
We also got a few completely fictional memos posted too.
When I worked midnight to 8am, my mother would call me at 1pm, expecting that I’d be awake “by now”. Yeah mom, when the FUCK do you think I sleep? When I finally got angry enough about it to clearly spell out when I was sleeping (noonish to 8pm, because I drove 15 miles east, straight into the sun, coming home in the morning), she compromised by waiting until 3pm to call me. :rolleyes:
A couple of 10-11pm calls to her (oops, you’re in bed? seriously?) made the point.
On the OP: I always love people who claim they don’t need to know any math. Please be sure to complain vigorously every single time in your life that you get completely fucked over because you didn’t understand how interest rates worked, or you got shorted on your pay and didn’t notice, or whenever something doesn’t go your way because you were too stupid to do the simple math that would have told you there was something wrong with the situation. Be sure to sign up for that 60% compound interest short term loan too! After all, you need the money right now, right?
I wish I’d learned math better in high school. I regret that I cheated my way through algebra instead of getting a tutor and really learning it. Math does come up in real life in a lot of ways and it’s not very easy to learn on your own.
My personal advice, along these lines, is to learn to type. I get irritated as all hell at the younguns in the office who claim they don’t need to know how. Okay, that explains why I’m five times more productive than you, but not why the supervisor keeps you around.
I don’t have to eat anything I don’t want to. The days of choking down broccoli and cauliflower at the dinner table are over. I’ll eat raw broccoli, but cauliflower? Yuck A Doo.
My children, now teenagers, have taste preferences that I accommodate. When they were younger, I’d urge them to try new things. But if my daughter turns up her nose at shrimp…great, more for us!
