Rant Thread II - Page 136

Ben Lahnger · 04-07-2010, 09:45 PM

Ack! I forgot to put the parking sticker in my window that the new apartment complex gave me, so I went outside to find my car had been towed. I was already late getting the registration renewed, so I had to borrow a friend's car and shlepped all over town to make the car legal and get it out of the impound. And there goes another $188 I didn't have to spare right now.

Son of a bitch!

Luv2H8 · 04-07-2010, 09:49 PM

Is it just me or is everybody moving?

Anyway, today I was walking to the park, and got lost.
I didn't get home for 3 hours (I think).

emeraldlonewoulf · 04-07-2010, 10:24 PM

car shit sucks. I had an ins. lapse of two weeks back in November, took care of it as soon as i found out about it, and now, six frigging months later, i get a notice from the DMV saying they will suspend my registration in five days because of it, and charge me a 250 dollar fine. ok, so i go to the website to pay the fine, and try to keep them from suspending my registration, but I can't do anything until they do suspend it nevermind that i've had ins. on it for the last 5.5 months, and I have to take care of it on that exact day, or then i'm driving on a suspended registration and that carries up to 1000 dollar fine if i get pulled over. Talk about a fucked up system. What the hell happened to the common law right to travel and genuine ownership of a vehicle? ok, so they pay for the roads and shit with tax dollars and these fees and stuff, but damn, there's got to be a better way.

Ben Lahnger · 04-08-2010, 07:24 AM

emeraldlonewoulf, they do that in Maine? I mean monitor your insurance coverage remotely?

I never heard of that before ... I hope they don't do that in Texas ... I may have had a few lapses in the past, but I thought you only got cited if they pull you over and you can't prove you have insurance.

Underwater Ophelia · 04-08-2010, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by korinna5555

I'm in the process of hiring a lawyer to fight an old employer. They have been saying things that are untrue and that they are not legally allowed to say, to the extent that I've become unable to find a job. They have basically blacklisted me, so I'm taking them to court. It's a huge fucking headache.

I really wouldn't do that. You're unlikely to win the case, and even if you do, you're going to be far in debt.

Tam Li Hua · 04-08-2010, 09:41 AM

Welp, this is fun; just developed the nausea withdrawal symptom.

Fantastic.

gothicusmaximus · 04-08-2010, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by korinna5555

I'm in the process of hiring a lawyer to fight an old employer. They have been saying things that are untrue and that they are not legally allowed to say, to the extent that I've become unable to find a job. They have basically blacklisted me, so I'm taking them to court. It's a huge fucking headache.

I'm interested to know what they're saying about you, presumably at those heavily attended Target managers luncheons.

korinna5555 · 04-08-2010, 10:46 AM

Target? Wait, what?

Tam Li Hua · 04-08-2010, 11:52 AM

korinna: I think GM is poking fun.

That sucks about your old bosses, though. :/ What kind of work were you doing/are you looking for?

Tam Li Hua · 04-08-2010, 08:17 PM

Just got checked by the police for the second time today to verify that yes, I -am- legal to drive.

Why is there a blockade of 2 to 3 cop cars inside my neighborhood just to check licences? Is there a criminal loose? Or are they just bored?

korinna5555 · 04-08-2010, 08:18 PM

I'm banking on bored.
If there was a criminal loose, you would have heard about it.

Despanan · 04-08-2010, 08:57 PM

Quote:

I'm in the process of hiring a lawyer to fight an old employer. They have been saying things that are untrue and that they are not legally allowed to say, to the extent that I've become unable to find a job. They have basically blacklisted me, so I'm taking them to court. It's a huge fucking headache.

if you can prove that, it is illegal and you would be entitled to damages.

Can you prove that why he's saying is untrue, and that by saying it he's caused you to not be hired?

emeraldlonewoulf · 04-08-2010, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

emeraldlonewoulf, they do that in Maine? I mean monitor your insurance coverage remotely?

I never heard of that before ... I hope they don't do that in Texas ... I may have had a few lapses in the past, but I thought you only got cited if they pull you over and you can't prove you have insurance.

Not in Maine. Well, I don't know, they might do it there too, but I am in Nevada. And yes, they monitor it here, the insurance company has to report any lapse in coverage to the DMV, and if the cessation of coverage is not related to a vehicle sale, or you have proof that the vehicle is not being driven, like canceling registration, they ding you for it, of course giving you the option of showing proof (directly from the insurance company) that you DID have insurance during the lapse, which of course the insurance company can't provide if there indeed WAS a lapse.

Now, about the location thing, Derry, Maine is the setting for Stephen King's IT, and at the time I originally opened a profile here, I was living in a town called Wickenburg, in AZ, that to me seemed like a location fit for such a story. After I moved, I merely added the "750 miles north of" part, rather than try to come up with some other phrase.

gothicusmaximus · 04-10-2010, 09:56 AM

Hey, Korinna, what are you former employers saying about you?

Entropic · 04-10-2010, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Despanan

Can you prove that why he's saying is untrue, and that by saying it he's caused you to not be hired?

IIRC, it doesn't even have to be false. I think the law where I am dictates that you can't say anything negative about an employee to a prospective employer, period.

Solumina · 04-10-2010, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicusmaximus

Hey, Korinna, what are you former employers saying about you?

She has a legit claim, more than that doesn't need to be said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Entropic

IIRC, it doesn't even have to be false. I think the law where I am dictates that you can't say anything negative about an employee to a prospective employer, period.

That would be a really dumb law, the whole purpose of contacting someone's previous employers is to find out what kind of employee they were, so of course they can say negative things, they just can't make false claims.

Entropic · 04-10-2010, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solumina

That would be a really dumb law, the whole purpose of contacting someone's previous employers is to find out what kind of employee they were, so of course they can say negative things, they just can't make false claims.

It may not be a law, it might be a very common corporate practice. However, it works out really well. As long as employers don't say anything negative, they can't be charged with libel, slander, or defamation. When an employer wants to say they don't approve of an employee, they simply refuse to comment.

JCC · 04-10-2010, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Entropic

It may not be a law, it might be a very common corporate practice. However, it works out really well. As long as employers don't say anything negative, they can't be charged with libel, slander, or defamation. When an employer wants to say they don't approve of an employee, they simply refuse to comment.

Yeah, this is truth. Same with school referrals to colleges; they will look for the positive things that aren't said as a declaration of the fact that a person is lacking in that area. You can't just go out and say "this person is shit at this".

HumanePain · 04-10-2010, 11:36 AM

My son did shrooms. But I can't really complain without being a hypocrite.
But I can tell him not to make it a habit.

Despanan · 04-10-2010, 12:15 PM

I got into a situation where I considered suing once, because I had a former employer in the theatre who was claiming (falsely) that I had broken a contract with another theatre company he was not affiliated with.

I found out about it when I contacted one of my former references to find out if I could still use them, and they told me (in an email) "I will not recommend you because you broke your contract with ____. This is a very serious matter..."

When I corrected him, and pressed him for the details, he wouldn't say who had told him. When I showed up at a theatre conference looking for a job, there was a producer I'd worked with. I had a great audition (so good one of the other producers stopped me immediately after and told me that it was awesome). I had been at this same conference before, and as a less-experienced, far less seasoned actor, I'd managed to get multiple callbacks, and multiple job offers.

Now, as an experienced, confident actor with twice the profession resume, I got exactly 1 callback, and it was from a theme park in Colorado (probably the only people there who didn't know my old producer).

I remembered that this particular producer had a hard-on for making sure that people who broke contracts "never work again". I don't know why this guy thought I'd broken a contract (maybe he just had it in for me) but either way, when I related this story to a lawyer friend of mine, he told me it was grounds to sue.

I considered it, but ultimately decided not to. I was on my way to NYC and I was never going to do small-time stuff in the Midwest ever again, so I chose not to press the point. There was also the fact that I couldn't prove the that producer was the one who said it, and I wasn't about to start interviewing a bunch of producers who I didn't know, to see what the guy had said about me.

Entropic · 04-10-2010, 03:05 PM

I just got an e-mail from my mother reminding me to "be safe" with my girlfriend. Appearantly, my mother is not ready to be a grandmother yet.

I'm not sure whether I should feel warm and fuzzy that my mother is looking out for me, or creeped out that she's contemplating such things.

korinna5555 · 04-10-2010, 05:32 PM

At least your mother says "be safe".. mine just says "make sure you're behaving". *facepalm*

Underwater Ophelia · 04-10-2010, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solumina

She has a legit claim, more than that doesn't need to be said.

She's the one who put it on the internet. Questions are certainly allowed.

Solumina · 04-10-2010, 08:11 PM

Questions are fine, doesn't mean they are going to be answered. Plus it would be dumb for her to talk about the specifics of a potential court case on a public forum.

Ben Lahnger · 04-10-2010, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solumina

That would be a really dumb law, the whole purpose of contacting someone's previous employers is to find out what kind of employee they were, so of course they can say negative things, they just can't make false claims.

Just as a point of order, there are lots of dumb laws on the books. Some are so readily acknowledged to be dumb that they're not even enforced. But, the standard of intelligence is not the determiner of whether something is or isn't a law.

Here in Texas they have the "At Will" employment laws. That means, among other things, that an employer can terminate your employment at any time for any reason. That strikes me as a dumb law. But what happens in general practice is that most employers keep most employees unless there is considerable cause for termination, because of the practical consideration of the costs involved in replacing an employee.

Also, as a former manager who got a lot of those calls, I learned early on to keep my responses generally positive, or say little about an employee. Due the our legalistic society (as attested to by Entropic and JCC) concerns about lawsuits dictate that you really shouldn't say something negative about someone even if they deserve a bad review. But most people who called me knew how to ask the questions and could easily come to the "I hear what you're not saying about this person" conclusion.