Melissa Harris-Perry, you racist.
I don't watch much TV, but possibly Sharpton's good at it? He's not getting paid to be respectable, but to get people to watch him. (Yes, his finances certainly seem to be complicatedly shady.)
Arsenio Hall had a show again, but it got cancelled after one year due to poor ratings.
Queen Latifah has a tv show.
I also vaguely recall another black woman that had a daytime talk show.
4.2: Wendy Williams? I think it's at night, but I don't really know.
5: Do you get Cincinnati TV stations? If that's right, you can watch Wendy at 4 pm.
6: I do, but I also have a job and don't particularly watch tv. When it's on, sometimes the Wendy Williams show might be on, but probably not now that it's basketball season again.
Basketball is kicking black people off tv.
He has been in the news as much as ever this year, becoming a prominent advocate on behalf of the families of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died in police custody, and Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. He also has a daily platform through his show on MSNBC.
Behind the scenes, he has consulted with the mayor and the president on matters of race and civil rights and even the occasional high-level appointment. He was among a small group at the White House when Mr. Obama announced his nomination of Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to become the next attorney general.
Mr. Sharpton's newly found insider status represents a potential financial boon for him, furnishing him with new credibility and a surge in donations. His politician-heavy birthday party, at one of New York City's most expensive restaurants, was billed as a fund-raiser to help his organization. Mr. Obama also spoke at the organization's convention in April, its primary fund-raising event.
This is all pretty surprising. I thought he was a complete has-been.
Actually 4.2 was trying to make a joke suggesting that we had all already forgotten about the once mighty Oprah.
10: She still has a show on her own channel too.
11: Yeah, it's still on the air, because she owns the network.
Is the OP referencing some recent news about Wesley Snipes I haven't found, or just his 2008 conviction?
I thought he was a complete has-been.
I think we had a recent discussion here about what an outsized role he appears to play in the psyches of middle aged and older conservative white guys.
I thought he was a complete has-been.
He has the 6 pm slot on MSNBC.
As a side note, his body looks way too thin for his head now. He looks like a dashboard bobblehead.
14,15: So ogged is a "middle aged and older conservative white guy"?
On second thought, why do I even ask?
dude, what apo said in 1. how was that even a question? do you seriously never see clips from her show on blogs? do you avoid blogs with black people on them in case your browser gets smudgy and dark and hard to read? whut?
Never heard of her. I read TPM, Drum, and Atrios.
Googled. Exactly the kind of person I was thinking of: a young, telegenic academic. Nice work, MSNBC!
Threadjack: I'm going to be fired for cause (poor quality of work, not malfeasance). Is it better to quit in advance? My hope with staying is to make it to Dec. 1 to get another month of health benefits and potentially be eligible for UI depending on how merciful they are in the way they structure the firing. I'm in Calofornia. Thoughts?
I don't see any upside for you in quitting; anyone else?
I thought being fired for cause generally made you ineligible for UI per se, though not other forms of assistance.
Right. There's some wiggliness in CA that I don't really understand.
Depends a. on the timescale in which you'd be fired and b. whether it would affect the reference you would get from that employer.
And while I don't know CA state law, and I don't know NY unemployment law well (and I'm not your attorney, and this isn't legal advice), fired because your work is low quality might very plausibly leave you UI-eligible. "Fired for cause" is pretty tight, I think, and the line is more like wrongdoing than just being terrible at your job.
(And I'm sorry this is happening to you. Getting fired sucks, regardless of the rights and wrongs of it.)
I'm sitting outside in the parking lot googling this stuff on my phone.
I thought being fired for cause generally made you ineligible for UI per se, though not other forms of assistance.
Right. There's some wiggliness in CA that I don't really understand.
In any case, there's always the possibility that the employer won't challenge the claim, right?
Oops, I forgot about the idiosyncratic ways of tag autoclosing here.
The standard for UI eligibility is not usually the same as a for-cause firing standard. (Of course there are many such for-cause firing standards.) And sometimes, to smooth things over in the firing process, an employer will agree not to oppose UI.
Yeah, there's a long backstory, but depression and anxiety have combined to just make me unable to perform at the level required. I feel like I'm going nuts. (I'm not in any danger of self-harm.)
Pretty much, if you know you're going to be fired, but you haven't quite been fired yet, that sounds to me as if your employer has some motivation for wanting to keep the severance of the relationship friendly -- if it was all-out-war, you would have been walked out the door as you were informed about the firing. Either they're just being decent about it, or they think maybe there's an employment discrimination suit possibility, or you could do them some damage some other way.
I don't know what the details are, but my guess is that either they want you gone, but don't want to screw you, or they think you have leverage.
Multiply pwned. Anyway, don't most job applications ask something like "Have you ever been given the opportunity to resign rather than be fired?" If so, not sure what the advantage of quitting would be.
I hope things get better for you, Richard.
California has a terrible unemployment website butthis makes me think quitting would be officially inadvisable and you'd be better off hoping to come to an agreement on terms that might let you have UI, which in our experience made a huge difference. I'm sorry you're dealing with this.
Here's a sentence I never thought I would write. Best of luck to you Richard Nixon.
I don't know anything useful to add.
They didn't tell me outright. My boss implied something was coming last week, and then I overheard my boss' boss talking to her boss saying that my boss was letting something go. Today I find out that a last-minute thing didn't come off and I don't know if the hammer fall is going to be accelerated.
fired because your work is low quality might very plausibly leave you UI-eligible
My impression also. Once when I was working in Ohio, so decades ago, a manager wanted to quit and the district manager said "At least let me fire you so you can collect unemployment." So the presumption ran the other way.
Don't quit, Milhouse. They will almost certainly not officially fire you for cause; CA is an at-will employment state, so they'll probably just go with "we don't have to give you a reason, you just don't work here anymore", since there's a hell of a lot less paperwork and ass-covering to do that way. If you quit, you're not eligible for UI; if your at-will employment ends, you are.
One thing to prepare yourself for: if/when you do get let go and apply for UI, you will almost certainly have to go through a phone interview with the EDD, during which they will pressure you heavily to say that you were fired for cause. As long as you stick with "my at-will employment ended", you'll be fine.
Check out part D of this outline for official CA discussion of poor work performance and the UI eligibility standard.
Combination of "depression and anxiety have combined to just make me unable to perform at the level required. I feel like I'm going nuts," and 39 makes me think you might be wrong about getting fired; that you're maybe due for a grim talk with HR, but the ax might not be immediately ready to fall, and you're catastrophizing because you're so wound up about the situation.
I can't tell what's your best course of action, but if you can keep functioning normally, I'd do it until someone says something explicit to you. If you don't think you can, could you maybe talk to a shrink, get a diagnosis, and talk to HR about going on medical leave to get your head straight? People do that sort of thing.
42: OK. Time to go back inside and wait. Fuck this sucks.
And 44.last gets it right. Even if you are about to get canned, talk to a shrink and get a diagnosis on the record; that'll help you with the EDD if you do have to fight for your UI. If you're already in treatment, make sure you have documentation.
I was put on a Performance Improvement Plan in May. I've been chewed out with strong implications of consequences by my boss. This isn't just in my head.
Doing my best to keep functioning normally.
The medical leave thing has occurred to me. Not sure what's involved. I'm scared to talk to HR because I don't trust them--they're not in the business of making people's lives better here.
LB has good advice. Think through what you can do to care for yourself right now, and what would be helpful coming from others. Can you ask someone else for help? See a shrink? Call an employee assistance line? Would some time off help? Depression and anxiety often make it so hard to reach out for help, or to care for yourself, but it sounds like you're pretty miserable and it's worth taking a chance on reaching out and doing some small thing to improve your situation.
I'm scared to talk to HR because I don't trust them--they're not in the business of making people's lives better here.
This is reasonably cautious of you, but if you're considering quitting before you get fired, there's not much they can do to make it worse, and they might make it better. And if you're literally hoping to stretch things out to December 1, there's a good chance that bringing in HR and the possibility of a medical leave will at least slow the process down for the week or two you need.
I should note that I'm already seeing a shrink and a psychiatric nurse. (Also a marital counselor. Life has been fucking awesome lately.)
I'm highly medicated--to the point where my depression is now largely under control. The anxiety is getting there as we ramp up the dosage of the Buspar.
Aww fuck. Can someone redact?
No advice just sympathy, that sucks Milhouse.
Sorry about your situation, RM. FWIW, I got fired for cause quite a while ago, and the reasons were pretty much the same as yours. It ended up having very little impact on my long term prospects. Take it one day at a time and try to focus on fixing one thing at a time and before too long you'll dig out of this mess.
don't most job applications ask something like "Have you ever been given the opportunity to resign rather than be fired?"
Maybe it just never registered because I wouldn't have answered yes, but offhand that does not sound like something I've ever seen on a job application, no.
May things get better, RM. I hope there's a solution in all of this that helps you out; I do think LB's advice is pretty solid.
"Have you ever been given the opportunity to resign rather than be fired?"
"I always have the opportunity to resign rather than be fired. By law, no one can take this right away from me."
"Thirteenth Amendment, bitches!"
don't most job applications ask something like "Have you ever been given the opportunity to resign rather than be fired?"
I've seen it once or twice, but I don't think it's very common.
Sorry to hear this is happening, RM. Waiting for the other shoe to drop is stressful enough by itself!
I've seen that question on some job applications. Maybe government or big institutions generally.
RM, I'm sorry you're in that situation. I hope you can show yourself some kindness no matter what happens. That's a hell of a rough patch, and I hope in a few months it just seems like a bad dream. Take good care of yourself.
I hope you can show yourself some kindness
Masturbate to your job while you still can.
Isn't that more commonly thought of as self abuse?
Way back in college when I ran one of the feminist clubs (among everything else) and had to help support the National Self-Injury Awareness Day one of my hardest jobs was convincing people not to call it self-abuse without laughing at them too hard for doing so. But ix-nay on the self-injury too, RM!
I don't know, are you using carbon offests?
I offset all my carbon emissions by stealing propane tanks from my neighbors' grill and burying them.
What 63 said. Nixon, you don't suck! You're having a real hard time and that sucks.
I have been mercy-killed from two jobs that I had checked out of. (I was not in medical straits but I didn't want to be there to the point of paralysis.) It didn't feel good but it led to better things down the road.
Just checking back in to say thanks again to everyone for all the advice and encouragement and that i'm not quite as panicked as yesterday. Everyone is gone for a conference through tomorrow and I'm on vacation next week, so I think I'll make it to December 1st.
I put out some feelers last weekend and got a nibble back this morning on some contract work in my old home town. It would mean a cross-country move in the middle of winter, renting a room off Craigslist, and establishing an employment history in town so I can rent a house and bring my family out after a few months, but there does seem like there might be a workable (if sucky) solution if I don't manage to get UI.
I'm also going to knock up a Squarespace website over vacation and start trolling startups to see if they need support from an expert (me) without being able to afford someone full time. If I can stitch a few clients together, that might be a way to make something work.
Thank god for anti-anxiety meds or else I wouldn't be able to even contemplate cold-contacting potential clients.