I work for a company known for its unbelievable perks and benefits. Every time a job opens up, we get thousands of applications.

Candidates are becoming increasingly aggressive to stand out. Hundreds of them (literally) have purchased Facebook ads or LinkedIn promoted posts to get their information in front of current employees.

Others have taken to outright stalking our employees. I freelance occasionally and have a separate website for my freelance business. I receive dozens of calls and emails to my freelance number and email account daily from people who want to “chat about the open position.”

My husband — who has a different last name — runs a small retail shop. He’s had people come into his store and tell him that they did internet sleuthing and found out he was married to an employee of my company, and would he please pass on their resume?

I expect to get these messages on my LinkedIn or company email, but am I wrong in thinking that stalking me out and trying to contact me via personal contact info (or my husband) is way out of line?

Is there a way to sharply tell them that this is not okay? Normally, I just don’t respond, but I have to turn my phone off or it rings all day and it’s really annoying. Would it look weird to put a message on my freelance website that says do not contact me about Company X jobs?

My company is aware of this problem, and has said to forward the names of aggressive or alarming candidates their way to remove them from consideration, but it’s so common, I’m thinking this is a product of being told that if they just showed GUMPTION, they’d get the job. I feel bad for them, but it’s also creeping me out.

While being self employed as a programmer may have its ups and downs, at least no one will judge you(except yourself maybe and your clients if they know) when you code drunk and it's Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

It's not a dev quiting but my brother who worked in parcel delivery at that time.
He was hired on a temporary contract but promissed from the beginning and in every discussion they had, that he'll get a permanent position after 6 moth, if his work is good.

Fast forward 6 months. They had a meeting and told him how satisfied they where with his work so naturally he asked about the permanent contract. Fuckers acted suprise and shit. Claiming to never have said any of it. However as they are happy with him and so "generous", they offerd him another contract for 6 months and told him, they could talk about a permanent one after that period.

He kind of has a temprament, so he got up, fliped them the bird and called them lying assholes and went home. He didn't show for the time left on his contract.

The funny thing about it he worked for the swiss postal service (which is owned by the state) but not directly but through this.company providing temporary workers (which is cheaper for them as they get a shitty salary compared to a full time employee with all the benefits).

Wankers!

Nice thing though, the accounting department still sent him a christmas bonus (he quit somewhere around mai...)

I rewrote my resume. It is getting shorter and shorter. Scary.

But I was thinking, that during interviews, I never get to ask the important questions. Like, I do need to ask a few things that are important for me. Those that are not written in their websites, and they will do their best to hide.

So I came up with a list of questions:

1. Do you pay for overtime work? what is the basis of pay? hours or work-module? how realistic are the work-modules?
2. Have you ever had issues with employees from minority groups?
3. How do you address employee's professional concerns? for example, about technological debt.
4. what's the policy for meeting and daily interruptions during brain-work? Are people ever forced to participate in meetings that could be summed up in emails? what's the company policy for initiating a meeting?
5. Who designs the software? Are the requirements always non-negotiable? do the direct developers have a say in design matters?
6. How close are job requirements (as advertised) to actual tasks I need to perform?
7. What's the company policy for motivating the employees?
8. How does the company deal with mental health issues? is it acceptable for people to take leaves due to mental health issues? Has anyone ever done it?
9. How does the company deal with individual needs for working methods and space? Specifically, how does that apply to meetings? Do you have company-wide meetings? How often are they? What's the impact on productivity? Can employees not participate? Do they have to have an excuse to not participate?
10. Do developers get to develop their skills during worktime often? Or is it a "do it in your own free time" kind of thing? Are there any resources available to those who want to develop their skills further? Is it included in the career planning and employee performance review?
11. Assume I work for your company for a year. What are the benefits I can potentially gain in a year from working here, aside from adding a line of work experience to my resume?
12. Does the company provide any form of free feminine hygiene products in the bathroom?

Any questions I should add?

Not necessarily ignorant, but funny.
Before my current job I used to work for a company that provided software services to logistic type corporations, import export and all that jazz.

I was asked to generate an admin interface that would allow people to enter scans from different products, sort them in the right place and update the main interface. During the time we were using Classic ASP with VBScript. There, AJAX and similar functionality can get quite tricky, but definitely doable if you know what you are doing, VBScript has many limitations when compared to something like PHP for example. But thus the application was created in about a week once everything was sorted and then the storage manager came back to ask me if I could put a spinner or something in it to show that the information was loading. I asked him if the information was not being updated accordingly or if there were similar issues to that extent.

He said "no, it is working perfectly and I have no problem with the functionality, but these morons keep trying to scan shit because they can't tell if something is being populated into the main table in the interface because it all happens so quickly" Me: "well it is a very simple process, if you want I can add some sort of additional message to that or a spinner or something of the like that would show for two seconds or something, just so they can get some visual clarification"

Him: "This is a pretty stupid thing isn't it?". Me: Yes. Him: "I am so sorry to ask for this, how long will it take you?" Me: "Lol give me about 30 mins maybe less, it is no problem really, let me get this out of the way so that your people can get to it without loosing anymore time"

Such things are the reason why they literally brought me to the head of the company when I told them that I was leaving in an effort for him to try and convince me to stay. I was not to be contracted into their service anymore, but a full time employee. It was nice for them to ask really, but I declined in favor of the benefits I get from my current company.

To this day I think its funny and they remember as well.

[vent]
I am java dev with 5 yoe at a place which has really good engineering talent.
Was assigned a feature request.
Feature request requires me and one more older dev(in age, not in exp at company) to write the code. My piece is really super complex because of the nature of the problem and involves caching, lazy loading and tonne of other optimization. Naturally it makes up 90% of the tasks in the feature request. On the other hand, the older dev simply has to write a select query (infact he only needs to call it since a function is already written).
Older dev takes up all the credit, gives the demo, knows nothing but wrongly answers in meetings with higher ups and was recently awarded employee of qtr.
It looks as if I do the easy work whereas he is the one pulling in all the hard work.
Need advice to justify my work and make others realise it's significance, nuances of area and complexity of it.
Do not expect monetary benefits, just expect credit and recognition for the worth of work I am doing.

TLDR: I need advice on reasonable salary expectations for sysadmin work in the rural United States.

I need some community advice. I’m the sysadmin at a small (35 employee) credit card processing company. I began as an intern and have now become their full time sysadmin/networking specialist. Since I was hired in January I have:

-migrated their 2007 Exchange server to Office 365

-Upgraded their ailing Windows server 2003 based architecture to 2012R2

-Licensed their unlicensed VMware ESXi servers (which they had already paid for license keys for!!!) and then upgraded them to 6.5 while preventing downtime on hosted VMs using tricky transfers and deployments (without vMotion!)

-Deployed a vCenter server to manage said ESXi servers easier

-Fixed a three month gap in their backups by implementing Veeam, and verifying its functionality

-Migrated a ‘no downtime’ fileserver to a new hypervisor host, implemented a ‘hot standby’ server as a backup kept up to date by the minute with DFS replication.

-Replaced failing hard drives in a RAID array underlying their one ‘business critical’ fileserver, which had no backups for 3 months at that time

-Reorganized Active Directory and Group Policy deployment from a nightmare spiderweb of OUs and duplicate policies

-Documented the entire old network and now the new one as I’ve been upgrading this

-Audited the developers AWS instances and removed redundant machines, optimized load balancing on front end Nginx servers, joined developer run Fedora workstations to the AD domain and implemented centralized syslog monitoring on them.

-Performed network scans and rewrote firewall exceptions to tighten security

There’s more, but you get the idea. I’ve now been tasked with taking point on an upcoming PCI audit which will be my first.

I’m being paid $16/hr US, with marginal health benefits. This is roughly $32,000 a year, before taxes.

I have two years previous work experience managing a third party Apple repair facility (SimplyMac) and every Apple certification for warranty repair and software troubleshooting. I have a two year degree in general sciences, with about 4 years of college credit (Two years of a physics education and two years of computer science after I switched focus) I’m actively pursuing a CCNA and MCSA server 2016 with exams paid for and scheduled.

I’m going into a salary negotiation in two months. What is a reasonable salary to request, from your perspective, for someone in my position?

Thanks in advance!

As a new freelancer I didn't have much clients , so I paired with a web designer +10 years exp. who work with me as a pm and that was a bad decision.
Although I am a back-end dev , half of the projects were frontend/WordPress theme (less price than back-end projecrs) - so 30% of the projects were cancelled .
sometimes I receive project's which have requirement, like magento, I don't know anything about ,
I tried to push myself but I burned out after six month.
he deals with clients, partner with other companies ,and I don't know anything about the terms.
at the end I was like an employee without any benefits from his company .
moreover I get my money after 45 day!!!
and not all my money .
this is a project I work for another company through him
A requirement for mobile back-end server was integrating with parse and that was my first time working with Facebook parse so ....
after two weeks ..
we received email from parse that they'll shutdown their service after a year .

so we moved to Amazon sns again my first time working with aws .
at the end I can't charge for extra money but my pm became a gold partner for that company .
the only thing that made me hold is that I need some high quality projects for my c.v.
-----------
he didn't show on hangout because I need my money .
this will be my last project with him.
wow I write too much ... I feel better now .😥

So, I'm going to apologize before I even start this rant...lol. I am the Senior level web developer at my job and have been there for around 12 years now. I have been there at least 2 times as long as everyone else.

I also want to say that my boss is a good man and I really like my coworkers and he has helped me through a lot over those 12 years and I don't want to sound ungrateful. However, I am so fed up with my job. I think the only reason I stay is the fear of the unknown of switching jobs and that I really like the overall work environment and my coworkers.

With that being said I have been with my boss almost since the inception of the company and I am the only original employee there. I have seen the company grow from 3 employees including the secretary there. We now have like 20 employees.

I have never complained and I have showed continual growth and loyalty over those 12 years. However, like a month ago they had me post a a job position and it was for a social media position and the job required only 5 years of experience and it was within 8k of what I currently make. That made me so angry.

I am literally capable of doing everyone's job at my job including my own with ease. However, no one else at my job is capable of doing my job at all and I have a bachelors degree as well and certified in many different things as well.

Again I am the most senior person at my job period and the most senior person at the entire company. Not only am I an expert in the programming languages we use at our company, but im an expert at analytics(certified in GA4, looker studio, tag manager, etc).

Additionally, a month ago I was reached out to on linkedin by another company and was offered a job for almost 30 to 40K more than my current job is paying and better benefits than where I currently work and it was fully remote.

Should I even bother asking my boss to match this or should I just walk and go to the other company? Apparently loyalty and knowledge hold no value anymore.

I used to be at a company where it was kind of expected that you worked long days, which made it quite difficult to balance work and private life. It got so out of control that I was even called to work while I was on my holiday. At first I started with shutting off my phone after work hours, but the real solution I found was moving away from that company.

Pretty much everyone at my new company just stops working when the clock hits 4 or 5 pm unless there is something critical that needs to be done. Seeing that also discourages me (and everyone else) from working long days. We are also quite open about our workload so if anyone thinks they’re overwhelmed they can find a relevant person to talk to and eventually a solution is found. The salary isn’t incredible, but the work/life balance and the benefits I get are just way better than getting paid more and living to work.

I think a lot of people go for the high salaries, most of the time disregarding the other part of the equation. If the company has a meh work culture with low regard to employees’ work/life balance, there isn’t much the employee can do besides finding a place to work with better wlb. I’d pick a great work/life balance and peace of mind to a high salary any day.

Has anyone experience with true full remote working?

I keep searching for job postings, but they mostly have huge BUT(s)

- remote BUT you need to be resident where the company is
- remote BUT you need to have a valid vat number and it won't be a contract, just a "we will ask x hours per month, you get no vacations or sick days"
- remote BUT you need to be in our timezone or work at our hours.

I am lately thinking a lot about what to do with my life due to the possibility that i will move with my sweet half and... We live very far apart so it's like... A bummer to be bound to a place. Especially since they love where they are, but i have a free house which I inherited, so... Could be nice as a fallback

Edit: the vat number thing is not necessarily bad, but one of the main reasons to work as an employee is that i get sick days and stuff, if i have to follow your hours, get no sick days/vacation days/benefits i may as well be a freelancer and gain more, lol.

TLDR: It's okay to take naps while working from home
Brief:
I feel that there is nothing wrong with taking afternoon naps while working from home. Mainly because after taking rest for a couple of hours my mind is re-energised and I am able to pull off quite a lot of work in much lesser time after waking up and my overall productivity for the day roughly remains same.
This is mainly because if I end up staying awake even when I am tired and sleepy there is not much productive work done even if my number of hours online increase.
And if a company has strict measures set for calculating the number of hour employee stays online while working from home then it will actually reduce overall employee productivity rather than having any kind of actual benefits.

Applied for Interview based on beautiful landing page, employee benefits, decent salary, awesome interview questions exchange etc.
First day on the job, just meetings all day,
Second day, saw the product code.

Shittiest code I have seen in my lifetime.

Screen Usage Tracking at Work: Balancing Productivity and Privacy

Introduction
In today’s fast-paced, tech-driven work environments, screen usage tracking has become an essential tool for organizations aiming to improve productivity, security and efficiency. Modern organizations use these monitoring tools to track employee digital device activities because they need to ensure productive time usage. Screen usage tracking generates important privacy issues and ethical problems regarding technological implementation. The successful implementation of productive spaces must preserve worker privacy rights. The following article addresses all aspects of workplace screen usage tracking, including its advantages and disadvantages and proper implementation guidelines.

The Need for Screen Usage Tracking in the Workplace
The demand for screen usage tracking arises from several factors. Digital activity monitoring enables employers to confirm that staff members concentrate on their work tasks while they are at their desks. Remote work and hybrid models have become standard in workplaces because employees can no longer prove their productivity through office attendance. Employers need to monitor how workers spend their time at work because they want both performance outcomes and adequate time management.
Businesses operating in specific industries need to track their employees' activities to secure data because regulatory standards demand it. Through online activity tracking, employers achieve two objectives: they detect suspicious behavior right away and stop employees from accessing unauthorized confidential data. Screen usage tracking functions as an essential tool for both business efficiency maintenance and security protection of organizational assets.

Benefits of Screen Usage Tracking
Reduces Distractions
Employees lose their focus on work when there is no oversight system in place. Screen tracking ensures that employees are focused and using their time effectively, especially during work hours. Work hour restrictions on particular apps and websites through blocking mechanisms help employees stay focused on their tasks.
Enhances Security and Compliance
Employees lose their focus on work when there is no oversight system in place. Work hours require employees to remain focused while using their time effectively because screen tracking provides this oversight. Work hour restrictions on particular apps and websites through blocking mechanisms help employees stay focused on their tasks.
Data-Driven Insights
Screen usage data generates important information about employee work habits as well as employee engagement levels. By monitoring screen usage data managers can identify workers who require extra support and training along with identifying staff members who work excessively and those who perform above expectations. Staff management strategies and workplace performance benefit from these insights gained.

Future of Screen Usage Tracking in Workplaces
Screen usage monitoring will experience future evolution through technological developments that define how tracking occurs. These screen usage tracking tools will benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI) because it brings both enhanced accuracy and usefulness. Artificial intelligence programming systems analyze staff behavioral patterns to generate forecast data which leads to predictive productivity improvement strategies.
Privacy laws together with regulations, will likely advance in their development. Organizations must discover methods to integrate employee rights protection systems with their monitoring strategies due to rising data privacy concerns. Organizations will adopt standard tracking policies based on transparency and employee consent to maintain ethical and legal handling of employee data.
Qoli.AI drives revolutionary changes in screen usage tracking through its leading AI technology solutions. Data-driven business decisions through Qoli.AI become possible because they provide up-to-the-minute employee performance and behavioral data while adhering to privacy limits. The platform integrates advanced technology to connect with workplace systems which provides employees with trustworthy monitoring solutions.

Conclusion
The implementation of work screen monitoring serves both positive and negative functions. Employment screen tracking enables productivity enhancement and security alongside operational efficiency at the cost of severe privacy issues and moral problems. The successful implementation of work performance enhancement requires organizations to maintain the proper balance between performance upliftment and employee privacy protection. The use of screen tracking tools benefits employers when they maintain transparency and gain employee consent, as well as develop ethical standards that protect employee trust and workplace morale.

APM BILLING: Providing HIPAA-Compliant Billing Services You Can Trust

In today’s healthcare landscape, maintaining patient privacy and data security is paramount. Healthcare providers must adhere to strict standards to protect sensitive information while ensuring that financial operations are smooth and efficient. APM BILLING, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is dedicated to providing HIPAA-compliant billing services that ensure the highest level of security and compliance, while also optimizing the billing process for healthcare providers.

What Are HIPAA-Compliant Billing Services?
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) establishes strict rules to ensure that healthcare providers maintain patient privacy and the confidentiality of their health information. As part of our commitment to protecting patient data, APM BILLING offers HIPAA-compliant billing services that meet all of the requirements set forth by this regulation.

Our HIPAA-compliant billing services ensure that all personal health information (PHI) handled during the billing and claims process remains secure. From data encryption to secure transmission, we follow the highest security standards to prevent unauthorized access, breaches, and other vulnerabilities.

Why Is HIPAA Compliance Critical for Healthcare Billing?
For any healthcare business, staying HIPAA-compliant is not just a regulatory necessity—it's essential to maintaining trust with patients and avoiding costly penalties. Non-compliance can result in hefty fines, lawsuits, and damage to your reputation. When it comes to billing, ensuring that all processes follow HIPAA guidelines is critical in preventing unauthorized access to sensitive patient data.

APM BILLING takes privacy and security seriously. Our team is well-versed in all HIPAA regulations, so you can trust that your patient data is always protected. We integrate comprehensive security protocols into our billing workflows, including:

Encrypted communications for all patient data exchanges

Secure data storage that meets HIPAA standards

Audit trails to track access to patient information and billing details

Employee training to ensure that everyone handling sensitive data understands HIPAA guidelines

The Benefits of Working with APM BILLING for HIPAA-Compliant Billing Services
By choosing APM BILLING, you gain the peace of mind that comes with knowing your billing processes are in full compliance with HIPAA regulations. Here are some of the key benefits of our HIPAA-compliant billing services:

Data Security: We use the latest technology to protect patient information, ensuring that all billing data is securely transmitted and stored.

Regulatory Compliance: Our team stays up-to-date with the latest changes to HIPAA regulations, ensuring that your practice remains compliant with all legal requirements.

Reduced Risk of Penalties: HIPAA violations can lead to significant fines and penalties. By outsourcing your billing to APM BILLING, you minimize the risk of compliance issues and the associated costs.

Enhanced Trust: Patients trust healthcare providers to keep their personal and medical information safe. By using our HIPAA-compliant billing services, you show your commitment to maintaining privacy, which fosters trust and enhances your reputation.

Efficiency and Accuracy: In addition to security, we ensure that your billing processes are efficient and accurate, leading to faster claim submissions, reduced denials, and increased revenue.

Why Choose APM BILLING for HIPAA-Compliant Billing Services?
Expertise: Our experienced team is dedicated to ensuring that all of your billing practices comply with HIPAA guidelines.

Tailored Solutions: We offer customized solutions that meet the specific needs of your healthcare practice, whether you’re a clinic, provider, or specialty office.

Focus on Security: We take security seriously and use state-of-the-art systems to protect all sensitive information.

Reliable Support: With APM BILLING, you’ll have a trusted partner in billing that is committed to safeguarding your practice’s financial and data integrity.

Get Started with APM BILLING Today
At APM BILLING, we understand the importance of maintaining HIPAA-compliant billing services in today's healthcare environment. We are here to help your practice stay secure, compliant, and financially efficient.

Contact us today at +1-800-621-3354 to learn more about how we can help streamline your billing process while ensuring complete protection of patient data. Visit our office at 19104 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and let APM BILLING handle your billing needs with the utmost professionalism and care.

Let APM BILLING take the stress out of billing while keeping your practice compliant with HIPAA regulations, so you can focus on what matters most—caring for your patients.

"Discover essential time management techniques to enhance employee productivity. Learn practical strategies, tools, and benefits of effective time management in achieving workplace efficiency and work-life balance."

Introduction to Time Management Techniques

Time management is very important in the current world of work where organizations are under pressure to deliver on their objectives. This guide looks at different time management strategies that can be used to improve the efficiency of employees and the success of the organization.

Understanding Time Management

Understanding Time Management is important to comprehend the concept of time management in order to achieve the best results in any organization. It entails proper scheduling and organizing of activities, proper utilization of resources, and proper establishment of objectives and time frames. Hence, when people learn how to manage time effectively, they can easily organize their tasks, minimize stress, and balance between work and personal life. This skill not only enhances the performance of the individual but also the performance of the organizations as it guarantees that tasks are done effectively and within the stipulated time.
Definition of Time Management

Time management is the act of arranging and controlling the use of time in order to effectively complete the activities that have been scheduled for completion.

Importance of Time Management in the Workplace

It is a crucial factor that enables employees to schedule their work, meet deadlines, minimize stress, and balance work and personal life. It also improves the general efficiency and plays a role in the improvement of organizational performance.

Assessing Current Time Management Practices
Assess the current state of time management in the organization in order to determine the best practices, the problems, and the opportunities.

Setting Clear Goals and Deadlines
Set specific and realistic objectives for the work and assignments, as well as time frames to ensure proper motivation and work organization.

Utilizing Time Management Tools
Use time management tools like task management apps, calendars, and productivity software to optimize the processes and increase productivity.

Advantages of Time Management
Increased Productivity
Proper time management results in increased efficiency because employees are able to organize their work in a proper manner and avoid wasting time on unnecessary things.
Reduced Stress Levels
Through proper scheduling of tasks and time, there is a decrease in stress and feelings of being overwhelmed, which is beneficial to the employees.
Improved Work Quality
Scheduling of time helps the employees to set aside adequate time for a particular task hence increasing the quality of work being produced.
Better Work-Life Balance
Managing time at work and outside work is possible through time management hence improving the well-being and satisfaction of employees.

Best Practices for Sustaining Time Management
Regularly Reviewing and Adjusting Time Management Practices
Periodically review the current methods of time management to determine the potential for enhancement.
Encouraging Continuous Improvement
Encourage the employees to look for better ways of managing time so as to foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Balancing Workload and Priorities
Conducting Regular Workload Assessments
It is crucial to evaluate the workload to ensure that the employees do not get overwhelmed and that the organization remains efficient.

Linking Work Activities to Organizational Objectives
Linking tasks with organizational goals guarantees that all work done in the organization is in line with the strategic plan of the firm. When such goals are set, the teams can then prioritize the activities that will help in the achievement of the business objectives.

Technology as a Tool in Time Management
Implementing Task Management Apps
Task management applications help to organize work processes by consolidating the assignment of tasks, their progress, and collaboration tools into one application. These apps allow the teams to plan the tasks, set the priorities, and track the deadlines of the tasks.
Utilizing Calendar and Scheduling Applications
Calendars and scheduling tools are essential in time management since they assist the teams in planning for their activities. Schedules are used in organizations to plan for meetings, set up reminders and time for particular activities.

Conclusion
Time management is a critical component in organizational success, especially in the distribution of work, priority of tasks, and use of technology. Through proper workload evaluation, the teams can be able to balance the resources and avoid cases of fatigue hence enhancing productivity.