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What I Learned Watching a Co-Worker Get Forced Out

Corporate Glossary: every Friday, learn the secret meaning of common corporate words

“They’re trying to discharge her constructively. Do you know what Constructive Discharge means?” She asked.

As soon as I heard the term ‘Constructive Discharge,’ I knew I’d never seen it on a vocabulary quiz.

“No. What does it mean?” I asked.

She explained.

“Constructive discharge is a fancy way of saying “being forced out.” It’s not good. And if you’re not a lawyer or in human resources, you’ll probably learn what it means when it’s happening to you.”

“Oh my God. I’ve seen this my entire career and never knew it even had a name.” I thought.

You’ve seen constructive Discharge too. You may have experienced it. We’ve all made choices to avoid it.

Constructive discharge defined

“We can’t fire you, but we’ll make you so miserable you’ll quit, and then we won’t have to pay your unemployment.”

Then there’s the textbook definition:

“A constructive discharge occurs when your employer has made working conditions unbearable, forcing you to resign.”

Or as one person put it.

“I didn’t get handed a pink slip, but when you’re not wanted, people have a way of letting you know.”

HR isn’t always the secret police.

Employees aren’t always victims of evil-doers.

However, employers push employees out all the time to maintain and protect the, “We didn’t do anything wrong, YOU did,” power structure.

Constructive Discharge looks like this:

— Meeting invitations slow to a trickle, and you’re excluded from emails and generally looped out of what’s going on.

— People stop talking to you or stop talking when you walk in.

— Your emails don’t get answers, or they arrive too late to be of value.

— Suddenly, your work is not good enough, though nothing about your work has changed.

— Reviews, once good or even glowing, are now mediocre or bad.

— Instead of a bonus, you get a Performance Improvement Plan.

— Warnings and write-ups start so they can justify your eventual termination with documentation of your “poor performance”

— Your work, clients, assignments go away, or they overwhelm you with work.

— The words “Set up to fail” were practically invented to describe this scenario.

Constructive Discharge is illegal

It isn’t easy to prove you’re a target, and it’s even more challenging if you don’t even know constructive discharge is a real thing.

If you’ve ever experienced this and don’t fully understand what’s happening to you beyond knowing you’re in the process of being excommunicated, it can be hell. It’s not uncommon for the experience to leave long-lasting scars.

Talk to anyone who’s ever been through it. They’ll tell you.

Knowing constructive discharge exists and how it’s used gives you power to predict what’s coming and to protect yourself.

Seeing the endgame helps you in two ways.

You know what to expect. Having a sense of what’s coming next is enormously empowering. You can go on the offensive and protect yourself. Constructive discharge works to crush your ego, making you feel you did something wrong and deserve this treatment.

Without strategy, you end up being a miserable pawn in your employer’s endgame.

Remember, they’re almost certainly building a case to fire you in the event the hellscape they create for you doesn’t persuade you to quit.

If you’re getting pushed out, and you know what to look for you can prove constructive discharge and you can get unemployment benefits, be released from payback obligations on a signing bonus, and protect your mental health.

You’re not crazy, incompetent, or a failure. This is real and it’s carefully executed to leave you holding the bag and feeling like you did something wrong.

If they force you out, in addition to feeling horrible, you lose your paycheck, benefits health insurance, and possibly owe them money.

“How were LGBT people able to hijack the rainbow!?!”

Uhh, well Jake, we started using the rainbow to connote gayness and you immediately stopped using it because you were pants shittingly afraid of looking gay.

Pokémon AU

Anyone remember I made a pokemon au? Yeah I thought so.

Pokemon au is one of the first things I drew for this blog and one of the things that really helped me grow as an artist, so it's very dear to me. That and my undying love for pokemon.

So here's the collection of all my Pokémon au drawings and mini stories! Hope you'll enjoy them!

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8

Mirabel and Antonio official concept art!

I absolutely love their dynamic and relationship, they were together for 5 years in the nursery, and it’s no surprise that Antonio warmed up to Mirabel, considering how fun and alive she is. The three special scenes of them under the bed, Mirabel walking him to his door, and him walking her to the house door meant a lot to me, even if they’re not a large amount of scenes. Jared describes their relationship as special, they’re very close, especially considering how Antonio was born after she didn’t get her gift, meaning he was able to get to know her as herself really well. I would absolutely LOVE to see more scenes with them in the future, I also wouldn’t mind seeing flashbacks of when they first got along! 🦋🐯💕

by the way, it’s real bold of hollywood to be like “the writers and actors have unrealistic expectations, but WE know what we’re doing” when they got tricked into releasing morbius in theaters a second time.

MOVIE RANT BELOW YOU CAN IGNORE ME LOL JUST IN MY FEELS OK

I just watched Encanto yesterday by the way and as a Colombian I love what they did with this movie. There are small details that you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t familiar with the culture but I just had to make this appreciation post:

The clothing they wear is very typical of the clothing worn in the villages of the mountains down to the stitching! It was all so vibrant and beautiful! And the fact that they stitched the main characters name onto her skirt was such a great detail! Even the little bag that she was carrying is exactly like the bags that are crafted there - my grandpa would buy them as gifts for me and my sister and they are always so beautiful - bright colors and covered in flowers!

Also the architecture of the houses is JUST LIKE my great grandparents village!! My mom and grandma watched the movie with me also and were telling me about how they identified with this story so well. Personal note but my great grandparents actually had to flee their village on horseback with their two babies just like in the movie because they were threatened by assassins (wild I know). So my mom was like “bruh that abuela is MY ABUELA”

When it comes to the appearances, I’m so glad that they made the cast a mix of skin tones, hair types, overall a mix of appearances - because that is totally what we are like! The abuela looks just like my grandma - fairer skin, relatively straightish hair. Meanwhile I’d say I look a lot more like the main character - medium tone skin with curly hair but the curls aren’t tight. And my sister turned out like the MC’s cousin Camilo, similar skin color but MUCH tighter curls. I saw so many of my family and friends in those characters I could go on about this all day!

Also, THE FOOD! Don’t get me started on the food! There are certain foods that are ‘typically’ served in colombian restaurants here in America that are not actually what we eat back in Colombia. I appreciate that they actually used OUR food in this movie. Like the arepas for example. Here in america usually the restaurants serve the corn arepas with cheese on top. I’ve never been to a restaurant that serves arepas the way we actually make them - with the cheese already in the corn mixture. But in the movie they were EXACTLY how we make them I wanted to cry ok. And the buñelos looked so good ffs the breakfast they had together after the engagement party was literally the breakfast my grandma would make for me as a kid like 😭

And the music was so very obviously inspired by not just salsa (aka generic carribean Spanish music) but vallenato (a genre of music that is almost exclusively Colombian) and other genres of music, it was overall very inspired by everything we listen to not just the generic salsa you hear at parties

PLUS the casual use of Spanish pet names like “mija” and “abuela” had me cheesing okay

ALSO WHEN MIRABELS FATHER SAID MIERCOLES I WAS DYING AKDHSKDJSKD (it’s a PG way to say shit in Spanish jajaja)

Actually everything about her dad was precious also when he played the intro chords to La Rebelíon I was ACTUALLY CRYING OF LAUGHTER like whoever chose the music for this KNOWS COLOMBIANS SO WELL LIKE????? If you aren’t familiar with Joe Arroyo you wouldn’t have understood why her dad was playing those chords but like - that is literally the one song that will make ANYONE stand up and dance so when Abuela was like “let’s get back to dancing” and Mirabels dad started playing the intro chords to that song on the piano it was so funny ok

Also real talk I think I have a crush on Luisa

*CORRECTION the song was En Barranquilla Me Quedo and as someone who is FROM BARRANQUILLA I wanna formally say I’m going to crawl into a rock and die now for my mistakes*

*SIGHS*

Another AO3 app that's pretending to be official when it's not (or at least isn't making it clear its unofficial.) They're using AO3's name and logo, and embedding ads.

There is no official AO3 app

Someone else is gathering your data, potentially your log in information etc and making use of it how they please. (They say they're not but their privacy policy says otherwise)

They are making money from the ads without the fic writer's consent.

They've also rated it Pegi 3 (which is ludicrous)

Please, even if you care about nothing else, for the safety of your data, please don't use this app. Certainly don't give it your AO3 log in details.

I've told AO3 that it's infringing on its copyright. I will be requesting they remove access of my work as I do not consent to my creative content being used to generate ad revenue for them.

I will be reporting it as incorrectly rated.

The only email address I can find is Narusta@gmail.com which is included in their privacy policy, and boboxway13@gmail.com as their developer.

when i was a tiny baby queer (aka a 24-year-old), i went to my first pride festival probably three months after i kicked ex-gay therapy to the curb and came out to my parents. being the people they are, my parents came with me. they weren’t really sure about this whole gay thing, but they loved me and wanted me to be safe and happy and wanted to be involved in what was important to me, so they came along. (i also think my mother still might have thought i might get drugged or murdered or beaten by a protester of which there were plenty.)

anyway i wanted a memento of my first pride, you know, and this one vendor was selling keyrings, and i liked it, so i bought one. do you remember those italian charm bracelets that were all the rage like 10-15 years ago? it was a keychain like that, and it had a rainbow rooster, a rainbow cat, and then just a rainbow, and so I bought it.

i run into my mom a couple of vendors over and she goes oh you bought something? what’d you get? so i showed her, and i was like, “I’m not sure why it’s a rooster and a cat. Seems kind of random. But I liked the rainbows.”

and my mom, who was some form of minister’s wife for most of my childhood and teenagerhood, stares at me like she thinks i’m joking.

“What?” i say.

“…it’s a cock and a pussy, Jules,” she says flatly, and that is the story of how i died at the age of 24 while attending my first pride festival.

“Your son just kicked me, Miss Luthor-Danvers.”

Kara looked over to the couch, where Lena bad stopped reading her book, which now lay propped on the dome of her stomach. She looked absolutely exhausted, with dark circles beneath her eyes, marring paler than usual skin.

The pregnancy was taking its toll on Lena, but just as difficult for Lena was the order to remain on pelvic rest, as were the Herculean caloric requirements of gestating a Kryptonian child on Earth. Lena Luthor was the type of woman who grew more fatigued from orders to lay up in bed, and Kara had to practically bat her phone out of her hand to stop her from answering emails at all hours of the night.

Kara swung out from behind the kitchen island, carrying another smoothie with a carefully selected mix of fruits, vegetables, and protein powder.

“Blegh,” Lena said, as she choked down a gulp of the stuff. Does it have to be so sweet?”

Kara didn’t answer. Lena looked haggard by her own usual standards, but to Kara, she was the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen. Yes, she was pale, but there as a rosy glow in her cheeks and though she sighed and complained and groused, rarely had there been such joy in her eyes. One of Kara’s new favorite things was catching Lena unawares, finding her smiling at nothing and cradling protective arms around the new life coming to being within her.

After she gulped down the last of the thick, gloppy shake -which Lena had given the appetizing name of ‘nutrient slurry mark one’, she turned halfway on the couch.

“There he goes again,” said Lena, sighing.

Kara reached out with a trembling hand, resting it gently on the warm curve of Lena’s skin. She went quiet for a moment, forcing back the tears. Thinking about this overwhelmed her. She’d never dreamed she’d really have this, much less with the most beautiful and kind woman she’d ever known. A soft twitch against her palm made her grin from ear to ear.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying this. I’d like to get some sleep.”

Kara chewed at her lip for a moment.

“What if I try singing to him?”

Lena raised a sharp eyebrow.

“Alex gave me an article that says that babies can hear us while they’re in the womb.”

Lena’s head fell back against the cushions.

“Do you know any lullabies?”

Kara swallowed, hard.

“Yes.”

There was a pause, as Kara worked herself up, pulling the words from the lost days of her youth, across an ocean of stars beneath a far distant sun.

She more spoke than sang at first, until her voice grew into something soft and light, like a rare flower opening its petals to greet the sun. By the time she really began to sing, Lena was smiling, listening intently.

Kara dug deep in her memory for the words to the traditional Kryptonian lullaby, a promise from a young mother to her child lost in the wilderness, an invocation to come home safe to loving arms before the reunited in the final verses.

When Kara finished she looked up and saw that Lena was fast asleep, her hand now resting atop Kara’s as it rested on Lena’s belly. Tenderly, Kara drew her hand back and, with practiced ease, raised Lena in her arms and carried her back to the bedroom, another Kryptonian verse flowing softly from old memories, and the eventually they slept, until sunrise.