Little things that annoy the hell out of you

[Randorama]

I have been spending the last few working days signing different versions of my contract. Basically, it's like this:

1. As a foreign national working abroad, my new contract must include certain information so that I can get a new work permit and residence permit;
2. HR currently has a new boss and employers fresh off graduation, who seem not to understand that they should follow ready-made templates;
3. My department and the international personnel department have tried to explain to the HR staff members how to prepare the new contract ("insert information in the template. Do not edit anything else"). These guys have been...well, typical HR staff. For instance, they refused adding the contact of my finance officer to their WhatsApp, because they did not know who they were (maybe the message "I am X from department Y and I am contacting you for work issues" was not clear). They then started being creative with official templates by changing legal terms;
4. The dean of the department and the Vice-Chancellor (i.e. the "big bosses" in my university) apparently had a walk, and also a talk, with those HR fellas, at some point (of the "Capisce?" kind, apparently). Nevertheless...
5. ...HR has made me sign five versions of my contract because they had to fix mistakes such as "we, the HR department" instead of "we, HR office" (i.e. they kept changing terms in the basic template).

Apparently, tomorrow we should have a new, final and finally accurate version that the immigration office will not reject. But also apparently, we may simply bypass HR and get their seals on the contract "by other means", with an officer from the immigration office having a look (because "someone" asked them to have a look as to why HR modifies templates emanated from a ministry preposed to certain tasks, hey).

Luckily, the rest of the renewal procedures are online and really fast (ten working days max, and I have time until the end of August), but at this stage I am also preparing "Plan B" in case things go badly for no real reason (say, HR people want to deal with the local government and explain to them why they are basically tampering official templates...). Unless we effectively bypass HR, which sounds wise but somewhat...dodgy?

"The situation is grave but not serious", Italian writer Ennio Flaiano used to say.

[BulletMagnet]

For some reason lately every news feed I've scrolled through contains a million "[Current Movie] Surpasses [Older Movie] In Earnings" articles; I haven't seen a movie in literally years and very seldom click on articles about films, so I have no idea why they're suddenly everywhere. Before this it was "We Asked 5 [Professionals] Which is the Best [Product], and They All Said the Same Thing" filler. AI slop, I guess?

[xEbb1993x]

I can't be the only one who's sick and tired of all the melodrama, sob stories, whiny protagonists, main characters getting fired from their own party, and sadistic villains who commit a ton of misdeeds and get away with it in anime. I swear, anime's become such an overly depressing place lately.

[Specineff]

Non-compete agreements that are just plain bullshit and have nothing to do with trade secrets or patents.

[vol.2]

Non-compete agreements that are just plain bullshit and have nothing to do with trade secrets or patents.

It's all about control. They want to make it hard for you to leave because that puts them in a greater position of power in your employment.

[Sweatlord_STG]

The roulette in Parodius

[ryu]

A package from Japan seems like it might be lost in transit. Unless these delays are the norm now that everybody and their mother orders cheap shit from China on a daily basis.

[Sweatlord_STG]

A package from Japan seems like it might be lost in transit. Unless these delays are the norm now that everybody and their mother orders cheap shit from China on a daily basis.

I am still waiting for my Gradius and Night Strikers boxes because they were sent to the wrong country. The seller says it was UPS who fucked it up. I think they are lying. But it's OK. The parcel is on its way back to Japan and then they will send it again.

[Koa Zo]

A package from Japan seems like it might be lost in transit. Unless these delays are the norm now that everybody and their mother orders cheap shit from China on a daily basis.

Are you in the USA? Customs refused an Amazon Japan order of mine a couple weeks ago, a music CD and a magnifying loupe.
I then reordered the same items and used express DHL and it was delivered within 48 hours no problem.

My Gradius Origins order was shipped economy and is being held up at the moment, who knows if it will be refused and returned.

None of us in the US are ready to start dealing with the negation of the de minimus exemption which take place on Aug.29th.

[ryu]

Are you in the USA?

Thankfully not.

Customs refused an Amazon Japan order of mine a couple weeks ago, a music CD and a magnifying loupe.

Wtf. The worst customs experience I ever heard of here was when a friend had his copy of House of the Dead denied import clearance lol

I then reordered the same items and used express DHL and it was delivered within 48 hours no problem.

Yeah, that's my usual experience too. Express delivery from Japan is exceptionally fast, so I have no idea what's holding up my package. DHL service told me it may just be delayed and to call them again in a week if it's still stuck by then.

My Gradius Origins order was shipped economy and is being held up at the moment, who knows if it will be refused and returned.

If it's any condolence, I also have to wait for the LRG release because I preordered from them before I was aware that it was also getting a regular physical release in Japan. /facepalm

None of us in the US are ready to start dealing with the negation of the de minimus exemption which take place on Aug.29th.

I am still waiting for my Gradius and Night Strikers boxes because they were sent to the wrong country. The seller says it was UPS who fucked it up. I think they are lying. But it's OK. The parcel is on its way back to Japan and then they will send it again.

Delivery mistakes can happen though. I think something similar happened with a delivery for me in the past too.

[Sweatlord_STG]

Haha yeah DHL is always the best. They always deliver one or two days ahead of their scheduled delivery day, so mostly it only takes two days from Japan to the UK. But when I placed the order I'm still waiting for, that seller only offered UPS and for some reason I wanted to buy from him. So this one time I couldn't use DHL already resulted in a bad experience.

[Steamflogger Boss]

For me Fedex has been the most reliable from Japan. DHL and EMS are fine. Basically never have a reason to select UPS as it's always just a lot more expensive. When I'm being a cheap ass I'll use something like ECMS here and there. It's been totally fine, but takes weeks instead of a couple days.

Anyway fuck these tariffs.

[Sweatlord_STG]

For me Fedex has been the most reliable from Japan. DHL and EMS are fine. Basically never have a reason to select UPS as it's always just a lot more expensive. When I'm being a cheap ass I'll use something like ECMS here and there. It's been totally fine, but takes weeks instead of a couple days.

Anyway fuck these tariffs.

FedEx is a mess, from my experience. Once they lost something I ordered, and that wasn't even from Japan but domestic lol. Then a few years ago when importing something, weeks after the delivery they sent me confusing paperwork regarding import taxes. The letter honestly looked like it had been typed on a type writer. Instructions were not clear anyway so I had to call them and even on the phone when looking into it they were not sure what I was supposed to do, like WTF?

It was similar with UPS not that long ago. While others like DHL make it super easy for you to pay an outstanding amount online, UPS instead sent me a thick letter with all kinds of details you have to type in so you can pay them via bank transfer. That is so retro. Not to mention all sorts of confusing numbers, tables and walls of texts that I couldn't make sense of.

[Steamflogger Boss]

I've certainly had issues with all of these companies over the years. Basically you deal with enough packages and that will happen. USPS is practically unusable right now.

Someone I know online had a similar weird tax experience with fedex. So with de minimis ending, that could steer me away from them. But in general I will be importing a lot less because of that.