Chick Chat, Group Post

Chick Chat: Annual Thumbs-Down Awards

After last week’s Thumbs-Up discussion, it’s now time to announce our annual Thumbs-Down awards: What is it that’s been driving us nuts, having us shake our heads in unhappy disbelief, or simply making us want to crawl back into bed and sleep for a few more hours till it goes away?

Lisa Q. Mathews

A big thumbs-down from me for…Mean People with Signs. I know that seems a little obvious, but I’m really, really getting fed up with the rudeness out there. Recently a college classmate of mine, a former dedicated athlete who is now sadly fighting MS, had a professionally-printed sign placed by some jerk on the windshield of his mobility van—which is covered in stickers notifying others of that status, plus the usual handicap signs on the dash, etc. The sign said, “I can tell by the way you park your car that no one likes you.” Huh. Someone actually carries that around in their own vehicle just for the chance to shame others. And to people in the cars ahead of me in the Dunkin’ drive-thru with the obnoxious, not-funny bumper stickers to ruin others’ days—who ARE you?

 Ellen Byron

I was so eager to give my thumbs-down that I jumped the gun and posted it last week! Well, it’s still my number one gripe, so I’m reposting, but with additional intel.

A big thumbs down to the multi-millionaire/billionaire entertainment CEOs who have forced a strike. Our industry overlords are literally pricing yachts as they fire employees (one CEO got a $200 mil bonus for “cost cutting,” aka/firing people) and refuse to negotiate with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. (I’m a member of both unions, although on honorable withdrawal from SAG-AFTRA.)

A 2019 study by the Economic Policy Institute showed CEO compensation has increased 940% since 1978 while worker compensation increased 12%. And that study was done four years ago. Here’s a direct quote from an anonymous executive about their goal re: the strikes: “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”

An additional giant thumbs-down to one of the most critical issues for both unions: AI, an insidious technology that threatens more livelihoods than we can even imagine right now.

As the network I spent many seasons writing for would say, #themoreyouknow…

Leslie Karst

Here’s a big thumbs-down to all the hackers who have made our lives miserable by requiring us to have a separate password for every single thing we do on the internet. And two-step authentication. And voice recognition. Long gone are the days of your mother’s maiden name.

At least there are now services that provide a secure (I hope!) place in the cloud for you to store all those hundreds of different passwords. I use 1Password (which does what it sounds like: you make up one single very complicated password to access the site, and then it remembers all those other passwords for you), but there are many different ones out there. But here’s another big thumbs-down in advance to the time when the hackers are able to hack that, as well. Ugh.

Kathleen Valenti

Thumbs waaaaaaaaaaay down for broken stuff. In the last couple of weeks, my laptop, washing machine, garbage disposal and vintage soda machine (and exciting new-to-me purchase) went on the fritz. The optimist in me is ever so grateful for People with Skills who can right these egregious wrongs. But hooooo boy, it sure is inconvenient when things don’t work. The silver lining is that I’m more grateful than ever that I even have these glorious things–especially that doggone washing machine. It’s even tougher to go without than my laptop–and that’s saying something!

Becky Clark

HUGE double thumbs down and a gratuitous dope slap to my now ex-veterinarian. Nala will be 15 in January. She’s old and we’re simply trying to keep her as pain-free as possible. I get her pain meds—which work and she’s been on for an appropriate amount of time—from a mail order pharmacy. I allowed plenty of time in this day-and-age for shipping. But it took three days for the vet to let me know they refused to renew her prescription because she was ONE DAY beyond their “gotta see a dog every twelve months at least” policy. And I understand that policy, really I do. But when I pointed out it was only one day and she can’t get in the car anymore, and maybe we could do a Zoom visit, they simply said “NO,” citing corporate policy, “and, oh btw, she’ll need her rabies shot too.” I calmly explained that I would be declining said rabies shot anyway because she’s outside for about twelve seconds a day and the odds that she’d tangle with some rabid creature are less than zero. But no, they cited corporate policy once again. They clearly care more about their corporate policies than this sweet, elderly pooch so I scrambled to find a new vet who jumped on Zoom with me and approved the meds. And now I’m sweating bullets, just a day away from running out. Of course, excellent new vet said I could come in and get a few days supply from them, but it’s a drive so I’m hoping they’re in the mail today. Grr.

Jennifer Chow

Can I give a thumbs-down to this entire week? I’m having a week filled with woes. 1. Tech gremlins: My Zoom totally died before an important call—and get this, it rebooted & worked fine right after that time slot. Plus, my phone is acting strange by only intermittently letting me swipe and text. 2. Car troubles: Warning lights started flashing all of a sudden, so I’ve got to figure out why my vehicle is currently staging a rebellion. 3. Stress: So the last few days have been emotionally draining because of things happening to people I care about—these include bullying, discord, and a hospitalization.

Readers, drop us a note in the comments below!

45 thoughts on “Chick Chat: Annual Thumbs-Down Awards”

  1. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed and sympathized with all of these aggravations! I’m generally a positive person, but sometimes, grrr. My favorite gripe is the one Leslie brought up–those password requirements and the two-step authentication. That’s causing me grief right now, because one place only has my land line listed for two factor ID and we finally cut the cord on that months ago. Argh. The WGA issue is despicable.

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    1. Yes, I have a one-master-password deal that got hacked. I had 50K new passwords to come up with after that. What I love most is that they try to direct you toward those computer-generated, (also 50K-digit) passwords and tell you you don’t have to remember them, because they’re auto-saved. Sure, Jan. Tell that to Roku.

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    3. Each password must be 38 digits long exactly. It must contain letters (upper and lower case), numbers, and symbols. It can not be a word or phrase. But don’t you dare write it down anywhere. And don’t use the same password for any other site.

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  2. For me, a thumbs down to people who talk non-stop all the way through a concert so loudly, I hear them over the artist who’s performing. I guess I’m old-fashioned, but I’d prefer to hear the music, not some group’s ongoing conversation.

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      2. Oh, Jen, you’re simply too nice. I’d march right up to them, crawling over every person between us, get nose to nose with them and say, “You’re done talking.” Then I’d go give the usher the what-for for making me do it.

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    4. I so agree, J.C. Or people who talk during movies. BOOOO. Or have their phones on so their screens cast light. Dudes and dudettes, you can turn off your phone for a couple of hours. I promise you will survive!

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    5. This is one reason I am reluctant to go to the movies any more. People treat it like an extension of their living room and get mad at you when you try to get them to be quiet. As if you are the one being rude. Sorry, if I want to hear a commentary on the film, you are probably the last person I’d want to hear it from. And I’m not interested in a commentary the first time I see a film.

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  3. These are all fabulous thumbs down, and I want to address each one.
    Lisa, what a jerk. I bet they got that idea from the knock knock company. They used to have a tiny book of play seat, citations, where you could put a “fake ticket“ on someone’s car for the way they parked, or that it need to be cleaned, etc. etc.

    Leslie, I hate creating new passwords. You’ve got your personal passwords, then you got your work passwords. They have to be changed every six months, you’ve got your criteria, and saw them even say you can’t use any password you used in the last 24 months. Like I’m gonna remember a password I used a year ago for my Apple account!

    Kathleen and Jennifer, it sounds like you have the same gremlins going through both your houses at the same time. I like trains breaking down sucks! Because, of course most of us don’t know how to fix them, and you’re lucky if you know someone who can. I hope things will get better for the two of you, and you can get back to being comfortable with real life.

    Becky, I hope your ex that goes out of business real fast! What you wrote is so cruel for them to do. If they do that to enough of their customers, words going to get around, and they will go under. I’m very happy you were able to find a new vet, that is accommodating.

    And last, but not least, Ellen! I don’t exactly know what you’re going through, I’ve heard about all the arguments and everything (which are absolutely nuts, shocking, dung, cruel, etc) but I can definitely commiserate with your situation. The government furloughs are the same BS. And I do mean BS! When the government shuts down, the idiots who have to fix it decide to go on vacation, which extends it. And they get paid! we’ve never not gotten back pay for it as far as I know, but imagine a secretary in Los Angeles, who has to go on “furlough“. She only makes 35,000 a year (maybe!), and the public yells at her because she doesn’t have six months worth of savings to cover these bills. She’s living day-to-day in an expensive area. She has a good and steady job, but she can do nothing about the amount of money she makes. The public says well you just get a free vacation; not really! We are waiting up till midnight on the deadline to find out if we go to work. If nothing gets approved, the next morning we have to come in and shut down everything, notify everyone, cancel appointments, do some emergency things; we got four hours to do this. And some people have to work anyway, no pay. You can’t say “let’s go to Florida for a week to Disney World”; if the furlough ends you’ve got eight hours to return back to work, unless you call your boss and say, I am now on annual leave. Which means you are on vacation listening to the news constantly, some vacation! And you can’t afford to go to Hawaii when on furlough, because you have to get all bills paid. Sorry for the rant, the public doesn’t understand a government furlough. So I can definitely feel your pain and frustration. i don’t go through something equal, but similar in its own way.

    It’s Friday, and I hope all of you are doing something fun this weekend. Drinks for everyone!

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    4. Ugh, Hestia. I’ve had a bit of experience with govt furloughs and they are horrrrrible. Unfair and always stupid, the result of some ridiculous fight about something that grown-ups should have easily fixed.

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  4. Becky, your thumbs down especially hit a nerve. Only for me, it wasn’t a vet, it was a doctor! My pharmacy recently notified me that my doctor had refused to refill one of my recurring prescriptions. When I called to find out why, they told me that they wanted me to have an office visit before they would authorize the refill. When I asked them why they couldn’t have sent me a polite email telling me a visit was due instead of just refusing the refill, the nurse told me they had 20,000 patients and just couldn’t be expected to keep up with us all! I told her that made me wonder about the kind of care I would receive from that practice, and she got in a snit and told me she’d refuse to refill my prescription to tide me over until I could see someone unless I apologized. I did say I was sorry (not!) just so I could get my meds, but then immediately started searching for another doctor who wasn’t so overwhelmed. I’m happy to say I found one, and have kicked the other guy to the curb.

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    1. “Until (you) apologized”–holy spumoni, Tom. You have more patience than I. (Did that person have a wooden spoon to shake at you, too?)

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    3. Oh good grief, Tom, that’s infuriating! It seems some people forget they’re in a “helping profession.” Glad to hear you found somebody better too!

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  5. I sympathize with these, I really do. (As you can see from some of my comments above.)

    I’m sleep deprived right now (haven’t been sleeping well for over a week, mostly my fault for staying up late), so I wasn’t especially happy when I logged into work this morning to find that we had recorded something wrong for month end close, which theoretically ended yesterday. So I had to drop everything on my schedule and fix that issue. The only apology I’ve gotten from the person who caused the error was an apology that they didn’t call me to fix it last night when they discovered the problem…at 6:30. Sorry, but I was out last night. She also pointed out that we had the correct information weeks ago. And she’s right, we did. We should have double checked when SHE told us it was X instead of Y. Yes, SHE caused the problem with what she said. We should have checked, but accept your own role in this and apologize. And also, don’t presume that I will log back in at night to fix a problem. I really need to reset boundaries between work and personal life again. I love working from home, but they have allowed these lines to really blur if not get erased all together.

    On the positive side, I signed up for one day at Bouchercon this week! I’ll be there Saturday.

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  6. Oh, Jen! I’m sorry about the struggles people you care about are going through. I hope there will be quick and satisfactory resolutions, and health and healing for anyone in the hospital.❤️

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  7. What is so bad about these verifications is that they supposedly send you a code on your cell phone, but it never gets there. So, you cannot access your info even though the phone number is correct. That is so frustrating, and you can’t get rid of it until you can access your account. And you can’t access your account because you can’t get your verification number. Catch 22!

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