I am CuTRis

With all of the negative things in the news lately, I wanted to share some good news! The person at McDonald's who sits on every hamburger before you get it, still has his/her job. And as you can see by my photo, is doing excellent work.

I was laid off last Monday, along with many, other talented people, because the company is in trouble. After buying other companies and other software products, it routinely uses layoffs to temporarily make the finances appear better. While this looks good in the short term, it's misguided. The abandoned workers did nothing wrong, and in fact, they were necessary to maintain quality. When an organization gets too large to provide the wonderful customer experience that they talk so extensively about, cutting staff in favor of AI and offshore solutions, will ultimately lead to more dissatisfied customers and subscription cancellations. There is still no substitute for human talent. I can write better than Claude, and I provide higher quality customer service than Forethought can. I am skilled at writing and effective communications, technology support, customer service and streamlining workflow. If anyone knows of an employer in need of this type of experience, drop me a message. I...

I just had my first preliminary phone interview with an AI "personality." This "ship" just got real...

I lost my job during the covid pandemic. A year ago this month, on the day we buried my father, I found out the software I supported was being sold. In June, I was able to get a job at the company that bought it. I worked really hard to learn the new job. My supervisor thought I was doing well. Today, I was called into a surprise meeting with strangers, to findout my job was being eliminated. I was locked out of my work computer minutes later. My supervisor had no prior knowledge of this, but apparently the company cut other jobs today as well. It's what they do. They acquire other companies and software, and periodically have mass layoffs. It explains a lot about the poor communications and unhappy customers. But none of that makes me feel better about today. When you put forth your best effort to make the changes thrown at you, only to be given the explanation of, "structural changes," before losing access to your job and income, it leaves one feeling lost. But I'l...

I'm afraid I must part ways with Governor Tim Walz on the issue of remote work. I even had to chuckle, when I heard his reasoning for making state employees return to the office at least 50% of the time. That reasoning, is a tactic being used quite often recently, when decisions are made unilaterally and not by consensus. George Carlin was right. People throw a lot of big words and lofty language into things to make them sound more important than they are. I work remotely. If I want to collaborate with my team, I can do that just as quickly and perhaps more efficiently remotely than in the office. We have so many collaborative tools at our disposal, that messages and team meetings are an effective and normal part of our daily work life. It is not our responsibility to populate the downtown areas at our expense. Working remotely, saves fuel and time. While being very productive, I am also able to better care for my family. My job has changed, and is going to change again. Each time,...

There were just four of us for Thanksgiving. I cooked, and my turkey took longer than expected. My mom thought it was the addition of all those Brussels Sprouts I added halfway through. I suspect that contributed to the delay. But dinner was good, and we had a toast to those friends and family we lost. There were five since July. One of the two cousins just two weeks ago, my wife's aunt in Sheboygan, my friend Kaikaik in July and my dad in October. It was a tough year. My job is an unknown, so 2025 will be interesting as well. May we weather the lies, tariffs and hate mongering to come. My wish is that we learn to tolerate differences, trust science, and consider the welfare of others in the future. -KJC

Imagine if the CEO of a company was removed from his job, and then he organized a mob and they stormed the building and caused damage and death. Now imagine that this same former CEO was convicted of falsifying business records. Imagine he was indicted and paid off large sums of money for crimes such as sexual assault. Imagine the same person lied over and over and it was proven that he maliciously lied about immigrants, and other people. Imagine he used inflated numbers that could not exist in the scenarios in which he was using them. Then imagine, dire warnings from people who worked with him that he should never be in power again. And then, imagine that the company's board of directors rehired him to be CEO again.

The mayor of Minneapolis made a joke the other day about those of us working from home turning into "losers." For the life of me, I am not seeing anything except "win" about my situation of working from home! I don't have to pay parking to work downtown, I don't have to pay extra money for gasoline, which is not only good for my bank account, but it's good for the environment too. I also have more time for my family, more personal time, and that lack of sitting in traffic means my stress level is not as high. If all of these things make me a loser, then so be it! I'm very happy.

Here is Winnie the Pooh, dressed for his virtual meeting at work...

My big brother Jim is retiring today. He spent the last 25 years of his career at the MSP Airport, keeping the big trucks and machines running. During bad weather, like the snow storm we just had that dumped 8 inches of snow on the airport, Jim would get called in to live there for the duration of the weather event. This is how he finished his career there. Somehow that seems fitting. Congratulations on your retirement Jim.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving 2022, there are things to be thankful for and things to remember. My family will be getting together in larger numbers than we have for two years. My wife’s family is missing grandpa (dad) and grandma (mom), and has chosen to wait for Christmas to get together. Not that it is over yet, but we’ve been through a pandemic. Life has changed since 2019. Some family and friends have passed. Those of us who are left may feel older. There were so many struggles—and some of them continue. We all seem to know someone who left us during the pandemic. Some of us lost our jobs, me included. But there were some positives. We’re more conscious of masking and staying home if sick. Some of us have new jobs, me included. And now, we ease back into the holidays, still wary of COVID-19, influenza and RSV. Amidst the daily news of shootings, high prices, wars, partisan politics, shortages and those who keep instigating racial discord, we continue on. We celebrate an American...

Yesterday was American Indian Family Day at the Minnesota History Museum. I had not been in the building since being laid off a year-and-a-half ago. When I worked in IT, for MNHS, my family attended many events; and we went to as many of the sites as time would allow. I'm always somewhat puzzled, by the fact that I almost never see anyone on staff at the events unless they are working or directly related to that particular event. Out of the six or so directors, I only saw one. I get the impression morale is not very good, and I can only imagine (how it is there) after nearly half of the staff were let go, and only a few were allowed to return. Regardless, we had a good time. I was a bit surprised that there weren't more people there. After all, admission and parking were free. I can't say whether that was a lack of Interest or whether it was a lack of publicity.

COVID-19 caused me to be furloughed from my part-time job. But now I'm back doing live TV.

My wife just spent two hours on the phone, to fix her father’s medical/health insurance account. Someone updated it with a new address, health tests for someone else and an ER visit he never had. Not only is this a potential for incorrect billing, but the poor test results on his records for another person, could impact his already too lengthy wait for a donor kidney. He doesn’t speak English very well, so he is at the mercy of the system—unless a son or daughter intervenes. My wife was disconnected a few times, before finally reaching a supervisor who began the process to remedy this serious mistake. This is why it is important to have quality employees, and reward those who are competent and who care.

I've been having work dreams. Various people I've worked with over the years at various jobs are showing up. Also the various jobs and different places. Some of the coworkers are real, and some are based on real people, but some are completely made up. That goes for the locations as well. I started wondering if it's like back-to-school dreams? It is getting towards the end of summer after all. Could it be that my subconscious doesn't know that I've made the jump from going to work, to working from home?

I keep hearing about a labor shortage, and it makes me wonder if it is real. When I was growing up, my dad liked to read the want ads for cars and houses. It was his thing. I like looking at employment ads. I’ve always liked to keep apprised of the opportunities available. When I was laid off due to COVID-19, I applied for over 2000 jobs in 10 months. This is what I found during that time.  &nbsp1. Human Resources job descriptions, are designed to eliminate applicants based on what they don’t have; rather than to explore what candidates do have. This is the “easy way” to do it. If they state that you need 7 years’ experience in a certain thing and you don’t have it, you’re out! If you need a particular degree in a particular area and don’t have it, likewise—you’re no longer considered.  &nbsp2. The requirements are stacked pretty high for the good jobs. If a candidate can somehow fulfil them all satisfactorily, the next barrier is compensation. Once you are in the running, i...

Throughout my life I've noticed how bad things can often become good; and how important it is to force yourself to stay positive even when you can't see the light at the end of a long dark tunnel. Being laid off due to COVID-19 was a bad thing. But even when it looked hopeless because of the lack of jobs or the hundreds of applicants per (good) job, I kept trying. Even today, three weeks into my new job, I still get several contacts per day from recruiters wanting me to work for half the salary that I'm accustomed to. Some people told me I would need to compromise and take less. I was prepared to do that if necessary, but I had already decided that if that were to happen, the job would be something I had never done and wasn't already an experienced professional in. Then, just as all of those applications (there were literally a couple thousand) I sent out over the 10+ months that I was out of work began to turn into a steady stream of interviews, a contact from a prev...