What grinds your gears?

[gbruin]

Man, Bobby, I wish I had something more tangible to offer than my empathy. Your family and friends are lucky to have you, and your boss doesn't deserve you. I hope the surgery and recovery go well for you guys. And there's some light at the end of the tunnel with this pandemic. It may still be a few months, but it's coming.

Venting is sometimes the best thing and we're always here when you need to let go. Hang in there, amigo.

[Crumbso]

Joella is having surgery on Monday. My boss is in florida until March 4th and has been since January 2. So I have been running my boss' business for the last month and a half and will be running it until she returns, all while taking 6 writing intensive courses and trying to help care for my mother.

I asked my boss if I could have off on Tuesday, the day after Joella's surgery. I told her I would find coverage but that I really just needed to be home to care for joella. Really the day is a recharge for both me and her because we are both burning at both ends at the moment. Money has never been so tight and Joella will be out of work until the first week in June at the earliest (unless she heals faster than the doctor expects).

My boss basically told me to go screw myself because I said I would go in Monday while the store is closed to set up for Tuesday morning's opener since they can't get there until right before we open. So I'm on the verge of telling my boss off, which is always fun.

My boss' mother also popped into the business the other day and told my boss that I wasn't doing my job effectively enough and that the place was messy, when in all actuality there were a few empty cardboard boxes upstairs in the storage room because the garbage guys couldn't come empty our recycling bin because of the 3+ feet of snow we had plowed in front of it. I told my boss to call the plow guys and she never did, so we had to shovel that snow and it really was basically ice at this point and I only have one arm that works right anymore so it took me some time.

My boss proceeded to leave me a note of all the stuff she said I haven't been doing, even though she hasn't been in her business since before the new year, and told me that she gets i'm overwhelmed in my personal life, but that shouldn't effect her. Then goes "step it up, bobby. Oh by the way, how's your mom? Tell her I'm wishing her the best". I have never been so personally offended by anything in my life. Who the heck are you to bring up my mom to me?

Trying to survive in the world during this pandemic is really taking a toll on me. My mind is in some really dark places and I really feel like I'm drowning. I genuinely don't know what more I can do to survive right now. I'm a religious man, and I pray every day but lately I feel like I haven't been getting any help. I am just lost right now I guess.

I'm sorry to just throw all this out there, but I just needed to get some of this off my chest.

That sounds really tough. I can appreciate the stresses of being leaned on constantly by a business owner and then only being brought up for the perceived mistakes and not the many thousands of successful days/weeks/months of tasks and projects. It can quickly burn you out. It's the main reason I was going to leave my job but COVID has made all that a bit too risky.

I really hope your other half's operation and recovery is going well and you've managed to spend some time together at least. Hopefully, there are better days ahead of you this year.

[Crumbso]

Double-post: The post so nice I posted it twice! Oops

[Crumbso]

triple-post..... damn that quote button. Consider this a grinding of gears of its own.

[Micky]

Thanks guys. This last year has really taken a toll on my mental health for sure. It means a lot to have all of you here.

Surgery went well, and she's recovering with me at home. Doing pretty well, but in a lot of pain. My boss is still giving me a hard time but I really am only going to be there another few months so I am going to make it work.

On a side note: I'm a HUGE Godzilla fan. I have been since i was a child. I almost bought the brand new Godzilla box set with the first 12 movies in it for $170, BUT only 5 of them have english dubbing in them so I will not be buying it. I hate watching movies where I have to read subtitles. It really pisses me off.

[Timotheus]

I'm so used to subtitles, that I'm often annoyed that movies or shows in my own language don't have them.

[Crumbso]

I do feel that some films lose something with a dub. You're hearing an interpretation of an original performance. I'm used to subtitles though, my partner is from Italy and with a Japanese father so I watch a lot of foreign language stuff with her in their original languages (she would never want to watch a dub for Italian or Japanese stuff).

[zazthespaz]

You can pay me $5/movie and I'll throw in my own voice over. (Will likely not relate to the movies at all and may slip into Spanish at some points)

I may have bad hearing but I find myself turning subtitles on during English shows and films sometimes. Sometimes the volume gets super quiet in the middle of dialogue and I miss something or they say something too fast. Ironically, both things I do in conversation so you'd think I'd be able to hear it...

Crumbso, how did you post a triple post with the 3rd occurring 2 days later?

[Timotheus]

You can pay me $5/movie and I'll throw in my own voice over. (Will likely not relate to the movies at all and may slip into Spanish at some points)

For an ENTIRE movie? NICE!

[zazthespaz]

You can pay me $5/movie and I'll throw in my own voice over. (Will likely not relate to the movies at all and may slip into Spanish at some points)

For an ENTIRE movie? NICE!

Not u

[Crumbso]

You can pay me $5/movie and I'll throw in my own voice over. (Will likely not relate to the movies at all and may slip into Spanish at some points)

I may have bad hearing but I find myself turning subtitles on during English shows and films sometimes. Sometimes the volume gets super quiet in the middle of dialogue and I miss something or they say something too fast. Ironically, both things I do in conversation so you'd think I'd be able to hear it...

Crumbso, how did you post a triple post with the 3rd occurring 2 days later?

I wanted to edit spelling mistakes on two separate occasions and kept pressing the damn quote button instead of the edit button...

[TenaciousBe]

You want to know what grinds my gears? Facebook's bullshit algorithm stopping people from seeing my music posts in their news feed. I've been doing this solo acoustic singer/songwriter thing for several years now (in fact, my FB memories today just showed me that it was 9 years ago today that I posted the band name idea for the first time), and trying to "build the brand" is an incredible amount of work. When I post something to my band/music page, I always share it over to my personal page as well, because I have over 1000 friends and I'm hoping it will catch someone's eye and they'll come follow the page (which, nearly 9 years later, has a whopping 358 likes). Those music posts get, MAYBE, if I'm lucky, 1 or 2 likes. I can post other kinds of posts, stuff about weight loss or hot takes on politics, and they'll blow up, can pick up over 100 reacts and the comments section will go off for a day or two. Music posts are like I'm screaming into the void and there's no one there to hear it. Frustrated incorporated.

I know that part of it is the fact that I'm usually sharing links to YouTube videos, and Facebook generally doesn't push those posts nearly as much as they do videos uploaded directly to FB itself, but again, that algorithm. I don't WANT to push my stuff on 50 different platforms, I'm trying to build the YT channel but it's sitting there with 33 subscribers, my "biggest" videos taking 5 years to pick up 300-some views. The more current ones? Like, 10-20 views at most. I'm sure there's more I can do to organically grow the YT channel on its own, but sharing those videos on other platforms SHOULD be getting at least a few people to watch, right?

[zazthespaz]

You want to know what grinds my gears? Facebook's bullshit algorithm stopping people from seeing my music posts in their news feed. I've been doing this solo acoustic singer/songwriter thing for several years now (in fact, my FB memories today just showed me that it was 9 years ago today that I posted the band name idea for the first time), and trying to "build the brand" is an incredible amount of work. When I post something to my band/music page, I always share it over to my personal page as well, because I have over 1000 friends and I'm hoping it will catch someone's eye and they'll come follow the page (which, nearly 9 years later, has a whopping 358 likes). Those music posts get, MAYBE, if I'm lucky, 1 or 2 likes. I can post other kinds of posts, stuff about weight loss or hot takes on politics, and they'll blow up, can pick up over 100 reacts and the comments section will go off for a day or two. Music posts are like I'm screaming into the void and there's no one there to hear it. Frustrated incorporated.

I know that part of it is the fact that I'm usually sharing links to YouTube videos, and Facebook generally doesn't push those posts nearly as much as they do videos uploaded directly to FB itself, but again, that algorithm. I don't WANT to push my stuff on 50 different platforms, I'm trying to build the YT channel but it's sitting there with 33 subscribers, my "biggest" videos taking 5 years to pick up 300-some views. The more current ones? Like, 10-20 views at most. I'm sure there's more I can do to organically grow the YT channel on its own, but sharing those videos on other platforms SHOULD be getting at least a few people to watch, right?

I just took a look at the page (and liked it) and the only thing I can think of is to be a little more consistent in how frequently you post. It seems like you're pretty regular, but I did notice times where a week or two would pass between posts and I think that works against you on Facebook pages. I recommended that my brother-in-law posts 2-3 times a week on his business page and he normally gets 20-30 likes on his post from his ~860 followers. (Although I'm realizing he's starting to slack so I gotta get on his case) That and try to use popular hashtags, I think using those helps with engagement so Facebook is more likely to push it. (Also, get any family and friends to like it whenever they see it. The likes will help build up the snowball effect and give FB incentive to push your posts)

[TenaciousBe]

You want to know what grinds my gears? Facebook's bullshit algorithm stopping people from seeing my music posts in their news feed. I've been doing this solo acoustic singer/songwriter thing for several years now (in fact, my FB memories today just showed me that it was 9 years ago today that I posted the band name idea for the first time), and trying to "build the brand" is an incredible amount of work. When I post something to my band/music page, I always share it over to my personal page as well, because I have over 1000 friends and I'm hoping it will catch someone's eye and they'll come follow the page (which, nearly 9 years later, has a whopping 358 likes). Those music posts get, MAYBE, if I'm lucky, 1 or 2 likes. I can post other kinds of posts, stuff about weight loss or hot takes on politics, and they'll blow up, can pick up over 100 reacts and the comments section will go off for a day or two. Music posts are like I'm screaming into the void and there's no one there to hear it. Frustrated incorporated.

I know that part of it is the fact that I'm usually sharing links to YouTube videos, and Facebook generally doesn't push those posts nearly as much as they do videos uploaded directly to FB itself, but again, that algorithm. I don't WANT to push my stuff on 50 different platforms, I'm trying to build the YT channel but it's sitting there with 33 subscribers, my "biggest" videos taking 5 years to pick up 300-some views. The more current ones? Like, 10-20 views at most. I'm sure there's more I can do to organically grow the YT channel on its own, but sharing those videos on other platforms SHOULD be getting at least a few people to watch, right?

I just took a look at the page (and liked it) and the only thing I can think of is to be a little more consistent in how frequently you post. It seems like you're pretty regular, but I did notice times where a week or two would pass between posts and I think that works against you on Facebook pages. I recommended that my brother-in-law posts 2-3 times a week on his business page and he normally gets 20-30 likes on his post from his ~860 followers. (Although I'm realizing he's starting to slack so I gotta get on his case) That and try to use popular hashtags, I think using those helps with engagement so Facebook is more likely to push it. (Also, get any family and friends to like it whenever they see it. The likes will help build up the snowball effect and give FB incentive to push your posts)

Thank you for liking! I saw that the other day and smiled wholeheartedly. I do know that, content is king, and I'm not really the most consistent. I guess my gripe is more that when I do post something, and share it to groups or to my personal page, that share doesn't always go through to people's news feed. But, as you say, if my content was more consistent, maybe it would go through more. It's just that algorithm existing that grinds my gears, especially knowing that it works the other way too, and that I'm not seeing everything my friends post or share. I follow them for a reason! I don't want to have to go directly to their pages to see everything they've posted, but I guess if that's what I have to do...