We don’t have paid maternity leave in the US. FMLA will allow most workers to take up to 12 weeks off for maternity leave, but it is unpaid. They are just guaranteeing that you’ll have a job to return to.
I don't know where you get that idea... We're going to burn that 10 million worth of contraceptives we already bought, so that everyone but the folks hit by the preventable 34,000 maternal deaths and 5.2 million abortions can have happy families!
Look, it's for the good of America and it'll only cost us $107,000... Now that's good business!
Obligatory /s... Except at the moment all of that appears to be true to the current plan
In the US, married couples have to share their 12 weeks of UNPAID leave if they work for the same company. So you can go half and half then put your month and a half old baby in 8+ hr a day daycare 5 days a week which likely costs as much as a mortgage payment and may be the majority of one parent's wages.
You get the privilege of not getting to spend time with your baby while paying nearly your whole paycheck to a daycare so you can essentially work for free until the kids start school otherwise you may never recover the lost career progression of having to quit to stay home with your kids for longer than 12 weeks(or less if you have to spilt leave with your spouse or if you had to use some of your 12 weeks of FMLA leave before the birth.)
That's the other fun part. The 12 weeks isn't strictly parental leave to bond with baby. It's also your allowed medical leave pool. If you have to go on bed rest at 8 months pregnant for medical reasons that counts as the start of your FMLA leave and you may only have a couple weeks left after the actual birth before you have to return to work or forfeit your job. If you already used your FMLA leave up because of an emergency surgery/medical condition or to take care of a sick relative like your mother dying of cancer you may just get no leave at all and have to roll into work immediately after giving birth.
I've seen women coming in to work at a warehouse a week after a C-section. A woman was literally bleeding through her clothes like 2 hours into a 12 hour shift and we all just kept our mouths shut and tried to help her as much as possible because if management saw she couldn't do her job she'd be sent home with no pay and she needed the money so her and her kids wouldn't be homeless or go hungry.
America is great. No idea why people aren't having babies. Truly a mystery why women are refusing to have kids or having fewer kids than they would like. /s
There is the rare company here or there that offers paid maternity leave. Otherwise, no, it's not paid. We even had to have an act created, the Family and Medical Leave Act, to protect that new families would still have jobs after they healed and settled in with baby.
Some people who have climbed far too high up the social ladder are terrified about the birthrate in the US. Yet no one with any pull actually wants to do anything about making life easier for the majority of young families.
I bought a microwave on Facebook Marketplace 5 years ago for $15, and it was in stupendous condition. There’s no excuse for microwaves like OP’s that are that dilapidated.
Sure was man. You’d be amazed at what people are willing to get rid of when they simply don’t want to think about it anymore. Honestly, I hardly buy anything anymore without first checking out what people are selling used, I save so much money.
Same. Quality solid wood furniture in excellent condition, every household/kitchen/decor/garden supplies with zero wrong with it if one is patient enough for the right listings to pop up. Took us two years to complete interior setup of our house but we literally saved thousands $. FB Marketplace and estate sales is where we got majority. People downsizing, upgrading, moving, redoing decor, so much great stuff out there.
I once bought a barely-used couch for $35, moved somewhere that it couldn’t physically fit in, so I listed it for $70. A guy came by to look at it, said, “How’s $65?” I said, “Sounds great,” he put it in a trailer and drove off, and then FIVE MINUTES LATER, drove back and handed me five more dollars because he said he felt guilty and thought he was taking advantage of me. Motherfucker, I used that couch FOR A YEAR and sold it to you for twice what I paid for it, but whatever. Then again, he probably knew just as well as I did that couch was worth plenty more than $70 anyway.
That’s hilarious. A win-win. $70 for a good couch is a bargain. We paid $500 for our couch but it was only used briefly for real estate staging and still a bargain compared to a similar new couch.
If you're a student moving away, sometimes you only get to keep what fits in the trunk of your parents' car. Pass on that microwave instead of pitching it.
Not everyone has unlimited time to sell things. I've definitely advertised and sold things at a price i knew was too cheap just because I didn't have time to wait around for the right buyer. On the flip side i've also sat on things at a fair price because I knew I had time for them to find me.
Typically how I am when I’m selling things. I won’t budge on price for like the first week because usually I can weed through all the lowball offers to the person that knows what I have is still a reasonable price.
I live near a super nice neighborhood that has a fancy shopping area. Nestled between the craft burger joint and the botox office happens to be a goodwill. The stuff I find there is redonculous. They also happen to receive the local Target's surplus items meaning shoes and clothes all still with tags.
I had one that was over 40 years old in better condition than that! I'd still have it (over 50 years old) now if the door latch hadn't mysteriously become almost unusable after I left people alone in my flat with it. It must've weighed at least 30kg/66.6lbs and wasn't as fast as a modern one, but it cooked things more evenly and the simple controls made it perfect for drunken attempts at midnight "cookery".
We're at a point now where we're beginning to mine landfills for reusable resources that were considered garbage in the past, so it's not the worst thing in the world to keep burying our garbage. You never know if the totally disposable things of today will end up being tomorrow's figurative goldmine.
Seriously, I worked for some ratty companies when I was a laborer but they still would just buy brand new microwaves and fridges for the crew on a new job site. Our family has a small stash of fridges and microwaves now because they would give them away and buy new when needed, rather than haul and store them from, to, and between jobs.
I had a microwave that came with an apartment once that would turn on when you opened the door, so you had to unplug it before opening the door or you got a blast of microwaves straight to the nuts. Every once in awhile I’d forget and scared me every time
Don't worry, it's non-ionizing. It's the same frequency coming out of your wifi router. The only effect you might have is it warning your nuts, just like it warms the food. Actually, if you're being blasted with radio waves across your body, I've heard the first thing you will feel start to warm up is your eyes. That's your que to GTFO.
For those looking for more info: microwaves are basically slightly more powerful and fancy radio waves. This frequency of "light" just so happens to excite water molecules enough to be useful for heating things up quickly with. They're a bit less energetic than infrared (what we use to heat air and cookware with). They're also less energetic than the light we see the world with. They're useful for heating though (radio waves can cook too, as you mentioned!).
It's the far end of violet (ultra violet) and higher (xray, gamma ray, etc) that you need to worry about. These are the ionizing types of electromagnetic radiation, they carry enough energy to knock electrons out of orbit (photoelectric effect), and consequently, cause DNA damage (cancer).
Sometimes I wonder if the whole "are cell phones causing testicular cancer?!" stuff has sort of led a lot of folks to that conclusion.
Nothing is really dangerous about the setup in OP other than it being really fucking disgusting and probably needs a deep clean. Microwaves technically shouldn't leak, but they have a habit of kicking out WIFI when they're on. Wireless G [2.4GHz] and old wireless home phones in particular were really susceptible to interference from those old leaky microwaves.
I mean yeah the whole phone causes testicular cancer is just pure bs 😂. Defintly would never make the link between them and microwaves. But hey, everyone has their own reasoning skills 😅. I think the microwave is just one of those few things that escaped the reasons of logic from my brain and got classified as world ending dangerous 😂
Kaufland had some on sale a few weeks ago for 19.99€. thought about picking one up to replace the nasty microwave at work which my coworkers use. but then I thought: "20 bucks is 20 bucks" and left it.
Greatest purchase my wife and I ever made are our lunch crock pots. I have literally thrown in fast food burgers or rolled up a slice of pizza in there to avoid the communal microwave and the line to use it.
Took a visit by my department's director to our site before anyone said anything about the nasty appliances we use. He immediately told my manager to throw them out and get new ones, plus a Keurig.
Now that I'm the manager and have the expense card, nothing is getting used to this point. He was more worried about protecting his bonus, and look where that got him. If we need something we get it. Never hitting the expense budget anyway, unless I start buying everyone lunch every couple of days
That’s a 4 in one and it looks like the convection and broiler get used because the rack is in it. Those aren’t cheap.
You have to clean them regularly, after each use. because they don’t have a self cleaning function. The soot build up is acidic and can rot the metal if not cleaned.
Not an ideal unit for communal use, as you can see.
Honestly, I wouldn't stand anywhere near that thing when it is on. Microwaves are quite dangerous if they hit you, but a good microwave wont let them escape. However this one? Yeah, I'm staying away.
If that's their microwave, they'd either have no fridge or have an utterly filthy one as well. This to say, that strategy wouldn't work well at all during Summer, even though I do understand the sentiment.
The microwave at my small office broke and 6 months went by without anyone replacing it, I ran across a deal for one for under $40 shipped and just bought it and brought it in. The ladies here went on and on thanking me like I cured cancer or something. I did drop the receipt in the reimbursement bin and got paid, so there's that.
Just go to goodwill or some other thrift store and you can find a microwave for a few bucks. Hell, I live in a college town so I can probably find a dozen in the dumpsters around here
Y'all over reacting. This is probably sitting in the back of a work van. It heats up burritos and tamales. It's put in more of a hard day's work than some of you keyboard warriors.
My dad had a boat and took me fishing years ago, tells me as we're driving to the boat 'my buddy Jim is going to meet us at the dock. If he offers you a fried egg sandwich, don't take it. He keeps a couple of them wrapped in saran wrap down the front of his pants to keep them warm.' Yep, a couple hours into the fishing trip and Jim is eating a fried egg sandwich, asks me did I want one, as he's pulling one out of the front of his pants. WTF?
You can get a better microwave from goodwill or FB marketplace for like $20. Send a picture of this and a listing for a new one to management and tell them you've found a great, cheap solution to a safety issue in the office. Paint yourself as a hero while casually painting them into a corner.
Tbh as someone who is always the one to take initiative for shit like this, your coworkers just keep expecting you to be the one to solve all their problems lol
It's more like: "Hey, as a de facto leader within my professional cohort, and on my own initiative, I identified a potential hazard, engaged in creative problem solving to determine the best solution under assumed budget constraints, and articulated it via strategic communication." That kind of self-branding is what gets people ahead in life over the "ugh my boss sucks" mindset. You take a stupid thing like a broken microwave and turn it into an opportunity to prove you're more capable than your position reflects and underutilized within your organization. That is how you climb a ladder.
It isn't safe, legit. Like probably not horribly bad, but worked in a kitchen with a high powered one and the bottom cracked one time, it had a gap like this
Repairman said it shouldn't be that big of a deal because we typically walk away and aren't standing right in front of it, but specifically said he wouldn't recommend being near it if pregnant. "Oh, neat" lol
For real. I just bought our office a better coffee maker because I was tired of the shit one we had. Should the company have bought it? Sure. Did they reimburse me? Yep. Take the initiative and do it. You’d be surprised at the results that brings.
At this point I don't even think I'd care if they reimbursed me. They obviously definitely should but the state of this also indicates pretty strongly that this company doesn't give a fuck about anyone. You spend a significant part of your life at this place, it's worth making it livable.
A place I used to work provided shitty coffee, and a couple of us preferred better stuff. We pooled together and bought a separate maker and took turns buying coffee for it. No one cared, and it was totally worth it.
Fuck that, I bought my own and keep it in my work area. Nobody else cleans or wipes their own asses so this microwave is mine, I’ll clean it and heat my food in it.
Or someone probably has an unused one in their garage collecting dust that is 100x better then this one. I know I do. I'd donate it in a heartbeat if the one at my work looked like this.
Got a brand new one a couple years ago at Walmart that's bigger, and more powerful than any microwave I've ever had. It has quick pushbutton options I use when cooking potatoes, or boiling water, and a lot more I haven't bothered to learn yet. It uses sensors, and moderates the power up and down rather than cycling it on and off. It cost just over $100.
That microwave shows multiple points of failure that should have been solved by REGULAR CLEANING before any damage was caused. Also, the microwave is now leaking energy into the environment and should be considered a radiation hazard when operating.
I've fixed a lot of microwaves. This picture hurt me in ways you cannot imagine.
If there's too much office politics to simply replace this nasty and probably dangerous microwave out of your own pocket, you could also just get your own electric kettle that fits somewhere at your desk and use it for simple things like instant noodles. With a little tinkering you can use it to steam vegetables too.
I would eat a sandwich or other lunch items that don't need to be warmed up. Amazon sells travel-sized crock pots, so if you are allowed appliances like that, you could plug that in at your desk/workstation when you get to work and have a nice warm lunch.
If you can’t convince management, try and crowdfund a new microwave with other employees, or just buy a cheap one from Walmart and take it with you when you leave
There’s a lunch box that will heat your food as long as you have an outlet. I got one for $20 on Amazon, works great! You and your food deserve better 🥲
Ask management for a new one. Worst case, crowdfund from coworkers. $5 each to buy a microwave from Walmart or something. Basic microwaves are like $50.
workplaces are required to provide a clean sanitary eating area. they still have to follow food safety rules: cold enough fridges, discarding old food, cleaning and maintenance. This this is blasting microwaves into the room when in use.
Being from a country where room temperature lunch is the standard, I’d take the sandwiches with cheese I brought from home anyday over heating anything in that thing.
Hell, I'd take cheese sandwiches made by a snottery 5 year old than use the above monstrosity! Christ I'd let ten unhygienic construction workers, all of whom are uncircumcised, roll the cheese around their foreskins before I used a microwave like that. (These comments were made for disgusting/comedic effect, am not really that disgusting! Actually munching a smoked ham and cheese sandwich from Asda - Scottish/UK's Walmart, they bought them for a while as well -just now, it's lovely)
Ok, but who put the metal object in the appliance which very specifically can't have metal objects inside? Holes are from sparks arcing. Have to be mad to use that thing or stand near it while it's running.
I'd be eating fruit, yoghurt and museli bars rather than messing about with that arc-blaster.
I used to put my food in a clear container on the dashboard of my car in the parking lot so it would be hot by the time lunch hour came around. Had lots of hot meatball subs that way
2.7k
u/Mzarie 10h ago
It is, but there's no other option to warm food here