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BCD 26.10.2023

I know, I know. I’m riffing on the same rant again, but as long as there are little old ladies, drive-through coffee shops, the United States, and lawyers, these blog pieces will unfortunately keep coming. Sigh … Hard on the heels of the latest McDonald’s coffee tragedy, comes another, similar story of unnecessary pain andContinue reading “BCD 26.10.2023”

Paperwork to officially make you sick

Getting sick as an employee of the University of Not-Bielefeld used to be pretty straightforward. You simply selected your ailment, disease, or injury of choice; found a doctor to put you on sick leave if it all it lasted for three or more workdays; and then handed your sick note in to the head officeContinue reading “Paperwork to officially make you sick”

BCD 11.09.2023

In haphazardly scouring the internet for some royalty-free (read: cheap; still not making any money off this blog like WordPress keeps telling me I can) pictures of the chaos involving with boarding an airplane for an upcoming entry, I came across this one associated with an article entitled “Passengers boarding airplanes: we’re doing it wrong”:Continue reading “BCD 11.09.2023”

Big blue boneheads

Another little administrative tidbit from today. I’m sure they meant well. I just wish that they also thought well while doing it sometimes … Apparently the university here in Not-Bielefeld has recently mandated that all new teaching staff have to take a one-hour, online “welcome workshop” within their first two months. Among other topics designedContinue reading “Big blue boneheads”

BCD 11.06.2023

Perhaps one of the few segments of the workforce that has as little grounding in reality as admin is marketing. Unfortunately, however, reality too often plays into their weirdly warped worldview. (Or is shaped by it.) Case in point is the latest invention of some too clever marketing-type that I saw the other day: limited-editionContinue reading “BCD 11.06.2023”

Recycling credit

Looks like Europe has made it a lot more difficult to dispose of your old credit card than the debt that’s on it … With my current credit card being set to expire soon, the bank recently sent me a replacement one to helpfully enable me to keep maintaining their bottom line in the future.Continue reading “Recycling credit”

Severely handicapped information technology

Everyone knows the abbreviation IT these days. (But probably no one knows that it dates to 1958 …) My feeling is that its modern incarnation is often missing a few letters ahead of IT. Just like admin, IT departments love to inform us how they are only there to serve us when the reality isContinue reading “Severely handicapped information technology”

BCD 14.05.2023

I know that I’m doing a lot of these bonehead comments of the day lately, or at least a lot more of them than my regular entries, but it’s a good news, bad news kinda thing. The good news is that admin here in Not-Bielefeld and surroundings have gone relatively quiet again. The bad newsContinue reading “BCD 14.05.2023”

BCD 13.05.2023

Here we go again … Once more the American legal system is punishing businesses for underestimating the creative stupidity of their customers. Remember the famous 1994 McDonald’s coffee case where McDonald’s was sued successfully for selling “defectively manufactured” (i.e. hot) coffee that was “unreasonably dangerous” because an older lady managed to spill an entire cupContinue reading “BCD 13.05.2023”

BCD 23.04.2023

With Russian forces stalled menacingly close to the EU’s eastern borders for over a year now, it’s comforting to know that similar threats are being recognized and neutralized here in western Europe on a daily basis too. Case in point: this CNN story yesterday on how Belgian customs in collaboration with the Comité Interprofessionnel duContinue reading “BCD 23.04.2023”