People often mock gluten free labeling for products that should either be obviously gluten free or are not food. But the range of gluten sensitivity does vary, and there are people who react to gluten in cosmetics (where it can be added). There are also cases where gluten is added to food where it would not be expected.
If you are gluten free because you can't tolerate gluten, that labeling is very helpful.
I get the feeling that's because gluten-free food is - for some people - medically necessary, while people with, say, allergies to some animal product e.g. eggs will usually just buy normal food and be careful not to buy anything containing egg. As a result, "vegan" food has a negative perception that "gluten free" escapes.
Gluten free does not escape a negative reputation. There are many people who follow a gluten free diet because it's somewhat of a fad, and there are many others who, as a result, don't take it seriously.
As someone who is gluten free because I can't tolerate gluten, I would add that, for those who don't have that issue, gluten free food is not always the healthiest choice. In particular, gluten free baking is tricky, and gluten free baked goods are generally much higher in sugar.
It’s been a great opportunity for me to finish several half completed gardening projects. Don’t know if any studies have been done on this, but for me personally, digging in dirt for an hour every day has the same mood improvement benefits as exercise.
Yesterday I walked into target with my brother and said something along the lines of "I'd rather go to jury duty than shop at target."
I wonder if their creepy surveillance tech knows I said it. I was going there to pick up my brother's medicine from the pharmacy. It's a real shame. I used to LOVE shopping at Target. But the dang store has gotten greedier and super obnoxious over the years.
I was positive they used to use their tracking data to design store layouts with minimal clashing, such that they distribute the shoppers across the store. It seemed to really work, too.
In their newer layouts, I dunno what it is, but everything seems crammed together all in the same spot. They replaced the popcorn, icees, and hot dogs, with food I don't like that costs too much. They got rid of the handbasket things that were handy and all over the store, and got rid of the benches too. Then they sold their pharmacy to CVS.. which immediately threw out the kickass containers Target used to use and added a super obnoxious phone system.
I don’t know that having a clear mission adds much to happiness at work unless it’s coupled with proper execution; otherwise it’s just a stream of frustrations. Also I’d imagine most blue collar jobs have pretty clearly stated missions, so to speak. Make people’s yards beautiful. Build beautiful houses.
Based on personal observations, I’d say the thing that makes the biggest difference in terms of work satisfaction/“happiness” is pride in your work. In the past few months alone I’ve had numerous delightful conversations with cafeteria workers about the food they are serving; and some with goodwill workers on the store layout they’ve helped plan and items they’ve curated. Contagious enthusiasm, definitely more than I experience in planning meetings and company all hands.
I agree on both counts. In fact, the examples of constructive feedback the article provides seem fairly worthless. If your advice is that the candidate should try doing some problems on leetcode in order to be successful in your interview process, then that's something you'd ideally mention prior to the interview, as a suggestion on how they should prepare.
I think FAANG do a really good job of preparing you for exactly what kinds of questions to expect as well as resources to study for them. That also generally reduces the need for feedback afterwards.
I often read about moms feeling bad because of other moms' perfectly curated instagram feeds. As someone who doesn't remember ever feeling instagram envy - and btw all photos of my adorable children that I post are adorable :) - I must admit I'm envious of people whose feelings of sadness and inadequacy are cased by things farther removed from day to day life. For me the most disheartening feelings are usually the result of interactions with people close to me, mother and mother in law particularly so. Nine years after becoming a parent I still am unable to not let it phase me when my mother says "oh, they never act in this [terrible] way when you're not around" or when my mother in law asks "oh, did you want to brush her hair before the family photo?" "did you want me to get some cute plates for her birthday party so she feels special?". I'm sure much it can be helped by me just growing thicker skin - but I do feel lonelier sometimes when I think, people worry about instagram, they don't often talk about family making them feel like they are not good enough, I guess it is me.
One question I like to ask is "Tell me about the worst day (work-wise) you've had in the last six months." Most of the answers I've had gotten generally have to do with escalations and I find that answers are quite honest and unpracticed. I think the way a team/company handles an unusual high-stress situation is in many ways telling of the team/company dynamic in general. And as a bonus, there's usually a good anecdote about a buried body or two in their codebase, process, you name it.
(The latter especially for a first instance, though if you've got repeat instances, I'd look first to management, then to staff, for cause.)
Another bad sign is if the cause for the stress is internal, and a pass sign is if it's either management or a major (or the only) client.
If you cannot find ways to eliminate internal causes of stress, or buffer those created by the commercial environment in which you exist, it's going to be somewhere on the continuum between toxic and fatal to me.
I'd be hard-pressed to name any notably bad days at work in the last 6 months, and it's definitely not because every day is stressful. I'm not even sure why you think that's unusual unless you've had jobs exclusively in very unpleasant workplaces.
"Firing the responsible" may be an overly-strong comment -- putting pressure on the line rather than improving line management is the upshot of what I'm getting at.
Though truly boring can be a good sign if it's the result of good planning, drilling, practices, and rewarding competence. If it's from complacency, failure to recognise problems, or the ability to push fault or failure off on others (clients, customers, vendors, suppliers, other departments), not so much.
The good sign then is understanding why and how they got to boring.
One thing I don’t see pondered upon as much as Mr Darcy’s wealth is what did their expenses look like (other than Lydia’s dresses). How much was the upkeep of Pemberley? How much did the housekeeper earn? Bingley is generous and a spender. Every re-read (and there have been many) I wish I had more detail on their budgets.
In addition to the points mentioned, upkeep is really continued development that must be performed within historically set constraints. I found this short video about the work at Euston Hall interesting—though Grafton inherited the estate, he came from the music industry in Nashville as a relative outsider with an eye for costs and revenue. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hypmo53fWfw
Live-in housekeeping is around £50k a year for a couple - not bad for living rent-free on a nice estate - although I used to know someone who provided house-keeping for much less in return for not having to pay for rent and food. So cheaper options are possible.
Gardening is maybe £25-30k/yr, unless the estate is absolutely huge.
Heating will cost a lot in the UK. So will maintenance, especially if there's significant land involved. Roads, fences, walls, drains, sewers, and so on are all more expensive than most people realise, and large estates are usually listed, so there are expensive restrictions and maintenance obligations.
But I'm not quite seeing how that would add to up £500k for a £1.5m estate - which would be fairly small, even with the way prices were back then. I'd have expected something closer to £100k to £200k.
A friend of mine (who lives in a house of a much smaller scale) spends £2000 a year on gravel alone for his drive. Then he either needs to spend weeks spreading or pay someone to to do the same. Once you have a lot of something, things sure get expensive.
On a similar note - say he wanted to replace his doors Now he won't just want to use form £100 from the hardware shop, so realistically will be looking at £600+ for nice handmade bespoke internal doors. And then a future £100 for the door furniture, maybe £100 to get each painted and prepared and maybe £100 for the fitting. Before you know it looking at £1000ish a door. He had over 25 doors, and this was 'only' a 6 bed house... yes you aren't replacing these every year, but just an example of one of the costs.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
you can look up popularity of any name over the past 100+ years, top names in every year since the 1900s, some modest visualizations, etc