jazzfish | Reading

Today was a busybusy day, but I did manage to get my prep and stuff done before leaving the building, huzzah. The very last work thing I did was have a brief check-in with my favourite admin, which turned into a longer check-in as we transitioned from talking about a specific student to just like...propping each other up in this hellish current events. It is nice to have at least one admin who I can trust to say "yeah, the 2026 political climate is fucking bullshit" and have her already fully radicalized and on board because it sure fuckin' is.

After work, I managed to do an actually useful "I'm gonna spend thirty minutes playing dumb phone games and getting my brain to sort itself out" and then I did all my prep in time to leave for therapy. I was a couple minutes late getting home, but not badly so at all. And therapy felt as good as it can! Like, I don't think I'm doing great right now, but I think it was a good space to process some of the things that are going on in my brain and it's good to have a therapist who tells me not to borrow trouble.

Almost straight from therapy to friend Ruthie's house to celebrate her birthday! I really enjoyed getting the email invite from one of her partners the other week saying "hey, it's 2026 and logistics brain is hard so my birthday present is that I'm organizing this party for her, please RSVP and tell me your food needs" and man, I'm very pleased to have gotten a party invite that slotted exactly between my Tuesday plans. I ate too much good Thai food and subsequently not enough good cake and my stomach still feels very pleasantly full, several hours later.

Left the party just on the early end (it's an early end to the party because it's a worknight and also Ruthie has a toddler with a bedtime) so I could make it home in time for the TMC zoom meeting. yayyyy organizing Scottish dance stuff, I suppose. It was pretty painless as these meetings go.

Now I have a few hours to spend to myself and then I'm gonna try to go to bed more on time than I have been. We'll see.

I love you.
~Sor
MOOP!

heathercoxrichardson_feed

Posted by Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/politics-chat-february-10-2026

jwz_org_feed

Posted by jwz

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/02/periodic-reminder-that-good-billionaire-marc-benioff-is-still-a-massive-piece-of-shit/

https://jwz.org/b/yk3N

In his keynote, Benioff thanked international Salesforce employees for traveling to the United States for the meeting, and asked them to stand. Benioff then said that ICE agents were in the building to keep tabs on them.

This is an example of "Silicon Valley CEOs and their inability to divorce ICE and the complete lack of understanding of why that makes them monsters," a Salesforce employee told 404 Media. "Employees are going absolutely apeshit in internal Slack about how completely awful it was." Another employee told 404 Media that Benioff "then followed it up with a joke about not understanding the message of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance. On its own just seems out of touch, but coupled with the previous joke it does seem worse."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/02/periodic-reminder-that-good-billionaire-marc-benioff-is-still-a-massive-piece-of-shit/

https://jwz.org/b/yk3N

vvalkyri

Well I just posted this over on FB:

One thing about FB deciding I'm a "digital creator" is I get to see how many times it has served something and to how many people.

I'm saddened by how low those numbers are for my post about the Jewish event tomorrow compared to those for other posts, although I guess I should compare against other screencap posts which it's probably smart enough to understand aren't the same as other pictures.

At this point the conflict I thought I had turns out to be WAY earlier in the morning (like requiring getting out of the house a couple hours earlier than I've lately been waking) so maybe I can get there, but then there's the whole "it would be so nice if my ankle and TA weren't mad, to the point of waking me mad." And I have a pretty on my feet planned weekend coming up. But I guess it's also reasonably warm tomorrow, warm enough I could grab a bike. Tho I'd probably be wearing my skirt with the stars on.

I got out to Best Buy today and have a low end phone it seems I could transfer my life over to. Of course the advice I got AFTER buying something with a $45 restock fee has me far more comfortable with doing that factory reset on my own current phone, now that I understand how transfers and backups work a little better. Bleh. Still kinda want some handholding.

I also was at costco and am amused by all the preserved duck eggs and indeed things like quail eggs (which Lynn mentioned and they're $5something rather than $8 so I bought a pack.) I tried one a few minutes ago. Tasty, but with each of the 54 quail eggs in the pack being individually wrapped it's an appalling amount of packaging. THAT said, though, it's pretty portable. Which reminds me maybe I should hardboil some eggs ahead of the weekend.

There was also a sample of a protein and sugar free cinnamon toast crunch like cereal which I was tempted to buy but decided I would fail miserably at portion control.

Yesterday my leg wasn't bothering me during the day and I hadn't taken any aleve. Today it is and I have. Feh.

I would add some pics but they were sent to me over SMS and, well, there's a reason I just bought a backup phone. Maybe I'll add some later. But if I can't get both phones behaving at the same time then moving things over will become difficult.

I should go load the dishwasher. Or pack. Or something.

I also should contemplate where I'm willing to post about tomorrow's thing, because too many places seem likely to invite harrassment :(

The Jewish thing I'm referring to is This group of Jewish groups who plan an anti ICE protest. TBH there's a bunch I'm not familiar with, along with a bunch of local synagogues I am familiar with, along with only one or two groups I'd usually not want to deal with, and so far as I can tell, NOT the one group I'd say fuck no to.

I'm impressed by the webpage's clear "ok it might be cold (it actually won't be), and it'll suck to park becauase of the snow, and here are songs to listen to ahead of time, and here are sign suggestions and good things to bring or wear and please don't bring flags."

I hate that there's a couple chats I'd ordinarily signalboost local stuff to but it feels fraught.

I also initially shared the fb post from T'ruah, but then decided that was a rabbit hole of right wingers, although some of the comments were a good reminder of how lonely it is as a Jew in a lot of progressive spaces where once upon a time we helped with so many causes. I read recently that a good half of the non-Black freedom riders were Jews.

Anyway. Tired, and I don't know why. Not sure what's going on with the rest of my night. And I don't know how I'm ever going to get anything set up for the weekend, either. I need to at least know what I want.

In other news, enjoyed going out to Volt's for Superbowl and then staying up entirely too late but a lot of talking. And it's been fascinating reading more about the various cultural references in the show. (This particular article doesn't mention that was a real wedding he'd been invited to but couldn't attend because Superbowl.)

In still other news, Discord plans to start enforcing age verification by requiring pictures or IDs. Urg.

beyondthebundle_feed

Posted by Bundle Operator

https://beyondthebundle.com/2026-02-09/bundle-for-two-4/

https://beyondthebundle.com/?p=13791

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the all-new Bundle for Two 4 brings you – for only a fleeting moment, through Wednesday, February 18 – a fresh-faced fourth Valentine collection of two-player RPGs. Lure that special someone with short, quick-play games about Regency romance heists – a monster and prospective victim dining together – a millionaire courting a soulmate who may be The Right One, or may be Totally Wrong. Or take date night in new directions: Explore an alien structure that will kill you – play mad scientist versus eldritch creation – become a former supervillain just trying to enjoy retirement. Then there’s I Have the High Ground, a game of – well, it might make your rendezvous, uh, memorable.

Pay just US$9.95 to get all seven complete games in our Duet Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

Chiron’s Doom: You’re on the latest expedition into a weird alien structure that tore apart all your predecessors.
I Have the High Ground: A pre-duel warmup of melodramatic threats, slashing wit, cape flourishing, and smouldering tension.
Insatiable Cravings: The Monster’s Admirer is making a meal for the Monster, as the Monster decides whether to make a meal of the Admirer.
Million Dollar Soulmate: A millionaire looking for love has found – well, someone – who brings out either the best or the worst in both parties, and you don’t know which until the endgame.
A Modern Prometheus: A scientist uses dark forces to animate a creature; you both play to see which of you is a monster.
Retired: The Ordinary Life of a Former Supervillain: After a couple of decades of mayhem and robbery, you just want to live your ordinary life. Why won’t the world leave you alone?!
Stealing Your Heart: You are two young people in the Regency period looking for love. Or is one of you, in fact, a Scoundrel?

Make a date with this Bundle for Two 4 before it fickly departs – heartbreakingly quickly! – Wednesday, February 18.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/ForTwo4

https://beyondthebundle.com/2026-02-09/bundle-for-two-4/

https://beyondthebundle.com/?p=13791

james_davis_nicoll

Trump threatens bridge to prevent Canadians from visiting country Canadians do not want to visit

denise posting in

dw_news

Back in August of 2025, we announced a temporary block on account creation for users under the age of 18 from the state of Tennessee, due to the court in Netchoice's challenge to the law (which we're a part of!) refusing to prevent the law from being enforced while the lawsuit plays out. Today, I am sad to announce that we've had to add South Carolina to that list. When creating an account, you will now be asked if you're a resident of Tennessee or South Carolina. If you are, and your birthdate shows you're under 18, you won't be able to create an account.

We're very sorry to have to do this, and especially on such short notice. The reason for it: on Friday, South Carolina governor Henry McMaster signed the South Carolina Age-Appropriate Design Code Act into law, with an effective date of immediately. The law is so incredibly poorly written it took us several days to even figure out what the hell South Carolina wants us to do and whether or not we're covered by it. We're still not entirely 100% sure about the former, but in regards to the latter, we're pretty sure the fact we use Google Analytics on some site pages (for OS/platform/browser capability analysis) means we will be covered by the law. Thankfully, the law does not mandate a specific form of age verification, unlike many of the other state laws we're fighting, so we're likewise pretty sure that just stopping people under 18 from creating an account will be enough to comply without performing intrusive and privacy-invasive third-party age verification. We think. Maybe. (It's a really, really badly written law. I don't know whether they intended to write it in a way that means officers of the company can potentially be sentenced to jail time for violating it, but that's certainly one possible way to read it.)

Netchoice filed their lawsuit against SC over the law as I was working on making this change and writing this news post -- so recently it's not even showing up in RECAP yet for me to link y'all to! -- but here's the complaint as filed in the lawsuit, Netchoice v Wilson. Please note that I didn't even have to write the declaration yet (although I will be): we are cited in the complaint itself with a link to our August news post as evidence of why these laws burden small websites and create legal uncertainty that causes a chilling effect on speech. \o/

In fact, that's the victory: in December, the judge ruled in favor of Netchoice in Netchoice v Murrill, the lawsuit over Louisiana's age-verification law Act 456, finding (once again) that requiring age verification to access social media is unconstitutional. Judge deGravelles' ruling was not simply a preliminary injunction: this was a final, dispositive ruling stating clearly and unambiguously "Louisiana Revised Statutes §§51:1751–1754 violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution", as well as awarding Netchoice their costs and attorney's fees for bringing the lawsuit. We didn't provide a declaration in that one, because Act 456, may it rot in hell, had a total registered user threshold we don't meet. That didn't stop Netchoice's lawyers from pointing out that we were forced to block service to Mississippi and restrict registration in Tennessee (pointing, again, to that news post), and Judge deGravelles found our example so compelling that we are cited twice in his ruling, thus marking the first time we've helped to get one of these laws enjoined or overturned just by existing. I think that's a new career high point for me.

I need to find an afternoon to sit down and write an update for

dw_advocacy highlighting everything that's going on (and what stage the lawsuits are in), because folks who know there's Some Shenanigans afoot in their state keep asking us whether we're going to have to put any restrictions on their states. I'll repeat my promise to you all: we will fight every state attempt to impose mandatory age verification and deanonymization on our users as hard as we possibly can, and we will keep actions like this to the clear cases where there's no doubt that we have to take action in order to prevent liability.

In cases like SC, where the law takes immediate effect, or like TN and MS, where the district court declines to issue a temporary injunction or the district court issues a temporary injunction and the appellate court overturns it, we may need to take some steps to limit our potential liability: when that happens, we'll tell you what we're doing as fast as we possibly can. (Sometimes it takes a little while for us to figure out the exact implications of a newly passed law or run the risk assessment on a law that the courts declined to enjoin. Netchoice's lawyers are excellent, but they're Netchoice's lawyers, not ours: we have to figure out our obligations ourselves. I am so very thankful that even though we are poor in money, we are very rich in friends, and we have a wide range of people we can go to for help.)

In cases where Netchoice filed the lawsuit before the law's effective date, there's a pending motion for a preliminary injunction, the court hasn't ruled on the motion yet, and we're specifically named in the motion for preliminary injunction as a Netchoice member the law would apply to, we generally evaluate that the risk is low enough we can wait and see what the judge decides. (Right now, for instance, that's Netchoice v Jones, formerly Netchoice v Miyares, mentioned in our December news post: the judge has not yet ruled on the motion for preliminary injunction.) If the judge grants the injunction, we won't need to do anything, because the state will be prevented from enforcing the law. If the judge doesn't grant the injunction, we'll figure out what we need to do then, and we'll let you know as soon as we know.

I know it's frustrating for people to not know what's going to happen! Believe me, it's just as frustrating for us: you would not believe how much of my time is taken up by tracking all of this. I keep trying to find time to update

dw_advocacy so people know the status of all the various lawsuits (and what actions we've taken in response), but every time I think I might have a second, something else happens like this SC law and I have to scramble to figure out what we need to do. We will continue to update

dw_news whenever we do have to take an action that restricts any of our users, though, as soon as something happens that may make us have to take an action, and we will give you as much warning as we possibly can. It is absolutely ridiculous that we still have to have this fight, but we're going to keep fighting it for as long as we have to and as hard as we need to.

I look forward to the day we can lift the restrictions on Mississippi, Tennessee, and now South Carolina, and I apologize again to our users (and to the people who temporarily aren't able to become our users) from those states.

heathercoxrichardson_feed

Posted by Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-9-2026-193

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/should-i-tell-my-bosses-their-efforts-to-support-me-arent-enough-and-they-might-lose-me.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=36225

A reader writes:

I work for a large, quickly growing international business headquartered in the United States. I’m in HR and often collaborate with finance. My work is challenging, exciting, and I feel valued as an employee. But that’s actually part of the problem. Not to accidentally quote Liam Neeson, but I have a particular set of skills that makes me very difficult to replace. I have strong job security, I’m paid well enough to support my family, I have decent benefits, and I love my coworkers.

But I have also been burnt out for over a year. Being neurodivergent and learning how autistic burnout differs from standard burnout has been a wild ride.

My managers (yes, plural) are actually very supportive and caring. I was able to sit down with them four months ago and express that I need extra support. The projects I’m working on are too much for me to handle on my own, and because no one else can do the work I do, I’m the owner, point of contact, and bottleneck for a series of projects that are simply never-ending. There is a plan for me to take FMLA to recover, I’ve found and invested in more supports to limit my sensory stimulation in the office, and I’ve been able to instill some boundaries around my work time, but it’s just not enough. They’ve been trying to hire either a junior or a manager to join our team specifically to assist with my job duties, and I trust that they’re doing their best, but this is a difficult job to fill. And the result is I still feel overworked and unprotected from executives, and my mental and physical health are still declining.

I have been working with my therapist about feeling guilty for considering quitting. I don’t intend to leave (a) before my current project concludes at the end of Q1 and b) until after my FMLA is concluded, but I also want to have a discussion with them about how they’re at risk of losing me.

I’ve been burned out for so long that I’m struggling to even put into words what would need to change in order for me to stay! I know I can’t demand executive behaviors or company culture change, and they are actively trying to hire support.

If I leave, so many of the company’s initiatives will come to a halt. I love the work that I do! There are projects and processes that I’ve built from the ground up that I have real pride in and result in really nice feedback from executives, but I haven’t had time to properly document how to replicate them.

I don’t feel like I can confide in anyone because we all report to the head of HR. And while I have every reason and past experience to trust that my bosses care about me and wouldn’t retaliate, I can’t afford to do anything to put my job in jeopardy. And I don’t trust that it’s any better anywhere else!

How do I have this conversation? Or do I just stay silent and commit to leaving?

The way your managers should be looking at this is that they can choose between you doing less work now or you doing no work not too long from now. As painful as they might find the first option, won’t the second option be worse, given how much trouble they’re having even hiring someone just to help you?

In other words, either they stomach pulling back on some of your projects now or they lose you altogether and then all those projects grind to a halt.

That’s the main contradiction I see in your letter that I don’t think you’re focusing on clearly: if you can’t pull back on your workload now because you’re indispensable, that makes it all the more urgent that they find a way to let you pull back on it … because otherwise you won’t be doing any of it.

Now, frankly, it’s okay if they lose you altogether! That’s not your problem to solve for them, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to sacrifice your health and well-being because you’ll be difficult to replace. That’s something they should have been planning for long before now — because you could leave for another job tomorrow, or fall down a well, or all sorts of things that make it terrible planning to have one person as a single point of failure for important work. The fact that they haven’t done that and instead have been content for you to feel it’s all on your shoulders to keep afloat —even when you explicitly told them it was too much — is not good. I understand that you like them and feel they’ve generally been supportive and caring, but that just means that you owe them good work while you’re there and reasonable notice when you leave; it does not mean you owe them your health or quality of life. That’s true in every job, and it is extra true in jobs where you’ve already given an unreasonable amount of yourself. (Ironically, though, giving an unreasonable amount of yourself tends to intensify people’s feelings of obligation rather than lessening them, because it makes you more personally invested in the work.)

So if you would rather not try to convince them they need to take things off your plate right now, that is okay! You can just quietly plan to leave at a time that makes sense for you, and you don’t need to put more energy into convincing them to change things.

But if you want to have that conversation, the framing to use is: “I’m at the point where I need things off my plate now and can’t keep waiting. I know that there’s no one else to take on some of this, but the choice is that we either remove some of it now — even if it means putting some projects on hold — or we end up in a situation where none of it gets done because the job won’t be sustainable for me to stay in.”

Of course, that assumes that a lower workload would solve for this for you. If your burnout is really about executive behavior or company culture, then you’re right that those things are highly unlikely to change. If that’s the case, this conversation may not be worth it, and you should just go ahead and quietly plan your departure. It’s hard to tell how much is that versus workload because you’re not even allowing yourself to consider that a lower workload is possible. (But again, your employer can have some of it done or none of it done, so a good manager will figure out a way to scale things back for you.)

The post should I tell my bosses their efforts to support me aren’t enough and they might lose me? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/should-i-tell-my-bosses-their-efforts-to-support-me-arent-enough-and-they-might-lose-me.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=36225

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/02/10/the-big-idea-kristina-w-kelly-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59430

Nothing beats away a dreary February day like curling up with a cozy fantasy novel. Even better when that novel is a sapphic love story with iguana, cat, and mushroom people! Grab a seat by the fire and a cup of hot chocolate (or tea) and listen to author Kristina W. Kelly’s Big Idea as she shows you the magical world of Tea Tale.

KRISTINA W. KELLY:

What happens when you second guess who you are? When you begin to rethink what really defines you? What happens when your faith betrays you, lies, and hides truths?

Everything begins to crumble. Like a sea cliff battered by eons of waves.

And if you’re Divine, your magic goes haywire and you start to wonder if you can hear animals talk. You change. You become. Maybe not something new, but someone different.

The idea for Tea Tale started simple: I wanted to feature my favorite beverage—tea—, pay homage to my favorite video games (as I did with the first book in the series, Tavern Tale), and set it all in winter. Of course, I needed to carry through the subplots and address some of the unanswered questions from that first book. What emerged was a quest to sprinkle religious betrayal over a sapphic pairing within the framework of Role Playing Games (RPGs).

Divine is a healer. Or was a healer. Her path used to be clear: serve the Goddess of Souls by caring for the living. She’d influence emotions, heal wounds, shield others from harm. The teachings of her temple always seemed contradictory to the way she lived, though.

Her temple, like all the temples in Trelvania, said that non-humans—races like the Iguions (iguana-like bipeds), the Kellas (feline humanoids), and Thospori (think mushroom warriors)—couldn’t receive the blessings from the deities. Simply because they were non-human. Oh, the temples said something about how non-humans don’t have magical power, of course, so that’s why they couldn’t be on the receiving end of magic. But Divine had healed a Kellas child. She had healed an Iguion adult. She had done what was supposed to be impossible. Forbidden.

When I was growing up, I was taught that I was born evil. A child tainted and only by a blood sacrifice could I be saved from these sins I hadn’t even committed. These same people told me that because I was a woman, despite my music education degree, I couldn’t lead the church orchestra. I could help in the nursery with the babies, though. All the other jobs were for men. I was led to believe that god thought I wasn’t equal or as capable because of my gender. Those same people decreed “love your neighbor”, but showed that only counted for some of the population. Even though the greatest command was love, people couldn’t love whomever they wanted.

Whether sudden or gradual, I eventually found myself changed. I had sought experts who studied the historical context and the translations that made sense in that period, not a modern view. I discovered that sentences I had etched into my brain weren’t even in the texts we had been reading and that books were left or added depending on the particular flavor of faith. I learned about the practices of different cultures and religions and the history of the one I’d known. I found people who were exploring their spiritually like I was and discussed their journeys. And I began to explore who I was without all of the baggage, shame, and fear I’d been taught.

When the community you trusted had it wrong, how do you replace that feeling of community? These questions I’ve been asking you, reader, is what I attempted to capture in Tea Tale. Yes, Tea Tale is cozy fantasy, but with a sip of religious oppression.

The faire in Tea Tale is inspired by holiday events in MMORPGs and one of my favorite RPGs ever, Chrono Cross. There’s special games, unique items, decorations, and event food like the Millennial Fair in Chrono Cross. Divine’s tasting tea by the fire and listening to musicians. When she helps prepare the Sultry Sapphire tavern for the Midwinter Nights Faire, the notes of RPG influences really come through. I love a good quest chain in video games, where my character runs around the city helping ten people just to get five mushrooms back to the first quest-giver. Divine’s tasks become more tasks—side quests—as she also tries to find a gift for her romantic interest.

But while Divine does all of that, she’s also struggling to understand her magic when it seems to be acting contrary to what her temple taught her.

Just like I sought experts, Divine seeks experts to understand how magic really works in her world and how she connects to it. She talks to the non-humans who are, quite frankly, oppressed by the temples of Trelvania and uncovers that the truths her temples spout might not be the whole story. She grapples with what it means to have lived so many years within an organization that didn’t respect her enough to tell her the truth. And if she’s not that person, she wants to discover who she is.

Divine tackles replacing her religious community with those around her who support her without expecting something in return. Like me, she befriends those who are questioning the same ideas she is, or find friends who have never followed the temples. Ordinary people who come together to make a difference. A community and a found family.

Tea Tale focuses on people coming together during their Midwinter Nights Faire to enjoy each other, get creative through poetry and music, and spread joy through gift giving, food, and hot drinks. From Divine’s love interest, Saph, donating food to those in need, to Divine advocating for change in the way non-humans are treated, the characters find small ways to collectively be impactful. “If no one is being a voice,” Divine thinks, “then I should. Someone must do something.”

At its heart, Tea Tale is full of magic, tea, and cozy moments. One of the things I love about modern RPGs is that the games give your character the option to pick any love interest they want. The world of Tea Tale is just like that—it’s a queer normative. But just like life, there are lies and injustices to chip away at to free who we want to be.

I’m still learning every day who I am. It’s ok to change. To become different as I grow. If we can surround ourselves with love, empathy, and patience we can find our true power. We can crack the deceit wide open and find warmth and friendship. Together, we lay those broken pieces, starting a foundation where others can feel safe to be who they want to be while sipping hot tea that smells of lavender and vanilla. When faced with lies and disparity…become someone different.

Tea Tale: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Space Wizards

Author socials: Website|Instagram|Bluesky|Facebook

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/02/10/the-big-idea-kristina-w-kelly-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59430

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/i-manage-the-ceos-horrible-nephew.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=35874

A reader writes:

I’m managing a difficult employee, “Felix.” Felix has been at my company for five years now. He also happens to be the CEO’s nephew.

His performance was never good, but it’s gotten steadily worse. His work frequently has mistakes, he is unreachable for large stretches of the day, and he pushes back on any feedback I give him. At one point, he yelled in my face when I pointed out a repeated problem with his work, saying that he “didn’t respect” my feedback.

I’ve documented these issues extensively. I’ve talked to HR repeatedly about putting him on a PIP or even terminating him outright. They say that Felix is unhappy and actively job-searching and that they will work with him to set an end date. Things came to a head at the end of last year, during Felix’s performance review. I gave him poor marks on attitude, work quality, and communication, and he once again yelled at me and told me that my review was unfair and said that the whole team thought I was a jerk. With my HR rep on the call. Who again told me that he was probably going to leave soon on his own.

What should I do now? Should I keep pushing to fire him? I’ve been trying to make it work, but I’m at the end of my rope.

I answer this question — and two others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

Other questions I’m answering there today include:

How can I make sure my team doesn’t organize a gift for me?
Hiring a friend’s employee

The post I manage the CEO’s horrible nephew appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/i-manage-the-ceos-horrible-nephew.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=35874

smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/full-dive

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
In the real life version, you just get extremely emotional ads for Fritos.

Today's News:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/full-dive

howtobeawerewolf_feed

https://www.howtobeawerewolf.com/comic/vincent-did-you-think-your-parents-wouldnt-be-hopelessly-involved-in-your-life-choices

New comic!

Vote over on TWC to see Vincent being confused

Follow me on Blue Sky if you're so inclined!

I promise that Ginger didn't plan to block their makeout sesh on the couch, she just kind of wanted to watch this horrible movie and hoped they wouldn't mind. She was raised in a creepy house in the woods, after all. (And so was Aubrey.)

I made biko just for full legitimacy for this page lol. And also because it looked delicious and I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to make a dessert. I really like it, but I wish the Filipino place near me offered it on the menu or something so I could try a more legit version. I don't have any banana leaves (I could probably get some somewhere in Chicago, but I wasn't going to go out of my way for this experiment), and I can tell that would bring more to the vibe. I also only have the Thai glutinous sweet rice, and I feel like that's maybe not quite the right kind. I've always made it in the microwave to generally pretty good success, because the alternative is steaming it after soaking it for hours, and I don't have time for all that. The short grain Japanese sticky rice I have on hand didn't seem to be the right kind either. Regardless, turned out good! I posted some photos on my Instagram stories, though they're nothing to write home about lol. I'll eat anything that involves rice and coconut milk, frankly.

Also, a quick kitten update, because someone mentioned it yesterday! They're doing well! I found a good home with a friend of a friend for two of the kittens, and last report is that they battle it out for who gets pet first, because this whole litter loves affection. I kept the two grey boy kittens and they're getting along with my cats great and they're possibly the sweetest cats I've ever owned. They really enjoy tipping over my houseplants and dragging all the dirt out onto my carpet, which I'm not thrilled with, but I can manage. The mama is still in my garage. I've got an oil heater in there, so it's a nice temperature, and she plays with her toys and eats catnip and naps in her warm box. I need to catch her, which will be traumatic for everyone, and get her spayed. Hopefully next month when it's warm, because then if she cannot adapt to slowly being introduced to the inside cat life, I can safely let her back outside. I think she'll come around. I plan to keep her in the enclosure I had the kittens in so she has a safe place to learn to be inside and learn to be around me for as long as she needs.

In the meantime, please follow/support me on Patreon if you'd like to see art that I'm working on ahead of time, because that is mostly what I'm doing with my time off anyway. You can also download the Volume 1 ebook and the Kickstarter digital artbook, plus see whatever I'm working on ahead of time.

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Tote bags, hoodies, tshirts, prints and mugs are all available in the Hivemill store! The hoodies are unisex sizing, but the tshirts run rather fitted, so I recommend sizing up! Book 1 is available in paperback and ebook format, as well as the merch from the Kickstarter :).

HTBAW Fandom Wiki is up and running! Thanks to Myk Streja and ShitaraRen for tons of help with moderation efforts and everyone else who's done a ton of work on adding information and filling out the Wiki. Thank you everyone for contributing and it's an amazing and super detailed resource!

Feel free to check out my goofy Amazon store if you're so inclined, or even if you don't need anything from my shop, just using this link will earn me a small commission from things you buy on Amazon regardless of what it is (this is an ad, as I get a tiny commission if you do buy something)! Thanks to everyone who's come out to support me through Ko-fi and Patreon!

https://www.howtobeawerewolf.com/comic/vincent-did-you-think-your-parents-wouldnt-be-hopelessly-involved-in-your-life-choices

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/employee-openly-cheated-on-her-partner-at-our-company-party.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=36309

A reader writes:

I manage a team of 8-12 people at any one time in an entry-level role. Every year, we have a Christmas party at a local hotel and bar. It’s always an open bar — recipe for disaster, but the staff love it.

This year, a member of my team who has a long-term partner, who she talks about regularly, spent the evening kissing a member of another team, out in the open. They were then seen going up to this person’s hotel room at the end of the night, and did not try to hide this.

As her manager, I know my responsibilities and am not letting this impact the way I treat this staff member on a day-to-day basis. I have recent experience of being cheated on myself, so I have found this challenging, but I know how important it is to treat everyone fairly based on their professional contributions.

What’s bothering me is how I feel about her professional judgment following this. Surely someone who would act like this, out in the open, at a work event has questionable judgment at best? Would you let this influence, for example, advancement opportunities where more judgment could be required, or where reputation of the organization becomes more of a factor? We have opportunities to move out of this entry-level role quite regularly, but I now have reservations about passing her on to another department or asking her to represent our department at a more senior level.

Eh, she’s entry-level, so more likely to be young and have less mature judgment.

But let’s back up. First, while the vast majority of the time what people’s sex lives are their own business and should stay out of work considerations, that changes if they bring it into the office. And as a general rule, if someone openly cheats on their partner at a work event, I’m not sure you’re obligated to refuse to let it ever enter your thinking.

However, I’d be more concerned about your employee’s judgment if this were on an ongoing affair being brought into work, versus a one-time error in judgment at a party.

It’s also true that you don’t necessarily know what you saw. For all we know, maybe she wasn’t breaking any rules in her relationship (although it’s still bad judgment to appear to be in front of colleagues). There’s also the impact of alcohol; while no one at a work event should be drinking to the point of sleeping with colleagues they wouldn’t otherwise sleep with, it’s also true that people early in their careers are sometimes still figuring out their limits in that regard.

Also, what about the other person? Are they anywhere in her chain of command? If so, you’ve got a different and far more pressing issue.

Assuming none of those things are issues, though, then the biggest factor to me is that she’s in an entry-level role. I’d put much more weight on this if she were higher up and in a leadership position. At entry level, the obligations and expectations just aren’t the same, and I would not factor this in when thinking about her advancement unless it’s part of a pattern of bad judgment (in which case it would be the pattern that was the issue, not the party incident on its own).

Last — it’s probably time to reconsider the “recipe for disaster, but the staff love it” open bar.

The post employee openly cheated on her partner at our company party appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/employee-openly-cheated-on-her-partner-at-our-company-party.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=36309

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/02/10/when-the-moon-hits-your-eye-out-in-trade-paperback-today/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59421

Yes, that’s right, the USA Today and Indie Bestseller that was also one of Amazon’s 100 Best Books of 2025, is now out in convenient trade paperback form, with a new bonus chapter: An alternate Day One which I wrote but (previously) did not use. It’s good! And a bit different. And has a cat! Because cats are cool.

Anyway, get it four yourself and buy six more for your friends and family. Saja thanks you in advance for your contribution to his Kibble Fund. It’s available wherever you choose to buy your books, and is of course also still available in ebook and audio.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/02/10/when-the-moon-hits-your-eye-out-in-trade-paperback-today/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59421

asknicola_feed

Posted by Nicola Griffith

https://nicolagriffith.com/2026/02/10/she-is-here-no-really-she-is-here-is-here/

http://nicolagriffith.com/?p=98231

I’m in the UK—home later this week—but in honour of She Is Here’s book birthday, I’ve changed this website’s avatar to one of the drawings in the book, “Happy Hound.” To see the other drawings—and poems! And essays! And stories!—you will, of course, have to read the book. Which you can! Because it’s out!

The Seattle Times today has a nice feature—part interview, part review—along with a reminder of my first official book event next week at Third Place Books, Ravenna.

Buy! Read! Enjoy!

https://nicolagriffith.com/2026/02/10/she-is-here-no-really-she-is-here-is-here/

http://nicolagriffith.com/?p=98231

floggingbabel_feed

Posted by Michael Swanwick

http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2026/02/my-armed-with-book-interview.html

The Universe Box, my newest collection of short fiction from Tachyon Publications is now available for sale! And in an absolute non-coincidence, I've been interviewed on Armed With A Book. (Great title, by the way.)

As a general rule, interviews tend to be either serious ("How does it feel to be a genius?" "Um, good, I guess") or silly ("Give me the names of three ducks." "Um, Huey, Dewey, and Donald"). This was one of the serious ones. But I did my best to be serious and entertaining at the same time. Here, for instance, is part of my answer to the question of what keeps me returning to short fiction:

The novel is a wonderful, shambling, shaggy, and digressive beast that eats what it wants and sleeps where it will. The short story is a predator. It zeroes in on its prey, stalks it, and attacks. The novel is about many things. The short story, only one. But that one is worth every word spent on it.

Which should give you an idea of whether the interview is your sort of thing or not. If it is, you can read it here. Or just go to Armed With A Book at armedwithabook.com and poke around. It's a pretty nifty website.

Above: I stole the "three ducks" witticism from either Michael Kurland's The Unicorn Girl or Chester Anderson's The Butterfly Kid, I forget which. There weren't many hippie science fiction novels, but those were two of the best.

http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2026/02/my-armed-with-book-interview.html

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james_davis_nicoll

Two orphans escape their dismal island home for adventure in a slowly dying world.

Scarlet Morning (Scarlet Morning, volume 1) by ND Stevenson

firecat

This article boils down to “we told you so.” But I like how it explains why the mainstream media dismissed and downplayed what we told you (because their “how to do journalism” rules demand it, e.g.: “Insist on a both-sides structure even when one side is lying“).

“The Media Malpractice That Sent America Tumbling Into Trumpism” by Parker Molloy
https://newrepublic.com/article/205913/media-malpractice-trumpism-project-2025

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Adventures in Mamboland

"Jazz Fish, a saxophone playing wanderer, finds himself in Mamboland at a critical phase in his life." --Howie Green, on his book Jazz Fish Zen

Yeah. That sounds about right.

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Politics Chat, February 10, 2026

Periodic reminder that "good billionaire" Marc Benioff is still a massive piece of shit

Crosspost. Phones and legs and Jews against ICE

Bundle for Two 4 – all-new duet RPGs through Wed 18 Feb

Trump threatens bridge to prevent Canadians from visiting country Canadians do not want to visit

Update on legal cases: one new victory! :) One new restriction :(

February 9, 2026

should I tell my bosses their efforts to support me aren’t enough and they might lose me?

The Big Idea: Kristina W. Kelly

I manage the CEO’s horrible nephew

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Full Dive

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employee openly cheated on her partner at our company party

When the Moon Hits Your Eye Out in Trade Paperback Today

SHE IS HERE! No, really, She is Here is here!

My Armed With A Book Interview

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Scarlet Morning (Scarlet Morning, volume 1) by ND Stevenson

Duck, politics incoming

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