I’ve had companies write clauses in their employee manual which states you must apply and get approval for using your paid vacation days a month in advance. When you sign the contract, you agree to these rules.

The thing is, where I live, there is no requirement to receive approval, and you really only need to give one day of notice (which has precedent in court). The use of these days off if the employee’s legal right.

The really shitty thing is that companies can legally write illegal clauses in their contracts, they just can’t enforce them. However, if an employee is young and doesn’t know their rights, they will just follow the rules blindly (I know I did).

Also, leave only accumulated for two years here, so you have to use it or lose it.

So the moral of the story is to educate yourself on your local labor laws.

They should include more countries for this to be a fair comparison.

Here in Japan you have to wait zero days to see the equivalent of a GP (a doctor of internal medicine is what would be considered the closest) unless it is a weekend or holiday. But even then, there are some clinics open on those days (they share the responsibility on a rotating basis).

You simply rock up and wait to be seen. Generally you won’t be waiting too long. Maybe 30 to 60 minutes. With pharmacies conveniently located next door, you’ll be in and out in no time when you’re feeling crook.

Justice of the Peace

The world needs more people like you!

With nearly 600,000 international visitors in the 2023/2024 financial year, Te Papa is expected to earn an additional $5-$10 million per year from the move. That figure takes into account free entry for under 16s and group discounts, along with some visitors slipping through the cracks.

It also accounts for children who don’t have to pay.

Oh yeah, you got me there. Didn’t consider that you were implying that. Whoops! My bad. I’ll leave the above comment though in case others find it useful somehow. Thanks!

Articles (a/an/the) are supposed to be omitted from news headlines, so nothing to fix here. You can check the rules for writing headlines here have a great day!

That’s totally true. I do see where they have posted. I personally disagree that it is mildly infuriating though. We’re all allowed our own opinions. If I was working in tech support and had the OP call up, their actions would come across as mildly infuriating.

OPs bank has provided the solution. For whatever reason, they’re choosing not to use it. I think they’re making a mountain out of a molehill.

Take a photo of the QR code with your smartphone, or display the QR code on your phone, and scan the screen with your webcam. Problem solved.

lol wtf an inactivity fee for a virtual prepaid card is charged every month? Who hurt them?

It looks similar to what I drive. I like it. It is spacious enough for a family. It is also roomy enough for a tallish person (around 190cm) to drive comfortably. My partner uses it for their commute daily, and we use it for family outings or shopping.

I do also walk or cycle for certain things, but where I live a car is a necessity if you have a family.

They use a lot less fuel and have a much smaller footprint, which is good. But have just enough oomph to go on the expressways here.

Japan here. I’ve never seen them.

Zero here for me. You using an ad blocker?

It’s not about losing face. It is the fact that seishain, or permanent employees are very hard to fire. The company needs to keep a record of the employee’s failures.

In addition, the company needs to implement and execute improvement plans. The results of those need to be reviewed. The next plan has to be implemented. And so on.

Only when they fail to show improvement a certain number of times (I don’t know exactly) can they be legally fired. You can’t just fire someone like in the U.S. style of at will employment. That would be a lawsuit waiting to happen.

So it is easier and cheaper to “persuade” the employee to resign.

However, this terrible behavior is considered to be power harassment, and all large companies now have ethics hotlines. Also, companies have to provide annual trainings on issues like this. So, I hope this practice is decreasing.

Thanks! I’m in Japan, but glad to know this exists!

I think this is something that is better provided by government. I think the question should be why doesn’t California have an early warning alert system similar to the likes of Japan, which will notify all cellphone and smartphone users in affected areas regardless of their brand of device?

I recommend a combination of the following Safari extensions: Stop the Madness Pro, UnTrap for YouTube, and SponsorBlock.

Total cost was about the same as one month of ad free YouTube. Works beautifully.

I can finally enjoy YouTube again after giving up jailbreaking.

Making some shortcuts retrains muscle memory. I set a dedicated tab in Safari just for YouTube so it doesn’t clutter up my regular browsing.

And where I live you pay for SMS. So blue is free, but green is not. Also helpful.

Thanks for the heads up. I rarely have a need for photoshop these days, but I grabbed the iPad only version of Affinity Photo just in case as it was so cheap in my region.

I’m sure it’ll get some use. Once or twice a year I try using a combination of smartphone apps to do some editing as I can’t be bothered dusting off my old slow laptop. So this will be cool. And it still runs on older hardware. iOS 15 is still supported!