Also in my understanding, it was a gamble by David Cameron. He promised the referendum before the previous general election, believing the Tories wouldn't get a majority and he could blame the Lib Dems coalition partner when they blocked the referendum, then the Tories did win outright and oopsie, what do I do now, I've got to hold a referendum with no plan. Basically unintended consequences. Moral of the story... be careful. Maybe Cameron had had a long day and was tired or something when he made that decision ;)
"this seems like the worst time ever to work for the government" - might be some satisfying and important opportunities in 4 years time sorting out the most horrendous mess. (assuming you guys actually get to choose someone different then ;) )
In the UK there's this :) https://www.open.ac.uk/postgraduate/qualifications/f66. No entry reqs at all. I've a friend who for various reasons back in the day got no secondary school (high school) qualifications i:e no GCSEs or A levels, no undergrad either, but did an apprenticeship and ended up as a software dev , did an Open University MSc and ended up with a Comp Sci Phd ! Open University always seems fantastic to me but maybe US employers would expect Americans to have an American qualification? Regarding your original Q to do the degree at all, absolutely, worth it for the mental development, also there are some great jobs out there that do require a degree and a shame to miss out. Having taken part in a sift for junior developer positions, the applications we get have a lot of cr*p, many people with bootcamps plus half-arsed / plagiarised GitHub. Those with a Real comp Sci degree plus some experience really do stand out.
Seems to me the meta version of this is there exist entire jobs and careers to support technologies that are over complex, badly written, poorly documented, need constant security updates, patches etc, keep changing the way they work, need an enormous amount of effort to keep running, vendor gets bought out or does a pointless redesign, while something simple written by you or I just carries on working quietly and gets no attention. This is a tragedy of tech. I fully believe in the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. The world could spend way less on tech if we all followed that. Its not even just tech - e:g Henry vacuum cleaners are used on filthy construction sites and seem to last forever while more expensive fashionable ones break in 5 mins. Simplicity being the key difference.
"One 4-year presidency does not have to mold the history or legacy of a country." What actually happens after 4 years though? Isn't the concern, the supreme court ruling that the president is above the law? So laws like, you can't run for more than 2 terms, you must have a democratic election where everyone gets a vote, basically all laws around elections, no longer need be followed. Or for that matter any other laws. A president could seemingly behave like Hitler and face no justice. Trump won't live forever, but what's to stop him handing over to someone similar? (BTW to your main point, I agree indeed Europe has its major issues too)
Textile manufacturing is an interesting example because some large companies do sign up to anti sweatshop rules. Back in the day Gap got pressured into doing that I believe. Here in UK, last I heard (may not be up to date) Marks and Spencer does that, and apparently so do Primark (cheap clothes store who many might assume use sweatshops), while large supermarket Tesco I've heard associated with using sweatshops and being unresponsive when people complained. I'd argue we the western consumer are responsible to a certain extent. We can do research and find out who's best to shop with and direct our spending accordingly, thus impacting the lives of people in those countries.
"it’s arrogant for foreigners thinking they’re responsible for another country’s problems and should be the ones solving them, not the locals." - I agree with that but, to me that isn't an argument against providing targeted, life-saving aid to those in a terrible situation, whilst try to be mindful that the locals should be listened to and often in charge of it, and that aid can have negative effects if done badly. To give an example, I'm sure no-one in a disaster zone worries about arrogance when they see a doctor arrive from Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). But hopefully MSF once they've dealt with the initial problem, are trying to help locals train up in medical techniques that they themselves want and work in the local environment. From what I've seen, I believe they do just that.. probably not always perfectly.
This is one of the aims behind Fair Trade. Its giving a fair price to local producers for products, which means you can help people without running into issues of perverse incentives, dependency, lack of self-determination. That's the theory at least... For items not easily produced in the west e:g tea, coffee, chocolate, bananas, we try wherever possible to buy Fair Trade.
Such a subliminal message might be "constructive dismissal" and against disability legislation. With a good lawyer you might get a decent result if they ever did fire you? On the plus side, the fact they haven't fired you means either (a) they do actually value you performance even if they're claiming otherwise (perhaps to avoid paying more) or (b) they'd quite like to fire you but fear being sued big time if they did, so holding back. Either way, it'd seem you've got some power over them if you play your cards right. So, maybe try not to stress? ;) Yeah OK that's easier said than done....
Off and on they've been threatening me with a PIP for the past year, but haven't actually triggered one. I did talk to a lawyer. They said there's not much I can do until they terminate me, or risk losing the job. They could help me respond to a PIP when they PIP me. But even if the company terminates me, the lawyer said they are inclined to negotiate higher severance than going to court because it's tricky to prove that any bias or singled out treatment was because of the disability and not something else. Although I do have notes of my manager saying requesting accommodations might have hurt me and that my department head is targeting me for some reason.
Ah well I wish you all the best with it. Sounds like a form of bullying to me :( Might not hurt to set your phone to record mode during some of those meetings. ;) I know what you're saying about making a legal case. Legal stuff is always a pain, not somewhere you wanna go if you can help it. Its bluffing right? They need to think you might consider sue-ing and could win, even if you know you wouldn't. Personally, if I was in your position, I'd be looking at what skills were in demand locally, and ruthlessly up-skilling in that stuff, during work time, ideally by working on stuff they need anyway. But, again, easier said than done...
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