Remember when I had an actuarial bookstore? Back then, the only way to process card transactions online was to convert them on the server to a fax. So I’d get all the book orders in by fax. I was like pavlov’s dog, every time that would go off.
I was horribly sick one night, so I crashed in the spare room/office that had the fax machine. 3 oclock in the morning I get shocked awake by the machine, somebody’s ordering books in the middle of the night.
The fax machine was also the reason I quit my last actuarial job. We were eating supper and talking about work etc. The fax machine went off like 6 times, and I just said to my spouse, I’ve just made a bunch of money while I’m sitting here eating supper. I’m done, I’m going in to work tomorrow morning and giving notice.
Online I noticed that I could get a pair of mechanical pencils at my local Office Depot for $7.29.
When I got there they were over $12 and I had to use their own website to get a price match. While I waited for a manager to arrive because the kid didn’t know how to make the adjustment, the person behind me purchased paper at a different register and he needed price matching too.
Working on an acquisition, I got thrown into this way late in the game and have basically zero time to help them with the valuation. Every time I ask a question, the response is a link to a folder with like 18 PDF documents in it. Folks, I don’t have time to read a novel, either send me the Cliff’s Notes or fuck off, please.
I deal with stuff like that on moderate (£500m) to major deals (£2bn) and its always super stressful.
Doing things on the fly basically means you have to compress 6 weeks work into a few weeks (I have seen people fired for making mistakes as well due to this issue).
Its a huge annoyance of mine as well because validating the pricing is difficult, and they will always end up blaming you if you are off by a few % of premium.
Come bonus day…I expect a large one due to the stresses involved.
I bought something on Amazon yesterday that I needed early today, so I paid for same day shipping ($3).
Later that evening we got some snow. I was out on the roads at 6PM and they weren’t bad, but later in the evening they did get quite bad. But the delivery was supposed to be done by 6PM.
The item is now expected today by 10, as it was never delivered. I still need the item, so I won’t cancel it, although now it’s late and I have to adjust my plans.
Am I going to get my shipping fee back? No, of course not. Will I make a fuss over $3? No, of course not. I’ll just post here instead.
