Random~

#3151

I'm on too many Slack channels right now. I have a hard time keeping track.

#3152

Dom wrote:wtf is slack

Its like, a chat/messenger thing for professional settings.

#3153

I saw a headline yesterday that read: "Does Nutella Cause Cancer?"

No lie- my first thought was "Why don't you ask her?"

#3154

I just sent an email inquiring about grad school applications. I have been meaning to do this for months but procrastinated because I have been nervous. I am still nervous. ahhhh

#3155

R.I.P. Ringling Bros. Circus.

We almost took Chloe last year but held off. Now she'll never get to see the circus.

#3156

Random post just to see how long any other Speakeasy topic can last on the homepage before the Politics Discussion thread yanks it back down into obscurity.

#3157

G-Man wrote:Random post just to see how long any other Speakeasy topic can last on the homepage before the Politics Discussion thread yanks it back down into obscurity.

Just over eight minutes. That was more than I expected.

#3158

Mine will last longer.

#3159

10 minutes, ye boiiii

#3160

Obligatory random bump.

#3161

Metalmarsh89 wrote:Obligatory random bump.

I hope you don't find one of those after a one night stand.

#3162

Epignosis wrote:
Metalmarsh89 wrote:Obligatory random bump.
I hope you don't find one of those after a one night stand.

I found not just one, but a dozen.

#3163

#3164

What is the purpose of a furniture with a single drawer?

#3165

The same as furniture with multiple drawers, it just has less of it.

#3166

Vompatti wrote:The same as furniture with multiple drawers, it just has less of it.

Vomps is civ, k?

#3167

G-Man wrote:R.I.P. Ringling Bros. Circus.

We almost took Chloe last year but held off. Now she'll never get to see the circus.

If only the could have kept the animal abuse up for another year. Poor Chloe.

#3168

Drawers are best in pairs.

#3169

Tonight I taught a yoga class with Soup for a theme. My boss and our Public Records Coordinator are both leaving the agency so I'm cross-training like whoa and I'm busy as hell. Can't complain though.

My hair is really long.

#3170

Vompatti wrote:The same as furniture with multiple drawers, it just has less of it.

That stand would be perfect for beside the front door. A tiny Depression glass dish for your keys and a tiny drawer for your accouterments. Things you need to grab on the way in to work (or school).

#3171

Mongoose wrote:Tonight I taught a yoga class with Soup for a theme. My boss and our Public Records Coordinator are both leaving the agency so I'm cross-training like whoa and I'm busy as hell. Can't complain though.

My hair is really long.

How does one have soup themed yoga? Is it because you get stretchy like noodles?

My hair is getting pretty long too.

#3172

A Person wrote:
Mongoose wrote:Tonight I taught a yoga class with Soup for a theme. My boss and our Public Records Coordinator are both leaving the agency so I'm cross-training like whoa and I'm busy as hell. Can't complain though.

My hair is really long.
How does one have soup themed yoga? Is it because you get stretchy like noodles?

My hair is getting pretty long too.

I did a pose I renamed Stirring the Pot and stuff like that. The motif was Comfort, which goes well with soup.

#3173

Mongoose wrote:
A Person wrote:
Mongoose wrote:Tonight I taught a yoga class with Soup for a theme. My boss and our Public Records Coordinator are both leaving the agency so I'm cross-training like whoa and I'm busy as hell. Can't complain though.

My hair is really long.
How does one have soup themed yoga? Is it because you get stretchy like noodles?

My hair is getting pretty long too.
I did a pose I renamed Stirring the Pot and stuff like that. The motif was Comfort, which goes well with soup.

That sounds nice. I like comfy

#3174

Posting this here because the Politics Thread is just so... well, you know.

So the federal government is suing Sallie Mae for inappropriate procedures regarding student loan debt collection/repayment. The article says that Sallie Mae cheated borrowers out of repayment options. When I collected student loan debt for PHEAA / American Education Services and FedLoan Servicing, I never heard a positive thing about Sallie Mae. Obviously, as a competitor, PHEAA and FedLoan brass would never sa a good thing about them, but borrowers who refinanced their loans and landed at PHEAA or FedLoan were always elated to be rid of that company.

While I applaud the government for suing Sallie Mae, I must also spit in the government's face on this one and say 'you reap what you sow.' Servicing federal student loans is a lucrative business. Since taking over the public student loan industry with the stimulus package, the government generates every federal student loan created. Private loans still exist, but the vast majority of student loans are created by Uncle Sam.

Since the federal government had no way to service the millions of loans generated by the industry they took over, they hired (sub-contracted really) a variety of companies to service the loans for the government. When I worked in the industry, there were just four servicing companies. I've been out for five years and there are now nine such companies. Servicing really just means monitoring and managing accounts- collect payments, call the delinquent borrowers, and pass the defaulted ones off to subrogation. I called delinquent borrowers.

The government contracts with servicing companies for blocks of time. Eventually, those contracts come under review. Quarterly and annual reports come out comparing the government's ratings for each servicing company. These ratings cover a number of areas (though they may have changed in the last five years)- customer service satisfaction, the servicer's website, the proportion of borrowers making full or reduced payments, delinquency rates, and default rates. It's bad to be in last place in any category, particularly the last two.

The government is generating millions of student loans each year. Since servicing companies are contracted for certain blocks of time, they can't just stop giving these companies new loans to service, as it would overload the other companies. They can, however, assign a higher volume of loans to the companies performing better in their metrics. In this way, the government incentivizes these companies to keep their default and delinquency rates as low as possible. There's also an incentive in keeping as many borrowers as possible in full repayment mode.

These companies, in turn, incentivize their employees to keep borrowers current. This involves (what I consider) the rampant abuse of something called a forbearance. The tow main tools available to me when I worked in the industry were deferments and forbearances. It looks like they've changed the names and added a few since my time but it breaks down like this- deferments on subsidized loans don't accrue interest. Naturally, the government tries to push more people toward the unsubsidized loans now. Unsubsidized loans still accrue interest while on deferment and that interest is capitalized when you enter repayment (AKA- the interest is added to the loan principle, causing you to pay even more overall).

All loans accrue interest while on forebearance and that interest is capitalized when you get back into repayment. While they are useful in wiping out a delinquency, forbearances are doled out like crack and servicing companies all but don't give you a choice in the matter when you apply for a deferment. Deferments take up to two weeks to process and apply, so we were told to strongly encourage the forbearance to bring them current while the paperwork processes. If anything goes wrong with the paperwork, at least they won't be reported as delinquent (or as delinquent) when the next round of reports and ratings comes out.

At the companies I worked at, the environment was extremely production oriented. We had almost 100 people working in Default Prevention when I quit, and we'd each talk to dozens of people a day. That's how many loans are delinquent. We did outgoing and incoming calls. Because the government prefers borrowers to stay in full repayment mode, servicing loans is less about actually helping people and more about meeting benchmarks and 'sales' goals. Individual reps could earn quarterly bonuses for keeping their scores up. Our score was determined by some phantom calculation that awarded more points for coaxing a payment out of a borrower, fewer points for deferments and forebearances, and no points for referring someone for a lower payment plan. This is the kind of practice that Sallie Mae is being sued for.

I've got news for the federal government- I'm willing to bet that EVERY servicing company does the exact same thing that Sallie Mae did. FedLoan certainly did. Apparently we just didn't piss of as many people as Sallie Mae. To be fair, the government isn't paying these companies to care about customers; they're paying them to service the loans. The government cares about loan status more than customer service because loan status gets Uncle Sam paid. When you have a student loan, you cease to be a person in the eyes of the government and servicing companies. You are a customer who is legally obligated to pay up at some point. That's more or less what debt collectors are trained to believe about you. Ignore the sob stories, stick to the script, collect a few bonuses, and keep applying for supervisor and QA positions while hoping that somebody higher up the ladder likes you.

It's a soul-sucking environment that I knew I had to escape from. I rebelled in my own little way because I was nice to people. I cared. I took more than the 'encouraged' 6.5 minutes maximum per call. I was as honest as I was legally allowed to be on most of my calls. Anyone with a GED and a pulse can collect student loan debt and they make sure you know that. Turnover is horrendous but it's not a specialized job. A week or two of training and the computer more or less guides you through the process.

Now I am all for personal responsibility. I'm not anti-student loans. I do think the government sucks at running this program. Several of the elected officials who complain about federal student loan interest rates also voted in favor of the government taking over the industry. The government complaining about interest rates that the government sets? The government suing a servicing company for doing what the government incentivized it to do?

When I worked in the industry, lower repayment options were just starting to gain steam. I don't even think our supervisors understood them right because we were told they were last-ditch-effort hail Mary's that almost nobody would qualify for. We were told to do anything to avoid going that route. I can understand why- from an investment standpoint, it's stupid to loan someone money and not expect to get it all back in time. People take out the loans and they ought to pay the money back. If you don't want your money back in full, then expand the grant programs. The government took it all over because of abuse and predatory lending and yet the government continues to tout how much you can borrow through unsubsidized loans and now they're suing a contracted servicing company for abuse.

I feel like I had more to say but I'm losing focus and this is already too long for most people to read. Good night.

#3175

G-Man wrote:Posting this here because the Politics Thread is just so... well, you know.

I'm sorry.

#3176

Thanks for posting that G-Man. As a student who will soon be going into repayment, I find this information informative and hopefully useful. I'm lucky I'm entering a field in an area where it will be a piece of cake to find a good paying job to repay those debts. But to be honest, I never knew there was anything other than deferment.

I'm proud of you for sticking to your guns and being as good a person as you could. I can't imagine it's an easy thing to do in that environment.

Also, I only read this because it wasn't in the Politics Thread.

#3177

G-Man what is the alternative to government backed loans (besides expanding grants) that you are hoping to see in the student loan industry? If it's private student loans, won't the same practices in collection be a problem?

#3178

juliets wrote:G-Man what is the alternative to government backed loans (besides expanding grants) that you are hoping to see in the student loan industry? If it's private student loans, won't the same practices in collection be a problem?

I have nothing against government-backed loans, so long as the industry cleans up its act. Private student loans typically carry higher interest rates but I know nothing of their collection practices or customer service standards. I'm open to the Income-Based Repayment options to make payments lower and more manageable but I disagree with eliminating any remaining loan balances after the set payment periods (20 years for undergrad, 25 years for graduate loans). If you borrow, you should pay. Otherwise, it's just another way for the federal government to throw our tax dollars away.

What the federal government really took over was guaranteeing the loans. In other words, PHEAA takes financial responsibility for the student loans it generated for the government. If a loan defaults, PHEAA lost the money when it was sent to collections. If a loan is forgiven (via death, permanent disability, or forgiveness programs), PHEAA once again lost the money. If a borrower refinanced their loan and it got sent to another guarantor/servicer, PHEAA would lose the money to that other company. Nowadays, PHEAA doesn't take financial responsibility for the loans. They just generate and babysit the loans. If a loan defaults, the government loses the money.

Since PHEAA has no skin in the game save for their cut of the next batch of loans to babysit, it seems to me that there is less incentive to care about the end customer. When they were at risk of losing money on a default, I'd like to think that they cared a little more. Maybe not, but the lack of caring was one of the things that ate at me the most and I fear that it made me a less sympathetic/empathetic person. There's no such thing as a bad job but there are jobs that aren't right for people. This job was not right for me.

If the government doesn't want all of its money back, then yes, expand the grant programs and reduce the student loan programs. If they want their money back, don't forgive loans, do a better job of informing borrowers of the details so they can make better decisions, and try to cultivate and/or incentivize a better corporate culture for the servicing companies they contract with.

I also think that too many people who aren't college material are being encouraged to take out loans for college but that's another rant for another day.

#3179

G-Man here is a NYT article talking about the very subject of your posts that you might be interested in reading. Confirms what you say about the reduced payment option.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/busi ... v=top-news

#3180

#3181

I have a press pass for the inauguration. I'm not allowed to post about it on social media or the secret service will come get me.

#3182

Have fun!

#3183

I have staggering law loans that are double my mortgage. I am so glad that I went with T.H.E. all those years ago! I agree, I've heard nothing but awful things from my friends that borrowed via Sallie Mae. I'm hoping to work in the public interest for 10+ years in order to have the balance of my loans forgiven. Several of the individual loans will be paid off by then, but forgiveness will still help me loads.

#3184

thellama73 wrote:I have a press pass for the inauguration. I'm not allowed to post about it on social media or the secret service will come get me.

If I post about it, will they come after me or you?

#3185

llama, can you post about how you are enjoying your day at work? And can you come to the chatzy this afternoon? God knows you probably can't get any work done.

#3186

juliets wrote:llama, can you post about how you are enjoying your day at work? And can you come to the chatzy this afternoon? God knows you probably can't get any work done.

I will do what I can! With all the big brass around, I may not want to be too flagrant about chatroom use, but I will certainly post.

#3187

Melania has on a pretty coat dress. Or maybe it's a suit.

#3188

Made it to work. It's crowded, but not that crowded. I imagine that there are a lot fewer people here than expected. I didn't eve have to talk to secret service to get into the office.

#3189

Any updates you can report llama? I can report the First Lady elect is wearing Ralph Lauren.

#3190

We're live. I'm visible in the background:
https://www.conservativereview.com/comm ... an-bongino

#3191

juliets wrote:Any updates you can report llama? I can report the First Lady elect is wearing Ralph Lauren.

She's wearing a nother person? Like she skinned Ralph? :O

#3192

thellama73 wrote:We're live. I'm visible in the background:
https://www.conservativereview.com/comm ... an-bongino

Well, sometimes I am, in wide shots.

#3193

juliets wrote:Any updates you can report llama? I can report the First Lady elect is wearing Ralph Lauren.

Apparently there's been a little vandalism so far. A Starbucks, but I'm indoors so not seeing too much of what's going on.

#3194

Interesting, I get the message the media cannot be played. Must use flash. Or something is wrong.

#3195

juliets wrote:Interesting, I get the message the media cannot be played. Must use flash. Or something is wrong.

It's probably for the best.

#3196

I don't condone this kind of nonsense. Disappointed to see it.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... owntown-dc

#3197

I withhold from commenting

#3198

G-Man wrote:Random post just to see how long any other Speakeasy topic can last on the homepage before the Politics Discussion thread yanks it back down into obscurity.

lol

#3199

Update from ground zero. Apparently the protests are starting to get pretty violent and bad. Cops have told the workers in the nearby Starbucks and Corner Bakery to go home.

#3200

I say "protests" but it's really just vandalism at this point.

Full Games	Civilian: Mafia: Independent:
Speed Games	Civilian: Fiddler on the Roof Mafia:
Heists	Civilian: MVP: RED vs BLUE
Burglaries	Independent: The Theme Is Literally a Burglary
Special Games	Civilian: Independent:

Full Games	Civilian: Mafia: Independent:
Speed Games	Civilian: Fiddler on the Roof Mafia:
Heists	Civilian: MVP: RED vs BLUE
Burglaries	Independent: The Theme Is Literally a Burglary
Special Games	Civilian: Independent:

Full Games	Civilian: Mafia: Independent:
Speed Games	Civilian: Fiddler on the Roof Mafia:
Heists	Civilian: MVP: RED vs BLUE
Burglaries	Independent: The Theme Is Literally a Burglary
Special Games	Civilian: Independent:

Full Games	Civilian: Mafia: Independent:
Speed Games	Civilian: Fiddler on the Roof Mafia:
Heists	Civilian: MVP: RED vs BLUE
Burglaries	Independent: The Theme Is Literally a Burglary
Special Games	Civilian: Independent:

Full Games	Civilian: Mafia: Independent:
Speed Games	Civilian: Fiddler on the Roof Mafia:
Heists	Civilian: MVP: RED vs BLUE
Burglaries	Independent: The Theme Is Literally a Burglary
Special Games	Civilian: Independent:

2014 Sockys
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2014 Sockys
2015 Sockys
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2014 Sockys
2015 Sockys
Miscellaneous

2014 Sockys
2015 Sockys
Miscellaneous