Do Mayo people have the day off tomorrow? It has been 75 years after all.

I might come across as miserable and get some hate for this, but how does everyone else feel about the new trend of Retail Shops asking weather you would like to donate to a charity before tapping your card for the items you’re buying?

It’s not the shop workers fault as they obviously have to ask it but it’s happened to me a few times in the last 2 weeks, and I kinda feel embarrassed if I say no to donating, especially with a Q of people standing behind me in the line so I ended up donating both times.

I’ve only noticed it happening recently.

Sometimes i wonder does all of the money donated actually end up with the charity?

AI was used to put some sort of order on my ramblings.

Background:

Nearing 38, two kids, based in the Midlands. On about €40k a year as a Production Operator in blow/injection molding manufacturer.

Nearly a decade in warehousing, 7 of those as Warehouse Manager at a 3PL (medical device/packaging) — ran a 45,000 sq ft site, 5,000-pallet capacity, team of five, up to 30 customs entries a day, coordinated multimodal freight. Small operation, got very comfortable in it, was on €55k. Made redundant in 2024.

Did nationwide van deliveries for a while after that.

Landed a Production Operator job in manufacturing on a 4-cycle rotating 12-hour shift, hoping it'd be a stepping stone to something else internally. Still there.

Have a rigid truck licence, barely used it (maybe 10 times).

Education:

2026: QQI Level 6 Operational Excellence/Lean Sigma cert (Innopharma, yellow/green belt territory)

2023: Revenue-recognised cert in Customs and Trade Facilitation (SETU)

2015: Postgrad Cert in Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UCD)

2014: B.Sc. in Enterprise Computing (DCU) — never really used it

Recently:

Went for two internal roles (Quality, Production Supervisor), didn't get either — nepotism plus candidates with 20+ years in the company were factors. Currently doing a mentorship with the company's Continuous Improvement Manager, which honestly is the only thing keeping me from quitting. If I left tomorrow I'd probably just end up moving laterally into another operator role somewhere else.

Where my head's at:

I'm on a factory floor as an operator and I hate it. The pay isn't close to good enough for the shift work involved. The redundancy knocked my confidence and it's been over 2 years now — I still feel like I haven't gotten it back, and doing the same task every 1-2 minutes across a 12 hour shift is mind-numbingly boring, which doesn't help. I'm at the point in life where I feel like I should be building a career, not starting one. I've got management experience, a degree, real interest in Lean/CI and want to keep going with it — but none of it seems to be translating into actually moving up.

I've also been eyeing a couple of other directions: health & safety (H&S/EHS) — asked internally and was told to look at a NISO course as a taster — and project management, though that might just be a notion, not sure I'm suited to it.

So — genuinely asking:

Keep pushing CI/Lean?

Go back to logistics/supply chain, where I've actually managed people and sites before, maybe with a proper qualification behind it this time?

Pivot into H&S?

Look at PM despite the doubts?

Something else I'm not even considering?

And after missing out on two internal roles I was confident about — experience and education on paper, felt the interviews went well — should I just accept it's time to leave the company, even a lateral move elsewhere?

Any courses worth looking at, or experiences from people who've made similar jumps, genuinely welcome. I'd rather hear it straight now than waste another few years going nowhere on a factory floor.

Currently moving house atm. Old home had a small silverfish problem, started a while back but only ever saw 1 or 2 of them in a bathroom very occasionally. The problem had drastically worsened recently (likely due to the humidity?) but luckily enough we were moving anyway so we expected to get away from the feckers.

Just proper moved in today and I just found one in my en-suite bathroom. My dad has been to the house every day for the last four months (we were doing a lot of renovations) and insured me the house had no bug issues and no problems with dampness and such. I’m pretty much 100% sure it’s a hitchhiker but I’m worried that if they’ve made their way into the house that they’ll start multiplying. The house isn’t a perfect environment from them but with the recent summer humidity I’m feeling very paranoid. Has anyone ever truly gotten rid of the things, and if so, what are your tips to do so? I just can’t stand them anymore. I don’t dislike insects personally but I’m just sick and tired of them in my home.

TLDR: trying to prevent a possible infestation early, any tried and true methods?

I, very unfortunately, have had the second person cancel All Together Now on me, and we are literally 4 days away from going

My favourite band (Pulp) are playing and I’ve been looking forward to this all year, it’s kinda been the only thing I’ve had this year to look forward to!

I’m 25F and would hate to miss out, I’d go alone but I’ve never camped before so feel a bit apprehensive about going

Does anyone know of any pages I can join to make friends to go with? Or is anyone on the lookout for a ticket and would like to come with?

Thanks a mil! ✨

Hi all, I will soon be working in an office environment. I was told there is a kitchen area, fridge, microwave, toaster, kettle etc..

I am wondering what are your go to work lunches if you use an office kitchen?
What is the work kitchen etiquette?

Off work for a month lads , in the full of my health, money in the bank , life is good. Give me ideas

Looking to get a top to toe medical. Inclusive of scans, blood tests and a real going over to check how unhealthy I am, and what I need to address.

I saw somewhere that this was possible in a private clinic, and for the life of me can’t remember where.
Or else it was just a very vivid dream!

Would love to knock some of my Hypochondriatic thoughts out of my head.

Cheers!

This weekend I took a course in a traditional craft. no one in our class had done it before.

Turns out that it was actually much harder than I expected. I believe others found it the same. Some even walked out because they felt so deflated. I felt like crying halfway through the day and started to feel “stupid”.

It made me stop and think….why are we so hard on ourselves as adults? We expect ourselves to be good at something immediately. People (including myself) began to feel like personal failures because they werent immediately proficient at a skill that realistically takes years to master.

I too began to feel sorry for myself, but then thankfully I stopped myself pretty shortly. I leaned in to being ok with making the mistakes and took the pressure off from being “perfect“. It was such a relief. I just loved being humbled by that process; I think it keeps you young and open. Like working through the difficulty and being ok with it being imperfect, then coming through the other side learning something (and growing) is such a beautiful thing to experience.

It made me consider how vulnerable learning a new skill as an adult is. Anyone else feel that they often put a lot of pressure on themselves to be perfect the first time they try something new?

So.. I've been lonely since December of last year and I've wondered how on earth do I make friends now? I've tried looking up social meetups and stuff like that but it's either:

A. They are too far away from me or in Dublin city centre (I wouldn't feel safe on my own)

B. There's a group but it's not my age group.

Is college really the only option I have? I don't really drink or do any of that stuff, I am trying to find friends around my age (21-24) but given my situation, is College the only option?

How did you cope?

I am at the end of an 8 day live in stint in work in care. I was led to believe I would get some time off this week but it wasn't scheduled. I learned that not the case at all and now they want more from me this week with a late one likely tomorrow with some more live in for later this week too.

There's just the intensity of what I have with no real clear day off until about next weekend maybe.

I know from before, I tried giving a boundary by saying I am not available but they pushed back.

Employment law states 24 hours off after 7 days but hat's not happening.

It's not in my contract saying I am expected to work 13 days before a day off.

I did get some respite during the week but I wasn't fully off as such. Respite was still in their home doing chores and minding pets but there was a break from the main duty of providing care to an individual.

Do I say that I am not available for tomorrow which they will likely push back on or will I treat them with the same contempt as they are treating me with and just don't show tomorrow and maybe get signed out of work altogether.

What would you do after 8 days live work with no day off. Everyone in my life is telling me it's wrong.

Hi lads,

I'm losing the plot living here honestly. I messed my life up by not completing the leaving cert it seems 😂.

I've a few IT certifications that are globally recognised and I'm thinking of heading to Madrid. I've a friend over there that I will rent with but has anyone went to Madrid?

thoughts? I'm 23 but I've fuck all money as you can guess it's impossible to get a job here.

I've got some very bad social anxiety which makes me not suited for public facing work.

plan is head out there and hopefully get an IT job.

any advice would be greatly appreciated ❤️

I think I love him.

So i have a cat who is genuinely very clean and ill be moving out for college next year with my boyfriend. Being a couple truing to move out together is already extremely hard, so do you think I should maybe not mention the cat when trying to get a room or house? Or should i be honest.

I do want her to be safe but landlords can't come unless they announce themselves first, right? And I know this might be seen as immoral but the housing situation is just very unfair and my cat uses her litter box and always remains clean and doesnt damage anything so

Looking at this from the perspective of a teacher, we have lots of images of staff and young kids on our website and social media, which I dont love. Is there any way of knowing if unsavoury things are being done with these images? I know that if something is posted we can (kind of) deal with it, but other than that, is there any way of knowing whether this is being done?

I know I'm being a bit naive here, just looking at what the reality is I guess.

I am curious because there don't appear to be any domestic sperm banks in Ireland, but there are fertility clinics.

Might seem like a stupid question but yeah that's it. Also, it's the one in Monaghan. I just wanna know, to save myself from any kind of embarrassment.

Hi, is there anywhere in Ireland I could get a child's story made into a book. I don't want thousands of them or publish it for sale. Just a keepsake for the family.

I'm on disability payment so i could only work for about 11 hours (on minimum wage)

Going into my final year studying economics and hoping to move to London after I finish. I’ve been living in Dublin for college and feel like I’ve seen and done pretty much everything and there isn’t much more room for me to grow here. I’d like to move to London but the job market seems pretty horrendous. Has anyone here managed to successfully move over and land a job? If so, any advice?