You state “Getting certs is part of what is required for me to get bigger raises and get promoted and all that jazz.” So this is not a required part of your CURRENT position. If you want a better position, you will need to invest in yourself, using some of your own time. Sounds like the employer is already paying for the courses and tests, the rest is now up to you.

Do not go in to your meeting with a bad attitude, you will just piss off your boss. Accept that if you want a promotion and higher pay that you are going to have to give up some personal time to get there. Remember, they’ve already given you time, and you failed, multiple times from what you wrote, so now it is time for you to hunker down and do it on your own time.

XYZZY, Plough & Y2

(From the Colossal Adventure, played on a multi million $ mainframe, when at uni. Probably in the 5-8 yrs before Doom timeframe)

Subnautica (Do not use any hint/spoiler sites, just enjoy the evolving story) Last stop Deliver us the Moon/Deliver us Mars and to a lesser extent Quantum Break (play in story mode)

Years ago, the federal government had a cell phone contract that provided unlimited voice, text, Canada wide LD and 1Gb of data for ~$25/month with no extra fees (no startup, SIM, e911 etc) and with a monthly threshold when using more data which raised the rate JUST for that month in $5 increments capped at $50/month for unlimited data. I would guess their current plan is better

This sounds a lot like the Brexit commentary when it was being started.

• grandiose announcements of how much better it would be
• how the ‘rest of EU’ was milking them dry
• outright lies of what Britain was sending to the EU
• false promises of what they would get when they left
• and at the end muddle the conversations with tangential issues but make them sound like it is really really germane to the overall discussion