The grumpy thread

[Kiltox]

If you come into work when you're ill, then you're being selfish for infecting the whole place. If you stay at home when you're ill, then you're being selfish by making everyone else pick up your workload. The workplace health paradox.

Can’t win. I don’t even get fucking SSP when I’m off so tend to struggle in if I can’t WFH

[Bobthebeard]

Those of us with no sick pay entitlement just have to either infect others or lose pay...

Tricky.

[Datsuncog]

My line manager once sent me home because I was coughing, spluttering and hacking something rotten.

 

I took the next day off, and came back (still not great, but a bit better) to find a written warning on my desk that I had violated my terms of employment and any future sickness absence would result in my immediate dismissal.

 

No-one had told me that during my first year in the job, any sickness absence, for any reason, was viewed as a 'violation of terms'.

 

I then enjoyed* a gruesomely Kafaesque return to work interview with the same manager who encouraged me to go home; it was acknowledged that of course I was plainly sick, of course I needed to stay at home to recover - but, at the same time, I was encouraged to 'manage my attendance'. Whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean.

 

To be honest, it really made me intensely suspicious of the organisation. As an HR policy, it was just fucking stupid.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

My line manager once sent me home because I was coughing, spluttering and hacking something rotten.

 

I took the next day off, and came back (still not great, but a bit better) to find a written warning on my desk that I had violated my terms of employment and any future sickness absence would result in my immediate dismissal.

 

No-one had told me that during my first year in the job, any sickness absence, for any reason, was viewed as a 'violation of terms'.

 

I then enjoyed* a gruesomely Kafaesque return to work interview with the same manager who encouraged me to go home; it was acknowledged that of course I was plainly sick, of course I needed to stay at home to recover - but, at the same time, I was encouraged to 'manage my attendance'. Whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean.

 

To be honest, it really made me intensely suspicious of the organisation. As an HR policy, it was just fucking stupid.

 

Surely one to consult an employment lawyer about.

 

Then there are those of us who are self-employed. I generally never take time off work (apart from last year when I ended up in A&E and the hospital detained me for three whole days), so the ability to infect others when times are particularly bad brings a grim satisfaction......

[Supernaut]

I get an interview with occupational health every year.

 

Where I work if you have 3 absences in a year, you hit the 'trigger point'. I'm type 1 diabetic, so my immune system isn't quite as good as other people's (it's still not bad, mind). This means, throughout the course of the year, I'll usually have about 4 to 5 days off, spread out across the year.

 

During the most recent telephone interview with the occupational health nurse, I mentioned that the 3 times trigger point was quite low. She agreed with me and said she has to do a lot of telephone interviews with staff at the same university.

 

 

 

 

 

The bit that really pissed me off was my line manager discussing this telephone interview with me and mentioning stuff like being off sick too much can result in dismissal blah blah blah yet the manager 2 positions above him is constantly off for 6 months at a time for "stress" while running his own web hosting business from home (against the T&Cs of the employment contract here) and having history for being laid off from previous jobs for taking the utter piss with 'sick' leave.

 

The whole culture of this place is getting to me. It seems to be that people above a certain paygrade can get away with everything, while those of us on the lower grades (on a piss-take of a salary for the work we're doing) get micro-managed and scrutinised at every turn.

[Parky]

Years ago I went in feeling a tad off.

 

By 11am I was at my desk in a suit, with a jacket on with a coat on top. I was shivering, white as a sheet, and sweating profusely. I asked if I could perhaps take a half day but my boss said no. She did admit I was looking a bit peaky, but whilst the girls on the team were encouraging her to send me home in a cab as I was obviously unwell, she laughed it off and said I had a hangover or something (I didn’t).

 

At 11.30 she sent me to do a coffee run. I was practically delirious at this point and when I stood up, I took three steps and collapsed. At this point I was allowed to leave - at 1pm but I would have to take it as a half day holiday.

 

Managed to make it to the doctors that afternoon. By 5pm I am in hospital, loaded up with antibiotics, drip in my arm, oxygen, the full works, Pneumonia!

 

Two weeks later I went back to work following the doctors recommendation to rest for a fortnight. Returned to sympathy from the team and from HR and an amusing original name from my boss - sicknote.

 

So four years without a day off sick, one bout of severe pneumonia involving two days in hospital and suddenly I am a hypochondriac malingerer. And that was from a woman who had every other Monday off because of being too hungover, not to mention the guaranteed Thursday, Friday, and Monday off once a month. Not to mention always being ill for management meetings.

 

Eventually she got pregnant, claimed complications and was off work on full pay after three months. Must have been pretty complicated, I saw her in my local pub most weekends

[dave21478]

Words alone can not convey how much I hate and fear snakes, so I was less than impressed when just before home-time this motherfucker lurched out of the bushes next to me and snagged this fat toad.

 

 

TBH, I think it is being a little optimistic regarding the size of the toad...I hope the fucker chokes on it.

 

 

[Guest Hooli]

Words alone can not convey how much I hate and fear snakes, so I was less than impressed when just before home-time this motherfucker lurched out of the bushes next to me and snagged this fat toad.

 

IMG_20180604_162311.jpg

 

TBH, I think it is being a little optimistic regarding the size of the toad...I hope the fucker chokes on it.

That shouldn't be hungry for a while!

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[myglaren]

Words alone can not convey how much I hate and fear snakes, so I was less than impressed when just before home-time this motherfucker lurched out of the bushes next to me and snagged this fat toad.

 

IMG_20180604_162311.jpg

 

TBH, I think it is being a little optimistic regarding the size of the toad...I hope the fucker chokes on it.

It will swallow that with ease!

Our ratsnake can swallow a rat much bigger than that although the snake is about the same size - seven feet long but very slim.

[meggersdog]

The works phone line went down at 11.30 am. today. This means nobody can book work in.It also means no phone no internet.No phone line no card machine.I contacted the phone company who didn't seem that bothered that I am losing business and can't actually do the work properly."yeah,we'll get someone out.Did you want morning or afternoon ?" Well I'm not going in early to sit around waiting so I said afternoon.He eventually agrees to call divert (at no cost to me) and says it will be on divert within the next four hours.Got a text message saying the phone line will be looked at before midnight on the 6th.Yeah,great and I'm still waiting for call divert to be activated.

We have wifi so I pinched some of nextdoors for the laptop. Sadly it only works wireless printers and the printer won't connect to nextdoors wifi . I'm getting sick of this shit.It's no been right for months we lose the internet connection then the printer driver disappears.When this happened before I got the old slow laptop and hard wired printer out.Just got it set up for MOTs whilst my assistant was using the other one when the DVSA  hitler  inspector turned up.Heavily marked down as the customer hand over area was cluttered and untidy as there were two laptops on the counter.Yep I'm sick of this shit.

[Pieman]

My line manager once sent me home because I was coughing, spluttering and hacking something rotten.

 

I took the next day off, and came back (still not great, but a bit better) to find a written warning on my desk that I had violated my terms of employment and any future sickness absence would result in my immediate dismissal.

 

No-one had told me that during my first year in the job, any sickness absence, for any reason, was viewed as a 'violation of terms'.

 

I then enjoyed* a gruesomely Kafaesque return to work interview with the same manager who encouraged me to go home; it was acknowledged that of course I was plainly sick, of course I needed to stay at home to recover - but, at the same time, I was encouraged to 'manage my attendance'. Whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean.

 

To be honest, it really made me intensely suspicious of the organisation. As an HR policy, it was just fucking stupid.

 

Stuff like this reminds me of one reason why I work freelance.  I would be unable to deal with bullshit like that without snapping and emptying the nearest cup of hot coffee over said manager's head.

[iainrcz]

Doing some general pissing around and managed to drop a 10mm socket.

Went to retrieve it and it dropped in to the hole in to the alternator.

 

Shit.

 

Well, no untoward noises so far, but still, shit.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

[New POD]

Yesterday I ignored the impeding dome of my omega's gearbox, and set about swapping seats in the MX5. 

 

Our MX5 is a 1997 mk1 Monza - Poverty Spec car.  The seats have separate headrests and the drivers seat had a hole in the usual place. 

 

So, I'd found some "Tombstones" on ebay about 8 weeks back, off an earlier car, possibly a Eunos Possibly a UK spec car, but definately earlier. 

 

So Here is the Monza seat

 

 

and here is the Ebay find of the Decade. 

 

 

I put the old seats back in and patched the hole with a darning needle - failed to take a photo. 

 

Instead have this selfie, taken on a Sunday drive to Fairy Glen on Parbold Hill 

 

[sierraman]

I wound up on one of these 'plans' for sickness, I think its quite routine in any job now to be fair.

[purplebargeken]

That is amazing. You have a partner who will actually sit in one of your cars. How utterly amazingly unknown to me. 

[drum]

The boss should have the 'return to work' meeting with the chancers who take the piss - everywhere has one or two. If they're a half decent boss, they'll know who is genuine and who is a serial skiver.

[95 quid Peugeot]

I've a 1957 Renault on Ebay.

Some muppet sent about 5 mails demanding to know why it hadn't got a MOT. And it's a legal obligation to sell a roadworthy car.

Does this look like a heap of shite ?

[New POD]

If you have Type 1 diabetes you should just quote Disabilities Legislation at them.  They Have to be seen to be making reasonable adjustments to allow you to function in the workplace, and that includes understanding that you are likely to need more time off.  They also need to be seen to be keeping health information confidential.  Your line manager does not need to know what you have, just how it limits what you can do. HR should get  Occupational Health Professionals to decide you are safe and if any changes to your job needs to be made. 

 

That said, I worked in a factory where this bloke had had cancer, and had made some sort of recovery, but then had days off for 2 or 3 years.  Now they didn't pay sick pay, and it was never long enough for a doctors note.  When he was there he was in the top 20% of workers on output, so when I took on the department I really didn't care, as long as he was treated as an bonus worker, and not part of the head count. (Kind of like a cheaper version of giving out overtime) .  Rumour had it that he was working as a Gardener whenever the weather allowed and the absence verses sunshine correlation did seem to apply.  

 

My boss had decided to get rid, and HR hatched a plan to ask him for his medical records. Which you are allowed to ask, but they can refuse, but then you have to make assumptions about whether they are safe to operate machinery or work alone etc. 

 

Anyway my boss also had an off the record chat with him. If he went quietly the company would give him some money to buy himself a van and maybe a lawn mower.  He had Probably been lying for a good while, and he didn't want his records to be seen, so he took it. 

 

Which I wasn't happy about. I was prepared to have him on an adhoc basis as a when he deemed to come in, rather than give him £8K. 

[New POD]

That is amazing. You have a partner who will actually sit in one of your cars. How utterly amazingly unknown to me. 

 

It's her car, she hasn't driven it much since she got me to retro-fit the Power steering. To be fair, changing gear exhausts her and makes her back and shoulder pains worse, and we probably should sell it.  

[New POD]

I've a 1957 Renault on Ebay.

Some muppet sent about 5 mails demanding to know why it hadn't got a MOT. And it's a legal obligation to sell a roadworthy car.

Does this look like a heap of shite ?IMG_4422.JPG

 

Yes a proper heap that because it's OLD, so unlikely to be Roadworthy.

 

How Did you not manage to trade it in during the scrappage scheme. You could have had a new Clio on a PCP contract.  

[dozeydustman]

One of the neighbours to where I have moved to is a complete twat. Been in my old place all day every day cleaning etc and finally did the move out inspection with the letting agent.

 

Came back to a hand-written note through the letterbox saying "stop parking your car in my space". There are no marked spaces, 6 houses and room for 10 cars.

 

I have an idea who it is, as they moaned to our letting agents about having a removal pantechnicon on Monday, whilst doing the move in inspection.

 

What sort of an arsehole do you have to be when you start on new residents when they move in?

 

 

After 2 weeks of living here these total arseholes have done my head right in.

 

Spent all day yesterday tidying up the shit-pit of a front garden as left by previous tenants. It took me all day, removed 95% of the weeds, turned over the flower beds and replanted with a selection of withered bedding plants I got for a few pence at Tesco the other day and managed to revive. Came back from work to find their cat digging up one of the beds to have a dump so I shooed it off. They came out and had a pop for not letting their cat do its business, so I politely told them my garden is not a litter box for the neighbourhood felines, not even mine.

 

Had my first attack of hay fever for 4 years, and haven't got any antihistamines. Meh.

 

Showered, changed, go out the front to tidy up the mess made by their cat, and their kids are playing football on the green outside our houses. Don't have a problem with kids having a bit of fun out in a public amenity or space. I do have a problem with their skatemouthed old fishwife of a mother encouraging them to kick the ball at my car.

 

Had the rest of the evening with Wayne & Waynetta sitting out in their front garden drinking Fosters from the can and throwing their empties across the green area into my garden, and walking over trying to flick their fag butts into my lounge window.

 

I feel a camera and footage being sent to Hyde Martlet (who manage the Chichester social housing), PC Plod and the council. I'm not rising to their provocation by way of fisticuffs.

 

This is all because I had a pantechnicon in the parking area for a few hours the day we moved in.

 

Complete and utter riff-raff of the highest (or lowest?) order. Met all the other neighbours now and they pleasant enough (they all hate the Slob family as well).

[chaseracer]

The simple fact is; she has had this car for years, she loves it and is rather attached to it, she's had a crash which wasn't her fault and the car will be repaired whether it costs over or under its value.

 

Excellent.

 

Because K11s are disappearing like Metros did around the millennium, and Mama_Sterling's is a very good example of a surprisingly fine machine.  I've driven it and enjoyed it.

[95 quid Peugeot]

Yes a proper heap that because it's OLD, so unlikely to be Roadworthy.

 

How Did you not manage to trade it in during the scrappage scheme. You could have had a new Clio on a PCP contract.

 

It does make me wonder why anyone like that would look at a 61 year old car.

There's a tree in the amazon working overtime to produce oxygen for him

[Steve79]

Me and the missus had to go to the local A&E last night with our 8mth old baby as he'd been sick for pretty much 20 hours straight and wouldn't keep anything down.

 

Got there at 9pm, Triage saw us straight away but then it took till 02:30am before the senior nurse came to see him. Apparently the delay was that had had an influx of more serious patients and that had meant that ALL of the nurses on the paediatric team had been pulled onto the main ward.

 

Turns out that these more serious patients were drunks and people who had been fighting and they had also become violent towards staff. No word of a lie, there were no less than 10 police cars parked out the front of A&E. We personally saw at least 6 people being led through the entrance in handcuffs.

 

My grump is that as a parent to a very young child, why should these twats get priority treatment for their injuries which have been self inflicted as opposed to a young child who has been ill through no fault of their own! Let the idiots wait for their treatment.

 

Secondary grump is that it is a sad state we are in where our NHS is so under pressure with regards to targets and staffing levels, that the waiting times are so long, especially for vunerable patients.

 

Rant over,as you were!

[chaseracer]

Where I work if you have 3 absences in a year, you hit the 'trigger point'. I'm type 1 diabetic...

 

...a recognised disability, and therefore a 'protected characteristic' under the meaning of the Equality Act 2010; whereas type 2 diabetes is not.

 

Any absences due to disability may be recorded and counted as part of an absence management process, but should be disregarded for the purposes of considering a warning.

[Guest VicN]

Me and the missus had to go to the local A&E last night with our 8mth old baby as he'd been sick for pretty much 20 hours straight and wouldn't keep anything down.

 

Got there at 9pm, Triage saw us straight away but then it took till 02:30am before the senior nurse came to see him. Apparently the delay was that had had an influx of more serious patients and that had meant that ALL of the nurses on the paediatric team had been pulled onto the main ward.

 

Turns out that these more serious patients were drunks and people who had been fighting and they had also become violent towards staff. No word of a lie, there were no less than 10 police cars parked out the front of A&E. We personally saw at least 6 people being led through the entrance in handcuffs.

 

My grump is that as a parent to a very young child, why should these twats get priority treatment for their injuries which have been self inflicted as opposed to a young child who has been ill through no fault of their own! Let the idiots wait for their treatment.

 

Secondary grump is that it is a sad state we are in where our NHS is so under pressure with regards to targets and staffing levels, that the waiting times are so long, especially for vunerable patients.

 

Rant over,as you were!

How's your baby? Hope all's well?

[Steve79]

How's your baby? Hope all's well?

 

Yeah he's ok thanks. Just couldn't keep anything down and hadn't really digested anything since 2am sunday morning. They gave us dioralyte and he's loads better today.

[Kiltox]

Just fucked up spectacularly. Left my bag on a train. Now going to get it and I don’t think there’s going to be trains back to where I need to be for hours so it’s a £50 taxi ride

[Kiltox]

..... any awake shiters near Gatwick airport that can bail me out please make yourself known

[Kiltox]

Thank fuck for that. Reunited with my bag and thanks to Thameslink’s incompetence the last train isn’t here yet! Result!