The grumpy thread

[warren t claim]

As an agency truck driver I have had to suffer about 15 different employers in the last 6 months. Everyone of them expects me to be both knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their particular industry. Wankers. Like I really am going to know which person to see in your suppliers warehouse or the whereabouts of every garage that not only accepts you povvo fuel card but has a high enough canopy to get an hgv under.....

[shite_meister]

about ten years ago I applied for a dead-end tedious factory job in Devon, the interview process was like the sodding krypton factor we had to do all kind of group exercises then after I had a one-on-one interview, I was asked the question "So why do you want to work for us?" I was genuinely lost for words, why the fuck would I want to work 12 hour night shifts in a shitty factory on a production line for bollocks all pay? the honest answer would be "I don't, I'm desperate"I didn't get the job...thank fuck, obviously to them I didn't have the skill to be a factory automata.

[brammy777]

Bah, when I decided to quit college when I was 16, I couldnt find anything.Had plenty of interviews, and theyd always send me a letter saying 'Oh sorry you dont have the experiance.' IM ONLY 16, IF YOU DONT LET ME GET ANY HOW THE HELL DO I?DAF was the most annoying. I got top marks in the exam, but 3 months later i got a letter saying exactly the same. How on earth do you get an apprenticeship? To be fair though, its made me nervous to end college when the course comes to its end in July, probably will do another year or so...........

[meggersdog]

The whole work & employment thing is total arse really.

 

I had serious anxiety and depression last year.I am self employed so the whole signing off sick process became a nightmare.A note from my Dr every two weeks visits to some restart centre and I didn't get any sick pay for nine weeks.

 

When you suffer panic attacks as soon as you step out the front door all these visits didn't help.I ended up leaving my home,living with relatives for four months and having therapy for nine months.

 

After getting letters from the restart people then the DSS wanted their Dr to check me over I signed off in July.I was still in therapy until November as I wasn't really fit enough to work yet the restart people kept phoning,sending letters and even emails.FFS I hadn't claimed since July then finally last week they closed my "account".

[The Liberator]

How about someone who just turns up stony-faced and gets the job done? Someone who couldn't care less about your stupid work structure, working towards qualifications, office politics and ridiculous little work outings. Someone who wants to sit there and work quietly because it makes the time go faster and results in a monthly BACS payment into his account. Someone who never bothered getting an ID badge because he wouldn't wear it anyway. Someone who gets Emails about some random berk winning an award and drags it straight into "Deleted Items" because he couldn't care less, but ultimately gets the job done and is worth the money.I wish they'd just cut the crap. Employers aren't doing you a favour by giving you a job - it's a mutual benefit. So why you have to keep up this false pretense of being enthusiastic, overly willing and overly subservient is beyond me. If a machine could do your job as well for a penny less, they would be bonkers to keep you on. I know and respect that fact, in return they should cut me some slack.

This is how I view jobs, and the kind of employer/employee relationship I'd like to have - I spend x hours doing something I'm capable of, in return for £y every month. It's obviously unfashionable to think like this, but I'm not going to pretend to be a 'self-starter' because I don't know what it means, and I don't want to spend hours thinking/making up irrelevant examples of how I've shown leadership qualities in my work or home life, just to please some inflated bellend in HR or recruitment services. Maybe that's why I'm unemployed. That, and due to previous career fuck-ups, the fact that I'm hilariously over-qualified for any job I have the experience or confidence to apply for. And jobcentreplus or whatever they ungrammatically call themselves are, as has been said above, utterly useless.

[Guest]

Sadly, drafting a CV in this position is a somewhat bizzare task. I'm not looking for a challenge, I don't seek new experiences, I'm not a team player, I'm certainly not enthusiastic, I'm only as hard-working as I need to be to make the day pass quickly, my hobbies are of no interest and give me few skills of any use and a truthful profile can only serve to make me sound like a bit of a loser. On that basis, my CV is almost entirely made up of lies.The employment market seems to work against reserved people who have a broad view on jobs as a whole, the "work to live, not live to work" attitude. Even though they have their own set of advantages - they'll probably stick at it with little complaint providing their pay comes in, they won't always be fighting for promotion, etc.You have to wonder what this dream worker they're seeking would actually be like. Some aspiring young go-getter with all the right qualifications and experience, always working hard to further the company, putting the hours in, shaping their life around their employer and always trying to keep everyone happy. I hate people like that, that's the kind of person I end up on the wrong side of, the kind of person who goes "That's not the right attitude" because it is 5:03pm, I've got my coat on and I'm just letting the phone ring out. In fact, that is exactly the kind of person who works me up into so much of a rage that I fantasize about beating them to a bloody pulp in the car park, probably using a wheel brace.

[warren t claim]

Is this the type of go getting prick to which you are refering?

 

 

Classic mid 90's Audi ad.

[Hudsonpie]

about ten years ago I applied for a dead-end tedious factory job in Devon, the interview process was like the sodding krypton factor we had to do all kind of group exercises then after I had a one-on-one interview, I was asked the question "So why do you want to work for us?" I was genuinely lost for words, why the fuck would I want to work 12 hour night shifts in a shitty factory on a production line for bollocks all pay? the honest answer would be "I don't, I'm desperate"I didn't get the job...thank fuck, obviously to them I didn't have the skill to be a factory automata.

Was it Devon Desserts by any chance....?

[Milford Cubicle]

The whole work & employment thing is total arse really. I had the misfortune of 12 weeks last year on the nat king cole and it really was a joke, you see the most appalling morons in the job-shop, mostly on the other side of the desk. Pauline: "Have you checked the jobs in the local paper?"Me: "No"Pauline: "Well WHY NOT????"Me: "Because there is only one firm within the newspapers distribution area that does the job I do, and they are the ones who just made me redundant"Pauline: "Don't be smart, we will stop your benefits if you don't make the effort and look in the paper."This is despite me having actually applied for lots of jobs in the wider area.I'm sorry Pauline, but I *think* I know my industry a little better than you, so I will judge the best way to find employment. And I couldn't give a toss really if you cut off the pitiful £60 a week you expect me to feed, clothe and house a family of 5 on. Or do you think like the rest of the dead-eyed brain-dead fucktards you deal with I am here for the 'long haul' and biding my time until the housing benefit, IS, DSA and whatnot kicks in after week 13??? (THAT is the really idiotic part of it! The longer you skive, the more you get). All I want is my NI contributions covered and maybe , just maybe some useful assistance from your government "service". Whole thing is totally arse-about-face and weighted in the favour of the stupid & lazy.[/img]

A lot of the Job Centre advisors are so useless it's almost as if they don't want you to have a job. To be fair I have met a few decent ones who allow for your particular situation, but the rest are stubborn robots or Pauline-alikes.Another issue I have with them is the one hour commute rule, the roads are so quiet here it'd mean travelling 40-60 miles for a minimum wage job. You'd have to work for 2 hours or more just to pay for the travelling expensesAnd the fuck useless directgov job search website which doesn't let you search for jobs in the local area, just in one set town.

[Jon]

I've not been working much of late, so welcomed a call from a local council regarding driving their bin lorries this week. I'm not really enamoured with the job but the money's good for something relatively simple (and hardly that skilled) but was glad of the money.

 

For some reason I didn't sleep well last night and would have preferred to stay in bed, rather than get up at 5.30 to drive 20 miles, stand outside an office at the 'Eco Depot', waiting to be allocated a job only to be told I wasn't needed

 

This all stems down to the fact that one office in the town centre makes recruitement bookings while another office on-site deals with the day to day running of the wagons, yet neither seem to effectively communicate. What is the point of employing some bint to call me up for work then fail to call me back when they don't need me? Now had another call wanting me to work the rest of the week. I really want to tell them where to stick it but am not really in a situation where I can knock back the cash. So having 2 people to do 1 person's job results in my wasted time and fuel but me saying yes to their work......

 

 

Also had shitty experiences of job centre for the 6 weeks or so I signed on after uni. Was still very much on my high-horse about studying for 4 years (Masters for extra uselessness) to be expected to go back to stacking shelves at Sainsbury's, so that probably didn't help. Wanted to do some relevant work experience which meant travelling about 100 miles a day. Was told that I'd have to apply for a 'holiday period' (max.2 weeks a year), as going so far and being busy all day meant that 'I hadn't been job seeking'!

 

At that point, I decided to be all official and pack in the job seekers allowance, to do the work experience. Went in to fill the form and answered 'no reason' in the 'reason's for leaving' box, as I didn't want to be chalked down as another success story for the system. Mindless old bint behind the desk didn't like that so mentioned I HAD to put something there, or they couldn't accept the form. So, being in a weird situation whereby I'm pleading to be let off the scheme, I write something to the effect about how unjust it was to be infringeing Jobseeker rules by going out and working. She then has a go at me for saying I didn't have a reason, then writing down a reason 2 minutes later. FFS, I'm not a school child!

[Inspector Morose]

How about someone who just turns up stony-faced and gets the job done? Someone who couldn't care less about your stupid work structure, working towards qualifications, office politics and ridiculous little work outings. Someone who wants to sit there and work quietly because it makes the time go faster and results in a monthly BACS payment into his account. Someone who never bothered getting an ID badge because he wouldn't wear it anyway. Someone who gets Emails about some random berk winning an award and drags it straight into "Deleted Items" because he couldn't care less, but ultimately gets the job done and is worth the money.I wish they'd just cut the crap. Employers aren't doing you a favour by giving you a job - it's a mutual benefit. So why you have to keep up this false pretense of being enthusiastic, overly willing and overly subservient is beyond me. If a machine could do your job as well for a penny less, they would be bonkers to keep you on. I know and respect that fact, in return they should cut me some slack.

Couldn't agree more. Made myself very ill for a long time before I woke up to this way of thinking. Now work for myself doing stuff that I find of interest. When I finished doing said job I just get out of there, I have no interest in their petty politics.

[Pete-M]

I refuse point blank to work for any company that has either an Elf'n'safety department, or a HR dept that you actually have to deal with once you've got the job. They can both fro.

[55bloke]

All the job/work related elements of this thread make possibly the most depressing reading I've encountered for a very long time. I absolutely agree with virtually all of it, but the fact that the complete break down of any intelligent exchange between employer and employee is so wide spread is tragic. There have been so many forms to fill in, targets to meet, criteria to fulfill and all the rest of the bollocks mentioned above, introduced into the recruitment process, that any possiblility of a genuine assessment of suitabilty has been lost. It does seem to have become almost criminal to just want to turn up, do a reasonable days work for a reasonable day's pay, without having to deal with bullshit and pressure, and not to really want to climb the career ladder, and not to be expected to place the requirements of the business above all other considerations in your life, just for the privilage of being employed. I have just had to change my job from one I enjoyed enormously, to another within the company, because the department I worked in closed down. I really REALLY don't enjoy the new role, but the thought of going out and trying to find something more rewarding, in the current climate and at my age, scares the crap out of me, especially having read all the posts in this thread!

[Lukas]

Sending cars to the banger-racers oval was not very common here, most cars got exported, banger-racing isnt popular here. Fine. But in the last few years, "drifting" is a new trend and the reason why the "I´m so cool"-drifters are buying the very few old japanese cars with RWD that survived 20 or more salty winters here and send them to the drift-track! Take old BMWs and Mercedes you fu**ing idiots!!!

[Milford Cubicle]

Like banger racing, I suppose drifters get kudos for applying the matt black paint, chopped springs and welded diff to something unusual.

[Lukas]

In almost every austrian car-forum they are searching for:AE86Corolla E7, E5, E3 and E2Starlet P6Celica and Carina with RWDRWD-Toyotas are almost extinct now and the last surviving ones are going to be drift-cars. Great!

[Richard]

When you think about it, we should be interviewing the employer. We are offering a third of our life, and half of our waking life; all the employer is offering is a small proportion of the firm's turnover.

[brammy777]

Drifting is useless. Actually i saw an AE86 the other day, I was shocked that the owner left it out. And that it wasnt displaying loads of drift stickers.

[Rusty Pelican]

I'm currently trying to escape my job, as I feel to press on with it much longer will conclude in an armed response unit gunning me down. In addition, it requires me to drink to a level which gives me a life expectancy of around 40 at a push.So, job listings. They really are quite something - it's all "You will be expected to have X years experience in blah de blah", "Ideally with strong A-level results and a degree in Business or similar", "Must have drive and focus to succeed". Yeah I'm gonna have the drive and focus to succeed for £6.50 an hour, might as well have a degree too! How about someone who just turns up stony-faced and gets the job done? Someone who couldn't care less about your stupid work structure, working towards qualifications, office politics and ridiculous little work outings. Someone who wants to sit there and work quietly because it makes the time go faster and results in a monthly BACS payment into his account. Someone who never bothered getting an ID badge because he wouldn't wear it anyway. Someone who gets Emails about some random berk winning an award and drags it straight into "Deleted Items" because he couldn't care less, but ultimately gets the job done and is worth the money.I wish they'd just cut the crap. Employers aren't doing you a favour by giving you a job - it's a mutual benefit. So why you have to keep up this false pretense of being enthusiastic, overly willing and overly subservient is beyond me. If a machine could do your job as well for a penny less, they would be bonkers to keep you on. I know and respect that fact, in return they should cut me some slack.

Hirst , YOUR SPOT ON WITH THIS , I feel exactly the same , its all bullshit ,

[Milford Cubicle]

Drifting is useless. Actually i saw an AE86 the other day, I was shocked that the owner left it out. And that it wasnt displaying loads of drift stickers.

There's a 1980s Nissan Silvia that knocks around this area, it used to be quite clean but now it sports a million stickers, mismatched wheels and a two foot high fibreglass spoiler. I don't think it does any drifting.

[Hudsonpie]

Work.......shit.I've been out of work for a year now, I signed off as I got fed up with the crap that the job centre staff feel it's their duty to throw at you. Aaaaand the nature of some of the wording of job ads..."We have an exciting opportunity for a motivated individual who is able to work as part of a team and without supervision in our store....."Pushing sausages around the grill in the staff canteen.I got laid off from driving heavy plant last year, and the work has all but dried up due to the economic down turn. All of the employers I know have slashed the hourly rates to the point where it is not really worth working. I could work away but I would miss the sproglets too much, and even then I'd have to do twelve hour days to make it pay.Also my CPCS card apparently expires if I am out of work for more than a six month period.....Great, it costs about £750 to get that card, so I would in effect be paying to prove I can operate something I can drive in my sleep, and ultimately to go to work.....I was also told by a job centre drone I was foolish for reporting a company to the HSE for dangerous practices, as it might have ruined any chance of future employment with them.....thats ok... I'll have a job as a ghost then.....I now work for cash....

[Rusty Pelican]

I feel for you Sir Tainly , seems a lot of us are a bit pissed off with work , me included , I started working at my present job 18 months ago , £ 5.82 start wage for 3 months , after 4 the company went bust , we got taken over with a wage review promised , Que a resession , que no wage review , I rewind single and three phase electric motors for a living ( if it is a living ) , Im still learning but do do most single phase stuff unaded , you would be gobsmacked how many ways that motors are wound , Interesting job really but the upshot is im still on my start wage ,

[Mr Lobster]

All the job/work related elements of this thread make possibly the most depressing reading I've encountered for a very long time.

I sat and read all this at work this morning and became very depressed by it all and spent the day being a bit grumpy. Well, more grumpy than usual anyway.As 55bloke says though, it's all pretty much true.I sometimes quite like my job, most of the time I despise it. I'm planning on getting out to join Mrs L in being self employed as I am utterly sick of being shafted by a company that really does not care about its staff no matter what pretence they make. I have a manager who really doesn't have a clue but seems to get away with idiocy and treats everyone under her as though they are an idiot with no idea of what they should be doing.Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train coming the other way....

[Mr Lobster]

I used to think I had a career, now I just think of it as a job

Me too. I used to think I had a future in this job / industry / company. I know better now

[Guest]

This:

 

 

Which as I'm sure you all know, is a Volvo Amazon saloon fuel tank.

The amount of bollocks I've had to put up with trying to sell this thing is unbelievable. Despite listing it on the VOC and elsewhere as a 'Saloon Fuel Tank' (i.e. one that fits a saloon, and not an estate, because the rear pressings are different) that will only fit a saloon, I get approximately 83,000 PMs asking 'Will it fit my estate? (With a picture of said knackered POS).'

 

Twat #1 wants the tank. Really wants it. Wants me to get a postage quote on it, because he lives.....somewhere fucking miles away down south.

 

I get a quote. I package it up. Then, after shooting off several emails over a fortnight, he comes back with the classic 'I can't afford it because I've lost my job'. Lovely. Did I mention I made a special trip over to my garage in Wales to get this? TRY TELLING ME TWO WEEKS BEFORE, TWAT.

 

Twat #2 (eBay twat) watches it when it's an eBay auction but doesn't bid. As soon as the auction's over, the PMs start.

 

'Have you still got the tank?' (Yes, strangely - there were no bids)

'Can you get me a postage quote' (I give him the one from last time).

 

His response is a bit of whinge. The tank had a STARTING PRICE of £20 and whines that I'm trying to price gouge when I say I'd like £30 for it. Bear in mind that an eBay starting bid isn't a FUCKING BUY IT NOW PRICE, it has the filler pipe (that always rots) in situ and in good condition, along with the sender. And new ones are £200 + from Brookhouse.

 

He then moans about the carriage costs. 'My courier can do it cheaper' he snorts. WELL WHY FUCKING ASK ME FOR A SODDING POSTAL QUOTE YOU DICK HEAD? WHY?

 

He then fucks off and doesn't reply, despite me offering to use his courier.

 

Twat #3 (VOC Twat)

 

This twat is universally acknowledged as a twat on the VOC forums, even by the man who restored my Amazon. He is one of the most calm and patient people I have ever met, so if he says someone is an arse, you're inclined to agree. The last time he met the person in question, he helped him break an 1800, and then our twattish friend tried to take most of his Snap On tool kit home by 'accident'.

 

He has this infuriating tendency to want everything that's posted up on the for sale section, and never reads the original thread. So he misses basic things like price, location and postage costs. Questions that if asked again boil my piss because they're there in B&W.

 

The incessant little bleeder hasn't replied to me thus far, so for being a grade A mong I've left him a little message up there on the sale thread:

 

******, as I appear to be replying to myself here, I'd like to make you aware of a decision I've made.

 

I've gone ahead and sold it to my good mate Gary Gabelich, who, as you know, has a roving sky base above the A556 in Cheshire. If the cloud cover's right next week he's going to drop down to my unit and pick it up in exchange for the price that's cunningly disguised in two posts within this thread.

 

I think he's a top bloke, and to be honest I stand a better chance of him picking it up than you.

 

What the hell is it with this tank? This is the third person who's dicked me about when I've tried to sell it!

 

Good times.

 

I'm tempted to cut it up and set fire to the bastard, it's in the way now.

 

Twats, the lot of them.

 

It's a very minor annoyance in the scheme of things, but even my Piazza was less hassle to sell. It's sold by the way.

[Gompo]

 

"Oh its State Blue, oh no we cant give you book on that"

That was known as Doom Blue in my time at Ford. When we registered cars for rental we hardly ever picked Doom Blue ones as they genuinely were difficult for resale.

 

Don't know why though, I thought they looked alright tbh. I even had a Focus TDCi in Doom Blue as a company car for a while - can't remember the reg other than it started MF02.

One of the first 'Ford State Blue' images on Google. Cool:

 

[barrett]

That sounds like a right pain Wat, but at least your post gave me a little giggle.On the subject of jobs (as everyone else is doing it), myself and about 10 others haven't been paid for the christmas period that we had off due to the place being shut, ie xmas eve, day, new years eve, day. If it was a computer cock-up i wouldn't mind, but our manager has to sign off the 'exceptions' by hand (it shows up that so-and-so didn't clock in that day, he puts in that it was xmas lieu days, wages go through), which means he has deliberately only signed off roughly half the shift and not put the other half through hoping no one would notice, it's an old trick and every manager i've had has tried it at some point, but most aren't brazen enough to do it to half the shift. Twat. On top of this, because i work nights there are no administrative staff around during my shifts, so if i want my money i have to go in to work on one of my days off, or when i should be sleeping, and stand around arguing with them until they give me my money. This is made worse by the fact that the personnel manager is hands down the biggest cunting bitch i've ever met, even the other managers hate her, and she's the one i'm gonna have to deal with. which is great....

[Minimad5]

Whats a job ? Its so hard getting a job in my area its really ... well poopI have been for a few apprenticeship interviews and "NOPE" because the main mechanics always think i am bullshitting when they say "so what can you do ?"and i smile and in a nice manner say "To be honest it would be shorter if you asked what cant i do" :)And they then look at me asif i have just took a dump on the face of his/her mother.I'm so desperate for a job that i am going to resort to glass collecting in the biggest dive of a pub in birkenhead (if they give me a job)Hope everyone with a crap job gets a better position and pay.Good Luck to all !**Any spelling mistakes are accidental as i have begun typing stupidly fast**

[Tayne]

.

[CIH]

I'm gonna moan about my job too. The callcentre gaffe was absurd. I hated it, made no attempt to pretend otherwise but I was polite and efficent enough to hit the various absurd targets. Was that enough ? No, they had to have us line dancing, playing snakes and ladders and various other "team buidling exercises", presumeably graded on their capacity to strip grown adults of any dignity. Everyone had to pretend it was awesome but whenever the chance was presented to "go on a project" and get off the phones there was a stampede. Like when you see an aid truck pull-up outside a Somali death camp and there's a huge rush. Like that.I'll save my current fast-fit garage rant for another day...