The grumpy thread

[retrogeezer]

tossers....just shows you what working for a crap company (most these days) is like.You risk your life in some of the worst weather we have seen for 30 years and they penalise you for it.My girlfriends company on the other had gave all those that made it in that worst week a £50 bonus, regardless of what time they got there etc. and they let them leave at 3pm so they had plenty of time to get home.

[CIH]

A-Bombs could be falling and they wouldn't get us finish early...

[Gompo]

Not a rant but seeing as we've touched upon the subject in the last few pages and dont want to start a thread..Is it worth scrapping car batteries at the moment? I've got a couple and could probably get 2-3 from work. I've never scrapped anything but have that letsrecycle.com page bookmarked with the scrap prices. Battery prices seem to have tripled in the last 6 months or so and is now around £300 a ton.

[Pillock]

We got paid for a full day as long we made the effort to get there. The folk that looked out of the window, saw a bit of frost and phoned in lost wages, if you rolled in 4 hours late with frostbite then you got cash.Seems fine to me, I struggled a bit on a few occasions but made it in each and every day. One day the boss went out collecting people who claimed their road was impassable, came back with quite a few!

[sporty-shite]

Seven pounds forty fucking pence for two pints of lager at a trendy 'wine bar'

I've just been to a christening at a local miners club, and it was £2.50 for a pint and a softy for Mrs Sporty!Should this be in the "happy" thread?

[Rusty Pelican]

Damn Commer packed up yesterday , after fitting various newness pipes including the fuel pipe i went off to get the Tracking sorted as id changed both track rods and both wishbones.First rant , how come its so hard to find a garage / tyre place that can do this on old cars , first tyre place said there equipment wont fit 13 inch rims . only 14s and above and even if it did fit they couldnt do it these new devices are computer linked to get the correct info for a given make / model , odviously Commers not on it , after three tries i found one with the older laser type , £ 30 quid later im offSecond moan , well i broke down 100 yards from the tyre place , no fuel , right at a set of lights , got over to the pavement on the starter , poked about a bit , hit stuff and off see went , for a mile and then did it again , thought my new fuel pipe was to blame as its only been in a week , turned out to be the relay the pump runs off , bypassed it and all seems fine , no more relays are going in , just a fuse this time

[wuvvum]

The Innocenti did its fanbelt this evening on the Norwich ring road - 17 miles from home but fortunately only three miles from my garage. So I nursed it up there on sidelights only, getting it rolling then switching the engine off and allowing the -2 degree air flowing past it to cool it down. I made it OK - the engine was pretty hot by the time I got there but fingers crossed I don't think I've cooked it - but then I had the fun task of doing a Chinese puzzle with the cars to try and extract the (thoroughly iced-up) Renault 21, which was the only car there that I trusted to make the journey, and then crawling home freezing my bits off because of the 21's lack of a heater and struggling to see where I was going because the windscreen kept icing up (see lack of heater, ibid.) and the o/s headlight has earthing issues and doesn't really light anything. About ten miles and three near-misses later the heater finally managed to get far enough above freezing to melt the ice inside the car, which promptly dripped all over me. Did I mention I'm fugging fed up with winter?

[wuvvum]

and a softy for Mrs Sporty!Should this be in the "happy" thread?

Oh I don't know, she might not have been happy about that.(There's often a spammer or two on here offering those little blue pills if it's a regular problem)

[sporty-shite]

and a softy for Mrs Sporty!Should this be in the "happy" thread?

Oh I don't know, she might not have been happy about that.(There's often a spammer or two on here offering those little blue pills if it's a regular problem)

Left myself wide open for that, didn't I?

[chester drawers]

Is it worth scrapping car batteries at the moment? I've got a couple and could probably get 2-3 from work.

If you can find the right scrappy a resounding yes. My local one will take small quantities and it’s free money isn’t it? Pikeys and the Local Authority steal enough from me already thanks very much.

[pandamonium]

Back to the snows, my exmployer nailed me with £50 of deductions last month due to late arrivals after SNOW CHAOS. So I got penailised wether I bother or not. After petrol, feeding meself and tax I probably come out with about £8 that day. So anyhint of CHAOS tomorrow and I'm staying home. KAYTHNX.

tossers....just shows you what working for a crap company (most these days) is like.You risk your life in some of the worst weather we have seen for 30 years and they penalise you for it.My girlfriends company on the other had gave all those that made it in that worst week a £50 bonus, regardless of what time they got there etc. and they let them leave at 3pm so they had plenty of time to get home.

Not trying to detract from the situation..... but...If you owned your own business and couldn't work because of the snow - who would pay you then???Window cleaners lose money due to the weather all the time. I am an employer, and am sick of people phoning in to say they can't make it when their car is a bit white with frost then complaining when their wages are down at the end of the month!!!!I had someone phone in to say their car was frozen shut and they couldn't open the door. It doesn't help their case that they all live within 5 miles of work (as do I, and I manage to get in) and the public transport was still running.

[retrogeezer]

If you owned your own business and couldn't work because of the snow - who would pay you then???

If you are self employed you know you won't get paid if you don't work......same as no paid holidays or paid sick days. All part and parcel of doing it. But you do gain by earning more and building up your own business. Thats the risk of self employment and always has been.I'd be pissed off with people regularly not turning up from a few miles away for sure. If you have employees doing this all the time maybe you need to look at your workforce? If people make the effort like CIH did and get to work, albeit late then it's not fair to penalise them is it?? Of course it's taken longer to get there, the roads were virtually unusable. We are talking about exceptional circumstances here after all.And if I had employees that couldn't make it in from a fair distance away in atrocious weather conditions then I would take it on the chin, again, it's something else you have to deal with being an employer surely?I'd rather they stayed at home safely for a day or two than killed themselves trying to get in and losing them forever as an employee.If my employer docked my pay and didn't appreciate the fact I had risked my life and damaging my car trying to get to work in 8 inches of snow he would soon find my resignation letter on his desk.

[whitevanman]

Not trying to detract from the situation..... but...If you owned your own business and couldn't work because of the snow - who would pay you then???Window cleaners lose money due to the weather all the time. I am an employer, and am sick of people phoning in to say they can't make it when their car is a bit white with frost then complaining when their wages are down at the end of the month!!!!I had someone phone in to say their car was frozen shut and they couldn't open the door. It doesn't help their case that they all live within 5 miles of work (as do I, and I manage to get in) and the public transport was still running.

but when your self employed you have a different motivation....most employees THINK they have the right to be paid for not bothering........I had the same problem when I owned a business

[whitevanman]

I'd rather they stayed at home safely for a day or two than killed themselves trying to get in and losing them forever as an employee.If my employer docked my pay and didn't appreciate the fact I had risked my life and damaging my car trying to get to work in 8 inches of snow he would soon find my resignation letter on his desk.

when you live somewhere that has working Public transport as CIH's area had, the employees are not making any effort.....it would obviously depend on the location of the employee and the location of the work place...nobody should have to risk their life to get to work, but I very much doubt that other than in a few remote spots there was anything other than the ever present danger of bad driving, that would cause you to run the risk of life and limb.

[Guest]

Some of the days I didn't get into work, it was utterly unfeasible. You don't have to live absolutely miles away for this to be the case as just one road can balls it up completely. I don't live out in the middle of nowhere, but it's easily too far to walk (about 10 miles as the crow flies) and if some of the roads on your route aren't do-able, you're stuffed.One good example, I was driving the Laurel in Dewsbury and ended up forced out onto a steep downhill stretch. The car went diagonally into a near-uncontrollable slide, which would have led to me bouncing off about 30 parked cars and being presented out onto a main road full of traffic (and a big wall). Luckily I managed to pump the brakes to get it into a crawl, then forced it over to the kerb and rested it on there. Didn't have the power to get it back up and there was no chance of going down safely, but a bloke in a Pajero gave me a tow and got me out of there - if I'd have left the car there it would have been unlikely to survive without someone smashing into it. Everyone on that road who needed to use a car would have been completely screwed - there was no chance of using it.On a couple of the days I didn't go in, I stood a reasonable chance of getting into work, but I wasn't confident I'd be able to get home, so no dice. It's alright saying use public transport, but a hell of a lot of that can be (and ultimately was) cancelled due to weather and I'm not dumping my car somewhere or sleeping in it because I got stuck due to further snow occuring whilst I was at work or heading home.I took the days I had off as annual leave and I still had all the bleaters banging on about how they managed to get in, despite that we all live in different places and have different circumstances. Fact is, I'm not going to put much at risk for a lousy job. The emergency services have enough on without trying to clear up the wreckage of somebody who didn't need to be out there. If things grind to a halt for a few days, they might just have to.I can see the side of the employers who don't want to pay for people who haven't turned up (I wouldn't ask for money myself), but the current situation of managers putting pressure on staff to come in when the odds are against them is ridiculous - if you head off to work on their word and you smash your car, will they take responsibility for it? Very doubtful.

[dollywobbler]

Winter really can take a running jump now. The roads were hideously icy this morning. Locked up more times than I can remember. While you expect that on the piddly little country lanes at the start of my commute, it was a bit scary to get 4th gear wheelspin in the BX on the sliproad of the A1M! 63bhp of UNRESTRAINED POWAH!

[Father Ted]

Meh, if I cant get in to work I either have to take unpaid leave or A/L if I have any.Fortunately despite my current place of employment being down a rather inhospitable twisty back lane with ditches on either side an not eVah being gritted this winter, I have not yet not made it into work.S&M tyres - FTW!

[retrogeezer]

when you live somewhere that has working Public transport as CIH's area had, the employees are not making any effort.....

Whitevanman, how do you there was working public transport where CIH lives? I don't remember reading that.And the buses/coaches have more trouble on snowy roads than cars do.....does no-one watch the news? There were abandoned cars, lorries and buses everywhere.My other half goes to work on the train....but the station is 3 miles away! She did get to work but late because surprise surprise, the trains were running late due to the snow and we only got 2-3 inches here. Train drives/station staff etc all stillhave to get to work before trains can run. Same with buses etc.And my girlfriend only got to the station as I managed to drive up the hill at the end of our road that many people could not get up.Taxi drivers were refusing to go out because it was too dangerous.So how were people supposed to use public transport and still be at work on time?As Hirst said, you could be 3 miles from work but unable to drive there because of a hill. And walking is just as risky, I slipped on ice a year ago and my ankle was painful for months.....is that also worth the risk for a days work? If my employer didn't pay me I would never put myself out for them again, it's all about good will. The £50 my girlfriend got is not a lot to the company but they will get payback by her staying an extra 15 minutes here & there to finish something off etc.....swings and roundabouts....give and take etc.I really can't see the issue for 2 or 3 days out of the 340 odd days most people work every year. You could make the time up within 2 weeks doing an hour or so each day and lets face it, nearly everywhere was struggling so even if you got to work there was probably nothing to do because the people you may have to deal with didn't get to their jobs.Sorry to go on but I just don't see that 2 days is that big a deal in the whole scheme of things.

[Guest]

The knock-on effect can make an otherwise worthwhile job pointless, too.Take my job, I give people grief about unpaid bills. Had I got in on the worst days, what would I be able to do? Post was disrupted, so letters weren't landing on either side. I wouldn't be able to confidently move things on, as I'd be wary of all the stuff caught in the middle of the post. Letters that were landing on their side would be at a place with no/minimal staff, probably not enough to authorize payments or whatever and more concerned about getting home than paying me. There'd be barely any incoming phone calls on that basis. It's also doubtful that anyone would walk through the snow to give me some cash in person - most would assume that the office is shut due to the conditions, even if it wasn't.Ultimately, the people that were there would have very little to do - shuffle papers, listen to phones ring out, etc. It'd be much like the between Christmas/New Year situation - we have to turn up, but if the vast majority of the people who exist to cause you work aren't there, what's the point?Once people got back to work at their respective places, it got busier again as people tried to get back on top of things and within a week it was back to normal. The people who turned up could pat themselves on the back for the half a dozen phone calls they dealt with and have a bizzare inverse willy-waving contest based on how long it took them to get home in the midst of SNOW CHAOS. "I didn't get home until 8pm!" "Ha, I didn't get home until 9pm!" "Pfft, I didn't even get home - I had to sleep in the car!"

[whitevanman]

but the current situation of managers putting pressure on staff to come in when the odds are against them is ridiculous - if you head off to work on their word and you smash your car, will they take responsibility for it? Very doubtful.

Pressure to attend is another matter all together, thats more to do with poor managment on all levels, it seems to be vey endemic in the civil service from my experiance....

[whitevanman]

when you live somewhere that has working Public transport as CIH's area had, the employees are not making any effort.....

Whitevanman, how do you there was working public transport where CIH lives? I don't remember reading that.

Sorry, I mixed it up with pandamoniums post......I'm all embarrsed now

[retrogeezer]

LOL!!

[whitevanman]

If my employer didn't pay me I would never put myself out for them again, it's all about good will. The £50 my girlfriend got is not a lot to the company but they will get payback by her staying an extra 15 minutes here & there to finish something off etc.....swings and roundabouts....give and take etc.I really can't see the issue for 2 or 3 days out of the 340 odd days most people work every year. You could make the time up within 2 weeks doing an hour or so each day and lets face it, nearly everywhere was struggling so even if you got to work there was probably nothing to do because the people you may have to deal with didn't get to their jobs.

Personally I agree with you, thats why the guys that worked for me got paid 365 days a year and had the use of company vehicles without being taxed...you HAVE to look after your employees. I always think of Public transport as Buses or the tube, hence my comment that IF the public transport was working the employees should have made an effort, Now if you have to travel a distance to get to the transport then its a different matter all together As for driving, the previous comment was about risking life, not crashing a car...I feel and have posted in this thread that if you cant drive in the conditions.....stay off the road, that costitutes good skill and judgment. I stand by that, but when does the lack of skill of drivers take over from poor roads? and who gets the blame then if someone crashes? thus the risk is the same as every other day...poor skills or judgment of the driver for the conditions or circumstances leads to the riskconsidering its about once in every 20 years we have a few bad days, a bit of understanding is required by all parties....but some will milk it on both sides to their advantage.I don't mean to sound harsh or anything it is just my veiw point, I am very old fashioned about my attitude to work, It's neither a right nor a privalage, but a choice and a necessity to live, but if I choose wisely I can be fortunate to work for a good employer. to many people these days seem to think they are owed a living just because they exist.....being good at a job, any job, requires some application of desire and skill to want to be good at it.

[whitevanman]

PS...you should receive your parcel by the weekend....with added bonus features

[Father Ted]

Gumtree - is it full of wankers from Africa too?

Thanks for your quick response, but i will be needing your help in sending the item Nokia 7373 Pink Working as a surprise birthday present to my best friend who has been posted to west Africa,on a training course on tourism and agricultural development,i will be offering you 50 pounds for the postage.I will have love to handle it myself but I'm presently in Asia on a business trip so.... Kindly send me a request for the payment of the total cost of the item amount and via PayPal and i will get the payment done asap.

Fooooook Offff - do I look like you just found me under the gooseberry bush?

[Father Ted]

O2O fucking cockmunchers 2a) They changed my terms and conditions on Paid Up Front For Life saying I have to pay line rental and charged me for itemised billing for the next 3 months in advance- surely 10 years is not Life? mobile O2 broadband dongle fucked up my computer and made it not very happy and unable to access interweb at all.O2 help desk were a waste of time. Software removed - O2 dongle placed under hammer and hit repeatedly.c) At the end of last contract they overcharged me line rental, then sent my "unpaid bill" ( that I paid twice) to a debt collection agency - so I paid it again (now £150 out o pocket) - three months of wrangling eventually got it sorted.d) I got a email asking me to tell them what I thought - so I clicks on the survey link and it gets to question 3 and then says "we have spoken to enough people like you" and fucks me off.Cockmunchers the lot of them.

[Volksy]

"we have spoken to enough people like you"

Funny that.. Lots of people hitting "Dissatisfied" then

[j-j]

O2O fucking cockmunchers 2a) They changed my terms and conditions on Paid Up Front For Life saying I have to pay line rental and charged me for itemised billing for the next 3 months in advance- surely 10 years is not Life? mobile O2 broadband dongle fucked up my computer and made it not very happy and unable to access interweb at all.O2 help desk were a waste of time. Software removed - O2 dongle placed under hammer and hit repeatedly.c) At the end of last contract they overcharged me line rental, then sent my "unpaid bill" ( that I paid twice) to a debt collection agency - so I paid it again (now £150 out o pocket) - three months of wrangling eventually got it sorted.d) I got a email asking me to tell them what I thought - so I clicks on the survey link and it gets to question 3 and then says "we have spoken to enough people like you" and fucks me off.Cockmunchers the lot of them.

+++++1 about O2What a thorough shower of chronic donkeys.Last April, I decided I'd had enough and so at the end of the contract I called to say: "O HAI, I IZ WANTZ TO STOP ME KONTRACT THX"Needless to say that these companies fill their pants when you suddenly call it off after many years with them - it's like they lose 1000 customers to them when one long termer quits it.Anyway, I knew this and indeed, their response came as no surprise: "May we ask why you're leaving us"? - "-I just want to change and shop around etc"-" O well we can offer you ......"So as expected they make a too good to be true offer of 18 month contract on the same phone for absolutely FREE. -I know! what a pile of shite so I said it sounded TGTBT and was about to continue with the cancellation. She confirmed that it was genuine and explained that it was basically a pre paid contract that has a lump sum paid to cover the lot. Added that there was some left over and that a free Bluetooth headset would also be sent. I'll admit that I softened at this as I reckoned this was good and perhaps I was 'valued' to them?? Pish. While the new contract started out as described, I spent four months in this and sure enough every bill that came said £0.00. Then, while I was working away from home down in Staines, my phone gets cut off.What gives?I call O2 and lo and behold: "you've gone over your allowance and have been charged - you did not pay the bill for last month so we suspended your account"1. I did not pay the bill coz I didn't expect a bill2. I couldn't pay the bill coz no direct debit was set up to do so3. They never sent me a bill anyway to say that I went over some limit4. Never told me there was a limit.So Although I paid the £10 or so and was reconnected that afternoon, I obviously felt duped.I called them to ask wtf and was told that the lump sum that supposedly covered the 18months had run out! and that the monthly payment of this sum no longer cover the monthly charge. And from that month onwards it would be £5 a month plus any additional calls that go above the 'limit'Since September the bill has varied from £15 to about £9 per month. This month's was £9.75. So it's not yet been just £5. I don't use the phone so severely that I'd go over the limit (whatever it is)So basically, they lied. The contract was not free and was in fact a hook to get me to not leave. I was told by them when I called the last time that the first sales person 'shouldn't have said .....' whatever it was. I think they'll pretty much say whatever to get you to stay.So at the end of this contract I really will be getting them to fuk.Funnily, they never sent an actual 'contrat' as such so I have nothing in writing. Anyway, I'll leave it for now but I will never use them again, nor will I recommend O2 to anyone.Bunch of corporate cock strokers

[pandamonium]

but the current situation of managers putting pressure on staff to come in when the odds are against them is ridiculous - if you head off to work on their word and you smash your car, will they take responsibility for it? Very doubtful.

Pressure to attend is another matter all together, thats more to do with poor managment on all levels, it seems to be vey endemic in the civil service from my experiance....

I'd never put pressure on my guys to attend, but if they don't work, they don't get paid. End of. Who are they gonna complain to? God? Cos I sure as hell didn't make it snow. Put it this way.... If you sent a parcel on a priority AM delivery via a carrier company and it turned up at 5pm, would you expect to pay the higher AM delivery charge? (I'm not aiming that at anyone in particular, just a rhetorical question) You can't have your cake and eat it.(Or 'eat your cake and have it' as my Nigerian friend often says!)

[Pillock]

I'd never put pressure on my guys to attend, but if they don't work, they don't get paid. End of. Who are they gonna complain to? God? Cos I sure as hell didn't make it snow.

This is exactly the way it should be.It's not down to your boss to effectively pay a "Snow Bonus" by giving you your wages for not coming in. But that should be the end of it, no threatening to sack you. As I said, we got full pay if we struggled in even if we were massively late, if we didn't get in we didn't get paid. There were a few people who tried, got stuck, missed shift and still got paid but that's managers discretion.