The grumpy thread

[alf892]

Just before Christmas there was a 'News. item on the radio (it was the beeb......sorry) and I can't remember the exact numbers but the essence of it was:

 

NHS was in deep shit because:

 

In normal times it opewrated at 80% of capacity

 

The bad news was that now it was running at around 90%

 

If things got busier during the festive period it would have to open up it's reserve capacity........which was not included in the above.

 

 

This has been a non political message btw............to me it was just another example of how most news is spun up to put the shits up the population

[beko1987]

Workmates CRV shat it's exhaust a few weeks ago, and he's been getting the train in since. He priced up a new exhaust system and 2 new lambda sensors at ECP today - £690 (£420 with a code). This is after spending near £600 having the gearbox re-bearinged and stuff late last year.

 

He's supposedly a car person, but has let himself go in recent years IMO. Anyway, he's now thinking of scrapping it.

 

But, remember the blue pez CRV I know of for sale very cheaps due to no MOT by another person at work? No MOT but a recent exhaust and tyres, owned by her brother who now lives in oz and has abandoned it on their mums drive? I mentioned that for 2 days annual leave we could swap the exhaust over (both 2.0 petrols), swap the broken window regulator out on his, the other CRV has very good tyres so we can stash those etc. Said person selling it will probably let it go for £100 too as she's rich and doesn't want it anymore, so has priced it fairly. A days work to fix his, then ring cartakeback for the blue one. I'm sure my mum would let it sit on the drive for a week too whilst we did the work.

 

Know what he said?

 

"Meh, I dunno, seem's alot of work..."

 

I stopped short of slamming his head on the desk, but will keep on badgering him about it, it seems like a no brainer to me...  I was tempted with that white Xant estate for £100 on here recently for the wheels, tyres, interior and other bits then scrap the rest, but it's too good for that...

[cort1977]

You can't help some people, once they have decided it's new car time they won't let facts get in the way.

[Cavcraft]

Some people can't be helped, I'd not bother mentioning it again now.

[beko1987]

I think deep down he thinks it's a good idea, he can't turn into a nob, he's the only shite friendly person in the entire company, and I sit next to him!

 

I'll mention it tomorrow, I think he was gonna talk to his dad and see if his dad can bail him out, personally I wouldn't want to get my dad involved if there was a cheaper way (even though my dad bailed me out with my exhaust, but I didn't ask, he picked up on the problems and messaged me, so that's OK right?)

[Supernaut]

It's always easier to solve someone else's problems.

 

I have a Volvo I need shot of but it's worth so little I'll probably call the weighbridge. It's cooked its HG and contaminated the autobox as a result - the joy of integral oil coolers.

 

Yes, it could be saved, but I'm done with hand wringing 'enthusiasts' and I'm running out of time to shift it. Had a disaster shifting another project earlier this year so there's no chance eBay's having it either.

Post a for sale thread on here?

 

Oh wait, you don't do threads, or pictures of cars. As you were.

[Mr A Lawrence]

Meow.

 

Saucer of milk for supernaut on table 2 please.

[xtriple]

Does anyone recall the 'Not a girl friend' of early last year? Well she was a high up in the NHS and she spoke of HUGE wastes of money as if it was just a way of life there. Very sad indeed.

[Supernaut]

Does anyone recall the 'Not a girl friend' of early last year?

Which one? You sly old dog, you.

[The Moog]

 

 

He's supposedly a car person, but has let himself go in recent years IMO. Anyway, he's now thinking of scrapping it.

 

Said person selling it will probably let it go for £100 too as she's rich and doesn't want it anymore, so has priced it fairly

 

Erm ... why dont you buy both? Swap over and sell for cash monies? 

[tooSavvy]

You can't help some people, once they have decided it's new car FUTURE FOR BRITAIN time they won't let facts get in the way.

 

EF<topical>A

 

TS

[Lankytim]

I have 16 years NCD but my previous insurer only went up to 9, so will only give me proof for 9 years NCD. My new insurance quote is now £50 more expensive than it would be and the extra 7 years NCD I had built up has been vaporised. Feckers

[Lacquer Peel]

Does anyone recall the 'Not a girl friend' of early last year? Well she was a high up in the NHS and she spoke of HUGE wastes of money as if it was just a way of life there. Very sad indeed.

 

"Manager culture" has poisoned the public services as well unfortunately. I don't know why companies need so many managers.

[Cheggers]

I can only speak from personal experience, but know of many millions being spent by the NHS on software that was never deployed - A lot of which they still pay 20% of the value per year in support.

 

Sent from my B1-850 using Tapatalk

[Tamworthbay]

Just heard he has bought a 58 plate M sport privately for £5k (presumably in the dark as he was just driving it home when he phoned me). how could that one end I wonder?

I have seen it in the flesh today and it's nice but desperately needs a service and the parking sensors are playing silly beggars. Nothing major but not 'maintained at any cost' either.

[cort16]

The last time I worked with the NHS they forced them to only work on projects with prime contractors, which meant only very large and expensive companies like bt could sell

Solutions into the NHS . This meant all the innovation was squeezed out of the industry and the large companies fulfilled their briefs by paying for expensive contractors who rarely finish projects on time or on budget. I think they do pretty well given what the have to do over all though.

[Tamworthbay]

"Manager culture" has poisoned the public services as well unfortunately. I don't know why companies need so many managers.

The place I work has changed a lot in the seventeen years I have been there. It's still roughly the same size but when I started we had a boss, two 2nd in commands and three others who got a bit of pay for extra responsibilities. Now we have an executive boss above the boss, the same two 2nds, a senior leadership team consisting of those plus three others, then a further three senior staff and seven middle managers, of which I am one. I don't do anything any different to when I started but am now "with responsibility". It's a load of rubbish and to my eyes mostly involves lots of meeting which resolve nothing except the date and time of the next meeting. When I started people were just trusted to get on and do stuff unless they showed themselves to be incapable. Now everything is micromanaged with paper to prove that any cock ups weren't the fault of the senior management.

[twosmoke300]

Cock iOS ! Chortle

[bangernomics]

I'm a contractor who works in the NHS and can confirm that the reason they have so many contractors especially in IT areas is that the permie staff are usually off on long term sick/depressed/or just plain useless. As a contractor I got paid about 50% more than permies but delivered about 200% of their productivity so was good value.

 

Presently working as a tech PM contractor into the NHS and have spent the last 3 weeks chasing jobsworth permies for information as they perceive contractors as the enemy and therefore inevitably prolong my contract and ultimately the cost.

 

I'm not sad though as my tax is paying for the NHS and I'm just recycling some of it.

 

Waste wise, well let's look at interpreting costs, 20-30% are no shows and interpreter gets paid either way, we are looking at a digital solution to cut that cost so not all of us are bad for the NHS. Usually £50-130 a pop wasted and same again for reappointed. That's value for you.

[The Moog]

"Manager culture" has poisoned the public services as well unfortunately. I don't know why companies need so many managers.

Not in NHS. They run with a lower level of managers than any commercial organisation. Around 3% compared to 11% in private sector. This is the lowest level since 1998.

 

The Kings Fund report in 2011 wanted more managers as they found that GPs or similar adopting management role lacked the skills or training to run a resource intensive environment.

 

Sadly an efficient manager isn't as photogenic as a nurse, yet potentially can have a bigger impact

 

Steps off soapbox.

[DodgeRover]

The NHS Competes in a Boat Race

 

Once upon a time, the NHS and a Japanese company decided to have a competitive boat race on the river Thames.

Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance.

On the big day, they were as ready as they could be.

The Japanese won by a mile!

Afterwards the NHS team became very discouraged by the loss and morale sagged. Senior management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, and a project team was set up to investigate the problem and recommend appropriate action.

 

Their conclusion: The problem was that the Japanese had eight people rowing, and one person steering. The NHS had one person rowing and eight people steering.

 

Senior management immediately hired a consultancy company to do a study on the team structure. Millions of pounds and several months later the consultancy company concluded that: Too many people were steering and not enough rowing.

 

To prevent loosing to the Japanese again next year, the team structure was changed to 'four steering managers, three senior steering managers and one executive steering manager'.

A new quality performance system was set up for the person rowing the boat to give more incentive to work harder and become a key performer.

 

"We must give him empowerment and enrichment, that ought to do it".

 

The next year, the Japanese won by TWO miles!

 

The NHS laid off the rower for poor performance, sold all the paddles and cancelled all the capital investment for new equipment.

 

They halted the development of a new boat, awarded high performance awards to the consultants and distributed the money saved to senior management.

[Stroller133]

I have 16 years NCD but my previous insurer only went up to 9, so will only give me proof for 9 years NCD. My new insurance quote is now £50 more expensive than it would be and the extra 7 years NCD I had built up has been vaporised. Feckers

Have you got last years proof? Ask if you can e-mail that to them alongside the most recent one.

[loserone]

The brick base for the garage is up.

 

The grump? It's 7.27m long.

 

[Kiltox]

Looks like a 2 to me...

[richardmorris]

I work with numbers and read it as 7.270. I also cross my sevens though so that they don't look like 1s

[Tamworthbay]

I work with numbers and read it as 7.270. I also cross my sevens though so that they don't look like 1s

+1 on the sevens and also thought it was 7.27, I thought it was an ironic post if I am honest.

[loserone]

Yeah, I may just be panicing - elsewhere on the document there's these:

 

but there's also these:

 

Best call them in the morning..

 

[richardmorris]

Being grumpy I also cross z s so they don't look like 2 s. Helps the algebra!

[richardmorris]

Yeah, I may just be panicing - elsewhere on the document there's these:

twos.png

 

but there's also these:

onetwoonetwo.png

 

Best call them in the morning..

22 /

 

12 / 12 /

[richardmorris]

Our greatest trial at the moment at work is Eu customers who write n as m and m as mm and r as n, Not easy to read emails or tell Ir ( iridium ) from In ( indium).