The grumpy thread

[SambaS]

Have a job interview for the RAF next week. As some of you may know I left last job under pretty exceptional circumstances with boss threatening to sell my cars and being abusive trying to blackmail etc. How the heck do I approach this at interview? Really could do with some advice on this one :/

 

Also I had to give him as reference, should I give them a heads up about the situation?

[vulgalour]

Don't go into too much detail, just telling them that your previous employer threatened yourself and your property should be enough to back up your decision to seek alternative employment with a more rational employer.

[SambaS]

Should I say I had to involve the police and what about the crap reference they will surely receive?

 

I'm still getting texts in March after leaving the job in January.

 

I think he may have shot himself in the foot trying to make out I was getting payed more than I was declaring, which if they audit me they will see is total BS

 

He's just tried every single avenue to make things hard for me since I left.

[vulgalour]

In my experience (others may differ) it's always best to offer the bare bones of the situation and if the employer wants more information, then let them have more. Some employers are happy with a glib "he was a dick" others want a full Powerpoint presentation justifying your opinion as to why he was a dick.

[SambaS]

Okay thanks VA, I'll keep it minimal in that case.

[SambaS]

This is from direct.gov:

 

Bad references

If the worker thinks they’ve been given an unfair or misleading reference, they may be able to claim damages in a court. The previous employer must be able to back up the reference - eg, by supplying examples of warning letters.

 

Workers must be able to show that:

 

it’s misleading or inaccurate

they ‘suffered a loss’ (eg a job offer was withdrawn)

Workers can get legal advice - eg from Citizens Advice. They may also be able to get legal aid.

 

EDIT: Doesn't help me get the job though

[Pillock]

I'd be honest, up to the point telling them the police are involved and that you'll get a rubbish reference. It's then all out in the open, and if you tell them everything they'll be able to see you're not the bad one in this.

If I were an employer, you didn't tell me, and it came out later I'd be a bit worried. Especially if the reference arrived and it claimed you were biting babies heads off and trying to explode things or whatever he could make up. Give it a bit of spin, point out how it shows you deal with stress and make difficult decisions

 

If you do get a bad, false reference it's libel (or is it slander? Whichever one is written). For that reason, my employer only ever sends out references that state how many days sick were had, and whether it was dismissal or voluntary leaving. Nothing else at all.

[SambaS]

I was going to go for absolute honesty and give them the heads up about potential bad reference, and say that it will more than likely back up what I am saying abut his conduct.

 

But then other people say NEVER try discredit a previous employer, but I think under the circumstances it's my only real option.

 

STRESS

[Albert Ross]

I "think" there's something preventing the giving of bad references. Only neutral and good are permitted. If he refuses to give one at all, that's not an issue.... apparently.

[SambaS]

Yes the law prevented him from selling my cars to pay UKMAIL but he still threatened me with it

[SambaS]

  Quote

so you best show in tomorrow and sort this or your cars will got to cleasrf the billl all myown money has gone in to this and what do i get alod shit and no shows its a joke you could make a killing and ther are shutting us down can not even sell out this is you part the business now get in and sort it you not in your teethns i helped you out loads i will kick your door down tomorrow and sick of this ed , you do not talk to me tell me out you could havew said you new man was coming for camper the other day then if would hasve been read am fucking sick getr on bill cleared then big bill from uk mail that i still do not know why so big see you in the mormoing

 

  Quote

job center going to love the reply to letter i got you should have picked phone up with all your 30% earnings you had 1500 one month odear all i did was help you and you blanked me and would not do hand over sad really

 

The text messages are even better:

 

  Quote

if your not in the yard tomorrow things will happen, i let you take them cars

 

My cars!

 

  Quote

best stay outa my way for the shit you have got me in

 

haven't done owt

 

  Quote

you have

 

rite o

 

  Quote

dont fucking clever

 

Dont fucking clever?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

You don't have to 'discredit' your previous employer, that would be you calling him a wanker in your interview (defo NOT recommended), I would suggest just telling them the facts of the matter as you see item, in a reasonably succinct 'un-emotional' manner and let them decide. They will read between the lines and decide if you are credible or not. If your previous employer has told them you stole £2m off him and dismembered his pet dog, he will sound like the lunatic out of the pair of you and it will work in your favour.

[Guest]

The submission point for our coursework is broken at Uni. [That online storage system that doesn't work, and my course are barred from using because we have to have special logins. That don't work].

 

Uni insist we use it and says hard copies \ DVDs are not acceptable. O RIGHT. THAT MAKES THINGS REALLY STRAIGHTFORWARD. TAR.

 

Why? Why are you being so pig headed? Can you not see that shit like this enrages people?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Don't worry about references- the recruiter will probably have seen a lot worse, so you only need to be upfront about the whole thing. However, do make sure to think of a couple of appropriate referees (previous employer, uni professor etc).

[ShiteRider]

AAARRRGH! got in the car turned the key...........fuck all, nada, zilch. Bewilderment...followed by the realisation i've left the lights on all night.......arse biscuits.

[Cavcraft]

However, do make sure to create a couple of really good references from a previous employer, uni professor etc. The best way to do this is to remember someone who left the company during their time there and using them as a reference. The new company may contact the old one but if they do then me laddo has long since gone. I'm not suggesting telling lies (especially if you embellish the bit about being a model employee with great timekeeping) and I'm not suggesting it works. But it does.

[autofive]

  MetBlackmk5 said:

AAARRRGH! got in the car turned the key...........fuck all, nada, zilch. Bewilderment...followed by the realisation i've left the lights on all night.......arse biscuits.

 

thats cortinas for you

 

so easy to flick the lights on when you take the key out

[Lankytim]

SambaS, what have you done to incur the wrath of your boss anyway?

[SambaS]

I wasn't getting enough money so I left. The commute was £50 a week, sometimes I made £50 a week. For my efforts I saw £0.

 

He blames me for ukmail not being paid, yes it was my job to pay the bill, but with whose money? He didn't have the money to pay the bill.

 

Hence thought he'd sell my cars as it was my fault.

 

When I stopped turning in he went ballistic. And tried to blackmail me at every chance.

[Lankytim]

Have you got the cars back?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The guy sounds like he needs sectioning TBH. Maybe if he hasn’t got enough £££ to pay his UK mail bill it means his business is going under, if so that could probably send someone a bit mental.

[SambaS]

Aye from what I saw he was struggling... yeah I got them back in the end.

 

I feel guilty and angry in equal measures when I think about it.

 

But just want to get on with my life now but he seems intent on not letting me.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Its easy for me to say of course, but anyone who sends out such garbled ‘threats’ by SMS from his own phone is defo not the badass gangster type he thinks he is. He sounds like someone who’s losing his grip more than anything.

 

If your cars are safe and you have nothing more to do with this geezer sounds like the best you can do is just ignore him, I don’t think he will be able to seriously scupper your chances of a job with the forces at all. He’ll calm down eventually or if not, have a heart attack and die. No worries.

[SambaS]

 

I'll still give them the heads up about the situation tomorrow. Just hope it doesn't go against me :/

[vulgalour]

Cross-threaded glow plug.

[dollywobbler]

  volksangyl said:

Cross-threaded glow plug.

 

Fook! Does chemical metal work in these circumstances?

[meshking]

Argh, that's shite. What's the access like, could you use a helicoil?

[vulgalour]

It's okay, I'm a pro, I've resolved it. Thankfully it was the thread on the glow plug rather than the block that was mullered so the new plug went in VERY easily just like the other three.... update in three... two...

[meshking]

Good work, sir!

[philibusmo]

My Rover SD1 was meant to be having its MOT today.

 

It spent 5 years off the road and when we attempted to start it, with a bit of fuel in the tank, it started first time and got up to temperature nice and smoothly and continued to do so every time it was started over the past 5 months.

 

It has been up on axle stands whilst a couple of spots of welding have been done, along with the exhaust sorting, tyres changing and brakes overhauled. Yesterday afternoon it was dropped back onto its wheels and it was started up. It cut out, repeatedly. Then the oil pump shat itself. Then the drivers door fell off a bit.

 

It did not go for it's MOT.

 

I think the cutting out was due to the fuel filter blocking up. The oil filter drained itself of oil and de-primed itself and the door pins on the drivers door have a remarkable anti-gravity effect and fall upwards. Add to this that the fittings are a seemingly random assortment of metric, imperial, torx head, multihex, and seemingly Whitworth and every job takes about 3 times as long as it should, what with trying to find the right tool just to remove a bolt. It would have been back together today, but it turns out that finding a Rover V8 oil filter gasket in a hurry is impossible.

 

BL 'Quality' always makes things that bit more fun, looks like I won't be taking it to the retro rides beach meet then.