Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Which is why, for my final year, I'm removing all the clutter (aka taking it home and cluttering up that space more) from the space that I call my desk at work.

John, do I take it that your University administration has been infected by that global scourge (modern office furniture salespeople) whose mantra that "open plan concepts with new modular workstations and exciting collaboration focal points will energize staff to return to the office and revolutionize the workplace" has taken root with demonstrable consequences?

[The White Rabbit]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Monday?  A builder working on a bank holiday???

Odd. ...

 

I hesitate to mention this, as it reinforces racial stereotypes - but - one of our neighbours is having a very substantial refurb/extension and they have a team of Polish builders on the job. They work their *'s off, regularly doing ten hour days and working Saturdays. They seem to really know their stuff and although I don't speak Polish, the vocal tone and general behaviour suggests they are happy in their work and have a good work ethic. No obvious effing and blinding, no 'builders' bottom', no inconsiderate behaviour... We've spoken with them a few times and they seem very competent on the technical side. I'd be quite happy for them to work on our house. I recall 'other' builders working on our house and the neighbours ... let's just say (favourable) comparisons have been drawn! 

[New Haven Neil]

Evening all, and our condolences to Q.

 

Back in my day in HR (and previously Personnel - only the name on the office door changed, nothing else) our job was to advise management within the bounds of the Employment Rights Act.  The actual decisions are made by management - they get paid more to do so.  We just had to tell them if their ideas were legal or not - and if not, that we would NOT support them in a Tribunal.  Of course said management wanted us to make the decisions for them, repeatedly.  They also tried to blame HR for anything that subsequently went wrong, you very quickly learned to keep everything in writing and keep copies or e mails etc.  I even saw hard copy things that were incriminating in personal files disappear - didn't work with me, I could produce all sorts of documents they 'lost'.  

[Gwiwer]

45 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

Which is pretty close to Badgers Mount

There was a road sign in the area which read

 

Badgers Mount

Pratts Bottom 

 

But I believe it was altered after some of the locals took offence at being the …. butt of humour. 
 

However we do also have (among all the Piddles in Dorset) … 

 

 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

4 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

During the time they were out, I received a phone call, my father has died, the last of the 5 brothers.

Really sorry to hear this, Q - deepest sympathies.

This has just come to my attention. Our condolences on your loss 

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

F ucking a village in Austria.  They lost the town signs so often they have renamed themselves  Fugging

I recall the mayor becoming annoyed with all the tourists because they always stole the F*cking sign. 

[Ozexpatriate]

If I may be permitted my own Hyde Park soapbox, the collective experiences with personnel / HR departments have little to do with them specifically - they are symptomatic of something bigger.

 

Capitalism has changed. Two generations ago, "capitalism" rewarded so-called "blue chip" companies - meaning companies that were consistently profitable and paid their shareholders an annual dividend. With this metric they were stable and provided reliable employment potentially over an employee's career.

 

During my working life that model no longer exists. "Capitalism" (by which I mean the stock market) no longer rewards stable, consistent profitability. It only rewards growth in share price. This has consequences. Executive management (beholden to the board and shareholders) is obliged to chase growth. It is a truly existential problem.

 

In the absence of organic growth, executive management necessarily resorts to the more extreme solutions - M&A or cost-cutting to drive increase profitability. This has inevitable consequences, (particularly for personnel/HR departments who manage staffing and employee-related costs like benefits), the biggest of which is terminations related to restructuring. 

 

There is a direct line between the drive for growth in share price and the change in HR department philosophy from fostering happy employees to instructing executive management on the fine line between morally questionable and illegal decisions in the existential chase for share price growth.

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

I was at war with "Human resources" at a couple of my employments, as a senior shop steward at one and works convenor at another, I witnessed some callous behaviour by some of them. Personnel departments were by and large helpful to their colleagues, a lot of HR were just petty minded bullies, it gave me great pleasure when they got their backsides kicked at industrial tribunals because they hadn't followed procedures(and I was not going to tell them what they'd done wrong beforehand), I even won my own case for unfair dismissal, the look on their faces was almost worth more than the compensation awarded to me.

 

A Buddy is currently being subjected to all sorts of B.S. at his place of work from Someone On High; all sorts of "complaints" against him have suddenly appeared (several dating back a number of years, yet nothing was said at the time - nor at his Appraisals since) and several that are blatantly untrue/lies.  He's currently off sick because of it all, yet is still expected to appear via video at disciplinary meetings; apparently those disciplinaries will still take place whether or not he's there...

What's perhaps worse is that someone who he considered a friend at work and who he's known for a number of years has recently been promoted to become "Someone on High's Right-Hand Woman" and she knows it's B.S., yet she sits there at these meetings and says absolutely burger all to defend him/set the record straight.

He's now at the point where he just doesn't want to go back to the job, knowing that the Boss is trying his hardest to sack him, no matter what the rules are.

He's tried getting advice via Citizens Advice etc. etc. (totally hopeless) and he's wise enough to realise that as soon as he knocks on a Solicitor's Door it'll start costing him £££ and won't stop - with no guarantee that he'll win (and even if he does, get his costs paid).

 

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I will stipulate that there is a change from the HR "guiding philosophies" that I remember in my early corporate days in the 1980s and into the 1990s. The primary focus of the organization today appears to be to protect management from litigation when management does questionably legal* things regarding restructuring/terminations or even explicit violations of policy and law (like harassment cases).

 

My Boss renamed Occy Health as "Litigation Avoidance Dept" - cos that's about all they do now.

[PhilJ W]

20 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

A Buddy is currently being subjected to all sorts of B.S. at his place of work from Someone On High; all sorts of "complaints" against him have suddenly appeared (several dating back a number of years, yet nothing was said at the time - nor at his Appraisals since) and several that are blatantly untrue/lies.  He's currently off sick because of it all, yet is still expected to appear via video at disciplinary meetings; apparently those disciplinaries will still take place whether or not he's there...

What's perhaps worse is that someone who he considered a friend at work and who he's known for a number of years has recently been promoted to become "Someone on High's Right-Hand Woman" and she knows it's B.S., yet she sits there at these meetings and says absolutely burger all to defend him/set the record straight.

He's now at the point where he just doesn't want to go back to the job, knowing that the Boss is trying his hardest to sack him, no matter what the rules are.

He's tried getting advice via Citizens Advice etc. etc. (totally hopeless) and he's wise enough to realise that as soon as he knocks on a Solicitor's Door it'll start costing him £££ and won't stop - with no guarantee that he'll win (and even if he does, get his costs paid).

 

 

My Boss renamed Occy Health as "Litigation Avoidance Dept" - cos that's about all they do now.

Your mate should join a union, most unions provide free legal services to their members. There is even a firm of solicitors that specialises in employment law, Thompson & Thompson which usually is employed by the unions.

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, TheQ said:

I fell asleep after doing some jungle clearance, SWMBO decided to take Ben for his long walk, he went out of the gate but then refused to go any further. He has never done that before, except when frightened by gunfire.

So they came back in, Ben sat next to me.

During the time they were out, I received a phone call, my father has died, the last of the 5 brothers.

 

Some time after Ben insisted on taking me for a maximum length walk... He didn't leave my side...

 

Most sorry to hear that Q. Even when it's not unexpected it still comes as a shock to the system.

 

My dad was the eldest of the four brothers but he was the last to go. (He passed on my birthday.)

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. My kitchen fanlight won't close properly, a quick check suggests that one of the pantographs is broken. The windows are over thirty years old but paying a bit more for quality pays off as they are still keeping the cold out. Unfortunately the company that installed them went bust a long time ago.

[southern42]

And I thought Tooth of Time, Oregon looked challenging.

 

Nearer to home are the falls at Llangollen.

Follow through to the end of the video and you see it from the canoeists perspective continuing through one of the arches of the road bridge.

 

On the right is the Llangollen home of things that run on parallel bits of metal.

 

 

[polybear]

10 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Your mate should join a union, most unions provide free legal services to their members. There is even a firm of solicitors that specialises in employment law, Thompson & Thompson which usually is employed by the unions.

 

I very much suspect that free legal services from a union wouldn't apply in this case as it is already ongoing - to do so would mean that many people wouldn't join a union (to save on membership fees) until they actually needed their help.

[PhilJ W]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I very much suspect that free legal services from a union wouldn't apply in this case as it is already ongoing - to do so would mean that many people wouldn't join a union (to save on membership fees) until they actually needed their help.

I've known of people in just that situation and they've taken my advice to join the union who immediately brought in the solicitors who proceeded to shoot the HR department down in flames. It depends of course which union and which branch of that union. 

[polybear]

16 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. My kitchen fanlight won't close properly, a quick check suggests that one of the pantographs is broken. The windows are over thirty years old but paying a bit more for quality pays off as they are still keeping the cold out. Unfortunately the company that installed them went bust a long time ago.

 

It'd be worth checking a few Tradesmen that offer Double Glazing Repairs as I suspect it's not an uncommon problem; places such as ebay are usually a good starting place for spares as well.

[PhilJ W]

On the subject of unions, we had a character who 'didn't believe in unions' and refused to join them. He was a rather obnoxious individual and also frequently making racist comments and inevitably this came to be reported to the powers that be and he was hauled up before governors. On the day of the hearing he was asking around the union reps for someone to represent him and I took great pleasure in telling him that I was not able to represent him as he was not a member. Inevitably he was sacked still complaining that the unions didn't help him.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

If I may be permitted my own Hyde Park soapbox, the collective experiences with personnel / HR departments have little to do with them specifically - they are symptomatic of something bigger.

 

Capitalism has changed. Two generations ago, "capitalism" rewarded so-called "blue chip" companies - meaning companies that were consistently profitable and paid their shareholders an annual dividend. With this metric they were stable and provided reliable employment potentially over an employee's career.

 

During my working life that model no longer exists. "Capitalism" (by which I mean the stock market) no longer rewards stable, consistent profitability. It only rewards growth in share price. This has consequences. Executive management (beholden to the board and shareholders) is obliged to chase growth. It is a truly existential problem.

 

In the absence of organic growth, executive management necessarily resorts to the more extreme solutions - M&A or cost-cutting to drive increase profitability. This has inevitable consequences, (particularly for personnel/HR departments who manage staffing and employee-related costs like benefits), the biggest of which is terminations related to restructuring. 

 

There is a direct line between the drive for growth in share price and the change in HR department philosophy from fostering happy employees to instructing executive management on the fine line between morally questionable and illegal decisions in the existential chase for share price growth.

 

 

Spot on! One of the major drivers is stock options.

 

(Employees of a public corporation are granted options to buy shares at a particular price but they can exercise the option in the future. If the share price has increased in the meantime they can purchase the shares, immediately sell them and pocket the gain.)

 

The senior execs are granted huge numbers of options and can make enormous amounts of money if the share price has risen. Understandably this encourages them to look for ways to bump the short-term price of the shares. I have witnessed this in action and they will pull all sorts of tricks to maximize their profits. The argument is "it's just as good for the shareholders" while in reality it's just a way of "legal" insider trading.

[PhilJ W]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

It'd be worth checking a few Tradesmen that offer Double Glazing Repairs as I suspect it's not an uncommon problem; places such as ebay are usually a good starting place for spares as well.

I've got the local Checkatrade booklet in front of me and there's several possibilities there. Only thing is I won't be able to get it fixed before Tuesday.

[The White Rabbit]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

... My Boss renamed Occy Health as "Litigation Avoidance Dept" - cos that's about all they do now.

 

Ironically, after the * I've had from them after the various health problems I've had in the last few years, I'd describe them as the 'Incitement to Litigation Dept'. They are definitely the cause of me changing from feeling 'rather miffed' to 'let's get the boys together and drown the *s in a cesspit of their own ordure'. Their behaviour has been more than a tad counter productive and has contributed to me thinking justice no longer exists in this country. 

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

John, do I take it that your University administration has been infected by that global scourge (modern office furniture salespeople) whose mantra that "open plan concepts with new modular workstations and exciting collaboration focal points will energize staff to return to the office and revolutionize the workplace" has taken root with demonstrable consequences?

 

You missed out the bit about also saving a ton of money 😁

[TheQ]

My age plus 21 so Dad was 86..

Thanks for all the messages of condolence.

Apart from us all having a loss. My youngest sister has lost her husband, her father and a brother in under two years..

 

Heaving it down it was,  there was a temporary delay to loading units carrying unmentionables for tomorrow's show.

We loaded up, got to the hall just got everything in and the Welkin opened again.

Everything thing went well except for one large unmentionable that is to big to put up in the club house without removing the other unmentionables..

When they assembled it in the hall, one side is 17ft.... The other is 17ft 1 inch oops. Luckily there's a small bridging unit as yet undecorated they can butcher quickly..

 

Welkin had dried up again by the time we had to leave, mist lifting off the roads as the precipitation evaporated.

 

My roundtuits became time limited once I retired. Expectations from the authorities are they are becoming doitnows.

 

Muggachoccy gone

Good night Awl.

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I doubt that your many is a substantive majority Flavio.

 

This is largely a question of introversion/extraversion - the most satisfying definition of which I found is that "introverts are energized / recharged by solitude and extraverts are energized / recharged by being gregarious". Conversely introverts find social situations exhausting while extraverts find solitude exhausting.

 

Your perception lies, perhaps, in that the introverts have their heads down behind the parapet happily enjoying their own company, while the extraverts are visibly out in the world making all the noise.

 

I'm not sure that the definition you quote is wholly correct. The RAF conducted a study over many years trying to establish what sort of person made a successful fighter pilot, which I was involved in. It was carried out by a team of psychologists who came to the conclusion that the answer was 'controlled extroverts', whatever that actually means, and individually I was in that group. However, while I do like company and am happy to take part in discussions and am comfortable giving lectures, briefings or other talks, I am also quite content being on my own reading, modelling, doing crosswords etc. sometimes even for a fairly long time. If Jill is away I am happy to live a solitary existence for days at a time. I know that some of my ex-RAF colleagues are of a similar disposition so I think that there is probably a spectrum of introvert - extrovert types and that the definitions given above represent the extremes.   

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

In 1973 there  was a small (mag 5.5) earthquake in the Sydney basin, just after dawn  - and the thing everyone mentioned at the time  (and I remember too) was that the morning bird chorus just suddenly went quiet about 30 seconds before the quake commenced -  and you know how noisy Aus birds are at daybreak, all those magpies and stuff!

 

I once visited the site of a minor American civil war battlefield and Jill commented on the complete lack of birdsong compared with the rest of the woodland in which we were.

 

Dave

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Q, very sorry to hear of your loss.

Nothing else to report so,

Goodnight.

[DaveF]

1 minute ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I once visited the site of a minor American civil war battlefield and Jill commented on the complete lack of birdsong compared with the rest of the woodland in which we were.

 

Dave

 

I have found the same in parts of Northern France and Belgium, it can be quiet eerie.

 

About 30 years ago I was taking photos at a country halt in France, it was surrounded by woodland, there wasn't a sound to be heard.  I was very glad to leave the place.  Yet a few miles away everything felt and sounded normal.

 

I have never had a good night's sleep anywhere near WW1 battlefields in France and Belgium.

 

David