Seven years of contracting

[Ian J.]

Whilst I agree in general principle, there are some significant differences between some languages. Being able to code in say VB or VB.net will not prepare someone for the C/C++ variants, or the Java variants. So I suppose it's a bit like Germanic versus Latin vs Far East Asian (Mandarin, Japanese), etc. in that say, someone who has learnt Italian has a good head start on understanding French, Spanish and Portuguese, but would have to do a fair bit of work to get German, or Mandarin, or whatever.

[47137]

I've worked for 6 Major Companies ( Including the RAF and one contracting) and in all ,  I have had problems with Idiot managers, HR departments etc.

 the History goes

 

 RAF, ...

 

GEC Marconi, ...

It's probably best to kick up only one hornet's nest at a time! Your experience of GEC Marconi is almost identical to mine. Employees worked below a glass ceiling, or above it. Staff canteen, manager's restaurant. Staff pension, manager's pension. The side you were was probably decided by osmosis, or perhaps some hidden psychometric test. They remind me of BMW cars ... there was nothing particularly special about them, but the general public felt they were good. For BMW it is their marketing, forever telling people how good they are, but the aura of wonderfulness about names like Marconi seemed to hang around until after they had got rid of everyone, and everyone found something better, and then eventually met up with each other. In Chelmsford at least, the rest of industry knew them as an aging dinosaur where nobody did any work. The first half was true; the second half would have been kinder if they qualified it as 'useful or effective'.

 

- Richard.

[APOLLO]

 

Staff canteen, manager's restaurant

 

Back in the late 60's when I started with the North Western Gas Board, I did a stint at the new district office at St Helens, a new ultra mod (60's !!) 5 storey all glass office block. First floor was the catering, Manual workers canteen at one end, kitchen in the middle and staff restaurant at the other. Behind the staff restaurant was the glass enclosed senior officers dining room, and behind this was the small, discrete Higher Management dining suite - waitress served. (Though everybody ate pie chips and peas / gravy. !!!!!!!!.)

 

It was all done in such a gentlemanly manner back then - it was a rare honour for us young engineering apprentice plebs to be invited to eat our chips in the inner sanctum with the burning bush (never got into God's bit !!).

 

Good old days, All gone now, such a shame.

 

Brit15

[Horsetan]

....They remind me of BMW cars ... there was nothing particularly special about them, but the general public felt they were good. ....

 

That might be because they were properly screwed together in an era where many contemporaries weren't. I remember that BMW gave customers a car that actually worked rather well for the basic price, and then charged handsomely for every conceivable extra, including the AM/FM radio. Only the E23 saloon and E24 coupes had anything like a fully-loaded spec, and they cost as much as a house back then.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Back in the late 60's when I started with the North Western Gas Board, I did a stint at the new district office at St Helens, a new ultra mod (60's !!) 5 storey all glass office block. First floor was the catering, Manual workers canteen at one end, kitchen in the middle and staff restaurant at the other. Behind the staff restaurant was the glass enclosed senior officers dining room, and behind this was the small, discrete Higher Management dining suite - waitress served. (Though everybody ate pie chips and peas / gravy. !!!!!!!!.)

 

It was all done in such a gentlemanly manner back then - it was a rare honour for us young engineering apprentice plebs to be invited to eat our chips in the inner sanctum with the burning bush (never got into God's bit !!).

 

Good old days, All gone now, such a shame.

 

Brit15

Same as BR then. At Crewe Works we used the Salaried Staff Dining Room. The waitress got the food from the same counter as the Workshop grades canteen. 

 

I remember getting taken into grandiose bits of The Kremlin and Euston House not normally seen by us engineering types when I was at all-day meetings with Senior Officer grades.

[trisonic]

That might be because they were properly screwed together in an era where many contemporaries weren't. I remember that BMW gave customers a car that actually worked rather well for the basic price, and then charged handsomely for every conceivable extra, including the AM/FM radio. Only the E23 saloon and E24 coupes had anything like a fully-loaded spec, and they cost as much as a house back then.

I still recall fondly the white 2 door E30 2.5 that EMI let me use on my frequent visits - fastest thing from A - B at the time, totally flat cornering - never tried an earlier BMW unfortunately (discounting the Frazer Nash BMW my cousin owned).

 

Best, Pete

[TheQ]

I ONCE had a taste of the high life, GEC needed me to get to Scotland in a hurry from Milton Keynes.  I had arrived at work and was told there was a taxi waiting outside  go home get your stuff for a week.

 the taxi took me home, then to Cranfield airfield, where an exec jet was waiting, as were some other people on board, it took me to the private side of Edinburgh Airport, where the gold coloured  Rolls was waiting with chauffeur, sadly that only took me round to the car hire, where l walked in signed a bit of paper and the car was waiting at the door.

 The Q

[Suzie]

BMW E30, really quite awesome and not very expensive secondhand nowadays. £800 should find you a fully loaded example on a good day and the parts on the whole are not expensive from BMW parts dept. (door open switches excepted - £25 each for those was a bit much!) I added up all the extras on the touring one I had and it cost £42 000 new all-in in 1990, that is a lot of money now but then - well! Not much headroom unfortunately so no hats allowed.

 

The first IT job I had they said "When we are successful all the company cars will be BMW", they were not successful so only the managers had them and I got to borrow the Bedford van occasionally. No company car now so I get to drive a Mercedes E-class every day, it might not be a new one but contracting has some perks! No more nasty little base model Fiestas and Astras any more.

[Horsetan]

BMW E30, really quite awesome and not very expensive secondhand nowadays. £800 should find you a fully loaded example on a good day and the parts on the whole are not expensive from BMW parts dept. (door open switches excepted - £25 each for those was a bit much!) I added up all the extras on the touring one I had and it cost £42 000 new all-in in 1990, that is a lot of money now but then - well! Not much headroom unfortunately so no hats allowed.

 

Most surviving E30s have been modified in some way, so a secondhand (more likely fourth- or fifth-hand) one should always be approached with caution.

 

My usual BMW spares specialist reminds me that BMW are now imposing some very silly (i.e. high) prices for E24 and E30 spares nowadays. Best example so far: the screw used for fixing the retaining frame for the front foglight - yours for £4.08 + VAT. Oh, and you need two of them.....per foglight.

[Oldddudders]

 

I remember getting taken into grandiose bits of The Kremlin and Euston House not normally seen by us engineering types when I was at all-day meetings with Senior Officer grades.

Euston House - grandiose? I admit it was quite nicely refurbished after the LMR was sent packing to Birmingham. I had an office there in the early '90s, and the secretaries/PAs and junior staff ate with everyone else. I admit some of the company might be a bit elevated - sharing a small table with a Sector Director or even one of the two Joint Managing Directors was not unknown, but the them-and-us days had largely gone a decade before when the Officers' Messes were abolished. And a good thing too - I was then just one grade below the required entry level!

[TheSignalEngineer]

Euston House was a palace compared to Carlow Street.

[47137]

Euston House - grandiose? I admit it was quite nicely refurbished after the LMR was sent packing to Birmingham. I had an office there in the early '90s, and the secretaries/PAs and junior staff ate with everyone else. I admit some of the company might be a bit elevated - sharing a small table with a Sector Director or even one of the two Joint Managing Directors was not unknown, but the them-and-us days had largely gone a decade before when the Officers' Messes were abolished. And a good thing too - I was then just one grade below the required entry level!

It does sound like the railway was ahead of other parts of British industry. In the mid-1980s, the place where I worked (radio communications) still had three feeding areas: the staff canteen, a boxed-off part for managers (who got the same food) and a "senior management refectory" with polished hardwoods and lead crystal everywhere. The sad thing was this wasn't good enough for too many managers, who instead took a liquid lunch each day. The female staff would not approach them in the afternoons because of the stench and the abuse (smoking was still allowed as a perk for managers with their own offices); and as an engineer you would expect to only get your head blown off. And so, the dis-functionality of later years was sown and nurtured. I do think some things have changed for the better, but the obsession of business owners with creating their own "company culture" persists in things like the compulsory fun days I mentioned before. It fortifies the viewpoint of companies 'owning' their employees, and the transition from Welfare through Personnel to HR; and brings not a scrap of goodwill.

 

- Richard.

[The Stationmaster]

Euston House - grandiose? I admit it was quite nicely refurbished after the LMR was sent packing to Birmingham. I had an office there in the early '90s, and the secretaries/PAs and junior staff ate with everyone else. I admit some of the company might be a bit elevated - sharing a small table with a Sector Director or even one of the two Joint Managing Directors was not unknown, but the them-and-us days had largely gone a decade before when the Officers' Messes were abolished. And a good thing too - I was then just one grade below the required entry level!

Yes, that got me a bit p'd off too; by the time I was senior enough they'd all (I'm fairly sure) gone.  Mind you going back to earlier years Reading Signal Works had two canteens for us minion type folk (and probably an officer's mess as well but that wasn't accessible from the street side) and I think they were officially 'clean' and 'dirty' canteens, i.e. mucky boots and grubby overalls were ok in one but not the other, however the food was exactly the same in both.

 

The Staff Dining Club at Paddington was officially RHQ clerical and junior management staff only for many years but others of us from lesser levels of the organisation used to use it with no troubles at all, and I once got the jackpot on one of the fruit machines (which might have upset the RHQ types of course).  It was replaced by a one size fits all establishment in Eastbourne Terrace which was, in effect, at the back of the station staff canteen (a real den of iniquity and intrigue) but one floor higher as it was on the street side, which was higher than platform level.  But quite a number of management staff (and probably above that) preferred to go over to the Kremlin where they still had a Junior Officers' Mess and a Senior Officers' Mess - that was in the very early 1970s.

 

The SNCB staff canteen at Brussels Midi is very much a 'democratic' one as far as grades are concerned but alas you need an SNCB swipe card in order to get in - but it does (or did) do seasonal menus with some interesting meals in the game season;  another nice feature is all the sets of loco valvegear mounted on the walls.  The SNCF one at the Gare du Nord has the advantage of overlooking the station throat - plus a quite good selection of wines (well it is France!).

[APOLLO]

A bit off topic regarding company catering.

 

The poshest most upmarket industry "catering" outfit I ever saw belonged to the now defunct ICI management "suite" at Runcorn. ICI had extensive facilities here, both chemical plant (now INEOS) and offices. The top brass lair was a grand Victorian residence just down the road from the offices. The interior had to be seen to be believed - probably more upmarket than most London gentlemen's private clubs.

 

One cold winters night around Christmas I was called out there to a serious problem with gas leaking from the road outside into the cellar - we had to evacuate the premises for a short time, big wigs included. Fully expecting a royal roasting, my team and I duly received a royal dinner in the shape of a silver tray of turkey sandwiches, solid silver coffee pot with steaming hot coffee and china cups, finished with a nip of rum, all served to us by the uniformed butler !!!

 

A night never to be forgotten - again now sadly all gone.

 

Brit15

[Horsetan]

....The SNCB staff canteen at Brussels Midi is very much a 'democratic' one as far as grades are concerned but alas you need an SNCB swipe card in order to get in - but it does (or did) do seasonal menus with some interesting meals in the game season;  another nice feature is all the sets of loco valvegear mounted on the walls. ...

 

Does the SNCB one still exist, and is the valve gear still on the walls? Any photos of this anywhere?

[The Stationmaster]

Does the SNCB one still exist, and is the valve gear still on the walls? Any photos of this anywhere?

 Sorry for going OT (although canteens relate to working conditions in my experience).

 

Anyway tp ypur question - as far as I know it does as it is separate from the station - across the road towards the south end of the Eurostar platforms.  I've never seen any pictures of teh valve gears - which possibly started off as fairly large scale instructional pieces.  One is definitely Walschaerts but I was never at all sure about the others.