Rant of the day.

[onesea]

14 hours ago, Yorky said:

They're easy, you just keep throwing your dirty washing into them and miraculously they turn themselves on AND, then put they put the clothes in the drier, AND THEN back into your drawers.

My last one malfunctioned, I had to do it all myself, including the stuff it made themselves. 

 

Be careful the problem is getting old ones out of your house

 

Many models of there but not a design I recommend.

Edited December 1, 2024 by onesea

[Steve_M]

Having been a regular cyclist some years ago, commuting and for leisure, only giving up because I felt it was becoming too dangerous (which is how I moved into riding motorbikes - yes, I know…) I have a degree of empathy for their situation and, I thought, an appreciation of why the updated Highway Code has been changed to reflect their vulnerability.

 

I made the mistake on another SM platform of pointing out that some don’t help themselves. Result? A full Jeremy Vine pile on.

 

It seems, though, that every single cyclist is the perfect road user and is above reproach: even by other cyclist.
 

Riding at night, in dark clothes? Fine - every other road user should be able to see them, regardless. They never ride irresponsibly; none of them, ever. I didn’t even mention red lights!
 

I know this is something of a cliche post. I do try to be fair but I’m currently a little under the weather with some sort of bug and feeling somewhat emotional due to other factors (which is why I’ve not been on here  much recently) but right now my view of cyclists is somewhat jaundiced. 

 

 

 

[Fender1515]

18 minutes ago, Steve_M said:

Having been a regular cyclist some years ago, commuting and for leisure, only giving up because I felt it was becoming too dangerous (which is how I moved into riding motorbikes - yes, I know…) I have a degree of empathy for their situation and, I thought, an appreciation of why the updated Highway Code has been changed to reflect their vulnerability.

 

I made the mistake on another SM platform of pointing out that some don’t help themselves. Result? A full Jeremy Vine pile on.

 

It seems, though, that every single cyclist is the perfect road user and is above reproach: even by other cyclist.
 

Riding at night, in dark clothes? Fine - every other road user should be able to see them, regardless. They never ride irresponsibly; none of them, ever. I didn’t even mention red lights!
 

I know this is something of a cliche post. I do try to be fair but I’m currently a little under the weather with some sort of bug and feeling somewhat emotional due to other factors (which is why I’ve not been on here  much recently) but right now my view of cyclists is somewhat jaundiced. 

 

 

 

As is the norm, we/i only tend to remember the worst situations, and so...

A few weeks ago, my-self and partner were in the car driving through the peak district, TMrs was driving, she used to be a driving instructor, i do tend to get a lot of really helpful advice when i am driving., as am IAM observer myself, I am always surprised with 50 years of experience, and no major incidents, at how much I get wrong!! Anyhoows, we overtake four cyclist on road bikes on the decent, a mile or so further on the road gets a little twisty, and sheep at the side of the road, we are travelling at around 30 mph, the cyclist catch us up and are properly tailgating us. If we had had to ankers on there would have been no way they could have avoided a collision if a vehicle had been coming in the opposite direction and they couldn't overtake.  We both cycle, all be it b mainly off road, so we do have some empathy with cyclist,  But what's the thinking with these guys! ~I would not be riding my motorbike that close to a cars exhaust pipe,  not even with all the tech stopping system it has, you still have to reaction time to factor in. 

Happily no collision, and unlike my reactions, no red mist from the driver! 

Heyho, some folks make it difficult to like em.

[Fiddlesticks]

Congratulations, you passed the test. M will see you shortly.

[RideWithStyles]

00 Should have gone to spec savers…

[Yorky]

[onesea]

I am not certain quite where to post this….  Here NOTD or YWJ

 

So personal life changing, I realised I had Christmas Day of work and will be alone.  I offered to swap shifts with some one for Christmas Day to allow me to go away for New Year. I had also offered to take the shifts of as annual leave (29th & 30th).

 

I have emailed my work twice over this, and spoken to them on the phone to be told “there was hope”.

 

I have awaited response, tonight checking my emails they had not responded directly.  However they had asked me to change one of the shifts I had requested off.
 

I messaged the person that i had discussed shift swap with, they have been granted annual leave for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

 

My employers have failed to notify me.

 

Sadly my response cannot include the adjectives I would like to use - they have a dignity at work policy.

 

That has been quoted against me previously following similar incident (refusing me a day of for internal interview) for suggesting that our scheduling where not fit for purpose.

[S-Westerly]

Hope you're looking for a new job. 

[onesea]

1 hour ago, S-Westerly said:

Hope you're looking for a new job. 

They're is allot of changes going on at the moment, both at work and home.

 

Same job elsewhere is preferred. 

 

If not big gamble elsewhere and totally different job

 

All this change is for the best I am hoping...

 

 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Typical! I get a day off and look at the wind.....

[Simon Davey]

Most people produce windier farts. 

Nice day for a bike ride though. 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Well the wind picked up but was still very light. There is a skill to light wind sailing so I was quite pleased to get some decent results in the 4 races sailed.

 

The downside is that having not been on the water since September my sailing muscles are shot. Balancing a boat in light wind puts enormous strain on your legs, particularly your thigh muscles. 

 

So this morning I am hobbling like a geriatric, going downstairs is agony. 

[Fozzie]

Got a big un.

 

70 hour weeks in the run up to Christmas, and I was knocked down by a cold/covid/flu/whatever it was. It has battered my lungs. 

Just before Christmas, I had to sack a rogue contractor. Was a bit embarrassing as I interviewed him originally, and he had all the right jargon, was well spoken.

 

Quickly, staff began commenting he was rude, confrontational and would deny agreeing to deadlines even if you sent him the screenshot of the e-mail where he did. 

I warned management we had a bit of a chancer in our midst, initially I just thought we'd give him easier work and not renew his contract. Fortunately I'd limited him to 6 months rather than 12 as he hadn't given enough content in his answers. 

 

The moment I decided to give him the bullet was after a lengthy debate. I was polite to him, but I technically backed him into a corner on some of his assertions. I quoted the relevant regs, and he still declared my arguments didn't stack up, but also that he accepted how we do it. I wasn't in the mood, so I pushed him for a technical reason on why my arguments didn't stack up, and he gave me a lot of waffling, before switching tactic to saying "it's just I've never done it that way". I kept it polite, but I pointed out compliant designs shouldn't be alien to someone as experienced as him. I decided then I would be making sure he got his notice in the new year. 

 

But then I discovered 2 days later he had gone on site, got in front of a client and a specialist, and then repeated his arguments without any of the corrections I'd given. He introduced himself as a consultant (he's a designer) for a start. The client seemed to lap up everything he said, the specialist called me up and said he was put in a very difficult position by it. Apparently he didn't make a lick of sense, and kept looking at things he didn't need to. To top it off, he was spending ludicrous amounts of hours on simple tasks and not able to do them.

 

He had 2 weeks of unpaid leave coming up for Christmas, so I hoovered up all the complaints about him, presented them to the chief, and was given permission to speak to his agent to sack him with immediate affect. Rather than say it wasn't working out, I decided he'd behaved poorly enough to warrant outlining the exact issues we had with him. I kept it professional, but it was fairly damning stuff, as I also included how I found him on companies house where he was listed as a "mechanical engineer". Which explained a few things...

 

A day later, he sends an e-mail from his personal e-mail address to me and several others in the business. And essentially tried to accuse me of doing all kinds of dangerous things. It was a revenge smear, so I just replied technically speaking as he really drove home the point I had made. In several of his claims, he basically outed himself as not being competent on the topic. I dropped him from the reply and pointed these out and kept it professional, but it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

I also think I found out how he "sounded competent". He baselessly accused me of using ChatGPT, which until that point I thought was a tool that did kids homework for them. Apparently they are a bit more advanced than that now. It suddenly offered a very good explanation for a lot of his points, and why he had no answer when I shot them down. 

 

Fortunately, I've hired some really good eggs, so this doesn't put too much of a black mark on me. But I have been bothered by it over the Christmas period, and there's definitely things I could have done better so thought I'd regurgitate it all here  

[Fiddlesticks]

16 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

Got a big un.

 

70 hour weeks in the run up to Christmas, and I was knocked down by a cold/covid/flu/whatever it was. It has battered my lungs. 

Just before Christmas, I had to sack a rogue contractor. Was a bit embarrassing as I interviewed him originally, and he had all the right jargon, was well spoken.

 

Quickly, staff began commenting he was rude, confrontational and would deny agreeing to deadlines even if you sent him the screenshot of the e-mail where he did. 

I warned management we had a bit of a chancer in our midst, initially I just thought we'd give him easier work and not renew his contract. Fortunately I'd limited him to 6 months rather than 12 as he hadn't given enough content in his answers. 

 

The moment I decided to give him the bullet was after a lengthy debate. I was polite to him, but I technically backed him into a corner on some of his assertions. I quoted the relevant regs, and he still declared my arguments didn't stack up, but also that he accepted how we do it. I wasn't in the mood, so I pushed him for a technical reason on why my arguments didn't stack up, and he gave me a lot of waffling, before switching tactic to saying "it's just I've never done it that way". I kept it polite, but I pointed out compliant designs shouldn't be alien to someone as experienced as him. I decided then I would be making sure he got his notice in the new year. 

 

But then I discovered 2 days later he had gone on site, got in front of a client and a specialist, and then repeated his arguments without any of the corrections I'd given. He introduced himself as a consultant (he's a designer) for a start. The client seemed to lap up everything he said, the specialist called me up and said he was put in a very difficult position by it. Apparently he didn't make a lick of sense, and kept looking at things he didn't need to. To top it off, he was spending ludicrous amounts of hours on simple tasks and not able to do them.

 

He had 2 weeks of unpaid leave coming up for Christmas, so I hoovered up all the complaints about him, presented them to the chief, and was given permission to speak to his agent to sack him with immediate affect. Rather than say it wasn't working out, I decided he'd behaved poorly enough to warrant outlining the exact issues we had with him. I kept it professional, but it was fairly damning stuff, as I also included how I found him on companies house where he was listed as a "mechanical engineer". Which explained a few things...

 

A day later, he sends an e-mail from his personal e-mail address to me and several others in the business. And essentially tried to accuse me of doing all kinds of dangerous things. It was a revenge smear, so I just replied technically speaking as he really drove home the point I had made. In several of his claims, he basically outed himself as not being competent on the topic. I dropped him from the reply and pointed these out and kept it professional, but it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

I also think I found out how he "sounded competent". He baselessly accused me of using ChatGPT, which until that point I thought was a tool that did kids homework for them. Apparently they are a bit more advanced than that now. It suddenly offered a very good explanation for a lot of his points, and why he had no answer when I shot them down. 

 

Fortunately, I've hired some really good eggs, so this doesn't put too much of a black mark on me. But I have been bothered by it over the Christmas period, and there's definitely things I could have done better so thought I'd regurgitate it all here  

Sounds like you handled it all very well though. Not your fault the guy turned out to be a wrong 'un.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

Got a big un.

 

70 hour weeks in the run up to Christmas, and I was knocked down by a cold/covid/flu/whatever it was. It has battered my lungs. 

Just before Christmas, I had to sack a rogue contractor. Was a bit embarrassing as I interviewed him originally, and he had all the right jargon, was well spoken.

 

Quickly, staff began commenting he was rude, confrontational and would deny agreeing to deadlines even if you sent him the screenshot of the e-mail where he did. 

I warned management we had a bit of a chancer in our midst, initially I just thought we'd give him easier work and not renew his contract. Fortunately I'd limited him to 6 months rather than 12 as he hadn't given enough content in his answers. 

 

The moment I decided to give him the bullet was after a lengthy debate. I was polite to him, but I technically backed him into a corner on some of his assertions. I quoted the relevant regs, and he still declared my arguments didn't stack up, but also that he accepted how we do it. I wasn't in the mood, so I pushed him for a technical reason on why my arguments didn't stack up, and he gave me a lot of waffling, before switching tactic to saying "it's just I've never done it that way". I kept it polite, but I pointed out compliant designs shouldn't be alien to someone as experienced as him. I decided then I would be making sure he got his notice in the new year. 

 

But then I discovered 2 days later he had gone on site, got in front of a client and a specialist, and then repeated his arguments without any of the corrections I'd given. He introduced himself as a consultant (he's a designer) for a start. The client seemed to lap up everything he said, the specialist called me up and said he was put in a very difficult position by it. Apparently he didn't make a lick of sense, and kept looking at things he didn't need to. To top it off, he was spending ludicrous amounts of hours on simple tasks and not able to do them.

 

He had 2 weeks of unpaid leave coming up for Christmas, so I hoovered up all the complaints about him, presented them to the chief, and was given permission to speak to his agent to sack him with immediate affect. Rather than say it wasn't working out, I decided he'd behaved poorly enough to warrant outlining the exact issues we had with him. I kept it professional, but it was fairly damning stuff, as I also included how I found him on companies house where he was listed as a "mechanical engineer". Which explained a few things...

 

A day later, he sends an e-mail from his personal e-mail address to me and several others in the business. And essentially tried to accuse me of doing all kinds of dangerous things. It was a revenge smear, so I just replied technically speaking as he really drove home the point I had made. In several of his claims, he basically outed himself as not being competent on the topic. I dropped him from the reply and pointed these out and kept it professional, but it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

I also think I found out how he "sounded competent". He baselessly accused me of using ChatGPT, which until that point I thought was a tool that did kids homework for them. Apparently they are a bit more advanced than that now. It suddenly offered a very good explanation for a lot of his points, and why he had no answer when I shot them down. 

 

Fortunately, I've hired some really good eggs, so this doesn't put too much of a black mark on me. But I have been bothered by it over the Christmas period, and there's definitely things I could have done better so thought I'd regurgitate it all here  

Things like that weigh on your mind if you're a conscientious kind of person. Sadly, it's all part of dealing with some of the rogues out there. The key thing is to stick to your principles and know you've done it right. 

[Simon Davey]

Good work @Fozzie 

That's got to be a good end to the year.

[Fozzie]

1 hour ago, Fiddlesticks said:

Sounds like you handled it all very well though. Not your fault the guy turned out to be a wrong 'un.

 

I feel I could have been quicker, I put a lot of the early complaints down to typical grumbles of the team. And wasn't fully appreciating the content of what they were saying. While I got him down to 2 weeks paid notice, it would have only been 1 had I looked into it sooner.

 

The big one for me is I think I've dented a relationship with one of the team managers I really like. He's had a lot going on, and he has seemed really worn down. 

I think he just didn't want, or need the added stress, so he suggested we let the guys contract time out. But in the moment, I saw it as him letting a guy steal 6 months of wages at a contractors rate, while we expect full time staff members to pick up the slack.  I hated the message that would send. I basically said I would be taking it to the senior leadership if he (this contractors manager) didn't and forced the situation. If I could do it again, I would simply tell him to delegate the issue to me entirely, and tell senior leadership I was tasked with investigating/reporting on this contractors behaviour. I will be privately apologising to him in the new year, and hopefully it will be a lesson well learnt. 

[bud]

You can only go on what people present to you when hiring someone. It's not good for them, or you if they are not up to the job.But

You did the right thing. It wouldn't have been fair on your team to let him continue. And another five months of wages would have left a bad taste in your mouth.

 

[S-Westerly]

It happens. I had a youngish guy who made a real effort on his own time to make himself promotable from AB to Third Mate. I commended him and a year later he was  Junior Officer. He performed adequately and then got promoted to  Third Mate after the existing one had to sign off sick. He came back to my ship and was no better than satisfactory  - bear in mind he had a  total of over 12 months service on this particular ship so was familiar with it. Cut to last summer and a different ship with different officers but again under my command - he was a total disaster. Had made no effort to learn this particular ship and hadn't a clue what he was doing. Previously it had been a case of copy paste and when he couldn't he was useless. I sacked him after due process and company confirmed he was gone for good in November. Annoying though as I feel it reflected on me but you can only do so much and we can't afford to carry someone who doesn't pull his weight. 

[Bender]

@Fozzieunfortunately it's all a learning curve and one that doesn't stop, I think a discussion with the guy your concerned about is fine and then draw a line under it no matter what he thinks afterwards, you acted in good faith and continued to once you knew there was an issue.

[Tiggie]

@Fozzie You reminded me of a guy I briefly worked with when I was a teenager.

 

I worked for an ICT company supplying networks and support to schools( I'm old so we are talking Windows NT, 98se, 2000)  My job was office based. Building the machines and repairing any that the engineers couldn't do on site.

 

A new engineer was hired, ex IBM guy so everyone was expecting big things when he came in. Turned out the annoying little 19 year old prick who spent most of his time in the office downloading music from winmx and had no formal qualifications.......in other words me ..... knew a shit load more than he did 

 

It came to light that all he used to do at IBM was go on site, load a norton ghost recovery image and say " there you go " and if that didn't work he took machine back to office to let someone else fix it 

[onesea]

We all know of the various driving styles compared to vehicle Audi,BMW Chelsea tractors, white van man etc, etc…

 

A new one for you Volkswagen T5 drivers.

 

Driven of a week day by aggressive mums and dads doing there school runs, commuting, shopping, Pilates or silks class. 
 

Of a weekend they are out loaded with sups, canoes, peddle bikes driven at annoyingly slow speed to beauty spots, campsites or the holly grail to go “wild camping” (translate to a coastal car park, farmers field or lay-by).
 

Their custom lowered suspension, wide  alloys rims, low profile tyres, spoilers and extra large graphics, VW, mountains, surf or similar inspiring scene making them even more ideal for this task.  
 

Drivers and occupants, wear Dry Robes often miles from the nearest water or rain frequently at the service station in the midlands.

Even better these guys and girls are like swarms of midges irritating as hell congregating together, making any scenic area a little less pleasant.

 

I am sure the bumper stickers (“If I was meant to go fast I wouldn’t be shaped like a brick”) seen at weekends are peeled off on a Sunday night for racing stripes for the race on a school run Monday morning.
 

 

 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Having been unwell since Boxing Day I decided it was finally time to contact our GP. Only it turns out they have changed the system yet again. 

 

I rarely ask for a GP appointment and every time I've tried it's a new system. So this evening I've had to download a new app. Submit all my details, scan a photo ID, all the usual faff. 

 

Now it will take 2 days before the app can verify I am who I say I am. 

 

If they change the system why not send an email letting you know all this needs doing? By the time you need to make an appointment it's a bit late to find out that system introduced six months ago has been superceded.  

[bonio]

Because studies have shown that, over the two days it takes to register, 21.7% patients either get better or die.

[Fiddlesticks]

What a faff!

 

The perfect situation in which to employ the power of "no".