Hello, all.
Don't know if you are following this. In fact - I don't know if ANYONE has read it.
But that's hardly the point, really, is it?
Anyway:
After my last entry, I spent MONTHS looking for another job to support my family which didn't involve being that sadistic arse's bitch. I finally managed in OCTOBER!
I now work for a company helping pets. They have training. And pay holidays at the same rate as normal days. I don't work weekends. I don't work 12 hour days. I don't work nights.
I HELP people now.
I lost £12000 per year pay. And I now qualify for something like £13500 per year benefits.
Sometimes the world doesn't suck all the time.
Unfortunately, I am now separated from my wife - largely due to the stress from my last job.
And some times the world DOES suck all the time.
Peace
Friday, 10 July 2009
Friday, 30 May 2008
Where does the bloody time go???
Anyhoo.... new rants.
My new job seemed ok, the boss was pretty laid-back and all was going well.
Then my boss quit, and changed jobs. Now one of his underlings is in charge.
There are basically 2 types of managers at the end of the day:
1) Lassaire-faire types who basically don't really provide a framework or guidelines - they expect staff to solve their problems and get on with things.
Good: Less demanding, lower stress
Bad: Less guidance, all responsibility to fix things is YOURS and not theirs.
2) Dictators who make strict guidlines and expect you to follow instructions to the letter. Much like the military, but there is a well-defined chain of command if it all goes wrong to rely on.
Good: Good training, good support network, you know where you stand always
Bad: No flexibility, if you fuck up everything you need to be doing (but didn't) is all there accusing you in black-and-white.
Now, I've worked with both types and I can deal with both. I can follow instructions, or wing it. I've been in the military, and worked in Dot.com startups at early stages. I'm easy.
My NEW boss however is something else...
He is a hypocrite. He expects you to follow his instructions to the letter - then violates those instructions himself... or has a go at you for following them.
Or - my personal fave - has a go at you for not following procedures he hasn't told anyone about. He just assumes since it's how he thinks they should be done, everyone else must already know...
Example: As he is still a manager for some sites, he is responsible for that sites Assignment Instructions, making sure we have spare keys to get people into the buildings, and making sure we have some sort of out-of-hours contacts to buildings in case of emergencies. It's MY job to get a guard to go there. Capice?
One night, a guard locked the building keys in the kitchen of a building he was working in. He only told us about it when he finished work. So we check, and there are NO spare keys for this building. There is also no contact number for the client so THEY can let us in...
Why? Because my genius boss some months ago gave back the spare set to the client and didn't get a duplicate for us to use.
The day controller calls him up at 0630 on the day (Saturday) and tells him we now have no way to get in the building, no client contact, and basically we are screwed. My boss says "have someone drive over every couple hours to see if any clients are in, and get them to let us in".
Now... this is a 2-storey building with dozens of offices. You couldn't hear a bomb go off if you were upstairs or in a back room. Our driver keeps going down, looking in the (dark) office door - it's Saturday remember - and leaves again.
It's going on for 1600 now, and the day controller calls him up and says it's still locked up with the keys inside and my PHB says, "What? You've been sitting on this all day? I need you to get access to this building. I'm going to discipline everyone involved in this!!!"
Um - boss? Who's responsible for out-of-hours access and contacts to sites? Contract Managers.
Who's the Contract Manager for the site?
You.
You REALLY want to discipline the people responsible for the building staying locked? REALLY?
Guess what. He dropped it after that.
Same site: another day.
Guy onsite finds what he calls "a door which isn't closed properly".
I quiz him:
Is it our Client (i.e. are we paid to cover it, and are we allowed to enter the door?) - No.
Is there any way to get to this door from the outside (i.e. can you get in w/o being Spider-man, the Hulk or in the SAS to get in from outside?) - No.
Any alarms going off? - No.
So - this is an internal door which someone has left open or the lock is not working, there's no way anyone has gotten in from outside, and no alarms going off. And you can't go in to check it out, even if so.
Bear in mind, I have no way to call the client to check this out. We still (to this very day!) have no client contacts!
So, I tell him to leave a note for the morning and not worry about it.
Now - here's what REALLY happened:
1) This WAS a client - his answer was wrong... FAIL
2) There was access from the ground: a big fuck-off ramp leading straight to the door. FAIL
3) There were no alarm going off... because the dipshit couldn't set the alarm - someone had torn a door from the hinges from the outside during the day when nobody was around. THIS door!: FAIL
So based on a whole set of wrong answers, I reach the wrong conclusion and shrug it off. My bad? Maybe.
I get told off about the break-in later, should have called my boss and the client (still w/o any contacts!), blah blah.
Lesson learned: no prob.
Only 4 days later, someone on the SAME site reports to me:
1) Door which is not ours has an alarm
2) They have no access as it's not our client.
In full paranoia mode, I call my boss immediately.
Guess what he says?
No, really.
Wait for it...............
"Why are you calling me? I'm getting ready for work. What do you want ME to do about it?".
WTF???????
You see what I'm talking about?
I work for a lassaire-fair dictator who has multiple personalities.
My job is now a living hell. I would happily run back to my last job on bended knee - all because of one man in my office.
Fuck.
My new job seemed ok, the boss was pretty laid-back and all was going well.
Then my boss quit, and changed jobs. Now one of his underlings is in charge.
There are basically 2 types of managers at the end of the day:
1) Lassaire-faire types who basically don't really provide a framework or guidelines - they expect staff to solve their problems and get on with things.
Good: Less demanding, lower stress
Bad: Less guidance, all responsibility to fix things is YOURS and not theirs.
2) Dictators who make strict guidlines and expect you to follow instructions to the letter. Much like the military, but there is a well-defined chain of command if it all goes wrong to rely on.
Good: Good training, good support network, you know where you stand always
Bad: No flexibility, if you fuck up everything you need to be doing (but didn't) is all there accusing you in black-and-white.
Now, I've worked with both types and I can deal with both. I can follow instructions, or wing it. I've been in the military, and worked in Dot.com startups at early stages. I'm easy.
My NEW boss however is something else...
He is a hypocrite. He expects you to follow his instructions to the letter - then violates those instructions himself... or has a go at you for following them.
Or - my personal fave - has a go at you for not following procedures he hasn't told anyone about. He just assumes since it's how he thinks they should be done, everyone else must already know...
Example: As he is still a manager for some sites, he is responsible for that sites Assignment Instructions, making sure we have spare keys to get people into the buildings, and making sure we have some sort of out-of-hours contacts to buildings in case of emergencies. It's MY job to get a guard to go there. Capice?
One night, a guard locked the building keys in the kitchen of a building he was working in. He only told us about it when he finished work. So we check, and there are NO spare keys for this building. There is also no contact number for the client so THEY can let us in...
Why? Because my genius boss some months ago gave back the spare set to the client and didn't get a duplicate for us to use.
The day controller calls him up at 0630 on the day (Saturday) and tells him we now have no way to get in the building, no client contact, and basically we are screwed. My boss says "have someone drive over every couple hours to see if any clients are in, and get them to let us in".
Now... this is a 2-storey building with dozens of offices. You couldn't hear a bomb go off if you were upstairs or in a back room. Our driver keeps going down, looking in the (dark) office door - it's Saturday remember - and leaves again.
It's going on for 1600 now, and the day controller calls him up and says it's still locked up with the keys inside and my PHB says, "What? You've been sitting on this all day? I need you to get access to this building. I'm going to discipline everyone involved in this!!!"
Um - boss? Who's responsible for out-of-hours access and contacts to sites? Contract Managers.
Who's the Contract Manager for the site?
You.
You REALLY want to discipline the people responsible for the building staying locked? REALLY?
Guess what. He dropped it after that.
Same site: another day.
Guy onsite finds what he calls "a door which isn't closed properly".
I quiz him:
Is it our Client (i.e. are we paid to cover it, and are we allowed to enter the door?) - No.
Is there any way to get to this door from the outside (i.e. can you get in w/o being Spider-man, the Hulk or in the SAS to get in from outside?) - No.
Any alarms going off? - No.
So - this is an internal door which someone has left open or the lock is not working, there's no way anyone has gotten in from outside, and no alarms going off. And you can't go in to check it out, even if so.
Bear in mind, I have no way to call the client to check this out. We still (to this very day!) have no client contacts!
So, I tell him to leave a note for the morning and not worry about it.
Now - here's what REALLY happened:
1) This WAS a client - his answer was wrong... FAIL
2) There was access from the ground: a big fuck-off ramp leading straight to the door. FAIL
3) There were no alarm going off... because the dipshit couldn't set the alarm - someone had torn a door from the hinges from the outside during the day when nobody was around. THIS door!: FAIL
So based on a whole set of wrong answers, I reach the wrong conclusion and shrug it off. My bad? Maybe.
I get told off about the break-in later, should have called my boss and the client (still w/o any contacts!), blah blah.
Lesson learned: no prob.
Only 4 days later, someone on the SAME site reports to me:
1) Door which is not ours has an alarm
2) They have no access as it's not our client.
In full paranoia mode, I call my boss immediately.
Guess what he says?
No, really.
Wait for it...............
"Why are you calling me? I'm getting ready for work. What do you want ME to do about it?".
WTF???????
You see what I'm talking about?
I work for a lassaire-fair dictator who has multiple personalities.
My job is now a living hell. I would happily run back to my last job on bended knee - all because of one man in my office.
Fuck.
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Finally getting summat done
Well, its getting finally back to nights and getting myself sorted out a bit which has allowed me to get this thing back on the road.
Wierdly, instead of my life being a continuous rant everything seems to be going OK really. My new job makes me spend more time away from home on the days I am working but I get a hell of a lot more days off - and in a row. This seems to be making a huge difference, in the end.
Rants:
National Rail.
National Rail for you non-UK people out there is the company which sort of overlies all the train companies here. It doesn't really do much but you can't really rant at British Rail anymore now that they've been sold off as Great Western, Virgin, GNE, blah blah.
They still suck though.
You'll be standing around in Paddington, waiting for the big snazzy computerised signs to show what platform your train is on and it just keeps saying "On Time" - even though you would have to teleport yourself to the platform now to make it on the train... assuming you knew which platform to teleport to. Of course, the first clue is the Reading Train arrival at Platform 10 is supposed to be at 0727 and says it's due at 0735. Furthermore - there's no real way to tell whether they are going to put it on 9 with the Oxford train (due 0724, on time), or on 10.
Oh look. They've just changed "On Time" to Platform 10 (ETA 0738). Imagine that.
Twats.
Wierdly, instead of my life being a continuous rant everything seems to be going OK really. My new job makes me spend more time away from home on the days I am working but I get a hell of a lot more days off - and in a row. This seems to be making a huge difference, in the end.
Rants:
National Rail.
National Rail for you non-UK people out there is the company which sort of overlies all the train companies here. It doesn't really do much but you can't really rant at British Rail anymore now that they've been sold off as Great Western, Virgin, GNE, blah blah.
They still suck though.
You'll be standing around in Paddington, waiting for the big snazzy computerised signs to show what platform your train is on and it just keeps saying "On Time" - even though you would have to teleport yourself to the platform now to make it on the train... assuming you knew which platform to teleport to. Of course, the first clue is the Reading Train arrival at Platform 10 is supposed to be at 0727 and says it's due at 0735. Furthermore - there's no real way to tell whether they are going to put it on 9 with the Oxford train (due 0724, on time), or on 10.
Oh look. They've just changed "On Time" to Platform 10 (ETA 0738). Imagine that.
Twats.
Saturday, 19 January 2008
First Entry...
Greetings!
This blog is a continuation of my previous wunderkind: stupidityltd. This is entirely due to my unfortunately demonstrating the title of my blog: Stupidity.
I forgot the passwork of my blog when I finally got time to update it. Then more importantly, I forgot the password of the (defunct) email account I listed as my secondary account.
Duh.
Well, That's all really.
American Bob
This blog is a continuation of my previous wunderkind: stupidityltd. This is entirely due to my unfortunately demonstrating the title of my blog: Stupidity.
I forgot the passwork of my blog when I finally got time to update it. Then more importantly, I forgot the password of the (defunct) email account I listed as my secondary account.
Duh.
Well, That's all really.
American Bob
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