Lazy Council Workers

okedoke

I've never had any dealings with (Cork City) Council workers before and didn't really believe the, shovel leaning, tea breaking, lazy council worker stereotype.

My water has been gone for the last two weeks due to a leak in the pipe between the mains and the house (council pipe). I rang the council about this and was told that it was noted and they'd send someone around for a look but it could be a couple of weeks before they'd actually fix it. They said they only have two crews and a lot of leaks - fair enough.

A week later (and after another phone call) a guy from the council came around and sprayed a mark on the pavement, a week after that (today) four guys show up in a truck at 11am - one guy, watched by the three others, dug a hole about 2 feet by feet and then they all spent about an hour after that chatting and joking. They then rang called into me and said they were going for lunch and hopefully would finish the job tomorrow.

This is crazy - no wonder people have to wait weeks to get their water fixed if the council workers spend 8 man hours (4 men by 2 hours) what actually takes one man a half an hour to do. That's half an hour of work and seven and a half hours of arse scratching.

Temptamperu

Ah yeah but they need the breakfast roll and an oul sleep in the truck after all those jokes they told.

mikemac

Not true OP

You'll often see hardworking council workers
But for each one digging a trench you'll see two supervisors standing there watching them and another making tea.

Have you a Billy McCarthy equivalent in Cork? Radio show to get them moving?

biko

I think they get paid by the hour so don't really care how quickly a job is done.

SEPT 23 1989

The Germans will sort them out

okedoke

mikemac wrote: »

Not true OP

You'll often see hardworking council workers
But for each one digging a trench you'll see two supervisors standing there watching them and another making tea.

Have you a Billy McCarthy equivalent in Cork? Radio show to get them moving?

Not true in what way - I'm just relating exactly what's happening.

Lumbo

I'm a council worker. I'll get back to you tomorrow with a response.

I'm taking my lunch (half) hour.

mikemac

okedoke wrote: »

Not true in what way - I'm just relating exactly what's happening.

Relax, I was just replying to your thread title
Wires crossed, no harm done

I don't doubt your story

starbelgrade

I'd a similar problem over the winter after the "big freeze". One of the mains pipes began to leak & there was virtually no water supply to the house, so instead of fixing it, the council turned off the mains supply to my house & most of the houses in the area.

A few days later, they came out to "fix" it & spent a day faffing around before leaving, mumbling something about "not having the right parts".

So when they left, I got a kango hammer to the path, found the leak (there was a broken washer that needed replacing & the pipe joints re-tightened), fixed it, filled the hole back in with concrete, then rang up the council to tell them to turn the water back on.

A day later, a water services guy came down to inspect the work & tried his best to bollock me for digging up council property. I told him to go fuck himself.

I know there's some great people working for the council, but the ones in water services that I've come across wouldn't be among those.

Guill

If these guys were working for a private company, the private company may take as long to get to the job but they would get it done as efficently as possible in order to keep costs down, however, council workers get paid no matter how long it takes.

FatherLen

if they did there jobs properly then half of them would lose there jobs.

johngalway

I think myself it's how things are done in the council system that's the problem. I remember a piece of a road being done here, a private company started it off putting down the, uhm, tarmac I suppose it is. They worked like hell, whoever was operating the end bit of machinery was also doing traffic control. They never closed the road once.

Then a while later, Galway Coco came along to throw a bit of tar and chips over the tarmac. First sign I met?

"Expect long delays" :rolleyes:

Fella either end of the job holding a stop go sign. Not much sign of anything happening anytime I passed through.

If there's a job to be done. Do it. If you mix bureaucracy with that job. Forget about it.

Carpenter

I see a good few vans everyday hiding across the road from my house here in Sandyford how they get away with it is beyond me.

foxyboxer

The old joke in Cork goes...

Did you hear that Pat from the Corporation was sacked?
No, why?
He was caught working!

A job in the corporation was/is a much coveted role, especially if you're work shy!

stovelid

I hope you didn't neglect your own work to watch them doing nothing for an hour.

muckwarrior

When they come back to fix it, video them doing the work. Assuming they arse about like before, send the video to the council as evidence of their incompetence and see what they say.

Captain Darling

They are not paid to work. How inconsiderate of you OP!

smash

Reminds me of a few years ago in a pub, a drunk council worker invaded a conversation myself and my friends were having. Said he was working on harcourt st which was in bits with some work they were doing. When we question how long it would take he got frustrated, called us posh snobs and said "If we were able to swing our JCB's without having to worry about hitting your precious BMW's it wouldn't take as long" to which my friend replied "I don't drive a BMW, but sure maybe if you swung a fkn shovel every now and then you'd get it complete faster." He just walked of mumbling to himself.

Crazy Horse 6

Carpenter wrote: »

I see a good few vans everyday hiding across the road from my house here in Sandyford how they get away with it is beyond me.

In the depot?

Carpenter

Crazy Horse 6 wrote: »

In the depot?

No there is a little shopping center and they are always behind it waiting for lunch/finishing time to come.

jeddie20

I guess someone has to brestfeed the shovles..

They we're doing a bit of work up the road from me last week. Putting a small traffic island at a junctioin, took them a day to kango the hole for half of the kerbing around it(wa only about 6 foot long and a foot wide), another to do the rest, a day to put in the kerbing, and a half day to put in the concrete and 2 small signs, for the rest of the day they just sat on the wall..

nicol

If anyone isn't happy with the level of service from their local authority then complain. Ring your local authority and ask someone to explain why it takes a gang of four to come and fix issues and why it takes them so long to do it!! Too many people rant and rave to themselves / other people / message boards about incompetence in the public sector but how many actually ever vent their frustration to the people who might be able to do something about it?? While you're at it complain to your local councillor too, that's what they're there for!!!

</rant>

okedoke

They're back after a short hour and 45 mins for lunch and they've been joined by two more workers - there's now six workers having a grand old time outside.

How can I get a job in the Council?

Crazy Horse 6

muckwarrior wrote: »

When they come back to fix it, video them doing the work. Assuming they arse about like before, send the video to the council as evidence of their incompetence and see what they say.

Are you serious. People like you actually exist?

smash

okedoke wrote: »

They're back after a short hour and 45 mins for lunch and they've been joined by two more workers - there's now six workers having a grand old time outside.

How can I get a job in the Council?

Take pics and post them into the council asking them wtf these lads are actually getting paid for?

paddydriver

"I heard".. one story of the South Dublin CC when subcontracting out the bin collections all the lads in the CC kept their jobs anyway but just had less work to do. So we continue to pay our taxes, and soon to be property taxes too, in order to fund the bin men's wages - then it goes private and now we pay bin charges to a private company and our taxes continue to pay the bin men who have less work to do.

To compound all this I heard of ridiculous payouts to said bin men because of changes in their work practices... big payouts! .. to do less work.

Just to rub it in... most of them finish mid morning cause they have less work to do, have their big payout, so what do they do?



They take the yellow glowing roof sign out of their boot and drive out of SDCC car park to do a few hours on the rank to make more money again. Ye couldn't make this up if you wanted to.


Jayzus... any jobs going in the council:p

Wattle

Be careful what you say to them. They'll sh1t in your garden you know.

Guill

paddydriver wrote: »

"I heard".. one story of the South Dublin CC when subcontracting out the bin collections all the lads in the CC kept their jobs anyway but just had less work to do. So we continue to pay our taxes, and soon to be property taxes too, in order to fund the bin men's wages - then it goes private and now we pay bin charges to a private company and our taxes continue to pay the bin men who have less work to do.

To compound all this I heard of ridiculous payouts to said bin men because of changes in their work practices... big payouts! .. to do less work.

Just to rub it in... most of them finish mid morning cause they have less work to do, have their big payout, so what do they do?



They take the yellow glowing roof sign out of their boot and drive out of SDCC car park to do a few hours on the rank to make more money again. Ye couldn't make this up if you wanted to.


Jayzus... any jobs going in the council:p

Stopped reading after "I Heard".

paddydriver

Guill wrote: »

Stopped reading after "I Heard".

Was gonna say "Some lad told me"

Tusky

Deffo take pics and report them. You are helping pay their wages after all.

Rookster

foxyboxer wrote: »

The old joke in Cork goes...

Did you hear that Pat from the Corporation was sacked?
No, why?
He was caught working!

A job in the corporation was/is a much coveted role, especially if you're work shy!

Your joke may actually be fact. A friend of mine was thrown off a Fás scheme a few years back for working too fast. The supervisor warned him a few times that the job (which I was advised would only take a couple of days) was to last for weeks. Of course my mate did'nt take any notice and worked away as normal. He did'nt know the rules about screwing the taxpayer!

muckwarrior

Crazy Horse 6 wrote: »

Are you serious. People like you actually exist?

People like me? You mean people who aren't happy to sit watching my taxes being wasted by a bunch of incompetent, lazy, ungrateful shites?

If they're blatantly dossing in full view of the public that are paying their wages, then they should be held accountable. There are plenty of unemployed hard-working people who'd be willing to take their place if they don't want to do the job properly.

Chuck Stone

Eventually the C.C. did this half-arsed job of filling in pot holes which were caused by the ice last winter near me. They were even bigger pot holes within a couple of days. It was such a shamefull half-arsed attempt.

A private company came out about a week later and tore up about 200 meters of road and replaced it with nice a nice new one taking two days from start to finish.

Richard Hillman

They are encouraged to make jobs last as long as possible how the councils get to say they are ran off their feet and need more money etc. The amount of money councils waste is unbelievable. I live in an estate with Park at the end of it. Every couple of years or so they change to name of the estate from <EstateName> Park to just <EstateName> to make sure they get the same or a bigger budget from the previous year. We have roads in the area that are being relaid despite not even needing it.

StephenHendry

Richard Hillman wrote: »

They are encouraged to make jobs last as long as possible how the councils get to say they are ran off their feet and need more money etc. The amount of money councils waste is unbelievable. I live in an estate with Park at the end of it. Every couple of years or so they change to name of the estate from <EstateName> Park to just <EstateName> to make sure they get the same or a bigger budget from the previous year. We have roads in the area that are being relaid despite not even needing it.

true, id say that fits for most road sections in councils as even say footpath repairs once reported take a few days to get sorted. the other being with budgets reduced, staff numbers down most day to day work, street cleaning, road repairs are going to take longer to get done

StephenHendry

foxyboxer wrote: »

The old joke in Cork goes...

Did you hear that Pat from the Corporation was sacked?
No, why?
He was caught working!

A job in the corporation was/is a much coveted role, especially if you're work shy!

lol nice one

Crazy Horse 6

muckwarrior wrote: »

People like me? You mean people who aren't happy to sit watching my taxes being wasted by a bunch of incompetent, lazy, ungrateful shites?

If they're blatantly dossing in full view of the public that are paying their wages, then they should be held accountable. There are plenty of unemployed hard-working people who'd be willing to take their place if they don't want to do the job properly.

If you feel like that why don't you take a camera into Leinster house then, plenty of wasters in there.

Hank_Jones

Some cliches are of course true.

Any time I have ever seen council workers, there about 5 of them standing around looking into a hole.

There might be one person in the hole, most likely not.

Stinicker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRoSpvyaaJM

TBH!

donalg1

Chances are they are FAS lads on a CE Scheme for a couple of years getting paid in and around the standard social welfare rate so cant really blame em for not being too motivated bout some strangers water

McCrack

Leave the lads alone, it's not their fault but the systems.

I suspect a lot of the ranters here and the fella that suggested videoing them are just plain greened eyed.

Ruu_Old

Pick up a shovel, go out and join them. Make sure it is a good shovel for resting on.

donalg1

Ruu wrote: »

Pick up a shovel, go out and join them. Make sure it is a good shovel for resting on.

Or just stand in the house looking out the window for eight hours, (creepy or what)

mad m

Two council workers are digging a hole in the parks, the other is filling it in. This goes on for two weeks.

A passer by has been walking in the park for the last couple of weeks and notices the lads digging and filling in the holes they have dug. Curious he asks why is one digging a hole and the other filling it in....

The council worker says "Well the fella who normally puts in the tree is on Holidays"

Cuddlesworth

About eight years ago I was working on a newly built council estate. Half the estate had been finished and was being used, the other was about six months away from completion. Turns out the main sewer line for the finished half was in a large loop and didn't actually go anywhere. We had to dig up 400 metres of road to link by sides of the estate to the main runoff for the area. This was completely finished road, tarmacked and all, with a bit across a small area of slabbed pavement and twenty feet of grass. Problem was the last 20 feet was council owned and only they could dig up that area. We were not allowed.

It was a rush job(since the **** was piling up :rolleyes:) so the council made it a no1 priority. We started with a seven man team, one tipper, one medium wheeled digger. The council pulled up around 11 that day with two full crew cabin trucks and two pickups. There was around sixteen of them. A light drizzle was on, so they didn't get out. A small digger drove down around three that day. He looked at the lads, parked up and started reading a paper. At around four they left.

Two weeks later we were nearly done with half the road. A groundworks crew of three lads had joined us to make sure the pipes were laid down correctly. The council had followed the above routine most days, occasionally getting out to watch the lad in the digger move some dirt while they leaned on the shovels and smoked.

We finished the road repair, had laid and checked all the pipework and had left a small opened section beside the council land for them to join up with. It was planned to be finished off when they gave the go ahead. They(16 grown men) had at this stage spend a month breaking 10 feet of tarmac and road foundation and had dug down to the pipe. Another month and I'm sure they would have managed to expose all 20 feet of it and could then spend a good week hitting it with shovels and scratching their head. I'll never know tough, as I was sent off to another estate in Dublin to do some actual work.

The stockpiling crap was pumped into waste trucks at the expense of the company while this went on(since it was their mistake).

I had always though the "lazy shovel leaning worker" was a stereotype giving some of the lads a bad name. I was really naive.

Celly Smunt

who else is going to check how steady a shovel is by leaning on it?

tails_naf

okedoke wrote: »

I've never had any dealings with (Cork City) Council workers before and didn't really believe the, shovel leaning, tea breaking, lazy council worker stereotype.

My water has been gone for the last two weeks due to a leak in the pipe between the mains and the house (council pipe). I rang the council about this and was told that it was noted and they'd send someone around for a look but it could be a couple of weeks before they'd actually fix it. They said they only have two crews and a lot of leaks - fair enough.

A week later (and after another phone call) a guy from the council came around and sprayed a mark on the pavement, a week after that (today) four guys show up in a truck at 11am - one guy, watched by the three others, dug a hole about 2 feet by feet and then they all spent about an hour after that chatting and joking. They then rang called into me and said they were going for lunch and hopefully would finish the job tomorrow.

This is crazy - no wonder people have to wait weeks to get their water fixed if the council workers spend 8 man hours (4 men by 2 hours) what actually takes one man a half an hour to do. That's half an hour of work and seven and a half hours of arse scratching.

And here we have the reason we can't have "performance related pay" in our public services. Because their performance would decimate their pay!

Who in their right mind would give up such a soft number willingly?

rainbowdrop

okedoke wrote: »

They're back after a short hour and 45 mins for lunch and they've been joined by two more workers - there's now six workers having a grand old time outside.

How can I get a job in the Council?

Unless your Father, your Grandfather and all your uncles worked for them before you, you haven't a hope of getting a job.

The council office staff are just as bad. I requested a letter from Limerick Co Council over two weeks ago, stating how much rent I pay (for my medical card application). I was assured that it would be put in the post that afternoon, hadn't received it by last Friday so rang them, only to be told they had no record of me ever requesting a letter. Apologised and assured me that she would write me one immediately and it would be put in the post that afternoon (Fri).

No sign of the letter so rang them again today and guess what? The woman I spoke to is on holidays and they have no record of me requesting a letter, nor any record of a letter being sent out to me!! Aaargghh:mad:

Four lines of a letter and the retarded council office worker bitch can't handle it. It's not fucking rocket science like!

Chuck Stone

Two council workers are leaning on their shovels having a chat. One of them is getting increasingly annoyed and eventually turns around and stamps angrily on a snail killing it.

Why the fuck did you do that? Says the the council worker who witnessed this seemingly unprovoked attack.

The annoyed council worker explains 'that bastard has been following me around all day'.

whatsamsn

A classic, and I mean utter classic joke about the corporation is (and I would be suprised if anyone hasnt heard this):

Did you hear about the woman who got raped on the train yesterday? well she got off and ran up to the conductor saying how she just got raped by a man from the corporation. The conductor turned around and said "calm down, how did you know it was a dublin corporation man?" ... In which she replied "he only did half the work, had to do the rest myself"

:pac: ... not really the most funniest of jokes. But one dublin city council/corporation joke i heard was this (funny because it implies)

Bloke goes for an interview with the council. Interviewer says "well everything seems in order, just one last question ... do you drink tea?"

Lumbo

rainbowdrop wrote: »

Unless your Father, your Grandfather and all your uncles worked for them before you, you haven't a hope of getting a job.

The council office staff are just as bad. I requested a letter from Limerick Co Council over two weeks ago, stating how much rent I pay (for my medical card application). I was assured that it would be put in the post that afternoon, hadn't received it by last Friday so rang them, only to be told they had no record of me ever requesting a letter. Apologised and assured me that she would write me one immediately and it would be put in the post that afternoon (Fri).

No sign of the letter so rang them again today and guess what? The woman I spoke to is on holidays and they have no record of me requesting a letter, nor any record of a letter being sent out to me!! Aaargghh:mad:

Four lines of a letter and the retarded council office worker bitch can't handle it. It's not fucking rocket science like!

What are you? A brain surgeon?