Lazy Council Workers

okedoke · 14-09-2011 12:52PM #1

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 · 14-09-2011 12:56PM

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

mikemac · 14-09-2011 01:01PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:03PM

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

SEPT 23 1989 · 14-09-2011 01:11PM

The Germans will sort them out

okedoke · 14-09-2011 01:12PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:15PM

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

I'm taking my lunch (half) hour.

mikemac · 14-09-2011 01:17PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:18PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:20PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:32PM

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

johngalway · 14-09-2011 01:33PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:39PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:41PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:46PM

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

muckwarrior · 14-09-2011 01:48PM

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 · 14-09-2011 01:53PM

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

smash · 14-09-2011 02:00PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:00PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:06PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:06PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:09PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:14PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:18PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:20PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:21PM

"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 · 14-09-2011 02:24PM

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

Guill · 14-09-2011 02:25PM

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 · 14-09-2011 02:26PM

Guill wrote: »

Stopped reading after "I Heard".

Was gonna say "Some lad told me"

Tusky · 14-09-2011 02:29PM

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

Rookster · 14-09-2011 02:36PM

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!

Lazy Council Workers

Comments