All ye oul wans and oul fellas out there! Wakey wakey, rise and shine!

BrensBenz · 28-03-2015 1:10am

Rubecula wrote: »

And now I have the heartbreaking choice on whether to apply for a lower paid lower grade job or wait to be sacked, which at my age and medical history would be the end!

looksee wrote: »

Ah Rube, that's a bummer. I'm so sorry you have had that kind of treatment, its a bit of a kick in the teeth after all the stuff that has been going on!

Rubecula wrote: »

...you folks don't need to hear my problems

looksee wrote: »

If anyone can cope Rube, its you, but feel free to grouse if it helps

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I know you'll get through somehow

Layinghen wrote: »

Rube, that is an appalling way you have been treated. Are you a member of an Union?

Treating a long term employee like this is disgraceful but you have to meet it head on and protect yourself and your income.

Rubecula, lots of support and good advice here.

I'm guessing, of course but, by any chance is your employer a large multinational with American overtones or ambitions to be one? I ask because I've worked for one and have been on both sides of the desk. The real baddie, (in my cases anyway) were HR! Apologies to any HR brethren here but I've seen many "good" people (bosses) being forced to do the "wrong" thing because some stupid, one-size-fits-nobody HR procedure says so. These procedures are often written by airheads with MBAs, from former colonies and imposed, without appropriate legal review, on their "overseas operations."

Fortunately, as mentioned above, you / we are citizens of the EU where a much more enlightened and ethical view of employee welfare is taken and backed up by powerful employment legislation.

There is little chance of me being invited back to my former (pre-cancer) position in any of its locations around the world and, you know, if I WAS, I don't know if I'd accept. Two buddies of mine both had high-power / high stress jobs and both packed them in and now both perform local, low-stress jobs. At first, the prospect of binning a career sounds scary but both buddies look, sound and feel years younger. My new heroes are those "mature" blokes in B&Q who actually know what a plumb-bob is. I want one of those orange uniforms to go with my work pants with seventeen pockets.

So, in words of few syllables, I suggest that:

1. Blaming your boss may not be fair (unless you know him to be a b@$t@rd);
2. Make use of existing UK and / or EU legislation (through a union or an employment lawyer);
3. Don't stress too much about it - it's not healthy! There is life after (insert name of employer)........and it's great!

Alice1 · 28-03-2015 11:23am

Rubecula, that is atrocious. What a dreadful way to treat a loyal employee. Contact your trade union and any other employee support that is available. Fight it - but don't allow it to take over your life.
Hugs

JuliusCaesar · 28-03-2015 6:16pm

Rubecula, that is just awful. I'd have my doubts about the legality of the choices you were given. Talk with your association or union, and also go see what the company doctor has to say, they will have had a lot of experience in this area. Of course there has been a terrible erosion of workers' rights on your side of the water in recent years, and our lot have been as usual following their ideas, but it's as well to know what your options really are.

Rubecula · 28-03-2015 9:58pm

Thank you all so much. moral support helps a lot from such lovely folks as your good selves. Rubes is hereby at DefCon 3, now where did I put my WMD's?

Yes taking on a multinational is what I was born for.

Win or lose, they will get a bloody nose.

OldGoat · 30-03-2015 9:01am

Good luck with the fight Rubes.

Just to give you another viewpoint - I was in a similar high pressure position when I was taken ill. I took the step of quitting the job and taking on a much lower position elsewhere. That involved a drop in wage of about €20k pa. The plus side is now I only work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day and I leave the job behind me after those 8 hours. Being stress free is easily worth that €20k to me.
No more 6 and occasionally 7 days a week, no more 12 hour days, no more calls at midnight from the other side of the world, no more inane meetings with people who don't understand their own job let alone yours.
...
Strike that, the last one still stands. :mad:

Fight the good fight for the job but don't think of the outcome as being a finish line.

Rubecula · 31-03-2015 12:07am

Nicely put OG

maringo · 31-03-2015 12:45am

Shocking behaviour by your employer. Don't do anything without legal advice so you are fully aware of your rights. Has to be a very stressful time for you but you DO have rights and I'm sure they can't act in that manner. I'm sure a trade union information office or government department would give you some guidance as to the law in your situation. Look after your health and don't let them browbeat you into doing anything you might regret. All good wishes to you Rube

BrensBenz · 01-04-2015 6:45pm

You know when you've had several surgeries, chemotherapy, moved back home, more chemotherapy, scans, side-effects, etc., etc., and all you want to do is get behind the wheel of your mid-life crisis car (my son reckons I'm too old to have a midlife crisis) and cruise around this wonderful island?

You know when you sit in your midlife crisis car and the dashboard tells you that a vitally, critically crucial service is overdue and the stealership tells you that the cost of this service is similar to the national debt of Greece?

You know when you lie awake at night, listing the work involved in this crucial service and you realise that you have the tools and the knowhow to do it yourself?

You know when you decide to gather the materials for this service and look forward to wearing your work pants with seventeen pockets to do it?

You know when you open the bonnet and look for the oil filter.......and look for the oil filter.......and look for the oil filter.......?

You know when you go online and ask about the location of the oil filter and the interweb goes all quiet, for weeks, except for some "person" who only tells you to "go horizontal"?

You know when you go horizontal under a car's engine bay and all you can see is a huge plastic cover, hiding the engine and all of its ancillaries and that this cover is held in place with Kryptonite bolts whose dimensions are unknown to mankind?

So, if you know this stuff, do you fancy visiting my boatshed? The Woof is still limping so, if you're quick, he won't get you.

Jellybaby1 · 02-04-2015 12:37am

I've had a few visits to a stealership in the last six months. They have me bankrupt. Your problem Brens is that they have all the tools to do the job in minutes, and you don't! And, they know where everything is, and you don't. And, cars are no longer cars, they be compewters!

bonzodog2 · 02-04-2015 12:49am

Maybe your midlife-crisis car shoulda been one befitting your age, requiring a feeler gauge and a spanner, with a contact breaker , not an ECU.

Sincerely Brenz, absolutely no offence intended. I'm 58 and I'd love a TR6!

looksee · 02-04-2015 7:59am

You know how they say you should carry spare headlights, you know, so you can change them when they blow? Well I wasn't carrying any spares and the headlight went dark (I know because I drive towards a window when I come in through the gate) so I go down to my friendly local car fixer.

He looks at my headlamps and mutters that he is not sure whether the bulb will be accessible from the top. Attempts to take the lamp unit off. No chance. Eventually jacks up the side of the car in order to get inside the wheel arch to do some fiddly bulb removing from the back of the unit and some equally fiddly inserting of new bulb, reassembles everything and we're done. €10, fair enough.

But that spare bulb business? Me doing any of that in the dark and rain by the roadside? Not very likely. Form before function is right!

BrensBenz · 02-04-2015 11:05am

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Maybe your midlife-crisis car shoulda been one befitting your age, requiring a feeler gauge and a spanner, with a contact breaker , not an ECU.

Sincerely Brenz, absolutely no offence intended. I'm 58 and I'd love a TR6!

You mean a real car, with "points", a "condenser", a "dynamo" and an optional starter handle in the boot?

Anyway, I'm even older nor you and I want a TR6 too. With wire wheels and a wooden wood dashboard.

Believe it or not, I almost bought one a few years ago (in my fifties). Just two things stopped me - it was white! And, although I have a lot of tools, I doubt if I (and all of my buddies) have enough to keep a TR6 running properly.

Oh well, my Microsoft car has something that the TR6 hasn't, i.e. a switch marked "E" and "S". When I bought the car, I switched to "S" for a minute and learned that the "S" stood for "Scary" and the "E" means "Easy does it". I used almost a whole roll of insulting tape to cover that switch.....just in case.

Layinghen · 03-04-2015 10:54pm

Congrats Looksee on yet another crowd to look after:)

We really are too well behaved here!!!!

looksee · 04-04-2015 9:41am

I am making a collection of well behaved forums with long names, just to look impressive :P Is anyone impressed? Ah well!

Rubecula · 04-04-2015 8:13pm

Oulwans and Oulfellas

hmmm ??

looksee · 04-04-2015 8:49pm

Rubecula wrote: »

Oulwans and Oulfellas

hmmm ??

Wha'?

Jellybaby1 · 05-04-2015 12:16am

Happy Easter to one and all!

Layinghen · 05-04-2015 12:33am

Many happy returns Jellybaby.

Hope everybody's Sunday is chocolate filled........

BrensBenz · 08-04-2015 3:13pm

Had a "down day" yesterday which gave me a chance to stay in bed and view some of these box sets I got from Santy. So, in laboratory conditions, I performed a scientific experiment and discovered that a long-held opinion was actually true, despite being constantly told I'm wrong by the nostalgia-mongers on British TV. To eliminate any chance of error, I performed the experiment with the entire box set and got the same result from every episode!

So, I can now reveal to yiz some categorical facts: Fawlty Towers is not and never was funny. They recorded only one series because it wasn't funny. There were no spin-off series because it wasn't funny. John Cleese simply played John Cleese being predictably shouty ......again......and it wasn't funny. It is extraordinarily popular in the USA because it wasn't funny. Any real talent involved with Fawlty Towers (Andrew Sachs, Prunella Scales, etc.) moved on, leaving Fawlty Towers as an unfortunate blip on their CVs.

I'm not in a position to perform similar experiments today but, when I have the results from a review of Month Python, I'll let you know.

You're welcome.

looksee · 08-04-2015 3:59pm

Ju no what Brenz, my opinion entirely. But so far out of kilter with the comedy experts that I keep quiet about it! Fawlty Towers without John Cleese had some definite possibilities though.

Jellybaby1 · 08-04-2015 11:34pm

Typical Cleese OTT. However, at the time, we did laugh. Maybe it wasn't really that funny but we were hooked on that type of comedy at the time. And we have moved on and no, I won't be watching Fawlty again. We are presently spending our evenings watching the box set of Only Fools & Horses, which is STILL funny, even though we know exactly what's coming next! I put that down to good writing and good acting. I wonder if in another twenty years or so will I still think it was funny. Will we have moved on humour wise. Of course we'll be in our eighties then! Fingers crossed! :eek:

0lddog · 09-04-2015 3:02pm

Ah would you all go easy.

(most of) us lot didnt get to be a tired old geezers by being amused.

Anyway, Cleese is an Oul Fella too.

And thats another thing, aren't the Beatles cr@p ?.......and I used to think they were great

looksee · 09-04-2015 3:41pm

0lddog wrote: »

Ah would you all go easy.

(most of) us lot didnt get to be a tired old geezers by being amused.

Anyway, Cleese is an Oul Fella too.

And thats another thing, aren't the Beatles cr@p ?.......and I used to think they were great

They were great! But Paul should stop trying to sing at this stage, he isn't able for it, would rather remember him when he could sing!

...And I didn't like John Cleese the first time round ! :pac:

Jellybaby1 · 09-04-2015 8:23pm

I loved the Beatles, loved 'em t'bits. Yes, I must 'fess up and say that I did have the pin-ups on the walls, all four three of 'em. I fancied them something rotten I did ('cept Ringo, of course!). One by one I changed my mind. On mature reflection at this stage, I have to admit that musically they were not that great. There were lots of better musicians and singers around who went on to greater things. But I can still sing along with most of the Beatle songs. Its the nostalgia germ that I suffer from when it comes to the Beatles. I also still love the Shadows (they were on the telly recently and the music was just brill!). I moved on to Simon & Garfunkel, Carly Simon, Carole King and many others later on. I became more.....'folksy'! (Looksee would understand!

) Never that keen on Dylan though, the man can write, but the man can't sing!

Rubecula · 09-04-2015 9:28pm

Being a youngfella I was only a kiddy when the Beatles started out .... well not very old anyway.
Being a Scouser and living in the midlands at the time, EVERYONE and his dog insisted that I MUST like the Beatles, because of where I was from.

SO from liking them, and having a lot of early souveniers I rapidly became really sick of them.

Mind you I wish I had those souveniers now.

BrensBenz · 09-04-2015 10:58pm

Regarding The Beatles, it looks like I'll have to straighten yizall out:

As well as being the catalyst for global social change, The Beatles were the greatest pop / rock'n'roll group evvvverrrr! Anyone who doubts this just needs to remember the cr@p they managed to cleanse from the airwaves, e.g. endless versions of "I Could Have Dawnced All Night", performed by Brylcreemed, finger-clicking crooners in dress suits and / or bottle-blondes in ridiculous evening dresses.

Admittedly, Elvis and Co. struck the first blows but The Beatles buried them for ever or, at least until Slimon Cowell decided to revive the tradition of fouling our eardrums with an never-ending flood of talentless singers, doing cover versions of songs written by committees several decades ago.

Of course, The Beatles were human and had faults and we shouldn't under-estimate the importance of George Martin and Brian Epstein in the Beatles Story. But The Beatles wrote the music that changed the world. They wrote the words, played the instruments, assisted with the engineering and orchestration processes and managed, in just a few short years, to leave an enormous legacy of recorded classics in an equally enormous range of styles of music. It is now normal for Lennon and McCartney to be included with Cole Porter and the Gershwins in the list of greatest songsmiths of the 20th century. Even the surviving finger-clickers covered their songs.......badly!

Rant over. I'm off to listen to Michael Buble's new album.........of "classics": music and words by others, orchestrations and musical accompaniment by others, engineered by others. In other words, like practically every other stand-up singer, he is merely delivering somebody else's work. But, I believe, he does his own finger-clicking! What an artist!

Jellybaby1 · 10-04-2015 12:40am

Even though the Beatles were only around for what, 10-12 years or so, yes they did create an incredible catalogue of music. They should never have broken up (Yoko? :mad:). IMAGINE what they might have produced had they stayed together.

spurious · 10-04-2015 10:27am

Sadly, every album Paul releases confirms who the talent in the Beatles was.

Time to knock it on the head.

BrensBenz · 12-04-2015 10:54am

Ho Hum! Horizontal rain here this morning, making the sea deeper. And it's that special "wetting" rain - just a few seconds exposure and you're soaked through. Birdies are wet and too heavy to take off so they're huddled together in the shelter, chatting and ignoring the Woof's suggestions to leave immediately.

Speaking of which, what ever happened to "corner boys"? Groups of youngish men who would gather at several corners in my home town and discuss - I don't know - world affairs(?) Contributions to these debates were limited to those with fag in gob; migration from your assigned corner to another was not allowed. Also, and as if by magic, as outsiders approached, the volume of discussion reduced and, as you passed by, you could feel yourself being analysed through tobacco smoke, the only sound being your own footsteps.

I used to wonder just how the fags got lit because all hands were permanently planted in pockets.

Did your Granda ever tell yiz the secret of hands in pockets? Before being photographed for my First Holy Amunion, mine told me: "No hands in pockets" (and he made a gesture like a penguin) "is a gombeen; One hand in pocket is a gentleman; Two hands in pockets is a corner boy". I'm typing this one-handed.

He had similar advice about which and how many of your suit jacket buttons to fasten; the messages sent by badly tied ties; brown slip-on shoes and the great braces / belt controversy. The worst possible example of gombeenism would be to have both hands in pockets; all three buttons fastened; belt AND braces; brown slip-ons and the skinny part of your tie tucked into your pants. After my First Holy Amunion, getting dressed took much longer than before.

By the way, brown slip-on shoes mean you never want a girlfriend, i.e. you would make alternative arrangements.

JuliusCaesar · 13-04-2015 9:50pm

The corner boys have taken to the pub - it's indoors, the age of admission was reduced to 18, and the price of alcohol was made democratic.

They were finally able to talk about the stuff that mattered: their feelings for each other. Probably style tips too.

All ye oul wans and oul fellas out there! Wakey wakey, rise and shine!

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