Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

RosieTiger

Right, I am now calling Benedict!!!!

Just to be clear, that was originally a joke and you just had to go and make it serious!

sarahevie

[QUOTE=wynnvegas;43700032)

Come on then. Which one does your OH work with? The daft occupational psychologist is particularly repugnant whilst the Irish boy seems to be the least irritating (although I do think the accent gets you away with a lot).

[/QUOTE]

The only one from our neck of the woods Yorkshire Ellie, the one who couldn't spell vegetables in the first task - haven't seen a lot of her yet. She's currently working as a sales rep for a lo energy lighting wholesaler.

wynnvegas

Hi Ally,

Thanks for the support. I'd love it if I managed to encourage someone to do something about the mortgage or debts as I was similarly inspired by a couple of friends who had managed, through differing routes, to free themselves of the mortgage shackles. Having had a phone call tonight from the guy at work (following his visit to the church) I'm currently researching exorcisms and, would you believe it, there's a Scottish ghost hunting forum where the guys can come out to investigate there's also a medium who can bestow a blessing on any person or place (doubtless for a fee) which might put my lad's mind at rest. I'll chat through both options with him tomorrow as his personal blessing from the priest doesn't seem to have altered his mindset much. Believe it or not, you have to have a diary of times, places and events before the catholic church will authorise an exorcism. Today has certainly been another to Mark in the interesting category.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

H RT,

When you do, can you ask him to do me a favour and authorise an exorcism in Central Scotland. If he fancies coming back over on the QT, my guy would doubtless be all kinds of grateful. Doubtless the traffic wardens out this way would ticket the popemobile for some sort of violation!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hi Sarah,

I've not noticed much of her so she can't be that bad as yet. I do remember the vegatables debacle. I think the nonsensical commentary about this being the elite of the business community in Britain is what irks me more than anything. I've never liked Sugar and can't be doing with the Brady woman. Nick is decent enough but I can count on one hand the number of decent candidates over the whole programme. In fairness they've nothing on the Yankee version for arrogance, bulls@*t bingo and schmaltzy jingoism. There was a series we watched where some poncy English muppet won - predominantly through proclaiming his undying love for all things America (including crying like a baby when he seen the White house in person). Dreadful!

Cheers,

Billy

ally18

wynnvegas wrote: »

Hi Ally,

I'm currently researching exorcisms and, would you believe it, there's a Scottish ghost hunting forum where the guys can come out to investigate there's also a medium who can bestow a blessing on any person or place (doubtless for a fee) which might put my lad's mind at rest. I'll chat through both options with him tomorrow as his personal blessing from the priest doesn't seem to have altered his mindset much.
Billy

Morning Billy,

I have to say that your reaction to your colleague's personal problems is exactly how I envisage the HR resource should be and good on you for going to such lengths in helping him.

I once worked for some years in the HR department for a public area (which has to stay nameless) but was never once encouraged to become 'involved' with employees problems, in fact, we were told to keep very much away from those areas but to me, that is just plain stupid. Employees have to have someone or somewhere where they can go to for help etc, how can they cope working if their minds are occupied with personal issues, it just is not feasible. Suffice it to say, my employer closed down the HR department and centralised it for budgetary purposes so we now have no one who we can call on for help apart from a welfare office which is frankly a waste of time and space!

I know times are changing but I wonder how many other employers out there do still provide the 'personal' touch iykwim? Not only supporting their employees but it's such an interesting role as well.

Sorry, gone completely off the mf topic.

wynnvegas

Hi Ally,

In fairness, I think I may have started the deviation!! The situation has gone downhill fairly dramatically so I've had to involve some of the authorities as there were things said that were taking things down a road where I didn't feel comfortable dealing with the situation. I'll be back in touch with the guy tonight to try and offer some additional assistance but it will likely be taken out of my hands tomorrow and I need to bear in mind the wellbeing of the general population as well. A tricky one for sure.

Whilst I'm on it though, the HR role variety is why I picked the profession. It still amazed me how many people get jobs in HR because they're good with people or they're good with paperwork. It's still a profession with a long way to go in terms of proving it's credibility but that's due in large part to people professing to be professionals when they have either no real concept of the requirements of the role or they have come from a personnel background. To be honest, the traditional transactional pieces of the Personnel role take up virtually none of my time and I'm thankfully in a place where the strategic value and direction of a business minded HR consultant is highly regarded. Maybe another reason why that daft bird on the Apprentice is annoying me just now as she's clearly just an idiot that someone has mistakenly let through a psychology degree course!

I recognise the route your company has taken and it is a shame that a lot of employers have gone down that route. I do try to venture onto the mse employment board every now and again to see if I can offer some help and I've managed to provide a wee bit of advice and play about with the odd CV or two for people on te MFW board but I'm a bit hamstrung with time and have been for a wee while now. I'll get around to being my normal helpful self before too long!

Cheers,

Billy

GeorgieFTB

wynnvegas wrote: »

Hi Sarah,

I've not noticed much of her so she can't be that bad as yet. I do remember the vegatables debacle. I think the nonsensical commentary about this being the elite of the business community in Britain is what irks me more than anything. I've never liked Sugar and can't be doing with the Brady woman. Nick is decent enough but I can count on one hand the number of decent candidates over the whole programme. In fairness they've nothing on the Yankee version for arrogance, bulls@*t bingo and schmaltzy jingoism. There was a series we watched where some poncy English muppet won - predominantly through proclaiming his undying love for all things America (including crying like a baby when he seen the White house in person). Dreadful!

Cheers,

Billy

Hee hee... I can't watch it since Margaret left, I could cope with any of the twerps as long as she was there to raise an eyebrow, or ask a cutting question, 'that brady woman' is not a patch... so I gave up!

If you watch the american version, remembering that the only reason it is on is to market Trump, then it's quite an amusing advert for the company.

Gx

gallygirl

wynnvegas wrote: »

Anyway, to Monday. We've been having a spate of sickness absences in the last wee while in one of our departments. Naturally, it falls to me to administer that side of things and to try to mitigate the impact on service through replacements, formal processes with the repeat offenders etc. What I came into on Monday was a guy having walked off-site because he needed to get his head together. He had been sleeping in his car for a couple of nights because he is effectively homeless. I thought that he had maybe had a bust-up with a girlfriend or possibly had serious money issues so I gave him a phone to say that I wanted to discuss the situation and help as best I or we (the company) could. It transpires that he ended up effectively sleeping rough because he fell out with a former friend of his, a medium, who has instructed vengeful spirits to haunt his flat. Because of the exorcisty type stuff that has been going on, he's kept moving over the last month but the spirits keep following him to wherever he lives. Having picked my jaw up from the floor, I took his suggestion that he needed to get the church involved and offered to set up a meeting or two to get that going. That was a strange conversation with the local priest, I can tell you. The upshot of it is that I've booked him into a hotel, given him a week off work to get things sorted and he's meeting the priest tonight. If nothing else, it gives me a cracking story to tell at dinner parties but I do hope it gets sorted one way or another as the boy is genuinely concerned with the situation and, whatever else is real (and far be it for me to judge), his fear certainly is. Other than that, I've been busy recruiting again (just out of interviews where I've found a really good guy (and no agency fee which gets me brownie points all round as me finding the person saves us around £3,500)) and planning my trip down to that England next week. I'm down all week but trying to fit in a logical route with the availability of everyone I need to see is trickier than I had planned. I'll get that bottomed out tomorrow.

Billy, please delete this post in case any of the muppets at my place are reading - it's about the only story I haven't heard recently :rotfl:. One guy has so much illness/death in his family I don't know whether to advise the remaining members to legally disassociate with him, or contact the police :eek:

Oh well, at least you're not bored

katsu

gally - you aren't one of us are you?

I agree with Billy that I can't stand the administrators masquerading as professionals. However, for me, I am proud of being able to balance the business driven strategy side with an understanding of human psychology. Coaching managers to think about how people may react and helping people in difficult situations can be a huge privilege and one I won't give up - I like a balance of strategy and change thinking, with some helping people think differently or get unstuck. I treasure some of the conversations where I know I made a lasting difference to someone's attitude at work, or the way their difficulties were dealt with.

Mind you, don't get me on the topic of some people who think they should be able to come along and whinge at you, or the ones who are wastes of space - there's a reason I don't do heavy casework jobs - like the man in a disciplinary who spent the session having to get up due to his bad back etc etc then said "my bad back has ruined my life". I nearly bit through my lip avoiding saying "no, your attitude is what is ruining your life... get a grip". Some people seem to miss out on the understanding that there is an exchange - work for pay not pay for working when it suits!

/rant