It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

GreyQueen

Good morning, all, and I have been enjoying all the info about foot problems. Mardatha, my heart goes out to your son, sounds like he's been thru hell with his feet. I hope it improves for him soon.

I'm waiting on delivery of my inserts from the podiatrist; was told they were very busy and it would be 6 weeks, which have just passed, so I have placed a diary note to chase them at the end of the next week. Don't mind waiting patiently but will want to be sure that they haven't been dispatched and disappeared into the twilight zone otherwise known as Royal Mail........

I don't have plantar fasciitis but do have structural problems which require arch support and the pain in my feet goes up the outside of the foot and up the lower leg to an area in the middle of my shins, which hurts like h*ll and my ankles and legs swell up after a few hours vertical. Such a drag, but the inserts should sort it.

My podiatrist said that I shouldn't go higher than a 1 inch heel with my particular foot-shape and recommended lace-ups (deathless glamour, thy name is GQ:rotfl:). Good job I'm no fan of high heels on me personally, although they look very fine on other women.

The shoe situation is looking a bit parlous here; only got 2 pairs which sort-of fit and a pair of ankle boots plus my hiking boots but have held off any purchases until I have the orthotics to make sure that they fit inside the new ones.

Gnashing my teeth with sympathetic rage at the paycuts being imposed on workers; the cheek of employers who expect that the staff subsidise their costs by using their own cars to do the work and not paying a realistic amount towards mileage or wear-and-tear has always infuriated me. When I was jobhunting I would look at some adverts and mentally rant at how the heck did they expect someone on NMW or thereabouts to afford to own a car at all, never mind to run it around as a susididy to the employer?!?

In my LA employer, we have been under a payfreeze for some years, which inflation effectively renders a paycut. Except the top people, needless to say. When people leave, they aren't replaced, in most departments, but the workload doesn't go down. Then the physical and mental health of the remainder get strained and they become less productive, go sick, or leave althogether. Some departments are understaffed because they advertise for new people and cannot get anyone at the required skill level for the pay which is offered; the private sector can out-bid the LA in a lot of cases.

I've often thought about the differences between public sector work and private sector work (have been public for only a few years). In the public sector, we deal with people who behave so appallingly that they would be escorted off any retail or commercial premises and banned; we could really use permanant security in the parts of my LA where we interact with the public but the LA cannot or will not afford it. We've had gun incidents and knife & axe incidents and it's a daily occurance to deal with people strung out on drink and/or drugs; they don't let the temps out of the call centre to serve f-2-f as the insurance won't cover them. We all think it's only a matter of time before there is a major incident where someone is killed or grievously hurt and we just hope it won't be one of us then feel guilty for preferring that a member of the public be hurt over one of our own colleagues!

As to gold-plating of pensions, well, I am in the Local Govt Pension Scheme but as a part-timer joining in middle life, I won't be getting a lot and have had to opt out of the state second pension to be in it. I suppose the issue for those in work is that, as yet-to-be-pensioners, any alleged "gold-plating" hasn't benefitted them, and if they have to pay more now to get less in the end, well, anybody would be spitting tacks.

Also, don't politicians seem to run on the assumption that Joe or Joesphine Public has a secondary source of income which can pick up the slack if their wages are cut back, so that we can keep on spending and keep providing work for the providers of goods and services? It astonishes me how blimming stupid economists can be; it's ten of millions of little decisions which millions of us make each day which cause and economy to thrive or fail.

Shall I buy a (insert whatever)? Shall I buy it new or secondhand? High Street or internet, home or abroad? If I'm up the city, shall we pop into a cafe for tea and a bun, or shall we wait til we get home? Shall I buy the latest book by my fave author or shall I wait a few months and get it from the library.........etc etc etc.

You put The Fear onto people, and they clam up and sit on their wallets (or buy excessive amounts of tinned tomatoes;)) Gawd, but how I wish I'd followed my old Dad's advice in the summer just before the crash and smacked my savings into 5 year bonds at about 6 %. Daddy-o left school at 15 and hasn't an educational qualification to his name, but he's pretty savvy and I shoulda listened.....grrrrr.

Well, will be going to the allotment today for the first time in just over 2 weeks and am quivering with stress about whatever kind of mess it will have got itself into; gonna clear the undergrowth from the back of the shed to be able to treat it soon before the damp and cold closes in. How I miss that old enviro-vandal creosote; these waterbased treatments are pants and I use quality stuff (Cuprinol).

Pumpkin advice sought please.

Was talking to my Nan last night on the phone. Dad has been cultivating those huge orange pumpkins in her garden and harvested them last week and put them in her wash house. Two of the four have already started to rot. What has gone wrong, please? She says that the foliage has all died back before they were cut and that a good bit of stem was left on the pumpkin.

Hope everyone has a good day.

Hardup_Hester

I work in a secondary school & we have a pay freeze too, only admin & support staff though, teaching staff were given a payrise! Our head, otherwise known as the Shouty Man is in a 24/7 strop, he shouted at a staff member for having time off for heart surgery & shouted at another one who had worked a 10 hour day for 2 weeks to help with an audit & then wanted a day off for a wedding, jeez, it's fun where I work. I have to do lunch duties to make enough money to pay the bills, during the duties I get sworn at, pushed, shoved etc. The duty time has doubled from 20 mins to 40 mins but there is a set amount per duty, however long it is, outsiders who do the duties are paid £17.50 per duty, staff get less than half.
Still on the bright side, the garden is still producing veg & I have been given 6 bags of cooking apples, 1 bag of eating apples & a bag of cobnuts.
Hester

ceridwen

GreyQueen

- and others who have commented on it.

I've certainly seen - and heard in person - a lot of comments about those "at the top" in firms/government departments/etc always making sure they are okay for their cost of living rise as normal (and sometimes a "real" one as well) even in these troubled times. Its happening everywhere as far as I can make out. Its double standards to say "Heres mine - but you arent getting yours".

It IS selfish of those on 6 figure salaries (or more) to do this and, at the very same time, freeze or cut the salaries/wages of those "lower down the scale" paywise.

'Twas ever thus it seems. I've often thought that, looking back through history:
- how did slaveholders justify to themselves keeping slaves
- how did men justify to themselves not giving women the vote sooner
- etc

...and one can see all sorts of examples of selfishness - monetary and otherwise - going on everyday at all levels and I must admit if anyone knows of a good readable book about what is going on in peoples minds when they act this way then I would be interested in reading it.

Just a little thing of mine - that I like to know not just how people are acting - but WHY they are doing so...:think:

GreyQueen

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

I work in a secondary school & we have a pay freeze too, only admin & support staff though, teaching staff were given a payrise! Our head, otherwise known as the Shouty Man is in a 24/7 strop, he shouted at a staff member for having time off for heart surgery & shouted at another one who had worked a 10 hour day for 2 weeks to help with an audit & then wanted a day off for a wedding, jeez, it's fun where I work. I have to do lunch duties to make enough money to pay the bills, during the duties I get sworn at, pushed, shoved etc. The duty time has doubled from 20 mins to 40 mins but there is a set amount per duty, however long it is, outsiders who do the duties are paid £17.50 per duty, staff get less than half.
Still on the bright side, the garden is still producing veg & I have been given 6 bags of cooking apples, 1 bag of eating apples & a bag of cobnuts.
Hester

That's a disgusting way for people to be treated. I hear many horror stories from friends and acquaintances who work within the NHS, too.

The NHS seems to specialise in treating people who are ill and happen to be their employees in a way which is devoid of all compassion, commonsense and common decency.

A pal of mine was suddenly-bereaved of her sole remaining family member when her Dad dropped dead of a heart attack in his fifties. His funeral was at 2 pm and her NHS Trust wanted her back in the lab immediately after it analysing blood samples.............!!

For heaven's sake, never mind that this is a human being who has just buried her Dad; it isn't safe to have someone in that state of mind in the workplace......I wouldn't have wanted her working up my blood samples when she could barely see thru her tears, poor girl.:(

ETA Ceridwen, what really got my goat was that, after the abolition of slavery, the former owners of slaves recieved financial compensation for their loss of property..........I can't remember her name but she is a nationally-renouned journo/ author who attended a Bristol school. She wrote about how she won a bursary whilst there and during the award ceremony for this bursary, the cleric presiding described how the charitable foundation which has been providing these bursaries for generation after generation was set up by a slave trader and funded from the profits of his business. It's a sobering thought to visit cities which were involved in the trade and to look at the fine old buildings and wonder how much human misery bought them. I passed by a fine country house only this month and the guide explained that it had formerly been owned by a slaver and that they still had the chains and manacles in the cellar where those poor souls had been kept. It's not that many generations ago either.

Interestingly, Wilberforce when asked what his next campaign would be against after slavery said the National Lottery.......! He must be spinning in his grave.

modern_millie_2

Hi everyone, I've been lurking and skim reading for the last couple of months, working two jobs on and off so not much time for posting.
Sorry to hear of those of you facing cuts in wages and services - hard times. Our council leaders here are facing some criticism but are clinging on to their jobs and perks. They seem to have the"because you're worth it" mentality. Have sympathy with those in the frontline -pay can only do so much to show you are valued, but it helps!

We have managed a couple of short breaks away this Summer, inlcuding DD and me going to London for a theatre break - I won a prize!- was lovely to spend some mum and daughter time together- but need to settle down now to Winter prep and getting as many hours as possible before the work runs out. Meanwhile, I have many many pounds of apples waiting for me......

mardatha

3 days off for a close family death though arent you? This is why I get annoyed at people slagging off the unions. They were formed in a time when behaviour liek this by bosses was the norm. I'm not left wing at all but I can see sense when it hits me on the nose .. no unions=no rights=pure misery.

VJsmum

I feel a bit guilty for moaning about my half percent (or half of one percent, as the news always says) pay rise when i can see now that people have had freezes and pay cuts.

we made a decision last year to exploit a bit of a loophole in pension rules that fell just right for us and my OH took the money out of his frozen pension fund when he turned 50. We sat for ages toying with figures and looking at the options (if we leave it in it'll be worth more in 5 years but we can invest it better now etc etc). In the end we decided that we would rather have the money now so took the maximum lump sum, which was 75% of what it would have been in 5 years (or something like that). OR SO WE THOUGHT - almost as soon as we got the money out, the pension fund issued a statement saying that all pensions would now be worth 75% of what was originally intended. DIsgusting, I know, but for once we made the right decision.

We have invested it in a student house which we let and invest the income from that back into other pension funds. Having come from a background where there was no money, I freely admit to having a fear of going back there. My OH doesn't really understand as he comes from a relatively well-off middle class background, although his mother says they weren't well off cos the school fees were so high :rotfl::rotfl:

HariboJunkie

I'm having a break from polishing all my wooden furniture with wood balsam. Hard work but the smell alone is worth it.

I've enjoyed catching up on yesterday's posts on here too. This is what I love about this thread. We're a group of (mostly) women with so many different experiences and from so many backgrounds but with so much to share. I suppose in my late thirties I am officially middle aged and the posters here range greatly in age yet we all have enough experience of life to be able to advise eachother one way or the other.
It's lovely to hear the journeys so many of you have taken in life. Everyone's life experience is so varied. I was talking to a friend about that this morning as we are concerned about someone who is making a rather big decision that we both fear is the wrong one. This person is considerably older than us yet has led quite a sheltered life in many ways but because she is older feels that we young whippersnappers have no advice to offer her. I wouldn't point out to her that it simply doesn't work like as all experience is relative and some people cram 100 years of living into the first half of their life that but I will continue to try to help her as best I can.
That is the only tanglible way we will all get through the tough times IMO. By drawing on the friendship of those who care enough to help us in an honest way and what better way to help than share our own experiences of our interesting and varied lives.

A bit reflective for a Saturday morning. I think the wood polish may have gone to my head.

BTW Where are you ChocClare. I miss your wisdom too. ;):D
Hester you deserve a medal for sticking with that job. And you are one lady whose life experience I love to hear about. :A

Hardup_Hester

Why thank you Haribo, though I feel some of my 'experiences' would make some folk's hair curl.
Hester

westcoastscot

Hi Guys,
Am reading but not posting much at the moment - drowning in life to be honest. I'm working longer hours, have gone back studying full-time after planning a part-time final year, and my arthritis has worsened (I thought it was just a night on a travelodge bed that had got to me), so just trying to keep my head above water and staying positive.

Our funding (my employer's) is up for renewal in April and i'm not confident it won't be cut. Part of our remit is ring-fenced in legislation, but the rest isn't, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that my basic 17.5 hour post is safe.

Keep warm and dry, its pretty chilly here

WCS