Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

lostinrates

I started putting kiwi's hair cut in this evening.

It's looking extremely dodgy. The groomer is boed for ten days time, but I thought I might have a go myself just to see how bad I am t this new technique. The answer is very bad! I have done his tail, started his ears and his chin. Tommor I am considering doing his face, And maybe his neck. So he will look like a woman wearing a huge fur coat.

Nikkster

Oh my goodness. I've just got very close to shouting at the television.

I was watching 'Dispatches' on channel 4 - about supermarkets and fruit and veg. Some it was pretty sloppy journalism - like making the statement that supermarkets sell a lot of fruit and veg, and then listing the profits of the supermarkets. And pointing out that Tesco (should mention there is a bit of family VI) make the most profits - but forgetting that they probably sell the most non-food items of the supermarkets.

They did highlight a 'Which' report which found that a lot of the 'was' prices decline to mention that the item was often also on a multibuy at the time (eg. 'was 2.20' but was also on 2 for £3).

A lot of the rest of the programme might have been informative for non-MSE folk I guess, but I really did think that people 'got' that the supermarket convenience stores were often pricier than the big supermarkets.

Nikkster

lostinrates wrote: »

I started putting kiwi's hair cut in this evening.

It's looking extremely dodgy. The groomer is boed for ten days time, but I thought I might have a go myself just to see how bad I am t this new technique. The answer is very bad! I have done his tail, started his ears and his chin. Tommor I am considering doing his face, And maybe his neck. So he will look like a woman wearing a huge fur coat.

Tee hee! (message too short)

Generali

Nikkster wrote: »

Oh my goodness. I've just got very close to shouting at the television.

I was watching 'Dispatches' on channel 4 - about supermarkets and fruit and veg. Some it was pretty sloppy journalism - like making the statement that supermarkets sell a lot of fruit and veg, and then listing the profits of the supermarkets. And pointing out that Tesco (should mention there is a bit of family VI) make the most profits - but forgetting that they probably sell the most non-food items of the supermarkets.

They did highlight a 'Which' report which found that a lot of the 'was' prices decline to mention that the item was often also on a multibuy at the time (eg. 'was 2.20' but was also on 2 for £3).

A lot of the rest of the programme might have been informative for non-MSE folk I guess, but I really did think that people 'got' that the supermarket convenience stores were often pricier than the big supermarkets.

As far as most journalists are concerned, profit is the difference between the price that should be charged and the price that is actually charged.

Spirit_2

Generali wrote: »

I've had to sack people before. TBH, the only time I've found it hard is when I've made people redundant as in that case they've done nothing wrong.

Sacking people is easy really as there is a good reason for it.

I have made many people redundant and for conduct, absence or capability reasons dismissed quite a few.

For dismissals my approach was to try to retain the dignity of all parties . If the dismissed can walk out of the door with a shred of dignity then they stand a much better chance of keeping their mental health (assuming that was not the reason why they were doing what they should not).

With some dismissals I wish I could have given them a good shake as they have blown a hard earned career on a stupid action. Other dismissals when accompanied by a likely loss of professional registration have left me unmoved as I think the world a safer place without them in a professional role.

silvercar

SC which airline should we be boycotting? BA do not seem to have covered themselves in glory this time - last year they cancelled everyhting and it seemed to work OK but I guess that is so expensive they hoped to get away wiith things this time?

With a serious stock of avios, we are not boycotting. Plus we need to keep OH at gold level in order to keep the "trimmings" when we spend the avios on economy flights.

vivatifosi

Spirit wrote: »

I have made many people redundant and for conduct, absence or capability reasons dismissed quite a few.

For dismissals my approach was to try to retain the dignity of all parties . If the dismissed can walk out of the door with a shred of dignity then they stand a much better chance of keeping their mental health (assuming that was not the reason why they were doing what they should not).

With some dismissals I wish I could have given them a good shake as they have blown a hard earned career on a stupid action. Other dismissals when accompanied by a likely loss of professional registration have left me unmoved as I think the world a safer place without them in a professional role.

You sound a decent boss spirit. I have had to deal with a few people, but not huge numbers. By far the funniest was a chap who had to leave the company because he'd been caught doubling as a male prostitute in work time. In gathering the evidence, I had to call (name omitted for confidentiality) Escorts and ask whether they were a Ford main dealer. The woman who answered the phone had the greatest belly laugh I've ever heard. It truly made my day.

BertieUK

vivatifosi wrote: »

You sound a decent boss spirit. I have had to deal with a few people, but not huge numbers. By far the funniest was a chap who had to leave the company because he'd been caught doubling as a male prostitute in work time. In gathering the evidence, I had to call (name omitted for confidentiality) Escorts and ask whether they were a Ford main dealer. The woman who answered the phone had the greatest belly laugh I've ever heard. It truly made my day.

Her laugh says it all because he must have been one of their used models with a high mileage;)

LydiaJ

SingleSue wrote: »

The school run was fine once I was out on the main roads, digging the car out and getting to the main road not so fun or fine but we did it.

School run was bad for me this morning. It wasn't the snow - that just slowed down the first couple of hundred yards to 10mph - but the traffic. I went the main road route instead of my usual cut throughs with little back streets, some of which are very steep. Everybody else did too. A journey that usually takes 10 min even in rush hour was 30 min this morning. Fortunately I had already rung my HoD to say that what with the snow, and my cold, and DD not being well either, I thought I should take her to school myself and come into work a bit late, instead of trying to get her to the lady who usually takes her for me on Monday mornings when I have an early start. So he covered for me invigilating some sixth-formers silently writing up coursework under supervised conditions.

SingleSue wrote: »

Grrr, just been told on Facebook I should have made the boys walk to school this morning, not once but twice and both of them know James' joints dislocate....would like to see them walk 3 miles with constantly dislocating joints in the snow.

Can you let them know gently, Sue? A reply along the lines of "Only wish they could have walked, but it would be just the thing to provoke one of James's dislocations." Or are they completely unreasonable, and would you be better unfriending them.

DS walks to school every day anyway - it's only about half a mile - so he walked this morning as usual. DD's school is nearly 2 miles away, so we drove. It was only the first couple of hundred yards and the final fifty yards that hadn't been gritted, anyway. In the summer we are hoping to start cycling it together on some days, but we're not going to start until the light evenings arrive.

Both kids' schools closed on Friday but were open today. My school does not close for weather or other adverse circumstances. Ever. Or at least it hasn't done so for the last 70 years, anyway. Sometimes when there's snow it runs childcare so staff whose kids' schools have shut can still work. Our public exam candidates were told what the exam board's rules are, so if they couldn't get in they'd have to do the exams in the summer instead. I believe there were also arrangements made for some who thought it might be a problem to stay over on Thursday night with other students living much closer. Our Yr11s doing mocks were told that if they couldn't get in they could have the papers emailed to them and sit them at home, which quite a few of them did - much better than wasting the time and having to do the papers when they get back to school and we're trying to go over the answers with the kids who sat the exams on time.

Nikkster wrote: »

I misunderstood you too then! :rotfl:

From my experience of Uni research I don't think it would be very likely that there would be any financial contribution available - worth a try though and I would definitely let people know if I had such travel limitations (not much you can do if the trains aren't running). Sometimes there are small pockets of money which can be tapped into.

I think the best bet would be hoping that a friendly colleague who had made it in could do enough to salvage the experiment/ try to get a lift from the closest friendly colleague.

That's my experience of universities too. You just don't have a manager in the way that people in commercial jobs do. Teaching is much the same. Unless things are obviously going badly wrong, or you're very new indeed at the job, it's assumed that you are both able and willing to work effectively, and you're left to get on with it. You can ask for help if you need it, and you bump into your supervisor/manager/HoD/whatever around the place so you're aware of each other's work and how it's going, and there may be things that you collaborate with others on, and obviously communicate about, but that's about as far as it goes IME. It's only comparatively recently that I realised that in some other jobs people have managers who keep tabs on them all the time. I've certainly never worked in an environment where anybody in authority over me would have considered it any of their business to help me get into work if there was snow, although in teaching obviously your HoD does arrange cover for you if you can't be there for whatever reason.

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

That's my experience of universities too. You just don't have a manager in the way that people in commercial jobs do. Teaching is much the same. Unless things are obviously going badly wrong, or you're very new indeed at the job, it's assumed that you are both able and willing to work effectively, and you're left to get on with it. You can ask for help if you need it, and you bump into your supervisor/manager/HoD/whatever around the place so you're aware of each other's work and how it's going, and there may be things that you collaborate with others on, and obviously communicate about, but that's about as far as it goes IME. It's only comparatively recently that I realised that in some other jobs people have managers who keep tabs on them all the time. I've certainly never worked in an environment where anybody in authority over me would have considered it any of their business to help me get into work if there was snow, although in teaching obviously your HoD does arrange cover for you if you can't be there for whatever reason.

When I did lecturer training back in the 80s we were taught the miracles of Matrix Management. Friends in private industry sometimes find it baffling especially when subordinates manage their bosses within their work teams but it seems like second nature now. Not sure it's widely used outside of education though.