Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd like a job with flexible hours (with me choosing that flexibility) and where I can wear jeans.... where the duties are specific/set and a doddle - and where it's acceptable to surf the Internet when you're not actually working.

Library Assistant in a local library. A lot are allowed to wear jeans to work, the duties are set and it's mostly about following a set of instructions. In your lunch hour you can go online and trace your family tree. The pay is not great but you'll have time to do other stuff and a bit of income security to pay bills and stuff.

Generali

We continue to do what we've always done with food which is the meal is what it is. You can eat or leave what you want of it but there are no alternatives although you do have to try everything.

If pudding was part of the meal, it remains part of the meal regardless of vegetable consumption (or whatever).

If they don't want their dinner that's fine but the next meal will be brekkie, no matter how much whinging and whining goes on.

It's been the same since they were 6 months old. It's pretty effective. It's Mrs Generali's idea. The Girl now quite happily eats my spicy crab pasta sauce (crab meat, chilli, parsley, lemon juice & zest, fresh tomatoes, olive oil, onion and garlic) and she's the fussy one!

vivatifosi

For anyone who has been studying the behavioural economics course, one of the CTAs has written a funny song about it. I wouldn't bother watching if you haven't done the course as it contains a lot of in-course humour, but those who have may enjoy it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLqJ7Fg4WtY

vivatifosi

Pastures, I wouldn't suggest you go for a part-time job a long way away, that doesn't make the sense, but trust me, I know the job and I know that there are aspies doing it. Here are some of the parts of the spec:

1. Putting books in order (shelf tidying), you do this when the public has taken them off the shelf and put them back in the wrong place. So this involves putting things in alphabetical or numberical order. You'd ace this.

2. Shelving books and putting them in the right place. You'd ace this too.

3. Picking books for reservations from set-lists. You look down the list and take a book off a shelf. You can do this too.

4. Customer service: there are only so many elements to this. a) you have to be able to look things up and be computer literate, which you are more than capable of, b) you need to help people check books in and out, generally using self-service kiosks, which is just a simple IT task. In terms of children and young people they don't want you to scare them off. They may want someone to lead nursery rhymes or story sessions, but that may not be the case and its something that's unlikely on a zero hours contract.

5. Stock organisation schemes: fiction is shelved by author, alphabetically; non-fiction is shelved by Dewey decimal code, in order. Dewey numbers are decimal, eg 645.332. There may also be other fiction groupings, eg crime is a popular genre and is often shelved separately. This is normally denoted by a special sticker on the spine of the book. Children's books are not shelved with adult ones. You don't need to know more than that to start with.

6. ECDL... you need to be competent at using computers. You would just need to say 'I don't have ECDL but I have worked using Excel, Powerpoint and Word for xxx years, am a web developer... I can also touch type 90wpm (or whatever). They are looking for three things: 1) that you'll cope using their databases, 2) that if someone needs help on a computer that you'll be able to do it (this generally involves really basic random stuff like adding an attachment to an email or knowing how to use a scanner), and 3) that you aren't a two finger typist that has never seen a keyboard and are going to take 3 hours to do something that anyone else who can use a computer can do in 5 mins.

NVQ level 2 is equivalent to GCSE at grades A*-C, or O level passes and high graded CSEs in old money.

The reading is a red-herring. They don't want you to hate the job, but nobody could read everything. You have areas that you are interested in and they don't have to be fiction. So you could say you are interested in books on family history or jewellery making, or just blanket "I prefer reading non-fiction". What can you do with knowledge of books... nobody can have read everything, its just a matter of finding stuff for recommendations. There are websites like fantasticfiction.co.uk and whoelsewriteslike that answer those questions.

Most jobs go external because there aren't internal candidates, so don't worry about going for ones where other people know how to do it.

If you wanted to go for it and there was one closer to home, I could coach you on the answers if you were interested.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'll bear that in mind if I ever do

No worries.

PasturesNew wrote: »

As I see it - today's job adverts scare off people who could do the job as they arrange a bunch of hoops that I'd assume were the minimum criteria for getting a look in ..... the person spec was a whole raft of "understanding of...." but how do you know/define if you've an understanding of something??

How about putting a link up over at the other place whenever you see something that takes your fancy but you're not sure about meeting the person spec? That way we can help you decide. I know it's an aspie thing, but you are thinking in a black and white way and sometimes this is about shades of grey.

PasturesNew wrote: »

e.g. experience of customer facing roles .... you can put me down for less than a year nearly 30 years ago... and not very public (remote garage/van hire, public = people who've booked a van and are expected). So, again, a criteria I'd say "nope" to.

Well, when I started working in libraries they asked about my customer service experience. Bear in mind I applied in my 40s. I referred back to customer service experience I had in my Saturday job when I was at school. They were quite happy with that and it was another box ticked. So don't say nope to stuff you've done, even if it was decades ago. As part of a whole it all adds up. Working in local government is all about how many boxes you tick.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

... in my 40s....

Bit of a whippersnapper then :P

Doozergirl

lostinrates wrote: »

I think I need to ask doozer's advice about something.

I have a roofer coming to look at minor repairs on main roof soon, but it occurred to me maybe we should just .....do what ever we need to do to get ready for conversion .....strip, remembrane, stick a dormer in the back..........but not sure what else needs doing......

Are the joists okay? If the roof isn't bad, then do the job once, but if it is, you may as well patch it.

Doozerboy's phone is out of battery, he's on carpenter's phone and in a really dodgy area. I've just had a rather important but arduous call with him because of that. I feel sick from concentrating, but if you want to call him then late afternoon should be good.

Need to go for a walk. Really nauseous.

PasturesNew

Doozergirl wrote: »

Need to go for a walk. Really nauseous.

Probably joining the same club as NDG :P

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Probably joining the same club as NDG :P

That was my thought.

Never beard of tuna and mercury. I am ok as can't stand tuna but I had better tell DW.

Our DKs have to try everything and generally eat at least half even if it is stuff they don't like. If they show little interest in main course they can leave it but then not expect to get afters.

New tenants are complaining about smoke smell. Carpets and curtains have be cleaned and property was let unfurnished. Any other suggestions from NPs?

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

Never beard of tuna and mercury.

Me neither.... although I don't eat a lot of it, I do keep 2-3 cheapo tins in because, come the summer, I might suddenly find I want to make tuna/mayo sandwiches several days in a row - great for taking to the beach, then suddenly worrying about them getting warm and eating the lot in a hurry

I do like tuna/mayo....