Work Tales.

[peter]

Working with a woman in her sixties the other night and we got to talking about her dogs. Asking about the breeds she told me one was a Jack Russell terrier and the other one a real mix-up. "We had DNA testing done which came back as mainly poodle, " she said, "But I'm not so sure myself."

Interested, I said, "How did they do the testing - did you send in a hair sample or something?"

"No," she replied, "Just a photograph."

As gently as possible I said, "I think it takes a bit more than that to do DNA testing; I think you need something from the dog itself really."

Her face took on an uncertain sort of look, "Yes - I wondered about that too." she replied.

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Chatting with her mate at work one day my wife mentioned a particularly good wine we had bought the previous weekend, which we had both really enjoyed.

Her colleague, said yes - she and her husband had also had a really good one as well.

"Do you remember what it was?" asked Mrs P. The woman's brow furrowed in concentration. "Just let me think," she said, "Yes, I remember, it was called French....Red......Wine!"

[Avatar]

Ahh, the well known French vineyard.

--A

[peter]

Gosh I've had a horrible week or so at work!

It started a week ago when I was covering a day shift at short notice and working the tills while my colleagues worked a large delivery. When time allowed I was leaving the till to perform the statutory checks on chillers, freezers etc and returning to my till after a thirty second absence found my assistant manager serving a customer. Finishing up, he turned to me and proceeded to rip into me for leaving my till, fully in the earshot of customers and a much younger member of staff.

Well, I have long gone beyond the point where I will be called out like a schoolboy by anyone, but rather than fire back on the shop floor I held my peace and a day later informed my manager that I intend to file a formal complaint. She requested that I hold back from doing so (on the grounds that the assistant manager was going through a hard time) and said that she would deal with it. Three days later (I'd been off for the weekend) when I returned to work the guy called me into the office and closing the door, apologized for shouting at me. I accepted his apologies saying that we could all get frustrated at times and that was that.

Little thing it sounds, put down like that - but you have to understand where I am coming from to understand the distress that this caused me. Firstly, I'm simply not used to being spoken to like that, or indeed made up to take it lightly. I take my responsibilities seriously - it's what allows me to retain my pride in what is for the best part a pretty demeaning job (as seen by most of the public). I sell my labour and take pride in giving value for money. In leaving my till, I was fully cognisant of the need to be quick about it, but was simply trying to do the best to occupy my time with useful service. To be balled out for being lazy is one thing: to be so for being diligent and actually attempting to do my best was quite another.

Secondly I have never before in forty plus years of continuous employment ever had, or had to consider putting in a complaint about a fellow employee. I am not one that would do so and expect it to be without impunity had the complaint not been upheld. I would have had no option but to leave - and to do so in the climate that exists in the UK at present is dangerous to say the least. The reasons for this are two fold (in respect of why I would have had to go). Had the complaint not been considered a justifiable one, I would have felt as a matter of principle that I could not have stayed in my job because either i) I was in the right, but had not received satisfaction or ii) I was in the wrong and had instigated a complaint that could have resulted in another member of staff being punished unjustifiably. Either way I could not have stayed in my job, and so this was a big thing for me.

As it happened, my boss (who I respect very much) sorted it out with the minimum of fuss - but not before I'd undergone a few sleepless nights and disturbed days as a result.

Then to add insult to injury, I worked three nights with one of the most repellent individuals I have the displeasure to know. A man who I know is on the take, but has hitherto not been caught for it: a racist hypocrite with a nasty malicious streak as wide as your arm right down the middle of his back, who revels in fomenting trouble and spreading malicious gossip. After three nights I finally lost patience with him and as we left let him know that I thought of him on around the same level as snake-shit - so not a terribly good result to finish on.

Oh dear! All I want is to do my shit little job with no hassle; to work hard, take the money and go home with an easy mind. Why can't I ever achieve this? What is it about me that seems to attract trouble in the way a flame attracts moths?

[Avatar]

Nothing is ever simple Peter.

I had a bit of a rough week last week too, and to cap it off, we had a catastrophic failure of one of our services on Thursday night, which is built on nearly 10-year old code, by a developer who is no longer with us, and which nobody understands properly.

Then my boss was annoyed that I wasn't prepared to spend the weekend recruiting, vetting, selecting and managing a freelance developer (requiring skills I am unable to assess) to fix something that I don't know how it works, on a platform I am completely unfamiliar with.

--A

[peter]

I don't know Av - put like that, in the current world and applied to the seeming bulk of employees that I encounter, you sound like the perfect man for the job!



I'm back in tonight after two days off and have got a three day stretch working with the same people I referred to above. Not relishing the prospect but hey, chin down, go forward and the next day off will come round soon enough.

[Avatar]

I have always found the ability to pretend that nothing happened is a key one in the work environment.

--A

[peter]

Yes - seems to be working the oracle so far Av. Won't be long before I'm battling it out again however on some petty issue or other; like the Scorpion who stings the frog carrying him over the river and asked why by the frog as they both drown he replies, "I can't help it - it's in my nature."

[deer of the dawn]

As an educator, I have a good store of cute, so I will share a couple of those.

I had a Korean kindergartner who was learning English. He would say things like, "I'm feeling really drinky" or "I'm so boring right now" with such conviction, I just couldn't correct him.

***

I had a little Danish guy who was a serious perfectionist and sensitive. He was in tears over an amazing picture he was drawing (better than most 4th graders could do) and when I realized it I told him, this looks great, don't erase that! And he was like "Okay, I'm not doing anymore, I'm going to READ" and went and jumped into a tiny corner between a bookcase and the wall with a big Harumph. It was so great to see a kid who knew how to manage his stress at the age of 5.

***

There were 2 first graders I liked immensely, they were both highly intelligent and seated at a table with a girl with Down Syndrome whom they treated as their equal. One month there were a lot of birthdays. One of the boys commented and said, "We've had a lot of cupcakes this month." The other remarked, "Yeah, I'm getting kind of cupcaked out."

***

I was writing a sentence on the board in Kdg. I introduced punctuation marks, but did not expect them to really know them until grade 1. I put an apostrophe and asked, "Does anyone remember what this punctuation mark is called?" A kid raises his hand. "An abomination?"

[peter]

Lovely tales Deer! Such an important job, being the first non-parent introducer of children to the wonders of education. You are effectively beginning the process by which their developing brains are building the scaffolding upon which they will be able to construct their thoughts. The more sound is that scaffolding, the more complex and rewarding will be the thoughts they can construct thereon in later life.

The joy and humour of your tales comes out of this very process as it is happening.

[Avatar]

No pressure.

--A

[Skyweir]

Great stories Deer kids are just the greatest little humans - 100% entertaining.

A little 3yo - one of my most fav ages .. came over for a visit and decided she would love to help bake cookies with us … she did something sooo funny and I called her”a silly sausage” and it was the earnestness with which she replied that cracked me up - she looked at me right in the eyes and said “yes I AM a silly sausage” - we stopped and stared then burst into laughter.

Such a cute little girl filled to the brim with wonder and curiosity.

[Fist and Faith]

I work with developmentally disabled adults. One day, about ten years ago, one guy was sitting there crying.

Me: "What's wrong?? Why are you crying??"
Him: "Eric, I have bad news. The Beatles took sick."

[peter]

This guy gets it! Him first - the rest nowhere!

[Fist and Faith]

He was a character. If I joked around about anything like fighting or breaking something, he'd say, "Nice talk, big boy."

Lawrence Welk was his favorite thing in the world. He would watch the video collection for hours, buzzing his lips along with the music.

[Skyweir]

He does sound like quite a character. That’s awesome Fisty! lol I had no idea what line of work you were in - that sounds like the kind of work one could really make a difference in. Fascinating

Would you mind sharing more about what you do?

[peter]

Absolutely! Such work is a challenge that few of us have the capacity to rise to (and everything that I've seen of your posting here tells me that you would be entirely capable of Fist). It's massively important that only the best and most suited individuals are placed in positions of such responsibility - a fact that our social system seems incapable of grasping at the current time. Rather than placing the care and education of our disadvantaged brothers and sisters in the hands of dedicated and professional individuals, instead it is farmed out to the lowest bidders who staff their establishments with the cheapest labour they can scource, with no care qualifications and very little oversight required. It does not take much in the way of imagination to guess at the shocking and tragic abuses that often result. Shame on us!

[Skyweir]

sadly is becoming more and more the way of things ... as we diminish the worth of human lives to monetary units of revenue.

[peter]

I have long believed that there should be a statutory requirement for the holding of a certificate, awarded following a generalized two year course covering all types of care, before any individual can enter the care profession. The UK is saturated with further education colleges offering courses of limited or zero usefulness to their attendees, yet this absolutely critical area of social need goes completely unmet. Once having such a statutory requirement in place, holders of the certificate working in the sector should be paid a rate absolutely commensurate with their skills and comparable to that earned by nurses and other health auxillary staff.

[Avatar]

Sadly, I am sure many less advantaged people would be glad of any help, let alone qualified, competent and professional help.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Heal ... ni_Scandal

--A

[peter]

That is frikkin' horrific Av.