RedDave2 wrote:

And as a flip side, if you think it pisses of the rank and file being told what to do, imagine the management side where you are trying to put together a consistent public message and someone in PR keeps messing just because they don't like being told what to do.

Oh good Lord yes.

We spend months crafting a brand identity, internal and external voices, and no matter how much you explain it, how much you try and get buy-in, there's always that one person who "just doesn't get it". And because THEY don't get it, they refuse to work with it, or get in a huff because it's not what they want and then they throw their sabos into the machinery that everyone else is happily working with. And if that person is in a relatively key position, that's when the wheels come off and everyone gives up and you've wasted thousands of pounds and months of time.

But yeah, none of it matters, obviously.

Imagine going to your next job interview and being asked the question, "Why did you leave/get sacked from your previous job?". 
If you are embarrassed by admitting it was because you didn't want to change your email font, then maybe you should change it.

regmcfly wrote:

We are all struggling at the minute at work. I can't even go to my head as he has been in tears r.e. the death of our pupil. The funeral is on Monday. We have the head psychologist for Edinburgh council at our call but my god, I can't believe what the ripple effects of this has done to our school.

I'm so sorry mate. Cannot even begin to imagine what you're going through. Puts all our other petty nonsense into perspective, that's for sure.

Wish there was more I could do than send you a digital hug...

regmcfly wrote:

It's okay. There's a weird rhythm to Xmas. Every year, the second last week is when you get the big issues. Next week will *looks at heavens* be fine. But this year has been a massive blow to us. I mentioned this elsewhere, but this year I've gone back to mass as a Catholic. I am never gonna put anything on anyone else, but just as a way to have mindfulness for an hour it has been amazing.

I hope you get the peace you need my friend. And I hope the kids manage okay too. Maybe the break will be just what everyone needs to regroup a little.

poprock wrote:

The isn’t a designer in the world who chooses Arial for stylistic reasons. Arial is the backstop. It’s the lowest down the list in your chosen palette of typefaces, because you need a basic default to fall back on when the main brand fonts aren’t available.

I'm definitely not a designer, I choose Arial almost all the time

Thinking about that weekend at work there and how utterly fucked it was.

Was put on "the tugs" (named after the pre-van days of dragging daisychained 4 cubic yd bins around the hospital with a glorified golf cart) which meant getting waste (general - black, medical - yellow and laundry) out of the disposal holds in the wards and out to the compound. Rinse and repeat. Cushty number usually as you're out of the way of everyone. Food van visits and plenty of smoke breaks. Nice.

But, stuff has happened.

Some of you might have seen or heard in the news recently about Healthcare Environmental. They were fined heavily for not disposing of medical waste (the worst of the worst, trust me) efficiently or at all, and they've actually went under. They had the contract at our hospital.

At this point I have to remind people that although I work in a hospital, I'm not an NHS employee. The "soft services" (portering, waste, estates, domestic cleaning and catering) are done in my place by Ser*o, who you only need to Google to see how big of a shit they are.

So our bosses went into action mode and assured the usual tugs guys, don't worry, there's a contingency plan. You'll be able to do your jobs and the hospital will run smoothly.

I come in on Saturday for a 12hr tug shift (sore wrist jokes ahoy), a week after HE went under and what was there? A full container, open-top, of general waste right by the back loading bay, with bins all around it, full. The bins at the front door for the cafe there and the groundsmen, all overflowing with crows picking at it. The kitchens bins? Even worse. Not a single empty black bin inside or outside that's empty.

"Don't worry, someone's coming out."

They guy didn't show til 5pm (for an idea of how stupid that is, the entire hospital gets emptied three times a day and I was there from 0730), and came with a smaller fucking van than we had. Nine blacks emptied, that's it. No show yesterday. So we had to open up a sparking new container and fill it yesterday, which we did easily, even though it said on the outside that if you don't return it in perfect nick it gets charged to the account. But what else are we supposed to do?

But what about medical waste? Surely their contingency plan included a new company to have regularly scheduled pickups and its all above board and dealt with cos... Like... Its fucking medical waste at a fucking hospital!?

Nope. Here's a big fuck off lorry container parked in the car park. We had to get full medical bins from the holds onto the van, go to the compound to get them off the van, handball the orange bags of waste into the back of our van until it was full, then drive out and reverse to the doors of the big fuck off container, and then handball it again into that. No training given. No questions asked. No extra clothing given. Just fucking do it. Didn't even get given gloves, had to find a pair of heavy duty ones. The whole time I'm thinking you cunts are lucky this isn't during summer, or else the whole town would stink.

The best part is, a lot of hospitals are having similar problems, but because Ser*o don't do the soft services there, their bosses are actually being proactive and getting their wallets out and paying agency workers to do all this. Us? Nah, just do it on top of all the other stuff you usually do.

Place is a tip, there's no decisiveness at all above us, and we'll get zero thanks for it. All the while every damn nurse, hospital cover, consultant, near enough everyone is stopping us in the corridors asking wtf is going on as if its our fault they can't get into their disposal hold. Absolute shambles, and I'm sure if a newspaper photographer decided to stakeout our car park, they'd have a nice wee number on their hands.

I don't mind doing the job, a job, any job really. It's when cheap pencil-pushing cunts do fuck all cos they want the pat on the back for saving budget that really fucks me off. Just get your wallet out ffs and get this sorted!

Now it's Monday my day off and my whole body aches and I've got a cold. Cheers Ser*o.


* = c

Sounds like a massive breach of HSE regulations.

Yup. I wouldn't be signing my name on any of that bollocks.

Ok so an update.
I’m still waiting for confirmation on being accepted into my new career. Been told I’d hear by 21st at the latest.

In the meantime I’ve just got off the phone with the employment agent and she’s asked if I can come back and work for the post office again.
The guy who sacked me has asked me to come back as he’s realised they need note help.

So on one hand I’m grateful and want to accept, on the other I want to tell the guy to get fucked for putting me through this at Christmas.
However I need the money. So I’ve accepted and will start back from the 4th Jan.
I’ve made lots of commitments to family to spend time with them over the Christmas/New Years period so I’ve refused to change them or fit shifts between.

Now I just need to get some money somehow to get through the next few weeks and pay the rent!

Yay! Congrats, Wooks.

Well done!

yes m8

Well in bud, richly deserved.

Thanks everyone. It’s the one two punch of good news I really needed!
I’ve been an unbelievable pain the ass the last few weeks with my moping about the house but today, well today IM MARY FUCKING POPPINS!

Great stuff.