Work colleagues

[Fullerene]

28 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

The obvious problem in this country is that we are led by people like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg. Their attitudes filter right down through society. British workers will simply never be trusted like this on a large scale.

Boris Johnson is hardly one to talk.  His idea of work is having a booze up in the back garden.

[LondonHMFC]

Pleased to say I bumped into Milky Gem this morning before getting the train to work! 

She left quite suddenly, and there were a few rumours as to what happened, but essentially her role was given to somebody else, and the only way she was going to be kept on was if she took a pay cut and worked under this new person. She declined the offer and got into bit of a legal battle over it all, and fortunately got herself a good pay off.

The company were absolute shits when Covid hit, making most of us take 10 days unpaid leave (taken over 3 months opposed to the year) to stave off redundancies, before doing so anyway. They weren't business decisions, they just used it as a chance to get rid of some people who were out of favour. Some really decent people were shunted, purely as they weren't liked. As Covid continued to worsen, we then had to take another 10 days unpaid leave. I left a few months after, without taking a day of statuary leave. They told me I could go early, but I sat it out just to get that money. It wasn't a massive amount, but it felt good doing it. 

Back to Milky, she now works for a mental health charity, and still does her soup kitchen service in Brighton every other evening.

 

Thanks,

Many Thanks,

Kind Regards

Edited June 6, 2022 by LondonHMFC

[DiegoDiego]

If companies can cut man hours by 20% and maintain the same productivity then surely that means they've been massively overhiring due to inefficient management.

Surely this isn't the case over all industries in these countries?

[Fullerene]

9 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

If companies can cut man hours by 20% and maintain the same productivity then surely that means they've been massively overhiring due to inefficient management.

Surely this isn't the case over all industries in these countries?

Not necessarily.  There are plenty of companies that do not allow you to leave early simply because you have got your work done.  Therefore you find a way to stretch it out to fill the working week.

Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available.

[DA Baracus]

10 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

Not necessarily.  There are plenty of companies that do not allow you to leave early simply because you have got your work done.  Therefore you find a way to stretch it out to fill the working week.

Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available.

Every single office I've had, including the current one, is like that.

I spread what I need to do out over the week. Most weeks I could it all in 2 or even 1 day sometimes. There are some busier periods where that could rise to 3 or 4 days, but they aren't often, and almost never do I/would I need 7 hours to do it.

One Christmas Eve we sat around playing games all day. Just a massive waste of everyone's time.

[Bairnardo]

Every single office I've had, including the current one, is like that.
I spread what I need to do out over the week. Most weeks I could it all in 2 or even 1 day sometimes. There are some busier periods where that could rise to 3 or 4 days, but they aren't often, and almost never do I/would I need 7 hours to do it.
One Christmas Eve we sat around playing games all day. Just a massive waste of everyone's time.

Bottom line is, if a person knows completion of a task will result in a further, often nonsense task being given to them to fill the time, they will string out task 1. Only incentivisation to complete tasks will see tasks completed in a timely manner. For a lot of people, Friday off is something they would work hard for. And given everyone and their dug is so determined to tell us all how reasonable we must be over salary expectations in the current crisis, it would be wise to offer workers something other than money. Something most consider in equal value.... Time.

[carpetmonster]

1 hour ago, Bairnardo said:

The obvious problem in this country is that we are led by people like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg. Their attitudes filter right down through society. British workers will simply never be trusted like this on a large scale.

I don't think it's so much folks won't be trusted, more that the UK is infested with miserable c***s who aspire to be middle management so they can make every other c**t miserable without actually having to have any skills or initiative outside of that. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

51 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

If companies can cut man hours by 20% and maintain the same productivity then surely that means they've been massively overhiring due to inefficient management.

Surely this isn't the case over all industries in these countries?

In the service of Her Majesty we have recruitment down to fine art. We are 100% occupied every day. 50% of us do the work and the other 50% deal with the complaints and fix what the first 50% did.

[Bairnardo]

10 minutes ago, carpetmonster said:

I don't think it's so much folks won't be trusted, more that the UK is infested with miserable c***s who aspire to be middle management so they can make every other c**t miserable without actually having to have any skills or initiative outside of that. 

Well aye... But the demand for those positions comes from above not below. People at the top aren't paying those types, who I broadly agree are a big part of the problem, for nothing. They are there because boards, CEOs etc believe them neccessary, because they in turn, in general terms believe everyone is out to rinse their employer. 

The reality is, that's a self fulfilling prophecy. You treat folk like kids, they will rip the pish where they can. 

[microdave]

2 hours ago, LondonHMFC said:

Pleased to say I bumped into Milky Gem this morning before getting the train to work! 

She left quite suddenly, and there were a few rumours as to what happened, but essentially her role was given to somebody else, and the only way she was going to be kept on was if she took a pay cut and worked under this new person. She declined the offer and got into bit of a legal battle over it all, and fortunately got herself a good pay off.

The company were absolute shits when Covid hit, making most of us take 10 days unpaid leave (taken over 3 months opposed to the year) to stave off redundancies, before doing so anyway. They weren't business decisions, they just used it as a chance to get rid of some people who were out of favour. Some really decent people were shunted, purely as they weren't liked. As Covid continued to worsen, we then had to take another 10 days unpaid leave. I left a few months after, without taking a day of statuary leave. They told me I could go early, but I sat it out just to get that money. It wasn't a massive amount, but it felt good doing it. 

Back to Milky, she now works for a mental health charity, and still does her soup kitchen service in Brighton every other evening.

 

Thanks,

Many Thanks,

Kind Regards

Did you ever tell her she's a legend in these parts? If so, what did she say?

[scottsdad]

I was talking to a guy I occasionally work with. He is 80 years old now, but he told me that in the 70s when they had the three day week, the productivity of the factory he worked in went up. He suspected the company might just keep it that way but no, as soon as they were allowed to they were all back in 5 days. 

[ParsJake]

3 hours ago, BFTD said:

My last employer would say, "so you worked 8 hours and made us <x>, and now you say you can make <x> in 6 hours, so go do it and then everything you make for us in the final 2 hours will be a bonus for us". The new daily total would then become <x>.

[LondonHMFC]

29 minutes ago, microdave said:

Did you ever tell her she's a legend in these parts? If so, what did she say?

Yeah I did at her leaving do. Can remember there being a bit of confusion as to why a Scottish football forum had a section about work colleagues. 

I'll need to go back and have a read of the posts, I remember her being lactose intolerant adding to the hilarity. 

[Empty It]

Can almost guarantee this 4 day working week being more productive will just lead to managers expecting more from everyone. If you can get a weeks work done in 4 days then here is an extra couple of days work for you to do on the 5th day will 100% be their thought process.

[Busta Nut]

Are these 4 day weeks on the same 7 hour day? Or is it longer days?

[Jambomo]

4 hours ago, LondonHMFC said:

Back to Milky, she now works for a mental health charity, and still does her soup kitchen service in Brighton every other evening.

 

Thanks,

Many Thanks,

Kind Regards

Glad to hear this, her sign off might be a bit ott but she sounded like a nice person. 

[Fullerene]

25 minutes ago, Empty It said:

Can almost guarantee this 4 day working week being more productive will just lead to managers expecting more from everyone. If you can get a weeks work done in 4 days then here is an extra couple of days work for you to do on the 5th day will 100% be their thought process.

At which point the employees will revert to the lower productivity that they were doing before. 

You can't expect them to increase productivity  if there is no incentive - such as extra pay or extra time off.  

[DiegoDiego]

Not necessarily.  There are plenty of companies that do not allow you to leave early simply because you have got your work done.  Therefore you find a way to stretch it out to fill the working week.
Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available.

Yes, but if they hadn't overhired then their employees wouldn't be able to stretch work out and be unproductive, they'd work at a decent pace to get it finished.

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, DiegoDiego said:

 

Yes, but if they hadn't overhired then their employees wouldn't be able to stretch work out and be unproductive, they'd work at a decent pace to get it finished.

Bit of a myth to think that hiring more people means less work for everyone else. In my experience, more folk are hired and more work is piled on (then folk leave and the original staff have more to do).

[BFTD]

Aye, I've never worked anywhere that overstaffing was a problem.

I have, however, worked in several places where one person was (poorly) doing a job that used to be done by several, but because the wheels hadn't completely fallen off yet, they were expected to just get on with it.

Lone working has also become very popular among employers who don't give a shit about their employees' safety.