Work colleagues

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

I was in call centres for about 3 years altogether, there is definitely over management, which is mad when most have had no training and there's a lack of continuous improvement and dreadful communication in a lot of places. 

You tend to get skilled/experienced folk doing some sort of senior role, often without extra pay, where they do a lot of validation and quality marking. Then there's "Team leaders" and then more senior ops managers or project managers.

Having done all those jobs before going back to the bottom, the Team Leaders are definitely the ones that could be cut without much being noticed. Usually folk promoted because there's nowhere else to put them and they've been there 10 years, regularly don't know how to do fairly basic stuff required by a role. They usually exist so that the ones higher up don't have to do as much of the continuous improvement or disciplinary stuff, which they end up doing anyway as the untrained folk below f**k it up and just see it as boxes they have to tick throughout their month. Usually the most knowledgeable folk are trainers but they don't want the hastle of making decisions, and are bright enough to realise that it can be a skive 80% of the time

[D.A.F.C]

[coprolite]

9 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Is Bill Hicks the one Denis Leary stole his act from?

According to Bill Hicks, yes. Apparently he said he got cancer to see if Denis Leary would copy that too. 

[coprolite]

8 hours ago, MixuFruit said:

certain of my colleagues are beginning to get found out by this groundbreaking finding that outside the office environment employers appreciate folk who actually do the work.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200827-why-in-person-leaders-may-not-be-the-best-virtual-ones?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

 

This is absolutely terrible news for me. 

[GordonD]

10 hours ago, Arabdownunder said:

If Bill Hicks hadn't died young he would now be a washed out has-been with a Las Vegas residency, living on the memory of his edgy youth.

Is the edgy youth still alive?

[welshbairn]

18 minutes ago, coprolite said:

This is absolutely terrible news for me. 

My whole lifetime career of blagging it is getting undermined here. Next step will be AI determining efficiency and being paid accordingly. Thoroughly depressing turn of events.

[coprolite]

53 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

My whole lifetime career of blagging it is getting undermined here. Next step will be AI determining efficiency and being paid accordingly. Thoroughly depressing turn of events.

I'm with you here. A system that rewards cynical gaming is far superior to a "meritocracy" 

[Jacksgranda]

On 15/09/2020 at 23:55, D.A.F.C said:

You've got a point, he really didn't give a f**k about anyone really and just called out whatever if he thought it was shit.
That was part of his appeal for me and he was alot less non pc than the majority of uk stand ups from the time.
Eddie Murphy who did the most revered routines ever ripped into gays, aids etc.
I guess everything and everyone pre 2020 is utterly offensive and should be banned.
I feel like Wesley snipes in demolition man these days just for laughing at a joke.
Don't like it dont watch it.

 

On 16/09/2020 at 09:23, DA Baracus said:

Yes, if only folk would 'rip in to gays' more. Hilarious! 

No idea what absolute pish you're on about with your stuff about everything being banned and feeling like Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man. 

That's beyond hyperbolic hysteria. Absolute and utter pish. Why are you saying such garbage?

 

On 16/09/2020 at 09:58, D.A.F.C said:

I mean that people are getting offended too easily these days and also bill hicks was less offensive than most when he was doing his routines.

Eddie Murphy raw and delirious was regarded as hilarious and contained some nasty stuff but at the time most people just knew it was offensive and that was why it was rated 18. Not saying I thought the gay stuff was funny or funnier than anything else. Mr T as a gay guy was good but some other stuff was over the top. I think you’ve shown a hysterical reaction tbh. All of this because of one clip on a video ffs.

 

On 16/09/2020 at 10:06, DA Baracus said:

No, I'm not the one who claims to feel like a criminal in a future sanitised fantasy world just for laughing at a joke, nor have I expressed offence. Your 'argument' is simply saying back the same thing to me. That's primary school level of debate there.

I don't know the 'Mr T as a gay guy sketch' but you're the one who mentioned 'ripping in to gays', with the inference being that it was somehow hilarious.

What video clip are you on about?

 

On 16/09/2020 at 10:12, D.A.F.C said:

On 16/09/2020 at 10:06, DA Baracus said:

No, I'm not the one who claims to feel like a criminal in a future sanitised fantasy world just for laughing at a joke, nor have I expressed offence. Your 'argument' is simply saying back the same thing to me. That's primary school level of debate there.
I don't know the 'Mr T as a gay guy sketch' but you're the one who mentioned 'ripping in to gays', with the inference being that it was somehow hilarious.
What video clip are you on about?

I think you've misunderstood the comments and not realised that my comment came from someone being offended by the looks like we got ourselves a reader clip. Dont want to drag it off topic and maybe just calm down a bit.

 

On 16/09/2020 at 10:32, DA Baracus said:

Ah, now you're using 'calm down', implying that I'm irrationally angry and trying to discredit what I'm saying rather than any meaningful debate.

Poor.

Sunday came late/early this week.

[Jacksgranda]

On 17/09/2020 at 05:33, MSU said:

I enjoyed Hicks' CDs when I was in my 20s. They were always a bit repetitive but I generally enjoyed them. Thinking back to some of those routines, the Iraqi war stuff was great and there weren't many people doing stuff as clever at that at the time, at least I don't recall them. I enjoyed his punching up stuff more than the punching down stuff. I have nothing to back this up, but I wonder if that was more a "if the audience is behind you, you're facing the wrong way" kinda thing. In other words, he never seemed to be one to want an audience on his side for an entire show and at some point, after agreeing with him for 20 minutes or whatever, he'd switch and say something crass or offensive so you end up not knowing what to think because you agreed with the guy 30 seconds ago. Stand-up comedians don't always believe everything they say.

That was pretty prescient of him. Presumably this is the Gulf War.

[Aladdin]

Bill Hicks was good but a large part of that was because he was different for the time.   Eddie Murphy's Delirious, if you strip out the first 15 minutes or so which hasnt aged well, to say the least, is a masterpiece.  Better than Raw IMO - the bits about the ice cream van and his dad being drunk at the BBQ are up there with the finest stand up of all time.  Cant wait for the Netflix special.

Re call centres, I spent 8 months in one 15 years ago.  You were treated as if it was a cross between being back at school and being in jail.   The only good bit was seeing the parade of characters that would work there:- down on their luck former professionals who had lost everything as a result of some major misfortune and hated everyone and everything about life, bams who were clearly unemployable but had been forced along by the Jobcentre, useless middle managers who commanded no respect in other area of their life and so wielded power tyrannically on every shift, a good number of stunners supporting themselves through their beauty therapy college course and a few folk like me, who had just graduated and had no idea what they wanted to do, as long as it wasnt what they had just spent the past 4 years studying.

A marvellous blend of petty office politics, outright hostility and regular self-humiliation of colleagues on nights out.  f**k doing it ever again though.

[Academically Deficient]

The tyranny of Teams and Skype meetings.

Basically an opportunity for boring, long-winded c**** to have a captive audience at their disposal. Usually also the ones with the worst connections/microphones. 

Its like listening to Father Stone using  Norman Collier's mic (one for the youngsters there).

Absolute torture.

One bonus is you can sigh, tell them to f**k off etc as long as you remember to mute.

[Sergeant Wilson]

2 minutes ago, Academically Deficient said:

The tyranny of Teams and Skype meetings.

Basically an opportunity for boring, long-winded c**** to have a captive audience at their disposal. Usually also the ones with the worst connections/microphones. 

Its like listening to Father Stone using  Norman Collier's mic (one for the youngsters there).

Absolute torture.

One bonus is you can sigh, tell them to f**k off etc as long as you remember to mute.

I'm having a scale portrait style photo of me made that I can rest on the arms of my chair while I watch Homes Under the Hammer.

[coprolite]

3 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I'm having a scale portrait style photo of me made that I can rest on the arms of my chair while I watch Homes Under the Hammer.

Save your cash and put a 3x5 print closer to the camera. Pre record a loop saying "that's an interesting point and i'll have to give it some thought". 

Your tv choice is dung though. I'd rather skype my dullest colleagues (aka the risk committee) than watch that shite. Fortunately other options are available.

[Academically Deficient]

4 minutes ago, coprolite said:

Save your cash and put a 3x5 print closer to the camera. Pre record a loop saying "that's an interesting point and i'll have to give it some thought". 

Your tv choice is dung though. I'd rather skype my dullest colleagues (aka the risk committee) than watch that shite. Fortunately other options are available.

If I get invited to a risk meeting on Teams I'm going postal.

[DA Baracus]

22 minutes ago, Academically Deficient said:

The tyranny of Teams and Skype meetings.

Basically an opportunity for boring, long-winded c**** to have a captive audience at their disposal. Usually also the ones with the worst connections/microphones. 

Its like listening to Father Stone using  Norman Collier's mic (one for the youngsters there).

Absolute torture.

One bonus is you can sigh, tell them to f**k off etc as long as you remember to mute.

For the waste of time meetings on Teams (usually ones that are scheduled as a 'catch up' with colleagues in the office and not a specific meeting held to discuss specific meetings) I usually just keep doing my work as normal and have it on in the background in case I need to say something. "Sorry, bad connection, can you repeat that please?" works a charm when you haven't been listening and your name is mentioned.

[weirdcal]

For the waste of time meetings on Teams (usually ones that are scheduled as a 'catch up' with colleagues in the office and not a specific meeting held to discuss specific meetings) I usually just keep doing my work as normal and have it on in the background in case I need to say something. "Sorry, bad connection, can you repeat that please?" works a charm when you haven't been listening and your name is mentioned.

I usually turn the camera on for these and sit back and recline in the wife's old maternity chair I use as my office chair.
These are run by one of the company directors whose in charge of a project I'm on and when we do catch ups on that and anyone mentions the sheer volume of work that we have got through he often jokes that more would be done if I ever sat up.

[Hillonearth]

3 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

For the waste of time meetings on Teams (usually ones that are scheduled as a 'catch up' with colleagues in the office and not a specific meeting held to discuss specific meetings) I usually just keep doing my work as normal and have it on in the background in case I need to say something. "Sorry, bad connection, can you repeat that please?" works a charm when you haven't been listening and your name is mentioned.

I'm expecting scenes on Monday - my boss two levels up is mad keen on them as he's one of those who seems to be suffering through WFH due to the lack of the audience he feels he has in the office.

Anyway, he had all this week off and the guy who's standing in for him said to me earlier he was just going to patch the one scheduled for today because we all knew what's currently on the go. Fine by me.

The stand-in messaged me this afternoon - turns out Week Off Boy is fuming because he spent 20 minutes this morning sitting as the sole participant on the scheduled call wondering where everybody was.

On his week off.

[coprolite]

3 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

I'm expecting scenes on Monday - my boss two levels up is mad keen on them as he's one of those who seems to be suffering through WFH due to the lack of the audience he feels he has in the office.

Anyway, he had all this week off and the guy who's standing in for him said to me earlier he was just going to patch the one scheduled for today because we all knew what's currently on the go. Fine by me.

The stand-in messaged me this afternoon - turns out Week Off Boy is fuming because he spent 20 minutes this morning sitting as the sole participant on the scheduled call wondering where everybody was.

On his week off.

Absolutely tragic

[GordonD]

1 hour ago, MixuFruit said:

Between logging off yesterday with a clear day to actually do some work and logging in today after the announcement we're working from home for the next 6 months, I now have 4 meetings. Calm down lads.

Do you work in Liverpool?

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Work has been trying to get people more active during the work from home period.

They’ve incentivised it and the team that records the most number of steps over the month of September wins prizes. One of these  prizes is a Peloton bike.

A woman in my team has done an average of under 300 steps per day. She must be a slug and move from bed to her desk, to the couch and back to bed.