The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[Victor Mildew]

Turns out Lotus is actually Carol Kirkwood

Bravo, I just read what Naga Munchetty said to her today and that works really well

She goes for every single day

CAROL YOU strawberry floating WHORE, WHAT'S THE WEATHER YOU banana split

[Drumstick]

I can relate to all of that. We should all go into business together and create a dream office.

Where we all WFH of course.

Where Zilnad is responsible for all work.

Where TNAG watches everyone through webcams.

Where Lotus sends out the instructions on how to do everything.

Where Oblomov takes all the credit for everything.

Where Victor provides the crisps.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

Turns out Lotus is actually Carol Kirkwood

Bravo, I just read what Naga Munchetty said to her today and that works really well

She goes for every single day

CAROL YOU strawberry floating WHORE, WHAT'S THE WEATHER YOU banana split

Naga

I can relate to all of that. We should all go into business together and create a dream office.

Where we all WFH of course.

Where Zilnad is responsible for all work.

Where TNAG watches everyone through webcams.

Where Lotus sends out the instructions on how to do everything.

Where Oblomov takes all the credit for everything.

Where Victor provides the crisps.

I am so down for this.

[That's not a growth]

Things are coming up Milhouse.

[Red]

40 mins is not a long enough lunch break.

[Green Gecko]

So finally after 4 weeks of emails and 2 weeks of "cogs moving" my new print machine is on the way.. From distribution centre in Europe. Looking forward to it but it's funny, I get 4 different sequences of emails from 4 different departments, all seperately for sales, account manager, credit control, fulfilment, and now I'm apparently going to hear from some four letter acronym that I have no idea what it is (CEVA) about the actual delivery (well actually just arranging a date for delivery). I still haven't paid for it yet . I'm used to doing all of these things so it's really incredible it must be so inefficient from an outside perspective the scale of a corporation like Ricoh.

I literally had my payment cards and on my desk when I phoned them weeks ago. For my business I send an online invoice link in the body of an email with a PDF copy automatically attached, if I change the invoice this gets updated in the link so it's always correct, and the customer pays upfront by whichever way they want; BACs, debit or credit, Apple or Samsung pay or event direct debit, split payments are fine. Then I do my job. This service costs me £28 a month. Truly amazing. Of course more communication is better than no communication but it's so disjointed.

[Joer]

My new company have hired me and three others to essentially fill an empty office with a 24/7 call centre for them. We have to do everything from recruitment, office equipment, shift patterns, layout etc.

Spent a day working on a shift pattern that means we have four people hired to do the night shifts on a 5 in, 5 off basis and then a 13 week rota for the day staff covering all the other hours. It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was good. Four weekends off in a row, two three day weekends and only working 3 full weekends and one day on 3 others.

MD came back to us to say that it’s not how the company works and everyone we hire will be expected to do night shifts.

We’ve already interviewed about 50 people and sent out approx 30 job offers on the basis of having night staff and day staff.

[DarkRula]

24/7 call centre. Only wants people working at night.

What?

[Joer]

Sorry, might not have worded that right.

He wants everyone we hire to work on a 24/7 shift pattern rather than hiring four/five people to do nights and everyone else cover the day shifts.

[Xeno]

Is the MD willing to work nights?

[Qikz]

Is the MD willing to work nights?

Is that even something you need to ask?

[DarkRula]

Sorry, might not have worded that right.

He wants everyone we hire to work on a 24/7 shift pattern rather than hiring four/five people to do nights and everyone else cover the day shifts.

Well, hopefully some of those you've been interviewing will understand the situation. Maybe they wouldn't even mind such a change.

[Joer]

Is the MD willing to work nights?

I think this is part of the problem. He pretty much works 24/7 as he’s very hands on with the business.

He wants us to try to limit staff turnover as much as possible, but I really think forcing people to work a 24/7 shift pattern is a terrible way of doing things.

[Curls]

As someone who works a flexible shift pattern. That's bollocks and unhealthy. I do 2 x 12 hour days followed by 2 x 12 hour nights. it is strawberry floating bollocks. Lash back at them Joer.

[Xeno]

Is the MD willing to work nights?

I think this is part of the problem. He pretty much works 24/7 as he’s very hands on with the business.

He wants us to try to limit staff turnover as much as possible, but I really think forcing people to work a 24/7 shift pattern is a terrible way of doing things.

So he has little idea how much turn over of staff he will get.

If it was me that you had just hired on a fixed shift then you told me that there was a change and it would be a rota that included nights I would walk, there are other jobs out there.

[Tomous]

Now on annual leave for 2 weeks Had to work until gone 10pm last Friday to clear everything I needed but managed to draw a line under everything so can forget about work for the next fortnight which is much needed.

[That's not a growth]

Damn, that's nice. I don't think I've ever taken 2 weeks off at a time. I think the most is ever about a week and a half around Christmas. The idea of leaving work to it for a few weeks is tempting, but I'd have nothing to do so rather space it out as lots of long weekends.

[Green Gecko]

I once combined leave with sick leave and had something like 4 weeks at one point but I had a lot of problems in the job and with my health, plus I never actually took leave so it had to be used up before the end of the tax year.

[Tomous]

Damn, that's nice. I don't think I've ever taken 2 weeks off at a time. I think the most is ever about a week and a half around Christmas. The idea of leaving work to it for a few weeks is tempting, but I'd have nothing to do so rather space it out as lots of long weekends.

I've got 2 weeks off for Xmas too. Having to take all my AL by end of year. Basically took tbe decision to save it all up during lockdown (no reason to use it really) to take at end of year because my son was arriving in September.

I was very fortunate in one of my jobs whereby it was job based bookings and they really didn't care if you took all your leave in one go as long as it wasn't during busy season. In fact they preferred it as it made resource planning easier. Use to take 3 week holidays abroad.

[Qikz]

I've never taken 2 weeks off in a row either, feels like it's a big waste of holiday to take it all in one go. Will be doing so next year though by combining the final week of this years holiday with the first week of next years. Hopefully that should work out!