Ye good old civil service!

[Col ISIHAC.]

Sort of both really - so thereby un-labelled.

Now then. In yer best Andy Parsons stylee...

I have been with my totally splendid employer since 1985.
On 18th November I hit 25 years - gold clock territory or somesuch with some employers; and the CS recognises this, but...

Firstly you have to remind your HR section that you've hit this momentous landmark. And, to be fair, there's a reward. Either a week's leave or a gift to the value of £250. Not to be sniffed at.

I went for gift. I want an iPod. Then, you see I can play on the random play thread. Gift...

I have to go buy it and submit the receipt.

Still. Not to worry.
I won't get a pay rise this year, but I DO get a performance bonus - which, by some strange quirk is likely to be roughly the equivalent of the gift value I can claim. (the amount, I gather, is something I should be grateful for, blah blah, at least I have got a job... but approx £250 as a reward for a whole year's performance? Don't get me started on that one.) Just let me have a merchant banker for ONE hour, Grrrrrrrrrr

SO. A nice gift and I may even get the iPod engraved so that I am reminded of the whole episode.

But how many employers, where this sort of thing still happens, say - yeah! Nice one. Here, have this. Now off you toddle and let us know when you have got it and we'll lob you the cash.

Don't tell me I am ungrateful. I have given 25 years of my life to these ungrateful wazzocks...

[AFC J Esaj PRA]

Do yourself a big favour and don't buy an iPod - you can get far better value for money from a device made by another company, such as Archos or Creative. iPods are massively under specified for the asking price and tie you into iSheep mentality with the rest of the dunderheads inhabiting the 'developed world'. Just look at the logo - do you really want to buy an Apple that already has a byte missing?

There's quite possible some very good tax reason why you need to go and buy your own gift and claim it back, but that does seem to be the way most employers operate these days. And right now you really do need to grab whatever comes your way, particularly as you're working for a bottomless money pit!

Congratulations on the achievement though. I really cannot see myself doing the same.

[peekay]

iPods are ok, it's the iPhone crowd who are really scary.

Have you ever tried to suggest that there might be better phones out there? Yikes! Defensive much?

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

Congratulations on your silver jubilee. The best i managed was 19 years at BASF and almost 7 at Toyota.

Personally i wouldn't touch anything by Apple again after the iPod my son talked me into buying for him a few years ago. Within days of the warranty being up, the click-wheel stopped working and they wanted more than i'd paid for the bloody thing in the first place to look at it, still less fix it!

It didn't help to find out that the particular model had a 32% failure rate on clickwheels. Yet there was no public outcry (apparently people love apple that much) or offer to replace it, such as when microsoft gave me a new Xbox after the first one died due to design fault, or when HP sent out replacement fans for pavillion computers.

My son ended up with something from Sony instead which, surprise, surprise still works! Unlike me. At the moment, i'm sitting here losing a days pay from my temporary job thanks to the non-arrival of a shipment of PG Tips monkeys to the DHL repack division in Cannock. There's a whole different world out there...

[Col ISIHAC.]

Nov 16, 2010 10:20:38 GMT Sultan of Cannock- SRFC said:

At the moment, i'm sitting here losing a days pay from my temporary job thanks to the non-arrival of a shipment of PG Tips monkeys to the DHL repack division in Cannock. There's a whole different world out there...

Whoo, planet Cannock looks a bundle of laughs!
I am NOT going to ask, merely state the obvious. SOMEONE has to suffer for the PG Tips art...

Death, taxes and gaps between employment! OR to put it another way; My job, nursing homes and funeral directors are recession proof. My world exists through the suffering of others. We don't DO funerals - but we do pay for them sometimes...

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

You've kept us hanging on now longer than Stafford Rangers' latest manager stayed with us. So what did you choose in the end?

Meanwhile, back on planet Cannock the monkeys were no more and i struggled on doing various temping stuff with irregular hours. Then, just as i was beginning to despair of ever getting a real job again after making over 100 applications, i've found a place where they actually employ the *a-hem* more mature *a-hem* worker and i'm now a Shift Chemist virtually within spitting distance of where my first full-time job used to be in Wednesfield back doing stuff i'm actually qualified to do.

Call it mid-life crisis but i'm actually proud that i managed to support myself through this without going on the dole. I wont get a pay rise this year but hopefully after the 3 months probationary period is up i'll still be getting some pay....

[ambersalamander]

Great news, Sultan - congratulations!

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

Cheers Sal, i'll try to make the best of the opportunity. They've got a top quality employee for a bargain price

It seems that the Colonel's gift has fallen under the remit of the official secrets act. Judging from his long silence he may already have said too much and been sent to the gulag....