Anybody know?

Managers, discuss...

What is the point of managers, or more importantly "Team Leaders"? Our manager seems to spend 50% of his time in meetings, discussing Lord-knows what, 35% of his time on e-Bay, or looking up new Hotels he can go and stay at, and the rest of the time worrying about which of our customers we are/aren't calling back. He is consistantly in a bad mood, doesn't have a Scooby about our criteria or procedures, so once again, I ask you, what is his role?

Now I thought about this for quite some time over the weekend, and after a brief discussion amongst some colleagues whilst in the Cig-hut, I came to the conclusion that we would be better off with an inflatable boss, kinda like that Automatic pilot in 'Airplane'.

Now I wouldn't mind any of this if he actually seemed to be busy from time-to-time, but he never is. Occasionally we hear rumours that he is looking at some sort of spreadsheet, but I think this is all a ploy.
The most annoying factor in all this is the fact that he constantly berates us for spending work time on the internet, when he spends upwards of 2 hours a day looking for shite on e-Bay. Pot, Kettle, Black?

Nice link, seems he has even more problems than I do:

www.workrant.com

Found this link which is a bit waffly, but explains why we SHOULDN'T bash our bosses (In the verbal sense of course, although I have often have had to refrain from carrying out the physical variety)

http://www.wpsmag.com/content/templates/wps_article.asp?articleid=360&zoneid=33

On a lighter note, I am beginning to thoroughly detest my house-mate's Girlfriend. She works in the same building as me, (now on maternity leave, however) but despite being pregnant she was always in the cig-hut smoking her arse off. I'm not one to preach (!!!) but it disgusts me to see pregnant women smoke. The unborn child has no choice in the matter and it is just plain, and somewhat lethal selfishness that makes these people do what they do.

But this is not what annoys me the most. She used to irritate me no-end because she had such a big mouth, and wouldn't shut up when all you wanted was a quiet smoke, but it is even harder to bear now that she is constantly round the house.

Example:
I usually get home from the bar on Saturday nights between 11.45pm and Midnight, unless I go out, but that event gets rarer every week. I am ALWAYS tired because I have Cameron on Friday night/Saturday day, and I look forward to Sat nights after work because I don't have to get up early the next day, like I do every other day of the week. This means I can stay up watching TV until (Literally) the cows come home. The trouble is, for the last 4 weekends I have come home from work to find this fat, sprawling mess on MY sofa. She does not pay rent. She does not even live here, and she certainly doesn't pay for Sky, so why is she on the sofa every Saturday night? Why? Because she wants to wait for her Boyfriend to come home from his regular piss-up. Can't she just go home? Can't she just wait in his bedroom?

For the last few weeks i've been seeing a young lady, and pretty much the only evening we both have free, to, er meet, is Saturday, so she usually meets me after work at my house, but how am I supposed to entertain my guests with Jabba lording it up in MY front room? Now this doesn't just go for female guets, what if I wanted to invite some mates back for a post-pub games session? She may well want to kill her child by smoking but I shouldn't be expected to, and considering our house is a smoking house, i'm damned if I (And all my mates who also smoke) am going to be forced into the back-garden to smoke, just cause she is there!

Grrrrr. Thoughts anyone?

Caramel Pockets!

Big bag of quality Streets got put on our desk today. I for one was quite excited because it's not often that we get given anything (My suspicion is that we are being buttered up for, oh I don't know, increased targets, redundancy, or maybe manditory executions) but this quickly turned to paranoia.

Anyway...

So I selected a few choice sweets including one of those purple ones with the caramel and hazelnut in. The actions that followed have pushed me into realising that I really need to improve my memory because i put this sweet into my back pocket before going downstairs to eat lunch. Ten minutes ago I wondered what the lump in my pocket was, so I tentatively inserted a few fingers into the aforementioned pocket, only to discover the mangled remains of the sweet, and a pocket now firmly gooed up with Caramel.


Idiot.

Jam Sarnies, amongst other things....

So today my packed lunck consists of:

6 Jam sandwiches.

I hate the end of the pay month, probably because i'm invariably skint, hence i'm trying to save money by bringing packed lunches to work. Trouble is I didn't do a proper shop so I don't have any fruit, crisps, yoghurts etc, so jam sarnies it is!

Our Company is currently running some customer incentive to take up Life assurance, called "Wish You Weren't Here". If you agree to a fact-find call from the L&G rep you could win (steady...) £150 holiday vouchers. The resultof this scheme is that we had to decorate our office with a holiday theme. Mortgage Services chose Australia, Investments picked Spain, so what did my manager choose I hear you cry?


Wait for it....




Blackpool.

Yes, that scum-pit of Stag/Hen night debauchery in the North West of England. This has meant that we have the narrowest scope for creativity, I mean what on Earth can you do to represent Blackpool, apart form the Tower and a few Donkeys? Aussie decorations? Barrier Reef, Ayres Rock, Boomerangs, Kangeroos, Surf Boards Beer, etc etc. Spain? Paella, Flemanco, Castanets etc etc. So apart from a large cut-out of Blackpool tower and some photo-shopped images of the staff on donkey-back we were at a loss. My idea of printing pics of famous people from Blackpool was o.k. until we searched for these celebs and found the likes of:

Keith Harris & Orville *
George Formby **
Robert Smith from The Cure
Les Dawson ***
Peter Purves from Blue Peter. ****

Hardly A-list is it?

The only two internationally recognised people born in Blackpool were Frasier's Dad from the US sitcom, and Sir Stanley Matthews, the Footballer, and he's dead now anyway!

Cool site of the week:

http://www.almostnakedanimals.com/

It made me giggle anyway.

FOR INTERNATIONAL READERS:

* 80's kids tv entertainer, had his hand permanently inserted into the arse of a large, green duck-puppet. Nuf said?
** Played a Ukelele in the 1940's, of "When I'm Cleaning Windows" fame.
*** Comedy Genius, sadly departed.
**** Blue Peter is possibly the most awful childrens programme ever, he was a presenter of this show in the 80's.