Boss Hogg

you sound proud of working for NMUK, when in fact you describe a demoralising, dehumanising humiliating job - sounds like something from 1984 (the book, not the year).

My sis used to work in marketing for Nissan Europe head office in A'dam. She worked hard occasionally, but equally had days where she did sweet FA -and I don't recall her mentioning anyone there had to sh*t themselves because they couldn't go to the loo.

The fact is Nissan can pick and choose in Sunderland because of the high unemployment rate and equally, they can impose harsh working conditions. But to me, you'd have to be desperate to do a job like that - and to be fair, a lot of ppl who work there are - because what's the alternative?

StickyMicky

cant comment on sunderlands unemployment as i dont live there, i would agree that i was proud to work there

it was the hardest job to get into ive applied for, the usual tests, english, maths, medicals, but also practical stuff, being timed doing things like a simple wheel swap. sum electrical wireing and such
and then there was a 2 hour line trial where you work for free for 2 hours on there line while being observed, to make sure your not retarded.

there are a lot of people who work @ the plant in the usual it style jobs upstairs, and every one of them on there first day is made to do a days work on the shop floor actualy building the cars, admitidly they were given the most easy jobs going and with extra help, but a lot of them didnt even relise what had hit them until they were running around all over the shop with a sweat on,good practise for the company, show the people upstairs who sit about all day exactly what it takes to keep the company moving, and that is hard work

LG John

Got my computer back today but I still haven't been told ANYTHING officially. They sent an email to my line manager saying they are taking away my internet access as the found stuff on my HD in breach of the IT policy and potentially dangerous to the network and IT systems. In other words they found mpg's of cars racing, pictures of scoobys, etc, etc. Obviously they removed such dangerous stuff from my HD before returning my computer to me but as usual IT staff are so inept (sp?) that they just put it in the recycle bin and didn't hit 'empty' So, with just 3 clicks of a mouse I could restore ALL of this dangerous stuff back to the HD!!!!

Whether I have done right or wrong is not in debate here as I've said a million times. I have breached the it policy so therefore have done wrong. As I said it it not written anywhere whether there is a difference between a slight breach or a massive breach. The only such distinction that is made is the difference between someone using the computer for illegal purposes or for ****, etc (which I've not). For this reason if they come down hard on me for breaching the policy I WILL go right back and request to know why they are making an example of me. Its my understanding that an employeer cannot make an example of an employee in this manner to strike fear into the others and as such I'd appeal/fight on those grounds

the moose

Your faith in the protection afforded you by employment laws is, I'm afraid, somewhat misplaced. They'd clearly never admit to making an example of you, but if they want to find a way to show that you were the worst offender/have had complaints made about you/have "endangered the company's computer system" (always a fave, this one), then believe me, it will be done. I know, I've done it - we had to get rid of a person who was completely useless, so she was busted for e-mail and internet abuse.

Was she any worse than any others? Almost certainly not; but then they did their job well, and a blind eye was turned. It was cut-and-dried that she'd been abusing the system, and so much easier to prove than crappy performance (the main reason for her being put on the bus). Frankly, so long as people don't embarrass the company, I don't care what they download. Similarly, if they're getting the job done, I'm not that worried over the length of time they spend on the internet. But if they're rubbish at their job, then I'd use any means necessary to get them out of the building.

Brendan Hughes

Just thought I'd repeat that, for the benefit of the 600 systems managers on scoobynet

LG John

But there is the problem for them. Despite the fact I read SN, etc I still get my work done and my manager will happily confirm that I am a valued and important part of the team and that he can't afford to lose me.

SiPie

StickyMicky

It's 19:15 on Friday evening and I feel a bit of a turtle's head appearing...... in fact I think I may be touching cloth

........ and as I've been here for 11 hours and 51 minutes without a break (apart from 5 mins to down a roll and a mars bar... oh....and going for a pee... that's a number 1 and not a number 2 as I wouldn't dare slack for so long .. and hence the 'touching cloth reference' earlier in post)

... i was just wondering if it would be ok if I could go home now ...... please ? All the backlog is clear as well... I promise!

Oh and having just read what you actually do for a living (no offence to other line/plant workers.........) I'll be walking up to my car pissing myself laughing at you !!! You see I genuinely thought you did something important from your earlier posts

Take care

StickyMicky

you laugh because i am a hard worker?
that is possibly the most gay thing ive read on this post
go home when you want, make sure when you start pissing yourself that you dont drop the turtles head on your shoes, you might have to take time off to get them cleaned

lmao

bluto22b

If you had been driving one of my lorries I would have sacked you for lack of commitment. I didn't get where I am today without shear hard work determination and endless hours at my office (I used to run my own haulage business for those who don't already know). Anyone who showed ambition, devotion and commitment to my company was usually rewarded by either 1/ promotion from the cab to traffic management, 2/ a healthy wage packet at the end of a 90 hour week.

J S W

well he ain't a lorry driver is he

jods

I'd guess fairly close to body temperature

Mebbe that is how StickyMicky got his name ??

imlach

Yeah?.....sacked for surfing while driving an HGV? Seems a bit harsh


Hmm....sure I've heard that before somewhere back in the 70's
The fall & rise of this discussion is outstanding.....

ChrisB

Noted

By the way, all this rush to clear logs, caches etc on workstations or servers is ammusing.

Take a tool like Little Brother (might be called something else these days) and you can watch in real time what web sites people are visiting just by sniffing the network traffic...

Molds

replace "fuel" with "content" and blame it on content surge from the internet when you were least expecting it!

sorry,.. couldnt resist.

its a tricky one. as already noted there are many ways to find out what someone has been doing. windows 2k/xp has at least one directory i can think of you cant see unless you know it is there - pc big bro watching, network proxy/f.wall watching etc etc. after the fact now, but obviously the best thing for anyone to do is surf at home in partic if you have a stricy usage policy.

fortunately for me i look after out network and i keep the proxy logging turned off hehe

giblet

http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?...7702&area=news

Well - not hope as such - cos by the time you get to this position you're already outta work. However, perhaps it does confirm what you thought about "how illegal is illegal use". It's a very grey area for employers and employees alike...

Best of luck SB - hope your line manager gives you every chance -he sounds like a decent character witness...

bluto22b

Quote "The fall & rise of this discussion is outstanding....."

PMSL

I bet Reggie would be impressed eh? lol

ajm

Ethereal on Linux, or Snoop on Solaris.... oh the fun.... the power!!!

milo

at the end of the day, that should be all that matters. you're working for a pretty f'd up company if they'd get rid of someone who's doing all the work required in LESS time than they expect, and then spending the free time THEY made by being good at their job, to harmlessly read information on the internet. people are ALWAYS making personal calls at work, and this is no different. sure if you were doing something illegal, it wouldn't be that simple... but the company should wake up and realise the job you're doing is beneath you if you're able to complete your work AND spend all that time online WITHOUT your manager having a problem, and they should promote you into a more challenging role.

to be honest bro, i'd look for a new job. you'll find it much more fulfilling, both financially and intellectually, if you're stretched and challenged at a job. and it sounds like your current one is too simple for you. it will also make all your core lifts go up 20% (well, maybe not).

good luck

LG John

In fairness I have been looking for such a job and have had an offer but it just wasn't right. I didn't feel it was wise to move for movings sake so will hold off until the right job comes along. Also, I pour my energies into looking at other secondary ways to make a living. Poker is going well

jasey

Don't use your work computer

LG John

Rodge I'm not taking to highly to the allegation you're making against me

I know of the guy that's going down. I'm told he had his fingers in a few sticky pies and is doing the time for his crime.

imlach

Hmm....quite common I fear.
I may/may not know of someone else who was sacked for a similar offence.

ozzy

Of course, that's all Kenny's fault

15 posts in two years; that's some amount of lurking or are you posting under an alias?

I can think of far worse examples of wasting of time and money from Councils without blaming Kenny for surfing the net.

imlach

This is the other side of the argument that I alluded to several pages back.
When you are in a public sector job, it is the public that ultimately pay your wages through their council tax, and often income tax as well (central govt funding), and as such, you have to expect that the public feel they have a say in your job.

If there are people like Rodge reading this, they are probably going to feel aggrieved reading of stuff such as this, especially if they have had planning applications taking time...

Of course, on the other hand, Rodge knows nothing about how you do your job, reasons why applications take so long, how much overtime you do (unpaid even!), and if there is general understaffing.
No-one is a robot, and no-one expect 100% efficiency. Burnout, stress, sickness, etc etc should be factored in if everyone is pushed too far. So instead of 95% efficiency, you'd get a lot less.

It's not quite so simple Rodge sadly, but I can see why you may be angry.

imlach

Lurking uses almost as much bandwidth as posting....

What job do you do Rodge?

imlach

I suspect it'll stay in that pile a while longer now

Seriously, why not abuse the system like everyone else does and ask Kenny himself if he can 'help' things along

Rodge

Good answer....absolutely correct.

I personally have nothing against Kenny but his whole life is on this BBS. What happens if the Council HR staff decide to start reading this/printing it out as evidence/whatever?

p@ul

If say your spending an hour of councils time per day on sn at say £10 per hour ish then thats £50 per week its costing them for you to do it and totalled over a year is over 2k a year thats probably whats pissing them off m8 lol but jeez to add to that if say half the staff do this/****/mine sweeper etc i wouldnt like to thnk what its costing em

LG John

Rodge, I can see why you are angry with your application taking that long but perhaps you should phone the officer involved and find out why it has and how you can progress it. I can assure you that everyone in my office are reasonable and professional people and will happily discuss things through with you.

Whilst you personally haven't had the best of experience with East Lothian planning consider this: In 1996 we were one of the worst performing planning departments in Scotland and Scottish Executive hit us hard for it. The year before last we were 2nd behind a small authority dealing with a very small amount of applications and we've only slipped slightly since. When I joined in 2000 we recieved around 1100 applications and last year we got something in the region of 1450 applications and that was with LESS staff than previous!! We recently appointed a new temporary planner to help us maintain our performance despite these increases in case load.

Factor in the fact that East Lothian (along with Edinburgh City) has a very high proportion of listed buildings which are very difficult to deal with and I fail to see how ELC planning can be regarded as anything other than one of the best performing (if not THE best) planning department in Scotland. All of this is despite the fact that I will surf scoobynet a few times a day, that the guy next to me will unwind to a game of solitaire and that we'll sometimes huddle round a computer and watch a funny email Fwd.

Next I'd ask you to take a walk around Haddington, North Berwick, Gullane, Aberlady, etc and then tell me we aren't also making good efforts to maintain these attractive places. Yes, we can be quite a 'hard' planning department but thats only because strict policy exists to maintain these nice towns and villages and these policies all have the full support of your democratically elected memebers.

As a tax payer and a user of East Lothain Council you are more than entitled to have a go at me regarding what I do when I'm at work. Nevertheless, I've just outlined to you that despite your perception of my use of my work time I am performing as expected by my peers and East Lothian's Planning Department is performing right up there with the best of the Scottish Planning Departments and this is despite the problems of a massive amount of listed Buildings, an increasing application turn over, losing a valued senior planner and then another experienced planner going on maternity leave and then returning on a part-time basis.

With regards to my life history that really is not your concern. I'm not a private person that's just who I am! I don't mind people knowing who I am, what I do, how much I earn, what car I drive, what my likes, dislikes are, etc. I don't know many other people like me - perhaps my openess it what makes me special as a person - I don't know? Either way, I feel this is not for you to critisise

P.S. Do you drive a scooby and if so which one! Would it be the blue classic estate I tried to bait down the A1 sliproad the other day

LG John

If you know me as well as you alude (sp?) then you'll know I'm not to worried about that. I do my job, yes I could probably do it better but then if the truth be known I'm sure we can all do things in our life better if we REALLY had to. Right now as I type I'm playing poker and winning......but I'm also looking through SN and celtic are losing to Scumferline in the background. I could easily win more at poker if I switched my full resources and attention to it but I'd rather not right now. There are times and places where you can give that 110% and it sure as hell ain't ALL the time IMHO.