Rick's b.log - entry 2009/11/28

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Work 'do'

Went to a "work do" today. It was mainly aimed at the kids, what with a ventriloquist (!) and Santa handing out presents. Here are some random observations:

Forget Frenchies turning up fashionably late, we got there for half two (the official start time) and were about the sixth person there. The majority turned up about twenty minutes later, and some were turning up over an hour later.
The girls look really different with make-up on - it is forbidden at work to wear the face paint, so I'm used to seeing everybody "au naturel". In some cases, that way looks better!
Except the head maintenance man's wife who was dead cute, I mean really. Wow.
When the Santa (actually one of the cooks who struggled to keep a straight face) was giving out presents for the kiddies, it was depressing how many people hadn't bothered to turn up.
I don't want to sound bitter, but they should have interleaved it with something for people who had no children. This whole time of year tends to come across as a kick in the balls for singletons, especially those who aren't toting screaming meemies in tow. Okay, we win for the other months of the year when we get peace and less a drain on resources, but everything is so geared towards the cute 2.4 children that it is, well... annoying.
The stuff the company were giving to the kids were actually pretty decent things. I was impressed! Not only that, because of this icky kiddie-friendly community spirit thing (at work the girls often talk about each other's children), the presents were often well matched for the children.
...some of which were extremely ungrateful b***ards. I watched one kid who, given some sort of V-Tech computer, pulled it out of its box and hit it on the floor, on chairs, on other people... This of course made the "don't have kids" situation quite a bit more tolerable because, hey, I don't have to live with that child.
You can stuff the room with every Gendarme and Child Welfare person in the département and if that child have been mine I'd have spanked it so hard he would sick up internal organs. Sod the law, that level of misbehaviour and disrespect is so far out of bounds for me. Hell, if you wanna be disrespectful, wait 14-odd years and vote UMP or something.
But I guess the maxim is true - people often value the things they worked for (whatever that 'work' may be), but they don't care so much for stuff they get for free. Even adults abused the freebies, look at the abuse meted out to many company cars!

The weather sucked and the wine bottles were being uncorked, so this cued time to say our goodbyes and leave. All it all it was an odd sort of gathering, though a fairly nice effort by the company to put on something if aimed mainly at the children. Some children were into the whole thing which was good. I just hope the big boss guy was noting the ungrateful so they don't get invited next year!

Another work do

On a related note, there is another 'do' on the 18th of December. This one is organised within our 'team' itself, and is something of a tradition for everybody to go for a meal together at the end of the year (more or less). Last year I think we only had about 12 people turn up, if that. This year the number is higher and I pointedly said to the line managers that I trust they will both be there as their presence was missed last year. Hehe, wiggle out of that! Well, add two extra as they led the way by signing up. Who said tactless never got results? &9786;

A mental case

This coming week I'm working mornings. I will say no more as I'm sure y'all know what I think of getting up at 3.30 to start at 5.
We're working Saturday. In busy season we do this now and again. This year, one a month.

Now, the problem is the other team finishes at 8pm and the clean-up team have to be done for midnight because it is forbidden to work into Sunday. There's like half a dozen rules (laws?) preventing it.

So Mon-Fri I will work 5am to 1.30pm (12.30pm Friday).
Saturday I will work 5pm to midnight.
Yikes!

I tried switching to these hours last Saturday after that early. I'll be a bit dozy towards the end, but I'd cope a lot better than if it was the other way around! And, let's face it, I much prefer the clean-up as I am left to get on with it. I don't want to sound antisocial but being fetch-boy is a "highly volatile" situation with people shouting requests from all corners, and frequently I have to juggle which line is the most important and who should get equipment if there's only one of something and three different people want it. All of this, and I'm a person who speaks very little. It all does my head in! So an evening getting on with my job. I'm not overly happy with the hours, but otherwise I'm kinda looking forward to it!

Speak up, boy!

So the line managers have a new policy for me. At the start of the shift "Hello Nadine, how are you?" and "Hello Céline, how are you?" and so on for thirty-odd people, half of which I'd struggle to remember their names. Which I guess is a bit naff as even people on the other team are like "Hello Richard!" and I have never seen them before. I guess they are saying nice things about me as you don't tend to want to say hello to people you don't want to know. But... I dunno. I think it is a female thing to exercise a lot of words each day. Me? I know I am a fairly quiet person (gee, you wouldn't guess it to read this!) and I can pass an entire day saying nothing.

Of course, I made one of the line managers stand there mouth open when I said "Konnichiwa! Genki da? Kawaïta watashi no kokoro ni". At least she figured it wasn't English. The sentence is Hello! How are you? and then a line from the song Megumi no Ame because I couldn't think of anything else to say!

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	Rick's b.log - 2009/11/28
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Rick's b.log - 2009/11/28

Work 'do'

Another work do

A mental case

Speak up, boy!

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