WBMT.....What baffled me today

Whenever I worked in the IT industry we have always had "levels & bands". For instance, a receptionist could be a level 2 job, sales manager level 6, senior tech level 5. In each of those levels, there would be 3 or 4 pay bands, dependant on experience & performance. Didn't matter what sex you were, where you fitted into the levels & bandings was totally dependant on the job itself, and your experience. I actually had one female account manager who was paid more than most of the guys in the team as she was at the top level pay band because she'd being doing it 20 years, her contacts in the industry were greater than mine, and she got results.
 
cambsno said:
But then you would end up paying them much the same as you earn? See your first point.
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My fault for not making myself clear.

The boss should be a shareholder and like other shareholders, receives part of the profits for taking the risk of losing their investment. If employees choose to take the risk of lending money to the company (that's what a shareholder is doing, at least in theory) then they too should receive their share of the profits.
cambsno said:
Are you really saying a school cleaner should get the same as a teacher, or that a receptionist should get the same a legal counsel in a software firm?
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I think I am.

What I am advocating is a proper balance of socialism and capitalism. In the case of the school, all serve to achieve the end of educating the next generation and should receive the same hourly rate. I certainly think that a cleaner is as important as a teacher, just as I think a receptionist is as important as a lawyer.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
What I am advocating is a proper balance of socialism and capitalism. In the case of the school, all serve to achieve the end of educating the next generation and should receive the same hourly rate. I certainly think that a cleaner is as important as a teacher, just as I think a receptionist is as important as a lawyer.
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So you wouldn't think it important to financially recognise time spent training, expertise, ability or personal investment?
 
ancient_mariner said:
So you wouldn't think it important to financially recognise time spent training, expertise, ability or personal investment?
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That's a good question.

I've already said that investment should be rewarded out of profits, where the organisation is capitalist. In that case, a person who has paid for additional education, has made an investment. Such an investment could be recognised by crediting an appropriate number of shares to a person who brings the appropriate skills into the organisation. Where an organisation is social, such as a hospital, I think that each person has to be just as important as another, in order to achieve the correct outcome.

Please understand that I am "thinking aloud" here, not setting words in stone.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
My fault for not making myself clear.

The boss should be a shareholder and like other shareholders, receives part of the profits for taking the risk of losing their investment. If employees choose to take the risk of lending money to the company (that's what a shareholder is doing, at least in theory) then they too should receive their share of the profits.

I think I am.

What I am advocating is a proper balance of socialism and capitalism. In the case of the school, all serve to achieve the end of educating the next generation and should receive the same hourly rate. I certainly think that a cleaner is as important as a teacher, just as I think a receptionist is as important as a lawyer.
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Well if I am going to get paid the same, for being a cleaner or shelf stacker at Tescos, as I am in my current job where there is travel, additional hours needed, mentally draining, and having to defend a position - and all the stress that goes with it, I can see the majority of people going to stack shelves!
 
cambsno said:
Well if I am going to get paid the same, for being a cleaner or shelf stacker at Tescos, as I am in my current job where there is travel, additional hours needed, mentally draining, and having to defend a position - and all the stress that goes with it, I can see the majority of people going to stack shelves!
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Clearly IF such a system came into use, people would decide on what they wished to do.
 
Jelster said:
Whenever I worked in the IT industry we have always had "levels & bands". For instance, a receptionist could be a level 2 job, sales manager level 6, senior tech level 5. In each of those levels, there would be 3 or 4 pay bands, dependant on experience & performance. Didn't matter what sex you were, where you fitted into the levels & bandings was totally dependant on the job itself, and your experience. I actually had one female account manager who was paid more than most of the guys in the team as she was at the top level pay band because she'd being doing it 20 years, her contacts in the industry were greater than mine, and she got results.
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That is akin the pay structure when I worked as a path lab technician in the 1970's there was one anomaly about scientific staff not being paid equally across all public services.

That was corrected in IIRC 1974/5 due to Union pressure (I was not a Union member). It was all to do with aligning (as closely as possible ~ it did not match!) the NHS pathology services with the Scientific Civil Service pay rates and structures. It has been many years but I think my annual salary, as a Junior Technician, went from £980 to £1200 pa so there was quite a disparity between the two 'services'.
 
Why do people who knock on my door just stand silently when I open the door?

They knocked on my door so why do I have to say "Hi, how can I help you?"

Shouldn't they, upon seeing me open the door, say "Hello, I'm from XXX and we're doing work in your area..."
 
woof woof said:
Why do people who knock on my door just stand silently when I open the door?

They knocked on my door so why do I have to say "Hi, how can I help you?"

Shouldn't they, upon seeing me open the door, say "Hello, I'm from XXX and we're doing work in your area..."
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If they do that opening spiel, I point at the sign beside the doorbell saying "NO COLD CALLERS" and tell them that if they can't read, I wouldn't use their services anyway! Same for politicians but less politely...
 
I found this newspaer report baffling. I wondered why this policeman was still in the job.

An autistic police officer..a Detective Sergeant with the Hampshire police(20 years service) has been allowed to sue the Force because they won't allow him to take his 'mental welfare dog' to work..An employment tribunal was told that when the DS took his dog to work a Det. Inspector told him to take the dog home. The DS has sued the Force for disability discrimination stating that three other staff members had been allowed to bring assistance dogs to work. The tribunal was told that they were exceptions to the rule that dogs cannot be brought into work. Apart from police dogs. :)

The officer works in the Digital Information team. He suffers from a range of conditions including autism, attention deficit hyper-activity disorder, depression and anxiety. It's at this point I thought that he should,maybe, have been discharged on ill-health grounds.

In 2021 he'd asked his supervisor..a Det. Inspector .if he could bring the dog to work and the DI said he'd have to find out if that was ok. Two months later he was told he could not have the dog at work .He,nevertheless,took it in with him. whereupon another DI told him to take it back home and return to work without it. The DS said that the force created a "pressurised environment" around the process of promotion to inspector and that deliberately ambigous questions were asked. Candidates were asked questions on how to deal with a particular scenario that they were given just 30 minutes prior to the interview. He claimed that this disadvantaged neurodiverse employees because it would be more difficult for them to process the information in the allotted time. I'm not sure what this has to do with not being allowed to take his assistance dog to work. Did he want it with him during the promotion process ?

It's a full judge-led inquiry and the judge accepted that this was the practice but made no comment on it. The trial is still proceeding.
 
He was given 30 minutes to think about a question and that's seen as unfair? How often are people given 30 minutes notice in the real world?

On the subject of animals at work. At my last place someone once asked me if they could bring their owl to work. I wasn't their direct manager but I was amongst other things their health and safety manager so I told them no. The next day they caught me by surprise by asking me if I'd like to see the owl. They had brought it to work and it was in a cage under their desk. As time was getting on I didn't see the point in sending them home with it and I certainly didn't want to go down the disciplinary route so I told them to put it back under their desk and prey that no other management got to know about it as they'd probably sack them. Thank goodness they never brought it to work again, as far as I know :D
 
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Sky said:
They're as bad as Amazon - what's wrong with a Jiffy Bag? :facepalm:
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Short version is batteries are generally classed as haz-mat for shipping these day, and therefore need cushioning protection that a Jiffy Bag is insufficient for, to meet carrier terms of shipping.
 
I ordered a new printer and a spare black ink cartridge.
The ink arrived in one van and ten minutes later the printer arrived in another van :oops: :$
 
I once posted a photo of two knitting needles that were delivered to my wife in a ,long, large box.

Anyway.. I'm a 'need to know' chap and I found this.

'A minimum box size is required to move in the warehouse on rollers. Objects that are too small will fall into slots/junctions. Not having too many choices of boxes speeds up the picking and packing process. This limited range also ensures that it is easy to stack and store boxes when shipments go out"

I also read that particular sized boxes can be bought in bulk much cheaper.1000 each of 4 sizes will cost a lot less than 100 each of 40 sizes.

So..there you have it. :)
 
JohnC6 said:
I once posted a photo of two knitting needles that were delivered to my wife in a ,long, large box.

Anyway.. I'm a 'need to know' chap and I found this.

'A minimum box size is required to move in the warehouse on rollers. Objects that are too small will fall into slots/junctions. Not having too many choices of boxes speeds up the picking and packing process. This limited range also ensures that it is easy to stack and store boxes when shipments go out"

I also read that particular sized boxes can be bought in bulk much cheaper.1000 each of 4 sizes will cost a lot less than 100 each of 40 sizes.

So..there you have it. :)
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Makes sense...
 
I ordered a spare wheel kit for my recent car purchase; this included a jack, wheel brace & foam insert for the boot.

When the courier turned up, he handed over a large cardboard box which was labelled as parcel 1 of 2. Needless to say parcel 2 (presumably the wheel) was nowhere to be seen. It took a week for the courier to admit they had lost it, and another 5 days for a replacement to be shipped.

When the inevitable email arrived to ask what thought of the 'service' I let them know what I thought.........
 
WBMT? My wife watching Christmas movies on the television :oops: :$
 
simon ess said:
I went into Home Bargains the other day and one whole aisle was full of christmas tat.

I would never, ever advocate arson. No, I wouldn't do that.
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Mince pies & Panettone are already on sale at Sainsburys, mind you they are still selling hot cross buns.
 
Cockney said:
No. No no no no no.
Tell her I said so. :ROFLMAO:

Brave ol me.
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Unless it's the greatest commercialmas movie ever made - Die Hard!
 
simon ess said:
I went into Home Bargains the other day and one whole aisle was full of christmas tat.

I would never, ever advocate arson. No, I wouldn't do that.
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My local Home Bargains had the Xmas tat on the shelves in August..... even before the Halloween stuff appeared on the shelves!!!!
 
Norkie said:
WBMT? My wife watching Christmas movies on the television :oops: :$
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My mam, sadly died last year, used to watch a Christmas movie channel which ran for a few months every year. At other times it was a romance movie channel. This could be the same one your Mrs is watching.
 
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saltireblue said:
You know when it's getting near Xmas 'cause the shops are full of Easter eggs...
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Kids will soon be at the door wanting money and sweets to stop them singing :D We always give both. I've been saving shrapnel for some time so all I have to do now is buy a tub or two of chocolates.
 
Begging with menaces night next month...
 
It’s my birthday on Halloween so if we get strange* kids at the door I ask if they’ve brought my birthday present.
* No kids in our street, or even many locally, old farts neighbourhood.
 
I've just watched an interview on TV. The "guest" was described as a Marxist although I don't know if these labels mean what they used to mean but he certainly seems to be on what passes for the left in todays weird political spectrum days. He said something that just staggered me. He gave a list of industries which he described as becoming "less relevant" and one of them was farming.

What baffles me is how on earth can anyone think that farming is becoming less relevant? Where does he think food is going to come from? Oh, maybe it'll come from an insect based protein factory?
 
This was a strange one. A week ago, I had an upgrade to my specs... after two years. The lettering on the TV wasn't sharp. When watching football and I looked at the time played and score in the top left corner box of the screen it wasn't sharp. Neither were the players names who were being substituted and neither were the players during the game. It was ok though, when looked with only my right eye so the left one was the problem. The distance to the TV screen from where I sat was 3.7m. Long distance was unaffected. The left lens didn't get an upgrade and the right lens was upgraded by a factor 1. I went back today, saw a different optician and was given another eye test. It took half an hour because he said he wanted to do both eyes again .He concluded that left eye is weaker than the right and there's nothing they can do. He did all those tests where they slot a variety of lenses into a metal glasses frame asking if one lens is better than another when viewing the charts. His conclusion was that the 0.25 correction needed wouldn't make any real difference so he wouldn't have that done. It was the same result as the original optician achieved a week earlier.

I don't know what prompted him to do this but just as I was about to leave, feeling a bit down-hearted, he wanted to try a couple of lenses infront of my own glasses. Bingo. Result ? A 0.5 increase would markedly improve eyesight for not just the left but the right,too. That's what they're doing. The dispensing optician was also present and he and the option couldn't understand how it came about. That was the impression I got. Both lenses will now get a 0.5 upgrade.. All that faffing about dropping a variety of lenses into their metal frames..like a filter into a filter holder on a camera lens when a more accurate result can be achieved in a very short space of time by placing their upgraded lenses infront of the customer's own specs that need replacing. I don't doubt it's more complicated than that. Looking forward to picking them up in a week or so. In the meantime I have to wear the old ones.I did buy a pair for my computer which required an upgrade of 3 and they are fine. All the eye strain has gone that I got after a couple of hours on the computer.
 
Just listening to R4 and a call in respondent was saying how poor the Royal Mail delivery service has been.

I was at that moment looking up the tracking of a screening test sample I had sent back. Now the address to which it is due to go to is about 6miles away from me here in Surrey. However, possibly bearing in mind the letter is a small package not a letter.......it is so far this morning in Glasgow MC (Mail Centre)! It is a prepaid 48 Hour service which I posted on Saturday before (I think) the last collection time.

So, though the recipient address is actual different to the 'test lab' address or they still have 24 hours (based on the countdown starting on Monday) to get it from Glasgow back to Surrey :thinking:
 
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Yesterday.

I got my credit card bill. It was nothing out of the ordinary, I think it was for £30 odd for just a couple of things off Amazon or ebay but also included was a yearly report and I was surprised to see that I'd spent over £19,500 on my credit card :oops: :$

Most of the household bills are direct debit with just a few little things going on the card then there's house and car insurance, car servicing as no one accepts cash these days, MoT, Mrs WW's visa expenses and flights plus I bought a new camera (Sony A7III) and there's the legal expenses since my mothers death and all the hassle I've had with my awful family but it still seems a lot and I'm struggling to think where it all went really, but I'm sure it went rather than being fraud as I check every month. I do pay it all off, I never pay any interest.

Oh well.
 
woof woof said:
Yesterday.

I got my credit card bill. It was nothing out of the ordinary, I think it was for £30 odd for just a couple of things off Amazon or ebay but also included was a yearly report and I was surprised to see that I'd spent over £19,500 on my credit card :oops: :$

Most of the household bills are direct debit with just a few little things going on the card then there's house and car insurance, car servicing as no one accepts cash these days, MoT, Mrs WW's visa expenses and flights plus I bought a new camera (Sony A7III) and there's the legal expenses since my mothers death and all the hassle I've had with my awful family but it still seems a lot and I'm struggling to think where it all went really, but I'm sure it went rather than being fraud as I check every month. I do pay it all off, I never pay any interest.

Oh well.
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I keep detailed home accounts on a spreadsheet, have done for years.
It’s interesting to see how much we have spent in various stores or how much on clothing or IT stuff. Plus the usual utilities etc.
 
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