the British attitude towards work

robbie the roadie

Yesterday the heating in our office had packed up and consequently it was bl**dy freezing. About 4 pm yesterday an engineer arrived to fix it but he spent most of the time on his mobile and it is very much apparent that he hasn't fixed it as the radiators are not working again today.

Now it's obviously far colder than the HSE 16oC minimum working temperatures for offices but no one in management has issued us with any word about what to and like wise no one has pointed out to them with any real conviction that legally we could all go home. Are we as a nation to scared to ask of our employeers what is legally allowed to us?

You can bet our continental chums with their attitude (IMHO opinion the better attitude ie work to live not live to work) towards work would already be heading back home

carlstone

Are we as a nation to scared to ask of our employeers what is legally allowed to us?

In a word, Yes. We are all sh1t scared that we will be branded the 'nigger in the woodpile' and it will just make life harder for us in the long run. Better (in your instance) to put up with a few days cold than be branded a moaning minny and get stick for the foreseeable future, passed over for promotion etc. I think it all stems from the industrial revolution when the bosses did 'own' you, the proles were kept down and basically treated like slaves. Its also ingrained in the British mantality that you don't complain. I am as bad as the next man for this, don't dwell on it, just moan amongst yourelves, a bit of cold won't do you any harm

ChrisLS

...British bosses can get away with almost anything, even though there seems to be so many rules and regs. and health and safety. I have been working for the last 18 months with no contract, terms and conditions or even a letter to say I work here. I am just waiting for the day I get called into the office for some misconduct or infringement of company poloicy...oh boy I look forward to that day... :twisted: :twisted: :evil: :?

spen666

robbie the roadie wrote:

Yesterday the heating in our office had packed up and consequently it was bl**dy freezing. About 4 pm yesterday an engineer arrived to fix it but he spent most of the time on his mobile and it is very much apparent that he hasn't fixed it as the radiators are not working again today.

Now it's obviously far colder than the HSE 16oC minimum working temperatures for offices but no one in management has issued us with any word about what to and like wise no one has pointed out to them with any real conviction that legally we could all go home. Are we as a nation to scared to ask of our employeers what is legally allowed to us?

You can bet our continental chums with their attitude (IMHO opinion the better attitude ie work to live not live to work) towards work would already be heading back home

Have YOU asked your boss re the heating?

Have YOU told him you can legally go home?


If not, then why not? Are you too scared of your boss, or do you expect others to do these tasks and moan when they are not done instead of doing it yourself?


OR are you the boss who has terrified his employees?

robbie the roadie

spen666 wrote:

Have YOU asked your boss re the heating?

Have YOU told him you can legally go home?


:

Yes to both actually. I have pointed out that we can legally go home and the reply was very much 'well you've got your coat on' jokey response.

gumball3000

Depends on the context of the work..

I have Latvians and Slovaks working for me at the moment. The English lads are the first to moan, complain about regulations and lecture the management in what we can and cant do. Most of the time they are wrong. The eastern European lads just get on with it. One of them manages at least 80 hours a week and still looks for more. The English lads are fiddling fuel and every other trick in the book.

gumball3000

One for Robbie.....

Our 80 hour Latvian was rewarded for his trouble with a metal bar round the head and was robben by some lovely people down Springbank in Hull on Friday night!

I love Hull....

ChrisLS

...gumball...oh please let me work 80 hours a week for you...please

gumball3000

ChrisLS wrote:

...gumball...oh please let me work 80 hours a week for you...please

As long as you work for Vodka and potatoes!

gumball3000

ChrisLS wrote:

...gumball...oh please let me work 80 hours a week for you...please

Just to make me sound less of a nazi...

He asks for all the hours he works, it is all legit and he is a skilled tradesman (Not sure if he still is after the beating) and we do actually pay them all properly.....

My point was that the English guys get paid the same but don't have the hunger for work.

Not that I am a slave driver!

vermooten

More Daily Mail-style threads in Cake Stop. Average age in here...?

richardjallen

I work in Hull as well. In an office BTW. I can tell now why unions were so prevalent in the north of England. For instance we have an office block for the management and an office block for the engineers. When Hull flooded a few months ago the only block to survive without letting in any water was our engineering block. The managers are in the process of moving into one of the unused blocks while theirs dries out. They have redecorated the temporary block already and redecorated their permanent blck about 4 times since I've been here and not once have they repainted in the engineering block. It looks like it has not been decorated in at least 10 years. They buy single ply toilet paper, frequently run out of soap, the toilets do not fill properly, we don't get a Christmas bonus or even a card, they won't join the cycle to work scheme.

Earlier in the year I read an artical about some foreign work agency in Hull that charged its put its workers up in accommodation and deducted the board from their salaries leaving them with about a tenner per week pay. No wonder they work 25 hours a day.

All this from a nation that 'campaigns' against slavery yet is built on migrant workers who are paid almost nothing.

Another question is how can unemployment be low yet foreign workers are apparently taking 81% of new jobs? What can all the nationals doing other than claiming dole?

Anyway better watch out or some will be along to say we've been reading the Daily Mail .

Edit - Too late they got there already.

term1te

I used to have a genuine factories act thermometer, with a big red line at 60 F. I was told it only applied to factories, and not offices?

robbie the roadie

Term1te wrote:

I used to have a genuine factories act thermometer, with a big red line at 60 F. I was told it only applied to factories, and not offices?

different minimums depending on what you work environment is classed as. The HSE website tells us that for 'offices' it's 16oC.

gumball3000

I am really going to get on my soapbox now.

For you Hull based people...I used to run a Karting Track....

I took on a grounds Maintainance man from a Government scheme, as we were skint at the time and needed someone. The bloke was still paid his benefits. (After so many months on the dole, you have to join one of these schemes I believe). The Guy turned out to be really good, and we were asked if we would like to take him on via a different scheme, which would get him off the Dole and working full time with us. We Paid £50 a week and the scheme made up the rest. This sounds a little odd, but I used the same scheme with an office worker, and he now works with me full time on real money after proving himself to be very useful!

We took on the maintainace guy and as soon as the Government realised that he was off the dole they cancelled all of his benefits including council tax rebates, water, gas and electric rebates and Rent rebates. It turned out that the guy was several hundred pounds a month worse off.

He wanted to work, but was actually substantially out of pocket compared to not working at all. The guy was no genius. He had not twisted the system or claimed false benefits. It was all organised for him at the dole office.

Sadly, he didn't tell us any of this and kept plodding on with trying to make ends meet. He ended up getting kicked out of his council flat, as he couldn't keep up the payments.

If he had not bothered to try and stayed on the dole, he would have been fine.

Not all foreigners are on poor money. None of mine are on less than £6.50 an hour and they will work twice as hard as some of our lads on double that!

I am not suggesting that people should take advantage of the benefit sytem and not work, but when the system makes it HARDER for someone to get back to work, why would they bother?

spen666

gumball3000 wrote:

I am really going to get on my soapbox now.

For you Hull based people...I used to run a Karting Track....

I took on a grounds Maintainance man from a Government scheme, as we were skint at the time and needed someone. The bloke was still paid his benefits. (After so many months on the dole, you have to join one of these schemes I believe). The Guy turned out to be really good, and we were asked if we would like to take him on via a different scheme, which would get him off the Dole and working full time with us. We Paid £50 a week and the scheme made up the rest. This sounds a little odd, but I used the same scheme with an office worker, and he now works with me full time on real money after proving himself to be very useful!

We took on the maintainace guy and as soon as the Government realised that he was off the dole they cancelled all of his benefits including council tax rebates, water, gas and electric rebates and Rent rebates. It turned out that the guy was several hundred pounds a month worse off.

He wanted to work, but was actually substantially out of pocket compared to not working at all. The guy was no genius. He had not twisted the system or claimed false benefits. It was all organised for him at the dole office.

Sadly, he didn't tell us any of this and kept plodding on with trying to make ends meet. He ended up getting kicked out of his council flat, as he couldn't keep up the payments.

If he had not bothered to try and stayed on the dole, he would have been fine.

Not all foreigners are on poor money. None of mine are on less than £6.50 an hour and they will work twice as hard as some of our lads on double that!

I am not suggesting that people should take advantage of the benefit sytem and not work, but when the system makes it HARDER for someone to get back to work, why would they bother?

so you want the government to subsidise you paying slave labour so tyou increase your profits at the expense of the taxpayer.

try paying proper wages

Random Vince

spen666 wrote:

gumball3000 wrote:

I am really going to get on my soapbox now.

For you Hull based people...I used to run a Karting Track....

I took on a grounds Maintainance man from a Government scheme, as we were skint at the time and needed someone. The bloke was still paid his benefits. (After so many months on the dole, you have to join one of these schemes I believe). The Guy turned out to be really good, and we were asked if we would like to take him on via a different scheme, which would get him off the Dole and working full time with us. We Paid £50 a week and the scheme made up the rest. This sounds a little odd, but I used the same scheme with an office worker, and he now works with me full time on real money after proving himself to be very useful!

We took on the maintainace guy and as soon as the Government realised that he was off the dole they cancelled all of his benefits including council tax rebates, water, gas and electric rebates and Rent rebates. It turned out that the guy was several hundred pounds a month worse off.

He wanted to work, but was actually substantially out of pocket compared to not working at all. The guy was no genius. He had not twisted the system or claimed false benefits. It was all organised for him at the dole office.

Sadly, he didn't tell us any of this and kept plodding on with trying to make ends meet. He ended up getting kicked out of his council flat, as he couldn't keep up the payments.

If he had not bothered to try and stayed on the dole, he would have been fine.

Not all foreigners are on poor money. None of mine are on less than £6.50 an hour and they will work twice as hard as some of our lads on double that!

I am not suggesting that people should take advantage of the benefit sytem and not work, but when the system makes it HARDER for someone to get back to work, why would they bother?

so you want the government to subsidise you paying slave labour so tyou increase your profits at the expense of the taxpayer.

try paying proper wages

learn to read, he said he was taken on by another scheme where he had to pay him £50 per week and was unaware that the benefits had stopped or he'd have payed him a proper wage

richardjallen

gumball3000 wrote:

I am not suggesting that people should take advantage of the benefit sytem and not work, but when the system makes it HARDER for someone to get back to work, why would they bother?

Thats a failure of the welfare system. I'm not having a go at people on the dole or migrant workers. I'm wondering how it can be that migrant workers are filling so many jobs yet unemployment is low. Where are the school/college/university leavers going? Perhaps everyone is starting their own limited companies and employing themselves.

giant_man

[quote="gumball3000"]I am really going to get on my soapbox now.

For you Hull based people...I used to run a Karting Track....

I took on a grounds Maintainance man from a Government scheme, as we were skint at the time and needed someone. The bloke was still paid his benefits. (After so many months on the dole, you have to join one of these schemes I believe). The Guy turned out to be really good, and we were asked if we would like to take him on via a different scheme, which would get him off the Dole and working full time with us. We Paid £50 a week and the scheme made up the rest. This sounds a little odd, but I used the same scheme with an office worker, and he now works with me full time on real money after proving himself to be very useful!

We took on the maintainace guy and as soon as the Government realised that he was off the dole they cancelled all of his benefits including council tax rebates, water, gas and electric rebates and Rent rebates. It turned out that the guy was several hundred pounds a month worse off.

He wanted to work, but was actually substantially out of pocket compared to not working at all. The guy was no genius. He had not twisted the system or claimed false benefits. It was all organised for him at the dole office.

Sadly, he didn't tell us any of this and kept plodding on with trying to make ends meet. He ended up getting kicked out of his council flat, as he couldn't keep up the payments.

If he had not bothered to try and stayed on the dole, he would have been fine.

Not all foreigners are on poor money. None of mine are on less than £6.50 an hour and they will work twice as hard as some of our lads on double that!

I am not suggesting that people should take advantage of the benefit sytem and not work, but when the system makes it HARDER for someone to get back to work, why would they bother?[/quote]
Welcome to England!! If you're too honest in this country, you get fucked! Simple as that.

squired

If people are finding that being on benefits leaves them far better off than when they have a job the inference is that the benefits are too high. They should be scaled back so that people have a reason to work. Also, a lot of English people are very image conscious, so won't do certain jobs. Back when I was a teenager in the early 90's people were happy to have a Saturday job anywhere, just so they could get some money. My cousin is now in his teens, and wouldn't be seen dead working in places like Sainsburys, Tescos, Woolworths, etc. As I said to him, if you want a job you can't afford to be picky - try them all and then look at the options.

gumball3000

spen666 wrote:

gumball3000 wrote:

Not all foreigners are on poor money. None of mine are on less than £6.50 an hour and they will work twice as hard as some of our lads on double that!

so you want the government to subsidise you paying slave labour so tyou increase your profits at the expense of the taxpayer.

try paying proper wages

We are paying foreign, non tradesmen,(Unskilled, if you like) workers £6.50 an hour. I seem to think that that is far more than minimum wage and what we HAVE to pay them. We reward our workers that work HARD for us. They mainly seem to be foreign at the moment.

robbie the roadie

squired wrote:

Ifsome money. My cousin is now in his teens, and wouldn't be seen dead working in places like Sainsburys, Tescos, Woolworths, etc. As I said to him, if you want a job you can't afford to be picky - try them all and then look at the options.

It might also help if their parents told them to sod off instead of just handing over cash all the time

Smeggers

What a bunch of jobs-worth!!!

Just put a frickin jumper on!!!!!!

gumball3000

Smeggers wrote:

What a bunch of jobs-worth!!!

Just put a frickin jumper on!!!!!!

Depends what type of Jumper though. Certain materials can lead to all kinds of health and safety issues... :P :roll:

Big Red S

Its also ingrained in the British mantality that you don't complain. [/quote]

No, the British mentality is that you complain nigh on incessantly, just not to the people who could fix it.

richardjallen

Big Red S wrote:

Its also ingrained in the British mantality that you don't complain.

No, the British mentality is that you complain nigh on incessantly, just not to the people who could fix it.[/quote]

Thats because we've learned they will only fek it up further.

RedAende

robbie the roadie wrote:

Yesterday the heating in our office had packed up and consequently it was bl**dy freezing. About 4 pm yesterday an engineer arrived to fix it but he spent most of the time on his mobile and it is very much apparent that he hasn't fixed it as the radiators are not working again today.

Now it's obviously far colder than the HSE 16oC minimum working temperatures for offices but no one in management has issued us with any word about what to and like wise no one has pointed out to them with any real conviction that legally we could all go home. Are we as a nation to scared to ask of our employeers what is legally allowed to us?

You can bet our continental chums with their attitude (IMHO opinion the better attitude ie work to live not live to work) towards work would already be heading back home

We had the exact same problem for 2 days, its happened before, got a combi bolier to heat office/water for 12. I was for walking out but none of my colleagues would have followed. Its not that I dont mind the cold, its friggin freezin cycling in the winter, but the principle. Scrooge employee, refused to sign up for cycle2work , abolished final salary pension etc.