Facilities at Work??

Rich158

We've got a manky drying room (boiler room). It just leaves your kit slightly warm, marginally less wet and very definately smelly. With at least 3 sets of kit in there it creates a kind of fug that only escapes when you open the door, unfortunate as it opens onto the only kitchen facilities in the place

tarquin_foxglove

Blimey all I can say about everyone's posts so far is ... Luxury.

We have no bike storage facilities, not even Sheffield Stands in the road outside, so I have to lock my bike to a wooden fence post in our car park and hope no one is bothered to nick it.

I get changed in a 'Locker Room' which contains no lockers, is unheated and only has a cold water supply to the sink. I have waged a silent war with the cleaners who keep removing a chair I keep moving into the locker room so that I have something to sit on when I get changed.

I've been told not to put my cycling gear on radiators or on my pc and so often ride home in damp gear & occasionally wet stuff.

Still it is more fun than driving in.

TRADESIZE

I work in Aztec West, at LV (car insurance), the bike facilities are excellent, 2x good shower rooms, they've just spent the best part of 5k on two secure bike sheds.

If you want to work for a cycling friendly company we always have a a lot of vacancies (not only in Bristol), plus we also do some rides for charity and the amount raised is matched by the company! Some of us are doing LE-JOG next year, oh bike to work scheme too

see here:
http://www.careers.lv.com/fe/tpl_lv01.a ... jtrrkktqdt

let me know if your interested though.

dav1

I have covered cycle parking on a secure site..When I'm in there are showers and changing rooms available (shower is great for the 22 mile off road route in)

no one seems to mind when we use the big radiators in the stairwell to dry our cloths either. They even have a track pump we can borrow

highwaymunky

I'm really lucky, We have a shower room in the office with coat pegs and lockers

So when I get in I hang my clothes up on coat hangers, turn on the electric heater, come home time my gear is dry and warm.

Bike is secured in a compound away from prying eyes (not in a town centre anyway) In a village called Aston (near Sheffield)

In fact the only reason I took this job is because it is 7 miles from home and I could do it by bike!

girv73

I work for a private sector (US owned) software company with offices in the centre of Belfast and a headcount of around 60. We just moved into this brand new building last summer.

I think the company is fairly cycle friendly:
- run a cycle to work scheme
- keep 10-15 bikes in a covered car park
- wall mounted hoops in the car park to lock the bikes to
- 2x showers on our floor with another shared shower off the car park
- access to outside balconies to dry stinky bike gear, or leave them in the
office if you prefer

Furthermore, we've had a few problems with theft recently (including one bike) due to the building door lock being semi-broken and the car park street door being left open all the time by builders. We now have a security guard and management suggested (unprompted) we keep our bikes in the main office (in the corner on carpet mats) until the door issues are resolved.

Grumbles:
- cycle to work scheme is only through Halfords
- I'd like lockers to keep stuff in in the shower rooms, but there's no space
- no heated clothes drying facilities
- the builders keep knocking the showers off so I have to get washed at the sinks

If I was moving jobs to a company with poorer cycle facilities or out of cycle range, I'd really have to think about it. I have actually de-considered companies for those reasons.

chuckcork

Rich, good luck with finding a job if you do get made redundant (fingers crossed you won't), from having been applying for the few jobs out there I know how hard it is now to get one in an architects office. Maybe if I was RIBA it would be different but then again who knows?

On the other hand did have 2 interviews yesterday, not for architectural but cad management work, hopeful on both but expecting to be knocked back on my preferred one, both had somewhere to lock up the bike at least.

Fingers crossed, I'll soon have a job to moan about!

Rich158

Good luck with the job hunting chuckcork, judging by how many job enquiries we get each day it's pretty grim out there at the moment. I don't think being RIBA will make any difference, I know that a few of the guys that left my place last November are still looking and they're RIBA with at 5-10 years experience behind them :shock:

It looks like the axe is going to fall pretty soon, so I'm keeping everything crossed it's not me. Unfortunately I've been through this at least 3 times over my working life so I'm getting pretty used to it every 10 years or so

chuckcork

Rich,

Just had a call from the recruitement firm, subject to paperwork etc looks like I've bagged one of the jobs, not the one I wanted but then again better having one than not. Asked for a decision on the other one in any case though not likely to get by Friday, oh well.

But things are looking up! Woohoo!

(Never though being wayyyyy too technical would be a good thing, but in this case.... )

Rich158

Nice one, it's good to hear there are jobs out there

I sometimes think we're in a forgotten industry, the headlines are full of the car companies etc looking for a hand out, and yet just about everyone involved in housing is haemoraging staff at an alarming rate :shock: I guess propping up the construction industry doesn't grab the headlines in the same way.

lost_in_thought

Rich158 wrote:

Nice one, it's good to hear there are jobs out there

I sometimes think we're in a forgotten industry, the headlines are full of the car companies etc looking for a hand out, and yet just about everyone involved in housing is haemoraging staff at an alarming rate :shock: I guess propping up the construction industry doesn't grab the headlines in the same way.

If it's any consolation, the same is happening in the commercial property sector, it's not confined to housing.

chuckcork

The other professions that have anything to do with property are in the same boat, e.g. conveyancing has become non-existant with the lack of transactions, so solicitors are becoming unemployed at the same rate as the architects, quantity surveyors etc.

I guess if you only have one key skill and no other then you are pretty much screwed if your sector starts to shed jobs by the office load?

Rich158

It's every sector, school work was always seen as the safe haven for architects but with much of the funding being withdrawn that's as sketchy as hell. I can't think of any sector that isn't affected, even the middle east seems shaky at the moment.

It's going to be a very rough year for the construction industry, some of our developer clients have said they're anticipating cutting staff on an almost monthly basis through to December :shock: The impact this will have on their consultants is unthinkable.

It's grim times indeed, I'm just glad I can get out on the bike to vent my frustration, I'm looking forward to the affect this is going to have on my average speed

lost_in_thought

Agreed, both CC and Rich... it's a tough time for everyone.

I had to laugh at this though...

school work was always seen as the safe haven for architects but with much of the funding being withdrawn that's as sketchy as hell

teeheehee... architects... sketchy...

chuckcork

lost_in_thought wrote:

teeheehee... architects... sketchy...

Most us would use Sketchup these days....?

Rich158

I wish I could claim the punn was intentional

I can feel my sense of humour coming back as I type. I love the fact that Sketchup has a sketchy setting......................................it's absurd that most software has a setting to make drawings look hand drawn :roll:

Hey Jax

I have a lampost in the staff car park, then get changed in the loo. a quick rub down with paper towels and hang my moist clothes in the locker room...(of which i dont have a locker!!)
which is fairly warm and my cycling clothes are usually dry (if a little crispy) by the time i set off for home.
..eeeh you kids dont know you're born these days!

chuckcork

Hey Jax wrote:

I have a lampost in the staff car park, then get changed in the loo. a quick rub down with paper towels and hang my moist clothes in the locker room...(of which i dont have a locker!!)
which is fairly warm and my cycling clothes are usually dry (if a little crispy) by the time i set off for home.
..eeeh you kids dont know you're born these days!

Luxury (said in dour northern accent). My last job was lock bike to railings for locals to damage, change in tiny toilet, no paper towels to dry myself with, then try and conceal clothing around work area to dry but not be visible, shorts only as nowhere to dry the jersey so had to take a spare jersey in for the ride home.

Memo: good place to dry shorts is to hang over the back of a PC, the power supply fan will blow acros it nicely and being slightly warm will get the shorts at least almost dry by the end of the day.

Hey Jax

chuckcork wrote:

Hey Jax wrote:

I have a lampost in the staff car park, then get changed in the loo. a quick rub down with paper towels and hang my moist clothes in the locker room...(of which i dont have a locker!!)
which is fairly warm and my cycling clothes are usually dry (if a little crispy) by the time i set off for home.
..eeeh you kids dont know you're born these days!

Luxury (said in dour northern accent). My last job was lock bike to railings for locals to damage, change in tiny toilet, no paper towels to dry myself with, then try and conceal clothing around work area to dry but not be visible, shorts only as nowhere to dry the jersey so had to take a spare jersey in for the ride home.

Memo: good place to dry shorts is to hang over the back of a PC, the power supply fan will blow acros it nicely and being slightly warm will get the shorts at least almost dry by the end of the day.

i actually LOL

wastelander

Same as most I guess - no showers but a large ground-floor toilet suitable for the baby-wipe/chemical shower routine. The plus here is that I do have a locker to hang cycling stuff in and as work is only 10 miles from home and I drive past on the weekend whislt off elsewhere then I drop off enough clean clothes for the next wroking week and take the washing home.

Biggest plus point really is my bike is allowed to remain indoors, in the dry and 10 ft from my desk - nice and safe!

the_hundredth_idiot

An underground car park with machine-gun bearing guards and CCTV. Changing rooms in the basement with permanent lockers. Piping hot showers that would cause an American to exclaim "Gee, they've got some power!". A bathroom for shaving. Pegs for clothes. A separate room with an ironing board and a coffee machine. I don't know why I bother to go home.

Only downside is that we, almost understandably, have a lot of cyclists so the changing room can get a bit crowded at times. I understand the women's changing room (see, we don't even have to share) is less crowded but I've never plucked up the courage to check.

Boy, oh boy - do I feel spoilt or what? I had no idea how bad facilities were at some offices.

PS. Lied about the machine guns, as if you didn't guess. The rest is true, though.

teulk

We have a shower room containing one shower and a bench to sit on - no lockers, no locker room and no where to dry any wet kit. My old office had a locker room, half a dozen showers and enough benches for bout 20 people.......

jinnan_tonnix

Not too bad here.

Good bike rail in a shelter just outside the main doors, so bike is always dry.

Quite a good shower in the disabled toilet.

No official place to dry kit, but I bought a little airer and use the cleaner's store room which has a radiator.

Happy cyclist.