Early Risers.

[PupCam]

Clear Prop!

 

7 hours ago, AndrewC said:

I finally gone and dunnit. Accepted a new job, signed the contract, and fired off my resignation after 11 years, 5 months. 14 more working days.

Congratulations, like Poly something I never actually got round to doing although I did do the next best thing in what was a very large organisation; go and find another corner to lurk in (well, I did it 4 or 5 times actually over the years)

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Oh dear, how sad...Bear is most upset....

Did that sound sincere? 

Not in the slightest

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Now would your ER Buddies do that?  We're all very appreciative of the fine role that HR play.....

Now did that one sound sincere?

Even less ...

 

As I see it the trouble started when Personnel became Human Resources .....      One of the very many things that cheesed me off over the years was being a "resource". 

 

         NO!   NO!   NO!   NO!

I'm not a soldering iron, a box of spanners, a delivery truck, a CAD system, an office, a bunch of material, a pack of nuts and bolts, a box of 10k Ohm 1/4 Watt resistors, a network .......  well you get the idea.

 

I'm a real, breathing, living (well, just about) person who didn't take too kindly to being shoved back in the cupboard when so-and-so has finished with me or can't afford me until somebody else decides that either Puppers is the ideal man for the job or Puppers is the only bod going spare at the moment.

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear reads that as "even stroppier than usual...."

 

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Don't worry too much about mechanical engineers - they seem to be adaptable from what I've seen over the years

........

 

So nothing wrong with engineers moving on but for highly technical jobs they  definitely need to be those who know their limits.

I would have to agree with that and the caveat!    The trouble is some of the very, very specialised people don't appreciate their limits ........

 

As I started off as a mechanical engineer designing stuff (including getting a couple of patents for something), testing stuff then moved into instrumentation and electronics, designing test equipment then writing test and prime equipment software, running test equipment and software development teams and finally ending up in Systems and all of those included a fair smattering of real "rocket science".

 

43 minutes ago, TheQ said:

A mechanical engineer is fine, just not for needing to be able to design electronics test equipment and write software for it.

Sorry, I'd have to disagree with that as a generalisation - everyone is different and actually I've found having a very good (but I freely admit not super-expert level) grip of a large number of disciplines makes a far more rounded engineer and potentially more useful than a square peg specialist  in a round hole.

 

Come to think of it maybe that's why I used to be treated as a "resource" .......

 

[Coombe Barton]

22 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

It appears a lot of HR folk have got much too big for their boots.

I teach HR Master degree people and I would agree with you. 

For the past three years I've had at least one of them per cohort them disagreeing with me regarding the statistics I'm teaching them. I have adopted the conciliatory approach of saying "No, you're wrong"

Lead balloon time until they realise that they're going to fail.

[simontaylor484]

4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Sentient yoghurt takes over fridge…

Must be a live yoghurt

[The Lurker]

Congratulations to AndrewC.

 

I can always tell when a member of our HR team is about to leave; they want to link up on LinkedIn.

 

The ones at my current place have varied over the years, from the former head of HR who interviewed me on joining and explained that the office had people from many different countries and asked whether I had any issues working with people from different cultures, to some who have been pretty user friendly when it comes to recruitment etc.

 

I tend to remember the annoyances from the ones in previous roles; but isn't that always the case? You don't notice someone doing their job properly; only when they do something stupid.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I had to deal with many different managers when I was working. Undoubtedly the best ones were those who had 'come off of the tools', having worked their way up from tea boy in some cases. They had very little contact with HR other than advertising vacancies but hiring and firing they kept to themselves. All this changed when council services were privatised, most of the managers took early retirement and I don't blame them.

[simontaylor484]

26 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I had to deal with many different managers when I was working. Undoubtedly the best ones were those who had 'come off of the tools', having worked their way up from tea boy in some cases. They had very little contact with HR other than advertising vacancies but hiring and firing they kept to themselves. All this changed when council services were privatised, most of the managers took early retirement and I don't blame them.

We had the same sort of management at the council i worked for. Unfortunately some didnt deserve the position they ended up in. Some were certainly stuck in doing things like they did back in their day sadly we didnt have a workforce of the same size .

 

@jamie92208 I hope little Emily gets sorted soon i would consider trying out of hours drs or taking to A+E. I think that inability to get to see a Gp was filling a+e waiting rooms before the pandemic hit.

 

In other news the clearout has continued the skip is half full again I have got most of the rubbish out now the remnants need putting in the Garage or other places. Then the carpet can be cut up and skipped. The wife has started calling me Mr Trebus after one of the hoarders on tv where you couldn't move in 

[Barry O]

@PupCam  I started designing mechanical things but then they realised that I was OK with simulation systems as well as electronic systems and , as part of my diverse roles in Missile Dept. I ended up writing and maintaining ATE software (and Hardware for an item which once skewered a submarine...  

 

Baz

[Coombe Barton]

3 minutes ago, Barry O said:

I ended up writing and maintaining ATE software (and Hardware for an item which once skewered a submarine... 

Intentionally?

[Ian Abel]

Hmmm, looks like my earlier response of the day disappeared into the ether

 

@jamie92208 Hope little Emily gets the needed Dr. visit soon, very disturbing, so sorry to hear that 

@AndrewC Good luck with the new job/position, being rid of c*ckwombles hopefully 

 

Wednesday/HUMP it is.

 

Nothing much to report from yesterday, another day worthy of a decent walk for Whitney at her favorite spot.

 

Today Jemma will be here later, done with the first couple of days re-training in Atlanta. Not sure when she goes back there, but will learn more when she arrives.

 

Expected to be pleasant all day with a light breeze and sunny high of 29-31, so they say.

 

Carry on.

 

[Barry O]

14 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Intentionally?

most certainly!

 

Baz

[PupCam]

25 minutes ago, Barry O said:

@PupCam  I started designing mechanical things but then they realised that I was OK with simulation systems as well as electronic systems and , as part of my diverse roles in Missile Dept. I ended up writing and maintaining ATE software (and Hardware for an item which once skewered a submarine...  

 

Baz

Seems like a common approach although I’ve never worried a sub ....

 

Come to think about it, I did get a couple of software subcontractors grumpy once or twice

[PupCam]

36 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

@jamie92208 I hope little Emily gets sorted soon i would consider trying out of hours drs or taking to A+E. I think that inability to get to see a Gp was filling a+e waiting rooms before the pandemic hit.

That’s very good advice in my experience.   Phone 111 and you may find that miraculously they can get appointments for you when there are “none available Sir”  ....

[southern42]

'afternoon all from red dragon land.

Wet n soggy - the weather, not me.  

 

Interesting start to the week at the weekend - my first steam drive drive (7 1/4" gauge) at Betws-y-coed for 15 months. Strange feeling, partly trying to remember what to do, partly driving as if there had been no such time gap. Will I be wanting to do public running? That is the question...

 

More time this week has been spent playing the fife. I progressed onto page 3 of new tune (Man of Law), and was thinking I was just about to crack it, when bottom D flat reared its head at the beginning of the climax. Now D flat is all fingers down BUT the last hole is small and is to be played half open with my little pinky. So far, if I do get an approximate D flat sound, it is barely audible and this is for a loud passage. I think this is going to take some time..........in the meantime, when playing the whole page, I substitute the pattern with the previously used middle C - all holes covered - just to get to the end of the music, most of which is now off by heart.  Still, if there was no challenge. I might not be playing it.

 

No G word today as I there is no need to do any watering of plants in pots, and mojo has gone awol for the M word - having decided to make some decals, I realised that, as well as needing a clear transfer sheet, which I have, I also need a white sheet which I will need to obtain. 

 

Time for mugadecaf before getting dinner and settling down to watch Judge John Deed (Man of Law) and listening out for that D flat again!

 

Fitt  and   Elfie puffing and panting...

 

Take care all and play safe.

_________

Best wishes

Polly

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. The TV keeps going into scan mode again bit I think I may have discovered the cause. The set sits near the patio doors and the back of the set gets full sunlight during the afternoon. So tomorrow I will draw the curtains across in the afternoon* to see if that makes any difference. Just as well the news that I was expecting to watch is on late due to some football match. *Even though tomorrow there might be no sun, thunder and lightening instead.

[Andrew P]

BIG Congrats to @AndrewC, I hope the new job is all that your expecting.

 

When I was asked at a leaving interview if anyone had contributed to my decision, I mentioned the Sales Manager who would often get into the back of a new car in the showroom of a Saturday and go to sleep.

After I left he was PROMOTED to General Manager, I guess, so he didn't have to work Saturdays again. 

[JohnDMJ]

Good Evening after an 'interesting' day!

 

In comment:

 

5 hours ago, polybear said:

- and the company lost a very clever bunny with irreplaceable knowledge (so much so that they had to get him back as a subbie for an overseas job that no one else could do).

 

I recall the anecdote of a retired person being invited by his ex-employer to assist in the fixing of a piece of equipment which he had tended during his employment. He accepted and duly fixed the problem. Then he presented his invoice for £5000.00.

 

Needless to say, it was queried.

 

In explanation, he broke it down to:

- Fixing the problem £1.00

- Knowing how to fix the problem £4999.00

 

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

A mechanical engineer is fine, just not for needing to be able to design electronics test equipment and write software for it. He probably could with a bit of training do some of the required maths..

 

The mechanics and mathmatics of pipe hammer involve some pretty heavy differential calculus. Equally, as a Mechanical Engineer, I worked in a company designing and manufacturing cam indexing mechanisms; in a three day attempt to both understand and generalise the equations of motion and the resulting cam tooth shape, I went back to first principles and derived a set of equations to suit. Over 50 A4 pages of differential calculus!

 

Laplace and Fourier Transforms are also not unknown to a Mech Eng!

 

3 hours ago, PupCam said:

Sorry, I'd have to disagree with that as a generalisation - everyone is different and actually I've found having a very good (but I freely admit not super-expert level) grip of a large number of disciplines makes a far more rounded engineer and potentially more useful than a square peg specialist  in a round hole.

 

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Must be a live yoghurt

 

Well cultured?

 

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

I ended up writing and maintaining ATE software (and Hardware for an item which once skewered a submarine... 

 

My foray into ATE covered a particular variety of helicopter and an aircraft's LOX monitor!

 

Tell me, @Barry O, have you ever heard of The Cricket Analysis System in your time as cricket official?

[southern42]

It seems I won’t be watching judge John Deed. It is not on this week. Agh!

 

Jamie, I too hope little Emily gets to see someone soon. Our surgery has a system where the GP can phone you back and/or use video calling. Seems a shame if not all surgeries are doing this.

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by southern42

[New Haven Neil]

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

I teach HR Master degree people and I would agree with you. 

For the past three years I've had at least one of them per cohort them disagreeing with me regarding the statistics I'm teaching them. I have adopted the conciliatory approach of saying "No, you're wrong"

Lead balloon time until they realise that they're going to fail.

 

You must have the patience of a saint.  I don't know whether to sympathise or cheer for you, John. 

 

I accept things have changed radically in the time since I last worked in HR (as an HR adviser then year as acting manager in Social Services HR here) 18 years ago, but it's obviously not the job it was!

[leopardml2341]

Evenin' all,

 

Feeling a bit meh, which is a bit of a beggar cos I'm meant to be going on a short break tomorrow.

 

An early night might sort it (I hope).

 

Not quite bedtime yet, but I might not be back later; so it's goodnight from me........

Edited June 16, 2021 by leopardml2341

[Coombe Barton]

... and understanding the wobble ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/06/16/takes-one-to-know-one/

[Coombe Barton]

30 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

You must have the patience of a saint.  I don't know whether to sympathise or cheer for you, John. 

Fortunately I'm in control.

So much of stats in business involves ignoring the outliers, but if you do that you don't see trends early enough.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The TV worked normally this evening so I was able to watch the news and the weather news tonight, I wonder if the heat is causing the problem. I particularly wanted to watch the weather news as the thunderstorms are due here very soon. I will definitely be watching them from indoors. STOP PRESS its just started raining as I type this. The police helicopter is buzzing around towards the A13, that must be a fun ride when the thunder and lightening starts. Better get the bin bags out, its bin day tomorrow, not supposed to put them out until the day but I'm doing it now before the storm. Time to put the kettle on, be back later. 

[The White Rabbit]

Evening all. Well, it's certainly been A Warm Day. Unfortunately several confidential calls were made/received, so I haven't been able to have the window open that much. Much more and I've have been up in front of HR for obscene phone calls (panting like Ben). 

 

Fingers crossed for Emily and anyone else in that position. I've been in a similar situation recently, recent medical advice was ring the doctor immediately if X happened, unfortunately X did happen, so you ring the surgery, only to be told the best they can do is a telephone consultation a week next Friday. Protests, explanation and (later, written) formal complaint ignored. It's bad enough if you're fit and well, if making the call for (or by) a vulnerable person, a little child or an elderly and frail person, it's far worse. That sort of experience makes for long memories.

 

However, the first strawberries of the season were sampled earlier. Sweet, though we need some rain to help them along. Next week according to the seaweed oracles. The first flowers are out on the blackberries and the redcurrants are ripening. I've caught the blackbird with his beady eye on them a few times this week. He's not so tempted by the onions and carrots though, so the first all home-grown salad of the year looks good for the weekend without fur or feathers being scragged. 

 

Best wishes to all those in need of them.

 

15 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said:

Not quite bedtime yet, but I might not be back later; so it's goodnight from me........

 

and goodnight from him. 

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

This afternoon further demonstrated (unnecessarily) that I cannot multitask.

 

Rather than my morning constitutional, I spent two hours extracting weeds (having begun the weeding yesterday afternoon). Today is simply glorious and the weekend rain had softened the ground, making weeding a little easier. (Out of sight from my window, there were weeds in a gravel path, including some kind of thistle type thing, that were as tall as I am, with stems about 1 cm in diameter)

 

Job done, showered and brunched I sat down to watch a Swiss (and Canadian) man play tennis in Halle and do a quick monitor of RMweb at the same time. At some point I noticed that the commentators voices had changed and apparently two women were playing tennis in Berlin. I had to check the result online to find out what happened to the match I thought I was "watching".

 

This much I know about myself, I am not a multitasker.

 

Today I will be out running errands. Amongst other things, I need to refill my propane tank for the barbeque.

[tigerburnie]

Evening, busy day, a fair bit of the "G" word, then Tesco sent the cavalry with food and cider supplies, we then went for a walk round our local loch to see the Ospreys and took my camera to see what else was about. After a rather nice spaghetti chillie dish and 4 mile cycle ride finished the day off without finishing me off. Watching the amount I eat and better portion control along with said exercise has seen a rather satisfying 5 kilos vanish from my mid rift, trick is to keep it off lol.

 

A Common Blue Damselfly