I know that Pride is a deadly sin, but whatever happen to pride in your work?
Pride for your company's name and proud to work for an outstanding organisation.
Some of you may know that I've been having a few problems with British Gas.
I have waited in on six occasions now and had to deal with such issues as; not being in when I was, the engineer coming with the wrong part and their continuing issue with the time space continuum.

This is the main problem with British Gas and their lack of understanding seems to mean that no approximate time of arrival can be given to the customer. But surely if you are the first job they can estimate a time between their depot and your house and they must know what time the person starts working hence "work time start + time to get to your house = approximate time person will be at your house."
I appreciate that this might not be so easy for the second call, but at least one person a day wouldn't be waiting in all morning.

The other problem is, the contact centre dies not seem to have the ability to tell the engineer what you want doing, and even the engineers can't communicate with each other. So every single time I have to explain what has happened so far and get asked many questions that I have no idea the answer of.

I am thinking of employing a number of retired people, so that they can come and sit in your house for you and wait for a delivery, an engineer etc; Mrs Scoggins could watch your telly in the warm and maybe have a lovely meal you would buy her, and maybe even make you a nice pie for when you got home. I'd be quite happy if she had her mates round for a knitting circle or even naked ludo!

Come on Britain, we've got rid of manufacturing, we've closed the pits, we've completely f***ed up banking, surely service is something we can manage.

and on the fourth day

If the devil has created the world, rather than God or some explosion in outer space, then after he'd invented poverty, hunger, injustice and intolerance I think he'd have turned have come up with the open plan office, then he could curled his tail around himself and known that the Western world was doomed.

Doomed because some people love to make a lot of noise and some like complete silence and some can tut across a distance of two hundred metres.

I like a bit of noise in the office, a bit of a buzz, a laugh and a joke as we all muck in together. Other may prefer the silent treatment and my office has adopted this as the housestyle. It has resulted in an atmosphere that is best described as drowning in cotton wool, there are some occasions when I take my own pulse just to check that I'm alive!

As today is Red Nose Day there should be lots of jolly japes, we don't need a sponsored silence!

Reflective Learner

I'm a reflective learner, which means I have to go away and mull something over before I get it, and that's never been more true than over the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago I went back to the land of my fathers, well my mom and dad and travelled up the M1 and M6 to Wolverhampton. (and no it isn't in the Black Country) The purpose of my visit was a school reunion!

I left school quite a few years ago and had never been tempted to attend this kind of occasion previously, but the people organising it were people that I actually remembered and I think as all of us turn 40 this school year there was the need for a milestone to be tapped.

And dear reader it was a great night, or at least what I remember of it after 7 double brandies, and it was like we'd only seen each other the day before and at any moment I might be asked for my maths homework!

So back to the reflected learner bit, well these old school/new facebook friends hadn't seen me in over 20 years, but welcomed me back like I'd just popped down the bottom shops and got them a 20p mix!

So no need for facebook envy when you have real mates, and to the mate that said he envied me, you can't really say everything that has happened in your life in a few lines on facebook, let's share a sofa and a bottle of brandy and I'll fill you in.

Facebook Envy

OK I admit it, I'm addicted to facebook. I really can't turn on my computer, whether at home or at work without checking it out, or am I just checking other people out.

So is Facebook Envy the newest of my demons?

I have some friends that seem to load hundreds of photos of themselves with their new guy in New York or on holiday surrounded by bronzed hunks, while I've spent the day at work and the most exciting thing I got to do was pop round M&S in my lunch hour.

It's not to say that my life is dull, maybe I just don't carry a camera with me all the time, but are other people really having a better time than me?

Worst of all is checking what the ex or the non ex is up to. The ex of course is understandable, I think, if you have managed to stay friends  - surely, as a friend, you should check to see if he's found a new bf, redecorated the house that you decorated for him, or if he is going on holiday to places better than he took you too. That's all just being friendly isn't it?

As for the non ex, these are the people that you almost went out with, but either didn't because you found someone else or they did. One of my non-exs seems to have a very nice bf, has purchased a new house and went to New Work for Christmas and I can't help feeling a little bit miffed. He was the one who decided not to go out with me.

It's not that I'm unhappy with my life, but I have discovered a new deadly sin. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I can control it.