The Working Hour

Not really no, I think mine was the most interesting.

One colleague had a blank bare spare bedroom behind him, but he's only a young lad just moved into a flat with this girlfriend, so I didn't judge.

Our boss had cunningly arranged a low camera angle so that he towered over us commandingly, and I could only see the ceiling behind him.

And the other guy had a view of the northern hemisphere by night from space behind him, which I presume he generated by computer trickery.

"So that he towered over us commandingly" - there's always one.

Potentially a driver of a silver BMW, given to tailgating, and the wearing of a third sock artfully arranged down the front of his underpants.

It's like you know him!

Oh, they're all the same. I've never yet successfully driven on a motorway without at least one of the species trying to kill me.

Black Beamer I reckon.

Nightjar wrote:Black Beamer I reckon.

No, always silver. It's one of the rules of the road, should be part of The Highway Code. Always a silver BMW.

I've just had a 90-minute online meeting. I accidentally frightened everyone by glowering when someone talked over me.

This is interesting, and rather funny. Conference calls taken in baths etc...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52032849?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology&link_location=live-reporting-story

I don't believe I do have a specific 'mum eye' but I do have a general 'don't even try it' eye, and I must've always had it because there are photos of me as a child doing it. Most successfully it came in useful when I was smoking a late night joint outdoors in the Lavapies area of Madrid and witnessed a person being robbed, with quite some force, further down the street. 

There was nothing I could really do, and the two responsible had seen me, so I just stood with a hand on my hip and watched them with my 'don't even try it' look, coming towards me. As one of them turned in to grab me his friend, who I had locked eyes with, pulled him away and they continued walking. I went down then to see if their poor victim was ok/needed to use a phone/etc.

Great area by the way...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavapiés

Highly recommend as a base if Madrid takes your fancy and any of the airlines survive this period. As with so many places, it's 'gentrifying' but still has soul - where else can you see an elderly couple dance and laugh in the plaza, while you also watch three cheerful thieves and a digger get to work on a cashpoint.

It's also accessible to the rest of Madrid, much of it even walkable, although the metro too. Some good bars.

My partner and I are getting on so much better these days, chiefly because I don't have to see her in person or suffer the consequences of her recruiting style. Having observed it myself, she does all that expressionless faced, standard nonsense that people can rehearse and second tier Sloane Rangers are so good at gliding over. "Tell me about a time....". It's lead to several expensive mistakes and countless other irritations that stem from being well presented and barely capable.

My own techniques involve thanking people for coming at the outset, and questions like "last thing you watched on Netflix, and what you thought of it, and why?", "top three things that disturb you about the world right now, and briefly, why?", "last great night out and what marketable qualities made it great?", "where do you stand on murder?", "what is 47x12?", "where would you begin with this current example of a PR disaster area?". And simple instructions like "peak my interest in a brand or concept or person that you love right now".

It's led to a far better team, light years in advance of her crew, more diverse, more democratic. Even she now sees that and the task of recruiting has become more my area, although we are still stuck with some of her earlier decisions. I've just been on the telephone to one of hers now - a Nova Scotian of no warmth and little charm, who wears the kind of navy court shoes that air stewardesses are required to stomp about in, and once assumed to attempt to demonstrate to me how to use a hole punch.

"Talk me though some of the highlights from your favourite piece of relevant legislation?" is also a good one I've found.

Personally, I think that "w**king" should be automatically censored.

Mariana Mazzucato on C4 News was excellent. I believe I've positioned my workplace within the outlines she provided tonight, but the confirmation was appreciated.

Of the accounts my partner and I bring in directly, it's roughly 60/40 in my favour. In terms of revenue from those accounts it's more like 75/25 in my favour, even considering the clients I don't bill anywhere near the going rates. 

My matching of public sector accounts and private business clients to bring out the better qualities and practices in/of both was something she objected to. As was my focus on crisis management. Now she's grateful.

In terms of the accounts and revenues the chosen teams who work for each of us, it's actually approaching 90/10 in my favour. We wouldn't be able to pay 100% of salary right now if I provided the same outcomes as her.

No, scrub that, we aren't getting on better these days. I've just hung up on her. She wants to sack 50%, and place the remaining half on the government furlough. 

Her, and her four, and the three support staff. Me, my four, and our two support staff. Fifteen. She wants seven or eight out. I think that's self defeating for the future, personally devastating for staff, and immoral to consider while there are funds to pay everyone 100% (minus expense allowances), and the furlough scheme if that runs out.

Theft really - every pound taken from the government by businesses that can do without it is a pound less that those in need won't get. She gets right on my wick.

Contacting HMRC has been difficult. I eventually managed to get through to a very rude man with an impenetrable Scouse accent. I said I'm so sorry, I can't understand. I think he said, I can't understand you either love. Highly unlikely. I said, "look, all I can hear is various vowels in between gargling and other forms of saliva production so is there someone else who might help me?", and I read out the relevant section of the letter I had received. He said it was 'nuttin to do with us'. I thanked him for his help and hung up.

I've been having to work really hard these last two weeks. I've had to order a bigger monitor.

Fangirl Three wrote:I've been having to work really hard these last two weeks. I've had to order a bigger monitor.

Is this what happened when you tried to replace the old one?

It's like a Gilbert Ratchet punchline. 'Bah! It's that kind of 22-inch monitor!'