Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[RED-DOG]

You should have been born Welsh Tikay.

Welsh indeed. I'm not pessimistic, just realistic!

Ah a much misunderstood aspect of the Welsh psychological make-up. We're not pessimistic, but pessimistically optimistic.

We expect the worst, but hope for the best.

'We're definitely going to lose today, but if we win it will be amazing. Come on Wales!' That kind of thing.

There are a few more modern welshers who have stopped doing the former and just started being optimistic. I find this all very unsettling.

Change that to "Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best" and you're on to a winner.

[tikay]

how many people work in your office area?

Is it huge open plan or each department very secluded to theirselves?

Do you use headphones at work?

Top 3 pet hates from colleagues?

Before replying to that, 2 quick things.....

I hope to reply today to the Post you made whilst I was in Vegas, asking about my "poker career", which was described on 2+2 recently as a "lol pro", quite reasonably restrained by 2+2 standards, I thought.....

Also, just as an aside, I held a (Corporate) season ticket @ Roker Park for many years, & at Stadium of Light for 2 seasons, so yes, I've been to Sunderland once or twice.

How many people in my office area?

I don't really know, it's about the size of 3 squash courts, & I guess there are rarely more than 6 or 8 of us in it at any one time. Bear in mind, it is a 24/7 office, so people come & go at odd times. During Test Matches, Golf Tourneys, F1 weekends, or Premiership footie matches, there are more of course, the place suddenly springs to life, & really buzzes. I'm talking the TV Show "offices" in London, not the .com office, which is up in Leeds. 

Is it huge open plan or each department very secluded to theirselves?

Open Plan, with each "department" having little nests, or pods, which are exclusive & not shared. We all have large HD dual monitors for our computers, we use lappies nested in docking stations, & we each have a TV on our desk, & there are 42" plasmas galore, on every wall, we generally have them perma-tuned to sports & news channels.   

Do you use headphones at work?

What an odd question!

We have them supplied as part of the docking station, but I only use them if I need to watch a video or something, or listen to a VO, as it seems inconsiderate to make half the office listen to my stuff. That apart, I never - ever - use headphones under any circumstances.  A lot of the girls use them all the time, which I find, in some peculiar way, rather sensual. Go figure.

Top 3 pet hates from colleagues?

I take that to mean "dislikes" or "irritants", rather than "hates". I think "hate" is rather like "Friend" (as in Facebook) in that it is a much misused word these days, or maybe the meaning has changed with time. I can't "hate" things so trivial. Not being obdurate in saying that (I'm not Red-Dog....), but it is just one of my daft age-induced quirks.

Hard to think of many, really.

When they have the Test Cricket on, they record voice-overs at their desks, & the Producer is rather loud, & inconsiderate of others in the area, which irks a bit.

I would prefer, in an ideal world, when working, never to speak, or be spoken to, by a soul, I enjoy solitude, peace & quiet. I get a little testy when people do inconsiderate things, such as say "hello", or talk to me....and office small-talk does my head in, I can't be arsed to engage.  I sometimes spend all night alone in the office when it's empty - sheer bliss.

I'm not a fan of people talking loudly on mobile phones, what they plan to have for dinner tonight holds no interest for me, & it's a sort of social-skill failure imo. It does not seem to occur to them that others can hear their convo. One chap does that "hold his hand over his mouth" thing, so you can't lip-read him. And talks at 90 decibels, lol.

Can't really think of any other colleague "dislikes", I just insulate myself in my own little world, & try to figure out stuff that makes no sense to me. No shortage of material there.

[tikay]

Bright young staff ( average age 27 ) ?

What's wrong with old n grumpy ?

They aren't willing to work 14 hours days for no overtime and no time off in lieu.

Alan knows. And is Welsh.

There are very few collegues in my office who are even half my age. The oddity is that so many of them moan & groan & whine about life's trivialities.  A very odd thing that, it seems to me. "They wanted me to work overtime today, **** that".....

Jeez, we used to bite folks hands off for a bit of extra money!"

PS - Just seen John Daly preparing to play The Open today, wowzer! He'd not be allowed on any course I manage, dressed like that, tsk tsk.

[pleno1]

so brilliant.

I'm really similar to you regarding speaking etc.

We have this internal forum which I think is quite common for larger companies. Basically everything that happens, project wise, decision wte gets posted on the forum. Debates, arguments, the lot. It's really good as you don't lose anything in emails. Anyway you can be having huge debates with people or in some cases big arguments but then walk past eachother in the corridor, or even worse they are sat at a computer about 10 yards away from you. You see them hammering away at the keyboard and await the email notification to come through

I thought the headphones thing would confuse you. Everybody seems to use headphones now, the usual excuse is that they like to relax whilst working, but imo, silence is a lot more relaxing to me.

Looking forward to the poker career story, was pleasantly surprised about your "poker cv" when I checked hendon mob, not because of ability, just because I didn't think you'd ever have the "grinding" mentality.

[pleno1]

Alan?

Oh no, you didn't go there did you?

[tikay]

300 posts? Cool. Who wants to stake me?

Have you ever seen the blatant transparency of folks trying to get their Post-Count up to 300 to get staked?! Yuk.

[AlunB]

300 posts? Cool. Who wants to stake me?

Have you ever seen the blatant transparency of folks trying to get their Post-Count up to 300 to get staked?! Yuk.

Agreed. I think it's taken me about two years.

Long game.

[AlunB]

so brilliant.

I'm really similar to you regarding speaking etc.

We have this internal forum which I think is quite common for larger companies. Basically everything that happens, project wise, decision wte gets posted on the forum. Debates, arguments, the lot. It's really good as you don't lose anything in emails. Anyway you can be having huge debates with people or in some cases big arguments but then walk past eachother in the corridor, or even worse they are sat at a computer about 10 yards away from you. You see them hammering away at the keyboard and await the email notification to come through

That's baffling, amusing and depressing all in one. And the sad thing is I can see myself doing it too.

Headphones are work are generally a good thing. But they are SO annoying at times. Having to go 'dave. Dave. DAVE. DAVID!' then banging the desk just to get someone's attention is so wearing after a while. The number of times I've had to wave my hand in front of someone's face to get their attention is ridiculous.

[RED-DOG]

how many people work in your office area?

Is it huge open plan or each department very secluded to theirselves?

Do you use headphones at work?

Top 3 pet hates from colleagues?

Before replying to that, 2 quick things.....

I hope to reply today to the Post you made whilst I was in Vegas, asking about my "poker career", which was described on 2+2 recently as a "lol pro", quite reasonably restrained by 2+2 standards, I thought.....

Also, just as an aside, I held a (Corporate) season ticket @ Roker Park for many years, & at Stadium of Light for 2 seasons, so yes, I've been to Sunderland once or twice.

How many people in my office area?

I don't really know, it's about the size of 3 squash courts, & I guess there are rarely more than 6 or 8 of us in it at any one time. Bear in mind, it is a 24/7 office, so people come & go at odd times. During Test Matches, Golf Tourneys, F1 weekends, or Premiership footie matches, there are more of course, the place suddenly springs to life, & really buzzes. I'm talking the TV Show "offices" in London, not the .com office, which is up in Leeds. 

Is it huge open plan or each department very secluded to theirselves?

Open Plan, with each "department" having little nests, or pods, which are exclusive & not shared. We all have large HD dual monitors for our computers, we use lappies nested in docking stations, & we each have a TV on our desk, & there are 42" plasmas galore, on every wall, we generally have them perma-tuned to sports & news channels.   

Do you use headphones at work?

What an odd question!

We have them supplied as part of the docking station, but I only use them if I need to watch a video or something, or listen to a VO, as it seems inconsiderate to make half the office listen to my stuff. That apart, I never - ever - use headphones under any circumstances.  A lot of the girls use them all the time, which I find, in some peculiar way, rather sensual. Go figure.

Top 3 pet hates from colleagues?

I take that to mean "dislikes" or "irritants", rather than "hates". I think "hate" is rather like "Friend" (as in Facebook) in that it is a much misused word these days, or maybe the meaning has changed with time. I can't "hate" things so trivial. Not being obdurate in saying that (I'm not Red-Dog....), but it is just one of my daft age-induced quirks.

Hard to think of many, really.

When they have the Test Cricket on, they record voice-overs at their desks, & the Producer is rather loud, & inconsiderate of others in the area, which irks a bit.

I would prefer, in an ideal world, when working, never to speak, or be spoken to, by a soul, I enjoy solitude, peace & quiet. I get a little testy when people do inconsiderate things, such as say "hello", or talk to me....and office small-talk does my head in, I can't be arsed to engage.  I sometimes spend all night alone in the office when it's empty - sheer bliss.

I'm not a fan of people talking loudly on mobile phones, what they plan to have for dinner tonight holds no interest for me, & it's a sort of social-skill failure imo. It does not seem to occur to them that others can hear their convo. One chap does that "hold his hand over his mouth" thing, so you can't lip-read him. And talks at 90 decibels, lol.

Can't really think of any other colleague "dislikes", I just insulate myself in my own little world, & try to figure out stuff that makes no sense to me. No shortage of material there.

I have a feeling I've been maligned, I'm just not sure enough to complain about it.

[Jon MW]

My gym gets H&S audited by an independent company every year and it's very extensive. Meh, I'm responsible for a lot of people and accept that I've got a duty of care towards my members and staff so I just crack on with it. However some of the stuff is insane. For example there is a big steel girder running through the middle of the boiler room, it's about 2ft thick and about 30ft long and it is painted bright pillar box red. If you don't duck under it you will walk into it. However, H&S law requires me to put a small A4 size sign on the girder telling people to watch out for the girder. My personal opinion is people who walk into that massive bright red girder thoroughly deserve to do so.

...

The trouble with all this IMO is that people just can't be trusted. If you give an inch they take a mile and this works for both bosses and employees. Not that everyone is like this. Not by a long chalk. But if you design a system to protect people you have to do it for the lowest common denominator or people will just take the p*** with it. It's annoying, but unfortunately there are too many people who always look to bend the rules and cheat and angle shoot in this world. You have to design regulations to be comprehensive or people spend all their time working out loopholes and how to avoid complying with them.

Just my cynical ¢2

There have been court rulings that as well as the employer (manager/supervisor/etc) having a duty of care for it's employees, people have a duty of care for themselves.

Specifically if you're carrying half a dozen scalding hot coffees and decide you need to run back to your office with them - it's not your employers fault that you ended up scalded.

If this was officially enclosed within H&S regulation then a lot of these 'silly' rules could be done away with, but at the moment it's just down to whether you get a sensible judge or not.

[Jon MW]

...
I'm not a fan of people talking loudly on mobile phones, what they plan to have for dinner tonight holds no interest for me, & it's a sort of social-skill failure imo. It does not seem to occur to them that others can hear their convo. One chap does that "hold his hand over his mouth" thing, so you can't lip-read him. And talks at 90 decibels, lol.
...

I know some people do act differently on a mobile than they would normally.

But in general don't you think that if people are talking loudly on the phone - it's because they just talk loudly when they're having a conversation? If the person they're talking to was in the same room as them isn't it just as annoying? Or in fact twice as annoying because they'll probably be both talking loudly to each other?

Maybe it's just me - but for example I tend to avoid the 'quite' carriages on trains because I find the noise of all those people talking to each other much more annoying than the odd person talking on a mobile. It definitely doesn't make it any more interesting hearing what they're planning just because you can hear both sides of the conversation - why isn't that also a social-skill failure?

[The Camel]

FFS.

I woke up this morning in an exceptionally good mood, decided not even to open any staking threads and be happy happy happy all day.

Peter Alliss and Daniel Negreanu.

Satan and Beelzebub in one post.

Enough to put the happiest man in the world on tilt.

[kinboshi]

FFS.

I woke up this morning in an exceptionally good mood, decided not even to open any staking threads and be happy happy happy all day.

Peter Alliss and Daniel Negreanu.

Satan and Beelzebub in one post.

Enough to put the happiest man in the world on tilt.

[The Camel]

FFS.

I woke up this morning in an exceptionally good mood, decided not even to open any staking threads and be happy happy happy all day.

Peter Alliss and Daniel Negreanu.

Satan and Beelzebub in one post.

Enough to put the happiest man in the world on tilt.

Wish i knew how to photoshop.

[Laxie]

FFS.

I woke up this morning in an exceptionally good mood, decided not even to open any staking threads and be happy happy happy all day.

Peter Alliss and Daniel Negreanu.

Satan and Beelzebub in one post.

Enough to put the happiest man in the world on tilt.

Wish i knew how to photoshop.

^^ Love the fact you are all IT now Jase as remember the days when you could not stick a photo up!

Wait till someone shows me an idiots guide to photoshop

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/an-idiots-guide-to-photoshop/

There ya go  ^^