Today I Consign To Hell -the All Saints version

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  • JapesJapes Shipmate
    TICTH the Bradford points system for absences in the workplace which leads to colleagues with too many periods of absences coming into work with colds (or possibly Covid) which are then generously shared with those of us with vulnerable immune systems, despite our best efforts to avoid those colleagues...

  • Japes wrote: »
    TICTH the Bradford points system for absences in the workplace which leads to colleagues with too many periods of absences coming into work with colds (or possibly Covid) which are then generously shared with those of us with vulnerable immune systems, despite our best efforts to avoid those colleagues...

    Well they have been sharing the illness with you before their symptoms appear, so whats the difference?

    You can have a cold but be ok to work - at least some people can.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Around here, the shops that have the mechanised madness check-outs always have one or two extra staff standing by to rescue people from the machines. The economics of this system are unclear to me.

    The supermarket at which we do our grocery shopping has 12 self-serve registers, with one staff member present to work through any problems which arise. Fortunately, they seem to be those who know what they're doing, not a Yr 12 student with a part time job and no idea about the store and what it sells - such staff operate the regular check-outs.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Ariel wrote: »
    Our Sainsbury's has replaced almost all its human checkouts with self-service or scan & shop terminals. There are now maybe 3-4 human ones left but not all are staffed at the same time.

    A member of staff said she liked it because it freed staff up to do other things like stacking shelves. I can only say if that's where your interests and enthusiasm lie who am I to try to talk you out of it.

    To be honest, given a choice between the equally mind-numbing tasks of running a checkout or stacking shelves, I think I'd go for the latter. Once on auto-pilot I could be thinking useful stuff like how to handle different ammunition types in a dystopian TTRPG or arranging a song I'm recording for the instruments at my disposal. This would be a bit more difficult on the checkout I think.
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    I'd rather be on a checkout. At least you get to sit down and don't have to heave weighty packs of tins around, interrupted every few minutes by people wanting to know where X, Y or Z are.
  • Maybe @KarlLB was thinking of those who stack the shelves during the hours when the store is closed to the public?

    I confess to being one of the people who have no hesitation in asking staff, working on the shelves, where things are. They have been invariably polite and helpful (I'm talking about my local Tesco), and perhaps they might welcome an interruption!

    Either way, I don't like the self-service Engines of Torture, and I very much hope that our local stores don't go down the road to ruin by abolishing Humming Beans.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    No, I was thinking of during opening hours. I'd far sooner be asked a question about where something is than attempts be made to engage me in small talk by people who mistakenly believe that by doing so they're brightening my day.
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    I'm ok with the small talk, just so long as they don't start flirting or want to tell me their life story when there's a queue behind them.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I don't try to engage the cashiers in small talk; I appreciate that they haven't got time. However, a friendly "hello", "thanks", "goodbye" or "it's a bonny/ghastly* day" never did anyone any harm.

    * delete as appropriate
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    No, I was thinking of during opening hours. I'd far sooner be asked a question about where something is than attempts be made to engage me in small talk by people who mistakenly believe that by doing so they're brightening my day.

    That's true for you I can see. The check our operators I know are happy to chat as it does break up the day and a smile works wonders both ways.
  • Some of the check-out staff at Tesco do exchange a friendly word or two, but nothing too heavy - many of them offer to pack the bags for me (observing my two crutches - Lefty and Righty - sitting in the trolley!), and this little courtesy is very much appreciated.

    I am a frequent visitor at my local Co-Op corner shop, and many of the staff there know me by name, as well as by sight.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    No, I was thinking of during opening hours. I'd far sooner be asked a question about where something is than attempts be made to engage me in small talk by people who mistakenly believe that by doing so they're brightening my day.

    That's true for you I can see. The check our operators I know are happy to chat as it does break up the day and a smile works wonders both ways.

    It wouldn't be my ideal job. Which is I suppose a way of saying the same thing.
  • I order online delivery for only $3.00 about what I would spend on gas, and when I do shop in person I choose a small neighborhood market without a self-check in sight and a friendly staff. Big grocery stores wear me out anyway, too much walking.

  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    I'm in two minds as to which job I'd prefer, with the suspicion that whichever involves Sitting Down is likely to win. Also unfortunately @KarlLB those perceived as female will inevitably be subjected to inane small talk regardless of whether they stack shelves or are cashiers. I'm pretty sure the term emotional labour was coined to talk about the interactions female retail workers are expected to have with customers where social niceties are more expected from them from customers than for their male colleagues (or colleagues perceived as male).
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Really! At Aldi which is my nearest shop, both male and female cashiers are equally polite, but there is no encouragement to chat as speed is of the essence.
    Both male and female employees are expected to do heavy lifting and shelf stacking as well as take their turn on the tills., though following a recent health scare my grandson was put on light duties ie on the tills for a couple of weeks.
  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    I live opposite a Tesco Express (the small convenience store version of Tesco). It has one cashier operated till and one self service station. In large stores I often go to the self serve, for much the same reason as Pomona, but also because it’s quicker, but in this small store for some reason people using the self serve seem to take ages whereas if I go to the person on the till the whole transaction is done in a few seconds.
  • That reminds me of people who get on the bus and wish to pay by phone (which can be really quick) but faff around pressing buttons until the right app appears. They were at a bus stop ... they could see the bus coming ... what was so important that they couldn't be ready for its arrival?
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Our local co-op has three tills, but is laid out as a convenience store despite it being the only "supermarket" on the island. Consequently the middle till is never used as you can't fit 3 trolleys into the available space and unload them / pack. Stupid design.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    That reminds me of people who get on the bus and wish to pay by phone (which can be really quick) but faff around pressing buttons until the right app appears. They were at a bus stop ... they could see the bus coming ... what was so important that they couldn't be ready for its arrival?

    I'm sure they're the same people who, when at the checkout, have to rummage around in their bags for their purse/wallet, as if having to pay for stuff once it had gone through the till came as a complete and utter surprise to them and was totally unpredictable.

    There are the opposite of course - they're the people standing up in the middle of the carriage before the train has even started slowing down for their station.
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    There are the opposite of course - they're the people standing up in the middle of the carriage before the train has even started slowing down for their station.
    When I was at University at Southampton a long time ago, express trains ran an hourly non-stop service to London, timed to take 70 minutes. Quite often I would go home at the weekend and catch the 16.10 service - however this was timed to take 8 minutes longer, presumably because it arrived during the rush hour and had to wait for another train to depart from the same platform.

    I don't know how the "Working Timetable" was written; but the usual practice was for the train to run as normal and then sit out the 8 minutes at a signal just a few yards from the terminus. Invariably there would be early getting-uppers standing in the aisles - I knew better!

  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    That reminds me of people who get on the bus and wish to pay by phone (which can be really quick) but faff around pressing buttons until the right app appears. They were at a bus stop ... they could see the bus coming ... what was so important that they couldn't be ready for its arrival?

    Around here if you hold your phone on the street it’ll probably get stolen
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    That reminds me of people who get on the bus and wish to pay by phone (which can be really quick) but faff around pressing buttons until the right app appears. They were at a bus stop ... they could see the bus coming ... what was so important that they couldn't be ready for its arrival?

    Like people with e-tickets at barriers. They're almost always the ones who cause delays because the damn thing doesn't work and they have to make repeated attempts, whereas I sail straight through first time with a paper ticket.

    Anyway, I came here to whinge about getting a rash from contact with strawberry leaves in the process of picking fruit this morning, which is a new thing. I don't need any medical advice, thanks. I've washed the sap off, the rash is subsiding and I'm good to go but will have to remember to wear something long-sleeved in future - this is the second plant in my garden that's done that to me recently. Not impressed with this growing older lark.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Oh great. Mugging by strawberry. Which brings me to my gripe - humidity. Which makes it a real b*gger putting vinyl gloves on damp, sticky hands. Which I need to wear to protect dermatitis-prone skin from just about everything (including strawberries).
  • Oh great. And here i sit in a hotel at a convention inside all week. So why do i have five mosquito bites?
    I didn’t come here for this.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    If my experience of North American mozzies is anything to go by, they're determined wee buggers. And evil.

    Hope you have plenty of After-bite or other soothing potion.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    I got mauled by a cleg yesterday and I'm dosed up on anti-histamines and ibuprofen and holding out until the doc opens on Monday and see whether I need antibiotics. Vicious little buggers.
  • Wesley JWesley J Circus Host
    Ouch! Get well soon!
  • MiffyMiffy Shipmate
    Spike wrote: »
    That reminds me of people who get on the bus and wish to pay by phone (which can be really quick) but faff around pressing buttons until the right app appears. They were at a bus stop ... they could see the bus coming ... what was so important that they couldn't be ready for its arrival?

    Around here if you hold your phone on the street it’ll probably get stolen

    And that’s exactly why I refuse to use either my phone or cards.

  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited June 2023
    Very evil indeed. I get skeeter syndrome. Spent the night with an ice pack on.

    And what’s a cleg?
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Very evil indeed. I get skeeter syndrome. Spent the night with an ice pack on.

    And what’s a cleg?

    A horsefly. Bites great lumps out of you.

    I came back from Portugal with some lurid bites - not the itchiest, but a circle of inflammation two inches in diameter.
  • Cleg (n) a nasty poisnous destructive creature. Named after Nick Cleg(g) a nasty poisnous politcian responsible for the destruction of the Liberal Democratic Party's crediblity.
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Purgatory Host
    W.D. Cocker's poem Clegs states that after God created the world

    The De'il thocht he would show his mettle
    an' some creation he maun ettle
    An' did his best, or worst, for fegs-
    It wis the De'il creatit clegs


    (Translation - the Devil decided to show what he was capable of, and make a creature too. He did his best and created clegs.)



  • RockyRoger wrote: »
    Cleg (n) a nasty poisnous destructive creature. Named after Nick Cleg(g) a nasty poisnous politcian responsible for the destruction of the Liberal Democratic Party's crediblity.

    Is that the right way round?
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    Read an article via Twitter written by someone who'd worked with groups of men who'd been referred for a behaviour management programme after being convicted for abusive and violent relationships.

    He asked them what the benefits of violence were and they all said none, to which he pointed out that there must be some or they wouldn't have done it. There was a pause, and then...

    ... they ran out of space on the blackboard citing all the benefits they got from it.
  • NicoleMRNicoleMR Shipmate
    TCTH the US Passport office. My friend and I are supposed to be leaving on a week trip to Amsterdam on July 7th. Both our passports needed to be renewed, we sent them in the same day from the same mailbox to the same address with more than enough time for processing. Mine came back in a timely fashion, my friend's never showed, and my friend is now having to undertake extensive action to try and get hold of it before our trip. The Passport Office is not taking phone calls. The passport seems to have ended up in Dallas, Texas (we're both in New York City) somehow. My friend has called their congress-person's office, and we are awaiting what happens next.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    Ariel wrote: »
    Read an article via Twitter written by someone who'd worked with groups of men who'd been referred for a behaviour management programme after being convicted for abusive and violent relationships.

    He asked them what the benefits of violence were and they all said none, to which he pointed out that there must be some or they wouldn't have done it. There was a pause, and then...

    ... they ran out of space on the blackboard citing all the benefits they got from it.

    Do you have a link? That sounds interesting.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    Also out of interest @Ariel are you allergic to birch pollen? Often dermatitis or oral allergy syndrome develops later as a result of pollen allergies. It's why oral allergy syndrome isn't classed as a food allergy because it's a weird side effect of pollen allergies rather than an allergy to the food itself, also food allergies tend to present in childhood and then often go away in adulthood. I've developed oral allergies to an annoying amount of raw fruit including strawberries (cooking removes the problematic enzymes).
  • It's not nice to consign your friends to hell, but Dave, that's where you are going. Thank you very much for giving me what looked like a treasure trove of The Railway Magazine from the late 1930s, but why the blazes did you have to tear out - not even neatly cut out - page after page of articles that you thought you'd like to hang on to? I would happily have scanned and printed them all for you, but no, you savagely mutilated and abused these old treasures. As my Dear Wife said, if that had happened at the library they'd have called the police. Aaaaarrgh!
  • It's not nice to consign your friends to hell, but Dave, that's where you are going. Thank you very much for giving me what looked like a treasure trove of The Railway Magazine from the late 1930s, but why the blazes did you have to tear out - not even neatly cut out - page after page of articles that you thought you'd like to hang on to? I would happily have scanned and printed them all for you, but no, you savagely mutilated and abused these old treasures. As my Dear Wife said, if that had happened at the library they'd have called the police. Aaaaarrgh!

    Oh ST, this is a terrible, terrible story. What your 'friend' did is (possibly) the 'Sin against the Holy Ghost' Our Lord talked about. You need to pray for a miracle or, perhaps, ontact 'The Repair Shop'.
    If someone did that to my treasured collection of ancient 'Aeromodellers' (my favoured 'porn' according to Mrs RR) I would come back and haunt them.
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    Pomona wrote: »
    Ariel wrote: »
    Read an article via Twitter written by someone who'd worked with groups of men who'd been referred for a behaviour management programme after being convicted for abusive and violent relationships.

    He asked them what the benefits of violence were and they all said none, to which he pointed out that there must be some or they wouldn't have done it. There was a pause, and then...

    ... they ran out of space on the blackboard citing all the benefits they got from it.

    Do you have a link? That sounds interesting.

    I've put it in Hell, where it belongs.

    No idea about the birch pollen. The hay-fever thing is intermittent, but annoying when it strikes.
  • Wesley JWesley J Circus Host
    It's not nice to consign your friends to hell, but Dave, that's where you are going. Thank you very much for giving me what looked like a treasure trove of The Railway Magazine from the late 1930s, but why the blazes did you have to tear out - not even neatly cut out - page after page of articles that you thought you'd like to hang on to? I would happily have scanned and printed them all for you, but no, you savagely mutilated and abused these old treasures. As my Dear Wife said, if that had happened at the library they'd have called the police. Aaaaarrgh!
    This is a siding no train (of thought) must go to!

    I think you should ask Dave, if necessary with the help of a very pointy stick, and a heavy stop block, to let you scan the removed pages. Anything else is for the scrap yard. I mean, this definitely hits the buffers!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Time for the annual cursing of the tiny invisible bitey things. We stopped for a few minutes for Mr F to rest, in a little overgrown park yesterday, and ever since I've been scratching. Anti-histamine cream doesn't seem to help.

    They seem earlier and more vicious this year, probbly on account of the Heat.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Firenze wrote: »
    Time for the annual cursing of the tiny invisible bitey things. We stopped for a few minutes for Mr F to rest, in a little overgrown park yesterday, and ever since I've been scratching. Anti-histamine cream doesn't seem to help.

    I've found an oral anti-histamine to be more helpful, even if it did take most of the week to subdue my cleg bite.
  • I do both plus ice. The ice seems to help fastest.
  • NicoleMRNicoleMR Shipmate
    The update on the passport situation. My friend has just been denied a passport, explanation to come by mail in 10 business days. This is surreal and Kafkaesque.
  • I've had several bitey critters sneaking up and taking a nibble. It's amazing the bits of my body they manage to reach - places I can barely reach to scratch!
    Sadly there seem to be few pollinating insects around at the moment. A few bees of various types, but I've yet to see a hover-fly anywhere near my runner beans. They and the courgettes are flowering nicely, but neither have produced fruit yet.

  • AravisAravis Shipmate
    I’d noticed the same - only male flowers on the courgettes so far. There seem to be plenty of bees on the clover and the blackfly are thick on the broad beans, but few other insects.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 2023
    Take the worst, nastiest Hip-Hop, EDM and Drum and Bass (which to KarlLB ears is already un-fecking-bearable)*, mix it apparently randomly with added electronic beeps and whines.

    This is Cheer Music. Created originally to avoid massive royalties or something. And my daughter does competitive cheer which means I have to listen to hours of it at competitions.

    And it's so fecking loud, played on equipment that is apparently designed to create concrete crumbling levels of bass and screeching treble, and little else.

    And I condemn it to Hell, whence it unquestionably came.

    Pray for me O my friends, who have not strength to pray!

    I cannot even numb the pain as I'm driving and anyway they thieving bastards here are asking £7 a pint. With a straight face.

    *just because drum samples enable you to do things that would be impossible on a physical drum kit doesn't mean you *should*.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Ear defenders? Noise cancelling headphones?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 2023
    Muffled by ear defenders it gets even bassier. Might look into noise cancelling headphones but last I looked they were very expensive.

    What bugs me and prompts the Hell consignment is that I do not, cannot, believe that anyone *likes* this. So why not turn the fecker down a bit?

    I've just measured it peaking at 94db. Not sure anythings going to even dent that.
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