The value of failure

When a lot younger than I am now, I used to go to school. School I must admit it was a drag, seeming nothing more than a glorified child minding service and in many ways this was true and is true also today.  The class sizes were ridiculous at secondary school (11-16 years age) they were in the region of 30 to 33 pupils each. The school was a state ran which probably says it all.  I went in it and came out of it having failed to achieve a single pass in any of the exams I took. The passing grade was considered to be a C.  Whereas I got 4 Ds and 2 Es, I was unlucky to say the least.  However, saying unlucky is probably something said when not understanding the value of failure. To pass something first time is wonderful, because it is as a result of an accumulated effort, it means you don't have to do the same thing again, you can move onto the next stage in your life. You're happy, elated and over the moon, if you were a cow you'd literally jump over that moon made of cheese, confidence effuses from you like sweat in the sahara desert. Everything momentarily changes and the future looks bright for the future signals opportunity. Whilst failing is a sad thing, it is a heart wrenching thing to feel down and not valued, it knocks self esteem for six.  The emotional down is as low as the emotional high as someone who is successful.  However, it is your personal mindset which determines where your life is going to end up.

In them olden days youth were judged by the number of O levels they had when leaving school.  If you succeeded in getting between 4 and 6 O levels a good job was awaiting around the corner. I had none, looking for work and getting a job was difficult. I ended up being unemployed for a year. It was the worst time of my life, nearly every penny of my benefit money was given up as keep money so I was a pauper.  My mother lived off state benefits and had no connections.  My step father was mentally ill after a break down from the burden of debt my mother put him into.  She then managed to kick him out of the house and get rid of him by divorcing.  He was a simple man and didn't know how to read.  When I looked around me and compared myself to others I had a lot of resentment and hate.  I could see people going to work in the morning and I knew I could do their jobs, I had brains but they weren't shown through passing exams.   I knew there was more to me than joblessness and depression.  Depression and poverty in a family setting is debilitating. It was a desperate time to say the least and there was no help coming from home or family.

When I tried looking for jobs employers asked for experience, but I had no experience so didn't attempt to apply.  Somehow as if by luck I managed to get to work in a shoe shop, it was from there my working life began. As for the term "career" this is a word I despise, because it assumes you have connections and gateways and opportunities, those who can use this term are a breed of human being outside of my own small circle.  Just like the term "apprentice" which must of been a word careers advisers talked about, I never heard of anyone who managed to get on of these posts.  If they did it was well known they to would of been on shit wages.  Yet even being an apprentice would of been doing something with my life, it would of meant being occupied and feeling good about doing something. The value of work is a boundless thing it is more than just the money gained at the end of the month.

Something happened to me because I still wanted to get a job in an office, I had enough of working with the general public of being forced to ask them if they would like a polish or cleaner with their shoes.  I hated targets and the atmosphere the British Shoe Corporation management.  It was clear, hit your target be good or we will sack you.  Only if all staff had a bad day and didn't hit their targets did they accept it had been a bad day.  Blame it on the weather.  Like come on, it's a shop, people choose to walk in or not, and certain ethnic groupings who walked in our shop were not going to purchase polish or cleaners at all, they could barely speak English. The thing that happened to me was always there. It was ambition, ambition to be recognised and accepted in society for not being a failure and it was as though failing exams and having a shit job is how you are measured. It was then over a period of about fifteen years or more I went to evening classes with no exam passes and ending up with a degree and a post graduate degree.  My education cost money, time and a long term perseverance which had been acquired from learning the lesson of failure.  At work I then learnt the lesson of dead man's shoes which hangs in the air like a solid cake which you could eat, except it is as hard as rock and you're likely to lose a few teeth if you do try and take a bite.

I come from a part of society which would call themselves working class, or common.  I am not technically a cockney but close to it. The mark of people from my group is how they speak and use the English language. There used to be a lot of slang in it but there is not so much now. As time has gone past when I hear people who take on a strong cockney like accent it makes me think they have chosen to stay where they are in life and not to improve themselves. They have accepted from a young age what they will be like and carry on down that same road, not changing or doing anything different with their life.  This is not to say some of them have not been successful, for they can be it's just they chose to stay in a mindset which they don't want to move away from.

To fail at anything is probably the most important lesson a person can learn from, it has such value and can be so character building I can not state in words adequate to describe.  Then what it takes is guts and determination to come through failure and learn and to still carry on despite everything else which pops up to pull you down.  A funny thing though is watching programmes like the X factor or Britain's got talent and hearing stories of people who have had difficult lives and how by being a  success at singing or some other talent they have their life will change.  These sob stories become a pain to listen to and in the back of your mind or not your shouting at the TV "come off it mate, get on and sing." It is as those such persons are doing the best to get the sympathy vote rather than to showcase their talent.  I dislike this very much.  In the same way, I would prefer to be judged for who I am and what I have made myself.  To be judged on my own opinions and intelligence which is something I hold in more esteem than the acquired status of those with silver spoons in their mouth.

Failure is important as it teaches a great lesson, a painful lesson and the best part of this lesson is moving out and away from failure and doing something about it, not wallowing in it like a hippo in mud.

A Short Survival Guide to the Open Planned Office

My experience with open plan offices has been getting on now for some 30 years and they certainly can be difficult places to work in. This may be because the original concept of the open plan office has been bastardised by employers, especially when it comes to cramming as many people in as little a space as possible to save costs. However, it could just because human being kept cooped up in small spaces go crazy. It's said there are two places you can learn the personality traits of an individual one at home the other at work.  For given enough time at work the full blossoming individual will shine out.  Perhaps more so in a pressurised work environment. It is fine for scientist who can sit in their little enclosed offices thinking of theories of personality and work behaviour but it's a whole different ball game when you are living it 7 plus hours every single working day.  The type of work done, the working hours, the people you work with and the physical environment all come into play, sometimes because one factor is good it can belay the effects of another poor factor, sometimes it just can not.

Mental strain - work place bully
Mental stresses can come in many forms, such as the relationships with work colleagues, or just plane having more work than you can cope, dealing with poor IT systems which act seem to have a mind of their own.  People have to get on as best they can in the workplace, I have experienced the effect of a workplace bully and at one point it felt like I could of left the job.  But by the same instance my job is my financial livelihood and getting a new job is not an easy task.  The best strategy is avoidance, be in a different part of the office as often as you can, take holidays at different times to the bully, keep your head down and try not to get noticed. Bullies also have their foot soldiers or sycophants and these individuals may even appear quite easy to get along with, perhaps out of the bully's influence they are, but again because of their association never tell them anything which can get back to the bully.  I have heard the phrase "psychological terrorism" used to denote bullies at work and this is true if you are a victim.  The research ultimate indicates there is only one way out for the victim and that is to leave the job. It may be a matter of thinking long term, considering whether the individual concerned will change job, in some cases they get promoted, others they leave, but it is while they are in your vicinity they are a danger. Management often do very little about them, if you happen to be in an organization which does do something then you will be very lucky. Try the waiting game, if it doesn't work move job.  Union reps are of little use.  Taking all that crap home can tear up your family, it's a tough decision but may be the only one.  Of course this factor happens when in a open plan office or not.

Mental strain - too much work
Having more work than you can cope with. Well why should this be any different in an open plan office to a secluded closed office.  At least in a place where you can close the door behind you the noise and strain of being constantly available to other colleagues will take it's toll.  Employee Assistance Programs will take the view it is you who has to change.  Perhaps in many respects it is, because it is how you view that ever increasing pile of paperwork, or should I say emails which have bottle necked into  your in tray.  The thing is as human beings are at their best to working when under a little bit of pressure but too much pressure and it is like the fulcrum of a see-saw has been breached.  You have to used your own mental strategies to keep calm, find relaxation techniques.  In finding these it is possible to lower your blood pressure and heart rate and give yourself a moment to think.  What an open plan office does is hit you with stimuli every minute of the day. This is usually in the noise around you so finding thinking space may be difficult to do.  Try and focus on priorities, however what is needed more than anything else is flexibility.  You can only do one thing at a time and sometimes doing that one thing if it is complex can be too difficult to do. In which case change the thing you were going to do.  When I have a large work tray of 2-300 items, I will try and identify those things which will cause me problems if they are not done and also try and identify those quick things which can cause problems. For example, it is quick to authorise someone's leave however if I leave the email request for leave that individual will either ring me up or sit at their desk getting frustrated, it adds a little tension to their day.  So by getting it done quickly it relieves their stressess and gives me breathing space as well.  Sometimes if I have too many high pressure items on me I will then get loaded with the one item which becomes the straw for the camel's back. The one item I know which to do properly will take hours and  hours of work.  Then, I do the best I can to pass the buck. Most times the buck may well stay with me, but if the caseload of bucks is too high then it is too high.  If I were telling the truth, I got way too much work to actually do now, it would take me a month to catch up with it but I don't have a month of extra time.  I don't stand around chatting about things, e.g. game on TV, the weather, my holiday, I get my head down and get on with it.  You'll find individuals who are like this do get more work done than the others.  As for moaning, do your best not to bitch. It gets you no where at the end of the day and is wasted energy.  It can pull other work colleagues into a bitching competition and before you know it half an afternoon has passed and nobody has done a thing.  Write a list, sometimes it is easy to forget what you should be doing your list can keep you on track and there's some self satisfaction when you start to see items ticked off the list, like its an achievement you didn't quite realise you should be patting yourself on the back as well.

Work Environment
In my open plan office there is in place this idiot thing called hot desking.  It is an idiot thing especially if there are tools you need to get on with the trade. Such as reference books pens, paper, the list can go on and on.  Effectively if you use lots of stuff you are either forced to carry these items from your locker to your desk each day or try and reduce the items.  Ultimately try and reduce them, if you can save reference material on your computer fine, however then ensure you have got a decent filing system and you know what folder you put it in. The worst thing which is inescapable from in an open plan office however is noise.  My current office has been built like a car park, once they have decided to sack all the office staff or another company takes over their roll they can then convert the building into car parking spaces. Noise and chatter in particular carries all over the place.  Now if your job is as boring as shit and once you learn it, it becomes just a matter of doing with it in a mechanical way this is fine, office noise may well not have an effect, however if you have to think then you are in trouble. Noise is a killer of concentration. Only last week two senior managers were sat behind me having discussions about their holidays, their memory and shoes.  In the meantime there I sat trying to unpick a very difficult piece of work which was like learning calculus. It just was not happening.   I have bought a supply of ear plugs and now also have ear muffs as well and I am unashamed that I put my plugs in and ear muffs on in the office in order to try and dampen down the voices around me.

It is as though the people around me don't give a shit about me, and in fact they don't they only care about getting their own work done, if they have tedious jobs this means they will talk a lot.  If they don't like their job they will wonder around and waste the day away having discussions with other staff members, they will appear to be the nicest people in the world. However, they are not good employees, they are in many respects taking the piss out of employers. These individuals run throughout an organization, whether they are clericals or high ranking managers. The company would improve in productivity if it sacked them. I heard it once that employers should sack ten percent of their staff every year. I would hope this applied to these lazy arses and they then gave other unemployed people a chance to do the job. There's a lot of individuals out there who would chop an arm off to be in work. So if someone is not doing their job why do we put up with them?


There, I'll keep it short because this is a subject I could write a book on very easily and maybe I should.

Politics of fear in the 2015 election

Sometimes the old sayings are the best ones, and one which comes to mind is "divide and conquer." The Tories over this campaign have divided and have conquered.  First was through the natural departure of their coalition partners coming up to the election. However, more than this they knew the most marginal and likely wins for the Tories was to target Lib Dem constituencies, it just made so much sense. After all it was the rising tide of Lib Dems snatching Tory constituencies which have them so much power in the first place. The conquering part came naturally and so they reduced the Lib Dem seats from 57 to 8. There is no doubt in my mind the blind-sided psychology of the Lib Dems is what put them in this position in the first place. They should never in a million years have got into bed with the Tories, their influence and power as a real third party came through the election of 2010 and in their own hubris they still thought they were different.  Yet together with the Tories they have ruled the country for 5 years and the electorate do not see the Lib Dems as different at all.  They were voted for in 2010 because their rhetoric was attractive and it had the sparkle of being something worth supporting, but by going into this coalition their uniqueness was lost. Their ideas, their morals which we all thought were common sense.  This move ultimately led to the incessant erosion of trust for the inevitable questions always is, why vote for Lib Dems when you are going to get a Tory government anyway? Talk about lost the plot how on earth can such a penny not drop? My guess is it was the allure of power and the self justification that by being in government they could put the breaks on the Tory administration.  What they failed to understand was, had they been out of government they would of still been able to put the breaks on a Tory administration, they could of kept to their principles and could have decided on bills on a vote by vote basis. Their unique attributes as a party would of shone through and they would of kept many more seats than the fifty they lost in the 2015 election.  Which reminds me of a film called Forest Gump and the line "stupid is as stupid does."

The question of Scotland again is a coup de gras against Labour and a divine example of divide and conquer. However, it added is the value of fear mongering. Historically the UK has always been four separate countries which were pulled together by internal war and strife.  England conquered Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland due to hunger and greed.  This was at a time when the population of the UK had very little say as democracy was less important then who your parents were and being royalty or aristocracy gave entitlements so the UK a fragmented land, pulled together and became a single country.  It seems with Scotland this was more of a default process after the demise of quick battle at Culloden in 1746.  The distaste of the English people has been a bad taste in the mouth of every Scot ever since this time.

Another advantage to the split up of the Scots from England is the belief they cost too much. The memory of revenues from North Sea oil is now in the distant past and that relates to a different era and a different Tory PM. Now we all know oil just is not going to last and it only has half a century left and the value of it has dropped through the basement tax revenues are certainly not so impressive.  It has been said, getting rid of Scotland would save England 7 billion pounds.  Whether this is true or not is of little consequence, for it is the vile attitude and an inbred racism towards them  Cameron stoked like an infectious disease. Tories don't like Scotland, don't like the Scots and anything to do with them because they are socialists and Labourites.  It was through Labour MPs in Scotland Tories had lost parliaments.  They know if you break a Scot in half like a stick of rock, you will see the words "socialist" inscribed through the core.  By losing Scotland effectively the Tories could be in power forever, they could build a nation build on their notion of business one where businesses profit but their social conscience is non existent.

A neighbour to hate is a little like the value of religion as an opiate to the people (Karl Marx), it is a scape goat as a neighbour to blame and hate is almost a natural human condition. Nigel Farage's UKIP party have used this principle to gain notice in the media and their diaspora of voters only gave them a single seat. The Tories used Scotland as a fulcrum to divide the labour party's power and simultaneously vilify the labour party and vilify the Scots.  The message was a vote for Labour would also be a vote for the SNP and condescendingly Cameron emphasised hatred because we all know what the Scots are like they want all of your money and to be free. You can't trust a Scot so you can't trust Milliband.  Cameron has a very juvenile way in talking to the public, why this comes on I am not sure but there is a blame game and their is division in everything he does. This is all a necessity to stay in power. He may think his party has the best policy for recovery but there is a pretty big failing he just doesn't understand.

Businesses make profit because it is the general public which supports them this is who buys their goods and services. If the population of the UK lives in poverty conditions they will not be able to buy those goods and services consequently profits and businesses will go under.   What happens is middle England becomes the goose, to serve middle England becomes everything for these are the people who have spare cash who can buy luxuries and services beyond the bare minimum.  It will take additional years for middle England to realise this and for their wealth to be equally hit. For the middle classes pay taxes and have reasonable incomes. But in a complex financial system which is like the oceans eco systems, when the poorer people of the UK are unable to make ends meet their income distribution in turn will not levitate upwards. Gradually Middle England will also become poor. Perhaps at this point socialism and Labourism will raise it's head and morality will kick in. The effects of another Tory government for another five years are going to be extremely toxic.

The Lib Dem patsys - useful idiots

The 2015 UK General Election has been a travesty result for Labour, a travesty result for Liberal Democrats another travesty result for UKIP and a wonderful landslide for SNP.  Unfortunately the Tories are still in government and now the country is going to be hit with the greatest number of welfare benefit cuts in living memory.  Child poverty will increase even more than it is at present and we shall see mass homelessness, increases in crime and destitution on the streets.  Not to mention how pensioners will feel when they are left suddenly realising their Tory vote has now put themselves in socially a vulnerable position.  So perhaps pensioners are the first set of patsys to take into account.  However, this is unlikely, for in my mind it is the Liberal Democrats who are the historical biggest losers ever. I had previously remarked how simple minded it was for the Liberal Democrats to be in a coalition, but Nick Clegg could not help it, perhaps it was a latent homosexual tendency which rose up when the though of political power and Cameron came to mind. They sealed their kiss in a rose garden at the back of 10 Downing Street for the world to see. It was a tragic civil ceremony and now the Lib Dems have got exactly what they deserve, their once historically high MP seat count has now plunged to the depths it used to be prior to 2010 and Nick Clegg made an exceedingly bad decision. He sold out from the start.

It is with a dose of happiness I can say and wave goodbye to the ignorant useful idiots of Vince Cable and Danny Alexander.  Vince because he should never of sold the Post Office at the monumental loss of between 5 and 8 billion GBPs.  He might of been doing this for the Tories but this was and incredibly bad decision to sell the country's jewels.  As for the sycophantic Danny Alexander it was only a few days ago he began to realise he may not have a job after the election. When he let lose inside knowledge of cabinet meeting discussions on welfare cuts.  Like he was not part of it, but he was because he now revealed it. I am so very happy Mr Alexander has lost his seat of Inverness because I cannot ever recall a politician who had succumbed to another party without actually being in that other party.  His ingratiation to the Tories was so servile and complete it can be recognised by the fact Georgie porgy Osborne said he would miss him.  Porgy as we know is an Eaton boy who has never really made friends with people, unless they happen to have a few million in their back pocket. Danny A will now be signing on the dole in a few days and probably he will learn something. But then again maybe not, his regret is now way too late. They couldn't help though following Clegg, who managed to keep his Sheffield Hallam constituency by a much smaller margin than he'd previously held.  I might of even said it was an honourable thing he did when he decided to resign as leader of the Lib Dems, but in fact it was not, because he should of simply retired and spent the rest of his time putting together jigsaw puzzles in a cosy room at home.

So it is the Lib Dems are winners of the useful idiot award for 2015. The electorate never wanted them to throw in their lot with the Tories, because it makes sense, if you want a Tory you might as well vote for one, why vote Lib Dem?  So the voters did.  What utter and complete saps.

Another royal baby - but it looks just like any other baby

It is with  disappointment UK news papers have one front page picture of a little baby, one which belongs to the royal family which is is said will be worth one billion pounds by the time it is ten years old. One which is born with a silver spoon in its mouth and will never in it's lifetime experience living in poverty.  Typically like a royal she may decide undertake a good cause, support some charity such as the anti landmine charity, she might speak to people who have lost family to land mines and be sympathetic, however she will not know what the life of the poor is like.  Royalty in this day and age should not exist it has no place in modern day living and no connection with the real people of the UK. It is a travesty which continues to focus the issue of privilege and social status above anything else. It shows in a public manner that inequality and prejudice will always exist in the country it will always live on.

So why is this baby such a big thing? What makes her so special? In my mind as with all royalty there is nothing special about rich people who did nothing to get where they are.  What is more pathetic is a country which kowtows to them as if they are special when they are not. They are nothing, they have added nothing to my life or done a thing to help me. They are stuffed so far up their own backsides they have never seen what is happening around them on the streets.  They are the privileged few who never have to aspire to being where they are, just lay back and procreate the planet, so why the hell do we pay them taxes and why the hell do they own land and properties which in reality should belong to the people of the country.

Yes, another royal baby, wonderful, sounds like another parasitic flea on the back of a dog.