Virgin trains no luggage please

It is a known fact, no matter who you are, if you travel by Virgin rail there will be very little space. This company have designed their new Palomino to fit people on and the more they can fit on the merrier. In the older styles trains there are luggage compartments at the entrance of each car, there also happens to be a guards car so if there is no space near the seats luggage can be put here.  There is only one emphasis which Virgin has here and it is to make money. Unfortunately they now have a complete monopoly if you wish to travel by train from London to Scotland the greater proportion of trains will only be Virgin, either east coast or west coast. Although there exists National Rail Conditions of Carriage which you might expect there to be a minimum standard of luggage space provided, there simply is not.  These conditions indicate a passenger can take on a train a piece of hand luggage plus two items of luggage not greater in size than 60 x 70 x 90 cm however this is not the case.  Pun not intended. Were just a handful of passengers to take on their two larger cases of these dimensions then the train becomes difficult to endure. There are times it becomes virtually impossible to get off the train because of the luggage blocking the aisle.  I would of thought such times constituted a health and safety hazard but they don't because if they did the the health and safety inspectorate would of done something about it. Perhaps they have not received enough complaints.

So if you want something done just complain, the more complaints that flood this company, the more protests to MPs and other authorities the more likely eventually some one will think something has to be done. Maybe passengers will bus, drive and fly instead.

BB 2015 letters from home task

The letters from home task on BB 2015 for Monday 2nd July 2015 showed a clear divide between the posh and moralists house mates and those with higher values.  We saw Joel ruthlessly pick again on Sam eating her letter and
trying to justify it with a little presumptuous logic. It is funny how Joel had always included the phrase "the moral thing to do" when talking about decision but this time he chose a non moral decision.  Or is it rather the way he did it, without apologising for his actions but justifying them. Whereas we saw Harry pick a red ball and break into tears because she knew someone would not get a chance to hear from home. She ate Jack's letter, and was a right decision in light of Jack previously saying it didn't matter to him if he did not get a letter.  Of course Jack had made the earlier bartered money for some items, i.e. football scores and a cheap jacket and trousers.  After he felt the wrath of Chloe and of other house mates he realised it was a bad decision.  It was a time when it really did test Jack to see if he was true to his word and friendships were more important to him. He managed to reverse his decision which was good news. 

Then we saw Nick get his letter read to him from Danny.  Nick the second rich boy of the house, one who has never worked a day in his life and loves to be an internet troll.   I personally could not understand why Danny chose Nick after Nick had just bought himself a finalist ticket.  We saw Nick  justify to Chloe why he made the decision to swap his nomination place with her.  Regardless his selfishness had broken a social norm for then Harry gave Nick

her opinion on buying a ticket to the final.  Quite rightly
saying if he was not good enough to get through to the final on his own merit he certainly didn't deserve to be there.  Nasty Nick was on his own journey and he had to do the best for himself.  Yet it is the public viewing his actions who will make a decision on him as an individual. Such behaviour we repeatedly see with Posh well to do people who think they own the world and proceed to make money by immoral means.  This reminds me of Lord Freud the ex banker taking a ride in government on the backs of the Tories, he isn't even an elected MP. He certainly should not be in such a position.

BB has gotten more devious and evil as this series has worn on. However, house mates, Chloe, Danny and Harry have shown a moral compass lacking in others. Lets also not forget the easily forgettable Cristian who though not at all entertaining has spoken some wise words and shown he to is morally upstanding.  Each day now as BB creeps to the final things heat up, what dilemma is going to be next, just watch this space.

BBOTS fake Psychologist

On Big Brother's Bit on the side for 01.07.15. the guest speaker Anna Williamson was annotated as being a Psychologist.  She is not. The extent of her knowledge of psychology is achieving a diploma in counselling for which she has counselled children.  She has not been through seven years of study and then gained chartered status from the British Psychological Society and she does not have the authority to call herself a psychologist. Even though on the show Ryland jumped in with some pop psychology comments and Anna Williamson enjoyed the misleading notion she was a psychologist.

Perhaps it was BBOTS which got this wrong, and wanted to try and get viewers to see Anna as though she has some kind of professional validity. However, Anna is firstly a TV presenter and is so far from being a psychologist it is more likely that aliens actually exist. Channel 5 have been wrongly attributed a title to Anna and in doing so have demeanoured the hard work and professionalism of every real psychologist there is out there.  Every comment she has made on this show is no more than opinion and conjecture something of which we can all give.

Big Brother 2015

Yet again the devil incarnate in female form is on TV, yes we see Helen Wood twisting discussions as though she is the victim or being talked about. She speaks her mind they say, but hell with a mind and attitude like that she should not reveal what her mind is all about. For it seems she has an inherent paranoid streak when she thinks people are talking about her. Now talk about big ego or what?  The house is divided and unlike last year when she had three or four other housemates making her own cliche this year she doesn't and this year she is having to face more people being explicit to her face telling her they don't like her.  We even see Jack own up to talking to Joel and Helen thinking she owns every conversation in the house. Who the hell does she think she is? It is wonderful to see Brian Bello back for he is such a happy go lucky character and when he one BB it was purely on his beautiful personality. He didn't have a pass card given to him at the start of the show or the bookies voting him in like vulture Helen did. 

It is a pitty Marc can not be nominated this week around because he is included in the Legend's housemate group. The worst thing about this is that Marc has effectively now had two weeks where he has not been subjected to the likelihood of being evicted. Last week was a reverse call by BB to just put someone in the Bunker for a couple of days.  Marc has shown admiration for Helen and this may well be his downfall. He has acted the tosser and always will be the tosser, but now he is a tosser in the company of a psycho bitch who should never of been given any air time in the first place. But still she is here and still he is here.  Both engrossed in their own vanity just as many of the other housemates are, because BB is geared up really for the younger crowd and they love to see a bit of eye candy. However, Helen is a poke your eye out candy or my god I wish I didn't have to see you eye candy.  I will say this, whatever attraction the world sees her in now her full personality has been aired it shows beauty as being skin deep. In her case the skin is pretty thin.  You can see why Marc gets on with her, when they were born they had fallen into the tub which said obnoxious and both liked it so much it added more to her characters.  They are nasty bits of work.  Come next week Marc is definitely going to be up for eviction.

BB has again managed to bring discord into the show. It has cheapened itself by raising the social tendency to bullying yet again on a high profile. Helen is a bully and Marc is a bully these are the kind of people I would prefer to keep my back on and never view in my life. I love the show but not people like this who seem to get a perverse pleasure out of demeaning others.  BB 2015 shame on you.

David Cameron and the red head prostitute

Cameron was desperate for sex, because his missus just had another headache. So he walks out of Downing Street looking for a prostitute.

On the corner of Soho he finds three prozzies: a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead.
 
To the blonde he said, "I am the Prime Minster, how much would it cost me to spend some time with you? The blonde replied, "Two hundred pounds."
 
To the brunette he posed the same question, and she replied, "One hundred pounds."
 
He then asked the redhead the same question.
 
The redhead replied, "Look Dave, if you can raise my skirt as high as my taxes..... get my knickers as low as my wages... get that thing of yours as hard as the times... keep it as high as the gas and electric prices... keep me warmer than my bedsit... and.. screw me in private the way you do in public, then believe me Dave, it ain't gonna cost you a penny.

Wow says Cameron "economic fiscal recovery is working in the hand of Osborne."

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.