Things That Really !&$%2 You Off

That does sound like capitalism.

Last night the water died in my flat. This morning the electricity had followed suit. Turns out a pipe had burst into a bunch of electrics. Mmm, fatal!

Oh nelly - after our bathroom gave up the ghost a few years ago, that's the sort of thing I have nightmares about. Stay safe Balla, and let the experts do the shifting.

It has all, happily, been restored - by professionals. In fact the evening spent at my parents' as a result was rather enjoyable. So there you go.

If you're making a spreadsheet, or programme, or anything that's more than about five sheets/chunks long and there's any likelihood it's ever going to be used again, DOCUMENT. YOUR. WORK. Yesterday saw me tangling with a spreadsheet that referred to another spreadsheet, that referred to an older version of the first spreadsheet. #firstworldrage

In all fairness, sometimes Excel does that without you knowing - you think it's going to update things when you move stuff but doesn't. It's meant I've had to turn off automatic formula updating on the spreadsheet I'm working on at work, which feels unprecedented. But yeah, I guess if someone's got to copy it, it should be explained...

Spreadsheet Talk

I would genuinely listen to that podcast.* I get what you mean about automatic formula: it feels wrong to have it off. #nocontextthread

*No I wouldn't.

My pay or lack of it

As you know I was self-isolating for 3 weeks which first week I rang into work and was paid fine in that months pay, the second & third week I went to work after being home for a week.

I of course sign in etc then to get sent home, well work has paid for me for what I signed in for on that week and nothing else meaning I had two weeks pay coming to about 1hr on this month's pay along with two proper weeks of pay.

Both times I was told when I was sent home yeah pay would be fine and I believed it would as I'd been paid before in self-isolation, well it's not and seemed it wasn't just me as the company sent down a thing about it all and set up a helpline for pay just around it instead of the normal channels.

First time the manager dealing with it rang the helpline I was told 48hrs, then it was we don't work weekends be 48hrs from Monday with no surprise Thursday morning I look and still nothing which rang again to be told 5 working days from the Wednesday which means I should get paid tomorrow.

I'm not the only one in the store, it's just a pain and I don't know where it will go if not in their Thursday morning this week as just this helpline and I guess the people the manager is talking to are at home doing it remotely but it's not like the store pays me direct it's Wal-Mart who pay me who must be able to easily pay something into my bank.

I hope that gets sorted out soon. These days are stressful enough without any extra drama.

I didn't get paid yesterday because of that department like they said they would but did after the manager dealing with it rang them and laid the verbal smackdown that suddenly they paid me right away, instead of them saying another 3 working days.

Mas' manager is henceforth an honorary GNamerian, and that 'helpline' sounds like it should be called something else. Glad you got it sorted anyway.

They weren't a helpful helpline and since my last post lot has happened

To keep it simple last month paid 2/4 weeks, two weeks later paid that other 2 weeks = 4/4 weeks which is all good, then 2 days later they pay me an extra 2 weeks giving me 6/4 weeks, this month's pay should be my normal 4/4 weeks - the 2 weeks extra = 2/4 weeks on my payslip and overall would be 8/8 weeks pay.

Well they didn't take the 2 weeks pay they managed to take all of what they paid me between payslips giving me this month 4/4 pay - both payments made which is 4 weeks worth of pay instead of just 2, meaning on Friday I'm getting basically nothing.

Now already spoken to the manager who sorted last time and I feel another verbal smackdown that the pay which they owe me (which is  2 weeks) shouldn't take long to get paid but is rather annoying.

Does now have me worried in months time they'll take back the pay they owe me for some reasons even though there shouldn't be one.

Flipping Hell Mas. At least you got Honorary GNamerian Mas' Manager in your corner, but that sounds like an utter pain in the backside.


Today I found out (not from personal experience): at some points in the process to apply for government disability benefit, they will take the applicant through a 'phone call that can last two hours. If they don't make it through the call then the process hasn't been filled in so obviously they're not eligible. If they do make it through they can be declared ineligible on the basis that they had the mental wherewithal to sit through a two-hour call.

Every time I think that I'm jaded to this government's sheer horrendousness, I find something new.

Fucking hell... horrific. That's genuinely infuriating.

Genius. Foolproof logic. Boris has cured Disability. This is why he's such a great PM.

That's not good to hear Balla

What is good is I've been paid only a day later than payday, it only happened really because the manager I told you about rang and was told to ring on Friday because that's when we get paid and not before even though had payslip on the Wednesday however when she did this our sort of mini region People Manger was in and was allowed to raise a ticket but was told can't do anything to Tuesday because don't work weekends or bank holiday.

She emailed this etc along with telling what happened to the highest person in the company who is a People Manger person, who got it sorted right away and should have gone in on Friday on actual payday but was like 4am this morning that it did.

Here's hoping that shit's all sorted for you now, mate.

Our company was recently bought by another company and the contracts and pay and stuff all rewritten. Nobody has lost any pay, but between that and COVID nobody got anything close to the payrise they expected this year, and technically we foreign teachers are now eligible to be expected to do overtime in the same way the Japanese teachers do - i.e they can just add up to 30 hours per month to your shifts any time, no questions asked - but it is very unlikely to result in more than maybe an extra 30 mins here or there a couple of times a year. I'm basically unaffected and not bothered, but there have been some frustrations among my friends and colleagues.

It sounds like everyone on here's mostly getting over their frustrations at work, which is good.  The same applies to the subject of my story above, incidentally.

JayMoyles wrote:

I can empathise following The Great Fife Flood a few weeks back. Hopefully it's an easy enough fix, boss.

The plumber says he has to break through the wall next to my bath to get underneath the stuck plug. Fuxache.

Oh dear. We moved into our new place last week and our boiler doesn't produce any hot water pressure, so we're getting a plumber around too at some point. Not as much of a ball ache as the above though!

I had another bout of indoor flooding this morning, despite only a reasonably normal level of rain last night. I came downstairs to find my kitchen once again covered in disgusting pipe water, albeit a lesser volume than during the Great Fife Flood.

Fortunately, the water board found a reasonably simple fix as the grate leading from my waste water pipe to the sewage had been covered in moss and gunk, allowing nowhere for the water to pass but back into my home. So, the good news is that it seems to have been sorted!

Water disasters for everybody! Muss and I are definitely some way behind Jay, but at least it looks like the flooding might be sorted! (And presumably you didn't need to pay for that?)

Incidentally I now just don't have a plug in the bath, after he tried to get in through the tiles and failed.

Indeed - I think the guy from the water board implied that it could have been chargeable or that he wasn't exactly obligated to do the job as he did say "and this would be classed as a private job, technically, you know..." but it seemed to be reasonably quick and easy so he just sorted it.

In all of us if we look hard enough.

JayMoyles wrote:

Indeed - I think the guy from the water board implied that it could have been chargeable or that he wasn't exactly obligated to do the job as he did say "and this would be classed as a private job, technically, you know..." but it seemed to be reasonably quick and easy so he just sorted it.

I think the guy from the water board would have been an immensely cheeky sod to have charged you for it. Glad he didn't!