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Post by westender on Apr 10, 2012 12:16:36 GMT -1
the way it's supposed to anymore??  Feckin sick of this. Letters that I sent in February to a perfectly straightforward academic address are revealed today as "never received". Latest in an ever-increasing line of completely incomprehensible fuckups all totally outwith my control. I am sick of the fact that you can't rely on a DAMN THING getting done properly in this country any more. Once it's out of your hands, you're a total hostage to fortune - and to the incompetence, bone idleness and stupidity of others. It occurs that e.g. an entire canon of the greatest bits of English literature was predicated on the fact that the postal service never failed and was 100% efficient. That was taken absolutely for granted. Now, we're swamped by communications technology - and feck all can be relied on being communicated, understood or done properly. What an absolute scunner. Modern life makes me positively reel with fury at times. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2012 18:20:33 GMT -1
Pesky, innit? To be honest I've taken to emailing importante communications to the department concerned--- with the letter attached--- and sending a hard copy in the post as well. You shouldn't have to---but at least that way you can get confirmation it's been received if you ask for it in the email. I wonder if it'll get better or worse when the Royal Mail's privatised  |
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Post by notanimby on Apr 10, 2012 18:39:29 GMT -1
Any important letters or post always gets sent by royal mail special delivery
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Post by westender on Apr 10, 2012 18:55:04 GMT -1
To be honest I've taken to emailing importante communications to the department concerned--- with the letter attached--- and sending a hard copy in the post as well. I did think about that, but - FOOL that I am!! - I thought that the matter in question merited a letter in the first instance - formal, more courteous; academic inboxes are usually stuffed and folk have more than enough to be getting on with (and a lot gets overlooked or forgotten... voice of bitter experience) I thought a hand addressed envelope landing on a desk might be a bit of a novelty and less likely to fall through the cracks. Also more courteous as a first approach, which I thought would be more appropriate in this instance. I did what I know to be the right thing, as I always try to do. The trouble is, it really feels like there's scarcely any bugger left who knows what the right thing to do is, far less cares about doing it. The best laid plans... There's nae bluddy point in doin your best these days, I'm tellin ye. Nae point at all.... cos no matter how hard ye try, if you're not solely responsible for the completion of a thing ye start, then somebody somewhere else who doesnae give a monkeys, is gonna fuck it up. |
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Post by westender on Apr 10, 2012 18:57:52 GMT -1
Any important letters or post always gets sent by royal mail special delivery Well yeah obviously... but this wasn't that important. It would only have been important to me - and I had no reason to doubt that it would get there!  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2012 19:24:44 GMT -1
The hand-written envelope approach doesn't work any more, sorry to say. Past few years a load of senior businessfolks have used it as a way to get the attention of their victim. It worked for a while but now it's commonly being used as a ploy by marketing juniors.
I got one at w*rk this very morning. It was a routine maildrop from a very large company indeed.
On doing your best; oh, where to start. Does the art of delegation= the loss of control? I don't believe so.
But a well-placed, successful colleague in another company said to me recently; "You can't do it all. You can't make sure everything's perfect, you just have to accept that 'good enough' is OK"
Can't TELL you how much I disagreed with her.
But there's a difference between micro-managing and setting out basic standards you'd like your team to uphold. And preferably recruiting people who agree with your standards, or are willing to learn-- that sure helps.
One of the most difficult issues for employers and their employment lawyers is perfomance-managing people who don't give a flying feck and do the absolute minimum to get by.
It's painful that there's so many good, willing, able people needing jobs whilst it's simultaneously a minefield trying to get rid of such wastes of space.
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Post by notanimby on Apr 10, 2012 19:40:27 GMT -1
In a similar vein
We got an envelope through the door - an election leaflet from our local SCUM party candidate. It contained NINETEEN spelling and grammar errors (there may be more, I stopped counting)
Not only that it told of a newly built primary school, built by the SCUM party, the catchment area's RC school, the only problem being the lauded new build school is not the school for our area.
PS
The leaflet was going on constantly about the educational achievements of our local SCUM party/ Tory coalition, obviously in an ironic fashion
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Post by ozneil on Apr 10, 2012 20:23:56 GMT -1
We never trusted anything important here to Post Office always went by courier if local and TNT satchel if further away or overseas. We had signatures of recipient if required
Papers were whinging about it a while ago & 2 stories stuck in my mind.
1 Letter posted from Sydney to Wellington NSW eventually arrived covered in "Address not Known" from NZ Post office. Scrawled across the envelope in red ink was "TRY WEST ISLAND" For the uninitiated NZ consists of 3 main Islands, North, South and West (aka Australia)
2 Letter from Europe addressed to Mr & Mrs XXXXXX near Fire Station Crows Nest Sydney Australia (Crows Nest is a suburb of Sydney like say Shawlands in Glasgow) letter was delivered successfully
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Post by westender on Apr 10, 2012 21:21:18 GMT -1
The hand-written envelope approach doesn't work any more, sorry to say. I had good reason to hope that it would, if it had gotten there... Depends on the quality of what you've got to delegate to; and if you weren't responsible for that, then my bitter experience is it does lead to loss of control. I've been fairly lucky workwise; in recent times colleagues have all had the same high standards as me, as their baseline. One of them in particular certainly made even me raise my bar. One of the proper old school. Well...I wasn't aiming necessarily for perfect, good enough would have done; and though I'd know way of knowing how it'd be received at the other end, I thought if the thing got there, that'd be good enough. I certainly didn't anticipate the thing not actually getting there; I mean, it's a uni postal service; once the thing arrives at the uni mailroom, it should be fine! The mailroom guys know their beat and their folk. Sigh. The post... just another thing to add to the list of unreliability. Which is one of the reasons why, if one has to do the 9 to 5, academia is my preferred territory in which to do it. One can at least expect that certain basic standards are the norm.... Hah. Famous last words. I recently had to visit some ridiculous new department in the devastated west quad, where there was a very pneumatic, very young "receptionist" falling out of (I am not making this up) a very short, very low cut, very tight leopard print garment, seamed stockings, 5 inch heels, ridiculous talons, white blond hair extensions, hugely overdone makeup, wreathed in clouds of choking perfume. (Okay, so everyone'll think I'm just jealous and that I'm judging on appearances. Well I wasn't jealous, and there was, in this case, ample reason to judge on appearances.) My judgement was correct, because (as quickly became apparent), she was quite obviously as stupid as she looked....dumber than a sack of hammers. A complete joke. Who the hell employed her?? Boy; was that a bad day on campus for me. It's certainly also a major, mindbending issue for any employees who do give a fuck - and who know that their idiot colleagues over whom they have no control couldn't care less. Tell me about it! Worst is, things would be so much easier for everyone all round, if folk would 1. know & understand what the fuck they're supposed to be doing and why; and 2. ensure they do it properly and to the best of their ability. Seemples. Couldn't be seemples-er. Shirking, stupidity, laziness, fucking up, not giving a toss... all of it just needlessly creates more work for everybody and ends up with everybody wasting time and energy, chasing their tails. And that, it seems to me, is the cultural norm in workplaces these days. And for reasons all too apparent, it's clear to me that that situation is only going to get worse, it's not going to get better. Grrrr, sigh, bah bah and thrice bloody bah. |
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Post by westender on Apr 10, 2012 21:23:27 GMT -1
In a similar vein We got an envelope through the door - an election leaflet from our local SCUM party candidate. It contained NINETEEN spelling and grammar errors (there may be more, I stopped counting) Not only that it told of a newly built primary school, built by the SCUM party, the catchment area's RC school, the only problem being the lauded new build school is not the school for our area. PS The leaflet was going on constantly about the educational achievements of our local SCUM party/ Tory coalition, obviously in an ironic fashion Good grief. Is this leaflet online, at all?? In the mood I'm in, then just lemme see it and I'll contact them and gie them a bloody rocket! grrr |
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Post by westender on Apr 10, 2012 21:32:04 GMT -1
We never trusted anything important here to Post Office always went by courier if local and TNT satchel if further away or overseas. We had signatures of recipient if required Papers were whinging about it a while ago & 2 stories stuck in my mind. 1 Letter posted from Sydney to Wellington NSW eventually arrived covered in "Address not Known" from NZ Post office. Scrawled across the envelope in red ink was "TRY WEST ISLAND" For the uninitiated NZ consists of 3 main Islands, North, South and West (aka Australia) 2 Letter from Europe addressed to Mr & Mrs XXXXXX near Fire Station Crows Nest Sydney Australia (Crows Nest is a suburb of Sydney like say Shawlands in Glasgow) letter was delivered successfully ;D Excellent Aussie tales, as ever. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2012 23:32:04 GMT -1
Depends on the quality of what you've got to delegate to; and if you weren't responsible for that, then my bitter experience is it does lead to loss of control. That's just nonsense ;D If you're in a position to delegate, you're in a position to require certain standards of your delegatees. But then that might just require some unpaid hours to keep tabs. There's the rub. That extra mile that public servants ain't willing to travel without calling in the union rep. " Which is one of the reasons why, if one has to do the 9 to 5, academia is my preferred territory in which to do it. One can at least expect that certain basic standards are the norm...." Absolute NONSENSE! ;D I think anyone here with any experience of public sector versus private sector would completely disagree. Public sector workers, in the main, earn more than their compadres in the private sector. Yer average academic'd run away screaming, Deliverance-style, if required to work more than their utterly taxing 4 hours a day. And only the 12 weeks off a year, poor little delicate flowers. How DO they cope? ;D Tell it to people who work for a living. Where basic standards mean good value, decent customer service and showing up and bloody well doing the job you're paid for. Because your livelihood depends upon it. And if folks in jobs don't know what the flying feck they're supposed to be doing--and why--whose blame is that? I'll tell you whose. Those that are bossing them. So much of the time boss peeps deliberately engage people stupider than themselves so as not to show themselves up. So many excuses. <The harder I work the luckier I get> |
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Post by ozneil on Apr 11, 2012 2:35:08 GMT -1
Agree with you Rolo I have watched Public servants literally queuing up to sign out as soon as clock hit knocking off time. Also they seem to work, if I may use the word, with rule book in one hand.
I was told during my sojourn there that I should double check every thing & not take short cuts, My mate told me that was public servicease to work slower and not show others up. Dont get me wrong there were some very technically competent guys there just being ham strung by stupid rules. but there are a lot more, particularly non-technical staff who just dont give a feck
In my own outfit we decided to limit work volume to that which knew we could handle properly therefore not have to take on second rate staff. We decided we liked sleeping better without Professional Negligence threats hanging over us.
Our guys got paid more than Public service but there again they worked around 40 -45 hours a week on average , more if required (no paid overtime) with time off when required without questions being asked eg to watch kids sports day. They knew the score play ball with us and we would play ball with them . Public servants worked were employed about 38 hours a week less smokos but tightly regulated very little incentives to show initiative
We told our guys they could work flexi time They could work any hours they liked provided they were there for "core "hours which were 8:30 am till 5pm with an hour for lunch anytime between 1pm and 2pm
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Post by notanimby on Apr 11, 2012 5:58:07 GMT -1
In a similar vein We got an envelope through the door - an election leaflet from our local SCUM party candidate. It contained NINETEEN spelling and grammar errors (there may be more, I stopped counting) Not only that it told of a newly built primary school, built by the SCUM party, the catchment area's RC school, the only problem being the lauded new build school is not the school for our area. PS The leaflet was going on constantly about the educational achievements of our local SCUM party/ Tory coalition, obviously in an ironic fashion Good grief. Is this leaflet online, at all?? In the mood I'm in, then just lemme see it and I'll contact them and gie them a bloody rocket! grrr send me your email address and I'll scan it in and email it to you - Fek sending it in the post -especially wae your luck wae ra post orrifice |
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Post by notanimby on Apr 11, 2012 5:59:29 GMT -1
Ignore teh above I've just realised - I have yer email address - whit a riddy
(note tae westie - gonnae get a brassneck emoticon)
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