Grumpy old buggers thread

[4bee]

The recent DOS attacks on this site have shown me just how many utterly useless channels there are on YT, and just how hard the algorithm pushes them... Still, at least Cloudfare thinks I'm human. About time someone did.

Oh dear, come come dear sir, dont take on so.


How the **** can it tell whether one is, or one isn't, a photo.?

In to day's climate will it next be "Confirm your are Bi, Gay or another 100 things?"

TiC.

[Saitch]

How the **** can it tell whether one is, or one isn't, a photo.?

In to day's climate will it next be "Confirm your are Bi, Gay or another 100 things?"

TiC.

Bender.jpg

[NavyDiver]

Letter to a now dead company that's really a zombie

I called re the letter sent to a incorrect address and threatening a bit. Two calls just shut off saying they were to busy to answer calls. third try and 30 minutes on hold I got to a helpful person who was in well over her head. She tried hard to help. An hour later the ATO Liquation team wouldn't help her, Her Manager and team abandoned her.


We settled on me calling ASIC about the zombie that no longer pays me either.

3 + hours of additional unpaid work

[4bee]

Letter to a now dead company that's really a zombie

I called re the letter sent to a incorrect address and threatening a bit. Two calls just shut off saying they were to busy to answer calls. third try and 30 minutes on hold I got to a helpful person who was in well over her head. She tried hard to help. An hour later the ATO Liquation team wouldn't help her, Her Manager and team abandoned her.


We settled on me calling ASIC about the zombie that no longer pays me either.

3 + hours of additional unpaid work

AMAZING! Just when I was thunking that Govt. Depts had had a bloody good shakeup (otherwise known as a good kick in the arris.)


Maybe it's me, but I am slowly finding staff at eg. SA Gov. Motor Reg Dept, for one, were courteous, polite & went out of the way to assist clients as with other depts too. Your one tried to help but sounds like senior staff there suddenly awoke from their slumber of many years & realised that more effort was required to help to satisfy the folk who paid their fat salaries. I can hear it now, "Change? Bugger that for a game of Soldiers, we will proceed on the time honoured method we have used for donkey's years to make things more difficult for the buggers. We can't have 'em not knowing their place, the bloody cheek!"


TiC (or maybe not.)

[Tombie]

A degree only implies the ability to learn and retain long enough to pass… no different to school in concept, just slightly more intensive.

I work with hundreds of people, all boasting a degree or 2 and even several with Masters….

Whilst most are lovely people, there are many who just have no idea about the application of logic.

The worst are those so blinkered by their qualification they cannot see the bigger picture.

[V8Ian]

Electrical engineers must be the worst. Apologies to any tertiary sparkies here, but the pair of examples below are amongst your ranks, dragging you as a group, down.

#1: I had to deliver a 40' office donga to a FNQ airport carpark, on a super-tilt semi-trailer. When loading, I was advised this was the last of ten, the previous nine had been unloaded and placed by crane; if I had any issues with access, to bring it back. The national electrical contractors were expecting me and awaiting my arrival. I was intercepted in the carpark, shown the cordoned off section of the carpark and told where the building needed to go. Easy, turn right into an access laneway, reverse straight back. The ginger beer was right, he didn't need to fork out for a crane. The foreman and I discussed what we needed from each other. He wanted the hut as close to the fence as possible and to land it on besser blocks. I wanted to tip the building until it was mere inches from the ground and needed him to direct me back, until I touched the fence, without damaging either the fence or donga. He was going to let me know when his fellows needed to place a besser block, I would stop until his blokes were clear. Two blokes using common sense and logic come up with a safe plan. It was working well, until the engineer turned up, better than three parts through the process. He demanded the building be placed closer to the fence. I explained to him, the forman, a couple of tradies and even a TA, that we had it as close as possible, he simply didn't understand triangulation. He wouldn't backdown, until I told him I would take it back, until he had organised a crane.

#2: Northbound at 02:00 hrs, on the Stuart Highway with 100,000 litres of petrol (1203). I came across a stalled XD Falcon towing an old 16~18' caravan. I stopped to render assistance, as you do. The Ford occupants were a young German couple with a three year old daughter. The car battery was as dead as a doornail as the alternator had given up the ghost. They were Adelaide bound, where they intended to abandon the car and van, and fly back to Germany. It was suggested, not by me I hasten to add, that we swap batteries! A snowball's in Hades, my truck was two months old, besides an N70 will not fit into a Falcon.
I convinced them, not that they really had any other options, that l could tow them the 70k to Wycliffe Well, where they would have no trouble getting a secondhand alternator. This bloke had no practical skills. If it wasn't for another fellow who stopped to help, I would not have been able to turn around the car and caravan, to attach them to the back of my back trailer. I explained to the fellow that he needed to keep the rope taut and I would activate the stop lights before applying the brakes. He looked at the back of the truck and suddenly noticed the DG placard that clearly stated PETROL.
He then asked if I would let his wife and daughter ride in the truck with me. He was concerned that if he crashed into the back trailer, it would blow up. I agreed to let the females ride with me, but didn't have the heart to tell him, that if he managed to blow the back trailer up, the middle one would follow, as would the front one with the prime mover. They'd be picking up our body parts from every corner of Central Australia.
Once we'd got to WW, we had a brief conversation, with him revealing that he was an electrical engineer. He couldn't work out that even a new N70 battery wasn't going to get him back to Adelaide.

[3toes]

Two of my father’s brothers were engineers each with over 20 years experience. Now their mothers yard has become a little over grown. Was decided that best solution was that a cousin who had an earth moving business would bring a bull dozer over and do some clearing of vegetation

All going well until bull dozer attempts to go around the back and the clothes line was in the way. Top part of the hills hoist lifted and placed to one side so clearing could continue

Once clearing done of course the clothes line needed to be put back as it was. Task handed to the 2 engineers they after all being the experts who had pulled it apart. An hour later it was back together but the height adjustment never worked again as they could not work out how to put it back so the handle would wind it up and down

[3toes]

The ’qualification’ I have over the years found to be the most dangerous is the MBA. Seems to engender an attitude that process wins over experience

A few times have heard people being told by those with the qualification that experience holds the business back and creates unnecessary costs that impact on profit. This from people who tend to have a short tenure seeking the next move up the corporate ladder leaving chaos and confusion behind them

The now discredited head of GE USA Jack Welch is a classic example of this and the destruction of companies, shareholder value and jobs that follow

[3toes]

One MBA classic was that not knowing too much about the business was what made them so effective at their job ????

[Tins]

The ’qualification’ I have over the years found to be the most dangerous is the MBA. Seems to engender an attitude that process wins over experience

A few times have heard people being told by those with the qualification that experience holds the business back and creates unnecessary costs that impact on profit. This from people who tend to have a short tenure seeking the next move up the corporate ladder leaving chaos and confusion behind them

The now discredited head of GE USA Jack Welch is a classic example of this and the destruction of companies, shareholder value and jobs that follow

As John ( JDNSW ) has pointed out, this is a huge cultural issue at the US's leading aeronautical and aerospace conglomerate, with world headline results.