….feeling miserable (‘cos we are possibly being outsourced, but our boss is being a total ‘C’ and carrying on as if nothing is happening) so cheer me up with something / anything please!

A&A just begun, my old fromage footed one.

That’s better – For the very first time I can see the appeal of golf!

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are riding along when tonto suddenly stops, jumps off his horse and puts his head to the ground
“buffalo come” says Tonto
“Bloody hell Tonto, how do you know that?” Says TLR
“Ear stuck to ground”

I’m here all week…

get your coat

From this months Superbike…

They used to call Gary Glitter “The Missile” when he was on the road with the Glitter Band, due to his sexual prowess. Oh, sorry, my mistake, he was actually called “The TourPeado”…..

Alledgedly….

Outsourcing isn’t all bad. Get some info about it. Go and look up TUPE “Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations” on google. It covers your rights when being outsourced.

I work for an IT outsourcing company (and have done for nearly 10 years) so I’m biased. Honestly, we really aren’t that bad. Sure it’s a shock when it first happens and you get told about it but I find that with the right attitude and outlook it’s possible to go further with the new employer than you could with the old one. If it’s a large outsourcing company then there should be more opportunities for training, development, career progression. Look for the positives that can come from it.

I’ve worked for two outsourcing companies and, from my personal experience, I have to disagree with TSIS. Sorry matey.

The first (CSC), I was TUPE’d across to. I tried for almost three years to make it work but it just didn’t. I tried really hard to get off the account of my pre-tupe employer and onto other clients, but ‘they’ wouldn’t release me – I was deemed “account critical” ( 🙄 ). As for the terms of the TUPE, it’s not worth the paper it was written on. After the first 12 months we were issued with new contracts and told to sign or leave – many changes to T&C’s. It was probably the most stressful period of my (20 year) working life to date. I ended up a mess and on anti-depressants.

I left CSC to go and work for EDS (I know, I know) and they were a bit better but bureaucratic beyond belief. To the extent that nothing ever seemed to get finished – projects just seemed to fizzle out.

I’ve since left them and gone contracting – happier, but still have the scars created by working for CSC

One piece of advice is to try and get away from the account (within the outsourcing co.) after you’ve transferred. My former colleagues who managed to do it are still with CSC and doing okay. Good luck.

well that will have cheered cheesyfeet up no end! 🙂

I’m from the north, we don’t do cheering up. Haven’t you heard… it’s grim up ‘ere…

Sorry Cheesy… Go and re-read Agent Picolax. That always cheers me up.

i learnt to play the riff from ‘day tripper’ last night

made me happy

freddyg – I still work for CSC. I understand the account critical nonsense as a few friends/colleagues went through that. I’ve never had that problem, probably because I’m not as good as I like to think I am. It’s also less of an issue these days. In the (nearly) 10 years I’ve been with them I’ve worked on half a dozen different accounts doing different roles (Analyst Programmer, Business Analyst, Team Leader, Project Management, Incident Management).

I also think that because I voluntarily joined CSC (wasn’t TUPE’d in) then it makes a difference to how I view the company. I’ve worked with loads of guys who were very bitter that CSC were now their employers and seemed to forget that their previous company were the ones that were “selling” them off to the lowest bidder.

Cheesyfeet – If outsourcing happens and you aren’t happy with the way it looks then find something else. Life is way too short to spend 7-8 hours a day, five days a week being miserable.

CSC – BURN THE WITCH!
Sorry TSIS, but I work for a part of a large company whom you deal with. Luckily our inhouse team showed just how good they really are when we had CSC put on us for a number of few months. Quality & speed of service went downhill faster than the Atherton family!

Very clever rocketdog but that’s just a one way ticket

And it will take you so long to find out!