Strange Colleague
 

[Closed] Strange Colleague

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I am a sub contractor who works in an office environment. In the team there is myself, a staff member and another contractor and we all do the same job. The other contractor is a very strange chap. I had heard of him previously from his time working at a place I had also been at and he wasn't highly thought of there, but I thought best to give this guy a chance. Well what a weirdo he is. He is a 40 something guy who eats constantly (rice cakes etc) and likes to open water swim in his spare time. The problem with said weirdo is that he completely ignores me and the other guy and is completely renegade in how he works. He is also passive aggressive and has a real air of arrogance which follows him as he struts through the office. We have tried to make an effort with him back in the day but now just blank him out of our day (apart from the odd p"ss take on Skype). Anyways, he hasn't done himself any favours as he is being released from his contract whilst yours truly remains. Anyone else ever come across such a specimen and if so share your experience ??


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:15 pm
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Anyone else ever come across such a specimen and if so share your experience ??

Yes, and I had to manage her. It was a nightmare and a significant factor in me opting to get a new job.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:17 pm
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Fairly regularly. Unless they are causing some sort of disruption then it's best just to ignore them and let them give themselves enough rope ...


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:21 pm
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back in the day but now just blank him out of our day (apart from the odd p"ss take on Skype). Anyways

If you said 'back in the day' and 'anyways' in conversation with me I'd ignore you too.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:22 pm
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but now just blank him out of our day

so who's ignoring who?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:23 pm
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You could be him Gary M ??


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:24 pm
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Is his name Gary, if it is then it's me, so **** off and continue ignoring me weirdo


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:26 pm
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I share an office with a sub contractor who really bugs me.I think he has been nicking my rice cakes and he spends all day on a bike forum.I pretty sure he can't swim and doesn't take any interst in my open water stuff.Worst thing is,I now heard that I may be getting the push while he is kept on.Grrrr


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:27 pm
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They're going so why do you care?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:27 pm
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Oh hi Gary


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:27 pm
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This is going back a number of years (~12). A new contractor starts and wants to immediately change the folder architecture for the department. He was employed to do unrelated work and the department was part of a large global organisation.
He wasn't impressed with this and couldn't grasp why he couldn't do what he wanted. We walked out before lunch time, never to be seen again!
There was another chap who would write some code, then phone his 'mate' to tell him he had wrote a 'beast' and he should check it out. Why he didn't message him I don't know but I guess he wanted everyone else to hear.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:28 pm
 DezB
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[i]You could be him Gary M ??[/i] 😆

Bloke in my last place, thought he was the funniest comedian on the planet - his catchphrase was "I'm only here to provide morale". Excuse me while I piss myself. They made him my boss shortly before I go booted out (thank kerist). Used to be ex-army - all pics of him in tanks, with guns etc all round his desk. Real arse-licker too, got him where he wanted to go, but I couldn't handle working with him. Only service he provided was someone to all slag off when other staff members got together. 😆


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:30 pm
 dazh
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Sounds like he was just getting on with his job and you and the other guy ganged up on him cos he's not the same as you. Do you often bully other members of staff because they don't fit into whatever it is you deem to be 'normal'?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:30 pm
 scud
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Years ago i worked in call centre of an electricity board, with a lady who would always start of really angry, it could be the weather, parking, what had happened in the news etc. All she wanted to talk about was knitting and would constantly butt into conversations and send rude inappropriate emails despite being in her 50's.

One day we were told that she had a bad fall down the stairs at work, it turned out the large Lilt bottle on her desk was half Lilt, half gin and she was getting through a 2 litre bottle in a day


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:31 pm
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People who misuse reflexive pronouns are strange in my book.

Rice cakes are shite though.

I'm getting splinters sitting on the fence but can't you two work it out?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:32 pm
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I work in a factory, spoilt for choice here 🙂

One of my favourites is a guy who washes his pants every morning in the staff toilet in the sink, stark naked! He then uses the hand dryer to dry them and he is a team leader!


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:33 pm
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half Lilt, half gin

Tilt?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:34 pm
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"Sounds like he was just getting on with his job and you and the other guy ganged up on him cos he's not the same as you. Do you often bully other members of staff because they don't fit into whatever it is you deem to be 'normal'?"

Do you often get bullied dazh ??


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:36 pm
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half Lilt, half gin
Tilt?


Gilt.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:39 pm
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One of my favourites is a guy who washes his pants every morning in the staff toilet in the sink, stark naked! He then uses the hand dryer to dry them and he is a team leader!

What does he use to dry his pants?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:39 pm
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The OP does have previous [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/colleague-hates-cyclists ]of not getting on with colleagues[/url]


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:41 pm
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I work with one, but it is best to ignore him, he would boil your p*** if you listened to him, he argues about everything and is NEVER wrong, even when he is wrong he will argue until you just give up.
The best was when he decided to cut his toenails at his desk. He was hauled before HR who couldn't actually decide if he had done anything wrong.
I think he may have aspergers syndrome, and I try and cut him some slack.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:43 pm
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Nice bit of stalking there Gary M, now put those Rice Cakes back and face the wall, theres a good chap 😀


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:43 pm
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[i] Well what a weirdo he is. He is a 40 something guy who eats constantly (rice cakes etc) and likes to open water swim in his spare time[/i]

Woa...open water swimming? like wtf! can't believe you'd share an office with someone who swims outside...the worlds a strange place... 😀


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:47 pm
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Woa...[s]open water swimming[/s] rice cakes ? like wtf! can't believe you'd share an office with someone who eats rice cakes [s]swims outside[/s]...the worlds a strange place..


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:50 pm
 DezB
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Funny innit. STWers obviously get on well with every kind of person in the workplace and don't see bad in anyone. And yet, on here, it's bicker bicker, I'm cleverer than you, I ride better than you, drive better than you, you're a racist bullyboy, etc etc.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:52 pm
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Sounds he could probably be on the autistic spectrum. Having spent two weeks going through hell because my son's work colleagues consider him to be the "weirdo" and he ended up in a disciplinary meeting and could be sacked I suggest that maybe you should give him a break as not everyone can be perfect and he may struggle with interaction and communication.
I am so glad that you feel happy that this "specimen" has lost his job!
Jesus!


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:54 pm
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Exhibit A

This guy has previously changed a meeting time without informing the rest of the team in hope that we arrive late and look like right "see you next Tuesdays"


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:55 pm
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Hardly stalking, its pretty to easy to take a quick looking at past posts, doesn't take much time.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 1:56 pm
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Will you please face the wall Gary, I won't ask you again, many thanks !!


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:04 pm
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The problem with said weirdo is that he completely ignores me and the other guy and is completely renegade in how he works. He is also passive aggressive and has a real air of arrogance which follows him as he struts through the office

Sounds normal contractor behaviour 😀

(saying that as a contractor, though I don't strut around the office 😉 )

More seriously, some contractors like to (and probably should) distance themselves from the office politics. Should be a job you walk into, do a professional job, get paid, go home, contract ends, move onto next gig. Getting personally involved in too much office chat sucks you in, then some "permies" get the hump if a contractor is socialising and not working, given they may be paid by the hour.

Depends on the office environment though. I tend to steer clear of places with cultures like that now.

Coming in and demanding changes is not on though, unless that is the role of the contract. Depends if they're there as a monkey to do the work or as a consultant to tell you how to do the work properly 😉


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:06 pm
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What are you on about j5kol? The way you're coming across it's no surprise the guy ignores you. You have a bit of growing up to do.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:09 pm
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I always find the "weirdos" in a working environment are the most interesting people. The people who fit into the cliques and are "popular" are often the dullest.

So he eats rice cakes (looks after his health, maybe he's had a weight problem in the past) and swims and gets on with his job Has anyone found out if his "renegade" way of working might actually be better? No one will ever know now anyway. :/


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:14 pm
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The problem with said weirdo is that he completely ignores me and the other guy and is completely renegade in how he works. He is also passive aggressive and has a real air of arrogance which follows him as he struts through the office

Why don't you tell us a bit more about his passive aggressiveness, j5kol?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:15 pm
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If you was to meet this guy, you would understand, its the long pause before he actually replies to anyone when they speak to him and then the aggressive way in which he replies with their name "YES, etc etc"


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:20 pm
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If you was to meet this guy, you would understand, its the long pause before he actually replies to anyone when they speak to him and then the aggressive way in which he replies with their name "YES, etc etc"


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:20 pm
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oh and he says "pow wow" instead of meeting


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:22 pm
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He may well be a bit odd. But what's the relevance of the open water swimming? I consider myself to be fairly normal and actually prefer open water swimming to being in a pool, being out in the open is part of the reason we got in to biking isn't it?!


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:22 pm
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I was just trying to build a picture of him that he isn't full on strange, just partially. I have been known to have a pond dip now and then


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:24 pm
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Hmm, one more question, do you tend to arrive at a place,perhaps 'turn up' or even 'roll up to' or is it the case that you most often 'rock up' to a place?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:25 pm
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You're coming across as a bit of an arse j5kol


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:26 pm
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Well anyone who calls a meeting a pow wow is definitely a bit odd, granted. Mind you, spent nine months with a certain consultancy firm at our work this year, the number of daft work lingo drove me mad. "Let's reach out to...." instead of "ask"


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:26 pm
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I was just trying to build a picture of him that he isn't full on strange, just partially. I have been known to have a pond dip now and then

So you're now saying the fact that he open water swims is not what you consider part of his strange ways? What about the 'constant' eating of rice cakes?

How many rice cakes does he eat a day?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:31 pm
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What about the 'constant' eating of rice cakes?

OP is a Ricist?

's Brexit innit!


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:35 pm
 dazh
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This guy has previously changed a meeting time without informing the rest of the team in hope that we arrive late and look like right "see you next Tuesdays"

Or maybe he had a valid reason to change the time and your own paranoia and insecurity lead you to believe he did it as some sort of cunning masterplan to make you look bad? Something tells me that's not that hard though.

its the long pause before he actually replies to anyone when they speak to him

So he thinks before he speaks? Shocking.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:35 pm
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Well, I reckon i can eat a rice cake in about 2 minutes. So, if he is eating them constantly over an 8 hour working day, allowing 20 minutes to eat lunch, assuming lunch is not rice cakes. Then that would be about 230 rice cakes every day! I agree OP, that is really weird


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:35 pm
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Oh and low and behold, I have just gone to make a cup of coffee and as I walk in he is walking out with a hot drink and the kettle is empty, teamwork at its best !


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:40 pm
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What a Kant!


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:44 pm
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half Lilt, half gin
Tilt?

Tilt??


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:47 pm
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I used to work with a mental health nurse who would arrive at the community Base about an hour before the start time and have a massive dump and leave it unflushed in the pan. You knew no attempt had been made to flush, as the dump could be seen garnished with dry bog roll. Due to the location of the toilet to the office the entire place would stink of fresh shite by the time everyone was getting into work. Oddly not a word was ever said.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:48 pm
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I've been in my current job just under nine years and there is a guy who started roughly six months after me, I've never heard his voice. I've even tried (and so have others) to engage him in conversation and he just nods. Seems like a very clever guy judging by his output and will communicate via email no problems. I can't go five minutes without talking so find it a bit weird.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:48 pm
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So the guy is spending £17 a day on rice cakes, expensive habit.

Oh and low and behold, I have just gone to make a cup of coffee and as I walk in he is walking out with a hot drink and the kettle is empty, teamwork at its best !

Gross misconduct surely.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:49 pm
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Is that how you came to have the name "smell_it" 😕


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:51 pm
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I hate the non brew getters, why don't you take the P and say 'we'll all have one please Gary?' or 'sort yourself out then gary'


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:56 pm
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I started work at a new depot around a decade ago, (within the same company) after a couple of weeks i noticed that one of the other members of staff flatly refused to speak to me, i had no idea why, although i found out later that one of the other members of staff who i got on reasonably well with, was his ex.
Once id figured all this out, i made a special effort to speak to him if there were other people present, because i knew he would just turn his head away from me.
Not that long after he was sacked for gross misconduct.
There are some strange people about.
I wouldn't wish him to lose his job though, i just silently thought he was an asshole.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:58 pm
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as I walk in he is walking out with a hot drink and the kettle is empty

That is how kettles work - you put in just enough water to avoid wasting electricity, you boil it, you pour it in your cup.
The next person then repeats.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 2:59 pm
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If you was to meet this guy

You've lost me, OP.

I tend to steer clear of colleagues who don't understand grammar too. Call me a snob if you like, but I don't like wasting time conversing with thickos.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:13 pm
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Reboiled water is also not good for coffee/tea.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:18 pm
 DezB
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[i]I tend to steer clear of colleagues who don't understand grammar too. Call me a snob if you like[/i]

Not a snob. Just a bit... no, very, weird.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:18 pm
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You lot need to stop being so reasonable. Just admit it, the way he has been described, his actions around the kettle, his behaviour towards others is strange. Spin it anyway you like for comedic effect, but it seems pretty obvious to me that this fella has a strangely anti-social and disruptive colleague. I don't know what to advise,other than to keep his head down, carry on eating the rice cakes, enjoy his swimming and look forward to the day he can leave.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:32 pm
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Ha ha brilliant CharlieMungus, "walking the mile, walking the mile"


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:37 pm
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Reboiled water is also not good for coffee/tea.

Cobblers.

All water on the planet has been reboiled a million times over.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:38 pm
 Nico
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If you said 'back in the day' and 'anyways' in conversation with me I'd ignore you too.

Not to mention "passive aggressive" and "said weirdo".


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:49 pm
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Forget Rice cakes man....I'm still reeling from the story about the guy washing his pants every morning in the sink, whilst naked! I mean WTF!

Must be oop North! 🙂


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:55 pm
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I work as a truck driver. You lot have no idea how weird colleagues can be.
Prostitute murdering etc....


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:56 pm
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I suppose you posh southerners wash them while wearing them then?


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:57 pm
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I suppose you posh southerners wash them while wearing them then?

They don't wash them, just wear a new pair every day


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 3:59 pm
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Well, i hope they get on with whoever they swap with


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 4:01 pm
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he is walking out with a hot drink and the kettle is empty

This is STW no one here uses a kettle,its either Nespresso or a Stove top coffee maker with pure spring water from a remote andean mountain top.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 4:58 pm
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from experience any man working in an office is slightly strange, i dont work and never have worked in an office for that reason.......


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 5:59 pm
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Oi, I resemble that remark


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 6:38 pm
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Think we need a picture of this guy whilst eating a rice cake to help us decide.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 6:55 pm
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OP comes across as a complete ****stain


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 6:55 pm
 Pook
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Think we need a picture of this guy whilst eating a rice cake to help us decide.

Put the picture up by all means. I'll have to go and get some rice cakes though


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 7:09 pm
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Oh and low and behold, I have just gone to make a cup of coffee and as I walk in he is walking out with a hot drink and the kettle is empty, teamwork at its best !

What you need is an Office Linebacker


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 7:18 pm
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Cougar - Moderator 
Cobblers.
All water on the planet has been reboiled a million times over.

But each time you reboil the kettle the water isn't evaporating into the atmosphere, raining down and filtering through the ground/rocks and filtering systems in water plants, being oxygenated and all that.

But then that could be a load of bollocks as an argument also 😀

I agree the stuff you find on the net about it being harmful to reboil is cobblers. Not so sure about taste though. A lot of argument that you're concentrating the minerals each time you do it. In my experience I find the limescale builds up more, even using filtered water. If I empty and fill fresh from filter, it doesn't seem to do that. And growing up in a soft water area and now living in hard water area, I find hard water taste is terrible in tea and coffee (especially tea).


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 7:21 pm
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Those dark chocolate rice thins from the free-from section are quite good.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 7:30 pm
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Anyone else ever come across such a specimen and if so share your experience ??

I work with around 800 'specimens' every day at work. 😆


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 7:53 pm
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One colleague doesn't fill the communal kettle after making himself a drink.

Another colleague is so disgusted by this he goes on the internet to bitch about him to strangers.

Whose behaviour is the more "strange"?

OP, if I worked with you, I wouldn't talk to you either.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 8:00 pm
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I have a high degree of confidence I am viewed as the office wierdo , I am really comfortable with that . 50% of my colleagues enjoy the way I am 50% are insecure dullards . management tolerate me as I get stuff done.


 
Posted : 22/11/2016 8:19 pm
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