Thanks guys for your positive feedback. I was beating myself up a bit about it, but I’m looking it in a different light now.

I did spend some time at the start talking to everyone about their thoughts on the situation the department was in. My team didn’t really give me any constructive feedback, mostly just a lot of whinging. Nevertheless, I spent the first month doing not much in the way of change, just listening. All new changes I implemented were introduced first at a team meeting. Again, I was confronted by a lot of negativity. This continued negativity is just hard to understand, because the results of the change have already proved positive and it has only been 3 months.

So now I have had time to sleep on it, I’m thinking loosing one person may not be the end of the world. I’m sad because he was actually my favorite (he wasn’t the worst when it came to negativity). I fear I may loose another person who is way more miserable, but he’d be no great loss if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m already short on manpower. I actually think he has poisoned the atmosphere. They all go for lunch together and I imagine they spend the whole time bitching

Cést la vie. I’ll survive.

Thread ressurection!

Going to have to kiss goodbye to mountain biking for the foreseeable future. I’ve accepted a promotion to a management position in Houston. Will miss Aberdeenshire greatly.

So how do you manage? There’s a team of 8 plus secretary. Welding, materials and NDT engineers in the oil and gas industry. I’ve never had to manage anyone before, so this is a mystery to me and there’s going to be no chance for me get any management training. What’s the best way to start off on the right foot? Start authoritatively or first spend time asking lots of questions of my new slaves staff?

I’m a little worried also that my age is a factor, being (only!) 32. But actually not entirely worried as I am the most qualified for the position and the team is relatively young anyway. Anyone remember Doogie Howser MD ?

Well, I’m here in Houston now and been doing my best at management for 3 months now. I thought I was doing a good job. The department I inherited turned out to be in a real mess. All the engineers were doing essentially the same task, but doing it in a different manner. This was creating a lack of direction within the department, extra workload and our clients were being badly managed as a result. The engineers also had a very bad relationship with the manufacturing site – they were essentially banned from visiting.

I implemented some changes very quickly. I standardised a lot of practices and smoothed over relationships at site. I asked for a bit of give and take from both parts. Initial feedback from clients and site has been overwhelmingly positive.

Now the problem. My engineers seem to have hated it! I find this out today when one decided to resign. It has left me really in the lurch and a bit personally offended that I’m his #1 reason for leaving (he didn’t tell me this directly but via my manager).

So have I gone in too hard and too fast with my changes? Should I be worried about what my staff thinks about my changes if the changes have proved to be successful so far? How do I recover the situation?

You have to tell your mortgage company, you may be giving your insurance company an excuse not to pay out if you don’t, and the mortgage company an excuse to charge you retrospectively if you don’t.

Retrospectively paying the lender is a risk I can live with.

I’ve checked the T&Cs of my landlord insurance and it makes no mention of adhering to mortgage T&Cs. Why should it – they are completely unrelated?

My mortgage company put 1% onto my motgage rate when I told them I was going to rent it out.

Mine too. I’ve decided not to tell them. 1% is a lot of money!

I’ve been here 3 years. Moved from Surbiton (SW London / Surrey) for the similar reasons as yourself: child #2 on the way, wanted to escape the M25 noose round my neck.

Best thing I ever did!

Mountain biking is immense. You’ve got everything from trail centres, downhill or all-day wilderness riding. I wasn’t really into MTB untill I got here, but your hobbies tend to reflect what is the most convenient/popular in the area.

Personally, I chose to live in Banchory. I echo what jwr said above about choosing based on your commute. I work in Westhill, so 20 minutes of no traffic is a breeze.

For families, it couldn’t be better. It was a big move for my other half, but within days she’d met other mothers and our social life began! The guys I ride with are the other dads.

(Sadly) moving to Houston this year. For adventure and career. But will always call Aberdeenshire home!

Right. I’m wrong. I think….

Just delved into it deeper. Mr Elefant has turned me around. And this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler’s_fallacy

nope – it will always be 50/50 same as tossing a coin

You are confusing the odds of having 4 boys in a row which is low and worked out like you do – but once you have 3 children the odds of the 4th being a boy remain 50 / 50.

Same as tossing a coin.

I beg to differ. It is precisely the fact that we know that they have already produced three boys that determines the probability of the next baby being a boy. Four boys in a row is just a different way of saying having four boys out of four. More evidence here (near the end).

If you can be bothered, there’s a rather long explanation of a similar scenario here.

Until I’d bought the house I’d actually been a tenant for 3 years, in 3 different houses, through 3 different letting agents. I hate letting agents!

I live in a nice part of Aberdeenshire, so no chance of students or DSS tenants.

Carpets are off-white, but I’m reasonably relaxed about the idea of buying replacement carpets.

All the walls are plain white, so hoping it’ll be easy enough to touch up between tenants.

I worry about the boiler. It’s a Potterton and hasn’t been the best so far – I already had to replace the PCB (a common fault).

Not sure what to do about the bathrooms. Main concern is damp, mould etc.

What is my responsibility for kitchen appliances I’ll leave behind (built in fridge freezer and dishwasher)? The dishwasher is a bit erratic – do I replace/fix it now or just leave it until it breaks down?

I used a a seatpost mounted pannier rack.

I don’t think you’d cope with carrying all you need in a saddle bag.

The boss of Indigovision has some views on the subject
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bb1rc

Macavity – I tried to find the article you linked to. Where is it on that page?

Cheers for all the advice. Will have to filter through and see what I shall take on board.

Some really good advice. Cheers.

Not sure I’ll be firing somebody asap – you were joking, right ?!

I’m thinking back to when my last manager started. He came in from outside but took the first few months to get the lie of the land. Travelled around introducing himself to all the key players (other senior managers) and then came back and started working out what is what within the team. The changes he made started off small at first, but seemed obvious, like introducing a library of useful technical data. I’ll probably be doing the same. Big changes didn’t really start for a whole year.

Think of being in management as like trying to herd cats

Cracking. Thanks. :lol:

I think the age isn’t going to be such a huge issue. I think the US is a bit better on the issues of equality. I’m actually replacing a young female manager, so like I say, not particularly worried.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to written work [quickly does a spell check of previous posts]. I’d hate to think what sort of documentation this team will produce – reading their CVs hasn’t brought me a lot of confidence. Do you just have to accept that some people just are shite at certain things and then let it go?

I offered on a flat where the owners nor estate agents knew how long the lease was, but they said it was "certainly longer than 80 years". 80 years was long enough for me, but by the time all the solicitors got involved I discovered it was 73 years. I was certainly miffed! Ended up renogatiating the price, but I'd already mentally bought the house by then, so it didn't really work in my favour.

Lesson learned – ALWAYS FIND OUT BEFORE YOU OFFER.

I looked at a house last month next to a sub station. The local electricity board did a survey for him so he could pass it on to us worried potential buyers. I forget the techno-babble, but in essence a toaster and kettle had about 10 times (maybe more) as much radiation as the substation.

2) for me.

Just serviced 2 forks in the last 2 weeks – was my first attempt. I changed all the oil and gave them a good clean, but didn't change any of the parts or o-rings. I'm not sure they needed the service (only about 2 years old each), but I was worrying what horrible mess might be lurking inside. I needn't had worried, so I might be moving to the 3) category.

Are bike frame materials all essentialy Cr-Mo steel?

If so, it's easily weldable. Just ensure that the area is preheated (100°C should be enough). It'll probably screw up the paintwork though.

I got this one as my bike 2 work scheme didn't do Planet X. I like it, but have never tried anything else. It certainly looks nicer than the Planet X bike.

http://www.italian-solutions.co.uk/product.php?productid=161728&cat=280&page=1

but I expect that the FC won't invest in trails if they don't think they'll get something back from them

There's a couple of places up here where the FC have done some building and the car parks are free. It's not on the scale of Glentress, but still quite some effort involved in the build. I imagine there's some government requirement to open up their land for leisure use.

I guess I'm not telling the whole story. At Glentress there's a few marked parking spaces that aren't subject to the fee. If I'm early enough I'll take one. I wouldn't go and abandon my car in some random grass verge just avoid the charge. As soon as the free spaces fill up, then I'll pay.

But saying that, if someone tries to charge >£6 to park then I might have second thoughts about that grass verge if others are doing it too.

Call me a tightwad, but I don't see the need to justify myself if I find a free and legal parking spot to access a trail centre. If they started charging me to pay to access the trails, then I'd pay. But paying for parking is just that – you pay for parking. If I choose not to use their parking facilities then I'm not going to pay.