Blackbox – ride on time
The Grid -Swamp Thing

Both old classics.

Jonm81: 17″?!

Yep, 17 whole inches. The thing was as long as my forearm.

The lady who it was for worked in the estate agent we rented from. Including this we had loads of bailiffs looking for her. I wanted to go down to the agents and slap it down on her desk saying “Here’s you bailiffs notices and you 17″ rubber c*ck!” in front of her boss and customers but my wife wouldn’t let me.

We once received the 17″ Slender Bender Double Ender dildo for the previous tenant. Apparently it was a free gift from Love Honey for her being such a loyal customer. I have no idea how much you have to spend to get a £35 dildo as a loyalty gift!!

Eddie Temple: You’re born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you’re up in the rarefied atmosphere and you’ve forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son.

Morty: Somebody’s about to get a **** slap!

Jonm81 – is that some kind of hub gear?

Yes Duffer, it’s a Rolhoff.

Not an inspiring location like the other shots but I made it in my garage.

Freshly built

After the first outing

Cheers for all the comments. Lots of good info to consider. We will almost definitely be moving to between Bournemouth and Poole but will likely rent for a bit until we find something suitable to buy.

CSFL, hoping to start around the 1st March (pending all the necessary paperwork). Will give you a shout when I start and likely bump in to you at some point thereafter.

Looks like there are some nice houses for sale in the Canford Heath and Creekmoor areas although the schools around there look a bit under-performing. Will have a look at the Merley/Oakley area too.

Winfrith?

Yep, that’s the place.

That may depend a bit on where precisely in Bmth your wife needs to get to though.

She is a relief pharmacist for a big chain so would be all over the Bournemouth area.

Cheers for the comments. Traffic hopefully shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, unless it is truly horrendous, as I would be mostly commuting on a motorbike. Commuting by train (usually discount train automatically as I am used to southeast ticket prices) is an option as there is a station in Wool about a mile from work.

Good to hear there are options for riding. XC is good for me although being fat and slow anything would do! There seems to be a lack of indoor climbing but plenty of outdoor stuff which sounds good.

I will have a look at the other areas suggested. Any opinion on the Upton area of Poole?

If your job is between Weymouth and Poole do not go for Christchurch! It will take you an age!

We will definitely sticking to the west side of Bournemouth.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57509057.html

End of thread/

Nice but no garage for vehicles or workshop for frame building. Plus about £200k over my budget.

Took me about 2 hours to stop my wife crying after watching it last time it was on TV so it is now banned in our house.

Congratulations on the job offer.

Asking about career development and training is very relevant as I have been told on a number of occasions that training is only on the job with no opportunity for attending organised courses or that training courses are in own time and recovered from salary. Also career progression might only be available when someone leaves and not based on performance. It is also good to know a companies staff development strategy ie. is there a formal pdr/pda process or is it only based on line management opinion.

Another good question is: what is it that made the last person who did this role successful?

EDIT, I’ll soon be back into the model aircraft stuff as well now I’ve got a dedicated room!

Can send you the plans for one of these if you fancy building from scratch

They look great and are hilarious to fly

Make stuff. Anything from remote control planes to bike frames to drawing. Seeing something you made yourself is really satisfying and will always bring a smile to your face.

The three I go for are:

What attracted you to the organisation initially and has this view changed over time?

What long term career opportunities are available and how do you develop staff?

And a great one to finish with is:
Are there any reservations about my suitability for this position that I could address for you?

There are other good ones but these three have served me well. If you want some more just ask.

Yes, the contract was lost. They didn’t want the alternative person put forward. Thought about contacting the client, not to state what a shower they are but to offer to do the work privately as a contractor. Thought better of it though and will likely get out of O&G as the market is so pants.

Kcal, where are you based? Low cost/cost reduction optimisation for asset inspections is what I was working on.

Yep. Quite a relief actually. been waiting for the hammer to drop for the last month or so.

If you guess who it is please do not type the name in this thread.

As I am no longer employed there as of 16:00 today (was given 30 mins notice to get out), for those of you who wanted to know which company this was it rhymes with Wee Ltd and is based in a county just south east of London. This is a bit cryptic as they have an internet watch for anything mentioning the company name or location.

Good engineers but management leaves a lot to be desired.

Hey ho, on-wards and up-wards and all that.

It’s all a bit shit really. As of today I am redundant (no warning, just told at 16:00 to get out within 30 minutes) so back to the defence industry for me.

To be honest I doubt the company will last out the next financial year as they have barely won any contracts in the last half year. Add to that they are so arrogant as to think they are so good they don’t need to reduce rates (still charging pre-price drop rates) in line with the prevailing market. Hope all the other engineers there get out before it implodes.

Spending today at work looking for a new job

I have just revived my G-shock DW6600 while my proper watch is in for an rather expensive repair. It’s 23 years old and hasn’t had a battery for the last 6 and it started up right away. Had everything spilt on it from blood to oil and antifreeze. Can’t beat g-shock for reliability and ruggedness.

judging by the language you use is the head office you work in any where near Box Hill by any chance?

Close but 1 county out.

And given the 150 miles does the secondment happen to be for an organisation which shares a name and history with the makers of fancy cars (in fact do both organisations?).

I am not going to name the client except, as stated earlier, that the secondment was in Norwich where the riding sucks.

Well, I have withdrawn from the secondment on the grounds of financial loss, loss of family and private life and lack of ability to properly care for dependents whilst away. No negotiation was entertained by management. I am continuing to work on the project I was already on “for the time being”. As such I will not be naming and shaming as much as I would like to.

I will, however, be moving on as soon as possible.

Thanks for all the advice given.

OP, have you re-read your contract? I’m seeing a few things here that suggest that working away from home may have been expected. You work for a consultancy, so all work is expected to be client work. You’ve worked away from home before, mentioned your wife had to look after your kids on evenings.

The exact wording “Your place of work is address of head office. You will be expected to travel to meet the requirements of your role, however, you will not be expected to work away for more than 1 week at a time”

My role is then described as office based at the head office address. although we are a consultancy all work is carried out in our offices except secondments or the odd day or two at a client site.

This is definitely a secondment and not working at a client site.

I have already worked over 2 months out of the last year away from home in this job but the terms for that work were different.

Im really interested as to who the employer actually is as well as the best possible outcome for the OP of course.

Depending on how the conversation goes this morning you may well find out.

old guard who just want to see/touch something to prove it’s real.

I think this is exactly the reasoning for being at client site 5 days a week. There is nothing that can’t be done via phone or video conferencing rather than on the clients site especially since I have offered to be there 3 days a week.

Project, I have no illusions that I am important to them nor that I cannot be replaced. Having said that this has come completely out of the blue and their offer is the standard they offer anyone who goes on secondment (such as the two guys already up there). Whilst the offer suits them as they are young, single and have no commitments, what they have offered is not suitable for my circumstances hence my rejecting it.

If I do not go the secondment will be offered to another company and 6-24 months of work will go to a competitor. It starts next week so not time for my employer to find a replacement to go.

The guy next to me used to use one. One day it popped with him on it. It was **** hilarious!!

I have a garmin VIRB mounted behind the screen on the bike not the helmet. Good quality image and is currently £76 on amazon.

I am a project engineer working in Oil and Gas but as of this week transitioning back in to the defence industry which I recently left to take this job. This is a small UK consultancy.

if you give them enough rope they’ll hang themselves and do something which is and so give you leverage

That is my thinking at the moment

So not only would Daddy not be there to read them a bedtime story they’d have to make new friends and change their routine too. Not fair on them or your missus.
Have they actually done/threatened this? Turds of the first order if they have.

Exactly, expecting my wife to deal with a 15 month old child on her own 5 days a week is unacceptable to me. Yes they have done this and I have the screen shots of the instant messages to prove it.

Sounds like you work for an absolute bunch of arseholes.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!

why would they try and manage you out

I don’t think they are trying to manage me out. This is a project management role and I am the only person there with proven project management experience of large complex projects. Plus they will be charging me out as a senior engineer but are paying me slightly higher than a graduate so the profits will be higher helping the none to good bottom line.

Does is start with a W and end with an O?

Nope

You might want to consider the significance here of how expecting you to stay away from home, travel in your own time and demanding you move your kids child care in order to accommodate their requests might amount to indirect sex discrimination – have any women been asked to do the same?

That thought has crossed my mind and is part of the giving them rope to hang themselves strategy. I am expecting the next suggestion to be my wife giving up work to be a full time housewife.

Hi TJ, thanks for circumventing the ban hammer to provide detailed advice.

My plan very much follows your advice in that providing a well reasoned refusal, preparing for the consequences and standing my ground regarding payoffs or threatening court action if dismissed as insinuated.

Out of interest, whats the opinion on management calling up nurseries in the area to confirm my childcare costs, getting quotes and suggesting I move to a cheaper one they have found so I can reduce my childcare burden thus making the secondment more attractive?
Personally, I think it is completely out of order but nothing surprises me with this lot after the last week!

Fair play. Use all your energy to find something else, let them boot you out and wait for Karma to take care of things.

With the oil price and current management tactics Karma is already kicking at the door.

and for reference work travel away for me means on the clock from the minute I leave the front door till when I get back (obviously evenings away not included in that) and 3 meals a day + incidentals and fuel/travel costs covered. Needs to be a good reason to drop below that.

That is what I would expect and what I got in previous jobs.

I have been told that if I do split working (home office 2 days and client office 3 days) then I will not be entitled to any of whats offered above but they will pay for fuel at 20p per mile and up to 3 hrs travel per week.

It has been heavily suggested that if I don’t take it there will be no work for me here implying redundancy.

Oh well, they can still get stuffed!

Well, after meeting today and trying to negotiate the offer was:-

Shared accommodation
£35 per day whilst away
No travel time
Expenses for 1 trip home a month

So the outcome is they can get f***ed.

Looks like they want you out

Not so much that but I am the lowest paid engineer in the company and have been working on a PV funded project. I have been “chosen” as it gives them the biggest profit whilst moving me onto a customer funded project.

I can see the business sense but their route to getting there sucks.

Plus if they actually paid me the salary of the grade they will be charging me out as (or even paid me the same as everyone else my grade, currently I’m on about 20% less) I wouldn’t be so pissed.

My alternative offer will be:-
2 days head office, 3 days client office (all 5 days on client project)
All travel expenses paid over and above the allowance
All travel time paid (or accrued and taken as time off in lieu)

I think this would be fair and would be acceptable from my perspective.

In the mean time, look for new opportunities.

At least it appears I am not being totally unreasonable. Thanks for all your responses.

They are not responsible for things like your child care costs.

Nope, it’s not but if it makes it unviable from a financial perspective (ie. I cannot afford the to pay the extra) due to a situation of their creating then it will impact on my response to being sent away. Plus I am pretty sure there is something in employment law surrounding the need to look after dependents and employers putting you in a position where you can’t.

Oh and get some proper independant HR advice and make sure you read all the companies HR docs on travel etc.

I have read the staff handbook but it is very vague. The only HR person in the company is on holiday for the next 2 weeks. Any ideas where to go for alternative HR advice (other than here obviously)?

What!!!!! So it’s a two bed flat, but there’ll be 3 of you???

Who gets top bunk???

2 singles in one room and a double in the other. As the oldest and most senior if I go whoever is in the double can consider themselves evicted

I’d be looking for a new job.

Just waiting for responses from various applications

Thanks for the replies. The allowance is £35 per day which does not even cover the additional childcare I will have to pay let alone food, travel, etc. It will cost me around £175 per week to take the secondment. Accommodation is paid for but will be sharing a 2 bed flat with another two guys who are already there.

The travel time will be unpaid and will amount to around 8 hrs round trip. This will mean I will have to leave on a Sunday afternoon and won’t get home until late Friday night giving me a whole 1 1/2 days a week with my daughter and 1/2 a day a week with my wife (she works Saturdays).

There is other work to do here but I suspect if I refuse it may be the redundancy route that is taken. Been here less than 2 years so that will mean no payout.

The riding around Norwich sucks and no climbing either so I wouldn’t even have those to enjoy. I might as well buy a road bike as there are no hills in Norfolk!

Ours is 15 months old and the routine is:

Watch In the Night Garden and sing song at end of CBeebies
Bath and brush teeth
Read a book (usually Gruffalo or the Snail and the Whale)
Bed

Usually finished and asleep by 19.45

At about 6 months old we shifted bed time to a bit later so she sleeps past 06.00 but have kept the same routine since which has worked a treat.

2009 – Bodyworn antenna design and electromagnetic architecture of buildings

I’ve heard bad things about the Lyzene Micro drive mount on bumpy roads.

The old micro drives had a really short mount and could fall out. The newer ones from about 18 months ago have a much longer mount and are held really well. I use mine off road all the time and it has never moved let alone fallen off.

I welded a bottom bracket on back to front and didn’t notice until I had tacked the front triangle together. That sucked balls.

Only other one was when I had a sticking rear mech. Reached for the can of GT85 to free it up but grabbed the spray contact adhesive instead as the cans were almost identical. The mech was really sticking after a good spray with that!

Have a look here:

http://www.milweb.net/classifieds.php?type=13

Tons of other cool things to spend money on.

Got to agree with what other have said. Mrs M tried to breast feed and couldn’t. She got pretty upset by it for the first few days but then came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t going to happen so moved on.

When we spoke to the midwife about it she said that not all women can breast feed due to either baby or shape of breast/nipple and it is more common than most realise (plus she said to just ignore the “militant, feminist, must breast feed or you’re a bad mother nazis”, her words not mine!, and do what it right for you).

Mini M has been on formula milk from day 1 and she was walking at 7 months so it can’t be that bad for them.

Good luck and remember to look after yourself as well as mother and baby.