Just Pass Already

Well my rant for the day goes as follows. As I have mentioned in previous posts a few of my male colleagues are revising for their PCV Theory tests prior to a driving test. They have or are supposed to be using a DVD as a training aid but all its succeeding in doing is driving me up the bloody wall.

For one week solid now I have had to listen to this damn DVD with its annoying male & female voices reading out the questions on the practice tests. Five times a day. The same questions over & over again. I wouldn't mind so much if they were actually learning something but so far their scores leave a lot to be desired. In fact they are actually getting worse the more times they do it.

Today's record low score was 2 right out of 25 questions. I am hoping they are only messing about because it makes you wonder how they ever passed their ordinary driving tests in the first place. Luckily for them you didn't need to sit a theory test prior to your driving test when they learned to drive. And baring in mind they are working together and discussing the questions before giving an answer, well they obviously don't have a brain cell between them. Hell even I could sit this test by now & pass with flying colours and I don't even drive.

Old Crones & Lazy Colleagues

Lazy Colleagues

Well well, surprise, surprise. It just so happens that one of my colleagues - I'll call him JK - CAN actually use a computer when for the past 19 months he hasn't even turned the blasted thing on. All computer work has subsequently been done for him by me & I am not happy about it I can tell you. Never mind being taken advantage of Im absolutely foaming. Words shall be had when I see him next.

Its just been one of those days in general. I've been working none stop (a rarity for me!) & feel as though I have taken two steps back for every one step forward. I have left a mountain of crap on my desk for the morning which I hate doing. I just couldn't cope with the injustice any longer.

Old Crones

Had a phonecall today - actually it was two regarding the exact same thing (these old crones travel in groups of three so Im awaiting the 3rd one to get in touch tomorrow). I'll call the leader of the group Mrs M. The three of them are all clients we transport along with 8 others to a pre determined club on a Monday & Wednesday evening as agreed to by the transport giant Nexus.

However today is a Thursday & it was an afternoon & the three of them wanted to go to a community centre at 1pm. She made the call at 10.50am. Long boring story short we don't work that way. What she wanted was a taxi or a Link Up bus or U Call (both of these are run by Nexus).

What gets my goat is when I explain thats not how we work & they start giving me abuse & quite frankly I'm not paid enough money for that kind of crap. I mean what happened to those nice old grannies you see on TV baking cakes & scones & knitting for their grand children?! They certainly don't exist around here!

I'm just sooo tired of explaining that we aren't a service an individual can just call up & say "oh i want to be picked up at 1pm and go home at 3pm". A 16 seater mini bus costs £25 to do the above run & they expect to pay just £2 for the entire journey like they do for the Nexus subsidised clubs on the evening.

The worst part is you can't even get nasty back. Oh well. Suppose I can take it all out on JK when I see him 2moz.

The Tale Of A Mountain Of Envelopes & Lazy Colleagues

So what's hacked me off today you ask? Well first of all I had to do 200 letters, comprising of 3 pages each so that was 600 bits of paper I had piled up on my desk most of the day, not including the 200 envelopes. So from 8.45am til 3.00pm I did nothing bit work my socks off to get this lot ready for tonights post with all manner of interuptions as I went about my business.

While I was hard at it other colleagues - who shall remain nameless but they know who they are - did rock all. One vanished without a trace for no reason from 10.30am while another two sat & chatted all morning not even helping to deal with phone calls or visitors to the office, as apparently somewhere in my contract I have "slave" written in it.

Their excuse for the lack of help was "But you're so much better at dealing with visitors than we are and you have a better telephone voice" and yes they ARE right about that but its the principle of the thing. One of the aforementioned watched a DVD all afternoon on the pretence it was relevant to his upcoming practical driving test for a new PCV licence.

2 Fast 2 Furious relevant?! My arse it is.

Still, tomorrow is another day as they say and our boses J & E are back so there won't be any skiving off. At least not by my male conterparts. Hehehe.

TJ

What Is A Notepads Purpose In Life If Its Not For Writing On?!

Yay! My first post. I was beginning to think I'd been abducted by aliens & given a personality transplant as since I set up this blog I've been a picture of calm and nothing has pissed me off. Until today however. There are two things grating off me and sharing them with the world just might calm me down once more. Needless to say they are both work related and go as follows:-

1 - Annoying School Secretaries. The worst breed of "professional" people in the world. Long story short I work for a charity based transport company & we supply mini buses to old folks, disabled groups, schools & other charity / volunteer groups in an effort to combat our governments favourite buzz word - "social exclusion". Which is a load of crap. ANYWAY back to today's gripe otherwise I'll be here all night.

This particular secretary who I'll call Mrs R to save her embarrassment, has been a pain since day one. She was querying an invoice we'd sent out to her, wanting to know why it cost so much when she thought it would only cost her £20. After patiently explaining how we'd calculated her price, (days are split into 3 sessions IE morning, afternoon & evening priced at £20 a session) she still said it should be £20 even though she'd had the bus for a morning & afternoon. I know I failed Math at school so correct me if Im wrong but 2 (sessions) x £20 (per session) = £40 no?? The extra £3 was for the volunteer drivers expenses.

Having explained the above no less than THREE times, twice with my boss - who I shall call E - standing over me frantically indicating at me to put Mrs R through to him, she reluctantly accepted my explaination. 15 minutes I was on that phone going through exactly what it says on the very first page of the information pack all groups receive. Its unbelievable how many people don't read those first 6 informative lines.

Enough of her as its making my blood boil again. I was told this would be therapeutic. Oh well onto the next one.

2 - A Notepad You CAN'T Write On. That same afternoon I was hauled into my other boss' office - who I shall call J - to be told I can't write on the A3 sized notepad I have on my desk top because and I shall quote "you may get confused with all the little notes you have dotted all over the place & forget which ones you've dealt with & it looks unsightly when visitors come in".

Ok first of all I work methodically when writing my notes in neat columns starting from right to left. I have NEVER once missed a message in this way since I started working there 15 months ago. Now I have to change my ways & THAT WILL get me confused as Im not used to it.

Second, my writing is the neatest out of the whole damn office as is my desk, seeing how it is "front of house" if you will. Plus I hate having clutter & bits of paper randomly lying around the place.

And third, I put a neat line through all messages I have dealt with so no confusion there. IE if there ain't a line through it, I ain't done it yet. How bloody hard is that system to understand. God I HATE being told how to do things when my system gets me by very well thank you very much.

Wow. I did pretty good today. Stay tuned for more in the near future, no doubt.

TJ