Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

J.R. wrote:Factory workers have never been known to be particularly tidy ????

A misplaced reputation.
At the end of every shift, the whole place was swept, machinery cleaned and tools put away.
It's all right being untidy at home, but not in place where accidents cam happen caused by untidiness.
I still have my apprenticeship papers somewhere along with some of the tools that I made!!

It never crossed my mind, as to where Miss Watts and her maids for Barnes, ate their meals, they were all accomodated on the top floor --- probably still are.

Apropos meals in "Factories" --- As I was promoted, during my time with Plessey, on first promotion,
I achieved a table with a tablecloth, in a separate part of the canteen and the ability to order wine, and then, on next promotion, Joy of joys, a lady came round to my office, with a menu, I ordered my meal, wich was then delivered on a trolley, from the kitchens.

YEARS later -- I realised what a clever scam this was ---- I ate my meal at my desk, and then continued to work, without leaving my office.

Consider the relative hourly cost of my position, with that of the Trolley Lady, and multiply that by the savings of all the senior staff, continuing to work during most of their lunch-time ------- clever ain't it ?

jhopgood wrote:

J.R. wrote:Factory workers have never been known to be particularly tidy ????

A misplaced reputation.
At the end of every shift, the whole place was swept, machinery cleaned and tools put away.
It's all right being untidy at home, but not in place where accidents cam happen caused by untidiness.
I still have my apprenticeship papers somewhere along with some of the tools that I made!!

The most extreme I have seen is where my nephew works: the McLaren F1 works. The entire work area is spotless and everything is immaculate. Even the pit area at each race is so clean that it almost looks like a faked set-up just for promotional shots.

LongGone wrote:. Even the pit area at each race is so clean that it almost looks like a faked set-up just for promotional shots.

Perhaps it is...

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:It never crossed my mind, as to where Miss Watts and her maids for Barnes, ate their meals, they were all accomodated on the top floor --- probably still are.

Apropos meals in "Factories" --- As I was promoted, during my time with Plessey, on first promotion,
I achieved a table with a tablecloth, in a separate part of the canteen and the ability to order wine, and then, on next promotion, Joy of joys, a lady came round to my office, with a menu, I ordered my meal, wich was then delivered on a trolley, from the kitchens.
YEARS later -- I realised what a clever scam this was ---- I ate my meal at my desk, and then continued to work, without leaving my office.

:

which of course is now illegal if there is a rest room, canteen or equivalent. Of course if the tea lady has her radio on then the business must buy a licence because a second person just might hear the noise

michael scuffil wrote:

LongGone wrote:. Even the pit area at each race is so clean that it almost looks like a faked set-up just for promotional shots.

Perhaps it is...

Not at all: even during the races they are scrupulous about keeping it spotless. In part I am sure it is because the cars are built to such fine tolerance that it is important to keep out even the slightest contamination.

This is, of course, totally off topic but .................... The recent 'How To Build .......' series on BBC2 included a programme on how to build a Formula 1 car, which featured McLaren's factory at Woking. It was a real eye-opener! I found myself wondering if Ron Dennis suffered from OCDC and had somehow imparted it to the entire workforce! There is a series just being repeated now on BBC2 starting with 'How to build a nuclear submarine' - not sure whether or not it is a repeat of the same or another series.

As LongGone said, their working areas have to be spotless - somewhat like an operating theatre if you think about it. One little piece of fluff, (not the female variety), or a smidgen of grease could cause disaster and cost a life !

I often travel round the roundabout at the entrance to the McClaren works, but have never been fortunate enough to have a guided tour of the place, which I would love to do, being an F.1 'nut' !

Neill wrote:

Apropos meals in "Factories" --- As I was promoted, during my time with Plessey, on first promotion,
I achieved a table with a tablecloth, in a separate part of the canteen and the ability to order wine, and then, on next promotion, Joy of joys, a lady came round to my office, with a menu, I ordered my meal, wich was then delivered on a trolley, from the kitchens.

Oddly enough, my better half and I were discussing just recently how attitudes have changed towards alcohol consumption at work. When I first started working in the mid 80's at a publishing house in Oxford, there was a social club in the basement run by, and for, employees. Virtually everyone would regularly congregate there for their lunchtime sandwich and a drink or two from the well-stocked bar, before tottering back upstairs for a little light post-prandial work. A few of the heavier drinkers were well known for taking a nap in the afternoons, which seemed to be indulgently tolerated by the management (although come to think of it, most of them were the management!).

Happy days... I wonder whether this relaxed approach still operates anywhere in the workplace nowadays? (And if anyone knows where it does, can you kindly point me in the right direction!)

ailurophile wrote:Neill wrote:

Apropos meals in "Factories" --- As I was promoted, during my time with Plessey, on first promotion,
I achieved a table with a tablecloth, in a separate part of the canteen and the ability to order wine, and then, on next promotion, Joy of joys, a lady came round to my office, with a menu, I ordered my meal, wich was then delivered on a trolley, from the kitchens.

Oddly enough, my better half and I were discussing just recently how attitudes have changed towards alcohol consumption at work. When I first started working in the mid 80's at a publishing house in Oxford, there was a social club in the basement run by, and for, employees. Virtually everyone would regularly congregate there for their lunchtime sandwich and a drink or two from the well-stocked bar, before tottering back upstairs for a little light post-prandial work. A few of the heavier drinkers were well known for taking a nap in the afternoons, which seemed to be indulgently tolerated by the management (although come to think of it, most of them were the management!).

Happy days... I wonder whether this relaxed approach still operates anywhere in the workplace nowadays? (And if anyone knows where it does, can you kindly point me in the right direction!)

In Germany up to about the late 80s, staff canteens did a brisk trade in alcoholic drinks at lunchtime. In fact, if you had workmen in to do things around the house, they would be insulted if you didn't provide a crate of beer. It was a common complaint among apprentices that they spent all their time lugging beer crates around. And then things fairly suddenly changed.

I have recently seen Italian floor tilers turn up to a big building site in London and sit down at lunchtime with bottles of wine in the site canteen. I shan't repeat the exact words that the site manager used when he discovered this! I have also witnessed German building workers drinking beer at lunchtime, they brought all the beer with them in their vans from germany.

ailurophile wrote:Happy days... I wonder whether this relaxed approach still operates anywhere in the workplace nowadays? (And if anyone knows where it does, can you kindly point me in the right direction!)

When I arrived in Buenos Aires (1992), the senior staff in the bank, 7 of us, had waiter service lunch in a private dining room at the top of the building. When we sold that building, all managers had lunch together in a dining room, and when I left in 2001, even that had finished and we were all having self service lunch together in the building canteen.
I would occasionally go to the English Club, where the food and wine were cheap. About every 3 months I would have lunch there with a couple of friends who worked in the Shell office. They suddenly stopped taking wine as their new boss had threatened to breathalyse them when they came back from lunch. Apparently he felt that if Shell offshore employees were not allowed to drink, nor should the on shore staff.
Lunch time drinking is probably allowed in some of the smaller companies, but no longer in large international organisations.
When I was in Costa Rica, a couple of UK international auditors were useless after lunch and I always had to review the report with them the next day, as most that they wrote in the afternoon was gibberish.
I celebrated so much when they left that the next day I had to be awoken from my snooze on the conference table when a customer came in needing to see me. We had our meeting in the coffee shop downstairs.

Here is a lovely horror tale ------
I worked in Health Physics for the Atomic Energy Authority, and walked into the Control Room of an experimental Plutonium Reactor, to find that the "Dead man's lever" which had to be held up to keep the Reactor operating, was propped up by a Ruler, and the Controller was away from his post ----- !!!!! (I removed the ruler, and the Reactor shut down ! )

The offender was noted for being an excellent customer at the site Canteen Bar, but it may be slanderous to link this with offence !

My personal view was that there should have been no alcohol available in an establishment containing experimental Reactors and Equipment.

This was in the 80s ------ I imagine that the restriction now applies !

With regard to the above posts......

The 'Dead-Mans-Handle' on railway trains were regularly jammed open, so the driver did not have to keep hold of it. (Info from a mate, who is a railway safety/training officer). Needless to say, this is an immediate sacking offence. Drivers, like bus drivers are subject to randon compulsory alcohol/blood level checks.

Alcohol on building sites ? I can well believe this might occur with foreign workers, but again, seriously contravenes Health and Safety regs.

Many firms today have the right to immediately dismiss any staff member returning to work from lunch after consuming alcohol. It is classed as gross mis-conduct.

I even heard last year of one firms Christmas 'do' which had to be alcohol-free, purely for H & S reasons ! Maybe that's taking it a little TOO far !!

Some building sites are now breathalysing workers when they arrive on site. When you consider the machinery that is operated and the risks involved this does seem sensible!