Absolutely pointless...

Nikon_Nick

Nikon_Nick

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...being in the office today. Ive answered 2 emails and taken 1 phone call since 8:00am this morning. I work for an Electronics Distributor, and nearly all of the the suppliers we deal with across Europe and Asia have already closed down for Christmas. I could be at home...in front of the TV...or entertaining the baby...or anything other than sitting in this office twiddling my thumbs (need a thumb twiddly emoticon :)). I also have to be here for an even MORE pointless half day tomorrow...jeez!

Rant over

Merry Christmas
 
Tell your line manager that someone from China wanted 60,000,000 iPhones but they've gone elsewhere as you couldn't sign off the order.

Ring him/her to ask if there should be a buzzing noise coming from a locked office.

Be creative! :D
 
meh its normally a couple of quiet days in the run up to xmas with only the warehouse really doing any major work. got sent home at lunchtime as the trains operator announced cancellations. back in for half a day tomorrow.
 
I used to love it, never been all that into Christmas, so when I used to work in a credit card customer service, I used to volunteer for the Christmas shirts...12 hours of triple time plus a day off in leu ;) Christmas Day and the same on Boxing Day, with the added bonus that customer services was closed anyway so I was only there to deal with lost/stolen calls...of the 4+ manager that was on we would average 1 call each/hour....most of which were people calling us when they needed to actually call the debit card line...you would get some really sad people phoning to discuss there damn account...they were politely told to call when we were open..oh and you had the ones where there credit card wasn't working in restaurants...while we were still closed I would at least try and help them since I still had standard access :)
 
My wife always used to volunteer to man the office/phone/desk between the 24th and 6th of January and in her penultimate job got paid time and a half and got extra holiday in lieu. Beat sitting around with a hangover watching crap TV and endlessly repeated films! In her last job, the building was closed down for the holiday so she couldn't work. Luckily, because the building was locked up, the holiday wasn't counted as part of her annual leave, it was an extra.
 
I took today and tomorrow off so not back at work until the 2nd.

I have five extra days holiday to use up as part of my twenty five years service award.


Steve.
 
Nikon_Nick said:
...being in the office today. Ive answered 2 emails and taken 1 phone call since 8:00am this morning. I work for an Electronics Distributor, and nearly all of the the suppliers we deal with across Europe and Asia have already closed down for Christmas. I could be at home...in front of the TV...or entertaining the baby...or anything other than sitting in this office twiddling my thumbs (need a thumb twiddly emoticon :)). I also have to be here for an even MORE pointless half day tomorrow...jeez!

Rant over

Merry Christmas
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Me too... Can't get into the Xmas spirit at all with having to be at work.

Luckily had the foresight to use a few holidays after so not back in until the 6th :)
 
Consider yourself lucky that you'll be home with the baby and family on Christmas Day. There's a lot of my friends that will wave goodbye to their families on the 23rd and not see them again until at least the 7th Jan.
 
Don't forget our friends in the forces, when I was in the RAF I spent 2 Christmas periods away and trust me, every time we all preferred to be in an office at home (y)
 
antihero said:
So it shouldn't really come as a surprise if you land on the 50% chance of having to work.
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I was/am only guessing that is the reason, but it still not nice to be the one stuck on the rotation especially as it falls so that you loose both Christmas and New Years...not that loosing either or both would bother me in the slightest :)
 
Used to love working thought Xmas & the New Year,cant think of anything more boring than sitting in front of the TV :sleep:
 
Dead at my place too!!

Unfortunately with my particular role we have to provide 24x7 cover so one of my colleagues is on call all over Xmas.

However.... we sent out notification on Monday that our change deadline today is 12:00 instead of 15:00, we got back loads of out of office not back til the new year replies and lots of personal replies wishing us a Merry Christmas saying they'll be out of the office today too.

The only problem this poses is what we can put on out timesheets........ let's just say artistic license & creativity have to be at the fore :lol:
 
MWHCVT said:
Looking at the location and duration I'd guess maybe on the rigs, they work two weeks on two weeks off, if I'm not mistaken
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antihero said:
So it shouldn't really come as a surprise if you land on the 50% chance of having to work.
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Yes Matthew it's offshore but two weeks on three weeks off.

Its a rolling rota if you get lucky you can get a run of Xmas off. It's a choice we make to work offshore and we all accept that part of it is missing Xmas, family occasions etc. But you won't hear guys/gals whinging about it.

I'm off again this Xmas but back for new year, which doesn't bother me. But I know that next year I'm working both. Haven't looked any further ahead than that.
 
I think the OP's point is kind of being missed.....it's more about being in work when there's nothing to do than actually working. I wouldn't mind being here so much if there was work to do.

There are about a dozen of us sat around the plant this morning doing absolutely nothing. There isn't anything to do. Yet there are compressors, chillers, heaters, lights etc running, not to mention paying us all a good wage for doing nothing. We stopped all manufacturing 2 weeks ago. With a bit of common sense, it might have been worth making us use another 1.5 days of holidays and finish last Friday.

But if they want to pay me £20 an hour for sitting around doing nothing and waste money on heating, etc :shrug:
 
antihero said:
I think the OP's point is kind of being missed.....it's more about being in work when there's nothing to do than actually working. I wouldn't mind being here so much if there was work to do.

There are about a dozen of us sat around the plant this morning doing absolutely nothing. There isn't anything to do. Yet there are compressors, chillers, heaters, lights etc running, not to mention paying us all a good wage for doing nothing. We stopped all manufacturing 2 weeks ago. With a bit of common sense, it might have been worth making us use another 1.5 days of holidays and finish last Friday.

But if they want to pay me £20 an hour for sitting around doing nothing and waste money on heating, etc :shrug:
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Exactly my point, thank you.

I appreciate that I am in a very lucky position compared to others, and I couldnt imagine being away from my family at Christmas. With regards to the Armed Forces, I have nothing but complete and utter respect for those men and women doing what they do, and I feel for their families being so far away from them.
 
So you're being paid to post on TP and aren't happy!! :)

Get your self home later, get the Slade Xmas album on and have a beer.

Merry Christmas to all of you.
 
Gaz J said:
So you're being paid to post on TP and aren't happy!! :)

Get your self home later, get the Slade Xmas album on and have a beer.

Merry Christmas to all of you.
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I suppose I could look at it like my company are helping me to reach 1000 posts before the new year ;)
 
See there's got to be a benefit in not being busy.
 
Gaz J said:
Consider yourself lucky that you'll be home with the baby and family on Christmas Day. There's a lot of my friends that will wave goodbye to their families on the 23rd and not see them again until at least the 7th Jan.
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I've never really understood the idea of not feeling bad about something because someone somewhere has it worse. Yes, people have it worse.. but I'm still going to feel crap about something if I feel crap about it! Someone not seeing family until well into the new year isn't going to make me feel less crap about not seeing my family on the day. Yes, I feel for them. But I still feel crap. I mean, I even had more than one person telling me I shouldn't feel as upset as I did about my mum's cancer cause others have actually died from it. Um... Maybe I'm a selfish b****r :thinking:


Anyway...

My husband works for IT in a bank and was the only person manning his department over Christmas. 4 days with Christmas day in the middle and took one call the entire time :cow:
 
So when do you close down for Xmas ?,its not a bank holiday Christmas eve, we are trying to compete in an a global market and believe me the rest of the world doesn't close down so long over Xmas.
I grew up in an age when you worked up till Christmas eve,had your two days of then back to work,i never had a problem with that plus I couldn't afford to take any more days off, not all company used to paid you of for time of over Christmas.
 
A question with no answer. What we can do is think carefully then make choices - there's no right or wrong, only the consequences of the choices.
 
MWHCVT said:
I used to volunteer for the Christmas shirts... :)
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Would they be the one's with reindeer on Mat :)
I'm feeding sheep tomoz before I feed myself..

Happy Christmas TPers:wave: I'm off to the Old Olive Bush now:beer:Cheers.
 
toadstool said:
I've never really understood the idea of not feeling bad about something because someone somewhere has it worse. Yes, people have it worse.. but I'm still going to feel crap about something if I feel crap about it! Someone not seeing family until well into the new year isn't going to make me feel less crap about not seeing my family on the day. Yes, I feel for them. But I still feel crap. I mean, I even had more than one person telling me I shouldn't feel as upset as I did about my mum's cancer cause others have actually died from it. Um... Maybe I'm a selfish b****r :thinking:


Anyway...

My husband works for IT in a bank and was the only person manning his department over Christmas. 4 days with Christmas day in the middle and took one call the entire time :cow:
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No one is asking you to feel more or less crap about them not seeing their family for 2 weeks. Neither am I suggesting you should feel any less crap about not seeing your loved ones on xmas day. I don't even feel for the guys who are working xmas. its part of the job and they wouldn't give a stuff if it was me.

it was posted in the context of working up until xmas and not having anything to do. that's no big deal in comparison just like being away for 2 weeks bears no comparison to the armed forces who may have been away for months by now.
 
This year I closed the office for 2 weeks on the condition they handled support requests that came in via email. This way we all got 2 weeks off. Today I handled all the support requests they should of done, some of them came in before we closed the office, so not impressed. Next year the 2 support people will be working odd days throughout the Christmas period to ensure support is given.

How hard is it to respond to a few emails? Apparently extremely hard so next year they can sit in the office bored out of their minds for a whole day to ensure they do the 10 minutes work I need them to do.
 
Dale_tem said:
This year I closed the office for 2 weeks on the condition they handled support requests that came in via email. This way we all got 2 weeks off. Today I handled all the support requests they should of done, some of them came in before we closed the office, so not impressed. Next year the 2 support people will be working odd days throughout the Christmas period to ensure support is given.

How hard is it to respond to a few emails? Apparently extremely hard so next year they can sit in the office bored out of their minds for a whole day to ensure they do the 10 minutes work I need them to do.
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quite rightly so....it's all about give and take and it sounds like you gave and they took, the end. If someone does you a favour, you live up to your side of the bargain, not take the p**s
 
Dale_tem said:
This year I closed the office for 2 weeks on the condition they handled support requests that came in via email. This way we all got 2 weeks off. Today I handled all the support requests they should of done, some of them came in before we closed the office, so not impressed. Next year the 2 support people will be working odd days throughout the Christmas period to ensure support is given.

How hard is it to respond to a few emails? Apparently extremely hard so next year they can sit in the office bored out of their minds for a whole day to ensure they do the 10 minutes work I need them to do.
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To right,they are taking the p*** (n)
 
Well, all you guys n gals who work over the Christmas & New year holiday so other people can take the time off, a massive thank you & well done to all of you.
 
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