Interview

I went for an interview today with a company called IPT. The position is for a Data Protection Consultant.
It involves pulling reports and coding in SQL. I don't have any experience in that field not even any in coding. The guy gave me a grilling, asking me things that I didn't know about and I had to ask him to explain what he meant with most of the questions. I felt like a right arse, but none the less he did take me into the office where the team (14 people currently) work and I had a very nice lady explain to me what they do and she showed me a little bit of the coding and how they received their job cards and so forth. It looks pretty easy, def something I would be able to pick up fast and handle.

The thing is with computer stuff is it's logical and straight forward, you don't have the human issue to deal with. You don't have to deal with people's emotions and their politics and bullshit.
I know that in the end photography is going to be the thing I wanna be doing long term. And once I've saved enough money for a bit of travel I will save to do one or two courses. I've got two that look equally as good as each other and if I can get this job with regular days and hours I will be able to join a camera/photo club in London. Maybe even the Royal Photographic Society. You pay for your membership and then they give you names of courses that you can do to achieve a certain status. I'd love love love to do that.
But for all of that to become a reality I have to have a good paying job...

And best of all this job is in Buckingham Gate Lane - the road that leads to Buckingham Palace's Main Gate where Queen Victoria's Statue is. WOW. Maybe it's a tourist thing... It's not that I like the Queen or anything it's just that I love the whole culture and all.

But lets not get my hopes up. I'm sure he's had plenty of people with experience applying and unless the company needs to save money on salaries, I'm sure I'll be a last resort.

Typical

Two recent court cases, have earned the attention of newspaper readers in South Africa:
1. One person was fined R1 000 for not having a TV license.
2. Another was released on bail for R500 after being arrested for murder.

The moral of this South African story:
If you do not have a TV license and the inspector comes round, kill him. You'll save R500.

..It's the Right Thing To Do..

Just Take Advantage Why Don't You

So I discovered on Sat why The Listening Company likes to employ a lot of South Africans.
I hear chatter of working 6 days straight in a week and only having 1 off. Needless to say I jumped into the conversation. What's going on here? 6 on and only 1 off? I heard that the weekly Friday meeting produced results of things that didn't quite add up. The company what's to change the shift rotas to be 6 on, 1 off. ARE THEY MAD?! I ask really, where's the point in that? The staff will be over worked and even more frustrated than they are now.

Let's think what can you do one your one day off? ... Certainly not sleep in, because you'll have to wake up to do your house cleaning, washing, ironing, shopping and if you're lucky you can squeeze in a visit to friends or family should you have any near by.

I say again: ARE THEY MAD?!

So short of getting really annoyed that they want to change the whole rota for some over stupid South Africans who what to and can work themselves to death. Oh the reason is it was requested. By who I ask, coz there was no general form to fill out, there was no discussion, nothing. It later came out that it was discussed late Jan, early Feb. So I ask we started in Feb, why weren't we asked? And if the question arose late Jan, we were training, why weren't we notified of this before we signed our life's away?! I'm glad that there are people willing to get shouted and moaned at for 8 or more hours in a day for 5 days in a row. THAT'S NOT MY PROBLEM!!! I'm glad there are people who think they are not worth more than £6.50 per hour when the industry standard is £9. THAT'S NOT MY PROBLEM. While I'm looking for a job, I want days off to be able to go to interviews and to do site seeing and shopping etc.

Well the night went by with a bit of a bother, my brain was working over over time. Thinking about how pissed off I was about it all, I mean the people on shift 3 must just hear this news via the grapevine, WTF!!!

Sunday rolls on in and the topic of the day? Well the same of course. After 8 of us agree that this new 'proposal' sucks I take it apon myself to make a proposal. After managing to get 7 signatures, I'm told to sit down and get back on the phone. Apparently they needed everyone on the phone. I get back on the phone and look around like 6 people without calls. So I reckoned it was a 'stop making trouble' warning.
I then decided to ask a South African guy who I think works a lot what he thought. He reckons that he was asked about it and said he's all for it - he reckons, more work = more money. Yes wally if you wanna work for shit, you gotta work overtime, hello!!! The thing is that that's not even the half of it. I then ask him so when was this discussed and why were the rest of us asked? He replies: end of Jan or begin Feb when we were in training and could be asked, so it didn't affect us. He didn't just sa that did he? Oh yes he did. How the hell doesn't it affect us?! We should've been told that the shifts are due to change and how and if they were asked begin Feb, we were working and out of training. Nice, so that's the way it works?! The elders get promoted and the elders get to make decisions for the 'clan'? Bullshit!!!

So it would seem all the oldies where consulted right? NO. the discussion was put to like 6 or 10 people out of 40 oldies. And it was put to the people that work the most. Hello, of course they're gonna say yes, go figure, I mean must I draw a picture?! Now the poor guy feels affected, he feels that we are telling him that it's his fault no matter how much we assure him that he just gave his opinion and we would like to give our opinions too...
DRAMA: I can handle drama to a point and this drama I created, but it was getting a bit much now... Dude, I can't make you NOT feel responsible, maybe there's more to the story that he isn't mentioning...

Now that I hit the Hornets nest I was stressing. What have I done? Can I handle the heat? Well at worst I was expecting no one to stick by me (I'm used to that) and being singled out for a meeting to tell me to stop making vibes. DO you think I could sleep? No. More than anything I was not wanting ppl to not stick to their guns. It's happened to me before, I stand by my convictions and for some unearthly reason I seem to want to help other people learn how to do that... STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!

Monday rolls on and everything is fine, no one's being funny to me and I wasn't called into a meeting the whole day, WOW. So I reckon it was probably ignored - not surprising. Later in the day one of the girls informed me that they weren't going to do the 6/1 shift idea anymore as too many people were unhappy about it and it would affect them.
So look it might not have been my actions, but I'm gonna think that it was and if it was I'm glad, proud even...

So what the hell has the whole story got to do with the topic? Well just coz you're paying peanuts and the South African's are working double time to be able to live, travel and save that doesn't mean that you should abuse that or that advantage of your other staff.

If you get an inch, ask for the next one, don't take the whole damn mile!