Return of the silly little things that annoy you thread

G. W o l f f

G. W o l f f

Location
Canada (formerly of Hertfordshire)
Open plan houses! I would hate to live in one. We are considering moving in the next three years, (as all the kids have buggered off) and seemingly it will be very difficult to find a house that isn't open plan. Even lots of the old houses (old for here) have been ripped apart. It's an ongoing trend here and I wonder what's next: why not have the bog in the living room?

Oh yes, and kitchens that are clearly designed not to be used for cooking (most often appearing in open plan houses) but to look nice in the eyes of those who never cook.
 
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Geordie Torr

Geordie Torr

Location
Winchester, UK
When you're interviewed for a job and then they can't be bothered to let you know that you didn't get it.

I polished my CV, wrote the covering letter, did a proofreading test, a "screening interview", a copy editing test and a four-person panel interview and... nothing. More than two weeks have passed and not a word. I've emailed two of the people I dealt with during the process and, nope, nothing. Oh, and I signed, scanned and emailed an NDA as well, so sadly I'm not going to name and shame in case they find out and decide to sue me. I reckon I must have spent at least five hours jumping through these jokers' hoops and they can't spend a minute or two writing an email to let me know that "Unfortunately, my application was not successful"? F*ckers.

To be honest, I'm not sure I really wanted the job, but I would like someone to have the common courtesy to let me know I didn't get it.
 
Chris Hambleton

Chris Hambleton

Location
London
Tom Cannavan said:
No, "gobs of" anything is not something I have ever heard a British person (which is a kind of Englishman but with gobs more regions included) say, but at the same time it does work in suggesting (warning about?) what style to expect.
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I believe a certain writer for the times has used plenty of ‘Gobs’ although I stand to be corrected.
 
Geordie Torr

Geordie Torr

Location
Winchester, UK
No, Chris, I'm not sure and yes, Steve, that occurred to me as well. But what's wrong with letting me know that a decision hasn't yet been made? At the end of the panel interview (which was on a Thursday), I was told by the woman who would have been my line manager that I would hear early the following week, so to not hear anything at all for two and a half weeks is somewhat maddening.
 
P

Paul Benny

Location
Cheshire
Geordie - you have my sympathy. I've had that experience more than once - in fact just recently with an employer that wanted a face to face meeting despite lockdown. Not informing interviewees of the outcome is certainly annoying - but not silly and not a little thing.

Although employers often take longer than they promised to come back with a decision, it's almost universal in job-seeking that no news is bad news.
 
Geordie Torr

Geordie Torr

Location
Winchester, UK
It's particularly galling because through both interviews, everyone was telling me what a great place it was to work - how they really look after their staff and their wellbeing. Apparently that only kicks in when you actually become an employee.
 
Steve Slatcher

Steve Slatcher

Location
Manchester
Geordie Torr said:
No, Chris, I'm not sure and yes, Steve, that occurred to me as well. But what's wrong with letting me know that a decision hasn't yet been made? At the end of the panel interview (which was on a Thursday), I was told by the woman who would have been my line manager that I would hear early the following week, so to not hear anything at all for two and a half weeks is somewhat maddening.
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It would guess that woman's promise was essentially where the company went wrong.

But I agree absolutely that a quick "sorry we don't know yet" email would have been appropriate.
 
G. W o l f f

G. W o l f f

Location
Canada (formerly of Hertfordshire)
Just had this come through at work:
"Perhaps you’re feeling drained or that the days are getting away from you. Maybe you’ve been meaning to spend more time focusing on your overall well-being, but haven’t found what works best. Well, we’re here to help! Come join us for 14 days of self-care. "

What this means is "join us for 14 MS Teams meetings", which I expect will all take place at lunch time. Fourteen more fucking meetings is really going to help my mental health!

(Apologies for the language, but it is the appropriate epithet with which to apply to "meeting"
 
G. W o l f f

G. W o l f f

Location
Canada (formerly of Hertfordshire)
Food/dish photographs showing a fork only.

By extension, therefore, people eating something that will need a bit of dissection with a fork but without a knife. Also, the strange N. American etiquette regarding appropriate usage of the knife and fork. Interestingly(?), the correct U.K. etiquette (at least as it was hammered into me) would seem abhorrent to many Americans.
 
Geordie Torr

Geordie Torr

Location
Winchester, UK
Okay, so you can all get 'closure' along with me, I found out today (three weeks and a day after the panel interview) that I didn't get the job. To their credit, they organised another video meeting to tell me in person, but I maintain that courtesy would require at least a holding email to let me know that a decision had yet to be made.
 
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Paul Benny

Location
Cheshire
Agree, Geordie. Just as bad as if they were offering you the job now. By now I would have rationalised all the reasons why I didn't want their stupid job anyway.
 
G. W o l f f

G. W o l f f

Location
Canada (formerly of Hertfordshire)
Changing the clocks twice per year. I wonder when this madness will end.

While it continues I have decided to adopt a new approach, as follows. In the spring, the clocks move forward at 3 p.m. on a Friday. The advantage being that an hour of work time is lost, not sleep time. Also, the "5 p.m. somewhere" moment comes rushing along that much quicker.

In the autumn, it occurs at 6 a.m. on the Monday, thus adding amply to sleep and staving off work for a little longer.

Inspired by "Passport to Pimlico" I have created my own time zone and have instituted the above. (For the rest of Ontario, clocks go forward tonight)

I would like to start a movement for this. I wonder if I post a national petition if it would get enough votes to go to parliament; might be quite fun!
 
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Mark Palmer

Mark Palmer

Location
London
G. W o l f f said:
Changing the clocks twice per year. I wonder when this madness will end.

While it continues I have decided to adopt a new approach, as follows. In the spring, the clocks move forward at 3 p.m. on a Friday. The advantage being that an hour of work time is lost, not sleep time. Also, the "5 p.m. somewhere" moment comes rushing along that much quicker.

In the autumn, it occurs at 6 a.m. on the Monday, thus adding amply to sleep and staving off work for a little longer.

Inspired by "Passport to Pimlico" I have created my own time zone and have instituted the above. (For the rest of Ontario, clocks go forward tonight)

I would like to start a movement for this. I wonder if I post a national petition if it would get enough votes to go to parliament; might be quite fun!
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#wolff-at-the-door
 
Graeme Harvie

Graeme Harvie

Location
London
Merchant email offers quoting scores from Matthew Jukes and these days Jeb Dunnuck. Nothing against them personally, just that their scores are not very helpful at all - to put it politely.
 
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