working for the local authority.

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gavindrummond

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I recently started working for the local authority, as a work experience position for free for 2 months. Was well chuffed as I been looking for ages for a chance somewhere. Now as my weak points are hands on experience I was teamed up with a spark and his apprentice, I thought excellent he will show me everything and this is going to be ace but it's terrible. He speaks to his apprentice like dirt and tries it with me too, he simply doesn't want to teach you anything and makes you look like an idiot in front of the rest of the tradesman and makes him self look like god. Then he goes even further and ****s you off behind your back with remarks as he don't want this. He is only 3 yrs older than me and that was the final straw that broke the camels back so I had a word with the manger who gave me the position and told him I'm scared of having a reference from this chap and explained what he is like. The manager knows what he is like and apparently he is known for being like it too. And then informed me I have nothing to worry about as he was just looking for some level of commitment. He called him into the office and spoke to him about these issues. Now he is not speaking to me at all for the last 3 days and I have been teamed up with some new sparks of which I'm very great full for but now he is going around spreading lies about me to the other tradesman he has got it right in for me.

 
Just ignore him i doubt anyone believes a word that comes out his mouth and quite likely he knows nowt you would want to learn anyway.

 
you will soon learn there is one in every firm, and usually the boss knows it,

when I came back from NZ I got a job working with a different firm,

2nd day there I had a bust up with his QS and walked off the site,

the QS was obviously straight on the phone to his boss sending me down the hole, so the boss rang me,

I explained that I know its his job, and Im only subbing to him, but I wasnt taking Sh1T from some jumped up ***** that thought he could order me about and was testing stuff wrong simply because ,his words almost -

"I'm 5 years older than you and know my stuff, I've been testing for almost 18 months,!" :eek:

I suggested if he wanted me back on site he should maybe explain to his QS I had been doing it for 18 years, not months, and the reason I was there was to commission some plant that his guys werent able to do.

was there a couple of weeks later and the owner said to me would I work with one of his apprentices for a week or two to show him some 3ph stuff,

No worries I said, then he said to me, dont worry about him, He's known as Ali the grass, :slap

any good boss will know what his workers are like, and who the *******s are.

 
If you get the chance, ask him WHERE he did his apprenticeship. If he waffles, which I suspect he will, then you will know he's probably just a chancer trying to bluff his way through life. It's only the insecure who feel the need to lord it over their subordinates.

 
Well Gavin I'd suggest that he's doing you a favour if he is not speaking to you. As said it is likely that the guy is known as a PITA by his colleagues, and you will probably find that he'll try to talk to you when he realises how well you are getting on with he others. Best leave him to do what he does and let the others see you for who you are.

 
Just grow another layer of skin ;) . His wife probley beat's him up , so he has to take it out on someone else at work.

 
Just grow another layer of skin ;) . His wife probley beat's him up , so he has to take it out on someone else at work.
This is one of the truest(?) statements, years ago my mother in law was my boss and coz she had no say at home boy did I know about it, needless to say I didn't work for her long!!!! She sacked me! :coat

 
Cheers lads :) the guy is just a sly idiot, trying to make things bad for me so I don't get a job all because I didn't put up with his ego and ****.

 
I've allways said this to my son with regards to work colleagues,

Your there to make money not friends because if they can stab you in the back to get one up on you they will certainly do it,

And too he's cost he's found out the hard way.

 
All companies have good staff, bad staff and complete plonkers. As long as the boss is not the plonker, then they will know who's who and what each employee is like. Because it is difficult to get rid of workers, they just make the best of a poor arrangement.

Doc H

 
To a great extent I would agree with Doc Hudson.

Growing a thicker skin is an advantage, even in

the world we live in now where so much of what

happened years ago is never done in the workplace.

Getting rid of people has never, to my mind, been

easier. The procedures are there and I have seen

them being used.

Takeovers of businesses, carried out by European

organisations, are not helping. I know of one large

outfit that bought a few manufacturing outfits over

here and where the work ethic of the long standing

employee did not align with the new organisation, they

made their lives so difficult they walked into work,

dropped the keys to the car and the office on the table

and walked out.

That is NOT the way to run a business.

Everyone said that Japanese manufacturing would never

work in Britain. It has been an unqualified success.

Why?

If an employee wants to leave they make it their business

to find out why, so that steps can be taken to retain them.

 
I spent two years working directly for a local authority in there street lighting department, they didn't like me because I worked for a contractor beforehand.

Remember one day making off an SWA marking my black core green & yellow and my grey blue got told " what the **** you doin that for, where a local authority we don't follow the regs" and " it's only ****ing contractors that do **** like that to make themselves look good"

Also remember working with a few knobheads when I served my apprenticeship, I always preferred working with the older sparks as they had more time to teach and explain where the younger ones everything was rush rush rush.

 
Gavin , its an unwritten Law of the Universe that every firm has at least one of these Merchant Bankers .

Long time ago when I was employed by a small firm , myself and another sparks were "loaned " to a major contracting firm as they needed extra labour on a job. We were loaned under the JIB system .

There were around 16 of their guys plus mates and apprentices on the job and they were all like the part you encountered , the most unfriendly, ignorant bunch of fellow sparks I ever came across .

Treated us like sheet TBH , we were both graded Approved Electricians ,and the site supervisor was amazed that we could do anything they threw at us . Their blokes were mostly Trunking hands , conduit monkeys and armoured cable pullers .

They were the most unpleasant, unfriendly blokes I ever worked with .

Best not name the firm .

Oh ****** that ....Lee Beesley .

 
Best way to beat the twot is make sure you keep everyone else happy. Talk to your manager / senior staff regularly to get feedback on your progress. You'll soon know if things are going wrong / right. A little taught skill is how to manage your managers, who are sometimes too busy to checkout what people are doing, and can get ear poisoned by little shites

 
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