help...

surely in this day and age, when Richard Branson is able to plan tourist trips into space and we are able to pickle half a sheep for art, we should have worked out a way of curing period pains.

S'not fair.

By the way, on another note - to help my Administrator who is writing an essay on time management, does anyone know what Fayol's Wheel is all about???

work experience

I was briefly listening to a conversation on Radio 4 (don't laugh, I'm a closet intellectual) today about work experience, with a woman putting forward the opinion that we shouldn't make children do work experience without pay because it makes the work they do seem worthless and that we, as adults, wouldn't like to have to work for 2 weeks without pay so why should we make them do so. I find this a very odd view. I had an excellent experience as a 15 year old trying out what it was like to be a teacher, but I sure as hell wasn't any use to the school that week. Likewise, the young kids I get in as an employer are more hassle than value in terms of productivity (usually we spend half a day re-filing what they did - does no-one know the alphabet anymore?!),. It certainly involves lots of work for the person overseeing them. But nearly all those who take part say that the experience is really valuable (either to indicate they have a great desire to work as an engineer or that they sure as hell will do anything in the future to avoid it!). Most kids these days have saturday jobs where they can earn cash, the whole poinjt of "work experience" from school - at least in my humble view- should be to give them a chance to taste what other types of jobs there are out there. money shouldn't even come into it. Christ , they'll be expecting to be paid to go to school next.

But then again, I guess I'm just one of those HR Managers who likes cheap labour.

'nuff said

Don't think I'm going to make a living gambling. shame really as I could quite happily have not gone into work this morning.
The general theme of the horses I bet on at the races yesterday was their amazingly consistent ability to lose their jockeys. Still, I think it's fair to say I was the most enthusiastic gambler there and I get 10/10 for my optimism if nothing else.

it doesn't take a maths genius....

1 x prawn masala
2 x poppadums
1 x naan bread
1 x roast dinner
1 x lemon meringue pie
2 x bottles of red wine
1 x chicken tikka masala
2 x onion bhajis
1 x samosa

= me dreading going to weightwatchers tonight.

I have an ironing injury. Is it possible to sue Tefal for not warning me that when you place the iron face down on the metal holder on the ironing board, the metal holder gets quite hot. i'm sure there's a lawsuit in there somewhere... probably should have been paying more attention to the electrical equipment that the plot in Blue Murder.

Mondays

Had a groovy, relaxed and otherwise enjoyable weekend. No camping, no ducks, no bombing up and down the motorway.. good fun! Been converted to curries recently so partook in a tikka masala - not helping the weightwatchers plan but hell, who cares. Had a bad migrane Thurs night that kind of stuck around until Saturday morning, bit like a bad hangover or brain ache - hence taking it easy. Picked blackberries and ent on a bit of a wander on Sat afternoon, naturally ending in a pub. Went to see The Terminal on Sat night which was really pleasant. If I decided to pull it to pieces I probably could in terms of concept but as a piece of entertainment it went down really well. Tom Hanks was excellent, and luckily there wasn't too much of that Zeta-Jones woman!
Yesterday I moved my house about, actually cleaning behind cupboards and also moved my computer upstairs, so now I write my blog listening to Radio 5's interview with Paul Bettany about hisnew film Wimbledon - yum can't wait, not only is a damn fine looking bloke, but he's ginger too!!!
Fimally, watched Goodfellas last night on DVD, one of those films I have meant to watch for ages but neer got around to. Loved it.

all is well

well after a couple of really stressful weeks and bad nights sleep the big issue at work is nearly resolved so i can go on to worrying about the other 12 big but not quite so big issues. The good news today is that I have managed to persuade my bosses to give me another person to work for me in my expanding HR empire. Part timer admittedly but it's all good news and might allow me to get a bit more work done that I'd like to rather than my constant knee-jerk reactions. Goodness me, proactive HR... now there's a scary thought.

thanks to mad and si J...

some photos of the weekend - great fun, great weather, great blackberries!

YEEHAHA!! THANKS SI!!!!!





some captions needed I think....

frustration

well I have some fab photos but can't get them on the bloody blog - darn it!

update

Ok so what have I been up to????? Well life got a bit hectic there for a while. Work was stressful and I seemed to lurch from one knee-jerk reactive manager to another. So I was really looking forward to a week lounging in the sun on a scout campsite in Kidderminster…. Yeah I wish!
As it happened, I did manage to fall asleep in the one ten-minute space of sunshine within the week – just long enough to burn my nose so at least I did get some kind of a tan out of the holiday. Unfortunately I also got called from work every day bar Thursday which didn’t lead me to manage to relax much. But never mind.

Camp itself was great fun. Work went on as usual. I “supervised” painting in a typical “Haigh” manner and gave encouragement and support to my troops “you’ve missed a bit” “that’s looking great” so I’m sure I added a great deal of value to the whole process. I did feel the need to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty on the odd occasion, I seemed to remember reading in one of my HR management books that it’s good to get down on the shop floor with the workers and show them that you understand their world. But I made sure that I was covered in green/silver paint so that everyone knew I’d done some work.

I spent a couple of hours driving round the West Midlands Safari park along with hoardes of other families. Didn’t take my soft-top car for obvious reasons so wangled Rachel’s company car and got in free as she had a return ticket. Makes the whole experience so much more fun when you know you haven’t paid. The lions and tigers were very impressive, as were the giraffes and camels – camels don’t half look stupid when they run!

Also escaped camp and spent the day with Rich at Symond’s Yat, doing things that we hated our parents making us do when we were kids - i.e. going for a walk and appreciating nature. All very worrying and mature. Next stop national trust membership and thermal underwear.

So now it’s back to dull drudgery of work, with the sun shining outside and my heart a sinking at the mindless crap that people get stressed about in this place. Luckily I have Friday off and am off on a canal boat that evening with a plan for good wine, great company and lots of fun and laughter. Only 2 days to go…..