Life

[ThunderPeel2001]

Holy fuck! I can't believe that. I hope it's all working out for you, Ian. What a trip!

Edit: Thoughts...

That piece of bread...!

Also: Any thoughts on how the show presented what happened? Did you really not know there was something about that guy? Obviously even "reality" shows like this are often scripted, and moments are repeated for the camera.

Spoilerific thoughts and questions, for those who want to watch the show for themselves:

As an outsider who worked in a shop, I can't really believe that sprucing up the staff areas would boost morale or staff retention. I know I never wanted to hang out in my work place during lunch, especially not during a sunny day, no matter how the room is. It makes me wonder how they came to that as the "fix" -- and it seems symptomatic of the type of thinking that got them in trouble in the first place: Being out of touch with their staff. He also didn't mention any sort of reform of the systems that heavily penalise staff or talk about why the petition wasn't responded to by head office.

Of course, he may have not gone into this for the camera, or they cut it out for time or something. (Can't imagine that the "you'll get work out of them they never knew they were capable of" line was really in direct response to painting the staff area, so presumably other things were said?)

And obviously: When did all this happen? How have things changed? What are you working on now? Where did they send your grumpy colleague and his family and for how long? I hope it wasn't a weekend trip to London.

You come across as the nice guy you are in the program. Nice one

Edited August 19, 2011 by ThunderPeel2001

[ThunderPeel2001]

Also, for the dirty, filthy foreigners among you (and subbes), does this YouTube link work for you?

qNpdQt4o1Gc

Edit: Unfortunate still. Looks like you're sitting on your bosses lap, Ian :-/

Edit edit: Apparently not.

Edited August 19, 2011 by ThunderPeel2001

[Thompson]

I've always wondered watching Undercover Boss, how do they cover up why they're filming you when you're on the way to HQ and in their offices? Seems like you'd have to know at some point.

[syntheticgerbil]

Someone put up episode links! I am not in a valid country.

[MrHoatzin]

Been busy with various things and have been getting back into cooking. Last week I made home made General Tso's chicken, chocolate chunk brownies that were delicious and moist, and I also made special Muffins. My true, true love in cooking however is pizza! I made a nice dough yesterday, a nice sauce today, and tonight... There will be pizza! I've also begun a sour dough starter, so that next week I can make some sour dough pizza's. Mmmmmm.

Special Muffins, eh, capitalized and everything. I am curious about your recipe. :shifty: :shifty:

[Thompson]

Someone put up episode links! I am not in a valid country.

You didn't get this from me.

[syntheticgerbil]

I just totally reported you to the mods.

Thank you!

[SignorSuperdouche]

That piece of bread...!

Isn't bread. It's a ceiling tile that we use to keep the heater off the floor (Not that that's significantly better).

Also: Any thoughts on how the show presented what happened? Did you really not know there was something about that guy? Obviously even "reality" shows like this are often scripted, and moments are repeated for the camera.

Well 99% of what happened was cut and what they did show was edited together from all over the shop.

LITERALLY!

The filming was odd. You'd think a documentary exists to document what happens but there is a director who orchestrates everything. They already know what they want and basically cajole you into doing/saying whatever they want you to do. I was essentially an untrained actor in a light TV drama.

Spoilerific thoughts and questions, for those who want to watch the show for themselves:

As an outsider who worked in a shop, I can't really believe that sprucing up the staff areas would boost morale or staff retention. I know I never wanted to hang out in my work place during lunch, especially not during a sunny day, no matter how the room is. It makes me wonder how they came to that as the "fix" -- and it seems symptomatic of the type of thinking that got them in trouble in the first place: Being out of touch with their staff. He also didn't mention any sort of reform of the systems that heavily penalise staff or talk about why the petition wasn't responded to by head office.

Of course, he may have not gone into this for the camera, or they cut it out for time or something. (Can't imagine that the "you'll get work out of them they never knew they were capable of" line was really in direct response to painting the staff area, so presumably other things were said?)

They went into it briefly. Cashiers no longer pay back till discrepancies although the details of whatever new system they come up with are yet to be finalised.

The staffroom will be renovated in the near future. There's a team doing each store in turn and there's 100 and something shops - no idea where we are on the list.

Failure to punch penalty is now 1 hour not 2.

Whilst I can't see the changes making a huge difference per se, it's a gesture of good will. We'll see what happens.

And obviously: When did all this happen? How have things changed? What are you working on now? Where did they send your grumpy colleague and his family and for how long? I hope it wasn't a weekend trip to London.

You come across as the nice guy you are in the program. Nice one

This was filmed about 2 months ago, and I believe the "family holiday" was a day at Alton Towers.

As for me, well all of our records are stored as Excel spreadsheets and I'm really pushing for a database solution. So far though I've only been knocking up more complicated Excel sheets (and pretty much hitting the limit on how useful an Excel document can be whilst still being usable).

We'll see what happens next - I'm not sure they even know what they want to do with me.

[subbes]

I like how the dude compliments you for not getting counseling or anything after the armed robbery. BE A MAN. SUCK IT UP.

That's what my mother taught me. Take all your bad feelings and push them down, all the way down, past your knees until you're almost walking on them. And then you'll fit in, and you'll be invited to parties, and boys will like you, and happiness will follow.

[Lu]

Special Muffins, eh, capitalized and everything. I am curious about your recipe. :shifty: :shifty:

Sugar, flour, eggs, cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla essence, milk... Special butter.

[elmuerte]

Just pirated that episode.

Damn... talking about low staff morale, especially that balding guy with the glasses. Must have been murder for that guy the whole drive to the head office fearing that he'd be fired from his "shitty" job.

[Gwardinen]

The whole end of the episode was profoundly gross to me

(apart from the part in which SignorSuperdouche was recognised as being a cool guy), and it made me very uncomfortable to see the guy crying with joy at being given the scraps from the table after being berated for voicing very justified grievances. If this "family holiday" really was just a day trip to Alton Towers, that's horrendous, as it was made out to be some kind of boon from on high.

I hate these programmes, and I think they're circular as hell and rarely result in anything worthwhile, but hopefully it will change things for you at least. As someone who's struggling with studying and finding work in similar fields, I'd love to see you get to utilise your skills and be rewarded for it.

[ThunderPeel2001]

The filming was odd. You'd think a documentary exists to document what happens but there is a director who orchestrates everything. They already know what they want and basically cajole you into doing/saying whatever they want you to do. I was essentially an untrained actor in a light TV drama.

So how do you feel the program reflected reality overall?

They went into it briefly. Cashiers no longer pay back till discrepancies although the details of whatever new system they come up with are yet to be finalised.

The staffroom will be renovated in the near future. There's a team doing each store in turn and there's 100 and something shops - no idea where we are on the list.

Failure to punch penalty is now 1 hour not 2.

Whilst I can't see the changes making a huge difference per se, it's a gesture of good will. We'll see what happens.

That's good to hear.

This was filmed about 2 months ago, and I believe the "family holiday" was a day at Alton Towers.

That's a bit depressing. Did you talk to the guy about his day? It's so expensive there that I hope they paid for travel and spending money, at least.

As for me, well all of our records are stored as Excel spreadsheets and I'm really pushing for a database solution. So far though I've only been knocking up more complicated Excel sheets (and pretty much hitting the limit on how useful an Excel document can be whilst still being usable).

We'll see what happens next - I'm not sure they even know what they want to do with me.

So are you still working at the store, or have you been moved to an office like they suggested you would be?

Whatever happened, it's a pretty amazing story

[Nachimir]

I like how the dude compliments you for not getting counseling or anything after the armed robbery. BE A MAN. SUCK IT UP.

That's not how I read it. If you can go through that calmly, and not subsequently have nightmares or panic attacks, then that's a pretty amazing thing. Kudos to you, SSD, and congrats on the promotion. You said you don't think you're sure they know what they want to do with you; I hope it leads onto something worthwhile. At the very least it will give you something for your CV.

[Kolzig]

Burn, burn, burn.

Interesting way to start your workday with fire alarms ringing so loud that my ears are still ringing. Fire department came fully geared up, and we all had to stand outside in the rain for 30 minutes.

The building is still here and we are back to work so at least the building didn't burn down. There's a construction work going on downstairs and those guys probably did something to cause all this fun. Most likely smoked some weed or something like that.

EDIT: And surprisingly the same weedheads did it twice in the same day. Alarms rang again.

Edited August 26, 2011 by Kolzig

[elmuerte]

Yeah, so, 1st word issues.

Some asshole delivery guy/woman is claiming that I, and 10 colleagues, where not at the office today between 12:00 and 18:00. They were supposed to deliver my DXHR today. But they didn't, because according to them, nobody was at the office. So they will probably try again tomorrow, and of course fail because there really isn't anybody at the office. This of course would result in my order being send back because of "2" failed deliveries.

The delivery person is probably a lazy fuck that wanted to go to home at 17:00 and simply decided to screw me and claim I wasn't at home.

Lets see how this one will play out.

[subbes]

I spent this afternoon training six infuriating fools. The training ran long, making me miss out on our CEO's offer to let everyone go home early. And now I have a sore throat.

I am making myself feel better by browsing JetPens for delightful foreign writing implements, and trying not to actually buy anything.

Also my best friend finally got some work after a long period of unemployment, so good for them.

[MrHoatzin]

So Sal Limones and myself are going to Ye Olde Countree for three weeks. We're flying out Monday and hopping through Amsterdam on way to Belgrade. Anything interesting one can do at the Amsterdam airport or thereabouts for an hour or so between flights?

[subbes]

You mean beyond getting high?

[ThunderPeel2001]

So Sal Limones and myself are going to Ye Olde Countree for three weeks. We're flying out Monday and hopping through Amsterdam on way to Belgrade.

But how will the Grim Fandango Deluxe project continue without your feedback?

[MrHoatzin]

Yeah, I guess the only thing you can do now is cut your losses and abort the project. I'm so sorry it had to come to this, but we all knew it was going to come to this, it just had to come to this.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Wow, you're right. I sounded pathetically negative. Thanks for holding up a mirror to my unconstructive and egotistical whining. I'll never talk like that again! From now on the project will be dedicated to your name, in recognition of your help and support

[MrHoatzin]

Don't mention it!

[Sal Limones]

Personally I think you've done a very lovely job, ThunderPeel. I like it a lot, it's pretty.

[elmuerte]

Anything interesting one can do at the Amsterdam airport or thereabouts for an hour or so between flights?

It's just like most other airports. So the most interesting you can do is look out of the window.