Working and playing

[ailbhe]

Dinner and a movie

Yesterday evening, Rob and I went out to dinner and the cinema. We ate canneloni and tortellini at Pizza Hut, which was dreadful. The portions were small, it was expensive, and the food was nasty. We watched Rabbit-Proof Fence, which was good and made me cry (they took her away from her mother. Twice. And then, after she walked 1200 miles home, twice, they took her baby away. No wonder I cried).

Work

Today I had to start work half an hour early, which was fine because I had a bath last night and washed my hair, so it took almost no time to get ready to leave the house. I may get to leave an hour early, since I have had one lunch break this week - no, two - and only left work on time one day.

Big scary Team Leader job interview

The interviews for the Team Leader position are supposed to be next week, probably on Friday, and I think three of us have applied for it. I strongly suspect that they have decided who will get the job already. I hope it's not me, and I hope it's me, for different reasons.

• It pays more.
• It means dealing directly with upper management more.
• I would be good at it.
• It will make at least one member of the team resent me greatly.
• I will feel comfortable that the job is being done well.
• I will feel guilty for not doing it perfectly.

So them's my reasons.

It would be a disaster if they fill it from outside the team. We can't take much more in the way of "Being managed by people who really don't know what they're doing or how it all works".

Firemen on strike

Yesterday I passed the striking firemen twice, and today once. It's really upsetting me. I find the thought of them having to go on strike frightening - both "Argh, how can we possibly appreciate such a vital service so little? They don't even earn a living wage!" and "Argh, how can they go on strike? They're a vital service!" and "Argh! How dare people say that they are deliberately endangering lives solely to line their own pockets when it's obvious that striking is a last last final last resort and they didn't want to do it?"

Hearing them talk about how they feel, being on strike and trying to force themselves not to answer calls, and answering calls anyway and then being blamed when people die even though they answered the call and brought equipment and oxygen and tried really hard, is making me angry and unhappy.

And every fire is national news, no matter who is supposed to deal with it. The retained firemen deal with a lot of things anyway, and they're not on strike, so when something in their area comes up off they go. But it's still national news that the fire brigade, who wouldn't have dealt with it anyway, didn't deal with it.

And both nights they've broken strike to attempt to save lives anyway.

And still no-one wants to pay them £8.50 and hour, considerably less than many people I know are paid for comfy office jobs with no night work or shift work, and no risk to life or limb anyway even if they are on call occasionally. And the people I know with comparatively comfy jobs seem, to me, to deserve the wages they are on, mostly.

Lives are valued lower than the internet, I guess.

Comments

[redbird]

£8.50 an hour? I'd assumed they were already getting a decent wage--ours do. How many of those people bitching about it would risk their own lives for twice that?