Gutless cheating cowardly bastard
Aug. 17th, 2006 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71
On my first call of the shift this morning, I got Mr Angry.
This man was one of those people who think that if "nothing's changed" they can skip doing the survey altogether, but while most of them, when we explain that we still have to run through it, will accept it and go through the motions, this guy bitterly resented being asked to do the questions at all this time, and let me know it. He answered nearly every question in a sarcastic, scathing manner, and was obviously brimming with pure anger throughout. Somehow I completed the questions for him, but when asked to do his wife he snapped "Nothing's changed." I patiently explained that we still had to do the questions, and he shot back "We don't, because I'm going to put the fucking phone down."
I gave up. As obliged by the rules, I asked him whether he'd do the survey again in November, thinking he was bound to say no, but he said yes. That wasn't all he said, though; he ranted about how the survey was a waste of taxpayers' money, closing his outburst with "I'm paying you."
Several times already by now I'd been sitting there thinking of comebacks I could have hit him with. Now, as he was a pensioner, the one that rose to the front of my mind was "No you're not, because you don't fucking pay tax. We're subsidising you." But the rules are that we always have to turn the other cheek. I had to settle for saying a frosty goodbye.
Soon after, at 10 am, we were all down to the Map Room for a briefing from Lin, one of the senior managers. She introduced one of her colleagues; he gave us a brief lecture about the aims of the office and some initiatives they're introducing, none of which, by the sound of it, will make a lot of material difference to our day-to-day work. At least, as far as I could make out; the talk left me, in the words of Lister, "totally smeggin' ungrippered", so my mind kept wandering back to the bitter taste left by Mr Angry. Lin took over and said a bit more about the new initiatives, before going on to various stuff like not leaving the telephone unit without good reason apart from going to the loo or coffee breaks, and giving us a lecture about Christmas leave. (There's always a big scramble to take holidays at Christmas and New Year; I always volunteer for extras then, as it gives people with kids a chance to have the time off as well as putting some more dosh in my bin.) Again I drifted in and out.
As we walked back up to the TU, I muttered 'Gutless cheating cowardly bastard' rhythmically over and over.
The rest of the shift passed without incident, but there was no sign of the bloody nuts today. The stupid sods must have given them to the evening shift. Arse. Sarah #1 and Sarah #4 talked about BB again - Sarah #4 agrees with me that Aisleyne deserves to win! And I got an extra 15 minutes in the bank thanks to a slow last interview.
With 50 minutes to kill, I went down to Sue's office to see if she had a brief window to talk, but although there was a jacket on the desk there was no sign of her. Went to the library, checked my e-mail, caught the bus, stopped in Fareham to visit the hole in the wall, got the bus home, tried Katherine, got her answerphone.
This man was one of those people who think that if "nothing's changed" they can skip doing the survey altogether, but while most of them, when we explain that we still have to run through it, will accept it and go through the motions, this guy bitterly resented being asked to do the questions at all this time, and let me know it. He answered nearly every question in a sarcastic, scathing manner, and was obviously brimming with pure anger throughout. Somehow I completed the questions for him, but when asked to do his wife he snapped "Nothing's changed." I patiently explained that we still had to do the questions, and he shot back "We don't, because I'm going to put the fucking phone down."
I gave up. As obliged by the rules, I asked him whether he'd do the survey again in November, thinking he was bound to say no, but he said yes. That wasn't all he said, though; he ranted about how the survey was a waste of taxpayers' money, closing his outburst with "I'm paying you."
Several times already by now I'd been sitting there thinking of comebacks I could have hit him with. Now, as he was a pensioner, the one that rose to the front of my mind was "No you're not, because you don't fucking pay tax. We're subsidising you." But the rules are that we always have to turn the other cheek. I had to settle for saying a frosty goodbye.
Soon after, at 10 am, we were all down to the Map Room for a briefing from Lin, one of the senior managers. She introduced one of her colleagues; he gave us a brief lecture about the aims of the office and some initiatives they're introducing, none of which, by the sound of it, will make a lot of material difference to our day-to-day work. At least, as far as I could make out; the talk left me, in the words of Lister, "totally smeggin' ungrippered", so my mind kept wandering back to the bitter taste left by Mr Angry. Lin took over and said a bit more about the new initiatives, before going on to various stuff like not leaving the telephone unit without good reason apart from going to the loo or coffee breaks, and giving us a lecture about Christmas leave. (There's always a big scramble to take holidays at Christmas and New Year; I always volunteer for extras then, as it gives people with kids a chance to have the time off as well as putting some more dosh in my bin.) Again I drifted in and out.
As we walked back up to the TU, I muttered 'Gutless cheating cowardly bastard' rhythmically over and over.
The rest of the shift passed without incident, but there was no sign of the bloody nuts today. The stupid sods must have given them to the evening shift. Arse. Sarah #1 and Sarah #4 talked about BB again - Sarah #4 agrees with me that Aisleyne deserves to win! And I got an extra 15 minutes in the bank thanks to a slow last interview.
With 50 minutes to kill, I went down to Sue's office to see if she had a brief window to talk, but although there was a jacket on the desk there was no sign of her. Went to the library, checked my e-mail, caught the bus, stopped in Fareham to visit the hole in the wall, got the bus home, tried Katherine, got her answerphone.
