You know what? Fuck it. And fuck them too.
I don’t care if there are people hanging around this blog I’d rather not have. Why should I give up something I enjoy for them? Exactly.
But I am pissed off all the same. At the ripe old age of 26 I am fast becoming an Angry Young Woman -if something nice happens to us I will fall over in amazement and probably go into labour on the spot, that’s how good things are.
I just don’t understand why in Britain everything seems to be so fucking difficult! For example, the house we are renting at the moment is far too small for us as it is and there’s bugger all room for the baby, but we have to wait until it’s born before we can be classed as overcrowded. I enquired as to where we might even put the pram, explaining that we have just about enough room for a crib indoors (I have no idea where the bairn’s clothes are going to go either) and that we’re not allowed to keep anything in the close – downstairs is not our part of the property and putting anything on the landing is a fire/trip hazard. Anyway, the recycling boxes are there. And of course, once the bairn’s born we’ll probably have to wait months before we are offered anything that isn’t some shitty ned-infested place. As for going private? Forget it! As soon as I mention I’m not working (and for valid reasons as some of you already know) potential landlords run a mile. Why is it that people nowadays assume that if you are a council tenant you are scum? And conveniently forget that they could only ever afford to buy their house because they were council tenants too?
This is supposed to be the happiest time of our lives, but instead of having lots of fun decorating a nursery and spending far too much money in Mothercare we are vainly trying to clear a little space for a total innocent.
I suppose I could clear out a drawer and put the bairn in that, or put it in one of those storage boxes that fit under the bed…
The trouble with Telewest…
…is that although they provide a pretty decent service, when you have to phone them up the average customer service advisor doesn’t seem to know their arse from their elbow. Gah!
After getting yet another call from someone who wanted to know if I owned my house and would I like a loan/puppy/free icecream, whatever they’re trying to get you to take, I informed them I’m registered with the Telephone Preference Service and would they kindly stop phoning me. I then double checked in the phone book to see if I’m listed – it seems I am.
Right then, says I, I’ll phone up Telewest and get them to make me ex-directory. So after getting through I asked if I could be made ex-directory. “Why do you want your number to be ex-directory?” she asks, and through gritted teeth I explain politely to her why I only want my number known to people I choose to give it to. Come on, No Shit Sherlock time or what?! She then proceeds to give me the number for Directory Enquiries. I asked her why do I have to phone them to make my number ex-directory, and she mumbled an apology and put me on hold forever so she could make the request from her end, which is her job.
Eventually she comes back on and says she’s done it, but I’m mighty tempted to phone back tomorrow just to make sure….mind you, this is the company who kept cancelling my direct debits, charging me for unpaid bills and then when I finally went nuts at them discovered they had about seven (count ‘em) different direct debit orders set up for my account. Ye gods, I know I’m not the brightest person to live sometimes but I really despair sometimes!
Fuck fuckity fuck
I am now in employment limbo.
As many of you will know, I wasn’t happy in my job. Before I went off with stress for three months my job just wasn’t interesting to me any more for many factors I can’t be arsed going into and when I came back I was looking forward to a clean start. Unfortunately nothing had changed and I was feeling just as stressed as before. So, I thought, I’ll call a meeting with HR and see what can be done. I was prepared to maybe take on a less stressful role in the company as it’s not a bad one to work for but if not I thought I’d look for another job.
So we had the meeting on Friday.
Instead of asking me what I wanted to discuss, HR went into a list of why the company wasn’t happy with me and that they wanted to terminate my employment. Why? I asked, obviously concerned at this. Well, HR said, you’re obviously not coping with the work just now and there are some issues your colleagues have with you. HR then launches into some really fucking weird excuses as to why people are unhappy with me – for example, apparently I refuse to help people, refuse to do certain parts of my job and play games all day. Oh, and I lie about what’s wrong with me when I’m off sick.
What a pile of shit! Sometimes I do more work for other people than I do for my own department, I never play games at work (although I’d like to) and when I was off sick I didn’t know what was wrong with me until I went to the doctor. But hey, as I said to HR it’s only my word against someone else’s and who are they gonna believe? They then offered me what they call a compromise agreement – basically, they give me a pittance of a payoff and ask me to go quietly, i.e. not take them to a tribunal or sue them. Fuck that. The agreement doesn’t even say why they want rid of me. Fishy, no?
I also asked for the details of that meeting to be put into writing and they refused. I was also told verbally that yes it is an unfair dismissal but surprise surprise that isn’t going to be put into writing either. Although my other half did listen in on the call, I dunno how that would stand up as evidence.
Basically I think they’re taking the piss. As far as I can see they’re just trying to get rid of me for whatever reason. And what is stranger is that in my time there two people have been mysteriously sacked, although they were in another department. I feel I’ve never really fitted in there so am not too angry at not working there any more but for them to do what they have done is plain wrong in my view.
