We have a computer system at work that allows people to travel back to Yugoslavia, East Germany and a whole host of countries that do not exist anymore including German South West Africa!

This sounds like an entry in Viz's 'Roger's Profanisaurus'.

Me and two other mates jumped in an old style First Class compartment for a drunken post-gig journey back from Victoria to East Croydon at about 23:00, but went up and down the line between Gatwick and Victoria until we were turfed out at Selhurst at about 04:30am by a ticket inspector who said our travel cards were no longer valid as it was 'the next day'.

Changing at Baker St :supergrin:

Sending a question via a companies "Contact Us" page and never hearing back from them.

It's happened on more than one occasion.

The Sh*tc*nts working from home scheduling 1hr Zoom calls for 4.30pm.

The barriers at Waterloo Station. I have to travel with a paper ticket at the moment and those barriers are constantly wiping it so it doesn't work. Sick of getting it reprinted. I'm on and off tubes and trains most days currently and having to find the guard each time I go through a barrier is a proper pain in the arse

I went to both Yugoslavia and East Germany when they existed, I can’t claim to have been to German South West Africa though.

I did, it was shut.

Was it what is now known as Namibia? I would like to go there at some point.

Chathamn when it was meant to be Sevenoaks

Bureaucracy...

I needed a notarized copy of my birth certificate to send to England (I could have sent the original, but not convinced that would work out well).

Step one: Go to office supplies shop to get photocopy which required legal sized paper. Guy is just about to print it when he asks me if I want colour... yes I say. Sorry we can only do black and white. If you want colour you have to do it yourself. Some legal issue with making colour copies. Off I trot to self service machine and get a colour copy.

Step two: Go to Auto Club to get copy notarized. They can't notarize a copy. They will only notarize a statement on the copy from me saying it is a copy. Off I trot and write some bullshit on the copy about it being a copy. Go back and they tell me they cannot stamp the actual document, only an attachment saying the "attached is a copy".

Maybe I should have just sent the original... :wallbash:

Press 1 for...

'sorry, did you say Sid Bucket?

Don't ever think about moving to Chile.

Actually I have thought about this and its not really bureaucracy that's at fault. Ultimately you must ask why is there such bureaucracy? And for the most part (as it is in your example) it is a matter of trust. The institution/person who requested your birth certificate 1) does not trust you when you say you are who you are 2) they do not trust the copy of the certificate you send to prove you are who you are. So they require a 3rd party who they have never met and most likely never heard of to verify the copy. Why that verification from an unknown party is any more trustworthy than you personally is a matter for further thought.

The result is that we all have to descend to the lowest common denominator i.e. that we are all, every single one of us (bar, for some reason I cannot quite understand, the unknown and unmet 3rd party), attempting to deceive everyone else.

Alas, it is more than annoying, it is most depressing.


PS Blockchain is probably the answer at some time in the future.

I am not joking when I say I am not adverse to having a chip implanted in me that has all my information on it and could be scanned by whoever with my concurrence.

It would put a stop to so much of this bullshit.

According to Q Anon it comes with your covid vaccine.

Bring it on... I have nothing to hide.

People whining about how hard 9 to 5 is.

7.30am was my first class today, and I finished my 8th class at 9.15pm.

Until last year I worked Monday to Saturday for 15 years.

But in your latest issue, wouldn't that involve you having to FedEx yourself for chip verification purposes?

Teachers.

Good point! Obviously I haven’t thought this through too well…

This is the thing, American bureaucracy wants ‘notarised’ bollocks and in England a self certified copy by is enough. (I am not sure why you need the birth certificate) but in my experience with bank accounts and dealings a copy or even scanned and sent via email has been accepted and when I turn up I have to come with the original and they verifiy (only once that has happened)

I understand the frustration

I had that problem though it was not the barriers fault. I had a magnetic button on my phone case which was wiping the data on my ST. I was putting the ST next to my phone in my pocket.

They just won't shut the f*ck up about the pressure and the hours.
I had to remind one miserable sod at a parents evening that the meeting was about the kid, not her, and suggested she sought a new career if this one was so bad.

I appreciate this is a sample size of two, but my best friend from childhood is a teacher, and my wife’s best friend is a teacher. Neither ever complain about it privately. They complain about the pupils being little shits all the time, but never the job in terms of hours / pressure.

Spain is ridiculous, especially with recent events (I'm looking at you, brexit and covid).

A country that functions entirely on bureaucracy, employs thousands to deal with it should not be this shit at it .

There is even award winning films made about the system and the obstructive twats who work in it.

**** you and the horse you rode in on. Hth

I think he meant real teachers, not the likes of you and the other Pedro.

:D

Yes, those with a proper qualification. Like me. :)

None of this EFL shit.

I best tell the headmaster of the school Im working at that Im not a real teacher then.

Good idea

Oh God yeah, I think Spain is the best country to live in in Europe as long as you don't need to do ANYTHING.

EVERYTHING es complicado.

Worst thing you can do is start a business... then try to employ someone. Forget it.

:D

I told him, he said he didnt care and to get on with the 80 reports i have to write.

Employment and contract laws here are ridiculous. Theres a fella round the corner from here who has opened a cracking little cafe, good coffee, nice cakes, different healthy breakfast ideas, and hes really succesful...and busy. Problem is, he is so busy he can't cope.....but he cant afford to hire help because its going to cost too much in social security payments, contract costs etc to hire someone to help him.

Piece of piss.
We've had reports with 'she' used for both the boys. Quite clearly using a series of templates. Lazy feckers.

6/10

:p

Just for balance - and only in respect of the 'real' teachers.

I wouldn't want to be a teacher tasked with online classes with multiple groups of 15-30 (let alone 40) school age students over a period of 16 months.

All those that I know that are doing that are close to collapse and would much prefer to be in the classroom.

They have the added pressure that statistics (and news reports) are flying at them, and their bosses, suggesting that online teaching is not really working and students are learming at a 50 to 60% efficiency rate compared to before.

That is before you get parents accusing them of being lazy feckers for rushing through report card templates, and department heads insisting on tons of data to analyse to ensure that said 'lazy feckers' are not being lazy feckers.

It is also worth considering that while many people have been able to WFH and in their pyjamas, and been able to skedaddle off to Portugal on a well earned break from the break - teachers, on the whole, have had to work full on throughot this crisis in very trying circumstances.

JAFT.

As have many, many others.

As somebody who works in education too, this made me chuckle! I do not envy teachers whatsoever. Before maternity my wife effectively worked 7.30-6 in a primary school, with weekend work on top. School holidays are lovely, but again they're a time for recovering from burnout and then preparing for the next term. Obviously teaching isn't the only job where these drawbacks are apparent, but their workload is underestimated by many.

But not necessarily someone complaing about getting a scheduled zoom call at 4.30pm that takes them 30 minutes past beer O'Clock.

I teach people here in Enel (Italian owned Electricity) that start their day at 5.30am and often finish at 9pm. That is clearly abuse.

Talk me through that.

Talk me through the professions that have to juggle classroom of students - many with internet problems.

Outside of those in frontline healthcare and related pandemic activities, and probably some politicians.

Let's here about the pandemic sacrifices profession by profession compared to actually getting up when it is dark, doing the commute, suffering the in office bullshit. etc.

Okay, we have Death by Teams. But I don't see it.

There have been plenty of people putting themselves in harm's way throughout the pandemic. You know this.
Teachers have always moaned, and insisted they are some sort of special case. Pressure, stress and fairly long hours come with the territory. Those of us who have gone into it know that. It's a vocation. It's not the case that everyone else works in an office. I've worked in one area or another of Education pretty much all my working life, and consider it a privilege.

Quite, Since my diagnosis for Diabetes in April Ive had one chat with the Dr on the phone and one with a dietician and spent more time waiting for GP Reception to pick up my calls.

Our GPs have been impossible to get hold of for the duration.

PeterH, I'm not sure that I have much faith in an English teacher who writes "here" when it should be "hear".⁵

I love my job and, like you, have mentioned to colleagues that we should consider it with pride and honour, especially new colleagues who moan about the time.spent preparing lessons, writing reports etc. However, does that mean that we aren't allowed to have some sort of release as well?

The collective whinge and moan is a workers right in all professions, don't you think?

Of course, but there always seems to be an element of special pleading from the teaching profession. School, college, school seems to leave an awful lot of those I've known with unrealistic expectations and a very odd idea of what the work experience is like for those not in the profession.
It can be seen often, as any parent will tell you, in the demands made by them on families to respond to their requests. As though we drop our kids at the school gates and then just go and lounge around all day. It drove me nuts when mine were in primary school.
The alternative of leaving the profession is always there

Yes, but this all started from Mr Office purporting the myth that teachers are something less.

Thus, I thought it was well worth pointing out that a good many teachers have stepped up and gone beyond what should be expected during this pandemic.

I can tell you from my one semester's wotth of experience, before being fired changed my life for the better, it has been double workload and more than being thankless in a lot of cases - they constantly feel the hot air of authority breathing down their necks.

The patience of managing classes in this format is tremedous. There aren't bosses in that industry as accommodating as many others.

I didn't see any reports of people having an 8pm clap for educators.

Or binmen, or supermarket workers, delivery drivers, undertakers, sewage workers, factory workers etc etc.

Especially on academic platform that is the BBS.

Is there a word missing there?
I'm sure there is.
Is it a test? :)

Outside of supermarket workers deling with Covidiots and the extra work for some Pandemic boom industries - why are some of your other listed professions affected.

Shouldn't there have beeen fewer people in supermarkets - you all were facing suffering severe inhuman lockdowns and restrictions? Are people shitting more and creating more rubbish for binmen? Are factories producing more?

I would suggest that those having to work are happy to have had clearer roads on more spacious public transport.

Maybe the stress for these workers was more related to knowing that a whole swaythe of lucky workers in other industries were getting paid to sit at home. I admit, that would niggle.

No, you're right, it's just teachers who've been experiencing a world of shit.

an

You have to forgive me for my hasty posting. If I get a posting window when you lot aren't tucked up in your wankpits, I have to field off brickbats from all and sundry.

It's not a proper rant if it doesn't include typos :p

And that has always been the issue during this pandemic. Very few people on the BBS have managed to come around to my way of thinking.






Because I am so thick on these issues, can you talk me through this 'World of Shit' you have all been experiencing....from what I can see, the phrase belongs in a new hyperbole pandemic thread alongside such gems as.....

severe restrictions

human rights

lockdown

economic disater

generations to come


For clarity, this has nothing to do with people who have lost loved ones, been very sick themselves, lost their jobs or businesses.

We are talking singularly about how comparing working conditions between different industries.

Going away for the weekend. My stuff goes into a case the size of your standard carry on type. Mrs KM large double zip case with as much stuff as if we were going back to the UK for six weeks. WTF does she need it all for.




Feel free to check for typos.

I am nit the on raenteng.

Is your missus realted to HH's missus?

My wife packs light. One time she left all my clothes on the bed when we were going hiking for four days in Patagonia.

False. She packed my socks and pants.

We had to visit a charity shop for top threads.

so good you still wear them!

I would say your wife is the exception to the norm, and KM and I have what I hear is a common trait of women.

Having said that, we had a couple come visit us a few years back who where going around the world, and they both just had back packs. She also appeared to need a toilet about twice a day... as opposed to my wife needing one twice an hour, which I also understand to be a common need for many women.

I digress...

P.S. is "Top Threads" a BBS table for popular posts?

Indeed. Your fashion advice always comes up trumps.

Top Twats.

I sincerely hope that you have a list of your achievements to hand. Peter likes people to list their achievements.

Does anyone play that game with him?

All he is doing so far is reinforcing my 'special pleading' point.

Sorry, History, that's just another post that makes my point for me. 7.30-6, you say?
There are so many jobs out there that require a standard 12 hour shift and weekend working, and overtime. And for less money, in many cases, than a teacher earns, and less holiday, sometimes unpaid holiday, and possibly no pension.

That doesn't mean teachers are being undervalued or that their workloads are underestimated.

It's called working.

You seem to have a real.downer on teachers.

He probably sat in the back row.

Just looking for a bit of balance.
Yes, it can be hard, but they're not a special case.

Are you mixing me up with someone else?

I doubt I have ever listed mine - because I don't have any - I am a nobody.

I will have a go.

6 O levels

Some menial jobs

Drifted into insurance and The City

Some professional exams.

Travelled a bit

Drifted into teaching English.

Done okay for my loved ones.

Own my own place.

Enough to get by comfortably.

Annoy twats and non twats on the BBS.

Never get involved with job politics.

Treat people the way I would wish to be treated.

No degrees, no awards, no successes to boast about, no yearly updates living off the successes of my children.

This is where I think you either have it wrong on this thread or are mistaken in what I am trying to say.

I am specifically highlighting teachers at the moment - and specifically teachers dealing with school age classes or at least up to some level of universities.

At least in Chile, I understand that many are at the point of collapse. Mainly because at start March 2020 we all imagined that this might be a one semester thing, maybe the whole of 2020 at most.

If you factor in the false dawns (and the preparation that has to go into those) of restarting and then reclosing presential classes into the equation that adds extre pressures.

Another factor is teachers, students, and organisations getting up to speed on hastily prepared interactive platforms and alll the teething problems with that. That not only took extra work, but had a whole world of frustrations - you are more often than not relying on a savvy colleague to prepare and share instruction videos and training material. Then you have to instruct students in the same way, sometimes on an interface that is not equal to the one the teacher uses. Add in, students that sign up late or miss the first few sessions and you need the patience to repeat the whole process to their satisfaction while existing students are drumming their fingers on the table thinking the teacher is unorganised and doesn't know what they are doing.

How that is the same as a binman or factory worker doing the same job as they have always done. Or the same as office workers learning the wonders of Zoom, Meet or Teams for the first time, I can't comprehend.

Whilst medical workers, emergency workers, and panic buying supermarket staff have had it very badly, I think the normaly much maligned teachers have really stepped up to the plate.

You make a good point well, Peter.

Does he?
I can't keep dialling up the situation in Chile every time he makes a point.

Yes, things got more complicated for teachers (in the UK), not helped by the shifting sands of government policy and incompetence. So it got a bit hard.
Well here's some news, work life as a bin man, shift work in a factory or on a building site was always effing hard.
Everyone - apart from those 'in an office', apparently - works hard, most of the time. That's life.

I have to say, I loved teaching, but I found sitting in the staff room with a bunch of whingers somewhat irritating, and more than once suggested alternative employment to a few of them. I have been glad to see the move in recent years to attract suitable people from other professions into the job. I don't think it's always beneficial, to the teachers or the kids, to have effectively been in school for one's entire life.

But then, Peter has shown he did not take this route, and he's still having a good old moan. I will always appreciate teachers - I've had some terrific ones - but I am not elevating them above many others who also work bloody hard in their chosen fields.

This isn't ganging up on teachers, it applies to all professions, but when you have posters boasting or complaining that they work 25 hours a day under extreme conditions, they fail to explain how they somehow find an extraordinary amount of time to add to their impressive post counts on the BBS. All whilst on the clock.
While Peter H is correcting a young professional from El barrio the difference between 'hear and here' he breaks off mid- teaching to get in a 15 rounder with Maz about the price of fish in post brexit Grimsby.

How much is a nice bit of Skate these days?

There's a joke in there, for someone who can get away with it.:supergrin:

Doesn't that just mean you are only commenting from a UK centric position?

One would suggest you need to broaden your horizons before commenting. You will be falling onto the side of the Little Islander Brexitsers with your non-world view.

I would be surprised if teachers in most parts of the world had digital platforms up and running and ready to use right at the moment schools were being used. And most teachers and students trained to use them. Some universities that offered flexible courses to their students and had been financing for a while, but general education systems.

Chile were a little head of the curve because we went into lockdown for the protests in November. Where I worked we had the opportunity to trial a product, and improve a product that was brought if for that.

You appear a tad misinformedor lacking of knowledge in educational trends globally considering you appear to make a living from it. And when you consider that you personally had to stay extra safe and in lockdown, I would have thought you would have used the opportunity to get up to date on these issues.

Perhaps you spent the time baking bread.

The danger is that you had a little snipe at a profession, and a few other professions, and came up against someone who has actually lived and worked exactly in this area, and ultimately lost their job over the issue. The sensible option woud have been to take a step backand admit that perhaps your comments were a little glib and misinformed. Instead you double downed and suggested that Chile is a second world nation as far as educational technology is concerned, and the same set of issues don't apply to advanced countries.

I haven't watched 5 episodes of When Eagles Dare whilst WFH like some other poster admitted to.

I am not sure I have ever posted on the Brexit thread, I certainly haven't entered into any debate with anyone on that thread. You can check through if you like.

I would like you to show where I have been having a good old moan. I suggest you are making things up to support a lost argument.

I worked 15 years in a Polytechnic, and in the staff room there I didn't witness much moaning.

Maybe you being part of that team encouraged the whining.

I also think you have an exaggerated idea on what defines hard work. To suggest the vast majority of the population work hard based on the jobs of the unlucky workhorses in construction or mining is somewhat absurd.

I reiterate, this all comes from a poster who is 'moaning' about having a zoom call sceduled that take him past his 5pm cut off. That is probably in a job that started at 9am, with lunch, various breaks, coffee stops, and wasted in unnecessary meetings. We shouldn't confuse working hard with lack of organisation and lack of productivity.

There are plenty of articles discussing restrictons on emails and Team meetings extending to 9 or 10pm at night. And there have always been bosses who seem to schedule their one on ones with staff at exactly 6pm - just as someone is switching off their PC. Those office workers that find themselves leaving the office and getting down the pub (or catching a later train home AGAIN because of an asswipe boss) may just scoff at people having to work until 5.30pm.

Have a lie down, Peter. The fairies are just making stuff up in your head.
I have worked, and prospered, in International Education for thirty years plus. I'm not about to be taking any lessons from you.
I have not belittled the teaching profession, I just questioned why it should be as exalted as you seem to think it should be, in comparison with other careers.
Interestingly, though probably not to you, I work with a large number of Chilean postgrads in London. It's a very popular destination.

Who works 9-5 these days? Normally finished by 4pm. It's great wfh all day in my pj's too

You're really not helping :supergrin:

I know you do. We discussed it several times.

How can I accept your words when you have forgotten those chats that have taken place inside the last year.

I have never said it should be exalted. What I have said is that despite the bad press that teachers are azy, incompetent feckers who love their long summer holidays, they have worked bloody hard over the last year. In a year's time we can all go back to slagging them off again. But they have stepped up amazingly,

However, not as amazing as your lack of awareness of the current issues facing front line teachers in a profession you profess to have prospered from.

I know people who have prospered from education - for the most part they don't actually teach, rather they tell other people how to teach or the put obstacles in the way that make the profession less enjoyable. Once they have done the damage playing politics and 'prospering' in one place, they move onwards and upwards and repeat the process elsewhere.

I am not sure checking application forms, visas, and university fee payments, picking students up from the airport, and making sure they are comfortably housed with host families qualifies you as an export on International education.

Granted, it probably beats an EFL certificate.

It's ok, was just joking as I do normally get dressed.

LOL. :afro::love:

In the kindest possible way, I really don't fret over you accepting my words or not.

But I don't do any of the things you listed there.
Fair enough, you had your buttons pushed by someone about Zoom meetings, but I'm not sure I've expressed any unreasonable views.
Perhaps I'll bow out of this one for now.

PC on at 9. Read some news coverage, respond to some emails or Teams messages.

At 10-12 I'll usually have some meetings.

12 is lunch because I ate breakfast with the kids at 7am.

Between 1300-1330 I'll go to the gym for 90 minutes. Once a week might use this time for a short nap.

1500-1700 a few more meetings and some 1-2-1s.

1700 dinner with my family.

1800 bath the kids

1900 kids in bed

Post 1900 spend time with my wife, watch TV, do some more emails, write some documents.

2130 bedtime

2200 lights out.

Lights out at ten!
Blimey, I'm usually still going for another 4 hours or so after that.

I obviously don't share your sexual prowess!

Why are you bowing out?

I was only belittling your job the way you belittled an entire entire profession. You then decided to show off by listing your experience and success in the pompous Alf way that Pidster accused me of.

I may be mistaken..but if memory serves...on the Covid thread you mentioned about ferrying students to the airport to catch flights that were still being allowed into Chile.

It appears that you have the wonderful fortune of being prosperous in a job where you aren't entirely sure of what the job description is. Good job you work so hard at it.

As you can imagine, I was the kind of lippy smartarse that got slapped a lot at school.

Does anyone know what Peter and Stella are arguing about?

You are mistaken. Must have been someone else on chauffeur duties.

Wish I could fit a 1 1/2 hour gym session into 30 minutes.

Not a clue.

That's the time I depart for the gym.

Neither have I. But it appears to be something about how we're all dissing teachers, the evidence being that we haven't petitioned the Pope to have them all made saints for service beyond the bounds of human endurance. Or something.

Protected species, innit.