Well I'm only a bit less p*ssed off now that I've had a coupla beers, but altogether the sheer silliness of the situation still makes me not very *fruitcage* ing happy with the way things are done around here.

I speak of work, and I speak ill of work as well, which is something that doesn't happen too often, or at least isn't meant very seriously when it does happen. Disgruntlement at this point is not severe (gods bless you, beer ) but its probably going to resurface at about midnight tonight when I'm lying on my back in bed, straight as a plank and trying like hell to acheive unconsciousness, but inexorably still being unable to sleep thanks to the aching in my spine.

The thing we did at the end of the day today wasn't very hard, and it really wasn't back breaking labour by any real standard of proper labouring, it was simply what needed to be done in order to get everything else done.

What we actually did though was about 9 hours work by certain other people's standard in a wee bit under 2 hours; because it had to be done.

If anyone has ever manhandled telegraph poles then you will know that they are, strangely, 2 seemingly contradictory things: very easy, and very difficult to handle.

If only consistency was a reality with these buggers

The problem with sodding telegraph poles is that they are random diameters because all they are, when you get right down to it, is trees minus the photosynthesising appendages.

Thats `branches` to you and me.

That basically makes tham as variable and as random as trees, which, although telegraph poles all come from the assorted members of the fir family, still leaves a lot of room for evolutionary variation and botanical preference i.e. how damn large the b*st*rd things each become. They get cut down and processed by BT en-masse, so its a case of YGWYGAINGW (you get what you're given and its no good whining).

One pole at 5" diameter and 12ft length will be a piece of p*ss to chuck about, whereas the ones that are 15" in diameter and 12ft long weigh around 100 kilograms, and despite the fact that we are not exactly slightly-built chaps, and that we work to the old school mentality (Health and Safety? *fruitcage* -off mate lets get this bloody done!!) they are still just a bit too much to lift on their own.

Factor into the equation that they are, in fact, decidedly round in shape, and also that there is no easy grip on a 15" diameter cylinder - even at the ends they slip about the place; especially considering it was raining all day around here, and also that these are greasy, tar-covered or creosote-treated poles, wet, greasy, slippery creosoted wood...

I think you begin to get an idea of why exactly it was a bit of a bugger to do this job.

Now I would not mind doing this in the slightest if it were really my job to do so, if that were the case then it would not even cross my mind to be annoyed at the whole thing, but even despite the fact that I'm actually the only *fruitcage* ing IT guy in the office and also the leading member of the sales staff anyway, and that I actually don't mind this sort of thing as I love getting my hands dirty and doing some grafting whenever its needed, I am still very unhappy at the work ethic (or rather the complete lack of any ethics in the workplace) of our subbies, and also at the judgement of the boss.

The boss gave us very little time to get the job done, yet he had known it needed doing fully 2 hours before he told us to go and do it. He's got a mobile phone so what the *fruitcage*-ing *beep* -ing *fruitcage* did he think he was playing at giving us that much back-breaking work to do at that time of day?!?

Now, things to really p*ss off evilhippy:

1) we subcontract someone to do all this stuff, and on speaking with him this morning the foreman was told that he would be at the yard and doing the job today because he knew we had to deliver it first thing tomorrow morning

2) he gets paid far more than anyone in the office does pro-rata, simply because he's a subcontractor and he charges for the job piece by piece; he gets money for the job itself, for maintenance carried out on our chainsaws (why he doesn't provide his own is beyond me), day-money for his helper/labourer (inevitably a dropout cousin of his with no idea of a real day's work and a continuous and unabashed reefer habit, even at work ) and also bleedin' petrol money!!

All in all we just did someone else's work, for only about 2/3rds of the money they get for it, they stitched us up and didn't even turn up today, and I've been dragged away from doing my e-mail enquiries and general customer schmoozing from my office. Which is what I am personally paid for and good at. Sonofab*tch!!

Oh, and also, this subcontractor and his labourer managed to cut and stack 20 12ft poles on Tuesday.

20 poles.

In one whole day.

The boss came in to myself the driver and the foreman at 2:30 and told us what we had to do to get these poles delivered tomorrow, leaving on the lorry at 7:00am. Driving to the yard and starting the work at at 3:00pm we had dragged out, cut, stacked, bundled/strapped together in small packs, and loaded onto the lorry and strapped securely in place 61 FREAKIN' POLES in less than 2 hours, we actually got back to the offices just before 5:00pm.

Now consider that the idiots who only do a third of the actual work, take 3 times as long to do it, and charge 33% MORE for the privilege still have jobs with our company... we had one extra person but it still makes these subbies only about 1/6th as good at their job as the regular staff who actually specialise in totally different things

Man. When I'm running the show, things are going to be different. Those subcontracting skiiving good-for-nothing *beep* s are gonna be out on their ear for starters, and then I'm gonna make sure that customers fully understand why they are paying the price they pay for the bloody poles, I'll make every single one of them feel *especially* guilty when they order from us.

Hopefully guilty enough to get away with charging 'em a bit more, especially after we have a rudimentary sawmill on-site and can do them cheap & easy anyway

"This time next year Rodders, we'll be millionairres......"