The totally off-topic thread

[Bundy Bear]

Looking out the office window and I can see green everywhere. Life is wasted sitting in an air-conditioned office.

Not completely, at least its air conditioned, usually for that green to occur requires rain and sunlight, lots of it; I will take the airconditioned office

 

[JohnK]

Not completely, at least its air conditioned, usually for that green to occur requires rain and sunlight, lots of it; I will take the airconditioned office

Give me sunlight any day.

I can see the monstrosities that are popping up around me daily. Hideous. The one to my left has hidden some of the lovely view of Mt Coot-tha.

 

[Denali]

Im hating air con more and more these days, since being back in the office im stuffed up/green icky stuff.

We went out for dinner and picked outdoors over indoors air con.

Unless its 40+ at night, then we put on aircon on the other side of the house and hope it brings down the temp by a few degrees in the bedroom or we use fans.

I also bought a new fan today, preparing for this weekends scorcher.

 

[JohnK]

Not sick leave though. You can easily spot the very rare staff member that considers their sick leave as a day off per every month or so entitlement.

Are they that easy to spot? What's the give away? Sick after an overseas trip? Sick only on Mondays & Fridays? Run out of sick leave?

Unless you catch someone shopping or playing golf on their sick day then you have no idea.

 

[Pushka]

Are they that easy to spot? What's the give away? Sick after an overseas trip? Sick only on Mondays & Fridays? Run out of sick leave?

Unless you catch someone shopping or playing golf on their sick day then you have no idea.

You can track obvious patterns.

 

[JohnK]

You can track obvious patterns.

I suspect anyone with an obvious pattern would no longer be employed after the "Please explain"?

The problem with the majority of large employers is they have no idea what their staff are doing. And if they are aware they don't care.

I can tell you right now the person sitting next to me for the past few months comes in to work just before me. He can be seen wandeeing around the shopping centre for 20-30 minutes around 10:00am. He then disappears to lunch for around 2 hours and goes for another break in the afternoon. Most days gone before 6:00pm. There is no way he is in the office for 7.5 hours let alone workjng for 7.5 hours but the timesheet tells a different story.

It shouldn't be my business but I'm debating whether to take the matter further.

 

[love_the_life]

............

Unless you catch someone shopping or playing golf on their sick day then you have no idea.

Not about workers but about being sprung. Many years ago, a few students decided to wag the interschool swimming carnival and head into Melbourne city for a spot of shopping. Unfortunately they were spotted by the principal who was driving along Swanston St on the way to a meeting. You can be stiff.

 

[Hvr]

The problem with the majority of large employers is they have no idea what their staff are doing. And if they are aware they don't care.

Actually many know far more than you may realise. Some people also assist their employer by posting their activities on Facebook. Always great to have a public record of your day out after you've called in sick. The photos of you looking bright eyed and bushy tailed make great talking points at your disciplinary interview.

 

[Denali]

I remember many, many years ago, on the train home from the city, a guy answered his phone and was told he was seen on the TV news attending some food expo (or similar) and he was in a panic as he told the boss he was sick that day.

 

[Flashback]

I suspect anyone with an obvious pattern would no longer be employed after the "Please explain"?

The problem with the majority of large employers is they have no idea what their staff are doing. And if they are aware they don't care.

I can tell you right now the person sitting next to me for the past few months comes in to work just before me. He can be seen wandeeing around the shopping centre for 20-30 minutes around 10:00am. He then disappears to lunch for around 2 hours and goes for another break in the afternoon. Most days gone before 6:00pm. There is no way he is in the office for 7.5 hours let alone workjng for 7.5 hours but the timesheet tells a different story.

It shouldn't be my business but I'm debating whether to take the matter further.

Not trying to be mean here, but I'll give you a piece of advice I've given a few of my team - if you spent less time worrying about what others were doing and more time worrying what you should be doing, you'd be much more successful and happier

 

[love_the_life]

Not trying to be mean here, but I'll give you a piece of advice I've given a few of my team - if you spent less time worrying about what others were doing and more time worrying what you should be doing, you'd be much more successful and happier

One other thing is that if an award/agreement has the option to take personal leave without dr cert, the employee is entitled to do so. I am a firm believer in mental health days - sometimes time away from work for a day works wonders.

 

[Bindibuys]

Ah - Metal Health days - my parents would allow me 1 day per term to have off school for no reason other than - I just don't feel like it. Boy that was a loooonnnnng time ago.

 

[Milboo]

I'd say most large employers actually have a better handle on their employees' whereabouts, given you're normally working in teams or more people with direct reports.

I really don't care what my colleagues are doing - so long as it is not impacting on my workload. We actually have a policy whereby the focus is on whether you are delivering on your outputs as opposed to whether you are at your desk 9-5.

 

[Flashback]

Ah - Metal Health days - my parents would allow me 1 day per term to have off school for no reason other than - I just don't feel like it. Boy that was a loooonnnnng time ago.

Sounds like that was before it was even termed such a thing

 

[Denali]

We're only required to provide doctors certificates if two consecutive days are taken or the day before or after a public holiday.

And even then, I don't strictly enforce the Doc cert rule because, especially last flu season, most people stayed home and didn't go to doctors.

 

[Milboo]

The whole medical cert thing can be ridiculous. If I have a day off as I've got a migraine then I'm not going to a doctor for a certificate!

And good luck getting same day appointments with doctors these days - unless you want to sit for at least an hour at a bilk billing place. Which is always recommended when you have something like gastro or food poisoning...

 

[Pushka]

Birds are back in the garden again today.

 

[Denali]

So this Logan Paul vlogger idiot. Yes, poor behavior and irresponsible filming but lots of people laugh or make stupid jokes when confronted with something shocking, inc death.

Im guessing hes so use to living in an internet world that real life life (the backlash) just slapped him in the face.

 

[JohnK]

Not trying to be mean here, but I'll give you a piece of advice I've given a few of my team - if you spent less time worrying about what others were doing and more time worrying what you should be doing, you'd be much more successful and happier

Advice noted.

If you're a manager or team leader here's some advice. When you pay people roughly the same you should never find yourself in a position where one person is working half as much or less than the rest.

That's not acceptable and people like me have every right to focus on that and ask questions.

 

[Milboo]

How do you know how much they are or are not doing? Are you overseeing their output? Perhaps they are simply more efficient than you?

I am way more efficient than my colleagues in my area of speciality - same piece of work will take them 3 times as long. Because I am more efficient doesn't mean I am doing less work.