Erk

[caddyman]

I knew I should have known better, thinking I’d got away unscathed from my close proximity to Furtle’s throaty cough and strange, almost but not quite cold.

The past 36 hours or so, I have been coughing on and off – it’s not yet continuous – but in the past hour, my voice has started to grate and catch a little. More to the point, I only feel about 85%.

Quite apart from the not wanting to be poorly at the best of times, right now is a bad time to get ill. Tomorrow is the strike, and if I’m off, no-one will ever believe it’s because I don’t feel well, so I’ll lose a day’s pay, or feel worse by coming in. Hopefully it will clear up a little over night if I turn in early.

Equally irritating is the fact that the annual GASP is this weekend. I am supposed to be acquiring industrial quantities of cheese and heading off to Norfolk with the lads for a weekend’s gaming, boozing and pre-Christmas shenanigens.

Bah. Grumble.

*COMPLAIN!*

Comments

[mathcathy]

You're not striking? In a completely separate thread on another friend's journal it seems like every public sector working friend I have will be out of the office tomorrow.

I get that work, pay and conditions are horrible for everyone in the UK (probably even Europe) just now, with no light visible the other side yet, but I haven't got a clue about how being on strike could help the economy. Guess it's not supposed to and I've missed the point.

I've got a job interview in London tomorrow. If I get it it would be something like a 25% pay rise (minus how ever much more expensive the south is). I don't know if that means I have an 'I'm all right, Jack' attitude, or if I'm just doing something smaller scale to.protest my own irritation with my employer.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

The point of the strike is to 'protect' pension rights etc, not to help the economy. No-one ever goes on strike for something that nebulous or altruistic.

That said, I'm not going on strike, because I think it's ill advised and counter productive in the current climate. It's playing into the Government's hands.

Ironically, however, it's quite likely that I shan't be in the office because I feel rubbish: I want to stay in the warm and try and get rid of the cough/cold/chestiness that crept up on me.

This means that I shall be trying to get my boss to email me a few things I can do at home in an attempt to show that I am really not out of the office as a striker...

[mathcathy]

Your department must be less strike-hit than the ones my ex-uni friends belong to. They've all been told they will be counted as on strike unless they are in the office or provide a doctor's note.

Counter-productive? Aye. That's my feeling too. It won't hurt the government because the majority of those hindered by the strike will blame strikers for the inconvenience. They are not a profit making organisation, so what do they lose? I'd have thought nothing.
The losers are the innocent users of the service. Needless to say, my opinions riled those.planning to strike. I should know how to keep my mouth shut sometimes.

[phil99.livejournal.com]

I long ago gave up trying to talk with various public sector employed friends about terms, conditions, striking, etc.

They are generally unwilling to accept that a public sector employment is much more stable, with many more guarantees and a more promising future in place than most private sector jobs.

I am unwilling to accept that they have a harder life than their private sector counterparts, taking everything into consideration.

Neither of us believe or trust the oft-quoted statistics that claim variously that public sector employees get paid more/less/the same as, put in more/less/the same number of hours as their private sector counterparts.

It doesn't end well.

[mathcathy]

The argument I was facing ran something like "just because private sector pensions are lower, doesn't mean that public sector ones have to fall to join them ... it isn't a race to the bottom".

I've learnt. Sometimes it's easier not to say anything.