Crikey times have changed, what with all these test and stuff. I secured gainful employment once with a groundwork company who needed a load of old accounts sorting out. The interview went like this;
Boss - So, mate, can you do the job?
Me: Yes.
Boss - Are you a cunt?
Me - No.
Boss - OK then, you can start on Monday. I’ll know if you’re a cunt by Friday, in which case I’ll get rid of yer.
Me - Cheers.
I reckon if KPMG or the other up-their-own-arse, fraudulent, accountancy firms adopted the same process, then the workplace would be much better.
Honestly, it perplexes me why so many kids want to get into big 4 world. They pay shit and they treat people like shit. Personally that would make me very unhappy.
Crikey times have changed, what with all these test and stuff. I secured gainful employment once with a groundwork company who needed a load of old accounts sorting out. The interview went like this;
Boss - So, mate, can you do the job?
Me: Yes.
Boss - Are you a cunt?
Me - No.
Boss - OK then, you can start on Monday. I’ll know if you’re a cunt by Friday, in which case I’ll get rid of yer.
Me - Cheers.
I reckon if KPMG or the other up-their-own-arse, fraudulent, accountancy firms adopted the same process, then the workplace would be much better.
Putting my ultra-cynical head on, the one that says that mortgage is bondage, work is just a way to keep us all distracted during our prime years and you don’t need to be chained to be a slave - the Big 4 just look like masters that feed their serfs well.
Crikey times have changed, what with all these test and stuff. I secured gainful employment once with a groundwork company who needed a load of old accounts sorting out. The interview went like this;
Boss - So, mate, can you do the job?
Me: Yes.
Boss - Are you a cunt?
Me - No.
Boss - OK then, you can start on Monday. I’ll know if you’re a cunt by Friday, in which case I’ll get rid of yer.
Me - Cheers.
I reckon if KPMG or the other up-their-own-arse, fraudulent, accountancy firms adopted the same process, then the workplace would be much better.
Putting my ultra-cynical head on, the one that says that mortgage is bondage, work is just a way to keep us all distracted during our prime years and you don’t need to be chained to be a slave - the Big 4 just look like masters that feed their serfs well.
Literally translated means “death pledge”, says it all really.
Twenty grand is not a lot of money for an annual salary no matter where you live. It’s six grand below the national average. It’s a pittance in London. I personally wouldn’t want someone driving me or my kids about that’s worried fucking sick about his or her money situation.
Next you complain that the cost of the tube is expensive if you earn jack shit. Isn’t everything? Yes, it’s poor that cleaners have to spend a lot of money getting into their jobs, but the cost of the tube is not the issue. It’s the fact that we don’t want to seem to want poor people living in our capital, with the recent Conservative-led governments making that problem even worse.
Tube drivers have been the go-to example piss-takers for as long as I remember, attracting derision for being one of the few groups of public sector workers that have been able to retain their rights.
Soz - the whole thing comes across as another example of the politics of envy.
Given that they’ll have to live out in Zone 5, the cost of the work-essential travel that is the tube is damn near 20% of the take-home pay of someone earning minimum wage in London. It is most definitely an issue.
Tube drivers haven’t just been able to ‘retain their rights’, they’ve retained a very nice salary and a fantastic work-to-reward ratio at the expense of a lot of people far poorer than they are.
However, I’ll give you credit for the fact that you’re an old Labour man in favour of protectionism. That’s not a position I wholly agree with but it is at least consistent. What ticks me off is when people on the one hand criticise people trying to protect their industries from competition (by voting to leave the EU for instance) but then somehow defend tube drivers doing the very same thing with their hiring practices.
It’s only an issue because employers either aren’t paying enough or aren’t covering the cost of travel. Should tfl re-orient its pricing structure around the rock bottom wages that other employers dole out? If it did, they’d surely attract crap for requiring more money in subsidy.
They earn 50K, which is 15K above the London average of 35K. That is not a very nice salary - it’s above average, for a job that provides an incalculable amount of financial benefit to the city yet can provide personal traumas for them.
Finally, I don’t think your EU position is valid, simply because tube drivers aren’t closed to competition. They simply require that you put some tfl time in before applying. Somehow, I can’t see the requirement of working for tfl for a bit deterring someone with the ultimate ambition of working for tfl
No idea about why you got down voted mate - it all made sense to me, apart from the Scotland bit
Meaning no disrespect to Mr T, I know from my younger colleagues that there is almost a sense of entitlement and expectation they’ll be made a partner in 3 years max on joining the firm. That doesn’t happen, even with a lot of hard work.
My firm pays very well & over the odds for London based staff, but for some it’s never enough. While I will argue for pay rises for everyone, my advice in the midyear appraisals I will be doing for the moaners in my Dept is that if they think they should be paid more for their current knowledge and experience then perhaps their future is elsewhere. Sounds harsh, and fair play to them if they do just that, but I want people who don’t constantly moan and get on every one else’s tits because they don’t get everything on a silver platter (& don’t even start me on turning up on Friday mornings still pissed because miraculously they have enough cash to go out on the piss on a Thursday after work (& spend all Friday making plans for clubbing / festivals / drinking for the whole weekend). Never did it myself obvs
“… Obvs … it was all about feverish saturday nights at the discoteque back then”
Steve, mate I promised that I wouldn’t mention the times we’d boogie on down at the Top Rank al la Saturday Night Fever in our white nylon suits (flared trousers), black shits and stack heels. Veritable babe magnets. Oooops, I mentioned it…
Cobham and Woodysteve getting sharp for a night on the tiles…I added some approximations of what these items might have cost back then to add some perspective and show its relevant to the thread. Not sure who their mate is but he must be the tube driver
As someone who spent just under 20 years at one of the Big 4, which I think makes me more qualified to speak on the experience than most, I would totally disagree. They pay very well - though like most big employers, it starts modestly (when you know sod all of any use) and then goes up after you start to get half-decent at anything. Like many of my peers who left before me, I only realised just how good the training (by which I mean, all around training on personal skills, not technical training) was when I started working elsewhere. Its only then you appreciate that you have actually turned into someone who is pretty useful at a host of things, without even knowing it. I experienced flexible working long before it became known as that, I experienced compassion and decency, friendships and valuable contacts and a healthy amount of laughs.
They are not perfect, of course, and not for everyone, but they a long way from shit IMO.
