Robbie has many talents, but don't worry I am not going to tell you about all of them! He is surprisingly useful in the kitchen and on a good day we can work well together. The difficulty is that I think of it as my kitchen while he acts as if it is his. To be fair it is not the best designed kitchen in the world and we could do with a lot more storage space, but for the time being we have to work with what we have - and that is where the problem arises.
I have written before about him being a control freak when it comes to food shopping, and about the way he controls the fridge. It can be challenging, but most of the time I tend to let him get on with it, he may be totally rigid about the everything having to be the correct size and in exactly the right place, but at least he makes an effort. There are times when he goes a bit too far, such as his phase of leaving post-it notes in the fridge, thankfully that is a thing of the past but we still have bitter disputes about sell by dates. I don't expect him to eat anything that has past its use by date, but I am not as fussy especially with things like horseradish sauce. I am the only one in the house that likes it, so how dare he throw it away without asking me! He was in big trouble when he did that - but he will not do it again!!
Laura told me that someone from Network Rail came in to her school yesterday to talk about their engineering apprenticeships. Laura is doing maths and science A Levels so she is probably the sort of candidate they would like to attract and I was interested in her reaction. She told me it was a big turn off, as it sounded excruciatingly boring and it didn't lead to a high enough qualification. It certainly didn't sound like an attractive proposition to her and her friends. Young people who have worked hard to achieve good A Level results want to go on to university to get a good degree, yet oddly Network Rail did not provide them with information about their graduate scheme. Laura was also put off by the O2 apprenticeship scheme, she said that it sounded more attractive than the Network Rail option, but the fly in the ointment for her was the requirement to live in Slough and she said that nothing in the world would induce her to do that. She claims not to be very keen on English Literature, but she would probably enjoy John Betjemen's poem about Slough!
Network Rail may be in a class of it's own when it comes to finding the most difficult and inconvenient way to do something but it seems they don't have a monopoly when it comes to potty ideas. Robbie's company seems to be having a moment of madness. They are moving into a new building shortly and the steering group have decided that individual bins will not be permitted and people will have to get up from their desk and walk to a communal bin. I'm not sure why they are called a steering group, if they can't foresee the consequences of their actions I hope I never encounter any of them behind a steering wheel!
The company already recycle, so paper and other recyclable materials are not put in to individual bins, but there is still a need for a bin, without it even a trivial task like removing a staple from document or discarding a broken paperclip would require a journey across the office, or more likely they will end up on the floor and someone else will have to come along and clean up. A bent paperclip could damage a vacuum cleaner or industrial floor machine. Post often creates bits of rubbish, sellotape, packing tape, wrapping from journals and advertising material and other oddments. There should not be a huge amount of rubbish in individual bins, but if each small item reprents a journey and a potentially distraction from the task the person was focussed on, it will prove extremely unproductive. I wonder if they have thought about the problems and unnecessary discomfort this will cause to people with disabilities, there will also be a potential fire hazard if everyone starts collecting their own rubbish in a carrier bag, not to mention the disruption to the office environment if everyone walks to the bin with each item of rubbish.
Of course I am not accusing the steering group of original thought, this is yet another batty government idea. Envirowise provides free government funded advice to companies – most free gifts are really not worth having! Quite honestly I don't think the government could manage their way out of a paper bag, everything they touch seems to turn to disaster, so perhaps they should give up on the 'nanny state' and the micromanagement and get on with sorting out the economy! That would leave the steering group free to use their common sense, surely the staff could have individual bins and empty them into the main bin at the end of each day.
