Article by Harry Mount Daily Telegraph
Being the cynic that i am i particularly liked the couple of opening paragraphs along with the last one which i shall include here.
When you stop to think about it, the British choose a pretty odd way to
celebrate the birth of a Jewish prophet 2,000 years ago. It’s hard to see the
connection between an emergency delivery in a stable near the West Bank of the
River Jordan, and an annual overeating festival followed by a word from our
monarch, then several more words from James Bond. Not many Christmas trees grow
in the Middle East.
Our Christmas rituals were devised by an
accidental amalgam of Christian liturgy, pagan rites, the monarchy and John
Logie Baird.
Still, not everything at Sandringham is cryonised in Victorian aspic. In recent years, at least one new royal Christmas tradition has been minted: the ritual exclusion of Fergie from Christmas lunch. Or – as the practice of disinviting unpopular relatives is known in Germany – NeinInvitenDasToeSucker.
So there I was then working my last shift before xmas only 20 minutes or so to go completing some "reductions" and enjoying a little banter with one of the "fresh colleagues", "lets call her Lucy". When this old guy shoulders past me to look at a particular festive item going under the name of a "Basic Yule log". This particular item which we had not had before I had found earlier in lets just say "the wrong location" in the warehouse but had decided to put it in the display anyway.
He was obviously doing his Christmas shop because he said "why cant these basic yule logs have a date on them past Christmas?" His comment seemed fair enough as the best before date displayed was the 23rd Dec. I mentioned the store only just having received them and in an attempt to indicate that as they were a "fresh cream" item they were unlikely to have a long period of "fresheness". I added "there's not a lot I can do about that".
He said nothing but just looked at me, Lucy, attempting to defuse the impasse quickly scanned the item and told the old guy that more would be coming in on Saturday next. He looked at me and said, "You could have said that rather than what you did say!". I thanked him for his suggestion and checked my watch before going back to the reductions.
The moral of this story is that to talk to 2 people does not always guarantee"communication". This is especially true when one of them has already done 7 and a half hours of their shift and the other only 30 minutes of theirs! I encountered him a couple of minutes later in the bread isle looking for mince pies and gave him my "5 star treatment!"
A little earlier I had encountered our HR Manager, "lets call her Hazel". A point here, its been quite a while now that any number of businesses have had "Human Resources" rather than the old name for this office, "Personnel" I enjoyed much better being a "Personnel" rather than a "Resource", however I digress. "We need to see your passport", says Hazel. This apparently is to ensure that Sainsbury's do not employ illegal immigrants and to peruse my passport will satisfy this need!!!!!!. I've been working and paying NI etc since i was 15 years and 8 days old on the 17th Feb 1961! In fact i am now old enough not to be paying NI. Surely if i was an "illegal" i would have been routed out now. I'm still not sure if this is a windup but intend to watch carefully what is done with my much used passport when i hand it over!
Finally then, - - - "its the end of the world tomorrow" as reported in my last blog because a bunch of people from a defunct civilisation forgot to renew their calendar subscription! so tread carefully out there. - - - Enjoy the day
Still, not everything at Sandringham is cryonised in Victorian aspic. In recent years, at least one new royal Christmas tradition has been minted: the ritual exclusion of Fergie from Christmas lunch. Or – as the practice of disinviting unpopular relatives is known in Germany – NeinInvitenDasToeSucker.
So there I was then working my last shift before xmas only 20 minutes or so to go completing some "reductions" and enjoying a little banter with one of the "fresh colleagues", "lets call her Lucy". When this old guy shoulders past me to look at a particular festive item going under the name of a "Basic Yule log". This particular item which we had not had before I had found earlier in lets just say "the wrong location" in the warehouse but had decided to put it in the display anyway.
He was obviously doing his Christmas shop because he said "why cant these basic yule logs have a date on them past Christmas?" His comment seemed fair enough as the best before date displayed was the 23rd Dec. I mentioned the store only just having received them and in an attempt to indicate that as they were a "fresh cream" item they were unlikely to have a long period of "fresheness". I added "there's not a lot I can do about that".
He said nothing but just looked at me, Lucy, attempting to defuse the impasse quickly scanned the item and told the old guy that more would be coming in on Saturday next. He looked at me and said, "You could have said that rather than what you did say!". I thanked him for his suggestion and checked my watch before going back to the reductions.
The moral of this story is that to talk to 2 people does not always guarantee"communication". This is especially true when one of them has already done 7 and a half hours of their shift and the other only 30 minutes of theirs! I encountered him a couple of minutes later in the bread isle looking for mince pies and gave him my "5 star treatment!"
A little earlier I had encountered our HR Manager, "lets call her Hazel". A point here, its been quite a while now that any number of businesses have had "Human Resources" rather than the old name for this office, "Personnel" I enjoyed much better being a "Personnel" rather than a "Resource", however I digress. "We need to see your passport", says Hazel. This apparently is to ensure that Sainsbury's do not employ illegal immigrants and to peruse my passport will satisfy this need!!!!!!. I've been working and paying NI etc since i was 15 years and 8 days old on the 17th Feb 1961! In fact i am now old enough not to be paying NI. Surely if i was an "illegal" i would have been routed out now. I'm still not sure if this is a windup but intend to watch carefully what is done with my much used passport when i hand it over!
Finally then, - - - "its the end of the world tomorrow" as reported in my last blog because a bunch of people from a defunct civilisation forgot to renew their calendar subscription! so tread carefully out there. - - - Enjoy the day
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