Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Over The Water

13 Ramadhan

I was talking to John & Maureen last night for the first time in a while. John phoned when it was quite late, as he generally does, to tell me that Mum got back safe from bingo despite the fact he failed to pick her up. His failure was related to the sudden appearance of a police car in the vicinity when he had already had 'a bit of a drink'. Anyway, he promptly disappeared to avoid PC Plod whilst Mum, in the meantime, not seeing him around, grabbed a convenient taxi. I've got a feeling she may give me a more colourful version of the story when I next speak to her.

Maureen went on to tell me that John had been bitten by a duck at the park, much to the amusement of all who know him, and that she's fed up of working for Sainsbury's who sound like real slave-drivers in terms of how they treat staff. It seems that if they're short of staff in the restaurant where she works those who are there have to cover for the absentee rather than bringing in the available off-duty staff. Result - misery for all as they can barely cope. (I assume also more money in the pockets of shareholders of this noble chain of supermarkets.)This sounds like an example of leadership with vision, to me. Making what were originally quite bearable jobs as stress-ridden as possible appears to be a talent required of almost all 'managers' these days.

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