It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Off Topic Chat

Loughc

Happy 1st of March everyone! 3rd month of the year already.

299 in the countdown as well. Movement and I always feel the 299-199 moves quick with the bank holidays and brighter days.

Loughc

Jan flew by but I defo felt a bit of a slow down towards the end of Feb.

DvB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836356#Comment_121836356

It being a 5 week month in terms of salary (for me anyway) may have had something to do with that.

For me Jan & Feb have bizarrely been a real case of long days but fast weeks.

Posy

Merrion Square Park this morning 🙂

DvB

As a total random stat, 39 weeks today will be the last Friday in November, and that's decorating day for a few on here (myself included) so thats a quarter of the way gone already until decorating day!

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121837341#Comment_121837341

273 days to go haha

CheerLouth

Man, it's so cold, I'm freezing today! Went out at lunch to get the last party bits and got drowned - no snow here, just rain, rain and more rain :(

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838229#Comment_121838229

Same. Got soaked at lunch and the office would not heat up at all today.

DvB

Starting to get a little concerned with the wind howling out there... sounds worse than some of the recent 'storms' we've had.

tscul32

So many pics of snow in Dublin and not a flake near the coast😭

CheerLouth

It was a lot windier here earlier, seems to have died down a bit now, but still lashing. Bottom of our road is flooded again.

Actually looking forward to going to the gym later; be the only time today that I'm warm lol

BK5

Rain, rain and more rain here in Ashbourne. Was in and out of it all day today in work too. Thankfully week is done, bought a few bottles of San Miquel to put me in a more summery mood. 😃

BK5

My sister lives in Westmeath and sent me this lovely photo. Looks like a Christmas card.

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839078#Comment_121839078

Beautiful!!

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838363#Comment_121838363

My brolly didn’t survive the winds today 😭😭😢

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121837171#Comment_121837171

Just stunning

freshpopcorn

No snow for me, I need to get Caught up on this thread, it's like the Christmas ad and Happy March!

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839606#Comment_121839606

God, horrible flashbacks of working in there

gidget

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836070#Comment_121836070

I’ve actually started doing that EuroDreams one, €20,000 every month for 30 years - I’d never need to work again & then when it expires I’ll be past retirement age by then so would work out quite well!

Cork Lass

Coming home tomorrow after a lovely month in the sun so in for a rude awakening I think. I wouldn’t mind snow but the bloody rain drives me nuts.

BK5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121839683#Comment_121839683

Was working in Guinness not a good experience for you?

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121840530#Comment_121840530

Nope. I remember, at a company piss up, my manager laughing as he admitted to mis-advertising the role. It was pitched as a technical role with some admin, instead it was purely admin on a broken SAP system with no fixing. Years of multi-million euro issues hanging directly at my door with no training or systems support.

Problem was that I took that role in 2007 and and immediately faced into the global meltdown so couldn't shift. Absolutely destroyed me.

I ended up wasting so much time that I couldn't get a job in my field so had to retrain and, horrifically looking back, was able to see how easy that role would have been with an IT Systems Analyst, a SAP Dev/Systems-Admin, and a month long project. But Zero support from line manager (who was department head so a decision maker) meant that ICT was an alien concept.

Example of behaviour; I remember there being awards, at company conference, for those who avoided costs. Some field agents were getting significant prizes for saving €10-15k. I had spotted an error which saved €10mil and nothing. Turns out manager took direct credit for it, in his yearly review, so wouldn't nominate me and publicly admit, to his national director boss, it wasn't him. It's only now, years later as a manager, that I see how toxic that office was

At least the redundancy paid well enough to go back to college, fulltime.

I did work first in the Fermentation plant for a few years, now that I enjoyed and have fond memories of. Also made some good friends who I'm still in contact with even after several years and moving cities, just none from my dept🤣

God, that became a rant!

beachhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121840530#Comment_121840530

The demon drink

The freebies

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121840588#Comment_121840588

Took me 10 years to finally use the last of the bottles of spirits

DvB

Friend of mine worked in the diageo engineering team at St James Gate, always said he really liked working there and tried to get me to move there too but glad I didn't based on what I'm reading here 😀

BK5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121840582#Comment_121840582

Sorry to hear about this, nothing worse than dreading going into work in the morning.

I work in Tayto, so maybe we can get all the big Irish brands covered here. Okay who here works for Lyons Tea, Jameson or Ryanair? 😄

SCOOP 64

I've yet to find a job where I don't dread going to work in the morning.😁

beachhead

Lists are of name only Irish "brands" now.I remember ryanair would take sterling only in the beginning,irish punt f**k off

A cup of te

Yis are speaking my language re the lotto and eurodreams :-) honestly though you have to just play for fun. It's so random, pure chance. I also love the idea of the eurodreams and likewise it'd bring me up to retirement age! I'd even love the second prize. But to win a million or so would be so amazing. I often let my mind wander and daydream of sitting on the beach in the sun with all that money and never having to drag myself into a stress filled job again. My plan if the lotto doesn't work out is get the mortgage and car paid off and look for something with less stress. Life is so short.

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841487#Comment_121841487

I actively like my job, now

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841213#Comment_121841213

It was split between supply and demand.

Engineering was in with supply along with brewing, fermenting, kegging, and quality labs. Good place. Really liked the job and culture there.

Only issues taking a job there was it always seemed to be redundancy cyle after cycle.

I know sales reps who bloody loved their job. My own office may have been the outlier. Bloody hell, it might just have been me a really bad fit in an admin role as opposed to the advertised tech role... but no one seemed truly happy in that office

Smell the glove

Suppose I better open this bad boy up.

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843150#Comment_121843150

My god your willpower is amazing that couldn’t have made it to Christmas in my house.

Norrie Rugger Head

I have easter chocolate bunnies that haven't even made it to easter!

Edit: I had...

Smell the glove

We get so much chocolate as presents that it lasts it until around June/ July every year. We still have ......

A box of Merci

Box of Lilly o Brien's

Box of dairy milk chunks

Box of dairy box

Thompsons chocolate snowman

Box of Belgian biscuits

Half a kilo bar of dairy milk

Pouch of Reese peanut butter cups.

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843577#Comment_121843577

How, how could you?

I mean, seriously, how could you not have that eaten yet?

Smell the glove

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843280#Comment_121843280

It's not willpower....we are still eating chocolate it's just hard to get through it all 🤣🤣

Smell the glove

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843586#Comment_121843586

We get so much bought for us that I have to arrange it in order of best before date 🤣. Wife is a crèche worker so....lots of chocolate gifts from parents on the last week before Christmas.

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843588#Comment_121843588

Sorry I don’t understand the sentence 😂😂😂

tscul32

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843588#Comment_121843588

You're just not trying hard enough 🤣

Cork Lass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121843588#Comment_121843588

Do you have room for a lodger?

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121844352#Comment_121844352

If he gets rid of the chocolate storage room...

Smell the glove

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121844082#Comment_121844082

I ate a dairy milk and a double decker last night and felt guilty!

Loughc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121844565#Comment_121844565

Sorry I still don’t understand the sentence.

whats this guilt you speak of?

Smell the glove

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121845589#Comment_121845589

🤣🤣.

DvB

Laughing at this conversation, it's a repeat of a regular occurrence in our house. My wife and son could eat their own bodyweight in chocolate not a bother whilst myself and my daughter regularly scold them for it 🤣

CheerLouth

Morning Elves! Such a busy weekend with a party for our middle fella who will be 7 this week! 7 - I just don't know where the years have gone! Also managed to do something to my back in the gym on Friday evening. No idea what as it didn't hurt at all throughout the session & I didn't feel like I was overdoing it, but Saturday & yesterday I was in bits. Seems to have calmed down now today TG...might just have overstretched it.

CheerLouth

Also about the Guinness chat, my father in law's brother worked for them years ago - probably 40 years ago now if not longer. The brother is long dead now, God rest him, but my father in law is still telling the tales. Something crazy like they had an allowance of 10 pints a day (if not more) and they tried to get rid of that so they all went on strike & they had to keep giving them the pints. They were all drunk as skunks most of the time, or else had the tolerance of a rhino. The lorry drivers were also given tokens when they arrived with loads or for collections so they could have a pint or two while they were waiting. Absolute madness!

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121847683#Comment_121847683

The benefits the Guinness Group workers got was insane.

Gold plated pensions

Free medical centre (GP, Pharmacy, Physio) on site for life. For them and any dependents

Free dinner every day, also into retirement. Would see groups of pensioners coming into the canteen for a catch up over a three course meal

Alcohol allowances

I think that they also kept use of the onsite pool and gym.

Most of those were rolled back in the Diageo years and while good were nowhere near AS good. Mainly that they were no longer lifetime benefits

Pension was still very good.

Access to medical centre now was just for you, while you worked there.

You got your three course meal every day

Alcohol allowance was massively reduced. You got €50/month, in a 3 month period. Was OK on beer but it's the heavily discounted spirits where that was a massive bonus. I stocked out my wedding after bar on bottles of spirits and all the white wine for the dinner. Great memory of some of the people I did work with was; that wedding venue had a self stocked after hours bar (no staff either) and had no draught beer. When the line installers heard this their wedding gift was that they contacted the venue, put in temporary Taps, lines, coolers, and gas canisters. All I needed do was buy a staff discounted keg of Guinness and Carlsberg. Rugby team and nurses were still drinking in there at breakfast time.

All this talk just reminded me that my pension mail is being sent to an old address. Crap, that's something I am going to sort out this morning

DvB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121847683#Comment_121847683

Have heard similar stories from back in the day. Assume that's all been knocked on the head now, if nothing else for H&S reasons!