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Posts posted by McRainy
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1 hour ago, StringerBell said:
Careful, the market dictating somebody is getting well paid for somebody they love doing? You’ll be extolling the virtues of capitalism in a minute.
You assume, incorrectly, that anyone who can see the flaws in total deregulation must be an authoritarian Stalinist.
There are other options.
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By the same token anyone can kick a ball about. Is it not just another form of paying for entertainment, when all’s said and done? We might perceive a qualitative difference, but it’s just a different choice.
Only playing devil’s advocate, I know nothing about it.
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48 minutes ago, David said:
These kids are literally turning people playing video games into millionaires, genuine millionaires driving Lamborghini's. It's mind boggling it really is.
Bit like football then...
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They usually are.
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Billy was due to start a new job as a lighthouse keeper. Although the pay wasn’t great, the work appealed because it wasn’t strenuous and he’d have plenty of time to read the paper.
His first day came, his Mum packed him up with plenty of sandwiches and supplies and the boat took him across. The first task was to check the light, so he climbed all the way up the spirally spirally stairs, made sure everything was working properly, then sat down with a cup of tea, a sandwich and the paper.
Just then the phone rang, so he bolted all the way down the spirally spirally stairs to answer it. It was his Mum; Billy, did you remember to pack your clean underwear, have you got enough teabags, have you turned the light on? Yes, yes Mum, yes I have. When she’d finished, he went all the way back up the spirally spirally stairs to finish his cooling tea and check the headlines.
He’d just moved onto the sports pages when the phone rang again. He ran all the way down the spirally spirally stairs and lifted the receiver. It was the coastguard; is everything alright, have you settled in, did you remember to turn the light on? Billy reassured the coastguard that all was fine and then climbed wearily all the way back up the spirally spirally stairs and slumped in his chair with the paper.
No sooner had he started reading the article about the arrest of the bishop than the phone rang again. Furiously, Billy threw the paper on the floor and half fell down the spirally spirally stairs, all the way to the bottom to answer the phone. It was his Auntie Maude; Billy, will you give your Mother a ring, because she’s worrying about you on your first day now? It’s alright, Auntie, I’ve already spoken to her, everything’s fine. Eventually, he got her off the line and dragged himself all the way back up the spirally spirally stairs to the top.
The paper had fallen open at the classified ads, so he perused them absent mindedly whilst wondering what he was going to do about the problem with the telephone. Then one caught his eye; dogs, trained to do anything! Clutching the paper, he hobbled all the way back down the spirally spirally stairs and dialled the number. Hello, dogs trained to do anything, can you train a dog to answer the phone? Yes, yes we can, and we have a dog trained for that very purpose. Great! Billy agreed to the price and arranged to have the dog brought over on the boat in the morning.
The next day, the boat arrived and Billy met his new dog for the first time. At least he’ll get plenty of exercise running up and down the spirally spirally stairs, Billy thought.
When the morning tasks were done, Billy sat down with a cup of tea and the paper. Right on cue, the phone rang. The dog shot off, straight down the spirally spirally stairs, all the way to the bottom. Billy heard the dog’s claws clacking down the stairs and then the phone stopped ringing. Great, he’s answered it, Billy thought. Then clack clack clack clack, as the dog came racing all the way back up the spirally spirally stairs. Billy looked at the dog, expectantly; yes? It’s for you, said the dog.
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1 hour ago, Ramshankered said:
Very, very late reply but thanks for this – she's got a meeting soon with her line manager (poor sod), so she'll be going in all gun's blazing.
Good for her! I think it’s important in these situations to recognise that the problem isn’t her. So often the burden of responsibility and the expectation to change is placed on the individual who is ‘not coping’, where the issue is really situational.
A friend is going through this at the moment and had her meeting yesterday. She went in with a clear agenda, listing the things which were not working, the things that had been tried which had helped, those which hadn’t helped, and specific suggestions for what to try next. She was also clear about the support she needed from the senior leadership.
Being proactive helped her to feel more positive and in control of the process and gave the impression that she was assessing the situation in a professional as well as a personal manner. Several changes have been agreed and she is now feeling more hopeful.
Hopefully your partner will get the understanding and support that she needs and deserves.
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1 hour ago, Paul71 said:
Ridiculous timing but on the day i was supposed to return i came down with a viral infection
Ridiculous timing or meaningful coincidence? The body uses illness as a protective mechanism sometimes, to prevent further harm.
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59 minutes ago, Paul71 said:
think the thing is people expect people with anxiety or stress or whatever its labelled to be down all the time, but just doesnt seem to work that way.
I was the same when I was off, Paul. I could go along for days at a time being fine, wondering why I was even off, but then a meeting, medical appointment, letter or seeing a kid from school, would bring on debilitating panic attacks.
I think the thing to remember is that your nervous system has been overloaded and it takes time to recover sufficiently if you are going to go back into the same environment. The rule of thumb is that you need the same time in recovery as you had under stress. Even when you are feeling ok doing unrelated things, the threat of going back to the stressful situation can trigger a relapse.
Unfortunately for me, my school refused to implement the recommendations of occupational health, so I knew I was going to end up with the same problems again. They effectively kept me under the same conditions of stress for the year that I was off ‘recovering’, because every absence monitoring meeting was a threat of either losing my livelihood or being made ill. Eventually, for my own sanity, I had to stop going to the meetings and resign, which is why ACAS said I could have taken them for constructive dismissal if I’d been able to afford to go to a tribunal.
The analogy with a broken leg holds pretty true. It takes a given time to mend and if you put pressure on it too soon it’s going to go again or not heal properly.
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More than half of teachers have been diagnosed with mental health issues:
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4 minutes ago, Jean Antoine Tessier said:
It’s class. Stop hatin’ ?
It keeps drawing my eye away from what I’m trying to read, then I get halfway through seeing what it says only for it to skip randomly to the beginning, then I read it again and finally get to the end only to realise I’ve read it fourteen times already and am none the wiser.
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44 minutes ago, David said:
It will get serious when the rumours start! Only here for the day.
The yellow scrolly thing?
It’s seriously annoying, please don’t make it a permanent feature.
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3 hours ago, froggg said:
I’ll say it again, sounds delicious, any pictures?
I didn’t take any pictures, no, but it was lovely. Came with a sort of mustardy whisky sauce.
I’m going to another one on Sunday, so I could take pictures of that, but I still don’t know how to post them on here.
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Thanks. I might change the battery or just hang on until I get a new one. I’m still perfectly happy with what this one does though and it still looks like new. Seems a shame to bin it off. I wish I’d known about not installing the updates.
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5 minutes ago, David said:
Are you running 10.2?
11.2, I think. Have I broken it? I notice that battery life is reduced and it takes 3 or 4 seconds to load things, but otherwise it’s fine. It is 4 years old.
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2 hours ago, David said:
The option to switch off the feature will appear on the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, SE, 6S, 6S Plus, 7 and 7 Plus models.
The 5S is buggered then?
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Haggis, tatties and neeps. The first of a Burns night weekend.
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18 minutes ago, Ramshankered said:
Tbf, it's not quite as malicious as bullying. More a combination of the new HoD having a bit of an abrasive management style, not being a natural leader and not having very good people skills.
Even if it’s unintentional her approach is still having a negative affect on your gf’s working life, which can’t be good for the school either. You'd hope that a good Head would at least offer guidance to the HoD and reassurance and support to your partner. As others have said, it’s stressful enough without having someone on your back all the time.
Having been part of a department that went from being close knit, positive and supportive to a majority being ill and/or leaving within the space of a year, I’ve seen the impact a poor HoD can have. I really hope it gets sorted for her.
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19 minutes ago, Ramshankered said:
she treats my other half like she's beneath her
It sounds like it’s borderline bullying then. If she doesn’t already, I’d begin keeping a record of every incident, email etc and make the Head aware of what’s happening. A colleague of mine did just that and the offending party got a warning, which reigned her in considerably.
Might also be worth talking to her union rep or HR about it.
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38 minutes ago, PistoldPete2 said:
Problem is its not just teaching.. so many jobs are target driven, (often impossible targets too) and there's internal politics and egotistical bullies. If it's making you ill give it up.
Very true, it’s the market ethos across the board.
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10 minutes ago, Ramshankered said:
She's just trying to stamp her mark on things to make herself feel important and relevant.
That’s a lack of experience and management skills on her part then. We had one like that a few years previously.
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3 hours ago, KBB said:
Things are getting on top of me and dragging me down. I can feel it coming.
Just get out of teaching before it makes you really ill. You don’t realise how much damage you’re doing yourself by forcing yourself to carry on when it’s making you feel like that.
I carried on until I started getting migraines every week. Eventually I went to the doctor, who signed me off for six months. That was three years ago... I never went back. Once I stopped I completely collapsed; I hardly left the house for the first three months.
I doesn’t matter what noises people make, if you don’t feel supported then you’re not being, at least not in the way that is right for you. We had a new department head, and within one year three of us had gone off with long term stress conditions and a further seven resigned or took early retirement.
The pressure is immense and the whole system is absurd, in my opinion. You mustn’t feel that it is your individual weakness that is making you struggle, it is actually the ones who are strong enough to keep going when the situation is awful who end up suffering like this.
I have several friends who have been through it, got out of teaching and never looked back. I know it seems impossible when you rely on your salary, but there’s always a way and nothing is more important than your health.
- RoyMac5, Ramshankered and Carnero
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7 minutes ago, HantsRam said:
Watch it when the arts festival hits town
You never know, I might be able to flog a few sculptures...
Gaming
in The Jim Smith Room
Posted
I’ve no idea what ‘Twitch stars’ is.
Never mind.