And part 3!
https://media.sully.site/odyssey-pt-3/

@andyc Thanks Andy. It was an interesting exercise and a fight to keep it in scope! There will be a lot more.

@andyc She could be describing York, there. By the time I got to Southampton it had become a student town, particularly with the explosion in numbers that was Solent. The nightlife was always a bit hairy.

@dick_turpin I was told In clear terms that it was a sales job, and all that mattered was bringing customers in. The contract employees were basically fodder.

@dick_turpin I worked at an industrial recruiter during the surge of EU immigrants from the Eastern European states. It was a meat grinder and I hated my boss.

@sullybiker When I went through the training, it was all "Match the client to the role, make sure they have the specific skills required." Yadder, yadder, yadder. Then when I took over my first contract, it was to supply temp staff to a factory. I used to hire large rooms on a Friday and gather 30 poor sods, and enrol them en mass. Monday morning, they'd be at the bottling plant.

Rover car factory was the best; stick anyone in: "Hello, commission! Kerching 🤣

I'm a terrible hooman. 🤣

@dick_turpin You're giving me flashbacks!

@sullybiker I have so many stories from those days.

An older guy begged me for a job. "I'll do anything, ANYTHING! Whatever hours you like, weekends, I won't let you down." the first couple of weeks, he was good as gold; the third week, no show Monday. No show Tuesday. No show Wednesday, no phone calls, nothing. On Friday, I rang his wife:

𝗠𝗲: "Where's Dave? I'm really unhappy with him; he begged me for work and made all these promises...."

𝗪𝗶𝗳𝗲: "He passed away.."

@dick_turpin Oh mate. I fired the wrong polish person once

@sullybiker LOL

@dick_turpin "I think you meant Tomasz. I am Thomas"

@sullybiker I interviewed a complete lunatic he was so bad there was no way I'd use him; however, his card was put in the 'when we're desperate' box. Comes the time we had an emergency, and my Area manager came to help, and when I got back to my office, the AM had called him in. 😱

I take the lunatic up the factory, but he has to remove his ear stud; of course, he can't, can he? So he does no more, rips it out his ear, blood spurting everywhere! 🤢

I've got another story about him

@sullybiker

Story #2

I get a phone call from the packing department. "Can you come up here quickly! We have an issue with one of your staff."

I go up, and there is ear stud man going round, and round, and round, and round a pallet of boxes with a roll of shrink wrap.

𝗠𝗲: "What on earth are you doing?"

𝗘𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻: "I can't find the end?"

He's used the entire roll! 🤦‍♂️

@dick_turpin This is hilarious. People can be so funny. We can laugh about it now, of course...

@sullybiker Yeah. I've got loads more, but I suspect it's boring now.

I'll leave you with the bloke who took his dog for a walk, got pulled over by the dog, dragged for two miles apparently and broke his glasses, and so will not be able to come into work.

I know all the excuses. #LeSigh

@dick_turpin one lad told me he decided to spend the day in bed with his lady rather than come to work.

@sullybiker You know, I can probably respect that. 🤣

@dick_turpin There were the occasional clients that needed qualified staff and expected us to be thorough, but in the end they were just another account.

@sullybiker Fucking hell! In which part are you actually finally boarding the plane for America?! After all, this was supposedly the whole rationale for this epic :-)

@andyc Hah! There's a few more things to come yet. It's all part of it.

@sullybiker

1/2

I think I find this so fascinating because your life and career has been so varied and interesting compared with mine

Happy, middle class childhood in leafy Cheshire. Dad was a bank manager.
Got free place at Grammar school (much to dad's delight)
Excellent O levels. Excellent A levels.
Comp Sci at Warwick. Not excellent enough for Oxbridge.
2:2 degree. Enjoyed the social life more than the course. Walked into a well paid job with software house

@sullybiker

2/2

Went freelance (even better money)
Reverted to permanent role.
Been plodding methodically in the slow lane ever since :-)

@andyc I think I'd have preferred yours! Everything happened very late for me. I was basically lost in my 20s, which is what most of this is about.

@andyc Something universities are very aware of is the fact that most kids - particularly the high performers - may get exposed to stimuli they have never had to deal with. Your story isn't uncommon, and in the end you got a good result from a good school.

@sullybiker Yes. Still avidly following along waiting for you to board the Queen Mary with a battered, brown suitcase.

@andyc Haaaa! I'm not *that* old :)

@andyc Did they have suitcases in steerage?
@sullybiker

@dick_turpin @andyc That's how the bairns are carried