I'm gonna keep my log burner in the garden going with petrol all day now, that should melt a few more ice caps somewhere.
It is a mountain out of a molehill, but it is relevant I think. To me this is a football forum, this sub forum is a Saints football forum. I come here to talk primarily about Saints and if there is something else that takes my fancy I comment on it. I also go onto Home Automation forums, Apple Mac forums, even vendor specific for my tech forums. What I am saying is that the slant on this forum has gone away from football and all about politics/environment. Both very important topics, but maybe not on a football forum. I am not saying don't have the thread, just no need to be the main focus (ie stickied) at the top of the forum. I have said it before as well, that we have lost a lot of posters not because of their football views on a football forum, but on the views and disagreements on the off topic forums. I can see this forum dying soon as it no longer focuses on Saints, but on all other things as well. Basically a general forum with a bit of Saints thrown in. I know we can scroll past, but the point is why do we need to scroll past 4 non football threads to get to a football thread on a football forum. Just my view...on a forum. EDIT: This is what i mean. A football forum, but the football stuff is mainly halfway down the page....
Yea I love talking about melting ice caps, how we should eat less meat and sea turtles eating balloons , really puts a positive spin on my day.
Nah I'm pretty content to be honest. I mean I'd rather be at work earning money , but I've been rained off (probably due to global warming).
Done my bit as far my working life is concerned. Happy to sit, bash me buttons and have a nice cuppa tea.
A company in Swindon is to give non smokers an additional 4 days holiday to compensate for the time taken by smokers taking unofficial breaks to smoke/vape. This is to be applauded but doesn’t go far enough to resolving the real amount of time being “stolen” by smokers. Where I work there is a group of smokers who regularly congregate and go outside, to the smoking shelter 3 or 4 times a day, with each break lasting 10 minutes, often longer when you add in the time spent waiting for each other to get ready ie roll a cigarette and add in time spent on finishing a conversation that handed ended outside. This has led me to do some calculations based on 3 unofficial breaks per day. 30 minutes per day = 2.5 hours per working week (based on full time hours) 46 weeks per year working (based on our 6 weeks holiday) = 115 hours 115 hours/ 7.5 (daily contracted hours) = 15.3 days per year paid to smokers for skiving. So my smoker colleagues are receiving pay equal to three weeks more than non smokers. I am on annual leave, this week, but I think I will be agitating for change when I go back to work.
I used to work somewhere like that and I started going out with them just to stand and chat and prove a point. My boss (a smoker) once said you can’t go out as you don’t smoke we need you to keep an eye on things here, I pointed out that every break the smokers take I will take too. All the breaks soon stopped....
Surely the argument is on a case by case basis rather than a blanket one? I spend much less time smoking than some of my colleagues do having a natter by the kettle or making drinks etc. There's also an argument about productivity, I'd wager I'm more productive in the half-hour immediately after a short break than the half hour before for example. I think everyone who is office based should be encouraged to take short breaks for what it's worth. Just taking a short walk and/or 5 minutes break can do wonders for wellbeing and productivity. Could do with a roll up actually.
“colleagues do having a natter by the kettle or making drinks etc.” Where I work the same colleagues that go out for smokes are the same ones who also regularly disappear and spend another 5/10 minutes chatting whilst making drinks, that they have no right to do, whilst the non smokers don’t. The smokers in the my workplace come across as “entitled” and think that it is acceptable to stop for unofficial breaks, whilst the rest of the team carry them by continuing to do the job. They take the job understanding that they can’t have cigarette breaks but just take the piss.
