h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thank my lucky stars I only have J and two dogs to organise!

Plays soothing pan-pipes music.

Deep breath.

OMMMMMMMMM!

Pan-pipes! Arrggghhhh!!!

You didn't think I wanted to give him an easy ride now, did you?

I'm sure it's the same in the service industry the world over, Gosho. Staff come in for a shift ten minutes late, don't have the good manners to apologise, make themselves a coffee and have a fag - forget the work that needs to be done... Or a coach turns up and they wander off to get ice for the bar, when there's 50 people in reception, 100 suitcases to sort out and only four of you in anyway. Bloody infuriating, isn't it? And you'd think that working with grown-ups would be easier than working with kids, but at least kids usually do what you ask them to and don't have egos so they think things like mopping the bar floor is below them. Fortunately, things might start to look up in the next year or so - I've just had a big pile of ideas given to me, and it's just a case of organising them all now

Well, with that, Rich.

"at least kids usually do what you ask them to"

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I think Mina enjoyed your little joke 'rich

When I worked in the service industry (bartending and waitressing) during my college years, I was lucky enough to have decent coworkers- the customers were the awful ones. One place I worked at was frequented by a few particularly nasty people- one of them deliberately spilled his drink on the floor as I walked past, so I would slip with the tray I was carrying. We had to pay for every glass we broke. I worked that entire day for nothing.

I also had the pleasure of working in retail for several years, too, though, and there both the customers and my coworkers were all straight from hell.

The nutcase in your original post sounds a lot like my mother. I called my dad last night to make sure they were still at home.

"Ilk man and mother's son take heed." - Robt Burns.

And you'll get heaps of thanks for that. Just ask the poor cops who had to deal with that female, the handling of whom made headline news a few weeks ago.

Well, it's very different coming in as an outdoor education type to having day-to-day contact with kids. I spend a day with them, sometimes two, which doesn't give them time to work out and work around my weaknesses - the only exception is Ten Tors training, which only the 'good' kids apply to do anyway. I'm also in an environment where they're utterly reliant upon me, whether they're dangling from a climbing rope, in the woods at night without torches or in the middle of nowhere on Dartmoor. To them, I'm a strange, bald guy dressed in weird clothing who helps them explore a new and exciting world. They also realise quite quickly that I'm their only way home That's quite different to teaching a class in a school day after day for a year or bringing up your own kids, but in the context of my work they're very much under my thumb

It's nice to read other people's service industry hells, if only to know that the bds are everywhere!