Hi Mike and Paul, how are you both settling down in your new jobs, well I hope, let us know as I am a Nosy B*****d and would love to know that everything panned out OK.

settling very well thanks

my boss has given me a few routines to do every day and im just training all over the place with him and another person.

did a full quality control check on a piece of glass with no help today... he was pleased with it

fitted a few gas pipes aswell and adjusted the water/heat to reduce stress within the glass

i'll stop waffling now

in a nutshell, its going well

So glad everything is going well for you, heres to you future sucess

I landed in just at the right time - or the wrong time, depending on your point of view! The firm is doing a major renovation of the work area, and at the same time they're trying to introduce a new work management strategy. It's not really working out to do both at the same time.
But the general atmosphere is pretty good. Not much tension that I can detect, nowhere near as much as in the last job. And of course, with all these other problems, my few stuffups as a beginner are pretty much invisible (to everyone except me).

Mike, this thread has been viewed over 1000 times. We're famous!

The dynamic duo Paul & Mike. Glad to hear you are settling down well in the new job Pau,l sometimes it is good to start when they are doing a reorganisation because know knows what they are suposed to do and it all ends up a a great **** up and then they go back to what they were doing before, I know I work for local government. Any way great to hear you are settling down.Keep up the good work Mike

By the way how many hours of music do you have downloaded on HD Paul?

I know what you mean about outfits launching into a new strategy and then returning to the old ways, bootneck. This time it might be different. We had the Human Resources manager over from Sydney last week and he gave us a talk. Turns out that this company didn't even have a HR department until a year ago! So the people at the top have at least enough sense to perceive they have a problem. Staff turnover is high across Australia right now, but even more so here in WA. The mining boom is drawing people north in huge numbers. Employers are getting the rough end of the deal right now. They can't work on what I call the sausage-machine principle: get another one to fill the gap, they're all the same.

As for music on the HD, I just did a quick count and I've got about 800 songs. Averaging them out to 3 minutes long each: 2400 songs. 40 hours worth. I'm not even in the junior leagues compared to some!

And I heard from my assistant at the old job during the week. A couple more key people have departed.

Good that have a HR now, but you hang in there. From what I heard things are going to get grim for both employees and employers soon if what our Chancellor of the Exchequer said at the G8 Summit meeting the other day I quote very loosely" the world is facing a recession of which nothing since the stock exchange crash in 1929 has been seen." So if you have got a job hang on to it, sometimes the politicians do get it right(perhaps)!!

The housing over here has gone tits up and the market has slowed down but nothing like the US yet and they have massive problems. Our major stores are predicting a down turn in profits etc. Oh well who am I but a miserable old Johna and everything will turn out well, it usually does.

Any way good luck it would seem as if you have landed on your feet and got a good steady job and it would appear that you like what you are doing. So have a beer or two on me

I'm sorry to say that the new job has gone distinctly sour in the last week. I'll be handing in my notice today.
The people I work with on a daily basis are friendly and helpful, although a tad stressed because they need more people and just can't hire them. (Or, they hire them and then they leave after a few weeks.) But the place is cursed by the Group Operations Director. He's in charge of the renovations and changes going on here and all the other plants across Australia, and he's an A-Grade workplace bully. He came over from Sydney last week and stood the two managers in the middle of the lab and shouted abuse at them. Plenty of f-bombs. Then he went to a product launch that evening and made an unscheduled speech in which he slagged off all the Perth team to the customers. Basically said "They're your problem, but I'm your rescuer." Just for good measure he mentioned that he's sacked 40 people in the last year. The customers were not impressed. They spoke very supportively to the staff afterwards and said they understood the problems that were causing delays.
I might have said something, but this b'stard has got the local management cowed. They wouldn't support me, and given that he's a demned director they'd probably just advise me to 'consider my future with the company'. Well, I've done that. If they're prepared to suffer that sort of treatment, good luck to them!

EDIT - I handed in my notice and the manager said, oh well, sorry it's not working out, but thanks for giving us the week's notice. Two hours later I'm called back to her office: she says she's changed her mind. We'll pay you out for the week and you can leave right away.
There's no way in hell that she would have let another worker go if she could keep them, so I'm guessing it was the creep's idea to fast-track me out. She would have rung him with the news, told him why - I wonder if she read my letter to him? - and he would have said get rid of him.
Normally when I quit I just send them a postcard to say goodbye. Maybe I should play by the rules more often; it might work to my advantage!

Sorry to hear you problems Paul, there is a problem about bullying senior managers who seem to think by waving a big stick they will get things done, usually it has the opposite effect and people under them make mistakes because they are so much pressure (bast***s). I think perhaps you are better out of it. Over here we call them d**k heads and take them to industrial tribunal but I guess you have different labour laws there.

Good luck mate in the job hunting and remember an old Pom expression "discretion is the better part of valor". I have no doubt that you will find something suitable soon anyway I will be routing for you, I am sure the vibes will reach the Antipodes.