Going further afield?

Well, Geraldine replied to us a couple of days ago on a thread about absent.

But didn't follow it up today...

phoenix I really enjoyed your "ramblings" about how you were made redundant, your search for work, the horrible tele-sales job, the job interviews -especially the recent one with the mad director/CEO. Although you were going through a really bad time, you managed to write about it with honesty and humour and you have a lot of material there. You could try the jobs section of a broadsheet to get an article published but you have so much material that a blog really could be the way forward and before you know it - it would be book length and who knows what could happen then.

Thanks grrrr I have just created a folder and am in the process of finding various bits and collating them with the idea of giving some of them a bit of a polish before sending them to appropriate publicatons. Problem is, I can't remember where some of them are, or even the titles.

I have found the 2 relating to underwear problems, the Argos sofa bed saga, my advice on gammon cooking and coffee comments. I am trawling through some of the pets ones (Micelf said she likes the cat ones).

If anyone finds any odd bits that they enjoyed, I would be very grateful if they could perhaps PM me with a link.

Thanks in advance!

phoenix

1st August 12 (don't know how to do link) you posted

'Apart from the long hours for a very low basic salary:

1) Bloody Heart FM playing all day, and piped via speakers to all areas. I end up with damned inane pop songs permeating my brain. I am a Radio 4 listener by choice, but unfortunately now know all the words to a song in which the singer feels that he has to move like Jagger, plus another mindless thing where the singer declares that the person they seem to be enamoured of is big and bad, but she loves him like mad, plus apparently he's the best she's ever had. Well, bloody bully for her.

2) The only time I get any feedback is when I have done something wrong/cocked up/not followed the prescribed sales process (delete where not applicable). As someone who used to teach riding,and also helped out with the training programme at my last but one proper job, I was always told to use the "shit sandwhich" technique, i.e. You did xxx really well, however you need to do a bit more work on your yyy, but I also felt that your zzz has improved"

3) The new Sales Manager to whom I answer looks at me as if I was either mentally subnormal or something nasty stuck to his shoe. He has a less than prepossesing appearance, and I would really like to say "Listen mate, you may have over 20 years experience in caravan sales, but you have no upper teeth, and your lower ones are not only few and far between, but those that you do have are pretty manky. Oh, and by the way, I'm a member of Mensa with an I.Q. of 144, so stop it with the attitude.

4) The hand towels in the toilet haven't been changed since I started, (I am now approaching the end of my third week) and God knows how long they had been there before I began)

5) Your CRM system is absolute crap, people are getting so many "follow up" calls from different departments that they are getting pretty pissed off, as indeed I would.

6) The seat I have to sit on when making calls (and todays call list was 90+) is a bar stool. Yes, the height can be adjusted up and down, but I feel that if one is to spend all day on the phone, as I did today, there is a difference between what is comfortable and ergonomically sound for a working environment, and what is suitable for sipping a Manhattan/Martini/Bellini or Bloody Mary.

Rant over, and breathe................................................'

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Oh heavens grrr thanks for finding that! I can feel my frustation emanating from it even now!

I think I might have to (ahem) edit that one a bit, in case people are recognisable!

Phoenix I can't remember offhand whether you have a Kindle, but if you have there is an excellent book to download for it called "WordPress Domination - Beginner to NINJA in 7 Days - The Wordpress How to Book for Blogging on the Web" by Lambert /klein. It was only £3.18.

I bought it for guidance on how to make a website with Wordpress (not actually a blog) and have started following his advice. Maybe I should do a blog with it as well, on the birth pangs of website creation! It takes more than his 7 days.

I am currently at the chapter on "article syndication" which may be a bit ahead of my site/blog position but is interesting.

Elegran afraid I am without Kindle, totally Kindle-less. Your idea of doing a blog on the gestation period of your website sounds good!

Our local newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press, has a column by Sharon Griffiths. I think twice weekly. Don't pay enough attention to the days, but she was in yesterday - that was Monday wasn't it? Very similar style to you. Perhaps she might advise you. Email as printed in the paper is [email protected].

phoenix I downloaded the kindle reader to my netbook and you can do it for big pcs too and it works fine and costs nothing so you could do that. Just click on the link on amazon and away you go.

I was about to say the same thing. you can get an free application from Amazon to read Kindle books on, and then buy them and/or get them free from various sources.

You can even download Kindle to a smartphone, though I think the smaller screen would make it a bit tedious to use. I know DS uses it on a tablet.

Thank you all, I will have a look at that. We currently only have a desk top pc, Mr P was adamant that he didn't want a lap top (I did have one but it went with the job). I do have a smart phone, but hate the damn thing with a vengeance, and I don't think my varifocals would be much good trying to read things on it!

There are Kindle applications for all kinds of things, from phones to desk-top PCs, phoenix

Quick question, there is this comment on the sort of "notes for guidance" section of the Olfie, relating to articles that may be considered for publication.

"We also do not commission pieces from treatments, only from assessing finished articles."

I understand finished articles, but can anyone explain the "treatments" part?

Thanks!

Well, I've done it! My very first submission!

I've started with The Oldie, partly because they say that they do read every piece that they receive.

Congratulations phoenix the first day in the steps to your new career.

Well done phoenix keep us posted and keep posting.

Fingers crossed, phoenix - well done on taking the first step! By the way, I googled 'literary treatments' but got bogged down....

It does say in the "contact us" section that it may take a month to hear from them, so I won't submit the same piece to any other publications just yet, but if they decide it's not for them, then I will try others.

Well done phoenix good luck

Good luck

That is great, Phoenix, I look forward to reading your first article!

Thank you everyone, although in some ways some of you have read it already! smile