A few weeks ago I wrote about British Airways asking it’s staff to work for free for one month. British Telecom has now gone and topped that asking their staff to take a year off with only three months pay upfront as incentive! Of course that is only one of the options available; employees may also be offered a £1000 incentive to go part time while parents are going to be encouraged to only work during term time. Like I wrote before, because the economy is in a downturn, it doesn’t mean that people can live on part time wages and certainly not three months pay out of twelve. Bills don’t stop coming in, mortgage payments don’t pay themselves and food doesn’t magically appear in the cupboards. BT plan to axe a further 15,000 jobs which makes total job losses of almost 30,000 by the end of this year! I think the executives in charge of these huge companies live in a dream world; how do they expect people to live for a year on three months wages. I’m sure parents don’t work as many hours as they do through choice, it’s a necessity to keep their families stomachs full and clothes on their back! It’s just their way of laying people off without actually making them redundant so it doesn’t make them look so bad in the press!
Things up are looking up here in Kansas; Erin and I went to our second sonogram to check on the baby’s progress a week earlier than we thought but it’s all good! The baby is absolutely fine, nothing out of the ordinary and it was confirmed that we are having a little girl. Erin is ecstatic about it; I don’t mind what we have as long as it’s healthy but I am happy that Erin got what she wanted; one of each; to complete the set so to speak! Tomorrow or maybe I should say later today I will be barbecuing at Erin’s mothers, the first time anyone has barbecued there since Erin’s stepfather died. But when I checked out the barbecue grill it was all rusted out as it hadn’t been used for over 18 months. So we had to go out and buy a new one; finding a five burner propane grill for under $200 plus an added 10% off because we happened to be served by the manager. We got it home and I started to assemble it only to find the instructions to be in the wrong order so a ditched the manual and built it from the photo on the box. Two hours later it was all working and I didn’t blow myself up so everything is good. Now I am looking forward to grilling later today although as I am barbecuing I expect it to rain… Jason + Barbecue = downpour!
HUGE news back home in Plymouth; the city’s football club Plymouth Argyle have been taken over by a consortium lead by ex Manchester United chairman Sir Roy Gardner and Keith Todd’s KKC partnership and Japan’s Shonan Management Corporation, the consortium now owns 51% of the club. Paul Stapleton has stood down as chairman but remains vice chairman while Gardner takes the chair. I view this with cautious optimism; with Gardner’s comments about getting the club into the Premiership in five years. He also says that he’s in it for the future of the club and not for financial gain, that remains to be seen of course. Maybe I’m an old sceptic but I find it hard to believe that anyone of his standing would invest in a club not looking for a good return on his investment in five years time. Paul Sturrock is to continue as manager and hopefully he’ll have some more spending money to get in decent players. I believe Sturrock knows that he can’t make speculative signings of the magnitude he did last season signing all the very expensive prize turkeys he did. Although I am sceptical Roy Gardner sounds like he has a sensible head on his shoulders, let’s hope he can move the club forward. Paul Stapleton has done a wonderful job in getting Argyle to where they are but he has realised that he can’t take the club further. I take my hat off to Stapleton for all what he has done for the club and for realising that new blood is needed to take the club forward!!! Thank you for everything Mr. Stapleton!