coops: Free Beer or freedom? <body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://draft.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d8208936\x26blogName\x3dcoops\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dBLUE\x26layoutType\x3dCLASSIC\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://ukcoops.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den_GB\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttp://ukcoops.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d-9200431209424159412', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script><!-- --><div id="b-navbar"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-logo" title="Go to Blogger.com"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/logobar.gif" alt="Blogger" width="80" height="24" /></a><form id="b-search" action="http://www.google.com/search"><div id="b-more"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-getorpost"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_getblog.gif" alt="Get your own blog" width="112" height="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/redirect/next_blog.pyra?navBar=true" id="b-next"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_nextblog.gif" alt="Next blog" width="72" height="15" /></a></div><div id="b-this"><input type="text" id="b-query" name="q" /><input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8" /><input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="ordinary-cookies.blogspot.com" /><input type="image" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_search.gif" alt="Search" value="Search" id="b-searchbtn" title="Search this blog with Google" /><a href="javascript:BlogThis();" id="b-blogthis">BlogThis!</a></div></form></div><script type="text/javascript"><!-- function BlogThis() {Q='';x=document;y=window;if(x.selection) {Q=x.selection.createRange().text;} else if (y.getSelection) { Q=y.getSelection();} else if (x.getSelection) { Q=x.getSelection();}popw = y.open('http://www.blogger.com/blog_this.pyra?t=' + escape(Q) + '&u=' + escape(location.href) + '&n=' + escape(document.title),'bloggerForm','scrollbars=no,width=475,height=300,top=175,left=75,status=yes,resizable=yes');void(0);} --></script><div id="space-for-ie"></div><!-- --><div id="b-navbar"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-logo" title="Go to Blogger.com"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/logobar.gif" alt="Blogger" width="80" height="24" /></a><form id="b-search" action="http://www.google.com/search"><div id="b-more"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-getorpost"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_getblog.gif" alt="Get your own blog" width="112" height="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/redirect/next_blog.pyra?navBar=true" id="b-next"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_nextblog.gif" alt="Next blog" width="72" height="15" /></a></div><div id="b-this"><input type="text" id="b-query" name="q" /><input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8" /><input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="lovelurve.blogspot.com" /><input type="image" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_search.gif" alt="Search" value="Search" id="b-searchbtn" title="Search this blog with Google" /><a href="javascript:BlogThis();" id="b-blogthis">BlogThis!</a></div></form></div><script type="text/javascript"><!-- --></script><div id="space-for-ie"></div>

June 26, 2005

Free Beer or freedom?

So it had to happen at some point. I had to see the people I work with in a context other than the normal ten hour a day thing called work. Well it didn’t have to happen. I had a choice. Extend my working contact by another six hours or go home. Well, it would seem an easy choice. But then they throw in the deciding factor. Free Beer.

Now it’s not like I can’t afford eight pints of beer. I can. There is just something that makes you try and grab as much as you can when it comes to ‘free’ and the words ‘work’. That’s simply because, however wealthy the company you work for are, they will rarely give you something for nothing.

I had learnt this on my first day when I asked for some phone notes. Only to be told they stopped producing them due to cost cutting. Let’s rewind here. One minute I was reading the company had assets worth approximately $1.1 trillion. The next minute I was hearing they had phased out 12 pence sticky sided five inch by four inch pieces of paper. I didn’t know a lot about this industry. But I knew that the $1.1 trillion worth of assets didn’t include little bits of paper.

So free beer, free food with the big cheeses and people from work. Of course I was only going for a beer to be sociable. But I fell into that work social trap. Drink more to loosen up, after all, these are the people you would never choose to go out with. Ah. No food left. Maybe I should have had lunch after all. Actually maybe dinner would help as well.

Eight pints and a beer time warp later, it was time to go. It could have been worse. As I asked for my last beer, the barman said “The bar bill is now five hundred and twenty pounds, I will have to close the tab soon”. And with that I left with a wry smile. Okay, only fifteen pounds of that may have been mine, but it was some payback for the hours I had put in. Well, that and the smile of knowing what some people would look like in the morning. And the “No, I didn’t say that to him!”

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home








-->




<> Listed on BlogShares