On probation

A few days ago, I was thinking "you know, my 6-month probation in work has to be up around now, right?". I took a look to find my contract and to my surprise, I'm here 7 months today! I thought the end of probation thing was supposed to be a bit of a big deal! I remember in CAPE my end of probation meeting was just Marco coming up to me with a signed letter from Phil Sharpe and saying "Well, looks like we can't get rid of you now", but at least it was something.

So, I contacted HR to see what the story was, and found out that they told my boss that I was finished probation and she was supposed to verbally notify me, but didn't. Also, the CEO hasn't signed off on the formal end of probation letter yet as he's been too busy! Well, is nice to feel appreciated isn't it?

Am eligible now anyway for the benefits, they pay into my PRSA and I get a discount on a VHI subscription. What I want to know is will they pay the month's arrears on the pension, seeing as I should have gotten this last month. Have to find out as well the price diff between VHI and the BUPA package I'm paying for now will make it worth my while to switch. Also, apparently "You might be entitled to share options too but I don't know if you will get them in this round" - shares, yeah, no thanks, last time I looked my $120 SUNW shares were worth about $3...... How's about giving me the money instead?

Broadband! :-)

Well, my parents finally have broadband in at home :-) No more coming home for the weekend and feeling like I've lost a limb, struggling for 5mins to download 50 emails (49 of which will turn out to be spam anyway) and only being able to look at one web-page at a time 'cos loading more than one is just too slow! Also means I can actually work from home after xmas - before I was looking at getting up at stupid o'clock on Stephen's morning and taking the train up to Dublin 'cos I'm on call the 26th-28th December and I couldn't do it over dial-up, but now I can stay at home and wait for o2's network to go tits-up from here! :-)

Bloody Aer Lingus!

Saw this in today's paper:

"TRAVEL agents are advising customers against flying with Aer Lingus this Christmas amid threats of a "devastating" all-out strike in a fortnight.

With bookings poised to plummet and the airline expected to announce €20m losses today, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey called on both sides in the dispute to restart talks on plans to outsource almost 1,300 jobs.
..........
The chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association said customers were in confusion even though disputes between Aer Lingus and SIPTU, in particular, had a "track record of heavy posturing and empty commitments".

"My members are trying to find solutions for their customers and are giving priority to alternatives to Aer Lingus," said Simon Nugent. "They are backing away from Aer Lingus flights because there is a higher risk of disruption to them."

Well fuck them anyway. I booked my flights to Prague months ago for the 11th december, and now I'm potentially either not going to get there or will get stuck there because the usual fecking suspects in the management and the unions can't get their shit together and are rehashing the same old fucking fights as ever? Seems to be in their contracts that they have to threaten to go out on strike at least once a year, just to remind people that they're there, like. Have been caught out on flights at least twice before with these feckers walking off the job. What are they, French or something?

Screw them, time to see what other flights I can get. Think Ruinair have a sale on.....


(Later..)

Just after checking the Aer Lingus site re: their policies on refunds. Well, is pretty simple:

  Fare Rules
Cancellations

    * NO REFUND AT ANY TIME EXCEPT FOR BUSINESS CLASS

Fuckers. So looks like unless I want to take a €220 hit, we're stuck with Aer Fungus.