How generous or tight is/was your boss?

[Risteard]

this was 2 yrs after VHS won the battle and Betamax sunk... ( to the young one a tape cassette is something we recorded tele or radio on)

LOL. VHS did not win universally. I was in Saudi Arabia for 8 years and they used Betamax exclusively there. As such, I still have several Betamax tapes (although unfortunately I no longer have a Betamax player - I must invest in a "new" one).

Incidentally, Betamax was a far superior format to VHS - better picture clarity. So Betamax anyday for me!

 

[ruston]

I have an old Betamax in the loft, plus some old tapes to go with it.
It was the superior system , but I think Sony sold VHS off knowing Betamax was the best system , But VHS cornered the prerecorded film market that sealed it's fate.

My mates Dad had the Video 2000 , the forerunner to the CD player. 'Simply years ahead' (Phillips slogan)

 

[Kamikaze]

My 2nd boss from when I first came out of my time, had a fetish for insulation tape. As in, he would keep it on the shelve but would not let you have any. I had only just started with the company and was on a job where we had to pull in a lot of singles through conduit etc. So I asked him for a roll of tape, much to the amusement of all the other lads. He asked me if I had a pencil? Not really knowing what he was on about, I handed one over to him. He then preceded to pull about a meter of tape of the roll and then wrapped it around my pencil. And that was my lot for the whole job…lol. But in the same token, he always insisted that we had to go to work for a Saturday morning, regardless of whether we did any work once we got there or not. That was most bizarre, since he knew that we would only be sitting in the cabin nursing a hangover, playing cards and having a general chit-chat. No work ever got done on a Saturday.

 

[KWCFC]

One of the bosses at my last company would refuse to pay you any overtime and would make you have it in time off instead. One lad had to work until 10pm once, the boss made him take a paid day off instead of paying him!

Also when I was an apprentice there I damaged a lighting PIR by accident, probs cost maximum 30quid. I got dragged into the office and treated like a criminal!

 

[dansk]

Back in my early days I was a car mechanic, been in the trade I used to get all sorts of cars come through, and the gaffer let me use the traders policy to insure them, so very early on I used to run about in cavalier SRI, Nova GTE, used to love my Vauxhalls back then, all on the boss insurance

 

[Carlkelly92]

In the first year of my apprenticeship my gaffer used to have me sanding down old surface back boxes that he had ripped out from other jobs to be used as new! Didn't matter if they were cracked, covered in plaster and had scratches all over them- maybe he was just doing his bit to save the planet [emoji57]

 

[Diddy]

I have worked for both generous and mean bosses....you can guess which type got a better bang for there buck. One time the owner of a company I was working for came on site in mid summer very hot day with a huge freezer bag with a large can of cola and a frozen ice lolly for each of the guys....such a small and inexpensive gesture that was repaid in bundles with the appreciation and therefore higher work rate of all the lads on site.......Certainly cemented in my mind how I approached running jobs. Getting the crew onside is just so much more productive.

 

[Richard Burns]

I was told that overtime would not be paid and could only be recouped as time off in lieu and then when I tried there were a load of reasons brought up why I could not take time off; we are too busy, we need you there at that time.....