what's wrong with showing a bit of respect for your employeur ?

after having been made redundant after 15 years I was lucky enough to find a part time job a few weeks later and I am truly grateful for the chance to be able to work especially at my age

i'll tug my forelock anyday as long as the boss shows me due respect also

Yet on the basis of what you've posted recently about your situation, it doesn't sound as though your employer [idid[/i show you much respect.

Now, this is not a dig, but within the context of this discussion, does that mean you hadn't shown your employer respect/enough respect? Or if you had gone out of your way, as an employee, to go the extra mile for your boss over the years, what does that say about how much they respected you?

I wonder if his boss is a hard working small businessman who has loyal employees.

Disgusting isn't it?

Jesus wept.

A contract of employment is a two way thing. Show commitment and enthusiasm and your employer will do his / her best by you. Too many people think they deserve paying for just turning up for their contacted hours (packing up 5 minutes earley so they can leave on time, arrivibg right on time and then spending 15 minutes getting ready to work). That sort of attitude stinks and, guess what. those with it are always moaning about their employer.

quite correct Mintball - I was treated badly because the company was losing mega bucks because of poor managerial decisions and I was the fall guy,I complained about certain safety rules that were being ignored and was slated as a troublemaker. - I took my case to the Industrial Tribunal (les Prud'hommes) and the hearing is on tuesday with the company basically admitting fault on three charges of unfair dismissal that are - firstly,discrimination,with the company rightly claiming they needed to cut the pay bill to survive trading and offering contract modifications for three of us,the other two were offered much better deals and they were junior to me,refusal of the contract modification by me meant the company had to offer me redundancy which I gratefully accepted with a decent payoff (I would have been better off on the dole for three years) - secondly,working too many days consectively (40 days at one point) without a rest day and thirdly,working too many hours overtime in a year (the maximum in france is 100 hours per annum).All three points can be proven in writing.
The company know they will lose and have admitted liability so maybe they will try to make a settlement 'out of court' before the hearing.

Saying that,in their defence they have not criticised my work because they know my work record is faultless but the manager was determined to get rid of me and he,another dutchman who doesn't understand the power of the working man in france thought he could get away with it.He made the mistake like most foreigners thinking that the french are a bunch of peasants...not aware that the french employer is faced with the most strict employment laws in europe.

During the 15 years I did my work correctly and had no problems with the three previous managers sent down from Holland to run the company - this guy took over 18 months ago and immediately lost more money than the previous three so he won't last long either.

my present employers are excellent and very fair - they know me well and know I am an honest worker who give 100% for the company - there's a lot of mutual respect.

I also like my job.

Too many people think nowadays employees and employers should be at war.

Probably the trade union mentality.

the owners of the company (a golf course) I worked with for 15 years are dutch and they are both multi millionaires and people are just items that can be replaced at their whim - they are big businessmen in holland with a big staff turnover - it seems that workers are considered the lowest of the low

my present company is owned by a youngish couple with three and a half (i'm the half) employees - they are trying to make a go of it and everyone is trying to help them make a success of it - good luck to them and thank you for giving me opportunity to work.

I like mine, my boss also likes what I do, he doesn't expect me to work for free though, at any time.

I don't particularly like my job right now( I have been there 18 years) . But as the firm is struggling a bit people have to help out where they can . Either that or face the harsh reality that they could be unemployed soon . Much better in my opinion to try keep the ship afloat . They have helped me through some tough times . It is only fair that I should do something to repay them .

There would be a point to this thread if those agreeing calendar monthly pay contracts with their employers had been unaware at the time that every 4 years there's a leap year, but I think for the majority, it won't come as a shock.

There would be no argument if the 29th Feb fell on a weekend.

Erm...

What are people's thoughts on employers allowing compassionate leave then?

I believe that it's an individual thing, I also think it's yet another straw man

Then again, there's the leap second that they keep adding on to compensate for the earth's orbit. This is ludicrously unfair on night shift workers.

aren't a certain number of paid days allowed for in the employment laws for bereavements to family etc ?

Not a set number, but there is a right to reasonable compassionate leave:
[urlhttp://www.direct.gov.uk/en/parents/moneyandworkentitlements/workandfamilies/dg_10026555[/url

thanks FA,interesting stuff - the uk system seems more flexible than the french system which has more fixed rules ie 4 days paid holiday for your wedding,1 day for the wedding of one of your children,three days for the dad of a newly born child,only2 paid days in the case of a death of a spouse etc etc

moral of the story - get married very often and hope your loved one passes away quickly and get on with the next one...

All we need to do is to slow down the spin of the earth on its axis so that it rotates exactly 365 times per orbit round the sun rather than 365-and-a-bit times.

While we're at it we can move Samoa a bit to the left, convert Europe to GMT, pause the rotation until I find out the next day's lottery numbers, and give me back my lost Tuesday (threads passim).

You would be surprised at how many customers of ours pay by the clocking record and then don't take the GMT/BST time changes into account on night shifts every year - I have been told on many occasions that a night shift worker at the end of October who works one hour extra on his shift will simply get the hour back in March when he works one hour less - when you point out that he might not be on nights in March you usually get incomprehension.

I thought the year was 365.25 days long so if you are on a salaried rate the February 29th thing is nothing other than bringing back balance to the .75 days that you've already been paid for or that you will be paid for in the next four years i.e. it balances out.