Apprentices and charity work

[Clive George]

One could always check the rules before posting such tripe...

Or are you saying most people earn 200K+?

(hint - the relevant numbers are 50K and 100%)

[docholliday93]

I was just about to make the same comment! It's been 50K since 2011 - soon to be reduced to 40K, with a lifetime limit of 1.25M. Previously the annual limit was much higher. Incidentally the minimum age for drawing your pension was increased in 2010 to 55.

[alan]

Just go past any school and count the staff cars in the car park half an hour after they have kicked out the kids.

[GB]

The 25% did apply a few years ago, and lower limits for younger ages, too. So, Dennis@home is simply a bit behind the times. I guess the @home implies he's retired, so the rules he mentioned did apply at the time he was working. More or less.

[Vir Campestris]

I think they have dedicated sparks for that. He just puts the machines in the racks, sets them up, and fixes them when they die.

Any

[Tim Streater]

As long as the sparks is doing all the cabling at install time. IME, a (say) Dell server which might be 1u or 2u high will have a cable management arm at the back into which all cabling should go, so the server can be pulled forward out of the rack to (say) replace a disk).

The difficulty comes when you get monkeys installing the cabling with no thought to its management or the future. Spaghetti ensues, and that way madness lies.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That was in reply to

***********************

From: GB Subject: Re: Apprentices and charity work Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 14:45 Newsgroups: uk.d-i-y

It's a daft question, really. Some jobs are a vocation - missionary, teacher, doctor, etc. But nobody has a vocation to be an electrician.

**********************

or some such bollocks.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm quite clear about the difference. Are you?

[jgh]

Between episodes of Clare in the Community. ;)

My ex-wife's a social worker. CitC is a documentary.

JGH

[Adrian]

Your posts suggest otherwise, since you seem to be suggesting that adequate pay is all that is required for something to count as a vocation.

Very clear, thanks.

[Adrian]

But, as I pointed out at the time, equally nobody has a calling towards accountancy or the law (actually, that's probably unfair. Some do. Nobody with a functioning personality...) or shuffling meaningless paper in an office or any of probably 95% of employment. They do it to pay the rent. No more, no less. To extrapolate from that one example was just daft.

Are you suggesting you had some kind of calling to improve humanity through recording sound for TV?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I actually suggested the exact reverse of that. Are you reading a different newsgroup?

There is definitely a problem somewhere.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. You cannot possibly know what anyone is 'called' to. Just because you don't fancy a particular profession.

It's the same with professions traditionally known as vocations. Not everyone who becomes a missionary or nurse does so for purely altruistic reasons. I had a cousin who was a missionary. He loved living in far off and remote locations. Somewhat of the big fish in a small pond syndrome, was the impression I got - even although I'm sure he did good works there.

Nobody

Many would argue missionaries were the cause of much of the world's problems rather than 'improving humanity'. Yet that would be classified by many as a 'vocation'.

It's an old word from a bygone age where perhaps most had no choice of occupation. They simply did what their father did - or what was available locally. Only the well off could indulge in the luxury of a 'vocation'.

These days it could legitimately be used for any trade or profession that anyone chooses to do for the love of it rather than just to feed themselves.

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Seems to spend a lot of time on after school activities..

Ignore at your peril if you want to keep your job..

Well like as in all employment situation there is the odd good one line Adam will tell you;!..

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Yes, they work a five and a half day week there...

Would you like to join him for a day so you can see first hand what happens?..

[tony sayer]

Theres a barrister across the way from us and I'll ask him when he's back here, and my accountant too .. he took a chemistry degree but found that he could make more loot doing accountancy.

Vocation?, .. I don't somehow think so!...

[Bill]

In message , tony sayer writes

Careful, he'll probably charge you by the hour to answer that sort of question.

[soup]

Not being (deliberately) stupid. Just wondering why a job that takes one person 88 hours a week still exists in this day and age?

[soup]

What regs are these? My breaks, when I was a wage slave, certainly were, 2 X 15 minute breaks were counted towards "working time", what wasn't counted was the 30 mins for lunch (45 mins if working away from the central site).

[Bob Eager]

It's clearly not every week. Averaged over the year, it's not so bad. But this rubbish about long holidays really gets my goat.