Anyone who's met me socially is always amazed to see my appearance at work. Naturally I am a slob, but I like to think that I brush up well when the occasion demands. Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but I think that one needs to look the part when one is at work. As a trainee this was drummed into me, and it stuck. Even though nowadays I think I am the only bloke in the department who wears a tie every day. Not even the bosses do any more.
One of my trainees was formally assessed today. As part of the assessment a senior scientist from another hospital (usually some hundred or so miles away) comes to see them. Bearing in mind the gravity of these occasions I like the students to make an effort and try to impress the assessors.
Perhaps I should blame a management ethos which doesn’t take a pride in its appearance, but it bothers me that I have to tell the trainees not to wear shorts or jeans on the special assessment day. And it bothers me even more when they whinge about having to wear a shirt and tie. But for one day they make an effort and turn up looking like they haven't been dragged through a hedge. It's probably to keep me quiet, but they all make the effort. I think they look better turning up at work in a shirt and a tie, even if I am in a minority in thinking so.
It never occurred to me that I would have to remind a student to have a shave and to brush his hair. The chap assessed today's girlfriend is a hairdresser, and I am reliably informed that his coiffure was actually rather splendid. Perhaps I am getting old: to me he looked like a startled hedgehog. I don't think I did much for his confidence by telling him so. But he passed anyway. That’s now twenty one students whose qualification to state registration I’ve overseen. With three more currently in progress I wonder how many more I’ll do before retiring, or somebody else gets given the task.
And then home. A month or so ago I enrolled with a market research company. They periodically solicit my opinion on a range of subjects, and pay me for it. So far I’ve answered questionnaires on supermarkets, mineral water, tea bags, cars, all sorts of things. Each time I do a survey they credit my account with up to a pound. They claimed that when the balance reached ten quid I could claim vouchers. I was rather sceptical, but quite enjoyed the surveys, so I kept doing them. This evening I realised my credit balance with them was £12.50, so I claimed an Amazon voucher to the value of ten quid.
The email with the voucher arrived straight away: I was rather pleased about that, and immediately bought an e-book for my Kindle. And I got charged for it. What an amazing voucher that was!
Once the red mist and my ranting had subsided I checked my Amazon account. I had no credit balance. I had not credited the voucher to my account. Woops. Having done that obvious thing, my credit balance went up to ten quid. So I bought another e-book and this time I was not charged for it, and I still have a credit balance of over three quid with Amazon.
If any of my loyal readers would like to get paid for doing these surveys, please get in touch. You really do get paid, and I get a bung every time I recommend someone.
No comments:
Post a Comment