Working the French way

[BigTone]

Watched these guys for almost an hour this morning in Angouleme as they cleaned up about 30 metres of street. One operated the brush, one operated the shovel and one operated the black bag. No wonder they never get stressed here.

[Major Isewater]

53 minutes ago, BigTone said:

Watched these guys for almost an hour this morning in Angouleme as they cleaned up about 30 metres of street. One operated the brush, one operated the shovel and one operated the black bag. No wonder they never get stressed here.

These are often people with special needs  . 

[EmersonsRed]

Thanks for this Tone, eye opener. Truly

[BigTone]

I like to keep everyone up to date with these earth shattering events.

[BigTone]

23 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

These are often people with special needs  . 

Your Majorship !!!!

[Calculus]

So three Frenchmen did almost nothing for a whole hour and you were sat there watching them doing it.

Good to know you're setting a good example and keeping busy...

[Taz]

Probably went on strike after that hard days graft.

[BigTone]

6 hours ago, Calculus said:

So three Frenchmen did almost nothing for a whole hour and you were sat there watching them doing it.

Good to know you're setting a good example and keeping busy...

I was working on my laptop whilst waiting for a train to bring me back to London for work.

[Major Isewater]

2 hours ago, BigTone said:

I was working on my laptop whilst waiting for a train to bring me back to London for work.

You were in a laptop dancing club ? 

[BigTone]

2 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

You were in a laptop dancing club ? 

Who's been talking ?

[Esmond Million's Bung]

Back in March this year during a storm a tree on my road came down and took with it a power line (long story but the French guy who owned the tree had been warned about the dangerous condition of the tree as were EDF but both chose to ignore those warnings).

The gardener from the chateau at the end of my road found the tree blocking his route home for his sacrosanct 2 hour lunch break and cut enough of the offending tree for 'his' vehicle to fit through and duly went home, it took another 2 days before EDF arrived and made the gap in the road wide enough for my vehicle to get through and to isolate over 400 metres of live power line still on the ground.

Unbeknownst to me only the negative wire on the power line had fractured, resulting in 600 volts of power entering into my house further resulting in 5,000euros worth of electrical equipment being taken out.

The insurance company took 6 weeks to send an assessor, the assessor for the guy whose tree it was took another 4 weeks on top of the original 6 weeks.

We were 4 days without any power whatsoever and for me that means no water because I have a private source.

Amongst other things the power surge took out a cooker, a fridge freezer and 2 microwaves, an electrician checked my cooker and managed to safely get the oven and 2 rings on the cooker working, 3 months later the insurance company paid me out enough to replace most items but decided that the cooker and fridge freezer could be economically repaired and the cooker was duly repaired that very week.

And now we come to the fridge freezer, it took the company 1 week shy of 6 months and 6 visits before the 6th repair actually identified and successfully repaired the fridge freezer, the other 5 repairs had failed one after 2 days, one after 10 days and a restocking of said fridge freezer, the third after 2 weeks and yet another restocking.

That 6 months all but 1 week included a record breaking summer in terms of temperatures, the fridge freezer was finally repaired in September.

At no time was I ever offered a replacement so as the repairing company could take mine away to repair it, at no time did I ever receive an apology, I did however receive a lot of customary Gallic shrugs, at no time was I offered recompense for the undoubted suffering Mrs Bung and I were exposed to and even the insurance company told me "if the 6th repair does not work, you will have to buy a new one and YOU will have to pay, we have now closed your file as being satisfactorily completed".

Believe me that is a normal 6 months here in France, luckily it would appear the make up wearing M Macron is intelligent enough to know that 'customer service' in France is an alien concept and that and it's archaic employment laws is the main reason why most of the world of business refuses to invest here in France and is slowly implementing new laws and far more slowly French unions are realising that the vast majority of the French public does not support them and their woeful record of striking.

[PHILINFRANCE]

23 hours ago, BigTone said:

Watched these guys for almost an hour this morning in Angouleme as they cleaned up about 30 metres of street. One operated the brush, one operated the shovel and one operated the black bag. No wonder they never get stressed here.

With apologies to Jerome K. Jerome.

I love watching people pretending to work; it fascinates me. I can sit and watch it for hours. 

Seriously, though, and as the Major noted, a lot of people undertaking such work are of limited mental capacity and are given such tasks by the local authorities in order both to earn a minimum wage (they most probably would not be employed otherwise), and also to feel part of and contribute to the local community - very commendable, in my opinion.

In addition, some are often prisoners.

 

 

[BigTone]

3 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

With apologies to Jerome K. Jerome.

I love watching people pretending to work; it fascinates me. I can sit and watch it for hours. 

Seriously, though, and as the Major noted, a lot of people undertaking such work are of limited mental capacity and are given such tasks by the local authorities in order both to earn a minimum wage (they most probably would not be employed otherwise), and also to feel part of and contribute to the local community - very commendable, in my opinion.

In addition, some are often prisoners.

 

 

Understand the sentiment as our commune does the same and rightly so. I can assure you that these 3 were not judging by their conversation etc. Just made me laugh thats all.

 

[PHILINFRANCE]

7 minutes ago, BigTone said:

Understand the sentiment as our commune does the same and rightly so. I can assure you that these 3 were not judging by their conversation etc. Just made me laugh thats all.

 

On a slightly different subject, and based solely on the view of the station from your photograph, I think I might even know the café/restaurant in which you were sitting.

Was it Le Terminus?

 

[BigTone]

5 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

On a slightly different subject, and based solely on the view of the station from your photograph, I think I might even know the café/restaurant in which you were sitting.

Was it Le Terminus?

 

I think it was.  3 doors up from Le Terminus Hotel

[PHILINFRANCE]

8 minutes ago, BigTone said:

I think it was.  3 doors up from Le Terminus Hotel

I assume you were drinking a coffee this morning, but try and have lunch there next time.

You won't regret it.

[BigTone]

2 hours ago, Esmond Million's Bung said:

Back in March this year during a storm a tree on my road came down and took with it a power line (long story but the French guy who owned the tree had been warned about the dangerous condition of the tree as were EDF but both chose to ignore those warnings).

The gardener from the chateau at the end of my road found the tree blocking his route home for his sacrosanct 2 hour lunch break and cut enough of the offending tree for 'his' vehicle to fit through and duly went home, it took another 2 days before EDF arrived and made the gap in the road wide enough for my vehicle to get through and to isolate over 400 metres of live power line still on the ground.

Unbeknownst to me only the negative wire on the power line had fractured, resulting in 600 volts of power entering into my house further resulting in 5,000euros worth of electrical equipment being taken out.

The insurance company took 6 weeks to send an assessor, the assessor for the guy whose tree it was took another 4 weeks on top of the original 6 weeks.

We were 4 days without any power whatsoever and for me that means no water because I have a private source.

Amongst other things the power surge took out a cooker, a fridge freezer and 2 microwaves, an electrician checked my cooker and managed to safely get the oven and 2 rings on the cooker working, 3 months later the insurance company paid me out enough to replace most items but decided that the cooker and fridge freezer could be economically repaired and the cooker was duly repaired that very week.

And now we come to the fridge freezer, it took the company 1 week shy of 6 months and 6 visits before the 6th repair actually identified and successfully repaired the fridge freezer, the other 5 repairs had failed one after 2 days, one after 10 days and a restocking of said fridge freezer, the third after 2 weeks and yet another restocking.

That 6 months all but 1 week included a record breaking summer in terms of temperatures, the fridge freezer was finally repaired in September.

At no time was I ever offered a replacement so as the repairing company could take mine away to repair it, at no time did I ever receive an apology, I did however receive a lot of customary Gallic shrugs, at no time was I offered recompense for the undoubted suffering Mrs Bung and I were exposed to and even the insurance company told me "if the 6th repair does not work, you will have to buy a new one and YOU will have to pay, we have now closed your file as being satisfactorily completed".

Believe me that is a normal 6 months here in France, luckily it would appear the make up wearing M Macron is intelligent enough to know that 'customer service' in France is an alien concept and that and it's archaic employment laws is the main reason why most of the world of business refuses to invest here in France and is slowly implementing new laws and far more slowly French unions are realising that the vast majority of the French public does not support them and their woeful record of striking.

I had problems with the skimmers on my swimming pool. Mr French artisan arrived to start repairs on Easter Monday.  I am working in London and he returned in June to continue for another whole day. I returned to France on 15th September,  called him to get an answer machine. I left a message with the word "advocat" included. 5 minutes later he calls to arrange a visit the next day.  My pool is now perfect.

[BigTone]

6 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

I assume you were drinking a coffee this morning, but try and have lunch there next time.

You won't regret it.

I will next time

[BigTone]

7 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

I assume you were drinking a coffee this morning, but try and have lunch there next time.

You won't regret it.

You live near Angouleme ?

[PHILINFRANCE]

15 minutes ago, BigTone said:

You live near Angouleme ?

No, but I have been there many times on business, although not in the last year or so.

If I recall correctly, on my last visit to Angouleme I had the dubious pleasure of visiting 'Le Bus' and had lunch the following day at Le Terminus waiting for my train back to Montparnasse.  

[ralphindevon]

The further south you get the more laid back things become.

I lived 11 years in Carcassonne and although I wasn't qualified in anything, I soon learnt as much as I could about swimming pools, as trying to find someone, especially in summer was near impossible.

In no time at all I had clients queuing for my new found "skills" mainly because I turned up when i said i would, didnt rip people off by pretending a problem was worse than it was and even worked through most of my lunch break.

However, after a while it all changed, I'd built up a big client base and fell into the French way. I was having 2 hour lunch breaks that included wine, wouldn't dream of turning up at the exact time agreed and would spend ages looking into somebody's leaking, green pool shrugging my shoulders, shaking my head and swearing a lot in French. 

It might look shockingly lazy to visiting Brits but it doesn't half feel right when you're part of it.

 

[RaspberryRed]

On 09/10/2017 at 17:15, Major Isewater said:

These are often people with special needs  . 

Meaning & your point being?

[Major Isewater]

11 hours ago, RaspberryRed said:

Meaning & your point being?

Meaning that perhaps these people were slower because of reduced mental capacity and therefore not the fastest workers .

As noted earlier in the thread town halls  here in France employ ' special needs ' individuals to do supervised work in the community .

They aren't taken on for their efficiency but as a platform to help them enjoy something of a ' normal ' life so no big deal if it takes them a long time to finish a task .

At least they can have some pride in their work and a sense of self worth .

 I hope that clears things up for you ?

[Major Isewater]

21 hours ago, Esmond Million's Bung said:

Back in March this year during a storm a tree on my road came down and took with it a power line (long story but the French guy who owned the tree had been warned about the dangerous condition of the tree as were EDF but both chose to ignore those warnings).

The gardener from the chateau at the end of my road found the tree blocking his route home for his sacrosanct 2 hour lunch break and cut enough of the offending tree for 'his' vehicle to fit through and duly went home, it took another 2 days before EDF arrived and made the gap in the road wide enough for my vehicle to get through and to isolate over 400 metres of live power line still on the ground.

Unbeknownst to me only the negative wire on the power line had fractured, resulting in 600 volts of power entering into my house further resulting in 5,000euros worth of electrical equipment being taken out.

The insurance company took 6 weeks to send an assessor, the assessor for the guy whose tree it was took another 4 weeks on top of the original 6 weeks.

We were 4 days without any power whatsoever and for me that means no water because I have a private source.

Amongst other things the power surge took out a cooker, a fridge freezer and 2 microwaves, an electrician checked my cooker and managed to safely get the oven and 2 rings on the cooker working, 3 months later the insurance company paid me out enough to replace most items but decided that the cooker and fridge freezer could be economically repaired and the cooker was duly repaired that very week.

And now we come to the fridge freezer, it took the company 1 week shy of 6 months and 6 visits before the 6th repair actually identified and successfully repaired the fridge freezer, the other 5 repairs had failed one after 2 days, one after 10 days and a restocking of said fridge freezer, the third after 2 weeks and yet another restocking.

That 6 months all but 1 week included a record breaking summer in terms of temperatures, the fridge freezer was finally repaired in September.

At no time was I ever offered a replacement so as the repairing company could take mine away to repair it, at no time did I ever receive an apology, I did however receive a lot of customary Gallic shrugs, at no time was I offered recompense for the undoubted suffering Mrs Bung and I were exposed to and even the insurance company told me "if the 6th repair does not work, you will have to buy a new one and YOU will have to pay, we have now closed your file as being satisfactorily completed".

Believe me that is a normal 6 months here in France, luckily it would appear the make up wearing M Macron is intelligent enough to know that 'customer service' in France is an alien concept and that and it's archaic employment laws is the main reason why most of the world of business refuses to invest here in France and is slowly implementing new laws and far more slowly French unions are realising that the vast majority of the French public does not support them and their woeful record of striking.

Insurance loss adjusters are the biggest criminals out .

You put in a claim and instantly they reduce it by half .

You really need to fight your corner .or you'll get nothing .

 

[BigTone]

4 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

Insurance loss adjusters are the biggest criminals out .

You put in a claim and instantly they reduce it by half .

You really need to fight your corner .or you'll get nothing .

 

How true

[Esmond Million's Bung]

1 minute ago, Major Isewater said:

Insurance loss adjusters are the biggest criminals out .

You put in a claim and instantly they reduce it by half .

You really need to fight your corner .or you'll get nothing .

 

I did and I did ok, mainly because I finally persuaded them with all of the evidence that myself and my neighbour had that the owner of the tree and EDF were neglectful, so my insurance company would not be a penny out of pocket, I charged for restaurant meals and a hotel stay and ongoing case for pain and suffering.

But incredibly my insurance broker told me that my case was unique and that they had never dealt with a case EVER where they had enough evidence to sue others parties and the reason is simple, in France the act of suing somebody is so expensive it is out of the price range of all but the mega rich, I sold some land to my neighbour once and part of the contract was that he had to provide a professionally erected fence and the work had to be done by a certain date and penalty clauses inserted for every week the fence was overdue, 12 months after the deadline date and no penalties paid or Mickey Mouse fence built by this ****, the notaire who drew up the contract and whom was paid 4,500euros for the that dubious privilege told me I would have to employ a lawyer at great expense to get my justice, France is a bullshit country where justice is concerned it relies on the fact that the huge cost of litigation will put off most ordinary but shat upon people from that course of action.

 

[Major Isewater]

14 minutes ago, BigTone said:

How true

An old dear in the same  building where I lived which  flooded  was so intimidated by them that she even refused my help to get her insurance   paid out .

I battled with them and got satisfaction but how many other weaker people lose out ? 

It really is scandalous.

[Robbored]

Are you sure you were in France Tone?

Your picture could have been taken pretty much anywhere in the U.K..............

[Major Isewater]

5 minutes ago, Esmond Million's Bung said:

I did and I did ok, mainly because I finally persuaded them with all of the evidence that myself and my neighbour had that the owner of the tree and EDF were neglectful, so my insurance company would not be a penny out of pocket, I charged for restaurant meals and a hotel stay and ongoing case for pain and suffering.

But incredibly my insurance broker told me that my case was unique and that they had never dealt with a case EVER where they had enough evidence to sue others parties and the reason is simple, in France the act of suing somebody is so expensive it is out of the price range of all but the mega rich, I sold some land to my neighbour once and part of the contract was that he had to provide a professionally erected fence and the work had to be done by a certain date and penalty clauses inserted for every week the fence was overdue, 12 months after the deadline date and no penalties paid or Mickey Mouse fence built by this ****, the notaire who drew up the contract and whom was paid 4,500euros for the that dubious privilege told me I would have to employ a lawyer at great expense to get my justice, France is a bullshit country where justice is concerned it relies on the fact that the huge cost of litigation will put off most ordinary but shat upon people from that course of action.

 

That is a catch 22 .

I know a guy who bought an old ruin in the village.

He signed the sales agreement and the owner agreed that he could start work on the house so that when the sale was finalised at the solicitor's he would be able to move his family in straight away .

However , in the mean time , the council took up the option of a compulsory purchase and the owner sued the guy for damage to property ! 

It was a ruin ! 

So you can understand why the fence couldn't be put up before the final sale but I'm surprised that the notaire didn't hold some funds to ensure that the work was done . 

 

[Esmond Million's Bung]

2 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

That is a catch 22 .

I know a guy who bought an old ruin in the village.

He signed the sales agreement and the owner agreed that he could start work on the house so that when the sale was finalised at the solicitor's he would be able to move his family in straight away .

However , in the mean time , the council took up the option of a compulsory purchase and the owner sued the guy for damage to property ! 

It was a ruin ! 

So you can understand why the fence couldn't be put up before the final sale but I'm surprised that the notaire didn't hold some funds to ensure that the work was done . 

 

The sale of the land was completed and the erection of the fence was given a 3 month completion beyond the sale completion, the only funds that could be held were mine anyway, he bought the land from me.