Ace Alibi (www.ace-alibi.com), for a fee, will do the dirty work for you. If you or a colleague are planning a day out, how about making use of the special telephone number set up by Ace Alibi, which will connect the suspicious superior to a “conference organiser” or a “hotel receptionist”? This person’s job is then to convince the caller that the employee is really very hard at work at this conference and is not just in the bar. Even more amazingly, if the conference is in Cardiff, they promise that the voice at the end of the line will be Welsh.
Most of those using the service, according to the web site owners, are professionals, but they are more circumspect when asked why people are using such a service. Very wisely, they don’t ask why someone is using it.
Angry e-mails take the Mickey
• The destructive potential of terse e-mail messages has been demonstrated in the most unlikely of places – Disneyworld.
It has been reported that all hell broke loose after an electronic war of words among employees.
Mediators were allegedly called in to defuse the situation, which was caused when stressed employees sent abrupt e-mails to colleagues perceived to have made mistakes. Apparently some of the recipients sent the e-mails straight back with messages like, “What is this?” attached, precipitating the kind of chaos usually restricted to cartoons.
Guru can only hope it was not someone in a Mickey Mouse costume who caused the trouble. He’s heard of kids getting thrown out for rude gestures to cartoon characters – but not vice versa.
Kevin forced out of JobCentre job
• Anyone in need of someone with admin skills should go straight to Evesham, Worcester, and hire poor Keith Skidmore.
The Mirror reported last week that Skidmore, a temporary admin worker at the town’s JobCentre, lost his post just a week before he qualified for a full-time contract – because the Government deemed unemployment in the town was too low to justify his full-time position.
In his final week at work, Skidmore was forced to hand out application forms to people wanting his £10,000-a-year post – because it was government policy to replace him with another temporary employee.
Not surprisingly, Skidmore was not best pleased about being put on £150 a week benefits until his former colleagues find him a new job. He is reported as saying, “It seems madness. There is a job here but I can’t have it. The policy stinks.”
An employment service spokesman denied the allegations, claiming Skidmore was advised two months ago to take a permanent position but did not take up the suggestion.
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• Reports have reached Guru of an interestingly-paid member of staff. Consultants at Towers Perrin last week highlighted the case of a call centre employee who is paid in childcare and shopping vouchers.
As most of Guru’s money is spent at Tesco and on childcare it seems that this is a step in the right direction.
