Originally Posted by Hud955 I must have been asleep when they explained about the work ethic. (Very likely!) I've tried to penetrate the mysteries of work for years but have failed. That doesn't mean I like hanging around doing nothing; far from it. I'm a fidget. It's just that I don't like Work. ....I am surrounded by managers who think all this is 'meaningful' - or so they pretend. I dream that one day someone will tell me that my work had helped to save a life or has made an old person happy, but no-one ever does, and if they did, they would be lying.

Originally Posted by Harty Just too many wage whores about who moan about being time poor, but are usually money rich. You only get one life, so live it I say

Originally Posted by Platypus About to start a totally new career on a Drillship working a month on, a month off. I have a son and partner so this has not been an easy decision but I'm excited. I'm hoping that working Offshore will give me the balance I'm looking for without the risks associated with working for yourself. I don't think I could ever work a regular 9-5 mon-Fri with hardly any time off. I worked for myself for over 10 years running a climbing/Mountaineering shop which was great for a while, sadly I had to fold it last year, I lost everything, and I mean everything. Your own business can be the best and worst thing in the world. Being away from your home and family for 28 days, working 12hour shifts, 7 days a week isn't great but 28 days off to do what I want is great ! in search of balance…..

Finally a place to have a good rant......

I retired from the police force (sorry service) in 2004 after 23 years faithful service.

Glad to be out of "the job" I loved as it's changed so much now.

I served in the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) for 9 years and the Metropolitan Police (London) for the remaining 14 years. I rode a bike in the Special Escort Group for nearly 6 years and came out with the rank of Chief Inspector.

I now refer to the modern police service simply as "Toy Town".

When I joined the force in 1980, most officers were ex-squaddies with an inbuilt sense of public service. They also mostly looked the part - tall, lean, fit and appeared the kind of person you wouldn't want to mess with. In those days it wasn't possible to join the force if you had any kind of criminal conviction and apart from a few bad apples they were all decent, honest hardworking thief takers (officers that enjoyed protecting the public and lived to put the baddies behind bars). Most of those old-timers have been ethnically cleansed from the new modern service and replaced with "robots".

A huge proportion of those now serving as police officers simply wouldn't have made the grade in the (good) old days.

Senior police officers now exist to produce piles of inane paperwork. Political Correctness (regarding minorities etc) and Health & Safety has utterly ruined the job I gave my life to.

I always refused to attend pointless Diversity Courses.

I believe there is a 4 foot policeman serving in the Lincolnshire force!

Last week while walking the streets of Tower Hamlets in London I saw with my own eyes a women police officer (WPC) who must have weighed 30 stone! Her waist was almost as wide as the "top of the range" car she was driving!

Some women police officers even wear men's peaked caps instead of their own model! A peaked cap with hair poking from the sides looks utterly ridiculous. Their senior officers even encourage this kind of idiocy...

Dial 999 these days and you're likely to get a couple of timid looking little girls turn up driving a top of the range executive car. Their little heads (bless them), poke just above the steering wheel.

The uniform used to be a smart blue tunic and trousers with a white shirt and tie.

The uniform now is a quasi-military black uniform based it would seem on Nazi Germany. Basically it's a soldiers uniform - hob nail boots with trousers tucked etc. The uniform is designed to be intimidating but this is a daft way to interact with the general public (the people who pay their wages and the people they are supposed to SERVE).

When dealing with "Joe Public" they look and act hard men but when dealing with real criminals they turn into Social Workers!

The main problem with the modern police model is this - the decent, law abiding people who are supposed to be protected (served) by these officers are now being treated as POTENTIAL CRIMINALS and law breakers.

Huge surveillance databases are being amassed to criminalize the law abiding, tax paying, white, middle classes (the people who our left-leaning political masters really despise). These databases include the details of law abiding citizens who have never been convicted of a criminal offence.

These days it's all about generating revenue for local government and above all, TEACHING US WHOSE BOSS!

Things have become so bad that personally I would never phone them unless I needed a crime number for an insurance claim!

Nothing will improve until our (failed) political masters start to make an example of wrongdoers - there needs to be proper deterrents in place to PUNISH criminals instead of rewarding wrong-doing.

I could cry....