Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Mr Roo]

Like most of you, I’m always sad to see some of the “old hands” and stalwarts of British Engineering go down the drain, and it’s definitely happening more and more of late as we slowly lose the identity as a great Engineering nation.

With that said, I can’t say I’ll shed a tear at this news. On the contrary, I might well pay one last visit to them to p**s on their doorstep. The vindication I feel tonight is real.

Facade specialist goes under after 120 years | Construction News

Charles Henshaw & Sons has filed for administration after 120 years of trading. Directors of the Edinburgh-based envelope specialist blamed issues

www.constructionnews.co.uk

Served my had my time ludicrously wasted there, with a fat, bald pr**k of a foreman who went out of his way to block any chance of me learning the trade due to some as-yet-undisclosed personal problem he had with me. Journeymen and tradesmen who had been in the game 30+ years and wouldn’t teach the apprentices because “it’s not my f***ing job” and because of some odd innate fear of being usurped.

From the ground up and the top down that place was absolutely rank rotten and they rested on the laurels of big contracts while never considering the ever-growing gap in skills they were creating from themselves.

They wasted a large portion of my life and for a long time put me off the trade completely. While going through a gruelling employment tribunal for disability discrimination, they binned my snap-on tool chest and a cabinet i had full of various handtools and equipment - all of which i’d paid for myself due to.. “housekeeping.” (Which didn’t explain the fact that two or three toolboxes from retired Old Hands prior to my time there still lay in the exact same spot as they had the day I’d started..)

I hope every single one of their stakeholders gets rinsed in the bankruptcy and I hope most of them struggle to find work.

F**k them. Good riddance.

 

[Morrisman]

Like most of you, I’m always sad to see some of the “old hands” and stalwarts of British Engineering go down the drain, and it’s definitely happening more and more of late as we slowly lose the identity as a great Engineering nation.

With that said, I can’t say I’ll shed a tear at this news. On the contrary, I might well pay one last visit to them to p**s on their doorstep. The vindication I feel tonight is real.

Facade specialist goes under after 120 years | Construction News

Charles Henshaw & Sons has filed for administration after 120 years of trading. Directors of the Edinburgh-based envelope specialist blamed issues

www.constructionnews.co.uk

Served my had my time ludicrously wasted there, with a fat, bald pr**k of a foreman who went out of his way to block any chance of me learning the trade due to some as-yet-undisclosed personal problem he had with me. Journeymen and tradesmen who had been in the game 30+ years and wouldn’t teach the apprentices because “it’s not my f***ing job” and because of some odd innate fear of being usurped.

From the ground up and the top down that place was absolutely rank rotten and they rested on the laurels of big contracts while never considering the ever-growing gap in skills they were creating from themselves.

They wasted a large portion of my life and for a long time put me off the trade completely. While going through a gruelling employment tribunal for disability discrimination, they binned my snap-on tool chest and a cabinet i had full of various handtools and equipment - all of which i’d paid for myself due to.. “housekeeping.” (Which didn’t explain the fact that two or three toolboxes from retired Old Hands prior to my time there still lay in the exact same spot as they had the day I’d started..)

I hope every single one of their stakeholders gets rinsed in the bankruptcy and I hope most of them struggle to find work.

F**k them. Good riddance.

Yes, I got ragged a bit as an apprentice too.

 

[frank horton]

it's pretty much the same all over.......but I'll willingly teach anyone who is interested enough to ask......

My example of A hole's, worked in a jobbing engineering works....big prototype jobs.....
I asked the lead forman / hands on manager if I could learn to use a Mill, pre cnc.....
everyone, inc upper management were scared of him.....for me, just me takle to look after, single....
As well as being told to F off, *we wont teach ya anything*.....
so bought my own Bridgeport to add to my lathes.....self tought with a little guidence from the shop floor....
the blokes were great, they smuggled quite a lot of tooling out for me....hahaha.....

Over another unrelated matter I told em to stick their job.
After a gob full from the f/man, I broke his nose and walked.....
The shop floor were looking into his glass office knowing something was gonna go down.....great times.......

just to add, like me most of my skilled mates from all trades just quit and left the country.....plenty of cash out there.....
Boys from the black stuff and AUF Wiedersehen pet had a lot to do with it....
nuff said.....

 

[addjunkie]

Simple fact….people dont generally leave companies, they leave jobs with bad managers.

 

[Johnnybravo]

Did they chain you up in the corner for a large part of your life?

Yeah, we have all had work experiences we would rather forget. Onwards and upwards

 

[piman]

Hello all,

I have to consider myself very lucky as I had an excellent apprenticeship with the Central Electricity Generating Board. They had a real programme of developement and aimed for a technician level for it's trades men (And women). This was mid sixties and the Board felt that the gap between engineers and trades people was getting too wide and the technician was an answer to a bridging level which understood the engineering and also the practicalities of the trade.
If the CEGB were still in charge of our grid we would have litle or none of this renewables nonsense, it is so detrimental to the grid's stability and cost.

Alec

 

[Chippie]

I had a great start to my working life…An apprenticeship at ICI…Considered to be one of the best employers in the North East….I originally applied as an electrician, but at the interview they asked if I would like to be an instrument artificer…Training for the first six months was in the training centre, basic hand tool skills, full machine shop, then onto trade focussed learning…The remaining. 3-1/2 yrs spent at different areas of the complex working with other tradesmen….Not only was it about learning the skills of the trade,it was a lesson in life too, working with other people and getting on with them.
I still meet up with my friend who is 7 yrs my senior, I was his apprentice when I first came out of the training centre…

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Not work but a hobby engineering night class. When I first attended it was a great atmosphere and as a novice I felt welcome. The "tutor" was great and and I learnt a lot from him as well as the other classmates. After a couple of years we had a new tutor and things went downhill fast. Arrogant and made fun of peoples mistakes, belittling, rude and more interested in himself than doing his job. Mate and I soon left the class and went to another college. We later learn that was the last term the original college ran the course as others, besides mate and myself, left so not enough interest to continue. I can imagine the second tutor would have been a nightmare for an apprentice to work under

 

[Robotstar5]

Hello all,

I have to consider myself very lucky as I had an excellent apprenticeship with the Central Electricity Generating Board. They had a real programme of developement and aimed for a technician level for it's trades men (And women). This was mid sixties and the Board felt that the gap between engineers and trades people was getting too wide and the technician was an answer to a bridging level which understood the engineering and also the practicalities of the trade.
If the CEGB were still in charge of our grid we would have litle or none of this renewables nonsense, it is so detrimental to the grid's stability and cost.

Alec

Reminds me of my apprenticeship in the 70's at an iron foundry. I applied for a maintenance electrician job, but they decided as automation was starting to take off they would train me as an electrical technician as they would need folks to look after the new more complicated machinery.
As I came out of my time the foundry closed down due to cheaper foreign suppliers

 

[Morrisman]

I was treated as cheap labour in my machine shop apprenticeship, stuck on the tedious repetitive mind numbingly boring mass production jobs nobody else wanted, and I hated it.
But things improved after a good few years, and I eventually discovered I was the only person in the shop who knew how to operate every machine.
As with most places, there were a few of the arrogant bullies in the place, who I hated with a passion. They made the place even more unbearable, but it was the late seventies, early eighties, jobs were scarce, so I battled on to finish serving my time.

 

[skotl]

Like most of you, I’m always sad to see some of the “old hands” and stalwarts of British Engineering go down the drain, and it’s definitely happening more and more of late as we slowly lose the identity as a great Engineering nation.

With that said, I can’t say I’ll shed a tear at this news. On the contrary, I might well pay one last visit to them to p**s on their doorstep. The vindication I feel tonight is real.

Facade specialist goes under after 120 years | Construction News

Charles Henshaw & Sons has filed for administration after 120 years of trading. Directors of the Edinburgh-based envelope specialist blamed issues

www.constructionnews.co.uk

Served my had my time ludicrously wasted there, with a fat, bald pr**k of a foreman who went out of his way to block any chance of me learning the trade due to some as-yet-undisclosed personal problem he had with me. Journeymen and tradesmen who had been in the game 30+ years and wouldn’t teach the apprentices because “it’s not my f***ing job” and because of some odd innate fear of being usurped.

From the ground up and the top down that place was absolutely rank rotten and they rested on the laurels of big contracts while never considering the ever-growing gap in skills they were creating from themselves.

They wasted a large portion of my life and for a long time put me off the trade completely. While going through a gruelling employment tribunal for disability discrimination, they binned my snap-on tool chest and a cabinet i had full of various handtools and equipment - all of which i’d paid for myself due to.. “housekeeping.” (Which didn’t explain the fact that two or three toolboxes from retired Old Hands prior to my time there still lay in the exact same spot as they had the day I’d started..)

I hope every single one of their stakeholders gets rinsed in the bankruptcy and I hope most of them struggle to find work.

F**k them. Good riddance.

Administrator Shona Campbell at Henderson Loggie is seeking a buyer for the £18.5m-turnover firm and its assets.

So.... no chance of a forum buy then?

 

[Mr Roo]

it's pretty much the same all over.......but I'll willingly teach anyone who is interested enough to ask......

My example of A hole's, worked in a jobbing engineering works....big prototype jobs.....
I asked the lead forman / hands on manager if I could learn to use a Mill, pre cnc.....
everyone, inc upper management were scared of him.....for me, just me takle to look after, single....
As well as being told to F off, *we wont teach ya anything*.....
so bought my own Bridgeport to add to my lathes.....self tought with a little guidence from the shop floor....
the blokes were great, they smuggled quite a lot of tooling out for me....hahaha.....

Over another unrelated matter I told em to stick their job.
After a gob full from the f/man, I broke his nose and walked.....
The shop floor were looking into his glass office knowing something was gonna go down.....great times.......

just to add, like me most of my skilled mates from all trades just quit and left the country.....plenty of cash out there.....
Boys from the black stuff and AUF Wiedersehen pet had a lot to do with it....
nuff said.....

In my case, it was a lot of wasted time. Part of me wonders whether he had a chip in his shoulder after the company had agreed with my training providers to send me to uni to finish my degree rather than doing the bog-standard National Certificate that most apprentices were doing (and that, on paper, I’d completed already with a combination of various classes through Mechanical, Civil & Structural engineering)

It started out innocuously enough.
Turn up at 6am, ask what they wanted me doing that day. “Ahh, sorry - busy as! come back and see me after morning tea and i’ll have summat for you” which, yes, was 4 hours of doing SFA. Following morning tea, it was “ahh, so busy. come see me after lunch, i’ll definitely have something.” meanwhile rest of workshop was busy and materials piling up; but tradesmen “that’s MY job” while they have enough work to last them 7 weeks and we’re 2 weeks behind on a big job..?
Naturally, after lunchtime it was a case of “you know what? i’ve been running around like a blue a**ed fly all day. i’ll have a rummage tonight and get something to start you on in the morning. Come see me then!”

This lasted 2-3 months while I was in my 3rd year at the place, so one day I turned round and said “tell you what; i’ve got uni work to get on with and you have nothing for me at the moment so maybe just call me when there’s something for me to do?”

Nearly 6 months later someone upstairs realised, and apparently my explanation of “well, I assumed someone was going to finally have something for me to do, no?” was not their favourite answer as to “where have you been?!”

Prior to this there had been a few issues which I highlighted several times. I was never getting training on half the kit I should have been using daily and one day he flubs with “aye well you won’t be able to hear if something goes wrong so we can’t train you on it.”

I went straight to the director’s office to ask about the history of the place. “Did you not say there used to be twins in the fettling shop?” Aye, he says. Profoundly deaf, only communicated in sign language and by reading drawings. “And how did they get on with the kit?” Fine? They used everything. They had to. What use are they if they couldn’t? “Okay, so why the f**k have i been told i’m too deaf to use the saws or the brake press or f***ing anything else?” Ah well maybe you’ve misunderstood him..?

 

[Erie Fred]

I wonder if the hostilities towards the new apprentices is because these people's kids couldn't make entrance
exam for apprentice's.
Bullies want to keep it "all in the family" so to speak.

 

[Cobbler]

A man I worked for, for about 12 months had the attitude & repeatedly told me “if I told you, you’d be as wise as I am” I was glad when he sacked me!

 

[Hitch]

I quite like apprentices.
Train them hard, and once they get it, its less I have to do.

 

[Robotstar5]

A man I worked for, for about 12 months had the attitude & repeatedly told me “if I told you, you’d be as wise as I am” I was glad when he sacked me!

We had an engineer like that at the foundry, when an automated (relay logic) mould making machine was installed he wouldn't let anyone apart from himself work with the commissioning engineer while making copious notes in a little book. Any faults with the machine he was the only one who could fix it and wouldn't train anyone else as he thought it was job security for himself, the foundry closed down about a year later, so much for job security.

 

[Morrisman]

A man I worked for, for about 12 months had the attitude & repeatedly told me “if I told you, you’d be as wise as I am” I was glad when he sacked me!

Inspector in my old machine shop, nice enough guy, pretty clever, I asked him one day how to do a particular job. His reply:

“If I tell you, you’ll know. If you work it out yourself, you’ll f****ng well remember”

He was right, I worked it out, with his help on some of it, and to this day I’ve remembered how I worked it out.

It was a lathe job, that I could not fathom the order to do the machining in.

 

[Mark 5]

Pre sat-nav, older brother, I'm driving, I'm lost, on the way to price a job, brother knew how to get there.

I'm lost.

Got a A-Z

No.

Should have brought a A-Z.

Yeah but I haven't, just tell me.

F-ing should have brought a A-Z if you hadn't a clue, work it out.

Hour and half late and several stops to ask, didn't get the job.

I'm fuming.

Now you know how to get there, you won't forget.

 

[minimutly]

When I was a tech fixing water works I did a spell at a local one. The previous tech was a devious guy who kept everything in a book, never left a circuit diagram of mods anywhere, and there was this "green panel" - a rats nest of loops with connections coming and going everywhere. So I spent days on my knees in this panel, with a tatty old original drawing, pulling redundant, and sometimes not, cabling out. More times than I should I brought the whole works to a standstill. Quite a few times I found simple series loops that went twice around some remote instrument, for absolutely no reason. This told me that Mr devious was not as clever as he pretended to be...

 

[MattF]

Quite a few times I found simple series loops that went twice around some remote instrument, for absolutely no reason. This told me that Mr devious was not as clever as he pretended to be...

Or the opposite, possibly? May have been to make sure that no-one else wanted to work on it when they saw it, so that he would be the fixer.