zap99

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Canary Wharf was created on the old West India docks which closed in 1980 to facilitate the building.

 

West India Docks belonged to the Port of London and were first there in around 1790, if I recall correctly. It's a long time ago since I was busy running round sourcing land!

Olympia&York took the development on, run by the Reichman brothers before they went bust.

8 minutes ago, zap99 said:

It was owned by  Canadian Jews, but they sold out/went bust. I worked for RMC. Lots of returned loads went into the docks...and other places!!. In 1990 I moved to Hanson, who was looking into buying Canary Wharf plc. I may well know your buddy, but best not mention names.🤣

I went back to RMC in 2000. I went to the fortnightly progress meeting for the Barking bypass. We went on our first cruise, Island escape. This boring, whining bloke was entertaining the dinner table by showing off his jacket ( guilet?) ..look how many pockets it's got. I can wear it when I get home .Barking isn't actually countryside, but it's very pleasant...Apart from those blasted orange cement mixer lorries...he looked at me..what do you do... I flog insurance.

1 hour ago, brian1 said:

I used to drink with a bloke that owned a ready mixed concrete company pouring loads in Canary Wharf 24/7.He earned a fortune,especially from the nonexistant loads.I heard a story that the owners were Canadian Orthodox Jews and when a load got mistakenly poured on the Sabbeth it had to be dug out.Whether that was true or an urban myth,I don't know.

It was owned by  Canadian Jews, but they sold out/went bust. I worked for RMC. Lots of returned loads went into the docks...and other places!!. In 1990 I moved to Hanson, who was looking into buying Canary Wharf plc. I may well know your buddy, but best not mention names.🤣

8 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Pizza Express will always be there Zap.Has it got one of those blue plaques yet.

Not yet, but it has tributes to Paul Weller.

4 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I doubt many staff who worked in Canary Wharf lived there even at the height of the bank "goldrush".  Most of the people paying the multi millions to live on the Island appeared to be American bankers living in corporate leasehold properties. Judging by my last few trips there it won't be long before it's derelict again as they've all disappeared. Most of the towers are pretty empty since the banks left so a repurpose might be the only way.

 

For my sins I was involved with the building of the original No. 1 Tower (my firm organised the bank financing and partnership).  

 

Re Woking what are the plans for the previous Council's ill advised property developments?  Any chance you council tax paying residents will see any returns soon?  

 

 

I too was involved in the construction of Canary Wharf from 1st to last. Before that started I was based at the Highway, Stepney for 8 years. Anything we wanted to ' dispose of ' went to the Royal docks. The Council did a deal with the government last year. I doubt it will be honoured. You are the expert, not me but I thought if a company went bust, the lenders and shareholders lost out. The lender in this case being the government.

12 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Many office blocks have been converted or have plans to convert to hotels. 

If the town centred are empty, folk may not want to stay in hotels in Bradford, or Woking.

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

With the exodus of banks from Canary Wharf back to the City and smaller offices there is currently a move to convert the Isle of Dogs properties to residential.  The Mayor of Tower Hamlets is very keen to reuse the properties.

 

 

If there are no staff in Canary Wharf, they won't need houses as there will be no people. I remember docklands in the late 60's. Semi derelict.

1 hour ago, Snow Hill said:

Clearly there are many roles where you can’t work from home, but there are many where you can. Four of our children work from home either fully or for 2 or 3 days a week, all in different careers, most people they are in contact with would have no idea they were working from home. 
 

My former employer has reduced the amount of central office space it had in cities and either converted empty space in other buildings it owns or acquired smaller premises from office space so employees who need an office desk for part of the time have one nearer than the 90 min commute to their old office. 

So lots of empty offices. No need to build any new ones, or employ as many train drivers, or sandwich bar workers, or bus drivers.....sounds like a win,  win.

16 hours ago, lincslady said:

Not sure how you can work from home if you are a delivery driver, or a bricklayer, or on a till at the supermarket?

There seems to be a new level of Managers. Those that check the WFH lot are actually working.

10 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

Before I retired over 10 years ago I used to work from home 3 days a week, the other 2 days were spent elsewhere sometimes my base office or at the site project was based at, I did a fair bit of travelling. 
 

Working from home isn’t new, it’s just become more prevalent over the last 4 years

 

The steel fixers and brickies would find it a bit of a ...challenge.

5 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Just one occasion waiting an hour on the telephone and then being disconnected would be enough to put me off booking direct.

Normally we book online and don't need to speak to P&O at all, so don't have these problems.

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

You don’t compile them, they generate automatically and display on the manager(s) screens.

 

Staff also saw their own statistics. Perhaps systems don’t all work the same way but most modern ones did.

 

Your theory is right though, sometimes people just need to get on with the job.

 

I also worked with scan and workflow systems which had escalations inbuilt if targets were missed. They escalated up to a supervisor, then a manager until it hit the CEO if it was happening too often.

And if the CEO isn't dealing with his emails promptly reports end up on cc.🤣

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

She clearly she was not managing properly then. All modern contact centres with CRM have an accurate record of calls taken, time taken, Ox time between calls, time away from desk, reports take this down to the minute including any dropped calls because they were not answered, calls in the que, wait time in que etc.. It can even count keystrokes to foil the mouse wigglers.

 

As an aside any organisation which has long wait time and lots of abandoned calls is well aware of it and simply don’t care enough about their customer base to make it better. That applies whether people are in the office or at home for call handlers (obviously not for other job roles so much).

 

 

Yes we had all the statistics. Perhaps people compiling the call centre dropped call report may be better employed picking the phone up.....the minister bullied me....what did she say....you've all effing useless. 🤣

On 9/15/2024 at 3:02 PM, footzz said:

Royal Caribbean does bread very well, but just can't seem to get their biscuits right, unless your idea of a good biscuit is nicely browned hockey puck. This isn't just an isolated incident either, the biscuits have been aweful on all of the cruises we've been on fleet wide. So, on our recent cruise I asked the Head Waiter why they couldn't get the biscuits right. His reply was that most of the cooks/bakers are from India. I told him that would explain why their Roti bread is so good. I suggested that maybe they should start serving Roti at breasfast. They also pair well with honey and gravy.

 

 

First time we visited USA, we wondered why they called Scones...biscuits.🤣

1 hour ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

A 'like' emoji never feels appropriate in such circumstances, but I wanted to acknowledge your frustration. This sort of thing drives me nuts, and even if you think you know the reason for it. Surely a 'would you like a call back' option is not too much to ask. 

Our leaders want everybody to have the right to Work from home. My last couple of years was spent as a Technical Consultant attached to a call centre......The nice young manager Lady shouted out. ' is anybody going to answer the phones today?. As she walked past my desk she said ' if they spent as much time working as the did making coffee they might get some work done '.She added I may try your tactics.  I'll shout out " why don't you lot shut the FU. In my humble opinion work from home isn't a panacea for employers.

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I think the problem is so many having to deal with the disability cabin situation. I've never had any problems or issues prior to this.  What is annoying me is if you do get in the queue you hear the message and music, then about 1 hour 30 minutes in the message changes yo you may now have 60 minutes waiting and then at 2 hours it informs you that they think the wait is too long ask you to call back and cut you off.  

 

Just had that happen again at 1 hour 57 minutes into my wait

 

I'm sure you are right and that many folk have legitimate problems they want to discuss. If you look at folks questions on FB groups you wonder if folk really want to ask that. Can my boyfriend wear flip flops on formal night?. They are black. I wonder how many of those phone up P&O and clog up the lines.

17 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

They are open until 8 today. I got through today around 2 in 15 mins and got called back when we were cut off. Wasn’t a new booking either. 

Looks like it's only you and me who have no problems.

19 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I stopped one of my daughters booking direct with P&O a few weeks ago for this very reason. I got her to use our cruise specialist as they don’t go through the same phone lines and can get through to P&O very quickly indeed. She appreciated the extra discount as well. It doesn’t help you unfortunately, but your post is a good warning for others 

For balance, we always book direct with P&O, unless an agent special drops in my inbox. We don't seem to have these problems. 

22 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Beautiful day here but at the rate I'm going I'll not be seeing much of it.  1 hour and 30 minutes and counting in the P&O queue trying to cancel my last remaining cruise with them. OH had suggested giving it a final chance and moving it to a one off Itinerary next November on Britannia.  This plus my 32 calls yesterday is rather hardening my resolve to say no more!

Our next P&O cruise is next June. I wanted to ask a question so phoned to book it. This was a few months ago. The phone was answered promptly and the question answered. As I don't expect that I will need to speak to them again, not an issue for me.

4 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

Another early morning, I have convinced DH that he wants to go shopping for clothes this morning.  He really hates shopping but he can be tempted by breakfast in M&S so the odd unhealthy meal won't  domuch harm.

Have a good day.

Our M&S is a dangerous place. It's next to the Sketchers shop.

9 hours ago, Ardennais said:

Who? 

Doesn't her Dad make wine in Spain?.

19 hours ago, lincslady said:

For those who have any interest in the Royal Family; surprising to see the (admittedly not very personal) birthday greetings for Harry.  I myself think it would be good if he could have a private personal reconciliation with his father, but hopefully no question of helping out with any royal duties. Most older Brits. I guess would not approve of that.

I wish Harry and Meghan all the very, very best. They seem to be doing well on their own tours.

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

Graham - my exciting things for today are doing my grocery order and putting out all the paper for the paper bin collection tomorrow.

 

However, the sun is shining and could well do so all day, so not all bad.

You're probably much to young to remember bundling up newspapers, tying them up with string and leaving them by the bin......we ain't taking that.😂

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning from me overlooking the North sea.

I hope everyone is well and have exciting things planned for today.

 

Food shopping today Graham. Off on Anthem on Friday. On Saturday I said to Gail....that's it..no more shops, if we haven't got it they will sell it in Spain...Logic won the day...we are not going to the shops Tuesday, or Wednesday.🤣

15 hours ago, LinRon3 said:

For the last week or so starting around Sept. 8th, when we log into our RCL cruises, the cruise planner will not list all the ports on a given cruise itinerary.  Plus, when selecting a port that DOES list, nothing happens [no listing of excursions for that port].  We have several cruises booked, and this happens on all of them.  It's made us gunshy to book anything on the planner.  Also, both my wife and I have logged in separately with the same results.  Does someone know if RCL is updating things, or perhaps doing maintenance...or...what?  Is anyone else having problems like this?  Suggestions?

I was having a few problems with opening things on the app. I uninstall if and reinstalled it. Log back on and all sorted.