UK's 100 Best Companies 2005

I was quite surprised to find out there are three other companies out there that provide a better working environment for employees than Carphone Warehouse.

I suppose there's always better out there. I was one of those "random 1000" people chosen to fill in the survey for the Times Online's 100 Best Companies a few months ago and here are the results as released today....

The Experiment: Grooming

Friend of mine is getting married sometime this summer and I've somehow been chosen os one of the Groomsmen, Best men... whatever you call it. pardon my lack of wedding parlance but i've never been to a wedding all my life.

I always found an excuse not to go as a kid, and when i was a teenager, i didnt like churches anyway so I never went. Then when i grew up, anyone getting married that invited me i didnt really know.

I just dont fancy going to a friend's sisters wedding by trekking accross London, only to find out I dont really know anyone there and the person that invited me isnt really gonna pay any attention to me.

I'm also now one for making conversation with total strangers that obviously came as a group. Its just wrong. Anyway, so back on track. Moinjama is getting married sometime this summer and her boyfriend who i only know through her has requested i be one of those peeple thingeys that y'know... ah hell whatever.. you either know or you dont know.

Well I'm going to Manchester this weekend to get suited and err'thing so it's something to look forward to. To prepare for the wedding i'm also undertaking an experiment to actually CARE FOR THE WAY I LOOK for a few months.

I went out last weekend and got me shampoo, some hair cream and a whole lotta other grooming related stuff.

I'm gonna try not to shave my hair all off, let it grow, shave it all off (in that cycle) anymore. I'm actually gonna pay attention to it. Wash it, comb it, trim it etc.

I dont know how it'll turn out but just so you know, this is what I looked like a coupla weeks ago:

I'll put up another pic when i think there are any visible changes. Incidentally, the pic above was taken for av post i was gonna make two weeks ago that never happened. (Busy busy!!)

Well i'll tell you now. I'm underground looking like that when a man approaches me with the question "Are you muslim". Expecting to be tackled down any minute with shouts of "terrorist, insurgent!!" on mistakenly answering "yes"... i checked him out properly, as you do. Then said "No".

He touches his beard and goes... "Oh yeah, cos i thought.. y'know". He proceeds to inform me that he'd lost his wallet and was looking basically in a position where he has to beg for money to get home.

Stuck my hands in my pocket, what comes out? A £20 note. ha! Problem. He didnt look like he was gonna get drunk with it. Nor did he look like he was gonna do heroin with it.

At this stage i dunno what i was thinking but i handed to 20 over to him. I still dont understand it, but i think the guy used some Jedi mind tricks on me. I normally wouldnt give out even a tenner to someone just looking for money to get home. Its not like people in London arent giving. I just dont think it should all have come from me.

Maybe i was kindda miffed that he thought me worthy of being a "muslim brother" cos dude, the guy sought me out. All across the other end of the platform.

So well with my new grooming habits and the possiblity of my beard not gorwing past the stubble for a few days. Hopefully i wont be giving out 20s on the underground for a while yet.

Salaam Aleikum people.

Of Canteen Workers and Guilt Trips

Other day, at the office shop the woman behind the counter gave out some sweets to the guy in front of me so i go. "Wow, do i get some as well?" She jokingly says no and so i ask the guy what he had to get them.

So she cuts in and says, "Because he talked to me like i was a person". Right! Sigh She was basically saying a lot of the workers only thought of the canteen workers as "just that person that served me". Obviously a bit embarassed now and feeling guilty for not making an effort into learning any of their names, I didnt bother telling her that it was just them i treated like that.

I generally dont make too much conversation with people. Even people i know. Nor do i go all out to know more people. Right now my brain is saturated with a list of people i know, should know... or that think i should know them.

In any given month, i think i sometimes get re-introduced to the same person two or three times at work that i have to work with on a project. The faces are alright but the names just dont stick.

Anyway, the guilt trip has stayed and i find myself trying too hard to talk to the canteen workers. I dunno how hard i'm trying but i know sometimes they dont expect to be spoken to so they look up in surprise and say "You talking to me?".

Well i'm making my little difference here. Hopefully, we'll all be one big company of workers and there wouldnt be a canteen/telecoms services divide.

Oh by the way... i did get the chocolate nuggets. Two of them too.