‘Please **** off, you’re too stupid to get a job’
This was the email that a “top recruitment executive” sent out last week and he has now been forced to quit his job – after he mistakenly sent the expletive-filled rejection email to 4,000 people.
Gary Chaplin, who reputedly earned £200,000 per year at Manchester firm Stark Brooks, received a mass-mailed enquiry from Manos Katsampoukas. But instead of replying to just him, he accidentally replied to all the 4,000 employment leads Katsampoukas had contacted in the first place. The Sun reported that Mr Chaplin was so incensed by the email, he replied by telling the prospective employee to ‘f*** off’.
He told Mr Katsampoukas: ‘I think I speak for all 4000 people you have emailed when I say, “Thanks for your CV” – it’s nice to know you are taking this seriously.’
Mr Chaplin added: ‘Please f*** off … you are too stupid to get a job, even in banking.’ He ended it: ‘Yours hitting the delete button Have a nice day!’
His reply sparked uproar in the recruitment industry, with one recipient replying that it was ‘appalling’ and added: ‘It displays an unbelieveable degree of arrogance’.
Mr Chaplin has had to resign over the matter and told newspapers: ‘I am mortified by what I did … It was a moment of idiocy.’
‘I am now looking for a job just a few days before Christmas. If I could turn back the clock I would. I will regret this forever.’
So who is the stupid one now Gary???
After 30 years in the recruitment industry nothing amazes me anymore – as has been said on more than one occasion that I am aware of If you can do, do. If you can’t do, teach. If you can’t teach – become a recruiter. No wonder our industry gets such a bad name!!!
Hurricane #bawbag
Today Scotland got away from the practice of giving hurricanes boring names with their title for the 100 mph monster that has just swept across the country : Hurricane Bawbag.
Exactly who thought up the name was not known. And not everyone (at first) knew what Bawbag meant: Your scrotum , the place you keep your balls.
But the title was cheerily adopted by at least one council and STV. Twitter users across the globe made the “Hurricane Bawbag” term viral as the winds blasted through the central belt. The name did not appear on the BBC website. The Herald and Scotsman ignored it but the Daily Record gave it a whirl.
The term featured at the top of the world-wide trends list for several hours, reported the Edinburgh website Deadline News.
User Pazpaz was among thousands of Twitter users employing the hashtag #HurricaneBawbag.
He wrote: “American hurricane namers are lazy. They pick easy ones like “George” and “Kate”. Only in Scotland could they come up with #HurricaneBawbag.”
“It Makes Me Happy When the Scots get worldwide recognition for something other than bagpipes and haggis. Let’s hear it for #HurricaneBawbag”
Bernieleslie asked: “Can we not send #hurricanebawbag homeward tae think again?”
Meanwhile, Stirling council wrote on their feed, “All Libraries are closing up at 1 o’clock – Stirling Council Website for details http://my.stirling.gov.uk/disruptions #scotstorm #HurricaneBawbag”
Deadline News spelled it out: For those unfamiliar with the term, it is an indelicate reference to part of the male anatomy, as well as a derogative term meaning idiot.
One firm marketed “Hurricane Bawbag” T-shirts with the tagline “a load of old wind”. They were being sold for £14 on the Get aroundGlasgow website within hours of the winds striking.
Update: At 5p.m. #bawbag was reported to be trending in the UK rather than #hurricanebawbag, “dispensing with formalities and getting straight to the nitty gritty.”
Hurricane Bawbag had also acquired its own Twitter and Facebook pages.
On Wikipedia the report read, “Hurricane Bawbag was described as a stormy day in Scotland on the 8th December 2011. Winds reached over 100mph and many schools and nurseries were closed. Within hours of the severe weather warning ‘Hurricane Bawbag’ merchandise became available online.
“It also sparked Twitter Trending topic which became the most popular in Britain. Local Authorities and National Weather Stations also used the term.”
Always in our hearts
Today, 2nd December 2011, is the 6th anniversary of the death of my amazing Dad, Leonard Jack Lewis. 3 days after his 78th birthday he died suddenly at home and we still miss his warmth, energy and humour every day.
I know I am biased but Dad really was “one in a million” and I am immensely proud of what he achieved and the man that he was. His knowledge and creativity was always inspiring and his passion for creating good television drama guided by a strong moral compass was a true credit to him and he certainly instilled these values in me from a very young age, together with a somewhat wicked sense of humour that I also seem to have inherited!
It took me a long while to realise why every Sunday afternoon felt very strange to me until I suddenly realised that I was still waiting for his telephone call which came every Sunday, as regular as clockwork, for absolutely as long as I can remember.
In some ways the pain of his loss does ease gradually each week/month/year that passes but he will never be forgotten and is always in our hearts. Love you Dad x
An outdated institution?
Marriage may be “for better or worse, till death us do part” in the words of the Book of Common Prayer but it seems that fewer and fewer of us believe those traditional words to hold true.
Marriage rates in the UK are at an all time low, with 4 out of 10 of those marriages expected to end in divorce. And getting a divorce is becoming easier too – with advent of “cyber divorce” a marriage can be history in the click of a mouse.
It seems the institution of marriage may be in crisis. It is a trend that is worrying church leaders, prompting the Church of England to publish its own rescue plan. The Archbishop of Canterbury says the consumer culture has contributed to the breakdown of marriage, that people are encouraged to believe “there will always be something better, faster, shinier just around the corner”.
But is marriage really the cornerstone of a stable society?
The Prince of Wales, Nelson Mandela, the person next door – divorce is everywhere. But does divorce really lead to social breakdown? Is it worse to stay in an unhappy marriage “for the sake of the children”?
Is it realistic to expect two people to live together for a lifetime? Or do you think that a throwaway culture is to blame for the increasing number of marriage breakdowns?
Or, like me, did you just get married to the wrong person? 29 years ago this month I got married and for me, thankfully, divorce was the best thing to happen in that relationship. I was too young, to naive and too stubborn to listen to the advice I was being given – perhaps a written test, not dissimilar to a driving test, should be introduced to ensure that the reasons for marrying are centred around wanting to spend the rest of your life with that person and not to stay with them for “as long as it lasts”.
Lest we forget
11th November is a very important date. It’s my birthday – woo hoo!!!
But seriously and more importantly, it is Armistice Day – the day which commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front which took effect at eleven o’clock in the morning—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918.
In many parts of the world, people take a two-minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. local time as a sign of respect for the roughly 20 million people who died in the war. In the United Kingdom, beginning in 1939, the two-minute silence was moved to the Sunday nearest to 11 November in order not to interfere with wartime production should 11 November fall on a weekday. After the end of World War II, most Armistice Day events were moved to the nearest Sunday and began to commemorate both World Wars. The change was made in many Commonwealth countries, as well as the United Kingdom, and the new commemoration was named Remembrance Sunday or Remembrance Day.
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem “In Flanders Fields”. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.
After initially forbidding the England football team from wearing an embroidered poppy on their jerseys during their match against Spain at Wembley Stadium on 12 November 2011, FIFA eventually agreed that the team could wear the poppy on armbands instead. It is also hoped that the Scotland team are able to wear poppies on black armbands when they tackle Cyprus in their international friendly in Larnaca tonight. Let us hope that common sense prevails!
All is not what it seems
London 2012 organisers have been forced to apologise for airbrushing the historic World War II ship HMS Belfast from an official poster depicting the capital’s skyline. Games organisers said it was “a simple mistake in the advertising production process” for London 2012 Festival. The ship, which served in both World War II and the Korean War, has been moored near Tower Bridge since 1971.
A London 2012 spokesman said: “HMS Belfast was unfortunately excluded from one of the seven adverts for the London 2012 Festival. “We are very sorry about this – it was a simple mistake in the advertising production process, and we apologise if this mistake has caused offence. The mistake has been rectified and posters without HMS Belfast in are being removed.”
One of my own personal favourite Photoshop blunders is this one – how on earth did this manage to get past quality control???
Scotrail Update
On a final note regarding my Scotrail “incident” a few weeks ago – here is the response I’ve received from Customer Relations today:
“Dear Ms HeywoodThank you for your email dated 18 October 2011. I am sorry that you have had cause to complain.
On most routes we offer a combination of fares being an Anytime single, Anytime return and Off-Peak return. On the Edinburgh/Glasgow route the Off-peak return fare has been reduced to less than the Anytime single and as a result it has created an Off-Peak single fare which is only 10p less expensive than the return. The Off-Peak return fare was reduced to less than the Anytime single to try and encourage passengers to travel at Off-Peak times. The Off-Peak single is an anomaly in the system and cannot be removed.
I understand that on this occasion you purchased a single fare instead of a return, and although I appreciate that the similarity in fares may cause some confusion when ‘rushing’ to buy your ticket it is the customer responsibility to ensure that they have left enough time to purchase their tickets, and that the ticket they have bought is valid for the journey they wish to make.
I also note that you tried to upgrade your ticket at Haymarket station. Since you were no longer in possession of your outward ticket it was not possible to change or upgrade your ticket. I can only add that the member of staff who did eventually upgrade your ticket was actually acting out with ScotRail policies and should not have carried out your request. Any ticket for 10p issued without the outward single ticket would generally not be valid for travel.
On a separate matter, I notice that we have not responded to your comments within 7 working days. I apologise for this delay and am happy to inform you that you are entitled to a Rail Travel Voucher for £5.00, in accordance with the conditions set out in our Passengers’ Charter. The voucher can be redeemed for tickets with any UK domestic Train Operating Company within the next 12 months. In order for us to send this to you, we will require that you reply to this email with your postal address and quoting the reference number above.
Thank you for contacting ScotRail.”
Note to self – must read this Passengers’ Charter that they refer to – wasn’t expecting the £5 voucher – this might actually get me almost half way to Edinburgh next time I need to go!!!
Dentally defective rat?
Conservative senator Nicole Eaton has said in a statement to the Senate that the beaver is no longer fit to be Canada’s national emblem, and should be replaced with the polar bear. She apparently said that the beaver was “an outdated symbol, and a destructive rodent”.
The polar bear – with its “strength, courage, resourcefulness and dignity” – would be a better fit, she argued.
The beaver has been the official emblem of the country since 1975 but the senator believes that it is time for an an “emblem makeover”.
“Many accuse the dentally defective rat of being a nuisance that wreaks havoc on farmlands, roads, lakes, streams and tree plantations,” she said, adding that a country’s symbols can “change over time”.
“It is high time that the beaver step aside as a Canadian emblem or, at the least, share the honour with the stately polar bear.”
Ms Eaton’s staff told The Globe and Mail newspaper that the senator was a fan of polar bears – she has several photos of the Arctic beast in her office. However, a member of Parliament who represents Manitoba said removing the beaver would ignore the animal’s impact on Canada’s history.
“Polar bears are cool but the beaver played a pivotal role in the history of Canada,” said New Democratic Party MP Pat Martin. “It was the relentless pursuit of beaver that opened the great Northwest.” Early French and English colonists worked and lived in the country’s far reaches to trap beavers for their pelts.
Removing beavers entirely from Canada’s national symbols would be labour-intensive: a stone beaver sits on top of the entrance to Parliament and appears on Canadian nickels.
Michael Runtz, a natural history professor at Carleton University told Canadian television that the national emblem is not just a question of history.
“They are like Canadians. Their demeanour is very pleasant,” he added. “Polar bears inspire fear.”
Thank goodness we don’t have this problem in the UK. All the countries in Britain have their own patron saint and floral emblem:
England, the Rose and St. George, Scotland, the Thistle and St. Andrew, Ireland the Shamrock and St. Patrick and Wales, the Daffodil or Leek and St. David.
I really can’t see this changing anytime soon – or being debated in Parliament for that matter!!!
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