Electrical Concepts update

Hi All,
As usual I've had a bit of a break from the site due to being very busy well it's only been just over a month but it feels like several especially with what's been going on, so I thought I'd come back and give you an update.(If you want to read it of course?).

Moving:
I've moved from Enfield up to Hertford with my fiance and now finally have a room for an office have brought a decent desk and other office furniture, had much fun putting it all together but it was made easier by the fact that some clever person decided it would be good to put little lettered stickers on the panels! I've still not moved all of my stuff in an put it away neatly but it's so much better having a proper office and desk rather than working in the dining room with a desk made from a kitchen worktop.

Had a problem with the broadband connection though, The previous tenant (Oh yes we were going to buy but due to the current climate with the housing market we decided renting was better even though I've always been against it), well she had Virgin Media so we thought we'd go with them as all the stuff is installed. We got the pack through had a problem with the phone line which got sorted out today.
I decided to wait until Jasmine had her laptop set up before moving my desktop and still worked from my old home, well we had a bit of a kerfuffle with that but after phoning technical we got it sorted! So I moved my desk top up and got it all set up but couldn't get online!!!!!! so after Jasmine spent ages onto customer services and technical and being pushed between both of them ( I think they must have been playing they're own game of tennis customer service saying it was a tech problem and technical saying the account wasn't set up! but we had it working on the laptop!
I don't understand why you can't deal with one person when you phone up for a problem and they either help you deal with it and you are always in contact with them or they are involved in all conversations as a three way telephone call with technical?
Finally I took over and they had a bit of a game of tennis with me too and finally went though some bits with me and said I didn't have the correct Ethernet driver!!!! so it got left at that. What didn't help was that the call centre is based in India and they were hard to understand or didn't understand me!
I was talking to a contact who's business is computer networks and he kindly offered to come and have a look and got it sorted in 20 minutes with no driver needed.
So thank you Virgin Media you are truly rubbish.

The Apprentice:
I'm not talking about the TV show here I'm talking about the one I took on and wish I hadn't. Really it was comedy and I think you could possibly write a TV show about it.
I feel a little angry as I offered so much and got so little, make that nothing in return and it cost me a bit not just in monetary terms but in stress as well.
A lot of the stuff he was going to get from me are things that almost no other electrical contractor would do and I'm now re thinking of what I give out, first off I gave him a job ( I think that is pretty big in itself), I gave him a free set of hand tools ( I had to buy my own when I started and if companies do give apprentices tools they take the money from their wages each week), He was doing 3 days at college and working two days, bearing in mind companies don't usually take on apprentices at this stage and I was told by people just to pay the days he worked, I paid him for one day at college and the two days he worked and all travel.
Other benefits were a uniform, a profit related pay scheme I'm setting up, reward scheme for coming up with good suggestions for the company, commission for bringing work into the company! He'd just started driving lessons and i said that once he'd passed I'd buy a decent second hand small van, get the company branding on it and he could have it to drive around in if he paid for insurance and maintenance.
So i don't know about you but i think that all in all that's a damn good package and I took him and my electrician out for a Chinese one night too!

So what did he do wrong to throw all this away? well first off he text while i was in a BNI meeting to ask if he could have the day off to do college work, one day said he didn't have money to get to work, actually he did that twice and the other time he said he didn't know how to get to the job in Camden on that particular time i went round to his house and gave him a £20 advance and then got a text from him in the morning because he'd brought an off peak travel card and so wouldn't be able to get in until after 0900, He was late several times, in fact one morning I went to pick him up and he wasn't up and then got in to the van and had to be prompted to apologize! the I had spoken to him about all this and even had an official meeting and given him a warning but the straw was one morning he text me and said sorry I won't be in I've got Flu and a chest infection, I felt sorry for him thinking he might think he'd get the sack this time and it wasn't his fault, but then at 2100 I get a text from him asking what he's doing tomorrow! I don't know about you but I've not heard of a 24hr flu or chest infection, I've had both (not man flu) and they are not nice and last longer than the 24 hours that a hang over lasts!!
On top of this he was slow working too!

So there is the story of the apprentice who threw it all away, there is a bit more in there but I gave you the abridged version!

Back to College:
Just a short one here, the electrical regulations have changed, a new and updated version was released at the beginning of the year and come into force on July the 1st. so to make sure I'm up to scratch I've been back at college every Thursday night until 21:30 since May and have an exam in mid July. Told you it'd be short I could have gone on about the changes but though that might tip you aver the edge!

BNI:
I've Joined a new chapter of BNI in St Albans after the one i was trying to start up in Hertford collapsed and it's going well, I'm getting plenty of great referrals from it and so want to give out a shameless plug to the website here www.bni-chariots.co.uk/
If you want to get more business and get your name about i still recommend networking and BNI is one of the best organisations around to do so, it has it's rules nut they're what make it work at the end of the day

I think that's enough to be getting on with as I have some work to do, and I'm sure you may not even be reading this far so I'll bring you part 2 in the week!

Cheers

Paul