IT Companies
Spent sometime working for a small IT firm in West London. After the first week I had already decided not to renew my contract when the end of the 6 months arrived. Not necessarily due to the actual work, more to do with the company and where it was headed.

The place was owned by Rob, a small weasley man with the ego of an eggplant and the business brains of a chocolate tea-pot maker - but he'd been to the right school and married into the 'right' family, so the business was being bankrolled by his Father-in-Law. Not that we were going to make any profits - as any cash generated would be swallowed by Robs impressive skunk habit and his wife's truely epic intake of Columbia's finest export.

Many a time I would be trying to build servers in the backroom, or take support calls in the office while totally stoned due to the fog created by his near chain-smoking. Not only was he a stoner, but he was completely spineless. His wife rulled his life with an iron-fist and everyone took advantage of this.

However, Rob's main failing was employing total idiots (no, not me!), due to his inability to say 'no'. We had 16 year old kids employed as 'support analysts' because their Dad had gone to school with Rob and he 'owed them a favour'.
He employed a guy who swore blind he could code in PHP and SQL, but could barely switch his laptop on. I became suspicious when the 'PHP for Dummies' book came out of his bag.
We had ex-girlfriends doing accounts (not the wisest move) and at one point, he employed his son's former nanny as a receptionist because 'we could bare tobsee her leave the family'.

And the guy was actually shocked when the business failed....
( HSDriver was probably still at work on, Tue 29 Jan 2008, 12:03, 2 replies)

Chocolate Teapots? Two, please.
I can't help but think that a chocolate teapot maker might actually have some success. You buy it as a gag gift, but when the joke's over you have some lovely chocolate.

And if he's smoking that much, he'd probably have the munchies...
(MrCanoehead Marzipaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!, Tue 29 Jan 2008, 13:45, closed)

His wife drank a lot of coffee?

(sabre-tooth monkey, Tue 29 Jan 2008, 23:10, closed)