Various bosses
On my meandering path through life i have had quite a lot of jobs and as a result a multitude of bosses. Some were good and some were bad and most were truly average.

One that sticks out in particular was during the time i worked in a scrap rail depot the foreman was a little irish fellow not long from retirement. He was mean, he was moody, he was unintelligible on the whole and he had a direct line to the MD of the firm which made him and his decisions more or less bullet proof.

I joined the company to ultrasonically test welds on rails and so naturally I was set on with the task of cutting up lots of magnesium crossings with a set of burning gear. A job so far removed from what i had trained for you couldn't see it with a set of binoculars.

Not so bad you might think. I got to play with Oxyacetylene cutting equipment and you'd be right, it was cool apart from the fumes. Oh god the fumes! It was like satans arse had been thrust under your nose after he had eaten a five alarm chili! When you cut through this stuff choking green smoke billowed out which got right to the back of your throat and made you want to pull your own lungs out and beat them against a wall to clean them. I was developing a cough normally found on a Capston full strength smoker and wheezing everytime i had to move.

When i objected to this job on health and safety grounds (i was the only one doing it)i was given a cardboard mask which was about as much use as tits to a nun and told to put up with it or go away.

The worst of it was that the foreman's educationally subnormal son also worked there and was allowed to get away with wandering round the yard scratching his arse and grunting. He occasionally lit a cigarette and looked amazed by his lighters ability to produce fire.

Needless to say I didn't last long in that job and went onto pastures less manual for the sake of getting clean air
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Sat 20 Jun 2009, 0:22, Reply)