he was a directors nephew
he was also definitely not a scientist.

a few gems include:

taking crucibles out of a muffle furnace (at 550 degrees)and placing them on a plastic tray, observing that they were rather quickly descending through the tray and attempting to resolve the situation by grabbing another plastic tray to catch them.

while taking crucibles out of the same muffle dropping some of them on the floor and just carrying on as if nothing had happened, he had dropped the quality control sample to go with that batch of samples and didnt even bother trying to just make the result up so the senior staff wouldnt notice that he had not bothered with a QC check. anyone else would have been fired for this

repeatedly putting negative results for ash forward without repeating the sample first (a negative result means something has gone wrong everyone knew this and only he ignored it)

repeatedly forgetting how an auto pipette works usually followed by going off in a mood and not talking to you for a week when you remind him how it works.

removing sample vials from a GC and throwing them away before they have even been injected. when asked why he didnt put the vials in a bag with the date on (which was what he had been told to do when removing the previous days vials from the auto sampler) he said "they must have exploded in the bag".

it took 2 weeks training and 3 different people to train him on 1 method and he still couldnt do it. i was only given 2 days to learn the same method.

i was once tasked with sifting through a days worth of printouts from a CEM fat analyser as there were no QC results for it on the QC chart. the reason, he hadnt bothered. anyone else would have been fired for this

he had attempted to cover up a dodgy QC but everyone called bull shit when he put down a weight of 1.0000g exactly on the qc chart. anyone else would have been fired for this

you may be thinking that he got a hard time as he didnt study science or even go to university beforehand but as any graduate going into their first job will tell you you dont have a clue about what you are doing until you actually start the job and are shown what to do.

also he used to work for corus steel and they went bankrupt coincidence? i think not
( Reme Philips laid an epic dump on, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 18:17, 6 replies)

There is a technology personnel drought in the UK.
Recruiters are putting forward candidates on the basis of one or two keyword matches in the database (I have the word 'development' in my CV and am continually being carpet-bombed with e-mails asking if I'd be interested in a job in software development- I'm in hardware integration). Agents get 'discovery fees' and lie on behalf of their candidates. And not all interviewers know how to, er, interview. Manpower suppliers are happy to claim for hours attending a place of work with no concern about work actually done. A lot of doofuses get through the net.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Thu 6 Sep 2012, 18:47, closed)

thats true pal
but this was a case of not what you know but who you know (or are related to). i have been offered commission from recruitment people for trying to get people who i used to work with to up sticks and move to another lab down south and anyway even agency staff were interviewed before starting
( Reme Philips laid an epic dump on, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 19:49, closed)

hurhurhur
You said "muffle".
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 18:52, closed)

Nepotism is a terrible thing
I've seen similar examples of it in a few jobs, including my current one. Nothing you can do but try to avoid getting dragged down with them.
(Bad Monkey hasn't had an abusive gaz since, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 19:38, closed)

thankfully he was made redundant
along with another guy whose dad used to run the place before jumping ship for another company. needless to say that guy did sod all work because his dad was boss and still had the same attitude after his dad left and right up to when he got the boot
( Reme Philips laid an epic dump on, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 19:52, closed)

See, I don't get this.
I used to work for a Company where my Uncle was a Director - I reported directly to him, but as a result I had to be whiter than white in all of my dealings. My role was always fairly independent, but working with family I found myself having to quantify what I had done much more so than had I been working in the same role elsewhere...
( Hunter Stockton was murdered by a bicycle wielding axolotl,.,.,.,., Thu 6 Sep 2012, 21:18, closed)

well he was only hired
because of who his uncle was, was useless but the people he reported to were unwilling to do anything about it because of who he uncle was
and would often say that if anyone pissed him off he would go and tell his uncle on them
( Reme Philips laid an epic dump on, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 6:57, closed)

Nepotism is one of the fine old institutions that's made Britain what it is today.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 21:45, closed)

Bankrupt.

( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Thu 6 Sep 2012, 22:04, closed)

Also generally unskilled, resentful and small-minded.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 22:21, closed)

repeatedly putting negative results for ash forward without repeating the sample first

I HATE it when people do this.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 9:06, closed)

it just makes more work for everyone
all for that sake of not looking at what he is doing
( Reme Philips laid an epic dump on, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 20:15, closed)

Hey man, I've been known to do that on occasion...
... for a treat
(TheJacksonSixth, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 21:44, closed)

another example of
"XXX in my job didnt match with YYY on the ZZZ system" which means utter nonsense to everyone but you.
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Mon 10 Sep 2012, 17:00, closed)