Just got ready for a party & boogie

Born on the 4th July 1954.

Went to Ronkswood Junior school & Nunnery Wood Secondary Modern School.

Played Rugby for the school team.

Loved going to the  AAA's championships (Athletics) at White City in London.

Used to go to White Hart Lane in London to watch Tottenham Hotspur football team & see the great Martin Chivers & Martin Peters.

Left school at 15 with no qualifications. (But that has changed)

First job stacked shelves for 6 months at Fine Fare supermarket, The Shambles in Worcester (Now Argos) but the 8.00pm finish did not suit me hee hee.

I really wanted to become an electrician so joined Mobile Electrics repairing Starters & Dynamos the company has now closed down.

Got married in 1974, so moved into piece work just for the money ( family businesses never pay well).

But again wanted to get back into being an electrician so joined Carmichaels Fire & Bulk (family business) another company which closed down from the original owners!.

Really enjoyed working on the Fire Engines was part of a small team & we would wire the tenders from scratch, the Fire Engines went all over the world, I think my favourite to wire was the Airport Crash Tenders.

Before the company went bust I thought it was time to move on.

I am now working for BT, The original Telephone Company once known as the  GPO.

Started BT as a Works Jointer, opening up new cabinets & changing over exchanges from Analogue to Digital.

The company believed in my abilities & I got promoted into the Works Control under a new manager after only 5 years.

Started picking stores to various sites for BT engineers Contract supervisors to supply the contractors got my Technician 1 as it was know then.

Got my next promotion to Senior Technician would issue out the work manually to a group of 15 engineers every day in & around the Wolverhampton area, the type of work issued was cabling, copper jointing, overhead & fibre optic jointing.

Because I was achieving high APR score year on year the Level 2 at the time asked me if I would like to manage the above team of 15 in Wolverhampton & Walsall for a while. Changes were also being made within the management structure & to the engineer structure.

I jumped at the chance, had a office in Horsley Fields & Walsall, it was a steep learning curve sorting out the problems then having to deal with the different situations each day.

Found the job very fulfilling & enjoyable it was a great 12 months & I did not have any complaints off the engineers the changes came in & I went back into the office at Worcester. The L2 stated he would have taken me on as a full time manager but felt I lived to far away for all day visits with the engineers.

Back at the office in Worcester the job I had been doing changed, the engineers were issued with their own laptops & got work off themselves, so I became a planner more training & more computer systems to learn. Was completing the same type of work planners were completing but they were on a higher grade as Technical officers.

At the time I was doing acting manager within the office when the manager was on holiday or meetings, I was also attending management one day training courses & a request came to my manager asking me would I take on a group of redeployed engineers in Stafford on a new project.

I always enjoy a challenge & took the post on as the acting manager, totally new part of the company for me, but an interesting job.

The biggest thrill for me was the Level 2 was pleased with how I had set up the unit & I was achieving the results wanted.

He made me the offer of the job as Manager. I still have the letter to this day, unfortunately I refused the offer due to the location.

The office was off Junction14 on the notorious M6, which everyone in England knows from Junction 14 to Junction 8 south bound in the evening is like one long car park & it was taking me 2 1/2 hours to get home, but in the morning it was only taking me 1 hour to get to the office!

4 years later there is now a Toll Motorway! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Went back again to the office in Worcester, was in the office for around 6 months when my manager asked me to do a management in sight program (MIP) which involved being away at weekends on courses, because the house restoration was important to us as Ros & I were working 7 days a week on the house, I refused the training.

The rest is history within 4 weeks I was taken off doing acting manager & within another 6 months I was made redeployed the manager I was working for had to close one of his offices & he decided on the Worcester office. I was the longest serving member in the office & had been trained on many computer systems, I was at first put with the complex planning manager who asked me what could I do for him & what was I trained in? started tell him the systems when I got to comoss a system used for fibre optics he could not believe his ears, he then stated there is an strong opportunity for promotion if I went over to Hereford & trained his staff on how to use it as they are starting to plan small fibre jobs. Was in Hereford for 6 weeks I asked if I could move my computer over he asked why? well it will be better for me & be settled he then stated there is no job here for me the budget has changed & unable to take me on!

I was gutted I had put in such a lot of work & then got discarded like a piece of rubbish, yes I am bitter after they treat me so badly did I not deserve to be treated like this after so much commitment, also frustrating the other staff who was also in the plan-do office sat tight at Worcester & now they have got promotion into the complex planning office, I applied for another job due to my concern with paying the mortgage & the stigma with being a redeployed, it is now 2008 6 years after having poor planning managers I am still committed to a great company & still getting high APR marks.

First new manager I had with the audit team was a great manager who knew how to manage people only the second excellent manager I have had the first was when I got my promotion into the works control, I was a Network Assessor working in a small team which covered the south east of England but worked in Gloucestershire.

Would check work the engineers have completed & insure it has been completed to a Quality Standard. I used climb poles & open up joint boxes.

The work was very involved & interesting,  I used various computer systems to achieve my targets. You also had to be a fountain of all knowledge on rules & regulations.

My office was at home & I used to travel on average 150 miles a day.

May 2006 I got transferred to Openreach part of BT Group. Also have another new manager 

December 2007 House is sold & we move to North Devon because there is a black hole where no checks are being done between Minehead & Bude & into Okehampton. Lived for 6 months in rented then into our new house in Great Torrington, take a month off work to complete some jobs on the house & in the mean time the hospital bring my hernia operation forward, was off for 5 weeks, whilst off could not believe the phone call I received the company wants to get rid of the Network Auditors & put me back on the tools or redeployed again.

Had a choice back on the tools being hound by work manager or early release so I have now taken the early release & retired at 54 money will be tight just got to spend wisely.

Such a shock leaving BT but can honestly say it is the best company I have worked for long may they continue in this competitive world of Telecoms.

In 20 years service I only had 2 excellent managers who knew how to manage people & still sing the company song these managers made going to work a real pleasure, the rest let me say they need to work on their management skills!!!!

For anyone who has climb a telegraph pole these would be a dream to climb! the scrap cables were taken out as this used to be a switch station for telephone calls around the world. If you are in Cornwall you must visit the Porthcurno Museum

http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/ Or visit their web site.