DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

The kids will wonder what the hell we are going on about.... Buzz buzz buzz buzz honey bee, honey bee.....Buzz if you like but don't sting me.

[Stanley]

More word usage than meaning. I noticed this morning that Cameron never talks about cuts, he refers to them as 'savings'. Clever stuff......

[plaques]

More modern euphemisms.' Restructuring' = Take a pay cut. 'Flexibility' = Take a pay cut. 'Austerity'= Take a pay cut. 'Back room savings' = Take a job cut. 'Hair cut =.' Take a capital saving cut. 'Consolidation' = Take everything cut.

[Stanley]

Hee hee! You've got them sussed P! I class 'letting someone go' with 'passed over'.

[PanBiker]

I would agree, bang on. During my forced exit from my last full time job, a number of those terms were used. Pay Scales were "restructured" and contracts rewritten to make the workforce more "flexible". The final one for me was the "back room savings" that they made when I could no longer afford to work at the newly "restructured" rate. Sad thing is it took me nearly 10 years to climb the ladder and structure my rates and less than 2 months to chop the middle out of the ladder.

[Tizer]

And the bosses don't sack you now or make you redundant, they `let you go'.
I'm glad we've got the election debate over with, perhaps we won't here any more about `empty chairing' Cameron.
Have you noticed the now frequent use of crafty phrases like `as much as', `as little as' etc? The advertisers, promoters and retailers use them all the time: `Buy a car from us this month and save as much as £1000'....`Buy a new washing machine for a little as £100'. And the news media use these phrases all the time instead of being precise or admitting they don't know the real figures.

[Stanley]

That's a good one Tiz. I once did a course in Open College called 'Study Techniques'. Brilliant and a complete eye opener, asked after what I thought of it I said I could never listen to a politician again without bursting out laughing! One of the main elements was to get us to monitor statements, both written and verbal, and do a forensic evaluation. Once you have mastered the technique it sticks in your mind and I see and hear so many examples of 'weasel language', particularly in advertisements. The copy writers have elevated it to a fine art.
Ian, the thing that struck me when they 'let you go' was the fact that they would certainly have to hire in your skills from an outside contractor at higher cost but it would suit the bean-counters because it was a different budget heading and so the expense could be buried under a different business heading. What they achieved was getting rid of the responsibility, the same principle as all 'outsourcing' and PFI. Problem is of course that in the process they lose control.... But bean counters don't see that as a concern.... This is the principle behind zero hours contracts and the reason why employers like them so much. We live in an age where the bottom line is more important than efficiency and then they wonder why productivity is so bad. Always put down to low skills in the workforce but often the root cause is that the management have devolved responsibility and lost control of efficiency.

[PanBiker]

Ian, the thing that struck me when they 'let you go' was the fact that they would certainly have to hire in your skills from an outside contractor at higher cost but it would suit the bean-counters because it was a different budget heading and so the expense could be buried under a different business heading.

In my case what actually happened was, two years almost to the day my previous job which had by then morphed back into Network Manger was advertised under a different title and they hired someone else to do it. The interesting thing is that at that date the managed IT contract ran out in the school and they decided to take the job back in house. That is exactly the same thing that I had proposed three years earlier. The problem was under the regime at the time you were not allowed to have good ideas or take the initiative. My line manger at the time who stepped into the role of School Manager from her previous job role of Bursar once told me to my face that she did not think I was worth what I was being paid! I could have punched her but I am a Gentleman. This came after a support staff meeting when I dared to raise the disparity of travel allowances being paid to teachers and support staff. The teachers got 40p a mile, support staff got 14p for the same journey. I was told that the monthly support staff meeting was not the place to bring up the problem and taken to task for the audacity shortly afterwards. I did tell her where to get off I hasten to add. Top and bottom of it was she did not like me and ultimately won the battle due to her elevated position. I don't have as much money now but I am definitely in a better place.

[Tizer]

I hope that any attempts to control or abolish zero hours working will define it in a way that prevents collateral effects on conventional freelance working. When we had our publishing business all the people who did work for us did it as a freelance worker. It was perfectly suited to the nature of our business and to the lives of the people concerned - they wanted to be freelance, flexible and not tied to any employer. But it was nothing like the zero hours working forced on care workers and the like - our people had a contract to work from home providing us with monthly material (magazine writing, editing etc) or carrying out a project (book publishing). We chose them carefully, gave them the work and left them to it (and always paid them on time). They loved it, and so did we.

[Stanley]

Private Eye highlighted a cunning wheeze this week which supports you Tiz. HMRC have made a unilateral decision that church organists can no longer be freelance but for tax purposes they have to be employed by the Parish. This throws all the responsibility of employer on the Incumbent and the fear is that they will not accept it. The sums involved are derisory, the effects could be profound. What on earth is the thinking (or lack of it) behind this? Meanwhile the large evaders laugh all the way to the secret account......
(A bit off p;ste and I apologise but it is pertinent to the discussion.)

[Tizer]

Yes, "..throws all the responsibility of employer on the incumbent.." is significant. It can be all too much for a very small business. What I didn't point out in my post was that those freelances who worked for us were scattered around the world; even our typesetter was a freelance in France. Imagine the challenge to a tiny UK business trying to employ individuals in other countries around the world. Different currencies, different laws etc

Back to words...Stanley used `incumbent' in his post. There was an interesting discussion with Peter Henessy and John Sergeant on the PM programme this morning about hung parliaments and particularly Harold Wilson. JS spoke of the importance of `incumbency'. A lovely word!

[Stanley]

We listen to the same programmes.....
Back to words.... Where does the name 'neb' come from as used to describe the peak of a cap?

[Stanley]

Beholden' and 'tilth'. Two words that have caught my fancy. Redundant? Or still used by people....

[Stanley]

The Co-ops latest wheeze to make you forget there is no Divi these days is to enter you into a weekly prize draw every time you use (or 'swipe') your debit card. The massage on the bottom of the slip is (keep shopping and swiping to win!) They evidently don't realise that to someone of my generation 'swipe' means 'to steal'!

[Bodger]

Firework = Squib ?

[Tizer]

Carnival Night in Bridgwater, Somerset, always ends with a torch parade and `squibbing', lots of explosive fireworks being thrown around. A very old tradition here.

[Tripps]

" that to someone of my generation 'swipe' means 'to steal'!"

I looked this up last year - could not see why a card was swiped. Found meanings of steal, and take a mighty hit of a cricket ball. but no mention of credit card magnetic strip passing over card reader. Perhaps a corruption of 'wipe'? I don't think it's done now since chip and pin.

[Stanley]

I think you may be right David when you say it's a corruption of wipe, they still 'wipe' your membership card but not the debit or credit card.
'Squib' can mean a slight literary piece as well.

[Stanley]

Uncle Bob used the word 'niggardly' in this morning's contribution. It has dropped from favour of late because of the perception that it is derived from the forbidden 'N' word (can you remember the Robinson Golliwogs?) However, if you take the trouble to look up the origin it derives directly from the Middle English word 'nyggard'. Nothing to do with the forbidden word which is a corruption of Negro. So use it with impunity!

[Tizer]

If you talked about skinning a coon it would probably cause outrage, but coon is just the shorter version of racoon. And a lot of coonskins were used in the past.

[Stanley]

Quite right Tiz. Some American friends of mine reared orphaned coons and never used the full form....
I have a coon story... They are quite common in Northfield where I stayed many a time with Martha. You'd see them peeping out of holes in the roots of trees as you went down the side-walk into town. I was told that many were rabid and best avoided so I had a healthy respect for them!
One night I was out on the back porch enjoying my last pipe of the day in the dark when I realised that I was not alone.... There was a large furry object snuffling round by my feet. I hooked my boot under it and launched it out towards the back lawn and when it became visible in the lights from next door I realised it was Martha's cat! I fessed up the following morning when I saw that it was no worse from the experience!

[chinatyke]

I hooked my boot under it and launched it out towards the back lawn...

So that's what coons are for, playing football.

[Bodger]

Got a right beating last night by a 6ft 7in black
> bloke All I said was, golly you're
> tall.

[Stanley]

Quite! and the funny thing is that if you talk to Afro-Americans you find that on the whole they are fairly relaxed, they use the 'N' word to describe themselves. The one they really hate is to be addressed as 'boy' and I suspect that would get up my nose as well!

[Stanley]

Every now and then a word strikes me as interesting.... Yesterday it was 'carpet slippers'. I asked myself why slippers? Could it be that originally they were a light overshoe 'slipped on' to protect valuable carpets from dirt trodden in from outdoors?