Hello
is there anyone else who works for French buisness, no english spoken or any expats to moan too......
i do and its the most irratating thing.... every day is uphill...
done this for two years,have very hard skin can take most things but if you have done what i have you would understand...
p.s works the same everywhere but less money than britain and the twists of the langauge are killing me..
i am a chef equipe or foreman understand and speak french well but its different here..in the method of things

I certainly know how you feel - not easy at times.......

You can say that again

You'll get used to it - If I became fluent, anybody can


yep, damn French, and they have the cheek to say that it's us who do things the wrong way round!!

AHH! just the chap...thanks for the reply
Have been repairing the mains principle 63mm for irrigation on a social estate....remember always lock the van!
completed most of the repairs...leaks everywhere..anyway had to knock through some old drain pipes to redirect system its in a deep manhole duct.
Had my apprentice helping(private joke)...smashed through first then the second...hit it ,cracked and alot of cockroachs...good couple of hundred made the great escape.
large,medium and small all over me....never seen so many..apprentice flipped never seen him move so fast in 6 months....
had to chuck clothes...went home in a paper overall.
bet you've had some bad days, anyone else

I could write a book about all the bad days I've had - for example about a month ago we were working in an old building in the town centre (kind of building that you can't understand how its still standing) There was no stop cock anywhere, so in order to do the work we had to freeze the mains pipe. No problems. All was just about done and then my young trainee 'knocked' the frozen steel pipe. The force of his "knock" cracked the ice and the water started coming out at mains pressure - as I said, no stop cock, and we were fxxked. Had to ring the syndicat, who said they would send a fax to Lyonaise des eaux to ask them to come out ASAP....In France, finding someone from the waterboard on a Friday afternoon is like trying to find rocking horse poo - it just doesn't exist! So I said bollox to that and I rang for the fire brigade - within 10mins they were here, along with the police who had to shut down the street. They cut off the water for about 30mins while I went to the suppliers. I came back, repaired the steel pipe and that was it - or so I thought........... underneath the appartement is a hairdressers shop and it was full of old bidies having their hair done. But water from upstairs was leaking through the ceiling like a sieve and they had to evacuate the salon - some still had pieces of foil in their hair waiting for it to be rinced - God only knows what their hair looked like at the end of the day - I prefer not to imagine !!
Anyway, everybody was going apeshit and I was in the middle of it all, then all of a sudden the trainee says,
"can I go now? I have a driving lesson in half an hour!!!!!"

And I thought I was having a shite day (nothing physical like your story, just mental torture in my job!). You made laugh out loud. Merci for that.

Nothing French about this tale of a shite day, but I'll bore you with it anyway.

Many moons ago, I worked (technical management) in the food manufacturing industry. On said day, we took our regular delivery of flour by road tanker. Essentially, you need to know that this is 25 tons of flour pneumatically blown from the bulk road tanker by a hellish powerful pump, into one of three storage 'bins' (tall silos).

So, driver couples up as directed, starts pump and saunters off to the staff canteen for a cup of tea. Trouble is, someone has pointed him to the WRONG silo, which is already full.

So, as he peacefully downs his cup of tea and reads his paper, unbeknown to him, by now the cap is already blown off the silo and a high plume of the white stuff is jetting straight up in the air and in the wind is nicely drifting over the neighbouring village - ever seen it snow in July?

Well, in next to no time, the whole place resembles a Christmas card scene, but now its raining (flour + water eh?). Houses are coated, cars are coated, roads are deep in it, people are falling off their bikes and the neighbourhood is generally going apeshit, its mayhem.

So, we get the blower stopped, but Santa Claus should really arrive any minute. But, in typical UK weather, having rained on the parade, the sun decides to come out blazing (flour paste + sunshine . . .oh no!)

By now the phones are glowing red, there is a string of cars from here to kingdom come lined up at the factory gate and the guys down at our vehicle wash bay are going hell-for-leather with every pressure jet we can muster.

So we start handing out coins for them all to go down to the local commercial auto-wash, anything to reduce the level of aggro now reaching fever pitch.

However, in direct line of the drift, is a 'travellers camp site'. And these guys are driving big new Mercs and BMWs. Now, ever seen flour paste dry onto a car? Well, it sets like concrete, make no mistake. So these guys are demanding car resprays and more for their fancy motors . . .

Ah yes, that's not a day I'll forget in a hurry.

Funny story analyst, wish I'd been there (in full body overalls) to see it.

I'd like to think that I was one of the fairest bosses in the world, but some of the things the union members here used to ask for were unbelievable.
We used to pay considerable sums of money per year for our mechanics to have optional (not compulsory) English lessons - their mother tongue being French. We were under no obligation to do this, but it obviously made sense, and arranged a language teacher to come in and give the week's hourly lesson midday between 12:00hrs and 13:00hrs.
One day I had the chief mechanic (who was the union leader) come and see me, and announced that he was sorry but he would have to stop having the English lessons. I said that was too bad, but he was free to choose, and anyway it would be his loss. He then said, "Yes, but unless we can come to an arrangement"
I said I didn't follow him, to which he added, "Well, I'm taking these lessons during my lunch break, so really I'm working overtime. If you can arrange to pay me overtime rate for that hour once a week I will consider continuing with the English lessons!"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing and was shocked, but didn't outwardly show surprise. I said, "Just one minute", and starting flicking through the calendar on the wall, then exclaimed, "Well that confirms it, for the moment I thought today was April 1st! The only arrangement I can come to is allowing you to leave my office immediately, and don't bother to turn up for any future lessons."
The look on his face was a mix of surprise and disgust!

This doesn't surprise me one bit - and I think its a root problem in this country. The French are crying out for change, as long as its everyone else who changes and not them!!

Hello is le plumber there?
just want to say my boss has just given me my work for the summer....
he has got the contract to renew and repair the chainlink fencing,gates etc
wait for this....for 46 sewage pump stations in the south of france..
it was hot today....the poo stunk.....
apprentice not impressed because there all in the middle of nowhere....
also have got to call and orginise the bod from the regional water firm....wait for it....he is a apprentice also.....18 just....complete twit...forgot the keys...

When I first went to France, my french was ok but not all that, anyway, I had the misfortune to be a foreign stagiaire in a french hotel... the manager first said that I was only a stagiaire and not actually allowed to DO anything.. just watch for my 10 months there.. whoopy... in the beginning, everyone pretty much hated me there anyway, simply as I was the new foreign stagiaire... but after a while my french got better and better and i ended up helping them out in many situations and after they decided I wasnt a complete freak, they acually found me good enough to befriend (although that took a while too!).

In this particular hotel the directeur was an idiot who spent most of his time watering and wiping the leaves of his beloved palmiers in the reception lobby...

The next hotel I worked in for a while, the manager was generally mentally disturbed and spent most her time shopping and flicking her hair around, on holiday, screaming at everyone, or hiding from complaining customers rather than actually manager her hotel.

THEN, I worked part time in a restaurant (the only foreigner and pretty much the only english speaker there- every time an english speaking customer complained I got pushed onto their table to deal with it...). Gosh, that place almost killed me but after a screaming argument with one of the waiters who was determined to make my working life hell, I finally got a bit of respect there too.

Reading that back makes me sound really negative, but I had an awesome time in France and would love to go back, but they are difficult to work for at times, yes...!!! I think the key is gaining their respect before they decide to like you, but that takes a lot of effort...

Reminds me a bit of THIS