Rodney working hard
June 24th, 2012 at 12:00 pm by David FarrarRodney Hide writes in the HoS:
After getting the toss from Parliament last year, I spent six months renovating our house, top to bottom. It was the best therapy after years of politics.
I know now what to do if there is ever a gap to fill in my life: Get an old house and fix it up. It’s a huge challenge and very satisfying. Living in a freshly minted house is the best and it’s even better when it’s your own work you can look at every day with pride. And seeing the delight in former owner Mary’s face, she is now 89, was rather neat.
My plan then had been to put my feet up a bit to enjoy the new house and figure out what to do next. Then Ian the Builder needed a hand at his next job. We put up a new ceiling together.
It was like old times.
And through that job I met Roger the Digger Driver. He needed an extra pair of hands on his next job.
So I have spent the week with Roger and the boys taking down a 3m concrete retaining wall. The wall ran the length of a section and had fallen against the house it was supposed to protect. It was a tricky demolition.
My job involved getting down in the mud with a sledgehammer, a crowbar and a wheelbarrow. After the first day I ached all over. But by the second day I was into the routine.
Roger says that 20 per cent of those who work for him don’t come back after the first morning tea, another 20 per cent disappear after lunch, and another 20 per cent get their mums to ring the following morning to say Johnny won’t be coming to work.
The remaining 40 per cent work with him for the rest of their lives.
It’s good money, too. It’s half what I was getting as an MP but it’s only half the hours. Plus smashing up concrete is pure stress relief and a good workout.
During the week I was taught how to take down a concrete wall. It now looks like I will be learning to put one up. Bill, the Retaining Wall Man, came to have a look at the job, and to tell me he’s a man short.
When I was a politician I was supposed to pretend sympathy for people without a job. The truth is I never had much. I always figured there’s work to be done for anyone prepared to get stuck in. I now know that’s true. I got a job pushing a wheelbarrow and swinging a hammer. Why can’t the so-called unemployed? We all know why. They’re too picky. The jobs don’t suit. It’s a bit cold. It’s a bit wet. It’s a bit hard.
But that’s why they are called jobs. They are not meant to be fun. They’re meant to be a bit tough and a bit of a challenge. That’s where the satisfaction of a good day’s work comes from. There’s no satisfaction if it’s easy.
There would be no unemployed people if everyone took the first job offered and got stuck in. If they got stuck in, they would love the work. They would then be offered a multitude of jobs and could pick and choose what they wanted to do.
So here’s my challenge for anyone wanting a job. Get off the dole. That shows you are serious. Take the first job offered. That shows you are keen. Get stuck in. That proves you’re useful.
Work is satisfying. I got restructured to part-time in one job. I immediately went along to an organisation I was involved in and asked if I could work unpaid for them for two days a week, just so I was doing something five days a week.
Related posts:
- Labour is promising a new house every 13 minutes of the working week!
- The benefits of working from home
- Not Working For Families
- The working week
June 24th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Good article from Rodney. He’s right. There’s work out there so long as you bring more value to work every day than you take home in pay (plus of course the govt costs of you being an employee). Particularly in labouring and the services sector, this is not overly hard. Sure, the pay isn’t flash, but it’s hourly pay and when you put in more you take home more.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
phool..? Phool..?..nah , didnt think you’d be interested…
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
That was one of the most positive and uplifting things I have read for ages on the subject. Great stuff, and thanks for reprinting it DPF!
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Phil’s still in bed – don’t expect a response from him until after 5pm.
Compare this attitude to that of Georgina Beyer – having a cry because she cannot find work – as if the State has to provide one for her.
As an ex boss used to say “life is attitude”. He was 100% correct; Rodney shows it in spades and so does Georgina Beyer.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Someone should recommend work to the resident crim and bludger Ure.
It’d the best therapy the Parasite baker would ever know.
[DPF: You're verging on demerits, and you know why]
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
I’m an assistant stone mason, among other things. I deadlift heavy rock all day through muddy work sites. I’m the only guy under 30 who answered the ad and who a) physically handle the work and b) turn up on time, no drugs in the system, with the right gear and work consistently and efficiently for a days work.
I work with the head stone mason who is a brilliant boss, and 2 older men who are in their 40′s and 50′s. They are just bemused at the hilarious lack of bottle in all the young guys they have seen – and a great group to work with.
Beneficiaries who aren’t crippled either physically or cognitively due to some terrible unavoidable mishap can get fucked, as can anyone who says there isn’t work or opportunities to make money in NZ.
Work is there there there, people just think it’s a bit hard and think they deserve a high wage when they have no skills. They can fuck off.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
It’s good money, too. It’s half what I was getting as an MP but it’s only half the hours.
Vote:…………………….
bullshit?
June 24th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
I have been self employed for most of my working life, and have employed a lot of people.
You can generally tell within the first day, whether or not the new guy will make it – whether he is older and has worked a lot you soon discover what he told you about himself is true or not.
Vote:With the new young guy, its all about attitude – and that also shows up very quickly.
June 24th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Rodney is lucky. He has had several years on 120k + to build a base for himself. I still agree with everything he says here, but I pity those poor (literal) guys in their 50s who have worked lowpaid hard jobs all their lives, and a nasty redundancy has broadsided their savings and what few assets they had.
One of the issues in Chch is that the work is there, but its mainly part-time and short term (I’ve seen jobs advertised for 2 hours a week), so you get these patches of nothing in between. It’s like acting. People have financial droughts which wreck their credit and ability to maintain homes and educational commitments, And the older one gets, the harder it is to get re-hired, regardless of your experience. I’ve talked to many local men in this dilemma.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Someone will be along soon with the lump of labour fallacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy
One of the flavours of this is the assertion the there are a fixed number of jobs, once they’re all taken then there’s no more work. So some people must be out of work, and we should have a benefit as a form of insurance for the unlucky few who miss a chair when the music stops.
In contrast to this, most economists believe that jobs are created whereever money can be made. The corner shop will hire an extra person if that person can increase their profits. The local builder will hire a labourer if that labourer can be trusted to not stuff up everything they touch – in short if that builder can now focus on higher value tasks whilst the labourer does the grot work. The thing that many on the left miss is that a builder will not hire a labourer if that labourer cannot be relied upon to turn up to work (since the builder has now promised more houses will be built, he’s in the crap if his worker doesn’t turn up), not steal his stuff, not break his stuff, or generally not create more work than he saves.
This is the hard bit. It’s the bit where the prospective employee actually has to try. Sure, your average teenage male will break stuff all the time, cause they’re a bit stupid and unco. But that’s different than breaking everything you touch, failing to think at all – putting timber through the windows that have just been installed, or drilling some timber on the newly laid hardwood floor, or any of a number of completely thick things that the average idiot might get up to.
And so we come back to the question of whether it’s reasonable to expect someone in today’s society to be capable of these basic skills. If they are, then the work exists. If they’re not, then I contend it’s becuase they’re not trying, not because they cannot. And actually, this is where the boot camp thing helps – knocking the impression out of these kids that they’re good for nothing, and giving them the idea that if they try, they can actually accomplish a lot.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
iMP: yes, life is hard. And for some people, they’re unlucky, or else they were good enough, and the bar just shifted and they’re now just below it.
But here’s the thing. Their choice is to be on a benefit and work not at all, or be on a benefit and work 2 hours a week. It’s not like they lose the benefit for those 2 hours – they’re actually better off by doing it. And maybe if they go well, it’ll turn out there’s 4 hours, or 8 hours. Or, as Rodney has said, the guy on the property next door says “hey, I could do with someone to give me a hand for a day or two”.
I reckon a lot of these jobs are cash jobs. And, officially, that’s a bad thing. But people on that level of income really don’t pay much tax anyway, so screw it. Get a cash job if you can get one, I’ll happily turn a blind eye. After a while you’ll get to enough hours/money that it’s impractical for the employer to keep paying you cash – they’ll want the deductions and writeoffs.
It’d be nice to have a whacking great tax free threshold – say $20K per annum. And perhaps a $10K per annum holiday from dole abatement. So basically you could go and get a cash job up to $10K per annum and not lose any dole, and if you go beyond that, it’s only the abatement – there’s no tax and no paperwork for the employer. For the average small business person, if you could hire someone off the street for 10 days, give them cash, and be done, it’d enormously improve the chance of getting a job. And probably 40% of them would work out, you’d keep them. The other 60% would go on to the next job, and maybe find something that suits.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Agree with iMP…and this is part of the reason why there is a continuing exodus to Australia..low paid casual work. I know guys who work the wharf discharging fuel tankers into shore tanks. 24 /7 work , been doin it for 5 year p/t and still only gets $22 an hour. Same job aus , better condition $45 plus penal rates. He has kids.. , he would be better off on the DPB.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Last week I had the son of my worker with us sealing a road. He was 17 and couldnt find a job. I was talking with the client who was watching the lad working with us on the road. The client had a vinyard. Now the Lad is full time prining grapes and has the chance of an appretiship starting in September. You do need to get out there if you want to find the chances.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
PaulL @ 1.02pm
Spot on! Many employers who would be happy to give someone a few days work would far rather pay under the table than go through the excruciating paperwork & bullshit involved in following the rulebook.
If the authorities want people to work then remove the roadblocks.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Great supporter of Rodney and agree that attitude makes the difference.
The issue is though that many of these kids have had the attitude stolen from them by various lefty policies and people. e.g. most hget beaten up at school because they are not in the top 10% of anything. The Govt. has managed to legislate against their rights to negotiate with an employer to work at a rate that benefits all parties.
The system has them stuffed and that’s why they learn what they do.
Are they resentful of adults. Well of course.
In contrast to this, most economists believe that jobs are created whereever money can be made. The corner shop will hire an extra person if that person can increase their profits. The local builder will hire a labourer if that labourer can be trusted to not stuff up everything they touch – in short if that builder can now focus on higher value tasks whilst the labourer does the grot work
Used to work. That was until the socialists interferred in the workplace and the socialists remain committed to thier interference. Their is no reason for Govt. to control pay rates especially youth rates.
One last thing about Rodney.
His profile attracts the people who offer him those jobs. And good on him and them. Try being a gangly 17 year old that’s been locked into the system.
That’s where the difference can be made and it requires fortitude on the part of employers, it ain’t easy but we need to start somewhere or the situation gets worse. Boys, especially need men as menbtors. Most get their mothers and female school teachers.
Man up men and employ those young fellows like you used to be. And you were you just have forgotten what a shit your were once.
That’s men and boys.
So guys, its time to fight back for the sake of our young men.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Don’t expect any response from Phil the pill Whore. The title mentioned the word work.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
What a waste of a good man. Surely there is something better for someone of his talents?
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Yes scrap the WFF and replace it with say first $20,000 tax free. Better still scrap welfare and do what other countries do. No work, No eat.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Beab not a waste at all. Read the article again, he is as happy as a pig in shit. A bit of hard labor is good for the sole.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 2:29 pm
BeaB: labour is never a waste. Sure, Rodney could do other things, but those are different jobs, not better jobs. If he doesn’t judge the working conditions of those other jobs to make up for the extra money, then that’s his choice. As long as he’s not drawing a benefit he is entitled to do what he likes. That’s the great thing about the free market. Only when we have communism do we need to start telling people what jobs to do – because when all jobs are paid the same it quickly turns out that people mostly want to do the easiest ones.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I have to say I like Rodney ‘post parliament’ a lot more than I did when he was leader of Act.
I’d be careful though about drawing too many conclusions from his column, I enjoy a bit of physical work once in a while but I wouldn’t want to do it every day for the rest of my life. As my father (a builder) would say ‘it’s a young mans game’, working outside in the cold weather eventually takes its toll.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 2:56 pm
YesWeDid: Rodney hasn’t changed, what has changed is the media portrayal of him. What you didn’t like was the caricature of him, if you actually read his materials, books, press releases, you’d have found a quite different person, much like the post-parliament Rodney.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Agree with that.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 3:27 pm
If we can agree that the jobs available are only available because society demands they be done (for financial, social or whatever reasons) we can then also say that jobs are not there to help workers live happy lives… If the average employer had more respect for the fact that the work they are offering may well make happiness much more difficult for their workers then life may well get easier for both sides..
A bad boss doesn’t always know why they are a bad boss…
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
“If the average employer”
Become one then.
Show us how it is done.
Or is job creation something a commie like you would naturally put in the too hard basket?
Preferring to bludge off the efforts of others and penalize them for displaying the get go you’ll never have in you.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Redbatty
Communisum was invented in the 19th century in reaction to greedy people like you hording all the wealth. You’ve got no one to blame for socialism but yourself…
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 4:59 pm
DPF said
DPF; Phil boasted on yesterday’s GD about going to the 2012 Pot Awards last night. That contrasts with the reason that he gives for refusing to work; i.e. that he will not leave his teenaged son at home alone or with a caregiver.
Phil is a liar, and laughs in our face with his outright refusal to work, his drug abuse (possession of cannabis is still a crime, despite the efforts of the pro-cannabis lobby) and his trolling all over your blog. Honestly, I don’t understand why you continue to cut him so much slack.
[DPF: There is a difference between P and pot. I have demerited Phil and suspended him many times, when his comments deserve it.]
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Oh Red and Edd…. can’t you people just comment and contribute to the general topic without resorting to labelling each other and descending into insults just for the sake of point-scoring, FFS?
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Come on mann.. Nobodys forcing you to read our conversation.. Talk about thought police..
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
some of you have inadvertantly touched on one of the main manacles of the poverty-trap..
..(one that nobody refers to..let alone promises to mend..not labour..not the greens..
..everybody wrings their hands/gnashes their teeth/dons hairshirts/and wonders:..’what can we do about poverty..?..’)
…namely that if beneficiaries do manage to find a part-time job…
..the tax/clawback on those monies is 85%..
..(what is the top rate the richest pay…?…less than half that..?
..seems fair…eh..?..)
..so two workers side by side..one receives $100 for their labours…the sole-parent/w.h.y..? receives $15…
..once again…seems fair..?
..and asking why isn’t that clear anomaly fixed..you are skirting near that ugly/nasty/mean-spirited component of the new zealand psyche…
..a ‘component’ that is large in size…
..and will soon be on view here..
phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
It’s obvious ‘Roger the digger driver’ doesn’t know that he can put a small rock breaker on his digger to break concrete or that there are such things as concrete cutters. They go vroom, vroom and make lots of dust. And all these ‘tradesmen’ a man short and ready to employ a short man able to work industriously between his radio shows. But maybe ‘Roger the digger driver’ wanted to watch Rods on the sledge hammer and thought it was worth $15 an hour.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Nostalgia-NZ : Of course, we had a jack hammer on the digger. The job is a bastard because the wall has fallen up against the house. With mud piled up against it. Hence the need for the crowbar and hammer. The position of the house, the wall, and the mud has meant a lot of manual work. But I suspect you are one of these smarty-pants on a keyboard who know all about a job without ever having seen it.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 6:20 pm
hide is shortlisted for a special self-aggrandizment-award…(sub-section:..’everyman’…)
(and it’s ok..he’s already said he can’t understand what i write..
..so he hasn’t read that..)
..and is he paying an 85% clawback tax on that money he earnt..?
phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 6:25 pm
I have not been Rodney Hyde’s greatest fan as a politician, but he goes way up in my estimation for both his response to his new circumstances, and his courage in writing about it.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
very rand-ite…hides’ tale..eh..?
..chisel-jawed man/rodney faces down destiny/adversity armed with only a hammer and a crowbar…and his chiselled jaw..
..and prevails…
..heh..!
..(maybe a creative-writing award is also in order..?..)
phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
I profusely apologise a thousand, a million times, for any inference from my mischievous and misleading comment about the crim and bludger Ure.
I’m deeply sorry and contrite for any offense caused. Please forgive me.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Rodney has a job. He works and pays TAX. Phool does not have a job, he does not work and does not pay TAX. He is a bludger.
Vote:End of story
June 24th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
..so two workers side by side..one receives $100 for their labours…the sole-parent/w.h.y..? receives $15…
That just about says it all Phil. The 2nd person received a total of $115 for their labour – the $100 wages + $15 of unabated benefit. Whereas person #1 received a total of $15 less for the same effort.
And you say the second person is harder done by? That it is ok (better, in fact) to sit back and have $115 given to you, by the 1st person, and others like them, than to earn that amount through your own labour?
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 7:14 pm
facts can make steve..aka..the child of the corn..very very nervous..
..and they sometimes evoke declamatory-outbursts…like the above..
..and anyway..hide should come clear on his drug use….he is on a baby-high…
..everything else is pretty much just bullshit..eh rodders..?
..it’s a powerful drug..that baby-high..and can last years..
..it morphs into toddler-high…
..and then lessens over years…as yr original god-like status fades…and there you stand..tattered/faded/utterly-human..
..but that’s all to come..eh..?
..phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Jesus…just came back to this…how many “cones” have you had today phool? And why should you be at all reticent about answering that question? It’s a fantastic wonder drug with no downsides isn’t it?? I would have thought you would be only too happy to tell us how much of the sacrament you have consumed today…
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Rodney Hide.
Of course a jack hammer is hand operated, a rock breaker is on the end of a digger boom. I undertake or advise on that type of work relatively frequently. It’s tricky because concrete like brick is unpredictable in its fall. Brick particularly so, if the concrete wall has reinforcing steel through it bringing it down can be easier. I only know this of course because I’m a smart arse and understand that a digger bucket is far more efficient that somebody with a sledgehammer.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
And, there goes philu, once again showing his racist and xenophobic tendencies for all to see.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
This place it getting more and more like a act revival meeting by the day
Vote:Next we will have RD and RP on here passing the time of day
Not that I mind at least we dont have that fw banks
June 24th, 2012 at 8:49 pm
Actually, back on topic, I have seen Rodney toiling away on the house that he bought in Wellington. Its not BS, I’ve seen him mucking in, landscaping, knocking down an old shed, as I can see his place from mine. The only annoying part is that he used to burn off most of the rubbish etc, even on nice clear still days. And I am definitely not a fan of him in a political sense. Good on him for getting stuck in.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Interesting to note that concrete walls, like fences, are restricted to 1800mm in this city and that there are height to boundary restrictions that apply for houses as well which are designed to prevent ‘shadows across the land.’ But of course there are always heroic situations to take a sledge hammer. Rodney will know all of this of course, and additionally that a permit, possibly a consent, will be required to erect an over height border wall. Included with which there are likely to be required wind resistance of the proposed wall to prevent collapse. Water run-off and the type and depth of the foundation will also need to be considered, along the land gradient and the free draining or solid coverage of the immediate surface surrounding the wall. Apart from that it’s all hunky dory.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 9:09 pm
“Rodney has a job. He works and pays TAX. Phool does not have a job, he does not work and does not pay TAX. He is a bludger.
End of story”
Stupid drug fucked prick won’t/fails to comprehend he is not a contributer, he is a user
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
“..won’t/fails ..”
imitation is the most sincere flattery…eh..?
phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 9:25 pm
imitation is the most sincere flattery…eh..?
Except no-one is imitating you phil. In fact this entire thread is about precisely the opposite of imitating you.
Diametrically opposed.
Completely 180 degree about face.
One of these things is not like the other.
Etc.
What about this, does one not understand, phil.
Perhaps you should send an urgent message to Luc, so he can jump in and tell us how awful we are, for bullying you so, by contrasting your entirely possible behaviour if you gave a shit, with your actual behaviour and – gasp – assessing you as wanting.
Oh dear.
The humanity.
FFS.
I wonder what the humanity reading would be if we threw in David Garrett’s accomplishments and well as Rodney’s, vs yours in the same time periods as well.
I bet that would probably entail some major CYFS/WINZ/ACC-funded super-counselling sessions just so you weren’t left feeling like a complete and utter loser after all even though that would be exactly what you would in fact be by all objective impartial measures.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
Nostalgia-NZ : No I don’t know all that. But then I don’t presume to pontificate from a keyboard on a job I haven’t seen especially on an article that I appear to have had trouble comprehending. The wall is 3m above the ground one side — it was one metre from the house. On the other side it was entirely filled in with a driveway serving several houses. The bulk of the wall is approx 70 years old but the base is older.
As I explained in the article the wall has fallen over. It’s an EQC job. It’s not heroic. It’s just tricky.
I never suggested I was an expert or a hero. I am just a guy working with a crowbar, and a sledgehammer and at times a wheelbarrow. Mostly however I am carrying the masonry through the mud because a barrow can’t be pushed through it. I am a pair of hands being told what to do by guys who know what they’re doing.
All I was doing was responding to the bullshit you posted as follows:
It’s obvious ‘Roger the digger driver’ doesn’t know that he can put a small rock breaker on his digger to break concrete or that there are such things as concrete cutters. They go vroom, vroom and make lots of dust. And all these ‘tradesmen’ a man short and ready to employ a short man able to work industriously between his radio shows. But maybe ‘Roger the digger driver’ wanted to watch Rods on the sledge hammer and thought it was worth $15 an hour.
Admit it. You wrote bullshit. You knew nothing of the job. You thought you could sound the big man writing anonymously on the blog. And you have been caught out. Good job.
Vote:June 24th, 2012 at 11:41 pm
We humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and at the same time, capable of the greatest evil.
Vote:Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too.
June 24th, 2012 at 11:52 pm
oh wise princetitypoe, might I add each of us should strive to be like the ants, not the grasshopper, from Aesop’s fable.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 6:50 am
Great post Rodney. I can relate to it.
After working 30 years in the IT/Telco industry I had to have a break so set up my own company doing labouring type work. I know for a fact that what you can earn working for yourself is very good, even if it is in what most people think low paid work.
Most importantly though, it has shown me that with the right attitude you can accomplish anything in NZ.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 7:13 am
I find it hard to understand why so many comments are along the line of “pity the poor buggers who are in their 50′s and still earn $24 an hour”.
If you are in your 50′s, have wasted your tax payer funded education (as many did) and have done nothing in the last thirty plus years to better yourself or improve your employment prospects then I have no bloody sympathy at all.
The fact that so many here have sympathy for people like that shows why we really are a nation of socialists and why there is no bloody hope for us.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 8:19 am
Big Bruv.
Vote:If you are in your 50′s, have wasted your tax payer funded education (as many did) and have done nothing in the last thirty plus years to better yourself or improve your employment prospects then I have no bloody sympathy at all.
……..
you have no sympathy because you have no understanding because you have no empathy because you’ve got a psychopathic personality?
June 25th, 2012 at 8:28 am
Rodney Hide.
Yes. I can accept that a wall has a three metre fall on one side of the boundary. Of course you didn’t write that originally which I suppose is fair enough because it wasn’t a blow by blow account of a specific job. And diggers can’t always work in mud. So I didn’t know nothing in detail about the specific job because you did give those details. But for those that read the article without the specifics who do such work it does just sounded like crap, look at me, I can work nonsense. Some people work physical jobs there whole lives, not just when they’re between jobs and want to blow a trumpet about it. Notice you use the word ‘big man’ bit sensitive about that are we. Anyway, good luck with the work. I don’t envy anybody working in clay and crap when it’s wet. If you did it for a few years on the trot, also working for yourself you might understand the essence of it beyond being a novelty, or a talking point over a cup of tea.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 8:42 am
I know someone who quit his job to take on a building apprenticeship. Last time I saw him he said: “oh I had to stop. They kept telling me i was too slow and wasn’t suited”. Looking at him you would never have thought that would happen.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 8:49 am
133,000/2 = 66500p.a 66500/49 = 1357.15/wk as builders labourer? $33.92/hr (if 40hr week)
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 8:52 am
I enjoyed this article and agree wholeheartedly:
http://nowoccupy.blogspot.com/2012/06/working-for-my-money.html
Also those in their 50′s and 60′s experienced huge social change and weren’t always given education opportunities when they had to wok out on a sadass partner.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Nostalgia-NZ:
I don’t know you but have concluded that you are an idiot.
In your latest comment you write:
Yes. I can accept that a wall has a three metre fall on one side of the boundary. Of course you didn’t write that originally which I suppose is fair enough because it wasn’t a blow by blow account of a specific job. And diggers can’t always work in mud. So I didn’t know nothing in detail about the specific job because you did give those details.
Here’s what I wrote in the original article that kiwiblog links to:
So I have spent the week with Roger and the boys taking down a 3m concrete retaining wall. The wall ran the length of a section and had fallen against the house it was supposed to protect. It was a tricky demolition.
So I did write that originally. You pontificate on jobs you haven’t seen in response to an article that you either haven’t read or are incapable of reading.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 9:43 am
“nothing’ should have been anything above. Also ‘not’ being a novelty.
hj. It’s a tough one, maybe he wasn’t suited. The problem for the employer is the cost of training and having to start again with someone else. We usually don’t worry about times until the person has picked the job up and doing it properly – generally by then they are getting quicker. I always stress that speed isn’t important in the beginning, but a lot of employers probably have a different attitude to training.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 9:59 am
What my mate Mukund from India calls “a useless eater”.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Rodney Hide
No I didn’t read the entire article I glanced at it but it appeared to be like something from a children’s book, ‘bob the builder’ style, but with ‘Roger the digger driver’ instead. Good for your own ego I’m sure. Try a 40 metre wall some time Rodney and get out of the sandpit.
You’re yet to explain how the ‘jack hammer’ fits to the boom, or what noise it makes – that could be the exciting part of Rodney’s little story. Give the digger a name, how about ‘dash-hound the digger?’
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 11:33 am
Twenty five years of hard labouring in construction and demolition left me with a bad back and muscle tears in my shoulders that ACC won’t cover because they are “pre existing”. I should have gone to parliament and had a soft ride on the taxpayers back with a generous super scheme at the end but somebody had to do the hard yards and actually build this country while the rest talked about it.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
That was my immediate thought also. Half a Govt Minister’s salary for labouring? Pull the other one.
In general a good column though, he describes the catharsis of building something with your own hands very well. He describes well the “I can’t be fucked…” attitude that a “PhU” of us have also…
It sounds like some right-winger needs to go and pin a medal on Rodney’s chest
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
how about a little book on the demolition job little roddy and little davey did on the act party..?
..(with ol’ rog playing back-up..?.)
‘the little pollies that couldn’t'…?
..and how little davey was so strong on lawn-order…
..but turned out to have uneven/untrimmed edges..?
phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
it could be a pop-up book…
..that could be fun..
..a page of/with garrett in the graveyard..?
..another one with roddy deep in the trough.?
phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
$30 an hour plus GST.
MPs’ pay since the determination of 2011 is $141,800.
Do the math.
I remember when I was labouring in the North Sea we were paid more than British MPs. I remember because it came up for debate in Parliament and was reported in the papers at the time.
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Rodney
A ruined political party that can’t cough up anything better than a treacherous brain-damaged vulture like Garrett, also hides under the name “Big Bruv” deserves every beating it get’s.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/sensible-sentencing-trust-defends-garrett-3782605/video
Garrett has screwed everybody he has ever been around. Hog, dog, or frog, dead child, ACT and now kiwiblog, it doesn’t matter to him.
A fine example of Garretts bully below that has nothing to say and says it with a liberal embellishment of bad delivery, embroidering it with reasonless vulgarities of attitude, an impostor so hateful, a blockhead so stupid, a crank so variously and offensive.
David Garrett (2,068) Says:
June 25th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
God you’re a sad man phool…13,000 posts on here, all of them drivel…even those who used to defend you can’t be bothered any more…banned from frogblog FFS!
What a wasted worthless life…no wonder you get stoned every day…how many cones does it take now? You must have built up a very strong tolerance….
{sorry everyone else…I’ll stop rattling the phool’s cage now}
Vote:June 25th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Rodney
The TV3 link is Deborah Coddington explaining when ACT reached it’s rock bottom and shows signs of starting to dig.
Do you have any regret on how Deborah clearly explained this?
http://www.3news.co.nz/Former-Act-MP-appalled-by-partys-hypocrisy/tabid/367/articleID/176486/Default.aspx
Vote: