QUIET QUITTERS

Shhhhh! Are you a quiet quitter? 

God bless tabloid journalists for coming up with nonsensical headline grabbing labels to apply to specific groups of the population at large.  Their latest offering ‘quiet quitters’ almost made me pee my pants!  And for once baby boomers are not to blame for this apparent newsworthy phenomena.

 

The Times - Saturday

As described by Helen Cahill in her article that appeared in Saturday’s edition of The Times, a ‘quiet quitter’ is not someone tiptoeing silently out of the local library but is a younger person who only fulfils the minimum terms of their employment contract.  In a nutshell, someone who just does the job they’re paid to do and nothing more.  Helen, I think you’ll find that this encompasses most of the working population and not just younger millennials.

‘Quiet Quitting’ is nothing new.  For over 40 years I’ve worked with folks whose sole purpose is to get through the office day doing as little as they can legally get away with and then take the pay.  They’re not interested in career development, taking on additional responsibilities, working overtime, joining project groups or coming up with any new cost saving initiatives – they just want to rock up, do their hours then go home.  No stress, no hassles, no effort – just give me money at the end of each month.  Thank you very much.  Who can blame them?

 

FRAN - sums it up perfectly

You’ve only got to look at what happens to those who do climb up the greasy career pole.  I know I’ve been there.  Burnt out by the age of 45 with nothing but an empty social calendar to remind you that whilst you’ve burnt the midnight oil for that promotion, every one of your friends has dropped you like a just-filled doggy poo bag.  

Patiently plodding baby boomers like me didn’t get the memo until much later on in life advising that there was such a thing as a LIFE/WORK balance.  We were too busy fretting over career advancement to notice the years slipping away.  Our younger millennials with their apps and busy social iphone lives quickly cottoned on to the fact that work is not the be all and end all.  Life is for living NOT for working a 60-hour week.

I feel that perhaps ‘quiet quitting’ is a form of passive revolution in the working classes after years of being promised the earth by employers only to find that all those silver lined clouds disappear as soon as the bottom line gets shaky.  Employers want to employ monkeys for peanuts then expect those monkeys to want to take on extra work for the same piteous handful of peanuts.  Seriously, do you think people are that stupid?

 

INKCINCT - that's the way it goes

The tide is turning in the world of work.  People are beginning to realise that their time is too precious to be squandered in a work place.  Many have realised they can actually get by without all the materialist consumerist trappings we’re constantly encouraged to buy so prefer to be time rich and cash poor rather than end up an overpaid, over promoted loser who has never had a day’s fun in their over-worked life. 

If employers want to retain the workforce of the future then perhaps the LSE’s study shows that maybe now is the time to re-define traditional working patterns and job descriptions to better suit the modern life and fit in with millennial life expectations.  Sometimes monkeys want more than just peanuts!

Sometimes I wish I was paid my weight in chocolate Brazil nuts

STRAWBERRY FIELDS

The small strawberry patch by the veg bed has done very well this summer.  In fact, it’s done so well that I’ve decided to extend the strawberry fields to give us even more of these delicious fruits.

 

From small beginnings

Singing the song of the ancient gardeners, it’s time to give the lilac bush a short back and sides to clear space for more strawberries:

Bring me my hoe rusty and old!
Bring me wheelbarrows of desire!
Bring me my shears.  Oh trug, unfold!
Bring me my trowel of fire!
I will not cease from digging right
Nor shall my spade sleep in my hand
Till we have made a strawberry patch
In England’s green and pleasant land

Roused to battle with bush and soil, a new patch has been created ready to propagate strawberry babies from runners produced by the mother plants later on in the year.

 

Another strawberry patch created

Strawberry plants could be used as border edging plants in a small garden as they are compact in size, grown in pots or in wall hung gutters as they’ll grow pretty much anywhere.

I think she should grow more dandelions

DONE IN BY DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL

Having returned from this year’s Download Festival, my thoughts are with the folks of Nottingham who have been left reeling after the murder tragedy that recently took place in the city centre.  Whatever is this world coming to?  I’m sure that back in the day, ye olde Sheriff of Nottingham would have had that bad’un strung from the gallows before you could say ‘Robin Hood – Men In Tights’.  Our sincerest condolences to all families.

 

Our thoughts are with you

If you’ve just returned from this year’s head banging extravaganza at Donny Park, you’ll no doubt have already received the offer of discounted early bird tickets from the festival organisers who are keen to strike whilst the iron is hot.  And boy was it hot.  Soooooo hot, the river of sweat flowing from my face and other body parts could easily have watered the county six times over.

 

Frying tonight at Download Festival

Unprecedented as this is (they don’t call it the Downpour Festival for nothing), no extra precautions were taken by the festival organisers to provide shelter from the blazing sun even though hot temperatures had been forecast for weeks.  Sunday was particularly bad as the wind that normally sweeps across the arena had also died away.  Most festival punters spent the day hugging the shady hoardings, wishing they could be teleported to Antarctica or sitting in the shadow of fast-food vans instead of cheering on their favourite bands.  I even saw one bloke squeezed behind a giant dumpster bin in a desperate bid to hide from the sun.  The tented space behind the Taphouse was the most popular spot around.

 

Not a cloud in sight

By mid-afternoon, queues for the drinking fountains exceeded those of the merchandise stalls and as everyone who’s been to Download knows, you can age 10 years waiting in line just to buy a T-shirt because in all the years I’ve been going to this event, buying merch has never gotten any better.  And whose great idea was it to just have one tiny kiosk point dishing out the lanyard programmes?  Just in the spot where signal reception is the patchiest too.  Please post these to us BEFORE the event so we can plan ahead for a great day out.

 

Waited so long for merch I forgot what I came for

No sun shelters, queues a mile long, and not a lot of merch available by Sunday – if you thought this was bad then what about the extra 30,000 punters milling around making everyone’s life a misery by continually moving from place to place whilst your favourite band is on?  Or having to walk miles to the Transport Hub after a sweaty day of moshing?  Or running out of beer?  What do you mean no beer?  Nooooooooo!!!

 

Amazing Mongolian metal band - The Hu

Yep, I’m done in by Download.  A festival is not just about having the greatest line up, certainly Download cannot be faulted in that respect but for me what would have made it better is having some ‘chill out gazebos’ dotted around, buses closer to the entry gates and all festival merch available to buy online and delivered at least 2 weeks before your visit including lanyards.  Festival Republic I hope you’re reading this and take note.

 

Download 20 line up

Now I’ve got all that off my chest, I do have to say that the best band on the screamo Sunday line up were Ghost.  Well worth all the other aggro you had to endure to see them but only just!

Forgive me Papa for I haven't sinned enough

FLOWER POWER

Gardeners at the popular Chelsea Flower Show are not the only ones having a hoe down.  In our back garden Chi Flower Show, blooms are starting to burst forth in a splendid display of colour so all that hard work over the past few months has not been in vain.

 

June is busting out all over

The hostas have escaped the annual summer slug picnic and are getting ready to flower.  This is largely due to those magical little blue pellets rather than some kind of horticultural miracle.  

I love hostas but so do the slugs

Sorry organic gardeners but until someone can figure out how to turn slugs into electricity then it’s the only way to get rid of the slimy critters.

 

Full of entertaining ideas

Large red poppies have added instant zing to the border with their glorious scarlet petals.  I’ve planted at least 3 clumps of these giant papavers as they are quite reliable, hardy perennials whose furry leaves don’t generally feature on the slimer’s just-eat menu.

 

Giant papavers for instant colour

At the back of the border, tall Camassias stand proud.  I’d never heard of this plant before until it was recommended in an episode of Gardeners World.  Cheers Monty!  With its beautiful star like floral clusters, I’ve planted both the white and blue varieties next to the fence.  I bought mine in pots but they are also sold as bulbs for autumn planting.

 

White camassia

Another new addition to the plant repertoire is kniphofia also known as ‘red hot pokers’.  Clumps of long, slim leaves give way to strong stems with colourful exotic looking flowers.  Perennial and easy to look after (just what I like) I’m hoping these will grow into a nice clump after a few seasons.

 

Red hot pokers

Facing front is another old favourite - Iberis.  Over the years I’ve found this plant to be very reliable, hardy and being evergreen provides foliage all year round so a good border edging plant.  Spreads quickly and looks great hanging over the side of a wall.

 

Iberis - a good evergreen edging plant

Being nosy I love looking at other people’s gardens to see what they’ve got growing.  Around the neighbourhood many gardens included a plant with tall yellowy-white flowers and iris-like foliage which I thought might look nice in my border.  

Sisyrinchium Striatum - creamy pale yellow flowers

They are called Sisyrinchium Striatum or satin flower, an evergreen perennial that grows in clumps.  They’re quite pretty and good for full sun positions but I’ll have to keep an eye on them in case they become invasive as irises have a tendency to spread.

Shelby's loving this heatwave