Worst or lowest part of your life ?

[Nick Carter icp]

2 hours ago, JeffersLos said:

 

Sometimes people deserve to have objects thrown at them. 🙂 

 

   They do not , it's unacceptable behaviour 

[Will B Good]

9 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   They do not , it's unacceptable behaviour 

 

Clunk

[tjintx]

3 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I have always enjoyed my work, and have been productive for several companies. I was interrupted at the peak of my productivity.

 

My encounter with the management consulting firm of McKinsey was without doubt a low point in my  life.

 

McKinsey is a global giant, with about 27,000 employees. Like law firms, the holy grail is to become a partner. Many ex-employees wear their association as a badge of honour. In my view, it should be a badge of shame.

 

McKinsey operates on a simple and fraudulent principle. It makes a presentation to the board or senior management of a target company, promising with its cost-cutting programs to improve the bottom line. From memory, the target was $180 million, with a fee of $18 million to McKinsey for their expertise. Most boards are hypnotised by the prospect of substantial cost savings. Such is McKinsey’s reputation, it would take a brave senior manager to reject their overtures.

 

McKinsey does not target small businesses, because those simply could not afford them, or be worthwhile. My company was a large and juicy target.

 

It sounds wonderful, except it is smoke and mirrors. Two to three years after McKinsey has swept through an organisation, no-one ever goes back to the cost savings they have claimed to measure whether they were achieved in reality.

 

 

A number of individuals were selected as team leaders. Declining was not an option. I was isolated in a demountable hut outside the Engineering Department for six months, with a 386 laptop issued by McKinsey for company. I was supposed to sit there and think of nothing but cost saving ideas. My only human contact during that time was a few minutes every day with a McKinsey facilitator. The rest of the time I spent staring at a computer screen, wishing I could be back at work doing what I did best – finding new insights, developing new methods , and solving plant and customer problems.

 

I regard that six months in the demountable hut as the most barren and wasted of my entire life. Not surprisingly in hindsight, I developed depression. My wife was completely unsympathetic, telling me to get on with it. To her, I was just a provider.

 

I went to see the Works Doctor, in despair. I suspect I was not the only person he was seeing affected by the madness of McKinsey. He forthwith prescribed doxepin, a classic tricyclic antidepressant. I was to be on that medication for the next 20 years, and it may have contributed to the benign prostatic hyperplasia I have now.

 

I was quite stressed, even with the anti-depressant in my system, because one of the cost savings forced on me by the program was a reduction of two people in my department. These were human beings reduced to a bottom line.

 

At the end of the six months, all team leaders were to make a presentation to the CEO, who had the reputation of a hatchet man.

 

The HR manager made his presentation before me. He achieved the required savings while adding four people to his staff, and was fulsomely praised

 

When my turn came, I was excoriated by the CEO for not doing enough, despite reducing the staff level by two people. When I pointed out the discrepancy between my presentation and the HR manager, he got quite angry and told me to stop being evasive. I was outraged by the unfairness of it all. It was only my sense of self-preservation that prevented me from telling him to shove his program up his @rse. Financial independence would have been a wonderful thing at the time.

 

If I owned a business, and a manager came to me wanting to bring in McKinsey or any other consultant, I would fire that manager on the spot. My logic would be any manager who needs someone else to tell him how to run a business is no manager.

 

When an organisation kills or injures a person physically, there is usually hell to pay. Organisations such as BHP, Exxon and BP have shelled out billions for the environmental damage they have caused. I am wondering how much mental damage McKinsey has initiated, and whether there will ever be a reckoning through a class action by an enterprising legal firm.

 

I suppose there were a couple of positive results from my six month sojourn in Siberia. I had a truckload of work waiting for me, with various clamourings for priority. I had come through fairly severe depression intact, with my medication reduced to the minimum level. Perhaps most importantly, I had realised my marriage was no longer sustainable, and it was only a matter of time before we split up.

 

I am in remission from three types of cancer. Being diagnosed with them was not the lowest points of my life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Were they not the prototype for the consultants in Office Space?    

 

I have had to deal with them in several firms I worked for, total scum (although there is at least one of the big 8 (old number, I know due to consolidations etc.) accounting firms started operating in the same space and were just as slimy.   Sounds like Purse and Tounge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nick Carter icp]

15 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

 

Clunk

 

   Are you calling me a clunk ?

clunk

1. 2.

   informal•US

   a stupid or foolish person.

   "don't let her see what a clunk I'm married to"

 

[Will B Good]

3 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   Are you calling me a clunk ?

clunk

1. 2.

   informal•US

   a stupid or foolish person.

   "don't let her see what a clunk I'm married to"

 

 

Also an onomatopoeia.

[Nick Carter icp]

3 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

 

Also an onomatopoeia.

 

   OK, Do you also think that its acceptable to throw things at people ?

(Apart from insults ,  that is )

 

[jas007]

I've been through times in my life that, at the time, seemed "awful."  In retrospect,, no big deal. I was just temporarily poor.

 

For example, my father supported my through undergraduate school, but stopped when I went to law school.  II guess he figured that was my problem.  Anyway, even though I had the GI Bill at the time and could use those benefits to pay for food and housing, the private school tuition was expensive, financial aid wasn't really a thing back then, and when I worked it was only part time.  So I was doing good to get through every month with just the bare necessities.  One time the starter went out on my VW Bug, and for a period of a few months, I couldn't afford to fix it.  When I parked, I had to find a parking spot on a hill. To start the car, I started it rolling down the hill and then popped the clutch.   

 

Anyway, I was healthy and mostly having fun, so I'd go back in a second if I could. 

[Will B Good]

9 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   OK, Do you also think that its acceptable to throw things at people ?

(Apart from insults ,  that is )

 

 

You've never seen "The Life of Brian"?

[Centigrade32]

10 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   OK, Do you also think that its acceptable to throw things at people ?

(Apart from insults ,  that is )

 

 

Give it a rest...

[Nick Carter icp]

Just now, Will B Good said:

 

You've never seen "The Life of Brian"?

 

  Again , making a statement and putting a question mark at the end .

Oh I see, its a reference to the Life of Brian where they throw rocks at a blasphemer and Basil gets squashed by a huge rock .

  Basil was Julius Caesar salad  in the movie , if I remember correctly 

[Will B Good]

Just now, Nick Carter icp said:

 

  Again , making a statement and putting a question mark at the end .

Oh I see, its a reference to the Life of Brian where they throw rocks at a blasphemer and Basil gets squashed by a huge rock .

  Basil was Julius Caesar salad  in the movie , if I remember correctly 

 

Brian says....... "let him, who is without sin, throw the first stone".......THUD.

[thaibeachlovers]

20 hours ago, The Cobra said:

what was your roughest or lowest time for you as a young adult,

When I was first stupid enough to believe a woman when she said that "she loved me" Only thing she loved was herself.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, tjintx said:

He forthwith prescribed doxepin, a classic tricyclic antidepressant. I was to be on that medication for the next 20 years,

IMO antidepressants don't work. However they give the impression that work medics are doing something.

I was on antidepressants myself, but stopped when all they did was make me impotent.

 

Later, I was having a bad time at work and went to the health nurse. The only thing she wanted to do was put me on antidepressants. When I declined, she threw me out and refused to see me again.

I solved the problem by resigning. Best thing I did in years. Far too many bullies in nursing- and mainly from senior nurses/ managers.

[JeffersLos]

1 hour ago, Nick Carter icp said:

They do not

 

Remove the not. 🙂

[Nick Carter icp]

19 minutes ago, JeffersLos said:

 

Remove the not. 🙂

  

   Attacking other people is not acceptable .

Aren't you supposed to be one of those nice lefty people ?

Also, unless you are a hypocrite , then you will have to accept other people throwing things at you , unless you should be able to do it, but others shouldn't be able to 

[JeffersLos]

4 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

  

   Attacking other people is not acceptable .

Aren't you supposed to be one of those nice lefty people ?

Also, unless you are a hypocrite , then you will have to accept other people throwing things at you , unless you should be able to do it, but others shouldn't be able to 

 

You're talking nonsense. 🙂 

[Nick Carter icp]

1 minute ago, JeffersLos said:

 

You're talking nonsense. 🙂 

 

   And you're not talking much at all .

You managed six words in 2 posts ,and both saying the same thing 

 

[JeffersLos]

16 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

you're not talking much at all .

 

Don't need to. 🙂 

[Prubangboy]

Separating from my wife last year was brutal, but the death of the first one has to slightly outrank it. One person I can still send a Christmas card to, one I can't.

 

And I turned down un-hot sex 4 times in 2024. It's just a matter of time until I fall into something else stupid.

 

"Nice lefty people" -we gotta lose that anvil around our necks.

 

[Centigrade32]

38 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

  

   Attacking other people is not acceptable .

Aren't you supposed to be one of those nice lefty people ?

Also, unless you are a hypocrite , then you will have to accept other people throwing things at you , unless you should be able to do it, but others shouldn't be able to 

 

Can you take your silly baiting and Trolling elsewhere?

I want to read about people's experiences, rather than your repeated attempts to disrupt the thread.

Go away please before I hit the Report button. Post about your experiences or just read quietly. Stop attacking posters due to your personal enmity.

[tjintx]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

IMO antidepressants don't work. However they give the impression that work medics are doing something.

I was on antidepressants myself, but stopped when all they did was make me impotent.

 

Later, I was having a bad time at work and went to the health nurse. The only thing she wanted to do was put me on antidepressants. When I declined, she threw me out and refused to see me again.

I solved the problem by resigning. Best thing I did in years. Far too many bullies in nursing- and mainly from senior nurses/ managers.

 

The quote was certainly not from me.

[Nick Carter icp]

2 hours ago, Prubangboy said:

Separating from my wife last year was brutal, but the death of the first one has to slightly outrank it. One person I can still send a Christmas card to, one I can't.

 

And I turned down un-hot sex 4 times in 2024. It's just a matter of time until I fall into something else stupid.

 

"Nice lefty people" -we gotta lose that anvil around our necks.

 

 

   They are always going on about how bad and terrible everyone else , I was led to believe that they are perfect and never do anything wrong 

[Kinok Farang]

25 years ago.A broken down alki brickie , 50 years old living at Mums.

Found Thailand in 2005 and never had a drink since.

I explain it to anyone who cares to listen that i was older when i first came here than i am now.

[Kinok Farang]

10 hours ago, simon43 said:

Very long post!  But my text will explain why I'm usually found in Myanmar nowadays.

 

The lowest point in my life was about 20 years OK, when I married wife #2 (I didn't learn my lesson from English wife #1).  My Thai wife was 50% bad and 50% mad (certified by doctors).  I'm not quite sure how I missed those points when I married her.  We opened a small hotel business in Phuket.  She destroyed a very successful business (the first airport hotel on the island, now making millions with its new Belgian owner).

 

She took drugs and was mad as a mad coot.  I spent a fortune on mental health treatment at hospitals and clinics. I had a great working relationship with the local pharmacist in Nai Yang and together we would 'Google' suitable drugs to calm her down. On a daily basis, she break out from the hotel where I and her family members kept an eye on her. She would run down the street and boy could she run fast!

 

On 2 occasions, she stole our hotel car (she can't drive), and somehow drove to Patong where she crashed into multiple parked motorbikes, then fleeing on foot.  More money to pay out in compensation.

 

One one occasion, a good American friend joked with her that I had another girl-friend.  When she spotted me at the beach (with no girl-friend of course), she drove the car off the road and tried to run me down.

 

She had control of the business bank account and would regularly write blank checks for her friends.  I pleaded with the bank manager not to allow her access to the money, but he sadly told me that he could not stop her from accessing her own money. She spent all the hotel staff wages on drugs and booze...

 

I joined the Tourist Police Volunteers, in an effort to have time away from her (wrestling with drunken Russians in Soi Bangla was a holiday compared to her!). But she also then secretly joined the police and 'ambushed' me when on patrol.  The police threw her out because her crazy actions scared tourists...

 

Then I started to study 2 days a week on the MA Thai Culture course at Chula in Bangkok.  Again, she destroyed that idea by gate-crashing the actual lesson and causing a scene.

 

Her Thai family and I decided to take her faraway from the Phuket hotel, so she couldn't cause more damage.  I took her to stay in Nong Khai.  But every day she would literally run away, running down the Rim Kong road.  One day, she managed to board a bus going to Bangkok.  We had to call the bus company and then the actual bus driver who stopped the bus near Khon Khaen, so that we could 'catch' her again.

 

All my friends knew what a terrible situation I was in.  One US friend owned a small and remote holiday bungalow, located on a beach at Ban Nam Kem, (where the tsunami museum/memorial is).  When things got too much for me, I would go up to this house to rest.  In the morning, I'd walk along the beach and think what a terrible state of affairs this was.  Due to the sea currents in that area, the beach was literally covered with millions of tiny, colourful shells.  The sight of such beauty will stick in my mind forever.

 

She gave birth to a son, yes, my son 🙂 But it was too dangerous for that boy to stay with us, because she would grab himby the leg and pull him rapidly across the room. He was brought up by a good Thai aunt and her husband in Bangkok who were medically unable to have kids.  He never returned to live with us, but grew up happily with his aunt and uncle, and I would visit him regularly in Bangkok.

 

My mad wife took to throwing plates and cutlery at me when my back was turned.  She would also physically attack hotel guests when they had a complaint (she is only 145cm, 33Kg, but fights like a devil).  Some of my replies on TripAdvisor from guests who had been physically attacked by her make good reading!!

 

So she had destroyed our successful business and our family.  So only the marriage was left. She got pregnant by a gay hill-tribe hairdresser (you can't make this up), and I finally divorced her.  When she gave birth in Phuket, she told the doctors that I was the father, (which I clearly was not).  Therefore my name went on the legal birth certificate. To get that changed required her, me and the gay guy to visit the local police and obtain a report that she was totally nuts. We were thrown out of 2 police stations until she managed to bribe a police officer to write the report and my name was removed 🙂

 

At this point, due to the business failure, family failure and marriage failure, I was not in a 'good place'. Kind friends let me stay for free at their hotels and gave me food each day, (since she had spent all the money and I didn't yet have another job).

 

 One evening when they took me to a local restaurant and gave me some whisky (whisky makes me depressed), I could take it no more and collapsed on the restaurant floor in tears.  All my friends and the restaurant owner knew what I had been going through with this 'mad and bad bat', and carried me out of the restaurant.

 

I was at my lowest point, but I'm not one to give up!  I'm not religious but I asked 'my god' to help me and that if there was a way out of this situation, then I would do whatever I could to help others.

 

I considered my options as to how I could get away from her.  I had an idea!  I knew that she would not pursue me if I went to the country of Myanmar (Burma).  So I searched for hotel manager jobs in Myanmar.  I found none, but I did find a job for an English teacher at a private school in Yangon.  The pay was good (because no-one really wanted to endure the 'hardships' of Myanmar at that time).  I was no English teacher (I was a qualified and experienced space/satellite engineer).  But I applied and got the job. 

 

On my arrival at the school, I expected to be teaching a class of teenagers, but found myself (at the age of 53) singing English nursery rhyme songs with a class of 5-year olds 🙂

 

The new job was a shock, but it paid good money and was easy and fun.  So I stayed....  I self-funded various CPD (Continuing Professional Development) courses to improve my pedagogical knowledge, such as Phonics and Montessori.  But I also never forgot the promise that I made to 'my god'.

 

One Saturday (my day off), I took a ferry boat across the river to Dala Township, a slum area that I was warned not to visit.  Monsoon rain had left many of the bamboo houses flooded, and it was a sad sight to see families standing up to their knees in dirty flood water.  My pedalo driver took me to visit the local monastery school, where 2 Burmese volunteer teachers were teaching Burmese language.  No-one spoke a word of English, and I remembered my promise.  So I started teaching English to these kids (see photo from 2012).

 

 

  I had to rapidly learn some Burmese 'what is this?', 'what colour is this?' and so on.

 

I never gave up on the promise to 'my god'.  Now, almost 13 years later, you will usually find me in Myanmar, (I'm in Thailand right now for a few weeks). I teach at the international schools to earn a living salary, and then I use some of that money to donate school books and teaching/learning resources to orphanages and 'poor' schools throughout the country. I have funded the development of a free Android English learning app that is used by thousands of students and local teachers.

 

I still keep in touch with my mad ex.  Prior to her giving birth to the gay guy's baby, the doctors at the hospital told me that if she had a hysterectomy, then that would 'calm her down'.  So on my authority (I was already divorced from her, so actually had no legal authority), the doctors removed her womb after the birth.  Indeed, this did calm her down, and aging also had a calming effect.  She still offers to look after me in my old age, but I think a jump off the highest building is preferable!!

 

As for myself, I don't really have plans to stop working, so long as my health holds up.  I've seen the benefits of my educational charity efforts in Myanmar, helping those who through no fault of their own were born into an unlucky environment and situation.  I had the good luck to be born British and in a decent middle-class family.  I went all the way to the bottom and came up again - so it's time to pay back 🙂

One of the best  posts i have seen on A N.

Interesting guy with a great story and your ex  reminds me of mine.

 

[bubblegum]

Homeless after last (had 4, cost money but that's not important) divorce, in prison after retaliating to my first GF rape. 

[Prubangboy]

2 hours ago, Kinok Farang said:

 

Found Thailand in 2005 and never had a drink since.

So many people heal here. Good for you.

[Will B Good]

6 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

  Again , making a statement and putting a question mark at the end .

Oh I see, its a reference to the Life of Brian where they throw rocks at a blasphemer and Basil gets squashed by a huge rock .

  Basil was Julius Caesar salad  in the movie , if I remember correctly 

 

Brian says....... "let him, who is without sin, throw the first stone".......THUD.

[Will B Good]

Worst or lowest part of your life ?

 

Probably tonight when I saw riclag had posted even more unadulterated drivel.......come back Bob.....all is forgiven.

[Yellowtail]

17 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Worst or lowest part of your life ?

 

Probably tonight when I saw riclag had posted even more unadulterated drivel.......come back Bob.....all is forgiven.

5555555555555555

[spidermike007]

20 hours ago, RSD1 said:

I think my low point was when I discovered AN and then read my first bob smith post. I will never forget that day and must live with it in shame until it's time for me to clock out. What a pity. 

He was a real piece of work. Thrilled he is gone and no longer raining verbal terror down upon this community. 

 

A quote comes to mind with regard to people of his kind. 

 

In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.