Great. Just great.
Thanks to a leak in the choke manifold last night, the displacement that was supposed to happen on my shift last night will now happen on day shift today.
What's the problem?
The day shift engineer is crew changing today. If he's checked in for his flight, muggins here will be dragged out of his bed to deal with it.

If you've got something on your hands, don't be moving my fcuking Coke cans around the fridge

Every bloody week this happens and I wind up with a can I've to go and wash before I can hold it properly. Partly because people bring in salads that not only stink but are in enormous lunchboxes in the fridge

I hate that. What about having it in a fridge pack that you can buy? Means the coke cans are in a cardboard shell and hence the cans are clean.

Or just keep it in a plastic bag?

I wind up using individual cans the fridge is that packed out - we have two of 'em and you wouldn't believe the food that gets wasted... I threw out an entire carrier bag of dairy products last week, some of them from February! You can't really win when you're surrounded by people like that.

So let me run this past you to see if it makes sense, as I've tried putting it anyway I can, I can't understand it.

I did an undergrad Masters degree, in generalist civil engineer, a small portion of my degree covered the basics of what my job is about. I have had this job for 3 years, and my current boss for nearly 2 years.
A while ago I requested to go on some training courses as I'd like to improve my understanding of the science behind my job and proficiency with the software I use.
My boss is now saying: "but you studied this at uni no? Why do you want to go on courses?" Meanwhile, my colleague who has a PhD in the field is sent on courses.

My boss has just now realised that I did not study the same specialist degree than he did as this degree is not available in English anywhere. He thinks I don't understand what I do despite the fact I've been doing this job for 3 years and doesn't understand the difference between knowing what I do and understanding the processes behind what I do.

I really don't know what's going on.

To add to that, the guy in charge of staff for my team told me: "is a course going to help? I mean my wife can't read maps, I could send her to hundreds of courses and she'll never be able to. Maybe it's just that you can't understand the theory behind the engineering?"

WTF.

Someone should take responsibility for cleaning out the fridge. It should be done by the cleaner or office manager. The fridges here are cleaned out every Friday which is a bit annoying but luckily there's a fridge in the build room that only we can get to so I stash anything in there if I want to leave it over the weekend.

I just don't use the fridge at work. Either I don't eat lunch (fasting day) or I'll buy from the local garage/supermarket.

Sexist bastards. I can't say I've ever encountered that kind of treatment as I work in a male dominated environment too. My last Director didn't like me and made that clear in my appraisal but I was about to leave for the Engineering department anyway. I get offered exactly the same as the rest of the guys on the team and we're all getting training this year. It isn't the same courses as we have different skill levels. Personally I would seek some advice is sexual discrimination.

I'm thinking of getting HR involved. Especially as I'm the only one from my grad intake not to have been promoted yet. Reason was "oh, on a couple Excel spreadsheets, there were values that were wrong, and on some of your reports, there were spelling mistakes".

I would if I was you. Good luck and keep us posted. Let's hear it for the women yay!

A big +1 here. It's sounds very much like you'd have an excellent case for a grievance on grounds of sexual and/or racial discrimination.
If you've got any of this stuff in writing or have solid witnesses then so much the better.

Cheers all. I'll discuss with my group leader I think and then probably HR.
Amongst other things, things I don't like about commuting:

- delays!
- cost
- people who don't move down the carriage
- people who shove instead of asking to move down
- people who sit in the aisle or put bags on seats and get annoyed when you ask them to move
- sneezers and coughers (yuck)
- people who sit really close to you and put their stuff on you.
- people who put their broadsheet papers in your face on the tube
- backpacks and oversized handbags not taken off while travelling.
- reduced service at weekends.

list could go on.

Check if your employer has a grievance procedure first. It should be freely available if they've got one.
Read it then follow the steps, document everything you've done to resolve the issue and get stuff in writing if you can as well.

The ACAS website has lots of useful advice on this sort of thing - clickety.

[LIFTED] fog!

I should be almost home now, but I'm stuck on the bloody rig still.
If I don't get off tomorrow my wife is going to go ape at me. We're supposed to be having a weekend away.