Feminist Pub XVIII, in which the Bluestocking greets the first signs of spring with a glass of something soothing

I loathe school uniforms, for so many reasons, not just the blatant misogyny. As a teacher they were one of the worst parts of the job, and a real prevention to learning and student/teacher relationships. We live in the US now, and no-one wears uniform (even at private schools, except for a few of the religious ones) and lack of uniforms solves a lot of problems, whereas the presence of them used to create problems. In spite of all the guff about how uniforms are good because ... I always found that they made every situation worse, or had no positive influence at all.

The only time to have a uniform is if you need to quickly identify a person and which 'tribe' they belong to (e.g. emergency services, employees in a store). Otherwise they are counter productive at best, and a means of control at worst.

Good luck fib. Hap is right. They will be privileged to have you.

oh ffs - all the best though. they'd be privileged to have you

They have. I'm going in now. Probably for the best, as I don't have time to get nervous.

oh boo fib. they had better not rearrange again

Sorry fib. I was coming to wish you luck.

They have a choice at dds school between gingham dress and grey/ black trousers or skirts, so it's mostly trousers in the winter, or grey skirts and thick tights. I've noticed the change from trousers to the gingham dresses as the weather has gotten warmer. Dd and her friends wear the knee length shorts, I bought dds from asda (the boys section). Last week a "reminder" of school dress code was sent out to everyone but I don't know if it's linked to the girls wearing the shorts instead of the specified gingham dresses or something else.
I've noticed for footwear, the boys can wear black trainers but girls have to have a sturdy leather shoe. Dd was just saying some kind of universal trainer would be good, like how the PE plimsoles are the for girls and boys. She's had her shoes less that a week and they look a mess already, do they get flimsier as they get bigger or something?

Oh booh Fib.
We're in the middle of car MOT fail chaos.
And a colleague added to my bad impression of the other colleague's not particularly helpful behaviour at home (knows the colleague quite well socially). So it's not just colleagues' partners telling me how useless they are...

On another note (related to my girls' school shoe dislike) why are the girls expected to wear thin gingham dresses while the boys are in long trousers? Little children's clothes while daft and frilly tend to involve leggings or tights and often joggers for the boys. School uniforms seem stuck in the 1950s for girls, while boys no longer have to wear shorts in winter.

INicked, no matter what the circumstances, not shaking someone's hands is awfull manners unless there is a religious (eg orthodox Jew) not to do so, in which case you would explain anyway. And the rest...ugh. As LordCopper asks, how can that man be employed?

My interview has been pushed back to next week

The interviewer is still a shitty arsehole without basic social skills and without imagination. How come he's got a job???

I wonder if the interviewer doesn't know who he is interviewing or anything about them until he turns up, as it's usually the job centre sorting that part out? The interviews take place in the jobcentre so it's possible the actual interview is the first time he saw my cv.

It's truly shocking what people do when they assume that nobody will ever find out :( I suppose in those days they never would have dreamed that we'd have a, such a thing as a global media where paperwork might possibly come into the sphere of, and b, a society that actually cares about black people. It's similar to the sex abuse scandals - they weren't getting caught at the time so they did it and presumably didn't worry about whether it was wrong.

I'm glad that these kind of things are coming out, even though it's painful. I wonder (I hope!) if it will make people think about judging their actions by their own morality rather than just going by what is accepted and/or what is unlikely to be sanctioned at the time.

Utopia, the person doing the interview didn't invite me direct, the local store manager rang me, as I'd been in on spec last week, Poundland are recruiting through the local jobcentre (Poundland isn't the only big business who have done this) and the local PL manager contacted me and sorted the interview out, it was a regional or national manager doing the interviews, but mostly the jobcentre put people forward, if you say no you lose benefits, so he might have assumed I was there because the jobcentre were making me, (which doesn't make it ok) but then if they think many candidates don't want the job, then why do they work with the jobcentre to put people forward?

Yeah 'no humans involved' is one of the many jaw dropping moments in it. Just so fucking grim.
It was hbo/sky production I think, it's on Sky go (I have my fil's log in I don't give them my own money!!!)

what was the point of that though other than for him to wave what limited power he has about? it seems like a waste of his time and yours, given that he knew your experience already. i suppose in a sense you can benefit because it's given you experience of some of the worst sort of interviewing you could come across (and hopefully not representative of what you will experience from now on). a lucky escape definitely

And "no humans involved"

Which channel was that aired on Lager?

Why did he ask you to an interview if he didn't want to interview you? The vagaries of human behaviour continues to baffle me ...

Thank you everyone.
I knew it was going to go bad when I held my hand out and he wouldn't shake it. I was prepared for the "why do you want this job?" Type questions but he said it made no sense for me to apply, it wasn't a question, it was like he was saying it as fact. Never bothered offering him hand to shake on way out as he didn't bother looking up from paperwork. It felt like a telling off by a teacher rather than a job interview.
Im thinking of it as a lucky escape, and future interviews can't be any worse (I hope)

how can no humans be involved in murder?

There are some great women in it as well, the women who campaigned for something to be done about the killings (since the mid 80s) and a recovered crack addict/prostitute who helps Broomfield to find and talk to those who knew/encountered the killer.

Sorry for typos on phone

That's really crappy inickedaname, some people are real arseholes if they get a little power.

Has anyone watched the new Nick Broomfield documentary 'tales of the grim sleeper'? It's about a serial killer in South cenrral in LA that they think may have killed literally hundreds of black women since the 1980s. It's really disturbing, mainly because he interviews his friends whose casual misogyny is actually chilling, they basically don't sem to think that what he did was that bad, at one point they are actually laughing about it. There is also a suspicion that the lapd knew and either didn't care (marking missing wonen/murdered women nhi- no humans involved) or actually approved of what he was doing. It's really really grim but worth a watch. There's one scene where Broomfield does some really insensitive questioning of one of the only documented surviving victims and obviously it has the usual nick Broomfield doc vibe but it's a horrible insight into a misogynist pornsick culture and the affects of that, plus the horrendous racism in the US.

How totally dickish of him iNicked, I'm sorry you had to put up with that.

INicked - what an arsehole of an interviewer! Sorry he upset you.