I’m going to start this one with a quoted text message I got sent.

Dave. We are not going to need you on Bath standby. I am staying down here with John as we have a lot of cables to make up and I know you are not prepared to do that sort of thing. I also think you may want to miss Birmingham as I need people that are flexible and prepared to work with us as we have kit to pull from other jobs. Speak soon Tim.

I think I need to explain this one.
I’ve been working on the Channel 4 Taste Festival for a power company running out all the power to kitchens, offices and stands. It’s mostly been fun, the people have been fun to work with, apart from the people that employed me. They have a very warped logic when it comes to crewing job. I’m pretty sure their mission statement would read something like “You are our bitch until we say you’re not”.

From the first day I started working with them, it’s been a constant battle trying not to get walked over. Luckily, it wasn’t just me who had the issues, all crew had similar grievances. Amongst other things, we’ve had disagreements about how long we work for, the fact we’re not warehouse crew and other joys like not being fed whilst on site.

My favourite argument was the one from last Sunday. We drove from London all the way to Bath for a 1030 start. We were originally going to be there at 8am, but it got put back so that we wouldn’t be there with no equipment.
However, things changed when we arrived. We got told we were going back to Newbury (which we drove past on the way to Bath) to pull out all the equipment that was there. No request, a “you are going to Newbury” type approach. Needless to say we declined that very kind offer on the grounds we were in Bath to work and our purchase order stated so. Besides the fact he was particularly rude to all of us down the phone.

We almost walked that evening because he decided to be childish and withhold our hotel information. We sat in the pub for just under two hours waiting and decided enough was enough. We went to see the event organiser and told him of our issues and to say farewell. The event organiser was a nice man and managed to persuade us to stay for another day and see how things went the following day. He said he’d arrange us accommodation if we were stuck that evening, but luckily for us we got a phone call whilst in the company of the organiser. I say luckily, because at the other end our employer was cursing and swearing down the phone at us, right in front of the person contracting his company. Bingo!

So the Monday passed, we all stayed out of each others way and got on with it. There was some childish behaviour but nothing we couldn’t laugh at and just carry on.
I left that evening as I had my final exams at college on the Tuesday morning. This was obviously the day when they decided that rather than treat a good crew as they should be, they’d rather get rid of us and employee a bunch of monkeys.

With all that said, I’ve put five days of work into the diary, which pays just as much as they were paying for a two week stint. Stitched up With Pride will never be crossing my books again!