It is my first day on furlough, the wonderful company that is H+S Aviation, where the management sits at home and waits out COVID out while the real workers go in are now abusing the Furlough scheme to keep their profits up.
Of course, we still have a full load of office staff and management, they won’t get furloughed and the tight cunts won’t even make up the 20%.
Well, it has been a long time coming but bar any last-minute hitches the new owners of H+S Aviation will be Standard Aero.
Must be a couple of years ago now that Signature Aviation (parent company of H+S Aviation) announced the intention to sell of its Global Engine Services (GES) arm which included us, Dallas Airmotive and IGS. Rumours were abundant as to who would be buying us and the name Standard Aero never far from the top of that list but then just before Christmas we heard that Signature Aviation as a whole was on the verge of being bought out and at the time GIP and Blackstones were in a bidding war and later merged to make a joint offer.
At the time we thought that was the end of the attempt to sell us off but this morning we hear the deal has been done to sell GES to Standard Aero.
We are not sure where that leaves us in the long terms Standard Aero own a large area of land in Gosport on what use to be Fleetlands.
Unemployment may be on the horizon.
H+S Aviation, the wonderful company that in the midst of a global pandemic, decided that we must continue working to keep the “essential” services flying have now decided that we don’t get a pay rise this year.
Does make all that rail painting and tool tray sorting while the upper management “worked from home” seem so worthwhile.
Thank you H+S it has been an honour to serve.
Second Xmas event for the staff of EAB and the traditional after-work trip to The Golden Hind.
This one contained no prizes with the bill which was good news. A few hardy souls stayed on for some after drinking, not such a good idea with work the next day.
I got left looking after the pensioner but he can drink most of us under the table so not a problem at all.
First night out for EAB and a very nice Indian at the Indian Palace in Gunwharf.
Some very bad reviews of the place on TripAdvisor but can’t fault the food.
What we can fault is the bill which was about £300 over what we had already paid (£800 total). By the time the bill arrived about 6 people had left so the rest of us had to chip in to settle the bill.
Partly our own fault as we worked on drinks being included and the company picking up the bill but this year they didn’t. Some unfortunately took the piss and drank far more than the rest of us.
Will be fun on Monday when those who left will be asked for the excess.
The bi-annual H+S Aviation Pub Quiz, held at the Graham Arms, was won by our wonderful team “Rubber Bullets”
Not sure my contribution was so great this year but chipped in with a couple of answers.