ColinJ said:Many years ago, the company I worked at finally got round to putting a couple of showers in, about a year before I left. I didn't cycle in regularly because I found 15 hilly miles of busy A-roads twice a day a bit more than I wanted to do. I did like to ride in on nice summer days, and then it was nice to be able to have a shower before going to mycelldesk.
The thing that really pissed me off was The Shocking Tale of the Disappearing Bicycle Rack...!
The company had a big plot of land on the far side of an industrial estate and beyond the estate was hilly moorland. A couple of bikes left round the side of the main building had disappeared over the preceding year. It isn't likely that the bike thieves had walked in the main gates, through the car park and past all the windows in the production area. They were much more likely to have come across the moor and climbed over the fence.
Somebody in a position of power agreed to have a bike rack put in for us, and it would be installed in a safe place - at the side of the main entrance to the office building in full view of the reception desk. Opposite this entrance was the small executive car park where the MD and his sidekick mate the Sales Director parked their Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Jags, 4*4s etc. (they used to drive different cars for each day of the week, just in case we couldn't remember why they had to keep our pay down and make redundancies from time to time). There was a covered walkway from their carpark to the main door.
Now for years, the motorcyclists in the company had parked their bikes under the canopy. Nobody had ever said anything about that, probably because they were big powerful bikes and they fitted the kind of macho company image that the MD liked to portray. Fine lightweight racing bicycles apparently didn't...
The new bicycle rack had been installed and for a week, we grateful cyclists had taken advantage of it, but then came Day of the Big Hacksaw! Monday morning, about 11 am, the MD arrived back from his bi-annual drink/drugs detox. Witnesses saw him climb out of his Ferrari, turn to face the office block and then go red with rage. He ran into reception and screamed abuse at the receptionist and she got straight on the phone to the company handyman. A message came over the Tannoy telling any cyclists who were using the rack to remove their bicycles from the rack immediately or their locks would be cut off.
10 minutes later the handyman was sawing through the uprights of the rack. It had been well built, its base embedded in concrete. I saw it dumped in a skip as I left work that evening...
Apparently someone from the production area climbed in the skip after the MD had gone home and pulled the rack out. I heard rumours that it had been reinstalled in an obscure corner behind the production building but never actually used it again. I cycled in a few more times that summer, and made my protest by taking my bike into the office with me and leaning it against the end of my desk. I got away with it for a few weeks and then the MD got to hear of it and I was ordered to stop doing that. I left the company shortly afterwards...
I've got access to the bike sheds now, although immediately upon doing so capacity is being reduced for 4 months whilst "maintenance" is ongoing. Overall I'm pretty chuffed as I know quite a few other people don't have this and although work may not think so it's a major boost to my job and why I might want to stay there.
