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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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19th Feb 2018, 4:32 pm | #21 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
There was another thread about this a few months ago.
I (from London) never heard the word 'foreigner' used with this meaning until I moved to Birmingham. Maybe it is used everywhere apart from the South east? |
19th Feb 2018, 4:56 pm | #22 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
I started in the building industry in the South West and extra jobs were to us always known as a foreigner, as in doing a foreigner.
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19th Feb 2018, 5:05 pm | #23 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
I've heard them described as "Manager's specials" - deriving from one manager who would often bring in bits of dead gear from family/friends/neighbours and ask a seemingly-not-busy bench-tech 'any chance you could have a look at this for me?'
Filling your 'idle' time working on a personal project - looking busy so the manager didn't drop extra unofficial work on you - meant the private project got known as a Manager's special. |
19th Feb 2018, 6:08 pm | #24 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
Enlightened companies allow this sort of thing (in a limited way) as self training with an added bonus to the perpetrator. It makes sense, no time wasted hiding the job, done more quickly, shared knowledge and a happy employee.
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19th Feb 2018, 6:17 pm | #25 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
The roots of the HP8590A spectrum analyser family was a student's homer.
David
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19th Feb 2018, 6:33 pm | #26 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
Yes, I was a technician at the old Leicester Polytechnic in 1977, and 'foreigners' were normal practice. To be fair, most of the technician staff supported teaching, and had a fair bit of time waiting to be called. I guess this was also in the happy times when staff were not run ragged 24/7. A lot of the things were work related, and developed skill and knowledge. Some studied for the OU in work time, and everyone had their own cubbyhole. I think the main exception to this was the chief tech, who spent a lot of time recording radio programs. He was also off sick a lot, which made him less popular. It was also suspected he was up to other things. The petty cash was in his locked cupboard and one time when he was off one of the guys rang him up, 'it's ok Norm, I'll drop by your house and pick up the key'. He was in the building within half an hour and seen leaving carrying a large envelope.
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19th Feb 2018, 6:37 pm | #27 | |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
Quote:
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19th Feb 2018, 6:58 pm | #28 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
PJ but I was also working mainly around London so maybe it was a regional expression. As for managers catching us 'borrowing stock' they were as much at it as anyone else lol.
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19th Feb 2018, 7:12 pm | #29 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
Homers have ruled at the various places I've worked at in the past - but I've heard PJ used at my current place as well - from an ex GPO chap.
(South Central England)
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19th Feb 2018, 7:23 pm | #30 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
I think we always called them "guvvie" jobs.
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19th Feb 2018, 9:25 pm | #31 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
I spent my 40 year career with British Gas, starting as an apprentice in 1954 in Nottingham, and as I 'climbed the greasy pole' I moved to Spalding, Grimsby, Mansfield, Sheffield and finally Hull. In Nottingham I never heard anyone use the term 'foreigner' it was always 'Private Job' or more often 'PJ'. It wasn't a term used by customers - they'd usually say 'do you do any jobs on the side'? The reality was that you had so many offers of work that you'd never be able to cope with it all, so you could be selective in what you took on.
In Spalding they just called them 'jobs on the side' then at Grimsby, everyone (not just BG employees), called them 'barrow jobs' and still do. I think that harked back to the days when tradesmen used small barrows to move their tools and materials from job to job, and if they borrowed the firms barrow outside working hours, it was to 'do a barrow job'. I was service manager At Grimsby from 1970 - '75 and things had moved on by then - barrows had been superseded by fifteen vans and eighty five carrier bikes known a 'double bubbles', which had a carrier on the front and rear, as they did throughout Lincolnshire. You needed zero gravity to gain sufficient momentum to not fall off, then once on the move, needed the stopping distance of a Land Rover to bring them to a halt. A standard question when interviewing for apprenticeships was "can you ride a bike?" How times change. As I recall that in Mansfield and Sheffield it was 'doing a foreigner' but in Hull, it's universally referred to as a 'guvvy job' as in 'who did your kitchen extension for you - was it a guvvy job"? I think that's a widespread term in many parts of the country as an abbreviation of 'government job'. One explanation I've heard for the origin of the term is that in WW2, occasionally people were asked to do confidential and sensitive work on behalf of the government, subject to the Official Secrets Act. So, in a factory is a supervisor saw someone working at a bench and said 'what's they you're on with?' The person doing the work would say 'Sorry, I can't let you in on it - it's a government job". Whether or not that's an urban myth, I've no idea. As to the term 'master', you still hear of people being referred to as a 'master plumber', but exclusively in Sheffield they use the term 'little mesters' to describe craftsmen who often rented space in a factory to do specialist work on their own account, often with one or two employees and apprentices. For example, a cutlery firm might concentrate on the metalwork, but would rely on a 'little mester' to make the bone handles. Little mesters would also make wooden hammer shafts, screwdriver handles and chisel handles. That still happens now - Sheffield firms who make woodworking and woodturning chisels and gouges buy in the handles from local firms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_mester http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/e...rticle_4.shtml Sometimes little mesters would (and a few still do), make complete pen knives and other knives, but they don't come cheap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kGHpsZvdWE
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19th Feb 2018, 10:34 pm | #32 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
Where I work it has always been either a foreigner or a homer. Back in the early 1990s when the company was still small and run by the founding engineers the top director would encourage homers as long as the regular workflow was not affected. He even instructed us to not buy parts (eg from Farnell) if they were available in the company stores or the model shop and not earmarked for a project.
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19th Feb 2018, 10:59 pm | #33 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
It's always been a 'homer' for myself & other colleagues here in the south, when engineers pop in from the north, they use the term 'foreigner'.
Where I work now, I believe I coined the phrase 'lunchtime special' which seems to have stuck Mark |
19th Feb 2018, 11:36 pm | #34 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
I was an engineer with Hamlet's Radio & TV in Manchester circa 1990 - 2002, and all non company repairs where referred to as 'foreigners'.
Actually, the company (which had at the time about 10 showrooms, and a pretty sizable rental estate) had a rather enlightened attitude to said foreigners. The owner and directors took the view that you weren't often lucky to get a mate's VCR or TV with a simple stock fault, and you'd become a better engineer. Parts from the 'gash room' were free, but if you ordered a video head or LOPT etc. then you paid for it. Good days, and a good company, I miss both them and it. Stu |
19th Feb 2018, 11:47 pm | #35 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
They were referred to as "foreigners" when I worked in the R&D lab of an electronics factory.
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20th Feb 2018, 12:49 am | #36 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
Always foreigners when I worked the Manchester and Cheshire areas, never heard of homers until I worked with the southerners, foreigner = "out of the area" or "stranger" possibly.
"the master" was also common, my dad was a Master Bricklayer and he sure was, lots of examples of his work throughout Cheshire. Lawrence. |
20th Feb 2018, 1:50 am | #37 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
There's been a discussion thread on this topic already in the recent past on here. As I didn't get round to posting on it at the time, I'll do so this time around.
Where I used to work in the City of Lincoln it was always called a 'home order'. |
20th Feb 2018, 2:19 am | #38 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
I have a strong suspicion, based on the context (involving children), and the geographic locality, that the expression has its roots in nineteenth century child millworkers.
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20th Feb 2018, 9:05 am | #39 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
In my time in the Royal Navy, it was a 'rabbit'!
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20th Feb 2018, 9:31 am | #40 |
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Re: Doing a foreigner
I remember meeting the production director in the corridor of a firm where I was a contractor - his face darkened and he pointed at the board I was carrying, "Is that a Homer?" No Bob, I said Its the board out of the coffee machine, the relay needs resoldering.
"oh, right, carry on, let me know if you need anything for it" |