Worked at a privatised ex-government telco as tech support. Lady that trained us was something else. Had been at the company her entire life. She'd been there so long her first job was switchboard girl.
Absolutely adore her, incredible stories & just an all round decent person. Now I'll get onto the part I love about her the most. In the privatisation deal the government employees could not have any of the conditions of their contract diminished.
Switchboard girls were entitled to a 6% raise per year. She earnt substaintially more than the GM of the office & you could tell it irked him. They used to try & make her life hell. The rumour was that they were trying to push her out over how much she was earning
One day I was shadowing her as part of the training & the GM decided he was going to swing his dick around. Came over & started being a prick. She put up with it for a little while & said “excuse me, I have to leave for my company mandated cigarette break”
GM lost his shit about it “wtf are you talking about? Get back at your station” he barked, she sighed & replied “working the switchboard is quite difficult, requires a high level of focus, so in the early days of my career the company decided to mandate that we get a 5 minute cigarette break every 15 mins to keep us sharp. I haven't been taking them. I apologise, won't let it happen again.” GM flipped the fuck out & stormed off to HR. (Only to much later find out she was right)
I followed her outside of the building for the cigarette break. Asked if that was true she replied “Oh absolutely, I pull it out every 5 years or so when they start being especially horrible to me. You can imagine how much it disrupts the day especially when you add in lunch breaks etc. They have been trying to push me out for 30 years & I'm pretty sure no one is left nationally like me, but I'm still here. 5 more years & my husband & I retire”