Initiations........Are they still practised?

[Nigel H-J]

Talking to a colleague a few days ago and the subject turned to initiation ceremonies for new comers. Think you might know what is coming but going to ask anyway.

Has any-one been caught out in one of these nasties when starting a new job or has this tradition disappeared into the mist due to Health & Safety concerns or other attributes?

I have been lucky insofar as not having been a victim but my sister told me about one such initiation that she witnessed when flying with B.O.A.C.
The flight crew had requested drinks and the new stewardess duly made her way up to the flight deck.

After passing over the drinks the co-pilot grabbed a sick bag and apparently threw up into it, making some very realistic sounds :sicky: the stewardess was just about to take it off the co-pilot for disposal (at his request) when the captain said "Hang on". He then opened the sick bag, put his hand inside and drew out some 'pewk' along with the words 'Shame to waste this' and started to eat it. The colour immediately started to drain away from the poor girls face as she watched in at first shock then horror and finally disgust at the captain as he kept filling his mouth.

It was only when they started to laugh at her expressions that she was told the puke bag contained squashed peas, sweetcorn and beans!!

So......how about the rest of you, anyone found themselves in an embarrassing situation or just left feeling a right plonker?

[AndyG]

Well, mine was nowhere near that gross and I actually managed to make them look daft!

First job I had after leaving school was working in the golf department at Harrods. The main manager for the section was a bit of a wit (I think thats the right word), so detailed somebody to tell 'the boy' to count the golf tees; these were loose tees in a large container, there had to be thousands of them.

Obviously I was a little suspicious, so checked with the manager who confirmed it was true. So off I trotted, and started counting them; what I actually did was counted 200 into a bag then weighed the bag, weighed all of the tees and worked out the amount that way. Needless to say their faces, when I gave them the answer 15 minutes later, were an absolute picture!

AndyG

[Robin]

Porridge oats and orange juice get's squaddies honking

[Chris Sykes]

Weve lost our initiations, new firefighters had to jump on the 'out of control' hose and crawl along till they got it under control. This was hard as it was flying about like a hose pipe!!! Sadly H&S has stopped this!!!

[thehappyotter]

We still practice the fine art of initiation in my line of work.

It is extremely frowned upon by the management should you get caught or have a weak probationer who calls it bullying and not a laugh...

I was sent to a dark and remote intustrial estate in the middle of the night as a car was supposed to be trashing it around doing handbrake turns etc.

I get kicked out of the car at one end of the estate by my tutor whilst she supposedly drives around to the other entrance, I walk into the estate and there's a car parked up with two people in it.

As I walk towards it two gorillas jump out and start running towards me beating their fists on their chests.

I nearly wet myself... The gits had been and got two gorilla costumes and everyone was in on it.

Once you're accepted as part of the team and people trust you not to run and tell tales the pranks get far worse too...

The pigs head in the locker being a prime example.

[jonesey2k]

Ive been asked to go ask the boss for a long stand........


I did aswell

[migeater0]

Cable Ties and a wheelie bin for us Apprentices.

[DispatchDragon]

The classic Flight Attendant "initation" on the 1-11s was for the new trolly dolly to be called to flight deck fairly early into the flight where the center tank fuel gauge CB would have been pulled - the Captain and FO would
patinetly explain that the unthinkable had happened and they were periously short on fuel and that the only way they would make it back home would be for the newbie to go down the cabin and without alarming the self loading cargo point all the punkah louvres in the cabin aft thus making the aircraft go faster and get them home before they became a glider. You would be surprised at how many little FA went down the cabin and did just that. By the way Nigel - I heard the sickbag story about thirty odd years ago - except the way I heard it - it was a BUA Superfreightner and it Cream of Mushrooom
soup. My own initation as a loadie happened enroute from Damascus to Khartoum on an empty Britannia ( which were not known for maintaining 8.2psi diff at altitude) I was asleep in the bunk in the tail of the aircraft when the crew call went off ( It wasnt the nice chime on pax aircraft (you woulnt have heard it as all the insulation had been removed from the aircraft cabin which was now clad in sheet aluminum) it was a bloody double bell fire alarm - I shot out of the bunk and RAN the full length of the aircraft at a subjective altitude of about 13000 feet to see what was wrong - I managed to open the cockpit door only have everything go rapidly from grey to black as I hit the flight deck floor. Pete Shaw the FE giggled alot after that.

Leif

[VEGAS]

During the training course for the unit I now work on we given a nice long run in full kit (heavy duty body armour/kit belt/MP5 and ressies!) over an assault course. Once we were back at the FUP we were then placed into a CS contamination chamber whilst the staff fired several rip rounds into the corner.

You could feel the CS burning on the side of your sweating skin. Then one by one, all panting and sweating, we had to remove respirators and try and say our collar numbers. The first two numbers came out and then a sensation of drowning as your respiratory system became flooded with CS.

This may sound familiar to ex-forces staff but many of the lads in the unit are ex-forces, and are used to CS in their previous training but even they said the sensation they experienced with this 'introduction' was like nothing they had ever known.

To give you an idea, standard Police officers carry a small CS canister in their utility belts which contains approximately 5% mixture. These rounds we were exposed to were around 70%! Not nice..

I truly felt like I was going to die!

[airboatr]

I worked for a electrician who thought it was funny
to staple my nail apron to the floor..
........ahhh ok No biggy
a few weeks later I found out he was DEATHY afraid of snakes
when he had gone to the van to gets some parts
and come running to me .....Joe Joe theres a snake on the
ground at the back of the van :crying: pleeeeeezzzzz
get it and make it go away ,,,, what a sissy
for crying out loud it was a harmless garder snake
about 10 inches long
I've fished with bigger night crawlers (worms)
so I pitch the thing in the woods and he starts in again
OHH but it might come backk
I said "tell ya what, :tuttut: nail my apron to the floor again
and I'll stick the thing IN the van.