Is your company observing the silence?

[titiany]

At 12 noon for two minutes.

My company are 'not interested' but we can observe one 'if we wish'.

The phones will not be switched off.

Yours?

[bga]

both my company & the client site I am at are having a near complete shutdown to observe the silence. That's a pretty big thing for a manufacturing plant to do.

[lunarscope]

Mine is.
However, I think these 'silences' are becoming rather too frequent nowadays.
It detracts from the original meaning, i.e. to remember the millions who died in the two World Wars.
Why aren't we having a silence for the 25 children killed yesterday in Iraq ?

[iaint]

lunarscope said:

Mine is. However, I think these 'silences' are becoming rather too frequent nowadays. It detracts from the original meaning, i.e. to remember the millions who died in the two World Wars. Why aren't we having a silence for the 25 children killed yesterday in Iraq ?

Because it's not 52+ people killed in London last thursday??

My place of 'work' is, unsurprisingly though being a govt office in Whitehall. Might even take Ken up on his offer of 'doing it in the streets' as it's such a sunny day.

[titiany]

lunarscope said:

It detracts from the original meaning, i.e. to remember the millions who died in the two World Wars.

Quite agree with you there.

[wizzpig]

I, and the rest of the lads out here in Iraq will be observing the silence. And dam right too.

[Don]

titiany said:

lunarscope said: It detracts from the original meaning, i.e. to remember the millions who died in the two World Wars. Quite agree with you there.

I agree too. There is a difference between the devastatingly unfortunate and the ultimate sacrifice. The soldiers going into battle knew that the risks were very, very high. And yet they went - volunteered!

Such a sacrifice is worthy of our lifelong respect.

I, personally, will be silent. I do not wish to offend others. I wish to express my sympathy to the relatives of those lost. I'd rather have done it some other way, frankly.

[lil]

I'm not sure what the crack is here for the company as a whole, but I will be going outside to do the necessary... and a few of my colleagues are too.

[ProPlus]

HSBC sheffield issued the following to its staff in IT:

The people of Sheffield are being invited to join Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Jackie Drayton in the Peace Gardens, to observe the silence in remembrance of those killed or wounded in last Thursday’s bomb attacks in London. The city centre siren will mark the beginning and end of the silence.

A book of condolences has also been opened in the reception area of the Town Hall for those wishing to express their feelings to all those affected by the attack."

Basically a complete shutdown bar live support, I for one will be taking this oppotunity to show my smpathy and at 2mins its very little effort for us to show our solidarity.

Si

[FHCNICK]

bga said:

both my company & the client site I am at are having a near complete shutdown to observe the silence. That's a pretty big thing for a manufacturing plant to do.

Ours too and yes it is a pretty big thing for a manufacturing plant to have a complete halt in production, but a worthy one i feel.

[bga]

FHCNICK said:

bga said: both my company & the client site I am at are having a near complete shutdown to observe the silence. That's a pretty big thing for a manufacturing plant to do. Ours too and yes it is a pretty big thing for a manufacturing plant to have a complete halt in production, but a worthy one i feel.

I agree, what is 2 minutes of time to ponder these things? I personally don't feel it devalues any other use of the silence.

[simpo two]

One minute is sufficient. At the F1 race they only managed about 20 seconds before the crowd started hooting and cheering, which was pretty bad form IMO.

[mrs_knee]

Yep us too, announcement being made 10 minutes before and then we will all gather outside local church.

[superlightr]

Its public grieving and pc gone mad.

There is too much public grieving. Doesnt mean one cannot have sympathy but an outward showing of it is not required.

What if you dont join in? doesnt mean you dont feel sorrow for the victims. Its pc pressure to do the trendy thing of showing how upset you are.

[Tyre Smoke]

lunarscope said:

Mine is. However, I think these 'silences' are becoming rather too frequent nowadays. It detracts from the original meaning, i.e. to remember the millions who died in the two World Wars. Why aren't we having a silence for the 25 children killed yesterday in Iraq ?

I entirely agree.

Whilst last week was indeed an outrage and shocking, it pales into insignificance when compared to the Somme - 10000 dead in one day. The 2 minutes silence for Armistice Day is in grave danger of being 'diluted' or cheapened if we have a two minute silence for anything and everything. personally I shall not be observing the silence, I was not affected by the events of of last week so why should I? I had family that fought in both World Wars so I feel it right and proper to observe the Armistice silence.

[Neil_H]

I agree with the above, it happens too often now. It used to be a minutes silence for these things, nowadays it's two. Why? Does the extra minute increase the amount of respect? Surely it's act of remembering that counts, rather than the duration? The party I was at had a big arguement on new years eve about this when there was a two minute silence just before midnight (for the tsunami victims), everyone was drunk, some were observing the silence and got offended by other people who hadn't realised there was one or didn't feel it was the time or the place to be paying respects.

My company will be announcing it over the PA but the phones will still be on etc.

[Chim_Knee]

I think the difference with silences for WW2 is that they are (rightly) observed annually (AFAIK - please correct me if I am wrong).

I will be observing the silence today, but if it is brought up next year I'm not sure that I would (acutally, I know that I wouldn't).

The other issue is people being huffy if you don't observe it. It should be a private thing that you choose to observe for personal reasons (whatever they may be). I would certainly be pissed off if someone moaned at me for not observing silence for the children killed yesterday - but by the same token, I'm not going to judge anyone who doesn't observe today's silence.

[Munter]

I dont get it my self.

Terrorists want to stop our normal routiene. So rather than just shake our heads when they do it and ponder what fools they were, and carry on. As would be the best way to fight them. We're actually going to break our routiene by going to stand still for 2 mins? Shutting down production at a cost of how many £££ is exactly what they want. And we're handing it to them....

[Chim_Knee]

Munter said:

I dont get it my self. Terrorists want to stop our normal routiene. So rather than just shake our heads when they do it and ponder what fools they were, and carry on. As would be the best way to fight them. We're actually going to break our routiene by going to stand still for 2 mins? Shutting down production at a cost of how many £££ is exactly what they want. And we're handing it to them....

I don't think two minutes of silent contemplation will have them slapping their chests and chanting in jubilation.

I suspect their aim was to inconvenience us slightly more - which they didn't... the cts.

[rich1231]

My office is very close to one of the affected sites, though we luckily didnt lose any staff it has had great impact on the last week here. We have to pass cordons to get into the office and were only allowed back to the office on Tuesday.

The lives lost were of innocents (apart from the bombers), it was not their fault that they died or were injured. How is giving 2 minutes of your time in some way demeaning to silences?

Its a shame that some of you feel that you need to moan about it today.