The Careers/Jobs thread

[Davkaus]

I think people don't realise how far a bit of give and take goes.

There's a somewhat cliched saying "people don't quit their jobs, they quit their managers", and it's not universal, but it's fairly common. I'd also say sometimes people will stay just because of their boss.

My current boss is an extreme example, he's the most supportive boss I've ever had, and I'd take something extraordinary  for me to move on. Back when we were at a pretty low point with my daughter in intensive care, on a couple of separate occasions I messaged him in the middle of the night saying things weren't looking good, and I didn't know when I'd be back in. Both times I submitted retrospective leave requests when I got back, both times he rejected them and said "Don't know what you mean mate, I'm sure you were here?". I've probably more than made up for those free days over the following year, but the goodwill remains, I'll run through brick walls for that man. Obviously going that far won't fly in some companies (and I've made a point of not asking if his boss/HR knew about his forgetfulness), but when a boss has my back, I'll give absolutely everything to make them look good.

I already knew I was highly valued, and as I mentioned, flexitime is a given. Sometimes it's quiet and I piss off early and have a pint in the garden, but then, sometimes shit hits the fan and I'm firefighting at 23:00 to get things fixed for tomorrow's release before everyone else is back online. The day I have a manager saying "weren't you 5 minutes late?" is the day I start clock-watching and logout at 17:00 on the dot until I have a new job.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Davkaus

[mikeyp102]

On 09/08/2023 at 15:32, Demitri_C said:

Can i ask the people working from home can you woek any hours you want as long as its 7.5 hours for example?

In my role its been do whatever hours you want as long as you do allo ated hours. Been this way for 3 years now all of a sudden for no apparent reason they ahve told ua we have to do either 9-5 or 10-6. Ive been doing 6-2 so as you can imagine its very annoying and frustrating 

Are you customer/client facing? My department predominantly work 9-5 as that’s the client hrs as well. I’ll allow some flexibility outside of those, as long as most hours sit within core times.
 

If you aren’t customer client facing, then there is no real need for you to work the set times, unless you need to work/meet others. 
Have you asked your company why they are now insisting on it?

[Demitri_C]

8 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

Are you customer/client facing? My department predominantly work 9-5 as that’s the client hrs as well. I’ll allow some flexibility outside of those, as long as most hours sit within core times.
 

If you aren’t customer client facing, then there is no real need for you to work the set times, unless you need to work/meet others. 
Have you asked your company why they are now insisting on it?

No we are not client facing. We dont speak to anyone. We work off spread sheets. But one of the systems we use is a 'data entry' (we call it validating) and they set us a number of validations we have to do each day. This is how the monitor how much work we are doing. The issue is this system goes down for a couple hours so as it builds all the data and it happens randomly any time from 5.30-6.30am. We can still work as like i said above work from spreadsheets. However because they cant monitor what we do for these hours its down thats why they want to change our hours. I mean we been doing this for 3 years and now they want to throw this out?

They dont say they dont trust us obviously but we know thats the real reason. Have to say its pathetic as our team always hits our targets and works very hard. You have one or two Who dont but who doesn't in large teams? Why not just deal with those individuals instead of pissing off the whole teaM?

As you say if we were client facing id get it but we are not!

[mikeyp102]

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

No we are not client facing. We dont speak to anyone. We work off spread sheets. But one of the systems we use is a 'data entry' (we call it validating) and they set us a number of validations we have to do each day. This is how the monitor how much work we are doing. The issue is this system goes down for a couple hours so as it builds all the data and it happens randomly any time from 5.30-6.30am. We can still work as like i said above work from spreadsheets. However because they cant monitor what we do for these hours its down thats why they want to change our hours. I mean we been doing this for 3 years and now they want to throw this out?

They dont say they dont trust us obviously but we know thats the real reason. Have to say its pathetic as our team always hits our targets and works very hard. You have one or two Who dont but who doesn't in large teams? Why not just deal with those individuals instead of pissing off the whole teaM?

As you say if we were client facing id get it but we are not!

What does your contract say? 

When we worked at home during lockdown, where everyone was obviously at home we didn’t have a change in contract because it was “emergency plan”. After that when allowed back in the office, they added an informal home working attestation clause which everyone had to sign and go through some procedures about. Basically saying everyone (unless on action plan), had to go in the office minimum 20% of the week, and the company could change it at any time. 
Have they done a formal change in your contract or just making you work different hours? If it’s the later you should speak to your hr department and even seek legal advice as it may not enforceable 

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, mikeyp102 said:

What does your contract say? 

When we worked at home during lockdown, where everyone was obviously at home we didn’t have a change in contract because it was “emergency plan”. After that when allowed back in the office, they added an informal home working attestation clause which everyone had to sign and go through some procedures about. Basically saying everyone (unless on action plan), had to go in the office minimum 20% of the week, and the company could change it at any time. 
Have they done a formal change in your contract or just making you work different hours? If it’s the later you should speak to your hr department and even seek legal advice as it may not enforceable 

The problem is reverts back to our old contract as there was no mention of working from home before covid we were based in the office

Spoke with hr pretty useless just said we are lucky we are workibg from home as the trust wants people back in office and should be doing no more than 2 days at home as we do 5.

They making us apply for flexible working for 12 months.

Unison have been as helpful as a blind man performing a colonoscopy. They don't respond to emails and they fob you off when you ring them. Im honestly thinking of cancelling my membership 

[Demitri_C]

Amazons sent warnings to those employees who havent been coming into office 3 days a week in US

[Xela]

4 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Amazons sent warnings to those employees who havent been coming into office 3 days a week in US

Tin foil helmet on, but isn't it a coincidence that all these big name companies are releasing the same message to staff this week. Feels very coordinated. 

[Demitri_C]

7 minutes ago, Xela said:

Tin foil helmet on, but isn't it a coincidence that all these big name companies are releasing the same message to staff this week. Feels very coordinated. 

100% bit too convenient 

[UpTheVilla26]

On 14/07/2023 at 09:10, UpTheVilla26 said:

I applied for a job I saw advertised, with a really good company and one which I think I'd be a great fit for. 

Anyway, yesterday had the Teams Interview. Both the chaps interviewing me were absolutely sound. Part of the interview was a 5 min 'Teach Me' presentation.

I'd prepared a slideshow, with a bit of stuff about Villa, history, records, etc... 

Get to the part where I need to share my screen and my laptop throws a massive wobbly. Totally freezes. I can't do anything. They were brilliant about it and said no rush, do you want to restart your laptop and log back in. 

So, turn off laptop, switch on, bloody windows updates, then it starts saying its performing a 'clean up'. By this time, I'd been out the call for about 10 mins and I'm proper frustrated and getting a bit worked up. 

Had to rejoin on my phone, explain my what my laptop was doing and recompose myself. 

We eventually got to the teach me part. I told them my laptop wasn't letting me on teams but I managed to load up the slideshow, so had to face my phone camera at the laptop. 

I didn't know if they were into footy, if they supported a team, but I wanted to do a teach me on something I'm massively passionate about. 

Only turns out, the Area Manager is a huge Villa fan as well!! When I loaded it up I could see them both react, 1 shaking his head, the other delighted. 

Glad it ended on a shared interest and high point. We ended up chatting about Villa for a good 10mins after the slideshow. 

The worst thing is, I did a test run earlier in the week and it worked perfect. Bloody laptop, though we seldom use it anymore due to tablets/phones etc... but for a teams meeting like that, it's the best thing to use. 

Fingers crossed my technical blip hasn't affected my chances, had a really good vibe about the company and people. 

Didn't get the job. 

To be honest, I had a 2nd teams meeting with 2 different people and after that, despite it going OK, I started to have doubts about it all. 

Then I didn't hear back for over a week when they said I'd hear within 2 days, which I get because of holidays etc... and sometimes these processes take time. 

It would have been a big change to hours etc... I'd have had to do weekends now and again, work every Bank Holiday and with my wife working at a school, it would have changed our home balance hugely. 

I'm quite lucky in my current role that my work/home balance is amazing. No weekends, No Bank Holidays and once I've done my jobs I can go home. So most days, I get on the road about 7.30ish and I'm home by 3ish. The money ain't too bad, with both our incomes we live comfortably and have about £800 of disposable money each month, if not more. 

I just get itchy feet now and again and have these visions of doing a 'better job' where I earn more money. Then the thought of stress, different hours etc... comes into play and I'm like nah, sod that

 

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

Didn't get the job. 

To be honest, I had a 2nd teams meeting with 2 different people and after that, despite it going OK, I started to have doubts about it all. 

Then I didn't hear back for over a week when they said I'd hear within 2 days, which I get because of holidays etc... and sometimes these processes take time. 

It would have been a big change to hours etc... I'd have had to do weekends now and again, work every Bank Holiday and with my wife working at a school, it would have changed our home balance hugely. 

I'm quite lucky in my current role that my work/home balance is amazing. No weekends, No Bank Holidays and once I've done my jobs I can go home. So most days, I get on the road about 7.30ish and I'm home by 3ish. The money ain't too bad, with both our incomes we live comfortably and have about £800 of disposable money each month, if not more. 

I just get itchy feet now and again and have these visions of doing a 'better job' where I earn more money. Then the thought of stress, different hours etc... comes into play and I'm like nah, sod that

 

Sounds like a blessing mate! Stay where you are if the money is enough for you and your family 

[Seat68]

My wife is currently having an interview for a relatively senior position in her branch of the NHS. I can hear the rumble from upstairs and I am more nervous than her. She is basically going for her bosses job.

[Xela]

On 12/08/2023 at 10:44, UpTheVilla26 said:

Didn't get the job. 

To be honest, I had a 2nd teams meeting with 2 different people and after that, despite it going OK, I started to have doubts about it all. 

Then I didn't hear back for over a week when they said I'd hear within 2 days, which I get because of holidays etc... and sometimes these processes take time. 

It would have been a big change to hours etc... I'd have had to do weekends now and again, work every Bank Holiday and with my wife working at a school, it would have changed our home balance hugely. 

I'm quite lucky in my current role that my work/home balance is amazing. No weekends, No Bank Holidays and once I've done my jobs I can go home. So most days, I get on the road about 7.30ish and I'm home by 3ish. The money ain't too bad, with both our incomes we live comfortably and have about £800 of disposable money each month, if not more. 

I just get itchy feet now and again and have these visions of doing a 'better job' where I earn more money. Then the thought of stress, different hours etc... comes into play and I'm like nah, sod that

 

Like Dem said, perhaps a blessing. 

No-one wants to work harder as they get older! If life is comfortable at the moment, why change that?

[foreveryoung]

7 hours ago, Seat68 said:

My wife is currently having an interview for a relatively senior position in her branch of the NHS. I can hear the rumble from upstairs and I am more nervous than her. She is basically going for her bosses job.

Probably be easier than her current job knowing the NHS.

[Seat68]

45 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Probably be easier than her current job knowing the NHS.

If and it's a big if, if she is successful then she would need to recruit her replacement and at the moment she works way too hard. 

[lapal_fan]

I started a new job 5 weeks ago.  I'm absolutely loving it so far.  I'm sure there will be more testing times, but at the minute it seems almost too good to be true.  So I'm trying to enjoy these times before that good feeling dissipates.

Some of the stuff I've been doing has made my wife a bit envious though  (in a fun way). 

[dubbs]

I'm looking for a second job I can do from home without too much hassle.  Having searched online there are lots of companies who offer various positions but I'm just wary of a lot of them for some reason.  Do any of you lot have second jobs which you do from home? I'm going to have a few hours of an evening and some weekends now the new Mrs D has a new job so thought it would be a good opportunity to top up my income from my main job.  I know it's all down to your own skills which of course I understand but I'm searching for something more than just stuffing envelopes - I hope I'm able to do something a little more challenging!

[Rodders]

On 16/08/2023 at 19:46, lapal_fan said:

I started a new job 5 weeks ago.  I'm absolutely loving it so far.  I'm sure there will be more testing times, but at the minute it seems almost too good to be true.  So I'm trying to enjoy these times before that good feeling dissipates.

Some of the stuff I've been doing has made my wife a bit envious though  (in a fun way). 

So glad to see the fluffer industry is in rude health  

[Seat68]

2023 has been the worst year of my working life. Big words I know, without saying who it was for by name, it's working on a replacement for a software solution that was subject to a large public enquiry following people going to prison for accounting mistakes. I avoid using the name as I know they monitor mentions of it. The worst year because of no lessons learned and corners still being cut. I am finally off it and now on a different contract, one that adheres to processes and doesn't make it up as they go along. But yes, 2023 can get to ****. Awful year professionally. 

[Davkaus]

39 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

2023 has been the worst year of my working life. Big words I know, without saying who it was for by name, it's working on a replacement for a software solution that was subject to a large public enquiry following people going to prison for accounting mistakes. I avoid using the name as I know they monitor mentions of it. The worst year because of no lessons learned and corners still being cut. I am finally off it and now on a different contract, one that adheres to processes and doesn't make it up as they go along. But yes, 2023 can get to ****. Awful year professionally. 

I hope there are better things on the hori...In your future, and that those words removed get locked up.

[dubbs]

I saw an ad working in a warehouse for roughly the same hourly rate as I earn yesterday.  I know my job isn't particularly taxing - Cost Engineer for a manufacturing firm, but it really hit home how many mistakes I've made with my career in the last 10 years.  Too many unnecessary changes of job which has resulted in me earning less than I was 5 years ago.

Working hard to get a better salary these last 6 months and want to see how things go but this next year could decide what I do for until I retire in 20 years time.