Ashley Posted September 14, 2014 Posted September 14, 2014 Bubbly and Nev? Just bubbly. A load of Chinese students with the same names and DOBs (but actually different people) have accidentally been merged so having to undo that. There are literally more Wangs than we can deal with.
Jimbob Posted September 14, 2014 Posted September 14, 2014 It's been a strange one over the last week, because my current contract is due to end and i begin a new one in the same place, different department on the 30th September (it's meant to begin on the 29th, but i've got a small trip to London that weekend and i'm booked to come home early Monday). There have been rumours swirling from as early as July as to what will happen with our annual and flexi leave. Some were saying it has to be used/balanced at 0, whilst others saying the flexi had to be at zero but annual leave could be carried. Messages were going back and forth with no clear answer as to what was occurring Until Wednesday that was, when an email came out saying all annual leave had to be used and flexi had to be at zero (or as close to that). If that wasn't possible, Annual leave could be used to clear the flexi. If business needs prevented leave from being taken, then the leave could be paid in your wages (this will be extremely unlikely as there are slots to be taken). However, because of the lateness of this information it was close to impossible for me and about 4 others to take a day off on leave due to our shift patterns, the majority could take leave. I did manage to find 3 days i could take, but as i had 6 days left to use i was facing losing 3 days annual leave. Until i twigged i could call in for so called "duvet days" for the rest of the time to be used. So yeah, i've got 5 days left on the phones then a nice week off before beginning my new role. Very nice indeed.
Josh64 Posted September 16, 2014 Posted September 16, 2014 Sounds good, gives you a nice little holiday before your new role! And I was meant to start training tomorrow but thats been postponed because my DBS hasn't come back yet, uh oh. In other news though, the other place I went for an interview last week rang back and offered me a 37 hour a week contract! I couldn't believe it, never thought I'd end up turning a job down but I do wanna give this current one a try so did in the end.
Rummy Posted September 17, 2014 Posted September 17, 2014 Well like a numpty I forgot to actually apply for that job I didn't really want and the posting's been taken down, so who knows what would have happened! Sounds good, gives you a nice little holiday before your new role! And I was meant to start training tomorrow but thats been postponed because my DBS hasn't come back yet, uh oh. In other news though, the other place I went for an interview last week rang back and offered me a 37 hour a week contract! I couldn't believe it, never thought I'd end up turning a job down but I do wanna give this current one a try so did in the end. How long ago was the DBS submitted? I've found they're swift enough, but probably not quite this swift. Surely they should know the same and start the training anyway?
Josh64 Posted September 17, 2014 Posted September 17, 2014 Yeah, they know they can take a while and did an icer (I think that's what they called it but the phone was hard to hear) and usually they'll be told (yeah, he's fine to work, but can only do training until his DRB comes back) but apparently they hadn't had chance to look yet so they couldn't even confirm me for just training.
Eddage Posted September 18, 2014 Posted September 18, 2014 Yesterday afternoon I had a job interview, this morning I had a job offer! As of 13th October I'm going to be working in the Communication and Engagement team at Screwfix. I'll get to design internal comms like magazines and posters as well as help with video shoots and editing. 12 month contract with the possibility of it extending, but even if it doesn't it's fantastic experience so should be able to find other work fairly easily! I thought it was meant to be hard to find work after leaving University?
jayseven Posted September 18, 2014 Posted September 18, 2014 Screwfix is a big deal! Massive company, so mad props eddage!
Eenuh Posted September 19, 2014 Posted September 19, 2014 Well done Eddage! =) Some good news for me too! Sent my employers an email on Sunday about the holidays and salary confusion. They forgot to reply to it but yesterday one of them finally spoke to me about it. Seems he messed up on the holidays and he meant April instead of August, so my new holiday entitlement will start on May 1st. In regards to the salary, I was right in that they said it would be 15k for working 4 days. They said that this will happen as soon as one of our big contracts finishes and that client pays their bill (which will be a pretty big bill, will probably pay off my entire salary in one go =P ). But yeah I have to wait until then, which might be another few weeks/months as that client is super slow, boooh. But that will be good though, money! And I told them I am available for overtime on Fridays if necessary. =)
MoogleViper Posted September 23, 2014 Author Posted September 23, 2014 Getting a bit pissed off with work. I've been ready for a promotion for months (on other teams you usually get promoted in less than 18 months, on my team it's usually north of 2 years). I've been in this role for 20 months now. I've requested my promotion, and my manager and director both agreed that I'm ready (and the head of the team also agrees). Earlier this year my manager told me that he wants to get me promoted before the end of the year, albeit probably towards the end. My director told me that there was a promotion freeze which was ending in Q4 of 2014 (i.e. September to December) and he wanted to get me promoted during this time. This was a few months ago, and I'd been heavily considering moving jobs for a while, but I thought that I may as well wait a few months first, get the promotion, and then I'd be in a better position to apply for jobs. Then today my manager said, "By the way I'm pushing really hard for your promotion... I'm hoping it will at the start of next year... it won't be this year, that's for sure, but I'd be surprised if it's not in Q1 of 2015, and I'll try and get it in January". So after being all but promised a promotion by the end of the year, it's now pushed back into next year (and depsite what my director said, I doubt it will be in January, and wouldn't be surprised if it was after Q1). It's so demoralising. A colleague was in a similar boat, been here for ~2 years and not offered a promotion, despite being one of the longest serving analysts and moving from France to the UK for the company (other analysts who joined after him had been promoted; a lot of it is down to who your manager is and what team you're on). He recently got a job at a competitor company, when he informed the team director (lots of people have left recently, so there team is in a bit of trouble) they asked what they could do to make him stay, including offering him a promotion. If he was ready for a promotion, then why not give him one anyway? Why should he have to threaten to leave in order to get one? Nielsen keeps going on about being a meritocracy, but it seems that only applies to certain teams. So tonight I applied for two jobs, and I'm going to start applying for more.
Iun Posted September 24, 2014 Posted September 24, 2014 Words. Nothing speeds up a promotion like a job offer: If you're happy and they know it (clap clap) then there's no reason to make you any happier. But if you imply that your dissatisfaction with a lack of advancement may be sufficient to spur you to change, then... ...mua ha ha ha.
Esequiel Posted September 24, 2014 Posted September 24, 2014 My new job is bloody knackering, hence my lack of activity on the forum lately! Its really interesting though, one day im in a steel mill in scunthorpe that make Metal bars then im in a chalk factory (OMG they put chalk in porridge, who knew??), then im crawling into a power plant boiler (it was off at the time!). Crazy tiring but hopefully rewarding in the long run. As it stands i do alot of work for the money, but when i hit my targets and the bonuses start flowing.....
jayseven Posted September 24, 2014 Posted September 24, 2014 I know how you feel moogle - I was told about being promoted a few months back and it's not happened. Did some job-hunting and there are some viable options out there... but I'm sticking with the devil I know. I've not been officially bequeathed any additional responsibility or authority but I've been allowed to implement things and act as though I've been promoted. The real thing is, of course, the lack of a pay rise to go with it. I've been given a nice bonus this month as a thank you/sorry, and ultimately I know that I can move up in this company. I can't risk the uncertainty of moving sideways just yet. Sad thing is my IT manager is almost certainly quitting soon, as he can get a job paying him a hell of a lot more in an area closer to his girlfriend. He's helped me move house, spent the day taking me to the eye hospital in london and has motivated me to build my own PC. He'll be sorely missed- but on the flip side the damage he'll cause if he leaves could be a good platform for me to make motions for a promotion (I don't work in the IT dept so it's not like I'm wanting to take his job!). I still really enjoy my job. It's just tough when you're in moogle's position and, actually, the idea of promotion has actually driven you for a long time to excell day-to-day.
Charlie Posted September 26, 2014 Posted September 26, 2014 but I'm sticking with the devil I know. I work on the theory that taking a risk and jumping ship is almost always more financially rewarding than staying put. In financial services it's very hard to get promoted but far easier to move into a promotion. Keep your options open. You don't want to become that older guy in the office who has been there forever doing the same job.
Murr Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Don't know if anyone follows politics, but today UKIP got a substantial donation from Arron Banks, who was a former Tory backer. The initial donation was £100k, later William Hagues said he and the Tories had never heard of Mr Banks. This evening at Old Down Country Park which is owned by Mr Banks, he told media accompanied by Mr Farage that he was increasing his donation to £1m in retaliation of William Hauges comments. Mr Banks is one of the founders of Brightside Group, my previous place of employment, he is now the founder / creator however you want to phrase it of GoSkippy... My current place of employment. Brilliant Had an email circulate In work earlier saying "please keep the visitor spaces free tomorrow as Mr Banks is expecting a guest" would hazzard a guess that Mr Farage will be visitng my office.
Ashley Posted October 2, 2014 Posted October 2, 2014 Exactly! After months of hard work, long hours and a lot of dedication I managed to finally piss off a much hated staff member launch a new online system I developed (I actually did both #achievements). It's lame but I'm happy. Developed it completely from scratch (although, with much pilfering and help) but I'm not even supposed to be a developer! It's so my team can advertise training sessions on the central website we use and people can book on, leave feedback etc. Now to wait for it to break...
jayseven Posted October 3, 2014 Posted October 3, 2014 This week I've had several of my developments/ideas implemented, and basically a big step was made towards saving something close to 50% of the admin team's daily workload. For this to happen I have one hurdle to cross, which I snagged on the solution today. The project manager loves his spreadsheets and essentially I just have to convert him to working off of an online version of what he works off of, and I'll be able to basically stop admin from having to do the same job twice. It's a common-sense move but nobody's spotted it but me so far. If this happens then I'll have the recognition, and essentially I'll be able to look at two other areas of our company and (hopefully) be given relatively free reign over these. If I continue to prove an increase in efficiency and revenue then I can theoretically get involved in the MAIN company (telecoms). I've also had a finger in the pie of another subsidiary company... Basically I'm closing in on something, which at the least will be a great CV booster but at the most mean I get a significant foothold on a controlling seat of any future development of any area of the company. This was part of my 3-year plan and it's 6 months down the line, so it's looking good so far!
Goafer Posted October 3, 2014 Posted October 3, 2014 (edited) We have a new boss and we had a meeting today about how our department will be moving forward. It was basically: Fuck every other department. If we do work for them, we charge them a shitload for it. If the sales department give away any of our services for free, we charge the sales department for it and it comes out of their budget. Music to my ears. Even though we're the design department, we take on a shitload of the work other departments can't be bothered to do. Our new manager seems to want nothing to do with it any more and ditch all the "tiny" £5,000 jobs and move to much more lucrative corporate design jobs. I was concerned that we would end up having to do both the small jobs and the new ones, but he seems hell bent on ditching the small jobs in favour of the big new ones. Also, someone at work who I particularly hate (he's a whiny, crybaby diva) revealed his true colours today. Before the new boss started, he was slagging him off before he had even met him and was saying that he'd never get on with him. This was because we had previously governed ourselves and he was the self appointed boss (in his eyes). Then the new boss started and he was all of a sudden his best friend, whilst still slating him behind his back. Well today he was asked to travel to Tottenham to film an exhibition. All the toys were launched from the pram. It was a proper tantrum. It was actually a little embarrassing to see a grown man act that way. I swear I heard an actual "I don't wanna". His excuse was that he was paid to be a designer, not a photographer/videographer. Funny how he didn't give a shit when I had to go to London to set up some staging or when other people had to go help setup exhibition stands. I don't think the new boss was impressed with his whine. I've had discussions with the boss before and he didn't seem too keen on him. I've also had a meeting with my boss to say that the pay is bullshit (I can probably do my annual salary's worth of work in about a week) and that I was planning on leaving before he started and he has essentially brought the job I was aiming for to me. He's been brought in to give us his experience and turn us into a full creative agency, not just school stuff. He's struggling a bit due to the cretins that run the company, so I've also said that if he gets fed up and leaves, I'd like to go with him. Interesting times. Edited October 3, 2014 by Goafer
MoogleViper Posted October 4, 2014 Author Posted October 4, 2014 Sounds like you're making the best of your situation, @Goafer. Stay in your boss' good books and if things do go tits up for your company, he'll know what sort of worker you are for his next company.
Goafer Posted October 4, 2014 Posted October 4, 2014 That's the plan. The new boss actually knows what he is talking about. For example, our twitter account had about 100 or so followers. Within half a day of him looking at it, we had 5,000. He has a wager with the sales manager that we'll have 50,000 by the end of the month. If he wins, our department gets a flat screen TV in the studio. I believe he can do it as well, both the target and get the TV. After I mentioned following him if he leaves, he gave me some freelance stuff to do for one of his other agencies. He basically said that if it all goes tits up at work and he gives up, he'll just carry on with the plan, but with his other company.
Jimbob Posted October 7, 2014 Posted October 7, 2014 Well, it was stranger still. Had a gift from work as a thankyou for the hard work, £20 worth of shopping vouchers. Can't fault that.
Rummy Posted October 8, 2014 Posted October 8, 2014 Exactly! After months of hard work, long hours and a lot of dedication I managed to finally piss off a much hated staff member launch a new online system I developed (I actually did both #achievements). It's lame but I'm happy. Developed it completely from scratch (although, with much pilfering and help) but I'm not even supposed to be a developer! It's so my team can advertise training sessions on the central website we use and people can book on, leave feedback etc. Now to wait for it to break... Stuff like that's pretty awesome/rewarding I find(the system, not pissing people off :p), being a bit useful completely outside of how you're supposed to be. I've done some amateur work on the database(which is in access, so pretty amateur there too) I manage but I felt pretty good about it(sadly no one uses it but me, though). I'm doing a clinical audit project soon/nowish I'm looking forward to too, as it should draw on some other bits of my experience - and hopefully I'll overcome the challenge of a.)audit being boring b.) audit being seen as criticism and maybe achieve c.)actually encourage discussion and improvement in practice. *waits for inevitable failure and draining of all enthusiam*
Ashley Posted October 8, 2014 Posted October 8, 2014 It was nice to do something different/outside of my realm and hopefully it will take off. If nothing else, it's an achievement! Tried to tot up my overtime in the last five weeks. It's around 70 hours...
jayseven Posted October 8, 2014 Posted October 8, 2014 We're about to be audited by the MOJ and suddenly management is kicking up a fuss and changing a lot of policies and re-shaping how things are done. A large portion of these things are issues I raised months ago -- including one thing that I raised in may last year. Our job role is about to have a fairly major shake-up, I feel, and everyone is stressed and freaked out about it. Again people on my team are drawing closer to me and what I've been saying because I've predicted a lot of things, and because our project manager simply does not know how to relate to us on a personal level, and has no real idea of what we do day-to-day. Plus side is I've found a course I want to do, and the MD previously said he'd pay for me to do a course. If I can get him to sign off on it then it will mean great cv-stuff... if he doesn't then the price of sitting the exam is way worth it anyway considering basic jobs with this certification are above and beyond anything I've earned so far.
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