Job woes/wins

[jayseven]

I've mentioned promotions a few times here -- basically any I've mentioned since april last year haven't happened, but I've taken on the extra work. I'm responsible for training new staff, dealing with complaints, improving our CRM and resolving any internal issues - not to mention acting as the point of call for help or advice for my colleagues.

 

Whilst I've done this I've been 3rd highest earner for the company out of 10 staff in my department (the other two that earnt higher [one by 40k] do not have the same amount of responsibility as I do), bringing in for the calendar year of 2014 enough money to pay for the entire department's wages -- whilst enabling staff (via crm and advice) to double their average income.

 

New bottlenecks have arisen due to bizarre complications of various company staff splintering off to form their own company and leaving different departments undermanned... and further concepts I've had for increasing efficiency or accuracy have taken a back seat to other areas of the company simply needing the man power to stay afloat...

 

But recently there were developments in legislation and law that would affect out work. I saw the proposal of these laws and brought them to the attention of management. I raised my concerns when management did not appear to be addressing these items at a speed that was needed. I recommended new policies that would cover our arses. None of these things happened. Then i saw when these changes would be implemented by our regulators. It's not my job to check on this stuff, but I saw. I memo'd upper management about this and mentioned key deadlines -- and I got no response. They were too busy firefighting the understaffed quarters. I reiterated the changes that needed to be made, but still no comments. I would see management wander the office making small talk for 30-45 minutes and just be baffled at their nonchalance. We're facing new legislation that could mean 20% turnover fees, or fines, for not being in line with new regulation standards... a fine which could be levied more than once.

 

But I knew the deadline. The new rules came in yesterday - 28th Jan 2015. So I printed off all of the new law and I printed off all of the new guidelines. I put them on my manager's desk and said "this needs to be done by today."

 

Suddenly management are responding to my memos. Suddenly they're asking me for explanations of what needs to happen. Once again I've been promised a promotion of some sort... but first I need to help them with this.

 

The issue is that I have no additional leverage to acquire a better job elsewhere. I need a promotion on my CV to go alongside what i've done, otherwise I'm looking at taking several steps back. The joys of working in a commission-based environment - I've been spoiled with my paycheck. So in order to one day get this leg-up I need to ensure this company still exists. If I hadn't slammed the new legislation down on management's desk then I'd probably be out of a job soon; no-one higher up has kept an eye on this or even had a clue that we could be fucked in a matter of weeks if we don't address this.

 

I spent years as an uncouth layabout, uncertain what I was good at - and now I'm in a company that has earned millions because of the work I have done. I wish I could say I was being egotistical... but it's just factual. And yet there's no recognition.

 

That's the trouble with working with a 'small' company. Big money coming in but only two people 'running' all the departments and too afraid to let the power diffuse; too afraid to properly disperse the work and compensate for it, even if it means more money for them.

 

I've never worked in such a strange, high-pressured, political environment before. Mostly, I do love it -- but sometimes it's just so frustrating to encounter a problem and not be given the authority to solve it, even if it's for the 'greater' good.

[ChloboShoka]

I had a PDR (Performance and Development Review) last week. It was all good. My supervisor noted that I've improved a lot.

[EEVILMURRAY]

More amazing drama featuring my team leader.

 

Some of us went out to the pub on a Saturday night (and didn't invite him) and had a good time with alcohol and food. One of our group filmed me referencing/semi referencing this chap as "a twat I don't give a shit about", (Which is then followed by our manager saying he hoped he wasn't coming when someone else joked about the team leader being on his way [but it's just me he's angry at]) my dislike for him is no secret. But my friend posted it in a Whatsapp group of stock control peeps, which he is a member of. And while I can understand how he may feel if I were in a similar position, it doesn't impact Tesco in any way and as such is none of their business.

 

He complained to our manager, he started texting me as if I was the one who posted the video spitefully. Naturally some events have been twisted. Despite him not really remembering the moment in question, he was shown the video (along with his "I hope not" moment) and also thinks there's not really much to it.

 

So of course he decided not to come into work Monday, which dipped everyone's opinion of him even further, but has apparently gone onto night shifts for the week to keep away from me, I have been told that he said he would "throw me off the balcony" if he came in normal hours on Monday. Would've been fun to see him try.

 

I got dragged into an "informal" conversation by someone on personnel asking if I have any issues, would I sit on a different table if he was sat in the canteen before me, am I organising nights out/work breaks with people to purposely avoid him. The issues aspect I don't have any, I just think he's an arsehole who's bad at his job. The other portions are none of their business. I'm under no obligation to sit with him or go on breaks when he does, so it's none of their fucking business.

 

 

HOWEVER! Position opened up in wages/confidential room which offers admin work, which would be perfect for putting on my CV to help with getting a legal secretary job in the future.

[Daft]

So that job I had the second interview for emailed me (through the recruiter) and basically set me a task/brief. Which is great. But at the same time I'm stressing about doing it because it has to be 'humorous' which I'm pretty sure I can do but humour is hardly a science. I shouldn't stress, I have all weekend to do it and it's not really that much...but anxiety is what I'm feeling.

 

Feels weird, I've never had to do something like this for a job. It makes sense since is slightly different from what I normally do but then maybe that's why I'm a little nervous and want to vomit everywhere.

[Jimbob]

Over the past 2 weeks, i've had things "stolen" from the fridges. Mainly milk, which is bloody annoying. You can only report it to a manager, whom sends an email out. Never will catch the bugger unless i sit in the rest area all day, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

Should spike it like i did with my sandwich once, laced it with habinero chilli. Soon discovered whom was eating it when i found it was missing.

[Daft]

Put laxative in it. Lots of laxative.

 

And report back.

[Iun]

Put laxative in it. Lots of laxative.

 

And report back.

 

Yes, yes, a hundred times yes!

[bob]

Or green food colouring.

[Jimbob]

Put laxative in it. Lots of laxative.

 

And report back.

 

Yes, yes, a hundred times yes!

 

Or green food colouring.

 

Green food colouring and laxative, got ya. Will be a fun experiment.

[bob]

Well the green food colouring is for if you still want to drink the milk yourself. The laxative is not.

[Daft]

Or sprinkle peanut powder into it and hope they're allergic to nuts.

 

[bob]

So it appears that my raise that I got at Christmas is twice as big as I got told. Not sure who fucked up, but I'm not complaining!

[Beast]

More amazing drama featuring my team leader.

 

Some of us went out to the pub on a Saturday night (and didn't invite him) and had a good time with alcohol and food. One of our group filmed me referencing/semi referencing this chap as "a twat I don't give a shit about", (Which is then followed by our manager saying he hoped he wasn't coming when someone else joked about the team leader being on his way [but it's just me he's angry at]) my dislike for him is no secret. But my friend posted it in a Whatsapp group of stock control peeps, which he is a member of. And while I can understand how he may feel if I were in a similar position, it doesn't impact Tesco in any way and as such is none of their business.

 

He complained to our manager, he started texting me as if I was the one who posted the video spitefully. Naturally some events have been twisted. Despite him not really remembering the moment in question, he was shown the video (along with his "I hope not" moment) and also thinks there's not really much to it.

 

So of course he decided not to come into work Monday, which dipped everyone's opinion of him even further, but has apparently gone onto night shifts for the week to keep away from me, I have been told that he said he would "throw me off the balcony" if he came in normal hours on Monday. Would've been fun to see him try.

 

I got dragged into an "informal" conversation by someone on personnel asking if I have any issues, would I sit on a different table if he was sat in the canteen before me, am I organising nights out/work breaks with people to purposely avoid him. The issues aspect I don't have any, I just think he's an arsehole who's bad at his job. The other portions are none of their business. I'm under no obligation to sit with him or go on breaks when he does, so it's none of their fucking business.

 

Oh my God, this is exactly like what I'm going through with my assistant manager right now. She has royally pissed me off to the edges of the Earth. As you all know, I just say it how it is because I believe in telling the truth and all that bollocks. However, she bare-faced lied to save herself but in the process, it made me look like I don't give a shit, don't listen and I do what I want.

 

Basically, two days before this incident happened. I came up with an idea to sell more products which was to put "WAS/NOW" prices on all products that were in the sale. I told my assistant manager of my idea and she said that would be a great idea to do. I showed her the signs and she corrected it a few times (told me not to put pound signs and not to cross out the WAS price so customers could see it). After doing about 20-30 odd little tags and sticking them on the sale items, she told me they looked very good and we just carried on with our day.

 

Skip to two days later (because I had a day off) and my manager and I were just having a general talk about stuff and she said "You realise it's illegal to put a WAS price on an item we never sold it as in the first place?"

"No. I just followed the poster" I said.

"The poster says Recommended Retail Price or RRP for short" she says.

I said "Oh, shit. My bad. I'm sorry. The assistant manager checked it and said it looked great"

...then it happened...

"Oh. She told me that she told you to put RRP"

Now, bear in mind that my assistant manager is no stranger to lying and has said I have done stuff in the past I have never done and this is probably the 4th or 5th time and it's getting boring her just trying to pass the blame onto someone.

"She didn't say anything like that to me" I say calmly.

She says "Okay but for future reference, just remember not to do it again"

And I nodded and everything was okay.

 

About 10 minutes later, I'm about to go in the office when I overhear her and the manager and my manager says "He says you never said it"

"Well, I did. I told him a couple of times but he just done it anyway"

This is where I come in. "You honestly didn't say that to me at all"

"I did. I told you to put RRP a few times" she says

"You didn't at all. I even showed you the tags after and you said they were fine. If they weren't okay, why didn't you point it out then?"

She avoided the question and carries on and then says "Less of the attitude!" and I say "I'll drop my attitude when you stop lying and using me to protect yourself all the time"

My manager says "This is getting childish now" and I say "Well, I don't like being used and made to look bad. I've admitted that I wrote the tags but she can't admit that she checked them over and okayed it? She has to make out like I don't listen to her or something, making out like she does everything perfect? I've admitted to my mistakes, why can't she admit she okayed them?"

"Yeah, I did check them"

"So you saw the WAS signs then?"

"I don't remember" she says.

My manager just says that I shouldn't call her a liar because I wouldn't like being called a liar and I just said "Okay but if someone were to call me a liar, I would have had to have lied in the first place, no?"

At this point, she carries on but my manager says that she needs me to be on my A-game to sell stuff and I said "Nothing will break my focus on doing my job but I don't want to be accused of doing stuff I haven't done or someone making me look bad"

At this point, I just walked away and we avoided each other all day. None of the management ever believe me anyway bar one person and that's only because he went through the same thing and knows what she can do. It's just embarrassing when staff members notice it a lot too though.

 

I know this is really petty but it's the principal that she wouldn't have got into trouble for saying she checked it but instead, tries to chuck me under the bus to avoid participation. Even if she played dumb and said "I didn't know", I'd have been okay with it but instead, she says "I told him to put this but he didn't do it" and it just makes me look like I don't do my job properly, I don't do what's asked of me and I don't care at all. Bollocks to that shit.

 

My job is perfect. I absolutely love it. I just don't gel well with my assistant manager. We're two completely different people. I try to avoid her as much as I can but I thought we were getting on okay so I lowered my guard this time. BIG MISTAKE and one I'll never make again!

 

Woo! Glad that's off of my chest. Sorry for the wall of text, guys!

[Iun]

I'm going to a professional development seminar during my holiday!

 

 

Yay?

[EEVILMURRAY]

Oh my God, this is exactly like what I'm going through with my assistant manager right now. She has royally pissed me off to the edges of the Earth. As you all know, I just say it how it is because I believe in telling the truth and all that bollocks. However, she bare-faced lied to save herself but in the process, it made me look like I don't give a shit, don't listen and I do what I want.

What never made sense about my situation was that "Oh, they went out without me. I feel excluded. The only around this is to stay away for a week. This way I'm excluding myself from the group. That means I win!"

 

Which has actually pissed people off even more (I'm not that bothered) who some have actually they would actively move to a different table if he sat down, no doubt I would get in trouble somehow for that.

 

The cherry is that Tesco are removing the Team Leader position from stores, which means he'll be the same as me in a month or two. Which is another reason why he's looking for another job.

[Beast]

What never made sense about my situation was that "Oh, they went out without me. I feel excluded. The only around this is to stay away for a week. This way I'm excluding myself from the group. That means I win!"

 

Which has actually pissed people off even more (I'm not that bothered) who some have actually they would actively move to a different table if he sat down, no doubt I would get in trouble somehow for that.

 

The cherry is that Tesco are removing the Team Leader position from stores, which means he'll be the same as me in a month or two. Which is another reason why he's looking for another job.

He just sounds like he wants to be the victim. My team are talking about clubbing and have invited me but I said its not my thing. They're on about changing plans so I'll go but I just told them not to and to carry on. Itd be nice but I wouldn't give a toss if they did or didn't invite me. They're just on about a meal, cinema and arcades now but they don't want management to go which might leave me and the other supervisor in an awkward situation...

 

What would you guys think?

[EEVILMURRAY]

Go! I'm sure the managers have their own thang.

[MoogleViper]

I mixed my dates up, so I've just done the SHL tests that actually expired yesterday.

 

The links still worked so I'm not sure if it will be held against me. Hopefully it won't be checked thoroughly enough.

[Mr_Odwin]

So it appears that my raise that I got at Christmas is twice as big as I got told. Not sure who fucked up, but I'm not complaining!

 

Was it backdated a month? That would explain a double increase for a month. Hope that's not the case though!

[Charlie]

The issue is that I have no additional leverage to acquire a better job elsewhere. I need a promotion on my CV to go alongside what i've done, otherwise I'm looking at taking several steps back.

 

Why do you need a promotion on your CV? It's very common to move jobs into a promotion and get a bigger pay rise than you would have if you got promoted at your old job.

 

Why not apply for a few positions and see what comes of it? Your CV should explain everything that you've done to improve the company and if they ask why you're moving you can tell them you were promised a promotion and more responsibilities but were only given the responsibilities.

[bob]

Was it backdated a month? That would explain a double increase for a month. Hope that's not the case though!

Nah, both my December and January payslips were larger than expected. I thought the Dec one might have been a Christmas bonus, but it seems not! I really should ask though in case it is a mistake...

[jayseven]

Why do you need a promotion on your CV? It's very common to move jobs into a promotion and get a bigger pay rise than you would have if you got promoted at your old job.

 

Why not apply for a few positions and see what comes of it? Your CV should explain everything that you've done to improve the company and if they ask why you're moving you can tell them you were promised a promotion and more responsibilities but were only given the responsibilities.

 

You're completely right. I've been fixated on the idea that I need the actual job title, whereas actually I'm doing additional things already.

 

This week has been really good in the sense that I've been heard, 'publicly' praised for the research/work I've done, and I've just gone ahead and worked towards fixing problems rather than moaning about them. My redesign of our "welcome pack" is being printed next week, and if I get more than 20% returns on it (as in, we send out 10 Welcome Packs and more than 2 people return them) then I will be a 'proven' success. It's amazing how much can happen in a week.

 

But you are right - I need to actually apply for other jobs and prove myself. Currently my existing job is holding future prospects again... Come April it will be 2 years here and that will be the time for change, I think.

[Aneres11]

Today I had my interview for the project management secondment.

 

I was really bricking it beforehand.

 

Apparently over 30 people had applied and were being interviewed.

 

Think it went ok. I'd planned loads of 'examples' to give to certain types of questions (had around 14) and for 2 out of the 3 competency questions I was asked, I didn't have an example that fit. Had to think on my feet. But the examples I gave were ok I think.

 

I don't know if I'll get the job or not. I don't know if my experience is suited or if there could potentially be better candidates.

 

Time will tell. Feel like I did my best and gave a good representation of me at work and what I could bring, so that's enough to be pleased with in my book.

Should find out end of next week eithr way.

[MoogleViper]

My manager, and every other manager on in my department, is currently in a 2 day workshop training. So I thought this would be a good time to skive off a bit and do some job searching.

 

I often sneak off for 30 minutes to play table tennis (on a number of occasions my manager has been suspicious). Today I thought I'd be able to play relatively freely. However the room was being used for an all day meeting.

 

This morning I had a job spec page open on my main monitor, and on my secondary monitor I was on google street view trying to find the office. At this point my manager returned to his desk (he sits next to me) as they were on a coffee break and he wanted to check his emails. The second time he returned to his desk, I was busy going through the job spec and writing the supporting statement for the application. Not sure if he clocked it or not. To be honest I'm not that bothered if he does, as I'm well overdue a promotion (they've been promising me one for 7 months) and this might sparks some life in them (although searching on job time isn't great).

[Rummy]

Why do you need a promotion on your CV? It's very common to move jobs into a promotion and get a bigger pay rise than you would have if you got promoted at your old job.

 

Why not apply for a few positions and see what comes of it? Your CV should explain everything that you've done to improve the company and if they ask why you're moving you can tell them you were promised a promotion and more responsibilities but were only given the responsibilities.

 

Not quite related but a little bit, I'm starting to feel a bit...I dunno, stale? Not in the sense of my work, but people here talking about promotions etc, and some of my friends too(either getting them on post, or moving into them with a different job elsewhere) and here's me just working for the NHS, where pay-progression can be difficult due to the way pay's set etc.

 

I'm quite enjoying my job though - I'm still 'zero hours' though thats been my choice and I'm coming up for four years now - was only sposed to have been there for a week :p!. I'm running/co-ordinating my own audit atm, possibly helping with a new research project, and shortly going to be covering a whole audit programme that we take part in in place of a colleague who's essentially going on maternity (but I've done lots of helping her out over the time I've been there, hence it kind cycled to me to be good cover as my other research projects were winding down).

 

Part of me thinks I should be cheeky and try and see if I can get a bump up paywise, but I'm quite aware that my boss's budget's being more tightly squeezed in recent years, and I also generally don't even know how to think about approaching it. I almost feel like it'd be cheeky, knowing she probably knows that I know how the budget is(if that makes sense). I'm only doing about 25-30 hours a week(my choice) and I tend to do a ward shift on Sundays to bump up/keep my clinical, so I'm not even sure how much a bump to the next band would really affect my wage on a monthly basis, but I do sort of think I'm fairly experienced(though due to them) and do a fair bit for my role.