bob Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 I got told I was getting a raise at work, to which I replied - 'Are you sure?' No idea why this company still employs me, I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing most days.
nightwolf Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 5 hours ago, Jimbob said: Latest goings on. There are two teams doing the work i'm doing, one is in Swansea and one is in Cardiff. Based on where i live, it's logical i'm based in Cardiff. But, i get all my work from Swansea as they are the same grade as myself (and by that, it's the work they don't want to do and i don't get a say currently). I've asked to be more involved with the Swansea team and have made attempts to arrange a weekly tele-conference between me and the Swansea team. So far it's to no avail, and the one person who i was speaking to has left the company a few weeks ago. The Cardiff team is the more technical team, so they do the current work and the more challenging work (so they get paid more to do it). I made attempts to get a promotion over the years, but due to circumstances i'm not allowed to go for a promotion (and haven't been able to go for one in nearly 2 years). I'm part of this Cardiff team in all bar work (so that's HR stuff and performance). My work i do feeds into the Cardiff team as well. Late last year, the Cardiff team all got a shiny pre-Christmas "thank-you" which was basically a financial bonus for smashing targets..............i didn't get one, and i asked about that. I was told because Swansea didn't smash the target. Seeing as my work feeds into Cardiff, i thought this was slightly unfair as my hard work was not being recognized. And now, the Cardiff team are potentially being offered overtime (meaning more pay). Everyone bar me again that is, and again this is due to by work coming from Swansea. Again, i think (and those i spoke to, including my manager) thinks this isn't fair on me. But they are tied with the decision on the higher manager. Ah well. That would put a very bitter taste in my mouth and I'd likely find myself leaving over something like that. It sounds like the higher ups don't quite have their heads screwed on.
Jimbob Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 21 minutes ago, nightwolf said: That would put a very bitter taste in my mouth and I'd likely find myself leaving over something like that. It sounds like the higher ups don't quite have their heads screwed on. Hit the nail on the head, many of us believe that exact same. I'm just biding my time, once February swings around i'll be job hunting in any spare moment i get. 1
Charlie Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 15 hours ago, Jimbob said: Hit the nail on the head, many of us believe that exact same. I'm just biding my time, once February swings around i'll be job hunting in any spare moment i get. Why wait until February?
Jimbob Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 1 hour ago, Charlie said: Why wait until February? Next wave of promotions swing around in that period, i'm looking to remain in the Civil Service as a whole. There were some interesting jobs coming up last year, and this year i'm more experienced and prepared.
Eenuh Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 (edited) Getting absolutely fed up with the incompetence of my boss... In August I asked my boss what pension scheme I would be enrolled in, as the mandatory sign up date for our company was in that month. I was supposed to be informed about this weeks before, so I think they forgot about all this. Anyway, he said I was set up with a certain provider and would receive a welcome pack in the post, and money would be deducted from my pay (a whole 1% (£11.77), with them paying 1% too, ha, cheapskates). I upped this to £150 to be deducted from my salary. I waited and waited, and no welcome pack showed up in the post. I reminded my boss a few times (at least once a month) and he said he would chase it up with them. Now almost half a year later, I decided to just contact the pension scheme myself to ask for more information about my account... And they told me I am not enrolled with them... I messaged my boss about this and he just said this morning that they have been having issues with the provider, thinking it was all set up in August but then they needed to provide more information, which they have but it still hasn't gone through. He said he is thinking of switching providers because he is not getting much help from them. Yet in the meantime, this money is still being deducted from my salary, and I am getting nothing for it. And on top of that I haven't received a payslip since July, despite asking for them every month. I want to confront my boss and say how unsatisfied I am with their incompetence, but I worry that will not do much or make things worse (it's not just the pension scheme stuff, my pay has more often been late than on time in the almost 4 years I've worked for them; I've been told there would be a bonus tied to the amount of work I do that never materialised; I've been told they would treat me to Christmas lunch a few times and even send me a Christmas present, all of which didn't happen; I don't get payslips unless I ask for them and I always have to remind them to confirm my leave as they ignore it otherwise...). I seriously want to start looking at going self-employed (part-time for now) and building something up from there, though I don't know what exactly yet. Does anyone know where I can find more information and guidance on how to do this? Is there any website that would offer help with this, especially the whole tax thing? I know nothing about this, at all, and it's the main thing that's been stopping me from going self-employed in the past. Just so fed up right now. Edit: Just got an email back from the pension scheme and they say there has been no activity on the account, so it looks like my boss is just straight up lying to me about trying to get things sorted. Do I call him out on this? Edited January 5, 2018 by Eenuh
S.C.G Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 9 minutes ago, Eenuh said: I seriously want to start looking at going self-employed (part-time for now) and building something up from there, though I don't know what exactly yet. Does anyone know where I can find more information and guidance on how to do this? Is there any website that would offer help with this, especially the whole tax thing? I know nothing about this, at all, and it's the main thing that's been stopping me from going self-employed in the past. Just so fed up right now. That sounds like a plan, it's similar to what I want to do only for a different subject matter. I'm not sure on that whole tax thing but if you are planning on making a go of it then it would be good to pay an accountant around £100 a year if you know that you can make at least a few thousand or at the very least hope to recoup that £100 cost, I don't think it's a huge deal though, as I understand it you could start now if you have a vague idea and if you start making money coming up to April then you'd want to get in contact with an accountant, state your intentions, pay them the yearly fee and then hopefully not worry about it... at least I think that's how it works. Why not try making demonstration videos using your graphical talents? Make a few, see if there's an interest - which I'm sure there would be going by some of your excellent previous work I've seen - and then start a Patreon to test the water, see if it's something that people will pay you monthly to continue seeing. I possibly want to do this with videogame content in the future one day as I need to try and make a bit more money than my part-time retail job gives me - which I'm still grateful for - but for the moment, I need to get back into a regular writing routine before I seriously think about any of that and anyway, if I make videos for anywhere to begin with it will certainly be N-Europe so we'll see how things go in 2018. But yeah, it has got to be worth thinking about, surely?
Nicktendo Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 Job win: got my first freelance job in the gaming industry! Will be doing the Russian translation for an upcoming indie game. Won't reveal any details as I'm not allowed to yet. The pay is rather meager and I'm nervous as hell that I'm up to the task, but I'm bloody excited. Seeing my name in the credits has been a dream since I was 6 years old, I just never assumed it would be for localization. 2 2
Ashley Posted January 5, 2018 Posted January 5, 2018 There's a department at work that are very demanding and get the lion's share of work and a chore to deal with but I've been redoing their communications recently and put it out for testing with someone in there yesterday and a few hours later my line manager sent me some really nice and positive feedback from the head of the department and it caught me off guard. They usually act so entitled that it was kind of disorientating to get something nice, although obviously good. And then today I had a legitimate reason to name something 'COC_VIEW' so I'm pleased with myself. It beats the time I got to call something 'Sexit'. 1 1
Ashley Posted January 11, 2018 Posted January 11, 2018 Had one of those days at the place I'm contracting. I usually like to get there around 8, but I had to pick up my ID card from a different building and they didn't open until 9 so I went there and even though I just needed a reprint (I worked there before but the card expired) it took them about 15 minutes, so it was about 9:30 before I got into the office. Then several plug sockets didn't work so I had to rejig some stuff. Then the laptop needed to install some stuff and reboot. Then I finally got in about 5 minutes before I was supposed to go to a meeting to find that the development environment I was working in had been refreshed, meaning 95% of what I'd done had been lost. My contact got in touch with the IT department to explain and ask if they could retrieve the data (and giving them the criteria) and they dragged their feet and basically said they'll think about it on Tuesday so I decided to cut my day short and come home and work on some other stuff and formulate a plan about what to do if needs be, but thankfully they have just said they can put it elsewhere next Friday. I'll have to recreate a bit for a demo I need to do next Thursday, but at least it means I don't have to spend all weekend recreating everything! I have now been sent the refresh schedule, but I might casually remind them that they could use the software itself to find out everyone who has logged in the last few weeks and email them a warning, preferably more than 24 hours before it is due to happen (which they did, but to random mailing lists that I'm not on as I'm a contractor). Blurgh.
Charlie Posted January 12, 2018 Posted January 12, 2018 On 05/01/2018 at 10:04 AM, Eenuh said: Getting absolutely fed up with the incompetence of my boss... In August I asked my boss what pension scheme I would be enrolled in, as the mandatory sign up date for our company was in that month. I was supposed to be informed about this weeks before, so I think they forgot about all this. Anyway, he said I was set up with a certain provider and would receive a welcome pack in the post, and money would be deducted from my pay (a whole 1% (£11.77), with them paying 1% too, ha, cheapskates). I upped this to £150 to be deducted from my salary. I waited and waited, and no welcome pack showed up in the post. I reminded my boss a few times (at least once a month) and he said he would chase it up with them. Now almost half a year later, I decided to just contact the pension scheme myself to ask for more information about my account... And they told me I am not enrolled with them... I messaged my boss about this and he just said this morning that they have been having issues with the provider, thinking it was all set up in August but then they needed to provide more information, which they have but it still hasn't gone through. He said he is thinking of switching providers because he is not getting much help from them. Yet in the meantime, this money is still being deducted from my salary, and I am getting nothing for it. And on top of that I haven't received a payslip since July, despite asking for them every month. I want to confront my boss and say how unsatisfied I am with their incompetence, but I worry that will not do much or make things worse (it's not just the pension scheme stuff, my pay has more often been late than on time in the almost 4 years I've worked for them; I've been told there would be a bonus tied to the amount of work I do that never materialised; I've been told they would treat me to Christmas lunch a few times and even send me a Christmas present, all of which didn't happen; I don't get payslips unless I ask for them and I always have to remind them to confirm my leave as they ignore it otherwise...). I seriously want to start looking at going self-employed (part-time for now) and building something up from there, though I don't know what exactly yet. Does anyone know where I can find more information and guidance on how to do this? Is there any website that would offer help with this, especially the whole tax thing? I know nothing about this, at all, and it's the main thing that's been stopping me from going self-employed in the past. Just so fed up right now. Edit: Just got an email back from the pension scheme and they say there has been no activity on the account, so it looks like my boss is just straight up lying to me about trying to get things sorted. Do I call him out on this? Pensions: Take a look at this. It's illegal for your work not to enroll if they meet the criteria and I imagine there are harsh penalties for companies that do not do it. The website I linked has a form you can fill in to report them. It will probably be obvious this is coming from you if something does happen. Your work cannot take anything out on you because of this. Sacking you would be illegal so don't worry about that or anything. I'd fill this in ASAP and don't tell your work you are doing it. Freelance: Just start finding jobs. Look at FreeAgent when you get a job (not before) and use that for your tax. It's pretty cheap and does everything for you. You'll need to submit a self-assessment tax assessment at the end of next year, unless you don't invoice a job until after April 5th 2018, in which case you wouldn't need to do one until the following year. Get jobs first, worry about tax second! Definitely do worry about tax though! www.Gov.uk is actually a very good website in regards to tax advice. Look up their section on self-employment and look at some forums about tax for side-jobs. 1
Eenuh Posted January 12, 2018 Posted January 12, 2018 52 minutes ago, Charlie said: Pensions: Take a look at this. It's illegal for your work not to enroll if they meet the criteria and I imagine there are harsh penalties for companies that do not do it. The website I linked has a form you can fill in to report them. It will probably be obvious this is coming from you if something does happen. Your work cannot take anything out on you because of this. Sacking you would be illegal so don't worry about that or anything. I'd fill this in ASAP and don't tell your work you are doing it. Freelance: Just start finding jobs. Look at FreeAgent when you get a job (not before) and use that for your tax. It's pretty cheap and does everything for you. You'll need to submit a self-assessment tax assessment at the end of next year, unless you don't invoice a job until after April 5th 2018, in which case you wouldn't need to do one until the following year. Get jobs first, worry about tax second! Definitely do worry about tax though! www.Gov.uk is actually a very good website in regards to tax advice. Look up their section on self-employment and look at some forums about tax for side-jobs. Thanks! I had looked at the Pensions Regulator website (and the form) and was very tempted to send it off... but then as I am the only employee, I was worried about the consequences. Because even if they can't fire me over this specific thing, I'm sure they could come up with some other excuse to fire me. Also, whenever the company is in financial trouble, it affects me too (late payments). Anyway, my boss just told me it should be getting sorted now and any backdated contributions should be taken out this month. I'll wait and see what happens. If he keeps messing up, I will just have to report him. That FreeAgent website looks very interesting! Might have to sign up for that if I get any freelance work going. Just need to figure out what exactly I want to do and how to get jobs ha! Do I need to inform my boss if I start doing any extra jobs, as it will affect my P60 or something? I'd rather not tell him to be honest.
Ashley Posted January 12, 2018 Posted January 12, 2018 21 minutes ago, Eenuh said: Do I need to inform my boss if I start doing any extra jobs, as it will affect my P60 or something? I'd rather not tell him to be honest. Charlie undoubtedly knows better, but what I did is register as self employed and then every year just do a tax return and they ask for any other jobs and for details from the P60. So no, they don't need to know (unless your contract states you can't for any reason). 1
Charlie Posted January 15, 2018 Posted January 15, 2018 On 12/01/2018 at 12:48 PM, Ashley said: Charlie undoubtedly knows better, but what I did is register as self employed and then every year just do a tax return and they ask for any other jobs and for details from the P60. So no, they don't need to know (unless your contract states you can't for any reason). That sounds right. No reason to tell them. I wouldn’t tell them even if your contract does state you can’t have other work. I think it will be unenforceable if they ever tried to do something about it.
Goafer Posted January 22, 2018 Posted January 22, 2018 Day one of my new job. They gave me a rape alarm. They clearly don't know me very well. On a serious note, it was mainly in case I need it whilst traveling for the job. Apparently it's glass shatteringly loud, which has made me both terrified and insanely curious to use it. The office is on a rather awesome business park. I've gone from a scruffy industrial estate with a sandwich van to a full on business park with on-site shops, cafes, post office, beauty salon etc. It's rad as shit. I'm off to London tomorrow for more training/induction with my manager. Seeing as we both work from home, it'll be in a coffee shop. I get to be one of "those" people who spend all day in a coffee shop on my laptop. Macbook Pro too, so even more pretentious. "What's a computer?" indeed. Hopefully the job works out as good as it seems. The more I see of the place, the more I like it, but I do feel like I'm waiting for the bubble to burst. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic. 1
Ashley Posted January 22, 2018 Posted January 22, 2018 1 hour ago, Goafer said: Day one of my new job. They gave me a rape alarm. They clearly don't know me very well. Can we also appreciate that this is the second page in a row that has started with me using an Arrested Development gif? 1
bob Posted January 22, 2018 Posted January 22, 2018 Can we also appreciate that this is the second page in a row that has started with me using an Arrested Development gif?I wasn't aware you could post without one. 1 1
Ashley Posted January 22, 2018 Posted January 22, 2018 1 hour ago, bob said: 2 hours ago, Ashley said: Can we also appreciate that this is the second page in a row that has started with me using an Arrested Development gif? I wasn't aware you could post without one.
Ashley Posted January 24, 2018 Posted January 24, 2018 Just exported all the components for a development I'm doing at a contracting place. Their ridiculous change management process/software means I've had to export 152 files and tomorrow I need to raise a change request for all of them. Even though the software we develop in has a perfect adequate project management facility that would put it all into one file and give them the details they want.
Iun Posted January 25, 2018 Posted January 25, 2018 Parent-Teacher conferences today at work. Co-teacher tells me she has the flu, says "should I come in?" "No Because I'll be sitting next to you all day. You could also infect the parents and the kids" School management says "Yes! Come to work, it's an important day!" I swear, if I get sick, there's going to be serious, serious trouble. 1
EEVILMURRAY Posted January 26, 2018 Posted January 26, 2018 Got my probation extended for another 12 weeks today. Massive relief.
DriftKaiser Posted January 27, 2018 Posted January 27, 2018 Think I'm ready to leave my job this year cos all best colleagues are gone and my twilight shifts are no longer the best shift of the day.
Ashley Posted January 27, 2018 Posted January 27, 2018 Wanted to start and finish my tax return today and my work's HR website is down. I can (and will) wait until Monday but I have the person in charge of that area on my Facebook. I'm tempted to just get him to sort it out
Cube Posted January 30, 2018 Posted January 30, 2018 I've got two job interviews next week, which is a good sign. 2 1
Josh64 Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 I started my current job in August which was advertised as 6 hour evening shifts but when I got the job they said it'd be 10 hour shifts on the weekend, 2pm till midnight on Saturday Sunday every week. With how my anxiety is, I'm much better on shorter shifts, hence why I applied thinking of the 6 hours but with a view to getting my foot in the door and perhaps changing hours later down the line I took the job. How it works is it's a normal operation 9 till5 (a housing trust) with a big team of engineers out on the road and an office full of people answering phones and inputting jobs. In the OOH service we run, because there's less demands at these times it's a lone working job. You're theo nly person in the office, taking the calls and then inputting them in the planner and sorting the route for the appropriate trade. The only problem is, while the evening weekday shifts aren't too bad, the weekends progressively got worse and worse as I guess tenants don't see why the normal working hours of a weekend are any different to those of a week day. Long story short, with far fewer engineers and just me alone in the office on the weeknd it is fucking mayhem, jobs get backed up for hours on end resulting in super angry customers giving me hell, there's masses of different contracts that can get confusing at times and not only that but the new contracts have our trades going miles out. There's one gas engineer of a weekend and at times I have to send them to a job that's an hours drive from their current location which obviously messes up everything else that comes in. Anyway I persevered and first mentioned in October that I'd like to change my hours as it's a really busy shift and it's not great for my anxiety, I said obviously I haven't been here long so I don't expect any changes in the short term but if you could change them for me some time in the forseeable future that'd be great. I then asked again in Novemeber and again in Decemeber to which they said there's currently no scope to change hours. The manager made me see occupational health as I had to go home early on two occassions (after I sorted cover for the rest of my shift) due to anxiety. Occupational Health suggested they change my hours too, to which they said they'd note it but there's nothing they can do currently. End of January and I'd had enough, a nightmare shift where I'd been 'condemned to hell', sworn at, told I'm being 'taken to court' and all manner of other things. I appreciate these are just empty insults from angry customers, but it was caused by us having even less trades than usual that day and the managers deciding to not get cover for a sick engineer and instead just 'see how it goes'. Anyway, I went to hand in my notice last week after that debacle but just before the meeting I'd set up with my manager, the regional manager came over and told me to hold off as they're having a review of our department later in the week and things such as hours and rotas might change. He said he'll ring me on the Friday to let me know of the changes. He didn't ring lol. So I did another weekend shift that was just as bad and was due a monthly 1 to 1 on Wednesday just gone. I went to it, asked the usual, asked about whether the service had changed after their review and their responses were no, we can't change your hours, and no, nothing is changing with the service. And so I said I'll have to hand in my notice as I need my hours changed at this point and I feel bad for my (literal saviour) colleague who comes in occassionally to take over my shift when I'm overwhelmed. What is perhaps more annoying is that one person (in our department of 6) left in late Novemeber and his shifts were Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening. They didn't tell me about this and offered the hours to everyone in the department bar me because they knew they wouldn't be able to get cover for my weekend if I did those hours instead. This is possibly the most boring thing you have ever read, but yeah, I have a month left and then it's time to find another job lol. In my personal life my anxiety has improved immensly since having therapy last year but I noticed all the signs of it coming back due to this job so I knew it's something I had to do. But it's just like ughhhhhh, will I ever settle lol. I remember having fears I'd be stuck in my old job forever as I'd been there a few years but since then it's been the literal opposite as this is my 5th job since 2014 >.> 1
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