Job woes/wins

[Will]

That really sucks, @Josh64, I never really understand employers that aren't flexible with regards to their peoples needs. Hope you find something quickly.

 

We've decided to restructure our company so that the individual offices have more autonomy to do whatever they want. Up until now we've been divided by function, so people in multiple offices reported up to one person dependent on what they did. Now we'll have people in one country report up to the head of that office and effectively run as independent units.

Most of the offices have a head, or at least a clear person to take up the role, but our Manila office doesn't. The CEO asked me if I'd be interested in taking the role in addition to to my current one. So I've spent the week in the Philippines talking to all the department heads about a plan for the rest of the year and beyond, potential office moves and various other issues related to the office and all of the staff. It's been insanely busy but super insightful as to how they work, the things that motivate them and potential for the future.

If I take it I think things will be insanely busy, I'll still be on the board of the HQ and running planning for the entire group, which will mean one week a month in Singapore. Then the rest of the time managing all of our functions in Manila and trying to grow that office from the current 50 or so employees to something around 4 or 5 times that. It will also be my third relocation in three years which is always a huge hassle and really I only got properly set up in my current place in the last few months. On the plus side I'll get away from Singapore for the majority of the time and career-wise it's exactly where I want to be headed.

Need to pull everything together from this week into a plan and then make the decision as to what I'll do. Hopefully he gives me a few weeks to decide on what's best to do.

[S.C.G]

17 hours ago, Josh64 said:

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 >.> 

That sucks Josh, I'm really sorry to hear that you're not able to settle into any jobs at the moment.

It sounds to me like the latest role wasn't helping your anxiety much though, I can relate to those feelings as I've been experiencing similar shifts where I've just felt like going home early, I mean it's nothing quite as bad as having abuse hurled at me but still, working with the public can be as tough as it is rewarding at times.

Though I have been in my job for quite a while now, so I've built up quite a few customers who like to come to me specifically every week and I... guess that's what keeps me going, for instance I know that at some point I'll almost certainly be serving a customer who has been coming to me at the same time every week for months now because I do "such a good job" and "everything just falls into place" in their words, so that's nice; I mean, if I'm ever not there then I know that they'll still get decent enough service but they certainly seem to prefer the way I do things in my line of work... just talking and packing items really but it's nice to be appreciated.

So I can understand that it must be hard to keep going with a job if you haven't built up much investment in it, especially with those awful shifts you've detailed above. I find it hard to read that you're unhappy as you're really worth so much more than that Josh, you deserve to be happy in work and life so I really do hope that you'll find something you can enjoy, be appreciated in and not have it make you even more anxious; I know it's not easy but I really do wish the best for you, if you ever want to talk then you know where I am too.

In the meantime, if you are going to have a bit of free time between jobs then why not focus on enjoying the things that you like in life, anything that will help you forget your worries at least in the short-term has got to be good, maybe play an old Sega game that you've not played for Ages, listen to some Akmu or bust out the Dreamcast and your copy of Sega Marine Fishing... do whatever makes you happy.

Edited February 3, 2018 by S.C.G

[Josh64]

10 hours ago, S.C.G said:

That sucks Josh, I'm really sorry to hear that you're not able to settle into any jobs at the moment.

It sounds to me like the latest role wasn't helping your anxiety much though, I can relate to those feelings as I've been experiencing similar shifts where I've just felt like going home early, I mean it's nothing quite as bad as having abuse hurled at me but still, working with the public can be as tough as it is rewarding at times.

Though I have been in my job for quite a while now, so I've built up quite a few customers who like to come to me specifically every week and I... guess that's what keeps me going, for instance I know that at some point I'll almost certainly be serving a customer who has been coming to me at the same time every week for months now because I do "such a good job" and "everything just falls into place" in their words, so that's nice; I mean, if I'm ever not there then I know that they'll still get decent enough service but they certainly seem to prefer the way I do things in my line of work... just talking and packing items really but it's nice to be appreciated.

So I can understand that it must be hard to keep going with a job if you haven't built up much investment in it, especially with those awful shifts you've detailed above. I find it hard to read that you're unhappy as you're really worth so much more than that Josh, you deserve to be happy in work and life so I really do hope that you'll find something you can enjoy, be appreciated in and not have it make you even more anxious; I know it's not easy but I really do wish the best for you, if you ever want to talk then you know where I am too.

In the meantime, if you are going to have a bit of free time between jobs then why not focus on enjoying the things that you like in life, anything that will help you forget your worries at least in the short-term has got to be good, maybe play an old Sega game that you've not played for Ages, listen to some Akmu or bust out the Dreamcast and your copy of Sega Marine Fishing... do whatever makes you happy.

 

You know me so well haha.

And yeah I should start to focus on something while in-between things. As cliché as it is, one of the first will be losing weight as I've erected some timber in the last 6 months lol - certain t-shirts are a no-go atm but I guess that's what late night binge eating Simpsons does to you.

Glad to hear you have your regulars at work! Anything that can perk up the day is a good thing!

And yeah to be honest it always feels like I put a lot in for no return, I certainly hope I can find something slightly less customer orientated in the future!

 

[EEVILMURRAY]

On 02/02/2018 at 5:43 PM, Josh64 said:

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. 

I'd get some sort of doctor's note. I don't know how legally compelling they are/can be, I'm not sure if/to what extent anxiety may be covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. fortunately for me epilepsy is. In my days working at the Tesco I worked staggered days on nights. After a period of doing so it wasn't having the greatest effect on me (and some other things which weren't really relevant but kinda helped me with my case) so I had the neurology doctor I go see to write a formal letter saying he recommends I go back on days. There was little delay in them moving me, but they had to create the hours as there wasn't an actual vacancy available. It wasn't incredibly ideal but was an improvement on what I had (although the decrease in pay was a bit of a ballache). I think had they refused I could've tied their anuses up with so much litigation, their grandchildren were gonna need lawyers #PhillipBanks.

 

In my current job though after having my probation extended it appeared I had made a few errors, which could've been quite serious, the silver lining for me is that they happened before the probation meeting, so it couldn't be said I hadn't improved since the meeting, but you think you're having a productive day and then Pow - you find out you fucked something up and have to get your anus in gear to rectify things tootsweet. It's lead to several meetings and a lot of patience from my supervisor and me thinking of several ways to say "I messed up" in the most positive light. So they want me to work on some better reference guides/personal checklists that I am about to work on to show more accountability and confidence in things being done.

[EEVILMURRAY]

On 02/02/2018 at 5:43 PM, Josh64 said:

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.

Dunno if this will result in a double post or edit because this won't let me copy over the quote properly. But Josh, at least you're not getting sued for $20million like Maddox is trying to sue a Patreon customer services rep.

[Charlie]

On 03/02/2018 at 11:22 PM, EEVILMURRAY said:

I'd get some sort of doctor's note. I don't know how legally compelling they are/can be, I'm not sure if/to what extent anxiety may be covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. fortunately for me epilepsy is. In my days working at the Tesco I worked staggered days on nights. After a period of doing so it wasn't having the greatest effect on me (and some other things which weren't really relevant but kinda helped me with my case) so I had the neurology doctor I go see to write a formal letter saying he recommends I go back on days. There was little delay in them moving me, but they had to create the hours as there wasn't an actual vacancy available. It wasn't incredibly ideal but was an improvement on what I had (although the decrease in pay was a bit of a ballache). I think had they refused I could've tied their anuses up with so much litigation, their grandchildren were gonna need lawyers #PhillipBanks.

 

In my current job though after having my probation extended it appeared I had made a few errors, which could've been quite serious, the silver lining for me is that they happened before the probation meeting, so it couldn't be said I hadn't improved since the meeting, but you think you're having a productive day and then Pow - you find out you fucked something up and have to get your anus in gear to rectify things tootsweet. It's lead to several meetings and a lot of patience from my supervisor and me thinking of several ways to say "I messed up" in the most positive light. So they want me to work on some better reference guides/personal checklists that I am about to work on to show more accountability and confidence in things being done.

Mistakes happen, it's how you deal with it is what matters.  Own up to it and tell them how you're going to fix the issue and how you will ensure it doesn't happen in the future.

[Cube]

First interview was a bit meh. It was for a large store and it was a big room with 5 interviews going on at once, pretty much constantly every 20 minutes for a couple of days. It seemed a bit rushed and the job sounds rather dull.

Second interview went really well, spoke for 45 minutes, it's a small company doing something similar to my old job, seems more involved and varied. 

[Josh64]

Received a letter saying I can attend a leaving work interview but its up to me. I think I will attend and just say something along the lines of I tried my best to be accommodating but there was no help in changing my shifts and I might mention how they were being all snarky back in November when I mentioned having anxiety. They accused me of not disclosing it before they found my application and hey ho, it was there.

 

I think I might write a bunch of stuff down so if I forget in the moment I can just read from the paper. I don't want to make a big deal, I just want to make it clear that I tried various things before handing in my notice and I was not intentionally being awkward about my hours.

[EEVILMURRAY]

On 08/02/2018 at 8:00 PM, Charlie said:

Mistakes happen, it's how you deal with it is what matters.  Own up to it and tell them how you're going to fix the issue and how you will ensure it doesn't happen in the future.

I do own up to them if I made them. It's just getting beyond annoying that I am making so many after so long.

[Cube]

I got offered one of the jobs, at The Range. Sounds boring, but it's a job. Waiting to hear from the other one still.

[Aneres11]

Nice work Cube.

I've been working at the same company for 12 years this year (big bank). 

Done loads of different roles in my time there but had kind of stood still the last few years and not progressed - purely because nothing that has suited me has been advertised.

Last year I moved to an entirely new area of the bank, different location so slightly further to travel, but nothing like what I'd done before. Same grade and pay, but more techy with the view that it could help open doors to progression. 

Been doing that role for around 8=9 months now and not really enjoying it much at all. Myself and a work mate are both the same grade. There's a guy who is doing the exact same role as us day to day, but is a higher grade. He earns about £6k a year more than us. We've raised that it isn't really fair that he's doing the same job day to day, but gets paid so much more and her response is basically, deal with it - it wont change. Stop getting so wound up about it. 

I'm a bit annoyed because he wasn't there when I started and that higher paid role didn't exist. The first week I began working there my manager told me that the job was going up on the board and said "kinda sucks for you as I guess you'd have applied for that one". I was like, um yeah.  

Anyway I've stuck it out and feeling a bit underappreciated. I do some great stuff for the team and for her, and it's as if she can't say thank you. Or show any sort of gratitude unless its her idea. 

Someone told me about a team leader role in my old department where I used to work which is much more up my street. My application is showing as 'advance to interview' so I guess I will get an interview date soon. 

In addition to that, I've just come home from an interview in an entirely different business all together. TL role in the police headquarters where I live. I applied on a whim and had to write a 2000 word essay as to why I wanted the job, and my experience. Well, I rushed a half an hour submission as my manager was in a meeting and I did it before she came out, sent it and forgot about it. 4 days later I had an email to say I had passed that and was invited to an interview which was this morning. 

Went ok. Answered everything. But I felt like with the way the questions were asked, they're looking for someone who has managed people before day to day. I haven't. I have done management in others abesence, and led teams on initiatives etc, but not full blown leadership. I gave some of my better examples as they thankfully fit the questions, but we'll see. Should find out today she said! No messing. 

I don't really want to leave the company I'm with now, so my eggs are all kinda in the basket of the TL job I'm waiting for an interview for. It's my old department so I know how it all works and some of the people etc - be ideal. 

Fingers crossed one of them works out!

[Ashley]

Just sent one of those emails with thinly veiled polite insults.  "I could not replicate the problem" (you're talking shit) and "was this not the case when you were testing it" (you didn't test it and you forget I can see that you ding dong) featured.

Glad when this contracting project is over.  Been a nightmare dealing with someone that barely engages (the person above) and someone that over engages in a real scattergun 'let's make everything confusing' kind of way.  Plus having to deal with the central IT people who are the definition of obstructive.  Urgh.

[Aneres11]

So HQ called me just before 5. They offered me the job! Shocked! But chuffed!

[Charlie]

New jobs all round at NE!

After 5 years contracting I'll soon be moving to a permanent job. Looking at a start date of March 26th and I'll take a week off prior to that. It's a data analyst role but in senior position and the idea is that I'll be growing this team and the service being offered. 

Negotiated 2 days a week working from home (I currently do 5 so will be a shock going to the office!) and a good package so I'm looking forward to it.

[bob]

And we all look forward to seeing your package.

[Beast]

Just to quickly say: 1 year and 6 months in this job and I'm apparently really good at it. This is the second longest job at the moment, haha. Obviously had a couple of staff issues (to which I ironed out or just reminded them I have a job to do and that I'm management) but it's been okay enough. The customers are quite rude though. Its definitely the worst place for that- even my manager agrees.

That was an update. Onto my actual news: I've been offered a job. In a game shop. If you guys suddenly get a follow from a certain game shop out of nowhere, please follow it back. I took over their socials for in-store credit and sold stuff both online and when I've been in store taking pictures. I think he was impressed and asked whether I could do any hours selling. We're talking about it tomorrow. Dream job! Excited!

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[Iun]

On 2/14/2018 at 4:03 PM, Animal said:

That was an update. Onto my actual news: I've been offered a job. In a game shop. If you guys suddenly get a follow from a certain game shop out of nowhere, please follow it back. I took over their socials for in-store credit and sold stuff both online and when I've been in store taking pictures. I think he was impressed and asked whether I could do any hours selling. We're talking about it tomorrow. Dream job! Excited!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
 

There are still independent game shops out there? That's awesome!

[Beast]

There are still independent game shops out there? That's awesome!

Yeah. There's two about 20 minutes from each other. The other is more well-known and the one I'm in is a bit out of the way but, in my opinion, has better prices and everything is in better condition. I got Pinocchio on Mega Drive and it's literally in pristine condition. Had a play yesterday and loved it.

Also, there's two Twitter accounts (one of a YouTuber and the other who advertises independent gaming shops) who want to give the shop exposure so that's a thing now.

I've got to find out my days off at my job so we can come to an arrangement.

Question: does a job exists where I take over a company's social media? What's the title? I want it, lmao

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[Will]

26 minutes ago, Animal said:

Question: does a job exists where I take over a company's social media? What's the title? I want it, lmao

We have that role and it's called, surprisingly, Social Media Manager. There are variations on it such as Community Manager (tends to be related to a specific game) but generally that's the one we go with. If you can get into that sort of thing, and show good results with what you're doing, it should lead to some quite interesting opportunities later down the line.

[Cube]

36 minutes ago, Animal said:

Question: does a job exists where I take over a company's social media? What's the title? I want it, lmao
 

On top of what Will said, sometimes it's part of "Website Administrator" or similar. I applied for a job and it would have involved me taking over the North Wales Police Twitter.

[Beast]

We have that role and it's called, surprisingly, Social Media Manager. There are variations on it such as Community Manager (tends to be related to a specific game) but generally that's the one we go with. If you can get into that sort of thing, and show good results with what you're doing, it should lead to some quite interesting opportunities later down the line.

Wait, it's a thing?! Sign me up! I'm not even kidding!

I've taken over the shops socials for three weeks. I've gained over 100 followers with constant replies from my tweets, my tweets always gets a like or RT and I've managed to make roughly £200 on Twitter. I was given Instagram to try and I've gained 35 followers but had more views on the profile and more likes than any of his previous posts.

I would LOVE to do that as a job but is the above good?

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[Will]

As an individual working on something smaller like that it sounds pretty good to me.

It all depends on what you're using social media for really, and this will impact the type of things you will do in order to generate what for you is "success". For example, you could be using social media to drive people somewhere else (ie. a game, youtube channel, online shop etc.) where you intend to monetize them, or monetizing through interactions on the platforms themselves, or a whole host of other reasons to be building up a fan base and feeding them regular content.

7 minutes ago, Animal said:

Wait, it's a thing?! Sign me up! I'm not even kidding!

It's a huge thing. Any popular brand nowadays is going to be interacting with customers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & a whole host of other platforms. These will all be professionally run by people who have dedicated their career to understanding how each platform works and best practices for each one.

Weirdly, I'm putting together a 2018 plan for my office right now and happen to have the overview from our Community Lead in-front of me. To give a little context, he's requested 16 people to run our social media for the year - it's definitely something we take very seriously.

[Beast]

As an individual working on something smaller like that it sounds pretty good to me.
It all depends on what you're using social media for really, and this will impact the type of things you will do in order to generate what for you is "success". For example, you could be using social media to drive people somewhere else (ie. a game, youtube channel, online shop etc.) where you intend to monetize them, or monetizing through interactions on the platforms themselves, or a whole host of other reasons to be building up a fan base and feeding them regular content.
It's a huge thing. Any popular brand nowadays is going to be interacting with customers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & a whole host of other platforms. These will all be professionally run by people who have dedicated their career to understanding how each platform works and best practices for each one.
Weirdly, I'm putting together a 2018 plan for my office right now and happen to have the overview from our Community Lead in-front of me. To give a little context, he's requested 16 people to run our social media for the year - it's definitely something we take very seriously.

He said he just wanted to boost his followers up and try to get them to his shop. The selling thing was a bonus but I figured if I could do it, I would. He's taking care of Facebook but he's given me Instagram and Twitter. I like interacting with the other gamers and having little conversations. I post gaming facts, take part in the hashtag trends and also the services the shop itself offers as well as some awesome rare stuff he has in.

That job sounds so cool. I'd love to do something like this full-time.

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[Josh64]

On 14 February 2018 at 8:03 AM, Animal said:

Just to quickly say: 1 year and 6 months in this job and I'm apparently really good at it. This is the second longest job at the moment, haha. Obviously had a couple of staff issues (to which I ironed out or just reminded them I have a job to do and that I'm management) but it's been okay enough. The customers are quite rude though. Its definitely the worst place for that- even my manager agrees.

That was an update. Onto my actual news: I've been offered a job. In a game shop. If you guys suddenly get a follow from a certain game shop out of nowhere, please follow it back. I took over their socials for in-store credit and sold stuff both online and when I've been in store taking pictures. I think he was impressed and asked whether I could do any hours selling. We're talking about it tomorrow. Dream job! Excited!

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Omg I had a Birmingham game shop follow me recently - it was you??

[Beast]

Omg I had a Birmingham game shop follow me recently - it was you??

You know it ;P. That Donkey Konga post was for you, haha

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