The Work Thread

Oh good, The Most Confident Man On Earth has another thing to make him confident. Management should have taken you out back and shot you, to be a lesson to us all.

Nah, congrats Buska! Sounds like it was well deserved. What will the new duties be, or will you be doing all the stuff you've been doing anyway and just getting more recognition for it?

@Buskalilly well done - it would just be nice if there were more places in the world where it felt like it was worth doing a good job like that
@masofdas take it easy there - don't worry too much about Asda, but - and I know it's not my place to say, I just worry when I see the I/O just on this forum - maybe save a bit more

My role has changed, and I'm not in charge of a team any more, and have a weird floaty technical consultant role. Which is great for me honestly. I am not capable of deciding whether someone is doing good or not, and certainly can't motivate anyone. But I can do a lot of behind the scenes things to make people's lives easier, and I think that'd been appreciated, and I get more time to do that now.

Yeah not to worried about work, just would have been nice to have had a work based saving scheme, guess positive is getting a nice chunk in one go then over multiple years.

On the car front peeps basically said spend a tad more then I planned before getting this payout to get something nice but not all of it just on a car.

Balladeer wrote:

What will the new duties be, or will you be doing all the stuff you've been doing anyway and just getting more recognition for it?

Mostly doing all the stuff I've been doing anyway and just getting more recognition for it but I think there will be a little more in the way of actual human management; I'll actually have a small modicum of authority when I tell someone to buck their ideas up.

You won't have to rely on raw charisma any more! Good luck boss, hope your journey towards becoming 'the man' is enjoyable and that the people you manage aren't gits.

@masofdas and @Jimbob Hope your shifts in circumstances work out for you! And yep saving is good.

Saving is good but surely goal of saving is it's used on something? Anyway going look around 7.5k not 10k for car.

...given that I've been both clever enough, in the specific way that society disproportionately rewards (mostly short-term fact recollection), and privileged enough to have more funds than most on here (I'd imagine), I probably shouldn't give anyone money advice!  Also I save a huge chunk in not being able, nor needing, to drive.

I feel I've been clever these past 3 years to save what I have, and goal was buy place last year but as you know about my Dad, then I do need a car to get anywhere.

I'm not very happy at work.

I'm a senior administrative officer at a University, which is effectively a job spec that's one rung below manager or project leader.

Over the past 6 months I've written two apps and multiple automated workflows on projects that I've been leading. But this isn't a particularly recent thing, as far back as the start of the pandemic I wrote a QR scanner app that would register who was and wasn't in our buildings. Essentially, I'm doing work far above my pay grade, and have been doing so consistently for quite some time.

Recently our faculty went under an APM review, and everyone on fixed-term posts were made permanent. Except for me, and everyone else in "non-standard roles". This isn't how it was messaged until the thing went through. It was very much, everyone will be made permanent. So that sucked. Separate to this, I was also told that whilst leading the projects I'm on, I would be paid at the pay scale above me for the time spent on the project. This has not happened.

I'm pissed. I'm on a shitty fixed-term deal that precludes me from applying for any sort of mortgage, and I'm underpaid by the best part of 8k per year for the work I'm doing, or at the very least, the difference in hourly pay whilst working on projects above my grade.

I've been quite vocal with my team about my frustrations, and said I'd wait until the new year to see what was being done. I was assured there was a plan to at least make me permanent. As it happens, that plan is actually to keep me fixed-term, and I'm also not getting any extra pay. This is particularly shitty, because I was moved from a temp contract to a fixed-term contract a year ago in order to cover for a permanent member of staff who was on sabbatical. They aren't coming back, but instead of me having their permanent status as was the plan, I'm left fixed-term.

Tomorrow I'm in a meeting with all the various departments in our faculty with regards to the project I've been leading. Basically each school in the faculty has to report back on how they have handled the issue that's arose. That room will predominantly be filled with people doing the same workload for their departments on this issue but for double the money I make. And the worst part is, I know my system will be better than all of theirs. I already know I'm the only one who has written an app, automated all the bits that can be automated, and blah blah. This has made me feel sick all day.

I phoned my acting line manager to say I'd be handing in my notice as soon as I find something else. I don't even care if that pays less than what I earn now; I just can't stand knowing that I'm getting ripped off every time I sit at my desk, and that there aren't enough important people who give enough of a shit to fix it. It's untenable for me to look people in the eye and act nice when literally none of the things I've been promised have come to fruition.

Wow.

Yeah, fuck 'em.

I've worked in higher education the past ten years and this doesn't surprise me. I saw it over Christmas, a valuable colleague in a similar position went elsewhere for an extra 7k salary. When his team heard about it, they offered to match the salary. It didn't work, because you shouldn't have to look elsewhere to feel valued in the first place. I left my last role as I was doing a bunch of stuff that wasn't in my job description, but they made the "role regrading" such a lengthy painful process (and then they just said no 12 months later) that I just left. Then you see the role advertised at a higher pay grade! Very frustrating.

Jobs.ac.uk is your friend, lots about (although I guess it depends on your location).

Owch. Sorry to read that Muss, hope you get a new good job soon! I presume you don't have any of the 'we were going to give you a pay rise' stuff in writing? That always helps with complaints.

Nothing concrete in writing boss, which does suck. My manager, currently signed off work and has been for quite some time now, did leave me a message about making me a higher pay grade in writing, but I don't think it's enough to go on. It wasn't super formal as such.

I've taken gjones' advice anyway and started going through the website he recommended.

I've been in the process of changing jobs over the last few months and finally started my new job this past week. I spent nearly 8 years doing call centre work at my last job and I honestly think I should have left a lot, lot sooner. I think it did real damage to my mental health, which coupled with a worldwide pandemic and the isolation that brought about resulted in a big stew of problems.

I'm so optimistic about my new job and I feel properly invigorated for the first time in ages. I'll still be doing customer service work, but everything is pointing towards it being a much better environment and with a much more likely chance of progression within the company.

As somebody who hates interviews and is a big slave to job inertia, I know both how it feels to stick in a job that isn't giving you much, and how much it turns out I should have left sooner. Glad you're finally out Jay, enjoy the new one!

Yeah, I had the same feeling when I left Tesco. I really hope it works out for you mate.

I just realised, reading through this thread, that I hadn't updated in a while. Rob left and I became the manager of the Foreign Teacher department. I, like, interview new staff and stuff, it's very serious. Next year we're opening a new school in the next city over and I'm gonna go over there and head it up, which will coincide perfectly with when Mercy and I were planning to get a place together.

Cheers lads - so far, so good!

Buskalilly wrote:

Next year we're opening a new school in the next city over and I'm gonna go over there and head it up, which will coincide perfectly with when Mercy and I were planning to get a place together.

That’s really exciting news mate!

Yeah, it's slightly early to celebrate but it looks very promising and it could mean things fall into place real nice next year.

Well done guys, great to read that

Congrats Buska, that's huge! So what, you'll be a headmaster this time next year (maybe probably)?

Balladeer wrote:

Congrats Buska, that's huge!  So what, you'll be a headmaster this time next year (maybe probably)?

Well, I'll need a bit more Japanese proficiency before I can climb much higher. And considering I spent most of this year studying Spanish instead. . .

I recently started a new job which is good because more money, closer to home (transport costs were killing me) and set hours unlike the last job but the best part about it is I'm carpooling with my dad so it means I get to see the family dog every day and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy in my tum tum.

Congrats Smurf! And congrats family dog getting to see Smurf more often.

My work development is using the GNamer mobile site to post on the forum at work. Is it any good? Of bloody course not. Still, giving it a go.

Nice one Smurf, that's great news!

I'm getting on fine at my newish job - enjoying it much more than my last job, feeling much more relaxed starting and finishing the day and not feeling that sense of dread waking up in the morning before my shift that was ever present in my last role.