Work - The pros and the cons... - The Bear and Badger

Dinostar77

cockbeard wrote:

I get hardly any feedback from my boss, about once every 4-6 weeks I'll get a well done off him about something or another. Now I don't particularly need my hand holding or anything so it doesn't bother me on a personal level. We have a laugh in nights out and when he's in the office, which is rarely recently due to another project and given my own workload and picking up his I constantly feel like I'm behind

Anyway had my appraisal yesterday, went better than expected, we've agreed that i need to dedicate a day and a half a week to the infrastructure improvements they hired me for, whereas I've been firefighting since I got there. Also that is get a little more feedback from him about what the workload is, and to tell other departments to get lost with inane requests

Anyway I fully expected that pay discussions would be a separate discussion, I'm used to negotiating when it cones to money, seems it doesn't. Anyway I've been offered a rise above inflation but below the companies annual growth, not sure if to feel aggrieved or not. Felt like I've been stealing a living because I've not been able to start the infrastructure work, but I suppose the regular ten hour days and 15 days of holiday left over tell a different story

Infrastructure improvements? Lol. Dude in I.T. it's always firefighting. Infrastructure improvements are a pipedream.

Also do you get any I.T. training courses or equipment for home use thrown in?

Dinostar77

Diluted Dante wrote:

Can't have phones on the floor.

Wait till lunch break then?

cockbeard

Diluted Dante wrote:

New rules policy at work - no personal internet use. Yeah, I'm not far from quitting.

EU says no

You are entitled to a personal life even whilst at work

Some scandi guy used it as a defence when fired for browsing porn

Tempy

I'm surprised it's a new rule, I had it when I worked Tech Support for Capita, and my various jobs at E.on. It was particularly dumb at the latter because I was always on target whilst consistently breaking the rule.

cockbeard

Dinostar77 wrote:

Infrastructure improvements? Lol. Dude in I.T. it's always firefighting. Infrastructure improvements are a pipedream. Also do you get any I.T. training courses or equipment for home use thrown in?

I suppose but I genuinely thought that I was there to build this data warehouse, I guess when I've been contracting in the past it's easy to dedicate myself to exactly what the job is rather than getting distracted by other business requirements

I was offered courses etc, but to be honest what I really need is a lackey

Yossarian

Tempy wrote:

I'm surprised it's a new rule, I had it when I worked Tech Support for Capita, and my various jobs at E.on. It was particularly dumb at the latter because I was always on target whilst consistently breaking the rule.

How on earth did you manage to be on target while posting in every single thread on the forum?

Dinostar77

Yossarian wrote:

Tempy wrote:

I'm surprised it's a new rule, I had it when I worked Tech Support for Capita, and my various jobs at E.on. It was particularly dumb at the latter because I was always on target whilst consistently breaking the rule.

How on earth did you manage to be on target while posting in every single thread on the forum?

Lolz

Tempy

Yossarian wrote:

Tempy wrote:

I'm surprised it's a new rule, I had it when I worked Tech Support for Capita, and my various jobs at E.on. It was particularly dumb at the latter because I was always on target whilst consistently breaking the rule.

How on earth did you manage to be on target while posting in every single thread on the forum?

I was good, and did work in batches. We had hourly targets, but it was averaged out over the day. You could generally predict the difficulty of an account by the type of error code it was under, so you picked the easy ones for the hours you wanted to get your average up. It worked because I got good performance reviews for 3 years.

Diluted Dante

Tempy wrote:

I'm surprised it's a new rule, I had it when I worked Tech Support for Capita, and my various jobs at E.on. It was particularly dumb at the latter because I was always on target whilst consistently breaking the rule.

Mate, you used to be able to play console games between calls.

Place has gone completely down the shitter. You are allowed internet use for personal development, so I'm choosing to interpret that as searching for another job.

cockbeard

Tempy wrote:

You could generally predict the difficulty of an account by the type of error code it was under, so you picked the easy ones for the hours you wanted to get your average up

Snide

Tempy

The minute a work place stops respecting its staff is the minute you should stop respecting it. I could have definitely done more work if I wasn't such a voracious poster, but they treated me like a child so I acted it. They clearly had no real way of implementing their controls, and any of the staff that worked on non customer stuff were always browsing away. It was very one rule for them, one rule for us.

Current job has bosses that find busy work for us. After checking their various websites for discrepancies for the third or fourth time in a row I sent them an email saying there was no point for me to keep doing it if they weren't going to make the changes I suggested the first time.

Tempy

cockbeard wrote:

Tempy wrote:

You could generally predict the difficulty of an account by the type of error code it was under, so you picked the easy ones for the hours you wanted to get your average up

Snide

Yep. But I still got a bonus each year. The trick was not to do what the other folk did, and either ignore or only work on the hard ones.

Diluted Dante

I'm also not allowed to use Youtube for helping clients. Because you can't ban it for one use and not another.

The response to my query of 'why' was met with "because you can't".

cockbeard

Nah, everyone does it, was thinking more snide on fellow workmates as someone has to pick them up eventually

I've no issue with anyone screwing firms like Powergen or Capita for a few extra quid

I loved it when I left Powergen, as in my exit interview, I was asked if any more questions I said "Well just to negotiate my severance package" to which Steve laughed and said, "yes Ben, I'll sort that don't worry, cheeky git"

Then they kept paying me for about 10 months after I left, admin fuckup somewhere, pleased me though

Diluted Dante

Designated rest period over, back to the misery factory.

Dinostar77

Diluted Dante wrote:

Designated rest period over, back to the misery factory.

Dante, know anyone in IT in your place? have a word with them, get them to look the other way so you can carry on using the internet for personal use.

Tempy

Good luck Dante. I've done it and know that it's hell. I am dreading having to go back to it after Uni too.

Diluted Dante

It's not blocked, but they will do you over if they see you, and a manager can see my screen from where I am. However, I'm deciding fuck the system for the moment, as not everyone has signed it yet.

equinox_code

I have been working 78 hours per week for the last month. It's been a bit of a nightmare, both physically and mentally. Fortunately my boss has hired someone new and this brings my hours down to a more manageable level.

I was asked to work out who will work on which days, and as the most senior employee I would have first choice of which days I wanted to work.

I have a tendency to be a bit too accommodating of others, and so my initial thoughts were that we (3 employees) could take it in turns to have Saturday off. I mentioned this in passing to the others.

However, upon reflection I wish I hadn't done this. Not only was I within my rights to claim that day off for myself, but rotating shifts with the others really complicates things as the other two employees are quite restricted in which hours they can work, and in turn which shifts can be swapped.

Am I a cunt if I change my mind on this?

Diluted Dante

I'd say no if they're restricted on what other days they can work. Just say that it seemed like a nice idea, but it turns out to be not practical, so taking yourself out of Saturday is the best resolution.

GooberTheHat

If they are inflexible about other shifts they can and can't work you're well within you're rights to be inflexible about Saturday.

[Deleted User]

Perhaps a bit of a life lesson about saying it before you checked but ultimately I think you are within your rights to take it back.
Just say you tried but they have commitments outside of work on other days so it doesn't work. If they could be more flexible on other days you could always have another look.

Diluted Dante

I'm looking at applying for this job. I don't have a degree, which will likely hinder me, so I need to look fucking amazing.

Any tips on covering letter and CV, especially from @legaldinho?

cockbeard

As an adult, a degree is bollocks for anything except law/medicine etc

I think most employers only want to see one so they know that you are prepared to commit to something for more than a ten minutes. If you're older than 25 I think that your work experience (if relevant) more than balances it out

Diluted Dante

Well, it's working at a law firm, although not in a legal capacity. So I expect that they might prefer someone with a degree.

cockbeard

I think legal secretaries do require some kind of qualification, or just that certain legal offices like to get students as they're cheaper, I'm unsure

Either way though, if it's not down there as a prerequisite, then go for it and good luck

Cos

Cocko makes good points. In my experience, when job adverts appeal to graduates it's specifically related to newly graduated types looking for one of their first jobs. If you've got a number of years of work experience already, particularly if you can demonstrate relevant skills, then that's easily comparable.

I worked in a law firm for a couple of years and there were plenty of people working as administrators and assistants without a degree so don't let that hold you back.

Jaco

Depends on the management. I've worked for two companies that installed management that had a 'no degree, it goes in the bin' policy. Thankfully, I was already there or I'd have gone in the bin. There are still people out there (almost always grads) that are extremely biased towards degree-holders.

[Deleted User]

Yeah, I think the degree thing in that job is more of a filter. A degree shows you have a certain level of commitment, deadline meeting ability, standards and writing skills (as even creative courses involve a dissertation these days).
A degree is short hand for the above so you will need to show how you have filled those gaps without doing a degree. You write games stuff (iirc?) so that should be mentioned, especially if any of it was paid.

The job description says "Ideally you will be degree educated..." so you shouldn't be put off from applying.

cockbeard

It used to put me off all the time, despite the fact I was living and hanging around with graduates who were thick as pigshit (not all grads are)

It probably wasn't until I was around 28 or so that I started ignoring that part of the criteria

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