From where I'm standing Gav, you have been held back. You are not earning the money you should earn based on your temperament and abilities. You get on well with people, they will love you in Aus. Whatever it is that is causing you to bet against yourself / has in the past, it might dissipate in a new environment.

And if I'm wrong, you can always come back with a tan, to what you already know.

Do it. Pursue it. Wife that angel gf of yours.

Eh?

Aye, that's it. Just ignore me tbh.

Watch out for the syndrome though.

The Daddy wrote:

Watch out for the syndrome though.

Nah, he'll love it.

Gavin come to Australia I will treat you to an artisinal gnome-shited wood-smoked louse turd coffee bean served in a cup of racist lies.

@afgavinstan I'd grab a chance to work and live overseas for a while with both hands.  It doesn't have to be permanent (and the fucking Tories are likely to make it impossible eventually anyway), you can always come home, and staying in touch with people is pretty easy.  Heck, you can fly to Stockholm for £150 so people will visit...!

Other than the job situation, I think just living in another part of the world for a while can be one of the most mind-expanding, remarkable, memorable experiences in life.  You could always study something online while overseas to come back to the UK with more skills.

Living in the US for a few years was quite remarkable, and while I only spent weeks/months in other places, I was blown away by "living" for a while in Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore.  It shifts your perspective so much.  

Like Gonz says you definitely deserve to be successful and you will be with your attitude; the work environment can be shit in  one place, but spreading out a bit can help.  Even looking across Scotland would be worthwhile, but like I say, I'd leap on the chance to live overseas for a while again and experience a whole new culture.

acemuzzy wrote:

A month ago I had six reports at work, and was starting to get miserable/stressed. In a months time I'll be down to one report, and able to do some more interesting technical work. Pretty hyped tbh.

This hallowed turf now beckons imminently. Geekery awaits. Gonna be under technical pressure but looking forward to an intellectual challenge rather than a personnel one. Hoping I do it well, if not at least I'll learn something, and tbh it could even give me a spur to look for a different company to work at depending on how I find the motivations working out. 14 years is a long time, after all...

Thanks folks but, as expected, there's been a change. She got a job with a Glasgow based fashion company so all that talk has been put on hold for now.

Funny thing happened today though, was asked to take part in the yearly workplace survey. Done loads of them before at HMV, I know how it is. Quickly get the staff in and out, imply that it's "easier" or "quicker" to just get it done as soon as so they don't have the time or wherewithal to complete it fully and honestly. I knew it was coming up and knew it'd be a chance to air the grievances I've had collected up ever since I done my knee and got fucked about with contracts etc. So I wanted to take my time and answer fully. Which I did, rather savagely at points, but I don't really care. Anyway..

After about 15 minutes I get a call from the "co-ordinator", the person who gives you jobs over the phone for you to complete. He's a grumpy fuck of a guy and very recently I had a run in with him cos he felt it was sound to shout at me and go off over a simple misunderstanding (that was his fault anyway).

*answer*
Me:"sorry mate I'm doing the Viewpoint Survey so I can't do a job at the moment"
Him: "FUCK SAKE!"
*hangs up*

Oh well fuck me very much then. Few questions later it asks me "Do you believe that the results of this survey will result in things being changed?"

My answer: "Well, I would believe that if the survey itself was treated with the respect it deserves, but it doesn't. For example, I literally just took a phonecall from my superior who, upon being told I'm doing the survey, replied "FUCK SAKE" and hung up on me, so go figure."

This fuckin place, man.

Hopefully those surveys aren't being completely disregarded.

We recently did ours and the report is rather humourous as it showed that less than 10% of staff had any faith in the management team. There's such a morale problem about the company. Nobody has any faith in their decision making, and for good reason. Their solution to this problem is to shuffle the management team. Again. The constant shuffling is the whole reason we have no faith in them! And around and around it goes.

I'm going to stand up for (some) managers here. It's very easy for people to say that their manager does nothing and couldn't do the work that they do but there are plenty of managers who not only can do that but also have to take on much bigger burdens. I'm only speaking for chefs and waiters specifically but it's always so common to hear people bitch about the head chef not doing enough work or the floor manager not being on the floor and helping bus plates. They aren't seeing the huge amount of admin that gets done by these people behind the scene.

I offered one particularly loud mouth waiter a chance at a Manager role when it come up. He's a capable guy but he found it much more difficult than expected. It was a good learning experience for him.

Armitage_Shankburn wrote:

Within a month of stepping up into management, I felt compelled to give my former manager an apology for all the stupid shit I gave him

So weak

I've been in tears at work today because we're likely losing a pupil I've put hundreds of hours into, to alternative provision.

I was going to explain the way my council works, with Lead Professionals and Named Persons, but it's not needed. I was also going to outline their needs, which are significant. 

But today they caused so much disruption to the school, and I was on 3 hours of trying to find them, that it's unlikely they'll be back - and that's with the support of the best parents I've ever worked with. 

It's just heartbreaking that we couldn't make it work for this young person, and that we are where we are now, and I just had to cry, because I felt I'd failed them. 


Today is officially the worst day of work I've ever had. Awful, upsetting, and sad.

From the sounds of things, you’ve done a hell of a lot of people a hell of a lot of good. You can’t win them all.

Hugs.

You haven't failed them - I'm willing to bet those hours of your efforts have hade a hell of a difference. I've seen this with teachers/ support staff and kids - people always move on and nothing's ever 'finished' or 'completed', but they know they've done what they could. Your situation is unfair because it's all out of your hands too soon.