Work

[Mr_Danger]

I work in a place where if the managers over step the line certain colleagues will literally tell the managers they’re causing them stress and go home on the sick. Is there not a slightly more subtle less threatening way of making your managers know that’s the way you’re heading? 

[Daddymagic]

29 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

I work in a place where if the managers over step the line certain colleagues will literally tell the managers they’re causing them stress and go home on the sick. Is there not a slightly more subtle less threatening way of making your managers know that’s the way you’re heading? 

I am a senior manager myself so it's a bit more complex sadly. 

[chokeout]

5 hours ago, Daddymagic said:

This is just a vent, but I actually feel like I am at breaking point with my job which I've done for 15 years. 
 

I have a specialist role - you could train someone to do it but that would take a couple of months. There is two of us who do this job with over a thousand people relying on info and support. 
 

3 weeks ago I got an email from my manager saying the other person was off sick. He didn't return the following week so I asked if there was a strategy in place as I was starting to get a lot of questions from his area. 
 

No reply. I suggested that someone supports me and I delegate some aspects of the job that wouldn't really need training and that I look after the big picture things. Said they would come back to me. 
 

i then got an email not from my manager but from a peer saying that I needed to do everything and that they could count on me for the foreseeable. 
 

Issue is, this is sending me to breaking point. There is far too much work for one person and I feel like I am fire fighting or not able to give proper attention to what I am doing. I'm exhausted after just a week.

I asked to speak to my manager and instead got a message back from the same peer saying that resources are stretched. 
 

So. Should I keep battling on and trying my best?

Say fuck it and join my colleague on the sick?

I had the same issue when they gutted my team. I listed everything I did, sent it to my manager and said pick which ones I prioritise as I'm currently covering 70 man hours per week and it's not sustainable. 

[waters44]

Yeah, companies thrive on this. As @chokeout says send a list of your tasks to whoever you report to and ask them to prioritise the list. Even better if you can put a timescale on the tasks (over egg it obviously!)

Don’t forget that’s it’s extremely unlikely anyone above you will care about this and remember it in the future. I’ve been in companies where people have worked their balls off in hope of recognition / promotion etc and have been made redundant a year later

[westlondonmist]

"Warning-Rant"

So, as I think I mentioned before I work for a council. They do this regular thing where they want to introduce a better "culture". We get a meeting on it, what peoples feedback were, obviously they concentrated on positive and ignored the negative feedback (or quickly went through it) one of which was micro management. The following fucking day the same person giving the meeting puts in a policy that any emails sent to the councillor have to have her (she's the Director for Environment) and her boss in. I usually email them because they ask me a question. Feels like spying and watching every move we do. 

 

We are also doing a tender for a £1bn contract (over the course of about 15 years). 4 guys on my service have a total of 80 years experience, and our sister team who we are tendering with have about 40 in their management team. Then our head of service has about 30. The Director has instead brought consultants in, fucking expensive ones, to write the bid instead of us. The Head of Service has said fuck it, let them blow the money and let them take the fall. We've still got 3.5 years til the contract runs out and we expect them to see consultant failure within 6. But I think it shows such a lack of trust that we know what we are doing. We still have 5 people on the team who wrote the last one and it's classed as one of the council's most successful contracts, our contractors Head of Service is going to Belgium to give a presentation to branches of the company from all over Europe to show a successful contract. Surely these people can't be that bad at it. 

[SuperBacon]

Oh they love a consultant don't they?

We had one in recently. A troubleshooter apparently. He was just a nasty nob who pissed off everyone at a time when the budget deficit is massive and services will have to be cut.

I've been around long enough to know that actually sometimes a consultant is needed, and money needs to be spend in order to find savings elsewhere but this guy was such a dick.

Also during one team meeting, during the 20 minute tea and coffee break he played the Dr Dre Superbowl halftime show because of reasons I can't remember and it genuinely was "We should be calling Snoop Dogg and Eminem the new Wordsworth and Keats" and I wanted to die of embarrassment.

So I feel your pain mate. Sounds shit and that person doesn't have a grasp on the situation. 

Also, we've just had the pre election rule email come round, so that's me steering clear of the political threads on here, as you just never know.

Solidarity local government comrade.

[Carbomb]

6 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

"Warning-Rant"

So, as I think I mentioned before I work for a council. They do this regular thing where they want to introduce a better "culture". We get a meeting on it, what peoples feedback were, obviously they concentrated on positive and ignored the negative feedback (or quickly went through it) one of which was micro management. The following fucking day the same person giving the meeting puts in a policy that any emails sent to the councillor have to have her (she's the Director for Environment) and her boss in. I usually email them because they ask me a question. Feels like spying and watching every move we do. 

 

We are also doing a tender for a £1bn contract (over the course of about 15 years). 4 guys on my service have a total of 80 years experience, and our sister team who we are tendering with have about 40 in their management team. Then our head of service has about 30. The Director has instead brought consultants in, fucking expensive ones, to write the bid instead of us. The Head of Service has said fuck it, let them blow the money and let them take the fall. We've still got 3.5 years til the contract runs out and we expect them to see consultant failure within 6. But I think it shows such a lack of trust that we know what we are doing. We still have 5 people on the team who wrote the last one and it's classed as one of the council's most successful contracts, our contractors Head of Service is going to Belgium to give a presentation to branches of the company from all over Europe to show a successful contract. Surely these people can't be that bad at it. 

Most certainly not. 

One, if not both, of two things:

1. It's the same old Tory free-market/privatisation dogma rearing its ugly head again.

2. Someone's getting a back margin for bringing in the private consultants.

[SuperBacon]

1 minute ago, Carbomb said:

. Someone's getting a back margin for bringing in the private consultants.

Forgot to add to my post, someone found out his day rate and we would drop the figure into conversations in a very shoehorned way, which REALLY pissed him off 😆

[westlondonmist]

12 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Most certainly not. 

One, if not both, of two things:

1. It's the same old Tory free-market/privatisation dogma rearing its ugly head again.

2. Someone's getting a back margin for bringing in the private consultants.

We're a labour council, I'm surprised they are being allowed to bring them in. The view at local level is usually Conservatives like consultants, Labour see them as a waste and trust council officers. 

12 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Forgot to add to my post, someone found out his day rate and we would drop the figure into conversations in a very shoehorned way, which REALLY pissed him off 😆

I found out how much a consultant is earning just from working on my service, 4 times my salary, and they do other projects so probably earn 6-8 times my salary. Honestly turns my stomach. A waste of public money.

[Carbomb]

That's insane. Paying somebody four times the amount they're already paying someone on their staff, essentially five times the expenditure, really does sound like someone's on the grift.

[westlondonmist]

17 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

That's insane. Paying somebody four times the amount they're already paying someone on their staff, essentially five times the expenditure, really does sound like someone's on the grift.

Some of them have been working for the council for a decade, they are essentially employees being paid out of a different budget and they don't have to declare them (they have to declare all staff on over 100k but they aren't "staff"). It's dodgy as fuck. It seems like people helping out their mates or possibly backhanders. 

[BomberPat]

just came out of possibly the worst all staff meeting I've ever experienced, and there have been some doozies. 

The meeting invite was sent out maybe 24 hours earlier, scheduled during a time that a significant number of academic staff had teaching commitments. 500+ people, so understandably mics and cameras were turned off, but there's so little trust or goodwill towards senior management that a lot of people in the Teams chat were seeing that as them being purposefully silenced.

They styled the meeting as a "consultation", but it was barely a meeting. Management took no questions, and just read off slides with no additional information or insight, so there was absolutely no reason for it to be a meeting other than being able to tick a box about comms. The last time they did this they said they would respond to all questions that had been raised in the Teams Q&A after the meeting, but they didn't, they just produced a generic FAQ document afterwards.

This is all against the backdrop of a disastrous and damaging restructure that is on track to see at least 130 people lose their jobs, so you'd think there would be some attempt made to try and keep people on-side, but apparently not.

[Sergio Mendacious]

@BomberPat I've been left with a mortal fear of all-hands meetings at short notice; my old company did it 4-5 times, and as a startup, they did all the fuck awful start up things: either only invited the people who were getting sacked, or invited only those who weren't being sacked; had IT close lock peoples' email accounts whilst they were in the meeting; deactivated key cards. The last two were just recorded video messages from the CEO.

Turned out okay for me in the end, we were purchased, and out of the high watermark staff of about 400, I was one of the 20 or so who were rolled into the new company.

We did get in a consultant at the old company, and honestly it was a fantastic experience, for me and some others at least. I thought he had some amazing ideas, and when they let him go and memory holed all of those ideas, he reached out to the rank-and-file to make sure we were all on his linkedin, and even got jobs for a couple of people when they were laid off. Great bloke.

[SuperBacon]

On 1/18/2024 at 12:43 PM, SuperBacon said:

Thought this might be useful for some here. (Obviously this is a provision from the current government and to be honest am not trying to make it political, as I need to keep it neutral so feel free to make wider points in the other threads)

The government are pushing out a new initiative called Skills For Life. https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/skills-for-life

This incorporates a whole range of training, qualifications, career change advice etc and two of the projects that I'm working on, are focusing on Multiply and  Skills Bootcamps (yes I hate that term as much as you, don't worry)

Multiply is a free Maths qualification for those aged 19 and over, who don't have at least a grade 4 (C in old old money) and courses are run at varying levels. 

There is a pre assessment to gauge your level (some courses are intensive in a week with an exam the following week, and others are more spread out) and you also have classes with the tutor online before the course starts. 

Open to businesses as well, who want to upskill their staff if they so wish. https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/training-choice/multiply

Skills Bootcamps are to develop skills in sectors/areas that have been identified as being in shortage and to develop skills employers are looking for.

https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/training-choice/skills-

They are designed WITH an employer in mind, so that at the end of it, there is at the very least a guaranteed interview, and hopefully a job (a power station down near me that we are working with are so lacking in entry level engineers that all who complete will be offered a job if they so wish)

They're open to people who are unemployed and employed (might be a small contribution from employer if you are) and most have no requirements (think heat pumps is the only way that does)

Wide range of sectors are already running (we are running two in digital; data analytics and marketing and three in green skills; retrofit, EV and heat pumps) and there are more to roll out as this is funded for quite a bit.

Every region will differ, but ones I've seen coming are construction, early years, education, health and social care, project management, hospitality and tourism and others I can't think of, and I'll be honest, I haven't seen a campaign so heavily employer led, which is great. In an ideal theory, someone takes the course, gets the qualification and gets a job with that employer. Most courses are designed to give at least a Level 3 qualification. 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-a-skills-bootcamp

I hope this is helpful, and if anyone wants any more info, please feel free to message me. Obviously I'll know a lot more about where I live and work, but I'm always happy to try and help in other areas, and sure I can.

I just wish they didn't use that name, as it sounds like a punishment.

Oh and for those on UC/benefits, we are just getting guidance from the DWP, but this shouldn't affect it.

In the past JCPs have been a bit wary about courses over a certain time period as while you're training you're not "fulfilling your work search requirements" but because this is very job/employment focused, it looks like it will be fine, but like I say, just waiting on clear guidance.

 

 

Just wanted to flag this up again as another wave of "bootcamps" have either been started or currently being procured.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-a-skills-bootcamp

Just to reiterate, the difference between these and other courses/programs that have come before is that all of these have been designed with employers so at the very least you will be offered an interview at the end of them (one engineering course down where we are have guaranteed jobs at the end of the course)

Also, these aren't only open to people who are unemployed, anyone can do them, but there could be a small cost to your employer depending on the course (CPD though, so most employers should be happy)

Also this is great for employers. If you have a skills shortage or want your staff to be trained in something particular, this is an opportunity to do that. I'd advise approaching your local county council and asking the question if you think of something not listed already.

Some of the construction qualifications on offer are great, and a level above what I've seen before as a free provision. 

Also wanted to flag up the NCS again and all the courses they have. https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/find-a-course

As always, anyone wants any more advice or whatnot, send us a private message.

Also, this looks like it's here to stay regardless of any change of direction in government. 

[Jesse]

Thanks for the heads up, my wife has been out of work since Christmas. Will take a look and see if there's anything there that might suit her for a career pivot away from shopfloor retail.