Work

[BomberPat]

already disastrously unmotivated for work, amid yet another restructure that's costing several of my friends and colleagues their jobs and will do untold damage, and it just seems that every brand of idiot have all come out at once today.

I generally don't think there's a more frustrating complaint that saying that something "doesn't work". Especially when it's a system that I can log into and see exactly how much time you've spent on it, and what you did, and exactly how and when you just didn't do what you were instructed to do, fucked it, and gave up.

But actually there is one more irritating thing, and that's somebody else receiving the "it doesn't work" complaint, and passing it on without checking it. I got an email from an academic this morning (despite being the wrong department for this sort of thing, so another black mark there) panicking that a student had told her that they weren't able to upload their assignment to the submission link, and asking if we could check that the link was working. Again, wrong department, so I can't check that - but assuming it's her module's assignment, she can. And maybe look at how many other students have managed to submit their work perfectly fine, and think about how that might suggest that it's working absolutely fine and that it's just user error. I don't know how many students you have, but given that their deadline is at 12pm today, I imagine you might have heard from more than one person if the upload link "didn't work".

[Statto]

You have my sympathies @BomberPat.

When things are shit at work (and they're not great at the moment) I comfort myself least thinking I no longer have to deal with academics and/or students (particularly this time of year). 

[Ulf ist Gut]

Very much feel your pain @BomberPat - there's nothing worse than an academic who doesn't want to give a student bad news insisting there must be something you can do to help the poor student who's clearly not followed instructions/managed their time correctly/checked their submissions before and after uploading/is on the blag and leaving you as the admin to have to point to the regs and be the bad guy. This is then shortly followed by having to waste time dealing with the multiple sniffy follow up emails from both student and academic disputing what you've just told them despite it being absolutely crystal clear in the original email and a complete waste of your time in replying. Fucking hate exam season...  

[BomberPat]

for the most part I don't really have anything to do with students any more - my role is mostly around finance and governance now, and honestly, I'd take a full month of exam boards over that - but a huge chunk of my job lately seems to be other people expecting me to either do things they can easily do themselves, or to be the bearer of bad news, because they don't want to talk to people themselves.

Our expenses/pay claim process is fucked - people submit their claims to my team, we then upload them to the Payroll department's Sharepoint site. There is absolutely no reason for us to be in the middle of this, other than that Payroll don't talk to anyone. So if an expense claim gets rejected for being out of policy, or not filled in correctly, or anything like that, Payroll contact me rather than the person who filled it in, who I then need to forward it on to. Completely pointless.

[westlondonmist]

24 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

for the most part I don't really have anything to do with students any more - my role is mostly around finance and governance now, and honestly, I'd take a full month of exam boards over that - but a huge chunk of my job lately seems to be other people expecting me to either do things they can easily do themselves, or to be the bearer of bad news, because they don't want to talk to people themselves.

Our expenses/pay claim process is fucked - people submit their claims to my team, we then upload them to the Payroll department's Sharepoint site. There is absolutely no reason for us to be in the middle of this, other than that Payroll don't talk to anyone. So if an expense claim gets rejected for being out of policy, or not filled in correctly, or anything like that, Payroll contact me rather than the person who filled it in, who I then need to forward it on to. Completely pointless.

Wherever I have worked you could never go straight to payroll (bar one small agency) and plenty of others have the same issue. Sadly it's the norm now, which is awful. I imagine at some point it started to become more common and then every payroll manager realised they could get away with putting a middle man in place who deals with people frustrated their pay or expenses were wrong. I somewhat respect them for finding a way to do that and get away with it as an industry standard. 

Edited May 8 by westlondonmist

[Scratch]

Apart from a blip about 7 years ago, I’ve enjoyed my last 24 years working as a developer for a small software company immensely. I was working with my mates, basically.

A month after the pandemic kicked in, I was about to reach the age of 40 and had a wobble. My 2 bosses were about 10 years older than me and I worried what would happen to the business should they decide to retire.

I spoke with the one who created the company and he openly said he wanted out after 5 years, and that I was key to him being able to retire. He basically told me he wanted me to take over running the company and he would become a silent partner. Great news!

Two-and-half years ago, he called me into the office (we were all still home working) and told me our biggest client would be buying us out, but nothing would change. They wanted to keep as at arm’s length and they liked how we were small and profitable and didn’t want to change that. He said it accelerated his plans for retirement and so I’d be in his seat sooner than we’d planned.

As the months went on, pretty much every promise got broken. We all moved over to contracts with our new parent company, and every sense of small company disappeared. We’re now fully integrated and are just a department now, everything that has made us “us” had pretty much gone.

As part of the buy out, I was made Associate Director of my company, with an eye to replace my boss in two years after the sale, and I was working towards that until a month before he went. He suddenly announced that all plans were off and if I wanted to move upwards, I should look elsewhere. He left, and that was that.

The parent company immediately bought in a whole new digital arm and new SLT structure. Long story short, I was offered a new role, a very senior role, in the parent company given their new strategic objectives and I started last week. I was excited.

The thing is, I’m now shit-scared and have had what I can only describe as the first bout of anxiety I’ve ever had. I’m beyond lucky to have never suffered from any mental health issues, and so this has hit me rather hard and don’t really know what to do.

Expectations are high, I’ve built up a good name for myself in the parent company these past two years, but I never realised how hard I’d find it pressing the reset button after 24 years and having to strategise and start from scratch, with a new team of people I don’t know.

These are absolutely first world problems and all that, and I can only apologise for whining at the first sense of failure, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much better I feel already for just putting this down in words. I’m hoping this week is better than last, though.

Edited May 20 by Scratch

[DavidB6937]

6 minutes ago, Scratch said:

These are absolutely first world problems and all that, and I can only apologise for whining at the first sense of failure, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much better I feel already for just putting this down in words. I’m hoping this week is better than last, though.

First piece of advice - never minimise your problems. They're important to you and if they're causing you anxiety and stress then they're absolutely worth looking at and trying to deal with. So no "first world problems" or anything. Your feelings are valid.

It sounds like you're exceptional at your job and you just need time to find your footing in the new situation and show yourself that you can do it now too. That's a tough thing because it obviously takes time, and there's a lot of pressure there - most of it probably coming from you to prove yourself.

Easier said than done but just try to look back at what you've said. How long you've been there. How much respect you have from others that clearly believed in you. There are reasons for that. Keep doing what you've been doing and I have absolutely no doubt you'll be as successful as you've been before.

One key thing is to try and focus on what you CAN do. All this outside business bullshit and decisions etc is not under your control. What you can do is turn up and do what you're capable of doing and at least know you're giving it your absolute best.

We're all allowed a wobble and anxiety is a horrible thing. I hope given time you'll settle more and have far less to worry about. Hang in there.

[SuperBacon]

Good luck @Scratch and my sage advice would be this, and has been my motto for the last 20 years of my career. 

Just wing it innit?

But no seriously best of luck, and maybe take on board some of the L&D they provide if they do. That might help?

[Scratch]

Thanks guys, some genuinely sound advice there, I really appreciate that. That’s certainly taken the edge off for sure, so thank you.

[King Coconut]

1 hour ago, Scratch said:

These are absolutely first world problems and all that, and I can only apologise for whining at the first sense of failure, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much better I feel already for just putting this down in words. I’m hoping this week is better than last, though.

I have to agree with DavidNUMBERS. Don't minimise your anxiety. A few years ago I moved from senior management at a software company to an American pharma company thinking my skillset would fit in nicely. It started with mild anxiety at strange times and ended with a full-blown breakdown and over 2 years on the sick, mainly because I didn't recognise (accept?) what was happening to me. These days I'm a postman who still has to pop a pill in the morning to stop me going wobbly. I'm happier than I've ever been but, if I could, I'd go back and get a therapist from the time I changed jobs. You don't have to wait until it gets worse.

[Scratch]

27 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

I have to agree with DavidNUMBERS. Don't minimise your anxiety. A few years ago I moved from senior management at a software company to an American pharma company thinking my skillset would fit in nicely. It started with mild anxiety at strange times and ended with a full-blown breakdown and over 2 years on the sick, mainly because I didn't recognise (accept?) what was happening to me. These days I'm a postman who still has to pop a pill in the morning to stop me going wobbly. I'm happier than I've ever been but, if I could, I'd go back and get a therapist from the time I changed jobs. You don't have to wait until it gets worse.

Thank you, and glad to hear you're happy ❣️

[Chris B]

Just been made redundant this week. I've been working for a small medical content agency, which had been going well - unfortunately, with the state of the economy, loads of budgets have been cut, so my role was one of the redundancies. I've already had a couple of phone interviews and through to the second round on one already, so I'm moving as quickly as possible.

It's not my first time on this rodeo, so I'm taking it in my stride. Some of my colleagues who are in the same boat are new to it all though. I posted this on LinkedIn, as I don't hear this kind of thing often. (And it's LinkedIn, hence the plug at the end).

 

Four things to know about redundancies.

A lot of people are being made redundant at the moment, especially in marketing (always an early victim of restricted budgets). If you've never been made redundant before, here's some stuff you really should know.

1. It's not your fault.
Redundancies are generally group things and they often aren't small numbers. Each time I've been made redundant, almost the whole team was.

2. Don't worry about what to tell people in interviews.
You weren't fired. Employers and recruiters know that priorities change, budgets change and needs change. Nobody's judging you because of redundancies - so don't worry about just telling the truth.

3. You've gained new skills.
Let's face it, marketing is never the same job over two days, let alone however long you were in the role. You'll have done new stuff, gained new skills, managed new responsibilities. You are now more employable than you were previously.

4. It's all about momentum.
Add these new skills and experiences to your CV. Maybe shorten some of the older stuff. Write new covering letters (a base one that you can adapt easily is usually useful) and create a new portfolio if you can. And get out there.

It's natural to lick your wounds for a bit. You may feel some shame and guilt, but you really shouldn't. And, trust me, after 2008, 2016 and other times the market has struggled, EVERYONE understands.

You rock. Believe that. Don't forget it. And move forward.

In other news, you can probably guess why I'm writing this, so if you've read this far and think 'gosh, this guy can capture and keep my interest pretty well', then just think what I can do for your customers or clients. Drop me a line and let's chat.