Work

[Carbomb]

Stressed to fuck. It's that time of year to file company accounts, except that we now have this "Making Tax Digital" bullshit, which for some reason requires submissions four times a fucking year. Once a year is stressful enough.

[BomberPat]

A huge chunk of my job for the last few months, new to me this year, has been processing bursaries for teacher training students. Reaching out to those who are eligible, processing their applications, checking all the supporting documents, then capturing their bank details. After that, it should all be out of my hands, and that job should be over as someone else manages the monthly payment side of things.

Except it hasn't worked that way at all. Today is the first payment day, and I'm the only person involved in the whole process who works Fridays. And I haven't managed to do a single thing on today's To Do List, because I've spent the entire day responding to students complaining that they haven't been paid, or have been underpaid. 

In all but one case - maybe two - they're at fault, and very obviously so. They haven't been paid because they haven't provided all the supporting documents we very clearly asked for, they've been "underpaid" because they explicitly asked us to divert part of the bursary towards covering their tuition fees and now they don't understand why they haven't received the full amount, or in the case of one student who has emailed me six times today, as well as emailing my line manager, my department's shared inbox, and fuck knows who else (including one email address I had never seen before, and doesn't seem to have been used in five years, so no idea where he found it), he never provided his bank details when asked - how, in that case, he was expecting to be paid, is anyone's guess.

There's also one student who was sent an application form in March, never completed it, and never responded to any subsequent emails, who is now furious that they haven't received the bursary they never applied for. And another adamant that they filled in all the forms and submitted all the documents, when I know that what they actually did was not reply when I sent them the application form in August, then on the day that I sent out bank details forms to other students, she clearly heard from one of them that bank details were being collected, so emailed me complaining of not receiving the application form. I re-sent her the form, and she still hasn't completed it, but she did get the link to the bank details form from someone else, and filled that in, rather than the form actually sent to her, which also lists all the other documents we need to confirm their bursary.

On top of that, one whose bursary wasn't approved because they hadn't provided a specific supporting document, and when requested to send that, has resubmitted absolutely everything but the document we actually need. And another who is furious that he hasn't received the bursary, when I told him that for the specific course he was on, one of the requirements is proof of eligibility for student funding from Student Finance England - he complained, saying that he's an overseas student so isn't eligible for funding, and is now angry at me for not having received the funding he isn't eligible for.

 

I had so many other things I needed to get done today, and I've not touched any of them. All because I have to keep telling these students things that they have already been told multiple times, and things which could not be clearer on documents that they have (apart from those who have never submitted applications in the first place) signed to confirm that they had read them. And these people are going to be teaching the next generation!

[SuperBacon]

On 10/2/2025 at 7:41 PM, SuperBacon said:

Anyway, I've just presented a webinar to over 100 people on all of the types of courses and qualifications there are out there, from lower level, to how you can become a tutor yourself. 

On top of this, we've just surpassed the number 50 for people we've helped achieve an Emergency First Aid at Work qualification in the last 6 months.

That's 50 more people trained who can respond to an emergency situation in the county, and that is a huge achievement for us, them and more widely, the general public.

We also helped 12 people qualify for their Mental Health First Aid level 3 qualification last week as well.

Again, not often I love my job, but I'm hugely proud of that, and our team.

[deathrey]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

A huge chunk of my job for the last few months, new to me this year, has been processing bursaries for teacher training students. Reaching out to those who are eligible, processing their applications, checking all the supporting documents, then capturing their bank details. After that, it should all be out of my hands, and that job should be over as someone else manages the monthly payment side of things.

Except it hasn't worked that way at all. Today is the first payment day, and I'm the only person involved in the whole process who works Fridays. And I haven't managed to do a single thing on today's To Do List, because I've spent the entire day responding to students complaining that they haven't been paid, or have been underpaid. 

In all but one case - maybe two - they're at fault, and very obviously so. They haven't been paid because they haven't provided all the supporting documents we very clearly asked for, they've been "underpaid" because they explicitly asked us to divert part of the bursary towards covering their tuition fees and now they don't understand why they haven't received the full amount, or in the case of one student who has emailed me six times today, as well as emailing my line manager, my department's shared inbox, and fuck knows who else (including one email address I had never seen before, and doesn't seem to have been used in five years, so no idea where he found it), he never provided his bank details when asked - how, in that case, he was expecting to be paid, is anyone's guess.

There's also one student who was sent an application form in March, never completed it, and never responded to any subsequent emails, who is now furious that they haven't received the bursary they never applied for. And another adamant that they filled in all the forms and submitted all the documents, when I know that what they actually did was not reply when I sent them the application form in August, then on the day that I sent out bank details forms to other students, she clearly heard from one of them that bank details were being collected, so emailed me complaining of not receiving the application form. I re-sent her the form, and she still hasn't completed it, but she did get the link to the bank details form from someone else, and filled that in, rather than the form actually sent to her, which also lists all the other documents we need to confirm their bursary.

On top of that, one whose bursary wasn't approved because they hadn't provided a specific supporting document, and when requested to send that, has resubmitted absolutely everything but the document we actually need. And another who is furious that he hasn't received the bursary, when I told him that for the specific course he was on, one of the requirements is proof of eligibility for student funding from Student Finance England - he complained, saying that he's an overseas student so isn't eligible for funding, and is now angry at me for not having received the funding he isn't eligible for.

 

I had so many other things I needed to get done today, and I've not touched any of them. All because I have to keep telling these students things that they have already been told multiple times, and things which could not be clearer on documents that they have (apart from those who have never submitted applications in the first place) signed to confirm that they had read them. And these people are going to be teaching the next generation!

Ladies and gentleman, the teachers of tomorrow. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

When I worked in the theatre one of our casual members of staff was training to be a teacher (I'm told shes now qualified and employed), and one day when's he found out one of our other staff members was a twin she asked him how long he'd been a twin.

Apparently it wasnt totally appropriate that I answered before he could with 'since the triplet died'.

 

She also refused to eat cheese because it was 'dirty'. And nearly flashed 1 of her breasts at my now parents in law the night before the wedding.

[hallicks]

@BomberPat sorry if this sounds like I’m being a bellend but I’m genuinely curious - what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in and picked all that up? If it’s no longer considered part of your job would you have got into trouble, would there be recriminations for you? Or is it one of those things where there’s an expectation that you (or someone) just does it without being asked? 

[Tamura]

A couple of weeks away from being in my current job for two years, and I'm simply miserable. A year ago I was enthusiastic, one of the managers was really good and I was quite happy to pick up overtime shifts even doing six nights a week to cover for colleague holidays, these days I won't even consider working more than three nights a week. Since then that manager has taken early retirement due to ill health, and been replaced by a bullying ex-armed forces type who hasn't got a clue about how to manage people, since he thinks everyone will respond positively to his aggressive manner. I used to take pride in my work and take proactive srteps to ensure my department ran smoothly, but now I've been banned from even speaking to my day-shift colleague on the 90 minutes our shifts overlap, despite the fact that our conversations are strictly work related and more pertinently the same manager has no problem with other staff standing round doing nothing for 10 minutes while talking to former staff who are in shopping. I had COVID recently and have struggled a bit with fitness since then, they had me in the office for a chat and ended with the standard "is there any support you need from us?" question. I said yes, I don't want to work overtime on Thursdays any more, as it's the busiest night of the week and it was getting too much for me. My boss (not the ex-armed forces one, the other nights manager) turns round five minutes later and says if I don't work Thursdays there's no overtime available (which is bollocks, as there's a new starter on my department who works the nights I don't work), I respond with a formal letter saying I'm no longer available to work Thursdays under any circumstances but any other night is no problem, subject to availability. Right now we're into the Xmas busy period with the workload gradually increasing, and I'm seriously considering going to the doctors and asking them to give me a sicknote until 2026, I would have already done so except I'm waiting for the sale of my mum's flat to go through so I know I won't have any money worries.

[davertfnewman]

On 10/10/2025 at 7:19 PM, ReturnOfTheMack said:

And nearly flashed 1 of her breasts at my now parents in law the night before the wedding.

You've always got to end on a positive.

[Cod Eye]

Anyone here work in HR?

 

I've been the Operations Manager at my current employment for about 4 years now, but the director has suddenly thrown a bit of a curve ball.

Because I'm "...approachable, well liked and have great relationships with almost everyone..."(and because Ive basically done most of the lover/mid level HR anyway unofficially, he has decided to get rid of our external HR advisors, and wants me to take HR courses over the next 2 years and then bring it in house within my team. From a bit of research, it seems I would need to become CIPD accredited(I'd probably start at level 5 as I have experience, then do Level 7 immediately after).

For anyone in HR, what re your experiences doing these sorts of courses, and do you have any recommendations/tips of who to do the course through/make life easier while doing the course.

 

[BomberPat]

On 10/10/2025 at 7:19 PM, ReturnOfTheMack said:

one day when's he found out one of our other staff members was a twin she asked him how long he'd been a twin.

Not quite this bad, but it's amazing how often when people find out I'm a twin that they ask "what's it like?", and I have to point out that I don't really have anything else to compare it to!

On 10/10/2025 at 7:26 PM, hallicks said:

@BomberPat sorry if this sounds like I’m being a bellend but I’m genuinely curious - what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in and picked all that up? If it’s no longer considered part of your job would you have got into trouble, would there be recriminations for you? Or is it one of those things where there’s an expectation that you (or someone) just does it without being asked? 

It's in a complicated middle ground where a lot of it basically is still my responsibility, because despite coming after the cut-off point, they're still considered enquiries on the application process rather than payment, and payment is the bit I don't look after. I'm well supported enough in my role that I don't think I'd have got in any sort of trouble for not doing them, but at the same time, if I hadn't done them, there's no one else who could. So it's a matter of getting it done then, or it snowballing into a bigger issue later down the line.

It's a miserable situation - my role doesn't otherwise have anything to do with students, and there's a very strong argument that this whole process shouldn't sit in my team, but either with the academic department or with fees or admissions, but before I picked it up there were only two people in the entire university who even knew the process; one is my line manager, who has done it for years and basically wrote the entire process from start to finish, and the other was an academic who got voluntary severance before the start of the academic year. My boss doesn't work Fridays, so it falling on that day just meant I did it or nobody did. It's not sustainable, but that's the state of higher education in this country.

[westlondonmist]

Got an interview tomorrow and interview description threw me.

 

"Upon arrival you will be given 25 minutes to prepare a 5 minute (max) verbal answer to a scenario associated with the post. "

 

I've given a 10 minute presentation in an interview before but was told what it was to be on and given a couple of weeks to prepare. This job involves contract management, finance and health & safety. Which one are they asking about? ANy ideas how I should handle/ answer it? If it's health and safety I can likely give a crap answer but quote H&S law and seem clued up despite a crap answer. 

[organizedkaos]

I mean jobs are all different so I can't fully say whether what I'd do / prefer if I was the interviewer is relevant in your situation. But for what it's worth I'd say the point is you can't prepare for it, nor can you ask others what to do.  With a question like that my aim would be to see how the interviewee does when given something that is a suprise. I'd not be interested in necessarily a correct answer as much as what they put together on the spot, heck I'd be somewhat impressed if they acknowledged this was an area they had less knowledge in but had still tried to come up with something. My aim would deliberately be to see how you cope in an (artificial) situation with limited time and no preperation. I don't know the exact rules of your interview but I would be interested in

• Existing knowledge
• Ability to do deal with gaps in knowledge either through inference or research (the ability to quickly google a bunch of relevant information, process it and filter out bullshit is a skill). Here I'd absolutely check with the interviewer. "Can I use my phone to prepare for this" is a valid question and they could easily go either way on if that's OK.
• Confidently present new information in a way that doesn't look like you're reading something you just wrote

"Scenario" makes me assume it's as much testing your communication as knowledge, but that's a big assumption I'm making

If however the question is just testing your domain knowledge then either you know or it or you don't? You can prep obviously but also if the job requires you to know things off the top of your head and you don't know those things then you're not a good fit for the job or it's not a good fit for you? 

[Chest Rockwell]

Yeah I think it's unlikely to be the latter, and if it is there's not much you can do to prepare. So I'd assume for now they will be more interested in the way you think and the way you approach breaking down the scenario rather than your specific knowledge of the thing. 

[westlondonmist]

1 minute ago, organizedkaos said:

I mean jobs are all different so I can't fully say whether what I'd do / prefer if I was the interviewer is relevant in your situation. But for what it's worth I'd say the point is you can't prepare for it, nor can you ask others what to do.  With a question like that my aim would be to see how the interviewee does when given something that is a suprise. I'd not be interested in necessarily a correct answer as much as what they put together on the spot, heck I'd be somewhat impressed if they acknowledged this was an area they had less knowledge in but had still tried to come up with something. My aim would deliberately be to see how you cope in an (artificial) situation with limited time and no preperation. I don't know the exact rules of your interview but I would be interested in

• Existing knowledge
• Ability to do deal with gaps in knowledge either through inference or research (the ability to quickly google a bunch of relevant information, process it and filter out bullshit is a skill). Here I'd absolutely check with the interviewer. "Can I use my phone to prepare for this" is a valid question and they could easily go either way on if that's OK.
• Confidently present new information in a way that doesn't look like you're reading something you just wrote

"Scenario" makes me assume it's as much testing your communication as knowledge, but that's a big assumption I'm making

If however the question is just testing your domain knowledge then either you know or it or you don't? You can prep obviously but also if the job requires you to know things off the top of your head and you don't know those things then you're not a good fit for the job or it's not a good fit for you? 

Thank you. I'm mainly thinking it will be health and safety, it's a new role and taking on that as the existing manager has limited health and safety knowledge and an incident and compensation case has happened under their watch (not an attack on them, they were given insufficient resources). So they could give an example of an incident and I say what I would do, investigate x, what I would put in place. It could be contract management based and be what would you do if contractor was failing X,Y,Z KPIs (although I don't know why you would need 25 mins to prepare for that). 

It could turn out to be just a basic question, the director had trialled giving all questions out 24 hours in advance to interviewees. It didn't go well, several people gave very similar AI written answers and they felt many interviews were just scripted and nobody showed their personality. Someone had suggested giving an hours notice, so it could just be that. 

 

4 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Yeah I think it's unlikely to be the latter, and if it is there's not much you can do to prepare. So I'd assume for now they will be more interested in the way you think and the way you approach breaking down the scenario rather than your specific knowledge of the thing. 

When I did a 10 minute presentation on how to improve recycling in the borough (I didn't get the job, but I got another job in the same department the same week) I was told later it was basically seeing if I understood the issues of this specific borough and challenges it faces and looked into it. They didn't expect anything innovative or actual things they could move forward with. 

 

Honestly I'm shit at interviews though, but to the best of my knowledge I'm the only one interviewing. So I'm just trying to stay calm, as long as I do a good interview it's mine as there isn't anybody to better me. 

[SuperBacon]

36 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

Honestly I'm shit at interviews though, but to the best of my knowledge I'm the only one interviewing. So I'm just trying to stay calm, as long as I do a good interview it's mine as there isn't anybody to better me. 

I can't give you better advice than whats been offered, and as someone who helps people into employment for a living, this is VERY basic help but it genuinely changed my life.

I used to be the same, hate interviews and wasn't very good at them, I'd waffle and even though I've only ever had a few interviews I haven't got, I always felt like I'd just done enough until someone told me "Listen, at the end of the day, it's just a conversation with another human and nothing bad can happen" and that changed my thinking.

I stopped building it all up in my head as a huge event and putting pressure on myself, adopted the thinking, and understood I was interviewing them as well (hard when you're out of work and need a job I know) and genuinely started to enjoy interviews. I also felt myself being more me and giving better answers. 

It's the only piece of advice I can give you (and everyone else) no one is perfect at interviews and they aren't an exact science but nothing actually bad can happen. Unless you headbutt someone...always a sign it's gone wrong.

IIRC you're in local government(that scenario question is pure local government) so on that I'd give the answer that best sticks to the policies/values/procedures if you know of them vaguely.

Good luck brother!