The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[poshrule_uk]

The Bet365 CEO has earned £469m this past year. Christ.

It is honestly disgusting how a small number of individuals are just hoarding all the wealth while so many people struggle to get by on the bare minimum. I wonder how many Customer Services advisors who man their phones are on minimum wage there.


Maybe I'm just bitter that I've contributed to that wage over the past year

I'm sure she never furloughed any staff and does donate a lot of money to charity so I don't think she is necessary all bad but I do agree there is no need for someone to have much concentration of wealth.

That money could make so many more peoples lives better and surely spreading the wealth would be better for the economy.

[Tomous]

That money could make so many more peoples lives better and surely spreading the wealth would be better for the economy.

This is why we need better policies from the Government and unfortunately the Tories are never giving to do something that hurts their rich buddies.

[<]:^D]

its my money

[Zilnad]

Would it be impolite to chase the agency for an update or is it safer to keep waiting?

Just got off a half hour call with my director about WFH and it was so boring. I just let the guy flap on and fill all of the uncomfortable silences himself as it was clear that, while the government are still advising to work from home, he had no leverage. I'd have gotten a kick out of it if I wasn't yawning so hard.

He was trying his hardest to sweeten me up with false platitudes while at the same time making thinly veiled threats like "I could've easily reduced your hours and gotten someone else in to do your work".

He was also vehemently repeating himself that the role will never allow for any kind of WFH and the reasons he gave were so piss poor, like "I always need someone to bounce ideas off of".

[Tomous]

The agency won't mind you chasing an update if you were expecting one by now.

[rinks]

The Bet365 CEO has earned was paid £469m this past year.

Fixed.

[Tomous]

Valid fix.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

It's telling that the number one (and often only) reason pro-office types give for us all to go back is for this ridiculous notion of 'bouncing ideas off each other', or 'riffing', whatever the strawberry float that is – to be fair I have actually jammed with several colleagues in my time, in the office, but something tells me that rocking out to sweet guitar improvs with each other isn't what the Chancellor had in mind.

If people are not 'bouncing ideas off each other' or utilising the now much improved tools we have available to us for communication, then they need to focus on getting better at that rather than trying to piss on everyone else's chips!

[Jenuall]

Would it be impolite to chase the agency for an update or is it safer to keep waiting?

Just got off a half hour call with my director about WFH and it was so boring. I just let the guy flap on and fill all of the uncomfortable silences himself as it was clear that, while the government are still advising to work from home, he had no leverage. I'd have gotten a kick out of it if I wasn't yawning so hard.

He was trying his hardest to sweeten me up with false platitudes while at the same time making thinly veiled threats like "I could've easily reduced your hours and gotten someone else in to do your work".

He was also vehemently repeating himself that the role will never allow for any kind of WFH and the reasons he gave were so piss poor, like "I always need someone to bounce ideas off of".

"off of"

[Trelliz]

Would it be impolite to chase the agency for an update or is it safer to keep waiting?

Just got off a half hour call with my director about WFH and it was so boring. I just let the guy flap on and fill all of the uncomfortable silences himself as it was clear that, while the government are still advising to work from home, he had no leverage. I'd have gotten a kick out of it if I wasn't yawning so hard.

He was trying his hardest to sweeten me up with false platitudes while at the same time making thinly veiled threats like "I could've easily reduced your hours and gotten someone else in to do your work".

He was also vehemently repeating himself that the role will never allow for any kind of WFH and the reasons he gave were so piss poor, like "I always need someone to bounce ideas off of".

Definitely ask for a follow-up, and as for bouncing ideas, surely that's dangerous in case any of them end up in front of the blocked fire exits?

[Oblomov Boblomov]

Is there ever a sentence/context where you can't just write 'off' instead of the plainly absurd 'off of'?

[Victor Mildew]

And then I got off of the bus ahhhhhhhhhhh

[Zilnad]

Finally finished the urgent work that needed doing over the last two days. Checked my diary to make sure I'm ready for Tuesday's workload.

"Oh, an email just came into my inbox, what's this?"

Another strawberry floating dump of last minute dispatches which will take hours to work through.

strawberry floating nope. Turned that gooseberry fool off and packed it all away until next week. strawberry float it, I'm strawberry floating done.


Agency just let me know that the interviewer is still waiting on a meeting with the company owner so there's still some hope left. Bit annoying but it might be an honest delay. Hopefully I can try and forget about it over the weekend and just rest.

[Victor Mildew]

Finally finished the urgent work that needed doing over the last two days. Checked my diary to make sure I'm ready for Tuesday's workload.

"Oh, an email just came into my inbox, what's this?"

Another strawberry floating dump of last minute dispatches which will take hours to work through.

strawberry floating nope. Turned that gooseberry fool off and packed it all away until next week. strawberry float it, I'm strawberry floating done.


Agency just let me know that the interviewer is still waiting on a meeting with the company owner so there's still some hope left. Bit annoying but it might be an honest delay. Hopefully I can try and forget about it over the weekend and just rest.

Think how sweet handing in that resignation letter is going to be.

Dear baby,

Welcome to dumpsville. Population: you.

[Qikz]

My week off has begun. strawberry float yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!

[Zilnad]

Finally finished the urgent work that needed doing over the last two days. Checked my diary to make sure I'm ready for Tuesday's workload.

"Oh, an email just came into my inbox, what's this?"

Another strawberry floating dump of last minute dispatches which will take hours to work through.

strawberry floating nope. Turned that gooseberry fool off and packed it all away until next week. strawberry float it, I'm strawberry floating done.


Agency just let me know that the interviewer is still waiting on a meeting with the company owner so there's still some hope left. Bit annoying but it might be an honest delay. Hopefully I can try and forget about it over the weekend and just rest.

Think how sweet handing in that resignation letter is going to be.

Dear baby,

Welcome to dumpsville. Population: you.

I dunno, it's the hope that kills you

[That's not a growth]

Bit of a ramble / rant

I think I need to change my approach to finding another job. I'm just not qualified/skilled enough to do what I currently do somewhere else - I keep getting given more and more responsibility, but with no training and minimal feedback as the idea of a specific 'fixed' rolls just isn't how they do things here - you're expected to adapt and do what is necessary to 'get the job done'. And this means we just don't do things in an organised way as everyone is juggling many responsibilities they haven't been trained on, and while this means I can find jobs that sound a bit like what I do, when I look at all the specifics they put in about how they expect the you to fulfil the role it's just not how we work. Also, it's been years since I've had a pay rise, and I've been lied to multiple times about it happening - meaning going for a job with less responsibility doesn't necessarily mean a pay cut.

To give it idea of the variety of what I'm currently involved in:

- Overseeing a developer who's creating a web app, planning out the the stages of what he needs to do and giving feedback on each aspect that he's created to make sure it's in line with the conversations I'm aware of from the customer
- Create a SLA document draft, which will form the agreement of how we will support of this customer, which will involve our app/system being installed in locations in a dozen countries
- Work closely with our marketing / content person on creating copy / the layout of a product info document our sales team to send to customers
- Go over a contract that another customer's legal department has sent us, and add notes to each section I think concerns me, so that the sales person knows what to go back to them about
- Analyse tender RFPs when ever we get one, figure out if it's within the scope of our department's expertise - and if so speak to suppliers, get quotes, and build a quote, proposal and assist with the response
- Oversee another app development project for a different customer, where I'm currently working on a plan and forecasting how long it will take to build a complex system that needs to dynamically create different versions of a website consisting of hundred of pages, for thousands of locations - and create new backend user interface so customers can easily update the content in these websites in a beginner friendly way. As I don't know how long this will take, I'm overseeing the developer create prototypes, and hoping we can figure out from those how long it'll take.
- Driving conversations with a technology partner, giving them feedback on an api they've built, and what else we want out of it
- Researching a ticketing system for our support team, and setting up test environments
- Oversee the rollout of supply / install of equipment for another customer in several countries
- Be part of the group that decides on, and give feedback on, our marketing material and marketing strategy (social media posts, mailers, videos, promotions,
- go back an forth with a customer on years of data to consolidate our accounts for a large project that got messy, and to plan next steps for both companies
- look over and give feedback on the proposals / quotes created by sales people to make sure they're not crap

And while not fully begun yet, discussions have started on these and might ramp up shortly:

- Assist with the planning of our new website's content / copy / layout / structure - which will be a few dozen pages, almost all of it brand new content, not just a rework
- More documents about products

I've found a customer service role that pays a little more than I'm on, and is for an organisation that looks like it's got good potential for me to grow within and has decent benefits.

Going to really work on my cv / cover letter, and make a load of question 'cheat sheet' type of docs. I come from a customer service background, and I still work a lot with customers, so I'm hoping I have a decent shot. I was just really hoping to move to something that involves some of the more interesting aspects of what I do now, but pays more so I can afford a house, but I guess I need to be more pragmatic.

[Zilnad]

Maybe I'm too cynical these days but that sounds to me like a tactic to keep you trapped. I worked somewhere once where it was very clear everyone was given just enough tasks to get work done on the whole but no single person was ever taught enough to know it all. It definitely felt like the intention was to make it difficult for staff to develop and leave. It's possible your management are just unorganised idiots but it does sound somewhat familiar.

In my current role, there's a lot of talk about how they want to "diversify" my role which is just even more reason for me to get out. I work in accounting, I don't want or need to be getting involved with logistics and warehouse stocking.

[That's not a growth]

I'd lean more towards unorganised - I'm part of the full process on these things, it's just a very hap hazard process.

[Drumstick]

So obscenely busy today and for the next few days.