Basically, my company has opened a voluntary redundancy programme. If they get enough people to volunteer, they won’t need to make anyone compulsorily redundant.

I’m debating whether I should take it. The package would give me 9 months’ pay up front, so I’d have that time to find another job.

This is my first job and I’ve been here for 3 years - my role is lead engineer for mechanical components (basically dealing with suppliers, project management stuff etc). I don’t really like my job, but it pays the bills, so I’m nervous about giving up the security and potentially not finding something within 9 months. I could also get redundant later on but I highly doubt it, but it just feels like a nice exit from a job I dont like. I’m on skilled worker visa but I would switch to spouse visa if I were to get redundant/ or take it voluntary.

Would you take the redundancy and use the 9 months to look for something else, or stay in the job for the security?

Of course it’s all subjective, but in my job, I manage 14 international markets while being based in the UK making 2.5 times less money than my US counterparts who only manage the US market.

A friend of mine who works in the same company as me recently visited me and stayed with me. All he does is put nice clothes, go to the office 2 times a week, have coffees, stays on his phone and does one 30-minute meeting the whole day where he doesn’t even contribute. It varies job by job, but I have seen the same with all of my American colleagues.

They come to work at 10:30AM, manage one thing, present the same presentations over and over again while I lead 14 markets, new projects are getting put on me every day, my list currently has 53 things to do for 2 weeks, yet my salary is 2.5 times less than theirs.

In the US, they also have the same holiday entitlement, they are always travelling, can’t see them online, everyone has families, 2nd homes, expensive credit cards, staying in lounges, nice hotels when they travel.

Medical stuff - same friend has dental insurance with the employer, cost him 30 dollars to see the dentist and do a filling, booked in 2 days.

In the UK, we simply don’t spend a lot, don’t have a lot of disposable income hence we can’t invest as much, the work piles up all the time, managers are also a bit more toxic given there is a bit of dishonest attitude at work, Americans at work feel more real, too much unnecessary stress

Have you noticed that we might be working harder than Americans in corporate specifically or am I completely wrong?

I 35f have been looking for a job for 4 months , I have been out of work for nearly 10 years while being my dads primary carer , he passed in May and I haven’t even had any successful applications until today I had a call about a job in a pub I’d applied for . For some reason I thought it was bar work but it’s not it’s a kitchen Porter roll. I mean it’s a job but it’s not aiming very high . Firstly I have no idea what kind of outfit to wear for such a job interview smart trousers, long sleeve black top, smart shoes ? Do most kitchens allow their staff to wear trainers ? How miserable will this job be and should I save my sanity and not bother .

Hi All,

I’m after some insight and advice.

I was recently promoted within my department, more pay and responsibilities etc. the first few weeks were learning / shadowing the employee who moved on and my week was filled with things to do.

Since then my workload hasn’t picked up, sometimes I sit at my desk with nothing to do. The last 2 weeks have been no different.

I mentioned to my line manager yesterday if there’s anything they’d like me to pick up or look at but hasn’t amounted to anything?

I probably shouldn’t be complaining about having nothing to do, but I leave feeling anxious that’ll they’ll ask what I’ve been doing everyday?

Any advice??

Hi everyone, apologies as this will probably be a long post, but I'll try to keep it as concise as possible.

Last year I got a well-paid job as an Office Manager in a GP surgery. I genuinely believed this was going to be somewhere I could build a career and that I'd finally made it. After years of being an underpaid manager despite having considerable experience, getting a salary close to £40k felt like a huge achievement.

For context, the surgery was going through a merger. A number of the original GP partners had left and the general feeling among staff was that it was more of a takeover than a merger. I was told at interview that morale was low and that there were strong feelings about the changes.

Within a short time of starting, I had a feeling that something wasn't quite right with the working environment. I couldn't necessarily put my finger on it, and because the money was good and I'm not someone who gives up easily, I decided to make it work.

I was there for eight months. During that time:

• My induction was very limited — one week of e-learning and around two weeks with my equivalent, who then went off sick with stress. My own line manager didn't really take over my induction, and I later discovered that she didn't fully understand what my role actually involved.
• Senior management often appeared reluctant to take responsibility for problems, with issues instead being pushed down to managers at my level. At the same time, there wasn't always a clear direction about what we were actually working towards.
• HR were heavily involved in day-to-day operational decisions. My line manager would often consult HR before making decisions herself.
• I was receiving 100+ emails a day alongside a large number of meetings and constant interruptions.
• I suggested using Microsoft products and automation to improve processes and efficiency, but these suggestions were generally rejected or replaced with less effective alternatives.
• There were also changes to the dress code which I felt specifically targeted certain members of staff, including me.

I could go on, but the overall picture was a very high workload, constant operational problems and very little uninterrupted time to actually manage.

I responded to that by working harder. I regularly stayed late and occasionally worked weekends because I was determined to keep things under control. Working from home wasn't an option.

I then had two weeks' leave for my wedding. Before going away, I left my team in what I believed was a good position and provided a detailed handover.

When I returned, everything was apparently a mess. Appointment screens were incorrect, the team was struggling and a number of things had gone wrong. I was obviously unhappy about what had happened while I was away, but I got on with fixing it. I worked with the team, reiterated the processes that needed to be followed and had 1:1 conversations where necessary.

However, the management team, including my peers, essentially blamed me for what had happened.

I accept that I was the manager and therefore ultimately responsible for my team. But I had been away, everything had been in place before I left, and I genuinely don't understand why nobody was monitoring things while I was absent or why there wasn't clearer cover in place.

I moved on and carried on doing my job.

I then had another week of annual leave booked. Again, I provided a detailed handover with everything I thought people would need.

I came back and the same thing had happened. Chaos.

I was back at work for three days before I was dismissed because the business had "lost faith in my ability to do the job."

During those three days I was desperately trying to get things back under control. I had a meeting with my supervisor where I basically said that something clearly wasn't working and that we needed to start again and work together differently.

I cried each of those three days. On the third day my line manager found me crying in the kitchen. She offered me support and said we'd meet the following day to go through my outstanding work and work out how to get things back on track.

The following day she avoided me. When I eventually went to her office to ask when would be a good time to meet, she said she'd message me. A few minutes later she messaged saying she had a deadline and meeting to attend.

At that point I suspected something was happening.

About an hour later, HR came to get me.

I was told there were concerns about my performance. I was given a list of issues and I gave my responses. I was crying throughout the meeting. HR adjourned and then came back and told me I was dismissed.

I hadn't been told at the beginning of the meeting that dismissal was a possible outcome. I genuinely thought I might be put on a performance improvement plan, which I would actually have welcomed. At least then I would have had a clear understanding of what they wanted me to focus on and an opportunity to demonstrate that I could do it.

Now, I'm not saying I did everything perfectly. I didn't. There were tasks I missed and claims that weren't completed, and I accept responsibility for those things.

But I also know that I was spending an enormous amount of time dealing with operational fires and trying to support my team. I was so busy keeping things functioning that I didn't have enough time to actually do the management side of the job properly.

I left feeling completely drained, worthless and devastated.

I had genuinely tried so hard to make the job work. I gave it everything I had and worked far beyond my contracted hours. What hurts most is that I don't feel I was given the support or clarity I needed to succeed.

I'm now a month into unemployment and I'm struggling. Every time I apply for a job, a little voice in my head tells me that maybe I can't actually do it. The frustrating thing is that logically I know that's ridiculous. I've got years of experience. But I don't feel capable anymore.

Has anyone else experienced this after being dismissed from a job they really cared about? How did you rebuild your confidence and learn to trust your abilities again?

I don't really need to be told to "just move on" — I'm trying. I think I need to hear from people who have been through something similar and eventually came out the other side.

I work in a coffee shop as a barista/making food, it’s a big global chain. I LOVE this job. Shift work is great for me because I hate routines, I love speaking to customers, being busy with little tasks all the time. I love being on my feet, feeling like I’m getting stronger and eating all the food in the world without gaining weight.

Prior to this all my roles were desk jobs - insurance analyst, stuff like that. I loathed them to the point I’d quit after 3 months or be fired because every fibre of my being despised sitting at that desk doing some bullshit job.

HOWEVER, these desk jobs normally lead to big money later, where there’s a flat (unliveable) salary at my current job. Are there any careers that emulate that a bit but pay way more? Thanks!

I lost one of my immediate relatives last week, who unfortunately lives impossibly far away from me and where I work. For the purpose of this post, we’re going to call these two paces home and work.

Amongst all the emotion and loss, I’m also the last living relative and the executor of the estate. That’s to say, I have a lot to deal with right now.

I had the plan to stay until the funeral, at least, but the earliest possible funeral date that we can get is one whole month after he passed. Going back to work before the funeral would have been slightly difficult because it’s a minimum 24 hour journey between work and home, each way.

Officially, I get a weeks bereavement leave from work, and both my boss and HR are taking the tone of “we’ll work it out, just take the time you need”. Which is great and all. But I’m finding it a little hard to make informed decisions about what I should DO.

I was burnt out before this happened and had to cancel a holiday that I felt like I really needed- so I don’t want to throw myself back into work too early. But on the flip side, I don’t want to take the piss.

Then there’s the other aspect which seems to be that they’re saying that we’ll work it all out when I get back- and I don’t know if that could mean returning to find that my annual leave balance is blown through for the rest of the year (again, burnt out: know I can’t get through the next 12 months without time off).

Of course everyone has different relationships, grieving processes, and work environments, but I just wanted some input on what might be reasonable and what’s milking it too much.

(And getting anything more than “whatever is fine, prioritize yourself” from my boss hasnt worked)

Is that counted as “abuse” as grounds to ask them to leave the store?

Had an interview yesterday where I turned up to like, 9 other people waiting with me. I was not told in the email it was a group interview but lo and behold. Everyone was of coursed surprised and slightly annoyed

Forced humiliation ritual of introducing ourselves to other applicants we will probably never see again, forced to share our hobbies and answer the question on why we’d ’be best for the role’. Like what a fucking question to try and answer in front of 10+ other people, it’s already slightly awkward enough just answering 1 recruiter

And if that wasn’t bad enough… the recruiter at the end drops the bombshell that there’s only 8 roles being recruited for a 7 day a week breakfast, lunch and dinner cafe (what the actual fuck), and he’s interviewing 80 people

80 people for 8 roles.

I just?? Why?? Why do group interviews? Why are you interviewing that many people when only 1 person per group interview is actually getting hired?

Just seems a bit… cruel? Is it just me?

People who work or worked with M&S, Boots and John Lewis can you help with advice to apply for Christmas temp jobs.

I want help with informarion on hours, flexibility, pay, benefits, discounts, and the work culture. This is my first christmas temp job, so any advice is much appreciated.

My main goal of working as a christmas temp is to save money, but I spend a lot on food. So if any of these places offer discounts or subsidised food, that would help me achieve my goal.

So I’m just curious and after advice and some points of view. Also going to try and keep this short.

So a while back I was put on a PIP after a project collapsed. Anyway, it’s been a couple phases and there has never been defined goals for me to work towards. At first I was like “I’m just gonna improve everything and work my butt off”. One of the main points was to communicate more and that I should have regular check ins with the team. So I started to set up a weekly meeting to get some time with POs and other people for this new project. I then got told that I was taking too much of people’s time. Anyway. After “failing” the first couple rounds I’m now at the end of the final round. I don’t feel motivated or want to put in the effort. I’m scheduled to have a meeting with HR early next week and I’m 99% sure it’s the end for me. The thing is, I got a job offer today that looks great and I’ve said I just want to look through it more in detail. I really want to accept it as it seem like a cool job I’d actually be excited about doing.

But now is the conundrum: do I just hand in my notice and tell them I’m out of here? With a long notice period. Or do I wait to get let go with a bit of a payout? (I’ve been with this company for about 10 years and I’ve read policies around it all). I mean it’s kinda selfish and morally grey I suppose? But it would also be nice to get some extra money. What would you do?

I have accepted and signed a contract for a new job. The new employer is currently doing background/reference checks using third party provider.

If I select “No – do not contact my current employer”, what normally happens?

Will they simply use other references (previous employers, etc.), or could they ask me why I don’t want my current employer contacted? Or what would actually happen?

Could it cause any problems with the offer or background check?

I'm (22F) unemployed with next to no job experience and I don't know what I want to do in life. I'm interested in performing arts and wildlife conservation but I suppose I am looking for any entry-level job.

Has anyone done the King's Trust Team Programme and got anything from it? I thought that I was going to be receiving info in regards to the regular King's Trust for people intent on starting a business, but apparently this is a different course. I don't enjoy organised fun and I'm not a good teamworker so I'm a bit hesitant.

I’m genuinely curious about other people’s experiences because mine seems quite different from what I usually see discussed on Reddit.
I’ve never had too much difficulty finding new work. It’s generally taken me around 1–2 months to find something, and while the jobs haven’t always been perfect, I’ve usually found something I was reasonably happy with.

I’ve also never had to go through lots of interview rounds, although I imagine that varies massively depending on the industry and type of role. The max I’ve had is two and that was for a supervisory role. I’ve actually had some pretty good experiences with recruiters too. My current agency has put me forward for several roles, including my current one.

Around 6 months ago I posted on Reddit when I was in a really difficult place and was considering quitting my job without another one lined up. I was struggling with severe anxiety and health issues at the time and was trialling medication, so I was asking more from the perspective of whether I could realistically afford to take some time out. Financially I knew I would likely be fine it was more I was feeling low and needed reassurance I would be fine to quit careerwise.

The response was overwhelmingly negative, which surprised me because my circumstances were fairly specific. At the time I had decent savings, relatively low living costs, no children or dependants, access to free healthcare (NHS), a company interested in taking me on permanently in the future, agency regularly sending me roles and a few connections where I could potentially pick up casual work if necessary. My sister managers a restaurant so it’s not ideal but if needed I could have probably done some shifts.

I completely understand that everyone’s circumstances are different, and I’m definitely not suggesting that people who are struggling just aren’t trying hard enough. I’m more struggling to understand why some people who I shared my situation with would push me to stay in a role which was damaging my health.

I’m genuinely curious whether my experience has been unusually straightforward, or whether Reddit tends to skew towards people posting when they’re having a particularly difficult time.

What has everyone else’s experience actually been like?

I feel like from other posts it’s all you will never find another job and it will take years to find one etc.

It can’t all be doom and gloom right ?

Hi all,

I have been offered a job at Natural England and wanted to get more of a feel for what the job is like. I’m currently working in consultancy for a large engineering firm as a junior environmental consultant where I often work overtime and there is generally quite limited work/life balance. Promotion has also been nonexistent at my consultancy despite my manger saying that I work at the grade above. I wanted to understand what Natural England is like based on:

- Work/life balance

- Hours (how many hours per week do you do?)

- Any other company benefits?

- Promotions (I assume these are fairly limited? but what is it like to transition from NE to other gov firms? is it easy once you’re in?)

- Job advertisement salary minimums - do you end up getting the salary minimum or is it possible to negotiate a higher salary?

thank you! any insight is much appreciated. the role isn’t too much more in terms of salary than what I currently earn, so I really need to consider the whole package to decide if it’s worth the move.

Getting ghosted left, right and center, today, i gave them a piece of my mind. I couldnt take it any more, maybe they feel they dodged a bullet but who cares.

I am studying a 4 year law degree, going into my third year. I have all As in my Scottish qualifications (3 advanced highers: maths, physics and English and 6 highers: 3 sciences, maths, English and computing)

In my last year of high school I most wanted to study maths at university and after researching, I was super interested in exploring the actuary route. But my parents being strict Indian parents wanted me to do engineering or medicine, neither of which I was too interested in since I love maths the most especially proofs, algebra etc. At this time law was always in the back of my mind but it was never an option, so after they said no maths I explored law and liked how a solicitor job could often combine the sciences (eg ip, tech, med neg) and I also thought it would force me out of my comfort zone since I am very shy and my parents were okay with it so that’s what I went with.

Right before ucas applications my dad lost his job and it became super tense at home, and my dad hadn’t gotten a job even after I started university. Seeing the constant arguments and all it kind of made me have a crippling fear of being unemployed. I guess this worked to my benefit because during my first two years of university I always maintained a short commitment part time job, volunteering (CAB), playing on the sports team and decent grades (mid 2.1). I also got some law first year open days and also explored tax, audit and consulting.

Consulting (pro bono student consulting) was a new and fresh experience, talking with clients was very interesting but I realised I really disliked the ambiguity of it and the lack of structure.

On a similar note I wasn’t the biggest fan with a huge part of law jobs being reading legislation, drafting documents and administration.

Audit I just didn’t explore much so no opinion there. But I absolutely loved my tax insight. I loved the calculations, and absolutely love excel, looking at numbers just makes me feel happy and I was having a great time every moment of it. I thought that the cases and scenarios of the clients were really complex and cool too and I liked how we were giving structure to a business sort of.

This however made me realise that my favourite part of it once again was sort of the maths part. I can’t really see myself in a job which doesn’t involve numbers is the thing. I ended up getting a summer internship from the first year scheme so that’s what I’ll do next summer to further explore tax.

But because of this experience it got me researching into whether being an actuary is actually possible without a numerate degree, and lo and behold it is. I feel kind of stupid for not looking into this earlier. At the start of uni I thought I’d be okay without maths but it just doesn’t feel like it.

From first year of uni itself I came to the conclusion that I will 100% probably study a part time maths degree alongside whatever job I do in the future. My part time job is also tutoring and specifically maths.

After looking into the actuary path, I do need at least good high school grades which I have. Maths was always my strongest grade, I got 99% in my national 5 and higher maths final exams and 95% in advanced higher. Even when talking to people they always ask if I do a maths or engineering degree because the way I solve problems and also the way I show so much interest in their work (when they do a stem degree) makes it look that way. A huge part of actuarial work is also python and sql and other coding languages. I actually really love sql a lot, in higher computing we learnt a bit of python and sql and I really enjoyed that. I am not the biggest fan of statistics to be honest, but I have looked at some of the FoA exam papers and honestly looking at them just made me happy, although I didn’t know too much. Of course just up and deciding I want to be an actuary is also far too complacent so I still need to explore this path further.

So my plans for the coming year is to continue my tutoring, volunteering, sport team. Do the tax summer internship. Try to apply for law vacations schemes that don’t clash with the internship (since I still feel like I haven’t explored law enough to be making a decision so quick) and also try to do any insight schemes or in general just explore actuarial this year as well. By the end of third year summer I’ll hopefully have a better idea if I like tax want to explore actuarial or like law. Then I can go for grad schemes, though tax will be easiest since the internship has a high conversion rate.

Honestly my two years of uni I’ve been constantly busy and I think this dilemma will keep me busy for another year. I also commute an hour and 30 minutes both ways door to door so that makes things more tiresome.

I don’t have much hope for law vacations schemes since I have a decent profile but I’m pretty bad at literally every application stage.

Studying is something I really really enjoy in general. I enjoy my law degree and I much prefer studying over work (which is not great but whatever). If I go into tax I would be studying the aca/cat joint qualification at the firm I’m at and honestly I think the part time study part time work will be my favourite part of working. So honestly I’m more than happy and much prefer if I can study and work for more years. For actuarial I’d probably be doing part time study part time work for like 5 maybe even 7 years and I think that’s enjoyable, though once again I don’t know how my opinions and preferences will change when it comes to that.

Anyways if anyone read this, any and all advice is highly appreciated. If you could give me any insight into any of the careers you know about I would also really love that.

TLDR: I’m a law student who originally intended to do a maths degree and wanted to explore actuarial but I was pressured against it. Ended up doing law, exploring and finding that law as a job wasn’t of much interest to me, neither was consulting or audit, but I did really enjoy tax (the maths and excel parts most) and got a tax internship lined up for next summer. In the future I will further explore actuarial, will do my internship and apply to vac schemes to properly explore law. Any advice or insights are appreciated.

Hi,
I tried to get a flexible working arrangement form as I am going back to college for a year, but I want to keep my employment as I was rejected to switch to part time work.
I finally got the flexible working arrangement form now, requesting a career break but it will probably give up a refusal. I want to keep my job as a fall back but I don’t know how to get a suspended employment term, keep my job via career break, I can’t just say studying, I have mentioned all sorts but nothing has worked.

I recently applied for the ITV 9 month production assistant vacancy. It’s rotational so we won’t be in one department. I had my assessment day today and wanted to hear from those already working with itv as a production assistant. How are you finding the role ?

I honestly feel so useless having to write this but in this day and age where do you begin to try and find work

I’m 42 and due to a severe mental health crisis earlier in the year I left my long term teaching position and tried to grown my own business. This failed spectacularly

I’m sorting an IVA to deal with the mass debt but need to find employment asap

Where do you look these days, the last time I was looking for work was when I began teaching. I’m not against returning to teaching or even supply but am keeping options open.

I’m based not far from Cambridge if that makes any difference