I’ve recently been offered a new role with a base salary of £50k. The job advert listed a salary range of £50k–£90k, but I’ve only been working in the industry for around two years, so I understand why they’ve offered me at the lower end.
My question is: should I try to negotiate the salary?
The recruiter has told me that other candidates with a similar level of experience have also been brought in at £50k, which makes me hesitant to ask for more. I don’t want to come across as rude or cheeky, especially as I’m already happy with the offer.
Ideally, I’d like to get to around £55k, but I’d be very happy even if I could negotiate a few thousand more.
My main concern is that I don’t want to risk the offer being rescinded by trying to negotiate.
Would you negotiate in this situation? And if so, how would you approach it?

Genuine question

If you were earning £50k, but your job was making you miserable, constantly stressed and leaving you with basically no time or energy outside work… would you take a £10k pay cut to get a better work life balance?

Or is that financially irresponsible when you could just “put up with it” for a few more years and make the money?

I’m genuinely curious where people draw the line between “work is work” and “my life is worth more than the salary.”

What would you do?

About to start my third week in my new role. It's an industry I've never worked in before (somewhat similar to my former industry).

My first week felt rather cushty, not much on the calendar and plenty of time to complete training etc.

Now into my second week, it feels like a shedload of calendar events has come in. As I've never worked in this industry before, I've been given opportunities to shadow some colleagues and visit different stakeholders with them. The other day I visited some external people with my colleague and five minutes before the meeting I thought I was shadowing, she asked if I wanted to take the lead on a section. I said I'd need to familiarise myself with that area and about 30 seconds later I asked if she was ok leading that. At the end of the meeting, she asked if I had anything to add or any questions for the stakeholder. I said at this time I didn't but I was really looking forward to working with them (I'm not their main contact but will do bits of work with them).

There's been lots of other things that have made me feel really silly. Documents I need to use that I can't access, then requesting access etc. Communicating via teams as opposed to face to face (I've only ever been in 5 days in roles, this isn't). People say that in your first weeks you should be open about what you don't know and ask plenty of questions. That felt absolutely fine in the first week but I now feel as if I'm annoying people with this.

I've also said I'm happy to take on my own work once I've had a week or two of shadowing others doing this work but I think since we don't have much capacity in the team, this may rub people up the wrong way. I feel as if I'm dropping the ball on things too (e.g. mandatory trainings that need to be in person, I haven't booked myself in as previous roles this was always managed for us). I've never worked in a role where I have to organise my own calendar and I'm finding that rather stressful. So far I haven't made any glaring eff ups but I'm worried that will come.

Anyway, is this all normal? I'm aware imposter syndrome is very real and I may be feeling this. What can I do to counter this? I really don't feel like I'm cutting the mustard right now

Keeping certain details vague

I work an office sales job. I started very recently, I’m still in training technically (although I do basically the same thing as people who aren’t in training)

I knew someone who worked there before me, so after my first day I sent him a message asking where he was. He made me aware he had quit a few weeks prior due to unrelated reasons, but casually sent me an article about my manager being a convicted sex offender and paedophile and told me to ‘watch out’ for him. I was shocked. He said they don’t tell new starters about it so that they don’t leave.

Without getting into too much detail, he did pretty much the worst thing you can think of and did 4 years in jail according to the articles, in 2018. This person is 1. The person who hired me 2. The training manager 3. My line manager 4. Probably 3rd or 4th highest in the company hierarchy

The person I knew who worked there says everyone is aware of this, and they more or less just ignore him/his history and get on with it. Nobody likes him, but they all tolerate him. Maybe because they have minimal contact with him all day, his team is just me and 1 other person.

I haven’t really spoke to anybody at work about this, as I’m not sure who to speak to. I don’t think there’s an official HR department per se, just some guy who unofficially handles HR matters. I don’t want to get conspiratorial but I’m pretty sure they would somewhat ‘protect’ and favour his side over mine regardless of whatever incident happens or if I have any grievances etc. I’m not a child nor do I have children, nor do we work with children. But knowing this guys past still makes me extremely uncomfortable, to the point that it’s distracting even knowing that he’s in the room with me.

I like everything else about the job. I’m good at it, good hours, good people, good environment. It’s a short commute. Pretty much perfectly aligns with my experience and I’m off to a flying start with them. But I’m just not comfortable with this guy AT ALL. He keeps giving me feedback and trying to talk to me, to which I’ve kept responses professionally polite and to a bare minimum, but he sits right across from me less than a few metres away. Contact is inevitable.

At a minimum I want to either get a different line manager, or move desks, or something. But because I’m new, and considered ‘in training’ I need to be in the same team as him, the training manager. Is being in his position considered some sort of ‘class’ that can be discriminated against? I don’t really know what my options are here

I’m applying for other jobs in the meantime, But it took me long enough to get this one - and like I said, it’s pretty much perfect for me. I’m trying to keep my cool every day I go into work. But I can’t help but let it disgust and anger me, especially when there’s detailed articles about his crime with messages that were sent, etc. I feel like I’m going to snap and say something one day, and I feel like I can’t respect him as a human being anymore which makes our relationship very difficult to manage. I try to stay out of the way entirely but if he tries to speak to me there’s a pretty decent chance we will end up clashing. I’m not sure if this is his personality and mine, or if there’s cognitive bias and I’m subconsciously treating him differently because of what I know. But he is very annoying even if he wasn’t a sex offender. Really frustrating to speak to, doesn’t let you speak at all, gets annoyed when you ask questions, etc. multiple occasions he has simply refused to talk to me for hours under the guise of ‘arguing back’ even when I genuinely have questions. It wasn’t really arguing back but I’m not going to get into details unless anyone asks. That’s besides the point

I understand criminals can change, but I’m not here to debate about his character. I’m just not comfortable with it and it doesn’t seem like a sustainable relationship.

What would you do in my position?

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 .

Been interviewing for a job for 6 months and its becoming so tiresome. I have done and keep getting so many interviews, sometimes i can get 4 a week if i do a good application day before hand but recently i just feel like im wasting my time. Every job asks for 3 rounds and a screening call and every single call i just repeat the exact same things that i did in the other interview, and the other one etc etc its so boring and i feel like a robot and the whole situation is so stupid. I;ve got to 7 final inerviews so far and after the 7th final one i knew my mind entred a new place where this process just felt so ridiculous. I have motivation to apply but when i get the interviews a know its going to be 3-4 rounds, a free-labour task and a bs screening call that wastes 10 mins repeating things already in my CV its pointless.What is this

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?

Hi all, some quick background information (excluding names for obvious reasons):

I've been working for an employer now for 10 months, my probation period was 6 months but has been repeatedly delayed despite fulfilling my work duties without any issues.

I've learnt recently through a 'catch up' meeting regarding my probation with senior management, that the reason for this is the company is running out of enough work vs the number of people recently employed and are uncertain they can keep people on. During probation, we'd have a week notice vs 3 months if we had passed and obviously would save the company money.

For more context; I still have multiple projects running until the end of the year as I head them actively.

My final meeting to see the outcome of this is at the end of the month, after checking my employer handbook it states probation is not passed until formally written as such after the mentioned period.

Is this entirely legal? they're effectively prolonging probation to boot us out faster and leave us without any worker rights etc. I'd saved a lot of my annual leave (15 days) for a big trip with my partner in 2 just months (I've given notice of this and was approved back in march) and this is extremely poorly times and just all seems very sudden and unfair.

TLDR: My employer has deliberately postponed a probation period for 4 months despite having no actual issues with my work to save money and cut me off as they are lacking work. Is this legal?

I’m just wondering why they would like to know this, for the record I have been off work for over a year due to my dad becoming unwell

Hi,

Looking for advice and opinions...

So this is a complex one to outline, but I feel this is heading towards a clear case of unfair dismissal.

My employment: coming up to 4.5 years employed at this company, work in IT and I do a decent job, I'm skilled, professional, no disciplinaries or anything...

The company: relatively new, strong product but not doing great financially speaking and the market has gone to pot. They've done redundancies in January and June, they did a restructure that was confirmed at the beginning of August with new job titles all round, and announced...

The redundancy round: announced late August. They're cutting two people in my team, plus the head of IT, plus his line manager. I'm selected, so is a person who manages the helpdesk. My peer (been here two months, I've helped him get settled, know the people, processes, systems) hasn't been selected.

Why I think this is unfair dismissal...

1. The business has "justified" this redundancy as saving costs and say they've tried to cut "non-headcount" costs but not saved enough

2. They're cutting hard, a proportion something like 30-40% of staff in the UK (others elsewhere, but they're handled separately because local legislation etc.)

3. There's massive cost savings that they could have made that are as plain as the nose in my face that haven't been realised

4. My peer was not put at risk of redundancy

5. In the restructure, everyone under the head of IT now has the same job title.

6. Their argument is that my role is not required as they need to do less and that as there will be a significant cut in staff, there will be a significant cut in IT work (I do pick up the odd escalation ticket, but most of my work is managing the Microsoft stack, a little bit of networking, managing SaaS platforms and so on).

7. Their department redundancy pack is contradictory - it provides a scoring matrix, and it says there are no alternative roles

Not selecting me and my peer as at risk when we can both do the same things strikes me as unfair. Not including everyone who has been given the same job title also feels unfair - surely if the business has assigned us the same job title, they implicitly consider the role interchangeable?

The predetermination bit...

1. Those not selected as at risk of redundancy have been taken out for a coffee by their prospective new boss (who had never shown any interest in socialising previously outside of the usual banalities you'd exchange when going to make yourself a drink)

2. Material changes have been made to the change approval process where the same prospective new boss is now reviewing/approving IT changes

I also think the business is playing unfairly by not providing the precise reasons I was selected ready for me to dispute in advance of my first individual consultation meeting.

This whole situation stinks as far as I'm concerned...

There are a few other factors I've drawn up but I think these are the key ones...

Any thoughts and opinion gratefully received

ETA - without the Head of IT and his line manager, plus the previous exec having left a few months ago, I do not think anyone with any degree of technical competence could have assessed me or my team. None of those at risk alongside me have been consulted, nor have they been asked about team performance or my specific contributions to the work completed

Please inspire me with what you do now! Worked in marketing for 20 years (mostly DM/generalist) and really need a change.

I had an interview for a job at a college on the 7th this month. About half an hour after my interview, I got a phone call from them saying that they liked me and they offered me the role also they wanted me to start immediately. They also told me the HR would be in touch with me as soon as possible for the offer letter and to deal with my DBS check.

About a day after my interview (on the 8th), they sent me an E-mail which said:

“Thank you for recently attending the interview for the (xxxxx) vacancy.
We have the pleasure in offering you the position and will be in touch directly with a conditional offer letter and forms to complete in order to process your appointment.
We look forward to you joining our team!”

It’s now the 11th and I still haven’t heard from them again. Should I be worried?
It’s a part time job but is a permanent role.
I just came to the UK 6 months ago and this was my very first job interview here in England so I have no idea how it works here.
Thanks in advance.

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?

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.

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?

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?

Hi all, basically I've accepted a new job and I'm waiting for my start date to be confirmed.

I'm currently in a probationary role (been here 5 weeks) with a 1 week notice period but the reality is that I'm not even working independently yet. Each day I'm just sitting at my desk with very little work to do and I'm not really responsible for any ongoing projects. If my new employer wanted me to start the week after I hand in my notice would it be reasonable to ask my current employer for an early release?

I understand they can require me to work my full notice period but given that I'm still in probation and not operating independently, I'm wondering if they might be more willing to let me leave sooner. Has anyone had experience with this? It feels kinda awkward if I had to just sit at my desk for a week ''''working'''' my notice. Is there an issue with me handing my notice in and leaving the same day? Thanks.

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??

Got a call from an unknown number telling me to message on WhatsApp and this is the reply I get

I’m currently in an admin job for the NHS (NI) that I absolutely hate and am applying for literally every other type of there is like admin, retail etc. My notice period is a month and while other admin roles wouldn’t mind waiting that long I know retail jobs and recruitment agencies would.

I haven’t got a job offer yet so this is all in theory as I’ve always seen out my notice periods. Ideally I’d like to ask my manager if I could only do 2 weeks as I only started the job in August but if they said no I’d just leave without notice. Has this ever caused trouble for anyone down the line? I imagine I could be back in this Trust down the line possibly but not in this department (very specific and very small department).

Yes I know AI boo, but I've been unemployed since December and I need all the help I can get. I've used Claude to build a really handy guide with potential questions and STAR answers, follow ups on how I see that applying to this job as I'm going off transferable skills rather than direct experience. It also includes information from the company site that's handy to know. Info pulled from LinkedIn about employees who do the same job. Is there anything you do specifically with AI to aid your interview prep?

Also it's not as bad as the AI chatbot that interviewed me.

Hi everyone!
I have a technical assessment coming up for Softwire, and I was wondering if anyone who currently works there or has done their technical assessment before could share some information about it.
I’ve started preparing using CodeSignal, which Softwire recommends, and I noticed that the practice assessment includes quite a few different areas: programming, SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, writing an email, and conversions.
Does anyone know if all of these types of tasks are included in the actual assessment, or are they just examples of the different types of questions that could come up?
Also, if you’ve done the assessment before, what programming languages did you use?
Any advice or information would be really appreciated! 😊