[Closed] Work - what’s the mood like?

Ours is on the up but it was absolutely horrendous 6 months ago. People quitting left right and centre, people breaking down in tears, and totally impossible to get the job done so you work miracles and do what you can despite it and they say "but why didn't you do X"

Honestly things aren't really great right now but they're so much better, it feels like a holiday

End of holiday period isn't it. everyones go the holiday blues. Wanting everything for nothing? that's just normal day job.

Fine, in fact it’s the best place I’ve worked for the last fifteen years or so, as regards the relationship between the management and the workforce.
Previous place I worked for eleven years, it wasn’t too bad, but after a change of ownership the pressure on staff to continually handle more and more work, in the same amof time each day, and with zero tolerance for even the slightest mistake or error meant stress levels went skywards. Basically workplace bullying, I was only to glad to get dumped, others have left who were there for years, unable to put up with the pressure.
Where I am now, so long as you don’t take the piss, things are very much more relaxed, and the people are a great bunch, lots of middle Europeans there as well.
At 65, having to deal with workplace bullshit isn’t something I really want to deal with anymore.

On the up, petrochemicals, so things are looking up and most clients are outside the uk anyway so brexit may actually be a good thing for me* as the weak pound ****s everyone over but my wages keep up with inflation.

*Objectively, im not a psychopath/tory, interest rates could go up and house prices could still crash too so on the whole still feeling fairly effed.

On the other side of the world things are pretty good, we're coming out of hibernation and spring officially started at the weekend. The sunshine is here.

It's nice to watch Brexit at arms length, a colleague of mine likened it to sitting on the beach with goggles on watching a mushroom cloud in the distance.

But I'm fairly sure that the slump happens at this time of year every year, as mentioned above - its the end of the holiday season, no joy till christmas now.

Not too bad. A bit upheavall as we go througy the final stages of a restructure but overall pretty good.

There are those you could half there hours and treble their pay who still wouldn't be happy of course.

Shit

There’s an impending restructure, currently happening a couple grades above me (but will affect me directly...). There is a certain amount of flux and uncertainty at present.

There’s an element of battening down the hatches ready to weather the impending storm.

One staff member is a French national and can’t get the status thang to work. I think they’re a bit nervous.

I have consequential issues I’m dealing with.

I’m just happy go lucky, a cork, bobbing on the sea of life.... 😱

I hate my boss.
I’m self employed.

When the losses each week are more than the turnover then it is pretty obvious what the next stage is.

Shit

Never known a morale so low considering the size of the company, lost a huge amount of people earlier this year and its constantly jump higher, run faster mentality from those in power.

I work in IT and am assigned to a government agency client at the moment, it's actually a decent contract to work on and in general morale is quite high. Some frustrations (damn tax payers not giving us enough budget :p ) and some projects on hold due to Brexit but there's enough project work (although my team size has shrunk from 5 to 3 people over the last year). My main issue is I find most IT stuff boring these days so self-motivation is difficult, I continue to master the art of procrastination though.

Since 2016, June to be exact, all projects in the pipeline were cancelled and I lost 322 staff across 4 sites. Some found work, others have relied on spouses incomes whilst looking for work. It’s been difficult going from a vibrant vibe of continuous improvement to one of plugging holes.

It isnt shite, it’s just a paired down tick over landscape now.

Moral, well it’s affecting everyone. The buzz has gone, the professionalism is still there but it’s definitely muted.

I usually love the start of term, getting to know the new students, kidding yourself this year will be different.

Am stressed out already from complaints and being made bow down/ drop standards to peoples and companies wishes.

Have talked about walking away already, have enough money to last till christmas if i do.

I'm a cop. 'Nuff said...

In a+e, it seems relentlessly busy just now. The unusual crazy day is now the norm, patient care suffers and good staff reluctantly moving to less stressful roles.

Pretty horrid, in a university. Due to a combination of factors (not just the B thing; not even mainly, to be honest) the uni needs to save 25 million quid in staffing over the next year. Which is obviously not conducive to great morale.

I'm doing ok - been accepted on a VES scheme and leave at the end of next week with 6 months wages tax free plus 4 weeks in lieu of leave. I've not found the right place to move on to yet, but I've got a bit of a buffer so I'm actually quite looking forward to spending time with the littlun, riding bikes and running for a bit.

Others are not so great; waiting to hear about VES (after applying months ago), inheriting lots of work from folk who have gone and restructures... It's not super fun.

Mixed.

I work in recruitment and in 1 of my teams, wealth management, some companies are clearly holding off due to Brexit, but there's also a growing view that in harder times people need to look after their money more and so they're hiring. Generally, it's looking good.

On the insurance side it's much harder, lots of company takeovers and so lots of consolidation.

Not bad for us in IT. We're restructuring our core business at last (well, as of a out 5 years ago) to keep up with incomers and whilst we aren't grabbing as much market share as they are in the new areas were doing ok ish. At least it's being worked on. And we still have a huge traditional core business that pays all our wages nicely.

Internally we have properly revamped our communication and productivity tool suite; the process was effective and the results are great. Day to day working life is significantly easier than it used to be. For example we have a decent effective video conferencing tool that everyone uses, which is sheer joy after having a crap conference call service for so long.

Crap. Low orders. (UK specialist manufacturing). Odd company dynamics. Large project ending. B word.

We're pretty much unaffected by Brexit, but Sales have been on a downward trend for several years now, so the company is slowly dying and people are leaving as a result. I just try and ignore the big picture and just carrying on tinkering away. I've decided I'll stay till the bitter end and when the place folds I'll start thinking about what next. On the plus side, it's still a really nice place to work, just not sure how long it has left....

We're seeing the light at the end of a short tunnel.

3 months ago, in the space of 6 weeks we lost 3 clients, one was our largest and oldest and represented 14% of our monthly retainer income. In a lot of ways it was the worst timing, but we knew we were on borrowed time, they simply out-grew us.

But we got a call yesterday from a former senior person of that client who'd left around the same time we were sacked. She's moved to another company in the same field, smaller, easier to manage and right up our alley.

I suppose I should thank Microsoft for making Win7 end of life in Jan, changing piles of desktops helped keep the wolf from the door in the meantime.

Working in Business Services gives you a bit of an insight of how businesses near us are doing.

By-and-large, most are still growing, although they all wish we'd put this B-word nonsense to bed. It's funny, even the most right-wing cynical Boomer you've ever met, can be pretty Pro-EU when they run a business and understand how our particular version of globalisation works. We're seeing a slight upturn in headcount, which means they're recruiting and a lot of investment in cyber security, either from a desire to be more secure or just because they need to deal with "red tape".

One Client is really concerned though, a decent chunk of their business involves stamping bits of metal, they make a small, almost insignificant stamped metal plate that secured part of the wing to part of the engine bay for Nissan. That's all they do for them, 1 part, they make lots of other things for lots of other people but they make millions of these little things. The model they make it for goes end of life soon, and possibly the factory with it. They're bidding for other work from Nissan, but it's got to be tough.

Engineering consultancy- work is still there, lots of varied projects and no obvious B-word impact, but client standards are dropping, e.g. we're given less time to produce designs whilst being asked to achieve more with tgem, often while being held to some spurious 'cost plan' developed months earlier, seemingly for some completely different project...

Oh, and don't go expecting any sort of brief from the client either, you're expected to interpret (e.g. mind read) what they want at the start of the project and then waste countless hours of time and fee re-designing it until it matches wwhat they actually want/can afford.

Remember reading anything recently about new hospitals being unable to open due to internal design issues? That's the end result of all of the above. Oh and hint: it's easier to blame the engineer than a client who had no idea what they actually wanted or signed off on cost saving measures that perhaps they shouldn't have...

Beginning to realise the unwritten portion of my job description is "be a scapegoat - have PI insurance"...

Oh, and don’t go expecting any sort of brief from the client either,

I never have done!

Shite. After a record year last year we’re way off target for this year meaning there’s bugger all to do in Production most of the time.
Morale is lower than the Tory’s majority and doesn’t look like it’s going to improve any time soon.

Oh, and don’t go expecting any sort of brief from the client either

Actually in fairness it should be perfectly reasonable for a client to lean on us to help shape their brief, after all we design buildings for a living, but as always, there is no fee or time allowed for this, so we just do what we did last time then get hammered for not knowing that the client actually wanted a completely future-proof, unaffordable design solution that they read about in some architectural magazine...

Sacked at end of last term from my teaching role in SEMH school. I was assaulted by a pupil and used reasonable, necessary and proportionate force to protect myself, TA complained etc. etc.

Waiting for result of appeal early next week. They wanted shot of me as an experienced teacher to save money anyway, so this is their way of doing it.
Teaching is shite these days, so not bothered too much, now driving for ASDA mo stress, crap pay but much happier.

Will take the company who owns the school to court, after they uphold their decision.
NASUWT will pay for that, then hopefully receive a decent payout.

Italian parent company, French customers make up about 80% of annual orders and they're not willing to take chances with new orders. MIGHT have some new UK customers, but nobody knows. HR director more-or-less telling me to look for another job, then making out it'll be alright.
B-word.

At it's lowest level ever.
Due to be Tupied again, so obviously no information is forthcoming from either the client, the new employer or the old one. Corporate somethingsuckers.

We've lost clients and business due to steps we put in place to manage Brexit earlier in the year.

There are cost cutting edicts from above. At the moment, it's ok, but might be a bit more crap in the pipeline - projects are really having to justify themselves, with regulatory stuff being the only things that will definitely get funding.

Currently working almost exclusively on MoD projects.

Given the increasing likelihood of imminent civil unrest / all out civil war / martial law / globar thermonuclear conflict, we're quite busy at the moment.

Generally good - its business as usual (we have predominantly US / UK clients) a few supply chain issues to hit us but nobody is panicking much, and some new projects in the offing. Could be better (could have them confirmed) but that stage always takes ages.

They've just moved desk locations around the office and I am now not directly next to a window anymore, but next to the pillar between the windows - so I am not so happy.

The girl next to me doesn't now have a writable wall next to her desk to plan on and the DBA guy behind us is really loud when he is on the phone (I've let him know...), so she's less happy but she has arranged another desk move.

Not good at the moment. Contracts are shrinking (but being retained) and new processes are being introduced that supposedly save a load of time during the shift (25% has been mentioned, just not possible) which is leading to people being obstructive, working to rule etc. Due to this workload is about to go through the roof. Doesn't help that what the company is solely focussed on (specialist courier service) is shrinking at a decent rate I don't see my job being really viable in 5-10 years, happily I'm planning and set to leave in 2 years or so. None of it is really blamable on the big B but if it happens it will have a big effect. My work is directly linked to how well the economy is doing so if it catches a cold, or worse, we do too. Morale is crap as a result, but seeing as I've worked with most of my colleagues for over 10 years and we mostly all get along fine it's strangely a good place to work despite all the issues!

Very bad - export markets are very quiet indeed despite the weak pound.

The less likely a no deal the happier we get.

Clouds on the horizon are rent review, possible 40% brexit tax on chocolate and the worldwide helium shortage.

Sad coz some of me good colleagues have retired or left or made redundant ...

Also winter is coming and my energy bill will go up ...

Very bad – export markets are very quiet indeed despite the weak pound.

What do you sell?

Doing a job two people used to do, imposed employment contract changes, little to no security, shite pension/reduced perks and expected to work longer hours. Imported American workplace ideals, less holidays, restrictive and repressive rules the government wouldn't get away with. The threat of being replaced by contractors, if not already a contracted employee. So the contractors parasitical admin team can pat each other on the back, earn a decent living at the rest of the workforce's expense and allow employers to dump liabilities.

The trick is to do nothing about it, retire early, act like you know nothing to those stuck with it.

It's standard now-a-days, just keep screaming at each other out of your car's window, have a break down or GTFO. Besides there's always new camels!

Generally OK, but our executive team seem to think that Team 2i/c, Team Leader (1 pip), Training officer (2 pip) and your run of the mill paramedic (who doesn't wish to take on ANY responsibility) should all receive the same pay banding. Add in an actual drop in take home pay (c £6000 p.a) should any of the above wish to become Station Managers (3 pip) , and there is no real reward for the massive responsibility taken on.

work in IT for an agri company. Work is generally OK but the B word and the impact on the customer base is lurking in the background. Defra numbers are c25% of our market will go bust. implications on sales, do you do anything or wait, inputs prices v having any sort of market to sell to next harvest.

zippykona

Subscriber

Clouds on the horizon are rent review, possible 40% brexit tax on chocolate and the worldwide helium shortage.

You are a housebuilder serving the buy-to-let market who gets around high land and construction costs by making flying houses out of dairy milk, and I claim my £5.

Self employed and have managed to break my ankle, so just sat at home writing reports, may well just give in to it and go mad.

On the plus side just been sent a massive box of chocolate biscuits by a subby/mate, so a big weight gain is on the horizon!

Crap, my boss has been off sick since the start of May, leaving me on my own to look after an 80 acre estate. With the ‘summer’ we’ve had things have been growing non-stop and the rain has got in the way of jobs. No thanks from the directors or asking me how I’m coping. Luckily I enjoy the work

Very good really but only because the council minibus drivers know what theyr'e doing & get it done. Our line manager is great but snowed under with shite he shouldn't be dealing with & his assistant is useless.

I’m a cop. ‘Nuff said…

A mate of mine is too. Cheesed off is understatement.
I WAS a prison officer, the mood in my old place is dire with lots of staff on sick with stress related crap.

Another University person, it's not good. We're doing quite well, but had some bad dips in recruitment in places and I'm one of those that has to deal with it - work out savings etc. We've got academics quite happy they will be teaching less - erm we could be millions down in money = no jobs.

Trained joiner and industrial cleaner to NVQ level, multi skilled in most trades.
BUT,,,,, employed by a housing association as a £@cking cleaner ☹️ Tried and failed several times over the years to move up the ladder but I’m not related to senior management so I won’t get anywhere.
Jobs always been shite, reached new depths of shite 2 years ago when new,,, ahem,,, _manager_ was wedged in as she had nowhere else to go ( last chance saloon due to history of abusing position j

I’d never heard of the term ‘passive aggressive narcissist’ before, but I know all about it now.

As a result ( anarchist at heart😁 ) I Will be starting training as a unison steward at the end of the month at Manchester college for 10 weeks. I have had MANY barriers put in place to try and stope me, I’m not giving up on this.
After steward training I can do further training HNS, employment law etc to what ever level I want to go ( diploma,, I think? ) all at works expense and in works time, she won’t like it but she can do FA about it without taking on a powerful union and risking her own career,,,, which is hanging by a thread.

My soul destroying job has slowly robbed me of all motivation and led to loss of brain cells over the years, we can’t think for ourselves and using initiative is frowned apron.

I hate my job,,,,, I’m fighting back.

fossy

Member

Another University person, it’s not good. We’re doing quite well, but had some bad dips in recruitment in places and I’m one of those that has to deal with it – work out savings etc. We’ve got academics quite happy they will be teaching less – erm we could be millions down in money = no jobs.

Glad I got out of the university sector when I did - 6 years ago. It was pretty obvious back then what was coming, but the quality of VCs at most universities is so incredibly poor that they all pissed the extra tuition fees income up the wall in a zero sum game of who could have the biggest dick-swinging new building project.

JP

Great.

Home ward is wonderful and inspiring - medium secure mental health. Completely changed my outlook on so many things.

Currently on placement at Blackburn hospital in a ward remarkable for it's professionalism, teamwork and dedication.
Working mostly with elderly patients, many with dementia who have had falls and needed hip replacements.
Amazingly helpful colleagues who are always willing to pass on their knowledge. Excellent leadership and plenty of opportunity to learn.

Had a proper wobble earlier this year, but had so much support (not least from people on here), back on track and self doubt banished.

Best job ever.

Will be starting training as a unison steward at the end of the month at Manchester college for 10 weeks. I have had MANY barriers put in place to try and stope me, I’m not giving up on this.
After steward training I can do further training HNS, employment law etc to what ever level I want to go ( diploma,, I think? )

Good on you.

Give us a shout if you need to talk to anyone about the course or have any questions. Long time since I was a rep but know a few people in the area who would be delighted to share knowledge and experience.

Great, after 8-9 years feeling like cross between Yossarian from Catch 22 and Archibald Tuttle from Brazil, 18 months ago I applied for a new role within my organisation and got the job, more responsibility, great team, my decisions mean something and more money.

To temper my enthusiasm, I should add that we are short of 100 nurses at my home hospital and applications from abroad have gone through the floor since the Brexit referendum.

Most NHS long termers tell me it's the worst it's ever been.
However, I come from the private healthcare sector. The NHS in crisis is so much better than the best of the private care sector.

If I need something, I can usually scrounge it, borrow it or use the collective knowledge to bodge something.
In the private sector, even when begging for essentials, I was told to jog on.

Pretty busy at the mo.

Loads of my mainland European colleagues have left (due to Brexit) and have been replaced by nurses from India. They're very good nurses, but given the amount of time it takes to have your competencies signed off in Intensive Care (approximately 18 months) its causing a real issue with 'skill mix'.

Experienced nurses such as myself are having to mentor new nurses whilst also having to look after the most unwell patients and it's quite knackering.

A 'positive' is that us more experienced nurses are getting all the Bank shifts we want (at a far higher rate) but, given how relentless it is at the moment, even those shifts can't be filled and we regularly run fairly tight.

Ahh, Brexit. Whose stupid idea was that?

Looking good, making electricty again. Maybe making more by early next year.

Still on the road to closure but that should hopefully get kicked back down the road to where it should be.

On a personal level, during the last week I seem to have done something that is causing acute femural nerve discomfort and the recommended stretching exercises are doing little to help. Added to that the co-codamol pain relief is now causing co-constipation. I’m a grumpy ****er at work and at home and an absolute joy to be around.

Apart from that, work wise my employer is a pro brexit wealthy land owner and has taken the approach of turkeys voting for Xmas as far as I can tell. Strangely and possibly worryingly, the estate and farm management on this >5000 acre bit of east anglia appear completely unconcerned with the imminent future.

I just returned from Hols on Tuesday to find we are being acquired and in the typical Sales rollercoaster I wasn’t going to make my quarterly numbers in a big way and now by Friday I might exceed them or I might not.   It’s been a very stressful 4 days just for me, but there’s lots of tension about.

Offshore on a Drillship.

We were hit hard in the in the depths of the offshore downturn due to the plummeting oil price. My ship was out of work for a year, reduced to minimum crew, 32 versus 150+. Luckily I was one of the few who couldn’t be biffed off due to the requirement of having certain qualified personnel onboard.

Wages were reduced by removing/adjusting various bonuses and allowances.

Nearly 5 years on, we’re out of the slump, activity picking up, day rates for vessels beginning to improve (we are current hired out at 1/4 of our previous rate though).

Still no pay rises though. Which is making some folk leave for other employers. I would like to also, but at my age any move could be catastrophic if another downturn happens. I don’t want to be in a ‘last in/first out’ situation.

Mood is very much a grumble and mutter but grin and bare it.

I work in Automotive (mainly passenger car), so it's a mix of serious worry about Brexit and falling sales, combined with the massive potential of the Electrification of the entire sector. The problem is a massive lack of experience or skill to suit that new sector. It's a case of evolve or die, something i realised long ago (i moved to EV work in 2008!!) but something that the old guard are still trying to come to terms with. Unfortunately, it's going to be a bit like Steel or the Miners in the 1980's i think for a lot of the older people in the industry, people who don't want to learn and adapt but are then surprised at being made redundant.....

I personally have never been busier, and the small consultancy i run is packed out with work helping all the major OEs rush their electrified offerings to the market in double quick time. That's likely to be a short term demand i suspect, as EVs are fundamentally highly scaleable, meaning a design for one motor or battery can be easily scaled to another without a large amount of work.......

Civil service.

Pretty shit, frankly. 5 of us in the team are office based, been together on and off for ten years. Changes to legislation and austerity mean we can no longer really help anyone, and struggle to provide our statutory functions.

Four of us now waiting for start dates for better paid jobs elsewhere - like 25-35% more - and one is taking early retirement at 59 at Christmas rather than stick it out another year.

I say “ three cheers for oreetmon”!
👍👍👍👍👍

My working day is generally split between campsite maintenance and MTB guiding. Both jobs have been full-on for months now. The campsite is winding down a bit this month but the guiding isn't, in fact it is picking up.

At the camp-site the only people mentioning the B word are Brits visiting - and they've generally been anti-B and convinced (or maybe just hoping) that not much is going to change.

With the guiding I've been working with people from all over the world. Some of them are aware and some aren't.

Mood wise, I'm pretty much responsible for my own mood....