The Mock Turtle

That’s great news, Hazey. Tentative I hope the package and paperwork stacks up.

Argh! My contract giving my home address as my place of work is apparently an error, and they want to change it to the London office like everybody else.

It’s not necessarily a problem in itself, but if that had been clear, I would have asked more questions about expectations before actually bloody accepting and starting.

It only came up because I asked for clarification on a clause that indicated expenses for trips to London for client meetings would be claimable, but not for non-client meetings. Which I was fine with if the expectation was once or twice a month for team meetings with plenty of notice.

wendy james wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 6:01 pm Argh! My contract giving my home address as my place of work is apparently an error, and they want to change it to the London office like everybody else.

It’s not necessarily a problem in itself, but if that had been clear, I would have asked more questions about expectations before actually bloody accepting and starting.

It only came up because I asked for clarification on a clause that indicated expenses for trips to London for client meetings would be claimable, but not for non-client meetings. Which I was fine with if the expectation was once or twice a month for team meetings with plenty of notice.

Oh no! What a pain! I hope they are not going to expect more London attendance?

I have my fwr agreed now for once a fortnight attendance with travel for tribunal hearings and important meetings, but my manager will most likely retire soon and our team will be flung to the wolves.

My friend's son took a job only to be told they had got the salary wrong and it was actually 20k less than they stated! They negotiated when he complained and gave him a extra 5k which he accepted as that was a actually a very good wage for his age and experience level. Still, he was gutted.

Thankfully not! Happy for me to go up every fortnight for team meetings.

It was actually a really nice discussion. I will learn this company isn’t like my last one. And she’s going to put in writing that whilst we’re changing my contract location, I’m expected in London only on a needs basis.

That's really positive WeJa. I know what you mean though, I was so scarred by my last place that I used to get quite worked up asking for (reasonable) things that just got agreed without anyone batting an eyelid.

It’s really hard to shake that institutional trauma in a new job! Glad you got it sorted WeJa and they were not changing the goalposts on you.

I have applied to be backfill for my colleague who has just moved to London I think quite a lot of people will apply (it’s internal only), but it seemed silly not to. If I get an interview it will be the most awkward thing in the world.

A quick update from me on my secondment and making it permanent.

Basically higher management have opened up two roles from another region (where they are not getting any applications) to my region and I need to apply formally.

It's going to be very awkward because my manger will need to interview me alongside another person I work with on a daily basis. So they need to do a lot of things to avoid any bias during the process.

Has anyone gone through similar? Any tips or advice?

I'd just say make sure you treat it as if it's an external interview with a person who has never met you. I've interviewed a couple of internal people and they've often not properly sold themselves as I think they forget you can't take anything into account that isn't said during the interview, so I think they missed things out because they thought it was obvious when I needed to hear them say it for the scoring.

Good luck!

I’d say exactly the same thing as Ken. I’ve been in the same position a few times. I think I maybe said earlier in this thread but I have also explicitly acknowledged at the start of the interview that we know each other and they know my work but whilst it may feel awkward to me, I’m going to talk to them as thought they know nothing about me. Verbalising it helped me.

Good luck

Thanks Ken, Est.

Your responses are just what I wanted/needed to hear. I also plan on speaking to someone who has been involved with the latest round of interviews and get their input on the types of questions/expectations. I might as well use as much as I can to my advantage.

I STILL haven't heard about the job I withdrew from one position but my application for the other is still open (I've checked). I applied on 4th December and my interview was 27th Feb. They are ridiculous.

That's shockingly crap, nine.

I like the idea of verbalising the situation, Est. Recognizing the artificiality of the situation.

Honestly you can't make the following up...

There is now a recruitment freeze and the role I wanted to apply for is no longer available. I have been asked to apply for a 6 month role (higher grade and a good opportunity) to fill paternity leave, but my original team would need to back fill and that could be a problem.

It's a ridiculous waste of the investment we've put in my role for the past 12months and my current manger agrees. He's trying to do his best (and I do believe him) hence the suggestion above since there is considerable overlap and I would still be working on the wider team.

If all else fails then I have to go back to my old team where I know I will just be used as a back up resource with no opportunities to grow or be promoted. If that happens then I will start looking for another job.

That's so frustrating, Wiggle! And so short sighted of the company to do this and lose his people.

Are you a civil servant, Wiggle? It sounds so familiar to me. I’m sorry. It’s shit.

No not in the civil service; I suspect something is happening higher up and causing people to panic lower down the chain. I'm hoping the freeze is short and the role reopens during the 6 month secondment (if I get it).

That sounds utterly appalling Wiggle. What a rubbish move. Almost as rubbish as me, I've been waiting 2 weeks to hear whether I've been successful in a secondment role to cover a maternity leave. She finishes up in 2 weeks and I still haven't heard.

That is pants, Cos. It's a wonder business get anything done when we hear about stuff like this.

Truly pants. You have my sympathy. Bug organisations are abysmal sometimes.

Communication can be shockingly bad and it does make you wonder! Sorry about your frustrating situations Cos and Wiggle.

The last few months I've been checking out more and more of the job ads I see on LinkedIn and Mr D recently pointed that out. I hadn't even really realised it myself but when I started thinking about it, I figured it comes from a deep-seated dissatisfaction with my current position. I've been doing this job for 9 years now and in that time it has barely changed at all. The only thing that has changed is that it has become increasingly stressful and busy. Do I really want that to carry on for another 16 years? Honestly, no. So when another suitable job ad came past, I applied. And now I have an interview next week!