I finally did it.

Discussion in 'The Guru's Pub' started by The Laughing Ma, Jan 28, 2022.

  1. The Laughing Ma

    The Laughing Ma Ancient Guru

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    This is a thread for folk who have taken the stupid decision to take a late career diversion.

    Some of the regulars may to this site may remember at the start of the pandemic I wrote a pretty damning account of my employer's treatment of its employees at the start of the pandemic. I can't remember at what stage of the pandemic I wrote this but to sum it up I used to be a Manager for a major high street retailer which I will simply refer to as H from this point onwards. i'll bullet point some of the highlights of 2020 and 2021

    - Feb 2020 - Pandemic starts to gain ground the company makes a series of promises designed to protect employees and manages to deliver on exactly zero of these. Whilst almost every other major retailer is implementing restrictions on worker hours, customer numbers in stores H does the bare minimum needed to stay open (i.e nothing) any decisions are made at store level by the store Manager.

    - March 2020 - Boris announces national lockdown and H follows guidelines, closing all stores. This lasts less than 24 hours. I sat in our closed store as a msg came through from our 'illustrious' CEO telling us that H has been classed as an 'essential' retailer and that select stores will be reopening within less than 24 hours with a new 'Dark Store' guideline in place. Fortunately for us we were not one of these stores and I was placed on furlough for four months. (The question I asked however was why were these guidelines not put in place two weeks ago? If they could have them implemented within 24 hours then why were we left hanging making our own decisions on guidelines up until now?)

    - July 2020 - I return to work with a company guideline called Lite 2.0. To put this in simple terms this required us to clean touch points every hour (this didn't happen as it was physically impossible with the colleague numbers we had) as well as requiring a number of other control methodologies that were unsuitable or utterly unworkable. The highlight of which was asking customers to wear a mask, tell them we will give them a mask and if they still don't want to wear a mask don't do anything, let them just continue as normal. As a side note the LAW in Scotland at the time was you had to wear a mask when shopping in a store. So yes H cared more about making money than following what was the law at the time.

    - Dec 2020 The company implements project Falcon. The company has some hard on for projects named after birds! The simplest way this can be summed up was anyone who was classed as a 'Duty Manager' now had their hours cut and they became a Specialist (if the definition of Specialist is jack of all trade master of f*ck all) This was also the time that the Delta variant started to get to grips.

    - Feb 2021 The company announce Falcon mark 2. This is were I now have to reapply for a job I have doing without issue for several years. I was 'lucky' in that I was successful and got to keep my job however the net result was that many didn't, they lost a lot of long term and experienced people who had had enough of their BS.

    On a side note the guidelines that the company had introduced to deal with the original Covid 19 virus, way back in July 2020 where still in effect, despite the fact the country was on lockdown two as a result of a significantly more infectious variant. At this point I told my Manager I had started looking for other positions.

    - March 2021 - July 2021 - In this time frame the company closed our nearest neighbouring store (this is the store I started my career in H with) the net result was the lose of 2 full time employees, 3 part time employees and the net equivalent of 30 years of experience. My store had by this stage lost both our specialist and 3 long term part timers with a net experience of 30 years. H opted to increase the number of customers allowed in store by twice as much as previously recommended. No rational, no reason and we were still operating on guidelines that were now over a year old.

    I worked for this company for 20 years, at some point or another it seemed clear that I would work for these guys for the rest of my life and you know what I could have seen that as being a thing. When I think about it, I am in two minds the heart says I must have enjoyed it I wouldn't have worked so long for them if I didn't and you know what in the early 2000's that was right I worked at the store that they closed in 2021 and it was f*cking brilliant, amazing team, amazing people and it was one of the best times.

    I moved store 8 years ago as a result of a promotion, again moved to a team that was great, we then got a new Manager after 3 years who to put it simply was a very nice person but a very cr*p Manager and I fell in to a routine that can be summed up as 'doing what I know is less of a hassle than getting a new job and starting over'

    August 2021 - I had been applying for a range of new jobs, the retail sector was not a problem, I had had two or three offers but I really had no interest in this sector by this stage so I decided I was going to go back to University as a mature student and get my MSC. I saw it as a legitimate way to exit the business I had spent the last twenty years with. A way of renewing my Honours Degree and giving me a fresh new start and potentially open up new opportunities outside the retail sector. I wasn't sure that someone who had graduated 20 years could go back but I tried anyway.

    September 2021 - I was accepted to my old alma mater.to do my MSC

    October 2021 - On my birthday, I went in to my work and hand in my notice. It was an amazing feeling, I was on the last day of my holiday and my manager opted to tell me about a conference call they had been on that day, telling me about all these 'wonderful' things that the company was going to do and I just stood there thinking to myself ' I don't give two squirts of camel p*ss' I am leaving, after 20 years I am leaving and getting the f*ck out of this sh*t hole.

    November 2021 - 4 days before my last day (I had one month notice period) I receive a call from an employer that I had applied for several months ago and had just thought 'ah I wasn't good enough' asking me to come for an interview the next week.I accepted the interview

    On my last day I went to the pub with a colleague after work and as I walked back up the road I got a phone call from my area manager (I guess at this stage former area manager.) He asked me how I felt, I down played how I felt, He assured me he would get my 20 years of service reward dropped off to me, I still haven't received this)

    Mid Novemeber 2021 - I have attended two interviews with and been offered a job... and this is where we get to the point of the story.

    So I started my new job In early January. I spent 20 years with the last guys I worked with and reached a stage of where the nonsense of the job was not enough of a pain in the ass as it would have been to apply and start a new job but by the mid point of 2021 this scale had tipped and my god best decision I ever made. My new job is so refreshing. I have the scary part of being the new guy who literally knows nothing about anything (siting on a Team's call and hearing folk just rhyme off acronyms, phrases and terminology I have no knowledge of is scary and overwhelming.) The place I work is massive, the number of people and process and procedures blows my mind but there is comfort in being the new guy.

    I am new just tells everyone that you know nothing, but everyone is so supportive, they help you. They talk in company terminology and it is all so... different. It is one of the scariest things I have ever done, thinking back on it I actively opted to take myself from a situation where I was 'comfortable' and knew what the score was and throw my self not only in to a totally new and unfamiliar business (I went from retail to big pharma) I started from scratch and while I am still very much new what I can say is that when my alarm has gone off in the morning is that I haven't woke up and thought to myself 'my god today is going to be a total and utter sh*t show' and right here and right now that surely has to be a good thing?
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2022
  2. Airbud

    Airbud Ancient Guru

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    Good for you!...Thank you for sharing that Brother!

    [​IMG]

    I like to share my frustrations in life along with the good times here!...I thank Hilbert and y'all Fellers everyday for the opportunity!

    Nice Pub here indeed.
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2022
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  3. AsiJu

    AsiJu Ancient Guru

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    You did the right thing for sure. After 20 years you easily become kind of indifferent to your current job even if there are issues so good that you took the plunge.

    Enjoy your new job, may it also last 20 years.

    PS: I personally have no issue but it might be a good idea to remove the name of the company you worked for from the OP.
     
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  4. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    Well done, thanks for sharing. It's never to late to change a job since it's... well, just a job. Even going back for further education's totally acceptable.
    These are times when people leave the workforce because they don't want to deal with crap any more, and it's a bigger thing than one might think.
    Congratulations to your new job and hopefully, the change for better!
     
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  5. Raserian

    Raserian Master Guru

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    It's called burnout, you just can't do your work anymore.

    What is MSC degree? Master of sciences?
     
  6. The Laughing Ma

    The Laughing Ma Ancient Guru

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    This, it's a step up from an Honours Degree and in most cases usually involves a fair bit of research, typically within in a field that is of interest to the University you are planning on doing the Masters with.
     
  7. Raserian

    Raserian Master Guru

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    And what kind of specialty are you studying?
     

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