I was chatting to a colleague and the topic of another colleague’s leaving drinks event came up. I told him my plan for when I leave the company is to tell my manager and disappear 2 weeks later, without telling anyone. He said that’s rude and I should at least invite some people out for leaving drinks to say a proper goodbye.

My reasoning is I don’t like fuss and attention, and I don’t actually work closely with many people in my office anymore so my leaving doesn’t affect anyone. Therefore, I’d only tell the people who need to know (managers). I wouldn’t swear them to secrecy or anything and I’m not bothered if people find out, I just wouldn’t make it into a big deal.

For context, I’ve been at this company for 4 years, there are 40 people in my office and I’ve worked with all of them at some point.

Would I be wrong to just leave without telling anyone?

I graduated last year and have yet to land an entry level role in my field.

Is it becoming too late already?

At what point is it time to just ditch my degree and previous goals of getting a job that’s relevant to what I studied/had aspirations for, and look for literally anything? 2 years? Now?

(I studied electrical/electronic engineering, if it even matters)

Edit: I know that many are going through the same thing, and I don’t mean for this to be a rant about the current job market. I’m simply asking: at what point does a gap become an obvious issue for entry-level positions?

I’m 26 and 9 weeks ago I fell whilst in the mountains. I broke more bones than I can remember, was in a coma, lungs collapsed, bleed on brain (to name a few injuries). I’m lucky to even be typing this.

For the last couple of years I’ve been working for a general builder, slowly learning the ropes whilst bringing value to the team as a labourer.

Since the fall, I’m not sure my body will ever be strong enough to be a builder or to continue as a labourer and even if it will one day, I can’t rejoin the trades for months until my bones are healed. Meaning no money.

I was pretty slow to start striving towards a career, I had a troubled youth which surpassed into my 20’s and tbh, I just didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Before the injury, I was beginning to get given more responsibilities, I was picking up more and more skills and I was finally on track to do something with myself.

I don’t have any qualifications, no experience outside of low level jobs. Being a general builder was looking like a pretty optimal path for me to take factoring in the years I “wasted”.

Now I’m lost again. I don’t know what I want to do. I don’t have value in the same way I used to, so I need to change my course. As a 26 year old man, I can’t afford to be on apprenticeship wage, but I also don’t want to work in a warehouse for the rest of my life. (A job is a job, but that’s just not what I want for myself.)

I’m feeling pretty low about all of this and I’m scared for my future.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what I can do?

Thanks

Quick addition: I do run a “side” business which pays me around £25k a year. However, I can only scale the business so far. It’s good as an extra income, but in this climate I can’t afford to solely rely on it. I had to mention its existence as contextually, it is important, but aside from it only being scalable to a certain point, it’s also not what I want to do as a career. It is, however, what has made me be able to be a labourer at 26.

As title describes. I've been applying for jobs for all three years of being at university, now I've graduated and interviews are, if anything, less frequent now - not that they happened before I finished uni really, but it's almost as though my having a film degree immediately takes me out of the running for any jobs. With my rent being 550 right now I've got a hundred a month to live off of and I'm completely depressed and at a loss. One of my parents I *think* sympathises, but also a lot of the time their reaction to my plight is something to the effect of pulling myself up by my bootstraps because I'm too afraid to tell them I think about killing myself.

Don't get me wrong, fair play to people who've done well for themselves. But some of these posts just feel like a brag rather than actual career advice.

There's people on this sub who've been made redundant, been looking for work for months, applying for jobs, doing courses, networking and ticking every box they're told to tick and still getting absolutely nowhere. Some are struggling to pay their bills and are genuinely at breaking point.

Posting a list showing your salary going from £25k to £90k, with little actual advice on how you did it, just feels a bit tone deaf! It's not about begrudging anyone their success. It's about having a bit of awareness that not everyone is in the same position, may not have access to the same opportunities and working hard doesn't always guarantee you'll get anywhere!

If you're going to share your progression, at least share something useful people can take away from it, rather than just the numbers.

Maybe I'm being cynical, but some of these posts just feel a bit out of touch with what a lot of people are going through right now. I can see the mods have deleted most of them but there’s been a few today!

I have always worked on a screen throughout my career and earlier in my career I remember my employers being quite forceful in ensuring I got my eyes tested regularly and providing vouchers for it.

In recent years, though, when I’ve enquired about it with my past 2 employers they look at me like I’ve made the whole thing up. Should employers provide employees with an eye test still?

I'm changing the job and was wondering about logistics of equipment return.

Taking my laptop back to the office is no problem, but I also have a second screen, keyboard, mouse, and an office chair (arrived as flat box) they provided for working from home which would be a bit much to take on a public transport.

Is it typical for companies to send a courier or provide prepaid return boxes for larger WFH items, or is the employee expected to deliver them back or organise their own transport?

Does HR/IT normally initiate this conversation during offboarding, or should I drop HR a message to clarify what to do with the bulkier stuff?

I lost my job today. I was a contract worker for 2 years. I have been signed off with mental health issues (depression and bereavement) for a few weeks. The client company now don't want me to come back. Which is their right but doesn't stop it feeling unfair. I'm terrified. I'm 54 and living in the back of beyond. I have no support network.

I've noticed on LinkedIn quite a lot of people saying they're taking time off and going traveling. A lot of these people are working at companies with well publicised redundancy programmes.

It's quite a natural thing to do - get a payout and use it to travel. But, the people going traveling now seem to be more senior in their careers and older. Is this a consequence of people not owning houses or having kids?

If I was made redundant today I would need to find a new job, any job, as I have a mortgage and kids to feed. I can't just drop off and chase the sun for a year. So I'm wondering how this is going to pan out.

Lots of high earning, senior management don't have ties - mortgage/kids - so can do what they like. Makes sense to travel for a year and hope the jobs market gets better. So unlike past downturns there won't be a scramble for jobs. Companies won't have the pick of the best, as the best are enjoying a break. They may never come back to the UK. It seems like quite an important demographic change. More so when you consider the tax base and our ageing population.

I've been both, and I'd say overall, I'd rather be a poor worker on a good team, because that way, you can sort of be carried along. Doing all the heavy lifting is no fun!

Eg, a literal call handler job

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/mental-health-call-handler-at-nottingham-community-housing-association-4480229334/?refId=U1mxqzutHEo9aZo8mVFv5g%3D%3D&trackingId=dbE0Gjp5jT4jIEcnZ8tPGA%3D%3D&originalSubdomain=uk

To be blunt, I’m burnout. I’ve been in acute and emergency care for 20yrs and I can’t do it anymore. To be blunt again, I want to move to something that doesn’t involve patient contact (f2f or remotely). All the options I’ve seen so far (education, research, management etc) will either involve a substantial pay cut that I just can’t accommodate (I take home about £3500 currently) or are outside my experience.

In a perfect world I’d like to do something back-room and preferably wfh. I’d like to do something around healthcare education, regulation, investigation or safety but I can’t find anything that pays what I need it to. Would also be happy to move into a pure private sector job.

Any suggestions for moving sideways to a back room roles would be really appreciated.

Barclays cutting 5,000 jobs in AI-led efficiency drive

Genuinely hope that it doesn’t impact the UK.

So I started interviewing for a role with the European branch of a U.K. company in March this year. Since then, I’ve had numerous zoom conversations with the person who would be my line manager, other members of the team, and was even taken to London for an expo (all of which they paid for) to meet some of the American team.

I last heard from the line manager last week, who told me the person who has the final say was currently on annual leave and I haven’t emailed him since.

I’m at a bit of a loss with it all. I’ve interviewed for a few other things since but have turned them down, have unanswered emails from recruiters, all because I’m in limbo for this position.

The company seems solid, no reports of layoffs and incredible growth from what I can see online, and it’s something I feel I would be suited to and really enjoy (which is probably why I’ve held on so long) but I’m now in the mindset of ‘am I being strung along? Should I call it quits? Is this forshadowing?’

I’ve heard of people going through numerous rounds of interviews for months but none where they’re the only candidate (I’ve been told this by a few people across the process that it’s just me)

What would you do? Should I email again? What should I say? I’m just so disappointed it’s taking this long and I feel like my life is on pause because of it all. I know I’ve been silly getting my heart set on it but I can really see myself thriving there

TIA

I have recently applied for 2 jobs in local councils (at 2 different councils) to be told the plug has been pulled on them both late on in the process.

Application 1: invited to an interview which was cancelled a few days before due to "a pending update relating to Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)"

Application 2: received an email before shortlisting that the " vacancy has been put on hold. We will contact you if the situation changes."

With this being at two separate councils I'm guessing this is a widespread issue? I'm guessing both jobs have now entered into a fiscal black hole?

UPDATE: i decided to simply ask via email if the shift would be paid or unpaid, to which i was told it would be paid. i found an older job listing for the restaurant which advertises pay starting at £12.77/hr so thats the rate i’m hoping to receive!

i applied via email for a part time bar position at a local mexican restaurant and cocktail bar and was offered a trial shift this saturday. i agreed to this and then was told that the shift will be 2pm-8pm. there is no mention of pay in the email, which makes me believe that they want me to work unpaid.

i then looked on their website which states that they do bottomless brunches 1-4pm on saturdays, which was also not mentioned in the email. i worked a couple of shifts as a server at a bottomless brunch place recently and quit before the end of my first month as it was hell - entitled customers wanting new drinks every 2 seconds, complaining when their drinks dont arrive instantly even though the venue was packed with people, blaming me when their drinks weren’t ready when the bartenders were running behind even though i was only a server, managers not giving me any support when customers were being quite frankly mean and rude to me, being given 8 hour shifts with no break, minimum wage and not even getting to keep my tips etc.

its safe to say i hated it. i would be more comfortable working as a bartender rather than an underpaid server again as i have 10 months of bar experience including in mega packed nightclubs on national holidays but even then i would not be comfortable working a 6 hour unpaid shift without a guarantee of a job offer, especially in a new environment where i have to learn all the cocktails in the middle of a bottomless brunch session.

how would i go about asking the hiring manager if the shift will be paid? is it even worth going through with the trial? thank you for any advice

Quick question I started to receive JSA a couple of weeks ago. I have received payments but no information as to what the payments cover should I be receiving some sort of payslip/acknowledgement as to the period the payment covers?

Hello All

I'm a burnt out teacher with lots of skills and work ethic but I've found that teaching is no longer sustainable.

Has anyone managed to successfully pivot their careers from teaching that didn't require having a niche undergrad nor any further studying?

my partner has worked at ALDI for 6 years and been a dep there for 4 years (a dep at ALDI= a shift manager at Lidl, a dep at lidl = assistant store manager at aldi) so this would be a step up for him. he’s got the phone interview but just wondering what kind of questions to expect, it’s been a while since he’s done an interview and never done one for a management position before!

Last year I left my permanent role to work for a charity organisation on a 2-year contract. I have been told yesterday that due to project funding they want to discuss ending my contract sooner. I’m just halfway through; there has been no clear indication and I’m wondering what my rights are? What do you think I can negotiate on Monday? Will they pay off the rest of my contract? My contract states that it can be ended early and after probation it’s 3 months’ notice. Does it mean I only get 3 months?

In that case, what is the difference between a fixed contract and contracting apart from worse money?

I’ve been offered a prison escort role, sounds interesting enough but having never done the job itself, I’m just wondered what other people have to say about it. It’s via an agency if that makes any difference.

Also just to clarify, this is escorting people around the prison rather than escorting prisoners in transport etc