Job Frustrations in Life In The Now.

Hey all,

I’m sure quite a few of us have felt fed up and devalued at work. I know I have and sadly that seems to now be a theme in my current job.

I have reached a stage where I can’t go any further in my current role and the company seems to keep moving me sideways and never upwards. I’ve no real interest in becoming a manager, at least not where I am currently working anyway, the job seems horrible.

I’m a problem solver, an analytical thinker who takes to thinking outside of the box naturally when it comes to resolving complex or unusual issues for customers and do I ever get any thanks or appreciation from the management when I save their asses time and time again. No. Instead it feels more like I’m just given more to do because they can’t resolve it themselves and there is no one else to do it.

So at the moment I’m in a role which will come to an end in February, kind of sad about that because it entails analysing calls, spotting advisor behaviours, themes, patterns and analysing behaviours or things out of the norm. In my first 3 weeks (I started in the middle of December) I was able to save the company thousands per week because of a mistake advisers were making. I got thanked for that but surely wouldn’t that also give an incentive to extend my role and put me to use in other areas where there could be potential savings to be made?

No, instead I’ll be put back into a role where I deal with front end customers and I don’t mean this to sound as arsey as it does, but that is so beneath me at this point it’s insulting. I’ve done a lot to help the site, advisors alike and the aforementioned supporting of managers in complex issues etc. The thing that annoys me the most is that in my current role I have set shifts and only work one in 4 weekends, so it’s nice. I have a work life balance I can live with.

When I return to the frontlines as it were my shifts are different every week and with a new work shift pattern being implemented in a few weeks “for the good of our customers” I’ll get 1 in 5 weekends off, as you can imagine that is such a drastic change. Deep down I know I’m not going to be able to adjust to that change because it feels like I’m being crapped on from above…and I’m talking about one of those quick flyby bird craps that when it reaches its destination, you can hear the inevitable THUD when it hits.

It makes me anxious thinking about it, knowing that prior to getting this secondment I was waking up with dread every single morning, knowing what I’d have to face day in and day out, with no chance of progression and every customer I dealt with I could handle easily and sure enough it’s nice to help those that deserve and are truly grateful after being messed around so much but my skillset in work now has expanded way beyond my job role but I can’t put it into full practice unless I’m in another role that allows me to view and deal with everything.

The other flip side is that for a year I was working on our Instant Message support desk for the site, answering advisor queries, working complex cases and issues that were suited only to me because I wanted to learn and be better. I loved getting up and going to work because it was a challenge, engaging and I know that no matter how difficult it gets I will find a solution without just chucking money at it like so many other people do to resolve the problem.

So today all of this came flooding back in and I couldn’t shake the hole in my head I’d dug myself into…What’s the point of doing a great job anymore? You’re going in February and they clearly don’t give a crap…so why bother being excellent anymore, just do an okay job, you’ll still be better than everyone else anyway….
I apologise for the vanity and ego in this but when it comes to my work it’s a fact and tooting my own horn seems to be the only recognition I get, except when people all of sudden ‘need my help’ so yeah it has been one of those bloody days. I’d like to say tomorrow I’ll get over it but honestly I think it won’t be until the weekend until I rally again, right now I’m just fed up.

So let’s think of something positive to end this entry on.

I have a friend who doesn’t own or earn much, she just gets by. My uncle and I agreed to make her a Home Theatre PC a decent one but as little as possible and get it down to her, she received that on Monday of this week, that costs about £480 or so which she is paying me back in instalments for.

I decided that whilst she had bought that, she can’t have the TV she currently has which was a 31” cheap make and has served her very well I didn’t think it was good enough for this new PC that will just be amazing for her to watch all her media on, so I bought her a brand new Sony Bravia 43” TV outright an insane difference in quality but it made her extremely happy and she had no words, but I didn’t do it for the thanks to be honest.

Some years ago probably 6 or 7 I’d say I was struggling for money and in constant worry over it, she loaned me £50, which at the time saved me until pay day. In recent years since my mums passing I got a lot better with money and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to repay a kindness given to me once upon a time.
Yeah, that’s a good note to end this entry on, sometimes just giving something to someone to give them a smile is kind of an awesome thing to do and that makes me feel a little better after writing all my whine out.

Kind regards,
G