Month: October 2022

Kind of a rant with a happy ending. So, I work full time as a receptionist for a large, busy car dealership. I answer phones calls for the salesmen, the service writers, the general managers, the finance department, and the parts department (I also answer calls for the sister dealership's service department). So, what I have to do is basically just take messages all day because everyone has their phones turned down in their offices. “I URGENTLY NEED THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT!!!!” “I'll have someone call you as soon as they are available.” That is the lie I tell for 9 hours straight. I take messages for each department, and two hours later, the same person calls back furious because they haven't heard from anyone. I simply explain that I'm just a messenger, and I do not have the authority to force them away from their current task to pick up…

TLDR: None of my team received as big of a raise as they deserve, how do I approach this with SMT? I'm the head of a team of 10, a middle manager so have no influence on senior manager decisions. Background: our pay framework has 4 'levels' in each grade – entry, market, market+ and market cap. Several of us within my team were promoted last year into our current positions, and we had to start at 'entry' despite being on market+ for the previous grade so we ended up with very minor raises (£500) and a load more responsibility. Several members of my team (including myself) applied for raises this year, and whilst we received a small raise (£1000-2000 each), this is not in line with our expectations (which was to go from entry to market level, roughly a 5-6k raise) and I have at least one (pretty invaluable)…

I applied to a well known halloween store because i thought itd be fun and with my job i had weekdays free. Instantly got hired. They told me to come in for an in person interview to confirm so i did, and they didnt interview or talk to me at all. Instead they immediately put me to work. I was wearing heels. My fault i guess, but i didnt think id be sitting on the floor organizing costume makeup. I thought i was just meeting people or something. Not the biggest issue but it was an inconvenient get up. Anyway, after a few days they said the store would be open soon. Three weeks pass, and in that time i got a different (fantastic amazing i am so lucky) job. They then release the schedule. Over a month since being hired, three weeks of waiting for a schedule, and literally…

Some people stay because they “feel bad” that things will collapse if they leave. They buy into the “we” feeling at the company as well as tribal culture. The business doesn't care about you, its only obligation is to shareholders and given the climate, people like that are about to find out the hard way in the next 12 months or may already have. I'm saying this as someone in a senior management position with equity and other shenanigans, having witnessed my fair share of key people leaving and being forced to pick up the slack. Do I blame them? No, because companies may turn around and screw even me, any day of the week they so choose. So unless you own a sizable amount of the company, just do better for you. How businesses are run is in need of serious change. A lot of people are going to…

Two years ago I noticed my productivity plummeting at work so with the pandemic starting I took that as a sign I should try doing something for myself. I told people I was making a video game as that's easier to explain, but really I was going to use the time to explore all sorts of things while I'm still in my 20s, and if a game comes out of it, great but not required. Before I was a reserved nerd who only excelled at math and science. Now I can also draw, 3D model, texture paint, sculpt, animate and rig, design characters, write stories, and produce music. To various degrees of experience of course, but the knowledge is there. And no longer reserved either due to acting and improv, both of which particularly the latter also help with managing groups of people, interpersonal dynamics, and presenting. With these I'm…