I moved in London in 2017 and was looking for an office job. I come from years of free-lancing and contract work with ridiculous pay, therefore I was on the hunt for something more stable, also because rents in London are high.
Landed an interview for an office job in a Care Home in Westminster – is part of a larger organization that handles various care homes around England – £24000 a year, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, which for me was more than ideal, because when I come home, I want to chill and dedicate to my hobbies. Passed the interview and the background checks, I started in February 2018: for the first months, it was mostly what I expected and I was more than happy with it, but I still started to notice a few things, like the home manager cared much more about showing off the home on Social media, fluffing up pillows and rather than making sure all operations ran smoothly or the finance aspect is healthy; also, we have a front desk but no receptionist, the office is open for all the staff to just come in whenever they want and the Admin needs to take care of the calls and appointments, but again, at the time it was okay. It was at a human level.
Starting from July 2018 though, slowly but surely, they started to pile up on me more and more duties, even those that are not contemplated in my job role – the guy in charge of Activities for the residents and social media left to “deal with a sick friend” back home in Italy. I found out months later, he never left UK at all as he drove me back home from a pub evening and he confessed he just didn't like the work because of increased emphasis on extra tasks that are way beyond his skills, I didn't pay too much attention to it, but as soon as I came back to work after holiday I have slowly realized how they considered the administrator in that care home: I am basically the staff's punching bag, especially when pay is involved. They will come to me angry telling me their pay is not right at the end of the month when they need to complain to the home manager instead. My manager instead of listening to them just sends them to me and it kept happening month, after month, after month.
And not only that, sometimes I'd need to order them something and they'd come to me with the most pissed off face ever, standing in front of me looking until I took care of anything they needed. Telling them I'm busy with calm wouldn't work, because apparently, that's how the previous admin was treated as well. THAT WAS NO GOOD.
Also, my manager really is ignorant in terms of technology and sometimes I would have had to stay beyond my time just to help her send a single email. And she would just delegate me tasks I have no idea how to take because I have never been trained for them and hear ye hear ye, THE MANAGER IS SUPPOSED TO UNDER TAKE. This led me most of the time to call some of my colleagues from other homes for assistance and they would just ask me why the manager is not taking care of those tasks.
Soon my manager would force me to take courses about dementia, taking care of mentally challenging elderly, first aid, all things that seem a bit excessive for someone just working in an office, then my manager one day told me “Well, in case it was needed for you to help the staff” and I have suddenly realized her plan was to use me as care assistant as well.
I just wanted an office job. Just allocate payments, write emails, plan appointments, maybe yeah answer phone calls, but that's it. What they were looking for really was a glorified intern and a little gopher for all of the staff. Also, our home is so desperate for business that we have some very awful cases, violent customers, some of the most racist, unbearably posh idiots of London, some of them would come complaining to me they haven't got their copy of the Sun, one even threatened to shove his walking cane up my bum. We should be more selective for them, but my manager just wants to show off how many people how much better our home is compared to the others. The head office turned all this into a competition and who works in the office is forced to take part in it. And also this, there's no career opportunity in this job. How did I find out? One day I called an admin from another home asking about it and he laughed in my face. That broke me.
Then COVID hit, and since we are in social care, even admins and managers are supposed to come to the office. I spent 2 years feeling depressed and defeated and feeling utterly jealous of those that were able to work from home and avoid to deal with situations like awful customers, nasty staff that won't let you concentrate on your work and not to mention, I started to see some of the customers pass away one after another. I hated it so much; in these 2 years I gained weight, felt powerless and had suicidal thoughts more than once because of this job. I am going to therapy 3 times a week in order to overcome this.
I even tried to tell my manager that I don't like working with old people that way and I was expecting a more traditional office job, there are too many responsibilities on my shoulders and that would have helped if we got a receptionist.
My manager not only just brushed off my concerns, but just told me “In this job, there are no thank yous”.
That, pissed me off and made me incredibly sad and depressed.
I came back home that day and just broke down in tears in the arms of my partner, I just needed to.
I had enough. I started to look for a new job right away, and thank goodness my 4 years of experience are giving me some chances for interviews, but I am making sure that I have to not be trapped again into some weird 360 “I do everything” kind of role and that they can offer me remote working, decent pay and career opportunities. I am done with social care, now more than ever. This job made me hate old people and social services so much and I will never be coming back.
TL;DR – I been tricked into a dead end job in a care home and made me hate old people and social care. I'd rather staple my eyebrows to the ceiling rather than work in this setting again.