So I wanted to rant a bit, because for the light at the end of the tunnel to shine I'm currently eating it right, left and center.
I've always moved about for work, because 1/ that's what my family did – my grandma always says one goes where work is – and B/ most of the jobs I had were dead-ends.
Moving to another city always racked up the most benefits. Changing jobs locally got me 5%, changing cities got me 10-20% each time. Plus sometimes cost of living would drop, making the benefits even greater.
That's what I did for my current job. Moved away from family, to a region I didn't know. Still had some mates around (they had moved there few years priori).
I used to work a good job for little money. Team was great, clients weren't too much of a pain, boss trusted me in basically anything, and every few months I'd get to go overseas to the main office of the company, for training and running stuff down with the big boss and the dev team face-to-face.
Then a buddy of mine told me one of his suppliers were looking for someone like me. Got hired for a nice bump in pay, ad to move, the usual. I get there just before the whole pandemic thingy in 2020, didn't get furloughed, nice.
So I'm working aftersales for that company now.
Now in the 2.5 years I've been there, and in spite of the pandemic, the company has made bank. I'm talking 20% increase in sales in 2020 and 2021, and so far for 2022 we're at a monthly +40 to 100% sales bump. Utter madness.
So we're putting more product in the hands of users, which means aftersales has equally exploded, in large part because what we sell isn't super reliable. So lots of going back to clients to fix some stuff a few weeks after delivery, trying to find answers to new problems, etc.
Now the company is small (well, run like we're 6 even though we're about 40), so while we do all of the usual aftersales stuff, we are also supposed to edit invoices and send them to clients. So uptick in sales means uptick in aftersales, means uptick in invoicing. Means more time invoincing, less time doing other stuff.
While every other department got an increase in personnel, we'd stayed at a 3-people team since I got there. No matter how much we said we needed either more automation or more people, we got nothing. At some point of guy was sent from another dept to help half a day every day, but as he had other stuff to do, while it helped greatly, it didn't last.
Basically, 3 people doing the job of at least 4, and no extra time meant no ability to take it upon ourselves to automate some of the jobs to make it easier on ourselves.
Calls for more people were answered with “I don't hear the phone ringing for most of the day, that means you don't work that much” from the CEO. Because we live in 1991 and landlines are the only tool of communication?
Anyways, earlier in the year the manager of the team (who didn't manage much, she was basically doing the same job as us because of the shortstaffing issue) had to move. Asked for WFH so she could keep the job while a few hours away. Denied, so she up and quit.
So now, still having the job of 4 people, we got down to 2.
Spent a month not knowing who our new manager was (turns out the job was split between multiple people, some of them remote). Asked for more people, we got the “nobody wants to work anymore/can't find anyone” excuse. We all know it's because they pay minimum wage for complex and pretty technical work, so nobody wants to work for them.
Now we came up on the summer, and people going away on vacation. One of the specifics of that job is that it doesn't die down during the summer, but the company doesn't put restrictions on peoples time off. That means that most of the summer we're shortstaffed while having to do as much work, if not more.
I don't have any kids, so for my peace of mind (and my wallet) I usually take my “summer” vacation in september, when kids are back to school, roads are empty except from retirees, and the weather is still good. Also because I'm an idiot who fell in love with the system exploiting him, and feel like I can't take off when things are in full swing.
My one remaining colleague, however, had planned a 3-week vacation in july. Which means I'm alone doing the job of 4 people right now. I warned the company this wouldn't go well, because I've already gotten rid of all the non-important tasks. Basically with 2 people doing only primary tasks and disregarding all secondaries, we were taking water from all sides. So a single person wouldn't do.
It's been 2 weeks, and I'm at my wit's end, TBH. I was already not motivated, but at this point I'm basically running around tossing water on fires, running tech support and aftersales, and pretty much 80% of my tasks are just piling up in a corner, to be done whenever. Still one week to go…
But the light is shining over in september-land. Signed for a new job. +20% + bonuses. Got to move again, but to a city taht is kinda dead, so housing is cheap (I'm not the going-out type so I don't really mind lack of local dynamism). Only got a month and a week to last and I'm off.
Pretty telling, when I told the big boss I was ditching, he didn't even argue. Didn't offer anything. So I'm basically either not worth the bother, or he knows full well that he can't keep me. Case one means fuck him, case two means he's aware of what it is working there, and doesn't care if he burns down people.
So, anyone new to working for the capital reading this : Work is a mercenary job. Take what's paying the most/has the most benefits, bail when it doesn't seem worth it anymore, loyalty gets you no rewards. Take your leave when you can. Go eat with your kids instead of doing unpaid hours for some douche who is just exploiting your labor.
Completely incoherent rant over.
TL;DR: I'm almost 40 and completely understand and support younger people who won't stand for low pay and long hours. Give'em hell kids.