The I hate my job thread

[PenAndPaper]

Have been a chef since i was 18 am now 25 and this year i took the plunge and did something i really enjoyed in high school which was graphic design.

Being a chef made me feel physically sick and ill at my last job absolute worst career out there wouldn't recommend anyone to do it.

Treated like shit talked to like shit many of hours worked unpaid has to be up there with the worst careers.

Hey mate, just curious how you came about getting into graphic design from the hospitality industry?

I was working as a marketing coordinator for a craft beer venue in Melbourne but was doing everything from reception, graphic design, video editing, digital marketing, bar work, musician management (while getting paid **** all for it) & with a boss who would micro manage every single thing.
He interrupt my work flow every 10 minutes to try and fix his IT issues (not kidding one day he could me into his office 11 times in the space of 3 hours to either get me to look into a minor IT issue that only affected him or call me in to ask why something he requested earlier hadn't been done yet when he constantly interrupted the work flow). So ended up quitting & doing some seasonal warehousing work but currently unemployed.

I have done a fair bit of graphic design stuff outside since I loved that during school as well & am completely self taught but yeah was wondering if you did an official course, freelanced or whether you were able to find an actual job out of it?

 

[toxic]

Love my job, well I did.

Amazing what COVID and some financial pressure can do to a CEO.

Interesting how old school dictatorship bullying can so quickly appear

 

[Guju]

Love my job, well I did.

Amazing what COVID and some financial pressure can do to a CEO.

Interesting how old school dictatorship bullying can so quickly appear

Well, you are lucky.

Most companies I know are using COVID19 as an excuse to restructure, slash wages, cut overtime, get rid of people (and not rehire them once this is finish).

 

[00Stinger]

Well, you are lucky.

Most companies I know are using COVID19 as an excuse to restructure, slash wages, cut overtime, get rid of people (and not rehire them once this is finish).

What you need to do is show/prove to your employers/management that you add value to a company. They don't often get rid of employees that add value

I have been through a couple of restructures at a couple of different companies. During my first restructure I remember clearly being told by manager that if you can add value and offer the company something they will keep you as they don't get rid of their good staff just the dead wood. This is something I have always kept in my mind when I'm in a job.

Now this the economic downturn due to covid-19 companies are going to have to find a way to cut costs in order to keep the company profitably, its not a good situation to be in but one that is unfortunately going to be mandatory for a lot of businesses.

Restructures are always geared towards getting rid of people, it is shit if you are on the bad end of the deal but in most cases the people who are let go are let go for a reason. Middle management always gets slashed as companies tend to have too many middle management staff often in many cases they aren't needed to properly run the business. Think of it in a similar way to getting yourself in to financial stress, you start looking at where you can cut unnecessary costs to try and get yourself out of the financial stress, this is what companies will be doing.

Slashing wages I am skeptical on, it is illegal for a company to do this so if they do it I would be going to fair work. In regards to OT, if the work is there companies will offer it to employees, if it isn't they won't

 

[Scotland]

Restructures vary based on size of company and industry type. The big mining companies like BHP and Rio go through restructures every few years. They'll get rid of say 10% of their workforce and save millions a year for no real negative impact, because they are so bloated with levels of staff that don't do anything meaningful and staff costs are a drop in the ocean compared to value of the dirt they sell, energy costs etc. Then over time they just re-bloat with new people anyway then start the whole process again.

I've seen a couple of them and your best chance of surviving in a service business is by being billable. If a client is willing to pay your salary plus a margin to your employer then you are adding value even if in practice you are a complete halfwit. Next cab off the rank is having friends in high places. Being useful comes after that. During COVID there have been a lot of useful people sitting idle across industries as thing just ground to a halt. Others have been lucky because their work wasn't affected or increased.

 

[Reynolds Number]

Easy work, easy money, odd hours, good coworkers albeit a few lazy and unreliable ones, great supervisors.

Shit management who are shit at communicating info and promote workers based on favouritism over merit (My supervisors agree).

 

[FrostyDaniel69]

Decided to follow my passion in Carpentry after working in too many customer service jobs

Last one was at Woolies. I quit when one day some fella came into the store who clearly had severe mental illness, he went right upto the chook stand and opened one, then just started eating it with his bare hands. Those heating elements are kept hot as hell, you could see him physically shaking from the pain as he stuffed handfuls of chicken into his mouth. I was the 2IC so was forced to deal with it, everyone in the store kept screaming to stop him like he had just walked into the store with an AR-15. I approached him and he started waving greasy chicken hands at me then threw the boiling chicken carcass at my face.

Suffered burns on my face for about a week, wasn't worth the twenty bucks an hour but it led me to what I love now.
Funny how the universe works.

 

[patterns]

If your job pays well and/or you need it desperately, it's surprising how some slight changes to the work routine can help a lot. Whether it be listening to classical music or doing something else that you enjoy to contrast the day for a mentally balanced outcome.

 

[PoppedCorn]

My attitude to my place of employment has steadily gotten worse
Its got to the point where i just really dont care anymore and will do as little as possible.

 

[Caesar]

I’m pretty over my job so I’m applying pretty furiously for other stuff

Don’t really want to get to the point where I’m so checked out that my work sucks

 

[Dan Moody]

My attitude to my place of employment has steadily gotten worse
Its got to the point where i just really dont care anymore and will do as little as possible.

 

[revo333]

Last one was at Woolies. I quit when one day some fella came into the store who clearly had severe mental illness, he went right upto the chook stand and opened one, then just started eating it with his bare hands. Those heating elements are kept hot as hell, you could see him physically shaking from the pain as he stuffed handfuls of chicken into his mouth. I was the 2IC so was forced to deal with it, everyone in the store kept screaming to stop him like he had just walked into the store with an AR-15. I approached him and he started waving greasy chicken hands at me then threw the boiling chicken carcass at my face.

Becoming a supermarket manager/supervisor is a trap, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Even worse when the people you manage have been there 10-15 years and when you really need them to step up they never do. But there always happy to tell you how easy the job is to do.

 

[FRUMPY]

Becoming a supermarket manager/supervisor is a trap, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Even worse when the people you manage have been there 10-15 years and when you really need them to step up they never do. But there always happy to tell you how easy the job is to do.

I would presume if you've been working at a supermarket for 10-15 years and havent gotten off the register/floor then you are there to get paid and do the bare minimum.

 

[revo333]

I would presume if you've been working at a supermarket for 10-15 years and havent gotten off the register/floor then you are there to get paid and do the bare minimum.

Would depend on what section of the store you work in. If you are there just to work on registers then the bare minimum wouldn't cause any problems.

If you work on the floor filling shelves where there is a carton rate, deadlines and it's a team effort then people are not getting paid to do the bare minimum no matter how long they have been there.

Majority of people are not working in a supermarket because they are not capable of getting a job somewhere else, It usually comes down to flexibility and needing part time work for extra money.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Would depend on what section of the store you work in. If you are there just to work on registers then the bare minimum wouldn't cause any problems.

If you work on the floor filling shelves where there is a carton rate, deadlines and it's a team effort then people are not getting paid to do the bare minimum no matter how long they have been there.

Majority of people are not working in a supermarket because they are not capable of getting a job somewhere else, It usually comes down to flexibility and needing part time work for extra money.

What's the carton rate out of curiosity?

I did night fill with Coles back in the mid 80s, pre scanning, when we had to hand price everything, carton rates varied from 34 per hour up to 44 for pet food and 48 per hour for drinks.
I did it again as a nightfill manager in the early 90s for 3 years, when scanning was being used, the carton rate varied from 60 per hour up to 64 and 66 for pet food and drinks.
I did it again a couple of years ago for about half a dozen shifts, when the filling is all done while the store is still open. Carton rate was 54 across the board, nigh on impossible to do doing it their way, working off those half egg trollies. I would get a flat top trolley and reload from their trolley onto my trolley, in order of where things went in the aisle. Took me a minute to load and I was doing the rate easy. The crusty old casual in charge saw what I was doing, had a crack at me, said there was a lot of inefficiency being shown, I told him I doubt that very much, which he didn't like, I never got another shift. I still shop there and my eldest daughter works there. I bumped into him one day, he said hello, I asked him what the carton rate was (I already knew this), he told me, I informed him that I was in fact doing that easily (I kept a tally) and he looked at me and didn't know what to say. When I pick my daughter up at night, I have a look and I notice quite a few of them now are doing what I was doing.

 

[revo333]

What's the carton rate out of curiosity?

When I started Nightfill 12 odd years ago it was 45 and by the time I finished 3-4 years ago it had gradually gone up to 60 and the store manager was wanting 65 eventually. This was for Woolworths and real nightfill from 10 to 6. For a period they were using different cartoon rates for different aisles which made things interesting as you started seeing managers do the easier aisles and the people they didn't like doing the harder ones but that system didn't last as the day time staff found it to hard to work out the hours needed for every night.

We would take pallets through the store while it was open and drop the stock on the floor in the aisles, We use to get a few customer complaints but it didn't stop us from keep doing it. By the time I left, pallets were coming in off the truck organised in their locations in the store so that ended up cutting 25 hours off the roster during the week.

Everyone had their own method on how to do things, when I filled in as manager I would get everyone to fill whatever aisles they wanted and I would drop all the remaining cages of stock on the floor and then go around and take peoples rubbish and fill the bail up until the load was finished. Would always have a few hours spare and the remaining of us could take another 30 minute break.

I had 3-4 years where I really enjoyed nightfill, hardly had to deal with customers and never had to deal with the store manager and the 2IC because they didn't care or bother us as long as the job got done.

But when you have a manager you don't like and some workers who are hard to deal with it can be frustrating.

Would happily do it again after not doing it for 3-4 years. I worked with some guys who had done it 10-15 years straight and you can tell by their appearance that it's not great for your health long term.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

When I started Nightfill 12 odd years ago it was 45 and by the time I finished 3-4 years ago it had gradually gone up to 60 and the store manager was wanting 65 eventually. This was for Woolworths and real nightfill from 10 to 6. For a period they were using different cartoon rates for different aisles which made things interesting as you started seeing managers do the easier aisles and the people they didn't like doing the harder ones but that system didn't last as the day time staff found it to hard to work out the hours needed for every night.

We would take pallets through the store while it was open and drop the stock on the floor in the aisles, We use to get a few customer complaints but it didn't stop us from keep doing it. By the time I left pallets were coming in off the truck organised in their locations in the store so that ended up cutting 25 hours off the roster during the week.

Everyone had their own method on how to do things, when I filled in as manager I would get everyone to fill whatever aisles they wanted and I would drop all the remaining cages of stock on the floor and then go around and take peoples rubbish and fill the bail up until the load was finished. Would always have a few hours spare and the remaining of us could take another 30 minute break.

I had 3-4 years where I really enjoyed nightfill, hardly had to deal with customers and never had to deal with the store manager and the 2IC because they didn't care or bother us as long as the job got done.

But when you have a manager you don't like and some workers who are hard to deal with it can be frustrating.

Would happily do it again after not doing it for 3-4 years. I worked with some guys who had done it 10-15 years straight and you can tell by their appearance that it's not great for your health long term.

When I was managing I was doing all the ordering as well.

The first time I did it in the mid 80s at Christmas we'd get 100 pallets a dry groceries a night

We were the same, store closed, pallets came pretty much with the stock picked and packed by aisle so they'd get.dragged straight into the shop and put at the end of the aisle with the nightfillers loading their own trollies.

 

[revo333]

When I was managing I was doing all the ordering as well.

The first time I did it in the mid 80s at Christmas we'd get 100 pallets a dry groceries a night

We were the same, store closed, pallets came pretty much with the stock picked and packed by aisle so they'd get.dragged straight into the shop and put at the end of the aisle with the nightfillers loading their own trollies.

I use to hear plenty of horror stories from people who did nightfill in the 90's, most were about managers who were crazy and would lock the store and wouldn't let people leave until the work got done.

My first manager had a really short fuse, luckily for me he got fired 2 months later after a few girls complained about the way he behaved around them. I wouldn't of lasted too long working there otherwise.

 

[ScrappyCoCo]

About 2 years ago I rolled my left ankle (probably needed surgery but never got it looked at as i had to keep working)...still hurts at times.
4 weeks ago, rolled my right ankle pretty bad....still soldiering on with work and pretty sore in evenings.

Had plantar fasciitis for about a year during this time.

I mow lawns for a living. Try to do about 40 a week. Not much fun.

 

[Mesc]

About 2 years ago I rolled my left ankle (probably needed surgery but never got it looked at as i had to keep working)...still hurts at times.
4 weeks ago, rolled my right ankle pretty bad....still soldiering on with work and pretty sore in evenings.

Had plantar fasciitis for about a year during this time.

I mow lawns for a living. Try to do about 40 a week. Not much fun.

I feel your pain mate. I had this horrible affliction for around 6 months and ive just gotten over it using orthotics and needling.

 

[ScrappyCoCo]

I feel your pain mate. I had this horrible affliction for around 6 months and ive just gotten over it using orthotics and needling.

Good that the worst has passed for you. Get yourself a pair of archies thongs. They have moulded support. They actually helped a heap and still use them now.

Ironically, I rolled my ankle in them a month ago though.....you would think a 53 year old bloke that has been fishing all his life would have remembered to not use them when rock fishing.

 

[Mesc]

Good that the worst has passed for you. Get yourself a pair of archies thongs. They have moulded support. They actually helped a heap and still use them now.

Ironically, I rolled my ankle in them a month ago though.....you would think a 53 year old bloke that has been fishing all his life would have remembered to not use them when rock fishing.

I will check those thongs out. Cheers

 

[sosos]

Interesting thread. Old saying, the fish rots from the head.

I've been with my company for over 20 years. When I started, I was just glad to have a reliably paying job in my field. Was employed at nearly the lowest rung of the ladder. Started off ok, but slowly, got worse and worse. Managers were alcoholics, Directors were sniping, empire builders, and the big boss was weak. Worst part was they couldn't sack people, even for heinous behaviour.

I moved sites a few times, to get away from some of the worst people, but eventually I ended up in the firing line - part of a directorial war I had no part in, other than I was the successful applicant for a job at the lowest rung of management - supervisor.

For a year, I did this until the snipers had reached fever pitch, until suddenly, someone way up the chain finally had enough and paid all the troublemakers out. Such a waste of money, but the only way to do it. Took a few years until they were all gone.

But the poor managers remained. I was promoted again to back fill some of the poisonous people who had been moved on. But the place was utter chaos. Bad decisions kept being made, and our name as a unit was totally in the mud.

It got so bad for me, I went to see the counselling service. I'm sure there are good counselors out there, but they weren't there for me. Basically blamed me.

I almost left but I hung around. One day, the really big bosses changed. They'd finally, finally had enough. After that, slowly but surely, it got better and better.
The one thing they did? Built relationships. Get to know your people as people. So simple really.

I'm still there. It's not perfect, but what is?

 

[revo333]

The crusty old casual in charge saw what I was doing, had a crack at me, said there was a lot of inefficiency being shown, I told him I doubt that very much, which he didn't like, I never got another shift. I still shop there and my eldest daughter works there. I bumped into him one day, he said hello, I asked him what the carton rate was (I already knew this), he told me, I informed him that I was in fact doing that easily (I kept a tally) and he looked at me and didn't know what to say. When I pick my daughter up at night, I have a look and I notice quite a few of them now are doing what I was doing.

They can't just stop giving you shifts, a lot of people don't know they have to give you atleast one shift a month and you are allowed to ask other stores for work. You just need to inform the store manager, if they are not giving you any shifts they can't stop you getting work at other stores.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

They can't just stop giving you shifts, a lot of people don't know they have to give you atleast one shift a month and you are allowed to ask other stores for work. You just need to inform the store manager, if they are not giving you any shifts they can't stop you getting work at other stores.

In the end it's no big deal, I was only doing it because I was doing job share with BHP, 2 weeks on, 4 weeks off and I was getting a bit bored on my 4 week breaks, I just went back fulltime, 2 weeks on and 1 week off.

My next closest store was Wonthaggi, 40km away and then somewhere like Cranbourne or Leongatha so it was Cowes or bust, I live 300m away from it so I could just stroll up and back.

The thing that annoyed me was how stupidly inefficiently they do things now. I get that they want to save money by not have people in late at night until the early hours and save on penalty rates, but it's just such a slow way they work.