Meh. So I lost patience with the dodgy bank and agency and in return they cancelled my salary to my bank account as I was 'uncontactable' when in reality I had both phoned and emailed them the same day I chose not to go anymore. Luckily I wasn't uncontactable through having been in a car crash or something, in which case not receiving my salary into my bank account as agreed would have been disastrous. Way to not act in the best interests of the welfare of your employees, guys! They wanted me to collect my cheque from the office on Friday and have a chin-wag about why I was so dissatisfied with the job. They were livid that I'd not complained and given them a chance to sort out my issues prior to leaving. Such naivety would be endearing from a sincere mouth but frankly if they think I'm stupid enough after so many years working in these places to think that my complaint would be listened to (or in the faintly possible circumstance that it was, I'd get the credit I deserve for doing the training manager's job for them for a pittance) I've no time for them. Not to mention the complaint I did make about the main issues on my first day which never got any further than the manager I made it to.
Regardless, I sent an apologetic email and a breakdown of the areas I was dissatisfied with, bobbed in this morning and collected my salary cheque. Game Over. Coupled with my receipt of expenses dating back to my last job in Hull which the Post Office failed to deliver and didn't think they should have to make amends for, I'm up straight and can put all the dishonesty and incompetence I'd been mired in since moving down here behind me. Since leaving uni I've had a variety of problems with agencies and such but never anything on this scale. I've not always been the perfect employee but in recent years I've proved my worth and ability a good few times over and I am worth more than they took me and my colleagues for. Honesty about what the job involves for one thing. Focus stays squarely on jobs with organisations who aren't only answerable to their shareholders from now on. I've one interview shortlisted and I'm hopeful for another, rather excellent job for which the app went in on Wednesday. There's the council agency forms sat here in front of me to be filled in as well. I like making progress. And making a difference to the world around me, too - which is what I'll be doing if either of these employers want me.
When I was ten years younger I would work in offices and training with me would be people a decade older and then a few older than that. The elder ones knew how to play the game, got their heads down, took all the institutionalised nonsense and did their typical 3 or 4 days a week, earned some cash while their partners brought home the real bacon. Then there was those like me - the artificial underclass - fresh out of university with heads full of ideas and capable of lots - placating boorish customers on headsets all day for near-minimum wage. The ones a bit older, late twenties - you always liked them because they were the ones who would question things that didn't make any sense, were able to pick up the work quickly and help others though any training and generally got along. After a few weeks they'd be off to greener pastures though and my lot would try and persuade them to stay, because they were handy to have around and we got on. I could never see that the fact we could have a laugh despite the crappy nature of the job wasn't enough for them, that they wanted fulfillment and to be treated like an individual, valued for their unique talents whatever they might be. When they left, others would come and the process repeated. I've lost count of how many people have been by my side in some identikit factory-style office one day and teaching children in outer mongolia or walking the beat or doing mammograms or delivering babies the next. The time for me to make that same leap came a couple of years back and I took it, then I took it again, and it worked. Now I've moved down here and the worst disservice I could do to myself would be to lapse back into temp mode.
I am happy to do temp work while finding the right career move - I don't expect that to happen overnight. But I will not be lied to, or condescended to, or mucked about where my pay is concerned. If I did, I'd be failing to show others that they can do better, the way others showed me it was possible when I was younger and had no idea how I would ever find a job doing anything of worth or that I enjoyed. More importantly, I'd be hell to live with and when you've had the support I've been shown by my wife these last few years, you learn that there's nothing more valuable and that where you can, you avoid giving them a monster to come home to after their own hard day at work.
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