Field Support Engineers

Hagar_uk

milliemonster wrote: »

I have had a field sales role before, and normally travel is included in your working time or at the very least an element of travel should be, Bradford is hardly in the south of the UK!.

I covered an area east of the M1 from Doncaster down to Ipswich, but for health and safety purposes, if we were expected to travel more than 2hrs one way, we were 'encouraged' to stay overnight.

You cannot seriously do a 10hr commute on top of an 8hr on site day. I would not be happy with this, and due to the size of the area you cover, I would want travel time to be included as part of my working time or allowances made for some time back/ opportunity to stay over etc.

What does your contract state about this? what was said to you at interview?

Contract is quite vague (on purpose I think) it states I work at HQ (which i see once a month and hours are 9 till 9.30) never realy had an interview as such, but was hinted that i would sometimes work from home and if finished early on local sites that would be it for that day. As it happens closest customer I have been to in employment was 1 hour away, 2nd closest 2 hours.

like most people said its part of job, and if other roles its swings and roundabouts, some days you win, some you lose, but that has not really happened this time. Spoke to another employee a few days ago who has the same kind of job in the company, he has been put on a 3 day week, but can still do 1300 miles a week and work over 38 hours in those weeks

As for the money, it kind of sucks, usually in this kind of role where this is expected wage is half decent. With the actual hours involved I work out it goes to about £9.hr on average during some weeks

Mr_Oink

The only field service work I've seen that is well paid and cushy, is BT Openreach. That's 36.5 hours for £24k - but it's really the exception to the rule. The 'norm' can be up to 70 hours per week - and if you are lucky you'll get paid door to door. Some expect you to travel in your own time. In the current climate I take the view 'any job is better than no job', but I feel your pain.

C_Mababejive

Mr_Oink wrote: »

The only field service work I've seen that is well paid and cushy, is BT Openreach. That's 36.5 hours for £24k - but it's really the exception to the rule. The 'norm' can be up to 70 hours per week - and if you are lucky you'll get paid door to door. Some expect you to travel in your own time. In the current climate I take the view 'any job is better than no job', but I feel your pain.

OMG..i feel lucky now. I shall never complain again...

bigalec

Mr_Oink wrote: »

The only field service work I've seen that is well paid and cushy, is BT Openreach. That's 36.5 hours for £24k - but it's really the exception to the rule.

That's £24k after 5 years of working your way up the payscale in yearly increments which can be withheld for poor performance and other reasons.
It's not a cushy life working for Openreach for the majority, I know I used to do it.

Mr_Oink

bigalec wrote: »

That's £24k after 5 years of working your way up the payscale in yearly increments which can be withheld for poor performance and other reasons.
It's not a cushy life working for Openreach for the majority, I know I used to do it.

I think you'll find that pay increments and key performance markers exist in many roles - it's not unique to Openreach. It is correct that a significant salary for very limited cushy hours exists at BT/Openreach.

Openreach engineers are often able to get out of any hard work by screaming some safety issue or the other like "I can't climb that stick", "I can't open that box as I don't have a carriageway lifter", "I'm not UG trained" etc. etc. Many hard working and abused service engineers would love this soft, lazy lifestyle and I stand by my view that Openreach engineers are overpaid and under worked.

Thankfully management have spotted this (finally) and after years of 'three clears a day' (yes three jobs was acceptable performance for a five day worker - many would then sit around exchanges on their backsides for the rest of the day - sometimes a third to two thirds of the day) they are now fitting trackers and making these people work for their money. In reality for mostly unskilled 'battery and lightbulb' circuit work, £24k for 36.5 hours is a gross overpayment - and giving them a payrise on top of it is, in my view, sick and in poor taste. Imagine telling a washing machine engineer, doing 50-60 hours a week for 18k, he or she would need only to do 3-5 local jobs a day. They would cry laughing.

Any hard working service engineer would rightfully love such idolic working conditions near to home, such short hours, and such disproportionate pay. I think most service engineers would delight in being able to throw jobs back they don't like the smell of, or dodge work based on not having the right 'skills'.

Really, don't even dream of preaching to me that BT/Openreach engineers have any kind of hard life! Pampered, lazy, low skilled wet twonks!

DKLS

Mr_Oink wrote: »

The only field service work I've seen that is well paid and cushy, is BT Openreach. That's 36.5 hours for £24k - but it's really the exception to the rule. The 'norm' can be up to 70 hours per week - and if you are lucky you'll get paid door to door. Some expect you to travel in your own time. In the current climate I take the view 'any job is better than no job', but I feel your pain.

Cushy and well paid are you having a laugh? I wouldnt call sub 25k well paid at all.

Mr_Oink

for 36.5 hours of sitting on your backside -v- £16k for 60+ hours I'd call that 'well paid' by comparison. They should *halve* it in my view, not give em a pay rise!

DKLS

Mr_Oink wrote: »

for 36.5 hours of sitting on your backside -v- £16k for 60+ hours I'd call that 'well paid' by comparison. They should *halve* it in my view, not give em a pay rise!

Its all relative, I know someone on a day rate of £800 a day + expenses, and it is a very cushy role, which requires about 3 hours actual graft.

Mr_Oink

DKLS wrote: »

Its all relative, I know someone on a day rate of £800 a day + expenses, and it is a very cushy role, which requires about 3 hours actual graft.

Leave your MP out of it.......

bigalec

Mr_Oink wrote: »

I think you'll find that pay increments and key performance markers exist in many roles - it's not unique to Openreach.

I don't dispute that, I was merely pointing out that not all Openreach engineers are on £24K, a significant amount are on a lot less.

Mr_Oink wrote: »

Openreach engineers are often able to get out of any hard work by screaming some safety issue or the other like "I can't climb that stick", "I can't open that box as I don't have a carriageway lifter", "I'm not UG trained" etc. etc. Many hard working and abused service engineers would love this soft, lazy lifestyle and I stand by my view that Openreach engineers are overpaid and under worked.

I take it you have first hand experience of Openreach's current work practices Mr Oink, it appears you seem to be talking about work practices that occurred 10 years ago? In the area that I worked it wasn't easy to get rid of jobs, 95% of engineers were fully multiskilled (those that weren't should have been imho) and all jobs furthered back were investigated and disciplinary action taken against those who were found to be getting rid of jobs for an easy life. It was my job later on in my career with Openreach to investigate these furthers.

Mr_Oink wrote: »

Thankfully management have spotted this (finally) and after years of 'three clears a day' (yes three jobs was acceptable performance for a five day worker - many would then sit around exchanges on their backsides for the rest of the day - sometimes a third to two thirds of the day) they are now fitting trackers and making these people work for their money. In reality for mostly unskilled 'battery and lightbulb' circuit work, £24k for 36.5 hours is a gross overpayment - and giving them a payrise on top of it is, in my view, sick and in poor taste. Imagine telling a washing machine engineer, doing 50-60 hours a week for 18k, he or she would need only to do 3-5 local jobs a day. They would cry laughing.

Yes there were those who did 3 jobs and then went home if they thought they could get away with it, there were also those who struggled in all weathers to do 3 jobs in a day and those who did a lot more than 3 jobs in a day.
Engineers in big cities might have it cushy but out in the sticks it's another matter sometimes.
Yes, I agree that trackers in vans are a good idea, I also agree that a washing machine engineer would think it was easy, in fact a friend of my wife has a boyfriend does exactly that and was gobsmacked that we got paid overtime if we had to stop on to finish a job. Also taht we got leave and sickpay which he didn't.
Then again I expect that washing machine repairmen are probably all crooks that rip people off for spares that they don't need. (It's easy to sterotype isn't it?)

Mr_Oink wrote: »

Any hard working service engineer would rightfully love such idolic working conditions near to home, such short hours, and such disproportionate pay. I think most service engineers would delight in being able to throw jobs back they don't like the smell of, or dodge work based on not having the right 'skills'.

Mr_Oink wrote: »

Really, don't even dream of preaching to me that BT/Openreach engineers have any kind of hard life! Pampered, lazy, low skilled wet twonks!

Thanks, I take that as a personal insult.

So what's your big and important job then?