60k debt - anyone else with one? - Got a new job!! :D

Brassic

Well, the end of this month has been rubbish

Bad points.

-got notification from tax office that about 3 years ago we were overpaid on I guess it was working tax credit, and now owe them nearly 300 quid - by next week _pale_
-overspent on my groceries.
-our gas card has failed after topping it up with 20 quid on Friday, so we've had no gas all w/e. :mad:
-Still haven't received my childminding certificate. <sigh>
-Still need to pay out for the makings of a birthday picnic for 8 kides, but that shouldn't be too bad.

Had some good points though - but mostl involve money spending

-Got the containers for all my Chrimbo hampers for 2 quid each.
-Got some nice mugs and spoons for hot choccie sets for under a quid each.
-ordered some lovely xmas-y cellowrap from ebay.
-Got enough free bottles from work to start all my spicy oil botles this week.

So first thing tomorrow morning will phone tax folks to try and sort that out. It's a shame you can't retrospectively claim tax as we haven't claimed for the last 3 years when we could have (stoopid I know).

Oh well, maybe November will be better.

Brassic

Well, hello again. Owesomuch, how was your holiday?

I'm having a bad day. I've been told I have to leave my current team at work. This is very bad news as the reality is there aren't' many other jobs for me at my company, and after the way this has happened, I'm !!!!!!ed if I want a job there anyway.

The reason I no longer have a job in my team? Well, so far as I can make out :

• I need to find something more suitable for my situation (being a mother and all) - yes he actually said that.
• To have to retrain all the time to keep in line with the skills needed would be to stressful for someone in my situation (being a mother).

He sent me a matrix of skills he expects and I sent it onto a contractor I know and his opion was people with those skills should be comanding a six figure salary. (Sure as hell nowhere near my salary!)

Apparently if I don't transfer to another department somehow I could end up being fired for consistent low performing. When I questioned that, apparently just doing as I'm told really well, is only performing at very best average, but mainly poor. If I want to do above average I have to be pro-active and give presentations to management on improvements which could be made. I have a small project coming up very important to the application I work on. I asked him directly whether if I performed really well on that it would be reflected in my grading and apparently it wouldn't, because I'd only be doing as I'm told. And if this continued over 2 assessment periods I'd be let go of. I don't have time to be proactive like that. I work part time 2.5 days a week and am kept very busy doing support. It may not get really big exposure but it's still a very necessary role which I do very well.

However, having said that, I'm ripe for a change. I'm bored stiff in my current job and was going to change in a couple of years when dd goes to school. I guess this just pre-empts it. I've actually found today a job which looks perfect for me which closes out on Thursday, so have nearly finished the application form for that and will send it first thing tomorrow morning.

I'm just a bit p'eed off and upset. I've been with current company since March 99, and have had no problems until current boss appeared 4 months ago. He's States based, and we now only have 1 full time UK member in our team, and he hinted he will be telling the other part time mum who I kind of job share with the same thing as me. Surely if he wants me to go cos the skill set is different now than what I was originally employed for, he either needs to train me or make me redundant? Doesn't he?

Gahhh, sorry for the huge long email. I'll be amazed if anyone gets through it, but it was kind of a relief to let off some steam.

Pauper_Princess

Brassic, I'm really sorry to hear about your new t*@t of a boss.

I too would've thought that you would be entitled to training/redundancy. But I don't really know. Sounds VERY unfair though?

I'm not familair with your situation, sorry :rolleyes2

But I do wish you all the best and I'll have my fingers crossed for the new job application

emylou

Have been reading this thread with great interest & just wanted to wish you luck with your job application. Let us know how you get on. I know what it's like having a **** for a boss :rolleyes:

Headintheclouds_3

I'm not up on employment law in the US but isn't that gender discrimination in the UK? Presumably you're covered by UK employment law? Perhaps this numpty needs a little reminding of that.

However, if it's an excuse for a change then go for it!

moozie_2

Hey Brassic, been a while!

I am not sure how it works in the private sector but this could be seen as discrimination in the public sector. I manage a small team and if I have any concerns over their performance,I have to document how I've addressed that with them over a period of time, minimum 6 months, before I can show them the door, if they don't shape up.

I wish I could offer some constructive advice but not got any all I can say is use this to your advantage to go for other positions where you will feel more fullfilled and appreciated.

Best of luck!

owessomuch

Hey Brassic and everyone else! :wave:

Well I'm back and had a wonderful time thanks very much. Dipped into my overdraft while I was there (naughty I know) but to be honest I thought I would have more than I did.

So now I have lots of hours to do at work to get a bit of extra money to get back on top of things.

Brassic, I can't beleive all the things that have happened since I've been gone. Your boss sounds like a complete d**khead! If I were you I would go to CAB and see what they have to say about the situation.

I know my boss is very clued up on all sorts of situations and was telling me that employers need to tred very carefully these days. Aprarently 9 times out of 10 in a tribunal it always goes in favour of the employee. I even know a woman who left her job to "pursue a different career" then took it further to say that wasn't the case really she felt that she had to leave because of the boss and won.

I know you might want to change jobs but it seems to me that they are being very unfair to you.

Can I also just say how jealous I am that you seem so organised on the christmas front! I've not even thought about it yet. Its by BF birthday friday so I need to get him a nice present (seeing as he did take me on holiday ) I sneakily bought a photo frame while we were on holiday so I'm going to put one of the holiday snaps in it as a gift and then I'm not sure what else. I better get my bum into gear though I only have today and tomorrow to sort it out.

How are things going with claiming back your charges? Have you had to send a LAB?

Brassic

Hi all,

Thanks for the support. After talking with people I think there are grounds for constructive dismissal or whatever it's called, but I really don't want to have to go down that route. Instead I'm really going to push for the redundancy, as that'll be a lovely lump sum since I've been with them for a while, which would be really helpful going towards debts so long as I get a new job pretty quickly.

I filled in the forms and sent the app off for that job via next day delivery this morning so have got fingers firmly crossed. The more I think about it the more perfect it seems for me - but don't worry, I haven't pinned all my hopes on it - I'm still looking. :rolleyes:

Owesomuch, glad you had such a great holiday. I sent off my LBA last Thursday (recorded obviously) and have heard nothing back as yet. 8 days until I have to make a claim via MoneyClaim.

I did laugh at your christmas present idea. I'm taking it a step further as I'm doing a saucy calendar for my hubby by buying one of those ones you just stick the photos in. Anyway, I've got most of it figured (camera, tripod etc at the ready) but was a bit unsure about lights. So I asked a friend of mine as her hubby is a photographer. There was this really loooooong pause down the line - turns out she thought I wanted her hubby to take them :eek: :rotfl: OMG! How embarressing! Not a chance!

Like you I'm not sure what else to get my hubby - our limit is a tenner on each other so I'm having to be very creative. Next stop is the charity shops to try and find a Dean Koontz or Steven King book he hasn't got.

Cheers all!

owessomuch

Good luck with the job hun and really hope you get rundundancy. I'll keep everything crossed for you

owessomuch

Hi all,

How's things going with the job Brassic?

I'm feeling a bit rubbish today, I have spent so much money over the weekend and I really don't have a clue what on! I knew it would be a bit more expensive what with BF birthday but I have completely blown my budget and I'm really angry with myself :mad:

Also work is really quiet at them moment so I dont think I'll have any overtime for a while, just as Christmas is around the corner, it's the one thing I didn't need to hear.

Sorry to be a moaner but I really needed to get that off my chest.

Anyway how are you, hope things are going better than they are for me?