1 month and ......

melbi_uk

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

And yet you were advising the OP to go sick, purely on the grounds that she's unhappy.

I was thinking about her future health!

If she continues to place herself in a position that is making her so unhappy she could end up ill.

My apologies if I didn't make myself clear in my first post.

dmg24

melbi_uk wrote: »

I was thinking about her future health!

If she continues to place herself in a position that is making her so unhappy she could end up ill.

My apologies if I didn't make myself clear in my first post.

So you are suggesting that she goes sick now in case she gets ill in the future?

The mind boggles!

Sixer

OP: what hours do you work? Are you given breaks during your working hours and are they paid? Whatever other posters have said here on the subject of your unhappiness at work, it's illegal to pay you less than NMW. Add up the hours you have spent at your desk (not inside the building) over a week or over several weeks. Don't include the time you've spent on tea/lunch breaks. If that adds up to less than NMW per hour, then the surgery is breaking the law. You will need to see the most senior person possible at the practice and present your case. They will have to up the wages or stop the unpaid overtime and allow you to clock the hours you actually work.

melbi_uk

dmg24 wrote: »

So you are suggesting that she goes sick now in case she gets ill in the future?

The mind boggles!

I'll shut up

I haven't joined here to be attacked

goodbye

DerbyDD

If you were to leave your job you could fall into the Employment on Trial category. This allows you to go back on JSA without sanction. Detailed explanation and criteria at adviceguide.org or google Employment on Trial, first one is the .gov.

Call JCP and enquire.

Svenena

I agree with the posters who are saying that 4 weeks isn't really long enough to evaluate a job. Especially if you've been out of work for a while - I know when I got a job after being unemployed for about three months (and being a student before that), I found it really tiring at first, which made things seem worse than they really were.

Rather than giving up straight away and packing it in, which will end you up back on JSA for god knows how long, have you thought about whether there's anything you can do to change the things you're unhappy with? You could ask to have a review meeting with your line manager (completely acceptable from a new member of staff), and bring up the things you're unhappy with - they may be able to help. If you have any ideas on what could constructively be changed to help, and any compromises you'd be willing to make, this would help your cause. You could also use it to discuss a bit more what they'd like from you, and how you can get what you'd like from them, eg training/experience in particular skills which will help you for future jobs.

Being expected to arrive a bit early and stay a bit late I wouldn't really see as a big deal - it's been expected at almost every job I've had, and is pretty common. If you have a long commute or something, again you could bring this up with the line manager, and express (diplomatically) that it's difficult for you to get in early or stay late, is there any way around it?

I hope you work something out. I'd hate to be unemployed again in the current jobs market!

harborjenny

Wow, thanks for all the responses.

To elaborate further, I get paid £6 per hour and work 20 hours a week spread over 5 days, so average of 4 hours per day. Bus pass costs £4 per day.

Depending on what shift I work I am expected to open surgery for the morning or afternoon and close afterwards.

Yes I take it as read that I arrive a while before to make sure I have a drink (which I stopped doing as that was obviously making me want to go to the loo). There is paperwork which the dr generates which needs to be dealt with which if it is not done before patients arrive need to be done during or at the end of surgery and when the doors close the paperwork needs to be completed whether it is 10 mins or 1 hour.

I started with another person but it didn't work out for her, so another started, then another, there are 3 of us there often 2 together but we are not allowed to talk to each other in case there is a secret shopper in the surgery and of course there is work to be done. I put an extra patient in to see a dr but got 'told off', forgot to switch the phone over, 'told off'.

I was told it questioned (in front of colleague and patients) what the proceedure was for something in particular I got wrong, my mind was blank.

NEVER have I been treated like this.

SO then I get taken to one side as I am about to leave last week and told I need to take annual leave this week as the new year starts/ends in April and they need me to to take it and they want to reduce my hours for a while until changes come into place in April. I aksed for my cheque for the Friday, but had to collect this week as they were too tight to post it. AND it won't clear until next week now.

Yes I have been applying for jobs this week, registed with 2 agencies (wow things must be looking up as they were not registering for the past few months).

I have worked as a temp in the past so am used to having to learn how to do things.

Job Centre not helpful, ACAS say I have no rights for less than 1 year.

So here I am between a rock and a hard place.

seven-day-weekend

In my last job I worked flexitime but was expected to be ready to face customers by 0830 at the latest if I was Duty Officer. This meant I had to be in BEFORE 0830 so that I could be ready to be on the desk at 0830.

If at 1700 thre was still a customer waiting to be seen, I saw them, I didn't just leave them and go home.

This is just good customer service and would be expected in any customer-facing environment.

As for asking to go to the loo, the same applies, if you are the receptionist you can't just leave it with no cover. This applies in many jobs. My son just can't walk away from his till at Morrisons, my husband could not just leave his classroom. They either have to get cover or wait until their break (and waiting for their break would be deemed preferable). Again, this is all quite usual. If you only work a four-hour shift you should not really need to go to the loo during it (unless you have a disability in this aspect).

As for being shouted at, then if it is other staff that are shouting at you, then you need to see your line manager about this and sort it out. If it is patients then you need training in how to deal with it.

Four weeks is not very long in a job, I would give it more time, and ask for further training and ask your line manager about any difficulties that you are having.

harborjenny

It's the line managers (or practice managers) doing the shouting, I had a rotten cold with a dry throat, so drunk water, so I could answer the phone and talk to patients, so it was either ask to go or risk wetting myself.

KxMx

harborjenny wrote: »

SO then I get taken to one side as I am about to leave last week and told I need to take leave this week as the new year starts/ends in April

Seeing as you've only been there 4 weeks I feel it's pretty generous that they're insisting you get your leave entitlement for april 10-11

As it's your immediate superiors causing the upset could you perhaps speak to one of the GP practice partners.