NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Bathory

Just catching up with the thread. I am very sorry to hear of people bullied in the workplace and feeling disillusioned. I can only say if it does get that bad then health comes first. Please do take care of yourselves.

In my FT job before redundancy in 2011, I remember being run into the ground with what i did. We all had to apply for our own jobs several times because of pay restructures, got awarded a pay cut by 3k (for doing same job, just a different title) and then relocated to a place that was known to be rough and tricky to get to. It was the commute that messed me up more than anything and the bugs picked up from terrible fatigue of travelling 4-5 hours a day (more if it snowed or an accident had happened). "We all have to commute, no excuse to be sick" exclaimed one manager who drove just 15 minutes from down the road to her house.

I'm now employed via an agency part time, but after redundancy I did take some time out to care for my mum when she suffered a heart attack not long after. I have a gap in the old cv but don't regret it for a second. Mum came first, not another FT job.

On a different note, only spending done today was in Home bargains for nicky rolls and a 5-pk of Knights castile soap, maybe its just me but I'm sure the bars have shrunk over time!

purpleshoes_2

Weather is terrible here just now, Im 4 up in flat and it feels like my windows are going to blow in (they won't but its horrible). Taught my class, had some new people, someone bought a ten class pass, all good.

Spent 79p today. Finished up the tomato and leek soup I made last week and had put in the fridge. Made a pot of parsnip, mushroom and shoved in some straggly looking spring onions.

Don't know how I'll sleep with that wind outside, its to be like this all night apparently, its really awful. Same tomorrow. Looking like Im going to be cancelling the planned night out for saturday night as I really don't want to be doing a 35 mile round trip in weather like that.

Stay safe everyone affected, I honestly cannot wait for a dry day with no wind, it actually feels like it has rained every day for a month here, even though it hasn't the weather has been wet, windy and horrible for the best part of the last 4-5 weeks.

Didn't go near a supermarket today. My mum was saying that when she spent money on bargains, my gran would always say, what are you going to do with the money you saved? Probably a saying from my grans era, meaning was that really a bargain?

My gran had a collection of what my mum called couthy sayings, she was one of a kind, I miss her.

Im going to have to go out tomorrow to get the mogs litter, as I didn't get it today, they had enough to last, but its going to be as quick as I can go out and drop the CS stuff off, buy the litter and any other wee bits I need and back home.

Nights like tonight, living on the ground floor would be quite nice.

Coulddobetter

Shipmates please take care bad working conditions can be terrible. I used to have a job that meant I worked from 7am-11pm 6 days a week and had a notepad at the side if my bed for all the things I have forgotten to do. I decided I had to get out and when I resigned my boss offered me more work for a 5% pay increase. He really didn't get it. Things are much better now. :j

Had a spend today hair colour and cut but really pleased with the result and it is my luxury. I have a bad stomach hence the late post keep feeling sick if I try to sleep, had hospital appt this week so they are trying to get to the bottom of the problem. Anyone that complains about the NHS should have had my treatment on Monday. I couldn't believe how good they were, within 45 mins I had seen the consultant, had the examination, tests and bloods taken I was so impressed. Back to work within the hour.

Like many others I am focused on my retirement plans, keep thinking do I need anything else rather than save the money for my future. Most of my friends have taken early retirement and I thought they were really missing out but perhaps they had it right, downsize, cut you cloth and then you can retire in your 40s or early 50s. As usual I am behind the drag curve

Could do better xx

fairy3

Good morning shipmates insomniac at moment - something woke me so now got tea and MSE - finally caught up.

Workplace stress is horrible and one of the reasons I chose to retire at 55 - 60 hour weeks, long commutes, constant restructures, pressures and additional workload without any time to do anything well decided it before my health was permanently affected. Work life balance was definitely wonky so slowly trying to adjust and as others have said being on here helps so much.Good luck with your decision SD you can be sure of support on here.
Reporting first week of no SM's and have to say apart from a lack of salad has been painless shopping the market and independents, did not need much and came to £17.23 in total with prices comparable and cheaper in some cases. Interesting about the Tosco news and the reports that over the xmas period the higher and lower end SM's have increased profits whilst the big 5 have not, does that reflect the consumers wanting value all year mixed with a bit of luxury? Not sure but seems to make sense.
Have spent money on coach tickets for end of month visit to friend - rail would have cost £98 each way whilst n express wanted £23 return, after checking megab*s out and combining with n express reduced total to £12.40 and the pick up stops are about 10 metres apart! Amazing as difference will pay for a bottle of wine to take and definitely a need!

Hope everyone has a lovely Friday and it's the end of the week - going to spend time checking the amazon book payback thingy as may be able to cost neutral the trip as well.

dND

Slowdown wrote: »

Let's get the negative bit out So, after a rubbish three days at work, I came home and had a couple of drinks to calm myself down. Not a good way to solve your problems at all but it was only two and I stopped there. I am finding my job a proper struggle at the moment and it really isn't the children that are the problem. It's being totally undermined by management and being left to struggle in a new post without any guidance at all. Anyway as a result, a discussion ensued with DH when neither of us could get to sleep.He declared my mental health to be most important and said if I couldn't get a new job in the summer I could leave anyway. Half of me rejoices half of me feels guilty.
Does anyone else on this ship live on a roller coaster of emotion and energy, self belief and self questioning or is it just me?

A bit late to the party on this one but have to say, been there, had the breakdown (final straw was very similar to Slowdown's OP in a further ed place), and still recovering 10 years later

What I would say to anyone experiencing these sorts of feelings is get support and get out. Businesses don't change and as long as there are more people looking for work than there are jobs, they will use and abuse people - OK I am a total cynic these days

I also hope the support on offer these days is better than 10 years ago, I was basically given Prozac and sent away until I felt better. I came off the stuff after 9 months because I really didn't like the feeling of not really being there and did my own version of joining the French Foreign Legion and came to France. It's given me the opportunity to begin to understand myself and why it happened and to stop blaming myself (it's a lot more complex than that but not something I am going to share in public) but suffice to say if you do go as far as having the breakdown, you and life are never the same again.

So to back up what previous posters have said, if a job is unfairly stressful, get out before you are carried out. Sorry for the melodrama but I do feel strongly about it and hindsight is 20/20 vision as the saying goes. I just carried on 'coping' until I crashed

On a much happier note, still not too unhappy with my purchases yesterday but staying at home today, hoping to keep purse tightly closed and do some more decluttering.:j

grunnie

Still very dark here but the wind is howling very loudly so batten down the hatches and we'll go where the wind takes us. My 4 recycling bins have blown up the garden but if that is the only damage I will consider myself lucky. The torch and candles and matches are at hand if the electric goes off.
On the stress at work. I had a great boss till the year before I gave up work. My boss retired and the replacement made life so difficult. What a difference same work same pupils but work conditions were awful - so when OH retired I gave up work too. I thought we would be really hard up but surprisingly not because of this site. That was nearly eleven years ago and haven't regretted it for a minute.

GreyQueen

It a very saddening experience to read about so many people effectively being driven out of their jobs, and sometimes out of their careers altogether, by the actions of their management.

However, it chimes with what I see and hear IRL. My customer services dept is stuffed with 'refugees' from a major employer (global brand name) here which once offered clever and hardworking people a chance to work for 40+ years in a decent environment and then make an honourable retirement.

Something changed about a generation ago, and this company now consumes its human capital like a power station consumes fuel, and what gets spat out the other end are wrecks. They destroy people then, when their victims are collapsing into MH and/ or physical health problems, dump them like the proverbial hot potatoes.

I suppose from their pov their Darwinian managerial processes separate out the wheat from the chaff and they're left with the movers and shakers, the tough and the capable, and those who fall aside are weaklings and losers whom they'd be better off without.

Trouble is, people who care and who are good at their jobs are often the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to internal problems, and the people who don't care, who abuse colleagues and subordinates, are likely to remain in post. The sociopaths end up running the organisation.

This Company is such a major employer that it's rare to find someone who does office-based work here who hasn't taken their shilling at some point, but most have vowed never again. It used to be that if your young adult got hired by this outfit, it would be a cause for celebration. Now, I encounter people who have had their parents (who've often worked for The Company themselves) extract solemn promises from them that they won't ever work there.

This is a FTSE 100 company, household name, global brand. I will never ever do business with them after what they have done to some friends (now in pastures new) and are in the process of doing to another friend (whose wellbeing I fear for).

ruby_eskimo

Just trying to catch up here, things move so quickly!

I am another one who's had work stress a lot over the years. With my last job, I absolutely dreaded going into work everyday because I didn't want to have to deal with the people shouting at me down the phone for hours on end (didn't work in a call centre but might as well have). I had a quite serious breakdown in my mental health that resulted in me running away to a friends house at the other end of the country and left my OH thinking that I wanted to leave him. I managed to somehow in all the mess find myself a new job, where I currently am and I'm so much happier. Well to a point. The people are lovely but the workload is horrendous. I'm doing the same amount of work as at least 2 people in other departments and my fixed term contract is coming to an end.

I'm going to be starting yet another new job in a few weeks that even though will initially be a lot more stressful, the benefits (working from home one day a week, shorter and cheaper commute = more time actually at home) definitely outweigh the negatives. I've now been offered 2 different roles at my current place, both for more money, but I've turned them down. Money isn't everything.

On a more positive note, I've had 4 NSD's this week and I'm about to have my 5th one today as I don't need to buy anything this evening.

emslovesmickey

Well it shows already how much this thread has changed my perspective. My favourite group are releasing a film near my birthday and I was going to watch it as a treat. Until I found out that, as it is on limited release, going to see it would mean a long train journey there and back again, plus accomodation for the night. So I will wait until it is available on itunes/dvd and get it then.

115K

Bathory wrote: »

In my FT job before redundancy in 2011, I remember being run into the ground with what i did. We all had to apply for our own jobs several times because of pay restructures, got awarded a pay cut by 3k (for doing same job, just a different title) and then relocated to a place that was known to be rough and tricky to get to. It was the commute that messed me up more than anything and the bugs picked up from terrible fatigue of travelling 4-5 hours a day (more if it snowed or an accident had happened). "We all have to commute, no excuse to be sick" exclaimed one manager who drove just 15 minutes from down the road to her house.

That sounded awful.:(

My DH doesn't have a stressful job but he had had cancer over the past two years and we do worry that if we move to a more expensive house he might get worse and have to leave his job or his work will get fed up with the amount of time he is having off for treatment and make him leave.

It's a big decision which doesn't help that we really don't like where we live now.

I'm off to look on Rightmove again. It's a No Spend Day again.