New job dilema

juliee19

Morning.

I am looking for opinions please as my family and friends aren't giving me a balanced view.

After being unemployed for 6 months I have an offer and signed the contract. The job is minimum wage and the overall package poor (no sick pay, no parking, etc.) . The interviews were conducted by phone and after visiting the premises to provide ID the physical environment is shabby and run down. In addition, the company also has a reputation locally for bad management and high staff turnover of young people (I am 51). But I feel that I can't afford to be fussy - it's a job and very much a relief.

My start date has been put back three times; it's month end and too busy, the manager is off ill and yesterday they said that the office isn't ready until the 26th in an email that was sent at 17:40 when I was due to start this Monday. By which time it will be month end again...

I don't know whether to start looking again or what the implications are of not starting after signing a contract. Or how to get time off at short notice if I need to attend an interview elsewhere.

Thanks in advance to anyone responding.

Emmia

I'd start looking again, given the delays, reputation and other factors,  like your start date being put back - when are you actually going to join, and start being paid wages?

juliee19

Thank you.

I won't be paid until I actually start. I don't know if I am right to have lost confidence or where companies have stripped resources to the bare bone this type of thing is going to happen and there is nothing to worry about.

[Deleted User]

I don't know in the event, you have no other job offers I would keep up the charade for now, whilst applying for anything else, nothing stops you if the first day is bad or you then realise you won't fit in, saying sorry I won't return. The only company in all my job offers who delayed the start date was a new start up who could just never get the customers. Sadly somewhere can be shabby and not look right with modern keeping but be profitable. (this is something which you could prefind out whether there is a strong following/customer base) No parking in a minimum wage job is a crippler if you don't walk to work or aren't a keen and capable cyclist. No idea on whether they will make it easy or hard to take time off should it come to it. Sorry I'm really unsure at a time when the average job it seems gets a thousand applications (just seen numbers after applying to bank work as a potential 2nd job) and I'm heading for a year in a job (but with free parking) that my younger self would probably have turned her nose up about.

TELLIT01

Carry on looking.  If it was just a case of the start date being deferred I wouldn't be so concerned given the current climate.  The other information you have discovered about the company suggests it won't be a great place to work.  Don't say you no longer want the job and start if you do get a firm date.

Brynsam

juliee19 said:

Morning.

I am looking for opinions please as my family and friends aren't giving me a balanced view.

After being unemployed for 6 months I have an offer and signed the contract. The job is minimum wage and the overall package poor (no sick pay, no parking, etc.) . The interviews were conducted by phone and after visiting the premises to provide ID the physical environment is shabby and run down. In addition, the company also has a reputation locally for bad management and high staff turnover of young people (I am 51). But I feel that I can't afford to be fussy - it's a job and very much a relief.

My start date has been put back three times; it's month end and too busy, the manager is off ill and yesterday they said that the office isn't ready until the 26th in an email that was sent at 17:40 when I was due to start this Monday. By which time it will be month end again...

I don't know whether to start looking again or what the implications are of not starting after signing a contract. Or how to get time off at short notice if I need to attend an interview elsewhere.

Thanks in advance to anyone responding.

Friends and family never do give a balanced view - but often that's because they know you and are better placed to comment than random strangers on a board like this.

Pretty much any job is going to be better than no job, and that situation will only get worse in the coming months, so if this job ever comes to fruition, great. In the meantime, start looking again and if you get a better offer, snap it up. There are unlikely to be any implications of not starting with this employer, given the way they've messed you about.

AskAsk

as someone had already said, keep this as a fallback and start to look for other jobs.  you don't actually have to start as they can't really demand you do so, considering they keep changing the start date.

juliee19

Thanks folks, reassuring to have different viewpoints to the ones I got in real life.

Being in a tier 2 area I think the alternatives will dry up very quickly, with even more competition. I'm not sure those closest to me realise the severity of the current economic situation because they don't know anyone else that has been affected.

theoretica

Carry on looking for something better - the way you describe it doesn't sound all that great as a job so you would want an eye out for others even once you do start at this one.