Advise on my job.

jjbrien

I really need some advise from your guys so please help me out on this. I have been working for a company for since March and I think its time for me to leave. Let me explain whats going on in my head and at work. I called in sick for a week last week because I felt I could not take that job anymore.

I work as a Customer Service/Technical Support agent in a call center. The job does not really reqiure much work. But the company I work for really sucks. If i log a call to the next level of support in order to get something fixed on our end that is causing the customer grief they normally dont do anything with it they just wait until the problem just goes away and then say its fixed without doing anything. The customer then calls in and goes ape on us. Thsi happens far to often we escalate the issue again and then the same thing happens again.

My boss does not know much about the comany at all he just pretends to. When you ask him a question he does not know whats going on. He is also spinless. If we have a problem with our head office he says he will sort it out but backs down when anybody talks sternly to him that includes the agents on my team.

My coworkers are totally false. They are very nice to your face and then stab you in the back when you not there. They do this with most people in the office. I feel I can not put up with this anymore my head is totally wrecked. When I think I have to go into work tomrrow it makes me cringe. Has anybody got any advise. Has anybody been a situation like this before.

aidan_walsh

Life's too short to stay in a job you don't like. IMO, start looking through sites like Monster and see whats available in the same sector, or even something different.

jjbrien

Thanks mate I do want to leave. But I feel i need to just hand in my notice now. I have been looking for a new job the notice period (one month) is holiding me back from getting a new job. Does anybody think I should just quit.

Tusky

Of course you should quit. Sounds like a nightmare.

sweet-rasmus

yep. not worth it. life's too short to be stuck in a job you dont enjoy. it must really get you down, so you gotta just get away. talk to your boss - that one more month may not have to be endured...

free2fly

If you can afford it financially then yes, give your notice. If it will put into financial difficulties then I would think about it carefully before making an impulsive move. Suck it up for another month if you have to.

LundiMardi

forget about your notice period... Look for a job, if you're offered one just say your notice period is a week, then just give in your notice.... they're not going to force you to stay!!

bug

never stay in a job you can't change.
If you have valid concerns and there is no one to go to to discuss them, thats the companys fault for hiring a shoddy manager and their loss for not taking into account someone who can see the whole system and its downsides and wants to improve it.

Leave.
I hear google are hiring

Darragh29

jjbrien wrote:

I really need some advise from your guys so please help me out on this. I have been working for a company for since March and I think its time for me to leave. Let me explain whats going on in my head and at work. I called in sick for a week last week because I felt I could not take that job anymore.

I work as a Customer Service/Technical Support agent in a call center. The job does not really reqiure much work. But the company I work for really sucks. If i log a call to the next level of support in order to get something fixed on our end that is causing the customer grief they normally dont do anything with it they just wait until the problem just goes away and then say its fixed without doing anything. The customer then calls in and goes ape on us. Thsi happens far to often we escalate the issue again and then the same thing happens again.

My boss does not know much about the comany at all he just pretends to. When you ask him a question he does not know whats going on. He is also spinless. If we have a problem with our head office he says he will sort it out but backs down when anybody talks sternly to him that includes the agents on my team.

My coworkers are totally false. They are very nice to your face and then stab you in the back when you not there. They do this with most people in the office. I feel I can not put up with this anymore my head is totally wrecked. When I think I have to go into work tomrrow it makes me cringe. Has anybody got any advise. Has anybody been a situation like this before.

JJ, firstly, you should give yourself some serious credit with having the intelligence for being able to see the situation for what it is: pure management ineptitude. Your reaction to the situation is diffferent from that of your peers and you should not lose sight of that. In industrial psychological terms, you appear to be what is known as a deviant, the person in the group with a unique view of a situation not visible to others. Deviants tend to be natural leaders, such is their ability to clearly see a vision or pathway in a workplace not apparent to others. Your peers just want to fit in with the system, whereas you see the problems very clearly and want to change the system accordingly.

Sadly management in Ireland is worse than useless, the standard in management in Ireland is actually dangerous and a hazard to your health. If workplace stress was taken seriously as an occupational injury in Ireland, which is starting to happen, most workplaces in Ireland would be considered a health harzard, such is the poor standard of management in Ireland. You sound like you have too much to offer a conventional workplace with all the woodenheaded management that comes along with it, did you ever consider working for yourself???

turbot

That sounds immoral. I'd suggest quit.

BTW, do you work for Eircom?

Lust4Life

Darragh29, you worded that very well!
I am also one of those people who looks at a job from a business standpoint instead of just being a "good little worker".

When we see those weaknesses in the chain of command it can be extremely upsetting to our mental health.

I have left 3 jobs in my lifetime because of this and have never looked back.
I have also kept jobs because I was so impressed with the way things were handled from above chain of command.

OP, if it is literally making you sick to your stomach to go into work, then by all means, leave at your earliest convenience!

This company does not own you, and you really do not owe this company anything for hiring you. (Screw the 1 month notice rule!)

Look for other employment. Set up job interviews and tell your employer you have an important appointment to go to. If they ask for details, tell them you have a rash you need to have looked at and will return when you can. (Or a problem with your vision! - you can't see yourself working there much longer!)

Set up your interviews for first thing in the morning or at day's end. Prospective employers are more willing to work with you in this respect if you are honest and straightforward with them.

However, if you do tell them why you are leaving your present job, be sure to have real examples as to what makes you so unhappy about your present job.

Monster.com was not much help to me in my search, though. try something more local such as http://www.jobs.ie/

Be positive! You can do this! You MUST do this!

Also, be sure to visit the Work/Jobs forum here on boards! There is excellent advice to be found regarding interviews and resumes.

I wish you the best!

L

Ruu_Old

Sorry to hear about the difficulty you are in OP. It does seem like your hands are tied in this situation and I can see why it must be terribly frustrating for you seeing these things going on. I would suggest doing what the others that have posted, seek out something better for yourself. Sounds like a head wrecker of a place to be in. Let us know how you get on anyway. Good luck.

Sinfonia

(as inspired by an episode of Friends, and merely a suggestion)

Leave now, and give yourself "The Fear",
which will motivate you to get active in looking for another job - the idea was that if you stayed in the job you were in while looking for another, it would take you much longer...

Darragh29

Lust4Life wrote:

I have left 3 jobs in my lifetime because of this and have never looked back.
I have also kept jobs because I was so impressed with the way things were handled from above chain of command.

Exact same story here, every job I've ever been in, I've left because of the way I was managed, which I can only describe as being utterly dysfunctional. After what seemed like endless horrible experiences working for complete muppet managers whose only abilities seemed to be in making my time at work more miserable, stressful, extremely difficult, less productive and at times traumatic, I finally realised that I had too much talent, vision and energy to waste a lifetime suffering frustration and misery in workplaces that had a backward and woodenheaded philosophy, that hired complete arseho*e managers who couldn't do their job, which in turn prevented me from meeting my own high expectations of myself in the role that I worked in.

I left my last full-time employment recently and am now working for myself. I can state with full conviction that I will NEVER work for another company again, I've seen enough to be honest and I've had experiences that were consistently unsavoury to know that management in Ireland is simply dysfunctional, there is no other word for it. Just before someone replies saying, "you brought problems on yourself" or "you sound like you were causing loads of problems". Each time I saw these negative things where I worked, all of my colleagues agreed with me that the system was basically not working or was working poorly and inefficiently, or that morale was terrible because people had to other outlet for their frustrations at work but to bitch and backbite at each other, but not one would have the guts to make the change that was necessary, they just wanted to continue being inefficient, poorly organised, demoralised, "complaining-about-their-job", "this-place-is-a-sh1thole", moany, whingy, employees.

Now in my current position, "I'm the gaffer" as Steve Staunton would say! If I want to improve a process or procedure in my job, I can do it, without worrying about who I will offend or embarrass or who will end up getting the "brownie points" for the effort I make, as a previous utter assho*e manager of mine used to put it! When I hopefully gmy business expands and I need to employ staff, I would never treat them as I was treated, I'd expect them to provide ideas, I'd let them make their own improvements and I'd recognise and thank them financially and personally for doing it.

BreadBoard

I was in a similar job situation. I walked out and told the boss to stick his job. I came back in the next day with a 4 page letter for 8/9 people whom most I liked and the others where the management.

Here is the first 3 paragraphs of a quite long letter;

Well basically left because I can't stand the place anymore, it's not a nice place to work in and the "people" who run it just don't seem to do their job properly or maybe they can but they just turn a blind eye to "some" members of staff ie Mr. X. MR. X does no work whatsoever as far as I can see and I'm not the only member of staff who has noticed this , but it's up to those other members to say to tell the management how they feel & what they see (more likely not see). I have had many a conversation with other members of staff regarding Mr. X's lack of work over the last four years at my time with the company, especially over the last year or so.

It's not only Mr.X's lack of work that would be discussed, his downright rudeness towards people would also be a recurring topic. I found my-self biting my tongue most times but some times Mr. X would be such a inconsiderate person I would have to tell him what such a nasty little man he could be, but I would hope the other members of the xxxxx/xxxxx (department) end of things would tell of their occasions of his downright rudeness towards people, but again that is up to them. I really and truly can't understand how the man gets away with it. The man won't even pour out a cup of hot water for a cup of tea for someone when there would be only the two of them, he would just pour out his own hot water, what a sad little man.

Anyway like I was saying, Mr. X's lack of work over the last four years at my time with the company, especially over the last year or so seems to correspond when those two great workers form X Company started in the xxxxxx/xxxxxx area in Y Company. Mr. X does no work as far as I can see, he often would leave the premises to go to talk to the security guard in the security hut two buildings down from Unit B5, it wouldn't be for just a few minutes (not that that is right either) he would disappear for a half hour or more most days. This is just "some" of the excrement that went on at Y Company.

OP get out of that job, your worth more.

Conar

OP I was in a very similar situation to you a couple of years back.
I was also in a tech support call centre and was so stressed out in work that I actually didn't even look forward to going home cos I was almost too stressed to drive. I pulled sickies all the time and was on disciplinery for it.
I ended up leaving for a better job though and it is closer to where I live.
I get treated well where I am now I am now and I am so much more the lively upbeat person I used to be.

Leave that kip. You can't spend 40 hours a week being somewhere that you hate, it's just not healthy.
Go to the doctor, tell him how stressed you feel at work. Get him to write you off as sick for a week (or two) and blitz the interviews out of it.

Darragh29

Conar wrote:

I pulled sickies all the time and was on disciplinery for it.

Isn't it weird how work stress can cause people to be absent from work for prolonged periods of time and a serious workplace injury is defined in Irish law as any work injury which causes an absence from work for 3 working days or more???

If you injured yourself in work and were absent from work for 3 or more days, your employer is obliged to report the accident to the HSA (Health & Safety Authority), and the HSA is obliged to investigate the incident and report upon how it occured, but I personally know of many people who were out of work exclusively due to work relates stress, workplace/management bullying and not a word said or a finger raised against the employer, no HSA concern, just the same manager bullying more people and causing more absence and people leaving their jobs. I think this is the most serious issue in the workplace in Ireland at the moment and the unions, "social partners", IBEC, IMSE, nobody gives the slightest sh1t about it...

jjbrien

Firstly I would like to thank everonr for their kind words. I didnt go into work again today. But this time I really do feel ill. But I will go to the doctor today get a sick cert and then stay on my pc for an hour or so looking for new jobs while drinking lempsip. Life is too short to put up the rubish i put up with at work. As i see alot of you have been in simular situations in the past. After thinking about the whole thing over the last 48 hours what I am going to do is not quit until I find something else. This job was only ment to be tempory as a friend of mine asked me to start a new computer shop with him in the new year so that is what I want to do. But I will find a new job to keep me going until then.

Conor just a question I think I may have worked in the same comapny as you before but on a diffrent team pm me if you want to know.

Miss Fluff

Procure a sick note for the next seven days (be honest with the doctor and tell them how intolerable your working conditions are) and use the time proactively to go and look for another job. Try www.irishjobs.ie did a search just now and there are lots of CSR and tech support roles on there. Where do you live?

Darragh29

jjbrien wrote:

Firstly I would like to thank everonr for their kind words. I didnt go into work again today. But this time I really do feel ill. But I will go to the doctor today get a sick cert and then stay on my pc for an hour or so looking for new jobs while drinking lempsip. Life is too short to put up the rubish i put up with at work. As i see alot of you have been in simular situations in the past. After thinking about the whole thing over the last 48 hours what I am going to do is not quit until I find something else. This job was only ment to be tempory as a friend of mine asked me to start a new computer shop with him in the new year so that is what I want to do. But I will find a new job to keep me going until then.

Conor just a question I think I may have worked in the same comapny as you before but on a diffrent team pm me if you want to know.

Fair play to you for deciding to draw a line under your experiences, just a word of caution, make sure you don't go from the frying pan to the fire!

Recently I worked for a publishing company in Sandyford. At the interview for the job, I got a weird feeling about one of the two guys who was interviewing me, he seemed extremely odd, arrogant, immature and hostile towards me. My gut feeling was "don't take this job, this guy is an arseh0le and I'll probably end up reporting to him". Against all my better (and as it turned out, correct instincts), I got the job, took it, and within a very short time walked out of the same job because this jumped up little sh1t made it completely impossible for me to do my job. When I left, I was more angry at myself for going completely against my gut feeling than the way your man had acted towards me.

I was thinking recently of setting up a website that people could use to name & shame workplaces like this and dysfunctional managers, so ordinary decent hardworking people can steer clear of workplaces that are basically unhealthy and depressing to work in. I was thinking the website could encourage businesses to sign up to a charter that would eliminate some of the problems listed above, such as terrible morale, incompetent managers, etc. I used to work for a company that is listed on www.greatplacetowork.ie as one of the 10 best places to work in Ireland in 2006. I can tell you that the morale in this company was beyond description, everyone hated their job where I worked which was the biggest department in the company, everyone feared & dispised management. How on earth the company made it into the top 10 best workplaces in Ireland is something that just seriously confused the people who worked there, it was the most depressing, sly, backstabbing, manipulative and nasty environment I ever worked in! What do you folks think, time for www.ratemyboss.com???

Fiii

It's great that you have decided to leave, you can't stay somewhere you are unhappy.
If you are looking for a similar job to tide you over until the computer shop happens, I highly reccommend a Customer Services job in PaddyPower call centre. They treat their staff superbly and are excellent at what they do. I worked there for 2 years to get myself through college.
If you want the number, just pm me.

Good Luck!

jjbrien

Darragh29 wrote:

Fair play to you for deciding to draw a line under your experiences, just a word of caution, make sure you don't go from the frying pan to the fire!

Recently I worked for a publishing company in Sandyford. At the interview for the job, I got a weird feeling about one of the two guys who was interviewing me, he seemed extremely odd, arrogant, immature and hostile towards me. My gut feeling was "don't take this job, this guy is an arseh0le and I'll probably end up reporting to him". Against all my better (and as it turned out, correct instincts), I got the job, took it, and within a very short time walked out of the same job because this jumped up little sh1t made it completely impossible for me to do my job. When I left, I was more angry at myself for going completely against my gut feeling than the way your man had acted towards me.

I was thinking recently of setting up a website that people could use to name & shame workplaces like this and dysfunctional managers, so ordinary decent hardworking people can steer clear of workplaces that are basically unhealthy and depressing to work in. I was thinking the website could encourage businesses to sign up to a charter that would eliminate some of the problems listed above, such as terrible morale, incompetent managers, etc. I used to work for a company that is listed on www.greatplacetowork.ie as one of the 10 best places to work in Ireland in 2006. I can tell you that the morale in this company was beyond description, everyone hated their job where I worked which was the biggest department in the company, everyone feared & dispised management. How on earth the company made it into the top 10 best workplaces in Ireland is something that just seriously confused the people who worked there, it was the most depressing, sly, backstabbing, manipulative and nasty environment I ever worked in! What do you folks think, time for www.ratemyboss.com???

I know how some companies who are on greatplacestowork.ie got there. I was in one of the comapies mentioned on that website and the managers whent in the web site and bombarded it with votes until guess what the comapy made the list.

seamus

jjbrien wrote:

I called in sick for a week last week because I felt I could not take that job anymore.

That's all you really need to say. About three weeks back, I considered ringing in sick purely because I didn't want to have to deal with all the end users' bull**** that day. I came in anyway, but it cleared up my decision for me. I'm going back to where I used to work now with a promotion.

Never stay in a job you don't like. If you can mostly bear it, then stick where you are while you look around - most places accept that you have to give a month's notice. If you can't bear it, hand in your notice and try to get them to waive as much of it as possible. If you haven't taken many holidays, then your holiday pay should carry you while you search for a new job.

Darragh29

seamus wrote:

If you can't bear it, hand in your notice and try to get them to waive as much of it as possible. If you haven't taken many holidays, then your holiday pay should carry you while you search for a new job.

Fu*k notice JJ, I'd say don't give it. If they start getting rattty with you about it, just get a letter from your GP saying that due to the working environment you found yourself in, you have resigned with immediate effect on health & safety grounds. Places like this are a hazard to work in.

Keep this in mind. It's easier to get a job if you have a job. Don't walk until you have someplace to walk to.

chamlis

This is why I'm a firm believer in Profit Sharing.
I've been in that kind of situation myself OP. I stuck it for two years. Did me a world of hurt I can tell ya. It took a serious incident, which I'm not going to get into, for me to quit. I had financial difficulties as a result, but my family were there to support me when the situation was expalined to them.
i was actualy a year out of work after I left. It caused me to completely re-evaluate my career prospects and way of life. I moved back home, did a FAS course, am now in a possition where I'm happy with what I'm doing.
Fortune brought me to an interview with a broad minded boss, who could see the potential I had for thinking outside the box (God I hate these terms :rolleyes:)
He is a firm believer in Profit Sharing also. Small company, but with potential.
I am now a share holder, so basically working for myself. I've always been loyal to any place I worked. It just seems natural to me. Now I'm actually seeing results from my extra effort, instead of it being lost on idiot supervisors and management.
Ok I've gone about as far as I can go with this rant, but it always pleases me when I hear of people actually doing something for themselves and not sticking up with sh!t anymore.
Maybe you've got the head for business, maybe you don't. But talent will out. That's for certain.
Best of luck to you, my friend.

I Shot J.R.

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

Keep this in mind. It's easier to get a job if you have a job. Don't walk until you have someplace to walk to.

Couldn't have said it better, it's much easier to get a job when you already have one. When I left college I worked as a temp for a few months and was told on a Friday that my contract was over that day, spent 5 months looking for a new job but am in that one over 6 years now.

Lust4Life

You can say that, but have you worn those shoes?
The OP isn't doing the company a favour by staying if he doesn't give a damn about the quality of work he's doing while searching other options.

Ideally it would be lovely to have the steady income while searching for a new job. But if it has come to such a mental road block, the OP may be better off cutting ties and running.

Sangre

The reason these places treat you like shít is because usually that can get anyone else to do the job you did after about 1/2 weeks training.
Educate yourself, gain experience and make yourself indispensible.

sonic juice

Lifes too short to be living in futile swamps,do what you really want to do.

RainyDay

jjbrien wrote:

I know how some companies who are on greatplacestowork.ie got there. I was in one of the comapies mentioned on that website and the managers whent in the web site and bombarded it with votes until guess what the comapy made the list.

When my last employer participated in this scheme, there was no online voting facility. Individual staff members were surveyed online, but there was no voting involved.

Has it changed?