Month: October 2019

Now the fun starts…

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So I now have a firm offer letter and contract which I’m going to accept this weekend and then give my notice on Monday morning.

But what happens then?

Will I get a counter offer? Probably – my employer is supposed to be reviewing my salary anyway.

Then what?

The problem is this: Mostly, I quite like where I work. The problem is Becky. I don’t know if she is a solvable problem, but I do know that my employer really hasn’t tried. This in itself is an additional problem because it says they don’t consider my well-being important.

The last time I spoke to HR lady, she told me “bullying isn’t legally defined, so we can’t do anything about it” (she used the word ‘bullying’, not me) and said I needed to “take more responsibility” for my own happiness at work. So I did, in the only way that I could, though I suspect this isn’t what she had in mind.

Any counter offer I would consider accepting has to put forward a plan to either improve Becky’s behaviour towards me or to reduce my exposure to it. I don’t know how that’s going to work, but if they want to keep me it’s up to them to figure that out.

Interesting times. I’m not quite out of the door yet.

Offer

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So, I had an interview last night. I was kind of interested, but they wanted me to do a homework challenge and return it by Monday morning, and, after looking at it, I realised I just didn’t have time. If the challenge’s requirements came in at work I’d have estimated at least a week for it, and here I am with only four days, two of which I’m at work, one of which I’m running a half-marathon(!) and the other I don’t really want to spend in front of my PC working… because I’ve spent a lot of energy on interviews this week and I need space to relax. I decided after much deliberation (at approximately 3:50AM, which is of course the optimal time to solve your life issues) that it just wasn’t going to happen.

This morning I had another interview, which went really well. I knew it was going well when, after the technical interviewer left, instead of the first interviewer coming back to wrap up as he said he would, the HR lady came in. And then at the end of that, she said “I really want you to meet the managing director”. It was supposed to be approximately one hour involving two people, and it became two and a half involving four.

The managing director was a touch eccentric and after giving me a broad overview of everything, offered me the job there and then(!). I said the answer is almost certainly yes, but give me a day or so to think about it. So there we go. I’m intending to accept it tomorrow.

The one thing that concerns me is that I had quite a lot of time off sick last year and that may show up in a reference, but I would like to think that won’t be disclosed. ANXIETY.

Staying afloat

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

I had an interview yesterday and it went ok. I don’t know if they’ll offer it to me, but that in itself is positive.

I have a phone interview this evening.

I have another face to face tomorrow too.

I don’t know any more on the salary negotiation front.

I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed at times, but I’m trying to not place too much importance on any one of these things. I’ve shown myself that I can get interviews, that I can do at least okay at them, so eventually someone will offer me something.

I still feel very stressed though.

Demand

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I had another call with a recruiter this morning who’s now put me forward for two jobs, both of which sound like possibilities. On top of that, I have three more recruiters who want to speak to me about relevant looking opportunities. I’m a bit overwhelmed to be honest. I can’t realistically do more than two interviews a week because it involves working from home or taking time off work, so next week is fully booked. Normally I would have replied to one of those three recruiters today, but I’m trying to throttle things a bit.

So I think, realistically, for the first time in my professional life, the employment market seems good for me and I should find something else quite quickly.

In related news, since I worked from home on Wednesday my boss has suddenly started being very nice to me. I think he thinks I had an interview (I didn’t – it was a GP appointment), which is going to make next week interesting…

Progress?

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It’s all happening! As of today, I have:

2 interviews scheduled for next week (both face to face)
1 application that has been has been deemed ‘a match’ by the recruiter and forwarded on today
1 application that’s been forwarded that I’m really pretty pretty sure I should get an interview for. If I don’t, then either they’re not still hiring or the hiring manager already knows me and really hates me (lol).
1 application that has been deemed ‘a match’ by the recruiter, but he wants to call me first, as recruiters do (I have asked him to call me tomorrow morning)
2 recruiters wanting to speak to me about about roles, one of which looks very relevant

In related news, when I got to work I had an email from my boss apologising for the delay on the salary negotiation business and saying that any increase in salary I gain will be backdated to 1st October. But I think he’s missed his chance. I’m actively looking now and I don’t think I’m going to stop until I find something else.

Mood: Improving.

Pathways

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I saw my GP today about anti-depressants. She suggested upping the dose, but I decided to leave it for the moment. She said that she would have expected me to feel a bit more level, but equally, finding another job might be a better course of treatment.

So there we go – medical advice: Quit my job.

I chose to leave it for the moment because I’ve set a lot of wheels in motion and due to the unpredictable nature of job-seeking, I might have an offer by the end of the week. Or maybe I won’t get one for four months. It’s worth getting a better feel for the market before deciding to make any adjustments, I think. I’ve sent off two applications today, and responded to another recruiter who emailed me asking to set up a call with me.

I figured out what I wanted to say to HR lady when the opportunity arises. It goes like this, and will also be CCed to my boss (and hers):

The last intervention the company staged to this situation was in March. In absence of any management of the situation since then, it unfortunately became necessary for me to begin taking anti-depressants.

You will understand therefore that I no longer trust the company sufficiently to feel comfortable in pursuing this matter further.

And that last line just says it all, doesn’t it? It’s something that keeps tripping me up in relationships. People lose my trust, and then I spend months circling around that fact and trying to work out how to rebuild it, when in reality… I can’t. It’s up to the other party. They caused the problem, they have to resolve it. I can move on, I can forgive them, I can go on without resentment… but I can’t rebuild the trust so the relationship can’t continue.

Mid week relief

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I have two job applications on my to do list, which I’m aiming to do tomorrow as I have a day off am working from home. I’m also aiming to get in a long run. As you can tell, I am very enthused about my job and work very hard. It will be the last long run before my half marathon next weekend, in fact, so I think tomorrow is my last chance.

The reason for the working from home is that I have a GP appointment to discuss my anti-depressants, but I am thinking of just starting to work from home regularly one day a week as a matter of course. I’ve been doing it probably every other week for a while now due to a seemingly never-ending series of medical appointments, and it’s definitely good for my mental health. Or, maybe what I really mean is: unlike being in the office, it’s not actively damaging to my mental health.