Newish job not as described, stuck it for a while. Had enough. Need advice.

[ClawsForThought]

Hi all, I won't go into too many fine details in case it outs me. Long story short, I worked in school support in a local authority school for a few years, academy trust came in and restructured. My role was cut dramatically to the point I couldn't afford to stay on.

I interviewed for and accepted what I was led to believe was a Business Manager role. Again in a local authority school. In practice it is a low level admin role - junior management at most - nothing like the strategic leadership position I discussed with them at interview. Constantly bogged down with busy work in a noisy front office and doing things I never thought I'd be doing again like cheque runs, etc. and unable to shine. So I've handed in my notice and I'll be temping again in the new year.

The thing is, I'm more annoyed that I'll be sacrificing my accumulated LA continuous service and protections due to this job being missold. Do I have any cause for redress because the job in practice is so different? Or do I just have to suck it up and move on?

(Disclaimer - I'm not getting on my high horse about school admin roles - you do a great and challenging job, but if I'd have wanted such a job I'd have applied for one.)

Thanks in advance.

[SweetMummy911]

You could have been describing my problem - I am in the same boat! Was basically missold my current job and gave up a career which I had for over 7 years to land in this which is not like it wad described at interview stage (for various reasons). I am now waiting to start another position in Jan and (following that) my longer term aim will be to set up by myself on a freelance basis!

Have you spoken to ACAS? You can send them an email and they could tell you if you have cause for recourse best of luck!

[daisychain01]

How specific was your job role spec? How long did you stay in the new missold job?

[ClawsForThought]

SweetMummy911 - I've been in touch with ACAS who advised me to contact my union. I filed a case form with them in early November and so far have heard nothing back despite advising them that things have got so bad that I felt I had no choice but to hand in my notice. So still chasing up.

daisychain01 - I started in September and finish up when the school breaks up for Christmas. Next week is my final week.

The JD was a very typical School Business Manager one for my local authority so I was naturally tempted as it looked like it was a step up career wise. Managing finance/budgets, overhauling admin systems, looking after HR, contracts, site management, etc. all listed. In practice there's been very little 'managing' of anything and everything from reluctance to hostility at me attempting to manage change - change they alluded to wanting at interview.

Previous admin people left acrimoniously - something I didn't know about until just after I started - so from day 1 I was viewed with suspicion, nobody was welcoming or helpful and I saw very early on that the SLT simply wanted the admin people replaced, not a Business Manager at all. I wish they hadn't wasted my time.

I'll be glad to leave but I'm worried about how it'll look to potential employers - how am I supposed to tell them I was sold a pup and walked?

[flowery]

The difficulty is you describe it as bogged down with busy work and unable to shine. Which is all very annoying I'm sure and I can understand your frustrations. But it's going to be very difficult to convince someone that a job being lower level than you thought was so awful as to mean you were forced to resign regardless of not having found something else.

The things you describe are good reasons for looking for a new job, but most people wouldn't see them as being so bad that no job at all is better, if that makes sense?

That's the other reason any kind of claim for "redress" for losing your LA benefits would never wash. You've chosen to opt out of LA employment rather than sticking with it while looking for something else. You've been there a very short time and I think it would be a reasonable expectation that even if you don't enjoy the job, you stick it out long enough to find another one.

[daisychain01]

To your question about how will it look to future employers - finding work is always more straight forward when you are already in work. But you are where you are, it wasn't what you wanted and you took the choice you did, so the only way forward is to get your CV in good shape.

When it comes to explaining your employment gap, don't give them extraneous detail they can't do anything with (or care about). Given that you were only in role a short time, you could sanitise it completely from your work history and explain the break as a choice you made to do some studying, look after DC. Lots of people take a few months' career break to meet family obligations and that's a perfectly valid choice you can justify away.

[ClawsForThought]

Thanks for everyone's input. I've made my decision and have to stick with it and normally I'd think a job's better than no job but I've had various things going on behind the scenes like a sick partner and a terminally ill mother.

I'm a bit fragile and haven't been able to give my all and the inflexibility of term time only hasn't worked for me (NB the news of my mum came in the very first week). With it being such a small place the whole public setting has been at times overwhelming - normally I'm much more resilient and take problems more in my stride.

On my CV it states I've been there so I'm wondering if I can just say that it wasn't in line with my career goals without it looking too bad?

[flowery]

The thing is a lot of the problems you mention in your last post are nothing to do with your employer, and/or were predictable rather than being a surprise after you started the job, so seeking 'redress' from them because you decided you'd rather leave instead of looking for something else first just isn't reasonable.

In terms of how you explain your choice to leave, well 'not in line with career goals' is fine, assuming you are planning to make a career change, and therefore saw no value in remaining in post while seeking something similar but on the right level.