AIBU to seriously consider joining the Met?

[lucasnorth]

...as in the police, not the opera :)

I've been looking at their website and really confused. Are there any serving officers out there can help?

Main question - flexible working. Website says they offer flexible working, but next sentence says you 'MUST understand the requirement to be available for duty at all times'. So, er, which is it?

Second question - you have to pay £1,000 to do a qualification before you even apply. Any ideas how many pay and then don't get in? Again, website strangely silent.

Any help/advice welcomed. I'm so bored of working at a desk!

Once you are a police officer you are no longer subject to employment law. You hold as office, you arent an employee.

The reality is that you will have you shifts constantly changed. On the day you think you will be going to your child's nativity play you will be wasting your time in crown court waiting to give evidence in a poxy job. You will be the one who never gets to go to anything. Who can never 100% commit to anything because you never know when you might get called in or have to stay.

They will pay lip service to flexible working but trust me, when the rest of the section are stuck on a 16 hour scene guard in a stinky burnt out, flea ridden HMO and you get to go home you wont be that popular.

Policing is not something you do part time, it's a way of life and it owns you (and your family) body and soul. You take the images from your shifts home with you, some things you never forget. You're always mentally on duty, even when you're no on shift.

I'd say Join the specials first?

See what it's all about. How's your fitness?

I don't think the Met are recruiting? The only way to get I. Is to be an (unpaid) special first I think.

Hi, I'm in the Met. They do support flexible working to a degree provided it 'meets the business need'. Which basically means its not that common. When I was on response team it was very rare to find a part time worker. People who worked part time still did the shift pattern, just a percentage of it. And they can require you to work with pretty much no notice.

When you start I'm pretty sure that as a probationer you have to work full time for 2yrs before you even get to apply for any flexible working position. If you are dealing with something at the end of your shift - on a crime scene, dealing with prisoner etc you don't get to walk away and go home to pick up kids etc

I work 40% but in an office role. I still have to work earlies, lates and weekends and fit in with my team. My shift pattern repeats every 4 weeks but I work 1 Mon, no tues, 2 Weds, 1 Thurs, 2 Fri, 1 Sat & 1 Sun so its not very handy for childcare etc.

I've been in 12yrs, I applied cos i worked in an office & I didn't want to spend my life in front of a computer and guess what I do now? Sit in front of a computer all day. Being on response team is exciting, different and challengeing to begin with but after a few years the novelty wears off! Don't know what your situation is but I wouldn't consider it as a career if I had a young family. Also morale is very low at the moment due to huge cuts everywhere.

I'm pretty sure you have to be a PCSO first or work a number of hours as a Special before you can even apply now.

the best advice I can give you is don't do it. It was by far the worst decision I ever made and my only regret in life. It is a wholly thankless job.

I'm in the Met , done it for 19 years, been on response pretty much all of that time apart from postings to plain clothes squads every so often . At the moment , although the Met says it supports flexible working , and people do have what's known as personal rosters , getting them approved is becoming harder and harder to do . They don't have to say yes , and the management frequently just quote 'the business needs of the service ' to refuse permission , without actually defining what the business needs are. And you are very unlikely to get permission to do part time for the first 2 years if at all.

Bear in mind you can have your days off cancelled , and booking leave can be damn near impossible . The riots in 2011 meant I worked 26 days of 15 hours plus in a row and put paid to my summer holiday . The Olympics buggered any chance of a holiday last year between June and October . This year the new way of working has meant no one was allowed to book any summer leave at all , so that's this years summer leave gone . I'm now being told I have to book the 2014/15 leave by October this year.

The certificate of policing knowledge that is required now is a very new requirement , and very few recruits have started since , so I doubt there'll be any numbers to find out how many dont get through .

Honestly ? I used to love what I do . Sometimes , I still do . But increasingly , having had to take a £1000 pay cut , pay an extra £150 a month into my pension , being everyone's favourite whipping boy , I'm seriously looking at cutting my losses and using my HGV licence to earn my living . My kids might see me more .

Join the specials first . Don't commit yourself too far , and see what it's like . If you love it , go for it.

Wow. Thanks all, that's serious food for thought. And pretty depressing too; what hope of a representative force?

To answer questions- I'm neither fit nor unfit. Current recruitment doesn't say you have to have been a Special (but then they are making you pay for a grand if training enforce you even apply!)

Amazing to be able to hear what it's really like. Mumsnet is brill. My job is boring and office based but pays pretty well and is great for part time and flexibility in general. I'm thinking maybe I need to stay where I am, at least until kids older.

Thanks so much for sharing guys. Much appreciated.

And :( for your holidays Plomino