To hate working in such a shit environment?

[bezinee]

I am employed via another company to work for a very large, well known company - a household name.

I am based at the head office.

It is, frankly, a shithole.

In our section, there are over 100 people. There are 2 ladies toilets. One is blocked by 11am every day because it barely flushes. The other one is slightly better. The sanitary bins in both are often overflowing, as are general waste bins in the main office.

I've been professionally qualified in my field for 20 years. As such, in my department I'm the most experienced, and one of the more senior, albeit there are a couple of layers of dept managers above me. I don't have my own desk - only junior staff get their own desks . I'm expected to hot desk either in the seats of (junior) colleagues who are on leave/off sick (and am forbidden to adjust their work stations when I sit there) or to sit in vacant desks - which are often filthy (I could have written my name on the desk I sat at today). Half the chairs are broken so can't be adjusted anyway. Our desks are never cleaned by cleaners, and the floors are never vacuumed. Our computers are woefully out of date (we are still running Word 2003, and I only got Excel 2007 earlier this year, after much begging). Our systems fail on average once a week, for at least half an hour, sometimes up to 3-4.

I've asked to work from home. This is frowned upon, as those in charge consider senior staff need to be visible.

I have a bad neck/back due to sitting at crap desks in unsupportive chairs and due to frequent 1-2 hour phone conferences where I have to cradle the phone on my shoulder in order to type/take notes.

We have no HR support - the company I am actually employed by (not the household name, I just work for them) recently went through various major changes, as a result we were told HR can't deal with any enquiries until further notice. However even prior to this they had no interest in desk assessments or anything else.

I'm not going to say I deserve better just because I'm so experienced/senior because actually I wouldn't expect anyone to work in a place like this, but my seniority makes it worse somehow, I'd hoped by this stage in my career I'd at least have a desk on my own - I don't even have that!

AIBU to think it's pretty awful? And other than banging my head against the brick wall that's HR, or looking for another job, there's not much else I can do is there?

How long have you been there? (ie, do you have any effective employment protection)

I think in your shoes I would address the immediate H&S issues first. Go to GP and ensure that your back/neck issues are on your medical record. I don't know how you go about requesting an occupational health assessment, but you need to find out and get the ball moving on that front.

I tend to think that in this sort of situation, if you can't afford to get out, your best line of attack is where their defences are weakest. Remember that your gripe is not with the FTSE 100 company where you work, but your actual employer - and not having an HR person isn't a good enough excuse - they still have a duty of care.

PS put absolutely everything in writing, and keep copies of all correspondence at home as well as in your work computer. I would BC any emails to your personal email address (check first that your company email will send to your personal email address - at my employer, any mails sent to a gmail address disappear into the void).

You don't work for a building society do you? Sounds very like the place I work too. And I hate hotdesking with a vengeance.

*just remembered FTSE100, so not building soc

What about contacting environmental health.

The toilets alone are illegal. The HSE states:

You should have 5

I'm council and it's like this with us too. I hate the hot desking and the loos - yuck!

Unfortunately it seems like it is the way things are going but it shouldn't be though. Perhaps I need to join unison.

Temperature: at least 16

You would be astonished. One household name I worked for who had spent a huge amount of money on a new office had to send us home regularly because:

a) there were not enough desks and the managers didn't like people working from home so refused to organise a rota which meant you would turn up and have nowhere to sit. Therefore you would have to go home, but they would make you wait around doing no work for a couple of hours in case a desk came free before caving in.

b) the toilets had leaked and the floor smelt overwhelmingly of piss.

c) the heating had failed in the winter or the aircon failed in the summer.

That's awful. I volunteer one day a week as an intern at a small (well run) charity and I have my own desk and the loos are spotless. That was one of the things I made sure of before volunteering - clean loos are more important than anything for me - even if a job was a dream job with amazing pay I couldn't cope with manky loos. I hope you can find a better place to work. Poor you.

Are there any decent CEO's, they just don't give a shit.

OP, it sounds awful. I work in an office and I thought I had it rather bad, but we have none of the issues you list.

I would still suggest unions. The union does not have to have a rep in the company: join a union within the type of business and they will go in and represent you from the outside.

This is the second thread I've read today where there's been an obvious, pressing need for good union intervention. The other one was one where people were sharing awful stories about employees being sacked for taking time off sick - not I-feel-a-bit-tired-heavy-weekend-I-won't-go-in-this-Monday sickies, sick leave for serious illness or accidents. Why do we put up with this?

I work in a rather poorly managed place but we have enough loos, it's reasonably clean, we have decent support for people who are ill or disabled and we have enough desks. Clearly I should moan about my employer a bit less!

It's so shortsighted of the employer. Not providing adequate IT is going to have a big effect on productivity, and so is the high turnover I'd expect to find in a place as awful as the OP describes.

Have you done a DSE assessment? That should be done for every desk based employee I think. HSE are your best bet I think.

Microsoft were iirc going to fine companies for using XP or other old versions of windows. Their audit (if they have any financial stuff) should be freaking out at such old and desupported software too.

I thought NHS too . Sorry to hear that. It doesn't sound good.

Fine companies for using old software?

Can you imagine if shops did that? "Madam, those boots were a 2010 edition - please go to your nearest Jones the Bootmaker to pay your fine!"

Not HSE, it's Environmental Health you want. Complain. I have inspected and enforces against businesses for such matters.

*enforced

The guidance supplied by the HSE under approved codes of practice are quasi-legal. It would be very difficult for an employer to defend action that contradicts the ACoP.

There's dual responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 here on both your employer (reg 2) and those in control of premises (reg 4). Contact the local EHO who are enforcers in this instance.