Sick of being taken advantage of, shall I hand in my notice?

[Foodlover12]

I have posted before, so I apologise about reposting.

I work for an hourly rate of £9.25, have been there for almost 3 months.

They are short-staffed and will ring you virtually every day to ask if you can do overtime. I’m the sort of person who feels bad saying no, especially as the job is caring for vulnerable people.

I work virtually 7 days a week. The job was advertised as working alternate weekends, but I have only ever had one full weekend off. Even if it’s meant to be my weekend off I am called up saying ‘can you just do a few hours for us’.

However all of my colleagues in my area get the hours they want, bar a couple of gripes. Another lady has just asked if she can only do 2 days a week, and they granted it.
I feel they are taking advantage of me. I am down at the moment to work 2 weeks straight without a day off. I asked the manager if he could factor in a day off, he said he would have a look but hasn’t so far.
I come out with a good salary, but I work over 50 hours per week.

The 2nd issue is that in the double up calls I have to do, one of the carers is rude to me, I have posted about this before. I discreetly asked 2 other colleagues how she was with them, and they said she was fine. It’s upsetting that it just seems to be me.

I have asked the office to pair me with someone else, they said they cannot as they are short staffed, but that they will have a word with her.

I am fed up and down. I just want to quit tomorrow. Constant calls to do overtime, only 9 hours rest break in between shifts sometimes.

However I’ve only been there for 3 months. My previous role I only stayed 2 months as it was night shifts which I struggled with.

So I feel like I should wait at least 6 months before changing again. Sorry for the rant, just feel like a fool.

Please read this, it should give you the back up you require. DD is also a carer and true to the occupation she didn't often stay for long due to either being taking for granted or the way they kept on telling her to deal with a man who was sexually assaulting her, not the really bad stuff but getting handsy with her. She is now in a job that she loves, The staff are treated well and the home understands that their employees have lived outside work. The secret to this is that it's a privately owned home and the owner is very hands on. I believe that they started the home as they were appalled by the conditions that a relative's home provided.

www.breathehr.com/en-gb/blog/topic/employment-law/5-things-employers-should-know-about-working-time-regulations-and-holiday

@tara66

Is this sector (care) also short staffed because of Brexit - like the haulage drivers etc?

Partly, but partly because it's been teetering on a knife edge for years and the crap we put up with due to covid has caused people leaving combined with no one to fill the jobs has pushed the sector over the edge. It's been teetering on a knife edge because of the way carers are treated (OPs story is not uncommon) and the low pay and expectation that we should be grateful for the job and minimum wage while providers cream off profits. The goodwill has run out - and I don't mean withdrawn I mean so many just don't have anything left to give any more.

OP the provision of care is not your responsibility, delivery of the care is. The provider is failing here and it's not your responsibility to pick up the slack and get them out of the shit time after time, because they'll just change nothing. I do understand how you feel re the clients, but you really do have to harden your heart a little bit to that side and stick to your guns because the providers, government and society rely on that guilt in order to get people cared for without actually doing much themselves to achieve that.

There's around 60/70 care jobs in my local area (25mi radius) and some of them are paying £13/14 ph now, I've been applying since Friday, I have interviews for half of the ones I've applied for. Now's the time to move towards working for better employers who are understanding that in order to get the staff they need, they need to be treating them better.

Care companies are notorious for this, I had no option but to say no to them as I had my kids and mil to look after around my shifts.

One of the good carers I worked with ended up having a stroke as she never took time off. They were relentless with their calls asking her to work extra shifts.

For your own sake you need to start saying 'no' they will try and guilt trip you and they can get others it's just that they come to you first because they know you'll do it. The truth is they don't actually appreciate it.

It makes no difference if you leave as they are all as bad as each other. Take if from a former service provider and service user (for mil)

If you always say yes they are phoning you first that whole line of we've tried everyone else or there isn't anyone else to ask thats lies, they phone you because you are the easiest option for them. They don't care if you work a month with no rest they don't care if you are unhappy. Get some strength and say no.

Are you the one who keeps posting about this job and the coworker?

For the love of all that is holy, quit. But honestly with this many complaints in such a short time, I don’t have much hope that anything will be good enough.

If you are not the same poster, just tell them that the extra days won’t work and you aren’t available. They will find someone else. It really is that simple.

I used to block my office on my days off. It was such a pain the constant calls. I was at my friends daughters funeral and was called 14 times. They knew because I had taken a holiday that day and it was put through as one but they still called me multiple times. That's care work unfortunately. I left after a year and a half.

I worked in the same type of role. There are plenty of companies which will give you a contract which specifies your contracted hours rather than a zero hours contract. My colleagues had full time 37.5 hour contracts. Mine was 30 hours as that was enough for me. If you have fixed hours you have days off scheduled in. I could always pick up extra shifts if I wanted to or if they were struggling to fill shifts due to sickness or holidays. Do look for a company where you will get a contract with specified hours. You will also get paid annual leave.

Thanks to all the replies, however the one who said that no job is good enough that is really untrue.
I have requested a meeting with the manager

The final straw was them placing me with an alcoholic male today and failing to inform me, he was heavily intoxicated on arrival and a danger to himself so called for help

You need to firm up your "no" and you need to tell them that you will be taking a day off and not to rota you (I'm not sure what the rules are in the UK) and you definitely have to keep to the legal breaks between shifts.

My advice? Don't ever speak to them on the phone. They can text. And you can answer (or not - my advice, don't answer). Surely the information they might need is in the handover book?

And look for a new job in a different industry if you can.

You have an assertiveness problem, sort out how you tell them no

Im thinking of leaving as you put to much work on me and keep telephoning all the time - that will be stopping.

Im not working two weeks without a day off, you need to change the rota.

I am not available for work this weekend, so rota someone else on those days. Oh but blah blah - Im not going to be working you'll have to find someone else - repeat firmly

Just one thing OP - they are hardly going to reduce your hours if you stand up for yourself even if you are on a zero hours contract. They are understaffed and desperate. They might do it for a bit to bully you for a week but then you will be on speed dial again.

I would keep a record of what hours you are doing and what times you are called. Do you have a copy of your contract?

And yes, some of this is to do with Brexit - with various peoples who used to work for zero hours having either left or not being allowed back in. But also because of Covid and the disaster homes were, and people discovering higher paid jobs with some control over their hours.

But the main thing has always been the lack of any government facing up to the knotty problem of an increasingly elderly population with carers being both undertrained and underpaid.

@tara66

Is this sector (care) also short staffed because of Brexit - like the haulage drivers etc?

It's because care companies are advertising for "kind, compassionate" staff, ie women willing to wipe shit at all hours for minimum wage, and with a smile on their faces, when you can earn a lot more working for Aldi.

You are being too nice.

2 weeks without a day off?! Sounds like hell, I would've left ages ago. Learn to say no and stick to it

Stupid to hand in your notice without another job lined up.
Not unreasonable to start looking for jobs, but wait until you find one before handing in your notice or you might end up jobless.

NO, I can't work tonight/this afternoon/tomorrow, I'm busy.

NO, I can't. Sorry.

NO, I'm not able to do that shift.

NO, that won't work for me.

Rinse and repeat x 1000.

The problem is you don’t always know why they’re calling

It does not matter.

Unless you are paid to be on call and they are calling a work phone?

They are seriously taking the piss and you are letting them.

Name changing for this!!

It sounds just like the firm I work for. It isn't because the pay is different. I've been asking to start a bit later or finish a bit earlier because I'm struggling to do 7am till 10pm with sometimes only an hours break in between. I was told I couldn't because I signed onto the 4 and 3 yet another person also on the 4 and 3 is able to finish at 6pm every night. I was told they can't take any more care packages on otherwise. They let certain people get away with ringing in sick whereas when I was poorly with possible Covid (thankfully negative) they still had me out on calls and I passed what I had on to a vulnerable service user.

Posted too soon! Tell them you don't want to do certain calls because you struggle with them and they put you in twice as much. I asked countless times to be taken out of a difficult call that should've due to how hard it was been a double up but still only a single call, because I was and still am trying for a Baby and at the time I'd already had 4 miscarriages but was told I still had to do the call until I knew I was definitely Pregnant putting me again at potential risk of losing another Baby.

OP, you need to say “no”.
How many of the care managers regularly take on otherwise unstaffed shifts - they’ll be perfectly qualified to do your role, so no service user should go without care. Do they work 14 days, often without prescribed breaks, without any days of?

If you keep acting like a doormat and accepting every shift they ask you to do, they will continue to treat you like a doormat and you will be their first port of call every time.
I have a feeling I may have said this in your other post, but buy a well reviewed book about assertiveness, or look for a course online or face to face - If it's not your line managers asking for more hours, co-worker talking down to you, it will be something/someone else.

Use your experience to apply for bank work or a permanent NHS hospital job.

I'm in this line of work. I started as I meant to go on, gave them my availability and said no to everything else.
If you have no joy at your meeting, I suggest either looking at hca work in a hospital or going to a different care company and being clear and assertive right from the start.

Thanks everyone, still waiting for a reply regarding the meeting.
I will stick it out until February but if it doesn’t change I will look at HCA etc. Roles definitely.

The ringing thing really isn’t a ‘pathetic excuse’ today they called twice to ask questions about service users, I couldn’t have predicted what they would call about.

I’ve lost even more faith in them after this week. They sent me to a new care call, failing to warn me that the service user was a severe alcoholic, who couldn’t stand up and fell into me at one point, luckily I managed to hold him up with my hands.

I felt very sorry for the service user and his relatives as he clearly has severe struggles but the company could have compromised my safety, and failed to provide any verbal or written information prior to the call.