Anyone else fed up of the whole work culture in the UK?

[Dietstartsnextweek34]

Just a number in a large chain, I fully know I'm replaceable. Paid a low ish wage, we all got a £50 bonus recently which was something but generally it's a patronising 'thank you for everything you do!' Email from senior management on triple our salary and a pat on the back.

Compulsory monthly 'wellbeing' check ins with line managers who pretend they care just so they can tick boxes. Same line manager sends out emails telling us all off like children for trivial things like swapping office days, because we cannot be trusted.

3 days a week compulsory in the office where we don't actually speak to anyone in the office, on Teams all day to people who are mostly at home.

I know I'm very fortunate to even have a job let alone to have sick pay and a good pension. But I'm also fed up having to sit in the office in a coat every time because it's freezing, every single minute of our day having to be recorded because of a very small few who take the piss, and so on. Another 30+ years of this.. I know I sound ungrateful, but being able to pay my bills and have a roof over my head should be a minimum?

I'm aware self employed comes with its own limitations, and I am willing to work hard, I'm just fed up with the whole performative office culture. Anyone else just a bit done with it all?

I hear you OP. My role is different and I’m hybrid but less days a week… but similar problems. The mental health support schpeel is lip service imo. I feel I see through all the corporate bullshit and it feels completely fake.

Local authority by any chance? Too familiar (even the heating ) though we're being moved to a different office and they're just finding out there aren't enough desks so we won't be doing many in office days !

I hear you. I think give or take a few places though the vast majority of workplaces are the same. We are all only a number and would be replaced in seconds.

It was better when it was easier to get rid of people. It made for much more relaxing work places - the only ones who pretend otherwise are the one who took the piss

Now work places are stuck with people who are unsuitable and take advantage, so everyone is penalised.

My workplace is not like that, though have worked places that are. My recommendation is to find somewhere else - perhaps a smaller or family run business. They have different crap things about them mind you!

Find a new job.

Sounds horrendous. Luckily I’m self-employed so I don’t need to deal with this kind of shit 🫣

I don't work in a place like that it sounds archaic.
Tbe current trend in places I have worked is for phychological safety at work. Ie feeling respected, allowing autonomy and being treated like adults to manage our own work and projects. Lot's of wellness stuff, pay is ok and managers who care.
Not everything is perfect of course but not like where you work.
Can you move jobs? Not everywhere is like that in the uk.

I was in the civil service for 30+ years, as the years went on it became as you described. Accounting for every minute, tick box online training. They did away with wonderful trainers and produced ‘how to’ online guides which were useless. Many people had been in the department for 20/30 years with loads of experience but most have left now replaced by agency workers on temporary contracts. During covid we worked part time at home and part time in the office, we were sent rotas every Friday for the following week via WhatsApp. Then one week everyone was back in the office for good, no one even spoke to us about it when other offices in the same department carried on working from home and still are. I finally had enough and left 3 years ago. Talking to friends who are still there its got worse. You are just a number, they pretend to care what you think but they don’t

Annoying but they're damned if they do, damned if they don't

For many years I ran a business before selling for a lot of money. The reason we got that money was very simple. Once you have business unless it’s completely original, the thing that makes the biggest difference is the people. So we made a point of ours being a lot of fun for our colleagues. We became known for this and, no surprise, good people wanted to work with us. Better people build better businesses. Few managers are familiar with the old saying “contented hens lay more eggs”.

I think 3 days in the office and 2 WFH is pretty good actually, in this climate. More and more companies are moving to 4 or 5 days a week.

I hear you. I occasionally look for another job and if I knew what I wanted to do it might help, but I don't so it doesn't! I've had a variety of jobs over the years and actually what I would like to do is retire but I'm several years away from it. I'm sick of the endless tool box talks, emails pretending to care about our mental health and then finding fault over the smallest of things. As well as making a big deal of mistakes like it's the end of the world. Just fuck off! And Managers wonder why morale is so low and loads of us are off sick.

I think part of it is also the widening gap between earnings and cost of living. At every level people are becoming disillusioned about working. It takes a huge amount of will to perform more than the minimum required of a role when the salary you're getting paid barely makes ends meet (and looks set to decrease in real terms for the foreseeable future).

It takes time and energy for management to be innovative, dynamic and progressive. Much easier (and safer) to tick a few boxes.

We have quartly meetings with 2 directors. They do it with the whole staff. And in the last one was telling us about it being on of the businesses partners birthdays and he literally said thanks to our hard work they are going to the celebration party thing.... yep no problem enjoy 😂

I think it depends on what kind of job you do. I love mine and whilst I’m not very well paid, I am passionate about what I do and I work in a caring and compassionate environment, which makes a huge difference when I need to go the extra mile to make things happen.

Try retail for 'treating adults like delinquent children'. No option for working from home. Abuse from customer? Free gifts for arsehole customer and no backing for staff. Too frightened of bad reviews.
Limited opportunities for promotion unless they want to move you. Good at your job and they will keep you in that role. Turn over of staff is too high to promote those who know the job well. All for NMW or if its a 'good' company 50p above! Bare minimum holiday allowance. Bank Holiday working.
Get another job, I hear you say..I'd love a high paid, low stress job..ain't happening is it. Nearly 60, bad decisions when I was young. being a parent number one on the list employers hardly queuing at the door!
You want cheap shopping, extended opening hours..somebody gets the short straw. you could organise your life better, shop better in reasonable times and retail employers would have to change the model

"Find another job"

If only it was as easy as that 🙄

If it’s actually below the legal minimum temperature then I’d work from home and say I wasn’t coming in until the heating was fixed

Civil service? I’ve just got out. The final straw was when a director got a bonus of my years salary. Talk about piss taking!!

Some places are definitely like this I agree - I've worked in a few! But they're not all like that, I love my job now, partly due to the work and partly due to the culture. Much better work/life balance and being treated like a valued person really makes a difference.

But I'm curious why you've made this into a UK thing?

Which is rubbish. We will be working until 70, the office boomers can ram it.

Op - does your employer have a funny acronym? I recommend transferring to the .other ship if you can

I think there’s a lot of truth here. Even just 10 years ago I think work felt much more rewarding for a lot of people, plus they had realistic prospects of being able to retire.

You make some good points but I think a lot of people have forgotten or never experienced the workplaces of old. Huge gender pay gaps, some roles inaccessible for women, no flexibility at all - 5 days in the workplace - five and a half days pw in my parents generation. Staff reports that the staff themselves never saw, Suzy is really quite intelligent and could do X but fits in well with the girls in Y team…Inappropriate language, inappropriate behaviour etc.

Yes, it’s a pain when the FM team can’t get the heating right. Yes, annual mandatory training - especially when whatever is flavour of the year topic is added - is a pain, but just get it done. Finally, join a union and / or professional body, you never know when you might need them.

Hahaha do you work on my team??? Sounds just like my place. Only my hours keep me there as I can work round the kids, otherwise I'd of been out of the place a good few years ago. I've found it's much worse post-covid and now flexible working is just another stick to beat us with.