What to do next

[Struggllepiggle]

I feel a bit stuck and I don’t know what to do.

I’m a police detective and I’ve spent the last period of my career dealing with crimes against the country’s most vulnerable people. I really love it.

I relocated 200 miles away and arranged a transfer. I’m due to start in September but I have just received my shift pattern and it’s awful. Beyond awful. It’s 7 days in a row followed by 3 days off and working 2 out of 3 weekends.

It’s pretty much a no go for me. I love the job but I still work to live and this shift pattern would mean I barely see my partner and it would take over my life. In my previous force in a similar role, I worked almost office hours. This pattern would be a long term thing as all the departments in the direction I’m interested in work on this pattern. I have more chance of winning the lottery than being able to negotiate a workable shift pattern (very limited flexibility in police). It’s worth mentioning I do have a history of depression/anxiety and whilst it doesn’t affect my ability to do the role, I do struggle when my work/life balance is bad.

So the question is; what do I do next?

There are a number of other investigator type roles out there but the majority are lower paid than I’m currently on and don’t seem to have much in the way of progression (at least in the police the pay scales mean I end up on a decent salary)

I do have transferrable skills;

• excellent knowledge of legislation/criminal processes
• Report writing, analysing, picking out important details
• Excellent communication skills
• Multi-agency working

What else can I look for beyond investigator roles? I’m not corporate, I don’t really understand corporate ‘language’.

I want to do something that matters.
I would also like a role with a degree of flexibility and WFH really.

I’m at a loss and gutted at the prospective of losing my career which I worked really hard for and really wanted. I need to be earning 30k+ really, I would struggle taking a pay it further than that. Eventually I would like to be at 40k+.

I did find a couple of things that I found very interesting but failed the written assessments.

The only other things that I feel a bit of a pull towards is social work but I don’t have a degree and I can’t afford to go to uni. Also for something completely different; I’m quite interested in things like building surveying/planning permission that sort of thing. But I have no idea how to start.

Any ideas welcome, I feel very lost. Sorry for the long post, I wanted to be as detailed as possible.

Why on earth aren’t you considering talking with your manager about your shift pattern? 😐

And for how long does that shift pattern last?

I’m at a loss and gutted at the prospective of losing my career which I worked really hard for and really wanted

and yet you haven’t tried anything to adapt the shift pattern

I did find a couple of things that I found very interesting but failed the written assessments.

What other things?

Also consider impact on your pension if you leave the police. You may need a much higher salary outside police to end up with similar overall package including benefits.

I am unable to request flexible working until I start as it depends on approval from the department boss - they have decided what department I’m in but not what location.

However, from previous experience (requesting flexible requests with previous force and also trying to negotiate this with another force back when I first moved), the degree of flexibility tends to be; come in an hour early on lates and finish an hour early on earlies. I will ask when the time comes but I am as sure as I can be that the chances of me entirely changing the shift pattern to not working 7 days on the trot and not working so many weekends is nil. Unfortunately this is police - they say jump and you say how high. Negotiations aren’t really a thing.

The two I failed written assessments for; one was reviewing criminal appeals to determine if there was ground for appeal.
The other was investigating social services/local authority complaints in relation to schools/vulnerable people.

Both I met or exceeded the person spec for but evidently fell short on the written assessment.

I know. That’s also a depressing thought but equally I have another 25/30 years service ahead of me and that’s too long to sacrifice my personal life for.

How long does this shift pattern last?

Unfortunately this is police - they say jump and you say how high. Negotiations aren’t really a thing.

not any more op

The sample they sent me is 8 weeks long. It essentially alternates earlies and lates; 7 days on the trot followed by 3 or 4 days off, working 5 weekends out of 8. There is also no handover period so I foresee frequent overtime to allow for that. They said night shifts are then worked out within the team.

With all due respect; the they say jump/I say how how is very much my experience in the last 6 years both in my previous force and the force I was speaking to earlier in the year. I’d love to be proved wrong and I will certainly try but I’m very doubtful as it would need to be a huge change.

I’ve largely moved away from shift work over the last couple of years due to my old force’s pattern in the same departments as here and it’s not something I want to go back to - as much as it upsets me to think of leaving for good, my personal life is more important to me.

8 weeks before pattern will change?

I would totally suck that up

Did you not know that it would be shift work?

Would you consider police staff? As I'm sure you know, they usually work normal hours and the pay can be reasonable (certainly over 30k in some roles) and you'd obviously be a shoe in with your skills.

Oh my apologies I misunderstood. The pattern lasts 8 weeks then restarts. It’s a permanent pattern so will not change. If it was 8 weeks before changing, of course I would suck it up!

Obviously I knew there would be an element of shift work, I have been in the police for a long time.

However; in this role, in my previous force, the other force I discussed with and the the two other forces I’m aware of shift patterns from due to friends, it was predominantly office hours. My old force had 1 week of lates (but less extreme lates than this force) and 1 weekend a month.

Other forces have patterns which are mon-fri with 1 weekend every 8 weeks etc for this role. I assumed it would be similar in this force - it is a specialist role, not first response.

@SaulHudsonDavidJones definitely something I can explore, probably once I’m in. I hadn’t considered it as in my old force, the civilian investigators worked the same pattern as officers but it may well be different here.

You mentioned that all the roles you are interested in follow this pattern, so you will probably have to look outside those roles if you can't manage what they ask for. I wouldn't bother trying to negotiate a different pattern - you'll only piss off your colleagues and superiors.
What about training? All during the day? Loads of detective training being done across the country?

How come the other roles are lower paid - surly you would keep your rank if you move departments.

You will also pick up unsocial hours payments now if you were previously in a more 9-5 role.

Where we are - anyone who can not work the shift pattern can submit their own to fit in with work-life balances. This has to be approved of course, but it can not be rejected without good reason. I'm sure its in police regs and then you can get the fed involved.

Thanks @tealgate, definitely agree re the shift pattern - if it was marginal changes (previously I had an early finish 1 day and a late start another), it wouldn’t be so much of a drama and that sometimes benefited my colleagues as if a job was running late when I was on a later finish, I could step in. But I would need to radically change this pattern as I neither want to work so many weekends, nor 7 days in a row hence I think it’s a bit of a non-starter.

There are potentially other areas I /could/ move into that could have other patterns - obviously don’t know about this force but economic crime, prison crime etc in my old force were very much mon-fri/wfh etc, training like you say. That gives me the pros of the salary/pension. Food for thought!

@Felix125 I was probably unclear - those are roles outside the police.

Do you get people radically changing the pattern? I had to fight very hard previously to change an 8-4 to a 10-6 and was given strict limitations to work within I.e not allowed to start before 8am, due to ‘business needs’.

I have known people who can only work days - so split their time between three different response teams.

Or work a pattern so that during the week they can drop their children off at school.

I am an ex Police Detective and work as an investigator for a regulatory body. My salary is about £32000. Are you on LinkedIn? If you fill in your profile there will be loads of roles suggested for you. There are loads of investigator roles in all sorts of different businesses and usually start at £30000. There usually is career progression if you want it. I am a basic investigator but there are senior investigator roles, managerial roles etc. some are wholly remote. For example the Solicitor Regulatory Authority was recently advertising and although they are based in Birmingham it was fully remote with the requirement for occasional attendance at the office. I think the starting salary again was about £33500 but I would imagine again there is career progression into management roles.

Thanks @CountTo10
I think I’ve seen that and was thinking of putting an application in.

Can I ask, what lead to you leaving the police? How does it feel working on jobs that aren’t as ‘important’ for lack of a better word. This is something I’m struggling with a bit, I think I’ve become desensitised to ‘lesser’ crimes due to the nature of what I’ve been doing and I worry I would become demotivated quite quickly.

@Struggllepiggle

To be fair this is a post retirement job so in a different situation to you. However if I had my time again I should have left sooner. I was pushed to the point of suicide at times in the Police. When I came back to work after having my first they refused to let me do 8:30 - 16:30 day shifts instead of 8:00 - 16:00 despite the fact I was actually arriving at 08:15 so they were getting an extra half hour out of me unpaid on every day shift. Apparently the world would come to a standstill if I wasn’t there at 8. That’s just one example of many.

I have been bullied, scapegoated, sexually harassed and indecently assaulted in my 30 years so my current role is like a breath of fresh air. My current role is just as ‘important’ as the one I did in the Police. Its primary role is public safety. I worked in Safeguarding for the last 10 years of my career and in no way do I feel I’m not doing a worthwhile important job. It’s s also stressful enough to be interesting but not so stressful you wake up in a cold sweat at 2 in the morning that something dreadful may have happened with one of your cases. There are loads of ‘important’ investigator roles such as Enviroment Agency, NMC, GDC, GMC.

Good luck!

Thank you - I resonate with your post a lot! Especially the 8.30-4.30 bit 😂

I just find it so frustrating. I’m good at what I do, I love what I do, I work very hard and willing to stay on and get it done. But at the same time, it’s not my whole life and I feel that is the expectation.

Just wondering how you got on OP? I’m in a very similar situation and still exploring options?! Hope you’re well x

Housing Officer - Social Housing.
You'd deal with ASB complaints, have to attend court etc, evictions etc plus loads of other stuff - but it would be Mon-Fri, office hours.