Leaving the Police
Discussion
Initially I was going to post a war story in Speed Plod and Law but I decided it probably wasn't really relevant in that forum.
Suffice to say I, like 99% of my colleagues, am desperately looking for a way out of the job but am struggling for a few reasons. My main question here is how attractive would a police officer be to a potential future employer these days, and also I am still clueless as to what avenues to pursue in terms of moving on and as far away as possible from "policing".
Living in a constant culture of fear of discipline and worse I am unwilling to reveal much about my work other than it is London and Home Counties based. I am in a specialist role and have a total of 18 years in the service having joined extremely young. As with all of us, having served for that duration time, I have no official or recognisable qualification to offer to the outside world other than I am first aid trained. I have been through weeks if not years of intensive internal training for my current role and on paper am "highly trained", but it's all useless if I was to go and interview to be a train driver.
Unlike many of my colleagues I have no second skill or useful hobby in which to turn into a career. I pretty much went straight from school into the service and it's all I really know. Training up in something is tough, two reasons for this, firstly with the hours and shifts I work (along with my partner who works when I am not working) I struggle to find 15 minutes to even mow the lawn. Plus we also have 2 very young children who we struggle as it is to manage childcare around. We have no help with the kids either, my parents are not around and my partners parents live in Wales. It's very tough and with the police have no interest in dependants or your own welfare there have been times I have had to use statutory dependants leave in order to look after them, usually following a last minute shift change or if one of them is unwell and cannot attend nursery e.t.c.
And then we have finances. I am personally willing to take a 50% pay cut to enter any job that get's me out and away from the police. I couldn't care less about the money initially, what's more important to me is my family, quality of life, my health, a sense of well being and being valued, none of which apply in any way shape or form to police officers today. I am also fed up of being embarrassed to tell people what I do, swerving the question and often lying when asked. I guess I hate being part of the "system" that only serves to fail the greater majority through no fault of those that work within it.
The problem however is that despite my willingness, we have just taken on the biggest mortgage of our lives, and with childcare costs currently at maximum due to their ages, I simply could not afford to take any sort of pay cut. My pay in real terms has been decreasing for the last 7 years anyway, something none of us expected, and for the first time in my life this year I have been using my untouched pot of life savings in order to get by month to month, something I have never done before. I have simply run out of options, as I have already put in all the measures possible to get by, but each month a new cut is forced upon me, and now with all overtime being withdrawn for the rest of the year, it is nothing but flat pay months, so I can kiss goodbye to the £100 overtime payments here and there which really helped. I am bringing home currently the same amount of money as I did in 2008, although living costs have rocketed since then and after my bills and living costs are catered for I am left with around £120 for the month.
So, I want out, I am willing to put in the work to get out, and I am pretty sure I can club together a half decent CV but I am unsure as to how it would be looked at by a future employer. Broadly speaking, I am privately educated to A Level (achieved 3 passes), I am articulate and organised, detail focussed, computer literate and can talk up a whole range of life experiences thus far in my career. What I can't do is demonstrate proven experience in particular fields such as sales, employment law and so on and so forth.
My options are to stick with what I am doing and join those who will do likewise, resulting in a 25 year grind avoiding as many risks to my job in terms of complaints as possible, being undervalued and not getting anywhere. Or I could take a leap into the unknown, disrupting the steady platform I have known for all this time, with unknown pay, unknown prospects and potentially some serious disruption to my home and kids life. The question is where to look and how to go about it.
Suffice to say I, like 99% of my colleagues, am desperately looking for a way out of the job but am struggling for a few reasons. My main question here is how attractive would a police officer be to a potential future employer these days, and also I am still clueless as to what avenues to pursue in terms of moving on and as far away as possible from "policing".
Living in a constant culture of fear of discipline and worse I am unwilling to reveal much about my work other than it is London and Home Counties based. I am in a specialist role and have a total of 18 years in the service having joined extremely young. As with all of us, having served for that duration time, I have no official or recognisable qualification to offer to the outside world other than I am first aid trained. I have been through weeks if not years of intensive internal training for my current role and on paper am "highly trained", but it's all useless if I was to go and interview to be a train driver.
Unlike many of my colleagues I have no second skill or useful hobby in which to turn into a career. I pretty much went straight from school into the service and it's all I really know. Training up in something is tough, two reasons for this, firstly with the hours and shifts I work (along with my partner who works when I am not working) I struggle to find 15 minutes to even mow the lawn. Plus we also have 2 very young children who we struggle as it is to manage childcare around. We have no help with the kids either, my parents are not around and my partners parents live in Wales. It's very tough and with the police have no interest in dependants or your own welfare there have been times I have had to use statutory dependants leave in order to look after them, usually following a last minute shift change or if one of them is unwell and cannot attend nursery e.t.c.
And then we have finances. I am personally willing to take a 50% pay cut to enter any job that get's me out and away from the police. I couldn't care less about the money initially, what's more important to me is my family, quality of life, my health, a sense of well being and being valued, none of which apply in any way shape or form to police officers today. I am also fed up of being embarrassed to tell people what I do, swerving the question and often lying when asked. I guess I hate being part of the "system" that only serves to fail the greater majority through no fault of those that work within it.
The problem however is that despite my willingness, we have just taken on the biggest mortgage of our lives, and with childcare costs currently at maximum due to their ages, I simply could not afford to take any sort of pay cut. My pay in real terms has been decreasing for the last 7 years anyway, something none of us expected, and for the first time in my life this year I have been using my untouched pot of life savings in order to get by month to month, something I have never done before. I have simply run out of options, as I have already put in all the measures possible to get by, but each month a new cut is forced upon me, and now with all overtime being withdrawn for the rest of the year, it is nothing but flat pay months, so I can kiss goodbye to the £100 overtime payments here and there which really helped. I am bringing home currently the same amount of money as I did in 2008, although living costs have rocketed since then and after my bills and living costs are catered for I am left with around £120 for the month.
So, I want out, I am willing to put in the work to get out, and I am pretty sure I can club together a half decent CV but I am unsure as to how it would be looked at by a future employer. Broadly speaking, I am privately educated to A Level (achieved 3 passes), I am articulate and organised, detail focussed, computer literate and can talk up a whole range of life experiences thus far in my career. What I can't do is demonstrate proven experience in particular fields such as sales, employment law and so on and so forth.
My options are to stick with what I am doing and join those who will do likewise, resulting in a 25 year grind avoiding as many risks to my job in terms of complaints as possible, being undervalued and not getting anywhere. Or I could take a leap into the unknown, disrupting the steady platform I have known for all this time, with unknown pay, unknown prospects and potentially some serious disruption to my home and kids life. The question is where to look and how to go about it.
wiliferus said:
Not necessarily. The op sounds like a carbon copy of me. Joined very young (19) so am 37 years old with 18 years service. When the pension changes came in I missed out on any protection, so to get my full pension instead of 12 years to go I have 22 years to do, as now have to work until I'm 60. And it's not longer a final salary pension, it's a CARE scheme, so I'll get less.
Hi there, on nights hence late reply.I just wanted to add to this. I joined at 19 and signed up to the old 2/3s pension scheme, which at the time was a huge part of my future planning, an expectation and something we were all promised as a condition of employment. Like wiliferus, that contract has been ripped up and thrown away and I am now on the new CARE scheme, whatever that is. It means I have to work an extra 11 years minimum, possibly an extra 16 years. In that time time I will also have to pay in a lot more each month to the pension and at the end I will get out a lot less. That would take me to 46 years service before I hit 65. I could go earlier but with huge financial penalty.
Of course, because of my age and the fact I am not "tapered" I will be working alongside people doing the exact same role as myself who will still enjoy the full pension entitlement I have lost, purely down to my age. Luckily Leigh Day have taken the legal battle on on behalf of thousands of police officers, and within 4 to 5 years we will see whether or not that pays off. Either way it is typical of the job, making rash decisions without thinking, treating people vastly differently for the wrong reasons, and in the process seriously upsetting an awful lot of officers. Myself and a colleague recently worked out the real terms financial loss from retirement to death on the presumption of living until 75, and with the reduction of commutation payout, the reduction on pension and the increase in contributions over the rest of our career, it worked out to be about £400'000 loss per officer. You can imagine the knock on effect that alone has on motivation and morale of officers.
As for promotion, don't bother. Firstly there isn't any at the moment, secondly the job have strict quota's to fulfill in regards to this. Positive discrimination is the name of the game here and it is based on whatever the latest government fad is, nearly always that the job MUST increase the amount of diverse ethnic backgrounds in supervisory roles. There are others such as being female, having a disability etc. Aside form all that, promotion in the police is pretty pointless as there is little financial gain and often loss. A Sargeant is on little more than a top rate PC, in fact a new Sargeant is on less. There is only a few grand a year difference in total, and when you consider the years of jumping through hoops you have to go through to get the rank as well as the upheaval of getting it and being moved to where your needed, there is very little incentive. After a load more years of hassle you may reach Inspector level where you then lose overtime, and will be paid less than constables who do a fair bit of overtime. Yes overtime at the moment is restricted but not everywhere and there are some roles that if you really want the money, you can go and earn it. But only as a PC / PS. Anything else and your salaried. I know a fair few PC's in various roles, some quite easy to get into, who are earning eye watering amounts of money by being at work for a fair bit of time, standing on a porch or a door.
As for all the other replies thank you so much, I have read them all through and am encouraged by them particularly the last one above. I am going to benchmark this thread and use it to develop a strategic plan of action.
A lot of it is the fear of disrupting the apple cart of life so to speak, but, it's something I know feel ready to take action on.
A lot of it is the fear of disrupting the apple cart of life so to speak, but, it's something I know feel ready to take action on.
Stedman said:
What's the surname? My dad retired from Sussex traffic in 2006 (I think); he was on traffic for much of his career. You can guess our surname!
Yes I have thought about the railway and it would be one of my first choices. From what I know though doesn't it take a fair few years to progress from guard to driver or is it not as clear cut as that?My local train line would be South West Trains or possibly GWR between Redhill and Reading.
An update to this. I have now compiled a CV. It is the first I have ever written and I am actually quite pleased with it. It is 2 sides of A4 simply detailing my education, my employment, my core skills and current responsibilities and a brief paragraph on me and why I am looking for a change in career path. I have tried to steer it away from being just waffle and hope it will be refreshing to any prospective employer.
I have also been looking online and registering with job sites. Most of the jobs make for grim reading, anything remotely decent seems to have heavy requirements to have experience of / qualifications in specific fields, none of which I have. But I have sent my CV to a couple of them and will persevere.
I have also signed up to job alerts with a railway but as yet nothing has come about.
Anyone know of any decent sites for ex cops?
I have also been looking online and registering with job sites. Most of the jobs make for grim reading, anything remotely decent seems to have heavy requirements to have experience of / qualifications in specific fields, none of which I have. But I have sent my CV to a couple of them and will persevere.
I have also signed up to job alerts with a railway but as yet nothing has come about.
Anyone know of any decent sites for ex cops?
My journey has led me to the offer of a job interview as a "Self Employed Enforcement Agent" aka bailiff with a company called Marston.
Phone calls initially were slightly vague however I am told that I am given a selection of warrants to wade through, and am paid £80 on completion of each one. I am also told that experienced bailiffs are getting through around 15 to 20 a week and you can earn around 1k a week enforcing them. This is based on 5 to 6 days a week and working hours from 6am to 9am, whatever you choose in your self employed role. It all sounds appealing, but I suspect it is not quite as rosy as I have been led to believe.
Does anybody have experience of the role or know someone that carries it out? The interview / selection process appears pretty easy from what I gather, so they can't be too fussy who they choose.
Phone calls initially were slightly vague however I am told that I am given a selection of warrants to wade through, and am paid £80 on completion of each one. I am also told that experienced bailiffs are getting through around 15 to 20 a week and you can earn around 1k a week enforcing them. This is based on 5 to 6 days a week and working hours from 6am to 9am, whatever you choose in your self employed role. It all sounds appealing, but I suspect it is not quite as rosy as I have been led to believe.
Does anybody have experience of the role or know someone that carries it out? The interview / selection process appears pretty easy from what I gather, so they can't be too fussy who they choose.
I'm just sick of all things policing. It's rubbish, pointless thankless work and having given so much of my life to it already I, like all I work with, just want out.
So far looking at other jobs I am coming to realise firstly what easy money policing is and also how difficult it seems to get any sort of meaningful job in the outside world without niche experience. I've had a few phonecards and leads buy they are for vague roles either in sales or self employed enforcement where longevity and security are an unknown.
I'll persevere though. It's a shame my driving skills don't count for much. I was offered an instructors place in the police in 2014 which I had to turn down for geographical reasons but nothing in the private sector seems to require the raft of driving skills I have.
So far looking at other jobs I am coming to realise firstly what easy money policing is and also how difficult it seems to get any sort of meaningful job in the outside world without niche experience. I've had a few phonecards and leads buy they are for vague roles either in sales or self employed enforcement where longevity and security are an unknown.
I'll persevere though. It's a shame my driving skills don't count for much. I was offered an instructors place in the police in 2014 which I had to turn down for geographical reasons but nothing in the private sector seems to require the raft of driving skills I have.
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