Avoiding a job!

[Undirection]

I just went for an interview. Nice company but the Manager dropped an ever-so-small bombshell that most people only last a year. They have had 6 people in 6 years! TBH, I nearly said, thanks, bye! I think I am going to go with my instincts and politely decline.

[AyBee]

Odd that he gave you that information - did he give a reason why?

[xjay1337]

You think 1 every year is bad?
The company I work at, had about 45-50 employees?
14 people have left since July.

[anonymous-user]

I went to an interview for a Project mgr role, and was told that I would be the 9th PM on that project.

Thanks but no thanks.

[UK345]

At the beginning of the year i was unemployed and desparate for work. I applied to a local plant hire firm and got through all the stages. I was told that the last guy left after only 6 weeks but i went for it anyway as i wanted to try it for myself. By the end of the first week i quickly realised why the last guy left and knew for a fact i was in the wrong job. I stayed in for 6 weeks and then resigned. I had no motivation and it was noted. I got an email saying that i would be summoned upto the managers offices for a talking to about how i feel about the job. I knew it wouldnt go well so resigned on the Thursday night. I have not looked back since. At least they supplied me with a load of work clothing which i now use as working on car rags lol

[AlexC1981]

xjay1337 said:

You think 1 every year is bad?
The company I work at, had about 45-50 employees?
14 people have left since July.

No one's going to beat this for staff turnover. The department I worked in at my previous company had a maximum of 15 people at any one time and we lost 25 people either sacked (proper sacked, not made redundant) or handed their notice in over the two years I worked there. Two of them didn't work their notice period through stress. I think I was the 26th person to leave.

[xjay1337]

AlexC1981 said:

No one's going to beat this for staff turnover. The department I worked in at my previous company had a maximum of 15 people at any one time and we lost 25 people either sacked (proper sacked, not made redundant) or handed their notice in over the two years I worked there. Two of them didn't work their notice period through stress. I think I was the 26th person to leave.

Bloody hell mate that really is a bit crazy lol

[andy-xr]

Is it this or JSA? If it is, I'd be tempted to see how long you can stick at it and if needs be use it as time to look for something else

[Hoofy]

AlexC1981 said:

No one's going to beat this for staff turnover. The department I worked in at my previous company had a maximum of 15 people at any one time and we lost 25 people either sacked (proper sacked, not made redundant) or handed their notice in over the two years I worked there. Two of them didn't work their notice period through stress. I think I was the 26th person to leave.

!!

Why was it so bad?

[98elise]

AlexC1981 said:

xjay1337 said:

You think 1 every year is bad?
The company I work at, had about 45-50 employees?
14 people have left since July.

No one's going to beat this for staff turnover. The department I worked in at my previous company had a maximum of 15 people at any one time and we lost 25 people either sacked (proper sacked, not made redundant) or handed their notice in over the two years I worked there. Two of them didn't work their notice period through stress. I think I was the 26th person to leave.

I once worked in a team team of 24, I was the 26th person to leave in the year I was there. The thing is it wasn't actually a bad place to work, it just has a general feeling of negativity, and it was relatively easy to get work elsewhere.

People left, then head hunted other people. At one point we had almost entire shift team leave when they all got offered jobs by someone who had just gone!

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Typical PM interview. Corbyn wouldn't get past the first day.

[Undirection]

AyBee said:

Odd that he gave you that information - did he give a reason why?

No, other than she just wanted me to understand that there were big challenges with multiple managers all making demands. I am in for a 2nd interview on another job (I am actually the only one having a 2nd interview) but even if this fails I think I'll avoid this job above. I am sure I'd regret it. Shame I did such a good interview! Why on earht don't they do something about the structure etc?

That said Mrs D works for a company with a marketing manager who is not good enough and their marketing is failing. The MD wants to make her a Director!!

[UK345]

Sounds like your mind is already made up so stick to your decision and dont follow up any correspondence with the company. The right job will come your way shortly.

[AlexC1981]

Hoofy said:

!!

Why was it so bad?

We were a new department and we were supposed to massively ramp up and increase our turnover in a short space of time. Unrealistic expectations put a lot of pressure on everyone. We were a small department in a very large company and although we were the same industry, we worked in a completely different way. Square peg in a round hole comes to mind.

There wasn't proper investment from the start. We should have had our own branch/depot with proper facilities, instead we were given a room in HQ to run the business from. We also didn't have the right people in and not enough of them from the start, so we all ended up covering each others jobs and learnt on the job without any training either until quite late on.

A few people got sacked. New people brought in to replace them, but they were expected to hit the ground running. Instead of progressing we ended up spending half our time fire fighting. Morale plummeted as this repeated itself over and over again. People blamed each other for failure as over-pressured people boiled over. No one had any sort of autonomy or the authority to make a decision. Dissent resulted in a written warning and an interview with HR. The guy in HR was a proper slimy little toady.

The director had a decent amount of industry knowledge and was undoubtedly charismatic, but he was also quick tempered, very manipulative and had a talent for criticism in a real nasty way. We had a nice quiet chap in the office. Intelligent and knew his profession. After a particularly sarcastic remark from the director, the quiet chap lost his temper and told the director he thought he was unprofessional. Quiet chap received an apology (not in public) the next day, but failed his six months probation a few weeks later.

The 2nd in command was much more direct. He had a couple of women working for him and on more than one occasion I remember him barking question after question at them until they didnt know the answers. Just to test them I think. They ended up in tears after getting told off a few times. One of them was a recent university graduate and didn't have such a good grasp of what was going on as the other and I used to feel really sorry for her. Ultimately she wasn't right for the job, but to make someone feel so inadequate and to give them a dressing down like that in front of everyone, just isn't how it should be done.

I quit a year ago. I just googled them and it appears the department has been closed, which gives me mixed feelings as there were still some good people there when I left and there was potential for a decent business. I never kept in contact with my colleagues after I left. Not sure why, I think I just needed a clean break and to put it behind me.

This post has been quite cathartic actually It had a happy ending for me anyway as I could not be happier where I am working now. I think when you have experience of a bad company it makes you really appreciate it when you work somewhere decent!

[Evolved]

Sounds like the place I used to work at, they seem to have a hard time retaining staff!

It's usually related to poor management and piss poor wages.

[Hoofy]

AlexC1981 said:

Hoofy said:

!!

Why was it so bad?

We were a new department and we were supposed to massively ramp up and increase our turnover in a short space of time. Unrealistic expectations put a lot of pressure on everyone. We were a small department in a very large company and although we were the same industry, we worked in a completely different way. Square peg in a round hole comes to mind.

There wasn't proper investment from the start. We should have had our own branch/depot with proper facilities, instead we were given a room in HQ to run the business from. We also didn't have the right people in and not enough of them from the start, so we all ended up covering each others jobs and learnt on the job without any training either until quite late on.

A few people got sacked. New people brought in to replace them, but they were expected to hit the ground running. Instead of progressing we ended up spending half our time fire fighting. Morale plummeted as this repeated itself over and over again. People blamed each other for failure as over-pressured people boiled over. No one had any sort of autonomy or the authority to make a decision. Dissent resulted in a written warning and an interview with HR. The guy in HR was a proper slimy little toady.

The director had a decent amount of industry knowledge and was undoubtedly charismatic, but he was also quick tempered, very manipulative and had a talent for criticism in a real nasty way. We had a nice quiet chap in the office. Intelligent and knew his profession. After a particularly sarcastic remark from the director, the quiet chap lost his temper and told the director he thought he was unprofessional. Quiet chap received an apology (not in public) the next day, but failed his six months probation a few weeks later.

The 2nd in command was much more direct. He had a couple of women working for him and on more than one occasion I remember him barking question after question at them until they didnt know the answers. Just to test them I think. They ended up in tears after getting told off a few times. One of them was a recent university graduate and didn't have such a good grasp of what was going on as the other and I used to feel really sorry for her. Ultimately she wasn't right for the job, but to make someone feel so inadequate and to give them a dressing down like that in front of everyone, just isn't how it should be done.

I quit a year ago. I just googled them and it appears the department has been closed, which gives me mixed feelings as there were still some good people there when I left and there was potential for a decent business. I never kept in contact with my colleagues after I left. Not sure why, I think I just needed a clean break and to put it behind me.

This post has been quite cathartic actually It had a happy ending for me anyway as I could not be happier where I am working now. I think when you have experience of a bad company it makes you really appreciate it when you work somewhere decent!

Christ. Sounds a bit st. Presumably they're like that for the rest of the workforce.

[AlexC1981]

The rest of the business was well established and had been doing pretty much the same thing for the last 20 years or so. I don't think they had it quite so tough as we did.

[egor110]

Hoofy said:

AlexC1981 said:

Hoofy said:

!!

Why was it so bad?

We were a new department and we were supposed to massively ramp up and increase our turnover in a short space of time. Unrealistic expectations put a lot of pressure on everyone. We were a small department in a very large company and although we were the same industry, we worked in a completely different way. Square peg in a round hole comes to mind.

There wasn't proper investment from the start. We should have had our own branch/depot with proper facilities, instead we were given a room in HQ to run the business from. We also didn't have the right people in and not enough of them from the start, so we all ended up covering each others jobs and learnt on the job without any training either until quite late on.

A few people got sacked. New people brought in to replace them, but they were expected to hit the ground running. Instead of progressing we ended up spending half our time fire fighting. Morale plummeted as this repeated itself over and over again. People blamed each other for failure as over-pressured people boiled over. No one had any sort of autonomy or the authority to make a decision. Dissent resulted in a written warning and an interview with HR. The guy in HR was a proper slimy little toady.

The director had a decent amount of industry knowledge and was undoubtedly charismatic, but he was also quick tempered, very manipulative and had a talent for criticism in a real nasty way. We had a nice quiet chap in the office. Intelligent and knew his profession. After a particularly sarcastic remark from the director, the quiet chap lost his temper and told the director he thought he was unprofessional. Quiet chap received an apology (not in public) the next day, but failed his six months probation a few weeks later.

The 2nd in command was much more direct. He had a couple of women working for him and on more than one occasion I remember him barking question after question at them until they didnt know the answers. Just to test them I think. They ended up in tears after getting told off a few times. One of them was a recent university graduate and didn't have such a good grasp of what was going on as the other and I used to feel really sorry for her. Ultimately she wasn't right for the job, but to make someone feel so inadequate and to give them a dressing down like that in front of everyone, just isn't how it should be done.

I quit a year ago. I just googled them and it appears the department has been closed, which gives me mixed feelings as there were still some good people there when I left and there was potential for a decent business. I never kept in contact with my colleagues after I left. Not sure why, I think I just needed a clean break and to put it behind me.

This post has been quite cathartic actually It had a happy ending for me anyway as I could not be happier where I am working now. I think when you have experience of a bad company it makes you really appreciate it when you work somewhere decent!

Christ. Sounds a bit st. Presumably they're like that for the rest of the workforce.

What exactly was the point in the 2nd in command barking questions at the women and ending up with them crying?

How exactly is that going to make the team work better?

Sounds like the guy was on a power trip hiding behind his suit and the fact he could sack people, we've had managers who were ex decent ranking marines and you know what none of them managed like that, they've all been reasonable and bring teams together without bellowing or acting like bertie big bks.

[Hoofy]

egor110 said:

Sounds like the guy was on a power trip

[AJS-]

Always worth asking why people have left. You will almost certainly get their answer, but it can still be illuminating. Some companies simply hire the wrong people time and time again, often looking for a close replacement for the person who left. There might not be anything fundamentally wrong with the job if it was given to the right person.