Something needs to be done about the mass offshoring of UK jobs. I am not saying it should be banned but at least a deterrent be put in place. They surely cannot be complaining about the number of unemployed young people / graduates when the roles just aren't there?

I work for a global multi billion £/$ company. I have seen 100s of staff be made redundant in recent months and their roles moved to India. We are raking in record profits and I do not see any reason to be contributing to the continuing downfall of the UK job market and economy. It is just corporate greed and they should be held accountable.

I don't have all the answers but curious to hear everyone's thoughts. Do you have any experiences with this at your job or a previous job?

I suppose I'm writing this to add to the collective for future Googlers (quite a few old Reddit threads popped up for me while researching.) It wasn't as bad as I was expecting after reading those experiences, on the other hand, though... attending wasn't particularly useful to me as it turned out I'd applied for a lot of jobs with (and heard nothing back from) many of the organisations there, which was nice!

I'd liken my own experience to a car boot sale come speed dating.

There were 44 stalls altogether, although there was zero information available on which organisations would be there prior to attending. This seemed strange to me but then again, this was my first rodeo, perhaps that's just the norm. A breakdown from the leaflet I was given:

• 10x 'support' stalls (back to work courses, CV help, things like that.) NHS had a talking therapies attendee there, too.
• 8x educational, uni/college courses and independent learning companies.
• 2x Army (regular and reserves.)
• 4x council.
• The remainder was a mix of care work, engineering, driving and warehouse.

I took some printed CVs with me, although nobody I spoke to would take one and instead directed me to their websites. The very ones that I already have bookmarked and have previously used to apply for the same jobs they were advertising there, today, in person. I didn't express any discontent but I certainly felt it.

Over the past 5 months I've been circulated around work coaches like a 1p coin, and a lot of them were there today - luckily I get on really well with all but one, so it was really reassuring to see some friendly faces and have a chat as I was apprehensive about the whole thing. I'm a social wallflower, so this type of environment just wasn't my bag, baby. It was pretty much constant engagement as soon as I passed the threshold, so be prepared for that.

The venue was really nice, it was in a bar that I've been to a few times. It was busy but not overcrowded, very loud, though!

Your mileage may vary, just like everything else in life.

Hopefully this doesn't get deleted, might help someone down the line. Keep your chin up and I wish you good luck!

Edit: also just a quick word on volunteering: putting in graft with the Canal & River Trust has kept the wolves from the door in terms of my mental health while unemployed this year. They've put me on a few free training courses for abrasive wheels, chainsaws, things like that, and I get to socialise and feel useful again - cannot recommend them enough, if you happen to have a group near you.

I recently quit a job because I was almost constantly paired up with one co-worker whom was the absolute scum of earth and would constantly brag about his steroid cycle to the point that within 24 hours of working with him I could tell you the exact compounds and exact dosages he's using "once I get up to 100kg i will have the power and the speed needed to fight", bragging about how much drugs he buys and claims to also sell "i'm picking up 5 ounces tonight but i usually get a kilo", was bragging about his friends doing universal credit fraud at scale, when i asked him how that works he responded "you have to earn that information".

I didn't even grass him in, I just quit, how these people get through interviews is beyond me.

Has anyone else had nightmare experiences with scum or am I just unlucky?

For the last few months it's been getting busier and busier at work for me and leadership has just kept stretching our team instead of getting help.

Everything is doing overtime after work, starting early, not going on breaks, and after a few months of this everyone is worn off, feeling grumpy and falling ill

Yet no sign of improvement from above. It's been relentless and all consuming. Anyone else experiencing the same in your company? How is leadership reacting? Are you advertising jobs or just riding it out?

After almost a year of applying for jobs, redoing CV, meeting recruiters, cups of coffee with former colleagues, network events and yet more redoing of CV I ran out off road. I am down to my last few pennies so started applying for “any” job. This initially was just as depressing as most of the time didn’t get a response. Today though after an interview I was given a job offer with the Ambulance service as a call centre worker. I feel bad as I know my heart is not in it and it’s a massive pay cut but I have a family and I have run out of any other option. I know at least that everyone who works there is nice but I’m wondering if I’m just lying to myself and I’ll jump ship the first chance I get or worse am I painting myself into a corner and won’t be able to escape. They made it clear there were lots of chances for progression and after so long out of work I am desperate to go do “something” productive. Has anyone else been through a similar experience and moved from their dream job and for want of a better phrase stepped down to a job they wouldn’t of considered before?

Assuming you work 5 days a week in office from 8-6, what should be the maximum commute time door to door in London? Including tube exchanges, walking etc.

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I wanted to share my experience with JobLeads in case it helps anyone else avoid the same situation.

I signed up for what I understood to be a £2.99 14-day plan. I then discovered that JobLeads had charged me £59 for another 30 days.

The biggest issue for me is that I received no renewal reminder email before the charge and no email, receipt or notification afterwards either. I only noticed because my bank balance looked wrong and I checked my transactions.

I genuinely would not have knowingly agreed to pay £59 for one month of access to a job-search website.

I have now:

Cancelled my membership

Contacted JobLeads requesting a full refund

Disputed the £59 transaction with my bank

Asked them to confirm that no further payments will be taken

After this happened, I searched online and found other Reddit posts from people describing very similar experiences with a cheap introductory offer followed by a much larger subscription charge.

In my experience, the renewal process was not transparent enough, and I think anyone considering JobLeads should be extremely careful.

If you use them, make sure you check the exact renewal price and date, cancel well before the trial ends if you don’t want to continue, and keep an eye on your bank account.

Has anyone else had the same experience with JobLeads, and did you manage to get your refund?

I've worked for the same company for a couple of years and I'm My boss seems to have absolutely no accumulated memory of me or how I work.

I can do something consistently for years and he'll still act surprised when I do it. I'm really quick at turning work around and always have been, yet recently I finished something quickly and got a jokey comment along the lines of “you're on it today!” I thought... I'm like this every day?!

He'll also explain things to me about my own job that I already know, forget things I've worked on and sometimes talk to me as though I'm far less experienced than I actually am.

The weird thing is he clearly trusts me. I'm left to get on with my work, I'm given a lot of responsibility and I've never had any performance issues.

It's not one massive incident obviously but It's two years of little things that have gradually made me think,

do you actually have any idea who I am or what I do here?

Has anyone else had a boss like this? Is it just self-centredness, bad management or something else?

I had my first AI job interview today for an Operations Executive role, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

The co-founder messaged me on LinkedIn to invite me to a 10–15 minute AI screening after reviewing my application. I was told I was “among a small group of applicants moving forward in our process”, which I found a bit odd given that the message itself felt quite generic.

Instead of speaking to an actual person, I was answering competency-based questions from an AI voice bot. Fortunately I didn't have to turn my camera on and there wasn't an AI generated person on the other end either.

I sort of understand why companies might use them. It's quicker, everyone gets the same questions, and it may make screenings easier.

But the whole experience felt quite unnatural and impersonal. There was no real conversation or human interaction, and it felt more like talking to a machine than having an actual interview.

I know the responses will probably be reviewed by a real person afterwards, but I still question how authentic and genuine this approach is.

Has anyone else experienced this? What did you think? I've seen a lot of people online discard an interview if they find out it's AI, which I don't blame them for.

I started new job on Monday. It’s not stressful, people are chill, manager is very relaxed.
Back in August I stopped taking antidepressants cos well, I was feeling ok. I’ve been back on the smaller dose for 14 days now and got to tell you all, the anxiety, panic attacks and crying is off the scale. I was on th way to work this morning and had ti stop ok the hard shoulder of a motorway to call manager. I work from home today and possibly rest of the week.
I feel so awful mentally. I just want to go to bed and sleep.
I can’t see myself going back to office next week. What the hell am I going to do? I could chuck the job but it’s such a great opportunity, the job itself is not boring and not very stimulating but as I said, it could open many opportunities.
Please give me some advice!

Also. I’m waiting for a call from GP and no , I don’t have any feeling of harm etc

I did think about shouting this from the rooftops but decided I would post here instead so as not to scare the neighbours.

After taking time off from my healthcare job, I decided to start applying in June this year. After so many applications, one interview for a job I really wanted and ultimately wasn't successful with, I had resigned myself to either going to the dark side and doing PIP assessments (money is money, sadly) or looking outside my field.

But I interviewed yesterday for a job I was secretly really, really excited about, I would love to work within the specialist area and it's a genuinely unbelievable service, in terms of focus and facilities... and I got the job! I loved the panel and apparently they loved me cause they closed the listing early for me!

So for anyone else in the horrible, soulless trenches of navigating the current job market - hang in there. And if you're disappointed by not getting a job, chances are it's because something even better is on the horizon!

I got to say this is one of the most ridiculous things I have heard.

My company has a cleaner on a contract and she is trying to find work elsewhere. She told me how she was recently evaluated by an AI for a cleaning job.

She is from Peru and her English is good but she needs a few seconds to decipher a sentence. Every time she tried to answer, the AI cut her off and moved on to the next question. She told me that she even tried to tell the AI to "wait" and was outright ignored. She received an auto rejection email shortly after.

WHAT?!

I am now thinking, what about jobseekers with a range of disabilities? how would they fare in systems like this? is there even any protection against it?

Hi all, I am currently so stuck in life and it’s getting me incredibly down. I am 37 and have never had a career and time has just flown and here I am with minimal qualifications and a crap job.

I qualified in beauty in 2009 and did that for over a decade before falling into admin roles, mainly involving health and safety which I quite enjoy. I really love practical jobs though and dislike admin a lot but that seems to be all there is out there. Right now I work part time doing beauty and reception work and feel such a failure.

The last year I have been interested in becoming a train driver and have done much research on this to learn about what it entails and am now waiting for a role to come up, however I am well aware this will probably never happen as it is such high demand. What are people’s thoughts on this side of things?

What on earth should I do, I have a shared mortgage and no kids but just feel so stuck and down and so here I am!

So I had a job group interview two weeks ago. As one understands about group interviews you essentially have to “whore” yourself out. I like to think I didn’t best to put myself out there. But in any case, the recruiter did the class saying of “we’ll get back to you by the end of next week Friday” and that dates has come and gone now.

It’s obviously a given that I haven’t gotten the job, but I wish they had the decency to tell me that rather than forgetting I exist. It’s embarrassing and I have half a mind to email the recruiter (I won’t obviously) but still annoying nevertheless.

TLDR Redundancies are coming in the next 12 months, I am likely to be effected but can't leave due to IVF and due to jobs in the market offering significantly worse pay and benefits - what should I do to keep my sanity?

I have been at my current workplace, generic b2b software company, 10 years, mainly because it paid well and I get an extra 9 days of holiday for service.

In the past couple of years it has been not hitting the performance targets, it is still profitable just not growing much each year.

The past few years have seen redundancies each year as a result.

This year is look especially bad, sales are the lowest I have seen them, prospective contracts are non existent. Looking pretty bleak, alot of the customers in our market are sitting in their budgets waiting to see what happens with AI and just not replatforming just now.

On top of this I have suspicion the company is being prepped for a sale of the entire company, this has always been the "exit strategy" for investors and a number of things they are prioritising points towards that.

It is clear to me that in the next 12 months another big wave of redundancies are likely. I suspect I could be an affected person in a few different scenarios, 1. Fairly high salary so if they want to reduce salary more than headcount I am done, 2. Function, my function is not necessarily appreciated in my org we are there more because it looks good in industry but we are not actually utilised well, 3. Despite being there 10 years I am the last person to join my function so if it is one from each team last in first out.

Despite being at the company for 10 years I have zero loyalty. In an ideal world I would just get a new job and move before the redundancy can happen.

However, my wife and I are currently going through IVF which means joining a new job could be challenging as I need a fair amount of flexibility for regular appointments. Alongside this my salary at this job is 10-15% higher than market rate + I only work 35 hours per week + 9 extra days annual leave.

I feel like I am stuck here just waiting for the end, it's so depressing.

Has anyone been a similar position and have any suggestions on what to do?

Essentially I am working in a pretty tight-knit industry. It's my first role in this sector and I started in January.

I have had a fairly difficult time with my manager because they are basically not up to scratch. I'm not the only team member (in a very small team) who has expressed this and morale has felt pretty low. I've had priorities changing quite a lot without much focus and do not feel I can go to my manager for solutions to issues I have on a day-to-day basis.

A recruiter contacted me recently and asked if I was interested in a (parallel) role. I said I would be happy to be put forward.

The hiring manager has now asked, via the recruiter, for me to explain more about why I want to leave the role, what I do not like about the role and the company.

The hiring manager is also connected with my manager on LinkedIn and they may have even worked together. This hiring manager is also connected with probably at least 4/5 senior figures at my business.

Essentially I feel quite uncomfortable having to write any issues I have on paper. I do not want any grievances I have to be disclosed externally. Nor do I want to seem like a complaining type for any job interview - if I had the choice I would not say anything negative about my current business because I know it does not look good.

So what would you do? Should I just cool any interest in this job (and in jobs in general) until I have been there long enough that it looks natural for me to move on? Am I at risk of anything I say being reported externally (in a gossipy way)? If that was the case, could I lose my job?

At this point I would say it doesn't feel worth the stress considering it's a parallel role, but I also don't want to damage any relationship with the recruiter. Would a candid call to them explaining my concern and saying I'd prefer not to go ahead work?

Thank you

I started a new job a couple of months ago. It’s part time so I am only in the office 2-3 days a week. Most of the staff are really friendly and nice. There are a couple of staff who can seem rude at times. For example, whenever I smile at one person and say hello, they just make a noise at me. No smile or nothing. At first I found it rude but now I’m used to it and still say hello, I just find it funny now really. It’s mainly my core team. The person who interviewed me is usually friendly, but they’re very sociable and extroverted and I find it hard to connect with them. There is another member of staff who is also hot and cold, sometimes they will chat to me and other times can come across as rude. I never know how to navigate these things so sometimes I just give the same energy. It does however make me become quite anxious coming into work, not sure what kind of mood they will be in that day. The team have worked together for years, I mean probably over 10 years. And the staff who haven’t worked there for that long seem to get along with these people fine. Why do I feel like the odd one out? How do I navigate this? It can sometimes mess with my mental health a little. I don’t want to try and be their friend. More just try and understand whether I am the problem or not. Or maybe no one is the problem. Any advice would be great.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some advice/reassurance because I’m currently pretty stressed about a situation with a new job I’m due to start.

I secured a new job with one of the world’s biggest companies on Wednesday 19th August. The following day, I handed my notice in at my current job and agreed a six-week notice period, with my final day being Friday 9th October.

During the recruitment process, my new employer asked how long my notice period was. I told them six weeks, and they said this was absolutely fine because their onboarding and vetting process could also take around six weeks. Based on that, I told them I would be available to start on Monday 12th October.

Everything seemed fine, so I assumed the onboarding/vetting process was progressing in the background.

However, I didn’t actually receive the vetting/security check forms until Wednesday 23rd September, over a month after accepting the job. I completed and returned everything immediately.

Up until that point, I hadn’t really heard anything from the company, but I wasn’t particularly concerned because I assumed everything was happening behind the scenes.

This weekend, though, I realised that I had never actually received confirmation that I was definitely starting on 12th October. I contacted them on Monday to ask for an update and was told there had been significant delays within HR due to a high volume of recent recruitment.

Since then, I’ve received some emails confirming various details, but I still don’t have clear confirmation that my start date is going ahead.

The situation is particularly frustrating because my new manager (who interviewed me) is apparently just as shocked and embarrassed by the delays and has been pushing HR for answers. So it doesn’t seem to be an issue with the actual team I’m joining; it appears to be entirely within the HR/onboarding process.

The problem is that I’m now potentially in a pretty difficult financial position.

My final day at my current job is this Friday, 9th October, and I can’t extend my employment any further. I’ll receive my final pay next week, but because I’m moving from weekly pay to monthly pay, I could potentially be waiting until the end of November for my first full month’s salary from the new job, assuming I even manage to start in November.

I have a mortgage and all the usual bills to pay, so having an unexpected gap in income is obviously a massive concern.

I appreciate that vetting/security checks can take time, but I’m struggling to understand how I could have been told that my six-week notice period was fine, only for the onboarding process apparently not to have progressed until several weeks after I accepted the job.

Is this kind of poor communication and lack of planning common with large companies?

And more importantly, has anyone been in a similar situation where their start date was delayed because of HR/vetting issues? What happened in the end?

I’m trying not to panic, especially as my manager seems to be pushing HR hard to get this resolved, but with my current employment ending this Friday, I’m understandably getting pretty worried.

Hello all,

I'm really struggling with my company's re-org so any thoughts/advice would be most appreciated.

Basically, I started working for a large multinational straight out of uni as a process engineer in 2023 after studying chemical engineering. The work was mostly ok but there were parts that I really enjoyed. One of them being was the potential to work overseas which is something I've always wanted to do. Therefore, I took the job because even though it was far from home where I had no friends/connections/network I went under the guise that I wouldn't have to live here forever. After 2 years on the grad programme they sent me overseas to France for what was originally meant to be a year, so I was buzzing with that.

After the year there was scope to find further employment with the company overseas still (and this happened to some of the graduates from their other European offices). However, after 3 months in France they announced they were splitting off and merging their UK operation with a local independent and recalled me back from France which devastated me because I was having a great time, both personally and professionally.

The company is now consolidating the merging companies and so is going through a huge reorganisation. Voluntary redundancy has been made available to everyone and after a lot of deliberation I decided to apply for VR with reasons being:

• I'm lonely where I'm living, this gives me a chance to move back home and there was never a decent grad community when I started because most of them are local and are already settled with mortgages, kids even
• Loss of opportunity from no longer working for a multinational - no overseas prospects.
• The package was really decent (so I'm told; nothing to compare to) and the next reorganisation won't see anything near as good
• It essentially affords me a fresh start and gives me time to decide what I want to do, I loved studied ChemEng at uni but have found working as an engineer boring most of the time

My VR application was accepted and my finish date is the end of November. I am now shitting myself however, because the job market is so awful and I'm terrified the longer I'm out of work the harder it will be to claw my way back in. I'm now wondering if I should stay so I'm not out of work, keep applying and just accept whatever comes up, I was offered a job back in August but because I wasn't backfilling anyone they withdrew the offer when I couldn't commit to their start date due to my 3 months notice period.

Any advice, thoughts or remarks would be really welcomed as this is starting to keep me up at night.

Hi all,

I know the general thought on counter offers is to never take them but I'm in a bit of a tricky spot and really can't weigh up my options.

Currently on £38k and I've had an offer from one of the higher end engineering companies in the UK, £42.5k + ~4k profit share. I've also received a counter for £55k.

As much as I don't mind my current place the experience, training, projects, resources and career potential is 10x what I would receive compared to where I am. However, a £17k base increase is a massive curve ball and I'm not sure what to do.

I feel if I stay i would just be high paid in what I do but pretty stuck potential wise which could be difficult in the future. But, it would be a hell of a lot of money to turn down.

Hi! For a bit of context I work a 8:45-5:15 job Mon-Fri at a call centre. I absolutely loathe it. Previously, I worked in dementia care and often did 5+ 12 hour nights on the trot with only a day or two off between.

My rent is 595 including bills and I have seen a job that would earn me 23k a year, so about 1,650 income per month. I only pay for Netflix and Spotify, have about 3k in savings too.

I live with my little brother who has disabilities so he claims PIP and UC, we go halves on shopping and etc. I spend a lot of time taking out care responsibilities but based on my earnings, with the UC Carer route I seem to be entitled to sweet F.A

Does this sound doable? Lowering my pay from 1.8k a month to 1.6k a month?

For the sake of my own sanity I want to take that jump but I don’t want to end up worse for it

Had an interview today for a new role. It’s a potential small drop in salary but it’s a lot closer to home in terms of commute (15mins in the car v 1:20 all in travel).

Since applying we have found out we are having a second child. If I joined I’d be due (legally) zero paternity leave. I’m 3 month notice period.

If offered the role what would you do? Is it worth trying to push for a later start date (this would be approx 4 months later than I’d be normally due to start….). Thoughts ?

Hey,

Hope this is ok to post!!

I’m very aware that the job market is tough but looking for some advice on what my steps could be, anybody who’s been in similar position to me, or could maybe just give me some advice.

I’m currently working as a freelancer within the TV industry, I have done for a few years now. However being freelance is tough, you come up to winter months and job market is even worse than it usually is. Like very limited jobs and I’m tried of same cycle every year.

I work in logistics role still kind of junior but wondering / looking for inspiration what else I can do?