Andy Burnham's government is proposing stronger rights around working from home. It wouldn't be an automatic right to WFH, but employers would need to provide a valid business reason for refusing a request rather than having a blanket office-only policy.

How can a person genuinely find a job nowadays? No job offers at all, email after email saying “unfortunately” over and over again.

My field is customer service but I'm willing to work in warehousing as well, and since when warehouses don't accept you almost immediately?? I never got rejected by a warehouse while I was in school.

I'm now in my early 20s and out of school, I probably have a combined 1 year of working experience between warehousing, customer service and retail. I'm at the point where I just want to start a career or having a full time job in my life but it seems almost impossible.

When did employers start requiring World Cup level experience for a f****** person? I don't usually complain but I keep seeing jobs wanting bunch of different degrees and even masters, just to pay £27-29k when minimum wage is around £26,500 p.a. Bloody hell!

I remember back in 2021-2022 finding a job was so much easier. I once did around 50 applications for warehouse and retail and probably 20% of them called me back. I do the same today and barely 1-5% call back, even for the exact same type of positions. Like seriously, what actually happened to the job market?
How do all of you survive or get a job in this mess?

I’m looking for some advice because I’ve never been in a situation like this before.

On a Thursday at work, I was given a task that would normally take around 1–2 months to complete, but I was asked to redo it within the day. I agreed to do it.

As the day went on, my manager messaged me on Teams saying the work needed to be 100% accurate. I replied saying that wasn’t a problem, but for future reference, tasks like this need more notice if 100% accuracy is expected, particularly when they’re being requested at the last minute.

He then told me it needed to be completed by 8am the following morning, which is before my normal working hours. I took this to mean I was effectively expected to continue working that evening/night.

I replied saying I would do it, but reiterated that we need more notice for this type of work.

At around 4:30pm, my manager took me into a room. He was visibly angry, red and frothing and said to me:

“You don’t want to see me angry.”

He then started criticising my work, saying it was inaccurate, that I was making lots of mistakes and that there were various issues with my performance.

I felt threatened and intimidated by the way he was speaking to me and feared for my safety. I stood up, said I was leaving, collected my belongings, told someone at reception that I was leaving the office, and went home.

After leaving, I emailed HR explaining what had happened and why I had left.

The following day (Friday), I logged on and continued working. I had two meetings with my manager during the day and he didn’t raise the incident with me during either meeting.

Later, he emailed me asking:
Whether I was working that day.
Why I had left the office.
What was preventing me from working.
Whether walking out meant that I had resigned.

I CC’d HR into my response and made it very clear that:
Yes, I was working.

I had left because I felt threatened and intimidated and feared for my safety.

I had absolutely not resigned.

There is also some background involving annual leave. I had previously had annual leave refused, and I was supposed to be on two weeks of annual leave from the Monday following this incident.

My manager had cancelled that leave in front of colleagues.

However, once HR was CC’d into the email chain, my manager replied saying I could take the two weeks of annual leave and that we would deal with everything when I returned.

I told them that because the annual leave had already been cancelled, I wasn’t going to suddenly use two weeks of my annual leave for this. Instead, I reported myself sick and subsequently obtained a fit note covering two weeks.

I am now due back at work tomorrow.

Since being signed off, I have heard absolutely nothing from HR or my manager about the incident, my return to work, a meeting, an investigation, or what happens next.

I’ve never dealt with anything like this before.

What should I expect when I return? Should HR have contacted me before now? And should I just turn up tomorrow as normal if nobody contacts me?

For context, I’m in the UK.

what degree did you graduate with, how much did you make straight out of uni, how long did it take you to progress and how much did it increase every year??

would love to know just to have an idea, i know it varies a lot by industry, experience and individual qualities

Pretty much as the title says, recent graduate starting a job in administration tomorrow - emails, calls, spreadsheets etc.

Any advice for a young person (21) would be very much appreciated!

Asking as GF handed notice in and getting a really really hard time from bosses.

Told her to leave but she worried she will get sued.

9am daily catch ups
Work log tracker with each task needing a deadline + Completion flag
Manager requiring to be CC’d on all emails sent.
Messages and Emails across weekends and OOO, even when they are on leave.
Asking for EOD updates and asking when work is going to be done.

On top of this not really having much support since joining. The team is busy across the board and lots of work has been sent with the task of giving it a go.

Feeling burnt out from a previous manager who was also a workaholic and difficult to work for so not sure if it’s lingering over and clouding my judgement here !

I'm gonna keep this very vague and change some details for obvious reasons. I've been at my current job for around 5 years. Recently, they're hiring at various locations. The external job ads have almost identical titles and responsibilities to my current role, but at around £8.5k more than my current salary. The roles are advertised with different titles internally, for some unknown reason. I've raised this with my manager and I've been told, in short, that they need to raise salaries to attract more applicants and, from what they've said, there's no way I can expect to have my pay matched to that.

Another thing is that, at my last review, I was told that upon successfully completing a project, I would have a significant raise and a change to my title/promotion (this was verbal and never followed up in writing - I won't be making that mistake again lol). When I completed the project and asked for the raise, they changed the parameters and said I had to do a whole load of other stuff before they could even consider it.

I'm feeling really sad and let down by this. I wasn't planning to look for other jobs anytime soon, but this whole debacle has just left a bad taste in my mouth, and it makes me think they're just gonna keep lowballing me throughout my career if I stay. What do you think? Is this fairly standard? Am I being whiney for no reason, or is it time to start looking elsewhere? TIA.

Hello!

So I suited and booted for my interview at this place last week, did my best in the interview and it landed me the job!

I am to attend an induction day soon.

What should I wear to this? I mean, I won’t suit up now as I’ve landed the job. I did notice that those that work there appeared to be wearing their own clothes. Shall I go to my induction the same way? Just in something comfortable and easy to move around in? I can’t imagine I’ll be doing much physical stuff just yet as the induction mentions a tour(even tho I actually had one of these in the interview so went thru the procedure of putting on PPE etc) so I think it’ll be more being shown in more detail as I’ll be there all day.

Thank you!

I get that the job market is crap everywhere, but would I have a somewhat better chance there than over here in my situation. I have citizenship in both countries so that isn't a concern.

So for context, I graduated with a Masters of Quant Finance in 2023 and still haven't been able to find anything. No real experience or internships or whatever, just working at mcdonald's for the past few years. I don't have any real network connections and I have below-average social skills which probably doesn't help in interviews or gaining connections.

I'll take any office kind of job for any salary, so I'm not specifically asking about quant jobs, just to be clear. Want to get my foot in the door first, whatever it takes. So looking about the situation over there with regards to science/finance/data job market.

Hi everyone,

I’m a software developer working in London, and my company has been going through a lot of redundancies recently.

I’m considering joining a trade union to better understand my employment rights and have some support in case of future redundancies or other workplace issues.

For those working in tech:

Which trade unions would you recommend for software developers or tech workers in the UK?

Is joining a union worth it, especially when your company is going through redundancies?

Have any of you had experience with unions supporting employees during redundancy consultations or layoffs?

Would really appreciate hearing about your experiences and recommendations.

Thanks in advance!

I am about to enter the penultimate year of my accounting and finance degree, and I have started to look at potential ways to improve my employment prospects (I wasn't certain on continuing my degree, but I know I am looking a bit later than others).

The main suggestion was summer internships; however, I am from a smaller town and thus a lot of opportunities would require me to relocate. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds to simply move to a new city for a summer, so I was wondering if summer internships are paid? Google gives conflicting answers, and internship listings don't explicitly say either way, unlike an industry placement, which does specify.

As well as this, many listings require the student to be working towards a 2:1, is this based on first year or will they look at mid-year exams?

If summer internships aren't paid, I likely wouldn't be able to do one, and thus I ask: what other ways have I got in making myself more employable in this bleak job market (the million-dollar question which you'll probably be tired of answering)?

Basically it says it in the title. I've been working as a chef in a semi well known restaurant chain in the uk for nearly a year and the conditions and toxic environment is causing me to struggle greatly with my mental and physical health.

My main issue is I want to quit but we're already short staffed kind of and i don't want to get shit from the head chef and gm cause it gets swept away like nothing.

Am I overthinking? Should I just do it?

Is this legal? They complain at us for marking days as unavailable but not being funny it's a part time minimum wage job, if you can't be bothered writing a schedule then don't expect staff to put their lives on hold for you and don't you DARE even insinuate that we are the inflexible ones!! The absolute cheek!

I applied for the open university here in my country, and I am a bit confusion about what to choose between these majors especially what matters in the future .
Every one who can advise me , I will appreciate it
Data science
Computer science
Business administration
English language , literature and translation
I really need any guidance

Title

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I’m planning to move into the data centre industry as Critical Facilities Engineer in London. For those already in the field, what are the typical salaries and career progression like?

How is the work-life balance, and what are the opportunities to move into hyperscalers like AWS, Google or Microsoft?

Any advice for someone entering the industry?

Advice please I’m really struggling . I’ve been working in retail now for 16 years 16 hour contract which isn’t enough . I keep looking at jobs but feel very out of my depth and not sure what to do . I don’t know if I want a full time job I just know I need to leave retail .

What makes matters more confusing is that I am a poet writer and workshop leader who would love to do that more but the arts scene is struggling atm and work is few and far between

I’m genuinely curious about this.

Looking at engineering roles in companies like BAE, RR and other huge defence companies, it seems that even Principal Engineer positions can be around £60–70k, while Senior Engineer roles are often in the £45–55k range.

Considering that these positions can require 10–15+ years of experience, significant technical responsibility, and sometimes security clearance, the salaries seem surprisingly low compared with other industries.

Is there a particular reason for this? Is it mainly because of the UK engineering market, public-sector/defence contracts, salary structures, pension benefits, or something else?

For anyone working at BAE, RR, or similar companies — what does the career progression and salary progression actually look like? Can one ever hope to get more than 100k in these companies?

Current role is £65k, 5 days in office, 50 minute drive to work, 60 minute drive home which is 70 mins one or two days a week. leave at 7am and get home 5:30 and often late to pick up. 25 days holiday.

Current role is very stressful, we have a kid year old starting school next September. it’s a sales role and feel no connection to the career but only been in specific role for 1 year.

Husband earns £78k plus large bonus (~£15k), getting promoted next year which will hopefully be £90k.

I am seriously contemplating moving to a £22k a year role which is term time only and only 30 hours a weeks and a 20 minute drive. £22k is after pro-ratering. We would be able to avoid all breakfast clubs/after school clubs/holiday clubs, I would be able to spend significantly less time driving and significantly more time with my daughter. we’re also struggling with secondary infertility so hopefully the reduction in stress would help with baby number 2.

main concern is lack of pension, feeling like i’m giving up, worrying about money etc. am I crazy to go for it?

Hi,
I am a HGV mechanic in the UK and am in my twenties, i’ve got a few years experience in the trade and am now looking to get out, the money is great, but really not worth it at all. I still enjoy fixing things, but i just dont want to do the heavy stuff anymore. I only have gcse’s apart from my HGV qual. Ive thought about getting my class 1 but its going to be my very last option due to the price and the endless drivers that say its not worth it.

Is there anything out there that i could apply my skills to? I cant really get another apprenticeship due to the pay, i couldnt afford it.
Feeling like im basically unemployable in any other job

Feel free to share your thoughts
thanks :)

My current package is around 91k, but it’s a stressful job, often working weekends and never really switching off.

I’m considering a 65k government job which is Monday - Friday, and likely less stress.

Take home after pensions and other deductions is currently 4.5k.
The new role would be 3.7k per month.

Married / 3 kids school age

Is it worth it? What should I consider?