I used to hate my job. I started my apprenticeship in a small family company, which in time got larger and took on a few maintenance contracts. The boss became increasingly greedier, the jobs started having smaller profit margins on them and things became extremely stressful. All of this was taking place around the time the recession was really bad and firms were folding left right and centre.
There was no plan to a days work, you were given between 8-12 jobs a day, which included breakdowns, parts and services. They would be over a large area too. You worked until the jobs were done, which was 18:30 at best, sometimes a lot later. My dreadful wage stopped at 16:30, getting paid overtime was a hassle. It meant getting "authorisation" from the boss, which would consist of being moaned at and told how it was "swings and roundabouts", work late in the winter, finish early in the summer.
Summer would come and we'd be dumped with hundreds of services. Again between 8 and 12 a day! We were also on trackers, we'd get bollockings for speeding between jobs, I once got a rollocking for taking a 1/4 mile detour home to my Mum's house for 10 minutes!
Being on call was even worse, you did it for 7 days at a time, starting Monday evening and finishing the following Monday morning, meaning you'd work 7 days on call, covering the whole of South Wales, some West and often Bristol. They'd rarely bring anyone in Saturday and Sunday, so you'd work all day doing pre-booked jobs and any emergencies that came in that day you'd do in the evening. By the time you'd finish call out duty on Monday morning, you'd still have to work Mon-Fri before you could have a day off!
As you can imagine, life was very stressful and I hated the industry, if I was offered a minimum wage job, 9-5, digging holes in the pouring rain, I'd have jumped at it! I couldn't have a social life because I didn't know what time I'd finish work. I ended up on anti-depressants because of it and still suffer with bouts of depression now!
The straw that broke the camels back was a rollocking I received, in which I was basically told I have to keep proof of every bit of information I pass to the office staff because they lie and forget things. I handed in my notice the next day without a job lined up, borrowed some money, bought a van and started working for myself.
That was 7 months ago and I thoroughly enjoy plumbing now, I can take my time, do things the way I want to and feel no pressure from being rushed to finish jobs. As a result my work is to a better standard and I am a lot happier, despite the stress that comes with being self employed!
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