About Me

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I'm 57 years old, working full time, wife, mother and grand mother, wishing that I wasn't working full time! I love and enjoy our children and grandchildren, our dogs and cat, our garden and allotment. I love crafts - knitting, sewing, crocheting, patchwork and restoring old furniture. I love to go to country auctions and love thinking that I've got my self a bargain!

Saturday 28 September 2013

And breathe.....






Evening All

I went missing there for a little while didn't I? Life took over I'm afraid and the daily grind has been a little manic to say the least!

I did say that work was busy - well its been past busy - closer to frantic really.

When I went back to the team 3 years ago, they weren't known as the most positive of teams but slowly we turned the negatives to positives and we've had some good inspections and reports - so good, that all of a sudden other teams are looking to my lads for recruitment and I've lost 3 good people to other teams. Plus I've had 4 colleagues on long term sick leave with different ailments.

Only problem - management are unwilling to allow me to recruit despite having found 2 brilliant agency guys who would make perfect permanent colleagues. When you add in annual leave, we've been keeping the service to customers going with 50% of a team at times.

It's no wonder that I've been doing 50 hour weeks and feeling very frustrated - I've come to the belief now that we're going to have to fail customers before management will listen to me and let us recruit

But talking to other people in other industries, it seems that everyone is in the same boat - everyone seems to be working flat out with not enough people to do the job properly - is it the recession or is it just the way 'working life' is now - I honestly don't know - all I do know is that I'm so glad that I'm coming to the end of my career - I feel for the youngsters, they've not only got to work till they drop -  with retirement being an impossible dream - but it seems that  they've got to work longer hours and flat out too.

Plus I swear someone has shaved half a day off the weekend - I fail miserably most weekends to get everything done that needs to be done, before I start at work again on a Monday morning - I know I'm tired from work, whether that's making me slower on a weekend..........I just don't know

But on the plus side, I've finished for a week -  I'm going to see Fleetwood Mac tomorrow night and then we're off down to Cornwall with our girls (dogs) Tilley and Daisy on Monday morning for a short break - we don't care what the weather does this next week - a walk on the beach, a few nice shops to mooch round and a pub with a view and we'll be just fine.

Time to stop and stare and just breathe in fresh Cornish  air.........

See you in a weeks time

Bye xxx


8 comments:

  1. HI Trudie, very interesting post. I think a lot of employers are failing to recruit and relying on the good hearts of staff they already have to maintain the service.Putting in extra hours (and sometimes without any extra pay) is a given in some places. I work in NHS and we are exactly the same. Lots of staff have left and we are still maintaining the service but are all stretched to the limits with no likelihood of any more staff.Its not good.
    On a more important note for you, after all those hours you put in,I hope you have a wonderfully relaxing short break. XX

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    1. Thanks Anne - your holiday pictures were brilliant and your new grand daughter is beautiful - the frustrating part is that it's front line staff that are not being recruited but management and the 'soft and fluffy' teams appear to have an abundance of people - all of which appear to have masses of time and to not be under any pressure at all - is it the same in the nhs xxx

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  2. I think it's the same everywhere. J works for the NHS and in his department there's no money to replace staff, but plenty of money available to create more and more ' managerial' posts, despite there being very few staff left to manage. K is a teacher and this week has been at school until 9pm on several evenings because of open evenings and then OFSTED have been in. She's been getting home at 10pm and leaving for work again at 6.15am. I think I had a very lucky escape - never did I think I'd be glad to have a heart condition, but that's how I feel now.
    Enjoy Cornwall - we're hoping to be there for our 30th wedding anniversary in May.

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    1. Hi Scarlet
      Glad that you are ok - poor girl those are long hours - trouble is your made to feel 'obliged' to put the effort in and you don't want to let the team down and I suppose for K it's the thought that it's all for the children - but it's so wrong - it is management using people's caring good nature's - we went down to Cornwall in May and the weather was brilliant so you should have a good time - speak again soon xxx

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  3. The county council here is just the same, they are just starting to replace people who left 2 years ago, some have had to do 2 peoples work for all that time.Lots will not be replaced.

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    1. Hello
      I agree there have been a lot of changes within the council's - when I was lucky enough to get a job with our local council as a poll tax cashier I thought I had a job for life - it lasted 13 years before we left local authority care - I still keep in touch with a few friends and they are all fearfully for their jobs - can I just say I may not comment very often but I do really enjoy your blog - you do work so hard and I try to imagine your small holding and all the vegs that you grow xxx

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  4. Welcome back and enjoy your break in Cornwall. In your job you can only do what you have time to do to the best of your ability. Forget the impossible 'targets' which could only be achieved with a full team.
    Love from Mum
    xx

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  5. Have a great break in Cornwall - and I hope that Fleetwood Mac were superb! Jx

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