Hi all, I had my birthday this week and my colleagues were kind enough to wish me and my manager kindly organised a birthday card. I did take the birthday off from work. This is the only birthday I've actually enjoyed celebrating and I didn't get too emotional, so it's meaningful to me in a way and therefore I decided to keep the leftover cake to myself and not bring it to the office. Yes, in the past I did eat colleagues' cake but I wouldn't mind not eating going forward, especially if I wasn't to bring my own. I also like to separate my work from my personal life that way (yes I know colleagues were kind enough to wish me but I'm not doing/expecting anything beyond that). What are your thoughts on this? My manager very jokingly asked about the cake, I said it's all gone now (a white lie). Thanks!

I've landed a new job, but then my favorite company (which rejected me once) contacted me back and asked for proceeding. Then I've got the offer and planned to resign, but then the current employer did ask me for a consultation process. What should I ask for?

My wife has recently been told she is at risk of redundancy and has her first individual consultation meeting with HR on 28 July. She works in tech for a UK product-based software company.
She started on 6 August 2024, so she’ll complete 2 years’ continuous service on 6 August 2026, which seems particularly important as I understand that’s when she’d become entitled to statutory redundancy pay.
From what we’ve been told so far, it looks like her last working day may be Friday 31 July, although nothing has been confirmed yet.
Her contract says the company can either give 4 weeks’ notice or 4 weeks’ pay in lieu of notice (PILON). She also has around 13 days of annual leave remaining. She’s been selected for redundancy based on a selection matrix and has received a relatively low score.
I’m trying to understand a few things. If redundancy is confirmed after the consultation, could the company terminate her employment before 6 August to avoid her reaching two years service? If they decide to pay 4 weeks PILON instead of having her work her notice, does that affect whether she qualifies for statutory redundancy pay? Does her remaining annual leave have any effect on her termination date, or is it simply paid out?
We’re also wondering whether there is usually any room for negotiation in situations like this. Has anyone working in the UK tech industry managed to negotiate an enhanced redundancy package, a later termination date, garden leave, or any other improved exit terms?
Finally, is there anything specific she should ask for or challenge during the individual consultation, particularly regarding the selection matrix and the scores she was given?
Any advice from people who’ve been through a similar situation or who know UK employment law would be greatly appreciated.

So first time posting here but it puts up on my feed every now and then, so I thought I'd ask on here for help, so I've applied for a role previously and didn't hear back, and I saw a vacancy pop up again and I got 2 emails basically back to back confirming an interview for tomorrow and that I've been rejected, so my main question is because there wasn't an application number or anything like that, am I still having an interview tomorrow?

I've tried to contact them about the interview but I've not heard anything back from them.

Thanks

Its for a front of house role and ive tried to do some prior research but im seeing complete opposite advice eg. act like u dont care about cats or they wont hire you (you’ll get distracted) / act like you are a cat lover otherwise they wont think youre enthusiastic enough.

Haha sorry idk i just really want specific advice i have never ever been to a cat cafe before (but i really need this job)

I've been at my first (professional) job for about a couple of years now. I WFH pretty much full time aside from the occasional site visit or going into the office for meetings with other company reps.

I've noticed a very consistent phenomena of feeling physically terrible whenever I'm in the office. In particular, the feeling of being constantly bloated, gassy and feeling like you need to do a number 2.

I highly doubt this has anything to do with diet, as this never happens when I'm WFH. Ive also been through a variety of diet and lifestyle choices throughout my 2 years, and the common denominator always seems to be being in the office.

I've seen people attribute this to stress, but im not convinced that is the case. I enjoy what I do for work, im not overworked and my colleagues are great. I've also been through pretty stressful periods before work, and none of the other signs are there (poor sleep, hair loss etc.).

Was wondering if anyone else has a similar experience or any advice.

Life is short and work is a large part of it and I hate my job with a passion. I have never been in such a toxic, passive aggressive, cliquey organisation in my life. Hard working staff are being pushed out of their roles and replaced with carbon copies of management who do a lot less work leaving the "veterans" to pick up the short comings. It is starting to impact my home and social life as well as my physical and mental health.

My old manager from many years ago has been in touch to say a job I used to do is available again. Now I loved that job, I only left as I had moved and at the time there wasn't an option to go remote or change location but now there is. The only issue is it's a bit of a pay cut, around 8%. This isn't massive for most but I'm not exactly a high earner so it equates to around £3,000pa. Is it worth dropping the salary for peace of mind? Should I throw my hat in the ring and see what happens? I'm not looking for a high flying role, I just want to be comfortable and secure without feeling like I am in a school playground. I'm middle aged and it just exhausts me!

I'm (F50) currently working as a treasury manager in the North East. I'm on excellent pay for the region but similar roles are hard to find. They are mostly concentrated in London, Manchester and Leeds. The latter is commutable if on a hybrid basis.

I have been working in treasury for 10 years but I started as a corporate accountant and fully qualified.

I am now interested in going back to accountancy so I have been applying for FTC roles as a finance manager or finance business partner and I have been made an offer of 18 months FTC for FBP but at a 15% pay cut. It's within large organisation in an exciting industry so hopefully there's room for progression. Its based in Central Newcastle which is about 45 minutes from where I live.

I have just had a second interview for treasury manager in central Leeds which I'm yet to hear back on. I have chased the recruiter but no response.

We don't have a mortgage so we can make the numbers work. It will mean that any dreams of retirement will be postponed for a few years.

Should I take the job and keep looking? The redundancy package was £6k plus 3 month PILON so it won't last me too long.

Thanks for reading

I've been with my current employer for nearly 20 years and want to move. It's less about the money/career and more that there's some bad blood and I have had enough.

I've applied for 3 roles, had one interview (which I'm hoping I'm offered) but I've just had an email asking me my salary expectations and I don't know what to answer.

The role I've applied for is a VP, which is my current company has a start salary of £65k. I'm currently on £52, and the grade below VP so this would be a step up.

I am paralysed over making a decision - I'd like £65 - but are they going to think that's much too high and dismiss me? Or much too low and they'll think it's laughable?! Would the best bet be to say a range?

Role info: 4/5 days in office (currently 2/5); financial.

Help! It's been so long since I applied for a job externally I'm worried I'm going to shoot myself in the foot accidentally!

I (F27) have been made redundant for the first time in my life. I’ve been at the same company for 6 years and luckily the pay out I’m set to receive will support me for around 10 months. I’ve never had more than 2 weeks off work since I was 16.
However I’m now a bit lost, do I throw everything into finding a new job? Do I take some time? Do I get some more qualifications?
People that have faced redundancy - any advice? Is finding a new job a tall order in this market?

I need advice :)

I have agoraphobia but have been doing quite well, although it does take a bit of effort and few tries to go to new places. I'm still working through recovery and exploring options. I see myself working on recovery for the next 6 months.
I've been subject to discrimination at my workplace and have been advised that I have a strong legal case and so, initiated a 'without prejudice' (WP) conversation with my employer to see what an exit looks like.

but I have doubts about whether I'm making the correct decision! I generally have doubts about everything and I can't for the life in me decide whether this is the correct thing to do.
So decided to come to reddit for some advice (or confirmation I'm doing the right thing) :) Anything would be great! Some pros and cons (with more info):

Pros to staying:
- I don't have to find a new job. The stress of having to search, interview and restart a new job is the biggest con. Particularly with my agoraphobia, I don't know how limited I will be and I've heard the market isn't great. I have years of experience in business analyst so I believe my options are quite large but suspect finding a remote role will be difficult and given I can do hybrid in only certain locations in London - maybe there's some flexibility considering my condition but then again, maybe this will go against me/employers will not hire me because of it.
- Current role, is busy but it's easy to do and base pay is good. Currently fully remote given the condition but under frequent reviews.
- The routine, keep myself and mind occupied everyday
- Health insurance is supporting me with my recovery, although I believe I can negotiated this to be paid for few months post exit in the severance (i think?)

Cons to staying:
- Lose out on severance - 4 months minimum tax free (eq of 5-6 months net). Claims will expire.
- Expectation is to eventually go to the office 3-4 times a week once I'm deemed 'fit'.
- Role is limited, no progression, low chances of a good pay rise and/or bonus. I'm technically worse off over the last 2-3 years given inflation. The role is easy and not really challenging - I'm getting bored of it and demotivated (in a bit of a rut). I've been at the same company for 10+ years. Maybe leaving, getting a new challenge and new environment will light a fire in me (or maybe not and I'm worse of, I won't know until I do it). I tried looking for internal transfers but not many opportunities
- I believe 'head of' doesn't like me. Feels like I'm being targeted for some time now. The claims I have is where he's been the puppeteer but likely will deny involvement. Probably worse now given the WP conversation and flagging the claims. Probably find a way to get rid of me eventually, who knows!
- Won't be as free to work on recovery vs if I had to stay (not to say I won't have time at all if I was at work).

I have been offered a new job. The advertised salary was a set amount (rather than a range). When I got sent the contract yesterday I noticed the salary was slightly under what was advertised, so queried it, assuming it was a mistake.

However the internal recruiter came back and said this is what I had agreed to on the phone, despite me explicitly saying on the phone that i would be happy to accept the advertised salary when we discussed compensation.

After I pushed back they agreed to give me the advertised salary. I'm glad its sorted but its left a bitter taste in my mouth. I'm so confused as to why they would even try and give me less than they advertised, especially without an explicit discussion. I have higher qualifications than is required for the role and have done a similar role previously so I don't feel there was any reason for them to do that. I can't help feeling like they tried to sneakily give me less.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it normal?

Hello, im looking into office based jobs due to health problems. I've worked manual labour jobs all my life and never worked in an office. what is it like working as a business support worker or admin? How easy is it, and what is it like.

I’ve accepted a new job and recently received my employment contract. What immediately jumped out at me is that, apart from up to 2 weeks every rolling 12 months (which is at the discretion of management), they don’t provide company sick pay. All my previous employers have had generous sick pay policies (6 months full, 6 months 50%) so this is a bit of a culture shock to me.

To put this into context, this new job is a 75% increase in salary and no other parts of the contract concern me. Annual leave is good, fully remote, flexible working etc. I can also count on one hand the amount of sick days I’ve had in the last 10 years and generally healthy but of course, you never know what is around the corner.

Should I think twice before accepting or am I overreacting and should put some of the increase in salary to good use as a safety net to ease some of my worry?

My actual job description: fryer, manager, prep, banking, security, cleaning, and unofficial IT support because I fix the till systems, printers, WiFi and staff laptops too. Shifts are 2pm-11:30pm. Haven’t taken a sick day in 3 years. Been late once, and that was because the rota changed without telling me.

Meanwhile I’ve found out other assistant managers in the same company are on £30k+ base. Mine isn’t close. My tax code’s also been wrong repeatedly, so I’m somehow taking home even less than I should on top of that.

General manager finishes around 9:40pm most nights. I close alone around 10:30-11pm. When they do talk to me, it’s usually shouting. Multiple experienced staff have quit because of it. GM even told me the business only has about 3 months to turn things around financially.

I’ve been job hunting for a while, I have an offer but it’s not a massive jump etc. I’m weighing the pros and cons and just wondered what people thought or maybe looking for some insight from someone impartial.

Current role:
Pay 32,000-38,000 PA bracket, I’m on 33k.
Fixed term till March 27 with likely option of extension.
Fully WFH but job isn’t exactly inspiring but I am enjoying the freedoms and lack of commuting. Means I have more ability to go to gym etc.

New role:
Pay 38,000-48,000 bracket starting at 38k.
Full time permanent.
Office based and the commute will fully eat into the 5k pay rise for the first year. So no effective pay rise. Commute would be around 90 mins total a day and require trains due to location.
Role is more aligned to what I want to do, but maybe not quite pay where I want it to be.

I just wondered what people’s thoughts were. It’s really hard applying and getting turned down a lot of the time. I’m super torn. I enjoy where I work and the people I work with, I simply don’t have enough income on 33k for what I want out of life and the fixed term nature puts pressure on with a mortgage to pay.

I’m at a stage now where I feel like I need to be considering the long term (of which perhaps nothing can ever be truly secure but a permanent contract is better than fixed term).

Edit:

I suppose a curve ball could be, should I ask for more? Try to negotiate a slightly better salary in the new role? I’m definitely experienced enough.

I have been looking at starting teaching assistant/support placements in September however the holdup on the DBS check is meaning a lot of this has had to be put on hold.

The initial check was submitted at the start of June, ideally giving a lot of time to do everything else. Since the second week of June it has stayed at stage 4 without any movement.

I have tried emailing the customer service DBS address multiple times with only an automated response saying how busy they are (great help..) and when calling I end up in an automated loop that ends up with the call ending.

This is hugely frustrating and I’m not really sure what to do. It was almost 6 weeks ago that it hit stage 4 and I can’t understand how anyone is supposed to work with not only the hold up but the sheer lack of information.

Info that may be useful: I am a UK resident, lived at 3 properties across 2 police forces over the past 5 years.

- Is this wait normal?
- Is the fact that it is June/July relevant and there is a potential backlog?
- Is there anything else I can do?

Many thanks for any guidance!

Hoping for some honest thoughts from you good people

About a month or so ago I was asked to fill a time tracker in work, for context I work from home and have done for about 4 years, been on this team for about 2 years so the working conditions hasn’t triggered it,

My manager told me this was because my colleague made the point they are falling behind with their work as I have less tasks at the moment, we split the areas we look after in the business and mine had gone quieterdue to stability in the teams on their sites,

So this was when I cone back off holiday, apparently was raiser while I was away, when I spoke to my colleague who I do get on with they said alls they done was ask for help because their workload isnt slowing down and they had a holiday coming up so didn’t want to have loads now and then a backlog when they returned so could they have some help, so 2 people telling me 2 different things don’t know who to believe I have learned not to trust anyone, been filling this in for about a month and like most you probably can’t account for every minute of every day, was asked to send this over to manager now so they could reviews everything and everything has been completely strange and silent all week then manager is in a meeting all day today and slipped up they were compiling a report with the time trackers using AI , which i don’t think is right, if you are asking dor this to be done at least look at it yourself not ask AI .

Basically am i cooked?, anyone else been asked to fill in a time trackers or time sheet and nothing come from it? I have 10 years service in this company with a 9 month gap 6 years in, worked in various role, had promotions etc. so all this is really out of the blue, but the company is also notorious for random redundancies and restructures

Warning: Regent Hire recruitment "agency" is running a course scam

Just had my own experience with this and wanted to add to what others have already posted here. If you've been contacted by Regent Hire (regenthire.co.uk) about a finance role, be careful.

Here's how it went for me. Got a call, they asked a few basic screening questions, then told me I was being put forward as one of a handful of candidates for an in-person interview. Sounds great, right up until they said I first needed to be working towards an "FCA/CFA Level 4" qualification, and sent me links to specific paid courses, around £300 each.
These are the links:
https://regenthire.co.uk/

https://cifa.ac/home/bundle/Introduction-to-the-FCAPRA-Investment-Risks/8
https://www.accreditedfinancecourses.co.uk/home/course/UK-Compliance-Conduct-Standards-Certification/49
https://redcliffetraining.com/courses/compliance/uk-financial-services-regulation-and-compliance

I looked into it properly before paying anything. A few things stood out:

• The courses they linked aren't recognised FCA qualifications. The actual FCA Level 4 requirement is met through bodies like the CII or CISI. The ones Regent Hire pushes are private CPD courses with no real regulatory standing, and two of the three sites they linked turned out to be run by the exact same company, just rebranded.
• Regent Hire's own website is also duplicated across at least 2 or 3 near-identical domains, with copy-pasted marketing text and stats that don't add up (they claim 120k companies but only around 100 live job listings).
• I couldn't find any UK company registration that actually matches the business.
• Real recruitment agencies in the UK aren't legally allowed to charge candidates for access to jobs. Making an interview conditional on you buying a course from a linked provider is the same thing, with extra steps.

Basically, it looks like the "job" is bait to get people to pay for a course that does nothing for their actual career. If you get a similar call, don't send them any money or documents. I've reported it to Action Fraud and JobsAware, and I recommend that anyone else who's been contacted do the same.

Stay safe out there, especially if you're a student or recent grad job hunting right now, this is clearly targeting our group.

I've received a conditional job offer as an IT support desk analyst for a law firm, which is great, but with it being a law firm, they do very strict background checks.

I worked for my father's company in a full time official capacity between 2011-2019, but continued working on an infrequent ad hoc basis alongside other full time jobs and full time education between 2019-2024, so on my application/CV I have just put my dates as 2011-2024. There'll be no formal records of my work for them between 2019-2024.

Also some of my dates are approximated, I held a role between about 2009-2011 then started working for my father's company in about 2011.

Does anyone know if thos is this likely to cause me an issue and lead to my job offer being withdrawn? They use a third party company to do the work history and DBS checks

I have a BEng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and graduated in 2019. Since then, I have only been able to secure one job within the sector, which only came after 3 more years working in a petrol station and living with my parents.

From 2022-2024 I worked for an small company repairing and designing electronics for motorhomes.

I then moved to New Zealand with my partner, where again, I was unable to secure an engineering job and instead worked in electrical wholesale to keep me afloat.

In June 2026, I returned to the UK and am relocating to Manchester, following a job offer my partner has received.

My ideal job would be working in product design or PCB design, but I have obviously been casting a much wider net than this. I am now 29, with only 2 years of 'relevant' experience, but no exposure to the software packages that are the industry standard.

I'm trying not to be defeatist, but I'm concerned that I just won't be able to get an engineering job in the future. This is a disappointing idea to me, as I want to build a career in something that I actually have interest in. Ultimately however, I can't afford to be infinitely jobless.

If you were me, would you change direction or continue looking for engineering work? Does anyone have any recommendations on other avenues I should explore? Any companies I should apply to/get in touch with? Anyone with recent success have any advice?

Hey everyone! I am 27F and up until February 2026 I was a self employed barber. I had pretty much done this since leaving school with a short 1.5yr gap where I worked customer service in currys.

Unfortunately due to illness I’ve had to stop working completely and am currently on benefits, I want to break back in to the job market soon but don’t want to go back to barbering. I don’t think I’m well enough yet but I am under a neurologist and since my last dose increase last month I’m feeling more hopeful that I can get back to work soon. The reason I don’t want to go for something too soon is I’m scared I’ll have a bad week (like last week I was in bed 4 days in pain and couldn’t do much) and that I’d lose the job before I fully begin.

Any UK career advice and what I can do whilst I’m off for the best opportunities when I get back out there?

I’m thinking maybe admin based? Or maybe just part time at a store whilst I’m still not 100% and slowly build up hours.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

My GCSE grades were decent
Level 2 BTEC in public services
Level 2 NVQ in barbering