stressed, low on self esteem and want to make a change,

[quidproquo89]

Hey,

 

 

right so I left a job I knew well because there was too much drama and my manager was a hellish thuggish control freak with a power complex. Example- came into work at 6am to find the lights and fridges and freezers were all out of order and stock had to be wasted. I got the blame! Work that one out.

 

 

Anyway I've always stuck with that job coz I was good it and new it well. However I'd had enough this time and had been recently headhunted by a pharmacy.

 

 

I took the job.

 

 

Firstly it didn't help that the dispenser wanted to cheat on her fiancé with me, I wouldn't do it and said you can only have one guy me or him. Radio silence evidently states that she's sticking with the fiancé.

 

 

Secondly I never fully realised that every single thing you do and say including every mannerism can be seen and heard all the time by the manager/pharmacist whose work station is always in sight of mine. Someone reason I don't like this, makes me feel uncomfortable.

 

 

Thirdly I don't come from a pharmacy or healthcare background, therefore my knowledge of pharmacy is very basic. I've trained for four and a half months which isn't a lot in pharmacy world. However I feel under great pressure to know the answers, names of customers and where things are and how to do things straight away or my pharmacist/manager will lose her temper with me. Understandably she is under great time pressures herself, but I feel incredibly stressed that I cannot have a learners slower thought process. I don't have over 10 years experience like my pharmacist.

 

 

Fourth problem - I've felt ill and a bit low on self esteem recently, so I've just wanted to keep myself to myself at the moment - keep my head down and carry on. You know when you just want to work and not really want to chat all the time. Anyway, seems that hasn't gone down well. My pharmacist is moody and impatient with me. I'm guessing she thinks I'm in a bad mood with her or something.

 

 

To conclude, I'm fed up and want to leave.

 

 

Never quit a job without another before, but I have saved up and want to start my own garden maintenance business. I have two gardens and want more. I think I want time away from crazy bosses and customer service which I've been doing since I was 16 (now 26).

 

 

Thoughts?

Edited April 10, 2015 by quidproquo89
mistake

[badpenny]

You have to speculate to accumulate.

 

Investigate, by leaflet-dropping, how many people may like the services of a gardener? Ask them to contact you by email (create one specifically) with a simple response to a few questions. Emphasise EXACTLY the kind of work you can/are willing to do.

 

(Are we talking as big as rock-moving, landscaping fence-building, or are you 'limiting' yourself to cosmetic, light- to mid-heavy work?)

 

Investigate personal insurance and Public liability insurance. Get these in place BEFORE you even lift a trowel. Back pain, injuries, chemical damage, that kind of thing - needs pre-empting bEFORE you seriously set up.

 

Ask (as one of the questions) that if they feel they might enjoy haveing their gardens tended, whether they would be agreeable to meeting you for futher discussion, or at least going on a mailing list?

 

You will need a good, reliable vehicle, and all the preliminary initial accoutrements and equipment. Do not use your own domestic stff. List everything for insurance purposes - from lawnmowers right down to the weed remover.

This means an expensive outlay - buy then very best stuff you can. Buying cheap is a futile investment, and replacement will be frequent and ultimately expensive.

 

Investigate whether you need special local permits for handling chemicals, like weedkillers and pesticides, in a professional capacity.

 

Advertising is expensive, so research the best and most effective way, even if it means leaflet-drops, under windshield wipers, on shop counters (appropriate and opportunist businesses like hardware stores, but also ladies' hairdressers).

 

Above all, research other gardening services. What do they charge/hour, and how much are 'special' jobs going for (removal of trees, treatment or transformation of an entire area/sq. footage, heavy work, rubbish-clearance...)

 

A lady I know with her own gardening business, has seen her business change from general gardening duties to complete overhauls, land-clearing (neglected gardens, homes empty for a while...) so it's important to be versatile.

 

 

Finally (This is Loveshack after all!) never think you can mix business with pleasure.

The seductive housewife, greeting you in her negligee asking if you want to come in for a coffee 'or something' is a strictly hands-off situation.

You do NOT want to go down that road.

By all means be friendly with your clients. But don't touch 'ploughing a new trough' with a barge-pole.

[d0nnivain]

Think about your passions & find a career doing those things. If you can turn it into your own business that may make you happier & less stressed because there will be no one looking over your shoulder.

[GemmaUK]

I've just remembered your three jobs thread and went back for a read of a the opening post.

 

 

Just a couple of thoughts.

Firstly, the pharmacy doesn't sound like it's for you and any RS awkwardness will be ..just awkward anyway.

Its best never to date from work and certainly not someone who is with someone already.

 

 

OK, moving forward.

I don't know what the salary is like but do you think you could work somewhere like Pret a Manger?

The reason I ask is because the staff have a proper training plan before they start work, they also have refresher training etc.

To be honest I would find a pharmacy pretty daunting without having knowledge. I am also one who writes copious notes when I start a new job - real idiot guide notes so that if ever I have a blank and can't remember something I can read back and know that what I am doing is 100% correct.

I do the commissions for our dales team and it's a very manual hands on process. I have it down now but I followed the notes I had for 2 years after I first had to pull it all together myself.

Sometimes I would only need to read once sentence to remind myself but it helped massively!

 

 

I think I saw the training thing about Pret on Alex Polizi or one of those type of shows where someone helps rejunvenate a failing small business.

If not Pret then it could be an idea to check out places that do have a proper start up training week or something like it.

The staff there (from what I remember of the show were very happy to be working there and they also do a thing where they send in 'pretend' customers for two reasons - to make sure staff are all doing as they should but also to award stores and particular staff for excellent service.

 

 

My other thoughts are that maybe you could get some temp work if you are still thinking of getting a gardening business going and you could divide your time between the two.

 

 

Also, on the gardening front have you ever approached any property management companies?

Where I live we have maintained gardens and our property management company employ them.

It might be worth a try to source out some companies employed by the property management companies to see if you could get a job with one of the grounds maintenance companies.

 

 

It's not ideal and not exactly what you want but it could lead on to better things for you.

[quidproquo89]

Hey guys,

 

 

just an update!

 

 

I learnt that my current boss is in the mildest sense of the word a schizophrenic. She would be all nicey nicey and then suddenly start snapping at people and pointing at things and becoming aggressive.

 

 

She as much as told me she gets very angry when people aren't as smart as she is. As a somebody training for pharmacy with no healthcare industry experience you can imagine how that went down.

 

 

So to summarise... my dispenser assistant tried to use me as a piece on the side when she was bored of her fiancé (I did nothing by the way), my pharamacist/manager has wild mood swings for no reason and hates people not being as intellectually superior as she is - I'm training from no experience at all here. To top it off, there is never anything to do except to re-clean the shelf you cleaned yesterday and our big happy family works in an area of about 5 metres squared, you can imagine my confidence, happiness, work contentment and self esteem took a hit.

 

 

I put up with this for 6 months but now I've had enough. I'm going to concentrate on my own business.

 

 

I came in on the day of handing in my notice. I was told abruptly to get out her office before I could give her my resignation. Finally I did. She was shocked and continued not to speak to me for the next few hours. That was after telling me I'll have to pay for my training. (I'm not).

 

Previously I was invited to keep my own business leaflets on the counter if I wished. Today I casually chatted to a customer and she asked for a leaflet which I got from my coat which was literally 2 seconds away.

 

 

My boss sent my dispenser colleague to the post office so she wouldn't hear what she had to say. She warned me not to give out any more leaflets. In other words its ok to when I was helping them out at the pharmacy but once I had given my notice in it was forbidden.

 

 

The only other time she spoke to me that morning was when I asked for the price for some OTC diarrhoea tablets. Her response abruptly was : - Do we sell these? No!

 

 

Bearing in mind I was invited to work at this job because I was a stand out candidate because of my hard work ethic, customer service skills and reliability to be treated this way over the 6 months has been a real eye opener. I lost all self esteem working everyday in a place with a control freak that wanted everything to be to the degree perfect and done her way and at the same time you had to know what she was talking about with one word instructions in a work industry I'd never been in before. Jesus Christ!

 

 

I was also made to feel guilty about leaving a job, people do that all the time. What was I meant to do stay there forever?

 

 

Rant over. I had to get it off my chest and in writing to in a way document how crazy work places, bosses and people in general can be. Also what us poor souls put ourselves through for money.

 

 

Thanks for reading, any thoughts

 

 

 

 

Forgot to mention, a customer passed out in the shop. Not knowing first aid, I left the customer with the other staff and jogged round to the health centre to ask for assistance. The first person I met was the local ambulance 'assistant'. When I said someone has passed out. He said what do you want me to do about it?.

 

 

Is there something in the water, is everyone rude and crazy in my tiny little picturesque **** hole town?

Edited May 31, 2015 by quidproquo89
more thoughts