06-20-2013, 04:39 AM
Hi,
MisguidedTree here with his first ever rant. I promise to try and not swear here.
I recently found myself stuck in an apprenticeship that I have regretted taking since the second day. My new workplace is in an awkward location that takes at least two buses to get to along with a half hour walk to get between the first buss stop and my house. I spend around three and a half hours every day just travelling to and from work. And when I am here it is a nightmare. The very first week I was here I should have been on a three day week for the first fortnight to ease myself into the business and become familiar with my apprenticeship. However, on my first day I was suddenly put in charge of a significant number or duties with no help other than an initial explanation of what my responsibilities are.
Later that same day I was then asked to come in on the next day even though I should have been off, and naively I agreed since it's very had to say no when it's your first day on your first real job. As anyone can imagine, there went my two three day weeks and I was full time right from the off.
This was all back in December and it got no easier as the days went on. I found myself being given and increasing number of things to do even though I was incredibly busy with the stuff I still had to finish. It got even worse when I was told that I had to come into work during the Christmas holidays. The only days I had off that month were Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Eve & Day, none of which I was paid for by the way and when I questioned my boss about this he said this exact phrase "Why should I pay you for days when you aren't here?"... I don't think anything needs to be said about that and I couldn't argue with it because I didn't have a copy of my contract and at that point I hadn't even signed a contract because "It was still being drawn up". I finally had the contract given to me, not asked to sign it, roughly two months later near the end of February. I found one part in particular quite interesting "You are entitled to 28 days holiday which includes statutory and other public holidays and any period of shut down between Christmas and New Year should the company decide to close during this time." so it's quite clear my employer doesn't have a clue on what is and isn't in my contract.
For the time being I'll leave the rant there because it's going on quite a bit and I'm not even halfway through everything that I would like to say. As a point of interest I would like to know others comments and any advice would be immensely appreciated as I know for a fact that I can't stay in this job for much longer and if I manage to complete the apprenticeship I am going to tell my employer exactly where he can stick his job offer for minimum wage.
Just as an added bit of information, apprentices are not entitled to national minimum wage but we have our own minimum which means we essential work on less than half the NMW. My pay is £3.20 an hour and I work 9-5 Monday to Friday with half an hour for lunch and no breaks.
MisguidedTree here with his first ever rant. I promise to try and not swear here.
I recently found myself stuck in an apprenticeship that I have regretted taking since the second day. My new workplace is in an awkward location that takes at least two buses to get to along with a half hour walk to get between the first buss stop and my house. I spend around three and a half hours every day just travelling to and from work. And when I am here it is a nightmare. The very first week I was here I should have been on a three day week for the first fortnight to ease myself into the business and become familiar with my apprenticeship. However, on my first day I was suddenly put in charge of a significant number or duties with no help other than an initial explanation of what my responsibilities are.
Later that same day I was then asked to come in on the next day even though I should have been off, and naively I agreed since it's very had to say no when it's your first day on your first real job. As anyone can imagine, there went my two three day weeks and I was full time right from the off.
This was all back in December and it got no easier as the days went on. I found myself being given and increasing number of things to do even though I was incredibly busy with the stuff I still had to finish. It got even worse when I was told that I had to come into work during the Christmas holidays. The only days I had off that month were Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Eve & Day, none of which I was paid for by the way and when I questioned my boss about this he said this exact phrase "Why should I pay you for days when you aren't here?"... I don't think anything needs to be said about that and I couldn't argue with it because I didn't have a copy of my contract and at that point I hadn't even signed a contract because "It was still being drawn up". I finally had the contract given to me, not asked to sign it, roughly two months later near the end of February. I found one part in particular quite interesting "You are entitled to 28 days holiday which includes statutory and other public holidays and any period of shut down between Christmas and New Year should the company decide to close during this time." so it's quite clear my employer doesn't have a clue on what is and isn't in my contract.
For the time being I'll leave the rant there because it's going on quite a bit and I'm not even halfway through everything that I would like to say. As a point of interest I would like to know others comments and any advice would be immensely appreciated as I know for a fact that I can't stay in this job for much longer and if I manage to complete the apprenticeship I am going to tell my employer exactly where he can stick his job offer for minimum wage.
Just as an added bit of information, apprentices are not entitled to national minimum wage but we have our own minimum which means we essential work on less than half the NMW. My pay is £3.20 an hour and I work 9-5 Monday to Friday with half an hour for lunch and no breaks.
