By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions. We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
I've just been dealt a hammer blow at work after losing out on a tender I put everything I had in it and really don’t understand or agree with the reasons given.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so angry and gutted about something to do with my job.
What have been your biggest disappointments at work and how have you dealt with it on a personal level?
0
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 19:27 - Jan 19 with 1486 views
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 15:26 - Jan 19 by TheChef
"the worst of it all was the manager openly refusing and insisting some colleagues don't socialise with others"
What?? That is really very random.
Similar I also once joined a nice shiny company, more pay, Account Director role. After the first day I knew I'd made the wrong choice. My team had cocked up on a project and worked all the weekend just gone to try and turn it round. At one point on that first day one of my new colleagues broke down in tears - not good a sign...anyway somehow I also stuck it out for nine months but realised ultimately my mental health was much more important!
It was so random. An example:
I'm a software engineer and in my field like many others, you have permies and contractors. So in this instance I worked with 2 colleagues I'd known at previous roles for 10 years or so. They was both contractors (6-9months) and I was perm. In the office there was 3 desks to a row. So naturally to begin with I would sit with those two I knew. It then comes to a lunch call, and I am asked do I want to go to the pub for lunch by the manager. I say yes, go back to my desk get my things and tell my mates we're off to the pub, come along. They follow and we go to the pub. 4 of the 6 people there was perm like me. The other two was contractors and weirdly, the perms wasn't talking to the contractors at all, even asking them how their day was going. I thought this is odd. Anyways, days/weeks go on and it happens again, this time though the manager asks me directly whilst I was sat with those mates of mine. He then says see you there and tells the two others to stay and finish x and y. Baffled but he's the gaffer. Eventually it just transpired that never ever did perm and contractors mix because of this managers viewpoint that they are paid a day rate and need to work for it even in their lunch. So odd and clicky. I didn't last long in that circle and openly went against the managers ways - often asking all the contractors to go for a beer on a friday at lunch, whilst then asking all other permies.
Strange time in my life.
Your story sounds rough, if anybody cries at work it's a red flag. I won't work for companies or people now who demand more than the contract from me. Like those who guilt to work late, or cover on weekends for free. Get stuffed. Mental health all the way!
0
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 19:34 - Jan 19 with 1465 views
Thank you all for sharing your experiences. It has helped me personally and professionally. Philosopher B McCarthy's insight is one I will hold onto, and Bluce Ree makes some valid points.
Clive - That wasn't your fault, which probably doesn't make it any easier, but you should have no guilt, unlike the scumbag who got off so lightly.
Today has been a better day with perspectives from various people involved in our consortium bid. It was one helluva effort to pull together numerous organisations to apply under one vehicle to deliver youth services. There are quite a few organisations that will be out of pocket with an unsuccessful application. Still, the feedback has been overwhelmingly supportive and reputationally, we seem to be unharmed.
This always sounds a bit trite to me but lots of learning from this process, and it may start a campaign to tackle these groups that see profit in public contracts and not the humans the funds are supposed to support.
Not one of them can quite believe the bid failed, and a number of them think something else is at play, either corruption or incompetence. We have a more straightforward way forward now and will appeal if we have a solid case and mandate. As people have said, you never know the Commissioners' intention when they set these things out; if they have a preferred supplier, you could present a Rembrandt, and they would find ways to score it lower than a stick man drawn by Shane McGowan whilst on a brewery tour.
From a QPR slant, when I worked at the Community Trust, I attempted to open an Alternative Provision Free School in the same vein as Everton has done, to great success. The hours young people spend at school are the optimum time to make a difference, and mainstream education doesn't suit some pupils. We had the idea of a school where it was about Qualifications, Prospects (Vocational), and Resilience (Emotional Well-being) and using the club and football/sport as the hook.
The trust backed me, and we bought in an educational specialist who wrote a cracking application, and we were all set to apply when the round opened. What happened? Theresa May called an election in which the Tories massively miscalculated their chances of winning, which impacted any budget for opening Free Schools, and the process disappeared. I left the Trust, and the project quietly died; I will always ask myself, 'What if?'
The project was linked to the new stadium, what opportunities a new build could offer us, and how you could make it a multi-purpose site that generates a lot more match-day revenue and usage than Loftus Road ever could. Both of those projects remain in the Upside Down but I live in hoop!
1
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 22:32 - Jan 19 with 1352 views
Once spent weeks with my team compiling a detailed tender for a significant project. It was a sealed tender process with a Monday 5pm deadline.
At 9am the next morning I got an email telling me we had not been selected to go to the final stage. They also stated that they had received more than 50 tenders.
So, I was expected to believe a panel of three people had opened, read, evaluated and reached consensus on 50+ detailed tenders overnight!!! Absolutely no stitch up here then. And this was a government department.
0
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 22:37 - Jan 19 with 1344 views
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 22:32 - Jan 19 by RsinWales
Lots of empathy with the OP.
Once spent weeks with my team compiling a detailed tender for a significant project. It was a sealed tender process with a Monday 5pm deadline.
At 9am the next morning I got an email telling me we had not been selected to go to the final stage. They also stated that they had received more than 50 tenders.
So, I was expected to believe a panel of three people had opened, read, evaluated and reached consensus on 50+ detailed tenders overnight!!! Absolutely no stitch up here then. And this was a government department.
After an exhaustive global wide search, the son of one of the selection committee members just happened to put in the best tender.
BTW. I notice a woman and child were killed by a polar bear in Wales last weekend. On some peninsular apparently, probably the Gower (guessing, as it's the only one I know over that way). Stay safe Welsh R's.
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 22:45 - Jan 19 by Boston
After an exhaustive global wide search, the son of one of the selection committee members just happened to put in the best tender.
BTW. I notice a woman and child were killed by a polar bear in Wales last weekend. On some peninsular apparently, probably the Gower (guessing, as it's the only one I know over that way). Stay safe Welsh R's.
That happened in Alaska at a village called Wales.
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 15:57 - Jan 19 by BazzaInTheLoft
How did the editor avoid the nick for this?
It was decided that as the paper’s circulation was Northants and the trial (and therefore jury) were Nottingham that the jury wouldn’t have seen it unless they looked on the internet, and if they looked on the internet they’d have found all the original coverage about the case anyway in the same search. So, in the interests of not declaring a mistrial and coming back again in 9 months they carried on. If it had been in the Nottm Eve Post, on stands all around the courthouse, it would have been different. The attorney general wrote to my editor asking WTF and we had to write back “explaining our actions”. I wasn’t really involved in the writing of that other than to briefly give my side, and I strongly suspect it ended up chucking me under the bus as a junior and inexperienced member of staff even though I was neither.
It’s actually proved a very valuable experience now I’m an editor with a team of reporters myself - Hire good people and then FCKING LISTEN to what they say to you.
What are your biggest disappointments at work? on 21:53 - Jan 20 by distortR
I was once told in a review by my manager- I cannot give you a good review this year because I gave you a good review last year. This was about 20 years ago - I was told by the same manager in the review I must sign it I refused as I said I do not think this accurately reflects my work - again I was told I must sign it because he needed to submit it that evening - last review of the week on a Friday - I pretty much knew what he was going to say so I said I not signing it and left the room finished up my work for the week and went home - 9 on Monday same conversation again - you must sign - I refused -- it sat for a week review changed - I signed it -- its important to note you don't have to sign our review if you do not feel its an accurate reflection of your performance.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
