New car for work

Tempted, i'm mortgage free.

Just the fear of not having a job for the first time in my life and looking for a new one. Kind of forced my hand, either get a car and accept the situation or leave.

No job is worth the crap they're expecting of you. Expecting you to sort your own phone, with international calls is a sign of a company that doesn't take their employees seriously, add in the ridiculous car expectations and honestly I'd tell them to get stuffed.

Where are you based and what is the job? It might be easier than you think to find something new, and I will guarantee with absolute 100% certainty that you'll not only leave behind a terrible company, but you'll get a decent bump in money too. Guaranteed.
 
No job is worth the crap they're expecting of you. Expecting you to sort your own phone, with international calls is a sign of a company that doesn't take their employees seriously, add in the ridiculous car expectations and honestly I'd tell them to get stuffed.

Where are you based and what is the job? It might be easier than you think to find something new, and I will guarantee with absolute 100% certainty that you'll not only leave behind a terrible company, but you'll get a decent bump in money too. Guaranteed.

Currently a mobile field engineer specialising in server & storage hardware repairs and undertaking warranty repair for a major manufacturer, smarthands support for Cisco, Fortinet, Checkpoint, Quantum disk and tape library's.

Also do deskside support so setting up laptops for new users and replacing existing one's (refresh).

All in the midlands area so based from home. Looking for work around where I live as i'm fed up with all the driving (covering Manchester, Cambridge, Shropshire and down to Bedford area). People have just left and not been replaced so it's fallen on the few left to try and cover.
 
Currently a mobile field engineer specialising in server & storage hardware repairs and undertaking warranty repair for a major manufacturer, smarthands support for Cisco, Fortinet, Checkpoint, Quantum disk and tape library's.

Also do deskside support so setting up laptops for new users and replacing existing one's (refresh).

All in the midlands area so based from home. Looking for work around where I live as i'm fed up with all the driving (covering Manchester, Cambridge, Shropshire and down to Bedford area). People have just left and not been replaced so it's fallen on the few left to try and cover.

Find some local datacentres, find out who looks after them and start applying. Get on Linkedin if you're not already too. There are four in Birmingham alone:


Honestly get out of that company, it sounds awful. You're very clearly no appreciated.


EDIT: Better still, find some recruiters and let them do the work for you. A 3 second google found this one, start there:

 
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Find some local datacentres, find out who looks after them and start applying. Get on Linkedin if you're not already too. There are four in Birmingham alone:


Honestly get out of that company, it sounds awful. You're very clearly no appreciated.


EDIT: Better still, find some recruiters and let them do the work for you. A 3 second google found this one, start there:


A couple of our engineers left to go work at data centre's. There's not any in my area though, nearest being probably Nottingham and also there is 12hr shift patterns which work out well if you live within a reasonable distance.

I think the whole hardware support model is a race to the bottom with manufacturers wanting to pay as little as possible in order for the warranty repair to be carried out.

I worked onsite doing deskside support for a company in Northampton for 4 years and enjoyed doing that far more than doing the field based work. There are days when i'm driving 7hrs to go change a disk and it does not seem
to bother the company I work for as long as the SLA is met is all that matters.
 
See I had the exact same with a company, expected me to provide my own car and phone (and only gave me 25p a mile) while doing 600 miles a week for them and then expecting me to travel from Newbury to Sunderland and then out to Sellafield, handed my notice in and then they said things would change but in the 2 weeks notice period they laid even more at me, left and never looked back, 25% salary boost and never go any further than 2 hours from home now.

Toxic companies who don't value their employees pray on peoples worry that there isn't anything else out there, trust me there is and they're infinitely better companies to work for
 
That allowance for 25k miles a year is a joke, they are taking advantage of people being too afraid to say no. If you have been TUPEd then there should be certain protections in place for your contractual terms so I would be looking at that as well.
 
If you have been TUPEd then there should be certain protections in place for your contractual terms so I would be looking at that as well.
Absolutely this. Removal of a company car is a change in terms and conditions something that, unless I'm mistaken, TUPE is meant to protect you against. For a period of time at least.

As others have said, it doesn't sound like a company you really want to be working for. That said, it can take time to find something new so managing the situation the best you can in the meantime is worth considering and you don't need to worry about making any friends while doing so.
 
I worked for the same company 4 years ago before they outsourced us to another company (TUPE). We were with this other company for roughly 2 years and they nose dived and we were TUPE'd again to the company I now work for (for 2 years).

We are now being TUPE'd back to the original company I worked for 4 years ago as they made a decision to bring it back in house.

With the original company we were told that they would stop doing company cars and I purchased my own car and had that for sometime before moving to the first company where I was able to switch to a company car. I also took a company car with the firm I work for now so have had a company car for about 4 years.

Of course the original company are now saying that I need to get my own car as they still don't offer a company car if that makes sense.

I've been in touch with ACAS and an employment law solicitor and they can't give me an answer to if I can bring any unfair dismissal claim against them (solicitor saying that only about 5% of constructive dismal claims are won in the employee's favour)

I was paid £4100 a year before tax 4 years ago and was doing about 1000 business miles a month and now I am being offered the same amount and am doing double the amount of business mileage. It's been pointed out to them also that the car allowance has never been revised in over 10 years.

So potentially this will be the third TUPE process in 4 years.
 
Currently a mobile field engineer specialising in server & storage hardware repairs and undertaking warranty repair for a major manufacturer, smarthands support for Cisco, Fortinet, Checkpoint, Quantum disk and tape library's.

Also do deskside support so setting up laptops for new users and replacing existing one's (refresh).

All in the midlands area so based from home. Looking for work around where I live as i'm fed up with all the driving (covering Manchester, Cambridge, Shropshire and down to Bedford area). People have just left and not been replaced so it's fallen on the few left to try and cover.

I worked out i'm earning £0.61p more an hour than my wife who does after school care for children.

Seems like this is the kick I need to get out of this job.
 
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Couldn't pay me all the money in the world to deal with other people's kids :cry: but yes it definitely sounds like time to get away from that bunch of clowns.
 
Found this the other day, my company car allowances from 1990 when working for Granada. I took the company car but the allowance would have been £198 a month.

So 34 years later i’m being offered £350 a month by the incoming Tupe company.


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Just looking at my claim for earlier in the year when driving for the business we get 35-45p a mile for fuel, 5p a mile wear and tear, 5p a mile per passenger, availability of a hire car at management discretion under limited circumstances i.e. to cover if your vehicle was out of action.

Not too terrible - doing 25K a year would leave around 6 grand after fuel if my maths is right.
 
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