Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Jun 2012
- Posts
- 5,951
1995-2008 ish
I was easily distracted at school, always found chatting and messing around much more interesting than paying attention and doing the work so I used to just do enough to keep the teachers off my back but it barely equated to much. In fact for the entire last school year I didn't even take a bag telling them I'd forgotten it, I just used to carry a pen in my coat pocket and do the work on lined paper under the promise of copying it into my work books when I got home but then throwing it in the bin on the way out of the clasroom at end of lesson.
I left school with 9 GSCEs with the highest being a couple of Cs, can't remember the rest. I can't remember how now but I got onto some sort of college course at a small college in our town, it wasn't a proper college and I only lasted a few months as I wasn't that interested.
I then had some time dossing around at home after which I got a job working in the small private butchers section of our local KwikSave (remember them?) I can't remember how much I was on probably £30 p/w or something but again it only lasted a couple of months, I only did it to stop my parents nagging me, likewise with my next job working at a local auto factors working in the warehouse doing stock and such, my mum and dad went to France for 3 weeks that summer and I think I quit the job half way into the 1st week they were gone and had the rest dossing at home, it was bliss.
I then fell out with them and things kicked off a bit resulting in me getting the boot and spending a short time on the streets, ended only by a complete and utter fluke, one in a million chance even. I often think back and wonder how things may have gone if that didn't happen.
I ended up back at home and my Mum got me a job working at a small local engineering firm, I had just turned 17 I think and it was basically sweeping up and keeping the shop floor tidy in general, burning rubbish out back etc. it was £58 p/w take home after my £2 NI contribution.
I settled down a bit whilst working here and got more into the routine of working, it was days and afters and I could bike it in about 10 minutes, in all weathers with no gear so was bloody awful some days. I stayed there 5 years and progressed quite rapidly, there were no other young people working there but even so I ended up a shift supervisor and key holder and emergency contact by age 20 which seems bizarre when you're working with full blown adults with families and responsibilites etc, I was still a kid with no clue or life experience. When I left I think I was on £200 p/w at age 22.
I was getting fed up and there was no way to progress or anything there, so reluctantly started job searching as I'm not big on changes, I didn't have any qualifications and all that I'd learned there was only relavent to a small niche process they used that nobody else did. I'd basically resigned to the fact I'd be starting again somewhere on same or less money, until I saw an advert in the local free paper for an agency recruiting for workers at the Toyota plant, it would mean travelling but the basic starting rate even on agency and not full Toyota staff was still double what I was presently earning. I'm fairly confident of aptitude testing and the like as I'd previously taken a Mensa test and scored 147 IQ, I just wasn't confident with having no proper education background or qualifications, I needn't have worried as I breezed it.
There were hundreds start at the same time and when they were calling out our names and where we were going to work every other one was either "production" or "weld shop" then they read my name out and said "QA" and I didn't have a ****ing clue what that even was!
So after a bit of QA training it was onto the line inspecting a vehicle every 79 seconds, turns out I had quite the eagle eye for spotting defects, even ones not within inspection criteria and ended up with a few awards and vouchers etc for preventing issues getting off site. I thought I was doing well at Toyota. I started agency and within 3 months took the full test and became a proper Toyota employee, by 2004 money went up to about £21k basic but with OT, shift allowance etc it was about £25k all in, I was one of the better inspectors on line and often got asked to re-write inspection procedures during off line time or weekend OT.
I'd been there about 3 years when they had a shift around and our group leader and senior group leader both got swapped, the two replacements were terrible and they soon concocted a way of getting rid of people they didn't like so I ended up getting shifted to the other side of the plant into the press shop, a complete new start again with no clue what I was doing. This was the start of a long slow downard spiral in my mental state and wasn't a very nice time of my life if I'm honest, I'd just bought and moved into my first house, living alone with no friends, work colleagues were just that, people Ihad to work with so would get on with them politely etc. The first group leader I had in press shop was pretty good, but then they swapped them around again and the new one was a complete ****.
I didn't get on with him at all as he was one of these professional ladder-climbers that had never done the job he was supposed to be running and didn't have a clue. He stuck me on the same job contiously because other people would complain of strains and injuries, they'd taken out some robots and replaced them with men as the robots were damaging the panels, but this was hard work and lots of people got out of it by feigning injury but I was too stubborn and carried on with it for about 2 years, I wrecked my shoulder and wrist in the process but I stuck it out just to wind him up. He gave up in the end and managed to transfer me to another part of the press shop that was really grim and for the first time in a long time I just wanted to give up, I was the one who was never sick, did all they asked of me, did all the weekends and OT when everyone else was "too busy" and all I got was **** on. It was 2008, I'd been there 6 years and had enough so I just jacked it in, I took some time off long term sick on full pay first though before handing in my notice. I think my last full year there I grossed £30k, but the OT was ridiculous, during the week it was mandatory and they would literally have you in saturday and sunday just to paint stuff and sweep the floors, I just wanted more time for myself.
I was easily distracted at school, always found chatting and messing around much more interesting than paying attention and doing the work so I used to just do enough to keep the teachers off my back but it barely equated to much. In fact for the entire last school year I didn't even take a bag telling them I'd forgotten it, I just used to carry a pen in my coat pocket and do the work on lined paper under the promise of copying it into my work books when I got home but then throwing it in the bin on the way out of the clasroom at end of lesson.
I left school with 9 GSCEs with the highest being a couple of Cs, can't remember the rest. I can't remember how now but I got onto some sort of college course at a small college in our town, it wasn't a proper college and I only lasted a few months as I wasn't that interested.
I then had some time dossing around at home after which I got a job working in the small private butchers section of our local KwikSave (remember them?) I can't remember how much I was on probably £30 p/w or something but again it only lasted a couple of months, I only did it to stop my parents nagging me, likewise with my next job working at a local auto factors working in the warehouse doing stock and such, my mum and dad went to France for 3 weeks that summer and I think I quit the job half way into the 1st week they were gone and had the rest dossing at home, it was bliss.
I then fell out with them and things kicked off a bit resulting in me getting the boot and spending a short time on the streets, ended only by a complete and utter fluke, one in a million chance even. I often think back and wonder how things may have gone if that didn't happen.
I ended up back at home and my Mum got me a job working at a small local engineering firm, I had just turned 17 I think and it was basically sweeping up and keeping the shop floor tidy in general, burning rubbish out back etc. it was £58 p/w take home after my £2 NI contribution.
I settled down a bit whilst working here and got more into the routine of working, it was days and afters and I could bike it in about 10 minutes, in all weathers with no gear so was bloody awful some days. I stayed there 5 years and progressed quite rapidly, there were no other young people working there but even so I ended up a shift supervisor and key holder and emergency contact by age 20 which seems bizarre when you're working with full blown adults with families and responsibilites etc, I was still a kid with no clue or life experience. When I left I think I was on £200 p/w at age 22.
I was getting fed up and there was no way to progress or anything there, so reluctantly started job searching as I'm not big on changes, I didn't have any qualifications and all that I'd learned there was only relavent to a small niche process they used that nobody else did. I'd basically resigned to the fact I'd be starting again somewhere on same or less money, until I saw an advert in the local free paper for an agency recruiting for workers at the Toyota plant, it would mean travelling but the basic starting rate even on agency and not full Toyota staff was still double what I was presently earning. I'm fairly confident of aptitude testing and the like as I'd previously taken a Mensa test and scored 147 IQ, I just wasn't confident with having no proper education background or qualifications, I needn't have worried as I breezed it.
There were hundreds start at the same time and when they were calling out our names and where we were going to work every other one was either "production" or "weld shop" then they read my name out and said "QA" and I didn't have a ****ing clue what that even was!
So after a bit of QA training it was onto the line inspecting a vehicle every 79 seconds, turns out I had quite the eagle eye for spotting defects, even ones not within inspection criteria and ended up with a few awards and vouchers etc for preventing issues getting off site. I thought I was doing well at Toyota. I started agency and within 3 months took the full test and became a proper Toyota employee, by 2004 money went up to about £21k basic but with OT, shift allowance etc it was about £25k all in, I was one of the better inspectors on line and often got asked to re-write inspection procedures during off line time or weekend OT.
I'd been there about 3 years when they had a shift around and our group leader and senior group leader both got swapped, the two replacements were terrible and they soon concocted a way of getting rid of people they didn't like so I ended up getting shifted to the other side of the plant into the press shop, a complete new start again with no clue what I was doing. This was the start of a long slow downard spiral in my mental state and wasn't a very nice time of my life if I'm honest, I'd just bought and moved into my first house, living alone with no friends, work colleagues were just that, people Ihad to work with so would get on with them politely etc. The first group leader I had in press shop was pretty good, but then they swapped them around again and the new one was a complete ****.
I didn't get on with him at all as he was one of these professional ladder-climbers that had never done the job he was supposed to be running and didn't have a clue. He stuck me on the same job contiously because other people would complain of strains and injuries, they'd taken out some robots and replaced them with men as the robots were damaging the panels, but this was hard work and lots of people got out of it by feigning injury but I was too stubborn and carried on with it for about 2 years, I wrecked my shoulder and wrist in the process but I stuck it out just to wind him up. He gave up in the end and managed to transfer me to another part of the press shop that was really grim and for the first time in a long time I just wanted to give up, I was the one who was never sick, did all they asked of me, did all the weekends and OT when everyone else was "too busy" and all I got was **** on. It was 2008, I'd been there 6 years and had enough so I just jacked it in, I took some time off long term sick on full pay first though before handing in my notice. I think my last full year there I grossed £30k, but the OT was ridiculous, during the week it was mandatory and they would literally have you in saturday and sunday just to paint stuff and sweep the floors, I just wanted more time for myself.
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Spending quality time with my kids with no stress. 
Bonus impossible to calculate, some months £50 some months £500
) pay rise
