Work

I’ve not said a lot about my work, and that which I have hasn’t been exactly complimentary but… well, time for a rant/vent/whatever.

Simply, work is currently pretty much intolerable. Not just the customers although, lord knows, they’re bad enough, but the basic setup. Firstly, the opening hours. Monday-Saturday 8.30am-10.00pm, Sunday 9.00am-10.00pm. This is because those are the hours our immediate competitors are open (and by immediate I mean within literally shouting distance, there are five other bookies)… and I’m willing to wager that for the first and last two hours, they’re as empty as we are, and have said so, to no avail.

Secondly, the relief system. Used to be we had dedicated relief teams who had no shop of their own but zoomed around the area filling in where necessary – holidays, illness, absence – but of late that’s changed to the nearest shops covering each other. And it just doesn’t work. Because the shops need to be fully staffed and they’ve not been that in my area for over two years, so what happens then is a full day with cover just for a break… because the shop must never close early. This is the William Hill mantra: The Shops Must Trade, Whatever. This can mean being asked to do a full day at literally two hours notice. So why aren’t we fully staffed?

Thirdly, Hills seem to have mastered the knack of employing people who are, to be frank, utterly useless, and who either leave or get the sack after just a few months. Some just… vanish. Others have great CVs but in practise turn out to be unable to live up to them. Others are just… well, currently there’s a team leader who applied to be that for one reason only – to be able to set his own work rotas, which in practise means he doesn’t ever work a morning shift, thus permitting him to game online until five in the morning. In short, a selfish little shit. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t up to the other requirements of being a team leader, pitched a hissyfit and went on medical leave for six months claiming stress. Back nine weeks, and it’s plain that he still can’t do the job. Unfortunately, his performance review isn’t until Jube, but he’ll fail it and finally get the boot.

The upshot of all the above is that the goodwill the area used to run on is all but exhausted, and a final collapse, when more than one shop simply doesn’t open, is only a matter of time. One branch is closing in March, but that’s irrelevant. There’s more, but I’ll stop here. I’m sure as hell looking for something else, but I do need a certain level of income and as a 68-year-old non-driver, there’s not a lot out there. Something’s got to give, hopefully not me.