Firms Face Burnt-out Worker Exodus

[SarahBell]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti..._a_source=&ct=5

Hundreds of thousands of people are prepared to take unpaid leave, and many of those will not return to their present job, according to research for Direct Line Travel Insurance.

The construction industry will be particularly badly hit by workers planning to quit to go travelling, the report forecast.

Employees in the North East are most likely to take a break from their jobs, followed by those in Wales and the West of England.

Thought this article was very telling - people are fed up - but if they go will their jobs be there if they come back or will cheap imported labour replace them?

Have they saved up to travel? Or are they paying by CC?

And are they renting out their homes whilst they're gone?

Edited March 21, 2006 by SarahBell

[CrashBear]

I've handed in my notice as a web developer. So i'm leaving at the end of the month. Going travelling in June for a couple of years. Although I should be working for at least 6 months whilst away.

I was renting but the landlord is selling up so I'm forced to quit my job and move in with the folks for couple of months.

I'm not quite burnt out, just fed up with work and how useless and over paid certain people are.

I've saved 8-9k.... if I can't find a job when I get back I'll look elsewhere, another country.

I think I'm probably in the minority when it comes to saving for this, alot of people probably get loans and use their credit card while away.

Edited March 21, 2006 by CrashBear

[right_freds_dead]

goodluck crash bear. there is little to stay here for at the moment while waiting for affordable housing.

it may take up to 3 more years. so why help this treadmill until then.

best to naff off and go enjoy yourself. no point rat racing if you havent a hope of any reward for winning.

no home = no motivation to work.

[CrashBear]

goodluck crash bear. there is little to stay here for at the moment while waiting for affordable housing.

it may take up to 3 more years. so why help this treadmill until then.

best to naff off and go enjoy yourself. no point rat racing if you havent a hope of any reward for winning.

no home = no motivation to work.

cheers fred!

I kinda think the same, I'm thinking of moving to a different country when I've finished travelling. Not sure quite where yet but the UK just doesn't seem worth the slog right now.

Hopefully working whilst away will help me not forget my work skills and I also hope to pick up spanish along the way to add to the CV. Obviously I'm lucky to be in a flexible position without a mortgage etc to be able to do this.

[BillyShears]

I'm hearing stories of people working for firms in financial trouble not being paid properly for what they are doing. For example shops where people have been given the responsibilities and duties of shop managers but still being paid at "grunt" rates. If that happened to me I'd be seriously p'd off.

Billy Shears

[right_freds_dead]

you could work your way around the world being webby. what do you have to stay for right now. by the time you get back it would be sorted. or our economy would be sunk and it wouldnt be worth coming back anyway.

this country at the moment has a real nasty/greedy taste on every street corner.

its like they think these streets are the best in the world.

they are grey, wet, cold and mostly tense. weekends are punchy and bingy. services are overloaded with staff and costs. too many cheifs. no indians. tax is high.

why is it the most expensive housing in the world ?

am i missing something.

things were fine and normal in 1997

this is a recent mess up.

This has become my feeling. Self-employed and should be at work by now, but so de-motivated these days - work hard, save a few more thousand on a deposit for a house you can never afford to buy. Next year will be like last year and this year - no change, maybe it's time to leave these shores.

blimey - thats my exact situ. i should be cracking on. ive got a lot of work on the books, but i cant be arsed servicing the super rich 3 bed populace as a 2nd class gromit. they can sort their own stuff out. i really cant find the motivation to answer the phone other than to kill my competition off. theres no other reward. i have a nice car. good savings and little else in the way of a future here.

and i live in a tiny flat on a very rough street. half the street are asylum seekers. most of claiming benefit. i have nailed some curtains up and the insides as bad as the outside from fear of burgulary and also this was supposed to be very temporary. its ended up my life.

working 60-70 hours. earning around 60k.

living in a crack den flat. with no future.

some country this is.

call that contemporary success.

you can see why its pointless.

Edited March 21, 2006 by right_freds_dead

[Mushroom]

This is "mood of the Nation" stuff, and not to be ignored.

It's something Politicians, especially those in power, are concerned about.

[munimula]

cheers fred!

I kinda think the same, I'm thinking of moving to a different country when I've finished travelling. Not sure quite where yet but the UK just doesn't seem worth the slog right now.

Hopefully working whilst away will help me not forget my work skills and I also hope to pick up spanish along the way to add to the CV. Obviously I'm lucky to be in a flexible position without a mortgage etc to be able to do this.

You'd be better off investing the time learning chinese. The opportunities that could bring are endless.

[CrashBear]

You'd be better off investing the time learning chinese. The opportunities that could bring are endless.

funny you should say that...I have a "learn chinese in your car" and my first stop is beijing!

[Bingley Bloke]

I'm trying to save up so I can take a year off. The thinking behind it is that I'll spend the year trying to turn one of my hobbies into a paying occupation. If I'm going to be badly paid and work 'till I drop I might was well be doing something I'm interested in rather than the mind-numbingly boring crap that I'm currently up to! The problem is that I'm finding it very difficult to save any money at all and I certainly don't intend to fund my 'gap year' with a loan – For a start, how would I pay it off if I weren't making enough money? My aim is to have enough to live for a year without making a penny – £12K would do it.

[CrashBear]

I'm trying to save up so I can take a year off. The thinking behind it is that I'll spend the year trying to turn one of my hobbies into a paying occupation. If I'm going to be badly paid and work 'till I drop I might was well be doing something I'm interested in rather than the mind-numbingly boring crap that I'm currently up to! The problem is that I'm finding it very difficult to save any money at all and I certainly don't intend to fund my 'gap year' with a loan – For a start, how would I pay it off if I weren't making enough money? My aim is to have enough to live for a year without making a penny – £12K would do it.

you could take that 12k to a different country where the 12k goes a lot further.

[Columbo]

I've handed in my notice as a web developer. So i'm leaving at the end of the month. Going travelling in June for a couple of years. Although I should be working for at least 6 months whilst away.

I was renting but the landlord is selling up so I'm forced to quit my job and move in with the folks for couple of months.

I'm not quite burnt out, just fed up with work and how useless and over paid certain people are.

I've saved 8-9k.... if I can't find a job when I get back I'll look elsewhere, another country.

I think I'm probably in the minority when it comes to saving for this, alot of people probably get loans and use their credit card while away.

Make no mistake about this, if you leave development for that length of time, you will never return. There isn't time to breath in development, take your eye off the ball for a short time and you are left in the stone age.

[CrashBear]

Make no mistake about this, if you leave development for that length of time, you will never return. There isn't time to breath in development, take your eye off the ball for a short time and you are left in the stone age.

but australian development is like the stoneage, difference is everyman and his dog isn't at it over there.

[Bingley Bloke]

you could take that 12k to a different country where the 12k goes a lot further.

I've considered that. It would be a case of overcoming the challenges of language and differing business regulations abroad and it must be a country with high-speed internet as that's integral to my idea... In other words, a developed country where costs are already close to ours.

[Guest Charlie The Tramp]

but australian development is like the stoneage, difference is everyman and his dog isn't at it over there.

That`s the trouble when every man and his dog gets on the bandwaggon as in BTL, the SM, and IT. The future could become very interesting.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

Make no mistake about this, if you leave development for that length of time, you will never return. There isn't time to breath in development, take your eye off the ball for a short time and you are left in the stone age.

Nonsense. You might be a bit behind when you get back, but after a few months or so you'll be back in. It depends what your skills are. If you're a VB grunt, VB might go away (but hey, there's still work for COBOL programmers even after all these years). If your knowledge is fundamental, you can apply it to any new technology.

I earn a pretty top salary developing in tcl, on Informix ffs. How stone age is that?

Edited March 21, 2006 by the_duke_of_hazzard

[Levy process]

I'm hearing stories of people working for firms in financial trouble not being paid properly for what they are doing. For example shops where people have been given the responsibilities and duties of shop managers but still being paid at "grunt" rates. If that happened to me I'd be seriously p'd off.

Billy Shears

Yep, the collapse has begun. It's only a matter of time before people have to get real about wage deflation and unemployment - coming to a town near you....

[right_freds_dead]

Make no mistake about this, if you leave development for that length of time, you will never return. There isn't time to breath in development, take your eye off the ball for a short time and you are left in the stone age.

yeah. hop to it. dont take your eye off the ball. keep learning. keep adapting. keep working harder and harder. longer and longer. more responsibility. more workload. more stresss.

yes - go for it.

then relax in your £750pcm 1/4 house share, awaiting your turn off the bathroom so you can lie back in the rusty landlords tub and consider your own stunning personal success......

take your job(s) and stuff it.

[Levy process]

Make no mistake about this, if you leave development for that length of time, you will never return. There isn't time to breath in development, take your eye off the ball for a short time and you are left in the stone age.

I think that is rubbish. Firstly, there are loads of development technologies that have been around for years, even decades. While they are always progressing, and new ideas being circulated in journals etc, most people don't keep up with the latest cutting edge ideas all the time anyway - they dip in and out as needed. Anyone who claims to be at the cutting edge all the time is just a puffed up liar. Secondly, being up to speed on the latest whizbang SDK du jour is not what is really important. What is really important is good, solid, fundamental understanding of computational science issues, and more important perhaps, good understanding of software design issues and perhaps also knowledge of the particular domain that you want to work in.

This "leave for 6 months and you're out for good" attitude is just tosh, pumped out by human resource departments with nothing better to do.

Edited March 21, 2006 by Levy process

[ril]

I took 16 months off to go travelling, then went back to the same IT company, and nothing in our department had changed, same code being used same DB's, same people and i went back in on a better salary than what I had left with.

[dogbox]

Why work for someone else if it makes you miserable?

I have 3 brothers. 3 of us are now self - employed, 1 in IT. This didnt come easy as the 'self - employed' culture was totally alien to us as Dad was a Civil Servant and we had no exposure to self - employed culture when growing up.

I thoroughly recommend self - employment. It can be hard but I find it immensely more rewarding than being told what to do by some thickie corporate type. I used to have the old 'cold stone in the gut' feeling every Sunday, but since going it alone this feeling has gone.

[Catch22]

and i live in a tiny flat on a very rough street. half the street are asylum seekers. most of claiming benefit. i have nailed some curtains up and the insides as bad as the outside from fear of burgulary and also this was supposed to be very temporary. its ended up my life.

working 60-70 hours. earning around 60k.

living in a crack den flat. with no future.

some country this is.

call that contemporary success.

you can see why its pointless.

Earning 60K and you live in those conditions, no wonder you display all the character traits of a manic-depressive...............I suppose you'll shoot the messenger, because that what manic depressives usually do........

There will be people out in Iraq today who before the sunsets will be trying to identify their love ones bodyparts that will have been splattered all over the sidewalk. And you think Bliar gave YOU a bad deal.........you think people are greedy because they only think of themselves ....yer right ...

FFS Fred get a grip will you before it's to late.

[right_freds_dead]

There will be people out in Iraq today who before the sunsets will be trying to identify their love ones bodyparts that will have been splattered all over the sidewalk

thats because they were stupid enough to let their governement/dictatorship walk all over their freedom in the first place. they didnt speak out when things were wrong. like ID cards, tax increases for nothing and HPI.

i think you will find its not mr blair doing the killing over there. he wants peace and oil trade.

its iraqi on iraqi and mostly oil power hungry locals hiding under the fake banners of religion.

morons.....

[MarkG]

i think you will find its not mr blair doing the killing over there. he wants peace and oil trade.

But we had that before he and Bush invaded the place.

its iraqi on iraqi and mostly oil power hungry locals hiding under the fake banners of religion.

No, it's Sunni vs Shi'ite vs Kurd. There's no such thing as an Iraqui, because Iraq was always a fantasy that could only be held together by a murderous dictator.

[right_freds_dead]

No, it's Sunni vs Shi'ite vs Kurd. There's no such thing as an Iraqui, because Iraq was always a fantasy that could only be held together by a murderous dictator.

right_freds_dead

yeah. seen that before, only it was catholic and proddie. until one day the penny dropped and they realised that indeed, despite the small culture differences they were all ulster countrymen together. and the shooting stopped a while. the iraqis will have to learn the same idiotic lesson and not be drawn up into a frenzy by local power hungry gobshites.

a union like europe is build from different coloured bricks. the country of iraq could be built from the same mix of ideals. they need to wake up to some real facts about the world they live in and who lives there with them.