I received an email from her once, with info about our work and a few things she was requesting from me.
I’m sitting there thinking who the fuck is “emily”, and why is she emailing me?
Where does she sit, why haven’t I met this person?
I look at her email signature and it says she works remotely from Singapore.
Ah, that’s why we haven’t met.
That is just a weasel way to get out of Right To Disconnect laws.
Well being the boss I’m in the office today, for two days then I’m pissing off for a couple of weeks, it’s like the Mary Celeste in here.
Maybe if you’re a Mon-Fri, 9-5 organisation but when you’re open 7 days a week and up to 12 hours a day then there’s going to be a lot of people on different schedules.
This same absolute spanner of a bloke has just applied for another job with us. 
7 months on it’s for a lesser role with lower salary.
For shits and giggles I compared his current CV with the one submitted last year (the employer portal on Seek handily records previous applications). In May last year he stated on both cover letter and resume he was currently employed at ‘Firm B’, but current version of resume states he was actually only at Firm B from August 2023 until October 2023. 
Seems old mate was actually attempting to play hardball and dicked himself out of a decent offer while he’d been unemployed for 6 months (we recall he was also difficult to pin down for an interview which ended up being done online). The role he’s ended up in since then is such a step down you’d need a firetruck ladder.
Absolutely amazing. We once interviewed someone who, halfway through the interview stopped it and said her husband might actually be a better match, and then offered to bring her husband into the interview. Was perplexing.
I’ve finally made the decision to leave and have been floating my resume to a few companies. Slim pickings at the moment which is frustrating. Almost looks like I may need to take a slight step down into a different role before I can make my way up. Hopefully can shift into a pharma role of which there’s a few floating around. A big portion of the promises made to me aren’t being fulfilled and i’m finding that i’m getting such mixed messaged from the MD on the way my business operates, that I can’t actually make any final plans etc.
One of the biggest frustrations is dealing with NATA as an organisation. I want to shift out from that purely because they’re honestly one of the most fucked up organisations that I’ve seen in my entire life. I’ve had one staff member assessed 5 times in 3 years by different assessors for asbestos. All my Melbourne assessments found her to either excel or be fully competent. All the Sydney ones found her to be incompetent to the extent that she shouldn’t be doing the testing. We reported one technical assessor for his conduct, but they found him to be completely fine. Fast forward 2 years and he’s been stripped of his ability to be a technical assessor, based on the same complaints we had about him. Apparently it was a NATA person that raised it, so they suddenly took it seriously.
Same guy has assisted drafting new testing methods for asbestos in Australiat. They were drafted in such a way that would require his lab (one of two in the country) to be seconded by every lab in the country to meet the requirements. Further to that, in NSW, we’re required to report any asbestos detected, down to the smallest fibre. The standard he drafted doesn’t allow for this distinction. In a meeting with the EPA, NATA and a whole bunch of consultants, he suggested that a lab accredited to a specific standard be used instead. Surprise surprise, he’s one of 3 in the country. Means he’s funnelled millions of dollars worth of work his way. NATA didn’t even blink an eye.
It’s such a bureaucratic nightmare of an organisation that it’s a joke. Helped out by the fact that they have a MOU with the Australian government that prevents competitors from entering the market. It’s literally an open secret that if a competitor were to join the market, they’d crumble in minutes and most likely cease to exist.
So I’ve accepted a redundancy package - as mentioned at the back of last year, wasn’t happy and haven’t been for a while so this feels like a blessing.
Got a decent chunk of change so not desperate but will start the job hunt next week
Yeah, having been in a similar position a number of times, in my experience it’s good to start the job hunt early, way before you think you need it, especially if you haven’t been in the market for a while. The market is generally tight for experienced roles, and you just never know when a decent role may come up, and you need a bit of time to get your CV right and the whole application and interview process down pat. I’ve seen a heap of new job announcements on LinkedIn, so might mean there are a few resulting vacancies around now.
Initially you can start with the Goldilocks jobs… after a while you end up having to consider less than ideal jobs contracting, but each time just ended up getting a decent role before getting to panic stations.
Yeah - completely agree…. Spent some time rewriting the CV today, had a few conversations with some contacts in the industry in Sydney… will contact some recruiters on Monday and start firing off applications over the coming weeks.
Got a holiday with the family booked for the Australia Day weekend and then it’ll be full time job hunting
The thought of looking for a job fills me with existential dread. I’m on the home straight of two decades with my current mob. More money would be nice, but I might throw myself off a cliff if I had to deal with recruiters & HR types. I saw some lucrative short term contracts (nearly double the pay for the period) several years ago and it never got further than thinking “ah that’d be some nice scratch”.
Best of luck to you mate.
So I’m a month into a new role, I’m now a postie with Australia Post.
Around September last year I quit my job at Volkswagen/CUPRA. Essentially with the seperation of my wife, my performance at work had slipped. I was in a bad place mentally, and whilst the money was good I had lost all enjoyment for the role, despite having received a promotion a couple months earlier which as the Finance manager for the Perth, Hobart and CUPRA showrooms meant I’d be travelling all over the country.
At first this excited me, but given I only get to see my kids Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the week, it meant that I would barely get to see them. I was also sick and tired of spending an hour, hour and a half each way every day trundling 25kms from Glenfield to Chullora.
So I picked up a new role in October with Toyota Finance at the Gregory Hills Clintons Toyota. They pay was less, but it was only 20 minutes to and from home in Glenfield, and enabled me to pick my kids up from daycare on those aforementioned days, which made me so much happier.
Alas, all was going well (at least I thought so…) until the last week of Nove.ber when I was called into my managers office for what I assumed was a catch up, only to be told that 2 months into my probation they were letting me go as of then and now, citing that they no longer needed a floor finance officer as they were moving to an online finance system (similar to Cupra).
It fucking floored me, less then a month out from Xmas.
Needless yo say I picked myself up and started job hunting but nothing came through. Went for interviews with some places.
As I couldnt afford the $500 week rent I was paying I moved back into my childhood home, my grandparents place in Balmain. Luckily I had a fair chunk of savings, so I scrimped through Xmas and early NY.
My old man (not the American one) works for Australia Post. Has done so for about 15+ years. Anyway he put a few calls in for me and got me in as a postie. And honestly, best move I’ve done in a while. I came to the realisation over Xmas that whilst I can do it, I don’t enjoy working in an office and sitting behind a computer screen for 8-9 hours a day. I actually like being active. The jobs I enjoyed the most werecworking in hospitality, and when I was 18 as a builders labourer.
I had piled on the weight as well (jokes about 120kg uni students) and honestly I realized that my job in the corporate world was making me fucking miserable, and most likely contributing to the breakdown of my marriage I am sad to say)
Anyway yeah so started as a postie just under a month ago, and honestly (todays weather aside) am really enjoying it.
The moneys not terrible (earning less than I was at CUPRA - thkse bonuses I do miss…) im earning more than I was at Clintons in GH. The hours aren’t bad. Pretty much getting OT everyday, and I’m walking ~15-20kms a day. I have already noticed a massive increase in my mental health, I’m already fitter and have lost a few kgs. Living in Balmain, its 15 mins to the Alexandria DC where I start, and given my route is in Leichhardt, its 10 mins home. I also finish no later than 3.30pm, and can still go pick up my kids in the afternoon.
Some Posties can be a bit weird, but honestly its a pretty good vibe, and once you know your route/area for delivery it’s pretty straight forward.
So yeah, actually pretty happy with my decision. Perhaps something I should have looked at a few years ago, but here we are.
Happy to answer some AusPost related questions if you ever feel the need. 
That’s awesome mate (other than the fuckwitish termination so soon after starting and the time of year. What a pack of cunts).
I have often thought it’s a job I wouldn’t mind doing actually. As long as I could do a bike deal!
I used to do similar reading electricity meters. It was great being outside and left alone all day.
I remember your dog stories thou!
Yeah, you’re basically your own boss. Just stick to your times and your sweet.
Days like today arent great though. 
I knew we were in for a storm but I was hoping it’d hit around 2-3pm, basically in the last section of my route) I was making good time but then I hit the corner of Foster & Marion Street and got absoloutely soaked. A few people are going to need to give their letters a bit of hair dryer treatment.
But honestly it’s a good gig. Wouldn’t mind getting an EV gig, but all the inner west runs are walking routes.
Have you given it the ol’ “sorry we missed you, attempted delivery card” yet?
(C’mon, you know you want to 
)
$50 bucks to me (I knew that’d be the first question someone would ask).
Most of those are parcel contractors. You may see then driving around. They’re not red vans, but usually Toyota Hiaces with an A4 piece of paper stuck in the front and back window. They’re not posties. In Sydney they work out of Chullora and generally deliver larger parcels, but will often get “overflow” from Delivery Centers like Alexandria. Most of those contractors also contract for FedEx, Amazon etc. They’re not neant too just leave a card, but they also don’t have an hourly rate and get paid by the “delivered parcel” (even if that means having to take it to the post office.
9/10 times most posties will knock 3 tikes in the space of a couple minutes before carding. But here’s what most people don’t get. When I card an item, ive just spent 2 minutes out the front of your house knocking 3 times. Then I need to go back to my buggy and pull out a card and spend another 2 mins writing it up.
Each section of our run is times, so we can’t wait around for ever but I’ve noticed in the last few weeks if after knocking 3 times and then standing out the front writing a card, they’re not home.
Apartments are a bit different, I’ll only buzz once. But generally I’ll have 4 or 5 parcels for an aparment block, so it can sometimes take 20-30 minutes to get through them all.
Honestly, Posties hate leaving the cards. If we can ‘safe drop’ it, we will (with exception to some apartment buildings where parcels have gone missing and were forced to either make the person come downstairs to collect it, or we card it because we cant just leave it in a common area - contractors do).
What we don’t deliver we then have to carry around with us for the rest of the day which means if you’ve got a backpack, thats extra weight, same with a buggy) which then at the end of our shift we have to fuck around at the PO for anyway.
Today I had 82 parcels to deliver on my run. Last week I averaged about 70. I think the most I had to return to the PO last week was 12.
Adding on to that, a lot of posties have been nipped by a dog at some point. Any dog in a property is reported on our scanners. When we pull up outside that house our scanner emits a loud siren noise.
Some posties won’t risk it and thus will just card the house. Even if that dog isn’t there, or the person with the reported dog has moved elsewhere the alert still stay on the scanner. Its a pain to remove. You gotta get a manager to remove it, and they have to come out and visually confirm said dog no longer resides at the property.
Now I’m getting familiar with what dogs live where, and the big ones I’ll call out loudly from the gate. If someone is home the dog will be barking and growling at the door anyway (the ‘Postie alarm’). I’ll stand outside the gate and politely ask the person to come and collect from outside.
AP is massive on safety. Like it almost seems overkill. But something like 10 posties a week get bitten just at Alexandria DC (and thats with over 200 in our DC alone).
just wait till Magpie season 
Yeah, thats going to be about as fun as a 45 degree day or being stuck in a thunderstorm with no cover.