u/Express_Eye_5151

So I recently wanted to move houses and initially thought my stuff would fit in a taxi. last minute realised it was too much for a taxi and began looking for man and van services. Most were companies that were already booked and didn't do same day service. so I rang up an independent guy, he immediately agreed but his quote was thrice of what other companies offered. I hung up, but he began negotiating and we settled for an amount, which was a bit more than other companies, but since it was last minute I thought it was fair. he helped me with everything and did his work perfectly. I kinda felt a bit guilty for booking last minute and making this guy rush through to help me and he seemed desperate for work. so when I made the final payment I tipped him a bit extra , he cheered up . but I was not sure how tipping is seen in uk? in some cultures its seen as rude to tip, its perceived as you are doing charity for them unasked. in some cultures its absolutely mandatory. how is it perceived in the uk?

so about to sign a new job contract and noticed something about redundancy rules. not sure if I have seen it before in old job contracts and never heard of social workers facing redundancy before. I thought it's more of a corporate sector thing. is redundancy like a thing for social workers considering national shortage. or it depend on local authority and their structures.

I have to explain to new prospective employers why I was off sick for so long in previous job. I was in a very toxic team, where I was a scapegoat and everyone's punching bag. I kept ignoring and ignoring until they got more comfortable with more aggressive behaviour. I tried to complaint to move out of that team, but then instead of support they all started saying I am imagining things etc and wanted to manage me out. I couldn't cope with the stress of all of it and couldn't believe they could so casually turn against me for asking for help. I ended up going on long leave due to a complete mental collapse, and worried I might slip into long term depression if I go back to such a toxic and unsupportive environment. while I was off , I was deciding on what was best for my wellbeing and thought I should look for other jobs. I found couple of other jobs, but my employers snitched on me and tried to paint me a trouble , but I remained professional and told new employers there were misunderstandings in team so I took time off to reflect and return. I ended up losing the job offer with no explanation, just unsatisfactory reference. so me being professional and not snitching on my ex-employer didnt work out for me.

now I have another role lined up and they are asking me why I went on long leave. I know I should be honest, and I have realised being polite and professional didnt help me last time. but how best do I convey and explain my leave to employers without losing the job offer? I was actually a victim of a toxic team, which my previous employer did admit they were unkind and my managers failed to support me. should I be honest? will it look like I cant cope with day to day stuff? it was quiet really bad like I was being snapped at, being asked not to use shared spaces which everyone else could use, more open humiliation in front of some 20 other workers present and then the person would pretend they are struggling with mental health and had a bad day, they didnt mean to snap at me, or another person policing me for forgetting to say thanks to them and questioning me if its not in my culture to thank others. it was a whole lot of BS and high levels of aggression I couldn't cope with and managers downplaying it to avoid being disciplined by HR and asking me if I dont have capacity to understand when someone has a bad day!!

I finally quit else I would have ended up in a very bad place health wise. what is the safest way to help convey this professionally to another employer? saying vague things like not cultural fit etc would only make me look fishy. how do hiring managers understand these kind of situation?

I have to explain to new prospective employers why I was off sick for so long in previous job. I was in a very toxic team, where I was a scapegoat and everyone's punching bag. I kept ignoring and ignoring until they got more comfortable with more aggressive behaviour. I tried to complaint to move out of that team, but then instead of support they all started saying I am imagining things etc and wanted to manage me out. I couldn't cope with the stress of all of it and couldn't believe they could so casually turn against me for asking for help. I ended up going on long leave due to a complete mental collapse, and worried I might slip into long term depression if I go back to such a toxic and unsupportive environment. while I was off , I was deciding on what was best for my wellbeing and thought I should look for other jobs. I found couple of other jobs, but my employers snitched on me and tried to paint me a trouble , but I remained professional and told new employers there were misunderstandings in team so I took time off to reflect and return. I ended up losing the job offer with no explanation, just unsatisfactory reference. so me being professional and not snitching on my ex-employer didnt work out for me.

now I have another role lined up and they are asking me why I went on long leave. I know I should be honest, and I have realised being polite and professional didnt help me last time. but how best do I convey and explain my leave to employers without losing the job offer? I was actually a victim of a toxic team, which my previous employer did admit they were unkind and my managers failed to support me.

So I cleared an interview around early June , accepted the offer and began onboarding. have given all the background check stuff by around early august. its mid august now and still not heard from HR on whats happening. I had already quit my previous job and been out of income for a while. it's beginning to worry me about whats going on with the recruitment. I had mailed the HR reminding all the background stuff is submitted and no response yet.

I have bills to pay and no income and beginning to worry whats going on. I also had couple of other offers which got withdrawn because I didnt start the onboarding.

Is this a normal timeline for background checks and onboarding in LA or is it stuck because something is wrong? I dont really trust my previous manager with references, I only worked briefly under them and now beginning to wonder if they have given any weird references and if my offer is being reconsidered.

Whats best way to find out? and do LA's randomly withdraw offer after all the checks and ghost you?

So I work in a professional sector and had taken a career break to pursue further education. I looked around for jobs after graduation for about a year and in the mean time worked in random restaurants to pay for my bills. I haven't mentioned this in my CV and it's got nothing to do with my professional career. I managed to get a job and worked for about 2 years. now when I moved to another job they are asking for references of past few years for audit. I have not mentioned I worked for a year after graduation and have told them I was looking for jobs. They are now asking me how I funded myself during the period.

What should I tell them? If I say I worked in restaurants, they will ask for references. I have no contact with that restaurant or managers over there anymore. And I also dont think they are the right people to give references appropriate to my career. I dont want to risk giving the references of them and screw up my job offer as I dont really trust them and it was a pretty toxic job. If they decide to casually mention random things on references it can cause me to lose my job offer.

so is it okay if I skip mentioning it to new employers and tell them I was unemployed? will it cause me any legal harm if I am not being honest?

Got offered a job in London and a town outside London. I am just getting anxious looking at rent costs in London and living expenses. On top of that more complex caseloads. So those who are based in London , how do you manage? is it possible to carry on work without stressing over living expenses in London? I really want to take up the London job to get experience of a large city and the type of caseloads that would be really interesting. But same time don't want to end up feeling too poor by end of month or living hand to mouth.

Whats a decent pay in London, to live stress free ?

Can anyone advise how long is it normal to wait to hear back on interviews. I have given two interviews in London this week and one outside of London. Not yet heard back from any of them. Have another two interviews next week. How long should I wait to hear back?

Normally wherever I have cleared , I normally got a call same day or next day. Should I assume I did not clear any of them? or do some councils take longer to decide? What is it like in normal council interviews? When to assume you have not got through?

Cant sit with anxiety of not knowing. If I haven't heard in two days , can I assume I didnt clear it?

When you apply for social work jobs and the jobs say need driving licence, and if you dont have diving license, is it possible to negotiate it? I am autistic and have executive functioning issues, like focusing on too many things at same time is not possible for me (except when it comes to pattern recognition in case load, which is fascinating for me) , but when it comes to tasks like learning driving, its extremely scary for me, as there is a risk to my life if I am not able to do multiple things which is required in driving like focusing on road, accelerator, brake , wheels etc. So I never bothered even attempting learning driving as I know its high risk and I can definitely not do it safely, so I dont have a driving license and will never bother to get one, as I cant do it. In that case when jobs advertise saying you need a driving license, is it not like putting people with disability at disadvantage and limiting their options to apply for social work jobs? I usually take bus for my visits and still complete things on time.

So do employers adjust for social workers with disability for exempting from the job criteria of requiring driving license? Or is it possible to negotiate to exempt from driving license requirement ? Or is the expectation people with or without disability if you dont have driving license then dont bother applying? How does this work?