Good for you mate.
I hope you get a decent manager.

Cheers..

Yeah everyone seems sound & it's a really nice working environment. There's new recruits there that came straight from Hardcore sales call centres who said their old job was like a nightmare compared to this.

There's 10 weeks of training altogether. By next week we will have taken an average 10 calls each, basically to practice. Then we will be on the phone for a few weeks then at 5 weeks we're back in the classroom for 2 more weeks training on the HBM (home & business moves) then back out again.

It all looks really fun & enjoyable. We have an hour & a half of paid beaks per day!

There's also massive scope for promotion & easy department shifting. It's very flexible & they clearly look after their employees.

Excited to see what the future brings.

Just a small update on my job - during the week some management personnel came up to our office from Dublin.

Their visit was to give the newest teams here (about 50 people) a talk about the company's progress over the last few years in regards compliance & customer satisfaction; not in any way a talk about profits or anything selfish like that, nothing like that was mentioned.

The key theme about the talk was the opportunities that are available to us, the potential to grow with the company & move up - the 4 management themselves all began with a brief introduction about themselves & how they started just a few (3-5) years ago like us, on the phones, & the various roles they have been in leading up to where they are now.

They told us that since our office is new (1 year) & we are still building the workforce here, that we have the chance to really step up & take responsibility for its growth, to stamp our own mark on it...& move up at the same time.

They really value their employees, 100%.

This has given me such a boost, not that I needed one as I'm happy with my new job & the people I work with, but it's gotten me very excited knowing that I'll be getting promoted & stuff.

This isn't a world I ever imagined myself being in, but I'm more comfortable here than I've ever been anywhere else.

Also starting the training for ChildLine on Monday evening after work. I'm really excited about it too but I'm under no illusions - it's going to be emotionally challenging listening to kids telling me about their pain & troubles. But someone's gotta do it.

Met Kelly Brook yesterday in the city centre as she was officially opening a skechers store. She's even sexier than I thought, not only because I met her in the flesh, but because she's shorter than I thought too.

And her boob felt nice pressed against me for about 10 seconds as I got a few photos taken with her.

Did you talk to her? She is attractive.....but she also comes across as thick as shit!

A few weeks ago I got an email from a senior colleague based in our Dublin office. I had completed an employee survey literally a few weeks after I started working with the company & based on the answers I gave to the survey questions they told me I had good ideas & that they believe I would be a valuable addition to one of their focus groups, so it was an invitation to join them for one. The topic was Worklife Balance and Employee Benefits.

There was myself & 3 colleagues from our department in Belfast that got invited down, but our manager was unsure if he could let us all go. However he let 2 go, & I was one of them.

So we got to travel down to our Dublin office for the day, all expenses paid of course. The office is far better & bigger than our Belfast office (at least 5 times bigger) but Belfast is only a year old & we're still only a baby yet.

So as for the focus group - there were only 9 of us present; 1 facilitator who was the lady who invited us, 1 co-facilitator who met us at reception & is seriously hot (in fact of the females I did see there, the talent is fucking incredible compared to our office!), everyone present had been working there ranging from 3 to 8 years, & then us newbies coming down from Belfast who are on 13 & 17 weeks, like WTF? Haha.

The chair requested a volunteer to take the notes so I said ok I'll do it (not too eager though, waited a few seconds, hesitation present in the room, then boom I agreed & stood up). I get to write down all the shit we say on the huge wall-whiteboards around the room & in doing so I get to look like I'm playing a significant role here whilst not contributing anything, brilliant!!

Ok I'm joking obviously I contributed. I feel I/we, myself & my fellow newbie from Belfast contributed just about as much if not more than we were able to considering we've only been there around 3 months give & take a week or 2.

The focus group lasted 2 hours & a bit, because we went over slightly. It was kind of what I expected despite not knowing exactly what to expect if you know what I mean.

At the end of the group she needed volunteers for a further group next Friday. I put myself forward & will either be travelling down to Dublin again, or attending via video-link from Belfast.

There was one point about an hour in to the discussion where I drifted off slightly into a bit of a day dream, not because I was bored, but because I just thought to myself what the fuck am I doing in this room with these people? How did I get to be here in the position I currently find myself in? I know I'm still only at the beginning of this career, & yes today once again we had another sniff of the very real opportunity we have to move up within this company relatively rapidly....but my thoughts were flashing back to merely a few years ago (ok the late 2000s) when I had fuck all going for me. I mean I had literally nothing, no friends, no social life, no girlfriends, no job, socially paranoid, living in my dads house in a little town, no prospects, no goals, I had psychosis & was a paranoid fuck-up as a result of heavy drug abuse, living a shit life, zero happy, absolute rock bottom & my lifeline was my Xbox for 3 years... Yet now here I am stood contributing to a focus group to enhance the worklife balance & employee benefits in the presence of senior management of one of the largest companys in the UK & Ireland... Quite a U-turn from sitting in my room at my dads thinking where the fuck do I even begin to get out of this utter shite existence I'm living.

I am under no illusions though, I made this happen. It was just a little moment I had that made me feel quite pleased with myself about where I am.

One of our internal company slogans is accept challenges. I'm doing that, & I guess this could possibly be the starting point of me stepping up within the company.

EDIT: It was Worklife Balance & Employee Benefits. Not workplace.

I do that too at work

Hi Dan, I've re-registered on here after a few years off and done a search for Belfast and your name keeps coming up and you seem like a total legend from reading your posts, truly a man after my own heart, so lets get in touch and do some damage. I'm in Belfast too ofc.

I've discovered this stuff about four years ago and its been wild!

Ok man yeah I'm off for nearly 2 weeks & although i still have work to do in that time i plan to go out as much as possible.

Are you in our Belfast Facebook group? Have we spoken before at all?

Joined Pure Gym last night & hit my first cardio workout right away.

I'm gunna go every second day doing HIIT as well as applying intermittent fasting for anything between 16 to 20 hour fasts.

No more excuses. I'm reaching my goal this time. Almost 50lbs has to go.