Getting Business

With the prospect of that new job (of which more later/tomorrow) I wrote a bit about my own doubts regarding the prospect of primarily working from home, and being on my own most of the time.  I’m still not sure how I’d handle that, so I thought I’d make some enquiries about the costs of renting either a shared office or a ‘proper’ office in a block where I’d at least have the opportunity to socialise with other people, rather than becoming even more hermit-like than usual.

I found three local offices of interest, two owned locally and one national company – Regus. I’ve worked in Regus offices before, so wanted to use them for comparison purposes more than anything else.

However, the experience of trying to find out costs from Regus was noteworthy – and not in a good way – so I thought I’d write about it.  Bear in mind, in all three requests I made it clear I was interested in getting a quote for comparison purposes, but that I was definitely planning to be using an office somewhere.

The two local companies came back within an hour, one with a quote, one with a range of options, and saying “But you’re best off coming in when you get a chance, so you can see what we offer” – which is reasonable.

But Regus. Ah, Regus.

First of all I got a response asking what it was I was interested in, and where. (Despite having already explained in the initial contact email – which was copied at the bottom of the response) So I explained – again – that I wanted to know costs, either for getting a ‘day office’/’shared office’ for a few days a month, and also for renting an office longer-term. Not a difficult concept, you’d think, for the industry-leader in office rental/hire.

But no, this seemed to be an utterly brain-melting experience for the little fuckwit I was dealing with. Over the course of 12 – twelve! – emails, he gave me information I didn’t need, and completely failed to understand what I was after. I asked him to pass it on to a manager, someone who could answer the question. He forwarded it on, asking them to call me. They didn’t bother.

I finally got hold of one of their sales managers today, to explain the problems I’d had with getting an answer out of Regus. From that point I’ve had the quote I wanted – and it’s less outrageously expensive than I’d expected, in honesty – and the offer of a significant discount because of the cock-up, and the fact I’ve stuck with trying to find out.

But it’s pretty scary, when you think about it. This is one of their primary channels for getting new business, and it failed utterly. I could have (and indeed should have) just abandoned it ages back. That’s what Regus deserved. I just kept on going because I was interested in just how long it would take, and how bad the experience would continue to be. After all, if this is how they work with people before they’ve received any money, you can only imagine how much worse it would be once money had been handed over, and the person/business was a captive entity.

Sometimes you just wonder how some companies actually stay in business.


Organised Requirements

The current work I’m doing is all very last-minute. It’s turned out to be a project where the advert agency is doing work on a conference site for a very large company, and the deadline is – um – next Monday, the 3rd Feb. I started it on Monday, so it’s five days to create a full working conference site, content management, booking and registration, pre-conference information and projects, and post-conference networking. No pressure.

It’ll be done – I’m pretty much used to last-minute projects, deadlines and the like – but it’s pretty scary when you see just how disorganised companies are. They’re still not ready for a lot of it, the content of the pages isn’t ready (so that’ll be yet more last-minute Friday afternoon stuff) and there are random bits still being decided upon, even today, with very little plan or notice.

It’s pretty shambolic, really.  But such is life, and I can live with it in general. After all, in some ways it’s what keeps me in work…


Getting Old?

This week I’ve been commuting into London on a daily basis – and for some reason it’s left me knackered. More importantly and relevantly, I don’t know why.

As has been written about before, I’ve done a lot of stupid commutes (both distance and time) and in truth the current one isn’t actually that bad – a drive to Milton Keynes train station, train into Euston, and then tube to Farringdon. It’s about 75 minutes door-to-door each way, so nowhere near the worst I’ve done.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve become more used to shorter commutes over the last eighteen months or so, I don’t know.

I’m still doing OK, and I’m sure I’d be fine with doing it longer-term as I get used to it again, but it’s just a bit weird that it’s leaving me knackered at the moment…


Taxing

Last week I got a letter from the taxman (also known as HMRC) regarding taxyear 2012/13. Supposedly I’ve not paid enough tax in that year.

Now that’s pretty impressive. It’s just about the only year in living memory where I was

  1. Employed – throughout that year – by one company
  2. On PAYE throughout that year
  3. Didn’t change any tax-relevant details
  4. Didn’t have to fill in a tax-return of my own
  5. Was purely reliant on my employer and HMRC to get my tax correct.

And still it’s fucked up.

Of course, I’m going to have to pay it. I don’t mind paying when it’s part of my earnings (well I do, but that’s a different thing) or if I’d made a mistake in estimating what tax I should be paying. I can live with that – it’s a pain in the tits, but I can understand what I have to pay, and why.

What I really do fucking mind is that I have to pay that tax when it’s been underpaid through no damn fault of my own. My employer of the time won’t be penalised, and won’t have to pay for their cock-up. HMRC won’t pay on it for their cock-up.

For that tax-year, it is ONLY possible that the error can have come from my employer, or HMRC themselves. (Who would only have dealt with my employer – not me directly) But it’s me that’s going to have to pay an extra £50 per month to rectify it next tax year.

Cunts

[Addendum : Because of the bankruptcy, from August of that tax year I shouldn’t have paid tax anyway, it should all go to the Official Receiver until August 2013. So that’s going to be a whole different lump of fun/hassle. I’m waiting for them to sort out this first stage before I then totally confuse things]


Short Notice

While the job offer is still standing, it’s not been confirmed yet, waiting on references and a final decision – which is somewhat annoying.

However, next week I’m working. No idea exactly where, or exactly what I’m going to be doing – but I’ll be working.

It’s even more bizarre than my usual standards – I’ve never met the people, never even spoken to them. I got an email from an  agency on Friday lunchtime asking if I was available for something on Monday in London. Well, yes, I am/was. I got some more details – day rate, basic idea of the job (build a website for a client of an advertising agency) – and sent back my up-to-date CV.

Less than an hour later I got another email. “OK, you’ve got it.” and thus started the paperwork bit.

I don’t even know how to add that into my usual ratio of interview to job offer. It’s a job offer (admittedly only a very short-term contract, one week maybe two) without any form of interview.

And how weird is that?


Going Solo

Assuming that everything comes through OK (I’m still awaiting final confirmation) one of the interesting things about the new job will be how I handle working from home (WFH) for four days a week.

I know I gripe (regularly) about colleagues and so on, so in some ways it might be nice to not have to deal with people for a while. But at the same time it is good to have some social contact, which wouldn’t necessarily be the case with a WFH role.

Time will tell, I’ll find out how I do. I’ve still got other options, potentially including renting an office space that I can share and get some social interactions in that way. We’ll see.


Changes for the Better

Having finished my most recent contract on Friday, this week is another of those “catching up and getting stuff done” weeks at the moment.

Today I’m off for a meeting with another of my regular clients, tomorrow is time for the Slab to get a replacement wheel-bearing, and then do the MOT (and hopefully pass with no further work required)

In the meantime, things I am not missing about the workplace include

  • no longer having to listen to the colleague who regularly hawks back snot into his throat
  • no longer having to watch another colleague who spent most of the day with his thumb up his nose.

While I enjoyed the work, it’s fair to say I’m not necessarily missing some of the people.