Hi everyone,

Looking for some impartial advice, particularly from people who have moved from the Big 4 into industry or have experience negotiating salaries at Senior Manager level.

I’m currently working at a Big 4 firm and have recently received an offer for a Senior Manager role in industry.

The initial offer was £89k base salary, which I felt was a little lower than I was expecting, so I went back to negotiate.

Following internal discussions, they’ve now come back with a revised offer along the following lines:

Base salary: £94k (revised from £89k)
Car allowance: £6.5k per annum
Bonus: 10% (discretionary)
Pension: upto 8% match

The revised offer is obviously a positive step, and I appreciate that they’ve moved by £5k. However, I’m trying to establish whether the overall package is competitive for someone moving from the Big 4 into a Senior Manager role in industry, taking into account qualifications, experience and responsibilities.

Ideally, I’d like to get the base salary to around £100k (which is below industry average of £105k). I’m not necessarily expecting a huge increase, but I feel that getting the base to six figures would make the move more attractive, particularly when considering long-term salary progression and the potential impact on future earnings.

The main thing I’m unsure about is how to approach the negotiation from here.

I’ve only gone back to negotiate once, asking them to reconsider the original £89k offer. They’ve now increased it to £94k. During a subsequent phone call, HR explained that they had spoken to the hiring manager and that £94k was their final offer, with no further room for negotiation.

I’m conscious that they’ve already made an effort to improve the package, and I don’t want to come across as unreasonable or risk jeopardising the opportunity. Equally, I’ve only negotiated once, so I’m wondering whether making one final attempt to get closer to £100k would be reasonable or whether I should respect their position and accept that they’ve reached their limit. Because if they have surely the HR would’ve put that in writing right?

I’m not sure whether there could still be any flexibility, or whether going back a second time after being told it’s the final offer would leave a bad impression.

I’d really appreciate advice on the following:

1) Is £94k base salary competitive? For a Senior Manager moving from the Big 4 into industry, does this sound like a reasonable offer, particularly when the car allowance, bonus and pension are taken into account?

2) Would you negotiate again? Given they’ve already increased the offer £94k and HR has explicitly said it’s final, would you make one last attempt to secure £100k, or would you accept the revised offer?

3) Am I taking the piss by asking again? I’ve only negotiated once so far, and I’m not asking for a massive increase. Would a second attempt be considered normal negotiation, or could it come across as being difficult or greedy after they’ve already moved? Do I risk having the offer pulled away?

4) How firm is a final offer usually? If HR has spoken to the hiring manager and confirmed that £94k is the final figure verbally but in the email doesn’t explicitly say this, should I take that at face value? Has anyone successfully negotiated further after being told an offer was final?

5) What alternatives could I negotiate? If they genuinely cannot increase the base salary, would it be reasonable to ask for a sign-on bonus or a formal salary review after six months? Or would you leave it alone at this stage?

6) For those who’ve moved from Big 4 to industry, how did you find the transition in terms of overall compensation, working hours, career progression and work-life balance? Was the move financially worthwhile in the long run?

I’m keen to make the move for the right reasons and not focus solely on salary. The role and the opportunity are attractive, and I appreciate that the company has already improved its offer. However, I also want to make sure I’m making a sensible career and financial decision.

Would you push once more for £100k, or accept £94k and move on? I’d appreciate honest opinions, especially from anyone who has been in a similar position.

Thanks in advance!

I’ve just had an interview to be a Property Manager, this job was advertised at £25k, at the point of applying I didn’t really pay attention to the pay as I just want to get into the property career.

I had a telephone interview last week where the manager went through the role with me to see if I had experience and I would fit. She said the hours are 8:30-5 Monday to Friday.

My interview today I got them to confirm the hours, they said it totalled 40 hours a week, am I mad working that out as less than minimum wage?

I then had a PANEL of interviewers, bear in mind this is my second interview for a LESS THAN minimum wage job. I had a plethora of questions and scenarios thrown at me then an English test at the end.

I’ve then been told I would hear back either way and if I’m successful I would be invited to a THIRD interview!! This is a £10 an hour job right!?! I’m 35 I’m sure minimum wage needs to be at least £28k.

The UK job market has gone wild 🫪🫪 is this unreasonably difficult??

hi all, my current role is at risk of redundancy so I have hit the ground running with the job search. I've come across an advert on a recruitment website for what sounds like a good opportunity, and have filled out and submitted the application form on their website.

on the vacancy page it says 'if your experience aligns with what we're looking for, a member of our team will be in contact to discuss the role with you in more detail before presenting your profile to the client'. there is contact information (email address) displayed on the page for the recruiter working on this role.

I understand I may not be successful with this particular opportunity, but I was wondering what the etiquette is for contacting the recruiter anyway. I'll leave it for a few days to give them time to triage my application, but since I'm looking for a new job anyway, would it be appropriate to send her a follow-up email of sorts introducing myself and asking her to keep in touch for any future vacancies, or would that come across as being pushy?

apologies if this is a question that may have an obvious answer, but I am still very early in my career with almost no previous experience of using recruitment agencies, so I'm not sure what the process really involves and how to navigate it.

thanks!

hi all,

i became ill last year, been off work for over 28 weeks now. my workplace is finally wanting to arrange a consultation with an occupational health specialist. i already know they wont accommodate me, its a conversation i’ve been having with them for the past 12 months. tbh i just want to sack it in, get my last paycheck for some financial cushioning and start applying elsewhere, but a family member relayed my situation to someone in their work’s HR department, who said that if work can’t/won’t accommodate me they will have to pay me out and compensate me. if that’s true, i’ll hold out for a month or two for the extra cash, but i cannot find anything online that confirms this.

has anyone ever heard of this? i’m looking for sources, not opinions on if its worth sticking it out for not (though i understand people might want to advise me to just leave either way)

edit: i’ve worked there over two years on a part time (3 days per week) basis, have spoken to citizens advice who weren’t much help, and can’t get through on the ACAS phone lines at the moment.

Where do you draw the line between coworkers and friends? Has anyone else been in a similar situation?

For most of my working life I've been self-employed, and whenever someone moved on, we'd usually say our goodbyes. Whether it was just being polite, keeping a good network, or because you'd actually become friends, it always seemed like the normal thing to do.

I've been employed at the same place for the last 10 years. My job involves a lot of driving, so you end up spending quite a bit of time on the phone with other people doing the same job. Some are more chatty than others, but it's not unusual to spend 20+ hours a week talking to colleagues.

There's one guy in particular who'd call me at least once a day. The first call would often last 45 minutes, and there'd usually be a few more throughout the day. A lot of it wasn't even work-related, just general chatting about life and whatever else was going on.

He'd also shared quite personal stuff with me about his life and health, things I know he hadn't really told other people at work. So I'd always assumed we were at least somewhat friends, rather than just two blokes passing the time on the phone.

He'd been off sick for a couple of weeks, and I happened to give him a call on what I thought was his last day off, just to check how he was doing. We had a chat and he was talking about hopefully coming back to work the following week.

About seven hours later, my boss messaged me to say, just as an FYI, that this guy had decided to retire and wouldn't be coming back.

Well, that was a bit unexpected. The part that threw me was that we'd literally spoken earlier that day, and he'd said nothing about it. I figured maybe he'd tell me himself, so I left it at that.

A few days later, someone in the office mentioned they'd actually known he was retiring a few days before I found out. So he'd apparently made the decision and told people, but we'd still been chatting away as normal and he'd never mentioned it to me.

It's been about a month now and I've still not heard from him.

I'm not exactly devastated or anything, and I know we're only coworkers at the end of the day. I think I'm just a bit put out by it, especially given how often he'd call me and how much we'd chat about stuff outside work.

Part of me thinks I'm being daft for even thinking about it, but another part of me finds it a bit odd.

Have any of you been in a similar situation? Where do you draw the line between being workmates and actually being friends? Or is this just one of those things where you realise the friendship was more about passing the time at work than anything else?

I feel guilty for posting knowing so many people’s financial reality is worse than mine. But I’m earning in the high £60Ks but am absolutely miserable in my tech job, the difficult part is moving away from tech/corporate roles with no other skillset.

I don’t mind starting again, but I have family and financial commitments which mean I can’t afford a salary drop.

Do I just need to suck it up or is there anything realistic I can do?

Each day I see the postman deliver my letters and think how great he has it….whilst he probably sees me working from home on my computer thinking the exact same thing!

Looking to get a data/business analytics role 2 years out of uni (BA - languages). I’ve got about 18 months experience across a couple of admin roles (now unemployed) including some SQL and a lot of excel/power BI but nothing directly applicable I’ve added python and R too outside of work.

Almost all the postings for jobs require a Bsc or related/experience and apprenticeship programs are few and far between (I also have a suspicion that a lot of “entry level” roles end up short-listing/hiring people with experience).

Am I wasting my time chasing any of these jobs (i.e. is my cv going to get filtered out by an ATS every time) or do I just need to get a project portfolio together and put out application volume until something clicks? Also open to any suggestions of avenues/approaches I’m missing I’m trying to network a bit and get advice but LinkedIn is so Pay2Win it could give most mobile games a run for their money.

I've recently made the switch from a different industry to working in a fintech. Completely different role and industry, so learning everything from scratch. Just a few months in but I'm really happy with the move and I enjoy the work I'm doing.

However, one thing I found to be very different was the probation period. In my last role, it wasn't even really mentioned during onboarding. I just received an email at the end of the probation period saying my probation period was over, that was it. However, in my new role, it is more of a target that gets brought up in check ins with my manager as a kind of development goal.

In my most recent probation related check in, I received some very mixed feedback. I wasn't expecting it. It was related to an incorrect method I followed a few weeks back and how that showed my level wasn't quite there yet. At the time I made that error, I thought that it was the kind of thing that was understandable for a newbie to make, not massively serious. Something that I get feedback on, correct, and move on. But now, it is coming back to bite me.

I don't mind getting constructive feedback - I've received it without any issue in my last job and I can work to correct it. But this time, with the threat of probation and losing my job hanging over my head, it has become massively stressful. I'm ending up working super long hours, skipping lunch, etc. desperate to prove myself. I'm hesitant to get feedback on my work from my manager, lest he brings it up later in a meeting saying that it proves I don't know what I'm doing. Stress and anxiety are off the charts as I really don't want to lose this job that I really like.

AFAIK, probation is supposed to be a contingency plan in case things really don't work out, not an active target and threat that comes up every few weeks. Is this normal? Any advice?

Hi

Whilst job hunting, I saw an advert which ended up dircting to this company ITOL also known as IT online learning.

To keep it brief, I came to the conclusion that they were selling pr-made learning materials and some basic entry level qualifications (which didnt even seem entirely relevant to the job role, developer). And that they were basically offering to help with CV writing, interviews, and so on.

They claimed to have a Job Guarantee or money back refund - how could they possibly GUARANTEE a job ?

So I would like to know, has anyone actually managed to get a job through any programmes through this company ? And if so, was it an antry level role or a proper decent salary role ?

thanks

p.s. - I would have posted this to the 'megathread' but i looked on there and could not see how / where to post ? no post button or option ?

Hi,

Just found out Worldpay side party of global payments are doing job cuts. I have found out I have been made at risk of redundancy company wide? Anyone else been this way?

Thanks

In my last job, I ended up being the person who trained new starters, checked their work, answered most of their questions, and led the shifts even though I had the same title and wage as them. This went on for years!

Hi everyone! This is a bit of a long shot, but I’m hoping some of you kind people might have some advice, personal experiences, or little nuggets of wisdom that could point me in the right direction.

I’m currently working in marketing and have been for almost four years. I have a BSc in Business and an MSc in Marketing. On paper, things are pretty good. My colleagues are lovely, my workload is generally manageable, and I’m fortunate enough not to be constantly stressed or overworked.

However, I feel like the work is slowly draining my soul.

Most of my days revolve around numbers, reports, and KPIs, and I struggle to find any real sense of fulfilment in what I do. Lately, I’ve noticed that even though work itself isn’t particularly stressful, I come home feeling completely drained. I can usually manage to make dinner, but after that, I have very little energy or motivation for anything else. Some days, even getting the dishes done feels like an achievement. I don’t exercise like I used to, and I’ve been feeling a little low mentally.

At the same time, I feel guilty for feeling this way. With the current job market, I know I’m fortunate to have a relatively secure job with nice people and reasonable working hours. And coming from a family where previous generations didn’t have the opportunities to go to university or find work that didn’t involve being shouted at or physically exhausting themselves to the point of health problems, I’m very aware of how lucky I am.

I don’t take any of that for granted. I just can’t shake the feeling that I want to do something more meaningful with my working life.

So, what would I actually like to do?

In a nutshell, I want to help people. The joy I feel when I can do something good, make someone's day or help someone through a problem is immense. I am literally buzzing the whole day. Ideally, I’d love to do something where I can see the direct impact of my work on someone's life.

I follow a few people online (none of them based in the UK) who go out into their communities, find people and families living in incredibly difficult circumstances, and use donations from their followers to help them rebuild their lives. They might help a family living in a tent or an uninhabitable building by literally building them a proper home, furnishing it, filling the fridge, and continuing to check in on them afterwards. They also employ people who struggle themselves helping even more people in the process.

That kind of work genuinely moves me. The idea of being able to make such a tangible difference to someone's life is incredibly appealing. If I could choose any job, something along those lines would be amazing.

But how do you even get into something like that? Is it a particular career? Do you work for a charity, a community organisation, a housing association, or a social enterprise? And are there people doing similar work in the UK whom I could follow to learn more about the field?

There are a couple of practical considerations, though.

My partner and I would eventually like to buy a house, and I realistically need to earn somewhere around £38k–£45k gross per year to make that possible alongside his income.

He currently earns minimum wage, but after more than ten years of working in a job he hated, he has finally found something he absolutely loves. He genuinely looks forward to going to work, and I couldn't be happier for him. His job isn't something he can easily change, and I don't want him to have to give up something that makes him happy just so I can pursue a different career.

I'm more than happy to be the higher earner in our household, so I need to be realistic about my options.

I'm open to retraining and studying in the evenings, at weekends, while keeping my full-time job. I'd also consider full-time education if there were a way to receive financial support through the government, an apprenticeship, or an employer while training. Ideally, I'd like to avoid spending several years studying full-time without an income as we can't afford to live on my partners income alone.

I've done a bit of research already, and some of the possibilities I've come across include the Civil Service, social care, forensic or digital forensics work, and cybersecurity. I'm open to completely different suggestions, too. I realise some of these careers may not be an obvious fit for what I've described, but I'm trying to explore different possibilities rather than rule things out too early.

I also speak two other European languages fluently, in addition to English, in case that's useful for certain roles.

So, if you were in my position, what careers would you look into?

I'm particularly interested in jobs that:

Have a genuine, tangible, positive impact on people's lives.

Could realistically lead to a salary of around £40k-45k.

Don't necessarily require years of full-time education or

offer opportunities to retrain through apprenticeships, employer-funded training, or other supported routes.

I'd especially love to hear from people who have made a similar career change, work in charities or community organisations, or have experience in roles that most people wouldn't immediately think of.

And if you know of any UK-based people doing the kind of community outreach and practical, life-changing work I described, I'd love to hear about them, too!

I'm not expecting to find a magical job that ticks every box straight away. I know there will be compromises, and I'm willing to put in the work. I just want to start exploring realistic paths towards a career that leaves me feeling that what I do matters and where I can do what I love, which is helping people in some way.

Thank you so much to anyone who takes the time to read this and share their thoughts. Even one suggestion that sends me down a new path would mean a lot.

First post on here, just wondering if anyone's done one of the Courses.

I've heard they're not The Greatest and the Qualifications may be basically not worth it from a Previous Reddit post on this Sub-Reddit but it's been a While since that was posted.

Currently doing a Health and Safety course (struggling to anyway, Go me and my Inability to learn outside of a Structured Classroom properly)

Something I have noticed over years of hospitality, from crew to senior management, there is a real toxi habit of competing over who is more exhausted?

"I did three AFD's this week". "I haven't had a weekend off since May."

I was this manager, for a long time, deluded into thinking commitment was the same as self-sacrifice.

I even found it uncomfortable to request that my travel time be part of my working hours when THE COMPANY ASKED ME to cover a store 3 hours away.

It took until my son was born for me to put my foot down and not answer the 10PM calls, from both my team and my superiors.

I stopped responding to minor issues that should be dealt with in house.

If I do have to work more (which let's be honest, it happens), I take my time back.

Genuinely, belove I love hospitality, I have been drawn to it for years, but I know this is a problem for so many people.

I really want to know how many of you guys struggle with this, are you managing to have a work-life balance, and if not, truly, why?

Asking this on behalf of my friend - she wants an appointment at the jobcentre for help with finding work, but she isn't interested in claiming universal credit or jobseekers allowance. Is this possible? Personally I don't really see the point in it but it's what she wants so I figured I'd ask.

Had a job recently that required me to do this. First time I’ve ever done them in my life. Had to leave the job pretty quick, FairPlay to the people that can do these, but I couldn’t get used to them 😂

What's the point of setting up email alerts through Indeed, Reed, and similar when, despite filters, I still receive random jobs that aren't specific to the town I am looking for or the type of jobs I am interested in? So I am getting trainee jobs, work-from-home jobs, nationwide jobs - none of them is specific to the town I am interested in. How do you guys keep on top of local jobs?

Im 34 and in Feb I got my first "normal" job, Mon-Fri, 8am til 5/6pm in HGV driving. At first I thought it was great and I was moving up in the world but I've come to realise I can't hack it due to my bodyclock and lack of free time.

Starting when I was 13 I had a paper round, up at 0500 and off to school afterwards, I was in the army for 4 years, again up at daft o clock. Upon leaving I've worked multiple warehouse jobs of varying seniority - again all starting around 0500 and you're done for 1400-1500. Irregular days off too, your weekend is Tues-Wed some weeks. I used to think this a burden as I'd be working some weekends when frienda were off.

Now I've got the "normal" schedule I feel like I have 0 spare time and I'm exhausted all the time. Mon-Fri is essentially a hamsterwheel and you're just hanging on til Friday when you get 2 nights and a day and a half of rest but you also have to ram all the stuff you had no time for in the week in there too.

Shelves need putting up? Saturday job.

Tip run? Saturday job.

Need to visit family? Sunday job.

Etc etc

Then everyone else is also trying to do this so it becomes far more stressful.

AND

Thats before docs appointments, garage appointments etc etc.

I just felt like I had far more free time beforehand, I had essentially every afternoon to potter about at home and a diy job at home was far easier to do a random Wed morning instead of a Saturday when B&Q and the tip is clogged with everyone doing the same thing.

I am actively looking to move to a 4 on 4 off or something just wanted to hear peoples opinions /experiences

Started a job 1 year ago at a big company, did fine got praise for my work, helped in different departments even moved up a few levels (not a promotion).

The standard pay rise for everyone was 2%, however i only got 1% as i only completely half the financial year, financial year ends in June. They told me thats how it is. Shrugged my shoulders whatever. But then I learnt ppl who started the exact same day as me got the standard 2%, they didnt do anything extra to get it.

Im looking to have a meeting with the top managers and ask why they gave me an excuse and not others. What should i say, should HR be involved etc?

Hi all. Has anyone ever had to deal with US work culture impacting British offices? I suspect that this is affecting my husband’s employment. As a wife, I’m quite worried about my his mental and physical health. He’s clearly on the verge of burning out, to a point that whenever we talk about his work he ends up furious and crying. This has given him chronic neck pain, headaches and sleeping troubles.

He’s been working in this fintech company for 8 years. Although he works in the London office, most of his team is based in the main headquarters in the US, including his manager. Those people in the US struggle to understand UK labour rights, which I suspect is the main problem here. For example, two years ago, he had to do a small surgery to get his wisdom teeth removed, but he would need get general anaesthesia and be away from work only on that specific day. He explained the situation and said he would take a sick leave, but his manager declined and said he should take an annual leave instead as this surgery wasn’t an emergency. He had to speak to the UK HR team, which agreed with him and not with his manager. In two months, he’s getting a vasectomy, which requires 48h of rest and he’s going through a lot of stress in planning how he’s going to take time off. I reminded him of what HR said on the wisdom tooth situation, but he said ‘yeah, but I can’t let my team down’.

This kind of thought show up many many times. Their team is quite overwhelmed with work. He starts working at 8 and only finishes at 7, which is much more than any other person in our social circle. He gets home too tired to do anything but showering and sleeping. When he gets sick, he refuses to take sick leave because this will cause a bad situation within his team. People work even when they get flus or norovirus. I honestly cannot comprehend this.

It wasn’t always like this. He used to work 3 times a day in the office post-pandemic, now it’s back to 5 days (just to have online meetings with people, lol). His workload used to be smaller as well and there were more people in his London team. Now there’s only him and another person, while the majority of people are in the US.

We’re not British, he moved here to work for this company and most of my employment has been in international organisations based in Switzerland. Right now, I work in academia, which has a distinct work pattern from most sectors, so neither of us know a standard British workplace culture to compare. At least I never had an issue of requesting sick leave when I needed to undergo surgery or been in bed with a flu. We have friends that work in regular 9-5 banking jobs and they seem to have a better quality of life than him.

I work for a small web agency. They have won a contract with a large company which requires 24/7 'emergency' support – effectively website is offline, someone needs to jump on and deal with it.

We are a small team, and the initial suggestion (still being drafted by the manager) is a rota system where each week that person is on call; where they can recieve alerts and can jump on a laptop within 30m or so.

They seem to be trying to suggest that it will be incredibly rare that we would need to do anything, but it still seems completely unreasonable to me. My contracted hours are 9-5 Tuesday-Friday.

I feel we're being taken advantage of because we are a small team and my role is under thread from AI (front-end developer). If they insist on this new setup I think I'd have to look for a new job but the market looks bleak.

How do I play this?

Would you take 10% increase in total comp to move job?

I recently posted about leaving consulting for an in house AI engineer position.

I’ve received an offer now as follows:

£82.5k base
12% employer contribution \~£10k
£8k bonus

Total = £100.4K

Current job

£77.5k
6% employer contribution \~£4.5k
£8k bonus

Total = 90k

My instinct is not to take it. Thoughts?

The benefits of the new role would be I’m out of consulting, and owning new AI projects within an insurance company.

Benefits of staying put, I can still get the dirt if tech /AI dev experience I want over the next 6-12 months so could leave at later date

Hi All,

I am having an hard time with a toxic boss at the min. I now need to have weekly one 2 ones on performance.

I have been stepping up and covering someone’s mat leave now they are back the boss are coming for me.

I am well respected within the operations team I buy for.

Now I have weekly one 2 ones.

I have. 3 month notice period but no one ever works it when they leave here only a month.

I have an interview at a rival firm for same money. But now been offered a job at £30k I am
On 40k plus car.

I have a family at home 3 kids.

I'm considering leaving my job to join a startup and I need some outside opinions about whether it would be stupid to do it. For context, I'm in my late 20s, single homeowner, no dependents, only a dog. I only have about £2k in savings due to some recent unexpected costs. I work in a very niche sector and I'm objectively one of the world experts in what I do.

Current job: company is a subsidiary of a large corporation that can absorb our mistakes and prop us up when we make a loss. Markets a product that doesn't work very well but is reluctant to redesign it. There have been multiple times over the past couple of years that we thought our parent company would give up on us. Has a LOT of internal bureaucracy and middle management. Has an employee retention problem. I've tried multiple times over the past 2 years for a pay rise and job title change but been rejected every time, despite making massively disproportionate contributions to company success. Job pays £60k + 20% bonus

New job: same sector but a startup. Funded by UK and US investors to cover multiple years (not sure how many). Continuously redesigning their product to find something that works, figuring out how to get around the issues that competitors are facing. Fail -> try again. I asked for a minimum base of £80k + equity but haven't had an offer yet. I will obviously have a more senior position.

Both jobs are wfh with the requirement for some international business travel.

My friends are (mostly) telling me that it would be stupid but when I was talking to the guys in the startup, I feel like their company aligns much better with me than the company I currently work for.

Would I be crazy to do this? What's the worst case scenario?

TLDR: Only ever worked hospitality on zero hour contracts and trying to understand 9-5 life. How do people arrange things like driving lessons or therapy when providers also only work Mon-Fri daytime? Is asking for regular unpaid time off/making up hours acceptable, or are you expected to sort everything outside work?

May sound stupid but I want to get a better understanding of how a 9-5 Mon-Fri works and the general logistics of everyday life, if that makes sense?

Pls no hate, I genuinely don’t want to sound like an idiot, but I’ve only ever worked hospitality on zero hour contracts. My parents are freelance and other family members have pretty flexible schedules, so I’ve never really known anyone with a bog standard 9-5.

For context, I’m in my early 20’s, finished uni and looking for entry level work instead of going back to hospo. I’ve got an interview for an office role and want to make a good impression.

In hospo, if I needed a day off or had recurring appointments, I’d let my manager know with as much notice as possible and that would be that. Usually unpaid, unless I requested to use my accrued holiday.

I understand paid holiday, but how does unpaid leave or making up time work in a 9-5, and what’s professionally acceptable to ask for? I’m not too bothered about whether it’s paid, more how you arrange it.

For example, I’m starting to learn to drive (Yes I know it would’ve been easier to do at 17 lol… but I was 16-18 when covid years happened so defo got in the way, and have been putting it off for a while). but most local instructors only have availability Mon-Fri during working hours, with long waiting lists for weekends. Would asking to leave early or take unpaid time each week be acceptable, or is this something you’re expected to sort entirely outside work?

Same issue with therapy. Many providers I’ve contacted only have weekday daytime availability. As it’s medical related, would this be handled differently?

Basically, if you’re working the same hours as all the services you need, how do you access them? Even things like going to the bank. Idk, random life logistics like this confuse me, it seems like a 9-5 takes up all your time and weekends are just for recovering.

I understand that there’s probably a fair bit of nuance for this topic, each company will be different and I’d need to discuss with them directly to find what their expectations are.
I just want to get a better idea of what the universal professional expectations and standards are.

Any other tips for going into an entry level office role about office culture for example, would also be appreciated. Just don’t want to be caught off guard or make silly mistakes!