Pros
Get on with my work colleagues and fellow engineers.
Cons
I found a job advertisement on indeed via an agency that claimed their client would give an annual bonus and shares once applicants where employed. To my shock the bonus was included in the final salary that you receive once you've been there a year and the shares you wouldn't get untill you where employed for over 7 years (which would be watered down from their original valuation). Also the basic working week is 42.5 hrs which then waters down your Overtime. Once given the green light I was told, like everyone else that working for Octopus was easy street and the work load would be EV Charger job then finish and metering engineers where told 3 meters and finish. OES are trying to give electricians 2 EV Chargers a day and up to 7 or 8 meter jobs for others. I was basically groomed (wined and dined) and lied to during induction that this is the best company to work for. First wage consisted of that months 4 weeks plus 2 weeks of the previous month of when I started. 6 weeks of scrimping and then when I did get paid the idiots didn't pay my tax and thus HMRC putting me on an emergency tax code and every wage from then on was about £80 short. P60 and P45 were passed onto the payroll department. As I don't deal with my wages I feel that OES has an obligation to rectify their wrongs. A lot of employees are on this emergency tax code. The EV van. The range. Charging every 100 miles. We where told that we would be working within 1 hour travel from our homes when being inducted. Some jobs are 1.5-2 hrs away and expected to complete an 6 hour install. D2's are pointless. Does not give me an idea on how the job will proceed. SI's are pointless. The DNO don't care. Lack of Surveying for every job. Making installers look like idiots when they turn up and don't have the materials and man power. Your manager comes out to give you a hand and either gets in the way or screws up the trunking run because he wants near to 100% completion rate and to get his monthly bonus. When surveys do get carried out this information is never carried over to the job card or if it is you can't access it untill the day you turn up. Can't survey from an office table! When every job gets surveyed, with correct materials, method on how the job will be carried out, how many men and how long it will take. Then every job will have or near close to 100% completion rate. 6 week holiday notice? WTF 4 week notice of resignation! The uniform is uncomfortable and inadequate. Working in sub zero temperatures and improperly supplied with clothing. Krakenfeild certification photographs are far too much. Over 50 asked for. You only need test results and completed job. Also 200 questions and a few are repeated 3 or 4 times. The prospective workload. Every job seems to take 1 - 4 hrs. Compliance and Auditing. These guys haven't a clue and are one step away from being a traffic warden. You get a different answer from different folk for the same problem. Over 80% of them have never lifted a tool or it's been that long they've forgotten what it's like to be on the tools. Rate of pay for a qualified electrician is shockingly low. ¡£2.50 short per hour! Hours are 2.5 - 3.5 more than the majority of companies. ¡LOCK OFF KIT! On an energised DB. Where if you have the tools, test equipment and DB cover and blanks and are ready to button up once the testing is done. Locking Off is pointless while installing. Locking Off to remove equipment beyond the EV Consumer Unit then Yes. LCL certificate in EV Charging isn't worth the paper it is written on. Also no access to EV Charging code of practice either through digital or paper format. Is this so we can't argue with what IET has said against another mental compliance process from Octopus? Aftercare needs sorted. Low, medium and senior status means you get less time to install. The bigger the status you get paid the same money as the plebs on low status. Guys that do metering get paid more than qualified sparks. An EV can make more money if properly spect. Unachievable time scales! Being called my surname to my face because there's 2 operatives with the same name on the team. Then finding out I'm getting called by my surname on their social media group. Discriminatory behaviour if you ask me.
