The Pen Fairies

Procrastination

2010-07-28T10:01:00.001-07:00

Black Holes in My Wallet: Money and City Life

2010-07-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult aspects of city living, once you’ve got past the businesspeople who push you out of their way in stations, the loud noises all night and the crazy crowds on the tube, is trying to find enough change in your wallet to keep yourself in sandwiches and coffee. Having lived in various big cities in my time (London, Brighton and Glasgow being just three examples), I thought it might be handy to write a quick guide to saving money whilst living in the centre of a city.

Read the full post here

Picture credit

How to calculate your total income

2010-06-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

You know a while ago, I posted that video about Tax Credits? Well, now we have a follow-up clip from the people at COI, for those times when you feel like Bernard from Black Books, who made a jacket out of his tax returns because he didn't want to fill in the forms:

One of the most irritating boxes on any form (or so I believe!) is that little one that says 'Total Income'. How do you know what to put in there? At first glance, it would seem straightforward. Surely it's just how much you've earned, right? Well, yes. But what counts? Your wages from your day job, obviously. But any freelance work you've done? Little bits and pieces that have floated in here and there but aren't really part of your usual income? Overtime? Gifts? Interest from savings? (If only..!)

The new video explains all. Sit back, take a deep breath, try to relax, watch the video, calculate your income, fill in the scary box and shove all the forms into the post box before you have time to think about what you've done.

The Discovery of the Mid-Afternoon Break

2010-06-10T01:44:00.001-07:00

Those of you who know me, or who read my blogs/Twitter/Facebook often, will know that I work rather a lot. My days usually begin at five or six in the morning - sometimes earlier - when I hop out of bed (ok, maybe not 'hop'), head to the kitchen and make coffee. Or to the pool, or to the park for a run. I start work before most people have woken up, and finish work after lots of people have gone to bed. Often I take no breaks except small ones to make coffee.

Recently, however, I have discovered the wonderfulness of a mid-afternoon break. Getting up at five, caffeinating, working until 2.30ish, then taking myself off somewhere totally different: to the library to search for books, the beach to stare at the sea, the shops to buy more coffee, the cafe to meet friends... etc. I know lots of people are quite used to the idea of breaks, but as far as I'm concerned, it's been quite a revelation. I've been able to do things like bake cakes, pick elderflowers to make fritters, and find even more things to add to my reading list.

Wandering around the city (or the countryside, for that matter) in the daytime is something I'm not really used to doing. Most of my walks happen at night, once I've finished work, or when my brain is desperate for a refresh. But now, the midafternoon break may be something I start to implement more frequently.

What do you do to break up the day? If you have more than one job, how do you structure your time?

Networking, Room-working, what works for you?

2010-06-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

I received an email today inviting me to pay around £60 to learn how to 'work a room with ease and style'. I didn't read the email fully, but it seemed to be a workshop to tell you how to act when going to networking events. This confused me a little; when I go to networking events, I just go. Granted, some people may be shy, and need a little help. Others may need 'toning down'. But this is just part of life: it's what we do to fit in with any social group.

I'm different when I'm with my husband, when I'm at work, when I'm at a networking event, when I'm with the research team, and so on. I don't believe any of these people see a deceptive version of myself, merely an edited one. But it's not a conscious thing, and I'm not sure that making it into one would be of any use. How are you supposed to network when it's not really you who is networking?

People are attracted to others for a variety of reasons. This is why we don't all end up going after the same men. Something one person might find attractive will drive another person crazy. Something that catches one person's eye will pass entirely unnoticed by someone else.

If I go to an event and see someone standing alone, looking like they're watching what's going on intently and paying attention, whilst not really engaging with anyone, they'll immediately catch my attention. Why? Because I like people who listen, who understand, who ask intelligent questions and who don't bound into the office with energy bursting from every pore and enquire about my personal life. For someone else, this may not be the case. They may notice those who are moving around, glass of wine in hand, chatting happily away to everyone they come across. Perhaps they prefer an enthusiastic, bubbly extrovert; whether this be for personal or professional reasons.

I think the excessive grooming of yourself in order to fit in with what other people might like may, in fact, end up being detrimental and will quite possibly seem fake. If the aforementioned quiet, watching person morphed into the bubbly, chatty one, then I'd be less inclined to approach them, because they may not be what I'm looking for.

There have been far too many 'I's in this post. Tell me what you guys think.

Freelance Work as a Sideline - Part Two

2010-06-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Prioritising

Undoubtedly one of the most difficult things a part-time freelancer encounters, trying to juggle a load of things that all seem as important as each other is not only exhausting but sometimes quite terrifying. You're working on a proposal that needs to be sent for your freelance job, you need to contact some more people anyway before everyone forgets who you are, you have a piece of writing/editing/translation to finish by 9am tomorrow, and you've only just arrived home from your 9-to-5. What to do?

First of all: the basics

Take some advice from Douglas Adams: Don't Panic. It's really, really easy to look at your to-do list and immediately want to curl up in the foetal position in a corner and scream the hours away. Don't. You'll just end up being unproductive.
Don't procrastinate either. It won't make things happen faster. And look, here are some useful tips to stop yourself from procrastinating.
Set up your working space in a way that makes you feel ready to do something. Whether that's messy, tidy or anywhere in between, do whatever works for you.
Make a cup of tea. Or coffee. Or whatever will get you through the piles.
Take a deep breath.
Look at your list of things to do. If you don't have one yet, make one. At this point, I often add something I've already done, just so I can cross it off and feel like I've accomplished something. Yes, you may laugh. But try it, it works!
Order your list in terms of what must be done now, what must be done soon and what could possibly be done later.
If everything is of equal importance, order them randomly.
Take another deep breath.
Dive in.

Yes, it's hard. But the quicker you start, the quicker you'll finish. You might be tired, it might have been a long day already, but it's only going to get longer if you keep putting things off.

How do you organise your list though? Personally, I look at things from within the grander scheme of my life. My thought process goes something like this:

OK, many things to do. Some for my day job, some for my freelance work, some just general life admin. If there's anything urgent for my day job, I do that first. I can't afford to lose it, nor would I want to. Once I've done that, I look to see if there's anything urgent for the freelance things I do. If there is, I do that next. Then I go back to my day job stuff and finish everything that is less urgent but still important. Then I go back to my freelance stuff and do the same there. I carry on down my lists like this until I either fall asleep, run out of coffee or decide I've done enough.

At this point you will inevitably discover that there is something you haven't done. This is Sod's Law, and you have encountered it before at bus stops, in shopping queues and when wearing your best dress. If this happens, go back to the basics, point one: Don't Panic. And repeat the whole process, checking as often as possible to make sure that everything urgent has actually, really, finally been done. Eventually it will be. At that point, don't sit around thinking about all the things you didn't get done. Congratulate yourself on what you did do, remind yourself that all the urgent stuff is out the way, and go to bed. I say 'go to bed' because it'll likely be a weekday, possibly after midnight, certainly after 10, and you'll probably have to get up early the next day to go to your day job, especially if you have a commute to deal with as well.

I'd be interested to hear any tips you have for prioritising. What's at the top of your list? Why? How do you deal with a huge, scary list at the end of the day?

It's that time of year again...

2010-05-26T04:55:00.000-07:00

Or it is for me, anyway. You know, when all those horrible brown envelopes start dropping through the door, telling you to renew this and update that and pay everything else. One of the envelopes currently gracing people's doormats is a thick white one filled with what seems like reams of paper, all with little boxes and dotted lines to tick and sign and write on. Sometimes it can feel like you're swimming in a mountain of papers. Sometimes (especially if you work in admin) you are:

Most of the time, however, it's simply a matter of knowing what to do. The forms do come with paper guides attached, but reading anything from the Big Scary Letterbox Package can seem a bit daunting. In view of this, the friendly people over at COI have put together a handy video guide, so grab a cup of tea and watch it before you open your morning mail. In no time at all, you'll be happily scribbling on pieces of paper, renewing your tax credit claim for the year ahead.

Freelance Work as a Sideline - Part One

2010-05-06T01:28:00.000-07:00

There's a whole lot of advice out there about starting up your own freelance business and becoming self-employed. There are many articles on running a home business, managing your time and how much work you have to do in order to stop your small business from going under. But there aren't quite so many posts on freelance work as a sideline. What if you're happy in your day job? What if you don't want the stress of running a full-blown home business, working for yourself and having to deal with all the issues that brings? What if you're just desperate for a bit of pocket money? Running a freelance business as a sideline is remarkably simple and need only take up as much time as you have spare.

Setting Up
One of the hardest yet most important parts of setting up any business is finding your first clients. With freelance work, this can often be difficult as people will either be using their own in-house employees to do the job you're offering, or they'll already have a team of freelancers they're happy with. Your task is therefore to persuade these businesses that you are a viable alternative should they be looking to change things, and to encourage businesses who aren't bothering with the service you provide that it's worth their investment.

My own freelance work involves proofreading, translation and writing. Many companies reply to my emails with messages along the lines of: 'We don't need a proofreader, it's an unnecessary expense.' My goal is then to talk to them about why proofreading is important for a business - which it really, really is. If you have a website, some company documents, posters or leaflets that contain any writing at all, it's really important that the grammar and spelling are correct and that the phrasing conveys your company's message in the best possible manner. People generally know when they need translators and writers, but sometimes they have to be persuaded to consider a new provider or hire a professional rather than giving these tasks to their latest influx of interns.

So how do you approach businesses? There are a few basic guidelines that apply across the board:

If you're emailing people, be friendly. Of course you want to sound professional, but you don't want to sound like a robot.
Always check what you've written before you hit 'send'. Is the recipient's name spelt correctly? What about grammatical errors? How does the email or letter look on the page? Is it spaced out or bunched together? Is there too much 'white space'? All of these are important points that will add to the overall impression a business receives.
NEVER BCC. And absolutely never CC. People know when you're sending an email to 300 others, and it won't go down well. Even if you think you've been clever by BCCing, you haven't. The address line of the recipient's email will say something like 'Addresses not disclosed', which will make it obvious that you've sent it to more than one person, and you won't be able to personalise the email properly. Sure, it might take you five times as long to send individual emails, but it'll probably get you five times as many clients.

Those are probably the top three things I'd think about when contacting businesses with your services. Remember too that, even if you're only just starting out in your field of freelance work, you do have other experience in something. Make the most of the experience you have. Do you volunteer at a local home for the elderly? Did you write for your college paper? Do you have a blog that you keep up-to-date? Include it in the email. People like to know who is contacting them and what your interests are, and there are many transferable skills between different types of work. Think about what your skills are, consider possible examples of them and include these in your email.

Having said that... don't make it too long! 200 words is enough for an initial introductory message. Businesses will be receiving hundreds, possibly thousands, of emails per day, and they're unlikely to want to trawl through an essay about how well you can potentially do your job, no matter how interesting you are. If you send 300 emails, expect to get five replies. Sometimes you'll have more, but often people just won't bother replying. After a few days, send a follow-up email, gently reminding them about your previous email and asking whether they received it and if they have any questions.

So, you've drafted a beautiful email, sent it out to some clients and received some replies. Perhaps a couple of people have even expressed interest. Then the questions start rolling in: 'How much time does it take to do X?' 'How much do you charge per X?', and so on. These can be the hardest part of starting a business. If you're new to your field, you'll probably have to start off with relatively low prices, gradually raising them later on when your reputation grows stronger.

But how do you work out how much to charge? Be realistic. Think about what the client is asking you to do. How long will it take to complete the job? How long will it take to check your work? What specialist skills are involved? What are other people in your industry charging? Work out a basic rate per hour, per day or per page, then stick with it for a while. If you decide it's too low or too high, you can always change it later.

Work out which methods of payment you can accept, and be clear about this when speaking with the client. Also clarify in writing exactly when you expect payment to appear. Clients sometimes need a bit of a nudge to remind them to pay you, but most of the time it will happen. Don't immediately panic if the money isn't in your account at the exact time you specified.

Once you're up and running, keep looking for new business. Spend at least as much time scouting for new clients as you spend working for your current ones. In the initial stages of business, it's probably good to spend three quarters of your dedicated time looking for new work. Keep a record of who you've contacted, when you spoke with them and what they said. Microsoft Excel and similar programs are excellent for this kind of thing.

Setting up a business - whether it's a full-time thing or a sideline to your day job - will be difficult and tiring, but if your services are good and your clients are happy, it'll be worth it.

Time Management for the Busy Fitness Freak

2010-05-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

I have a colleague who could probably write this post far better than I could: he goes to the gym in his lunch hour and fills the kitchen at work with all those amazing powders and potions that build muscle. I'm talking about the half-arsed kind of fitness freak, though. You know: you want to keep fit, you quite like exercising, but you're really busy and you find it hard to fit exercise in as well as all the other things in your day.

I like exercise. I really do. I enjoy running (when I do it), and I love swimming. Where I used to live, the pool opened its doors at 5.45 every morning, which was fantastic: just enough time to get there, swim and arrive home feeling refreshed and ready for the day by 7am. Now my nearest pool opens for 'early morning swim' at seven, which seems far too late if your day starts at nine. It is possible, though. You just have to multitask a bit. Here are my top tips for fitting in an exercise regime to your day:

Double Up - I swim at 7 and arrive home at about quarter to eight. I then have a mad rush to get in front of my computer by 8.00, which is my scheduled 'catching-up' time. In that quarter of an hour, I need to eat breakfast, caffeinate and shower. The shower is where I plan my day; it's where I go to think about all the things I need to do and put them in some kind of order; so it's really important that it doesn't feel too rushed. My shower takes a few minutes to heat up, so I turn it on while I make a coffee and some Very Berry Fruit Salad, then I eat in the shower. I know some people have qualms about eating anywhere near the bathroom, but really, it won't kill you and it's a great way to save time. Just don't try to eat while you're washing your hair. Shampoo in eyes = not fun.
Flex Yourself - If you can, fit your work hours around your exercise regime. This is easily done if you're a freelancer or if, like me, you work from home a lot of the time. If I have 10 hours of work to do but the pool closes at 6.45pm, I take a break from work, swim, come home and carry on. It's good to have a break, especially one that involves exercise, if you're sitting in front of a screen all day.
Quit While You're Ahead - Exercise doesn't always come easily. Sometimes you just don't want to do it. There are days when I wake up and the last thing I want to do is drag myself to the pool. But once I'm there, pounding up and down the lanes, I love it. It's really easy to then get carried away and swim until I feel like my lungs are going to explode, but in general it's better to break yourself in gently. Get out of the pool (or off the track, or step away from the running machine) while you're still enjoying it, rather than waiting until you're exhausted. That way, you'll be more likely to want to go back. I swim twice a day, but if I'd made myself really tired in the morning, it's unlikely that I'd feel like returning in the afternoon.
Reward Yourself - It's so easy to punish yourself. "I didn't go running, so I'm not eating dinner." But this can make it feel like a chore you have to get through, rather than a fun thing with a reward at the end. Condition yourself. Pretend you're training a puppy. Don't rub your nose in it, give yourself a treat for doing it well. Again, it'll make you more likely to go back to it next time.

How about you? What are your top tips?

The Case For An Untidy Desk

2010-04-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

“…but then I tidied it, and now I can’t find it!” How many times has this refrain echoed through your household as you stand forlorn in front of your spotless working area, looking for that piece of paper you had last week? Do the merits of a tidy desk really outweigh the stress of not finding that thing you’ve been looking for?

There are myriads of articles out there telling you that you must have a tidy desk, or risk losing paperwork, missing deadlines, feeling ‘out of control’. Whilst having an organized desk is useful, however, this is too often associated with being tidy, which is something altogether different. Having an ‘inbox pile’, a ‘pending pile’, and an ‘out pile’ is a good idea; the fact that they occasionally become one need not cause alarm. If something ‘out’ ends up in your ‘pending’, then when you finally get around to the pending jobs, there’s another opportunity to check the completed work. Often, this highlights errors or potential changes that had previously been overlooked. We all know how good it is to cast a fresh eye over something, and piles merging into one another can provide an excellent excuse for this.

Piles of paper, books and scraps relating to different projects can also be useful things to have spread all over a desk. Projects are augmented by their applicability to other areas; writing a paper on human developmental psychology that incorporates elements of comparative psychology will be enlightening and interesting to both the writer and their readers. There is, after all, a reason why you have so many things on your desk: because you’re interested in them. And if you’re interested in them all, there are probably links between them that grasp and hold your interest. Bringing these links into your work makes it attractive to a wider audience; and often connections spring into the mind when prompted by external phenomena, such as an interesting picture sitting next to an academic article which ends up inspiring an example to be included in your work.

One of the articles I am personally most pleased with is a treatment of quantum physics which I originally wrote for my BA. In it, I discuss quantum physics and its potential implications for consciousness; and some of the main characters in the articles are mythical creatures. Why? Because Brian Froud’s ‘Goblins!’ just happened to be on my desk at the same time, and I was looking for a way to make the article more enjoyable and accessible to a younger, non-scientific audience. Not easy when you’re discussing quantum physics! But it seemed to work, and it would never have come about if I’d been some kind of ultra-tidy Athena of the Office.

If you happen to have a tidy desk and to work well that way, that’s fine too, of course. But there seems to be such a desperate yearning for the tidy, the beautiful, the perfect these days, with so little concentration on the interesting, the creative, the individual; and this is a shame. If you work well with an untidy desk, do so. If you work best in a beautifully-organized space, carry on. What you don’t need to do is feel like your way is ‘wrong’ just because it looks like a mess to other people. If you keep losing your work and missing deadlines, alter the way you do things. If you don’t, then your current method works for you. Why change?

What do you guys think? What are your desks like? Do you revel in untidiness, or find it hinders your work? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Steinbeck on Writing

2010-04-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

'The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.' ~ John Steinbeck

Win a Trip to Space

2010-04-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when I discovered this campaign that I jumped up and down in my seat, and immediately ran off (digitally speaking) to Facebook to share it with my astronaut-mad brother-in-law. Seriously. What an amazing prize!

InterCasino are giving you the chance to win a trip to space - yes; real, live, space - if you sign up to their online casino. It's free to do, and the trip to space is most definitely not free, unless you win it. Go on. You know you want to...

21 ways to overcome procrastination for students, writers and researchers

2010-01-12T04:22:00.000-08:00

I do a lot of different things, it's true. Lots of people seem confused about why I'd want to (answer: because it's fun!). Most people just ask how I manage to fit it all in. Answer? I do it. I know that sounds obvious, but it's true. I don't spend ages faffing around thinking about doing it. I have a bath. I plan what I'm going to do. I work out what I need in order to do it. And then I do.

Procrastination has possibly taken over from religion as the opiate of the masses. But it is possible not to succumb; it just takes concentration, willpower, and a few tips. So here are 21 to get you started. Many of them came from How To Research by Blaxter, Hughes & Tight; which is, incidentally, an excellent book for anyone who needs to research something, whether you're writing a dissertation, studying for a PhD or just looking things up for your own entertainment. For this reason, many of the 21 tips are about how to get yourself back to your research. Still, I'm sure they could be easily adapted for use in other disciplines.

Make notes on what you have read.
Make notes on interviews you have conducted.
Make notes on your last discussion with your supervisor or manager.
Draft your contents page.
Type out your references or bibliography.
Draft the structure for a section or chapter.
Type out the quotations you think you may use.
Note down the points you think you will refer to.
Set yourself a target for writing a given number of words each day, week or month.
Speak your ideas out loud, record and then transcribe them.
Write anything, so that you dirty your page or screen.
Start a stream of consciousness that begins with a relevant keyword or subject.
Write up to your word limit, and then edit what you have written.
Give yourself a treat, but then come straight back.
Or if you want to be more harsh, refuse yourself all treats and basic comforts until you've done something.
Go for a walk and try to relate everything you see to your writing.
Give someone else the responsibility to oversee your writing.
Talk it through with somebody else. Try to explain what you're doing. Often, this will remind you why you were enthusiastic about it in the first place.
Find the thing that first inspired you and revisit it.
Work out how many words you will devote to each chapter, section or subsection.
Think about the other times you've overcome procrastination. How?

Ken Follett: On Research

2010-01-12T02:18:00.000-08:00

'The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying.' - Ken Follett, author

The Boss from Hell: How Not To Be A Manager

2010-01-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

First of all, let me just make clear that I have not quit my fantastic advertising job, nor have I quit my also fantastic research job, nor have I quit my freelance work. Just to set the record straight, my bosses for the first two are wonderful, and my boss for the third is me. No, I quit my other job, which shall remain nameless.

So, without further ado, here is the email I sent when quitting the Job with the Terrible Boss. I've changed the company name and the title of my position to ensure the anonymity of the other people involved.

I am writing to terminate my employment with the company in the position of Department X Manager. Whilst I would prefer not to just write a list of grievances, I am concerned that if I do not make my reasons for leaving crystal clear then it will be intimated that I left due to time constraints or lack of dedication, which would be incorrect.

I have encountered a number of issues since I started working for the company. My main reasons for leaving are as follows:

1. When I first applied for the position, I made it clear that I have a number of other jobs. I stated before the interview, during the interview and after being offered the position that I would still be working at my other places of employment, but was told that this was not a problem as long as I could fit in the work required. I was told that I would need to work roughly 21 hours per week until January, then roughly 40 hours per week from January to March. I spoke with my immediate manager and described how I would fit this in; she agreed that it sounded plausible. However, once I began working for the company I was repeatedly told that “something has got to give” and asked to leave my other jobs, despite meeting deadlines and hitting work targets consistently. Although I politely requested on a number of occasions that my immediate manager did not ask me to quit my other jobs, she continued to do so.

2. A few weeks before I was due to start work, I was asked to supply a list of dates on which I would be available for training. This I did via email. A few days before I was due to begin, I had still heard nothing about training and so sent an email asking when this was to be arranged. I received no reply. A few days later, whilst at a funeral for a close friend’s father, I received a frantic message from my immediate manager who asked me why I was not at the office. I asked why I was supposed to be there, and she informed me that I was meant to start training that day at 10.00. I replied that I was at a funeral, as had been detailed in the email regarding my availability, and asked whether she had informed me that I was supposed to be at work. She replied that she had not. How, then, should I have known? She seemed stumped by this question.

3. The job description stated that I would need to work ‘some weekends and evenings’; this I agreed to readily, as I have no objection to working unsociable hours; indeed, I have done so on many occasions since the commencement of my employment at the company. However, about a week into my employment with the company I gave six months’ notice of a single weekend on which I would be unavailable to work should it be called for. Bearing in mind that my contract is a casual one and that I have no requirement to give notice of any dates on which I am not available, I felt that I was being courteous by giving notice well in advance. I explained that one of my closest friends was getting married, to which I was told that my friend would “have to move her wedding”.

4. I have been telephoned and/or texted on a number of occasions at unsociable hours of the night – once at 1.50 in the morning and once at 5.30 in the morning, to give a couple of examples. These messages were always about non-urgent subjects that could easily have been discussed the next day.

5. There has been an astonishing lack of organisation displayed by my immediate manager throughout the course of my employment. To give a couple of examples: when I first sent in my application form, she lost it three times, then told me I had to fill in a different form as she had sent me the wrong one. A few months later, I was asked to print 350 copies of a 250-page document and told that we could not use the printing unit for this purpose. I therefore worked Saturday and Sunday, as well as a 20-hour day on Tuesday and a 17-hour day on Wednesday to get it finished, only to be informed that I had been given the wrong instructions and that actually the document to be printed was a completely different one. I was then told that we could in fact use the printing unit for this purpose, and was asked why I had not done so before. This unsurprisingly caused me a great deal of stress, not least when I was told that if I gave up another of my jobs, I would have less of a problem with time management. The problem has never been time management; it has been organisation at the level above my own.

6. I have been repeatedly told that I am supposed to be at a meeting, at work, or somewhere else when I had not been previously informed. Upon asking my immediate manager whether she had requested my presence, she would admit that she had not, but would say that I was “supposed to be there anyway”.

7. I have been ridiculed and/or reprimanded on a number of occasions for refusing to engage in unprofessional conduct. My immediate manager has also made frequent demands that are professionally both unacceptable and ridiculous; for example, when I had informed her that I would be in a business meeting, she called my husband at home and asked him how to get in contact with me. He had to explain, very slowly and carefully, that I was in the meeting I had told her about and therefore not at the end of my phone. When I left the meeting I found her outside in a state of panic; she told me that in future I should have my phone in front of me and on loud whilst I am in meetings, which is frankly ludicrous.

8. This is the only job I have ever had in which I have been discriminated against on the basis of my age. I have been working full-time, “proper” jobs since I was 17, and it has always been my experience that a manager will receive a Curriculum Vitae, review the potential employee’s experience, education, abilities and qualities, and hire them on that basis. This was not the case with this company. It quickly became obvious that my immediate manager had not bothered to read the application form she asked me to fill out four times, and that I had been hired because I am relatively young. She has also shown a huge lack of respect for my other jobs. For her benefit, therefore, there follows a list of my other current positions:

- I am a manager at a leading viral marketing agency. This is not just a small, part-time position that can be thrown away, and I do not appreciate it being patronised.

- I am an academic research assistant at the University of Oxford; undoubtedly it will be agreed that this too is a position that is both prestigious and important to my future development. Whilst I do not wish to blow my own trumpet, I do aim to demonstrate that her constant demands for me to leave my other jobs were utterly uncalled for. It is true that it is very unusual for one so young to hold these positions, but this does not detract from the fact that I do.

I have found it far beyond offensive that I have been repeatedly requested to “just give up” my other jobs in order to cater to the every whim of someone who cannot even be bothered to check her email correctly.

When I applied, I was also told that I would be earning £6.57 per hour; the actual wage was £6.38; admittedly a small digression, but one that adds up. I recommend that in future you check job descriptions for accuracy before employing people.

I have not received any expenses payments since I joined the company, despite being assured that these would be made monthly. I have asked both my immediate manager and the head of the team why this has happened, and have received no response from either of them.

As the employment officer will be able to verify, my contract is held on a casual basis and I therefore have the right to refuse work at any time without notice. I will not be working for the company again. I expect to see my wages for December in my bank account at the end of January, along with the three months’ worth of expenses payments that should have been made. Unfortunately, if this does not happen, I shall have to seriously consider taking legal action.

I have been working since I was twelve years old in all sorts of positions ranging from Saturday jobs to early-morning cleaning jobs to running shops, departments and businesses, and have never encountered this level of unprofessionalism from anyone, let alone from a so-called ‘manager’. I have never had to quit a job in my life; previously, I have only left the employ of companies and individuals due to moving house, and have always been sad to go. I regret to tarnish this record by quitting now, but there is no other option.

I recommend that in the future, the position is given to a gap-year student who has no other demands on their time, and who has parents who can afford to both run them everywhere at very short notice and pay for petrol even when expenses are not reimbursed on time. Anyone who comes into this position from a background in business, and who is used to working with professionalism and integrity, will be driven mildly insane. The job description also needs to state that the job is not, in fact, ‘Manager’, but ‘Personal Assistant’. It is also a full-time position; one is expected to be on call literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and to be psychically aware of events about which one has not been told.

I am, in one sense, sad to be leaving; many of the people I have met through the company have been fantastic, inspirational persons to whom I wish the very best of luck for the future. It is a shame to have to leave this network of lovely people due to the actions (and often non-actions) of one person, but at the end of the day I have my sanity and sleep to consider.

So, what about you guys? Any other boss-from-hell experiences out there? I'm sure there are many!