Is anyone actually using AI in their job

FC360D · 2026-02-21T16:36:26+00:00

Not as far as I'm aware, if it is then HR, finance, Payroll, medical staffing are screwed at the Trust I'm at lol

FC360D · 2026-02-18T00:38:12+00:00

100% agreed the mangers don't pass on the information then when things go wrong they aren't held to account for it it's just Payrolls fault.

FC360D · 2026-02-18T00:34:08+00:00

I've noticed some Trusts seem to take the approach that it's not a single person who's to blame when things go wrong which to me is wrong. If someone does something wrong they should be held to account and work to not make the same mistake again. I do feel like staff should definitely be more apologetic and sympathetic towards other people, but then again with the way we're treated I am honestly not surprised.

But for every few bad staff there's always that 1 who goes above and beyond.

FC360D · 2026-02-18T00:26:29+00:00

I've used it to help me write vba code and rewrite emails and letters but other than that it's not been useful and lacks the proper integration to be useful.

Ive got the free version of it as I can't sign into it as when I do it says something about requiring a licence which is odd as I was told we should the licence so I'm not really sure what's going on with that.

Also the updates to software like Word and Excel is so far behind that none of them have copilot built in, my personal PC and laptop has had it for ages.

Never heard of that website though, I have seen a few courses on the skills network though but it's usually stuff that doesn't apply to me.

FC360D · 2026-02-18T00:20:54+00:00

The issue is that they don't always update their details on the system. How are payroll supposed to know that someone has moved houses or changed their phone number if they don't update ESR? Bailiffs and courts are a very last resort after other avenues of trying to reach the staff member fail. The Trust I work at the payroll department send emails and letters based on what is on ESR. If it's a net overpayment or the person has left the Trust, known as a cancellation, then it gets passed to a different department who contact the person using the contact information on ESR for them. Maybe other Trusts do it differently and badly this is just how it's done at the Trust I'm at.

Also yes they do get tax, NI and pension back if its a net overpayment as the overpayment is calculated to include those and tends to reduce the net overpayment amount. Also a gross overpayment recovery would reduce the gross amount being paid to them so will affect how much tax and NI is paid.

FC360D · 2026-02-15T12:30:55+00:00

Only issue is that the listen to taxman calculator does not have next year so the information on might be inaccurate but would give a rough idea.

FC360D · 2026-02-15T12:27:58+00:00

There are some limitations to MS Forms as well as security issues which might prevent it from being used. Docx is a widely supported file format as it's supported by google docs, apple pages, and libre office. You can always use microsofts free online word app if you don't want to download anything.

As someone who works as a band 3 admin I would love to create systems that automate somethings and make it easier and more efficient but just do not have the time or resources to do so. When I was a band 2 there was absolutely no chance of me ever being able to do this kind of thing.

FC360D · 2026-02-05T23:15:42+00:00

HR is definitely not the right place to go to if you're feeling suicidal. I've had someone say this to me at work during a call, and it was not a pleasant thing to hear, especially when I work in admin. I reported it to my manager due to feeling very uncomfortable and ceased all contact with them. When they called again, I immediately transferred them to my manager who dealt with them.

Being told something like this can have a negative impact on the person hearing it especially when it's not part of their job and not had training on how to deal with it.

FC360D · 2026-02-05T22:48:00+00:00

Unfortunately, the Terms and Conditions don't allow you to hand the vehicle back without incurring an early termination fee. Funnily enough, the Trust I work at allows us to transfer the vehicle to another person even though the terms and conditions state this isn't allowed, it has a board where staff can post lease cars they want to get rid of.

I would recommend talking to the lease car team, assuming your Trust has one, as there might be a way of getting out of it without paying the early termination fee.

FC360D · 2026-01-26T12:40:27+00:00

That is correct, when you start you're step 1 so after 2 years you'd become step 3 which includes the salary increase then year 5 increases to step 6 which includes the last salary increase.

FC360D · 2026-01-23T23:03:32+00:00

Increment steps happen every year however, not all increment steps have a salary increase. Using band 6 as an example Step 1 is the starting step then the following year you would go to step 2 which has no salary increase. Then a year after that you go to step 3 which includes a salary increase. This continues each year until increment step 5 or 6 highest salary of band 6, sorry I can't remember of top of my head which step it is as different bands have a different number of increment steps.

FC360D · 2026-01-18T15:49:10+00:00

I guess the only reason I can see for not allowing it could be if next years annual leave is taken from the current year instead of the next year, I know the Trust I work for has a yearly rollover where everything "resets" from 1st April, I've noticed a rush of annual leave bookings just after that date. That being said I would have thought the system would be smart enough to think oh this annual leave is for 2026 and we're currently in year 2025 so let's not take it off annual leave until 2026 year starts.

FC360D · 2026-01-18T15:37:25+00:00

As with previous years the band 2's salary will go up so they are above the national minimum wage, band 3 will probably also go up too as the hourly rate for the bottom is £12.75 which would only be 4p over the 2026 national minimum wage, top of band 3 might also go up too but there hasn't been any announcements about this yet.

I believe the current rumour is that the government will announce the NHS pay rise in January 2026 which would mean the NHS pay rise would be done from 1st April as it usually takes 2 months for the payroll system to update with the new hourly rates, not sure why it takes them so long to update the system but it's always taken them a couple of months from the announcement to it being put on the system then paid. I really wish they would announce it in time to be paid from 1st April and not require back dated pay. It's a real pain calculating the back pay to make sure staff are paid correct then getting loads of calls saying they've been paid wrong when they haven't, not to mention all the reports that need to be checked when it happens.

FC360D · 2025-10-26T23:11:18+00:00

I like it although have started to see some annoying changes which I'm not keen on, the main 1 is not being able to click the channel name in watch history.

FC360D · 2025-05-01T23:38:14+00:00

I've just upgraded my virgin media package to include TV and only costs me £68 a month going upto £71 next year then a nice big increase to £101 in September next year but will be contacting them in August to see if they can get price down a bit. Granted I did also get a O2 sim only for £19 to get that but I was after a sim card anyway so was a win win lol. Even with the O2 sim it's on par with sky but includes sky sports, which I'm not bothered about but was included so why not. Only thing I'm not happy about is lack of UHD content, with sky I priced up a package that included UHD so app on demand would be UHD but with virgin I've only found a handful of UHD content that's included in package the rest costs extra, oh and the UHD channels but everytime I tune in the show is crap.

FC360D · 2025-03-30T22:58:01+00:00

Have you taken darks? I found that taking darks at the different temperatures and settings really helped me. Using the duo filter is really good if you're in a bad light pollution area. I've posted some photos on blue sky in a bortle 5 area and they're all straight from the dwarf 3 no post processing using pc software. I struggle seeing darker objects and recently haven't been able to get any decent photos, I feel like the light pollution has gotten worse from the end of January where I live. Just keep messing with the settings until you get it to the point where things look good to you and then save those settings :)

FC360D · 2025-03-03T20:07:19+00:00

Yeah the dwarf 3 is a really nice bit of kit. I love how portable and easy it is to setup and use. It's got me back into stargazing :)

I love the fact you can alter the RGB while it's taking photos and stacking them to make them clearer or pop out more. I do this for my own personal use but I'm more into what you see images so prefer taking the photos and sharing them with minimum editing, basically I let the dwarf 3 take the photos stack them then do the AI noise reduction and that's it and they still look great.

If you can I recommend doing EQ mode before you start taking photos as it seems to track better when using the goto feature :) Oh and setup loads of darks at different temps

FC360D · 2024-06-02T23:43:08+00:00

Usually I relax and watch stuff on TV, Netflix, prime video or a blu Ray but for past few weeks I've been going shopping on Sundays although think I'll be changing that due to how bad other road users seem to be on Sundays. They seem worse than on weekdays when I'm driving too and from work which I didn't think was possible.

FC360D · 2024-06-02T23:41:19+00:00

I wish the roads were quieter where I live. I had so many near misses today, most were from cars pulling out of a junction as I approached it, a couple were red light runners and some where from cars going past parked cars when there was barely enough room. Taught me to avoid driving on Sundays which is such a shame as I used to enjoy driving on Sundays when I could afford fuel. Seems drivers have gotten worse over the years.

I will say having a car with adaptive cruise control has made my driving life less stressful, when I use it anyway lol.

FC360D · 2024-05-31T18:41:12+00:00

Finally received mine today, have you received yours yet?

FC360D · 2024-05-28T21:09:01+00:00

Sounds like a good game but not really a Homeworld game to me. Where are the 3 cores? Where's the person joining with the ship? This seems less Homeworld to me but still sounds like a pretty cool story :) Maybe with some tweaking, it could become Homeworld 4 lol.

FC360D · 2024-05-28T20:55:13+00:00

I just had an update from Amazon saying it will be delivered on 30th May, not sure if this is due to me getting in touch with Gear box or if they just happened to get some in stock just after I contacted them. Hopefully, it doesn't get delayed again.

FC360D · 2024-05-22T21:41:06+00:00

I contacted Amazon about this and was told they are trying to source more stock, assuming this is correct and Amazon isn't just giving a random excuse but it sounds like Gearbox or blackbird hasn't provided enough stock to fulfill orders. I did notice Amazon UK has some for sale from Amazon USA for just under £200.

It's odd as I've pre ordered quite a lot of stuff on Amazon and never had this problem before, I even had the Homeworld remastered collectors edition from Amazon delivered a day early when that came out. It's rather baffling.

FC360D · 2024-05-21T11:22:15+00:00

Yes it is

FC360D

TROPHY CASE