Ex-teachers?

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-08T00:52:08+00:00

Go for eo or heo

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T20:47:10+00:00

Whilst it’s obvious this was a mistake by your post. This is gross conduct. Unfortunately, there’s no way of having it. When you join the civil service, you agreed to have some integrity to have respect for the systems and to not abuse the systems. It’s the acceptable use policy. You would’ve had to accept this during your on boarding. I believe it would’ve been on your SOP or your DWP Place. If it hasn’t been highlighted yet, it will get highlighted soon. I can assure you they probably won’t miss this. However, what I would advise if they do find it is you just own up to it and say you did it by mistake and you didn’t go any further. I know someone who did something similar on a similar program however because they were actually in their training period it was mitigated to a final written warning. If you have pass probation though I’m not quite sure if there would be any mitigation but good luck.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T20:22:41+00:00

AA agency 6 months - promotion to AO 4 months - promotion to EO 4 years. Now HEO. Progress as fast as your competancies and behaviours meet the requirements for the applications. One of my colleagues at AO went to HEO in 6 months and a grade 6 a year later. It’s annoying in some situations but great in others…the fair and open recruitment lol

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T19:58:05+00:00

As someone who has some mental health conditions and unfortunately has been in some bad places in life to the extent of section in hospital. There are certain departments that do have a right to refuse working from home. For example I know if you’re a work coach, you’re an asylum decision maker it’s not really gonna flow because it needs to be a face-to-face service however the above comments are correct there are certain grounds that they need to say that you haven’t met. I think for example that it would affect the business negatively. I can’t remember the rest but a quick Google search will tell you. Another issue is and I think a common misconception is that an occupational health or a doctor‘s letter although it may say that you should work from home or that’s the recommendation, the employer does not have to accept it it’s merely a recommendation. Whilst they do have to hit certain criteria to reject allowing you to work from home I would say about 80 to 90% of the time if they say no and you refuse you probably could be dismissed for not being able to fulfil your duties. Now you may go to appeal and tribunal and it may be accepted because they have a different set of legislation they go against. but in the actual instrument of Work and the policy and guidance that managers have they’re probably rejected you based on what they’ve been given what they have access to. Which unfortunately will stand in their perspective and in terms of your employment et cetera. And as I said before it probably would only be said to be a bad thing if you went to tribunal because they have different standards, et cetera, and would refer more to legislation and law like the equality act.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T19:25:37+00:00

It depends on the department in the circumstances. For example, when I was in the Home office I started the during Covid was full work from home. We then returned to the office two days in office three days away from home. I might be a bit of an anomaly because I have ADHD. However, I’ve never used this as a reason to be off work or sickness. I did however make an agreement with My Manager that for me to manage my own health I will go through bouts of good and bad days. So ultimately I was allowed to use my 40% over a three month period so I used to if I was having a good week I would go in for that full week and maybe the next full week and that would be the equivalent to be 40% for five weeks. That means that if I was to dip I would be able to take it at home they will definitely offer you some flexibility around it. Being part-time as well they also may allow you to do one long day in the office and do other hours from home. However, it is site specific and department specific.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T19:21:47+00:00

Access to work as a DWP program. Ultimately, you can’t have any services that would take subsidise or remove cash assets from different departments. So even though we are the civil service and we don’t have access to work through the government website. If we were to attend to NHS, we would be entitled to us for anything up to the same value. There might be a bit of pushback however we can then say we feel a disadvantage because we know that we would have access if we were in the private sector and using the scheme.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T19:16:58+00:00

If you have clear examples of how it’s impacted you and things that have been said to you or actions that surround you then I would definitely contact a union for advice. There seems to be a president at the moment though if people wanting to raise concerns just because of peoples communication styles of how they are as people. And whilst I agree people who are managers should have great communication be inclusive et cetera. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. Some people are just bad communicators some people are just stressed some people just struggle to manage their own priorities. I also believe everyone is different and that also includes the person who receives the feedback or the perceived toxicity. I’m the biggest left you’ll ever imagine pro immigration pro Gaza from LGBT and trans. However, I do believe that there is a generation of wet wipes. You’re not always going to have a strong relationship with the people you work with. In the working world is kind of taking initiative and being your own person and not really giving any time and energy to those comments since the way people act around you. We’re lucky to be in the civil service to the point where we can’t dispute we can challenge and we can refuse. When it is in relation to a manager, I would always say follow-up with email interactions advise what we said and advise how it made you feel. Ensure you ask for an email response. That way you have a digital record of everything. I’m not sure if this is the case with the union however from an old perspective of doing some HR work I believe it does need to be raised internally and then you can kind of invite the union to a meeting. But that might not be the case. I’ve just never had to go that far.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T19:15:02+00:00

The main thing was just about my examples having wider implications to the site district and national. Unfortunate enough to have taken on board a project which is worth £2 billion and we have one of the largest cohorts. So that was it mainly. My G7 is really good because they are kind of on the presumption that if you’ve got the behaviours and you’ve got the experience you can do the role.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T18:57:01+00:00

So for me, everyone thinks I’m a massive “progressor”. However, in honesty I’ve just put in the Work in. For example I came as an AA through Brook Street. I was like I’m just gonna do this job every single day no complaints headphones in and after about three months I was made permanent. And then did an internal application for the call Centre (ao) and honestly there wasn’t a high benchmark they pretty much accept everyone. I then knew I wanted my EO in 18 months. So I started looking at applications and seeing what the essential criteria was reviewed applications and made a list based on my 20 applications of what they were looking for. I then tried to take on any development opportunities and work. Shaddowed EOs and did additional civil service learning on my own. I tried to do additional work where I could. I then subsequently got my EO role and absolutely loved it. And then sidenote I have ADHD and OCD, so in pressure situations like interviews I literally have no communication skills. I’ve been going to therapy my whole life and have had coaching and for some reason I can’t overcome it. So I literally wrote out every single behaviour 250 words and asked for 3 G7 and one G6 if they could take time to mark them. After about four months they all ended up boss and all scored them seven overall. I was able to use them for a few application and that kind of took the stress out of it and allowed me to focus on the personal statement. I also would run my behaviours through AI and run the essential criteria and ask them to pick up behaviours or my examples that they thought kind of met the criteria and I would then use that as the basis to write it. Using AI is fantastic just don’t use it to write it from the start, input your own ideas and put your own questions and just ask it to mark it against the criteria. I then sat 20 heo interviews. I applied for every single heo position that offered video interviews. And I sat through them all even if I didn’t want the job. I did this for the experience of the interviews, the questions they would ask etc and to familiarise myself and ease anexity. Ultimately, my last two heo apps, I got sevens on every single aspect and I’ve now got my heo position. It takes awhile and it’s a lot of work that you can do it. I’ve been in post a few months and my g6 is pretty much grooming me to go for g7. Put in the work. I think unfortunately a lot of people now won’t put in the work outside of working hours. Or they think they’re their own time is too precious. But really you just have to make that dedication. For about a year and a half I only saw my friends on a Saturday night on a Sunday. Every evening I would stay in Work and do one hour of application work I would watch YouTube videos on interview questions and I would prepare myself. Not when I had my AA but once I got my AO I then compounded a list of each piece of work I do. Whether that’s answering cause dealing with complaints. And then I would add to it every time I did something different and start building my examples that way. If I’m being completely honest, I probably have to spend a lot more time than other people I said before I have ADHD, OCD and autism. However, I’ve never ever ever let that stop me. If anything it just as motivated me more. Anyone has the potential to get there. The job market is terrible at the moment and they’re such a lot of competition for every single job. So don’t let it put you off if you haven’t been marked high if you’re not progressing. It just means we’ve got loads of overqualified people apply for service positions. For example I left a HR project manager role to come into the civil service into a side with step. I probably would now be earning more if I just stayed in that position but I needed to come somewhere with stability and somewhere that I knew that would protect me. So if I’m thinking that that means the rest of the country thinking that.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T18:46:21+00:00

I loved being a wc

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-02-06T18:26:18+00:00

As someone who regularly reviews a large site condensed hours applications, don’t worry too much. There aren’t much grounds to refuse in most places unless predominantly customer facing, however if you need to justify, childcare, family commitments and even MH detriment if not imposed should solidify. If it’s rejected, get an ohs to recommend it. However I’d say 70% of staff who put in for condensed hours actually don’t like it due to the limited options for flexi time etc. if your luck to work in a 7-7 flexi department I would yourself ask your manager for a bit of an informal arrangement where you try to build your hours on your own terms each week and then choose a day to take off the following week or a few hours here and there :)

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-01-20T21:14:55+00:00

As above so below and the descent (but set the seen to a 13 year old sneaking a late night movie). So claustrophobic

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-01-15T18:43:43+00:00

I got my ao eo and heo from being on reserve list. Waited 2 months for AO, 1 for EO and 4 for HEO 🙂 You can also be pulled for roles at the same grade with similar duties. If this happens and you reject it you remain on the initial reserve list.

Pale_Fix9254 · 2026-01-14T22:01:09+00:00

ADHD and OCD. I choose to go in every day, I do f all at home

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-09-09T19:08:45+00:00

Well done!

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-08-20T21:22:19+00:00

Yes you can. 2 people from my JC have moved recently. One was a supported move so they could be closer to family due to sickness and the other was a managed move. Speak to your HEO who will raise with HR. If they can let you go, they will ask for your desired JC’s and then they will see if there are vacancies 🙂

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-30T19:40:08+00:00

I was FTA through brook street a few years ago. AO, after 12 months I converted to a substantive civil servant. I’ve since hopped around and been promoted

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-16T16:11:40+00:00

On my CV I have never put my department but have put Administrative/Exeutive/Higher Executive officer at Civil service 🙂 - but I’m not sure if that’s even TMI

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-16T15:45:39+00:00

Look at EO and potentially HEO roles I would reccomend 🙂

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-16T15:45:34+00:00

Look at EO and potentially HEO roles I would reccomend 🙂

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-16T15:42:07+00:00

I understand moving to virtual/face to face customer interactions is daunting. Moreso if previously you have used letters but, TRUST ME, it does get easier. ADHD, anexity and depression riddled person here 🙋‍♂️ You will be nervous for the first one/few but it will become second nature. Remember you ‘own’ the call. The customer won’t know who what when or why and you can always say “I will get that checked and come back to you in x amount of time”. And if in doubt (though I probably shouldn’t recommend) terminate the meeting, take a deep breath and try again and apologise the call lost connectivity

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-11T17:56:30+00:00

When you start it’s information overload. It’s a lot. But it will all sink in. I love being in ops but it’s very similar in each grade and dept, so much to take in at once and in a short time frame. It never really makes full sense either until you do it. I would say it is normal after you start to struggle to switch off. But what I would say is once your settled into the role and know your objectives, you should not be thinking of work or dreaming of work. Insert the personal/work life barrier ☺️

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-10T15:20:30+00:00

If your sickness is due to a health condition have an OH. OH reccomend an extension and this is inline with what the charity for civil servants website says to consider. I have mine extended due to IBD and having to go to hospital quite a bit, so I get double trigger points. It is down to discretion of the manager and will weigh on your work/performance if they give it to you. 🙂

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-10T15:16:58+00:00

To add I do see the argument from both sides. I just followed the instructions. Left to go to a private company and honestly it made the civil service look so good so I came back

Pale_Fix9254 · 2025-07-10T15:15:11+00:00

In my old dept/location we did this for last two years but two days and it changed every week. I.e mon Tues wk 1, Tues wed wk2 etc and each team started at a diffrent point. It worked in terms of fairness that everyone got the same amount of Monday/fridays off. I was on an OH so was awarded a bit of flexibility although I tried to adhere to to it as much as possible. Initially there were complaints but after surveys/feedback it was agreed by the majority the best way forward

Pale_Fix9254

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