Kate Bohdanowicz

It’s been four weeks since I left the worst job. It was a part-time teaching position – my first after completing my PGCE in post-compulsory education. I was there for almost two years and in that time I never had a day off sick. I also resigned three times which just shows you that it really was the worst job.

I’m not going to detail all the reasons why it felt that way. Many of us are dissatisfied with our work. I’ve had tons of jobs and not all have had me jumping out of bed in the morning. This was different though and this is why:

1. On the day of the interview, I was left waiting for 40 minutes. When my presentation was underway, one of the two interviewers left the room twice. I should have known then that this was going to be the worst job.

2. As a part-time teacher working across different venues, the preferred method of communication was email. I would say my emails were answered 50% of the time, often weeks after they were sent.

3. Even though I was a newly qualified teacher, my department head never once set foot in my classroom, not to say hello, to check how I was doing or even to observe me.

4. I encouraged my partner to do a course there. He’s deaf and when, after three weeks, the organisation had failed to provide appropriate communication support, I tweeted it and copied them in. I know I shouldn’t have but I was frustrated. I was disciplined in writing and told I should only tweet “loyal and positive” things about the organisation. His course folded.

5. Three months ago I didn't get paid. Even though I was one of many, I wasn’t informed and only noticed when I checked my bank account. When I contacted work, I was given two different reasons for this non-payment (system glitch and human error) and received my money a few days later.

6. The following month, my pay slip contained my salary plus an “advance” of last month’s salary and I was deducted a large amount of tax for this double payment. Work said it was correct but I sent the pay slip to my sister who identified the error straight away. I also called HMRC who said the pay slip should not have listed last month’s salary as an “advance” when it was late-payment of wages. Work agreed that it was wrong and refunded me the tax the following month.

7. When I left at the end of June, I couldn’t find either of my managers so I emailed to say goodbye. Neither has responded.

8. I continue to receive round robin emails from my department head. The last one contained minutes of a meeting that took place after my departure as well as a note to say she’ll be in touch in September.