Know your worth.

Back when I was about 19/20, I lent in for a kiss with my then girlfriend as we were passing on the household stairs and unfortunately went into an Epileptic Seizure which subsequently resulted in me falling to the bottom and breaking several spinal vertebrae and one of my ankles.

After the relevant surgeries and months worth of recovery, I was required to attend a Job Centre appointment where I was swiftly informed that I was expected to attend a "work placement". The theory behind this was that jobseekers would work full time hours but not be paid anything more than what was about £400 a month in Job Seekers Allowance. The problem obviously being that this is significantly below minimum wage, and if employers had work to give, why not just employ someone?

The alternative, according to the DWP was a "sanction" - in other words, being punished for not wanting to be used as slave labour. Needless to say, I told the advisor to close the claim and I went self-employed.

Fast forward 13 years and in mid/late 2025, I found myself in Manchester expecting to start a PGCE in Computing at MMU, unfortunately that didn't go ahead so I once again found myself in front of a "work coach" at the Job Centre. This time around however, I was miles ahead in applying for jobs and within a few weeks had managed to land a job at Brookside Motors as a receptionist.

The first couple of months were quite difficult as I adjusted to a new industry with unfamiliar terminology and processes - not aided by microscopic issues being blown out of proportion, or work just being labelled as "shit". By the end of January 2026, there had also been a metal car component slammed on the desk in front of me and a customer because it was wrong - not my fault, the supplier had sent the wrong component, but it was enough to cause unease in the office and visibly unnerve the customer.

As time wore on, I began to see a pattern at Brookside in terms of micromanagement, selective favoritism, bullying and constant degradation of staff. Initially, I thought the critique was fair because I was new to the industry but then the boss went away on holiday and I realised the business was much calmer, stress free and running more cohesively. Everyone was actually working as a team as opposed to being micromanaged into oblivion.

Customers were happy to see me and enjoyed having a chat, sometimes even staying for a coffee that I'd made them - especially older customers who were angling for a chat, perhaps because they were lonely.

Suppliers developed rapport with me and were willing to give discounts and work to come to terms that worked for everyone. I even managed to expand the supply network by sourcing a washer bottle with very limited availability for a mini - even if it did mean getting it couriered from Scunthorpe.

In a bid to try and release the pressure valve, show willing to learn and improve the business, I redeveloped the company website saving £££s in subscription fees every year, whilst improving customer inquiry flow - generating more money from web inquiries. I also built DOMinator, an automation tool to take data from a table in one system, and automate it into another. At Brookside, it was used to quickly add lots of MOT reminders, saving about 40 hours of work every year.

Neither of these efforts were appreciated. I overheard scheming by the boss and his friend to turn my goodwill into "volunteer work" so overtime could be avoided and was then told that rather than automate work, I should just "do what I'm paid to do" and "forget about that way of thinking".

On 27/08/2026, there was more smacking on the desk while red faced and blaming me for things that were not my fault. As an employer, the boss should have known that this behaviour was unlawful and contrary to the health and safety requirements, which legally bind him to protect employees from intimidating and aggressive behaviour. Given his behaviour was aggressive and intimidating, I temporarily left the premises until things had calmed down. Taking exception to not being able to treat me in the way he wanted too, I received a message dismissing me. This is automatically unfair dismissal - again, unlawful.

I set all this out because now that I'm not working at Brookside Motors, I am now trying to re-establish myself in the self-employed realm. Feel free to check out my services page, if you're looking for freelance web/software development, sysadmin, cyber security or related services.

I have already made some good progress. I've had several meetings including one which, whilst in the early stages, will gradually build to delivering services in collaboration with an established business of over 15 years, potentially to 100+ customers at once. I can't really say much more at the moment, but it's a really exciting venture full of positivity and creative buzz with people who actually value the connections, knowledge and ideas brought to the table.

And you know the funny thing? I'll actually be getting paid more than I was at Brookside. I think that's probably Brooksides loss. Who knows? I may have gone on to save the company more money or find other avenues to generate revenue. Either way, they now have to pick up the workload I'm now not doing for marginly above minimum wage.

Having said all that, there are a few positives I can say about Brookside because it wasn't all negative and nor should it be -

• I did enjoy learning more about the automotive industry and occassionally working on cars, whether it was code reading or lifting heavy components with the mechanics.
• I did enjoy meeting the customers, even the ones I didn't particularly like. It reminds me a bit of "Dinnerladies" by Victoria Wood, in that you didn't really know who or what was coming, but it was always going to be a bit daft and silly.
• I also enjoyed seeing the older cars when they were in the garage. We had a Rolls-Royce, a couple of Porsche 924s and an Alfa Spider.
• One of my previous work colleagues was genuinely decent and I enjoyed our chats.

Life does seem to work in mysterious ways. I started out about 13 years ago rejecting the systems complete disregard for minimum wage laws which led to quite a successful time self-employed. Now, I'm starting again - perhaps it's just meant to be!

Work makes up an enormous part of your life, but it's not just what you charge, it's what you do and who you spend it with. For me, I want to be surrounded by positive, creative and above all, genuinely appreciative people with interesting and varied tasks ahead of us. Not battery drainers who leave me devoid of energy each night and dreading the next morning. Eek.

In that sense, it pays to know your worth, financially, emotionally, psychologically and philosophically.