The Joys Of Working For Kwik-Fit

I recently started writing a blog of my daily life in the world of Kwik-Fit and when my partner found it she was shocked with what the staff of the company have to go through everyday.

What prompted me to start this blog was just over a month ago my colleague was going on holiday and this was the first time that i had to work without him being there as i have just started in the company and have been in the same centre since day one.

All was going good until i was speaking to my operations manager regarding how the staff rota was set up for the coming fortnight. When i explained to him that i was going to be off on the thursday and then the following tuesday, wednesday it was if i had insulted him with the amount of abuse i received from him. He started moaning about how that with me being the manager of the centre it was my responsibility to work for the two weeks without a day off as thats what i got paid for, I was shocked that i was actually hearing this coming from my boss basically telling me that because i get paid a good salary i am not entitled to my rest days and was expected to work all the way through, When i questioned if we could get any cover from another centre close by he shot that down saying that he didn’t have spare staff to go and cover peoples days off never mind holidays.

I have never heard a company that is as large as Kwik-Fit not being able to move staff to cover holidays and days off so it doesn’t affect the day to day running of the business but i was clearly wrong as when i started calling about other centres asking the managers and supervisors whats the procedure when one of them goes on holiday they all came back telling me that they are told to cover without getting there days off as that was standard practise and if they are lucky they might get a extra day off when there colleague comes back.

When I heard this i took it to my operations manager letting him know that i was concerned as i couldn’t work that amont of time without a day off as i have a life outside of work and a young baby that I need to help look after its safe to say it fell on deaf ears and i got told i had no choice.

So i took it to the directors of the company to find out what the procedure was as it is against the law to work that amount of time without any days off and also to see if they knew this was happening throughout the company low and behold it is common knowledge but none of them would even reply to emails incase you are wondering what there names are here they are CEO Kenji Murai, Operations Director Paul Boulton, Divisional Director Neil Kidd and the other Divisional Director John Hancock.

I eventually got a reply from the Head of HR who explained to me that with me being a centre manager i may be required to work additional hours but not days also she explained that i should have got days extra before the holiday period and days after and if not i was entitled to my days back when my colleague came back from his holiday i expalained to her that i didn’t think it was fair for my operations manager to expect me or my supervisor to work for two weeks straight without a day to which she agreed but she refused to send out a memo to all staff regarding this as that is what i wanted done as all the staff are getting lied to and threatened with there jobs when it comes to getting told they need to help out during holiday periods.

Since my colleague has came back from holiday i have still to receive any additional days off and when i bring it up in conversation iit is getting ignored i feel as this company just wants to take as much from there staff as possible and give nothing back.

Please feel free to share this far and wide as what Kwik-Fit is doing is wrong on so many levels not only did i lose my days off i also didn’t get paid any extra and i lost out on much needed family time to which I can’t get back.

Thanks for reading.