Hey everyone,
I had my interview with Wesser on the 12th July and immediately on the same week, started the 'job.' I would never have survived 6 weeks in a house with some rather unprofessional people so I resigned after my first 2 days. I did achieve 5 sign-ups on the first and 5 on the second (the target was 4 per day) but it was 1) the ethics of the company, 2) the dodgy working hours, 3) the lack of pay as well as 4) the un-professionalism of some of the members overlooking my work, that made me decide to leave.
1) During your interview at Wesser, it would be wise to not just sit there and absorb in the information about the company but to actually ask: 'So how does Wesser make their profits?' There seems to be a lack of comprehension about how the company actually fundraises for St John Ambulance during the interview stage, which I admit, I regret ignoring. When you go around the doors, you will be encouraging people (most likely pensioners) to donate a yearly/half-yearly/quarterly/monthly amount. If you don't persuade them to donate at least £30 per year/£20 per half-year/ £10 per quarter of the year/ £5 per month, you simply won't get your pay. E.g. if they decided to give £25 per year - you won't get paid. Also, when the donor decides to cancel the payment, you won't get your pay. When you are going around door-to-door, you cannot take one-off payments, which surprised me at first because any donation would benefit a charity surely. As well as that, you would ONLY be able to take direct debits and if you do decide to take cash/cheque, the consequences are that you will be fired. What you will be doing is making enough profits for the company via this regular donation - 45% of the donations will be given to Wesser over 2 years, and due to Gift Aid being 20p for every £1 donated, this would be covered in time. 45% is a huge percentage for a private company surely. Many donors are put off with this and I unashamedly feel slightly guilty about this as well therefore questioning my ethics.
2) The working hours absolutely does not suit anybody who is social OR ambitious (in terms of what else they would like to achieve in life e.g. pursuing musical interests). I have stated before in my application to Wesser that I am efficient in work and hard-working and I believe that I am but those qualities are not the only ones that you need to survive working for Wesser. The working hours ranged from 9am - 9pm sometimes - it is crucial that you work till 9pm but it does not matter when you start. What time you start is determined by the team leader and in several of my training days, you would begin at 1pm. Normally for school/college, I have learned to wake up at 9am anyways, so if that is the case, you can waste a whole morning doing nothing productive. Anyways, the working days are from Monday - Saturday. Again, if you are attending an interview, make sure you ask what they are as it was not made clear in mines. I thought I was able to take the weekend off to return back to London or something!
3) Every sign-up, you do get £5. Now, it works roughly about £20 per day if you meet your target of 4, which is frankly quite unrealistic in some days of work. Say if you do meet £20 per day, and you have worked from 9am to 9pm. Divide that by 12, and you definitely earn way below the minimum wage therefore if you are hoping to earn lots of money this Summer, this company is very misleading in terms of making you believe that you can do that. Sometimes, individuals get 0 sign-ups and if this is the case, for ambitious individuals, this would make you feel awful. Despite the low amounts you would get paid, there's the high amount to spend. Travel is not reimbursed if the conditions are not met (e.g. if you don't get 15 sign-ups per week), accommodation (£60) is not paid for you if conditions are not met and the training fee (£100) is not paid for you if you decide to cancel within 6 weeks. The training I received, I thought was basic and definitely is not worth £100 therefore I have decided that I am not going to pay that amount. Each week, you would have to pay £10 for the team driver to get fuel, your own food (I did not receive any food voucher as promised) etc and believe me, that is how you end up making a LOSS.
4) Un-professionalism of my managers were demonstrated by their foul-mouthed antics, them telling me to lie to their own managers, constant 'bitching' and laziness.
P.S if Wesser does decide to go into court proceedings with me for libel - I am very happy to do so. For now, I am using my Summer more wisely.