Quit job after 23 days, left it off CV. Advice needed re P45

Following graduation, I got a job doing housekeeping.

I absolutely detested it from the moment I started and was only there 23 days before quitting. There were a lot of reasons why; no training, some health and safety issues, poor management, serious understaffing which resulted in being given huge amounts of work to complete in half the time and with only 1/3 of the staff, people being brought in on the promise of 'light duties' and then being given full duties against doctor's recommendations (the girl had a broken wrist!), ridiculous demands for overtime and very little notice given for it, poor team spirit within the workers and an incredibly competitive and hostile environment.

All in all, I couldn't cope with it. My anxiety, which had been extremely well controlled for over 3 years, came back with the force of an army and all I could think about after finishing for the day was the dread of going in the next day. I was literally starting to have near panic attacks at work by my second week. After I started having serious thoughts of harming myself just to get out of work on my third week, I decided it was best for my mental health to leave. I called in sick at first hoping a short break would help but it didn't. I called in sick on the 23rd and officially resigned on the 27th. I was there 23 days in total. I didn't even work my notice because I just couldn't.

Anyway, because of everything stated above, even though I had good reasons for leaving, with this having been only my second job I was worried it would still look flaky for only being there 23 days and would lead to not being given even a look in for jobs. I decided to cover the gap by saying I took a short break after graduation to rest and develop a masters proposal which is true, I am working on a proposal and hope to begin a masters next year and have been corresponding with a lecturer which could back this up (not that I imagine any new employer would ask for it but its there just in case).

But, it's suddenly occurred to me; what do I do about my P45? I handed my P45 from my old library job into my new job when I started working for them in August so I haven't got my P45 from my old job to use.If I use the P45 from the job I just left wouldn't this let any new employer know I had a job in August and bring into question what I wrote on my CV/application?

Any advice? Apologies if this is a stupid question; I've never had to deal with this situation before.

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by Rae18

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It's not going to make any difference. You don't hand over your P45 until you have been offered the job. You don't hand over your P45 to anyone who has been involved in the HR process. No-one reads and interprets the P45, they just copy the required figures into the tax element of the payroll system. it's a junior clerks job.

So long as they didn't ask you 'Have you done a cleaning job in the last year' and you said 'No' ie you lied to a direct question, this is an irrelevant omission. You are allowed to omit things from your work history.

Reply 2

Camilli

Have you already put out the non-housekeeping CV?

Either way, it shouldn't be too big a deal, as long as you can be consistent. I was interviewing with a colleague at a school where she nailed someone on a resume review because the candidate had folded maybe four part-time and freelance jobs into one line in a way that wasn't completely accurate. Make sure that doesn't happen.

On the other hand, you can easily explain leaving in ways that aren't going to make you look flaky or vindictive. For something like housekeeping, with all of the chemicals involved, it should be easy to say that the work environment was making you unhealthy. Just stick to that. No need to say how you were doing before physically or mentally, or how you are now. Assuming that's even legal to ask about in the UK.