So orginally was on a grad scheme and failed some exams and got let go from my position at B4 with 6 passes after 1.5 years. Got offered a new job at a top 10 but because I was at big 4 and generally worked on a certain type of case there and was a small cog in a big machine rather than a more key player, they used this to offer me a 28k salary which was better than being unemployed.
I joined and then HR told me I dont qualify for the ACA so I will have to self fund if I want to get qualified, I didnt have this in written as it was agree verbally (I didnt think it was a big deal at the time). So no study leave and about 10k worth of exam costs to fund.
Dispite all of that I self funded my exams and got to 14 passes, did not have a single day of AL last year as it was used all on study and my bank account a lot lighter but now I have a lot more exam passes and another year of experience.
Pay review comes up and they offered me £900 more and said they dont think I have as much urgency to the team as they wanted and brought on an example. I was given a task at 1pm which had to be done by 3pm. Issue was 1-2pm is lunch and 2-3pm was the weekly team meeting and I was told this task was very urgent. I had to print and mail at 80 letters. So I skipped my lunch and started printing the letters (Takes like 15-20 mins due to printer speed), each letter had about 12 pages which I split across 4 piles as there were multiple documents etc. I worked entirely though my lunch and had to miss part of the team meeting to meet the urgent deadline and one of the AMs offered to help me and it was done before the deadline.
The issue they had with me was they said they dont think I was envloping the letters fast enough and with enough urgency as it should only take 20 seconds a letter and it was taking me about 35 seconds. This expectation I felt was very unrealistic as the documents needed to be picked from each pile (eg picking 2 pages off one pile, a little harder as you cant no brain it and make sure your picking the correct ones) and the AM had to help me (baring in mind they offered and I just said sure) they were making out like if they didnt help me I would have missed the deadline when they only helped for the last 15 minutes.
Another issue was for a period of exactly 2 weeks I had slightly higher phone usage in office due to some personal things and this was only for 2 weeks and I told them before hand and once the two weeks were over, my phone was out in office again. I honestly thing it was nit picking to justify the poor salary increase.
I have about 11 months of time I need to get on my training contract and I cant stand working for this firm. What should I do, money is a little tight for me at the moment and im very much struggling on the poor salary offered?