Yes. Didn’t mind the work itself (although babysitting ARS could be tedious) and liked VDU workstations but there were several aggravating factors.
Due to a tortuous saga that I won’t explain here, all 36-odd signallers did exactly the same job but half were paid a grade more. To add to that, my team was also the shortest-staffed throughout my time there - we calculated that we were working a couple of extra weeks each year simply due to receiving fewer and shorter breaks on day turns. That, plus the grading difference, meant that myself and two others were effectively the lowest-paid signallers on the roster. On top of that, one teammate was a pretty unpleasant character and our SSM was also the laziest in the building - other teams’ Shifties would help with admin and give extra breaks, but despite my team’s staffing situation, ours did eff all. They also didn’t seem to fully understand certain parts of axle counter rules and regs, which led to a few completely unnecessary bust-ups. As you can imagine, all this started to grate after a while...
After three consecutive LOMs had each promised, then failed, to rectify the grade and staffing imbalances, I’d had enough and started looking elsewhere. Now working single-manned again and it’s better in almost every way - the only slight downside is a longer commute, but it’s a much nicer package overall.
Don’t let that put you off ROCs, though. Most of the grief I’ve mentioned was (I hope!) specific to that location and team. I’d like to think the majority are better - just do your research before any potential move. I was displaced in so didn’t get much choice.
