It's been a quiet week on the jobs front this week. I did find some good possible jobs last week, and i rang up about them:
"Well, we are taking people's details and will be in touch next week" (not so far...)
So you give details, and then...you hear nothing. To be honest, i know i'm not the only one in this boat, and despite my background/roots, i still feel really sorry for those who have had decent jobs, for years, possibly turning up at the same place of work every day for the past 15 years, and now they're out in the cold.
Cruel victims of a capitalist structure going horribly wrong, or "Just the way it is"; you decide...
Hearing nothing about jobs you've applied for is, to me at least, worse than there actually being no jobs, as that was the position in the last town i lived in, before moving. Here, in "new town" there are now bits and bobs about but it's getting a foot in the door. It's so bad even agencies are frowning over a year long unemployment gap.
You could chase these people up, but i'm more of a persuasion that this is tanatamount to harassment. It's like cold calling, but i think from a employer/agency point of view, more annoying.
Maybe i am wrong but if i was a employer and i kept being asked every day "got any jobs mate?" by a stranger every single bloody day for a week, i would get cheesed off and promptly strike them off the list, pronto.
People say that you must not get disheartened, should not lose hope, but although i do know that one day, someone, somewhere will employ me i do really get so "down" about it all.
I do get like this quite often now. In fact, so bad sometimes, i wonder if i'm going to be on benefits long term, and before anyone rings the Daily Mail newsdesk, i would like to say on record that i don't want to be. I'm a worker, i come from a family of workers, my Grandfathers both grafted hard, working "on the land" (farm and field work) in isolated rural areas, and this "work hard" attitude is mine also.
However, i don't want to be exploited, it's not fair to be treated like shit, working long hours for minimum wage on a short term contract. I don't mind minimum wage, no sir, but not struggling and tugging my forelock for it.
I do worry that sometimes that i will end up like Lee Evans' character in the brit flick "The Martins", a bloke with family on benefits, and his life is so bad, all that keeps him going is entering competitions for dream holidays.
I just don't want that, i really don't want that...
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Soon time for Tartan slippers and a Pipe...
I was doing something i'm kind of good at, Reminiscing, the other day, whilst on YouTube the other day.
I'm a child of the 80's, and as a kid, i loved technology, modern tech is great but i think the method of tuning your TV in manually using funny little knobs behind a little door is sadly missed!
I remember the TV/Radio shops you could get at the time, although we rented a wood panelled Philips colour set from a local dealer becuase the terms for my parents, being poor, were affordable, and apparently, Mr. Fox, the TV rental man, was a bit of a all round honest good guy as well. Sadly, his shop, and the model shop that was next door have long gone. They are now part of a car park for a branch of PC World.
We had Visionhire, Radio Rentals, and Rumbelows. They've all gone. Visionhire is now a card shop, so is the former Radio Rentals and the once very big Rumbelows is now a Phones4U.
It makes me wonder what happens to people when organisations like this cease trading, of course many find other jobs, but some people worked for these sort of places for years, and although it sounds a bit soft, i do wonder how people who spent years working for these sort of places adjusted to a new, streamilned business or alternative employment, or even retirement. Do they just get on with it?
Likewise all the people organisations like BT must have shedded since privatisation in 1984...
I actually wanted to be a TV Repair Engineer as a kid, this was the service depot arm of Granada Rentals/Visionhire years ago, looks like a good place to work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDeD0MMzkqI&feature=channel_page
Spiders...
Something i've noticed recently, perhaps other places in the UK have it, but the weather has been a bit odd round these parts recently, and there is the biggest amount of greenfly and some really odd light coloured spiders with tiny bodies and comedy spindly legs...
Perhaps it's the amount of time this flat was vacant before i moved in, or just something i noticed...
More interesting topics next time! :-)
Perhaps it's the amount of time this flat was vacant before i moved in, or just something i noticed...
More interesting topics next time! :-)
Don't Panic! we know what exactly is going on...
A wise old former soldier i once worked with once told me that "back in the day" when he was in the Army, you never volunteered for anything, ever, unless you were completely kamikaze.
I sometimes wonder if "Civvy Street" life is like that also. I, about a month ago volunteered to go onto a job hunting training course provided by a organisation with a number-letter-number configuration in the title.
I'm now wondering whether this is a mistake. I have learnt, via the magic of the internet that people usually get forced onto these courses, and in Sheffield, it is regarded as something of a punishment apparently.
My own course, is highly reminiscent of the things i hated at school. Although i left school donkey's years ago, i still remember and shudder at some of the poor attitude of the teachers, who , apart from a couple of cases, seemed to either be incompetent or megalomaniacal, or tyrants, or all three cases.
Some of the staff at the training course are reminiscent of my teachers, last week i was told that basically i have a negative attitude (no, i have a realistic attitude, which is different), a defensive attitude, and was somehow responsible for the 1973 Miners strike, despite it being six years before i was born...
I said that i fancied working in admin but was at a loss, despite IT qualifications, because i have no experience, and at nearly 30, perhaps a bit too old for a apprenticeship.
Apparently, i was the only one holding me back. Not the poor GCSE's that i have, not the fact i lived for years in a area where there were not many Office roles available, and you had to take what you could get, so i ended up in a factory.
No, it's me and my negative attitude. And apparently i have "issues" too.
To be honest, i get a bit sick of this "Your life is in your hands" crap. Ok, your life is in your hands but there are often outside factors controlling it, like lack of money, putting a roof over your head etc, so i try and make the most of what i've got, unfortunately i don't get very far but that's another story.
I wanted to use my time the other day trawling the local agencies, rather than the Northampton agencies i went to a fortnight (see previous post), and when informing a course leader about this, i got looked at as if i was something he'd stepped in:
"You did this a week ago, didn't you?", i informed him it was a fortnight ago in Northampton.
I was allowed to go in the end. Sometimes i just wonder if it's me or other people who are stupid, hold on, perhaps i'd best not ask...
I sometimes wonder if "Civvy Street" life is like that also. I, about a month ago volunteered to go onto a job hunting training course provided by a organisation with a number-letter-number configuration in the title.
I'm now wondering whether this is a mistake. I have learnt, via the magic of the internet that people usually get forced onto these courses, and in Sheffield, it is regarded as something of a punishment apparently.
My own course, is highly reminiscent of the things i hated at school. Although i left school donkey's years ago, i still remember and shudder at some of the poor attitude of the teachers, who , apart from a couple of cases, seemed to either be incompetent or megalomaniacal, or tyrants, or all three cases.
Some of the staff at the training course are reminiscent of my teachers, last week i was told that basically i have a negative attitude (no, i have a realistic attitude, which is different), a defensive attitude, and was somehow responsible for the 1973 Miners strike, despite it being six years before i was born...
I said that i fancied working in admin but was at a loss, despite IT qualifications, because i have no experience, and at nearly 30, perhaps a bit too old for a apprenticeship.
Apparently, i was the only one holding me back. Not the poor GCSE's that i have, not the fact i lived for years in a area where there were not many Office roles available, and you had to take what you could get, so i ended up in a factory.
No, it's me and my negative attitude. And apparently i have "issues" too.
To be honest, i get a bit sick of this "Your life is in your hands" crap. Ok, your life is in your hands but there are often outside factors controlling it, like lack of money, putting a roof over your head etc, so i try and make the most of what i've got, unfortunately i don't get very far but that's another story.
I wanted to use my time the other day trawling the local agencies, rather than the Northampton agencies i went to a fortnight (see previous post), and when informing a course leader about this, i got looked at as if i was something he'd stepped in:
"You did this a week ago, didn't you?", i informed him it was a fortnight ago in Northampton.
I was allowed to go in the end. Sometimes i just wonder if it's me or other people who are stupid, hold on, perhaps i'd best not ask...
Monday, 1 June 2009
The quest begins again...
Breaking news, as CNN might say, or Sky news, or the BBC for that matter...
"Shock news as Lewis Heyward turns his back on badly paid agency job with long hours, spokesman for Mr. Heyward said: In the light of tough economic conditions, he has decided to save what is left of his sanity, despite the money offered..."
Well, something like that. If you read my last post, you would have read that i had been offered a job working for a employment agency, working in a vegtable factory, for 12 hours a day, four days on-two days off for the princely sum of £5.75 an hour.
I am desperate, but i have had a huge, long think over the last few days. I didn't really want to do the job, i've done this sort of thing before, and it was bad enough when i was getting nearly £7 an hour and working a 8 hour day, so god knows what it would be like doing it for twelve on minimum wage.
Plus, i don't want to walk out of another shit job again, i've done it before and it's personally humiliating and embarrasing, because it's admission of defeat in a way, but i suffer with depression and despite medication, a bad situation becomes a very bad situation for me, so crap jobs are like sheer hell for me and i get what could be politely described as sheer stage fright but in reality is the situation of my nerves being frayed with stress, sleepless nights and believe it or not, the squits, and it's not like it's bad at first because of starting a new job then it gets better, it's just bad full stop.
Crap jobs did this to me, believe it or not, especially factory work, which can be hell if your face dosen't fit and mine was a triangle in a square hole on a couple of jobs, which ended in tears, which i won't go into too much, other to say that i've been bullied at work twice before and it's not pleasant, nor something with easy answers to. Especially worse still when management are too gutless to do anything about it.
So, after a long, long think this sunny weekend, i had to make a very tough decision, even more so as i am desperately skint thanks to my JSA being put on hold (see below) but i decided, in the interests of saving my sanity, to cancel my application for the job.
Things are going to be desperately shit now, but i still have my sanity despite the combined efforts of my local jobcentre to deprive me of money, and the uneasy unfamiliarity of the new letternumberletter jobseeking course i started last week.
NB: FOOTNOTE
Please agencies, stop advertising jobs that are filled or not available, i went to Northampton on Friday to look what was about, not a lot despite the ads in the windows...
On the subject of agenices, here's something interesting from the moneysavingexpert.com forums:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1717367
Viva los Job Applications!
"Shock news as Lewis Heyward turns his back on badly paid agency job with long hours, spokesman for Mr. Heyward said: In the light of tough economic conditions, he has decided to save what is left of his sanity, despite the money offered..."
Well, something like that. If you read my last post, you would have read that i had been offered a job working for a employment agency, working in a vegtable factory, for 12 hours a day, four days on-two days off for the princely sum of £5.75 an hour.
I am desperate, but i have had a huge, long think over the last few days. I didn't really want to do the job, i've done this sort of thing before, and it was bad enough when i was getting nearly £7 an hour and working a 8 hour day, so god knows what it would be like doing it for twelve on minimum wage.
Plus, i don't want to walk out of another shit job again, i've done it before and it's personally humiliating and embarrasing, because it's admission of defeat in a way, but i suffer with depression and despite medication, a bad situation becomes a very bad situation for me, so crap jobs are like sheer hell for me and i get what could be politely described as sheer stage fright but in reality is the situation of my nerves being frayed with stress, sleepless nights and believe it or not, the squits, and it's not like it's bad at first because of starting a new job then it gets better, it's just bad full stop.
Crap jobs did this to me, believe it or not, especially factory work, which can be hell if your face dosen't fit and mine was a triangle in a square hole on a couple of jobs, which ended in tears, which i won't go into too much, other to say that i've been bullied at work twice before and it's not pleasant, nor something with easy answers to. Especially worse still when management are too gutless to do anything about it.
So, after a long, long think this sunny weekend, i had to make a very tough decision, even more so as i am desperately skint thanks to my JSA being put on hold (see below) but i decided, in the interests of saving my sanity, to cancel my application for the job.
Things are going to be desperately shit now, but i still have my sanity despite the combined efforts of my local jobcentre to deprive me of money, and the uneasy unfamiliarity of the new letternumberletter jobseeking course i started last week.
NB: FOOTNOTE
Please agencies, stop advertising jobs that are filled or not available, i went to Northampton on Friday to look what was about, not a lot despite the ads in the windows...
On the subject of agenices, here's something interesting from the moneysavingexpert.com forums:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1717367
Viva los Job Applications!
Thursday, 21 May 2009
You just haven't earned it yet, Baby...
As said in the post below, i've been offered a job, well sort of. I've put my name down for a job with a agency working in: ta dah...a food factory, the one place of work i wouldn't ever want to go back to ever given the choice.
Problem is, i haven't. I am skint and i'm being terminally being f**ked around by the social security system at the moment so i will be penniless very very soon, if they don't pull their finger out of their you-know-what.
Also, i miss work. I don't miss the Bullying or the conditions that would make George Orwell's "The road to Wigan Pier" look like a brochure for a trendy Urbansplash flat (yours for a deposit of 30%, move in today...).
But i do miss the cameraderie, the laughs, the feeling of being useful and earning a crust.
One thing i found interesting at the agency, was although the agency lady was lovely, unusual for agency staff, she did frown a bit at the one year gap in my employment history.
This i could maybe understand if i was going to work in IT, finace, or management consulting, but as a hired hand in a grotty factory, i don't really, but still i (perhaps i'm either too naieve or too much of a old school socialist) don't really understand the whole employment/recruitment thing. When i left school in 1996, it was more or less, at least in the factories, if you could do the job, you were in. This caused a lot of problems admittedly (some of the stories i could tell about co workers, but can't...) And now we seem to be in a position of: "If you don't have a perfect CV and work history, no gaps mind..." then you don't work, or are viewed as some sort of half-creature which has part worked, part been on the dole, and in these box-ticking days then that does not compute. You're either a worker or claimer and that's a narrow attitude to have, not just in recruitment.
Still, they've got the power now. I haven't. I guess i'm just a worker ant waiting to be exploited. I still can't wait for the day that i actually do get a full time job because somebody actually wants me...
Problem is, i haven't. I am skint and i'm being terminally being f**ked around by the social security system at the moment so i will be penniless very very soon, if they don't pull their finger out of their you-know-what.
Also, i miss work. I don't miss the Bullying or the conditions that would make George Orwell's "The road to Wigan Pier" look like a brochure for a trendy Urbansplash flat (yours for a deposit of 30%, move in today...).
But i do miss the cameraderie, the laughs, the feeling of being useful and earning a crust.
One thing i found interesting at the agency, was although the agency lady was lovely, unusual for agency staff, she did frown a bit at the one year gap in my employment history.
This i could maybe understand if i was going to work in IT, finace, or management consulting, but as a hired hand in a grotty factory, i don't really, but still i (perhaps i'm either too naieve or too much of a old school socialist) don't really understand the whole employment/recruitment thing. When i left school in 1996, it was more or less, at least in the factories, if you could do the job, you were in. This caused a lot of problems admittedly (some of the stories i could tell about co workers, but can't...) And now we seem to be in a position of: "If you don't have a perfect CV and work history, no gaps mind..." then you don't work, or are viewed as some sort of half-creature which has part worked, part been on the dole, and in these box-ticking days then that does not compute. You're either a worker or claimer and that's a narrow attitude to have, not just in recruitment.
Still, they've got the power now. I haven't. I guess i'm just a worker ant waiting to be exploited. I still can't wait for the day that i actually do get a full time job because somebody actually wants me...
Full Circle
Next month, on the 17th, i will have been out of work for exactly one year, and what a year it was too! I threw in the towel in a job where the more i learnt the more it pushed out the old stuff (to quote Homer Simpson...), and the chance to work with people you really wouldn't want to be anywhere near given half the chance. Cashed in the equity off my house and indulged on a mega bucks spending spree, moved to three different houses, in two different areas, but just couldn't get settled at all, brought and sold cars, and kept the local takeaways in business, but still, i have to say, the money didn't make me happy, and trust me, it was a stack of cash, but don't worry about blackmailing or mugging me: It's all gone. I have around three quid in my pocket at the moment and i was happy with that as i usually only have a pound plus coppers for parking, not that i pay for it much anymore, running the gauntlet i know, but it's parking or dinner. Dinner wins every time...
It's now May. I've moved for the fourth time in a year into a bedsit that would make a 60's town planner's heart cry for joy, but it's home for now. I hate it, but it's home, although i plan to spend as little time here as possible.
The new area i've moved to is rather well to do, and don't have the usual Jobcentre clientele, the last two times i've been, i was sat next to a (former) Journalist, and the other day someone who sounded like they had been a big noise in banking once, this also means for some reason that they don't have the usual "No job mate?, yeah, i know it's tough, just sign here and we'll see you agin in a fortnight, ta ta!" attitude, which although over-simplifying it, means that at least they know there is no jobs about at the moment.
No, these kindly folks are of the "Why are you on the dole?" school, made popular in the 80's TV Drama "Boys from the Blackstuff", they really don't take any crap. They've been condescending, vague, and forgot i was there for 20 minuites for one apointment, a phone call from them is like a bomb hoax, their phone manner is that bad.
I missed signing on the other day, my car broke down, and i was stranded 30 miles away at my fiance's house, i phoned the Jobcentre up, told them i couldn't make it and was politely informed that if i did not turn up it would involve filling out a form, to have a decision made on whether or not i should have my dole paid to me as "it's not a genuine reason" for missing signing on.
I informed them that expecting me to walk 30 miles was out of the question, but yesterday, i had to fill out all the "why weren't you here?" paperwork, and i'm now awaiting a decision to see if someone is petty enough to turn my dole down.
Dole this week is the last of my Contribution (NI Based) JSA, and although i have filled the paparwork out to get income based JSA, and a small loan to buy second hand furniture, i was informed yesterday that it still hadn't been sorted, i only filled the forms out last week, but when you live hand to mouth, if you wait for money, a day's gap is like a year.
Still, it's not all shit. Although i've had to leave my fiance 30 miles away to live with her parents, which broke my heart when i drove away from her, she was crying and i (perhaps rightly) felt like such a c**t. This really is all my fault. Shit.
It's a sobering thought. X-Amount of thousand pounds to nothing in a year, i really am a c**t.
The clincher here though is that i (sort of) have been offered work to start in June. Shit work, long hours, pocket money pay, but work. I'm hoping now to save up to put down a deposit on a small house nearer my fiance, i hope for my sake that it all works out, i couldn't stand this bedsit more than six months and that's pushing it. It's like one of those flats they give to the millionaire to see how the other half lives in C4's "The Secret Millionaire"...
I'm not looking forward to the job, in fact, i'm trying desperately to find out what else is about work wise so i don't have to take it.
Another plus point is that now i have been put on a free course to help my jobseeking skills, with free stamps and internet. Kerching, as they say...
It's now May. I've moved for the fourth time in a year into a bedsit that would make a 60's town planner's heart cry for joy, but it's home for now. I hate it, but it's home, although i plan to spend as little time here as possible.
The new area i've moved to is rather well to do, and don't have the usual Jobcentre clientele, the last two times i've been, i was sat next to a (former) Journalist, and the other day someone who sounded like they had been a big noise in banking once, this also means for some reason that they don't have the usual "No job mate?, yeah, i know it's tough, just sign here and we'll see you agin in a fortnight, ta ta!" attitude, which although over-simplifying it, means that at least they know there is no jobs about at the moment.
No, these kindly folks are of the "Why are you on the dole?" school, made popular in the 80's TV Drama "Boys from the Blackstuff", they really don't take any crap. They've been condescending, vague, and forgot i was there for 20 minuites for one apointment, a phone call from them is like a bomb hoax, their phone manner is that bad.
I missed signing on the other day, my car broke down, and i was stranded 30 miles away at my fiance's house, i phoned the Jobcentre up, told them i couldn't make it and was politely informed that if i did not turn up it would involve filling out a form, to have a decision made on whether or not i should have my dole paid to me as "it's not a genuine reason" for missing signing on.
I informed them that expecting me to walk 30 miles was out of the question, but yesterday, i had to fill out all the "why weren't you here?" paperwork, and i'm now awaiting a decision to see if someone is petty enough to turn my dole down.
Dole this week is the last of my Contribution (NI Based) JSA, and although i have filled the paparwork out to get income based JSA, and a small loan to buy second hand furniture, i was informed yesterday that it still hadn't been sorted, i only filled the forms out last week, but when you live hand to mouth, if you wait for money, a day's gap is like a year.
Still, it's not all shit. Although i've had to leave my fiance 30 miles away to live with her parents, which broke my heart when i drove away from her, she was crying and i (perhaps rightly) felt like such a c**t. This really is all my fault. Shit.
It's a sobering thought. X-Amount of thousand pounds to nothing in a year, i really am a c**t.
The clincher here though is that i (sort of) have been offered work to start in June. Shit work, long hours, pocket money pay, but work. I'm hoping now to save up to put down a deposit on a small house nearer my fiance, i hope for my sake that it all works out, i couldn't stand this bedsit more than six months and that's pushing it. It's like one of those flats they give to the millionaire to see how the other half lives in C4's "The Secret Millionaire"...
I'm not looking forward to the job, in fact, i'm trying desperately to find out what else is about work wise so i don't have to take it.
Another plus point is that now i have been put on a free course to help my jobseeking skills, with free stamps and internet. Kerching, as they say...
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