Unemployment

[bubblewrap]

The trouble is that people are told to get 'on your bike' or more recently 'on the bus' to go off and find work. This all too often removes them from the family support network entirely.

When I was last "out of work(Sept 2005 - Feb 2009)
I was told to be willing to "travel" one and a half hours to a "job"
That could have took me to London or Leeds
talk about extracting the urine.
And someone in London/Leeds would have to come to Loughborough?
Do some of these idiots have shares in the railway companies?

[SarzWix]

I never had one to be removed from. My parents weren't interested in looking after their grandkids, and the OH's mum and dad are too old really. My sisters all moved away, although my youngest sister moved close enough to my oldest sister to be able to help her out quite frequently. Consequently, OH and I decided that I would stay home with them, neither of us very comfortable with them being in a nursery all day, or child-minders etc. I used to work evenings/weekends/nights until it became clear that my stoopid HMS won't let my body do that without objecting quite painfully
So we survive on one wage, or none occasionally.

I'd quite like to work really, I miss being 'someone' other than 'somebody's Mum', but you can't say to an employer 'I'd work my ass off, but sometimes I won't be able to come in at all because I'll be exhausted or in pain, and, you'll need to get specialist equipment in because I can't sit in an ordinary chair day after day without my back going 'poof', or stand for any length of time for the same reason' etc, etc. You just get put to the bottom of the pile, especially once they read the 'Why you left your previous jobs' section - 1) Hospitalised, operation. 2) Back problem 3) Maternity 4) Hysterectomy 5) Back problem
The only possible answer is to be self-employed, but as what?! I have no brain for money management, I'd be the world's worst business-woman So, I'm being a part-time student instead. It pays nowt, but at least it's making my brain work

[Two_Sheds]

I'd quite like to work really, I miss being 'someone' other than 'somebody's Mum'

I bet you miss grown up company too? Adult conversation? How about volunteer work? You know, the Big Society thing

...you can't say to an employer 'I'd work my ass off, but sometimes I won't be able to come in at all because I'll be exhausted or in pain

That's the position a lot of the long-term incapacitated are in. Some days they're great, other days they can't get out of the house.

I took a job straight after my cancer treatment, because I felt ready and couldn't wait to get back.
I was OK until I went full time (part time didn't pay the rent)... then I couldn't cope, I was in constant pain & exhausted.
They wouldn't put me back on Incap though, even though I couldn't work due to health: they put me on Jobseekers (it pays less). I had no help for medical costs, no adequate pain relief... basically no help.

[Madasafish]

Anyone who complains about travelling to work should think again. Lots of people travel 2-3 hourss a day to work. Most of London does.
I did for twenty years...Did I enjoy it? Nope.

But I did not complain.

Life is hard at times.

[di]

Anyone who complains about travelling to work should think again. Lots of people travel 2-3 hourss a day to work. Most of London does.
I did for twenty years...Did I enjoy it? Nope.

But I did not complain.

Life is hard at times.

Surely that would depend on the wages and whether the company would be paying travel costs???
I know people that commute to London for work...but either their pay is way above average or they get their train fares paid.
On an average wage you'd not be able to find the money for either petrol or public transport and have enough left over for living.

[Glutton4...]

Anyone who complains about travelling to work should think again. Lots of people travel 2-3 hourss a day to work. Most of London does.
I did for twenty years...Did I enjoy it? Nope.

But I did not complain.

Life is hard at times.

Sorry, but I think that's a very unfair and unkind comment. I have a friend in her mid forties, who, very reluctantly, commutes from north Essex into central London every day. She uses public transport, the reliability of which, to be honest, is a joke. She has worked locally, but jobs round here are few, and poorly paid. To compensate for the stress of it all she has many many days off sick. This does not help the stress, and she frequently has to change jobs because of it. She also drinks to compensate. She has said she will give it up in a couple of years. I hope, for her sanity (and her Liver), that she does.

[Bramble_killer]

I commute to London to work too. No jobs suitable for me in my area. I'm paid £32k including London weighting, £3.5k a year after tax goes on train fare so I can go to work.
On a good day, it's 1h 20minutes door to door. On a bad day, it's taken almost 3 hours to get from point a to point b.

I also do a minimum of one weekend shift a month and cover for anyone else in the team who's decided they can't work that weekend.

[selfraising]

Anyone who complains about travelling to work should think again. Lots of people travel 2-3 hourss a day to work. Most of London does.
I did for twenty years...Did I enjoy it? Nope.

But I did not complain.

Life is hard at times.

Yes life is hard at times BUT you have to be lucky enough to earn the thousands of pounds first that it costs for an annual season ticket from here to London. My daughter, has applied as a volunteer at Kew to gain some work experience in labs, whilst she continues to apply for jobs. We have had to calculate how we can afford her train ticket there and back of £22 and that's just for one day a week!

[OverWyreGrower]

For the last 2 working days, I have been longlisting/shortlisting for an administrative post here at the University. The post is for a Grade 4 (starting at £17,000) Administrative Assistant in a non academic department. Our pay scale goes from Grades 1 to 9, so a G4 is an 'office junior' type role.

There were 178 applications. At least 50 of these applicants didn't have the basic skills to complete an application form properly. There were serious issues with grammar, spelling, use of capital letters etc. Let's face it, if you can't capitalise your own name there is a bit of a problem.

Over a third of applicants didn't have administrative/office experience. We hadn't asked for a set number of years or anything, as this is age-discriminatory; however one of the essential criteria was some experience in this area.

What was patently obvious was that many of the applicants had zero interest in the actual job, and were applying because they'd been told to by the JobCentre.

What was worse was the number of highly over-qualified people applying for a junior office role. Police and armed forces ex-members with over 30 years experience. Ex-members of the MOD with more qualifications than the whole of the interview panel put together.
People who were so desperate for a job they'd take a £30k paycut to sit behind a desk and answer phones.

It was a proper eye-opener as to the state of the job market frankly

[StephenH]

Well, if you will read the Daily Mail....what do you expect?

Quite. See my avatar.

[Glutton4...]

Quite. See my avatar.

But, are they really any different from any other!?

[bearded bloke]

Dull,wet,overcast here Mornin orl,Hey G4 I see you are in Peter Pan mode again today

G4 is an 'office junior'

[Glutton4...]

Dull,wet,overcast here Mornin orl,Hey G4 I see you are in Peter Pan mode again today

Yup. I was. Thirty years ago! LOL

[binley100]

People who were so desperate for a job they'd take a £30k paycut to sit behind a desk and answer phones.

It was a proper eye-opener as to the state of the job market frankly

When my OH got made redundant from his job as a Picture Editor on the local newspaper where he'd been for 25 years he had to take over a 50% cut in pay and deliver peoples shopping to stay in work ...but as he says at least it's a job . Luckily now I work a few hours so that helps, but I didn't when the kids were young for the reasons as Sarz........

[HeyWayne]

What was the discussion about again?