Unemployment

[binley100]

Dunno I think I've lost the plot ............

[lindyloo]

ie sawzwiz's post; i can empathise with what you are saying in that one. firstly, i question whether mother's should work more than during school time hours, until the child has left school. speaking from experience, my first son was given to the care of childminders and relatives, all nice, but i wasn't there for him as often as i should have been- leaving at 6;30 in morning, back at 7;30 ( ahh those lovely bus journeys on minumum wage) he is now not a happy adult, who blames me for most of his own shortcomings, and we have little contact with each other. my second son was born when i had time to realize that that wasn't ideal, and i made a pact with myself to only work in ways that allowed me to live a natural lifestyle of mother / homemaker as first priority. so when my marriage broke up, i went self employed, pet sitting- animal care and doing up antiques and old stuff. my second son is much happier, and we have a better bond. we have a home life that is as traditional as possible, bearing in mind that we often have lots of junk lined up through the living/ dining room, ready to go to the unit, and things are covered with sawdust, paint etc. i often work painting late at night, and can fit in the hours to suit myself.

and for a while this worked, but the petsitting had to go, due to health problems- back, knees, ankles, wrists, have all been strapped into submission for years, to enable me to work/ walk dogs ride/ muck out etc. etc. i also have a debilitating auto immune disiease. and in tha natural progression of things, as pet owners moved, lost thier jobs, or animals died, i didn't readvertize. and i found that the money from the antiques got better as the pet stuff dwindled. this spring summer, even though i have been feeling worse and worse pyshically, i had made the decision to restart the petsitting, as people do not have the money available now to buy old bits and pieces, as they used to do. and just after that, my knee gave up the ghost. now i find myself at 57 years of age, not pycshically strong, or fit, and with a lot of people looking for 'pin' money, doing petsitting at ridiculous rates, in thier own facilities ( ie big houses with acres of land). i don't think i can compete with them as my time has to generate money i can sustain life on- it is not a hobby. so i am very afraid, for the future-- who realistically is going to employ an unfit older woman, who has been told that she will need another op. in the near future. my son has now lost his job too. so things are looking grim. we are in a high rent minimum wage area. when i was younger i always laughingly said that if worse came to worse, i would go and be a housekeeper to an old farmer. so if anyone knows of a vacancy for an infirm old woman who prefers to be outside, who can't sit without being in pain, or stand or walk, and who can't cook very well to todays standards, and at the moment can barely hobble. ussually slips her disc only once a year, and often looks like an egyptian mummy, due to the bandages reinforcing her wrists and ankles, and, soon, probably her knees. wears a fetching weightlifters belt to reinforce her back! probably would benefit from some new glasses, which i can't afford, and can no longer be on the go from morning to night without a break-- could you please let me know, as i dont think i am going to find anything locally. i will work for pocket money, a roof over my head for self and possibl re son ( who can be quite handy to have around for a separate wage- although he might like to be free to live his own life elseware if he gets a job ) and of course, keep for my animals. any takers? joking aside- the future is looking extremely worrying, and i love doing my furniture, but for how long can it continue??? ps i still think the thread is on track , as we are talking about the impact of unemployment and gov. plans

[Plot10]

. 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.

OGW - Being a G4 myself and it being the highest salary I've received since graduating 15 years ago, I'm not sure I'd describe myself as an "office junior" -however that aside I agree totally with your other comments.

[bubblewrap]

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.

That's all well & good on a 7 - 8 hour day but what if you are on 12 -14 hour shifts?
I did security for 3 years & all the shifts were 12(or more) hours(made me ill) with travel I could be out the house for up to 14 hours.
Some shifts were 15 hours a real killer.
Ps we did 7days on 3 off, then 7 on & 4 off.

[Madasafish]

OverWyreGrower's post on the incompetence of applicants is no surprise. Twenty years ago, we interviewed school leavers for a position to help in administration with prospects for promotion into a range of clerical jobs (some paying well over £12k - lot of money at the time).

Approximately half the applicants were unemployable as they could not write English., could not spell and punctuation was a foreign language..

I doubt if much has changed...

I note industry is complaining about their inability to recruit skilled people. With our education system, and the attitudes of many - who apparently expect money to be given them for nowt - I am not surprised.

[bubblewrap]

OverWyreGrower's post on the incompetence of applicants is no surprise. Twenty years ago, we interviewed school leavers for a position to help in administration with prospects for promotion into a range of clerical jobs (some paying well over £12k - lot of money at the time).

Approximately half the applicants were unemployable as they could not write English., could not spell and punctuation was a foreign language..

I doubt if much has changed...

I note industry is complaining about their inability to recruit skilled people. With our education system, and the attitudes of many - who apparently expect money to be given them for nowt - I am not surprised.

But us older ones who can spell & write(just) find it impossible to get a job.

[binley100]

...and you also have the problem that if you don't have your own transport then public transport may not even be happening either at the time you need it or to where you need it regardless of cost or travel time.

[bubblewrap]

A couple of years ago I had to go on one of these "new deals"
I had to do a couple of tests (worried me)
But the tests were an insult (my 8 year old niece could have done them.)
Have our educational standards fallen that low?
Then I had to go on "work experience" I was 58 & had been working since I was 15.
I did enjoy where I was sent but I still did not get a job.
I am now on pension credits & pleased to be out of the rat race.

[OverWyreGrower]

OGW - Being a G4 myself and it being the highest salary I've received since graduating 15 years ago, I'm not sure I'd describe myself as an "office junior" -however that aside I agree totally with your other comments.

Sorry

I suppose I was thinking in terms of the type of role it is... i.e. in that area it is the lowest support staff grade - and the role is supporting 2 x G7's...

I am only a Grade 5 myself, and my role will never evolve to anything higher....

[OverWyreGrower]

...and you also have the problem that if you don't have your own transport then public transport may not even be happening either at the time you need it or to where you need it regardless of cost or travel time.

For me to get a bus to work (17 miles away) it would take 1hr 40mins, and the travelling would involve 2 miles of walking, and I still couldn't get to work for 9am...

[jackie j]

Jackie, surely the ideal position is when family can all rally together and help out? That's the way it was in the old days. Don't you think your grandson will benefit from developing stronger relationships with his family, rather than paid help? or do you mean you're all contributing to the cost of childcare, rather than undertaking the childcare yourselves?

No we dont pay for his care we look after him, yes it does build stronger relations, but a lot of people dont have that, I didnt have any help when I was left with four sons to bring up, their dad didnt want to know, his parents had them in and out but I couldnt rely on their help, my mum was in her forty's before she had me so by the time I had my children esp my daughter she was in her eighty's.
What I was saying is, if single mums have to go out to work who will have the children during the time they are at home from school, not every one can get jobs during term time only.

[Caro]

No we dont pay for his care we look after him, yes it does build stronger relations, but a lot of people dont have that, I didnt have any help when I was left with four sons to bring up, their dad didnt want to know, his parents had them in and out but I couldnt rely on their help, my mum was in her forty's before she had me so by the time I had my children esp my daughter she was in her eighty's.
What I was saying is, if single mums have to go out to work who will have the children during the time they are at home from school, not every one can get jobs during term time only.

The problem is, there isn't enough money in the pot to support everyone. I'm a higher rate taxpayer so really I already pay a lot of tax and NI. I love the thought of our NHS (even though we all moan about it and know it could be improved), so I'm happy to contribute to it. Same with the police, fire brigade, libararies, schools, defence etc etc. And I'm more than happy to contribute to helping those who are in unfortunate circumstances and, much as they would love to, are unable from physical disability, sickness or something else, to support themselves. But, to be honest (and probably unpopular) I'm not sure why I pay for other people to bring up their own children. And as for the children's trust funds (which thankfully have been abolished) why should we taxpayers pay for that, as opposed to nursing home care for the elderly or sick who can no longer look after themselves? Or extra assistance for oap's who cannot afford proper heating in winter? If I had a vote, I know where my tax dollars would go.

Having children is a privilege. And with that, comes responsibility.

[Plot10]

I wonder if we are actually preparing our young people properly for the kinds of job (if any) that will actually be required in the future. The government puts a lot of emphasis on sending more and more kids to University for the sake of it - to do what exactly? Shouldn't we be treating apprenticeships and other vocational training with the same importance? (Assuming there will be jobs at all) After all, not everyone is academically minded and anyone who does a necessary job deserves respect regardless of whether they have a bit of paper or earn megabucks.

When I was last temping a few years ago we used to get a lot of students during the summer period, many didn't last more than a couple of days (some not even till lunchtime) not because the work was hard, but because it was boring e.g. data entry, filing etc. They're attitude was "This is cr*p, I'm not doing this". I used to think "Welcome to the real world, it's called work and it's what you have to do to pay the bills".

In my current job we often have students part-time (on Grade 2) to do the "office junior" type stuff (sorry). Some have been great but others can't spell (these are 2nd and 3rd year Honours students), have no idea how to talk to people politely and need to be told how to do something over and over again before it sinks in, then you have to go behind them and make sure they've done it properly.

I worked really hard to get in to University as a mature student and worked long-hours while there to finance my way through, including getting up at 4 am to work in a bakery before going on to lectures (eeh, when I were a lass). Now it seems that pushing kids through Higher education like a sausage on a production line has become an end in itself.

[Two_Sheds]

The government puts a lot of emphasis on sending more and more kids to University for the sake of it - to do what exactly?

Well, employers are now wanting graduates over those with only GCSEs. It also keeps youngsters off the dole for 3 or 4 years

My own degree was completely pointless. It had an academic element (thesis) but that only counted for about 30% of the final mark. My peers who never went to lectures, or got their boyfriends to write their thesis, got a better class of degree than I did.

[OverWyreGrower]

I wonder if we are actually preparing our young people properly for the kinds of job (if any) that will actually be required in the future. The government puts a lot of emphasis on sending more and more kids to University for the sake of it - to do what exactly? Shouldn't we be treating apprenticeships and other vocational training with the same importance? (Assuming there will be jobs at all) After all, not everyone is academically minded and anyone who does a necessary job deserves respect regardless of whether they have a bit of paper or earn megabucks.

I completely agree! Everyone should have the opportunity to go to uni, but it shouldn't be the be-all-and-end-all for everyone.
I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I think that I shouldn't have gone to uni, and should have done a vocational-type course instead. I don't need my degree for the job I'm doing now, and, as much as I enjoyed studying, think that it was a waste of 4 years....

When I was last temping a few years ago we used to get a lot of students during the summer period, many didn't last more than a couple of days (some not even till lunchtime) not because the work was hard, but because it was boring e.g. data entry, filing etc. They're attitude was "This is cr*p, I'm not doing this". I used to think "Welcome to the real world, it's called work and it's what you have to do to pay the bills".

Oh yes, I've had lots of those conversations. Sadly, it's so true. Many 'young people' today want the instant wealth that they see so many young sports-players/pop stars etc with; and don't realise that for the majority of people, day to day life involves filing, typing, photocopying etc.