to boycott JoJoMamanBebe on political grounds?

[SweetBeadieRussell]

The company's founder was just on R4, moidering on about how the Welsh Assembly (and public sector employers generally) had 'artificially inflated a whole generation's expectations of salaries' thereby preventing her from filling untold job vacancies.

Apparently such wages are 'incompatable with our modern world' and forcing her to outsource her workforce rather than employing as many british people as she would like.

Average public sector salaries are roughly £2000 more per annum than those in the private sector, granted, but people earning £23,500 are going to struggle to almost the same degree as those earning £21,500 to buy property etc, so how can an expectation to earn what is, after all, a pretty meagre salary be considered so
massively unrealistic? i can't help feeling there's something massively wrong with the attitude of business people sometimes...

I suppose I'll have to look elsewhere for pink mitten clips this winter...

I heard her too. I think she was a bit harsh, complaining about benefits that state workers get such as flexible working - who does she think are buying her products then? Silly woman.

She's shot herself in the foot when it comes to staff morale too.

Why is flexible working a benefit? Surely you only get paid for the hours you work? Lots of jobs can be done at lots of different times, not 9-5, so why insist someone works 9-5?

I am now boycotting lk Bennett and m&s after they signed that open letter. Already dumped ocado and shop at any of the others. I spend at least 5k a year with these 2 companies. Was about to buy a new winter coat from lk Bennett. I am writing to let them know (like they will care)

I suppose it's seen as a benefit because it hands some control back to the worker in question, even if it doesn't amount to a true monetary benefit.

'people working for me get other benefits...erm...pride in their work.' I'm slightly misquoting her, can't remember the exact words but

Good on you Simbacat, I'm tempted to follow suit... if enough of us demand our retailers to act with a conscience (in 'developed' nations as well as those in the developing world) they'll have to take notice. I hope.

I heard that interview and thought she sounded a bit deranged frankly. She can't find good retail staff cause they are all working for the Welsh assembly with inflated salaries, pensions and worst of all flexible working conditions. How many retail staff does the Welsh assembly employ for goodness sake?

I also think that talking about 'average' pay in the public sector is misleading - if you look at the distribution of salaries you tend to get a lot of poorly paid staff (usually on temporary contracts btw) below the average and few highly paid people above. V. few people actually get the average. Anyway if JoJoMamanBebe can't lure away all the poorly paid council cleaners, and TAs and junior admin assistants etc to fill their well paid and rewarding vacancies then the conditions they offer must be pretty grim.

I work part-time and I consider it a HUGE benefit.

Silly woman. Mind you her company sells £30 warming machines for nappy wipes. Presumably you need a high salary to consider one of those essential. Let's hope none of them are being bought by anyone whose household contains someone who works in the public sector.

Incidentally, I was in Jojo yesterday and the staff were totally useless. No pride in their work at all. Clearly they are all wishing they could commute to Cardiff.

i didn't hear her but the open letter from various CEOs seems pretty sensible. They're just saying let's avoid taking on an extra £100B in debt by deferring the inevitable, and we'll do our best to pick up the slack with jobs. And they are taking on the risk that the economy falters and their sales slow.

I just had to check out those warming machines for wipes! Hysterical. I can just imagine DH's face if I rocked up with one of those!