about this 'just get a job' malarkey

[boschy]

I am musing aloud here. I have been looking for a part-time job for a couple of months now to supplement my freelance income. I don't want a full-time job, I've already got a freelance role. But I would like a 'proper' job for various reasons - more money, more social interaction, more structure, less precarious than freelance etc. We currently receive no benefits (apart from CB) although if I can't increase my income we might be able to claim WTC. I would prefer a job.

However, all the jobs in my area are things like care assistant/catering/HGV or forklift driver. I totally respect the people who do these jobs and I very much doubt I have the ability to do any of them (lack of empathy and dodgy back/no culinary skills/no spatial awareness respectively.)

Moving out of the area in order to find a job is not practical (DD1 in Y10 hence GCSEs; costs and time involved in house sale; DH's business is based near here).

So, when people say "there are jobs" or "any job is better than no job" do they really mean that? Should you take a job you will probably be rubbish at, or should you let someone else have that job?

My issue with 'just get a job' is how difficult it is to actually get one, even if you are prepared to do something you hate/would be crap at.

In the past I have applied for jobs online, ranging from minimum pay to a reasonable salary and there have always been loads of people applying for each one. Then there is the lengthy interview process, sorting childcare, rearranging weekends so you are available for shift work, possible relocation, on the job training, cost of travel to and from workplace etc. For a care assistant job I would expect you need a CRB check, for catering, some kind of health and hygiene certificate and for HGV driver you need the relevant licence.

These days it is almost impossible to walk into a job, even if you are prepared to do pretty much anything. My GPs used to talk about how they would walk the streets looking for work and do whatever was on offer. Now, there is no instant, cash in hand work. You have to set up payments into a bank account, even immediate start jobs mean 'in a couple of weeks when you have been vetted and we have done the paperwork'. It is really frustrating.

Luckily I am not in that situation now, but I would definitely say that no, any job is not better than no job, there are loads of factors to consider, and that even if you do want 'any' job, there are probably loads of other who do too!

I can see your point :)

Its not that easy to just find a job these days.

We live quite rurally so the same type of jobs are available here.

I don't know what the answer is really.

BTW, to do the forklift you would need a qualification. you probably wouldn't get it.

Good luck!

What do you mean by 'proper job'? I'm sure those who are 'care assistant/catering/HGV or forklift driver' would see themselves as having proper jobs. In fact, I certainly do.

We all have choices to make. It seems to me your choice are:

1. Stay as you are, maybe claim WTC if you are lucky and/or live with current income.

2. 'just get a job' which you don't like, go through the motions

3. Move.

They all come with ups & downs. Only you can decide. Noone ever guaranteed jobs which you personally consider to be 'proper' would be in your area.

ah niceguy I thought I had been clear - when I say a 'proper job' I mean a job where someone employs me not where I am at the whim of my (various) clients as to whether they need something that month or not.

of course care/catering/HGV etc are 'proper jobs' - in that there is an Employer. I would like to be an Employee!!!

I'm due to be made redundant at the end of the year and I'm saving like mad to hopefully be able to hold out for as long as possible in order to find a job that I'd actually like doing for a change. So I know what you mean OP

Even the jobs some people don't particularly want to do are hard to get. A store opened up near me recently and they had thousands of applicants for about 20 sales assistant jobs.

It's definitely not easy to "just get a job".

Sadly boschy most of the professional women I know that have found themselves looking for work are going for anything now. Childcare, cafe work, shop work, cleaning, you name it.

I agree with you OP. The days of just being able to walk into a job are long gone.

I think, when it comes to care work, I strongly feel that only people with the right disposition should apply for it. I wouldn't want someone who just wanted money, but wasn't cut out for the actual caring bit, to be looking after my nan.

First, you need more confidence in your capabilities. If you are willing to be a forklift driver, don't just dismiss it as no spatial awareness, take a course and see how you do. As for any job better than no job, people are quick to trot that out, especially those who have never had to look for a job. The lower down the skill ladder you look, the more applicants there will be, and as others have pointed out, even those jobs have a serious application process. If you need to claim WTC etc, go ahead and do it until you find a job. That is what it is there for. Good luck.

OK, so should you just take the job you think you will probably NOT succeed at, if you are fortunate enough to be offered it?

Should you even APPLY for the job, knowing that if you were successful you would be taking that job from someone who would be better at it than you?

(take care assistant or child care worker as an example: I am not in the least bit patient and not really that interested in 'people as people' iyswim. There are millions of people who would be much better at that job than I am... but if I sign on to WTC or JSA that would be the kind of job that would be suggested based on surrounding area employment opportunities)

Ah ok Boschy, it wasn't clear to me that you meant you wanted to be an employee.

I've done both and there are ups & downs to both. Being employed means you answer to your boss. He/She dictates within reason what you do, when you do it and often how.

Being freelance means you answer to your client(s). He/she dictates what you do, when you do it and often how. The only difference you can turn the work down but like being employed, it means not getting paid.

If you want to look at employment then nowadays it is often about finding a job you can do and tolerate doing. If you can find a job you love then in the current climate then you are lucky.

We all have to answer to someone.

volvo its not really about confidence. I know the things I am good at, and think I can see ways they can be transferred to other disciplines; but I am not sure that I could ever make a forklift truck driver, on the grounds that I actually cant tell left from right (think that may be a disadvantage...)

I feel your pain and agree completely. Time was when you could go from having but not liking , say a care assistant role, leave on friday, and have a job in a cafe on monday, but now you need nvqs, food hygiene, crb, degree etc etc to eeven be in the running, and they all require you to 'invest in yourself' (and more often than not, that means a financial outlay) that was previously bourne by the employer in employee training and support.

if its a 'tide you over' type job as opposed to a career, that 'investment' is very hard to make. You could end up with a forklift licence, food hygeine certificate, and a skydiving diploma, be £xxxs out of pocket, and still no job! I'm in the same boat with you and it sucks.

If you are already freelance doing one kind of job it would be easy to do a different kind of work freelance (like cleaning or plumbing) but if you're insisting on an employer you would be directed to retail work (Tesco's) or cafe/bar work.

I left work last April when we moved (6 hour commute for an entry level job was a bit much lol). The job I had was the only one available in the area and I was v lucky to get it (extremely rural lol) but it wasn't really anything I am interested in. Pays the bills but doesn't float the boat.

Anyway, after we moved, I saw an ad for the same job here, so I applied and they did offer me the job, but given that we had moved to an actual town, I thought, hang on a minute, I can get a job that I am interested in! So I turned it down.

Needless to say, since then I have been told that I am overqualified for absolutely everything, and no one wants to offer me a job of any description at all. And now I can't even go back to the most recent work I was doing (as a stopgap lol) as I turned that employer down already.

I have applied for everything. Even night shifts.

This is a tourist town. We have seasonal workers in their thousands, but they are all 19 and en route around the world, and stopping off here for either winter or summer. Employers like them because if they are good, they can persuade them to stay for another season, if not, they move on to the next place on their world tour... At 41, everyone is looking at me like I am crazy.

Apparently, my only option is to fictionalise my cv and remove all of my management experience. Which might be tricky, as practically every employer in town has seen it already!

Well, two weeks on. We are eligible for WTC apparently; just waiting for the forms to fill in. Not a huge amount, but it will definitely help.

I am registered with about 12 different online jobs sites, get daily emails updating me on new jobs etc etc. I have managed to apply for 2 in the last 4 or 5 days. One is full-time but in my field of discipline and pretty well-paid; the other is a part-time admin role and not that well-paid (but the hours would suit me much better). No news that I have even reached the next round for either of them.

Trying to work out what the next move should be; need to do some work on my CV to have more tailored versions I guess; and also think about whether I need to get some certificates under my belt (they'd have to be free courses though!!)

god it's hard work....

YANBU. I have applied for many many jobs. Ones that are 'suitable' ie fit with my skills and experience and ones that are more general. Out of the hundreds of jobs I applied for I've had a couple of interviews only to be told afterwards I am 'overqualified'. Why the hell did you interview me then is what I'd love to reply...

I've been offered a job which is about half of what I used to earn. Having worked out childcare costs for two children and commuting costs I'm not sure I'll break even. Wondering whether the stress of juggling childcare for one school aged child and one toddler with all the issues surrounding school holidays, sickness etc justifies taking the job.

I am so bloody sick of the state of the economy in this country. Only a few years ago I could have applied for a handful of jobs and confidently got at least one of them. I have so many well quaified friends who are struggling to get even temporary agency work because of the lack of jobs and the horrendous competition for every job.

yes pokerface I agree - and sympathise. the school holidays issue is not really going away for me either, even tho mine are 15 and 13. I actually dont want to be out of the house 5 full days a week throughout the holidays; I dont think its fair on them, and although they are both really good girls I think it leaves the way open to getting into trouble...

I think it can be very hard to explain to older members of the family (people over 70) why you just cant walk into a job. Because when they were young thats exactly what they did. My mum is 76 and was absolutely disgusted with the idea of workfare when i explained it to her. Choc the fact that a lot of retail companies are using workfare does have a knock on effect to how many paid positions are available.

boschy I agree. I hate the idea of my 6 year old spending her school holidays stuck in a childminders house. Even though the childminder is very nice, my dd obviously wants to be in her own home, in her own room with her toys and not having to be cared for by what is effectively a stranger who has two or three much younger children to care for

I have just been to view a nursery for my toddler - over £800 a month if she attends 3 days a week. Who the hell can afford that unless they have a very very well paid job? I don't qualify for any help towards childcare because my dh has an OK paid job. Not well paid enough though to support 3 other people...

It really, really annoys me when people say this too. Or even worse - "Oh I've always managed to find something when I really needed it".(Grrr, good for you, but jobs have never been easy to come by for me.)

I'm not even currently looking, but it's such an annoying attitude to encounter.

DH lost his job last year. He applied for anything and everything at the job centre, after months of interviews and getting no where he has gone self employed. He hated claiming JSA, and all the stigma that comes with it. He was called a "dole dosser" by everyone, when he was far from it (he worked from the day he left school).
There just aren't the jobs there once was. 9 years ago when DH was made redundant he walked in to a new job 3 days later, and that included the interview time.

No-one should ever take a Carer job if they don't want to care for people.

There are far too many horror stories about Carers who genuinely don't give a shit.