To think, minimum wage, minimum effort

[angelos02]

If you think all I am worth is the absolute legal minimum you can pay me then you will get the absolute minimum I can get away with. Common sense really.

Your lucky to have a job op especially paying that figure!

Really

Not true I hate this think you pay peanuts and get monkey argument

I can name many companies namely the BBC were the mangers get paid mega bucks and I can safely say we have monkeys and put fuck all effort in

My comment 'pay peanuts get monkeys' wasn't an insult to nmw workers of which I'm one but a comment on attitudes towards us.
The OP said minimum wage, minimum effort...for a lot of workers it is a case of minimum wage, do expected level of task and no more..
I have always personally 'gone the extra mile' extra hours unpaid, breaks not taken, collect stock from other branches on days off...I rarely get a thank you! I have some regular customers who have said I ought to get a 'proper' job
In retail customers often treat us with contempt. The equation is that if you do a NMW job it is because you are too stupid to do anything else!
Opportunities for progression are few and far between...if you are good at your job you will be kept in that position.
Employers, and by that I mean the big retailers, rely on the benefits top up to keep employees.
I also agree that if you increase NMW all other costs and wages further up the chain will increase accordingly to keep that differentiation.

Joysmum trust me when I say that working my tea breaks would not have presented me with any opportunities.

I have plenty of self r espect.I respect myself enough to not submit to demands over and above those for which I receive my pay.My time is valuable.

People do work in isolation, of course they do.I have been sole employee.There was no promotion to Chief Loo Cleaner going begging.Not everyone works for big companies.

I think littledrummergirl has the right idea.

I think this is why service is bad in some areas

Bedtime - the NMW, when inflation adjusted has dropped in the last five years. It means that people are actually about a £1000 worse off than they were in 2008.

The UK is way down the list by comparison to other countries.

How can it be high, when a full time worker still has to claim tax credits?

Boaty has it with the distinction between not making any effort for MW, and not going above and beyond. I had a presenteeist manager in my last job who complained to me about a colleague "she comes in, works really hard for her exact hours and then goes home"! The colleague had a deadline to pick DC up from nursery so staying late was not an option.

For me it has always depended on the job. I worked for a high street chemist on low wage (before MW existed) was immensely bored and just did my work. I was polite to customers though, interaction with people was the only lightening of monotony. I have also worked in care, and gone well above and beyond, because I cared about my clients' wellbeing, and not at all about Boots's profits.

Wow I've just seen that Unlucky thinks a family of four can pay rent, all bills and run two cars for £500 a month. I can only assume that the hairy of hand have arrived and flounce elsewhere.

thatbloodywoman my time is valuable to me too. Working my breaks won't get me any recognition either. It's not even enough to stop some of my colleagues from calling me lazy. It's not going to stop me working hard and giving extra. I just strongly believe it's the right thing to do.

But it's a 'given' that we alll work hard because we need to to keep our jobs.No employer, understandably, will put up with someone who is not fulfilling their contract.

Perhaps it is a problem with your colleagues, rather than you, if they're calling you lazy, useless ?

Perhaps you should take this up with someone.Seriously.

I

Sorry posted that by mistake, was just reading :)

I've figured it must be me since there's more than one of them. I stopped taking my breaks all together to try and prove them wrong but got warned under health and safety rules. I'm entitled to 45min but only take 15 to keep the othe boss happy. I have a bladder problem but have taken to wearing pads rather than going to the toilet . I obsessively check all my monitoring stats at the end of each shift too.

And if all you put in is minimum effort all you'll get out is minimal reward

Oh useless (I don't like using that name) that sounds awful.

I hope you can speak to someone about it (union rep?).

(((Hugs)))

EEating - £500 was after rent ....and yep worked it out - that's what we pay...I can itemise it if you wish
£132 council tax
£125 gas & elec
£30 landlline
£15 house insurance (B&C)
£11.25 tv licence
£37.5 (2 x car insurance (cheap cars, both 5yr + no claims)

£50 petrol
£37.5 (2 x road tax - £225 each per yr - DP is actually less)
£35 MOTs (£200 per yr each - but actually mine was £50 last year but then £120 for new tyres)
Total £473.25 - don't think I've missed anything out but please tell me if I have ...
HTH

The thing is, people want workers to be paid a good living wage, which varies depending where you live, yet on the other hand everyone wants everything so darn cheep nowadays too. Not all businesses are making multi million pound profits, a lot have been trying to break even over the last few years.

I have heard countless times in various shops for instance "I'm not paying that much for that" yet they expect the staff to be on brilliant wages.

Wages are usually a businesses biggest bill and I know in the last 5 years the cost of everything from electricity to raw material goods have doubled for businesses yet are still expected to keep their prices as low as possible or customers will go elsewhere.

If my employer treats me with respect he/she will get respect back. That includes pay, benefits and working conditions.if your job is too badly paid to allow you to save, has no sick pay or pension etc it just takes one accident/serious illness where you are unfit to work to lose your home and get badly in debt. Benefits certainly wont step in to save you. Statutory sick pay barely covers bills never mind a mortgage.

I see a big difference between providing my customers with an excellent service and doing unpaid extra hours for my boss. For a customer I will give the extra mile, but a disrespectful boss I will not. In my experience, a job with low pay and poor conditions will never lead to anything more, and a reference is a standard letter from HR so will add nothing to other applications.

I would rather work for a mean boss that is horrible to my face but appreciates my skills and pays me well, appropriate to the level of my qualifications, rather then a boss that is nice to my face but is really trying to get something for nothing and when the shit hits the fan and I am seriously ill just shrugs and leaves me to it as there are so many other people desperate for a job.

naughty trust me. Working somewhere that they are constantly nasty to you is soul destroying. It is very bad for your health and seriously impacts on your life outside work.

I think they need to raise the minimum wage to at least 7 pounds. 6.50 is a joke.

Why shouldn't a working person house share? I house-shared till I was 28 and very happy I was too.

From what I have experienced, people with the attitude you describe in your OP are usually like it no matter what they do because that is their attitude full stop. They are usually the ones who do the least they can possibly get away with, take the piss quite often and do the most moaning and complaining. Then they expect their boss to pat them on the back and tell them how grateful they are to have them.

Of course you could flip it around and say "mimimum effort = minimum wage"

We have friends with a son like this - threw away any chance he had of getting qualifications (couldn't be bothered) and now whines because nobody will pay him much

To be fair, even with a bunch of certificates a lot of jobs pay rubbish to start with; the key is to put some effort in to move ahead