To not be able to sympathise a financial situation?

[Rudechoob]

Ok, my friend called me up And had a whinge last night saying as she has started work part-time (16hrs pw) as she refuses to be away from her 2kids any longer. She now has to start contributing towards her rent £130 a month towards a 3bed house. She has her wage and tax credits etc etc so she isn't struggling as such. Shes always clothes shopping even able to book a holiday during school holidays!

She wanted sympathy.

I didn't have it, i was pissed off. Me and DP currently work 42-46hrs a week each (he has his own business and takes a minimal salary) and we are struggling, no benefits no hand outs, nothing soon as my wage goes in 90% is on bills, rent etc. Dp does the food shops, pays loan etc...its all even.

I snapped and told her welcome to the real world...its a struggle etc etc and how if she can book a holiday she can't be that hard up...and she flipped calling me jealous etc.

Sorry for fucking being honest!

I'm sorry but to complain about having to pay £130 for rent?!???

But we cant afford jack shit, no holidays, new clothes,

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Perhaps not, but I am.

[expatinscotland]

Yes, the ol' competitive work. I work harder than you. No, I work harder than you. No chance, I'm a donkey. Yawn.

[Stripyhoglets]

I didn't mean my comment that she would be at the mercy of the universal credit system to be a comment indicating I think UC is in any way a good thing or its good thing that she will be - because I don't! I meant that one benefit to you of being self sufficient is that you don't have to worry about this and it's stressful to be relying on benefits that may change at any minute.

[SouthWestmom]

I don't care about who works harder on an individual basis . I can't stand the usual mumsnet rhetoric that minimum wage / part time workers work sooooo much harder than management/office workers etc. It's not true and it's disingenuous.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

No it's not noeuf it's true a huge amount of the time.

A lot of paperwork providing you have the knowledge to do it is always going to be easier than the type of physical stuff most NMW employees do,

You are more likely to have employers who follow the law you are less likely to be verbally abused or attacked.you are less at risk of a serious injury or the type of injury that occurs from not being allowed to sit down in your place of employment granted you may have work related stress but you are far less likely to experance the type of stress that comes from a zero hours contract or no notice shift change or just being treated like a ten a penny human being.

[SouthWestmom]

We shall just disagree then. I doubt very much there is any conclusive data, just subjective experiences.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

If you genuinely feel that you are at risk of the things I mentioned before and you work for a reputable company you should speak out and access the support the company offers to protect you from it, it would be quite unusual for a company that wishes to attract high quality qualified staff to not have polices to deal with it.

[Atenco]

I worked out fairly quickly that the more money I get paid the less work I actually do

And the more respect your bosses give you, etc. etc.

When people complain about having to work I picture them shelf-stacking or at a supermarket check-out, not doing a job like mine.

[SouthWestmom]

Sock - if that's to me I think you are deliberately missing my point. I totally disagree about the 'working harder' claim you made.

As I said, we can agree to disagree.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Sorry I must have misunderstood I thought you were disagreeing about the work conditions

[AlleyCatandRastaMouse]

Sock many very well paid jobs have similar issues to the ones you mention, my many years working on building sites have thrown up a lot of examples of what you describe. Plenty of verbal abuse on building sites and obviously they are hazardous work environments by their very nature. Also many minimum wage jobs are absolutely fine, working in retail , working in a coffee shop, waiting tables in a restaurant were all fine in my experience. I think it is fair to say that different jobs present different challenges but I really do not think your generalisation applies.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

It's quite fine for me to state what my experance of my employment history is and what I do on a day to day basis, which if my memory serves me correctly is what my original comment was about.

if you get a little upset about the very thought that someone who gets paid a lot may percieve that they don't work very hard they just work like most other people because normal working is well normal then I apoligise.

Only you get to decide if you graft your fingers to the bone or just work

[Flowerpower41]

Perhaps she hasn't got a car. They just eat up money.

I am a single parent and what with childcare and car running costs always keep me relatively hard up. I have had no holiday for years on end but I don't like camping and roughing it so possibly many others won't mind that sort of arrangement. I would rather stop home instead.

She may just be skilled at finding bargains. Some people are. She may have got the holiday with vouchers/groupon etc. I don't use those things so am pretty clueless.