Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Original poster

To think I can't afford principles when I need a job

200 replies

Cookiesagain · 29/11/2018 00:12

Well really i already know I can't be fussy with job applications just now. But just wondering what it's like to do a job you don't feel good about.

Its a civil service job so not criminal or anything like that. But it's with DWP and I know I will not feel good doing it.

OP posts:

BookWitch · 29/11/2018 08:19

My DD works for the Civil Service, not the DWP but another Dept where she gets a fair amount of abuse.

The vast majority of people are decent, working people who are trying their best to deliver a service in mostly quite difficult circumstances. Their computer system for example is so out of date it is simply not fit for purpose and fails daily so she can't do her job. That then becomes her fault in the eyes of the client and she gets abuse.

She wants to leave, but is sticking it out so she can apply for other departments as an internal candidate.

I would go for it OP, see it as a stepping stone to a secure job with a pension etc.

tryinganewname · 29/11/2018 08:24

I have a lot of friends who work for DWP and believe it or not, they absolutely care about their service users. I don't know what type of job you're looking at, the people I know aren't front line, but I hate that people would think that they are vile human beings when they are working very hard.

It's not the staff that's to blame for UC, it's much higher than that.

WeirdCatLady · 29/11/2018 08:32

I have experience of dwp and capita through disability claims for both myself and my dd. So far we have mostly come across decent people who do their jobs properly. I wouldn’t have any qualms about working there. Yes there are arseholes, but you get that in all jobs.

All of the posters wringing their hands and saying won’t someone think of the children etc etc are, imho, spouting nonsense.

OnlyTheWelshCanCwtch · 29/11/2018 08:32

Long term DWP employee here. The work is as challenging as it will ever be.
It depends which section you join
It can be stressful, depressing and soul destroying on times
But you can also make a difference to the lives of people and that is a fantastic feeling

The people you work with are generally an amazing bunch too

It can be hard, but Im not looking for anything else yet

AlaskanOilBaron · 29/11/2018 08:33

There's nothing specifically unethical about the DWP. Do what you want/need to do.

And what's wrong with being a debt collector? The entire system of borrowing and lending relies upon its enforcement.

AlaskanOilBaron · 29/11/2018 08:34

The only thing I couldn't do, really, is work in the arms industry, but then again, I'm sure I would if I had to.

Alfie190 · 29/11/2018 08:35

I do not understand what is wrong with working for the DWP. They are surely just normal people trying to deliver a service. What if everybody refused to work at the DWP because of judgemental twaddle like on this thread.

AdamNichol · 29/11/2018 08:39

I used to work in a UC service centre (call centre).

Most of the news stories you will hear about UC relate ultimately to processing delays or errors. The work you do in the call centre is to fix the errors and minimise the processing delays. You are hardly the enemy there.
There are times when you wish you could do more to help a person, but are restricted in what you can offer. Sometimes policy is to blame for that - but you have not been gifted the powers to change government policy because you think something else is better.
There are targets to average phone call duration (and it is average not an exceed-this-on-one-call-and-be-damned) because there are lots of people in need of help.
You will also encounter plenty of times where you know the person on the other end is spinning every yarn possible to avoid taking any responsibility. The news story about "I was sanctioned for attending a funeral" for instance is more complex than that. The actual events are: person didn't attend their mandatory appointment, when asked they aid they were attending a funeral, they didn't have an answer for why they didn't advise of this ahead of time and reschedule, then they were sketchy on the details about who's funeral it was and any evidence of invite or attendance. That's why they got sanctioned.

TheMythicalChicken · 29/11/2018 08:42

You need the money love. Just grit your teeth and do it. Better then being broke.

oohyoudevilyou · 29/11/2018 08:52

I worked in a similar role years ago. Didn't like the policies, didn't like the rules but felt that my calm manner, ability to articulate information in a way that clients could understand and efficient, correct input of data into the system made things just a little bit better for them.

TheMythicalChicken · 29/11/2018 08:55

That’s a nice way of looking at it oohyoudevilyou.

EtVoilaBrexit · 29/11/2018 08:59

cookieagain a friend of mine has had issues with the DWP. She was most appreciative to the one person she had on the phone (after numerous phone calls) who didn’t stuck to the lines and repeated the same things like a broken record but actually listened to her as a person.
She was most grateful for the information to be passed on to the right person because it made her life sooo much easier.
It wasn’t that much but that person in the call center made her life 100x easier.

You can be that person too. Not just the awful one from The DWP but the one who is helping them sorting some of the problems out.

BishopBrennansArse · 29/11/2018 09:03

I couldn't bring myself to do it. Only you can make that decision though, OP.

BitchQueen90 · 29/11/2018 09:04

I used to work in a call centre in a sales role. It was either that or risk being sanctioned by the job centre and as a single mother I wasn't about to risk it. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

ReanimatedSGB · 29/11/2018 09:12

Bear in mind also there is a difference between taking waged work at a company whose policies, procedures and ethos some people object to, and being in charge of or setting up such a company. One of the reasons I despise that US bloke who 'takes on big corporations' on TV is because he seems to think that ruining the day of some poor front-of-house employee on minimum wage makes him some kind of champion of human rights.

Most of us have some areas we would never work in, and they vary from person to person. And sometimes we would change our minds if the situation was desperate. But starving yourself and your DC to death and losing your home rather than do a day's work for Bastards R Us will not actually impact anyone but you and your DC...

WhentheRabbitsWentWild · 29/11/2018 09:28

When I had to go to the JC , apart from one or two, all advisors were kind, understanding and friendly to me .
I always treat people how I would like to be treated so am kind to them too . They are doing a job and I think you should take it OP . For reasons many have already stated.

Gogreen · 29/11/2018 09:35

I was young and worked with a bailiff company, on my first day I dealt with a call and spoke to the bailiff to let him know what I’d done...he said, ‘ ahhh you must be new to have give him a extension, don’t worry after a few more weeks you won’t even trust your own mother’ I shrugged his comment off, I was young but I knew who I was and that I’m a kind person by heart....well 5 months into the job I left....I couldn’t believe the person I was becoming and I did not like it....I genuinely was turning into a person who belived nothing anyone was saying...I was sort of getting a attitude and along with that a shortness of patience and respect for the people I loved outside of work!!!

I’m not saying this will happen to you, but just be aware....your sorroundings do end up affecting you one way or another.

Hisaishi · 29/11/2018 09:37

"I couldn't bring myself to do it. Only you can make that decision though, OP."

If it was a choice between food for your kids and your principles, you'd be there on Monday at 9 o'clock begging for a job.

FFS people, it's the DWP, not a fucking diamond mine. What companies do you all work for that are so squeaky clean, because basically every industry/company is corrupt as fuck.

sweeneytoddsrazor · 29/11/2018 09:46

It's incredibly easy to say I couldn't do this that or the other when you are speaking from a position of not needing to do any of it. If however you need to put food on the table and pay bills the reality is the majority of people will do what work they can provided its legal. You won't be a twat for working there, you will be a twat for choosing not to take a job if the alternative is UC

SummerGems · 29/11/2018 09:50

A job’s a job. My first job was working as a telesales agent for a double glazing company. I hated every minute of it, but no-one would give me a job unless I’d had a job before and it’s a lot easier to find a job when you’re working.

There are jobs I wouldn’t want to do, working for a payday loan company for one and I didn’t apply for a job as a legacy marketing officer for a charity because I don’t agree with the principle of preying on the vulnerable to get them to leave money to charity in their wills, but ultimately you do what you have to do.

My eXH was headhunted for a job by one of the payday loan companies and said that he just couldn’t bring himself to go for it. But if he’d e.g. been out of work and needed the money I wouldn’t have judged him for it.

It’s very easy to judge people when you’re not in the same position as they are.

And the DWP isn’t exactly working to exploit the vulnerable, and once you’re in work you can always look for something else, you’re not tied to them just because you go to work for them.

Avegemitesandwich · 29/11/2018 09:51

I couldn't bring myself to do it. Only you can make that decision though, OP.

Really? You 'couldn't bring yourself to do it'? How nice to have that luxury.

Avegemitesandwich · 29/11/2018 09:55

Some people are so full of hyperbole.

The DWP will be full of perfectly nice and normal people who are just getting on with their jobs. It won't be like you are becoming a Death Eater or something!

Original poster

Cookiesagain · 29/11/2018 09:56

Those asking what the role is, they are recruiting a number of operational EOs based in job centres. I assume to cope with rollout of UC. So customer facing. (Also recruiting HEOs re compliance/fraud but the job description is awful )

I can't get any help with childcare costs in current role. That's today's battle with dwp. So taking on extra hours might not be affordable anyway!

OP posts:

Letsmoveondude · 29/11/2018 09:57

You know, you may be able to be the best of a bad bunch, you might make peoples experiences better when dealing with DWP

AlaskanOilBaron · 29/11/2018 10:00

I couldn't bring myself to do it. Only you can make that decision though, OP.

What's your job, then?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8