To think my colleague has messed it up for herself?

[TwistedBirkenstockBlister]

So until recently I worked with a lady I got on well with. I was a permanent staff member and she was agency. She was on a significantly higher wage (due to being agency) even though we were doing the same job.
I heard on the grapevine that her time was almost up (part of a push towards getting rid of agency) and they were going to advertise her job as a permanent position. I tried very hard to get her to apply but she said over and over that she wouldn't work for such a low wage. I kept trying to 'sell' the good parts of the job, like it was local to her and school hours and there was room for progression.
When they recruited and told her that they weren't going to need her after a month. She reacted badly, getting angry and acting as if the company had been disloyal to her. I think she thought that they'd change their mind and offer her a huge salary to stay. They didn't.
We've stayed in touch and I've been sending her many jobs but she's not interested unless they're really good money, school hours and in her local area! She also keeps asking me if there's any jobs going at ours and there are but a lot are internal. I think she would have done much better to apply for the job, take a pay cut and then waiting for a secondment or promotion (which happen quite frequently.) Instead she's unemployed and has no contacts within our company anymore.

It depends on the job and the size of the pay cut. In banking agency staff can easily earn 100-500/day and if good can switch employers easily so it makes no sense to ever go for a permanent job unless you go for a really senior role.

In education agency staff often only earn a pound or two an hour more than perms and so a pay cut is more feasible.

I'm always encouraged by people who refuse to grovel to employers who expect more work for less money and 'loyalty' on top.

Well your sense of admiration is warped. look at this lady now, unemployed and miserable.

It depends, logically yes it would have made sense for her to apply for a permanent position (which she may not have got, maybe she would have been embarrassed?). Depending on the industry, agency where I used to earn could take home about £30k more a year after paying tax, absence insurance and factoring in some time off. That's quite a substantial amount. I wouldn't spend time helping her as she is capable of looking surely.

Why doesn’t she continue doing agency work?

Honestly? I'm not sure why you're getting so involved?

Like another has said, yes she was incredibly short sighted not to apply for the job. Everyone knows that agency jobs are temporary until permanent vacancies are filled. However you seem over invested in her situation. She is a fully grown person who is responsible for herself. I would stop sending job vacancies. She has all day to find suitable jobs.

Why are you worried about her getting a job? She is the only one that really knows what she wants, knows the salary she needs and she has to find and apply for her own jobs. I don't see why you are taking on the load of her job situation which is largely of her own creation. I'd be concentrating on my own role and not over-investing in someone who either doesn't need the money or can't be bothered.

Why are you that bothered? She was agency. She's left. End of.

I'm not sure she's really grasped the concept that the reason agency staff are paid more is to compensate for the lack of job security.

I wouldn't keep sending her job adverts though (unless she's asked you too). I'm sure she can look for herself and it might get a bit irksome.

Stop looking for jobs for her, she's got the time to do it herself. You tend to have to leave these types of people to it and accept they have a different outlook. It's not your fault she can't see the wood for the trees.

I have a friend who thinks this way and she's been out of work for the majority of time I've known her.
I just don't understand her logic at all. She refuses to travel more than a set distance to work (ie 10-15 mins) despite having no commitments. I commute 4-5hrs per day for my job yet she appears angry that she can't get the same by doing a 10 min commute around the corner.
She always works for agencies yet complains she doesn't have job security and she's even bought a puppy so that she has an excuse not to have to go into full time work. She lives entirely off her husband who doesn't have a fantastic wage and I have no idea how he puts up with it.

I've got to the point where I don't even mention work as I can't put up with her excuses why she can't manage to hold down a proper job.

She has asked me to and I've sent her a lot that she's applied for. Her last text to me read 'that one in a school looked good but only £9 per hour, I'm not working for that' baring in mind that it was in a school so she would have school holidays off and finish at an earlier time.
I don't mean to be rude but her skill set is similar to mine (except she had five years out when her kids were small and I didn't) so why she thinks these jobs are beneath her I don't know.
I wouldn't be so involved but everytime I see her at the school gates she tells me that she's struggling and the agency don't have anything local, between 9.30 and 2.30 and how mean were my company for not keeping her on, completely oblivious to the fact that they couldn't have carried on paying her £13 per hour when they could get someone in the post tomorrow for £9 as it's flexible and school hours.

@Doormat247 Completely agree! I know a few people like that. My BiL wants a job but doesn't drive, lives in the middle of nowhere and won't get a bus. I asked him what he plans to do and he says he wants something he can walk to. Where? There's only a newsagents and a barbers in walking distance!
Also my colleagues at my old place who were all miserable but refused to leave as the job was very local to them. It's either so bad that you care enough to commute or you don't move jobs and stop moaning!
I can't stand people who don't realise that you are responsible for your own happiness!

Add sick pay, maternity leave, holiday pay, pension to the wage, it's a lot. Some job security is worth something and other employment rights, training etc after months or a year in the job.

Why do you send her jobs! id just distance myself from her.

let her find her own way op, it is far better for her

she must have had a job before she worked with you, she is capable of finding work.
just be a listening ear but do nothing op, let it wash over you.
we had an agency worker who was offered a contract but couldnt do the core hours they wanted, they offered to keep her as agency but she threw a complete hissy fit, some people need to learn self control

She's not your problem.

Her attitude explains why she's unemployed

I would stop sending her anything! She has plenty of time to look for her own job!

This is my problem. I always get too involved.

This would frustrate me too. If it was such crap money she could still have worked while applying for all these super convenient yet lucrative other jobs that are bound to come up.

She will never see it as her fault.

@CalamityJune I know. Plus in my company you just have to prove yourself and then you can move up. I've got an interview next week for the next grade up, which is an hourly wage she would have been happy with. I've only been here less than a year! You can move up quite quickly.
I've been on a much better wage but I love what this job gives me. I can walk to work and do the school run every day. Plus it's relatively easy, although you have to at least be willing to work on some times. My colleagues partner worked from home and yet she always said no to working any extra, even though they could have picked up once in a while.

@TwistedBirkenstockBlister wow your BiL's situation is ridiculous. Why would you leave yourself 0% chance of ever getting a job? .
I don't know how these people think at all. My friend I mentioned has also quit because she wasn't allowed to park outside the doors of the building anymore and she felt slighted for being asked to find another space in future (no mobility/health issues). Quit because they asked her to go to the bank round the corner once a week and she doesn't like carrying money. Quit because they wouldn't let her take 3 months off to go to Australia .

I don't know whether she just has no work ethic or if it's down to a serious illness she had when she was a child and she expects an easy ride for the rest of her life (probably a mix of the two).

if you move up a grade op, perhaps she can have your old job?

but, no, dont engage

@TwistedBirkenstockBlister also, your job sounds great. She's really missing out if she can't see those opportunities you've mentioned could

Posted too soon
... could sort out her situation within a year or so.
Seems she's blind to the opportunities because it isn't happening this very minute.