Anyone else annoyed when someone saying 'get a job'

[RUNFAST11]

Before COVID it was still hard to find a job but now it has become more difficult.

Recently, Dispatches showed a programme where there were 947 applications for a waiter role at a Manchester role and the pay was around minimum wage. And the person who got that job was later told they could not be hired due to the new lockdown restrictions.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/business-economics/minimum-wage-restaurant-job-receives-947-applications/02/11/

Unemployment is likely to rise and could reach double figures in 2021. Getting a job is not as easy it was in the past where you could walk in and get hired. Now you have things such as: online applications, Skype interviews, Face to Face interviews, Online tests etc...

^Quite. I trained new checkout operators in half a day. Any reasonably intelligent monkey who is polite can do it, and it’s never been easier to sack someone if they prove themselves not.

“Get skilled” costs time and money. The skills and qualifications you need keep changing, and many won’t let you do the qualifications you need unless you’re doing them on the job. I wanted to retrain in one of the health occupations actually. They’re crying out for health staff. 80k - 100k debt in 40s after not being able to buy a house for 25 years of work, with no part time training or childcare available? Forget it. Nor is there any guarantee you’ll get a job even then.

“But the right clothes” oh yes, that always annoyed the hell out of me. We don’t all have mummies and daddies who’ll buy them for us, I left home with little more than what I stood up in after being brought up in hand me downs. As above, I’ve never had the kind of money you need to waste on one-shot clothes. Men have more leeway than women on this.

Care work? Low pay, Covid death traps, caring for the generations that caused this. Lovely, is this what I’ve worked for my whole life? I may be too old for it now too, what’s the upper age limit for physical work?

People always seem annoyed by retail jobs asking for experience, yet it's perfectly acceptable for other jobs to ask for experience.

A lot of jobs ask for huge amounts of experience to 1) give them some fair way of shortlisting and 2) indirectly make sure they don't take on someone young. I'm old enough (just!) to remember when job advertisements could specify that they wanted someone over 30 and when they couldn't do that any more they just swapped to asking for ten years experience.

*Do you have dc?

How do you manage to change nappies/ clear up sick, if you are so incredibly precious about smells etc??

Honestly, if you did it a few times, you’d just get used to it.*

A baby and a small child especially your own is entirely different than an adult you don’t know. Children and babies are smaller and easier to move and it’s usually not a lot of sick and poo. Easier to dress children compared to an adult. Also, adults can be much more aggressive than babies and small children. Let’s not also forget the dignity factor. Adults who need care want dignity and to be treated like adults and remember what it was like before they needed care. I doubt many want someone who show disgust at when they’re sick or cleaning up their bodily functions. As someone who has done both care work and childcare, have my own children and sensitive to smells, childcare is easier.

Care work isn’t easy and isn’t some job you go into when you’re desperate. People in care need and deserve people who actually want to be there like any other profession especially when it involves caring for people.

My blood runs cold at the thought of people who are entirely suited to care work being forced into home care or nursing homes. The fact that people think it's a job that people should be forced to do says a lot about the contempt with which people view the elderly and disabled. When my elderly father was dying it was very clear to see the ones who were doing it because yes, it was a paying job, but also because they had compassion and wanted to make him more comfortable. The ones who were clearly of the 'anyone can do it, it's not skilled and it's not important to do it right' were the ones who left him screaming in pain and reduced to tears as they humiliated him. Shame on anyone who spouts 'there are plenty of jobs in care if you weren't too lazy to do them'.

Entirely unsuited

I think care work is so undervalued. My DDad died last year and needed care in the last few months of life. I had enormous respect for the carers who not only attended to his needs (changing "nappy" , feeding him, getting dressed etc) while he was alive but also after he died and had a rapport and were sympathetic to us, his relatives as well. I certainly think the mental stress and responsibility as a carer far exceeds many other similarly paid jobs.

It'a much harder finding an employment these days. I remember when I came to the UK you could literally walk into a cafe and get hired, even with little to no english. It was that easy.

Yes. My best friend is a bit like this.
A mutual friends husband has been made redundant and she said 'He will just have to get a job in Tesco by Christmas.' As if it is that easy and straightforward.

I work in employment support (not job centre) and where I am there have been huge amounts of redundancies, jobs adverts have been pulled had wages and terms decreased to then be re advertised.
These are civil service jobs as well as large national employers.
If you want a min wage warehouse, factory or retail role then you can get those with the right application and cv but there are 100s of applications per role so it isn't easy.
My advice would be have a few different cvs specific to the roles you are applying for especially if you are what would be deemed as too qualified. Employers look on this as a sign that you will leave when something better comes along, strangely this seems to still hold true if its a temporary role.
Anyone looking for a job now has my best wishes, it really isn't an easy climate even if there appears to be lots of jobs on paper as I assure you there will be many more people than roles.

I know someone who works on a farm. They prefer Eastern European workers because they work harder and faster. They get paid a wage to fill a certain quota, and any picked above that quota earns a bonus. These guys work their arsed off. Unfortunately whenever they've employed a Brit they haven't even picked enough to meet their Base quota.

It depends on your circumstances.

Age, qualifications, whether you have a disability/health condition. All that will have an impact.

I also wished employers were a bit more flexible. Many will only recruit someone who has done exactly the same job before rather than take into account transferrable skills and the candidate enthusiasm. Then they complain they can't get and retain good employees...

If there are more unemployed than there are positions, those who don’t get the jobs will remain unemployed
This doesn't make sense. It's not static. People become unemployed each month and each month people get new jobs.

Even if there are more unemployed people than jobs each month you don't expect them to be the same people each month.

DH looked at those fruit picking jobs when he was furloughed as we live not that far from a fruit growing area. He doesn't drive and unsurprisingly the public transport to these places is non existent. I'd have had to get up at 4am every day to get him there, and he'd have had to hang around for several hours after work waiting to be picked up when I finish work at 5. Taxis would cost at least half a day's wages. And of course it's highly seasonal so anyone who did it would now be back slogging their way through a UC claim and joining the hundreds of people applying for xmas temp jobs in Tesco. Yes, if you're able bodied and have your own transport and aren't solely responsible for small children fruit picking might have got you through the summer, but let's not pretend it could have had any meaningful effect on the current unemployment rates.

And can we also please please stop denigrating care work as though anyone can do it? It's incredibly sensitive, important work that requires particular personality traits that some people just don't have. I'd do it if I had to but I know that I come across as awkward and standoffish and I'm certain the people I was caring for would be desperately unhappy about it. I can walk into any number of stressful situations on a building site and can talk my way to a good outcome from all sorts of project related problems. I'm certain I couldn't make someone feel comfortable while I helped them go to the toilet. People who need this sort of assistance deserve to feel safe and cared for, not like an inconvenience or like a way to keep the unemployed occupied.

@mrsbyers you complete and utter moron. Have you ever lived on benefits? Are you familiar with how difficult it is and how hard the government makes it? Do you think families can just take any job? You are vile.

[quote winniestone37]@mrsbyers you complete and utter moron. Have you ever lived on benefits? Are you familiar with how difficult it is and how hard the government makes it? Do you think families can just take any job? You are vile.[/quote]
They have been unpleasant, but using a word like moron really isn’t on.

@Nottherealslimshady

And yet we have farmers closing fields full of produce that's going to waste because theres no one to pick it now "all those Europeans coming over here to steal our jobs" cant travel. Maybe it's just the good jobs that get loads of applicants? But I'd hire someone who said "I've even picking broccoli for the past two years because I didn't get any other jobs I applied for" over someone who said "I've been on benefits for the past two years because I couldn't get a job". If you're out of work, you're less employable than someone that's in work, no matter what that work may be.

My friend's DD with a degree in agriculture couldn't get a farm job picking fruit on a nearby farm (walking distance) , despite the fact her Uni course had involved field projects with this employer (so she was familiar with the company, the process, the fruit, the job ).

I don't think it's true there are fields going to waste - show me the evidence.

Recent retail experience is often required because of the pace of technological change. Retail is one of the most high-tech areas these days. Stock is controlled and ordered automatically. Self-serve tills are becoming the norm, as is self scanning via phones/handsets, etc. At tills, you have to deal with different forms of payment, vouchers (paper and electronic), etc. Even layout of stock on shelves is automated/computer planned, so the shelf stacker has to put specific numbers of each item in specific places dictated on their handset, etc. It's a long way from just 5 years ago when many of those things were manual. There is also the relatively recent changes to age restricted goods, health & safety legislation, money laundering regulations, data protection laws, best before/sell by/use by date knowledge and stock rotation etc etc. Someone with recent experience is clearly a lot easier to train than someone who last worked in retail a decade ago. People just don't realise that retail isn't just punching prices into tills anymore.

Fruit picking is also back breaking work for anyone who isn't used to it. The majority of middle aged people simply couldn't do it for more than a day or two.

winniestone37
if it's that bad, accept a real job then...
As repeatedly said on this thread, there ARE a lot more jobs than candidates.

You are spectacularly missing the point, benefits are designed as a safety net, to tide you over until you find your next job - or to help if you become a widow/er or suffer major healthy issue. That's it.

It's not supposed to be a paid holiday.

Another fruit picking related observation:

Back in 2010 in the midst of that massive recession I had just graduated. There were no full time jobs and even scarce temp jobs through the agencies. In the end I had to register as self employed and provide ad hoc secretarial and admin jobs. I earned so little that when I filed my tax I'd get money back because the payg I'd made through the agency was overpayed. One of the companies I worked alongside was a recruitment firm specialised in agriculture and factory. It was solely Eastern European people applying. One day a Brit walked in and it was memorable because it was so unusual. They logged him in the system and said 'great news, we've found a job you can start this afternoon'. He turned it down because it was a sunny day and he wanted to enjoy the rest of it. They never bothered contacting him again. Im not saying they were in the right, but just displaying the kind of work ethic you are expected to have to get into agriculture

@GreyPebbledash

^Quite. I trained new checkout operators in half a day. Any reasonably intelligent monkey who is polite can do it, and it’s never been easier to sack someone if they prove themselves not.

“Get skilled” costs time and money. The skills and qualifications you need keep changing, and many won’t let you do the qualifications you need unless you’re doing them on the job. I wanted to retrain in one of the health occupations actually. They’re crying out for health staff. 80k - 100k debt in 40s after not being able to buy a house for 25 years of work, with no part time training or childcare available? Forget it. Nor is there any guarantee you’ll get a job even then.

“But the right clothes” oh yes, that always annoyed the hell out of me. We don’t all have mummies and daddies who’ll buy them for us, I left home with little more than what I stood up in after being brought up in hand me downs. As above, I’ve never had the kind of money you need to waste on one-shot clothes. Men have more leeway than women on this.

Care work? Low pay, Covid death traps, caring for the generations that caused this. Lovely, is this what I’ve worked for my whole life? I may be too old for it now too, what’s the upper age limit for physical work?

What are ‘one- shot’ clothes?

You do realise you can buy a shirt/ trousers very cheaply from Primark/ a car boot?

You do realise that the Jobcentre give people vouchers to buy an interview outfit?

How exactly do men have ‘more leeway’ on this?

I bet you bought special clothes to wear on nights out when you were young!

Again, am I the only person with a job-dispersion aura?
I am so glad I'm not looking right now as I would be so far up shit creek.
Perhaps it is my AS that is the 'job-removal aura' that I seem to posess?

Jobs have been slowly disappearing. Retail was suffering at the start of the year and after lockdown some closed. Hospitality, travel,tourism have all suffered. My ndn applied on the day of lockdown for a driving job at the supermarkets and all were gone. As for fruit picking the farmers often have teams of pickers who live in caravans on site or nearby and move in groups.

As for care jobs there is the DBS check and training to undergo before being able to commence work. You need to be prepared to study, be trained on handling, medication, dietary knowledge, hygiene and infection control keeping records. CQC inspect care homes and the records they keep. I worked where we had a care registration, and one thing the reports always commented on was how the staff were popular with the residents. But they could still find fault with something. It was immaculately clean, good staff morale and atmosphere.

What are ‘one- shot’ clothes?
Clothes that are kept for very special occasions, perhaps only worn once or twice. I thought it was a clear term, but perhaps not.

You do realise you can buy a shirt/ trousers very cheaply from Primark/ a car boot?
I was talking about the past, but there will be many people in the same situation now. Those sort of clothes are not really the sort you’re expected to wear for many work environments. Primark might be good enough for a retail interview but not higher grade jobs. I had comments to that effect recently in fact.

You do realise that the Jobcentre give people vouchers to buy an interview outfit?

I didn’t as I haven’t had dealings with them for a long time. It’s good to know, but see above. I would not be eligible for their help as I never am: the number who are fall even as the number who need it grow.

How exactly do men have ‘more leeway’ on this?
Generally clothing expectations are a lot lower for men: primark probably would do for them whereas women are held to higher standards. Women’s clothes coat more too. I often buy men’s for that reason (as well as comfort).

I bet you bought special clothes to wear on nights out when you were young.
I really didn’t.

There are too.many.rules, laws and regulations and too much emphasis on paper qualifications .How about repealing some of them?