Went for a job and got offered a cleaner job instead I feel miserable.

[Aw4foxsake]

I applied for a job working checkouts and everything went well they asked me if I would be interested in a cleaning job and that I could sort of have a dual role where I could clean and do the tills but the starting pay would be less but it would allow me to have extra hours when I'm free.

Went to the contract signing and it's just the cleaning job that has zero chance of extra hours and I will not be put on checkouts.

I have to take this job as my hours have been radically cut from my previous job so I'm left with no choice right now.

I feel like this is a step backwards as for the last 2 years I've been working tills. Which was a step backwards from my previous job as a graphic designer.

To make it worse I feel like I'm being discriminated against because I have a child since they said " we feel like this job would provide better flexibility with your commitments"

My availability is during school 9-3pm and 5-10pm and weekends are fine. I also share custody with my son's father who works 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off so I have him when he is away working and he has him when he is home. So I can work any hours when my son is away. I can't find a job that is willing to work with my availability which I think is pretty reasonable.

I've been trying all of the shops but no one is willing to hire me. All of the office jobs in my area start at 8am and finish 5/6pm but I would have to pay for a childcare space that would go unused 1/2 the time.

I'm miserable and I will have a really really low income with no opportunity to even make more.

Am I just overreacting I've been crying ever since I signed the contract. I wanted to learn how to drive I will not make enough money to even learn it will cover the cost of our food without much left over. I feel like once people see I've been cleaning on my CV they will not hire me for anything more.

What do you think ?

How do they know you have a child? I never share private information like that at a job interview, even if it seems like they’re just being chatty and informal. it’s none of their business.

Because she has them for 3 weeks when he is away then he has them for the next three weeks when he is home. That’s fifty fifty in my view?

YANBU. That sucks. And they’d never have done that to a man 😡

Don’t worry too much about it being on your CV, you could always leave it off and say you had a career break.

Long term, if you have graphic design skills, I’d suggest you keep searching sites like Indeed for paid remote rolls where you could do a bit of graphic design work in the evenings etc. But I know you have probably done that, and that it’s incredibly hard.

My parents’ generation, women were automatically fired when they got married. So women protested and the law changed. But many employers still seem to think that if someone is a mum, that means she can be treated like crap and will still be grateful to do any work, no matter how low status and poorly paid. Makes me livid. (A couple of my friends were fired because they got pregnant, the employers didn’t care that it’s illegal and knew my friends had no money to sue.)

In future I’d suggest in interviews that you don’t mention family if possible, and if you’re put on the spot and asked directly, maybe lie and say that you have fantastic flexible childcare provided by family.

You WILL get a better job eventually. This is just a blip.

Fuckers. Keep looking for a job and if you’re worried but need to take it then just leave it off your CV. can you freelance GD for your spare hours? Join freelance groups on LinkedIn etc as a way of getting back into it x

In that case, she definitely should go back to office life!

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OP YANBU but 'I feel like once people see I've been cleaning on my CV they will not hire me for anything more.'
I don't think this will be the case at all. It will show that you are dedicated and tenacious.

FWIW I worked for years and years in a job where I both cleaned shitty vomity toilets and was customer facing. Much of the time I preferred the toilets.

I'd be pissed off that they told me one thing at interview - it sounded quite sneaky dishonest on their part, but if you do take the job, be persistent about moving to tills once you get down the line a bit.
I know it's a financial hit for you, but I wouldn't have been happy occasionally doing tills on a lower cleaning rate.

Of COURSE it's a prospective employer's business if you have a child or not.

Why? Is it their business if you have a dog, or an elderly relative, or a step-child? Do dads get asked at interview whether they have kids?

As far as I’m concerned, my CV and relevant experience is their business. My availability for the hours, expectations and flexibility they have set out in the job description is their business.

Anything else is not.

If they offer you a different job than the one you applied for because you have a child, they’re discriminating against you.

Why would you leave it off your CV? It's not a slight on you, it's an indictment of a society where skilled, talented single mothers get stuck in a poverty trap. Write 'retail employee' and leave it at that. I wouldn't have even thought it so unusual in the creative industries - there are thousands of people with doctorates, artists, actors, writers who are working as baristas, waiting tables, working in call centres. I'd even say a slightly unorthodox CV reflects well on you, it shows that you aren't relying on the support of a wealthy family and are prepared to go out and graft to provide for your own. I knew a woman who worked as a cleaner when she was trying to break into journalism, she ended up as a current affairs producer on the state broadcaster, so it clearly didn't do her prospects any harm.

@Thosepeskyseagulls

Why? Is it their business if you have a dog, or an elderly relative, or a step-child? Do dads get asked at interview whether they have kids?

Yes. DH has always been asked. So has my brother. And many more men. It's a myth that men are never asked if they're married and have kids. (at job interviews...) Of course they are!

Also, of COURSE they are going to be more interested if a WOMAN has kids, especially school age/small kids, because she is far more likely to be the main caregiver to the kids, and is more likely to be called home by the teacher/childminder/grandparents etc.

Don't even TRY to pretend that's not true.

Funny how all this shit happens with women (in stereotypical 'female' jobs!) And never MEN (in stereotypical MALE jobs!)

In more stereotypical male jobs like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, builders etc etc, imagine saying to an electrician that goes for a job as an electrician, at a big company like a housing association... 'I would like you to make the teas and coffees several times a day for all the office staff, and do the washing up, and clean the kitchen, and hoover the carpets throughout the offices.. And when it's busy, serve people at the counter...'

Most men in these kind of blue collar professions would tell the person saying that to fuck off to the far side of fuck - and would walk off pissing themselves laughing. And quite rightly so.

Then again this would never happen ... because nobody would ever ever ever say this to any man who was in any kind of blue collar profession - OR white collar profession ... It's only ever to women that this kind of stuff is said. 'You must pick up other tasks that are fuck-all to do with your job, and what you are qualified for.'

As I said, this would never have happened pre 21st century.

Don't do it. My DS accepted a 'split duties' job because one of the jobs was in a field he wanted to pursue and promised to increase his job knowledge to 'journeyman' status. The other was basically unskilled labour. Once he started working they kept reducing the hours at the job he wanted and increasing the unskilled job (based on 'the needs of the business) until he was basically getting no time at the 'learning job'. After a year and many promises of increased house he's finally found a better job in the field he wants to study.

Being on the tills is the same as cleaning so I don't get the lower wage, both are unskilled work.

Try doing your own business as a graphic designer things will get better

Your use of capitalisation for emphasis is aggressive, unnecessary and annoying.

Of course I’m not going to “EVEN TRY” and pretend that women aren’t generally the primary caregivers with more cognitive load and more caring responsibilities in the UK.

But the employers have no right to make this assumption and no right to ask probing questions about it. And I certainly won’t be volunteering it in a job interview. In the past, I’ve been to interviews without an engagement or wedding ring on in a particular sector because people make assumptions about women of a certain age. And yes; I got the job.

If they ask what I do in my free time I tell them about my hobbies.

I understand your difficulties but the hours your available aren’t great.

OP - look for an office based job and factor into your income that the childcare will have to be paid for all year round, not just the 3 weeks you have dc. get your career back on track.

I would also talk to your ex about his work pattern - it doesn’t fit with family commitment, 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off ruins your employment opportunities and why should you not have a career so he can? Would he pay half the childcare? If he had a normal job and you shared 50/59 time during the week, you could easily find a job that fits, but short of getting the same job as him on the alternative shift, in order for him to have your dc 50% of the time you have to shoulder 100% of childcare costs.

Why should you be the only one who’s career is effected by having ds?

I think that a good cleaner is worth his/her weight in gold, nothing can run efficiently without cleaners (e.g. hospitals/schools /offices).
Why not set yourself up as a cleaner and choose the hours that you want to work?

This

This!!

So what if she doesn't drive. So judgey

Can you afford to NOT take the job without resorting to benefits
If not I don't think you have a choice but although you take the job it doesn't stop you applying for other jobs.

I’m not judging the not driving. But being able to drive allows you more flexibility and places you can go, travel for work. Not to mention all the god damn strikes and then unreliability, train tickets being expensive. British weather is atrocious, I don’t want to be stuck in cold weather in the rain with my children waiting for the bus/train. I’d rather much have them in the car with be warm and have the heating on.

And OP wants to learn to drive, hence mentioning the cost of learning to drive

well I wouldn't want to do it. It depends on how much you need the money I guess.

But jobs within school hours are notoriously difficult to get, except for actual jobs in schools which are super popular. It is a fact (not a good one but a fact) that if you want to work then you have to pay for wraparound care, and school holiday care - and the fact that your DP is here 3 weeks out of 6 is irrelevant because no provider would accept a 3 weeks on 3 weeks off arrangement for childcare.

Other posters mention freelance graphic design which sound worth looking at . I was self employed when the kids were younger - not the thing for me long term but the income was just about good enough and everything was on my own terms and I got 80% of it done during the school day, the rest after they went to bed.