To take a job with the DWP even though I will lose friends

[Sunsnet]

I currently work a minimum wage job in retail. It's long hours, exhausting and for really shitty money. Sometimes I earn less than minimum wage as I'm salaried and not entitled to overtime.

I've just been offered a job with the DWP. I'll earn 50% more, have a WAY better pension plus more benefits. I'll even be able to work fewer hours so I can spend more time with my family and STILL be better off than now. BUT, I have friends who think the DWP is immoral and by working for them I will be implicit in that immorality.

I agree that the way the DWP works at the moment is immoral, but surely we need good people to work there to ensure that people who need the help and are entitled to it actually get it. Or am I just clutching at straws to justify my position?

I have one friend in particular who says they will never speak to me again if I take the job. This friend is independently wealthy and never needs to work again, I am not. I do not own property, have a family to support, I'm a single parent and I have no qualifications so have no hope of a better job.

Would I really be that awful a person to sell out and take this job?

It's very easy to get on your moral high horse when you're independently wealthy.

Take the job. Ditch the friends. No one in their right mind would make a friend, knowing how much better off you will be, make that kind of choice. Especially not if they value the friendship.

Ultimately, this job is going to give you more money, more flexibility and time to spend with your family, better progression opportunities, better pension and I am going to guess better holiday entitlement.

It'd be foolish to turn it down because someone who doesn't have your best interests at heart gave you a ridiculous ultimatum.

Take the job.
Your friends are not putting food on your table.

I did a summer job with the employment service a million years ago now, there were many dickhead jobsworths but a lot of lovely people too.

OP won’t be setting the policies of DWP. Direct your anger at politicians

Definitely take the job. Your friends are being stupid

I get their point in the way dwp treat people is disgraceful. And there are some awful staff. But as long as you go in with the value of treating everyone kindly and as fairly as you can, using discretion where you can, then go for it

If this is real,

take.the.job.

Or repent in financial hardship at your leisure

Of course take the job, but whether you do or not, ditch the 'friend' anyway

The DWP isn't going to get any better if good people are told they will automatically be arseholes if they go to work there. It is possible to be a DWP employee who treats people with kindness and fairness, but if we pretend that's not true you'll end up with an organisation entirely staffed by the sort of people who impose sanctions for a laugh.

Take the job. You need to put yourself first.

Also remember that the DWP will soon be under the leadership of a Labour government and could be a completely different/less hostile environment then...

The DWP is hardly a tobacco or arms company! They're trying to implement poorly thought through policy in a bureaucratically difficult way. The people there aren't bad people doing bad things. You should take the job and better your situation and hopefully have better people trying to do better things at the DWP.

*jay55

Take the job.
Your friends are not putting food on your table.*

I love this. You're absolutely right.

My friend started off at DWP and has had a great career in the civil service

Either:
Don't tell them; or
Tell them not to be so bloody silly.
You literally can't afford to turn down a better-paying job. As for the moral police, who would be making sure people got benefits and pensions if the DWP no longer existed?
I've plenty of beef with government policy. Civil servants, not so much.

Take the job.

Once you're in the Civil Service, you may be able to transfer into a different department if you find your work with the DWP troubling. Easier once you've got established there.

Friends might not agree with the choice, but you'd be silly to turn down the opportunity.

I once took a freelance job with a blood sport magazine. The editor even asked me what my feelings were about hunting. I said 'I can be bought'. I needed the job.

What is your main responsibility in your life?

Taking care of your family.

Take the job and if anyone is nasty about it then it's their loss not yours.

It's interesting the assumptions that have been made about what the job actually is @Jasmin1971

Maybe she will be ensuring that your granny gets her state pension and cold weather payments?

Congratulations.

Absolutely take the job. 50% wage incredibly, standard hours, stability and pension.

Your friend won't pay your bills, feed and house you or provide a pension.

You can make new friends with colleagues who have had shitty friends ditch them too.

People who make statements like your friend's are really lacking in decency & intelligence and often the first to make questionable choices themselves. Fuck them, that's not real friendship.

If no-one worked for the DWP then no-one would get their benefits administered would they ? If you are referring to people like PIP assessors then they aren't even employed by DWP but by outside contractors. Most DWP employees are helpful people just doing their jobs. I deal with them every day, ringing up to order forms, asking them to check progress of claims, chasing up UC payments etc and the vast majority are helpful and polite - I'll leave ESA and carers allowance department out of that as they are mostly jobsworths ! What jobs are you actually referring to that someone might not be able to live with themselves doing ? Even roles like work coaches, some are good some not so good but many actually want to actively help people get back to work. they are not all bad.

Why should you care about the opinion of someone who would rather see you struggle than take a perfectly normal job with better pay? She can think what she likes, but if she tries to bully you or make you feel bad about the new job, she's not a true friend.

I can't imagine they'll actually stop being your friends. It's not like you're working for a weapons manufacturer!

Agree with everyone else that says your family comes first.

Easy to hold your high horse morals in a position of privilege, so your "friend" sounds disgusting.

And in a similar way, some people see the job centre as similar. When I'd just got back off "maternity leave" after being discriminated against after telling my employer I was pregnant, I finally caved when my freelancing didn't pick up.

The assessor was SO lovely. He had worked high up but was doing it as he knew he had skills to offer later in life.

He even questioned if I was in the right place mentally to work after I broke down sobbing and was really so, so low and anxious. But he could see I was determined to get work. He basically set very flexible requirements to ensure I had a chance to try freelance too or take a job that would see me signed off.

Within two months I'd got a contract.

You could be that person that makes someone feel less shitty, even if there's no flexibility. And it sounds like you'd treat people compassionately - that, in itself, means you're probably better taking the position.

Sorry, am I missing something? What’s wrong with the DWP? It’s just a civil service job. Sounds great to me by the way. Congratulations!

Why on earth wouldn't you. Makes no sense.

It's not like you're working for a criminal gang but how refreshing for someone to post how much better their working T&Cs are compared to retail, etc.

So many OPs state "I work in the public sector so low-paid". No you're not, go do one of the millions of other jobs that people do for a lot less.

Good luck in your new job OP