AIBU to be saddened by this

[SerenityNowakaBleh]

[girds loins for AIBU]

So, in the next few weeks, we are going to get someone in for work experience. This person is the child of one of the managers. The manager admitted that:

• Child has absolutely no interest in going into this field in any way shape or form; and
• Is a bit stupid, so we must be careful not to use big words (I am not joking).

Now, this is work experience in a financial institution. Granted, not everyone's cup of tea, but surely, somewhere out there, there is someone more deserving of this? A fifteen year old who has some interest in this area, is intelligent and hard working, only didn't have the benefit of being sprogged by a senior manager?

Did he actually use the word 'stupid' about his own child .

Hmm, depeneds.

I'm not really against dad bringing in kid for a week's work experience - even if kid isn't remotely interested in working there. Kids aren't usually interested in work experience in a shop or a bank or whatever. They mostly want to be pop stars and astronauts, don't they? It'll probably do him a lot of good in the long run, though, and besides, don't kids have to do work experience in Year 10? they have to go somewhere, don't they?

I do take issue with proper internships, graduate traineeships and actual paid work going to people's kids / mates, though.

also at him calling his own child 'thick'

I see where you're coming from,but I know from friends who have teenage kids that it can be really difficult to get them in somewhere for work experience. I think a lot of mums and dads just bring them into their own workplace out of desperation, even though they know the child has absolutely no interest in being a solicitor or an insurance clerk or whatever. Added to that, a lot of kids have absolutely no idea whatsover what they want to do, or as already said, have totally unrealistic ideas ie model, singer.

More controversially (possibly, depending on your viewpoint) - the manager isn't the father, but the mother

And yes, she has called him thick on numerous occassions.

Surely you all drink tea and coffee at work?

It makes no difference if he's doing work experience in a bank or a brothel- he will be an expert tea maker by the end of the placement.

Having been a form tutor for Y10, I can't imagine that a) there are any other students desperate for a placement in a financial institution and b) he's nicked the only one.

A lot of boys end up working with their parents because they can't be arsed to organise a better placement.

YANBU. I used to be a solicitor at a mega-huge firm in the City, the kind of place most deserving candidates would kill for a placement at. Who got all the places do you think? Yep - friends of the partners, and/or children from very privileged backgrounds (Eton etc.)

Now I'm not saying that all of those children didn't deserve those places, but when you spoke to most of them they really hadn't a clue of the value of what they'd been given. In the 10 years I worked for the same firm, I can't recall a single person from a bog-standard comprehensive getting a placement. Maybe they just didn't know the placements were available, I don't know. Of course it's possible for someone from that background to get on - I went to a bog-standard comprehensive - but no-one gave me a leg-up.

Some of them were hard-working and pleasant, sadly many of them were snobbish, lazy and useless. It made me so sad tbh.

At my son's comprehensive school doing work experience with a parent was activly discouraged and the kids were encouraged to try and fix things up themselves. however so far as I know none of them got any WE at city institutions. Not sure how much they benefit from such an environment at 15 anyway. Surely the main point of work experience is getting there independently, being polite to strangers without having peers and teachers to support, punctuality etc rather than the actual job?

My DS went to a small local house building firm where they gave him a fantastic experience of how a small business is run. A couple of days with the guys who find sites and get planning for development, a couple of days out and about with the builders, a day in accounts and a couple of days seeing how they sell the finished product. He learnt loads.