I don’t know anyone with a job!

[IdaClair]

Talking to my DC about career and jobs and what they might do when they are older, chatting away to the youngest one yesterday and realised they didn’t actually have much concept of an actual employed job. Let alone how you might go about getting one and all the rules and regs around being employed - they had no concept of things like hourly pay, salaries, pay day, annual leave, promotions, interviews. They didn’t know what sick pay was. Which is fine, they aren’t at an employable age yet and I’m covering it but it I was scrabbling around trying to think of anyone we know personally who has an actual employed job they could talk to and drawing a blank.

I started resorting to using their school teachers as examples of a traditional workplace with rules, hierarchies, hours, benefits, etc.

Everyone they know has their own business, or has a trade, or is self employed, or makes and sells something, or is retired, works in some other way or in some combination of these things, and because all the conversations they’ve heard surround that, they haven’t gained any idea yet of anything employment related.

I’m not the best expert on it myself as I’ve never been employed in anything other than casual work and that’s years ago now. Will this be something school will cover? Is it something I need to teach them?

I think it's not a big deal or something they'd need to learn about specifically they'll just learn about it as they go along, when they're old enough try and find them a weekend job that will give them an idea of traditional employment

I think it's something you learn once you are employed.

Finances and job skills will be covered in PSHE lessons but not in a huge amount of detail that they are likely to remember when it actually comes to working. We used to have a bank come in and do outreach work and they did sessions in Pay Slips and deductions, Pensions, Savings etc. However most children don't remember things they have been taught by the time they reach adulthood if it's not something that interests them and just have an awareness of the Tudors, or Inspector Calls or whatever the subject is and the finance and work related things are like that.

Prospects, UniFrog (covers University and careers) might be useful and many bank offer free on online financial literacy courses

You can pick it up yourself (I did!) but I'd recommend looking at part time jobs as teens - much better figuring out pay/tax/hierarchy/how the world works that way than a harsh lesson in their first 'corporate job' (if that's what they want to do!)

Those who are retired would have an idea. You really don't know anyone who is employed by a company/organisation? Nhs? School? Bank? Shop?

I grew up like this and I remember hearing about Human Resources, marketing, facilities management and things like that for the first time when I studying A-levels and browsing through prospectuses for university.

IME schools don't teach it, and I think that it DOES matter. I had no idea about this stuff when I was leaving school - even things later on like DH ended up working his way up in a company from customer service to different bits of management and I had no idea that these distinctions even existed. I think it put me at a huge disadvantage because there was an entire world I'd never even considered for jobs, I just sort of wrote off all office work as "that looks boring" but I didn't think about what might actually be involved in jobs like that. I kept chasing glamorous-sounding but not very realistic careers like art and design and then wanting to pivot to things which need a whole load of training like social work and being a bit lost and not really knowing what to do with myself. I've ended up not really doing anything much other than being a mum and doing some part time work every now and again. We did a mock job interview at school and I did well with that but have now totally lost my confidence because at my age most people are much more experienced with work and at interviews.

Yes I did get the basics about minimum wage and holiday and sick pay just from my own casual work, but that was about it really. Also I was forever forgetting to use up my holiday when I did work because I tended to work around everyone else's needs anyway. I am being a bit of an ostrich about my pension because I know I've left it too late (and frustratingly I remember receiving a letter about pensions at about 16 and my mum laughing and saying "You don't need to worry about that yet!" )

What about asking around in more of an extended network kind of thing e.g. people's husbands/partners/siblings? Your own more distant family members?

Local businesses? Go in and ask if they would have anyone who would speak at DC's school or offer advice/a shadowing experience during half term perhaps (depending on DC age).

Keep an eye out for careers/HE fairs or events.

How old are they? Presuming they are school age could you not get a job then your problem would be solved

I’m not sure me getting a job would help. I’d be thinking more along the lines of giving my DC a job in my business. Which is happily a successful one. Or they could work in their Dad’s business instead.

You do know that not having a job doesn’t equal being unemployed?

If this is the case that you and DP own businesses then you have the ability to teach them about finances when their older think about how you can get them employed with the other employees?

What does your personal network look like?

My network is lifestyle roles, family businesses and very few with set hours or pay or corporate structures.

Farmers, publicans, childminders, run a wildlife rescue charity, freelance journalist, self employed decorator, plumber, electrician. Holiday lets, have a campsite or yurts. One teaches knitting, one is a comedian, one makes cheese, one has a martial arts centre for kids, one is a mountain walk leader. A lot of them “live above the shop” literally or figuratively, with very little line between working and living. Bakers, greengrocers, butchers, cake decorators, hairdressers, bar and cafe owners. And many of them do more than one thing, and are down the farmers market every Saturday selling their crafts and produce. I’m going to start asking about employees.

You have an awesome bunch of mates!