Russell Brand: the great resignation continues ..

[DaisyStiener]

He’s not wrong is he?
I know he generally is on about USA, but the U.K. - feels like people cannot be arsed to go back to shite jobs with shite pay with shite management?

My DH work is a fairly nice atmosphere.
His bosses are quite reasonable , they get sick pay ,but not much above the minimum wage.
DH has been covering the crappiest part of their office, ( not his job) as the work cannot get or keep staff- they don’t want to be getting hassled for minimum wage.
And DHs bosses have got him thinking that they’re doing him some sort of favour by continuing to employ him?
They’ve NO STAFF

Yeah : f*ck that. If you’re going to take a shitey job role, then at least pay me well

Other side is: I’ve found any service I’ve received recently has been quite bad - staff are outright rude ( and tbh I don’t blame them ) but it’s still like “woah!” when you get let down.
Are we just accepting that a Hermes /yodel parcel may or may not appear today/tomorrow/in a bin…? I was served a cold dinner in a restaurant this weekend. Just got a “sorry….” as I’d already paid for it on a bloody app.
Staff member on webchat just down right lied, to get me off the chat a few nights ago..

Have YOU left a crap job? What are you doing now ?
Do you have an important job ( nursing ) and left because youd rather stack shelves in Tesco for £9 an hour ?

Feels like a huge big change in society…

Farmers were all too happy to exploit Romanians who would pick strawberries and live in cramped conditions for a year or two before being replaced by the next bunch, then the farmers moan about how lazy us Brits are... erm sorry but people need stable jobs and a decent quality of life. I also find it ironic they're moaning now when the farmers round here were all campaigning for Brexit. Short sighted or what?!

Same with London where the entire service industry basically ran on Eastern Europeans who lived in dire conditions with multiple occupants per room, again for a few years then they could take some savings back to their home country. However, this has dragged down wages for the entire country and served to make business owners profit at the expense of other humans.

I don't blame care workers or service staff for quitting until pay and conditions improve. It's just taking the multi millionaires a while to get their heads around the fact that people want a living wage and a decent standard of living for slaving away 40 hours or more a week. How very dare we.

You’re right OP.

A local place that always seemed to be hiring staff prior to covid, (I assumed because they’re a shit employer) has now had to shut two days a week because they just cannot get staff.

The vast majority of people receiving benefits are in work. The right wing myth of "the scrounger" is just that.

People who receive benefits are tax payers too.

@icelolly12 agree , yip.

I waited 50 minutes for my meal in a restaurant the other day. The owner came over to apologise and explained 5 members of staff simply didn’t turn up. He has been desperately trying to recruit for months. Our local Amazon warehouse is offering a £2k signing on bonus which doesn’t help smaller businesses find staff.

It’s not just the restaurants and retail under the cosh. I work for a tech company that is bending over backwards to accommodate employees and give everyone whatever they want as there are so many vacancies across our industry and recruitment is fierce.

I do not blame anyone who has a crappy job for choosing to leave and claim benefits. Working in a shit environment on minimum wage is soul destroying and can impact your mental health. If some people choose to keep working in jobs they hate because they don’t want “tax payers to fund their choices” so be it. I certainly wouldn’t condemn anyone for choosing differently and I’m ok with my taxes supporting people who want a break.

But does anyone think those ON benefits will be forced to fill these crappy positions?

I think we are getting a reevaluation of the value of work. Given the job market is so good (it’s an employees’ market right now), people in hard/physical jobs that historically weren’t well paid can walk into less taxing jobs. I hope it means that we will finally reward demanding jobs (e.g. care work, hospitality) at a more suitable level than some “knowledge/office” jobs, which were far less taxing but came with much better T&Cs.

@DaisyStiener I was a chef at a bistro.
I'm now a cook in a nursery

@Eastie77Returns uch! Amazon will be the end of the bloody world …

Retail sector here.....much the same issues as hospitality!

Im working my notice after 20 years, going to a mon-fri flexible wfh admin role.

@Eastie77Returns

I waited 50 minutes for my meal in a restaurant the other day. The owner came over to apologise and explained 5 members of staff simply didn’t turn up. He has been desperately trying to recruit for months. Our local Amazon warehouse is offering a £2k signing on bonus which doesn’t help smaller businesses find staff.

It’s not just the restaurants and retail under the cosh. I work for a tech company that is bending over backwards to accommodate employees and give everyone whatever they want as there are so many vacancies across our industry and recruitment is fierce.

I do not blame anyone who has a crappy job for choosing to leave and claim benefits. Working in a shit environment on minimum wage is soul destroying and can impact your mental health. If some people choose to keep working in jobs they hate because they don’t want “tax payers to fund their choices” so be it. I certainly wouldn’t condemn anyone for choosing differently and I’m ok with my taxes supporting people who want a break.

Bravo!!!

Farmers were all too happy to exploit Romanians who would pick strawberries and live in cramped conditions for a year or two before being replaced by the next bunch, then the farmers moan about how lazy us Brits are... erm sorry but people need stable jobs and a decent quality of life

Unfortunately that also sits with the consumer - many of the posters on mumsnet would be complaining if they had to pay £5 per punnet for their strawberries. We need to understand that higher wages involve spending more on the basics.

Im on min wage in retail

The hassle we get from arsey customers who are well old enough to know better is unreal

I think Russell brand is right

What sort of tech roles are in demand @Eastie77Returns

I can tell you re my world in IT. BAs are at a premium.

Yeah life on benefits is sooo great... except for the poor housing, unaffordable rents, lack of dignity and choice over what you feed your children because you have to get it from a food bank, no money for heating. Fantastic life

I'd say some of the missing workforce are dead. Covid, or delayed diagnosis and treatment due to hospitals too full of Covid patients.

Others are long term ill - Long Covid in the case of many.

The others? The better off increased their savings over the pandemic. Somebody with a paid off mortgage and a couple of rental properties might decide they can afford to take early retirement, with the money from their tenants supplementing a pension.

@EatSleepRantRepeat

I suppose if people were paid better we could afford better quality foods

*side note the whole farmer thing confuses me? Why do they vote Tory? I was against Brexit but thought “ oh well at least we ll be using our own farmers and they won’t need subsided etc and dairy farms etc can afford to be more ethical) buy no- we’re getting New Zealand lamb? Mmm fresh and the poor, treated to USA frankenchicken?
Also, pick for Britain? All the veg going off in fields? What a fiasco! I used to pick veg etc I’m my youth- the whole town did. And then you had to start “ declaring “ it and signing off? So we could take advantage of modern slavery?

[quote DaisyStiener]@EatSleepRantRepeat yeah I used to be quite happy to have a job ( in my 20s) instead of signing on, but I worked in retail and it was appalling : now I’d say to anyone - don’t bother , stay signing on just because it was so shit!

So I really don’t blame them.

Bloody all these mad ba*tard kajillionaires going into space, but wee Katy’s having to stay 20 mins unpaid after her shift cos the shops untidy?[/quote]
im in retail and it really is shit , well certain aspects of it lets say , its not helped when my best friend says hes worked out as a single parent id be just as well off signing on as i would in my part time job lol . but then he has got a lodger who is in his early 50s and has been signing on for the last 3 years and shows no signs of getting a job again and has admitted to me that hes not bothered if he gets another one either .

to be honest i would want to work to set an example to my 13 year old , but frankly as iv only ever done retail i expect i would be on the dole forever , retail seem now to want younger staff , that are totally flexable with the hours they can work , and neither of those things are me

It is a buyers market for some job seekers here. I don’t know if it is now the availability of remote roles that were previously consigned to 5 day office London roles…but in tech as pp said there is high demand and rocketing salaries.

I've been wondering that too, and in my area it isn't because of Brexit because there aren't many European immigrants to start with. (The few that I know of, mostly from Poland, have all stayed). I have concluded that the majority of vacancies are from people taking early retirement during the pandemic, but it's amazing the amount of job adverts I've seen, in shops and bars etc, like never before and I live in a very economically deprived area.

@ssd I blame what’s his name - money guy ? Taught the whole country to complain until you get what you want…

I’ve had this conversation twice today. Once about carers who provide support to people with mental health problems - there are many staff walking out and not returning, for a care provider paying low wages and offering only zero hours contracts. They are struggling to recruit.

And teaching assistants.. my DC’s school can’t get supply to cover TA’s who are off sick. As their head put it “No-one wants to do it anymore. It’s minimum wage and people left because of COVID and then got other jobs and decided not to return”

Handed in my notice as a teacher to work in retail. Absolutely love having less responsibility and no stress. The working hours are slightly longer but balances out because I don't have to work at home for free. I feel like I have my life back and my DH tells me I'm back to the "old me" one that jokes and is relaxed, not permanently stressed.

@Tealightsandd that’s it tho, isn’t it? You can work a 40 hour week and STILl be living in a shitehole and dependant on the foodbank

then he has got a lodger who is in his early 50s and has been signing on for the last 3 years and shows no signs of getting a job again and has admitted to me that hes not bothered if he gets another one either .

The lodger is in for a rude shock if his landlord asks him to leave (and lodgers have much less protection than tenants, with very short notice periods).

He'll be lucky finding a landlord willing to take him. See other threads on here. Rentals are in short supply and landlords can afford to be picky.