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…

Its about having your balance and getting paid your worth with respect

I have just left a higher skilled job for admin. No stress to take home is worth less money from my current perspective.

@Summerbubbles aaaah see you’re the other side of the issue … yeah I’ve got a job similar, and I keep dreaming about going to a job where nothing is my responsibility and it’s not life/death

(Actually pay is not much different - 20% lower in admin).

@Pigeoninthehouse

where have all these people gone, do they not need to work ?

Women have given up and withdrawn from the workplace (or been fired/made redundant) after an absoutely horrific time trying to juggle home school and wfh.

Older workers in the 50+ bracket have examined their finances and retired early if possible.

Very sadly, approximately 150k people died of covid. Many of these would have been still working - we lost many health (and public facing) workers during the pandemic.

How are we supposed to afford to keep benefits at a liveable level for the disabled and infirm without more people like me to pay taxes for them?

Wow, what a stinky opinion!

Perhaps we could - ooh I don't know, it's a super radical thought, but - tax the rich properly?

@Summerbubbles

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.

This is the thing, if wages and conditions improve (as they should and need to) in the service sector, care sector etc, then other professions will also have to up their game otherwise we'll have teachers and nurses leaving in droves for jobs with less pressure.. it will take a while to sort itself out but in the meantime energy, petrol and food prices continue to increase...

@Letsgetonwiththis

Its about having your balance and getting paid your worth with respect

Yes, it's well past time for the end of exploitation of cheap labour.

All workers should be treated with respect and valued. Fair wages and working conditions should be the norm.

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.

Was about to post something similar. Blaming farmers is wrong as they have been squeezed by the supermarkets and are barely in profit themselves.

Have you every wondered how a supermarket can charge £2.99 or less for a whole chicken, or why that bag of carrots can be picked up for 40p. Food prices have been kept artificially low for years due to the exploitation of mostly migrant labour.

The reason locals don't want to work in those farms is that it is often crap money, antisocial long hours, sub standard shared accommodation of the portacabin variety, tough outside conditions and more then likely located in the middle of nowhere with little to no transport links. If you have even the most basic household or family overheads you are going to struggle financially. But it is easier just to call those people lazy. Migrant east Europeans put up with all the above because what they earn and save is a tidy nest egg when they return home. The average cost of a house in central and northern Bulgaria is about 16,000 euros, it is a pretty big incentive for a young person from there to work a season or two in the UK and put up with crap work conditions and limited social life if they know that when they return home they are a long way to owning outright their own home before they are 30. It is a completely separate economic reality and that is what has been exploited to keep your food bills low.

Dd works in a bar/cafe.

The chefs have nearly all quit. It’s a busy kitchen and they’re meant to have three chefs on at a time but there’s only 3 left and they obviously can’t work 7am to 9pm 7 days a week. So the kitchen now closes early afternoon. Dd has been moved from the bar to kitchen work and is “cooking” with no qualifications or training.

Yes! It is!

@R0tational

(Actually pay is not much different - 20% lower in admin).

I suppose it depends on what is required, but I'd say the stress is not much different either. 11 years and skilled in admin, just had to get out. Another friend of mine got 'broken' (their words) by the relentless Zoom half a year ago and has left a really decent job in a university for driving work for a supermarket.

I do also think a lot of people have re-evaluated whats important to them. Both my brothers have quit teaching for minimum wage, no stress jobs. Colleagues in the nhs are quitting left right and centre.

How are we supposed to afford to keep benefits at a liveable level for the disabled and infirm without more people like me to pay taxes for them?

Smoking? Lots of tax income + earlier deaths (saving on pension and social care).

The disabled and infirm are people like you (if by people like you, you mean someone who has paid tax). Many people work for years before getting sick (eg. Long Covid). Others work (not every disabled person is unable to work). And the rest? They pay taxes too. We all do. VAT, for example.

As for wages not keeping up with the cost of living. The solution to that is social housing. We can only raise wages by so much before employers, particularly the small businesses, go bust. And house prices have soared far above the average wage. Catching up is a tall task.

If you're worried about your taxes being spent on the less fortunate, you'll definitely want a mass social housing build. Currently taxpayers spend billions on the consequences of the public health housing and homelessness emergency. Billions on temporary accommodation, billions on housing benefits (including for many full-time working people) - and many billions on the knock on effects, including the NHS and mental health support, social services, and the criminal justice system.

Exactly, teaching was always hard but the stresses of the pandemic and constant vilification of teachers was getting me so down. Taking a very small pay cut has been more than worth it.
I think health and education could be hit badly if people realise the possibilities that exist elsewhere now that it appears there are plenty of jobs around.

@Tealightsandd

How are we supposed to afford to keep benefits at a liveable level for the disabled and infirm without more people like me to pay taxes for them?

Smoking? Lots of tax income + earlier deaths (saving on pension and social care).

The disabled and infirm are people like you (if by people like you, you mean someone who has paid tax). Many people work for years before getting sick (eg. Long Covid). Others work (not every disabled person is unable to work). And the rest? They pay taxes too. We all do. VAT, for example.

As for wages not keeping up with the cost of living. The solution to that is social housing. We can only raise wages by so much before employers, particularly the small businesses, go bust. And house prices have soared far above the average wage. Catching up is a tall task.

If you're worried about your taxes being spent on the less fortunate, you'll definitely want a mass social housing build. Currently taxpayers spend billions on the consequences of the public health housing and homelessness emergency. Billions on temporary accommodation, billions on housing benefits (including for many full-time working people) - and many billions on the knock on effects, including the NHS and mental health support, social services, and the criminal justice system.

Totally! The rich keep house prices high and social housing low for a reason

Money

@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.

Someone upthread said bravo to this? Are you serious? You really think i can leave my min wage job and just claim benefits, just like that, that pays the same as my job???

If people choose to keep working in jobs they hate...you wrote...you really think skint folk have a choice??

[quote DaisyStiener]@icelolly12
Some people here don’t want to do the shite jobs for shite money but happy to send away the ones that would … was probably always going to happen but surprised at how fast.[/quote]
Bloody hell lol! You didnae beat around the bush their

I think you might have missed the point of why people did vote to not enable businesses to exploit overseas workers.

@Pigeoninthehouse

where have all these people gone, do they not need to work ?

Back to Europe because they weren’t welcome.

Yeah : fck that. If you’re going to take a shitey job role, then at least pay me well*
He should know that shite jobs won't pay well . Why is he taking shite jobs and moaning about the salary?

I completely agree with you about social housing @Tealightsandd - so many social problems are caused by poor housing and lack of stock, and private landlords should be prosecuted far more for renting substandard dangerous homes.

I'm all for looking after the disabled and infirm properly and for more money to be found for them, what I'm against is people refusing to work as a lifestyle choice if it's funded by benefits, suggested by the first posts in this thread. I have healthy relatives sat on their backside all day who didn't even bother to volunteer during Covid, but were happy for others to make sure the supermarkets were stocked, medication was delivered and shielders had food and someone to talk to - it's people like that who piss me off because they always see everything as someone else's job.

I suppose there's always going to be a minority like that @EatSleepRantRepeat. I do wonder, whether maybe they have an undiagnosed mental health issue? Perhaps not, but don't they get bored doing nothing all day everyday? I think, those exceptions aside, most people like to do something - work or volunteering?

@ssd I have no idea what your circumstances are so I don’t think that you personally can easily leave your job to claim benefits. I was referring to people who are able to and choose to do this and explaining that I wouldn’t blame them.

My other comment was in response to a PP who seemed to suggest they dislike their job but would rather keep doing it then claim benefits which would theoretically leave them better off. Again, their choice. I’d probably choose differently if I was in that position.

Unfortunately it's a generational issue @Tealightsandd - no-one setting a good example early on so they see work as a mugs game. I admire the PPs so much upthread who work to ultimately make their children's lives better, despite knowing they could make the same on benefits - it takes grit to get up every morning and carry on when people around you don't bother.

That's quite sad really EatSleepRantRepeat

A loss of hope and aspiration.

There needs to be investment in people and communities to break the cycle. Good vocational opportunities and positive role model mentors.