Snow

The first white Christmas I've seen in a while, lots of people can't get to work, though here it makes no difference as I work odd hours anyway. Also that there are so many unemployed people nobody goes out anyway.

Asda shelf stackers

Alex from the last post introduced me to a supermarket shelf stacking job, its something NMW I naturally applied for it handing in my typed up CV. I was told thank you we'll give you a call as she dropped it (my CV) onto a pile which looked 4-5 reams of paper thick.

Each ream is 500 sheets, by my reckoning at least 1-1500 people applied for this job.

Historical update

I didn't get the job, many are in the same boat as me and they need something, with such an oversupply of labour I the employers can pick and choose. I don't think it is going to be a very merry Christmas.

An old friend

Today I met an old friend from high school, its been 14 years since I left highschool with a handful of GCSEs and dreams of a better future.

His name is Alex, he will never read this blog and I make no reference to his surname so he won't mind me mentioning him. He has been in and out of work since high school when we left in 1996.

I bought him a coffee and had a chat in that effectively he had never had a job that was not a contract job, all of his jobs were short 6-9 month contracts whereby he was usually given the push at the end of it. He is a nice guy, but he looks kind of ill but I've not been in contact with him all that much.

I think back to my accounting jobs, the same thing happened to me, nobody there was actually an employee everybody was a temp worker, in that this did two things it gave nobody any rights or protection from being fired. It also saved on redundancy money.

These trends are disturbing to me, in that I feel that the legacy of the 00s as it is nearly the end of a decade is good for the corporates and those at the top but will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the staff and the employees. Job security was bad before, now I think it has to be redefined. In that I sometimes think far into the future as an old man (if I live that long) where myself and my friends are in a pub talking about the good old days about job security rather than everybody working temp contracts.

I believe that the youth of the future if there is a youth of the future (as economic pressures mean nobody can afford to have children) will not believe us at all.

Revenge of the internship/apprenticeship

I've noticed in my job search a rather disturbing trend lately, in that there are more apprenticeships and internships. This is a good thing you might say. Normally I would agree to this, in that there are many people trapped in the no experience trap who cannot get experience without a job. Ironically they cannot get a job without experience so what to do...

The answer lay in internships and apprenticeships, you get paid travelling costs to do a job for a certain amount of time which gives you experience. This in normal times works great.... as it allows people to put a foot in the door and have some work experience in which they can show their next employer.

Unfortunately we are not in normal times I am afraid... in that an internship is either unpaid or has very little pay.

Apprenticeships on t he other hand are exempted from the national minimum wage and therefore can pay a minimum of £95 a week.

There is usually a sort of unspoken deal in professions from accountants, lawyers to metal workers in that they hire apprentices so that the apprentices learn something and gain experience from old hands in the business.

My case in point was as an accountant, I started out really low, I was taught how things worked and this training formed part of my 'pay'.

Or my mechanic friends, they would be tasked on their first days to make tea and watch, they would then be tasked menial jobs such as washing cars, cleaning the toilets making tea and sweeping and mopping the floors. Once they showed reliability they would be given basic mechanics jobs like changing oil. Over time their responsibilities would be enhanced until one day they were on an even level with that of the mechanics.


Whats the problem ? I hear you mumbling already.


The problem is apprenticeships have moved down in the chain, in that jobs which a person can be trained in within 5 minutes are being turned to apprenticeships. I'm sorry but I forgot to get screen grabs. But here are some examples:

Office junior apprenticeship:

Hold on! , what does an office junior do?, they photocopy, answer the phone, open the post and perform basic filing duties and the odd office erand. That is all, the training and learning lasts less than an hour a day if the company is particularly diligent in their training.

Cleaner apprenticeship

Back in the 1990s I had to work for a while as a cleaner, I do not believe there is any job other than sexual services that are below me, its money, I (so far) have not had to sell myself for sex (yet). In the 1990s I was handed a mop a bucket and a trolley of detergents and told I would figure it out. I did after 10 minutes. The training ended there and then I was an ok paid cleaner after day 1, the learning ceased there and the.


The problem is these are now turned into long term apprenticeships which pay £95 a week for 40 or so hours, how can employers do this? . On a NMW job a person on 40 hours a week will be paid £232 gross, and yet employers are being nasty enough and that isn't too strong a word to cut the pay of their lowest paid staff by £137 a week.

Insanity, pure insanity...



As a boot note I am too old to go on an apprenticeship.