It was the worst job I have ever had in my life.
Not only do you have to be professionally two-faced, lie on a daily basis to both clients and candidates but you also have to be completely cold-blooded and uncaring.
I worked in quite a small market placing people into Social Housing positions. The jobs weren't particularly well paid in the first place, and then you had to take a cut of it - so a £10 an hour placement quickly became a £6 an hour job for the candidate.
I went home thoroughly demotivated every day. The culture is competative and the majority of recruitment consultants only cared about how big a margin they could negotiate and how much money they earned. Very, very few actually had anything interesting about them.
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Monday, April 5, 2010
The view from the other side
Continuing this theme of recruitment consultant hatred here is a view from an acquaintance from the other side:
Friday, March 26, 2010
Apprentices to be paid £2.5/h
From here
So apprentices are to be paid £2.5/h erm apprentices are already paid £95 a week so what is the difference then?
So apprentices are to be paid £2.5/h erm apprentices are already paid £95 a week so what is the difference then?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
When NMW isn't cheap enough
Mc'ds want you for free work
Precis work for Mc'ds for 10 days and get a GCSE B grade. Which seems a bit iffy to me, but this is early days.
On the flip side Mc'ds might not be exactly a great employer but at least you get paid exactly for the hours that you put in.
As said md 1990s worked there once, I work 10 hours I get paid for 10 hours it was something like £22 for that. Although staff turn over quickly and the morale is low they aren't THAT bad as employers I could never do it again though.
While in the modern day work place, like my old accounting firm I work 80+ hours get paid for 34.5 hours divide that hourly and I was being paid about £3-4 an hour gross before tax. Just goes to show even though Mc'ds may not be a great employer there are much worse ones out there.
Of course we can all hope that Karma sorts this out, in that if you kick people on the way up they may end up kicking you on the way down, question is why all the kicking in the first place?
Precis work for Mc'ds for 10 days and get a GCSE B grade. Which seems a bit iffy to me, but this is early days.
On the flip side Mc'ds might not be exactly a great employer but at least you get paid exactly for the hours that you put in.
As said md 1990s worked there once, I work 10 hours I get paid for 10 hours it was something like £22 for that. Although staff turn over quickly and the morale is low they aren't THAT bad as employers I could never do it again though.
While in the modern day work place, like my old accounting firm I work 80+ hours get paid for 34.5 hours divide that hourly and I was being paid about £3-4 an hour gross before tax. Just goes to show even though Mc'ds may not be a great employer there are much worse ones out there.
Of course we can all hope that Karma sorts this out, in that if you kick people on the way up they may end up kicking you on the way down, question is why all the kicking in the first place?
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
job centre website is back
Sort of, in that digging through a few links the header page is back unfortunately it still links to the government portal website which again is frustrating and makes you jump through hoops that the old website never used to make you do.
The most depressing thing is
The most depressing thing is about all this is the feeling of helplessness, next to this is probably the fact that people who are under or unemployed suffer a feeling of confirmation bias. In that being unemployed is a depressing experience motivation can only last so long before it starts to crumble horribly.
In that you may spend half an hour an hour perhaps longer adjusting your CV, then typing out and spell checking then either emailing it to sending it via post to the supposed employer. That is IF the job exists in the first place, when quite often it does not (agencies are particularly guilty of this).
In that you spend all that time applying for the job doing all of the above. However the potential employer can’t take the time out to send a simple no email back. Granted there are two problems with this in that if it is a postal application then it would require them to post something back. Although many people will attach email addresses to their CVs and covering letters as a method of being in touch in more ways than one.
Also that there may well be a huge number of applicants to the job meaning replying simply isn’t feasible as they have other things to be doing.
Such as money making activities. 3 Workplaces ago I remember Trevor who worked in payroll for both the company itself and for a stack of clients. He also did the HR work filtering the work applications for potential new hires.
However here is where the confirmation bias comes in, in that people are already low in morale and not being worth a few seconds of somebody’s time confirms that they are unwanted or un-needed leading to a greater loss of morale and makes it harder to motivate and apply for jobs in the first place.
Way back in 2004 I remember one of the firms I applied for, he took the time to write back to me stating that there were no vacancies and he was very sorry. He did however write some advice for me and give me some hints. I put those into action and got my very first accounting job (the pay cheque a photocopy is on my wall to this day). This encouraged me and made me feel better, I wonder what employers have to gain from lower morale?.
This is of course not inclusive of several nasty return letters I received more than once from potential employers. One particular one from Stockport sent back a lengthy reply giving a sentence by sentence point by point of my CV and covering letter knocking each and every point. She had nothing positive to say and seemed to revel in great delight at belittling me.
So I suppose not getting replies sometimes is a good thing.
In that you may spend half an hour an hour perhaps longer adjusting your CV, then typing out and spell checking then either emailing it to sending it via post to the supposed employer. That is IF the job exists in the first place, when quite often it does not (agencies are particularly guilty of this).
In that you spend all that time applying for the job doing all of the above. However the potential employer can’t take the time out to send a simple no email back. Granted there are two problems with this in that if it is a postal application then it would require them to post something back. Although many people will attach email addresses to their CVs and covering letters as a method of being in touch in more ways than one.
Also that there may well be a huge number of applicants to the job meaning replying simply isn’t feasible as they have other things to be doing.
Such as money making activities. 3 Workplaces ago I remember Trevor who worked in payroll for both the company itself and for a stack of clients. He also did the HR work filtering the work applications for potential new hires.
However here is where the confirmation bias comes in, in that people are already low in morale and not being worth a few seconds of somebody’s time confirms that they are unwanted or un-needed leading to a greater loss of morale and makes it harder to motivate and apply for jobs in the first place.
Way back in 2004 I remember one of the firms I applied for, he took the time to write back to me stating that there were no vacancies and he was very sorry. He did however write some advice for me and give me some hints. I put those into action and got my very first accounting job (the pay cheque a photocopy is on my wall to this day). This encouraged me and made me feel better, I wonder what employers have to gain from lower morale?.
This is of course not inclusive of several nasty return letters I received more than once from potential employers. One particular one from Stockport sent back a lengthy reply giving a sentence by sentence point by point of my CV and covering letter knocking each and every point. She had nothing positive to say and seemed to revel in great delight at belittling me.
So I suppose not getting replies sometimes is a good thing.
Bleak day as 1,600 UK job losses announced
Bleak day as 1,600 UK job losses announced
The UK employment industry took a knock today, with the announcement that over 1,600 jobs would be lost across the drugs, water, car and chocolate sectors. The biggest cuts hit a Cadbury factory in Somerdale, Somerset, which is to close with the loss of 400 jobs despite hopes that new owners Kraft would save it. Cadbury announced in 2007 that it planned to close Somerdale and transfer work to Poland with the loss of 500 jobs.
Around 100 workers have been made redundant but Kraft's ownership had offered hope that the remaining jobs could be saved.
However, those hopes were dashed when the US firm said it was "unrealistic" to reverse Cadbury's plans to shut the site and announced the factory would close by 2011.
Kraft, whose five-month battle for control of the confectioner was sealed earlier this month, had pledged to retain the plant.
But today it said Cadbury had already spent £100 million on building new facilities in Poland and most production would be transferred by the middle of this year.
Unite's national officer Jennie Formby, said: "It is with great anger that we heard today's announcement by Kraft that the Somerdale closure will go ahead as planned.
"Anger that Kraft deliberately misled many hundreds of decent men and women in Keynsham by saying that they would keep Somerdale open, despite Unite making very clear to them as early as September that this seemed impossible with the timeline for closure already seemingly set in stone.
"Anger that their thirst for public approval during the most unpopular takeover we've seen in recent times drove Kraft to ignore those warnings and instead choose to state repeatedly that the site would not close.
"This sends the worst possible message to the 6,000 other Cadbury workers in the UK and Ireland. It tells them that Kraft care little for their workers and have contempt for the trade union that represents them”. Meanwhile, car giant Vauxhall said it would shed 154 administrative jobs in the UK on top of previously announced cuts of 369 at its Luton factory, which builds vans.
Welsh Water, which provides water and sanitation services to 1.2 million households in Wales and parts of England, said it would axe 300 jobs during the next five years in an attempt to reduce costs.
Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline announced plans to cut up to a third of jobs at its UK research and development site in Harlow, Essex, raising the threat of up to 380 job losses.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said of the job cuts announced today: "These job losses show the economy is still on the knife edge. City bonuses may be back and the economy is technically growing once again, but the downturn is far from over for the millions struggling to find work, forced to take work well below their capabilities or who fear for their jobs.
"The Government must resist calls to take the knife to public spending - which would cause further job losses and give us a double-dip recession."
Paul Kenny, leader of the GMB, said: "It is going to be a long, hard slog before the economy recovers and employment starts growing again.
"These job losses underline the need to keep the public sector buoyant until the economy is properly recovered”.
The UK employment industry took a knock today, with the announcement that over 1,600 jobs would be lost across the drugs, water, car and chocolate sectors. The biggest cuts hit a Cadbury factory in Somerdale, Somerset, which is to close with the loss of 400 jobs despite hopes that new owners Kraft would save it. Cadbury announced in 2007 that it planned to close Somerdale and transfer work to Poland with the loss of 500 jobs.
Around 100 workers have been made redundant but Kraft's ownership had offered hope that the remaining jobs could be saved.
However, those hopes were dashed when the US firm said it was "unrealistic" to reverse Cadbury's plans to shut the site and announced the factory would close by 2011.
Kraft, whose five-month battle for control of the confectioner was sealed earlier this month, had pledged to retain the plant.
But today it said Cadbury had already spent £100 million on building new facilities in Poland and most production would be transferred by the middle of this year.
Unite's national officer Jennie Formby, said: "It is with great anger that we heard today's announcement by Kraft that the Somerdale closure will go ahead as planned.
"Anger that Kraft deliberately misled many hundreds of decent men and women in Keynsham by saying that they would keep Somerdale open, despite Unite making very clear to them as early as September that this seemed impossible with the timeline for closure already seemingly set in stone.
"Anger that their thirst for public approval during the most unpopular takeover we've seen in recent times drove Kraft to ignore those warnings and instead choose to state repeatedly that the site would not close.
"This sends the worst possible message to the 6,000 other Cadbury workers in the UK and Ireland. It tells them that Kraft care little for their workers and have contempt for the trade union that represents them”. Meanwhile, car giant Vauxhall said it would shed 154 administrative jobs in the UK on top of previously announced cuts of 369 at its Luton factory, which builds vans.
Welsh Water, which provides water and sanitation services to 1.2 million households in Wales and parts of England, said it would axe 300 jobs during the next five years in an attempt to reduce costs.
Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline announced plans to cut up to a third of jobs at its UK research and development site in Harlow, Essex, raising the threat of up to 380 job losses.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said of the job cuts announced today: "These job losses show the economy is still on the knife edge. City bonuses may be back and the economy is technically growing once again, but the downturn is far from over for the millions struggling to find work, forced to take work well below their capabilities or who fear for their jobs.
"The Government must resist calls to take the knife to public spending - which would cause further job losses and give us a double-dip recession."
Paul Kenny, leader of the GMB, said: "It is going to be a long, hard slog before the economy recovers and employment starts growing again.
"These job losses underline the need to keep the public sector buoyant until the economy is properly recovered”.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Under employment
Things are pretty bad out there nobody seems to be hiring, at least in the accountancy field. In that accountants feel its bad, in that when clients jobs take an hour when they previously took 2-3 days you know its bad.
Anedotally when I was still working as an accountant I worked near the payroll department, it was an absolute apocalypse, we, or rather they kept on running out of pre-printed p45 slips we would have deliveries almost daily and still they would run out of them. I wonder how bad it is going to get as this is presumably just the start.
I have however found a job as a kitchen porter working for a bangladeshi resturant in a small town not far from where I live. They are a nice couple who smile an awful lot, I help out now and again lifting and doing the chopping as well as washing the dishes. Pay? , national minimum wage £5.85 an hour.
Although granted working as an accountant wasn't exactly the highest paid job in the world either, I used to make just under £10 an hour. But its a big fall from grace when I used to earn about £270 a week post tax down to £117 a week. Being under 25, single and renting I am ineligible for any benefits. Although I would probably not take them anyway as it is an admission of defeat.
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