Work.

LeicesterLad

I'm back there today after two weeks off. I can indeed confirm that it is sh*t. That is all.

daviesee

I didn't need convincing but thanks!

pdstsp

Back in myself after a week off and agree whole-heartedly.

tim_wand

First day unemployed in 26 years, (thats sh*t) got an appointment to see the JSA job adviser this afternoon

t.m.h.n.e.t

Don't get St Patricks day off but everyone else does. Was told to go home

Still shit though :S

LeicesterLad

tim wand wrote:

First day unemployed in 26 years, (thats sh*t) got an appointment to see the JSA job adviser this afternoon

Sorry to hear that Tim, I wouldn't want to be unemployed, its just the job I have atm I hate with a passion. hope you find something soon, I know from experience that my local Job Centre was pretty damn useless...

bristolpete

Thats because the job centre is not really that. It is the last chance saloon for uneducated people who cannot be bothered. The smart people who know how to work often find work off their own steam and that has always been the case. In the UK Benefit matrix, there is only really Social Funds / crisis loans after the job centre. I sadly wasted 10 years of my life working in a job centre as an adviser and could tell you things that would amaze, but it's not worth it.

Hope Tim finds work asap.

king_jeffers

LeicesterLad wrote:

I'm back there today after two weeks off. I can indeed confirm that it is sh*t. That is all.

Same, well just had the weekend off. Back today and can't be arsed with anything/anyone, thankfully only two weeks till I can get away for a weeks holiday. Finding the whole place massively draining over the last couple of months. Need that idea for becoming self employed or I'm going to snap.... giving my self 6 months max.

Bozman

Took redundancy 3 years ago to start what has turned out to be real work.... Looking after my children!
God I wish I was back at work.

tim_wand

I went in the other day, just to see what advice and support was available. (Lot of the jobs I ve looked at need a SIA licence e.t.c/ so just wanted to know if there was any training available) No on would even speak to me.

In the end the Group 4 security guy in there (No I didnt kick off or anything) gave me a free phone Number and said " youv'e got to register for JSA before any advisor will even speak to you"

I dont really want to claim anything, Just want to get back into work a.s.a.p

Got the feeling though that the job centre was just a mechanism to administer the legitamacy of people clamining JSA and therefore didnt have time to help people find jobs.

bristolpete

tim wand wrote:

I went in the other day, just to see what advice and support was available. (Lot of the jobs I ve looked at need a SIA licence e.t.c/ so just wanted to know if there was any training available) No on would even speak to me.

In the end the Group 4 security guy in there (No I didnt kick off or anything) gave me a free phone Number and said " youv'e got to register for JSA before any advisor will even speak to you"

I dont really want to claim anything, Just want to get back into work a.s.a.p

Got the feeling though that the job centre was just a mechanism to administer the legitamacy of people clamining JSA and therefore didnt have time to help people find jobs.

Correct Tim. I would claim either way, cover your national insurance for when you retire at 85 like the rest of us. Also get what you can but really dont expect to find work there. Frontline staff are targeting into subbing people into work so they submit you for jobs that you have neither the skill set for or the desire to do. Be careful here as they 'will' expect you to apply for them. Also, as an interesting aside, everyone who walks into the job centre to claim has 'points' alloted to them. For example, white middle class guy, two kids, mortgage, long term worker worth nothing. Ethnic group person from local housing with one leg and one eye worth a lot of points on the JC+ score board but a single mum with 3 kids, never worked a day in her life is seen as the golden ticket and they offer scheme after scheme such as New Deal etc. From memory they are worth 60 points in the subbing game. But, I walked out in 2005 and never looked back though former colleagues tell me it is ten times worse.

Total and utter madness and I spent far to long of my life wasting away in the Civil Service. A complete and total shambles sadly.

But stay positive, as before, blokes like you came and went, found work and credit there. I can bet you all I own if I walked into the office this morning the same monday morning signers would be there wasting everyones time, money and lives.

LeicesterLad

King Jeffers wrote:

LeicesterLad wrote:

I'm back there today after two weeks off. I can indeed confirm that it is sh*t. That is all.

Same, well just had the weekend off. Back today and can't be arsed with anything/anyone, thankfully only two weeks till I can get away for a weeks holiday. Finding the whole place massively draining over the last couple of months. Need that idea for becoming self employed or I'm going to snap.... giving my self 6 months max.

Thats been my thinking for the last 3/4 years. Still waiting for that idea to come along...

daviesee

LeicesterLad wrote:

tim wand wrote:

First day unemployed in 26 years, (thats sh*t) got an appointment to see the JSA job adviser this afternoon

Sorry to hear that Tim, I wouldn't want to be unemployed, its just the job I have atm I hate with a passion. hope you find something soon, I know from experience that my local Job Centre was pretty damn useless...

Twice I concur with LeicesterLad in one morning!
In my experience the Job Centre is useless unless you are looking to answer a phone or stack a shelf.
You will have much more success using the web and/or contacts.

tim_wand

Just got back from my first/ initial JSA claim interview.

Basically I had to agree 3 strategies with them about what I would do to find work, Came down to ,

Look in the local paper
Look on Website
Look in TES (I ve done a lot of cover supervisor work in schools)

When I actually wanted to speak to them about specific jobs I d seen on the Directgov Website, they werent interested at all, when I wanted to talk about any help I could get for training to get an SIA licence, again complete blank, All they were interested in is that I came back in a week to sign in and tell them what I d done to find work.

Im 42 married with a kid and have been working since I was 16 other than a break for Uni between the Army and the Prison service dont suppose that scores me to high on their scale.

My LBS has gone out of business and I ve got a stable block (live in an ex police house/ not a country pile) Think I m going to set myself up a workshop in there with a spray booth and put some cards out for bike repair and restoration.

Ben6899

On the JSA topic. That was the most soul-destroying period of my life so far; having to head there every Friday to "sign on" with the pond life.

And as people have noted, the staff there - with the exception of bristolpete by the sounds of it - couldn't really give a fuck if you find a job or not. Just that you turn up, spin a yarn about looking for work (or in my case recall the 20/30 jobs I'd applied for since the Friday before) and GTFO as quickly as possible.

During that period I went to a wedding in Germany and because it meant I would be on a 'plane at signing on time, I would lose my benefits for the preceding week AND for the two days I was out of the country. The woman at the desk treated me like a time-wasting and freeloading scumbag so I told em to shove it up their collective anus and walked out (as it happens, I was due to attend an interview the Tuesday after).

EDIT: apologies for the rant, but once I had been reminded of JSA, I needed a cathartic outlet.

LeicesterLad

Ben6899 wrote:

On the JSA topic. That was the most soul-destroying period of my life so far; having to head there every Friday to "sign on" with the pond life.
And as people have noted, the staff there - with the exception of bristolpete by the sounds of it - couldn't really give a fark if you find a job or not. Just that you turn up, spin a yarn about looking for work (or in my case recall the 20/30 jobs I'd applied for since the Friday before) and GTFO as quickly as possible.

During that period I went to a wedding in Germany and because it meant I would be on a 'plane at signing on time, I would lose my benefits for the preceding week AND for the two days I was out of the country. The woman at the desk treated me like a time-wasting and freeloading scumbag so I told em to shove it up their collective anus and walked out (as it happens, I was due to attend an interview the Tuesday after).

EDIT: apologies for the rant, but once I had been reminded of JSA, I needed a cathartic outlet.

I'll +1 that. I felt dirty just turning up.

CambsNewbie

bristolpete wrote:

tim wand wrote:

I went in the other day, just to see what advice and support was available. (Lot of the jobs I ve looked at need a SIA licence e.t.c/ so just wanted to know if there was any training available) No on would even speak to me.

In the end the Group 4 security guy in there (No I didnt kick off or anything) gave me a free phone Number and said " youv'e got to register for JSA before any advisor will even speak to you"

I dont really want to claim anything, Just want to get back into work a.s.a.p

Got the feeling though that the job centre was just a mechanism to administer the legitamacy of people clamining JSA and therefore didnt have time to help people find jobs.

Correct Tim. I would claim either way, cover your national insurance for when you retire at 85 like the rest of us. Also get what you can but really dont expect to find work there. Frontline staff are targeting into subbing people into work so they submit you for jobs that you have neither the skill set for or the desire to do. Be careful here as they 'will' expect you to apply for them. Also, as an interesting aside, everyone who walks into the job centre to claim has 'points' alloted to them. For example, white middle class guy, two kids, mortgage, long term worker worth nothing. Ethnic group person from local housing with one leg and one eye worth a lot of points on the JC+ score board but a single mum with 3 kids, never worked a day in her life is seen as the golden ticket and they offer scheme after scheme such as New Deal etc. From memory they are worth 60 points in the subbing game. But, I walked out in 2005 and never looked back though former colleagues tell me it is ten times worse.

Total and utter madness and I spent far to long of my life wasting away in the Civil Service. A complete and total shambles sadly.

But stay positive, as before, blokes like you came and went, found work and credit there. I can bet you all I own if I walked into the office this morning the same monday morning signers would be there wasting everyones time, money and lives.

Tim, very sorry to hear you are going through this nightmare.

My partner was made redundant about 4 yrs ago, it was the most soul destroying place imaginable. My partner had been head of learning and developent in a large company earning £100k+. The Job Centre had no idea how to deal with people like him, with his skills and experience and the type of job he was looking for. He would come out nearlyy in tears of frustration. They kept trying to get to get him to apply for anything whicher had 'training' in the title whether it was suitable or not. Worse time of his life.

Just realised you probably dont want to hear this right now! Good luck!

centimani

I guess some Jobcentres are different then, mine was in Peterborough.
Circa 6 months ago i ended up redundant.
IME, the are not there initially to find you work, they're there to make sure you ARE looking for work. They were quite strict on making sure you filled in your attendance sheet for interviews and applications and that you did enough of them each week. They certainly were'nt a pushover in that respect.

TBF to the Peterborough office, i always found the staff chatty and respectful...
Yes there's a few dossers and wasters in there, but an awful lot of people i thought were just like me...lost their job, looking for a new one, and would find one in due course, just normal people.

mouth

I went to the job centre once just because I wasn't happy in my current job and wanted to look at some options to see if there were any routes I could take. Once I got in teh chair with the advisor she quite simply asked me why I was looking for a job if I already had one. Wasn't interested in claiming anything (and never have - the longest I was ever unemployed was 4 hours) and she didn't seem to know what to do once I said I didn't want to claim.

With regards to the SIA license I know you can apply for a career development loan which is for training and not to start a business. The downside is you have to pay it back even if you are still unemployed.

Why not start out as a cycle courier? Get paid to ride your bike.

tim_wand

Interested to see you live in Nottingham, I m in Newark on Trent , so not quite the scope for cyclo couriering as a major city, Do you know people who've made a shot of it in Notts.

Wonder in this e mail age what the U.S.P of a cycle courier is, I know Notts fairly well but wouldnt fancy my chances against on of the citys black and white cabs, Who would you target? Law firms,

I m going to give the cycle repair and resto gig a go, I ve got most of the set up kit I need and theres lots of local auctions around were stuff clears for low prices and i can do it in my own time whilst looking at other options.

LeicesterLad

tim wand wrote:

Interested to see you live in Nottingham, I m in Newark on Trent , so not quite the scope for cyclo couriering as a major city, Do you know people who've made a shot of it in Notts.

Wonder in this e mail age what the U.S.P of a cycle courier is, I know Notts fairly well but wouldnt fancy my chances against on of the citys black and white cabs, Who would you target? Law firms,

I m going to give the cycle repair and resto gig a go, I ve got most of the set up kit I need and theres lots of local auctions around were stuff clears for low prices and i can do it in my own time whilst looking at other options.

Seeing as you started your new business on my thread do I get a share of the equity?

tim_wand

Leicester Lad, yer sorry I ve rather Hijacked, If I ever make a profit theres a pint in it for you for sure.

Often go to Tigers games and have the odd one in Swan and Rushes or the Victory , Pre or Post.

Cant admit to suffering the same down at the King Power or whatever its called these days,

LeicesterLad

tim wand wrote:

Leicester Lad, yer sorry I ve rather Hijacked, If I ever make a profit theres a pint in it for you for sure.

Often go to Tigers games and have the odd one in Swan and Rushes or the Victory , Pre or Post.

Cant admit to suffering the same down at the King Power or whatever its called these days,

I can sometimes be spotted in the Swan and Rushes before a tigers game myself, so maybe i'll claim that pint!

Good luck to ya by the way!

evil_breakfast

bristolpete wrote:

tim wand wrote:

I went in the other day, just to see what advice and support was available. (Lot of the jobs I ve looked at need a SIA licence e.t.c/ so just wanted to know if there was any training available) No on would even speak to me.

In the end the Group 4 security guy in there (No I didnt kick off or anything) gave me a free phone Number and said " youv'e got to register for JSA before any advisor will even speak to you"

I dont really want to claim anything, Just want to get back into work a.s.a.p

Got the feeling though that the job centre was just a mechanism to administer the legitamacy of people clamining JSA and therefore didnt have time to help people find jobs.

Correct Tim. I would claim either way, cover your national insurance for when you retire at 85 like the rest of us. Also get what you can but really dont expect to find work there. Frontline staff are targeting into subbing people into work so they submit you for jobs that you have neither the skill set for or the desire to do. Be careful here as they 'will' expect you to apply for them. Also, as an interesting aside, everyone who walks into the job centre to claim has 'points' alloted to them. For example, white middle class guy, two kids, mortgage, long term worker worth nothing. Ethnic group person from local housing with one leg and one eye worth a lot of points on the JC+ score board but a single mum with 3 kids, never worked a day in her life is seen as the golden ticket and they offer scheme after scheme such as New Deal etc. From memory they are worth 60 points in the subbing game. But, I walked out in 2005 and never looked back though former colleagues tell me it is ten times worse.

Total and utter madness and I spent far to long of my life wasting away in the Civil Service. A complete and total shambles sadly.

But stay positive, as before, blokes like you came and went, found work and credit there. I can bet you all I own if I walked into the office this morning the same monday morning signers would be there wasting everyones time, money and lives.

I myself was employed by the DWP (JCP) until yesterday, when my sick leave finally caught up with me.
Had a pretty good record over the last 5 years, but increased over the last 2 (stress, catching other peoples germs etc. etc.) so I got the bullet.
Dreading making the JSA claim as I know a lot of the PA team at my JCP.
The compo package should tide me over for a while though.
I'm going through the expected gamut of emotions; incredulity, anger, ambivalence, despair.

bristolpete

evil_breakfast wrote:

bristolpete wrote:

tim wand wrote:

I went in the other day, just to see what advice and support was available. (Lot of the jobs I ve looked at need a SIA licence e.t.c/ so just wanted to know if there was any training available) No on would even speak to me.

In the end the Group 4 security guy in there (No I didnt kick off or anything) gave me a free phone Number and said " youv'e got to register for JSA before any advisor will even speak to you"

I dont really want to claim anything, Just want to get back into work a.s.a.p

Got the feeling though that the job centre was just a mechanism to administer the legitamacy of people clamining JSA and therefore didnt have time to help people find jobs.

Correct Tim. I would claim either way, cover your national insurance for when you retire at 85 like the rest of us. Also get what you can but really dont expect to find work there. Frontline staff are targeting into subbing people into work so they submit you for jobs that you have neither the skill set for or the desire to do. Be careful here as they 'will' expect you to apply for them. Also, as an interesting aside, everyone who walks into the job centre to claim has 'points' alloted to them. For example, white middle class guy, two kids, mortgage, long term worker worth nothing. Ethnic group person from local housing with one leg and one eye worth a lot of points on the JC+ score board but a single mum with 3 kids, never worked a day in her life is seen as the golden ticket and they offer scheme after scheme such as New Deal etc. From memory they are worth 60 points in the subbing game. But, I walked out in 2005 and never looked back though former colleagues tell me it is ten times worse.

Total and utter madness and I spent far to long of my life wasting away in the Civil Service. A complete and total shambles sadly.

But stay positive, as before, blokes like you came and went, found work and credit there. I can bet you all I own if I walked into the office this morning the same monday morning signers would be there wasting everyones time, money and lives.

I myself was employed by the DWP (JCP) until yesterday, when my sick leave finally caught up with me.
Had a pretty good record over the last 5 years, but increased over the last 2 (stress, catching other peoples germs etc. etc.) so I got the bullet.
Dreading making the JSA claim as I know a lot of the PA team at my JCP.
The compo package should tide me over for a while though.
I'm going through the expected gamut of emotions; incredulity, anger, ambivalence, despair.

Go in with your head held high as only you and your ex colleagues will understand the crap you got.

In my tenure, more than once by the way and this is far from exhaustive, I was assaulted in the office, spat on, threatened with a needle, beaten up at the cinema by a gang of Somalians all claiming and on Xmas eve 2003 a guy threatened to cut my throat from ear to ear because he had been released that day and wanted money - ususal routine walks into nearest JC+ with a clear bag holding all his possessions. Normally water off a ducks back but he had done a long stretch as they say and was simply mental. You will be better off out of it now, onwards and upwards.

giant_man

tim wand wrote:

Interested to see you live in Nottingham, I m in Newark on Trent , so not quite the scope for cyclo couriering as a major city, Do you know people who've made a shot of it in Notts.

Wonder in this e mail age what the U.S.P of a cycle courier is, I know Notts fairly well but wouldnt fancy my chances against on of the citys black and white cabs, Who would you target? Law firms,

I m going to give the cycle repair and resto gig a go, I ve got most of the set up kit I need and theres lots of local auctions around were stuff clears for low prices and i can do it in my own time whilst looking at other options.

I love Newark, I live the Notts side of Grantham, lincs and often go into Newark, my fave town in the area, haven't seen many cycle couriers though ....

tim_wand

Were all sat in riverside cafe bars listening to Bad Jazz, looking like something from the SWRVE ad.

Seriously theres some hard core ex pro roadies around here, just no feckin hills,

Stone Glider

I was made redundant four years ago Sunday (18th) and was 'advised' by a mate who knew a man blah, blah... to apply for J S A which was set at £63 per week IIRC. As said above, all they were concerned about was that I was making an effort to seek a job. Everybody I spoke to were polite and helpful but no help :? As it worked out I was far too wealthy to be entitled to J S A and I needed no more National Insurance Contributions being already over the maximum, so I politely, disengaged from the process. The experience reminded of a store with no stock but fully staffed and open for (non) business, or a fog-bound airport. Everyone busy but achieving nothing. It must be a nightmare having to turn up every day to work in such a place.