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Rant The state of the job center and their jobs being offered

Discussion in 'General' started by Rhydian, 3 Sep 2015.

  1. Rhydian

    Rhydian What's a Dremel?

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    If you've ever been without a job you know how useless our job centers actually are and the services provided by them.

    Their police of "safer jobs" yet continue to post jobs that don't meet the required minimum wage, or are in different languages and or describe looking for people not of your gender or racial type.

    You go into a job center, you're expected to sign your life to them and you'll be helped to find a job. In reality they control HOW you look for a job, when you look for a job and the jobs you look for.

    I had a lady ask me why I didn't know where a Womens and childrens shop as a (22yr old male with a beard and bald head wearing my gear) was in the high street in a place I've lived less then 3 months that's half an hour drive away. And tell me I'm not trying hard enough, even though I knew the stores next to it. So I walked into that store and immediately had all the female staff rush over (great eh they all want a piece of me) instead they proceeded to question my sanity in entering a store and asking for a job and literally rushed me out.

    The biggest bane of job searching is the online **** job boards, seriously! "SALES NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED Earn £30k OTE". Great sign me up to a job I'll likely never be paid for where I can't quit because the job center wont sign me on for 6 months after. But wait if I don't apply I lose my job seekers anyways!

    Rant over, **** the job center :)
     
  2. The_Crapman

    The_Crapman World's worst stuntman. Lover of bit-tech

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    I found them to be mostly useless. They seemed more preoccupied with ensure that I was being seen to and be able to evidence that i'd been looking for a job, than actually finding me a job that i'd be suitable for. I didn't bother signing on in the end as they had had no consideration for the circumstances I was in at the time.
     
  3. Rhydian

    Rhydian What's a Dremel?

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    Absolutely mate, I haven't had a single job offered to me by the job center by the newly named "worked coaches" not a single one.

    My ex was really hard up for money, decided to take an interview for one of the sales jobs in London. I told her it was a con multiple times, spent over £100 in travel of my money. Then realized I was right and the job center wouldn't let her back on.

    I'm going to get help to try and create a solution to the jobs center problem.
     
  4. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    I hated the Job Centre. I live in a small town with a high unemployment rate, so I knew a lot of people who were on Jobseekers.

    The Jobs on the Boards are not all of the jobs they have, fact. It's a little known fact ( I also have friends and acquaintances who work for the Job Centre - Again, it's a small town) that the Job Centre doesn't put all of the jobs on the website for public viewing. There's a small amount of them only accessible to the staff. These tend to be easily accessible jobs in the area for the people they think deserve the best chance. They're normally the lower level retail stuff, local shops, stuff that doesn't require much experience or qualification. They play favourites with jobseekers. Although they said they'd crack down on bogus job ads, some 30% of jobs on there are either bogus or duplicates.

    Theres also the sanction part. It isn't a joke or some lie they tell to make the job centre look bad. They do deliberately sanction some people on purpose, for the littlest thing. I never gave them any kind of reason to sanction me whilst I was on the dole, I applied for twice as many jobs as they asked, showed up 10 minutes early to appointments and never argued. But they have sanctioned people I know for showing up 5 minutes late, missing an appointment after telling them they were sick (giving them plenty of notice) and still getting sanctioned. They'll then turn around and say " didn't give enough notice", no matter how much notice you gave. Find an advisor who doesn't like you? They'll find some way to sanction you.

    Advisors get treated like crap by nasty managers and scroungers who think they deserve a free ride, and they do things like this to make their life a little more tolerable.

    The staff aren't trained well and in my local centre, I saw new advisors every couple of weeks.
     
  5. Rhydian

    Rhydian What's a Dremel?

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    Exact same here mate, I was sanctioned for being sick. Even brought in photographic and physical evidence of the very bad infection and the very intolerable medication I was on. In fact pretty much everyone I came in contact with got the infection and it was horrid still got scars in my mouth from the dead tissue.

    They never pay the first 2 weeks and I was told "it's just the way it is for some people".
     
  6. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    Absolute Rubbish really. They can pay on the same week, even the same day if they need to. They just decide not to, for 'administrative protocol'.
     
  7. Rhydian

    Rhydian What's a Dremel?

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    Not even joking mate, I had to sign on twice both times the same thing. I had to wait over 2 weeks to be enrolled, then they don't pay the following 2 weeks due to being random luck of the draw.
     
  8. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    They're absolutely useless.

    I tried them once and never went back, a family member was stuck dealing with them for an extended period of time and never once got pointed at anything relevant to his skills (virtualisation support/installs/etc, was told to apply for shelf stacking jobs who turned him away for being 'over qualified').

    In short, **** those monkeys, they're a bunch of jobs-worth drones.
     
  9. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    They once told me to go to a presentation about applying for jobs, CVs and cover letters etc.

    The guy presenting it had some 25 years of experience as a recruitment agent. Gone through bankrupsy himself and actually has some experience of the job centre himself. Really down to earth guy, really knew what he was talking about.

    In short, he basically said that everything the Job Centre was telling us to do was Bull, and every CV and Cover Letter instruction he gave us went against what the job centre suggests. After following his advice, I got over a dozen interviews in a couple of weeks. The Job Centre have no idea how to apply for a job, or what is needed to get one. I've also been helping some people I know with their CVs and told them exactly what not to do, which is basically everything the Job Centre says. All of them had an easier time getting interviews. Don't know if it qualifies as irony, but they literally sent us to a presentation that discredits themselves.

    As Liratheal said, they're jobs-worth drones. No real training or useful guidance to give.
     
    Last edited: 3 Sep 2015
  10. goldstar0011

    goldstar0011 Multimodder

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    Worked for a JC District Office many moons ago, strangely I got the job from being signed on as my adviser was a decent guy and knew I was trying but that job was not advertised anywhere within the job centre, he even said they were allowed to fill it but was only allowed to put forward "the right person".

    He was one of the good ones but there were so many who couldn't care less whether you were trying or not.

    What I will say, back then and surely it's worse now, they were up against targets and competing with each other and a sh!t working environment, felt bad for some of them.
     
  11. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    I know, some of them were really nice, but they had some really nasty managers, tight budgets and horrible jobseeking scroungers who made their lives even harder. Can't help but feel sorry for some of them.
     
  12. legoman

    legoman breaker of things

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    Ive had to sign on a couple of times. None were pleasant, they do seem to like sanctioning you for things you cant help. I remember when I cracked my pelvis they still expected me to turn up and sanctioned my pay even after they got a letter from my surgeon saying I wasnt able to.
    The other time they kept giving me useless short term jobs I was over qualified for so I would get turned down. In the end I spoke to a friend who got me a job.

    Main thing I hate there is you turn up having just had or going to have an interview shortly so your dressed in a suit or smartly, an some chumley beside you is in his tracksuit with a baseball cap whinging hes just been for an interview an was turned down.
    That and the stupid machines which basically give you receipt style print outs for jobs.
     
  13. SMIFFYDUDE

    SMIFFYDUDE Supermodders on my D

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    I signed on a month ago and for the following week I was dreading the next visit, I don't think I've ever felt so intensely anxious before, I couldn't relax at all. Fortunately I got a job before having to go back and provide my job hunting evidence. Had I not I think I'd be a nervous wreck. God bless my CSCS card.

    A question to you all, what benefit have they put you on? I was expecting to apply for JSA but that doesn't seem to be a thing anymore where I live, I'm was put on Universal Credit but I read this isn't the same across the whole country yet.
     
  14. lilgoth89

    lilgoth89 Captin Calliope

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    yeah i know how useless they can be, they threatened to remove my benefits because i hadn't been 'looking for work' or dropping in DAILY to the job centre, i did tell them i was in psychiatric care at the time as i had been sectioned under the mental health act, in the end it almost turned into a slagging match between a psychiatrist at the hospital and a jobsworth at the job centre.

    they also took issue with my suicide attempt, and the woman on the other end of the phone suggested i 'not be so stupid when i have an appointment the next day' despite me taking the call lying in a hospital bed in Burton A&E department hooked up to more machines than i care to count, just coming out of having my stomach pumped.

    and the golden question from a 'senior interviewer' when doing interview practice
    'have you tried NOT being autistic ?''

    at least now im on the care program so i dont have to deal with the job centres BS for a while...
     
  15. Rhydian

    Rhydian What's a Dremel?

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    Woah, as someone that's been sanctioned and hospitalised myself. To hear those comments, wow that would've completely ruined my recovery.

    I can't stand comments like that, suffering from PTSD and someone calling me weird...I completely lost it and brought a knife out to finish him, but controlled myself and broke my hand punching the wall instead.

    I'm glad I had people help me recover, but no ones perfect and we should all be tactful with things we don't understand.
     
  16. legoman

    legoman breaker of things

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    Total tangebt here but at work we have a support team called PTSD. Unfortunately they are a bunch of workshy expletives.
    But yeah being asked to try an not be autistic is just plain insulting that's like telling a quadraplegic to go an do cartwheels.
    I think the bulk of the problem lies with the system, they just try an lob you into the first available job to get the stats up rather than try and find something suitable.
     
  17. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    My experience of the dole was it was all one big con for the companies involved -

    the DWP passed me from the Jobcentre to some company called Ingeus [who got a backhander off the DWP to take me, so the dole didn't have to bother]

    Ingeus then rail-roaded me into the first call centre job they could whilst making no effort to hide the fact they'd get a back-hander off the government for doing so [and another should I be in the job longer than 6 months], they then got a backhander off the company I was phone droning for finding them staff.

    Finally to top it all off the Phone Drone hive got a backhander off the govt. for taking on someone who was on the dole 'long term'.
     
  18. fix-the-spade

    fix-the-spade Multimodder

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    People Trading Support Desk?
     
  19. Cookie Monster

    Cookie Monster Multimodder

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    I feel that sometimes the workers of the Job Center can't tell the difference between someone who want's to work and the everyday dole junkie who just wants their stamp so they can toddle off back to the pub, but saying that I've had both a bad and a stupidly good experiences with the job center.

    The bad one was when I was made redundant and had to sign on the dole for 2 weeks, they were no help at all, it took me 5-6 weeks to get any dole money from them which I think was about £45 per week. How you are supposed to run a house of 4 (2adults, 2children) on £45 a week I will never know. Anyhow, I found my own job and hoped to never have to go back.

    Fast forward maybe 5 yrs and I snapped my achillies playing football, as my job is in retail and I have to move around a lot a full leg cast was a bit of a problem, so I was forced to go on the sick for 13 weeks. I went back to work after 12 weeks and had to visit the job center to sign myself off the sick. When I did this I was told I would be paid £50 a week for a year to ease my back into my employment, I was given maybe £50 to £75 towards work clothing and £45 for a new pair of Adidas Sambas as I had to cut my work ones off my foot after my accident.

    I questioned this whole procedure and was just told to take the money. I couldn't get my head around the fact that, I had hurt myself in my own time not the workplace and they were throwing all this cash at me.
     
  20. legoman

    legoman breaker of things

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    No but good guess, Produban Technical Service Desk or as we refer to them Poorly Trained Soulless Drones
     

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