Sunday 30 December 2018

Grr!

Years ago, when you were unemployed there were the papers to look through for vacancies, shop owners would advertise in their windows, and you just dropped in, or you wrote to prospective employers with your qualifications, even if they weren't advertising.  The last resort was the job centre.
Back then, job centres had loads of postcards on boards, with available posts on them. You were supposed to make a note of the code on the card, and discuss with one of the approachable, job centre staff. Or, you could sit down and the member of staff, more often than not, would helpfully assist you to narrow down your options.  There were careers advisors on hand as well. (I forgot to say, some cheeky people would take the job advert cards down, to ensure that no one pipped them to the post.) You could wander in, browse the jobs and walk out again.
Fast forward around twenty years, the card adverts were getting less on the boards, but job search machines had been installed. I can't remember exactly how they worked, but you fed some details in, and then a raft of possible jobs would appear, and you could get printouts with contact details. There were still careers advisors on hand. Security staff were beginning to appear, but their main job was to eject the odd stroppy person. The staff were still exceptionally helpful, and would look through options if you explained what you were looking for.
Fast forward to the present time. It's now called Jobcentre Plus, surely this is a complete misnomer? There are a scant dozen actual vacancies which are replicated on any available job board. That's your lot as far as jobs are concerned. No, as always, the secondary purpose of this place is to process people's claims........hold on.....no, it's not, as all that is done online these days, so if you have never used a computer you're stuffed.
The friendly helpful staff are dying out, they're being replaced by specially selected drones, who often, have never done any other actual work, other than follow their blessed "government  guidelines", and do not seem to have an ounce of common sense between the whole centre's staff. (Profound apologies to the nice staff left over from the previous regime.....there are some.)
In the past, you could leave feeling positive, having had help to find a suitable, possible job to apply for, a course to further your career plans, a tricky form filled in, etc.
Now, with the advent of Universal Credit, you feel, at best ambivalent, at worst.........I shudder to think.
It's a depressing place where the people it is designed to provide help for, come out after being talked down to, forced onto courses that are as much use as a chocolate fireguard, with no actual useful information.
Oh, and there's no careers advisors in each centre.
This is supposed to be a service that helps unemployed people, but it's now a place where government elected drones get to feel smug. I wonder if they have a league table to see which "job coach" humiliates the most people in a week?