I see that it has been a while since my last blog, and so to let of a bit more steam for anyone who wishes to peruse, this is my latest set of irritants.
I last commented on the type of work i am presently engaged in and have just enjoyed a conversation with hubby on the nightmare that has become job hunting.
He related to me a conversation he had with a '12 year old', employed in a recruitment agency, to which all my husbands responses were met with "great...coool". Grrrrrrr!!!
Is it only the two of us who are averse to filling in long winded application forms which will disappear into some pile within an HR department for later scrutiny, by someone we will never meet, never speak to, and who will judge us on the merits of some qualifications which we took over 30 years ago and use this to decide whether we are suitable for the minimum paid cashiers job (for example) at the local corner shop?
What happened to making an appointment to see the manager, having an interview, during which he/she would take notes, and even being offered employment at the same interview?
Is it that, as i suspect, managers are not really managers, but simply are persuaded to hold their job by way of a fancy title? Is it that the company doesn't trust those they put in a position of trust? Do managers simply have no qualifications to decide whether the person sat opposite them is likable and suitable for the job on offer?
Additionally, to get work in my own country i am now required to prove who i am, and not just use my 'unique' NI number. I say unique as god knows who else is sharing my NI number, as happened to a relative. It transpired that someone else had her number- not through illegal means, but issued quite legitimately by the body who issues thses numbers!!!!
I recently worked, albeit briefly, for a company who insisted that i needed proof of who i was by way of my passport, and birth certificate, and marriage certificate, plus my national insurance number. This, i was assured, was to stop illegal workers.
I am aghast that so much of my liberty and privacy is under scrutiny. If illegal workers want to find work and pay taxes, let them. There are enough lazy, bone idle brits, who are sitting at home daily like open mouthed chicks squawking 'feed me' to all who bother working.
Back to my first point.
Where has common sense gone? Anyone who wants unskilled work in their local area should surely not have to be spending a couple of hours filling in reams of papers, photocopying documents and sending these to the other side of the country, in the hope of not being turned down because some spotty oik sitting in a windowless office sees that at 16 you didn't gain aa A star in English literature- even though A stars didn't exist when you were 16.