Day 1 of New Year, What's the Jobcentre Got Then?

PasturesNew

The trouble I have with all social networking is, I value and crave my privacy. So I've stayed away from LinkedIn and all those people 'networking'. I hate the thought that people could literally track your entire life, piece by piece .... psychopaths I mean. I've encountered a proper one in the workplace that was very very very nasty in the past.... and wish to remain hidden/anonymous even though it was 15 years ago. It still chills me.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

The trouble I have with all social networking is, I value and crave my privacy. So I've stayed away from LinkedIn and all those people 'networking'. I hate the thought that people could literally track your entire life, piece by piece .... psychopaths I mean. I've encountered a proper one in the workplace that was very very very nasty in the past.... and wish to remain hidden/anonymous even though it was 15 years ago. It still chills me.

Nearly everyone can be tracked down within minutes.

Unless they have a common name & then its just a matter of time.

mostlycheerful

PasturesNew wrote: »

The trouble I have with all social networking is, I value and crave my privacy. So I've stayed away from LinkedIn and all those people 'networking'. I hate the thought that people could literally track your entire life, piece by piece .... psychopaths I mean. I've encountered a proper one in the workplace that was very very very nasty in the past.... and wish to remain hidden/anonymous even though it was 15 years ago. It still chills me.

I totally agree with you, one of the great joys I've had for the last few years is not having to interact with the great unwashed public and all the evil violent psychopaths I came across and up against years ago. And I was reading just a couple of days ago that supposedly 1.1 million women and 900,000 men get stalked in UK every year. I knew that a lot of women get a hard time but I was amazed that the current figure is supposedly 1.1 million a year. And I was even more amazed at the figure for men. Of course maybe the figures are bogus or cooked up by a journalist just making up any old guff to fill space, but, if they're true then it's a shockingly dangerous world we live in. JD Salinger, who famously wrote about 15 unpublished novels after the massive success of Catcher in the Rye caused his life such a nuisance wrote that "there is a peace in not publishing". Yes, I don't want lots of attention and lots of hardnosed people coming into my life. When George Harrison got knifed by a stalker in his house in England there was simultaneously another unrelated stalker lurking inside one of his other houses in America. And even at an every day level there are so many millions of horrible sick wrong'uns and thugs at large running amok doing heavy crime all the time everywhere that pretty much any publicity just isn't worth the risk. No way. No, privacy's great, the more invisible and anonymous I can be the better. That's one of the reasons why this site and other fora are so good, as long as I'm not too inflammatory or provocative or out of order or rude then no one's going to come and hunt me down and carve me up. Well, it does happen sometimes, doesn't it, but it's rare and not very likely, is it. Er, famous last words...ooh there's someone at the door, I wonder who it could be at this time of night...

Oh, before I forget, re minimum wage job and buying, min wage is about £5.90 an hour which is about £12k a year. Halifax are currently saying on their website that in general they'll lend up to about 4.7 times income so that would be a gaff costing up to about £56k and there's a fair bit of property up north and in Wales at that price and even less. A few weeks ago you did a very nice and interesting thread about nice properties for under £50k and there were lots in all sorts of locations. Also, if two people get together, both working on min wage, then they could possibly buy a place for up to £112k or thereabouts. And there's loads of property in most parts of UK for that price and less. Ok, not much in London but even in London you can sometimes get a grotty one bed flat and sometimes even two bed flats, in a tower block for £100k or so in some areas. So it's not completely out of the question, is it, buying a place while working on minimum wage.

purch

I think you will find that on the Jobcentre site, when a salary/wage is not indicated the wage will always default to MEETS NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE.

The Bus Driver Job advertised is with a part of Western Greyhound, who are a very decent employer and have pushed pay levels up in the Devon/Cornwall area and have forced the large Plc's (Worst & Stagecoach) to raise their pay rates.

P.S. I think the Job as a SOLAR SPECIALIST sounds interesting

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

The trouble I have with all social networking is, I value and crave my privacy. So I've stayed away from LinkedIn and all those people 'networking'. I hate the thought that people could literally track your entire life, piece by piece .... psychopaths I mean. I've encountered a proper one in the workplace that was very very very nasty in the past.... and wish to remain hidden/anonymous even though it was 15 years ago. It still chills me.

Wanting privacy is not unreasonable, which is why I won't touch Facebook with a bargepole. I don't like the idea of putting up the minutae of my life, I don't like the idea of having loads of pictures of me posted when there are apps that can secretly photograph you in a crowd and find an online match etc... However LinkedIn is ok. I run my own business and its a fine line between privacy and finding work. It's only recently that Co Directors haven't had to file their home addresses at Companies House for example. However I think LinkedIn is good. You don't have to say where you live or post a picture, you just talk about your skill set and link carefully to people you know. If you get unwanted invitations you just don't reply and they soon give up. I've picked up work through LinkedIn so it is worth being on IMO.

In terms of mostlycheerful's thoughts re stalking, I was stalked as a teenage girl and it was truly scary. The police got involved and I did not feel in control of my life, but the reality was that was by someone who did know me. To this day, I still don't know who exactly, but you only have the upper hand in life by sticking a big two fingers up to people who do stuff like that by showing they can't control you and getting on with life. Certainly being careful on the net is very sensible, but don't live your life in a straightjacket of fear because of what others may do.

tomterm8

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yeah, except .... how do you find a company you want to work for. I've only ever worked for idiots, how do you know who's good or not? Or do I not actually care and just hit the snottiest one?

Well, that is the same problem you have with any method of obtaining a job. Personally, my criteria would be go for the one that will pay you the most money.

If you are going to be employed, the very least you should look for is three times the amount of money you are earning self employed.

This extra money is compensation for the fact that being employed completely sucks.

RenovationMan

Cleaver wrote: »

But then if I lost my job tomorrow the job centre would be my absolute and complete last resort when it came to finding a job. I'd only use it if I'd used up all other avenues.

Ditto. But then most professions wont advertise in a job centre anyway. Anyone with an I.T. background, as I believe the OP has, would be better off with recruitment agencies. I'm surprised the OP is even looking in the job centre TBH.

lemonjelly

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yeah, except .... how do you find a company you want to work for. I've only ever worked for idiots, how do you know who's good or not? Or do I not actually care and just hit the snottiest one?

What you need to come to terms with pastures, is that EVERYONE is an idiot. At least at some point.

Every company, organisation, boss, whatever will have their flaws, weaknesses, traits we don't like/agree with/accept. Part of life unfortunately.

Yes we can feedback to them to help them improve. Or, at the end of the day we can clock off, go home, & live our lives & our free time how we want to.

tomterm8 wrote: »

Well, that is the same problem you have with any method of obtaining a job. Personally, my criteria would be go for the one that will pay you the most money.

If you are going to be employed, the very least you should look for is three times the amount of money you are earning self employed.

This extra money is compensation for the fact that being employed completely sucks.

Yup!:)

Generali

If you can use the word 'proactive' a lot then you can get this job. Probably need A' Level standard maths too:

http://jobs.efinancialcareers.com.au/job-4000000000722941.htm/keywordAny=back%20office/

One of these bsterds has signed me up for an hour long meeting every day for the next 3 weeks. I'll be surprised if I make it past the 2nd meeting.

tomterm8

I've no idea what that job entails, Generali, but as far as I can see I'm not the only one - the person who wrote the job description didn't know either.