Mistreated at job centre - filing a complaint.

cassieB57

shikoku wrote: »

Psst....

Put your ego away, you're a low level clerk; one round of cuts away from the other side of the desk.

I think that comment was completely uncalled-for and really rather rude:(

shikoku

cassieB57 wrote: »

I think that comment was completely uncalled-for and really rather rude:(

But not nearly as unpleasant as this one:

cassieB57 wrote: »

"Maybe we should send children down the pits and chimneys again!"

Cracking idea!! (though it's "up" chimney's surely?)

cassieB57

shikoku wrote: »

But not nearly as unpleasant as this one:

The difference being, mine was clearly meant to be tongue-in-cheek

bargain_hunter_1964

Hi,

You were indeed treated badly at the jobcentre, but having worked there a few years ago, it can be very soul destroying to see people who don't appear to be trying to find work, you may b e looking for work, but you seem to be lacking in your self confidence. Yes your lack of experience will not help, but having that negative mind set will not help your job seeking activities, even if you do not realise it. What might be useful is to supplement your job seeking activities is see if you can get some work experience by volunteering in an area of work that you might be interested in. This will show employers that you are committed to the work ethic and willing to work rather than drawing benefits and will give you the experience that could lead to a paid job or even give you some self confidence.
I wish you well in your job search and hope that you can get some support from the jobcentre to find a suitable job for you, but remember to take all your replies or keep a list of all websites you have checked each day and newspapers etc, set up your own folder and present it to them as evidence which is far more impressive than using their limited booklets to list,.;

Best of luck hun.

starchild1972

I must admit I had a bad run in with what was then the job centre many years ago (20 yrs).
I was TOLD I HAD to learn to drive. I sat there, quietly explained that I was NOT ALLOWED to drive due to health problems.
I was threatened with having my money stopped because I would only look for jobs in one town. It was the ONLY town I had transport to. As it was the job centre was 7 miles away and there was no bus to get there to sign on so I had to walk or hitch. (luckily I knew some lorry drivers at the local quarry and they gave me lifts, I was perfectly safe as they were Dads workmates).
What made it worse was the person who always dealt with me was an old classmate known as scraggy wragg.
Two years later I had had enough, I had got a managerial job and walked in there, let her do her threat and then told her that I had a job and at least I didn't waste 3 years at university doing a fashion course to become the next Chanel just to end up working at the local dole office.
I felt rather smug and self satisfied while I got a round of applause by the other signers.

The moral of this tale? Hold in there, your scraggy moment will come.

donnajunkie

cassieB57 wrote: »

..I agree in principal, but then I'd be wondering how much that person actually wanted to find a job. All the time I hear "but I thought I only had to do 3 things a fortnight"...as if they would only want to do the bare minimum so as to get their benefit, rather than to get a job

(Come to think of it, I've worked with people like that---just do enough to get paid at the end of the month!!)

yeah, of course you can have an opinion. just from a legal point of view surely it would be wrong to refer them for a sanction, surely they would win an appeal every time. if it is thought that people should do more than the jsa agreement says then it should be reflected on the agreement. or leave them alone.

donnajunkie

Caroline_a wrote: »

Yes that's true, but surely if you want a job you need to work at it. This isn't an attack on anyone, but in order to get a job you need to look at it as a job in itself. You would have to work from, say, 9 until 5 if you were in a job, so look on jobsearch as the start of working. Even if you spend 5 hours a day, you can contact agencies, develop your CV, write speculative letters, make speculative phonecalls. It really is a numbers game a lot of the time, if you apply for 500 jobs you have more likelyhood of getting a job than if you apply for 100.

Just keep at it!

fair enough but if the rules dont say they have to do that then you shouldnt take action. they should go by the rules and not personal opinion.

cassieB57

donnajunkie wrote: »

yeah, of course you can have an opinion. just from a legal point of view surely it would be wrong to refer them for a sanction, surely they would win an appeal every time. if it is thought that people should do more than the jsa agreement says then it should be reflected on the agreement. or leave them alone.

Oh I agree absolutely; I never refer cases unless I genuinely think there is a doubt that the customer is available/ASE; and also never do unless they have previously been reminded of the rules and the minimum steps they should take each week. In fact that is part of the 1st signing interview for every customer I see, so there is no doubt what they need to be doing, AND the consequences if they don't. That WAS just my personal opinion, based on some year's experience.
As I've mentioned before; I am not in the job to meet targets, but (surprise surprise) to help people back to work and make sure they comply with the rules for JSA-if you do a good job then the targets should meet themselves. THAT'S what gives me job satisfaction, not keeping the managers happy.

Becciboobah

I've told this story a few times on here but it's totally relevant to how the JC has become a hugely useless organisation when it comes to getting a job. My OH had been unemployed for ages and was getting the hump with his advisor being so dismissive and not making any effort at all so he asked her to actually help him get work she replied that it wasn't her job to help him find work and she didn't have the time.

Now I'm sure this is completely true as 5 minutes is not long enough to help anyone and by the time she'd read his job searching and application log and signed it that was it. Time up. The name JobCentre appears to now be a complete misnomer!

He just kept doing what he was doing and did eventually find a job off his own back as I suspect is the norm. Those that want a job will eventually find one (hopefully!) and those that don't never will as it's so easy to just make up whatever they want to see on a log.

cassieB57

In fact during the 1st 3 months, it is not the job of the JC to find you a job-it IS their job to make sure you are meeting the rules for claiming. There advisers there to advise and they can point you in the direction of other help you might need, but the majority will find work on their own during that time.If you are still unemployed after 3 months then you will get more help with jobsearch from them-the old 'jobcentre' was so called because they used to advertise vacancies, the old 'unemployment benefit office' was where you signed on, and the old 'department of social security' paid the benefits. Jobcentreplus is just the name for all of these merged into one.