Very Rude Job Centre Staff

lovinituk

ARM10 wrote: »

12 weeks is a reasonable time to keep looking for the 'right' job. I believe this is also the guideline JC advisors are instructed to follow, but as in the case of the OP they often ignore it.

But surely 12 weeks in a temporary job, whilst looking for the 'right' job, is no more strain on the economy as a whole than 12 weeks on JSA? For the individual it is possibly better from a self esteem and financial point of view as well.

DCFC79

HarryL wrote: »

Seems to be that everyone is advising the OP to tell her daughter to look into other industries. Yes this is good advice. however. The OP states that her daughter will get fined if she doesn't apply for other jobs after 2 weeks being signed-on. So where I do see the point of applying for jobs in any industry in todays economy. I'd say that my experiences with the jobcentre tell me that what is happening to your daughter is not right. I found that only after the 3month or 6 month mark did they really start taking an interested in the jobs I was applying for and what industries they were in. Id get your daughter to talk to someone else in the job centre. Maybe try a supervisor or maybe even going to a different job centre to ask them what they think. Once you have contradicting advice you can start making more valid arguements.

I dont agree with how the daughter was spoken to, we ar eonly going on what the OP has said but why not look at other jobs to apply for in other industries. You can either apply for jobs in the industry you want or you can apply for jobs in other industries, I know which 1 I would choose as id rather be working than spend an unknown amount of time applying for jobs in tourism.

ARM10

lovinituk wrote: »

But surely 12 weeks in a temporary job, whilst looking for the 'right' job, is no more strain on the economy as a whole than 12 weeks on JSA? For the individual it is possibly better from a self esteem and financial point of view as well.

Well 12 weeks of JSA is £810. Would the total man-hour cost of training, resources, and admin expenses incurred by Employer B exceed this figure ? In a specialist industry almost certainly, in a generic sector I guess it's debatable

Worth noting the OP is on contributions based JSA though. I'm sure her income tax & NI payments far exceed £810 during her years of employment. A net benefit to the system you could say!

lin473

After being made reduntant earlier this year ,OH and I went to the jobcentre fully expecting the staff to be awful.
We were really surprised to find that were were treated with respect and courtesy.
They were all really helpful( except possibly the security guards which were unsmiling and intimidating.)

Recently we had to sort out some paperwork as we had claimed council tax benefit for a while and found exactly the same at the council offices.

I just wanted to put another side to the story - they are not all bad.

lovinituk

ARM10 wrote: »

A net benefit to the system you could say!

Or a win to the benefit system if she takes the temp job and perhaps a welcome extra pair of hands to the employer for 12 weeks

But anyway, we digress further and further - back to the original topic - I do agree that 2 weeks is too soon to start 'forcing' other sector jobs onto a new JSA claimant when the grace period is longer than that.

Reverbe

bluenoseam wrote: »

To be honest in a time when jobs are scarce enough as it is i'd be tempted to apply for everything i could do, even if i got a NMW retail job until something in my ideal sector came up wages are better than dealing with the facists at the Job Centre any day of the week! !

TBH thats what I did in a way. After being put on Work Programme ( see comments elsewhere) I gained employment for a minor High Street retailer. NMW and only what I class as less than half a job hours wise. Appalling working conditions, unreasonable regulations, incredible stress including nightly nightmares etc.Last month for the entire month I earned 2oo quid - which is less than dole money. How can this be allowed? esp when said companies year on year profits were up over 50 per cent last year .:eek:

VitaK

My Jobcentre advicers when i was on the E303 certificate was a friendly lot. They too asked me to expand my search after only a few week. Just remember its easier to find a job when you always have one.

Oldernotwiser

mickyrod wrote: »

McKneff,

As you will see in my original post - I can understand the issue if she had been out of work for 2 months or more. But it has been 2 weeks!
I get the feeling that they are just putting pressure on her to take the first thing that comes along so that they can get her off the records. She spent 4 years at college to get her diploma - should she really be expected to give it all up after 2 weeks?

A diploma in Leisure and Tourism is a very general qualification (I used to be a lecturer in T&T) and is appropriate for many areas. It really isn't the same thing as having a totally vocational qualification which only qualifies you for one specific job.

Unless you live in an area with airports/ferry companies etc your daughter would be most unwise to limit her job search to the travel industry as travel agencies are cutting back rather than recruiting and every week she's unemployed will be making her less employable.

Encourage her to apply widely and to use the transferable skills she'll have gained at college.

Northern_Princess

I never had a positive experience at the Job Centre. At the first interview the grouch at the other side of the desk insisted on showing me how to fill in a form. (Yes ok some people need help but I did keep saying I understood the job search form). Then showed me jobs online that I'd already applied for then showed care jobs that I have no experience for.

At the second interview when I went to sign on they wouldn't accept my printed out excel spreadsheet as proof of applying so I had to sit and write out every job I'd applied for from the spreadsheet on to my job seekers job search form (all 40 of them). Needless to say I put in a complaint and am still waiting on a response from them.......

It was one of the most demoralising experiences of my life

Arg

Emmzi wrote: »

as I recall you can ringfence work to your field for around 12 weeks before broadening the search.

Or, just do very bad applications for other jobs?

and if that's the case then it makes all the other posts after, saying she should just search for any old job look a little silly.