Job Fears: I am about to become part of the working poor?

EmmaHerts

Thank you, Princess.

bankhater_1965

EmmaHerts wrote: »

Thank you, Princess.

dont mention it !!!!

Maz

I kind of understand where morganedge is coming from.

For various reasons I started looking at full time jobs some time ago and found that the salary on offer plus the cost of actually getting there and loss of time freedom simply wasn't worth it.

I'm better off financially working 16 hours per week, with a 5 minute commute (literally just round the corner) and I have more of less double the free time than that of a full time worker.

I have developed a couple of extra income streams recently though which I guess means I have the choice of whether to work full time or not. Also, I became involved with network marketing a few years ago which pays me every month whether I do any more work or not and gives me a lot of financial flexibility.

I've never found that my self esteem or pride has been derived from working for somebody else, quite the reverse tbh!

My ambition is to establish several income streams that run independently so that I can afford to be a voluntary reflexologist for hospices and terminally ill patients. If I keep on track, I'll able to do this by the end of the year.

dandelionclock30

I knew a reflexologist who got a grant to offer reflexology for a £5.00 er to people. She got this from the Scarman Trust if thats of any interest to you.

Martynb_

Thanks for everyone's advice and replies.

From what I can gather it seems that many people here are quick to throw down people's legitimate concerns. I have thought this through and I am quite hopeful about starting this job. In fact, I am no longer to see it as a job but as part of my traning. And, yes, after I've paid transport costs I will probably be struggling to pay the rent. Well, my landlord is not going to know that I'm working. This may not work in the long run, but, hopefully, by then I will have gathered some cash for a bond for a new abode. I cannot do anything about my mum. She is upset about me taking this job.

I think cycling to work is out of the question. It's 24 miles every day for five days. I'm hardly going to train hard on the weights, run on the treadmill for a couple of miles for fat burning, or do a gruelling martial arts class, and then cycle all the way home. I know what my body can take and that amount of physical exercise could leave me open to illness. I get run down very easily.

Not only that but cyling to work defeats the object of getting a discounted transport pass. I would not be able to take a bicycle on a bus I am told, but I can on a train. But if I take the train I have to get off at some point so many miles before the destination and pay extra for another ticket. Where I work is outside the border zone for the transport pass. Might as well ditch the bike and just pay for a pass, take the two journeys by transport and save my energy for things I need to do later.

I'm in receipt of Housing Benefit at the moment, but when I sign off this will be taken away. The tax credits would probably just cover the cost of a ticket, but it may not do because it is only estimated at the moment.

I'm just concerned about the rent because when my landlord finds out I'm working, he'll want £140 per week instead of the £90 he usually gets. I don't know how long I can keep it a secret. I don't want it to come back at me later when he finds I have not been paying the full rent. But really I have no choice but to not tell him.

Then there's my dog. He's my best friend. I have aspergers and so I don't get on with humans. I can tolerate them at work and chit chat but that's it. I would not socialise. I hate going to pubs and clubs. Hate it. My dog is a border collie and I love him so much I cannot bare to give him up. It would break my heart. Seriously.

The thought of leaving him on his own for more than 12 hours everyday concerns me. What will happen in the winter when it is freezing cold? I could keep him inside but the last time I did that he started chewing the wood on the door frames. I wish I had a garden he could stay in whilst I am at work, but all I have is a small back yard that has horrid bricks all the way around. I would not like to stay there for 12 hours either. Drive me insane. I will see on the weekends so that is okay. It just seems cruel leaving him on his own for that long, and he's a dog that needs a couple of hours exercise each day. I just cannot give him up. It would upset him as well. I could not bare it.

To sum up: the money will be crap for this job. The hours are not long, but I will be away from home for more than 12 hours each day. The commute will probably make me tired and ratty. That's not good. I may have problems with the rent but I will have to move closer to where the work is. Mum will be upset.

I feel positive about this, but my neighbour, my mum and my dog's friend's owner think that I am stupid for talking the job. I'm going to see this job not as a job but as a training exercise. It shall last for one year, afterwhich I either move-on to better things (i.e., higher wage, more prospects, etc) or go back to being unemployed.

sniggings

Can you not leave the dog with your Mum or someone else whilst at work?

Is going part time not an option at this gym?

I agree leaving a dog for 12 hours a day is no life for the dog so you either need to find it a good home or sort better hours out for work, it's ok saying you can not give him up but you would be cruel to keep a dog in those condition, sorry if that sounds harsh.

Martynb_

sniggings wrote: »

Can you not leave the dog with your Mum or someone else whilst at work?

Is going part time not an option at this gym?

I agree leaving a dog for 12 hours a day is no life for the dog so you either need to find it a good home or sort better hours out for work, it's ok saying you can not give him up but you would be cruel to keep a dog in those condition, sorry if that sounds harsh.

Not possible. For one she is allergic to dogs, and she is at work from morning till about 4 and she lives in Liverpool anyway. I couldn't possibly put her through all that.

I don't know anyone else I could leave him with. My neighbour works as well, and my other neighbour I cannot possibly trust.

gallygirl

The thought that you are considering not taking a job because you don't want to leave your dog will fill me with joy at 5.45 in the morning when I get up to commute 65 miles to work to pay taxes to fund your benefits.

Seriously, this looks like the latest excuse in a long line. Your dog will survive and you can take it for a long walk every night to make it up, plus longer at weekends. If you sit and wait till your perfect job comes along you will wait a long time, i.e. forever, as you will always find something wrong. Do you honestly think it will just turn up, without you starting at the bottom and working up? I've been at my current company for 12 years, have been promoted 4 times and it still not ideal (hence the 5.45 start). But, from a low paid start, I now earn a very good salary. I wouldn't have got my current role without the years of experience and yes, low pay when it was only self respect that made me work rather than live on benefits.

My company, and every other company where I have ever worked, is full of people who are not doing their ideal job. Even the directors joke they are only doing it till they work out what they really want to do. That's life I'm afraid.

sniggings

in that case mate I can't see this job lasting and will most likely end in you leaving.

12 hours a day working then coming home and needing to take the dog for a walk, you will be lucky to have 5 mins sit down before you need to go to bed.

I would either look for a part time job near home, and spend your time looking for your dream job than to take something and is setup to fail.

wantsajob

What you get with one hand, is taken away by the other. I just played around with the benefit calculators, looking at the figures for a couple, with one working and one unemployed. In such an arrangement, where the working one earns minimum wage - compared with someone who earns double minimum wage, the one who earns double minimum wage only benefits by about £5000. The minimum wage worker gets the larger benefit of the tax-free allowance, a nice sum from working tax credits, and some housing benefit and council tax benefit. The double minimum wage one pays more tax and NI, and gets no benefits. It might seem nice to be earning double minimum wage, but they effectively see less than half of the extra wage.

To my mind minimum wage jobs are largely Government-subsidised employees. There's something very wrong with this (in my mind) where a company benefiting from this is a large one with billions being raked in. Small businesses struggling to make ends meet, then fair enough, as you have to be giving some help at that end of the economy.