I sent a CV to an organisation on seeing their ad and spent a lot of time over it. The organisation failed to reply.
So a week later or so, I contacted them again online via their website. No reply.
This is very rude and unprofessional.
Fortunately, they had a Facebook site and I wrote on it that I wondered if they had closed down as no one is replying to any of their correspondence.
As the agencies are generally now useless in getting me jobs, I have to face reality that I may not even get a job at Christmas.
I have already told close friends, and today is the day I am going to tell my family that I won’t be doing it at all this year. Not at all.
They don’t need to buy me anything and I can’t get anything for them anyway. Of course, people say just ‘make something’ but many people in today’s world, don’t want this, and after all, if you do make things, the present could look ‘small’ and, again, in today’s society, big is better. It is ridiculous really. And not everyone appreciates the ‘Action Gift’ ie when you do their gardening for them, they see it as a free service, and not a present. Personally I don’t mind small and handmade things, but my family aren’t really quite like that, and they are Tory so they are on a different mindset.They are more likely to spend money on Christmas even if they are going through difficulties themselves.
I don’t like waste too. Last year I got vouchers for a relative and after a year they still haven’t used it and now it is expired.his has happened twice with the same person now, and they even asked for a voucher. And then I gave some money for my relative to buy a special orchard tree, but they didn’t spend the money on that even if they liked the idea. (I don’t have a car, so I couldn’t exactly go and get it myself. ) So I was a bit annoyed about that. It is a lot of money for me and to know that they didn’t use it is just annoying. If they don’t even use it, why should I get them anything? I know this happens at Christmas anyway, but when you are out of work buying presents replaces your food money! i do feel I have more problems with Tory relatives on being poor at Christmas rather than Labour or Greens, who accept this happens are generally ok with it. Tories seem to think everyone has the money to buy big presents.
I don’t really want to feel uncomfortable, and have the lectures ‘why haven’t you still got a job?’ I just don’t have the money and I don’t want any more stress and anxiety. So the best thing is for me to cancel Christmas.. After all I have to do my fruitless search on Universal Jobmismatch on Christmas Day for several hours, and of course, I won’t even be in the mood for it either!
Fortunately for me, I enjoy others enjoying themselves, although probably, under the circumstances, not at close proximity. Guilt is another thing, one feels ‘bad’ that you don’t have a job even if you are doing the right things to get them, and employers are just picking 20 year olds as they are cheap. Being unemployed is not your ‘fault’.
I like a good cycle ride on Christmas Day. I hope to be in London. This will be the first time I will spend Christmas there. I hear that all the roads are empty and quiet. It will be amazing and surreal. I have always wanted to be in London on Christmas Day. Being a cyclist, I really like it with no cars.
I have thought about voluntary work. Well, I will be doing some, and I have thought about working in a soup kitchen, but I am not sure I could cope with that, being round a lot of people is daunting on Christmas Day. I like the quiet. Maybe I can do some Christmas volunteer work before Christmas Day? I have also thought of looking out for suicides on the bridges on Christmas Day. Christmas Day is a sad and lonely time. I hope to do a Suicide Prevention Course in a few weeks and I could practice what I learned. I am a bit nervous about this but I am well aware that life is not perfect, and people are going through a lot of crap.
So today is the day I will tell the family all this, that I have cancelled Christmas this year, and not to worry about me. It is ok. In some ways they may be pleased, because they also are going through a hard financial time. So releasing them of that pressure would be good for them too.
I feel that a lot of weight is off my mind. I am not Christian, so this is more of a relief too. We don’t have to do ‘Christmas’, although we can, but in our own way. We have to remember that we are not alone, many people in the UK are not celebrating Christmas for a variety of reasons, ,and they could be poverty stricken too, but hey, after Christmas we could be a lot more in debt, and this is even worse. And making people spend money on us, is not good for them too.
Though I do some great relevant volunteer work, I am unemployable.
Please enjoy some of the reasons given:
(Bear this is mind that I would not have taken the job, if I could not get there on time. The buses even went from 6am and I have an excellent timekeeping record). The job was only 9 miles away so very easy to get to. This is just a rubbish excuse.
2) I do not have enough experience – even though the CV says I do
I have been been having migraines that have been much longer than normal, since using Universal Job Mismatch, ie several days after being online looking for jobs several hours a week, with poor lighting (after all, you are not in a properly equipped office).
This is DAY 4
The anxiety of job searching ‘correctly’ makes it worse too. Filling in complicated and often futile jobs applications and then receiving messages online that you haven’t got a interview or that the agency etc hasn’t bothered to reply makes it worse too. It is sole destroying.
The fact that you have to do hours of jobsearch every day, looking at the Universal Jobmatch a lot with its migraine unfriendly bright white screen, you don’t really give your head a break, you are always ON. Most workplaces give you a day or two off, but we have to do an online jobsearch and record things every day, you can’t just do it 4 or 5 days a week and bundle things up in fewer days. Looking at so many other websites does your head in, going back and worth,filling in fiddly passwords etc. The system isn’t designed for people who are at risk of migraines and anxiety.
It is very difficult doing a jobsearch with a full blown migraine. They are not minor headaches. I tend to fit it in in the few moments after when I take some pills, but then it starts coming on again. Every migraine is different, you don’t know what is going to be like.
Sometimes the pills don’t work. Women who suffer each month from migraines and nausea, will also find being online most of the day very hard. Even if you haven’t had migraines for a while, you may get them after using the Universal Jobmismatch after a while. People aren’t designed to be behind computers so much.
I have noticed that a lot of jobseekers on Twitter are suffering from migraines whilst doing their jobsearch and really struggling. People with Attention Deficit Disorder must also struggle too.
In the old days, jobseekers could search boards and get print outs from machines, but now they have been removed by the Government. Jobseekers are forced to go online every day.
The jobcentre does not seem to give you any advice on Health and Safety VDU use at all. This seems very wrong. No leaflets, nothing. They provide public computers but they are closed at weekends and there is no privacy. I mean they put them by huge queues of people.
I keep a diary on an App and at the Migraine Trust, but migraines, and eyestrain really needs to be talked about.
This is making our medical conditions worse and even starts new ones. Maybe we should consider sueing the Government so make sure you keep records and visit your doctor!
The security on Universal Jobs Match is appalling. When I go into my emails, I get loan sharks, PPI claims and other junk mail in my Inbox. It is worrying that these scammers get can get access to my private email address. Clearly they only get my email from the Profile on Universal Job Mismatch. this opens up Data Protection Issues
Though I have been temping off and on on fairly long contracts, to the Jobcentre, this means nothing, ‘I have not got a permanent job’. This is not my fault as the employer ran out of money for me, but the Jobcentre system makes it look like it is my fault! This just shows you how out of touch the system is, people at the top don’t recognise temping as job itself. Actors do this all the time. Temping helps businesses too.
So now this means two years is up and I am off the Work Programme…… and now the real hell begins – I expect.
I have been having fun with the Job Surveys they give you, which is asking for trouble really!) So make the most of the ones they give you.
Here is one of mine you can fill in:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/survey-thanks/?sm=be%2bpK36wZvnv6LrANezo2wI8%2bCEKPWiQHrAWbviIKaY%3dne
I went a bit wrong with the foodbank question, as it asks for numbers, but just put numbers in like 0 or how many times you have used them
Not only have they removed the machines with the jobs, they have removed the job notice boards. This makes it even harder for people who have never used computers to get a job.
Not only this but they put public computers in the Reception, where there is no privacy. whatsoever. People can read your CV and even more so, if you are visually impaired and have to have a larger font. Staff look apologetic, but come up with the corporate line or they will lose their job. This can aggravate anxiety disorders.
Appalling, utterly appalling way to treat the vulnerable.
It is on Facebook and they have helped a lot of people https://www.facebook.com/JobSeekerSA I have also put on a link to site site.
This is yet another hare-brained scheme, dreamed up by the Coalition of Incompetents who have already made a string of U-turns because many of their schemes are poorly researched and ill thoughtout, and mostly run by people who have never been out of work in their lives.
I expect even some Tory parents seeing their own children unemployed after university who are now having to go through these ridiculous hoops to get their jobseekers, are pretty angry themselves. They are seeing their children go through a lot of stress. Even jobcentre staff, feel undermined and demotivated with all the changes and the constant fear looming over their heads that they too will lose their jobs. They realise that the Coalition only cares about themselves, the people at the top.
The Coalition is hurting their own kind too, but they cannot see it.
I expect there will be yet another U-Turn, ‘just before’ the Election.
Oh let the Jamboree begin…….
Universal Job Mismatch 