World Watching

Hmm.. The illustrious Jobcentre Plus has sunk to a new low… by pushing an advertisment for someone to host a pornographic TV show.

The successful candidate, who must be over 18, will be required to work “semi nude” and talk dirty to strangers. They will work three days a week from 9pm till 5am, and earn up to £220 per shift.

The advert for the London-based position of Adult TV Channel Presenter on the Jobcentre Plus website states: “Duties involve explicit sexual dialogue which may cause embarrassment to some.

“The successful applicant (will be) required to be semi-nude. Duties will involve working on a well-known adult TV channel… Must have good spoken communication skills as will be taking calls from the general public live on air.”

Revolver Models, which placed the ad, said all applications had to go through the Jobcentre.

Shocked jobseeker Sophie Randall-Price, 25, said: “I’m broad-minded, but I couldn’t believe they want us to apply for such a sleazy job.

“I’m willing to work hard, but not to whip off my top and talk dirty to a bunch of weirdos in the middle of the night on national TV.”

The Department for Work and Pensions said: “The Jobcentre Plus has a duty to advertise any legal job.”

Unfotunately what the illustrious DWP fail to mention is that they can compel a jobseeker to apply for a job or risk losing their benefits. I wonder how long before a court case is heard in regard to some hapless jobseeker being ordered to apply for a job as a porn star?

I have just got letter from a company i went for a job interview with and am in a state of disbelief at the total B****** that i have experienced.

OK lets set the scene, the company i work for is about to go bust, and facing a very real prospect of unemployment I’m obviously looking for another job as a matter of urgency. In the local paper i found a job advertised albeit for a lot less money, that would certainly meet the bills and not cause half as much stress as the one i currently have.

So, realising i met all the advertised criteria, i applied for the job weeks ago and got a letter back within days stating they had put their plans on hold due the economic situation. Last week they phone me and say they had now decided to resume their search for an additional ‘team member’ and would i go along for an interview? ‘No problem’ i said and got some time off for the purpose.

The interview:

Well i turned up for the interview and everything started to go downhill from there, First one of the interviewing guys was ‘out’. After a 45minute wait they decided to proceed without him. Once in the interview the guys there ‘confessed’ they had ‘misplaced’ my CV. Fortunately i was well prepared and had a copy with me so was able to furnish them with that, thinking they would photocopy it and give it back so we were all looking at the same bits of paper.. yeah right! nope they kept my copy and proceeded to huddle around the one copy of the CV.

At the end of the interview, one of the directors said i was great and perfect for the job and would write formally to me in a day or so with a job offer.. Excellent i thought.

A couple of days pass and the phone rings at just before 9pm last Friday night and its one of the interviewers..

“would i pop into the company on saturday morning at 10am to meet the department manager and after that himself to discuss the job offer they are putting together?”

“Ok, no problem” i said as such arrive at the company offices a few minutes early… and end up waiting a good 90 minutes for the guy i was supposed to be meeting to arrive. What was described as a formality quickly turned into another interview after which the department manager proudly proclaims “your exactly what we are looking for” and says “we will be in touch in a couple of days”.

As tactfully as i could, i told him this was the second interview i had been to for this job and that i was led to believe by Mr. XXXXX that a job offer was already being put together and was also due to be discussed that morning.

“no mate” he says, “you must be mistaken. Mr. XXXXX isnt even in work today”.

This morning a letter arrives from Mr XXXXX thanking me for my interest in the company but as i dont have any experience in the area of electronics (which was never discussed or specified at any point) they feel i wont be suitable for the role and wishing me luck in my future career.

conclusion:

Now i’m not entirely sure whether i have been caught in some kind of power struggle or just pratted about by a completly incompetent and inept management BUT given the stunts these idiots have pulled and the numerous reported encounters that other job seekers have suffered at the hands of employers recently then some should not be allowed to interview and recruit without supervision.

Harsh you may say, but in this instance the company office is about 90miles from where i live (was a field based job) so thats a 180mile round trip, TWICE.. plus all the other buggering about on their part.

Growing Job Queues

The Government is braced for a bout of pre-Budget bad news, with new unemployment figures expected to show another huge increase in the number of people out of work.

Latest jobless figures will be published by the Office for National Statistics, just hours before Chancellor Alistair Darling stands up in the Commons to outline his financial package.

Analysts have predicted that the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance jumped by over 120,000 in March following a massive increase of 138,000 in the so-called claimant count in February.

Total unemployment, including those not eligible for benefits, passed the two million mark last month for the first time in 12 years and is expected to continue rising for the rest of the year. Business groups and unions now expect the wider measure of unemployment to reach at least three million next year because of the effects of the recession.

The TUC’s general secretary, Mr Barber said: “I want to see the Government show the same determination in protecting working people from the worst of the recession as it has in protecting banks from the greedy excesses of their bosses.”

I think we would all like to see the government protecting the working people Mr Barber, But its not just the recession they need protecting from.. its the Banks and from the very government as well.