Cait Reilly 'Forced' To Work for free

Cait Reilly who is suing the Government for 'Forced Labour'

Graduate Cait Reilly has been all over the news this week for taking the Government to court over 'forcing' her to give up a voluntary post at a museum to do a two week stint of unpaid unskilled work at Poundland. If she didn't do the unskilled work placement she would lose her job seekers allowance. Cait's story has caught the nations attention and she is being splashed across the press and being demonised for this.

Unless you have been through unemployment you really cannot understand what it is like. I have been there three times, just after I graduated in 2000, in 2009 when the recession hammered the construction sector that I work in to oblivion and in 2011 when I was no longer in the world of law. I have empathy with Cait because:

She had the get up and go to find and commit to voluntary work 
Lots of long term unemployed do not want to work and often with low level skills and no work ethic.  Cait was a graduate who found a voluntary placement in an area that interested her.  She should be commended for having the gumption to do that not vilified.  She already had retail experience so actually how would Poundland two week unpaid placement have advanced her skills?  I don't think they would have done so logically as long as she wasn't just sitting on her arse at home doing nothing she should have been allowed to continue with her voluntary week.


She would still have had to sign on and go to the job centre every fortnight
Only once you have gone through the horrible rigmarole that is attending your signing on day and that general sinking feeling that you get at that precise moment that you realise you are heading there, please don't assume that this is a walk in the park.  There are so many people who sign on who have no get up and go, do the bear minimum to receive JSA and have no educational skills often not even being able to read and write.  They do not want to work and our jobcentres are not actually geared up to deal with these people who are actually the ones who need the 'big boot' from big brother more than people like Cait.

Signing on is not a walk in the park for scroungers
As a professional person who has contributed to society through my taxes for over 10 years I have the right to claim JSA and shouldn't be made to feel bad about doing so.  For certain professions including architects and sectors such as construction, the recession has hammered them hard so saying that there are jobs out there may well be stretching the truth a tad.   If there are jobs they are often unpaid or employers have dropped salary levels so far you would end up living in abject poverty so what god would that do?

The one thing that does rile me about Cait though is:
The fact that she has chosen to take the Government to court
Is she the victim of an unscrupulous lawyer out to make a name for themselves through advising her her to sue?  It's not their reputation and future employment prospects that are being tainted as the case has evoked so much negative exposure for Cait. Or is this something that she has dreamed up herself as she is so aggrieved by something that is undoubtedly unfair?

Either way she should have raised it with the people at the Job centre. She is articulate enough to complain to the people in charge of the job centre. Believe me,  I know that many people there are plebs but there are also some who do have common sense and would have seen the merits of her argument and done the sensible thing and let her continue at the museum.

2011 closes as 2012 hammers on the door

2012 is here and who the hell knows what life will chuck at us in the months.  Just sitting here and thinking about 2011 which has certainly had it's highs and lows.

Here are some of the things that stick in my mind:

• I found  a job that I am still in and in many ways still enjoying it.  Six months of searching and I finally got one. No easy task but back in the construction sector so I was one happy bunny. Hopefully 2012 will be my year and I'll get a perm job and be able to save up for a home of my own. 
• The London riots were shocking and disturbing, I've never felt uneasy in London, the city I call home.  A sad week of chaos in August was certainly not an image that we should have been portraying to the world.
• I learnt more about me and how to cope with the dullness of having to look for work for six months. Writing this blog, being active and getting out and about helped me a lot. 
• That life is precious, you can't plan for everything and that the simple things can make me happy. 

The Politics of Work

Why is the world of work sullied so much by politics? It's not just a case of doing a great job.  It's being seen to be doing a great job by the right people. If you don't shout and catch the attention of the right people your days may be numbered.

Being out of the work scene for half of this year I had forgotten about the games that you need to play in order to succeed.  Personally I think it's all a load of bull and why can't people appreciate what others do?  Is it that the world  of work has been sullied by the recession so everyone is fighting for their jobs, position and status. Actually, where I work is undergoing a major restructure so senior level people are jostling for position and one of the easiest ways to position yourself seems to be to stick the boot into marketing.  What do you do all day?  How come you can't do more? What are you doing for me?  There seems to be a never-ending list of what can be achieved by a very small, transient (most on 6 mth contracts if that) and in the main junior team.

Anyway, it's been a crazy few weeks where the real bones of the firm are starting to reveal themselves to me.  Now that my rose tinted glasses are starting to fade a tad, it's becoming apparent that actually where I work is not really any different to all of the other large firms that I have worked for.  People at the top who don't necessarily know what they are doing but are born sales people who use their silver tongued prowess to always come out on top.  To be honest if that is what the senior echelons of management are, I am not entirely convinced that it is for me.  I like delivering projects and getting on with delivering projects.

All I can do is take the next few months as they come and keep an open mind for whatever roles may appear on the horizon.

The Good and the Bad of Marketing

Being back in the world of work has inspired my mind again which is great.  I have to admit that with the in work/out of work shenanigans of the past few years my love for what I do was starting to wane.

In the past few days, I have seen some good marketing and some very very bad marketing. 

The Good

Lots of things have caught my eye of late including Google's Live Advent Calendar Campaign where a fully integrated campaign that culminates in you getting clues online and then heading to find a real door in town to win stuff. Geeennniiuuusss idea.  Properly creative and fun too which sits well with their brand positioning.

The Bad 

On the bus to boxing class the other day and passed through Brixton High Street.  So many payday loan companies have sprouted up these day with crazy interest rates that often equate to 1700%, a bad financial decision if ever there was one.  Looking at one of the shops which had a marketing ploy that was quite frankly sickening.  There was someone dressed up as Father Christmas giving out balloons to kids and inviting them into the grotto inside the money lending shop.  Parents therefore have no choice but to go in there as they're sneakily targeting kids.  Viewing that on the bus just turned my stomach as that is such a low way to ultimately try to encourage poor people to get into even more debt.  No doubt the instore Santa will be filling the kids heads with talk of what they want for Christmas and thus placing ridiculous pressure on parents who then feel obliged to find the money for the desired gifts.  And guess what, they just happen to be in a place where they can get that money.  The Government must clampdown on these operations soon. Currently,  they are booming as we are the 'want it now generation'.

Govt to announce £1bn Youth Contract

The Government has announced a new £1bn pot of cash to get young people into work called the 'Youth Contract'.  The idea is that they pay half the salary of someone doing an apprenticeship scheme.  So far so good.  As a country with young unemployment now topping at about 1 million people something must be done.  We can't have a generation that are so dejected with life, the world and society that they effectively drop out of view. We can't risk exasperating the gap between rich and the poor by condemning many to a life of benefits and having to be wheeling and dealing to survive.

The idea of this scheme sounds good by effectively encouraging employers to take a chance on hiring the young. But there are a few things about the scheme that do worry me:

- Where are the safeguards that the training will be up to an adequate standard - internships, apprenticeships and the like do sometimes have a reputation for effectively offering employers cheap labour that they can flog to death for a certain period. Once that person is burnt out bring they  can simply bring in the next ones.  Don't get me wrong though, there are good schemes and firms out there and people who move onto fulfilling roles.

- If you drop out we stop benefits, if you do such and such we stop benefits - Taking my point first point above. If through no fault of yours you end up with a bad placement and for legitimate reasons decide to quit you would not be entitled to benefits.  This again smacks of the Government  using what in many ways seems like a good scheme as a way to massage the job figures down.  If you sign up and then discover it's not working for you you are well and truly scuppered.  I do admit that there are work shy people out there who do not want to work so making sure that they do not just drop out as they can't be bothered is important too.

I have two nephews aged 26 and 24.  I have helped them rewrite CVs and shared my knowledge about job hunting. The thing that struck me was that no one was helping them.  No one said what was best practice  or showed them how to draft a captivating CV that hits an employers button.  A CV with one word bullet points tells me nothing about what you can do for an employer.  With my tips my nephew started to get lots more interviews and he got a job. 

Our job centres are a mere box ticking exercise and they do not have staff with the skills to advise people properly, schemes for young people such as Connexions which helped them to find jobs in an increasingly tough market have been cut so it's no wonder youth unemployment is rising and will continue to do so. Good advice and support will help young people compete.

That Hidden Downside

I have learnt so much in the past year from  how to exercise properly; to how to arrange a funeral or how best to hunt down work and secure those elusive interviews. But sometimes something just crops up that really makes you stop and think. That thing for me was reading Stylist Magazine last week which had the most inspirational feature in it. It was a piece written by a 30 year old PR girl called Laura.  Laura has recently been diagnosed with a blood cancer called Hodgkins Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.  She has started writing a blog to capture her fight as that life threatening disease.

Of course a blog chronicling an intensely horrific treatment such as chemotherapy is humbling as you really cannot understand the impact that this hugely invasive course of treatment has on someone. But Laura's warts and all blog gives some amazing insights.

The other thing that resonated with me was the fact that Laura in the recently bought a flat, developed a successful career and as a result of that set herself up as a freelance consultant.  Her life had been going swimmingly until she had her shock diagnosis. Now she is not only having to battle cancer but also having to figure out how she is going to cope financially.  To me this showed the hidden downside of being freelance.  Unless you plan for that rainy day so if you have a period when you are cannot work - how would you survive?  Having these contingencies in place is vital or else you too could find yourself becoming unstuck.  

When my mum was ill with blood cancer she had those similar types of money concerns and to be honest really she should have been focussing on fighting the disease.  If you own a property you are not eligible for housing benefit and may get a small handout from a charity like Macmillan.  For many the bank of mum and dad or savings are just not there so what next? Laura sadly didn't get mortgage insurance as she was young carefree and healthy - if only she'd had the hindsight of a crystal ball. Let that be a lesson to us all and especially to those who are having to embark on that freelance employment route during this crazy economic times.

The Contract Generation

I love being back in work. Having a reason to get up everyday cannot be underestimates.   But I am a bit of a ponderer so have been thinking about what I have acheived so far and waht else I want to achieve in my life.  Guess it's all part of being a 34 year old women and that perenniel clock that's ticking somewhere in the back of my mind.

Since being made redundant 2 years ago and being unemployed for the past 8 months means that in many ways my life has been on hold.  The saving to buy a house and doing those grown up things that are a bit important for someone who is heading towards the mid 30s zone. I am pretty tough on myself  especially as in many ways anything that happens in my life is down to me - no partner to gee me one or share things with.

Plus I also can't help it and compare myself to others.  I know I shouldn't but it's blinking hard not to. I guess I want those 'normal' things, my own home, a partner and who knows with all that lot. I am not that naive to believe that life is always greener on the other side but I can't help what I want.

Anyway, as I'm writing this, it really occurred to be that I am part of the contract generation. The other week i was listening to the radio and it was said that people nowadays can only get personal loans from their own bank these days.  Mainly because they can rifle thought your existing accounts to have a precise idea of all your incomings and outgoings. Rather Big Brotheresq really.

I took the plunge and tried to apply for a loan to cover some of the estate related things that I need to do.  As someone who has never applied for a loan and in the height of enhanced credit checks I was astounded by the level of detail needed.  They basically went through my current account for 3 months and asked me on the phone what each payment was for, what loans I had, credit cards the lot.  As I was not looking for a mortgage, more a 1 year small loan this did strike of being highly intrusive and also in some ways overkill.  I have never had to explain my financial affairs in some much detail to an institution before so it certainly was an eye opener.

Cutting to the chase, I was rejected due to me being on a 6 month contract. This made me realise that without a perm role, it is going to be hard to get credit and to buy a place and do all those life stepping stones that I would like to conquer in the next few years.  I certainly am not the only one in this boat.  Tough times.