Unemployment

22nd February 2012 / Posted in: Human Resources, Reduncancy, Unemployment

Don’t judge a book by its cover

I know a guy who is incredibly, incredibly bright - a first class honours degree and PhD from Cambridge sort of bright.  He’s not like some very bright academics I’ve come across who aren’t on my planet - he’s great fun, easy to talk to, has a terrific sense of humour, is a great conversationist and someone I love to meet up with.  He’s incredibly successful in business too, has all sorts of investments, written books, an amazing house and garden, terrific wife and two lovely daughters.

Recently he was going though the redundancy process. He’d described the people he worked with as highly stressed and mad as a box of frogs.  My initial thought was that he would be glad to get out.  His employers really demonstrated their madness by making him work his 6 months notice - partly because they couldn’t find a frog mad enough to hop into their box and replace him!

Not all successful people are prudent and have a life outside work. My friend is. Many people with very senior, demanding jobs don’t have absorbing interests outside work.  He does.  As I write this I'm beginning to think that if he was single he’d be a great catch!

A month or so before he was due to leave we delivered some training together.  I was shocked at the sight of my friend. Rather than being de-mob happy or looking like the weight was soon to be lifted off his shoulders he looked crushed and depressed.   I can hear you thinking, what’s his problem? No financial worries, great home life, lots of hobbies, great prospects - where's the problem?

I was reflecting on our day working together when it hit me.  Inside he’s no different from the rest of us -  he’s just a normal, vulnerable human being. He was reacting in the way most lesser mortals do and taking his redundancy personally.  He’d have been happy to leave of his own accord to move onto pastures new but his employer decided to make cut backs,  the decision was out of his hands, and it hurt.

Just because he’s ‘well insulated’ against the financial effects of redundancy, can almost certainly find work easily, and has lots of interests and a lovely family to fill his time we’d be wrong to judge a book by its cover.

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12th May 2011 / Posted in: Finding employment , Unemployment

The Benefit of Choice?

Something I can’t abide is laziness. The squandering of time. Wasting opportunities. Wasting life. So for the second time in a fortnight I’m astride one of my hobby horses - he’s called ‘Choices.’

Over the wedding weekend (the one everyone talked about!) we stayed in a privately run hotel in Crickhowell which is on the edge of Blaenau, the area of highest unemployment in the UK. I was amazed that nearly all the waiting staff and all the cleaning staff were from overseas and learned from the owners that local people don't want lower paid jobs, particularly if they involve hard, physical work in the service sector.

Last Monday, through the Chichester Chamber of Commerce & Industry I had a tour of Tangmere Airfield Nurseries (http://www.tangmere.co.uk/en-GB/Default.aspx - a vast commercial nursery  growing peppers on the outskirts of Chichester.  We chatted about staffing and heard that most of their lower paid staff are from overseas, particularly Poland. Why? Because they have a good work ethic, want to work hard whereas the indigenous population don't want the lower paid jobs, particularly if they involve hard work.

Yesterday I was at Chichester College and heard about the ‘Cook’ Food Festival they are running next week (http://www.chichester.ac.uk/About-Us/Restaurants/Cook-Food-Festival/) to raise awareness about their hospitality courses which are under subscribed. The Principal suspects it's because the courses are associated with working in lower paid roles. 

When I was fourteen I had a Saturday job working for the local vet doing whatever they needed doing, which was a lot of cleaning dog pee off the walls and floors. If I’d given it up because the pay wasn’t great, and cleaning up after dogs wasn’t much fun, my grand mother would have said I had ideas above my station. She’d have been right. Just because I came from a middle class background and went to a reasonable school didn’t alter the fact I had no workplace skills and no relevant experience. What I did have was the desire and need to earn some money. The choice of job was mine - I needed to convince my parents I really wanted to be a vet.

Desire and need aren’t experienced by a sizeable chunk of the unemployed population. They won't work because benefits afford them choices - the choice not work.  These are probably the same people that complain about ‘foreigners steeling our jobs.’  The country is in an appalling mess and the problem is cultural.   Change will be a long, slow process needing persistence and continuity.  It could mean a Government continuing with something put in place by their predecessor .........

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3rd May 2011 / Posted in: Finding employment , Human Resources, Unemployment

Hungry for Work?

Last weekend we avoided having one too many celebrating the Royal Wedding in our local pub and headed off for our own, less formal, celebration - a weekend at the Gliffaes Hotel (www.gliffaeshotel.com) in the Brecon Beacons National Park, my forthcoming birthday being an ideal excuse.  A privately-run haven in stunning countryside, on the banks of the River Usk just outside Crickhowell, it’s my idea of heaven. 

With the sun shining, a heady scent of azaleas in the air and the sounds of the River Usk and bird song around us the World of austerity and unemployment seemed some way off. Well almost. When you work for yourself you never quite switch off so my antennae started twitching as I watched the staff. The hotel is kept spotless by an army (yes - seriously!) of Nepalese housekeeping staff - the wives of Gurkha soldiers in training at the nearby Army School of Infantry in Brecon.  The majority of waiting and kitchen staff were from Poland, Spain, Lithuania and Romania. A lovely, hardworking and friendly group with excellent spoken English.

River Usk

We were only moments away from Blaenau, Gwent, the site of the highest unemployment in the UK. So why weren’t there more local staff?  My suspicion was that they didn’t want to do these lower paid jobs, but before mounting my hobby horse I chatted to Susie Suter, who owns and runs the hotel with her husband James. She confirmed what I thought. She’d love to employ more local staff, but they just don’t want to wait at table or do housekeeping jobs. In many families it goes deeper than the current economic crisis and many young people from the Blaenau area are 3rd or 4th generation unemployed. Every so often Susie makes a move to employ more local staff. If they turn up for the interview, and are suitable, she finds they rarely last more than a week as hard work doesn’t seem to suit them.

So how do young Poles, Spaniards, Lithuanians and Romanians find jobs in Crickhowell? Susie has developed a relationship with a college in London whose hospitality students need to work in hospitality as part of their course.  It’s a win win arrangement for the college, the students, and the hotel.

Years ago hunger drove people to find work. Today hunger is satiated by benefits.  More jobs have been created, but our unemployed workforce isn't hungry or hungry to work, so what next?

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