And so (somewhat inevitably) I am once again jobless. The call was in fact to inform me that due to company changes my employer can no longer find a position for me. It seems that I am just not suitable for a role in a fashion company. Which, to be honest, I knew from the start. The news itself wasn't particularly disheartening. My opinions on working for a fashion company with completely different ethics and opinions to myself have been brought up several times (I hate fashion), not to mention the ongoing feeling that the ad hoc nature of part-time work there was generally fucking me around. So in many respects, it is a relief to be free from an uneasy and uncommitted job which has caused more grief and frustration than enjoyment or satisfaction. The only downside would be the timing...
In December (I think), Milo, my boyfriend, got a job which he had been hoping for immensely, and which came with a huge wage increase. He immediately started planning holidays and events which he could now afford us to do. A weekend in Paris and a festival in Germany have already been booked. Two weeks ago, my employer said that in all likelihood, after a few things had been sorted, they would be able to employ me full time. Everything looked great. 2012 might not be so bad after all! That is until Milo's enthusiasm ended with a severely overdrawn account and a number of bank charges which he couldn't afford. And I, from the prospect of progressing from part-time work to full-time work, suddenly have no work at all. How life has a way of baking you a cake, only to take it back, beat the shit out of it, and then throw it at your face.
To add insult to injury, the Jobcentre informed me at my last meeting that they were looking to put me onto another work placement scheme. Since I was just waiting to hear back from my employer with a start date for full-time work, I managed to postpone this. Ironically, it turns out that the Jobcentre are the very reason my employer couldn't employ me full time. He was looking into getting funding from them to start an apprenticeship of sorts, but due to a number of bureaucratic restrictions, I was not eligible for it. I have now been unemployed long enough to see that not only do the Jobcentre not help people look for work, they actively hinder it.
So now I expect that I will be put on another work placement scheme, which, since my cynicism has been ever increased by the last failed work placement, is sure to be a huge fucking waste of time. Not to mention how completely unfounded and hypocritical are the claims that these work placement schemes are helping people back into work. Not that I am stupid enough to believe anything that the Tories say is actually true, but upon first mention, the idea of work placements does seem like a great idea of getting people back into work. The only problem is, the number of jobs available is going down, as the number unemployed is going up. This discordance of strategies on the part of the government; to slash the number of jobs whilst forcing the unemployed into unpaid work placements, is simply a way of justifying the former with the latter. And predictably, this is being abused by huge companies to receive free labour.
To say that the government is adding to the pressure and discontent of a generation of young people unable to find work would be putting it lightly. To say that they are oppressively forcing people to work for their right to receive benefits is more accurate. And the idea that this is actually helping people is uninformed at best and a cruel mockery at worst. How can it possibly help young people, who are looking for work, frustrated at the continual headlines in the news that more job cuts are on the way, to push them into unpaid work, surrounded by people doing exactly the same job for a wage? How can it possibly motivate people when the job they are doing is, for all intents and purposes, unnecessary (and it must be, otherwise a paid position would be in its place)? How is it justified to not only allow, but to actually coerce people into working for £1.35 an hour when the minimum wage (for over 21) is £6.08?
Speaking from experience, this forced labour does not help people into full time work, since employers taking part in it are under no obligation to employ people at the end of their placements, and companies such as Tesco are simply using it as an opportunity to hire extra staff without it affecting their profits. Which means that after the end of the placement, people return to job-seeking, having gained nothing more than 3 months experience stacking shelves, which is hardly an invaluable CV addition. It should be obvious to anyone then that this scheme is not a great motivational tool either. And perhaps worst of all, is the way that it is making young unemployed people feel exploited, constrained and worthless: it is nothing less than draconian.
The disillusionment that I have felt, not only towards the government, but also towards the supposed support that I am due to receive from the Jobcentre, is nothing new. The longer a person is unemployed, the more dejected and apathetic they are bound to feel towards their situation. The situation is bad enough as it is; not having a job is shit, as anyone who has ever been unemployed knows. To be told by some Eton educated toff, who was born into wealth and never had to look for a job in his life, how to find a job, is adding salt to the wound. And the huge government cuts to the benefit system are a slap in the face to go with it. The feeling of disillusionment is nothing new, but now added to it are feelings of persecution. I will most likely be placed on a second work-placement scheme in the coming weeks, at the end of which I will not be guaranteed a full-time job. And what then? The government claims that this is helping me back into full-time employment. But if nothing is guaranteed, if the employers enlisted are under no obligations, if the people on these placements have absolutely no incentive (which they don't, since they are unpaid), if no real, full-time, paid positions are being created, then how can this possibly solve the unemployment problem which this government created?
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