Coalition to tell unemployed to 'get on your bike'

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


Exactly. And like many other people, I too have been on the good old compulsory two week "training" schemes, where they showed me how to write a CV. It was actually worse than the CV I drew up myself, and my "classmates" and I were then encouraged to join the army in week two. I have nothing against the army, I grew up in army barracks, but I am definately not the person to be joining up and putting my life on the line so they can mark me down as succesfully employed, ingratiating me into their statistics.

This scheme will be exploited by those wanting a free house, cost far too much and cripple the country a little bit more.

Here's an incentive to get people working and off the dole; create some jobs!

Originally posted by CSArnold
I've been unemployed for 3 months or so recently, I exhausted job hunting online and calling places, so I got on the bicycle, went and beat some bushes, it took me 3 days to find something, I start Monday, they checked my references and even gave me my desired pay. Fact is, you'll never find anything unless you try. I live in Florida, and the job market around here isn't so good.

That is the spirit. I lost my job on two occasions during my lifetime, but it took less than 2 weeks to find something suitable.

Getting on you bike does not mean uprooting yourself. I think that the government (and Norman Tebbit in 1981) is just addressing those who choose not to work.

I can understand that no one wants to demote themselves and do any kind of work just for the sake of working. However there is a benefit in taking on any job available. It can trigger a sequence of events which leads to the right job in the end. Sitting a home with a defeatist attitude won't help.

I would therefore advise anyone unemployed to get on their bike. I always did , just like Norman.




[edit on 26-6-2010 by crowdedskies]

Can I share with you ?

I suppose I'd better declare an interest ; I work for Jobcentre Plus, I've worked in the old DHSS, the DSS, Benefits Agency and now I'm in a rural Job Centre.

If it's any comfort, most of the staff think the "back to work sessions" and Stage 4 "2 week" interventions are a complete waste of time and resources. But that's what the last government wanted, so that's what had to be put in place.

I've taken some of those sessions. Most participants attend simply because non attendance means your benefit money is stopped if you don't turn up ... and that's hardly the best motivator. Some of the advice we have to dish out is absolutely risible ... but like so many other things, the Job Centre is the "great leveller" ... we get people coming in who don't even know what a CV is, let alone do they have the literacy skills required to complete one.

At the other end of the scale you've got the people who think we're the scum, their noses are out of joint because they're university educated and simply can't take instruction from minions like us.

And when you've got both groups of people in the same session ... plus ex offenders, drug addicts, alcoholics ... people most employers wouldn't touch with a bargepole ... it makes for an "interesting day".

I rejoice at the cuts to come in the Civil Service. There's no way our Job Centre's going to survive. I'm looking forward to compulsory redundancy, not because of the financial advantage of an exit package, it's simply because being on £16,000 pa for a 48 hour plus week, and all the grief that brings, the benefits of employment are simply no longer apparent, compared to what I will get "on the sick" when my own time comes.

So far this year I've been ... sworn at, spat on, had my PC wrecked, I've seen one customer slash another from ear to ear, we've had people shooting up in the public lavatories, we had one guy come in and piss all over the public reception area because his giro was late.

That I could take in an old style social security office, with protective screens. But with no screens and a Tory government hell bent on cutting benefits ... I'll be glad when my time in service is over. And sod my Imperial Service Order ... they can keep it.

I have a feeling their will be some unrest in Britain with this message from the
government.

It is though a very good idea if it can be implemented. I would like to see the vast majority of unemployed in all the western and modernized countries attempt to gain some form of paid employment.

This can have beneficial effects on individuals that are not related to just the financial aspect. Being employed can give some people a fantastic sense of well being and feeling like they contribute to society in a manner that is positive and flourishing for the person's health.


I can be hard to find work these days and I know that first hand. I left Uni in 2005 with a MSc in Experimental Psychology and for 9 months found it hard to get my career going even though I thought having a degree would secure me employment straight off the bat. I did not claim any benefits though as my family would not allow me to back then.

I eventually found my niche and now am a fully functioning tax paying citizen and I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in knowing that I have people that reply on me each and every day..whether they mean it or not the feeling is there.

I admit it will be wrong to force people into work they are unsuited for or too give people unfair deadlines to get of benefits however the upside is that sometimes a little shove in the right direction goes a long way!!


[edit on 26-6-2010 by sassyncute]

Originally posted by Legion2112
reply to post by Ferris.Bueller.II

 

Hi. What's up. Nice avatar. Ignorant much?

I'm going back to the very same employer that laid me off three months ago due to a leg injury that they didn't want to give me health insurance for... sign o' the times I guess. Doing it only because it's the only viable alternative I have to continue collecting unemployment and fishing for jobs that will never be... the above posters are right, whether you like it or not. Networking and being "in good" with employers are the only way you'll get hired in this country... and being "in good" has nothing to do with education, experience, drive or motivation... it has to do with who you know.

On the side, I'll also add that this whole get off your arse and bike nonsense is a load of crap.

I'm recovering from a leg injury... and I live 20 miles from where I'll be working. Granted this is the U.K. we're talking about, but recent posters in "America is evil and BP thusly had nothing to do with the oil leak" have said time and again that we should all just hop bike to avoid looking like evil bastards.

This is a strawman argument against real change because those elected have no idea how to fix the mess we're in... so it must be our fault.

the sentence in bold is what i am addressing///

the new 'serfs' that are expected to tighten their belts/ suck-it-up
under the program & official policy called 'Austerity'
is what TPTB are requiring the former middle-class to accept.

Austerity =equals= Rationing

the blue coller's are expected to 'ride or pedal' to jobs or job seeking venues...

but the Bankster elites are flush-with-funds & monies...
as they are performing a 'grace' for the system, by being around (a well paid around) and keeping the systems Banks in a state of readiness for the eventual financial-economic turn-around... which the Trillion$ in bailouts was thought to be necessary.


the finance/banker elites (neuvo aristocracy) can get chaufered to their brain-sessions and plush offices,
doing whatever it is that will exact wealth/& sweat equity from the actual workers in the society -(those that have employment)...

the workers are expected to walk or bike to their destinations...
(its all a form of conditioning our minds into acceptance, with the 'Bike' propaganda)
while the privledged aristocratic-elites get rickshawed around by us 'poor folk'....
Don't accept the brainwashing that 'you' ould be like the Chinese masses & pedal-to-work, or school, or groceries...

in


[edit on 26-6-2010 by St Udio]

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


It is awful what you have to put up with in the job center. I've seen what staff in places like that have to endure. That brings up the issue of a whole other level of society that eventually brings the rest down with it, but that's what happens with a flawed system.

I was actually told on several occasions that certain courses and the weekly signings were a waste of time by staff, so I know where you're coming from. I don't blame the job centers, but I do blame the government fully for only offering surface solutions and failing miserably to tackle the root of the problem. IDS will carry on that tradition of having his head so far up his bosses bum that any old idea sounds good.

They should maybe take a month or two to live as we have to and go through the rigmarole of engaging with unwilling employers.

reply to post by LeBombDiggity

Thanks for sharing the information. I thought as much about those back-to -work schemes. They only attend because they will lose their benefit if they don't. I know someone who has been unemployed all his life (he is 45 y.o). He always speaks about the fun of attending those sessions.

I have always respected you guys at the Job Centre. This is where I used to go when I was young and looking for work. They always found me something interesting which would then lead to something else. What did catch my attention was the way that most job centre staff really tried their best. Many times they would ring the prospective employer and really say nice things about me. Next thing was an interview.

Sadly I often saw job-seekers who were rude to the staff who were trying to help them.

"Get On Your Bikes And Ride!"



You see? It's all quite easy, so what are you waiting for?

With kindest regards to my brothers and sisters across the pond, and a nod to the Right Honourable Lord Tebbit.

Originally posted by dreamseeker

Even if you did go on your bike to find a job they tell you to apply at their web site. So what't the point.

"Get on your bike" is a saying, they dont mean literally to get on a bicycle.

People in the US have been uprooting and moving from place to place to find work for quite a while now. Sometimes leaving ghost areas, such as parts of Detroit, when jobs dry up.

That seems to be what they are saying, "We need to change from the way it is, where people stay in their towns and wait for jobs to come to the town, and have them follow work around the country."

I think its a bad idea, personally. Human beings lose a lot not staying in a place where they know people and feel sentiment towards the town or village. I think its time we started making economies suit people, rather than making people suit economies. What is the point of all our progress and technology if we have to become vagabonds following employers begging for scrapes of work to get it?

However they do need to do something about the fact that they pay up to 100,000 BPS a year for one families housing in some places. Thats a tad much. They could build someone something for less than that you would think, and just give it to them. After 10 years they would have spent a million BPS and no one owns anything? Not the state or the person? Thats foolishness.

What a joke, passing the buck and blaming the unemployed for the fact there arent any jobs to be had.

The government should be creating jobs, but they arent, so they'll just pass the blame as if there are millions of jobs sitting there with no-one to fill them, when in reality any job you go for will likely have 300+ other applicants.

Of course the government loves to paint the picture of the unemployed being lazy prats who dont want to work, no matter what reason they might be unemployed for. It's digusting to see the clueless fops who eat up this story, blaming the unfortunate sap getting ~£10,000 to scrape through life on while the MPs spend hundreds of thousands of your taxes on bird houses and moats.

how about the government tackle the immigration mess and kick out the millions of immigrants in the UK first..
we would then have millions of jobs and houses freed up for the native born British to live in and somewhere to work....

Originally posted by fatdad
how about the government tackle the immigration mess and kick out the millions of immigrants in the UK first..
we would then have millions of jobs and houses freed up for the native born British to live in and somewhere to work....

Agreed Fat Dad

British born should have first priority, But....
Theyre looking to creating total equallity throughout the EU
The EU superstate will be just like one big country and we'll loose our national identity. It probably have its own flag.
Whats happening is just like in the movies, Its orwellian, and I dont like it.

Oh and US. NAU should be moving into its next stages when G20 finishes.

We are all slaves to the greedy.

Im on Min wag at the moment, I find it attrocious that the company that employes me (JD) is british, yet they do nothing for their people. If a company will ONLY pay you what is REQUIRED of them by the government then we are comparable to the sweat shop workers. There is no real prosparity, Or transparancy and seeing as im not into material goods... Well you would imagine that my wage would get past two days...

Talking of Immigration. Under this new Scheme I would like nothing more to move to Scandinavia for some of their job prospects I know for a FACT they have. Yet due to unemployment and economic costs here in the UK, I am unable to persue.

Under Cameron's plans would I be entitled to a home, job over there if I was able to prove eligibility for employment oversea's, unlike like those who come here get everything for FREE. Yet I'll actually be working for my living in Europe. All I would need to claim is the beneficiaries I would be entitled to.

Or is this simply yet another scheme to get people out their high-rise flats, tear the council estates down and build more Supermarkets for a handful of cheap workers to work in.

Originally posted by Ferris.Bueller.II
reply to post by invetro

 

How dare Mr. Smith tell the unemployed to put down their pints and crisps, and actually look for work! I think he ought to do just what the Yanks are demanding, just continue sending the free dosh and get out of their business!

Yes lets make northern people all move to the south and apply for jobs that don't exist and live in houses that don't exist.... and then tell them sorry when they've spent all their money on the train but have to buy a return ticket.

This plan is a joke, just like all the other tory plans. Imagine the amount of times they'd have to travel for interviews competing with a thousand others for 1 job if they're lucky!

80,000 people did have jobs before this lousy government cut Labour's job scheme, and they had jobs where they lived right now!!!

Apparently bankers need bonuses as an incentive to do a good job regardless of £1 trillion of risky banking gambling taking place at any point in time and the next collapse being inevitable, and the unemployed need benefits taking away as an incentive to find work according to this joke of a govt! Are they trying to get us all even more angry so the french revolution part deux & off with their heads part deux is this autumn's showpiece!

[edit on 27-6-2010 by john124]

Maybe if we all get on our bikes and connect them and pedal really hard we can also solve the world's energy crisis! Maybe he's onto something!

How dare Mr. Smith tell the unemployed to put down their pints and crisps, and actually look for work! I think he ought to do just what the Yanks are demanding, just continue sending the free dosh and get out of their business!

Pints are also Tax'd, which means the levy of the money thus comes back into the States hands rather than Individual business owners pockets as profitability.
I don't quite understand where this stigma of unemployment and alcohol comes from, afterall even the gambling industry is tax'd and works in the same way so its not as if the state Welfare system loses out. Unlike the banks whose profits go straight into Europe and only one in the entire UK (which is making losses) puts anything back into the Economy. THERE the ones who should be told to get "on their bikes."