The Trams Didn't Get Me.

[Telarus]

Welcome back!

[LMNO]

Hiya, DSquid!  Good to see you again!

[Cain]

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[Demolition Squid]

Yeah... the fortnightly trips to the Job Centre were incredibly depressing. Partly because the staff there were always very pleasant, but also terrible at their jobs. For instance, constantly giving the wrong paperwork/inputting the wrong things on the system, which needed correcting regularly, and putting me forward for apprenticeship schemes despite the fact I have a degree - which automatically disqualifies me from eligibility. I knew this, I tried to explain it to them... but I still had to go through the process and be officially rejected for that reason anyway. Gotta love bureaucracy.

I never felt like the staff there were looking down on me... I just felt like I could do their job much better than they could, and resented that they somehow managed to get in there where I couldn't find a route myself.

I do feel like things are looking up now, though, and that's the important thing. It also sounds like the process is likely to get even worse for those who are still stuck on jobseeker's, so I'm thankful I managed to find something before they start demanding blood and organs for your £50/week.

[Junkenstein]

Good to see you back DS.

Minor aside, does anyone know anyone who has ever got work through a UK job centre? Seriously. The place is designed to make you fucking depressed.

[Demolition Squid]

My dad knew a recovering alcoholic who the Job Centre forced to take work at a supermarket many miles away from his home. They stuck him in the warehouse, where a significant amount of his job was shifting around crates full of various types of booze. Unsurprisingly, he relapsed.

He couldn't drive, the wages weren't enough to afford public transport (it was part of that scheme which replaces your benefits but doesn't supplement them much), so he had to cycle for two hours there and back for each shift.

He died of a heart attack at the start of last year.

Realizing that this is the only example I know of them being directly involved in a 'successful' placement, despite knowing a lot of people who have been out of work recently... is actually surprisingly depressing.

[Junkenstein]

Well, that's horrific.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Glad you're back, DS.

Usually I will skim through long posts like the OP, but yours was so well-written I couldn't help but read the whole thing.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

My dad knew a recovering alcoholic who the Job Centre forced to take work at a supermarket many miles away from his home. They stuck him in the warehouse, where a significant amount of his job was shifting around crates full of various types of booze. Unsurprisingly, he relapsed.

He couldn't drive, the wages weren't enough to afford public transport (it was part of that scheme which replaces your benefits but doesn't supplement them much), so he had to cycle for two hours there and back for each shift.

He died of a heart attack at the start of last year.

Realizing that this is the only example I know of them being directly involved in a 'successful' placement, despite knowing a lot of people who have been out of work recently... is actually surprisingly depressing.

Holy fuckass, why the hell is that even a thing that happens to anyone?

[Cain]

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