P

Happy birthday!

I must’ve pocket posted that.

Syph79 wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

Got a job interview this week, recruiter mentioned there is a choice of company car or cash allowance equivalent (for visiting client sites). Thats all i know. Anyone have experience of this and is the latter the better option than the former?

Probably too late, but the options should be circa 18p with car provided, or 45p for your own vehicle - both paid per mile. I have the 45p option, as I figured the difference could buy me a car that I own and therefore I have an asset I wouldn’t have if the employer was renting it. The decision should depend on how many miles you’ll be expected to do. If it’s low, take the 18p option.

P.S. @dinostar77 remember to factor in the need for business use insurance on your car; visiting client sites isn't counted as commuting.

At least you've not signed a contract till the end of season

Two of us

Let's never talk of this again and I hope you feel good son. If you need Dreamcast love you know where to go

I can sympathise with him. Everything is fucked right now, and it feels like if you made a misstep in your life and you fell off the curve of success you’re as equally fucked. A decade or so ago a quick fix would have been possible, and you’d get right back on track.

Now there’s fuck all. Jobs have no security, every job gets applied for by triple figures of people. Every job has a specification so specific that they may as well not accept anyone other than people who have already done the job, because nobody will train anybody. And why bother giving people feedback when you can just ignore them? They’ll figure it out. So why not just thrash at any comforting opporuntinty that comes your way? Living month to month, never being able to plan anything, forgetting what holidays are, forgetting what buying new clothes is, forgetting anything other than making sure you’ve got enough to make rent each month, and maybe enough to spend on something that takes the feeling of nothingness away for just a minute, before you sink back into the apathy of doing nothing but performing to exist. Why not just apply for anything, in any part of the world in the vain hope that it’ll finally be the thing that rescues you from purposelessness?

Elmlea wrote:

Syph79 wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

Got a job interview this week, recruiter mentioned there is a choice of company car or cash allowance equivalent (for visiting client sites). Thats all i know. Anyone have experience of this and is the latter the better option than the former?

Probably too late, but the options should be circa 18p with car provided, or 45p for your own vehicle - both paid per mile. I have the 45p option, as I figured the difference could buy me a car that I own and therefore I have an asset I wouldn’t have if the employer was renting it. The decision should depend on how many miles you’ll be expected to do. If it’s low, take the 18p option.

P.S. @dinostar77 remember to factor in the need for business use insurance on your car; visiting client sites isn't counted as commuting.

Good point thanks. I've taken the car allowance and sort out a car myself rather than take one of the companys cars. Still waiting for the paper work to go through and what not.

Tempy wrote:

I can sympathise with him. Everything is fucked right now, and it feels like if you made a misstep in your life and you fell off the curve of success you’re as equally fucked. A decade or so ago a quick fix would have been possible, and you’d get right back on track.

Now there’s fuck all. Jobs have no security, every job gets applied for by triple figures of people. Every job has a specification so specific that they may as well not accept anyone other than people who have already done the job, because nobody will train anybody. And why bother giving people feedback when you can just ignore them? They’ll figure it out. So why not just thrash at any comforting opporuntinty that comes your way? Living month to month, never being able to plan anything, forgetting what holidays are, forgetting what buying new clothes is, forgetting anything other than making sure you’ve got enough to make rent each month, and maybe enough to spend on something that takes the feeling of nothingness away for just a minute, before you sink back into the apathy of doing nothing but performing to exist. Why not just apply for anything, in any part of the world in the vain hope that it’ll finally be the thing that rescues you from purposelessness?

If things keep going like this, there will be a reckoning. Young people will rally to populist clauses, and the spectre of the charismatic feel good fash leader looms

Kazuo wrote:

Not a gripe for me, but rather my wee brother, who's been desperately applying for any job that comes up recently (including, vaguely, 'Game Show Host'), and sent me a message two days ago saying that he had a Skype interview for an English teaching job in China. It's never been anything he's expressed an interest in before, and he applied on a whim, but he said the interview went well and now he's just forwarded me the contract they've sent him.  I'm trying to avoid coming over all mumsy and worried for him, and some people who are in the know have looked over it and said everything seems legit, but he's got a habit of getting ideas into his head and just running with them (two weeks ago he was 100% going back to uni to study social care, another thing he had absolutely no experience or previous interest in), and I just want him to take a deep breath and actually think about what he's doing sometimes. Tried suggesting, for instance, that if it was something he really wanted to explore we might be able to sort him a TEFL course here which he can do and then assess his options, instead of running across the world at the first thing that comes his way.  Younger siblings eh?

A TEFL course would make sense if he's serious about it. The standard is a 4-week course and if you're on Jobseeker's you can get it paid for (when I did it, it was about £700, but that was many years ago). He could probably get on one in a few months if he applied now.

Even if this current job offer is legit, doing the course will give him more options and enable him to apply elsewhere. He may be able to go to a better establishment with better pay and conditions. If he has a uni degree of any kind that will also open up more possibilities.

As I've said before, TEFL is a good thing for anyone who feels stuck, doesn't have anything tying them to a particular place, and is moderately smart. In that sense I'd encourage it, but a bit of patience wouldn't hurt.

Tempy wrote:

I can sympathise with him. Everything is fucked right now, and it feels like if you made a misstep in your life and you fell off the curve of success you’re as equally fucked. A decade or so ago a quick fix would have been possible, and you’d get right back on track.

Now there’s fuck all. Jobs have no security, every job gets applied for by triple figures of people. Every job has a specification so specific that they may as well not accept anyone other than people who have already done the job, because nobody will train anybody. And why bother giving people feedback when you can just ignore them? They’ll figure it out. So why not just thrash at any comforting opporuntinty that comes your way? Living month to month, never being able to plan anything, forgetting what holidays are, forgetting what buying new clothes is, forgetting anything other than making sure you’ve got enough to make rent each month, and maybe enough to spend on something that takes the feeling of nothingness away for just a minute, before you sink back into the apathy of doing nothing but performing to exist. Why not just apply for anything, in any part of the world in the vain hope that it’ll finally be the thing that rescues you from purposelessness?

I could have said the same 10 years ago.

I'm not dismissing you at all Tempy and I know you've had a tough time and disappointment recently but it's nothing new. Just keep going. Don't give up.

I hope he finds what he needs, or if nothing else, gets to leave for a bit and and work somewhere else for a wee while whilst he figures stuff out. I feel for anyone in that situation, I started getting depressed when I worked in retail and couldn’t find anyone to hire me out of it for many years. I still had work though.

It’s also a very brave move, am sure you’ll miss him as you clearly care and look out for him.

Siblings ay

Oh man, that would be awesome. There's certainly some interesting studies out there about the impact on productivity and morale, not to mention the mental wellbeing of the staff.

Let's hope it's just a matter of time before it's more widely adopted.

I was talking about this last week, I think it's utterly shitty that we as humans get 2 days out of 7 to ourselves, and even then a portion of those 2 days are taken up usually by admin.

I'd happily work longer hours for 4 days to cover the same total.