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On Tuesday I got a call from an Employment Agency in Cosham (near Portsmouth) saying that they would like to shortlist me for a job I had applied for. However, in order for them to do so I would have to go into their office & complete a full registration

So I cleared this with A4E & confirmed I could claims Travel Expenses, as it was all part of Job Search.

Then, just as I was getting on the train I got a call on my mobile from the person who had interviewed me last week. She said "I'm afraid you weren't successful in your application for the job we interviewed you for", so I thought "No big deal - to be honest I wasn't really expecting anything of it anyway". Then she went on... "However, we do have another position we'd like to offer you, as we feel you would be very well suited for it".

After 14 years out of work you can imagine how that felt - and there was me on the train going to register with an employment agency in order to continue an application for another job.

They're uncertain of a start date yet - probably sometime at the end of the month, as they have to arrange training.

From what I can make out, the jobs a lot more straightforward the the one I interviewed for & it pays £1100 p.a. more.

The stupid thing is that I still have to go through the motions of Job Seeking until then or the DWP will stop my benefits. The official line is that you have to assume the job offer will fall through, so you still have to be available for work, right up until the moment you sign off.

The funny thing was that a few minutes after I had phoned my Work Adviser with the news I got another call from the office from the twit who sits at the next desk (he's the one who told me to remove the word 'Volunteer' from my C.V. which, if I had done so I wouldn't have got the interview in the first place - and that was told to me by the interviewer) saying that they were organising a Jobs Fair on the 3rd October, so I told him it would probably be a total waste of time them putting me down for it. He then gets on his high horse & starts going on "Well I'm afraid you simply don't have a choice. I don't care if you think it's a waste of time or not. If you don't attend your benefits will be stopped". So I calmly responded - "I'm guessing you haven't spoken to Matt, then." - and then went on to explain how I had been offered a job & the office had already been informed & that if he had got his way with my C.V. I wouldn't even have got as far as the interview.

We have a pal who Lord alone knows, he wants to work. He's had all the same set backs as you.

Finally he was accepted as a Volunteer on a nearby wet land. If he complete's two years voluntary work, he can go on a course to train as a full time ranger which Is what he wants.

Meanwhile, he has to show he Is looking for work or lose his benefits. Yet, he can't put down on his CV that he's doing voluntary work. Madness !!!

Oscar Namechange;1464471 wrote: We have a pal who Lord alone knows, he wants to work. He's had all the same set backs as you.

Finally he was accepted as a Volunteer on a nearby wet land. If he complete's two years voluntary work, he can go on a course to train as a full time ranger which Is what he wants.

Meanwhile, he has to show he Is looking for work or lose his benefits. Yet, he can't put down on his CV that he's doing voluntary work. Madness !!!
Actually, you can put what you want on a C.V. Curriculum Vitae = Summary of Life. If it's accurate it's acceptable. You can be 'advised' on what to put on there & what not to, but the decision remains yours. I chose to ignore Adrian's recommendations because I thought he was a Pratt & talking out of his backside. An opinion that I have now had proven (and have told him so in no uncertain terms ).

My interviewer told me outright that it was seeing the word 'Volunteer' on the C.V. that clinched my getting the interview in the first place. If, however, what I had been volunteering in wasn't relevant to the situation in hand (community work cleaning the streets, etc., that would have nothing to do with Admin, but as I was working as a Computer Mentor, that was very relevant.

Tell that mate of yours to follow his heart. Yes, listen to the advice, but get as many 2nd / 3rd etc opinions as necessary before making the decision for himself. The C.V. is HIS C.V. - not what someone else thinks it should be.

For rteasons i won;t bore you with I have had to find myself a new occupation. I was signed on, not that I got any benefits it was to get the NI stamp and I put myself through a HGV licence - a weeks course. Person I was dealing with was quite happy with that, after all I was taking steps to improve my employment chances was I not?

But after the course a different individual on asking what I had been doing to get a job on being told I spent the week obtaining an hgv licence responded "so you weren't available for work" on seeking clarification she explained if they had had a job for me I would not have been available to start work because I was on a course therefore I was unavailable. My argument that i was taking steps to improve my employability fell on deaf ears. long story short she signed me off had I been receiving any payments they would have stopped, I appealed successfuly but honestly you couldn't make it up.

She was sitting under a sign sayiong we do not tolerate abusive language or violence against our staff and there is security staff in attendance not that I am inclined to waste my time being abusive to or hitting idiots no matter what the provocation. I would say that they only work in the job centre because they can't get a decent job but I won't. Some of the ones I have encountered wouldn't be able to hold down a job in the private sector

Work is good. Any kind of work. Besides making desires and dreams come true, work gives a person a sense of self-worth and that illusive feeling of having made some kind of mark, an impact on the course of humanity. Work is taking a turn, however so small, at the helm of the ship of time as it sails into the future.

I began work at McDonald's when I was fifteen in 1975. I've been unemployed for a total of 7 days in all the decades since then. I've had hundreds of small jobs, quite a few big jobs, and three careers. I work five jobs right now. As I look back across the years, there wasn't a single job in which I didn't feel as though I grew, learned, and had adventure. Work has made every dream I ever had, from a car as a teenager to a home as an adult, come true. I've stood in the 118 degree heat and checked oil in engines, slung tar on an asphalt crew, washed mountains of dishes, slaved over hot grills, and cleaned filthy bathrooms. I've also flown a fighter jet to near-space where the stars come out in the daytime and the sky turns black, seen the curve of the Earth and New York from Oklahoma, and watched hundreds of children cross a stage, shake my hand, and go on to build families. I wouldn't take back a single minute of any job I've ever had.

My congratulations to you on your new opportunity horizon.

"Catch the winds of destiny, wherever they drive the boat. To put meaning in your life may end in madness, but life without meaning is the endless torture of vague desire." - From the poem "George Grey"

I seriously think the principle behind all the cutbacks & the clampdowns are to get to the most vulnerable.. The policy being to sanction as many people as possible & to get them thinking that it would be a waste of time appealing & therefore not bother, thus saving the Government the money - even when it's payments that they're perfectly entitled to, and the more sanctions they make, the more money they save, so that they can then give their millionaire buddies massive tax cuts.

I have no issues with clamping down on the major scroungers who make a extremely profitable business out of fiddling the system - claiming under multiple identities in different towns, for non existent kids, renting multiple properties from themselves, claiming invalidity benefits whilst running their own building contracting businesses. The list goes on & on, and nabbing just one of these professional fraudsters can easily be equivalent to a year or so of sanctions to an honest claimant, already scraping the barrel & relying on Food Banks to get by.

Saint_;1464517 wrote: Work is good. Any kind of work. Besides making desires and dreams come true, work gives a person a sense of self-worth and that illusive feeling of having made some kind of mark, an impact on the course of humanity. Work is taking a turn, however so small, at the helm of the ship of time as it sails into the future.


Have you ever been a script writer for Disney ?

I have had some mind numbingly boring jobs, the only value was I could feed my kids, no soaring to the blue horizons of human destiny........or something......you are so much better at this than me.

gmc;1464513 wrote: For rteasons i won;t bore you with I have had to find myself a new occupation. I was signed on, not that I got any benefits it was to get the NI stamp and I put myself through a HGV licence - a weeks course. Person I was dealing with was quite happy with that, after all I was taking steps to improve my employment chances was I not?

But after the course a different individual on asking what I had been doing to get a job on being told I spent the week obtaining an hgv licence responded "so you weren't available for work" on seeking clarification she explained if they had had a job for me I would not have been available to start work because I was on a course therefore I was unavailable. My argument that i was taking steps to improve my employability fell on deaf ears. long story short she signed me off had I been receiving any payments they would have stopped, I appealed successfuly but honestly you couldn't make it up.

She was sitting under a sign sayiong we do not tolerate abusive language or violence against our staff and there is security staff in attendance not that I am inclined to waste my time being abusive to or hitting idiots no matter what the provocation. I would say that they only work in the job centre because they can't get a decent job but I won't. Some of the ones I have encountered wouldn't be able to hold down a job in the private sector


At least you have a profession Auld Yin but having said that, often It can make things worse. I've known unemployed being sent miles for Interviews that are way out of their capabilities or way below their capabilities.

They work to targets, I'm sure.

I just thank god, that In all my life, I've only ever had this for a few weeks.

FourPart;1464467 wrote: On Tuesday I got a call from an Employment Agency in Cosham (near Portsmouth) saying that they would like to shortlist me for a job I had applied for. However, in order for them to do so I would have to go into their office & complete a full registration

So I cleared this with A4E & confirmed I could claims Travel Expenses, as it was all part of Job Search.

Then, just as I was getting on the train I got a call on my mobile from the person who had interviewed me last week. She said "I'm afraid you weren't successful in your application for the job we interviewed you for", so I thought "No big deal - to be honest I wasn't really expecting anything of it anyway". Then she went on... "However, we do have another position we'd like to offer you, as we feel you would be very well suited for it".

After 14 years out of work you can imagine how that felt - and there was me on the train going to register with an employment agency in order to continue an application for another job.

They're uncertain of a start date yet - probably sometime at the end of the month, as they have to arrange training.

From what I can make out, the jobs a lot more straightforward the the one I interviewed for & it pays £1100 p.a. more.

The stupid thing is that I still have to go through the motions of Job Seeking until then or the DWP will stop my benefits. The official line is that you have to assume the job offer will fall through, so you still have to be available for work, right up until the moment you sign off.

The funny thing was that a few minutes after I had phoned my Work Adviser with the news I got another call from the office from the twit who sits at the next desk (he's the one who told me to remove the word 'Volunteer' from my C.V. which, if I had done so I wouldn't have got the interview in the first place - and that was told to me by the interviewer) saying that they were organising a Jobs Fair on the 3rd October, so I told him it would probably be a total waste of time them putting me down for it. He then gets on his high horse & starts going on "Well I'm afraid you simply don't have a choice. I don't care if you think it's a waste of time or not. If you don't attend your benefits will be stopped". So I calmly responded - "I'm guessing you haven't spoken to Matt, then." - and then went on to explain how I had been offered a job & the office had already been informed & that if he had got his way with my C.V. I wouldn't even have got as far as the interview.


Their madness need not affect you. Keep a cool head and follow their rules by the number. It doesn't matter. We have the same thing here in Sweden.

When I was unemployed, I was once sent a notice by job services of a vacant position. It clearly stated that owning an motorcar was an absolute requirment, and job services knew that I had none. It was on their file anyway. So I rang the idiot down at services to remind her of it. "Never mind", she told me ... "apply anyway, just in case". So I did.

When my wife came to Sweden we did all we could to find her employment as soon as possible. Job serivices required a weekly report of the positions she'd applied for during that week. One day we got a letter from them stating that my wife hadn't made an earnest enough effort, as she'd only applied for placements for which she was qualified! "Eh?", we asked them by telephone. We were then informed that she had to apply for a minimum of 20 jobs per week and that included (sorry, I don't know the English expression) "All categories". Yes, that's right! From then on it was a simple matter of her sending off applications for any job she felt was within her expertise then top up the 20-weekly report with applications sent to anything from auto mechanic to brain surgeon. Just close your eyes and point. No more worries.

I met a bloke who'd been honest in his application for a job for which he had absolutely no qualifications. He wrote that he had no choice but to apply despite being unsuited for the duties required. Well! The company employment officer didn't like that one bit. Perhaps he didn't like his time being wasted by insincere applicants but was unaware of how job services operate. So he rang services and reported the poor fellow, who was promptly cut off from all unemployment benefits and was forced to apply for social services instead! The poor sod!

It's the same here. You to make a set number of actions a week. An action can be anything as simple as an online search, but even if it were a required number of applications, then although I see it as being a total waste of time applying for a position that you're not suited for & haven't got a hope in hell of getting, the official view of the DWP is that you have to apply for them anyway, being a matter of numbers, which just wastes everybody's time. You just try convincing them of the advantages of Quality not Quantity, and you'll find yourself banging your head against a brick wall.

I currently have over 50 eMail alerts to work my way through, as I've not been keeping up on them (although I can't really admit that much, or I'll have my benefits sanctioned up until I start work).

FourPart;1464751 wrote: ..... I see it as being a total waste of time applying for a position that you're not suited for & haven't got a hope in hell of getting ..... You just try convincing them of the advantages of Quality not Quantity ......


As well as the personal frustration, mental anguish, and down-right anger that it breeds at all ends of it.



:-5 :yh_cry :yh_angry

I've actually got a Telephone Interview booked for Friday Morning - for a position as a Funeral Arranger with the Co-Op.

FourPart;1464818 wrote: I've actually got a Telephone Interview booked for Friday Morning - for a position as a Funeral Arranger with the Co-Op.


Good luck! No pun intended.

It's official. I've been given my start date. Next Tuesday (30th Sep).

This will be an Induction Training thing (not sure if that's just a 1 day thing, or all week), which will be held in the same place where I was interviewed, in the middle of town, so just 15 mins on Da Beasty.

I've already upgraded my Insurance to include "Commuting to a fixed place of Employment", at an extortionate additional £6.48 p.a.

I've also phoned to notify the Council that I won't be claiming benefits any more, as from that date, and have been told that they won't be closing it, just adjusting the claim, as there is always a possibility I may still be able to get something.

I've also phoned for an application form for Working Tax Credits. The bloke on the phone said he didn't think I'd be entitled to anything, but the online calculator said I should be entitled to about £2,900 over the year.

Next thing, I suppose, is to get on to the DWP & tell them where to go with the mandatory Job Search between being offered the position & actually starting work.

I've been looking into Rail Fares.

A Day Return (with Railcard) is £2.93

A Weekly Ticket (without Railcard, as the cost is already discounted) is £17.98.

Therefore, 5 x £2.93, being less that £15, I think I'll go for the Daily Tickets - although I may well be using Da Beasty.

I am now aching more than ever. If it wasn't enough to still be aching after my jog on Saturday, I've jut collapsed into my armchair after having ironed enough shirts & trousers for the rest of the week., with my heels feeling bruised & my knees feeling locked from so much standing - to say nothing of being all hot & sweaty.

Induction starts at 09:30 in the morning, in the Town Centre, so a lot nearer than the actual office.

Back to a maximum Midnight bedtime methinks.

Wishing you all the best for tomorrow :-6

More than a little nervous.

Good job I checked the Agenda. Although the eMail I received told me 09:30, when I read the Agenda that's the time the actual Induction begins. The actual start time is 09:00 - 09:15 for "Registration & Coffee" & I don't want to miss that - the Novotel makes lovely coffee.

FourPart;1465319 wrote: More than a little nervous.

Good job I checked the Agenda. Although the eMail I received told me 09:30, when I read the Agenda that's the time the actual Induction begins. The actual start time is 09:00 - 09:15 for "Registration & Coffee" & I don't want to miss that - the Novotel makes lovely coffee.


Good job you double checked! Enjoy and good luck, better get to bed! :wah:

I've set the alarm on my watch so it'll remind me every night.

How did it go, FourPart?

Pretty well, I think, although 99% of it had nothing to do with what I would be doing.

I've been issued with a shiny new laptop - which I've a nasty feeling I may have damaged. I took a bit of a spill from Da Beasty on the way home. The front wheel locked & went into a sideways skid. Fortunately, apart from a few minor scratches the bike wasn't damaged - mainly because it fell on something soft - ME!!

The first thing I did when I got to Ebe's (I stopped by at my mate's on the way home) was to try & boot it, which, at first, it did fine, but then wouldn't let me log in as it couldn't find a server. OK, fair enough, maybe it's not meant to work out of the office - but then there was no way to do a proper shut down, so I had to simply Power Off. Then, when I tried again later, and went into the Start Windows Normally section it took me to a Repair Windows option. No problem. It ran the full memory scan & then told me to insert the repair disc. 2 minor problems. 1. I don't have a repair disc. 2. There's no disc drive.

I just hoping one of the techies at the office will be able to fix it.

FourPart;1465376 wrote: Pretty well, I think, although 99% of it had nothing to do with what I would be doing.

I've been issued with a shiny new laptop - which I've a nasty feeling I may have damaged. I took a bit of a spill from Da Beasty on the way home. The front wheel locked & went into a sideways skid. Fortunately, apart from a few minor scratches the bike wasn't damaged - mainly because it fell on something soft - ME!!

The first thing I did when I got to Ebe's (I stopped by at my mate's on the way home) was to try & boot it, which, at first, it did fine, but then wouldn't let me log in as it couldn't find a server. OK, fair enough, maybe it's not meant to work out of the office - but then there was no way to do a proper shut down, so I had to simply Power Off. Then, when I tried again later, and went into the Start Windows Normally section it took me to a Repair Windows option. No problem. It ran the full memory scan & then told me to insert the repair disc. 2 minor problems. 1. I don't have a repair disc. 2. There's no disc drive.

I just hoping one of the techies at the office will be able to fix it.


Glad the day went ok until the journey home! Ouch, apart from the laptop are you ok too?

Seems it's a day for accidents, my daughter had a cymbal drop on her big toe and ended up at the hospital having three stitches!

Trousers & (bestest) shoes ruined - ok as shoes, but now grazed & no good for show.

Knee badly grazed, but probably looks a lot worse than it really is. Plus a few bruised ribs.

It all happened at a 3-way mini roundabout. A van was in the left hand lane, not signalling. I assumed he was heading straight on, so I approached the roundabout to do likewise, then realised that he was turning right, and therefore approaching to my right, so he had right of way. That's when I slammed the brakes on, avoiding a collision. My own fault really. I shouldn't have 'assumed' he was heading straight on, despite his being in the lane for doing so.

The van slowed down to check me out, but didn't stop, although the woman in the car behind me was straight out of her car, very kindly asking if I wanted her to call anyone & saying that she thought the van was going straight ahead as well.

Fortunately no one else was involved & I quickly got Da Beasty back up & running.

I'm pretty sure that's not what's damaged the Laptop, as it booted to the login point when I first got to Ebe's, even though it wouldn't let me login. The point is, though, that it had been working after the accident. I've emailed the Service Desk advising them of the situation, just in case they need to make any special provision for fixing it tomorrow.

As a long term cyclist, all other road users are idiots.

Any moves I make are only after the motor has made their move.

Learned after my bike being driven over by a right turning 4x4 into the road I was poised to exit turning right so off centre of the white line.

Another time a car exiting a T junction while I crossed it, the old dear must have mistimed and bent my back wheel, failing to see me.

Bruv;1465468 wrote: As a long term cyclist, all other road users are idiots.

Any moves I make are only after the motor has made their move.

Learned after my bike being driven over by a right turning 4x4 into the road I was poised to exit turning right so off centre of the white line.

Another time a car exiting a T junction while I crossed it, the old dear must have mistimed and bent my back wheel, failing to see me.


Yeah, I rode a bike and nothing else for eight years. (It was actually faster to get around in Phoenix because Phoenix is as flat as a table and has very wide sidewalks.) I know exactly what you are talking about.

How's the knee and the bruises?

Did the laptop get sorted?

I've just this very moment had a call from the office to tell me that my new Laptop has arrived in the post.

Another hard day in the office this morning. Left home at 8. Got back home at 11 - that's with 30 mins travel each way. Because of the office still being empty, with the builders in, the barest minimum of office furniture (currently using fold-up tables), iPhones for internet connection (seeing as the Wi-Fi isn't working yet). The Ladies' loo not flushing, the most important part of the office (the sink) only plumbed in with the barest essentials, with a hosepipe dangling into a drain & another hosepipe connected to a cold tap, with the sink itself standing on a box, the barest of unpainted plasterboard partitions, protective plastic work flooring still down everywhere - a total of 4 cups (2 of those belonging to the workmen), and a single kettle, brought in my one of my colleagues. No filing cabinets. Printer / Photocopier not set up & having to rely on portable printers.

At the moment, things are utter chaos. Nothing to do, which is why I was sent home. I've been told to turn up for 09:00 on Monday, but even then there's a chance I'll be sent home again.

Regarding the bruises - yes, it is still very sore. The grazes on my knee are sorting themselves out, but the worst part is my chest. Due to some badly bruised ribs even breathing can be painful, as well as having strained the muscle between my shoulder blades (whatever it's called), which I was already having physio for, as this is what I'd damaged while doing all that swimming, so a perpetual backache. The only real 'comfortable' position is flat on my back in bed, but then I start to snore (even while still awake).

FourPart;1465546 wrote: I've just this very moment had a call from the office to tell me that my new Laptop has arrived in the post.

Another hard day in the office this morning. Left home at 8. Got back home at 11 - that's with 30 mins travel each way. Because of the office still being empty, with the builders in, the barest minimum of office furniture (currently using fold-up tables), iPhones for internet connection (seeing as the Wi-Fi isn't working yet). The Ladies' loo not flushing, the most important part of the office (the sink) only plumbed in with the barest essentials, with a hosepipe dangling into a drain & another hosepipe connected to a cold tap, with the sink itself standing on a box, the barest of unpainted plasterboard partitions, protective plastic work flooring still down everywhere - a total of 4 cups (2 of those belonging to the workmen), and a single kettle, brought in my one of my colleagues. No filing cabinets. Printer / Photocopier not set up & having to rely on portable printers.

At the moment, things are utter chaos. Nothing to do, which is why I was sent home. I've been told to turn up for 09:00 on Monday, but even then there's a chance I'll be sent home again.

Regarding the bruises - yes, it is still very sore. The grazes on my knee are sorting themselves out, but the worst part is my chest. Due to some badly bruised ribs even breathing can be painful, as well as having strained the muscle between my shoulder blades (whatever it's called), which I was already having physio for, as this is what I'd damaged while doing all that swimming, so a perpetual backache. The only real 'comfortable' position is flat on my back in bed, but then I start to snore (even while still awake).


That office sounds delightful! Makes you wonder why they have people coming in at all if they are not ready to be an actual 'office' yet!

Sounds like agony, hope you are mended soon!

Betty Boop;1465575 wrote: That office sounds delightful! Makes you wonder why they have people coming in at all if they are not ready to be an actual 'office' yet!

Sounds like agony, hope you are mended soon!
There were 3 of us in the office this morning, and a total of 5 incoming calls. 3 of which were for me from Head Office. One from my Line Manager, to say that HR had been on to him to get him to remind me to return my Payroll details to them (which I completed at the Induction on Tuesday), then, after I got onto HR I got a return call, telling me to complete the pack I got in the post (which had arrived by the time I got home from the induction - I had filled in copies that HR had at the induction), then one from IT, with reference to my Laptop.

At the time of the first call I actually quite impressed my superior (although, quite frankly, regardless of how many happen to be in the office, everyone is my superior, being the total newbie) that I had the initiative to answer the phone even though no-one else was in the office at the time, so that I could either take a message or go & find her. As it happened, the call was for me, but I wasn't to know that.

So far, it seems that my colleagues seem to be a great bunch - down to earth & informal. In fact one of the things I found amusing, yet I could see the logic in it, was that the online YETI database system that I was on the training course for would automatically censor swear words. Why would that bother anyone, you might ask. The point is, though, that a lot of work is done in Juvenile Offenders Institutions & Prisons, where things have to be written down in the terminology that the subject will understand, and the system won't let you do it, whereas the previous system, which everyone else is used to, would.