How things have changed. Gone are the days of white cards on the walls, as modelled here by Mrs T. 
Of course, now the jobs are advertised online.
Of course, now the jobs are advertised online. The Montrose Job Centre has a beautiful old building to call home and it's all modern inside, with pine floors, open plan desks and smart women chatting amongst themselves. Gone are the numbered tickets and lines of people queuing to meet some grumpy, clueless middle-aged advisor with dandruff.
In contrast, a smart, attractive blonde woman approached me and gave me phone numbers to call about benefits, plus a list of recruitment agencies in Aberdeen and 
Dundee. How organised. I'm just off the phone to the benefits line, a guy based in a call centre in the north of England - good to know the government is supporting the growth of these soulless places. We chatted about Las Vegas, he's just back from 8 days there. (8 days! What stamina! In fact, let's just have a look at those pics again.... oh what fun.)
Dundee. How organised. I'm just off the phone to the benefits line, a guy based in a call centre in the north of England - good to know the government is supporting the growth of these soulless places. We chatted about Las Vegas, he's just back from 8 days there. (8 days! What stamina! In fact, let's just have a look at those pics again.... oh what fun.)The best of the hundred stupid questions: "Do you suffer from any industrial illness?" I couldn't help but laugh. "Why yes, I had an allergic reaction to the whole system a year ago and I'm not sure I've quite managed to get that under control yet."
So, my interview with my personal advisor is on Tuesday. We set out a plan for me to find work and hopefully, s/he approves my jobseeker's allowance.
I'm impressed with how easy and humane the whole process has been so far. You go Job Centres.
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3 comments:
Hey Babe - welcome back to Scotland and reality with a bump. Sounds like you are still in that period of readjustment where you are kind of bemused by your situation. You can still enjoy this period of working out what you wanna do/where you wanna be (does that process ever reach an end?) but maybe you just need to do it - get a job, any job. You know you can easily get something (might not be the dream job yet). Money is pretty easy to make even if it's just temping/bar work or signing on and exploring options. At least you're doing something. Feel free to come visit the shiny lights of Glasgow town any time you like. Good to have you back, Grant.
Linseyxx
Bemused is a very good description. Bemused and also amused, I keep having little giggles about it. I've just run into girls I was friends with from school at the Sports Centre, girls I haven't seen for probably ten years. So good to see them all. They all have sproglets of varying ages. And it got me thinking again about decisions. What is that makes us take different paths in life? Read this if you have a moment; another hugely insightful and well-written post on this topic by Tamsin. http://tamsinstuff.blogspot.com/2008/04/and-another-thing.html
I shall be calling you very soon for life advice.
Welcome back!
I'll be interested to hear how your meeting goes on Tuesday. The last time I signed-on was just after Summer had been born - they had a system then that they weren't allowed to start paying your Job Seeker's Allowance until you'd applied for 3 jobs. I had a 4-week-old daughter at the time. They made me apply for a bar job at the Grand Hotel which, if I'd have got it, would have left me with -£200 a week (sum of pay minus nursery fees) The advisor told me: "Just go to the interview and tell them you have a four week old baby, they won't give you the job. Then we can just start paying your benefit." I went one better than that and wrote it on my CV. Funnily enough I never got an interview for those 3 applications! :-) It was all very odd, but an interesting experience.
Are you applying for jobs in London or have you bid the big smoke farewell?
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