[News] Is Britain work shy ?

[South Stand Bonfire]

How many of us had a paper round as our first job? Another one that’s long gone now

I delivered leaflets. You could deliver them at your own time/pace within certain parameters. The earlier in the morning you got up to deliver them though , the easier it was to walk across people’s gardens without being moaned at. Pay was about £5 per thousand in the early 80s from memory. There were two big houses in Seaford that had very long driveways. One next to Seaford Head golf course. In hindsight they were lucky to get them delivered to their houses.Bast@@@s!!

My daughter briefly pre COVID was paid the equivalent of £15 /hour for putting sorting leaflets at home before someone else took them out to be delivered.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

How many of us had a paper round as our first job? Another one that’s long gone now

Me!

 

[BS34 Seagull]

Me!

Me also. Delivering the Evening Argus after school.

 

[Guinness Boy]

How many of us had a paper round as our first job? Another one that’s long gone now

Me too, from the day I turned 13. It used to pay for my Albion games too!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Me too, from the day I turned 13. It used to pay for my Albion games too!

I had a Seagull lottery round for a good few years as well, this used to get me a free season ticket and 10% of any winning ticket I sold.

 

[darkwolf666]

You are right, the print setters come to mind.

That’s an incredibly sweeping Statement.

I was an apprentice compositor at the Evening Argus (Southern Publishing Company) in the 1970s, and went on to be a typesetter before working in London for a print company producing the typography for high class magazines, like Vogue, Elle and Tatler.

Saint Maggie decided she didn’t like the print unions, as like the miners, they had too much power, and also like the miners, had largely stupid vein people at the helm., so decided to destroy them - and their industry, prematurely (technology would have done for the trade, eventually, Maggie hastened its demise, out of spite).

Anyway, after that time, I retrained as a petroleum sales consultant (I worked the till in my local Shell garage), before moving back into print for a shrink wrap technology leader.

I then retrained, again, joining The Met, as an intelligence analyst, where I worked, very happily, despite being surrounded by Palace fans and seeing the Selhurst floodlights every day, for a number of years, before some clown thought austerity was a good idea, and you could just “cut the back room jobs” to make savings, without the top brass actually realising that the back room staff were often the thing that kept the ship afloat.

After a fun 6 months working in a garden centre I joined Kent Police as an interview and digital media collator (I stored and retrieved DVDs of interviews for officers)…

I am now one of those 9.5 million “not actively working”.

Actually, that’s a lie, as my wife and I decided to take on care of 2 of our granddaughters and of my great nephew. All 3 children have multiple complex challenges in their lives, my wife and I both unable to work, because of our collective caring responsibilities, oh and my wife recovering from cancer too.

So, with just over a year to go until I reach 66 and the official state pension retirement age, I am lumped in with DM readers (other right wing newspapers are available), as “workshy”.

Mine is just one, personal instance, but there will be many more like mine. It’s far more nuanced than just lumping everyone into a pot and “saying, but why aren’t they working, the lazy bastards”…

This article from the BBC explains it better than my personal rant.

Who are the millions of Britons not working, and why?

About a quarter of the working age population - those aged 16 to 64 - do not currently have a job.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I then retrained, again, joining The Met, as an intelligence analyst,

Did you find any?

 

[darkwolf666]

Did you find any?

Surprisingly, there were some very good people working there... but the joke still stands

 

[BN9 BHA]

Did you find any?

FFS I’m trying to drink tea

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

How many of us had a paper round as our first job? Another one that’s long gone now

Indeed, entry level school boy job. Then worked myself up to milk round, now that was hard work.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Indeed, entry level school boy job. Then worked myself up to milk round, now that was hard work.

I went from paper round, to working in the kitchen at The Coach House in Rottingdean. After my A levels I spent the summer at Concorde Lighting and Parker Pen. Happy days.

 

[Commander]

That’s an incredibly sweeping Statement.

I was an apprentice compositor at the Evening Argus (Southern Publishing Company) in the 1970s, and went on to be a typesetter before working in London for a print company producing the typography for high class magazines, like Vogue, Elle and Tatler.

Saint Maggie decided she didn’t like the print unions, as like the miners, they had too much power, and also like the miners, had largely stupid vein people at the helm., so decided to destroy them - and their industry, prematurely (technology would have done for the trade, eventually, Maggie hastened its demise, out of spite).

Anyway, after that time, I retrained as a petroleum sales consultant (I worked the till in my local Shell garage), before moving back into print for a shrink wrap technology leader.

I then retrained, again, joining The Met, as an intelligence analyst, where I worked, very happily, despite being surrounded by Palace fans and seeing the Selhurst floodlights every day, for a number of years, before some clown thought austerity was a good idea, and you could just “cut the back room jobs” to make savings, without the top brass actually realising that the back room staff were often the thing that kept the ship afloat.

After a fun 6 months working in a garden centre I joined Kent Police as an interview and digital media collator (I stored and retrieved DVDs of interviews for officers)…

I am now one of those 9.5 million “not actively working”.

Actually, that’s a lie, as my wife and I decided to take on care of 2 of our granddaughters and of my great nephew. All 3 children have multiple complex challenges in their lives, my wife and I both unable to work, because of our collective caring responsibilities, oh and my wife recovering from cancer too.

So, with just over a year to go until I reach 66 and the official state pension retirement age, I am lumped in with DM readers (other right wing newspapers are available), as “workshy”.

Mine is just one, personal instance, but there will be many more like mine. It’s far more nuanced than just lumping everyone into a pot and “saying, but why aren’t they working, the lazy bastards”…

This article from the BBC explains it better than my personal rant.

Who are the millions of Britons not working, and why?

About a quarter of the working age population - those aged 16 to 64 - do not currently have a job.

www.bbc.co.uk

I think ‘work shy’ is completely the wrong term. My ire certainly isn’t aimed at people like you.

The issue I have found as an employer is not that people don’t want to work. We have never found it difficult to get a stream of young people through the door for interviews. The problem is that they are so ill-equipped for the workplace, presumably because what they have been taught at school / uni / by their parents etc. They think it is going to be completely different to how it is, and cannot cope when it isn’t, or when it isn’t immediately plain sailing. I think they do their dissertation at Uni on the working culture at Google or Netflix and then walk into a 20 person company in Brighton and expect to find sleep pods and mental health spaces. They don’t seem to like competition either, and think everyone should be equal from day one, and can’t fathom why someone higher in the company works to different rules to them


The Gen Zers have been absolutely failed by education and society, and I think it is going to take a long time for the problem to be sorted out. Either that or a sustained period of adversity (war!). I’m sure a lot of it comes from the ‘medal for everyone’ culture that we seem to have somehow created. My kids’ school is doing away with prizes for sporting achievement on sports day in 2025, and instead it is going to be based on the kids showing ‘core values’ throughout the year. Seriously. What kind of message does that teach children? It’s no wonder they come into the work place completely ill-equipped to succeed.

 

[abc]

Last year our company asked the sales and marketing team (all office based and salaried) whether they would like to try out working from home. In the end they collectively decided it didn’t work because it undermined them working as a team, they missed the socialisation etc. No problem, except the youngest member, who was 18 on a good salary and had been with the company c 4 months, liked it and declared he had a right to work from home if he wanted. Ultimately he was given the option (backed by the whole team) of coming into the office or leaving. He left. One of the team knows his Mum and he is apparently still unemployed over a year later.
There are, of course, many young people with a great work ethic but most employers I know say there are far too many that are work shy and entitled with it.

 

[darkwolf666]

I think ‘work shy’ is completely the wrong term. My ire certainly isn’t aimed at people like you.

The issue I have found as an employer is not that people don’t want to work. We have never found it difficult to get a stream of young people through the door for interviews. The problem is that they are so ill-equipped for the workplace, presumably because what they have been taught at school / uni / by their parents etc. They think it is going to be completely different to how it is, and cannot cope when it isn’t, or when it isn’t immediately plain sailing. I think they do their dissertation at Uni on the working culture at Google or Netflix and then walk into a 20 person company in Brighton and expect to find sleep pods and mental health spaces. They don’t seem to like competition either, and think everyone should be equal from day one, and can’t fathom why someone higher in the company works to different rules to them


The Gen Zers have been absolutely failed by education and society, and I think it is going to take a long time for the problem to be sorted out. Either that or a sustained period of adversity (war!). I’m sure a lot of it comes from the ‘medal for everyone’ culture that we seem to have somehow created. My kids’ school is doing away with prizes for sporting achievement on sports day in 2025, and instead it is going to be based on the kids showing ‘core values’ throughout the year. Seriously. What kind of message does that teach children? It’s no wonder they come into the work place completely ill-equipped to succeed.

You HAVEN'T got sleep pods!!!!

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

How many of us had a paper round as our first job? Another one that’s long gone now

Me.

And my father said that if I did it for a year, witout missing a day, he would give me - wait for it - £5.00 at the end of the year.

I did it!

Used to hate Sundays - bloody Sunday Times!

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Last year our company asked the sales and marketing team (all office based and salaried) whether they would like to try out working from home. In the end they collectively decided it didn’t work because it undermined them working as a team, they missed the socialisation etc. No problem, except the youngest member, who was 18 on a good salary and had been with the company c 4 months, liked it and declared he had a right to work from home if he wanted. Ultimately he was given the option (backed by the whole team) of coming into the office or leaving. He left. One of the team knows his Mum and he is apparently still unemployed over a year later.
There are, of course, many young people with a great work ethic but most employers I know say there are far too many that are work shy and entitled with it.

I believe that it is, or soon will be, within a person's rights to request at least hybrid working frm day 1.

 

[Commander]

You HAVEN'T got sleep pods!!!!

Only one- my office

 

[Commander]

I believe that it is, or soon will be, within a person's rights to request at least hybrid working frm day 1.

Which is just absolutely ridiculous. I cannot fathom why a Government think they should interfere with employers like that. I work from home most of the time now, but I absolutely could not have done that in the first few years of doing what I do. I just wouldn't have learnt enough from others around me to be able to succeed. I understand for some industries it might make sense, but clearly not across all industries. Sadly, the result of things like that is that I am not going to employ anybody in the UK anymore. Not unless they are at a senior level, anyway.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I believe that it is, or soon will be, within a person's rights to request at least hybrid working frm day 1.

I am assuming they can just flat out refuse?

I'm guessing the way around it is to just have it set in stone contractually now rather than most places have a casual wfh policy in place

 

[Albion my Albion]

I delivered the Valparaiso (Indiana) Vidette Messenger in the 1970's. It was bought out by the Times of Northwest Indiana (Munster, Indiana) in the 1990's.