I have seen it all this week!!! Firstly had to do an article on a woman who has won a load of breeders trophies (budgies not dogs!!). It involved an interview at her home, then a tour of her breeding aviaries & then some photos to illustrate the article. Well when I got there she was hosing out her bird room & sweeping up to make it nice for the pictures. Then she moved some large bins full of bird seed to make pics better. Then we did interview, had a tour of the place, up & down steps, plus some heavy aviary doors etc etc. THEN when I had to do the pics she disappeared for 10 minutes & came back on crutches and in a neck brace!!!! Apparently she claims sick benfit & didnt want to be seen in the pics without her brace/crutches. I was horrified as she was running around perfectly well up until then.:(

Anyway....on a similar vein, we have been advertising for a labourer/tractor driver all week. Had a few phone calls & got 6 lads over for interviews. Two of them, once they arrived, admitted that they only came for the interview so they could put it on their "DSS claim sheets" that they were actively seeking work!!! They had no intention of accepting the job even if they had been good enough to get it. I cannot believe that there are such idle scroungers in this day & age. Both these lads were fit 20 somethings who were more than capable of doing a days hard graft, but tax payers like me have to pay for them to sit on their lazy ars** and watch daytime tv. One of them was even smoking...how the hell can he afford that I ask????
It beggars belief and I just wonder what sort of up-bringing they have had to make them think this behaviour is acceptable. I know we all fall on hard times & some folk are genuinly too ill to work. When I was in hospital a few years ago I had to have 6 months off work & claimed sickness benefit. But I felt almost ashamed by this at the time...couldnt wait to get back into work. Well thats that off my chest!

Have to agree Sam and I know exactly how you feel. I have the wonderful task of recruiting for and managing a very laid back call centre, we have at the mo approx 50 staff and will be looking to double in the next year, both sales and customer services. THIS IS NOT I HASTEN TO ADD one of your energy companies or anything of the like. Whilst one guy was left to fill out the personality profile he had his feet up on the vacant chair next to him. When I pulled up another employee about his perfomance he quoted 'I have contacted ACAS' just to give you an idea his performance over a set period was 272 calls whilst the average was 1800! I have always been in sales and out on the road, I took this job as it gave me regular hours etc but nobody told me I had to manage children.

Every day I am amazed at the number of people who beleive it is their right to earn a good salary whilst they sit on their **** surfing the internet. Think I better go back to managing myself.

Incidently the employee I am talking about has a history of flitting from job to job and when he gets pulled up for his performance gets himself signed of with stress for 6 months. Stress, Stress, he wouldn't know stress if it jumped up and punched him on the nose! and to top it all I walk on eggshells around him - why - because he is gay and it has been made perfectly clear to me if he thinks for one minute I am gonna get tough he is going to pull the discrimination card! (No offence to gay people intended) People like him cause problems for the genuine employees regardless of sexuality. What angers me more is I will go out of my way for any member of my staff and 90% know it and appreciate it, the other 10% know it but abuse it.

So can I apply for the job please;)

<<and to top it all I walk on eggshells around him - why - because he is gay and it has been made perfectly clear to me if he thinks for one minute I am gonna get tough he is going to pull the discrimination card!>>

Trouble is, you are already discriminating by "walking on eggshells" and by treating him normally could be acused of discrimination!! Somewhat of a no-win situation

Christine
PS Sam - did you get pictures of her without her "equipment"?

christine. No...I did the interview 1st...then she got kitted up afterwards before I realised her ploy!!!:(

grrrr it 'kin winds me up too. Tony (boyfriend) and my dad (62) both work 12 hour shifts most days just to keep up with the bills and rent etc. I'm at uni studying as hard as i can to become a teacher, meanwhile selling avon and childminding to supplement student loan.
The i see 20 somethings, dressed in all the latest sports gear (we call them townies round my way), lolling around sitting on walls swigging lager from cans with their girlfriends and their kids in prams and i feel SO angry. Tony and me can hardly ever afford to go out, we can't afford a proper holiday this year, and these people are lazing about, on the dole, getting loads of time with their girlfriend and friends, having kids left right and centre (we won't be able to afford to have a baby til i've been working for a good few years which isnt ideal due to medical reasons i could do with starting to try earlier than that). Oooooh it really does wind me up when i think of my poor dad getting up at 4am and tony getting up at 5.30 and sometimes not getting home til 9pm, to pay for these people to swig beer and have holidays abroad (i know someone on the dole and benefits who is taking her 2 kids to disneyland in florida this summer!)
Ah well i guess life isn't fair. Like you said sam (hey look i'm agreeing with you :D) people like us who were brought up to have some self respect feel terrible if we're out of work and hate to 'put on' other people. If i were you i'd grass on those lazy lads and that woman with the fake disability.
sorry for rant
Lynz x

I sit in my xxxx and surf the net whilst earning a good salary.

I have now asked to have my hours cut as I don't have enough to do to fill the time I am there.

I'd love to have more to do and stay on the salary I'm on but there you go.

Julia (bored)

We'll have the spare salary if it's going Julia! My hubbs hasn't been paid for 6 weeks, and I'm not holding my breath that he'll be paid soon, as (apparently) the company's bank account has been frozen..... :(

That is terrible JG. :(
Have they said officially what is happeneing i.e have they gone into liquidation, voluntary or otherwise ?

Lucy

No, we haven't been told a thing :( He's had to take this week as holiday, or else if they pull their finger out and start coughing up, he wouldn't get paid anyway, even though it was they who told him not to come in because there was no paper....(he's a printer: no paper = no work!). It's too expensive to drive there (70 miles each way!) to put in the attendance hours....so at the mo we're in a lose/lose situation.

Thanks for listening - I feel better getting that off my chest.
Whinge over....normal service will be resumed as soon as possible....
:)

Sorry to hear that JG.

Hope my comment didn't rub too much!! :(

Julia

No worries, Julia :)

As they say, sh*t happens. We'll get through this - we have before. I just hate to see the poor man so down. :(

Sam

I would report her !:)

Lucy

I wouldnt say that all the scroungers were idle some work very hard at being idle.

you're so right, mr murphy. all that pretending to go job interviews and queuing up for their dole cheque is enough to make them want to find a job i'm sure
:D
in fact i bet they bleedin hand deliver dole money now, or maybe pay it into a nice cushy debit account for them. Grrrr and double grrrr!
Just for the record tony is still at 'kin work, it is now ten to nine pm. And they dont even get tme and a half for overtime, he's workin til now for £5 odd an hour :(
sorry to hear about your hubby's job jeangenie what a crappy situation to be in! Can't believe they've let things slide like that.
It really does seem we'd all be better off aspiring to be on the dole. Hell I might jack uni in. I'm paying for the privelege of training to teach the children of the taxpayer, and the taxpayer's money is going to people who don't train or study or work.
:( it's a sorry situation.
Lynz and the girls x
Moan over
For now

too true! :D

I wouldent doubt you Mick lol :)
mari

Sounds like your going green cause theyre getting away with it.If the state gives you the choise to sit back take it easy live in council property, and make what you can on the side, many will go for it. I personnaly work (a wee bit) but can see the attraction of dossing when the suns out and 2L of cider costs a pound!

No Martin I sure as hell am not "going green". personally I would be ashamed to sit on my ar** and do nothing & collect money from the state :( It may suit some people to be spongers and scrounge off those of us who work hard & pay taxes, but personally I think they are the bottom of the heap. :(

But maybe its our fault for having a system that makes that an option?

After a lifetime of work I'd happily put an E-Collar around their necks. It is those of us who work who pay their dole money so I figure we have brought the right to tell them exactly what low life wastes of space they are.

Some people are forced into those cercumstances and those I am very sorry for but serving quite a time in management I've met plenty of the other sort!

John

So have I and on a regular basis :(
Lara x

Yes, sadly some people do abuse the system. BUT...did anyone see "Hearts of Gold" last night for a reminder of what it was like in the 30's....the workhouse.....single mum having her baby torn away from her at 6 weeks....the pit closed, no work, no dole....holes in shoes,starving children & mothers...
Would we really want to go back to that???
Cathy.

arrghhhhhhhh cathy......i'm taping it to watch all at once...dont give the plot away .lolololol.:(.

Where we used to live our neighbour was young and fit and so was his wife they never worked ,on dole day (thursday) they came back from shopping armed with cans and together with all their friends sat in the garden and got louder and louder as they day went on,the language was lovely :( they never went to bed early and didnt care that anyone might have to get up to work.
We always loved our house and where we were and had been very happy there up till them moving in but when we recently moved I didnt give the house a backward glance.
My Husband has a chronic chest problem ( industrial desease) and he is 63 and gets up every morning at six and goes to work he shouldnt even be working at all when he comes home he has his meal then he is off round the place doing stuff only relaxing at around 9pm I use to get so sick and tired of all these able bodied young people not wanting to do a days work and live off the state I dont think they have any pride at all.
In the one spell years ago when my husband was unemployed the Benefits agency hounded him to death till he got another job he is a skilled man and the cheeky woman suggested he take a job as a parking attendant !!!! when My Hardworking Son was unemployed in between jobs they did the same to him when I asked the lady at the benefits office why some got away with it she said people like my husband and son were soft targets they lnew they would not want to be unemplyed and the others had it off to a fine art :( :( apparantly once you are in the system thats it they never bother you to look for work.

Sorry, Tanni,but I don't think any of that was really crucial to the plot! Just the general background of what a nightmare life was for the poor in those days. :) :) :)
Cathy.