Written by ‘Norman’
I’ve not met some of our friends in person for over a year now. The pandemonium apart, life has a way of getting in the way and once you get out of the habit of doing things, I’m sure you all know how hard it is to get back into the swing. To be honest, there is also the little problem of ‘can’t-be-bothered-itis’ which I’ve found difficult to shift this spring as have many other people in my circle of acquaintances. Part of it was that I found it particularly irritating being in the company of people, who for some reason want to talk about their various health problems, and those of people that that they know (and I don’t) who had never had a moment’s illness in their entire lives before succumbing to some terminal illness or other.
Being surrounded in cafes or restaurants or anywhere else by mask-wearing individuals also didn’t appeal, still doesn’t actually. Even today I saw some individual driving alone and masked up. Well, each to their own. Anyway, I arranged to meet up with some old friends, so there I was, early this morning, driving across parts of the county that I wouldn’t normally visit, through an area that plays host to several business parks. What an eye opener! Full car parks in stark contrast to those carparks of the public sector offices which provide much employment in ‘our town’. Mind you I have to say this, our town is, on the surface at least, rather more middle class than the place I am describing.
What struck me this morning and I can’t ever remember seeing anything like it before – not even back in the 70s and 80s – placards lining the road advertising ‘Hiring Now’ and not the usual sort of low skill low paid and so on jobs you would expect to see but what we used to call ‘white collar’ administration jobs in accounts and most unusually HR. Now it’s usually the hospitality sector which is highlighted by the media, sighting staff shortages – often because somebody wants to bleat that it’s all the fault of Brexit, all the Europeans left and went home because they didn’t feel welcome any more or some such rubbish, and of course Boris was rather famously reported as being shocked (or was it stunned?) to learn that tens of thousands of mostly young people were employed in the sector, though it didn’t stop ‘him’ or ‘them’ closing down the industry for lockdown, which apparently made very little difference to spread of the covid.
The service in the restaurant where I met my two friends was a bit slow this morning and when I mentioned it to the supervisor who brought us our coffee she said that she was sorry but they were unusually busy for the time of day for some reason, and the problem is ’we can’t get any staff’; we offer above the minimum working wage, flexible working hours, nice perks and conditions, but people don’t turn up for interviews, don’t turn up when offered a job or don’t last the first week, and many that do are unreliable, so we have to let them go and the other thing is that the supermarkets are offering another 50p an hour which may not sound much to you but it is when you are on just over £10 an hour – but that apart, lots of people who do come for interviews make it quite clear they don’t want a job. If they are on Job Seekers, they have to prove that they are actively seeking employment. This was not news to me as I’ve heard the same comments from other business people. Some people just don’t want to work; benefits and often some cash work on the side remains a viable lifestyle option.
Which of course is what working from home has become. I wrote here over two years ago that WFH had become a rather middle class option, and when Dishy Rishi as he was then known among the chattering middle classes, started throwing money at them as if it was going out of fashion, the ‘professional or administrative classes along with public sector workers’ took it in many cases as a sign of their personal and collective worth to the nation.
Since the restrictions were lifted, we have all seen how the public sector has responded, often with disdain for the public they are supposed to serve and by way of thanks are now demanding the ‘right’ to flexible working hours and to work from home while often at the same time being paid at London weighting rates.
Well, good luck with that if Boris and Mogg are serious about getting rid of 90,000 jobs a dose of reality may at long last give these middle classes a taste of job uncertainty, with economic worries that should unsettle their often smug lives, especially when one reads that personal debt in the U.K has now risen to 130% of income. Today’s news about the energy price cap rising to £2,800 in October, means households will pay 42% more than now. That should concentrate a few minds currently residing in Audi Avenue.
Not that all this working from has been all bad news. Builders are now offering to supply and build ‘home office extensions’ which should be good news for the neighbours and for the officials in the council planning departments across the land (unless they too are still working from home) as neighbours complain about these intrusive sheds popularised by, amongst others, David Cameron who you may remember had a shepherds’ hut installed so he could write while WFH. One arrived near to us and in the latest fashion is built with black wood, resplendent with patio doors and a satellite dish which looks very tasteful.
Just what the council local rating department will make of this I have no idea, but a structure like this may well change the amount you will have to pay in rates and could mean that planning permission would be required for the change of use from residential to business, and don’t forget that the building society may be interested along with your insurance company. But hey, Jacob and Emily are so much happier since WFH became an option and their new lifestyle won’t affect anyone else, will it?
I have to tell you though that the chattering classes middle income (rather than middle class) still seem to think that their largely administrative roles are immune from the economic whirlwind that is about to hit everyone – something the looked-down-upon industrial working classes thought in the 1980s. Tell me again. Where did all those indispensable jobs go?
Yes Norman. I particularly like your point about getting rid of all those Civil Servants that have supposedly been working while at home and now do not want to return.
About the jobseekers allowance though. I was not doing paid work on the side but I was once offered a job that I would have loved. But the wage was so low that I would not be able to maintain my car which was needed to get to the job!
So now we’re are relapsing into the old round of inflation, strikes, and hardships that existed decades ago and which most people thought had gone forever! Sounds just like ‘Paradise Lost’ to me! Milton anybody?
It is certainly clear that less than four years of Boris Johnson has done very little good for Britain and definitely very much harm!
“White collar admin jobs – in accounts and HR”? Hmmm?
Well the latter would be to police all the staff social media accounts for rabid right wing posts – you know, that there is such a thing as a biological woman; people trafficked illegal immigrants should be turned back; plant food is not frying the planet- we are being scammed.
As for the rest, there is a seemingly never ending exponential increase in meaningless, drivel ridden, mandatory paperwork demanded by organisations and authorities across all trades and professions. How many times have you heard people working in jobs like teaching or nursing say they have retired early or decided to WFH as a dog sitter or something, as they ‘loved the work, the problem was that they were doing less and less of that and more and more onerous form filling.’?
Any scientist is accustomed to the obvious – that you need your ‘laboratory notebook’ to give a full account of your studies for publications and patents. If they work in biopharmaceutical manufacturing they will accept a certain amount of scrutiny and inspection as they understand their product must be safe for the end users. Sadly, like everywhere else, the overegging of the paperwork pudding is soul destroying. Is it by any chance due to digital storage – paper paperwork that would overflow file cabinets and keep the storage unit warehouses in clover, can be conveniently parked up in ever increasing quantities on an icloud?
When my young, about to become daughter in law, explained why she planned to leave teaching my blood ran cold- yes, she loves actually teaching, it’s the endless scrutineering, emphasis on the tick boxes, not how her class are actually faring and atmosphere of distrust that has got to her. It was an echo of everything I felt was wrong with my work. The downright malicious and unpleasant treatment from a certain regulatory authority is one thing but Hutbers Law* is obeyed daily across the board. Our customers demand a quote for price listed products – they could work that out for themselves in a moment- where previously we only quoted for projects or customised products; they outsource accounts management leaving us negotiating complex systems and regular ‘computer says no’ moments when we bill them or chase for late payment and we get endless, often interminable, supplier questionnaires. And don’t get me started on the latest outrageous demand from one of our banks.
When does it stop? How do we make it stop?
* Hutbers Law – improvement means deterioration
Interesting observations Norman. As I posted on a previous occasion, during lockdowns my middle income neighbour dismissed my concerns that his job could be done cheaper in India. He argued he was far too important to his company to contemplate such action. He is now 56, redundant, no company car and in shock. My suggestion that there are lots of white van man jobs going for grabs didn’t go down well.
It is axiomatic that any job that can be done from home can be done from abroad for a fraction of the cost.
—-or is it rather higher number of deaths, due to you know what?
Trouble posting
T+G+S I wondered what had happened to you. Hope you sort it.
Re your last paragraph.
Automated trains are just round the corner (much easier to achieve than automated cars). We can then get rid of these pesky train drivers who think they’re so indispensable.
I believe the DLR was automated when I last used it some years ago. I wonder if that is still the case.