Redundancy good for the soul

[jedimaster]

if I had the energy or the inclination I probably would

[blazey]

Originally Posted by jedimaster

well all i can say is what a load of tosh.
i've been made redundant twice in two years (without redundancy pay). do ithink its been good for the soul? do i hell!
in the last two months of unemployment i have done everything in my power to get back to work to no avail. I have been in contact with over 300 coach companies plus the many other related vacancies i have found on the net/jobcenter and had how many redponses? THREE.
no-one is hiring and those vacancies that are there aren't responding
I am worn out, I feel degraded having to attend the job center Every fortnight to claim my pittance of dole money. I cant support my family,
My home is being reposessed and I am in debt up to my eyeballs because tger aint enough coming in to pay the bills.
I have been through every channel to look at the opportunity to retrain or go back to college and I am getting nowhere. College courses dont start untill september so I have to either stay unemployed untill then (which I do not want to do) or dind a job (ha ha) and pay for the course myself come september (which I cant afford).

good for the soul - I think not. I have never felt so low in my life and personally I cant see things getting any better.

They used to say a public flogging was good for the soul, and after a comment like that i think it would be good for mine to see this guy get one.

Lots of Universities tend to do summer courses which may not pay anything but would at least provide some new skills whilst you wait for full time courses to begin in September.

The nearest place would be Blackburn HE centre though I'm not entirely sure what they offer, the next closest being Preston, Bolton or Lancaster.

I don't really like the idea of feeling sorry for yourself, in general this is, not directed at you. I had to spend a lot of money at college funding my own art supplies and I lost out on EMA most of the time because insomnia and depression made my attendance minimal and I just borrowed money off people once I lost my job to keep going. It was degrading borrowing money and I'm currently in quite a lot of debt from funding education and stuff.

I've had to do voluntary work to build up skills which then make me even more attractive to employers and just rely on my overdraft and credit cards.

Kind of overlapping threads here but I once read a useful piece of advice. When you are in good work you should set enough money aside for at least 3 months of bills and living costs, so then in times when you do hit hard times you can still support yourself enough to hopefully find a new job or plan.

I'm not saying that is infallible, but it is a start. Everyone hits hard times and most people learn a lot from them. If people aren't learning anything from falls then they're missing opportunity in failure!

I ended up at a better university than originally planned on the basis of failure and finding opportunity. I wouldn't ever wish that I hadn't been made redundant, nor would I wish I had never been depressed or suffering from insomnia. It's all just part of my journey and my destination has always been success regardless of the falls and stumbles.

[katex]

Even law people are not escaping Blazey, a friend of mine's daughter, who is a solicitor for the largest firm in Manchester, has just been put on 4 days for a while. She is on the land/buildings side which reflects the economic crisis, but food for thought for your future.

Sorry about your problem Jedimaster .. your post moved me.

Wondered why we did not get your competition of 'Where is this ?' anymore. Photographs you took on your travels; loved that. Hope things turn around for you soon. x

[cashman]

not as straightforward as ya seem to think blaze, most people wed with young families, DO NOT have money to put to one side fer a rainy day fer yer 3 months of paying bills, n i know,been there n done it. sure it can be difficult fer single people, as you illustrate, but many have a different mindset with young families, they do not like borrowing money,plus it certainly not as easy to do so,these are things ya will discover on yer journey through life.

[jedimaster]

Originally Posted by cashman

not as straightforward as ya seem to think blaze, most people wed with young families, DO NOT have money to put to one side fer a rainy day fer yer 3 months of paying bills, n i know,been there n done it. sure it can be difficult fer single people, as you illustrate, but many have a different mindset with young families, they do not like borrowing money,plus it certainly not as easy to do so,these are things ya will discover on yer journey through life.

youre right there cashy!
it's not that simple. as i said in my first post blaze this has happened to me twice in two years - so unfortunately any spare cash has gone into repaying everything borrowed to get us through last time
second its all very good these summer courses being available but if you hadn't noticed its not summer for another 3-4 months and another 3-4 months untill september and i'm supposed to sit on my rear living on £60 a week to pay a mortgage thats in arrears plus normal costs of living plus paying all other debts owed. Where pray tell me does the money come from for college courses, fees, equipment etc

you'd make a great a great politician blaze
shame you didnt pay for a maths course too

[garinda]

Originally Posted by jedimaster

youre right there cashy!
it's not that simple. as i said in my first post blaze this has happened to me twice in two years - so unfortunately any spare cash has gone into repaying everything borrowed to get us through last time
second its all very good these summer courses being available but if you hadn't noticed its not summer for another 3-4 months and another 3-4 months untill september and i'm supposed to sit on my rear living on £60 a week to pay a mortgage thats in arrears plus normal costs of living plus paying all other debts owed. Where pray tell me does the money come from for college courses, fees, equipment etc

you'd make a great a great politician blaze
shame you didnt pay for a maths course too

I hope you get offered something suitable soon.

It's never happened to me but I knew people in the eighties who got made redundant, and it was soul destroying for them, as they tried and tried to find other employment so they could keep a roof over their family's heads.

Good luck.

[Mancie]

Been made redundant.. have seen things on the notice board in cateens saying "come to the dance.. the redundance" .. yeah you get a few hundred quid then bye bye... then you have to go sign on..in most cases... then you just get another job in another trade.. but that was in the 80's.. you can't do that these days

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Mancie

Been made redundant.. have seen things on the notice board in cateens saying "come to the dance.. the redundance" .. yeah you get a few hundred quid then bye bye... then you have to go sign on..in most cases... then you just get another job in another trade.. but that was in the 80's.. you can't do that these days

I think in the eighties you'd be considered pretty damn lucky just to get a job in another trade, as you suggest.

There weren't many trades to walk in to if you happened to live in a pit village, or a town that only had one main factory that had made people redundant.

[Lampman]

Having been made redundant only twice in a period of 30 years,I consider myself one of the lucky ones.Others have suffered far more than this.
Although I am now in 'reduced circumstances' I cut my cloth accordingly e.g no holidays, meals out etc.
Even then it is a struggle,as I said before I am one of the lucky ones with no young dependants.
To be out of work in this day and age is very difficult.
Is it time to have a re think on increasing payments to the genuine job seeker and penalise the workshy?
I know it wouldn't be easy,but surely someone who has paid taxes and National Insurance all their working lives should receive a better payback than others who's hardest work is getting out of bed before lunchtime.
Before the PC brigade get on my case,yes there are people with genuine reasons for not actively seeking work,but then again there are many who seek to milk the system.
The money they receive could be better spent, I am sure.

[jedimaster]

to be honest -and i know i can only speak from my experience as a person who would prefer to be working a redistribution of funding is what is needed- rather than us dole dossers (lol) living on government handouts
redistribute the cash into providing proper training courses with a recognised qualification at the end of it.
maybe proper subsidies for companies willing to train someone to do more than wield a bog brush. Educate companies as to the value of teaching someone to do a job as opposed to waiting 12 months for someone already qualified. Instead all we have is empty promises churned out from a hundred government funded thinktanks who create these new initiatives which when investigated, provide not opportunites to train as promised or advertised, but an endless circle of one department passing you on to another on to another and so on untill you either end up back where you started, still none the wiser because noone will accept responsibility or haven't got a clue what you are talking about, or if you are really lucky your head disappears up your own rear passage.

'give a man a fish and he'll feed himself for a day - give a man the means to fish for himself and he'll feed him and his family for a lifetime'

i know it's a cliche but it's true.

[blazey]

thankfully I am young, perhaps naive, but still full of ambition and fresh opportunities and choices. I have been made redundant from jobs clearly because I was the youngest amongst older employees and considered to be the least effected by it.

there are people in their 50's at university, some on my course, and they get the same funding as any other student. experience in careers is taken into account for mature students rather than qualifications alone, and I've spent a lot of my time around older students when I was campaigning for the DCE last year, which I mentioned on this forum.

redundancy isn't pleasant, nobody is saying that, but it doesn't have to be the end of the world, whatever age you are. If I thought this wasn't the case then I wouldn't say so, but then I suppose Lancaster might as well be an entirely different world to Accrington.