I would like to consider myself hard-working and passionate,
with an extent of creativity to offer. But no one wants to know that, especially in
regards to job applications. I did not think I was auditioning to become an
actor, but it appears that my career path has been kind of made for me.
This is an account of the experience of the reality of
employment – or, in my case at the moment, unemployment.
In the last few months the government has been awfully keen
to put on a show of statistics – unemployment down to 5.8% over the course of the three months to November last year. In an
interview with The Guardian, the chief
secretary to the Treasury urged that this was only a good thing: ‘We’re continuing to buck the European trend
with strong growth and record job creation’ he said.
Yet the word ‘trend’ seems awfully flimsy – like the teenage
fads and fashions I once indulged in. Perhaps the ‘European trend’ will become
something too the country wants to quickly grow out of, though, of course, even
a Referendum is unlikely to come up with definitive results in regards to that.
What appears definitive though is that the current
government is clearly attempting to prop itself up with continued cries of ‘look
how low unemployment is’. I
could slip back into my actors mask and
respond with a smile, but in reality I am lower than that. This is an article
written after nearly a solid month of
job-searching. And many people search for much, much longer than that.
I am currently taking a leave of absence from university
after what my doctor recommended was a time to ‘re-engage and recharge.’
Initially then, I approached the situation with energy – I wanted to be
constructive, productive, putting my time into engaging with the public and
therefore feeling part of something. In turn, I visited a number of businesses
in my local town of Burnley, putting myself forward and offering my assistance
if anything was available. Yet rather than
feel part of something, I increasingly felt like a spare part. My
travelling from business to business became
almost pantomimic, my enthusiasm typically met with a stone cold stare
and the response ‘apply online’.
What immediately struck me was - what are the prospects for people who do not have
access to computers? Not everyone has access to the internet, especially the
older generations for whom IT was not a taught element in schools. Furthermore,
technology is expensive and often a job is the necessity for those expenses to
be paid. This puts potential limits on getting people involved in the public
sector, especially the most potentially vulnerable members of society still
looking for work – such as those recovering from illness. And,
as many people will agree, it is often easier to convey emotion and enthusiasm face
to face rather than from a keyboard. I would shout this message if I could.
Yet many may think me a hypocrite, sitting here typing up my
anger, admitting to the medium I am attempting to evaluate. Why does she feel it necessary to degrade
the inevitable modernisation of the jobs market? But there is a difference
between evaluation and degradation. I find it interesting more than anything
else that someone prepared to stand before a business and genuinely present
themselves often invites a sneer, whilst hidden behind a computer-generated CV
and a series of multiple-choice questions is ‘sensible.’ This is in relation to
the public sector, where surely the person is integral to the work?
Apparently not. Instead, what presented as welcome is a world where job eligibility is based on the
ability to build a digital ideal, a little like a Sims character. For example,
it is evident to answer ‘no’ to ‘do you get stressed under pressure?’ and
similar questions rather than exhibit the truth which will obviously come to
the front in – you guessed it – personal experience.
I am applying for jobs in the public sector because I want
to be personally part of something, to interact
with people and be a constructive member of society. It is for similar reasons,
and with a great passion for what he
does, that my father became a primary school head teacher. Yet in light of
another quickly passed government policy, David Cameron is proposing to sack
headteachers he accuses of ‘coasting.’ Rather than throwing headteachers a
lifeline, Cameron could in this way potentially contribute to the slowly stifling removal of personality from
public positions.
I believe in turn that passion, enthusiasm and integrity are
increasingly crushed by the current
climate of employment, especially in the public sector – as people are driven
to ‘perform’ rather than to inform, so to speak. I failed many online applications
because as a student, and although having part-time jobs previously, never
having had a career before, I
could not fill in the mandatory ‘previous salary’ section when applying for
jobs. Then there are character limits.
These are obviously necessary considering that otherwise it would take such an
amount of time to process the online applications that a job would never be
reached. Yet ones character can be potentially so much more easily seen in
person, in the guts it takes to get up and go into businesses even though you
may face rejection. Or even online – the
potential of an interactive interview taken on by some companies, but certainly
a minority, is a real attempt at a personal offer.
Yet it becomes easy to fill in routine online applications
with little enthusiasm and rehearsed answers – and is that what applying to be
part of the public service should be? Robotic? Even beyond that – the prospect
of employment –, which the government so significantly emphasize – is often in
the form of zero-hours contracts and in turn, increased insecurity. Yet it is
in this way too people are expected to go beyond actors and become robots,
expected to cope with no set structure of working hours even if they have
families or debts to pay. You would have to have so little emotion to find it
easy that you might as well be robotic.
Therefore, although the government seems happy to shout
about falling unemployment, I want to be a voice to express that this is not
always a fair reality. Systems of selection currently exclude peoples
enthusiasm and disrobe them of their
talents, their individuality. This leads
to people applying for jobs by necessity, rather than integrity, after
having their enthusiasm wiped again and again.
I know so many people passionate to work in the public sector who feel tossed
aside my systems of application which seem so unwilling to engage with the real
person. And even in the prospect of
employment looms the same lack of engagement – not only zero-hours contracts,
but teachers tasked with drilling
numbers into children and care workers having to pay for their own transport
and unpaid for the time it takes to travel between patients. I keep on writing
because I am passionate and it is what I would like to incorporate into public
service. I just fear that there are so many brilliant, innovative voices out
there who have had their passions to heavily crushed. I fear too that I may be
faced with work that I applied to not out of enthusiasm, but out of resignation because the opportunity to
express my potential was not accounted for.
I am trying, I really am. But does that mean anything
anymore?
Yes, many British people may be in work or have work. But
whether it is really working, is perhaps
something to be considered.
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