If someone is prepared to work cheaper than you, you lose your job. What should I do?

doubtful14b

In Ireland in the Private Sector, everytime someone is prepared to work cheaper than you, you lose your job. I would like some advice as I feel I keep not being successful and really unlucky. I will start at the begining.

1. At 17 had no clue what I wanted but excellent exam results, parents insisted I went to college where I did business studies.
2. Didn't finish it and worked in a guesthouse and did a FAS course in IT and worked successfully in a number of Software testing jobs.

3. In 2002, the company moved most of the work to India (where labour was cheaper) so I spent 6 months repeating my Leaving Certificate as I then wanted to do Medicine to help people with Cancer. I missed Medicine by 5 points only and decided to study Pharmacy in the UK as it was cheaper there than here.
4. I completed Pharmacy and moved back here but found on the day I registered here there were more non-Irish Pharmacists registering to work here than Irish pharmacists. Several examples of the race to the bottom ensued in Businesses I worked in e.g. boss couldn't speak English, no work to do, constant abuse, Businesses failing. I tried to complain to the Department of Labour and NERA about what was going on but they didn't want to know.
5. I moved to the UK where I worked as a Pharmacy Store Manager and Locum. I again felt the race to the bottom e.g. sales target with the phrase"A target is not a target if it can be reached". I saw my colleagues cry from the stress.

6. Then I worked in a Market Reseach Company and found out that lots of well educated Irish people are unemployed.
7. So, in the last year I started pursuing a Chartered Accounting course at night leading to getting CAP1 completed this September.
I did an internship with a small Accountancy Practice in Dublin. I got let go last week after 2 months when qualifed Accountants from Poland and India offered to work for free (great for my boss not me) and my desk was wanted. Also, with no notice my boss wanted me to work for free on the weekend while he was on holidays though I had made plans. I politely said no and he said go.Non unionised private sector workers are being caught in the race to the bottom and its never spoked of.
8. I have thought of doing conversion courses for Nursing/Teaching/dictaphone typing. I don't know what to do.

strandroad

I'm sorry to say that there are questionable practices in every sector. You did well reporting them but why do you feel the need change careers every time you encounter some of them? Surely not all pharmacists/accountants etc are persecuted at work.

Eoin

In Ireland in the Private Sector, everytime someone is prepared to work cheaper than you, you lose your job.

I don't think sweeping statements like this are accurate. I'd say it varies widely per industry.

A constant turnover of staff can be a complete pain to deal with. Recruitment can be a pain, not to mention the subsequent training etc. It's not something that all companies want to go through on purpose. If you're in a job where you can be easily replaced by someone who's just in the door, then you need to ask why your experience isn't counting for anything.

I think you need to start by finding out what it is you actually want to do. You've mentioned IT, business studies, pharmacy, medicine, nursing, teaching. Most of those don't really sound like areas to get into unless you have a real interest in the subject and where you don't mind doing the hours until you establish yourself.

StillWaters

I think you would benefit from good career guidance. You appear to be very unfocussed. It takes a lot of time, stress and energy to establish oneself in a career, and you would be very lucky indeed if you did not have to work in a couple of dodgy companies / be let go on that trajectory to establish yourself in your career.

You are a qualified pharmacist? Why not focus on that career, or do you actively dislike it (not the job you have had) but the career itself?

leeroybrown

I'm with StillWater on this one. It sounds like you've got no direction in life and give up every time you hit an impasse. Sure you've had some bad luck but it happens to loads of people. Also, the work history you're building yourself really doesn't look good to prospective employers.

There are bad employers in every sector but to say that they're the norm isn't true. As a qualified pharmacist you have an excellent qualification that you should be able to capitalise on. The pharmacy sector at Ireland isn't at it's best right now but if you stick with it you should be able to find something .Unless you can't stand the work try to follow through for once and make a proper go of it.

juan.kerr

doubtful14b wrote: »

In Ireland in the Private Sector, everytime someone is prepared to work cheaper than you, you lose your job.

So you think experience counts for nothing?

In that case I'll send Ryanair a letter saying I'll under cut Michael O'Learys current salary by 10%. Unless someone else undercuts me...:(

doolox

.....except in a different level and in a different sector in industry.

People without special skills or talents are open to competition from desperately poor and underdeveloped countries and their inhabitants who come here and can undercut EU residents wage expectations and aspirations.

Unfortunately there is very little we can do until unemployment and poverty are eliminated in those countries. You will be labelled a racist, zenophobe etc if you try to advocate blocking entry to people from other poorer countries to the (increasing non-existant and shrinking) labour market here.

I find it hard to accept that people with a very good standard of education can be treated like dirt like the moderately educated (LC, no uni) were treated when I started work. The level of serfdom seems to be rising up the educational food chain all the time.

I used to think that international worker solidarity, transnational labour organisation and other socialist concepts were abstract airy concepts but have now come to realise that they have a direct bread-and-butter affect on our living standards and those of our children.

We need to improve the living and bargaining standards and powers of workers in underdeveloped countries so that they no longer feel the need to desperately undercut native Irish workers through desperation or lack of information ( many do not realise how dear living is in Ireland until its too late).
Our government needs to shut down the flow of cheap labour into Ireland to save whatever jobs are left in Irish hands.

People need to be empowered to choose Irish workers over foreign where possible, its no use complaining about your relatives having to emigrate if you buy from and support cheap labour goods and services. Unfortunately many people at the lower strata no longer have a choice and are stuck in a no win situation, buying the cheapest goods with inevitable job losses here until everyone is at the bottom. This trap will get bigger to ensnare increasing numbers of middle and upper class people until we are all trapped at the bottom of the socio economic pile.

People need to start short circuiting the current system by doing as much for themselves as possible and shutting out the global economy as much as possible you appear to be very good at getting qualifications but should try gaining information on self sufficiency and survival techniques for the future.

Try and gain info and knowledge that will lead you on a path to self employment and self support. Too many people spend too much time in offices doing pointless "make work" to keep the bosses happy. All this is going to collapse leaving nobody in Europe able to work in sustaining themselves when the oil from the middle east, Gas from Russia and cheap goods from China and cheap services from India run out. The EU and US will no longer be able to pay for all of these and the other countries won't be long figuring this out.

Richard Douthwaithe has written several books on the subject of unsustainable economic policies and going for continuous growth in the face of diminishing resources and rising populations. His books "The Growth Illusion" and "Short Circuit" make a lot of sense in the current difficult times.

We are going through a second Great Depression, it is only starting and we cannot "solve" it this time like the last one, by planning and running World War 2.