My unemployed story

Ajsoprano

Kameron Raspy Archivist wrote: »

Well at least the boom times are back again so that's good. I'm struggling to find a plumber to install a solar system and this is just outside Limerick which was badly hit by the recession.

This time though make sure you're more conservative and think about the rainy days.

You’d need more than a plumber to install a solar system into limerick. It’s at least twice as big as limerick. Haha

Guy:Incognito

I'm a plumber and was unemployed a couple of times during the recession. I got on to a crowd and got work in Norway first . They were screaming out for lads all during the recession. There were loads of lads over there from all over Ireland. Money was good but I only did one stint, wasn't for me . Over the next couple of years I started serving my time as a mechanic (turned out they were just after someone to do various jobs for first year wages. Then i worked in a couple of parts jobs, a couple of motor factors (both closed down) and a couriers.

When I was on the dole for a few weeks at one stage I looked at springboard courses and started the gas course in the it in blanchardstown. Didn't finish it because I got offered a job so went with that.

I probably fall in to the "I'd work in x" category so.

Ajsoprano

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I'm a plumber and was unemployed a couple of times during the recession. I got on to a crowd and got work in Norway first . They were screaming out for lads all during the recession. There were loads of lads over there from all over Ireland. Money was good but I only did one stint, wasn't for me . Over the next couple of years I started serving my time as a mechanic (turned out they were just after someone to do various jobs for first year wages. Then i worked in a couple of parts jobs, a couple of motor factors (both closed down) and a couriers.

When I was on the dole for a few weeks at one stage I looked at springboard courses and started the gas course in the it in blanchardstown. Didn't finish it because I got offered a job so went with that.

I probably fall in to the "I'd work in x" category so.

Maybe you are just the one guy that interviewed better out of the hundreds that applied for the five jobs you got. But good on you for being one of the people with jobs.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Maybe you could emigrate, probably the easiest way to avoid the Government and these private companies. Still pretty happening in Canada, Australia etc.

Ajsoprano

Kameron Raspy Archivist wrote: »

Maybe you could emigrate, probably the easiest way to avoid the Government and these private companies. Still pretty happening in Canada, Australia etc.

I have a job now.

Avatar MIA

Ajsoprano wrote: »

You seem to be just rambling.

Sanity may sound like ramblings to the insane :P

But, shur, it's all good - can't wait to see what your next attention seeking thread will be. 2.5/5 for this one. It's been done before.

AllForIt

Everyone is out for themselves and if they don't succeed at it they give out about ppl who do.

Yours are back working now so why to dwell on it, my husband went to London for work during the downturn, lived in a windowless room that was barely bigger than a double bed, that's life sometimes you just have to get on with. He doesn't think he is a hero he doesn't think anything much about it except that's life.

Hitman3000

Ajsoprano wrote:

If you read the thread you will see at the end of it I used every arguement against privatising the social welfare in a jobbridge thread. I linked this post at the end of the thread but I think by that stage people were too angry because it affected them and not some tracksuit head that they wouldn’t click the link.

You wanted to make the SW staff redundant and hire new workers on minimum wage.

Ajsoprano

Hitman3000 wrote: »

You wanted to make the SW staff redundant and hire new workers on minimum wage.

Read the thread the read the link I posted at the end of it. It’ll all make sense. If you only read a half a thread don’t bother engaging about it.

Ajsoprano

mariaalice wrote: »

Yours are back working now so why to dwell on it, my husband went to London for work during the downturn, lived in a windowless room that was barely bigger than a double bed, that's life sometimes you just have to get on with. He doesn't think he is a hero he doesn't think anything much about it except that's life.

What’s that got to do with jobbridge? Who thinks they are a hero?

koumi

Ajsoprano wrote: »

What’s that got to do with jobbridge? Who thinks they are a hero?

JobBridge was a pretty nasty experiment, especially for those who ended up propping up the public sector, which is what I believed it was designed for and got little but abuse in return for their effort and even more when they attempted to highlight the nature of it. It was a special kind of abuse. Thankfully it was binned however for anyone who hasn't experienced it I doubt there will be much they can relate to so best leave it in a safe place and march onward. (I'm also aware of the absolute mental and psychological affects of schemes like Turas Nua which I suspect will also go the way of JobBridge in due time) Don't take the lack of understanding to heart.

Ajsoprano

koumi wrote: »

JobBridge was a pretty nasty experiment, especially for those who ended up propping up the public sector, which is what I believed it was designed for and got little but abuse in return for their effort and even more when they attempted to highlight the nature of it. It was a special kind of abuse. Thankfully it was binned however for anyone who hasn't experienced it I doubt there will be much they can relate to so best leave it in a safe place and march onward. (I'm also aware of the absolute mental and psychological affects of schemes like Turas Nua which I suspect will also go the way of JobBridge in due time) Don't take the lack of understanding to heart.

Thanks for that I think some people here just go onto threads to say mean things to anyone no matter what their views. I think it’s a self esteem thing.
When I say jobbridge I mean all schemes jobbridges with name changes really. Community service type jobs. But not in a serving the community way more in the court service sort of way.

Ajsoprano

Ajsoprano wrote: »

What’s that got to do with jobbridge? Who thinks they are a hero?

Jobbridge has been discontinued has it not, it wasn't a good idea for someone like the op. Going to college and upskilling would have been a better idea. I am not being rude to you but why are you dwelling on it now.

koumi

Ajsoprano wrote: »

Thanks for that I think some people here just go onto threads to say mean things to anyone no matter what their views. I think it’s a self esteem thing.
When I say jobbridge I mean all schemes jobbridges with name changes really. Community service type jobs. But not in a serving the community way more in the court service sort of way.

Ce schemes were fine back in the day, when they paid you a wage and also provided access to qualification in your area of work. They just stopped paying people for the work they were doing and instead used the money to prop up private companies who did little to help the clients they were being payed to find work for, but continuing to use it as a way to construct false unemployment stats. Nobody benefited other than the employers and private agencies.

Ajsoprano

mariaalice wrote: »

Jobbridge has been discontinued has it not, it wasn't a good idea for someone like the op. Going to college and upskilling would have been a better idea. I am not being rude to you but why are you dwelling on it now.

Because other people are in that boat now. Any of us could be in it in the next few years. Our children will all have to do a years free training in any job they take by the time they finish school. We are heading down the crapper. That’s why I dwell on it.
They are hoovering up tax money to themselves. Tax money we pay for our stamps goes to them to kick us when we are out of work.

Did you just read the title and come in rambling that your husband had a job in London before and didn’t get a medal?

I’m not including you but there seems to be a few people here that spend their whole time defending these kick the unemployed schemes.

Hitman3000

Ajsoprano wrote:

Read the thread the read the link I posted at the end of it. It’ll all make sense. If you only read a half a thread don’t bother engaging about it.

I bowed out after reading what I found to be nonsense.

MouseTail

Ajsoprano wrote: »

Did you just read the title and come in rambling that your husband had a job in London before and didn’t get a medal? .

Thats harsh, the poster was empathising that lots of people had to make sacrifices during the crash, emigrating, working in jobs unrelated to their qualifications and skills, returning to education, participating in schemes etc. It was necessary to keep the head above water. But whats the point in dwelling on it? Learn from it, prepare for the next rainy day and move forward.

Ajsoprano

MouseTail wrote: »

Thats harsh, the poster was empathising that lots of people had to make sacrifices during the crash, emigrating, working in jobs unrelated to their qualifications and skills, returning to education, participating in schemes etc. It was necessary to keep the head above water. But whats the point in dwelling on it? Learn from it, prepare for the next rainy day and move forward.

The schemes is what I have a problem with not the recession. They happen every few decades. Will I have to do security in a car park during the next one in my 60s where the parents wear pyjamas and think I’m trying to be a garda because I ask them to move from an invisible yellow line?

Ajsoprano

Ajsoprano wrote: »

Because other people are in that boat now. Any of us could be in it in the next few years. Our children will all have to do a years free training in any job they take by the time they finish school. We are heading down the crapper. That’s why I dwell on it.
They are hoovering up tax money to themselves. Tax money we pay for our stamps goes to them to kick us when we are out of work.

Did you just read the title and come in rambling that your husband had a job in London before and didn’t get a medal?

I’m not including you but there seems to be a few people here that spend their whole time defending these kick the unemployed schemes.

I support the welfare state and supporting individual is a complex area, despite getting exasperated with some of the silly anecdotes and welfare basing that goes on here I do understand that some people do feel aggrieved about long-term welfare and those who won't help themselves. That might be the reason you are getting some of the responces that appear here.

Ajsoprano

mariaalice wrote: »

I support the welfare state and supporting individual is a complex area, despite getting exasperated with some of the silly anecdotes and welfare basing that goes on here I do understand that some people do feel aggrieved about long-term welfare and those who won't help themselves. That might be the reason you are getting some of the responces that appear here.

The career welfare lads don’t end up on these schemes. They are lost causes left to it. There’s no commission with them,

Dakota Dan

Ajsoprano wrote: »

I see a lot of dole bashing and if I get let go Id work in McDonald’s type posts. A lot of “they are always in the bookies” threads. So this is how the government of today has sorted out the “dole scrounger”.

I was a plumber in my early 30s making more money than doctors and accountants. All the overtime I wanted. Then things got bad and I was getting a few weeks on a few weeks off a few weeks up north then pretty much nothing.
Employers started only offering into the hand work where you had to get social welfare to make up your wage. I refused to avail of this.
I remember them changing how long your stamps lasted you until they started to harass you.
One day I was called to a meeting with a woman in the welfare office I brought my son in a buggy I thought it was just to drop in forms and the like. She moaned at me for bringing children to a meeting them tore shreds off me when I tried explain work was tight. She sent me to a private company under the jobbridge umbrella because I wasn’t getting the finger out.
First I had to do a course called steps which was a psychology type motivation course which I enjoyed and gave me a bit of confidence back.

I applied for all sorts of jobs but was told I was over qualified or I’d be back plumbing as soon as they trained me.
I went to intreo (New fas) and asked about the gas course for working on boilers. I was told I was the private companies now and intreo couldn’t deal with me.
The private company found me a placement in a car park in Dublin with an Astro and a dancing class beside a really rough flat complex. All these parents used the dancing school. There was no markings in the car park , my job was to be a yellow line. When a car parked where there was an imaginary yellow line on that day I had to tell them to move. I got non stop abuse nearly every day for a year. I also had to turn on and off the lights for the Astro in winter. I’m not one that worries too much about my mental health but looking back now I dreaded going to it and struggled sleeping on work nights. I asked for a safe pass and was told they were sorting one.
I complained about it and was told they have another opening for me in an even worse part of Dublin cleaning a green space and putting out chairs for meetings in a community centre. As far as I remember there was 3 months left on my placement and they wanted me to start this new one all over again so I stuck out the car park.
As soon as the car park job finished I emailed about the safe pass but they didn’t reply anymore.
I got s letter a week later to go to skillsteam another jobbridge type private company.
I had two meetings with them where they told me they’d only pay for my safe pass if I had a letter saying I had a job if I have a safe pass. The gas course was laughed out the door again. In meetings they kept pushing that they had retail jobs but I think this was a threat I don’t think they really had them.
Building of hotels picked up and I got a job. I got my own safe pass that Saturday and started on the Monday. I got a number of phone calls from skillsteam trying to find out my new job details so they could claim a few quid of taxpayers money for getting me off the register I never gave them to them but I’m sure they have ways around that.

I’m back working and paying between 1-200 euro a week tax no thanks to these kick the unemployed schemes.

There are people in my area that have never worked a day in their life that these schemes don’t bother. Who they will bother is you if you lose your job or your kids if they come out of school jobless.

Private companies shouldn’t be anywhere near the social welfare system and it sickens me that my tax goes to private companies to kick jobless people when they are down, humiliate them by standing them in a car park in front of friends and neighbours and parents from my kids activities.

Most people end up out of work at some stage in their life.

Jaysus it's a long post, no time to read it but every time I ring a plumber they never call

TheAnalyst_

You sound like you have PTSD from this car parking job which is clouding your opinion.

Ajsoprano

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

You sound like you have PTSD from this car parking job which is clouding our opinion.

You either really love jobbridge, tuas nua skillsteam or one of the other private tax Hoover’s or you feed your self esteem by trying to call names on the Internet.
Each to their own I suppose.

TheAnalyst_

Ajsoprano wrote: »

You either really love jobbridge, tuas nua skillsteam or one of the other private tax Hoover’s or you feed your self esteem by trying to call names on the Internet.
Each to their own I suppose.

I've known two people who complained regularly about it on facebook and neither have worked in a decade. So I'm all for a scheme which gets them out of bed and engages them in something.

Ajsoprano

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

I've known two people who complained regularly about it on facebook and neither have worked in a decade. So I'm all for a scheme which gets them out of bed and engages them in something.

I bet they still don’t work.

Ajsoprano

Ajsoprano wrote: »

What’s that got to do with jobbridge? Who thinks they are a hero?

I do. I got my current job from a JobBridge internship. I know that I’m not the only one.

Hector Bellend

I have two degrees, several professional qualifications and am pursuing my third degree. I only have a part time job.

Pain in the hole

Ajsoprano

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I do. I got my current job from a JobBridge internship. I know that I’m not the only one.

You had to work a year for free to get your job and you think that’s such s good thing that you spend all your time on the Internet defending these schemes?
Did they brainwash you there?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Deleted User wrote: »

I do. I got my current job from a JobBridge internship. I know that I’m not the only one.

Likewise, I know four people who did JobBridge and three were kept on by the companies and are now full time permanent with good salaries, pension etc.
The fourth got her job as a result of the JobBridge experience. So, it worked for some.