Funny (well I think so anyway) video about being an unemployed graduate

I came across this video that I thought was quite funny about an Arts graduate who hasn't yet managed to find a job after graduating three years ago... I'm a Psychology graduate (well I graduate next month to be exact) and I'm hoping I don't end up like him.. :-)  Well you know what I mean.. I wouldn't mind being able to write songs like him..

Useful website

Just following on from my last post, here is a link to the Department of Social Protection's webpage on the various types of benefits you can expect to receive if you are unemployed.  Most unemployed people would already be aware of these but just in case you are newly unemployed its useful to know..

www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/unemployed.aspx

Some of the benefits of not working

Today was such a gorgeous day.. I went for a walk in the Phoenix Park with a friend of mine and then we went to the cafe in the visitors centre for lunch... We sat outside and basked ourselves in the autumn sun.  Now this would not have been possible if we were both working - unless we had both taken a day off of course.

Some other benefits include:

• Not having to be up too early in the morning - unless you have young children when you have to be up early anyway.

• Being entitled to a medical card so trips to your GP are free and you only have to pay 50 cent for a prescription in the pharmacy (although I got charged €1 in Boots lately).  You can also get two free fillings per year at the dentist.

• Lower stress levels - most people suffer from a high level of stress when they are employed but then again it all depends on how you manage your stress.

Recruitment agencies

Yesterday I got an email on the Linkedin networking site from a recruitment consultant asking me to add her as a connection and to contact her to discuss possible vacancies.  I emailed her back to say that I would ring her later that day which I did and she promptly informed me that she would return my call later which never materialised.  This seems to be a common occurence with recruitment consultants - not having calls returned.. what hope do people have in finding employment if they don't get the support that they need from those whose job it is to do just that?

Peanuts

This morning I got a call from a company that I had applied for a job to a few weeks back but had been informed by email that I would not be called for interview.  The HR employee who rang me wanted to know if I'd be interested in being put forward for a 6 month contract as an Executive Assistant. I asked her what the salary being offered was and she informed me that it was €22K because I had never worked in the public sector before (well my very first job 17 years ago was but that doesn't count because I would've obviously been on a much lower salary than my last position) and would have to start at the bottom of the scale - what a joke. I told her to put me forward for the position and am still awaiting a call... no harm in attending an interview if I'm successful in securing one - will be good practice.

Today's adventure in the social welfare office and post office

I had to sign on this morning so ventured down at approximately 9.45am and thankfully there was only a few ahead of me. The guy who was in front of me didn't realise that he wasn't supposed to make an enquiry because it was a signing day and he got his head bitten off by the officer at the hatch.  She actually apologised to me for the delay which I thought was quite decent of her.  I decided to kill two birds with the one stone and get my payment protection form signed which thankfully she didn't object to.

Then when I went over to the post office to collect my weekly payment the lady who just arrived in in front of me had a child in a buggy with her and she was asking the girl ahead of her where to get a form of some sort and was told she'd get it up at the counter.  She decided to leave her child in the queue in the buggy and go to the counter to get the form and in the meantime the queue was moving along so I moved up ahead of the buggy.  Then she decided to push her away ahead of the people who had joined the queue behind me so that she could nudge her way in ahead of me. I kept my mouth shut but was quite annoyed and then she decided to leave the buggy again further up in the queue so that she could lean on a surface to complete the form so again I moved up ahead of the buggy - I was feeling quite sorry for the child in the buggy at this stage.  The queue moved up quite a bit while she was filling in her form and she then decided to go outside the railing (not sure what correct name is I'm afraid) of the queue and move in ahead of me which meant having to lift the "railing" up.  Well that was enough to really piss me off and I told her she should've either completed form before getting into queue or do it up at the counter so that she wouldn't keep skipping the queue and her reply was, "whats your problem?" but I kept my mouth shut because I probably would've said something I would've regretted!  Maybe I was just grumpy because it was early in the morning - well its early for me because I usually don't get up until 10am, but then again I did notice from the facial expressions on some of the other people in the queue that they weren't impressed with her.  Then I decided to go to the bank to lodge in my payment into my account but the queue was unbelievably long (my local bank is a very large one which usually means a very busy one) so I decided against it - I'd had enough of queuing for one day!

Experiences to date with social welfare office

My very first trip down to my local social welfare office wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  There were very few people there at the time and all I had to do was make an appointment to come back and speak to a welfare officer.  I also had to bring along a form that I was asked to complete.  When I came back the following week for my appointment I was asked for proof of my redundancy i.e., the letter I would've received from my unit manager but I hadn't got it with me because I hadn't been told to bring it when I was making my appointment so I had to make another trip to the office the next day which was a bit annoying.

To collect my payment, I had to go to my local post office but I hadn't got a social services card with me as it hadn't been issued yet so I had a bit of an argument with the post officer worker behind the counter because she informed me that I would need to it receive my payment but she gave it to me anyway after I told her that I hadn't been given one - I think I just showed her some form of ID I had in my wallet.  I had to go back to the dole office.. again.. to ask for a temporary card which I should've been given when I had my appointment with the welfare officer.  I found that sometimes the queue for the Queries hatch could be ridiculously long and opening another hatch would've made a big difference which did happen from time to time.  I have payment protection for two loans so I have to make twice monthly trips to the office to have a form completed to prove that I am unemployed.  This can be a bit tedious because the form only takes 2 minutes for the officer to complete and I sometimes have to queue for up to 30 minutes.

It seems that different offices have different systems of doing things. I moved back into my own apartment 2 months ago and had been renting for 10 months prior to that in a different part of the city so had to sign on at a different office.  My current office has a strange system in that you can only make enquiries on certain days of the week and signing on takes place on the other days.  When I first walked into the office I didn't know what queue I was supposed to be in because there were people queuing for, it seemed, 5 different hatches and the end of the queue I was supposed to be in was nearly mixed up with the queue for a different hatch.  It was just by luck that I found the right queue.  There was no-one available to direct me to the correct hatch - which would've been a good idea.  When I finally got to speak to the officer after about 40 minutes of queuing I was told that I needed proof of address and ID so I could change my claim over to that particular office.  I had left my drivers licence in my car and I just happened to have a letter from my bank in my bag so I could use that as proof of address. I had to go out to my car to get the licence and then come back and wait at one of the hatches to speak to another officer which didn't take too long which was good.  I would also like to mention that there is no point in phoning an office because they don't answer the phone so why they have a telephone number is beyond me..!

My first time to sign on wasn't too stressful either. I only have to sign once a month which isn't too bad although a friend of mine only has to sign on every three months or something which is a bit strange. The queue moves pretty quickly because all people are doing is literally showing their social services card to the officer and signing and dating where they are asked to.

I've sensed tension in the air when queuing to sign on or make an enquiry and one day the guy who was queuing behind me was giving out to the guy behind him about the officers behind the hatch saying that one of them was a bit of a "tough cookie" or words to that affect and that he had seen some guy attempt to throw the chair that is stationed opposite the hatch at the window in front of her as she had probably got on the wrong side of him.  He also said that he reckoned that unemployed people were seen as second class citizens by the officers but I think that was just him being paranoid.  I do find that the officers can be a bit abrupt but they are probably on their guard most of the time so their job can't be the easiest either.

Notice that I've used the words queue and queuing a lot in this post.. its what we unemployed people spend a lot of time doing I've found.. :-)