Legal Slavery in the 21st Century

Legal Slavery in the 21st Century
Courtesy of Get Britain Working


A new Job Opportunity has come to my attention at We Want 2 Work. one so astounding I've decided to dedicate a whole blog post to it.


The Job
Work for Tesco, Asda, Primark, Sainsburys, Poundland or Hilton Hotels


Hours: 30 per week       Rate of Pay: £67.50 per week


Job Description: To carry out the same tasks and duties as regular paid colleagues for 6 months. At the end of this period you will be asked to hand your badge back and leave the building to make room for the next batch of slaves 'ahem' I mean Work Experience candidates.


Sound like a job you will apply for?


No, I thought not but thousands of our young unemployed people are being bullied into these positions as part of the Get Britain Working campaign. Is this really the best we have to offer them?


Is it any wonder that the young are taking over the financial centres of many Cities across the globe, including London, Manchester and Glasgow. They have grown up in a corporate society more than any other generation, those of us who are a little older will remember when there was a Greengrocers, Butchers and Bakers within a walkable distance.


Now not only have the likes of Tesco all but wiped out local traders they are using our kids as slave labour. Tesco have already taken some 3,000 18-24 year old's on this scheme designed to keep us fooled about the 'real' jobless figures.


Doing the Maths


£67.50 represents £2.25 per hour, that's 35p less per hour than the minimum Apprentice wage, £2.73 an hour less than the national minimum wages for an 18-20 year old and £3.83 less for someone over 21.


We all also know that there are cost involved in getting to and from work, so I imagine that doing that and trying to live on £67.50 per week is causing an awful lot of hardship.


What it will also be doing of course is lessening the need for these Corporations to hire properly paid staff. They will not be paying those of Work Experience holiday pay, sick pay, pensions or National Insurance Contributions and will just be taking advantage of yet another ill thought out Government work scheme.


I am truly disgusted that this has been allowed to happen. First of all the Government subsidise the Banks, now they are subsidising the work force of large Corporations!


This scheme as I understand it is open to all or most businesses within the UK. I implore every Micro business and SME in the country to take on a candidate and actually teach them something they can use, better still train them in the 6 months you are allowed them on Work Experience to be of use to You and then take them on as an Apprentice. Give these kids a future because if you don't then our future is grim.


How does this make you feel? Please leave a comment, thank you.


Further Reading: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4029

My Thanks to @padwantwo

Learning the Hard Way

I thought I had said goodbye to having to learn things the hard way when I left my Youth, however thing year I was reminded once again that some of life’s most important lessons are painful ones.

Having had the idea for We Want 2 Work in May 2010, I immediately purchased the URL's and set about finding a developer to construct the website for me. Before the developers started work they asked for the login details for my internet provider account, I felt uneasy doing this but they assured me that it was a standard practise and that they were just going to change over the hosting to their server so that they could construct the website. Having never had a website built before this all sounded plausible, so I gave over the details they needed, and hosting was moved to the developer’s server.

During the construction period things grew a little wobbly at times but I just put that down to the nature of the Techie Geeks building it. They were constantly late with deadlines, were very difficult to get hold of on the telephone and took an age to answer my emails. They did however keep reassuring me that everything was going fine and the site would be completed on time by the beginning of December.

We Have Lift Off

We launched the website on 10th January 2011 and things went great, we had over 700 Job Seekers sign up in the first 5 days. The site was designed to help SME’s save time and money on recruitment and the feedback I was getting from them was amazing. Then it all started to unravel, first off we realised that certain functions we had asked for were totally missing, then it became apparent that the search engine within the site was a massive fail, it was key to the whole site being able to function so at that point we had to stop marketing it to our paying customers i.e. SME's.

Things then went from bad to worse when we realised that the guys had stolen my URL's and therefore controlled my whole business, including having access to my Paypal account. Instead of just redirecting the hosting as promised, they had taken ownership of my URL’s by re-registering them into their own name.

It took 4 months of hard fighting to get my URL's back in to my name and under my control. I then had to refinance getting a whole new website built which I’m sure you can imagine has been a massive financial strain; I certainly did not have it in my contingency budget to get the main aspect of my business rebuilt.

                                    Peaceful Protest is still a powerful tool


The whole experience has been devastating and is to end in the Small Claims Courts in October, certainly NOT the way to launch a new enterprise!

I would urge everyone to check that they are the registered owner of their website, and to NEVER give out the details for their internet provider, however convincing the request. Although what happened to me is fairly rare, it is not unheard of, and so easily preventable.

The show must go on

Luckily for me I’m as stubborn as a mule and refused to let them beat me completely, the new We Want 2 Work website launched without hiccup on the 1^st of June 2011. I have no money left for marketing so we haven’t made much of a fanfare this time around but I’m a strong believer in Karma and the concept behind We Want 2 Work is still receiving 100% positive feedback. If you find yourself in a similar situation, don't despair and don't give up – wewant2work.co.uk got through it – you will too.

I'm looking forward to the future for We Want 2 Work, I don't suppose it will an easy ride from here but I must surely be over the worst ?!?

Not Working? .. Get Networking

My Advice to Start-Ups

If you haven’t been networking yet as a new enterprise you are doing yourself and your business a disservice. Admittedly it might seem a bit daunting and you might feel like a naive new kid on the block but I urge you to make every effort to find and attend a meeting near you.

I guarantee that the group you go to will be friendly and make you welcome. Many groups are free or £10 or less, so don’t let being skint be your excuse not to go. Some meetings are better than others but I’m yet to find a group where I left feeling like I had completely wasted my time.

Allow yourself to be supported

Don’t be afraid to admit it if you are struggling or have a particular problem either. I’ve encountered more than a few hiccups with We Want 2 Work but through networking I have met some fantastic people who have given me their time and expertise free or at a really low cost. I may be a sole trader but I am lucky enough to have a massive support group around me now. I know that if I need help, or even just an ear to chew, I can pick up the phone to any one of a number of people and they will hear me out and advise, sympathise or both.

Where to look 

If you are stuck for where to find a group near you check out the FSB website, you don’t have to be a member to go to their local meetings, although you might want to consider joining as they have some great member benefits on offer. Another place to try would be your local council; most, if not all, have a Business & Enterprise manager who I’m sure will know what’s going on in your area.

You could also try your local college and YMCA, many have Business Hub’s with really good facilities and resources. A call to Business Link would also help, they have loads of information on what events and groups are operating across the whole of the UK.

People Will want to help you

If I’ve not convinced you yet perhaps this list of the help that I have had so far will sway you:

  1. Help with Branding

  2. Help with PR
   3. Help with IT issues

  4. Help with Hosting my website

  5. Sales advice

  6. Marketing advice

  7. SEO

  8. Sales copy

  9. Coaching 

  and finally ...

 10. Some really cute balloon men to use as promotional items

Go on get out there and meet your new business family, they are waiting to meet you!

Links:

FSB

YMCA

Business Link

Why Everyone Should Have A Telephone Voice.

As a youngster I used to roll on the floor in hysterics when my Mum answered the telephone, her usual London accent with replaced with what I used to call her 'Pathe News' voice. H's made an apperance in her pronounciation and R's used to roll on forever, her usual 'Ello' became 'Hellow' and 'Darlin' never got a look in.

When I asked her why she spoke like that when she answered the phone she said it was because she didn't know who was calling. This was of course in the days before Caller Display or mobile phones so there was no way to know who was ringing. If it was anyone other than a friend or family she adopted her telephone voice not only so she sounded slightly posh but also so that she was properly understood.

I got to thinking about Mum and her Hyacynth Bucket voice recently while making calls to job applicants, I was amazed at how many people answered the phone with 'Alright' 'Ello' and 'Who's that?', considering I'm currently looking for Telesales staff I felt right from the get go that I was NOT speaking to a new member of our team. Mum was right (again)it is important how you sound on the phone, especially if you are unsure who is calling.

Next time your phone rings and you are not sure who is calling try to remember that you've sent off 101 CV's and that it may be a prospective employer calling to discuss your CV.

Starting at the Beginning

I thought I would start my blogging career by explaining a little about why We Want 2 Work was born. If you are an SME or a Job Seeker I think many of you may be able to relate to some of what I have to say about the recruitment process and how agonising it can be from both sides

I have been running a garden design and maintenance business for over 12 years, at one point I had 3 trucks on the road and employed 9 guys, it was an absolute bloody nightmare! Don’t get me wrong I had some great people working for me but it was a total headache, covering planned holidays was bad enough, let alone sick days!


It sometimes seemed as if not a week went past where I had some manpower crisis or other. 

I tried Job Centre Plus, who although lovely people, were practically useless. I’m sure they do their best but surely it’s a no brainer that you don’t send a guy just out of hospital after a stomach operation for a gardening job? It wasted his time and resources coming to the interview and wasted my time when I could have been interviewing a more suitable candidate.


I went on to try Recruitment Agencies. Now before I bring the whole industry down on me like a ton of bricks I want to make it clear that I am going to speak of my personal experiences and am in no way casting aspersions on Recruitment Agencies as a whole. However my experience was not great at all. First thing was the cost, on the few occasions I had no choice but to use agency staff it wiped out any profit I hoped to make on the job. Secondly once again I felt I was badly let down by the quality of staff they sent me.

I was left with the overall feeling that as I was unlikely to earn them thousands of pounds in commission each year, that they had little to no interest in my business. I stopped using them when they sent me a lad who stood and quoted me the Health and Safety guide book when he scratched his finger on a Rose thorn. He demanded antibacterial wash, antiseptic cream and a plaster, so I sent him home with the offending digit wrapped in a Kleenex!

It seemed that both main recruitment methods were lacking, probably by no fault of their own. The problem is no one understands what your business needs as well as you do. All businesses are as unique in what they need from their staff as fingerprints. Putting a middleman in between me and the staff I required just didn’t work for me.

I looked for a website where I could search Job Seekers and contact them directly, without any fuss or ridiculous charges


I never found one that came close to what I needed. I spoke to other SME’s at various networking events and found many were in the same boat. They needed to find new employee's quickly with the minimum of fuss and at a reasonable cost.

I chatted with Job Seekers who told me some horror stories from their point of view, the constantly having to chase them up, again their lack of understanding what a job entails or qualifications held, and finally the worst offence of posting ‘Ghost’ jobs to entice new candidates, all left them feeling pretty deflated.

It was obvious that the situation needed to change or at least be challenged with an alternative, after a year of nipping and tucking and squeezing and prodding; We Want 2 Work was born.


Take a look and tell me if I've got it right www.wewant2work.co.uk