Job Centre monkeys
Or, more specifically, being one, because I was and I hated every fetid minute of it. I've never been in a job before or since that inspired such a level of disillusionment so quickly (think it took about two weeks). It was truly the most depressing job I've ever had, and not because of the clients; no, about 95% of them were fine. (The 5% that were utter aresholes that felt the system owed them a living and would threaten to murder you if they ever saw you out on an evening because you'd had the audacity to suggest that working for a living was reasonably good idea were another matter and, unfortunately, tended to be the ones you remembered). But generally, the dealing with the public bit I didn't mind; usually if you treat someone with respect in what is, lets face it, a pretty dispiriting environment, you'll get something back from them, even if it is just a grudging acceptance that you're not actually there to make their lives a total misery and revel in their pain.

No, what really used to piss me off was the bureaucracy the job entailed; it was impossible to keep up with rule changes because they seemed to happen every bloody day. For example, Mondays were stats day, where you had to put in reports of how many of your clients ticked boxes X,Y and Z, the answer being generally none because what nobody realised at the time was that about ten years ago an MP had asked a Parliamentary Question about X, Y and Z so someone in the department had decided that forever more the staff had to report back on this question every week from then on 'just in case'. Half an hour every Monday morning to do this, for every person employed as an adviser in the Job Centre, is an awful lot of time wasted folks...

The management (at least, the majority of the ones I came across) were shit, having been generally fast tracked into their roles without actually rising through the ranks and experiencing the front end aspect of the work first hand. They really didn't have a clue what was going on; my last manager was a particularly fuck knuckled spastic who would shut her door if one of the clients so much as began to raise their voice, because she had no clue about how to deal with such a situation, even though the safe running of her office was ultimately her responsibility. I swear that if I had ever been assaulted in the line of duty she wouldn't even know what number to dial. The day I handed my notice in was probably the best day of my working life up until then, and about the only day in that job I spent wearing a permanent grin that made my cheeks ache.

It also used to piss me off that your office's reward each year for hitting the targets for getting people off JSA and into work, thus lowering the caseload, was an increase in targets next year and a reduction in the number of staff in the office. Yes, some of clients would be back through the doors within a few months (lot of seasonal work where I was based), but the actual numbers of claimants (ooh, dirty word there, you can't call them that these days) did decrease each year. So the poor bastards that were left dealing with more pressing targets on fewer resources were quite often left at breaking point, and yes, customer service could get a bit rubbish sometimes. I like to think that I maintained a professional attititude to my work, no matter how much I hated it, so I'll sign off with this little linky to a pearoast from an earlier QOTW to show that not everyone who works in Job Centre is a self serving cunt with no regard for the people they deal with on a daily basis. A lot are, mind, but most of the ones I worked with, weren't. Not that I noticed, anyway.

www.b3ta.com/questions/unemployed/post398736

Actually, fuck it, here's another that shows what may happen if you treat your clients like human beings: www.b3ta.com/questions/unemployed/post398988

And in for a penny, a tale of what might happen if you act like a total cunt to the person interviewing you. In the interests of balance, of course: www.b3ta.com/questions/unemployed/post399430

Length? Two and a half miserable, bastarding years that I hated nearly every minute of.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Wed 2 Jun 2010, 20:20, 2 replies)

As somebody who worked in local government for five years
I can totally sympathise, the levels of bureaucracy and red tape in any government organisation is soul-destroying.
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Wed 2 Jun 2010, 21:01, closed)

The bureaucracy in my current job
is even worse because I'm dishing out European funding. The difference is, I actually enjoy the job because it's reasonably varied and interesting. The Job Centre was the same shit day in day ot.

I took the Job Centre post because it was a promotion, but mostly because it was more money. I'll never do a job purely for the money again; it nearly cost me my sanity.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 3 Jun 2010, 1:19, closed)