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🦃 CURMUDGEONS' CORNER XIX 🦃

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  • The way the benefits system is organised in the UK it's quite understandable why folk are reluctant to do seasonal work ... it's better than it used to be, but you can be left at the end of the season with no work and no income, and it can take some time for benefits to kick back in again if you're struggling to find another job.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    @Bee witched. My grandson is similar to your daughter,  fortunately his 4 year masters at Oxford had given him shorter terms than some so he can work more hours in his job at Tesco,  11pm - 8am five days a week.  He’s the first ever in our family to go to university,  and he’s got his future planned out already,  hopefully he’ll succeed. 

    I wish your daughter all the best and I’m sure  she’ll make a lovely care worker when she graduates.   As you say, they’re not all the same, don’t I know it! 

    I remember my step grandson coming home, on leaving school saying ‘I think I’ll take a year out’. His mum said you can think again, get down the job centre.  He’s never lost a days work since and still does an evening job.
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    KT53 said:
    I was reading recently of one Chief Constable despairing of the plan to require all police recruits to have a university degree.  He said many young people join the police and then leave within a short time because they don't want to work evenings and weekends, plus the job can be dangerous.  How sheltered from the real world must these people have been if they didn't realise that from the outset?
    I understand the point but I'm not sure I agree, entirely. If people get a degree and then look around and think 'I'll be a policeman', then it's probably an issue. But if someone decides they want to be a police officer and then go to Uni to get a suitable degree, they will have both the will to do that job and also the wide cultural and political experience that a University education can give you and probably be a better policeman as a result. Same with nurses. One of my cousins is studying nursing at Uni, spending her evenings caring for her granny at home. Having a degree doesn't make you a better person. It doesn't make you worse, either
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    My cousin’s daughter got her degree last year,  stayed working at the hospital she’d done some of her training at but when she got her full time job there she didn’t like it,   She left to do the care in the community,  she does a lot of travelling but she likes it much better than the hospital,   She loves her job now. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    KT53 said:
    Obelixx said:
    I don't see why any country should have to rely on poorly paid immigrant workers to care for its elderly or infirm or otherwise less able citizens.  In this case I think Brexit and immigration policies serve to highlight a problem of UK attitudes to such work and the funding needed.

    Remember the old adage - pay peanuts, get monkeys - tho these days it seems to be pay peanuts get no-one.

    It's not purely about the pay.  A farmer was on TV earlier in the year talking about the difficulty in recruiting British workers.  He was paying well above minimum wage, advertised in the local Job Centre for fruit pickers.  Over 100 people applied, only 6 turned up for interview and only 1 accepted the job, and they didn't stay long.
    There is also the possibility that the farmer is an arsehole and no one wants to work for him.  


    Possibly, but his situation was simply being used to demonstrate the problem experienced by farmers throughout the country.  I doubt they all fit that description.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I can see why students wish to type their exams.
    I once did long handwritten exam. I think it was about 3hours or so. About half an hour before the end of the exam, my hand cramped up and I was unable to finish it even though I knew the answer. Most frustrating!
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • I am amazed that on a gardening forum no-one has mentioned gardening as under paid and under valued. 
    AB Still learning

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I once asked a gardener how much he charged,  £50.00 per hour.  Wonder if he’s still in business. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • That's my point @Lyn, he should be. People will pay a garage 2or 3 times that hourly rate. A properly trained gardener is just as skilled, but when people think its just "mow and blow" and are used to paying £15-20 per hour that's all they get. 
    AB Still learning

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    When you think about how many minutes it takes a window cleaner to do your house and how much they charge and how little skill and how little the materials cost. It makes the gardener look  quite  cheap 
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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