I took a deep breath and pressed played. Indeed I was watching Fairy Jobmother. The language from the start including the voiceover stated that there was £87billion spent on welfare that was a “burden” on the tax payer… Well, I’ll tell what really is a burden is tax evasion and avoidance by the wealthy but I don’t see any programme encouraging 4 rich tax thieves resplendent with a fairy pay-your-tax-mother patronising and irritating them with psycho-babble all the way to coughing up the cash.
But no….. we get the usual bilge from the bourgeois media regurgitating Dail Mail headlines, “Workshy” and going on about “unemployed who can work do work”… Yada, yada, yada and so on.
So out of the ether pops Hayley Taylor …. fairy jobmother at your service, a former A4E boss. All perky, pushy, peppy …….. and a pain. She goes to Bootle armed with tough talking with a mission to get 4 unemployed people jobs in 14 days. Bootle has 64,000 residents, quarter of them claiming benefits.
Taylor’s MO comrpises of tough talking, tough love, oh, tough sh*t if you dare to be selective cos fairy jobmother believes that the unemployed are far TOO selective in choosing jobs. Four individuals (Dave, Louise, Sue and Alex) come up against Taylor’s intensive training as it is all about “structure and routine”. The four of them have different expectations and ideas about work; some have worked before, some have qualifications and so on. Alex wanted to be a cop but dropped out of training due to his mum dying bereavement made him go off the rails, Dave had the measure of Taylor and saw it for what it was while his daughter Louise had never had a job and had very little confidence. Similar to Sue as well.
Taylor gave the 4 challenges which, supposedly, built their confidence and self-worth. Also the experience of work (such as working for free cleaning cars) and pretending to be a town crier where it was all about better communication yet it just seemed like pure humiliation. Then putting Louise onto a checkout which culminated in her bursting into tears. I think no-nonsense Taylor thought it would be useful in throwing Louise into the deep end, one size fits all, no specific tailoring Louise’s needs because fairy jobmother believes as the tax payer is paying the benefits then you shouldn’t have the choices. Any old bloody job will do… oh, and there’s loadsa jobs out there. I suspect there are, but what of the quality? I bet they pay just about the minimum wage. Why can’t unemployed people be allowed to be selective and able to choose what job they want along with qualifications and experiences. But hey, fairy jobmother thinks we are all cogs in the capitalist machine, drones for exploitation.
Eventually, after cajoing and bullying by no-nonsense Taylor combined with the psycho-babble the 4 had interviews. Some successful some not so. The reason I believe, specifically, Louise and Sue had gained self-confidence and self-worth was more to do with the solidarity of the group. The group dynamics showed the lack of belief in themselves but that exposes how many in this society perceives themselves. A society that demonises, vilifies and stigmatises the powerless and this is translated in annoying programmes like “Fairy Jobmother” where unemployed people are given the no-nonsense and bullying treatment. Get a job, any old job, you don’t have the right to choose…..
The jobs they did get were based in the private sector. But ask yourself, how long will these jobs last? Sue seemed happy with her job while Louise got work experience in a garden centre (again she seemed happy), Dave got a job in security and Alex got the job with a cleaning company (though it seems he later got a job in a pub).
What I despise about these programmes and the ethos of Hayley Taylor with her A4E bullshit is the bullying. People already at a low and frustrated ebb psychologically and here comes fairy jobmother to cheer you into the low paid job market. But hey, you can’t be choosy!! It’s conveyor belt one size-fits-all “help”… It’s not based on the terms of the individual but on the terms of the establishment. It’s ideological bullying forcing people into dead-end jobs. Taylor mentioned to the 4 that the changes in welfare would mean that they would be sanctioned if they turn down work and she says that in a serves-you-right tone of voice. The system has failed people but they are blamed, it’s degrading telly. Not so much kindly fairy jobmother but more fairy jobmonster…
If you can stomach it you can see the programme here.
I started a facebook page yesterday about it because it IRRITATED THE HELL OUT OF ME (in a less erudite way than this blog). DO join, chaps!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fairy-Jobmother-TV-prog-is-patronising/232950633385752?sk=wall
Particularly brilliant analysis
Glad you saw through the media brainwashing.
For some people, yes ANY job WILL do. If you have zero experience, then you have to start somewhere, and that’s fine.
It is not the case for everyone though. I’ve been unemployed and underemployed for 2-1/2 years. Most places will not hire me due to being overqualified, so I would still not even be able to get the jobs the Fairy Jobmother sends people out on.
As for my part-time job. I’m now doing graphic design for $7.55 and hour. This work USED to pay $40-$50 an hour freelance. Shows you who the real winners are, and who is really making money off this recession. The Companies.
Here’s the problem. Forcing the unemployed into minimum wage part-time insecure jobs won’t help them or reduce the welfare bill, because they will be too low paid to survive without top-ups like tax credits, housing benefit and council tax benefit from the state. What really needs to be done is to re-skill people to a skilled or professional level which will give such people a chance of securing real well-paid positions and a chance of career progression: under these circumstances the welfare bill will begin slowly to fall because people will have the dignity of earning enough money to make them more and more independent. This won’t be cheap and it couldn’t be done quickly but it is the only real way to move forward. An army of blowzy fairy jobmother’s driving reluctant people into low-paid short-lived low-skilled part-time positions might make the headline unemployment statistic decline, but, ultimately, won’t solve any problems.
Replacing “out of work poverty” with “in work poverty” won’t help anyone.
If only everyone who went to a jobcentre got the same level of individual and personalised support.
Yes, irritating the programme and her. But also made me think some more about recent thoughts I have had on some workers like her (she was never an A4E boss, just a course deliverer) and, far worse, the carers (sic) in that home recently featured on Panorama abusing residents. Where are lines drawn between cops – some security guards – some DWP staff, etc?
Interesting graph on Counterfire – ‘Graphic showing the vast scale of the Bank bailouts compared to estimates of benefit fraud for the last ten years;
http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/articles/163-resisting-austerity/12427-who-are-the-real-spongers
People like Hayley Taylor always expect other people to do things that they would never want for themselves. The government want as many people as possible on a slave wage to keep the money flowing into the pockets of a very small group of people.
They always talk about ‘work ethic’ and ‘responsibility’ without ever mentioning the quid pro quo of ‘fair pay ethic’ and ‘responsibility to provide decent conditions.’
If Haley Taylor and all of the similar shit-heads like her lost their jobs whether they’d embrace workfare happily or find part-time half-week jobs on the minimum wage helpful solutions as regards their own poverty and financial difficulties. Why is is OK to treat certain unfortunate citizens like dirt and in a manner that you wouldn’t tolerate for one moment yourself?
I was forced to attend Working Links when on Jim Purnell’s Flexible New Deal after being made redundant and having to become carer to my elderly mother. They gave me rubbish advice, weekly jobclubs, and access to “training courses” in application techniques, interview techniques, motivation, health & safety, and first aid – gaining crap certificates after doing one day events – which were supposed to help me get work. I already had tertiary BA(Hons) and MA(Hons) degrees. Although the people there were nice enough to me a lot of bullying did go on, especially as far as the more helpless “clients” went who didn’t know how to fight back and hold their own. This is fairly typical of what I heard:
“We want you to take this 7 hour a week cleaning job.”
“But the job is on 1 hour a day three miles away from my home. If I catch the bus it’ll cost me almost as much as I earn for one hour’s work on the minimum wage. If I walk it’ll be a six mile trip, on foot, for one hour’s work at the lowest rate. This won’t be of any help to me at all. Not even a little.”
“Oh, but you’re wrong. If you show that you’re punctual and a hard worker you can use that employer as a reference to help you get a better job. It only a foot in the door and could lead to better things. This is why we must insist that you put yourself forward.”
“But I need 30 hours a week to qualify for tax credits and to earn enough to keep myself and my wife and young daughters. One hour for five days a week with a six mile commute on foot won’t help me.”
“Just apply for the job, there’s a good lad.”
“Please don’t make me do this. It won’t help me at all in any way.”
“Apply now, sunshine, or face sanctions as the consequences as a penalty for your refusal.”
This was the Flexible New Deal.
Because I was considered to be a “superior” client I got treated better than this but I saw dozens of the young and disadvantaged treated like bonded slaves by Working Links staff.
The Work Programme will be worse because it is “black box”, i.e., the providers can do any damn thing they like to shoehorn the unemployed into any king of activity or position they want without questions being asked.
It stinks.
[...] HarpyMarx on the Fairy jobmonster Taylor’s MO comrpises of tough talking, tough love, oh, tough sh*t if you dare to be selective cos fairy jobmother believes that the unemployed are far TOO selective in choosing jobs. Four individuals (Dave, Louise, Sue and Alex) come up against Taylor’s intensive training as it is all about “structure and routine”. The four of them have different expectations and ideas about work; some have worked before, some have qualifications and so on. Alex wanted to be a cop but dropped out of training due to his mum dying bereavement made him go off the rails, Dave had the measure of Taylor and saw it for what it was while his daughter Louise had never had a job and had very little confidence. [...]
I can see this argument from both sides.
I personally don’t think that people should be forced into a job that they really don’t want to do but i also think that unemployed people in general could be a little less picky.
I have a level 3 qualification at the highest grade in IT and experience of running a business. However, i don’t have an IT job in fact i work in a DIY shop.
Why do i do this? Because whilst i may not like my job id rather have one than not.
Every time i go to work im helping my case for a new job showing im reliable showing i work hard and showing that i can stick at something.
I may get an IT job soon, i may not. It doesn’t really matter because im proud to be working because it gives me self respect.
I cant and never will understand how people can sign on over and over until the perfect job that fits them comes up. This makes no sense to me because the perfect job may go to someone more qualified than them. It may even go to someone who has had some experience of work albeit in an unrelated field.
I think the show goes way to far in demonizing people and tars all unemployed people with the same brush. However it doesn’t mean that there aren’t people like that out there and that’s all the taxpayer is fussed about.
One of the episodes i watched had someone who had some care experience and qualifications. She said that she wouldn’t work at MacDonalds because she was “better than that”. This is the kind of unemployed person i get annoyed with, just because you’ve got some good things on your CV doesn’t make you that special.
In times like this you have to take the best you can get sometimes and hope to move up, and i certainly cant see me moving on if im on benefits.
I also think that the government need to stop making work so unappealing. If someone can make more money with various benefits than working full time in a low income job then of course they wont get one.
If that person can get a low income job that gives them more money at the end of the month be it full time or part time with a bonus type plan that gives them more money at the end through the government then they will probably take it.