Seventh Review

For my seventh review my job adviser had told me that she had gotten word back from the place where she had sent my C.V. and told me that they are not looking for anyone at this time but if any positions came up either she or they would contact me as they have my details and C.V.  

She told me that she had also contacted the other place where I am interested in working to see if she can get me work experience and that she spoke to the same person I had spoken to who told my job adviser that at the minute they can't take on any more people for work experience but that my name was on the list and as soon as an opening came up she would let me know. My job adviser told me it could be around or after Easter before I could get the call for work experience but that I was on the list so there was nothing more to do but wait.

I told my job adviser about another job I was interested in doing and she had a look to see if she could help get me a job in that area. She had a look at the website for the job I was interested in and sent me the link to my email address and told me to contact them to ask if there were looking for any workers and to send my C.V. to them. She also said she would contact them herself to ask if there were any job vacancies available and to see what she could do to help in that regards.

She told me it I was 26 weeks on Jobpath and that I would need to take the online skills assessment survey again. As I have mentioned before this it is a Likery scale which is a psychometric scale that is a psychological measurement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert_scale

This involves multiple choice questions and you tick one of the boxes that say, strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree before moving onto the next question, there are five questions per page and after you answered the questions on the page you were on you click save before then clicking next and moving onto the next set of questions. The survey is only about 5 minutes long and there is about 20 questions.

After I had finished she had a look on her computer to compare the survey I had done the first day I started Jobpath as well as the last survey I did to see if there was any difference in the results. 

She then typed up my review and then digitally signed her initials on my review on her computer and I had to do the same by moving the computer mouse and signing my initials on screen after which she then printed out my review and handed me a copy to take with me.

Before it was time to go she made another appointment for my next review and give me her card with the time and date of my next review and we said out goodbyes and I left.

This Likery scale survey takes place on the first day an unemployed person starts Jobpath, the surveys then takes place at 13 weeks, 26, weeks, 39 weeks and 52 weeks.

Below is copied and pasted from the Kildarestreet.com link at bottom of page.

JobPath is a “payment by results” model. An initial fee will be paid on the production of a personal progression plan for each client; subsequent "sustainment" payments, which will make up about 90% of the total fees for any individual client, will only be made where a person completes 13, 26, 39 and 52 weeks of sustained employment. The fees paid to contractors are tiered based on unemployment durations such that contractors are incentivised to provide an equal level of service to all clients rather than focus their attentions on the clients who are easier to place. In addition, contractors will be required, under contract, to commit to a specific level of progression to employment across all clients. Fees paid to contractors are also subject to a number of controls, including retention fees and automatic price discounts. Retention fees, which reduce the level of payments to contractors, apply if contractors fail to meet contractual performance commitments and-or if they do not deliver a satisfactory level of customer service as measured by the Department in independent customer surveys.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/committees/?id=2014-10-15a.5

I Don't Care Anymore

Sixth Review

My sixth review was my first review for 2017 and a rather short one. After wishing my a Happy New Year, my job adviser told me that she had contacted the place where she had sent my C.V. and that she had contacted them again and was waiting on a reply back from them. She also said she would contact the other place I wanted to work at to see if she could get me work experience in that area. She made another appointment for my next review and give me her card with the next time and date of my next review and we said our goodbyes once more and I walked to the reception and signed out before walking down the stairs of the tower of misery.

Seetec Job Adviser Jobs Advertised €27,000.00 to €32,000.00 per year

There were job adviser jobs advertised for Letterkenny, Galway and Dundalk to name but a few.

As I said many times before on this blog the job advisers that work in Jobpath are nothing more than sales people. Some of the key responsibilities that were advertised in these jobs were.
  

• Manage a caseload of clients, reviewing their progress towards employment and maintaining engagement in order to achieve personal and team targets.

• Minimum of one-year experience in a recruitment, sales, training and /or customer facing role

• Experience of working in a target orientated environment with a demonstrable track record of achieving targets. 

In the Galway ad for an Employment Advisor, "Experience of working in a target orientated environment with a demonstrable track record of achieving and beating targets."  In the Letterkenny ad is says "Experience of working in a target orientated environment with a demonstrable track record of achieving targets." That says it all really. It also says "Minimum of one-year experience in a recruitment, sales, training and or/customer facing role."

As a mater of fact the job advertisement in Galway for an "Irish Employment Adviser" had the following highlighted in black.

Minimum of one-year experience in a recruitment, sales, training and /or customer facing role and experience of working in a target orientated environment with a demonstrable track record of achieving and beating targets.

Note it says "track record of achieving and beating targets."

Screen shot of the Galway ad here & link to the job advert. https://ie.indeed.com/cmp/CPL-Galway/jobs/Irish-Employment-Advisor-28c44f685e498b0e?q=Employment+Advisor

It also says Salary €27,000.00 to €32,000.00 /year that works out about €600 a week for a 40 hour week!! The job advisers only work Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm but yet the unemployed are being forced into low paid minimum wage jobs that only pay about €330 after tax and most are more than 40 hours a week and even then a person would not even get €400 a week.

If the job advisers are getting this kind of money then what kind of money are the managers on and who seem do nothing besides walk from one room to the next and stand here and stand there talking to people. A bit like the Richie Kavanagh song Up The Road where he sings about the Council men in their vans "They go up the road and down the road over the road and back the road An never touch no part of the road at all"


The fact that Seetec are looking for people that have experience of working in a target orientated environment with a demonstrable track record of achieving targets does not surprise me one bit as most of the people that work for Jobpath worked as managers or in sales in their previous jobs and some even worked both as a manager and in sales.

If you go into Linkedin https://ie.linkedin.com/ and type into the search box, People1st, Seetec, or Tuus, Jobpath, you will see a lot of the people who now work for Jobpath, that in their previous jobs that most have worked in either sales or were a manager and that some even worked in both sales and managing and now they are working for Jobpath. You can also register for free on the Linkedin website and browse if you so wish. All this information is there in the public domain and can be viewed by anyone.

Why do these job adviser jobs being advertised need people to have experience in sales and meeting targets?

Screen shots of the job adviser adverts and any still active links.

Letterkenny job adviser job. https://ie.indeed.com/cmp/People-1st-Employment-and-Skills/jobs/Employment-Advisor-53a2c307dba28dc7

Laois

Dundalk

In the ad above its says  "Seetec is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity."

It's a pity its not an equal opportunities employer when it comes to the treatment of the unemployed!!  Again the Salary for this one is the same as the Galway ad at €27,200 - 32,000 pa.

I notice in the job advert description it doesn't mention anything about having a lack of empathy
 
Wicklow https://www.recruitireland.com/job/personal-advisers-wicklow-town/15190980/

Cork https://www.recruitireland.com/job/personal-advisers-west-cork-various/15190684/

Ennis Co. Claire https://www.recruitireland.com/job/personal-advisers-ennis/15186275/

Fifth Review

I had my fifth review the week coming up to Christmas.

After I had signed my name in the tower of misery sign in book I made my way to my job advisers desk. She checked my C.V. on the C.V. builder to make sure I had updated it. She asked me if there were any jobs during my job searching that I had found interesting, I was very tempted to tell her about how there was a job advertised for a job adviser in the Letterkenny People1st building, which I will write about next month. In the end I told her there wasn't any jobs advertised that suited me which was true. All there seemed to be were manager type jobs, or nursing and the like.

She told me how in the job where she had sent my C.V. that they might be looking for workers but it would be after Christmas and that she would contact them again to see if there were any further updates on the job front.

She asked again about the other type of job that I was interested in and I told her that I didn't think I would get work in that area and that I should just look for a normal job. She was very helpful in trying to get me work experience in what I wanted to work at and said that she would contact them again after the New Year to see if she could get me work experience in that area and also the other job I was interested in doing that she had sent my C.V. to and would contact them also again in the New Year.

I got another appointment for the New Year and we wished each other a Happy Christmas and New Year and I make my way out of the tower of misery glad that I wouldn't have to set foot in it again for over two weeks. 

Man On Jobpath Got His Dole Cut Two Weeks Before Christmas

I was speaking to a man who is also on Jobpath and he was telling me about another man he knows who got his dole cut. I will tell you what he told me.

An unemployed man on Jobpath in Letterkenny said he wanted a painting job as he is a painter by trade. His job adviser in People1st rang him up one day and told him there was a painting job in Omagh Northern Ireland and could she send in his C.V. He said yes as he thought he wasn't going to get the job so what was the harm in sending in his C.V. A day of two later she rang him back up and told him that he had got the job, he asked her how could he have gotten the job when he never even had an interview and that it would not pay him to go to Omagh everyday from Letterkenny, that he was not refusing a job but that he wanted one within 10 miles of Letterkeny. His job adviser never said anything to him and when he went to get his dole at the Post Office the following week he found that his dole was cut. He never so much as got a letter to say his dole was being cut, the first he knew about it was when he went to collect his dole at the Post Office. This was two weeks before Christmas and a man that has a wife and children.

When he went to the Social Welfare Office they told him his money was cut as he refused to take a job that his job adviser on Jobpath had got him. The person in the Social Welfare Office told him he would have to appeal the decision and to give his version of events. The person also asked him if he had got his Christmas bonus and he told her he had got it the week before and the person in the Social Welfare Office told him "That will keep you going until you appeal this outcome" it would be funny if it wasn't true. I think someone should make an Irish version of the British film I, Daniel Blake
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/

Letterkenny to Omagh is a over an hours drive, an unemployed person would need to be getting about €600 a week the same as a job adviser gets after tax for the job to pay and be better off. A job at the minimum wage traveling that sort of distance every day would not take an unemployed person above the poverty line, not to mention paying taxes in Northern Ireland which is the UK and with the Brexit coming up there could be job losses in Northern Ireland. To work in Northern Ireland you also need to have a National Insurance (NI) number to work.

Also if you live in the Republic and work in Northern Ireland and you loss your job there are special rules for frontier/cross border workers with regards to claiming Jobseeker Benefits.  http://borderpeople.info/a-z/jobseeker-benefits.html

When the man was finished in the Social Welfare Office filling in the form giving his version of events, he then went to the local Community Social Welfare Officer that week to see if he could get money so that he could feed his family a week before Christmas.

All this was done so that the job adviser at People1st working on behalf of Seetec can meet targets which they have to meet or else they don't get their bonus so forced the man into a job that was over an hours drive and expected him to drive there and back every day. When he refused the job on the grounds that it would not pay for him to travel there and back everyday, she reported him to Social Welfare who then cut his dole two weeks before Christmas. As I said before to be a job adviser you to have a lack of empathy and a black soul with a narcissistic personality and by doing the above only further proves that statement. How these people can sleep at night is a mystery.

http://www.peoplebeforeprofit.ie/2016/05/fit-for-work-targets-sick-and-disabled/

It looks like Seetec are doing the same here in Ireland as they already do in the UK https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/05/work-programme-adviser-box-ticking-sanctioning-sick-people and that is cut jobseekers money for jobs that are either too far way to travel to or jobs the jobseeker knows they would not be suitable for but their job adviser thinks they are suitable for as they have targets that have to be met and any job will do the jobseeker which defeats the whole propose of trying to get a long time jobseeker into a suitable job and making sure its suitable and is something the jobseeker wants to do so that they stay in that job as other wise its just a waste of time and the jobseeker will end up unemployed again which is what mostly happens in the UK, that is if they can even get them a job. UK back to work programmes had found jobs for only about one in nine (11 per cent) claimants of the out-of-work disability benefit, employment and support allowance (ESA), compared to its original “expectation” of 22 per cent

http://www.disabledgo.com/blog/2014/11/work-programme-failure-to-help-disabled-people-is-a-scandal/

Any unemployed person that is on Jobpath has more experience then all of these job advisers and managers at being unemployed  How many job advisers and managers that work for Seetec/Turas Nua/People1st have been unemployed?

So a job adviser gets a unemployed person a job without getting an interview for said job.

The unemployed person isn't told the hours, pay, or how many days they would have to work yet are expected to take the job and if not they get their dole cut. Its just like Velma* said at "Gateway" if we get you a job and you don't take it then..."

The employer doesn't interview the jobseeker so how do they know the person is suitable for the job, its OK for the job adviser to say they are suitable as they are nothing more than a sales person and most don't care if the jobseeker is suitable for the job or not they just care about meeting their targets.

Any employer who takes on a jobseeker without even interviewing them is in my opinion an employer who does not care about their employees and will employ anyone and everyone regardless if they are suitable for the job or not.

I know some job advisers are telling employers about Jobplus which is where the employer gets €10,000 euro from the Irish Government for taking on a long term unemployed person and €7,500 if the person has been unemployed for more than 12 but less than 24 months not to mention the job adviser getting their bonus.

The Department of Social Protection pays the incentive to the employer monthly in arrears over a 2-year period. It provides 2 levels of regular cash payments:

A payment of €7,500 for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 12 but less than 24 months.

A payment of €10,000 for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 24 months or more.

See link for JobsPlus below

 http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment_and_redundancy/employment_support_schemes/jobsplus.html

The only thing that matters is that targets have to be met and unemployment figures have to be massaged by putting unemployed people on Jobpath.

Not their real names*

Fourth Review

Once I had signed in I waited a minute or two then I was greeted by my job adviser and we walked to her desk. I sat down and she then asked for my login number and date of birth and then logged into my profile on her computer.

She then checked to make sure I had updated my C.V. on the C.V. builder. She told me to amend my C.V. for the type of work I'm interested in doing and do have a normal C.V. for sending to jobs so in effect I would have two C.V.s. One for the type of work I'm interested in and the other for everyday type of jobs.

I was asked what else I wanted to work at, I told her and said she would see if she could get me a job at the other thing I was interested in. Told to keep up my job searching and got another appointment for three weeks time and then it was time to go.