As an agency worker a few people have asked me how someone with a degree ends up working on zero hours in air vents or raising invoices or now working for a prestigious delivery service.
A fair question and I can offer a blunt answer:
Life doesn't always turn out how you want.
We can blame politicians, headteachers (regular hour long assemblies about why YOU need a degree), business leaders for failing to invest in the people of Britain however whilst we try to determine who crashed the car, a cold hard truth remains: We all need to bring in money one way or another. I cannot ignore my rent with the declaration of "I have a degree" and when the bailiffs come to repossess the home I cannot shoo them away with the fact that "I have a degree".
Having a degree does not guarantee anyone a decent UK based job. A degree enabled me to work in China and live independently outside the U.K. In Britain, gaining a degree no longer represents what it used to. The people of Britain have chosen a world view that puts profit first. Profit in an ideal situation represents efficiency and the ability to create more money than what a company needs to pay staff, materials and fuel costs. The best example I can find right now is the fact that the British Steelmill in Redcar is being shut down for reasons relating to profit. It is owned by foreign companies but the British have decided to let those from across the sea lay waste to the workers and their aspirations for the sake of profit. The individual dreams that we may have are cast aside whilst our business leaders and politicians worship greed and gold above everything else.
When weplace profits above all else, the general population are damned. If a person or company is incapable of generating money then that entire lot is condemned to destitution. Until the British learn that another way is possible, that our desire to see profits is irrelevant if workers are feeling cold and unable to prosper...we will continue to zero hours, we will continue to see hopes dashed and graduates will continue to take whatever job they can find in order to keep a roof over their head.
Britain faces a crisis of underemployment.
Every year we have more graduates leaving university and they will take any job they can find whilst looking for that "dream job". The jobs we take are often for a fraction of the wage that is normally paid for that job and in my case done under a zero hour arrangement. Britain faces a tide of potential "scabs" (workers that will take your job, for next to nothing and agencies are the ones looking for to fill those gaps caused by strikes). I have been called into companies after staff have been laid off or lost. I do the jobs that other people used to do and agents do the work for a few quid less. This destroys the ability of existing staff to fight for stronger wages or any sort of job security because managers know that at the drop of a hat, many people will come running to pick that hat up and fulfil that job. When looking for work, often we don't mind entering at a low wage if it means after a few months we can push for a raise after proving ourselves. Sadly after a few months people tend to wake up and realise that the job barely pays and they need another, or there is no real review coming and "you're better off buying a lottery ticket".. (It is not uncommon for people to have more than 1 or 2 jobs now as they try to make ends meet.)
This race to the bottom shall never cease and until the working class wake up and realise what is happening then things will continue down this path. I work alongside many migrants, I wouldn't pin our downfall on migrants for they are just like me, simply trying to survive and we are both physically getting out there and trying to work to survive. We no longer work to live, we work to merely survive. #StayPositive :D
I am off to watch cartoons, have a shower and sleep.
Take it easy and thank you for reading.
Michael
A fair question and I can offer a blunt answer:
Life doesn't always turn out how you want.
We can blame politicians, headteachers (regular hour long assemblies about why YOU need a degree), business leaders for failing to invest in the people of Britain however whilst we try to determine who crashed the car, a cold hard truth remains: We all need to bring in money one way or another. I cannot ignore my rent with the declaration of "I have a degree" and when the bailiffs come to repossess the home I cannot shoo them away with the fact that "I have a degree".
Having a degree does not guarantee anyone a decent UK based job. A degree enabled me to work in China and live independently outside the U.K. In Britain, gaining a degree no longer represents what it used to. The people of Britain have chosen a world view that puts profit first. Profit in an ideal situation represents efficiency and the ability to create more money than what a company needs to pay staff, materials and fuel costs. The best example I can find right now is the fact that the British Steelmill in Redcar is being shut down for reasons relating to profit. It is owned by foreign companies but the British have decided to let those from across the sea lay waste to the workers and their aspirations for the sake of profit. The individual dreams that we may have are cast aside whilst our business leaders and politicians worship greed and gold above everything else.
When weplace profits above all else, the general population are damned. If a person or company is incapable of generating money then that entire lot is condemned to destitution. Until the British learn that another way is possible, that our desire to see profits is irrelevant if workers are feeling cold and unable to prosper...we will continue to zero hours, we will continue to see hopes dashed and graduates will continue to take whatever job they can find in order to keep a roof over their head.
Britain faces a crisis of underemployment.
Every year we have more graduates leaving university and they will take any job they can find whilst looking for that "dream job". The jobs we take are often for a fraction of the wage that is normally paid for that job and in my case done under a zero hour arrangement. Britain faces a tide of potential "scabs" (workers that will take your job, for next to nothing and agencies are the ones looking for to fill those gaps caused by strikes). I have been called into companies after staff have been laid off or lost. I do the jobs that other people used to do and agents do the work for a few quid less. This destroys the ability of existing staff to fight for stronger wages or any sort of job security because managers know that at the drop of a hat, many people will come running to pick that hat up and fulfil that job. When looking for work, often we don't mind entering at a low wage if it means after a few months we can push for a raise after proving ourselves. Sadly after a few months people tend to wake up and realise that the job barely pays and they need another, or there is no real review coming and "you're better off buying a lottery ticket".. (It is not uncommon for people to have more than 1 or 2 jobs now as they try to make ends meet.)
This race to the bottom shall never cease and until the working class wake up and realise what is happening then things will continue down this path. I work alongside many migrants, I wouldn't pin our downfall on migrants for they are just like me, simply trying to survive and we are both physically getting out there and trying to work to survive. We no longer work to live, we work to merely survive. #StayPositive :D
I am off to watch cartoons, have a shower and sleep.
Take it easy and thank you for reading.
Michael
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