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*sings* ... "It's Been a Hard Day's Night..." lol

So i ask Tesco Insurance to send me a letter stating the number of years no claims bonus i have as proof to my new insurers...the guy at the call centre said 'yes i'll do that now, no problem at all' this was last week. Still nothing from iPod postie so i calls them today and it turns out it hasn't even been sent.....GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

i tell you what...the standards of service in this country have reached rock bottom

before that i had a huuuuuuge argument with this call centre bod about what Model my Mini was...i couldnt believe it, he was telling me it wasn't a works model when its quite clear to anyone with eyes and a brain that it is. As Miss Jelly knows i am normally very mild mannered but i tell you, if i had a goat, this guy would certainly have got it up. evil

i hate being used by other people scream scream scream scream scream scream

most of the people at my uni talk to me only when they need something from me scream like notes scream AAAAAAAAARRRGGHH.

Well...maybe it won't be as bad this time. The company filed for us to be eligible for the TAA program. I'm not sure at the moment what those letters stand for, but it means since we lost our jobs due to foreign competition we can get up to 2 and a half years of schooling to study for work in a new field. PAID FOR. And not have to do the weekly job searches to stay on unemployment. I may still look for a decent paying job, but at the same time I can be on unemployment & getting free schooling! That's a better situation than I was in the last time I was in a factory that got closed. I just won't have much if any extra money for little things like eating out very often or buying books very often any more.

I will get together with a friend tomorrow & attempt to avoid being depressive all weekend. I just hate that empty, tossed-off-a-cliff feeling I get when I'm unemployed... gonk

We've all got our fingers crossed for you Eirwyn.

Weren't you meant to finish in April initially? So it lasted a little longer than expected The training programme sounds hopeful! I'm seeing this as a chance for a fresh start for you and hopefully it will lead to a job that you really like.
I really need a new job, i'm getting thoroughly depressed about mine, I'm coming up to 20 years of drudgery in that place in August and i need to make a change for my sanity if not for my health. But it's pretty much the only job i've ever had, i have no skills at anything else and i'm terrified at the thought of leaving crying
But if i don't do something i may end up losing my job anyway, that place is making me ill and my attendance is getting bad because of it. I'd rather leave before i'm pushed and get the holiday pay that i'm owed. But i wouldn't have much open to me round here, especially as i can't drive gonk

I don't know what to do stare

Thank you, everybody. smile Once I find my direction again, I'll be OK. And yeah, they said the end of April at first, but now that they've pared the work force down to just 30 or so on 1st shift they're talking like it could be there a while. They were talking that way for me too, working on my own on 2nd, but then abruptly last Monday said it was my last week. I guess HQ decided not to keep me after all. I just wish they hadn't got my hopes up like that--I'd resigned myself to the end of April until they did that.



What you do is you START LOOKING. 3nodding
Believe me, just doing that will begin to make you feel a little better. It's hard to take that step, to start letting go of the security that job represents even if you hate it. I have a friend who works in a place that makes plastic injection-molded parts for autos & medical equipment. They treat people like dirt there, working them to death running multiple machines, standing on their necks yelling & cussing at them to work faster & yet do everything perfectly, messing with their overtime pay & vacation time....she's a nervous wreck a lot of the time, she's badly injured her back there, her sinuses are getting bad, and her hands are always a mass of burns and cuts from grabbing searing-hot plastic parts straight from the machine to inspect & trim or do assembly on them. And yet she STILL won't take that step and start looking! She feels like she's too old to get another job now, and she'd better stay put. She is NOT too old, she has TONS of excellent machine operating skills, and she NEEDS to SAVE herself! scream

Do you have a community or technical college around, Jelly? You could learn some new skills to apply to a new job while you're still working, perhaps.
And does the UK's equivalent of the employment security commision have a website & post the job listings on it? Here I don't have to go to the office any more just to do a search, which makes it easier. I can see exactly the same thing I would see if I went & used their computers at a job office.

redface sorry Georgey!! sad
and if i leave i AM working my notice! they don't get to keep the holiday pay they owe me, no way!

the job Centre has a website Eirwyn, but they're unwilling to help you find a new job unless you're actually unemployed.

while i want/need to change,i still want a manual job, Reap's soap factory would suit me, still doing something physical, but get to smell nice at the end of the day! plus not freeze to death all day long either rolleyes
Ideally i' dlike to work in a garden centre that dealt with aquatics too, but i can't drive...and that's always going to hold me back.

Eirwyn you're so right though, taking the initial step of LOOKING is the biggest thing.

BUT..i did do SOMETHING brave last week, which might show that i'm maybe more serious about finding something new this time. You know that i spend a fair amount of time on Menewsha these days, more time than i spend over here lately i will admit redface
Last tuesday i saw a comment from the site's owner, saying they needed some new Mods but suitable people were hard to find. so i PM'ed him and offered my services sweatdrop and now i'm a trial moderator eek so i got a new job! i can do it!

It was scary contacting him too, as i was aware that he wouldn't like people doing that..imagine getting PM'ed by a load of 14 year olds saying..'ZOMG lyke make me a mod plz!!!111!!'
No idea whether i'm doing a good job or not, or how long the trial is for( it's awfully disorganised over there) but it will be a week tomorrow(today) so fingers crossed sweatdrop the users seem to like me anyway, which is gratifying, though they don't like it so much when they post spam and i delete their posts twisted rofl

So i've made a step in the right direction by putting myself out there and i've never done that before in my life! so i'm a little bit proud of myself, now i just need to sort out my real life! rolleyes

George is right about how important reliability is. When I went to this textile mill, how much experience do you think I had in that kind of work? NONE. Yet they hired me. What's more, they practically pounced on me! The same day I handed in my application the HR person looked at the paper & immediately, in the middle of saying the usual "thank you we'll call you" speech, stopped dead & instead called me back to his office for an interview, & I got hired on the spot! I think what he saw was the DATES of my employment:
Boot Factory--8 years
Circuit Board Factory--5 years
That spells someone who sticks to a job! There are so many flighty young idiots in the job market now who take days off whenever they feel like it or bounce from one job to another. If you can show them you're serious about working there, and that you can and will learn new skills, that means a lot.

Your job center website doesn't have to actively help you do your search, does it? If they just have the listings up you can do the rest yourself. When you find something good just print the page with the info & then go to the office or straight to the job location if they give the address.